Table of Contents

Unsearchable Riches

Preface.

UNSEARCHABLE RICHES:

SOME OF THE RELATIONSHIPS OF CHRIST TO HIS PEOPLE.

CHAPTER 1. CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR.

CHAPTER 2.  CHRIST OUR REDEEMER.

CHAPTER 3.  CHRIST OUR LORD.

CHAPTER 4.  CHRIST OUR SHEPHERD.

CHAPTER 5.  CHRIST OUR LIFE.

CHAPTER 6.  CHRIST OUR FOOD.

CHAPTER 7.  CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST.

CHAPTER 8.  CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE.

CHAPTER 9.  CHRIST OUR OBJECT.

CHAPTER 10.  CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE.

CHAPTER 11.  CHRIST OUR PEACE.

CHAPTER 12.  CHRIST OUR HEAD.

CHAPTER 13.  CHRIST OUR HOPE.

The Children of God.

Preface.

Contents.

CHAPTER 1. CHRIST AS THE REVEALER OF THE FATHER.

CHAPTER 2. THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

CHAPTER 3. THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

CHAPTER 4. THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE FAMILY OF GOD.

1 JOHN 2

CHAPTER 5.

(cont.).

1 JOHN 2.

CHAPTER 6.

CHAPTER 7. THE FATHER'S DESIRES FOR HIS CHILDREN.

CHAPTER 8.

CHAPTER 9.

CHAPTER 10. THE FUTURE CONDITION AND HOME OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

Fundamental Truths of Salvation

Preface

Contents

Chapter 1  Soul-Anxiety

Chapter 2  Man's State Before God

Chapter 3  The Blood of Christ

Chapter 4  Ye Must be Born Again

(1)

Water

(2)

And [of] the Spirit

(a) The Person of the Son of man

(b)

The Work of Christ

(c)

Faith

Chapter 5  Peace With God

1. Justification is by faith

3. Every one who believes in Him is justified.

4. Peace is the portion of the justified.

Chapter 6  "What Must I do to be Saved?"

1. We take first the case of the young man

2. The case of the lawyer

3. This will prepare us for the case of the jailor

Chapter 7  Difficulties

1.

"My sins have been too many and too grievous."

2. "I do not feel my sins enough."

3.

"I cannot be sure that Christ died for me; that I am personally included in the invitations of the gospel."

4.

"It may be that I am not one of the elect."

5.

"I cannot believe."

"I cannot feel that I am saved."

7.

"Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost."

8.

The "sin unto death."

9.

The case supposed in Heb. 6: 3-6

Chapter 8  Deliverance

1. We are here taught that we have part in Christ's death

2. We are consequently "dead to sin"

3. We shall now be in a position to understand the concluding exhortation of the passage cited

Chapter 9  The Indwelling Spirit

1.

As a witness

2.

As a Seal

3.

As an Earnest

4.

the offices

of the indwelling Spirit

Chapter 10  Standing and Responsibility

Chapter 11  The Coming of the Lord

Chapter 12  The Judgment

1. It is very certain that believers will never be judged

2. Though believers will never be judged on account of sin, all must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

3. The final judgment of the wicked will take place at the end of the millennium.

Pilgrim Songs:

CBA10,125.

Introduction.

The Three Marys

PREFATORY.

MARY THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD.

THE MISSION OF GABRIEL TO MARY.

MARY'S VISIT TO ELIZABETH.

THE MAGNIFICAT.*

MARY AT BETHLEHEM.

MARY AND THE SHEPHERDS.

MARY IN THE TEMPLE.

MARY AND JOSEPH FINDING JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.

IN CANA OF GALILEE.

(JOHN 2: 1-11)

THE LORD'S MOTHER AND HIS BRETHREN.

(MATT. 12: 46-50; MARK 3: 31-35; LUKE 8: 19-21.)

MARY STANDING BY THE CROSS OF JESUS.

(JOHN 19: 25-27.)

THE LAST MENTION OF MARY.

(ACTS 1)

MARY OF BETHANY.

MARY AND THE DEATH OF LAZARUS.

(JOHN 11)

MARY ANOINTING THE FEET OF JESUS.

(JOHN 12: 1-8.)

MARY MAGDALENE.

MARY MAGDALENE AT THE CROSS AND AT THE BURIAL OF JESUS.

MARY AND HER RISEN LORD.

MARY AS THE LORD'S MESSENGER.

The Blessed Hope

PREFACE.

CHAPTER 1. THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER 2. IS IT A PRESENT OR A DEFERRED HOPE?

CHAPTER 3. THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS.

CHAPTER 4. THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST.

CHAPTER 5. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB.

CHAPTER 6. THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER 7. THE APOSTASY AND THE ANTICHRIST.

CHAPTER 8. THE GREAT TRIBULATION.

CHAPTER 9. THE APPEARING OF CHRIST.

CHAPTER 10. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

CHAPTER 11. THE NEW JERUSALEM.

CHAPTER 12. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE AND THE ETERNAL STATE.

"FOR OF HIM, AND THROUGH HIM, AND TO HIM, ARE ALL THINGS: TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER. AMEN."

God's Way

God's Way — of Peace; of Rest, Power & Consecration; of Holiness.

God's Way of Peace

God's Way of Rest, Power and Consecration

First Lesson

Second Lesson

Third Lesson

Fourth Lesson

Rest

Power

Consecration

God's Way Of Holiness

The Christian Household

PREFATORY.

CHAPTER 1. THE CHRISTIAN AND NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS.

CHAPTER 2. THE HOUSEHOLD AS A CIRCLE OF GRACE

CHAPTER 3. WIVES.

PROV. 31: 25-29.

CHAPTER 4. HUSBANDS.

CHAPTER 5. CHILDREN.

CHAPTER 6. FATHERS.

CHAPTER 7. SERVANTS.

CHAPTER 8. MASTERS.

CHAPTER 9. CONCLUSION.

OH, HAPPY HOUSE.

The Name Above Every Name

Preface.

CHAPTER 1. The Ineffable Name.

CHAPTER 2. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus."

MATTHEW 1: 21.

CHAPTER 4. "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth."

CHAPTER 5. The* Name which is above every name.

CHAPTER 6. "At the Name of Jesus."

CHAPTER 7. "In his Name."

CHAPTER 8. "For his Name's Sake."

CHAPTER 9. "Unto his Name."

CHAPTER 10. REVELATION 19: 12, 13.

CHAPTER 11. "His Name shall be in their foreheads."

CHAPTER 12. "Thou remainest."

Recovered Truths

INTRODUCTORY.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

THE BELIEVER'S STANDING IN CHRIST.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

THE RULE OF LIFE.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

1. THE LAW.

2. THE GOSPEL.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE UNITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

THE LORD'S COMING.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

Twelve Letters to Young Believers

PREFACE

BLACKHEATH,

1. PEACE WITH GOD

2. OUR PLACE BEFORE GOD

3. OUR PLACE ON EARTH

4. THE BODY OF CHRIST

5. THE LORD'S TABLE

6. THE LORD'S SUPPER

7. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE MIDST

8. THE TRUE PLACE OF WORSHIP

9. WORSHIP

10. MINISTRY

11. THE WORD OF GOD

12. PRAYER

Simple Christian Truths

Forgiveness Sins.

Cleansing and a Purged Conscience.

Justification by Faith.

Repentance and Faith.

The Person of Christ.

The Work of Christ.

Reconciliation.

VIII.

Prayer.

The Glories of Christ as the Son of Man

1. THE TITLE OF SON OF MAN.

2. THE SON OF MAN "LIFTED UP."

JOHN 3: 11; JOHN 8: 28; JOHN 12: 32.

3. THE SON OF MAN GLORIFIED AND GLORIFYING GOD.

JOHN 13: 31, 32.

4. ALL THINGS PUT UNDER THE FEET OF THE SON OF MAN

PSALM 8; HEBREWS 2: 5-9.

5. THE SON OF MAN TAKING POSSESSION OF HIS INHERITANCE.

6. THE END AND OBJECT OF THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF MAN.

1 CORINTHIANS 15: 28.

Christ as the Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness

CHAPTER 1. THE MORNING STAR.

THE MORNING STAR.

CHAPTER 11. THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE MORNING STAR AND THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

CHAPTER 3. THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

(MALACHI 4)

E. Dennett - Books

Edward Dennett

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With the prayerful desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will use this God-given ministry in this form for His glory and the blessing of many in these last days before His coming. © Les Hodgett (contact@stempublishing.com) (2011)

Unsearchable Riches

Unsearchable Riches

E.Dennett.

Preface.

The following chapters, of which this volume is composed, are neither lectures (although the writer may have occasionally spoken upon the same subjects), nor notes of lectures. They are rather written studies or meditations; and inasmuch as they have been helpful to the writer himself, he ventures to hope that they may also be for the edification of his readers.

They are very simple, and suited, therefore, to the apprehension of the feeblest of the saints of God. Hence nothing has been taken for granted; for the conviction has been forced upon the mind of the writer, after some little experience, that it is a mistake to assume that either readers or hearers are beyond the necessity of the re-statement of fundamental truths. It may be added, that each chapter is complete in itself; and, on this account, repetitions have not been avoided, if thereby the subject in hand could be rendered more intelligible or more complete.

The subject is one: it is Christ Himself; and no one will feel more deeply than the writer how feeble has been his attempt to portray some of the relationships which He sustains towards His people. But it is profitable to be occupied with Christ in any measure; and it is the writer's prayer that the Lord may condescend to use these pages to lead His own into an increasing acquaintance with Himself, and that He may thus glorify Himself by ministering blessing to His saints, according to His own heart. And to His own name shall be all the praise!

Blackheath, 1878.

UNSEARCHABLE RICHES:

OR,

SOME OF THE RELATIONSHIPS OF CHRIST TO HIS PEOPLE.

CHAPTER 1. CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR.

THIS is the first character under which Christ is apprehended. Son of God, Son of Man, the Christ of God, etc., — all these are titles and glories of which we have but little, if any, conception until after we have been enabled, by the grace of God, to apprehend Him as meeting our need as sinners, and by faith to lay hold upon Him as our Saviour. Then, at peace with God, our hearts are at leisure; and, led by the Holy Spirit, we delight to trace out, study, and feast upon, every aspect in which He is presented for our contemplation in the Scriptures. This order is maintained in Matthew's Gospel. Thus when the angel visited Joseph, to direct him in his perplexity concerning Mary, he said, "She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1: 21). It is true, that we have His royal lineage and His miraculous conception previously set forth; but still the first announcement concerning Him is in His character as Saviour. So in the Epistle to the Romans. After the salutation and introduction, we have first of all the state and need of man — whether Gentile or Jew — set forth; and immediately thereon the blood of Christ as meeting man's guilt is introduced — i.e., Christ as Saviour. "There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth a propitiation (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3: 22-26).*

*It is not forgotten that the Lord Jesus can only present Himself as Saviour on the ground of accomplished redemption. Hence, in this respect, He is first Redeemer and then Saviour. But we speak here of the order of apprehension.

In considering Christ, then, as Saviour, two things are mainly included, viz., His Person and His Work. Besides this, there is the action of God in raising Him from the dead and setting Him at His own right hand. But this is rather declarative, being the response of God to what Christ had done, — God's estimate of His work, of what was due to the One who had glorified Him on the earth, and finished the work which He had given Him to do (John 17: 4). Thereby God both exhibits and declares Him to be Saviour in virtue of His finished work — in virtue of the Cross.

The Person of Christ as the Saviour may first engage our attention. In the Scriptures already cited His person claims the precedence. Thus in Romans it is "the gospel of God concerning His Son (I quote the true order), who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1: 1-4). In Matthew also He is said to be the Son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1: 1); and then to have been begotten of the Holy Ghost — before He is announced as the Saviour. It is the Person that attracts the gaze before we can consider His work. It is otherwise with the sinner. As a rule he first learns the value of the work of Christ before he considers the truth of His person. The blessed Lord Himself, in His conversation with Nicodemus, first declares the mysterious dignity of His Person; and then proclaims His rejection and death. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 13-15).

There are, then, two sides to the person of Christ. He was God manifest in flesh. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1: 14). The Word was the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Son became man. He was thus God and man — a union of extremes which was not possible in any other, and rendering His person so unfathomable, so incomprehensible, that He Himself said, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father" (Matt. 11: 27). But it is essential that we hold fast both His true Divinity and His as equally true humanity. For had He not been true man, He could not have been a sacrifice for sin, and had He not been God, His sacrifice could not have been available for all. Satan knows this, and hence, in every age, he has sought to undermine the one or the other of these truths, insinuating doubts sometimes concerning His humanity and sometimes concerning His Divinity. But it is the glory of the person of Christ that He is both Divine and human, that He is, in His one person, both God and man. This truth lies at the foundation of, and, indeed, gives its character to, redemption.

How vast a field is thus opened for our contemplation! Following Christ in His pathway down here, from the manger at Bethlehem to the cross at Calvary, we see the unfoldings both of the human and Divine. As we behold Him, His lowly guise, "His visage so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men" (Isa. 52: 14); as we mark Him in companionship with His disciples, and see Him weary and resting, eating and drinking, weeping with those who wept (John 11), and sleeping, too, on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship (Mark 4: 38), we cannot doubt that He was man. It was, indeed, the proofs of His humanity which, meeting their eyes, confounded His adversaries, and blinded them to His higher claims.

On the other hand, the evidences of His Divinity are no less clear to the anointed eye. Who but God could cleanse the leper, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead to life, and control the winds and the waves? Hence He said to Philip, in answer to his demand to show him the Father, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake" (John 14: 10, 11). And what He was, what He is declared to be in the Scriptures is, if possible, still more conclusive. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1: 1, 18). He is said to be "the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person" (Heb. 1: 3). In another epistle He is described as "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1: 15-17). Consider moreover His own words: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14: 9); "I and My Father are One" (John 10: 30); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 58); and who can doubt that He claimed to be Divine?*

*When speaking of the proofs of our Lord's Divinity, it has always seemed to me that if you grant all that He claims, you must concede that He is God. For example, if we believe in, come unto, love, and serve Him as He requires, we make Him Divine: for if He were but a man it would be derogatory to the claims of God for Him to require, or for us to give, what He continually demands.

We cannot too often bless God for the four Gospels, in which are blended these two aspects of the person of Christ. Hence they are the profoundest of all the Scriptures — because they contain the unfoldings of a Divine-human life. No doubt the narratives are simple on their surface; but as we are led on by the Spirit of God we begin to discover that there are depths of which we had never dreamt, and into which we must gaze, and continue to gaze, if we would behold the treasures that are therein contained. And the more we are familiarised with their contents, the more shall we be impressed with the majesty of the person of Christ as the God-Man, God manifest in flesh. And it should never be forgotten that there can be no stability where there is any uncertainty as to the person of our Saviour. What strength it gives to the soul to be able to say (to quote the language of another) — "The pillars of the earth rest upon that Man who was despised, spit upon, and crucified!" It is the knowledge of what He is, no less (if not more) than what He has done, that draws out our hearts in confidence, adoration, and praise. For indeed He is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen (Rom. 9: 5).

We may now pass to the work of Christ. By it we generally understand what He accomplished on the cross — His death. In a larger view of it, there would be included His life as well as His death; but there is a broad and essential distinction between these two things. It was in His death alone that He bore the sins of His people (1 Peter 2: 24).* His life revealed what He was, showing, if we may so speak, His qualification to be an offering for sin, and proved Him to be the Lamb without spot or blemish — the Lamb of God; but it was on the cross alone that He stood in the sinner's place, met all God's righteous claims, and endured the wrath that was due to sin. It is the blood that maketh atonement (Lev. 17: 11; see also Lev. 1, 2, and 16). It was, therefore, on the cross alone that God dealt with Christ concerning the question of sin and sins. All through His life, though He was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, He reposed in the consciousness of the Father's love and smile: not a cloud ever passed between His soul and God. But when He was on the cross, there was a total change; for there it was that He was made sin; and in the unfathomable anguish of His spirit, when all God's waves and billows rolled over Him, He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27: 46). He was thus forsaken of Godforsaken because of the place He had voluntarily taken as the sacrifice for sin. At that awful moment, therefore, God was dealing with Him, instead of us, about the question of sin; though He was never more precious to God than then: for it was on the cross that He proved His obedience to the uttermost. "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again" (John 10: 17).

*We are quite aware of the controversy which has been raised upon this passage. For the make of maintaining particular views, it has been contended by some that ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον taken with the verb should be translated "up to the tree." But not only is this contention shown to be baseless by the usage of the words themselves, but the whole teaching of Scripture on the doctrine of the Atonement is exactly opposed to it.

It was, then, on the cross — by the shedding of His blood, by all, indeed, that He suffered there, by His death, that atonement was accomplished. Hence, ere "He bowed His head and gave up the ghost," He cried, anticipatively,* "It is finished" (John 19: 30). Then the work was completed which so glorified God, that on that foundation He saves, and is righteous, nay, He is glorified, in saving every one who believes. All the blessings of all the redeemed, the millennial blessing of the earth, the reconciliation of all things, the eternal happiness of saints of all dispensations, the perfection of the new heavens and the new earth — all these manifold blessings and varied glories will flow from the finished work of Christ.

*We use the word "anticipatively," inasmuch as His death was not then actually accomplished. But all things were now fulfilled. (See verses 28-30.)

This work, to speak generally, has two aspects — towards God, and towards man. The first, and, we may add, the essential aspect is God-ward. Thus on the great day of atonement, the blood of the sin-offering was carried within the veil and sprinkled "upon the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times" (Lev. 16: 14). This was done both with the blood of the bullock which was the offering for Aaron and his house (specially typical of the Church as the priestly family of God), and also with the blood of the goat of the sin-offering which was for Israel. Without entering here upon the characteristic differences and details of these sacrifices, the point I press is that the blood in both cases was for God. I do not say (for that would be to forget other scriptures) that the blood is never for us, but here it is wholly for God; for indeed it was sprinkled before as well as upon the mercy-seat, and sprinkled there seven times, so that when the worshipper drew near he might find its perfect testimony in the presence of God. Still it was for God, atonement being made therewith according to the requirements of His holiness, and the righteousness of His throne. It made propitiation for the sins of the people. So with Christ. "- He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2: 2). The efficacy, therefore, of the blood of Christ is according to its value in the eyes of God; and that is infinite. Thus if the blood sprinkled upon the mercy-seat availed, on the one hand, to make propitiation for the sins of His people; on the other, because of its unspeakable preciousness before God, inasmuch as He had been so glorified by it, and at such a cost, it became the foundation on which God is able to deal in grace with the whole world, and to send out His servants with the entreating message, Be ye reconciled to God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16).

The other aspect to which we have alluded is that of substitution — shadowed forth by the live goat. After the blood had been sprinkled, according to Divine direction, it is said, "he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness" (Lev. 16: 20-22). This exactly answers to what we have in Romans. At the end of the third chapter Christ is shown as the mercy-seat through faith in His blood (ver. 25); and then at the end of the fourth, we read, "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (ver. 25). Thus not only has propitiation been made to God through the blood of Christ, but, if we are believers, we can say that He was delivered for our offences, that He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, and carried them away into a land not inhabited — and left them there — where they can no more be found; for if He was delivered for our offences, He has been raised again for our justification.

One other thing may be added. Our sin, as well as our sins, has been dealt with in the cross. "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8: 3). Thus not only has God been glorified, but the whole case — both the need and the state of the sinner — is met by the work of Christ. The truth of all the sacrifices is embodied in it — the burnt-offering, as well as the sin-offering, the paschal lamb, as well as the sacrifices on the day of atonement. All these were but adumbrations — shadows of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world — of that one sacrifice which, in the consummation of the ages, was accomplished on Calvary. But it is only after we know Him as our Saviour that we learn these things. Then, at peace with God, we delight — as we shall do throughout eternity — to contemplate the death of Christ, and to trace out, even though we may see but in part, the wondrous outlines of the work it effected, and its manifold relations both to God and ourselves.

The resurrection of Christ has a particular and special significance. "Him," says Peter, "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it" (Acts 2: 23, 24). And, again and again, he emphasises the fact that God had raised up, and exalted at His right hand, the One whom they had rejected and crucified (see Acts 3: 14, 15; Acts 4: 10; Acts 5: 30, 31). The Apostle Paul likewise enforces the same truth (see Acts 13: 27-31; Acts 17: 31, etc.; also Rom. 4: 24, 25; 1 Cor. 15; Eph. 2, etc., for his doctrinal teaching on the whole subject of the resurrection of Christ). The point I would here dwell upon is, that the resurrection of Christ was God's declaration of satisfaction with His work, that setting Him in the glory at His right hand was the expression of His estimate of its value — the response of His heart to the preciousness of the One who had done it, as well as to the claim which Christ had established upon Him by it. Our blessed Lord Himself presents this truth. Thus He said, after the traitor had gone out to accomplish his evil work, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (John 13: 31, 32). Accordingly, when, in the seventeenth chapter, He takes His place in spirit beyond the cross He pleads His work as constituting a claim upon the Father, to glorify Him with the glory which He had with the Father, before the world was (vers. 4 and 5). God's righteousness, indeed, was thus displayed in glorifying the One at His right hand, who to glorify Him "had become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2: 8-10).

But this fact has another voice to the believer. If Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, went down into death under the wrath and judgment which were our due, the fact of His resurrection by God shows, proves indisputably, that our sins are gone. For where is our substitute? In the glory of God. If, then, He is in the glory of God, we know, not only that our sins are left behind, but also, that God rests in perfect complacency in the One who expiated them by His death, inasmuch as He has given Him the supreme place in heaven. To borrow the language of another — "I cannot see the glory of Christ now without knowing that I am saved. How comes He there? He is a man who has been down here mixing with publicans and sinners, the friend of such, choosing such as His companions. He is a man who has borne the wrath of God on account of sin; He is a man who has borne my sins in His own body on the tree (I speak the language of faith); He is there, as having been down here amidst the circumstances, and under the imputation, of sin; and yet it is in His face I see the glory of God. I see Him there consequent upon the putting away of my sin, because He has accomplished my redemption. I could not see Christ in the glory if there were one spot or stain of sin not put away. The more I see the glory, the more I see the perfectness of the work that Christ has wrought, and of the righteousness wherein I am accepted. Every ray of that glory is seen in the face of One who has confessed my sins as His own, and died for them on the cross, of One who has glorified God on the earth, and finished the work that the Father had given Him to do. The glory that I see is the glory of redemption. Having glorified God about the sin — 'I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do' — God has glorified Him with Himself there. When I see Him in that glory, instead of seeing my sins, I see that they are gone. I have seen my sins laid on the Mediator. I have seen my sins confessed on the head of the scapegoat, and they have been borne away. So much has God been glorified about my sin (that is, in respect of what Christ has done on account of my sins), that this is the title of Christ to be there, at the right hand of God. I am not afraid to look at Christ there. Where are my sins now? where are they to be found in heaven or on earth? I see Christ in the glory. Once they were found upon the head of that blessed One; but they are gone, never more to be found. Were it a dead Christ, so to speak, that I saw, I might fear that my sins would be found again; but with Christ alive in the glory the search is in vain. He who bore them all has been received up to the throne of God, and no sin can be there."

How, then, we may ask in conclusion, are we connected with Christ? It is by faith. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3: 36). Again, "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life" (John 6: 47). "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16: 31). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1). God, in the Gospel, presents the Christ, of whom we have spoken, as the Saviour. It is therefore the Gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4: 4), as well as of God's grace. Receiving His testimony, bowing before Him, in self-judgment, exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved, linked with Christ, and are brought to God in all the acceptance of Christ Himself. Every believer is thus associated with Christ before God, and is brought into the enjoyment of all that Christ is for us, as well as of all the blessings which He has secured for us through His meritorious death and resurrection. How unspeakably blessed, then, is it to be enabled by the Spirit of God to say, Christ our Saviour. Beloved reader, are you able to claim Him as such? If not, how unspeakably sorrowful is your position. But God, even now, in the tender yearnings of His grace, meets you, as He directs your gaze to Christ at His own right hand, and proclaims by His Word, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." If you are able to call Him your Saviour, then we have no words to express your blessedness; but we may remind you of the obligation under which you are thereby placed, to show, by word and life, that you are saved, and to testify to that grace which has called you out of darkness into God's marvellous light.

"Oh, draw me, Saviour, after Thee,

So shall I run and never tire:

With gracious words still comfort me:

Be Thou my hope, my sole desire.

On Thee I'd roll each weight and fear

Calm in the thought that Thou art near.

What in Thy love possess I not?

My star by night, my sun by day,

My spring of life when parch'd with drought;

My wine to cheer, my bread to stay,

My strength, my shield, my safe abode,

My robe before the throne of God!"

CHAPTER 2.  CHRIST OUR REDEEMER.

IT is only by the consideration of every aspect in which Christ is presented to us in the Scriptures, that we are enabled in any measure to apprehend what He is to, and for, us; as well as the fulness of the truth of our salvation. We have contemplated Christ as our Saviour, and it might seem to some as if this title included also what He is as our Redeemer; but we shall find, as we trace out the subject, that we are led into new aspects both of His work and of our condition.

As a matter of fact, indeed, He accomplished redemption before He could be presented as Saviour; for He is able to save only on the ground of His finished work. On God's side, therefore, redemption precedes salvation: but we speak here rather of the order in which Christ is apprehended in the soul.

Remarkably enough, He is never once in the New Testament — in so many words — given this title. He is said to have redeemed us; and we are said to have redemption in Him, through His blood, etc.; but He is never termed our Redeemer. In the Old Testament on the other hand, the title is of frequent occurrence (see Job 19: 25; Ps. 19: 14, Ps. 78: 35; Isa. 41: 14, Isa. 43: 14, Isa. 44: 6, Isa. 47: 4, Isa. 49: 26, etc.). But the fact of Christ having redeemed us, and therefore being our Redeemer, is found in almost every book of the New Testament Scriptures; and the elders in heaven, as they behold the Lamb taking the book of God's counsels, sing a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," etc. (Rev. 5: 9). In every dispensation, therefore, God has been a Redeemer; and hence there is no subject more worthy of our meditation.

In the Hebrew Scriptures there are two words in frequent use to express the truth of redemption. The one signifies "to buy back;" "to redeem by the payment of a ransom"; and the other, "to loose" and hence also, used very much in the same  sense as the other, though the primary meaning is, "to loose." In the New Testament there is but one word (λυτρόω); but it comprises the meanings of both Hebrew words — viz., to release on receipt of ransom. There are thus two thoughts in the word "redemption," the payment of the ransom, and the consequent deliverance; our being freed, and the state into which we are brought as the result of having been redeemed.

Before, then, we are in a position to look at Christ as our Redeemer, we must first consider the state in which we were, which necessitated His advent in this character. It is not only that we were sinners. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). Through sin, therefore, death reigned over the whole world. But there was more than this, awful as such a statement may seem. Through the Fall — man's sin — Satan had acquired rights over him, and held the power of death, wielding it, indeed, as the just judgment of God (Heb. 2: 14). He thus became, in that all had sinned, the prince of the world (John 12: 31, 16: 11); the god of this world (2 Cor. 4: 4); holding all men captive under his power and thrall (Acts 26: 18; Col. 1: 13). We therefore were in a state of hopeless captivity, sold by our sin under the power of Satan, who reigned over as, and afflicted our souls with the hard rigour of his bondage. And we were as helpless as we were hopeless; for having fallen through our own sin under the penalty of death, and thereby under the power of Satan, and having no means to provide a ransom, we were shut up for ever, unless some one from without, competent and able, should intervene to deliver us from the prison-house of our captivity. Hence Paul says, "Ye were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," etc. (Eph. 2: 1, 2).

Such was our condition. We had failed to answer God's claims upon us, and had consequently fallen under the penalties of sin; and, at the same time, we came under the dominion of Satan, who reigned over us through the power of death which he wielded as the judgment of God upon us on account of our sins. Then it was, when we not only had no claim upon God, but had incurred the just penalty of our sins, that He, according to the counsels of His grace, being rich in mercy, in His love and in His pity redeemed us — redeemed us not with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1: 18).

We will now consider more particularly the method by which our redemption was effected. It consisted properly of two parts, the price paid, and the deliverance effected; the claims of God met, and our deliverance from the hand and power of Satan; and we shall find these two things historically illustrated in the redemption of Israel.

(1) The price paid, or the ransom money. Speaking to the disciples, our blessed Lord said, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20: 28). In another scripture we read that Christ "gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2: 6). That is, He gave Himself in death — corresponding so far with the other scripture quoted, "gave His life." The significance of these statements will be explained by a passage from the Old Testament "The life of the flesh is in THE BLOOD: and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is THE BLOOD THAT MAKETH AN ATONEMENT FOR THE SOUL" (Lev. 17: 11). Hence, "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 11: 22). It was therefore the blood of Christ (for the life is in the blood) that constituted our ransom money: this was the price paid for our redemption. Hence Paul says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1: 7); and Peter, in the scripture we have before cited, that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It is no wonder that he terms it "precious," since it availed to meet all the claims of a holy God upon us, so that on that foundation he could proclaim salvation to all. For, in truth, it not only satisfied God's claims, but so infinite was its value that the Lord Jesus, by the shedding of His own blood, glorified God in all that He was, — in every attribute of His character, — and thus He can righteously justify every one that believeth in Jesus. Yea, more, He glorifies Himself, in bringing every believer to Himself, in making him His child, and if a child, then an heir, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8: 17).

The blood of Christ is, therefore, the redemption money; and hence every one who is under its shelter is safe for ever from judgment. This was prefigured in the case of Israel in Egypt. When God was about to smite the land of Egypt, to pass through it as a Judge, and had thus raised the question of sin, His own people — Israel — were as obnoxious to the stroke of the destroyer as the Egyptians. How, then, could Israel be as righteously spared, as Egypt was as righteously judged? In one of His messages to Pharaoh, He says, "I will put a REDEMPTION (see marginal reading) between My people and thy people" (Ex. 8: 23); and this was done in a remarkable way, when by Jehovah's direction, "Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bases, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the bases; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you" (Ex. 12: 21-23). The Lord thus redeemed His people by blood, — figure of the blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1: 29). But mark an important distinction. The command was given to all to sprinkle the blood — the provision was therefore for all; but unless in the obedience of faith the people carried out the directions they received, they would not be protected. So now the blood of Christ is sufficient for the shelter of all the world; but unless there be faith it will be of no avail. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (none other) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). "Whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 25).

(2) The first part, then, of redemption was the payment of the ransom; and that, as we have seen, was done by the blood of Christ. But Israel was not redeemed — though perfectly safe under the shelter of the blood — as long as they were in Egypt. Hence the second part, or the completion of their redemption, was effected when God, with a high hand and an outstretched arm, brought them out of the land of Egypt through the Red Sea, and destroyed Pharaoh and all his host in its mighty waters. On the basis of the shed blood, God — having been satisfied as Judge — can now act for His people as their Deliverer; and hence He brings them out of Egypt in power. Then they could sing — they could not while in Egypt — "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation. . . . Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation" (Exodus 15: 1-13). They are now, and henceforward, a redeemed people.

So with believers now, they cannot be said to be redeemed until they know deliverance; not only that they are sheltered by the blood, but brought clean out of the enemy's territory — through death and judgment — by the death and resurrection of Christ. In the case of Israel, since it was historical, the sprinkling of the blood and the crossing of the Red Sea were necessarily two successive stages. But now the work has been done, in the death and resurrection of Christ, which answers to both; and though, as a matter of fact, the two parts — the shelter of the blood, and deliverance — are often successive in our apprehension, there is yet no reason why the fulness of redemption should not be received and enjoyed at the same time. And it would be far more frequently, were a full gospel more commonly proclaimed; whereas it seldom goes beyond the forgiveness of sins, and hence souls are kept in ignorance of the completeness of the salvation which God has wrought out for them in Christ.

But it may be well to explain somewhat more fully how our deliverance is effected in Christ. It is, then, of the first importance to know that not only has God dealt with the question of our sins — our guilt — but that He also has dealt with sin — our evil nature — in the death of Christ. "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Already, therefore, He has judged sin, root and branch; and hence Christ met and broke the whole power of Satan (even as God broke the whole power of Egypt in the Red Sea — figure of Satan's power) in His death. The consequence is that, believing in Christ, I am brought through His death out of the old condition in which I was (out of Egypt), and by His resurrection I am brought into a new place — a place (in Christ Jesus) not only where there is no condemnation, but where also the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8: 1, 2). Consequently, God can now say to believers, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8: 9). Our redemption, therefore, is complete; God has acted for us — on His claims having been met and satisfied by the blood of Christ — and brought us out of our old condition unto Himself. "He has guided us by His strength unto His holy habitation." Already have we passed from death unto life, with death and judgment for ever behind. We are no longer in the flesh, looked upon as children of Adam; but since we have died with Christ, every tie that bound us to that state is snapped; and we are now in Christ, and in Christ where He is, and consequently a redeemed people. Now we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose; and assured that, according to that purpose, we are to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; that whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified; we can take up the apostle's triumphant language, If God be for us, who [can be] against us? Yea, we can rest in the full persuasion that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8: 28-39).

(3) One thing, however, has to be noted. While we are redeemed — as to our souls completely, we have to wait for the consummation of our redemption as to the body. Brought out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea, fully delivered, and receiving the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance, we wait for the adoption — the redemption of our body. For in truth, we are still in the wilderness, and through our bodies linked with a groaning creation; and hence we ourselves which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the time when even our bodies will be redeemed (Rom. 8: 23).

"Our earthen vessels break;

The world itself grows old;

But Christ our precious dust will take

And freshly mould.

He'll give these bodies vile

A fashion like His own,

He'll bid the whole creation smile,

And hush its groan."

"For this we wait until He returns to receive us unto Himself" (Phil. 3: 20, 21); and we thus see how gloriously complete is the redemption which He has effected for His people, so complete that nothing shall be left in the hands of the enemy; but spirit, soul, and body alike are rescued and made His own.

As we then survey this work in all its extent, we can surely acknowledge with joyful hearts that Christ is our Redeemer. And never should we forget at what a cost He has redeemed us to God. It is familiar to us to say — with His blood. But how little we apprehend the meaning of the words; how little do we enter into the wondrous fact that He gave Himself to die, went down under all the wrath that was due to us, was made sin for us that we might become God's righteousness in Him. Surely as we meditate upon it, it will evoke from our hearts the more constant cry of adoration, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1: 5, 6).

*We do not enter in this paper upon the wider aspect of redemption. Christ also tasted death for everything (Heb. 2: 9); and hence everything will be brought under His power (Eph. 1: 10; Heb. 2: 8). We are distinctly told that He bought the whole field (Matt. 13: 44); and all men (2 Peter 2: 1).

What then, are our responsibilities as a redeemed people. First and foremost, the acknowledgement that we belong to Him who has redeemed us. This truth is continually brought out even in the Old Testament Scriptures: "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name; thou art Mine" (Isa. 43: 1). Hence it is that the apostle, as we may notice more fully in the next chapter, so often terms himself the slave (δοῦλος) of Jesus Christ. For since the Lord Jesus has paid, in His wondrous grace and love, our ransom money, He has acquired the full right and title to all that we are and have. We are henceforward His property. But this involves a twofold aspect — privilege and responsibility. We have the privilege of belonging to Christ, of being His own, of being bound to Him by special ties (for He loved the Church and gave Himself for it), and therefore of being the special objects of His care, tenderness, and love. We now say, My Beloved is mine, and I am His; yea more, I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me (Cant. 2: 16; Cant. 7: 10). And how sweet and blessed a thought it is that He has acquired, by a title which none can ever dispute, possession of us! What rest it gives to our souls to remember that we are His! In sorrow, trouble, or bereavement — in the silent watches of the night — in isolation from all about us — what unspeakable solace to raise our eyes to Him, and to be able to say, Thou hast redeemed us, and we are Thine — Thine for ever!

But the privilege involves the responsibility of showing practically in our walk and conversation that we are His — of living not to ourselves, but unto Him who has died for us, and risen again (2 Cor. 5: 15). For by our redemption we are separated from all the peoples of the earth, and are, therefore, to be distinguished by testifying in our ways that we belong to our Redeemer. It is for us, each one, as before the Lord, to ask ourselves, How far we are doing this? Whether we, as a redeemed people, are as separate from those about us, as Israel was, for example, from the tribes that surrounded them when passing through the desert? True that, so far, this was an external separation; but surely this was meant to be a type and figure of a separation more real than theirs — more real because of the profounder character of our redemption. The question, however, is, Are we daily confessing with heart, life, and lip, that we belong to Christ?

And this question brings us to a special responsibility in connection with our redemption, as stated by the apostle Paul. He says to the Corinthians, "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? . . . Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body"* (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20). The Lord, therefore, claims our bodies because He has bought us with a price; and therefore He would have our bodies as organs for the exhibition of Himself in this scene. Hence, after the full statement of redemption in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service" (Rom. 12: 1). What an honour thus put upon us — that He should take up these bodies of ours, which were once the instruments of Satan, and make them the means of the display of Himself — that God might be glorified! Ah! Satan little knew what he was doing when he urged the Jews to put Christ to death. He succeeded in getting Him cast out of this scene; but what has been the consequence? That there are thousands of Christ's followers whose only business is to reflect His likeness, to bear about in their bodies the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in their bodies (2 Cor. 4: 10). How far are we individually meeting in this respect our responsibility? We all shall own it; and if we own it, and at the same time have to confess our failure in responding to it, we may, and surely shall, cast ourselves upon Him for grace and strength to yield ourselves wholly to God as alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God (Rom. 6: 13).

*I do not add the words, "And in your spirit, which are Gods," as they are without sufficient authority — the argument itself indeed showing that they are an unwarranted addition.

Paul also teaches that being redeemed, we should disown, and reject every authority that conflicts with that of Christ. "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men" (1 Cor. 7: 23). It need hardly be said that he does not mean that we are not to have masters in this world. On the other hand, he has, by the Spirit, given special directions to those who are thus placed. But what he here asserts is the supremacy of the authority of Christ; and that we, since He has bought us with a price, belong to Him whatever our situation. "He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men" (1 Cor. 7: 22, 23). In like manner, enforcing the same truth, he reminds servants, in another epistle, that they "serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3: 24). Whatever our position, therefore, in this world, however subject it may be, we are never to forget that we belong to Christ, that He has purchased us with His own blood; and hence our eye must ever be upon Him, for He is our Lord, and it is Him whom we serve.

Another scripture will indicate a further responsibility. "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2: 14). We have already seen that the Lord has acquired us by redemption, and this thought is also expressed in the words, "purify unto Himself a peculiar people;" but two things are here added, which He desires should characterise the people whom He has redeemed. His object was to redeem us from all iniquity, both from its power (see Rom. 6: 14), and its practice; and that we should be zealous of good works. As being redeemed, therefore, we should be known by separation from evil, and separation unto Christ, marked out as a peculiar people — a people peculiar and proper to Himself, and known by zeal for good works.

It is well to judge ourselves often by such a scripture, that we may detect our failures and discover how far we are answering the mind of Christ about us — His object in our redemption. And especially may we apply the phrase "zealous of good works." For while there is no greater snare at the present time than excessive activity, in which the soul often loses all communion, and hence all power, there should never be a carelessness concerning works which are according to the mind of God. Indeed, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. 2: 10). We are responsible, therefore to, be zealous of such good works.

If we now turn to 1 Peter, we shall find another character of responsibility in connection with our redemption. "If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1: 17, 18). Peter thus sets us down in the presence of God the Father, and sets us down there as pilgrims, that we should pass the time of our sojourning in fear, that holy fear which is begotten by His holiness according to which our works are even now judged. He would have us as pilgrims who have been brought out of Egypt, in our passage through the wilderness, to maintain holiness, to be holy, because God is holy (ver. 16). For it is to God that we are redeemed; and hence He requires us in our walk and ways to be suitable to Himself-to His own character. How watchful, then, should we be to keep apart from evil, to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, having the fear of God before our eyes, knowing that He marks all our ways, and that without holiness shall no man see the Lord (Heb. 12: 14).

Finally, we are ever bidden to look onward to the day of redemption. Thus we are told that the indwelling Spirit "is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. 1: 14); and again, that we are not to grieve "the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30). Then it is that the full fruits of redemption will be entered upon and enjoyed, when the Lord will take possession, in power, of all that has been purchased by His precious blood. We have already dwelt upon this as to the body. But there is more than this. We have the Spirit as the earnest "of our future full participation in the heritage that belongs to Christ — an inheritance to which He has a right through redemption, whereby He has purchased all things to Himself, but which He will only appropriate by His power when He shall have gathered together all the co-heirs to enjoy it with Him." It is for this we wait — not only for the coming of Christ, the resurrection of our bodies, and our being glorified together with Him, but also for the time when, as joint-heirs with Himself, we shall enter with Him upon the possession of all that scene of dominion, blessedness, and glory, which He has acquired through His death — His works of redemption — all being the purchase of His own precious blood. What wonder that we are told that this consummation is to the praise of God's glory! Our present acceptance in the Beloved is to the praise of the glory of His grace; our share with Christ in His inheritance will be to the praise of His glory. On that scene of blessedness and exaltation, by the grace of our God, we shall soon enter. For since we are children, we are heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; and He is waiting for the moment when He can accomplish the desire of His own heart in having us with Himself, according to His own prayer, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17: 2 4). May He enable us to walk now as those who are waiting for the consummation of such blessedness!

CHAPTER 3.  CHRIST OUR LORD.

AS soon as we know Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer, we are also taught that He is our Lord. His Lordship, indeed, is universal, and hence has reference to men as such, though at the same time He sustains this relationship in a special way towards believers. The Apostle Peter declared this truth on the day of Pentecost. "Therefore," he said, "let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both LORD and Christ" (Acts 2: 36). So also Paul: for after describing the long descent of Christ from "being in the form of God," down to His "being found in fashion as a man," and humbling Himself, and becoming "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," he says, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:  6-11). The Lord Jesus Himself, after His resurrection, says, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth" (Matt. 28: 18). Once more, Peter, dealing with another aspect of the same truth, tells us of false teachers "who shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them" (2 Peter 2: 1).

*The word Lord here is δεσπότης, not κύριος.

We have then, so far, two things: first, that God has made Christ Lord on the ground of redemption, giving Him this place of universal supremacy to mark His appreciation (if we may thus reverently speak) of the work which He had wrought out by His death; and secondly, that, as we saw in the last chapter, Christ has acquired Lordship over all by purchase. This thought we find in one of the parables: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field" (Matt. 13: 44). The consequence is that He is Lord of all, having "power (ἐξουσίαν — authority) over all flesh" by the appointment of God (John 17: 2; see also Acts 10: 36; Rom. 14: 9). When, however, we, as believers, speak of Christ as "our" Lord, we express another thought, because then we bring in the idea of relationship — the relationship of servants. It is the same Lordship, but we, by the grace of God, have been brought to own it, to bow before Him in this character; to accept His authority and rule, and to take the place of subjection. This, indeed, was one of the objects of His death, as Paul tells us — "He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again" (2 Cor. 5: 15). And again, "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living" (Rom. 14: 7-9). We, therefore, recognise, through the grace of our God, not only that Christ is Lord of all — as He truly is — but also that He is in a more intimate way our Lord. He is our Lord, not only in virtue of His appointment as such, as the rejected Christ and now glorified Man, but also because He has acquired this place over us through redemption. It is, therefore, our joy to confess Him as Lord; and how solemn to remember that all, even those who reject Him in this day of grace, will one day be constrained by power — power, too, significant of destruction — to own Him also as Lord (Phil. 2: 10, 11). It is the more incumbent upon us who are believers to recognise, declare, and be subject to His authority, that we may, in some measure, be witnesses for Him in this day of His rejection.

Seeing that Christ holds this place, what are our privileges and responsibilities with reference to Him in this character?

(1) The first thing to be named is worship; for it is before Him as Lord we fall down in adoration. This is taught, in principle, in one of the psalms. "He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him" (Psalm 45: 11). So also in the passage already cited from the Philippians — every knee is to bow, and every tongue confess that He is "Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2: 10, 11). Theologians take pains to argue that Christ is to be worshipped equally with the Father, inasmuch as He is God as well as man. And this is true; but, at the same time, it misses the Scriptural teaching concerning His present position and the worship due to Him in it. He is God; but the wonder and the characteristic of His present place is that He occupies it as man. It was the same Jesus whom the Jews crucified who is now made both Lord and Christ; and He has taken up even the glory which He had with the Father before the world was as man. It is a great mistake to suppose that He was man down here, and God in heaven, as if the two natures could thus be divided. The truth is — if we may draw the distinction — when down here, while He was truly man, He was the presentation of God to us; whereas now, while He never loses His essential Divinity, He sits at the right hand of God as man. Hence, though it is perfectly true that we worship Him as God, and, indeed, all the adoration which ascends up to God of necessity is offered to Him — inasmuch as the term God includes all the persons of the Godhead — it is rather as the man who is in the glory of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, that we bow before Him in praise and worship.

And surely it is a sweet thought to our souls that He who down here was scorned, rejected, cast out, and crucified — He whom even His own disciples forsook, abandoning Him in the hour of His greatest sorrow — is now exalted, and set forth as the object of our homage. Oh, how infinitely precious He must be to God, and what unspeakable value must His work have in His eyes, that He should thus set Him in the highest place, and constitute Him the object of adoration both of angels and saints! Thus John writes, "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made them unto our God kings and priests: and they shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped"* (Rev. 5: 9-14). What ineffable grace, then, that even now we should have been taught that He is worthy of our praise!

*The reader will notice several variations from the English Text. On the 9th and 10th verses the authorities are very much divided, but what is given above is believed by those competent to form an opinion to be the more exact reading. There can be no doubt whatsoever about the omission, in the 14th verse, of the words, "Him that liveth for ever and ever." — See "Textual Criticism," by C. E. Stuart.

"Father, Thy holy name we bless,

Gracious and just Thy wise decree,

That every tongue shall soon confess,

Jesus the Lord of all to be.

But, oh! Thy grace has taught us now

Before that Lord the knee to bow.

Him as our Lord we gladly own:

To Him alone we now would live;

Who bow'd our hearts before Thy throne,

And gave us all that love could give.

Our willing voices cry aloud,

Worthy art Thou, O Lamb of God!"

(2) Just as we worship Him, so also we pray to Him, as Lord. There are two striking exemplifications of this principle recorded in the Scriptures. When Stephen was martyred by the infuriated Jews, it is said, "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7: 59). Paul, too, speaking of the thorn in the flesh, says, "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12: 9). Now, that it was Christ he thus addressed as Lord is evident; for he adds, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power (δύναμις, the same word as is translated 'strength') Of CHRIST may rest upon me." These instances afford most important instruction as to the character in which Christ is to be addressed in prayer. It is as Lord — not as "Jesus" or "Christ," as is sometimes unhappily heard. A moment's consideration will show us the fitness of this. To use the appellation — His name — of Jesus, or the term Christ, when bowing before Him, is surely to forget our place as suppliants, as well as His place as Lord. It savours of familiarity, even if not of irreverence; though it is freely admitted that it may be done without the slightest feeling of the kind. Be this as it may, we should never forget His exaltation and dignity, when approaching Him in supplication. The spiritual instincts of the child of God will suffice to teach him that, at such a time, the title of Lord should never be omitted. It becomes Him to receive, and us to render it; marking, in some humble measure at least, our sense of His claims, and also, indeed, of our place in His presence. The angel used it, when calming the fears of the women at the sepulchre on the resurrection morn, and in a most significant manner. He said, "Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the LORD lay" Matt. 28: 5, 6). He thus reminded them that Jesus, whom they sought, was the Lord. The malefactor, also, on the cross, taught undoubtedly of the Spirit of God, addresses Him aright. "Lord," he says, "remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom" (Luke 23: 42). Let us, then, be ever careful to remember what is due to the One before whom we bow, and from whom we seek grace and blessing.

If this were the place, we might point out (what a careful examination of the Scriptures would assuredly justify) that there are special subjects which we more fittingly bring before the Lord. For example, there is, as we may see further on, a special relationship between the servant and the Lord. He Himself thus taught His disciples, "Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest." The apostle, likewise, as already seen in the matter of the thorn in the flesh which he felt was hindering his service, addresses himself to Christ as Lord. It will suffice to have given this indication, because it needs acquaintance with, and divine intelligence to be rightly guided as to this. It is a subject, however, which ought to be carefully considered; for nothing is more painful than to hear the interchange of "God," "Father," or "Lord," in prayer, without intelligence, in meetings for prayer or worship.

But passing from this, it is surely no mean consolation to remember when we are addressing Him in prayer that He is our Lord. It constitutes both a claim, and an assurance; a claim, because of the relationship into which we have thus been brought, and an assurance, because it reminds us of what He is to us and for us in this character. Ah! indeed, He is no stranger to us, and if it is very sweet to us to utter the words, what joy to Him to hear us address Him as our Lord. Led by the Spirit of God, may we be increasingly bold in the use of the term — with the holy boldness which confidence in His love alone can inspire!

(3) The correlative of "Lord" is "servant." We are therefore specially reminded by the term "our Lord," that we are His servants. We are His servants because He has bought us with His own blood; and we are therefore absolutely His property. Hence it is that Paul delights to call himself a servant — a slave (δοῦλος) — of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1: 1; Phil. 1: 1, etc.). We speak, of course, here of all believers as servants, and not of the special class whom the Lord has been pleased to endow with gifts, and send forth to labour amongst the saints, or in connection with the gospel. We lose much if we confine the term "servant" to this class; for whatever the position we occupy, all are as truly the Lord's servants as if engaged in any public way — as, for example, in the ministry of the Word.

This being the case, it will at once be observed that the Lord's will is our only law. It is indeed the characteristic of the Christian that he has no will; for the moment his will is active, the flesh appears. Thus he has — i.e., he should have — absolutely no will. He can say with the apostle, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20). The Lord has shown us also this path. "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (John 6: 38). Hence it is actually said that "He took upon Him the form of a servant" (a slave — δοῦλος, Phil. 2: 7). Just, therefore, as He had no will, but in all He thought, spoke, and did, was governed by the will of the Father, so we in all things should have respect to His will — it being no longer we, but Christ in us, and these bodies of ours but organs for the expression of Himself — His will.

Our responsibility, then, as servants is obedience. As the Lord said to certain professors, "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6: 46). Or, as He said to His disciples, "Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13: 13, 14). As soon, therefore, as Christ is revealed to us as our Saviour, and we acknowledge Him as our Lord, we should take the attitude of Saul when he said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" (Acts 9: 6; Acts 22: 10). From that moment we must accept the place of obedience to His will; and not only accept it, but find our joy in it, even as He Himself said that it was His meat to do His Father's will, and to finish His work (John 4: 34). Nor can any believer plead ignorance of what His will is. It is true that many are ignorant; but since He has been pleased to give us in the Scriptures the revelation of His mind for us, to mark out the path in which He would have us walk, to assure us of guidance in every difficulty and perplexity, and since He has sent the Comforter to guide us into all truth (John 16: 13), we have no excuse if we remain in ignorance.

How simple, then, is our path! We have now to please but One. It needs therefore only that the eye be always fixed on Him. As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so should our eyes be ever upon the Lord, to catch the first intimation of His will, so that our willing feet may be ever quick to execute His commands. And what an honour is thus conferred upon us! Christ our Lord is the centre of the glory. The eyes of all heaven are directed to Him — the Object of their unbounded reverence, homage, and delight. What, then, are we that He should deign to make us His servants? Nothing — nothing but that we have been made through the sovereign grace of our God, in virtue of His finished work. Surely, therefore, we should have a deeper sense of the wondrous honour conferred upon us, so that our hearts swelling with grateful love may increasingly delight to prove their love by keeping His commandments (John 14: 15).

(4) We have a further responsibility connected with the Lordship of Christ. As pointed out, He is Lord of all (Acts 10: 36). Not only have we, therefore, as believers, to take the position of obedience, but we have also to acknowledge His authority over all connected with us — over our families and our households. It is a question of increasing importance, whether the doctrine of the universal Lordship of Christ has not been too much overlooked. The state of the families of many believers demands that it should be imperatively considered. It is a fatal mistake, into which many fall, to suppose that the unconverted members of our families have no relationship to Christ. He is Lord of all; and they are under the responsibility of owning, as believers are under the obligation of enforcing, that Lordship. The rule of Christ has to be maintained throughout the whole circle of the responsibility of the saints — thus within that circle, at least, anticipating the millennium.* It is in this, that the families of saints should present an entire contrast with those of the world; and thus be a living testimony to the authority of a rejected and an absent Christ — Christ our Lord.

*See, for a larger discussion of this subject, "The Christian Household," by E. Dennett.

(5) Again, if we remembered that He who is our Lord, is also universal Lord, it would give us far greater power to deal with souls. When charging upon them the sin of rejecting Christ, how often do they evade, or turn aside the stroke, by the thought, We had nothing to do with the act of the Jews and Romans eighteen hundred years ago. Not that it is difficult to meet this objection, if once fairly spoken; but if the fact of the present Lordship of Christ were pressed, we can apply a test which cannot be escaped. Do they acknowledge the place which has been given to Him by God? Do they confess and submit to His authority? Then — as we know they do not — they stand convicted — palpably convicted — of refusing and rejecting now the One who has been made both Lord and Christ. This weapon, if skilfully used, might, in the power of the Spirit, reach many a conscience, and bring souls to repentance before God. Especially might this be the case, if the truth already touched upon were connected with it, that if they persist in refusing to own Christ now, in the day of grace, they must do so before the great white throne, and own Him then, alas! to their everlasting destruction. It is a question worthy of consideration whether we do not give man, as such, too large a place in preaching the gospel; whether we do not concede to him too much the position of choosing or refusing. Of course, his responsibility must never be overlooked; for it is on this side that his conscience is the soonest reached. Nor must we forget to present the grace, the mercy, and the love of God; and surely every presentation of the gospel should be the expression of His own heart. Conceding all this, and, indeed, insisting on it, it may yet be asked whether, as a rule, the claims of Christ as Lord are sufficiently pressed. What subject could supply a more fruitful field for argument and appeal? Man everywhere owned, and Christ disowned. Alas! it is still true that there is no room for Christ in the inn (the world). It is man's wisdom, man's precepts, and man's authority; and all these combine in saying, We will not have Christ to reign over us. And yet He is Lord of all. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. It knows Him not still, and thus goes onward to destruction. For God will have His Christ universally acknowledged, for the decree has gone forth and cannot be altered; and yet the world passes on, banishing Him who is Lord out of all their thoughts, vainly dreaming that all is, and that all will be, well. But even while we write, the hour may be about to strike when He shall leave His place at God's right hand to receive His people to Himself, and then they will ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4: 17). Thereon will commence that series of awful judgments predicted in the Scriptures, which will be preparatory to, and will usher in, His return with His saints, when out of His mouth, will go "a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron. and He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Rev. 19: 15, 16). Then He will take to Himself His great power and reign; "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." Then "all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him" (Ps. 72: 8-11). Be wise, therefore, dear reader, and now, while it is the accepted time and the day of salvation, bow before God and own Christ as Lord; for "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10: 9). But if you should be, alas! of the number who remain indifferent to, and reject His claims, not only must you finally bow the knee before Him, when He shall be seated as the Judge on the great white throne, but you must also hear at the same time the irrevocable sentence of your everlasting doom — the doom of the second death (Rev. 20). Oh! then, kiss the Son — now while it is the day of grace, and God's long-suffering lingers — lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, and perish for ever, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Reconciled to Him, it will be the joy of your hearts to confess, and to worship Him as Lord.

CHAPTER 4.  CHRIST OUR SHEPHERD.

IT may be questioned whether this relationship of our blessed Lord to His people occupies its due place in our souls. It is quite true that it is found most frequently in the Old Testament Scriptures; but it would be to suffer great loss to suppose that it was only a Jewish relationship. Indeed, John (John 10) expressly forbids this conclusion, for the Lord distinctly states, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock (not fold — the word is ποίμνη), and one Shepherd" (ver. 16). Peter, also, writing to believers of this dispensation, says, "Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Peter 2: 25); and again, "Feed (shepherd) the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over [God's] heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (1 Peter 5: 2-4). Paul uses the same figure, when addressing the elders of the Church at Ephesus. "Take heed," he says, "therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed (shepherd) the Church of God," etc. (Acts 20: 28).

Christ, therefore, is the Shepherd of His people now; and they are His sheep — collectively, His flock. There is, however, this difference. To the Jews — had they received Him, He would have been a Shepherd on earth; and even in the millennium He will be the Shepherd of His earthly people. "And I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even my servant David; He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd" (Ezek. 34: 23; see also Jer. 23: 1-4). But He is our Shepherd as the One who has died, risen again, and is seated at the right hand of God. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews thus says, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep," etc. (Heb. 13: 20). It is, therefore, from His place on high that He now shepherds His people; and hence He is termed the Chief Shepherd, because in His tender care for the sheep, being absent from them, He provides those who shall "feed the flock" under His guidance and directions. When He therefore ascended up on high, He gave some, pastors, etc. Eph. 4: 11); for it is through these, and such as have the place of rule, that He now exercises the functions of the Shepherd for His people.

The relationship, then, in both dispensations is expressed by the same term; but the blessings secured by it are determined by the respective positions and needs of the sheep. Hence that beautiful Twenty-third Psalm — the solace of God's people in all ages — could be adopted by saints of all dispensations. Nay, it is so worded that the Lord Himself, when on the earth as a man, could use its language, as well as the pious remnant among the Jews, and believers at the present time.

(1) Let us, then, in the first place, consider a little the Shepherd Himself. To the Jews He said, "He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep" (John 10: 2). And there He stood before them as the One who alone came in to Israel by the way appointed of God, who answered to all the conditions predicted of Him in the Scriptures — the One, therefore, to whom the door was divinely opened to give Him access to His sheep. But the people as such received Him not; and hence He became also the Door of the sheep (ver. 7). "All that ever came before Me," He says, "are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (John 10: 8-11).

Here, then, is the great characteristic of the Good Shepherd — He giveth His life for the sheep. He is the Christ who has died; and if He died for all, then were all dead (2 Cor. 5: 14). This brings in the whole secret of redemption. The sheep had gone astray — were lost, and would have perished everlastingly, but the Good Shepherd went after that which was lost — even down into death — the death of the cross — and sought until He found. This explains to us the epithet — "Good" Shepherd. All we like sheep had gone astray, and turned every one to his own way; but the Good Shepherd offered Himself for our sins, gave His life for the sheep, and the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53: 6). As the Apostle Paul reasons, seeking to extol the unprecedented character of God's love, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us. in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 6-8), The whole heart of Christ, as well as of God, was revealed by His death; for there was nothing in us to draw out His affection, to move Him to take our place, and to redeem us with His precious blood. "In the same night in which He was betrayed, He took bread and gave thanks "and founded the memorial of His accomplished sacrifice. Thus side by side we behold His perfect goodness, and man's perfect evil; but the full exhibition of what man was could not hinder the manifestation of what He was. Nay, just as the light of the sun when shining on a dark thundercloud seems all the more bright and intense, so the love, grace, and goodness of Christ are magnified by the unmitigated evil which on man's part brought Him to the cross. The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.

By giving His life for the sheep He acquired the title to their possession. Thereon follows another action, He giveth life to the sheep. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10: 10); and again, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (ver. 28). With this we may connect another word, "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved," etc. (ver. 9). We add this scripture, to show the way in which Christ bestows life, that it is never apart from faith in Himself. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3: 36). So here He is presented as the Door, and whosoever enters in by Him is saved — has eternal life. It were a fatal mistake to suppose that while He absolutely bestows life as a gift, — and indeed as a sovereign gift, — that it could ever be possessed without personal faith. For this is the appointed means of its possession — that, indeed, which characterises them as His sheep, and thus separates them from the world.

Again, it is said, "He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out" (ver. 3); also that "He knows His sheep" (vers. 14-27). He had just exemplified this in the case of the blind man. He had met him in his blindness, opened his eyes, led him out of Judaism, and made him a worshipper of Himself as the Son of God. There are also several beautiful illustrations of these characteristics of the Good Shepherd recorded in the gospel. Take one from the first chapter of this gospel. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto Him, Whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee" (John 1: 47, 48). From all eternity He has known His sheep; and in His own time He addresses them by name, calls them by a word of power, and His voice penetrates into their souls, and leads them out, constraining them to recognise it as that of the Good Shepherd. Just as on the morning of His resurrection when He said, "Mary," and she instantly responded, Rabboni: so now, He speaks, and the sheep hear His voice, and straightway follow Him. It is thus He has called every one of His flock, and thus that He will still gather His sheep, until the last one that is straying upon the mountains or in the deserts is brought under His shepherd care. "I know my sheep," is surely a word of rich consolation to the hearts of His own. In the wilderness still — though following His lead — and often faithless and weary, how often does the temptation come to doubt His care and love! "I know My sheep," should calm every anxiety, and dispel every fear, revealing, as it does, that His eye is ever upon us, comprehending all our case, all our needs, yea, knowing us altogether!

We have already alluded to the composite character of His flock — being now made up of Jews and Gentiles, — as He teaches in the sixteenth verse. Indeed, the whole history of the formation of the flock is there set forth — "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: these also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd." This is the special feature of the flock during this dispensation. In the past, Israel alone was His flock; hence the Twenty-third Psalm commences, Jehovah is my Shepherd. But inasmuch as when He came unto His own, His own received Him not, He by His death "broke down the wall of enclosure that separated the Jews from the Gentiles, and laid the foundation in His blood for the gathering out of both alike through faith in His name. Ever since Pentecost, therefore, He has been calling His sheep from every land, and from every clime, and they hear His voice, and they are brought, and together, whether Jews or Gentiles, they form the one flock under the one Shepherd.

Another characteristic of the Shepherd is, that He keeps His sheep in safety. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any* pluck them out of My hand. My Father, who gave them Me, is greater than all; and none can pluck them out of My Father's hand" (vers. 28, 29). He thus guarantees absolute security to His own. The wolf may catch (same word as pluck — αρπάζω) the sheep away from him who is an hireling, and not the shepherd, but none can catch, pluck, them out of His hands. What rest of heart it should give us, as we read these blessed words!

*I do not insert the word "man" with our translation, for the term any will include Satan as well as man — as it was intended to do.

(2) It may be profitable, if we ponder a little more in detail upon some of the characteristics of the sheep.

They hear His voice (vers. 4, 16, 27). This goes back, as already explained, to the very commencement, when He calleth His own sheep by name, and is that which distinguishes them as His sheep. The Lord Himself draws the contrast. "Ye" (He said to the Jews), "ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice," etc. (vers. 26, 27). We may combine with this another trait, "They know not the voice of strangers" (ver. 5). Herein lies the safety of the flock. They at once recognise the voice of the Shepherd; but though a stranger should simulate the tones of the Shepherd ever so closely, they know not his voice; i.e., they detect it as that of a stranger. This is that which is taught by the Apostle John. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. . . . These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" (1 John 2: 20-27). There is no need, therefore, that we should seek to be familiar with all the errors that abound on every hand in order to escape their seductions: it is enough for us that we know the voice of the Shepherd; and our safety will be in ever listening to it, becoming increasingly acquainted with it, maintaining evermore the attitude of her who sat at the feet of Jesus, and heard His word (Luke 10: 39). This will be at once our preservative from danger, and the means of our safety and blessing.

Consequent upon hearing His voice, the sheep follow the Shepherd. "He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice" (vers. 4, 27). The sheep has no will but that of the Shepherd; and ceasing to follow Him it becomes a wandering sheep. "All we like sheep," says the prophet, "have gone astray, and turned every one to his own way" (Isa. 53: 6). In Eastern lands, and indeed in some parts of Europe, the shepherd ever goes before his sheep; and when he moves onward, they follow, and when he stops, they stop likewise. Our blessed Lord alludes to this in the scripture before us, and uses the custom to convey most striking instruction. For to follow the Shepherd necessitates that the eye of the sheep should be ever upon Him, that, indeed, they should ever be on the watch to ascertain when He would have them to move, and where He would have them follow. Everything is thus left in the Shepherd's hands: it is His to discern a coming danger, to provide for their sustenance, and to indicate their path. Their responsibility is to follow — to follow the Shepherd wherever He may lead — to follow Him until He shall come to receive them to Himself.

It is also said that the sheep know the Shepherd. They not only know His voice; but they also know Himself. "I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I the Father" (John 10: 14, 15). This is the highest blessing of which the sheep are capable; for it implies entering into His own thoughts, ways, and desires, yea, the knowledge of Himself. It is thus that we are brought into communion with Him. We may know His voice, and be following Him, and yet be without much acquaintance with His character. To know Him, is what John gives as descriptive of the fathers in God's family. "I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning" (1 John 2: 13). This, therefore, is the highest and most blessed attainment which the believer can make. And the Lord desires that it should be made — and in an infinite measure — "as the Father knoweth Me, and I the Father." He knows us, and He desires that we should know Him. May He Himself lead us into an ever-increasing acquaintance with Himself, so keep Himself before our souls that we may grow daily in the knowledge of Him — of what He is, as well as what He is to us, and for us — through the power of the Holy Ghost!

(3) It may help us still further to understand the relationship, as well as the privileges of the sheep, if we add to the foregoing considerations, the teaching of Psalm 23.

The Lord (Jehovah) is my Shepherd. Everything depends upon the relationship, whether we can truly adopt this language. Every one can say the Lord is a Shepherd; and hence all the significance of this statement is connected with the little word "my." To say "my" Shepherd is the language of faith: the word "my" is, therefore, the doorway into the psalm. How blessed if we can, then, adopt these words as our own, and say He is our Shepherd. And what follows? "I shall not want." We shall not want, not because we are sheep, but because He is our Shepherd. This conclusion flows, not from what we are to Him, but from what He is to us. It is very strengthening to the soul to see this clearly, for many of us are apt to begin with ourselves; and consequently, as we discover what poor, feeble, wayward creatures we are, we fall into doubts and anxieties. But when we begin with the Lord, consider what He is — what He is in Himself, as well as what He is in relationship to us, we obtain the well-grounded assurance that we "shall not want." For surely it belongs to the Shepherd to provide for the sheep. How foolish it were even in children to question their parents as to how their wants were to be met on the morrow! Much more foolish would it be on our parts — when we have such a Shepherd. Enough for our hearts surely to know that He is ours, and in that sweet confidence we can leave everything in His hands, "who shall feed (tend) His flock like a Shepherd" (Isa. 40: 11). He is ours, and we have everything in Him; and hence the heart can rest in perfect peace — in the full assurance of His unfailing love, omnipotent power, and unwearied care.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters" — or, as we have it in the margin, pastures of tender grass, and waters of quietness. He thus provides suited blessings — needed sustenance, and rest and refreshment. But even this fails to convey the richness and bounty of the provision which He makes for His flock. The pastures are — pastures of tender grass, on which the sheep feed with appetite and delight, until they are satisfied; and when they are satisfied — as with marrow and fatness — they lie down by the cool and refreshing waters of quietness. As it is said in John 10 — "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (ver. 9). What unfolding of the heart of the Shepherd — ministering thus to the need of His own, watching over them to minister to all their necessities. Happy are the sheep who are placed under such constant, loving, and faithful care!

"He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake" (Ps. 23: 3). As a hymn says -

"If e'er I go astray,

He doth my soul restore."

This belongs here also to His office of Shepherd. We need not say that the foundation on which He does this is His own finished work — the propitiation which He has made for our sins (1 John 2: 1, 2). But in the psalm this restoration is looked at as effected by the Shepherd. The sheep wanders, goes astray, and the Shepherd goes after that which is lost, and finding, brings it safely back. Every sheep is thus under His eye, and cannot stray without His knowledge; and when any of us have strayed, we surely should have perished, if He had not followed after, and drawn us back again by the ministrations of His love.

And just as we are indebted to Him for restoration, so also for being kept and guided into right paths — paths of righteousness — paths which are according to His own will. Mark, moreover, that He so leads us "for His name's sake." It is again — it cannot be repeated too often — what He is — on account of His own name; and therefore His own glory is concerned in guiding us into these paths of righteousness. We can thus ever plead with Him on this ground; and whenever we do so, our plea is irresistible. It was so with Joshua. When the Israelites were smitten, after the gin of Achan, before the men of Ai, Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, and pleaded with God; and the whole burden of his cry was at last expressed in the one question, "And what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?" (Joshua 7: 6-9). Rising to this height, the answer immediately came. Let it always, then, be remembered that the Lord is concerned for His own name's sake, to lead us in the path which is according to His will.

The Psalmist now waxes more bold. He has told us what Jehovah is, and what He does. This gives him confidence, and he is consequently able to say, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me" (Ps. 23: 4). The valley of the shadow of death is not so much passing through death, as the character of our pathway through this scene. We are passing through a judged world. Death hangs over it like a pall; and hence to the believer, who enters into God's thoughts about it, it is the valley of the shadow of death. But what is his antidote against fear? It is that "Thou art with me." This indeed is the source of all our security and blessing — the Lord is with us. And being with us, we have His rod and His staff to comfort us — His rod to direct, and His staff to support. Do we sufficiently enter into this? Is it as constantly present to our souls as it should be — that the Lord is with us? and that His rod and His staff comfort us? The scene may be never so dark and desolate, and we may be never so weak and weary, but we have boundless resources in the One who is our Shepherd — His own presence to cheer our souls, and His rod and His staff to guide in perplexity, and to support in weakness. Blessed be His name!

We have now another feature, as well as another character, of blessing. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over" (ver. 5). It is not only that the path may lie through the valley of the shadow of death, but enemies are around. But He that is with us is all-sufficient for His difficulty. They may race, and seek to destroy, but, says David, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." He will be the sustenance of His people, and cause their enemies to see that they are upheld, sustained, and provided for, by the Lord. As the apostle writes, "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me" (Heb. 13: 5, 6). But we have more; "Thou anointest my head with oil" — the unction of God — the Spirit of power; and. hence he adds, "My cup runneth over." Nothing is wanting; nay, he is filled to overflowing with goodness and mercy, and in such a scene as this. This is all the result of having the Lord as our Shepherd; for all flows from Him — from what He is to us in this relationship. And let it not be forgotten that this is our present portion. These are not blessings which we shall have, but blessings which we now have. How we narrow the heart of God by our unbelief! And hence our need of learning ever more of Himself, that we may understand more fully the immensity of His grace, and the riches of His provision for us, while passing through the wilderness. Surely we may say, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want! "

The conclusion is as simple as beautiful. "Surely goodness and mercy shall (not have followed, but shall) follow me all the days of my life." How do we know this? Because of what the Lord is as our Shepherd. It is confidence in Him, and the knowledge of what is suited to Him, that enables us thus to speak. And yet more — "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." All leads up to this. Blessed as we are now, and enjoying so much because of what Christ is to us as our Shepherd, we shall enter upon larger blessings and more perfect joys, when He shall return to receive us to Himself, and we shall be for ever with Him. But we must not miss the present application of the words. The effect of grace upon the heart is to draw us ever closer to Him from whom it flows, and to produce in us the desire to dwell in His house for ever — yea, to dwell before Him, and in His presence, everlastingly. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire (meditate) in His temple" (Ps. 27: 4). The heart is thus attracted to, and absorbed in the contemplation of, the One whose beauty had been unfolded in His ways of grace and love; and hence can find no rest or satisfaction except in the presence of its Object. All — every blessing — is concentred in Him, and, therefore, the soul that knows it desires to be always with Him. Happy are they who have learnt the lesson, that they want nothing outside of Christ; that He is enough their hearts and minds to fill!

May the Lord Himself unfold more and more to us of His beauty, as well as the unspeakable character of the blessings which are ours, because by grace we have been brought into relationship with Him as our Shepherd.

"I love the Shepherd's voice

His watchful eyes shall keep

My pilgrim soul among

The thousands of God's sheep.

He feeds His flock, He calls their names,

And gently leads the tender lambs."

CHAPTER 5.  CHRIST OUR LIFE.

WHEN the Lord Jesus came into the world, "darkness covered the earth, and thick darkness the people;" yea, the night of death prevailed throughout the whole globe. It was, to borrow the language of Job, in speaking of death, a land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness" (Job 10: 21, 22). For "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). There was, therefore, not a ray of light to relieve the total darkness of man's state and condition. Not only so, but Satan also reigned for through man's sin he had acquired rights over him, and thus held him in complete subjection to his will. He became, therefore, the prince of the world (John 12: 31). "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Gal.4: 4). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1: 1-4).

Christ, therefore, came into this scene of darkness, and at once there were two distinct moral spheres. Round about Him was darkness — the darkness of death; in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light and the darkness were thus in contact; for the light shone in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. But there was Christ, having life in Himself, and hence He was "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1: 9). It is true that few received it, but there was the light shining for every one, so that if any remained in darkness, it was because they did not turn their faces towards the light. "He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, ever to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1: 10-13). These only — as many as received Him — were illuminated, and being illuminated, they received life, for they were born of God.

During His earthly sojourn, Christ had life in Himself as the Son of God; and hence, "as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (John 5: 21). For, indeed, as John tells us, "The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1 John 1: 2); and as He Himself said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10: 10). Every one, therefore, who believed on Him then was quickened, even as the saints of the old dispensation were quickened — born again but "life more abundantly" could only be received after His death and resurrection; and hence the bestowal of everlasting life upon those who believe in the present dispensation is the fruit and consequence of His finished work. He Himself thus says, "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him" (John 17: 1, 2).

But why was it necessary that Christ should die to become the "Prince" of life (Acts 3: 15)? We have seen that death was the fruit — the wages of sin (Rom. 6: 23); and hence as long as the question of sin was undealt with, God's righteous claims upon man on account of it, unmet, unsatisfied, death must continue to reign. Man had incurred the penalty and consequences of his deeds, and must lie under both the one and the other until he should be redeemed, until there should be found One qualified, able, and willing, to take up his case and settle it with God. Christ was that One — the Lamb of God's providing — "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29). He came, and by His death met all God's claims upon the sinner, for He went down under all the wrath that was the sinner's righteous due; and in the very place, and concerning the question of man's sin, made a full and perfect atonement, and so glorified God that God, in token of His satisfaction with His work, has raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heaven. Now, therefore, He is the Living One, death has no more dominion over Him, and He can bestow eternal life upon all that come unto Him. "Therefore as by the offence of one (one offence) judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one (one righteousness) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (Rom. 5: 18). It was God's holiness that made it necessary for Christ — being in the place which He occupied through grace — to die on the cross for sin; so that on the foundation of the expiation which He there accomplished, God can now righteously justify, and bring from death to life, every believer. There is no life, therefore, excepting, in and through Christ. Hence, John can say, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3: 36).

This scripture supplies us also with the means by which life is received. It is by faith alone. Hence our Lord says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him (πιστεύων τῷ πέμψαντί με — believeth Him that sent Me) that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (κρίσιν — judgment); but is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24). Herein is displayed the grace of God. We had reaped the wages of our sin — death; we were dead in sins, and must for ever have continued under the penalty and the consequences of such a condition. But God was rich in mercy — and acting according to His own nature, from His own heart, commanded His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And now while the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. It is His free — His gratuitous and blessed — gift to every one that receives His testimony, concerning the sinner, and concerning His Son. He has provided life — life out of death — and this life is free to every one who believes. "This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son, hath life and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life (1 John 5: 11, 12).

We thus see that every believer has eternal life. But it should be carefully observed that he is never said to have it in himself. There are two negative statements which have led some to make the inference; but an inference, even when rightly drawn, is not the Word of God. Thus our Lord speaking to the Jews said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you" (John 6: 53); and John says, "Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3: 15). These passages, however, must not be taken as signifying anything beyond the denial of the possession of eternal life on the part of those spoken of, for the representation of scripture, as in the passage already cited, is that "this life is in His Son." Having eternal life, we have it, therefore, only in Christ. Christ is in us — but this again is another aspect of truth — and having Christ we have eternal life; for it is Christ who is our life. But when speaking of eternal life, it is never said to be in ourselves, but always in "His Son." It is this fact which guarantees to us its absolute security, assures us that it can never be lost, for whoever would rob us of it, must first pluck us out of His hands; nay more, must pluck Him from His seat at the right hand of God.

Christ is our life. We may trace this truth a little further — or indicate some of its consequences.

(1) Our life is not here. This, indeed, is the statement of the apostle. "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3: 3). He has just been pointing out our responsibilities as connected with our being dead and risen with Christ. As dead with Him, we are not to act as alive in the world (Col. 2: 20). We follow the order of Christ. He has died out of this scene, has no present place in it; He is, as far as this world is concerned, a dead man. We, therefore, commence our Christian life by taking the place of death. We are buried with Christ in baptism (Col. 2: 12), and God's estimate of us is that we are dead. Hence our responsibility to walk accordingly, to mortify our members which are upon the earth, etc. (Col. 3: 5). Scripture teaches us that God has so completely associated us with Christ, that He counts us with Him as dead to sin (Rom. 6); dead to law (Rom. 7); and dead to the world (Gal. 6); and hence faith accepts His estimate as true. We have been brought through the death and resurrection of Christ out of this scene into a new place — so completely, that it can be said of us, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8: 9). Our life, therefore, is not here; it cannot be, for we are dead; but it is hid with Christ in God.

How blessed for us if we did but accept the full consequences of this truth! What an immense gain if we only started on the Christian life by accepting death upon all that we are by nature, and upon all around us! How it would lift us up out of our circumstances, if we looked steadfastly away from all that we see, up to where Christ is, and remembered that our life is there; that He is our life! What power it would give us over the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life! What a testimony would thus be borne by us to the claims of a Christ once rejected, but now glorified! We need to judge ourselves in these things, for we shall find that the secret of much of our weakness and failure lies in seeking our life in things of this world. But as the apostle teaches, if we are risen with Christ, we are to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. We are to have our minds (τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε) on things above, and not on things on the earth (Col. 3: 1, 2). That is, we should dwell, be occupied with, delight in the place to which we belong. Hence the exceeding importance of knowing our place, that we are dead and risen with Christ; for otherwise, we cannot say, this is not our rest; that we have no part in the scene through which we are passing; that our life is above. When an Englishman is living for a season in a foreign land, he has no interest in the place of his exile: his thoughts, his interests, and his associations — in other words, his life — are all connected with his home. So should it be with the believer. Having died and risen with Christ, all his "life-associations" should be connected with the place into which he has been brought; even as Paul says, "Our conversation (πολίτευμα) is in heaven; whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3: 20). Only then — when this truth is accepted — shall we know the joy of continual occupation with Christ. And, it may be added, the object of all God's dealings with us now is to bring us under the power of this truth. If we will find our life in things down here, He must bring in death upon them, and thus lead us through many a grief and bitter sorrow, that He may teach us for His own glory, and our blessing, that Christ — and Christ alone — is the life of His people. As one of old has said, "He often dims the brightness of this scene that we may behold the glory beyond;" and the place of the glory beyond is where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

(2) Since Christ is our life, it is that life — Christ — that we have to reveal as we pass through this scene. Indeed, we have no other. Hence Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20). There are three stages plainly marked in Scripture: first, "Ye are dead" — this is God's estimate; secondly, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead" (Rom. 6: 11), etc.; by faith we are to count ourselves dead, according to God's estimate; and thirdly, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4: 10). These bodies of ours — once the instruments and servants of sin — God in His grace has now taken up that they may become the medium for the display of Christ.

This, then, is the whole of our responsibility — to express Christ in all that we are and do — since He is our life. This involves the bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, the constant application of the cross, — symbol of the power of death — to all that we are as natural men, that nothing of self in any way, nothing of mere nature, but only that which is of Christ, may be exhibited. Every one — at least every one who knows the evil and incurable character of the corruption of the flesh — understands that the flesh must not be permitted to have its way. If we are irritated — lose our temper — for example, we can all see that we have failed, and are ready to judge ourselves for it in the presence of God. But it is not every one who perceives that mere nature has to be kept under the application of the cross, as well as these evil forms of the flesh. And yet, if it is only the life of Jesus that is to be manifested, it is patent that nothing of what I am must be seen, or the presentation of Christ would be confused and obscured. Surely we need greater watchfulness in this respect; for how often, in our leisure moments, in our intercourse even with saints, we display far more of our natural characteristics than of Christ. We meet and converse, and sometimes it will be that, while the intercourse is nothing but pleasure, when we examine it, in the light of such a responsibility as this, we have to confess that it was ourselves that were prominent, and not Christ. The geniality, humour, and wit did not savour of Him, but of ourselves; and thus we failed — failed in the one object for which we have been redeemed and brought to God.

It is true that to meet such a responsibility will need incessant watchfulness, and unwavering fidelity. This is what the apostle says, ALWAYS bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus. Our seasons of relaxation are our special times of danger. We so often forget that our loins — if the figure may for a moment be changed — must always be girded, that having taken to ourselves the whole armour of God, and having done all, we have still to stand. And at the same time we must learn to be unsparing in self-judgment. Too often we are like Saul who reserved the best of the flocks and herds, under the pretext that they were for the Lord's service. No; nothing must be spared; but everything connected with me, as a natural man — all of self, flesh, and nature (we use the three terms that nothing may escape), must be kept under the cross — in the place of death. Then, and then only, will Christ shine forth. It is to accomplish this end that God has to deal so severely oftentimes with us; for the earthen vessels must be broken, if the light within is to shine forth.

Where, does any one inquire, is the power to meet this responsibility? It is only to be found in being occupied with Christ in glory. "We all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). Being thus transformed, likeness to Christ will beam forth; we shall reflect the glory by which we are changed.

It is, therefore, not to be regarded as a mere figure of speech when we are told that we have been crucified with Christ; that we have put off the old man, and put on the new, etc. These things are solemn realities before God; and should be no less real to us — the foundation, indeed, of our place and blessing in Christ. We ourselves, then — all that we were by nature, as men in the flesh — are gone in the cross of Christ. Christ only remains; and He is our life; and He only is to be revealed through us in our walk and conversation. How inestimable the honour thus conferred upon us! And if we have any fellowship with God's delight in Christ, how we shall praise Him in that He has made such as we the vehicles for the presentation of His Christ in this dark world!

(3.) Christ is our life; and this will by and by be displayed. This is the point of the scripture referred to: "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in. God. When Christ [who is] our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 3, 4). The life is hidden now, but when Christ shall appear, it will be publicly displayed — and that with Christ in glory. There are, however, two steps in this process, to each of which a few words may be given.

First, this involves the resurrection — or change of our bodies. For so great is the power of life in Christ risen that the bodies of His saints, whether living or in the grave, will be changed so as to lose every trace of their mortality. Hence the apostle, speaking of the resurrection of believers, says: "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15: 53, 54). Victorious life — flowing from Christ — will reign supreme; and thus will our redemption be consummated. Our Lord Himself was the first to announce this blessed truth. Speaking to Martha, He said, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" (John 11: 25, 26). He thus distinguished the two classes of saints — those who shall have died before, and those who should be living at, His return. The former shall be raised and the latter shall not die — according to that word of the apostle's, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 51; see also 1 Thess. 4: 13-18). It was this prospect that lifted the apostle above all the circumstances by which he was surrounded. "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day;" and after pointing out the relation of the present light affliction to the future weight of glory, while looking at the things which are eternal, he says, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (2 Cor. 5: 1-4). As one has beautifully said, "He saw in Christ glorified a power of life capable of swallowing up and annihilating every trace of mortality, for the fact that Christ was on high in the glory was the results of this power, and at the same time the manifestation of the heavenly portion that belonged to them that were His. Therefore the apostle desired not to be unclothed but clothed upon, and that that which was mortal in him should be absorbed by life, that the mortality that characterised his earthly human nature should disappear before the power of life which he saw in Jesus, and which was his life, that power was such that there was no need to die."

The time of this consummation is when the Lord returns to receive us unto Himself. This is definitively stated in 1 Thess. 4, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (vers. 16, 17). It is then that He will "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3: 21).

The results, therefore, of Christ being our life will not be reached until the resurrection morning. Now we can rejoice in the knowledge that we have eternal life, and that, having it in Christ, it is ours for ever; but then we shall lose all trace both of mortality and corruption, for life and incorruptibility (ἀφθαρσία) have both been brought to light in the Gospel (2 Tim. 1: 10). Into the full character of this we can now but feebly enter; and yet it is permitted us to raise our eyes to where Christ is, to see Him glorified, to know that having died, He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him; and, as we behold Him, we are warranted by the Word of God to say, We shall be like Him; we shall share in all the fulness of life which is in Him; for God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Surely as it is all of grace, to God alone belongs all the praise!

Secondly, there will be, as already said, the display of this life together with Christ in glory. This is the perfect contrast to our present condition, and is several times brought out, in other aspects, in the Scriptures. "Beloved," writes John, "now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear (or, it is not yet manifested) what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear (or, when He is manifested), we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3: 2). This will be the utter reversal of our present seen condition. We are now God's children; but then it will be displayed that we are, in that we are like Christ. So also it is death now as far as this world is concerned: God says that we are dead, and we reckon ourselves to be so. But then — when we appear with Christ in glory, it will be displayed that He is our life, and that we are one with Him in that eternal life. Then we shall reign in life by One — Jesus Christ (Rom. 5: 17).

Nor will the relationship be ever changed. As Christ is our life now, so will He be throughout eternity. Evermore we shall be able to say, With Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light we shall see light. Then all tears will have been wiped away, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things will have passed away (Rev. 21: 4). For death, the last enemy, will ere this have beer. destroyed; and hence there will be for every saint of God the constant, perpetual, unhindered enjoyment of the power of that life "more abundantly," which he receives through Him who has died, risen again, and is now alive for evermore. What a contrast to our present circumstances! Death is upon the whole scene; and we have to bear always about the dying of Jesus. It is death, therefore, upon ourselves as well as upon all around. Then it will be life, and nothing but life, and life for evermore!

"Fair the scene that lies before me;

Life eternal Jesus gives;

While He waves His banner o'er me,

Peace and joy my soul receives:

Sure His promise!

I shall live because He lives."

CHAPTER 6.  CHRIST OUR FOOD.

ANOTHER character in which Christ is brought before us is that of our food. This was foreshadowed in the Levitical economy; for the priests received the most minute and precise instructions concerning feeding upon the sacrifices, or parts of the sacrifices (see Lev. 7). But there were differences. In some cases the whole priestly family were admitted to the privilege (Lev. 6: 18; Lev. 7: 6, etc.); and it is in these that we specially see the privilege of believers now of feeding upon Christ. Our Lord Himself refers to the subject during His life. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man shall eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me," etc. (John 6: 51-57).

We have in this scripture, "eating the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinking His blood," and "eating" Christ Himself; and combining this with other scriptures, we are said — speaking generally — to feed upon Christ in three characters: as the Passover Lamb, as the Manna, and as the Old Corn of the land; for it need scarcely be said that all these things are types of Christ. In the scripture cited from John's Gospel, we have Christ especially as the Manna (ver. 32, 33, 48-50, etc.); and a reference to Him also as the Passover Lamb (compare 4th ver. with ver. 53, etc.); but we shall have to turn to the Epistles to find Him in the character which answers to the Old Corn of the land (Joshua 5: 11).

(1) We will consider Christ, first, as the Passover Lamb, as the food for His people. If we go back to the history of Israel, we shall find that they kept the Passover in Egypt (Ex. 12), in the wilderness (Num. 9), and in the land (Joshua 5). The question then arises, When do we feed upon Christ as the Passover Lamb? It is sometimes said that we only do this at the outset, when, convicted of sin, we fear the approach of God as a Judge; and that as soon as we have deliverance, we thereafter cease to feed upon Him in this character. If this be so, why does Israel keep the Passover both in the wilderness and in the land? I think, therefore, that it will be seen that we never cease to keep the Passover; and, moreover, that the place in which we thus feed upon Christ depends upon our state of soul.

Every believer knows what it is (has known what it is) to feed upon the roast lamb in Egypt. Awakened by the Spirit of God, alarmed by the impending judgment, brought under the shelter of the precious blood, how eagerly we fed upon the Lamb that had passed through the fires of God's holiness when bearing our sins on the tree! True, it was with bitter herbs that we ate it, for we then had a sight of our sins — in measure according to God; and with girded loins, and shoes on our feet, and our staff in our hand, for already Egypt had become morally a desert, and we were only waiting for the word of the Lord to commence our pilgrim journey. It was a time much to be remembered, for it was the beginning of months — the first month of the year of our spiritual life.

But while every believer has passed through this experience, it is to be feared that many feed upon the roast lamb in Egypt all their lives. Not knowing deliverance through the death and resurrection of Christ, or even peace with God as the result of the sheltering blood, they feed upon Christ only as the One who by His death bars the way to God as a Judge; and consequently they do not know God as their God and Father in Christ Jesus. Such a state of soul is both to be deprecated and deplored; for it is the result either of bad teaching, or of the unbelief of the heart in the fulness of the grace of God.

Passing now from Egypt, the next place in which Israel kept the Passover was the wilderness; and they were told to keep it there "according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof" (Num. 9: 3). The wilderness is the place of every believer when viewed as a pilgrim. The world has become a desert to him, and he is passing through (as not of) it, because he is waiting for the return of his Lord. How then does he feed upon Christ as the slain Lamb in the wilderness? "It is participation by grace in the power of the death and resurrection of Christ," by which we have been brought out of the enemy's territory — delivered from the power of Satan and redeemed unto God. In the wilderness we feed upon the Passover as the memorial of our deliverance from Egypt; and in it we see Christ going down into death, and not only bearing all the judgment that was our due — going through and exhausting it, but also as meeting and conquering all the power of the enemy — destroying him that had the power of death, and thereby bringing us out from the house of bondage, and setting us free as the children, and for the service, of God. In the wilderness, therefore, we feed upon the Passover Lamb as pilgrims and strangers — knowing deliverance, but not as yet come to the land of which the Lord has spoken. Hence in this character we not only value (according to our faith) the precious blood, and delight to contemplate its wondrous efficacy as clearing us for ever from every charge and claim of the enemy, but we also feed upon the death of Christ as such, because of our death (and resurrection) in Him, by which we have been brought out into a new place, where we can look back upon death and judgment as being for ever behind us.

In the land the Passover assumed another character still, and one too which should also find its correspondence with the believer now. It is very evident that to the Israelite it would have a much fuller significance when he was across the Jordan than when he was in the desert. It would be to him now the memorial, not simply of deliverance from Egypt and Egypt's thraldom and power, but of accomplished salvation. For in truth his position in the land, while it was to the glory of God's faithfulness and grace in the performance of all that He had promised ("for there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel: all came to pass," Joshua 21: 45), was the consequence of the shed blood. In other words, the blood of the Passover lamb laid the foundation for the accomplishment of God's purposes; and hence, to those whose eyes were opened, the blood would have a far greater value when over the Jordan than when in the waste howling wilderness.

So now. For we have a position which agrees entirely with being in the land; for not only have we been quickened together with Christ, but we are also raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2). This is the place before God of every believer; but whether we are occupying it depends upon whether we know death and resurrection with, as well as in and through, Christ; whether we have crossed the Jordan as well as the Red Sea. It is our privilege to do so: indeed, we ought never to be content until, by the grace of God, we do know what it is to be seated in spirit in the heavenly places. But if we are there, we cannot dispense with the Passover. On the other hand, the more fully we apprehend the character of the place into which we are brought, the more the riches of the grace of God are unfolded to us, the more delightedly, and with enlarged apprehensions, we shall look back to the cross, and feast upon the death of Him whose precious blood alone has made our place in the heavenlies possible for us. But our feeding upon Him now will partake more of the character of communion with God in the death of His Son. Our eyes will then be opened to discover, not so much the blessings which have thereby been secured to us, as that God in every attribute of His character has been fully glorified in that death. We shall thus (if we may so speak) feast with God when we keep the Passover in the heavenly places; and the effect on our souls will be adoration and praise: in a word, worship of the highest character will be the result of our feeding upon the slain Lamb when seated in the heavenlies. For we are seated there in peace before God — already in possession of our place in His presence; and it is only then that we can have communion with His own thoughts, and with His own joy in the death of His Son.

We see, therefore, that we feed upon Christ as the Passover Lamb in every stage of our experience; but the place in which we do so — Egypt, the wilderness, or the land — will depend upon our states of soul. And no doubt, when we are gathered together to show the Lord's death until He come, there are often side by side those who are in the wilderness and those who are in the land. Still they feed alike upon the death of Christ, remember Him as dead, whatever the difference in their apprehensions, or in their experiences or attainments. In heaven itself, indeed, we shall contemplate that death with ever-increasing adoration; for the blood of the Lamb will be the theme of glorified saints throughout eternity.

(2) Christ as the Manna is also the food of His people. The manna differs from the roast lamb in that it was confined to the wilderness. It was not until Israel had been brought through the Red Sea that the manna was given (see (Ex. 16); and it "ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year" (Joshua 5: 12). It was, therefore, the wilderness food of Israel; and in like manner Christ, as the Manna, is the wilderness food for the believer. But a distinction has to be made. Inasmuch as the history of Israel, passing through the desert, crossing the Jordan, and occupying the land, is typical, they could only be in one place at a time. The believer is at the same moment in the wilderness and in the heavenlies. For service, for the expression of Christ down here, viewed as a pilgrim, waiting for the return of the Lord, he is in the desert; his position before God, as united to a glorified Christ, is ever in the heavenly places — whether he occupies it, is another question. Hence, supposing him to know his place, he needs the Manna and the Old Corn at the same time. In other words, he needs to feed upon Christ in both aspects. He is never in Egypt, whatever his experiences; for that would be to deny the truth of his deliverance through the death and resurrection of Christ. A quickened soul may be in Egypt, but a believer — meaning by this term one who has been brought into the true Christian place by the indwelling Spirit — has done for ever with Egypt; for the world has become to him a moral wilderness; and it is as being in the wilderness that he feeds upon Christ as the Manna.

What, then, is the Manna for the believer? It is Christ in incarnation — a humbled Christ. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses give you not that bread from heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6: 32, 33, 49-51). Christ is thus the Manna in all that He was in the flesh — in the expression of what He was both as the revealer of the Father and as the perfect man. His grace, compassion, sympathy, tenderness, and love — His meekness and lowliness of heart — His patience, forbearance, and long-suffering — His example — all these things are found in the Manna which God has given to us for food during our sojourn in the wilderness.

He is continually presented to us in the Manna-character in those epistles which especially deal with the desert-path of the saint. "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Heb. 12: 1-3). That is, we are exhorted to feed upon Christ as the manna to sustain us amid the trials, difficulties, and persecutions incident to the desert. In like manner Peter, who writes particularly "to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus," etc., continually leads us to Christ in this aspect. "What glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving its an example, that ye should follow His steps," etc. (1 Peter 2: 20-24; see also 1 Peter 3: 17, 18). The Apostle Paul, too, feeds the saints with manna. For example, though it contains more, we have it in Philippians 2: 5-9 — manna, we might say, of the most precious character. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." But it is in the Gospels that the manna lies gleaming round us on every side, and where it is to be gathered for use as the needs of each day may require. For there it is that we have the unfoldings of that wondrous life — the life of Him who was the Perfect Man, and, at the same time, God manifest in flesh.

Two remarks, however, may be made as to the collecting and use of the manna. The Israelites went out of the camp to gather at a certain rate every day (Ex. 16: 4). We must go down for the same purpose. That is, unless we know our place in the heavenlies, and in truth what it is to feed upon the old corn of the land, we shall scarcely be able to feed upon the manna. This is remarkably brought out in the Apostle Paul's ministry: he began with Christ in glory. So must it be with us. When we know our union with a glorified Christ, our place in Him before God, we shall feast with intensified delight upon Christ as the manna. Historically the manna came before the old corn, but the order should be reversed for the believer — for the simple reason that God has so reversed it in the presentation of Christ to our souls. We preach, as Paul did, a Christ in glory; and when He is thus apprehended, then, and not until then, we can find in a humbled Christ our food while in the wilderness. Hence the great loss, and consequent weakness, of those who are never permitted to hear of Christ in glory; whose only thought of Him is as once dwelling down here in the flesh, when He was made in the likeness of men.

The second remark is the very obvious and often-repeated one, that the manna cannot be stored for use. Every one must gather it every day according to his eating (Ex. 16: 16); and if he gather more — unless it be for "the Sabbath" — it will surely become corrupt. No, beloved friends, there must be the constant feeding upon Christ, day by day, and hour by hour; and we can never receive more than our need for the time requires. Thereby we are kept in continual dependence, and our eyes are ever directed to Christ.

As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me" (John 6: 5 7).

(3) There remains to be considered Christ as the Old Corn of the land. In the passage already referred to (Joshua 5: 10-12), we have the Passover, the manna, and the old corn mentioned together, and this fact makes the interpretation the more manifest. If, therefore, the manna is Christ in incarnation, the old corn, inasmuch as the land typifies the heavenly places, of necessity points to Christ in glory. And we shall find that He is so presented to us in the epistles as the sustenance and strength of our souls, and so presented as our proper nourishment, even though believers may be regarded in the epistles, not, as in the Ephesians, as seated in the heavenlies in Christ, but, as in Colossians and Philippians (and indeed in 2 Corinthians), as down here upon the earth; for though still down here, they are united to Him where He is.

Take Colossians first. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which tre above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection [have your mind] on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3: 1-3). Here it is true we have "the things which are above;" but it is evident that by this term is meant the whole sphere of blessing, of which Christ in glory is the centre — the spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in fact, into the possession of which we are brought, and all of which are summed up in Christ. These therefore are "the old corn of the land," "the fruit of the land of Canaan," the proper food and sustenance for those who have died and are risen with Christ.

In Philippians 3 we have the same truth brought before us. For what have we there but a glorified Christ as filling the vision of the Apostle's soul, and as the satisfying portion of his heart? Thus if we have the manna in chapter 2, we most surely have the old corn of the land in chapter 3. One more instance may be cited (2 Cor. 3: 18): "We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." Hence, too, the value of the constant expectation of Christ. It attracts us to the person of the glorified Christ, engages our hearts with Him, and fills our souls with longing desires for that time when we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2).

All these passages, and many more of a kindred character, direct us to Christ in glory as the old corn of the land; but this is food with which we cannot disperse: no other will so nourish or impart such strength to the saint. It is heavenly food for heavenly people; and it is only when we are feeding upon it that we can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might; that we can make war with the enemy for the possession (the occupation) of our inheritance; that we are made willing to undergo anything and everything — fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, being made conformable unto His death, if in any way we may arrive at the resurrection from among the dead (Phil. 3), when we shall be glorified together with Him who has been the strength and sustenance of our souls.

It should be remarked, too, that there is no power to express Christ in our walk down here excepting as we are occupied with Him in glory.* He should thus be, in this character, ever before us; and He will be when, taught of the Spirit, we can say to Him, "All our springs, all the sources of our joy, are in Thee." And He Himself desires this; for He said to His disciples, when speaking of the coming Spirit of Truth, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16: 14, 15).

*See chapter 10 for further instruction on this subject.

Feeding upon, occupation with, Christ is, therefore, the Alpha and the Omega of the Christian life; occupation with His death — that death which laid the foundation not only of our own redemption and deliverance, but also of the reconciliation of all thins; occupation with Him in incarnation, when, though He were the Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, when, as the obedient and dependent Man, He found His meat in doing the Father's will and in finishing His work, and thus glorified God in every detail of that wondrous life; and, above all, occupation with Him in the glory — as the glorified Man — the centre of all God's counsels, and the object of all His delight; yea, the satisfying portion of His heart. It is thus by occupation with, feeding upon, contemplating Christ, that we are brought, in the power of the Spirit, into fellowship with God; enabled to enter into His own thoughts concerning, and even to share His own affections for, that blessed One who is now seated at His own right hand. Surely here, then, is the source of all growth, strength, and blessing! Satan knows this, and hence he is incessantly engaged in seeking to occupy us with other things, to turn us aside to earthly sources and objects. It believes us, therefore, to be watchful, to maintain exercised hearts and consciences, that we may at once detect, and unsparingly judge, everything which would decoy our souls from the contemplation of Christ.

Blessed Lord Jesus! keep Thyself so constantly before our souls, and so unfold Thyself in all Thy grace and beauty to our hearts, that, drawing out our affections, we may desire to have nothing, to see nothing and to know nothing, but Thyself; for in Thee dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Thee.

"Soon shall my eyes behold Thee

With rapture face to face;

One half hath not been told me

Of all Thy power and grace.

Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,

The wonders of Thy love,

Shall be the endless story

Of all Thy saints above."

CHAPTER 7.  CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST.

THE priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ was strikingly foreshadowed in many particulars, albeit of another order, by that of Aaron. Thus in his consecration we find that in one point he is made to differ from his sons. Together they were washed with water, and then, after putting the priestly garments upon Aaron, Moses "poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him" (Lev. 8: 6- 12). When alone — apart from his sons — he is anointed without blood; while afterwards, together with his sons, the sprinkling of the blood preceded the anointing oil (vers. 13-30). The reason of the difference is evident. Aaron together with his sons prefigures the Church as the priestly family; but Aaron alone is a type of Christ; and hence his anointing without the blood, to set forth the truth that his great Antitype was "harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," and needed not, therefore, the blood, seeing that He was without spot or blemish, that He was holy before God.

But in one respect it was impossible for Aaron to adumbrate Christ. Having been washed with water, he was made a figure of His purity; but he could not — except officially — prefigure His personal dignity.

Accordingly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and where the subject of the Lord's priesthood is specially exhibited, the first thing to which our attention is directed is the dignity of His person. The epistle opens with it: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" (ver. 1); and then we have a long list of His personal glories detailed. He is Son, Heir, and Creator (ver. 2); then He is the brightness of the glory, and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power; the One who, having by Himself purged our sins, has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Compared with angels, He is shown to have obtained by inheritance a more excellent name than they; to be the Son — the First-begotten. To Him, as God, is said to belong the eternal throne of righteousness; He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows; thereon His unchangeable divinity as Creator of all things is indicated, and His place at the right hand of God, while waiting until His enemies be made His footstool. In the next chapter He is set forth as Son of Man — the heir of all things; as Jesus made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; then, as suited to the glory of God, as the Captain of the salvation of His people, made perfect through sufferings; taking part in flesh and blood; in all things made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation ( ἱλάσκεσθα) for the sins of the people.

Such is the wonderful character of the person of our High Priest. He is God; and He is man; and therefore when the angels, Moses, Joshua, and Aaron, are brought into comparison with Him, they fade away and disappear before His surpassing glory. And surely a lesson is hereby conveyed. We think much of the work and the office of our High Priest, and it is well that we should do so; but the first thing the Holy Ghost presents to our notice is His person. For, indeed, His qualification for, and His ability to execute, the office depend upon the character of His person. For had He not been God as well as man, He could not have made propitiation for the sins of the people; and had He not been man as well as God, He could not have through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage; nor indeed could He have been made perfect through sufferings (Heb. 2). It is His person, therefore, that gives security for His office; and hence the Spirit of God would assure and comfort our hearts by unfolding to us His distinctive glories and dignities, before directing us to the functions of His office as Priest.

The next point to be considered is — those for whom He acts as Priest. It is needful to be particular here; first, because it is a vital question, and, secondly, because there is so much confusion abroad respecting it. Many of the hymns, for example, in popular hymnbooks speak as if He were a Priest for all without exception! Is it so? Nothing could be further from the truth. The analogy with the Jewish priesthood should have prevented such a misconception, for Aaron executed the priest's office, not for all men, but only for the people of Israel, for those who had been brought into a distinct and known relationship with God. It is true that amongst these were those who had been born again, and those who were not; but this is not the point to be considered. The whole of Israel were a redeemed people; all alike had been brought out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea; and all, therefore, were typically saved. Hence Israel as such prefigures those who are now saved — the people of God on the earth; and consequently Christ only fulfils the office of Priest for believers, for those who are His. It is, in fact, for a redeemed people, though, as passing through the wilderness, like Israel of old, they are looked at as pilgrims and strangers, journeying on toward the rest of God. Thus in the very first chapter it is said, "When He had by Himself purged our sins" (ver. 3). Again, we are told that it "became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren," etc. (Heb. 2: 10, 11). These terms, which we have emphasized, define most distinctly the class for whom He acts; and we find also such descriptions as these: "Holy brethren," "partakers of the heavenly calling," those "that come unto God by Him" (Heb. 7: 25) — i.e., those that approach into the presence of God for worship — those who are entitled to access within the rent veil, into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10: 19-21). He thus discharges His office only for those who have been redeemed, who have been sanctified through the blood, whose sins are gone, and who, therefore, have no more conscience of sins; in a word, for the sanctified who have been perfected for ever by the one offering of Christ (Heb. 10: 1-14). There must be no mistake here; for it is only to deceive ourselves, and that in the most fatal way, if we think, as men so often teach, that we go to a priest to obtain the forgiveness of our sins. The Word of God never so teaches; the truth is, that we do not go to the priest at all, but we approach God, through the priest, on the ground that our sins have for ever been put away.

We may now glance at His special qualifications for the office. We have seen that had He not been God and man, He could not have fulfilled it; and now we propose to notice some other features which are brought before us in this epistle. We read, "And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but He that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him; called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5: 4-10).

The essential qualification of all from this scripture is His Divine appointment. No man taketh this honour unto himself; neither did Christ. And this fact is full of consolation to the believer — that He who acts as our Priest — the One through whom we approach God — has been appointed by God Himself; One, therefore, who is acceptable — yea, infinitely acceptable. This is one of the credentials of His office; and one, we may add, which destroys for ever the claims of any human priesthood. True all God's people are priests — they are an holy priesthood (1 Peter 2: 5); but if any claim to act as such on behalf of other believers, they must be able to prove their qualification to have received their office from God Himself. The blessed Lord Jesus did, and under circumstances of the greatest solemnity: for when contrasting His priesthood with the Levitical, the writer of this epistle says, "Those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7: 21). There are, in fact, three things here pointed out: as to His personal glory, He was the Son of God; in His official glory, He was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek; and the source of His office was in the Divine will.

But we now pass to another order of qualification, which He acquired in the days of His flesh, when He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Though He were Son of God, He was down here as man, and hence all this bitter experience to which allusion is made, when He offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, to Him that was able to save Him. In a former chapter, we are told that He suffered, being tempted (Heb. 2: 18); and again, that He was tempted in all points like as we are — sin apart (χωρὶς ἁμαρτἵας); but the reference here is primarily to His conflict in the garden of Gethsemane, when satan was pressing the power of death upon His soul, and when in spirit He went down into the deeps of death; and when, as a consequence, His anguish was so great that His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22: 44). He thus as man drank this bitter cup, and accordingly was tempted as we are — apart from sin; and thereby learned by His own experience what it was to suffer, being tempted, that He might be able to succour those that are tempted. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; for being the Son of God, He knew not what it was to obey until He took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2: 7, 8). All that He suffered, therefore, was in obedience: He was doing God's will (Heb. 10), and He did it perfectly, according to the perfection of God's thoughts. Hence when He cried, in His bitter sorrow, to Him that was able to save Him from death, He was heard in that He feared, or, on account of His piety (ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας): God responded to the cry of Him who thus glorified Him in His perfect obedience.

But the point here is, that, passing through this bitter sorrow and agony, in obedience to God's will, "He was made perfect." How? Not morally, seeing He was ever perfect — the One in whom was all God's delight; but He was made perfect as to qualification for His office, and so He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him, saluted of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. How blessed for us to know that He is, therefore, not one that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; that, by His experiences down here, He is enabled to enter into and sympathise with us in our weaknesses and sorrows, and that He consequently understands how to present our case before God, discerning exactly what we need. Those around may fail to understand, and disappoint us in withholding their sympathy; but He never, for He has trodden the same path, and knows every step of our way. Blessed be His Name!

Other qualifications — such as the efficacy of the sacrifice which He once offered, and the perpetuity of His priesthood (Heb. 7: 23, 24, 26, 27; Heb. 9: 24-28) — we may touch upon in another connection. What has been pointed out is sufficient to show how wondrously adapted our great High Priest is for the office which He fills for us in the presence of God.

The office — the work of His priesthood — will now occupy our attention. Two or three preliminary remarks will clear our way to this part of our subject. First, the scene of the exercise of His office is heaven, and not earth. We have already pointed out that, at the commencement of the epistle, He is shown as having sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1: 3). Again, "We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man;" and again, "If He were on earth, He should not be a Priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law" (Heb. 8: 1, 2, 4). But it is sometimes asked if He did not as Priest make propitiation for the sins of the people. It was the Priest; but this was only because what He was in Himself cannot be separated from what He did. It was no part of the priest's office to slay the victim, and hence we may say that this was not a priestly act on the part of Christ, though He was the Priest that did it. The passages above cited make it very plain, that it was not until He had sat down on high, that He really commenced the work of His priesthood.

Secondly, He is a Priest, as we have seen, after the order of Melchizedek. But the Melchizedek priesthood has relation to the millennium, as the name itself imports — "First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace" (Heb. 7: 2). It is not, therefore, until our Lord leaves His present place at the right hand of God — not, indeed, until after He shall have come for His saints, and returns with them, and comes forth in the characters of King of righteousness (the true David) and the King of peace (the true Solomon), that He will enter upon the functions of the Melchizedek priesthood. The order of His priesthood remains, but throughout the present interval of grace, during the present dispensation, while He remains inside the rent veil, His present service as Priest corresponds rather with that of Aaron.

One other preliminary remark remains. The foundation of His priesthood lies in the one sacrifice which He has offered. Having "by Himself purged our sins, He sat down," etc. (Heb. 1: 3). "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself" (Heb. 7: 27). "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9: 12). His intercession, therefore, as the Priest is based upon the everlasting virtue and efficacy of that one oblation which He offered upon the cross. CONSEQUENTLY AS PRIEST HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR SINS. This is a point as important as it is undeniable. It is important as cutting away the whole foundation on which human, ecclesiastical sacerdotalism rests. The office of the Romish or the Anglican priest were obsolete if it were dissevered from the question of sins; and yet there is nothing clearer, from the teaching of this whole epistle to the Hebrews, than that Christ as Priest has no connection with sins. Thus, He had purged our sins before He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He made propitiation for the sins of the people before He entered upon the office (Heb. 2: 17). He had obtained eternal redemption before He entered into the holy place (Heb. 9: 12). He was once offered to bear the sins of many (Heb. 9: 28). Hence those who come (have access) unto God by Him are looked upon as having no more conscience of sins (mark, that it is not sin, but sins), as having been perfected for ever by His one offering, as those whose sins and iniquities are remembered no more (Heb. 10: 1-18). This, indeed, is a fundamental truth of Christianity, that the believer's sins are gone for ever from the view of God, on the ground that Christ once bore them, suffering for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3: 18). Having been expiated in the precious blood of Christ, they can never more be recalled; and thus we are qualified for access into God's presence, to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and to be inside the rent veil as worshippers (Heb. 10: 19-22); and it is for us as such, for only such, that Christ carries on the office of His priesthood.

Passing now to consider the actual work of the office, we remark: (1) That He is there before God on our behalf. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9: 24). He is our Representative before God. It was so with Aaron. We thus read, "And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. . . . And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial." And we have similar directions as to the breastplate. There were to be twelve stones in it, "and the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel . . . . . And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually" (Ex. 28: 9-29). In like manner, the Lord Jesus bears us on His breast, and on His shoulders in the presence of God — i.e., He upholds us thereby His intercession. The breast is an emblem of the affections, and the shoulders of strength; and we learn, therefore, that He has the ability — the strength — derived, indeed, from the prevailing, and ever-abiding efficacy of His sacrifice — and the heart to maintain us before God; and hence that His intercession for us is so effectual that we can well say -

"Our cause can never, never fail,

For Thou dost plead, and must prevail."

This is no small comfort to us as we are journeying onward through the desert — to look up and see our great High Priest ever bearing us up before God, and to remember in all our weakness and coldness that His strength and His affections are in exercise through His intercession on our behalf; and that, therefore, our cause is presented to God, not according to what we are, but according to all that He is.

What confidence this should impart to us — and will, when our eye is not on ourselves, but on our High Priest. Thus if a poor, sick, feeble believer should be tossed with doubt, under the temptation of Satan, because he can neither think nor pray, let him look upward, and recollect that though he cannot pray, Christ has undertaken his case, and, even while he himself is doubting, is engaged in intercession on his behalf. Oh! it is sweet beyond expression to know that I am borne on the heart and shoulders of Christ — a heart of such love that the many waters could not drown, nor the floods quench it, and shoulders of such strength that He upholds all things even by the word of His power. And the very fact of His presence before God on our behalf is the everlasting witness that our sins are for ever gone.

(2.) It is through the action of Christ as our High Priest, that we obtain mercy at the throne of grace, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4: 16). The High Priest, as pointed out, is in connection with a people in the wilderness (see Heb. 3 and 4); and we, therefore, looked at in relation with priesthood, are on our way to the rest of God, even as Israel were on their way to Canaan. While thus on our pilgrimage, God uses His Word to judge everything in our hearts that might lead us aside from the path of faith and induce us to seek a resting-place in the desert. Hence the apostle says, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that (God's) rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4: 11-13). This might deter us — and would, were we left to ourselves. "But there is another succour, one of a different character, to aid us in our passage through the wilderness; and that is priesthood. . . . We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens, as Aaron passed through the successive parts of the tabernacle — Jesus, the Son of God. He has in all things been tempted like ourselves, sin apart; so that He can sympathise with our infirmities. The Word brings to light the intents of the heart, judges the will, and all that has not God for its object and its source. Then, as far as weakness is concerned, we have His sympathy. Christ of course had no evil desires. He was tempted in every way apart from sin. Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with the sin that is in me; I detest it, I wish it to be mortified — judged unsparingly. This the Word does. For my weakness and my difficulties I seek sympathy, and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus." Having, therefore, such an High Priest — One who Himself suffered, being tempted, and One, therefore, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities — we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, to receive mercy, and to find grace to help in time of need — for seasonable succour (εἰς εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν).

(3) We have access into God's presence by virtue of the efficacy of the blood of Christ, and also of His own presence there as our High Priest (Heb. 10: 19-22). We may say more; our place is inside the rent veil in virtue of that one sacrifice which has put away our sins for ever; and having an High Priest over the house of God, we can draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water (ver. 21, 22). The place where Christ is, is the place of our worship, and that is inside the rent veil; but we could not be there were it not that He is there as the High Priest, having obtained eternal redemption.

"By Him, our Sacrifice and Priest,

We pass within the veil."

(4) It is through Him is our Priest that our praise and adoration ascend to God. "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Heb. 13: 15). What an unspeakable mercy that we have such a Priest — One who knows how to separate the precious from the vile, and who, therefore, only permits that to come up before God which is acceptable to Him! Just as the priests of old had to examine every offering that was brought, and to reject any that were blemished, so that nothing could be burnt upon the altar which did not meet the Divine requirements, so Christ as our High Priest acts in regard to our sacrifices of praise. This is no small consolation as we remember our ignorance and weakness; for while we ought to possess priestly discernment ourselves, and while we should not extenuate our failure in presenting what is suitable to God, it is yet a gracious encouragement to us to know that nothing will come up before His throne but what is accepted and offered for us by our great High Priest. He knows how to apply the priestly knife, and to cast aside everything that God cannot receive. (See Lev. 1: 14-17)

(5) Once more, we may add that His continued presence before God as our High Priest is the assurance that we shall be brought through all our difficulties, be completely saved. "Wherefore He is able to save to the uttermost" (completely — all the way through — altogether — εἰς τὸ παντελὲς) "them that come (approach) unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7: 25). Having once died, He dieth no more; He is alive for ever; and hence He has an unchangeable priesthood. Having, therefore, undertaken our cause, He will never lay it down; and consequently, the perpetuity of His office, and His uninterrupted, effectual intercession afford us an absolute guarantee that we shall not perish in the wilderness that if Joshua did not give Israel rest — and there remaineth a rest for the people of God — the Lord Jesus, by means of His priesthood, since He has been victorious over death, and lives for evermore, will surely bring us into it.

We have now traced in outline the priesthood of Christ; and surely, as we meditate upon Him in this character and office, our hearts will be filled with adoring gratitude to God, in that He in His grace has made such wondrous provision for us while passing through the wilderness. He gave Israel a Moses, an Aaron, and a Joshua; but He has given us His own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person — an assurance to us, absolute and unqualified, that He will bring us into all the glory which He has purposed and secured for us in Christ.

What, then, should be the effect upon us of contemplating Christ as our High Priest? "Seeing, then," says the apostle, "that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" (or confession) (Heb. 4: 14). Again he says, "Let us hold fast the confession of the hope without wavering" (Heb. 10: 23); and he also speaks of Christ within the veil being our Hope, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Heb. 6: 18-20). The effect, therefore, should be to encourage us to confidence — confidence in Him — boldness, and perseverance. Christ is there before God as our High Priest; therefore let us hold fast, knowing that, spite of all our weakness and infirmities, and the strength, activity, and hostility of our foes, we shall be brought through all the perils of the wilderness into the possession and enjoyment of the everlasting rest of God.

"And though awhile He be

Hid from the eyes of men,

His people look to see

Their great High Priest again.

In brightest glory He will come,

And take His waiting people home,"

CHAPTER 8.  CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE.

FOR our knowledge of the advocacy of Christ we are entirely indebted to the First Epistle of John. Not that there are not shadows and figures of it; but we have nowhere else any direct statement concerning it. Paul speaks of Christ being at the right hand of God to make intercession for us (Rom. 8: 34); and no doubt the term "intercession" will cover both the advocacy and the priesthood; but he does not directly mention this office of Christ. It occupies, therefore, far less space in the Scriptures than the priesthood, which has the greater part of the Epistle to the Hebrews devoted to its exposition. It is not, on this account, an unimportant subject. So far, indeed, from this being the case, there is scarcely one that has more interest for, and demands more urgently the attention of, the children of God. For the advocacy of Christ is the provision which God in His grace has made for our daily sins. Thus, after bringing out the truth of our position in the light, as God is in the light — this being the place of every true believer — the apostle says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 1: 8 - 2: 1, 2).

Nothing, then, can be clearer than that the advocacy of Christ is exercised in relation to the sins of believers. In 1 John 1: 6, 7 we find the two classes contrasted — those who walk in darkness, those who are not saved, who have no fellowship with God, whatever their claims and pretensions, for He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (ver. 5); and those who had received the testimony of the apostles concerning "that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto" them, and thereby had been brought into fellowship with those who declared the message, and their fellowship was with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ (vers. 1-3). But if we have fellowship with God, "we walk in the light, as He is in the light our place or sphere is in the light — a thing which is true of every believer; and "we have fellowship one with another," for it is only in fellowship with the Father and the Son that we can have fellowship one with another, "and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

This last clause needs to be understood, or we cannot apprehend the nature of the advocacy of Christ. It does not mean, as is so often maintained, that the blood of Christ is constantly applied for the continual cleansing of the believer; that, in short, it is the blood which cleanses us from our daily sins. If it were so, what need of the advocacy? Besides, it would contradict the plain teaching of other scriptures. Thus in John 13 our Lord plainly taught Peter that being once washed (λελουμένος — bathed), he had no further need save to wash (νίψασθαι) his feet, but was clean every whit (καθαρὸς ὅλος) (John 13: 10). So also in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is directly said, "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10: 14). It is indeed a cardinal truth of Christianity, that every one who is brought by faith under the efficacy of the blood of Christ is for ever cleansed from guilt, and consequently that there can be no second application of the blood. This is the whole gist of the argument in Hebrews 9 and 10. We there read, that "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9: 24-26). This scripture shows the contrast between the repeated sacrifices of old, and the one sacrifice of Christ — between, therefore, the temporary efficacy of the former, and the everlasting efficacy of the latter. The consequence is, that the sins of those who are under the efficacy of the blood of Christ are for ever gone from the sight of God; for "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many" (Heb. 9: 28). Hence in the next chapter we find proof upon proof that there is no more remembrance of the sins of the believer; that now he has no more conscience of sins, since he has been perfected for ever by the one offering of Christ; and consequently the Holy Ghost testifies, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10: 1-17). It is essential for us to be clear upon this point; for in truth it is one of the fundamentals of our faith.

The truth, therefore, is that John does not speak of the application of the blood (for this were inconsistent with the truth of our having no more conscience of sins), but of its efficacy. Its characteristic is to cleanse from all sin, i.e., the blood has this property, just as we sometimes say, to borrow an illustration, Poison kills — this is the nature of poison. In like manner, the blood of Christ has the essential quality or property of cleansing from sin.

Thus understood, the connection is as beautiful as it is evident. "In the light as He is in the light." How, we might be tempted to exclaim is it possible to be there? Conscious of the defilements daily contracted, and of the sins into which we often fall, we might well shrink from the full blaze of the light of the holiness of God. Hence we are reminded that our fitness for such a place is solely, and wholly, due to the cleansing efficacy of the blood, and that that blood is ever there before the eye of God to answer every claim that might be urged against us.

"Though the restless foe accuses,

Sins recounting like a flood

Every charge our God refuses

Christ has answered with His blood."

Having then asserted the truth as to our place in the presence of God, the apostle now reminds us of our practical condition. We cannot say, "We have no sin," for that were to deceive ourselves, and to overlook the fact that sin is in us, though not on us, until we depart to be with Christ, or He comes to receive us unto Himself; for the old nature is, and remains, incurably evil and corrupt. "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," etc. (the bearing of this scripture will be explained farther on). Neither can we say that we have not sinned; if we did, we should make God a liar, for He says all have sinned, and His word therefore would not be in us. Thereon, the apostle proceeds, "My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not." There is therefore no necessity for the believer to sin. This truth must be tenaciously held, and urgently insisted upon. "But if any man sin, we have an Advocate;" and thereby the apostle shows, as before remarked, what God's provision is for the daily sins of His children. Its character, the method of its application, and its effect will be explained as we proceed with the subject.

The term "Advocate" is never applied to the Lord Jesus except in this scripture. He Himself applies it to the Holy Ghost. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever" (John 14: 16; also 26th ver.; and 15: 26; John 16: 7). The word here translated "Comforter" is the same as is rendered "Advocate" in John. It is παράκλητος — Paraclete in both cases. The word is very difficult to translate so as to preserve its full significance. The word "Advocate" seems to have been chosen, to set forth the fact that Christ is with the Father, charged with our interests, and entrusted with our cause, as One who has assumed the conduct of our case, to maintain our communion with the Father; and hence it is that, when we sin, He pleads for us, and secures for us that ministration of the word through the Spirit which brings about our self-judgment and confession, so that, in accordance with 1 John 1: 9, our sin may be forgiven and our communion be restored. Christ is our Paraclete (Advocate), in this sense, on high; and the Holy Ghost is our Paraclete (Comforter) down here, as dwelling within us, His actings being in relation to the actings of our Advocate with the Father; and He, therefore, being charged with our interests below, as Christ is above.

The difference between advocacy and priesthood is twofold. The Priest is with God; the Advocate is with the Father. The Advocate has to do with sin; the Priest with our infirmities (Heb. 4: 15) — never with sins. It is true that He has made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2: 17); and no doubt it was the Priest who did so — but not as a function of His office, rather because the character is inseparably connected with His person. The propitiation which He made (as indeed in the case of the advocacy) is the foundation on which He commences to exercise the office of the Priest. Hence Hebrews opens with, "When He had by Himself purged our sins, [He] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." It was, therefore, not until He had taken this place that He entered upon the functions of His office as Priest: if He were on earth He should not be a priest (Heb. 8: 4).

So with the Advocate. The proper exercise of this office commenced with His session at the right hand of God; and the foundation of its exercise is twofold — His work and His person. He is the propitiation for our sins — this is the ground, the efficacious basis, on which He is enabled to be our Advocate with the Father. And what a basis it is! It reminds us that He has for ever cleared away our sins, that the blood which He shed has been accepted by God as a full and complete atonement for all our guilt; that, therefore, it is a basis on which His intercession can never fail. But He is Jesus Christ the righteous; and thus we are reminded of what He is in Himself — the One who has met every claim of God, according to the standards of His own immutable holiness, glorified him in every attribute of His being; One, therefore, who answers completely to the perfection of His own nature — of that God who desires truth in the inward parts, and has found it in the Man who is at His own right hand. Both the person and the work, therefore, of Christ constitute for Him, as our Advocate, an irresistible claim upon God. Nay, this were not fully to express what is in the heart of God Himself. It is not enough to say that He cannot deny the plea of our Advocate; for surely His own heart rejoices to hear and to answer His intercession. for because of what Christ is, and has done, He call righteously — He is free to go out in righteousness, according to His own heart of love, and forgive when we confess our sins. Surely it will cheer our souls to remember this when overcome by the tempter.

There are two aspects of the work of Christ as our Advocate. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." This shows us its aspect toward God — that as our Advocate, as before explained, when we sin, He undertakes for us, and intercedes with the Father on our behalf. It is, therefore, not His presence alone that constitutes His advocacy, but rather His active intercession for us when we have fallen into sin. He has given us a sample and illustration of this in regard to Peter. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22: 31, 32). It is not forgotten that this scripture is often adduced in illustration of the priesthood, and in one aspect there is no objection to this; but, more strictly speaking, it connects itself with the advocacy, because it is spoken, not in respect of infirmity, but of Peter's sin. When we thus say, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father," we speak of One who actively pleads for us when we are in the circumstances which call forth His advocacy.

On the one hand, then, the advocacy of Christ is towards the Father. On the other hand, it is ministry towards us — this ministry being the effect of His intercession. To understand this aspect of the office, we must turn to John 13; for while 1 John 11. gives us the advocacy itself, John 13 gives its effect — the method of its application to our needs, as well as the object for which it is exercised. Let us, then, examine this scripture somewhat in detail. The first thing to be noticed is that this ministry of Christ flows from His own heart of love. "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (ver. 1). The words, "He loved them unto the end," do not simply mean, we need scarcely say, that He loved them unto the end of His earthly sojourn. The phrase is much stronger. It signifies His perpetual love for His own; and it is stated here to show that His love is the source of His unwearied ministry on our behalf, now that He is absent in the glory.

In the next place, the object of His ministry, symbolised by washing His disciples' feet, is brought before us. "And supper being ended" (or rather, during supper, or supper being come — δείπνου γενομένου), "the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself" (vers. 2-4). Jesus is thus seated in fellowship with His own at supper, and the prospect of His departure is immediately before His soul, and the place, too, which He would hereafter occupy as Man, for He knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God. He rises from being seated at supper with His disciples, and He does this to teach them, that He could not remain longer with them in the place where they were; and then, having laid aside His garments, He took a towel and girded Himself, the sign of service. "After that He poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Then cometh He to Simon Peter; and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me" (vers. 5-8). In these last words we have the object of the washing declared. We have seen that His rising from supper signified that He could no longer continue with them in the place where they were; and now He shows how He would fit them to have part with Him in the place where He was going. John says, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1: 3). And in this scene the Lord teaches His own how He would fit them for, and maintain them in, this fellowship. The object of the feet-washing, therefore, is to enable His people to have communion with Himself, and hence also with the Father, in the place to which He was about to go in the glory.

But we have then another thing. Peter does not understand the words, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me;" and hence he replies, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed (λελουμένος) needeth not save to wash (νίψασθαι) his feet, but is clean every whit" (vers. 9, 10). This statement is the key to the understanding of the subject, and needs, consequently, careful attention.

(1) As we have already remarked, the Lord here teaches that there was no need of a second cleansing, save as to the feet. They were washed, bathed, and that could never be repeated, for they were "clean every whit." This was indeed prefigured at the consecration of the priests. Thus Aaron and his sons were washed with water — type of the new birth through the instrumentality of the word in the power of the Holy Ghost — before they were arrayed in their priestly garments (Ex. 29: 4); and through this process they never went again; but the laver was provided at which they were to wash their hands and feet, when they went into the tabernacle for their priestly service (Ex. 30: 17-21). We cannot emphasise this point too strongly, that the believer once cleansed is cleansed for ever — that he remains "clean every whit." Otherwise, indeed, we should have no qualification for access into God's presence; for if one spot only could be found upon us, we could not enter inside the rent veil.

(2) While they were clean every whit, their feet would need continual washing. The feet signify walk, and the thought is that, though we are in a position of abiding acceptance before God, in our walk through this scene we constantly contract defilement, which, while it cannot touch our standing — our being in the light as God is in the light, inasmuch as we have this in virtue of what Christ is and has done — it yet disturbs, interrupts our communion. We need on this account our feet washed for our restoration to fellowship — for the enjoyment of all that belongs to us in the position in which we have been set by the grace of our God.

It may, however, be inquired, What is the nature of the defilement which we thus contract? Connecting, as we have done, this scripture with that already considered in 1 John 2, we cannot but answer that it is sin. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate." It is true that it is often maintained that defilements are not necessarily connected with sin; but does not this view lose sight of what God is in His holiness? Besides, what else can defile but sin? We do not overlook the fact that in the Old Testament a Nazarite, for example, might be even accidentally defiled by the occurrence of sudden death by his side (Num. 6: 9). But death is the fruit of sin, and the Nazarite in some way came under its power, though his contact with it, in such a case, might seem to be entirely fortuitous. And in all such instances as these, the lesson taught is how utterly repellent holiness is from sin and death (see also Num. 19 as to causes of defilement). The mistake is often made of taking ceremonial defilement as an exact illustration of moral defilement, whereas the former is but a type or shadow of the latter. It might even lead to dangerous consequences to maintain that we might be defiled apart from sin, for nothing else can unfit the believer for the presence of God; and the very fact that our feet need repeated washing makes it clear that defilement has been incurred — it may be unknown and unconsciously by ourselves, but, as seen by the eye of God, it can only come from the polluted and polluting source of sin. We may, therefore, be sure that, whenever our communion is interrupted, we have contracted defilement, and that through sin in some one of its manifold forms. It is this which makes us need, and calls forth, the incessant activity of our Lord and Saviour as the Advocate with the Father.

(3) We have now to answer the question, How does the Lord wash the feet of His own? Here He poured water into a bason, and washed the disciples' feet, etc. Now water is a wellknown symbol for the Word. Thus in this very Gospel the Lord says that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit. Peter speaks of our being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1: 23; see also James 1: 18). The Word, therefore, is that which water, in the language of our Lord, adumbrated. The Psalmist says, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" His answer is, "By taking heed [thereto] according to Thy Word" (Ps. 119: 9). Paul speaks even more directly when he uses the term, "the washing of water by the Word," etc., and this in connection with cleansing — though here it is the Church, and not the individual believer (Eph. 5: 26). It is very evident, therefore, that when the Lord used water in the scene before us, He did it to signify that after His departure He would effect the cleansing of their feet — their walk — by the application of the Word. How, then, is this application of the Word produced? When we sin, as we have seen, the Lord undertakes our cause with the Father. He thereon exercises the office of the Advocate. The result to-usward is that the Spirit of God begins, in God's due time, to deal with us about it — to bring the sin to our remembrance, to apply the Word to our consciences, to produce thereby in us self-judgment, leading us on to confession of our sin; and God is then faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (John 1: 9); and thus we are restored.

Such is the method of the advocacy; and we have a striking illustration of it in one of the Gospels, and again in connection with Peter. The Lord had forewarned him of his danger; but the warning, if not unheeded at the moment, was soon forgotten; and time after time, this devoted disciple denied that he even knew Christ. Truly this was sin of the darkest hue. But the question is, Will he ever repent? No; he will never repent — if still left to himself; and he never would have repented — but for the gracious action of his Lord. Even the crowing of the cock, which had been given him as a sign, failed to recall his sin. But at that moment, "The Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly" (Luke 22: 61, 62). So is it now. When we fall into sin, we should never repent but for the gracious ministry of Christ as our Advocate. Thereby He secures by His intercession, as He did with Peter by His look, that the sin shall be brought to our minds by the action of the Holy Ghost through the instrumentality of the Word, and our consciences thus be awakened, so that we also might take the place of self-judgment and confession, and thereupon be brought back into fellowship both with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And let us never forget, that it is the propitiation which He made for our sins by His death which gives Him the title thus to act. Peter shrunk from permitting the Lord to wash his feet. Ah! it was necessary that He should thus humble Himself — yea, that He should go down even to the death of the cross, — down under all God's waves and all God's billows of judicial wrath, that He might make propitiation, and be able, on that foundation, to serve us throughout the whole course of our earthly pilgrimage. What love and what grace! Surely our hearts would cry for ever, Blessed be His Name!

It is worthy once more of distinct remark, that the advocacy of Christ does not wait for our repentance. The scripture says, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." Our repentance, as before remarked, is the consequence of the activity of our Advocate. How this thought enhances our conceptions of His grace, His tenderness, and love. If any one sins against us, we are prone to wait for signs of contrition before we permit any outgoings of heart towards the offender. Not so with our blessed Lord. As soon as — yea, as in the case of Peter, even before we sin, He bears us on His heart before the Father, pleads, and secures for us restoring grace.

But if, on the one hand, we are reminded of our indebtedness to His grace, we should remember, on the other, our responsibility one towards another, arising out of Christ's service to us as our Advocate. "So, after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord; neither He that is sent greater than He that sent Him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13: 12-17). We are to imitate the action of our Advocate; for if we rejoice in His present service to us in this character, we are never, at the same time, to forget the obligation under which we are laid to serve one another. Is there not room for many heart-searchings on this question? to ask ourselves whether we are as familiar with our obligation as with the doctrine of Christ's service to us? Nay, how often, if we were honest, should we have to confess that we have been unmindful of this responsibility! May the Lord Himself, while He teaches us to rejoice more and more in the thought that He washes our feet, give us the needful humility, grace, and love to wash one another's feet!

"Thy love we own, Lord Jesus;

In service unremitting,

Within the veil, Thou dost prevail,

Each soul for worship fitting:

Encompass'd here with failure,

Each earthly refuge fails us;

Without, within, beset with sin

Thy name alone avails us."

CHAPTER 9.  CHRIST OUR OBJECT.

FROM the first moment that we are awakened by the Spirit of God, Christ is presented to us as our object. Thus when the jailor, wrought upon by the Holy Ghost through the instrumentality of what he may have heard, and the supernatural occurrences of that eventful night, came and fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16: 29-31). This is in accordance with the Lord's own words — "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3: 14, 15). The reason is evident. When the sinner is made to feel his guilt, God appears to his soul in the character of a Judge — of a holy God, whose claims he has failed to meet, and under whose righteous judgment he has consequently fallen. His one need, therefore, is to find a way of escape, both from his state and the condemnation under which he is groaning; and since this is found alone in Christ, Christ is the first object to which his eyes are directed. Paul brings out this truth most fully in the Epistle to the Romans. He says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare [I say] at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3: 23-26). Having thus Christ in all the efficacy of His atoning work presented to him, and believing, receiving God's testimony concerning Him — concerning what He is and what He has done — the sinner (now a believer) is justified, cleared from all his guilt — from everything that was against him — and he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1). He has much more besides; but now we only call attention to the fact that, looking believingly to the object held out before his soul in the time of his need, he is saved. Has he then done with Christ? Far be the thought! For it will be found, on examination of the Scriptures, that the object to which his eye was directed as a guilty sinner, is the object which is still kept before him after that, by the grace of God, he has been saved. Yea, the object to which the sinner turns to find relief from the heavy burden of his sins, is that which is to fill his gaze in all his pathway as a saint, and, indeed, throughout eternity.

We propose, then, to collect a few examples of this — to show that the eye of the believer is ever to be fixed on Christ; that He is held out to us as the one object that is to fill our gaze, and absorb our souls.

(1) As He is the object of faith for salvation to the sinner, so is He the object of the life of faith to the saint. Paul thus writes, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 20). That is — touching only on the clause we have emphasised — the life which the apostle lived down here had the Son of God as the object of its faith. Corresponding with this are the words of the Lord Himself. When the disciples were plunged into great sorrow at the prospect of His speedy separation from them, He said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14: 1). He thus teaches that though He was soon to be absent from them, no longer to be seen by their natural eyes, they were to believe in Him, have Himself as the object of their faith, even as they already believed in God; and thereon He revealed to them the character of the place to which He was about to go. It was the Father's house, a house of many mansions, in which He would prepare a place for them, in anticipation of the time when He should return for them. Meanwhile, they were to be occupied with Him, have Him as their object; and how sweet and blessed a thing it is to raise our eyes to — nay, to have them always upon — Christ as occupied with and for us in the Father's house! The clouds may be very dark round about our earthly path, and trials may abound, but nothing can obscure Him — Him in all the tenderness of His love, in all that He is for us before God — from the gaze of our faith; and light, and joy, and peace always stream from His presence.

But there is more than this. It is not only that He is the object of our faith, but our faith is sustained — we live by Him as our object. Christ as our object is the life of our faith. Thus He said, "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by (because of — διὰ) the Father: so he that eateth Me shall live by (because of — διὰ) Me" (John 6: 57). Now eating Christ (as has been shown in a former chapter) is but the constant appropriation of Him, in all that He is, by the exercise of faith; and it expresses, therefore, our entire dependence upon Him as the source of life; that just as food sustains and nourishes our bodies, so Christ sustains and nourishes our souls. Thus He is the object, and we live by the exercise of faith, according to that word in the Hebrews, "Now the just shall live by faith" (Heb. 10: 38). With Him is the fountain of life, and faith is the channel which connects us with the fountain, and through which, in the power of the Spirit, the life flows. We therefore live both by faith in, and by dependence upon, Christ.

(2) Christ is also our object in service; nay, the whole of our life has Him as its end and aim. Paul thus says, "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again" (2 Cor. 5: 14, 15). Still more comprehensive (though of the same character) is his language in another epistle: "To me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1: 21). At this time he was in prison, and yet he was so utterly oblivious of self, that he was able to cherish the earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing he should be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it were by life or by death; and he gives as the ground of this confidence, "To me to live is Christ." That was the one object of his life; in all his manifold activities, in all that he desired, and in all that he did, everything had respect to Christ. He was thus, perhaps, the closest approximation to the example of our blessed Lord that has ever been seen on earth. For Christ never sought to please Himself; but always did those things that pleased the Father; He found His meat in doing His Father's will and finishing His work (John 4: 34; John 6: 30; John 8: 29). This truth is strikingly set forth by the apostle in connection with the death of Christ. "Be ye followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour" (Eph. 5: 1, 2). True that He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; but it was God who was the object before His soul; His glory which He sought, and which was the governing motive of His death; for He became obedient — obedient surely to God — obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

So also it should be with us — Christ alone the object of our lives, of our thoughts, feelings, designs, occupations, activities. We are His, for He has redeemed us with His own precious blood, and He therefore claims us for His own — that we should live not to ourselves, but to Him who has died for us and risen again. What a searching, practical test does this supply! Do I purpose this or that? Is it then for Christ? Do I desire anything? Is it for Christ? Am I busy in service? Is it for Christ? Can I look round my dwelling, and say of all that I behold, It is for Christ? Thus, "for Christ," supplies us with a principle that can be applied to the whole of our daily lives — a principle that should reign supreme, governing us in all our works and ways — a principle which makes nothing of self — of man — but which makes everything of Christ.

(3) Again, Christ is brought before us as an object to be possessed. This aspect is unfolded to us in Philippians 3. In the beginning of the chapter the apostle gives a list of the advantages which he had as a Jew — as a man in the flesh — and which formed his ground of confidence as such. "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church: touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." He thus had everything which could exalt a natural man in his own eyes before God. Morally, religiously, and ecclesiastically he wanted nothing, according to man's judgment. Nay, more; writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he is able to say that "touching the righteousness which is in the law" he was "blameless." Like the young man who asked of the Lord Jesus, "What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" and, when referred to the commandments, replied, "All these things have I kept from my youth up," — so Saul; and he might have added with the young man, "What lack I yet?" (Matt. 19: 16-20). But when Saul, in his zeal persecuting the Church, was on his way to Damascus, the Lord in glory met him — that same Jesus, whom Saul had with his nation rejected and cast out, but now risen from the dead and glorified, appeared to him; and thereon Saul discovered the true value of his precious things in the light of the glory which shone round about him — saw their utter worthlessness, and hence by grace was able to say, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for (because of — διὰ) the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for (because of — διὰ) whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phil. 3: 7, 8). Now he had discovered the fine gold, and by the side of it he could see that what he had been priding himself upon was but wretched tinsel, and, estimating it at its proper value, he now desired only to win Christ — i.e., to have Christ as his gain. Everything which had been so precious in his eyes disappeared, and Christ only remained; and it was Christ only that he now desired to possess, not only as his ground of confidence before God, but also as his everlasting possession. For Christ had won his heart, and the heart can never rest until it has gained the object of its affections.

But inasmuch as it was a Christ in glory whom he had thus seen and desired, it was only in the glory that He could be possessed. Hence the whole future course of the apostle was governed by this fact. With heart and eyes fixed upon his object, he says, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended" (if I may get possession of that for which also I have been taken possession) "of Christ Jesus." And in the energy of his soul — being all aglow with fervent desire — he adds, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling (the calling on high - τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως) of God in Christ Jesus." This was the prize on which his heart was now set, and, like a racer, he bent his rapid steps towards the goal, and the varied objects of the surrounding scene passed by him unheeded, or were seen but dimly as he hastened onward, for his eyes were on a glorified Christ, and he could see nought else for the glory of that light. This was the object that possessed his heart, controlled and formed his life below, and drew him unweariedly forward in the race he ran; while he waited for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would change the vile body of His servant, that it might be fashioned like unto the body of His glory; and then Paul would be both like, and with, his object for evermore.

Such also is the object set before every believer. Well might we examine ourselves by the light of this scripture — by the light of the energy, the ardent desire, the concentrated affection of the apostle. Does Christ, let us each ask ourselves in the presence of God, so possess our hearts that we desire no other object? Are we satisfied to lose everything but Himself? Do we, like Paul, count all that the natural man esteems, but loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord? The prayer is often heard, and, it may be, presented by ourselves, that our hearts may be set upon Christ. But He Himself said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6: 21). If our hearts, therefore, are not upon and occupied with Him, it is because He is not sufficiently our treasure. If, then, we would have our hearts detached from this scene and its objects, we must begin with Christ. we must trace out His manifold perfections, His varied beauties, His ineffable grace and unchanging love, and then our hearts will be drawn out towards Him, and, enflamed with holy desire after Him, He will absorb our affections, and attract us wholly to Himself. We often sing -

"Jesus! Thou art enough

The mind and heart to fill;"

and nothing can be truer; but the question for us to answer, when the words are upon our lips, is, Do we know this practically? Can we take the ground of wanting nothing outside of Christ? If we were bereft of everything else, should we be able to say, we are satisfied with Christ? These are searching questions but questions that need to be answered. For it is only when we know this truth, that no other object will divert our gaze; and then we shall long for the moment when, like Him, we shall see Him as He is, and are with Him for ever.

"For ever to behold Him shine!

For evermore to call Him mine!

And see Him still before me;

For ever on His face to gaze!

And meet the full assembled rays,

While all His beauty He displays

To all the saints in glory!"

(4) He is also set before us as the object to which we are to be conformed. This is implied in what we have just considered; but we have it distinctly set forth in another scripture. We are thus told that God has predestinated us "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren" (Rom. 8: 29). John likewise alludes to the fact when he says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3: 2). But it is Paul who brings out this truth in its most definite form. Writing to the Corinthians, and contrasting the ministry of righteousness with the ministry of condemnation, and being led to state the full and blessed place into which believers are now brought, he says, "We all with open (i.e., unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). He refers to Exodus 34, where we read that Moses was compelled to put a veil upon his face to conceal the glory that lingered there (after he had come down from the Mount, where he had been with the Lord forty days and forty nights), because that Aaron and all the children of Israel "were afraid to come nigh him." "And [till] Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he took the veil off, until he came out" (vers. 28-34). Only Moses went in, under that dispensation, before the Lord with unveiled face; but now we all — all believers — with open (unveiled) face behold the glory of the Lord, etc.

The truth, then, is, that all who are in the Christian place and position are set down in the light, as God is in the light, and there they behold with unveiled face the glory of the Lord. Christ in glory is the object on which they gaze. This was shown, albeit in an extraordinary way, in the death of Stephen. "He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7: 55). This scene is significant from the fact that now the heavens are opened for every believer, and that he therefore sees, by faith, without a veil, with nothing between, a glorified Christ at the right hand of God. For upon the death of Christ the veil was rent, expressive of the fact that the atonement He made by His death was accepted by God, as a full and complete answer to all the claims of His holiness, so that He could now come forth in all His grace and love to meet the sinner, and bring him, through faith in Christ, unto Himself, to dwell in His own immediate presence, in the holiest of all. Such is the place of every saint of God.

A caution, however, may be needed. It is undoubtedly true that this place belongs to every believer; but it is another, and, indeed, a most momentous question, whether we are occupying it. We are brought into it according to the efficacy of the work of Christ, and through His death and resurrection, and it is thus our blessed privilege to be ever occupied with Christ as our object. God would have us thus occupied; for He would have us share His own delight, in gazing upon the face of Him who has retrieved His glory by becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Are we, then, occupying the place into which we have been brought by the grace of our God, and having fellowship with Himself as to the object of His own heart? Perhaps there is no greater danger at the present time, than knowing the full truth of our position without seeking to answer to it practically. But if we boast in our standing, and neglect our state, we fall into the very evils which characterised the Jews in the time of our Lord. It should, therefore, be a very solemn matter of inquiry with us whether we maintain the attitude of Stephen; whether our faces, like his, are ever turned upward to the glory of the Lord.

But the marvellous thing is, that the Christ we thus behold as our object, is the model to which we are to be conformed. God, according to the purposes of His infinite grace, and delighting to mark His appreciation of the work of Christ, will have us to be like Him whom He has glorified. Even now we can say, "As he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17), that is, that our acceptance, even now, while in this scene, is as perfect as His at the right hand of God. But the time will come when we shall be fashioned after His own likeness, when even these poor bodies of ours shall also be conformed to the likeness of His glorious body. What grace! That we — such as we were, and such as we are — should be able to raise our eyes to Christ in glory, and be able to say, "We shall be like Him!"

How, then, we may inquire, is this change wrought out in us? This same scripture the answer — "We all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). While on the one hand Christ in glory is the model to which we are to be conformed, beholding Him there is, on the other, the instrumentality in the power of the Spirit by which it is effected. How simple! We behold and are changed — changed into the same image from glory to glory — for it is a gradual process — as by the Spirit of the Lord. We receive the impress of the One on whom we look; the rays of the glory of His face falling on us, penetrate into, and transform us morally into the likeness of our Lord.

Herein then lies our responsibility. The object is before us; before Him we stand with unveiled face, and it is Divine power alone that can mould us into His likeness; but the activity of that power — through the Spirit — God has been pleased to connect with our beholding. Who, then, would not ever stand with upturned face, catching every ray of the glory that falls from such an object, in the earnest desire to attain growing conformity to Him on whom we gaze? This is the secret of all growth in grace — uninterrupted contemplation of Christ on the Father's throne. But it should be remembered that it is only increasing likeness we attain even by such a process. Full conformity waits, as John teaches, for the moment when we shall see Him as He is. There is no perfection, therefore, here, since God's standard of holiness is Christ in glory, and He will never rest until we are perfect according to it. May we keep our eyes ever upon the object, that we may daily grow in resemblance to Him to whom we are to be conformed!

"To see Thy glory, and to be

In everything conformed to Thee."

(5) Since He is God's object, He is also ours; for our fellowship is with the Father as well as with the Son (1 John 1: 3). When He was down here on the earth, twice a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son." He was all God's delight, and God rested in Him with perfect complacency. Ere He left this scene He said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again" (John 10: 17). By the work which He accomplished on the cross, glorifying God therein, even about the question of sin, and laying the foundation on which God could righteously save the believer, and reconcile all things to Himself (Col. 1: 20), He established a new claim upon God. Hence He said, in anticipation of the cross, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (John 13: 31, 32). And God has done it, and Christ, the glorified man, now sits at His right hand; for God rejoiced thus to respond to the claim which had thus been established upon Him, and (if we may reverently use the words) to mark thus His estimate of the value of His work. There He sits, the object of God's heart as well as the centre of the glory, and God feasts upon the One who has retrieved His honour, glorified Him in every attribute of His character; and He invites us to participate with Him in His own joy. This is what we are called to — to share with God in His feelings and thoughts concerning His beloved Son. He is enough for the heart of God; and surely also enough for ours; and if He fills the eye of God, He may well absorb our gaze.

It is well for us to consider this aspect of the truth. It is not only that Christ is a Saviour suited to all our needs, but He is one who is suited to the heart of God — the Man after God's own heart; and God would have us prize Him according to His own thoughts of His value and preciousness, to enter into, and to rejoice with Him in, His appreciation of the worth of Him who gave up all for His glory. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 3: 10, 11).

And as He is our object now, so He will be throughout eternity. We shall be ever with the Lord. Himself will be with us — the Lamb that was once slain; then, as now, the Man — for He will nevermore lay aside the humanity He has assumed; and then He will fill our gaze, and our hearts, perfectly and completely. What an infinite study to trace out and contemplate His varied and manifold excellences! We shall see His face, and shall never weary of drinking in His beauty!

We shall hear His voice, and oh! how we shall hang upon every word that falls from His lips! And all that we see, and hear, will but fill our souls with ineffable delight, and our ceaseless joy will be to prostrate ourselves at His feet in adoration and praise. Lord, in anticipation of this time, turn our eyes from all that might obscure Thee from our view, and Thyself attract and occupy us altogether!

"Thou art the everlasting Word,

The Father's only Son;

God manifest, God seen and heard,

The Heaven's belovèd One;

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow.

In Thee most perfectly express'd

The Father's self doth shine;

Fulness of Godhead, too: the Blest,

Eternally divine.

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow.

Of the vast universe of bliss,

The Centre Thou, and Sun

Th' eternal theme of praise is this,

To Heaven's belovèd One:

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow."

CHAPTER 10.  CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE.

ONE of the most familiar truths to all is that Christ, in His pathway through this world, is our example. There are several scriptures which distinctly state and enforce it; and the truth itself is implied in almost every book of the New Testament. Peter, when treating of the duties of domestics, points them to Christ, who, he says, has left us an example that we should follow His steps (1 Peter 2: 21). In like manner, the Apostle John says, "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2: 6). In the Epistle to the Hebrews also, after detailing the long catalogue of the men of faith in the past dispensation, the writer proceeds, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Heb. 12: 1-3). The force of this scripture is often unperceived by the superficial reader, because of the insertion of the word "our" — making the Lord Jesus to be the Author and Finisher of our faith. This is altogether to miss the teaching of the Spirit of God. The truth brought before us is that the Lord Jesus is a complete example of faith; that as man, He is our example in the life of faith. This would be more readily seen if, instead of Author and Finisher, the words were translated, as they sometimes are, Leader (ἀρχηγὸν) and Completer (τελειωτὴν) of faith — i.e., that He is the Leader in the pathway of faith — and He is the Completer of it, that all the way through, from beginning to end, He is the perfect example of it, as the obedient and dependent Man. Hence our eyes are ever to be fixed upon Him; we are to be looking unto Jesus, to mark His example, that we may be sustained in following in the same steps. Our Lord Himself often presented the same truth. It is involved in all the passages wherein He speaks of discipleship. For instance, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16: 24). It is true that the prominent thought here is the condition of discipleship; but "following" is nothing less than, in obedience to His Word, owning Him as Lord, and walking in His steps.

It is, then, abundantly clear that our blessed Lord, in His life down here as man, is our example; and we desire to consider this subject, — not only to press its importance, but also to show the ground of it, and the means of carrying it into practice.

The ground of it lies in what He was as man in the world. Before His incarnation He had presented Himself to God, saying, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God" (Heb. 10: 7). And this is the keynote of His whole life, coming as He did, not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him (John 6: 38). And this He did perfectly, and uninterruptedly, from Bethlehem to Calvary. Every thought, feeling, and act were in obedience to God's will. For the first time since the Fall, God found truth in the inward parts of a man — of that One who answered all His requirements, so that God could rest in Him in perfect complacency and love. And what joy it must have been to the heart of God, to be able to look down upon this scene, where all had failed and gone out of the way, where there was none good, no not one, and to see Christ in the midst of unparalleled difficulties, exposed to all the malice of men and Satan, ever responding, and that perfectly, to His own desires — to behold Him glorifying God on the earth in every circumstance in which He was placed, and all through His life!

"Faithful amidst unfaithfulness,

'Mid darkness only light,

Thou didst Thy Father's name confess,

And in His will delight."

In Him, then, at last, God found the Man who was, without exception, after His own heart — the One who embodied the perfection of His own thoughts, and answered to the ideal of His own mind — THE PERFECT MAN. In every circumstance, therefore — what He was toward God, and what He was toward man; what He was in the presence of friend, or enemy, whether in sorrows, persecutions, or temptations; in all possible scenes, whether in retirement, or in public — in all things, in every manifestation of His life down here, He was our example; for all His manifold experiences were but occasions for the unfolding of what He was as the obedient and dependent man; and hence the revelation of God's standard for all that are His. If, therefore, I would know what God desires that I should be, I must look at Christ, and trace out His steps in His pathway through this world.

Accepting, then, the truth that Christ is our example, we must be very careful to define the class for whom it is intended. Mistake here would be of the most fatal kind, and has indeed been the cause of shipwreck to many a soul. The Unitarians, for example, make the whole duty of man to lie in the imitation of the life of Christ; and, moreover, they contend that success in this end is the passport to a happy immortality; and books, like Thomas à Kempis' Imitatio Christi, proceed more or less on the same principle — that it is possible for the natural man to walk in the steps of the Lord Jesus. We need hardly point out, that such teaching ignores the whole subject of man's relationships with God, the question of sin, and man's depravity through the Fall. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8: 8) is a statement which some men either ignore or disbelieve, to their own destruction. What presumption for a sinner under condemnation — a sinner alienated from God, whose very nature is enmity with Him (Rom. 8: 7) — to claim the power to follow the steps of the Holy One of God! It only shows us the power of Satan to deceive, and allure to ruin, when such a delusion is cherished in the minds of men. Just as he enticed Pharaoh and his host to think they could follow Israel through the Red Sea, and all alike "sank as lead in the mighty waters," so now he leads men to imagine that by their own efforts they can imitate Christ, and thereby produce a righteousness fit for God's presence; and thus deluded, they perish for ever. It behoves us, therefore, very carefully to indicate the qualifications which are necessary in order to follow the example of Christ.

(1) The essential one of all is that we must have the same nature. It is quite true — indeed, a fundamental dogma of Christianity — that Christ became Man. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman" etc. (Gal. 4: 4). He was as truly born into this world as we are; but the words the angel spake to Mary must never be forgotten, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1: 35; see also Matt. 1: 18-20). While, therefore, Christ really took part of flesh and blood (Heb. 2: 14), and was consequently "very man," as well as "very God," it could not be said that He took our nature, that He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. That were indeed to declare that He had a sinful nature; to disqualify Him from being the Lamb of God — the Lamb without spot, or blemish — and to undermine the very foundations of the atonement, and consequently of Christianity. No; He was ever holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; while we were by nature the children of wrath.

How then could it be possible for us (in whose flesh there is no good thing) to imitate the life of Him who was absolutely holy? The leopard cannot change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin, neither can the natural man alter the character of the flesh in which he is born. Hence the first necessity is to be born again; as the Lord Himself said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 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" (John 3: 5-7). Until, then, we are born again through faith in the Lord Jesus, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and have received, therefore, a new nature, we cannot follow Christ. Let us be very clear upon this point; for to speak otherwise is only to delude and to imperil souls. If there be not the same nature, there cannot be likeness in the life. There may be outward resemblances between an action of a natural man, and an action of Christ; but this does not constitute, in God's sight, imitation of His example. The nature of the two actions — in their motive, character, and end — must be the same. We may tie roses on a gooseberry bush, but they have not been produced by the tree. So actions — to be like Christ's — must be produced, and they can only be produced in those who have the new nature — a nature like His. In other words we must be like Christ (as to nature), before we can imitate Him.

(2) Having even the nature is not enough, because the power is still wanting. The characteristic of the new nature is feebleness — weakness itself; and hence I may be really born again, a child of God, yet utterly unable to take a single step after Christ. We have an example of this in Romans 7. The one whose case is there put says, "That which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Rom. 7: 15). What a confession! and yet he tells us that he delighted in the law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7: 22), showing that he had a new nature — had been born again. What he, therefore, needed was power. And where was this to be obtained? The prerequisite of it was deliverance — the knowledge that sin had been judged, as well as the guilt of sins cleared away, that, through the death and resurrection of Christ, he had been brought out of his Adam-condition into a new place in Christ, so that, having the Spirit of God dwelling in Him, he was no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Rom. 8: 9). The indwelling Spirit is our only power for the imitation of Christ. Indeed, this was Christ's own power. We thus read that "Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." and again, that He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (Luke 4: 1-14). He Himself says, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God" (Matt. 12: 28); and Peter, speaking of Him, says, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with Him" (Acts 10: 38). Unless, therefore, we have the Holy Ghost, we are still without power to walk as Christ walked; for nature, as we have seen, and even the new nature of itself, cannot tread in His footsteps.

(3) There is another important condition. I way be born again, and have the Spirit of God, and yet be not imitating Christ. I am qualified to do so; but the Spirit of God does not of necessity act because He dwells in me. Indeed, every believer carries about with him a great hindrance — and that is the flesh, the old nature. For though it has been judged in the death of Christ; and is, therefore, judicially gone from God's sight, it is still in us, and is always in opposition to the desires and aims of the new man. Satan knows this, and finds in it the means, if we are not watchful, of hindering our progress, and even of compassing our fall. Paul, writing on this subject, says, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot (rather, "in order that ye should not" — ἳνα μὴ ἃ ἃν θέλητε ταῦτα ποῖητε) do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5: 17). The flesh and the Spirit are, therefore, in everlasting contrariety, and the object of each is to hinder the other. When the flesh desires to act, the Spirit leads in opposition; and when the Spirit would act, the flesh obstructs — both seeking to nullify the will of the other, that neither the one nor the other should obtain its desires. It may be, therefore, that though I am, as already said, qualified to imitate the example of the Lord Jesus, I shall be effectually hindered — must be so, if I allow the flesh to have its own way.

The next condition, therefore, is, that the flesh be not allowed to act, but that it be kept in the place where God has put it — under judgment in the death of the cross. Hence Paul says, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 13, 14). And if we add to this scripture another, the whole subject will be explained. "Always bearing in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4: 10). The flesh, therefore — all indeed that is of nature — has to be kept under the power of death, under the constant application of the cross, the putting to death of Jesus — the Spirit of God being our enabling power for this; that nothing of self, nature, or the flesh, may ever be expressed, but only the life of Jesus. For it is only when we are following that we can present the life of Jesus; and if the slightest thing of self, of the flesh, is manifested, the presentation is at once marred. Death must then be accepted if we would imitate Christ. This is what He Himself said, "If any man will come after Me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16: 24). Self must be refused, the cross — death — accepted, before we can follow. May we learn the lesson!

(4) The eye must also be upon Christ, and upon Christ where He is. We might have, indeed, every qualification of which we have yet spoken, and still, if the eye were not on Christ, there would be most certain failure. Take the familiar illustration of Peter walking on the sea as an explanation. When he saw Jesus walking on the sea, he said, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me," etc. (Matt. 14: 25-31). At the outset Peter walked, even as the Lord Himself walked, on the sea; but the moment his eye was off Christ and on his circumstances — the difficulties that surrounded him — he began to sink.

So is it ever with us. We can never walk after His example unless our eye is upon Him. But we have said it must be on Him where He now is, not where He once was. Peter, of course, looked on the living Christ before his eyes; but we must look upon a living Christ where He now is — in the glory, at the right hand of God. Let us explain. Paul says, "We all with open (i.e., unveiled) face beholding as in a glass (the words, "as in a glass," are better omitted) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). Here we are taught, as we saw in the last chapter, that our growth, our gradual transformation into the likeness of Christ, is dependent upon our eyes being fixed upon Him — upon the glory of the Lord. We gaze by faith, and the rays of that glory, falling upon our souls, are used by the Holy Spirit to chancre us morally into the likeness of Him on whom we thus look. Herewith is connected another thing. It is only as we are thus occupied, that we receive power to bear about in the body the dying of Jesus (2 Cor. 4: 10). Two things are thereby gained — growing likeness to Christ, and the flesh kept under the power of death. The consequence is, that Christ must be expressed; or, in other words, that we imitate His example. For imitation of Christ must come from within, and not from without. According to the principle before stated, we must be like Christ before we can imitate Him; and hence the closeness of our walk to His, will depend upon the degree of our likeness to Him.

It would save much disappointment, and many mistakes, were this remembered. For it would then be seen, that to walk as Christ walked is not the result of any effort we can make — we can never imitate Him by any efforts of our own — but that it must be the outcome of what we are. See how beautifully this was exemplified in the case of Stephen, when he was martyred. "He being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7: 55, 56). Such was his attitude; but his testimony did but enrage his persecutors; "for they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. . . . . and they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep" (vers. 57-60). Now if we compare this scene with the death of the Lord Jesus, as recorded by Luke, we shall find a remarkable correspondency. He also uttered two prayers. When on the cross, He cried, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;" and also, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit" (Luke 23: 34, 46). Even on the surface one cannot fail to be struck with the similarity of the two cases. Why was it, then, that Stephen followed so exactly in the footsteps of his Lord? Was it because that he had heard that the Lord had uttered such prayers, and he thought, therefore, that he would copy His example? This would have been a valueless imitation, if not altogether a counterfeit. No; he was occupied in beholding the glory of the Lord, and the effect was that he was changed into the same image, and therefore of necessity he expressed himself in the same way. And this is the secret of all likeness to Christ in our ways. If the eye is upon Christ as He was down here, and we say, "He did this," or "He did that," and we, therefore, will do the same, we shall most certainly, and repeatedly, fail. But when the eye is upward, fixed on Him where He now is, the dying of Jesus will be always borne about in our body, and the Spirit of God, ungrieved and unhindered, will work mightily within us in transforming power, and then of necessity lead us in the footsteps of our Great Example, because His pathway was that of the Perfect Man.

It is the same even in the natural domain. Suppose, now, an artist desires to reproduce one of the great masterpieces. How does he begin? Does he at once go and copy the picture? Not at all; but his first task will be to study it, to get the impression of it in his mind; and then, when he is imbued with the spirit and colour of his model, he can reproduce it. So Milton once wrote, "He who would write an heroic poem must first live a hero's life." This is the true principle for the imitation of Christ; and hence the more we are occupied with Him in glory, the more faithfully we shall reproduce His life in our walk and ways.

Does any one say, Are we, then, not to trace out the life of the Lord Jesus here below? Certainly; for what greater enjoyment can the believer have than to follow Him in His wondrous path, to study every detail recorded, to hear His every word, to watch Him in every possible circumstance, to note how He comported Himself, before both friends and enemies, to mark His ways in His secret retirement, His communings with His disciples, especially with those whom He was able to admit to greater intimacy, to follow Him in that blessed home of Bethany — all these things we shall ever delight to trace, and to retrace, and perhaps even in the glory. But it is not thus that we receive power to walk in the same steps; this can only come from beholding Him — looking by faith to Him where He now is, at the right hand of God. We shall feed upon Him (as explained in another chapter) as He was down here; for the manna is a humbled Christ — Christ in the unfoldings of His life in His sojourn in this scene. And very blessed it is to have Christ in our circumstances — to have His grace, His tenderness, His sympathy as we follow His example. Blessed, however, as all this is, we reiterate, that if we would walk as He walked, it can only be by occupation with Him in the glory.

There are, however, uses in the consideration of Christ's example which must not be overlooked. His example is our standard; and hence nothing can be more profitable than to measure ourselves by it, that we may discover our defects, and learn our failures. It is on this account that Peter, when exhorting servants to take it patiently, even when they might suffer for well-doing, adds, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2: 21-24). The apostle thus held up the example of Christ as their model, that they might see in its light their failure, and be encouraged to walk in the same steps.

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews adduces it, in like manner, as an encouragement and stimulus to those who might be suffering from persecution. For after urging them, in the race set before them, to look off themselves unto "Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God," he says, "For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb. 12: 2-4). The word "consider" in this scripture is a most striking one; it means, to draw an analogy, or to make a comparison, between Christ and yourselves. You may be pressed, almost beyond measure, by your sufferings and persecutions; but compare your circumstances with His; follow Him in His course, and behold Him at last dying as a martyr (for this is the aspect of His death here presented) for righteousness' sake. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood (as He did); you have not yet been made martyrs, striving against sin. Be encouraged, strengthened, therefore, by His example: learn from Him to endure, and to be faithful even unto death.

The Lord Himself gave the same kind of instruction to His disciples. He reminded them, that if the world hated them, it had first hated Him; that "if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My sayings they will keep yours also" (John 15: 18-20). The path of the disciple must correspond with his Lord's; and hence it is that His example must ever be our model and standard. But let it be once more added, that while we cannot too often, or too lovingly, trace out the course of our blessed Lord through this world, to learn what our conduct should be, to detect our failings, and to gather encouragement and consolation, it is only by having our eyes fixed upon Him where He now is, that we shall be enabled to tread in His steps. May He ever fill our gaze, that we may reflect His likeness in our walk and ways!

"Master! we would no longer be

Loved by the world that hated Thee,

But patient in Thy footsteps go,

Thy sorrow as Thy joy to know;

We would — and oh, confirm the power -

With meekness meet the darkest hour,

By shame, contempt, however tried,

For Thou wast scorned and crucified."

CHAPTER 11.  CHRIST OUR PEACE.

IT is as interesting as profitable to trace the ways of God on the earth. Unless, indeed, we have a measure of dispensational truth, as therein unfolded and displayed, it is impossible for us to understand the past, present, or future — the dispensation of law, the nature of Christianity, or the character of the millennium. It is in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that we find the fullest development of God's counsels as to the present dispensation, or rather as to the place He has given, in the sovereignty of His grace, to believers in Christ Jesus. And this necessarily involves the notice of some of the characteristic differences that have prevailed between Jews and Gentiles; but they are noticed, only to indicate their utter abolition in the present dispensation. Now it is in connection with this that Christ is termed our Peace, as having made both — i.e., Jew and Gentile — one, having broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph. 2: 14). Hence, if we would understand the full import of the phrase, we must glance at the character of the truth which this epistle contains.

In the first chapter, from the first to the fourteenth verses, the counsels of God are unfolded, first, as to the individual blessing of the saint, and then as to the universal headship of Christ. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (in contrast with Israel, who were blessed with all temporal blessings in earthly places) in Christ. "according as He [the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ] hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1: 3-6). Then we are told, that God has made "known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ (or head up all things in Christ — ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῳ Χριστῶ), both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him" (Eph. 1: 9, 10). Thereon we have a distinction, which is afterwards frequently repeated. "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, etc., that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted," etc. (Eph. 1: 11-13). The "we" and "ye" are characteristic — the former referring to the Jews who had believed, and the latter to the Gentiles. For after having reminded the Gentile believers that in Christ, after that they had believed, they also were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, he says, "Who is the earnest of our (now Jews and Gentiles together) inheritance," etc.

We have thus, in this scripture, in this brief statement of the counsels of God, the essential feature of the present dispensation introduced — the union of Jew and Gentile — all their national distinctions obliterated — in Christ. On the truth thus revealed, the apostle founds a prayer, which leads to a statement of the present place of exaltation which Christ occupies at the right hand of God. He shows us Christ raised from the dead, according to the working of the might of God's strength, and set down "at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under His feet, and given Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 19-23).

If the first part of the chapter gave us God's counsels concerning believers individually, as to the place He would have them occupy near to and in relationship with Himself, the last part introduces His counsels concerning Christ as the Head of the body, and the place of the body as united to Him. For no sooner has the apostle given us to see the exalted Head, than in the next chapter he teaches us how it is that believers have been thus linked up with the glorified Christ. But before he can do this, because it is God's counsel altogether, and, therefore, to magnify His grace and His love — to show that it was God acting from His own heart, according to what He is in Himself, and after His own sovereign will, he depicts the past condition both of Gentiles and Jews. Nothing can be more striking than the way in which He commences this part of his subject. He had just mentioned the Church as the body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. This is the Church seen according to the perfection of God's counsels; but it is composed of those who once were Jews and Gentiles; and indeed is a thing at present existing on the earth. Hence, in descending from the Head, in all His supreme exaltation, to the members, He thus speaks: "And you (Gentiles), who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all (Jews as well as Gentiles) had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2: 1-3).

Such is the picture of the past condition of the members of the body of Christ — a picture so dark that it is unrelieved by a single ray of light. Dead in trespasses and sins, without a single thought, desire, or movement towards God; for death reigned in all its awful stillness and solitude. But since they were men on the earth, the character of their walk as such is depicted — a walk governed by this age, the power of Satan, and the lusts of the flesh. Such is man! Can we wonder that it is added, that by nature they were the children of wrath? Surely it is well for us to ponder upon this description, both to learn what we were, and what man ever is, and what we deserved. There is not one single thing for which we can take credit before God. We were totally evil, and under the power of sin, satan, and death.

How, then, came it to pass that those who were thus situated were brought out of such a condition, and associated with a glorified Christ? The next few verses give us the answer. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, (even when we were dead in sins), hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," etc. (Eph. 2: 4-6). It was God, who acted according to what He was, being rich in mercy, who intervened in the scene of our wretched and lost condition; and intervened, as the first chapter shows, according to His own eternal counsels, and, as we here read, because of the great love wherewith He loved us. The source of all our blessing is thus shown to be the heart of God; and hence it is only in redemption that we can behold Him fully revealed. God came upon the scene because of what He was as God; and (mark the contrast) "even when we were dead in sins." He would have us remember that there was nothing but evil in us, and nothing but good in Him.

God, then, moved by His own heart, according to His own nature, when we were in that condition, "quickened us together with Christ." Christ, therefore, must have died. And it was this, indeed, that made it possible for God to act in mercy and love towards us; for until He had been glorified on the cross by the death of Christ, in every attribute of His character, He could not come forth and reveal Himself as a God of grace and love. But there is a peculiar feature in connection with the introduction of Christ here. It is not a dying, but a dead Christ who is brought before us. So in the first chapter, the power spoken of was displayed — wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. We are not permitted in this epistle to see Him going down into death, but we see Him dead. And this brings out one of the grand characteristics of the epistle. Jews and Gentiles alike are looked upon not, as in Romans, as alive in their sins, but as dead; and then we have this wonder of grace, Christ going down into their condition — lying dead, as it were, by their side; for since we are here on new-creation ground, everything commences anew. Then it is, at that moment when Christ is seen as dead, and Jews and Gentiles as likewise dead (but these in their sins), that God in His infinite mercy, and for the great love wherewith He loved us, comes in, and quickens us (Jew and Gentile) together with Christ. "The exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe" is, therefore, "according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places," etc. (Eph. 1: 19, 20). For the body is already looked upon as complete, because it is the fruit of God's counsels; and hence, in this view, every member of the body is regarded as having been quickened together with — at the same time as — Christ. Christ Himself first came, and went down into our condition of death. His death removed every barrier out of the way of, and laid the foundation for, the accomplishment of God's counsels — set His heart at liberty; and immediately there was this stupendous display of power, coming down into the scene where Christ lay with the members of His body, and lifting Him out of death, and setting Him down at God's right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and that same power quickened us together with Christ.

But there is more. The apostle, however, before he proceeds, reminds us that it is by grace we are saved; and surely by nothing but pure and sovereign grace; but he would have the knowledge of it produce in our hearts praise to God. Then he adds, "And hath raised us up together (Jews and Gentiles), and made us sit to ether (i.e., again Jews and Gentiles alike are made to sit together) in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thus the power that quickened us together with Christ, raised us up together, and carried us upwards still, and set us down in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places — and that even now, while as to our bodies we are still on the earth; and all this is, that in the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2: 7). "Poor sinners from among the Gentiles, and from among the disobedient and gainsaying Jews, are brought into the position where Christ is by the power which raised Him from the dead and set Him at God's right hand, to show forth in the ages to come the immense riches of the grace which had accomplished it. A Mary Magdalene, a crucified thief, companions in glory with the Son of God, will bear witness to it."

Having thus developed the counsels of God in their accomplishment, and revealed to us the perfectness of the new creation into which we are brought even now as united to Christ, inasmuch as he is writing to Gentiles, he now proceeds to remind them of their past condition, and the means by which they had been brought into the enjoyment of their present wondrous privileges and blessings, as well as of the position which they, together with believers from among the Jews, occupied upon the earth. "Wherefore," he says, "remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision, by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made with hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world" (Eph. 2: 11, 12). Such was their condition as Gentiles in contrast with that of Israel; for while, as the commencement of the chapter shows, they were by nature the children of wrath equally with the Gentiles, yet as a people on the earth, chosen in God's sovereignty, they had advantages (see Rom. 3: 2; Rom. 9: 4, 5) to which the Gentiles had no title or claim. Hence they — the Gentiles — were without Christ; the Messiah as such was never promised to them; they were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and thus outside all its privileges and blessings. "But now," Paul proceeds to say, 19 in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off" — the usual designation of the Gentiles (see Acts 2: 39) — "are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is OUR PEACE, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us]; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain (Jew and Gentile) one new man, [so] making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off (Gentiles), and to them which were nigh" (Jews) (Eph. 2: 13-17).

First of all, it is striking to notice the place which the Spirit of God ever delights to give to the blood of Christ. Here, as everywhere in the Scriptures, it is made the foundation of everything, the basis on which everything has been accomplished according to the purpose of God. For, indeed, it was by the blood of Christ, the laying down His life (for the life is in the blood), that God has been set free (if such an expression may be reverently used) to act according to His own heart in the work of redemption, because it met every claim of His holiness, and glorified all that He is, so that now He is glorified in the salvation of every one who believes in Jesus. So here the Gentile sinners have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ; for "having made peace by the blood of His cross" (Col. 1: 20), He can reconcile to God those that were sometime alienated, and enemies in mind by wicked works (Col. 1: 21).

This truth paves the way for the statement that Christ is our Peace. He is our Peace, not now with God only, but as between Jew and Gentile; and He becomes this by that same death on the cross, which laid the foundation for the reconciliation of both the one and the other; for thereby He has broken down the middle wall of enclosure (τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ) that fenced off the Jews from all the other peoples of the earth. It was God who had thus separated them unto Himself, and put them under His law and government. but we know how immediately they broke His law and transgressed His commandments, so that the law became a ministry of condemnation and death. The death of Christ met alike the claims of God upon the Jew and the Gentile, for He took upon Himself the whole of our responsibility, and thereby He broke down the wall of separation between the two, since both the one and the other must now be saved, not by works of law, but on the principle of faith. He thus abolished in His flesh the enmity between the two — the law of commandments in ordinances — that of the two He might make in Himself (Jew and Gentile alike on believing being united to Him by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven) one new man, so making peace; and that both might be reconciled to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Hence, on the foundation of what He had accomplished on the cross, He could come preaching peace both to Jews and Gentiles; for all being justified by faith, would have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is therefore in connection with the body of Christ that He is our Peace. In the past dispensation Israel was a separated people; in the millennium Israel will still have a distinct and pre-eminent place; but now all such distinctions are abolished. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3: 28; Col. 3: 11). This was foreshadowed even in the call of the apostle, to whom was specially intrusted the ministry of the body of Christ. Narrating the account of his conversion before Agrippa, he describes the appearing of the Lord, who said to him, "Rise, stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee (rather taking thee out — ἐξαιρούμενός σε ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ) from the people (the Jews), and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee" (Acts 26: 16, 17). He is thus regarded as having (as it were) no nationality, having been taken out from among both Jews and Gentiles, that he might be a kind of pattern of his ministry.

This was the new thing "which in other ages was not made known" (Eph. 3: 5), but was reserved for communication — though the subject of the counsels of God from all eternity — until after the rejection of Christ. The Jews knew from their own prophets that the Gentiles would be brought into blessing under the sway and by the means of their Messiah; but "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3: 6), they had no conception; and the truth, when proclaimed to them, excited their bitterest hostility. But such was the purpose of God, and His purpose was accomplished in Christ; and hence we can say, "He is our Peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." First He made peace by the blood of His cross (Col. 1: 20); then He came and preached peace both to Gentiles and Jews (Eph. 2: 17); thereon He reconciled to God those that believed (Eph. 2: 13; Col. 1: 20, 21); and, moreover, He made peace between Jew and Gentile by making in Himself of both one new man (Eph. 2: 15). We may, therefore, say, in the widest possible sense, that Christ is OUR PEACE.

There are consequences of this truth in its special aspect which must be indicated to complete the subject.

After showing how that Jews and Gentiles are merged, by being united, in the body of Christ, the apostle speaks of other consequent positions and relationships. Peace is proclaimed both to them that are afar off and to them that are nigh; "for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph. 2: 18). What a contrast to that which had existed! In the former dispensation, and up until the death of Christ, the Jews alone of all the peoples of the earth had access, by means of their high priest, into the immediate presence of God. But now the veil was rent, and after the ascension of Christ all who believed, whether Jews or Gentiles, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is also the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8: 15). Hence, through Christ, both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Christ stands in the same relationship to both; both have the same Spirit, and both are equally children; and therefore all are in the same position of nearness, and enjoy the same privilege of access.

This leads to further blessings. "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2: 19-22). Inasmuch as all national distinctions and privileges are abolished in the body of Christ, so also in the relationships they commonly sustain towards God on the earth. All are upon the same footing, so that no one can boast over the other. The Gentiles have lost their strangership, and are brought in, together with Jews, to be fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; for both are built up upon the same foundation, even Christ, the chief corner-stone.

The apostle then points out two characteristics which attach corporately to the saints who are thus united to Christ on earth, which are of the highest importance. First, as being built up together on the same foundation, they, or the building thus being formed, is said to grow unto an holy temple in the Lord. The expression will be observed — "groweth unto an holy temple." It is therefore not yet complete, but is in process of building, and it will be carried on until the Lord returns, when every living stone will be found in its predestined place. Like the temple of Solomon when it was in building, which was "built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was building," (1 Kings 6: 7), so the erection of this temple is carried silently forward, every stone previously prepared, and then laid upon the foundation in its appointed place. For God Himself is the builder, and His work is unseen by men; but when it is completed, it will bear the impress of His hand, and be stamped with the perfection of His own thoughts and counsels. John says, "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal," etc. (Rev. 21: 9-11). This is the temple completed; for after the new heavens and the new earth, we find that this same city comes down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. And the apostle says, "I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men" (ver. 2, 3). What a wondrous privilege to be a stone in the temple of God — of that temple which will be eternally robed and beautified with the glory of God! The Jews were singularly blessed in having the temple in Jerusalem, the place where God dwelt between the cherubim, and manifested Himself to His people in the Shekinah of glory. But believers now are to form the temple, and thus be the eternal dwelling-place of God.

Not only so, but even now on the earth they form the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2: 22). We do not enter here upon different phases of the house of God in this dispensation, nor stay to point out the difference between the house as built by God, and that which is intrusted for building to man's responsibility (1 Cor. 3). It is the fact only which is presented in this epistle — the fact that believers in this dispensation form the house of God — that God in very deed dwells upon the earth, since we are builded together in Christ for His habitation through the Spirit. Hence even now there is a place of blessing on earth, the sphere which is occupied and dwelt in by the Holy Spirit. All else outside this sphere is under Satan's power; and hence it is no small privilege to be in God's habitation on earth.

Such are some of the distinctive features of the present dispensation, some of the consequences which flow from Christ being our Peace. May He give us to understand more fully the wondrous place in which He has set us, consequent upon accomplished redemption, upon His own ascension to the right hand of God, and upon the presence of the Holy Ghost upon the earth!

"Unto Him who loved us — gave us

Every pledge that love could give;

Freely shed His blood to save us;

Gave His life that we might live;

Be the kingdom,

And dominion, -

And the glory evermore!"

CHAPTER 12.  CHRIST OUR HEAD.

THERE are several senses in which Christ is said in Scripture to be Head. In the first place, He is the head of every man" (I Cor. 11: 3); then, He is head over all things to the Church" (Eph. 1: 22); and lastly, "He is the head of the body, the Church" (Col. 1: 18). The first sets forth His lordship over all men, for He has authority (ἐξουσίαν) over all flesh; the second, His universal supremacy over all things; and the last sets forth His special relation to the Church. Into all these glories He has entered by virtue of redemption, and, therefore, as man. This truth cannot be too urgently repeated, that He fills this wondrous place, inherits these varied dignities, as the Man — the Man who once in this scene was rejected and crucified, but is now the Exalted One at the right hand of God.

This is specially brought out in one aspect in Hebrews 2. Thus the apostle says, "Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him; but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour: that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (or, for everything — ὑπὲρ παντὸς) (Heb. 2: 5-9). It is, therefore, as Son of Man, as taught in this scripture, that the Lord Jesus receives the subjection of all things under His feet. For God hath "made known unto us," writes Paul, "the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ (or, head up all things in the Christ - ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῶ Χριστῶ), both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, in Him" (Eph. 1: 9, 10).

It is also as man, as the glorified Man at God's right hand, that Christ is the Head of His body, the Church. "And He is head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" (Col. 1: 18). It is, therefore, as the Risen One, the First-born from the dead, that He occupies this place; for it is scarcely necessary to point out that when He is spoken of in connection with resurrection it is always as Man. It follows from this, that the Church could have had no existence until after He had taken His place at the right hand of God; for until the Head was in heaven, the body, the Church, could not have been formed below. This will be placed beyond a doubt if we refer to another scripture. "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12: 12, 13). The language here employed is remarkable. Instead of saying, as we should expect, when introducing the comparison of the human body with its many members, "So also is the Church," it is, "So also is Christ" — more exactly the Christ. "The Christ" is thus a term which includes the Head in heaven and the members on earth; and in the next verse the secret is explained — "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." It was not, then, until Christ had ascended up on high, and the Holy Spirit had come down, that the body could have been formed. Accordingly we find our blessed Lord, after His resurrection, saying to His own, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1: 5). This promise was verified on the Day of Pentecost; and on that day — although the truth of the body had not then been revealed — the body of Christ was formed. Then by the Holy Ghost sent down believers were by the baptism of the Spirit united with a glorified Christ on high, forming together with Him — wondrous thought, and still more wondrous grace! — one body. And this remains the characteristic of the present dispensation — that believers, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, are members of Christ's body, He the Head and they the members. (See Rom. 12: 4, 5; Eph. 4: 1-16, etc.)

When, then, we speak of Christ our Head, it is not an individual relationship that is signified, but a relationship which we share in common with every believer who has received the Holy Ghost. As, therefore, we are in common united to Christ, we also are united to one another, members of His body, and consequently members one of another. What an overwhelming thought, as we tread this scene — and yet what solace, what strength it imparts, that we are livingly associated with Christ at the right hand of God; and that also we are livingly associated with all our fellow-believers! And this twofold thought covers the whole ground of our responsibilities as members of the body of Christ — our responsibility to Christ as Head; and our responsibility to one another, to all believers, as being with us members of that body. We. may profitably consider both the one and the other.

(1) Christ is our Head. The Church, therefore, is subject to Christ (Eph. 5: 24). Surely there should be no necessity to dwell upon and to enforce such a self-evident truth. What delight it was to the heart of God to bestow upon His Christ this exalted place, thus expressing His estimate of the work which He wrought out in His life and His death! "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him," etc. (Phil. 2: 8, 9). If, then, we have any fellowship with the heart of God, what delight to us to accord Him such a place of supremacy. When we consider moreover, how deeply we are interested in His occupancy of it; how that all our blessing has flowed to us through Him in that place, in virtue of His finished work; how that it is by His unceasing love and ministry that He maintains us in the blessing in which we are set; how, in a word, that we owe all that we are, and have, and hope to receive, to Him, we might conclude that the hearts of His people would find their joy in acknowledging His Headship, and in taking the place of submission to His will. But what are the facts of the case? Look around for the answer, and what do we see? Emulation in obedience to the Head of the Church? Nay, but man's supremacy and man's will in the Church. Take all the denominations of Christendom that exist today, and you will find more or less that they are grounded upon human constitutions and governed by human laws; that the Headship of Christ in its proper force and sphere is practically ignored. With sorrow we write the words; and we are confident that the godly of all names have fellowship in our sorrow. But if the assertion of self-will on the part of the members of His body be so grievous to us, what must He — the Head of the body — feel? True that it is largely owing to ignorance — ignorance of the truth of the body, and ignorance of the Scriptures. The fact, however, remains — a fact which, if estimated in its proper significance in relation to Christ, and according to His own heart, would fill us all with intolerable shame, abase us in the dust in humiliation and self-judgment.

If Christ is our Head, our responsibility is entire and unreserved obedience. For the head must govern, direct the body, not the body the head. How, then, can the will of the Head be ascertained? From the Word of God. And the most cursory glance over its pages will show what infinite pains He has taken to communicate it to us. Indeed, not only has He revealed His will, but He has given us, in the Holy Ghost, the power to apprehend it (John 14: 20; John 16: 13, 14; 1 Cor. 2, etc.). We are therefore without excuse if we remain in ignorance. But the question is sometimes put, Has He not left us largely to our own discretion, to arrange matters connected with worship and government as we think best? This argument is continually advanced, and advanced to justify all the existing divisions in the Church of God. It needs, however, but a moment's consideration to show its futile character. Search all down the line of God's dealings with man and what do we find? That in every dispensation, whatever has been intrusted to man's responsibility has utterly failed. It was so with Adam in the garden, Noah on the new earth, Israel under law, the priesthood — and even the Church — and in spite of the most precise directions and commandments. And yet it is gravely contended that the Lord has left us to use our discretion! The Head leave the members of the body to act as they should severally — or in twos or threes — please! Impossible! No; search the Scriptures, and it will soon be confessed that the Lord has never once left us to our own wisdom, but has provided for every emergency, so that the Church should be able in every situation, and in all circumstances, to have the certain guidance of His own infallible mind. This is where our failure has been — in the neglect of the study of the Scriptures. And it should be always remembered that every believer is responsible to know his Lord's will. True that He, when dealing with His servants, will make a distinction between those who were wilfully, and those who were ignorantly, disobedient (Luke 12: 47, 48); still the responsibility remains and it is open to every godly soul who desires to know the mind of the Lord, to ascertain it from the Word of God. "If any man will (or desires to) do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7: 17).

Our responsibility thus to our Head is summed up in this one word obedience. Hence, as He was, when on the earth, in subjection to the Father, so are we in subjection to Him. He never did His own will; for He came down from heaven to do His Father's will (John 6: 38); and He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps. It would save us much difficulty, as well as anxiety, if we always remembered that the characteristic of a Christian is that he has no will. The will is connected with the old man, and the believer has put off the old man — it was crucified with Christ (Col. 3: 9; Rom. 6: 6). He must, therefore, be governed by the will of another — even that of Christ. This is rather individual responsibility; but when we speak of the responsibility of the members of the body of Christ, the thought is, that collectively they must be subject — it is the Church which is subject to Christ. Hence, when assembled, as well as in our individual path, we must be in obedience — have everything sanctioned and regulated by the Word of God.

And what perfect rest it gives to have no will, to be in obedience! There can be no conflict where there is no will, but peace and harmony would be the necessary consequence. Obedience would heal every existing division, and secure once more the answer to our blessed Lord's own prayer, that they all may be one (John 17: 21). Who is there amongst the children of God that does not long for such a consummation? Who is there that does not mourn continually that he is separated, here on earth, from so many of the members of Christ's body? Let us, then, not accept it as a dire necessity, but let us, each one for himself, acknowledge our responsibility, seek in all things to be subject to the will of our Head, and then to bring others into the same place of rest and blessing, that we all may be seen to be, as we really are, one in Christ.

(2) Our responsibility is no less marked in reference to our fellow-members of the body of Christ. For, as we have seen, the same Spirit that unites us to Christ as our Head, unites also all the members in one living whole. Thus, writing to the Ephesians, and pointing out the end and object of the gifts which proceed from the ascended Christ as Head of the Church, the apostle proceeds, "But speaking (or rather, holding — the word is difficult — ἀλθεύοντες) the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4: 15, 16). The welfare, blessing, and increase of the whole body is thus dependent upon the harmonious activity of its every member. It is, however, in another epistle that we have the character of our mutual responsibilities specially indicated. We have already referred to it when speaking of the formation of the body by the baptism of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12: 13). The apostle then insists on two points: first, that the body is not one member, but many (ver. 14); and, secondly, that though there are many members, it is yet but one body. On the one side, therefore, we have to maintain the manifoldness, the diversity, of the members; and on the other, the unity of the whole. Then he proceeds to specify the interconnection of the members, and their consequent relationships and responsibilities.

First, every member needs all the other members. "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary," etc. (ver. 21, 22). All, therefore, are necessary the one to the other. We know this in regard to our human body; for if we have suffered the loss — if but for a time — of the least of our members, what inconvenience has immediately resulted, affecting the comfort of the whole body! In the same way the Spirit of God would have us to feel the need of every member of the body of Christ. And this feeling should govern our attitude towards all. We cannot be independent one of the other; and the state of the Church today is but the consequence of forgetting this truth. Our own welfare — the welfare of all — demands that we should all be owning our mutual need; instead of, alas! in many cases, agreeing to differ, and to separate the one from the other for the sake of peace. What God hath joined together — we may also say in respect of the body of Christ — let no man put asunder; and we cannot be too thankful that, though outwardly it be not maintained, its unity cannot be destroyed. Still we must never forget our responsibility; and surely we should have more power to deal with souls who are ignorant of this blessed truth, if we dealt with them in this spirit of yearning after them, because they are necessary to the glory of the Head, in the maintenance of the unity of the body on earth, and to the blessing of all its members. Like the members of a family who are grieved because some of their number have absented themselves from their home, and cannot be happy until they return, so we should feel, when we think of so many saints wandering away, and heeding not their responsibility to their fellow-members of Christ's body.

And let it be distinctly observed that it is not gifts which are here mentioned; but it is members of the body. What a responsibility then devolves upon us all, however insignificant we may be, or others may deem us to be! I, whatever I am, am necessary to all the saints. Every one needs me; and I need all the rest. Our very needs — to say nothing of the mind of Christ — should, therefore, draw us together, and effectually hinder all the sectarian divisions which the will of man and the malice of satan have brought into the Church of God. Would that this truth were laid upon the hearts of all the saints, and in such power that it might disentangle them from all that is so opposed to the will of the Lord, and bring them together on the ground of the unity of the body of Christ!

Secondly — and arising out of our mutual needs — there should be mutual care. The apostle says, "And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another" (Vers. 23-25). Here it is plainly seen that our responsibility flows from what God has done. He has tempered the body together, adjusting it in all its parts for mutual help and blessing, and we are to act in the line of His purpose to preserve that which He has made, thereby having His own mind, and fellowship with His own thoughts and aims. He teaches us our duty from our own bodies, which are also the work of His hands. We all lavish our greatest care upon our weakest members, and all the resources of the other members are brought to their aid. The care of the weakest is the concern of all; and so it should be in the Church of God. Is there no danger of forgetting this truth? — of our caring chiefly for prominent members of the body — splendid gifts — to the neglect of those members of the body which we think to be less honourable? It is, indeed, by no means infrequently the case that the assemblies that have the most distinguished gifts are spiritually the weakest. For their danger is of losing their sense of dependence on the Head, and also upon one another, and of looking too much to the gift or gifts which command their admiration. Gifts may thus easily become a snare to the Lord's people, and always do become so, when they possess undue prominency, obscuring the principles of God's assembly, or when in any measure they come between the assembly and the Lord. But if we have learned the truth already insisted on, that those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, we shall then escape the danger, and own our responsibility of exercising the same care one for another.

It would be for the profit of all, if we often questioned ourselves as to whether we are really owning our duty in this particular, whether practically we confess to the responsibility of having "the same care" for all the members of the body whom we know. A very manifest tendency with many of us is to form our own circles within the Church of God, and sometimes, it is to be feared, circles of friendship rather than of spiritual fellowship. It is not forgotten that of necessity those who are closest to Christ will be themselves drawn closer together, and those who are farther from Christ will also be mutually attracted. This is true; but the responsibility here enjoined is based upon common membership of the body, so that I owe care to my fellow-members simply because they are of the body. Family relationships might teach us this lesson. The parents care for their children because they are their children, and not at all on the ground of their answering to their own mind. So we must have the same care one for another on the ground of common membership of the body. Hence, too, our responsibility goes out far beyond those who are gathered on the ground of the body. There will be certainly more frequent opportunities for the exhibition of the care towards those who are associated together, but the debt is owing to all, wherever they may be found; for we must not forget to claim them as Christ's members, even if they do not recognise us as such. Indeed, we must express the heart of Christ, and in the same circle; and His affections embrace all who are His.

We have, lastly, mutual sympathies. "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it" (ver. 26). Suffering with one another has two aspects. We do this in one way necessarily — just as, for example, our whole body suffers with the suffering of the least of its members. So in the body of Christ, if one member be suffering spiritually from lukewarmness, backsliding, or through falling into temptation, all the members, though it may be unconsciously, will be affected. The state of the whole is the state of its individual members. Take, for instance, a bason of hot water, and if you add but two drops of cold, the temperature of the whole will be lowered. It is so also in the Church. Let there be but one who is cold at heart in the assembly, and its tone will be affected — all will suffer with the suffering member.

This is true, but here it is rather active suffering, because it is connected with responsibility. It is what we owe one to another. And how blessed it is — and thank God its exhibition is not rarely seen — when the sympathy of the whole assembly is drawn forth towards one of its suffering members. And practically how it binds the hearts of the members of Christ together — this manifestation of sympathy with suffering! Surely it is one of the most blessed presentations of what Christ Himself is, who is not one who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Let us, then, seize such opportunities, not only as owning our responsibility of suffering with those who suffer, but also for the purpose of the exhibition of the grace of Christ, who Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.

The other side of this responsibility — if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it — is more difficult. The case supposed is that of some member of the body on whom the Lord has put some special honour, giving him some special prominence, or using him in a striking way in service. When this is the case, it is assumed that all the members will rejoice in his exaltation — in his being honoured, "glorified." I say that this is assumed; and indeed, if the oneness of the body be practically maintained, there will be this perfect sympathy. It is often exemplified in a family. If one of its members receive some promotion, or some special mark of approbation from the sovereign, the whole family feels honoured, and rejoices with its distinguished member. So should it be in the Church of God. But is it too much to say that, as a matter of fact, sympathy in this direction is more rare than in that of suffering? We are such poor feeble creatures, that, instead of rejoicing with the brother whom the Lord may have singled out for honour, we find in his Lord's choice food for envy or jealousy. Such feelings ought not even to be named among saints, and yet, alas! are they uncommon? We all need to watch over ourselves, for we know what the flesh is — and it is still in us, that we may unsparingly judge ourselves when we fail in this particular. Nay, more; we are responsible to rejoice with the honoured member. The Lord so counts upon our oneness of feeling that He expects to see it exhibited. John the Baptist may be cited as an illustration, though he knew nothing of the body of Christ. "Rabbi," say his disciples, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to Him. John answered, and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from God. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3: 26-30). What blessed, lowly grace — thinking all of Christ and nothing of self, and entering into, and rejoicing, because of, His joy! It is precisely this spirit which we should cherish; and it is in the expression of it, that we proclaim that we are Christ's, following thereby in the path of lowliness and self-abasement that ever characterised His ways while here below. Then we should have no difficulty when one member is honoured, in rejoicing with it.

All these responsibilities — those that have passed under consideration — flow from our being united to Christ, and having Him as our Head. May we delight more and more in the relationship into which, by the sovereignty and the grace of God, we have thus been brought! And may we be ever found owning in practical power, that we are both members of the body of Christ, and also members one of another, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!

As members of His body, we know Christ now as our Head. But He will soon return to receive us unto Himself; and those whom He will thus gather to Himself, those who have been His members on earth, will then form the bride, the Church He loved, and for which He gave Himself, "that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 25-27). It is of this Church John speaks, when he says, "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21: 2). The thousand years have then passed, and still she has the unfading beauty of the bride; for in truth she has been robed in the glory of God (ver. 11); and thus throughout eternity, she will be always the meet companion of the Lamb. What honour then to be a member of the body; and what surpassing grace that has put us into such a place of blessedness; and hence with what adoring gratitude we should now acknowledge Christ as our Head!

CHAPTER 13.  CHRIST OUR HOPE.

ONLY once do we find in the Scriptures the expression, "Christ our hope." "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope" (1 Tim. 1: 1). But although the term itself is not repeated, the thing signified by it is found in almost every book, and in some books almost in every page, of the New Testament. For the characteristic of every Christian is that he is waiting for the Lord Jesus, who will return, according to His own promise, to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also (John 14: 3). It belongs, therefore, to our position, as left in the world, that we are waiting for Christ, because it is at His coming that we shall enter upon the full fruits of our redemption. For it is then that our bodies are also redeemed (Rom. 8: 23); "that He will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3: 20). Hence we are said to be saved by (rather, in) hope (Rom. 8: 24). Even now we receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1: 9); but we look forward to the moment, when our bodies likewise shall be redeemed from the power of death and the grave; for God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Rom. 8: 29).

Accordingly it belongs to our present position that we are waiting for the coming of our Lord; for it is at His return that this consummation of our blessedness will be effected. He is our Hope, therefore, because it is Himself for whom we wait in connection with it. And not only so; it is for Himself we wait, because the One who has redeemed us is He on whom our hearts are set. Apart, therefore, from every other consideration, Christ is our Hope — Christ in His coming — because we desire to be with the object of our affections. We are thus brought into fellowship with His own desires, for if we wait for, and desire to be with, Him, He waits for the moment when the desires of His heart will be fulfilled in having us with Himself (John 17: 24).

We shall find, therefore, that during His sojourn with His disciples He continually prepared them, and exhorted them to watch for, His return. Sometimes He presented this truth — the hope of His coming — in relation to their responsibility as servants. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing" (Matt. 24: 46); again, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching" (Luke 12: 35-37). Sometimes, He presented His coming as ushering His waiting ones into fulness of blessing, as bringing them into His own presence, to be with Him for ever. For example, in the scripture already referred to, when His disciples were plunged into sorrow at the prospect of His speedy departure, He says, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14: 1-3). The Lord here not only presents Himself to His sorrowing disciples, as the object of their faith in His absence from them, and as one who was departing in their interests to prepare a place for them, but also as the object of their hope in returning to receive them unto Himself.

In entire accordance with this is the teaching of the epistles. The apostle says of the Thessalonians, that they "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10). This scripture is exceedingly important, inasmuch as it shows, beyond dispute, that the coming of Christ was no advanced truth imparted to a few of the spiritual, and no peculiar doctrine adopted by a class, but an essential part of the Christianity of these early believers. It may be well also to remark, that this was Paul's earliest epistle, and that it was written, therefore, to very young converts; and it is such that he reminds that, by their conversion, they were not only turned to God, etc., but that they also were brought upon the ground of waiting for God's Son. His coming was their hope.

Evidence of the same character might be adduced from almost every epistle. A few citations will suffice. Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle says, "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1: 7); to the Philippians, "Our conversation is in heaven; whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ," etc. (Phil. 3 20). James also says, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord" (James 5: 7); and in the last chapter of the inspired canon, the blessed Lord Himself announces three times His speedy return (Rev. 22: 7, 12, 20). But it is Paul who was especially commissioned to reveal this truth in its specific character as the hope of the Church; and he does it with precision and fulness in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians. He says, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." He then proceeds to explain, how it comes to pass that the saints will return with Jesus, i.e., at His appearing; for if they return with Him then, they must have been with Him previously; and he is specially charged to unfold this mystery. Hence he adds, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (an old word, signifying to go before, or anticipate) them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. 4: 13-18). Two things plainly appear from this scripture: first, that the Lord will return for His saints, both those who have fallen asleep, and those who may be alive at that time on the earth, before His appearing; and, secondly, that when He comes back to earth, His saints will be with Him. (See also Colossians 3: 4.)

There is another class of passages which speaks of our looking and waiting for the appearing rather than the coming of Christ. One of these has been cited (1 Cor. 1: 7). We add another, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing (rather, the appearing of the glory) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," etc. (Titus 2: 11-13). There is a reason for this. It will be found that whenever believers are looked at as under responsibility on the earth — as, for example, in service — the "appearing" is the goal rather than the "coming." Thus Paul says to Timothy, "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. 6: 14). Some have concluded from this, and similar passages, that the Church will be left down here until the appearing, having to pass through the sore tribulation of which our Lord speaks in Matt. 24. This is, however, an entire mistake, as seen, indeed, from the scripture already cited (1 Thess. 4: 13-18). The fact is, the appearing is spoken of in connection with responsibility, because as earth has been the scene of the service, earth also shall be the witness of the displayed recompense. Hence in 2 Thessalonians, after that the apostle has unfolded the proper hope of the Church in the coming of Christ, in writing to the same saints, and speaking of their patience and faith in all their persecutions and tribulations that they were enduring, he points them on to the time when they should have rest, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" (have believed) (2 Thess. 1: 4-10). This is in no way inconsistent with, but is rather the complement of, the truth of the Lord's coming for His saints being our proper object of hope.

It may perhaps tend to make this, if possible, more evident, if we show that there is nothing, as far as the Scriptures reveal, between us and the return of the Lord — that He may return at any moment to receive His waiting people. If, indeed, there were a single event which must necessarily, to our knowledge, intervene between us and His return, His coming would not be our immediate hope. In that case, we should look first for the predicted event or events, and after that we might be able to expect the coming of the Lord. Two or three scriptures will show that it is our privilege to look at any time for the return of the Lord.

After our Lord's resurrection, and ere His ascension, in one of His interviews with His disciples, Peter said to Him concerning the disciple whom Jesus loved, "Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me" (John 21: 21, 22). Now, without pausing to enter upon the special significance of these words as applied to John, it is clear upon the surface, that had there been necessarily a long intervening space between the Lord's departure and return, rendered necessary by the accomplishment of earthly events, these words could not have been spoken. Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when dealing with the resurrection of the body, the apostle says, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," etc. (1 Cor. 15: 51); and also in the passage from the Thessalonians which has been remarked upon, he says, "We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." A great deal of ingenious reasoning has been expended upon these scriptures to destroy their evident teaching, that Paul knew of nothing to hinder the Lord's return during his lifetime. Had he known that a long course of prophetic events and earthly judgments must first be accomplished, he could not have thus classed himself, as he does by the word "we," among those who might never die.

But it is objected that our Lord Himself prepared the minds of His disciples, in other scriptures, to expect a long course of events before His return; and Matthew 24 is freely adduced by those who seek to obscure the distinctive hope of the Church. What, then, do we find there? After describing a time of special tribulation, the Lord thus speaks, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24: 29-31). Now, it is freely conceded that if this be a description of the Lord's return for the Church, there must yet elapse, it may be, a long interval of time. But does this scripture contemplate the Church? There are several reasons in the chapter itself which forbid the conclusion. In the fifteenth verse the Lord gives a sign, "When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not," etc. This sign, as all must confess who will take the trouble of reading the prediction of Daniel, refers exclusively to a temple (hereafter to be rebuilt) in Jerusalem. Again, our Lord urges upon them to pray that their flight might be "not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day" — a prayer which could scarcely be offered by a Christian, seeing that the Sabbath — the seventh day, and no other, i.e., Saturday — is to him as any other day of the week. If, moreover, one should come, according to the twenty-third verse, and say to a believer, Lo, here is Christ, or there," how could he be deceived? Would he not reply, "Christ is at the right hand of God?" But there would be nothing so calculated to deceive the Jew who was eagerly looking for the advent of the Messiah. Indeed, it is undeniable that the whole chapter applies to the Jews who will be, at the time spoken of, in Jerusalem and Judea. It can be shown even more convincingly. Examine the order of events detailed in the passage cited. After the tribulation, the sun is darkened, etc., and then appears the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth mourn, and then they see the Son of Man coming, etc.; and it is not till after all this that He sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather together His elect, etc. So that, if this applies to the Church, it is not gathered together until after the appearing. But what says Paul? "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 4). Both scriptures cannot, therefore, apply to the same thing, or they would be mutually contradictory. Since, then, the scripture in Matthew 24 differs from that in Colossians 3, it is evident that it cannot apply to the Church. Indeed, the application is to the elect remnant among the Jews, who will be gathered, in the manner there described, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory.

In Revelation 19 we shall find confirmatory evidence. "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called the Word of God" (vers. 11-13). This is a description of the coming of the Lord Jesus in judgment, as the sequel shows; in other words, of His appearing. It is at this time that He returns with His saints. Let the Word speak for itself. "And the armies that were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean" (ver. 14). Who are these? Their dress is distinctive, and supplies the answer. "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses" (τὰ δικαιώματά) of saints" (vers. 7, 8). The armies, therefore, who followed upon the white horses are saints; but if saints, they must have been with Christ before He issues forth for judgment at His appearing. This is in accordance with Paul's statement, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 4).

It is thus abundantly plain that the Lord returns for His people before He appears in judgment, and hence that there are no necessarily intervening events between us and the Lord's coming. This might be gathered, indeed, from the Lord's own words, "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star "for the star of hope which burns aloft in the sky is the herald and harbinger of the coming day, the star to which we turn in earth's darkest hours, in the longing expectation that we shall soon be caught up, and associated with Him in all His heavenly splendours. "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." Happy they who can from full hearts respond, "Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22: 20).

Such is the teaching of the Word of God, and very many profess to receive and to hold it. But it is one thing to hold the doctrine, and quite another to live in the power of it, to be possessed and moulded by the truth which it expresses. To hold the doctrine that the Lord is at hand, and to be living as if this scene were our home, to be engrossed in its cares, activities, or pleasures, or to be associated with things which are not suited to Him for whom we profess to wait, is practically to deny our hope, and even to turn the grace of God into an occasion for the liberty of self-will and the pleasing of self. It behoves every one, therefore, who believes that the Lord is at hand, to judge himself, his heart, and his ways, by the light of the Word, that he may be brought into a state conformable to his expectation, suited to the presence of Him whom we so soon expect to see face to face, and with whom we hope to be for ever. Let us, then, collect a few examples of the effect which this blessed hope should practically produce upon our walk and ways.

The parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25) shows that, whatever our profession, we are not prepared to meet the Lord unless we have "oil" in our vessels; and the effect of the cry, "Behold the bridegroom," was to awaken both the wise and foolish as to their condition and needs. But every one will understand, that none but those who are born again through the Word and by the power of the Holy Ghost can be ready for the Lord's coming. There was a second thing. The cry was, "Go ye out to meet Him." With this corresponds another scripture. John, after revealing to us that when Christ is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, adds, "Every man that hath this hope in Him (in Christ) purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3: 2, 3). The effect of the expectation of Christ, therefore, when held in living power, will be to separate, and to produce in us an ever-increasing separation. With Himself before our souls, and looking for Him hourly, our desire will be to be apart from all which would not please His eyes, and to be possessed of all that would delight His gaze. Hence we may measure the reality and intensity of our hope by its separating power upon our hearts and lives. How were it possible, indeed, to cleave to a single thing, however innocent even in itself, if it be not distinctly for Christ, if we were expecting every moment to see His face? No; waiting for Him, our aim would be to be found just as He would have us to be, so that, weaned from every earthly thing and object that might bind our heart to the scene through which we are passing, we may have nothing to leave but the wilderness itself, when He descends from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

It will also help us to keep our lamps trimmed and burning. All the ten virgins had fallen asleep, and when roused from their unfaithful slumbers, their first anxiety was for their lamps. "Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps" (ver. 7). They had been careless about this before, but immediately they hear the cry, "Go ye out to meet Him," they turn to see if their lamps can be prepared in time to meet Him. But they should have been kept both trimmed and burning all through the darkness of the night; and had they really been waiting for the bridegroom, it could not have been otherwise. How is it now with us who profess to be expecting the Lord? Are our lights burning — burning steadily and brightly through the surrounding darkness? The light is Christ. Are we then reflecting Him? "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house" (Matt. 5: 14, 15). In like manner if, by the grace of God, Christ is in us, it is that He may be displayed. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, for the shining forth (πρὸς φωτισμὸν) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4: 6).

Paul applies this truth in many ways. "The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing," etc. (Phil. 4: 5, 6). He would thus have us without a single care in the prospect of His coming. He uses the same truth to comfort the hearts of the sorrowing in the passage already adduced (1 Thess. 4). And what can comfort the heart of the bereaved like the expectation of Christ? For even while the bodies of our dear ones are lying in the house, or on their way to the grave, we are entitled to hope that the Lord may return; and then, raised from their sleep of death, and we ourselves changed, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The Apostle James exhorts to patience on the same ground. "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James 5: 7, 8). The prospect of the Lord's return is thus an antidote to the weariness, the trials, and the difficulties of our wilderness journey.

The Lord Himself continually uses the uncertainty of the time of His return as an incentive to fidelity. When He represents Himself in the parable as departing to receive a kingdom and to return, and delivers the "pounds" to the servants, His word is, "Occupy till I come" (Luke 19: 12, 13). Again He says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that He shall make him ruler over all His goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 24: 45-51).

These are but samples of the practical uses of the truth of the coming of Christ for His people. An examination of all the passages that treat of the subject will show that it is interwoven with every detail of Christian life and walk. To ignore it, therefore, is to lose one of the most powerful motives to holiness which is given to us in the Scriptures. More than this: it is, as before remarked, an integral part of Christianity; and hence the Christian who has not received the truth of the Lord's coming is ignorant of the character of the place into which he is brought, as well as of the fulness of the grace of God. Is the coming of Christ — Christ Himself in His coming — your hope, dear reader? Can any prospect be so fraught with joy to the believer? To see the face of Him, whom not having seen we love! To be like Him, and to be with Him for ever! Surely if our hearts respond in ever so feeble a measure to what He is to us, and to His love, we must long for the moment when He will enter upon the fruition of His own joy in receiving His own to Himself, and when our joy will be consummated in the everlasting possession of the object of our affections.

May the Lord bring many more of His beloved saints into acquaintance with it, and enable those who by His grace do wait for Him to maintain the truth in living power — walking under its full separating influences every step of their wilderness path!

The Children of God.

being an exposition of the Fatherhood of God and the relationships of his children.

E. Dennett.

(Broom, 1883.)

Preface.

In the following chapters the writer has sought to expound the truth concerning God's family. Commencement is made with Christ as the revealer of the Father, and then the various aspects of the family as presented in the Scriptures are considered. The subject is only dealt with in outline, in order that, keeping the volume within smaller compass, a wider circle of readers, with the Lord's blessing, might be obtained.

The writer begs very earnestly to commend the subject to the reader, because, amid the many ecclesiastical questions which are continually exercising the people of God, it tends to warm and enlarge the heart to be occupied with the whole circle of God's affections. In a day of controversy the heart is apt to be chilled and narrowed if it does not remember the claim of all God's children. It is an unspeakable sorrow to be compelled, for the Lord's sake, and in obedience to His word, to withdraw even from saints who are walking disorderly (see 2 Thess. 3: 6); but on this very account it is the more needful to remind ourselves that our debt of love to them can never be discharged. The obligation of the Lords word ever remains — "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15: 12.)

And it is the writer's hope and prayer that the presentation of the common relationship of all believers to God as their Father, together with the fact that all believers alike are the common objects of the Father's heart, and that there is therefore of necessity a common tie both to God and to one another, may be used of the Lord to fasten anew His own word, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, upon the hearts of His beloved people.

London, 1883.

Contents.

CHAPTER 1. CHRIST AS THE REVEALER OF THE FATHER

CHAPTER 2. THE CHILDREN OF GOD

CHAPTER 3. THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION

CHAPTER 4. THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. (1)

CHAPTER 5. THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. (2)

CHAPTER 6. MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD

CHAPTER 7. THE FATHER'S DESIRES FOR HIS CHILDREN

CHAPTER 8. THE FATHER'S GOVERNMENT OF HIS CHILDREN

CHAPTER 9. THE PRIVILEGES OF GOD'S CHILDREN

CHAPTER 10. THE FUTURE CONDITION AND HOME OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD

CHAPTER 1. CHRIST AS THE REVEALER OF THE FATHER.

GOD has been pleased to reveal Himself in various ways and under different characters in every age and in all dispensations. Before the cross He had made Himself known to Adam, the patriarchs, and to His people Israel; but it was not until Christ came, and had glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which had been given Him to do, that all was told out, that the Father-name of God could be fully revealed. Ere this clouds and darkness were round about Him; but as soon as atonement had been made by the death of Christ on the cross, the veil was rent, and believers could thereafter be set down in the light as God is in the light. All distance and concealment were now abolished, and all that God is, together with the name of Father, was fully displayed. Christ Himself, Christ as the eternal Son, but as the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1: 14) was Himself the revelation of the Father; but until the descent of the Holy Ghost there was little, if any, power on the part of those before whose eyes the revelation was passing to apprehend it. There were a few anointed eyes who beheld His glory as of an only-begotten with a Father, but John the Baptist knew Him not, except by the appointed sign of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him, and even Philip had to be told, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (John 14)

Practically therefore there was no knowledge of God as Father until after Pentecost. This will be plain to the reader if we trace a little the successive revelations of God which were made to His people in the Old Testament. To Abraham, God said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17: 1); to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3: 14); and when He entered into distinct relationship with His chosen people, it was under the name of Jehovah, and that was ever His covenant name with Israel. Search indeed the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures, and not even the word father will be found more than five or six times as applied to God, and in most of these cases it is used rather as indicating the source of existence than as implying relationship. All the Old Testament saints were undoubtedly born again. This is to be insisted upon, for without a new life and a new nature they would not have been able to converse with God; but it is equally true that they never knew God as Father, and therefore that they could not be in the enjoyment of the relationship. One word from Scripture definitely and conclusively settles this point, "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." (Matt. 11: 2 7.)

It is then abundantly proved that God was not revealed as Father before the advent of Christ. And passing now to the New Testament, it will be seen, as already stated, that Christ Himself was the revealer of the Father, and that it is in the Gospel of John He is presented to us in this character. In the very first chapter of this gospel it is said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (v. 18.) Not only, indeed, does this scripture inform us that the only-begotten Son declared the Father, but it also teaches that none other but Himself could have done so, and this because of the position He ever occupied — the place of intimacy and communion which He ever, and He alone, enjoyed, as marked by the words, "in the bosom of the Father." This place He never left; He was in it (for it is a moral expression) as much when He was the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, as when He possessed the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; and on the cross itself He was still there, for He Himself said, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (John 10: 17) — His death in obedience to the commandment which He had received, supplying as it were a new motive for the expression of His Father's love. Later on in the gospel, we find one of His disciples permitted to lean on His bosom, and this same disciple was the chosen vessel to unfold in his gospel the eternal Sonship of Christ — Christ as divine; and this in some measure may aid us in understanding that none but He who was ever in the bosom of the Father could unfold Him in this character and relationship. In divine things it is ever true as an abiding principle, that we can only tell out to others that which we ourselves know in our own souls. If we are not in the power of the thing spoken of, our words, clear as they may seem to be, will convey but little significance. The Lord Himself laid down this principle when He said, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." (John 3: 11)

Let us then enquire in what way the Lord revealed the Father. He Himself has answered the question. "If," said He to the Jews, "ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also" (John 8: 19); and again, speaking to Philip, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of" (from, literally) "myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake." (John 14: 7-11.)

Christ Himself then, in all that He was, in the life He lived when down here, was the revelation of the Father; i.e., He was the perfect moral presentation of the Father, in all that He is, to all who had eyes to perceive it. As He said, "I have declared unto them Thy name" (John 17: 26) — name in Scripture being the expression of the truth of what a person is, and it will therefore signify, in this connection, the truth of the Father. Thus as Christ passed through this scene every feature, every moral trait, all the perfections of the Father's mind and heart and character, were fully exhibited; so that had the eyes of those who were round about our Lord been anointed they would have perceived in Him the living embodiment of the Father. To the natural eye He was only Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, but the eye opened by the Holy Ghost beheld in Him "the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father," and as such the declarer of the Father.

But we may come to the details of this wondrous revelation. The Lord has Himself pointed put the two channels through which it was made, as indeed there are but these two in which man can express what he is. The passage has already been cited in which He says, that He did not speak His words from Himself; and in an earlier chapter He says, "The Son can do nothing from Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." (v. 19; see also John 8: 28.) He did not therefore originate (for that is the force of His statement) either His words or His works. Though He were the eternal Son, He had come not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him (6: 38), and on this account His every word and work were but the expressions of His perfect obedience, the motive to both alike being found not in His own will, perfect as it was, but in His Father's. That is, He never spake and He never acted except as in dependence on the Father, and in subjection to His will; and on this very account His words and work were the revelation of Him who had sent Him.

And this characteristic brings out a very blessed truth as to Himself, and a mournful contrast as to ourselves. Being what He was, His words were as perfect as His works; and thus when the Jews asked, "Who art Thou?" He replied (as it should be rendered), "Altogether that which I also say to you" (John 8: 25); as another has said, "His speech presented Himself, being the truth." Our words often convey either less or more than the truth, and we are frequently humbled at the discovery that we have failed to express what we even desired, and sometimes because we have left behind a wrong, if not untrue, impression, through the imperfection of our words. With Him, on the other hand, every word was perfect, and a ray therefore of His own glory as well as a manifestation of the Father. We thus find in John 14 that He identifies His words with His works. "The words," He says, "that I speak unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." (v. 10) The words were as perfect as the works, and both alike the revelation of the Father.

Bearing this in mind, what preciousness, yea, what solemnity, attaches to all that is recorded of our blessed Lord. Some things that He said and did have not been recorded (see Luke 24: 27; John 21: 25; Acts 1: 3), and at times we have been tempted to desire that it had been otherwise. The truth is, every word and every act have been given which were necessary for His perfect revelation of the Father — no more, no less. If more had been given, perfect as all of necessity would have been, this revelation would not have been more complete. We have therefore suffered no loss; for divine wisdom and divine love guided in the preservation of all that was necessary for God's glory, and our instruction and blessing. In one word, what is recorded is a perfect presentation of Himself, and thus of the Father. Omit but a single word, or but one action, and the perfectness of the picture would be marred. It is very necessary to insist on this point in such a day as the present, when men, on the one hand, are endeavouring with ruthless criticism, the offspring of an unholy rationalism, to destroy our confidence in the authenticity of portions of the four blessed gospels, or, on the other hand, with bold presumption to construct human narratives of the life of our blessed Lord, which they offer either as substitutes for, or in elucidation of, the divine fourfold record. It were difficult to decide which of these two classes are guilty of the greater temerity. Be this as it may, nothing can be more certain than that the labours of both tend to destroy faith in the word of God, obscure the holy character of our Lord, and thereby to inflict irreparable damage upon the souls of their readers.

The Lord Himself, then, declared the Father perfectly in what He was in His life on the earth; but at the same time it is also true that His death was the consummation of the revelation He had made. As the only-begotten of the Father — yea, as the sinless One in His own abiding excellency and perfection — He could not be at any time less than what He was. There was not a moment of His life in which He could not have said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" and yet it is also true that His death was, so to speak, the crowning act, at least in demonstration, of His perfect declaration of the Father. It was so in two ways. First, in the exhibition and proof of His entire devotedness to His Father's glory, in humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. On the cross it was obedience, if we may thus speak, of another sort, obedience under new circumstances and conditions; for there it was that He glorified God in the place of sin, and on account of sin, being made sin for us. Thus it was that He spake of His death as a special ground for the Father's love (John 10), and on this account also it is that the death of Christ was the completion of the perfect manifestation of His own moral glory. (John 13: 31.) Secondly, His death was necessary for the full revelation of the. Father's heart. "And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world." (1 John 4: 14.) All that God is — all the attributes of His character, His holiness, His righteousness, His truth, His mercy, His Majesty, and His love — were displayed in and through the cross of Christ; but when we are taught that the Father sent His Son, and sent Him in order to be a Saviour for all, Jew or Gentile, who should believe on Him, we are permitted to see into the depths of His unfathomable heart. Yea, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3: 16.)*

*It may be helpful to some if we add the following note from the writings of another. He says, "It will be found in the writings of John that, when responsibility is spoken of, God is the word used; when grace to us, the Father and the Son. When indeed it is goodness (God's character in Christ) towards the world, then God is spoken of." Nothing indeed can be more instructive than a close observation of the way in which the Holy Spirit uses the different names of God, and also of our blessed Lord Himself. The meaning of many a scripture almost entirely depends upon it.

We can now perhaps better understand the Lord's words to Philip — "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." If therefore we would know the Father more fully it can only be. through a more perfect knowledge of Christ. The fathers to whom John writes (1 John 2), whose characteristic was that they knew "Him who is from the beginning," i.e., Christ, "that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1 John 1: 2), were those who knew most of the Father; for it is in Christ, as we have seen, that the Father has been fully displayed. This should never be forgotten; for one of the evils of traditional and formal theology (and many souls are still under its influence) is that Christ, as the Son, has been too much separated from the Father. While rightly insisting on the holiness of God, and the necessity of atonement as the foundation of His gracious dealings with men, it has lost sight of the fact that Christ was the true expression of the Father's heart, of the Father's character and nature. The consequence is, that when the heart, under the gracious operations of the Spirit of God, has turned for relief to Christ, and the work He has wrought out on the cross, there has yet been the sense of distance from God, because He has been presented only in the aspect of a Judge. The knowledge therefore that God is for His people, that the Father's heart rests upon them with delight and complacency, has been confined to comparatively few, and hence with the mass of believers there has been but little liberty in the presence of God, and almost no knowledge of their relationship to God as their Father. It would be an immense blessing to all such to apprehend the truth here insisted upon; that Christ is the perfect revelation of the Father; for then all that they learn of Him, they would consciously learn also of the Father, and thereby enter upon the rich and ever-increasing enjoyment of the Father's love. He Himself has told its, "I and my Father are one" (John 10: 30) — one in mind, thought, purpose, and aim; He in the Father and the Father in Him, and thus of necessity He is the perfect expression of all that the Father is.

The question may perhaps be asked, "Where then can we obtain a fuller knowledge of Christ in order more perfectly to know the Father?" The answer to this question is of all importance. It is only in the Scriptures that we can learn what Christ is. There may be meditation upon Him undoubtedly; but if we would be preserved from the snares of mysticism and imagination, the word of God must be the basis of our contemplations. It should ever be strongly stated, that the only revelation of Christ is in the Scriptures; and when the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ, receives of Christ, and shows it unto us (John 16: 14), it is through the Word. It is not too much to say that there is no contact with a living and glorified Christ except through the written word of God. There is a manifestation of Christ to the soul, giving us the special and conscious apprehension of His presence, but even this privilege and blessing are connected with keeping His commandments or His word. (John 14: 21-23.) Assailed as we are by the dangers, both of human reasonings and a spiritualized mysticism, it cannot be too often repeated, that we can only apprehend Christ, what He was on earth, and what He is at the right hand of God, the same Christ, His moral glories now being the same as when He was down here, but existing under different conditions — we can only learn all that He is, we repeat, through the pages of God's inspired word. Remembering this, it will give a new incentive to the study of the Scriptures, and at the same time it will keep us while we read, like Mary, at the feet of our blessed Lord. We shall behold the man Christ Jesus moving across the scene, but the thought will ever be present to our hearts — He whom we behold in His works of mercy and love, He whom we hear speaking as never man spake, is the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, and is Himself in all these acts and words the declaration of the Father. Reading the Scriptures in such a spirit would be an occasion for adoring worship and for grateful praise.

Before we close we may point out two things which our Lord did to aid His disciples in the apprehension of this truth. At the close of His sojourn among them He said, "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you," etc. (John 16: 25-27.) There was no possibility of coming to the Father but by Him, but He would have them know that they had through Him come unto the Father. They should continue to ask in His name, but He desired them to understand that the Father Himself loved them. He wanted to direct their gaze to the Father through Himself that they might know Him, and know also that they were the objects of His heart. This teaching of our blessed Lord might well be commended to many in the present day. Is there no danger to our souls of forgetting that the Father has been revealed to us, that through the Lord Jesus we are come to Him, and that we may count upon His heart at all times?

The second thing is that the Lord put His disciples, ere He departed from them, into His own place. He did this when. He presented them before the Father in His prayer which He uttered in their hearing: "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me; for they are Thine. And all mine are Thine, and Thine are mine; and I am glorified them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." (John 17: 9-11; see also verses 16-26.) But after His resurrection He formally announces to them the character of the place into which they had now been brought. "Go to my brethren," says He to Mary, "and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20: 17.) We hope to expound these words in the next chapter; but we call attention now to the fact that on the ground of redemption, effected through His death and resurrection, the Lord brings His people into His own place and relationship with God. God was not henceforth to be known as Jehovah, or Jehovah-Elohim, as by Israel, but as the God and Father of His people, because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it will be found in the epistles that almost all the blessings secured to us in Christ are developed in this twofold relationship. (See 2 Cor. 1: 2, Eph. 1: 2, 3; 1 Peter 1: 3.)

Thus the gospel of John closes.* Commencing with the introduction of the Word, who was with God and who was God, and who withal was the eternal Son, and as such the revealer of the Father, it concludes with His putting the disciples, in His tenderness and love, on resurrection ground into His own place and relationship to His God and Father. As yet they could not enter upon the enjoyment of this, but He had given it to them, and had brought them into it as the fruit of His own redemptive work. Blessed be His name!

*John 21 is in some sort an appendix, and points on to millennial times, the shepherding of the sheep, and John's ministry, which was to go on until the Lord's return. John 20 is therefore a distinct close of the historical gospel.

CHAPTER 2. THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

WE have already seen that Christ as the Son was the revealer of the Father; and as soon as the Father is declared it is of necessity that there should be those who are in the enjoyment of the relationship; in other words, the Father must have His children. Accordingly we find the family in the very same gospel that contains the declaration of the Father's name. There are, it may be said, three notices of it to which we may call attention.

The first is contained in John 1; but we turn now to that found in John 11. After the resurrection of Lazarus the Jewish authorities assembled together for consultation. They could not deny the miracle that had been wrought; but, shutting their eyes to its divine significance and their consequent responsibility, and caring only for their own selfish interests and advantage, they determined to rid themselves of the One who so disturbed their peace, and who was making so many disciples. They thought in their wicked councils only of themselves; but God was behind the scene overruling their thoughts, and was about to make their wrath to praise Him in the accomplishment of His own eternal counsels of grace and love. He thus used the mouth of Caiaphas to prophesy that Jesus should die for the Jewish nation, this being God's purpose from eternity; and to that prophecy the Spirit of God added another in order to embrace the full character of the death of Christ, by the hand of John, who writes, "And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." (John 11: 49-52.) We thus learn that not only was the heart of God set upon His children, but that also the death of Christ was requisite, requisite for the glory of God as for the redemption of His people, as the foundation on which the Spirit of God could, through the entreating message of the gospel, go out into every land, and gather in one by one those who should constitute the Father's family, and as such be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. As the Father could only be fully revealed by the life and death of Christ, so likewise the children could only be sought out, found, and gathered through that death.

The second reference is in John 1: 12, 13, and points out the way in which we become children — the only possible way — and this must be entered upon more fully. It is stated at the very outset in accordance with the character of the gospel. In the three preceding gospels — generally termed the synoptic gospels — Christ is presented to His people for acceptance, and we see Him rejected in the course of the narrative. This is true of all three, though there are characteristic differences. In John, on the other hand, Christ is introduced as already rejected. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." The world was ignorant (knew not God, as in 2 Thess. 1: 8), and the Jew rejected Him (did not, as it were, obey the gospel, as also in the scripture cited). Hence we find a fuller display in John of the person of Christ, and the introduction of the cross with its blessed teachings at the commencement (John 3) instead of waiting for the historical relation at the close. We have therefore, following immediately upon the statement of His rejection, a class indicated who received Him, and who in receiving Him received power (right or authority) to become (to take the place of) the children of God; and then, to dispel all uncertainty as to the nature of the change thus wrought, it is added, "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (v. 13.) It is a divine and sovereign operation effected by a power and through agencies outside of man, and with which man, though he may be the subject of their energy, can have nothing to do.

But the consideration of this will lead us back to the very fountain-head of the existence of the children of God. They are born of God. In chapter 3 the Lord tells Nicodemus, that "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (v. 5); and here we find another truth, that those who are born again through these instrumentalities are brought into relationship of children with the Father. Combining then these scriptures, we shall have before us the whole truth of the process by which the family of God is formed.

1. Its origin is in God Himself; and this same apostle tells us another thing, not only that believers are born of God, but also that their blessed place and relationship flow from the heart of the Father. "Behold," he exclaims, "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons" (children — tekna) "of God" (1 John 3: 1); so that the very fact of our being children is the expression of the Father's heart, He desired to have His children for His own satisfaction and joy; and if we add another scripture, we shall see that in a past eternity He formed this blessed counsel of grace. "Having," as St. Paul writes, "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. 1: 5, 6.) We cannot dwell too much upon this outflow of the heart of God, on the fact, we repeat, that our being children is but a simple consequence of the Father's love. And when in connection with this we consider what we were, the state we were in, our utter alienation from God, the bitter enmity of our hearts towards Him, we shall in some measure enter into the meaning of John's cry, "Behold, what manner of love!" Yea, it is love unspeakable, unbounded and divine, having no motive for its expression except in that blessed heart whence it has flowed. Well indeed might we be humbled before it when we think that we — once poor sinners of the Gentiles — have become its object, and have been brought into its enjoyment, and that for eternity.

2. The heart of God is the source, but God has His own means of bringing us into His family. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons" (children) "of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12, 13.) There are two or three important statements in these words. First, that those who received Christ, or believed on His name, are actually born of God. More indeed than this. The very manner of the statement is exclusive of all human agency or claims. With the Jew descent from Abraham, born "of blood," went for a great deal, as it brought him into the number of the chosen people. But now that Christ is come, natural descent has no pre-eminence, it is indeed totally set aside, and nothing will avail except being born of God. It is not only therefore, as theologians speak, adoption, blessed and wonderful grace as this would be; it is more, it is an actual new birth, the result of the action of sovereign and divine power by which those who are the subjects of it become partakers of a new nature and a new life. It is thus that John, speaking in the abstract confining his attention entirely to the character of this new nature, without respect to the old, the Adam nature, which all believers still possess), says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1 John 3: 9.) Yes, nothing short of this — born of God — is the truth; but while of God, if we would come to the special character of the action, it is of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent by whom this wondrous change is effected, according to the scripture already adduced, "born of water and of the Spirit."

This brings us to the second agency God employs. If the Spirit is the power, and the only sufficient power, the Word, for the "water" is an emblem of the Word (see Eph. 5: 26), is the instrumentality which the Holy Ghost uses to effect the new birth. St. Peter thus speaks, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass" (all flesh) "withereth, and the flower thereof" (the glory of man) "falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1: 23-25.) Behold, then, how simple the process — so simple that even a child may comprehend it! The gospel is preached, Christ is presented in the gospel, and by the grace of God the heart receives Christ, receives Him as the Saviour, and thus receiving Him, together with Him a new life and a new nature are possessed. Such a soul is born of God. Faith therefore in Christ is both the sign and the occasion (if we may so speak) of the new birth; and thus we have not to concern ourselves with the divine modes of action, or the divine sovereignty in the action, but only and entirely with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything hangs upon that. If you have received Him, believed on His name, you are born of God; if you have not received Him, you are without the new birth, still flesh; for that which is born of flesh is flesh; and all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.

One word should be added to prevent misconception, and, we trust, to minister blessing to feeble souls. When speaking of the necessity, or the fact of being born again, there is a danger — a danger peculiarly seen in the writings of some evangelical teachers — of losing sight of the forgiveness of sins — of forgetting, while rightly pressing regeneration, the need of expiation for sins, cleansing from guilt as well as the new birth. Now in John 3 both things are carefully conjoined. If on the one hand our blessed Lord says, "Ye must be born again," He also says, on the other hand, "The Son of man must be lifted up." If it were possible to be in such a case, the new nature would not be, in and by itself, sufficient, as it would still leave the question of our sins untouched. But it need hardly be remarked that when the soul believes in Christ not only is it born again, but it partakes before God of all the efficacy of His redemptive work. This may not always be apprehended. It will often indeed happen, through unbelief, ignorance, or defective teaching, that a soul may be born again for years before entering upon the enjoyment of the forgiveness of sins. The slightest believing contact with Christ is saving, and not only so, but if we are thus brought into contact with Christ, we are before God, though often and generally not in our own souls, in possession of all the value of Christ, and His atoning work. More attention to the truth contained in this chapter (John 1) would save from much confusion. Instead of pressing the necessity of being born again (which still is absolutely requisite) there should be the presentation of Christ to the sinner; for his first felt need springs from the sense of his guilt, and then the moment his heart is open to receive Him as his Saviour, he loses the burden of his guilt, enters upon the enjoyment of forgiveness, and is withal born again — born of God. Everything therefore depends upon the presentation and reception of Christ.

The last thing to be noticed in this scripture is the power, authority, or right conferred. To them — to as many as received Christ — gave He power to become, or to take the place of, the sons (children) of God. All such as we have pointed out are born of God, and as the result of this they are now entitled, divinely entitled, to take their place as God's children. The word is "children" and not "sons," as given in our translation. — In fact John never uses the term "sons," with him it is always "children." Paul uses both. When writing to the Galatians "sons" only; but in Rom. 8 he employs both, and gives thereby the clue to their different significance. "Sons" would seem to mark out rather the position into which we are brought consequent upon faith in Christ, "children" speaking more distinctly of the relationship, and of its intimacy and enjoyment.

What a wonderful thing is it then which the evangelist here indicates; viz., that all who believe on the name of Christ are empowered to take the place of being God's children! Such a thing was never heard of before the advent of Christ. The Jewish saints were undoubtedly born of God; but inasmuch as atonement was not yet accomplished, and the Holy Spirit not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified, it was impossible for them to be brought into the place of children, or if they had been it would have been impossible for them to enjoy it. Until through the one offering for sin, accomplished in the death of Christ, there might be possessed "no more conscience of sins" — the knowledge of being perfected for ever — there could be no peace or liberty in the presence of God; and it belongs to the very idea of a child that he should be before the Father in perfect freedom, entirely at home, and conscious of the Father's love. And this is the place we are now warranted — warranted by divine grace and conferred privilege — to take.

The fact of this place belonging to us is here revealed, and at the close of the gospel, as we have seen in the last chapter, the Lord Himself, on the morning of His resurrection, puts His disciples into it. What love and tenderness on His part! Here we are told that it is ours by divine title; and now that we might not from our feebleness and unbelief lose its enjoyment, He condescends to explain its character, and to lead us into its blessedness. "Go," says He to Mary, "go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20: 17.) We learn then from these words that the place which the Father would have us take as His children is the very place which Christ Himself enjoys. As man, God was the God of our blessed Lord; as Son, His Father — these two relationships covering the whole position which He occupied when here, and now indeed that He is glorified at the right hand of God. It is on this account that we find so often in the epistles the term, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (see, for example, 2 Cor. 1: 3; Eph. 1: 3; 1 Peter 1: 3, etc.), and also that we thus address God in prayer as our God and Father, because the God and Father of our blessed Lord — these titles revealing at the same time the source of the individual blessings that flow to us on the ground of redemption. But here, since we speak of children, we have chiefly to do with the term Father — "My Father and your Father." In one word, He gives us His own place, and nothing could so effectually describe for us the marvellous efficacy of His death and resurrection. His own place, we say; and it is His own place of relationship, so that we are permitted to use the same appellation when addressing God as Himself. It is, however, to be carefully remembered, that while He thus associates us with Himself before God, He yet always retains the pre-eminence. It is not, could not be in His lips, "our" Father, but "My Father, and your Father;" for if He is not ashamed to call us His brethren He is the first-born, even as we are taught in the scripture which tells us that God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Many of our popular hymns have forgotten this distinction, and have in this way fostered modes of thought and expression which are not of the Spirit of God. If our blessed Lord in His grace and love puts us into His own place, and condescends to call us brethren, it would be on our part to forget what is ever due to Him in His own worthiness, dignity, and absolute supremacy if we addressed Him as our Brother. Close as is the intimacy to which in the greatness of His love He admits His own, and endearing as are the terms which He applies to them, they must never forget, and in proportion as they really enjoy His love they will never forget, that His name is above every name, and that the joy of their hearts in His presence should ever flow out in tones of reverence and adoration. Still He would have us fully understand the character of the place into which He has introduced us, as well as the fact of association with Himself in the presence of God as our God and Father, because His God and Father.

A reference to one other scripture in this gospel may close our meditations on this part of our subject. In John 17, at the close of the wonderful prayer which our blessed Lord presented to the Father before He departed from the world, He says, "I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (v. 26.) In these words we have the full object in the revelation of the Father, and our introduction into the relationship declared. Name, it may be repeated, in Scripture always expresses the truth of what the person is; for example, when saints are said to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 18), it signifies that they are gathered to the truth of all that Christ is, and Christ as both Jesus and Lord. So the name of the Father is the revelation of all that He is in the relationship which is thus expressed. The Lord then had declared the name of the Father, and this He would continue to do by the ministry of the Spirit through His servants, so that the same love which had rested upon Him as Son while here in this world, might not only rest upon and be enjoyed by us, but also be in us, and that He Himself might be in us, might be in us as the medium or channel through which this love should flow into our hearts.

A very striking illustration of this may be gathered from John 15. He says, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." (v. 9.) The Father's love flowed out of His heart, as from its fountain or source, into the heart of Christ, and then again from the heart of Christ into the heart of His disciples; whence also, in this case, it was to flow out again to one another. But the point here is, that it is the same love — same in character and same in extent. Who then could measure or comprehend it? And what a thought for our souls, when we hear the Father's voice, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight," that the same boundless and infinite love rests upon, and is in us, if His children. It should be known and enjoyed, but that should not lessen the force of the truth in our souls — that His love rests upon every child of God. You say, perhaps, "I am so feeble, and I walk so badly, that I am ever stumbling, and grieving the Spirit of God." This may be all true, and, alas! that it should be so; but still it is the fact, notwithstanding all, that you are loved with the same love as Christ was loved, when He was down here as God's beloved Son. Never lose this blessed truth, but let it have its full weight in your souls; for by the grace of God, and the power of His Spirit, it will tend to keep and strengthen you, it will cheer your heart in times of depression and gloom, comfort you in sorrow and affliction, it will finally flood your soul with its own blessed light and radiance, and thereby give you no mean foretaste of the atmosphere and joy of the Father's house, when we are there for ever with the Lord. While waiting for this, we can all cry -

"O, Holy Father, keep us here

In that blest name of love;

Walking before Thee without fear,

Till all be joy above."

CHAPTER 3. THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

IN the gospel of John we have found two things; first, the Father revealed in the Person of the Son; and, secondly, the way in which the family is gathered and formed, together with their place and relationship before God. It is also true that under the type of the living water (John 4, 7) we have instruction, in one aspect, concerning the Holy Ghost; but the evangelist expressly explains, after the gracious invitation which the Lord had given on the great day of the feast — "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7: 39.)

Whatever the extent therefore of the declaration of the Father, and the truth of the family, it was not possible for believing souls to take up and enjoy their relationship to the Father until after the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. To be born again is one thing — a change wrought by divine power through the action of the word — to know that God is our Father is another thing, and only to be enjoyed through the gift of the indwelling Spirit. This distinction is plainly marked by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians. He says, "Ye are all the children" (sons) "of God by faith in Christ Jesus," a statement which corresponds as to the instrumental means of the new birth with John 1: 12, 13, as already considered. Then, in the next chapter, he says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (John 4: 6.) So also in another epistle he writes, "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Rom. 8: 15.)

It is therefore only after we have received in this way the Holy Ghost that we can either know or enjoy the relationship of children; but before we enter upon this it may be for edification, especially as there is much confusion abroad on the subject, to point out clearly the ground on which, according to the Scripture, the Spirit is bestowed. This may be shown in a twofold way — by a reference to the descent of, the Holy Ghost upon our blessed Lord Himself, and by the direct statements of the word of God. The scene of the baptism of our Lord is one of surpassing interest, not only on account of the display it gives of His own lowly grace and excellency, and of His love for and identification with His own — the saints on the earth, and the excellent, in whom was all His delight (Psalm 16), but also because it plainly indicates the position into which the believer is now brought as a consequence of redemption. Coming up out of the water after He had been baptized by John, "the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3: 16, 17.) Here we have the heavens opened, Christ sealed as Man, and consequent thereon the Father proclaims, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight." And this, as remarked, shows the position of every believer who has received the Holy Ghost. The heavens are open above him, and the believer himself is a child of God and the object of the Father's heart. There is also an interesting contrast. In the scene before us Christ on the earth is the object of heaven; but the object of the believer is Christ at the right hand of God, seen by the eye of faith through the opened heavens.

We may then inquire, On what ground was Christ sealed with the Holy Ghost? The answer is obvious — He received the Spirit on the ground of His own spotless and absolute purity. And the very contrast to ourselves which this indicates shows the foundation on which God can give the Holy Spirit to His people. We cannot stand before God in ourselves as sinless or undefiled; but we are before Him as whiter than snow through the precious blood of Christ. As soon, then, as we are cleansed from our guilt through the efficacy of the blood, God can and does send the Holy Ghost to dwell within us as the Spirit of adoption, as His seal, as the earnest of the inheritance, and as the anointing. This order is remarkably exemplified in the types. When the priests were consecrated, and when the leper was cleansed (Ex. 29; Lev. 14), the order in both cases was the same. First they were washed with water, significant of the new birth; they were then sprinkled with blood, type of the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, and lastly, they were anointed with oil, oil being, as ever, an emblem of the Holy Ghost.

If we turn now to other scriptures, we shall find this order illustrated and confirmed. When on the day of Pentecost those who were pricked in their heart said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2: 38.) When, moreover, Peter was preaching in the house of Cornelius, we find that the moment he testified to the remission of sins, through faith in Christ, the Holy Ghost (while Peter yet spake these words) fell on all them which heard the word. Both these cases teach, in the most unmistakeable manner, that the condition for the reception of the Holy Ghost is the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins. So in the epistle to the Romans, there is no mention of the Holy Ghost until after justification by faith and peace with God. (Rom. 5; compare also Eph. 1: 13.) If this is clearly understood, the difficulty often raised will disappear. It is asked, "Can it be possible that a soul can be born again and not have the Holy Ghost?" The question should be put in another form. It should be thus stated: "Can the Holy Ghost dwell where there is no knowledge of the forgiveness of sins?" Or, "Is it possible for a soul to become the temple of the Holy Ghost before it is cleansed from guilt?" And this question, with the scriptures considered before us, can only be answered in one way. And what intelligent believer doubts that life, divine life, exists in many souls long before, through lack of knowledge or faith, they enjoy the forgiveness of sins?

The divine order then is, born again through the Word by the power of the Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and then the Spirit's indwelling. But let it be clearly stated that there is no necessity for the interval which is often found between the new birth and the sealing; and if a full gospel were more commonly proclaimed, and the nature of grace explained, it would seldom exist. It should at the same time be remembered, that the new birth must be prior to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. It is "because we are sons that God sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

We may now point out the effect in us of the reception of the Spirit of adoption. The first is that we cry, as we have seen, "Abba, Father." In Galatians the apostle says, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." (Gal. 4: 6.) This is as instructive as it is remarkable. When our blessed Lord was in the garden of Gethsemane, assailed by Satan in the prospect of His death on the cross, He cried, in the agony of that hour, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14: 36.) This shows what the "Spirit of His Son" is, as well as that the Lord was at this moment in the conscious enjoyment of His relationship to the Father, whatever the agony through which He was passing. The same Spirit therefore, in the power of which Christ, as the Son, thus, addressed the Father, dwells in us — in all who have, been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. And dwelling in us He teaches, yea, leads, our hearts to cry, "Abba, Father." This cry is, so to speak, the necessary consequence of possessing the Spirit of sonship (huiothesia). We may have addressed God in other terms before; but as soon as the relationship has been formed, and God has sealed it by the gift of the Holy Ghost, we shall be constrained to. call God our Father. If we did not it would be as unreasonable as if the child of an earthly parent were to persist in naming him "master" instead of giving to him the endearing name of "father." Indeed, and it must not be overlooked, "Abba, Father" is the cry of the Spirit Himself in our hearts.

Having then the Spirit we cannot but thus address God; but if any have not the Spirit of God it will be impossible for them to call upon God from the heart as Father, because they have not entered upon the enjoyment of the relationship. Very recently a well-taught Christian told the writer, that after he was first awakened he tried for two years to call God Father, but in vain. He could not utter the word before God; but immediately on being brought to the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, it became the natural mode of address, because now he had become indwelt with the Holy Ghost. And this experience accords with the teaching of the word of God. If we are real before God the truth of our souls must come out; and thus our state and relationship are immediately discovered when we pray, especially if in private, when we are not affected by the presence of others. What a solemn consideration is it then that the Spirit of God actually makes these bodies of ours His temples, that the very title of Father which we utter before God is really the Spirit's own cry! And what grace on the part of God to make us thus know, even now, that He has put us among His children, and given us to know that He has formed a relationship with us that will endure throughout eternity! To be in the power of this blessed truth would make our prayers far more real and blessed, as well as fill us with unspeakable gratitude to Him who, in His condescending grace and love, has gathered us around Himself as His beloved* children. (Eph. 5: 1)

* The term is beloved — agapeta.

There is, however, another thing. The apostle proceeds, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Rom. 8: 16.) The possibility of all self-deception is thus obviated. There might be the imitation of others in calling God Father, but there is also produced by the Spirit the inward consciousness of the relationship. It is important to remark that it does not say, bear witness to our spirit. If this were the language employed, we might be waiting for some distinct testimony at a given moment to assure us that we were now God's children. The apostle says, "with our spirit;" i.e., the fruit of the indwelling Spirit is to beget in us feelings and affections suited to, and to lead us into the enjoyment of, the relationship into which we are brought. The child of God now knows the Father, and does not doubt that he is a child, for he has within himself the assured consciousness of his relationship, and is able therefore to repose, in measure at least, in the enjoyment of the Father's love and care. In other words, the filial spirit is the product of this testimony of the Holy Ghost.

And we may be permitted to ask whether this filial spirit is sufficiently cultivated and exhibited? There is nothing more beautiful in the Christian life, and nothing which gives a greater sense of dependence upon God, or more confidence in prayer. The apostle Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, addresses them as "the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father." (1 Thess. 1: 1; 2 Thess. 1: 1) No other assembly is thus described. The reason would seem to be that the Christian life of these young believers, in the freshness and fervour of their first love, was especially developed and manifested in the enjoyment of their filial relationship. We shall also be characterized by the same thing just in proportion as the Spirit of adoption, ungrieved within us, is permitted to guide our hearts into the apprehension of the Father and His love, and to form within us all those filial affections which the knowledge of His love will alone produce. The knowledge of the Father and of our true relationship is the first thing, and then the Spirit will be free to lead us on — it may be gradually, but ever increasingly — into the enjoyment of all the blessings associated with our position. We cannot have the feelings of children before we know that we are such. Knowledge of the relationship enjoyed, filial affections, filial gratitude, reverence, etc., will soon follow. His witness with our spirit — the distinctness and intensity of it — must and will ever depend upon the character of our walk. As for example, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." So, if the believer in anywise walks loosely or carelessly the Spirit is grieved, if not silenced; and there will be, in such a case, but feeble, if any, testimony with his spirit that he is a child of God. But no one should be satisfied with anything short of the blessed and conscious enjoyment of the relationship which God has been pleased in His grace to form with us as His children.

The children of God are also led by the Holy Ghost. It is indeed on the statement of this fact that the apostle proceeds to unfold the character of the Spirit that now dwells in believers. Previously he had contrasted those that are after the flesh with those that are after the Spirit. All men are included in these two classes. Believers are not in the flesh, as to standing before God, but in the Spirit; this now characterizes them as to their existence in God's presence, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in them. (Rom. 8: 9.) There is no middle place between these two extremes; for he adds, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" — he is not of Him. Every Christian therefore, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, has a new standing before God. He is in Christ and not in Adam, for through death with Christ he has been dissociated from the first man (Adam), and by the resurrection of Christ he has been brought on to new ground, and into a new standing before God — a ground beyond sin, condemnation, and death, because it is in resurrection. He is now in Christ risen, and the Holy Spirit dwells within him as the power of the new life which he has in Christ, and therefore as the power for conflict with, and victory over, the flesh. Having then shown that we are brought out from under the law of sin and death, with all the blessed consequences of that deliverance, and pointed out the character of our new place, the apostle says, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." This brings us face to face with some very solemn truths.

We may call attention, first to the fact that "led of the Spirit" is regarded in this scripture as that which characterizes every child of God. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;" i.e., all believers are so led, and in this way are manifestly sons of God. No account is taken here of the humbling fact that sometimes believers are governed by the flesh, and not by the Spirit. This, alas! is often true; but the apostle is describing rather what attaches to believers as a class. They are led of the Spirit, and not of flesh. But having stated this distinctly, we may now profitably remind ourselves that we are always led either by the Spirit or the flesh. True there is nature, and the natural affections as God created them, and which the believer must ever maintain according to God; but we speak now of the entire and absolute contrast which the scriptures so continually exhibit between the flesh and the Spirit. As he says in another epistle, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot" (rather, "so that ye should not") "do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5: 17.) The flesh and the Spirit are always in antagonism, so that whenever we are not in the power of the Spirit, not under His governance and guidance, we are sure to be controlled by the flesh. How watchful therefore we need to be! Alas! that we are so often off our guard; and be it but for a moment, the flesh, acted upon as it ever is also by Satan, will take the advantage and opportunity to have its own way, to decoy us into sin, and thereby to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

The third thing to be remembered is, that the Holy Ghost is our only power. We have no other, whether it be for walk, conflict, service, or worship. Hence, indeed, what distinguishes the sons of God is that they are led of the Spirit of God. How beautifully this was seen in the life of our blessed Lord! After His baptism, He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; in the power of the Spirit He preached, wrought miracles, cast out devils, healed all that were oppressed, and went about doing good. (Matt. 4, 12; Luke 4; Acts 10) Yea, in every step of His path, in every act He did, in every word He spake throughout the whole of His life on earth, He was led of the Holy Ghost. And He is our example, and it is our blessed privilege to be also led of the Spirit of God; and in proportion as we are thus led, will it be manifested that we are the sons of God.

The apostle shows us still greater things. The Spirit we have received is the Spirit of adoption, and we therefore are children. Now he tells us, "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." For the present we may confine ourselves to the position we occupy as children, as we hope in another chapter to deal with our future condition in the Father's house. All the children then are heirs — heirs of God. It is not only that He has been pleased, in His love and mercy, to bring us into blessed relationship with Himself, but also He has made us His heirs, and, as if even this wondrous unfolding of His grace were not sufficient to satisfy His heart, it is added, "and joint-heirs with Christ." This last clause indeed contains the key to the whole of our blessing. God has associated us with His own beloved Son. He is the firstborn from the dead, and we compose the church of the firstborn through association with Him, and thus are also associated with Him in heirship to all that He Himself, as man, will inherit in virtue of His redemptive work. Every child of God is therefore put into the rank and position of the Firstborn, saving always His own pre-eminence and His own personal and essential dignity. Still as children we rank with Him joint-heirs with Christ. What words could so adequately express the wealth of God's grace, or of the blessedness into which we are brought? For it is not only that He has saved us, brought us to Himself, and bestowed upon us privileges and blessing, but He must, in order fully to satisfy His own heart, put us into the same rank with His beloved Son. Let these words then, "joint-heirs with Christ," have an abiding place in our souls, that we may, by constant meditation upon them, learn ever increasingly what God is in His grace, and what He has done for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour; and surely the more we ponder them, the more we shall be led out to investigate and explore the boundless treasure of that inheritance of which we are the heirs, because heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

But it is added, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." This "if" by no means implies a doubt; it merely indicates the necessary condition of sonship, and the pathway to being glorified together with Christ; that is, if we are children, our pathway here must be one of suffering with Christ. If we are born again, and have the Spirit of adoption, we cannot escape it. The new nature in us, born of God as we are, must feel, in measure, as Christ felt in the presence of sin, Satan, sorrow, and death. The Spirit of God, who dwells within us, must lead us, in proportion as we are subject to His guidance, in the same path as that in which Christ walked, and to feel and act as He felt and acted in similar circumstances. We cannot therefore be children of God without suffering with Christ. But the measure of our suffering with Him will entirely depend upon the degree in which we are under the governance and power of the Holy Ghost. A child of God who is walking faithfully before God with an ungrieved Spirit will thus suffer with Christ much more than one who is walking carelessly. But it is the necessary path, and, it may be said, an unspeakable privilege. What greater privilege indeed (unless it be that of suffering for Christ) could we enjoy than that of passing through this world in company, as to feeling, with our blessed Lord — to sorrow and to suffer as He sorrowed and suffered in this wilderness of sin and death? And the more we suffer with Him the more we shall learn the depths of His heart of love, that never wearied in His ministry of tenderness and grace, though He had daily to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself. The encouragement to such a path is not lacking; "for," says the apostle, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in" (or to, in respect of) "us." The joy set before Him sustained our blessed Lord Himself in enduring the cross and in despising the shame; and here the prospect of the glory, being glorified together with Christ, is adduced that it may have the same effect on us. Nothing indeed raises us above suffering like the contemplation of the future glory, and, measuring the former by the latter, it dwindles away into utter insignificance. As the apostle writes in another place, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Cor. 4: 17.) But it should never be forgotten that the suffering as well as the glory is with Christ. This blessed companionship is never wanting. We suffer with Him, and we are glorified with Him. It is identification with a rejected Christ now, and identification with a glorified Christ in the future. What more could we desire, or the God of all grace bestow?

CHAPTER 4. THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE FAMILY OF GOD.

1 JOHN 2

THE family of God is one — one of necessity, because every member of it possesses the same nature and the same life. And so perfectly one is it in this way that the Lord desired this oneness to be expressed in this world. He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me."* (John 17: 20, 21.) This prayer moreover (for it could not be otherwise) was distinctly answered. In the early days of the Pentecostal Church we read, "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4: 32); and in connection with this exhibition of the oneness of the family of God, the apostles with great power gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Power went forth with their testimony, convincing the world that Christ had been sent of God. The manifestation of the unity of the whole Church soon passed away, and will never be seen again in this world. But, spite of this, every instructed believer must hold fast the precious truth that the family of God is one, and that the hearts of the children of God must never move in a narrower circle than the heart of the Father Himself. As John writes, "Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him." But that there may be no mistake, and in order to show the holiness of the love that is to be expressed, as well as the channel through which it is to flow, he adds, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments." (1 John 5: 1, 2.) While therefore joyfully remembering that all who are dear to the heart of the Father must also, by virtue of our common relationship, be dear to us, we must at the same time not forget that the Father Himself must have the first place in our affections, and that true divine love for His children can only flow out when we are in obedience to His word. The love must ever be in our hearts, but the expression of it must be according to God. These two things must never be confounded.

*There is undoubtedly more than the oneness of the family in this scripture; but still, as it is oneness in nature and life, it may be applied to the children of God.

The unity of the family must then be always asserted; and it is in nowise inconsistent with it that the apostle John gives a threefold division of it; for the classes into which he groups the children of God are expressive only of state or attainment. just as in a human family grades are found of growth or knowledge, so in the family of God. "There are," John tells us, "fathers, young men, and little children or babes." But before he takes up these separate classes he addresses the whole, and gives what is characteristic of all the family. "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." The term little children in this verse is not the same as that so translated in the next. If we say "children" in verse 12 as including the whole family, we may keep the term "little children" in the 13th as marking out a special class.*

*When verse 28 is reached the apostle again uses the word "children" (not "little children"), because he there resumes his address to all.

The divine characteristic, then, of every child of God is, that his sins are forgiven. It should be borne in mind, as we may yet see, that no such thing is contemplated in the Scripture as a child of God without the Spirit of adoption, and then, since we pointed out in the last chapter the ground on which God bestows the Spirit, this characteristic will at once be understood. Every child of God therefore — i.e. every child of God who can cry, "Abba, Father" — enjoys the forgiveness of sins, and the name of Christ is the foundation on which this unspeakable blessing has been received. "Your sins are forgiven you," says John, "for His name's sake." This is the divine testimony, and a testimony based upon the value of the name of Christ before God, upon all the value of what Christ is in virtue of His death and resurrection. The forgiveness of sins therefore which God would have His children enjoy is both divine and eternal — divine in its character, and eternal in its duration. Yes, it belongs to the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, that when our sins are forgiven, they are forgiven for ever. Do you say, But such has not been my thought? Search the Scriptures, and see whether it is not God's thought, and if it is His thought, it may well become ours. Faith, indeed, consists in our receiving God's thoughts, and resting in them instead of our own, and thus believing we can rejoice in the fullest import of this message of the apostle — "Your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." Does another say, "But do I not need the cleansing blood every day?" That we sin every day is, alas! true, though it should ever be remembered that there is no necessity for the believer to sin. "These things," says John, it write I unto you, that ye sin not." But such is our state that, as a matter of fact, we do sin every day, and hence, pointing out God's gracious provision for our unworthy failures, he adds, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." (1 John 2: 1, 2.)

The truth then is, that once cleansed from the guilt of sin we are cleansed for ever. "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10: 14.) On the ground of the efficacy of that one perfect sacrifice, God in His grace not only forgives our sins, but He never more imputes guilt to the believer. He cannot tolerate sin in His people, and thus, if they sin, the Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, undertakes their cause, on the foundation of His one perfect propitiation for their sins, prays for them, in response to which God, acting by His Spirit, brings home, through the instrumentality of the Word, the sin to their consciences, produces self-judgment and confession, and then, as the apostle also says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Every believer is under the abiding efficacy of the precious blood, and as a consequence there is no further question of guilt. But God will surely deal with His children in the way of chastisement if they sin, and continue in sin, with the object of humbling them in His presence, that they may tell out their sins before Him. Then they are washed by the water of the Word — by the action of the word of God upon their hearts and consciences — not cleansed by the blood, for that has been done once and for all, and cannot be repeated. It is therefore absolutely true, as stated in this scripture, that the sins of all the children of God are forgiven — forgiven for His (Christ's) name's sake, and forgiven eternally.

Having addressed the whole family, John next classifies the children under three denominations, fathers, young men, and little children or babes. He gives the characteristics of each, in the thirteenth verse, and then proceeds to give them counsels and admonitions. We may then look at these several classes as defined by the apostle. (vv. 13-27.)

(1) The fathers. "I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." (v. 14.) This term fathers marks out attainment, and that alone. It by no means therefore follows that "fathers" are old believers, though it will be generally true that the "fathers" will mainly be composed of such. Still, it is to be remembered that many old Christians — old in the sense of the length of time they have been believers — are yet but babes, while in some cases those who are comparatively young believers, may, from their rapid growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, be found among the "fathers." The important thing is to see that this class includes all, of whatever age, who are distinguished by the spiritual characteristic of knowing Him that is from the beginning.

"From the beginning" in John points out a very distinct epoch. It is not, as in his gospel, "in the beginning," which dates from eternity itself, but from the beginning; that is, from the time Christ as the eternal life was introduced into this scene; for as soon as Christ was born into the world He was the second Man, though it is also true that He did not take the place of such until after the resurrection. Nor was He indeed in the condition of the second Man (as to circumstances) until after He had risen from the dead. "Him that is from the beginning" will therefore indicate Christ, Christ as He now is at the right hand of God, as the firstborn from the dead, and the beginning of the creation of God. (Col. 1: 18; Rev. 3: 14.) Together with the cross, and by means of the cross, God closed up His relationship with Adam, the responsible man; and thereafter everything dates from the Man of His counsels, the ascended and glorified Christ. Hence, according to the testimony of John, blood and water flowed out from the side of a dead Christ — the blood that expiated sin, and the water that cleanses or purifies — in token that life is not in the first but in the last Adam. Christ therefore is, as St. Paul speaks, Himself our life, and He is on this account the true beginning, inasmuch as He is the first-born from the dead.

To know Him that is from the beginning is thus to know Christ as He is, and where He is, as the eternal life "which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," as all that He now is in Himself, as the glorified Man at the right hand of God. But it is sometimes asked, "Do not all believers know Him? This question does but ignore the truth of our passage. All believers more or less know Christ as their Saviour, and own Him as their Lord; but this is a far different thing from knowing Himself. To know Him in a special, in any, character, is blessed; but the knowledge of which the apostle here speaks embraces what He is, apart from any special presentation or character. For example, we may know the Queen as our sovereign without any personal acquaintance at all with her. Her children, on the other hand, while they do not forget that she is the sovereign, know her rather as what she is in herself — her mind, character, and ways. So the fathers here have risen beyond any character, office, or relationship which He may sustain towards them, and find their delight in Himself, in what He is, in all His moral beauties, perfections, and excellencies.

And this, it must be distinctly observed, is the highest and last attainment to be made. There is nothing beyond. When converted, we are occupied mainly with the work of Christ and the grace of God; afterwards we delight in truth; but finally, if we press on to the things that are before, Christ Himself absorbs our attention, and then only do we become "fathers," in the meaning of the apostle. A remarkable exemplification of this statement may be adduced. Some time back it was our privilege to visit a saint in great bodily suffering. His hands and his face were alike distorted by the severity of his affliction. But though suffering most acutely when we saw him, and with scarcely any temporal comforts to alleviate his condition, he did not for one moment speak of himself or his pains. His conversation turned entirely on the Lord. In the course of our visit he used words to this effect, "For the first ten years of my Christian life I knew and enjoyed the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ. After that, the whole circle of Church truth dawned upon my soul, and, while I did not lose the blessedness of the value of the blood, the new truths that had been opened out to me formed the chief subject of my meditations. But now," he said, "through the goodness of God, I have been introduced into another circle, where Christ Himself fills my vision. Not that," he continued, "the other truths are less precious, only Christ Himself is more precious still, and I feel that now I want nothing beside. No," he concluded, "it is Christ Himself now, and only Christ." This saint of God was, as the, reader will perceive, a true father, and his experience marks the order of Christian growth, and justifies the statement already made, that the knowledge of Christ Himself is the last attainment reached.

Another thing may be added. As it is the last attainment, so when this is possessed nothing more is needed, except indeed an ever fuller and increasing knowledge of the One we know. This is shown from the fact that when John turns to address the several classes, he has neither counsel, warning, nor exhortation for the "fathers." He simply repeats, "I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." (v. 14.) This is easily understood. These "fathers" were wholly occupied with Christ Himself, and had therefore discovered the secret of all growth, progress, and safety. For conformity to Christ is produced, through the power of the Spirit, by the contemplation of Christ. (2 Cor. 3: 18.) The one object of the Christian life is to learn more of Himself, and Satan cannot find entrance into a heart that is full of Christ. John therefore needed not to say anything to these; for, in fact, they wanted nothing. Take, for example, all the precepts of Scripture, and what are they? They are but the embodiment of some trait of Christ; and hence in knowing Him these "fathers" possessed all, or were at the source of all, that was necessary for their sustenance and growth in the divine life. If they needed encouragement, wisdom, guidance, consolation, or admonition — all this; yea, all the blessings secured for us in redemption, they possessed in the One they knew.

It may be that but few are really "fathers." But the question for our souls is this, Shall we be content to be anything else? The child of today is the man and the father of the future. Should it not be the same with us spiritually? Alas! that so many of us are so dwarfed and stunted. The consequence is, that very many never pass beyond the stage of childhood. As we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, "When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." (v. 12.) But if we would know the full blessedness of the Christian life, or rather if we desire to learn more of the boundless treasures that are contained for us in Christ Himself, we must press on with full purpose of heart in the study of all the blessed unfoldings of His person, of His graces, beauties, and moral perfections which are contained in the word of God. If indeed we sit daily, like Mary, at the feet of the Lord, to hear His word, we shall be on the road to become "fathers" in the family of God.

(2.) Young men. This is the second class which John distinguishes amongst God's children; and concerning these we have first their characteristics, and then the divine counsels addressed to them both for guidance and warning. In commencing his exhortation to them, the apostle repeats their special characteristic, and adds a clause which reveals to us the source of their strength — "The young men are strong; they have derived their strength from the word of God, and it has been exhibited in their victory over the wicked one." (Compare vv. 13, 14.) These several points are of exceeding interest. But the fact of their being strong needs only to be mentioned; it is the source of their strength that contains instruction for us. Their strength, then, flowed from having the word of God abiding in them. It is this, indeed, which gives power in every direction — with God, before men, and, as here, in conflict with Satan.

What, then, is meant by having the Word abiding in them? Our blessed Lord has given us the clue when He says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15: 7.) In this case it means no less than that His words should have found their home in our hearts, and in such a way as that they have formed our thoughts; yea, rather, because filling us with divine thoughts they have produced the mind of Christ in us, so that the very desires we utter in prayer are but the expression of His own mind and will. Hence He can say, "Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." So with the "Young men;" the word abiding in them indicates the word so treasured up in their souls that it forms and governs the life, and is there in their possession always ready for use against the attacks of Satan.

"This is," you may say, "the very thing we desire." Many express the same thought. It should then be understood, that to have the word of God abiding in us involves labour. For example, if I but seldom read the Scriptures, and even then cursorily or hurriedly, it is impossible that I can have the word of God abiding in me. No, this blessing can only be reached by reading, prayer, meditation, and the ministry of the Spirit. In this way the word that is written in the Bible is transferred to our hearts, is stored up there as a priceless treasure, and becomes the spring of all our thoughts, activities, and conflicts. We read that Israel in a later day will have God's law put into their minds, and written in their hearts, and that then all will know the Lord from the least to the greatest. (Heb. 8: 10, 11) They had always possessed the law in the tables of stone, but this gave them no power for obedience or conflict; but when it is engraven on their hearts everything is changed; they become faithful and strong in the ways of the Lord. In like manner, when we only possess the word of God in the Bible, it does not help us in our daily warfare; but the moment we have any part of it treasured up in the heart it becomes, as we have seen, the spring of life and power through the Spirit of God.

It was then through the word abiding in them that the "young men" overcame the wicked one, and this for a twofold reason. Treasuring up the word, they were in obedience to it, and Satan cannot touch the obedient believer. As long as he is kept in dependence and obedience all Satan's assaults are foiled. And this same word, abiding in the heart, becomes the ready sword of the Spirit wherewith to repel and put to flight the adversary of our souls. The Lord Himself is the perfect example of this, as of all else, in the temptation in the wilderness. Speaking in the Spirit in the Psalms, He says, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart." Led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, He was tempted of the devil; but to every temptation He replied, "It is written." He used the word already abiding in His heart, and thus met every assault and confounded the adversary, who at last retired baffled and overcome. The instruction for us lies in this, that if the word is not beforehand in the soul it cannot be employed as a weapon for defence. How often have we had to confess, that had we remembered such and such a Scripture, we might have been saved from this mistake and that snare! It is therefore of the first importance that we should seek to have the word of God abiding in us. It is the only sword of the Spirit, and with no other weapon can the ceaseless assaults of Satan be repelled. If indeed we would be strong, "young men," it is absolutely necessary, always necessary, but especially in a day like the present, when the very foundations of our faith are being assailed, to treasure up the living word of God in the inmost recesses of our hearts. The divine resource for us in such a state of things is to prize, meditate. and feed upon the sure word of God.

There is, however, a special danger to which the "young men" are exposed, and this forms the subject of the address to them. "Love not the world," says the apostle, "neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (vv. 15-17.) The world therefore is the one special danger, arising out of the character of their conflict, to which the "young men" are exposed. It was so with Samson, the Nazarite, and a "young man," because of his strength through his separation unto the Lord, and not being drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit. (Compare Num. 6; Eph. 5: 18.) As such he became the special object of Satan's enmity and assaults, and the temptation with which he succeeded in luring him to shame and disaster was one of the things in the world of which John speaks — the lust of the flesh.

There are two things pointed out — the world, and the things that are in the world. It is very important for us all that these should be understood. John uses the term "world" in a moral, not, it need scarcely be remarked, in a physical, sense; i.e., not as the place in which we live, the created world, the earth, but as setting forth the whole system of things round about us, the world as organized by man, and controlled by Satan as its prince and god. (See John 12: 31; John 14: 30; 2 Cor. 4: 4.) Cain was its originator, when he went out from the presence of the Lord, and built a city — the expression of organized society; and his descendants embellished the world which had thus been formed with arts and sciences, the object of which was to make man happy apart from God. The world is therefore always in antagonism to God; or, to speak according to the teaching of the New Testament Scriptures, to the Father. The flesh is in opposition to the Spirit, Satan to Christ, and the world to the Father. It is on this account that John says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." This does not mean that every one who loves the world is not a believer, but that such an one could not be in the enjoyment of the Father's love.* The Father indeed could not manifest His love to a lover of the world; for there is the most absolute contrariety between the world and the Father. This was shown out in the cross of Christ. God demonstrated by that cross what man and what the world were. It was the world that crucified Christ. Satan succeeded in banding together against God's only-begotten Son all ranks and classes of society. The whole world, Jew and Gentile, the religious and civil authorities, were united as one man to put Him to death; and thereby Satan demonstrated that he was the prince of this world. God now holds the world to be guilty of the death of His Son; and a child of God could not therefore love the world, and have in him at the same time the love of the Father. Nay, his only possible attitude towards it should be that of the apostle Paul, as expressed in his words, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom" (or whereby) "the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal. 6: 14.) All this is so plain and simple that no believer would question it; but who, at the same time, is there that cannot perceive the danger of us all from this source? Satan is very active, and our hearts are very subtle, so that worldliness, in some shape or form, finds an easy entrance amongst the children of God. We have need therefore to be always on the watch, and to remember these solemn words, that the love of the world absolutely excludes from the heart the love of the Father. What folly we are often guilty of! For the sake of a passing gratification we are content to forfeit the sweetest and most blessed enjoyment of the soul, to lose from our hearts that which gives perpetual sunshine, and ministers solace in every trouble and sorrow which can befall us in our wilderness path.

*There is no doubt that in this passage love of the world and love of the Father are characteristic. But we speak above of the general truth in its application.

To guard against all misconception, the apostle speaks not only of the world, but also of the things that are in the world; and these are specified as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That is, everything which the flesh can desire in any shape or form, all that may please the eye, everything the eye may covet or desire to possess, and also everything in which a man can take pride, which gives him importance in this world or exalts him amongst his fellow-men, whether it be rank, distinction, learning, strength, skill, or power all, in a word, that ministers to man as man in this world. The "young" man is to eschew all these things, and will just in proportion as he understands their relation to a rejected Christ, and consequently to the Father and His love.

It will be seen, moreover, that the Spirit of God points out in this scripture the three avenues to our souls — the avenues through which Satan ever seeks to beguile us with his worldly fascinations and enchantments. These gateways should therefore be ever carefully guarded. It is easier to keep the enemy out than it is to expel him after he has effected an entrance. just as Nehemiah after he had built the wall appointed watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his own house to maintain the city in holy separation, so should we guard the portals of our souls against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, in order to keep ourselves in the enjoyment of the Father's love. To succeed in this, a walk in the presence of God, constant watchfulness and prayer in the power of the Holy Ghost, are absolutely requisite.

The apostle enforces his exhortation by an argument of another kind. "The world," he says, "passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." He reminds us of the transient character of the world and its possessions in contrast with the perpetual duration, the immutable character, of all that attaches to God. Doing His will, we abide for ever; for in His grace he has associated us with Himself, and with His beloved Son (1 John 1: 3), and eternity therefore is our portion — an eternity of blessedness and joy. And the more we enter into this, the more our hearts comprehend the character of the place into which we have been brought and are possessed and controlled by the Father's love, the more we shall be fortified against the allurements of the world, and perceive their utter vanity. "Every trace of Egypt," says a well-known writer, "is a reproach to the believer." This testimony is true, for Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." (Gal. 1: 4.)

CHAPTER 5.

THE THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE FAMILY OF GOD

(cont.).

1 JOHN 2.

ALREADY two of the three classes into which the apostle divides the whole family have been considered. The third now remains to be noticed, and these are the babes. It will be remembered that these several classes distinguish spiritual states or attainments. Babes therefore, while they should be, are not necessarily the youngest of God's children, because, unhappily, it is sometimes the case that Christians remain in this class throughout the greater part of their lives. All, if God's children, are babes who are neither "fathers" nor "young men," whatever their age or the number of years they have professed to be Christians.

Their characteristic is, as seen in verse 13, that they know the Father; for this is the first thing they learn through the reception of the Spirit of adoption. Convicted of sin through the mercy of God, the blood of Christ has met their need as sinners by cleansing them from guilt, and thus giving them peace and confidence in the presence of God. Thereupon sealed by the Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of God's Son, they cry, "Abba, Father," and are thus brought to know Him in this relationship. It is not now only that they are saved, but they also know that they are children, and as children they have been taught to know the Father. This is an immense, though it be but an initial, blessing; for learning that through grace a divine relationship has been formed between God and their souls, and that this relationship is indestructible, they are led on to apprehend something of what is involved in the Father-name of God, and to rejoice in the blessed knowledge that they have become the objects of His heart — a heart that will never weary in ministering to them, and which will find its joy in their welfare and happiness now and throughout eternity.

It will thus be perceived that it is not supposed that there could be a single child who did not know the Father. That there are such cases is well known; but this arises, as before pointed out in reference to the forgiveness of sins, from defective teaching, from unbelief, or from ignorance of the full character of grace. God desires that every one of His children should know Him as Father, and He has made provision that they should do so, so that if there be not this knowledge, the want can only be traced to man, and not to God. There is nothing indeed more sad than the perpetual attempts made, even by professing Christian teachers, to undermine the truths of redemption and the privileges of believers. Unwilling to believe that God is as good as He is, and that man is as bad as he is, their object is to exalt man at the expense of God, and thereby they become blind to the plainest teachings of His word. It is the more necessary on this account to assert the whole truth of grace and redemption.

The address to the "babes" commences with verse 18, and extends to the end of verse 27. In verse 28 the whole family is included. The world is the peculiar danger to the "young men," and false teaching is the snare to which the "babes" are more especially liable, and this gives the occasion for the unfolding of important instructions, for the guidance of believers in every age. These we may now examine.

He first reminds them that it is the "last time." They knew, for they had been taught, that antichrist should come; but already there were many antichrists — opposers of Christianity in the spirit of antichrist, and this proved that it was the last time. In Paul's writings mention is made of the "last days," and this term marks more distinctly the closing period of the last time — the last time being characteristic rather of this dispensation. The cross of Christ was the close of God's dealings with the world on the ground of responsibility. Man was demonstrated to be lost, and the world was judged. But the Lord still lingers in His long-suffering grace, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" and this attitude characterizes the day of grace, the last time, during which the cry goes out on every hand, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." John, however, shows that it is the last time by the existence of antichrists — proof that the antichrist was in the background, the man of sin, who will not himself appear on the scene until after the saints are caught up to be for ever with the Lord. (Compare 1 Thess. 4: 13-18 with 2 Thess. 2) The antichrists are regarded as heralds of Satan's masterpiece; and in order to put the babes on their guard, the apostle describes the character both of the one and the other. The antichrists were apostates. "They went out from us." "They would not have done so if," says John, "they had been of us," and now their going out has made it "manifest that they were not all of us." What a solemn statement! These antichrists had once been on the ground of Christianity, breaking bread with the saints at the Lord's table, and had now gone out, had abandoned even the profession of the name of Christ, and assumed a position of utter antagonism to Him whom they had once confessed as their Saviour and Lord. But doubtless it needed spiritual perception to detect their antagonism to Christ, or it would scarcely have been necessary to warn the babes against such a danger. Satan ever transforms himself into an angel of light, and his servants likewise assume the form of ministers of righteousness (see 2 Cor. 11: 14, 15); and thus often, under the plea of greater spirituality, more devotedness or a profession to have discovered higher truths, these false teachers seek to beguile simple souls. John unmasks and gives them their proper name — antichrists. This leads him on to the full character of antichrist. He is a liar that denieth that Jesus is the Christ; He is the antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. The first points to the Jewish, the second to antichristian error, and the two combined will make the antichrist.

We have then in this short scripture the development and consummation of all heresy and evil doctrine. At last all forms of antagonism to the truth will head up, first, in the denial, not that there is a Christ to come, but that Jesus is the Christ; and, finally, not, it may be at first, in denying that there is a God, but in refusing the truth of the Father and the Son; in a word, Christianity. And who is there with any intelligence in the word of God, and with any measure of acquaintance with prevailing forms of error, that cannot perceive the germs, daily expanding in distinctness, of these forms of opposition to the truth of God? Yea, if John could say in his day, even more can we affirm in our time, that even now are there many antichrists. In every shape and form the word of God is being undermined, and the distinctive truths of Christianity ignored, not so much by avowed atheists or infidels as by professed Christian teachers; so that it is now possible for a man to be a so-called minister of Christ even while he rejects the whole truth of His person and His work.* The greatest danger of the present moment is found in the pulpits of Christendom. For the time they are with us — with us only, because Christendom itself is fast becoming, if it has not already become, apostate, and is therefore in agreement with these deniers of the truth; but ere long many (as some have already done) will throw off their mask and boldly take their stand with the open rejecters of Christ and Christianity. They are really antichrists.

*As an example of this, we have just noticed the appearance at an institution where young men are professedly trained for ministry among the descendants of the Puritans, of an eminent Unitarian. He was heartily welcomed and loudly praised.

It is of the greatest moment to remark that it is the babes who are warned of this danger and snare. In our day it is too often deemed a superfluous work — if not altogether unwise — to admonish young converts concerning prevalent errors. John, on the other hand, speaks plainly, and prepares them for the dangers which lie round about their path. Even a worldly proverb says, "To be forewarned is to be forearmed," and this saying is true in every sense, as seen from this scripture. Many a shipwreck might have been spared us if the example of John had been copied by those who have the lead in the Church of God. But the apostle does more than indicate the peril; he also teaches these young believers the means of their safety. For God in His tender grace, foreseeing every difficulty, and the character of every foe that will confront His people, has provided for every emergency. Hence John says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth." (vv. 20, 21.) And further on he says, "Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." (v. 24.)

These three sources of defence against error are worthy of careful consideration. First, John reminds them of the unction of the Holy One, by which they knew all things. The same Spirit that dwells within us as the Spirit of adoption is the unction or anointing, as well as the seal and the earnest. (See 2 Cor. 1: 21, 22, etc.) As the anointing, the Spirit of God, bringing us thus into association with Christ, gives us two things — intelligence and power. In this scripture it is in the aspect of intelligence, and John teaches the "babes" that since they have been anointed by the Holy Ghost, they are themselves at the source of all knowledge, not that they actually know all things, but that, in having the anointing, they have the possibility within themselves of knowing, and thus of distinguishing between, truth and error. In divine things it is well to bear in mind that the Holy Ghost is the only power of apprehension. (See 1 Cor. 2) The mind, human reason, and intellect have no place here. As another has said, "The activity of mind is the greatest barrier to the understanding of the truth of God." Hence it is often the case that a mere child in the things of the world is the wisest in the things of God. The psalmist thus says, "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because I keep Thy precepts." (Ps. 109: 99, 100) The source, then, of all wisdom and knowledge for the believer is the word of God as unfolded by the Holy Ghost. God has in this way furnished the "babes" in His family with an all-sufficient means of discernment and defence when surrounded by anti-Christian errors. As to these they need not that any one should teach them, because, walking in dependence on God, the Holy Spirit Himself will put them on their guard, and show them what is truth and what is error. A remarkable exemplification of this occurred recently in another land. Under the guise of more light and greater charity the very foundations of the truth were assailed in a certain city, and especially in connection with the saints of God. One brother was aware of the danger, but at the outset, for the sake of peace, and because, as he then thought, the poor and simple would not be able, to enter upon such questions, he kept silence. Finally he was compelled in faithfulness to the Lord to separate from those who maintained the false doctrines; and in a letter recently received he relates, to the glory of God, that not one of the simple souls, for whom he had been afraid, has been led astray; but he adds that, with scarce an exception, all the educated and intellectual have either refused to judge, or have accepted, the erroneous teachings. Like "the babes" of our passage, those who proved themselves faithful had, and have, the unction of the Holy One, and therefore, distinguishing the truth from error, were not ensnared by the plausible persuasions of the Evil One.

These "babes" also knew the truth, and consequently knew that no lie is of the truth. (v. 21.) This is a great safeguard for the saints when errors in specious guises are stalking abroad. If we have the truth we may well be satisfied, and we need not to examine everything else that claims to be a truth. The Lord would spare us both the defilement and the trouble. "His sheep," as He Himself has taught us, "know His voice, but they do not know the voice of strangers." (John 10) It is sufficient therefore for us, if we do not know the voice that seeks to beguile: we refuse to listen to it because it is a strange voice. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever," and we are not therefore to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. No greater mistake can be made, when we know we have the truth, than to examine an error which claims to supersede that which we possess. It may be the duty of teachers to do this in order to expose the artifices of Satan, but it is enough for the "babes" to rest in the certainty of the truth itself, and in the knowledge that no lie is of the truth.

Then the apostle, as before remarked, characterizes the liar as he who denies, not that there is a Christ, or that He is to come, but that JESUS is the Christ. And he is the antichrist that denies the Father and the Son; i.e., the whole truth of Christianity; for no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. But — and the warning is most solemn — "whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also." (vv. 22, 23.) God — God the Father — therefore cannot be known apart from the Son, apart from the truth of what He is in His own essential dignity, apart from the truth of His person, as Jesus Christ come in the flesh. (1 John 5: 2, 3; 2 John 7-9.) All the refinements of Deism are therefore but infidel speculations; for the profession of believing in God apart from Christ is tantamount to the rejection of the true God, inasmuch as it is only in Christ that He has been revealed, or can be known.

The "babes" had the unction of the Holy One, and they knew the truth; but now the apostle adds an exhortation — "Let that therefore," he says, "abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." This is the third source or means of their safety; and therein lies a principle of abiding importance. There is no other remedy after that corruption has come in and produced confusion on every hand, than to go back to the beginning. The apostle Paul thus exhorts Timothy in the difficult circumstances of his day to continue in the things which he had learned, and had been assured of, knowing of whom he had learnt them. (2 Tim. 3: 14-17.)

There is not a single error or corruption of the truth that may not in this way be met and exposed. Satan himself is powerless against the truth of God when adduced in all its simplicity. Resting on the Word, as given by the apostles, we are on a sure rock, against which all the waves of error dash themselves only to be scattered as mist and foam. Hence it will be found that in all theological controversies the authority of human writers — the fathers, as they are termed, post-apostolic authors — are cited, or those nearer our own times, to the almost entire forgetfulness of that which has been heard from the beginning. But God's truth remains unchanged, is as fresh and authoritative today as when it was first revealed, and is therefore the sole test of man — his systems, pretensions, and claims. Whatever therefore does not accord with that which has been heard from the beginning has to be unsparingly rejected. No plea of altered circumstances or the changed conditions of society, can for one moment be admitted. The unchanging God imparts His own character to His own truth, and it thus abides through all times as changeless in its perfections as He whose word it is.

Here, however, the point is not only that the truth abiding in them, in the power of the Holy Ghost, would be their safeguard from the antichrists who were already in the world, but there is also the positive blessing. "Ye also shall continue" (abide) "in the Son, and in the Father." As in chapter 1, the reception of the truth, as proclaimed by the apostles, inasmuch as the message was concerning Christ as the word of life, brought with it a new nature and eternal life, also into fellowship with the Father and the Son; so here the retention in the heart of that which had been heard would keep in that fellowship, cause to abide in the Father and the Son. The maintenance of the truth, as first delivered, is of the utmost consequence, both for our own souls and as a defence against evil doctrines. Nothing produces holy affections, nothing sanctifies, nothing leads into the enjoyment of our portion in the Father and the Son but the truth, and it is the truth alone which is the sword of the Spirit. If, however, it is to be all this for us, it must be enshrined in our hearts, treasured up there as a holy deposit, that it may become the source and spring, through the Holy Spirit, of our actions, walk, and conduct, as well as furnish us with the only adequate weapon of defence when exposed to the assaults of Satan, and at the same time be the means of keeping our souls in the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and the Son.

A word of encouragement and consolation follows. He had said, "If that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you," etc.; but now he adds, "This is the promise that He hath promised us, eternal life." The "ifs" of Scripture never limit or make conditional the grace — the absolute character of God's grace. They do set forth our responsibility, continuance in the path being the evidence of reality. Thus our Lord Himself said to certain who professed to believe in Him, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed "perseverance in His word being in this way the evidence of the truth of their discipleship to others. So continuing in the Father and the Son is of necessity connected with the maintenance of the truth in the soul. But while insisting to the full on the solemn character of these "ifs" of responsibility, and while it should never be forgotten that God meant that they should search us, and be used for self-judgment, it is as necessary to press without reserve the unconditional character of God's grace in our salvation. Eternal life is eternal life, and once possessed can never be lost; for indeed, as we have seen, it is Christ Himself; it is that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. (1 John 1: 2.) As soon therefore as he has urged upon them the responsibility of keeping that which they had heard from the beginning, he strengthens their hearts by recalling to their minds that it is eternal life which God has promised.

This brings out a very blessed principle in God's ways with us as revealed in the Word. He never would have us in doubt as to whether we are His or not — that is always regarded as a settled question, if we are believers. Self-examination is never therefore enjoined with a view to discover whether we are, or are not, true Christians, but only for the purpose of detecting sin, that it might be brought out into the light of God's presence, and there be judged. The relationships between our souls and Him, on the ground of redemption, having been established once and for all, His claims upon us, and our responsibilities as belonging to Him, can then be freely urged. But they are never urged, and we should never press them, to weaken grace; but all exhortations of this kind proceed upon the foundation of grace, in order to bring our souls more fully into the enjoyment of our privileges. Because this distinction is often lost sight of, souls are brought under bondage, by using the precepts and warnings of Scripture in a legal way to stir themselves up to greater zeal and devotedness. It is grace that establishes and grace that animates the soul — God's blessed and sovereign grace, which He freely gives without conditions; but having made us the possessors of it, that we might know His own heart, He, in the exercise of that same grace, warns us of the dangers we may encounter, and explains to us the conditions on which we may be brought under its full and efficacious action and enjoyment. This will help us to understand why the apostle adds, after verse 24, "This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life."

The two following verses gather up the substance of his instruction to the babes. He once again leads them back to the anointing which they had received of Christ, and in consequence of which they needed not that any man should teach them concerning these false, apostate teachers, who were seeking to lead them astray. John does not mean that these saints could dispense with the teachers who were gifts from Christ to the Church, for the perfecting of the saints, and the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4), but rather that, should they be assailed by antichrists, they had an all-sufficient resource, though left entirely to themselves, in the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, he tells them that "as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" — in it, it might equally be from the word used; but "in Him" would seem to be the true interpretation. This order is very beautiful. First the anointing; then this anointing teaching them all things; and finally abiding in Him. Ah, what could lead us astray, if the anointing of the Holy Ghost were in mighty operation in our souls, if we were constantly occupied in receiving His teachings, and if we were abiding in Christ! We should then be in the living enjoyment of the source of all knowledge, power, and blessing.

Thus in verse 28, where the apostle addresses once more the whole family, he has but one word for them, after the instructions given to the different grades of the family, and that is, "Abide in Him." "And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we" (we who have taught you, and been used for your blessing) "may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming" — as they would be, if then it were seen that the labours of the apostles and Christian teachers among them had been in vain. They might in that case lose the things which they had wrought, and not receive a full reward. (2 John S.) He thereby set them also, as well as himself and his fellow-labourers, in the prospect of the Lord's return (His manifestation here, because connected with responsibility in service, as always in the epistles). Nothing furnishes the heart, whether of labourers or of the saints generally, with such a powerful motive for diligence in God's ways as the expectation of the coming of Christ. It is this motive John now supplies to every child of the family, as he leaves upon their hearts this divinely-given precept, "Abide in Him." Abide in Him, in the prospect of soon seeing Him face to face, where the character (says the apostle in effect) of our work will be fully declared. May the Lord lay this simple injunction in new and living power upon the hearts of all the children of God, for His name's sake.

CHAPTER 6.

MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

IF we are children of God certain traits or features will be displayed; for if we are born again, and have thus received a new nature and eternal life in Christ, this new nature — for such is the apostle John's argument — will exhibit itself in a distinct way. In other words, inasmuch as Christ Himself is the eternal life, the life we possess through believing in Him will flow out in the same channels as it did through Him in His sojourn amongst men. A divine nature must always express itself in the same way under the same circumstances, and reveal its likeness, its moral similarity, to Him from whom our new nature has been derived. Hence the apostle throughout his first epistle indicates certain distinguishing marks of God's children.

Before, however, entering upon these, it should be carefully pointed out that these traits are not given to enable us to discover if we are children. To use the Scriptures in this way would be to mistake the whole object of the Spirit of God, to fill our souls with uncertainty, and to bring ourselves into bondage to a hard and exacting legalism which would soon wither up all the freshness and energy of the Christian life. Such has been the mistake in all ages of formal theology. The consequence is that souls are led to occupation with themselves, their spiritual state and condition, to a continual search after the fruits of the Spirit within themselves, instead of being taken up with Christ and tracing out and meditating upon His beauties and His perfections — the one essential condition of spiritual growth — and thus to constitute themselves their own judges. There are thousands of God's children who, thus set off on the wrong track, are kept in doubt and uncertainty all the days of their lives, instead of rejoicing in their privileges and in the enjoyment of the Father's love, and who even regard fear and doubt to be the signs of meekness and humility. But this is not the way of the Spirit of God. These traits of which we speak are not given for the purpose of self-examination to aid in the discovery whether we are truly regenerate, but they are described that we might know the character and action of that divine nature of which we by grace have been made partakers. Our relationship is regarded as a settled thing, and being settled the Holy Spirit can now lead us out into the knowledge of the manner of life of the children of God.

In proof of this, attention may be directed to this simple word, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." (1 John 5: 1) The fact of the new birth is made dependent, not upon whether this or that fruit of the Spirit can be detected in us; but solely and entirely upon this one thing — whether we believe that Jesus is the Christ. How blessedly simple! On the day of Pentecost, Peter proclaimed that God had made that same Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, both Lord and Christ. The Jesus who was once here on earth is now declared, on divine testimony, to be the Christ of God. He was ever that while on earth, but He is now presented in this character in a new way, as the rejected of man, and as risen out of death, and seated at the right hand of God. Jesus is the Christ, and whoever bows to this testimony, and receives it in his heart as true, is born of God. Instead, therefore, of looking within for proofs of the new birth the attention should be directed to this one simple question, Do I believe that Jesus is the Christ?*

*See chapter 2 for the further explanation of the means of becoming God's children.

The first feature to be adduced is found in 1 John 3 — "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (v. 9; also 1 John 5: 18.) The difficulty in this statement disappears when the manner of the apostle is observed. He states the truth, as is often observed, in an abstract, and therefore — absolute, way; that is, he confines his attention, to the exclusion of all else, to the one thing before his mind. Thus in this scripture he speaks only of what is characteristic of the new nature, which is born of God, without considering the fact that the children of God possess also the old nature, which is so utterly evil that the apostle Paul expresses its character by the term, "the body of sin." (Rom. 6: 6.) Every believer has these two natures, and John speaks only of that which is divine, and therefore since the old is regarded as done with for ever judicially in the cross of Christ, though this be not his subject, he says, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not." It is the new nature, and not the old, that marks out our existence before God; and thus in this absolute way he writes, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." (1 John 5: 18.) It does not mean therefore that the child of God never falls into sin (for who, alas! could assever that he never sins?), but simply that the character of the new nature is, that it sinneth not. For how indeed could that which is born of God sin? Thus the angel said to Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1: 35.) So absolutely — as to the nature derived in the new birth — whosoever is born of God doth not sin.

Nor must it be forgotten that while as a matter of fact we possess also the old nature, and that there is none that sinneth not, there is at the same time, as stated in a former chapter, no necessity for the believer to sin. "My little children," says John, "these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." (1 John 2: 1) For though we carry, about with us the old nature, it is our privilege to reckon ourselves "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 6: 11) Hence the exhortation of Peter, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." (1 Peter 4: 1, 2.) John's statement therefore must be in no way qualified, and when through carelessness and want of dependence, being out of the presence of God, we dishonour the name of Christ by falling into sin, we should unsparingly judge ourselves, accepting no lower standard, whatever we are practically, than this, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not." Such is the character of the child of God: he may belie it by falling into sin; but sad and humbling as this would be, he does not, on this account, cease to be a child of God. On the other hand, the apostle, while reminding us that there is no necessity for our sinning, points out the gracious provision which God has made for the sins of His children. He says, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." Cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, we are cleansed for ever from guilt before God; but He has provided a means, through the Advocacy of Christ, of washing our feet from all the defilements we may contract in our walk through this world. First, if we sin, Christ prays to the Father for us; then, in answer to His intercession, the Holy Spirit, sooner or later, applies the Word to our consciences, and this leads to self-judgment and confession; and lastly, on the confession of our sins, God is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1: 9.)*

*For the further unfolding of the truth of the Advocacy, the reader is referred to "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ." (Chap. 8)

Another mark of God's children is, that they do, or practise, righteousness. "If ye know," John writes, "that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth" (practiseth) "righteousness is born of Him." (1 John 2: 29; see also 1 John 3: 7, 10.) The child will be like Him of whom he is born. Having the same nature, it will bear the same fruits. But great care must be taken to apprehend what is meant by righteousness. As the apostle Paul teaches, every believer is made God's righteousness in Christ (2 Cor. 5: 21); and hence in Christ answers fully all God's claims according to God's own holy standard. This gives him a perfect standing before God, so perfect that God can rest in the believer in entire complacency. John in this scripture does not speak of our standing, but of our life down here — the display of the eternal life we have in Christ — and thus the righteousness he speaks of is practical. It follows, moreover, that while it is practical it is righteousness according to God's thoughts, and not according to ours. Nay, it is expressly connected with Himself — with Himself as displayed in Christ. For it is, "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know every one that practises righteousness" — it shows therefore the same character; the righteousness of the believer, in this sense, being of the same kind and sort as was exhibited in Christ in His walk — "is born of Him." It is not thus what man calls righteousness, but that which, by the character of its display, plainly speaks of a new nature as its source, and is produced alone by the Holy Spirit.

Let us then ask more particularly wherein this righteousness consists. When our blessed Lord, in His lowly grace, presented Himself to John for baptism, the Baptist forbad Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (Matt. 3: 13-15.) This answer of our blessed Lord gives us exactly what we seek. Having all His delight in the saints in the earth, and the excellent, He identified Himself with them as God's chosen ones from amongst His ancient people; and having come to do God's will, He was with them now subject to every word of God. When therefore the Baptist went forth on his mission, and cried, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," preaching the baptism of repentance, that word became binding on the heart and conscience of every godly Israelite; and inasmuch as Jesus had now taken His place amongst His people, it was binding also on Him, not that He needed to be baptized (far be the thought!), but because in His own love and grace He took this position to glorify God, and to bless His people. He thus teaches us that obedience is the way of righteousness. And there is no other way of practical righteousness; not obedience in order to be saved, but obedience as being the expression of the new life we have received through the new birth in the power of the Spirit. (See 1 John 5: 2, 3; 2 John 6.) What indeed are the commandments which are given to us? They are but the display of the nature of God, just., for example, as all the precepts of the epistles are but the expressions of features in the life of our blessed Lord. If therefore we have a new nature, and Christ Himself as our life, all the activities of this nature and life must flow out in divine channels, and the commandments and precepts of the New Testament are these divine channels. This cannot be too much urged; for though it be true that God saves us absolutely on the ground of His own grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, He does look for practical righteousness in the walk and ways of His children. For this end He has given us His word, to be "a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path;" and when we are guided by it, in subjection to it, when our lives are ordered by it, righteousness will never be wanting. We read in Rev. 19 that it was granted to the Lamb's wife "that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white;" and this fine linen, we are told, is the "righteousness of saints." (v. 8.) This is the full display, in all its totality and completeness, of the righteousness of every individual child of God which was wrought out in this scene in obedience to the Word. Wherever there are the new nature and divine life in the soul, there will be practical righteousness, but the measure of it will be determined by our obedience to the word of God.

Loving our brethren is also a trait of the children of God. "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. . . . We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." (1 John 3: 10-14.) And again, "Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him." (v. 1) Once more, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4: 7, 8.) In this last sentence the divine secret is contained — "God is love." This is His essential nature, His holiness being expressed by that other word, "God is light." If therefore we possess this nature through being born of Him, love must characterize us, and will have for its objects all the objects of the heart of God. It must again be observed that love is not in this aspect pointed out as a responsibility. Love cannot be produced in this way. No; it is shown as a necessity of the divine nature, and therefore a necessity for the child of God. We must love if we are God's children, because it is the character of the new nature we have thus received.

And be it again observed that not a single child of God, wherever he may be found, whatever his associations, or whatever his spiritual condition, can be excepted. All who are begotten of God must be the objects of our divine affections. There can be no limitation of the circle. God includes the whole of His family, and so must we. This plainly asserted, the question as to the manner of the love cannot be evaded. It is this question which has ever been the occasion of much bitter controversy in the Church of God. Some have contended, because of this truth, that love must be shown to every child of God, while others have felt constrained to separate themselves from, and to have no intercourse with, many of God's people, because of their associations and walk. It is important therefore that the truth of this question should be clearly ascertained. This may readily be done by a reference to the Word itself. Now the moment the apostle has written that "every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him," he adds, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." It is clear from this scripture, in combination with the preceding verse, first, that not one of the children of God must be excepted from our love; but, secondly, that our love, divine love, love in the spirit, must only be expressed in the way of obedience.

This may be illustrated from other scriptures. The apostle Paul writes, "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel" (complaint) "against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Col. 3: 13) The Lord says, "Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." (Luke 17: 3, 4.) From the first of these passages we learn that we must always cherish a spirit of forgiveness, that whenever we have a complaint against anyone we must in our hearts hold him as forgiven; and from the second we gather when the forgiveness is to be expressed; viz., on the confession of the sin on the part of the one against whom our complaint lies. So with respect to love. Nothing will justify our ceasing to love our brethren; but the love can only be exhibited in the channel of obedience to the word of God. If therefore a saint of God is living in manifest disobedience, I dare not associate myself with him in his disobedience, or I should falsify the whole principle of love as here laid down for our guidance and instruction.

The truth is, that in this, as in all other things, we are to be the representatives of God. Now God Himself does not, as before seen, manifest His love to those associated with evil (2 Cor. 6), or to those who love the world (1 John 2); and our Lord says, "If a man love me, he will keep my word" (not words): "and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14: 23); that is, the expression of the Father's love, and the Father and the Son making their abode with the soul, are made dependent upon the believer's walk. We are to act in like manner. Not that we are to constitute ourselves judges of our brethren. By no means. But individually we have to maintain a good conscience before God, and thus we cannot link ourselves with that which would cause us to act in disregard of the word of God, or bring us into association with disobedience. We must nevertheless cherish hearts as large as that of God Himself; but the outflow of our affection must be regulated by His will as laid down in His word. And when the ways or the associations of a believer are of that character that we cannot join hands with him, our love will ever find an outlet in prayer for him, and it may be, if the opportunity be vouchsafed, in tender entreaty or solemn admonition. Let no one suppose that we advocate the narrowing of the heart; for we insist to the full that if we love Him that begat, we must love him that is begotten of Him; but together with this we plead that true divine love can only be shown in divine ways. It belongs to the new nature we, have received to love; but it must always be insisted that divine love is a holy love, and can therefore only flow out in divine channels.

Love indeed is a necessity of the new nature. Hence John says, "We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Then he solemnly adds, "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death;" and, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." (vv. 14, 15) Thereon he lays down the standard for love, and that standard is the death of Christ. "Hereby perceive we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (v. 16.) He thus brings us face to face with the immeasurable love of Christ, of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, who gave us "all that love could give;" and as we contemplate this surpassing knowledge love, he reminds us that nothing short of this is the measure of our responsibility to our brethren. Well might the apostle Paul say, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another," because love, as thus interpreted, is a debt ever owing and never paid. A debt? We speak after the manner of men; for it is the nature of divine love always to expend itself on its object, and to recognize no bounds or limits in its extent. It delights to serve, and therefore yokes itself to the needs of all the brethren. The apostle indeed follows up his statement of the standard with an illustration; for he warns us that if any one has this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, that the question may arise whether in such an one the love of God can dwell. No, love is not a sentiment, but a reality, expressed in deed and in truth. In this connection we may well recall the Lord's own words — "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 13: 35; John 15: 12.)

We may call attention to yet another mark of God's children. "Whatsoever is born of God," the apostle says, "overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" The Father and the world are ever in opposition. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, is of the world. Born of God, and having the same nature therefore, how could we love that which is in antagonism to the Father? And that antagonism has been demonstrated, and demonstrated in a way which stamps for ever its utter enmity and hostility to God; viz., by the rejection and crucifixion of God's beloved Son. James therefore writes "that friendship with the world is enmity with God." The two can never be reconciled. But there has been One in this scene who could say, for the comfort of His own, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Hence we read indeed here, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith;" for this faith declares that Jesus, whom the world refused, is the Son of God. Herein lies the secret of victory over the world. For how could the world allure a soul who was living in the power of the faith that Jesus is the Son of God? Nay, with this belief fortifying our hearts, the cross forms an insuperable barrier between the world and ourselves. We have then God's own thoughts about it, and He charges it with the murder of His beloved Son. As He said to Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" so He today asks the world, "Where is my only-begotten Son?" The guilty Jews cried before Pilate, "His blood be on us, and on our children;" and His blood, in this sense, is on the world, and as such is the foundation on which by-and-by judgment without mercy will descend upon it. Believers, having a divine nature, holding that Jesus is the Son of God, are waiting for Him from heaven; and while they wait they show that they are not of the world, even as He was not of the world. They overcome it by their faith — faith in Christ, in what He is in Himself, and in what He has done.

It may be quite true that many a believer fails practically to overcome the world. But this is outside of John's subject. What he shows is, that it belongs to those who are born of God, who believe that Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of God, to overcome it. If they fail therefore, it is because they are not living in the activity of the new nature, or in the exercise of faith through the power of the Holy Ghost. For if, as already explained, we are children of God, and are dominated by the truth that Jesus — the rejected Jesus — is the Son of God, we must be victors over the world. Practically our victory over it will be displayed just in proportion as we take the ground of the apostle, when he says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." The cross reveals the character of the world, and the fact that the One they crucified upon it is the Son of God constitutes their utter condemnation. It was thus that the Lord Himself said, in the anticipation of His death, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (John 12: 31.) On this is grounded the absolute statement of our scripture — "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."

"Master, we would no longer be

At home in that which hateth Thee,

But patient in Thy footsteps go,

Thy sorrow as Thy joy to know;

We would — and, oh! confirm the power -

With meekness meet the darkest hour,

By shame, contempt, however tried,

For Thou wast scorned and crucified."

CHAPTER 7. THE FATHER'S DESIRES FOR HIS CHILDREN.

WE have now seen that there are certain unfailing characteristics of the new nature and life which the children of God possess; that, in other words, as the apostle John teaches, this new nature, whether as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ oh earth, or in the believer, must necessarily flow out in the same channels. But in other scriptures we find precepts and exhortations which reveal what God desires for His children, and mark out the manner of life and walk which is pleasing in His sight. Now all these exhortations are seen, when rightly considered, to be but traits in the life of our blessed Lord, showing us what He was and did in His passage through this world; and thus while they afford divine guidance for our souls, they are both standards wherewith to measure ourselves, and encouragements to stimulate us to follow in His steps. It is an immense help to connect such scriptures with Christ, as otherwise they become both dry and legal, bringing the child of God into bondage instead of furnishing a motive, drawn from the love and the grace of Christ, for a holy and happy liberty in the path of obedience.

The first of these precepts which bear upon our especial subject is found in the "Sermon on the Mount." Our Lord says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5: 43-48.)

The fundamental principle of this scripture is, that God's children should be His representatives in this world, that their very conduct should proclaim what they are, and to whom they belong. This is the force of the words, "that ye maybe the children of your Father who is in heaven;" i.e. acting in such a way that their moral likeness to the Father will be seen. The illustration the Lord uses makes this apparent. Men say, "Love your neighbours and hate your enemies;" but in contrast with this the Lord says, "Love your enemies." In these two things indeed the heart of man and the heart of God are revealed. Man may shrink from accepting this as true of himself, that he loves his neighbours and hates his enemies; but it is the exact expression of the flesh, of man's corrupt heart. It is not in man to love those that hate him. But God, on the other hand, has told out His heart in the gift of His beloved Son to a world that denied and crucified Him. As the apostle Paul writes," God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It was when we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This was love peculiar to God, love going out in blessed activity towards those who had nothing in them worthy of love, rather everything to turn it aside; love therefore that flowed out from the depths of God's own heart, because, being love, He delights to love, and therewith to bless the objects on which it rests. It is this same love — love of the same character — that is to distinguish God's children. Even the worst of men will love those that love them, and salute their brethren; for that is a selfish love, a love which spends itself on those from whom it expects a return and a recompense. This is human and not divine love; and hence the Lord says to His own, "I say unto you, Love your enemies. . . . Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father [which is in heaven]* is perfect."

* The words enclosed in brackets are of doubtful authority.

A whole system of theology has been built up on these closing words; but attention to the context should have obviated all possible misconception. The doctrine of Christian perfection — perfection in the flesh, as it really is — can find no support from this scripture, except indeed the words of our Lord are wrested from their connection. For the point here insisted on, as has been shown, is, that the followers of Christ, in contrast with the men of this world, and like God Himself, should show kindness and love to all classes alike, enemies as well as friends, good as well as evil; that just as God acts from His own heart, and sends His temporal blessings on all alike, irrespective of their character, so should His people; and in doing so they will prove that they are His children, and be perfect even as their Father is perfect.

Some years back, two ladies called upon a well-known servant of the Lord, and in the course of their conversation they advocated this doctrine of perfection. The question was put

"Have you attained this perfection?"

"We believe we have."

"Then you are perfect?"

"Yes."

"Are you as perfect as Christ?"

After some hesitation the reply was given in the affirmative. "Then," responded the servant of God, "I would not give much for your Christ." And yet, with the doctrine they held, what other answer could be returned; for either "perfect" means "perfect" according to God's standard, or something less. If the former, Christ is its only measure; if the latter, it is not perfection. But even if the passage were allowed to be an exhortation to attain to all the moral perfectness of God (which, as we have seen, it is not) it could not be pressed into the support of such a doctrine. For example, Christ Himself is our standard; we are to walk as He walked. (1 John 2: 6.) But it would be to forget what He is and was upon the earth, if we turned round and said, "We have reached the standard; our walk is as perfect as His, and even more, we have attained to His perfection." For be it remembered that there are no degrees in perfection. It is perfection, and nothing short of it; and through the grace of God we shall attain it, but not until we see our blessed Lord as He is. (1 John 3: 2.) Then we shall be like Him. In the meantime we are to purify ourselves as He is pure, daily to be transformed into His likeness; and this process of transformation will go on just in proportion as we are occupied in beholding the glory of the Lord displayed in His unveiled face. But it will only be "from glory to glory" "from one degree to another," and then when we behold Him face to face we shall have awaked in His likeness. We can never therefore, as another has said, rest in attainment, but rather in attaining. Still, while we sojourn here we are called upon to represent the Father in His attitude of grace towards all, and in this sense to be perfect even as He is perfect.

Another aspect of this truth is presented in the gospel of Luke. There we read, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke 6: 36.) Now this word "merciful" is most remarkable, and this will be perceived if we adduce another scripture. "I beseech you therefore, brethren," says the apostle Paul, "by the mercies of God," etc. (Rom. 12: 1.) This word "mercies" is the same as in Luke. And what are the mercies of which the apostle speaks? They are all the mercies expressed in redemption, as told out from Rom. 5 to the end of Rom. 8. They are, in other words, the unfoldings of the heart of God in the display of His grace in our salvation; for it is on the exhibition and enjoyment of these that the apostle grounds the exhortation to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, our reasonable service. When, therefore, our blessed Lord tells us to be merciful, as our Father also is merciful, He reminds us of our responsibility to represent the Father, to tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light, to act towards others as He has acted towards us, so that the Father's heart and character may be displayed through our walk and ways. We are, therefore, to do good to all, to be ever givers without expectation of recompense; and to love our enemies, because otherwise we should misrepresent our God and Father. What a blessed mission it is to which we are called! Christ revealed the Father, and He would have us also to be revealers of the Father in order that others may discern the character of the One who has made us His children by what we are as we pass through this scene.

This same truth is found in more than one of the epistles. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children." (Eph. 4: 32; Eph. 5: 1.) It is not as in our version, "as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," but as we have given it, "as God in Christ." For the apostle here presents God in the riches of His grace, acting, without motive, except in Himself, and needing therefore no inducement to forgiveness; but acting solely from His own heart — these forms of display being but the manifestation of what He is as seen in redemption. But he presents Him in this way as our standard, and hence he says, "Be ye imitators of God as beloved children." As in the gospels, so here, the children are desired to present in their conduct the character of God as their Father. And thereon the apostle shows us God as love, and God as light — the two words which tell out all that God is; and he says to us, "You are also to display love and light." Thus he says, "Walk in love," (v. 2); and, "walk as children of light." (v. 8.) Christ Himself is brought in as the example of love in His having loved us, and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour; for in this act of sacrifice He is the expression of the whole heart of God. And inasmuch as we are now light in the Lord we are to walk as children of light, and the fruit of the light (it is light, not Spirit) is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth — in such a walk proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

We may well, in the face of such scriptures, challenge ourselves as to whether these desires of God for us are sufficiently borne in mind. The temptation to measure ourselves by one another is so great that we cannot be too frequently reminded that God Himself, according to what He is as displayed in redemption as love and light, is our standard for walk and conduct. And with what motives are we herein furnished to become imitators of God as beloved children! Thus, for example, we are to forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us; we are to act from our own hearts in grace, even as God acted in our salvation — seeking no motive outside of ourselves (save indeed in the God of our salvation), but finding our delight in the expression of that unspeakable grace of which we ourselves have been the subjects. It is, however, by no means intended that we should always pronounce our forgiveness to those who have sinned against us; but as to our own feelings we are ever to be in a state of forgiveness. We are never to retain inwardly the sin of a brother. However we may be sinned against, before God we are instantly to forgive; and then, as already explained, when the one who has committed the wrong, as our Lord taught Peter, comes and says, "I repent" (Luke 17), forgiveness is to be granted him. God Himself acts in this manner. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." and we, because His children, are to act on the same principle. Grace retains nothing, always forgives; but for the offender's own sake, for the glory of God indeed in the first place, it waits for the sinner's self-judgment before it openly absolves from the sin.

We are therefore set down close to the heart of God and of Christ, and are thus to draw our motives for walk and conduct from the unspeakable grace of the One, and from the unfathomable love of the Other; for the more we ourselves are under the power of divine grace and love, the more will grace and love flow out from our hearts towards our fellow-believers. It is indeed a question of heart, of the heart filled with the sense of the love of God in the power of the Holy Ghost; and when in any measure this is the case with us we shall act towards all around us in the spirit of these precepts.

In the epistle to the Philippians the apostle gives another exhortation to the saints, that they may approve themselves as the children of God. "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons" (children, really) "of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation" (not nation), "among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life," etc. (Phil. 2: 14-16.) The manner of the introduction of this exhortation is worthy of all attention. It is, "Do all things without murmurings and disputings" (or reasonings): "that ye may be," etc. The Father knew, and our foolish hearts too in measure know, how prone we are to these murmurings and disputings. We murmur at a thousand things in our lot, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness, and thereby question the care, the love, and the wisdom of Him who orders all our path, and lose the blessed sense of His presence with us. As a consequence, we become an easy prey to the suggestions and temptations of the enemy. Hence disputings or reasonings are also mentioned; for the moment unbelief prevails, so that we walk by sight, reasoning takes the place of faith. There is nothing so destructive of confidence in God as a questioning mind. A child of God should abhor reasoning, remembering that word of the psalmist, "I hate thoughts." The thoughts of God are our portion, and with these we should be content, and to be satisfied with these is in fact the sign of a lively faith.

Ah, these murmurings and disputings are verily the little foxes that spoil the vines! And not only so, for the connection here is most grave. These things are to be avoided, that we may be blameless and harmless, which we never are when we fall into murmurings and disputings. Nay, it is not too much to say that nothing more dishonours the name of Christ, nothing more belies our character as God's children. And yet they are so common that little is thought about it. But how could I murmur, if I have any sense of the Father's care and love? How could I be disputing, if I know my place as a child with the Father? No; both the one and the other are falsifications of the grace of God.

If now we examine a little more closely verse 15, we shall see that the apostle has really given us a portrait of Christ. For every word in this exhortation is the exact expression of what He was in this world. He was blameless and harmless — or, as some translate, harmless and simple — in all His path from Bethlehem to Calvary. "Which of you," He said to His adversaries, "convinceth me of sin?" And three times did even Pilate testify that he found no fault in Him. (Luke 23) That He was infinitely acceptable to God we know, for He was the One in whom God found His delight; but man also, though hating and rejecting Him, was compelled to bear witness to His harmless life. He went about doing good, scattering blessings with a bounteous hand around His path; walking so perfectly before God and before man that the eagle eyes of His persistent enemies could not detect a single action on which they could ground a truthful accusation against Him. Baffled and defeated, if not abashed, in their every attempt to catch something out of His mouth which might be used to compass His destruction, they resorted to false witnesses, who distorted His words, to produce even the semblance of a charge against Him. And how could it be otherwise with that holy and spotless life?

Moreover, He was the Son of God, and surely without rebuke, or rather, as the word more exactly is, without spot. No defilement could possibly attach to Him; nay, He could touch even the leper without being defiled, and, in the power of the Spirit of holiness that dwelt in Him, banish the leprosy itself. This is but a type of His whole life. He was surrounded by sin and its pollutions, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; but, like a clear stream that is sometimes seen passing through the dirty waters of another without losing its own crystal purity, the blessed Lord remained without spot. Amidst darkness He was only light; and thus as the Lamb, foreordained before the foundation of the world, He was without blemish and without spot, and as such the Lamb by whose precious blood it is we have been redeemed. Moreover, He shone as light in the world; for, as St. John tells us, "in Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." Yea, as He Himself testified, He was the light of the world, and as such He held forth the word of life.

This is then a perfect picture of what Christ was, and yet, as we have said, these words exhibit the Father's desires for His children, for every member of His family in this world. He would have each one of us to seek these characteristics. This is only to say again that Christ Himself is the standard for the children of God. We are to be like Him by-and-by, when we see Him as He is; then we shall be perfectly conformed to His image. But now, while we anticipate this consummation of our blessedness, He would have us walk like Christ. If we say we abide in Him, we ought ourselves also so to walk even as He walked. We may fail every hour, and indeed every minute, but the standard remains the same; and the more constantly we are occupied with, the more we meditate upon, Christ, have Him before our souls as the One on whom we feast, and in whom we delight, the more we shall be conformed to His image, and the more closely, as a consequence, we shall follow in His steps.

God's desire for us then is, that we should reflect in some measure the image of His Son. We know therefore what will most please our God and Father. In olden times, and indeed in the present, we read of professing Christians making costly sacrifices to win the favour of God. Sacerdotalism preys and thrives upon these things, extorting from its followers gifts and money under the plea that God will be pleased with them on account of their offerings. There is only one way of finding acceptance with God, and that is through faith in the Lord Jesus, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace" (favour) "wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Being now brought into the favour of God in this way, we shall then best please Him by following the example of our Lord and Saviour. We thus read, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." And what was the characteristic of the life of Enoch? It was that he walked with God. The Lord Jesus did this perfectly, and the Holy Spirit has been pleased also to testify that Enoch walked with God. This then is the way to please God, not by rich gifts or costly offerings, but by a walk in subjection to the Word, according to God's mind — a walk with God — occupied and having fellowship with Him in His things. And such a walk is open to every child of God. The apostle Peter does but express this in another way when he writes, "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

Such is the royal road to the enjoyment of God's favour. He loves all His children perfectly; but the one who is most closely following the Lord will enjoy the largest manifestation of it. The Lord loved Peter equally with John, but it was only John who was permitted to lay his head upon the Saviour's breast. The truth is, John being closer to the Lord in his walk, entering more into the mind of his Lord, could receive this special mark of favour. It was equally open to Peter; but Peter's own condition of soul was the hindrance to his enjoyment of it. The Lord Himself lays down this principle. He says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14: 21.) So likewise it is the obedient child that will receive the largest manifestation of the Father's love. If therefore the Father reveals His mind for His children, it is but to show how they can best please Him, to indicate the only pathway to blessing and the enjoyment of His own unbounded affections.

CHAPTER 8.

THE FATHER'S GOVERNMENT OF HIS CHILDREN.

HAVING now considered what the desires of the Father for His children are, we pass on to another branch of our subject; viz., His government of His family. For if God has His family He must of necessity order it, according to His own mind, for His own glory, and for the blessing of every one of its members. Having committed to each child the honour and privilege of being His representative before men, it is impossible that He can permit them to continue in self-will or self-pleasing. He has therefore instituted a holy government over them — a government which carries with it, as all governments must, provision for chastisement in case of insubjection and disobedience, and rewards for those who acknowledge and submit themselves to it. It is well that every child of God should understand this; for nothing is more alarming than the wide-prevailing claim on the part of many of the people of God to be a law unto themselves. No; if by grace I am a member of God's family, the Father's will must be my. only law; His authority must be ever zealously maintained. The honour of God as our Father is concerned in it, and my own happiness, and the happiness of all the children of God, is dependent on it. If but one child in a family refuses the parental control, he brings discord and unhappiness into the midst of the household. All are affected by it. So is it likewise in God's family. All His children are so linked up together that they must be affected, consciously or unconsciously, by one another's conduct. All alike therefore are concerned in upholding the Father's authority.

If we now turn to a passage in 1 Peter, we shall find the principle of this government clearly stated. He says, "If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." (1 Peter 1: 17.) This scripture, from the want of careful consideration, has been the subject of much misconception. It has sometimes been spoken of as referring to the future judgment — to our manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ. But this is impossible; for the Lord Himself expressly tells us that "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 5: 22.) It cannot then be the judgment in the future, whether before the judgment-seat of Christ, or the great white throne; from both these alike it is the Son who will pronounce the award. What, then, is the judgment to which Peter refers? It is the judgment which the Father carries on daily in the midst of His family — a present judgment therefore, and not a future one. And nothing can be more solemn than the way in which it is here stated. In human families the parental government is often very remiss and uncertain. Through the weakness of the parents' hearts many offences are unnoticed, and the greatest transgressor oftentimes escapes. Partiality or favouritism too frequently destroys the peace and comfort of many a home. It is not so in the family of God. Though He loves, or rather because He loves, all His children with a perfect love, there is no respect of persons with Him, no indulgence shown to one more than another; but He deals with all alike in maintaining His authority and government for the welfare and blessing of all.

And the judgment is according to every man's work. By Him actions are weighed with unerring accuracy; for He seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Only thus is it possible to discover the true character of our works. Outwardly they may often seem good and beautiful, but the revelation of the motive from whence they sprung would perhaps entirely change our estimate. The Father's eye rests upon the inmost springs of our conduct, and He therefore is never deceived. The nature of every word we speak, and every act we do, is at once apparent to Him, and upon this knowledge this righteous, yet tender and loving, judgment is based.

It would make an immense difference if we lived in the recollection that we are thus before the Father's eye, and under His government. Hence indeed the exhortation which the Spirit of God gives us through Peter. If this be so, pass the time of sojourning here in fear; that is, a gracious fear of grieving the Father's heart, the fear which springs from the sense of the holiness of His character. The apostle Paul, after bringing in the truth of our future manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ, says, "Knowing the terror" (fear) "of the Lord, we persuade men." It is well, indeed, for our hearts to remember that while we are brought into the most tender and intimate relationships with God as our Father, He is ever the Holy One, and that His government of His family is also holy. Confidence in His grace and love, and the full enjoyment of liberty in His presence, which He in grace has accorded to us, should never prevent, but rather lead to, our cherishing the most reverential fear. It is true that perfect love casteth out fear — all fear of God as a judge; but it brings with it and intensifies the holy fear of which Peter speaks.

This will be further seen if we notice the grounds on which he urges the exhortation — "Forasmuch as ye know," he proceeds, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." He thus reminds us that God has absolute claims upon His children as founded upon redemption. These two things are always connected. In Exodus 12 God spares the Israelites (their first-born) in consequence of the sprinkled blood of the passover lamb; and in Exodus 13 the feast of unleavened bread is instituted, whereby the children of Israel are taught that the whole period of their lives, typified by the seven days, must be consecrated to God. The apostle alludes to this when he says, "For even Christ our passover is 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.) Or, as he says in another place, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20.)

But Peter seeks to enhance the character of God's claims by pointing out the cost of our redemption. There were two symbols of redemption in the Old Testament. Whenever the children of Israel were numbered God required that each man should give a ransom for his soul. This ransom money was expressed by half of a silver shekel, and this was "to make an atonement for their souls." (Ex. 30: 11-16.) On one occasion, in token of their gratitude for a remarkable preservation in the war against the Midianites, they offered gold instead of silver. (See Num. 31) Both silver and gold, as the two most precious metals, were thus used as a figure of redemption. Peter alludes to this when he writes to these Hebrew believers and says, "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." He thus contrasts the value of the blood of Christ, its infinite value in the eyes of God — derived as it is from the whole truth of the person of Christ — with that of silver and gold; and the point to which he would call our attention is, that God's claims upon His children are according to the preciousness of the blood by which they have been redeemed.

It was so typically in the case of the priests. At their consecration the blood of the ram was sprinkled on their right ears, right thumbs, and right toes — signifying that henceforward they were, according to the value of the blood, not their own, but Jehovah's; that they were to hear, to act, and to walk for Him. So with ourselves. It is a simple but most blessed truth, that we belong to Him who has redeemed us. This settles every difficulty in our daily lives. It is now not our own will and pleasure, but God's. We are turned to Him from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. We can therefore now readily understand this apostolic precept — If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.

He even supplies an additional motive. This Lamb — the Lamb of God — has been entirely of God's providing. He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. God had thought of His people from all eternity, and had told out all His heart for them in the gift of His beloved Son; and when He who had died to redeem us lay in His grave, God came in and raised Him up out of death, and gave Him glory, that those who believe might have their faith and hope in God. Surely a God of perfect love and grace! He has redeemed us by the precious. blood of Christ, He has made us His children, so that we address Him as our God and Father; and it is He who, in His government, judges according to every man's work. Who should govern us if not God? Yea, the pillars of the government of His family, are His love and grace as exhibited in the gift of His only-begotten Son, and they rest upon that eternal redemption which was accomplished by the precious blood of Christ.

If we turn now to the epistle of the Hebrews, we shall find the character and object of the Father's government more fully unfolded. There we read, in connection with the trials through which these saints were passing, "It is for chastening ye endure,* God dealeth with you as sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." (Heb. 12: 7, 8.) Now chastening belongs to government, and it springs from the very relationship, as the writer of this epistle shows, between the father and the son. But the whole subject, as introduced here, is so interesting and profitable that it will be helpful if we examine it in its context.

*This is generally accepted as the better reading

In Hebrews 11 the subject of faith — faith as seen in its action and power — is dealt with, and numerous illustrations of it are adduced, as seen in the saints of old. But all these illustrious examples are but preparatory to, and as it were shadows of, the one perfect example of Christ. He alone, whatever the excellency and the devotedness of those who had gone before, He alone, is the leader and completer of faith, the only perfect exhibition of it from the commencement to the end of His course. "Wherefore," says the writer of this epistle, "seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking" (looking off, away from all these witnesses) "unto Jesus, the Author" (Leader) "and Finisher of faith." There the character of His life of faith is indicated in a few words. The joy set before Him is the encouragement and sustaining power; but His path itself is summed up briefly in these significant words, He "endured the cross, despising the shame." Ah, what a life indeed was His!

"A mourner all His life was He,

A dying Lamb at last."

Yes; the cross is the characteristic of the life of faith; but faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, gives the power to despise its shame, and then at length, even as the Lord Himself is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, there will be the entrance upon the enjoyment of its fruition in His presence, where there is fulness of joy, and at His right hand (though this place belongs alone to Christ), where there are pleasures for evermore.

Now we have the object of the presentation of the perfect example of our blessed Lord. In the path of faith all must endure the cross. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." The cross cannot be avoided. Self must be refused, and the cross taken up — death accepted. But God brings this in upon us frequently by the action of adversaries — persecutors. Hence the apostle says, "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood" (died a martyr's death) "striving against sin." He would thus encourage and console these believers by pointing them to the surpassing sufferings which Christ endured — sufferings which had their termination in a martyr's death. His death was much more than this; for He was at the same time the sacrifice for sin; but here the question is simply of what He met with in the pathway of faith.

Having thus encouraged the fainting hearts of the saints by the example of Christ, the apostle now adduces another thing, and this it is that belongs especially to our subject of God's government of His children. He proceeds, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." The especial thing to be noted, as unfolding the ways of God with His children, is that He takes up "the contradiction of sinners," the opposition and persecution we, may meet with in the path of faith, and uses them as needed chastisement. For in this scripture it is not the direct dealing of God's hand that is alluded to, but the trials and difficulties attendant upon the path of a believer through this world, which God nevertheless uses as instruments for our needed chastisement and blessing.

And nothing can be more blessed than this when understood. And how quietly will our souls then repose upon God; for we learn that all these things are under His control, and that He uses them for our blessing. We have a beautiful illustration in the life of our Lord of the action of faith in the presence of the power of the enemy. In the garden of Gethsemane, when, under the guidance of Judas, a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came to apprehend our Lord, Peter, with impetuous zeal and fleshly energy, drew his sword, "and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. . . . Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18: 3-11.) It was Satan who was leading on these evil men, stirring up "the contradiction of sinners" against our blessed Lord. Their thoughts and actions were wholly evil. But our Lord, in the perfection of His confidence and faith, was above these instruments of the Wicked One, and in communion with His Father, and He would thus receive the cup, not from Satan, but from the hands of the Father. He was therefore in perfect peace and calm, undisturbed by the malice and enmity of His adversaries, knowing that, though they were led captive by the devil at his will, there was a greater One behind the scene, using the wrath of Satan for the accomplishment of His blessed purposes of grace and love. Far be the thought that the Lord needed this contradiction of sinners against Himself. He did learn obedience by the things which He suffered; and all these persecutions and sorrows lay in the path on which He had entered for the accomplishment of the will of God. As the Captain of our salvation He was made perfect through sufferings. And just because of this it is so infinitely precious to look away from everything to Him — to Him who endured the cross and despised the shame.

Applying all this to ourselves in view of our subject, we may gather some most profitable lessons. We learn, first, to connect all that may befall us in our path, coming upon us however it may, through the injustice and wickedness of man, or through our circumstances, with our Father's hand. Doing this we shall never be disturbed or disquieted, or be tempted to resent the action of others; but we shall quietly rest in the hands of our Father, in the spirit of David who said, when Shimei was cursing him, "The Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who then shall say, Wherefore hast thou done so?" Yes, it will still every rebellious thought, and pacify our rising indignation under the sense of injustice or persecution from others, if we can but in lowly humility and confidence say with our blessed Lord, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it

Secondly, we gather from the scripture in Hebrews that all these things are but the expressions of the Father's love. It is, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." And again, "God dealeth with you as with sons." It is therefore in Fatherly affection, watching over us in His tenderness, noting our need of correction and discipline, and permitting the very thing to come upon us which will accomplish the desired end. Earthly parents will too often overlook the failings of their children: they spare the rod because of their children's crying, and thus in their fond partiality or weak indulgence allow the bad habit or evil tendency to go uncorrected. Not so with God. He loves us too well, and never spares His rod if thereby He can bless His children. But

"He lifts it up on high,

With pity in His heart,

That every stroke His children feel

May peace and joy impart."

To enter into this will make an immense change in our experience. Meeting with trials and difficulties, we shall instantly ask, "What has the Father to say to us through these things?" In this way we shall receive nothing but blessing through the most adverse circumstances.

The third lesson has been anticipated, but may yet be stated in a distinct form. It is that God never chastens or scourges us unless there is something in us to require it. Having this truth in our minds, instead of complaining of our sorrows or trials, we shall at once seek, in the presence of God, to discover what secret sin or evil habit it is that has been suffered to pass unjudged, and has made it necessary for God to come in with His rod. For we must not forget that it is for chastening we endure, and that God dealeth with us as sons. Then, moreover, we shall not despise the chastening of the Lord, inasmuch as we shall have learned that He has a motive and a cause for it; nor shall we faint when we are rebuked of Him, assured as we shall be of His love in His action towards us.

There is also the solemn reminder that if we are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are we bastards and not sons. Old Bishop Fuller has illustrated this truth by an incident. Walking down the street one day, he saw two boys quarrelling, and watching them he perceived that one of the two was chiefly in fault. Presently a man came running out of a house, and seizing the lad who was least to blame, he began to chastise him. The bishop interposing said, "Why do you beat that boy? It is the other who deserves it most." "That may be," replied the man; "but this is my son." So it is; God chastises His children. "To be without chastisement therefore," says the Spirit, "is a sign that you are bastards and not sons." Asaph did not understand this truth, and therefore says, "I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." But of himself he says, "All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." (Psalm 73: 3-14.) His difficulty was removed when he went into the sanctuary of God, and it is also met and explained by the Holy Spirit in this scripture. (Heb. 12: 8.)

The apostle now proceeds to enforce his instruction, first, by a parallel, and then by a contrast. He reminds us that we gave the fathers of our flesh reverence when they corrected us. Subjection to and reverence for them belong to the relationship of children to their parents. It is this which is taken up and urged as a ground of submission to God in His chastening. "Shall we not," he adds, "much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" The term "Father of spirits" is used in contrast with the "fathers of our flesh;" and the argument is, if we gave the latter reverence, much more should we do so to the Former. This, moreover, is the path of life. As one of old said, "God often shakes His rod that He may not strike, and He strikes that He may not kill." In this He manifests His love — seeking to preserve His children from every false way — the way that seemeth right to a man, but the end of which is death.

The object of the chastening is now fully stated, and this as contrasted with the discipline to which we were subjected by the fathers of our flesh. These chastened us for a few days after their own pleasure, according as it seemed good to them, wisely or unwisely, and often, alas! from mere caprice or a passing feeling. Not so with God. He always has in view our profit, and the object that we might be partakers of His holiness. Such is the great end God ever proposes — our sanctification, conformity to the image of Christ. He seeks this by all the chastenings which we are called upon to endure. Like vines, our poor hearts send out tendrils in all directions, winding themselves around this and that object; and then it is that the Father permits trials or persecutions, or it may be sickness, to come in to snap these ties to objects other than Christ, and by the discovery of Himself and His love to us in these chastenings of His hand, He seeks to wean us from everything that might hinder our progress, and to attract us more fully to Himself.

It may be profitable to point out that there are different causes of our chastening. In 2 Cor. 12 we find that the object of the thorn in the flesh was to prevent the apostle from spiritual pride on account of the wondrous revelations made to him when he was caught up into Paradise. In 1 Cor. 11 the Lord chastened His people for levity of conduct at His table. In John 15 the branch that beareth fruit is purged that it may bring forth more fruit. But whatever the cause, whatever it may be in us that makes the discipline necessary, the end proposed, in the unspeakable love of our God and Father, is our truest blessing.*

*We have not distinguished here the different characters of the chastening. In 1 Cor. 11 it proceeds from the Lord, because it is for sins at His table, and so the thorn in the flesh is under His permission, because it is in connection with Paul as His servant. The reader will find it most profitable to note these distinctions.

What a view this subject gives us of the Father's watchful care and love. His eye is ever upon us, noting our state and condition, and He adapts His dealings with us, and the character of His dealings, sending persecution or trials in our circumstances, or sicknesses, as may be most calculated to effect the desired end. He knows, and He alone, what will most quickly touch us, how hot the fire must be to purge away our dross, and He orders all accordingly; but He is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that we may be able to bear it. Yea, "He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind." Blessed be His name!

But the Spirit of God reminds us that the process will not be pleasant. "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." God would have us feel the chastening. Indeed, His desire is to produce in us self-judgment and humiliation before Him; hence the blessed result is connected with our being exercised thereby. If there be no exercises of soul produced by His hand upon us, there will be no blessing. Whenever therefore He begins to deal with us, our first thought should be, "There is a cause for it," and this should lead us into the presence of God, as it did David when the pressure of famine was upon the land, to enquire of the Lord. (See 2 Sam. 21) He will then reveal to us wherefore He has been compelled to use His rod, and thus humbling ourselves under His mighty hand, He will give us in due time the enjoyment of the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Having this end of God's ways with us revealed, the apostle might well exhort us to courage and confidence. "Wherefore," he says, "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." Faltering with distrust under chastisement may have the most disastrous effect upon feeble believers; whereas, on the other hand, God is glorified abundantly, and souls are blessed when a saint, passing through deep waters, leans with unshaken trust on the arm and heart of Him who is thus dealing with him. We cannot therefore too often assure ourselves of God's end in our chastisement, nor can we count too confidently upon His love to sustain us under it. Being our Father in His grace, He must govern us, according to His own will; but the end of His government is our most perfect blessing.

CHAPTER 9.

THE PRIVILEGES OF GOD'S CHILDREN.

HAVING brought us into His family, God has surrounded us with blessings of every kind. And inasmuch as all is of grace, we are entitled to nothing, save as being in Christ. All is privilege where grace reigns; but in this chapter we propose to point out a few of the special privileges which our God and Father has bestowed upon us, as the expression of His own heart, in relation to our need as His children. just as all connected with His purposes of grace is but the display of Himself in His boundless and everlasting love, so all these privileges are to be traced back to His own heart as their fount and source. Before the Lord departed from this scene He said, as we pointed out in a former chapter, "I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17: 26.) It is not only that we are the objects of the Father's heart, but His love, in the same measure as it rested on Christ, is said to be in us — in us, because Christ Himself is in us, and thus the medium of its inflow into our souls. Entering into this, however feebly, we shall have no difficulty in comprehending the nature of the precious privileges which He has bestowed on us. But it is of all importance that we begin with the Father's love, and not with the privileges; that, in a word, we seek to understand the privileges in the light of the love, rather than the love in the light of the privileges. This is the divine way. Thus the apostle says, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8: 3 2.) The lesser gifts flow from the greatest of all.

The first privilege we name is that of the Father's care. Our blessed Lord Himself has called our attention to this in Luke 12. The chapter supposes the Lord's absence from this world, and thus in principle finds its application to us while waiting for His return. (See vv. 35, 36.) The first thing of which the Lord speaks, is the exposure of His own to danger from persecution — persecution stirred up by Satan. After exhorting them not to fear them who can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do, but rather to fear Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, He proceeds to encourage their souls by reminding them of God's constant care. The manner in which He does this is exceedingly beautiful. "Are not five sparrows," He says, "sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" — or, as it is in Matthew's gospel, "and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." The application is evident, and hence He continues, "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows."

What comfort lies in these blessed words for the children of God! We also are often exposed to dangers of many kinds. Our life in this world may easily be endangered, if not from enemies and persecutors, yet from other causes. In many a path of service, at home, or in the visitation of those suffering from deadly diseases, or in journeying by land or by sea, death may frown upon us and seek to turn us aside. Here then we have the antidote — the very hairs of our head are all numbered. In the recollection of this we can courageously proceed, not because we are insensible to the peril, but because we are imbued with the sense of a Father's protection and care. The poet sings but the simple truth when he says

"Not a single shaft can hit

Till the God of love sees fit."

What then has the child of God to do with fear? His only fear should be lest he might be unfaithful, and fear man more than God, lest he should forget that ceaseless care of love which makes him invulnerable to every weapon wherewith Satan seeks to compass his destruction, until the time appointed of God. The children of God, if they were in the power of this truth, would also be far less restless and anxious in times of sickness. God may permit us the use of means, but how often are these resorted to in a spirit of unbelief, as if our recovery were entirely dependent upon human aid and advice. Surely if a sparrow cannot fall on the ground without the permission of our Father, His children cannot. No, the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, and God is honoured by our perfect calm and confidence in the face of the greatest dangers, resting, as we may, in the assurance that diseases and enemies alike are but instruments in His hands, for the execution of His own purposes of tenderness and love.

The Lord applies this also in another way. Passing as pilgrims and strangers through this world we have certain needs. We are independent of the scene altogether excepting as regards our bodies. In all other respects we are made to feel with the Psalmist that it is a dry and thirsty land where no water is. But our bodies have needs; they must be fed and clothed. Our blessed Lord, in His tenderness for and sympathy with us, takes notice of these our wants; and He does so because He knows how often care, springing out of these necessities, comes between our souls and Himself, and prevents all possible enjoyment of the Father's love. In the parable of the sower indeed He mentions the cares of this world as one of the things that choke the seed of the Word, so that no fruit is brought to perfection. He therefore provides also an antidote for this evil. He tells His disciples to take no thought, i.e. to have no anxiety, for their life, what they shall eat, nor for their body, what they should put on. And, to enforce the exhortation, He reminds them that the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment; and then He adduces two illustrations of God's care that would ever meet their eyes — the fowls of the air, and the lilies of the field. They could scarcely step out of their houses without seeing bird or flower, and then He would have them remember that God fed the one and clothed the other, and that if so, seeing they were of more value in His eyes than either ravens or lilies, much more would He feed and clothe them.

How divinely perfect are the Lord's ways! And how wonderfully adapted are such words to meet the tendency of our hearts to anxiety about earthly things! But He goes still further. He reminds them that if the nations of the world have their minds upon all these things, it should not be so with the children of God. To mind earthly things is the mark of the men of this world. And what can deliver God's children from this bondage? Confidence in the Father's care and love. Hence the Lord adds, "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." What power lies in this blessed assurance when made good in our souls! Are we in straits, in difficult circumstances, under extreme pressure in respect of our daily wants? The recollection that our "Father knoweth" should dispel every fear and banish all depression. Even we, if we had the power to succour, would not allow our children to be borne down by their needs. if we, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, as our Lord has taught in another place, how much more shall our Father know how to give good things to them that ask Him? Yea, His eye is upon every one of His children. He beholds their every want, and if He delay to meet it, it is only for their fuller blessing. We might therefore well say, with Habakkuk, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab. 3: 17, 18.)

The only concern indeed of the children of God is with the kingdom of God — God's claims and interests. "Seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." That is, God's will is to be our only law, and our hearts are to be set on His things, not on the things of earth. His glory is to be the end and aim of our lives; and He on His part engages to care for us. His very faithfulness is bound up with making provision for the needs of His children when they are seeking His kingdom. It is as the poet has said -

"Make you His service your delight,

Your wants shall be His care."

There is no need therefore, as the Lord proceeds to point out, to amass wealth or treasure in this world. If we do, our riches are exposed to thief and moth; and besides, where our treasure is our hearts will be also. If, then, our treasures are in this world, the heart will be here too; and hence the necessity of having Christ alone as our treasure that our hearts may be upon Him. Making Gods glory our object, we can afford to dispense with anxiety about temporal things, because He is watching over and ministering to us; we then can pass through this scene as strangers and pilgrims, and as we do so have our loins girt and our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, in the expectation of the return of the Saviour to receive us to Himself, that we may be with Him in the Father's house.

Another blessed privilege enjoyed by the children of God is, that of making known their wants to Him. In other words, they possess the Father's ear. How often the Lord Jesus reminded His disciples of this! "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsover ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16: 23, 24.) Who shall comprehend the vastness of the blessing involved in such a privilege — the privilege of unburdening our hearts of all our cares and sorrows, to One who understands us perfectly, and loves us infinitely?

Do any enquire as to what they may tell the Father in prayer? There is no limitation, no reserve. Everything that troubles us — every passing need, difficulty, or sorrow — all may be told out to Him whose ear is ever open to our cry. As the apostle Paul says, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." He would have us, in the intimacy of His love, to be absolutely without reserve before Him — all told out, nothing kept back. Our danger never lies in telling Him too much, but just in the opposite direction. And the more we. know His heart, the more intimate we shall be in the use of this privilege. As another has said, "Whatever is a care to us, produces a care for us in the heart of God." On this account we need never be afraid of presuming too far in our requests. He loves to hear the cry of His children, for He well knows that it is the expression of their confidence in Him. It may be, as it often is, a foolish cry; but still it is the cry of His own children, and He never wearies of listening to it. We have many instances in the Scriptures to encourage us — instances of the most familiar kind. Take Ananias, for example, when the Lord sends him to Saul. He ventures even to remind the Lord of the character of the one to whom he was to go — as if the Lord were unaware of it! "Lord," he says, "I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy name." Nor was the Lord displeased with His servant; but with the utmost tenderness He says, "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." In like manner the Father would have us utter all our hearts in His presence — never wavering in our confidence in His love.

While, however, this is the case, He does not always promise to grant us our requests. In the scripture cited from John all that we ask in the name of Christ will be given. In the name of Christ will signify our being before God in all the value of the expression of what Christ is, and there consequently with His own claim upon the Father's heart. But it will be at once perceived that we could not be before the Father in the name of Christ for anything which was not according to His will. We could not say even to a human benefactor that we came in the name of another unless we had his sanction. Neither could we attach the name of Christ to any petitions save those wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit according to God's will; but every such petition will be infallibly answered, as the word of Christ plainly declares. When, on the other hand, we turn to the scripture in Philippians, it is different. There we may in everything make our prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, but it is not said that our prayers shall be answered. The promise is that the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is exceedingly precious; for it shows that God would have us before Him in perfect confidence, in the enjoyment of full liberty to make known to Him our every want; and also that when He does not grant our petitions, because in His love and wisdom He sees it better to withhold, He will yet guard our hearts by His own unspeakable peace. Laying down our burdens before Him, telling Him all that is in our hearts, He will cause us to know through Christ Jesus that perfect peace which nothing can disturb. In any case we shall have restful hearts, springing from entire confidence in our Father's love, and garrisoned by God's own peace, which passeth all understanding.

There is another aspect of this privilege which may not be passed over. When we are before God as our Father, it will surely be, not only to express our own desires, but also to render our thanksgiving and praise. How could we be, indeed, in the presence of the Father, with the sense of all His love and grace, without being bowed down before Him in worship and adoration? And this is entirely in accordance with the thought of His own heart. The Lord, speaking to the woman of Samaria, says, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." How blessed to know this! Not only has God gone out, in His boundless grace, seeking after lost sinners, and through the gospel beseeching them, as it were, to be reconciled to Him, but as the Father His heart yearns for worshippers. To accomplish this desire Christ came into the world; died upon the cross; rose from the dead; ascending up on high; sent down the Holy Ghost; caused the gospel to be proclaimed. and through grace we have been brought to believe its testimony, have been born again, cleansed from our sins through the precious blood of Christ, and we "have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." As we meditate upon all this, we can but cry, in the language of the hymn -

"Father, we worship Thee, our God!

What rich, unfathomable grace

On us in Christ hast Thou bestowed!

Children of wrath (our nature's place),

Now ransomed and with Him made one,

Glories around unbounded shine!

The fulness of our God alone

The limit is of grace divine."

It would argue but ill indeed for our sense of God's grace and mercy, bestowed upon us in Christ, if when we are consciously before God we thought only of our own needs. The more we are penetrated with gratitude for all the blessings we have received, the more shall we be reminded of what is due to Him who has saved us, and made us His own children. The Father's claims should ever have the first place in the heart of the child; and the Father has His claims. As He Himself, speaking by the prophet, says, "If then I be a Father, where is mine honour?" Reverence and worship belong to Him in the very relationship in which He condescends to stand towards us. This all will confess to be true; but while He undoubtedly has absolute claims upon us for the homage and adoration of our hearts on the ground of redemption, we on our parts shall delight to think rather of the privilege we enjoy in being brought into His presence as His worshippers. The more we remember that it is all of grace that we occupy this blessed position, the more will our hearts be filled with gratitude and praise. We may well,. therefore, press the question, whether we are sufficiently alive to the privilege. If, for example, we examine the moments, more or less, we spend daily before God as our Father, what shall we find to be the nature of our converse? Does prayer or praise occupy the largest place? our needs, or what is due to Him? Or, if we widen the sphere of our enquiry, and consider our meetings with the children of God, when we are unitedly in His presence, does prayer or worship predominate? It is profitable to examine ourselves as to this; for, as we have seen, the Father seeks worshippers, and He therefore delights in their presence, in their character, and in their joyful notes of grateful adoration.

We may adduce another privilege, though when we reach in the power of the Spirit the highest character of worship, we enter at the same time upon its enjoyment! In 1 John 1 the apostle tells us, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." And this place belongs, according to the teaching of this scripture, to all who have received Christ as the Eternal Life. Having a new nature and eternal life, we are brought (this is our place) into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. There could not be a higher expression of grace. Nor is it possible now for us to comprehend the boundless extent of blessedness which such a place involves. Through grace we may taste a little of its ineffable enjoyment; the Holy Spirit may sometimes lead us to some Pisgah whence we may survey the inheritance, and in our measure we may actually know the character of this fellowship, but heaven itself is contained in it, and eternity itself will be but the unfolding of its boundless treasures.

Still we may ask, What does the expression mean? Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts, His desires, His objects, and His affections. So also with fellowship with the Son. For instance, if Christ is the object of the Father's heart, and the glory of Christ the end of all His counsels, if I am in fellowship with the Father, Christ will also be the object of my heart, and my aim in all that I am and do will be His exaltation. Again, if Christ has the glory of the Father in view in all that He is still accomplishing, as He had also when down here, the Father's glory will be the one supreme object before my soul, when I am living in fellowship with the Son. Oh, blessed position! It is our privilege to be taken out of ourselves altogether, to be lost in the affections and aims of the Father and the Son! Our minds may be filled with divine thoughts and affections, and our hearts may move in a divine circle. Self disappears before such a blessed possibility. Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son? Shall I have my own affections when I may be possessed with those that fill the heart of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ? Far be the thought! Rather let me be lost in this illimitable sea of bliss, opened out before me in the marvellous grace of God, and before everyone of His children! Ah! how we are humbled when we contrast God's thoughts for us with our own conceptions. May He grant that every one of His children, who reads these pages, may be stirred up to desire to answer more fully to His own gracious purpose, that we should know this fellowship with the Father, and with His beloved Son!

It is also our privilege as the children of God to dwell even now in spirit in the Father's house. When the prodigal returns, and has received the Father's kiss, the best robe, the ring on his hand, and the shoes on his feet, he disappears amidst the joy of the Father's house. But who can doubt that the Father's house and the Father's table are henceforth his rightful place? As indeed we often sing -

"Clothed in garments of salvation,

At Thy table is our place;

We rejoice, and Thou rejoicest,

In the riches of Thy grace.

'It is meet,' we hear Thee saying,

'We should merry be and glad;

I have found My once-lost children:

Now they live who once were dead."'

And it is of importance to point out that the Father's table must not be confounded with the Lord's table. This is spread on earth, while that is spread above. At the Lord's table we commemorate His death. As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we show the Lord's death till He come. (1 Cor. 11) At the Father's table we have communion with Him in His own joy, as expressed in the words, "Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Moreover, it is as members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10: 16, 17) that we are gathered around the Lord's table. We are also children of God through His unspeakable grace; but it is in the character of members of the body of Christ that we remember Him in His death. But we enjoy the privilege of a place at the Father's table solely on the ground of being His children.

Yes, it is the privilege of all God's redeemed children to dwell in the Father's house, and to sit at His table. They have been made free of the place where the Father Himself dwells. It is so in the families of earth. A child does not need to ask if he may enter his parents' home. So confident is he in their love that he knows he is welcome, and that he never can be an intruder. Such a thought, indeed, would be to dishonour his parents' hearts. Where nothing has occurred to mar the intimacy of affection, the parents delight in the presence of the child, and the child delights in the presence of the parents. Much more so is it the case with God and His children. He delights in having them before Him. All through past dispensations God has been telling out this thought of His heart — that He desires to be surrounded with His children. And He has set us down in His own presence, that we might learn the joy of being before. Him, resting before Him in the blessed consciousness of being the objects of His heart, loved as Christ Himself was loved. (John 17: 23.) The door of His house is never closed to us, the only thing that keeps us out being our own foolish thoughts, acts, and ways. Still, even though the sense of unforgiven sins keeps us at a distance — outside when we might be inside, yet "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1: 9.) We can already give thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; and in His grace He has made provision, when we sin, for our cleansing through the washing of water by the Word, that nothing may hinder our being constantly in communion with Him and His love.

Seeing then that our place even now is in the Father's house, it might be profitable to ask ourselves whether we know what it is to be there. When released from our service or occupations do we instinctively return to our Father's house, as our chosen place of refreshment, joy, and blessing? In the epistle to the Ephesians all the saints are supposed to dwell in the Father's presence, and to come out thence for service, and as they come forth to reveal the character and blessedness of the One before whom they dwell, and the place to which they belong. They come out as representatives of their Father and of His abode, that others, learning from them, may be attracted to the same place. Strangers, for example, at court are unversed in its manners, habits, and ways; but those who live there catch its tone, and speedily themselves become courtly. So with the children of God. If they only occasionally visit the Father's house, if they for the most part find their enjoyment in other places, they never learn either the Father's heart or the methods and ways of His house, and hence can never do anything but misrepresent Him who has deigned to make them His children.

Nor should we overlook the sin of slighting the Father's love, if His presence is not cared for or sought. The depths of His heart we shall never fathom, and yet He pours out all His love upon those who were once His enemies, but now His redeemed children. The more we understand this, the more we shall desire to enjoy the privilege which He has conferred upon us of living in His presence as His children. The cross of Christ is the measure of His love, and hence it is ever unfathomable. But the more we dwell with the Father the more shall we learn it, and the more shall we be sensible of the wondrous grace that has made us His children, and if children, heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. His heart, His eye, His hand, are all engaged on our behalf, and He would have us to be living even now in the full enjoyment of all the blessing which He has secured for us in Christ, and which He is daily ministering to us as we pass through the wilderness. All that God is, is for us because He has redeemed us through the precious blood of Christ, and all the wealth of the Father's heart is being constantly poured out upon us because we are His children. May He give to each one of us more holy boldness to take up and enjoy all the privileges which He has made ours, as the expressions of His grace and love!

CHAPTER 10. THE FUTURE CONDITION AND HOME OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

WE have now passed under review many of the aspects of the truth touching the children of God. There is yet one other thing to be considered, and that is their future condition and their future home. We may take as the basis of our consideration of this part of our subject a passage in Rom. 8. There we read, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren." (vv. 28, 29.)

Two distinct though connected things are taught in this scripture. The first is, that God's thought has been from all eternity to fashion all His children after the image of His Son — the Son, who, while as becomes His person and dignity, He is ever to retain the pre-eminence, is yet the model of every child of God. This wondrous and eternal thought serves, as perhaps few other scriptures do, to show out the exceeding riches of God's grace, especially when we remember the character of the material out of which this surprising result is to be obtained. It explains also the whole secret of redemption. It is quite true that God in His mercy and grace has taken us up with the view of accomplishing His purpose, but it is also to be remembered, and indeed always to have the first place in our thoughts, that the supreme motive of God's grace in redemption, as unfolded in His eternal counsels, is the glory of His beloved Son. The children of God are here in the scene which this scripture unfolds, but its central figure is Christ — Christ as the Firstborn among many brethren. The marvel is, that God, in His condescension and love, has associated us with His only begotten Son in those counsels for His glory. Associated with Him now — for we are His joint-heirs — we shall be associated with Him throughout eternity; for if He is the Firstborn, He deigns to call us His brethren. The family were not complete without Him, nor, blessed be His name, without us. Hence He said to Mary, "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God."

Another thing may be observed as illustrative of the true character of redemption. Christ — and Christ in glory — it is clear from this scripture, was ever before the mind of God, both as the ground and object of His counsels. The children of God were not to be conformed to the image of Adam, but to the image of Christ. The introduction of the "seed of the woman" was thus no after-thought, no mere means to meet and remedy the mischief which Satan had succeeded in bringing into this creation through the folly of Adam, but rather the exhibition of the secret of God's heart for His own glory, as for that also of His beloved Son. First and foremost in this world, Adam, as the responsible man, was brought upon the scene; but the result only proved how incapable he was of sustaining the weight of God's glory — albeit he was surrounded with everything to favour his dependence and obedience, everything to maintain the honour of Him whose vicegerent he was. He failed, and, as we know, failed disastrously; and thereon God proved, as always, that wherein the enemy had dealt proudly He was above, him, for Satan's apparent triumph was but the occasion of the revelation of the last Adam — the Man, not of responsibility, but of God's counsels, in and by whom God would accomplish all His purposes to His own eternal praise and glory. And this Second Man, God's Son, is He to whom all the children of God are to be conformed, that throughout eternity they may "shine in His reflection fair" and thus for ever redound to His glory, as also to His through whose counsels it is they have been redeemed.

The second thing that lies in this scripture is, that even now God is working towards this end. In all His present dealings with us, in all our varied experiences, in all the trials, sorrows, dangers, and persecutions that attend our path, God is leading us, and using all these seeming adversities, as the sculptor employs his chisel, to produce conformity to the image of His Son. The full result, as will hereafter be seen, is never attained here, but this is the end God has always in view. Knowing this, for He reveals it in His own word, we can with confidence adopt this language, and say, "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." What an unspeakable consolation to our souls! All things — not one is excepted, but all things, the bitter and the sweet, adversity and prosperity, sickness and health, yea, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword — all are but instruments in the hands of our God to work out His purposed end. How calmly then we may repose in Him and in His love! Like Jacob, we may often be tempted to say, "All these things are against us;" but no, they are for us, working together for good. We may not see the need of this trial, or the reason of that sorrow; but God is watching, noting everything — what we require, and what the effect produced upon us. Our future condition is before Him, and He leads us by a right way to secure the blessing for us.

And it will sustain us in no little measure to have the eye fixed on Him to whom we are to be conformed. God, as we have seen, has Christ before Him; and if He is also before our souls, God's object is our object. This He desires for us, and in no way could He express more fully the riches of the grace which He has bestowed upon us in Christ. It is beyond our comprehension, though we know the fact, that God should thus associate us with Himself — that He should put us into the blessed position of feasting on the Object that delights His own heart. Moreover, having the eye on Christ is God's own means for our being changed into His likeness. We thus read, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, but He works out the result by His own appointed means. Everything we encounter in our path is auxiliary to this end; but now, in this world, much is dependent on the attitude of our souls. It is quite true that every believer is brought into the place where he can behold the unveiled face of the Lord; it is the Christian position, in contrast with that of the Jew. This is ever to be insisted on; but it is nevertheless to be remembered, that in proportion as we consciously occupy the place shall we be transformed into the likeness of Christ. For example, if there are two children of God, one careless, indifferent, and worldly, the other zealous, devoted, and finding his joy in occupation with Christ, the latter will soon outstrip the former in growing conformity to Christ. The work is wholly of God, but He uses means; and where there is purpose of heart there will be growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This will be at once understood if we consider for a moment the meaning of this scripture. We behold (the words "as in a glass" may be omitted) the unveiled face of the Lord, and in that face all the glory of God is displayed. (See 2 Cor. 4: 6.) That is, all the moral glory of God — the sum of His spiritual perfections, the excellency of all His attributes — is concentrated in the face of Christ as the glorified man at God's right hand. Occupied with Him, having Him before our souls as our model, meditating upon His perfection and beauty as thus revealed, and revealed for us in the written Word, where we may come into contact with and feast upon Christ, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory; ever being changed, changed from one degree to another, because as long as we are in this World we never attain to His full likeness. Perfection is only in Christ, and perfection will only be in us when we are with Him where He is. But meanwhile the glory with which we are occupied, on which we gaze, becomes formative; under the mighty operation of the Spirit of God it leaves its impress upon us, producing ever within us the reflex of its own beauty, and in this way we are transformed daily after the image of Christ. Whenever therefore we are occupied with other things, allow other objects to possess our hearts, we are in opposition to the purpose for which God has taken us up; whereas if Christ is our delight and joy, we are in the full current of His mind, and we become as clay in the hands of the potter, to be moulded according to His own will. It is a blessed thing for all of us when we not only understand the object God has in view, but are also in unison with His object, when our only desire is that His desires for us may be unhinderedly accomplished.

Such then is God's purpose — to conform us to the image of His Son. If we now turn to another scripture we shall see the purpose realized. "Beloved," writes the apostle John, "now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear" (it is not manifested) "what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear" (be manifested), "we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." (1 John 3: 2, 3.) The apostle here contrasts the present with the future condition of God's children. Now are we God's children, but it is not yet manifested what we shall be. In outward garb and appearance we appear like other men. Even the Lord Himself could not have been known by the natural eye. If we had met Him at any time in the streets of the towns of Galilee, or of Jerusalem, we should only have seen outwardly a lowly man. We might have said, with the unbelieving Jews, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?" (Mark 6: 3.) Even the Baptist records that he knew Him not until he saw the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him. So with the, children of God. They have the same bodies of humiliation as other men, they are in similar circumstances of trial and sorrow, they have to encounter the same difficulties in their daily path; therefore the world knows them not because it knew Him not. There is a vast change in them; they have been brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light; they "have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father;" they have heaven itself in full prospect, together with the return of the Lord; but all these things are apprehended and enjoyed only by faith. To the eye of the natural man they have nothing to show, either in their own condition or of their possession. No; these things are not yet manifested.

But John takes us on to the time when it will be displayed, and this is the manifestation of the Lord; for it is not the coming of Christ for His Church to which he alludes (albeit it is then that believers will be like Him), but the actual appearing of Christ in this world. The reason is found in his subject. Here the children of God are, so to speak, in their concealed condition; and here they will be displayed in their full conformity to Christ, when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in all them that have believed. The Lord Himself refers to this when He says, "And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in me, that they maybe made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me." (John 17: 22, 23.) The world will then know, because it will see Christ revealed in glory, and the saints displayed in the same glory with Himself.

It is, then, distinctly taught, that in our future condition we shall be like Christ. What then may we understand this to signify? Combining the two passages already considered (Rom. 8: 29; 2 Cor. 3: 18) with the one now before us, it may be replied, in the first place, that in the issue the children of God will have full moral conformity to Christ. As we have pointed out, it is this model which God has ever had before Him; and it may once more be remarked, as warning, that inasmuch as we shall never be morally like Christ until we see Him face to face, there cannot be any such thing as sinless perfection now — this we wait for; though it should also be added, that there is no necessity for the believer to sin. Still, as a matter of fact, he does, and God has graciously provided the Advocacy of Christ for us to meet our need. But while this is the case, there must be no tolerance of sin, and all our desire should be daily to grow in the likeness of the One for whom we wait.

There is, secondly, another thing. Even our bodies will be like the glorified body of Christ. The apostle Paul says: "Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body" (the body of our humiliation), "that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body" (the body of His glory), "according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." (Phil. 3: 20, 21.) Also in 1 Cor. we read: "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." That is, as now our bodies are like that of the first man, who is of the earth earthy, after the Lord returns we shall have bodies like that of the second Man, who is the Lord Himself. This change will be effected by divine power. Our moral conformity to Christ is being wrought out now, and will be complete when we see Him face to face. The conformity of our bodies to the body of His glory will be accomplished on His return. Thus the apostle says: "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15: 51-54.)

There are two classes specified in this scripture — those who will be "changed," and those who will be raised from the dead; and turning to another epistle we, have further details of this mighty and divine operation. There we read: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent" (anticipate, or go before) "them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4: 14-17.) Nothing could be clearer than the teaching of this scripture. When the Lord descends from heaven, He will call all His sleeping saints — all who have died ere He comes — out of their tombs; and when that vast army shall issue forth, every one will be clothed with an incorruptible body — a body like the glorified body of Him who has summoned them forth; and then all the saints who are living at that instant upon the earth will be changed in a moment — a wave of life and power, as it were, will pass instantaneously over their bodies — and that which was before mortal will have put on immortality; mortality will have been swallowed up of life, for they will all have been "clothed upon with their house which is from heaven." (2 Cor. 5) Thereon all alike are caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. He had come from heaven, and there, as a mighty magnet (if we may venture so to speak), He draws up to Himself all His own, whether sleeping or alive, that He might ever have them with Himself. Redemption by blood has now been consummated in redemption by power (Rom. 8: 23), and the Lord Himself sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. He has other redemption-fruit yet to reap during the thousand years; but as far as the Church is concerned, together indeed with the saints of former dispensations, His work, and the consequences of His work, are finished, and God's purposes for them have now been unfolded in their perfection; for every one of these myriads of saints has now been conformed to the image of His Son.

To be like Christ in glory therefore is to be like Him spirit, soul, and body. But when we thus speak, it must ever be remembered that we speak of Him as the glorified Man. He ever remains alone in His divine and essential dignity as the eternal Son. Through all eternity He is never less than God, though at the same time He has condescended to become man; and while always more than man, He for ever retains His glorified humanity. The mystery of His person abides as the God-man. But it is as man He is the firstborn among many brethren. And what wonder of wonders lies in the statement! That He should not only not be ashamed to call us brethren, but that He should also find it His joy to have us for ever in association with Himself! And what travail has He not gone through to execute this purpose of God, and to secure this blessed result! There were the sorrows of His life on earth, His trials and temptations, the agony of the cross when forsaken of His God, His death and resurrection; but though there has never been, and never will be, any sorrow like unto His sorrow, He will be completely satisfied when He beholds the glorious issue of all His redemption toils, when He presents the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

This then is the future condition of the children of God — we shall all be like Christ. The question of our future home remains. The Lord Himself has spoken to us concerning this. Before He departed from His disciples, sorrowing as they were at the prospect before them, He said, for their consolation and instruction, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In, my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14: 1-3.) The Father's house is thus revealed as our future home. In the last chapter we saw that it is our privilege to dwell there in spirit even now, but then we shall be actually there, having our place in those many mansions of which the Saviour speaks.

Two or three points of this familiar scripture may be specially noticed, to enable us more fully to comprehend the character and blessedness of our future home. It is no little proof of our Lord's tenderness that He says to His disciples, "If it were not so, I would have told you." They must have had thoughts concerning the Father's house, and the Lord would have corrected them if they had been in error. "No," He says, "it is even so; there are many mansions; there is room enough for all; not one of My own shall be excluded." And did they ask themselves, in their doubts and fears, why He should depart and leave them alone in a hostile world, surrounded by bitter foes? He now tells them, "I go to prepare a place for you." Until He had presented Himself there in the efficacy of redemption, and had taken His place as man in the glory of God, not one of His saints could enter. To Him in all, things belongs the pre-eminence; and not only so, but until, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, the place was not prepared. The moment, however, He had entered, and was seated on His Father's throne, all was ready. He thus appeared to the dying Stephen as standing on the right hand of God, because even then, had that guilty nation of the Jews repented, He would have returned to introduce them into all the promised blessing; but rejecting the testimony of the Spirit, even as they had refused and crucified Christ Himself, He resumed, as it were, His seat. But still He could say, "I come quickly," for the very reason that, the place being prepared, there was nothing to prevent — as far as shown us in the Scriptures — His return at any moment to receive His people unto Himself.

The place is prepared, and He is now only waiting to come to put us in possession of it. He would have us therefore ever to maintain a waiting attitude. While He retains His seat at the right hand of God, He is waiting for us; for the desire of His heart is to have us with Himself; and while we are here in the wilderness, He would have us waiting for Him, and surely in response to His unspeakable love it will be the desire of our hearts to be with Him. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come;" this is the only true attitude of the church, and the only proper desire of the saint. As indeed we find it at the close of the book of Revelation, when the Lord says, "Surely I come quickly," His servant responds, "Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus." But the maintenance of this longing expectation is entirely a question of heart. If the Lord Himself is our treasure, our hearts will now be with Him, and all our hope will be to see Him face to face. Like Mary at the sepulchre, nothing then will satisfy our desires but the presence of the One who possesses and absorbs our affections. Without Him the world will be to us a vast sepulchre: death will be written on the whole scene. Others may go to their own homes, and find their interests there, but no place on earth will satisfy us as long as Christ Himself is absent. As pilgrims and strangers we shall pass through this scene, as a dry and thirsty land where no water is — with our loins girded and Our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.

And the very language which the Lord uses is calculated to intensify our desire for His return. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto MYSELF; that where I am, there ye may be also." It is Himself that He presents to our souls; Himself, in all His ineffable love, as our object; Himself, in all His matchless perfections, as coming for us; Himself, in all the attractions of His adorable Person, as the One with whom we are to be throughout eternity. The presentation of Himself in this manner, if indeed so apprehended, could scarcely fail to awaken the desire for His return in hearts where it had not previously existed, and to revive and sustain it in those where it might have become feeble.

Passing now to the home itself, there is little to add. God's thoughts are not man's thoughts. Man has sought in every age to imagine the abode — the future home of the children of God, and the consequence, as might be expected, has been that he has endeavoured to depict all the externals of the scene, leaving untouched, as compelled to do, its real character and blessedness. Imagination cannot apprehend or describe the things of God, and therefore only reveals its own nakedness and poverty when it seeks to penetrate into their character. No, we know nothing outside of the word of God. As Jeremiah says, "The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?" (Jer. 8: 9.)

Taking then the word of God alone, what, let us inquire, have we revealed of our future home? As to the place, but very little; but as to all that is necessary for the spiritual mind, enough to satisfy our largest cravings. But all this is contained in two expressions. First, it is the Father's house. And who could expound all that is comprised in this blessed word? Speak to a child who has long been absent from home, and is now about to return, is it not enough for him that it is his father's house to which he is going? Would he dwell upon its size, shape, or situation? No; the one thing in his mind is, that it is the house of his father, and therefore his own home. It is this that marks its character and makes its happiness. The accidents of its position or surroundings have for him but little significance. The father's house makes the home, and the parents' hearts are the source of its enjoyment. So with the children of God. The knowledge that they have the Father's house in prospect, that a place there in its many mansions is already prepared for them, satisfies their largest desires. There they know are boundless provisions for their every possible need; for there is the scene of the full display of the Father's heart — where His affections flow forth and bless and make eternally happy all His children; yea, they can say, in the language of the hymn-

"There will Thy love find perfect rest

Where all around is bliss,

Where all in Thee supremely blest,

Thy praise their service is.

Eternal love their portion is,

Where love has found its rest;

And filled with Thee, the constant mind

Eternally is blest.

There Christ, the centre of the throng,

Shall in His glory shine;

But not an eye those hosts among

But sees His glory Thine."

The second expression is — With Christ. As in the words of this scripture, "That where I am, there ye may be also." This is ever the hope held out before the soul; it is indeed distinctively the Christian hope. The Lord thus says to the thief, who was crucified by His side, "Today shalt thou be WITH ME in paradise." The apostle says, "To depart and be with Christ is far better;" and also, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." And what more can our souls need in order to express the perfect blessedness of the Father's house, than to be there with Christ! The realization of His presence here constitutes our deepest joy: to be with Him in spirit is our highest privilege. But there we shall be with Him for ever in perpetual and undisturbed communion. He will then continually sup with us, and we with Him. In the promise to the overcomer in Philadelphia He has given us a glimpse of our eternal association with Himself in every possible character of blessedness. He says,,, Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." (Rev. 3: 12.) This promise takes its special form from the character of the book in which it is found, as well as from the circumstances of the saints in Philadelphia; but the point to which we desire to call attention is the association of the overcomer with Christ. It is the name of "My" God, the name of the city of "My" God, and "My" new name. And therein lies the joy of Christ Himself, as also our own joy — His joy in having us for ever with Himself, and our joy in being for ever with Him.

Such is the prospect which the word of God unfolds to His children. Of our circumstances in the Father's house little is revealed. We are told that we shall be like Christ and with Christ, and more than this we cannot desire to know. The only scripture that draws back the veil that now conceals the eternal state from us shows us two things: first, that the Church will be the tabernacle of God; and, secondly, that there are others in the scene — men, the saved saints of other dispensations. And when describing their condition it says: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21: 3, 4.) God here fills the scene — God, in all that He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because it is the eternal state, the Son Himself is now "subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. 15: 28.) The Son, as the glorified Man, is identified for ever with His brethren, and God Himself therefore fills our vision in this description. The blessedness of the "men" who appear here is twofold. Positively, it consists in having God Himself dwelling with them, in being His people, and in God Himself being with them — their God. Negatively, it lies in the absence of everything that caused sorrow while living in this weary world. God had been their comforter; He had wiped away their tears. What infinite tenderness is expressed in that the hand of God Himself had wiped away, and wiped away their tears for ever! For their tears could never return; for "there shall be no more death." By one man sin had "entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned." But the Lamb of God has now taken away the sin of the world. Once in the consummation of the ages had He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and on the foundation of that sacrifice God has now put it out of His sight for ever; and through the value of that same sacrifice death has been for the blessed inhabitants of this scene for ever swallowed up in victory. Sin and death gone, the sources of all our sorrows in this life, there can be neither sorrow, crying, nor pain. No; the former things have passed away. The scene itself is as perfect as God Himself can make it. Righteousness dwells in it; and the perfections of God now unfolded are the blessed source of the eternal joy of His redeemed people. All things are made new; and "he that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be His God, and he shall be my son."

"Abba, Father, we adore Thee,

While the hosts in heaven above

E'en in us now learn the wonders

Of Thy wisdom, grace, and love;

Soon before Thy throne assembled,

All Thy children shall proclaim

Abba's love as shown in Jesus,

And how full is Abba's name!

Fundamental Truths of Salvation

Fundamental Truths of Salvation

Edward Dennett

Preface

The following pages are designed to meet the need of those who have been awakened and quickened by the Spirit of God; and therefore the writer has sought to explain "the way of salvation" as simply and as clearly as possible. On this account he has not been anxious to avoid repetition, if in this way he could succeed in simplifying his subject. But he has not been satisfied alone with directing the soul to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world"; but, as the table of contents will show, has added instruction upon some of the fundamental teachings of the Scriptures — such elementary instruction as is needful for babes in Christ. It may occur to some that other subjects might have been included. The writer also thought so; but upon further consideration was led to judge otherwise, especially as there are numbers of books already in existence which deal with more advanced truth.

His desire is, that those who read these pages may compare every statement made with the Scriptures; and that while reading they may be enabled by the Spirit of God to "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save their souls" (James 1: 21); and it is his prayer, that the Lord may condescend to use them for His own glory, for without His blessing it will have been written, and will be read, in vain.

E. Dennett, Blackheath, December, 1875.

Contents

Chapter 1 Soul-Anxiety

Chapter 2 Man's State Before God

Chapter 3 The Blood of Christ

Chapter 4 Ye Must be Born Again

Chapter 5 Peace With God

Chapter 6 "What Must I do to be Saved?"

Chapter 7 Difficulties

Chapter 8 Deliverance

Chapter 9 The Indwelling Spirit

Chapter 10 Standing and Responsibility

Chapter 11 The Coming of the Lord

Chapter 12 The Judgment

Chapter 1  Soul-Anxiety

WE desire in these pages to meet the need of those who have been awakened out of the torpor of spiritual death, and whose chief concern is to know how to obtain peace with God. Their state may be best described as one of soul-anxiety. There are always numbers in this condition, and especially now, when the gospel of the grace of God is so widely preached on every hand. It is not only those who are so wrought upon as to be compelled to cry, "What must we do to be saved?" but there are many others also who, under an outwardly calm and placid demeanour, hide severe distress of soul. The depth and intensity of feeling will vary in different people and under different circumstances. With some it will be anxiety, and nothing more; with others there will be a real distress of mind and heart; while in other cases there will be positive anguish of soul. But whatever the depth of the feeling — be it more or less — if there be any conviction of alienation from or guilt before God; if there be any sorrow for sin, together with even but the faintest desire for pardon and reconciliation with God; if, in other words, there be any bowing before God in the place of self-judgment, there is that real spiritual anxiety of which we speak; for such a state of mind can only be produced by the Spirit of God.

The instrumentality employed to bring about this state of soul is, in one form or another, the word of God. This may not be always apparent; for sometimes a hymn, sometimes a simple question from another, sometimes the recollection of a prayer, sometimes the appeal of a preacher of the gospel, may be used as the arrow of conviction; but in all these cases it is really the word of God, embodied in these several forms, which the Holy Spirit wields to awaken the careless soul. His own word is, as far as we know, the only weapon which God uses for this end; for He is pleased "by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1: 21); and hence the apostle says, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1: 23, 24).

Several illustrations of this may be collected from the Acts of the Apostles. On the day of Pentecost we find Peter presenting, in preaching, Christ crucified, risen, and exalted, and charging his hearers with the sin of rejecting and crucifying Him whom God had raised from the dead. "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men [and] brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2: 36, 37). The apostle Paul was humbled at the feet of the Saviour in a special and extraordinary way; but it was also by the presentation of Christ, though in revelation, and not in the preaching of the word. Take the case also of Felix. We are told that when the apostle reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled; and though the effect in this instance seems to have been but transient, it yet shows us the power of the word of God over the soul. The Philippian jailer might seem at first sight to be an exception to the rule; but there can be little doubt that the supernatural occurrences of that eventful night, when Paul and Silas were in his charge and custody, were but the occasion of his soul-distress — the means of fastening upon his heart and conscience the gospel message which he must have previously heard. It is often so now. Sudden sickness or danger, bringing an immediate prospect of death, will frequently give effect, under the power of the Spirit, to the previously unheeded and neglected messages and warnings of the gospel; and, filling the souls of men with guilty fears, with apprehensions of God's wrath against them, will constrain them to cry aloud for mercy.

Wherever therefore we see soul-anxiety — that soul-anxiety of which we have spoken — we may be sure that it has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through the word of God. And it is to those that are the subjects of this anxiety that we desire to speak. Beloved reader, are you in this condition of concern for salvation? Have you been convicted of sin, and is it the desire of your soul to know the way of peace with God? If such is your state, beware of turning a deaf ear to the voice of the Spirit of God, of trifling with, or seeking to hush or to drown the convictions which He has wrought. Beware also, we entreat you, of delay. God is striving in grace with you. For you, therefore, it is especially true, that "now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6: 2). Beware, too, of healing the wounds of your soul with other remedies than those of the gospel, lest you be led to cry "Peace" when there is no peace. Your case is full of hope. For He who has awakened your desires after salvation sends this message to you, "Be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5: 20); and His own word says, that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). Let me then beseech you, as before God, to read, both carefully and prayerfully, the ensuing pages, that you may learn the way of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures. And may God Himself teach you, and guide you into peace, through believing in Christ!

Chapter 2  Man's State Before God

THE very first thing that anxious souls need to learn is their place and condition before God; i.e., to understand in what light they are regarded by God Himself. For as long as they continue deceived and ignorant of their own condition, so long will they be unwilling to be saved by God's grace. Hence, until they apprehend and receive His testimony about themselves, they will not receive His testimony about His Son. For the gospel is for sinners, and therefore can only be proclaimed to sinners. I would press this point very earnestly upon all who are the subjects of soul anxiety; for many are kept for months, and even years, in doubt and distress, because they search their own hearts, instead of God's word, to ascertain their real condition, and because therefore they never take the place before God which He assigns to them. "The heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer. 17: 9); but God's word is truth (John 17: 17); and hence it is to it alone that we must appeal.

What then is God's testimony concerning you — concerning all men? Be prepared for the worst. It is, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). Again, "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one," etc. (Rom. 3: 10-19). Once more, "There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (vv. 22, 23). "The Scripture hath concluded all under sin" (Gal. 3: 22). Such is the testimony of the Scriptures, according to which all men are sinners before God. Do you accept it as true of yourself?

I do not ask if you assent to it in a general way; for many will do this who will yet seek, by comparison with others, either to excuse themselves or to draw conclusions to their own advantage. The point is this, God places all men on the same footing before Him; He declares that all are sinners; that there is no question with Him of degrees of sinfulness or of guilt, but that there is no difference; that all, whatever their station, character, or repute, are sinners, sinners without excuse, without a single ground of hope in themselves, inasmuch as all lie under the same condemnation; for death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; for the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6: 23). Again I ask you, Do you accept this testimony of God as true of yourself? Do you bow in self-judgment before God, acknowledging that you are a sinner under His just judgment against sin?

If you do not, then I entreat you to pause and consider the hopelessness of your case; for the Lord Jesus Himself said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9: 13). There is therefore no Christ, no Saviour, except for sinners; and hence, as long as you hesitate or refuse to take the lost sinner's place, you are out, side the pale of God's grace and mercy in the gospel. But if you do accept the testimony of the Scriptures as. to your state, we can then tell of One who "bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2: 24); "who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities" (Isa. 53: 5); of One "whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 25); of Him, indeed, who has taken the sinner's place, borne the sinner's judgment, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life (2 Cor. 5: 21; John 3: 26).

But the whole truth has not yet been told. It is not only that you are sinners, but the Scriptures teach also that all who are unsaved are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2: 1). The Lord Jesus thus says that the believer "is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24), showing plainly that the previous condition of the believer was death, spiritual death. The sinner therefore is both under the condemnation of sin, and is dead in sins. It is not meant of course that he has no life at all; for it is very palpable that he has physical life. But what is asserted is, that through sin the sinner is separated from God, cut off from the source of life (for God is the Fountain of life), and consequently that the sinner is in a state of spiritual death, having no life, and no power of life towards God. The whole dealings of God with men, from Israel downwards, do but prove the truth of His word; and hence I have to ask you again, Do you accept this further testimony concerning yourself?

Beloved reader, you will never know the hopelessness of your condition until you subscribe also to this verdict. Men say, "While there is life there is hope." How often have such words sustained the hearts of those who have been watching by the bedside of a sick relative. Hoping against hope, they refused to believe that the end was near, and not until the last beat of the pulse, together with the last breath, would they believe that they stood in the presence of death. So also is it oftentimes with sinners; yea, even with awakened and anxious souls. They may not doubt that they are sinners, and sinners under judgment; but they cannot believe that their case is hopeless, that they have no power of life within themselves, no power of recovery, restoration, and hence they will not take the place of being utterly undone, lost, "dead in trespasses and sins." Ah! thereby they effectually shut themselves out from blessing, and turn back, it may be, to years of weary wanderings and conflicts because they believed their own hearts (and he that trusteth his own heart is a fool — Prov. 28: 26) rather than God. But we should resolutely close our eyes against everything but the testimony of the Scriptures; for it is not what I think, feel, or believe, but what God declares, that determines my condition in His sight. He is the sole Judge; and hence, if He tells the sinner that he is dead in trespasses and sins, it is incumbent upon the sinner to acknowledge that God is true though every man be a liar (Rom. 3: 4).

Do you then now believe that having no life you have no hope? If not, accept God's verdict at once; for as soon as you take the sinner's place, owning the truth of God's word about you, confessing that you are under the just judgment of sin, so soon are you in the place of blessing; the place in which God, in all His infinite grace, can meet you; the place in which you can claim the sinner's Saviour. Bow therefore before God at once, and receive the unspeakable gift of His love — His own Son, as your Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord.

Chapter 3  The Blood of Christ

SUPPOSING now that those of whom we speak — 'anxious ones' — have bowed to the judgment of God upon their condition, their immediate concern will be to know by what means they can obtain the pardon of their sins. The blood of Christ is the only way by which the guilt of sin can be removed. "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 9: 22). Herein lies the necessity for the death of Christ; the need, in fact, for the whole work of redemption. And hence it is of the first importance that this truth should be rightly understood.

We have already pointed out that death has "passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). Adam first incurred the penalty through his disobedience to God. He had been warned not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2: 16, 17). Adam disregarded the divine command, and fell under the awful sentence of death — the penalty which God had annexed to disobedience. Thus "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). There is therefore no difference; all alike are sinners; and hence every child of Adam's race is subject to the penalty of sin, which is death. Yea, death already reigns (see Rom. 5: 13-21) over the whole human family: every individual member of it (saving those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ) being under the righteous judgment of death, because of sin. "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 8). He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). Being rich in mercy, He sent His own Son to die, "the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3: 18). Just as when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God provided a lamb to be offered up in his stead, that Isaac might be rescued and live (Gen. 22), so God has provided a Lamb to be offered up in the sinner's room and stead" — the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29). This is the secret and meaning, in this aspect, of the death of Christ. He died as the sinner's substitute, bore the sinner's judgment, expiated the sinner's guilt.

The marvelous efficacy of the blood of Christ, as meeting the sinner's need, flows from the character of His person and the nature of His death. His blood is the symbol of His death, of His life poured out; for the life is in the blood (see Lev. 17: 10-14), and hence His blood cleanses from sin, because of the value of His death before God in the sinner's place and behalf. God has condescended to teach us this by type and illustration, as well as by direct statement. Look at the Israelites in the land of Egypt on the passover night. God was about to execute judgment upon the land of Egypt; and when once He began to deal in righteousness, Israel was as much amenable to the penalty of sin as the Egyptians. How then spare the former when the latter were to be judged? "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 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" (Ex. 12: 12, 13; also vv. 21-23). The only ground (mark it well) of difference on this night between Israel and Egypt was THE BLOOD. It was not what Israel was in comparison with the Egyptians, but it was the blood that stayed the destroyer's hand — the blood on the outside of their houses; for the Lord had said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The blood of the lamb — for the lamb had been slain — cleansed them typically from guilt, so that God could righteously spare Israel while He righteously destroyed Egypt. The same lesson is taught by the great day of atonement, of which we have the record in Leviticus 16. For Aaron was directed to sprinkle the blood of the bullock, and of the goat of the sin-offerings, both upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, where God dwelt between the cherubim; "for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16: 30). All these things were but shadows of the efficacy of the blood of Christ. Thus we read: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5: 7); and again, "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9: 12-14). Accordingly we are taught, that "the blood of Jesus Christ His (God's) Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1: 7).

We may, then, now point out distinctly the teaching of Scripture as to the blood of Christ in relation to sin.

1. It is the only means of cleansing from guilt. This is the divinely appointed and the divinely given way. It is therefore exclusive of all other methods. "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God" (Jer. 2: 22). "If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me" (Job 9: 30, 31). It is only the blood of Christ which can make the sinner whiter than snow.

2. It is the blood in and by itself alone which possesses this efficacy. There cannot be any addition to it. It is not the blood and something else. Add to it in any way, whether by feelings, prayers, penitence (all of which have their proper place), and you mar its cleansing power.

3. God has provided the blood. It is He who has delivered up His Son to death. This provision for the sinner's need is one therefore entirely of God's grace, and consequently a provision outside of the sinner altogether. God in His infinite mercy, and because He so loved the world, provided the Lamb for the sacrifice; and now the precious blood of that Lamb avails for every one who believes (John 3: 16). There is no limit whatever in its application, excepting in the sinner's unbelief. It is provided for all, and everyone may be the subject of its blessed cleansing power through faith.

Beloved reader, you have confessed your need of cleansing, and God has provided that which alone can meet your need. Do you ask, But how am I to obtain the application of the blood to myself? Solely and entirely by the obedience of faith. Let us go back to the Passover night (Ex. 12). It was not enough that the lamb was slain, and that the blood was in the basin; but the Israelite was directed to sprinkle the blood for himself upon the lintel and the two side-posts of his door. With the bunch of hyssop in his hand, the sign of his humiliation before the righteous judgment of God, he sprinkled the blood, thereby confessing his own desert of death, and his faith in the blood as the means to avert the stroke of the destroyer, of sheltering him from the wrath of the Righteous Judge. So now. The Lamb has been provided, and slain; His blood has been shed. But the fact of His blood-shedding does not secure your safety. The question is, Are you under the shelter of the blood? Do you again ask, How can this be? By bowing in humiliation, like the Israelite, before the judgment which God has pronounced against sin; that is, by taking the place of a sinner, and by looking to the blood of Christ to secure you from the righteous doom and meed of sin. The moment you do this, the blood of Christ is upon you in all its value, between you and judgment, sheltering you completely and for ever from the consequences of sin; for the blood has met and satisfied all the claims that a holy God had against you. For God hath set forth Christ a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3: 25). There is therefore absolutely nothing for you to do; not even have you to gather the hyssop and sprinkle the blood. You have simply to believe the word of God, to look in faith to the blood already shed, as the only means of protection from death and judgment, and God instantly sees you as covered with all its efficacy and value — cleansed from guilt, and whiter than snow. Delay not, then, to seek the protection of the precious blood of Christ. At midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt; and as suddenly and unexpectedly will judgment overtake the rejecter of Christ, for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape (1 Thess. 5: 3). To-day, then, hear the entreating voice of the love of God, which bids you to flee from the wrath to come, and to "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29).

Chapter 4  Ye Must be Born Again

When Nicodemus went to our Lord for instruction, he was met instantly by the solemn word, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3: 3). It behoves therefore every anxious soul to consider this searching divine word; because we at once learn, that whatever the anxiety of soul — earnest desires, profession of faith — if there has not been wrought this great change, the "new birth," there is no life in the soul, and consequently no salvation.

Who was it then to whom the Lord addressed these words? We only learn half the truth when we answer, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; for, in fact, this tells us nothing beyond his name and official rank, and these things have no weight before God, and no significance for the seeking soul. It is in the connection of the third chapter with the second that we shall find the real answer to our question. We read, "Now when He [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast-day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man. But" (as it should be read) "there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews," etc. (John 2: 23-25; John 3: 1, etc.). There was thus a number of Jews who believed on Jesus when they saw His miracles, and Nicodemus was one of that number. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in man; because, in fact, their faith was nothing more than a natural conviction, wrought by the evidence of the miracles, of the truth of the claims of Jesus. There was no bowing of heart before God in all this; there was nothing more than a natural or intellectual belief in the name of Christ. When therefore Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, no doubt in quest of something more, and expressed this belief, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him," Jesus answered him at once by stating the necessity of being born again. It was as if He had said, "You may believe in me as a divine teacher, and yet be lost. You must be born again before you can enter into the kingdom of God."

We thus get a most solemn warning, as well as a needed caution. The warning is, "Beware of being satisfied with a profession of belief in Christ." The caution is, "Never forget that everything is useless if you have not been born again. You may be most earnest, most religious, a model of activity, in high repute for sanctity of life, or for works of usefulness, and yet be a lost soul; for unless you are born again, you cannot even see the kingdom of God."

Why then must a man be born again? The answer to this question brings us to a most important part of our subject. We have already shown that all men are sinners; but it is not only that they are sinners, but they have an evil, corrupt, depraved nature; and this incurably corrupt nature is the tree which produces all the evil fruits of sin. The acts of sin reveal the character of the nature; and this nature is totally unfit for God's presence. This is the purport of our Lord's words in this chapter, "That which is born of flesh is flesh" (v. 6). All therefore that we are as natural men, as children of Adam, is flesh; and in this flesh there dwelleth no good thing (Rom. 7: 18).

"Are we to understand that all men, without exception, are thus totally corrupt, hopelessly evil?"

"Yes. Such is the verdict of God upon human nature. 'That which is born of flesh is flesh.'"

"But is it possible, for example, that all the noble deeds recorded in history, or all the kind, generous, and beneficent actions which we meet with in daily life, are all these done by those who have a totally depraved nature? Surely there must be a difference — degrees in our natural condition; for how is it possible to class such actions with open and flagrant sins?"

It matters not what may be the outward character of the actions of men, whether such as will elicit the applause or draw down *tim* condemnation of their fellows; for as long as they proceed from men who have not been born again, they are nothing but evil in the sight of God, "for a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes" (Luke 6: 43, 44). The word of God is most explicit on this question. "The carnal mind" (the mind of the flesh) "is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8: 7, 8). It is thus, as Luther said, not a question of doing, but of being; not a question of the character of actions, but a question of nature, and this nature God declares to be flesh, and the flesh is nothing but evil in His sight, and consequently "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (1 Cor. 15: 50).

Herein therefore lies the necessity of being born again; "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. . . . Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3: 6, 7). This necessity is universal in its application. It concerns every one born into this world, the dutiful, obedient child as much as the prodigal son; the active, zealous philanthropist as much as the convict in his cell. For the flesh is flesh, and cannot enter the kingdom of God. There must therefore be a new nature and a new life; for if there be not these, whatever a man's moral repute, he will be for ever outside of the kingdom of God.

How then must a man be born again?

This, in substance, was the question of Nicodemus. "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3: 4). This question rigidly construed means undoubtedly, How is it possible for a man to be born again? But our Lord, in His answer, does not notice it in this form, but points out the way in which a man is born again. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (v. 5).

(1)

Water

. Much difficulty has been occasioned by special attempts to wrest the meaning of this symbol. Ritualists of many shades have persistently endeavoured to support their false teaching of baptismal regeneration from this passage. But if we confine ourselves to the Scriptures, we shall find that the difficulty will disappear. Now it is very evident that Nicodemus should have understood what our Lord meant; and if he did not, that he was expected to understand. For when he replied, "How can these things be? Jesus answered and said, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" (John 3: 9, 10). And if we turn to one of the prophets (with whose writings Nicodemus, as one of Israel's teachers, should have been well acquainted), we shall find a distinct foreshadowing of this teaching of our Lord. Speaking of the future restoration of Israel, the prophet says, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezek. 36: 25-27). Here we have the same conjunction of the water and the Spirit, and a radical change following upon its application; for nothing less than this can be implied by "a new heart." Not only so, but the water in this passage is used in the most familiar of all senses to the Israelites, in connection with cleansing.

With this passage then before us, what, we ask, is the import of the water? Turn to Psalm 119, and we get this question: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word." We read also in the New Testament of "the washing of water by the word" (Eph. 5: 26); again, "Now ye are clean through" (or because of) "the word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15: 3; read also John 13: 5-11). The water therefore is a well-known symbol for the word of God. Hence we find the Word constantly associated in other passages with the new birth. "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth" (James 1: 18) "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1: 23-25). The apostle Paul makes an allusion to the same thing when he says to the Corinthians, "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4: 15). The Word of God, preached in the gospel, is the *tint* means of the new birth which our Lord here sets forth under the type of water.

(2)

And [of] the Spirit

. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth" (John 6: 63). "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3: 6). The Spirit acting in and through the word of God quickens dead souls, and they are born again. The Word cannot do this in and by itself nor does the Spirit of God act alone, but He wields the Word as the instrument, so that by it He may bring souls out of death into life, producing in them both a new nature and a new life. Many illustrations of this might be collected from the Scriptures. Take the most prominent of all — that afforded by the day of Pentecost. The crucifiers of the Lord Jesus were gathered round about Peter and the other apostles. Peter proclaimed the word of God to them, and said, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2: 36). At the beginning of the chapter we read of the descent of the Holy Spirit; and it is said of the apostles that "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Peter was therefore speaking in the power of the Spirit, and that same Spirit clothed the word of God with mighty power, and the effect was that a multitude were born again, the change wrought upon them being indicated by the fact that "they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men [and] brethren, what shall we do?" (v. 37). So it is now when men are born again. It is always through the Word, by the Spirit of God. There is no other way.

(3) We may, however, with our Lord's own teaching before us, define more exactly. In the ninth verse Nicodemus asks, "How can these things be?" Our Lord first of all rebukes, though with all tenderness, both his ignorance (v. 10) and his unbelief (vv. 11, 12), and then proceeds to vouchsafe a full reply to the question he had put. It falls into three parts, and together they reveal the whole mystery which was perplexing the mind of Nicodemus.

(a) The Person of the Son of man

. This is the foundation of all in that word of God — the gospel — by which, through the Spirit of God, souls are born again. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, [even] the Son of man which is in heaven" (v. 13). We have here the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. He was in heaven, but He "came down from heaven," was born of a woman, and became the Son of man on earth, who yet while He spake to Nicodemus could say of Himself, "Who is in heaven." It is the God-man — true man, and true God, who is here revealed in the Person of the Son of man. And it is this wondrous dignity of the Person of Christ which gives such infinite efficacy to His work; and hence the necessity of guarding with such jealous care the true doctrine of the Person of our Lord, of repudiating, refusing all teachings which seek to degrade either His human or divine natures. For whatever militates against the Person of Christ, militates against the cross, against His atoning sacrifice. The Person of Christ lies at the foundation of, gives its blessed character to, the gospel of the grace of God. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4: 6).

(b)

The Work of Christ

. In this we have the second of the divine "musts." "Ye," said our Lord, "must be born again"; and now He says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so MUST THE SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 14, 15). But why must the Son of man be lifted up — crucified? It was a moral necessity; for without the shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb. 9: 22); because, as taking the sinner's place, He must be "wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities" (Isa. 53: 5); because, inasmuch as we were under the judgment and condemnation of sin, He must die in our stead; for He "bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2: 24). It was, in a word, as the sinner's substitute that He must be "lifted up." The object of His being lifted up is, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (v. 15). He thus becomes the source of life, yea, in resurrection He is the life of every believer (Col. 3: 3, 4); for it is in being born again that this life is communicated through the power of the quickening Spirit. But He is the life of those who believe, because of the character of His death, because He was the sinner's substitute on the cross; for it was in death that He expiated, made atonement for our sins, and thereby removed every barrier out of the way between a God of grace and lost sinners. Hence He could say, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11: 25). It is thus life out of death, life in a crucified and risen Saviour, because "through death He destroyed him that had the power of death" (Heb. 2: 14); for if the corn of wheat had not fallen into the ground and died, it must have remained alone; but having died, it brings forth much fruit. (John 12: 24).

(c)

Faith

is the connecting-link between the sinner and Christ, just as the touch was the connecting-link between those who were healed and Christ in the days of His sojourn here. Hence it is, "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (vv. 15, 16). This will be at once understood by looking at the comparison which the Lord Himself has made. He compares His own "lifting up" to the serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (Num. 21: 6-9). They were serpents that bit the people of Israel and caused their death; it was a serpent to which they were directed to look and live. It is sin that has caused our death. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," etc. (Rom. 5: 12). It is to One who was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5: 21) on whom we are commanded to believe in order to live.

This, then, is the present point of importance — the comparison between the looking and believing. We read — "And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21: 9). Notice, first of all, that it was the bitten Israelite who looked; and secondly, that he looked in the obedience of faith — believing the word of God. Just so is it with Christ lifted up. Whosoever takes the place of a sinner, acknowledging that he is "bitten," hopelessly lost by sin, if he look away in the obedience of faith to Christ, will not perish, but have eternal life. We thus, as in the case of the passover night, see that there is absolutely nothing whatever for the sinner to do; he has simply to believe the record that God has given of His Son, that God has dealt with sin in the death of Christ, and that therefore He proclaims life to every one that believeth. So soon then as the sinner has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ he is born again, he has everlasting life (Gal. 3: 26).

This is the method of the new birth. The gospel is preached — the word of God — which tells to a guilty race that "God so loved the world, that He gave (delivered up to death) His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). The Spirit clothes this message of God's grace with power. It enters the hearts of sinners; they believe, they are quickened, they are born again, they have everlasting life (John 3: 16).

Dear reader, Have you been born again? You surely, with this testing word before you, can have no difficulty in answering the question. If you are, your whole soul will go out in thanksgivings to God for the gift of His only begotten Son. If you are not, let me again warn you that it matters not what you are besides — you may be a good son or daughter, a loving husband or wife, a kind father or mother, and yet, not being born again, you are outside the kingdom of God, hopelessly undone and lost. Will you be satisfied in this condition? What had been the consequence if the bitten Israelites had refused to look at the serpent of brass, saying, "We may perhaps recover"? They would have died in their anguish and their sin. And so if you refuse to look to Christ, to believe in Him, there is no other remedy; and, instead of having eternal life, you will for ever perish. But if you bow to this divine necessity of being born again, acknowledging your true condition before God, and look to Christ in simple faith, you will immediately pass from death unto life.

Chapter 5  Peace With God

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1). This is the conclusion at which the apostle arrives, after stating the grounds on which God is able to meet the sinner in grace, and to justify every one that believeth in Jesus. The principle involved is so important, and so necessary to be understood, that we propose to state it at length, so that anxious ones may see how carefully God has laid the foundation of peace outside of themselves altogether; that, in a word, they may perceive that the Rock on which it is grounded is Christ alone, and what He has done.

1. Justification is by faith

; i.e., on the principle of faith in contrast with the principle of works. Much confusion of mind would be spared if this were remembered; and it is on this contrast that the apostle's whole argument is based. Thus, after depicting the state both of Gentiles and Jews, after proving that both are convicted as sinners, he says, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His [God's] sight" (Rom. 3: 20). Again, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (v. 28); and then, after citing the example of Abraham's justification — "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" — he tells us, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4: 3-5). We have therefore the most complete contrast between the law and the gospel. The law had said, "The man that doeth them shall live in them" (Gal. 3: 12); but the gospel proclaims that God is the "justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3: 26). It is no more therefore a question of works — of doing on man's part; for God has shown man's complete and utter failure in every position in which he has been placed. The Gentile without law, and the Jew under law, are brought in as sinners; and thus every mouth is stopped, and the whole world is become guilty before God (Rom. 3: 19). From this very fact, man is entirely precluded from doing anything either to recover himself, or to save himself. He is already under condemnation, lost, and hence works or doings of any kind are utterly without avail. If therefore he is now to be saved, it must be on the principle of faith; "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2: 8). He neither has, nor can he obtain by his utmost efforts, any righteousness before God; and accordingly he is shut up to God's righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith (Rom. 1: 17).

It is of the first importance to apprehend this point; for it is just here that so many souls, like the Jews of old, fail. Thus, in the tenth chapter, we read that "they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10: 3, 4). Until therefore souls understand that they cannot "establish their own righteousness," that "their righteousnesses are as filthy rags" before God (Isaiah 64: 6), they will never accept the truth, that they can only be justified on the principle of faith, that if they are saved, it must be by God in His grace towards them in Christ Jesus. But once understood, the gain is immense; for the eye will be immediately taken from self, and directed to Him who is the only Saviour: they will cease from their own doings, and be made willing to submit, on the principle of faith, to the righteousness of God.

2. We may inquire now, What is the object proposed to faith in order to justification? This is very clearly defined in Romans 4. The apostle, we have seen, describes that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness; and, furthermore, he details the circumstances and character of his faith, carefully pointing out that it was prior to circumcision, and that the law had nothing to do with the promise which he received (vv. 9-16); and then he says, "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (vv. 23-25). The object proposed to Abraham's faith was God Himself, in His promise that "he should be the heir of the world" (v. 13); and he "against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness" (vv. 18-22).

The object of his faith was thus a God of promise; but the object proposed to our faith is a God of accomplishment; for righteousness will be imputed to us "if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (v. 24). God therefore is presented to the sinner in the gospel as One who has intervened in grace, provided redemption in Christ, and as testifying that Christ has been delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification; as therefore a God of salvation, One who requires now nothing from the sinner but faith in Himself — requiring nothing because He has sent His only begotten Son, who took the whole of our responsibilities upon Himself, met in His death every claim which a holy God had against us, settled forever the question of sin, and so glorified God that He is now able, on the foundation of that finished work of redemption, righteously to receive and justify every one that believeth. God has thus in grace, and out of the love of His own heart, provided everything for the sinner — the precious blood of Christ for his cleansing from guilt, a divine righteousness in which he can stand in His own presence — in fact, everything needed to bring the sinner out of his place of distance, guilt, and death, home unto Himself. In the gospel of His grace, He is therefore presented as a Giver, and not as a Receiver, and as the object of faith in His testimony concerning what He has wrought for us in and by His Son.

In the third chapter the blood of Christ is presented as the object of faith: "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 24, 25). The connection here is different. Man — all the world — has been proved to be guilty before God (v. 19). The question therefore is how to meet the claims of God as a Judge; and the answer is found in the blood of Christ, provided by the grace of God, so that the most guilty can come and be justified before Him through faith in the blood of Christ (vv. 24-26). But in the passage just considered God comes forth, as already said, as a God of salvation, satisfied with the work of Christ, He having made atonement for sin by His death, and thus presents Himself as the God of grace in redemption, and therefore as the object of the sinner's faith. And how blessedly simple it is! for what does God require from sinners? Only that they should believe in Him, that they should believe His testimony concerning what has been accomplished on their behalf by the death of His Son; at the same time offering to them, in confirmation of His testimony, the fact of the resurrection of Jesus our Lord from the dead. It is as if He said to us, "If you want a proof that Christ was delivered for your offenses, that He has expiated them by His death, and that all my claims against you have been completely satisfied, behold it in His resurrection. I have raised Him from the dead, set Him down at my right hand in the glory, to convince all that He has finished the work of atonement, and that I have accepted it."

3. Every one who believes in Him is justified.

"Being justified by faith"; i.e., we are by faith accounted righteous before God, righteous in Christ; for God "made Him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5: 21). This is much more than cleansing from guilt, or pardon of sins, because we have in justification a positive righteousness which fits us for the presence of God. The blood of Christ, as we have seen, is the meritorious cause of this, it being on our behalf of such infinite value, having so glorified God in expiating our sins, that He righteously — in righteousness to His Son — receives, pardons, justifies, and brings us into the very place where Christ Himself is. Hence, as the apostle says elsewhere, "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness," etc. (1 Cor. 1: 30). For so completely are we identified with Christ before God, that His place is our place, His acceptance our acceptance; for we are in Him; and accordingly the apostle John can write, "As He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17).

This will suffice to show the complete character of our justification; and it may aid doubting souls to remember that it is God Himself who justifies the believer. For if He justifies us, if He is so completely satisfied with what has been done for us as to clear us from every charge, and set us down in Christ before Himself, who can condemn us? (Rom. 8: 33, 34). Who can incriminate us? nay, who can lower by one jot or tittle the perfectness of our acceptance? God has spoken; He has declared that we are "justified by faith," and His word abideth for ever.

4. Peace is the portion of the justified.

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The words, "we have peace," do not of necessity mean that we enjoy it; for there are doubtless many justified ones before God who know but little of this peace. The meaning is that peace belongs to us, that it is made between our souls and God, that every question between Him and us is so perfectly settled, that He has nothing against us, that peace therefore is our portion.

But if it is made, and it belongs to us; what hinders so many souls from entering into its possession? Simply unbelief; they look within to their own state, instead of without to what God has done for them. We can only enjoy this peace as knowing it to be ours; and we can only know it to be ours by believing God's word. But if we believe, and are justified, we have peace, whatever our feelings or experience; and hence we should rest in the enjoyment of it in simple confidence in the word of God. It is of the first importance to know that it is ours; for souls are tossed hither and thither by doubts and fears, because they hesitate to believe in the fullness of the grace of God. They are therefore weak and helpless, the easy prey of the tempter; whereas if they but quietly rested on this sure word of God that they "have peace," that He has made it through the work of Christ, and made it for them, they would be able to sing amid the storm, to present a fearless front in the face of all difficulties, to be undisturbed by the most insidious suggestions of Satan, knowing that as the peace rests upon the cross of Christ, it is both sure and steadfast, inalienable and immutable, a foundation on which they might "build and rest secure" for ever. For the peace of the justified is the result of accomplished redemption, founded on the cross, and proved by the resurrection of Christ.

It may encourage some to a stronger confidence if we remind them that God is just, as well as the justifier of every one that believes in Jesus (Rom. 3: 26); i.e., that He is just to the claims which the work of Christ, or rather Christ in His work, has established upon Him. It is therefore what Christ has gained for us; and hence He is our peace (Eph. 2: 14). It should indeed be never forgotten that this peace is not apart from, but in and through Christ; or, consequently, that it is a righteous peace, a peace which God righteously bestows upon and secures to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 6  "What Must I do to be Saved?"

Having pointed out God's provision for the need of souls, we may now consider the subject from man's point of view. No sooner indeed is he convicted of sin than the question springs up within his heart in one form or another, "What must I do?" It was so on the day of Pentecost, when the Jews were pricked in their heart by the power of the Holy Spirit under the preaching of Peter. "Men and brethren," they said, "what shall we do?" The jailor asked Paul and Silas, "What must I do to be saved" (Acts 16: 30). Twice our Lord Himself was asked, "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10: 17; and Luke 10: 25). The question addressed to our Lord by Paul, or rather Saul — "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts. 9: 6) — is different, and need not therefore be considered.

The peculiarity of these questions is that the "I" occupies a prominent place, or rather perhaps the thought of doing. It is, What must I do? a sure sign that the questioners have not yet learnt what God is, or their true place before Him.

It is on this very account the more important to answer the question, because it marks in many souls a distinct stage of their history. There are very few indeed who have not asked the same question at some period of their soul-anxiety. We propose therefore to examine some of the examples which we have cited, that we may ascertain the answer given to it in the word of God.

1. We take first the case of the young man

(Mark 10: 17; Matt. 19: 16; Luke 18: 18). We read that when Jesus "was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is,] God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto Him, Master, all these things have I observed from my youth" (Matthew tells us that the young man added, "What lack I yet?"). "Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions" (Mark 10: 17-22). This case is the more remarkable and instructive from the fact that this young man was so blameless and unexceptionable in conduct and character. He was both sincere and upright, one who could say, what Paul said of himself, that touching the righteousness which was in the law, he was blameless (Phil. 3: 6); for he replied to our Lord's enumeration of the commandments, "All these have I observed from my youth," and added, "What lack I yet?" (See Matt. 19: 20).

Is not this a picture of many in our own day, young people and others, whose whole lives, morally, as we speak, in their outward expression leave nothing to be desired? Gentle, amiable, and loving; observant, and tenderly observant of their duties as sons or daughters, upright and honourable in all the relationships of life, and diligent also in attendance upon what are termed religious duties, they win the approbation of their whole circle, both of relatives and friends. And what lack they yet? The Lord's answer to this young man is the answer to our question. What then is its import? First, that man can bring nothing to God, and therefore can DO NOTHING to inherit eternal life. Like Paul, he must learn that his righteousness is as filthy rags, to count the things which were a gain to him as a natural man loss for Christ, that nothing that he is, or has done, is of any merit before God; nay, that his best things must be regarded as worthless and unclean. Secondly, that he must be willing to suffer the loss of all things — self, his own righteousness, and the world — for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Hence our Lord told the young man to sell all that he had, and give to the poor; and then to "come, take up the cross, and follow me."

Such is the first answer to the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" You must take the place of having nothing, and being nothing — self, the world, yea, and every thing being nothing — at the feet of Jesus. And let not the solemn warning of this whole incident be forgotten, that moral attainments, and the advantages of position, etc., are to be classed among the greatest hindrances to coming to Christ, because they so often cover up and conceal the soul's real condition before God.

2. The case of the lawyer

(Luke 10). This is in many respects totally different from that just considered; for the lawyer comes tempting Christ, and thus occupying a much lower moral place. Accordingly our Lord connects with it much deeper lessons of man's true condition. "A certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" etc. Then follows the parable of the "good Samaritan" (Luke 10: 25-37). Here the Lord takes the lawyer, who was tempting Him, on his own ground; viz. that of the law; and He thus accepts his statement of the requirements of the law, adding the words connected with its promulgation, "This do, and thou shalt live" ("which if a man do, he shall live in them" Lev. 18: 5). But he used the law, according to its divine intention, as a standard of God's requirements from men in the flesh, and so brought in the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3: 20). For His words, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live" (v. 28), convicted the tempting lawyer of sin; for we read, "He, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" The Lord had searched him with that word which "is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4: 12) but instead of bowing to it he desired to escape from its application, if not to insinuate the impossible character of the divine requirements. He sought to justify himself, as if a man could be just with God, by alleging that, since he could not carry out the divine command, he could not be expected to do any thing. But the Lord had brought into his mind the knowledge of sin, and then, to teach also the lesson as to who was his neighbour, described the man who fell among thieves, and how he was succoured by a Samaritan.

What then are the special lessons taught by this answer to the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? It is not only that man can do nothing, but that he is also convicted as a sinner before God; and hence we have man's condition as a sinner pictured out in the parable. It is thus described: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded [him], and departed, leaving [him] half dead" (v. 30). The very place in which the traveller is assailed is significant. He was on his way from Jerusalem, the city of God, to Jericho, the city of curse (Joshua 6: 26) — a striking picture of the sinner's journey to destruction. He falls among thieves, who strip, wound, and depart, leaving him half dead; and so he lies helpless and hopeless, at the point of death.

Who does not see in this sketch man's condition as a sinner? And what folly it were for one in that condition to ask, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The question rather is, What can be done to save him? And this is what our Lord would teach the lawyer — the folly of a sinner asking what he can do, and that if he is saved, it must be by the grace and by the doing of another. This latter truth is brought out in the Samaritan. But first a priest and a Levite pass by, and leave the wretched man to his fate, showing the helplessness of law to save the soul. Then the Samaritan comes upon the scene, "And when he saw him, he had compassion [on him], and went to [him], and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee" (vv. 33-35). Who then is the Samaritan? Surely none but Christ — Christ, in the compassion of His love, seeking and saving the lost. For He is moved with pity by the wretchedness of the poor, helpless man, binds up his wounds, carries him to a place of safety, cares, undertakes, and provides for him until He returns. We learn therefore from the whole scene

(1) that man is a sinner;

(2) that as a sinner he is both helpless and lost;

(3) that therefore he can do nothing; and

(4) that if he is to be saved, it can only be through Christ, and what He has done.

3. This will prepare us for the case of the jailor

(Acts 16). We take this rather than that of the Jews on the day of Pentecost, because the question is put by him in its most distinct form. Paul and Silas, at the instigation of an excited crowd, had been put into prison at Philippi; and at midnight, we read, the apostles prayed, and sang praises to God: and "suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed" (Acts 16: 25-26). The keeper of the prison was terrified, and in the excitement of the moment, thinking that the prisoners had escaped, would have killed himself, but for the interposition of Paul. "Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (vv. 27-31).

Why do Paul and Silas treat him otherwise than our Lord dealt with the two cases already considered? The answer in each case meets the moral condition of the questioner. But Paul and Silas are able to direct the jailor instantly to Christ, because he came in the moral condition set forth by the dying man in the parable. And hence if any of my readers are putting this same question, they cannot be answered until they take the same place. This truth has already been insisted on in the second chapter; but we again emphasize it here. For until the lesson is learnt the way of salvation cannot be known. Are you then, beloved readers, recognizing, not only that you can bring nothing to God, that even the things that might be a gain to you amongst men are worthless before Him, but also that you are sinners, and as such lost and undone; that therefore you can do nothing towards your salvation, and that if you are saved, it must be by the work and grace of another? If you are, we can then unfold to you the blessed truth, contained in the words, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (v. 31).

To be saved therefore, to have eternal life, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is thus a question not of doing, but of believing. For it is now, not what the sinner can do, but what Christ has done, for "He took what I had earned; I get the fruit of what He has done." Therefore it is, and ever must be, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." There is no other way; and hence salvation is always connected with faith. Take a few instances: "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace" (Luke 7: 50); "Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole" (Luke 17: 19); "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3: 36); "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment); but is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6: 47); "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10: 43); "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1, etc. etc.).

Do you then, beloved reader, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? We have pointed out the place the sinner must first take; that he must accept God's testimony concerning himself — that he is both helpless, guilty, and lost. If you accept God's word as to yourself and your condition, we then point you to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; for He who declares to us what we are by nature and practice in His sight, has provided redemption for us in Christ: He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16). Look away therefore from yourself to Christ, accept God's testimony also concerning Him, and even while you look you shall pass from death unto life. "The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10: 8-10).

Chapter 7  Difficulties

No sooner is the soul awakened, convinced of sin, and directed to Christ, than difficulties will often appear on every side, threatening deprivation for ever of the blessing now so earnestly desired. Magnified by the unbelief which is native to our hearts, and pressed continually upon the soul by the activity of Satan, they seem insuperable; and it may therefore be helpful, if the most prevalent forms which they assume are indicated and explained. At the same time it should never be forgotten that the only effectual solver of difficulties is the Lord Himself; and that they will soon cease to harass the mind, if carried and spread out in simple faith before the throne of grace.

1.

"My sins have been too many and too grievous."

How often are words like these uttered by the self-judged penitent when he is told of the freeness of God's grace in Christ Jesus. "Yes," he will say, "Christ is able to save, and God no doubt waits to be gracious. But I am very guilty. I have sinned against light and knowledge; others may come and be saved; but for me there is no hope." Two or three remarks will show the real nature of this feeling. In the first place, it really expresses a doubt concerning the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ; for if it cannot cleanse you, it cannot cleanse from all sin. Moreover, it distrusts the sincerity of God in the invitations which He sends to sinners through the gospel of His grace. For He says, "Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16); "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22: 17); and if you say that you are not included in these "whosoevers," what is it but to doubt the truth of God? Again, our Lord Himself says, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9: 13). This is not some, but ALL sinners. Hence, to be a sinner, is to have a title to come to Christ; and thus the more sure you are of your sinfulness, the more certain you ought to be that there is nothing in your case to shut you out from the mercy of God.

It is worthy of question whether the root of such a feeling is not self-righteousness, for it really means that you are too unworthy. As another has said, "If when God speaks I refuse to believe on the ground of something in myself, I make Him a liar (1 John 5: 10). When God declares His love, and I refuse to believe because I do not deem myself a sufficiently worthy object, I . . . exhibit the inherent pride of my heart . . . God's love flows forth spontaneously. It is not drawn forth by my deserts, but by my misery. Nor is it a question as to the place which I deserve, but which Christ deserves. Christ took the sinner's place on the cross, that the sinner might take His place in the glory. Christ got what the sinner deserved, that the sinner might get what Christ deserves. Thus self is totally set aside."

Besides, it may be added, our Lord has met by anticipation your objection, by receiving while on earth some of the vilest and most degraded. The woman who was "a sinner" (Luke 7: 37-39), and the thief on the cross (Luke 23: 40-43) are everlasting monuments of His willingness to receive the guiltiest. Meet therefore all such thoughts by the plain examples and statements of God's word; and never harbour, even for a moment, any suggestion which tends to obscure the Saviour's willingness to receive, or His ability to save, any and all who come in penitence to His feet.

2. "I do not feel my sins enough."

This is quite true; for it is a complaint that even believers have to make, and will make to the end of their days upon earth. It is sure therefore to be the case with every anxious one; and it is on account of his sinfulness that he does not feel more deeply. But this only argues his greater and more urgent need of Christ. For his want of feeling is but the evidence of his alienation from God, and consequently of his need of reconciliation through the blood of Christ. It cannot then be, that to feel deeply is a qualification for coming to Christ, for that would mean that we must first cleanse ourselves from some part of our sinfulness. No; the gospel makes no conditions with men about feelings; it demands no preparation of heart, but proclaims a present salvation to every one that believeth.

"But must I not first repent?" Let me then ask, What is meant by repentance? It is simply taking the place of self-judgment, the place of a sinner before God, taking God's view about my sins. The confusion arises from the misconception that it signifies "the feeling sorry for, and the determination to forsake, sin"; and hence many probe themselves to discover whether they are in this state of mind. But the only thing you have to consider is, Do I know that I am a sinner? and, Do I accept God's judgment of myself as a sinner? If you do, there is nothing on God's part between you and the sinner's Saviour. For the only message of the gospel is, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house (Acts 16: 31).

3.

"I cannot be sure that Christ died for me; that I am personally included in the invitations of the gospel."

And why not? For when God speaks in His word so repeatedly, and says, "WHOSOEVER believeth" shall be saved (John 3: 15, 16, 36; Acts 10: 43, etc.), is it not as evident that you are included as if your name were written there? As an evangelist recently put it, if you saw written over a gate, Whosoever will may enter, you would understand at once that you had a title to entrance; and you would regard it as downright folly if a companion were to argue with you on the subject, contending that the notice was not distinct. When then we read in the Scriptures, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely," (Rev. 22: 17), it is nothing but rank unbelief to express the doubt whether we are included in the invitation. In a recently published memoir there is an example of the kind. The subject of it, when first awakened, had this difficulty; and, though Scripture after Scripture was pressed upon him, remained immovable. But going home, he spent a great part of the night alone with God. At last he took a piece of paper, and wrote, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33: 11); then he added, "I am one of the wicked"; and further, "Therefore the Lord God has no pleasure in my death," and was thus led to believe that he was within the range of the divine mercy.

Every sinner is entitled to adopt the same plan. Let any one therefore who is troubled with the doubt named take, for example, John 3: 16, and write it out with self-application, and he will find that it is as clear as noonday that God includes him in the term "whosoever." There is no limit indeed to God's grace in the gospel, except in the unbelief of sinful hearts.

4.

"It may be that I am not one of the elect."

Now this is the most useless of all doubts, except indeed for the purposes of Satan. For secret things belong unto God, and no amount of speculation or reasoning can discover them. And let it be remembered that the sinner has nothing whatever to do with God's purposes. Election has to do with saints, and saints alone. The difficulty, if sincerely felt, should therefore be met by the simple question, Am I a sinner? For if that can be plainly answered, it has already been abundantly shown that the invitations of the gospel are addressed to you, and that to be a sinner is the only qualification for coming to Christ.

5.

"I cannot believe."

Let us examine this difficulty. What then is it that you cannot believe? Cannot you believe that you are a sinner? God testifies this to you in His word; and if you want any confirmation of His truth, the experience of a single day will surely be sufficient. No; you do not doubt that you are a sinner. Can you not then believe God's testimony concerning His Son? What is that testimony? It is that "He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification (Rom. 4: 25); that "He hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3: 18); that God "made Him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Do you believe this? You will say, "Of course I do." Then see what this involves. You believe on the one hand that you are a sinner, and on the other that Christ has died for sinners; and yet you say "you cannot believe." Let me then put another question. Do you believe that God is satisfied with and has accepted that which Christ has done for sinners by His death? Before you attempt to answer this question, remember two things; first, that the resurrection of Christ, and His glorification at the right hand of the Majesty on high, is the proof that God is satisfied — that He has abundantly accepted the atonement made on the cross; and secondly, that the proclamation of the gospel is a proof also of it, for the gospel is a consequence of the finished work of Christ, and its acceptance by God. It is on the foundation of the cross that the message is sent forth, "Be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5: 20). Do you then believe that God is satisfied? You cannot doubt it. What remains? That you also should be satisfied. This and nothing more.

"Cannot believe," therefore, often means unwillingness to believe, the refusal to bow before God's judgment upon yourself as a sinner; for when you have truly taken the place of a sinner, you must of necessity welcome the offers of salvation as glad tidings of great joy. Suppose now a family in a state of starvation at the point of death, and provision is carried to their doors, and freely offered to them, what would you think if they were to reply, "We cannot believe it is for us"? Of a like character is the objection of the sinner under condemnation to the invitations of the gospel, "I cannot believe." For remember it is God who speaks, and is it possible for unbelief to go so far as to doubt whether He is worthy of credit? If a friend were to come to you with some announcement, and you were to reply, "I cannot believe you," he would regard it, if spoken in seriousness, as an insult. Much more, then, should you hesitate to doubt the truth and veracity of God.

6.

"I cannot feel that I am saved."

This is often said by those who think and avow that they believe in Christ, but who yet have no peace. How then is the knowledge of salvation to be obtained? Many expect some sudden accession of joy, or some inward experience to certify them of it. A young believer once came to the writer, and said, "I know I am saved now, because I feel so happy." But when he replied, "Suppose you feel unhappy tomorrow, will you come and say, "I know I am not saved now, because I feel so miserable"? she at once saw that she was building a wrong foundation. How then can it be known? By faith — faith in the word of God. For when God testifies that "whosoever believeth in Christ should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16), I am entitled, if I believe, to say that I am saved, resting my confidence on this word; and peace comes as the result of my belief of God's testimony.

Such is the divine order. First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, knowledge of salvation, or assurance, as it is sometimes termed, from belief in the word of God; and lastly, peace as the consequence of knowing that I am saved. Take a simple illustration. If I owe a debt of one hundred pounds, and have not wherewith to meet it, I shall be under constant concern and anxiety. If however a friend comes and says, "Be under no concern for the debt. I have discharged it," my anxiety will instantly cease, if I believe his word, not otherwise. So is it with our knowledge of salvation. If I believe in Christ Jesus, I shall know that all God's claims against me have been satisfied, and consequently I shall have peace, if I believe His word, and in no other way. It is most important to apprehend this point; for many, making "assurance" to depend on feeling, are continually in a state of disquiet and unrest. But when we see that the foundation of our confidence lies in the immutable truth of God, we shall never doubt our salvation, whatever the chequered character of our inward experiences. The fact indeed is too often lost sight of (as pointed out in another chapter), that the ground of our peace is entirely outside of ourselves, in the work of Christ for us; and hence the eye is turned inward, instead of outward to His cross, His precious blood. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through out Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1).

It will be observed that we have spoken only of the ground of assurance. Having peace, there will be, indeed should be, happy experiences; for God sends His Spirit to dwell in the hearts of saved ones, and He bears witness with their spirits that they are the children of God. But happy experiences must follow upon, and cannot precede, the knowledge that we are saved.

7.

"Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost."

As very many anxious souls are perplexed with the fear that they have been guilty of this sin, and that they are consequently shut out from the offers of mercy in the gospel, it may be well to explain its true character. The words in which our Lord describes it are these: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come" (Matt. 12: 31, 32; see also Mark 3: 28-30).

The sin then spoken of is "blasphemy," or "speaking against" the Holy Ghost, and the precise force of these terms may be gathered from an examination of the context. The Saviour had just performed a miracle. We read, "Then was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and He healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw" (Matt. 12: 22). The people were deeply impressed with this display of divine power and mercy, and saw in it an evidence of His Messiahship; for they said, "Is not this the Son of David?" But the enemies of Christ — the Pharisees — made it an occasion for the exhibition of their enmity, and with the miracle before their eyes — indeed, confessing it — ascribed the power which they had seen exerted to the devil. They said, "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." Hence it is that we find in the gospel of Mark the reason given for the Saviour's warning concerning "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost": "Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit." The sin therefore spoken of is the wilful ascription to Satan of the power wrought by the Holy Ghost, and therefore blaspheming the Holy Ghost by maligning His operations as devilish. To prevent all possibility of mistake, the argument may be displayed at length.

1. The power in which Jesus laboured, wrought miracles, performed His mission, was that of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4: 1-18; Isaiah 61: 1, 2; John 3: 34; John 14: 10, etc.).

2. It was, therefore, by the power of the Spirit of God that He expelled the devil from the blind and dumb man.

3. The Pharisees acknowledged the miracle; they had seen it done, and could not deny it.

4. They had therefore before them a clear proof of the Saviour's mission; for, if done, it substantiated His claim to be the Messiah.

5. They ignored the evidence, and sought to discredit Jesus by charging Him with being the agent of the devil.

6. They thus wilfully not only sinned against, but "blasphemed," the Holy Ghost.

Thus, as another has said, "What the Lord denounces is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Keeping that distinctly in view would save many souls a great deal of needless trouble. How many have groaned in terror through fear of being guilty of sin against the Holy Ghost! That phrase admits of vague notions and general reasonings about its nature. But our Lord spoke definitely of blasphemous, unforgivable sin against Him. All sin, I presume, is sin against the Holy Ghost, who has taken His place in Christendom, and consequently gives all sin this character. Thus, lying in the church is not mere falsehood toward man, but unto God, because of the great truth that the Holy Ghost is there. Here, on the contrary, the Lord speaks of unforgivable sin (not that vague sense of evil which troubled souls dread as "sin against the Holy Ghost," but blasphemy against Him). What, is this evil never to be forgiven? It is attributing the power that wrought in Jesus to the devil. How many troubled souls would be instantly relieved if they laid hold of that simple truth! It would dissipate what really is a delusion of the devil, who strives hard to plunge them into anxiety, and drive them into despair, if possible. The truth is, that as any sin of a Christian may be said to be sin against the Holy Ghost, what is especially the sin against the Holy Ghost, if there be anything which is so, is that which directly hinders the free action of the Holy Ghost in the work of God, or in His church. Such might be said to be the sin, if you speak of it with precision. But what our Lord referred to was neither a sin nor the sin, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. It was that which the Jewish nation was then rapidly falling into, and for which they were neither forgiven then, nor will ever be forgiven. There will be a new stock, so to speak; another generation will be raised up, who will receive the Christ whom their fathers blasphemed; but as far as that generation was concerned, they were guilty of this sin, and could not be forgiven. They began it in the lifetime of Jesus; they consummated it when the Holy Ghost was sent down and despised. They still carried it on persistently; and it is always the case when men enter upon a bad course, unless sovereign grace deliver. The more God brings out of love, grace, truth, wisdom, the more determinedly and blindly they rush on to their own perdition. So it was with Israel. So it ever is with man left to himself, and despising the grace of God. "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." It is the final stage of rebellion against God.

It may then be confidently affirmed, that no one under convictions of sin, no one who desires reconciliation to God through the blood of Christ, can have committed "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost." Nay, these very convictions of sin, and desires after peace with God, are the effects of His own work in the soul; the sure proof that this "blasphemy" has not been committed.

8.

The "sin unto death."

This is popularly confounded with that just considered. But an examination of the Scripture in which it is mentioned will show that it is a totally distinct thing. It is thus described: "If any man see his brother sin a sin [which is] not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it" (1 John 5: 16). Here the question is concerning the sin of a believer. If any man see his brother, etc.; and since it is a believer who is spoken of, there can be no reference to eternal death, In fact, the death spoken of is bodily. Thus Ananias and Sapphira committed a sin "unto death" (Acts 5). Their sin was of such a character that God interposed and removed them from off the scene, in merciful chastisement upon themselves, and in solemn warning to others. But though they sinned "unto death," this did not affect their standing, if they were real believers. Their death was the result of the interposition of God in governmental discipline in the church on earth. Allusion is made to other cases of a similar character in 1 Corinthians. The apostle, writing concerning the abuses of the Lord's Supper, says, "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation" (judgment, as in margin) "to himself; not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (1 Cor. 11: 29, 30). That is, as the result of God's intervention in discipline, many had died.

It will be seen from the above explanation that no one can tell beforehand what constitutes the "sin unto death," because it is judged only by the Lord. Indeed, it does not follow that the same act would constitute the same sin in different circumstances; for there is little doubt that there have been many Ananiases and Sapphiras since their day. But we need not pursue the subject, as we have shown that the sin is that of a believer, and that it is connected with bodily, and not eternal, death, and hence that anxious ones cannot have been guilty of it before God.

9.

The case supposed in Heb. 6: 3-6

is often a real difficulty. But a careful examination of the passage, though we cannot here go into it minutely, will show that it can have no application to those who are anxious and who desire peace with God. For the case is that of "those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Let it be first of all distinctly noted, that this cannot refer to the falling away of any who have been really converted. For nothing is more plainly taught in the Scriptures than that it is impossible for a child of God to perish. (See John 10: 27-29; Rom. 8: 28-39; 1 Cor. 1: 8, 9; Eph. 1: 13, 14; Phil. 1: 6, 7, etc., etc.). It must be borne in mind indeed that the epistle was addressed to Hebrew Christians; and the case put is that of those who had been brought out of Judaism, and convinced of the truth of Christianity, thus far enlightened by the power of the Holy Ghost, but not converted, born again. They were brought into the blessings indicated, but were still without life; and it is concerning these we are told, that if they should fall away it would be impossible to renew them again unto repentance, etc. And why? Because they would be deliberately and wilfully going back to what they knew to be no longer according to God; re-associating themselves with the nation that crucified the Son of God, and thus, by endorsing with their eyes open the act of the nation, crucifying for themselves the Son of God, and putting Him to an open shame (v. 6).

The case supposed therefore is that of wilful apostates. But no doubt it is intended as a solemn warning, though not for anxious souls. The warning will have its application to many who are associated with believers in various ways, to professors, and such professors as have been the subjects of much enlightenment without being born again, so that they, knowing the divine character of redemption, are persuaded that the only way of salvation is through a crucified and risen Saviour, and may even be outwardly zealous for Christ. It is for such that this warning is intended; for if they turn their backs upon what they know to be true, deny Him whom they know to be the Christ of God, become wilful apostates, their case is hopeless. It is to this class alone that this passage applies; and it therefore cannot include those who, convicted of sin by the Spirit of God, desire above all things to know that Christ is their Saviour and Lord. In a word, no one who desires to be saved, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, can be of that class and character.

There are doubtless many other difficulties in special cases, but those dealt with are the most common. Our aim should be to bring everything to the word of God in a prayerful spirit; for "unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness" (Psalm 112: 4), and "the entrance of thy words giveth light" (Psalm 119: 130).

Chapter 8  Deliverance

Many who have been awakened, quickened, and who may even be under the sure protection of the blood of Christ, are yet without a clear knowledge of salvation. They have sometimes a "good hope" that they are saved, but then sin breaks out within them in such overwhelming power, that, thereby made to know the utter corruption of their sinful hearts, they are plunged back into uncertainty and distress. They are thus deprived of the fullness of the blessing which belongs to all who believe in Christ, owing to ignorance (oftentimes through bad teaching) of the two natures, and of the provision which God has made in Christ for indwelling sin, as well as for sins. In other words, they have never learned that complete deliverance is to be found in Christ, both from the guilt of sin and from our sinful nature, so that the believer can say, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . . For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8: 1-2).

The truth on this subject is specially unfolded in the epistle to the Romans, from chapter 5 to the end of chapter 8. This section has been described by another as follows:

Hitherto the great truth of the remission [forgiveness] of the believer's sins has been fully set forth, closing with the blessed privileges which belong to the justified man, but still in that connection, the expiatory efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and this displayed in His resurrection. Precious as it all is, it is not everything the believer wants. He may be miserable in the discovery of what he finds within himself; and if he knows not the truth that applies to his difficulties on this score, he is in danger of yielding to hardness on one side, or of bearing a burdened spirit of bondage on the other. How many saints have never learned the extent of their deliverance, and go mourning from day to day under efforts which they would be the first to confess unavailing against their inward corruption! How many settle down callously balancing their faith in the forgiveness of their sins by the blood of Christ as a set-off against a plague which they suppose must needs be, and, of course, with no more power over it than those who are honestly, but in vain, struggling to get better. Neither the one nor the other understands the value to them of the sentence already executed on the old man in the cross, nor their own new place before God in Christ risen from the dead. This it is the Spirit's object to unfold in what follows.

The sentences italicized in the above extract find a striking confirmation in chapter 7, where we have a quickened man, one who has been born again, not knowing his deliverance from law, struggling and groaning under the burden of his indwelling sin, so much so that he cries, "I am carnal, sold under sin" (v. 14); and again, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (vv. 22-24). This is precisely the condition of many who are termed anxious souls. It is the felt contrariety of their state to all that they had longed for and hoped which leads them to doubt whether they are saved.

How then has God met this need of the soul? There can be only one answer to this question: it is in the death of Jesus Christ. For not only did He, as we have seen, bear our sins in His own body on the tree, but He was also made sin for us (2 Cor. 5: 21); yea, "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8: 3).

The application of this truth is expounded in Romans 6. Having shown in the previous chapter that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (vv. 20-21), the apostle proceeds, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be destroyed (annulled), that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed" (justified, in margin) "from sin" (Rom. 6: 1-7).

If now we give attention to the words which we have emphasized by italics, we shall understand the whole subject.

1. We are here taught that we have part in Christ's death

: we "were baptized into (or unto) His death"; "our old man is crucified with Him" (vv. 3-6). This is on the principle of substitution, a principle which finds a striking illustration in the following familiar incident. During the days of Napoleon I, a young man was drawn as a soldier, but having some means, he purchased a substitute, who went in his stead to fight the battles of his country. The substitute was soon killed, and not long after a decree for another conscription was issued. It so happened that the same young man was drawn for the second time, but he pleaded that he was a dead man. When asked what he meant by such a plea, he answered that, since his substitute had been killed, he himself ought to be regarded as dead. The case, from its singularity, was carried before the courts of law, and, after examination and trial, it was ruled that the young man was dead before the law of conscription, on the ground of the death of his substitute. So with us, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can plead that we have died in the person of our Substitute, that in Him the whole judgment and condemnation due to our sin and sins have been borne and exhausted.

2. We are consequently "dead to sin"

(v. 2); and being dead, we are "freed (justified) from sin" (v. 7). That is, our Adam nature — the seat of indwelling sin — our old man, has been judicially judged by God in the death of Christ; so that the penalty has already been paid, our doom so completely met, that before God we are regarded as judicially dead, and being dead we are justified from sin — cleared from all charge on account of it, completely delivered from it, through our death in the death of Christ.

The practical consequences of this truth are given in the succeeding verses. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in" (not through) "Christ Jesus our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof," etc. (vv. 8-12). We are thus reminded, by implication at least, that we have part not only in the death of Christ, but also in Him as risen. "For if we be dead with Him, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (v. 8); and this is confirmed and enforced by the fact, that "in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God" (v. 10).

Then follow the practical exhortations.

a. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin. The very terms of the exhortation indicate the truth; for if we were actually dead, we could not be told to reckon ourselves so. What we are then to do is to take God's estimate of ourselves. Having judged us, as to our Adam nature, in the cross of Christ, He holds us as having met our judgment, and consequently to be dead in His sight. This is His judicial estimate of every believer as to the old man; and this judicial estimate is to be the estimate of our faith. What God declares we are to believe, and to believe spite of all appearances or experiences to the contrary; and since He holds us to have been crucified with Christ, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin. This will explain many otherwise difficult expressions in the Scriptures. "I am" (or have been) "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2: 20). "If ye be dead" (or have died) "with Christ," etc. (Col. 2: 20); these, and all such, setting forth the truth here considered, that God regards all believers as having died with Christ, and therefore as having in Him borne the condemnation of sin. And this truth is to be our vantage-ground in the presence of temptation. We should remember in the presence of all solicitations to sin, that our old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Rom. 6: 6).

Thus our place before God determines our responsibility; and hence if I yield to sin, I contradict in fact that I have died with Christ; for sin argues, evidences one alive in the flesh and acting in the flesh. On the other hand, taking God's estimate of myself to be true for faith, I cannot let sin reign in my mortal body, that I should obey it in the lust thereof. I reckon myself to be dead to sin, and therefore delivered from it by the death of Christ; and thus my peace is undisturbed because I know that the flesh which I still have in me, and which, if not kept in the place of death, would break out at any moment in unbridled lusts, has already been judged, and condemned on the cross.

b. But we are also to reckon ourselves as alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This, as before said, implies our resurrection with Christ — although this truth is not here formally stated — because it is only as being in the risen Christ that we can be alive unto God. In the Colossians we find this aspect fully developed, the apostle making the fact of our being risen with Christ the ground of a practical appeal: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead" (or have died), "and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3: 1-3). It is not only therefore that we have been crucified with Christ, but in Christ we passed through death; for "God hath raised us up together" with Christ. (Eph. 2: 6). This was typified by the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. In type "the Red Sea is evidently the death and resurrection of Jesus, and of His people in Him; God acting in it, in order to bring them into death to sin, and to deliverance from it, by death, where He had brought them in Christ, and consequently beyond the possibility of being reached by the enemy. We are made partakers of it already through faith. Sheltered from the judgment of God by the blood, we are delivered, by His power which acts for us, from the power of Satan, the prince of this world. The blood keeping us from the judgment of God was the beginning. The power which has made us alive, through Christ, has made us free from the whole power of Satan, who followed us, and from all his attacks and accusations. We have done with Egypt and the world."

Two things have to be carefully noted. It is in Christ that we are alive unto God; and secondly, our being so is to be a matter of faith: we are to reckon ourselves so. We are alive in Christ really and actually; but this is not the thought here presented. We are also in this respect to take God's estimate, spite of all the contradictions to it within and without. Since God regards me as dead to sin, and alive unto Him in Christ Jesus, I am to reckon myself so; His estimate being the foundation of my faith and confidence, as well as the measure of my responsibility.

We are thus before God brought through the death and resurrection of Christ out of our old state and standing altogether, into a place and sphere where the flesh has no entrance — a deliverance so complete that not only is it said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," but also, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8: 1, 9). Such is our perfect standing before God in Christ as risen from the dead.

3. We shall now be in a position to understand the concluding exhortation of the passage cited

; viz., "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6: 12, etc.). We have here the contrast between our standing before God in Christ Jesus and our practical condition. He holds us, as we have seen, as dead to sin; but this exhortation supposes the presence of sin in the believer. Now it is in the understanding of this contrast, and its practical consequences and responsibilities, that the solution is found of the difficulties which are so often encountered at the outset of the Christian life, and which indeed in many cases keep believers in bondage for years, if not throughout the whole of their lives. It behooves us to be the more careful that our statements, in summing up the teachings upon this subject, are according to the word of God.

(a) Indwelling sin will always be present in the believer. Though he has a complete deliverance before God, the flesh in him remains unchanged; so that he will ever have to say, "In my flesh dwelleth no good thing." He must therefore never expect any amendment in the character of the flesh. What it was before his conversion it will be after, until he departs to be with Christ, either at His coming or through death (Rom. 7: 18; Rom. 8: 1-13; Gal. 3: 16-26).

(b) The presence of indwelling sin does not affect our perfect standing, our complete acceptance, before God in Christ Jesus; for God regards us as dead to sin. This is His judicial estimate of us, and consequently He looks upon the sin in us as already judged in the death of Christ. Thus sin in the flesh has been condemned (Rom. 8: 3). Its motions therefore within me, if I do not yield to them, cannot for one minute obscure even my enjoyment of the love of God; for I reckon the flesh in me as judged, according to His own estimate. It is thus not only that my standing is unalterable, but also my peace, my communion, is undisturbed.

(c) My responsibility is measured by God's estimate. If He regards me as dead to sin, I have to do the same; and therefore I must not allow sin to reign in my mortal body, that I should obey it in the lusts thereof. For if I were to allow sin to reign, I should practically contradict God's estimate of me as dead to it. I have thus to keep myself in the place of death, to mortify my members which are upon the earth (Col. 3: 5), because I am dead with Christ. Here then is the whole secret. I cannot rid myself of the foe. But God has judged it, and I have simply to act according to that judgment; to keep it in that place of death where He has already put it. Hence we are not told to expel sin, to root it out, to cast it away from us, as moralists, and even divines [clergy], ignorant of the Scriptures, sometimes exhort us to do; but we are told not to let it reign; i.e., it must be kept under, in the place and under the sentence of death which has been passed upon it.

"Ah!" you exclaim, "here is my difficulty. How am I, a poor feeble creature, to do this thing?" It is thus that unbelief ever speaks. Look at David in the presence of Goliath. Does he feel the impossibility of coping with such a powerful adversary? Nothing of the kind. His one conviction was that "the battle was the Lord's"; that Goliath was the Lord's enemy, and hence that the Lord would that day deliver him into his hand (1 Sam. 17: 45-47). He thus measured his foe by the strength of the Lord; and by that measurement Goliath dwindled down before him into a puny dwarf, yea, into utter impotence and nothingness. So should it be with us. Granted that indwelling sin is strong and active, yet He who tells us to reckon ourselves to be dead to it, has supplied the power to enable us to comply with the exhortation. He has given us the indwelling Spirit, and if we "through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live" (Rom. 8: 13); if "we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). The Spirit of God is therefore our strength in this warfare, the all sufficient power given to enable us to keep sin from reigning in our mortal body.

The completeness of our deliverance is thus not even touched by the presence of indwelling sin. God has judged it in the death of Christ; we are brought clean out from under its power through the resurrection of Christ; and we have the power, in the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, to keep it where God has put it, under judgment and death. Blessed be His name! We can therefore, like Israel, stand upon the resurrection side of our Red Sea, and sing, "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation" (Ex. 15: 2).

Chapter 9  The Indwelling Spirit

Ye are all the sons (uioi) of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3: 26). "And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4: 6). This is the divine order. We are born of the Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, and thus are made sons; then God sends forth the Spirit as the Spirit of sonship to dwell in our hearts. The indwelling of the Spirit is therefore, it will be observed, not coincident with, but consequent upon, becoming sons.

This divine order is shadowed forth in God's dealings with Israel. On the passover night, while still in Egypt, Israel was completely sheltered by the blood; but it is not until they had crossed the Red Sea that we read either of salvation, or of God's "holy habitation"; and we know that, as a matter of fact, God did not dwell in the midst of His people until they were brought out from Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the wilderness. So now. A soul may be quickened, born again, be under the protection of the blood of Christ, but he must be indwelt by the Spirit of God before he can cry, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4: 6). Accordingly, we do not find in the epistle to the Romans any distinct mention of the Holy Spirit, as dwelling in the believer, until we come to the eighth chapter. As long as the believer does not know his deliverance from sin and from the law, we search in vain for any teaching on this subject; but no sooner do we get the complete answer to the question raised, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" than we are told, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8: 9).

The truth then is that every saved soul has the indwelling Spirit; and doubtless when the gospel was first proclaimed — proclaimed as it was in all its fullness, simplicity, and power — those who received it by the grace of God were brought at once out of darkness into light, and immediately received the seal of their redemption in the gift of the Holy Ghost. But now in the confusion that reigns around, when the gospel has been so largely corrupted by human admixtures, that the fullness of the grace of God in Christ Jesus is seldom preached, there are numbers who, though quickened, are still groping in the twilight, groaning in the house of their bondage, and consequently have not yet received that Spirit of adoption whereby alone believers can cry, Abba, Father. For "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8: 16); and hence if we do not know that we are children of God, and cannot cry in filial confidence, Abba, Father, it is because we have not the Holy Ghost dwelling in us.

Our object now is to unfold what the Scriptures teach concerning this subject. As we have seen, the Spirit of God takes up His abode in us, consequent upon our becoming sons. And this it is which distinguishes a Christian from the saints under the old dispensation. Jewish believers were quickened, born again, but they knew nothing of God's Spirit as dwelling in them; "for the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7: 39). He wrought by His power; for it was He who quickened the Jewish saints, as well as Christians; He also strengthened them for walk and service; but His coming down from heaven as a person to dwell in believers, and in the Church, was consequent upon the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. This difference is marked in one aspect very plainly by a prayer of the psalmist: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51: 11); but the apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians says, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30). Working by His influences in the heart of the psalmist, it was possible for him to lose that blessed power; but believers now, though they may grieve, are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. Just as the presence of the Holy Ghost upon the earth, in the house of God, characterizes Christianity, so His dwelling in God's children distinguishes them from the believers of all past dispensations. For it is the Holy Spirit that unites us to Christ, makes us members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (1 Cor. 12: 13; Eph. 5: 30); and this union, this place as members of His body, was not possible until Christ had been glorified, and had taken the place of Head in heaven.

There are several prominent aspects of the indwelling Spirit which we desire briefly to notice.

1.

As a witness

. The presence of the Holy Spirit on earth is the witness of accomplished redemption. For before our Lord departed, He promised to send "another Comforter" (John 14: 16, 17, 25, 26; John 15: 26, 27; John 16: 7-14); and He distinctly told His disciples that "He would send the promise of His Father upon them," and that they were to "tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high" (Luke 24: 49). The descent therefore of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was the infallible sign of the completion of redemption or rather the proof that God had accepted and was resting satisfied in the finished work of Christ. For "it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5: 6).

But here we speak rather of the Spirit as dwelling in God's children, and as such, as we have seen, He "bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8: 15, 16; Gal. 4: 6, 7). In this aspect, He is the witness of accomplished redemption to the individual soul — as will be seen when treating the next point — and hence every child of God ought to know by this sure testimony that he is saved. But it may be asked, How is this witness borne to our sonship? The very fact of His presence within us testifies to it; but by His presence He forms within us affections suited to our relationship, begets in us desires after the enjoyment of the Father's love, enables us in the holy intimacies of our filial place and position to cry, Abba, Father, verifies to our souls the word on which we have trusted as revealing to us the relationship and the blessings which belong to us as God's children, and thus bears very distinct witness with our spirit. No! it is not an audible testimony, and it is discerned and apprehended by our spirit alone; but it is none the less, nay, it is all the more, real on this account, because indeed it is a living secret between ourselves and God. The strength and distinctness of His testimony, it ought not to be forgotten, will depend upon conditions. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." In other words, just as being led by the Spirit of God is an evidence of our being the sons of God, so it is, when we are led walking in simple, loving obedience and dependence, that our spirit will discern most clearly His testimony to our sonship. But if we are so walking as to grieve Him, we shall listen in vain for His testimony, for we shall have grieved Him into silence. God will not therefore permit any of His children to walk carelessly, resting the certainty of their salvation on the ground of their being children; but He reminds us that if we are His we shall be led of the Spirit, and that He will bear witness with our spirit, and teach us to cry, Abba, Father.

2.

As a Seal

. This truth is set before us in several passages. "Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us" (2 Cor. 1: 21, 22). Again, "In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1: 13); and in the same epistle we are exhorted to "grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30). The Holy Spirit given to dwell in believers is Himself the seal; i.e., God thereby marks them out, takes possession of them as His own, and declares them by the Spirit being within them to be His property. If one may use the illustration, just as the broad- arrow declares the thing on which it is marked to belong to the Queen, so the Spirit of God sets us apart, marks us out as belonging to God. But the figure is that of a seal. Now the seal not only indicated ownership by the impress upon it, but it was put also for protection. Hence believers are said to be sealed until the day of redemption. They are secured by the seal until the Lord shall return to receive them unto Himself. And hence only believers are sealed; and they are not sealed until they are the Lord's, until they are brought out of the house of their bondage (as before seen), through the death and resurrection of Christ, until they not only are safe, but are also saved.

3.

As an Earnest

. Two of the passages already cited speak of the Spirit as the earnest. "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 1: 22); "In whom after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1: 13, 14). It is the latter passage which defines most exactly the character of the earnest. The Holy Spirit as now given is regarded as "the earnest of our inheritance"; that is, He is the first-fruits of that which we shall inherit in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. As indeed when a sale is effected of a property, a portion of the purchase-money is paid down as earnest-money for the completion of the bargain, so God graciously gives us the indwelling Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance, thereby assuring us that we shall possess all that He has promised, and binding Himself (if we may so speak) to accomplish His own faithful word; for the earnest-money is both a promise and a pledge. But the Holy Spirit is even more, because, as we have seen, He is also the seal, thereby securing us for the inheritance, as well as certifying us that God will put us into possession of it to the praise of His glory.

4.

It would lead us far beyond the scope of these pages to enter fully upon

the offices

of the indwelling Spirit

. We can therefore only briefly indicate that He alone is our power for worship (John 4: 23, 24; Phil. 3: 3); for prayer (Rom. 8: 26, 27; Eph. 6: 18; Jude 20); for walk (Rom. 8: 14; Gal. 5: 16-26); for service (1 Cor. 2: 4; 1 Thess. 1: 5, etc.); for the apprehension of truth (1 Cor. 2: 9-16; John 16: 13; 1 John 2: 20-27); for growth (Eph. 3: 16-19), etc. Indeed, as the Spirit characterizes our existence before God — for we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in us (Rom. 8: 2) — He only is the source of power for all the activities of our spiritual life, whether those activities have God or man for their object. Blessed fact! for it is only when we know our own weakness and nothingness that we can learn the lesson of dependence; and when we are dependent, the Spirit of God is free to act within us according to His will.

A caution is often given, and much needed both by anxious souls and young believers, not to confound the Spirit's work in us with Christ's work for us. Thus another has said, "We are constantly prone to look at something in ourselves as necessary to form the ground of peace. We are apt to regard the work of the Spirit in us, rather than the work of Christ for us, as the foundation of our peace. This is a mistake . . . The Holy Ghost did not make peace; but Christ did. The Holy Ghost is not said to be our peace; but Christ is. God did not send 'preaching peace' by the Holy Ghost, but 'by Jesus Christ.' (Compare Acts 10: 36; Eph. 2: 14, 17; Col. 1: 20). The Holy Ghost reveals Christ; He makes us know, enjoy, and feed upon Christ. He bears witness to Christ, takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. He is the power of communion, the seal, the witness, the earnest, the unction. In short, His operations are essential. Without Him we can neither see, hear, know, feel, experience, enjoy, nor exhibit aught of Christ. This is plain, and is understood and admitted by every true and rightly-instructed Christian. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the work of the Spirit is not the ground of peace, though He enables us to enjoy the peace. He is not our title, though He reveals our title, and enables us to enjoy it." No; the foundation or ground of peace is Christ — Christ in His finished work which He accomplished on the cross. For whoever believes "on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification," is justified; and "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 4: 24, 25; Rom. 5: 1). The foundation of peace then, it should ever be remembered, is outside of ourselves; and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as pointed out, is consequent upon our becoming the sons of God.

But we cannot be too sensible to the fact that, if believers, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us; nor too solicitous not to grieve Him by unholy actings in the flesh. (See Eph. 4: 29-32). Hence too the solemn interrogation of the apostle, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20); and the exhortations, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh"; "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5: 16-25).

Chapter 10  Standing and Responsibility

No exposition of the salvation which is connected with faith in Christ would be complete, without some explanation of the perfect place of blessing into which we are thereby brought. There is little doubt indeed that many quickened souls are also kept in the bondage of doubt and anxiety through their ignorance of what Christ has really accomplished on their behalf; and it is perfectly certain that they can have no adequate apprehension of their responsibility without a knowledge of their position in Christ Jesus.

Every one understands that forgiveness of sins is the immediate portion of the believer in Christ. But great as is this blessing, it is but a small part of the provisions of grace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5: 1). The very next verse speaks of two additional blessings: "access by faith into this grace in which we stand," i.e., into the full favour of God in Christ; and "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God," i.e., the full fruition and consummation of our present blessings. But these gifts of God's grace through Christ belong to us here, as justified men; and in the same way we can turn to other passages which speak of perfect and everlasting reconciliation. (See Col. 1: 21, 22). But there is something beyond all this; as indeed we partly saw when treating of "deliverance."

What then is our standing, position, or place before God? It is in Christ where He is. Let us explain. We have seen (Chapter 8) that every believer is regarded by God as having died with Christ; that the apostle could write to the Colossians, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3: 3); and the context (v. 1) of the same passage speaks further of our "being risen with Christ." Turning to another epistle we get even more. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2: 4-6). These expressions refer to something already accomplished, and we learn from them that, though we are still actually in the body on the earth, we are before God seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that the work of Christ on our behalf is so efficacious and wonderful, so God-glorifying, that God even now can righteously accord us a position in Christ in the heavenly places. For Christ "has not only borne our sins, and died to sin, and closed the whole history of the old man in death, for those who believe, they having been crucified with Him; but He has glorified God in this work (John 13: 31, 32; John 17: 4, 5), and so obtained a place for man in the glory of God, and a place of present positive acceptance, according to the nature and favour of God whom He has glorified; and that is our place before God. It is not only that the old man and his sins are all put out of God's sight, but we are in Christ before God." Every believer therefore has been crucified with Christ, raised up with Him, and is now seated in Him in the heavenlies. He is thus taken altogether out of his old standing — his Adam standing; for "he is not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in him (Rom. 8: 9); and his new standing is in Christ, and thus of necessity in Christ where He is. Hence too the measure of his acceptance is the acceptance of Christ; "for as He is so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17).

This is often very difficult for the young believer to understand. Be it therefore very distinctly noted that it is no question whatever of attainment or experience, that it belongs to every believer; and the difficulty will vanish if the eye be taken off from self and directed to Christ. If we look within, consider our weaknesses, failures, imperfections, sins, well might we be perplexed to understand how such imperfect ones, as we are practically, could have such a perfect and inalienable place before God. But when we look at Christ, at His precious blood, at what He was to God on the cross, and what He accomplished there, we instantly confess that He is worthy of the place He fills. Here is the whole secret. It is in His worthiness we stand. All that we were, as to the old nature, is gone from before God: Christ only remains, and we in Him. Our place, standing, is thus God's response to the worthiness, the merits, of His own Son. He can therefore righteously shelter us by the blood, bring us out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the Jordan, and set us down in Christ in the heavenlies.

And just because our standing is in Christ, it is unalterable and immutable. Knowing this, the completeness of our redemption, because of our union with that blessed One who is risen from among the dead, we have abiding confidence and peace. We may change, fluctuate in feeling and attainment, but Christ can never change; He is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever" (Heb. 13: 8). And hence, since our standing is in Him, we dwell for ever in the light and presence of God; for our home is before Him, though we may sometimes forget it; and where should we dwell but in our home? The more fully therefore we understand our true place and standing in Christ, the more familiar shall we be with the presence and glory of God.

But such a wondrous place or standing has its responsibilities; and it is to these we would now turn. As we have seen, we are in Christ before God; and, marvelous fact, Christ is in us down here (see John 15: 4; Gal. 2: 20; Eph. 3: 17; Col. 1: 27, etc.), and this defines and measures our responsibilities; for if God has given us a place in Christ where He is, it is that we may exhibit Christ where we are. A few illustrations of this may be collected from the Scriptures. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2: 6). Taking this in its most general form, we may ask, And how did the Lord Jesus walk? Ever as the heavenly One upon the earth. As when speaking to Nicodemus, He could say, "The Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3: 13), so was it during the whole of His earthly sojourn; for the life He lived was a heavenly life — as One who had come forth from the Father, revealing Him, and unfolding the perfectness of heaven upon earth. He could thus say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14: 9); for morally He was the perfect presentation of the Father. So ought we to walk — as belonging not to earth, but to heaven, and unfolding the ways of heaven upon earth — as samples of the heavenly character; for we are dead with Christ. We have not only died in Him to sin, but we have also died with Him from out of this scene in which we move, and have been raised together with Him. Our citizenship, or commonwealth, is in heaven (Phil. 3: 20), and in accordance with this character must be our lives. This responsibility is summed up, in its double aspect, by the apostle Paul when he says, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4: 10, 11). Thus it is death on the one side, and life on the other: death as to all that we were in the flesh; life as to all that we are in Christ, or rather, Christ Himself as our life — manifested even in our mortal flesh. Hence the obligation to mortify our members which are upon the earth (Col. 3: 5) — an obligation which distinctly flows from the fact that our standing is in Christ risen. The apostle shows that he had apprehended the responsibility when He says, "To me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1: 21); and just in proportion as we approximate to the ability to say the same thing will be our understanding of our true place in Christ.

Another form of our responsibility is found in the passage, "Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour" (Eph. 5: 1, 2). The same thing is enforced by the apostle John. Herein we have known love, because He has laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3: 16). We have also an example, in one particular direction, given in John 13. After the Lord Jesus had washed the feet of His disciples, "and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, [your] Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13: 12-15). The love of Christ therefore to us, even in yielding Himself up to death on our behalf, is proposed to us as our example. If He laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, love's uttermost expression, and this — no degree short of this — is our responsibility.

But mark the language of the first of the passages which we have cited; and see how carefully the Spirit of God has defined the character of the love which should also flow out from us, and thereby guarded it from degenerating into human kindness and amiability. It is, "As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." While therefore we are under responsibility to love our brethren to the uttermost, God, and not they, is to be the object before our souls. It must be expressed as to Him; and can therefore only be expressed in the pathways of obedience. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments" (1 John 5: 2). Accordingly, our Lord's sacrifice of Himself is characterized as "obedience unto death" (Phil. 2: 8); and He Himself thus speaks of it: "I have power to lay it" (His life) "down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 10: 18). Thus Christ must be before our souls — Christ in motive as well as act, in treading in His path of love, in seeking to love one another, even as He hath loved us (John 15: 12).

The apostle Peter gives us another aspect of our responsibility in the presentation of Christ in walk, an aspect towards enemies or persecutors. "If, when ye do well, and suffer [for it], ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2: 20-24). It is thus Christ, in whatever way we look; for since He is our life, our responsibility is to live Christ. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 20).

It may tend to simplify the whole subject, and aid in its apprehension, if we refer briefly to two other passages which treat of it in another form. Eph. 4: 20-32, and Col. 3 contain a number of practical exhortations which are all based upon our standing in Christ. We take the latter to indicate their general character. The first part of the chapter (Col. 3) deals with our death and resurrection with Christ, on which we have already touched. Following upon this we have practical directions. Then the apostle lays the foundation of all. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness," etc. (Col. 3: 9-12). Without entering upon a detailed exposition of the passage, it will be observed that the ground of the exhortations lies in the Colossian believers having "put off the old man," and having "put on the new." But when did they put off the old man? It was in the death of Christ that our old man (Adam) was crucified (Rom. 6: 6). And when did they put on the new man? In the resurrection of Christ (Col. 2: 11-13; 3: 1-5). And herein lies the whole of our responsibility. For if I, through grace, have put off the old man, my responsibility is, to live no longer according to the old man, but to mortify my members which are upon the earth; and if I have put on the new man, I am under the obligation to walk accordingly, for we have been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, out of the old state and standing in which Adam was all and in all, into the new, where Christ is all and in all. If therefore Christ in glory is the measure of my standing, He also is the measure of my responsibility, and these two things are always connected in the word of God, as they should also ever be connected in our own souls. "If any man be in Christ, a new creature" (2 Cor. 5: 17), i.e., he is brought into that new creation of which Christ is the beginning and the Head; and hence every believer is responsible to walk in accordance with the character of the place into which he is brought.

Chapter 11  The Coming of the Lord

One object of hope is placed before the believer in the Scriptures as soon as he has been brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light, and that is the coming or return of the Lord Jesus. This is the case in almost every book of the New Testament; and this fact makes it the more surprising that the hope of the Lord's return has been lost sight of by almost the whole professing Church. Let us examine the Scriptures on this point.

In the first place, we shall find that our Lord Himself was continually pressing this truth upon the attention of His disciples. In the gospel of Matthew it is found again and again, and the "parable of the virgins" embodies it in its most striking form (Matt. 25). In Mark we get the exhortation, "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning," etc. (Mark 13: 35-37). In Luke we read, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately" (Luke 12: 35, 36). In John we have those blessed and familiar words: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also" (John 14: 1-3).

These are only samples of the way in which the Lord presented His return to His disciples; and we now pass on to the subsequent books of the New Testament, because it is after the resurrection and ascension of Christ that the Holy Spirit reveals this truth as the distinctive hope of the believer. Indeed, no sooner had the Lord been taken from His disciples up into heaven than this message was sent to them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1: 10, 11). Passing still onward to the epistles which were addressed to churches or to saints, we shall find the same thing. The first epistle to the Thessalonians was the earliest in point of time of these; and in this, describing their conversion, the apostle says: "They themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10; see also 1 Thess. 2: 19, 20; 1 Thess. 3: 13; 1 Thess. 4: 13-18, etc.). The second epistle to the same church treats of the same subject, correcting some mistakes into which the saints were in danger of falling through false teaching. (See 2 Thess. 2: 1-6). In Colossians we have the same distinct note — "When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 4), showing here indeed that the saints will have been caught up to meet the Lord before His appearing. In Philippians also we have, "Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3: 20). So in Titus, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2: 13).

Taking now the last book of the Bible, what do we find? The same thing both at the commencement and at the close. Of all the seven churches Philadelphia seems most in accord with the Lord's mind; and it is to it that He says, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3: 11). And our Lord thus closes His communications to His people, and the whole canon of inspired truth: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly" (Rev. 22: 20), sufficient evidence surely of the place He would have His coming to occupy in our minds.

And not only is it the fact that our attitude should ever be that of waiting for the Lord Jesus, but we are also taught that there is nothing of necessity, as far as is revealed, between the present and that coming, no intervening events to occupy us or to turn aside our gaze; but that at any moment, even while this page is being written or read, the Lord may "descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God," to raise His sleeping saints, and to change the living ones, that both alike may be caught up "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4: 15-18). Thus the apostle, in the constant expectation of this event, says, "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up," etc. (1 Thess. 4: 17); and again, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 51). Accordingly, it is the evil servant who is spoken of as saying in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming" (Matt. 24: 48); and Peter also tells us that there will be scoffers in the last days, "walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3: 3, 4).

Waiting, looking for, expecting the coming of the Lord should thus characterize every believer. For, as we have continually seen in these pages, we are a heavenly people, and hence our hope is also heavenly; and we wait for the Lord Jesus, because He Himself has told us to do so. And, moreover, He has been pleased to reveal to us that then will be the consummation of our redemption. It is then that we shall be like Him (1 John 3: 2); that we shall be like Him bodily as well as morally (Phil. 3: 21). For if we shall have died as to the body ere He returns, He will raise us from among the dead, in resurrection bodies like His own; if we are still on the earth, we shall "be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we" (i.e., the living) "shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52). Then, too, not only shall we enter upon our association with Him in the glory, but we shall also "ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4: 17).

The effect of this hope upon the soul should be most blessed. We may adduce a few instances of the practical power which it is intended to exercise. Beyond all, the constant expectation of Christ constitutes a searching test of our spiritual condition. This is one of the main points in the parable of the virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13). All the virgins are professors; but the fatal distinction is, that while five are wise, five are foolish. All alike had lamps, and all alike professed to go forth to meet the Bridegroom. Outwardly therefore there was no difference; and as far as can be discovered from the parable the essential difference between them was not detected until the cry was raised, "Behold the Bridegroom!" Then it is, in the prospect of His approach, and in order to be ready to meet Him, that they are aroused from their slumbers, and that they begin to trim their lamps; but no sooner was the light applied to the wicks of their lamps than five discover their lack of oil. Until now they had thought that all was well. They were professors, and walked, outwardly at least, as the Lord's people; but now, in the near prospect of meeting the Lord, they are made to know that they had no oil, that they had not been born again, that they had no indwelling Spirit to bear witness with their spirits that they were God's children, that they were professors and nothing else, and therefore that as such they could not meet the Bridegroom. Hence their endeavours to get the oil: but no, their efforts are vain; it is too late, for the Bridegroom and those that were ready have gone in to the marriage: "and the door was shut" (Matt. 25: 10). Undaunted still, they press onwards and reach the door, and standing there, they raise the pleading cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not" (Matt. 25: 11, 12). And the solemn lesson which the Lord Himself draws is this, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour" (Matt. 25: 13); for what happened to the foolish virgins in the parable may happen to any of us, if we take only the lamp of profession, and have no oil; i.e., if we are Christians only in name, never having been born again, and received the Spirit of adoption.

But not only does the expectation of Christ reveal the true state of professors, but it also discovers the condition of the wise virgins. These equally with the foolish had slumbered and slept, and it is the cry, "Behold the Bridegroom" which also awakens them, and constrains them to trim their lamps that they might go forth and meet Him; and it is only thus that being ready they went in with Him to the marriage (Matt. 25: 10). Indeed, when believers are constantly expecting their Lord, it is impossible for them to sleep. In spirit they are already in His presence, and their own state and associations are instantly revealed. And it would seem from the parable that there are four things which constitute readiness to meet the Lord: First, the one essential thing, oil; secondly, the lamp trimmed and burning; thirdly, separation, for they were to go out to meet the Bridegroom; and lastly, watchfulness, for their failure was in having slumbered and slept. And it is when the Lord is momentarily expected that believers will seek to have these characteristics of preparedness for His presence.

It should be also an incentive to fidelity in service. Thus in the parable of the ten pounds, the charge which accompanied their delivery to the ten servants was, "Occupy till I come" (Luke 19: 12-27). Concerning the evil servant, already mentioned, it is said, "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites," etc. (Matt. 24: 50, 51). Thus the coming of Christ is a double motive to fidelity; it holds out encouragement to the faithful, and it affords a warning to the careless servant. The former will say with joyful anticipation, "My Lord is at hand, and therefore I must seek to be diligent ere He comes"; while the latter, if he reflect at all, will surely think, "What will my Lord say if He find me, at His coming, both careless and unfaithful?" The more fully therefore we live in the power of the expectation of Christ, the more shall we feel the need of serving as in His sight, knowing that He will reckon with us on His return.

The prospect of the coming of Christ exerts also a separating power upon heart and life. The apostle John says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him (i.e., in Christ) purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 2: 2, 3). Nothing indeed will detach us from all that is unsuited to His presence like the constant expectation of Christ. Knowing that He may return at any moment, and living with this expectation, it will be our desire to be separated from all, whether in heart, manner, habit, life, and walk, on which He could not smile. Yea, it will lead us to judge everything within and without ourselves by the light of His presence as being in spirit already with Him, and thus having Him in glory continually before our souls, to "purify ourselves even as He is pure."

These are only some of the practical effects of the living expectation of the coming of Christ. If the Scriptures are examined further on the subject, it will be found that the coming of Christ is always associated with the heart and life of the believer. But enough has been said to indicate the practical character of the doctrine. A grievous wrong is therefore done to the young believer when he is kept in ignorance of this most blessed truth. For if the cross of Christ is the foundation, the coming of Christ is the completion of his salvation, for it is then, as we have seen, that in body also he will be like his Lord. And not only so, but he is also deprived of that hope which, applied by the Holy Spirit, not only sustains him in discouragement, comforts him in trouble, consoles him in bereavement, nerves him for conflict, stimulates his zeal, and calls forth his affections, but also works mightily for his practical sanctification. It is no wonder therefore that Satan should seek to obscure it from the minds of believers; but it is a wonder that so many should fall into his snare, inasmuch as our blessed Lord has for ever associated it with the touching memorials of His own death. For every time "we eat the bread, and drink the cup, we do show the Lord's death TILL HE COME" (1 Cor. 11: 26).

Chapter 12  The Judgment

Much confusion exists in the minds both of believers and unbelievers as to the judgment. The general idea is that at the end of the world there will be a judgment-day, when all alike, whether saved or unsaved, will stand before God, and receive according to their works. Hence it is often contended that we cannot know whether we are saved before that time. We therefore propose to examine this subject by the light of the Scriptures.

1. It is very certain that believers will never be judged

— will never stand before the judgment-seat on account of sin. Our Lord teaches this doctrine most distinctly. He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5: 24). Now this word "condemnation" should be translated judgment, and is so translated in verses 22, 27, and 29; and we have therefore a distinct assertion that believers will not come into judgment. Indeed, this is only a simple consequence of having eternal life; for if the question of our state before God were left unsettled, how could we be possessors of everlasting life? And yet we are taught that we have this now: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath" (not shall have) "everlasting life." (See also John 3: 36; 6: 47; 1 John 5: 13, etc.).

This truth was shadowed forth in the distinction which God made between Israel and Egypt on the Passover night, when He smote the first-born. Israel, as we have seen, was completely sheltered from the power of the destroying angel, by the blood of the Lamb. In like manner every believer is secured from judgment as to guilt, by the blood of Christ; for Christ has borne the judgment for him in His death on the cross, so that he can say, "He bare my sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2: 24).

"Yes," you may perhaps reply, "my past sins." "No," we answer, "your sins; all your sins if you are a believer. For not one of them had been committed when the Saviour died; and so He took the burden of all of them, entered into and exhausted the judgment due to all of them, so that the whole of your guilt might for ever be swept away. Blessed truth!"

"If thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my place endured

The whole of wrath divine,

Payment He will not twice demand,

First at my bleeding surety's hand,

And then again at mine."

Thus it is that we have not only died, but have also been raised together with Christ (Eph. 2; Col. 3), and therefore have been brought through the judgment, in the death of Christ, so that we stand on the other, the resurrection side, where in perfect confidence we can cry, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" (Rom. 8: 33, 34).

2. Though believers will never be judged on account of sin, all must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Thus the apostle writes: "We are confident [I say] and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour (or, it is our earnest desire), that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him (or, acceptable to Him). For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad" (2 Cor. 5: 8-10). No statement could be plainer to the effect that all, "we all," and therefore believers, must also appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. We ask them these two questions: first, When will this be for believers? and secondly, For what purpose will they be there?

(a) When will believers appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? It has been seen in the previous chapter that the hope of the believer is the coming of Christ; and that at His coming the dead in Christ will be raised, that those who are living will be changed, and that both will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 16-18). This applies to believers alone, and is "the resurrection of life" of which our Lord speaks in the gospel of John. If we cite the whole passage the reference will be better understood. He says, "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (judgment, kriseos) (John 5: 28, 29). In verse 24, He proclaims everlasting life to every one that heareth His word, and believeth on Him that sent Him; and declares that all such shall not come into judgment, but are passed from death unto life. He then proceeds, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." He grounds this assurance upon the fact that "as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man" (John 5: 25-27). Then comes our passage, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming," etc. (v. 28).

The two things here contrasted are life and judgment, in connection with Christ as the source of one, and the depositary of the other. As the Son of God He communicates life; as the Son of man He is invested with the authority to execute judgment. Accordingly He offers life in the hour that now is; and will execute judgment in the hour that is coming. The hour that "now is" has lasted therefore from the time when these words were spoken, and will last until the close of the present dispensation. Thus the dead in verse 25 are the spiritually dead; and hence we have the words "they that hear shall live"; for it is only they that hear the voice of the Son of God in the gospel who pass from death unto life. But in the coming hour (John 5: 28) we are told that all that are in the graves shall come forth; "the hour" in this case, as in verse 25, marking a period or dispensation, and therefore in no way indicating a simultaneous resurrection. On the other hand, as we know from other Scriptures (1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 4: 15-18; Rev. 20: 4-6, etc.), the resurrection of life will take place at the Lord's return, while the resurrection of judgment will not be until the close of the millennium, being the closing event of earthly dispensations preparatory to the eternal state. What we get then from this passage is, that the resurrection of life of those who have heard the word of the Son of God, and believed on Him that sent Him, and have received everlasting life, is an entirely distinct thing from the resurrection of judgment; that believers have no part in the resurrection of judgment, and hence that they will not appear before the judgment-seat together with the wicked. There is also the other solemn instruction which we note and leave, as outside our present purpose, that all men must honour the Son of God, if not now by bowing before Him in self-judgment to receive everlasting life, then by-and-by when He executes judgment as the Son of man upon every one according to their works. Now He acts in grace; then in righteous judgment.

Having then seen that believers have no part in the resurrection of judgment, we have still to enquire, When will they appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? The answer is clear from many passages that it is on His return, and therefore consequent upon the first resurrection. This is the distinct teaching of the parables in Matthew 25: 14, etc.; Luke 19: 11, etc. In the former, we have the words, "After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them" (Matt. 25: 19); in the latter, the charge on departure is, "Occupy till I come" (Luke 19: 13). In all the exhortations, too, addressed to the disciples, under responsibility as servants, the coming of Christ is the goal to which they are directed to look; so also in the epistles (as, for example, 1 Cor. 1: 7, 8; 1 Thess. 1: 9, 10; 1 Thess. 3: 12, 13; 2 Thess. 1; 1 Timothy 6: 13-16; Titus 2: 11-14, etc.).

(b) We may, then, now answer our second question — For what purpose will believers appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? We have seen that it is not to be judged for sin; for the possession of everlasting life exempts them from this, and the judgment, due both to their sins and sinful condition, has already been borne by their Surety in His death. It is "that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body"; and thus for the believer it is a judgment of his works or service. This truth cannot be too earnestly pressed upon our hearts and consciences; for it will stimulate us both to fidelity and zeal to remember that we must "be manifested" (as the word is) before the judgment-seat of Christ. Let it be remembered, however, that before we are thus judged we are already raised, and made like unto our Lord (Phil. 3: 20, 21; 1 John 3: 2), body as well as spiritually; and hence that we shall have full fellowship with Him in His judgment upon our works. Still it is a very solemn consideration, that in regard to those things which we now excuse or allow to pass unjudged, we shall then take part with Christ in condemning as unworthy of Him whom we professed to serve; as traces of Egypt [a type of the world] which ought to have been judged and rolled away; as actings of the flesh which God in His infinite mercy and grace had put into the place of death, and which He has given us power to keep there through the indwelling Spirit. Hence the blessing of constant and faithful self-judgment, as even now in spirit manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. May we be enabled to do this, and may "the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5: 23).

3. The final judgment of the wicked will take place at the end of the millennium.

Earth has been, and will yet be, the scene of many a judgment of the living; and so also "when the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations," etc. (Matt. 25: 31, etc.). This judgment scene is often confounded with that which takes place before the great white throne; but it is entirely distinct. It is, as the word declares, the judgment of the nations, living nations at the coming of the Son of man in glory; a judgment therefore preparatory to His sway from the river unto the ends of the earth. The final judgment, that of the dead, is found in the Revelation, and is thus described: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God" (it should be, before the throne)"; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (rather, hades) delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20: 11-15).

This is the "resurrection of judgment" of which our Lord speaks in the gospel of John; and will include therefore all the unsaved, and the unsaved alone. True that the book of life is there; but there is no indication of any saints to be judged. The book of life is opened to show that the names of those to be judged were not there; and thus they are condemned on both negative and positive grounds. Their names were not written in the book of life, and their works declared them amenable to righteous judgment, and they thus fall hopelessly under the everlasting sentence of the lake of fire, which is the second death, a sentence from which there is no appeal and no escape.

Are any of my readers still unsaved? Let me beseech you to ponder upon this solemn scene. He who sits upon that great white throne as the Judge is the Blessed One who, now seated in the glory at the right hand of God, is proclaimed to you as a Saviour. Concerning Him the divine decree has gone forth, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth" (i.e., celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings); "and [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2: 10, 11). None therefore can escape; but the question which affects you, and will affect you eternally, is whether you will bow the knee to Him now while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation, or whether you will be constrained to bow before Him as your Judge on the throne. Bow before Him now, in self-judgment, taking the place of a sinner, and looking to Him as the Saviour, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and you will not come into judgment, but will, while you look, pass from death unto life. Refusing Him as a Saviour, despising the grace of God which promises everlasting life to every one that believeth on Him, you will have to bow before and under the rod of His judgment, and at the same time to confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Awful alternative! Oh that even the contemplation of it may be used of the Lord to bring you, even as you read, as a lost sinner to His feet, so that finding Him as your Saviour, you may be amongst that happy number who are waiting for His return, and who will never stand before the great white throne.

E. Dennett.

Pilgrim Songs:

Pilgrim Songs:

being

The Songs of Degrees.

by E. Dennett.

Publisher: Rouse, 1897.

CBA10,125.

Introduction.

THE Psalms bearing this title are fifteen in number (Psalms 120-134), and, while diversified in their contents, are manifestly bound intimately together, and make progress towards a desired goal. They have afforded much interest and instruction to God's people in all ages, even if imperfectly understood and applied; and the interest and instruction will rather be deepened if their divine intent and object are apprehended. The significance of the title, which these Psalms bear, has been much discussed; but almost all the various opinions offered may be included in what undoubtedly is the true solution. For example, the word translated "degrees" is almost universally allowed to be that used of the recurring journeys of Israel up to Jerusalem for the several festivals, and some accordingly have maintained that these songs were sung by the godly at the various stages of their route. Others seeing references to a later period, to the turning again of the captivity of Zion (Psalm 126), have concluded that they were used on the pilgrim journey from Babylon to Jerusalem for the rebuilding of the temple. (Ezra 1-3.) Another class of interpreters assert that the whole of the fifteen Psalms were sung on "the fifteen steps between the court of the men and the court of the women," as the pilgrim bands were actually entering the precincts of the sacred building. Without discussing these several theories, it will suffice to point out that all alike coincide in making the temple the object, or goal, to which the faces of the pilgrims were turned; and secondly, that all alike fail to perceive the prophetical character of these Psalms. It is in the combination of these two points that the truth will be found.

To take the latter point first, it is easy from many allusions to prove that the Psalms are mainly prophetical. Reference has already been made to Psalm 126, where it is said, "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them," etc. (vv. 1, 2.) That the restoration from Babylon was a shadow of a larger fulfilment may be readily conceded; but to those who are acquainted with the predictions of the prophets concerning the establishment of the kingdom under the glorious Messiah, nothing short of the future deliverance and glory of Zion could be accepted as answering to this description. The last verse of the Psalm, indeed, will only find its complete fulfilment in Christ as King in Zion. Predictions, only to be realized after the Lord has restored His earthly people to blessing under His own sway, are as plainly found in Psalms 124, 125, 128, 130, 132-134.

The last three Psalms of the series undoubtedly justify the contention that the temple, the habitation of the Mighty One of Jacob, is the longed-for end, or consummation. If, however, the prophetic interpretation of these Psalms be allowed, the temple will not be that which Solomon, or Zerubbabel, built, but that which the Man, whose name is the BRANCH, will build, even He who shall bear the glory, and shall sit, and rule, a priest upon His throne; that is, Christ Himself. (See Zechariah 6: 12-15.)

Another point must be mentioned, viz., that it is clear from many parts of these Psalms that Israel is viewed as in the land, after their having been scattered, and yet not finally delivered from the power of their oppressors. The reader should notice the recurrence of the word Israel, as showing that it is not only the presence of the two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) in the land, but that also the ten tribes have been restored; that, moreover, they now once again form but one nation (see Ezekiel 37: 18-28), and that Zion and the temple form the centre, as the seat of government and blessing, for all. Still, as already said, they are not yet finally delivered from their adversaries. They thus cry, "Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud." (Psalm 122: 3, 4; also Psalm 124.)

What we have, then, in these Songs of Degrees is the progress and experience of Israel, after their restoration, while waiting for the interposition of Jehovah to deliver them from all their enemies, and to establish them in security and blessing. It is not, therefore, Christianity or Christian experience which must be sought for in these Psalms; but, inasmuch as the principles of the divine life, or of the divine nature, in souls are the same in every dispensation, much instruction may be here gleaned by Christians. Two things are never found in the Psalms, nor, indeed, in the Old Testament — the revelation of the Father, nor, consequently, the Spirit of adoption. These are only known after Pentecost, though our blessed Lord revealed the Father when with His disciples. (John 14: 9-11.) It was not possible, however, for them to apprehend the revelation made until they had received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Unless we bear in mind this distinction, when reading the Psalms, we are apt to lose sight of the heavenly calling, and the heavenly character of Christianity.

A few words may be added concerning the structure of this interesting group of Psalms. "All are grouped," says a pious expositor, "around Psalm 127, which was written by Solomon. . . . On both sides there stands a heptad (i.e., seven) of pilgrim songs, consisting of two Psalms written by David, and five others, which have no name attached. Both sevens are divided into four and three.* Each heptad (seven) contains the name of Jehovah twenty-four times; each of the connected groups (Psalms 120-123, 124-126, 128-131, 132-134.) twelve times." Surely the facts here stated show the impress of a divine Hand, the Hand which guided and controlled those who have been thus used as vehicles both of a divine design, and of divine thoughts. To cite once again, "the unity (of these Psalms) is not one merely of form, it also refers to the thoughts," for while different servants were chosen to express them, the Author of all alike is the Spirit of God. These facts should furnish an additional incentive to the earnest and devout study of this portion of the Holy Scriptures.†

*The reader may recall that this division is also found in the New Testament, as, for example, in the seven parables of Matthew 13, in the seven churches, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, etc., of the Apocalypse.

†We append one of the latest (perhaps the latest) descriptions of the character of the "Songs of Degrees" for the consideration of the reader. "We have now reached the so-called 'Songs of Degrees,' a clearly defined series of fifteen psalms, which, with two thanksgiving psalms appended, forms the third division of the Fifth Book. These songs of degrees are rather 'songs of the ascents,' which we are surely right in interpreting in the first place by reference to those ascents of the tribes thrice a year to the feasts at Jerusalem, which are spoken of in the third psalm of this very series. (Psalm 122: 4.) But this only furnishes a clue to the inner meaning this repeated call to the city of God being in view of those 'set times' of Leviticus 23, which speak of those gracious acts of God towards His people, which for all eternity will call them round Himself in praise. The 'ascents' are, therefore, above all else, ascents of the heart to Him because of His grace; and this is in fact what these songs are — a recounting in a five-fold series the Divine ways towards Israel, by which their blessing has been accomplished, and for which their hearts will endlessly praise Him. With this the 'climbing' movement of the psalms themselves, which Delitzch adduces, after Gesenius, is in intimate sympathy — a feature which only shows how perfectly the form of these inspired songs is moulded by their spirit, while it by no means allows us to degrade them, as their materialistic interpretation would, by making the form the whole thing."

1 — Psalm 120.

A Song of Degrees.

Israel's Distress.

1 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.

2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.

3 What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

AS is seen in many of the Psalms, the result of the exercises through which the soul has passed is first stated: "In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me"; and then the character of the distress is described. According to the interpretation of these Psalms already given, this distress is that through which Israel will have to pass after their restoration. He that scattered Israel will, in His infallible faithfulness, gather him (Jer. 31: 10); but there will be enemies still in existence at the commencement of the kingdom (see Jer. 51: 20-23), whereby Jehovah will test His people; and then He will manifest Himself to them as their Messiah and Deliverer, so that once again they will sing, "The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation." (Psalm 118: 14; compare Exodus 15: 2.)

Who the particular enemy alluded to here is, it may not be easy to decide. One of his characteristics is a deceitful tongue, combined with lying lips. Some have thought that it is a prophetical reference to the little horn of Daniel 8, that is, to the king of the north in the last days. A well-known writer thus says, "It does not seem to me to be the oppression of Antichrist, or the beast at Jerusalem, but to apply to those who, in the land, found themselves where the last hostile power which had pretended to favour them, and had led many to apostatize for quietness and prosperity, now showed himself as only a deceitful oppressor."* In Daniel it says of this personage, that "he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand." (Dan. 8: 24, 25.) If this be the adversary in view, the Psalm goes back to a time anterior to the restoration of all Israel; but Israel, recounting the Lord's mercies in becoming their salvation, might well identify themselves with the sorrows which Judah had first undergone in the land. The people will, at this period, be once more united; and they will consequently claim the "distress" of any portion of the nation as their own.

*Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, vol. 2.

Some difficulty has been felt concerning the mention of Mesech and Kedar as the place of sojourn (v. 5), inasmuch as they would seem to have been widely sundered. Meshech is mentioned in connection with Gog (Ezekiel 39), whereas Kedar was a descendant of Ishmael (Gen. 25: 13), and he evidently became the founder of a well-known Arab tribe. (See also Canticles 1: 5.) They are probably moral expressions, indicative of the hostility of the enemies of God's people. The Christian can in measure enter into this sorrow, for he is hated by the world, and is also the object of Satan's enmity; but he has the consolation of knowing that Christ has overcome the world (John 16: 33); and that since Satan is a defeated enemy, he will ever flee if resisted in the power of the Holy Ghost. (James 4: 7.)

It is interesting to notice that there are, in this short Psalm, the three forms of the flesh which are developed in the epistle to the Colossians. In Genesis 6 two of these are found, corruption and violence (v. 11), and Satan having been exposed as a liar and the father of lies (John 8: 44), the third form, falsehood, is added. [See Colossians 3: 5 (corruption), 8 (violence), and 9 (falsehood).] So in our Psalm we have lying, and deceit, which is moral corruption, in verse 2, and violence in verse 7.

Such were the circumstances of this pious soul who is taken up by the Spirit of Christ and made the mouthpiece — the vessel — of the sorrows of His earthly people in a later day. And thus surrounded by these various forms of evil, and having long dwelt with him that hated peace, what was his consolation? In what way was he sustained? By the assurance that Jehovah had heard his cry. He had the sense that God had heard his cry, and this pacified his alarms; for, as the apostle John has written, "If we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (1 John 5: 15.) Hence it is that the Psalmist anticipates with certainty deliverance through divine judgment upon the enemy. "What," he cries, "shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty" — the arrows of the King, which will soon pierce through the hearts of His enemies (Psalm 45: 5), and these, combined "with coals of juniper,"* coals kindled with the fires of holiness, wherewith Jehovah will search and judge all the workers of iniquity.

*"Juniper" would seem to be a mistaken translation. It is said to be a shrub called "Genista," the roots of which were famed as making the best charcoal. The figure, therefore, will denote the intensity of the fire of judgment.

The last two verses sum up briefly, but very graphically, the whole position:

6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

What a description of the adversary of God and of His people — hating peace! It could not be otherwise, because the carnal mind — and it is here seen in its full expression — is enmity against God. The presence, therefore, of God's people, when walking before Him, must provoke the enemy's violent opposition. Hence it is the Psalmist adds, "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war." It is thus utterly useless to attempt to conciliate the enemy; and, as for Israel in the future, so now, it must be through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom.

In conclusion, it may be noted that, while it is not the circumstances of the Christian which are here presented, the resource of God's people in all dispensations is in God Himself, and in His interposition, with delivering power, on their behalf.

2 — Psalm 121.

A Song of Degrees.

The Source of help.

IN the preceding Psalm distress and conflict mark the condition of God's people: whereas here, while the pressure is still upon them, we are permitted to see what the Lord is on their behalf in their special circumstances. The greater the sense of need, the greater the discovery of what God is for us; and hence it is that, like these saints of a future day, we are often put to the test, in order that, learning our own helplessness, we may realize that our help and succour are to be found alone in God. This will explain the connection between these two Psalms. In the last verse of the foregoing, the Psalmist cries, "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war." What, then, is his resource? The answer is found in the first two verses of Psalm 121:

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my

help.

2 My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The beauty of the connection will be more fully seen if a slight rectification is made in the rendering of the first verse. Many read as follows: "I will lift up my eyes to the hills: from whence shall my help come?" And then the second verse is taken as the answer to this question.* Adopting this change, it will be perceived that faith is in activity; for no sooner does the soul cry in its sorrow, "From whence shall my help come?" than the answer springs forth, "My help cometh from the Lord," etc. This part illustrates a principle found everywhere in the Scriptures. If God works for the succour and deliverance of His people, He acts in connection with, and in response to, their faith. For example, when Peter writes of the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for believers, he adds, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1: 4, 5.) Truly, faith itself is produced and sustained in the soul by divine power, but none the less is it the living link between the soul and God, and that which secures His intervention, brings Him in, for our aid and deliverance. (See Mark 9: 23; Hebrews 11, etc.)

*See the Revised Version of the Old Testament, also J. N. D.'s French Bible, in which he gives the above as an alternative rendering.

It is to be remarked, as pointed out in the last paper, that God is here known as Jehovah, the covenant name of God as in relationship with Israel; and also that the words, "which made heaven and earth," are appended, for this was according to the revelation God made of Himself to His earthly people. So Jonah confessed to the mariners, "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord (Jehovah), the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." (Jonah 1: 9.) Of this creation, Jehovah revealed Himself to His ancient people as the Creator, although He discovered much more than this to Moses (Exodus 34: 5-7), when He announced the sovereignty of His grace and mercy as the foundation on which He could spare His guilty people after the sin of the golden calf. The Christian is in the light as God is in the light, for God is now fully revealed in and through the Lord Jesus Christ; and the believer is, moreover, in accordance with God's counsels, brought, through association with Christ, into His own place and relationship. We know God, therefore, in a far more intimate manner, inasmuch as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God and Father. (John 20: 17; Ephesians 1: 3-5.) This difference must ever be borne in mind when reading the Old Testament Scriptures.

Passing now to verse 3, we have the divine response, through the Spirit, to the faith expressed in the second verse. Turning in the confidence of faith to Jehovah, who made heaven and earth, the soul is assured of the support and protection of its Omnipotent Keeper.

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Two things are brought before us in this assurance; first, that whatever the dangers, or the slippery character of the path, the Lord will not suffer the foot of one trusting in Him to be moved, or, perhaps, to "slide"; and, secondly, that there is never a moment when the eyes of the Lord are not upon His people, when He does not maintain unceasing and constant vigilance on their behalf. The night may be never so dark round about us, but for Him the night shineth as the day, and even as Jesus saw from the mountain-top His disciples toiling in the rowing, so God withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous, but ever beholdeth them in all their circumstances of trial and sorrow. And, let it be observed, that He who thus watches over His saints is their Keeper, the One who guards, keeps safe, preserves — for such is the force of the word here used. What encouragement is thus ministered to God's tried and suffering people! And what an invitation to unwavering repose in Himself in the midst of surrounding trials and agitations!

The next verse seems to proceed from another speaker, is verse 5 resumes the address to the individual soul, though he is undoubtedly the representative of the people. Still, verse 4 appears as all emphatic endorsement of the assurance of verse 3, and, at the same time, gives it a wider application. In the structure of the Psalm, it may be a chorus breaking forth at this point, all the people uniting in the song:

4 Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

It is not, therefore, merely that Jehovah will preserve His people in their special difficulties, but He is introduced as Israel's Keeper. It is a characteristic relationship; and, consequently, additional force is given to Jehovah's not slumbering by the words "nor sleep"; that is, He is ever wakeful; He never at any moment forgets His own; and there is, therefore, no intermission in His watchful care and keeping. Nor should the shadowing forth of the unity of God's people be overlooked. He is not only the Keeper of the believer, but He is also the Keeper of Israel. There are many touching illustrations of this unity in the Old Testament, showing how even the people themselves rose sometimes almost to the level of God's thoughts, and were thus enabled to embrace their oneness as the chosen nation. Much more should this be the case with us, who have been taught the blessed truth of union with Christ, and, consequently, with all the members of His body. Not that the individual aspects of blessing are to be forgotten, but rather that we should be in communion with the mind of Christ as to all His own, who together, corporately, form His body, and will be His bride. It is when we enter into this, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that the affections of Christ for His people are reproduced in us, if but feebly, and we behold them with His own vision, as robed in, His own beauty and excellencies.

The chorus having been sung, the address to the representative individual is resumed:

5 The Lord is thy Keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The first sentence, the reiteration of the truth at the close of verse 3, is the foundation on which are built up the following pledges of security. "The Lord is thy Keeper" means nothing less than that He is an absolute and perfect Keeper, and the subsequent details are but the consequences of this, or the application of the general truth. In itself, however, it is an immense thing to know that the Lord is our Keeper. In dangers, difficulties, and trials, it would calm our fears immediately, as well as dispel our anxieties, if this assurance were held in power. That it is true, whatever our state of soul, is undeniable, but it must be remembered that faith alone can avail itself of the blessedness of being kept by God, or can turn to Him for succour at the moment of need and pressure.

After the statement that "the Lord is thy Keeper," it is said, "the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand." "Shade" may be understood, from what follows, as protection, even as we read in Isaiah, "Thou hast been . . . a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." The force of "at thy right hand" may, perhaps, be gathered from another Psalm, where we read, "Because He (Jehovah) is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." (Psalm 16: 8.) The expression would thus seem to signify that the Lord's protection is ever available, always, to use a common phrase, "at hand" for His people. This protection is manifestly spoken of in reference to what follows:

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The rays, both of the one and of the other, would be necessarily obstructed by the "shadow of the Almighty," wherewith He surrounds His people, and under which they for ever safely abide. The "sun" and the "moon" are but emblems of the evil influences of the day and the night, of which these luminaries are the respective rulers. Both the scorching rays of the glaring day and the noxious evils of the night will be powerless to affect those who repose under Jehovah's overshadowing care. How fearless, therefore, God's people may be, and would be, if they did but realize how perfectly they are guarded on every hand! These promises, it will be remembered, are for the earthly, people in their primary application, but they are also available, in even a higher sense, for the Christian. Thus the apostle could say, "The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom." (2 Timothy 4: 18.)

The last two verses do but amplify the assurance contained in verse 6.

7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.

8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

The promise, "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil," must not, we apprehend, be taken as applicable independently of the state of soul. As before remarked, the living link between the soul and God is faith, and God works through it to bless and protect the believer. Faith can thus take up, and repose upon, this word of consolation in the darkest days, when Satan's power is demonstrated on all sides. The believer, moreover, will remember that, when the Lord presented His own before the Father, He said, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The apostle Paul also assures the Thessalonian saints that "the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil." (2 Thess. 3: 3.) All these scriptures show us God's care over His people, and how abhorrent the thought of evil is to Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. How solicitous we should be, therefore, to answer to His mind in this respect, and the more in that both His love and His power are engaged to keep us undefiled as we walk in His ways.

The next clause is, "He shall preserve thy soul." The word rendered "soul" is, as in Greek also, a little ambiguous. It is sometimes translated "life," and, inasmuch as preservation for blessings in Messiah's kingdom is a characteristic Jewish promise, it is possible that this is its significance in this place.

Lastly, Jehovah's overshadowing care includes the going out and the coming in of His people "from this time forth, and even for evermore," on through the thousand years, to the close of the millennial kingdom. Everything is thought of, and we are thus permitted to have a glimpse into the heart of God for His people, as expressed in the daily and unwearying watchfulness which He exercises over them for their preservation and blessing. It is well to ponder it, and to observe that the foundation of all our security lies in what God is for His people. We need to remember this at all times, for, in the wretched legality of our hearts, if we are not established in grace, we are tempted to think that something depends on ourselves. No! we are wholly cast upon God, upon what He is as revealed in Christ. "But must we not watch and pray, and the like?" Even for the power to watch and pray we are dependent on the Lord, and it is as we realize this that we repose quietly and peacefully upon Him, that faith is called forth into constant activity; and, consequently, understanding what God is for us, we can exclaim with the apostle, "If God be for us, who can be against us? . . . I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." May our eyes be ever kept upon Him from whom alone cometh our help!*

*To illustrate the difference between the Jewish believer and the Christian the following words of another are given: "We must note that the literal application of this Psalm is not now just. Christ has been reckoned among transgressors; and we have to go on not looking for absolute deliverance; yet we are to be assured that the hairs of our head are numbered. God withdraws not His eyes from the righteous; but we do not look in result to be kept for earth, as the Jew rightly will in the path of faithfulness. Yet our God and Father does watch over us with unceasing vigilance. We may be at peace under the shadow of His wings. Our instruction is, in the midst of every evil, to look only to the Lord."

3 — Psalm 122.

A Song of Degrees of David.

The House of the Lord.

TO know the Lord Himself is to be attracted to the place where He dwells. This is the connection between this and the previous Psalm. In that, in reply to the confidence of faith expressed in verse 2, came the blessed assurance that the Lord was all-sufficient for all His people's needs. Thus known in His tender grace and watchful care, the soul could now say, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord" (v. 1); for it was there He, who had become everything to the one who looked to Him, dwelt, and displayed His glory. Remark, also, that the moment the house of the Lord is mentioned, isolation ceases, and all God's people are introduced. It is, Let us go into the house of the Lord. It is the same now when the individual believer learns in any measure what the assembly is as God's habitation through the Spirit, or what it is to have the Lord Himself in the midst of those gathered unto His precious name.

The hearts of God's people being upon the Lord's house, they anticipate, in the energy of faith, their arrival within the holy city, and exclaim, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." (v. 2.) Their pilgrimage was not yet ended, but, in the security which faith enjoyed, they could rest in perfect confidence that, as in Psalm 84, they would go from strength to strength, and that every one of them would appear in Zion before God. In like manner, as we look onward to the many mansions of the Father's house, into which the Lord Himself will conduct us, we know, without a single doubt or fear, that no difficulty and no foe will ever prevail to hinder the attainment of our blessed goal. For the One who is already there, and who has prepared the place for us, is able to save us through all the dangers of the wilderness, because He ever lives to make intercession for us. Blessed security, founded as it is upon what Christ is for us at the right hand of God.

These two verses contain the introduction to, and the subject of, the Psalm; the next three give a description of the city which is the object of the hopes of Israel; and the last four set forth, intimate relationship between the chosen people and the house of their God, and show that the peace of Jerusalem is bound up with the people's prosperity.

We have, then, now to consider the description of the city, and in a threefold way. First, it is the form, the beauty of the city itself which excites admiration: it is builded as a city that is compact together. It is the symmetry and completeness of the city which arrest the attention; the city, that is, which will be, in the future glories of the kingdom, however the splendour of Jerusalem during David's reign may have furnished its prophetic type. The Christian will at once recall the measurements of the new Jerusalem, with which the earthly city will be in direct relationship: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." This is finite perfection, represented by its being a cube, but finite perfection divinely bestowed. And of this the city in our Psalm is no indistinct shadow. And it is the contemplation of this beauty, albeit earthly, which awakens the admiration of the people, who own it is the place of the house of the Lord, and as the seat of their King.

Secondly, Jerusalem is portrayed as the gathering-point for all the people; it is the place "whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." (v. 4.) Jerusalem, indeed, will be Israel's true centre in virtue of the house of the Lord, and hence the name of the city in that day will be Jehovah-shammah — the Lord is there. His presence there, as ever, will be the attraction for all His own. It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the tribes are called "the tribes of the Lord," for then their stiff-neckedness and rebellion will all have ceased, and they will manifestly belong to Him whose name they bear. In the Epistle to the Galatians the apostle speaks of Jerusalem above as being our mother.*

*Such is the true reading.

There is thus a striking correspondence between our present position, in view of the heavenly Jerusalem, and that of the tribes in this Psalm in their progress "out of sorrow, and through sorrow to the full blessing in Zion, which forms the crowning result, Jehovah being there." The next clause should rather be rendered: "A testimony for, or unto, Israel,"*

*See the Revised Version; and J. N. D.'s French Version gives "un témoignage à Israel."

This will mean that the universal gathering of the tribes, their common ascent to the house of the Lord, would go forth as a testimony to the whole nation. Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem itself, but of Jerusalem as the expression of the people, as the testimony in his address to her, "Arise, shine — for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

This is surpassingly beautiful. The light of Zion is the glory of the Lord, which after long ages of desolation has broken through the clouds of her sorrow, and illumined her with the light of the presence of her God. And it is with this light she is called upon to shine; the display through her of the glory of the Lord would in this way become her testimony. (Compare 2 Cor. 4: 6.) The object of the assembling of the tribes is "to give thanks unto the name of the Lord," unto Jehovah as revealed in the midst of Israel. One of the last acts of David was the appointment of the Levites "to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even" (1 Chr. 23: 30); but at the time of which our Psalm speaks all the tribes will be united in this blessed service of thanksgiving and praise.

But not only will Jerusalem be the centre of the people's worship; it will also be the seat of the royal administration of justice, "for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the, house of David." The Messiah is not only the promised Seed, as of Abraham, but He is also, as born into the world, the Son of David — indeed, both the root and the offspring of David, David's Son and David's Lord. The administration of the kingdom will therefore be His, as the rightful Heir to all the royal rights of David's house; and "He shall judge Thy people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment. The mountains (seats of authority — subordinate thrones) shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness." (Psalm 72: 2, 3.) As also Isaiah says, His throne will be established "with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever."

In the last division of the Psalm we have the connection declared between the peace of Jerusalem and the prosperity of the people. First of all there is the invitation to pray for her peace. To do this would imply communion with Jehovah's mind, for Jerusalem is the city which He loved; "for the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it as His habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." If, therefore, the hearts of His people are set upon the same place they cannot but pray for its peace. The Christian will understand this principle in its application to the assembly. The dearest thing on earth to the heart of Christ is the Church, that Church which He loved, and for which He gave Himself; and if we have communion with His own heart as to this, however feebly, we shall be constrained to pray for its peace and blessing.*

*For a beautiful illustration of this principle in respect of Zion, see Isaiah 62: 1, 6, 7.

Blessing, moreover, is promised for those who thus pray: "They shall prosper that love thee." Communion with the heart of Christ is the sure pathway of blessing. Christ loved, and loves the Church, and the saint to whom the Church is also dear will spiritually prosper. The prosperity here promised will be according to the position of the earthly people; but for the Christian, who is in fellowship with our blessed Lord concerning His people, it will be in spiritual progress and blessing.

The following verses, 7-9, contain the response to the exhortation. First, there is the expression of the desire that there may be peace within the walls of Jerusalem and prosperity within her palaces. From the last verse (9th) we learn that the ground of this desire is "the house of the Lord our God." Jerusalem, indeed, will derive all its importance, not so much from its being the chosen city of Messiah's kingdom, as from its containing God's dwelling-place. As we read in Isaiah, "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious." The pious heart, therefore, will desire that the whole city should share in the blessing of the habitation of God, and be in suited condition and meetness for its divine Inhabitant. The enjoyment of the presence of Him who will dwell in Zion will ensure the peace and prosperity desired.

Another ground for the longed-for peace is my brethren and companions' sake." (v. 8.) Nothing expands the heart of God's people like affection for the Lord and His dwelling-place. Whenever He is enshrined in the heart His affections, reproduced in the believer, will embrace every child of God. An exemplification of this truth is found in Revelation 22. When the Lord presents Himself as the root and offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star, the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. The first thought is Christ Himself, and then every saint is remembered in what follows. And let him that heareth say, Come. So is it in the Psalm — peace is desired for the sake of the "tribes of the Lord." How fully some of God's people can enter into this in this day of confusion and scattering! Let us cry, then, day and night, as we think of the perils which beset us on every hand, and the damage done to souls by incessant controversies, that the Lord may come in and heal our breaches and restore peace, for the sake of our brethren and companions.

The last verse, as before remarked, does but emphatically remind us of the energetic motive for seeking the good of Jerusalem; it is "because of the house of the Lord our God." Nehemiah is a striking illustration of this spirit. When he heard of the affliction and reproach of the remnant of the people, and that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down, and that her gates were burned with fire, he wept, mourned, and fasted, and prayed; and thenceforward, as led of the Spirit, his heart was set upon the good of Jerusalem because of the house of the Lord his God. May this spirit of devotedness to the glory of God in His habitation be increasingly exhibited amongst His beloved people in the present day, for His name's sake!

4 — Psalms 123, 124.

Songs of Degrees.

The Cry and the Answer.

FAITH had already reached her goal in Psalm 122. Many sorrows and trials might yet lie in the pilgrim pathway, but in spirit Israel were already enjoying the consummation of their hopes. Jerusalem, in all the beauty of her restoration as their centre of gathering, inasmuch as the house of the Lord their God was there, had become a reality in their souls; and they could thus rest in the assurance that their feet would one day stand within her gates. The believer who dwells in spirit in heaven is the best qualified for his journey through the wilderness. So is it here; for having anticipated the fruition of the promises, the Psalmist now returns to the actual, circumstances of the people, and to their one resource in the midst of their adversaries.

The first verse depicts their attitude of dependence in this simple language: "Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens." All! how much is connected in the Scriptures with the lifting up the eyes or the hands to heaven! The Old Testament is full of instruction on this point; and we read of the blessed Lord Himself lifting up His eyes to heaven as He poured forth His heart's desires in John 17. (See also John 11: 41.) This action proclaims that God Himself is the confidence and succour of those that wait upon Him, that He is their only resource, and that no help is elsewhere to be found. Blessed is it for the soul that has learned this lesson. We have before seen that the last clause of verse 1 of Psalm 121 may be rendered, "From whence shall my help come?" The next verse contains the answer; and in accordance with this, the Psalm before us commences with this posture of expectation from Him who dwelleth in the heavens.

In verse 2 we have set forth the completeness and intensity of the expectation of faith: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us." This is supremely beautiful, telling, as it does, of unfaltering confidence, and of the perseverance of faith. These pious souls fix their eyes on the Lord their God, just as servants wait on their masters for the indication of their will by the motion of their hand. This is to be will-less in the presence of God, and to be consequently it His absolute disposal. Suffering scorn and reproach, they will not be impatient, and will not retaliate; nor will they seek any alleviation of their trouble from any human sources, but they will just quietly wait on until the Lord, in the compassion of His heart, shall interpose on their behalf. Is there no, lesson to us in our troubles from this exhibition of immovable trust in God as a known refuge? Many of us "lift up our eyes" to Him in our distresses, but we fail in waiting on until the succour comes. We do pray, tell out our griefs. but this unconquerable perseverance of faith is often lacking. Let this example afford us both guidance and encouragement.

Finally, we have the burden of their cry, together with its cause: "Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud." (vv. 3, 4.) The repetition of the cry — "Have mercy upon us". — reveals the intensity of their sorrow, while its brevity shows their confidence in Him to whom it is addressed. They are conscious that His eye is upon them, and that He knows their need and the circumstances through which they are passing, and which are producing their affliction. Two classes are named as the cause of their trouble — those that are at ease, and the proud, characters which ever morally distinguish the enemies of the people of God. For the wicked often prosper in this world, and are not in trouble as other men; they are, moreover, compassed about with pride as a garment — "they speak loftily; they set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore His people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them." Who these enemies are will be considered in connection with the following Psalm.

As the reader may perceive, the two things from which God's people suffered were scorn and contempt. Both are strong words. The first is used "specially of those who mock at those in distress," and thus treat them with every kind of contumely and ignominy; the second means "to despise openly," and consequently to heap upon those so dealt with opprobrium and disdain. And that these things were meted out to the full is clear from the words, twice repeated, "exceedingly filled." In the language already cited, "waters of a full cup" were thus wrung out to God's chosen by their enemies. But the consolation was, however feebly they may have apprehended it, that He to whom they turned in the hour of their trial had Himself experienced the same treatment from His enemies when He passed through this scene. He, therefore, not only heard their cry, but He also knew their sorrows, and He could thus sympathise with them in their afflictions, while waiting for the right moment to come in and succour them out of their distresses.

Passing now to the next Psalm, it will be at once remarked that it contains the record of the deliverance prayed for in the foregoing one. The mercy there sought has been bestowed, and Israel now, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, celebrate the intervention of their Deliverer. It is exceedingly beautiful to notice how they ascribe their salvation from the hands of their foes to the Lord alone. The first five verses set this out in very striking language:

1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say;

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

Three things may be here noticed. First, it is evident that the contempt and scorning mentioned in the previous Psalm had passed over into even more violent enmity, which expressed itself in the attempt to compass the destruction of the whole people. It says, "When men rose up against us," and "when their wrath was kindled against us." Secondly, it is as unmistakable that Israel had been brought into great straits, that to all human appearances their destruction was imminent. The word "quick," that is, living, justifies this conclusion. It is a figure, as we understand it, to denote the enemy rushing with open jaws to "swallow up" Israel alive, as it were, and instantaneously. Lastly, the Lord manifestly is looked upon as interposing for the succour of His people when they were on the very eve of destruction, when the "proud waters" were flowing with apparently resistless violence to overwhelm them for ever. How often does the Lord thus wait until all human hopes have fled, until His people have accepted the sentence of death in themselves; and then He delights to intervene for their deliverance, that they may learn that when refuge fails them He is their refuge and their portion in the land of the living. "They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses."

Who, then, is the enemy who had so nearly, in his own eyes, secured the destruction of the elect nation? To help in answering this question, it must again be observed that Israel is in their land, not only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but all the tribes, "the tribes of the Lord." The deliverance here spoken of, therefore, could not be that described by Zechariah (Zech. 12-14), when all nations were gathered against Jerusalem to battle. This intervention of the Lord was for the salvation of His people, Judah, the house of David, etc., who had returned in unbelief, and were already in the land at the time of His appearing. It is not until after these events that Israel is restored. (See Ezekiel 20: 33-44.) This makes it tolerably certain that the enemy of our Psalm is the last enemy of Israel after the establishment of the kingdom. As a well-known writer has said, "All this I apprehend refers to the last inroad of the final power of Gog, or the last condition of the Assyrian, perhaps to Daniel 8 (only that that, gives its whole character, not merely its final one); also to the filial king of the north, who comes in after the wilful king in Daniel 11."*

*Those who desire to pursue the subject with more detail may profitably study Ezekiel 38, 39.

To return now to the course of the Psalm, we find that the One who had heard the cries of His people is now praised for the mercy He had vouchsafed. After narrating their deliverance, and fully owning His hand in it, they exclaim: "Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped." (vv. 6, 7.)

It is always a sign of the Spirit's activity when the soul that has received blessing turns immediately with praise to the Blesser. Too often the mercy or blessing received satisfies the soul for a moment. Our exercise over, the end reached, unless on our guard, we are often deluded into forgetfulness of the hand which has been stretched out over us, or which has been ministering to our need. It was not so with Israel; and it is profitable to note how they rise up with thanksgiving to the source of their deliverance. They had trusted in Him, and they had not been confounded, and they magnify His name for it.

It is only a consequence of this state of heart that they estimate aright the character of their deliverance. They look back upon it in communion with their God. The snare had been woven round about them by Satan's fowlers; but the snare was broken — broken by the strong arm on which they had leaned — and they had escaped. Well might they cry, "Blessed be the Lord."

The last verse expresses not only a truth, but also their own experience, and the lesson they had learned through their sorrows, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Such is their blessed conclusion now that they are redeemed from the hand of all their adversaries. They may have believed it before, at least in measure; now they know it, and henceforth they put their trust alone in the name of their faithful and covenant-keeping Jehovah. They rise, moreover, in the exercise of their faith, confirmed and purified as it has been through their trials, to the full height of the revelation which Jehovah had made of Himself to Israel as the One who created heaven and earth. Jehovah, therefore, as known by His people, was the Omnipotent God. Thus the apostles, with the Pentecostal company of saints, still as to their feelings largely on Jewish ground, "lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." (Acts 4: 24.) We know Him also as our God and Father, because the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ; but it is as happy for us, as for Israel, when we have come to the end of all human resources, and when we have learned that our help is alone in the name of our God.

5 — Psalm 125.

A Song of Degrees.

The Mountains round about Jerusalem.

AS following upon the deliverance of Israel from the power of the enemy described in Psalm 124, the stability of those who had found their help in the name of the Lord is declared: "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever." Mount Zion, the seat of Messiah's glorious throne, will endure as long as the earth remains; and it is hence taken as a symbol of perpetual steadfastness. It "cannot be removed," and it "abideth for ever." So is it with those whose trust is in Jehovah. A similar thought is found in Isaiah: "Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength," or, as it is in the margin, the "Rock of Ages." Those, therefore, who trust in Him partake of the character of the foundation on which they rest, as, for example, the living stones in 1 Peter 2 derive their character from the Living Stone to which they have come. We are thus blessedly reminded that it is not our feebleness, but the Lord's strength which we have to consider; and that we may repose in unshaken confidence upon Him who cannot be moved, inasmuch as He is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

If verse 1 gives the theme of the Psalm, the next two verses follow out the subject, and make a special application. A slight change may be made in the rendering of verse 2. Leaving out the first "so," which has been added, and changing the second into "and," it will read thus: "The mountains are round about Jerusalem, and the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever." The sense remains the same, except that the change in the translation leaves the latter clause its full and unlimited force. Jehovah, as the foundation, so to speak, of His people's confidence, gives to them everlasting stability; and as "round about" them He sets them in inviolable security. The mountains round about Jerusalem are regarded as her natural defence, a wall of protection; and Jehovah is looked upon as surrounding Israel with His own omnipotent care to shield them from danger and assault. What pains the Lord takes to assure His people of their perfect safety when they are once under His sheltering care!

Next comes the special application: "For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity." (v. 3.) We call this a special application, in that we have in this verse a reason given for Jehovah's protection of His people, which is to preserve them from the power and dominion of the wicked in order that they might not be tempted into sin. By "rod" we understand "sceptre" or "rule," and by "lot" "portion" or inheritance. The meaning, therefore, is simply that never more should the righteous be brought under the sway of the wicked, as Israel had so often been in past ages through their sin. And observe the absoluteness of the statement, "The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous," and then the tenderness of Jehovah's care in His solicitude that His people might not again put forth their hands unto iniquity. A holy God loves, and must have, a holy people, and He will guard them on every hand to secure His desires on their behalf. He thus permits us to see the yearning of His heart and the object of His government, that His aims and desires may also be ours.

The next verse is a prayer founded upon the revelation of His protection and government of His people: "Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts." This is an abiding principle of God's government, and is fully stated in another Psalm: "With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright; with the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward." (Psalm 18: 25-26; compare Psalm 34: 12, 16.) It is very necessary to bear in mind this distinction between grace and government; for while it is blessedly true that God's attitude of grace towards His people is unchanging, determined as it is by what Christ is before Him, He yet never fails to chasten and to mark with His displeasure those among them whose walk and conduct bring dishonour upon His name. The condition, therefore, for the enjoyment of what He is in grace, for the manifestation of His favour, is a walk in His presence, as, for example, in the case of Enoch, who walked with God and had the testimony that he pleased God.

The first clause of verse 5 illustrates, on the other side, the same principle; for it is "such as turn aside unto their crooked ways," showing that they are amongst the people of God, and yet those whom the Lord will lead forth with the workers of iniquity. The face of the Lord must be against them that do evil wherever they are found. This is a solemn consideration for God's professing people, seeing that our God is a consuming fire. The conclusion is very beautiful. As will be observed, there are but two words — peace — Israel; and some interpret, "Let peace be upon Israel," while others take it as a promise, as in our translation, "Peace shall be upon Israel." The difference is not great, for a divine desire is equivalent to a promise, and we may so regard it. The Israel specified is an Israel purified by judgment, as indicated in the previous verse, an Israel from whose midst have been purged out all such as had turned aside unto their crooked ways. It can scarcely be doubted that the apostle had this passage in his mind when he, as led of the Spirit, wrote, "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, — and upon the Israel of God." (Gal. 6: 16.) Yea, God's Israel will ever have divine peace resting upon them in all the infinitude of its blessing. What a favour! And yet, great as it is, it will not compare with the peace of God which passeth all understanding, or the peace of Christ, which may now be enjoyed by every believer. This is only to say that heavenly blessings far transcend those which will be the portion of the earthly people. But whatever the dispensation, there can be no possession and enjoyment of the peculiar portion apart from a walk answering to the revelation which God has made of Himself to His people.

6 — Psalm 126.

A Song of Degrees.

Reaping in Joy.

THIS beautiful Psalm completes the first series of seven; and it celebrates in exquisite language Jehovah's sudden interposition for the rescue and deliverance of Zion from the power of the enemy. The connection is very intimate with the two foregoing Psalms. Thus in 124: 7 the remnant say, "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped." In the next the stability and security of those that trust in the Lord are declared; and now, in the Psalm before us, looking back upon what the Lord had wrought on behalf of His people, their hearts overflow with admiration and praise. The structure of the Psalm is very simple, being divided into two parts of three verses each. The first part gives their experiences in connection with Jehovah's intervention on behalf of the beloved city; the second contains a prayer for an enlarged deliverance, and the promise of the certain issue of an abundant harvest for those who sow in tears.

First, then, their thoughts are centred upon Zion, the captivity of which had been "turned again" by Jehovah's own right hand of power. It had been brought very low. As Isaiah wrote, "Thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust." (Isa. 29: 4.) And again, "The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters," that is, against Zion. The prophet Zechariah, moreover, describes the sorrow and distress of the chosen city when surrounded by her enemies, with seemingly no prospect of deliverance. But in her last extremity, when her case, to all outward appearance, will be hopeless, the Lord suddenly interposes for her succour. Hence it is that Isaiah says, speaking of the assembled nations, "God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not." (Isa. 17: 13, 14; see also Isa. 29: 3-8; and Zechariah 14.) This is the event celebrated in our Psalm; and the remnant confess that Jehovah's intervention was so unlooked for and wonderful that "we were like them that dream." They could scarcely believe it at first; for though they had been crying to the Lord for this very thing (Psalm 123, 130) the answer went so far beyond their expectation, as in the case of the saints praying for the deliverance of Peter, that they were smitten with astonishment.

But recovering themselves, when they embraced the reality and magnitude of Jehovah's succouring grace, their mouth was filled with laughter and their tongue with singing (v. 2); the uncontrollable joy of their hearts burst forth in a flood of ecstatic praise. And what wonder? It was the dawn of the summer morn they had long sighed for; and the contrast with the dark midnight through which they had passed was so overpowering that they could not but vent the emotions of their souls in songs of adoration. Even the surrounding nations, moreover, perceived that it was God's hand, and confessed that Jehovah had done great things for His people. Yea, happy Israel replies, endorsing the testimony of the heathen, "The Lord hath done great things for us; [whereof] we are glad." For once more in their history they will learn in this way that the Lord is their strength and song, and has become their salvation. (See Psalm 118: 14.)

Perceiving that Jehovah has commenced the redemption of His people from the hand of their enemies, their faith is strengthened, and they now pray for fuller blessing, "Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south." This prayer embraces the full restoration and blessing of Israel, according to the language of Zacharias, "That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." It is the return of the latter rain after the dry and arid season, and thus "as the streams in the south." Before the rains the beds of these streams are dry and rocky, but they are filled to overflowing with the fertilizing showers of heaven in their appointed times. So, Lord, Israel cries, turn again our captivity; let the mercy vouchsafed to Zion be but the earnest of the accomplishment of all Thy promises concerning Thy people.

The answer to their prayer was assured in the purposes of God and in His people's hearts, linked by faith as they were with the faithfulness of their covenant-keeping God. Thus it is said, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Truly this elect remnant of faithful souls, faithful through grace in a day of extremest pressure and persecution (see Matt. 24: 21, 22), will "sow" in tears. As we read in Daniel, "They that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days." (Dan. 11: 33).) And again, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried." (Dan. 12: 10.) But the seed thus steeped in their tears and sown in sorrow will germinate in its own time, spring up, and bring forth an abundant harvest, when the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.

The last verse is an affirmation of the same principle, but in an especial manner. It is no longer they that sow in tears, but "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." It is everywhere seen in Scripture that what should be true of the believer, or of the servant, is first illustrated in all its perfection in Christ. Now He, as He Himself has taught us, was the great Sower, and we are permitted to see Him weeping over the city wherein He had scattered much of His "precious seed." To the outward eye it might seem as if the seed thus sown had perished, that He had laboured in vain, and spent His strength for nought; but what does God say to His "Servant"? "It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 49: 4-6.) So in our Psalm — He shall doubtless, in all certainty, come again with rejoicing, laden with the sheaves of His fruitful harvest. For whether concerning His heavenly or His earthly people, He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. It is at this harvest time that He will rejoice over His people with joy, that He will rest in His love, and that He will joy over them with singing. It is of that day that the Lord has said, "Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." (Zeph. 3: 19, 20.) In the midst of all this realized blessing it is that Israel will cry, "The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad."

7 — Psalm 127.

A Song of Degrees for Solomon.

Rest for This Beloved.

THIS is the central Psalm of the whole series, there being seven before and seven after it. Each seven, as before pointed out, contains two by David; is divided, as is so often the case with the number seven in Scripture, into four and three; and contains the name of Jehovah twenty-four times. If these interesting details of structure may not lead us aside from the divine teaching of the Psalms, we may yet admire the symmetry and exactitude of the inspired Scriptures. The title of this Psalm reads in our Bibles, "A Song of degrees for Solomon"; but it is generally accepted that "of" should be substituted for "for," and, thus, that Solomon was the writer of the Psalm. This fact lends a peculiar interest to its subject, and shows us that the king commenced to build the house in real dependence on God. The first two and the last three verses go together, though there is an intimate connection between the two divisions; for the two fundamental ideas are the house and the family, whatever may be their prophetical import.

"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." (v. 1.) It is contended that it should be rendered a house, and not the house. If we accept the correction, the teaching will be all the more emphatic, as in the application it will include Solomon's own house, the temple which he had the privilege of building, and the house or temple which will yet be rebuilt, first by the Jews in unbelief after their restoration, and finally by the Lord Himself after the establishment of His kingdom. (See Zechariah 6: 12.)

We have, then, first of all, the general truth that all human undertakings are to no purpose unless the Lord is with us in them, guiding, controlling, and sustaining, unless, indeed, we are but carrying out His purposes and designs. It was well for Solomon to be deeply imbued with the conviction here expressed, seeing that one half of his reign (twenty years) was occupied in the erection of the house of the Lord and his own house. That he failed to remember the divine principle which he had been given to record is seen from the comment appended to the statement that he was seven years in building the Lord's house. "But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years," nearly twice seven. Alas! how often is it that we commence our own service in real dependence upon the Lord, with the full sense that we can do nothing apart from Him; and then, from one cause or another, even from delight in the work itself sometimes, we are betrayed into dependence upon our own methods or our own energies, or into losing sight of God's object through being occupied with our own.

Remark, moreover, that our own houses often come into competition with the Lord's house. Very solemn instruction is given on this head by the prophet Haggai. "Ye looked for much," he says to the restored remnant, "and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house." (Haggai 1: 9.) We need, therefore, to ponder much upon this truth, that all our "building" is utterly in vain unless it is as accomplishing the Lord's work.

The prophetic application is of great interest, and it contains much encouragement for the remnant of a future day. From other scriptures we learn that the Jews will be restored to their own land while in unbelief, and that, in the attempt to revive their national splendour, they will build the temple. (See Isaiah 66: 6; 2 Thess. 2: 4, etc.) This will be carried on before the eyes of the pious remnant, those who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." But guided by the teaching of this Psalm, they will be comforted with the assurance that "except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it"; and they will thus be kept from being deceived by the building and the establishment of the gorgeous rites of the national temple. And surely a solemn warning is conveyed by these words to Christian builders. As Paul writes, "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." (1 Cor. 3: 10.) The one that builds in wood, hay, or stubble does but labour in vain, except, alas! to secure his suffering loss in the future or his own destruction. Truly the day will declare the character of every man's work, whether of Jewish or Christian builders, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

In the next clause the same principle is applied to human vigilance: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Jerusalem may yet be rebuilt and fortified so strongly as to be deemed impregnable; the watchful sentries may be constantly on the alert; every possible care may be taken to guard against any — and especially any nocturnal — assaults; but the most strenuous efforts of human strength and care will be utterly futile unless the Lord keep the city. Illustration after illustration of this truth might be easily drawn from historical records, and notably from the capture of Babylon by Cyrus — all alike proclaiming the impotence of man when acting apart from God. It is a lesson needing to be written upon the hearts of God's people in all ages, that they may repose alone upon His protection and care, and thus be able to sing in the darkest hour, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

The next verse does but continue, if in another aspect, the same lesson of dependence: "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: [for] so He giveth His beloved sleep." A word or two may be first offered upon the translation of the last clause, as the meaning of the whole passage depends upon it. Many, taking sleep in its literal sense, render it, "He giveth His beloved in sleep"; but we cannot discover, in the language employed, any justification for this addition. This leads to the question whether actual sleep is intended. The manifest contrast is between securing, or obtaining, something by our own efforts, or looking for and receiving it as God's gift. Now no one would ever think of purchasing sleep in the way here described, certainly not by eating the bread of sorrows; but it is the common way of man to seek to acquire the means of ease, retirement, and enjoyment through his own painful and unwearying labours. We conclude, therefore, that sleep must be taken in the symbolical sense of rest and repose of spirit. So taken all is plain. Quiet of mind and restful enjoyment can never be attained as the fruit of our own toil. God is the giver of all repose to His beloved; and, once accepting this simple truth, they cease from all carefulness, as also from anxious labour, and are kept in perfect peace, whatever the outlook, with their minds stayed upon Him. And how blessed for the soul to enter in any measure into this, surrounded as we are with so many dangers and causes of apprehension and anxiety! In perilous days, amid trials, tribulations, and sorrows, we may ever rest upon the breast of Him who giveth His beloved sleep. Sorely tried believers, whether from temporal or spiritual difficulties, will find much blessed food for meditation here, and withal learn ever to look up to the Lord, and to remember that they are His beloved to whom He delights to minister "sleep."

The last three verses go together, and complete the subject of the Psalm. Thus we have the dwelling, taking now the house in its primary significance; then, guardian care with repose of spirit; and lastly, the family — the children. But if there be children, they also are God's gift — an heritage of (from) the Lord; and they are His gift as His recompense or reward, as the mark of His approval and blessing bestowed on those who fear Him and walk in obedience to His word, according to His promise to His earthly people. (See Deuteronomy 28: 11, and the next Psalm.) We see, therefore, that in every dispensation God will have His people learn that He is the source of all their blessings, that He is a GIVER, the God of all grace; and hence that the secret of a happy, restful life lies in realized dependence upon Himself. What anxieties and apprehensions we should be spared if this lesson were but more deeply graven upon our hearts! We then, indeed, might be careful for nothing, because we should only wait upon God, and have our expectation from Him, in the assurance that we could not obtain one single thing by our own efforts, however diligent, but that all must be received as God's gift. When we have once learned that God is a giver, we are content and happy to be receivers.

Children, moreover, are a means of defence (for enemies are still in the land, as before noticed): "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." As an illustration we read that "the sons of Ulam were mighty men of valour, archers, and had many sons, and sons' sons, an hundred and fifty." (1 Chr. 8: 40.) This will also explain the following verse: "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." As the gate was the place of authority and judgment, where matters in dispute were settled, and the place possibly of assault by external foes, the allusions of the Psalmist are easily comprehended. The man that "hath his quiver full of" such arrows, children, will have the means to defend his cause when unrighteously assailed, and thus will be able to present a bold front to his enemies. So we read of the Messiah in a future day, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power; from the womb of the morning Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." There cannot be a doubt that this verse should be punctuated as above; and the meaning of the last clause would seem to be that the youthful followers of Messiah in the day of His power will be as numerous as the dewdrops from the womb of the morning, or, as one has paraphrased it, "Thy youthful soldiery is like the dew in its beauty." Combining the two thoughts — number and beauty — we may indeed say that when Messiah comes forth He will not be ashamed when He speaks with the enemies in the gate, as He surely will to their destruction. (See Zechariah 14: 3.)

Recalling, finally, what is said of Asher ("Let Asher be blessed with children"), and combining it with verse 6, we may surely remind ourselves that, in the preaching of the gospel for example, children are an heritage from the Lord. This will keep us free from all human methods to ensure success, from all appeals to nature and sentiment, and lead us to depend alone upon the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, and upon the favour and blessing of God. The Lord Himself open our hearts to receive the simple instruction of this Psalm.

8 — Psalm 128.

A Song of Degrees.

Blessing out of Zion.

IF the preceding Psalm teaches that the Lord Himself is the source of all blessing and prosperity, and that without Him nothing can be accomplished or established, we have in this the character of those on whom His favour rests: "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways." (v. 1.) The nature of the blessing thus enjoyed is afterward described.

A very wide door of blessing is thus divinely opened. It is really only restricted to those who possess the characteristics given — fearing the Lord and walking in His ways — and it will therefore correspond, for example, with the "whosoevers" of John 3: 15, 16. Doubtless pious Israelites are in view, and even the whole of Israel, if verse 1 be taken as representative; but room is also made, in the very terms employed, for the inclusion of the stranger that might sojourn in the midst of Israel; for "one ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord." (Num. 15: 15.) The heart of God thus always travelled out, in His ineffable grace, beyond His chosen people, to provide for the blessing of the "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." It is to this sovereignty of His grace that we ourselves are indebted for that wondrous place of nearness, and for the intimate relationship, into which we have been brought through the death and resurrection of Christ.

It should be also remarked that there is a governmental application in these words; that is, that God in His government of His people will make the reception and enjoyment of these blessings dependent upon their fearing Him and walking in His ways. For example, an Israelite might be restored to the land, but if he walked carelessly he would not be entitled to the promises here made. This principle — and it is a very important one — applies as much to the Christian as to the Jew; it is true, indeed, of the saints of all dispensations. For the enjoyment of the blessings of any period, there must be a walk in accordance with the revelation God has been pleased to make of Himself at that time. It is always true that God withholdeth no good thing from them that walk uprightly.

Two characteristics are given of the man who is blessed of the Lord — fearing the Lord, and walking in His ways. To avoid all misconception, let it be again pressed that these are not mere characteristics — they should be displayed in all God's people; but they are given here as indications of practical state or condition. "Fearing the Lord" describes a man who acts with a good conscience before Him; and hence it is that we read, "Happy is the man that feareth alway" (Proverbs 28: 14), the one, that is, who with holy fear seeks grace to avoid everything which would grieve the Spirit of God; and "walking in His ways" indicates the conduct consequent upon fearing the Lord, a walk which is formed and governed by the word of God. Altogether the practical state is the result of the truth held with divine power in the soul; and this is the only doorway, as already said, into the enjoyment of our true portion. As John says, this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.

The blessings here described are distinctively Jewish, earthly and not heavenly blessings. Still, much instruction may be gleaned from what is promised, "For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table." (vv. 2, 3.) There was, then, to be blessing in labour, in one's own soul, and general prosperity, together with domestic and family felicity; but this may receive a little more consideration. First, the fruit of his own labour should be enjoyed. This is but the fulfilment of the promises which God made. to His people on the condition that they observed and kept His commandments (see Deut. 28: 1-12); and the contrast is seen in that same chapter, where they are warned that, if they turned aside from God's statutes and laws, others should eat the fruit of their land and all their labours. (v. 33.) And let it not be forgotten that there is a sense in which this may be true now of the children of God. If they walk in disregard of His word, have themselves as their object, God will often come in and deal with them in their circumstances. How many there are who have determined to get on in the world; and they have laboured much and long to secure their ends, when, just as their goal was in view, all the fruit of their toil suddenly disappeared! May the Holy Spirit engrave the lesson deeply upon our hearts, that God's blessing can only rest upon the labours of those who fear Him and walk in His ways.

Secondly, all such shall be happy, and it shall be well with them. When a soul is maintained in holiness before God the sense of His favour is enjoyed; and this is soon discovered to be the secret of all true happiness. It is to this the Psalmist alludes; and he adds, moreover, that it shall be well with thee. Thus Isaiah speaks, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him" as indeed Peter teaches in his first epistle, that God's government is in favour of His people. (See 1 Peter 3: 10-13.) So the pious Israelite is here taught that, even though there might yet be sorrows and trials to pass through, God's eye was upon him, and good would be the certain issue of God's government and ways.

Lastly, blessing should rest upon his own household and family. The reader will remember that verse 3 speaks of the blessing of the earthly people; and, calling this to mind, he will detect the incomparable beauty of the illustrations drawn from the vine and the olive; for it is the fruit of the vine which is said to cheer both the heart of God and man, and the fatness of the olive is used to set forth the blessing and privileges of God's people on the earth. It is indeed an exquisite picture of a happy family, and there are many saints of the present day who will appreciate it; for what greater joy have they on earth, outside of the assembly, than to behold the concord of their families, having their children growing up around their table, no seat as yet vacant, and all giving the promise of the work of the Spirit of God in their souls? And let it be distinctly asserted that the Christian heads of households are entitled to look for the realization of the spiritual significance of this picture of domestic peace and blessing.

The last three verses, we judge, go together; that is to say, verse 4 is introductory to verses 5 and 6, rather than a summary of the first three. Its first word confirms this interpretation: "Behold," says the Psalmist, "that thus [in this manner] shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord"; and then he proceeds to explain the manner. First of all it is, "The Lord shall bless, thee out of Zion." All the blessing of Israel will in a future day be out of Zion, because it will be the seat of the Lord's earthly throne. Hence the apostle writes, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11: 26.) The Psalms are full of this same truth, as, for example, in the expression, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." (See Psalms 24, 47, 48, 87, 97-99, also Isaiah 51, 52, etc. etc.) To be blessed out of Zion would be, therefore, the consummation of all blessing for Israel, because it will be connected with the reign of Messiah, and thus be the fulfilment of the glowing predictions of the prophets. It would speak to their hearts of the establishment of the kingdom and the blessings therewith connected, for which they had so long sighed and waited in the days of their sorrow.

The next clause of the verse is in accordance with this: "And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life." If Zion is in Scripture the seat of royal grace, of the throne (for it was there David placed the ark), Jerusalem, as the expression of the nation, yet still Jerusalem, is the earthly bride, and for her as such there is a glorious future. It is in view of this that God will set watchmen and remembrancers upon her walls who will give Him no rest until He establish, and until He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Of that time it is written, "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise"; and again, "Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations." (Isaiah 60-62.) And when all this is accomplished, when Jerusalem has been restored, and reinstated in the favour of Jehovah, her blessing will continue. Israel will thus behold the good of Jerusalem "all the days of his life."

As seen in an earlier Psalm, God's people were exhorted to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and their prayer will be abundantly answered. But what should be remarked is, that we have here the true sign of a healthy piety, viz., communion with the heart of God. Jehovah's affections are set upon Jerusalem, and consequently everyone that fears Him, and that walks in His ways, will also love Jerusalem. The promise, therefore, that such an one should see the good of Jerusalem all the days of his life is a blessed response of Jehovah's heart to the desire of His people which He Himself had begotten. To understand this for ourselves we have only to substitute the Church for Jerusalem. The Church is the dearest object of the heart of Christ, for He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; and hence, whatever activity or apparent zeal and devotedness there may be in any of us, we cannot be in communion with the heart of Christ unless the Church is also the supreme object of our affections. Let us not shrink from the searching nature of the test.

The promised blessing is still further enlarged: "Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children." The favour of God will thus rest upon the posterity of His people, as indeed He covenanted at the giving of the law — "showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments." This is the conclusion, as we understand the Psalms, of the true Israelite's blessing. As will be noticed, the word "and," after "children" is inserted. Omitting this, we read, with many others, the last clause, "Peace be upon Israel." (Compare again Galatians 6: 16.) If this be accepted, it is very beautiful, for the Psalm commences with divine blessing and closes with divine peace. What an inlet is thus opened out for us into the heart of God! And if He desires that peace should rest upon His own (see John 14: 27), we also should pray and labour to this end. Yea, "pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee"; or, as Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, "Be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you."

9 — Psalm 129.

A Song of Degrees.

Israel's Retrospect.

AS has been before pointed out, Psalm 127 is the central psalm of the whole group of the Songs of Degrees. there being seven preceding and seven following. Psalm 128 is thus introductory to the last seven; and, as is often seen in the prophetic writings, it gives the final issue of God's ways with His people and of their exercises, before detailing their pathway of sorrow and distress by which they reached the goal. It presents a beautiful picture of earthly blessing consequent upon Jehovah's dwelling in Zion. In the present Psalm Israel reviews the past, and the first four verses contain the account of their sorrowful afflictions as a nation, combined with their confession of God's unchanging faithfulness:

1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:

2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet they have not prevailed against me.

3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.

4 The Lord is righteous: He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.

The expression "from my youth," found in the first two verses, will refer to Israel's earliest days, the beginning of their history in the land of Egypt; and, tracing their career all down the centuries, they have to confess that many a time they had been afflicted by their enemies. The record of their sorrows and chastenings from this source is found, indeed, in almost every historical book of the Old Testament. And wherefore had they thus been afflicted? Scripture after scripture proclaims that it was because of their disobedience and rebellion, their refusal to walk in subjection to Jehovah their Redeemer. "If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then . . . I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. . . . But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments . . . I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you," etc. (Lev. 26.)

Such is the invariable condition of enjoyed favour and blessing in all dispensations. It is equally so with Christians as with Israel; for the principles of God's government of His people are the same in all ages. If Israel therefore, has to utter this sad lamentation, it is yet the confession of their obstinate and stiff-necked forgetfulness of God's claims upon them as His redeemed people. Here, however, they recall their sorrows rather to magnify the faithfulness of God; for they add, after speaking of the afflictions they had suffered from their adversaries, "Yet they have not prevailed against me." The prophets are full of this blessed truth — that while God allowed, and indeed sent, nation after nation to overcome and chastise His rebellious people, He never wholly gave them up; but, watching over them with infinite tenderness and yearning of heart, He interposed again and again for their succour for His own name's sake. For example, we read, "The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." (2 Kings 14: 26, 27.) It was thus owing to the tender mercy of the Lord, to His covenanted faithfulness, that Israel could say, in looking back upon the oppressions of their enemies, "Yet they have not prevailed against me."

The illustration in the next verse does but intensify the character of their past sufferings. The plowers are named in verse 3, because, as the plough the earth, so the whip tears up the back. Long furrows will thus mean long stripes and wounds, A striking comment upon this description may be cited from Isaiah: "Why should ye be stricken any more? . . . from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." (Isa. 1: 5, 6.)

But if Israel has endured these bitter sorrows under the rod of their enemies, they now confess that the Lord is righteous. In one word they justify God for all His past dealings with them, owning in this very expression that they had only received their deserts. As Nehemiah said, "Howbeit Thou art just [righteous] in all that is brought upon us; for Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly," so now Israel owns that God has been righteous in all His ways; and this is surely the place of all blessing both for sinners and believers. When the awakened soul, like the dying malefactor, justifies God and condemns himself, he is on the eve of forgiveness and blessing; and when the believer under chastisement justifies God the end is reached; for he has "heard" the rod and who has appointed it. When Israel, therefore, says that the Lord is righteous it tells us that the object of God's past visitations in judgment has been attained, that His name has been magnified in His people's deliverance and blessing.

It is also possible that Israel celebrates Jehovah's righteousness, not only in His past dealings with them, but also in their present deliverance, for they add, "He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked." The same double application of God's righteousness is seen in the Epistle to the Romans: it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and it is exemplified in the justification of those who believe in Jesus. The "cords" of the wicked will signify the bondage under which Israel had been subjected to the wicked. The kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth are said in Psalm 2 to take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us," that is, the bands and cords in which God held and restrained them. What Israel then proclaims is that God has emancipated them from their thraldom and servitude, and set them at liberty in their own land for His service.

The second part of the Psalm commences with verse 5, and contains the expression of Israel's desire for the confusion and defeat of the haters of Zion. To understand this it must be borne in mind that the haters of Zion are God's enemies. Zion has now (in these Psalms) become the dwelling-place of Jehovah and the seat of His throne. Hence it says in the preceding Psalm, as before noticed, "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion"; and in Psalm 122, speaking of Jerusalem, the Psalmist says, "They shall prosper that love thee," for it was become the city of the great King. To hate Zion, therefore, was to take up a position of utter antagonism to God, and to His purposes of blessing for His people. What would answer to it now would be to hate the Church of the living God; for as we may see in the case of Saul of Tarsus, to entertain hatred against believers was to cherish enmity against Christ; for not only does He identify Himself with His own, but, as united to Him by the Holy Ghost, He regards them as a part of Himself, members of His body; and this explains the question which He addressed to Saul, "Why persecutest thou Me?" It was, consequently, to be in communion with God's mind — in that dispensation — for Israel to say, "Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion." Indeed, when the throne of Christ is established in righteousness, all enemies will be put under His feet.

Then we have a further amplification of Israel's desire:

5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:

7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.

8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord.

Isaiah uses the same illustration of grass upon the housetops to set forth God's judgment upon His enemies. He says, "They were as grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up." (Isaiah 37: 27.) It is a figure to show the effect of judgment upon the haters of Zion. Under the wrath of God, it would soon be manifested that they were cut off from the sources of nourishment and life, and thus would wither away like, grass which has no depth of soil. There would be therefore no fruit, as it were, for God or man — nothing for the mower or for the binder of the sheaves.

It is, then, a solemn thing to hate what God loves; and let it be remembered that the carnal mind is enmity against God. No unconverted person, therefore, can love that on which the heart of God is set, and as such he is exposed to God's righteous judgment. But a further thing is here added: even the passers by, seeing the condition of these enemies of Zion, will refrain from giving the customary salutation, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord." When in communion with the mind of God, we can only reflect His attitude towards those by whom we may be surrounded, and we could not, for example, desire a blessing upon those who are under His judgment. It is now the day of grace, and we can and should pray for those whom the god of this world has blinded, but we could not desire their blessing while in the state of active hostility towards the Lord and His people. Thus the apostle John writes, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine ['the doctrine of Christ — the true teaching concerning the Person of Christ'], receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 10, 11.)

It would help us greatly to perceive that the attitude of God towards all should govern the attitude of the Christian. The believer, indeed, in any dispensation is to represent God as revealed in that dispensation. Thus a Jew was to express the righteous Jehovah as made known to him, and a Christian is to display in his walk, conduct, and ways, the God of grace as revealed in Christ. To recollect this will greatly aid in the interpretation of the Psalms, as well as furnish the needed guidance in our coming into contact with believers and with the unconverted. It will scarcely need to be remarked, after what has been already said, that for the practical carrying out of this principle we must ourselves be walking in communion with God in the power of the Holy Ghost. To walk with God is the secret of all blessing and power.

10 — Psalm 130.

A Song of Degrees.

De Profundis; or, Out of Darkness into Light.

IF in the preceding Psalm Israel recalls the sorrows through which they had passed, in connection with the oppression of their enemies, this describes the distress and anguish occasioned by the sense of their own sins. The structure of the Psalm is very simple. As with its predecessor, it is divided into two equal parts of four verses; but these again, as will at once be perceived, are subdivided. Thus the first two verses set forth the state of the soul under the sense of its sins; the next two express confidence in the Lord notwithstanding the consciousness of guilt; verses 5 and 6 give the sure ground of the soul's confidence, together with the persevering character of its expectation; while the last two contain an exhortation to Israel, founded upon the assurance of Jehovah's grace, and he certainty of a full and complete redemption from all their iniquities. Another thing of interest to the student of Scripture may be mentioned. In this and the preceding Psalm together, the name of Jehovah is used seven times; in this Jehovah is found four times, Jah* once (in verse 3), and Adonai three times — eight names of God in all, corresponding with the number of the verses, although in two verses the name is absent. The reader should learn that the slightest detail of the inspired Word may be fruitful in instruction and profit.

*The name Jah is probably a shortened poetic form of Jehovah.

To return to the subject of the Psalm, what can be sadder than the condition indicated in the opening words, "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord"? But yet it is the indispensable requisite for the enjoyment of God's favour. For what had brought Israel into the depths?* It was their sins, their iniquities; and there never can be hope for any until they, like Israel, are brought to feel and own their guilt. To be in the depths, therefore, is a blessed place when it is the consequence of a work of the Spirit of God. Jonah, for example, before his deliverance, had to cry, "For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me." The deeper indeed a soul gets down before God under the sense of its sin, the more certain is it to enter upon a signal and glorious deliverance. Let none, therefore, ever attempt to shorten the exercises of a convicted soul, for there cannot be too deep a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

*In Roman Catholic graveyards it is a common thing to see "De Profundis" on the tombstones; and thus through ignorance, or worse, the passage is perverted to sustain the doctrine of Purgatory. On one occasion the writer of these lines, passing through a cemetery in a foreign land, was oppressed with sorrow at the repetition of these words.* Entering, however, a little enclosure at one end, which he found was charitably set apart for the interment of Protestants, the first words which met his gaze were, "I am the resurrection and the life." It was like passing out of darkness into light.

But if Israel were in the depths, he turned to the Lord. This is the blessed fruit of grace, even as the publican, who, though he would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven in the deep feeling of his utter unworthiness, yet, as he smote upon his breast, cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." So Israel, in our Psalm, cried, "Lord, hear my voice: let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." Such is the sure pathway to blessing, for as soon as the sinner's eye is directed to the Lord faith has sprung up, however feebly, in the soul, and the light of the coming day has already begun to dispel the darkness by which it has been enshrouded. The importance of these two things — conviction of sin and turning to God — cannot be over-estimated, and is earnestly commended to all who are passing through exercises similar to those of Israel.

Especial attention should be given to the next two verses:

3 If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4 But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.

First, then, there is the confession of the holiness of God, and of the desert of sin. Not one on the face of the whole earth could be before God's all-searching eye on the ground of his own merits. It is an immense thing when the soul perceives this, for then there will be no attempt at self-justification, but a frank and full acknowledgement that it, is amenable to the righteous judgment of God. This gives God His place, and puts the soul, at the same time, into its only proper place before God. Together with this, Israel has learned that there is grace in the heart of God to meet its need. As we know, the cross of Christ is the foundation, the righteous basis, on which grace can be exercised and dispensed. It is in virtue of the perfect and the finished work of Christ, which was accomplished there, and by which God was glorified in respect to all that we had done and were, that He can now be just and the Justifier of every believer. This is one of the elements of Christian knowledge; but it is a little remarkable to find Israel, before their final deliverance, even if in the land, in the apprehension of grace. Here, however, it is, and not only so, but the object of forgiveness is before the soul — "that Thou mayest be feared." One of the modern taunts (as, indeed, it was also in the apostle's days) against the doctrine of grace is that it relaxes the obligation to a holy life. Even Israel will know better than this, for they will understand, what every true Christian has learned, that nothing binds the heart to God or gives it such a sense of moral responsibility as God's sovereign unmerited favour in Christ. The constraining power of the love of Christ is a mightier influence than all the legal enactments that were ever ordained. But to understand this the heart must be in the enjoyment of the love of Christ, and to this, alas! the objectors to grace are strangers.

In the next two verses we have the soul's attitude and confidence:

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.

6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.

Such waiting on the Lord could only spring from the confidence of faith. The word so translated, indeed, means "to hope that a thing will be effected, and to wait steadily and patiently till it is effected." Everywhere in the Scriptures, especially in the Gospels, perseverance is seen to be a characteristic of genuine faith. Assured, therefore, that there was forgiveness with the Lord, the Psalmist waits upon Him until he enters upon the enjoyment of the desired blessing. And he tells us, moreover, the ground of his expectation: "and in His word do I hope." It was this which encouraged him to wait on,* because having the word of God as the foundation of his trust, he knew that he would not be confounded. So we read in John's Epistle, "If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." Knowing this, we can wait on, wait His time, calmly resting upon His word, as in our Psalm.

*The word rendered "hope" is often given as "wait," though not the same word as in the former part of the verse. It "imports properly a long and patient waiting," combined with the expectation of the thing waited for.

The eager character of the waiting here is described in the next verse, wherein he tells us, and intensifies the statement by its repetition, that he waited for the Lord more longingly than a night sentinel looked for the dawn of the coming day. It was thus a waiting from which all doubt had been dispelled, and in which he already anticipated the fruition of his hope. We may surely glean instruction for ourselves from this blessed attitude of soul. It is a day of much public and united prayer. Week after week God's people are gathered together to pour out their hearts before Him in supplication and intercession. Suffer, then, the question whether there be this waiting on the Lord in the confidence of faith for the answers to the prayers. Is there not a danger of being satisfied with having prayed, and of having too little regard to the waiting for the blessings sought? We might well ponder upon the earnestness of faith, the certainty of the confidence indicated here, as we challenge our own souls in seeking to answer the above questions.

The next verse is but the consequence of the undoubting expectation expressed in verses 5, 6: "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." It is as if he said, "Do not doubt for one moment as to the issue of our present sorrows. Already I see, in the exercise of faith, the breaking up of the clouds, and the outshining of God's grace and unchanging faithfulness. Trust Him still, wait on, and we shall find that He will, without fail, interpose for our deliverance even beyond our most sanguine expectations."

Remark, moreover, that although the speaker is not yet in the enjoyment of what he seeks, he can confidently testify as to what is in the heart of God for His people. "With the Lord," he says, "there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." What an immovable foundation his faith had reached! It was not Israel's state, nor his own prayers, but it was the immutability of Jehovah's love which begat and sustained his confidence. He had learned the blessed lesson that God would act, not according to His people's need, but according to His own heart, according to Himself. It is similar to what we find in the Ephesians, where the apostle tells us that "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ," etc. It is thus that the Psalmist can speak, not of redemption merely, but of plenteous redemption. It will be, he is fully assured, a redemption worthy of God Himself, and consequently beyond all His people's thoughts and expectation.

The last verse goes still further: "And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

We understand this to go far beyond interposing for their present succour and deliverance; and, in fact, to include the history of Israel to the end. Jehovah will "redeem" Israel for ever from the consequences of their sins; or to put it in other words, it is a full and final redemption which is here contemplated, and not only that which is governmental. It will be the fulfilment of the word of the angel to Joseph And thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins." The Jehovah of our Psalm is this Jesus; and, on the ground of His one sacrifice, His finished work which was wrought out at Calvary, He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Blessed be His glorious name for ever! And oh! that every reader of these lines may be constrained, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to say from the heart, Amen and Amen!

11 — Psalm 131.

A Song of Degrees for David.

A Weaned Spirit.

AN intimate moral connection between this and the foregoing Psalm may readily be detected. The state of soul here indicated is, indeed, the result and consequence of the exercises there depicted. Making the necessary allowance for the dispensation under which David lived, it might be almost said that what is here presented is characteristic of enjoyed deliverance. In one sense, however, Psalm 130 is an advance upon Romans 7; for, as it has been well remarked, the sorrow here is not "merely" legal distress. Confidence in Jehovah characterises it, though accompanied by depth of distress and humiliation. This is the effect of the connection of the sense of sin and of mercy in the soul. Mere legal distress is more selfish in its terror, though admirable for destroying confidence in self and throwing on mercy; conviction with the sense of mercy is more the sense of wronging the God of goodness." This is a most important distinction; and, it may be added, the deeper the exercises thus produced, the more durable and settled the peace to which they conduct the soul. Unshaken confidence in the Lord is expressed in the last verses of the preceding Psalm, and hence the soul, although it may yet have to wait for the consummation of its hopes, can rest upon the mercy of which it has been assured, and in the certainty of a full and everlasting redemption. The end is thus already secured to faith, and the soul, chastened by its past sorrow and exercise, can quietly lie low at the Lord's feet, abasing itself there that He, and He alone, may be exalted.

This will explain the language of the first two verses:

1 Lord, my heart is not haughty,  nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

This is the language of David himself, as the title shows, but of David as the vessel of the Spirit to express what in a future day will be suited to the feelings and experiences of Israel in their then circumstances. It is on this account that, in all these personal exercises, Israel is so often named and addressed. David becomes in this way a representative of the nation, or, at least, of the spared remnant which will in that day occupy the place of the nation before God. Understanding this, we may, for our own profit, consider these words in their application to ourselves individually.

Let it be observed, then, first of all, that David speaks to and before the Lord. It is as under His all-searching eye that he says, "My heart is not haughty." He is therefore characterised by the true heart, of which we read in Hebrews 10 To say that his heart was not haughty, nor his eyes lofty, conveys the thought of his humility. Constantly we find that nothing is more abhorrent to the Lord than pride and high looks. We read, for example: "Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer." (Psalm 101.) Humility, on the other hand, is as often commended: "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (Isaiah 57: 15.) Yea, as the Lord Himself said: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18.) Humility and meekness, indeed (and they are twin graces), are the two blessed moral traits in our Lord's own example, which are presented to us as the pathway to finding rest to our souls. Nothing, therefore, speaks so distinctly of a powerful work of grace in the soul as the possession of humility. It is the sure product of the sanctifying power of the truth, and hence the infallible sign of growing conformity to Christ. Thus to get down ever lower is to get morally ever closer to Him. May we all learn the lesson in this day of independence and self-seeking even among Christians. When will it be apprehended that one of being filled with the Spirit is submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God?

It is but a fruit of this humble-mindedness that we find in the next clause: "Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me." The humble soul is distinguished by an absence of reasoning; he is content to leave the management and issue of all things to the hands of the Lord. He would not govern his circumstances if he could; nor does he desire to probe into second causes. Rather, connecting everything with the Lord's ordering, he maintains the posture of waiting quietly before Him, and he is thus satisfied with all His arrangements. How many there are who get off the ground of dependence through their eagerness to penetrate into these great matters, and to be able to explain the things that are too high for them! What have we to do with either the one or the other? Even the blessed Lord, at the moment of His rejection, turned to the Father and said: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because 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." And this — "it seemed good in Thy sight" — will be the sheet anchor of our souls if we are characterised by the same features as those which distinguished the Psalmist.

In the next verse we perceive the condition of soul out of which the traits of verse I have sprung. There are two things to be noticed: the first is stated absolutely — my soul is even as a weaned child; and, secondly, he behaved and quieted himself as such. Much, and even profound instruction may be gathered from these points. In regard to the first, it will be admitted by all that weanedness of spirit should characterise every Christian. It is of importance, therefore, to ascertain how it is produced. In the case before us, assuming the connection with the previous Psalm, it is the result of finding what God is for His people, what He is in grace for them when they have passed through their sorrowful exercises on account of their sins. Redeemed from all their iniquities and delivered from the enemy's power, the Lord has become the portion of their hearts; and in the enjoyment of this satisfying portion they are practically weaned from everything else. It is so with believers now: once let them discover what Christ can be to their hearts, let Him have the supremacy there, so that He "sups" with them and they with Him, and every attraction and allurement which this world can present will lose their power. Weanedness is thus in this way the effect of the enjoyment of Christ Himself.

There is, however, another method. In the case of some this spiritual condition is only reached through discipline. The Lord loves His people, and when they turn aside to other objects, or if they fail to respond to His call to come to Him, He often steps in with chastenings, blights for them their earthly prospects, dims the brightness of this world, and allures them into the wilderness, where He speaks "comfortably" unto them, discovers Himself to their hearts, and satisfies them with Himself. In both cases alike the power which produces the weaned condition is Christ, Christ known and delighted in by the soul. True, the pathway to this goal lies through death, death applied morally to all that we are, so that we might be free to enter upon the wealthy inheritance which, through the grace of God, is made ours in Christ. Let us earnestly seek this desirable state, for it is the secret both of the enjoyment of the heavenly life and of power in conflict with the artifices of Satan.

Secondly, the Psalmist says that he behaved and quieted himself as a child that is weaned of his mother. This points to the fact that watchfulness and spiritual energy will always be necessary to maintain the weaned state. For just as the weaned child will, especially at the outset, long for its accustomed nourishment, so the believer, if not kept on his guard in the power of the Spirit, will often be tempted to fall back upon his old enjoyments, just as Israel, when in the wilderness, were continually craving after the "flesh pots" of Egypt. It is on this account that the need arises to be so walking in the presence of God as that we may discern the real character of every temptation with which we may be plied. Let us never forget, then, the dangers by which we are surrounded, or that constant diligence is required, diligence in the Spirit, to behave and quiet ourselves as those who are weaned of their mother.

The lesson of the whole Psalm, and indeed that also of the foregoing Psalm (v. 7), is contained in the last verse:

3 Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.

This exhortation gathers great force when it is remembered that it proceeds from the Psalmist's own experience. Having found for himself that the Lord may be trusted at all times, that none that wait for Him are ever ashamed, he says in effect, "Never give up your confidence in Jehovah; He will never disappoint your expectations. He may test you, keep you waiting, pass you through many sorrows and trials, but He will never forget you or give you up. Always, therefore, hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever." This is a very blessed exhortation, and one which we also, dear Christian reader, would do well to lay to heart. For we are often beset with difficulties and temptations, and, like Peter, when we see that the wind is boisterous we begin to sink. Here there is the sure and efficacious antidote to all fear and unbelief: Hope in the Lord, and never cease to hope in Him, whatever the gloomy appearances of present circumstances. For He abides faithful, He cannot deny Himself, and He has said concerning Israel, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee. neither shall My covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee." All that He is, therefore, presses the exhortation upon us to hope in Him henceforth and for ever.

11 — Psalm 132.

A Song of Degrees.

Zion and God's Rest.

BEFORE entering upon the consideration of this beautiful Psalm, the moral connection with its two predecessors may be briefly indicated. In Psalm 130 we have the sure path of deliverance. It begins with "the depths" of sorrow and distress, and it closes with the assurance that the Lord will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. In the next our attention is called to that weanedness of spirit which ever marks the enjoyment of' deliverance, together with that unshaken confidence in the Lord which deliverance always begets in the soul. Then we find in our Psalm the subject of the habitation for the mighty One of Jacob, of Zion, which God had chosen as His rest for ever. Until deliverance is known and enjoyed there could be no apprehension of the truth of God's habitation.

As a key to the understanding of the whole Psalm, the following words are cited, and should be carefully weighed: "The three principles of government had been brought out in Israel. First, direct responsibility to God under priesthood. That had failed under Eli, and that was Ichabod. It was over with Israel on the ground of their own responsibility. Then God intervened by a prophet. That He could still do; it was a sovereign act. But that failed; so did royalty as set up by the people. Then we have royalty as power in grace, as it will be in Christ, and the lost ark brought back. This is what we have in this Psalm."*

* Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, vol. 6. New edition, revised.

Understanding this, and thus viewing David as a type of Christ, we shall enter more fully into the striking and touching appeal, or prayer, contained in the first five verses:

1 Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions:

2 How he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;

3 Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;

4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,

5 Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

The ground, then, on which this appeal is based is David and all his afflictions. It is these the Spirit of God calls, as it were, to the remembrance of Jehovah — David and all the sorrows and the persecutions he passed through when he was the anointed and yet rejected king. So now, how grateful it is to the heart of God when His people remind Him of the rejection and sufferings of His beloved Son; and as they dwell upon Him as so presented, as the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they are led into the enjoyment of God's own delight in the One who endured all, even the death of the cross, to glorify Him, and to find out a resting-place for Him throughout all eternity. Let us ever remember it, that it is not ourselves nor our blessings that we are to present in our priestly service, but Christ and His afflictions. We need to learn the lesson, that we may lose sight of ourselves in all the acceptability and fragrance of Christ when we are before our God.

David and his afflictions are, then, in what they typify, the efficacious foundation on which all the hopes of Israel, and the hopes of God's people in all ages, rest; for they furnish a plea which ever commands the ear and the heart of God.

The next four verses contain the record of the oath and the vow of David respecting the habitation of the mighty One of Jacob. There is no historical record of this solemn transaction between David and his God; but we do find that not only was his heart set upon the ark, but also that he desired to build for it an habitation. "See now," said the king to Nathan the prophet, "I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains." This was doubtless the expression of the purpose which David had formed, as mentioned in our Psalm, a purpose which God commended, though He did not permit His servant to execute it. (1 Kings 8: 18, 19.) The desire, indeed, was according to God (v. 13), and David was thus in communion with God's own thoughts. This may perhaps explain the term, here twice connected with Jehovah, "the mighty One of Jacob," a term which was first used by Jacob himself when blessing his twelve sons before his death, and in connection, moreover, with Joseph, who, though the archers had sorely grieved him, shot at him, and hated him, had his arms made strong by the hands of "the mighty One of Jacob." Through rejection he had been exalted, as the One he foreshadowed has been, and will yet be even in this world. David, therefore, had travelled back to the beginning, and in communion with God's purposes had desired to become the vessel for their accomplishment in the kingdom. His heart was thus where God's heart was, and hence the acceptability of his vow to God.

In the two following verses we have the Spirit of God in the elect remnant of Israel. Looking upon the vow of David as already performed (for we are here in the field of prophecy), they exclaim:

6 Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.

7 We will go into His tabernacles: we will worship at His footstool.

Ephratah is the ancient name of Bethlehem, as may be seen from many scriptures.* (See, for example, Ruth 4: 11; 1 Samuel 1: 1; Micah 5: 2, etc.) This makes it all the more remarkable, in that it goes back to a time previous to David's accession to the throne. The reference is undoubtedly to the ark, concerning which David said, when consulting with his people as to bringing "again the ark of our God to us," "We enquired not at it in the days of Saul." It seems clear, therefore, that David from his earliest days, when he dwelt with his father at Bethlehem, was characterised by attachment to the ark; and that his bringing it to Zion was but the expression of his early affection. The Spirit of God recalls this here to the minds of His people, and endorses it with His approbation. At Ephratah they had only heard of the ark, but they found it, when David was king and determined to bring it to Zion, in the fields of the wood, that is, in Kirjath-jearim, "city of the woods," whither it had been taken after the Lord had smitten the men of Beth-shemesh for looking into it, when it was restored by the Philistines. (1 Samuel 6: 19-21.)

* One writer, however, says that the Ephratah of this Psalm "seems to be certainly not Bethlehem . . . but the district in which Kirjath-jearim was situated, Caleb-ephratah." (1 Chr. 2: 24.) But we prefer the interpretation given in the text.

"Found" in the fields of the wood, it was eventually brought with great joy and rejoicing to the city of David, where the king had pitched for it a tent (1 Chronicles 15); and this event is regarded in our Psalm as prophetical of the final establishment of the habitation of the mighty One of Jacob. As yet, historically, there was only the ark within its tent, but for faith this was the pledge for the erection of the house (compare Hebrews 12: 22-24); and hence the Spirit of God can lead the hearts of His willing people to say, "We will go into His tabernacles: we will worship at His footstool." David was in communion with the mind of God in the oath which he swore unto the Lord, and the people are in communion with him; and thus faith being in lively exercise, that faith which substantiates the things hoped for, they are in spirit already within the sacred precincts of the house, and bending low before Jehovah with adoration.

The next three verses introduce a change: the address is now again to Jehovah, containing the desires of His people as they "worship at His footstool":

8 Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy strength.

9 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let Thy saints shout for joy.

10 For Thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of Thine anointed.

Such is the prayer which is presented by God's people when, at least to faith, they are within the habitation which has been raised for the mighty One of Jacob. It is very interesting to notice the almost entire correspondence between it and the words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. "Now therefore," he said, "arise O Lord God, into Thy resting place, Thou, and the ark of Thy strength: let Thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant." (2 Chr. 6: 41, 42.) Both alike were taught of the Spirit, and in both alike, even if they do not fully embrace (as we shall see they did not), the whole extent of the grace of God's heart, there is communion with Jehovah's own desires and purposes. This, indeed, is the secret of efficacious prayer, as the Lord Himself taught His disciples, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15: 7.) Numerous illustrations of this truth may be gleaned from every part of the word of God. (See, for example, 2 Samuel 7; Isaiah 62, etc.)

The divine intelligence of the prayer in verse 8 will at once be perceived if we compare it for a moment with what is recorded in Numbers 10. There we read that "they [the children of Israel] departed from the mount of the Lord three days' journey: and the ark of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them . . . And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee," etc. (vv. 33-36.) This is, as has been well said, "a beautiful picture of the tender and precious grace of Him who, if He makes us to pass through the wilderness for our good, does not fail to be with us there, and who takes care, in putting out His sheep, to go before them, and to solace them with His love. Mighty Leader of His people by the way, He is their joy and their glory when He comes to rest in their midst."* And it may also be remarked that in this incident we have a striking foreshadowing of the fact that the Lord Jesus went the three days' journey, through death, to find out a resting-place for His people; and hence it is that there remains a rest for them, God's own rest, at the end of the wilderness journey, and that they who believe enter into this rest. (See Hebrews 4.)

*Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, vol. 1.

But the point to be observed in connection with our Psalm is the contrast. In the wilderness it was, "Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered"; here it is, "Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy strength." For to faith the goal was reached as soon as the ark was brought to Zion, and all the enemies were scattered. This, indeed, will be actually the case before Messiah, as the Priest upon His throne, shall build His temple and bear the glory. (Zechariah 6: 12, 13.) It is not till then that the words of this Psalm will have their complete realization.

Leaving the details of the petitions until we consider the abounding grace in the answer vouchsafed, it may now be observed again that the ground of the plea is still David. "For Thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of Thine anointed." The believer will enter into this, inasmuch as he knows that all his prayers are only heard as presented in and through the One whom David typifies. What power and what perseverance in prayer this should give to the Lord's people, as they remember that they can plead all the infinite acceptability of Christ Himself before God! Yea, He has said, "If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." (John 14: 14.)

From verse 11 to the end we have the response of Jehovah to the cry of His people.* The promise to David flowing out from verse 10 is twofold, absolute, and conditional. In verse 11 it is the expression of the divine purpose, "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne." Historically speaking, this might be said to have been fulfilled in the accession of Solomon; but in view of the prophetic character of the whole Psalm, Christ as the Son of David is doubtless here included. In verse 12, where the condition of keeping Jehovah's covenant and testimony is annexed, it is David's natural heirs. The same distinction is drawn in 2 Samuel 7: 12-16. (Compare also 1 Kings 2: 4; 1 Chronicles 17: 11-14, 28: 3-6.) Thus when Christ, as the Son of David, is before the mind of the Spirit, the promise is unconditional, because it is the announcement of God's purpose in grace; but when David's children, his immediate descendants, are in view, their continuance upon his throne is made dependent upon their responsibility — upon their keeping God's law, and walking according to His commandments.

*Some would divide this into two parts, taking verses 11-13 as the basis of the answer contained in verses 14-18; but we prefer to regard the whole as the divine response to the petitions in verses 8-10.

Thereupon the ground of Jehovah's oath to David is stated, "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." (vv. 13, 14.) If, therefore, David brought the ark to Zion, he was but accomplishing the purpose of God. Not that this was the full realization of it, for, as another has said, "The peace he (David) enjoyed was but transitory. The establishment of the ark on the hill of Zion formed, however, an epoch; for Mount Zion was the seat of royal grace, where the king who had suffered — and as having suffered — had established his throne in power and grace with respect to Israel. This is the key to Rev. 14, a book in which the Lamb is always (as it appears to me) the Messiah who has suffered, but who is seated on the throne of God while waiting for the manifestation of His glory." From these remarks it will be readily gathered that the fulfilment of the words of our Psalm will only be seen in the day of the glory of Christ, when He shall have taken His great power, and will have established His kingdom. It is of this glorious day that the prophet writes when he says, "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." (Isaiah 12: 6.)

Two things thus follow: first, that Zion is the election of God's sovereign grace; and secondly, that there, when Christ is King, will be His full earthly rest. Believers of this period know that there is another and a higher rest, that to which allusion has already been made, as set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews. But whether in Zion or in heaven, it is connected with Christ; in the former, with Christ as God's anointed King, whom He will set upon His holy hill of Zion; in the latter, with Christ as seated at His own right hand, glorified there in virtue of His having glorified God in all that He is through His work upon the cross. In Him God has found His infinite satisfaction and delight, and in Him He will rest for ever, and we also, through His grace, shall participate in His rest. Blessed, boundless prospect, and one that will surely animate the hearts of God's pilgrim host with courage, and fill them with unspeakable joy!

Another thing will be observed. All the blessing promised in answer to the prayer in verses 8-10 flows from, or is connected with, the accomplishment of God's counsel respecting Zion, finding His rest, and dwelling there. It was so in principle from the moment God brought His people out of the land of Egypt. "Let them," He said, "make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them"; and again, speaking of the very time of our Psalm, "My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (Exodus 25; Ezekiel 37.) But great as will be the blessing of this future day on the earth, it is only when the new heaven and the new earth have come upon the scene that God's eternal thoughts will be realized; for it is then that the proclamation is made, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Rev. 21.) But whatever the period or dispensation, it is still true that all blessing is dependent upon God's rest and His dwelling in the midst of His people.

We may now proceed to consider the answers God gives to the prayers of His people; and we shall see how in every case He abundantly exceeds their requests. Thus in verse 8 they had said, "Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy strength." In response, Jehovah says, "This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it"; and, moreover, He adds, "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." With God dwelling in their midst, His people surely could not lack, for it is in His heart to bless them at all times beyond their utmost desires. Thus the Lord when upon earth challenged His disciples as He asked them, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing." No, His presence secured everything for them, as it ever does when we apprehend and count upon it. We can understand, therefore, this bountiful promise of Jehovah's grace, as we also sorrowfully confess that we, like Israel of old, often limit our God by our unbelief. Meditate much, then, upon the words, "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." Let us remember, at the same time, that it is the poor who are thus satisfied.

In verse 9 the prayer had been, "Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let Thy saints shout for joy." The answer is, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy." (v. 16.) The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; and it was according to God's mind that this prayer should be offered for His priests; but He in the sovereignty of His grace can magnify His word above all His name, and promise that they shall be clothed with His salvation — His "full, complete, and final deliverance."* Observe another thing: faith had said "Thy priests" and "Thy saints," and truly they were Jehovah's; but in the response He says "her" (Zion's) priests and "her" saints. Jehovah thus identifies Himself with Zion, and ascribes to her that which belonged to Him. It is the blessed association of Zion and the priests and saints with Himself. The Christian will understand this, knowing as he does how completely he is associated with Christ in every aspect and relationship, and how the Lord shares with His own all that He Himself has acquired in virtue of redemption, so that they can be described as "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."

* The shouting "aloud" for joy is hardly justified, for, in fact, it is the same word both in verse 9 and verse 16. It will bear the translation of shouting aloud, but then it should be so rendered in both verses.

Further, it is added, "There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish." The simplest reader will at once perceive that these expressions will only find their realization in the establishment of God's King upon His holy hill of Zion; when all God's counsels concerning His Anointed, concerning His chosen people, and concerning the nations of the earth, will have their full accomplishment. It is of this period, and the promised blessings in connection with it, that Psalm 72 speaks, when Messiah's "name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." (v. 17.)

The following remarks of another will fitly conclude our meditations upon this Psalm. "The place of Christ's glory (Zion), which is God's rest, where He dwells, God owns is His for ever. . . . And faith looks at all connected with it, priests and saints, as God's — 'Thy priests' and 'Thy saints.' But then He, taking Christ for the resting-place of His glory, and contemplating the place of His dwelling and rest and habitation (that is, for us, the Church, which is His habitation, His tabernacle, His city, holy Jerusalem)He having thus so associated Himself with her (compare Eph. 3: 21, and Rev. 21: 3), looks it the priests and saints as her priests and her saints, thus specially showing His delight in her, His identification with her. . . . Then it is He sets up the glory of David's horn, the glory of the power and rule of the Beloved; and this (while David is the foundation, His everlasting glory the result) is the subject of the Psalm — Zion — for us, the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is His rest, His dwelling-place for ever, His desire, what He has chosen. And if He fully glorifies His Anointed (as He will and must do), it is there He will do it. Though His name flourish in Himself (for His person must be the ground and centre of glory), yet its place is in the city of grace and glory. Her priests, her saints, will have salvation and abundant joy."

Thus all God's ways on the earth, we may add, will result in the glory of His beloved Son, as His Anointed King, and in the blessing of His people. We may therefore say with full hearts, "And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen."

12 — Psalms 133, 134.

A Song of Degrees of David.

A Song of Degrees.

Unity and Praise.

SO intimately are these two Psalms connected, that it will be profitable to consider them together. For faith, the habitation of God and the rest of God have been reached in Zion, the place of His sovereign election; and there, moreover, He has set His King upon His holy hill. Full and complete blessing is the result, and upon His Anointed, His enemies being put to shame, His crown will for ever flourish. The state of restored Israel is now depicted, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Ephraim shall no more vex Judah, nor shall Judah again vex Ephraim (Isaiah 11: 13), but they shall be "one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." (Ezekiel 37: 22.)

So was it after Pentecost. In Acts 2, when, according to promise, the Holy Ghost came down to dwell with and in believers, God's new habitation was formed; and immediately after we read that the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of One soul (Acts 4: 32), a unity which could only have been produced by, and displayed in, the power of that Spirit which they had received; a unity, too, which involved, as they were afterwards to learn, oneness with Christ, as their glorified Head, as well as with one another. Indeed, it is only the sense of union with Christ that could lead to brethren dwelling together in unity. But it is the fact, rather, which here we are invited to contemplate, and the acceptability of the fact to God Himself; for it is the Holy Spirit who calls our attention to this "good and "pleasant" spectacle.

We might well humble ourselves in the dust before God, as we are reminded of the contrast to all this which is presented by believers of the present day. "That they all may be one" was the Lord's own desire; and for the brief period alluded to in Acts 4 this desire was realized — but ever since that day the Church of God, as to its outward position in the world, has gone on being divided and subdivided in such a way that the divine original has been almost entirely obscured even from the minds of Christians. While, however, we deplore this work of the enemy, let us never forget what God's thoughts are, and never fail in our own circle of fellowship to remember how acceptable it is to God to see His people walking in fellowship, and endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. And we might also remember that it is the Lord Himself who has said, "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13: 35.)

The very symbol used in the next verse does but intensify the divine estimate of the manifested unity of the saints: "It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments as the dew of Hermon, [and as the dew] that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." (vv. 2, 3.) The reference in this emblematical language is doubtless to the anointing oil which was poured upon Aaron's head on the day of his consecration (Exodus 29: 7), and which, flowing down to the lowermost borders of his priestly robe, filled the scene with its fragrance. The composition of, and the directions concerning, this "precious ointment" are given in Exodus 30; but the point to be observed here is, that precious as were the odour and fragrance of this ointment at the consecration of Aaron, so precious and fragrant before God are His people when dwelling together in unity.

If, however, the reference is to the consecration of Aaron, the allusion is also prophetical in its fullest and richest significance. The apostle Peter uses language, in fact, which justifies this interpretation. Speaking of the resurrection of Christ, he says, "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." (Acts 2: 33.) Not that he is speaking here of the unity of the saints, but we cite his language as an illustration of the fact that Christ, having received of the Father the promised Holy Ghost, bestowed Him upon all that believed on Him as the risen and exalted One: the Spirit thus flowed down from Christ "to the skirts of His garments," uniting His people to Himself, and filling the house with the fragrance of their exhibited unity. Let the two things be recalled and emphasised: first, that it is the Holy Spirit as coming down from our exalted Head who produces the unity; and, secondly, that it is only in the power of the same Spirit that the unity can be displayed.

Another figure is then introduced: it is "as the dew of Hermon [omitting the inserted words] that descended upon the mountains of Zion." The connection of Hermon here with Zion has been the occasion of much conjecture; but the following words, borrowed from another, give, in our judgment, the true explanation The abundant dew of Hermon, that is, abundant as on Hermon, fell upon the mountain of Zion."*

*"The snow on the summit of this mountain (Hermon) condenses the vapours that float during the summer in the higher regions of the atmosphere, causing light clouds to hover around it, and abundant dew to descend on it, while the whole country elsewhere is parched, and the whole heaven elsewhere cloudless."

Dew is constantly used in Scripture as an emblem of blessing and refreshment descending from heaven. Thus Moses says, "My speech shall distil as the dew"; and in Hosea we read, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." (Hosea 14.) In addition, therefore, to the sweet fragrance of dwelling together in unity, produced by the mighty and unhindered action of the Holy Ghost come down from our exalted and glorified Head, there is a further thought of God's favour descending upon His people like the dew, which, resting upon them, brings reviving and refreshment to them all.

Then, lastly, it is said, with the mention of Zion, "For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." Two things here require notice: first, that there is a place of blessing, which is, in this instance, Zion; and the reason is found in what has been seen in the preceding Psalm, viz., that "the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell: for I have desired it." We thus learn once again that God's blessing is to be found where He dwells, in His own habitation; and it may be needful to remark, for the instruction of some, that God's "spiritual house" is now built up with "living stones," with those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have come to Him as the Living Stone. (1 Peter 2: 3-5.) As Paul writes to the Ephesians, "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2: 22.) In a future day Zion will be Jehovah's dwelling-place, and, on this account, it will be the place of blessing; but now it is the Church which is the house of God. (1 Timothy 3: 15.) In both cases alike it is the presence of God in His habitation which secures the blessing.

The second thing is the character of the blessing, which is "life for evermore" — eternal life. There is only one other place where eternal life is mentioned in the Old Testament, and this is in Daniel 12: 2. This is eternal life in the sense in which the Lord Himself uses the words in Matthew 25: 46, that is, eternal life for His earthly people according to the revelation of God, which they will enjoy under the sway of their glorious Messiah. Eternal life, which is connected with the revelation of the Father in and through the Son, is reserved for believers of this period (John 17: 3); and the enjoyment of this with the apostles was really fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1: 3.) Such is the full sense of eternal life as set forth in John's Gospel; but the eternal life on which the believers of a future day will enter will be as perfect in their relationship to Jehovah, even if of another character, as that which Christians possess through their heavenly association with Christ in His own place and relationship. (John 20: 17.)

In the last Psalm of this series we pass to a summons to bless the Lord:

1 Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord.

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.

In the account of the organisation of the temple services we read of the "singers, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers were free: for they were employed in that work day and night" (1 Chr. 9: 33); and again of the Levites, who were "to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at even." (1 Chr. 23: 30.) Now that the Lord has found His rest in Zion, He will "inhabit" the praises of His people; and, all ordered according to His own mind, the Spirit can call upon His servants to bless Him who giveth songs in the night. It is remarkable that they should be here described as by night standing in Jehovah's house, but it would seem to refer to the fact that at this time there will be perpetual praise. The sorrows of Israel will then be over, and basking, as they will then do, in the full rays of Jehovah's favour and blessing, with neither adversary nor evil occurrent, they will desire to pour out their hearts, through the appointed channels, without intermission, in thanksgiving and praise. The next verse does but emphasise the summons.* Whether the rendering referred to below be received or not, we may yet learn that it is only in the "sanctuary" that worship can be presented. As the reader knows, this "blessing the Lord" is what will characterise the earthly people — Israel — when restored and in the enjoyment of Messiah's favour and reign.

*Some, however, would translate, "Lift up your hands in holiness, and bless the Lord." If this be accepted, there may be an allusion to this scripture by the apostle in 1 Timothy 2: 8, where he directs men to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands.

Believers of the present period of grace worship now in the holiest, and it is their privilege to offer perpetual praise in anticipation of the time when there will be no night, and when their occupation will be the service of praise.* It is interesting to observe that the word "bless" in this Psalm is the very word (as given in the Septuagint) which is used of our Lord when He "blessed" before the distribution of the loaves (Matt. 14.) and at the Passover Table (Matt. 26), etc.

*In the expression "His servants shall serve Him" a word is used to indicate that it will be as worshippers.

Finally, the Psalm concludes with ail invocation addressed to Jehovah Himself: "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." The expression "Jehovah that made heaven and earth" brings before us God as revealed to His chosen people. Thus Jonah, as already pointed out, confessed Him as such to the mariners; and even the Pentecostal saints in Jerusalem said, "Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." (Acts 4: 24.) As to the meaning of the desire addressed to Jehovah, another has said, "I should be disposed to count the last verse rather the voice of Christ as the Son of David, something in the character of Melchizedek, who said, 'Blessed be the most high God, and blessed be Abraham of the most high God,' only specially in connection with Jehovah (as Zech. 6: 13) blessing the godly remnant out of Zion. The last verse is a kind of answer to the call of the preceding ones — the Spirit of Christ in the remnant calls on Jehovah's servants to bless Him, and they from Him bless the godly one." There are those, however, who regard it as the Spirit's cry to Jehovah through the remnant for blessing on the Messiah Himself, even as we read, for example, in Psalm 72: "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually." (v. 15.) The spiritual reader will judge which of these interpretations is most in accordance with the divine mind.

Whichever may be adopted, it will be perceived that the goal of full blessing has been reached for Israel. The series of the Songs of Degrees commences with the words, "In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me"; it concludes with the Lord's servants blessing Him in the sanctuary, and He Himself blessing out of Zion — blessing rendered and blessing enjoyed. This will help to the understanding of the following description (cited at the outset of these papers) of this series of Psalms: "The Psalms of Degrees are the progress of Israel in the land, out of sorrow and through sorrow, to the full blessing in Zion, which forms the crowning result, Jehovah being there." And how it enhances our admiration of this result (all surely to the glory of God) when it is remembered that Jehovah is JESUS, who is Jehovah the Saviour, and who now has saved His people from their sins. As we contemplate Him as blessing out of Zion, we can unite again with full hearts in the language of the Psalmist: "And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory — Amen, and Amen." (Psalm 72: 19.)

The Christian has a yet more blessed prospect, even the Father's house, where, with all the redeemed conformed to the image of God's Son, Christ will ever be in their midst as the firstborn among many brethren.*

*That the two following psalms form a kind of appendix to the Songs of Degrees seems very evident; and it is exceedingly interesting to notice in the first the mingling of the Hallelujahs, Praises, and Blessings which ascend to Jehovah from all the ranks of His redeemed and that the theme of their song in the second is that Jehovah's mercy endureth for ever. It is, in fact, the fufilment of David's prophetic psalm, which, first sung in connection with his bringing the ark to Zion, concluded with these words:

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever.

"And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name, and glory in Thy praise.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord." (1 Chr. 16: 34-36.)

"Oh, what a home! The Son who knows,

He only all His love;

And brings us as His well-beloved,

To that bright rest above,

Dwells in His bosom — knoweth all

That in that bosom lies,

And came to earth to make it known

That we might share His joys.

Oh, what a home! There fullest love

Flows through its courts of light;

The Son's divine affections flow

Throughout its depth and height.

And full response the Father gives,

To fill with joy the heart —

No cloud is there to dim the scene

Or shadow to impart.

Oh, what a home! But such His love

That He must bring us there,

To fill that home, to be with Him,

And all His glory share.

The Father's house, the Father's heart,

All that the Son is given

Made ours — the objects of His love,

And He, our joy in heaven."

The Three Marys

The Three Marys

as presented in the Gospels.

E. Dennett.

PREFATORY.

BY "the three Marys" it is not meant that there are not other Marys in the New Testament, only that the three selected — Mary the mother of our Lord, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene — occupy a specially prominent place. It must indeed be apparent to every reader of the Scriptures that these three were distinctly chosen of God for association with His beloved Son, when in this world, in order to present lessons of grace, devotedness of affection, communion and discipleship; and it is the writer's prayer that others may share with him in the profit and blessing he himself has received through his meditations upon these blessed and holy examples, to the end that the Lord Himself may be more abundantly magnified.

MARY THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD.

WERE it not that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, one might almost fear to touch upon the subject of this highly favoured and blessed among women. Another reason has operated, perhaps, to hinder many believers from the study of her privileges and character, and that is the sinful idolatry of which she has been made the object by so many millions of professed Christians. The antidote to this tendency — so grieving to the Spirit of God, and so dishonouring to the Lord Himself — is to be found in the consideration of the notices of this elect vessel which are preserved in the gospels. This is the task which we have been led to undertake, in the hope that we may understand more fully, as taught of the Holy Spirit, the marvellous grace of God in singling out this poor woman for this unspeakable honour; and also the fruits of that grace as displayed in her simple and unwavering confidence in the Lord, and in her devoted and humble life.

It may be remarked that it is only in the gospels of Luke and John that Mary's words and actions are described; she is seen and mentioned in Matthew, and with many details in connection with the birth of Jesus into this world, but beyond this the record is silent. Joseph, indeed, in this gospel is the more prominent, for it was through him that the genealogy of Jesus, as the Son of David, was reckoned. (Matt. 1: 16, 20.) Still it was Mary who had been chosen and prepared of God for the ineffable privilege of becoming the vessel of the introduction of Jesus into the midst of Israel, the One who should save His people from their sins; for, as the evangelist writes, "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." This prophecy fulfilled, and the Child born, the bright rays of His glory could not but throw Mary into the shade; and, consequently, in the very next chapter, it is said five times over, "The young child and his mother," not, The mother and her Child. How could it be otherwise, if He that was born was no less than Emmanuel — God with His people? This fact duly appreciated would have quenched for ever the desire to exalt Mary above her Son; as the Lord Himself taught, in another way, when an admiring hearer exclaimed, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked;" for He replied, "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke 11: 27, 28.) It was not the woman, highly favoured as she was, but the woman's Seed who was to bruise the serpent's head, the One in whom all God's counsels were to be unfolded and accomplished. It is He, therefore, God's beloved Son, and not Mary, who is to fill the hearts of God's people with praise and adoration.

THE MISSION OF GABRIEL TO MARY.

When we come to the gospel of Luke, Mary is the prominent figure in the account of the nativity. Of Joseph's exercises there is here no mention; it is only said that Mary was "a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." (Luke 1: 27.) It was to her, dwelling at Nazareth,* that the angel Gabriel was sent from God. Sitting in the house, as is clear from the words, "The angel came in unto her" — she received the salutation, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." Gabriel, who stood in the presence of God (see ver. 19), was in the divine secret concerning the chosen virgin; and, as is evident from the nature of his greeting, he appreciates the immense favour, together with her exaltation amongst women, which God in His grace had bestowed upon her. His words, indeed, did but express his own delight in communion with the thoughts of God.

*Matthew does not mention that Joseph and Mary were inhabitants of Nazareth before the birth of Jesus: his object is to show the fulfilment of prophecy in the birth of the King of the Jews at Bethlehem, and afterwards he tells us that, having returned from Egypt, Joseph "came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth," etc. The two records supplement one another, each containing what was necessary for the special object in view.

But Mary, when she saw the angel, who doubtless appeared in human form (see Luke 24: 4), "was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be." That is, she reasoned inwardly as to the nature of Gabriel's words, what was their "aim and meaning." We can understand this if we recall her character and position. She was a pious, God-fearing woman, and, whatever her genealogy, would seem to have been in lowly circumstances. Meekness, humility, and faith were manifestly the features of her spiritual life, and she might therefore well be troubled at the saying she had heard, and reason, not with the natural mind as the offspring of doubt, but rather as springing from perplexity of soul, concerning the significance of the angel's address. With divinely-given insight into Mary's feelings, Gabriel first of all calms her mind, and then, in preparation for the marvellous communication he was sent to make, assures her that she has found favour with God.* We say "in preparation" for Gabriel's message, for until the soul is at peace and in liberty divine things cannot be communicated. (Compare Dan. 10: 19.)

*Commenting upon verse 28, another has observed that "the expressions 'found favour' and 'highly favoured' have not at all the same meaning. Personally she had found favour, so that she was not to fear; but God had sovereignly bestowed on her this grace, this immense favour, of being the mother of the Lord. In this she was the object of God's sovereign favour." It may be added that finding favour with God refers to Mary's spiritual state, while being highly favoured speaks rather of her being God's chosen vessel for the birth of Jesus. But the two things are assuredly connected.

And what a message it was that Gabriel was sent to deliver! "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Vers. 31-33.)

It does not fall within our object to expatiate upon the ineffable mystery of the incarnation of our blessed Lord and Saviour, or to call attention to the several titles and glories with which He is here invested, inasmuch as it is Mary herself who is the subject of our meditations. This much, however, may be said, that the glory of His Person is surely contained in the name JESUS, meaning, as it does, Jehovah the Saviour; and, secondly, that all the titles given relate to the earth, and to His exaltation in the earth, as the Son of the Highest, and as the Son of David, who should exercise everlasting sovereignty over the house of Jacob. It is as Heir to the royal rights of David, but David's Lord as well as David's Son, that He is here presented. And let not the reader forget that all these promises await their fulfilment, and that they will be infallibly accomplished by the power of God according to His eternal counsels. The kings of the earth may set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed; but, notwithstanding all the raging of the nations and of their monarchs, God has set in His immutable purposes His King upon His holy hill of Zion; and He will reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet.

When God promised a son to Abraham, Sarah laughed within herself, doubting, not knowing the almighty power of the Promiser. Zacharias had also the difficulty of unbelief when he received from Gabriel the announcement that his wife Elizabeth should bear him a son. Mary replied to the angel, "How shall this be?" But although what was promised must be outside of the order of nature, it was not, as in the cases adduced, distrust that prompted her question. This is seen from the fact that Gabriel is permitted to give a full and complete answer to her inquiry, an answer which reveals two things, the miraculous conception of our blessed Lord, and that the Child so born should be called the Son of God, the Son of God as born into this world, according to the second psalm.* But to strengthen her divinely-given faith, which already existed, Gabriel was commissioned to inform her of God's grace also to her cousin Elizabeth, "for," said he, giving thus the unchanging basis of all belief, "with God nothing shall be impossible." God were not God if this were not so; and hence, too, as the Lord Himself taught, "All things are possible to him that believeth." It was this lesson which Mary had now learnt in her inmost soul, as shown by her response, "Behold the handmaid" (the bondsmaid) "of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

*It is important to distinguish between this title and His eternal Sonship, of which John, for example, speaks in his gospel.

And not only had Mary now learnt that with God nothing was or would be impossible, but also, made willing by divine grace, she offered herself, surely only in the power of the Holy Ghost, for the accomplishment of His blessed will, and without any reservation. In all the range of scripture there is no instance of a more exalted faith nor of a more complete submission. She could not be blind to the possible consequences in this world; and indeed we learn from Matthew that she became the object of suspicion and exercise even to Joseph. But faith never reasons and is never perplexed; it simply counts upon God, in the confidence that if He call to any service, or to walk in any path, He will both guide and sustain, whatever the trial or persecution involved. The calm of a soul which reposes in the will of God is unspeakable, and this was the inheritance of Mary at this moment. The favour bestowed upon her was infinite, and not less was the grace which enabled her to accept it with a meek and quiet spirit. In this respect, too, as well as in that of her being the chosen vessel for the birth of Jesus, all generations will call her blessed.

MARY'S VISIT TO ELIZABETH.

Whenever there is a work of grace in souls they are drawn together in the bonds of divine love. So was it with Mary and Elizabeth. Gabriel had revealed to Mary that God had also visited her cousin Elizabeth, and with the sense of what was to be accomplished through herself, whether she understood or not the full import of the communication she had received, she had been made to feel that there was one friend to whom. she could pour out her soul. Accordingly she "arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth."

Burdened with her tidings — tidings which told, moreover, of God's faithfulness to His word, and of His unquenchable love to His people — it could not be otherwise than that she should go "in haste." And what thoughts would fill her adoring heart as she sped on her mission! As one of the holy women of Judah, she well knew the scriptures that spake of the coming King and the glory of His kingdom. Such scriptures, for example, as "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem" (Isa. 52: 7-9); or again, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee." (Zech. 9: 9.) The very words the angel had employed could not fail to remind her of these glorious predictions, and to cause her heart to overflow with praise in that she, a humble virgin, should be connected with their fulfilment.

That her visit to Elizabeth was of the Lord is seen from the greeting she received — a greeting, moreover, which must have, in a remarkable manner, confirmed her faith. As soon as Elizabeth heard the salutation of her kinswoman she was reminded of her own condition, and at the same time, filled with the Holy Ghost, she was inspired to proclaim the blessedness of the one whom the Lord had so distinguished by His grace. "She spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."

Before considering Mary's response to Elizabeth, a few observations may be made upon these remarkable words. It will be at once observed that Elizabeth, as "filled with the Holy Ghost," is in entire communion with the mind of God as to Mary. Gabriel had said to her, "Blessed art thou among women," and Elizabeth now says, "Blessed art thou among women," adding, "and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." With her eyes opened by the power of God, she saw as God saw, and pronounces His own estimate upon the one He had chosen for this singular favour. As filled with the Spirit, moreover, she in meekness and humility acknowledged the exaltation of Mary by the grace of God. "And whence," she proceeded, "is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Herself the object of the divine favour, she yet took the lowest place before the one who was to become the mother of her Lord.

Let the instruction sink deeply into our hearts, that when the Spirit of God is working in souls all envy, strife, and jealousy are banished. Love then flows out unhinderedly, and humility is the fruit of love. Then, after describing the effect upon her of Mary's salutation, she proclaimed a third character of blessedness. Mary was blessed as the object of God's sovereign favour, she was blessed as the vessel for the incarnation of our Lord, and she was blessed on account of her faith — faith which surmounted all obstacles, and reposed upon the almighty power of God. Like Abraham, she staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but "found strength in faith," giving glory to God. She had thus unfalteringly laid hold of God's word, unhesitatingly concluding that what He had promised He would certainly perform. She honoured God in this way, and now she was met with a divine assurance, through the lips of Elizabeth, and there should be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

THE MAGNIFICAT.*

*This is a name which was attached to Mary's utterance in the early age of the church — from the Latin word to magnify.

Let these words of Mary be given in their entirety, that the reader may perceive more fully their divine meaning and beauty:

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden:

For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For He that is mighty hath done to me great things;

And holy is His name.

And His mercy is on them that fear Him

From generation to generation.

He hath showed strength with His arm;

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seats,

And exalted them of low degree.

He hath filled the hungry with good things;

And the rich He hath sent empty away.

He hath holpen His servant Israel,

In remembrance of His mercy;

As He spake to our fathers,

To Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

It has been said by a well-known writer that "it is remarkable that we are not told that Mary was full of the Holy Ghost. It appears to me," the writer proceeds, "that this is an honourable distinction for her. The Holy Ghost visited Elizabeth and Zacharias in an exceptional manner. But, although we cannot doubt that Mary was under the influence of the Spirit of God, it was a more inward effect more connected with her own faith, with her piety, with the more habitual relations of her heart with God (that were formed by this faith, and by this piety), and which consequently expressed itself more as her own sentiments. It is thankfulness for the grace conferred on her, the lowly one, and that in connection with the hopes and blessing of Israel." These remarks will help us in our consideration of this striking song of praise — a song which has been well described as "the proper celebration of Israel's joy in the gift of Christ." For while it is the utterance of the feelings which had been produced in Mary's heart by the Holy Ghost, and feelings which were suited and responsive to the distinguishing grace bestowed upon her, Mary herself was lost, so to speak, in her being a type of Israel. (See ver. 54.)

As may be seen at a glance, the song is Jewish in its character; that is, it does not go beyond Abraham and his seed. In this respect it has often been compared with that of Hannah, for she also, without going back as Mary did to God's promises to Abraham, surveys the whole of His dealings with His people, and triumphantly anticipates their complete deliverance, through Jehovah's intervention, as she says, "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven he shall thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed." Mary, on the other hand, regards the deliverance as already effected — effected in the One who was about to be born — and thus she says that "God has holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

Two things will not fail to arrest the attention in Mary's song. First, that she ascribes everything to God; and that, taking the place of nothingness, she celebrates His grace. Concerning these points we cannot refrain from citing the following words, "She acknowledges God her Saviour in the grace that has filled her with such joy; whilst, at the same time, she owns her utter littleness. For whatever might be the holiness of the instrument that God might employ — and that was found really in Mary — yet she was only great so long as she hid herself, for then God was everything. By making something of herself she would have lost her place; but this she did not. God kept her, in order that His grace might be fully manifested." May we all give heed to this blessed instruction, inasmuch as it is impossible that grace can have its full sway in our souls if we are not in our true place of nothingness before God.

Entering into these thoughts, the reader will readily understand the language of this song of praise. Whenever there is a real work of the Spirit of God in the souls of His people, their hearts ascend to the source whence their blessing has come. So with Mary; her first thought is the Lord who had visited her with such ineffable grace. "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Her individuality was merged for the moment, under the mighty action of the Holy Ghost, in Israel, and thus she rejoices in Israel's God and Saviour. It is true that she speaks of herself in the next verse, and says that God has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden (bondsmaid), and that all generations will henceforth call her blessed; but even so it is only as the chosen instrument of the blessing which was coming upon Israel. It was the thought of Israel's salvation out of their low estate which filled her soul when she said, "He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name." For she immediately adds, "And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation," showing, moreover, that it was God's elect Israel that occupied her mind — the Israel that Balaam was constrained to speak of when he said God had not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor seen perverseness in Israel — the Israel, in a word, of God's purpose and according to His thoughts.

The next three verses set forth the principles of God's actings in grace, and the condition of soul requisite for its reception. The proud in the imagination of their hearts, the mighty on their thrones, and the rich, the self-sufficient, cannot stand before a holy God in judgment. It is to the poor that the gospel is ever preached; and thus it is those of low degree whom God exalts, and the hungry whom He fills with good things. The Lord Himself proclaimed the same lesson when He said, "Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh . . . ."; and then, turning to the other side, "Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep." (Luke 6: 20-26.) Far and wide let these solemn words run — encouragement and comfort to the poor, the suffering, and afflicted people of God, and as loud warnings to those who are seeking their satisfaction and exaltation in this world.

Mary concludes her song with the language already referred to, "He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever." Faith is the "substantiating" of things hoped for, and Mary at this moment, dreary as were the spaces that Israel would have to traverse before these words were fulfilled, surveyed the accomplishment of all God's purposes of grace for His earthly people. Indeed, everything was both secured and established in the person of Him who was about to be born into this world, even as the angels in their praises say in the next chapter, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill [pleasure or delight] in men."

For three months Mary continued with her aged* kinswoman, and then returned to her own house. Scripture draws the veil over the communings of these holy women; but we may be sure that they were helpers of one another's faith and joy in the Lord. The visit ended, Mary went back to her home, "to follow humbly her own path, that the purposes of God may be accomplished." Meanwhile, that home was the one spot on earth that attracted and concentred the attention of heaven.

*She, with her husband, was well stricken in years.

MARY AT BETHLEHEM.

If God is sovereign in His purposes, His sovereignty is no less displayed in His selection of instrumentalities for their fulfilment. More than seven hundred years before the birth of Christ the prophet Micah had said in the name of Jehovah, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." That this was regarded as a prediction of the birthplace of the Messiah, is shown from the fact that it was quoted by the chief priests and scribes in answer to Herod's question where Christ should be born. But Mary's home was at Nazareth in Galilee, and the time was drawing near for the birth of her holy Child; and lo, "it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world [the 'habitable world' — the Roman empire] should be taxed." The effect of this decree was that Joseph (together with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child), was compelled, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to go up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. Little did the Roman emperor know what would be the consequence of the thought which had come into his mind. As a writer has remarked, "This act only accomplishes the marvellous purpose of God, causing the Saviour-king to be born in the village where, according to the testimony of God, that event was to take place." And what is so remarkable is, that though the decree was issued, and Joseph and Mary, doubtless with many others, repaired to their city to be enregistered, it would yet appear that the census was not actually made until some time afterwards, "when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." How admirable the wisdom of God, and the perfection of His ways! Joseph must take Mary his wife to Bethlehem, and God constrains the emperor to set the machinery of his empire in motion that Joseph may be compelled to go. What a proof it is that God still holds the reins of government in His hands, and that He turns the hearts of men whithersoever He will! The Christian believes and knows it; and he thus rests in peace in the midst of all the busy activities of men, and amid all the confusion, turbulence, and strife which prevail on every hand.

It was while Joseph and Mary were at Bethlehem that Mary "brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." (Ver. 7.) It is no part of our object to consider the incarnation at this time: we are rather concerned with the personal history of Mary. We venture, however, to offer the reflections of another upon this stupendous event, upon this mystery of mysteries: "The Son of God is born in this world, but He finds no place there. The world is at home, or at least by its resources it finds a place, in the inn; it becomes a kind of measure of man's place in, and reception by, the world; the Son of God finds none, save in the manger. Is it for nothing that the Holy Ghost records this circumstance? No! There is no room for God, and that which is of God, in this world. So much the more perfect, therefore, is the love that brought him down to earth. But He began in a manger, and ended on the cross, and along the way He had not where to lay His head." So it was; and surely, as believers, we are constrained to bow with reverence and adoration in the presence of our God, as we contemplate the manner in which He became "God manifest in flesh," and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. And while thus prostrate before Him, let us remember that to effect the gracious purposes of His love, to redeem His people, whether Israel or the church, entailed upon Him rejection in life and the cross in death. That Child who lay in the manger was "the object of all the counsels of God, the upholder and heir of all creation, the Saviour of all who shall inherit glory and eternal life." It is no wonder, consequently, that Mary was hidden through all this time; not a word is recorded of what she felt, thought, or said, for in truth she was unseen behind the glory of her Child.

MARY AND THE SHEPHERDS.

If we refer to these pious men, who were elected of God to receive the announcement of the birth of "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," it is only because of their connection with Mary's history. It was not with the great of the earth that God was at this moment concerned; but it was with His poor and afflicted people, amongst whom these shepherds were numbered. Divine communications can only be received by those whose hearts have been divinely prepared; and hence we may be confident that these humble men were amongst those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. (See ver. 38.) Thus it was to these, as they were keeping watch over their flock by night, that the angel was sent to carry them good tidings of great joy, which should be to all (the) people; and to certify their faith a sign was given unto them: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." No sooner had he delivered his message than "suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men" (good pleasure in men).

Leaving the devout reader to meditate upon these words, words which tell at least that all God's purposes of blessing for His people Israel were already realised in the Person of His beloved Son, we must follow the shepherds. With simple faith, without a question as to the truth of what they had heard, they said one to another, "Let us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." What a sight it was that greeted their eyes! They might not have comprehended the full import of what they saw, or the glory of the Child. Still they saw Him, and, it cannot be doubted, with adoring hearts. Not a word is recorded of anything they or Mary or Joseph said. Is it because they were feasting their eyes upon the Saviour, Christ the Lord, as He lay there in the manger? And yet they must have spoken, for after the statement made concerning their testimony "about the country," and the effect it produced, it is said that "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Combining this with the last clause of verse 57, we gather that Mary was a quiet, meditative, reflective soul. Chosen for such a mission, and with such a charge, it could scarcely be otherwise. With even the feeblest sense of the character of her Child she must have been awed in the presence of God, and speech would be almost incongruous. Man would like to know more of her thoughts as she gazed upon the face of that wondrous Child, the One of whom Isaiah prophesied and said, "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;" but great as was the favour bestowed upon Mary, it was not she, but her Son, who was the object of heaven, the object of God's counsels, and the One in whom the glory of God would be upheld, vindicated, and made good even in this world. We can, however, admire the beautiful traits of her character which were so conspicuous in her pious and godly demeanour.

MARY IN THE TEMPLE.

The godly and devout character of Mary and Joseph is testified to by their careful attention, in every particular, to the word of God. Both in respect of the circumcision of the holy Child Jesus, and in Mary's own purification, they were found in exact obedience to the prescriptions of the law (see Leviticus 13), as likewise in the presentation of Jesus to the Lord, "as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." Forty days were to elapse before Mary could thus appear in the temple at Jerusalem; and it was during this time that the visit of the wise men from the east, as recorded by Matthew, must have occurred. In that scene, as in the visit of the shepherds, Mary is in the background, and we may surely say that she was there willingly. In communion with God's mind, at least in her measure, she would delight, in the recognition of the coming glory of the One who was "born King of the Jews;" and she would in no wise be astonished when she saw them fall down and worship Him, or when they opened their treasures and presented to Him gifts — gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. It was her joy that she had been the chosen vessel of His birth; but she had thenceforward to learn that to be in relationship and identification with God's Anointed would entail upon her the persecution of the god of this world. The moment God's Man-child was born, the dragon (Satan), who had been waiting for the event, sought to devour Him. Mary, with Joseph, as well as Jesus, became the object of the enmity of the wicked king; but sheltered by divine protection and guidance, when they had to flee into Egypt, and again, after they had returned to the land of Israel, into Galilee to their former home, they enjoyed the inestimable honour and privilege of ministering to Him who was no less than the Son of God.

Recalling these incidents to connect the narrative, we may now consider the scene in the temple. Malachi had written, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple," and lo! He had come — "when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law." Jerusalem that day was pursuing her course, her people were buying and selling, attending to their household duties and their daily avocations; their Idumean king, blood thirsty and cruel, miserable and unhappy, but blinding his subjects with his munificence and the splendour of his edifices, was bent as ever upon the gratification of his evil lusts; and all alike were in ignorance of the wondrous fact that God had visited His people, that the glorious Messiah of whom the prophets had sung, and whose kingdom should extend throughout the earth (see Psalm 72), was already in their midst, and being carried into the sacred precincts of the temple.

But God, whatever the attitude and unbelief of the nation, always secured the acknowledgement of His beloved Son, in whatever character He was presented. So in this instance He had prepared the hearts of a few, those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem, to welcome His Christ; and of these, two had been chosen to behold Him at this time with their eyes. Mary and Joseph had trodden the streets of the city with their precious charge, as any other humble Jewish saints might have done in similar circumstances, and they had entered unobserved and unnoticed into the sacred enclosure, knowing nothing of what God had been doing. But, as the evangelist writes, "There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon: and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple." Here, then, was one, and one under the complete control of the Holy Ghost, whom God had called and qualified to receive His Son, when Mary and Joseph brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law.

This wondrous scene may well and profitably occupy our attention before proceeding with our subject; and as we consider it may we remember that we are standing upon holy ground. We read that Simeon "took" Jesus up in his arms; it should be "received him into his arms;" and every reverent soul will at once perceive that this is the more suitable, as, indeed, it is the correct word. He received Him into his arms, we may be sure, from the hands of Mary. What a sight! That pious and devoted mother handing her Child into the arms of the aged Simeon, and Simeon to have the inestimable privilege of receiving into his arms that Child in whom all the counsels of God were to be established and perfected!

And who was that Child? He was the Word become flesh, of whom it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the WORD WAS GOD." (John 1: 1.) He was "the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by ["in"] Him all things consist."* He was the One in whom "all the fulness was pleased to dwell." (Col. 1: 15-19); He was the "Son whom God hath appointed the Heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds . . . . the brightness of [the] glory, and the express image of his Person, and upholding all things by the word of his power." (Heb. 1: 2, 3.) On the other hand, as born into this world, He was the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, and the Son of David. All these glories, and many more, for He was a divine Person who had deigned to become flesh, circle around, and shine out from, that holy Babe whom Mary gave into the arms of Simeon. Let us gaze to the full, and reverently, upon this divine mystery; for the more we gaze, the more will our hearts be bowed with adoration in the presence of God's unspeakable gift, before such unfathomable grace and such knowledge-surpassing love.

*There are three prepositions here used, the force of which may be given in the words of one competent to speak upon this subject. He says, "En, in the power of whose Person, He was the One whose intrinsic power characterised the creation. It exists as His creature; dia, the instrumental power, eis, 'for.' Thus en, dia, eis, the characteristic power, active instrument, and end."

Simeon stood before God with THIS CHILD in his arms; and with an overflowing heart he blessed God, and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." All his desires were satisfied, every link with earth was broken as soon as he possessed God's salvation, and he was ready to depart in peace. Like Moses also, yea, beyond the experience of Moses when he stood on Pisgah and saw the land which God had provided for His people, Simeon, with the holy Child in his arms, was at the centre of God's counsels, and thence he looked onward to the time when the Gentiles would be brought into the light, and when Christ would be the glory of His people Israel.

Joseph and the Child's mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him, as well they might, for here we only know in part; it is only gradually we acquire and come into the power of the truth we profess to acknowledge. Two things follow. To be associated with Christ in this world brings both blessing and sorrow, and this is here exemplified in Mary. Simeon had "blessed" God, and now he blessed them — Joseph and Mary; and then, addressing Mary, he said, "Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also); that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." God thus in tender grace, through His servant Simeon, prepared Mary for her Child's path of sorrow and rejection. And who can doubt that it was chiefly when she stood by the cross of Jesus, and beheld His sorrow, that the sword pierced through her own soul also? How merciful it is in the ways of God that it is only gradually we approach our sorrows, and that we find when they come upon us that they are "lustred with his love"! Mary would never forget these words, but "pondering them in her heart," she would be constantly laying them out before God in her meditations and prayers. But if through her life she had to live under the shadow of the cross, she would find, we may be assured, ample compensation and sustenance in the company of her Son. There would be much she could not understand, but she would certainly rest in the knowledge that Jesus, Jehovah the Saviour, was with her, and hence that, in all the earth, there was no one endowed with such an unspeakable privilege and blessing. For His sake, and from love to Him, she would be enabled to survey the future, and to leave it all in the hands of Him who had chosen her for the path.

The poverty of Joseph and Mary is incidentally seen in the sacrifice they brought in connection with the presentation of Jesus. In Leviticus we read, concerning the law of purifying for a woman who has borne a child: "If she be not able to bring a lamb [for a burnt offering], then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean." (Lev. 12: 8,) Mary was "not able" to bring a lamb; and the Spirit of God thus calls our attention to the fact that our Lord was born in the circumstances of humble life, that His "mind" was, from the outset, yea, before He came to earth, to humble Himself. What mother would not, if she could, surround her child with every comfort and even luxury? But all was ordered by divine wisdom, and as we consider not only the circumstances of our Lord's birth, but the pathway of Him who had not where to lay His head, we are only the more impressed with His unspeakable grace.

The rites of the temple, together with Simeon's prophetic utterances, were ended, and when Joseph and Mary "had performed all things according to the law of the Lord," they left the temple, went down the steps, and through the temple gates with their precious charge, and "they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth," where they pursued their daily avocations, possessed of a divine secret which no one in Nazareth knew but themselves.

MARY AND JOSEPH FINDING JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.

Twelve years passed by, and concerning this whole period two things only are mentioned. The first is, that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him;" and the second is, that "his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover." This is another testimony to the piety of Mary and her husband, and it may be that it is on this account the fact is noted; for it is not even said if Mary took the child Jesus with her on these occasions. Not a word is added to gratify human curiosity; only that is given which is requisite for the object the Spirit of God has in view. All is divinely perfect, because every word of scripture is the expression of divine wisdom; indeed, the fact stated in verse 41 is but the introduction to the incident which follows, and it is this we now proceed to consider, in so far at least as it relates to Mary.

The first two verses will prepare our way — "And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it." It would seem from Jewish records that twelve was the age when Jewish youths were considered sufficiently mature to take upon themselves their individual responsibilities before God. A boy who had reached this age was termed "son of the law," and then first incurred legal obligations.*

*See ALFORD'S Greek Testament, in loco, vol. i. p. 418.

Be this as it may, the fact is here given that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem when He was at the age of twelve, and it cannot be without significance that it is especially notified. What transpired at the feast is not recorded; our attention is directed rather to the circumstance that, on the return of Joseph and Mary with the caravan,* Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. It was but natural that they should have supposed that He was in the company, and that therefore they should have made a day's journey without anxiety. But then, failing to find Him among their, kinsfolk and acquaintance, they turned back to Jerusalem seeking Him. For three days they were anxiously and with distress of heart occupied with their search. This was undoubtedly divinely arranged, for until the "child Jesus" had done His Father's will it could not be that He should be interrupted. At the end of this time "they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." Let the reader here notice how the Holy Spirit, before recording the words of Mary, calls attention to the wisdom displayed by this holy Child — wisdom so strikingly manifested, "that all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." How true it is that God delights to occupy us with the perfections of His beloved Son! Mary and Joseph — humble people that they were, though Joseph was the son of David (Matt. 1: 21) — were amazed at the sight, and Mary, with the impulse of a mother's heart, at once interposed and said, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."

*It is said that all who went up to Jerusalem for the feast from the same district travelled together for convenience and security. It is possible that an allusion to this custom is found in Psalm 84: 7.

Before entering upon the reply of Jesus, these words of Mary must be considered. More than twelve years had now passed since the marvellous communications of Gabriel, and almost as long since the prophetic utterances of the aged Simeon. These years, interrupted only by the journey to Jerusalem on the recurring festival of the passover, had been quietly passed at Nazareth in the ordinary duties of domestic life. It is not inconceivable that, whatever the perfections of her Son, ever more manifested with His growth in years, Mary was partially blinded by the naturalness of His daily life, or at least that she was sometimes forgetful of the destiny that awaited her Son. We may not speculate, or go beyond scripture, but there are two things in this address to Jesus which seem very distinctly to justify the above suppositions. The first is the implied reproach conveyed in her words, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?" and the second is her use of the term, in including Joseph with herself, "Thy father." We need not mark these things as failures, though we cannot doubt that they sprang from purely natural feelings and relationships. On the other hand, it is as evident that the manner of her speech was the offspring of her intense affection for her perfect Child.

The answer of Jesus to His mother was the declaration of His consciousness of His divine relationship, together with the announcement that He had come to do His Father's will. Mary had said of Joseph to Jesus, "Thy father." The answer was that He had remained in Jerusalem because, as He said, "I must be about My Father's business." His Father's will was to be the supreme law of His life, and it was His joy to acknowledge it; and in its acknowledgement He fully answered Mary's question and removed at the same time her unconcealed reproach. We cannot be surprised that they "understood not the saying which he spake unto them."

Thereupon we read that "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." His reply to Mary in the temple throws a flood of light upon all these years that came between His first passover and His baptism, because He had by it clearly defined His position. He was hereto be "about his Father's business" and consequently, in being subject to Joseph and Mary, He was doing His Father's will in like manner as when He tarried behind in Jerusalem. There was not, there could not be, any discord between His daily life and what men term the more sacred duties. Every breath, every feeling, every thought, every word, and every deed were but the fruits of His entire devotedness to His Father's will, for He always did the things that pleased Him. (John 8: 29.) What a spectacle passed daily before the eyes of Mary and Joseph in that humble abode at Nazareth!

"His mother," we are told in conclusion, "kept all these sayings in her heart" — the sayings at Jerusalem and the sayings surely at Nazareth; and as she guarded and meditated upon them, we may be certain that the Spirit of God gave her some perception of their meaning, to sustain, to guide, and to comfort her in the coming years. No, of all the women who have over lived, there is not one who had such a blessed privilege as Mary; she was indeed "highly favoured." But as we write these words we again recall the Lord's reply to the woman who cried out from among the crowd, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." "Yea, rather," He answered, "blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." This blessedness is open to every one of God's people.

IN CANA OF GALILEE.

(JOHN 2: 1-11)

Years pass away before Mary is again seen in the sacred record. Her last appearance was at Jerusalem, when Jesus was "twelve years old," whither she with her husband had gone to keep the feast of the Passover. Thence they returned to Nazareth, and for at least eighteen years there is no mention either of Jesus or His mother. During all this time in which He was hidden, she also was hidden; it is, or should be, the same with the Christian. Now our life is hid with Christ in God; but when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. (See also 1 John 3: 2.) So, in the gospel, the moment Jesus commences His manifestation to Israel (John 1: 31) Mary is once more introduced. But in order to rightly apprehend this and the subsequent appearances of Mary, it should be observed that her personal history is closed. If she is seen or mentioned afterwards, it is either in a typical way, or to be used to furnish some precious lesson in connection with our Lord. She must not, highly favoured as she was, arrest the eyes of God's people when her Son, Jesus, is upon the scene: it is His perfections, His wisdom, His devotedness to the will of His God, His glory, that must occupy the reader, though he may not forget the uniqueness of the relationship in which Mary stood to her Child.

On "the third day," we are told, "there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage." Few can doubt, if at least they have entered into the prophetic teaching concerning the future restoration of Israel, that this whole scene is emblematic. The statement that it was on the third day that the marriage took place plainly points to this, whether by the third day is understood the period of blessing (and judgment, if the purging of the temple is added) which follows upon the two days of testimony — that of John the Baptist, and that of Jesus Himself — recorded in John 1; or that it signifies, as so often, resurrection, and thus shadows forth the fact that the blessing of the earthly people, even as that of the heavenly, can only be established in resurrection. To comprehend the symbolical character of this marriage, a marriage which, while it actually took place, was selected for this purpose, is to possess the key to the narrative. It is necessary to say this much because men, and even Christians, have been betrayed into the discussion concerning the Lord's personal conduct to Mary on this occasion, forgetting, in their human thoughts, the glory of the One who manifests here, as everywhere, His perfection in every relationship in which He stood.*

*One well-known Bible has actually falsified the translation of verse 4 in order to conceal the real character of the words which Jesus spoke to Mary. It is given as if it were, "What is that to me and thee?" In the words of a writer, this "is not a mistake, because it is a wilful misrepresentation." A solemn, but a true, accusation!

We read that "when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." (Vers. 3-5.) The following remark of another will help to elucidate the meaning of this scripture: "At the feast (marriage) He would not know his mother: this was the link of His natural relation with Israel, which, looking at Him as born under the law, was His mother, He separates Himself from her to accomplish blessing." This will serve to explain the typical nature of this scene to which allusion has been made. And truly it was so, that, if Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law, He had to die out from under all these relationships, having perfectly glorified God therein, and having redeemed those who were under the law by being made a curse for them, before He could effectuate Israel's blessing. The corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die if it were to bring forth much fruit.

But there is another thing to be remembered. Jesus had already communicated to His mother, as we have before seen, that He must be about His Father's business; and having come to do His will, He did it at every step in communion with the Father, whether as to time or manner. As He Himself said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," etc. (John 5: 19-20.) It was impossible, therefore, for Him to receive a suggestion as to what He should do from Mary; and even by the making it Mary was intruding into a province which was exclusively confined to the Father and the Son. That what she said was the prompting of kindness, and that it was, at the same time, expressive of her belief in the power of Jesus, can scarcely be denied; but in the region of Christ's entire and perfect devotedness no voice could be heard but His whose will He had come to do. This will explain to us the words, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come."*

*Commentators are sorely perplexed as to whether these words contained a rebuke. What has been said above will suffice for the answer: it may, however, be added that if a rebuke, it was given in the manner which would best serve to make the desired impression upon Mary's heart.

That the words of Jesus to His mother had their purposed effect is clear from the fact that she attempted no reply, and that she still counted upon the interposition of Jesus and the display of His power; for she said to the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." This is exceedingly beautiful; for if Mary had been tempted out of her proper place by her intense affections, and perhaps by her desire to see her Son publicly acknowledged, she, immediately the Lord had spoken, resumed her place of retirement, even while looking for some outshining of His more than human glory (ver. 11), and bidding the servants to render to Him unquestioning obedience. The conciliation of her maternal affections with her faith in Jesus as the One who should be called the Son of the Highest, and the Son of God, must have been, in the routine of daily life as she beheld Jesus eating, drinking, and sleeping, ever a difficult task; but God Himself was watching over her, and was daily opening her heart to the needed instruction even as at this marriage at Cana of Galilee. Her concern at the deficiency of the wine was more than removed, as she remained a silent spectator of the subsequent proceedings, and she therefore enjoyed the inestimable privilege of witnessing this beginning of miracles which Jesus did, when He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him. Any putting forth of what is divine is a part of the glory of God, which is the display of what He is, and consequently turning the water into wine by omnipotent power was this; and the effect was that His disciples believed on Him. They had received Him before, however feeble their faith, but now their faith was confirmed, as Mary's also must have been.

Jesus having accomplished His mission in Cana of Galilee, went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they continued there many days.*

*It would seem from this scripture, and especially from Mark 2: 1, that Mary had removed from Nazareth to Capernaum. It is also probable, for he is not mentioned after Luke 2: 48, that Joseph was now dead, and this may have led to the removal. Nothing hangs upon either of these conjectures, although in regard to the latter one can readily perceive that there might be divine reasons for the death of Joseph before Jesus entered upon His public mission.

THE LORD'S MOTHER AND HIS BRETHREN.

(MATT. 12: 46-50; MARK 3: 31-35; LUKE 8: 19-21.)

From a comparison of the first two scriptures it would seem that the incident they contain, which again brings Mary to our notice, took place at Capernaum. Here at this moment the Lord was entirely engaged in His blessed ministry, and so greatly were the crowds attracted to Him, that He and His disciples "could not so much as eat bread." His "friends," either in their concern for Him, or inconvenienced by what was going on, "went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself." (Mark 3: 20, 21.) It is this incident which explains the occurrence now to be considered; for in Mark's gospel it follows almost immediately upon it. Again, then, we find Him diligently pursuing His divine mission, and "the multitude sat about him" (Mark), and "while he yet talked to the people" (Matthew), "behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak to him;" but, as we gather from Luke, they "could not come at him for the press," that is, the crowd. Then, "standing without, they sent unto him, calling him," as we learn from Mark. Word was thus passed into the inner circle of His audience that our Lord was wanted by His mother and brethren; and thereon, following the account in Matthew, one said unto him, "Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee."

At first it may seem strange, after the lesson which Mary had been taught at Cana, that she should have ventured thus to interrupt the Lord in His service. It can only be understood in the light of the incident, already referred to in Mark 3: 20, 21. Although it had been revealed to Mary who and what Jesus was, it could not but be that she had devoted natural affections; and surely these would be both intensified and augmented as she witnessed His pure and holy life, a life wherein might be seen perfect love to God and man, divine and earthly claims (for He was subject to Joseph and Mary as a Child) adjusted. That Mary did not see all the fragrance and beauty of the life of her Son may well be imagined, but what she did behold could not fail to make Him increasingly the absorbing object of her heart. When therefore she saw Him yielding Himself, without any consideration of self or ease, to His service, following it day by day, and never, in any, even the slightest, degree, sparing Himself, but unweariedly, morning, noon, and night, seizing every opportunity to be about His Father's business, she must have been, in so far as she was governed by her natural affection, alarmed for His sake. It is only thus that the message that she desired to speak with Him can be accounted for or understood.

Before considering the Lord's reply, it will be profitable to point out a characteristic of divine wisdom which is here displayed. Failures on the part of the Lord's disciples, and expressions of the enmity of the carnal mind, are often recorded in the gospels, and yet all these are immediately turned to divine account, either for calling attention to some trait of glory in the Person of Christ Himself, or to teach some valuable lesson of divine truth. Nothing more clearly proves that God is behind everything, that He uses all for the accomplishment of His own purposes, whether of grace or judgment. So is it with Mary's interruption of our Lord's address as here recorded. The parables of Matthew 13 make it clear that the Lord had reached a crisis in His ministry; and it is not too much to say that they could not have been uttered before He had broken off His connection, by His teaching, with the Jewish nation according to the flesh. It is this very thing which the Lord takes occasion to do from Mary's message. How divinely perfect is both His wisdom and also the word in which it is enshrined! And who but a divine Person could have foreseen everything, and made it subservient to His own objects!

The answer of the Lord to His mother and His brethren is worthy of our most devout attention: "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." (Matt. 12: 48-50.)

Although we are mainly concerned in our meditations with the personal history of Mary, it is not altogether possible to pass over the profitable instruction of this incident. As to Mary herself, the lesson is very much the same as that given to her at Cana of Galilee. Engaged as the Lord was in doing the will of God in His blessed service, He could not allow an interruption even from His mother according to the flesh. In His devotedness to His Father's "business," He had nothing to do with her. (See John 2: 4.) And herein we are permitted to see Him as the true and perfect Levite. When Moses, before his departure, blessed the tribes of Israel, he said of Levi: "Who said unto his father and mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: but they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant." (Deut. 33: 9; see also Ps. 69: 8.) How blessedly is all this exemplified in Christ in the scene under our consideration! He was for God wholly and entirely, and thus outside of all the claims of natural relationship. He was indeed the Leader of His people in every path in which He calls upon them to walk. (See 1 John 2: 6.) In like manner He fulfilled God's thought of the Nazarite, inasmuch as in all the days of His separation He was holy unto Jehovah; for while His Nazariteship is maintained now in another way, and in another condition, for in that He liveth, He liveth unto God, He was absolutely for God in all His earthly pathway.

But there was, as indeed already mentioned, another significance. The close of Matthew 11 shows that He had now been rejected, and that God's elect had set aside the nation which would not receive their Messiah. If the blessings of grace were now hid from the wise and prudent, God had revealed "these things" unto babes, and Jesus could praise the Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for the exercise of His sovereignty according to His eternal counsels. Henceforward therefore, as it was now revealed, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." When the Lord thus said, in reply to one who told Him that His mother and His brethren wished to speak with Him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? it was the declaration that His natural ties with the Jewish people were no longer owned. Hence it is, as we may expect, that we find Him in the next chapter, going forth as a sower to produce fruit, for He had indeed come to seek fruit, and He found none.

Together with this we learn that He had formed His most intimate ties with His disciples, for stretching forth His hand towards them, He said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. What precious grace He thus displayed, declaring before all His entire identification with that poor and feeble remnant who were following Him with such halting steps, and who yet, through His care and support, were continuing with Him in His temptations! Doing the will of His Father, and they were doing it in listening to His call, they were brought into the blessed circle of which He was both the centre and the Head, and in which He found His delight. (Ps. 16: 3.) We may yet see how tenderly He cared for Mary when His service was over, and this, too, was a part of His perfection as man on the earth; but it is none the less true that He owned as the closest of all ties those which knitted Him to the children God had given Him. (Isa. 8: 18.)

It may surely be observed that in this also He is our perfect Example. How many of us fail to adjust the claims of God and of His people with family ties! To be without natural affection is a given sign of the last and perilous times; but if it become absorbing, or if it be elevated beyond love to the brethren, and assume the supreme and governing motive of our lives, we could not be in the spirit of these words of our blessed Lord. If, however, Christ himself possess our hearts, we shall view those that are His in the light of His own affections, and being thus in the truth of the assembly, our families and our households will occupy their true place. May our hearts be enlightened by these gracious words which fell from our Lord's lips on this occasion!

MARY STANDING BY THE CROSS OF JESUS.

(JOHN 19: 25-27.)

WHEN the aged Simeon held the infant Jesus in his arms, he said unto Mary, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." We have italicised the words which referred especially to Mary, and which surely found their fulfilment in the scene contained in this scripture. Whether she had followed Jesus to the cross is not said, nor whether she had witnessed the mocking insults and buffetings He had received when before His judges. A veil, as far as Mary is concerned, is drawn over her feelings, her suspense and agony, during the dark night of His betrayal. Although the sword must have pierced through her inmost heart during the night and day that succeeded the Passover, it is with the Lord Himself, and not with Mary, that the Spirit of God is concerned. It is His attitude, His demeanour, His meekness, His patience and humility, His words that we are called upon to contemplate. But now that His sorrows and sufferings are drawing to a close, the veil is lifted for one brief minute, that we may behold Mary at the cross, or rather, let it be said, that we may behold the perfection of Jesus in His care for Mary, now that the will of God has been accomplished in His service on the earth. Others are with Mary, her sister, Mary, the [wife] of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene; but it is to Mary and to the beloved disciple who was "standing by" that the Lord's words are addressed. We may not conjecture where the word of God is silent; still we may surely repeat that Mary could not gaze upon the crucifixion of her holy Son without unutterable agony — without having her heart rent by the harrowing spectacle. She had watched Him for more than thirty years; she could not but have been sensible of much of the moral fragrance and beauty of His devoted life, and she must have had some glimpses, at least, of the glory of His person. And now it was her lot to behold Him rejected, insulted, outraged, and crucified! That divine support was ministered to her, while passing through such a fiery trial, we may be assured; but none the less, it must have been with a bursting heart, that she watched Him upon the cross, and saw the fiendish delight of His enemies in the realisation of their wicked ends.

We may not, however, linger upon reflections such as these, neither would we have ventured to make them, except to enhance our appreciation of the tenderness and care of Jesus for Mary in her sorrow. His cup had now been drained, for we read immediately that "Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished;" and hence, knowing also what was passing in Mary's heart, He was at leisure to turn to her with words of solace and consolation. Was she in the darkness of desolation in these moments of her supreme trial? The light was at hand to dispel the gloom, and to assure her that the One on whom she had been looking with such unspeakable sorrow understood her grief; for He opened His lips and said, when He saw His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, "Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."

In meditating on these words, attention may be called to the fact that the evangelist is led to write the word "mother," while Jesus addresses her as "woman." Mary was the mother of Jesus, and this favour from God led Gabriel to salute her as blessed among women. But, as we have seen, natural ties could not be acknowledged as constituting any claim upon a life of devoted and perfect Nazariteship. And now that the Lord's death was at hand, even this tender and intimate tie would be ended, ended by His departure from the scene in which He (in incarnation) was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death; and yet it is at this moment that the Holy Spirit reminds us that she was the mother of Jesus. It teaches, beyond all contradiction, that the honour which God bestowed upon Mary shall never, in its own sphere, be taken away. The error, and the deadly error, has been to transfer the honour from earth to heaven, and thus in effect to exalt her even above God's beloved Son.

There are two things in these words of our Lord which may be plainly apprehended. In the first place, He gives to Mary in her bereavement consolation and an object. The beloved disciple who knew the Lord's mind as none other could have done (for he had laid his head upon the Lord's breast) was henceforth to be as Mary's son; and Mary might take him to her heart in a new way as given to her by the Lord Himself. In fact, it was a precious legacy of His heart's affection — the greatest solace He could minister to her in the circumstances. Secondly, He transferred His own earthly relationship to John when He said, Behold thy mother; and He thus singled out the disciple whom He loved for the fulfilment of all the loving responsibilities which such a relationship involved. Mary, in a word, was committed by the Lord to John's care, who henceforward was to tend her, and provide for her with filial affection. The Lord knew what was in the heart of each, and it was according to His knowledge of, and love for each, that He committed them. thus to one another, and thus bound their hearts together for the remainder of their earthly pilgrimage.

THE LAST MENTION OF MARY.

(ACTS 1)

THE beloved disciple, in obedience to the expressed desire of the Lord ere He bowed His head, and delivered up His spirit,* had taken Mary unto his own home. From that moment, except for one brief record, she disappears from our view. Neither at the burial of the body of the Lord, nor at the garden on the resurrection morn, is she seen; but after the Lord's ascension, which the apostles had beheld (see Acts 1: 1-11), when they had returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, they went up into an upper room, where the apostles abode; and in this connection we find the final appearance of Mary in the sacred record. It says, referring to the eleven, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren."†

*The reader will remember that in John 10, Jesus had said that He had power to lay His life down, and hence it is that, in accordance with this statement, it is here written that He "delivered up" His spirit — as One in full control over it. We are thus permitted to gaze upon Him in this act as completing His holy life of obedience, glorifying the Father, and finishing the work which He had given Him to do.

†From the next verse it appears that an hundred and twenty were finally assembled; but until the thirteenth verse the apostles alone are introduced — for the reason that they only were the Lord's appointed witnesses.

The specific mention of Mary the mother of Jesus as forming one of this company of disciples is of great significance.*

*Alford reasons that the word "and" prefixed to Mary gives eminence to one among those previously mentioned." This, is an entire mistake, as the remarks [below] will show.

There is no doubt that our attention was intended to be arrested by this special mention of Mary's name; and the object of it is to teach that Mary had now understood WHO it was who had deigned to become her Son after the flesh, that, together with the light which had entered her soul concerning His death and resurrection, as also concerning His glory at the right hand of God, she had now taken her place, and become identified with His disciples here upon the earth. She would not value one whit the less the ineffable privilege which had been accorded to her in having been the mother of Jesus, nor would she cease to be the highly-favoured and blessed among women; but now, with faith in her glorified Lord, and numbered among the excellent of the earth in whom was all His delight, her natural feelings and affections would be lost in adoration and praise. She had been the elect vessel for the birth of Christ into this world; she had now become one of His humble followers and disciples, one of that blessed company who were so soon to be formed into God's habitation through the Spirit. As the Lord taught the seventy, it was a greater thing to have their names written in heaven than to be the vessels of His power in conflict with the enemy. In like manner it was a greater thing for Mary to be a living stone in God's spiritual house (as on Pentecost she became), built up upon Him who is the Living Stone, chosen of God and precious, than to have been the mother of her Lord upon earth.

It may be added that all her children became also believers in Jesus. They likewise were numbered with God's elect, and received grace to confess His name and to be identified with His own in that new and heavenly company. Alike with Mary their mother, they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and were thus manifested in time as His people. She and they alike would henceforward understand that it was more blessed to hear the word of God and to keep it, than to have been associated with Jesus, during His earthly-sojourn, in intimate natural relationships. To exalt Mary, therefore, at the expense of her glorified Lord is to be blind to the plainest teaching of scripture, and to pervert the whole character of Christianity.

MARY OF BETHANY.

IF Mary, the mother of our Lord, was blessed among women in that she was chosen to be the vessel for the introduction of Christ into the world, Mary of Bethany occupied almost an equally favoured place. She was a member of that well-known household of three, of whom it is said, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus;" and it would seem that the Lord sometimes sought retirement, and surely refreshment, in the midst of these attached disciples. They loved Him because He had first loved them, and their simple and devoted affection cheered His heart amid the deepening gloom of His rejection. Of these three, Mary was the one who most fully answered to His mind, and entered into communion with His thoughts. This is certainly true of her, as compared with Martha; and it can scarcely be doubted, although little is said of Lazarus, that also she excelled him in single-eyed devotedness to her Lord. But whether Mary, Martha, or Lazarus, all was of grace, and the failures of Martha, as well as the excellencies of Mary, are adduced to teach precious lessons of warning and guidance for God's people in all ages. It is however especially with Mary that we are concerned in these meditations, even if it is necessary to consider her in connection with her sister and her brother, in order rightly to appreciate her spiritual features. She is only mentioned by name in Luke 10 and John 11, 12; but Matthew and Mark both preserve the record of her anointing the Lord with the costly ointment on the eve of His apprehension and death.*

*The reader will readily discern that a change takes place in this gospel at verse 17. Thereafter Christianity is introduced (vers. 21, 22), and, as a consequence, the remnant according to the election of grace appear. Mary and Martha belong to this new company.

In Luke 10 Mary is first introduced to our notice, and in a very simple manner. Immediately after the parable of the good Samaritan we read, "Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word." (Vers. 38, 39.) Before entering upon the significance of this attitude of Mary, a word may be given to the connection of the narrative. The good Samaritan had bound up the wounds of the man he had found half dead, pouring in oil and wine; he had set him on his own beast, taken him to an inn and made all necessary provision for him until he should return; and now we learn from Mary's occupation what should be the diligent service of the saved soul in the interval, that hearing the word of Jesus is indeed the good part which shall not be taken away.

An evident contrast is intended by the way in which the two sisters are brought to our notice. Martha received Jesus into her house — and she had a sister, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. The word "also" points to this contrast. It might well be that Martha, was the elder sister, and that, as indeed it says, it was her house; still it could not be doubted for a minute that Mary associated herself with Martha in the Lord's reception. If this were so, the word "also" will now reveal its force; that is, it will signify that Mary not only received Him, but that she also sat at His feet and heard His word. Two classes of souls are thus portrayed, those who "receive" the Lord as Saviour, and there rest, even if they render whatsoever service they may deem best, and those who, after they have received Him, press onward, with purpose of heart, to learn His mind, and to become acquainted with Himself. Like David, it is all their desire, and this they seek after, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple, and thus delighting themselves in the Lord, He grants to them the desires of their hearts. It will be profitable therefore if we endeavour to unfold this action of Mary which is here described.

First, then, she sat at the feet of Jesus. The word to convey this is a strong one, and would seem to show that this was her habit when she had the opportunity. But it is to her sitting that our attention should before all be directed. Of the demoniac it is said that the people found him "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." The very attitude therefore betokened that every question for Mary's soul had been settled, that, if we give the full christian interpretation, she had peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that she was delivered from the power of Satan, and all that through which Satan acts to keep souls in bondage; and thus at leisure from self in liberty of soul, through the power of the Holy Ghost, she was free to be occupied with the Lord alone. Not that Mary had yet entered upon the enjoyment of these blessings, in the full christian sense; but she had Christ Himself, and in having Him she had everything. Her heart therefore was at rest, yea, she was abundantly satisfied, and He at whose feet she sat was everything to her. With an overflowing heart she could have said, "I am my Beloved's, and his desire is towards me."

Another thing is comprised in her attitude. Sitting at His feet proclaimed that she had become His disciple. Thus Paul, speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem, reminds them that he had been brought up in the city "at the feet of Gamaliel," and had been "taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers," etc. (Acts 22: 8.) It is not all Christians, as before said, who become disciples; and, on this account, we should mark well this position of Mary. And it adds increased significance to it, if we adopt the reading, preferred by most, "at the feet of THE LORD." It is remarkable to find the Spirit of God thus calling our attention, in this narrative, to the claims of Jesus as Lord, by giving us an example of one whose whole soul acknowledged them, and who, by sitting at His feet, owned Him in this title of absolute supremacy. It is a blessed moment for any soul when that point is reached, when He is enthroned in the heart as supreme, when His will becomes the only law of our daily lives, because we understand His word, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

But Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord to hear His word. This was the one thing the Lord delighted in; again and again He had cried, If any man has ears to hear let him hear (see also Rev. 2 and 3), and now He has found one who had received the grace of the hearing ear, and whose heart had been prepared for the divine communications which He had to make. Speaking to His disciples He said, Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15: 15.) This will help us to understand the nature of His discourse with Mary. And with what delight the Lord would impart these heavenly things to one who was ready through grace to be thus instructed. Amidst the hearts "waxed gross," ears which were "dull of hearing," and eyes which were closed, that surrounded Him on every hand, it must have been an unspeakable refreshment to His soul to meet with this yearning soul who desired to hear His words! And with what holy awe, and responsive joy on her part would she listen as He spoke to her of His and the Father's things. The Father who sent Him had given Him a commandment, what He should say, and what He should speak (John 12: 49); and it was Mary's ineffable privilege to listen to the message which the Father had given to the Son to deliver. (Cp. Isa. 50: 4.)

The word, moreover, which He spake was the revelation of Himself; for when the Jews said, Who art Thou? He answered, Altogether that which I also say to you (New Translation); that is, His words perfectly expressed Himself. But we have also to remember that the Father was revealed in and through Himself, His words and works. As He said to Philip, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Not that we are to suppose that Mary understood all this, for the Spirit was not yet because that Jesus was not yet glorified. We may, however, the more fully comprehend, from the consideration of what was contained in His utterances, how immensely blessed Mary was in being permitted to sit at the feet of her Lord; and we ourselves might well be encouraged to follow her example. By so doing we shall both delight His heart and find ourselves in the place of untold and unfathomed blessing. It would be proved to be the secret of all spiritual growth, as well as of delighting in the Lord Himself, and in heavenly things.

If we now consider for a moment Martha's interruption, it will but enhance our appreciation of the Lord's estimate of Mary's occupation with Himself. Martha was cumbered about much serving, serving in her own way, and, as she thought, in a manner befitting herself as the hostess of such a Guest. She desired to give to Him, rather than receive from Him, to entertain Him according to her own thoughts of hospitality; and it did not please her that Mary did not join her in this service. She therefore came and said, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me." The Lord loved Martha, as we know; and we may be sure that she loved the Lord. If she had not, she would scarcely have ventured to speak to Him in this abrupt, if not imperious, way. Think of it, O reader, that the Lord of life and glory sat in that abode at Bethany as a human Guest, and that, in His infinite condescension and grace, He permitted Martha to speak to Him thus, and to expect Him to sit quietly in the room for her convenience! Nay, that He allowed her to make the implied rebuke that He was not considerate in detaining Mary at His feet! Ah! His answer, brimming over with His infinite tenderness and grace, could not but open the eyes of Martha to the character of her address: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Little more need be observed in connection with this scene, as the Lord's own words explain themselves. The "many things" may have to be attended to in their place and time; but even then, if we are in the Lord's presence, and taking them up for Him, they need not cause us care or trouble. But the point here is that Mary had "chosen that good part," and that good part was sitting at the feet of the Lord and hearing His word. What she received that day was eternal in its character, and hence could not be taken away from her. Together with the rising of the sun on the next day Martha's household cares, while in her present frame of mind, would recommence; but Mary would awake with heaven in her soul, because Christ filled her heart. All her future path would be illumined by His presence and the enjoyment of His love, and she would meet her daily responsibilities all the better, more according to God, in that, receiving them from the hands of her Lord, she would discharge them in His name, while her heart would overflow in thanksgivings to God. Martha is doubtless a type of a large class; but let it never be forgotten that the Lord has for ever set His seal of approbation upon the good part which Mary, and all who follow in her steps, have chosen.

MARY AND THE DEATH OF LAZARUS.

(JOHN 11)

IN the Gospel of Luke there is no further mention of Mary or Martha; and it is only from the Gospel of John that we learn that they had a brother, and that, as it would seem, he formed part of the highly-favoured household at Bethany. This we judge to be clear from verse 4, where it says, Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. In verse 1 it is only said, "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha." The three are so grouped together in verse 4 as the objects of the Lord's affection, and they were evidently so knit together also, as seen from the grief of the sisters in their bereavement, by such tender love one to the other, that the conclusion is forced upon us that they formed one family and one household. It should likewise be remarked that the typical teaching of the chapter circles mainly around Lazarus, for he who runs may read that he sets forth Israel in a future day, when, as Daniel teaches, "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" — indicating doubtless the moral resurrection of the remnant of Israel in a future day, of which the raising of Lazarus in our chapter was a type or figure. Into this however we do not enter on this occasion, as our concern is chiefly with Mary, the sister of Lazarus; but the three, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, are so bound up together in the narrative that it will be necessary to consider Mary in the relations in which she was found; for indeed it is through these relationships and the circumstances of the moment that her character is displayed.

The prominence of Mary in the mind of the Spirit, even before the narrative commences, is seen from verse 2: It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. It is a loving reference to this act of Mary, teaching her how acceptable it was before God, that its fragrance after the lapse of sixty years* was still rising up before His throne. After this touching and fragrant parenthesis, the history begins with the statement that the sisters of Lazarus sent unto Jesus saying, "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." It was clearly no common sickness, but one that awakened in the hearts of Mary and her sister the gravest forebodings. If so, they were not without resource, for they knew Him who had cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick, and to Him they turned in their extremity. A common sorrow constrained a common appeal. It is often so with the people of God, and even with families, and the united supplication is ever fraught with richest blessing through the realisation of a common dependence, and being kept before God with a longing expectancy. In the case before us, the response to the prayer was delayed, and delayed for purposes of deeper blessing, as the Lord, by no means dimly, indicated when He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." (Ver. 4.) These words afford the key to the otherwise mysterious statement that when Jesus had heard therefore that Lazarus was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was. (Ver. 6.)

*If the Gospel of John were not written before A.D. 90, as is generally thought, it was sixty years since the Lord ascended up to heaven.

There were indeed, we may perhaps venture to say, three reasons for the Lord's delay in responding to the sister's appeal. The first is contained in the scripture cited (ver. 4): had the Lord gone at once and healed Lazarus, glory might still have been brought to God; but God was about to render a striking testimony to the Person of His beloved Son through resurrection, and hence He did not interpose until Lazarus was dead. Calling Lazarus out of his tomb was, while pre-eminently for the glory of God, the manifest witness that Jesus was the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.* The second reason is found in the position which the Lord, though the Son, occupies especially in this gospel. He never spoke or acted excepting at the will of the Father (John 5: 19; John 12: 49; John 14: 10); and thus He remained where He was until it was the Father's will that He should go to Bethany. Much as He loved these sorrowing sisters, He was not governed by His affections, but by the Father's will, to which He ever, in His perfection, entirely, and at all times, responded. Finally, it cannot be doubted that the delay was used to exercise the hearts of the sisters, and to prepare them, each in her measure, for the bright outshining of the glory of God (see ver. 40), which they were to behold in the raising of their brother. This is one of the secrets of the Lord's ways with His people. They cry to Him, and seemingly He does not hear. But He does hear, and if the succour sought be not instantly vouchsafed, it is only that He would first produce through exercise the state of soul suited for the blessing He is about to bestow. His way, surely we would all confess, is ever perfect, and it only needs that, with the knowledge of His love, we should repose in Him with unshaken confidence in all circumstances.

*This phrase is better rendered "by resurrection of the dead:" it is so constructed to include the raising of the dead by the Lord Himself, and His own resurrection.

Passing over the instruction the Lord gave to His disciples in connection with the death of Lazarus, and His care for them in seeking to establish their faith (vers. 7-16), we read that when Jesus came to Bethany He found that Lazarus had lain in the grave four days already. When He raised the daughter of Jairus she had only just died; the son of the widow of Nain was being carried to the grave when the Lord met him and restored him to life; in the case of Lazarus death had possessed its prey for four days, in order that there might be a still more significant display of divine power in his resurrection. Another thing was that a number of Jews had come from Jerusalem to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their brother, and were thus ready to be eyewitnesses of the power of Jesus in raising the dead.

In the next place our attention is called to a contrast, once again, between Martha and Mary. Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went and met Him: but Mary sat [still] in the house. The exercises they had passed through while waiting for the Lord's response to their message are not described in words; but we may surely discern the effect of their exercises in their contrasted conduct. Martha had doubtless been tried as well as Mary, for the fact that they used the same words (vers. 21, 32) when they came into the Lord's presence reveals that they had been perplexed by the Lord's delay, and that they had spoken together of it, while bowed down in suspense and sorrow; but Martha had not yet reached the blessed end of the trial, for she is marked still by haste and, we may add, impatience. Mary, on the other hand, had learnt her lesson, and thus she could calmly await the call of her Lord. Her sorrow was not gone, for her dearest earthly tie had been broken, and it was fitting that she should feel her bereavement; but her sorrow was now enlightened by assured confidence in the Lord, and she could consequently quietly sit in the house while Martha, with her eager impatience, went forth to meet Him. No doubt they were very different characters, and would be, even to the end, very different vessels: this, however, would not wholly account for the contrast; rather it was that, inasmuch as Mary had sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word while Martha was cumbered with much serving, Mary had learnt more than Martha of the heart of her Lord.

The grace of the Lord in dealing with Martha cannot well be passed over. Martha went and met Him, and apparently without a moment's pause, her heart blurted out its impatience, and its ill-concealed reproach in the words, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." This was true, for death could not have taken place in the presence of the Lord; in Martha's lips, however, the truth was the expression of her complaint that the Lord had not been there before her brother died. Added to this, which plainly betrayed her state of soul, she ventured to say, in her ignorance of the true character of the Person of Him to whom she was speaking, and as if indicating the course which she thought He might now pursue, "But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." She had, therefore, faith, faith at least, in the Lord as having power with God as a prophet, for example, like Elisha had; but it is evident that she had no conception, even though she had accepted Him as God's Christ, that she stood before the Son of God. How tenderly, notwithstanding, the Lord dealt with her weakness and defective faith! And how gently, stooping down to the state in which He found her, He led her on to the truth of what He was, that He in His own Person was both the resurrection and the life. "Thy brother," He said, "shall rise again." "Yes," said Martha, "I know that he shall rise again at the last day," for she believed, with every godly Jew, that "at the last day" there would be a resurrection of the just. Thereupon, using even the unbelief of His servant as the occasion, the Lord proclaimed to Martha, and to all His people through her, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Blessed revelation of the coming removal of the judgment of death that lay upon His people, and of life in resurrection in Him who would bear the judgment, and as the risen One be the Life of all believers. One word more He uttered to Martha, "Believest thou this?" "Yea, Lord," she replied, "I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world" — that is, the Messiah according to the teaching of Psalm 2.

Martha, having uttered her confession of faith, faith really, though falling so far short of the testimony she had just heard, went her way, as if feeling that she had not understood the Lord's words, and that Mary, her sister, might enter into their meaning, and "called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee." Mary is thus brought again before us; and it could scarcely be doubted, that even if Martha had not directly received the message, she had yet the Lord's mind in calling her sister. The state of Mary's soul is at once shown by her response to Martha's word: "As soon as she heard, she arose quickly, and came unto him." It was love that constrained her swift obedience. She sat quietly in the house, waiting until He should call, and then, when His call reached her, she made haste to respond to it. Waiting before the Lord is the sure means of qualification for obedience to His bidding. And what a relief to her burdened heart it must have been to come unto HIM! But before the character of the meeting is given, the Spirit of God pauses to note two particulars: First, that Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met Him; and, secondly, that the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, when they saw that Mary rose up hastily, and went out, followed her, saying, "She goeth unto the grave to weep there." Everything was divinely arranged, and the eye-witnesses of the power of Jesus were divinely provided, for God purposed to raise up a striking testimony to His beloved Son.

Now we may observe the character of Mary's approach to her Lord; and in what touchingly tender words it is narrated: "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Every word of this description is significant. When Martha went and met the Lord — at once she spoke; but two things are stated of Mary before she expressed the sorrow of her heart,: when Mary had come into His presence, it was when she saw Him, and had fallen at His feet, that her lips uttered her pent-up feeling. Nay, it would seem that Mary fell at His feet in consequence of having gazed upon His face. She knew more of the Lord than her sister, and with her quick and responsive affection she would read in His countenance what Martha could not have perceived. And what did she behold there? The expression of a heart bowed down under the sorrow that lay upon her own spirit, the sorrow caused by the judgment of death which at that moment was lying upon all around, and also the expression of His intense sympathy with those whom He loved in this the hour of their grief. Was there more? We cannot tell, and yet surely as He was about to "manifest forth his glory" (John 2: 11), there were some indications of it to be gathered by one who had learnt so much of His mind. We know not; we may be confident, however, that what Mary saw in that face of tenderness, sorrow, and love, bowed her down at His feet. It is her attitude, as she poured forth the same words as Martha, which invests them with altogether a different meaning. In her case there might have been perplexity, but certainly there was neither complaint nor implied reproach: it was rather her heart's confession that if He had been in Bethany her brother would not have died — more than this she would not say, for great as her grief was, she could, and she did, trust in Him implicitly. Ah! it is blessed to be at the feet of Jesus in our sorrows, for there divine light shines upon them, and though we may suffer, and even be oppressed with our trials, we shall not, while there doubt His love.

Two things follow, two marvellous things, in connection with the Lord, which, if they are beyond our comprehension, may not be passed over; for they are called forth by Mary's tears, and the tears of the Jews who came with her. It says explicitly that "when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." This was the first thing; and we may surely be allowed to ask, What was it that evoked this groan from the Lord's inmost soul and thus troubled Him? Without discussing the exact force of the word rendered "groaned," we may at least say that His being so "deeply moved," or "groaning," was caused by His having gone down in spirit under the heavy load of sorrow which lay upon the heart of Mary and upon the hearts of those around. Through His sympathy He entered into their grief, identified Himself with it, took it up upon His own shoulders, so to speak, and He felt the burden so heavily in His perfect knowledge of its cause, and in His estimate of its real character before God, that it extorted this groan. And remember that the essence of this burden was death - for death at that moment lay upon the mourners' hearts and upon the whole scene. But death is the judgment of God upon man; and consequently we may say that the Lord in this scene anticipated His death upon the cross; only here He took up and bore this judgment in His compassion and sympathy, whereas on the cross He bore it for the glory of God in making atonement for sin. How precious it makes the Lord to our own hearts when we see such a manifestation of His love and sympathy for His own in their griefs, and as we learn anew that in all their affliction He was afflicted.

His thoughts, when He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, were upon Lazarus in his grave, for He immediately said, "Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see." Then we have the second thing which is to be reverently noted: JESUS WEPT. No words could enhance our wonder at this remarkable statement; it is one to be observed and meditated upon in the presence of God, as our hearts pour out their thanksgivings in that we are permitted to witness, as it were, this precious evidence of the ineffable sympathy of our blessed Lord. All know that the verses of our Bible are merely a human arrangement; and yet who can doubt that the Spirit of God controlled the one who made it in putting these two words into one verse! They indeed should stand alone, inasmuch as they afford such an inlet into the inmost recesses of the Lord's heart. They have been the comfort of mourners in all ages, and they will continue to minister consolation to His people until God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. His tears, it may be added, expressed His sympathy, but the sympathy itself flowed out of His heart of unfathomable and unquenchable love.

The remarkable thing is that Mary is no more seen in the narrative. After she had poured out the grief of her laden heart at the feet of Jesus, she disappears from view. But she was there, and she undoubtedly saw His tears;* and, moreover, when Jesus, "groaning in himself," went to the grave, Mary must have been in His company. A reflection or two may be permitted in this connection. From the fact of her not being afterwards mentioned in this chapter, it may be concluded that the result of her exercises had been reached when at the feet of Jesus. If so she would have received the consolation of His sympathy through His tears; and then, walking with Him to the grave, she would experience the support of His presence. All now — all in connection with Lazarus — was in His hands, and she could, we may assuredly say, rest in His love without a quiver or a pang. He, she now knew, would do the best possible thing, even if her faith had not, as we think it had, apprehended the coming deliverance. Already, therefore, the clouds which had gathered in her soul were scattered — as the mist before the rising sun — and she would walk to the grave, in the company of her Lord, above and "beyond the power of death," and the calmest soul in that sorrowing company. Moreover, now from this point the object of the Spirit of God was not Martha nor Mary, but the glory of God, and the testimony to the glory of the Person of Jesus as the Son of God.

*It is not said that the groaning was audible; on the other hand, we read that He groaned in the spirit, and again that it was in Himself; and hence it was not necessarily heard. But His tears were not concealed. The groaning indeed was before God; His tears were the expression of His sympathy with His people.

Martha does once more appear on the scene. When Jesus had — again groaning in Himself — come to the grave ("It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it") He said, "Take ye away the stone." At once, instead of being awed and hushed into silence and expectancy, Martha broke in and said, "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." Poor Martha! She ventured thus even to correct her Lord — judging as she did from the sight of her eyes. How calmly, and yet solemnly, does the Lord rebuke her folly, as He replied, "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God." The stone was taken away, and all was now in readiness for the display of this effulgent glory. But first, ever glorifying the Father in all that He did, Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." Giving glory to God, He yearned at the same time over the souls of those around, that they might receive Him as the sent One from the Father — the striking testimony to which they were about to behold. "And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go."

Thus was it demonstrated that Jesus, sent into this world from the Father, was the Son of God. Of Mary and Martha nothing more is said in this chapter; but, from what follows in the next, we may gather that the Lord's object in their trial was fully attained, that the two sisters had been divinely taught through what they had experienced and witnessed, that the Lord was more than ever, because she had embraced more fully the glories of His Person, the blessed portion of Mary's heart, and that, Martha's natural anxieties and care having been expelled by the new revelation made to her soul, she henceforward became a quiet and devoted servant.

MARY ANOINTING THE FEET OF JESUS.

(JOHN 12: 1-8.)

SOME little time had elapsed since the raising of Lazarus, and Jesus was found again at Bethany.  The notable miracle which had been wrought, testified to by so many witnesses, even by some who still rejected Christ (ver. 46), produced such a commotion at Jerusalem that a special council was summoned by the Jewish authorities to consider what should be done. No attempt was made, remarkable to say, to deny that Lazarus had been raised from the dead; the fact was tacitly admitted, for they said, "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." God acted behind their deliberations, and took up Caiaphas, as in former days He had used Balaam, to prophesy that Jesus should die for that nation; and "from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death." Jesus retired with His disciples from before the hostility of the Jews., for His hour was not yet come, and waited in a city called Ephraim. But the time was drawing near when the true Passover Lamb was to be killed, although it is ever to be remembered that no man took His life from Him, but that He laid it down of Himself; and six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, "where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead." There — in the house of Simon the leper, both Matthew and Mark say — "they made him a supper." John does not specify where the supper was made — and no doubt he is silent on this point purposely — as his object is rather to call attention to the fact that Martha and Mary and Lazarus were all present, and in the enjoyment of the fruit of their exercises and divine teaching in connection with the sickness, death and resurrection of Lazarus. How blessed for the soul when the object of God's dealing with it is reached and realised!

The first record of the Spirit of God is — "and Martha served." She had served before, but she had been "cumbered" with her service; she had rendered it in her own way, and had thus felt it to be a burden. Now her heart is at rest, and she enjoyed, in true liberty of soul, the happy privilege of waiting upon, of ministering to, her Lord. Quite a different vessel from Mary, she occupies a suitable place, the place for which she had been fitted, and she fills it too for the Lord's pleasure. "But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him." He had passed through death, and had been raised, if still in his former condition, by Him who was, and is, the Resurrection and the Life, and thus he was seated with the Lord in the enjoyment of the feast. In like manner, quickened together with Christ, and raised up together, we are made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; but Lazarus, as seen here, is rather a figure of those with whom the Lord, in a future day, will drink "new wine" in His Father's kingdom. It should be observed, before passing on, that the supper was made for Jesus, they delighted His heart, even as Levi, in another way, made Him a great feast in his own house, when he gathered a great company of publicans and sinners — those whom the Lord came to call to repentance.

All this is but introductory to our special subject — the anointing by Mary of the feet of the Lord. Its importance, and, it might be said, the value according to God's own estimate, is seen from the fact that it is recorded by Matthew and Mark, with characteristic differences of detail, as well as by John. If these three devoted souls, devoted to the Lord, and bound to Him with the imperishable ties of divine affection which He Himself had begotten in their hearts, in the time of His rejection, represent, as they indeed truly were, the remnant which God had prepared to receive His beloved Son (see John 1: 12, 13), Mary, with the faith that attached her to Christ Himself as her sole and absorbing object, going far beyond this position, becomes for all time a pattern for all Christians. Like the Magdalene in this respect, she was dead to the world, the world was dead to her, and Christ alone filled her heart. In her, "first love" finds its complete exemplification; and hence the unstinting and unqualified commendation she received from the lips of the Lord. There is, no preface to her action, but, immediately upon the record that "they made him a supper," the statement follows, "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard," etc. The preface indeed, if such it may be called, is to be sought in the preceding chapters. Souls do not reach this spiritual elevation in a moment, nor did Mary, but her devotedness was the result of her sitting at the feet of Jesus, and hearing His word, and of her blessed experiences in connection with the death of her brother. In her sorrow she had, after her deep exercises, realised the sympathy of her Lord, and thereupon His strong hand laid hold of her for support, and had moreover drawn her to His own side. She had thus reached Him (we speak of the true significance of her state) on the other side of death; she knew Him as the resurrection and the life, and in that sphere His glory, the glory of His Person as the Son of God, flooded her soul. In such wise Christ had become everything to her; and she was moreover a delight to the heart of Christ.

It is only in this way that we can appreciate the action which we are now to consider. One other thing may perhaps be first added. It was not only the act, but it was also the feeling which led to the act which contains such blessed instruction. As another has so aptly said, "It was the instinct of affection which felt that death was casting its shadow over Him who was the Life, as Jesus felt it also — the only case in which Jesus found sympathy on earth." Here then is the secret of the anointing — a heart so charged with love that it entered into and identified itself with the position, and even the feelings of Jesus, and then lavished its most precious possession upon its object. Surely it is only love that can understand love, and only love that can penetrate into the secrets of the heart of the One loved. Our attention is called to the fact that the ointment of spikenard was very costly, and assuredly to teach us that in the estimate of love nothing is too precious for the One who possessed Mary's heart. She also expressed, as it appears to us, two other things by the act: first, her sense of the worthiness of Christ; and, secondly, her adoration. These two things are combined in Revelation 5, and they are ever united in hearts that are in the enjoyment of the love of Christ. In the estimation of all such -

"No place too high for Him is found,

No place too high in heaven."

Mary was upon earth and Christ was about to be offered as the true Paschal Lamb, but in Mary's heart the sentiment was energetic, that no place in earth or heaven was too exalted for Him who sat at table with His own that evening in Bethany. Hence it was that Mary, to express this feeling, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, and as she did so, her whole soul bowed before Him in gratitude and adoration. Whether the whole truth of His glorious Person had yet dawned upon her, we know not, but the "instinct of affection" through which she had been led into the apprehension of His coming death, would also be used to enlarge her conceptions of the One who sat at the table before her eyes. She was indeed a true worshipper, and her overflowing heart poured forth its tribute of homage in the manner suited to the moment, as led, we must believe, by the Spirit of God. Overwhelmed with the vision of His grace and beauty, her heart absorbed in devotion to Him, and in communion with His own mind as to His rejection and death, she found an outlet for the emotions which filled her heart in breaking her alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious (Mark 14), and in pouring it on His head, as Mark says, and on His feet, as recorded by John. By this act she proclaimed that Christ was everything to her, and that He was worthy of the most precious thing which a redeemed heart could bestow.

These considerations prepare us for the statement that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. This was a matter of fact, but underlying the fact is the teaching that nothing is so fragrant to the heart of God, or to the hearts of the saints, when in communion with Him, as an act of absorbing devotedness to Christ. Its odour steals abroad, like the dawning light of the morning, until it reaches all that are in the house, the habitation of God by the Spirit. Who, indeed, has not felt it in some feeble measure, when gathered with the saints around the Lord? Some note of praise has been struck by an adoring soul, which, like grateful incense ascending up to the Father, has filled, at the same time, every heart in the assembly with its blessed fragrance. For all time therefore it is true that, when a "Mary" anoints the feet of her Lord with her costly ointment, the house is filled with the odour of the ointment.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. John tells us that Judas found fault with Mary's act. Mark says that there were "some," and Matthew that the Lord's "disciples" had indignation, saying, "To what purpose is this waste?" John discovers the root of the defection in the covetous heart of Judas; and it would seem that his affected piety and concern for the poor influenced all the disciples. What a contrast! The odour of Mary's ointment filled the house; the evil thought of Judas spread its malign influence over the hearts of all the disciples! We are thus on the one hand encouraged, and on the other, admonished. The wickedness, however, of Judas only brought out the expression of the Lord's appreciation of what Mary had done. To gain his own ends, or rather disappointed because he could not, he speciously assumed the mask of a philanthropist, and would have it believed that the benefit of the poor should occupy the first place in the hearts of the Lord's disciples. It was simple hypocrisy, as John tells us, "Not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." What a solemn warning! An evil tendency nursed may so develop as to overmaster us entirely, and lead to the commission of the most appalling sins, as in the case of this man. Covetousness, the love of money which is the root of all evil, led Judas on from step to step, blinding his soul, until he consummated his frightful iniquity in betraying his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. By transgression he fell, that he might go to his own place.

In verse 6 we have the veil removed from the heart of Judas, that we might see the inner workings of his evil spirit; in the next verse the Lord answers the question of Judas as given in verse 5: "Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always." The Lord thus tenderly shielded Mary from reproach, and proclaimed to all who had ears to hear, that she, however taught, had divined the secret of His death, and that in communion with His own mind about it, she had identified herself with it. It was therefore a supreme moment to her, and she seized the opportunity, for it would never recur, to anoint that holy body for His burying. Whether she understood all this, we know not, but the Lord attributed this significance to her act; she would not have the Lord always, after this manner, and she thus eagerly poured out this tribute of her deep affection at His feet, while He sat at the table six days before the Passover. The Lord added another thing, as recorded by Matthew and Mark: "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." We learn from this how grateful to the heart of the Lord this act of Mary's had been, and what an unspeakable recompense He attached to it. As long as the gospels exist, Mary's act will be celebrated and also enshrined in the hearts of God's people; and in this sense also the house will be for ever filled with the odour of the ointment.

Together with this incident all mention of Mary ceases. But attention may be called to the fact, often noticed, that she does not, like Mary Magdalene and the other women, appear at the sepulchre. Nay, if the interpretation be correct, and we cannot doubt that it is, that she had been led in some sort into communion with His death, she would also be taught the uselessness of seeking the living One among the dead. Through His death a hope beyond death concerning her beloved Lord must have dawned upon her soul, detaching her from earth, and binding her heart to Him in that new scene and place on which He was about to enter. For remember, it had been her privilege to sit at His feet and hear His word, to receive His sympathy, support and succour in connection with Lazarus; she had seen the glory of God in His raising Lazarus, and she had seen Jesus glorified in it as the Son of God. It was scarcely possible therefore for her to think that He could be holden of death, or that God's holy One should see corruption; and she did not belie her faith by visiting His tomb. It is surely good to meditate upon this beautiful character — a character formed by divine teaching and power to refresh the heart of Christ in the scene of His rejection, and also to encourage us to tread in the same path of absorbing affection and entire devotedness. Taken all in all, there is not a more beautiful example of exalted spirituality in the whole Bible than that of Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

MARY MAGDALENE.

IF the surmise be correct that Magdalene means simply that Mary came from the town of Magdala, she was a Galilean, and had been brought up by the shores of the lake of Galilee. The notices in Luke 23: 49, 55, certainly indicating Mary (see Luke 8: 2, 3), make it very clear that she came from Galilee, and consequently support the above conclusion. This being so, her identification with Mary of Bethany by many older writers is entirely without foundation, as we also believe is the attempt to connect her with the woman who was a "sinner," who washed the Lord's feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment, as recorded in Luke 7.* Nothing is more evident, if the narrative be carefully examined, than that the woman who was a sinner, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene, are three distinct persons, and that the anointing of our Lord in Luke 7 is to be distinguished from the anointing recorded by Matthew, Mark, and John. There are similarities, for indeed it could not be otherwise, but morally, and in their significance, they are completely different. If the records be read in their spirit rather than in their letter, it will at once be perceived that two very different states of soul and stages of spiritual experience are described and presented.

*This erroneous supposition is perpetuated even in the title of a hospital — Magdalene Hospital. A false etymology has done the same thing: Maudlin is a corruption of Magdalene. And not only is it bad etymology, but it embodies the unbelief of the world in the reality of penitence, for "maudlin" tears have come to mean the expression of weakness and sentimentality.

The first mention of Mary Magdalene is in Luke 8; and the passage must be given in its entirety to enable us to apprehend rightly its true import. "And it came to pass afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and showing, the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their substance." (Luke 8: 1-3.) In this brief statement we find what is really the subject of the chapter, namely, the ministry of the word, the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, together with its effects in souls through divine power. Mary Magdalene is first mentioned after the twelve as an example. Her former state had been shocking in the extreme; she had been possessed of seven devils (demons), and was thus the subject of demoniacal control. In what way this had come about, or in what form this Satanic power had manifested itself is not recorded; but it can scarcely be conceived that Satan could assert his power so completely over a soul, except through abandonment to a guilty and sinful life; and the account of the demoniac in this same chapter shows the awful consequence of being characterised by Satan's full sway. The fact, however, is enough that seven demons had taken up their abode in the Magdalene's soul, and had made her the vessel of their wicked power. Men might have called her a dangerous lunatic, and shunned her accordingly; in any case she was repulsive, the sport of her own unrestrained passions, unutterably wretched and miserable.

But the eye of God, in pursuance of His eternal purposes of grace in Christ, rested upon that poor blighted and defiled soul; and in His own time she came across the path of the Lord Jesus; for she was one of the lost ones He had come to seek and to save. Where He found her is not revealed; but we do know that His blessed feet trod the shores of Galilee's lake, and Magdala was not so far distant from Capernaum, where the Lord sometimes made His home during His ministry. (See Mark 2: 1.) He did meet with this sorrowful outcast, and with His word of power He "cast out" from her the seven demons. He thus delivered her from the authority of darkness and translated her into the kingdom of God, which He had come to proclaim. Blessed change! She who had been the bond-slave of Satan, and made to do his bidding, however abhorrent and iniquitous, with her soul and body under his wicked control, was now brought into the blessed circle where grace was supreme, where God was exalted, and where she sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus clothed and in her right mind. It was indeed a passage out of darkness into light, out of bondage into liberty; and we may be sure that her heart made grateful melody to her Deliverer. Again we say, what a blessed change! Formerly, the seven demons held her in their grasp, but now the Lord Jesus possessed her heart, and, enshrining Himself there, drew her henceforward after Him in the path of devotedness and affection.

The first effect of the Lord's word then was deliverance; the next was attraction. We read that "the twelve were with Him" (Jesus), "and certain women, who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene," etc. Mary, therefore, was one of those who had the unspeakable privilege of being with the Lord in some of His evangelistic journeys. How came she thus to be in His company, and almost to anticipate the blessedness of those who, in the glory of the kingdom, will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth? The simple answer to this question is that she was drawn, attracted by the grace of her Deliverer. It is a characteristic of this gospel that grace flowed out so mightily from our Lord and Saviour, that those who had become the subjects of it, in their needs and sorrows, were overmastered; and, detached from all that might have hindered them, were drawn, like Levi, to and after Him in the path of devoted discipleship. Henceforward they could not do without Him, for He had become the absorbing object of their hearts. It was so with Mary. Her one characteristic from the day of her deliverance was intense affection: she loved Him who had first loved her; and, as often remarked, nothing satisfies love but the company of its object. Thus it came to pass that Mary was found with Jesus, with Him in the abounding joy of her salvation from the power of Satan, with Him in the sorrows of His pilgrim path, with Him in the day of His rejection, and with Him in adoration because her eyes had been opened to some extent to discern the glory of His Person. She had undoubtedly much yet to learn (as may be seen as we follow her history), but she was now in the company of God's beloved Son, the One in whom all God's thoughts and counsels were centred; she delighted in the One in whom God delighted; and the One, in whose company she was found, was the only channel through which any blessing could be received. There was then no place on earth equal to that which Mary, together with her companions, occupied when they were with Christ.

There is still another effect of the revelation of Christ to her heart through His word. After the specification of the names of Mary, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, it says, "and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance." This last clause covers all the women, we apprehend, who are mentioned: if so, the Magdalene was one of those who were permitted to enjoy the favour of this blessed ministry. Two things follow from the fact thus stated. First, there was the recognition that she belonged wholly to the Lord; and, secondly, that whatever she possessed was at His disposal and for His service. These two things show how completely Mary had been redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and how entirely she owned the rights of her Redeemer. A beautiful illustration of the same thing is given in the case of Simon's wife's mother, who was taken with a great fever. In response to the earnest entreaty of those about her, the Lord "stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her; and immediately she arose and ministered unto them." (Luke 4: 38, 39.) We may well inquire if we have followed these examples — that of Mary and that of Simon's mother-in-law. It should be the start of every converted soul, not the end reached after many years of indifference and sorrowful experiences, but the start. Our christian lives would be far happier if it were so, and our testimony to Christ would then shine out brightly upon the darkness around. If our consideration of the Magdalene's example should further this end, how blessed! But for it to be used in power, and to become operative in our hearts, we need to let the light shine in to expose all the hindrances; and then we should seek grace to judge them, that our souls set thereby in happy liberty might be free to be with the Lord in the intimacy of His affections, to follow Him wheresoever He may lead, and to minister unto Him as He may give the privilege and the opportunity.

MARY MAGDALENE AT THE CROSS AND AT THE BURIAL OF JESUS.

From the mention of Mary in Luke 8 until the crucifixion of our blessed Lord there is nothing further recorded. All the evangelists (although Luke does not give her name) mention that she was a witness of the Lord's death, or at least the accompaniments of His death; and wherever she is noticed in these last days in company with other women, she comes first, save in one instance. The exception is in John's gospel where the mother of Jesus is specified: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." Here the chief object before the Lord's mind (and how beautiful it is to see it!) was His mother, as, now that He had finished the work which God had given Him to do, He was about to commit her to the care of the beloved disciple. In Matthew and Mark the Magdalene, seen in the company of others, stands first, teaching surely that the Lord had recognised the devotedness of her affection. Luke only says (and he twice speaks in this manner); "the women that followed him from Galilee" (Luke 23: 49, 55); but as Matthew includes Mary among those "which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him" (Matt. 27: 55), we know that Mary was one of the number described by Luke. We have no account of the journeys when (as we have before remarked) Mary and the other Galilean women accompanied Jesus; but it is certain that they were with Him on His last visit to Jerusalem, when He was about to offer Himself, through the Eternal Spirit, without spot to God. What an immense favour accorded to these devoted souls — to hear His words, and to see His face during the last weeks of His life upon earth! But they were hidden until the end came, for the Spirit of God was not occupied with them and their privileges: all heaven, it might be truly said, had its attention then centred upon the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. When however the mighty work of atonement had been completed, the, Holy Spirit could notice, and cause to be recorded, the fidelity of the Magdalene and her companions.

Why then was Mary at the cross? It was because of her love to Him who had redeemed her from Satan's bondage. Jesus possessed her heart, and it was that which drew her to whatever place He went; and hence, as she had been, with Him, identified with Him, in life, she would also be identified with Him in His death. We have two glimpses of her at the cross, one before His death, and one afterwards. John alone records the former: he says, "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." (John 19: 25.) The beloved disciple also formed one of this company. At first, all the disciples, in the terror of the moment, when it was the hour of His enemies and of the powers of darkness, had forsaken their Master and fled. John had been recovered from his fear, and also Simon Peter in measure, for he "followed him afar off into the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end." But alas! Peter went in trusting to his own strength, and, notwithstanding the warning he had received, fell into the awful sin of denying his Lord. Of the other disciples not a single word is said. How grateful then to the heart of the Lord it must have been to see this faithful four beside Him at His cross; He had felt it deeply, when in Gethsemane, that the chosen three could not watch with Him one hour; but now He was comforted in that there were four who were sustained to face the power of evil, which for the moment seemed to revel unchecked and triumphant; to overcome their own unutterable sorrows, as they were lost in the contemplation of His sufferings and grief, and to encounter all and every danger in their intense affection for Him who had become everything to their souls.

Mary Magdalene, however, is the subject of our meditations; and we thus pass by, on this occasion, the exquisite grace of the dying Saviour in commending Mary, His mother, to the care of the beloved disciple, and the less reluctantly in that it has been noticed in its place. Now it is with the Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons, that we are concerned. And what we desire to ascertain is the moral import of her taking up this position by the cross. It has already been said, and this will be understood by the youngest believer, that she was led there by her love to her Lord. It was consequently the expression of her entire devotedness. She might have indeed truly used the language of Ittai, "As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also shall thy servant be." This was really the language of Mary's heart, as she watched by her Lord on the cross. If, however, we would seek the meaning in its application to ourselves, there is an additional thing. The death of Christ has two aspects. In His death He glorified God in all that He is, and this constituted the atonement, the righteous foundation on which He saves His redeemed. That death may, on the other hand, be considered in its relation to us in this world. The apostle. Paul speaks of this when He says, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into ['unto'] Jesus Christ were baptised into ['unto'] his death?" and he shows us that he had himself entered into the truth of this when he writes, — "I am crucified with Christ." In like manner Mary Magdalene (and those with her) had, in taking up her stand by the cross, identified herself with the death of Christ. She knew nothing of this, the full meaning of her act, and yet it was so; for she was dead to all the world, and the world was dead to her, while He who hung upon the cross before her eyes was all her life. It was really the Christian's normal state exemplified; and we may well challenge ourselves as to how far we answer to it.

Having pointed out the inner significance of the Magdalene's position, we will not attempt to fathom the contending emotions which filled her heart, and that of her companions. One thing was certain: to them, whatever the present darkness with which they were enshrouded, He was all they had believed Him to be. Not a single doubt as to Him disturbed their souls: rather He was, through His dying circumstances, dearer than ever to their hearts. We might almost venture to say that their dominant feeling, while standing there, was fellowship with His sufferings. It might have been perhaps His bodily sufferings which appealed to them then most powerfully; but we may be sure of this, that their absorbing affection for the Beloved Sufferer led them to sympathise, and to identify themselves, with all His state as far as they understood it. If Psalm 22 be read in this connection, we should be all the better able to comprehend what these devoted souls perceived as they reverently listened to the words which fell from those holy lips. The strong bulls of Bashan were there besetting Him round; they gaped upon Him with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion; and He? He was poured out like water, and all His bones were out of joint: His heart was like wax, it was melted in the midst of His bowels. His strength was dried up like a potsherd; and His tongue cleaved to His jaws; and then, turning to God, He said, THOU hast brought me into the dust of death. There was much more even than this, for the dogs were round about Him, and the assembly of the wicked enclosed Him: they pierced His hands and His feet — but we forbear. The reader can weigh the whole, and every sentence of the whole, in the psalm itself, and thereby he will be able to apprehend, in his measure, the character of the scene on Calvary, which was passing, at that moment, before the heart of the Magdalene. Blessed Sufferer! All the hopes of these four, and all our hopes, hang upon what Thou art and upon what Thou didst endure upon the cross. And we bless Thee, our God and Father, that we not only know it, but that Thou hast also placed our feet upon this Rock of Ages; and it is by Thy grace that we delight to own that we have no other foundation on which to rest before Thee but Christ and His finished work. For this we praise Thee now, and shall praise Thee throughout eternity. Amen.

The second glimpse of the Magdalene in connection with, but after the death of Christ, is found in the three first gospels. It is simply a general statement (we cite from Matthew) that "many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." (Matt. 27: 55, 56.) It is evident therefore that Mary had now retired from the place she occupied near the cross, and that she had joined the other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee. When the Lord committed His mother to the beloved disciple, he took her from that hour, we read, to his own home. If this signify immediately, it was probably the occasion of the break-up of that little devoted party (and it might have been at the Lord's direction), and of the Magdalene's retirement with Mary, the wife of Cleophas, to the place where their companions from Galilee stood. This was afar off — at a distance, and yet so situated that they could behold what was passing. Luke says that "the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things." What the things were may be gleaned from a comparison of the gospels. There were the revilings of the passers-by, who wagged their heads, and said, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross;" there were the mockings of the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, who, unconsciously fulfilling scripture, even taunted Him with expressions from Psalm 22; the thieves who were crucified with Him joined in the general insults; the soldiers parted His garments, casting lots; there was the darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour; and there were above all the cries of the blessed Lord Himself, the first as He endured the forsaking of His God, and the second as He gave up the ghost. Then also the earth quaked and the rocks rent* — and these were the things, or some of these things, which the Magdalene and her companions saw, as they stood afar off — and saw, we may be sure, with weeping eyes and rent hearts.

*In Matthew this is given in connection with the saints who came out of their graves after the Lord's resurrection; but still he explicitly says that the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake.

And what must that blessed One, who was nailed to that cross, what must He have felt? The answer, as to His feelings in connection with His sufferings from man is found in these pleading words: "Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." No! blessed Lord, Thine enemies had steeled their hearts against all pity, and there was not one, except the thief who hung by Thy side, who discerned at that moment who Thou wast, and Thy coming glory in the kingdom. No! not even the women, who followed thee from Galilee, not Mary Magdalene: they loved Thee much and devotedly, but as yet they had no light upon Thy resurrection. Then the greatest sorrow of all to His faithful followers must have been caused by the cry (those that stood by the cross must have heard it): "My God, my God, why hast thou FORSAKEN ME?" It was the expression of His immeasurable agony as He drank the bitter cup of the judgment of God; but thereby He glorified God fully and completely, and became the propitiation for the sins of His people, and for the whole world.

Death having been accomplished, there remained but one thing, and that was His burial. The prophet had said that His grave was to be appointed with the wicked (and so it would have been had it been left with his enemies to order it), but that He was found with the rich in His death — for so God had determined. Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, was the chosen vessel for the accomplishment, in this respect, of the will of God. Obtaining the grant of his Lord's body from Pilate, he piously and reverently "laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and that other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre:" as Mark says, they "beheld where He was laid." Mary was thus faithful in her devotedness to Christ; during His life, during His sorrows at the end, and after His death. He was really her life, and when that great stone was rolled to the door of the sepulchre the Sun of her soul had set. He was the one and the sole treasure of her heart, and even if she had never seen Him again, the world would have become to her a barren wilderness under the judgment of God. For He was, in very deed, everything to her soul, and thus when the tomb received His body, she had, as far as the world was concerned, lost everything. Darkness may have lain upon her spirit, but, while her hopes were quenched, her heart's affections for the buried One, divinely begotten as they had been, were inextinguishable; and these would alleviate her grief, and be the source in God's hand, of light and hope still. How deliverance might come she knew not, and may-be did not expect it; but she loved Him who was still her Lord, and that was everything for God, and also for the Magdalene. It is not light that nourishes the soul, but love, and Mary loved much because she had been forgiven much. So always, the deeper the sense of the state from which we have been delivered, the more absorbingly intense our affection for the Deliverer.

MARY AND HER RISEN LORD.

After the reverent interment of the body of the Lord, Mary Magdalene with her companions who had come with Him from Galilee, who had seen how His body was laid (compare Luke 23: 55, 56, with Mark 15: 47, 16: 1), "returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." Three things are thereby most clearly indicated: first, their affection for Christ; secondly, that they entertained no expectation of the resurrection; and, finally, their devout piety, as seen in their subjection to the word of God. They longed to lavish the tokens of their ardent love upon the dead body of their Lord; but as the sabbath followed immediately,* these holy women, among whom the Magdalene was the most prominent, quietly waited and rested in obedience to the commandment before carrying out their intention of anointing the sacred body of our blessed Lord. But "when the sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the, morning, the first day of the week, they came into the sepulchre at the rising of the sun," or, as Matthew says, "in the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week;" or, as John records, "when it was yet dark."

*It must be remembered that our blessed Lord was crucified on the Friday, and that the sabbath commenced at sunset the same evening. If then the ninth hour were three o'clock in the afternoon, Joseph must have acted with great promptitude in obtaining Pilate's permission to take down the body of Jesus from the cross, and in preparing it for burial so as to accomplish the entombment before the sabbath began. Luke indeed marks this by the statement, "and the sabbath drew on."

All these accounts show alike the engrossing affection of these women's hearts for the One whom they had known and followed, bound as they had been to Him by indestructible ties through the grace they had received at His hands. Nothing, therefore, was too precious in their estimation to lavish upon His body, and thus it was that with eager feet they sped their way in the early morning of this first day of the week — with not a thought of the surprise that awaited them. Their first perplexity was thus expressed, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. Before following the narrative in John, one thing not mentioned there may be considered. Mark tells us explicitly that, on discovering that the stone was rolled away, the Magdalene, with Mary and Salome, entered into the sepulchre, and that "they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted." Immediately the "young man," discerning their fear, said, "Be not affrighted," and, announcing to them the fact of the resurrection, commissioned them to go to His disciples and Peter with the blessed tidings, and to tell them that the Lord would go before them into Galilee, adding, "There shall ye see him as he said unto you." How far they discharged their mission we are not told: the only thing we learn* is that, overcome with fear, they fled from the sepulchre, and that they said nothing to any man for they were afraid.

*But see verses 9, 10, though this must refer to a later hour in the day.

As the Magdalene herself is our special subject, we propose now to consider the events described in John's beautiful narrative; for Mary is there the object before the mind of the Spirit, together with the teaching which flows from her experiences on this eventful day. The first thing to which our attention is called is, that when Mary saw that the stone was taken away from the sepulchre, she ran, and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said unto them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him." She was still without light, but her heart had only one object, and having for the moment lost that, she was filled with inexpressible grief; or rather, she poured out her grief in the touching accents which revealed her perfect desolation — they had taken away the Lord, and we "know not where they have laid Him." Peter and that other disciple ran with all haste to the sepulchre to verify for themselves the intelligence they had received. The former, with his characteristic eager spirit, the last to reach the place, for the other disciple outran Peter, went at once into the sepulchre, and saw "the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself." All was in order and peaceful; but what Peter's thoughts were is not revealed, though, from the contrast which is marked with his companion, it is evident that he was still in unbelief. But that other disciple, who had come first to the sepulchre, then went in, "and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." That is, "that, other disciple" believed from what he saw, from the testimony to his eyesight, that the sepulchre was empty. This faith was entirely inoperative, for having learned that the tomb was empty, and one of the two accepting the evidence thus afforded, they yet went away again unto their own home. These also loved the Lord, but their home attracted them, or was their refuge, in, this supreme moment in the history of redemption. Sight, speaking now of "that other, disciple," or intellectual conviction, is always powerless; it occupies itself with truth, and never leads to Christ Himself.

The experience of these two disciples is introduced here in order to bring out into fuller relief the greater devotedness of the Magdalene. The contrast is designed, as is clear from the words, "But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping." She could not go away to her own home, like the two disciples; her heart, desolate though it were, constrained her to remain at the spot where she had last seen the precious body of her Lord. "For her," as another has written, "without Jesus, the whole world was nothing but an empty sepulchre; her heart was more empty still. She stays there at the sepulchre, where the Lord whom she loved had been . . . . she could not be comforted, because He was no more." It was indeed a dark moment in the history of her soul: she was learning what it was to be morally dead with Christ. But He, risen from the dead as He was, had His eye upon her, and was only waiting for the proper moment to wipe away her tears by the revelation of Himself. One other stop preceded her blessing: "As she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." Observe how her heart is absorbed with her Lord. One thought, and one thought alone, engrossed her soul, and that was that she had lost her Lord. She was blind and deaf to everything else, for without Him she possessed absolutely nothing. So intense, moreover, was her attachment to Christ, that, as if there were no other on the face of the earth who loved Him, she appropriated Him entirely to herself. To the disciples she said, "the Lord," to the angels she said, "my Lord." It is the way of love; for while strong as death, its jealousy is as cruel as the grave which, closing in upon and possessing its object, excludes every other; and such love can never be quenched by the many waters nor drowned by the floods.

How grateful to the heart of the Lord must have been these signs of Mary's deathless affection; and it might be surely said, that they constituted an irresistible appeal to His own heart. Yea, He felt for her and sympathised with her in the desolation of her grief; and He was already on His way to give her the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Thus, when she had answered the question of the angels, "she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." All her desire was before her eyes and yet she was so pre-occupied with her own sorrow and with her own thoughts, that she did not recognise her Lord. It was not, say as with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, that her eyes were holden; but, as she had no thought at that moment of Jesus except as having been buried and rapt away from the tomb, she was too absorbed with her own feelings to think of anything else. There was Jesus standing before her eyes, and she know not that it was Jesus. Ah! beloved reader, how often have we been in similar circumstances. In the midst of great disappointments or griefs, the Lord has drawn near to our souls, and we did not recognise Him. Instead of welcoming Him, we were rather like the disciples who, when they saw Jesus walking upon the sea, thought that they had seen a spirit, and cried out for fear. We can therefore understand how it was that Mary did not recognise her Lord. Indeed, it was of Himself that she did not, for He was seeking His sheep, and about to call her by name; and through grace she was ready to hear and to respond to that well-known voice.

Jesus then interposed, and He said to her, "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" The angels had only said, "Why weepest thou?" The Lord added to the question, "Whom seekest thou?" for He could answer in this respect the absorbing desire of Mary's heart. The angels could not reveal the object of her quest; but there was the Lord Himself standing before Mary, and yet she knew Him not! Pre-occupation with our own thoughts always blinds and retains us in unbelief; and so it was with the Magdalene. She supposing Him to be the gardener, said unto Him, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." It has often been remarked that Mary was so engrossed with her object that she did not think of the possibility of any one not knowing whom she sought. Blessed absorption! There was no one else in all the world for her heart, and there was consequently no need to say who He was. Observe, moreover, that there are no impossibilities to love. She was a weak woman, and yet she says, "and I will take him away"! Would that we all knew more of this invincible affection which binds the soul to Jesus with adamantine ties, and makes it willing, yea, fills it with delight, to bear any burden which He may appoint.

What greater proof could the Lord have had of His servant's devotedness? He knew her heart, but He delights in the expression of what had been begotten there through His love. He had waited therefore for Mary to tell out the uttermost of her love before He should reveal Himself and turn her sorrow into joy. That moment had now arrived, and with one word, the utterance of her name, He caused the light, the light of His own presence, to shine out of darkness in her sorrowing soul. He was the good Shepherd, and as the good Shepherd He had given His life for the sheep; and moreover, as the good Shepherd, He calleth His sheep by name and leadeth them out. It was thus that He called Mary by name: "Jesus saith unto her, Mary." That one word, spoken as He only could have spoken it, went right home to her heart of hearts, scattered all the mists of unbelief which had gathered there, delivered her from all her own thoughts, and revealed Christ to her as risen from the dead. What a mighty change was thus wrought in her soul! The moment before she was filled with inconsolable grief, with a grief which could only be measured by the intensity of her love, and now instantaneously her tears are wiped away by the revelation of her Lord. That call which He had addressed to her produced an immediate response, for "she turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni (which is to say, Master)." It is ever thus when the divine call is recognised, because it carries with it the revelation of the Person who gives it, and its own divine authority. So when Jesus saw Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, and called them, they straightway left their nets and followed Him. For He who called, as with the Magdalene, threw the constraint of His love around them, and they could not but follow. Blessed moment when the call of Jesus reaches the heart!

MARY AS THE LORD'S MESSENGER.

Before entering upon this, it is necessary to define in a few words the position of Mary. For this we will borrow the striking and beautiful language of another: "She represents, I doubt not," (that is before her risen Lord had made Himself known to her), "the Jewish remnant of that day, personally attached to the Lord, but not knowing the power of His resurrection. She is alone in her love: the very strength of her affection isolates her. She was not the only one saved, but she comes alone to seek — wrongly to seek, if you will, but to seek — Jesus, before the testimony of His glory shines forth in a world of darkness, because she loved Himself . . . . . It is a loving heart . . . . occupied with Jesus, when the public testimony of man is still entirely wanting. And it is to this that Jesus first manifests Himself when He had risen." This entirely explains the words of Jesus to her, "Touch me not." There must have been some gesture on the part of Mary, some outstretching of her hand to express the ardency of her love, as if Jesus risen would now be the Messiah on earth.*

*This will entirely remove the apparent contradiction between this and the account in Matthew, according to which the woman held Jesus by the feet and worshipped Him, because in that gospel He is presented as the Messiah.

But He had not come back now to establish His kingdom on earth, for, as He says to Mary, He had not yet ascended to His Father. Before the manifestation of His glory in this world, He was about to associate His redeemed with Himself in His own heavenly relationship. He had said before this, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He had died, and the fruit had been produced, and He now places His own, on the ground of redemption, in His own heavenly relationship; so that we obtain a glimpse here of the end of God's counsels in conforming His own to the image of His own Son, who having glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which had been given Him to do, was about to be glorified as Man — as the Man of God's counsels — at God's right hand.

It was of these glorious truths that Mary was the commissioned messenger. "Go to my brethren," the Lord said to her, "and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Before Mary could carry such a message (for she must in her measure be in the truth of it) she had to learn that henceforward she could never again know Christ after the flesh, that, though she had thus known Him, she was henceforward to know Him so no more, for the old things had passed away and new things had come. Never more would she follow her Lord on earth, but she could, and it would be her blessed privilege to follow Him to the place where He was about to dwell. In one word, she was nevermore to know Him in His condition of flesh and blood, but as the heavenly Man, glorified at God's right hand. Not that she had yet entered into all this, for the Holy Spirit had not yet come, still we may be assured that her heart had been opened to receive much in such an interview. Whether she apprehended much or little, having received her commission she hastened to execute it. "Go to my brethren," the Lord said: "Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her." It was a privilege indeed to be the bearer of such tidings, and she showed her appreciation of it by her exact and speedy obedience to the command she had received. Her qualification for this service was, first of all, her affection for Christ; she loved Him supremely, and her love, constraining her, sped her upon her errand. Then also, she possessed the needful qualifications of a true witness, she had seen and heard. (Compare John 3: 11; 1 John 1: 3), and she could thus testify to the disciples.

A few words may perhaps be bestowed again upon the import of the message. Never until this moment had the Lord termed the disciples His brethren. Servants and friends He had called them; but now in virtue of His death and resurrection He could put them upon the same platform — that of resurrection — as that on which He stood. The following words explain His meaning, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." "I ascend unto my Father" — this was intended to teach that the scene of the new relationship into which He was putting them was heaven. They had known, loved and followed Him on earth; but all this time they were in the condition (whatever the counsels of God about them) of the earthly people; but now they were to pass over into the place and relationship of heavenly saints through association with the Risen One. And it should be most carefully marked, as explaining the meaning of the message, that the place and relationship upon which Christ Himself entered as risen out of death, and ascended into heaven, determine that of His people. In other words, it is only in Christ risen and glorified that we can read what are the counsels of God concerning His redeemed: "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. 15: 47-49.) It is in accordance with these blessed truths that the apostle Paul says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;" and he proceeds to unfold that all the blessings into which we have been introduced flow to us from those two titles — the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — and that, as the effect of those counsels, we are brought to stand in the same place and relationship as Christ Himself. What unutterable grace! And how closely it links us both with the heart of God, and with the heart of our blessed Lord.

Nothing further is said of the Magdalene; but two things remain to be noticed. The first is, the effect of her message; and the second is as to what became of Mary. The effect of the message was that the disciples were gathered together. It was truly in weakness and in fear of the Jews; but still they were gathered, and the doors were shut, shut upon the enmity of man, and excluding the world. It was to be a new and heavenly circle — the assembly — and as it was so constituted that night, on the evening of that day of days, the new first day of the week, Jesus came, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you; and when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. That circle was thus filled with peace — the peace which Christ had brought up out of death for them, having glorified God — and with His own blessed presence. They had often enjoyed His company before, but now they knew Him, however feeble their apprehensions, in a new way, as the Risen One — His actual resurrection being confirmed to them, in their weakness, by being shown in His condescending grace, His hands and His side. His love they had known in measure before; now they knew it as the love which was stronger than death, and which bound them to His heart for ever. Thus it was that they were glad when they saw the Lord.

The second point is as to what became of Mary. The answer is that she disappeared; she was lost in the assembly. She was one of that blessed company in the midst of which the Lord stood, where all that is of man disappears, where every one loses his individuality, merged as he is into the sanctified company, among whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but CHRIST IS ALL (everything) and in ALL. Happy is it for every believer when he is lost in like manner in the place where Christ, and Christ alone, is supreme, and where His glory floods the soul!

The Blessed Hope

The Blessed Hope.

being papers on the Lord's Coming.

E. Dennett.

PREFACE.

THESE papers, originally issued in The Christian Friend and Instructor, have been revised, and are now reprinted, with the earnest prayer that their perusal, with the Lord's blessing, may tend to revive the blessed hope of His return in the hearts of His people.

BLACKHEATH, April, 1879.

CHAPTER 1. THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH.

WE propose, if the Lord will, to treat in successive papers upon the subject of the Lord's coming, with its accompanying and subsequent events. As it is becoming every day more manifest that we are in the midst of the perilous times (2 Tim. 3:), it behoves the Lord's people to be increasingly occupied with the expectation of His return. It is now nearly fifty years since the cry was raised, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him." (Matt. 25: 6.) Up till that time the Church had fallen into profound slumber, drugged by the opiate influences of the world, so that the doctrine of the Lord's return for His saints was forgotten, ignored, or denied. But when, through the action of the Spirit of God, this cry went forth, thousands were startled from their sleep, and, trimming their lamps, went forth once again to meet the Bridegroom. For a season they lived daily in the hope of His return; and so mightily did this hope act upon their hearts and lives that, it detached them from everything — every association, habit, and practice — unsuitable to Him for whom they waited, and kept them with their loins girt, and their lights burning, as those who were waiting for their Lord. (Luke 12: 35, 36.) But time went on; and while the doctrine of the Second Advent has been apprehended and taught by increasing numbers, and while the truth has been undoubtedly the support and consolation of many godly souls, it is yet a question if large numbers of the saints of God have not lost its freshness and power. For is it not patent to all observers, that the standard of separation is becoming lower and lower? that worldliness is on the increase? that saints are permitting themselves associations out of which they have professedly come? that many of us, therefore, are in danger of once more falling asleep, even with the doctrine of the hope upon our lips?

If this be so — and it is the subject of common remark — the time has come when the truth on this subject needs to be pressed home again upon the hearts and consciences of believers. For the Lord is at hand, and He desires that His people should be on the watch-tower, longing and eagerly waiting for His return. Surely therefore it is high time to awake out of sleep, knowing that our salvation is nearer than when we believed, "For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. 10: 37.) And He Himself has said, "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." (Luke 12: 37.)

We have in these remarks assumed, and now we proceed to prove from the Scriptures, THAT THE COMING OF THE LORD JESUS IS THE DISTINCTIVE HOPE OF THE CHURCH. This might be done from almost every book of the New Testament. We shall cite enough to place the subject beyond a doubt.

First, our Lord Himself prepared His disciples to maintain, after His departure, the expectation of His return. "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He shall make him ruler over all His goods." (Matt. 24: 45-47.) He then proceeds to characterize the evil servant as one who should say, "My Lord delayeth His coming," etc. (v. 48), and indicates the punishment into which such an one should fall. The next two parables — that of the virgins, to which reference has been made, and that of the talents — teach distinctly the same lesson, and the more forcibly from the fact that the virgins who fell asleep, and the servants who received the talents, are the same who are dealt with respectively on the Lord's return.

The same instruction is found in Mark. "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. [For the Son of man is] as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." (Mark 13: 33-37.)

In the gospel of Luke the same truth is repeated again and again. We have quoted one striking passage. (Luke 12: 35-37.) Another may be added: "He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." (Luke 19: 12, 13.) Then, as in Matthew, we find him coming and examining the servants as to their use of the money entrusted to them. (v. 15.)

One scripture from John's gospel will suffice. The disciples were plunged into sorrow at the prospect of their Lord's departure from them. How does He meet the state of their souls? He says, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14: 1-3.)

The four gospels therefore unite in distinct testimony to the return of the Lord for His people, and in the proclamation that this event constitutes their hope during His absence. We pass now to the Acts and the epistles.

Turning first of all to the Acts, what do we find? After His resurrection, the Lord had appeared to His disciples, "being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." (Acts 1: 3.) The time having come for His ascension, He led them out as far as Bethany (Luke 24: 50); and when He had ended His instructions, "while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1: 9-11.) Could any language be more precise? or, construed by the circumstances, be more significant? or, we may add, less likely to be misunderstood? They had seen their Lord depart from them. He was taken up, and they watched His receding form until a cloud intercepted Him from their gaze; and while they behold with mute astonishment, they receive the message that the One they had seen depart should return in like manner (and therefore in Person) as they had seen Him go into heaven. The wonder is, that with these distinct words the Church could, have ever lost the hope of the Lord's return.

The evidence of the epistles is no less clear and decided. "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming" (revelation, margin) "of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Cor. 1: 7.) "Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil. 3: 20.) "How ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven," etc. (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10; see also 1 Thess. 2: 19, 1 Thess. 3: 13, 1 Thess. 4: 15-18; 2 Thess. 1: 7, 2 Thess. 2: 1, 2 Thess. 3: 5.) "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2: 13.) "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation." (Heb. 9: 28. Also James 5: 7, 8; 1 Peter 1: 7, 13; 2 Peter 3; 1 John 3: 2; Rev. 3: 11; Rev. 22: 7, 12, 20.)

Although these are only some of the scriptures which might be adduced, it will at once be seen how largely the subject is dealt with in the word of God; and on examination it will be discovered that this is because it is bound up, interwoven, with the very essence of Christianity. Take away the hope of the Lord's return, and you at once rob Christianity of its true character. It cannot be too strongly asserted, that it is not a doctrine to be accepted or rejected at pleasure, but that it is a part and parcel of the truth itself, connected with the calling and place of the believer, his relationship to Christ, and his future blessedness. Hence, indeed, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they were converted to wait for God's Son from heaven; and every believer now is converted for the same thing. To be without this hope and expectation, therefore, is to be ignorant of the believer's portion in Christ.

It follows from this that the normal attitude of every believer is that of waiting for Christ. Nay, more, every one brought upon Christian ground has this characteristic, though he may be all unconscious of it; for the Word, says that the ten virgins, five of whom were foolish, took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Their profession therefore — even though they had no oil — was that they were waiting for Christ.

Is this then the attitude of the reader? Are you waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Is this the one blessed hope that cheers your soul along your lonely pilgrim path? Are your eyes ever fixed upon the Bright and Morning Star?

Or are you so absorbed in present things that, like the five foolish virgins, you have grown heavy, and fallen asleep? If, alas! it be so, let the words, "Behold, I come quickly," "Behold the Bridegroom," rouse you from your slumbers, even while there is delay, lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. Or perhaps you know the truth of His coming. But the question, beloved reader, is, Are you waiting for Christ? To know the doctrine is one thing; but it is quite another to be living hourly and daily in the hope of the Lord's return. If you are waiting, your affections are all concentred on Him whom you expect; you are apart from everything which is not according to His mind and will; you are sitting loose to all that nature holds dear; and with a full heart you can respond to His announcement of His speedy coming, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22: 20.)

CHAPTER 2. IS IT A PRESENT OR A DEFERRED HOPE?

THE question now arises, whether the coming of the Lord is an immediate hope, or whether we are to look for the occurrence of preceding events. This is a vital point; and hence it is necessary to be very careful in the consideration of the teaching of Scripture upon the subject.

Speaking generally, then, it may be said that there are three words found in connection with the Second Advent. The first is parousia — which means simply "coming;" and hence is applied to the personal coming of any one, as well as to that of Christ. (See 1 Cor. 16: 17; 2 Cor. 7: 6; 2 Cor. 10: 10; Phil. 1: 26; Phil. 2: 12; as examples of its use in the coming of persons.) It is used some sixteen times in relation to the coming, of Christ. (Matt. 24: 3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Cor. 15: 23; 1 Thess. 2: 19; 1 Thess. 3: 13; 1 Thess. 4: 15; 1 Thess. 5: 23; 2 Thess. 2: 1, 8, 9; James 5: 7, 8; 2 Peter 1: 16; 2 Peter 3: 4.) The use of the word — from its very significance — is general; and does not therefore of itself indicate the precise character of the event with which it may be associated. It is found alike, as will be seen from the above passages, in Matt. 24 and 1 Thess. 4. Another word is apokalupsis, and signifies "revelation," and this is used four times. (1 Cor. 1: 7; 2 Thess. 1: 7; 1 Peter 1: 7, 13; and we might add, perhaps, 1 Peter 4: 13.) This word is fixed in its application — always referring to the revelation of our Lord from heaven; i.e. to His coming with His saints, and in judgment to the earth — as, for example, in 2 Thess. 1: 7. The last word is epiphaneia, and means "appearing" or "manifestation," and is rendered in the English Bible "appearing." This word is used once of the first coming of our Lord (2 Tim. 1: 10); and five times (if we include 2 Thess. 2: 8, where it is used in conjunction with parousia) of His future appearing. In addition to this, it may be added that when the Lord announces His own coming (as, for example, in Rev. 22: 7, 12, 20), He employs the common word ercomai — "I come."

Now the difficulty is this. If we have to wait for the appearing or the revelation of Christ, it is very evident that we cannot entertain any immediate expectation of the Lord. For we learn from Scripture that many events are to precede that time. Thus, to take 2 Thess. 2, the man of sin — in other words, the antichrist, is first to appear upon the scene; and this, as we are also taught, necessitates the previous restoration of the Jews to their own land, the rebuilding of their temple, and the re-establishment of their sacrificial services. (Matt. 24: 15; Daniel 9: 26, 27; Rev. 11 - 13, etc.) Moreover the great tribulation, with all its sorrows, must, in that case, be passed through before the coming of the Lord.

Is this, then, the teaching of Scripture? In the first place, it cannot be denied that believers are spoken of as waiting for the appearing or revelation, as well as the coming of Christ. In 1 Cor. 1: 7 the apostle says, "Ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming (apokalupsin) of our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, writing to Timothy, he says, "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing (epiphaneia) of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Tim. 6: 14.) Once more, in his epistle to Titus, he says, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing (epiphaneia) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2: 13.) Will believers, then — believers of this dispensation, i.e. the Church — remain upon the earth until the appearing of Christ? A close examination of Scripture shows that there are two distinct events defined: the coming of the Lord Jesus for His saints, and the coming of Christ with His saints. In 1 Thess. 3: 13, as well as in many other passages, we find the latter; and in 1 Thess. 4: 15-17 the former; and Paul teaches us most distinctly in Colossians that the coming of Christ with His saints will take place at His appearing. He says, "When Christ [who is], our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3: 4.) If this be so, the saints must have been caught up to be with Christ ere His return to the earth in public manifestation.

Leaving for the moment the difficulty already stated, but only to be able to solve it the more completely, we may inquire, Is there anything between the saint, as far as the Scriptures teach, and the return of the Lord? May the Christian, in other words, momentarily expect, be constantly waiting for, Christ? The teaching of our blessed Lord has been alluded to in the last paper; but we may once more recall the fact that, both in the parable of the virgins, and in that of the talents, no other conclusion could have been drawn from His words; for the virgins who fall asleep are the same who are awakened by the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom;" and the servants who receive the talents are the same who are reckoned with on His return. Collect, indeed, all the Scriptures in which He speaks of His coming, and it cannot be doubted for a moment that He intended His auditors to infer the possibility of His coming back at any, even the most unexpected, moment. (See Mark 13: 34-37; Luke 12: 35-37; John 21: 20, 21, etc.)

Paul uses language of like import. In writing to the Corinthians concerning the resurrection of the bodies of believers, he is careful — led of the Spirit of God to say, "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 51); and in the epistle to the Thessalonians he says, "We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." (1 Thess. 4: 15.) It is clear, therefore, by the use of the word "we," that he included himself as among the possible number who might be found alive on the Lord's return; and hence that, as far as he knew, there was nothing to hinder the Lord's coming for His saints during his, own lifetime. That Peter thought it not improbable is likewise seen from the fact that he received a special revelation to inform him that he would have to die. (2 Peter 1: 15.) And surely the fact that the last announcement of the inspired record is, "Surely I come quickly" (Rev. 22: 20), would foster and strengthen the same conclusion.

But notwithstanding all this presumptive evidence, everything depends upon the question whether Christians (the Church) will remain on the earth until the Lord's appearing. If then we turn to Matt. 24, and contrast it with a scripture in Colossians, we shall find this question distinctly and plainly answered. In Matt. 24 we read, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (vv. 29, 30.) Here we have the order of events at the appearing of the Son of man; and the reader will mark that (1) there is the tribulation, (2) the disturbance of the heavenly luminaries, (3) the sign of the Son of man in heaven, (4) the mourning of the tribes of the earth, (5) their seeing the Son of man coming, etc., while as yet the elect are upon the earth still ungathered. But what have we read in Colossians? That "when Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3: 4.) So also in the Revelation, we find that when Christ comes out of heaven for judgment (His appearing), "the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, clean and white." (Rev. 19: 11-14.) Who are these? Their dress is characteristic, and supplies the answer; for in the eighth verse we read, "the fine linen is the righteousness" (righteousness — dikaiomata) "of saints."

Evidently, therefore, "the elect" in Matt. 24 cannot be the Church, since the saints who compose the Church appear with Christ; and in fact, as the chapter itself abundantly shows, they are the elect of Israel, the Jewish remnant whom God by His Spirit has prepared for the time when the Lord, whom they seek, shall come suddenly to His temple. (Mal. 3: 1.) It thus follows that the Lord Jesus will return for His people prior to His appearing; and, inasmuch as He destroys antichrist with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2: 8), it must also be prior to his rise and sway, and hence also before the great tribulation, since (as will be seen in a future paper) this is connected with the time of the antichrist.

But thereon follows a further thing. All the predicted events which are looked for before the Lord's appearing are connected with the restoration of God's ancient people, and the actings of the man of sin, the son of perdition (the antichrist); and consequently, as far as the Scriptures reveal, there is nothing whatever between the present moment and the possibility of the Lord's return.

How, then, is the fact to be explained that we are said in Scripture to wait for the appearing, as well as for the coming, seeing that when Christ appears we appear with Him? Whenever the question of responsibility is brought in, the appearing, and not the coming, is the goal; and this is because that, since the earth has been the scene of the responsibility, the earth also will be the scene of the displayed recompense. This in no way interferes with the fact that the coming of Christ for His saints at any moment is the proper hope of the believer. On the other hand, it throws additional light on the ways of God in the government of His people, brings out a new feature of the perfection of the Lord's dealings with His servants. When departing, He entrusted to them gifts for His service, saying, "Occupy till I come." (Luke 19: 13.) The responsibility of the servants in the use of that which has been committed to their charge is confined to, limited by, their sojourn upon the earth. Hence it is when the Lord returns to the earth that the result of their responsibility is declared. But it is not only in the use of gifts that this principle is seen; it is found in every sort of responsibility of the saint. The Corinthians came behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Thessalonians are directed to look forward for the blessed issue of their persecutions to the time when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels (2 Thess. 1: 7); and Timothy was to keep the commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Tim. 6: 14.) For it is then that He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed (2 Thess. 1: 10); and then, therefore, that there will be the public manifestation of the result and issue of the pathway of the saint through this world. This is the consummation and the fruition of the service of the believer, as well as the time when the rights of the Lord Jesus Himself shall be declared and vindicated, and consequently, in this aspect, we are said to love His appearing. (2 Tim. 4: 8.)

But, as we have shown from the Scriptures, the Lord returns for His saints before His appearing; and it is to His coming, therefore, for them that their eye is directed. This is the proper object of our hope. Our hearts occupied with Himself, we wait longingly for the moment when, according to His word, He will come to receive us to Himself, that where He is we may be also. (John 14: 3.) Such, then, is our attitude. As Israel on the Passover night, with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, waited for the signal to depart, so we should ever be found, with our loins girt and our lamps burning, expecting the Lord to descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to fetch us out of this scene, to be for ever with Himself. Are we constantly maintaining this attitude? Do we begin the day with the thought that, ere the darkness returns, we may be caught up into the unclouded light of His presence? When we lie down at night, do we remember that ere the morning dawns we may be caught away from our beds? Are all our matters kept so constantly arranged that we should desire to alter nothing, if the next moment we should be with the Lord? Are all our purposes, all our occupations, undertaken and carried on with this wondrous prospect before our eyes? Surely nothine, short of this should satisfy those who are living in the expectation of the Lord. May He Himself lead us into all the power of this blessed truth, using it to separate us increasingly from everything not suitable to Himself; and, by the presentation of Himself to us in all His beauty as the Bright and Morning Star, may He occupy and absorb our hearts!

"'A little while' — come, Saviour, come!

For Thee Thy Bride has tarried long;

Take Thy poor waiting pilgrims home,

To sing the new eternal song,

To see Thy glory, and to be

In everything conformed to Thee!"

CHAPTER 3. THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS.

WHEN the Lord returns for His people two things will take place — the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the change of living believers; and then both alike will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is distinctly taught in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17. Our blessed Lord Himself foreshadowed this truth, indeed stated it, though His meaning could scarcely be apprehended without the further light of the epistles. On His way to Bethany, after the death of Lazarus, He said to Martha, "Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that He shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11: 23-26.) Here then we have the same two classes — those, who believed in Christ, but who should have died ere His return, these should live; and secondly, those who should be then alive, and believed in Him, these should never die — corresponding exactly with the two classes found in 1 Thess. 4.

In order however to make the subject clear and simple, it must first be shown that only believers will be raised from the dead at the second coming of our Lord. There is no doctrine more plainly taught in the Scripture, or so completely overlooked or ignored by the mass of professing Christians. The common thought is, that at the end of the world, at the close of the millennium, there will be a resurrection alike of believers and unbelievers; that all together will be arraigned before the judgment-seat, and that then the eternal destiny of each will be declared. But this theological conception, albeit so widely taught and accepted, not only has no foundation in, but is also directly opposed to, the teaching of the word of God. This will be confessed if attention is given to the proofs about to be adduced, that none but believers will be raised at the Lord's coming.

First of all, a few Scriptures may be cited from the gospels, in addition to that from John 11. On coming down from the mount of transfiguration, the Lord charged His disciples that they should not tell what they had seen, "till the Son of man were risen from among the dead" (ek nekron). "And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from among" (ek nekron) "the dead should mean." (Mark 9: 9, 10.) They believed, as Martha did, that there would be a resurrection at the last day (John 11: 24); but hitherto they had never heard of a resurrection from among the dead, and this it was that caused their astonishment. Here, of course, it was the resurrection of Christ Himself that was in question; but inasmuch as He was the first-fruits of His own, His resurrection was both the pledge and type of theirs. In Luke 14: 14 we find the expression, "the resurrection of the just;" and in another chapter (20: 35) the Lord speaks of those "who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world" (aionos), "and the resurrection from among the dead" (kai tes anastaseos tes ek nekron). The phrase which the Lord uses is unmistakable in its signification that it is a partial resurrection, that those who obtain this resurrection will leave others behind them in their graves. The teaching of John 5: 28, 29, supports the same conclusion. Going back to the 25th verse, it will be noted that the term "hour" includes a whole dispensation. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." That hour has lasted from that moment until the present time, in accordance with the preceding verse, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life;" and it will last until the Lord's return. It marks the whole day of grace. In like manner the term "hour" in the 28th verse includes a whole dispensation. "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life: and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" — judgment (kriseos). Two resurrections are thus clearly distinguished: that of life, which will take place, as we shall see, at the coming of the Lord; and that of judgment, which will take place after the close of the millennium. (Rev. 20: 11-15.)

If we turn now to the epistles we shall find even more exact statements. The subject of 1 Cor. 15 is the resurrection of the body; and yet not the resurrection of the bodies of all, but only that of believers. This, may be seen at a glance. After then showing the consequences of the false doctrine — that there was no resurrection — the apostle states the truth: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." (1 Cor. 15: 20-23.) Language could not be more exact or explicit. So also in the scripture already cited (1 Thess. 4) it is said, "The dead in Christ shall rise first" (no others are within the apostle's view): "then we which are alive and remain," etc. There is not a thought of unbelievers being included. It is this fact which explains this same apostle's expression in another epistle: "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (rather, from among the dead, ten exanastasin ten ek nekron). (Phil. 3: 11.)

One more scripture may be permitted. In Rev. 20 we read of some who "lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." The application of this scripture will be examined, if the Lord will, in a future paper; but attention now is called to the following statement: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." (vv. 4, 5.) It is remembered that interpreters have sought to prove that this is a spiritual resurrection (whatever that may mean); but if so, then the resurrection at the close of the chapter is not a literal one, and hence they would prove, like the false teachers at Corinth, that there is no resurrection of the dead! No; language so clear and unmistakeable, especially when taken in connection with the other scriptures adduced, places beyond all doubt that God in His grace has purposed that believers should rise from among the dead at the coming of the Lord; and this is called the first resurrection. Hence it is that the term first-fruits is applied to the resurrection of our blessed Lord (1 Cor. 15: 20), being the first-fruits of the harvest of His own to be gathered in at His coming. (See Lev. 23: 10, 11.)

There is one scripture, however, which may seem, in the minds of those who have not examined the subject, to contradict the above statements. This is the well-known passage in Matt 25, in which we find the sheep and the goats gathered before Christ at the same time. This scene, popularly conceived to be a description of the final judgment, is often adduced in opposition to the truth of the first resurrection of believers. But the slightest examination of the words used by our blessed Lord will show that He does not allude to the subject of the resurrection: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations," etc. (vv. 31, 32.) The reference is therefore to His appearing and kingdom, and to His judgment of the living, and not of the dead. We do not speak of "the nations" in respect of the dead: this term describes the living. And observe, too, that there are three classes — the sheep, the goats, and the brethren of the King; and this fact itself fixes the interpretation of the whole scene, showing conclusively that it is the judgment of the living nations consequent upon the appearing of the Son of man in His glory, and His assumption of His throne. The "brethren" therefore are Jews, who had been sent out as the King's messengers with the annunciation of His kingdom; and those who received them and their message are the sheep, and those who rejected them are the goats. Their relationship to the King is made dependent upon their treatment of His messengers. (See for this principle Matt. 10: 40-42.)

Having then established that when the Lord returns it is to fetch His own, whether they have previously died, or are living still upon the earth, according to His word" If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John 14: 3)-we may now consider the manner of His coming, as well as the rapture of the saints. The most precise instruction is given to us upon the subject in a scripture already referred to, but which may now be quoted at large. "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent" (go before, or anticipate) "them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4: 13-17.) The bearing of this important passage is sometimes overlooked from inattention to its exact statements. The Thessalonian saints did not doubt concerning their portion in Christ on His return; but, somehow or other, they had fallen into the error of supposing that those who had fallen asleep before that event would suffer loss. It is to correct this mistake that the apostle gives some special instruction "by the word of the Lord," i.e. by a revelation upon this particular subject. He shows, then, that all who sleep in (or through, dia) Jesus, God will bring back with Him, that this indeed is connected with our faith in, and is a consequence of, the death and resurrection of Christ. Thereon he explains how this is possible, and this explanation it is which formed the subject of the special revelation to which we have alluded. The Lord will come, and then the dead in Christ will be raised, the living changed, and thus will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, etc.

This may take place, as we saw in the last. paper, at any moment. Let us therefore faniiliarize our minds with the scene. Suddenly, then, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven in the manner here described. First, with a shout. This has occasioned a difficulty in many minds. If, they have thought, the Lord returns only for His people, and He descends with a shout, must it not then be in a public manner? By no means necessarily. The word itself is one of relationship, indicating, for example, the order of a commander to his soldiers; and thus it is a shout intended only for those to whom it is addressed, and the import of which would not be understood by others. When our blessed Lord was upon the earth, a voice came to Him from heaven, and some of the bystanders thought that it thundered, while others said "an angel spake to Him." (John 12: 28, 29.) So also at the conversion of Saul, his companions heard a voice, i.e. the sound of a voice (Acts 9: 7); "but they did not hear the voice of Him that spake to me," i.e. the significance of the voice. (Acts 22: 9; compare Daniel 10: 7.) So will it be when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven. All His own will hear and understand the import of the shout; but if heard by others it will only seem as the roll of distant thunder, or, taken in combination with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, should these be likewise heard, as a strange phenomenon, to be discussed and explained by scientific men. It is probable that the three — the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God (see Numbers 10.)-have but one object, the summoning the assembling together, of the dead and living saints for their translation into the presence of their Lord.

Two effects follow, and follow instantaneously; for the apostle says in another epistle, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52.) "The dead in Christ shall rise first." What a stupendous scene! All that are Christ's, including, therefore, saints of the past, as well as of the present dispensation, shall rise at His coming. (1 Cor. 15: 23.) Tracing down, the line of the ages from Adam till the last saint to be gathered in, all this countless multitude will, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," spring up from their graves-raised incorruptible. And not only so, but all the saints then living will be changed, so that all alike will be clothed upon with their resurrection bodies, in fashion like unto Christ's body of glory. (Phil. 3: 21.) It is, then, when, this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, that the saying that is written will be brought to pass, "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15: 54; see also 2 Cor. 5: 1-4.) But no sooner has this marvellous change been wrought, than all its subjects will be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and, so shall we ever be with the Lord." Then the Lord Himself enters for the first time, as far as His people are concerned, upon the full fruit of His redemption-work, of the travail of His soul. And what tongue could tell, or pen describe, His joy when He thus redeems from the grave the very bodies of His people, and when He brings by the word of His power all His chosen ones into His presence, and all conformed to His own image! Nor is it possible to express even our own joy, the joy on which we then shall enter, when the longing desires of our hearts are all realized, and, like Him, we shall behold His face, see Him as He is, and be with Him for ever.

"'Knowing as I am known!'

How shall I love that word,

How oft repeat before the throne,

'For ever with the Lord!'"

It is for this we wait, and the time is not far distant when all will be accomplished; for we rest on the sure word of our faithful Lord, who has said, "Surely I come quickly."

CHAPTER 4. THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST.

"WE all," says the apostle, "must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." (2 Cor. 5: 10.) He includes in this statement, undoubtedly, both believers and unbelievers, though, as will be seen in the course of these papers, there is a long intervening period between the judgment of the two classes; for there is not the least foundation in the word of God for the common idea that saints and sinners will appear at the same time before the judgment-seat. But it is with believers that we are now concerned, and their appearance before the tribunal of Christ will take place between His coming and His appearing. Caught up, as we saw in our last paper, to meet the Lord in the air, they are then like Christ, will see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2), and will be with Him for ever. (1 Thess. 4: 17.) The place to which they are translated, and in which they will be with the Lord, is the Father's house. This we know from the Lord's own words, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14: 2, 3.) There the blessed Lord will conduct all His own, and, if we way adapt the words, will present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24); and with what overflowing joy will He and the children God has given Him appear before His Father and their Father, and His God and their God! And with what joy will God. Himself behold the fruit and perfection of His own counsels, the redeemed all conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren! (Rom. 8: 29.)

The saints, then, will dwell in the Father's house during the interval that will elapse between the. coming of Christ for, and His return with, His saints; and, as before remarked, it is during this time that they will be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. The proof of this is found in Rev. 19. Just on the eve of returning with Christ (vv. 11-14), John tells us, "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness (dikaiomata) of saints." (vv. 6-8.) Here then we find the saints robed in their (not God's) righteousness, the fruit of their practical ways, produced and wrought out surely by the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless counted as theirs in the wonderful grace of God; and hence, since the judgment-seat of Christ for believers is concerning the things done in their body, this can only be the results of declared judgment. The arraying the Lamb's wife in the fine linen, clean and white, will therefore follow upon the manifestation of the saints before Christ's tribunal; and both take place, as it would seem from this chapter, preparatory to, and immediately before, the appearing of the Lord with His saints. Had we not this instruction, we might have thought that the judgment-seat at least would have followed close upon the rapture. But there is grace in its postponement. The saints are caught up, and are with the Lord in the Father's house, and they are permitted to become familiar with, and, if we may use the word, at home in, the glory into which they have been introduced, before the question of the deeds done in the body is brought up for settlement.

The character of the judgement must be distinctly observed, and one or two preliminary remarks will greatly conduce both to prevent mistake and to the understanding of the subject.

(1.) The believer will never be judged for sins. It is in the passage before us not sins, but deeds done in the body; and indeed to suppose that the question of our guilt, our sins, could be again raised is to overlook, not to say falsify, the character of grace and the work of redemption. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment (krisin) but is passed from death unto life." (John 5: 24.) Again we are told, "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10: 14.) The question of sin was settled, and closed for ever, at the cross; and every believer is before God in all the abiding efficacy of the sacrifice there offered, yea, accepted in the Beloved. Even now therefore we are without spot before God, and our sins and iniquities will be remembered no more. (Heb. 10: 17.)

(2.) This will be at once seen when it is remembered that we shall have our glorified bodies — be like Christ — before we are manifested before His judgment-seat; for, as already pointed out, the resurrection of the saints who have fallen asleep in Christ, and the change of the living, and the rapture of both into the presence of the Lord, will precede our judgment. This is unspeakable consolation; for being already like Christ, we shall have full fellowship with Him in every judgment He passes upon our works; and we shall therefore rejoice at the exposure and rejection of all that flowed, in our lives down here, from the flesh, and not from the Holy Spirit. This answers the question sometimes put, Whether we shall not tremble and be ashamed as all the deeds of our Christian life are brought up and shown out in their real character? Indeed, as another has said, "We are in the light by faith when the conscience is in the presence of God. We shall be according to the perfection of that light when we appear before the tribunal of Christ. I have said that it is a solemn thing, and so it is; for everything is judged according to that light; but it is that which the heart loves, because, thanks to our God, we are light in Christ!

"But there is more than this. When the Christian is thus manifested, he is already glorified, and, perfectly like Christ, has no remains of the evil nature in which he sinned; and he can now look back at all the way God has led him in grace — helped, lifted up, kept from falling, not withdrawn His eyes from the righteous. He knows as He is known. What a tale of grace and mercy! If I look back now, my sins do not rest on my conscience, though I have a horror of them; they are put away behind God's back. I am the righteousness of God in Christ; but what a sense of love and patience, and goodness and grace! How much more perfect then, when all is before me! Surely there is great gain as to light and love in giving an account of ourselves to God, and not a trace remains of the evil in us. We are like Christ. If a person fears to have all out thus before God, I do not believe he is free in soul as to righteousness, being the righteousness of God in Christ, not fully in the light. And we have not to be judged for anything; Christ has put it all away."

Bearing these things in mind, we may consider more closely the nature of the judgment itself. It is not we ourselves who have to be judged, nor, as has been abundantly explained, will our sins reappear against us, but, as the Scripture itself says, "we must all appear" (be manifested, phanerothenai) "before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad." The body of the believer is the Lord's, a member of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6: 15-19), and is therefore to be used in His service for the display of Christ Himself. (Rom. 12: 1; 2 Cor. 4: 10.) Hence the apostle's earnest expectation and hope was that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. (Phil. 1: 20.) It is on this account that we are responsible for the deeds done in our body, so that while we are perfected for ever through the one offering of Christ, and there cannot be therefore any further imputation of sin to us, every act of our lives, not only as service, but every deed which we have done, will be manifested, tested, and judged when before the judgement-seat of Christ. The good will be seen, and declared to be such; and while these were surely produced, wrought out in, and by us, through the grace of God, and the power of His Spirit, they will be reckoned, in His infinite compassion, as ours, and as such we shall receive the recompense. The bad, however fair they appeared here, will also be seen and recognised in their true character, and belonging to none but ourselves, the product of the flesh, will receive their just condemnation, we ourselves rejoicing to behold everything that had dishonoured our blessed Lord, though done by ourselves, receiving its righteous meed and doom. The time for concealments will then be gone; for that which maketh everything manifest is light, and then everything will be searched and tested by the full blaze of the light of the holiness of that judgement-seat.

It is a question worthy of consideration whether this truth occupies its due place in our souls. Knowing grace and the fulness of redemption, there is a danger of overlooking or forgetting our responsibility. But this should never be the case; and the prospect of the judgement-seat of Christ, while it has not a shade of apprehension for the believer, is yet intended to exert a most practical influence on our souls. The very connection in: which it is found shows this to be the case. "We are confident," says the apostle, "and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him [rather, acceptable to Him enarestoi auto]. For we must all appear," etc. (2 Cor. 5: 8-10.) The prospect therefore braced up the soul of the apostle, stimulating him with unwearied zeal in all that he did to seek only the approbation of Christ. In fact, this is precisely what it does for us, enabling us to bring all our actions into the light of His presence now, and helping us to do them for and unto Himself. Herein indeed lies our strength. Satan is very subtle, and often tempts us to be men-pleasers; but when we remember that all will be manifested before the judgment-seat, we are impervious to his snares, knowing that if we commend ourselves to others, it may be at the cost of displeasing Christ. And what the profit of practising deception, whether upon ourselves or upon others, when the nature of all that we do is so soon to be exposed? To be acceptable to Christ will be our aim just in proportion as we have His tribunal before our souls.

It will likewise help us to be patient under misconception, and in the presence of wrongdoing or evil. During the days of the Reformation in Italy, a monk, who had received the truth of the gospel was subjected to close confinement under the custody of a brother monk. Through a long period of years he bore without a murmur the harsh and rigorous treatment of his jailor. Finally, he was ordered forth to be executed. As he left the cell which had been his prison-house, he turned to his custodian, and meekly said, "Brother, we shall soon know which of us has been pleasing to the Lord." We also, in like manner, can calmly leave every disputed question, whether concerning ourselves or our brethren, to be settled before the judgment-seat of Christ. We shall thus be able to adopt the language of the apostle, "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgement (man's day — anthropines hemeras); yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing of myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart: and then shall every man have praise of God." (1 Cor. 4: 3-5.) The influence of this truth, if held in the power of the Holy Ghost, would be incalculable. It would produce in us exercised consciences even in respect of our smallest actions, as it would keep the holiness of the Lord whom we serve, continually before our souls; and at the same time it would save us from being occupied with the failures of our brethren, as we should be constantly reminded of the words of the apostle, "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." (Rom. 14: 4.)

The Lord give us to live more continually under the power of this truth, that all our words and acts may be spoken and done in the light of that day.

CHAPTER 5. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB.

ANOTHER event takes place in heaven, after the judgment-seat of Christ, before His return with His saints; viz., the marriage supper of the Lamb. The scripture that refers to it may again be cited: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." (Rev. 19: 7-9.) In this heavenly scene we behold the consummation of redemption, in respect of the church, in her presentation to, and everlasting union with, the Object of all her hopes and affections.

A few preliminary words, however, may be necessary for the apprehension of the true character of this scene. From many passages of Scripture we gather that the church is not only the body (Eph. 1: 23, Eph. 5: 30; Col. 1: 18; 1 Cor. 12: 27, etc.), but also the bride of Christ. Paul thus tells the Corinthians, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (2 Cor. 11: 2.) Again, when expounding the duties of husbands to their wives, he enforces them on the distinct ground of marriage being a type of the union of Christ with the church. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5: 25-27.) Once more: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." (vv. 31, 32.) Here the Spirit of God carries us back to the formation of Eve out of Adam, and her presentation to and union with him as his wife, as a type of the presentation of the church to Christ, the last Adam. As long as He was down here as a man, He abode alone; but a deep sleep, even the sleep of death, fell also upon Him, according to the purpose of God; and as the fruit of His work, through the descent of the Holy Ghost, the church was formed — formed and united to Him; so that, as Adam said of Eve, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2: 23), we (believers) can say, "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." (Eph. 5: 30.)

But another thing is brought before us in the Ephesians. It is said that Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. His love therefore was the source of all — His motive, in this aspect, for the gift of Himself. Finding the one pearl of great price, valuing it according to the estimate of His own affections, He went and sold all that He had, and bought it (Matt. 13: 46); He gave Himself (and giving Himself, He gave "all that love could give") for it. And He gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; thus making the church morally suitable to Himself, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church," etc. We have thus three steps-past, present, and future. He gave Himself for it in His death upon the cross; He cleanses it (the process He is carrying on now through His intercession at the right hand of God, in answer to which there is the washing of water by the word); and He presents it to Himself-which takes place at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And all, every step, be it remarked, is the fruit of His love. If He still waits at the right hand of God, it is only that every one who is to be a part of His bride shall be brought in. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me" (John 6: 37); and He has purchased, redeemed, all by the gift of Himself. He will therefore keep His seat until the last of these is brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light. Then He will delay no longer; for the same love that moved Him to give Himself will impel Him to fetch His bride. Hence He presents Himself to the church, saying, "Behold, I come, quickly," reminding her that His love never wearies, that He is eagerly waiting for the moment when He can come to receive her unto Himself. Having fetched His own, in the manner described in a former paper, and brought them into the Father's house, and having manifested all before His judgment-seat, the time for the marriage has come, and it is this event which is celebrated in the passage cited from the Revelation.

It is the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19: 7); and, as another has said, "'the Lamb' is a figure or description of the Son of God, which tells us of the sorrows He endured for us. The soul understands this, and therefore this title, 'the Lamb's wife,' tells that it is by His sufferings the Lord has made her His own; that He so valued her as to give up all for her." Even now believers are united to Christ; but the marriage speaks of another thing. It is the time when all the believers of this dispensation-embracing all from Pentecost until the Lord's return-already glorified, and looked at corporately, are fully and finally associated with the risen and glorified Man, with the One who, in His own matchless grace and peerless love, has chosen the church to be His companion for ever. He is, in the scene before us, on the eve of His appearing; but ere He returns to the place of His rejection He will formally take into union with Himself her who has shared in measure His sorrows and sufferings, that He may display her to the world as sharing in the same glory with Himself. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." (John 17: 22, 23.) This refers to the time when He returns to take His power and reign,

"And earth His royal bride shall see

Beside Him on the throne."

The marriage is preparatory to this public display, and is the expression of His own heart in thus bringing the church into participation with Himself of His own glory and His own joy.

Combining the Scripture in Ephesians with that before us, it may be seen that the wife will be robed in a twofold beauty. Here we are told that "His wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white." There it is said that He will "present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5: 27.) This last beauty is the result of what Christ has done for her. "He gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." Thereby, as already seen, He has made her morally a suitable companion to Himself; and as He has now brought her before Himself, she shines resplendent with His own beauty, reflecting His own glory. It is His own likeness He sees before Him, reproduced in His wife; and He has thus made her the meet companion of His exaltation and glory.

But the fine linen indicates another kind of beauty. It is the righteousness of saints (v. 8)-the result, as before pointed out, of the manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ. This fact wonderfully enhances our conceptions of the grace of our God. If we do a single thing which meets His approval, it can only be through the power which He Himself has given us; "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2: 10.) And yet He will adorn us with all the fruit and beauty of that which has been wrought out in and by us through His own grace and power. Every kind of beauty therefore — both divine and human — will characterize the Lamb's wife, according to the perfection of God's thoughts and counsels, and according also to the mind and heart of the Lamb.

Several distinct things mark the celebration of the marriage. First, there is the outburst of joy and praise, as "the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." (v. 6.) The marriage, indeed, as the chapter shows, is immediately before the coming forth in judgment of the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, and hence is on the eve of the world-sovereignty of "our Lord and His Christ." (Rev. 11: 15.) Then they cry, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lord is come," etc. (v. 7.) The nuptials of the Lamb therefore excite the wondering adoration of heaven, of all the servants of God, and of them that fear Him, both small and great. (v. 5.) Last of all, John is commanded to write, "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." The portion of the wife is as unique as it is incomparable; but even those who are invited to have fellowship with the joy of that day are pronounced blessed. And no wonder; for they are admitted to view the consummation of the desires of Christ, His joy in presenting to Himself her for whom He had died, and who, made meet for her association with Himself, was now robed in the glory of God. (John 17: 22; Rev. 21: 10, 11.) It is therefore a day of unbroken joy — joy to the heart of God, joy to the Lamb and His wife, and joy to all who are permitted to behold this wondrous scene. But it is the Lamb Himself who attracts our gaze as the prominent figure of that day; and it is called, as one has said, "the marriage of the Lamb, not the marriage of the Church or of the Lamb's wife, but of the Lamb, as though the Lamb was the one chiefly interested in that joy. The Church will have her joy in Christ, but Christ will have His greater joy in the Church. The strongest pulse of gladness that is to beat for eternity will be in the bosom of the Lord over His ransomed bride. In all things He is to have the preeminence; and as in all things, so in this-that His joy in her will be greater than hers in Him."

"For thee, His royal bride — for thee,

His brightest glories shine;

And, happier still, His changeless heart,

With all its love, is thine."

CHAPTER 6. THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

THERE is nothing more certain from the word of God than that the Jews, who are now dispersed throughout the world, will be restored to their own land; for "He that scattered Israel will gather him." (Jer. 31: 10.) The time of their restoration is not revealed; but inasmuch as they are found in the land soon after the rapture of the saints, it is evident that it will take place about that time, whether before or after it would be impossible to say, but probably afterwards, because otherwise there would be a visible sign of the Lord's being at hand.

A brief reference to God's ways in government on the earth will very much simplify and facilitate our understanding of this subject. We learn from the prophet Daniel that, on the utter failure of Israel as the depositary of God's power in the earth, the dominion was transferred to the Gentiles. Thus, in the interpretation of the great image which Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream, Daniel says: "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold." (Daniel 2: 37, 38.) Three empires would follow — the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman; and the last of these, disappearing for a time, would finally revive, but be divided into ten kingdoms, as symbolized by the ten toes of the image, all of which however would be united in a common federation under one supreme head. (Dan. 2: 31-43; Dan. 7; Rev. 13 and 17.) These empires reach down to the end, but the last is superseded, and indeed destroyed, by the kingdom of Christ; for "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up. a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (Dan. 2: 44; see also Rev. 19: 11-21, and Rev. 20.) Now the period which embraces the whole of these monarchies is termed "the times of the Gentiles," during which, according to the words of our Lord, Jerusalem is to be "trodden down of the Gentiles." (Luke 21: 24.) The absence of the Jews therefore from their own land will coincide, or nearly so, with this period. But God's purposes concerning His ancient people will yet be accomplished, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Rom. 11: 29.) And hence, together with the completion and rapture of the church, God will commence to deal again with that nation.

It is true that a small remnant, mainly composed of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 10: 7-9), was permitted to return to Jerusalem during the reign of Cyrus, the account of which we have in Ezra and Nehemiah; but this was in no way a national restoration, nor the full accomplishment of God's purposes, for Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi all prophesied after this period, and speak of the time of the national blessing as yet future. (Haggai 2: 7-9; Zech. 9-14; Mal. 3 and 4.) Indeed from the time of this return until the birth of our Lord, so far from being an independent nation, they were always in subjection to the Gentile power. In such a condition there was nothing to answer to the glowing prediction of the prophet: "And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those kingdoms shall be utterly wasted." (Isa. 60: 10-12.) The object indeed of this partial return would seem to have been that Christ might be born among them, according to the predictions of the prophets, and be presented to them as the Messiah. This took place; and the gospel of Matthew, which especially deals with this subject, gives us in full the results. He was utterly rejected. They chose Barabbas that they might compass the destruction of Christ. "The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let Him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath He done? But they cry out the more, saying, Let Him be crucified." (Matt. 27: 21-23.) In the gospel of John their iniquity is, if possible, still more strikingly displayed. "Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar." (John 19: 15.) They thus deliberately renounced the hope and glory of their nation, rejected their Messiah in their wicked desire to secure the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth; and from that day to this they have been suffering the consequences of their fearful crime, as outcasts and a bye-word, among the nations of the earth.

But God, whatever the sin of His people, cannot deny Himself; and in the death of Him whom His ancient people rejected (for He died for that nation-John 11: 52), He laid the foundation for their future restoration and blessing. The evidence of this is so abundant that it is difficult to know where to begin or end; but a few scriptures may be selected, leaving our readers to trace out the details at their own leisure. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isa. 11: 11, 12, et seq.) Again we read, that "the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess then in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors." (Isa. 19: 1-3.) Read also Isa. 25: 6-12; Isa. 26; Isa. 27: 6; Isa. 30: 18-26; Isa. 35: 10; Isa. 49: 7-26; Isa. 54; Isa. 60; Isa. 61, etc. The language of Jeremiah is no less distinct: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jer. 23: 5-8. Read especially Jer. 30, Jer. 31, and Jer. 33.) There is scarcely a prophet, indeed, that does not touch upon the subject; and in such plain words that, had not Zion been confounded with the Church, no one could have doubted of God's intentions towards His ancient people. If, moreover, the testimony of the prophets had been less precise, the argument of Paul in Rom. 11 should have sufficed to teach us that He will never forego His purposes of grace and blessing towards the seed of Abraham; for, after showing that God hath not cast away His people (Israel), he says: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (25-27.) Two things, indeed, are clear from this scripture; that blessing is reserved for Israel, and that their Deliverer shall come out of Zion; showing that they must be in their own land previously to the blessing here described.

There are, however, several stages in their restoration before this full result spoken of by Paul is reached. A portion will return to Palestine in unbelief. This is certain from the fact that Zechariah describes their conversion in the land by the appearing of the Lord. (Zech. 22: 9-14; Zech. 13: 1. See also Isa. 17: 10, 11; Isa. 28: 14, 15.) While in their unbelief they will build a temple, and seek to restore their sacrificial services; and thus will pave the way for the setting up by the antichrist of the abomination of desolation in the holy place, of which our Lord forewarned His disciples. (Matt. 24: 15; see also Rev. 11: 1, 2; Isa. 66: 1-6.) There will be, however, a remnant in the midst of their unbelieving brethren who will stay themselves upon God, who, not yet knowing their Messiah, will cry to the Lord in their distress, and will be preserved from the abominations into which the mass of the nation will fall. These are the elect remnant whose experiences are so largely developed in the Psalms, and in some of the prophets.

The restoration of the ten tribes will be effected after the Lord has taken His kingdom. Inasmuch as they had no part in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, although they will be judged for their own sins, they will be spared the fearful and peculiar trials through which their brethren will have to pass, in consequence of their acceptance of, and connection with, the antichrist. It is therefore not until after the return of Christ that He will bring to light and restore this long-lost portion of His people. Ezekiel describes the method of their restoration: "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you; and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." The rest are brought, and the prophet proceeds: "And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers." (Ezek. 20: 33-44; also Ezek. 34.) Jeremiah goes farther, and describes their coming into the land in language of singular beauty and pathos: "For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." Then he proceeds to declare still further the purpose of the Lord concerning His people, and their consequent heritage of joy: "Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together., for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord." (Jer. 31: 6-14.)

The ten tribes thus brought back, we are told, moreover, that they will be united together with Judah under the happy and glorious sway of their Messiah; that "they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more," and that God's servant "David [the true David, Christ] shall be their Prince for ever." (Ezek. 37: 21-28.)

We thus see that God has not forgotten His covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17: 4-8); for while Israel failed in responsibility, and forfeited all claim upon God, He yet in faithfulness to His own word, in the wonders of His grace, will perform all that He has spoken. And the time draws near when Israel, once again restored to their own land, "shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." (Isa. 27: 6.) For "thus saith the Lord: If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." (Jer. 33: 25, 26.)

CHAPTER 7. THE APOSTASY AND THE ANTICHRIST.

IN the interval between the rapture of the saints and the appearing of Christ, the earth will be the scene of some of the most awful events which the world has ever witnessed. Among these will be the apostasy-the open abandonment of all profession of Christianity, yea, the denial both of the Father and the Son (1 John 2: 22), and the appearance of the man of sin, the son of perdition, or the antichrist. Paul has given us most distinct and precise instruction upon these subjects. False teachers had sought to disturb the minds of the Thessalonian believers by alleging that the day of the Lord was already come. It was to meet this error that he wrote, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand (the day of the Lord is present).* Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he himself (the words "as God" should be omitted) sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2: 1-4.) We are therefore plainly warned that "the falling away" (the apostasy), and the man of sin, will be seen in the interval between the rapture of the saints and the day of the Lord. For the apostle grounds his exhortation to these believers on the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him. As another has explained this scripture: "Their gathering together unto Christ in the air was a demonstration of the impossibility of the day of the Lord being already come. Moreover with regard to this last he presents two considerations: first, the day could not be already come, since Christians were not yet gathered to the Lord, and they were to come with Him; second, the wicked one who was then to be judged had not yet appeared, so that the judgment could not be executed."

*This is the true reading and rendering, as confessed by those competent to form a judgment.

Thereon the apostle proceeds to show that until the Church is caught away this consummation and embodiment of wickedness cannot be reached. "And now ye know what withholdeth" (that which restrains) "that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked [one] be revealed, etc. (vv. 6-8.) In the light, then, of this and other scriptures, we may trace a little both the "falling away," and the man of sin.

1. The Apostasy. This was foreseen and predicted from the earliest days of Christianity. Nay, our Lord Himself plainly points to it in some of His parables, and never speaks of the gradual diffusion of the truth until the whole world should be brought to confess Him as Lord. On the other hand He compares the kingdom of heaven, as seen in the world, "unto leaven" (and leaven in the Scriptures has generally the significance of corruption) "which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." (Matt. 13: 33; see also the parable of the tares, and of the mustard seed, in the same chapter.) Paul, moreover, tells the elders of the Church at Ephesus, "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20: 29, 30.) And passing by his allusions to the subject, we find in his two epistles to Timothy (1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3.) express descriptions of the evils of the "latter times." and of "the perilous times" of "the last days." What can be, indeed, more direct and emphatic than the scripture cited from 2 Thessalonians? For he there warns the saints to whom he writes that the mystery of iniquity was already working, and though for the time restrained, would at last, when the restraint was removed, rise so rapidly and mightily that, passing over all bounds it would finally reach its consummation in that fearful being who would oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, and demand and receive the homage which is due to God alone. Peter also speaks of the evil of the last days, and Jude too, and especially in its form of apostasy; and in the Revelation we are permitted to behold its final form in "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." (Rev. 17: 5.)

To understand this aright it must be borne in mind, that when the saints are caught away, the Church in its outward form, i.e. the profession of Christianity, will still remain. Only real Christians will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There will therefore be thousands (not to say millions) of mere nominal believers left behind. And doubtless this profession will at the outset be maintained; and the churches and chapels, and other places where professing Christians meet, will carry on as before their religious services. The bells will ring, and the congregations, though thinned by the absence of those who were the children of God, will assemble; and hymns will be sung, prayers repeated or made, and sermons delivered. But now that He that restrained the development of the mystery of iniquity-the Spirit of God in the Church — now that He is gone, evil will be unbridled, and hearts that shrunk before from receiving teachings, infidel in their character, which undermined the authority of the word of God, and the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, will soon fall completely under their sway. Yea, in the solemn and awful language of Scripture, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2: 10, 11.) Thus they will be gradually prepared to fall under the influence and power of antichrist, and therewith utterly to abandon even the form of Christianity. And it is not a little remarkable, as one has said, "that the apostasy will develop itself under the three forms in which man has been in relationship with God: Nature — it is the man of sin unrestrained, who exalts himself; Judaism — he sits as God in the temple of God; Christianity - it is to this that the term apostasy is directly applied in the passage before us." (2 Thess. 2.) How fearful the prospect! And how sad it is to notice this mystery of iniquity so plainly working in the present day, boldly rearing its head in the pulpits of Christendom, and proclaiming, without let or hindrance, doctrines which subvert the very foundations of revealed truth, and thereby preparing the way, as soon as the Church is gone, for the advent of the man of sin.

2. The Antichrist. If we now consider a little more closely the character of this personage we shall have a clearer understanding of the whole subject. He is mentioned as the man of sin, etc., as we have already seen in connection with the apostasy; but we, may find traces of him both in the Old and New Testaments. He is termed "the king" in Daniel (Dan. 11: 36), the "idol shepherd" in Zechariah (Zech. 11: 17); but it is in the epistles of John that he is specified as the antichrist. (1 John 2: 18-22; 2 John 7.) In Revelation he is termed a "beast."*

*This term "beast" is not the same as that applied to the four living creatures. (Rev. 6: 4-9.) As specifying antichrist, as well as the head of the imperial power, it means strictly a wild animal.

Now it must be distinctly understood that antichrist is not a figurative term for some evil principle or system, but that it indicates an actual person. Whoever will take the trouble to read the various scriptures in which he is mentioned will at once perceive this. There is reason, moreover, to conclude that he will be not a Gentile, but a Jew. Thus our Lord, doubtless in allusion to this incarnation of evil, says, "If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5: 43); and this is inconceivable, excepting he were of their own nation. Indeed he will present himself as the Messiah in his antagonism to Christ, and thus he is termed "the king" in Daniel, who, speaking of him, says that he will not "regard the God of his fathers," plainly pointing out his Jewish lineage as well as his apostate character. Indeed he tells us that he will "exalt himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done." (Dan. 11: 36 et seq.)

If we now turn to the book of Revelation, we shall find both his rise and the character of his actings described. Before however entering upon this it will be necessary to recall the reader's attention to the Gentile monarchies (to which a brief allusion was made in the last paper); three of which will precede, and the last be contemporaneous with the antichrist. As revealed to Daniel, and by him announced to Nebuchadnezzar, four monarchies were to reach down to the end. Those of Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece have appeared, and passed away. The fourth, symbolised by the legs of iron, and the "feet part of iron and of clay," is the last; for in the vision which Nebuchadnezzar saw, "a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces . . . and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (Dan. 2: 34, 35.)

This last is the Roman empire — first in its pristine energy and resistless strength, as set forth under the emblem of iron, and then in its final form of ten kingdoms, foreshadowed by the ten toes, welded together in one confederation under a supreme head. Now in Rev. 13 we have described first of all the rise of the imperial power, of the Roman empire in its final form. John says, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up from the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13: 1.) To cite the words of another, "The sea sets forth the unformed mass of the people under a troubled state of the world — people in great agitation, like the restless waves of the deep. And it is out of that mass of anarchy and confusion that an imperial power rises." The "beast" that thus appears is characterised by having seven heads and ten horns, which prepares us for the statement that "the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority" (v. 2), inasmuch as we find the dragon himself so distinguished in the previous chapter (Rev. 12: 3); and this transfer of characteristics, as marking the source of the "beast's" power, is subsequent, it should be remarked, to Satan's expulsion from heaven. (Rev. 12: 9.) This is indicated moreover in another way. "The crowns were upon the heads of the dragon, but upon the horns of the beast; that is, in the Roman empire you have the exercise of the power represented as a matter of fact, but in Satan's case merely as a matter of principle, or the root of the thing. It is a question of source and character, not history."

We have, then, here set before us the final form of the Gentile power, animated and energised by Satan, and possessing in itself all the features that marked each of its predecessors. (v. 2; see Daniel 7: 4-6.) The seven heads signify the successive forms of power that have existed, but now concentrated in the "beast;" the ten horns are kings, and these ten will finally unite under one supreme head. "The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no. kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast." (Rev. 17: 9-13.) There will be such a display of power as the world has never seen; and since both its source and energy are alike Satanic, it will all be directed against God and His people. "And he (the beast) opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwelt in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given unto him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13: 6-8.) It will be a time of open antagonism against God, and therefore of fearful tribulation for the saints,

In connection with all this there arises another beast." not out of the sea, as was the case with his predecessor, but out of the earth, at a time therefore when there is settled government, under the order and sway indeed of the first beast. This is the antichrist. He has "two horns like a lamb, and spake like a dragon." (v. 11) He is thus an imitator of, while in direct antagonism to, Christ; but his voice reveals his true character. He acts, as will be seen, as a kind of deputy of the first "beast;" exercising his power, and causing, "the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." (v. 12.) He, moreover, works miracles, or seeming miracles, and thereby deceiving the dwellers upon the earth, he causes that they should make an image to the first beast, and worship it. And the more effectually to accomplish his purposes he has "power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (vv. 15-17.)

There will be thus a kind of mock trinity, composed of Satan, the first beast, and the false prophet (Rev. 19: 20); and the object of all their strivings will be to exclude God from the earth, and to usurp His place in the minds of men. The first beast, it will be seen, is the supreme secular power; the second, or the antichrist, acting under the first, has his domain in the religious sphere; while Satan is the inspirer and energy of both. We cannot here go into further details, as we shall see something more of the actings of antichrist in connection with the great tribulation. But it is well to remind ourselves that all the workings of error, and all the activities of men's minds, apart from Christ, have but one goal; for they all look towards, and will finally be embodied in this hateful antagonist of God and His Christ. John warns the believers of his day that the spirit of antichrist was already abroad (1 John 4: 3); and it is necessary therefore, especially at a time when infidelity is ever waxing bolder, to be on the watch, and to ponder well these delineations of the coming man of sin, so that we may be preserved, in the grace of our God, from all association with that which, as it is the offspring of Satan, is also the mark of hostility to Christ. At the present moment it is especially necessary to be vigilant, for there are many indications abroad that Satan is busily employed in marshalling and training his forces for the coming conflict. But, as ever, his movements are most subtle. Not yet does he dare to avow open antagonism to Christ; but he can, and does, influence the minds of men against the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and he uses for this purpose those who are its avowed teachers. Our foes are they of our own household. But as long, as we adhere to the word of God — refusing human wisdom and human reasonings — and look to be guided alone by the Holy Spirit, we shall escape the snare, and be kept true to Christ.

CHAPTER 8. THE GREAT TRIBULATION.

THERE will be also, in connection with the sway of the antichrist, another event of transcendent importance. Notices of it are found scattered throughout the prophets, as well as parts of the New Testament scriptures. It is generally designated as the great tribulation; but if the subject is closely examined it will be seen that this is but one feature of this fearful time of trial through which those upon the earth at that period will have to pass. In fact there will be a time of unexampled trouble, both for the Jews and the Gentiles; and we propose in this paper to collect some of the information which Scripture affords upon this subject, as well as to show who are the saints that will have to pass through this burning fiery furnace.

1. The time of trouble for the Jews. Jeremiah distinctly speaks of this, and to understand it clearly we will cite the passage with its context: "Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his bands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and I will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. (Jer. 30: 2-9) Three things are evident from this scripture. First, that Israel (as we have seen in a former paper) will yet be restored to their own land; that after this — or after the restoration of many — there will be a time of unparalleled trouble; and thirdly, that then will be their final deliverance and blessing The connection of these three things fixes the period of their tribulation, and shows that it will be after their return to their own land, and before the appearing of the Lord.

If we now turn to the prophet Daniel we shall find similar testimony. After speaking of the actings of the antichrist (Daniel 11: 36-45), he says: "At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." (Daniel 12: 1.) Again, we find that, when in their own land, and in connection with the doings of the antichrist, and hence after the Lord has returned for His people, and before His appearing, the Jews will pass through a time of trouble such as there never was before.

Our Lord speaks of the same thing. Forewarning His disciples, in answer to their question, "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" He says, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house," etc. "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Matt. 24: 15-22; also Mark 13: 14-20.) This scripture is extremely important on many accounts. It connects the tribulation spoken of with an event foretold by Daniel, and hence with the antichrist, and also reveals the cause as well as the period of this unexampled trouble. (See Daniel 12: 11 with Daniel 9: 27.)

Now connecting the several scriptures given, we learn that after the restoration of the Jews, exposed again, as in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (see Dan. 11: 21-31), to the hostility of the king of the north (Syria), the Jews for protection enter into a covenant with the first "beast" — the head of the revived Roman empire. It is to this Daniel refers when he says, "And he" (i.e. the Roman prince) "shall confirm a" (not the, but a) "covenant with many" (or rather the many) "for one week;" i.e. for a week of years — seven years. But we are further told that "in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease." (Dan. 9: 27.) By the covenant which this prince had entered into with the Jews, it is evident that he had engaged to protect them in their religious observances; but now, in association with the antichrist, he is false to his treaty — orders the daily sacrifice to be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate to be set up (Dan. 12: 11) in the holy place. That is, an idol is set up in the temple. (Read 2 Thess. 2: 4; and compare Rev. 13: 11-17.) It is to this our Lord refers in the passage we have cited; and He gives the setting up of this "abomination of desolation" as the signal of flight for the godly remnant who will be found at that time in Jerusalem. Thereon a decree will be issued to the effect that all are to worship the image that has thus usurped the place of God, and together with this the time of tribulation will commence — raging with unheard-of fury against all who refuse to obey this decree, and indeed against the Jews as such, and extending, as we may see further on, throughout the whole world.

In the mercy of God this fiery trial is limited to the half week, and will therefore only last three years and a half. This is the forty and two months, or the twelve hundred and sixty days, so constantly mentioned in the book of Revelation. This coincides with the testimony of the two witnesses (Rev. 11) and the divine judgments — the woes — therewith connected; and during this period also the devil, cast down to earth, vomits out his great wrath against the remnant of the woman's seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 12: 9-17.) And it is be, the dragon, that gives power unto the "beast," that inspires all the actings of the head of the Roman empire, and of the antichrist against the people of God. Combining these things together some idea may be formed of the unequalled character of this tribulation. It is satanic both in its source and energy, containing every element of suffering which Satan's malignant hate can invent and compound; but it is used by God to chasten the Jewish nation for their crowning sin in the rejection of their Messiah. If we add, that even the godly subjects of it will have no sense of God's favour, though His Spirit is working in their hearts, we shall in some degree understand the words of our Lord: "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."

This tribulation, as already said, specially affects the Jews. The passages cited from Jeremiah and Daniel confessedly apply to them, and the express reference of our Lord to the latter prophet, besides other indications in His discourse, leaves no room for doubt that He also had the same people in view. The past history of the nation, and the awful guilt they incurred in crucifying their Messiah, will help us to understand both its reason and object, while at the same time it is a consolation to remember that in every case where it is spoken of, it is speedily followed by the deliverance and blessing of God's elect remnant.

2. Besides "Jacob's trouble," we read also of the great tribulation. This is mentioned in Rev. 7. In the first part of the chapter four angels are seen "standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." (vv. 1-3.) Accordingly one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed out of the twelve tribes, God's spared remnant of Israel. Thereon we read, "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." (vv. 9, 10.) It is concerning this innumerable multitude that one of the twenty-four elders asked John, "Who are these arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (vv. 13, 14.) Now we are only stating what every one acquainted with the original readily admits, when we say that it should be read, "out of the great tribulation." This immense multitude therefore have been brought through it, and are in the scene before us a saved and rejoicing host. We have consequently a plain proof that there will be not only unparalleled trouble for the Jewish nation, but also, and probably about the same time (it may be a little before) a similar period of tribulation for the Gentiles — "all nations, kindreds, and people, and tongues." This would seem to be the same event as that of which our Lord speaks as "the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Rev. 3: 10.) As to its source and character, little if anything is revealed; but it is sufficiently accounted for by the fearful state into which the world will be plunged after the removal of the Church, and by the fact that the "beast," who will open "his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven," will have power "over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13: 5-8.)

3. The question now occurs, whether the church will be found in the tribulation? If not, who are the saints that are seen in it? Those who have read the earlier papers of this series will be already furnished with the answer; but as the subject is important, and there may be some who will only see the present paper, it may be advisable to recall the Scripture teaching on this point. In the first place it is abundantly clear, if our interpretation of the Scripture is correct, that the church will be caught away before this period. Thus we find in Rev. 19 that the beast and the false prophet (the antichrist) are taken and destroyed at the Lord's appearing. (vv. 11-21) In 2 Thess. we also learn that the Lord will consume that wicked one (the antichrist) "with the brightness of His coming." But we are taught in Colossians that "when Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3: 4.) In the Scripture already referred to (Rev. 19) it is also said that "the armies which were in heaven followed Him" (the Word of God) "upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (v. 14.) From verse 8 we gather that the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. The saints (the church) in both of, these Scriptures are represented as coming with Christ, and hence it is undeniable that they must have been caught up to be with Him previously. The structure of the book of Revelation shows the same thing. "Write," said the Lord to John, "the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" — after these. (Rev. 1: 19) The first chapter contains what he saw; the second and third, "the things which are "the church dispensation; and the rest of the book deals with the things after the church period has closed. Hence, immediately after the third chapter, the twenty-four elders are seen in heaven sitting upon thrones, clothed in white raiment, and with crowns of gold on their head. (Rev. 4: 4.) Who are these? Their crowns bespeak their kingly, as their dress reveals their priestly, character, and hence points back plainly to Rev. 1: 6. They are therefore the saints, and thus are found translated to heaven before the commencement of the tribulation.

But it may be enquired, Who then are the great multitude which no man could number of Rev. 7, who are distinctly said to come out of the great tribulation? Now if the elders symbolize the church — not excluding the saints of past dispensations — it is clear that this multitude cannot point to the same class. The elders are in heaven, and this redeemed multitude are upon the earth; and this distinction helps us to understand who they are. They are, as described, a vast number of Gentiles brought through the tribulation into blessing, and will therefore enter with Christ upon the glories and blessings of His millennia kingdom; nay, they are to have a special place under His sway. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (vv. 15-17.)

The other branch of the question remains, Who are the saints seen in the tribulation? They are God's elect remnant from among the Jews. This may be seen from Matt. 24. It is of those in Judea our Lord speaks. (v. 16.) They are to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath (the seventh) day (v. 20) — a direction that would have no significance except for a godly Jew under law; they are warned against false Christs (vv. 23, 24) — a warning which would scarcely be understood by Christians who know that Christ is at the right hand of God; and finally, the elect are not gathered until after the tribulation, etc., and the appearing, whereas, as we have seen, the church will appear with Christ. Indications of the same character could be collected if needful from the Revelation; but we have already shown that the elders in heaven prove that the church could not be on the earth during the tribulation. There is therefore abundant evidence to show that they are godly Jews, like Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, who will be cast into this burning fiery furnace, which is to be heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated." Their sorrows and cries during this time of unequalled anguish are traced and expressed in many of the Psalms. Believers of this dispensation are "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10.) For it is to them that our Lord addresses these words, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Rev. 3: 10.)

CHAPTER 9. THE APPEARING OF CHRIST.

THE difference between the Lord's coming and His appearing is, that in the former case He comes for His saints, and in the latter with His saints. The kingdom therefore is always connected with His appearing, as it is then that He will assume His power, and "have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." (Ps. 72: 8.) This event will be totally unexpected. Buried in profound slumber, and deaf to all warning, the world, under the strong delusion which has been sent upon it, will have believed a lie, Satan's falsehood, and trusted his masterpiece, the antichrist. Men will have at length found their happiness in forgetting God; and hence "as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24: 38, 39.) Yea, so sudden will it be, bursting with horror upon an astonished and careless world, that "as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day." (Luke 17: 24.)

But for the more intelligent conception of this wonderful event, it is advisable to obtain a general idea of the state of things then existing. Towards the close of the tribulation, described in the last paper, there will be a coalition of hostile powers against the Jews. It is thus spoken of in one of the Psalms: "They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and consulted against Thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." (Ps. 83: 3, 4.) The chief actors in this confederacy would seem to be the Assyrian, so often spoken of by Isaiah (see Isa. 10: 24; Isa. 14: 25, etc.), otherwise the king of the north, or the little horn of Daniel 8, the first "beast," i.e. the head of the revived Roman empire, and the false prophet — the antichrist. (Rev. 13, 19) Zechariah refers to this when he cries in the name of the Lord, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah, and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zech. 12: 2, 3.) It is Satan, as ever, who inspires the hearts of these enemies of Israel, but the Lord uses them to chastise the apostate nation, and hence Zechariah also says, "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle." (Zech. 14: 1, 2.) In Revelation we find other chief actors in the scene, though their hostility is there described as against the Lamb and against His saints, and presumably, therefore, we have there a later development of their schemes, occasioned by the appearing of Christ. John says, "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army." (Rev. 19: 19.)

Combining these accounts, together with the additional details to be found in Zechariah, the order of events may be indicated. All nations are gathered to battle against Jerusalem, and "the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." (Zech. 14: 2.) But at this juncture, when they are wreaking their vengeance upon this unhappy people, when the malignant purposes of Satan are near their accomplishment, "then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle." (Zech. 14: 3.) But Satan's instruments are not to be baulked of their prey, and goaded on to the crowning act of their impious course, led by the "beast" and the false prophet, who have long been seeking to wipe out the name of God and His Christ from the earth, and to erase their memory from the hearts of men, they dare now "to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army." They thus rush to their doom; for "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." (Rev. 19: 20, 21.) Isaiah speaks of this when he says, "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked" (one) (Isa. 11: 4); and Paul, "And then shall that wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." (2 Thess. 2: 8.) Thus God arises, and His enemies are scattered.

If we turn now to another scripture, we shall find other details connected with the appearing. After describing the tribulation, our Lord proceeds: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," etc. (Matt. 24: 29, 30.) The prophet Joel spoke in like manner: "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come." (Joel 2: 30, 31.) There will be thus signs above and below to herald the appearing of Christ, when He comes with ten thousands of His saints, "when every eye shall see Him, and they [also] which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." (Rev. 1: 7.)

It will, therefore, be a scene of awful and impressive grandeur; for it will be the "appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2: 13) — God's public display in His own glory of the One who was once rejected and crucified, but who now returns as the Son of man to take up the sovereignty of the whole world. And them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him (1 Thess. 4: 14), associated in glory with their Lord, as they were once associated with Him in His rejection; for He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed. (2 Thess. 1: 10.)

Having touched upon the fact and manner of His appearing, we may indicate some of its accompanying events. One of these has already been noted — the destruction of His foes. Thereon follows the conversion of Israel: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart. . . . In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." (Zech. 12: 9-14, Zech. 13: 1.) As soon as the church is removed, God will begin to act by His Spirit in the hearts of some of His ancient people — the remnant so constantly mentioned in the Psalms and the prophets; and these, as may be gathered from the Psalms and portions of Isaiah, will be bowed to the dust, under the sense of God's holy indignation against His people Israel on account of their apostasy; and it is this feeling, combined with their fearful trouble, that gives character to their cries as there recorded. It is at this moment, when the furnace into which they have been cast burns most fiercely, and when they are hanging as it were over the abyss of utter destruction, that the Lord appears for them, and they instantly recognize and look upon Him whom they have pierced. The true Joseph discovers Himself to His brethren, and they are at once plunged into bitter sorrow and humiliation on account of their, and their nation's sin. But provision is made for this also in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and they can now cry, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord: we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isa. 25: 9.)

It is not only the remnant in Jerusalem that will be affected; for we find that in connection with His appearing "He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. 24: 31.) Wherever they are found not one will escape the notice of His eye, but all will be brought to share in the blessings of the kingdom which He comes to establish. As we read in Isaiah, "He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isa. 11: 12.) It may be that this will not be completely accomplished until after the commencement of His reign; for after the display of His power and glory, after the Lord has come "with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire," some of the saved are sent forth to declare His glory among the Gentiles; and it is said that "they (the Gentiles) shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord." (Isa. 66: 15-20.)

There is another event of great importance to be noted in connection with, and probably preparatory to, the establishment of the kingdom. After describing the destruction of the "beast" and the false prophet, and the slaughter of their followers, John says: "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." (Rev. 20: 1-3.) Thus the Lord asserts His power in judgment upon the whole trinity of evil — Satan, the "beast," and the false prophet — which had impiously risen up against Him, and blasphemously usurped His authority; and at the same time He delivers His people — the elect of Israel — and thereby clears the way for, and lays the foundations of, His millennial sway.

Leaving, however, the consideration of the kingdom itself to a future paper, we shall now ask the reader's attention to those whom Christ will associate with Himself in His reign. There are several distinct classes that will have this honour. Everyone understands that believers of this dispensation will reign with Christ. This is too plainly asserted to admit of a single doubt. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." (2 Tim. 2: 12.) But it is not so generally apprehended that there are others to be singled out for this special exaltation; and yet this is as distinctly stated in the Scriptures. John says: "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of, Jesus, and for the word of God, and which [those who] had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Rev. 20: 4-6.) The class sitting on thrones to whom judgment is given is composed of the armies that followed Christ out of heaven (Rev. 19: 14) — the saints who had been caught up previously to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4); in a word, the Church, and perhaps the saints of previous dispensations. But there are other two classes; first, those who were martyred during the power of the antichrist — those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; and secondly, those who stood aloof from his seductions, and, unmoved by his threats, refused to receive his distinguishing sign. As a special mark of the Lord's favour and approbation, in recompense for their fidelity amid the general unfaithfulness, they are made partakers of the first resurrection, and consequently of association with Christ in His kingdom. They share both in the priestly and kingly dignity — the wondrous honour they inherit through the grace of Him who had marked their sufferings, and rejoiced in their constancy to His name and testimony. It is not forgotten that the force of this passage is often explained away by the contention that the resurrection here spoken of is figurative. If so, the resurrection and judgment described in the latter part of the chapter will also be figurative, and thus the whole truth of a final judgment will be frittered away. No; words so plain cannot be robbed of their significance, to say nothing of their perfect agreement with other portions of the word of God. Blessed prospect for the saints of God! And how will they rejoice, not so much in their association with Christ in the splendours of His kingdom, unspeakable as will be the honour, but in the fact of His receiving the place belonging to Him both by title and purchase! There are even great voices in heaven to celebrate the event, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our lord, and His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats (thrones), fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned." (Rev. 11: 15-18.) But with what terror will this poor world be filled, when they behold the One whom they refused and rejected coming in power and great glory, to judge everything now according to the standard of His immutable righteousness! And He will come "as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (1 Thess. 5: 2, 3.)

"Can this be He, once wont to stray

A pilgrim on the world's highway;

Opprest by power, and mocked by pride,

The Nazarene — the Crucified?"

CHAPTER 10. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

IN the present dispensation grace reigns through righteousness (Rom. 5: 21), in the eternal state righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3: 13); but in the millennial kingdom righteousness will reign. This indeed will be its characteristic according to that word of the prophet, "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness" (Isa. 32: 1), or to another of the psalmist, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre." (Isa. 45: 6.) There are, indeed, two types in Scripture of Christ as King — David and Solomon. David portrays Him in figure as King of righteousness, and Solomon as Prince of peace. These two are combined in Melchizedek, king of Salem "first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace." (Heb. 7: 2.) These two things, it will be seen, are the distinguishing features of the sway of Christ, the one preceding, and indeed producing the other; for "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever." (Isa. 32: 17.)

It will be therefore evident to the reader that Christ can be in no sense said to be King of the Church. To it He stands in a closer relationship, even that of Head; for believers now are united to Him by the Spirit of God, and are consequently members of His body. True, He is a King "as to title, though at present He is a rejected King; and it is as true that the believer owns no authority but His; but it is a confusion of dispensations to aver that Christ is now reigning as King. He will do so; but it will not be until He comes forth in the manner described in the last paper. At the present moment He is sitting at the right hand of God, and there He will continue to sit until His enemies are made His footstool. Then He will appear, and proceed to put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. (1 Cor. 15: 24, 25.) This is the kingdom — the kingdom as so explained — that falls to be considered in the present paper. The kingdom of heaven exists now (Matt. 13), so also the kingdom of God (John 3); and believers are said to be translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1: 13), but the reign of Christ as King is confined to the millennium. Thus Mary was told concerning Him, that "the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David." (Luke 1: 32.) It is obvious that this promise has never yet been fulfilled; for when He was presented to the Jews as their Messiah they would not receive Him, and finally cried, "We have no king but Caesar." (John 19: 15.) But every word of God must stand, and thus He will yet be the King of Israel, and not only of Israel, for as Son of man He inherits still wider glories, "and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." (Dan. 7: 27.) Israel will be the centre of this universal dominion, and it will be through them that He will govern the nations upon the earth.

First, then, on the assumption of His throne, which the reader will now understand is consequent upon His appearing, He will act in judgment after the pattern of David; that is, He will judge everything He finds according to righteousness. Hence the psalmist says, "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment." (Psalm 72: 1, 2.) He will therefore "gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity," and "the Lord shall be king, over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one." (Zech. 14: 9.)

We have a remarkable scene of this character in Matt. 25. Having established His throne in righteousness, all nations are gathered before Him for judgment. This is expressly connected with His kingdom: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations." (vv. 31, 32.) It is the only time that our Lord applies the title of King to Himself: "Then shall the King say unto them etc. (vv. 34-40.) This shows that the kingdom has been founded — marking, indeed, the commencement of His millennial sway. If now we examine the features of this session of judgment, it will be manifest that there is no pretext whatever for confounding it with that of the great white throne (Rev. 20), or for deducing from it the popular idea of a general judgment — of believers and unbelievers together. It is, in fact, a judgment of living nations; for there is no scriptural precedent for terming the dead "the nations." There are three classes here apparent — the sheep, the goats, and the "brethren" of the King. It will be observed that the way in which the nations had treated the King's "brethren" becomes the ground of their classification, whether among the sheep or among the goats. This fact is therefore the key to the whole scene. Who then are the King's "brethren"? Very clearly they must be Jews — His kinsmen according to the flesh, but also His true servants. We may thus probably find a clue to them in Isaiah 66, in a passage already adduced. There we find that after the Lord has come in judgment some of the saved are sent to declare His glory among the Gentiles. So in the scene before us, the King's "brethren" have evidently gone forth as His messengers among the nations, and they are therefore invested with a special place and authority, even as the ambassadors of a sovereign now are clothed with all the honour and dignity of the one they represent. The principle on which they are sent forth is that on which the Lord sent out the twelve: "He that receiveth you receiveth me." (Matt. 10: 40.) Hence the King says to those on His right hand, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me;" and they are made to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. In like manner He says to those on His left hand, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matt. 25: 34-46.)

Thus Christ as the King, by the display of His power in righteous judgment, obtains universal dominion; for "the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him." (Ps. 72: 10, 11) Thereon, having put down all rule and all authority and power, He reigns as Prince of peace. "His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." (Ps. 72: 17.)

Leaving the reader to study for himself in the psalms and prophets the details of His millennial kingdom, we may point out a few of its leading features.

(1.) Jerusalem will recover its former glory; nay, its future condition will as far surpass its former, as the glory of Christ as King will outshine that of David and Solomon. "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought." Again: "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." (Isa. 60: 10-15.) We likewise read: "Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God" (Isa. 62: 3; see many other passages of the same character); and surely it is only fitting that the metropolis of Messiah's kingdom should be suited to the worthiness, dignity, and glory of the King!

(2.) The temple and its services will be revived in surpassing splendour. (Ezek. 40 - 46) Some have felt a difficulty as to sacrifices being restored; but the difficulty vanishes when it is remembered that these sacrifices will be connected with an earthly people, and an earthly temple, and will be commemorative in their character. In the old dispensation they had no efficacy whatever apart from their reference to Christ; for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins (Heb. 10: 4); and in the millennium they will look back to that one sacrifice for sin which was offered upon the cross, as those under the Mosaic economy foreshadowed it. They will, therefore, but recall to the grateful, worshipping hearts of God's people, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son which cleanseth from all sin.

(3.) All nations will come up to Jerusalem to worship. We thus read in the prophet: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. 2: 2, 3.) Zechariah also speaks of a similar thing. He says: "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles." (Zech. 14: 16.)

(4.) The animal creation will share in the peace and blessing of that day. "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock." (Isa. 65: 25; see also Isa. 11: 6-9) It is added to the above scripture, "And dust shall be the serpent's meat;" showing, we suppose, that the serpent will be excluded from the deliverance from thraldom under which even the brute creation has hitherto groaned. But as we know, "The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Rom. 8: 21.)

(5.) The curse will be removed from the earth. When Adam fell the ground was cursed on his account. Whatever the alleviation of this sentence under Noah, it is not completely abrogated until the reign of Messiah. The psalmist accordingly sings, "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us." (Ps. 67: 5, 6.) Amos in like manner prophesies, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt." (Amos 9: 13.) For it is at this time that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." (Isa. 35: 1, 2.)

(6.) There will be no death, excepting in the way of judgment, throughout the whole of the thousand years. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be cursed." (Isa. 65: 20.) The meaning of this scripture would seem to be, that death will be entirely exceptional, and then only in the way of righteous judgment. The age of Methuselah may therefore not only be equalled, but surpassed, in this blessed period of Messiah's reign.

(7.) All injustice will be instantly redressed. This is connected of necessity with the Messiah's righteous rule. Hence we read, "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight." (Ps. 72: 12-14.) Men fondly dream that this is the goal of human enlightenment and progress; but they are ignorant of, or forget, the incurable corruption of human nature, and hence do not consider that even though the whole world were to obtain just and equal laws, they would fail either in their administration or application. No; Christ is the only hope for the earth, as for the saint for "He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity." (Ps. 98: 9.)

(8.) But, notwithstanding all these blessed features, there will be rebellions even under the reign of Christ. In Psalm 66 we read, "Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee;" or, as it is in the margin, "yield feigned obedience." The same expression is found in another psalm. "As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me," or "yield feigned obedience." (Ps. 18: 44.) It would appear from these statements that the display of Christ's power in judgment will be so overwhelming, as it surely will be in the judgment upon the nations assembled against Jerusalem, that many, not bowed in heart, will yet be terrified into the acceptance of His rule. They will profess subjection while their hearts are alienated from Him; hence they will be as easily tempted to renounce as to submit to His sway. Accordingly we find that after — perhaps not long after — the establishment of His throne, Gog, with a multitude of followers, "a great company, and a mighty army," comes up against His people Israel, "as a cloud to cover the land." But he comes to meet with immediate and utter destruction, so great and overwhelming that "seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land." (Ezek. 38, 39)

Again, at the close of the millennium there is a still larger rebellion, directly attributed to the action of Satan. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog [not to be confounded with the Gog of Ezekiel], to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city." (Rev. 20: 7-9.) Thus every dispensation closes with failure as a striking testimony to the character and nature of man. Tried in every way, without law and under law, under grace, and at last under the personal reign of the Messiah, he shows that he cannot be improved, that the flesh remains the same, that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, that the carnal mind is enmity with God. The Jews chose a Caesar, yea, a Barabbas, in preference to Christ; and finally man accepts Satan himself, and under his leadership goes to attack and destroy "the camp of the saints, . . . and the beloved city" that are under the special protection of the glorified Messiah. The issue could be but one. There remains nothing for God but to vindicate the righteousness of the throne of Christ; and accordingly we read that "fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever." (Rev. 20: 9, 10.) Thus closes the period of the thousand years. It was introduced in judgment, and it is closed by judgment; but it will yet be the time of earth's blessing and joy. For it must be remembered that Satan is bound until the close of the period, and hence while the flesh remains the same, the power of evil being thus absent, all the influences to which man is subject will be on the side of Christ. It will be a total reversal of the present state of things; so that the psalmist may well cry, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." (Psalm 96: 11-13.)

But we must leave the reader to enter for himself into a closer study of the subject. Abundant materials for the purpose will be found throughout the Scriptures; and if he but read in dependence upon the Spirit for guidance and teaching, and with his eye upon Christ, it will not be without profit and blessing.

CHAPTER 11. THE NEW JERUSALEM.

So far we have treated only, in the preceding paper, of the earthly characteristics of the millennium. It will be necessary therefore to consider also its heavenly aspect, as presented to us in the new Jerusalem. If the reader will turn to Revelation 19, he will observe that from the eleventh verse of that chapter down to the eighth verse of chapter 21, we have a series of consecutive events. It begins with the coming forth of the Lord Jesus, followed by the armies that were in heaven, to judgment; and then we have the destruction, as already seen, of the "beast," the false prophet, and their hosts, the binding of Satan, the thousand years, the loosing of Satan, etc., the great white throne, and the eternal state (which will be considered in a future paper). Immediately upon this we are led back, in the ninth verse, to a description of the new Jerusalem, which reaches onward to chapter 22; and in this scripture we have the character of the city during the millennium, and its relation, indeed, to the millennial earth.

John says: "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the last seven plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." (Rev. 21: 9-11) The first thing that strikes the reader is the designed contrast between this scripture and that in Rev. 17: "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that, sitteth upon many waters." (v. 1.) In this chapter we have Babylon depicted, in Rev. 21 the new Jerusalem. The former is man's city, and the latter God's; the one the expression of what man is, the other the perfection of God's thoughts, robed in the glory of God. Let the reader carefully ponder the contrast, and learn its divine lessons. Another thing must be remarked: the city is "the Bride, the Lamb's wife." This determines its character. It is the Church which Christ has now presented "to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing . . . . holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 27), beautified with His own beauty, and having the glory of God. Its position is also to be noted. Both in the second and tenth verses it is seen to come down from God out of heaven; but a comparison of the two scriptures will show us the place the city occupies throughout the thousand years. In the tenth verse it is seen descending out of heaven from God; but after the similar statement in the second verse, John hears the proclamation, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men," showing that the city now had come down to, and rested upon, the new earth. The inference therefore is — and one which is abundantly substantiated from other scriptures — that in the tenth verse the city descends towards the millennial earth, but rests above it, over the earthly Jerusalem. Poised thus, as it were, above the earthly city, it will be a visible object of light and glory; and this perhaps may explain the language which the prophet addressed to Jerusalem, "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." (Isa. 60: 19.)

We may now examine some of its characteristics. (1) It is divine in its origin, and heavenly in its character. It comes down from God out of heaven. (2) It has "the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." Her light therefore is the outshining of the glory in which she is set; for jasper is a symbol of the glory of God. (Rev. 4: 3.) The Church is glorified together with Christ in the glory of God, and as such is here displayed. In verses 18 and 19, it is stated that the building of the wall, and the first foundation, are both alike of jasper. The glory. of God is thus the stability and security, as well as the light and beauty, of the heavenly city. But the wall excluded everything unsuitable to that glory, as well as guarded everything according to it. (3) The next feature is, that it "had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (vv. 12-14.) It must be carefully observed that all this concerns the wall of the city, and its distinguishing characteristic is the number twelve — twelve angels, twelve tribes, and twelve apostles. As one has said, "It has twelve gates. Angels are become the willing doorkeepers of the great city, the fruit of Christ's redemption work in glory. This marked the possession too, by man thus brought in the assembly to glory, of the highest place in the creation, and providential order of God, of which angels had previously been the administrators. The twelve gates are full human perfectness of governmental administrative power. The gate was the place of judgment; Twelve, we have often seen, notes perfection and governmental power. The character of it is noted by the names of the twelve tribes. God had so governed these. They were not the foundation; but this character of power was found there. There were twelve foundations; but these were the twelve apostles of the Lamb. They were, in their work, the foundation of the heavenly city. Thus the creative and providential display of power, the governmental (Jehovah), and the assembly once founded at Jerusalem, are all brought together in the heavenly city, the organized seat of heavenly power. It is not presented as the bride, though it be "the Bride, the Lamb's wife." It is not in the Pauline character of nearness of blessing to Christ. It is the assembly as founded at Jerusalem under the twelve, the organized seat of heavenly power, the new and now heavenly capital of God's government." (4) Then it is measured (vv. 15-17), indicating that it is owned and appropriated by God. The measurements are, it need hardly be said, symbolical — symbolical of a divinely-given perfectness. Thus the city is a cube equal on every side — finite perfection. (5) Then we have the materials of which the city and the foundations were formed. Again we borrow the language of another: "The city was formed, in its nature, in divine righteousness and holiness — gold transparent as glass. That which was now by the Word wrought in and applied to men below was the very nature of the whole place. (Cp. Eph. 4: 24.) The precious stones, or varied display of God's nature, who is light, in connection with the creature (seen in creation, Ezek. 28; in grace in the high priest's breastplate), now shown in permanent glory, and adorned the foundations of the city. The gates had the moral beauty (every several crate was of one pearl) which attracted Christ in the assembly, and in a glorious way. That on which men walked, instead of bringing danger of defilement, was itself righteous and holy; the streets, all that men came in contact with, were righteousness and holiness — gold transparent as glass." (6) It has no temple. "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." (v. 22.) A temple would speak of concealment, or of a special place where God manifested Himself to those who drew nigh to worship. But all this is past. Even now, while here, we have liberty of access into the holiest of all (Heb. 10); yea, our place is in the light as God is in the light. In the heavenly city, therefore, God is fully displayed.

"The Lamb is there, my soul -

There God Himself doth rest,

In love divine diffused through all,

With Him supremely blest.

God and the Lamb — 'tis well,

I know that source divine

Of joy and love no tongue can tell,

Yet know that all is mine."

(7.) There is no need of created light. "And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." (v. 23.) If God is fully displayed this would be impossible. When He stands disclosed His glory lightens the city, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

"But who that glorious blaze

Of living light shall tell?

There all His brightness God displays,

And the Lamb's glories dwell.

God and the Lamb shall there

The light and temple be;

And radiant hosts for ever share

The unveiled mystery."

Having directed attention to the characteristics of the city, we may now pass to consider what is next indicated; viz., the relation of the city to the millennial earth. First we are told that "the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." (v. 24.) Two slight alterations will make this scripture far more intelligible. The words "of them that are saved" are omitted in all the best editions of the New Testament, as being an unwarranted addition; and the word translated "into" should be given as "to," or "unto;" or otherwise it would seem as if the kings of the earth had access into the heavenly city! What we are taught then is, first, that the new Jerusalem will shine with such surpassing lustre that the nations will walk in its light — the light of the glory in which it is set, and by which it is illumined. It will be thus suspended above the earthly Jerusalem, and from thence will transmit the rays of the glory of God by which it is encompassed and transfused. Moreover, the kings, of the earth will render their homage by bringing their glory and honour, as offerings, unto it; thus recognizing it as the object of God's delight, and the scene of the display of His presence and glory, because the throne of God and the Lamb are there.

It is then added that "the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into (unto) it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (vv. 25-27.) One cannot fail to be struck with the correspondence between this language and that addressed to the earthly Jerusalem by the prophet: "Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought." (Isa. 60: 11) And undoubtedly there will be an intimate relation between the two cities, similar to that between the holy place and the holy of holies in the tabernacle; though the distinction must ever be remembered, that the one city is heavenly, and the other earthly in its character. The open gates are an emblem of the perfect security which the city enjoys, there being "no adversary or evil occurrent;" while the absence of night tells that evil has passed away, and hence there is perpetual day. "It is not merely the absence of evil, but the impossibility of its entrance, which characterized the holy city;" for none "but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" are found within.

Next we have the river of water of life and the tree of life. "And he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev. 22: 1, 2.) All this again speaks of the relation of the city to the millennial earth, and reveals the source of millennial life and blessedness. The throne of God and the Lamb are the fount, as ever, of grace and life; and the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. The glorified only will feed upon the twelve fruits of the tree. Hence it is added, "There shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there: and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." (vv. 3-5.) Adam after his fall was shut out of the garden, and God "placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Gen. 3: 24.) Now the tree of life is on either side of the street of the golden city, and the glorified saints find in its fruit sustenance and joy. The curse therefore is for ever abolished; for the throne of God and the Lamb are there, and His servants serve Him perfectly, see His face, and have His name in their foreheads. Wondrous expressions of the full and perfect bliss of the redeemed! it is now repeated that there shall be no night there, and that they have no need of created light for God Himself is the source of their light, as of their blessing, and His glory illuminates the whole scene. In this condition they will reign for ever and ever, associated with Christ in all the glories of His royalty and kingdom.

It is therefore not only the earthly blessing we are admitted to view, but God has also brought before us the varied perfections and glories of this heavenly city, which will form such a prominent feature of the millennial period. We have not permitted ourselves to touch upon the question of communication between the heavenly and the earthly spheres. That such communication will exist is beyond a doubt; but upon its modes, or the exact way in which Christ will carry on the government of the earth as King, Scripture is silent. But we are told that "the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment, and with justice from henceforth even for ever." (Isa. 9: 6, 7.)

CHAPTER 12. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE AND THE ETERNAL STATE.

THE millennium closes the long series of earthly dispensations. God's dealings with the earth, whether in grace, mercy, or judgment, are now concluded; and hence the earth and the heaven disappear before the face of Him who has taken His seat on the great white throne. (Rev. 20: 11) The final judgment comes between the end of the millennium and the commencement of the eternal state; but before this, an event takes place, dismissed in a word in the scripture just adduced, of great magnitude and importance. It is the destruction of the earth and the heavens by fire. Peter thus speaks of it: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." And again: "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein" (rather, on account of which) "the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." (2 Peter 3: 10, 12.) The day of the Lord, it should be remarked, covers the whole period of the thousand years. It comes as a thief, introduced as it will be by the Lord's appearing; and at its close, the consumption of the earth and heavens by fire takes place. Hence Peter says, "In the which," because it is included in, though at the end of, the day of the Lord. it is the same event indicated in the Revelation by the words, "From whose face the heaven and the earth fled away," stating the fact only without giving the means of their disappearance; but, as we see from Peter, fire is God's chosen instrumentality for the destruction of this present, scene. Then follows the great white throne; the final judgment therefore takes place after the passing away of the earth and the heaven. The character of this judgment will demand a closer examination.

First, then, as to the Judge. It is made to appear from the authorised version that God Himself is the Judge: "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." (Rev. 20: 12.) It is, however, well known that "throne" should be substituted for "God;" and it is very clear from other scriptures that the Lord Jesus is the occupant of, the One that will sit upon, the great white throne. He Himself said, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." Again: "As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." (John 5: 22-27.) With this agree also the words of Paul when he says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2: 10, 11) The One therefore who was once upon this earth, but rejected and crucified, is He who will sit in judgment upon those who refused Him as Saviour and Lord; for the Father wills that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour Himself. In His occupancy therefore of this throne of judgment, God publicly vindicates Christ in the presence of men and angels, and holds Him forth as the object of universal honour and homage; so that now every knee that had refused to own Him in the day of grace must at last bow before Him in acknowledgement of His Lordship and supremacy. As seated on the great white throne, He has become the Arbiter of the eternal destinies of all His enemies.

The throne on which He sits is described as "great," and as "white." It is great as suited to the dignity of its occupant; and it is white as a symbol of the character of the judgments that will be pronounced, every one of which will be according to the holiness of the nature of God.

This judgment is upon persons, not things, and upon unbelievers only. John says, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (vv. 12-15.) If the exact statements of this Scripture are examined, it will be apparent that there is no trace of any believer in this vast and unnumbered throne, Indeed, as already shown in previous papers, all believers are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air at His second coming. There remain therefore, besides those who are left in their graves at His return, only two classes — millennial saints, and millennial unbelievers or rebels. But millennial saints will not die; and hence, since this scene includes only the dead (v. 12), those who stand before His throne for judgment are composed entirely of the wicked or unbelievers. This conclusion is established in another way. We have two kinds of books opened as the basis of judgment. There are the books of works, and there is the book of life; and it is said that "the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." (v. 12.) They are judged, in fact, upon two grounds — positive and negative. Their works are produced in evidence against them; and the absence of their names from the book of life shows that they have no title to mercy or favour; for "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." There is no trace of a single one having his name there, and their works therefore become the ground of their sentence; and we know that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Rom. 3: 20.) As another has said, "Another element was brought into view. Sovereign grace alone had saved according to the purpose of God. There was a book of life. Whosoever was not written there was cast into the lake of fire. But it was the finally closing and separating scene for the whole race of men and this world. And though they were judged every man according to his works, yet sovereign grace only had delivered any; and whoever was not found in grace's book was cast into the lake of fire. The sea gave up the dead in it; death and hades the dead in them. And death and hades were put an end to for ever by the divine judgment. The heaven and earth passed away, but they were to be revived; but death and hades never. There was for them only divine destruction and judgment. They are looked at as the power of Satan. He has the power of death, and the gates of hades; and hence these are for ever destroyed judicially." The last enemy, death, is now destroyed; for Christ "must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet."

Before we pass on to the eternal state, another scripture must be considered. We read in Corinthians, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then [cometh] the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." (1 Cor. 15: 22-28.) This in many ways is a most remarkable passage, comprehending as it does all dispensations, or at least covering them in its scope. The immediate subject of the apostle is that of the resurrection. After therefore stating the fact that all die in Adam, and the corresponding truth that all shall be made alive in Christ — i.e. the "all" connected with Christ, as the "all" in the former case include all connected with Adam — he gives us the order in which the latter shall be accomplished. The resurrection of Christ was the first-fruits of this wondrous harvest, they that are Christ's, which should be gathered in at His coming. "Then cometh the end." But between this "then" and the foregoing "afterward" the millennium is included, so that "the end" brings us down to its close; and, indeed, farther still, down to the close of the judgment of the great white throne. It is this point which needs to be observed; for it is the termination, as such, of the mediatorial kingdom. Hence we find that He delivers up the kingdom to God the Father. All things having been subdued under Him, He yields up the kingdom to Him that put all things under Him, and Himself takes a subject place, that henceforward God may be all in all. It is the close and the surrender of His earthly kingdom, and thenceforward as the glorified man He is Himself subject. But it must be carefully remembered that His essential Deity for ever abides; indeed, the term "God," used thus absolutely, includes Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is a wondrous revelation; for thereby we learn that throughout eternity He will retain His glorified humanity, moving among the ranks of the redeemed, all of whom are conformed to His image, as the FIRSTBORN among many brethren. If therefore we have, on the one hand, in this scripture the surrender of the earthly kingdom, we have also, on the other, the introduction to the eternal state, wherein God is all in all.

But it is in the Revelation that we find the fullest description of the eternal state: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Rev. 21: 1.) Isaiah had spoken of new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65: 17), but only in a moral sense as connected with the millennium. Peter takes up his language, and under the guidance of the Holy Ghost gives to it a deeper meaning "Nevertheless," he says, "we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3: 13.) But it is in the Revelation that we see in the vision the actual fulfilment of the promise. We are moreover told that "there was no more sea;" for the time of separation was over and gone, and every part of the new scene was brought into ordered beauty before God; everything would be according to His own mind. Thereon the holy city comes into view. "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." There are several points to be noticed in this wondrous description of the perfection of the eternal state. First, the holy city is seen coming down from God out of heaven. As we have before remarked, during the millennium it is set above the earthly Jerusalem; but now, though John goes back both to its origin and character, it descends lower still, until it rests upon the new earth which has now been formed. The millennial earth could not have received it, because, great as was its blessedness, it could not, being still imperfect, have been the home of the eternal tabernacle of God. This is reserved for the new earth wherein righteousness would dwell — have its abiding home. And mark how the city is depicted — "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." The thousand years have passed, and the city is still robed in her bridal beauty. Age cannot dim her youth, and hence she is still "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The proclamation is now made, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." We gather therefore that the glorified Church is the dwelling-place of God; and just as in the wilderness encampment the tribes were arranged round about the tabernacle, so here we find men — the saints of other dispensations — grouped about God's tabernacle in the eternal state. The Lord had said to His people Israel in the wilderness, "I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." (Lev. 26: 11, 12; see also Ezekiel 27: 26, 27.) And now in the unfoldings of His grace, according to the purposes of His love, His word is accomplished after the perfection of His own thoughts. His tabernacle is now with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God.

Next we have the blessedness of the inhabitants of the scene. But how is it described? In the very way that appeals the most powerfully to hearts that have known the sorrows and tribulations of the wilderness. There will be the absence of everything that had caused us grief or anguish here. First, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;" not a trace of former sorrow shall remain, and God Himself will remove it. What infinite tenderness in the expression that God Himself shall do this! Even as a mother will tenderly wipe away the tears of her child, so God Himself will delight to wipe away all tears from the eyes of His saints. And once wiped away they can never return; for "there shall be no more death" (how many tears has death wrung from bereaved ones in this scene!), "neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." All these, the former, things will have for ever passed away — these dark clouds — before the perpetual sunlight and joy of the eternal presence of God.

"And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write; for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (rather, these things); "and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers; and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (vv. 5-8.) Thus all is made new; the new creation has reached its consummation. Everything within and without is very good; perfect, as measured by the holiness of God. It is therefore a scene in which He can dwell with complacency and delight. All has flowed from Himself, and all redounds to His glory; for He is both Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

The scene is then closed by the announcement of grace, promise and judgment. Every one that is athirst may receive of the fountain of the water of life freely. The overcomer shall inherit all these things. To borrow another's language, "The world for the Christian is now a great Rephidim, This is the twofold portion of his final blessedness: he shall have God for His God, and be His son. Those who feared this path — did not overcome the world and Satan, but had walked in iniquity — would have their part in the lake of fire. This closes the history of God's ways." It will be remarked that there is no mention of the Lamb. The reason is, as has been pointed out, that the Son also Himself is now subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

"FOR OF HIM, AND THROUGH HIM, AND TO HIM, ARE ALL THINGS: TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER. AMEN."

God's Way

God's Way — of Peace; of Rest, Power & Consecration; of Holiness.

E. Dennett.

God's Way of Peace

Have you peace with God?

This, beloved reader, is the question of all questions, needing to be considered by all, without distinction, whether old or young, rich or poor; and hence it is that we desire to press it upon you with affectionate earnestness, beseeching you to give yourself no rest until you can answer it truly and clearly in the sight of God. Everything depends upon it in the prospect of death and eternity. If you can say, Thank God, I have peace with Him, then you may be happy now, you can contemplate death without alarm, should you be called upon to die before the Lord's return, and you are able to rejoice in the prospect before you beyond the grave, knowing that, absent from the body, you will be present with the Lord.

If, on the other hand, you are compelled to confess, that you have not peace with God, you are even now under His wrath (John 3: 36), and when death comes, should you remain as you are, it will introduce you to an eternity of misery and woe under the just judgment of a holy God.

But what is peace with God? you may inquire.

It will be enough at present to say, that it springs from the knowledge that all our sins have been put away by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that God has shown, by raising Him from the dead, that He is eternally satisfied with the finished work of Christ on the cross, and that He now has not only pardoned, but has also justified, counted righteous, every one who believes the testimony which He has given to His beloved Son. Every one who has peace with God knows that his sins are gone for ever, that he is standing in God's eternal favour, and that the glory of God awaits him in the future. Happy is the soul that lives in the enjoyment of this blessed knowledge!

How then may this knowledge be obtained?

This is the question, dear reader, to which we now invite your attention. But, first of all, it will be necessary to explain why it is that all do not possess it. God made man upright; and Adam, when in the garden of Eden, before he listened to the voice of the tempter, enjoyed the visits and the presence of God. The moment he sinned, he was afraid, and sought to hide himself among the trees of the garden. (Gen. 3.) Up till that time he was innocent, now he was a sinner; and the scripture says, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." There could therefore, be no peace between a holy God and sinners in their sins; for the will of the sinner is opposed to the will of God. Hence we read that the carnal mind (the mind of the flesh) is enmity against God (Rom. 8); and again of those who were alienated, and enemies in mind by wicked works. (Col. 1: 21.) This is the reason why all have not peace with God; because, in a word, they are sinners; and, it may be added, until this is acknowledged, it is impossible to discover God's way of peace.

Do you then, my reader, take the place of being a sinner before God?

"All men are sinners." Very true; but even to confess that you are a sinner before God, even though the confession springs really from the heart, is not enough; for while the words were on your lips, you might cherish the hope of reformation, of so changing the character of your life as to commend yourself to God, to merit His approval. Hence I must ask you another question.

Do you know that you are a lost sinner? By this I mean, are you aware that you are in a hopeless condition, that, if you are left to yourself, there is not only no possibility of recovery, but also that you must certainly perish for ever?

Perhaps you will explain more fully what you mean by being a lost sinner?

Willingly. When Adam was placed in the garden of Eden, he was set under responsibility; that is, his continuance in the blessings by which he was surrounded was made dependent upon his obedience to the command he had received not to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2: 16, 17.) He transgressed, and so forfeited everything, and was, in consequence, driven out of the garden. (Gen. 3.) After this, God still went on proving man, to see if He could find any response to His claims. Noah failed, even as Adam had done (Gen. 9: 20, 21); Israel broke the covenant of the law; the priesthood fell from their estate; under the kingdom, God's people renounced His authority and became idolaters; and, last of all, on the presentation of Christ to His ancient people, they rejected and crucified Him who was God's beloved Son. This was the end of God's trial of man, for at the cross judgment was passed on the whole world, for the death of Christ was the demonstration of man's hopeless enmity against God. Up to the cross, man was under probation; but from that time man is declared to be lost.

When, therefore, we say that you are a lost sinner we mean that you are not now under probation, that God is not now waiting upon you to see whether you will serve Him or not; for He has settled that question once and for ever in the cross of Christ. On this account, His dealings with man from that time have assumed a new character. Instead of expecting anything from man, He declares that man is lost and undone before Him, that by works of law no flesh shall be justified in His sight; and thereon He brings His own righteousness to the sinner, and proclaims, that He justifies "freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood . . . to declare his righteousness; that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3: 20-26.) In other words, when God had shown, by His long patience in His ways with man, that man could produce no fruit for Him, could bring nothing to God, He stepped in, gave His only-begotten Son to die on the cross that He might lay a righteous foundation for the salvation of sinners through faith in Christ. Salvation, therefore, is now through faith, and not by works of any kind; for God has shown, that the sinner is not only incapable of doing anything, but also that he is already lost and under condemnation on account of his sins.

Does my reader comprehend? And is he prepared to admit concerning himself that he is nothing but a poor, guilty, lost sinner?

It may still further help, for the point is of paramount importance, if we ask the reader to test himself by four words used by the apostle Paul of the past condition of those who had become believers; words therefore which describe the condition of all unconverted souls. Turn, then, to Romans 5: 6, there he says, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Here are two words, "without strength," and "ungodly." We may take the latter first, and we ask you, reader, if you accept the term "ungodly" as true of you? Do you say, I am not so bad as that? Let us then inquire into the meaning of the word. Because the word has come to be applied to outward conduct, its real significance has been lost. As used in the scriptures it applies to the state of heart as well as to actions, and it means "godless," that is, to be without God — to feel and to act apart from God, without reference to Him or to His will. Suppose, now, I follow you into your house, and I see you taking your seat at the table without thanking God for His mercies; or if I accompany you to your chamber, and see you lay yourself down to rest at night without commending yourself to God, or seeking His protecting care, I should at once say, That is an ungodly man: he does not acknowledge God, he is truly godless.

Will you bow to the truth of this indictment?

The next word is "without strength," that is, helpless. Do you own not only that you are ungodly, but also that you are powerless to extricate yourself from your evil condition? It is precisely at this point that many stumble, because it reduces them to impotence before God; but the reader will at once see, if he consider for a moment, that he could not say he was a lost sinner as long as he thought he had any strength in himself. To see, therefore, that he is absolutely strengthless as well as ungodly is of the last importance; for not till then will he begin to look outside of himself for the means of salvation.

Passing down to verse 8, we find the term "sinners," but as we have already considered this, we may at once take the fourth which is in verse 10. If, says the apostle, when we were "enemies," &c. Thus every unsaved soul is an enemy to God. Is this too strong a word? Nay, the apostle says in another Place, as we have already seen, that the carnal mind, the mind of the flesh — that is, the mind of the natural man, man as born into this world — is enmity against God. (Rom. 8: 7.) It is a terrible thing, but it is nevertheless true, that the sinner's mind, his will, is always opposed to God. This was proved when our Lord was down here, and He thus said of those amongst whom He had moved, "They have both seen and hated both Me and my Father;" and again, "They hated me without a cause." (John 15: 18-25.) And this hatred found its full expression at the cross when they nailed Him, their Messiah, who was also the Son of God, to the cross. (Acts 2: 23.)

Let me, then, beseech my reader to test himself by these divine descriptions. That they are true is certain, for they have been written with an unerring pen; but the question is, are they accepted as true? No real progress can be made until they are; for the character of grace as revealed in the gospel can never be apprehended until the truth of man's condition before God is first perceived.

Are there, then, no differences between man and man? Must we subscribe to these statements as affecting all alike, the upright and moral equally with the felon and the criminal?

The scriptures have anticipated the question. It is written explicitly: "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Again, "There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3: 19, 22, 23.) It is quite true that some go farther in sin outwardly than others; but the ground of judgment, as to man's condition before God, is his state of heart, his will, his feelings, his thoughts as well as his deeds.

Once more let me ask the reader if he accepts the testimony of God as to himself? The moment this is done, the way of peace can be announced. For why does God take such pains to set forth the state of the sinner? It is only that He might convince him that he is hopelessly guilty and undone, so that He might then attract his gaze to Himself, and to the provision which He in His grace has made for his salvation. For if, on the one hand, man is convicted of being a poor, lost sinner, God is proclaimed, on the other, as a mighty Saviour through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is to this second part of our subject that we now invite the reader's attention.

First of all, we will refer to two scriptures, in order to show the simplicity of GOD'S WAY OF PEACE. In Colossians 1: 20 we read, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross," &c. This, it should be carefully noted, is not peace with man, or even with believers; but it is an expression signifying that the blood of Christ has met all the claims of God upon man on account of his sin, inasmuch as in His death Christ took upon Himself all our responsibility, and settled every question before God concerning our sin and sins, concerning what we were and what we had done, and so settled it that God was infinitely glorified by the work which was accomplished on the cross; so that the blood of Christ becomes the righteous foundation on which God is now free to go forth and bring back poor, guilty sinners to Himself. The peace spoken of is thus Godward; it is the peace of God's throne, and was set forth in type by the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, on the great day of atonement. (Lev. 16.) Until the blood of Christ was offered in propitiation, the throne of God was against the sinner; now, on account of what that blood has been for God, His throne is favourable to every one that believes in Jesus; and, moreover, He assumes an attitude of grace to all, beseeching sinners, through the gospel, to be reconciled to Him. The blood of Christ enables God to receive, and righteously to receive, the vilest and the worst of sinners who come to Him in the name of Christ. The peace which has been made by the blood of Christ is, in other words, God's own foundation for the gospel; that is, the ground on which, all His righteous claims having been met, His whole nature glorified, He can gratify His own heart by sending forth the message of His grace: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3: 16.)

If now we take the next scripture, this will be abundantly clear. In Ephesians 2: 17 we read: "And came and preached peace to you which were afar off [the Gentiles], and to them that were nigh [Jews]." That is, peace having been made by the blood of Christ, He can now, through His servants, proclaim peace to all who will receive the glad tidings of His finished work of atonement. And let the reader mark the words, "preaching peace," that is, peace is offered, without money, and without price, to those who hear the message; it is offered as God's own gift of grace to guilty sinners. This is illustrated by an action of the Lord Himself. On the first day of the week, His resurrection day, when His disciples were gathered together, He appeared in their midst, and His first words were, "Peace be unto you." (John 20.) Having made peace by the blood of His cross, He can now come and bestow peace — peace with God — upon His disciples, as the fruit of His atoning work.

Is there nothing, then, for us to do?

Let the reader recall what has been written. The work which made peace was the work of Christ alone. It was a transaction between Him and God, and a transaction to the efficacy of which God has abundantly testified by the resurrection, by raising Christ from the dead, and by setting Him at His own right hand in heaven. In this work no one else could have part, for it was a work wrought out for those who were already lost sinners. Moreover, the work done, He came, as we have seen, and preached peace, first to His disciples, and now, through the gospel, to every one who will hear. God's way of peace is giving — giving in grace, through the finished work of Christ. Peace with God cannot therefore be purchased, nor can it be obtained by any human effort whatsoever; but it may be received as a free gift, for it is still preached in the gospel throughout the wide world.

"Proclaimer of that peace to all,

He tells of full, unmingled grace

To high and low — who hear the call;

To old and young of Adam's race

He preaches peace,

And love divine shines in His face."

Does the reader comprehend the above statements? Does he understand first, that Christ has made peace towards God; that by His precious blood He has satisfied — and forever satisfied all God's holy claims upon sinners; and, secondly, that because He has done so, God offers peace to guilty sinners; that to every one who receives His testimony concerning the death of His beloved Son, He presents peace with Himself — and presents this peace, because the sinner's sins, if he believes in Christ, have been removed out of His sight for ever?

Is there a possible difficulty left?

Lest there should be we will ask the reader to turn to yet another scripture. We find in the Epistle to the Romans these words, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1.) A glance at this scripture shows two things: that God's way of justification is by faith: and that those who are justified have peace with God, &c. We will, therefore, touch upon each of these two points, only asking that the reader will kindly follow us with his Bible open in his hands.

First, then, justification is by faith. This is in contrast with justification by works. Under law it was written, "The man which doeth these things shall live by them." (See Rom. 10: 5.) But the apostle had shown, in the very outset of the epistle, that both Jew and Gentile were sinners, that the whole world had become guilty before God. "Therefore," he added, "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." (Rom. 3: 19, 20.) The way of works is therefore closed up for ever, and it is consequently in vain that any soul, in any condition whatever, should seek the favour of God by its own doings. The way of works is not only closed, but it is also the way of sure and certain destruction. Understand it well, dear reader, that eternal perdition must be the consequence of seeking salvation by works, doing, or feelings. Hence we read, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom. 4: 5. See also Gal. 3: 10.)

Another observation may help the reader to understand this. God does not now require righteousness from man; because, in fact, as before pointed out, man is already shown, to be a lost sinner, and as such he cannot produce any righteousness for God. No sooner, therefore, has the apostle declared that no flesh should be justified by the deeds of the law than he proceeds to tell us that the righteousness of God is manifested, and that this is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe. Righteousness cannot be obtained by works; but, in the grace of God, His righteousness is seen in counting righteous all who believe in Christ. God acts, that is, in harmony with all that He is, on the foundation of the work of Christ, in justifying the believer. The way of righteousness, therefore, now is faith and not works.

It may, however, be inquired what is to be believed in order to justification or to being counted righteous.

This is fully set before us in the end of Romans 4. The apostle points out that the faith of Abraham was reckoned to him for righteousness. (Vers. 20-22.) He then proceeds: "It was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Vers. 23-25.) How blessedly simple! God, as we read in Romans 3, set forth Christ Jesus a propitiation through faith in His blood, and now God Himself is seen coming forth to raise from the dead the One who was, as believers can say, "delivered for our offences"; showing, by the very act of raising Him from the dead, that our sins have been put away for ever; and in so doing He presents Himself as the God of grace, as the one who gave His beloved Son, and therefore as the Object for our faith. Believing thus in God, receiving the testimony He gives to His beloved Son, we are justified; that is to say, faith is reckoned for righteousness, God not only clearing away our sins, but also estimating every believer as a righteous person; and this is justification. Abraham was justified when he believed that God would accomplish what He had promised; we are justified when we believe what God has accomplished in raising Jesus our Lord from the dead.

The second point is, that all who are justified possess peace with God. That is to say, peace with God is the result of justification; for "we believe in a God who has intervened in power to raise Him (Christ) from the dead who had borne our offences, and who, being raised, is the eternal witness that our sins are put away, and that the only true God is He who has done it in love. We have then peace with Him; all our sins are blotted out by the work of Christ; and our unburdened heart knows the Saviour God." Let the reader pause and reflect upon these significant statements, for, once understanding their import, he will perceive that God Himself has removed everything out of the way between Himself and the believer, that it is He Himself who testifies, by the resurrection of Jesus our Lord, that the sins of the believer are for ever gone from before His face, and that therefore it is He Himself who has laid for every one who is justified by faith the immovable foundation of peace with Himself.

Perhaps, however some trembling soul may say, I do not enjoy this peace.

What, then, let us inquire, are the conditions of its enjoyment? Are we to wait for happy feelings before we are assured that peace with God is our possession? This were to reverse the divine order, and even to contradict our experience in human things. Until we know the blessing is ours, it is impossible for us to enter upon its enjoyment. Suppose, for example, tidings were brought you that you had become the heir to a large estate. Would you reply, I do not think the estate can be mine because I do not feel happy? You know full well that the effect upon your heart would depend entirely upon your believing or otherwise the news you had received. So in regard to peace with God: if you accept the testimony of God as to the work of Christ, that He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification; if you credit His word, that He counts you righteous, justifies you through faith, you will also believe that peace with God is made, is assured to you, and thus knowing it, but not until you thus know it, you will enter upon the blessed enjoyment of the fact, that God Himself has settled every question between Himself and you, and made a peace which, as it is founded upon the work of the cross, is both unchangeable and inalienable.

Can this peace, then, never be lost?

The enjoyment of it may undoubtedly be lost; for if a believer become a backslider, if he fall daily into sin, and do not judge himself before God, and if he were to walk as the children of this world — nay, as Peter teaches, if a Christian does not go forward, he may even forget "that he was purged from his old sins." (2 Peter 1: 9.) All this is true, and should ever be insisted upon, for nothing is more dishonouring to Christ, or more certain to ensure the chastening hand of God, than for a believer to walk carelessly and to live in sin; but, on the other hand, the eternal value of the work of Christ must never be ignored. We have therefore no hesitation in saying, on the foundation of many scriptures, (see, in addition to Rom. 5, Heb. 10: 1-18) that peace with God is an everlasting possession, and can never be lost; for a justified person, whatever his practical state, abides for ever as such before God, inasmuch as his justification depends wholly on faith in God. In this, indeed, lies the eternal safety of the believer, that it is God who justifies, and that the ground on which He justifies is the death and resurrection of Christ. It is indeed through faith that He justifies; but the work is all His own, and the peace with Himself which is ours when we are justified is through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are other blessings linked up with peace with God, as following upon justification, concerning which a few sentences, in the words of another, will suffice. "Through Christ, entered into His presence, I am even now in the enjoyment of the favour of God in present grace. All the fruits of the old man were cancelled before God by the death of Christ. There cannot be a question as to my sins between me and God. He has nothing to impute to me, that has all been settled in Christ's death and resurrection. As to the present time, I am brought into His presence in the enjoyment of His favour. Grace characterizes my present relationship with God. Further, all my sins having been put away according to the requirements of God's glory, and Christ being risen from the dead, having met all that glory, I rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It is a well-grounded hope of being in it, not a coming short of it. All is connected with God Himself, with and according to His perfections, the favour of God, and His glory for our hope. All is connected with His power in resurrection — peace with God already settled, the present favour of God, and the hope of glory."

In conclusion, allow me, dear reader, to ask affectionately, have you peace with God?

If you have, you can praise Him now as you will praise Him through all eternity, in that His grace has visited your heart. If you have not, then let me beseech you to read again and again this little book, with the prayer that God may open your eyes to see, and your heart to receive, the truth therein presented; and we also entreat you to give yourself no rest, until, in the mercy of God, you are able to say as in His sight, Therefore being justified by faith I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God's Way of Rest, Power and Consecration

It is a mournful fact that the majority of Christians are not happy, and that they, if they would frankly confess it, have been sadly disappointed in their Christian life. When they were converted, the prospect was full of promise: it seemed to them like the dawn of a cloudless day of peace and joy. Scarcely, however, had they started on their journey, when clouds of every kind darkened the sky; and, with perhaps a few fitful gleams of sunshine, these have more or less continued. In many cases it has been worse still. Conflict was expected, but the conflict has generally issued, not in victory, but in defeat. The evil within and the enemy without have again and again triumphed; so that a spirit of dejection and hopelessness has supplanted that of confidence and joyous expectation.

The sorrow, too, has been deepened by the discovery that such an experience by no means corresponds with that given in the Word of God. True it is that we are in a hostile scene, that Satan is unceasingly endeavouring to entangle us with his wiles, that we are pilgrims and strangers, that we cannot therefore expect rest and comfort in the scene through which we are passing. Therefore, our bodies are exposed to sufferings of many kinds, but not one of these things, nor all combined, ought to cloud our souls with gloom and darkness. Take the apostle Paul, for example. Having shown us that, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" and that through Him "we have access by faith into present favour, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God," he proceeds to say, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5: 1-5). If, moreover, you would learn the possible experience of the Christian, read the epistle to the Philippians. In this book, we find that a believer can be perfectly happy though in prison, with daily possibility of being put to death, — that Christ can be his sole motive, object, and aim, — that his only desire may be to be with Him and to be like Him; and that therefore he may be entirely superior to his circumstances; and that it is possible to learn, in whatsoever state he is, to be content, and able to do all things through Him who gives him inward strength.

Could any contrast be greater between this experience and that of most believers?

You may reply, This was the experience of an apostle, and we can scarcely expect to reach his standard.

We admit that the standard is high, but not even Paul, whatever his attainments, is our perfect model, — only Christ. Bear also in mind that the apostle had not a single blessing (except his special gift) which does not equally pertain to the humblest believer. Was he a child of God? So are we. Had he the forgiveness of sins? So have we. Did he possess the priceless possession of the indwelling Spirit — the Spirit of adoption? So do we. Was he a member of the body of Christ? So are we. We might thus enumerate all the blessings of redemption, and we should find that Paul was in no way a privileged exception; for we with him are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

If, then, this be so, how can we account for the fact that so few have a like experience — that abiding rest and happiness are so little known?

It is to the answer to this question that we invite the earnest attention of the reader.

The fundamental cause of the difficulty alluded to is the unwillingness or neglect of God's people to go on to learn what has been secured for them in Christ. Many rest content with being born again; others, with the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins; so that their own salvation is the aim and goal of their desires. The consequence is, that the first days of their Christian life are often their best days; and hence the spectacle is seen on every hand, of believers once bright and fervent, now careless and indifferent, if not worldly.

Let it be said, then, with all plainness, yet with all tenderness, that if a Christian desires nothing beyond the forgiveness of sins, he will soon discover that he has no power to resist either the solicitations of the flesh or the temptations of Satan. It is indispensably requisite for a happy Christian life, that the truth of death with Christ should be practically known. Stopping short of this, the characteristic experience will be unrest and hopeless conflict.

Permit me, then, to explain the reason of this in a few simple words. There are two things that need to be dealt with for our redemption: our sins, and the nature that produced the sins, — the bad fruit, and the tree whence the fruit had sprung. Our need in respect of the first thing has been met by the precious blood of Christ. There is no other method of cleansing from our guilt (See Heb. 10; 1 John 1: 7). But though we have been made whiter than snow through the precious blood of Christ, and notwithstanding we have been born again, and have thus a new nature and a new life, the evil nature remains; and remains in all its corruption, and can neither be purified nor improved. It was the sense of this, and the realized powerlessness of the new nature in and by itself, in its struggles with the flesh, that led to the cry in Rom. 7: — "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The same bitter cry still ascends from multitudes of the saints of God.

How, then, has God met this need of His people?

The answer is found in Romans 6. There we read, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him [Christ], that the body of sin might be destroyed [annulled], that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed [or justified] from sin" (vs. 6, 7). The term "old man" is used to express what we were in Adam. "The flesh," or the "old nature," is the evil principle within us; and the "body of sin" is just sin in its totality and completeness. We gather, therefore, from this Scripture (see also Rom. 8: 3), that God has already dealt with our old man in the death of Christ, that therein He condemned sin in the flesh. The apostle says, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2). It is not only that the Lord Jesus, in His infinite grace, bore our sins in His own body on the tree; but God, in His unspeakable mercy, associated us with the death of Christ: so that He has already passed judgment upon what we are — that is, upon our flesh, root and branch. He has thus made a twofold provision in the death of Christ, namely, for our sins, and for our old man; and both alike are gone judicially from before His face.

Such is God's testimony to us in His Word; and if I set to my seal, through His grace, that His testimony is true as to the efficacy of the blood of Christ, why not also when He bears witness to me that He has associated me with the death of His beloved Son? It is on this very ground that the apostle exhorts, in Romans 6, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (vs. 11). That is, God's declaration to me is received by faith, and acted upon, so that I refuse the incitements of the flesh, on the ground that I am dead to it, having part in the death of Christ. In other words, I accept my death with Christ as the truth before God, and henceforward take the place in this world of a dead man.

Let us now look a little further into the consequence of accepting such a position. The first of these is that we are freed, or justified (see margin), from sin (Rom. 6: 7). It is important to note that it is sin, not sins — that is, the flesh, "sin in the flesh," the evil principle of our corrupt nature, "the old man," has no further claim upon us. It is still within, and will be to the end of our pilgrimage; but as long as I reckon myself to be dead, accept death upon what I am as born of the flesh, it will have no power over me. Having been in bondage to it, I am now delivered from it — and how? By means of death — my death with Christ. My old master, therefore, has no further claims upon me; I have passed, by means of death, out from under his yoke. For example, suppose you had, while reading this paper, a dead man lying in the room; and suppose, further, you were to seek to bring him into captivity to sin, by presenting to him every kind of fascination or allurement, would you not at once perceive the folly of the attempt? No, you would say, whatever he was while alive, sin will have no dominion over him now. Satan himself could not tempt a dead man. And thus it will be with ourselves if, by grace, we go on from minute to minute and from hour to hour reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

And this is the only way of victory. Many seek to overcome by a resolute effort of will, others by seeking to die to sin; but God's method is that which we have shown. It is because we are dead that we are told to mortify our members (Col. 3) — that is, to apply death to ourselves — to bear about in our body the putting to death of Jesus, so that every movement of sin, of the flesh, may be arrested and judged. Man's way leads to asceticism, and, in the end, to a worse bondage; but the divine way issues in deliverance and happy liberty.

The second consequence is deliverance from law. Thus Paul writes, "Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ." Again, "Now we are delivered from the law, having died to that wherein we were held" (Rom. 7: 4-6, etc.; see also Gal. 2: 19). As the apostle explains, the law has dominion over a man only as long as he liveth. Having, then, died with Christ, we are emancipated also from the power of the law; and blessed for us that it is so, "for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse" (Gal. 3: 10). This indeed ought to be an evangel of good tidings to every believer. By nature, we are all legal, and our tendency to legality remains with us after we become the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. It is interwoven, we may say, into the very texture of our being, so that it crops up continually in our words and actions. The effect is that many know little of the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free, and are groaning daily under their self-imposed bondage.

But, you reply, we are not under law. The Jews were, but can this be said of Gentile believers?

Certainly not in the same sense; but the principle of law is as native to us as to the Jew. For example, if after I am converted I feel that I ought to love the Lord Jesus more, and try to do so, or that I ought to pray better, and am cast down or depressed because I have not discharged this duty, as I think, more perfectly, I am in principle as much under law as were the Jews. The essence of the law lies in its "Thou shalts," and hence, if I turn even the precepts of our blessed Lord into, Thou shalt do this or that, I put my neck under the yoke of the law. And the moment I do so, I am on the sure road to failure, distress, and a bad conscience.

What, then, we have all to learn is, that through association, in the grace of God, with the death of Christ, we are delivered both from law and from the principle of law. We are married to Another, even to Him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit (not works, but fruit,) unto God. Christianity has no "thou shalts," but it substitutes for the works of the law and the works of the flesh, the blessed fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5); and these are produced, not as the works are, by human effort, but by divine power.

The difference between these two things is as great as possible. Knowing now that fruit for God cannot be obtained by any effort or labour of our own, we are delivered from all expectation from self; and learning, at the same time, that the power which can bring forth fruit is in another (who works, indeed, by the Spirit that dwells in His people), our eye is upward to Him, in the confidence that He will use us for His glory according to His own will. Instead, therefore, of working, we trust; instead of seeking fruit within, we desire that Christ may work in us according to the energy of His own divine power.

Another consequence is, that we are delivered from the world. The apostle, in opposition to certain legalists, who desired to escape persecution and to glory in the flesh, says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (or whereby) the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." As we read in the gospel of John, the world was judged in the death of Christ. His crucifixion was the utter and entire condemnation of the world that rejected Him. God thus morally judged it in the cross; and Paul, in communion with the mind of God, held it therefore as crucified to him through the cross, as also himself, in the same way, as crucified to it. He was thereby completely delivered from it; for if both were crucified the one to the other, there could be no attraction between the two. The world with all its charms and fascinations could not allure one who held it as morally judged in the death of Christ; neither indeed had one who held himself as crucified through the cross any attractions for the world. Thus regarded, the cross is an insurmountable barrier between the Christian and the world; and not only a barrier, but also the means by which the true character of the world is detected and exposed. Thereby he learns that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, inasmuch as he ever views it in relation to the cross of Christ.

There is yet another consequence, and that is, deliverance from man. "If," says the apostle, "ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living (or rather, alive) in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (such as, for example,) 'Touch not; taste not; handle not,' etc?" It is religious man who is in question, whose object is the improvement of the flesh; but instead of amending, he only gratifies it. Now this important Scripture teaches that the believer, as dead with Christ, is entirely freed from man and his religious claims. If he owned them, he would take the place of being alive in the world, and deny the fact of his association with the death of Christ. He thus loses sight of (indeed refuses) man altogether, denies his assumed authority, because he is subject only to Christ. Hence, even in all the relationships of life, he obeys, whether it be magistrates, masters, or parents, because he is put in the position of subjection by Christ Himself. Thus a poor slave — a Christian — in obeying his master, obeys the Lord Christ (Col. 3: 22-25).

There is, therefore, complete deliverance for the believer who holds himself as dead with Christ — deliverance from sin, law, the world, and man. It might be said, in language applied to Israel, of the believer, that he takes them captive whose captive he had been. Every enemy is conquered, and Christ alone is acknowledged as Lord.

If this is true, how is it, do you ask, that so few enter upon this path of deliverance and holy liberty?

The answer to this question leads us to the next part of our subject. It may be thus stated, and we entreat special attention to it, That while these truths may be doctrinally apprehended, they must, if the power of them is to be enjoyed, be experimentally learned. There are four things which must be acquired through experience, in order to enter upon their blessed enjoyment.

First Lesson

First and foremost, the character of the flesh must be practically known. God has declared this to us even in the Old Testament (Gen. 6), and in the New has set it forth again and again; and we may receive His testimony, unhesitatingly assent to it, but, we repeat, unless we have learned the nature of the flesh by experience, we shall always, more or less, be expecting something good from it. Thus how often does the saint think, "I shall do better next time," or, "If I had my time over again, I would avoid this mistake or that failure"! Now such reflections as these could only be made in the entire forgetfulness of the real and incurable nature of the flesh; for if our evil nature is wholly corrupt, how could it act differently in the future from what it did in the past? No; we may indeed look to the Lord to keep us, by His grace, from former sins; but if we have really detected what the flesh is, we know at once that we shall continue to do in the future as we have done in the past, unless guarded by divine power.

Now in Rom. 7 we have the case of one who, having life, but ignorant of the full grace of God in redemption, is trying under law to produce some fruit for God. What is the conclusion he comes to? It is this, that what he would do, he does not, and that what he hates, he does. He then proceeds to say, "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." That is, he has now discovered that the flesh will (in such a case as his) have its own way, and that having its own way, it is always sin. Hence he tells us, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." He has learnt his lesson, and will therefore cease henceforward to expect any thing from the flesh but evil. And surely this is a blessed conclusion at which to arrive for the soul.

Now there are two ways in which we may learn the same thing; either in the presence of God, and in communion with God, or in the presence of Satan through failure and sin. Paul himself would seem to have been an example of the former. As a Jew, he was so moral and upright, that, led of the Spirit of God, he could afterward say of himself, that "touching the righteousness which is in the law," he was "blameless." He had every temptation therefore to think there was something good in himself. As he said, "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more." But when a glorified Christ was revealed to him, an entire revolution was wrought in his soul. He saw every thing now in the true light — the light of the glory of God which shone from the face of Christ and he instantly perceived the worthlessness of the flesh and its fairest works. Now he could say, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I (do) count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ (or, have Christ as my gain)." His first estimate was the abiding one of his life, and he consequently refused the flesh in every shape and form as utterly evil — knowing that, like the fig tree in the gospel, however it might be cultured and educated, it could never bear any fruit for God.

Peter is an example of one who learns the character of the flesh through sin. A warm-hearted. impetuous man, he loved his Master with an ardent affection. When, therefore, the Lord warned His disciples, "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night; for it is written, 'I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered'," Peter replied, "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I" (Mark 14). He was ready, he said, to lay down his life for his Master's sake (John 13). And what produced this unwavering trust in his own fidelity? Confidence in the flesh — in his affection; but what was the result? Ah! what a commentary upon this evil nature of ours! — step by step, Peter went down into the deep abyss of utter denial of his Lord. He had been forewarned and admonished, but the flesh asserted its own corruption, and dragged Peter through the mire of sin and iniquity. His fall was overruled for the Lord's glory, and for the blessing of Peter; but in his fall and humiliation there is left for our instruction the plainest revelation of the fact that in the flesh, the flesh even of a true and devoted disciple, there dwelleth no good thing.

Now in one of these two ways every one who would know what the grace of God in our redemption is must also learn the same lesson. If we do not, we shall always be expecting something from ourselves, though we shall be always disappointed. A bad tree must always bear bad fruit; and when we have practically bowed to this truth, we shall have done with ourselves altogether, and shall expect nothing — except from the Lord. Through unwatchfulness, the flesh may still assert itself and betray us into sin; but we are not deceived. We have learnt our lesson; and while we judge ourselves in the presence of God for our failure, we seek grace, at the same time, to be kept more watchful in days to come. Beloved reader, we press this point upon you most earnestly; for until you have gone through this experience, you can never have solid peace. Turn away from it, and you expose yourselves, like the children of Israel in the desert, to trials, chastenings, and failures of every kind; whereas, if you accept God's testimony as to the flesh, and so learn its truth in your own soul that you habitually take His part against yourself, you would enter upon the dawn of another day — a day characterized, whatever your trials and sorrows, by the sunshine of grace and joy, and one that will be spent with God.

Second Lesson

The second lesson to be learned is, that we have no strength — that we are utterly powerless in conflict with the flesh; that while, as the apostle says, "to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom. 7: 18, 19). And is not this, beloved reader, the exact description of the experience of thousands, and perhaps of your own? And the effect has been, that they have sunk into a state of listless indifference, if not of despondency, so that, ceasing even to attempt to stem any longer the rapid current setting against them on every side, they conclude that nothing now remains for them but to float down the stream against which they cannot contend. Ah! if souls would be honest, many would confess that this has been their condition for years, — a condition which brings no glory to God, and no happiness to themselves. What, then, is the cause? Simply the mistake of thinking that all depends upon our own efforts, instead of accepting the truth that they are utterly without strength, and that therefore every thing depends upon God. Even the sinner has to learn, not only that he is guilty, ungodly, but also that he is helpless (Rom. 5); and the believer must likewise understand, not only that in his flesh there dwelleth no good thing, but also that he cannot of himself do a single good thing. And when the eyes are opened by the Spirit of God, the discovery is made that this is the lesson God has been teaching by the past long series of unbroken defeats. You have fought with your foes again and again, with undaunted courage, but you have never gained the victory. Still you have again entered upon the conflict, resolved, if possible, to overcome; but, alas! you have again been conquered. Pause, then, for a moment, and ask this simple question, What am I to learn by this sorrowful experience? The answer is clear as the noonday. It is that the enemy is too strong for you, that you cannot cope with his power. Still you may say, May we not grow stronger? Shall we not grow in grace? And when we have found out the character of the enemy a little more fully, is it not possible that we may succeed?

No! we hesitate not to answer; for if you continue upon the present line of effort, it is only to court defeat in the future as in the past. Your case is, as far as your own strength is concerned, hopeless.

If, on the other hand, you receive the truth of your own perfect impotence, and come thus to the end of your own strength, it will bring rest to your soul, because, together with that, you will understand, that your help, strength, and succour come from without, and not from within, — from Christ, in a word, and not from yourselves. Oh, the unspeakable blessedness of such a discovery! Ceasing henceforward to struggle, you will know what it is to rest in Another, and be able to take up the song of David, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" For if, on the one side, you have come to know that you are without strength, you will rejoice, on the other, to learn that His strength is made perfect in weakness.

Third Lesson

The "third thing to be known is the fact that the believer has two natures: one which he has received through Adam, called in Scripture the flesh, or sin, etc.; and the other which he has received through the new birth from God. These two are utterly antagonistic. Thus John says, speaking of the latter, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3: 9). And Paul, speaking of the former, writes, as we have seen, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." It is impossible to conceive of two more directly opposite statements; and now we find that the soul who is passing through the experience detailed in Romans 7 learns to distinguish between these two contrasted natures. We thus read, "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (v. 20). That is, he has learned to identify himself with the new nature: hence he says, "No more I" (cp. Gal. 2: 20, where Christ becomes the "I" of the apostle); and at the same time he regards the flesh, his old nature, as nothing but sin; and he traces back to it, all the evil from which he has been suffering. This nature, though within (and will always remain there as long as the believer is upon earth), he now treats as an enemy, as one who always seeks to hinder his doing the good, and to compel him to do the evil. He thus proceeds: "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man [and hence he desired to do good]; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (vv. 21-23).

Not only, therefore, is he helpless in the struggle against the enemy — indwelling sin, but he is worsted in the conflict, and overmastered; he is completely in the grasp and power of his foe. Still he has now learned that "sin," the flesh, is his foe, and that he delights in the law of God after the inward man. And this, beloved reader, is a happy discovery; for the want of which, many godly souls in all ages have been kept groaning in bondage, and writing bitter things against themselves, deeming that such was a necessary experience all the days of their lives. If you read, for example, the published diaries of some of the most devoted servants of the Lord, you will find that they are mainly made up of self-analysis and self-condemnation, springing from occupation with self instead of with Christ, in the vain effort to eradicate the evil found within their own hearts; and often leading to the question, If we are children of God why is it thus with us? Ah! they had misread, as many continue to misread, Romans 7; and hence, while they had their seasons of enjoyment of the presence and favour of God., they only alternate with times of darkest gloom and depression.

It is a blessed gain, therefore, when we know we have the two natures, and when we learn to distinguish between them; and it is still more blessed when we are brought, through our conflicts and struggles, as far as we ourselves are concerned, into hopeless captivity to the law of sin which is in our members. It is a painful but necessary experience, because thereby we are taught to have done with ourselves. The end of all flesh, so to speak, is come before us, as it had long before with God; and we know now, that vain is the help of man (self), that we are completely without resource, and, alas! at the mercy of our inward foe.

Fourth Lesson

This prepares the way for the fourth lesson. Flesh has gained the victory — has its foot, if we may speak figuratively, upon the neck of the struggling and helpless soul; but its victory ends in defeat, and in the emancipation of its victim. Until this moment, the soul has been battling in its own strength; but now, in the sorrow of its defeat and helpless bondage, it looks, not within, but without, and cries in its agony, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And the deliverance is reached. The moment the eye is upward, and not within upon itself, the victory is assured; for the answer comes immediately, "I thank God," I am delivered "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Deliverance is found, just as salvation is found, not through self, and the labours of self, but through Christ. It will consequently be noticed, that whereas we have nothing but "I" in the preceding verses, "I" now disappears, and it is all "Christ" instead. Blessed deliverance! Self is now done with and refused, Christ is accepted in its place; and, as we shall yet see, we find that we have in Him the answer to our every need: for of God are we, "in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1: 30).

But before the Spirit of God proceeds to unfold the blessed portion of the delivered soul, one word is added: "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." This is added both as instruction and warning. It teaches us that we shall always possess, whatever our attainments, these two natures, and, giving their character, admonishes us that they will never alter, — that the flesh, though we are now delivered from its mastery, will always remain flesh, and can never be changed or improved. The enemy cannot be dislodged, or be converted to a friend; but we now know his character, and the sources of our strength, and we keep watch accordingly.

We proceed now to point out the wondrous results in grace which may be the enjoyed portion of the emancipated soul. We may at once name them; they are REST, POWER, and CONSECRATION. Let us look at these separately.

Rest

(1.) REST. — This is not only the rest that follows upon the cessation of the struggle with

indwelling sin, but also the positive rest which flows from the knowledge now enjoyed by the soul, of deliverance. Hence the first words of Romans 8 are, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." This is not simply the assertion that the believer is freed from all condemnation, but rather the discovery that those who are in Christ Jesus are delivered from all possibility of it. Such is the blessed goal which the soul has now reached. Let us, then, examine a little into what is thus involved. There is now, then, the knowledge that the believer has been brought out of his old standing and condition, and set down in a new place before God in Christ, — in Christ who is risen from the dead, and has passed into a new sphere beyond and on the other side of death, into which neither death nor condemnation can enter. Through death with Christ, as has been already shown, the believer is dissociated from the first man — from Adam; so that now, reckoning himself to be dead unto sin, he also counts himself as alive unto God in Christ Jesus. In the death of Christ God has judged, once for all, sin in the flesh — judged its root and branch; and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as risen out of death has made the believer free from the law of sin and death. Sin and death have to do only with those who are in the flesh; and since the believer is not in the flesh (v. 9), but is in the Spirit, he has his standing where the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus prevails. Yes, -

"The Lord is risen: the Red Sea's judgment flood

Is passed, in Him who bought us with His blood.

The Lord is risen: we stand beyond the doom

Of all our sin, through Jesus' empty tomb."

We stand, we repeat, in a new place — a place, because in Christ Jesus as risen, to which the flesh, and therefore condemnation, cannot have any thing to say. As the blood of Christ cleansed us from our guilt, so in the death of Christ (for we were, in the grace of God, associated with Him in that death,) the flesh — sin — met its judgment and doom, and we now in Christ are therefore completely delivered, and as such, freed from all condemnation. We can now rest — rest in Him in whom we stand before God.

Together with this, the soul discovers another thing. What had been the cause of all its dissatisfaction and sorrow? Its own state and condition — the condition springing from the presence of sin within. Now, it learns that the question is, not what we are, but what Christ is. Is God satisfied with what Christ is? Then we may be satisfied too, for we, remember, are in Him, and what He is, and not what we are, marks our standing before God. In Christ, therefore, we answer to even God's own thoughts, so that He can rest in us with the same complacency as He rests in Christ. We are indeed accepted in the Beloved. Inasmuch, then, as every desire of God's heart is met, we have nothing left to desire; we are as perfect, as to our new standing, as God Himself can make us, and we have perfect rest. As to the flesh, we have learned that it could not be worse, and that it could not be better; as to our being in Christ, we have been taught that God Himself is satisfied with us, inasmuch as we are before Him, in all the perfection of what Christ is, as the glorified Man. It is not possible to desire more, and thus we enter upon the enjoyment of perfect rest — perfect rest in Christ; for just as we were enabled, through grace, to accept Christ as our substitute on the cross, we now rejoice to accept Him before God instead of ourselves. God's eye rests on Him, and ours rests on Him too, and thus in communion with the heart of God we find our true and unshaken rest.

Another blessed consequence at once follows. Ceasing from self-occupation (for, having trodden that weary path to our bitter sorrow and found out its vanity) we rejoice to be occupied alone with Christ. Since it is what He is that determines what I am before God, I delight to trace out His perfections and moral glories — to meditate upon every ray of the glory of God that shines out from His glorified face (2 Cor. 4); and in this blessed employment I am gradually transformed, even while here in this world, by the Spirit's power, into His likeness (2 Cor. 3: 18). Lost in admiration of the One whose face, unlike that of Moses, is unveiled. I grow like Him grow daily, while waiting for His return, until finally I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is.

It is therefore Christ as the measure of my standing, Christ as the object of 'My heart, and Christ as the One to whom I am to be conformed. What else can the soul need? Nay, I am abundantly satisfied, and I have perfect rest.

"Lord, 'tis enough — we ask no more;

Thy grace around us pours

Its rich and unexhausted store,

And all this grace is ours."

Power

(2.) We have also POWER. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Each one who is in Christ is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and He it is who is the source of power for walk, conflict, service, and worship. Were it not for this blessed provision, we might be tempted to exclaim, Granted that we are in Christ Jesus, but how shall we be able to meet the insidious movements of the flesh which still remains in us? The answer is found in verse 13: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Power is thus bestowed equal to all emergencies, and to enable us to enjoy the privileges of the place into which we have been brought, as well as to refuse every thing which would seek to rob us of our blessings.

It must not be forgotten (neither could a child of God desire it should,) that this power does not act independently of our own spiritual condition. The Holy Spirit dwells within, so that our bodies are His temples. If, therefore, we are careless, unwatchful, indifferent, — if we seek our pleasure in the world rather than in Christ, — if, in a word, we in any way, whether by word, look, or act of the flesh, grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption, let us not for one moment suppose that He will condescend to use us as vessels of His power. No! that were impossible. Take Samson as an instructive example of this important point. As long as he maintained his separation — his Nazariteship, his enemies were powerless before him. They were trodden, so to speak, beneath his feet; but the moment, seduced by the arts of Delilah. he betrayed the secret of his strength, he became as weak as other men, and fell at once into the hands of his merciless enemies. The action of the Holy Spirit in power, in and through the believer can only be maintained while walking in communion with God. Neglect self-judgment, and a walk that is according to the light in which we are set, even as God is in the light, and, though the Holy Spirit will not depart from us, we shall in vain expect the demonstration of His mighty power. But, on the other hand, if the eye be single, and a single eye sees nothing but Christ, — if He is the object of our lives, the Holy Spirit, then ungrieved, will sustain us in every position in which we are placed, and bring us victoriously out of every conflict through which we may pass. If the flesh seeks to reassert its dominion, He will enable us to refuse it, to treat it as a foe already judged by God's judgment; if the world would charm us by its siren voices, He will remind us of its true character in the light of the cross of Christ, and its charms will disappear; if Satan assail us, He will embolden us to resist the devil, and he will flee from us.

Bear in mind, however, that we must not expect consciousness of power. It is on this point that so many stumble. They want to feel the power, and failing to do so, they conclude that they are in the wrong condition of soul for its exercise. No mistake could be greater. On the other hand, the Lord, as in the case of Paul, as given in 2 Corinthians 12, has to break down His servants, send them thorns in the flesh, bring death in upon them in every shape and form (see, 2 Cor. 4), in order to reduce them to the sense of their own utter impotence, that they may learn the lesson that His strength is made perfect in weakness. Hence, it is that when we are weak we are strong, because realized weakness leads to and is the condition of dependence, and it is only as we are dependent that we are strong with the strength of Him on whom we rest.

Nor shall we (and we desire to press this point,) be always conscious of the power even though we are dependent. Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians, "And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling" (1 Cor. 2: 3). Yet it is evident from the epistle, as well as from the historical account of his sojourn in Corinth (Acts 18), that he was at this time, in a very special manner, the channel of extraordinary power in his ministry of the Word. So now it will often be the same with the Lord's servants. How often have they been permitted to know, after some season of felt weakness and incompetency in preaching the Word, that this was the very time when the Lord used them most largely in the blessing of souls! The same principle applies to every department of the Christian life, illustrations of which might easily be collected all down the line of Scripture-history. Take Gideon. "Oh, my Lord," he says, "wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Was this a disqualification for the mission to which he was called? Mark the Lord's response: "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man" (Judges 6: 15, 16). Gideon was in truth nothing, but the Lord was everything, and He can work where this nothingness is felt. In like manner, if the Lord is to show forth His power in and through us, there must be the refusal of every form of self-dependence, — of every thing even which naturally would help us in our work or conflict, that our dependence may be wholly and solely upon the divine power of the Holy Spirit.

It is also a mistake to suppose that we can be endowed, so to speak, with spiritual power. God never gives a fund of strength to any of His servants on which they can draw from time to time until the whole is used. The power is always in Himself, and not in them, and therefore only supplied moment by moment, according to the need, to those who are walking with and in dependence on Him. The one, therefore, who may be today a mighty man of valour, may be tomorrow weak and timid. Such was the case with Elijah. In 1 Kings 18, confronted by a whole host of the worshippers of Baal, together with their priests, who were emboldened, too, by the knowledge that they were under royal protection and favour, Elijah, single-handed and alone, lifted up out of and beyond himself, challenges them to the conflict, and casting himself upon God for the vindication of the glory of His Name, he is borne onward by divine power, and, daring Satan in his own stronghold, he gains a splendid victory. But what do we find in the next chapter? This same Elijah flees before the threat of wicked Jezebel! Ah, yes, he had forgotten, for the moment, the source of his strength, and, as a consequence, the valiant man of yesterday is today weaker than a babe. The maintenance of constant dependence is thus a necessary condition of continued spiritual power. If this is forgotten, Satan will often succeed in worsting the Lord's servants.

There are, then, as all true souls will at once admit, conditions for the exercise of the power which God has provided for His people in His indwelling Spirit. This acknowledged, it can be pressed that the power is all-sufficient in every circumstance and in every need. Thus in this chapter alone (Romans 8) we read of those who walk after the Spirit — who are led of the Spirit; who through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body; those whom the Spirit helps in their infirmities, and in whom He makes intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered. And in many other Scriptures it is shown that He enables us to overcome alike, as pointed out before, the flesh, the world, and the devil (see Gal. 5: 16-25; Eph. 6: 17, 18; 1 John 2: 14-27, etc.), — that through Him we can understand and communicate the Word (1 Cor. 2), — that it is in His power we enjoy access to God the Father (Eph. 2: 18), that, in a word, whether for walk, conflict, testimony (Acts 4), or worship (Eph. 5: 18, 19; Phil. 3: 3), our only and all-sufficient power is the Holy Ghost.

Now, beloved reader, admitting this as doctrine, is there no danger of forgetting it in practice? There are many of the Lord's people who have learnt in a measure their weakness, but who know almost nothing of the source of power as provided in the Holy Spirit; there are others who believe in the provision, but who have scarcely any skill in drawing upon it for use; and there are others, again, who act, even in the Christian life, as if every thing depended upon themselves. Let us, then, look the question in the face, and ask ourselves if these things which have been set forth are true, and if they are true, let us not rest until we know practically something of being channels for the manifestation of divine power even in this world. And if it is our desire to bring glory in this way to the Lord's Name, we shall soon discover that God will condescend to use us just in proportion as we are walking in dependence upon Himself, and in obedience to His Word.

Consecration

(3.) We now come to the third thing spoken of, namely CONSECRATION. That there is a wide-spread desire for fuller consecration to the Lord, the religious history of the last few years abundantly shows. And who can doubt that, spite of the large admixture of error with truth in the various "holiness" movements that have been witnessed, thousands of souls have found partially what they sought, and thereby entered upon largely increased spiritual blessing? It should indeed be always remembered that God meets the soul, not according to its intelligence, but according to its felt need. Wherever, therefore, saints have congregated, with yearning hearts, to wait on the Lord, they have found an ample response to their cries; and many have, from that moment, entered upon a life of peace and liberty with God. They may still use terms that are not exactly scriptural, and may mistake the exact relationship in which the Lord stands to them; they may still be ignorant of the full grace of God in redemption, and of the blessed hope of the Lord's return; but the Lord has now a place in their hearts which He never had before, and He thus becomes both the Object before their souls, as well as the Centre to which they gravitate, and the consequence is unspeakable blessing. All this we gladly admit — and admit it to the full. The only thing we contend for is the importance, in order to even fuller blessing, of understanding God's own thoughts concerning the consecration of His people.

This, then, is the question now to be considered: What is consecration? The prevalent idea is that it consists in the giving up of ourselves wholly to the service of God in an act of self-surrender. Sometimes, indeed, it is said that this may be accomplished by an act of the will, that by a fixed and constant resolution we may offer ourselves — head, heart, hand, and soul — to the Lord for His disposal; and meetings are often held at which those who are assembled are exhorted, there and then, to dedicate themselves in this way to the Lord.

It is quite possible that when a soul is consciously in the presence of God (and this may often be the case at such meetings), some hindrance, some besetting sin, or some evil habit or association may be brought into the light, and there and then confessed and judged; and there will undoubtedly be in such a case larger blessing. But this is not consecration; and the question remains, whether this kind of setting one's self apart, or self-surrender, to which some are exhorted, is found in the Scriptures?

The first thing to be remarked is, that all such exhortations suppose power on our part — that we are looked upon as competent to attain the end proposed, whereas one of the things we have to learn, as we have seen in Romans 7, is that the good we desire to do, we do not, — that, in a word, we are utterly helpless to achieve, in and by ourselves, any thing for God.

It will, however, certainly be asked if we are not called upon to yield ourselves up to God, and to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, our reasonable service.

Most certainly; but neither of these Scriptures favours the above thought of consecration. In order to see this, let us examine a little into their significance. The first is found in Romans 6. Now the truth of this chapter is our death with Christ, and that, as dead with Christ, we are justified from sin (vv. 1-7). The apostle then proceeds: "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. 6: 8-14). Not only, therefore, are we viewed as dead with Christ, and justified from sin, but also we are to reckon ourselves alive to God (inasmuch as Christ has died unto sin once, and in that He liveth, He liveth unto God,) in Christ Jesus our Lord. Freed, therefore, from sin, the body is no longer to be under its dominion; and we are consequently told not to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but to yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead — that is, as those who are dead with Christ, but who have a new life in Him as risen out of death.

In what power, then, is this to be accomplished? In the power of the will? Nay, we are to reckon ourselves dead, etc.; and hence it is through the Holy Ghost, in the power of the new life we have in a risen Christ. And it should be noticed that the apostle expressly says, that, in using the figure of a servant, whether in respect of sin or of righteousness, he is speaking after the manner of men because of the infirmity of our flesh. In fact, the question here concerns our bodies — or our members. Now through having part in the death of Christ, we are no longer the servants of sin — we are freed from it. What, then, shall be done with our members? The answer is found in the exhortation considered. Let them now become instruments of righteousness unto God; for if, on the one hand, we are to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, we are, on the other, to count ourselves as alive unto God through Christ Jesus; and the truth of this chapter flows from this verse 11.

The exhortation in Romans 12: 1 links itself with the doctrine of chapter 6, though the appeal is based upon the truth developed up to the close of chapter 8. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," says the apostle, "by the mercies of God." The mercies are those unfolded in redemption, and which have been detailed in this epistle. Reminding us thus of what God is for us in Christ, and what He has done, the apostle, on this ground, beseeches us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service. Again, the exhortation, as in chapter 6, concerns our bodies — bodies, it must be remembered, which have been emancipated from bondage to sin, and which, according to the teaching of chapter 8, are now indwelt by the Holy Ghost. This will explain the apostle's meaning. Not now, as with the priests of old, are we to bring a dead sacrifice and lay it on God's altar, but in the power of the Holy Spirit we are to offer up a living sacrifice — a perpetual sacrifice therefore, — one that is ever to be presented to God as long as we are here upon the earth. But how is this, we ask again, to be accomplished? Is it by an act of will? Nay, this is impossible. It is by the application of death — it is, in fact, the truth of Romans 8: 10 — "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin:" it is Christ controlling our bodies instead of ourselves, as we hope to explain more fully afterward; and this is both a sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, and our reasonable service — the recognition of what is due to God on the ground of redemption. Our bodies, in other words, belong to Him who has redeemed us; but the acceptance of this truth will involve their presentation to God moment by moment, as a living sacrifice; so that He may use them now for His own glory in testimony to His beloved Son.

The consideration of these Scriptures will prepare us to enter upon the consideration of what consecration really is. For this purpose we propose to turn to two passages — one in the Old Testament, and the other in Rom. 8. We take first, that wherein is recorded the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the office of the priesthood (Ex. 29). Without going into detail, we may point out the meaning of the rites that accomplished this service. They were, first of all, washed with water (v. 4), — a figure of the new birth - of being born of water and of the Spirit (John 3: 5), that is, of the application of the Word to the soul through the Holy Ghost. Next, they are brought under the efficacy of the sin offering; their sins having been, in type, transferred to the bullock through the laying of their hands upon the bullock's head. Judgment thereon is visited on the bullock; the blood having been put on the horns of the altar, etc., and the flesh of the bullock, etc., is burnt with fire without the camp (vv. 10-14). Their sins are thus taken away. Then they are brought before God in all the acceptance of the burnt-offering (vv. 15-18).

All this was to qualify them for consecration; and in what follows, we have the consecration itself. First, the blood was put upon the tip of their right ears, on their right thumbs, and on their right great toes; the rest of the blood was to be sprinkled on the altar round about. That is, God, in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, claims, according to the value of His precious blood, the complete devotion of His servants and priests, who, because they had been brought under the value of that precious blood, must henceforward hearken, act, and walk only for God. Bought with a price, they must glorify Him with their bodies which are His. Then, with the blood, the anointing oil was to be sprinkled upon them and upon their garments, significant of the power in which their service was to be accomplished — not in fleshly energy or by the effort of their will, but solely in and through the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

It is in the ceremony that follows we have the actual truth of consecration. All our readers will know that these sacrifices are types of Christ; and in the light of this knowledge, let them read what was done with the ram of consecration. Different parts of it, together with oiled bread, and a wafer of unleavened bread, were put in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and waved for a wave-offering before the Lord. Their hands were filled with Christ — Christ in the devotedness of His life, as shown by the unleavened bread (the meat-offering); and Christ in His devotedness unto death, as testified in the burnt-offering. The meaning, indeed, of "to consecrate" is to "fill the hand" (see marg. to v. 9); and thus Aaron and his sons were consecrated by having, in figure, their hands filled with Christ: and with Him, as the only acceptable offering they could present before Jehovah. We learn, moreover, that the food of these consecrated ones was to be the affections (the breast) of Christ, and the strength (the shoulder) of Christ; for only in this way could their consecration be maintained and manifested.

Passing now to Romans 8, we shall find that consecration there exactly corresponds, though with a deeper meaning, with the truth of Exodus 29. "Ye are not in the flesh," says the apostle, "but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (vv. 9, 10). In verse 9, we have the full Christian position — characterized by the possession and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The word is very emphatic. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ," — that is, the Spirit in whose power Christ Himself walked and wrought down here, — "he is not of Him," he is not yet marked out as belonging to Christ. Whatever he may be, a man cannot be said to be a Christian, in the true sense of the word, if he has not the Holy Ghost. Here, therefore, we arrive at the same point (only with a larger significance) as that where the priests were anointed with oil, previous and preparatory to their actual consecration. Hence we read in the next verse, "If Christ be in you" — which also is a characteristic of Christianity (See Col. 1: 27). In other words, the believer is not only indwelt by the Spirit of God, but Christ also is in him. The Lord Jesus, speaking of the time when the Holy Ghost should have come, says, "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, ye in Me, and I in you." In verse 1 (Rom. 8) we are said to be in Christ Jesus, and now in verse 10 Christ is said to be in us, according to these words of our blessed Lord, to be understood only when the Holy Spirit had come; and the truth of Christ in us is the source of our consecration, or it may be stated in another way — that our consecration flows from the fact that Christ is in us. We have explained that through deliverance we enter upon rest and power, and now we shall see that the third blessing is consecration.

We call attention, in the first place, to the language of the apostle. "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." This (properly understood) is consecration, and it is this which we hope, with divine help, to be able to explain. Before our conversion, as all know, we governed our own bodies. They served us according to our own wills, whether in regard to duty, desires, or pleasure. The will in each one of us was the directing force, and this is what the apostle means when he says that formerly we were servants of sin (Rom. 6: 16, 17). Our own wills (acted on and enslaved, it is true, by Satan through the flesh) were the supreme authority. Not that we were freemen, for "whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8: 34), and alas! we did nothing but sin; for sin is just independence of God — "lawlessness," as the Spirit of God terms it (1 John 3: 4; see Gk.), — that is, having no law apart from self and the desires of self.

This is what we were; but now we read, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin," which means, if we may venture to paraphrase it, Knowing that if the will comes into activity, the consequence is sin; now that Christ is in us, we hold the body as dead, that it may no longer be used by us according to OUR will, but that Christ may take it up as a vessel for the expression of HIS will. We hold the body as dead, because of the certainty of sin if controlled by ourselves; and thus it is also added, "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." Holding the body as dead, since Christ is in us, we now desire that He, and not sin, should be the Master of it, and count the activity of the Spirit, who dwells within, as the only life which a Christian should know, if we would be "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (See Phil. 1: 11). That is, practical righteousness can only be produced in our lives when the body is held as a vessel for Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost.

We may now state distinctly a few points which will enable the reader to understand in a simple way the truth of consecration. We say, then, at once, that consecration lies in Christ having full control over the bodies of His people, so that they may be organs for the expression of nothing but Himself. Two scriptures will make our meaning clear. — "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 20). The same apostle writes, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4: 10). In both of these passages we have the same thing — that Christ only is to be manifested through the bodies of His people. The difference is, that in the first, self is altogether displaced — it is "not I, but Christ liveth in me;" whereas in the second, the means are given by which the manifestation of "the life of Jesus" is secured. This, then, is consecration — Christ instead of self, Christ reigning supreme within, and using us as the vehicle for the display of Himself amid the darkness of this world.

It may now be helpful if we inquire how this consecration — the desire of every true-hearted believer — is reached. We have pointed out the fact that we gladly accepted, through the grace of God, Christ as our substitute on the cross; that when we are led into the truth of deliverance, we as gladly accept Him instead of ourselves before God; and now we must proceed a step further, and accept Him instead of self as our life in this world. Like the apostle, we must say, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." This will lead to the refusal of self in every shape and form, because we have learnt that self is only evil. Christ then will become the motive, object, and end of all we say and do. He Himself, though ever the perfect One, blessed be His Name, has shown us the pathway to this end. He never spake His own words, and never wrought for Himself; He did not speak for or act from Himself, — that is, He did not originate His own words or actions (John 5: 19; John 14: 10). Both alike were from the Father; or, as He Himself said, "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." On the same principle, He within us should, in the power of His Spirit, produce our words and actions, that both alike might be a testimony to Him and to His glory.

We have hindrances, — He had none. He was a perfect vessel, and could thus say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." We have the flesh still within us, and the flesh ever lusteth against the Spirit, and seeks to hinder His blessed power in the soul. We thus read in one of the Scriptures cited, "Always bearing about in the body the dying [or rather, the putting to death] of Jesus;" and in Romans 8, "If we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body," etc. That is, there needs to be the constant application of death to all that we are, if there is to be the unhindered expression, in any measure, of Christ; and the power for this lies in our possession of the Holy Ghost. For example, suppose, under temptation, I am on the verge of giving way to temper, or of falling into sin of any kind, looking away from myself to Christ, and remembering that I through grace have been associated with Him in His death, I am enabled through the Spirit to refuse the flesh, to reckon myself dead to sin; and in this way Christ retains His sway, and He lives in me, and speaks through me, instead of myself. Hence, too, the exhortation not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. 4: 30); for if by any allowance of the flesh He is grieved, I not only obscure the expression of Christ through me, but I also lose the power, by grieving the Spirit into silence, to mortify the deeds of the body.

Even though therefore I start with the acceptance of Christ for my life here instead of myself, consecration can only be maintained by the constant, daily, hourly, habit of selfjudgment in the presence of God. That which maketh every thing manifest is light; and in the light as God is in the light, if I am consciously there, I instantly detect every thing which is not according to it; and then, if I judge myself, confessing my failure, my communion is restored, my consecration is maintained (See 1 John 1). So far, then, from the common thought that consecration is reached by one resolute act of self-surrender, we see that it commences rather with the acceptance of Christ instead of ourselves, — with giving Him His true place of pre-eminence within us, and that it is maintained by the unceasing refusal of self in the power of the Holy Ghost. And such is the consecration to which God, in His infinite mercy, leads the delivered soul.

It should, however, be added that our consecration in this world will never be complete. The Lord Jesus Himself is the only perfectly consecrated One; and He is the model to which we are to be conformed. Our consecration now is in proportion to our conformity to Him — no more or less. It is therefore a misconception of Scripture to speak of our being entirely consecrated, and a greater mistake still, as before noticed, to speak of this as attained in a moment by a single act of surrender. The Lord, in His prayer to the Father, on the even of His crucifixion, said, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17: 19). He was ever the true Nazarite, entirely separated unto God; but now He was about to sanctify Himself, to set Himself apart, to God in a new way, even as the glorified Man, and as such He would become the standard of our sanctification, — that is, of our practical sanctification. He therefore says, "That they also might be sanctified through the truth" — through the truth of what He is as sanctified, set apart in glory. This sanctification, consequently, will be for us progressive — progressive in proportion to the power of "the truth" on our souls.

How this is accomplished is explained to us by the apostle Paul. "We all with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). With Christ in glory before our souls, (and He is fully unveiled — revealed to us,) beholding all the glory of God displayed in His face, all the moral perfections, all the blessed attributes, the sum of the spiritual excellency of God, concentrated and told out in that glorified One, — occupied thus with Him as the object of our contemplation and delight, we are, through the power of the Holy Ghost, gradually (for it is "from glory to glory") transformed into the likeness of the One on Whom we gaze. But, we repeat, we never here fully attain to His likeness; for it is only when we see Him as He is that we shall be like Him (1 John 3: 2). Just in proportion to our likeness to Him will be the manifestation of His life through our bodies. Hence there can be no rest here in attainment, as also no attainment of perfect holiness. There may be the claim of holiness through faith, but it cannot be asserted too strongly that the holiness of which the Scripture speaks is entire conformity to a glorified Christ. This is scriptural holiness, and we may attain, by God's grace, more of this daily; but it will be ours fully only when we see our blessed Lord face to face. At the same time, those who have learned the truth of redemption, and have entered upon the joy of deliverance, will have but one desire, namely, that Christ, and Christ alone, should have His rightful place of supremacy, and therefore complete sway, over their hearts and lives.

In conclusion, we may point out briefly the characteristics of the consecrated saint. First and foremost, he has no will. Like the apostle, he says, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." Crucified with Christ, the will connected as it is with the old man, is gone before God, and we consequently treat it as already judged, and refuse its activities. The will of Christ is our only law, and we are

His for His sole and absolute use. Then, also, the consecrated believer seeks only the exaltation of Christ. Take again the apostle Paul when in prison, and with possible martyrdom before him, we find that it was his earnest expectation and hope that in nothing he should be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it be by life or death. Self disappeared from his view, and the glory of Christ filled his soul. Together with this, we learn that Christ was the be-all and end-all, the motive and object of the apostle's life — a sure mark of consecration. "To me," he says, "to live is Christ." And while to die would be gain, he has no choice, for the reason given — that Christ was every thing to him, and He only knew how the apostle could best serve Him. Lastly, his hope was, to be with Christ. When Christ is the object of our affections, if He fills our hearts, we cannot but look forward to be with Him. Where your treasure is your heart will be also, and the heart ever craves to be with its treasure. If death, then, is before the consecrated believer, he will say with Paul, "To depart and be with Christ is far better;" and if death is not before him, he will be living in the power of the blessed hope of His return, that he may be with his Lord forever and ever. For this is the hope which He Himself sets before the soul; so that if He says, "Behold, I come quickly," the heart of the consecrated one will, in the language of John, respond, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

God's Way Of Holiness

One bright spot in the prevailing and increasing darkness around is seen in the intense desire, which has been begotten in many hearts, after more conformity to the will of God, as expressed in His word. Corruptions of the truth abound, and worldliness in manifold forms is blighting the spiritual life of numbers of God's people; but, together with this, there are many who are seeking for a larger measure of scriptural holiness. True it is that many untrustworthy guides and erroneous doctrines have appeared, misleading and entangling souls in bondage; for Satan is ever on the watch to turn to his own account every revival in souls of the work of God, and he never does this so effectually as when he transforms himself into an angel of light. Still whatever mistakes have been made, and however many the perversions of the truth, we cannot but thank God that any longing after more holiness, and after more devotedness to Christ, has arisen; and we cannot but hope, at the same time, that it is a real action of the Spirit of God, corresponding with trimming the virgins' lamps, (Matt. 25), in response to the cry that has gone forth, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." It is on this account that we desire, in the following pages, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to make straight paths for the feet of all who seek to follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. May He so help us as both to preserve from error and guide into the truth.

One preliminary observation, however, must first be made. The primary need of souls is the forgiveness of sins, cleansing from guilt by the precious blood of Christ, peace with God through the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 4: 24, 25; Rom. 5: 1). If these blessings are unknown, vain will be the pursuit after holiness, however determined and resolute the efforts made. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," (John 3: 6), and will ever remain such, whatever the form — fair and pious often — it may take in the eyes of others. No, the first step in the way of holiness cannot be taken until after the new birth and the possession of peace with God. It is well therefore that the reader should pause, before proceeding further, to inquire if he, by the grace of God, knows what it is to be saved, to have passed from death unto life, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This question settled, he may then, but not before, seek to discover the way of holiness — according to God.

In unfolding the scriptures on this subject, it is necessary, before all, to ascertain what is GOD'S STANDARD OF HOLINESS. It is owing to the neglect of this point that so many serious errors have arisen. Raising a standard of their own, some have been deceived, and have, at the same time, deceived others, into thinking that they had attained holiness — mainly because they have not fallen into known sin, thereby substituting a good conscience for holiness. The warning words of the apostle, when writing to the Corinthians, should have been an antidote to this error. He says, "Measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves (they) are not wise." (2 Cor. 10: 12). Now, in regard to this, it will be sufficient to lay down the following positions: first, that God's standard is the only one believers can accept; and, secondly, that He alone is the judge as to our conformity to it.

Bearing then these principles in mind, we may proceed with our inquiry; and in order to this, we beseech the reader's earnest attention to the following scriptures. Speaking to the Father, our Lord says, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17: 19). Again we read, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3: 18). "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Rom. 8: 29). Once more, "Beloved, now are we the sons (children) of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him (that is, in Christ), purifieth himself even as He (that is, Christ) is pure." 1 John 3: 2, 3.

Leaving the exposition of these passages for the present, one and the same truth, it may be pointed out, appears in all: namely, that Christ glorified is the model, God's model, to which we are to be conformed; and it follows therefore that Christ in glory is His standard for the believer. Nor could it be otherwise, as will he seen, if we do but recall the character in which our Lord is sitting at the right hand of Gad. When He was down here He was God manifest in flesh, God in Christ, the presentation therefore — albeit He was perfect man — of God to men; but now that He has gone up on high He is there as man, as the glorified

Man, although, and it must never be forgotten, in Him as such dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Hence He is spoken of as the beginning of the creation of God, as the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, for in truth He is according to the eternal counsels of God, the last Adam, the second Man (the Lord) from heaven.

Just therefore as all of Adam's race are born in His likeness, so, in result, all who are connected with the Christ will bear His image (1 Cor. 15: 45-49). Thus it is that Christ, and Christ alone, is presented to us as God's perfect pattern — His perfect pattern of holiness for His people. Nothing lower than this can then be accepted without injury to the soul, simply because it involves the substitution of man's thoughts for the thoughts of God.

This requires, however, a further word of explanation. When it is said that Christ in glory is our standard, we mean, when speaking of the present subject, that God desires that we should be holy even as Christ is holy, for it is only in Him that perfect holiness is discovered. Measures of it may he found in eminent and devoted Christians, according to the degree in which Christ has been formed within them, but it is only in Him, who is now seated at God's right hand, that it is seen and exhibited in all its blessed perfection.

Thus, in the scripture already cited, He says, "For their sakes I sanctify myself." He was ever the holy One as He passed through this world ever undefiled, notwithstanding that He came continually into contact with sin and evil. He could even touch the unclean leper and yet not be contaminated; for the active energy of His own holy being repelled all the defiling influences of the scene through which He was passing. In a word, He is not more holy now than when a sojourner on the earth, for there could be no degrees or variations in that which was always perfect. When therefore He says, "I sanctify myself," He means, that He was about to set Himself apart to God in that new place to which He was about to depart, that His own might also be sanctified, according to His own measure, by the truth of what He would be there as glorified Man. Here He had, though ever untainted, to do with sin and evil, but "in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth He liveth unto God," and, in a scene where neither sin nor evil can penetrate, He is set apart wholly for God, in a separation as complete as the perfection of His own moral being. His sanctification thus comprises perfect separation from evil, and, if the phrase may be permitted, entire separation to God — all the energies of His holy nature finding their perfect satisfaction and delight in God. And in this state and place He is, we repeat, our model or standard. This was shadowed forth even in the old dispensation. Speaking to His people through Moses and Aaron, Jehovah says, "I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11: 44); and Peter, on the basis of this scripture, writes, "But as He which hath called you is holy, so he ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1: 15, 16).

Before proceeding, let the reader pause again, and consider the immense advantage it is to have his eye rightly directed to God's presentation, in Christ glorified, of holiness to His people. When holiness is made to consist in feelings, experiences, desires or attainments, the eye is necessarily turned within, and the soul occupied with itself; and the consequence is that, discovering its own vileness and corruption, together with its powerlessness to free itself from the power of evil, it will often fall into a state of despondency and hopeless bondage. Or if, as in some cases, deceived by seasons of bright and happy experiences, it should embrace the thought that holiness has been attained, it will only be to be painfully aroused from its dream, sooner or later, by some violent outbreak of the flesh and fall into sin. When, on the other hand, Christ is before the soul, and self and its experiences lost sight of and forgotten, the influence of all that He is, in His blessed perfection, is brought to bear upon us, His beauty and excellency are increasingly discerned and appreciated, and there will be, as may be explained further on, a gradual transformation into His likeness. Bear then, ever in mind, that holiness is to be found not in ourselves but in Christ, and hence, that if we would be holy we must ever have Him as the standard before our souls.

Having thus seen that Christ in glory is exhibited as the model of the believer, the model to which the saint is to be conformed, we may now consider the means by which this conformity is to be attained. A moment's consideration will show that there are two aspects of this part of our subject; that there must be on the one side, abstinence or separation from evil, the avoidance of sin, and on the other, positive growth in the likeness of Christ. Let us take these two aspects in the order stated.

First as to a sinless walk, or, if it may be so stated as to bear on recent discussions of the subject, ceasing from sin. Now it is freely admitted, or rather earnestly insisted, that THERE IS NO NECESSITY FOR THE BELIEVER TO SIN. It is the language of the apostle John, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." 1 John 2: 1. Nothing therefore can be plainer, whatever, alas, the actual facts of the case, than that the believer should heartily accept this truth. For though he may be often betrayed into sin, owing to his having an evil nature, to his want of watchfulness, and to his lack of dependence on God, he should never for one minute receive the thought that sin cannot be avoided. If he once admits that sin is a necessary part of his experience, he will soon lose sight of its true character, its hatefulness to God, will next give up the practice of self-judgment, and, in the end, become the prey and the sport of the evil one, as to his walk through this world.

"Whosoever," says the apostle John, "abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth, hath not seen Him, neither known Him." And again, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 1 John 3: 6, 8, 9.

It is quite true that the Apostle speaks in these scriptures according to his wont, in what is termed an abstract way, that is, he confines his attention to what is born of God, and hence does not think, in this place, of the evil nature, or the constant failures of God's people. Still he points out what is characteristic, showing, us that a Christian, or child of God, should be marked by, should have the distinguishing feature of, not sinning. They are therefore very solemn words, words which ought to have their due force in our hearts and consciences, if we would be in communion with the mind of God as to the conduct of His children. Nor let any be discouraged by such statements; for, together with them, will be found the means of being kept from sinning. Thus it is said, "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not."

Here then is the secret — it is abiding in Christ; and there are few who would not admit that sin could not be committed while abiding in Christ. We are therefore but shut up to Him; our very helplessness thus shuts us up to Him, and leads us to cry to Him that He would so keep us abiding in Him that we may not sin. But this is continual work; moment by moment there must be looking to Him. It is not one act; it is rather our life — our life of constant dependence upon Him and His power.

There is, in this connection, another scripture that may be helpful. "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." 1 John 5: 18. Again we have the absolute statement of what is characteristic — that he who is born of God sinneth not; but then the Apostle points out the practical means by which this result is secured. One born of God "keepeth himself," and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Our blessed Lord, in the temptation in the wilderness, is the perfect example in this as in all else. Satan sought to ply Him with every possible seduction, but He "kept" Himself by the maintenance of entire dependence and perfect obedience, and thus Satan could not touch Him, could not withstand the two-edged sword of the Spirit which He wielded, namely, the Word of God. And may we also not "keep" ourselves? Satan has no enticements for the new nature, and God has graciously given us the power, in the gift of the Holy Ghost, wherewith to mortify "the deeds of the body," our "members which are upon the earth" (See Rom. 8: 13; Col. 3: 5), to keep the old man under the power of death, as well as to use the sword of the Spirit, so that there can be no necessity to become entangled in his snares. To overcome his solicitations, however, will require incessant vigilance and dependence, as is shown, by our Lord's words to His disciples, "Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Matt. 26: 41.

If, together with this, there is the constant occupation with divine things ("things that are above"), with all those objects, of which Christ is the full expression, which, are suited to the new nature, and feeding on which, that which is born of God in us will thrive and grow (See Heb. 5: 12-14; 1 Peter 2: 2, 3); if, in a word, the heart is filled with Christ, we shall be "kept," and the wicked one, whatever his subtlety, will not be able to touch us. Nothing is more certain; and we must beware therefore of deriving our standard from the actual state of Christians, instead of measuring our condition by God's thoughts and God's standard as given in His word.

There is another thing of equal importance found in the scriptures — a thing full of encouragement to us, especially if we are disheartened by the contemplation of the truth which has just been considered. It is that God is able to keep us from falling. (Jude 24). To doubt this would not only be to disbelieve His own word, but also to forget that He is God. And this truth also is full of comfort, because it takes our eyes off from ourselves, our own utter weakness and our many failures, and directs them upward to God and His almighty power. It was in this manner the Lord encouraged His disciples when, daunted by His words concerning the obstacles riches were to salvation, they exclaimed, "Who then can be saved?" He replied, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." Matt. 19: 26. This indeed is a blessed foundation on which the soul can rest in the presence of the greatest dangers and snares in the Christian life. Does any child of God then ask, Is it possible to be kept from falling? The answer is at once found.

Yes, God is able to keep you; all things are possible with Him. He who has saved us is He alone who can keep us. As is truly expressed in the lines of a hymn,

"Myself I cannot save,

Myself I cannot keep;

But strength in Thee I surely have,

Whose eyelids never sleep."

Peter also speaks of those who are "kept by the power of God."

Now it is an immense relief to the soul to learn that it is God who keeps; for as soon as this lesson is apprehended, all anxiety and all fear instantly cease, for the soul then instead of tormenting itself with constant apprehensions, looks up to God in childlike confidence, and leans on Him for daily preservation, as it did at first for salvation. Walking thus, day by day, in the knowledge that God is able to keep us from falling, our lives would be characterised by victory instead of defeat, because we should be borne along in the arms of Omnipotence — folded to His breast in the everlasting arms, where no shaft of Satan could penetrate, and out of which no temptation could entice us.

Thus of Israel it is said, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. . . . Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places." Deut. 33: 27-29. Omnipotence was thus engaged both for their safety and in their conflicts; and this is none the less true of the believer now; for if God be for us, who can be against us?

It is only a simple consequence of what has been already said to add, that it is faith which brings divine power into exercise on our behalf. This is taught everywhere in the scriptures. Peter thus speaks of those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1: 5.) When, moreover, the disciples inquired of the Lord why they could not cast the demon out of the child, He replied, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you." Matt. 17: 19, 20. We also read of those who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Heb. 11: 33, 34.

It is therefore abundantly manifest that faith links the believer with, and brings in the exercise of, the almighty power of God, or, as might be truly said, brings God Himself in to act for His people, so that, in the words of our Lord, nothing is impossible to them. But faith, and it should never be forgotten, is a real thing, a divine plant that only grows out of the soil of a broken will; for until we have come to the end of ourselves and our resources, and have learned our utter helplessness, we shall never be cast upon God in the sense of entire dependence upon Him and His power — His power which is made perfect in weakness.

A beautiful illustration of this is found in the life of king Jehoshaphat. The children of Moab and the children of Ammon, with others, came against him to battle. Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah, and Judah gathered themselves from all their cities to seek the Lord. The king presented their case before Jehovah, and he concluded his prayers with these remarkable words, "O my God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee." At once the Lord interposed, and encouraged the hearts of His people by the mouth of one of His prophets; "Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. . . . Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them; for the Lord will be with you." 2 Chr. 20. And so it came to pass, for when all Judah began to sing and praise, lifting up their voices in the well-known words, "Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever," God came in, and smote their enemies with utter destruction. God is still God, and His power is still available for the conflicts of His people; and they that trust in Him, whatever the activity and malice of the enemy, will never be confounded.

We thus see that God has made abundant provision for His saints; that if He teaches us that there is no necessity to sin, He also reveals to us the secret of our preservation from it; that our safety lies in Himself who alone is able to guard us, and that He never fails to respond to the cry of faith. It is therefore as true now, as in the days of the Psalmist (and there is power available for the saint today that the Psalmist never knew) that if we cry, "O Lord, hold Thou us up," we shall be safely kept.

Before going further, we ask the reader to remember that, while all this is true, and that, even if the believer were kept from sinning, this is not holiness according to God. If one were so kept, it would be a most blessed testimony to God's power and grace, and He would be indeed glorified by such a blameless walk; but still, it would not be scriptural holiness. This, as has been shown, is conformity to Christ in glory. It is this, and nothing less; and nothing less could be accepted without doing violence to the whole teaching of the word of God.

It is precisely on this point that so many mistakes have been made. Failing to perceive that God could not accept any standard of holiness short of that which He has displayed, in all its perfection, in the One He has glorified at His right hand, many have made it consist, as before stated, in being kept from sin — from known sin. The Apostle has anticipated this error, when he says, "I know nothing by myself"; (or, as some translate, I am conscious of nothing in myself that is, he did not know of any allowed sin, but he adds) "yet I am not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord." 1 Cor. 4: 4. The Lord alone can discern the true state of our souls.

But it is sometimes advanced, that, by the constant application of the blood of Christ, the very tendency to sin may be eradicated. The doctrine is so widespread, and the point is so important, that we call especial attention to it. There lies in the contention a threefold misconception: first, as to the real nature of holiness; secondly, as to the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ; and, thirdly, as to the abiding character of the flesh. Let us, then, examine the scripture on which this contention is based.

"If," says the Apostle John, "we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1: 7.

Three things are here plainly indicated: walking in the light, fellowship one with another, and the blood of Christ cleansing from all sin. Now in the teaching to which allusion has been made, the last two are dependent on the first, upon walking in the light; and it thus becomes necessary to inquire into its meaning. Is it, as contended a practical thing? Is it, that is, a state to which some Christians, as distinguished from the mass, attain? In other words, does walking in the light mark out a holy class, those who are living in true separation to God? The whole teaching of the context forbids the supposition. The third verse shows that all who received what the apostles had "seen and heard" concerning "the word of life" (v. 1), were brought into fellowship with them, and thus into fellowship (for that was the character of their own fellowship) with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. All believers, therefore, are in this fellowship; there is no other; it is, in fact, Christian fellowship.

This truth is laid down as the foundation of what follows; and hence the Apostle proceeds to supply a test of its reality, whereby he shows that it is not enough to say that we have it, for if we are in its possession our whole sphere and position are changed — we are brought, that is to say, into the light. He thus declares the message that he had heard of Him, that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." This being the case, if our fellowship be with the Father and the Son, we must also be in the light, and could not be in the darkness. If therefore, we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another (and our fellowship is with the Father and the Son — be it remembered), and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Those who walk in the darkness, are those, then, who, whatever their pretensions, have never received the message of the Apostle, and those who walk in the light are, on the other hand, those who have received it, and with it, eternal life, and have thereby been brought into the holy circle of fellowship with the Father and the Son, into the light as God is in the light. They are two contrasted classes — not two different classes of Christians, but the two contrasted classes really of believers and unbelievers. Darkness is the moral sphere in which the latter walk, as light is that of the former. This will explain the word "walk," because it is the circle or sphere in which the respective classes live and move and have their being, light and darkness designating the moral character of each. (Compare Eph. 5: 8; 1 Peter 2: 9.)

It may be, however, asked, whether it is true then that, all believers (if all are included in the term "walk in the light") have fellowship with one another? The reply is, that the question misses the character of the Apostle's teaching. He is not dealing with the practical state of believers, but with what is characteristic, with what belongs to all alike before God. He does not enter upon the consideration, whether all are in the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and with His Son, and so with one another, but he confines himself, according to his manner, with what pertains to all who possess eternal life. All such are brought into the place of fellowship; the enjoyment of it will undoubtedly depend upon practical states, but this is no part of John's subject. One other thing may be pointed out in confirmation of the above exposition. The words used are "walk in the light as He is in the light" - that is, up to the full character of the light in which God dwells which would imply, if it were a practical thing, a walk as spotlessly perfect as the holiness of God. To walk according to the light should be the desire of every saint, but to walk in the light as God is in the light, marks in this scripture, the position into which all are brought as a consequence of having a new nature and eternal life through the reception, in the grace of God, of the divine message concerning the Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested on earth.

It remains, then, only to speak of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. The above interpretation will have made it clear that it in no way depends upon a practical walk. If this is apprehended, the special argument alluded to is at once answered, for the contention is that where a believer walks practically in the light, the blood of Christ goes on to cleanse (pressing the present tense — cleanseth), as in continuous operation, from all taint of sin. As one has written, "A victory over sin itself, His blood being the purifying medium, whereby we gradually, being already justified, become pure and clean from all sin."

Two fatal objections lie against such a thought. First, the apostle is not speaking at all of the application of the blood in this scripture — only of its efficacy. His subject is eternal life; first Christ as the eternal life, and then as displayed in and through the believer. This seventh verse points out, as already seen, three things belonging to all believers — a walk in the light as God is in the light, fellowship with one another, and the efficacy of the blood of Christ. The last is introduced to show how a saint can be in the light in perfect liberty, without fear, through the all-cleansing efficacy of the blood. But we repeat, that the point here is not its application but its efficacy.

The second objection is, that, according to the teaching of scripture, the blood of Christ is never applied a second time to the believer. Once applied, it cleanses, and for ever cleanses, from all guilt. "By one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified." God has graciously made another provision for the sins of His people if they should fall into them (1 John 2: 1); but it is to miss the whole teaching of scripture to insist upon a repetition of the application of the blood of Christ, and is really derogatory to its eternal value and preciousness before God. (See Heb. 9, 10.) The very next verse, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," should have revealed the fact that sin is in the believer, though he is endowed with power in the Holy Ghost to hold it in the place of death, and will be in him unchanged, and unchangeable, until Christ comes, or until he departs to be with Christ.

Having cleared the subject of what is a real difficulty in the minds of many, we may now pass on to the consideration of the second aspect, namely, the means FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF HOLINESS. It must be borne in mind, that we are speaking of practical holiness, and that the measure of this is conformity to Christ. At conversion we are sanctified through the Spirit in the new birth; and thus Paul could write to the saints at Thessalonica, *"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2: 13); and to those at Corinth, "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6: 11.) He also speaks of the saints as sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1: 2), and further says, "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1: 30.) Now this sanctification, whether that through the Spirit, or that possessed as being in Christ Jesus, is perfect from the commencement, and thus admits of no degrees or growth, so that God on this ground can call His people saints, and holy (1 Cor. 1: 1; Eph. 1: 1; Col. 3: 12; Heb. 3: 1). But the question now before us relates to practical sanctification, in which there may be growth and development, and our object now is to ascertain the means by which this is to be attained; and if we refer again to the scriptures which were adduced at the outset, we shall find the answer to our inquiry.

First of all, we will ask the reader to turn to 2 Corinthians 3: 18: "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." In this striking scripture the Lord is presented to us as glorified, with the glory of God displayed in His face (2 Cor. 4: 6), as He is seated at God's right hand. The contrast is with Moses who, when he came out from the presence of Jehovah, put on a veil, because the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold his face for the glory of his countenance (2 Cor. 3: 7; Ex. 34: 33-36). Our blessed Lord has His face unveiled (the word "open" is really unveiled), and we, that is, believers, are permitted, and are able, to behold it, for the very glory that shines there proclaims the eternal satisfaction of God with the work of Christ accomplished on the cross — on the ground of which it is we have been saved, and brought to Himself. The glory that shone in the face of Moses was a legal glory, and told the people of the holiness of their God, and of His righteous requirements through the law; and they were afraid, for the law was necessarily to them, sinners as they were, a ministration of condemnation and death; but the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the gospel, is a ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit.

The point however now to be observed is, that Christ as so exhibited, that is, glorified as Man, as before shown, is God's ideal of holiness, for, in truth, His glory displayed in His face is but the expression of His own perfections. God is light, and God is love, and this is what He is, and, confining our thoughts to holiness, the perfection of what He is as light (though, blessed be His name, this can never be dissociated from what He is as love) is now seen in Christ as glorified.

How then are we to be transformed into that glorious likeness? The answer is plainly given. "We all beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." The agencies of our transformation are then beholding the glory of the Lord, and a divine operation through the Spirit of the Lord. Let us then examine these two things.

First, beholding the glory of the Lord. This glory, it may be repeated, is what is seen in Christ as man at the right hand of God. Down here He, while truly man, was God manifest in flesh; there He sits as man, glorified as man in response to His having glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which had been given Him to do. (John 13: 31, 32; John 17: 4, 5). This glory is fully revealed in the gospel, and believers, rejoicingly beholding it as the proof of accomplished redemption, delight to trace it out, and to meditate upon the glorious perfections of the One who is now their Saviour and their Lord.

But where do they "behold" this glory, these excellent perfections, unfolded? It is in the written word; and the word of God becomes their constant study, because the various rays of His glory are seen shining forth through its pages. In the Gospels His moral glory brightens up every step of His pathway through the wilderness, and on the cross there was the concentrated display of His perfection as man, for there He was tested to the uttermost in a new way, in the place of sin and for sin, when He endured the hidings of the face of His God. It was to this He Himself referred when He said to His disciples, "Now is the Son of man glorified." But at the right hand of God He subsists in a new condition. Down here, except for a brief moment on the mount of transfiguration, His glory was shrouded, save to the eye of faith (See John 1: 14; John 2: 11); but now it is all displayed in and through His glorified body — more fully and more completely than when the three disciples were "eye-witnesses of his majesty."

All these perfections of God — His holiness, His love, His majesty, His truth, His power, His righteousness, His mercy, His grace — are all unveiled in Him, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily; and not only are all these unveiled in heaven, but they are also revealed in the scriptures that speak of His present place and power at God's right hand. What rays of His present glory, for example, shine forth from Ephesians 1 - 4; Colossians 1 - 3; Philippians 1 - 3; as also in the Epistle to the Hebrews and elsewhere?

This is what the apostle means by "beholding," not endeavouring to imagine what Christ is like, but gazing with the spiritual eye upon the various unfoldings of His glory in the written word. And if He has been made precious to our souls, if our hearts have been drawn out to Him, loving Him because He first loved us, we shall find unceasing delight in meditating on His perfections — on the glories of Him who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. We shall seek and love to be in His company — in this way anticipating the joys of eternity; and, thus occupied, while thus engaged, (for this is the teaching of the Apostle) we shall be gradually transformed into His likeness.

Even in human things, if we admire the character of some great man, we love to study his life, to read his history, and we thus insensibly catch something of his spirit. It is indeed a moral law that we become assimilated to that which we admire. Human characters are often formed by taking some chosen model for imitation. Much more is this the case with the Christian. His only model, as we have seen, is Christ, and by keeping Him before his soul, not in one aspect but in all that He is, and delighting in Him, he is changed, as this scripture teaches, "into the same image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord."

These last words reveal the second agency of transformation under which we are brought. It is not by the action, so to speak, of a natural law, as in human things, but it is by the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit, who loves to fashion us after the image of Him on whom we gaze, who takes every ray of the glory that falls upon "the eyes of our heart," and seeks to reproduce it, and does even now in measure reproduce it, in us. Alas, that we should so often hinder His working! But if we have Christ before our souls in the way indicated, then the Holy Spirit works, for He delights, wherever there is purpose of heart, to take the things of Christ and show them unto us, and by showing, to give them all their transforming power upon our souls. Then there is growth, and in no other way, in practical holiness.

If we now refer to another scripture, we shall find abundant confirmation of the above statements. "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17: 15-19.) The most cursory glance at this scripture reveals the intense desire of our blessed Lord for the holiness of His people; and, while uttering His prayer to the Father that they might be thus sanctified, He reveals the means of its attainment. The foundation of all lies undoubtedly in verse 16. "They," He says, "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" for, as He says elsewhere, He had chosen them out of the world, and, by being born again, they had been forever morally separated from it. He therefore desired that they should be kept from its evil, should have their garments unspotted and moreover, that they should be sanctified by "thy truth," adding, "Thy word is truth," showing, that the Father's word was to be the means of their sanctification.

Then He speaks of having sent His own into the world even as He Himself had been sent into the world, and thereon grounds the statement, "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."

We have already explained that to sanctify Himself was to set Himself apart to God on high as the glorified Man, and thus as the model to which they were to be conformed; and the means of their conformity to Him is contained in the words, "that they also might be sanctified through the truth," through the truth of what He is as glorified. The sanctification of His people is thus seen here, as in 2 Corinthians 3: 18, to be effected by the constant application of the truth — the truth of what Christ is. The difference between the two scriptures lies in the fact that in the former, the use of the means — beholding the glory of the Lord — is brought into prominence, whereas in the latter, our attention is directed rather to the application of the means. But the mode of sanctification, of growth in holiness, is the same in both, and in both cases the goal is entire conformity to Christ in glory.

The passage quoted from 1 John is slightly different, though entirely in harmony with the teaching of those just considered. First, the apostle reminds us that we are now the children of God; and then he says that it is not yet manifested what we shall be, but we know, he says, that when Christ is manifested, when, that is, He appears in glory, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man, he adds, that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure (1 John 3: 2, 3).

Here again, as the reader will perceive, Christ in glory, Christ as He will be displayed at His appearing, is set forth as our model, for we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is; and this prospect is given to us as a motive to our daily sanctification, to our judging ourselves continually according to what He is. The means of this sanctification we have gathered from other scriptures; here the point is, that even now we can accept no lower standard than the glorified Christ. We measure ourselves in the hope of being like Him when we see Him, by His absolute purity, and thus, by the grace of God, refuse all that is not suited to Him, and judge ourselves for the least allowance of anything inconsistent with His holiness.

This involves, and most blessedly involves, two things; our having Christ ever before our souls, and our being continually in His presence. Then, and then only, shall we detect, by the light of His glory, what is not according to His holy presence, and in communion with His own mind, shall delight to put from us everything of which He would not approve, and to acquire all that would satisfy His own mind and heart. Hence our diligence in this will be a question of affection, for if He possesses our hearts our one desire will be to meet His approval, and it will be our earnest endeavour, as the apostle Paul writes, whether present or absent, to be acceptable to Him.

There are several other scriptures bearing on the subject, to some of which we may refer. In 1 Thessalonians are the following words: "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we do toward you: to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." (1 Thess. 3: 12, 13.) This connection between the exercise of love (not human love, but love in the Spirit, the activity of the divine nature, for "God is love") toward one another, and toward all saints, is exceedingly beautiful. As another has written, "This power of love maintains the heart in the presence of God, and makes it find its joy in the light of His presence, and earnestly desire that all saints may be in His presence, their hearts fitted for it, and there. For God is love, and the exercise of love in the Christian's heart (fruit of the presence and the operation of the Spirit of God) is in fact the effect of the presence of God; and at the same time it makes us feel His presence, so that it keeps us before Him, and maintains sensible communion in the heart." And further, he adds, "Being thus the development of the divine nature in us, and the sustainment of our hearts in communion with God Himself, love is the bond of perfectness, the true means of holiness, when it is real. The heart is kept far away from the flesh and its thoughts, in the pure light of the presence of God, which the soul thus enjoys." Another scripture, speaking of entire sanctification, is found in the same epistle. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. 5: 23.

We add but one other passage, one that presents another aspect of the subject. Speaking of chastening, the Apostle says that the fathers of our flesh chastened us for a few days after their own pleasure, but God "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." Here we are taught that God Himself takes us in hand, using the trials and persecutions by the way as needed discipline, to encourage us in the pursuit of holiness (ver. 4), and indeed to secure that we shall be partakers of it. His chastenings therefore are out the expression of His love to us (vv. 6,7); and reading our trials and sorrows in the light of this truth, what sustainment, what consolation is afforded! All this the heart of the reader will appropriate to itself, as our object now is only to point out that if, on the one hand, we are given the positive means of growing conformity to Christ, on the other, we are taught that God has His own way of weaning us from things around, and of drawing us closer to Himself, that, learning more of His own heart, we may increasingly desire to become partakers of His holiness. God is for His people, and if He reveals His desires for them, according to His eternal purposes of grace in Christ Jesus, that they should be "holy and without blame before him in love," (Eph. 1: 4), He Himself provides for their accomplishment. To this end He has bestowed on us the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable us both to hold the flesh in check, to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and also to appropriate the means of growth in holiness as revealed to us in His word. He moreover watches over us unceasingly in His grace and love, that brings in, when needful, death upon all that might hinder us in this blessed occupation; and, by the revelation of Himself to our hearts in His dealings with us, He ever seeks to draw us closer to Himself, so that His Spirit, ungrieved within us, might be free to fashion us after the image of Christ, according to His sovereign will.

We may now sum up in distinct form the teaching we have gleaned from the scriptures on our subject.

1) Holiness according to God is conformity to Christ in glory; and hence the believer cannot accept any lower standard. We never surpass even our own ideal; on the other hand, being what we are, we seldom attain to the pattern prescribed even in human things. It is of paramount importance, therefore, that our eyes should be fixed upon God's ideal — that is, upon Christ. Thus the Apostle says, You "have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where" he says, "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." (Col. 3: 10, 11) Christ is the expression of the image of Him who created the new man, and it is after Him that the new man is to be renewed in knowledge. He is everything as our object, as well as in all as the power of life, and all else therefore, all human distinctions utterly disappear — leaving Christ alone to fill the vision of the soul.

2) It follows from this truth that holiness according to God will not be fully attained until we are with the Lord. This, indeed, is the precise statement of the word of God. We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2). Beholding His glory we are changed into the same image from glory to glory — gradually, that is, from one degree to another, until we see Him face to face, and then His name will be in our foreheads, full likeness to Christ will be displayed on every brow (Rev. 22: 4), for all then will be conformed to the image of God's Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Even our bodies will then be transformed, for the apostle teaches that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He will change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself (Phil. 3: 20, 21). It is for this we wait: for the return of our Lord, and then, and then alone shall we be holy according to the thoughts of God.

3) While this is true, and ever to be insisted upon, it is equally of moment to remember what has been seen, that there is no necessity for the believer to sin. To expect to fall into sin, to allow the actings of the flesh in any shape or form, or to admit the thought that we are powerless against our evil nature, our inborn corruptions, is to forget the truth of the cross, of our association with Christ in His death and resurrection, of the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of the place into which we have been brought in Christ before God. Every failure, every sin is due to ourselves, to our want of the maintenance of dependence upon God, to our disobedience to the word, or to our want of watchfulness, and should be so owned and judged in the presence of God. No quarter, no excuse, no palliation must be allowed for sin; and if, by the grace of God, this were fully accepted, there would be far more brokenness of spirit, a far more thorough self-judgment whenever the believer is unhappily betrayed into sin; and, together with the perception of the possibility of a blameless walk, grace would be looked for to preserve and sustain in it, and, looked for, it would be received.

Does the reader doubt this? Let him search the Scriptures, and if he find it as stated, as he surely will, let him set this path before himself, and remember for his encouragement the words, "I will cry unto God Most High; unto God that performeth all things for me," (Psalm 57: 2), and this also, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Phil. 4: 13). The answer to our helplessness is His strength which is made perfect in weakness; and in Him therefore we may confidently rest, for He is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. (Jude 24.)

4) It should also be observed that our growth in holiness, while we are waiting for its full attainment at the coming of the Lord, will depend upon our diligence, our purpose of heart in the use of the divinely given means. As we have seen, beholding the glory of the Lord, occupation with Christ, contemplation of Him and His things, is what is used to form us after His likeness. If, therefore, instead of busying ourselves with this blessed occupation, our minds are set on things of the earth, on those things that minister to our own ease, comfort, or pleasure, upon political agitations or movements, upon the world or the things of the world, there could be no increase in likeness to Christ. The mind takes its colour from that with which it is occupied: hence it is only the mind that is engaged with Christ that will receive the impress of Christ. This fact cannot be urged too earnestly.

The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 is our example in this respect, as he himself teaches (v. 17); and the secret of this is, that he had only one object before his soul, and so entranced was he with its beauty, that he counted all things but loss for (because of) the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He thus desired only to have Christ as his gain, and with his eye on the goal of full conformity to the One on whom he gazed, he did but one thing, namely, to forget the things that were behind, and, reaching forth unto those things that were before, to press toward the mark of the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. The attractions of Christ, as so presented to his soul, were the secret of his purpose of heart, as they must be also of ours; and the reader will not fail to remark, that the Apostle calls on all who are perfect, that is, all who have before their souls the prospect of being like Christ in glory, accepting no lower truth of their calling, to be like-minded with himself. And he adds, "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you." (v. 15.) Shall we then accept anything lower than this which God Himself sets before us? Communion with God is to have His own desires in our hearts; and, if we are but under the power of the attractions of Christ, we shall be drawn away from all that might have detained us, and, with full purpose of heart, shall follow after (growing daily as we follow after), if that we may get possession of that for which also we have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.

5) Connected with this truth is the fact, that our walk will be like that of our great Example in the proportion of our attainment to His image. Whatever measure of likeness to Christ has been really attained will, if we are walking in the Spirit, be expressed. The apostle John writes, "He that saith he abideth in Him [in Christ] ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2: 16. He thus shows us that Christ is our perfect example, and that, even as to walk, no lower standard can be accepted, as also that such a walk can only flow from abiding in Him. John, as before observed, deals only with the abstract, and therefore perfect thing, and in this case supplies a test thereby for any who profess to be abiding in Christ. Abiding in Him we must accept, however it may judge and condemn us, His walk as our pattern as we pass through this world.

But the other truth remains, that we cannot exhibit more holiness than we already possess, more conformity to Christ than we have actually gained. We may deceive ourselves and others as to our attainments, but this is the truth before God. Moreover, for the expression of what of holiness may have been acquired through "beholding the glory of the Lord," two things are necessary: an ungrieved Spirit, and, what is a consequence of this, the acceptance of death upon all that we are as born of Adam; even as the Apostle writes, "Always bearing about in the body the dying [putting to death) of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." 2 Cor. 4: 10. Self indeed must be set aside if Christ is to be displayed; and the reader will not forget that Christ displayed is the holiness of the believer.

6) It will have already been gathered that the Holy Spirit is our only power for a holy walk. Of ourselves we cannot take a single step in this path. The utmost human efforts, the most resolute determination, are of no avail either to keep ourselves from evil or to follow after Christ. It can only be by the Holy Ghost; and He will display His mighty energy in and through us, just in proportion as we have Christ before us as the object of our souls, as we are walking with a single eye to His glory.

7) In conclusion, we beg to commend the whole subject to the earnest attention of the reader. There is nothing that brings so much glory to our blessed Lord and Saviour, or that gives such a powerful testimony to His name before men, as a holy life. May He grant that both reader and writer may grow daily in His likeness for His present joy, and for their truest blessedness!

"Blest Saviour, keep our spirits stayed,

Hard following after Thee;

Till we, in robes of white arrayed,

Thy face in glory see!"

The Christian Household

The Christian Household.

and the Relative Duties.

E. Dennett.

PREFATORY.

The reader will find in this little volume a simple exposition of the Scriptural teaching concerning the connection between the believer and his household, and also concerning what are termed the relative duties. The importance of the exhibition of Christian life in the home is generally admitted; but, as a matter of fact, public ministry seldom deals directly with the subject, And yet, by far the larger portion of the lives of many believers is engaged in household duties. The writer therefore was led to think that a consideration of the responsibilities of the various members of the household might be both timely and profitable. May the Lord Himself condescend to use what has been written, whatever its imperfections, for His own glory in the edification and blessing of His saints.

BLACKHEATH, April, 1877.

CHAPTER 1. THE CHRISTIAN AND NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." — GALATIANS 2: 20.

"For to me to live is Christ." — PHILIPPIANS 1: 21.

"He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." — 1 JOHN 2: 6.

BEFORE considering, somewhat in detail, the subject of family relationships and their responsibilities, it may be profitable to call direct attention to the way in which they are dealt with by the Spirit of God. Together with the full revelation of the grace of God in redemption, there might have existed a tendency in some minds to slight the ties formed in nature. Owing indeed to partial ignorance, and consequent misapprehension of some parts of Scripture, this tendency has, during the history of the church, sometimes found expression in objectionable forms; and even at the present time, it is often remarked that there are many who are subject to the same snare. It is therefore of the first importance to note that the very epistle — the Ephesians — which brings out the fullest truth as to the believer's place before God in Christ, and as to the church, as the body of Christ, enters also most fully into the responsibilities attaching to our natural relationships. Thereby we have, in a most marked way, their obligatory character maintained, and that by divine sanction and injunction; and, at the same time, a warning that, in all the joy of our Christian privileges, we must never forget the claims that have been established upon us on earth. It is quite true that our standing before God is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in us (Rom. 8: 9), because we have been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, out of this scene into a new; but God sends us back, as it were, to take up on fresh ground — on the ground of grace instead of that of mere nature — every obligation which was incumbent upon us as His creatures in our old condition.

This will be evident if we turn to Ephesians 4. From the seventeenth verse we have practical exhortations, as flowing out from the truth communicated in the previous part of the epistle. And at the very outset of these, in contrast with the Gentiles, who walk in the vanity of their mind, etc. (vv. 17-19), the apostle says, "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by (in — en) Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (vv. 20-25.) Then, farther on, we are told, "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are scaled unto the day of redemption." (v 30.) We have therefore two immense facts, that the believer has put on (for the exhortation is founded upon what is true of us in Christ) the new man; and that he is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Hence the next chapter (Eph. 5.) begins with, "Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God, as dear children." Thus "created after God, and God dwelling in us, God is the pattern of our walk, Christ being the expression of God in human walk, and thus in respect of the two words which alone give God's essence — love and light. We are to walk in love, as Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us a sacrifice to God. 'For us' was divine love; 'to God' is perfection of object and motive. . . . But we are light in the Lord. (v. 8.) This is the second essential name of God; and as partakers of the divine nature, we are light in the Lord. Here again Christ is the pattern: 'Christ shall give thee light.'" (v. 14.) The same writer also observes: "The reproduction of God in man is the object that God proposed to Himself in the new man; and this the new man proposes to himself, as he is himself the reproduction of the nature and character of God. There are two principles in the Christian path, according to the light in which he views himself, running his race as man towards the object of his heavenly calling, in which he follows after Christ ascended on high.... This is not the Ephesian aspect. In Ephesians he is sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and he has to come out as from heaven, as Christ really did, and manifest God's character upon earth, of which, as we have seen, Christ is the pattern. We are called, as in the position of dear children, to show our Father's ways.

Such then is the truth as to our position and responsibility. We are made partakers of the divine nature; we have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit; we are seated in Christ in the heavenlies; and hence we have to come out from that blessed place, and, according to the new man (not according to the old), take up on earth, in the power of the Spirit, every responsibility devolving  upon us, by virtue of our natural ties and relationships. It is therefore as heavenly men that we have to fill our respective places in the family and household. Thus every relationship we sustain should be simply a sphere for the unfolding of Christ, for the display of what He is and what He was when down here upon the earth; for "he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2: 6.) To remember this would remove many difficulties out of our path. Thus in the maintenance of natural ties — where believers find themselves in subjection to unbelievers — the only question is as to the expression of Christ. He is the measure of every responsibility, and hence He cannot sanction a single claim which comes into conflict with His own supreme authority. It should never therefore be, May I do this? or, Ought I to do that? but simply, Can I do it according to the new man, walking in the power of the Spirit? That is, the flesh and mere nature must be disallowed; hence, in family relationships also, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." (2 Cor. 4: 10.) And thus, whatever the special relationship sustained by the Christian  -  whether that of husband or wife, father or mother, children or servants — the one object, in every case, will be the expression of Christ. This, in every case, will be the measure and limit of our responsibility.

CHAPTER 2. THE HOUSEHOLD AS A CIRCLE OF GRACE

"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." — GENESIS 7: 1.

"Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." — Acts 11: 13, 14.

"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." — ACTS 16: 31.

THERE is always a tendency in our hearts to limit the grace of God, an unwillingness to believe both in its sovereignty and in its fulness; and this tendency is sometimes intensified even in those who most strongly insist upon the great truths of redemption. There is therefore continual need to examine anew even what we conceive to be the undoubted teachings of Scripture; not with the view of unsettling ourselves, or of fostering uncertainty, but with the simple desire to be found on every point in entire subjection to the word of God. For example, there are many beloved saints who have overlooked the meaning and force of the words which the apostle used in reply to the jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16: 31.)* The necessity for individual faith is seen, and the connected promise of individual salvation; but for all practical purposes the additional promise is often forgotten. In like manner, when the question is now put, "What must I do to be saved?" the answer is almost universally given as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" omitting the words, "and thy house." It is so both in preaching and in writing; and there is consequently an unintentional narrowing of the circle of the grace of God.

*See an admirable tractate on this subject, entitled Thou and Thy House, by C. H. M. The writer cannot too earnestly recommend it to all Christian heads of households. It is full of most weighty instruction and solemn warning. It should be read by all.

We propose, then, to trace the Scriptural teaching on this subject — on the connection of the household with the believer; and I think we shall see that the principle obtains both in the past and present dispensations.

Let us turn first of all to Genesis 7: 1 And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." This passage is exceedingly important, because it is so worded that no doubt whatever can be entertained as to its express significance. The ground on which the Lord commands Noah to enter with his house into the ark is, "For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." And if it should be objected, that probably all the members of the household were also "righteous" before God, the after-history of one of the number — Ham (Gen. 9: 22-25) — forbids the thought. The force of the statement therefore cannot in any way be diminished, that the family of Noah was delivered from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. True that it was not salvation; but it was typically so (1 Peter 3: 20, 21); and surely it was no small blessing to be carried in the ark through that mighty flood which in judgment overwhelmed and desolated the whole earth. "Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained [alive], and they that were with him in the ark." (Gen. 7: 23.) Thus the whole household was brought, in the grace of God, out from under the judgment, and placed upon the new earth, because of the faith of Noah. Not only so, but the circle of God's grace was still enlarged; for we find that the sons' wives were also included in the merciful purposes of God; thus making up the eight persons of which the apostle Peter speaks as having been "saved by water." (1 Peter 3: 20.)

We pass now to another instance recorded in Gen. 12: "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him . . . . . And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." (vv. 4, 5.) We do not remark farther upon this case now (as we shall have to recur to it when dealing with another part of the subject) than to point out the fact, that the household of Abram was brought with himself out of Chaldea and Haran into Canaan; and this was done on the same principle, as in the instance of Noah, the household being linked before God with its head.

We take, in the next place, the remarkable case of Lot; and it is the more striking because he had declined from the path of faith, forsaken the character of a pilgrim, and become a citizen of Sodom. The facts of his history are familiar to all: would that its warnings and lessons were more observed! The long-suffering of God was now about to pass over into righteous judgment, because the sin of "the cities of the plain" was very grievous. But when God destroyed these cities. He "remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt." (Gen. 19: 29.) It is not however Lot's connection with Abraham that we dwell upon, significant as it is for our subject, nor for the fact that he was delivered from destruction through the intercession of his uncle, but we call attention here to the family of Lot himself. And we find that the same principle obtains, that it was not only Lot, but that also his family were spared, or had the opportunity of being spared, in that day of destructive judgment. "And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." (Gen. 19: 12, 13.) It must ever be remembered that Lot, notwithstanding his grievous position, was a "righteous man" (2 Peter 2: 8); and we accordingly see, as in the other instances, that God linked the family of His servant with himself, that His mercy and grace went out and embraced all that were connected with the "righteous man," offering to them salvation from the judgment that was about to fall upon that doomed scene, though his sons-in-law in unbelief (and who shall tell how much this had been begotten in their hearts by the conduct of Lot?) chose death rather than life. "And Lot went out, and spake to his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." (v. 14.)

The passover may be next considered as indeed a typical exemplification of the principle. The Lord commanded Moses, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house." (Ex. 12: 3.) Again, "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are." (v. 13.) It is evident therefore that the passover was kept by Israel, family by family, that it was on the principle of a lamb for each household; and that they were sheltered, family by family, through the blood sprinkled upon their respective dwellings. Consequently, it was the father's act — his obedience of faith — that secured to his household immunity from the stroke of judgment that fell upon the land of Egypt. Just, indeed, as it was Noah's faith that led to his building the ark, in which his whole family were sheltered from the flood, so it was the faith of the parent at the passover in Egypt which led to the sprinkling of the blood upon the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of his house, according to the commandment of the Lord, whereby he, his firstborn, and his household were infallibly protected from the judgment of the destroyer. The state of the household did not come into the question. The essential point was the sprinkling of the blood. Had the head of the house obeyed the divine directions? Had he killed the lamb, and sprinkled the blood? If so, nothing could harm them. "For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." (v. 23.) It is true that only the first-born, as far as we know, would have fallen, if unsheltered by the blood, under the judgment-stroke; but the significance of the blood, figure as it was of the blood of the Lamb of God, went much further, protecting, in virtue of its typical value, family by family, the whole of Israel. For we find Moses saying, when he directed the perpetual observance of the passover, "It shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses." (Ex. 12: 26, 27) Hence, too, Moses, when Pharaoh demanded of him, "Who are they that shall go?" replied, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and our daughters," etc. (Ex. 10: 8, 9); for it was the sprinkled blood, as we have seen, that secured them from destruction.

Illustrations of the same truth may be found throughout the Pentateuch. See, for example, Lev. 16: 17; Lev. 22: 12, 13; Num. 18: 11; Deut. 12: 7; Deut. 14: 26, etc.*

*For further scriptures, see the pamphlet referred to, Thou and Thy House.

Before we proceed to the New Testament, we may allude to the case of Rahab, one of the most remarkable instances of grace recorded in the Scriptures, as well as one of the most distinct foreshadowings of the call of the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit has even given her a special place among the saints distinguished for faith in Heb. 11. Examining then the narrative (Joshua 2), what do we find? That she was the solitary exception in the destruction of Jericho and its inhabitants? That her faith availed only for herself? By no means. But the spies said unto her, "Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee. And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him." (vv. 18, 19.) And when they captured the city, Joshua said unto the two men that spied out the country, "Go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred [margin, families], and left them without the camp of Israel. . . . And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." (Joshua 6: 22, 23, 25.)

There is this difference between Rahab and the other cases which we have considered, that she is not the head of a family. It is on this very account that the family principle, or what may be termed the unity of the household before God, is more remarkably exemplified. It would almost seem that those who have a family connection with an individual believer receive a special place, become objects of tender interest with God. As indeed we find it in the epistle to the Corinthians: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." (1 Cor. 7: 14.)

All these examples have been taken from the Old Testament; and the question now arises, Have we any reproduction of the principle in the dispensation of grace? If we have not, though our souls may find profit from meditation upon these singularly interesting ways of God in the days of old, these revelations of His character and tender love, we could not infer anything as to the relation of the believer now to his household. If we have, then a flood of light is poured upon our family relationships before God, and also upon the solemn responsibilities (and, we may add, upon the blessed privileges) of the heads of families or households.

Let us look first of all, then, at Acts 11. The apostle Peter had been to Cornelius, and had seen the Holy Ghost poured out upon the Gentiles, and had, in virtue of the commission entrusted to him, admitted them into the church of God on earth. When he and his companions of the circumcision heard the Gentiles "speak with tongues, and magnify God, then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." (Acts 10: 44-48.) But when he returned to Jerusalem, "they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." (Acts 11: 2, 3.) In reply to this complaint, Peter rehearsed the whole of the circumstances which led to his visit, declared his vision, and explained that he went at the express direction of the Spirit of God. Furthermore, he told them how that Cornelius had been commanded by an angel to send for him in these words: "Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." (Acts 11: 4-14. Compare Acts 2: 38, 39.)

Here, then, at the very outset of Christianity, we have the reappearance of the connection of the house with its head; and passing on to chap. 16 we find exactly the same thing declared by the apostle Paul in answer to the jailor. "Believe," says he, "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (v. 31.) The concurrence is the more remarkable from the exact agreement of the words employed. This will be more distinctly seen if the Greek is quoted. Peter (repeating the words of the angel) says, "Who shall tell thee words whereby thou shalt be saved, and all thy house." Paul, speaking to the jailor, says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." It will be thus seen, that Paul uses exactly the same words (with the single exception of "all") as Peter, and in the same order. We conclude from this fact, inasmuch as it is impossible to suppose that the agreement is fortuitous, that they compose a formula expressing a well-known truth. Secondly, the significance of the agreement is heightened in that they were used in the one case by the apostle of the circumcision, and in the other by the apostle of the uncircumcision, though in both cases concerning Gentiles.

Thus we have the principle which, as we have seen, obtains throughout past dispensations, declared in the present by the two foremost representatives of Christianity. Peter, on the one hand, "a witness of the sufferings of Christ," and, on the other hand, Paul, who received his apostleship from the Lord in the glory, unite in proclaiming that there is a connection in the grace of God between the believer and his household. Unbelief may seek to wrest the meaning or to diminish the force of the words, but there they stand, the ineffaceable declaration of the ways of God, the revelation also to us of His heart, proclaiming as they do the sacredness of the family relationship, the unity of the household, indeed, in His sight.

We must be very careful, however, not to go beyond the divine intention; and hence we must now seek to ascertain the significance of the connection.

In the first place, then, let it be very distinctly observed that it does not mean that the faith of the head of the household ensures the salvation of its members. No truth is more evident from the Scriptures than that there can be no salvation apart from individual faith. The examples of Ham, Esau, the sons of Eli and of Samuel, Absalom, etc., are solemn warnings that the faith of the parent cannot save his child. This should ever be repeated in most emphatic notes; for while, on the one hand, we dare not contract the circle of God's grace, on the other hand, we may not, must not, expand it. While earnestly contending for the unity of the household before God, we must as earnestly contend that every member of the household must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to salvation. Let there be no misconception or mistake on this point; for error here would be of the most fatal kind.

But, secondly, while it is not a question of individual salvation, the household of the believer has a special place of privilege, in the view of God, upon the earth. The children are linked with the believing parent, and are thus looked upon as in external connection with God's people as separated unto Him on the earth, and in the sphere of the immediate action of the Holy Ghost. Such is the force, we judge, of the scripture already cited, "Now are they [the children of a believing parent] holy." For holiness means separation unto God; and as it cannot be in this case intrinsic holiness (nor the holiness which the believer has in Christ), it can only signify external separation; i.e. that they are detached, as it were, from the world, and connected with that which bears the name of Christ upon the earth, and which is the habitation of God through the Spirit. Hence, in Ephesians and Colossians, the households of believers  - wives, husbands, children, parents, servants, and masters — are included in the exhortations given, each class being separately addressed. And in this fact lies the foundation of the believer's responsibility to govern his household for the Lord.

If therefore we admire, on the one hand, the abounding grace of our God, in thus flowing out and embracing our households, we must not forget, on the other, the responsibilities that are thereby entailed; for privilege and responsibility are ever connected. The Lord enable us each to learn our respective responsibilities in His own presence, and give us grace so to meet them that His name may be glorified in us, and in every member of our households!

CHAPTER 3. WIVES.

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." — EPH. 5: 22-24.

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." — COL. 3: 18.

"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." — TITUS 2: 4, 5.

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."-1 PETER 3: 1-4.

"Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."-GEN 3: 16.

THE first relationship brought before us, both in Ephesians and Colossians, is that of the wife. All these exhortations, indeed, commence with those from whom submission is due. As one has said, "This is the genius of Christianity in our evil world, in which man's will is the source of all the evil, expressing his departure from God, to whom all submission is due. The principle of submission and of obedience is the healing principle of humanity; only God must be brought into it in order that the will of man be not the guide after all. But the principle that governs the heart of man in good is always and everywhere obedience. I may have to say that God must be obeyed rather than man; but to depart from obedience is to enter into sin. A man may have, as a father, to command and direct; but he does it ill if he do it not in obedience to God and to His word. This was the essence of the life of Christ: 'I come to do thy will, O my God.'" Accordingly the apostle begins his exhortations, with regard to relationships, by giving the general precept: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."* (Eph. 5: 21.) Hence it is according to a divine order that the subject relationships in each case should come first; and consequently the wives are addressed before the husbands.

*It should be remarked that the true reading is "the fear of Christ."

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in everything." (Eph. 5: 22-24.) It will be seen from this Scripture that the position of the wife is one of subjection. We say "position," because, as the careful reader will perceive, the exhortation is based upon the character of the relationship. The wife is indeed enjoined to obedience, but it is on the ground of the place she occupies. This has been somewhat obscured by the insertion of a word or two in the translation. We read, "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be," etc.; but omit the word "let," which, as the italics indicate, has been introduced, and we have then a simple statement of fact: "As the church is subject unto Christ, so also the wives to their own husbands in everything." It is important to notice this, because the obedience, which is here enjoined upon the wife, is then seen to be that which should flow out of the position in which she is set — the natural fruit of the relationship. In other words, obedience to her husband is not left to the choice of the wife, but is to be rendered because of her relative place. It is this fact the Spirit of God brings before our notice.

(1.) The law, then, of the wife is her husband's will; or rather she is put in the place of subjection to his authority. There would seem to be one limitation to this statement, indicated by the words which are found in Colossians, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." (Col. 3: 18.) If therefore the will of the husband should interfere with the wife's individual responsibility to the Lord — come into conflict with the Lord's will as expressed in His word — if the alternative be forced upon her of obedience to her husband or disobedience to the Lord, then the Lord must have the supreme claim. With this solitary exception her submission to her husband must be complete. "As the church is subject unto Christ, so also the wives to their own husbands in everything." There cannot thus be any allowed exception apart from the one named.

The ground of this lies in the nature of the relationship: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." The comparison is thus drawn — the one being a type or figure of the other — between the union of man and wife and the union of Christ and the church; and consequently between the position of the wife on the one hand, and on the other the position of the church. And if we turn for a moment to, what may be termed in one aspect, the primal institution of marriage, we may see how remarkably the mystery of the church was foreshadowed. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made (margin, "builded") He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2: 21-24.) Who can fail to see that in this picture Christ, the last Adam, and the church were before the mind of the Spirit of God? so plainly does it speak to us of that deeper sleep, the death of Christ, and the formation of the church, as it were, out of His side. It goes on indeed to the time spoken of in Ephesians 5: 27, when the church "shall be brought unto the man," and when He, in the complacency of His perfect love for the bride which has been "builded" for His own joy, shall acknowledge her as "bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh."* (Gen. 2: 23; Eph. 5: 30.)

*As to the different readings of the expression in Eph. 5: 30, see Textual Criticism for English Students, by C. E. Stuart.

The wife therefore occupies the same place relatively to her husband as the church to Christ; and hence her position, as before said, is one of subjection. And it may be needful to remark that her place is in no way affected by the character of the husband. It is quite true that her position may in many cases be rendered extremely difficult. For example, a Christian wife, converted after her marriage, may have an ungodly husband, and one who renders her life as wretched as it is possible for his evil heart to make it; still her place remains untouched by this or any other circumstance; and the more difficult it may be rendered, even by absence of affection on the part of the husband, or of features of character which would command her respect, the more careful she must be to occupy her place in faithfulness to the Lord. Just indeed as our duties to kings, etc., "the powers that be," are altogether irrespective of their personal character, so the duty of a wife to her husband is never altered by his character.

It may seem to some as if the duty of the wife, as so explained, were one of the hard sayings difficult to receive. And to nature, no doubt, it would be often impossible. But mark the provision made for this in the Word: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Thus the Lord Himself is brought before the mind of the wife; and we all know that things which in themselves are irksome and indeed intolerable are rendered light and joyous when done unto the Lord. So in the case supposed, if the wife keep the Lord before her — sees the Lord as it were behind her husband — she will End obedience easy to his most unreasonable commands, because she will then receive all from the Lord.

If, however, "a husband were to command that which would be positively sinful, then at once I learn that I am not bound, because I am told to submit to my husband as unto the Lord. The Lord would never sanction what is sinful. He may put me through the sieve, and I may not at first understand the goodness or the need of it; but faith constantly finds its strength and guidance in the Lord's wisdom — in trusting Him, and not my wisdom in understanding Him. . . . But we have most carefully to watch ourselves in this matter. Wherever there is the smallest tendency to slip out of the path of submission, we have to search and see, if we are wise according to God. Nature never likes to be subject. And wherever there is a danger of pleading the truth of God for any act that might seem to be a want of submission to the authority of another, I have need to watch myself with greater jealousy than in any other thing" (Lectures on the Ephesians, by W. K.)

(2.) The Scriptures also point out the manner in which the wife should comport herself towards her husband. "Let the wife see that she reverence her husband." (Eph. 5: 33.) Peter, in like manner, speaks of the wife's "chaste conversation, coupled with fear." (1 Peter 3: 2.) The word "fear" is the same as that rendered "reverence" in Ephesians, and teaches that there should be a recognition, manifested in the deportment, of the position which the husband occupies in the order and appointment of God. There is no thought of slavish dread, but simply the loving reverence which seeks to please, and fears to offend. This indeed will naturally spring from her giving her husband his true place — his place as her head; and hence, in yielding him reverence, she magnifies also the appointment of God.

It is in such a wife that "the heart of her husband will safely trust. . . . She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life;" and he will thus be drawn to confess that "in finding a wife, he found a good thing, and obtained favour of the Lord." (Prov. 31: 11; Prov. 18: 22.)

(3.) Nor are the Scriptures silent as to the blessing connected with the faithful acceptance of the wife's true position. The apostle Peter, when writing on this subject, specifies the most difficult case of all-that of a Christian wife who has an unbelieving husband. It must not be supposed that he sanctions the marriage of a believer with an unbeliever. That is prohibited, both expressly and by implication (see 1 Cor. 7: 39; 2 Cor. 6: 14-18, etc.); but in the early church it must have continually happened that converted wives — i.e. wives converted after marriage — found themselves linked with unbelieving and idolatrous husbands. (See 1 Cor. 7: 10-16.) It is of this class the apostle speaks when he says, "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." (1 Peter 3: 1, 2.) This amounts almost to a promise that loving obedience, and consistent Christian walk and purity of life, shall be blessed to the conversion of ungodly husbands; or, if not so much as this, it is at least an assertion that such is God's appointed means to bring the truth before their minds and consciences. And what indeed could be more effectual than the constant silent presentation of Christ in walk and life to an unbeliever? It is worthy of distinct remark that the apostle does not urge upon the wife to exhort her husband to receive the truth. It is "without the word" that the husband is to be won by the conversation (walk, deportment, demeanour, whole manner of life) of the wife. The reason is obvious. Exhortation would be the assumption of a superior position, in forgetfulness that the husband is head of the wife, and therefore incompatible with the wife's position. But the calm beauty of a life reflecting in the power of the Spirit the gentleness, meekness, and humility of Christ, would constitute, in the order and blessing of God, a far mightier appeal than her words, and prove the efficacious means, it might be, of his being brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light.

(4.) There are other directions to which it is necessary to advert in order to have a complete view of the subject; for we cannot safely neglect a single word which God in His tender mercy has been pleased to vouchsafe for our guidance, during the little while that we are waiting for the return of our Lord.

(a) The first of these is as to dress. The apostle thus proceeds: "Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." (1 Peter 3: 3, 4.) In entire accordance with this, for it is the mind of the same Spirit, Paul writes: "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." (1 Tim. 2: 9, 10.) In both places the temptation is recognised which so often presents itself to the mind of a wife — of appearing as beautiful as possible in the eyes of her husband, and at the same time of stimulating and feeding personal vanity by outward adornments and costly array.

Now, it is sometimes said that these matters of ornaments and dress are left to individual consciences; but it is difficult to understand such language in the light of these precise directions. It is quite true that where the heart is satisfied with Christ, there may be no need for their application; but if this be the case, the slightest acquaintance with God's assemblies reveals the humbling fact that they are composed of immense numbers whose hearts are not thus satisfied. Nothing can be more sad than the scene which is oftentimes presented at the table of the Lord. When we are thus gathered by the Spirit of God, it is to show the Lord's death until He come. (1 Cor. 11: 26.) And surely, as we remember Him in death, we are reminded also that by His cross the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world. (Gal. 6: 14.) What a contradiction therefore, if any, forgetful of the judged character of the scene through which we are passing, appear there with evident traces of Egypt upon them. And how grieving to the Lord Himself to see those who are professedly outside the camp bearing His reproach, with so many outward signs of worldliness in dress and ornaments — evidences of being practically "alive in the world," whatever may be true for them before God.

Neglect of dress, or even of adornment, is not directed; on the other hand, attention is to be paid to it, but according to the word of God. Thus Paul says that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel; i.e. as the word might otherwise be given, "moderate," "well-ordered" dress. It is to be of the kind befitting the "meek and quiet spirit," so that there may be congruity between the dress and the character. Ornaments likewise are permitted; but they are to be made, not of gold or pearls, but of good works, "as becometh women professing godliness." All the Scriptures bearing upon this subject demand the prayerful consideration of all Christian wives; and the results would surely be to the Lord's glory in a more distinct outward testimony to the place of rejection (in fellowship with the sufferings of Christ), and of separation into which we have been called by the grace of our God.

(b) Another direction, especially to young wives, is that they should be "keepers at home" (Titus 2: 5), or, according, to another reading, "workers at home." The meaning in either case is much the same; for wives are reminded that their sphere of service is home, and that no work or pleasure should be suffered to interfere with their domestic position. It is God who has given them the home as their field of labour; and hence it is a matter of faithfulness to Him that they diligently occupy it.

Other special directions need not be enlarged upon; but combined with the foregoing Scriptures, they present the divine standard for the wife; hence every Christian woman who occupies this position will use these special Scriptures as her mirror, and into it she cannot look too often. It is a wondrous sphere she is called upon to fill; and her occupation of it, in obedience to the word it as unto the Lord," is the one thing given her to do. Solomon thus speaks of such a wife:

"Strength and honour are her clothing;

And she shall rejoice in time to come.

She openeth her mouth with wisdom;

And in her tongue is the law of kindness.

She looketh well to the ways of her household,

And eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children arise up, and call her blessed

Her husband also, and he praiseth her -

'Many daughters have done virtuously,

But thou excellest them all.'"

PROV. 31: 25-29.

CHAPTER 4. HUSBANDS.

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself."-EPH. 5: 25-33.

"Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." — COL. 3: 19,

"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."-1 PETER 3: 7.

THE duty of the husband is quite as simple as that of the wife. As hers is comprised in the word "obedience," his is contained in that of "love." The wife, if a direction sent to a special class be excepted (Titus 2: 4), is never commanded to love her husband. It is taken for granted that she will do so; and, as a matter of fact, she seldom fails in this direction. Even though she may be unequally yoked — be united to one who has not the least sympathy with her holiest feelings, and receive little but unkindness, her love will survive the harshest treatment. Crushed and trodden under foot, it will spring up and greet the first display of kindness with a forgiving embrace. It is a perennial fountain. But with the husband it is often otherwise With fewer of the tender emotions, engrossed by his daily occupations, and exposed, it may be, to severer temptations, his danger is to forget his responsibility to love — or at least to manifest his love to — his chosen wife. Hence the Spirit of God recalls his responsibility to mind, and gives this injunction, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," etc. (Eph. 5: 25-33.)

(1.) Let us consider what is to be the character of the husband's love as here enjoined. "Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church." It is a most wonderful standard; and no doubt here introduced because of the typical character of true marriage, because the primal marriage between Adam and Eve displayed, in figure, the union between Christ and the church. This should ever teach us the sanctity and real character of marriage before God. What then, we may enquire, was the character of Christ's love to the church? The answer is here given. First, He proved it by giving Himself for it (v. 25); and He gave Himself to death for it, and thereby in fact purchased His bride. "He gives Himself; it is not only His life, true as that is, but Himself. All that Christ was has been given, and given by Himself; it is the entire devotedness and giving of Himself. And now all that is in Him — His grace, His righteousness, His acceptance with the Father, His wisdom, the excellent glory of His person, the energy of divine love that can give itself — all is consecrated to the welfare of the assembly. There are no qualities, no excellencies in Christ, which are not ours in their exercise consequent on the gift of Himself. He has already given them, and consecrated them to the blessing of the assembly which He has given Himself to have. Not only are they given, but He has given them; His love has accomplished it." And this gift of Himself is greatly enhanced when we remember that it was upon the cross that this gift was consummated. Secondly, His love is displayed in His sanctifying and cleansing the church with the washing of water by the word. (v. 26.) This exhibition of love is a present thing, that which goes on now, and by which He suits it to Himself. "It is important to remark that Christ does not here sanctify the assembly to make it His own, but makes it His own to sanctify it. It is first His, then He suits it to Himself." The means is the word, the washing of water by the word, the truth taught in John 13 by the washing of the disciples' feet by the Lord. And there, it will be remembered, it is in connection with His love. "Having loved His own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end." The sanctifying and cleansing of the church is thus the expression of His abiding and unchanging love — love that finds its delight in making it morally suitable to Himself, and hence never wearies in watching over, tending, and preparing it for Himself. Thirdly, the fruit of His love is seen in the object He has before Him — "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it might be holy and without blemish." This refers to the time when the Lord shall have returned to receive His church to Himself, or more exactly, to the period indicated when it is said, "The marriage of the Lamb is come" (Rev. 19: 7), when the church as the bride is perfected in glory, "having the glory of God: and her light like unto a stone most Precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." (Rev. 21: 11.) And never until then will the measure and extent of Christ's love for the church be apprehended, because then its effect and consummation will be displayed.

And wherefore have we this wondrous description of the love of Christ for the church? To show what should be the character of the husband's love for His wife. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church." Not to press too closely the comparison in all its parts, we yet cannot fail to observe, that as Christ's love preceded His giving Himself for the church, so there cannot be a true union in the sight of God unless it has sprung from love. Love, and love only, should be the motive of the choice; and love must cement and beautify the union when formed. The whole element of the married life should be love; and not only so, but if the husband looks upon the standard here given, he will see that the one and constant demand the wife will make upon him is for love. His love must endure — survive all trials, unweariedly seeking to draw his wife closer and closer to himself, and ever keeping before him (as to earth) the object of a union which, as it has sprung from, can only be cemented by, an unchanging and indefatigable love. Nothing less can be intended by this divine model. A special application may perhaps not be out of place. Many a Christian husband finds himself united to an unbeliever; but his duty remains the same. And as the love of Christ seeks the eternal blessedness of the church, so the love of the husband will not be satisfied with seeking to secure the present comfort and happiness of his wife; but it will be exhibited in watchful and tender ministry of that word which brings the knowledge of salvation, through faith in the Lord Jesus. Every husband indeed will feel the obligation of caring for the spiritual welfare of his wife; for it is in this direction that his love will more nearly partake of the same character as that of Christ for the church. Truly therefore marriage, according to God, is no unimportant thing; and the more deeply this is felt, the greater will the husband feel the need of constant dependence, in order in any way to meet his responsibility. And, it may be added, the more constantly he is himself abiding in the sense of Christ's love, the more freely will his love flow out towards his wife.

2. But again it is added, "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself." (Eph. 5: 28-33.) Here we are carried back, as has been remarked, to the garden of Eden, to the creation and presentation of Eve to Adam, which in itself is a manifest figure of the union between Christ and the church; and this fact accounts for the way in which the apostle weaves the two things in these exhortations. (See Gen. 2: 21-25.) The union is thus looked upon as so complete — as Adam said of Eve, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" and again, "They shall be one flesh" — that it is said, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. In this aspect, self-love is to be the measure of a man's love to his wife; and as this is one of the instincts of our nature — and naturally its governing principle — it is impossible to conceive of a more definite and comprehensive direction. Let therefore the oneness of the union — they two shall be one flesh — be apprehended, and love will follow; for the husband will then no more consider his wife as distinct from, but as a part of himself. Thus whatever touches her, will touch him; and his self-love, moving now in a wider circle, includes her, and all that affects and concerns her, within its embrace. All that he desires for himself he will also desire for his wife; all the care he exercises for himself he will exercise for her; and all that he receives he will receive for her as well as for himself. In a word, all the good he seeks and all the evil he deprecates, he will also seek and deprecate for his wife, as for himself; for together they are "one flesh," and therefore he that loveth his wife loveth himself. The word of God provides in this way a perfect antidote against selfishness, and leads out the husband in self-sacrifice, which is the fruit of all true love, and which finds its highest exemplification in Christ, who loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.

We have said that self-love is to be the measure, in the aspect considered, of the husband's love for his wife; but it is remarkable how this also is connected with Christ, teaching us that in no human self-love, but only in the love of Christ for the church, can its true pattern and example be found. For, giving the other side, the apostle proceeds: "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord* the church." The wife therefore being "one flesh" with him, he must nourish and cherish her, even as Christ the church. What heights and depths are contained in this comparison! showing indeed that the debt of love is never paid, but always owed. And yet that love delights to recognise it, and to be ever paying it, in lavishing care and tenderness upon her who has thus become one with him in the view of God.

*"Christ" is the true reading.

It should again be added, if we would have a full sense of the responsibility, that this obligation of love is also irrespective of the character of the wife. No amount of unworthiness in the wife, short of the one sin specified by our Lord, can excuse the husband from the duty of love; for Christ loves the church unceasingly, and spite of all faults and failures, and even worse; yea, He is even seeking to wean her from her faults, and to cleanse her from her defilements by His perfect charity; and His love, be it ever remembered, is the model of that of the husband. It may be that he will fail to copy it in its infinite perfection. but notwithstanding, it is His love which the husband must ever have before his eyes. Behold in this the wisdom of God; for here is the provision to direct the gaze of the husband to Christ, to keep Him before his soul, and thereby he will surely be drawn into imitation of His love; for no one ever failed while his eye and heart were fixed upon Christ.

(3.) The apostle Peter confines himself to certain aspects of the husband's responsibility. "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge giving honour as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (1 Peter 3: 7.)

To dwell with the wife "according to knowledge," is to have the relationship, and the affections proper to it, ordered by the truth, by the knowledge which the Christian has of the relationship in the sight of God. And this is exceedingly important; for herein lies the difference between the believer and the unbeliever in these relative positions; and it behoves the Christian to act in all these according to the new place in which he has been brought by the death and resurrection of Christ. The Christian husband will therefore dwell with his wife according to the truth of his union with his wife, as revealed in the Scriptures.

Moreover, he is to give honour to his wife, and on two grounds. First, on the natural ground, that she is the weaker vessel. There is little doubt that this reference is to the more delicate frame and organization of the woman, requiring and deserving more gentle and more tender treatment. So that just as weakness constitutes a claim upon strength for consideration and support, so the wife as "the weaker vessel" has a claim upon her husband for thoughtful, loving watchfulness and care. He is to give her honour by rendering her all the attention which her more delicate nature requires. It is possible, however, that there may be a reference to the fact that "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2: 14), that she thus showed herself to be "the weaker vessel," by being the first to fall through the subtlety of the devil. More easily acted on, especially through the affections, she thus needs and demands from her husband vigilant and tender care to shield her from the peculiar temptations to which, with her weaker nature, she is constantly exposed. But, secondly, this exhortation is grounded in grace as well as in nature, "as being heirs together of the grace of life." In Christ there is neither male nor female. (Gal. 3: 28.) All natural distinctions therefore, as constituting any relative superiority in Christ, are abolished. While therefore the husband claims the natural obedience of his wife, he must never forget that, if they are both children of God, they are together "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8: 17.) And as such he is to give honour unto his wife; for these natural ties, and these relative connections, are only for earth; and when the Lord comes to receive His people unto Himself, husbands and wives will alike be caught up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and then both will be like unto Christ, and be for ever with Him.

Attention to this injunction is the more needful for the reason given, "that your prayers be not hindered." It is pre-supposed that husband and wife will habitually unite in prayer; and hence the warning is, that any failure in the husband to give honour unto his wife will tend to disturb harmony of feeling, and thus to hinder prayer. It were well if all Christian husbands and wives would often ponder these words. For in the activities of this present time there is great danger of neglecting this united prayer; and the slightest disturbance of concord will ever tempt them to neglect it the more. Satan knows this, and hence he ever seeks to cloud over the peace of these relationships; for he does not forget that it is impossible for husband and wife to go together to the throne of grace when there is the smallest discord in their hearts. The husband must watch against this snare, remembering the importance of their prayers not being hindered. For how many things are there constantly occurring in every family which need to be spread out before God! And how blessed it is when husband and wife can go together, with one heart, concerning every difficulty and perplexity, to the throne of grace!

(4.) There is one thing the husband is taught to avoid: "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." (Col. 3: 19.) It might be thought that if the 'love' were secured there would be no place left for the 'bitterness.' But is it so in the actual experience of life? Many a husband who truly loves his wife drops, in moments of unwatchfulness, when out of the presence of God, hasty words, which are as bitter as gall to a tender heart. The object of the warning seems thus to be to secure the constant exercise of a spirit of self-judgment, so that the husband may avoid everything that might fret or irritate the spirit of his wife. Bitterness-whatever the provocation-is to be carefully eschewed; and it will be done the more easily if he but remember his responsibility to love his wife, even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it.

Such, then, are the divine requirements from the husband. We might perhaps shrink from them, if we did not remember that He who enjoins them is ever at hand to supply the needed grace, and to enable us to walk according to His word. The power for such a walk is found in the Holy Spirit who dwells within us; and inasmuch as He ever leads us to Christ, we shall find that the path thus indicated is one of peace and blessing, leading us into the enjoyment of a fellowship which adumbrates, by no means dimly, that between Christ and the church. As Christ to the church, so is the husband to the wife. To fulfil therefore the duties of a husband needs that Christ in His love to the church should ever be before the soul; and then, if the eye be but upon Christ, there will be transformation into His likeness (2 Cor. 3: 18), and the consequent expression of Christ in the relationship which the husband sustains towards his wife.

CHAPTER 5. CHILDREN.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth."-EPH. 6: 1-3.

"Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." — COL. 3: 20.

"Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother." — DEUT. 27: 16.

"My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it, shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." — PROV. 6: 20-23.

"Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old."-PROV. 23: 22.

CHILDREN occupy a large and very blessed place in the word of God; and both in the Old and New Testaments are found those whose names are enshrined in our hearts, from our earliest years, as examples of early piety and devotedness to God. Joseph, Samuel, and Timothy  - to say nothing now of the Child of Nazareth, who surpasses all — are connected with our first recollections of parental instructions from the Scriptures. Mainly, however, it is the children of the people of God who are thus brought before us, and it is very evident that they are the objects. of His special care. We find, for example, in the book of Deuteronomy very minute directions for their instruction (Deut. 6: 6, 7; see also Deut. 4: 9; and Deut. 11: 19); and on the eighth day after their birth they were to be formally introduced into the covenanted privileges of the chosen people. (Gen. 17: 10-13.) In the New Testament likewise, and, as has been remarked in a previous chapter, in those portions (Ephesians and Colossians) which deal with the fullest truth of the believer's portion in Christ, as well as with the highest church truth, we have not only injunctions concerning, but also addressed to, children. The heart of God, flowing out towards His saints, includes their children also within the circle of His affections. And what parent — and, it may be added, what child who has received scriptural instruction-is there who has not frequently turned with thankful joy to that scene in the gospels where the Lord Jesus, in His infinite grace and tenderness, takes the children into His arms, and blesses them, and says, thereby rebuking His disciples, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10: 14-16); or to that other, where, in order to teach the twelve a needed lesson, "He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but Him that sent me"? (Mark 9: 36, 37.) Precious Saviour! Happy child!

But it is rather to children themselves — the children of believers — that this chapter will be addressed; and surely they will be encouraged to consider the words which God has caused to be written for their guidance, by the evidences of His love and care which have just been cited. As, indeed, when the Lord came by night, and "called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I;" and finally said, after Eli had taught him who it was that had called him, "Speak; for thy servant heareth" (1 Sam. 3: 3-9); so may every child who may read these pages desire to take the same attitude of simple subjection to the word of God.

The directions given are very brief and very simple; albeit they comprehend the whole circle of children's lives. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth." (Eph. 6: 1-3.) "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto" (in, the same word as in Ephesians) "the Lord." (Col. 3: 20.)

It is of the first importance to observe that children — the children of whom we speak — are thus set in direct personal responsibility to the Lord. Placed under parental authority, they are at the same time recognized as being under responsibility to Christ, and hence their obedience is to be rendered "in the Lord." This at once defines the character and the limit of their duty; for the commands of the parent, when rightly given, have a divine sanction, so that the child not only obeys the parent, but also the Lord. On the other hand, no command could be binding to which obedience in the Lord could not be rendered. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." (Eph. 6: 1.) It could not be right for the child to do anything which would be sin against the Lord. The harmony between the two  - the duty and the limit — is beautifully (because perfectly) exemplified in the case of the Lord Jesus when a child. When He was twelve years of age, Joseph, His reputed father, and His mother took Him up to Jerusalem to the feast. On their return He remained behind in Jerusalem. On discovering His absence, Joseph and Mary "turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart." (Luke 2: 42-51.) In this lovely incident we have the two things-responsibility of obedience, and its limit before God — in perfect adjustment. The Lord in grace having become a child, takes the place of a child, and as such owns His responsibility of obedience to Joseph and Mary, while, at the same time, He acknowledges and affirms that He must be about His Father's business. "Son," said Mary, "why hast thou thus dealt with us?" etc.; words which, whatever their tenderness, implied a reproach. But the answer given silenced all complaint: ""Wist ye not, did ye not know, as ye ought to have done, that my Father had the first claim upon me, and that therefore in absenting myself from you, I was acting in obedience to Him?" Thus the Lord Jesus is also the child's perfect example; and it is added, in order to emphasize this truth, "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them."

We may now examine a little more closely the nature of children's responsibility.

(1.) "Children, obey your parents" — obey your parents in all things. The position of children therefore is one of complete subjection, and springs naturally out of the relationship which exists between them and their parents. But beyond all natural relationships, what is insisted upon here is the will of the Lord; for it is He who has given each their respective places, and who thus requires children to be obedient to their parents; and this fact at once lifts the responsibility of a child up into the light of His presence, and at the same time shows that the obedience must be rendered in the Lord.

But wherein, it may be inquired, does true obedience lie? or, What are the characteristics of obedience? That which distinguishes it beyond everything else is the acceptance of the authority which is entitled to command; for when I acknowledge that my own will has no place, that it is the will of another that has to direct and control my actions, I accept and maintain the attitude of obedience. And this is essential, because I am then freed from the temptation of sitting in judgment upon the commands I may receive. it is often said that the main requisite of a good soldier is unreasoning obedience. So with a child. Its obedience, within the limits defined by the words "in the Lord," should be unreasoning; and it can only be this when the position of subjection to parents is faithfully and fully accepted.

True obedience will also be prompt. Postponed obedience is often disobedience in one of its worst forms, and certainly argues both insubjection and self-will; for as soon as the command is given the obligation is binding, and every moment of delay (unless permitted by the parent) is the assertion and prolongation of opposition to his authority. The Lord has given us an incidental illustration of this, and its danger, in one of His parables. "Son, go work today in my vineyard . . . . . He answered and said, I go, sir: and went not." (Matt. 21: 28-31.) Now in this case it is more than likely that the son meant to obey, when he replied, "I go, sir;" but putting off the execution of the command he received, and being thus disobedient, he still delayed, and in the end did not obey his father at all. As our Lord here shows, the son who said at first, "I will not," but afterward repented and went, was more obedient than he who said "I go," but went not. This danger is very subtle. Thus a child will often reason, It will do just as well in an hour hence; and as far as that one matter may be concerned it might be so. But it should be remembered, not only as pointed out, that the obligation to obedience is immediate, but also that the habit may soon be formed of neglecting to obey; and then the next step may soon be a disinclination to obey. Too much stress therefore cannot be laid upon the importance of a prompt response to every command received.

Obedience should be cheerful as well as prompt, or as the Scriptures teach in the case of servants, it should be "doing the will of God from the heart." (Eph. 6: 6.) Everyone indeed will perceive that a mere external obedience — an obedience which is rendered reluctantly, which would not be rendered unless compelled — is no obedience at all. True obedience can only spring from love; as two lines of a hymn have it -

"Love makes our willing feet

In swift obedience move;"

or again, as our Lord teaches His disciples, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14: 15.) St. Paul alludes to the same thing when he says, "The love of Christ constraineth us." (2 Cor. 5: 14.) In like manner, obedience to parents can only spring from love; for love both delights to please and fears to offend; yea, even more, love will deem it an honour to be employed. It is so with the angels in heaven. Their happiness consists in doing God's will; and the temporal happiness of children who love their parents will largely consist in obedience to their will.

That there may be no mistake, we may ask in a definite form, Is there any limit to the obedience which a parent may require from his children? We have already alluded to this; but the subject is so important that it seems advisable to enter upon it more fully. The words, then, "in the Lord," and "well pleasing in the Lord," define, as we judge, both the nature and the limit of children's obedience to their parents; that is, in the first place, obedience never acquires its proper character unless the Lord Himself is the object before the mind. It must be done as unto Him — unto Him who gives both the parents and the children their relative positions. In the second place, unless the action required can be done in the Lord, it is not binding. If a command be given by a parent to a child which cannot be obeyed with a good conscience before the Lord, then it is not of force in His presence. This principle is constantly affirmed in the Scriptures. Thus we are enjoined to "be subject unto the powers that be;" but when Nebuchadnezzar commanded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to fall down and worship the golden image which he had set up in the plain of Dura, they replied, "We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Dan. 3: 14-18.) Peter and John also, when forbidden to speak at all, or teach in the name of Jesus, answered, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." (Acts 4: 18, 19.) While therefore God confers authority upon men in the different relationships of life, He never abdicates His own, or suffers any human claim to limit His own supremacy. The Lord Jesus thus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." (Matt. 10: 37; see also Luke 14: 26.)

Children, then, are to be in complete subjection to their parents, except in the single case of their commands coming into conflict with the authority and claims of the Lord. Making this exception — and even emphasizing it — children must be very careful not to plead it in any doubtful cases: they should be very sure that there is opposition to the Lord's claims in the parental command before they venture to refuse obedience; i.e. they must be assured that the reason for so grave and solemn a step springs from no fancies of their own, but from the conviction of what is due to the Lord. For it is He who has given their parents the place of supreme authority in the family, and hence it is only when it would be for His own glory that this authority may be disregarded. "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." It is not supposed in this injunction, inasmuch as the epistle is addressed to believers, that any command given by the parent could conflict with the Lord's authority; and the addition of the words, "for this is well pleasing unto the Lord," defines the circle of the extent and supremacy of parental authority, as we have just explained. We thus see that parents are absolute in their own circle — the circle described by God; but this circle is included within the larger one, over which the Lord Himself is supreme.

Obedience is urged on two grounds. First, "For this is right." (Eph. 6: 1.) That is, God declares that obedience is a righteous thing to be rendered by children to their parents; that it is suited to the place of a parent to command, and to the place of a child to obey. Secondly, it is said, "For this is well pleasing in the Lord." Here children are reminded of their responsibility, and encouraged by the assurance of the Lord's approbation in their subject path. And the value God sets upon filial obedience may be gathered from His estimate of disobedience. Thus in the law we read, "Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother." (Deut. 27: 16; see also Exodus 21: 17; Deut. 21: 18-21; Proverbs 30: 11, 17.) The apostle also stigmatises disobedience to parents as one of the characteristic signs of the perilous times of the last days (2 Tim. 3: 1, 2), and of great moral corruption. (Rom. 1: 30.) And the slightest acquaintance with the facts of life will abundantly show that the first step in a downward career has often commenced with disobedience to parents. Write the histories of all the poor prodigal sons and daughters who, at the present moment, are seeking to satisfy their hunger with the "husks that the swine do eat," and it will be found that the root of all their temporal wretchedness may be traced back to self-will and insubjection in their paternal home.

Both therefore by encouragements and warnings are children reminded of the value God sets upon their obedience to their parents. Let every child then shun the temptation to disobedience, as one of Satan's most dangerous snares, and be encouraged ever to keep the place of subjection to the parent's will, knowing that it is well-pleasing in the Lord.

(2.) We have another word in Ephesians — cited, it is true, from the law, but here reaffirmed as to its moral force — to express what is due from children to their parents. That word is "honour." "Honour thy father and mother." If obedience describes the responsibility of children as to conduct and action, "honour" expresses rather what should be their habitual feeling towards their parents. It is a peculiarly solemn word; for it is the same as that used by our blessed Lord when He says "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him." (John 5: 23.) In fact, it is a term descriptive of true filial piety; for to honour their parents children must not only acknowledge their position, and their right of parental control, but they must esteem and reverence them, as set in their place of authority by the Lord. Hence the child that honours his parents will love to pay them the outward expressions of homage and respect, will prize their counsels and instructions, obey them in their absence as in their presence, avoid everything that could give them pain or sorrow, rejoice to defer to their feelings and desires, and will in every possible way, by word, manner, and action, rejoice to accord to them that filial respect and attention which belong to the place to which they have been divinely appointed.

We desire to commend this subject to the attention of the children of believers. Let them ponder frequently upon their responsibilities towards their parents — responsibilities which the Lord Himself has enjoined upon them — because He has brought them, as the children of His people, into immediate relationship with Himself upon the earth. It is to Him therefore that they are responsible; and if this thought does but beget, even in the feeblest way, a sense of weakness and helplessness, and a cry to Him for aid, He who has set them in this position of responsibility will surely hold them up, and being brought up, by the care of their parents, "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," they will be led onward to a personal knowledge of Him as their Saviour as well as their Lord; and then it will be their joy to be numbered, together with their parents, amongst His redeemed.

CHAPTER 6. FATHERS.

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." — EPH. 6: 4.

"Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."-COL. 3: 21.

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." — DEUT. 6: 6, 7. See also DEUT. 4: 9, and DEUT. 11: 19.

"For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children," etc. — PSALM 78: 5-8.

VERY parent knows something of — feels in measure — the solemn responsibility connected with the government and training of his children. A more difficult field of duty can scarcely be imagined; and yet, from its very nature, there are few departments of life which,  - when occupied in simple and single-eyed dependence upon the Lord, yield such blessed results. How many of the saints of God have traced their conversion instrumentally to pious and faithful parents! When therefore we consider the vast influence for good, or for evil, which parents must exert — the solemn issues of their responsibility — it must ever be an important question, What is the nature of the parent's duty to his children? As in all the practical duties of the believer, the Scriptures abound with instruction on this point. They teach both by example and by precept; they present for our consideration children, such as Samuel, who are devoted to the Lord at the earliest period of life; they portray the evil consequences of parental misrule; and they give precept upon precept, both in the Old and New Testaments, for the guidance of those who desire to be instructed in the wisdom of God. It may perhaps be profitable to cite at the outset a few of these scriptures, in order to collect the directions thus afforded.

We may, first of all, point out the fact that a special blessing rested on Abraham, because of his fidelity to God, in the government of his family. "For," said the Lord, "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 of him." (Gen. 18: 19. See the context.) We may also allude to the disorders in the family of Jacob, and their obvious cause. And then, passing on to the book of Deuteronomy, we have direct exhortations: "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deut. 6: 6, 7. Compare Deut. 4: 9, and Deut. 11: 19.) The warning example of Eli enforces the same lesson: "For I have told him," said God to Samuel, respecting the aged priest, "that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not," or, as it is in the margin, "he frowned not upon them," i.e. did not enforce his parental authority. (1 Sam. 3: 13.) David affords another conspicuous example of family misrule. A few direct instructions may be added: "For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God. but keep His commandments; and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." (Ps. 78: 5-8.) In the Proverbs of Solomon are also many admonitions as to the treatment of children: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." (Prov. 19: 18.) "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Prov. 23: 13, 14.) One more: "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest: yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." (Prov. 29: 17.) We pass now to the New Testament: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph. 6: 4.) "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." (Col. 3: 21.)

We have freely cited from the Old Testament as well as from the New; for while it is to the latter we must look for the full character and measure of the believer's responsibility in earthly relationships, yet it cannot but be observed that there is a striking agreement in the instructions given as to children in every part of the word of God. In all alike, the believer is charged to govern and to train his children for God — to instruct them from the Scriptures.

This fact shows the importance of understanding the relationship into which the children are brought with God through their believing parents. This relationship, as has been shown when treating of the "household," is, so to speak, an external one, but still involving responsibilities both for the parent and his children. It corresponds somewhat with the position of Jewish children. Although not saved because of their descent, yet they were reckoned amongst God's earthly people, and as such had to be instructed as to God's requirements and their responsibilities. (See Deut. 6: 6, 7, etc.) As God had separated them from the rest of the nations, they were to be taught and trained as His people on the earth. In like manner fathers are now exhorted to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Eph. 6: 4.)

(1.) It is somewhat remarkable that the first exhortation is, "But, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath." So also in Colossians: "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger." (Col. 3: 21.) It is not exactly the same word, though the meaning is not very different. This will be at once understood when it is perceived that this exhortation follows upon the call to children to obey their parents. Fathers are placed in almost absolute authority; and hence the first thing the Spirit of God does in turning to parents is to admonish them as to the manner in which they should exercise their authority. Knowing what the flesh is, even in a Christian, and how apt we are to be tyrannical and despotic in the place in which God has set us, He, in tender consideration for those who are put in the subject position, says, "Provoke not your children to wrath." Parents have almost unlimited control (limited only by the words added to the injunction, "in the Lord") over their children, but they are hereby warned that they must be careful before God as to the method of their government. They must consider the feelings of their children, and while they must never abate one jot or tittle of what is due to the Lord, they must remember their weakness; not lay upon them more than they can bear lest they might be discouraged. A more striking illustration of God's tenderness for children could scarcely be conceived-a tenderness which was exemplified again and again by our blessed Lord while down here upon the earth-than is expressed in this special injunction to parents. And we all know, how apt we are to be capricious or harsh in our rule; and hence our need of this reminder. let every parent therefore remember, that if, on the one hand, God has given him the rule over his family, on the other He has carefully defined the character of its exercise; and that he is as responsible for the latter as for the former.

"Lest they should be discouraged." How easy to discourage children, and especially from the right ways of the Lord. With keen and tender susceptibilities, of quick observation and rapid detection of inconsistencies, harsh government might very soon undo years of patient teaching, and speedily mar the most industrious efforts to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Parents therefore cannot be too careful on this point; and it will aid them to be so if they remember that they derive their own position from divine appointment, and that their children are to be governed and trained for God.

(2,) "But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The words employed are most significant. More exactly, it is discipline and admonition. Discipline will apply rather to the whole course of training or education; admonition implies constant watchfulness in order to warn against dangers, forgetfulness, or departure from the path into which they are being led. Nor should the exact meaning of "bring them up" pass unnoticed. It is to rear; and hence goes back, in regard to children, to earliest infancy. It is important to notice this, because many parents fall into the mistake of supposing that they must wait for their children's conversion before they seek to carry out this injunction; and hence the sad spectacle is often presented of Christian parents permitting their children all kinds of worldly ways, dress, and amusements, under the plea that they are not yet the Lord's. This is to miss the whole point of the teaching of these scriptures, as well as to forget the special place into which the children of believers are brought. The Spirit of God does not say, Wait and pray for your children's conversion; but He says, Rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You are thus to take God at His word, counting upon Him for the blessing contained in the promise, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. 22: 6)

(a) They are to be brought up in the nurture (discipline) of the Lord. This word points to education, and teaches how the believer should educate his children. The first obligation of the believer is thus to teach his children that they are under the Lord's government, that they are to be reared and trained in His discipline, and thus to be shown their direct and individual responsibility.*

*It is not forgotten that it is contended by some that this scripture refers to converted children. There are, however, two reasons which render it impossible to accept this view. First, the term "bring them up" plainly points back to the commencement, to earliest infancy. Secondly, if this view were admitted, there would be in the New Testament no directions given for the training of unconverted children, and even no ground indicated on which the obedience of unconverted children could be claimed by believers. The passage in Colossians, "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord," should read "in the Lord;" and is thus entirely in accordance with Eph. 6: 1. J. N. D. says: "All the children of Christians are viewed as subjects of the exhortations in the Lord, which belong to those that are within, who are no longer in this world, of which Satan is the prince. Sweet and precious comfort to the parent, that he may look upon them as having a right to this position and a part in those tender cares which the Holy Ghost lavishes upon all who are in the house of God." — Synopsis in loco. See also Thou and Thy House, by C. H. M., pages 13-15.)

And this fact is to determine the character of their education — in the nurture of the Lord. In a word, the Christian parent is to train his children in accordance with the place into which, by the grace of God, they have been brought.

But the question may be anxiously put, How is this to be done? First and foremost, by assiduous instruction from the Scriptures. Thus in the passage already cited from Deuteronomy it is said to the Jewish parent, "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children," etc.; and St. Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds him that "from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures" (2 Tim. 3: 15); and it may be inferred, from the mention of Timothy's mother and grandmother, that it was by these godly women that he had been so instructed. It should be a solemn consideration with all Christian parents how far they are doing the same thing. There are many families where the Bible has a place, but not the chief place, in the instruction of the children. But surely "the nurture of the Lord" can only be derived from the word of God; and hence, whoever would be faithful in this matter, must be diligent in its systematic explanation. And what an advantage to the children who are thus taught! The truth of God is brought to bear upon them from the very outset, and used by the Holy Spirit, according to promise, to quicken, form, and direct; they are, under His gracious power, reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There may not, in such cases, be any signs of distinct conversion (as is often observed in the case of children of faithful, believing parents), because the Spirit of God uses the Word at the very commencement of life for their blessing in regeneration.

Secondly, while the Scriptures will be the primary source of instruction, they will also guide as to the character of the education to be imparted in other directions. This is often a most perplexing question with Christian parents; but if it be ever remembered that they have to train their children for the Lord, the difficulty will to a large extent be removed. They will then see, that all the instruction imparted must keep this one object in view; and they will carefully guard them from being taught anything which may not be necessary in their path through the world, and which would be inconsistent with their being the Lord's servants. This is a principle of easy application. Is the thing proposed to be taught to fit my child for the Lord, or for the world? So also in the selection of books for their reading. The object of their education, as laid down in the Word, being kept in view, it is easily determined whether a book would contribute to or hinder that object. As in many other things, it is simply a question of a single eye; and to maintain this, we need to be constantly in the presence of God, judging ourselves and our ways.

(b) Admonition implies, as explained, the maintenance of careful supervision, so as to warn of dangers and to urge forward in the right way. And it is the admonition, as well as the nurture, of the Lord. Christian parents are therefore to speak in the name of the Lord; indeed their admonitions will be attended with more weight if the children are made to understand that their parents are acting for the Lord; that they are warned against this evil habit or that amusement, not from any parental caprice, but solely because in either case it would be displeasing to the Lord. Divine sanction would be thus stamped upon the parent's warning words, and the children themselves thus brought into the divine presence. And parents must take no lower ground; and taking this, they are at once preserved from either harshness of feeling, or the weakness of affection. The word of God being their guide, and the foundation of their government of their children, their mutual relationships will be strengthened, affections increased, and their authority conserved and respected. It is therefore of the last importance that the admonition should be conjoined with the nurture of the Lord. Eli, Samuel, David, and many others are examples of failure in this direction; the sad consequences of which pursued them to the end of their days.

(3.) In conclusion, a few dangers may be indicated, dangers into which many Christian parents fall in forgetfulness of the exhortations that have been considered.

(a) The first we mention is the character of the schools to which oftentimes the children of Christians are sent. For the sake of a few educational advantages, or even on the ground of convenience, believers will sometimes place their children under the care of unbelievers, or under the care of those who, professedly Christians, teach positive error. In other cases, children are allowed to read at school classical works full of impurity and immorality. It is claimed that the Bible must not be used too largely, lest the consciences of unbelievers should be wounded; but have Christians no conscience as to Horace and Ovid, as to Homer and Sophocles, as to Shakespeare and Byron, as to many of the French and German books that find most favour with the teachers of those languages? It is high time that Christian parents took higher ground in this respect, remembering their responsibility to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

(b) The danger is also very common of delegating to others the responsibility of training children for the Lord. However devoted and consistent the persons may be who are instructing their children, nothing can relieve parents from their individual responsibility. That there are difficulties in the way of its discharge in many situations in life cannot be denied. But if the exhortations, more than once alluded to, in Deuteronomy, be recalled, it will be seen that there are very few indeed who could not undertake it. "Thou shalt teach them (God's words) diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Every opportunity must be seized, because it is the one responsibility that God has laid upon the Christian parent. No one else has the same place or the same claim upon his children as the parent; and if they are ever so well instructed by others, the parent has failed if he has not himself brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

(c) The danger is great too in many Christian homes of the allowance of worldly amusements and associations. The Lord's control must be enforced throughout the whole circle of the children's lives. Separated from the world by their connection with their parents, not a single link must be permitted to be re-established. Even their dress should proclaim that they are under the government of the Lord through their parents. And the parents' example, their houses, all the surroundings of their children, must confirm, support, and illustrate the instruction given as to these things; and then, in the full assurance of faith, God can be reckoned upon to remember His own word, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. 22: 6.)

These things remembered, and every believing parent seeking, in dependence upon the Lord, to be faithful in his responsibility, what a testimony for God would the Christian household be! In a scene of darkness, confusion, and evil, the believer's home would be as an oasis in the desert-a bright anticipation of the time when everything shall be brought under the rule and sway of the Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER 7. SERVANTS.

"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free."-EPH. 6: 5-8.

"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh," etc.-COL. 3: 22-25.

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit."-1 Tim. 6: 1, 2.

"Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." — TITUS 2: 9, 10.

"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully," etc. — 1 PETER 2: 18-20,

THERE are more instructions given in the Scriptures for the direction and welfare of servants than for any other class. This is no small honour, and is an evidence of God's love and tender care for all who occupy this position. The reason may perhaps be also found in the fact that in every age of the church, from the days of the apostles until the present time, large numbers of servants have ever been, by the grace of God, numbered among His children. And since from the situation they fill they must be exceedingly influential for good or for evil — in commending the gospel to those with whom they live, or in dishonouring the name of Christ — these counsels and admonitions are doubtless given, that they might see the stress which is divinely laid upon their adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

The term servant, as employed in St. Paul's epistles, is somewhat wider than as used among ourselves. "Slave" or "bondsman," is the exact equivalent in language, though servant is the best interpretation of its meaning; for the slaves of the East were in no way like the slaves of the West. They were, to speak generally, the household servants, whether male or female; differing from our servants in this, that they belonged to their masters, who acquired them by purchase or by war. But though slaves, they were for the most part kindly treated; indeed they often became members of the family, occupying posts of trust and influence, as in the cases of Eliezer the steward of Abraham, and Joseph in the house of Potiphar. They were really domestics; that is, members of the household; and hence, whatever the actual differences between their position and that of servants now, we shall be most in harmony with the spirit of the injunctions given if we understand them to apply to household servants. St. Peter, indeed, uses a different word — one that really means a "domestic." This is, no doubt, because he was writing to Jewish believers, in whose houses fewer slaves than "domestics" would be found. All classes of servants therefore are really included; and hence servants of all stations and in every degree will find much in this chapter to apply to their needs and position; for whoever is under an earthly master will find God's will as to his service, in the directions given in this portion of His word. Nor should it be forgotten that all believers are, in one aspect, the Lord's servants; and hence, that while these scriptures have their primary application to the special class to whom they are addressed, there is instruction and edification for all. Even He who has left us an example that we should follow in His steps took upon Him "the form of a servant" (Phil. 2.), and thereby has taught us that the true place of every believer is in subjection to the will of another. "For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke 22: 27.)

(1.) As might be expected from the very name, the primary duty of the servant is obedience. In five different epistles (Eph. 6: 5; Col. 3: 22; 1 Tim. 6: 1, 2; Titus 2: 9; 1 Peter 2: 18) is this duty enjoined; and, as in the case of children, the obedience demanded is almost unlimited. "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh." (Col. 3: 22.) The only limitation is found in their higher obligations to the Lord; for though this is not directly stated, it is clearly implied when it is said, "Ye serve the Lord Christ." (Col. 3: 24.) Up to this point — so long as the command given does not trench upon what the servant owes to the Lord as His servant — entire obedience is to be given to the master or mistress. We say master or mistress; though every one will observe that mistresses are not mentioned in these Scriptures. This is either because the term master, in God's sight, includes that of mistress, just as men and women are often comprehended under the term man, or, more probably, because the authority of the mistress is delegated to her from her husband — he being the head of the household, and responsible for its rule before God, but entrusting its domestic arrangements to the wife as mistress. It must therefore be understood that masters and mistresses are both included in the former term, and that the obedience to be rendered is due to either or both, according to the position of the servant.

It is possible, that there may be a little hesitation in accepting such a description of the duty of servants as this almost unlimited obedience. But the words of Scripture will not admit of any narrower interpretation. Examine them as closely. as you may, the meaning is simple and distinct. Obedience, indeed, is necessitated by the relative position. The master governs and the servant must obey, or the household would be a scene of continual distraction and strife. This will be more plainly seen when it is remembered that every Christian household should be a presentation of the rule or government of God. As the servant to the master, so is the believer to the Lord. It is really therefore the Lord's rule in the household, exercised through the master whom He holds responsible for its conduct and order. Hence the apostle can say, "Ye serve the Lord Christ;" you receive the commands through your earthly masters, but in obeying them you are serving the Lord, because He has placed you where you are, and enjoins obedience upon you in that position. Service would be much easier — a 'means of grace' indeed — if this truth were more fully and heartily recognised, if the servant in receiving the master's command, heard always the voice of the Lord. For then the temptation to debate the order given, to question its reasonableness, to condemn its unkindness, would be avoided, and the spring of cheerful obedience be always present in the soul. That there may be hardships, injustices, or even cruelties, is possible; but the sting of such trials will be gone when received, as it is the believer's privilege to do, directly from the Lord,  - Then His will is recognised and submissively accepted.

Nor is the obligation to obedience weakened by the character of the master. "Servants," writes the apostle Peter, "be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward." (1 Peter 2: 18.) The service — obedience — in such a case will be far more difficult. There are masters who so win the hearts of their servants that these esteem their most self-sacrificing, even exacting, demands a pleasure. There are, on the other hand, masters who are habitually so inconsiderate that their slightest requirements are deemed a hardship. The temptation of the servant is to fly to obey the former; and to lag, sometimes even to refusal, to obey the latter. But, as this scripture shows, the duty of obedience is entirely irrespective of the master's character. To forget this would be both to forget that you serve the Lord Christ, and also to fall into the sin of eye-service, as men-pleasers, instead of as "the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men." (Eph. 5: 6, 7; see also Col. 3: 22, 23.)

If we now point out the characteristics of obedience, as here given, the duty will be lightened by being directly connected with the Lord.

(a) "Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers." The eye is not to be upon the countenance of the master. If it be, the temptation will of necessity be to please him, and thus to be a man-pleaser. The slightest duty is robbed of its value before God, if done to men instead of to Himself. That were to walk by sight, and not by faith.

(b) "But as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." (Eph. 6: 5-8; see also Col. 3: 22-24.)

Thus the servants are put down in the presence of the Lord. They are the servants of Christ, and they are to do the will of God from the heart, and their eye is to be fixed on the Lord alone. And in the recollection of this lies the secret of all happy, cheerful service, of all true obedience, and also of being altogether independent of the character of their masters. Christian servants would avoid many a snare, if this were kept before their minds; and thus exalting Christ in their service would, indeed, adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.

(2.) The next direction of the Scriptures is as to demeanour. This, in fact, is connected with the duty already described; for where there is cheerful, willing obedience there will certainly be a correspondent demeanour. But it may serve to show its importance, as well as place the subject in a distincter light, if attention is directed to the specific statements of the word of God.

(a) Servants are to "count their own masters worthy of all honour." (1 Tim. 6: 1.) They are to pay them all the respect befitting their position; and this requirement also is altogether irrespective of the personal character of the master. Just, indeed, as God requires us to render honour to kings, and to all in authority because of the office they hold, so He commands servants to reverence their masters because of their position. The wisdom and propriety of this injunction is evident; for nothing is more becoming on the part of the servant, and nothing so much adorns and commends his service, as the respectful homage which is here enjoined; and nothing will be easier to render if it be borne in mind that it is to be given, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but with goodwill as to the Lord, and not unto men.

(b) Humility is also to be exhibited. Servants are to obey "with fear and trembling," and "with all fear." (Eph. 6: 5; 1 Peter 2: 18.) That is, they should cherish that humility of mind which fears to offend, and seeks "to please their masters well in all things." (Titus 2: 9.) They must thus studiously avoid giving cause of offence, and within the limits already defined ever seek to please.

(c) "Not answering again." (Titus 2: 9.) Forbearance in word has to be exercised; the tongue kept under control so as to shun quick and hasty words. Every servant knows how many are the temptations in this direction. Sharp and even unjust things may be uttered by masters in a moment of irritation, and the tendency is to reply with words of the same temper; and then, when the fire of dispute is once enkindled, it is not so easily extinguished. And what is more natural? But God in His word shows us a better way; and hence directed His servant to write, "Not answering again." The apostle Peter, enforcing the same thing, points to the example of Christ: "For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously," etc. (1 Peter 2: 20-23.) The Lord thus endured in patience before God, and hence looking away from the faces of men, "answered not again," committing Himself and His cause to Him that judgeth righteously. So with servants. Dealt with unkindly, and even unjustly, they are to submit to such harsh treatment in patience before God, and look to Him for redress. A path impossible to nature, but when trodden in dependence on the Lord, with the eye fixed upon Him, will yield unspeakable fruits of peace and blessing. The blessed Lord has trodden it Himself; and thus knowing what it is, He is able to succour, and will succour, those that follow Him in it. It is to have fellowship with Him in His sufferings; and "if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together." (Rom. 8: 17.)

(3.) Fidelity is also enjoined: "Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity." (Titus 2: 10.) In this injunction, servants are regarded rather in the aspect of stewards: they are to deal faithfully in all that is entrusted to their care. The goods of the household are constantly under the hand of servants, and hence it is said, "not purloining, but showing all good fidelity." They are not to abstract or use for themselves anything that belongs to their masters. This may be better understood if the exact meaning be given of purloining. We are told of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) who sinned against God by keeping back part of the price of the possession which they had sold, and the proceeds of which they professed to have devoted to the Lord. This shows the meaning of purloining; for the word there translated "keeping back" is the same as that which is given in Titus as purloining. Purloining is therefore not exactly what is called theft, but it is the appropriation by the servant, for his or her own uses, of that which belongs to the master or mistress. Much property — food, clothing, and other things — must pass through the hands, and be under the care of every household servant. God requires of all servants that they should be faithful in this particular, and not allow themselves to take the smallest article without permission. Everything in the house belongs to the master or mistress, and must be held by the servant as a sacred trust. Eliezer, the steward of Abraham, and Joseph, in the house of Potiphar, are given us as examples of faithful servants, who did not purloin; while the Saviour describes one who even wasted his master's goods, in the parable of the "unjust steward." (Luke 16: 1.) Every servant would do well to take heed to these examples; for also, in this matter, the temptation is often strong, and if once yielded to, will increase in power, and may prove the cause of total ruin. Let this divine word, "not purloining," be the light of the servant's path, and the snare will be escaped.

(4.) One special direction is given to meet a special case. "They," says the apostle, "that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." (1 Tim. 6: 2.) Christianity teaches that One is our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we all are brethren. and that there is no respect of persons with God It might easily be, especially in the primitive church, that those "under the yoke," misconceiving the new truth, might assert their equality with their masters, and, on the ground of oneness in Christ, be tempted to claim exemption from required service. This exhortation was intended to meet the temptation, teaching, as it does, that earthly distinctions remain untouched by the fact of equality of standing in Christ. It is true that the master and the servant, if believers, are brethren; but it is also true that, as far as this world is concerned, they are still master and servant. Social arrangements and distinctions, so far from being changed or obliterated, are preserved and consolidated by Christianity. "They that have, therefore, believing masters must not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit." The very fact of their oneness in Christ, and of the brotherly tie which consequently unites them, should be a new motive to diligent and willing service; for, while in different temporal positions, they can now rejoice in knowing that it is but a temporal difference, which will for ever fade away in the light of eternity; and thus masters and servants alike will recognize in the stations they occupy the will of their Lord. Attention to this direction will save servants from much disappointment. Even now, those who are Christians are led to expect too much from their masters and mistresses on the ground of a common Christianity. The master or mistress may not, indeed, remember this sufficiently; but if so, the believing servants should be careful to show that the only effect produced upon them, by being one in the faith, is to make them both better and more willing in service. For, however exacting the demands that such a service may sometimes make, the service is rendered not unto men, but unto Him whom they delight to call their Lord, and He will give the recompense.

(5.) Sufficient has been written to show the minute character of the directions which are given. The question may be asked, What is their object? The answer is twofold. It is, first, that servants "may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things" (Titus 2: 10); and secondly, "that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed." (1 Tim. 6: 1.) It is, then, that the lives of servants should not prove a stumbling-block by bringing dishonour upon, but that they should be of such a character as to commend, the name of their Lord. A large number of servants, as has been already observed, are Christians; and hence it is so much insisted upon that they should walk worthy of their Christian name; for their position is often very difficult. Their faults are often magnified, and their virtues so overlooked, that nothing short of perfection will convince many masters and mistresses that their servants are really believers. On the other hand, it must likewise be admitted that Christian servants are sometimes very lax; and when this is the case the name of God and His doctrine on their account is blasphemed. But God is faithful, and whatever the difficulties of their position, if there be but dependence on Himself, He will sustain them; and if by their behaviour they adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, He will cause the savour of the name of Christ to spread, by their means, as a sweet fragrance throughout the household in which they dwell.

(6.) In the next place there are both encouragements and warning.

(a) Encouragement. "With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." (Eph. 6: 7, 8.) "Knowing, that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." (Col. 3: 24.) All service, whatever its character, is thus done in responsibility to the Lord; and herein lies the encouragement. His eye is upon the faithful servant, marking all his discouragements, trials, and sorrows, and sustaining him by His present approbation, and by the prospect of "the reward of the inheritance" which he shall finally receive from the hands of his Lord. For the time is not far distant when He will reckon with all His servants; and when, at His own judgment-seat (2 Cor. 5: 10), we shall every one receive the things done in our body according to that we have done, whether good or bad.

There is also the encouragement  - and how blessed it is! — arising out of the example of Christ. This is the special force of the teaching of St. Peter; for no sooner does he commence his exhortations to servants than he connects all with the path and sufferings of the Lord Jesus. The reason is that He was the Perfect Servant — the One who never did His own will, but was always in subjection to another. As He Himself says, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me" (John 6: 38); and though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. If the eye therefore be but fixed on Him, difficulties will fade, and strength will be received for the most arduous path; yea, and thus there may be fellowship with Christ in His sufferings for righteousness' sake. "Looking unto Jesus" will be thus an antidote for sorrows, and an encouragement to persevering fidelity in the servant's path.

(b) There is one warning. "He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons." (Col. 3: 25.)

Here also responsibility is brought in to deter from evil. With what care therefore has the Lord provided for the servants' need! And how tenderly done. He bring them and their duties into the light of His own presence, so that everything may be done as unto Him! If the encouragements and the warnings alike have the effect of making every servant live alone for His approbation, then the heaviest burden will become light, and the most difficult situation be occupied with joy.

(7.) Last of all, we cannot but remind the servants of their opportunity for blessing to the household in which they are placed. There are many families that will have to praise God throughout eternity for Christian servants. What honour has the Spirit of God put upon the little captive maid of Israel, who was thus instrumental for blessing to Naaman (2 Kings 5); and from that time down to the present day it has pleased God to use many a servant for the conversion of members of the household in which they have served. A captain in the army, well known to the writer, was returning from India in ignorance and unbelief. He had a black believing servant. On board the troopship there was much leisure, and the servant seized the opportunity of commending to his master the gospel of the grace of God. His testimony was blessed, and his master landed in England as a soldier of the cross of Christ. He forthwith abandoned the profession of arms, and devoted himself to the ministry of the gospel; and many a time has the writer seen the people to whom he was preaching bowed before his words, which were in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power, as the trees of the wood are bowed before the wind. Thousands of such instances have their record on high; and the light of eternity alone will reveal how many masters and mistresses, or their children, have been saved through the humble testimony, commended by their walk and conversation, of believing servants.

May He grant that every Christian servant who reads these words may realize and fulfil, by the grace of God, the responsibility of his or her position.

CHAPTER 8. MASTERS.

"And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with Him." — EPH. 6: 9.

"Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." — COL. 4: 1.

"If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God riseth up? and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?" — JOB 31: 13, 14.

"MASTERS," as explained in the previous chapter, is used as a term to include mistresses, and may therefore be understood to apply to all heads of households; at least to all households in which servants are found. A far less space is given to them in the Scriptures than to servants; but while the directions are fewer, they are exceedingly comprehensive and significant. Besides this, many examples of good masters are exhibited, and consequently there is a large amount of indirect instruction. This must be combined with the special commands, by all who would understand the will of God concerning those whom He has set in the place of authority over others.

(1.) It is to be especially noted that both in Ephesians and Colossians masters are reminded that their Master is in heaven. The true reading in the former epistle makes a slight addition, which however is of weighty import. It is, "Knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven." This is to remind masters that their place of authority is only temporal; that while in this life they may have a position of command, others being subject to them, before God and in relation to Him, both they and those under them are alike servants. Two or three distinct things are hereby indicated.

First, that in their government of others they are acting simply as the Lord's delegates. In other words, they must fill their position of masters as serving the Lord. This at once brings masters face to face with their responsibility to God, and it is not too much to say that no one can fill the place of master aright unless he has the Lord before him; for then it will never be a question of his own will, or inclination, but what the Lord would have him do. He will feel the solemnity of his place, of his responsibility of governing his household for God. The recognition of this responsibility will influence every detail of his administration of the affairs of his household, and give the key for the adjustment of every difficulty that may arise, and for the settlement of every dispute. It is doubtful if Christian masters are sufficiently alive to the fact that they have to serve their Master in the government of their servants. That those who teach and preach, all indeed who serve the Lord in connection with the church, or the gospel, can only meet their responsibility by abiding in Christ, by being constantly in God's presence, is generally acknowledged; but it is no less true that Christian masters and mistresses can only serve in the governance of their households when before the Lord, with Himself before their souls, with the consciousness of their need and helplessness, so that in dependence upon Him they may receive the needed wisdom and strength. Just as it was with Solomon, so should it be with every Christian master. When the Lord appeared to him, on his succeeding to the throne of his father, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee," he replied, "Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?" (2 Chr. 1: 7-12.) In like manner, masters, appointed to their post by the Lord Himself, should look to Him to enable them to govern as in His sight and for His glory.

Secondly, they are reminded that their servants are, even as they, the Lord's servants -"knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven." This will of necessity affect the whole character of their government of their servants; for while they will govern, and govern firmly, as they should because their authority has been entrusted to them by God — they will remember that those in subjection to them are themselves under direct responsibility to their Master in heaven; that, together with themselves, they are the Lord's servants; and that therefore there is in this aspect equality, notwithstanding the difference in their relative positions on the earth. This of itself would prevent all harshness, and secure that tender consideration which, mingling with the firm exercise of authority, should ever characterise all Christian rule.

Again, recollecting their common relationship to the Lord, masters could never demand from their servants anything which could compromise or intrench upon their personal responsibility. They would use them as the Lord's servants; and knowing that while they were in a position of subjection to masters in earthly things, they must yet be in all things faithful to the Lord. If therefore masters should command them to do anything inconsistent with their character as the Lord's servants, they would have to reply as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did to their master, Nebuchadnezzar, when they refused to worship the image which he had set up in the plains of Dura. (Dan. 3:) For it is clear from the principle contained in the words, "knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven," that the authority of masters is limited by, and, indeed, in subjection to, the authority of the Lord. While therefore masters are supreme in their own domain, and hence may require obedience thus far, if they seek to penetrate into the wider circle in which the Lord alone is supreme, then their servants are released from their obligations. Faithfulness to the Lord must be the guide of both; and wherever this principle is constantly recognized all difficulties will cease, because in that case it is the desire of masters and servants alike to maintain a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men.

(2.) Such is the foundation — the fundamental principle in the maintenance of government over servants, and we may now consider the special directions.

"And, ye masters, do the same things unto them," etc. (Eph. 6: 9.) Again, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal." (Col. 4: 1.) They are thus exhorted to treat their servants with a spirit of equity, doing to them as they would have them do to themselves; and doing nothing by partiality or favour, but maintaining their rule in justice and fairness towards all — an injunction much to be remembered in households where disputes often occur between children and servants, or between the servants themselves. Then it is that masters especially have to remember their responsibility to give that which is just and equal, acting as before God, and dealing patiently and fairly with all under their charge; for masters have to govern, and no amount of kindness will compensate for the absence of even-handed justice where rule is concerned. Indeed, the relationships of the different members of the household will soon be utterly disorganized, if this exhortation be forgotten. To carry it out will make many a demand for patience; but remembering that it is the Lord who enjoins it, and that it is His rule which has to be maintained, will keep the master in that spirit of dependence which is the necessary condition for the discharge of his responsibility.

The word is, "Give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." That is, servants have a claim upon their masters for this; and that which is just and equal will include both treatment and wages. They are shut up to and are especially dependent upon their masters, having no appeal from their treatment, excepting, of course-owing to the altered circumstances of modern times — in the unwelcome method of leaving their service. Their very position thus constitutes a claim upon their masters for that which is just and equal; so that they may safely and with confidence leave themselves in their masters' hands, in the full assurance that their interests will be considered and guarded. And the masters are exhorted to this, as knowing that they have a Master in heaven — One who marks all their conduct, and holds them responsible for their faithful dealing with their servants. There is no respect of persons with Him; and every one of us, as His servants, will receive at the judgement-seat of Christ for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Cor. 5: 10.)

"Forbearing threatening." This prohibition points to sins of the tongue in the government of servants-a temptation which is common at all times, but must have been more common still in cases where the servants were slaves, and thus the property of their masters. All know how strongly they are tempted, when displeased by wilful neglect or culpable carelessness, to speak harshly, and even to threaten punishment. How many valuable servants have been dismissed in this way! The feelings were aroused and the words uttered; and pride, it may be, refused to recall them, and the servant has left. The Scriptures show a better way — forbearing threatening. Let the feelings, the temper, be under control — yea, the believer is to reckon himself dead to sin, is to allow self absolutely no place — and then, if called upon to act, even under the greatest provocation, it will be as in the sight of God. Much more influence will thus be exerted upon the minds of servants; for evil is rebuked by a holy calm of soul, and very much sin will be prevented; for "threatenings" chafe and irritate, and thus provoking angry feelings, if not words, kindle a fire which is not soon extinguished.

(3.) It must not be forgotten that masters have a special responsibility for the whole of their households; for they govern, as already indicated, for the Lord. Hence nothing is to be allowed, whether in servants or in the children, inconsistent with the place they thus occupy. Christian masters are scarcely alive to this. For how often that is suffered in servants — in worldly ways and dress, and, in some cases, in the introduction of pernicious books, which would not for one moment be tolerated in their children. But the whole circle of the household has to be subjected to the Lord's authority. This principle is exemplified both in the Old and New Testaments. Thus we find Jacob saying to his household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you," etc. (Gen. 35: 2, 3.) Joshua and Daniel in like manner speak of their households before God; and in the Acts of the Apostles we find frequent mention, as has been shown in a previous chapter, of households being the Lord's. Hence too there is the responsibility of caring for the spiritual welfare of servants. For why have they been brought into this special relationship? Not surely that they may simply render temporal service to their masters; but also that the masters might watch over and care for the souls of their servants. This responsibility was much more largely felt in past years than now, when the ties between masters and servants have been very much loosened by an excessive freedom of contract. Then it was no uncommon case for servants to be really members of the family. They were cared for in sickness as such; they found in their masters and mistresses their truest friends; and they seldom left except it were to change their condition in life. But now this is almost everywhere altered. In many cases servants remain but a short time in one place, and the consequence is that mutual interest between masters and servants is very feeble. Still this in no way lessens the responsibility of those who have servants. The difficulties may have increased; but notwithstanding every Christian master who remembers that he has a Master in heaven, will diligently and faithfully watch over the spiritual interests of his servants.

Admitting the responsibility, the question may be asked, How is it to be discharged? Such a question can only be fully answered by each one for himself; or rather by each one looking to the Lord for wisdom to meet it, and then He will soon show the way, and at the same time give strength to walk therein. A hint or two in dependence on the Lord may however be given. In the first place, in the view of such a solemn responsibility, it is necessary that masters should not retain servants in their household who refuse to be subject; for it is impossible to occupy the place of a master or mistress for the Lord if obedience be not rendered by all under their care. To carry out this principle will involve the sacrifice of ease and comfort; but, as the believer knows, self is never to be his object. In this matter, as in all else, faith and not sight must govern the walk; and making the Lord the first consideration, exalting Him in our households, He will provide all that is needful, even servants, for them that thus seek His glory. Having, then, a household governed by the Lord's authority, family reading may be made a most useful means of spiritual instruction; for then all alike are in the presence of God, and are prepared to hear what He may speak to them through His word. In addition to family reading, the Christian master or mistress will seek other opportunities of direct instruction from the Scriptures; and in this way, reading or conversing together, much would be learnt of the servant's special needs and trials, and much guidance and edification might be ministered. Both sitting together at the feet of Jesus, and hearing His word, would learn more of their respective responsibilities to Him as Lord, and of their duties, as alike His servants, in their respective relative positions; and thereby each would be led to desire to make His word the light to their feet, and the lamp to their path in all their domestic life. Moreover, the master or mistress might be thus made to the household the minister of blessing, so that its members would be led, while respecting and honouring them as their earthly heads, to love them still more as caring for their spiritual needs.

The right government of a household is thus a most onerous task, requiring no small amount of wisdom, diligence, patience, and grace. It is indeed a solemn trust from the Lord. And if all who occupy the responsible position of masters or mistresses do but receive this trust from His own hands, they will then be acquainted with the secret of fidelity in its administration, as well as with the source whence only the needed grace and strength can be received. Then, too, they will not look for their recompense in the gratitude and fidelity of their servants (though these mercies may be graciously vouchsafed); but their one desire will be, in all things to seek alone the approbation of their Lord.

CHAPTER 9. CONCLUSION.

"He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." — PSALM 72: 8.

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." — MATT. 28: 18.

WE have now passed under review the Scripture teaching concerning family relationships, and the relative position of each member of the believer's household; and we have seen how that God has been pleased in His grace to appoint to each their place, and to enjoin the conduct befitting to each, according to His will. His own authority is supreme; and each severally owning it, the household would present a picture of divine rule. His glory would thereby be promoted, and the peace and blessing of the household be secured. In the millennium, the whole world will be brought under the sway of Christ. "In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth . . . . . Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him." (Psalm 72: 71.) But it is the privilege of the believer to anticipate this time, as far as his own house is concerned, exalting in his household the authority of Christ, and owning Him as Lord. If this were more faithfully done, this scene through which we are passing, already under judgment because it has rejected Christ, would be interspersed here and there with bright testimonies to the authority and lordship of Christ. Like some vast and wilderness, which is relieved here and there by scattered oases  - green spots of refreshing verdure, rendered all the brighter by their contrast with the desolation around, so this scene of darkness and confusion would be relieved by the spots of light and ordered rule presented by the homes of the saints. It is not enough therefore to testify, during the little while we are waiting for the return of our Lord, to the grace of God; we should also bear witness to the authority of a rejected, but now glorified and absent Christ. It should be a solemn question with each one occupying the position of head of a household, how far this is being done. The days are becoming darker, and the moment of the apostacy draws on apace: everything betokens that very soon the Lord will arise from His seat, at the right hand of God, to return to fetch His own. It is high time therefore that we should awake to the importance of a brighter testimony during the little moment that remains.

May the Lord give us grace to be more faithful in self-judgment, and enable us each one to begin with ourselves and our households, so that, bringing everything under the application of the cross, the Lord Himself may be thus more fully owned and glorified in the face of a hostile world.

OH, HAPPY HOUSE.

OH, happy house! where Thou art loved the best,

O Lord, so full of love and grace;

Where never comes such welcome, honoured Guest

Where none can over fill thy place;

Where every heart goes forth to meet Thee,

Where every ear attends Thy word,

Where every lip with blessing greets Thee,

Where all are waiting on their Lord.

Oh, happy house! where man and wife in heart,

In faith, and hope are one;

That neither life nor death can part

The holy union here begun;*

Where both are sharing one salvation,

And live before Thee, Lord, always,

In gladness or in tribulation,

In happy or in evil days.

Oh, happy house! whose little ones are given

Early to Thee in faith and prayer -

To Thee, their Lord, who from the heights of heaven

Guards them with more than mother's care.

Oh, happy house! where little voices

Their glad thanksgivings love to raise,

And childhood's lisping tongue rejoices

To bring new songs of love and praise.

Oh, happy house! and happy servitude!

Where all alike one Master own;

Where daily duty, in Thy strength pursued,

Is never hard nor toilsome known;

Where each one serves Thee, meek and lowly,

Whatever Thine appointment be,

Till common tasks seem great and holy,

When they are done as unto Thee.

Oh, happy house! where Thou art not forgot

When joy is flowing full and free;

Oh, happy house! where every wound is brought -

Physician, Comforter — to Thee.

Until at last, earth's day's work ended,

All meet Thee in that home above,

From whence Thou comest, where Thou hast ascended,

Thy heaven of glory and of love.*

SPITTA.

*This is only true of union with Christ: marriage is of course dissolved by death.

This poem, by a well-known German writer, has been altered here and there to bring it into more complete accordance with the truth. It is still defective, though without positive error; but it is given as being a striking and beautiful description of a household in subjection to Christ as Lord. It is founded upon the scripture, "This day is salvation come to this house." (Luke 19: 9.)

The Name Above Every Name

The Name Above Every Name.

E. Dennett.

Preface.

THE following chapters, which first appeared in The Christian Friend and Instructor, are now collected and printed in a separate form. They all relate to the revelation which God has been pleased to make of Himself, first in the successive eras of the Old Testament, and finally in the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation of our blessed Lord and Saviour. In the fervent hope that their perusal may be used in the Lord's goodness to lead the reader into a growing acquaintance and intimacy with Himself, they are commended to Him for His blessing.

CHAPTER 1. The Ineffable Name.

IT is apparent, even to the ordinary reader of the Scriptures, that the revelation God has been pleased to make of Himself is gradual and progressive. Now believers walk in the light, as He is in the light; but in a former day clouds and darkness were round about Him, and necessarily so as long as righteousness and judgment were the habitation of His throne. But when Christ had accomplished the work of atonement, glorifying God in all that He is, having been made sin for us, the veil behind which God had dwelt, and which had concealed Him from His people, was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and God could righteously gratify His own heart in coming out into the full display of what He is as revealed in Christ, on the ground of redemption. These are cardinal and fundamental truths; and they are stated as preparatory to a brief consideration of the several names of God, under which He revealed Himself in the various dispensations found in the Old Testament histories. That God is the same in, nature and attributes in both the Old and New Testaments; that, in other words, He is immutable, is a necessity of the perfections of His divine being; but it is yet true that the aspects under which He is presented in different ages vary, and it is these aspects which are embodied in His several names.

ELOHIM is, as often remarked, the common name for God, viewed as the Divine Being with whom men as men have to do, and as the One to whom they are accountable. It is a plural word. The singular is Eloah, and this form is. often used, especially in the book of Job. Heathen sometimes used the word for their deities, and doubtless from this fact arises the question in Psalm 18, "For who is God (Eloah) save the Lord (Jehovah)? or who is a rock save our Elohim?" That is, the true Eloah was Jehovah, and the only rock was Elohim. The reason for the use of the plural word (Elohim) is variously explained. There are those, as night be expected, who contend that it is simply, according to Hebrew usage, a plural of excellence, that the word in this form conveys the excellency or the perfections of the One spoken of; there are others who maintain that it is divinely intended to set forth the Trinity, the unity of the Godhead in the three Persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. In support of this the devout reader will not fail to notice the language of Genesis 1: 26, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Inasmuch, indeed, as the term expresses all that God is, all the persons of the Godhead must be included.

It is quite true that this could not be comprehended at the time. It was not indeed until the baptism of our blessed Lord that the whole truth of the Trinity came out. Then God spake from heaven; His beloved Son was on the earth; and the Holy Ghost descended and abode upon the Son. But now that the full revelation of God has been made, and the Holy Spirit has come, who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, we can go back, as led and taught of Him, and discover much that could not before have been understood. It is one of the perils of the present moment that the Old Testament scriptures are being limited to the light possessed at the time they were given. The truth is, that their latent meaning can only be apprehended when looking back upon them from the full shining of the light of Christianity. There is no incongruity whatever, therefore, in affirming that God chose the special word Elohim to express the truth of the Trinity. For example, we read in Genesis that God created the heaven and the earth; and in John's gospel it is said of the Word, the Word who afterwards became flesh, "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." We know consequently that the eternal Son is comprised in the word 'God' in Genesis, and as we ponder upon it we learn more of the glory of the person of our Redeemer.

To the patriarchs God made Himself known under another appellation. The first mention of this is found in Genesis 17: 1, "The Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God"; that is, EL SHADDAI — God Almighty. But the meaning of the word El is said to be strength, omnipotence; and Shaddai is thought by some to signify the same thing, while others prefer the rendering of all-sufficient, or self-sufficiency. The combination of the two words will, in either case, import divine attributes, as omnipotence and all-sufficiency can only be found in God. These two words are used, for example, in the passage, "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty [El Shaddai], but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them." (Exodus 6: 2, 3. See also Gen. 28: 3; Gen. 35: 11, etc.) When the word "Almighty" stands alone in our translation it generally represents Shaddai. There is a beautiful combination of this name with that of Jehovah in 2 Cor. 6, "I will receive, you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." The God who was known to Abraham as Shaddai, and to Israel as Jehovah, was now declared as Father in that blessed and intimate relationship into which, in His precious grace, He had taken His people in association with Christ.

From what has been already said, it will be understood that JEHOVAH is the name God specially took in His covenant relationship with Israel. It is not, as the reader may easily ascertain, that the word was not used before God communicated it to Moses, but it was now first employed in connection with the chosen nation. The following remarks may help as to this: "In Genesis 2 and 3 it was of all importance to connect Jehovah, Israel's national God, with the one only Creator, God. So in Exodus 9: 30, the God of the Hebrews, whose name was. Jehovah, is declared to be Elohim. . . . Otherwise Jehovah is a name, Elohim a being; only Jehovah is Elohim, but the former is a personal name" — the name He took in His dealings and relationship with men, but especially with His, people. The word signifies the self-existent One, and, as another has observed, is practically translated, "Who is, and was, and is to come."' Derived from the verb "to exist," it expresses the eternity, and, consequently, the immutability, of His being; and it thus brings before our souls the One who eternally is, who existed before all time, endures through all time, and continues after all time has passed away. He is thus the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last; and the use of these expressions (Rev. 22: 13) proves, beyond all contradiction, that the Jesus of the New is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

El has been referred to in connection with Shaddai, and it is also used with ELION, and is. then translated the "Most High God." An examination of the various places in which this name is found will show that it is God's "millennial name above all idolatrous gods, and demons, and all power." It is in this character that God is said to be "possessor of heaven and earth." (Gen. 14: 18, 19.) Hence it was that Nebuchadnezzar was to lie under God's judgment until he should "know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will"; and that this end was accomplished is seen in that, when his understanding returned, he blessed the Most High, etc. (Daniel 4: 25-34.) Balaam in like manner uses this title when about to speak of the future glory and supremacy of Israel among the nations. In Psalm 91 it is found in connection with Shaddai (the Almighty). It says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High (Elion) shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Shaddai), and in Psalm 47: 2 it is seen in combination with Jehovah; and it is added, "He is a great King over all the earth." These instances are interesting as proving that it is God, the one God, who reveals Himself to men under these different names in distinct relationships.

Most readers of the Scriptures are familiar with the term ADONAI as another divine name. It is translated in our English version as Lord, but is generally distinguished from Jehovah, which is also rendered Lord, by the use of small letters instead of capitals. It means, as to the root of the word, Master, Ruler, or Owner; but the form Adonai is only used of God, and of Him as One who has taken power and is in the relationship of Lord to those who call upon His name. It is therefore especially applied to Christ in His exaltation at the right hand of God. This may be seen from a reference to Psalm 110, and to the Lord's citation from it when confuting His adversaries. "The Lord [Jehovah] said unto my Lord [Adonai], Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (v. 1) In Matthew 22 the Lord expressly applies this scripture to Himself, to Himself as Christ the Messiah (vv. 42-44), and employs it to demonstrate that David's Son was also David's Lord, that, in a word, he was the Root as well as the Offspring of David. In Genesis 15: 2 Abraham addresses God, not as given in our version, Lord God, but as Adonai Jehovah. This example will suffice to show once again that all these divine names are used of the one God, even that of Adonai, which is specially reserved for Christ in His exaltation on high. (The full Adonai character of our blessed Lord is displayed in Philippians 2: 9-11.)

There are other divine titles which it will suffice to mention for the reader's consideration. In the poetic books "JAH" is often employed, and it is this word which is embedded in the term Hallelujah, or "Praise ye Jah." Its significance has not been determined; it is generally supposed to be a shortened, or a poetic, form of Jehovah. Then there are the words God used when sending Moses for the deliverance of His people; the first is given as "I AM THAT I AM," and the second as "I AM." Both of these are forms of the same word signifying existence; the former is sometimes, and perhaps rightly rendered, "I will be that I will be." The thought expressed in both is akin to the meaning of Jehovah (and necessarily so as coming from the same verb), and speaks of unchanging being, or existence. There is yet another term, not in itself perhaps a divine name or title, but one which from its frequent and special application to God is almost to be so regarded. It is ATTA HU, and it is found in such phrases as, Thou art He, etc. The equivalent is employed in Hebrews 1, "Thou art the same" (v. 12), which indeed is given as the translation of ATTA HU in Psalm 102: 27. This term speaks also, as will be at once perceived, of the immutability of God, of the One who always is, and who is ever unchangeable.

We need not further pursue the subject, as enough has been said to point out the various ways in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself under these different names. It is a mark of His tenderness that He has done so; and it proclaims at the same time His unspeakable grace in thus displaying what He is in Himself to His people. He might have concealed Himself for ever in the blissful solitude of His own all-sufficing existence; but long before the foundation of the world, in the far distance of a past eternity, He chose us in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Before however these eternal counsels were communicated, the first man, Adam, was brought upon the scene; and after he, the responsible man, had failed, God continued for four thousand years to wait upon man to see if fruit for Himself could be produced. His trial of man vent on until the cross, and then when God had demonstrated that man had lost everything on the footing of responsibility, He revealed all the grace which was in His heart in "the gospel of God . . . concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." In Him, as we may yet see, God has been fully revealed; and He is also the man of God's counsels, and in Him all the thoughts of God's heart will be accomplished. The partial unfoldings of the Old Testament have passed away before, or rather have been merged in, Him who is glorified at God's right hand; and this is told out in the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

CHAPTER 2. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus."

MATTHEW 1: 21.

WHEN the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made* of a woman, made under the law; and it is of this mystery, the groundwork of redemption, that Matthew writes in this chapter. There are indeed other characteristics of the divine and holy Child here mentioned. As this gospel specially presents Christ as the Messiah, in the fulfilment of promise to the Jewish nation, His lineage, as born into this world, is traced down from the two great roots of Jewish promise, Abraham and David. Not only therefore does Matthew show Him to us as "come" of a woman, and "come" under law, but also as the promised seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and as Son of David, and hence as heir to David's throne and kingdom. It is thus a chapter in which the divine and human glories of our blessed Lord are mingled and displayed. By "mingled" we simply mean that the character of the Person of Christ is such that all that He is as God and as man is told out in His name and in His work. For example, if we think of Him as the Offspring of David, we are at once reminded that He is also David's Root, that David's Son is also David's Lord.

*"Come" or "born" would be a better rendering. The word used signifies the commencement of the existence of anything, or becoming anything, or happening, etc.

This will be very clearly seen by a consideration of the meaning of the name Jesus, which Joseph was instructed to give to the Child when He should be born. As may be seen from Hebrews 4: 8, Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, or Jehoshua, which signifies "Jehovah is salvation," or "whose salvation is Jehovah." There is therefore ample justification for the common observation that the name Jesus means Jehovah the Saviour. If so, what a subject for contemplation, yea, and for adoration, is thus brought before our souls! A child born into the world, of lowly parentage in man's esteem, is declared, divinely declared, to be Jehovah the Saviour! Yes, the God who heard the groaning of His people Israel in Egypt, who saw their affliction, heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, knew their sorrows, and came down to redeem them out of Egypt, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; He who said unto Moses, "I am JEHOVAH: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them" (Ex. 3: 6-8; Ex. 6: 2, 3); it was He, the same God, the same Jehovah, the El Shaddai known to the patriarchs, who now came into this world as a Babe. But if a Babe, He came, blessed be His name for ever, as the Saviour of His people. Surely we may say that the shadows were fleeing away, and that the darkness, which had hitherto shrouded God from His people, was fast disappearing. It was indeed the blessed dawn of the day of grace.

The moment we speak of the birth of Jehovah the Saviour, the mystery of the incarnation constrains our attention. It had long been foretold, and, so far from its being veiled under dubious language, it was exactly and minutely described, so that Matthew could write, "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Even the very place of His birth had been foretold: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5: 2.) Moreover, the holy nature of His humanity was by no means dimly shadowed forth in the type of the meat-offering, especially in the unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, telling out as it did the truth communicated to Mary by the angel, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1: 35.) It is the miracle of miracles, and for that very reason the revelation of the heart of God, when looked back upon in the light of the purpose of His coming into the midst of sinful men.

Before entering upon the purpose of His advent, it may be profitable to dwell upon some of the circumstances of His birth. There was the greatest contrast imaginable at the time between heaven and earth. All heaven (and what wonder?) was astir and in movement; but the whole earth, save a few pious souls, was still and almost unexpectant. The angel of the Lord sped on his joyful way to apprise, not the governing powers, or the great of the earth, but a few godly shepherds, of the marvellous event: "Fear not," he said unto them, "for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all [the] people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," etc. The angel of Jehovah was not alone, for as soon as he had announced the glad tidings, a multitude of the heavenly host praised God and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill [or "pleasure, or delight toward [in] men." As has been strikingly said, God had so manifested Himself by the birth of Jesus, that the hosts of heaven, long familiar with His power, could raise their chorus . . . and every voice unites in sounding forth these praises. What love like this love? and God is love. What a purely divine thought that God has become man." And yet this stupendous event had nothing in it to compel the observation of men. Busy with their own thoughts and objects, they did not even perceive it, though it took place in their midst; and so absorbed were they in their self-seeking that there was no room for the infant Saviour in the inn! Such are men, although among them were the objects of God's eternal counsels in grace, which He was about to accomplish through the One who, while the Creator of all things, was yet born into the world a homeless stranger!

The name Jesus was given in connection with His work, "for," it was added, "He shall save His people from their sins." The term "His people" will, in this gospel, undoubtedly mean Israel; and indeed, in the angelic announcement to the shepherds in Luke, it says that the good tidings of great joy were for all the people; i.e. for the Jews. Not that the object of the Lord's coming into the world is in either case to be limited to the chosen people, but in these scriptures they only are in view. The wider aspect is stated by John when, in allusion to the prophecy of Caiaphas that "Jesus should die for that nation," he adds, "And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." This makes it plain, moreover, that the death of Christ — His finished work, which He accomplished in, and through, His death — is the alone foundation on which He will save His people from their sins. We thus read in Leviticus 16, after the details given concerning the rites and sacrifices, together with the confession of the people's sins by the high priest on the great day of atonement, "For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord." (v. 30) Nor can this foundation truth be too constantly insisted upon; for as it is written concerning sins in the old dispensation, "Without shedding of blood is no remission," so now it is equally true that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, alone cleanseth from all sin.

When, therefore, the angel said, "He shall save His people from their sins," he looked onward, or at least the mind of the Spirit had respect in the words, to a time beyond the cross. For Israel could not be saved, as the prophets plainly testified, apart from repentance and the efficacy of the atonement. Simeon, when he enjoyed the unspeakable privilege of holding the Lord's Christ in his arms, plainly foretold also that the glory of Jehovah's people Israel would be accomplished through the rejection of the holy Babe on His presentation to the people. The sufferings of Christ must precede His glories, whether in heaven or on the earth. even as He Himself said to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?" It was this fact that tested the hearts of men, and called forth their determined enmity. If they could have taken Jesus by force and made Him a King, and if He would but have placed Himself at their head and led them, all carnal as they were, against their enemies, and delivered them by His power, they would gladly have hailed Him as their Messiah, even if they had immediately after rebelled against His authority. But He who came as Jehovah the Saviour must first stand in, and repair, the breach which the sins of His people had made between them and their God. And so fully did He take up their cause and responsibility that, as in their place, He. cried, "O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee." Blessed Lord, we cannot fathom Thy sorrow and grief, but we can thank Thee in that Thou madest the sins of Thy people Thine own, and hast, borne them away for ever!

Considering then this scripture in its application to Israel, it will refer to the salvation of the earthly people from their sins — from their sins and their consequences — and to their restoration and blessing in a future day in the land of promise. It is indeed in one aspect what Zacharias prophesied, when his tongue was loosed at the circumcision of his child, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David . . . that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us . . . that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." (Luke 1: 68-75.) First, then, Jesus will save His people from their sins before God; for a part of the new covenant runs, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31: 34); and, moreover, He will save them from the consequences of their sins in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies, in gathering them out from every land where they have been scattered, and in establishing them in their own land in blessing under His own peaceful and glorious reign. All this would have been fulfilled to them at once had they but received their Messiah; and even after they had crucified Him, had they but owned their guilt, and bowed in heart to the testimony of the apostles, their sins would have been blotted out, and the times of refreshing would have come from the presence of the Lord in connection with the return of Christ (Acts 3); but, alas! through their unbelief they forfeited all these blessings, and they have now to wait until, wrought upon by the Spirit of God, they will cry, in the gladness of their hearts, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Still, beloved reader, while it is true that this promise refers primarily to Israel, let it not be forgotten that the same glorious work, which constitutes the foundation on which their sins will be removed, is the only ground on which any of us can know forgiveness. Through Israel's fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, and hence it is that the apostle could write to the Corinthians that it was delivered to him that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Well then may we praise God continually for His wondrous grace, the grace which took occasion through the unbelief of Israel to reveal all His purposes concerning those who should be heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ; and well, too, may our hearts be filled with gratitude at the mention of the name of JESUS, for He it is who has secured everything for us.

"Name of Jesus! highest name!

Name that earth and Heaven adore!

From the heart of God it came,

Leads me to God's heart once more.

Only Jesus! fairest name,

Life, and rest, and peace, and bliss;

Jesus evermore the same,

He is mine and I am His."

CHAPTER 3. "They shall call his name Emmanuel."

IT has already been pointed out that the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was in fulfilment of this prophecy. Not that the birth in, and by, itself contained its accomplishment: it was rather its pledge and guarantee. The meaning of the name, as divinely interpreted, is "God with us"; and this enables us to see that it looks forward to the full consequences for Israel of the introduction of their Messiah into this world; that, in other words, the Emmanuel name of our blessed Lord will only be realized in connection with the establishment of His glorious throne on earth, when He will make good all that God is in government, and when, as with His people, "His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." It carries with it, therefore, the fruition of His death for "that nation," and the promise of His personal presence with His earthly people. It is of that time the prophet speaks when he says, "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."

A reference to the prophecy itself, together with its context, will make this abundantly evident. Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, was at that time upon the throne of Judah. He "did not that which was right in the sight of the. Lord his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel." (2 Kings 16: 2, 3.) However, notwithstanding his wickedness and apostasy, God still waited with much long-suffering, and forebore to deal with His guilty servant. Yea rather, on Ephraim and Syria entering into a confederacy against the house of David, and going up to besiege Jerusalem, Jehovah sent His servant Isaiah with a message of encouragement, assuring Ahaz that the designs of his enemies should not prosper. The prophet added, at the same time, the warning word, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Ahaz might be delivered from the present peril, but unless he turned to, and stayed himself upon, the word of the Lord, he should not escape his merited chastisement. (See 2 Chr. 28)

Yet again the Lord sought, in His tender mercy, to reach the heart and conscience of the offending monarch. God would condescend, if Ahaz requested it, to give him a sign, either in the depth, or in the height above, to certify him of the sure fulfilment of His word. The heart of Ahaz had turned to false gods, and thus hardened, he refused, though under the. pretext of piety, the offered intervention, saying, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord." The Searcher of hearts was not to be deceived, and, after a solemn admonition, the prophet announced that the Lord Himself would. give a sign. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." It is in this that the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of' God, is unfolded. David's house might fail in their responsibility, as they grievously did, and forfeit everything; but, thereon God, acting from His own heart, and according to His purposes, could step in, and through the advent of Jehovah the Saviour — through His rejection, death, and resurrection — accomplish all the counsels of His grace. The birth of Immanuel would thus change everything. Those who were false to, their trust would be punished as was Ahaz; but Immanuel would secure everything, and vindicate and glorify the name of God in government upon the earth.

But there lies a long, weary path for Israel, because of their unbelief, between the birth of Immanuel and the glory of the kingdom. This was plainly foretold by the prophet in connection with the very prophecy under consideration. The careful reader will observe that the first invasion of the land by the Assyrian, bringing in utter desolation in its unchecked success (Isa. 7: 17), does but shadow forth another assault in the last days, when he and his confederates shall be utterly broken in pieces. They may take counsel together, but it shall come to nought; they may speak the word, but it shall not stand; "for God is with us" (Immanuel). Before that time — the final destruction of Israel's enemy — He who is born of the virgin, and named Immanuel, is seen in rejection. The transition to this is exceedingly beautiful. The prophet was instructed of the Lord not to "walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." (Isa. 8: 11-13.) But this instantly brings in separation, distinguishing as it does a remnant from the mass of the people. Accordingly we read, "And He shall be for a sanctuary" (for all those who sanctify and fear Him); "but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." As indeed Simeon prophesied "This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against . . . that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

Immanuel came. The sanctuary of those who had waited for Him, He is the true centre around whom His people are gathered; and here, for the first time, He Himself speaks, and calls them "my disciples." And He names them such in connection with "the testimony," and plainly states that the truth of that day, the law as well as the testimony, is entrusted and confined to the remnant, now His disciples. It was so also in the day of David's rejection. In the cave of Adullam, when everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, had gathered themselves unto him, and he became their captain, we find that the prophet Gad was also there, and immediately after Abiathar the priest is driven to the same company, which now, possessed all the forms of God's testimony in the persons of the king, the prophet, and the priest. In like manner Anna the prophetess was with the few who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. It must be ever so, that those who are in separation from evil and are in communion with the mind of God concerning His Christ, and concerning the state of things round about them should be the depositaries of the testimony for the times in which they are living. The reason is that Christ Himself is with them. He loves all His people; but He only identifies Himself with the separated remnant, as in verse 18 of this chapter. That here and there much truth may be found outside of them is unquestionable; but only with them will be seen God's special teaching for the moment, or the truth held and presented in its due proportions. The testimony will be bound up, and the law will be sealed up, amongst the Lord's disciples in an evil day, because as already said, He Himself is in their midst.

The state of things at the time of which Isaiah speaks is unfolded in the following verses; and let it again be recalled that it is Christ Himself who is the speaker. He says: "And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion." In the Epistle to the Hebrews parts of these two verses are quoted to show the Lord's complete identification as Man with His people, with the true remnant gathered out from among the Jewish nation (Heb. 2: 13); and this as preparatory to the object of His death, viz., to "destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." But we will not pursue these interesting circumstances further than to call attention to the wondrous fact that the One who was thus as regards God in perfect dependence as Man, and hence waiting upon Jehovah, and as regards men despised and rejected, was at the same time, no less a personage than the Immanuel of Isaiah's prophecy; and that, in this path of rejection, He was experiencing some of those sufferings which must precede His glories.

In Isaiah 9 the people that walk in darkness see a great light, and "they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." For the fulfilment of this glorious prophecy, Matthew records that Jesus left Nazareth, and came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. (See Isa. 9: 1) The moment Isaiah proclaims the appearance of the Messiah as light in the midst of darkness, he contemplates its full consequences in the results of the deliverance which Messiah will accomplish in the last days. The yoke of the Assyrian being broken, all the brightness of the glory of the divine person of the Messiah shines out in the blessing of His people. And all this blessing is connected with the birth of Christ into this world. "For unto us," the prophet says, a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." All these names are given in connection with His kingdom in this world, for the prophet proceeds Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." (Isa. 9: 6, 7.)

It is evident, therefore, that Immanuel, "God with us," is the name belonging to our blessed Lord in connection with the earthly people, and that they will not enter into its full and blessed significance until after He has taken His great power, and when He shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.

Who, then, is Immanuel? His birth is predicted in Isaiah 7: 14, and, after detailing the circumstances of His rejection in the following chapter, the prophet foretells the establishment of His kingdom in chapter 9. Together with this he takes occasion, in a passage already quoted, to present a series of titles, or names, which are expressive of the infinite and divine character of Immanuel's person. Let us pass them briefly under review. The first is "Wonderful," a word used oftentimes for that which excites astonishment, or admiration. Sometimes it is employed to denote a miracle, and nothing so awakens the attention as a miraculous display of power. And what miracle is so great as that of the Incarnation? What could produce such wonder as the fact that Immanuel could be born of a virgin? Then He is called "Counsellor." Divine wisdom is indicated by this word, as, for example, where it says, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11: 2) The appellation "The mighty God" proclaims its own significance, for there could not be a more distinct declaration of His Deity; nor does the following term, "The everlasting Father," or "The Father of eternity," speak less plainly, inasmuch as it sets forth the eternity of His being. Finally, He is "The Prince of Peace," a title which indicates the Solomon character of His reign, so admirably described in Psalm 72.

It may be permitted to us, in conclusion, to enquire why such a number of names should be combined. The answer surely is, that it is only by the contemplation of the rays of Immanuel's glory separately and singly that any conception can be formed of the truth of His person. However He may be presented, in whatever aspect or relationship, all that He is is there under the special aspect; and we are reminded of this by such passages as the one under consideration. It is indeed one of the fatal mistakes of these modern days to take some one feature of the life or person of our blessed Lord, and to regard it as the whole truth. He is the living Word, and it is only in all that speaks of Him that He can be fully discovered; and it is because of our feebleness that the Spirit of God calls our attention now to one aspect, and now to another; now to one feature, or trait, or attribute of His person, and now to another. But He is still beyond all our thoughts, seeing that He is divine, "very God and very Man"; and hence it is written, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father."

CHAPTER 4. "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth."

In this language is portrayed the preciousness of Christ (as the Bridegroom) to the bride. This will be at once perceived if the context be examined. "Let Him kiss me," cries the bride, "with the kisses of His mouth: for [now addressing Him directly] Thy love is better than wine." It is not so much the love itself, as the enjoyment of the love, of which she speaks; this it is which is "better than wine." Every renewed heart will respond to this statement, for while the love of Christ is ever beyond all our thoughts, infinite and unspeakable, it is only as we enjoy it that we in any measure enter into, or appreciate it. But when the heart expands in the power of the Spirit to its blessed influences and constraint, when it opens, without let or hindrance, to the inflowing of its mighty tides, then the soul learns experimentally the marvellous character of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Another thing is equally true. The more we taste of the love of Christ, the more we desire it. Every experience of it begets an ardent longing for a larger measure of it. Thus, if the bride had not previously known something of the Bridegroom's affection, she would never have uttered this passionate desire.

It is, moreover, through the heart that all divine knowledge is received; and hence, as here, the bride passes from the expression of her estimate of the enjoyment of the Bridegroom's love, to a declaration of the effect of His excellencies and perfections. Her heart apprehends, through the enjoyment of His love, the savour of His "good ointments." Still, it may be remarked, in the language of another, that "however strong" the bride's "affections may be, they are not developed according to the position in which Christian affections, properly so-called, are formed. They differ in this respect. They do not possess the profound repose and sweetness of an affection that flows from a relationship already formed, known, and fully appreciated, the bonds of which are formed and recognized, that counts upon the full and constant acknowledgement of the relationship, and that each party enjoys, as a certain thing, in the heart of the other. The desire of one who loves, and is seeking the affections of the beloved object, is not the sweet, entire, and established affection of the wife, with whom marriage has formed an indissoluble union. To the former, the relationship is only in desire, the consequence of the state of heart; to the latter the state of heart is the consequence of the relationship."

This distinction should be well weighed and apprehended, for it contains the key to the interpretation of the "Song of songs." But it is still true, whether in the heart of the bride, or in that of the Christian, that love is the means of, the capacity for, divine knowledge; that, in a word, he that loves most knows most. (See 1 Cor. 8: 1-3, Eph. 1: 18 — reading "heart," instead of "understanding.") Mary Magdalene is a striking illustration of this point. Peter and John had more light than she, for they (or certainly John) had seen that the sepulchre was empty, and had believed, while she was in utter darkness as to the resurrection. And yet it was to Mary that the Lord revealed Himself. The two disciples, having satisfied themselves that the sepulchre was bereft of its prey (and John, at least, believing that the Lord had risen Victor over death), "went away again unto their own home." But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. Engrossed, in the intensity of her affection, with her Object, she was rooted to the spot; having lost Christ she had lost everything, and all the world was but a sepulchre to her if Christ were not living. The state of her heart was right, although her spiritual understanding was not enlightened; and hence it was that the Lord could come and disclose Himself to her, and make her the glad messenger of the blessed tidings that henceforward He associated His brethren with Himself in heaven, before His Father and God, in His own place and relationship.

If the reader have understood the divine principles which have been enunciated, he will easily comprehend the language of the bride, which must now be considered. Because of the savour of Thy good ointments," she says, "Thy name is as ointment poured forth." The "good ointments" will represent for us the blessed fragrance of His excellent perfections, as seen in His life, in His acts of tenderness and grace, as well as in His words, and in His walk of entire dependence and obedience before God in His pathway through this world. They will, doubtless, be apprehended and enjoyed in the intimacy of His own presence, in His manifested relationships with the soul, in His ways and personal dealings. The bride, indeed, could not have known the savour of His good ointments in any other way. And it is ever true that the nearer we are to Christ the more fully we enter upon the experience of the beloved disciple, who was admitted to the intimacy of reposing upon the Lord's breast, and the clearer will be our perception of His beauty and grace. We may be much impressed by report and testimony, even when at a distance like the Queen of Sheba, but it is only when, like her, we hear and see for ourselves, that we are lost in adoration in the presence of the fragrance of the good ointments. If, therefore, we would be absorbed with the sense of His graces and beauties we must press on with the two disciples, drawn onward by His attractions, to the place where He dwells. Having part with Him there, the savour of His excellencies will constitute the perpetual joy and rejoicing of the soul.

Before proceeding further it should be noticed that the sweet savour of the life of Christ, as may be gathered from Leviticus 2, was first and foremost for God. The priests might eat of the fine flour, mingled with oil, of which the meat-offering was composed, but all the frankincense thereof was to be burned with a part of the offering upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. How blessed to know this! If there had not been a single soul upon the face of the earth to delight in the savour of the good ointments of Christ, His life would not have been in vain, inasmuch as it brought glory to God and filled His heart with infinite joy. No! our blessed Lord could not have wasted His sweetness "upon the desert air," because there was One whose eyes ever rested upon Him with unspeakable complacency, noting with joy the perfection of His every thought, and act, and word, and step. It was this which drew forth from the overflowing heart of God the words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And the more Christ was tested — and He was tested in every variety of way, even by the holy fire of the altar itself — the more abundantly did His sweet savour flow forth to gratify the heart of His God. We call attention to it, because if the bride is, if we ourselves are, permitted to participate in the enjoyment of the sweet savour of His life, to feed upon the perfections of His entire devotedness to the glory of His God, it is only because God has first had His portion, and because He, in His ineffable grace, has called us to share in His own delight in the pathway and person of His beloved Son.

Remark also that it is through the savour of the good ointments that His name, the revelation of all that He is, is spread abroad, as the fragrance of ointment poured forth. In this way, as expressed in the hymn -

"Like fragrance on the breezes

His name is spread abroad."

Illustrations of this abound in the gospels. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria." As we read in another place, "And from thence He arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it; but He could not be hid." No! blessed Lord, the savour of Thy good ointments had gone abroad on every hand, making Thee everywhere known, so that Thy name had become as the sweet fragrance of ointment poured forth to all who were burdened with distress and sorrow, to the weary and needy souls amongst Thy people.

This is doubtless only one side of this precious truth; for what our scripture brings before us is rather the soul's entrancement with, the preciousness of Christ through the apprehension of His various excellencies as displayed in Himself and His ways. Still it is always through our needs that we first get to Christ and learn what He is in His love and grace. Then, when our needs have been met and satisfied, we are at leisure, set at liberty from ourselves, and at liberty in His presence, to contemplate Himself. The savour of His good ointments, indeed, scarcely steals into the soul with its gladdening refreshment until every question affecting ourselves and our relationship with God has been settled. In rare cases Christ Himself may be. known at the commencement of the spiritual life; but generally speaking, it is a troubled conscience which has to be appeased, through the efficacy of the blood of Christ, before we are free to survey His glorious perfections. Then, is these surprise and awaken the soul's delight, His name, even the very mention of it, will fill our hearts with the sense of its sweetness and fragrance, and produce such emotions as can only be expressed in adoring worship at His feet.

Another thing should be mentioned. The savour of the good ointments of Christ may flow out through the holy lives of His people. Every trait, every perfection exhibited by Himself in His walk through this world may be reproduced in those that are His. Look, for example, at the precepts and exhortations of the epistles. Every one of them has been perfectly exemplified in Christ; and unless this is remembered, so that they may be associated with Himself as the living Word, they will become hard and legal obligations. Christ in us, Christ our life, as set forth in Colossians, is to be followed by the display of Christ through us, in the power of the Holy Ghost. For this we need to be much in His company; for the more we are with Him and occupied with Him, the more we shall be transformed into His likeness, and the more certainly will the savour of His, good ointments be spread abroad. And this will be a mighty testimony to what He is; for in this, case His name will, through us, be as ointment poured forth; the sweet savour of the name of' Christ will flow forth from our walk as well as from our words. The apostle Paul uses the very words in speaking of his preaching, when he says, "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ"; and in a subsequent chapter (2 Cor. 4), he points out that testimony is connected with the life as well as with the lip. As we meditate upon it, may we not say, "What a privilege! What a mission, to be sent out into the world to make known the savour of the good ointments of Christ, that His name may, through us, be as ointment poured forth!"

The effect of this has yet to be noticed "therefore do the virgins love thee." The fragrance of the name of Jesus attracts the hearts of the virgins — not of all God's people, be it observed, but only of the virgins, A very distinct thought is connected in Scripture with the virgin. It is character, moral character, speaking as it does of the absence of defilement, of uncontamination with the polluting influences of the world (see Rev. 14: 4.) Virgins, therefore, stand in this scripture for those who have been enabled, through grace, to maintain a holy separation from the defilements of the scene through which they are passing, those whose hearts have been kept true to Christ, and guarded in loyalty to Him through the sense of His claims, and of His love. A heart possessed of Christ is fortified against the most seductive allurements of the world. It is absorbing affection which always distinguishes the virgin; and this affection is ever intensified and deepened by every new discovery of the perfectness of Christ. In other words, those who partake of the virgin character always respond to the display of the preciousness of Christ. He being the sole object of their hearts, they are in the condition of soul to enter into, and enjoy, His beauties. They will detect His presence, the blessed fragrance of His words and His acts, where others will observe nothing. They live in His presence; they are wholly for Him; and hence it is the delight of Christ to disclose Himself to them in such attractive ways as to increase and elicit their affections towards Himself.

It follows from what has been said that the state of our souls may be discerned by the effect produced upon us by the name of Jesus. If our hearts are careless and irresponsive when He is the subject of conversation or presentation, we cannot be in communion with the heart of God. Why even the name of a beloved object on earth will produce pleasurable emotions. How much more should the name of Christ, the object of God's heart — and also of ours if we know Him — awaken within us holy feelings of delight, which can only be expressed in praise and adoration!

CHAPTER 5. The* Name which is above every name.

* Some MSS. read "the" instead of "a" name; and the Revised Version has adopted it.

SOMETIMES the question is raised as to what this name is; but whether it be the name of JESUS — as seems probable, if the amended reading be adopted — or not, its significance is very apparent A passage from the epistle to the Ephesians will explain this. In connection with the display of the exceeding greatness of God's power "to us-ward who believe, according to . . . His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead," the apostle proceeds, "and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." (Eph. 1: 19-21) Here the meaning evidently is that, whatever the exaltation or dignity of any of the heavenly hierarchies or intelligences, Christ as the glorified

Man has been set above them all. Among the vast number of celestial beings He is absolutely supreme. The rendering "far above" may not be exactly justified by the word used; but we cannot doubt that our translators seized its spirit in seeking to express that there was no second to the glorified Christ, that His exaltation is so unspeakable that all the highest gradations of angelic existences are far beneath His feet. Similarly in Philippians "the name which is above every name" will betoken the absolute supremacy in the whole universe of the glorified Christ as Lord. Nothing short of this will satisfy the terms of this scripture.

This will be more readily understood if we consider the place and connection in which these words are found. In a sense the passage from v. 5 to v. 11 is complete in itself. It grows out of previous exhortations; and herein is the marvel that all this blessed unfolding of the person, of the character, of the incarnation of Christ, His humiliation and consequent exaltation, should be given to enforce the apostle's exhortation that the mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," seen in His coming "from Godhead's fullest glory, down to Calvary's depth of woe," should be before believers as their example! Let us then ponder upon it, for the more it is considered the more deeply will it impress itself upon our souls. In a past eternity He, who has been down here as the humbled One, was — subsisted — in the form of God. Such a statement, however far beyond the utmost range of all our thoughts, cannot signify less than His absolute and essential Deity. It speaks of His eternal existence as God, even as John says of the Word, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." On this blessed truth hangs the whole truth of revelation and redemption. To surrender it would be to lose the sun from the solar system, and thus to bring in darkness, chaos, and destruction. On this very account controversy has raged in all ages around the person of Christ. Now His humanity, and now His Deity, has been obscured if not denied. Faith meets all the arguments of man by the simple statements of the Word of God.

If, however, the Deity of our blessed Lord is here introduced, it is but to magnify His grace and self-humiliation; for the assertion of it is followed immediately by words of transcendent importance. First, He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but," secondly, "made Himself of no reputation," or, more literally and exactly, "emptied Himself." The first clause will mean that although He subsisted in the form of God, He did not use it for self-exaltation, "did not," as one has translated it, "esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God." It is, doubtless, a contrast to Adam, who fell into Satan's snare of seeking to exalt himself, to be "as gods, knowing good and evil." Adam being a man sought to exalt himself; Christ being God humbled Himself. How blessed the contrast! This was the mind which was in Christ Jesus; and the next clause — "but emptied Himself" — contains the first expression of that mind. It must be with unshodden feet (for the place is holy) that such a statement must be approached. Of what, then, did He who subsisted in the form of God empty Himself? It has been lately written that He emptied Himself of "divine prerogatives"; others have taught that the "emptying" included His divine attributes. Far be the thought! To admit it is certainly to becloud the essential truth of His Deity, and to open the door to rationalism in its worst forms. For what are attributes? They are the characteristics of Deity, so that to empty Himself of the former is to lay aside the latter. No! a thousand times, no! As another has said, "The essential being of Godhead cannot change. His emptying Himself applied to the form."

The next sentences will make this plain, describing as they do the process and the effect of the emptying: He "took upon Him the form of a servant and was made (rather, 'became' — it was His own voluntary, and, indeed, divine act) in the likeness of men." It was as God He emptied Himself, and now these words present Him to us after He had done so; for we see Him in the likeness of men, and in form as a "bondsman." This includes the whole truth of the incarnation, and through it we are enabled to form some estimate, however inadequate, of the immensity of the descent from "the form of God" to "the form of a servant." None but God was equal to such condescension and grace, for it was really the exhibition of divine love in the midst of sinners, and none but God could have made such a stoop, for man is limited to his own form and mode of existence. In the fact of the incarnation, therefore, we behold one of the glorious mysteries of redemption. And while unable to grasp its full and far-reaching significance, we yet learn that the lower Christ went down, the more brightly the effulgence of His divine glory shone forth! For God is light and God is love; and where do we behold this? Surely in Him who took upon Him the bondsman's form. In every step of His pathway, in His words of grace and truth, in His works of power and mercy, light and love in all their perfection may be perceived by the opened eye; and the divinely-instructed heart is constrained to exclaim, Lo! God is there.

As God, it has already been said, He emptied Himself, and now we learn that as man He humbled Himself. Indeed, the whole life of our blessed Lord as man is compressed into the words, "He humbled Himself "; for it is not, as in our translation, "and became obedient unto death," but "becoming" so, that is in humbling Himself: and then, to bring out the full character of the humiliation, it is added, "even the death of the cross." It was a low place indeed He took when He assumed a bondsman's form; but how much lower when, "being found in fashion as a man," He went down to the shameful death of the cross! And let us again remind ourselves in our meditations, while we wonder and adore in the presence of such infinite condescension, that Christ is here presented as our example. The question may well be asked, in the beautiful language of another, "Are not our affections occupied and assimilated in dwelling with delight on what Jesus was here below? We admire, are humbled, and become conformed to Him through grace. Head and source of this life in us, the display of its perfection in Him draws forth and develops its energies and lowliness in us, For who could be proud in fellowship with the humble Jesus? Humble, He would teach us to take the lowest place, but that He has taken it Himself, the privilege of His perfect grace. Blessed Master, may we at least be near to, and hidden in, Thee."

Such is the wondrous foundation on which the present exaltation of Christ is based. That there is a direct connection between the two is seen from the word "wherefore," which also expresses to us the estimate of God's heart of the self-humbling of Christ. Many grounds of the glory of Christ are given in Scripture. His worthiness, for example, is celebrated in Revelation 5, in virtue of the redemption which He had secured through His death, and through the efficacy of His blood. He Himself claims to be glorified in John 17 because He had glorified the Father on the earth, and had finished the work which had been given Him to do. Here it is quite another aspect. It is God Himself stepping in, in the joy of His heart, in His delight in the One who had so humbled Himself, and raising Him to those heights of glory which He now occupies; and the act proclaims aloud throughout the whole universe that no other position would have been commensurate with His deserts, that He who went down the lowest of all must have the highest place. Morally it is the exemplification of the principle, in all its perfection, which the Lord Himself enunciated — "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." It may then be said that His being highly exalted was but His meed and crown.

The apostle in his epistle to the Ephesians touches upon another side of this great subject. There he tells us that He who descended into the lower parts of the earth is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. (Eph. 4: 9, 10.) While we may not be, able to fathom this profound language, it cannot mean less than that, in virtue of the humiliation of Christ, and of the work He thereby effected for the accomplishment of the counsels of God, He will eventually flood the whole universe with His own redemption-glory. And this, and nothing short of this, will be God's answer to the humiliation of His beloved Son.

Returning to our Scripture, we learn that "the name which is above every name" is given Him as a part of His exaltation: nay, that it is God's own estimate of what was due to the One who had humbled Himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It is thus the worthiness of Christ shown out by the place which God has given Him to occupy. We say, "given Him to occupy," because the presentation here is that of His exaltation as Man, as the consequence of His perfect obedience and entire devotedness to the glory of God through the whole of His pathway on earth up to, and including, death. What "the name" is, or whether it is the name of Jesus, it has already been remarked, cannot be decided; and, indeed, it is the thing signified to which the Spirit of God would direct our attention. The significance, let it be repeated, is that, whatever exalted beings may surround the heavenly throne, the glorified Jesus is above, and beyond, them all. The name accorded to Him, in virtue of His humiliation, bespeaks a dignity which far transcends the most exalted ranks of the celestial host, and tells, moreover, that He is supreme in all the worlds which constitute the universe of God. If then this position which He now fills is expressive of God's delight in the once humbled Christ, will it not also awaken the delight of God's people, as they contemplate Him in that state and glory? It is in the grace of our God we are called to share in His own delight in His beloved Son; and the enjoyment of this, however feeble. its measure, is really the foretaste — the commencement — of heavenly joys, which, filling the, heart, even while treading the sands of the wilderness, can only find an outlet through the channel of worship and song.

CHAPTER 6. "At the Name of Jesus."

IF God gives Christ the place of universal and absolute supremacy, He will have it owned, and in every circle of His dominions. Hence it says, after stating the fact that He has given Him the name which is above every name, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The language here employed must be carefully considered, if its precise significance is to be apprehended. And, first of all, the force of the words "at the name of Jesus" must be explained, inasmuch as much discussion has been raised upon this point. The phrase in the original is ἐν τῳ ὀνόματι Ἰησου; and this, it is freely conceded, might be accurately rendered, "in the name of Jesus" instead of "at His name," as in our translation. The question then is, Can this rendering be accepted? If "at the name of Jesus" were an incorrect presentation of the original words, the other, whatever its attendant difficulties, would have to be adopted; but it is as exact as "in the name of Jesus"; and on this account we must be governed by other considerations. It is then submitted, that to bow before God in the name of Jesus, and to confess Him as Lord, is to appear there in virtue of what He is, in all the value of what He is through His death and resurrection (see, for example, John 14: 13, 14), and consequently it would imply salvation for all the classes named. In other words, if "in the name of Jesus" were insisted upon, it would make this scripture teach universalism, and a universalism, as will be seen later on, which would include demons as well as men and angels. Such a meaning would thus land us in direct contradiction to many other scriptures; and hence we are compelled to adopt the alternative rendering, "at the name of Jesus."

By this is meant, that it is God's will that every creature in the universe shall sooner or later acknowledge the supremacy and lordship of the exalted and glorified Jesus. If the heart go with the acknowledgement, and the confession of the mouth proceed from a real and living faith in Christ, it will be salvation for all who make it. (See Romans 10: 8-13.) All therefore who, in this day of grace, receive the gospel, God's testimony to the death and resurrection of Christ, and confess Christ as their Lord as well as Saviour, will be everlastingly saved. But the point of the scripture is, that all outside of this blessed class, all unrepentant and unregenerate men, all the angels who have ever stood, or rather, who have been preserved, in their created perfection, all the angels who have fallen and have been "cast down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment," and all demons and infernal beings, will own, or be compelled by power to own, the authority and lordship of the glorified Jesus. God will not suffer, according to the teaching of this scripture, a single sentient creature to be contumacious or outwardly rebellious towards His beloved Son. They may hate Him in their hearts, as many of them will; but whether they do, or not, they will be made to bow the knee to the once humbled, and now glorified Jesus, and their lips will have to confess that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And this is His due, as it is well expressed in the familiar lines —

"Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow."

It may be necessary, however, to explain this with a little more detail, as some may not have hitherto entered into the subject. Let us then examine the actual words of this scripture. It says, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Things in heaven, as before said, will include all celestial existences — all the heavenly hosts — and things on earth will, as plainly, indicate men; so that the only difficulty lies in the phrase "under the earth." The word itself (for it is actually but one word) points admittedly to that which is, subterranean. Conceding this, it is yet contended by some that only the dead are intended. But even in classical usage, it went further and comprised evil spirits, and when it is recalled that, during the sojourn of our blessed Lord in this world, demons were compelled to own His authority and even to confess His name, and that, as James teaches, they "believe, and tremble," there is a strong assurance that they are in view in this scripture. There is another scripture which, though apparently of the same significance, is yet quite different. In Revelation 5 we read, "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." The term "under the earth" here is not the same as in Philippians; and it means — as the addition of the words," and such as are in the sea," etc., shows — every animate thing under the surface of the earth. It thus looks onward to the fulfilment of the last verse of Psalm 150, "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord," and anticipates the praise of the whole of creation.

Assuming then the correctness of our interpretation, it may now be asked, When will this universal acknowledgement of the authority of Christ, together with the confession of His lordship, take place? It is God acting from His own heart, let it be remembered, and also in righteousness, who has given to Christ this exalted place as Man. It is not a question here of His Deity, although this is never to, be forgotten, but rather of the place which God has accorded to Him as the Man who once humbled Himself here, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And together with His exaltation in this character the decree has been issued that all created intelligences must bow to, and own, His sovereignty. Where, then, the question returns, will obedience to this decree be exhibited? In seeking to answer it, we may take the three circles of beings in their order; and, first, therefore, that of things in heaven. There are two scriptures especially touching this subject to which reference may be made. In Hebrews 1, in a citation from the Psalms, we read, "Let all the angels of God worship Him"; and this is in connection with the introduction of the First-begotten into the world. In Rev. 5 we are permitted to hear ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels, When the Lamb takes the book out of the right hand of Him that sits upon the throne, "saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." When, moreover, the Son of Man comes in His glory, all the holy angels are with Him, as the executors of His throne; and we thus learn that their acknowledgement of His supremacy will be constant and perpetual — that, commencing with the moment of His exaltation, it will go on for ever.

The submission of the second circle, that of things on earth, will in one sense be more gradual and extended. It began on the day of Pentecost; for Peter's testimony on that day was, that God had made that same Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, both Lord and Christ; and every one who, through grace, received this testimony did in effect bow the knee to Christ, and confess His authority as declared by the apostles. So with every one converted since that day, and so will it be with all who are brought. out of darkness into God's marvellous light, on until the close of the day of grace. After the Church has been removed, there will be still proceeding a mighty work of grace, as may be gathered from Rev. 7; and during the thousand years will be fulfilled the glorious prediction of the Psalm, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They, that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him: and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him." There will therefore be, during His glorious kingdom on earth, universal subjection to His rightful claims as Supreme; so that, as we read in another Psalm, "Through the greatness of Thy power" — power displayed before the eyes of men — "shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee," or, as it is in the margin, "yield feigned obedience." During this reign of righteousness man will not dare, whatever the thoughts of his heart, to rebel against the sovereign rule of Christ, except at the cost of instant destruction. Outwardly, therefore, all will be in professed submission to His government. And is it not a delight to contemplate this prospect, when the once humbled and rejected Christ will be universally exalted even upon this earth? The scene that once witnessed His shame and ignominy, will then behold His exaltation and glory; and from millions of hearts will go up the glad confession that it is His rightful due, as they sing: Blessed be His glorious Name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen.

In regard to the last circle we have fewer positive scriptures to guide us, although the fact is stated over and over again that nothing, no being in the universe, will be excepted from subjugation to His authority.* The time when "the angels which kept not their first estate," will be dealt with is distinctly stated to be at "the judgment of the great day "(Jude 6); and we learn from Rev. 20 that the devil himself will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, immediately before the session of Christ — to whom all judgment has been committed — upon the great white throne, where all the dead, small and great, will receive their everlasting award. Demons are not here mentioned; but there can be no doubt that they are included in the judgment of their leader and chief. The final judgment, therefore, whether of the fallen angels, of Satan himself, or of the multitudes of the unconverted dead (for only such appear before the great white throne) will take place at the close of all God's dealings with this world. Before this last session of judgment commences, the earth and the heaven will have fled away from the face of Him who will sit upon the great white throne; for this final scene of the establishment of God's holy claims and righteous authority, is preparatory to the introduction of the new heaven and the new earth, wherein righteousness will dwell. God's purposes concerning the glory of His beloved Son, His will that every knee should bow to Him, and that every tongue should confess that He is Lord, will then have been accomplished. All evil will have been done away; for God will then have wiped away all tears from the eyes of all His redeemed, "and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

*See, for example, Eph. 1: 20-22; 1 Cor. 15: 24-28, etc.

Even the exaltation and glory of Christ has, if we may venture so to speak, an object. It is, as we read, "to the glory of God the Father." If His eternal counsels concerning Christ and His redeemed have flowed forth from His own heart, they will in their accomplishment and issue redound to His own displayed glory before the eyes of the whole universe. It is for the believer to anticipate this; and, indeed, the contemplation of this glorious end of all God's ways will so fill his heart with admiration and adoration that he will be constrained to exclaim, in the inspired words of the apostle "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." And yet again, "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

CHAPTER 7. "In his Name."

ON examination, it will be found that there is, speaking generally, a two-fold significance connected with this expression — one God-ward, and one man-ward. To this may be added the expression, which, while slightly different, may be fitly included under this head; viz., believing "in His name." (John 1: 12, John 2: 23.) The word "in," in this case, is not the one usually so translated, but rather "into" or "unto," and conjoined here with the believing, it indicates the object to which faith has been drawn. This will be more easily understood if it is explained that there are, in Scripture, three main ways of setting forth faith. For example, it is said that Abraham believed God; we also read constantly, especially in John's Gospel (though the words are not always so rendered) of believing in Christ; and, in addition, we meet with believing on, or upon, Him, as in Acts 16: 31, etc. There is a very distinct difference in these various modes of expression. To believe a person is to receive his word or testimony; to believe in him is to believe that he is trustworthy; and to believe on is really to rest upon, or to trust in, the object of faith which has been presented to the soul. We may see, therefore, that to believe in the name of Christ is the assent of the soul to His trustworthiness, and that the name of Christ, the expression of all that He is, is that which is proclaimed in the gospel as the object for faith. And the reception of this testimony, testimony to what Christ is, as the Lord Jesus Christ, is the commencement of all blessing. The title to take the place of children is connected with it (John 1: 12); as also the title to the possession of eternal life. (John 3: 15, 16.) Attention is called to this, and it is earnestly pressed upon the reader, because, without the knowledge of this door-way into all blessedness, it is impossible to enter upon the consideration of the virtue of the name of Christ. The value of His name must be known for salvation before it can be enjoyed in the presence of God, or before it can be used in the world.

In John 14 we read, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." As the last words of verse 13 show, it is here, in accordance with the characteristic truth of this gospel, the name of the Son rather than that of Christ; but this will all the more strikingly illustrate our point. What then is brought before us is, that believers are divinely warranted to appear before the Father in the name of the Son; that they themselves — in relationship through having been born again, and having received the Spirit of adoption, and having been set, through the death and resurrection of Christ, in association with Himself in His own relationship (John 20: 17) — are now free to enter into the presence of His Father, and their Father, in His blessed name. That these words look on to the period after His death, resurrection, and ascension is evident from the fact that the presence of the Holy Ghost is contemplated. (John 14: 16, 17, etc.) When that time should have come, not before, they might ask the Father in His name. This will explain the Lord's language in John 16: "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto" (during the time of His sojourn with them on earth), "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (vv. 23, 24.) Who of us has entered into the vast significance of this scripture? Or who has availed himself in all its length, breadth, height, and depth, of the unspeakable grace herein expressed?

Let us then examine these wondrous intimations, and to aid us we may enquire, first of all, what is meant by asking in the Son's name. To be before the Father thus, is to be there in all the value of that name, according to the Father's own estimate of it, with all the claim of the Son upon the Father's heart, and with the Son's authority for the presentation of our petitions. When He Himself, the Incarnate Son, stood by the grave of Lazarus, He said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always." If therefore we ask anything in His name, we shall also be always heard; and this is precisely what the blessed Lord here promises. Understanding then that, He has given us this liberty and privilege, when we are in the enjoyment of the relationship which He has secured for us with the Father, two things have yet to be ascertained; first, as to His requisite authority for the petitions here referred to; and secondly, as to their subject. The authority of the Son for the utterance of any special desires begotten in our hearts can only be obtained in communion with His own mind, as we are taught from the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. And hence their subject can only concern the Son's own things. That is, in other words, the assurance given that whatsoever we ask in His name shall be done, cannot allude to our own personal needs and desires; but it supposes His people to be in fellowship with His own desires, objects, and interests, so that they can pray for these in His own name, and with His authority. For when we have learned, in any feeble measure, what the Father's counsels are for the glory of His beloved Son, we are free, if we have ceased from self-occupation, to be led out into the vast circle of the Son's things and the Father's things (John 16: 14, 15), and to pray for the accomplishment of all these wondrous purposes of His love. What a place it is into which we are introduced! And what grace to invest its with all His own preciousness before the Father!

If on this side we may appear before God in the name of Christ, on the other, it is enjoined upon us to do everything, whether amongst our fellow-believers or in the world, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. (Col. 3: 17.) These two aspects are constantly, and in every variety of manner, presented in the Scriptures. In John 17, for example, after the Lord has put the disciples in His own place before the Father, He gives them His own place before the world. Peter, in like manner, teaches that, if believers are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, they are also a royal priesthood to show out, in the world, the praises (excellencies) of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. This is only to state the blessed truth that the believer is inseparable from Christ, whether before God or before men, that through grace he is so bound up with all that He is, and has accomplished, that he enters the holiest in all the value of His person and His work, and passes through the world as His representative. Indeed, this last, word most nearly expresses what it is to act in the name of Christ, or, as in this scripture, in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is to act on His behalf, and under His authority. What an ambassador, or a plenipotentiary, is in relation to his sovereign, the Christian is in relation to Christ. He is to be governed entirely by the will of his Lord; he must, with all fidelity, express His mind, study His instructions, and seek in every way to advance His interests. Self and selfish objects can have no place in such a mission: his motto must be that of the apostle Paul, "To me to live is Christ"; Christ alone the motive and object of all his activities.

We may well pause in the presence of such a statement, and exclaim, Who is sufficient for such a mission? Lest any, therefore, should be overwhelmed at the thought of what they might deem to be a tremendous responsibility, let it be remembered that He who sends us out to act in His name, sustains us in the mission with all His power. No one goes to warfare at his own charges at any time. His name, indeed, when rightly borne and used, carries omnipotence with it. Thus when the seventy returned to the Lord, they said, "Lord, even the devils are subject, unto us" (not "through," as rendered, but) "in Thy name." "Yea," replied the Lord, "behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." The mission and the power for its accomplishment are thus intimately connected; only faith, faith in activity, is the essential condition for the use of the power. This truth needs to be earnestly insisted upon at the present time, if there is to be a revival, or recovery, before the Lord's return. It is written, "all things are possible to him that believeth"; we read the words, do not doubt them, and yet we seldom think of the possibility of their being verified in our own experience. A saint of olden time knew the secret when he wrote, "Lord, give what Thou commandest, and then command what Thou wilt." Even so, for it is only by the Lord's own power that the smallest of His precepts can be translated into practice; while it is equally true that His largest behests are as easy of performance as the smallest, inasmuch as adequate power is ever at the service of faith. This is seen in the case of the man with the withered hand. How could he stretch forth an arm that was dry and dead? He believed, and divine power flowed into his dead arm; he stretched it forth, and lo! it "was restored whole as the other."

A few illustrations of acting in the name of Christ will help to the understanding of the whole subject. Take first an instance of apostolic activity in Pentecostal days. When Peter and John encountered the lame man at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, Peter expressly disclaimed acting in his own authority, or power, saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." (Acts 3: 6.) In like manner Paul, "in the name of Jesus Christ," commanded the evil spirit, which possessed the damsel who followed him day by day, to come out of her. In both cases they acted, therefore, as His servants, and used, in the exercise of faith, His power in the miracles wrought. So likewise, when correcting disorders among the saints at Corinth and at Thessalonica, the apostle acted in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 5: 4; 2 Thess. 3: 6.) These instances will suffice to show that in all service, as well as in all the duties and responsibilities of daily life, it is the privilege of the believer to act in the name of his Lord. It is, indeed, his true calling to stand before men as the representative of Christ. This may be seen in another aspect from a scripture in Peter. "If ye be reproached," he says, "for" (literally in) "the name of Christ, happy are ye." (1 Peter 4: 14.) Here it is evident that the enemies of Christ look upon His people as bearing His name, and thus standing forth in the world as representing Him. Hence their enmity to Christ is manifested in the persecution of His followers. And the Christian can never divest himself of this relationship to his absent Lord. Whether in the assembly, in his home, or moving amongst his fellow-men, everywhere and at all times, he must remember that he bears the name of Christ, to act in His interests, under His authority, and on His behalf.

It may be again repeated, What an unutterable privilege to be endowed with the liberty of appearing before God and men in the name of Christ! It is, on the other hand, the very greatness of the privilege which indicates the vastness of the responsibility. For if we are entrusted with the name of Christ, as with a holy standard, what incessant vigilance, and what realization of our dependence, are required to maintain it in all its purity, and to guard it from all dishonour! To encourage ourselves to be diligent in this object, we may remind ourselves how precious it is to the heart of Christ to behold His people zealously and jealously caring for the honour of His name. As we read in the prophet Malachi, "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." (Mal. 3: 16.) It was a, day of abounding iniquity and corruption amongst God's people; but this pious remnant were drawn apart from the evil into the bonds of holy fellowship by their godly fear, and their love of Jehovah's name. The eyes of the Lord were upon them, and in the joy of His heart He proclaimed, "And they shall be mine . . in that day when I make up my jewels"; that is, in the day of coming judgment He would put them into His treasury-house amongst His precious things. May we all covet the Lord's approbation for caring for the honour of His most precious and peerless Name.

CHAPTER 8. "For his Name's Sake."

THERE are two or three expressions which may be considered under this head. A shade of difference may be discerned in their meaning; but, in their practical application, they have to all intents and purposes, the same force. One might be rendered "on account," or "by reason, of His name"; another as the title of this paper; and yet another, "on behalf of His name." In all three alike the fundamental idea is the value of the name to the one acting, enduring, or suffering; and this will also find, as we hope to see, an exemplification in God's actings of grace towards His people. The words, "Thy name is as ointment poured forth," have already been before us, and the expressions now to be adduced will furnish another illustration of the fact that it is the fragrance of the name of Christ which delights both the heart of God, and the hearts of His people. Hence it is, we read in connection with the blessings of His righteous sway during the thousand years, that "His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." Yet, throughout eternity we shall continue the song we have learned on earth:

"Thy name we love, Lord Jesus,

And lowly bow before Thee;

And while we live, to Thee we give

All blessing, worship, glory."

In the first case which will come before us, it is the value of the name to God as affording the basis for the exercise of His forgiving love. The apostle John thus says, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2: 12.) The whole truth of grace is contained in this short statement; for the term "little children" in this scripture comprises the whole family of God. We learn from it, that in the forgiveness of sins God acts solely on the ground of the value of the name of His beloved Son, but in virtue of His name as the One who glorified Him on the earth, and finished the work which He gave Him to do. What misconceptions would be cleared away from the minds of anxious souls, if this simple truth were but apprehended! For then, instead of spending weary days in searching for some good thing, or merit, in themselves, on which to rest for acceptance before God, or as an undoubted evidence of their conversion, they would perceive that if they are to be saved, it must be wholly through what Christ is to God. Let all such, therefore, prayerfully ponder the words "for His name's sake," inasmuch as they show, beyond the possibility of doubt or mistake, that, God's attitude towards all who come to Him, confessing their sins, depends entirely upon His estimate of the value of the name of that Blessed One who now sits at His right hand. What all unchanging and imovable rock is thus provided for our souls — that Rock of Ages indeed, on which we may rest for ever in perfect peace, a peace which no change of feeling, or experience, need ever affect. Let us, then, never cease to proclaim this blessed truth to sin-stricken and weary souls, for it is the very kernel of God's glad tidings to men in this day of grace.

And not only have we thus received the forgiveness of our sins, but our feet are also kept, while passing through the wilderness, in the same way. We read, for example, in Psalm 23: "He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." That is, God has undertaken everything for us on the same ground as that on which He has forgiven our sins. The motive for all His activities of grace and love, for His unchanging attitude, for His watchful care and protection, is found in Christ, and not in ourselves. This is blessedly exemplified in the Psalm whence the above citation is taken; only here, it is the Lord as our Shepherd, acting rather from His own heart, and from the relationship which He has been pleased to assume towards His people. The simple argument is, if He has become our Shepherd, He will provide everything necessary for us, whether in our pilgrim path, or as passing through the valley of the shadow of death. But the verse quoted shows that it is for His own name's sake that, He maintains these relationships of grace. If we are weary, disheartened, discouraged, or depressed, He restores our souls; and, as needing constant guidance, with every desire to tread in His paths, but often unable to discern them, He has placed Himself at our head, and leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. If, then, the name of Christ is so unspeakably precious to God, and if it constitutes the all-efficacious basis of His dealings with us, how. we should zealously seek to be in communion with Him about it, and thus, having some feeble sense of its value, delight to lose ourselves in it resting in it in our approaches to God, even as He rests in it in His relationships with us.

Communion with the heart of God, indeed, as to the preciousness of the name of Christ, is the true secret of the unwearying devotedness and courage of many of His followers. The apostle Paul may be mentioned as a special illustration of this, even though the words, "for His name's sake," be not used. In captivity, and no longer able to deliver his blessed message, — in the prospect of death at any moment, for he knew not but that he might be thrown to the lions immediately, it was his solace, notwithstanding the mixed motives that governed the activity of many, that Christ was preached, and in this he both did, and would, rejoice. All his expectation and hope was that he might be so kept and sustained that Christ might be magnified in his body, whether by life, or by death. Absorbed in his object, Christ alone bounded his horizon; and hence for Christ's sake he was willing to suffer anything and everything, if he might but bring glory to His blessed name. In like manner, we read in another epistle of some who had the name of Christ so indelibly graven upon their hearts that, for His sake, they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods; of others who had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonments; and of others again who were sawn asunder, or slain with the sword, while if some escaped martyrdom, they had to wander about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. (Hebrews 10, 11.)

This suffering character of the path of His disciples was often the theme of our Lord's instruction. So far from concealing from them the afflictions and persecutions which they would encounter, He warned them on every possible occasion of what they would have to endure for His name's sake. Thus, for example, He says, in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake"; at another time, "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake"; and yet again, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you"; "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." So it came to pass; for Paul wrote (citing from the Psalms), "For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." But if our blessed Lord has forewarned us of what may be entailed upon us through the confession of His name, He has also ministered the needed sustainment and consolation. Of Himself, in His pathway through this world, it is written that for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame; and for our encouragement He has left on record these words, "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

To suffer with Christ is a necessity, in some measure, if we are the children of God; but to suffer for Christ is a privilege attached to fidelity in His service. As an example of this, the case of Peter and John might be adduced. Brought up before the Jewish Council, they had been forbidden to speak, or to teach, in the name of Jesus. but, obeying God rather than men, they proceeded with their blessed work. Once more arrested, after they had been miraculously delivered from prison, they were beaten, and commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. Were they disheartened, or daunted, because of what they had to endure? So far from it, they departed from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. (Acts 5: 40, 41.) What, then, is the secret of this superiority to shame and suffering? It is the preciousness of Christ to the hearts of His people, the assurance of His presence with them, and the knowledge that even death is but the path of life into His eternal presence. If He for our sakes became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich, it is surely no great thing if we are taught through grace to count, like Moses, the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and if we are made willing to suffer persecution, and to endure the loss of all things here for His name's sake.

Yet another instance of the power of the name of Christ may be considered. In John's third epistle we read of some who, "for His name's sake," went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. The form of the phrase, "for His name's sake," in this scripture exactly coincides with that used of Peter and John in Acts 5; and we thus gather that it was the value of. the name of Christ to their hearts that led the latter to rejoice in suffering, and the former to refuse support from the world for His service. Well would it have been for the Church of God if the example of these devoted servants had been followed. Nothing has so corrupted Christianity as the acceptance of worldly help for the furtherance of its objects. Before the Lord was crucified, He said to His disciples, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing." Is He less tender in His care over His servants now that He is glorified at the right hand of God? A noble army of devoted servants in every part of the world will gladly testify that they, too, though without assured support from man, and refusing assistance from the world have lacked nothing. And it would be the commencement of a new era in Christian service, and especially in Christian missions, if those engaged in them were to go forth in the same simple faith in the all-sufficiency of the name of their Lord. In the closing days of the history of the Church on earth, may many true labourers be raised up, and be sent forth into the harvest by the Lord of the harvest — men to whom the name of Christ shall be so precious that they may find in it their only motive, the only stimulus for their zeal, and their abundant warrant for entire dependence upon Him for all their needed support.

The reader will find much edification in tracing out other cases in the Scriptures; and our prayer is that every one who may be encouraged to do so by the perusal of what has been written, may find, while so engaged, that his heart is drawn out more fully in the adoration and praise of our blessed Lord and Saviour, and that it may become his one all-absorbing desire, in all his future life, to bring glory to this precious NAME.

CHAPTER 9. "Unto his Name."

IF the term "name" as used of our blessed Lord and Saviour, is expressive of all that He is, it will not cause surprise to find it presented to us in so many different ways and aspects. The necessary connection, indeed, between the living Word and the written word, inasmuch as the latter contains the revelation of the former, affords the explanation. It follows that the more we have Christ Himself before us, in reading the Scriptures, the more fully are we in the mind of the Holy Spirit, and the better are we prepared for the discernment of the rays of His glory, which shine forth from every page. To regard the Scriptures as the display of Christ, of God as revealed in Christ, is a sure preservative from error, as well as the antidote to the rationalistic teachings of the day; while, at the same time, it tends to produce that reverence and adoration in the soul, without which it is impossible to receive the divine communications therein made. Too much stress cannot be laid on this point; and the remark is earnestly commended to the attention of the reader.

In passing now to consider the phrase, "unto His name," we propose to select two or three examples of its use to illustrate its significance, and to point out how, in every case, it brings into prominence, whether as Leader, Object, or Centre, the Person of our blessed Lord. We take, first of all, the expression, "Baptized unto the name of the Lord Jesus." (Acts 8: 16; Acts 19: 5.) In both instances, in our translation, it is rendered "in the name of the Lord Jesus"; but the words are εἰς τὸ ὄνομα, etc., which could only be accurately given, we apprehend, as "unto the name," etc.* This, indeed, can be shown from renderings of the same word in other places. Thus in Acts 19: 3, where the apostle says, "Unto what then were ye baptized?" and they say, "Unto John's baptism," the same word is used. Similarly in 1 Cor. 10: 2, where we read that they "were all baptized unto Moses, " the same word is also employed. It is, therefore, abundantly clear that "unto" should be substituted for "in" in the two scriptures cited; and it is necessary that this should be done, from the fact that "in the name of the Lord" is also found in connection with baptism. (Acts 10: 48.) The meaning in this case, as explained in a former piper, will be that, those who baptized Cornelius and those who heard the word with him, acted, by the direction of Peter, on behalf, and under the authority, of the Lord.

*The Revised Version has "into" instead of "unto," in both places.

Having now elucidated the force of the term, its, meaning may engage our attention. The similar expression in 1 Cor. 10 may help us to ascertain it. There can be little question that to be baptized unto Moses, implies the bringing of the people into association with Moses as under his authority. In like manner, to be baptized unto the name of the Lord Jesus, brought those who were baptized on to the ground where His authority was supreme, and into the company of those who owned that authority. The name of the Lord will then express, in this connection, what Christ is as exalted and glorified as Lord; and the baptized confess Him as such, and own also His claims upon, and His authority over, them. It is not the whole truth of baptism, for Paul teaches that as many as were baptized unto Christ Jesus, were baptized unto His death. But we do not enter upon this here, as we desire to confine ourselves to the scripture before us, and to call attention to its meaning. To go no further, then, its import is the absolute authority of Christ as Lord, and the responsibility of the confession of it on the part of those who have been baptized. In a day of profession and declension, it is well to enquire whether souls who have been led on to the ground of Christianity are aware of the responsibilities which they have assumed. Surely the Lord might also say to many of us in this day, "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" For there never was a time when the spirit of lawlessness was more prevalent, even in combination with the confession of the name and authority of Christ. If the first duty of a soldier is unquestioning obedience, surely a Christian should ever be marked out before the world by his unqualified subjection to the authority of his Lord as expressed in His word, and by his unwearied zeal and devotedness in maintaining the honour of His blessed name. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power."

Another example of the use of the same phrase may be cited from the Epistle to the Hebrews. There we read, "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward [or "unto"] His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." (Heb. 6: 10.) In many respects, this is a most remarkable passage for the preciousness of the truths it contains. It will be observed that here it is the name of God; for Christ, in this epistle, is seen as the High Priest at the right hand of God, where He both represents, and intercedes for, His people. Still, it is the name of God as revealed in Christ, for in Hebrews 1 we are reminded that the Son is addressed as God. This being so, we have to enquire as to the meaning of the words — unto His name — in this passage. First of all, it is plain that the apostle alludes to ministry to the saints. These Hebrew believers had been doing good, and "communicating," that is, sharing what they possessed with their fellow-saints who were in need, for they had apprehended the truth that with such sacrifices God was well pleased. (See Heb. 13: 16.) In thus caring, with true brotherly love, for the needs of the saints of God, they were, the apostle says, showing kindness unto His name.

But this requires further explanation. It must, then, be remembered that our blessed Lord fully identifies Himself with His people, and that His name is called upon them, as well as entrusted to them to bear, and to maintain His honour, before men. Hence it is that to receive a Christian in the name of Christ, is to receive Christ Himself; and, further, to receive Christ is to receive Him that sent Him. God is thus identified with Christ (not now to speak of their essential unity), and Christ makes Himself one with His people. Turning then to the other side, it will be at once understood, that whatever is ministered to His own, is kindness showed to His name. He Himself has explained it in the ever-memorable words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." So too, in a still deeper sense, He could say to one who had been the bitter and relentless enemy of His people, "Why persecutest thou me?" How blessed an encouragement, to remember at all times that the Lord regards what is done to His saints as done to Himself! And herein lies also the secret of all true service amongst His people. If they are our object, much as they might benefit by the service, it is not such service as the Lord can commend. In such a case there might be brotherly love, or at least the semblance of it, in exercise, but that which should be the divine spring of it, Christ Himself, would be wanting. To be imbued with this truth, would produce unwearying and incessant devotedness.

As another instance we may refer to Matthew 18. We give the whole passage, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name " (the words here are also εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα; that is, "unto My name there am I in the midst of them." (Verses 19, 20.) To understand the blessed instruction of this scripture, it should be borne in mind that the chapter "supposes Christ rejected and absent, and the glory of Matthew 17 not yet come. It passes over chap. 17, to connect itself with Matthew 16"; and the reason of this is that it deals with the two subjects introduced in chap. 16, the Church and the kingdom, which should occupy the place of Christ on earth, during the period of His absence, and session at the right hand of God, where He will remain until His enemies are made His footstool. (Psalm 110) It may also be pointed out that, in connection with the mention of the assembly in this chapter, provision is made for three things: First, the question of trespass against a brother; second, the administration of discipline, binding and loosing, with its divine ratification when done according to God; and, lastly, what more immediately concerns us in this paper, the condition of prevailing prayer.

It will be noticed by the reader that verse 19 commences an additional instruction, as shown by the words, "Again I say unto you," etc., though we cannot doubt that the company, the "two of you," or the "two or three," is connected with the assembly in verse 17. What is added, is the teaching concerning agreement in prayer, rather than anything which regards the Church, except, indeed, the revelation of the wondrous grace which associates the Lord's presence and union in prayer with any two or three who may be gathered unto His name. So understanding it, everything depends, as will be perceived, upon what is meant by being thus gathered. Speaking generally, it may be said that the essential point is, that as "name" expresses the truth of the Person, the Lord Himself must be the Centre and the Object of the gathering. But then it must also be remembered that His full name in this relationship is the Lord Jesus Christ. His name, as such, speaks therefore of His authority His Person, and His work. The gathering then must be under, and as subject to, His authority, and also to maintain the truths of His Person and work. That the gathering power is the Holy Spirit, is evident from the fact that He is here to glorify Christ; and being so, He could not sanction any assembly where the supremacy of Christ was not owned, or where there might be any indifference to the glories of His Person, or to the character of the atonement made upon the cross. Every company, therefore, claiming to be gathered unto His name must answer to these tests.

This is the condition which the Lord Himself lays down for His own presence — "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them." It is not even, there will I be, but there am I; and we then learn that the gathering together thus — unto His name — ensures His presence. The realization of, it may depend upon our state of soul, as it must do; but the Lord's presence is a fact connected with the fulfilment of a condition. What grace! And what a fount of blessing and power in the midst of His own! An example of this, indeed, is given; for He tells us that He Himself, present in the midst of His saints gathered after this manner, is the power to produce agreement in prayer, and the assurance that every such prayer shall be answered by the Father. What room for heart searchings as to the character of our gatherings, is thus afforded! And what a call it gives to us to examine our own individual state of soul, even if we are truly gathered unto His name! One of Satan's snares is to lead us to take things for granted; the means of avoiding it is to be constantly before God, desiring to have everything, as to ourselves and our associations, exposed by the light of His presence, and to have everything tested by His unerring Word.

CHAPTER 10. REVELATION 19: 12, 13.

IT is only when we perceive that Revelation is a book of judgment, that we are prepared for the unwonted aspects in which our blessed Lord is here presented. In chapter 1, He is seen as judging in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, and in such a manner that even the beloved disciple fell at His feet as dead. Here also — only now in relation to the world — He wears the same judicial mien, betokened by the same feature in that "His eyes were as a flame of fire." Indeed, it is expressly said in this scripture, that "in righteousness He doth judge and make war." It is the same Jesus who once sat in lowly guise upon Samaria's well, but who now, after His long session it God's right hand, is returning to this world, which had rejected and crucified Him, to vindicate His rights, and to establish His throne, and thus to glorify God, by making good all that He is, in His righteous government. All things are to be put under His feet, and in His sudden appearance through the opened heaven, we see Him coming to subdue, enter upon, and possess His rightful inheritance.

Before considering the significance of the names here mentioned, it will be for profit to call attention to the connection. In the previous part of the chapter, events of great importance in the divine ways are introduced. All heaven is filled with praise when the great corruptress of the earth meets with her righteous doom at the hands of God. Thereupon we have the celebration of the marriage supper of the Lamb, for which His wife had made herself ready, and was, through grace, arrayed in fine linen, clean and white — the righteousnesses of saints. In Ephesians, we have the private and intimate presentation of the bride, as "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Here it is rather the public marriage, to which guests can be invited, and with which all the heavenly hosts can be in communion. It marks the termination of the time of the patience of Jesus Christ; but if He is about to be exalted in the former scene of His shame and humiliation, He will share the glory of His throne with His beloved bride.

This is the fourth time the opened heaven is mentioned in the New Testament. The first occasion was at the baptism of Jesus, when "He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The lowly Jesus, fulfilling all righteousness, and identifying Himself with His poor and afflicted people — the saints in the earth, and the excellent, in whom was all His delight — is here seen as the Object of the heart of His God. Next, He Himself speaks to Nathanael, and says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter [or "henceforth"] ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Here on earth — at that time, and also in the future — we apprehend, He is seen as the object of angelic ministry. At the death of Stephen, the third instance occurs, as thus described: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." The Object of the heart of God has now become the Object of the believer, who has thus, through grace, been associated with God in His own delight in His beloved Son. Now lastly, the heavens open that the Son of Man may come forth, as we have seen, in righteousness to judge and to make war.

After the personal description is given, it is said, "He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself." The introduction of this statement in this especial place, is very striking: "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns"; and then, before relating that He was "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood," the secret, written name, is mentioned. There must be a reason for this; and as the explanation we cannot forbear giving the words of another: "But, though thus revealed as man, He had glory none could penetrate into"; and the writer adds, in a note, "So it was as to His person and service. No one knew the Son but the Father. It was the secret of His rejection. He was that, and so necessarily such in the world. But the world under Satan's influence would not have that. In His humiliation His divine glory was maintained in the unsounded depths of His person. Now He is revealed in glory; but there ever remained what none could search, or penetrate, into — His own Person and nature. As revealing God, in grace or power, so as to make Him known, we know Him. But His Person as Son always remains unsearchable. His name is written, so that we know it is unknowable — not unknown, but unknowable." These weighty words deserve the careful consideration of the reader — especially at the present moment — for they contain a wholesome reminder of the inscrutability of the Person of the Son.

First comes the written name, unknown to all but its divine Possessor; and then, in connection with the vesture dipped in blood, it is said, "And His name is called, The Word of God." This must be carefully distinguished from what is found in the first verse of John's gospel. "The Word" there who was with God, and who was God, if it be taken, for the moment, as a divine title, cannot mean less than that, (as has been well said) "He is, and He is the expression of the whole mind that subsists in God"; and this absolutely as relating to all that God is. But in our scripture, while the "Word of God" is the revelation of what God is, it is the revelation of God in a special aspect or character. The very details of His appearing out of heaven sitting on a white horse will make this plain. There is not a word of tenderness, grace, or affection; He is "called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire. . . He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood," etc. All speaks of holy and unsparing judgment; of judgment according to the standard of a righteous God; as indeed it is said: "He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." (v. 15.) It is of all this, of God so presented, that Christ, as the Word of God, is the revelation. So in the gospels, for example, while Christ was ever God manifest in the flesh, it is in the aspect, sometimes of power, sometimes of grace — sometimes as light, and sometimes as love. But in whatever way, He expressed that which was divine; He was never less than all that He is.

Yet another name is given: in verse 16 it is said, "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." The context explains at once the force of this title, showing that, in harmony with the whole book, it has relation to the earth. In the preceding verse, we are told that He will smite the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron; and the name, or title, we are considering, indicates that it is consequent upon this that our blessed Lord will establish His throne of universal supremacy upon the earth. Already exalted at the right hand of God, "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him," He will in the day of which our passage speaks, be exalted also in this world, when He will "have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." It will be the fulfilment of the promise, "Also I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." (Psalm 89: 27.)

As showing the delight of the Spirit of God in directing our attention to the future glory of Christ in this world, it may be mentioned that twice before in this book it has been introduced. At the very commencement, in John's address to the seven churches, we read, "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth." It is the past of our blessed Lord, what He was when down here as the Faithful Witness; it is the present, what He is as risen from the dead, the First Begotten; and it is the future, what He will be, when He shall have taken His great power, and when all the potentates of the earth will render their homage at His feet as Lord of them all. In chapter 11 we find also the same blessed era. When the seventh angel sounded, "there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of His Christ;* and He shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 11: 15.) At the present time, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together"; in that day, "the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God:" and under the rule of the rightful King over all the nations of the earth, the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.

*A better translation is: "The kingdom of the world of our Lord and of His Christ is come."

Such is the blessed future which awaits the earth; but before that can arrive, all the believers of this period will have been caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The marriage of the Lamb, as we have seen from our chapter, precedes the appearing of the Lord. The hope of the Church, therefore, is the return of the Lord for His saints, For this they daily wait in communion with His own heart. To be with Him will be the consummation of their joy, inasmuch as it will be His joy in presenting His bride to Himself, which will fill their hearts and overflow in perpetual praise at His feet. But their vision is not bounded by this prospect, glorious as it is; for they look forward also, with earnest longing, to His appearing in glory, not because, in the grace of their God, they will be displayed in the same glory with Himself, but rather because the time will then have come when their Lord, who was once rejected and crucified, will be publicly exalted and enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords. Yea -

"Our longing eyes would fain behold

That bright and blessèd brow,

Once wrung with bitterest anguish, wear

Its crown of glory now."

CHAPTER 11. "His Name shall be in their foreheads."

THIS last mention of "His name " is in connection with the glorified saints. There is, however, another company of saints who are shown to us with this distinguishing mark, with the addition of "the name of His Father." The words are omitted in our Authorised Translation; but, inasmuch as they are accepted in the Revised Version, as well as in most recent translations, they may be received with all confidence as genuine. To begin with the latter, we are introduced to a company of saints, an hundred forty and four thousand in number, who are with the Lamb as He stands on Mount Sion — having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads." (Rev. 14: 1, R.V.) That this company occupies a special place of blessedness is seen from the context, and indeed from the express statement that they "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth."

If we enquire who they are, it will help us to understand the import of the written name upon their foreheads. It is very clear that they are earthly, and not heavenly, saints. In the previous chapter we are permitted to see the terrible power of Satan as embodied in the rule and authority of the first beast, and as wielded by the second, who is the man of sin — the, antichrist. It is this incarnation of evil who will cause all within the sphere of his authority — to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, as indicative of their allegiance to the beast. It might seem that evil had completely triumphed; but the opening of chapter 14 reveals to us a multitude who, redeemed from the earth, and during the reign of unchecked evil, are associated with the glories of the Lamb in the very seat of His earthly kingdom. Remembering then, that it is in Jerusalem where. antichrist will exercise his deputed power, it is evident that this company with the Lamb on Mount Sion is composed of Jewish saints — saints who whatever their sorrows, have been brought victoriously through the fiery furnace of Jacob's trouble, that time of great tribulation, the like of which will never have been, or will ever be, witnessed.

But it is not sufficient to say they are Jewish saints; for we read of another hundred and forty-four thousand in Revelation 7 — made up of twelve thousand from each tribe. These are the symbolical number of the elect of all Israel; but those in our chapter, it must be recollected, are redeemed from the sphere of antichrist's sway; and hence, since only the two tribes will be in the land at that period, it is another symbolical number, made up of those who were preserved through grace from surrendering to antichrist's claims and threats, and from his moral contaminations. They are, in fact, the faithful from among Judah and Benjamin, who have now entered upon the glorious recompense of companionship with the Lamb in His exaltation in the kingdom. The very number (as in chapter 7), twelve times twelve, speaks of intensified perfection in governmental administration, and hence of Messiah's perfect reign. It is an unclouded scene of joy and blessing, the bright promise of the issue of all God's ways in government and grace, which we are permitted to behold, ere the desolating storm of judgment breaks upon an apostate people and a rebellious world.

What, then, we may now ask, is the import of His name, and His Father's name, upon the foreheads of this blessed company? Two distinct things are indicated, as is apparent from their having the Lamb's name, and His Father's name. The first is a contrast with what is found in the previous chapter. There we read, as already seen, that men generally receive the mark of the beast in their right hand, or in their foreheads, as the token of their acceptance of his Satanic rule, and as giving them certain rights and privileges within his realm. In like manner, having the name of the Lamb on their foreheads proclaims that this redeemed company, "the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb," belonged to their glorious Messiah, and that, they had maintained their fealty to Him in the midst of the unparalleled sorrows of the dark, persecuting days through which they had been brought. Hated, and perhaps martyred then, they are now publicly acknowledged and honoured with special marks of favour and approbation by Him for whose sake they had suffered, it might be even to death.* In addition, they have His Father's name; for "by their open confession of God and the Lamb, they had been witnesses of it, and suffered as Christ had suffered in His life in owning God His Father."

*Whether they were brought alive through, or had died in, the tribulation, is not revealed; but from certain indications, as, for example, in v. 5, we incline to the conclusion that they are, whether "changed" or raised, in a resurrection condition.

We pass now to another scene. That which we have just considered is on earth, on Mount Sion; this is in the heavenly Jerusalem. It is true that the holy city is presented in its relation to the millennial earth; for it is said that the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. But when we come to the description of the blessedness of its inhabitants in its positive character, this of necessity is eternal. It is remarkable that the eternal state, as given in Rev. 21: 1-5, is presented on the side of relief — "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain" — and that in the heavenly city we have rather what is actually possessed and enjoyed. But even so, it must be remembered that it is not the Father's house; so that, in accordance with the character of the whole book, it is still government (see v. 3); and hence the redeemed here are looked at as servants. It is profitable to observe these distinctions; and we are reminded by them that every aspect of the bliss of the redeemed must be taken into account, and combined, in order to comprehend, in any measure, what God has in store for His people when all His purposes are accomplished.

Three things, then, mark the condition of the heavenly citizens: "His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." They had served Him on earth, it might be thought, and many among them indeed had served Him devotedly, even as Paul was enabled to say, "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." But whatever perseverance, spiritual energy, and singleness of eye had characterized such as Paul and others while on earth, their service was never perfect. There was only One, the Perfect Servant, who could say, "I do always those things that please Him" (the Father). In heaven, in the new Jerusalem, every one of the countless throng of the redeemed will respond entirely and perfectly to God's will. When, therefore, it says, "His servants shall serve Him," it means that they will serve according to the perfection of the thoughts of God. They will, moreover, see His face; they will enjoy unhinderedly the intimacy of His presence, for then, like Christ, they will see Him as He is, and be able to enjoy the beatific vision which will be the source of all their delight and their eternal joy.

"For ever on His face to gaze,

And meet the full assembled rays,

While all His beauty He displays

To all the saints in glory."

Finally, and this is our immediate subject, "His name shall be in their foreheads." It has already been shown that the primary signification of the name borne thus upon the forehead is, so to speak, ownership; that it marks out those who have it as belonging to Christ. And this conveys much; for to be His is really the sum of eternal blessedness, inasmuch as it brings us into everlasting association with Him, both now and also in heaven itself. There is, however, another thought. In Revelation 14 the name is "written" on their foreheads; here it is only said to be there. We gather from this distinction that here the predominant feature is moral conformity to the One whose name they bear. As seen again and again in these papers, "name " expresses the truth of the Person; and hence we regard it here that full likeness to Christ is displayed on every redeemed brow. That all believers will be conformed to the image of God's Son, we learn from another scripture (Rom. 8: 29); and here we are allowed to behold it actually accomplished. What joy, we may be permitted to say, it will be to the Lord Himself to see, as He surveys the unnumbered hosts of His glorified saints, His own likeness beaming from every face, Himself mirrored and reflected in all the redeemed! It helps us to enter more fully into the words of the prophet: "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Then indeed Christ will fill the scene. Old things will have for ever passed away, and all things have been made new; for then, not to faith as now, but in actuality, Christ will be Everything to all His own, and this in full and unclouded display. To Him be all the praise now and throughout eternity!

'There in the sweetness of His love repose,

His love unknown!

All else for ever lost — forgotten all

That else can be;

In rapture undisturbed, O Lord, to fall,

And worship Thee."

CHAPTER 12. "Thou remainest."

THROUGHOUT the whole of this year we have been occupied with the Name which is above every name, as expressive of the varied glories and excellencies of our blessed Lord and Saviour. It has been our delight to pass from one phase to another of His infinite perfections, and to call attention to Himself as the One in whom all God's thoughts and ways are centred, and as the One, also, who is the abiding and eternal portion of the believer's heart. To be overwhelmed in the contemplation of Christ, like the Queen of Sheba was in the presence of the glory of Solomon, is to anticipate the enjoyment of heaven. But to enter in any measure upon this, we must follow our blessed Lord — and this can only be through death and resurrection morally known — into the holiest; into the place where He dwells. There alone can we, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. As it is His own desire to have His beloved people thus in the intimacy of His own presence, may He beget in all of us that purpose of heart which will lead us to say with the Psalmist, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple."

In our present subject we are invited to consider His immutability, in contrast to the transitory character of this world. Inasmuch as our bodies are links with this creation, which. still "groaneth and travaileth in pain together," there are seasons when we are oppressed with the sense of the corruption and death which are written upon the whole scene. Already under judgment, it will soon vanish; for "the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Peter 3: 7) The works of the Lord's own hands, they shall yet perish; as a vesture He will Himself fold them up, and they shall be changed. Is it asked, Wherefore? The reply is, The first creation will share the doom of the first man. For a little season, in testimony to. the rights and glory of the Son of Man, it will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God; but the judgment pronounced upon it, if postponed, is final and irrevocable.

It is, therefore, an immense consolation to be reminded that the Lord Himself, the Creator, abideth for ever. The rapid flight of time, which is ever pressed upon our attention at the close of a year, the constant departure of those we have known and loved, the signs of mortality meeting our gaze at every turn — all these things might well fill our hearts with apprehension and gloom, if our vision were bounded by time's horizon. But thanks be unto God, we have to do with a Person who is above and beyond all change, with One who is ever the same, and whose years never fail; and He is known to our souls as Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord. It is, indeed, a characteristic of Christianity that we are shut up — blessedly shut up — to a Divine Person, and to a Divine Person who, having Himself been here as Man in the midst of men, knows all our needs and sorrows. In the very Psalm, indeed, from which the apostle cites, we find the feelings to which allusion has been made. It will encourage our hearts to ponder a little upon what is, there recorded.

It may be first pointed out that the Divine title of the Psalm (102) is "A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord"; and let it be remembered that "the afflicted " here is no less a Person than the Messiah in the midst of His sorrow and rejection. But passing by the special circumstances in which He is here seen, and coming to our immediate subject, He says in verse 23, "He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days." And then, turning to God, He says, "O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations." How it endears our precious Saviour to our hearts, as we are permitted to contemplate Him in circumstances so closely resembling those in which we ourselves are; to perceive that He, through His becoming man, was weighted with the feeling and experience of weakness, and the brevity of human life. Yea, as we elsewhere read, He was tempted in all points like as we are, sin apart; and it is on this very account that He is qualified to sympathize with us in our infirmities, and to minister to us the needed succour. Blessed for ever be His holy name!

Let us, however, regard the answer to His cry. It commences with verse 25, "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment: as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same,* and Thy years shall have no, end." We may reverently say that God, in answer to the cry of distress of His Anointed, reminds Him of His Creatorship; and then, that if all the works of His hands perish, He would endure; that in contrast with their change, decay, and dissolution, He, although now in circumstances of weakness and sorrow, was in His own being the changeless One. Such language can only be understood in the light of the mystery of His Person; but the point we desire now to emphasize is that the comfort and sustainment ministered to His holy soul was in connection with the eternity and immutability of His own being. More may not be said; but oh! how close it brings Him to us in our weakness when we read this "prayer of the afflicted." and learn the character of the answer He received.

*As pointed out in chapter 1, the words Atta Hu, rendered "Thou art the same," have ever been regarded as having the force of a Divine title.

There is another thing to be observed. As the Captain of our salvation, He was made perfect through sufferings; and He has thus become the perfect Exemplar of all His sorrowing and tried saints. But the marvel is, that the consolation ministered to Him, while treading the path of rejection, when, to all outward appearance, He laboured in vain and spent His strength for nought, is of the same nature as that ministered to us in our pilgrim path. Is He told, as in the Psalm, of His changeless being? So are we reminded, while passing through this world of change, that He remaineth, that He is ever the same — the same through all the centuries of time, as through the immeasurable ages of eternity. We are in this way put upon a Rock — a Rock that nothing can ever shake, and on which, reposing in perfect peace, we can contemplate, without a single apprehension, the dissolution of all things. Christ remains, if we lose all besides; nay, we should rather say, Let all else vanish from our gaze, for we want nothing since we possess Christ.

All this does but teach us that we already belong to another scene, which is as unchanging as the unchanging Christ. It was this lesson in which the Lord so carefully instructed His disciples. In John 13, for example, the whole significance of His washing their feet might be thus expressed — "If I cannot longer remain with you in your circumstances, I will show you how you may follow, and have part with Me in that new place to which I am going." So also, when Mary Magdalene would have detained Him here, He said, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." It is the same lesson in another way. He puts His disciples, by this message, into His own place and relationship in association with Himself, and this is necessarily in heaven. Not only, therefore, do we belong to another scene — and one outside this world — but the Lord would have us follow Him to it, and be in His company there, even while treading the sands of the wilderness.

"Thou remainest," is thus full of blessed sustainment and encouragement. Not only does it afford us a secure and immovable foundation in the midst of change and unrest, but it also attracts our hearts to that new place, and that new order of things, which He has formed and inaugurated in virtue of His death and resurrection, and where He Himself is the Centre of all the glory which floods the whole scene. For, as we elsewhere read, He has ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. Well then may we accept death upon everything here, for already the light of another world has dawned upon our souls — a new world where neither change, nor sorrow, nor death can ever enter, and where we shall be for ever with Christ and conformed to His own image. Of this new creation, He is the Beginning, as the First-born from the dead, and He remaineth. Yea, as we are permitted to address Him, "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end."

In conclusion, the writer would affectionately enquire whether the reader is consciously reposing upon Him who is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever? There is no other foundation for our souls before God. Building upon it, we are secured both for time and for eternity; for God is then for us; and if He be for us, who can be against us?

Recovered Truths

Recovered Truths.

E. Dennett.

All these letters were written from BLACKHEATH, August, 1875.

INTRODUCTORY.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

In my published letters, addressed to "a friend," I promised that I would (the Lord willing), on some future occasion, write further upon some of the truths which are usually associated, in the minds of others, with the brethren who are gathered unto the name of Christ. It has occurred to me, now that the opportunity has arrived, that I cannot do better, in this case, than address myself to those believers who either were brought to Christ, or who received blessing through my ministry at L. R.

I do this for many reasons. Your grief on my separation from you was hardly less than my own, and your affectionate interest still in all that concerns me shows, beyond a doubt, that the tie which binds us together has been formed by God, and therefore cannot be broken. Moreover, I owe it to you, beyond all besides, to explain what God in His infinite mercy has taught me, so that you may share with me in the enjoyment and blessing of such precious truths. I am also anxious to assure you that, whatever modifications I have been constrained to make, by further study of the word of God, I have accepted nothing which detracts from the unspeakable value of the precious blood of Christ, the meritorious character of His atoning sacrifice, the dignity of His adorable person, or the result of His finished work. On the other hand, the changes made do but enhance (and just in proportion as they are more in accordance with God's revealed mind and will) my conceptions of the mystery of the incarnation, the wondrous character of the grace of God in redemption, and my estimate of the cross of Christ. Indeed I can now say with a fuller heart than ever, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (or whereby) the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal. 6: 14.)

The charge of heresy is lightly made, and easily substantiated when that which is taught is measured by the opinions of men; and hence it has been brought in every age against those who, renouncing all human traditions, ventured to take their stand upon the pure and simple word of God. The martyrs of the Church were thus all heretics; but today we praise God for the fidelity of His servants unto death. Let me then caution you neither to be troubled by this wile of the adversary, nor to be led aside by any human authority, however grave and reverend, from the plain teachings of the written word of God. Remember also the words of the apostle Peter: "For even hereunto were ye, called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously," etc. (1 Peter 2: 21-23.)

In my last letters, I explained the Scriptural teaching upon the subject of ministry and worship; and I am happy to know that some of you were led in grace to bow to this teaching of the word of God, and that others of you were led to confess that what I advanced could not be gainsaid. I shall not therefore recur to these subjects; but I would remind you of the unspeakable importance of holding the truth in responsibility and power. For if the Holy Spirit dwells not only in the individual believer, but also in the Church of God, and claims authority to minister by whom He will, it is a matter of most solemn importance if we become parties to quenching the Spirit (1 Thess. 5: 19, 20) by ecclesiastical arrangements or human ordinances; and if the Lord Jesus, as the Head of the Church, has given gifts unto men for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4: 8-13), we ought to be very careful, lest we be found intercepting their exercise by setting up "ministers" of our own choice, and according to our own will.

Beloved friends, I long to see you gathered unto the name of Christ alone. If you knew the joy of this place of separation (albeit it cannot be taken without much persecution, and many trials from the adversary); if you did but know the blessedness of looking to Christ alone in your meetings, you would, I am sure, hasten to come forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. (Heb. 13: 12, 13.) The Lord is at hand, and it is my earnest prayer that when He comes He may find you disentangled from every association which is contrary to His will, and in the place which He loves to see His people occupy; that, with your affections set on Him, you may ever be as men waiting for their Lord,

Bespeaking your careful examination of the truths on which I am about to write, and praying that I may write nothing, and that you may receive nothing, which is not in accordance with the Scriptures; that, indeed, I may write, and that you may read, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

The first truth which I desire to explain, as I now understand it from the Scriptures, is that of justification by faith.

Most of you know that God, in His sovereign grace, used Luther to recover, in measure, this precious truth from the corruptions of Popery; that, as wielded by him, it was blessed of God to thousands of souls; and that, speaking generally, it still nominally characterizes the orthodox "churches" of the Reformation. I say nominally, because one cannot but sorrowfully observe that rationalism and superstition are fast regaining their supremacy, even in the very strongholds of Protestantism. I propose then to examine, first of all, this doctrine as commonly held by orthodox Protestants, whether in the Establishment or in Dissent.

Its keystone may be said to be the view that Christ during His life on the earth, obeyed the law in our stead; and hence it is said that, when we believe, while the blood of Christ cleanses us from guilt, the obedience of Christ — His vicarious obedience to the law — is imputed to us for righteousness, and consequently we are justified before God by faith. Thus theologians speak of the active and the passive obedience of Christ: the active obedience being His obedience to the law, and the passive His sufferings on the cross; and they tell us that the passive availed for atonement, and the active avails for the imputation of righteousness, so that, as soon as I believe in Him, I stand before God in the value of both — in the value of His sufferings for the remission of sin, and in the value of His substitutional obedience to the law for my righteousness, and that thus meeting all God's demands upon me, I am declared justified.

We have then to inquire whether this doctrine, as so stated, is according to the word of God. You know that I formerly thought so; and, I may add, that I guarded myself on this point when I took my place with "Brethren," though I was immediately told that a difference on such a point was no barrier to fellowship at the Lord's table. But soon after, on carefully reading the epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians, I was startled at the discovery that my views upon this subject had been grounded upon human teachings, and not upon the Scriptures. Instead therefore of a formal exposition, I will just state the process through which I was led on my re-examination of the subject.

1. In the first place, I saw that Abraham was said to be justified by faith four hundred and thirty years before the law was given; and thus that the law had nothing to do with his justification; and that the only ground of it was faith in God. (Gal. 3: 6-29; also Rom. 4) This is the more significant from the fact that Abraham's justification by faith is adduced as the pattern of our own, or rather the principle is asserted to be the same. (Read Rom. 4: 23-25; also Gal. 3: 8, 9.) Now, if Abraham were justified on faith in God without the imputation of any obedience to the law, and we are justified on faith through the imputation of such obedience, we get at once two contrasted principles of justification, and the apostle's argument falls to the ground.

2. In the second place, I found it clearly stated that the Gentiles, and consequently we ourselves, were never under the law. Thus the apostle says, "When the Gentiles which have not the law." (Rom. 2: 14,) Again, he contrasts those under the law with those not under it when he says, "The law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression." (4: 15.) And again he contrasts the Jews with the Gentiles, in this respect, when he says, "Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law," etc. (1 Cor. 9: 20, 21.) Everywhere, indeed, when treating of this subject, he makes this distinction; and it is because of this distinction that he shows that the justification of Abraham, before law, is the pattern of justification, both for the Jew under the law and for the Gentile without the law. The point however to be observed now is, that if the Gentiles were never under the law (as the apostle asserts continually), the imputation to a believing Gentile of obedience to the law could not be the ground of his justification before God.

3. I was struck with the fact that the term, the righteousness of Christ, was never used in connection with the doctrine of justification; indeed the term is not found in the New Testament. On the other hand, I discovered that whenever this doctrine is stated the term used is, God's righteousness. (See Rom. 1: 17; Rom. 3: 21, 22, 25, 26; Rom. 10: 3; 2 Cor. 5: 21; Phil. 3: 9, etc.) This fact, you will admit, is peculiar, if at least it is the obedience of Christ which, imputed to us on faith, becomes our righteousness before God. For it were certainly strange that the Holy Ghost should invariably use the term "God's righteousness," if He had intended to direct our minds to the righteousness of Christ.

But you may reply, "We have the obedience of Christ mentioned, and it is precisely that which constitutes our righteousness." Let us then examine this phrase wherever it may be found. The most important place, however, as bearing on this question, is Rom. 5: 18, 19 — "Therefore as by the offence of one [margin, one offence] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [margin, one righteousness] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." First of all, let me call your attention to the fact that the marginal readings of the 18th verse are admitted by all students of the Scriptures, whatever their doctrinal views, as the correct renderings of the original; and hence the things compared, or rather contrasted, are the one act of transgression of the first Adam, and the one act of righteousness of the second Adam. This being so, the meaning (for the 19th verse is simply explanatory of the 18th) of the terms "disobedience" and "obedience" in the subsequent verse is evident. It was the act of disobedience on the part of Adam which brought in sin; and it was the act of obedience (i.e. obedience unto death) on the part of Christ which brought in righteousness. That is to say, they are single acts, which are contrasted.

This will be rendered still more evident if we turn to another passage. The Lord Himself, speaking of His death, says, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." (John 10: 17, 18) Clearly in this passage our Lord speaks of His death as an act of obedience. This conclusion will be confirmed beyond a doubt if we turn to Phil. 2. There we are told, in that wondrous description of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus (a description, as others have often said, which also implies a contrast with Adam, who was disobedient unto death), that "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (v. 9.) Both of these passages show us how to interpret Rom. 5: 19; for they teach that it is the Lord's obedience unto death which is in the view of the apostle, and that it is this which constitutes the ground of our justification before God. And I must remind you, in confirmation, that not a word is said about obedience to the law in the passage, nor even in the paragraph; but, as pointed out, the simple contrast is between Adam, who dishonoured God by his disobedience, and Christ, who glorified God by His obedience unto death.

One other passage may perhaps occur to the minds of some. I refer to Heb. 10, where the apostle brings in Christ, saying, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." (vv. 7-10.) But the tenth verse explains this in perfect accordance with what we have already advanced — "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." The will of God was therefore accomplished in the sacrifice of Christ.

Having then looked at the several passages in which "the obedience of Christ" is adduced, we may also say that this obedience, in the sense of obedience to law, is never mentioned in connection with the justification of the believer. Let me not be mistaken. The Lord Jesus was always obedient to the Father, the only perfectly obedient One whom the world has ever seen; and He obeyed the law also in all its length, breadth, depth, and height. In fact, He never did His own will; for it was His meat to do His Father's will, and to finish His work. But what I discovered was, that the Scripture never speaks of the living obedience of Christ — His obedience to the law as the ground of justification.

4. The apostle is careful to assert, over and over again, that righteousness did not, and could not, come by the law. Take an illustration or two of this. In the epistle to the Romans, after showing that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified," he proceeds, "But now the righteousness of God without the law [coris nomou, i.e. apart from law] is manifested." Again, "If righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. 2: 21.) And yet again, "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." (Gal. 3: 21.)

Now, if Christ had obeyed the law in our stead, and that obedience, so rendered, was imputed to the believer for righteousness, would not, I ask, righteousness have been by the law? And hence, had this been the teaching of Scripture, it was simply impossible for the apostle to have used these expressions. But you may say, He means that righteousness could not be obtained by man through obedience to the law. My answer is, This is not the apostle's meaning or he would have made it plain. Had it been so, he would very carefully have explained that righteousness was by the law, though by the substitutionary obedience of Christ. But he makes the broadest possible statements as to the impossibility of righteousness coming through the law; does not even hint at the obedience of Christ to it; and indeed tells us distinctly that God's righteousness has been manifested altogether apart from law (coris nomou).

5. These several points convinced me that the commonly received theological teaching on the subject had no foundation in Scripture. But other considerations pointed in the same direction. For instance, I asked myself, What was the aim and intention of the law? The answer to this question will be found in such passages as these: Rom. 3: 20, Rom. 5: 20, Rom. 7: 7-12; Gal. 3: 19-25, etc.; and from them we may learn two things — first, that the law was the standard of God's requirements from man, a standard, in other words, of human righteousness; so that, had a man been able to keep the whole law, he would have only been a righteous man on the earth - as such entitled, of course, to all the promises connected with obedience to the law, but still he would have had nothing but a human righteousness; and secondly, that it was impossible for man to keep the law, for he had a sinful nature — he was flesh, and the mind of the flesh "is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. 8: 7.) Hence God never expected Israel to keep the law, but its end was to give the knowledge of sin. It "entered, that the offence might abound." (Rom. 5: 20.) "It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." (Gal. 3: 19) God therefore never intended righteousness to come by the law; for the apostle says, "If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." (Gal. 3: 18.) For if it is contended that the inheritance comes to us through the substitutionary obedience of Christ to the law, then the inheritance does come through the law, and this is precisely the thing which the apostle contradicts.

But I need not pursue the subject farther in this direction, for you will now see how I learned that the theological definition of justification is entirely inconsistent with the Scriptures; and I have little doubt that it has sprung from an imperfect knowledge of the believer's true standing in Christ, from a false conception, in fact, of Christianity. For you will find that very few of the advocates of this doctrine know anything of the two natures, or of our being seated in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1 and 2); or, indeed, of the full and complete deliverance of the Christian through the death and resurrection of Christ. Not only so; but I am sorry to add that this view of the doctrine is often associated with positive and dangerous error. Thus I have a book before me, written by one of its most popular advocates, in which it is maintained that Jesus was subjected to the Father's wrath during His life on the earth. And if you hold that He was a substitute throughout the whole of His life, I do not see how you can avoid this conclusion. It will show you that the slightest departure from the truth may land you in the most deadly error.

Hoping to examine, in the next letter, the Scriptural representation of the doctrine, believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH — continued.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

Having given the reasons which led me to reject the common teaching on the subject of justification by faith, I will now ask, What is the Scriptural view of this doctrine? And I think we shall see that, when disencumbered of human reasonings, it is as beautiful as it is simple; that it brings into prominence the cross of Christ; that it displays more fully the infinite worth of the sufferings and death of Christ; and, consequently, the perfect character of that salvation which the believer possesses in and through the death and resurrection of his great Substitute.

1. In the first place, THE BLOOD OF CHRIST is set forth in the Scriptures as the meritorious ground, or procuring cause, of our justification. That is, the foundation on which God is able righteously to justify those who believe is the precious blood, the death of Christ. We thus read — "Justified by His blood" (Rom. 5: 9); and it may be pointed out that the word "by" does not express the full force of the original. The words are en to aimati auto  u, i.e. literally "in His blood," meaning "in the power" or "in the virtue of His blood." The same truth is taught in a previous chapter, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood." (Rom. 3: 24, 25; compare Rom. 4: 24, 25; Eph. 1: 7; Gal. 2: 16; 1 Peter 3: 18.)

We have then to inquire how the blood of Christ becomes the ground of our justification? The blood speaks of a life poured out (for the life is in the blood; and it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul — Lev. 17: 11), and consequently of death; and our question therefore is, How does the death of Christ become the meritorious ground of justification? The answer is simple. It becomes this, because of what it accomplished. The Lord Jesus "bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2: 24); He "once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3: 18); "He was made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5: 21); He was "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29); it is He "whom God hath set forth a propitiation (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 25), etc. Combining these passages, and others of a like nature which are scattered throughout the epistles, we discover at once the character of the Saviour's death. We learn that not only did He bear substitutionally our sins on the cross, but that also in that awful hour He stood before God under the whole weight of man's sinful condition and responsibility; that He came into the scene where the first Adam failed, and took up all the consequences of that failure, and made a full and everlasting settlement, in His death on the cross, of the whole question, both of our sins and sin, i.e. man's sinful condition. Hence we read that "when He had by Himself purged our sins" He "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1: 3); and also, that "once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;" and that He "was once offered to bear the sins of many." (Heb. 9: 26-28.)

We thus gather that the Lord Jesus in His death met and answered all the claims of God's holiness, and met these claims so perfectly that God is completely satisfied; nay more, that He not only has fully borne and expiated the consequences of man's sin and failure, but that also He has vindicated the honour of God, fully glorified Him about that which had brought ruin and desolation on the earth. For it is not only that Jesus has made atonement; but He has done more; He has, by His death, glorified God in all the attributes of His character. Thus, speaking of His death, He Himself says, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him" (John 13: 31, 32); and again, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17: 4.) The wrath of God was visited upon Christ on the cross, because He was there as the substitute for sinners; for He there bore our sins, and was "made sin." (2 Cor. 5: 21.) Hence it was that all God's waves and billows went over His head in that awful hour; yea, the waters entered into His soul; and it was under the pressure of the wrath which He endured, when it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief, to make His soul an offering for sin (Isa. 53: 10), that He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27: 46.) But (blessed be His name) He drained that fearful cup to its very dregs, exhausted all the judgment of God against sin, and thereby made a full, sufficient, and everlasting atonement, and vindicated, because He had met and sustained, all the claims of God's holiness, and glorified Him completely and for ever.

2. Such was the character of the death of Christ; and hence His precious blood is of such infinite value before God that on this foundation He can meet and justify the ungodly; yea, be "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus;" and consequently the "righteousness of" God is "upon all them that believe." (Rom. 3: 22, 26.) That is to say, "God is just, and justifies in virtue of Christ. He is just, because sin has been met in the cross; sin has been judged of God; it has been suffered and atoned for by Christ. More than that: the Lord Jesus has so magnified God, and so glorified His character, that, . . . instead of the obligation being, as it was, altogether on man's side, who was accumulating that which never could be paid for by him, God now has interposed, and, having been so magnified in the man Christ Jesus in His death, He is now positively just when He justifies the soul which believes in Jesus. It is consequently the righteousness of God; for God is now approving Himself righteous to the claims of Christ."* For Christ died for sinners; and those who believe stand before God in all the infinite value of that precious blood which He shed for them as their substitute. God therefore righteously pardons, accepts, justifies every believer: that righteousness which flowed out to Christ, raised Him from the dead, and glorified Him at His right hand, meets also and embraces every one who believes in Jesus, and brings him where Christ is in the presence of God. It could not be otherwise; for since the blood has met all God's claims, and even glorified Him, every sinner, the moment he believes, stands invested with all its infinite value. It is, therefore, in response to the value of the blood, that God's righteousness — for it is due to Christ — flows out rejoicingly, and invests the sinner with its own perfection, so that in Christ he is justified for ever before God. Yea, he is accepted in the Beloved.

*The Righteousness of God: What is it? By W. Kelly.

This interpretation will be confirmed if we look for a moment at the display of God's righteousness towards Christ Himself. In the prospect of leaving the world, He could say (anticipatively), "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work thou gavest me to do." And, taking His stand upon His completed work, He proceeds, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17: 4, 5.) That is, He now looked to the Father to glorify Him on account of what He had done on the earth; and God met this claim when He raised Christ from the dead, and glorified Him at His own right hand. That is, Christ having borne the judgment for sin and sins, and so borne it as to satisfy all God's claims, and to glorify God in all that He is, God's righteousness was now displayed in raising Christ from the dead and glorifying Him at His own right hand. In a word, it was due to Christ, on account of what He did as our substitute, that He should be glorified. And God has done it; for "if God be glorified in Him (Christ), God shall also glorify Him in Himself" (John 13: 32); and God's righteousness was also seen in the glorifying of the Lord Jesus. Hence the Lord said that the Comforter would reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; "of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more." (John 16: 10.) God's righteousness then, in this aspect, is Christ received up into glory at His right hand.

We shall now be in a position to understand another aspect of the truth. In the second epistle to the Corinthians, believers are said to be made the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5: 21.) Here we have the additional thought of union with Christ as before God. That is, "God righteously receives us into His glory as He has received Christ; for He has received Him in virtue of the work done for us — us, therefore, in Him. We are made the righteousness of God in Him; for in blessing us in this heavenly and glorious way, in justifying, us, He only gives its due effect to Christ's claims upon Him. Towards us it is pure grace, but it is equally the righteousness of God. He has been made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."*

*Collected Writings of J. N. Darby, vol. viii.

Such is the true doctrine of justification. The foundation on which God acts is not the law — obedience of Christ, and the blood; but it is the precious blood of Christ alone. The righteousness of God is not the living obedience of Christ; but it is the response of God to the value of that precious blood — it being so precious in the eyes of God that it constitutes, in His grace, a claim upon Him to justify every one who believes in Jesus. That righteousness was first displayed in the resurrection of Christ (for He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification), and in setting Him in glory at His own right hand; it is afresh displayed in the justification of every poor sinner who comes to Christ; and it will be furthermore displayed in glorifying every believer together with Christ. Hence too we can say that Christ is of God made unto us righteousness (1 Cor. 1: 30); and that He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10: 4); for all that we have from God — our justification, our glorification — is in Christ, and in Christ alone.

3. We need hardly, in this place, point out that the principle of justification is faith — faith in contrast with, in opposition to, works. For there is no controversy with "evangelical" Christians on this head. But we may again call your attention to the fact that Abraham's justification is given as the pattern of this principle. (Rom. 4; Gal. 3) There is indeed one blessed difference; for the object proposed to Abraham for faith was a God of promise; whereas to us it is a God of accomplishment. "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it (righteousness) was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 4: 23-25; Rom. 5: 1.)

Trusting that you will examine this exposition of the way in which God justifies him who believes in Jesus by the light of Scripture, believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

THE BELIEVER'S STANDING IN CHRIST.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

Permit me now to call your attention to the believer's standing. Fewer words will be necessary on this subject; but I am anxious to place it before you, because, until it is understood, there can be no due appreciation either of our relationships or responsibilities. Indeed it would not be too much to say that much of the feebleness of the Christian life, and much of the uncertainty of walk, and the want of separation from the world, which are so often deplored in professing Christians, may be traced to an imperfect knowledge of the position which the believer occupies before God in Christ.

To begin then at the beginning. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1.) That is, peace with God is the inalienable inheritance of every one who is justified; for it is the peace which has been made "through the blood of His cross." (Col. 1: 20.) It is not therefore experience or attainment which is spoken of; but that which belongs to every believer, whatever his feelings, the moment he is justified. And consequently, if we do not enter into the enjoyment of this peace, it is owing to our insufficient acquaintance with the grace of God, through, it may be, bad teaching or unbelief. But it is of the first importance that every believer, whatever his feebleness or timidity, should know that everlasting peace with God is his portion through the precious blood of Christ.

There is however more than this. We read on: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." Again, be it observed, this is not experience, but the position into which every believer is brought in Christ Jesus — a position of perfect acceptance, in which the full favour of God rests on him; not on account of what he is in himself, or of any experience which he may have, or of any attainment he has made, but solely on account of what Christ is and has done on his behalf.

If I refer you to another passage, this truth will be more distinctly apprehended. Turning then to the epistle to the Colossians, we read, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight," etc. (Col. 1: 21, 22.) Now, mark two things. First, that God had reconciled these believers ("And you hath He reconciled," etc.); and secondly, that we have three words to indicate the perfect character of this reconciliation. The first is "holy" — a word that expresses in the strongest possible way the perfect meetness of the believer for the holy presence of God. Then we have "unblameable" — a word which will be best understood by a reference to another passage. In Hebrews we read, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God," etc. (Heb. 9: 14.) The word here translated, "without spot," is the same as "unblameable" in the Colossians; and hence we gather that the believer, as to standing, is before God what Christ was in His offering up of Himself; viz., without spot. Lastly we have "unreproveable" more exactly, "without charge," or "accusation;" i.e. one against whom no charge can be brought, according to the apostle's words elsewhere -"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" (Rom. 8: 33.)

Combining then these three expressions, we are taught that, as to the believer's standing before God, it is absolutely perfect; for the words we have considered show that God regards His people in Christ as holy, without spot, and with every question that might have been raised against them so completely settled, that no possible accusation against them can be substantiated. And remember that this standing is that of every believer; that it is not at all a matter of experience or attainment, but it belongs to the babe in Christ, as well as to the young men and fathers; because indeed as soon as we believe we stand before God in all the perfectness, fragrance, and acceptance of Christ. It is therefore what He is, and not what we are; and what He is, so are we in Him before God.

But we may go farther. In the epistle to the Romans we read, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Rom. 8: 9.) These words must be very carefully noted. "Ye are not in the flesh," etc. What then is this reference? It is to the believer's standing, the result of his death and resurrection with Christ. Thus, if you will attentively read from chapter 6, you will find that believers are regarded as having died as to their old nature with Christ. Take one or two passages: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?" (Rom. 6: 8); "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him" (Rom. 6: 6); "Now if we be dead with Christ," etc. (Rom. 6: 8.) As we learn elsewhere also, they are regarded as "risen with Christ" (Col. 3: 1); and hence believers are reminded that they "have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new," etc. (Col. 3: 9, 10.) The truth taught then is that, as to our standing before God, we are not in the flesh, because our old man was judged and crucified on the cross, but we are in the Spirit. That is, it is the Spirit that characterizes our position before God. In His sight and before Him we are not in the flesh. This indeed supposes the existence of the flesh; but having received the Holy Ghost, and having life of the Holy Ghost, it is He, who constitutes our link with God. Our moral existence before God is in the Spirit, not in the flesh, or natural man." In other words, we are, as to standing, not in Adam at all (and going beyond the passage just considered, we may add), but in Christ, and in Christ where He is.

We may support these statements by one or two more passages. In the Ephesians we find as follows: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love where with He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2: 4-6.) All these verbs are in the past tense — God hath quickened, hath raised us up together, and made us sit together; and therefore we are here directed to something which has been accomplished on our behalf. And what is this? Our perfect standing in Christ. Yea, we are taught that already in Christ we are seated in the heavenly places, and that this is our true place before God. If we were in the flesh, this scene in which we move would be our place; but because in Christ we have died out of it, and have been raised up together with Christ, our true place is in Christ where He is — in the heavenly places. It is on this account that the apostle says elsewhere, "If any man be in Christ, a new creature [creation]." (2 Cor. 5: 17. Read the context.) For we have died in Christ to the old, have been brought clean out of it, and have risen with Him into the new creation, where everything is perfect according to the perfectness of God. Hence the apostle John is able to say, "As He is, so are we in this world;" i.e. as Christ is before God, so are we in Him, though in this world, as perfectly accepted, because His acceptance is ours.

"So near, so very near to God,

I cannot nearer be;

For in the person of His Son

I am as near as He."

You will bear in mind that I have been dealing with the standing of the believer. Of course our place of service is here in the wilderness; but while this is true, let us never forget that we belong to another creation than this, because we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. "Our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3: 20); and when He comes He will receive us unto Himself, that where He is we — then made like unto Him, conformed to Him in the glory — may be also.

I am the more anxious that you should fully apprehend these truths because of their designed influence upon our walk and conversation. Once see that we are a heavenly people, and you will also perceive that our true place and standing before God should determine the character of our walk; that, in a word, our walk should be in correspondence with our position in Christ; that separation must be written upon all that we are, and upon all that we do — separation unto God. If believers were more familiar with the character of their standing, they would see the utter incongruity of many of their associations; they could not have fellowship with the men of the world in politics, and so-called philanthropic movements — with so many things in short which grieve the Spirit of God; but they would enter into the language of the apostle, "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more" (2 Cor. 5: 16); they would understand his appeal, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? . . . . Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6: 14-18); and they would seek grace day by day to comply with the exhortation "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. 3: 1-3.)

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

THE RULE OF LIFE.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

Much discussion has been raised on the question, What is the rule of life for the believer? It is commonly said that the law is; and "Brethren" have incurred no little obloquy and misrepresentation by venturing to dissent from this statement. They dissent from it, because they maintain that the standard of God's requirements from Israel in the flesh is not the standard which He sets before those who are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, as we saw in the last letter — because, in a word, they do not find it so represented in the word of God. It is sometimes said, because we do not accept the law as the rule of life, that we are Antinomians, desiring to free ourselves from all obligation and restraint. But, as I hope to show, in taking this around we contend that the law is an inadequate expression of what God now expects from believers; that God has brought His people into far closer relationships than that would imply, and, therefore, under higher, deeper, and broader obligations. The law indeed finds its sphere of operation on the earth; but it cannot enter into those heavenly places in which we are seated in Christ.

We propose then to deal with the subject under two questions. Is the law the rule of life? and if not, What is the rule of life for the believer? In dealing with them, I feel compelled to remind you that they must be answered neither by human opinions, nor by theological teachings, but solely by the word of God.

Is the law the rule of life for the believer? To this question I will select three answers, out of many which are furnished by the scriptures. In the first place, I find that the apostle Paul represents, in the most emphatic manner, that we are brought out altogether from under the law. Turn with me to Rom. 7: 4. There we read: "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Read the whole paragraph.) This is simple enough; for the question raised is this: Is the law our husband, or is Christ? It is perfectly impossible, from the contrast drawn, that it can mean that we are dead to the condemnation of the law, for the question is as to bringing forth fruit. The truth then insisted on is, that since we died in Christ our substitute, we died clean out from under the law, out indeed of the sphere of the flesh in which the law had its operation, and are united to Him in resurrection, where He is, as our only Lord. Some of you however may say, Read on; and does not the close of the chapter teach us another thing? My answer is, Read on still, out of the seventh into the eighth, and then you will see that we get exactly the same truth. But we will examine the matter a little more closely.

No one disputes the application of the first part of the apostle's argument. The paragraph comprised in verses 7 to 12 describes the effect of the application of the law to man in the flesh. The apostle commences with the question, "Is the law sin?" (v. 7); and he shows that, while by the law is the knowledge of sin, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (v. 12.) He then raises another question, "Was then that which is good made death unto me?" (v. 13.) And in answer to this question, he brings out the effect of the application of the law to a regenerate man (using the first person, it may be, as an illustration), who, as yet, was ignorant of full redemption in Christ. And what is the effect produced? Irreconcilable conflict — a conflict which reveals the presence of sin as still in the regenerate man (v. 17); the utter corruption of the flesh (v. 18); and his utter helplessness in himself, because of the two antagonistic natures ever at conflict within him. (vv. 18-20.) Where then shall he find deliverance? For the misery to which he is reduced constrains him to cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (v. 24.) Then comes the full and complete answer, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 25); i.e. I thank God that I am delivered through Jesus Christ, etc.; and then, in chapter 8, follows the exposition of the blessed deliverance and liberty which we have in Christ, in the course of which the apostle teaches us that "ye are not in the flesh (i.e. before God) but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (v. 9.) The deliverance is therefore so full and entire, that the flesh is regarded by God as done away with in Christ, and this in virtue of the fact (as we are taught in another place) that the believer has been crucified with Christ. (Gal. 2: 20; see especially also Rom. 6: 6.)

A right conception then of Romans 7 teaches most unmistakably that we are not under law. I know that there are many who believe that it contains the proper experience of the Christian; but let me ask whether such an expression as this, "I am carnal, sold under sin" (v. 14), or this again, already cited, "O wretched man that I am!" etc. (v. 24), should be taken as the proper language of one who knows his full, perfect, and everlasting salvation in Christ? Or whether such expressions harmonize with the exultant cry of the apostle at the close of Romans 8: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (v. 35.) The very supposition is monstrous, and can only proceed upon the most entire ignorance of the nature of redemption, and of the believer's true standing through his death and resurrection in Christ.

One passage more shall be cited under this head, to substantiate the conclusion already reached. In describing how he became all things to all men, the apostle says that he became "to them that are under the law, as under the law," and then adds (in a clause omitted from the received text, but acknowledged by all competent to form a judgment as genuine), "not being myself under law,"* an assertion which is implied in the next verse; for he proceeds, "To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)" — "under the law to Christ" being a very different phrase from the usual term "under the law." It is, in fact, ennomos cristo; translated by some, "enlawed to Christ;" by others, "legitimately subject to Christ." (1 Cor. 9: 21.) Be this as it may, it is very evident that the apostle here insists upon his entire freedom from the law; and that, if he were under the law as his rule of life, he could not have used the language we have discussed.

*Tregelles and Tischendorf both insert it; indeed, it is supported by all the most valuable MSS.

Secondly, the law cannot be the rule of life to the believer, because the obligations under which he is placed go beyond the requirements of law. The apostle John says: "Hereby perceive we the love" (not the love of God, as in our translation, but love in its true nature or character), "because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (1 John 3: 16.) Now the utmost the law requires of us is to love our neighbour as ourselves; and hence Paley justifies killing a man in self-defence; for, as he argues, if we allow him to kill us rather than kill him, we shall be loving him better than ourselves, and this is to go beyond, as he says, the divine command. Since therefore we have here the plain direction to lay down our lives for the brethren, if the need arises, and the law nowhere even by implication requires this from us, it is evident that the law is not a perfect rule for us, and hence cannot be the rule of life.

Last of all, I ask you to consider the nature of the law. It was, as we have before seen when dealing with justification, the standard of human righteousness, given to Israel after the flesh, i.e. to natural men. But if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or rather, a new creation; he is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit before God (2 Cor. 5: 17; Rom. 8: 9); and as such he is responsible to walk before God according to the place in which he is set, according to his standing as a risen man in Christ, in the power of the Spirit. (Rom. 8: 14; Gal. 5: 25.) While therefore the law is a perfect standard of God's requirements from men in the flesh, it is on this very account inapplicable to those who are regenerate, and indwelt by the Spirit of God. Like all God's words and works, it is perfect — "holy, and just, and good;" but if applied to those for whom God did not intend it, you introduce confusion, and mar its perfectness, by seeking to enjoin it on those who have been brought out from under it through the death and resurrection of Christ.

2. What then, we ask, is the rule of life? The answer is contained in one word, It is Christ. This will be seen from the following passages: "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2: 6); "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps" (1 Peter 2: 21); "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus" (not the Author and Finisher of our faith, but) the leader (the same word as that translated "Prince" in Acts 3: 15; 5: 31, and "Captain" in Heb. 2: 10) and Completer of faith; i.e. looking unto Jesus as the Perfect Example of the life of faith from its commencement unto its completion.

These passages will suffice (although they might be largely multiplied) to show that Christ, and not the law, is our rule of life. And in saying this, it will be at once seen that we make far larger demands upon the believer than if we said he was under law; for Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle of the moral law, and went far beyond it in His death upon the cross. Hence we cannot slight a single moral precept, whether, as another has said, it be in the Ten Commandments or anywhere else; for we find all God's expressed will fully and perfectly embodied in the life of the Lord Jesus. Hence, too, we find in the epistles the law frequently cited as an illustration of some branch of Christian obligation, but always in connection with Christ. (See Rom. 13: 714.)

I might dilate upon the spiritual advantages of having Christ, rather than the law, as the rule of life; for thereby our eyes are ever directed to Him, that, in the power of the Spirit, we might copy His example, and walk as He walked. And thus we have but one object for the soul — Christ, Christ in glory — as that to which we are to be conformed, morally, in ever increasing measure now (2 Cor. 3: 18), and absolutely when He returns to receive us unto Himself. (Phil. 3: 20, 21; 1 John 3: 2.) You will therefore see that, so far from lessening, we rather seek to enhance the obligations of the believer; and that we do this by placing him always in the presence of Christ, so that he may be fully and always under the constraining influence of His love. (See 2 Cor. 5: 14, 15.)

I do not think that you will object to, nay, I believe that you will heartily receive, the doctrine as here propounded, that Christ is our rule of life. Still I want to point out, as an additional aid, how impossible it is to prove from the Scriptures that the law has this place for the Christian. To give you an instance of this, I will cite from an article which appeared in the Christian Armour for 1874. The article is written by a clergyman well known in evangelical circles, and also, I may add, by "Brethren." He contends that the whole moral law is re-enacted in the gospel, and hence that it, and nothing else, is our rule of life. Take the following — quoted literally — as a specimen of his dealing with the word of God, and then judge the force of his reasonings. The commandment cited and placed first is, as you will perceive, the fourth; and in the second, you have the supposed proofs of its re-enactment in the New Testament.

1. THE LAW.

"Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." (Ex. 20: 8.)

2. THE GOSPEL.

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." (Rev. 1: 10.)

"Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store." (1 Cor. 16: 2.)

"The same day at evening being the first day of the week." (John 20: 19.)

"After eight days again came Jesus." (John 20: 26.)

"Truce-breakers." (2 Tim. 3: 3.)

"They returned, and rested the Sabbath-day, according to the commandment." (Luke 23: 56.)

Now, to say nothing of the confusion of the quotations, you will remark that four out of the six refer to the first day of the week and not to the Sabbath, or seventh day; that one refers to neither; and that the remaining one refers to the Sabbath, as kept by Jews before Pentecost. This is very sad, as illustrating the shifts to which even pious men are reduced when they seek to uphold a system instead of learning from the word of God. And I might ask, Did you ever meet with any one who even endeavoured to keep the Sabbath as enjoined upon the Jews? If not, who gave them liberty, if, as they contend, they are still under the law, to dispense with a single portion of God's requirements? Either therefore they do not believe what they teach, or they are content with a bad conscience; and a bad conscience destroys communion, and where there is no communion with God there is no spiritual power. And be sure that the soul that does not feel the constraining love of Christ (and the power of that love will be felt just in proportion as the heart is occupied with Him) will never feel the obligation of the law. Let us therefore seek grace to say with the apostle, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2: 20.)

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

THE CHURCH — WHAT IS IT!

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

The question which I desire to consider with you in this letter is that of the church. Perhaps this is the most important subject for believers at the present time, both on account of its intrinsic character, and also on account of the confusion — not to say ignorance — that prevails on this point in Christendom. A Catholic will of course tell you that the church is the Church of Rome; but many Episcopalians would equally identify it with the Establishment, which is indeed termed the Church of England; Dissenters will tell you that while the church composes all believers of all times, they are yet members of the church meeting at Blackheath Chapel, or, to increase the confusion, at Brownford Congregational Church; whereas Wesleyans will modestly say that they are members of the Society, etc. Now if we do not know what the church is, we cannot know the privileges which attach to our belonging to it; and hence we desire to ask, What is the church?

1. In the first place, it is material to notice that the church in the sense, under discussion, of the body of Christ is not found in the Old Testament. This statement is often denied on the ground of a single passage in the Acts of the Apostles, which it is therefore incumbent upon us carefully to examine. In the speech of Stephen, before the Sanhedrim, we find these words: "This is he that was in the church in the wilderness," etc. (Acts 7: 38); and on these words the whole question turns, because there is not a single passage in the Old Testament Scriptures themselves which even hints at the existence of the church as known in the New Testament. Now we admit at once that the word "church" is that which is also used of the church of God, it is ekklesia. But what does this word ekklesia mean? It means simply an "assembly," leaving the nature of the assembly to be defined by the context. For example, the same word is applied three times to the tumultuous gathering at Ephesus, which was brought together through the action of Demetrius, the silversmith, and his fellow-tradesmen (Acts 19: 32, 39, 41); and here, in each instance, it is translated assembly. What then, we ask, was the assembly in the wilderness? The answer is plain, it was the congregation of Israel. But was this congregation the church of God? Impossible; for while there were men born of God amongst that congregation, the congregation was composed of the nation of Israel after the flesh, so that every child born of the Jews was, by virtue of his birth, a member of it. If therefore it is contended that this was the church of God, the inference which meets us is that the church of God in the wilderness was composed of men after the flesh; for the new birth clearly had nothing whatever to do with forming its members, inasmuch as the whole nation was included. So stated, every instructed Christian will at once perceive that the assembly or congregation of Israel was not, in any sense, the church according to the New Testament Scriptures.

2. Another important point is, that the church is not seen as existent in the Gospels. Indeed the word is only found three times in Matthew, and not at all in the other evangelists. We have only then to examine the places where it occurs in the first Gospel. The first passage in which it occurs is as follows: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church," etc. (Matt. 16: 18.) Now mark the language employed by our Lord. He says, "Upon this rock I WILL build my church," speaking in the future tense of something which had not yet begun to be, but which He was going to build. Such language would have been impossible had the church been at that time in existence, and reveals, as plainly as words could reveal, that the commencement of the church was at that time a yet future thing. The only other passage (for the word occurs twice in it) is Matt. 18: 17, containing instruction as to how we should deal with a brother who should trespass against us. But the very place of this instruction, coming as it does after the revelation of the future building of the church, and bound up with church or corporate action, as it is in the context, explains its significance, especially if we are careful to note that the Lord concludes this instruction with the especial promise of being in their midst when they should be gathered together unto His name, a thing that could not take place as long as He was present with them. The church therefore is no more found in the Gospels than it is in the Old Testament Scriptures.

3. It is not until we come to the Acts of the Apostles that we find it actually existent. And accordingly, the word, either in the singular or plural, is now found no less than twenty or twenty-one times (I say, or twenty-one, for Acts 2: 47 is, to say the least, doubtful); and the thing signified by the word — the assembly of God — is met with almost in every chapter. When then, we ask, did the church commence its existence? Or rather, When did the Lord Jesus commence to build His church on the rock of which He had spoken? It was on the day of Pentecost, and not before, that those who received the apostles' words, and who were baptized, were built upon the Rock; and, being baptized by one Spirit into one body, became the church of God. I will not dwell farther on this point now, as successive proofs of this will appear as we proceed.

4. Let us then now answer distinctly from the Scriptures our question, What is the church? We have a twofold reply. It is the body of Christ, and it is the house of God. Thus, in Ephesians, after the apostle has spoken of the display of the mighty power of God in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and His supreme exaltation, he proceeds, "But gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." (Eph. 1: 20-23. See also Rom. 12: 5; 1 Cor. 10: 16, 17; 1 Cor. 12: 27; Eph. 2: 16; Eph. 4: 4, 12, 16; Eph. 5: 30; Col. 1: 18-24; Col. 2: 19) And in the epistle to Timothy we read of "the house of God, which is the church of the living God" (1 Tim. 3: 15); and in Ephesians, "In whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2: 22. See also Heb. 3: 6; Heb. 10: 21; 1 Peter 2: 5; 1 Peter 4: 17; also 1 Cor. 3: 16; 2 Cor. 6: 16, etc.) If you will be at the pains to search out the several passages given, you will see that these are the two characteristics of the church as presented in the word of God.

I shall not at this time point out the distinction between the "house" and the "body," as it would lead us too far away from the subject in hand; but I shall now seek to show that these two terms conclusively prove the statements already made as to the time of the commencement of the church. Thus take the term "body." The church, as we have seen, is the body of Christ; and if so, as indeed is also stated (Col. 1: 18), Christ is the head of the body. Consequently it was not until after the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus that the Head was in heaven, and the body could be formed; for while in the flesh the Lord Jesus abode alone, union with Him being only possible in resurrection. (John 12: 23, 24.)

Again, let me ask, How is the body formed? "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," etc. (1 Cor. 12: 13.) But "the Holy Ghost was not yet [given], because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7: 39); and hence, until Jesus was glorified, the Spirit was not down here on earth to baptize believers into one body, and thus we see again that the church could not be formed until on and after Pentecost. Once more, let me remind you that the characteristic of the body is, that all national distinctions are abrogated, that it is composed alike of Jews and Gentiles (1 Cor. 12: 13; Gal. 3: 28; Eph. 2: 13-16; Col. 3: 10, 11); but up to the crucifixion of Christ the Jewish nation possessed its special and peculiar privileges, and we are expressly told in the Ephesians that these national distinctions were abolished through His death. The apostle says, "For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us]: having abolished in His flesh the enmity, [even] the law of the commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross," etc. (Eph. 2: 14-16.) Finally, we are expressly told that the mystery of the body was not revealed until after Pentecost — until, in fact, the time of the apostle Paul. (Rom. 16: 25, 26; Eph. 3: 2-11; Col. 1: 25-28.)

The same result will be reached if we consider the term house — the church, as the house of God. Thus in Eph. 2: 20 we are told that believers "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Are these the prophets of the Old Testament, or of the New? The order of the words has surely special significance; or if not, turn with me to Ephesians 4, where we have an enumeration of gifts that proceeded from the ascended Christ. "He gave some," it is said, "apostles, and some prophets," etc. (v. 11); and thus the question is settled (for it is the same order of words), that they are New Testament prophets, and consequently the church was not built upon this foundation until after Pentecost.

Another consideration (I hope you will not be wearied with the abundance of proofs) points exactly the same way. As the house, the church is the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2: 22); and as we have seen, the Spirit was not given until Pentecost; and therefore God could not have had His habitation through the Spirit in the church before that time. God indeed dwelt in the tabernacle of witness and in the temple, both of which were doubtless shadows of His temple in the church; but just because they were shadows or types, it proves that the thing adumbrated or typified was not yet existent.

It is therefore abundantly plain — as all the different lines of argument we have adduced from the Scriptures show — that the church of God had its commencement here on earth on the day of Pentecost. But the church is also the bride of Christ (see Eph. 5: 23-33; 2 Cor. 11: 2; Rev. 19: 6-9; Rev. 21: 2-9, etc.), and hence the church must be complete when "the marriage of the Lamb" takes place. Now it is seen from Revelation 19 that this event will occur previous to the Lord's appearing — to His coming to the earth to establish His kingdom (vv. 6-9), and we know from manifold Scriptures (e.g. 2 Thess. 1; Col. 3: 1-4; Rom. 8: 16-21; 1 Thess. 4: 13-18, etc.) that the hope of the church is the coming of the Lord, that having suffered with Christ she will be glorified and reign together with Him in His kingdom. Hence the period of the church extends from Pentecost until the Lord's coming for His saints; and consequently the church of God comprises all believers during that period — all those believers therefore who have been indwelt by the Holy Ghost, baptized by Him into one body, and united therefore by Him to the glorified man, Christ Jesus, as their Head in heaven.

Such is the answer which the word of God supplies to the question, What is the church? And we are very sure that it is the only answer that can be found in the Scriptures. Leaving to future letters any questions that may arise out of this,

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE UNITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

We have just seen that the church did not commence its existence until Pentecost, and that the duration of its existence on earth will extend until the coming of the Lord. With the question that may be raised respecting the saints of the Old Testament and the saints during the millennial period, I hope to deal in the next letter. I now wish you to consider with me some of the practical aspects of the unity of the body of Christ.

We concluded in our last that the body of Christ could not be formed until Christ, as its glorified Head, was in heaven. How indeed was the body formed? The answer is found in the words already cited: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12: 13), showing, as we saw, that until the Holy Ghost was sent down, consequent upon the glorification of Christ (John 7: 39), the body of Christ could not be. But there is another thing that will strike the attentive reader of the New Testament, and that is, that no mention of the body of Christ is found except in the writings of the apostle Paul. He tells us indeed that he was specially commissioned to make it known. (Eph. 3: 2-7; Col. 1: 25.) The germ of the fuller revelation afterwards made was no doubt contained in the very first words which the Lord addressed to Saul; for when He appeared to him as he was on his way to Damascus, He said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou [not My people, but] ME?" (Acts 9: 4.) Here we get the perfect identification of Christ as the risen Head with His members on the earth, so that it was against Him really that the mad rage of Saul was directed. Accordingly, when the apostle brings out the truth of the body, he says, "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is [not the church, but] CHRIST" (1 Cor. 12: 12); i.e. he expresses, by the term Christ, Christ and His people on earth as indivisibly one.

The truth then taught is, that believers are baptized by one Spirit into living union with Christ, so that Christ and all His people on earth form one vital body; and hence it is that believers are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones — words which indicate in the strongest possible way the living organic union of believers (as wrought and maintained by the Holy Ghost) with Christ as their risen Head. Several very important consequences flow from this truth; and it is to these we now invite your prayerful attention as we point them out from the word of God.

1. Note that the believers in any given locality — or rather the assembly of God in any given place — is regarded as the expression of the body of Christ. Thus the apostle, writing to the Corinthians, after unfolding the practical aspects of the body of Christ, says: "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Cor. 12: 27.) This is a most important principle, and teaches most explicitly what is God's ground for the gathering together of His people — that it is the ground of membership of the body of Christ; that is, in other words, if saints are gathered together on any foundation which does not admit of all the members of Christ in that place (excepting such as may be under scriptural discipline), it is not God's ground. For example; if believers meet as Wesleyans, as Baptists, or as Presbyterians, they meet as being members of their respective denominations, and not as being members of Christ. But you may reply, "It is true that we are Baptists, etc.; but we have no sympathy whatever with those who exclude all others from fellowship; and, in fact, we admit all believers." That is to say, beloved friends, other believers are welcomed by you if they are willing to submit themselves to your views of truth, your views of "church" government, and to your methods of worship. If this be so, as I know it is with some of you, the case is not altered. It only proves that you have a little more liberality of feeling than many others; but it still remains true that you are not gathered on the ground of the body of Christ, that you are not gathered unto His name. For while you might tolerate those who rejected your peculiar views, you would not regard them as bona fide members, or permit them to minister in your meetings if they did not accept those views which so many Christians believe to be unscriptural. And this being so, your ground of meeting — I desire to say it tenderly, though with all faithfulness — is a denial of the unity of the body of Christ. If it were not so, membership of the body of Christ would be the only term of fellowship, and Christ's name the only centre of your gathering; and then you would view with grief the name "Congregational," "Baptist," or "Presbyterian," written up outside your chapels; because you would feel that there might be many dear children of God, members of Christ, who, not agreeing with the views indicated by these names, might be shut out from fellowship by these denominational signs.

2. If gathered as members of the body of Christ, room must be left for the exercise of the gifts of the members. This is the evident scope of the apostle's argument in 1 Cor. 12, which you will do well to read attentively and compare with existing practices. Thus the apostle says, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. . . . and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." (1 Cor. 12: 12-14.) He then points out that no member can be separated from the body in which it is found; that each is necessary for the welfare of all the rest, whether deemed "more feeble" or "comely;" for "God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another," etc. He then adds, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church" (assembly), "first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers," etc. (vv. 15-28.)

Such then being the character of the assembly as the body of Christ, composed of many members, and every member having a distinct office, and the activity of each being absolutely necessary for the welfare and blessing of the whole body, what is it but a denial of the unity of the body, as well as of the office and use of its several members, when meetings are placed under the presidency and guidance of one man? In fact, if you make one man, however gifted, the absolute mouthpiece of all, you must consciously or unconsciously ignore the common membership of the body of Christ on the part of believers.

Suppose, now, I looked to my head or hand to perform all the functions of the body, it would be nothing less than folly. But the folly is still greater when you look to a "minister" to discharge all the functions of the body of Christ. I do not deny his gift, or gifts: he may be richly endowed; but he cannot perform the offices of all the members of the body who are there assembled, since all have gifts differing according to the grace given. This is evident; and therefore until room is left in your meetings, for the exercise of whatever gift the Lord has been pleased to bestow upon the different members of His body, you cannot even claim to be gathered on that ground.

Not only so, but you really place yourselves in opposition to the Lord's command. In Romans 12 the apostle exhorts us by the Spirit — "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering" (Rom. 12: 6, 7); and he grounds this exhortation upon the fact, that "as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." (vv. 4, 5.) It is a very grave matter therefore, if by human arrangements you refuse to allow the exercise of the gift of the several members. It amounts to no less than actual disobedience to the Lord as Head of the church; and at the same time, it is quenching the Spirit.

Nor is the offence less serious if we consider it in the light of another Scripture. We find in the epistle to the Ephesians that on His ascension the Lord Jesus gave gifts unto men, and after their enumeration (Eph. 4: 11) we are told that they are given "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," etc. (v. 11) If therefore you were gathered on the ground of the body of Christ, bow jealous you would be over the least departure from these instructions; and how zealously you would remove every obstruction to the realization of the provision which has thus been made for the edification of the body of Christ!

3. Another important truth is taught by the apostle in 1 Cor. 10. He says: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we [being] many are one bread, one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread," or loaf. (vv. 16, 17.) We are here told that the "one bread," or "loaf," is a symbol of the unity of the body of Christ; and this unity is also set forth by the fact that all (the members of Christ forming the assembly) are partakers (when gathered together) of that one bread or loaf. Hence the purpose of the gathering together was to "break bread," to "show the Lord's death till He come" (1 Cor. 11: 26); and consequently, when gathered according to the mind of God as members of Christ, it should be around the table of the Lord in obedience to His command, where, in addition to remembering Christ, we have before us the bread which reminds us on the one hand of His broken body; and on the other of the unity of His body — the church. Accordingly we find that when the early disciples came together on the first day of the week, it was to break bread (Acts 20: 7); for they were mindful both of the commandment of the Lord, and of the fact that they were members of the body of Christ.

But what, let me affectionately ask you, is the object of your assembly on the first day of the week? It is not to break bread, because you only do this once a month, or at the most twice in the month; and on these occasions it is not the object of your coming together, because the breaking of bread at the Lord's Supper is postponed until the end of the regular service, and is quite subordinate to that which has gone before. This proves conclusively that the end you have in view in coming together is mainly to hear the sermon. Do not mistake me. I by no means dispute the fact that many of you, as individuals, come to worship; but still the prominent thing is the sermon; and hence the frequent question, Whom do you hear? or, Who is your minister? or, Had you a good sermon? That you often obtain blessing in this way cannot be denied; still it is certain, that, as long as you are not gathered unto the name of Christ around His table, you are not gathered as the members of the body of Christ, and consequently not gathered Scripturally, i.e. according to the mind and will of God.

4. Combining these things together, it is very clear also, that as long as Christians are content to be "members of churches" (concerning which nothing is said in the scripture) — all of which are distinct one from another — belonging to different denominations, having no connection one with the other, beyond by occasional Christian courtesies recognizing each other as belonging to Christ, "worshipping" in different places in diverse forms and methods, and having different terms of fellowship, they cannot be meeting as members of the body of Christ, or be endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4: 3.) For since all believers are members of the body of Christ, and the assembly of believers in any one place is the expression of the body (1 Cor. 12: 27), any ground of meeting which does not admit all the members of the body simply as members of Christ (excepting those under scriptural discipline) is not the ground of the church of God. In other words, if any thing is demanded beyond being a member of Christ, walking in holiness and truth; if any human names are adopted, be it Anglican, Presbyterian, Independent, or Baptist; if there be any centre of gathering beyond the name of Christ; and if the gifts of the different members of the body be not recognised; or if their exercise be not permitted according to the scriptures; then that gathering where these things exist is not God's assembly but man's.

And you little know, beloved friends, what you lose by practically ignoring the unity of the body of Christ. The apostle writes: "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." Suppose now a "member of another church" in the same town fall into sin, what do you know of suffering with him? You will, no doubt, be affected by his sin if you hear of it; for if he is a member of Christ, the whole body must suffer loss; but what do you know of entering intelligently into his condition before the Lord, and seeking his restoration? Nothing; for, in fact, you may not have heard of his declension and fall; or if you have, you will not make prayer for him in your meetings, for he belongs to another "church." On the other hand, when you are gathered as members of the body, the sin of one is felt to be the sin of all. Thus I have seen a whole assembly, in this neighbourhood, on their faces before the Lord on account of the sin of a believer in a distant part of London; and it would be impossible to describe the blessedness of this practical realisation of suffering with another member of the body of Christ. The unity of the body of Christ is thus a real thing, and apprehended in the power of the Spirit.

Allow me then to commend this subject to your prayerful study; and I do so with the earnest hope that the Lord may guide you into this truth by His Spirit, so that henceforth you may be gathered with those who, refusing all sectarian names and distinctions, meet as members of Christ, and, looking to Him alone, seek in simplicity of dependence to order all things pertaining to their gathering together according to the scriptures.

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

According to promise, I propose now to take up the question of the Old Testament saints. In point of fact, if the church was not formed until Pentecost, and is completed at the coming of the Lord, the millennial saints will also be outside the church. But as all the feeling is shown on the subject of the Old Testament class, and the principle is the same in both cases, we will confine our attention mainly to these.

That Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the saints under the old dispensation, were quickened, devoted servants of God, and that they will share in the first resurrection, with all the believers of this dispensation, at the coming of Christ, every instructed saint will tt once admit, because this much is plain from the word of God. But we dare not go beyond the word. and if God has concealed from us the place in the glory which these eminent servants of His will occupy, it is the part of piety to bow in submission, to reverence His silence, as well as His word. Moreover, it savours not only of insubmission and irreverence, but it derogates also from the sufferings of Christ, and from the grace and work of the Spirit, to maintain that the saints who lived before the atonement was completed, and before the descent of the Holy Ghost, and who consequently had not the indwelling Spirit, are in precisely the same position as those who live now. Besides, I hope to show you that the scriptures themselves make a distinction; and if so, the difficulty ought at once to be removed.

I will cite, in the first place, Matt. 11: 11, where we read: "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." It would lead us away from our object to enter here upon a full exposition of this passage, and hence I will content myself with calling your attention to the fact that the Lord tells us, that eminent as John the Baptist was in the position assigned him by God, as the forerunner of and the testifier to the coming Messiah, the very least in the kingdom of heaven is greater. Be the difference what it may — a dispensational difference, no doubt — the Lord Jesus does here make a distinction between saints; and not only so, but in this distinction He contrasts one of the least in the coming kingdom with one of the greatest before that time, and to the advantage of the former.

Secondly, let us turn to Romans 3: 25, 26: "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare [I say] at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Now, mark at the very outset that the word "remission" in the text is given as "passing over" in the margin, and this is the correct translation; and this word is never used of the forgiveness of sins in connection with faith in Christ; indeed it is not elsewhere found in the New Testament, and means, as explained in the margin, a passing by, or pretermission. It is paresis. Bearing this in mind, you will perceive that we have a contrast between the position of the Old Testament saints as to the forgiveness of sins, and the position of believers since the death of Christ. In the former case, their sins were passed over, or pretermitted, through the forbearance of God; in the latter, God is said to be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Surely this is a plain distinction between Old Testament saints and believers of the present dispensation; for sins passed over through the forbearance of God, because of the coming sacrifice of Christ, can never express the condition of those who, "being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5: 1, 2) of those who are said to be seated "together in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 2: 6); of those of whom the apostle John could say, "As He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17.)

We pass on now to the Hebrews; and there we have these words: "These all" (the Old Testament saints), "having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." (Heb. 11: 39, 40.) Here also we have a statement, as plain as language can make it, that believers in the present dispensation receive some "better thing" than fell, in the sovereignty and grace of God, to the Old Testament believers.

Having called your attention to these direct teachings of Scripture, I will now adduce another class of passages, in which we shall find saints in a perfected condition, but outside the church. The only thing I need to premise is, that the church is the bride of Christ. All, I should suppose, are agreed as to this. Let us then turn to Rev. 19. In the 7th and 8th verses we have the wife of the Lamb; and then, in the 9th, follow these words: "Blessed are they which are called" (or invited; see John 2: 2) "unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." Thus we have a class spoken of who are invited; not the wife, but the called — those who were guests at the marriage supper.

Turn again to Rev. 21: "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them," etc. (vv. 2, 3.) In the 9th verse, this city, the holy Jerusalem, is said to be "the bride, the Lamb's wife;" but in the above passage it is described also as "the tabernacle of God," and this tabernacle is said to be with men; so that once more we have saints in a perfected condition outside the church.

And I would also remind you, that you have for some years professed to hold the premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus. If you do still, then of necessity, since the church is completed at the coming of Christ for His people (for the marriage of the Lamb is previous to the millennial reign), the millennial saints — innumerable for multitude — do not form part of the church; and so, in any case, a large class on your own ground is excluded. There is no more "injustice," therefore, done to the Old Testament saints than to the millennial believers, when the proper position and privileges of the church are maintained.

The subject however would not be completely discussed, if we did not refer to some two or three passages which might, at first sight, seem to have an opposite bearing. The first of these is Matt. 8: 11, 12: "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness," etc. In the first place, if this did refer to the church, sitting down with the patriarchs in the kingdom of heaven does not prove that the patriarchs belonged to the church. No one, we suppose, doubts that believers will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom; the only question is, Are they of the church? But it is evident that this passage says nothing of the church. If so, how could "the children of the kingdom" be cast out? No, Jesus speaks as the Messiah, and in this character He warns the unbelieving Jews, that their descent from the patriarchs will avail them nothing; that, though they were the children of those to whom the promises were made, they would, if they rejected Him, be cast out, and that, just as the centurion, whose servant He had healed, had pressed by faith into the possession of blessing, so should numbers from all quarters press into the kingdom when it should be set up, and should thus obtain, by faith, the blessed privilege which they were now despising.

The only other passage which occasions any difficulty is in the epistle to the Galatians. It is as follows: "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." (Gal. 3: 9.) The theme of the apostle in this chapter is justification by faith; and he shows, first, that Abraham was justified by faith (v. 6); and then, that the same principle obtains under the gospel, and consequently that every one who is of faith is blessed with faithful, i.e. believing, Abraham. (See also Romans 4) The question therefore dealt with is the principle on which God justifies, not the position into which the justified are brought; and hence this passage does not go farther than teach, that the mode in which Abraham was justified is that in which believers now are justified; and therefore it does not touch upon dispensational differences of any kind.

Having thus passed, though briefly, the whole subject in review, we see that the Scriptures say nothing as to the inclusion of the Old Testament saints in the church; and that the Scriptures themselves make a plain distinction between the saints of the two dispensations. At the same time, we repeat that, since we know they were born of God, quickened by the power of the Spirit through faith, they belong to Christ, though not members of His body, and will, therefore, share in the first resurrection together with the church. Beyond this we may not go, as the Scriptures are silent as to the place in the glory they will occupy; and I am sure that you, equally with myself, would be the first to reject such speculations as are sometimes offered upon the question as to whether some change might not be wrought upon the patriarchs' condition after the death of Christ, so as to bring them into the church; for. in truth, this is to fall, in principle, into the Popish error of purgatory, even though it be shorn of its grossest features. No; our part is to accept whatever the Scriptures may teach, and as implicitly to refuse any speculation which seeks to penetrate into the things which God has not revealed.

But since He has taught us that the period of the church is included between Pentecost and the coming of the Lord, we know that the believers before and the believers after that time cannot form part of it, cannot be members of the body of Christ. Their place and blessing in the glory will be worthy of Him who separated them unto Himself, and will call forth their adoration and praise, equally with ours, as they contemplate the wondrous display of the riches of His grace in their salvation and eternal glory.

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

THE LORD'S COMING.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS,

The question of the return of the Lord for His people is very closely connected with the true doctrine of the church. It is not indeed too much to say, that whenever the nature of the church — its character and heavenly calling — is not clearly apprehended, there must of necessity follow confusion of perception and judgment concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus to receive His people unto Himself. It is this which accounts for the fact that so many unscriptural theories are afloat at the present time, making it all the more important that we should know what the Scriptures really teach on the subject.

But you will permit me to assume in this letter that the return of the Lord is pre-millennial. We have so often gone into this matter in years past, that I cannot bring myself to believe that it is necessary to re-state the scriptural grounds of this elementary belief. Both the Old and the New Testaments teem with proofs of it, showing that when the Lord comes with His saints He will destroy Antichrist and his armies, and judge the living nations, before He commences that glorious reign wherein "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth," and wherein "the whole earth shall be filled with His glory." (See Isa. 24 - 27, 52 and 60; Jer. 33; Zeph. 3; Zech. 12 - 14; 2 Thess. 2; Rev. 19 - 21: 1-8, etc.) I give these scriptures in case any of you have wavered from your former views on this point; and having done so, I shall proceed to consider whether the Lord will return for His people before the unequalled tribulation of which we read in Matt. 24 and in the prophets (as, for example, Dan. 12: 1; Jer. 30: 7 etc.); in other words, whether the church will be in the tribulation; i.e., in fact, whether we may at any time expect the Lord's return.

In order that there may be a perfect understanding of the subject to be discussed, I may add that it is contended by some that there are certain intervening events between the present time and the Lord's coming, such as the return of the Jews to their own land, the re-division of the nations of the old Roman empire into ten kingdoms, the rise and power of Antichrist, etc.; and hence that the hope of the Lord's return cannot be a present thing to the soul. In fact, those who hold this view regard the coming of the Lord for His saints, and His coming to take to Himself His great power in His millennial kingdom, as coincident. The question therefore which we have to ask is, Which of these opposing views is according to the word of God

1. Now the first thing I have to remark is, that since (as we saw in a former letter) the church is not found in the Old Testament, it is not there that we can discover its true and proper hope. The coming of the Lord to reign from mount Zion is there frequently spoken of (see Psalm 2); but this is always in connection with His ancient people, and forms indeed the distinctive hope of Israel. But nowhere in the Old Testament do we find a trace of the change of the living saints, the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep, and their common rapture to meet the Lord in the air, as taught by the apostle in 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. Nay, how could it be so, when, as we learned, the mystery of the church, as the body of Christ, was not revealed until the time of the apostle Paul? It is therefore exclusively to the New Testament that we must turn for light upon this subject.

2. We come then to the Gospels; and inasmuch as Matthew 24 has been largely used in this discussion, we will examine it patiently to see whether it does refer to the return of the Lord for the church. Let us turn to it; for very much turns upon our interpretation of our Lord's discourse to His disciples as there recorded. To raise the question then in the most distinct and simple form, we ask, Are we to understand that our Lord in this discourse speaks of His return to receive believers of this dispensation unto Himself? If He does, it is clear from verses 21, 22 that the church will be in the final tribulation, and consequently that we cannot expect the return of our Lord until after many intervening events. But if our Lord is here dealing with another subject, we have then full liberty to gather from other scriptures what is the truth connected with the coming of the Lord for His saints.

(1.) The first point to which I call your attention is found in the 5th, 23rd, and 24th verses: "Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." (v. 5.) "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (vv. 23, 24.) Now let me ask you, Supposing that any one at any time should go to a Christian and say, Christ is in such and such a place, could he be in this manner deceived? Does not every, even the most uninstructed, believer know where Christ is, that He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven? If, moreover, a man were to come amongst believers, doing great signs and wonders, and offering these in proof that he was Christ, would he succeed in deceiving the saints? Why, many scriptures would at once be present to their minds contradicting his claims, since all know that they will never see their Lord until either they depart to be with Him, or He comes to receive them unto Himself. On the other hand, suppose for an instant that such a temptation were presented to the Jews who do not believe that their Messiah has ever come, and who are still expecting His advent, and you will see at once their immense liability to such deception. We cannot therefore but regard this description as applying to God's ancient people, and not to the church.

(2.) Again, let us examine the 15th verse: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea," etc. If you will turn to the place in Daniel referred to by our Lord, you will at once see that his prophecy refers wholly and exclusively to his own nation — the Jews; and the very terms which our Lord here uses — "the abomination of desolation" — a well-known term for idols; and "the holy place," referring to the temple, show as conclusively that He is dealing with the same people — describing their sorrows at the time of the end, when "there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time" — previous to the deliverance of the remnant — "every one that shall be found written in the book" (Dan. 12: 1) when "the Redeemer shall come to Zion." (Isa. 59: 20; Zech. 12 - 14 etc.; and especially read Dan. 9: 24-27, and Dan. 12)

(3.) Look also at the 20th verse: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." How could a believer offer such a prayer, since the Sabbath, the seventh day (and no other than the seventh) is, to him as any other day in the week? But if this instruction were given to the Jews, who would be still under the law, all becomes immediately intelligible.

(4.) There is another important link in the argument. If you will open your Bible, and look at the 29th and 30th verses of this chapter, you will note the following order of events: After the tribulation, the sun darkened, etc., then the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, then the mourning of all the tribes of the earth, and their seeing the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and then, after these things we are told that "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." If now you will turn with me to Col. 3: 4, you will find these words: "When Christ [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Now if these two passages refer to the same event, they are contradictory; for the former states that the tribes of the earth shall see the Son of man coming, etc., before the elect are gathered from the four winds, etc., while the latter states that when Christ shall appear His people shall appear with Him. Both therefore cannot refer to the same event; and hence that in Matthew must apply to the coming of the Lord to the earth, to bring together to Zion His elect remnant of the Jews.

For these reasons we have no alternative, if our minds are not biassed or prejudiced by a preconceived system, but to conclude that Matt. 24 has no reference to the coming of the Lord for His saints; but that it refers to the Lord's dealings with His ancient people previous to His appearance on their behalf, when He comes to reign in mount Zion, according to the testimony of the prophets.

And with this conclusion agrees the local references of the chapter, such as Judea (v. 16), the holy place (v. 15), etc.; and, I may add also, the connection. For we find that at the end of Matt. 23 our Lord pronounces this solemn sentence upon Jerusalem: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (vv. 38, 39.) Then we read: "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of the temple," etc.; and it is this incident which gives rise to the discourse; for Jesus replied, "See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." After this, upon His being seated upon the mount of Olives, "the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (age, tou aionos)?" The discourses on which we have commented is the answer to this question; and it all proceeds in harmony with the conclusions at which we have arrived. The Lord had pronounced His solemn sentence upon His people; and immediately He departs from the temple, goes outside of the city, seats Himself upon Olivet with the city full in view, and in that position He describes her fate, and the history of His ancient people down to the end of the age. To introduce the church in such a connection is but to mar the unity of the discourse, and to confuse the simplicity of the divine wisdom.

Adopting then the view we have substantiated from an examination of this chapter, we have gained two things; first, that the church will not, as far as here appears, be in the final tribulation; and, secondly, that we have a coming of Christ to the earth which is altogether distinct from His return for the church.

3. Passing now for the moment over the epistles, we will next examine the Revelation; for this book is all-important for the decision of the question as to whether the church will be in the tribulation. In Rev. 1: 19 we get the proper division of the book. "Write," says the Lord to John, "the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" (or rather "after these" — meta panta).  Here then is a threefold division of the book; first, "the things which John saw," described in the first chapter; next, "the things which are," the church dispensation, contained in the second and third chapters; and finally, "the things which shall be after these," detailed in the rest of the book. According to this arrangement the era of the church on earth closes at the end of the third chapter; and the seven churches represent the different successive and in measure the contemporaneous states of the whole Church until the time of the end. This, it must be remembered, is no novel theory, but is held and propounded by different and even antagonistic schools of interpretation. If this be so, the rapture of the saints, the coming of the Lord to receive His people, although not described, because not falling within the scope of the book, must take place between the third and fourth chapters; and consequently all the judgments that fall upon the earth after the third chapter are subsequent to the return of the Lord for the church.

I have thus in a few words stated what in my judgment is the correct outline of the book; but I will now adduce proofs from the book itself that this division is according to the mind of God. In harmony with what has been stated, you will find that the fourth chapter opens with these words: "After this" (and literally it should be, "After these things," thereby showing the connection with Rev. 1: 19) "I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." (Again it should be, "after these things meta tauta.) That is, John having described "the things which are," is then, in spirit, taken up to heaven to behold the "things which must be after these," the dealings of God in government with the earth, and especially with His ancient people, as the centre of His counsels respecting the earth, after the church dispensation has been brought to a close. And we have only to look at what was immediately presented to his view, to see how wonderfully this statement is confirmed. First of all he beheld "a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold." (vv. 2-4.)

Who then are these elders? Their number was four-and-twenty, corresponding with the twenty-four courses into which the priests were divided by David (see 1 Chr. 24), and hence representative of a complete body. But whom do they represent? You will notice that they were "clothed in white raiment," and that "they had on their heads crowns of gold." The white raiment will set forth their priestly character, besides being the well-known symbol in this book for the righteousnesses (exact translation) of saints (Rev. 19: 8); while the crowns of gold bespeak their royal dignity. Where then are we to look for this combination of character? We get the answer in this same book: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father," etc. (Rev. 1: 5, 6); and again in the epistle of Peter: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood," etc. (1 Peter 2: 9.) The elders therefore, it is clear, represent glorified saints, and, inasmuch as their number represents the whole body (as we have seen), the saints in their totality glorified together with Christ. Hence we see that the church is on high, having been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and glorified together with Him before the commencement of the judgments of which the book afterwards speaks.

It may however be objected that the elders are only a symbol. This is quite true, but the conclusion must be the same if we rightly apprehend the nature of the symbol. If the elders symbolize the church, we cannot err if we treat of the church as the thing signified; and it is utterly inconceivable that the elders in heaven could point to the church on earth, as there must be of necessity agreement between the symbol and the place of the thing signified.

But we can prove the truth of our interpretation from other parts of the book. Thus turn to the nineteenth chapter. After the description of the praise in heaven consequent upon the judgment of the great harlot, we have the anticipative celebration of the dominion of the Lord God omnipotent. Then follows the marriage of the Lamb. (vv. 7-9). Thereafter we read, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies [which were] in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," etc. (vv. 11-14.) The subsequent part of the chapter shows that we have here the account of the coming of the Lord Jesus to the earth, in judgment upon "the beast and false prophet" and their confederated followers, preparatory to the assumption of His millennial kingdom. Where then at this juncture do we find the church? The answer is in the fourteenth verse: "The armies [which were] in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." The "fine linen, white and clean," we are told in the eighth verse, "is the righteousnesses" (literal translation) "of saints." These armies then represent glorified saints; and hence we gather that they were in heaven with Christ during the final tribulation, and that they come with their Lord when He returns to take His millennial kingdom.

Turn also to the third chapter. Speaking to Philadelphia, the Lord says: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (v. 10.) We have already pointed out the representative character of the seven churches; and hence this promise cannot be confined to the local assembly at Philadelphia; otherwise indeed we should lose all the precious promises in connection with these epistles. But if not, then I submit that we have here a distinct promise that those who keep the word of His patience (and this is characteristic of the church) shall not be in the final tribulation — the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, etc.

I will ask you now to consider a proof of another character. You will not fail to notice. that there are saints on earth during the judgments described after the fifth chapter. (See Rev. 6: 10; Rev. 12: 10, 11; Rev. 13: 7, 8; Rev. 18: 4, 5, etc.) If then the church is in heaven during this time, who are these? We have a most decisive answer to this question. In the fifteenth chapter we read: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name" (these characteristics indicate plainly the saints who are on earth during the tribulation) "stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations" (marginal reading, which is correct). "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.". (vv. 2-4). Who then are these? They are Jewish saints; for none other will, or could, sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb; and indeed the terms "Lord God Almighty," "King of Nations," etc. point just as unmistakably to the same conclusion.

Add to this, that after the third chapter there is not a single trace of the church until we come to the nineteenth chapter; that "the seven Spirits of God" (the Spirit in the plenitude of His power) are seen as "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne" (Rev. 4: 5) — not on earth, as on and after Pentecost — and you can hardly fail to agree with me, that the Apocalypse proves incontestably that the church will not be in the tribulation; but that the believers of this dispensation will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before that time of final sorrow comes upon the earth. This conclusion is the same as that which was forced upon us by an examination of Matthew 24; and we see also here, as there, that the coming of the Lord to the earth to assume His millennial kingdom is altogether a distinct thing from His return for His people.

4. We shall pass now to examine some passages to show that, since the church will not be in the tribulation, there is nothing, as far as is revealed, between the saint and the return of our Lord; that, in other words, it is our privilege to look daily for the coming of Christ to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also; i.e. that there are no intervening events, as far as we know from the scriptures, to be looked for, to precede, herald, or usher in the coming of Christ for the church.

With this end in view, we take first the familiar passage from the first epistle to the Thessalonians. Describing the coming of Christ, the apostle says: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4: 16-17.) Now this scripture teaches that there are some believers who will be alive at the coming of the Lord; and the apostle, speaking by the Spirit, says, "we who are alive," showing that as far as had been revealed to him, there was nothing to prevent the possibility of his being one of the number remaining until that time, and therefore that the Lord might come during his day. In giving this interpretation, I by no means forget that its force is sought to be averted by affirming that the apostle, in the use of the word "we," is speaking corporately of the church — that he only means, in fact, those who may be left on the earth in a far distant future — but that, since they will be a part of the church, he links himself with them by the word "we." That there may be examples of such a mode of speech in the Scriptures I am not at all disposed to deny; but that there is any trace of it here I exceedingly doubt. Indeed the context, as well as the object the apostle had before his mind, emphatically forbids its introduction in this connection. Besides, if we turn to the epistle to the Corinthians, we shall find him speaking in precisely the same way. He there also says: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," etc. (1 Cor. 15: 51), indicating, beyond a doubt, that the apostle entertained the personal hope that the Lord might come at any time, so that he himself might be found among the number of the living saints at that day.

This conclusion will be strengthened if I draw your attention to the plain distinction which the apostle draws between the return of the Lord for His saints and the day of the Lord — the day which will be introduced on His coming manifestly to the earth to assume His power and to establish His kingdom, as seen for example in Matt. 24. Thus to go back to 1 Thess. After having described the character of the coming of the Lord for His saints (1 Thess. 4: 15-18), he proceeds: "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." (1 Thess. 5: 1, 2.) The saints therefore at Thessalonica had been instructed concerning the day of the Lord — the coming of the Lord in manifested glory — as recorded in Matt. 24 and elsewhere. They knew about this perfectly; and hence this is a totally different thing from the coming of the Lord for His people, concerning which the apostle had just taught them by a special communication from the Lord. Accordingly he proceeds: "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day." (1 Thess. 5: 4, 5.) He thus reminds them that they belong to the day — that day which would bring such terror upon the wicked, and hence that they would not be upon the earth in the darkness when it dawned.

So also in the second epistle. "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled," etc., "as that the day of Christ is at hand" (as that the day of the Lord is present, is the correct reading and translation). That is, he reminds them of the instruction given them in the former epistle concerning the coming of the Lord, and their being gathered unto Him; and makes this the ground of his appeal to them, not to be disturbed by the false teaching then current, that the day of the Lord was already come. "How" in effect he says, "can this be, when before the day of the Lord is present you will have been caught up to meet Him in the air?" Then, having disabused their minds of this error, he details some features that must precede that day, revealing to them that the apostacy must first come, and the man of sin be revealed, etc.; features therefore, on this interpretation, which will follow upon the rapture of the saints, and precede the day of the Lord. (2 Thess. 2)

The constant attitude of waiting for Christ, which is spoken of everywhere. throughout the epistles, is confirmatory of this view. "Waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 1: 7); Our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour," etc. (Phil. 3: 20); "How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1: 9-10); "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour. Jesus Christ." (Titus 2: 13.) We may adduce here also the injunctions as to watching which the Lord so frequently enjoined upon His disciples: "Let Your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord," etc. (Luke 12: 35-40); "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come," etc. (Matt. 24: 42.)

Now I venture to say that, if our souls were simple before the Lord, we could not understand either the expressions in the epistles or the injunctions of our Lord, in any other way than as teaching that the Lord might return at any moment for His people — than, in fact, that He intended the immediate prospect of His return to operate on our souls day by day in detaching us from things around, in separating us entirely unto Himself, and in purifying ourselves even as He is pure. (1 John 3: 2, 3.)

Only one thing more need occupy our attention before drawing this letter to a close. Very much is made of the fact by some that the coming of Christ for His people seems at times to be identified with His revelation, i.e. His appearing to the world. Thus in 1 Cor. 1: 7 (a scripture already quoted), we have "waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (margin). "Here," opponents triumphantly exclaim, "is a plain proof that the coming of Christ for His people, and His manifestation to the world when every eye shall see Him, is one and the same thing." No, we reply, it cannot be, because the apostle says, that "when Christ [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 4); and therefore we know that the saints are with the Lord before His appearing, The fact is, when the responsibility of the saints on earth is brought in, the goal is the appearing of Christ, because that is the time of the displayed recompense of the saints, the time when the Lord comes "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired" (wondered at) "in all them that believe." (2 Thess. 1: 10.) In this connection therefore (as in this chapter), the recompense of the saints, and the destruction of "them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," are found side by side. The earth was the scene of the sufferings of the saints, and of the disobedience of unbelievers; and therefore the earth shall behold the recompense of the one, and the destruction of the other. This is why we have the time of the appearing here introduced, and in 1 Cor. 1: 7; and indeed in every case where the thought of the responsibility of saints on earth is prominent. Otherwise the goal of expectation is the Lord's return, which indeed is the hope of the church; for the Lord is the bright and morning Star, as well as the Sun of righteousness (Rev. 22: 16; Malachi 4: 2; and compare 2 Peter 1: 19); and hence it is our blessed privilege to wait constantly for His coming.

Enough now has been said to show you three things; first, that the church will not have to pass through the final tribulation; secondly, that there are no necessary intervening events, as far as we know from the scriptures, between the present and the Lord's return; and consequently in the last place, that the proper attitude of the believer is that of waiting for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the promise He has left us, that He "will come again to receive us unto Himself; that where He is we may be also." (John 14: 3.)

Much might be added upon the practical aspects of this doctrine, upon the blessed influence which the expectation of the Lord at any moment is calculated to exert upon the soul; but this I must leave you to gather from your own study of the Scriptures. For I am assured that, if you once perceive that the Lord's coming is the proper and constant hope of the church, you will soon discover its sanctifying power upon the heart and life. Hence I cannot but pray that you may soon be led into the apprehension of this truth, in the power of the Holy Spirit; and therefore that you will faithfully, as before God, refuse all teaching which either omits, or contradicts it; for no one can rightly divide the word of truth who is ignorant of this most blessed and sustaining hope.

Believe me, beloved friends,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

Twelve Letters to Young Believers

Twelve Letters to Young Believers.

E. Dennett.

PREFACE

These letters to young believers are reprinted, without alteration, from the Christian's Friend magazine. They were originally written by the editor for the help of one who had but recently been converted, and who had never the opportunity of listening to oral teaching. But in as much as the subjects of which they treat are of vital and abiding interest they are now issued in a separate form, with the prayer that the Lord may be pleased to bless them to the edification of many of the lambs of His flock.

BLACKHEATH,

December, 1877.

1. PEACE WITH GOD

My Dear -,

You complain that you have not "settled peace," and that thus you are making but little progress with the truth, or in the knowledge of the Lord. The complaint, I am sorry to know, is by no means uncommon; but it springs from an imperfect knowledge of the gospel, and from confounding two different things. I hope therefore, with the Lord's blessing, to be able to help you, if you will carefully consider what I am about to write.

Your case reminds me exactly of another that recently came before me. "Have you peace with God?" I inquired. The answer returned was, "Not always." In both cases the confusion is between the peace made, and the enjoyment of the peace. That is, when you are happy in the Lord you say, "Now I have peace"; but when from failure or trial you are depressed and gloomy, you think that your peace is gone. To meet this state of mind, I shall ask you to consider attentively, what are the foundations of peace with God. It is an immense gain to the soul when it is clearly perceived that these lie not within, but without; for then it will also be seen that our experiences have nothing whatever to do with the question. Turn then with me to Romans 5: 1. There we read, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"; and if we examine the connection of this scripture, we shall at once learn the source of the peace of which it speaks. The connection is this. After the apostle has explained the way in which Abraham was justified before God, he proceeds: "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Rom. 4: 23-25; Rom. 5: 1).

It is very clear from this scripture that the sole foundation of peace with God lies in the work of Christ. In fact, the foundation having thus been laid, God declares that everyone who believes His testimony concerning it, believes that He in grace has come in, and made full provision for the sinner's salvation, believes thus in God, is justified, and being justified has — enters upon the possession of — the peace which has been made by the death of Christ. But it will be observed that it is said that Christ was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification (Rom. 4: 25). That is, the resurrection of Christ is the abiding proof of the completion of His work, the evidence that the sins for which He died, and under which He went down into death, are gone for ever — the witness therefore that every claim that God had upon us has been fully met and satisfied. For if He was delivered for our offences, and He has left the grave, been raised out of death, the "offences" under which He went down into death must be gone, or He would still be a prisoner in the tomb. Hence the resurrection of Christ is the distinct and emphatic expression of God's satisfaction with the atonement which was made on the cross.

It is thus abundantly evident, as before said, that the alone foundation of peace with God lies in the death of Christ. This is repeated again and again in Scripture. Thus we are said to be "justified by His blood" (Rom. 5: 9); and again, "having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col. 1: 20). It is therefore Christ who makes peace with God, and He has made it by His sacrificial death — the death that vindicated every claim God had upon the sinner, met every one of His righteous requirements from man, glorified Him in every attribute of His character; so that God now can beseech the sinner to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 5: 20).

Having explained this much, it follows that the one important question for the soul is, Do I believe God's testimony concerning His Son, and concerning the work He has accomplished? If there is any difficulty in answering this question, then no further progress can at present be made. A very simple test, however, will help to elicit the truth. On what do you rest for acceptance before God? Is it on yourself, your own doings, or your own merits or deservings? If so, you cannot be resting on the work of Christ. But if you own that by nature you are hopelessly undone and lost, and confess that you have no hope apart from Christ and what He has done, then you can humbly say, "By the grace of God I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Supposing now that you can adopt this language, then I can tell you that you have "settled" peace with God, that nothing can ever deprive you of it — no change, no variety of experience; for it is your immutable, inalienable possession. The Scripture says, "Therefore being justified by faith" (and you say you do believe), "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Every believer — and the moment he believes — is justified, acquitted of all charge of guilt, and made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5: 21); and being justified, he has peace — not peace in himself, be it observed, but peace through our Lord Jesus Christ; that is, the peace which now belongs to him is the peace with God which Christ has made by His atoning sacrifice. And since it is the peace which He has made, being thus outside of ourselves, it can never be altered, and can never fluctuate; it is as stable and as durable as the throne of God; for, as we have seen, it is a peace which Christ has made through the cross; and what He has thus done can never be undone, and therefore it is an everlasting peace. And this abiding, settled, everlasting peace is the portion of every believer.

What you mean, then, when you complain that you have not settled peace, is simply that you do not enjoy settled peace, that your experience fluctuates. It may be, therefore, as well to inquire how the believer is to enjoy constant peace in his soul. The answer is very simple. It is by faith. If I believe God's testimony that peace is mine on faith in the Lord Jesus, I shall enter immediately on its enjoyment. This may be simplified by an illustration.

Suppose that news is brought to you that by the will of a deceased relative you have become the owner of a large estate. The effect on your mind will depend entirely upon the fact whether or not you believe what you have heard. If you doubt the truth of the news, there will be no answering response to it; but if, on the other hand, it is duly attested, and you implicitly receive it, you will at once say, "The property is mine." So is it also in regard to peace with God. If you believe God's testimony that peace has been made by the blood of Christ, no depression of feeling, no conviction of unworthiness, no circumstances whatever, will be able to disturb your security upon this point, because you will see that it depends entirely upon what another has done. What is thus needed for the enjoyment of. settled peace is unwavering repose upon the word of God.

The cause of so much uncertainty on this subject springs mainly from looking within instead of looking without to Christ — looking within to discover something that will give confidence that there is a real work of grace begun in the soul, instead of looking without to perceive that the only foundation on which a soul can rest before God is the precious blood of Christ. The consequence is that, perceiving the corruption, the evil of the flesh, the soul begins to doubt whether after all it has not been deceived. Satan thus entangling the soul, plies it with doubts and fears, in the hope of producing distrust of God, if not utter despair. The effectual means of foiling his assaults in this direction is to appeal to the written word. In answer to all his evil suggestions we should reply, as our blessed Lord did when He was tempted, "It is written," and then we should soon find that nothing could disturb our enjoyment of that peace with God which has been made by the precious blood of Christ, and which became ours as soon as we believed.

This foundation question settled, now freed from self-occupation, you will have leisure of mind and soul for meditation upon the truth as revealed in the Scriptures. "As a new-born babe, you will desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2: 2) ; and, moreover, if you study the word in the presence of the Lord, you will be guided by it into ever closer intimacy of communion with Himself, and as you trace out His infinite perfections and glories that are unfolded to us and apprehended by the Spirit of God, your affections will be drawn forth in ever increasing fervency, and your heart, now satisfied, will overflow in adoration at His feet, and thus your complaint will be changed into a song of praise.

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

2. OUR PLACE BEFORE GOD

My Dear -,

I am a little anxious lest, knowing now that you have peace with God, you should be content, and settle down, thinking that this is all the blessing that God has provided for you in Christ. Many fall into this snare, and thereby never understand the place into which they are brought.

Permit me, then, to remind you, that great as the blessing is, on the enjoyment of which you have entered, it falls infinitely short of God's thoughts and God's desires for you. I may be able to make this more simple, if I direct your attention again to the foundation. The foundation of all lies in the cross of Christ; for it was there that He both met, on our behalf, every claim of God's holiness, and fully glorified Him in every attribute of His character. It is to this He Himself referred when He said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John 17: 4). And it is on this ground, as having thus established a claim upon God, that He prays, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (v. 5). You will therefore see that God's estimate of the work of Christ is seen in the place which He has accorded to Him at His own right hand. We may even say more: that nothing less than this would have been an adequate response to the claim which Christ had, through His finished work, established on God. And surely nothing less could have satisfied the heart of God; for who shall even imagine His joy in intervening to raise Christ from the dead, setting Him down at His own right hand, and in giving "Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"? (Phil. 2: 9-11). Observe, then, very carefully these three things: first, that the place now occupied by Christ in glory is the fruit of His redemptive work; secondly, that He occupies it as Man; and hence, thirdly, that He is there on behalf of His own. The consequence is, that God must bring us into the same place; that God's glory is concerned in according to believers the same place of acceptance before Him; yea, that His heart delights also to acknowledge thus the work and worthiness of His beloved Son. Every believer therefore is before God according to the efficacy of the work of Christ, and in all the acceptability of His Person, and thus enjoys a position of perfect nearness, and is the object of the perfect complacency of God; for he is brought, even now, home to God in Christ Jesus.

I may now lead you to a few scriptures which will abundantly substantiate the above statements. The very next verse to that which occupied our attention in the last letter will do much towards this. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"; and then the apostle proceeds: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5: 1, 2). It is thus not only peace with God that we have on believing, but we have access also through Christ into this grace wherein we stand; i.e., we are brought into the full favour of God — into the unclouded sunlight of His presence, and there we can rejoice — everything being settled and secured — in hope of the glory of God. So perfect and so inalienable is the place into which we are brought, on faith in Christ — on faith in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead — that, notwithstanding the trials, difficulties, and dangers of the wilderness-path, we can rejoice in the hope — in the sure and certain prospect — of the glory of God. There may be, as the apostle goes on to tell us, tribulations; but if so, we can glory even in these, "knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" — that love which God proved, commended toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Having too, while we were yet enemies, been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, we are entitled to conclude, we shall be saved — saved completely, including the redemption of the body (Rom. 8: 23) — by His life, the life of the risen Saviour at the right hand of God. And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation (see margin) (Rom. 5: 3-11). Thus we have as our present portion, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts; we joy in Himself, we occupy before Him a place of perfect favour and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

But even this is not all. In this same epistle we are taught, not only that our guilt is gone for ever as soon as we believe in Christ, that we are justified, etc., but we are also shown to be brought through the death and resurrection of Christ into a new place altogether — a place outside of the flesh, because we are "in Christ" before God. The next section of this epistle, commencing at verse 12 of this chapter, and ending with Rom. 8, treats of this subject. You will thus see that, first of all, everything is traced up either to Adam or Christ, the two heads, the first man Adam, and the second man Christ (Rom. 5: 12-21). The consequence is, that every one is seen in Adam or in Christ, and I need hardly say, whether we are in Adam or Christ, depends upon whether or not we are believers. If through grace we are believers, we are in Christ. This being so, there are certain blessed results which I will briefly indicate, leaving you at your own leisure to follow out the subject.

The first thing the apostle reminds us is, that the very ground on which we are — the ground taken at our baptism — shows that we profess to be dead with Christ; and this, as is seen in Col. 3: 3, is true of all believers before God. If you carefully read Rom. 6 you will at once see that the apostle urges our responsibility on this foundation. Hence myself is gone from God's sight as well as my sins, otherwise the apostle could not say, as he does, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6: 11).

In the next chapter he teaches that we "also are become dead to the law through the body of Christ," etc.; and this prepares the way, after a discussion of the effect of the application of the law to one who is quickened by the Spirit of God, bringing thereby to light the constant presence of sin in the nature and the utter contrariety between the new nature and the old (Rom. 7: 13-25), for a full statement of the truth as to the believer. "There is therefore," he proceeds to say, "now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," (Rom. 8: 1), so complete is the deliverance, as well as forgiveness, which we have in Christ. Nay more; he tells us, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you" (8: 9). He thus shows that the believer's standing is not in the flesh, not in the first man Adam at all, but he is before God in a place which is characterized as being in the Spirit; that is, the Spirit, and not the flesh, characterizes his existence before God, because, in the death of Christ, the believer's evil nature also was judged; for "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (8: 3). Then, after pointing out further blessed consequences of having the indwelling Spirit, he declares that "all things must work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to God's purpose," since "whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren," etc. He then asks the question, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" and he answers by reminding us that God, in delivering up His Son to death for us all, has given us the proof that He will freely give us all things. This leads him to the triumphant conclusion that nothing can be laid to the charge of God's elect; that since God Himself has justified them, none can condemn them; that since Christ has died, and has risen again, and is even at the right hand of God to make intercession for us, nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8: 31-39). Now it would be a fatal mistake for you to rest in the fifth chapter, if you would know the fulness of God's grace, and the wondrous character of His salvation; for, unless we go on to the eighth chapter, we never know what is true for us and of us before God — the complete and perfect deliverance every believer has, though he may be ignorant of it, in Christ. And it is of the utmost importance that you should see that these blessings which have been indicated are in no way connected with attainment. All that I have pointed out is the portion (whether he knows it or not) of every one who cries "Abba, Father," of every babe in Christ.

But even now there is much more beyond; and if you will turn with me to the Ephesians, I will indicate in a few words — for I am unwilling to prolong this letter — the full character of the believer's place before God. Look, first, at the wonderful expressions in the first chapter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1: 3-6). Look at each of the sentences I have underlined, and you will see how perfect is our place before God. For He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, etc.; it is His purpose that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; and He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

In the next chapter we have the steps by which we have been brought into the heavenly places. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," etc. (Eph. 2: 46). Here we are regarded as having been dead in sins; Christ is looked upon in this epistle as having gone down into that condition — dead, as it were, in the place of the sinner; God, being rich in mercy, and acting from His own heart of love, came in, in grace, and quickened us together with Christ, and then He raised us up together and seated us together in Christ in the heavenlies; so that He has brought us into His own presence; and hence our present place — our place now, even while we are in the body — is in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Nothing short of this expresses the fulness of His grace, or satisfies His own heart.

There is one more scripture I desire to bring before you, and then I have done. "As He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17). As Christ is at the right hand of God — the delight and joy of God's heart — there in all the perfectness of His person, and in all the sweet savour of His sacrifice, so are we in this world; for we stand not in ourselves but in Christ, and are therefore invested with all His own acceptance and fragrance before God.

The Lord give us to have clearer apprehensions of the place into which, in His unspeakable grace, we are brought in Christ Jesus.

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

3. OUR PLACE ON EARTH

My Dear -,

In my last letter I attempted to show you our place — as believers — before God; and now I desire to direct your attention to our place here upon the earth; and we shall see, I think, that this is also connected with Christ. Just, indeed, as we are identified with Christ before God as to standing, so also are we identified with Christ before the world. In other words, we are put in His place down here just as we are in Him before God; and I cannot but think that it would be very helpful to us all to have this truth continually before our souls. But there are two aspects of our place on the earth, both of which are important to be understood; the first in relation to the world, and the second in relation to the "camp"; i.e., organized professing Christianity, which has succeeded in this dispensation to the place of Judaism, as the professing witness for God. (See Rom. 11, and compare Matt. 13.)

1. Our place in relation to the world. The Lord Jesus, speaking to the Jews, said, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8: 23). Afterwards, when presenting His own before the Father, He said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17: 16); and you will see that, in the section from the 14th to the 19th verses, He essentially puts His disciples in His own place in the world, just as in the previous paragraph (from the 6th to the 13th verses) He puts them into His own place before the Father. And they have His place in the world, be it remarked, because they are not of it, even as He was not of it; for having been born again they are no longer of the world. Hence He speaks continually of their having to encounter the same hatred, and the same persecution, as befell Himself. Thus, to cite an example, He says, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also" (John 15: 1820). The apostle John in like manner indicates the utter contrast between believers and the world, when he says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" — or "the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).

But there is more than even yet appears from these weighty scriptures. Every believer is regarded by God as having died and been raised together with Christ (Romans 6; Col. 3: 1-3). He has thus been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, as completely, in the view of God, out of the world, as Israel was brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Hence he is no longer of it, though he is sent back into it (John 17:18), to be for Christ in the midst of it. Paul therefore could say, while active in service for Christ in the world, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom" (or whereby) "the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6: 14). By the cross of Christ he saw that the world was already judged (John 12: 31); and by the application of the cross to himself he regarded himself as dead — crucified to the world — so that there was separation between the two as complete as death could make it.

To sum up these teachings, then, we see that the Christian while in the world is not of it — he is not of it in the same sense as Christ was not of it, he belongs to another sphere — for if any man be in Christ it is a new creation; he has been, as already seen, brought clean out of it through the death and resurrection of Christ. Hence he is to be wholly separate from it; he is not to be conformed to this world (Gal. 1: 3; Rom. 12: 2) in spirit, habits, demeanour, walk; in everything he is to show that he is not of the world. Even more, by the application of the cross he is to hold himself as crucified to it; and there cannot be any attraction or assimilation between two judged things. But again, he is in the world in the place of Christ; i.e., he is in it for Christ, and as identified with Christ. Consequently he is to witness for Christ, to walk as Christ walked (Phil. 2: 15; 1 John 2: 6, etc.), and he must expect the same treatment as Christ. Not that we look to be crucified as Christ was; but if we are faithful we shall encounter the same spirit in the world as He did: indeed, in proportion as we are like Christ will be the degree of our persecution; and the fact that believers now meet with so little hatred from the world can only be accounted for from their being so little separate from it.

Before I pass to the other branch of the subject, I cannot but urge upon you the importance of breaking with every link that connects you morally with the world. It needs but little penetration to perceive that the spirit of the world, worldliness, is creeping rapidly over God's assemblies, and vauntingly proclaiming itself even at the table of the Lord. What dishonour, yea, what grief, to Him whose death we are gathered to show forth! And what a call upon all the saints to humble themselves before God, and to seek anew for grace to be more devoted, and more separate, so that the world itself may see that we belong to Him whom it rejected, cast out, and crucified! How many of us have the spirit of Paul, who desired "the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and to be made conformable to His death" in the view of a glorified Christ, the object of his heart, and the goal of all his hopes? May the Lord restore to us, and all His beloved saints, more of this devotedness to Himself in entire separation from the world.

2. Our place in relation to the "camp." In the epistle to the Hebrews we read, "The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13: 11-13). Two things are very evident in this passage — the blood of the sin-offering was carried into the sanctuary, and the bodies of the beasts which were sacrificed were burnt without the camp; and the apostle points out that these two things have their correspondences in the death of Christ, the antitype indeed of these offerings. Hence we have the double place of the believer — his place before God being in the sanctuary, where the blood was carried; and his place on earth being without the camp, where Christ suffered. In other words, as before explained, if we are in Christ before God, identified with Him there in all the savour of His own acceptance, we are also identified with Him on earth in His place of shame, reproach, and rejection. The place of the believer on earth, therefore, is without the camp; as the writer of this epistle says, "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach."

You will perhaps ask me, What is the camp? In the passage which I have just cited, it is clear, from the whole connection, that it is Judaism. What, then, answers to it now? Judaism was of God, and occupied the place of testimony for Him on the earth. Judaism failed; and after Pentecost, on the final rejection of Christ in the preaching of the apostles, was set aside, and Christianity succeeded to its place, as is taught in Romans 11. The camp, then, now is organized Christianity, the outward professing church — which includes all denominations, from corrupt Roman Catholicism to the smallest sects of Protestantism. On what ground, you may further ask, are we called upon to go outside of this camp? On the ground of its utter failure as a witness for God. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev. 2: 11, etc.). This is our warrant for, and, indeed, our responsibility of, measuring all that claims to be of God by the written Word; and testing thus all these denominations, they are all convicted of disobedience and failure. For the believer, therefore, who would act according to the mind of God, there remains nothing but to take his place outside of all these, apart from the confusion and error of this evil day, with those who are gathered simply unto the name of Christ, in obedience to His Word. Exodus 33 is very instructive in this connection. When Moses came down from the mount (Ex. 32), he found that the whole camp had fallen into idolatry, and after returning to intercede for Israel, he came back with "evil tidings" for the people. And he "took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp" (v. 7). Moses acted thus, because he had the mind of the Lord in the presence of the failure of the people; and hence it is that we find in this scene a moral picture of our own times. Let me commend it to your careful consideration.

Enough has now been said to enable you to understand the place of the believer on earth. On the one hand it is to be in separation from the world, and on the other it is without the camp. To occupy it will involve hatred from the former, and reproach from the latter. But if so, we are but more fully identified with our blessed Lord. In Hebrews it is thus called, "His reproach." May we neither shun the one, nor be ashamed of the other; nay, may we be enabled to rejoice when we are counted worthy to suffer shame for His name (Acts 4: 41).

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

4. THE BODY OF CHRIST

My Dear -,

There is another question, now demanding your attention, connected with the body of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, an entirely new thing — in the unfolding of the counsels of God — took place; viz., the coming of the Holy Ghost. Up to that period, He had wrought upon the earth; for in every past dispensation there had been quickened souls, and "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1: 21) ; but until the Lord Jesus was glorified at the right hand of God, the Holy Ghost as a Person was not on the earth. This is no new theory, but is a matter of distinct statement in the Scriptures. Thus when Jesus stood and cried, on the great day of the feast of Tabernacles, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," it is explained, that He spake this "of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7: 37-39). The Lord Himself spake to the same effect: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you," etc. (John 16: 7. Compare John 14: 16, 17, 26; John 15: 26, etc.) Passing now onward to Acts 2, we find there the historical record of the descent of the Spirit of God: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (vv. 1-4). Thus was fulfilled the words which the Lord spake to His disciples after His resurrection, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." And again, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1: 5, 8).

Now it was by the descent of the Spirit that the Church — the Church of God as found in the New Testament — was formed; and it was formed in two aspects; viz., as the house of God, and as the body of Christ. (See 1 Timothy 3: 15, and Ephesians 1: 22, 23). It is the latter of these two aspects which I desire to bring before you in this letter. Two scriptures will clear our way. In Col. 1: 18 we read, "And He is the head of the body, the Church": in 1 Cor. 12: 13, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free," etc. It thus appears that, on the day of Pentecost, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, believers were baptized into one body, and that thus the body of Christ was formed.

Let me, then, now inquire of what or of whom the body of Christ is composed. "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (1 Cor. 12: 12). The term Christ, as here used, includes Christ Himself and all the members of the body, looked at as a complete whole. Hence the body of Christ includes Himself as the Head, and all believers on earth who have received the indwelling Spirit; and consequently every child of God who can cry, "Abba, Father," is a member of the body of Christ. The apostle thus says, "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Eph. 5: 30).

This is the point I would press upon your attention; for vast numbers of God's beloved children are in ignorance of this wonderful place and privilege. Thus, in a visit I made some time ago to a dying believer, I said, "Do you know that you are a member of the body of Christ?" The answer was, "No; I never heard of that"; and I shall not soon forget the joy that overspread that dying countenance as I unfolded the scriptures bearing upon this subject. Let me, then, ask you to consider what being a member of the body of Christ involves. First, and foremost, it teaches us that we are united to Christ — to Christ as a glorified man, at the right hand of God. For inasmuch as He is the Head of the body, every member is vitally and (may we not say?) organically united to Him. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6: 17). See then the vast extent of the grace of our God! It is not only that our sins are forgiven, that we are justified by faith, that we are brought into the perfect unclouded favour of God, that we are risen with Christ, that we are seated in Him in the heavenlies; but even, as down here upon the earth, encompassed by weakness and infirmity, it is given us to know that we are united to Christ in glory. We can look up to Him where He is, and say, "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." How could there be discussions upon the question, whether we may know our safety now, if this truth were known in power? And what strength it would give us all, in the presence of trials or dangers, never so great, if we had this thought before our souls, We are united to Christ. And oh, what a revelation it gives us of the nearness and the intimacy into which we are brought with Him! for we are made to know that we are one with Himself, that whatever touches us touches Him (see Acts 9: 4) ; and therefore that we are inseparably, indissolubly, connected with Himself for ever.

Secondly, we are taught that being members of the body of Christ, we are also members one of another; and it is essential for us to apprehend this truth, if we would understand the character of our relationships with all the children of God. The same bond, then, that unites us to Christ, unites us also to all believers; for the same Spirit that unites us to Christ has united us also one to another. This is what is meant by "the unity of the Spirit" (Eph. 4: 3); i.e., the unity of all the members of Christ which has been formed on the earth by the Spirit of God.

If you will now turn with me to 1 Cor. 12, you will see the wonderful character of our mutual relationships, arising out of our being members one of another. You can read the passage from the 12th to the 27th verse, at your leisure; in the meantime I will point out several distinctive points in its teaching. First, it is carefully insisted upon that "the body is not one member, but many"; and that every member has its own place in the body. Hence the apostle asks, "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" And he is careful to show that the peculiar place which each has in the body is the result of the sovereign act of God; and he is also careful to guard us from forgetting, that while there are many members, it is yet but one body (vv. 14-20). If we had no further instruction, what a fruitful theme for amplification. But I will only call your attention here to two points; viz., our obligation or responsibility to maintain the diversity of the members (v. 14), and secondly, the unity of the whole (v. 29) ; and I venture to add that it is impossible to maintain either the one or the other, excepting you are gathered, apart from all denominations and human systems, to the name of Christ outside the camp. The second thing is, that every member of the body needs all the other members; for "the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you"; and he tells us that God hath thus "tempered the body together," etc., "that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another" (vv. 2125). He then reminds us that the relationship between the members is so intimate that if "one member suffer, all the members suffer with it"; and that if "one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it" (v. 26).

You will see from this scripture, that the term "the body of Christ" is no mere figure of speech, as is so often alleged; but that it expresses a reality — the reality indeed of our union with Christ, as also of our union with one another. And I am sure that you will see that our responsibilities to Christ as the Head of the body, and our responsibilities to our fellow-members, cannot even be understood, much less discharged, if this truth is overlooked or ignored. But, on the other hand, when it is known, not only have we the joy of conscious union with Christ; but we can also rejoice in our union, our indissoluble union, with all the members of His body in all parts of the world. It leads moreover to very practical results. For example, if I am asked to connect myself with any of the denominations around, I instantly reply that I cannot do that which denies, plainly denies, this blessed truth. "You ask me," I should say, "to join a certain number of Christians who agree upon certain things; but I am united to all believers, and I need them all, and I cannot therefore accept a ground of union which excludes any." Again, if it is proposed to me to unite with a number of Christians irrespective of denominations, I should answer, "I am a member of the body of Christ; and I cannot therefore make any ground of union apart from that of the body. I must be on God's ground or upon none at all." Until therefore I know the truth of the body of Christ, I cannot understand the place which the Lord would have me to occupy upon the earth.

But I will now leave the subject for your own consideration; for I am sure that if you search the Scriptures, in dependence on the Lord, He will guide you by His Spirit into His own mind respecting it. In my next letter, God willing, I shall bring before you another subject, closely related to this; viz., that of the Lord's table.

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

5. THE LORD'S TABLE

My Dear -,

The question of the Lord's table is often a most perplexing one to the child of God. Not only are there many tables, set up on different grounds, around him on every hand, but also, when he begins to enquire into the subject, he finds almost as many theories as tables, concerning the significance of the supper of which he is invited to partake. His only remedy therefore, if he desires to avoid error and to be found in obedience to his Lord, is to turn away from the confused voices of theologians to the clear and distinct teaching of the word of God. It is to this teaching I desire to lead you in this letter.

As we might expect, there is nothing wanting on such a subject in the Scriptures. Thus 1 Cor. 10 explains the character of the table, and 1 Cor. 11 gives us the character of the supper, and the manner in which it should be eaten.

First we will consider the question of the table. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we [being] many are one bread, [and] one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (1 Cor. 10: 16, 17). This scripture evidently teaches two things; first, that the loaf or "the bread" on the table is a symbol of the body of Christ ("for we being many are one bread, one body" — see also 1 Cor. 12: 13) ; and secondly, that we partake of it as members of that body ("for we are all partakers of that one bread"). As therefore we have communion of the blood of Christ through the wine, so also of the body of Christ through the bread, when we partake according to the thoughts of God. The table is thus the expression of the unity of the body of Christ; and consequently it is only the members of that body who can be properly gathered around it. The "church" of England, strangely enough, agrees with this principle; for it admits no one to its table who has not been baptized; and it declares that every baptized one is made "a member of Christ," etc. The error, you will see, lies in attributing to baptism (as the means) what can only be wrought by the Spirit of God. I cite this case only to show you that the principle affirmed, so far from being peculiar, is widely accepted.

Now, it is by the application of this principle that you can decide which of all the tables around you is the Lord's. Test every denominational table by it, and what is the result? You will perceive at once that no sectarian system can have the Lord's table, because the ground on which it is spread, in every case, is narrower than that of the body of Christ. Admitting, or rather conceding for the moment, that all its followers may be members of the body of Christ, we should still have to say, Are there no other members of that body outside this denomination? If there are, then such a table, however sincerely, conscientiously, and piously spread, is not the table of the Lord. Should it be replied, "But we are quite willing to receive all other members of the body of Christ," I should have to answer, "This does not affect the question at all; for the ground taken determines the character of the table spread upon it; and the ground taken in each denomination is of such a character that many godly Christians could not have fellowship with it." The dissenter*, for example, is shut out, for conscience sake, from the table of the Anglican "church*"; and the Anglican* is similarly excluded from the tables of dissent*; and hence, neither in the one nor the other can the Lord's table be discovered, as the ground taken is other than that of the body of Christ.

*The Church of England is often referred to in England as the Anglican Church; all other Protestants are called dissenters.

Once more, test many of the unsectarian tables by this principle. You may perhaps tell me that you know of a place where all denominationalism is disavowed, and where it is taught that all Christians, and none but Christians, should be united. Very good; but I still should have a few questions to ask. I should inquire, Are the believers in such a place gathered simply unto the name of Christ? Is there liberty in the Spirit to minister by whom He wills? Is there the exercise of godly discipline? etc. For the Lord cannot sanction anything which is not in accordance with the Scriptures — anything which is unsuited to the character of His own name. If these questions could be answered in the affirmative, then you might perhaps conclude, that you had found the Lord's table; but if not, however fair and inviting it might seem at the first, you would have to reject it equally with those in the denominational systems around.

If we add a few characteristics of the Lord's table, it may serve to preserve you from mistake. 1. The table must be spread on ground outside of all denominational systems, otherwise, as we have shown, it could not comprehend all the members of the body of Christ. 2. The saints should be gathered on the first day of the week around the table. We thus read: "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), an undeniable proof that it was their custom. See too in John 20, how our blessed Lord, on two occasions after His resurrection, chose the first day of the week for presenting Himself in the midst of His gathered disciples (vv. 19, 26), thus consecrating (if such a word may be used) this day for their assembling to show forth His death. 3. The purpose of the gathering should be to break bread. I point this out, as in many places there is a weekly table, but altogether in subordination to other things, such as preaching, etc. 4. Everything in connection with the table — worship, ministry, and discipline, must be in accordance with, and in subjection to, the word of God. If there is a single human regulation, on whatever ground adopted, the character of the table is destroyed. For it is the table of the Lord; and hence His authority alone can be recognized by His gathered saints.

Need I add more? But there is a danger or two which I would fain indicate. The first is indifference. It was only the other day that I asked a believer if she were at the Lord's table. Apprehending my meaning, she replied, "It is enough for me to know that Christ is my Saviour, and I do not desire to trouble myself with such questions as these." Can anything be more sad? As if it was not of all-importance to ascertain the mind of the Lord; for surely if He has indicated His will upon this question, it should be our joy to discover it, and to be found in obedience to it. Another replied in a different way. He said, "I am not called upon to judge my fellow-believers, and I desire to have fellowship with all." "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev. 2, 3). We are thus called upon to judge the ways of our fellow-believers — indeed of the "churches"; to measure everything by the Word; and to refuse all which it does not sanction, or which it condemns. Indifference is that spirit of Laodiceanism concerning which our Lord says, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3: 16). The other danger is that of association. For example, how many a young believer is led unwittingly into that which is contrary to the Lord's mind from friendly, relative, or even spiritual associations! He is guided by the opinions of his friends, etc., instead of the word of God; or it may be that, having been converted or received blessing in a particular place, he naturally desires to continue where the blessing was received. But the question in every case should be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9: 6). Otherwise he might, in the right desire, according to the Lord's own word, to remember Him in His death, be found doing it in a way which is really displeasing to Him.

Warning you against these dangers, let me remind you that it is far better to wait than to partake of the Lord's Supper in disobedience. Before therefore you seek admission to the table, search the Scriptures, looking to the Lord for guidance; "and if thine eye is single, thy whole body shall be full of light."

Reserving the question of the supper for another letter,

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

6. THE LORD'S SUPPER

My Dear -,

It must never be forgotten that it is possible to be at the Lord's Table, and yet to fail altogether in participating in the Lord's Supper. Thus the Corinthians were gathered out to the name of Christ; they were assembled week after week at the Lord's Table, and yet Paul, writing to them, says, "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper" (1 Cor. 11: 20). They had fallen into such disorder, through selfishness, and forgetfulness of the import of the slipper, that they had made this solemn occasion a time of feasting. What they were eating therefore was their own, and not the Lord's Supper; for they had dissociated the bread and wine from almost all connection with the body and blood of Christ. Hence the solemn admonition, "What! have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not" (v. 22). Thereon, the apostle proceeds to explain the true character of the supper, and tells us that he had received a special communication concerning it from the Lord. It is of importance to mark this, because, as the apostle received this in connection with his ministry of the body of Christ (Col. 1: 24, 25), and since this is the final communication on the subject, it is to this scripture rather than to the gospels (which, however, relate the institution of the supper on the passover night) that we turn for the exposition of its meaning.

And who can fail to be struck with the wondrous grace displayed in the opening words of this account, "That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread," etc.? (v. 23). What a contrast between the heart of man, and the heart of Christ! About to be betrayed by one of His disciples, "He took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me" (vv. 23, 24).

The bread therefore is a symbol of the body of the Lord Jesus which was given for His own — given up to death for them, for us, for all believers — on the cross; and when we eat it, we are to remember Him. Attention to the word "remember" would save from many mistakes. We remember a thing that is past; i.e., we recall it to mind. So when we eat the bread at the Lord's Supper, we recall the fact that the Lord was once dead; we remember Him in that condition — the condition of death — down into which He went, when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree — when He endured all the wrath that was due to us, and so glorified God even about our sin. It is therefore not Christ as He now is, but Christ as He then was, whom we remember in the breaking of bread.

The cup also sets forth the same thing. "After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament [covenant] in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come" (vv. 25, 26). The wine, then, of which we partake is an emblem of the blood of Christ; and this in itself speaks also of death, for we cannot think of blood, as apart from the body, except in connection with death. Indeed, verse 26 emphasizes the truth that, both in eating the bread and drinking the cup, we show, announce, or proclaim, the death of the Lord. We cannot too earnestly insist upon this, that in the Lord's Supper we look back to a dead Christ; that we take it in remembrance of the fact that He once was lying dead — dead on the cross, and dead in the sepulchre; because He not only bore our sins, but was made sin — He who knew no sin — that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Note well that it is not even a dying, but a dead Christ — not a dying Christ, a continual repetition of His sacrifice, as so many erroneously teach, but a dead Christ; "for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10: 14).

This, then, is the one thought which should be before our souls at the Lord's table. What simplicity; but how calculated to touch and bow our hearts in adoration before Him, as, seated around His table, we thus commemorate His death! For "the apostle shows us, if it is a dead Christ, who it is that died. Impossible to find two words, the bringing together of which has so important a meaning, the death of the Lord. How many things are comprised in that He who is called the Lord had died! What love! what purposes! what efficacy! what results! The Lord gave Himself up for us. We celebrate His death."

And observe, it is "until He come." While therefore we look back to the cross, we are reminded of His coming in glory to receive us unto Himself, the fruit surely of His travail and death; and thus we can never forget that our complete redemption, being "conformed to the image of His Son," is the result of the death of Christ. For the two things, the cross and the glory, are here bound indissolubly together.

Such then is the meaning of the supper; and, as you will perceive, the apostle gives us very solemn warnings against forgetfulness of its import. "Whosoever shall eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [judgment] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (vv. 27-29). There is no question here of being ourselves worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper; but what the apostle deprecates is "partaking in an unworthy manner. Every Christian, unless some sin had excluded him, was worthy to partake, because he was a Christian. But a Christian might come to it without judging himself, or appreciating as he ought, that which the supper brought to his mind, and which Christ had connected with it. He did not discern the Lord's body; and he did not discern, did not judge, the evil in himself." And if he thus ate and drank, he would eat judgment to himself; i.e., he would bring down discipline upon himself; for the Lord judges His people, chastens them, that they should not be condemned with the world (v. 32). He had thus chastened the Corinthians for their careless ways — some with weakness, some with sickness, and some even with bodily death (v. 30). Hence the necessity of examining ourselves as to the manner in which we partake of the Lord's Supper, and of judging every thing which is thus discovered that is unsuited to the presence of the Lord; "for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (v. 31) ; i.e., exercising self-judgment, we should not then be chastened of the Lord.

From all that has been said, it is clear that we are not qualified for the Lord's table until the question of our relationship with God is settled — until, in a word, we have peace with God. For if I am occupied with self, with my own state of soul, with doubts, anxieties, or fears, I cannot be occupied with the death of Christ. Much injury is thus often done in bringing souls too soon to the table; for, coming before they have peace with God, they look upon the table as a means of grace; and inasmuch as the death of Christ is brought before them, they are made, not knowing the value of that death for themselves, wretched and miserable. Until there is peace of conscience through the blood, to say the least, the soul is not free, not at leisure to contemplate the death of Christ.

Once more. When we are at the table, it is not to be occupied with the benefits which we have received through the death of Christ. It is rather to enter, by the power of the Spirit, into God's thoughts concerning the death of His beloved Son. For we are there as worshippers, and as such inside the rent veil, and there we are engrossed with the fact that God Himself was glorified in the death of Christ; and as in fellowship with Himself, we think of what Christ was to Him, how that He was never more precious to Him than in that awful moment when He was made sin, that it was for God's glory He endured all, was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, then it is with overflowing hearts we are enabled by the Spirit to pour forth our adoration and praise. Wondrous thought, that we should thus be admitted to behold with God His Christ brought down into the dust of death, with all God's waves and billows passing over Him! And as we behold we cannot but cry, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1: 5-6).

We are thus at the table as givers, not as receivers; though surely we do receive when there according to God. But the object of our assembling is to worship, to render the homage of our hearts to God, because we have been redeemed through the death of His Son. And who could describe the blessedness of the privilege of showing in this way the Lord's death? Gathered around Himself, with the touching emblems of His body and blood before our eyes, thus claiming the affections of our hearts, His love, which the many waters could not drown, nor the floods quench, penetrates and possesses our souls, and constrains us to bow in willing adoration at His feet, and makes us long for the time when we shall see Him face to face, and beholding His glory, be with Him, and worship Him throughout the ages of eternity.

Praying that you may be taught more and more of the meaning of His death as set forth in the supper,

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

7. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE MIDST

My Dear -,

It is very important for you to have a clear conception of the presence of the Lord in the midst of the assembly; but the condition on which His presence is promised ought never to be forgotten. He has never said that He is wherever saints are assembled; that all alike who professedly meet for worship can reckon upon His promise. His words are: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Thus the essential condition is that saints should be "gathered together in His name"; and unless this is fulfilled the promise clearly is not binding.

Our first aim then must be to explain what this condition means. I may say that the more correct translation would be "unto my name"; for the preposition which is rendered "in," is one that invariably has the significance of "into" or "unto." Here therefore "unto" will be its sense. Again, it may be needful to point out that that name is not used merely as an appellation, but, as is usual in Scripture, is expressive of all that Christ is in this connection. Thus when the Lord, speaking before the Father of His disciples, says, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it" (John 17: 26), He does not mean that He had merely revealed to them that God also bore the name of Father; but that He had been teaching them all that God was to them in that relationship. Hence He adds, that He had done and would do this, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." What He desired therefore was that they should both know what God was to them as the Father, and that they should be brought into the enjoyment of all the love which He had for them as such. In like manner, "name" in the passage before us expresses all that Christ is as the glorified man and Lord in the relationship which He now sustains towards His people. I say "which He now sustains"; for it is very evident that these words look on to the time when He should be absent. Thus in Matt. 16 He says, "I will build my church" (v. 18), pointing on to a future time; and the passage in which the word "name" occurs is in connection with church action (v. 17). Indeed, while He was upon the earth the disciples could not be gathered to His name; for they were with Him as their Master and Lord.

We may then take the "name" to be expressive of the person of Christ-Himself, indeed, in all the truth of His person, as the risen and glorified One at the right hand of God. It is clear therefore that Christ is the only object that draws us together, and our centre when gathered; for the Holy Ghost will never gather believers to anything but Christ. If anything is added — whether it be a particular doctrine, or a particular form of church government — it is not simply the name of Christ, and the gathering is not according to His mind. If, for example, I agreed to meet with certain other believers of like views, we could not be gathered alone to the name of Christ, for something has been added or excluded; but if I am gathered with those who acknowledge that Christ Himself is the only attraction, with those who own His authority as Lord, who bow to His word, and regulate everything by it when assembled, then the gathering would be to His name. And only then; for where man's authority, man's traditions, or man's regulations are recognized, whatever the individual piety of those who recognize them, the meeting cannot be of this character.

Now it is in the midst of His people so gathered that the Lord has promised to be. "There am I in the midst of them." This very fact shows the extreme importance of being gathered unto His name; for, as we have said, if the condition be disregarded, we have no ground for reckoning upon His presence. Nor is it enough to say that we fulfil the condition. The essential point is, Does the Lord recognize it as fulfilled? He is the Judge; and therefore it were presumption indeed to expect Him in our midst if assembled according to our own thoughts — without respect to His word. But "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

We know therefore that He is in the midst of such on the authority of His own word. Not only so; but, as if to meet us in our weakness, He has given us a sample of the manner in which He comes into the midst of His own. Thus on the evening of that first day of the week, when He arose from the dead, the disciples were found assembled together (John 20: 19). He had sent Mary to His "brethren" with this message: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God" (v. 17). According to Psalm 22, He thus declared God's name unto His brethren, and in so doing revealed that He brought them through His death and resurrection into His own place before God. Henceforward His God and Father was their God and Father. They were thus associated with Him on resurrection ground in these relationships. This message gathers them together unto His name; and when thus assembled, "He came and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you." Thereby He has given us an example of the manner in which He comes into the midst of His people, so that we might have the certainty of His word verified to our souls.

Should any one therefore be tempted to say, Is it possible that the Lord should be in the midst of His people when gathered now unto His name? the doubt is anticipated by this striking record of His presence in the midst of His disciples on the first day of the week. It meets, indeed, a greater difficulty and a more subtle danger. One might be inclined in unbelief to object, If now we could see Him with our eyes as they did, then we could receive it. The Lord knew the weakness and the subtlety of our poor feeble hearts, and thus in tender love has provided for this snare. One of the disciples, Thomas, "was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe" (v. 25). Eight days after, all, including Thomas, were once more assembled, and, as on the former occasion, "came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas" (for He had heard every word which Thomas had uttered), "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas, overwhelmed by His tender grace, and the sense of his own sinfulness, could only exclaim, "My Lord and my God." Thereupon "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed" (vv. 24-29). Thus the Lord had those in view (without entering now into the application of this scene to the conversion of the Jewish remnant, when they shall by-and-by look on Him whom they have pierced) who should believe through the word of His disciples, and pronounces their greater blessedness. And this blessedness is ours; for though we see Him not, we believe that, according to His own word, He is in our midst when gathered unto His name.

It should be remembered, moreover, that it is He Himself who is in the midst — not "in spirit," as is often said, but He Himself; for the words are, "There am I," and the term "I" expresses all that He is. Christ then — not the Holy Ghost, but Christ — is in the midst of His gathered saints. The Holy Ghost acts through the individual members of the body of Christ, ministering for the edification of the saints by whom He will, and dwells in the house of God; but it is Christ, I repeat, who comes into our midst. His presence is only apprehended by the Spirit; that is another thing. But He is in the midst, whether apprehended or not, where two or three are gathered unto His name. How wondrous His condescension and grace!

Never forget therefore that it is around the Lord Himself that we are gathered. If there be only two — for His words are, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name" — there He is in the midst of them. As soon as two are thus met, they can rejoice in the knowledge that the Lord is there. Our faith may be weak, and our apprehension feeble, but the fact of His presence remains; for it is not dependent upon our feelings or experiences, but solely upon our being gathered unto His name. How could we forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is (Heb. 10: 25), if we remembered that the Lord is the centre of the assembly; that He is as truly in our midst as with the disciples on the first resurrection day? For why was Thomas absent on that first occasion? Because he did not believe in the resurrection of his Lord, and therefore did not expect His presence. So now, if any absent themselves (I do not speak of those whom the Lord detains by affliction, duty, or other circumstances) from the assembly, it can only be because they do not really believe in the fact of the Lord's presence in the midst. And when assembled, what reverence, what affection, what worship would be begotten in our hearts, if through the power of the Spirit of God we more fully apprehended that He who went down into death under our sins, and has thereby redeemed us to God by His blood, has come back out of death, and now, as the risen and glorified One, delights to come and to lead the praise of His people in the midst of the congregation. (Ps. 22: 22).

Praying that the Lord may lead you into the power of this truth,

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

8. THE TRUE PLACE OF WORSHIP

My Dear -,

In this letter I propose to inquire, Where is the Christian's place of worship? I need scarcely remind you that the term "place of worship" abounds on every hand; and while I fully admit that what is meant thereby is simply the place where believers and others congregate on Lord's-days, yet it is of the first importance in divine things that words should not be used which convey a wrong impression, or which falsify the truth of God. Our only resource, therefore, is to obtain the answer to our question from the Scriptures.

Let me, then, direct your attention to the following passage: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and [having] an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near," etc. (Heb. 10: 19-22, etc). Now, we have in this scripture, to speak generally, three things — the blood of Jesus, the rent veil, and the High Priest (literally, the great priest) over the house of God; and it is on the foundation of these three things that we have the exhortation to draw near for worship. If we examine a little the significance of each, the answer to our question will be unfolded.

First, then, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. It is evident, if you trace down the argument of the apostle, that the blood of Jesus is brought in as a contrast with "the blood of bulls and goats" (v. 4). Indeed, the whole point of the first part of the chapter is the efficacy of the former in contrast with the impotency of the latter. The fact that the sacrifices under the old dispensation were offered year by year continually, is adduced to prove that the worshippers were never really purged, so as to have no more conscience of sins; for in the repetition of the sacrifices there was a remembrance again made of sins every year (vv. 1-3). And the reason of this was that "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin" (v. 4). Thus the multitude of sacrifices of all kinds did but demonstrate their utter powerlessness, though appointed by God in view of the One Sacrifice which was thereby foreshadowed.

Having then shown this, the apostle now brings out in sharpest contrast the value of the sacrifice of Christ (read carefully from the 5th to the 14th verses) ; and he sums it up, and states it, in one sentence: "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." The offerings under the law never made the worshippers perfect. By one offering Christ has perfected us for ever. This truth is so vast and comprehensive that it needs to be meditated upon again and again, in order in any measure to be apprehended. For it implies, not only that I have now no more conscience of sins — if I am under the value of the sacrifice of Christ — but also that I never need have any more conscience of sins in the aspect here presented; that through the efficacy of that precious blood I have a title now, and ever shall have a title, to the presence of God; that nothing, in short, can ever deprive me of the place which it gives me in His own immediate presence; for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Through that sacrifice therefore I have received a perpetual qualification for access to God.

The second thing is the rent veil. The blood of Christ has given us the title to approach; and in the next place we have "a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." Here again we have a contrast with the old dispensation. Thus in chap. 9 we read: "Into the second" (i.e., into the holy of holies, behind the veil) "went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost thus signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." etc. (vv. 7~9). The people were therefore entirely excluded; and this was because, as we have seen, it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. It would consequently have been certain death, by the judgment of God, had any one beside the high priest ventured inside that awful veil (Lev. 16:1, 2; Num. 15, 16). But no sooner was the sacrifice of Christ consummated than the veil was rent from top to bottom (Matt. 27: 51); for by His death He glorified God in every attribute of His character concerning the question of sin, and by that one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and the veil was therefore rent to signify that the way was now made open into the holiest of all. "For that which rent the veil in order to admit us has likewise put away the sin which shut us out." It is thus now the privilege of every believer, on the ground of the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, to enter at all times into the holiest of all — he has boldness to do so by the blood of Jesus.

But there is a third thing indicated, which may be briefly noticed before calling your attention to the full consequence of these blessed truths; viz., "an high priest over the house of God." And where is our high priest? "Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (vv. 11-14). We thus learn that our High Priest is seated at the right hand of God, and that this attitude is owing to the fact that His sacrificial work has been accomplished; and hence His presence in heaven is a witness and a proof of the abiding efficacy of His work, and consequently a perpetual encouragement to His people to enter boldly into the holiest of all — inside the rent veil.

Such are the three immense facts — the blood of Jesus, the rent veil, and the high priest over the house of God, to which the Holy Spirit directs our attention before exhorting us to draw near (v. 22). And the place to which we are invited to approach, or into which we are urged to enter, is the holiest — the holy of holies. That is the place which was typified by the holy of holies in the tabernacle in the wilderness, the place into which Christ, as our Representative and Forerunner, has already entered

(Heb. 4: 14; Heb. 6: 19, 20). Our place of worship therefore is in the immediate presence of God, the scene of the ministry on our behalf of Christ, as the High Priest. True that we are down here on the earth as strangers and pilgrims when we think of priesthood. But this earth can never be the scene of our worship; for we have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," and there alone can worship be rendered or accepted. Nay; if I would do homage even to the King, I must go to the place where he sits in state to receive it. Much more, if I would worship God I must do so in the place where He sits on His throne, and into which, for this very purpose, He has, in His ineffable grace, given me a title to enter at all times through the precious blood of Christ. There above, therefore, inside the rent veil, in His own immediate presence, and in no other place, must His people worship. And what a marvellous privilege it is, what inexpressible grace, which He has bestowed upon us, that we should enjoy constant liberty of access before Him to bow there in adoration and praise!

"Within the holiest of all,

Cleansed by His precious blood,

Before the throne we prostrate fall,

And worship Thee, O God!"

Having this truth clearly before us, you will see, I am sure, that to speak of a place of worship on earth would tend to obscure the teaching of Scripture and to undermine our privileges. I do not forget that in many cases, as I have said, very little is meant by the phrase; but, on the other hand, in many others it means a great deal, and begets the idea of sacred and consecrated buildings. The Jews had a "worldly sanctuary" (Heb. 9: 1), one that was erected by divine direction, and according to a divine commandment. But to erect a "sanctuary," or a "holy" building, now, is to take Jewish ground, and to ignore the fact that "we have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man." There cannot therefore be a place of worship on earth; and to call a building by such a name is, unconsciously as it may be done, to overlook, to use no stronger word, the believer's place and privilege, and to misrepresent the truth of Christianity.

It may be necessary to allude to one more point; viz., that all believers alike have the same privilege of access into the holiest. The Scriptures, or rather the Scriptures that deal with church truth, know nothing of a sacred order of men, as distinct from their fellow-believers, who enjoy special privileges, with a title to approach God on behalf of others. All believers are alike priests, and all therefore have the same qualification for access to God as worshippers. The passage we have alluded to in the Hebrews (10: 19-22) is decisive upon this question. Mark its terms: "Having therefore, brethren." All alike are addressed, and all are reminded that they have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Again the apostle says: "Let us draw near" — associating himself with all whom he addresses; because, in truth, he and they alike were on the same footing before God as to worship. It is especially necessary to hold fast this truth in this day of revival of sacerdotalism and its superstitious claims. The two things are connected. If you have an earthly place of worship, you must also have an order of priests; and these two things combined constitute a denial of Christianity. Hence it is incumbent upon us to contend earnestly for the truth once delivered to the saints.

But we must not be content with the doctrine on the subject. The question for our souls is, Do we know what it is to draw near, to worship in, the holiest? I would press this point very solemnly; for nothing short of this will satisfy the heart of Him by whose precious blood it is we have received such an unspeakable privilege. Let us then be satisfied with nothing less than the enjoyment of it. If we had seen Aaron, on the day of atonement, lifting the sacred veil to enter into the awful presence of a holy God, we should have been impressed not only with the solemnity of the act, but also with the wonderful position of favour and nearness to God which he occupied by virtue of his priesthood. All believers now are in that position. May we then know increasingly what it is to be found inside the rent veil, that we may apprehend more fully the efficacy of that one offering which has brought us into God's presence without a spot upon us, and without a veil between.

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

9. WORSHIP

My Dear -,

Having considered the question, Where is our place of worship? we may now proceed to that of worship itself. The Scriptures are very full of instruction upon this subject; and yet, I venture to say, there is scarcely one concerning which there is so much indifference, and even ignorance, amongst professing Christians. I might even go further, and affirm, that its real character is scarcely understood by believers outside of those who are gathered out to the name of Christ. I do not mean, of course, that there are not individuals in all denominations whose joy it is to be found in adoration before God; such have ever existed throughout the history of the Church. But what I contend is, that the collective worship of the saints — or what it is to worship in the assembly — is almost utterly unknown in any of the many denominations of Christendom. For example, in a book, which has obtained a very wide circulation, written by one of the most popular preachers of the day, it is said, in the discussion of this very subject, that listening to sermons is one of the highest forms of worship. The writer supports this extraordinary statement by the allegation that preaching tends to beget the exercise of the holiest desires and aspirations of the soul. That the presentation of truth may lead to worship no one could deny; but a child would easily perceive the difference between the act of worship and listening to the truth. In preaching — if indeed it be God's truth that is being delivered — the servant comes with a message from God to those who listen; in worship, saints are led into the presence of God to present their adoration and praise. The two things are therefore of an entirely and essentially different character.

Nor is prayer worship. This will at once be seen if I say that a suppliant is not a worshipper. Thus if I go to the King with a petition, I am presented before him in that character; but if I am admitted into his presence to render homage, I am no longer a petitioner. So when I unite with other believers in prayer and intercession, we are before God as those who are seeking special blessings; but when we bow before Him in worship, we give rather than receive; we are before Him wanting nothing, but with full hearts overflowing in adoration at His feet.

Thanksgiving is very intimately connected with, if not of the essence of, worship. For thanksgiving is the consequence of blessings received, whether in providence or in redemption. The sense of God's goodness and grace in thus ministering to us, in blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, constrains us to pour out our thanksgivings in His presence; and then, necessarily, we are led to reflect upon the character and attributes of the God who thus delights to surround us with the tokens of His love and care; and consequently thanksgiving passes over into worship.

But in worship — considered in and by itself, in the proper significance of the act — we lose sight of ourselves and our blessings, and are occupied with what God is in Himself, and what He is for us as revealed in Christ. Led by the Holy Spirit, we rise above ourselves, and contemplate God in all His varied attributes and glories (for while "no man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" — John 1: 18); and, overwhelmed by the display of His holiness, majesty, love, mercy, and grace, we cannot but bow at His feet, as we render, in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, the homage of our hearts.

This will be seen more clearly if we turn to the teaching of the Scriptures. The woman of Samaria questioned our Lord concerning this subject, or rather as to the place of worship; and in His reply, He vouchsafed to go far beyond the limits of her question. "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4: 21-24). In the first place, our Lord here plainly teaches that there would be henceforward no special place of worship on earth. Jerusalem had been the sacred place where the temple of God had stood — the place to which His people wended year by year from all parts of the land. (See Psalm 122.) But together with the rejection of Christ, their house, hitherto the house of God, was left unto them desolate (Matt. 23: 37-39) ; and never since that time has there been a material house of God upon earth. The Church is now the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2: 22); and our place of worship (as seen in the last letter) is now inside the rent veil, in the immediate presence of God.

Secondly, He tells us who can be worshippers — those who shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and such the Father was seeking. That is, only believers, only those whom God in His grace was seeking, such as this woman of Samaria, whom He sought and found in the Person of the Son, and whom He would bring into relationship with Himself as His children; such, and such alone, could worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The apostle affirms the same thing when he says, "We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit" (or, as many read, who worship by the Spirit of God), "and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," all evident characteristics of believers. Indeed, as the epistle to the Hebrews teaches (see Heb. 10), it is impossible for any to approach God until their sins are gone from His sight; and again, without faith (Heb. 11: 6) ; and once more, inasmuch as none but believers have the Spirit of God (see Romans 8: 14-16; Gal. 4: 6), none other can worship in spirit, or by the Spirit of God.

But evident as is this truth, and accepted widely as it is in theory, it needs to be enforced again and again; for, as a matter of fact, in the current "public worship" which obtains on every side, all distinction between believers and unbelievers is either ignored or obliterated. All alike, whether saved or unsaved, are invited to unite in the same prayers, and in the same songs of praise, in utter forgetfulness of these plain words, that it is only the "true worshippers" who can worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Thirdly, the Lord defines the character of worship. It must be "in spirit and in truth." "Now to worship 'in spirit' is to worship according to the true nature of God, and in the power of that communion which the Spirit of God gives. Spiritual worship is thus in contrast with the forms and ceremonies, and all the religiousness of which the flesh is capable. To worship God 'in truth' is to worship Him according to the revelation which He has given of Himself. The Samaritans worshipped God neither in spirit nor in truth. The Jews worshipped God in truth, so far as this can be said of a revelation which was imperfect; but they worshipped Him in no respect in spirit. Now to worship God, both are needful. He is to be worshipped according to the true revelation of Himself (that is, 'in truth'), and according to His nature (that is, 'in spirit')."

But the revelation of God to us is in the Person, and connected with the work of Christ; for all that God is has been manifested in and through the cross. The death of Christ is therefore the foundation of all Christian worship; for it is by the efficacy of His precious blood that we are qualified to enter into the presence of God, and inasmuch as that death is the revelation to us of all that God is, of His majesty, His holiness, His truth, His grace, and His love, it is through the contemplation of that wondrous sacrifice that our hearts, wrought upon by the Spirit of God, are led out in adoration and praise. Thus worship is connected in a very special way with the Lord's table, because it is when we are gathered around it, as members of the body of Christ, that we show forth His death. To quote once more the words of another, "It is impossible to separate true spiritual worship and communion from the perfect offering of Christ to God. The moment our worship separates itself from its efficacy, and the consciousness of that infinite acceptance of Jesus before the Father, it becomes carnal, and either a form or delight of the flesh."

This is the secret of the degeneration of worship in Christendom; for wherever the Lord's Table has lost its true character or place, the spring and motive of worship are obscured. For what are we specially reminded of at the table of the Lord? It is His death; and it is in that death we are enabled to see what God is for us, and what Christ is to God, as well as the infinite efficacy of His sacrifice in bringing us without a spot into God's immediate presence — in the light as He is in the light. The grace, the eternal love of God, and the grace and the unquenchable love of Christ, are alike displayed to our souls, as we remember the One who glorified God in His death on the cross, where He bore our sins; and having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, we bow and worship before God, as we sing

"O God! Thou now hast glorified

Thy holy, blest, eternal Son;

The Nazarene, the Crucified,

Now sits exalted on Thy throne!

To Him in faith we cry aloud,

Worthy art Thou, O Lamb of God."

Leaving you to trace out the subject from the hints we have given,

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

10. MINISTRY

My Dear -,

It is a most remarkable fact, that the ministry which obtains among the "churches" of Christendom has not even a show of justification from the word of God. Search as closely as you may, from the time of the Church of God was constituted until the close of the inspired record, you will not find a trace of the "one-man" ministry. Apostles, elders or bishops, deacons, pastors and teachers, and evangelists are mentioned; but there is no indication of anything to correspond with the ministers and preachers of the present day. For all the denominations of Christendom — with one or two unimportant exceptions — agree in their theory of the ministry. One man is, as a rule, appointed to take the charge or oversight of a "church" and congregation; and he is expected to teach, to preach the gospel, and to be a pastor. In short, he is expected to unite in himself the office of an elder, and the gifts of a pastor and teacher, and of an evangelist. It will thus often happen that one man will have the sole and continued charge of the same congregation for twenty, thirty, or forty years; and it cannot be denied that professing Christians love to have it so.

But the question is, Is this practice scriptural? Bear with me a little, while I seek to answer this question from the word of God. I need scarcely remind you that our blessed Lord appointed apostles during His earthly sojourn; and that, after His resurrection and ascension, He appeared to Saul, and also chose and made him in an especial way the apostle of the Gentiles. (See Acts 9, 22, 26; 1 Cor. 15.)

Now the apostles, as all confess, had a peculiar and an unique place — having been endowed with extraordinary gifts and authority — and they never had successors. I shall not detain you long upon this point, as apart from the Romish and Anglican Churches* (at least in the West) this statement would be generally accepted. Two Scriptures will therefore suffice. Peter, writing to the believers of his own nation — "the strangers scattered throughout Pontus" etc. — says, "I will endeavour" (i.e., by writing the epistle) "that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance" (2 Peter 1: 15). He thus commits them in the future to the guidance (not of apostolic successors, but) of the written word. Paul, in like manner, addressing the elders of the Church in Ephesus, and warning them of their coming difficulties and dangers, says, "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace" (Acts 20: 32). The two great apostles therefore — one of the circumcision, and the other of the uncircumcision, agree in this — that they alike declare that the resource of the Church, after they should have passed away, would be in the word of God. It is thus clear that they could not have contemplated successors to their office.

*See foot note to letter 5.

The next office in order will be that of bishops or elders. I say bishops or elders, because in fact they are but two names for the same office. This is proved beyond dispute from Acts 20. We there read that Paul sent for "the elders of the church" (v. 17). In speaking to them, he terms them "overseers" (v. 28) — i.e., bishops (ἐπισκόπονς). Well, these are never found alone. The Church at Ephesus, in the passage before us, had more than one. Paul called the "elders" of the Church. So too in Acts 14: 23, Paul and Barnabas "ordained them elders in every city." In the epistle to the Philippians also we read of "the bishops and deacons" (Phil. 1: 1; see also Acts 15: 23; Titus 1: 5).

Passing now to the gifts, as distinguished from office, we come to "pastors and teachers" (Eph. 4: 11). I have put the two together because, in fact, they are so linked in the Scriptures, and linked in so close a way in the passage just cited, as to indicate that they may be united in the same person. Are these, then, ever found alone, having the charge of a congregation? So far from this being the case, we are told that "there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers," and the names of no less than five are given (Acts 13: 1).

Should it, however, be thought that the cases of Timothy and Titus are evidence on the other side, a moment's consideration will dispel the illusion. Titus is told plainly that he was left in Crete to "set in order the things that were wanting, and to ordain elders in every city" (Titus 1: 5); and Timothy is directed as to the qualifications of such (1 Tim. 3), and expressly told "to lay hands suddenly on no man" (v. 22); i.e., to appoint them to office. Nothing therefore can be plainer than that these two, Timothy and Titus, were acting as delegates of the apostle, and as such exercised a general supervision, and had authority to appoint suited men to the office of bishops and deacons; an authority employed, be it remarked, by individuals, not by churches, and which was never exercised but by the apostles, or, as in the case before us, by their delegates, and which was never transmitted to any successors, and consequently lapsed with the death of the apostles.

One other gift remains to be noticed — that of the evangelist (Eph. 4: 11). It comes after "prophets," but we have reserved it because of its character. As the name imports, the work of an evangelist is to preach the gospel; and hence the object of his ministry is not the Church, but the world. Our Lord Himself describes the responsibility of the evangelist when He commands His apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16: 15). To confine him therefore in his service to a single congregation, or even a single town or city, would be to ignore the object of the gift. Hence Paul, speaking of himself in this character, says, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also" (Rom. 1: 14, 15).

The question then recurs, What is the true character of ministry according to the word of God? In the first place, it flows from Christ at the right hand of God, as the Head of the Church. He is its source. "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," etc. (Eph. 4: 7-13). This affords us a most important principle. The gifts were not bestowed upon the Church, but upon men for the benefit of the Church. Hence those who have received them are responsible for their exercise, not to the Church, but to the Lord. It is impossible therefore for the Church to appoint pastors and teachers, or any of the gifts named, seeing indeed that the responsibility of the Church is to receive the ministry of every one who has been qualified by the Lord for its edification. Even as the apostolic office of St. Paul, so a gift is "not of men, neither by man" (Gal. 1: 1), but it is from the risen Christ.

There is another truth of equal moment; viz., that the gifts can only be properly exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Ghost is the distinctive characteristic of this dispensation. He dwells in the house of God — the Church, and He dwells in believers (John 7: 39; John 14: 16, 17; Acts 2; Rom. 8: 15, 16; 1 Cor. 6: 19; 2 Cor. 6: 16; Eph. 1: 13; Eph. 2: 22; etc.). Hence when believers are gathered together, as 1 Cor. 12 to 14 teaches, He acts sovereignly in and through the members of the body of Christ according to their gift: "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. . . . But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will" (1 Cor. 12: 8-11). Any human arrangement for ministry therefore in the assembly is not only inconsistent with this truth, but it utterly ignores the prerogative of the Spirit of God to minister by whom He will. Surely a most solemn thing, and not to be lightly thought of; and yet, alas, how common! Nay more, so entirely is the presence of the Holy Ghost forgotten, that man's authority, and man's claims, are substituted, justified, and accepted by the mass of professing Christians.

You will be careful to observe that what the Scripture teaches is not that all have liberty to minister, but that there should be liberty to the Holy Ghost to minister by whom He may please. There is a wide difference between the two things. The first would be democracy, than which there is nothing more alien from the mind of God; the second involves the maintenance of the Lordship of Christ in the power of the Spirit, the subjection of all the members of the body to the Head, and complete dependence upon the guidance and wisdom of the Spirit of God. In the first, man is prominent; in the second, Christ is owned as supreme.

While asserting these cardinal principles of ministry, we must be careful to recollect that all true ministry must be in subjection to, and in accordance with, the word of God. This clearly follows from the instructions in 1 Cor 14. The apostle indeed gives directions concerning the exercise of the gifts, and afterwards says, "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord" (v. 37). The assembly is thus entitled, nay, responsible, to judge whether the thing ministered is according to truth (1 Cor. 14: 29), and to reject everything that does not answer to the test. It is not left therefore at the mercy of wilful men, but is furnished with a safeguard sufficient to hold in check and to rebuke all that savours of the flesh, and not of the Spirit.

Another thing may be added. After dealing with the question of gifts, and pointing out that even their exercise are utterly valueless without charity (love) (1 Cor. 12, 13), the apostle teaches that the object of their exercise is the edification of the assembly (14: 3-5). How beautiful are the ways of God! Gathered by the Spirit around the person of our Lord at His table, to show forth His death, He leads our hearts out in adoration and praise, and then He ministers to us from God through various members of the body of Christ. There is thus a double action of the Spirit. He enables us to offer the sacrifices of praise to God; and mindful of our need, He gives the word of wisdom, or knowledge, or exhortation, as our state may require.

But I have reached the limits of my letter. You will, however, be able to trace out the subject for yourself, and thus discover whether what has been advanced is according to the word of God. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5: 21).

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

P.S. — In addition to the scriptures cited, read Romans 12: 4-8; 1 Peter 4: 10, 11, etc.

11. THE WORD OF GOD

My Dear -,

It is impossible to lay too much stress upon the importance and value of the Word of God. Love for it, indeed, should be a characteristic of every believer; and it were not too much to say that our growth in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is largely connected with it. Take for example Psalm 119, and you will see how it is bound up with every phase of the spiritual life of the psalmist. Some of his expressions might well humble us, as they reveal to us the place the Word occupied in his affections. He says, "I will delight myself in Thy statutes: I will not forget Thy Word"; again, "Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors"; and again, "I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved" (vv. 16, 24, 47). In still stronger language he exclaims, "O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day"; and once more, "I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold" (vv. 97, 127). Job, in like manner says, "I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (23: 12). And from that time to this the same characteristic has ever been found in all earnest, devout, and spiritual minds. I propose then to bring before you in this letter some of the many aspects in which the Word of God is presented, in relation to the believer.

1. It is the instrumentality of the new birth. "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth." (James 1: 18). "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1: 23). Our Lord teaches the same truth when He says that "a man must be born of water and the Spirit" (John 3); for water is a well-known symbol of the Word.

2. As it is the instrumentality of the new birth, so is it also the proper aliment for the new nature. St. Peter thus says: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby," (many copies add, "up to salvation"); "if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (1 Peter 2: 2, 3). Again we are told that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deut. 8: 3; Matt. 4: 4). The Word therefore is the suited food and sustenance for the spiritual life, the means of our nourishment and strength in Christ, as we journey on through the wilderness, waiting for the Lord's return, or to depart and be with Himself, which is far better. I say in Christ, because, as you know, Christ Himself is our food, both as the manna and the old corn of the land, and indeed, to go further back, as the lamb roast with fire (Ex. 12) ; but then it is only in the word of God that He is unfolded to us thus in these several characters. If we would collect the manna for our daily use, we have to roam through the gospels and epistles, where we find Him especially presented to us in this aspect — as a humbled Christ in incarnation; and then, if I would feed upon Him as the old corn of the land, upon a glorified Christ, I am led to the epistles (e.g., Col. 3; Phil. 3, etc.) which present Him as such to our souls. The Scriptures therefore are the green pastures into which the Good Shepherd would lead His flock.

3. It is our only guide. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119: 105). So, when Joshua was about to lead Israel into Canaan, the Lord said unto him, "Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (Joshua 1: 7, 8). So in the New Testament, as well as in the Old, the Word of God is everywhere indicated as our only guide as we pass through this tangled scene.

"Pillar of fire, through watches dark,

And radiant cloud by day;

When waves would whelm our tossing bark,

Our anchor and our stay."

(See Acts 20: 32; 2 Thess. 3: 14; 2 Tim. 3: 15-17; 2 Peter 1: 15; 1 John 2: 27; Jude 3.)

4. It is our means of defence against the temptations and wiles of Satan; hence it is called the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6: 17). We thus see in the temptation of our blessed Lord that it was His only weapon. To all the allurements which Satan presented to His soul — and he assailed Him through every avenue of approach, and in every character — He replied, "It is written." From first to last, He never expressed a thought of His own, but rested for His defence entirely and alone upon the Word of God. Satan consequently was utterly powerless; he could not advance a single step; but, defeated at every point, he had to retire baffled and overcome. And he is as powerless today as then, when encountered in the same way. He cannot touch an obedient, dependent man. Would that every young believer, indeed all, whether young or old, might always bear it in mind!

5. It is the only standard of doctrine or practice. We have therefore to test everything presented to us by the Word. Thus in the letters to the seven churches we find in every case, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." They and their practices were alike to be measured by this infallible standard. In like manner, the apostle Paul continually reminds those to whom he writes of their responsibility of gauging everything by what he had taught. (See, for example, Galatians 1: 8, 9; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; 2 Thess. 2: 15; 2 Thess. 3: 14.)

6. It is the means of our practical holiness. Our Lord thus prays, when He presented His own before the Father: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth". (John 17: 17). It is only indeed by constant application of the Word to ourselves, our walk, and our ways, that we are increasingly separated from evil; just as it is by the application of the Word through the Spirit that the Lord, as our Advocate with the Father, washes the feet of His own. This is the work which He in His grace has undertaken for us; but we must never forget the responsibility on our side of continually judging ourselves by the Word in the presence of God. How many a trial and chastening would be spared us if we were more faithful in this particular! "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (1 Cor. 11: 31). Thus the psalmist asks, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" And the answer is, "By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word" (Ps. 119: 9). Again he says, "By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer" (Ps. 17: 4). For it is only from the Scripture that we learn the will of God; and by the application of the Word in the power of the Spirit we are separated, on the one side, from that which is contrary to His mind, and we are brought, on the other, into conformity with it; and this being a constant process, we are ever attaining increasing holiness, the perfection of which is only found in the glorified Christ at God's right hand.

7. Last of all, I would remind you of the value which the Lord sets upon obedience to the Word. Take, for instance, the familiar scripture, "If any man love Me, he will keep My Word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14: 23). See how large a blessing is made dependent upon our keeping His Word; for it should never be overlooked that the love of the Father in this passage, and the Father and the Son coming to make their abode with us, are entirely conditional. Again, in the next chapter, He says, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love" 15: 10). Once more, not to multiply citations, at the very close of the inspired record He says, "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book" (Rev. 22: 7). Thus He not only expects us to prize and treasure up the communications which He has deigned to make to us; but He also counts upon our hearts to delight in obedience to every Word that has proceeded out of His mouth; yea, He has made obedience to be the highest expression of our love. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14: 15).

From this rapid outline of some of the uses, and some of our responsibilities in respect of the Word of God, you will at least recognize its supreme importance to the believer. Allow me, then, to make one or two practical observations which may be helpful to you and other young Christians. First of all, you will see the necessity of being familiar with the Scriptures. For instance, I could not repel a temptation, as the Saviour did, unless I were acquainted with the scripture wherewith to meet it. In like manner, there might be many cases in which I should be led astray simply from not knowing that the Lord had revealed His mind in His Word. One of the first obligations, therefore, of the believer is to study the Word of God. "My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding" (Prov. 2: 1-6). In this spirit you must search and systematically study the Scriptures, if you would be "throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3: 17). I do not say, Read no other book; but I do say, Make the Bible your chief companion, and confine yourself as much as possible to those books which help you to understand it; for it should be the chief aim of every believer to be thoroughly conversant with the mind and will of God. Secondly, let me counsel you, if you read much, to meditate more. "The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting" (Prov. 12: 27). He finds his pleasure in the chase, and once finding, obtaining, he is satisfied. It is thus with many in reading the Word. Their delight is in the acquisition of truth; and in this they rest, and thereby lose the blessing. In the scripture already cited, the Lord said to Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night" (See also Ps. 1: 2; Ps. 119: 97; Prov: 22: 17, 18; 1 Tim. 4: 15, etc.). For it is in meditation in the presence of the Lord that the sweetness, beauty, and power of the Word are unfolded to us. Never, therefore, lose an opportunity for meditation on the scripture you may read. And, lastly, always remember your entire dependence upon the Spirit of God for the understanding of the Word. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Cor. 2: 11, 12).

If you thus read the Scriptures, you will be led daily into increasing acquaintance with the truth, and thereby be drawn into closer fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Believe me, dear -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

12. PRAYER

My Dear -,

There remains only one other subject to bring before you in this present series of letters. In the last I directed you to the importance of the Word of God, and now I desire to speak of prayer and its connection with the spiritual life. These two — the Word of God and prayer — are ever conjoined. It was so in the blessed activities of the life of our Lord. After a long day of ministry we find such a record as this, "And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed"; and again, "It came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God" (Luke 5: 16; Luke 6: 12). So, too, when the difficulty arose in the Pentecostal church concerning the distribution of the offerings of the saints, the apostle said, "It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God, and serve tables. . . . We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6: 2-4). St. Paul likewise unites the two things in his description of the whole armour of God; for no sooner has he said, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," than he adds, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Eph. 6: 17, 18).

We have, moreover, direct exhortations to prayer; as for example, "Continuing instant in prayer"; "Pray without ceasing" (Rom. 12: 12; 1 Thess. 5: 17. See also Luke 18, etc.). And if you read the introductory parts of St. Paul's epistles you will see how he embodied his own exhortations. As you trace his path, as recorded for us in the Acts, you would think that he never did anything else than preach; but if you read these parts of the epistles you would almost think that he never did anything else than pray. Approximating to the example of our blessed Lord in his unwearied labours, he found, yea, he learnt, the need of constant waiting upon God. In like manner, prayer is a necessity for every child of God. For we are in ourselves weak and helpless, entirely dependent; and prayer is but the expression of our dependence on Him to whom we pray. Dependent upon God for everything, our very needs urge us into His presence; and having liberty of access through Christ, because of the place we occupy, and because of the relationship we enjoy, we "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4: 16).

1. Our Lord teaches what should be, so to speak, the manner of our prayers. Speaking to His disciples of the time when He should be absent from them, He says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do," etc.; and again, "If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it" (John 14: 13, 14). Two things are here involved. The name of Christ is our warrant to come before God, before the Father, reminding us that our title of approach is in Christ alone. And surely this gives us confidence. If we were to think only of ourselves, our failures and unworthiness, we should never venture into God's presence; but when our eyes are directed to Christ, what He is in Himself, what He is to God, and what He is to us, and remembering that we appear before God in all His infinite acceptability, we are made to understand that God delights in us — in our approach, in our cries and prayers. We thus are encouraged to draw near to God, and to pour out our hearts before Him in every time of trial or need.

But asking in the name of Christ is more than having a title through His name; it is, indeed, to appear before God with all the value and authority of that name. If, for example, I go to a bank and present a check, I ask for the value of the check in the name of him by whom it is drawn. So when I appear before God in the name of Christ, I present my supplications in all the value of that name to God. Hence it is that our Lord says, "If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it," because, indeed, it is the joy of the heart of God to grant every request that is so preferred. The promise is absolute, without any limitation; for the simple reason that nothing could be asked in the name of Christ which was not in accordance with the will of God. For we could not use His name for any request which was not begotten in our hearts by His own Spirit.

2. In the next chapter our Lord gives us further teaching on the same subject. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15: 7). We may connect with this another scripture: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5: 14). Here it is according to the will of God, thereby excluding everything which is not of this character. But our Lord says, "What ye will"; and this brings before us a very important aspect of prayer. In this case it is conditional: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you"; that is, abiding in Christ, ever remembering our dependence upon Him for everything, that without Him we can do nothing; and His words abiding in us, moulding us after His own mind, forming Himself in us, we of necessity express His own thoughts and His own desires, and consequently "what we will" must, in such a case, be "according to His will." It will be seen, at the same time, that the power of our prayers depends upon our spiritual condition. This is an unfailing principle. It is stated by St. John: "If our heart condemn us not, [then] have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3: 21, 22). St. James also tells us, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5: 16). This is of all importance; for neglecting our spiritual state, and thereby losing present communion with God, our prayers become cold and lifeless, degenerate into a repetition of known truths or old phrases, and thus, losing all significance, pass over into dead forms. The words are uttered to satisfy conscience; but expressing no heart-felt needs, and no outgoings of soul after God, they find no response, and bring down no blessing. Beware of such a state, which is often the commencement of the backslider's path, and which, unless checked by the grace of God, will land the soul in open shame and dishonour, to the name of Christ.

3. The uses of prayer are manifold. In the first place, the Lord has associated us with Himself in all His own desires. Yea, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1: 3). God therefore counts upon our love to have fellowship with all that is dear to His own heart. He has made His interests ours; and consequently He would have us enter into and make these the object of our prayers. What a privilege! To be permitted to range through all His purposes as revealed to us in the Word; to watch with delight their unfoldings; to behold them all centring in, and radiating from, the person of His Christ, as well as bringing back a revenue of glory to His name! Truly if we are enabled to enter at all into this wondrous position, by the power of the Spirit, we shall lack neither subject for, nor motive to, prayer.

Then, too, we may express in prayer all the manifold needs of our own souls. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4: 6, 7). This word is the more remarkable from the fact that it is found in the very chapter in which the apostle assures us, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (v. 19). Still, notwithstanding this blessed confidence, God would have us, with all the freedom of children, to make known to Him our requests; and though He does not promise to grant them in every case, He yet assures us that His peace shall guard our hearts. It is in this way, indeed, that confidence is established in our intercourse with God, that the priceless habit is formed of having no reserves with Him, and that intimacy of communion is cultivated. It is in accordance with this that the psalmist cries, "Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him" (Psalm 62: 8); and that St. Peter says, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you" (1 Peter 5: 7).

4. It should be added that the word of God lays great stress upon the connection of faith with prayer. Our Lord says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11: 24). James also, after his exhortation to ask wisdom of God, says, "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering" (James 1: 6); and again, he tells us that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick" (James 5: 15). So too in the Hebrews we read, that "without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh" (i.e., draws near) "to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (11: 6). This is easy to understand; for surely God has a right to count upon our confidence in His love, our trust in His character, and our belief in His word, since He has so fully revealed Himself to us in the person of His Son. To doubt, therefore, as we approach Him, would be to dishonour, His name. And just as He counts upon our confidence and faith, He would have us count upon His faithfulness and love. As our blessed Lord reminds His disciples, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him" (Matt. 6: 8). And as St. Paul teaches us, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8: 32). Thus the gift of His own Son, inasmuch as it was His greatest gift, and the most perfect pledge of His love, is the foundation on which we may rest in the full assurance that He not only will not withhold any good thing from us, but that He will delight to bless us according to His own heart, and according to His own knowledge of our need.

5. Once more, all true prayer must be in and by the Holy Spirit. ((See Rom. 8: 26, 27; Phil. 3: 3; Jude 20). Indeed, He is the power for prayer, as He is for every activity of the spiritual life. We are thus utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus for access to God, upon the Holy Spirit for power to pray, and upon God for the blessings we seek. To His name be all the praise!

But I will not pursue the subject further. You will, however, permit me to urge upon you perseverance in prayer. Rules on such a subject — as to times and frequency — we have no right to make or impose. Still of one thing be very sure — you cannot be too much in prayer. And if you dwell in the presence of God, you will find both the heart and occasion for prayer. Our responsibility is to pray without ceasing, always maintaining uninterruptedly the consciousness of dependence, and our need of divine grace. Thus we shall be always cast upon God, always enjoy liberty of heart in His presence, and consequently be always finding, in the constant reception of mercies, grace and blessing, in answer to our cries, new themes for thanksgiving and praise.

Believe me dear, -,

Yours affectionately in Christ, E. D.

Simple Christian Truths

Simple Christian Truths.

E. Dennett.

Christian Friend, vol. 13, 1886, p. 61 etc.

I.

Forgiveness Sins.

The first anxiety of the awakened soul — a soul convicted of guilt before God — is to know the way of forgiveness. Every other consideration is subordinated to the pressing and all-absorbing question of its relationships with God, of the method of obtaining pardon and peace. Coming to the Scriptures, and listening to its teachings, there is really but little, if any, difficulty; but unhappily at such a time the eye is so often directed within, in the vain hope of discovering there some ground of approach to God, that the soul becomes self-occupied, and consequently the prey of every passing emotion; and Satan, who is no uninterested spectator of the conflict, watches for and seizes his opportunity of entangling such a soul in hopeless perplexity. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the clear and simple teaching of Scripture should be presented to any in this state of mind, as nothing else will defeat the subtleties of the evil one, or guide the feet of the anxious to the immutable and immovable rock, and put into their lips the song of salvation. What then — for this is the question proposed for our consideration — has the word of God to say on the subject of forgiveness of sins?*

*We purpose in this paper to confine ourselves to the relationships of the soul with God, and to the way in which forgiveness is to be had with Him. The announcement of this forgiveness by the apostles and others — as, for example, in Acts 2: 38, 39; Acts 22: 16, etc. (see also John 20: 22, 23) — sometimes termed administrative forgiveness (that is, forgiveness authoritatively announced or administered by others), is another and distinct branch of the subject, and would only confuse the reader if introduced here; besides the fact that it is in no wise necessary to be understood by the enquiring soul.

The most simple and concise statement on the subject is found perhaps in one of the addresses of the apostle Paul. Speaking in the synagogue at Antioch, he says, "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." (Acts 13: 38.) There is another quite as simple, though it takes its form from the audience he was addressing, by the apostle Peter: "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5: 31.) Now, taking the first of these scriptures, and examining the context, it will be readily perceived that "this Man" is Christ. The apostle had been showing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, and proving that His resurrection had been foretold by David. The death and resurrection of Christ had been his theme; and, as soon as he had proclaimed a risen Christ, he turned to them and said, "Through this Man [the risen Christ] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Bearing this in mind, the reader will easily apprehend the truth on the subject, if he will but carefully, and looking up for guidance, follow what is written.

First, then, forgiveness of sins is founded upon the death of Christ, upon His finished work. That is, changing the form of the expression, the foundation on which God is able, righteously able — able in consistency with all that He is — freely and fully to forgive the sinner, is the work of atonement, which was accomplished on Calvary. In the Old Testament it was taught in every possible way — by type and figure, by constant sacrifices ever repeated — that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission. (Heb. 9: 22.) The reason was that sin had entered the world, and death by sin; and so death had passed upon all men, for that all had sinned. (Rom. 5: 12.) The life of every sinner was, and is, therefore forfeited to God; and hence it is written, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Heb. 9: 27.) Mark well these two things — death, and afterwards judgment, for the sins committed during life. Such is the awful prospect before every unsaved soul. Both these things were shadowed out in the olden sacrifices. It will amazingly help the reader if he will give his earnest attention to this. Look then for a moment at what was done when a Jew brought a sacrifice for sin. First, he laid his hand upon the head of the animal about to be slain, which signified the transfer of his sin to the animal; so that the animal from that moment stood before God charged with the offerer's sin, in the place and stead of the sinner. Observe what followed. The animal was slain — death, the penalty of sin, was brought in upon it — and the blood was sprinkled (for the life is in the blood) in the appointed place before God, in token of life rendered up in answer to His claims: afterwards, passing over details, the carcase was totally consumed by fire. And what did this signify, dear reader? It told of the judgment after death; of that lake of fire in which all the unsaved, alas! will find their portion throughout eternity.

If my reader has understood so far he may now accompany us to the cross of Christ; for we shall discover there that the sacrifices of which we have spoken were but outlines of the character of the death of Christ as the great sacrifice — the sacrifice for sin of God's own providing, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1: 29.) It should, however, be observed, first, that He alone could be this sacrifice, that He alone possessed the necessary qualifications, whether to meet the claims of God or the needs of sinners. He only amongst men was "without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1: 19; Heb. 9: 14); and He only, being what He was, both God and man, could stand for men, stand in the breach which sin had made between God and man, and offer a sacrifice of such infinite value as could avail for the whole world. God alone knew what was requisite for His glory in making atonement for sin, and hence it was, acting from the love and pity of His own heart, that He gave His only begotten Son. Wondrous grace! adorable love!

We may now inquire what it was in the death of Christ that constituted the atonement. Reserving details for another occasion, we call the reader's attention to two points, the two essential points. As in the sacrifices in the old dispensation, so on the cross there was the yielding up of life (and this was testified to by the blood and water that flowed out of the Saviour's side when pierced by the soldier's spear); only it must be carefully remembered that He yielded up His own life, "He gave up" (or delivered up) "His spirit" (John 19: 30; John 10: 17); and there was the bearing the whole weight of the judgment due to our sins, bearing from God what His glory demanded as an atonement. In other words, He suffered death, and He passed through (in His case before death) what answered to the fire that consumed the carcase of the sin-offering; viz., the wrath of God against sin. But passing through the holy fire of judgment was a transaction between God and His own soul. (2 Cor. 5: 21; Isa. 53: 6) — a transaction veiled from all mortal eyes by the darkness which descended on the cross and on the earth, and of which the only outward expression was that agonizing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27: 46.) For it was then that God in His holiness was dealing with that holy Victim instead of sinners for whom He died, when all God's waves and all His billows rolled in upon and over the holy soul of Jesus.

Thus, dear reader, our blessed Lord met both death and judgment, and wrought out that finished work in which God can rest in satisfaction (for indeed He was abundantly glorified in it), and on which too, blessed be His name, sinners can rest in unshaken confidence and security in the presence of God and the prospect of eternity.

There is another thing to be remarked. The reader may perceive that the apostle Paul took great pains to prove from the Scriptures, and from the testimony of eyewitnesses, that God had raised Christ from the dead. (Acts 13: 30-37.) And with reason; for the resurrection of Christ was the evidence of the completion of His work of atonement to the satisfaction of God; nay, it was God's own demonstration that He had been glorified in the death of His Son, and that the question of sin had been once and for all settled. For it was God Himself that stepped in — stepped in in the abounding joy of His own heart — and lifted out of the grave the One that died upon the cross; and, moreover, He set Him down at His own right hand in heaven, as the expression of His estimation of the value of the work which had been finished on the cross. The resurrection of Christ is therefore of the highest value. It proclaims, on the one hand, what God's thought is of Christ, of the crucified One; and it assures the sinner, on the other, that Christ is the only Saviour, that the burden which He bore on the cross has been left for ever behind in His grave. Hence the apostle says, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins" (1 Cor. 15: 17); for the clear proof that the sins of believers are gone is the fact that He who bore them on the cross is now seated in the glory of God.

Let us advance a step further. The reader will now apprehend, we trust, without difficulty (at least if he has understood the foregoing remarks) the meaning of the apostle when he says, "Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." We may, however, examine it a little more closely. Two things are contained in the statement. First, that God proclaimed, and still proclaims, or announces, in the gospel the forgiveness of sins, and that this forgiveness is declared through Christ. It means, in other words, that through the death and resurrection of Christ, He having satisfied all God's claims concerning sin on the cross, and vindicated His name and glory, God is now able, in consistency with all that He is — His holiness, His righteousness, His majesty, His truth, as well as His tenderness, mercy, and love — to satisfy His own heart, in freely — freely, without money and without price, without any demand whatsoever — offering the forgiveness of sins to any and all who come to Him in the name of His beloved Son. Forgiveness of sins is thus offered through Christ — offered gratuitously to sinners anywhere and everywhere throughout the wide world. This is God's message in the gospel, that forgiveness of sins is His free gift, on the ground of what Christ has done and is, to all who will have it.

The reader, however, may say, Is there no condition whatever annexed to such a gift? The words of Scripture are plain — "Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." This much will be noticed by all, that no one will be disposed to accept the gift unless he first believes that he needs forgiveness. The announcement is made to sinners; that lies on the surface. Does my reader therefore, if he should be one who knows nothing of this blessed gift, place himself before God amongst this class as a sinner? Does he acknowledge that he is verily one that needs forgiveness? If he can answer these questions in the affirmative, there remains but one other, and it is this, Does he believe God's testimony to the death and resurrection of Christ? Does he receive the truth that God preaches forgiveness by the mouth of His servants through the risen and glorified Saviour? If he does there remains nothing more, nothing whatever; for as the apostle Peter also says, "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." This is God's own word, and on it we may rest both for time and eternity. Forgiveness of sins is thus freely presented to every poor sinner who comes to God as a sinner in and through the lord Jesus Christ.

There remains but one point more, which concerns the character of the forgiveness. Does it relate only to the past or the present? What has Scripture to say on this subject? It teaches in plain and unmistakable language that the benefits resulting to the believer from the death of Christ are eternal, that his sins are removed for ever from the sight of God. It says that by His own blood Christ has entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption; that, having offered one sacrifice for sins, He for ever sat down on the right hand of God, in token that His sacrificial work was finished for ever; that by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified; that the Holy Ghost has borne this testimony — "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (Heb. 9, 10) If the reader ponders these statements, and asks himself what God intends them to convey, he must see that they have but one voice — that they unite to declare that when God forgives He forgives once and for all, on the ground of the eternal value and abiding efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ.

Does any one still object, But what of my sins since conversion? Let such a one consider for a moment that he had not been born when Christ died on the cross. How then could it be our past sins only that were there laid on Him? No, blessed be His name, He bore our sins, all our sins, made atonement for all, the sins of our whole lives; so that the forgiveness God bestows is an eternal forgiveness. It should be remembered, moreover, that if Christ had not endured the judgment due to all our sins, if one single sin had been excepted, He must have returned to the earth and died a second time before that sin could be forgiven. But the word says, "Where remission of sins is there is no more offering for sin." As enduring, therefore, as is the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ before God, so enduring is the forgiveness which God presents to the sinner who comes to Him through Him who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. Let the reader then rejoice, if he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the assurance that God has forgiven his sins absolutely and for ever, and that never more can a single sin be imputed to him as guilt; for he has been brought, in the mercy of God, under the everlasting value of the one offering of Christ.* E. D.

*We do not enter upon the question in this paper of God's provision for the sins of believers after conversion. These are never imputed as guilt, as we have shown above; but when, through the advocacy of Christ (1 John 2) and the action of the Holy Spirit through the Word, they are brought home to the conscience and confessed, they are forgiven. (1 John 1: 9.) The sins of the sinner are cleansed by the blood of Christ; the sins of the believer are put away through the washing of water by the Word.

II.

Cleansing and a Purged Conscience.

Sin may be viewed in two ways, either as an offence against God, or as defilement to the sinner. God has His sovereign rights and claims over all His creatures, and it is this fact that constitutes sin a wrong done to Him, an outrage upon His majesty and glory. Sin in this aspect needs forgiveness, the way of which has been shown in a former paper. But sin also is in its very essence and nature defiling, polluting; and it is to this allusion is made in that striking entreaty in the prophet Isaiah: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. 1: 18.) There is also a recognition of this by the psalmist when he cries, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Ps. 51: 7.) The word guilt perhaps combines these two aspects of sin, because it tells of the soul's sin against God and the effect upon the soul itself; and the first question for our consideration is, the method God has provided for cleansing the guilty soul from its deep-dyed iniquity.

There are several scriptures which state this method clearly and explicitly. "The blood of Jesus Christ His [God's] Son cleanseth from all sin." (1 John 1: 7.) Again, "Unto Him that loved [or loves] us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Rev. 1: 5); and the sprinkling with blood of the priests at their consecration, and of the leper on his restoration, proclaims the same truth, that cleansing from sin could only be effected by the precious blood of Christ. And let the reader mark the word "only" in the last sentence; for it was penned with the object of calling attention to the fact that there are not two modes of cleansing from guilt; that God's way is the only way; and that, therefore, the sinner is shut up to it; so that, if this be refused, there is no other remedy, no other agent in the universe, which can rid the sinner of his sins. No; the blood of Christ being refused, the sinner must remain in his guilt throughout eternity. Let us then examine the teaching of Scripture as to how it is the blood of Christ cleanses from sin.

If now we turn to Leviticus 17, we read, "The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Lev. 17: 11); and in the previous chapter, which contains a description of the rites of the great day of atonement, we find that the blood of the sin-offering was carried into the holy of holies and sprinkled upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, the mercy-seat being God's throne (for He dwelt between the cherubim) in the midst of Israel. The blood of the sin-offering was first of all for God, and hence put upon the mercy-seat in acknowledgment and satisfaction of His claims upon His guilty people. But this blood was only a type, a foreshadowing of the infinitely precious blood of Christ, "who by His own blood [and not by the blood of goats and calves, as did Aaron] entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb. 9: 12.) This blood — the blood of Christ — presented before God, constituted the propitiation which He made for sins; for it was the all-sufficient answer, being what it was, to all the claims of a holy God upon sinners; yea, it was of such value in the eyes of God that He could, having been glorified by it according to all that He is, righteously offer salvation to the whole world.

Such was God's part in the precious blood of Christ, and thereon follows the question of its application to the sinner, and the effect of the application. The types, whether of the consecration of the priests or of the cleansing of the leper (Ex. 29; Lev. 14), will make this part of our subject very plain. The reader will notice that in both cases washing with water preceded the sprinkling with the blood of the lamb. This simply means that the two things were connected in that order; viz., the new birth (for the washing with water was an emblem of this) and the application of the blood of Christ. To be even more simple, the moment a sinner believes in God's testimony concerning Christ's death he is under all the value of His precious blood. We thus read in the Romans, "Whom [i.e., Christ] God hath set forth a propitiation [or mercy-seat] through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3: 25); so that when the sinner, in confidence in this testimony, approaches God, he finds that the blood of Christ has made a full and an all-sufficient atonement for his sins. This indeed was the meaning of the blood being sprinkled seven times before the mercy-seat (Lev. 16), this action teaching us that as soon as we come into the presence of God, believing in His witness to the death of Christ, we find there a perfect testimony, symbolized by the seven times, to the fact that our sins have for ever been put away. In one word, and even a child cannot fail to understand the statement, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in what God says concerning His death, links the soul with all the value — the value as reckoned by God — of His precious blood.

It will not now be difficult for the reader to apprehend the effect of the application of the blood of Christ to the believing soul. Identified with its value before God through faith, he, as to his guilty state, is seen by God with all that value resting upon him; and where God sees the blood He sees no sin. There is indeed a twofold effect: First, it removes all guilt from the sinner — i.e., from the one who believes in Christ — cleanses from all sin; and secondly, it brings the sinner under all its positive value. This may be illustrated by a reference to the sin and the burnt-offerings. The efficacy of the sin-offerings cleared away the guilt of the one who brought the sacrifice; but though his sins, regarded as transferred to the victim, were gone, the man remained as he was before — neither better nor worse — excepting that the sins he had committed were now gone. When, however, he had brought a burnt-sacrifice to be offered for his acceptance, he stood before God in all its positive value, a value represented by the words, "an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." (Lev. 1: 9.) And if the reader will turn to the chapters already spoken of (Ex. 29; Lev. 14), he will see that the invariable order was: first, the sin-offering, by which guilt was taken away; and then, the burnt-offering, by which the offerer was invested before God with all the acceptance of Christ. So is it now. The effect of the application of the blood of Christ (and every believer is under its value) is to cleanse away every trace of guilt even before the all-searching eye of God, and also to bring the soul into His presence in all the sweet savour of Christ Himself. Nothing less than this is meant by the cleansing which is effected for the soul through the blood of Christ; for nothing less would fit us to stand before God. But everyone who is cleansed is brought into the light as God is in the light. That is his place while in this world; and he is therefore fitted, if called upon to die, to depart immediately to be with Christ. The blood thus not only shelters us, as it did Israel in the land of Egypt, from judgment, but it makes us whiter than snow, white as the pure light of the holiness of God; so that we are made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, even while passing through the defiled scenes of this world.

We now pass on to the consideration of a purged conscience, concerning which instruction is given in the epistle to the Hebrews. Cleansing is, so to speak, a work without, a judicial work on the part of God by which we receive qualification and title for His own presence. Purging the conscience is that work made good within us; so that our sins are as completely gone from us, in our apprehension, as they are from before the eye of God. Cleansing removes all our guilt, purging the conscience takes away the sense of guilt from our own souls. The former gives us the title to stand before God, the latter gives us liberty and happiness in His presence. This will be readily understood by the reader if he will carefully read Hebrews 10. We may call his attention to two or three important points.

Remark, however, first of all, that the sense of guilt, when under conviction of sin, troubles the conscience. It is the conscience that bears the burden of sin when the soul is awakened; and an uneasy, a bad conscience often condemns the soul as distinctly as the word of God. Remembering this, the statements in the above-mentioned chapter will at once be understood. The first point then to be noticed is, that the worshippers under the old dispensation were never made perfect as to the conscience, that they never obtained the priceless blessing of "no more conscience of sins." (vv. 1, 2.) This is shown in a twofold way. The fact that sacrifices were continually offered proved it, because "in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year." (v. 3.) The worshipper might indeed feel, in a certain measure, that the sins he had already committed were removed; but no sooner had his sacrifice been offered, than he began to sin again, and every fresh sin needed another sacrifice. He was therefore never free from guilt before God or in his own conscience. Then we are also told that it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. God passed over the sins of His people, because these sacrifices shadowed forth that of Christ; but they had no virtue to purge the conscience, though they might have sanctified to the purifying of the flesh. (Heb. 9: 13.) The burden of sin was thus never wholly removed from the conscience of a Jewish saint.

The writer then brings out in contrast the eternal efficacy of the one sacrifice of Christ, and bases it on a threefold foundation — the will of God, accomplished by our blessed Lord and Saviour through the offering of His body (on the cross) once; the work of Christ, seen to be a finished work, from the fact that He has "for ever sat down on the right hand of God" — sat down in perpetuity — in contrast with the priests of old, who stood "daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;" and finally, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which runs, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (vv. 5-17.) Summing up this divine argument, we have two things — the eternal value of the one offering of Christ, and the consequent abiding efficacy of His sacrifice for every believer; so that, as we read, "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." The result is, that the sins of the believer are gone for ever — gone completely from the mind of God, no more remembered. And when this truth is received — made good in the soul by the Holy Spirit — they are gone also as completely from our conscience. We have no more conscience of sins; for having learned the value of the precious blood of Christ before God, as a full atonement for our sins, we recognize that our guilt is gone; and that because of the abiding efficacy of that one sacrifice, guilt will never more be imputed. We are therefore free; our conscience is no more disturbed as to guilt. This is the Scriptural meaning of a purged conscience.

It may be needful to add, for the help of some readers, that this truth in nowise touches the question of indwelling sin — the evil nature. That remains in us, and will remain, until Christ comes for His people, or until death. But the knowledge that we have sin within us will not, and should not, affect a purged conscience. If that evil nature should, through unwatchfulness, break out into sin, our communion with God will be disturbed; and the sin must be judged and confessed before communion can be restored. If, however, we have known the true character of the one sacrifice of Christ, and the virtue of His precious blood, we shall not — even while we are mourning over our failure, and feel it all the more deeply because it is sin after we have known the Lord — lose the enjoyment of no more conscience of sins. To suppose that sin could be reckoned to us as guilt, after we have once been purged, would be to slight the eternal value of the death of Christ. As indeed we read, the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. "If," then, "the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9: 13, 14.) E. D.

III.

Justification by Faith.

God being what He is — holy in His nature — must necessarily be righteous in all His ways. While, therefore, a sinner needs mercy and forgiveness because of his sins, the very pardon he receives on believing in the Lord Jesus Christ must be, if it is to be a secure and lasting one, grounded on righteousness. This is only another way of saying that God cannot in any age or dispensation act otherwise than in consistency or harmony with His own nature. And this is the scriptural sense of the term so prominent in the epistle to the Romans — the righteousness of God (see Rom. 1: 17; Rom. 3: 21, 22, 25, 26) — and which, when once understood, is the simple key to the doctrine of justification.

Let us, however, first of all explain what is meant by justification by faith. The reader will perceive, if he reads Romans 3, that the apostle uses the expression in contrast with justification by works of law. Under the Mosaic dispensation the promise of life was not to faith, but to works — "The man which doeth these things shall live in them." (See Romans 10: 5.) Hence we read in Deuteronomy, "It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us." (Deut. 6: 25.) But the Jew was a sinner already, when he accepted obedience to the law as the condition of blessing, and he turned his back upon Jehovah in shameful apostasy before even the tables of the law reached the camp; and the apostle overwhelms his nation with proofs from their own Scriptures, that they had been guilty of continual sin and iniquity, that there was "none that doeth good, no not one," that they, equally with the Gentiles, were nothing but guilty sinners before God; and his conclusion is stated in these words: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." (Rom. 3: 20.) It was thus all over with the law as the way of justification, or as he states it in another chapter, Christ is the end (the termination) of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Rom. 10: 4.)

The apostle in the epistle to the Romans announces another way of blessing. God's way of justification since the cross, a principle, indeed, on which He had acted in notable cases in former ages, but one which was never fully propounded until after the death and resurrection of Christ. We may cite two or three verses to explain it: "That He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3: 26.) "Therefore being justified by faith." (Rom. 5: 1.) "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom. 4: 5.) These scriptures set forth the principle of justification most clearly, teaching as they do that God now justifies not on the principle of works, but on that of faith, and that instead of works, He reckons faith for righteousness. This is the meaning of the expression which the apostle cites from Habakkuk, "The just shall live by faith" — words which contained a blessed foreshadowing of God's way of grace in redemption; for it does not say, as under the law, "The man that doeth these things shall live by them;" but, "The just shall live by faith." It is therefore a total change of dispensation; for faith, and faith alone, is what God looks for, and that which He counts as righteousness.

If this is so far clear, before entering upon the object of the faith by which we are justified, let us consider the ground on which God acts. We read in chapter 5, "Being justified by His blood." (Rom. 5: 9.) To remove all misconception, it should be said that the word "by" in this sentence is not the same word as "by" in "being justified by faith." This latter may be taken to signify "on the principle of faith," whereas the former means "in virtue of" the blood. The blood of Christ, in fact, is shown to be what is often termed the meritorious cause of our justification; i.e., that which constitutes before God a ground of all-sufficient value for Him to justify us freely by His grace. A few words will set this in a clear light. Man had no righteousness for God, for all had sinned and come short of His glory; and hence, if God had acted in righteousness, in harmony with His holiness, in indignation against sin, He must have destroyed the sinner. But Christ died on the cross, took there the sinner's place, bore all the righteous meed and doom of sin, met all God's claims upon the sinner, exhausted, in making a full and all-sufficient atonement, God's righteous judgment against sin. He thus glorified God concerning sin, and it was His precious blood that made the propitiation before God, which His holiness demanded; for it was the blood of Him who had passed through all the waves and billows of judgment, of Him who while truly man was also God. We thus read that God set Him forth a propitiation (or mercy-seat) through faith in His blood (Rom. 3: 25), because He could now declare His righteousness — the death of Christ being the ground — both in passing over the sins of the saints of old, through His forbearance, and also that He might now be just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus. In other words, God could now, in virtue of the blood of Christ, righteously show mercy to the sinner, and reckon faith instead of works for righteousness.

This truth cannot be too firmly grasped, for not only is faith now the principle on which God justifies, but, as pointed out at the commencement of this paper, God also acts on it in consistency with all that He is — with every attribute of His character, and this is His righteousness. There are some who teach that His righteousness means the obedience of Christ to the law which is put down to the account of the believer. Our object is not controversy, and hence we content ourselves with asking the reader to examine carefully every place in which the words occur, and to see for himself if there is a trace of this in the Scriptures. Surely it would read, if this contention were correct, the righteousness of Christ.* But it is not so, and the reason is that the mind of the Holy Spirit is on another thing — even upon the glorious demonstration of the righteousness of God: first, in raising from the dead and setting on His right hand the One who had glorified Him in His death (for how could He but exalt Him who had suffered all to vindicate His glory?); and secondly, in justifying every poor sinner who should come to Him in the name of Jesus.

*Even Luther, who was so abundantly used of God to recover the truth of justification, failed to see this, and translated the words — the righteousness of God — "the righteousness which avails before God." This was really adding to the scripture.

We may now examine a little more closely the object of the faith by which we are justified. At the end of chapter 3 it is the believer in Jesus who is justified. (v. 26.) In chapter 4 it is, "If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead," etc. (Rom. 4: 24.) The difference is both important and instructive, and may be more easily explained if we refer for a moment to what took place on the great day of atonement. (Lev. 16.) The reader will there see that Aaron was commanded to take two goats in connection with making atonement for the people; the one of which he was to kill as a sin-offering, and then to take its blood and sprinkle it upon and before the mercy-seat, while the other — the scape-goat — was to be presented alive before the Lord; and after Aaron had confessed over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, it was to be sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. The former of these goats answers (as a shadow to its substance) to Romans 3: 26, where God sets forth Christ a propitiation through faith in His blood; the latter corresponds with Romans 4: 24, where we see Jesus our Lord delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification — bearing our sins, and carrying them away, so to speak, into a land where they can never more be found. The first is propitiation; that is, the blood of Christ sprinkled on the mercy-seat, meeting all the claims of God's glory in respect of our sins. The second is substitution; that is, Christ taking our place, and bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. These two aspects show us in a word Christ meeting God's claims and the sinner's needs.

It will much help the reader if he will carefully consider this difference; and it will aid him at the same time to apprehend the character of the object of faith as presented in these two scriptures. Thus in Romans 3 it is faith in the blood of Christ (Rom. 3: 25), or believing in Jesus (Rom. 3: 26); that is, the reception of God's testimony to the efficacy of that blood in making propitiation for sins. In this passage it is a question of the sinner's approach to God, and we find that the way is opened through faith in the blood of Christ; and coming in dependence upon its efficacy, as declared by God Himself, the sinner discovers that God is both just and the Justifier. In Romans 4 it is faith in God Himself — in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, and for this very reason that here is brought in the resurrection of the One who was delivered for our offences. As our Substitute He bore our sins, and the resurrection is God's own demonstration that our sins are for ever put away; for it was God who laid our sins upon Christ (Isa. 53), and if He steps forth and raises our Substitute from among the dead, it is that He might show His abounding satisfaction with the work of atonement, and at the same time present Himself to us as the God of all grace in the gift of His own Son, and in raising Him from the dead. It is not only now that we believe in Christ, but through Him also, as Peter writes, we "believe in God that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (1 Peter 1: 21.) Believing thus in God includes His testimony to Jesus our Lord as being delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification; and it is to those who thus believe in God that righteousness is imputed. The reader will see at a glance that this goes further than chapter 3. There it is the efficacy of the blood in propitiation, here it is sins borne, and He who bore them raised up out from under the awful load which had been placed upon Him into a new place before God — a place which should henceforward belong also through grace to every believer. He was raised again for our justification, and it is therefore in a risen Christ that we are justified in virtue of His finished work on the cross.

Now let the reader mark the sequence to this wondrous unfolding of truth: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1.) The believer is justified, his faith is reckoned for righteousness; yea, the righteousness of God (not the righteousness of man, which, if it were possible to obtain, would no longer avail, but the righteousness of God), which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is unto all and upon all them that believe. (Rom. 3: 22.) And peace with God is the portion of the justified. The reader will observe that nothing is said concerning peace with God until after the resurrection of Christ is introduced; for it is this which proves, as already seen, that God has been satisfied, yea, glorified, by the death of the Lord Jesus, and thereon He presents Himself to us as the object of faith, revealing, as He has done, all His heart of love and grace in the death and resurrection of His beloved Son. Receiving His testimony then as to the complete expiation and clearing away of our sins, we can now also rest in Him, knowing not only that He has nothing against us, but also that He Himself has justified us. We have, therefore, peace with God — with God according to all that He is as revealed in Christ, a peace founded upon the work of atonement, and which consequently is as immutable and everlasting as the value of that work before God. It is an eternal peace. Our feelings may fluctuate and change, our experiences may be of one kind today and another tomorrow, but peace with God ever remains the same. Once possessed, though from indifference, coldness, or inconsistency we may fail to enjoy it, it can never be lost. As the hymn says —

"'Tis everlasting peace!

Sure as Jehovah's name.

'Tis stable as His steadfast throne

For evermore the same."

There are other blessings pointed out as belonging to the justified. "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 5: 2.) First, we enter also, consequent on justification, through faith upon the full favour of God. Our sins gone, and peace with God made ours, God can now rest in us in perfect complacency; we stand before Him the objects of all His love, blessed with the full outshinings of His perfect favour. As we have peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, so every cloud has been swept from the sky, and we bask in the perfect sunshine of His presence. As to the past, our sins are gone; as to the present, we stand in His full favour; and as to the future, we rejoice in hope of His glory — into which He will infallibly bring us; for if we suffer with Christ we shall also be glorified together. (Rom. 8: 17.) What a heritage! Peace with God, His full favour, and the prospect of the glory! And let the reader carefully remark that this is not a heritage to be won by long years of Christian experience, but one that belongs to us the moment we are justified by faith. Experiences may, as they will, come after, as the fruit of the Spirit through tribulation, etc. (see, Rom. 5: 3-5); but all this wealth of blessing is connected, and immediately connected, with being justified by faith.

NOTE. — In Romans 5: 18 we find the term "justification of life;" but it would be to go farther than our purpose to consider in this paper this branch of the subject. It will suffice to say that this justification is ours as being made alive in Christ, in Christ risen — risen up out of death into a new place where neither death nor judgment can come. It is therefore a positive justification, as we have elsewhere said, inherent in the very life we have in Christ; and it involves our dissociation from Adam, and our connection in life with Christ as the second Man, the Lord from heaven. E. D.

IV.

Repentance and Faith.

When the Lord Jesus commenced His ministry, He cried, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1: 15.) The apostle Paul also said, when addressing the elders from Ephesus, that he had testified "both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20: 21.) The Lord's commission indeed to His disciples, after His resurrection from the dead, was that repentance and remission of sins (which could only be on faith in the message) should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24: 47.) It is therefore according to the divine order that these two things should be conjoined in preaching the gospel to sinners; and it might be added, with perfect truth, that these two things are also connected, of necessity, in the soul that divinely receives the glad tidings of the grace of God. Whether repentance has been sufficiently insisted on, or whether the essential bond between repentance and faith has been maintained in modern evangelistic preaching, we do not here enquire, as it is our object rather to expound the meaning of these two things, and their mutual relationship in the word of the gospel.

The first thing then that meets the soul is the demand for repentance toward God. This very fact implies the condition of those on whom the demand is made. If, for example, the Lord cried, "Repent ye," there was something in those to whom He spoke that needed repentance. It is evident, in a word, that such a message could only be addressed to sinners. The Lord speaks indeed, in another place, of just persons (if there were such) who need no repentance.

It is then because men are sinners that repentance is necessary, repentance toward God; for it is against Him that they have sinned, and under His just judgment that they have consequently fallen. The preaching of repentance is, on this very account, designed to awaken the sinner to a sense of his condition, by bringing before his soul the claims of a holy God, as well as the provisions of His grace. The presentation of God in the gospel as the One who so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, is surely calculated to touch the most obdurate heart. A God coming in judgment to deal with sinners even the natural conscience could understand; for the soul, whatever its subterfuges, knows its deserts. But a God appearing in grace, sending His beloved Son into the world, making Him to be sin on the cross, and publishing the glad tidings of grace and salvation far and wide, is so contrary to all human thoughts that the sinner may well be arrested, and compelled to consider. Justice is a well-known principle even in this world; but grace is so beyond its experience that it can hardly fail to beget a desire to trace out its source and origin. If God then proclaims the necessity of repentance, He Himself seeks to produce it by bringing the soul under the appeals of His grace in the gospel.

But let us enquire what repentance is. It is the more important to be careful as to this, owing to the loose and insufficient answers frequently given to this question. Some say that it is sorrow for sin; some that it is a change of mind, dwelling upon the literal meaning of the word; while others affirm that it comprises the determination both to forsake sin and also to do the will of God in time to come. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined together, though some of the things mentioned may constitute a part of scriptural repentance. That sorrow for sin does not amount to repentance is seen from the apostle's words: "Godly sorrow [sorrow according to God] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. 7: 10.) Mere sorrow for sin may spring from the sense of shame, or from the bitter consequences which sin often entails, and may often have no reference to God; and even sorrow according to God, as in the above scripture, is not, though it works, repentance. Much less could change of mind, or the vain effort to forsake sins and to do the will of God, be accepted as answering to it. No; scriptural repentance is nothing less than our identification with God in His judgment of our sins, our taking His part against ourselves, and our consequent bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment. This involves our hatred of sin, inasmuch as the moment, through grace, we side with God in His judgment upon our deeds, we are so far in communion with Him, as to His thoughts and feelings, about our sins. When we thus repent, we justify God and condemn ourselves. This can never take place but in His presence, when His light, the light of His holiness, reveals sin to us as it appears in His sight; so that we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42: 5, 6.) Or again, with the psalmist, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51: 4.)

The reader, however, must remember that we are explaining what scriptural repentance is, and that we are by no means affirming that even true repentance always answers to this description. There may indeed be but a feeble sense of sin, a very imperfect self-judgment, when the soul is first awakened; but let none on this account be discouraged, for God — who requires nothing, but gives everything in this day of grace — will deepen His own work in His own time, and give a truer estimate of sin to all who seek it. Peter thus proclaimed to his nation concerning Christ, "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins." (Acts 5: 31.) So also, when Peter had explained to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem the reasons and the effect of his visit to Cornelius, they said, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." (Acts 11: 18.) If, however, repentance is the gift of God, it is a gift He is ever ready to bestow; and we learn from our Lord Himself that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Indeed, it is the father himself that says, concerning the returned prodigal, "Let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." (Luke 15: 23, 24.)

Now, faith, as we have seen, is always conjoined with repentance; and while repentance is toward God, faith is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The explanation of this is very simple. It is against God we have sinned, and it is He who has passed judgment upon our sins; so that, when we are convicted of our guilt, it is to Him we turn with confession and self-judgment. In this state our one need is to learn the way of salvation, just as when the jailer, conscience-smitten, rushed into the presence of Paul and Silas, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Their answer was the presentation of Christ. "Believe," they said, "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16: 30, 31.) This, as the reader may perceive, is a summary of what was said; for we read in the next verse that they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. But the fact of the term — the Lord Jesus Christ — being used, shows that it was a full gospel they preached — the gospel concerning His person, His death and resurrection, and His present exaltation as Lord at the right hand of God. The jailer received, through grace, the testimony thus delivered, and there was therefore in his soul faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed God's testimony to the finished work of Christ on the cross, to the value of that work before God as having made full and perfect atonement for sin, and also to the testimony to His resurrection; so that he could then say, "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

And it is with faith, as so exercised, that remission of sins is always connected. This will be at once understood, if the reader will turn to the passage already cited from Luke 24, where repentance and remission of sins are linked together, both to be preached in the name of the risen Christ. For the moment there is the reception of God's testimony concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, forgiveness of sins is enjoyed. Repentance brings into a right state of soul before God; faith identifies the soul with all the value of the work of Christ. Both therefore are absolutely necessary for salvation.

The question, however, is often asked, Whether repentance must always precede faith? The very form of the question, as a few words will show, is misleading. If the true nature of repentance has been apprehended, the reader will see that it cannot be dissociated from faith. For what produces repentance? It is God's testimony, received in power, concerning me as a sinner. Somehow or other light has entered into my soul, and convicted before God, I bow to all He says of me in His word, as a lost sinner. This faith — faith in God's word as to the truth of my condition — must always be connected with repentance. The two things are indissolubly united. But the soul may remain in a state of repentance, if it may be so described, a long time before accepting God's further testimony as to His beloved Son; and it need scarcely be said that, as long as it thus continues, there will be no peace or liberty. Hence repentance in such a case precedes faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is undoubtedly the general order of the soul's experience.

We say the general order, for it cannot be denied that there would seem to be many exceptions. Repentance is so little preached, and the forgiveness of sins, or, in other cases, eternal life, without even raising the question of sin, is so often pressed upon souls — especially in so-called revival preaching — that many appear to be converted with scarcely any exercise as to the state of their souls before God, almost without ever having had the burden of sin upon their conscience. Fully granting that there are genuine cases of this kind, it yet must be said that all such will have conscience-work as to sin sooner or later. With them, what answers to repentance will undoubtedly follow after their conversion. But the divine order is repentance toward God first, and then faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ; and wherever the truth of the gospel is proclaimed according to God, this order will be maintained in the experience of souls. Take, for example, the epistle to the Romans, which in an especial manner presents the gospel. In the first place, after unfolding his theme, the apostle proves that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, then — but not till then — he expounds the provisions of God's grace for the sinner's guilt, and thereon he proceeds to explain how God has met also the sinner's state as well as the sinner's guilt. We do not here enter into this, beyond calling attention to the fact that the demonstration of our guilt precedes his description of how God has set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation through faith in His blood. And wherever this divine order of the presentation of truth is followed, it must necessarily produce repentance toward God, though repentance will ever be connected with the reception of the Word, before faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. E. D.

V.

The Person of Christ.

The truth concerning the person of Christ lies at the foundation of Christianity. Apart from what He was, even His death on the cross would not have made atonement for sin. It is necessary, therefore, to be clear on this subject, being as it is a component part of the Christian faith. On this account the apostle John wrote, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine" (the doctrine of the Christ; i.e. the true teaching concerning Him), "receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 10, 11.) Such an one while claiming to be a teacher must not be regarded even as a Christian. The truth involved is both fundamental and vital, so that neutrality concerning it would amount to identification with those who rejected it. Another remark is needful. Our Lord Himself said, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father." (Matthew 11: 27.) By this we are to understand that no one can grasp the mystery of His being, of the union in Himself of the divine and human natures. Acquainted with Him we can be, for He has also said, "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father."* There is thus no limit to the possible intimate knowledge of Christ Himself; but together with this, it must never be forgotten that none but the Father comprehends the Son, the mystery of His being who, when down here, was God manifest in the flesh. It savours therefore both of presumption and profanity to seek to penetrate into that which is absolutely concealed from all human eyes. The attempt has often been made, as church history abundantly testifies; but those who have made it, left to their own imaginings, have always fallen into dangerous errors, and become the blind instruments of Satan to scatter the people of God, while those who listened to or read their unholy speculations were often drawn into the vortex of doubt and infidelity. What is revealed may be pointed out for reception with adoration, but to proceed one step beyond is to forsake the light of revelation for the darkness of unhallowed reasonings.

*This is now generally admitted to be the right translation.

There are three scriptures which in a very special way bring before us the glory of the person of our blessed Lord; they are John 1, Col. 1, and Hebrews 1. We may then, first of all, look at these in the order named. The very first verse of John's gospel brings Him in all His divine majesty before our souls — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then it is added, "The same was in the beginning with God." Doubtless this precise title — if title it be — is used in relation to errors current in the apostle's day. Into these we need not enter, for the term is simple, and means, as has been said, that He is, and is the expression of the whole mind that subsists in God. Let the reader reverently ponder this statement; for what does it imply? Nothing less than that He is divine, for He who was the expression of the whole mind of God could not be other than Himself God. No created intelligence, however exalted, could by any possibility be the complete display of the divine mind. Prophets and apostles were often used, though they did not always understand the messages they had received, to communicate parts of God's mind, but none but the eternal Word could be its perfect expression. The saying of the old writer is strictly true — That only God could comprehend God.

The first verse, as often pointed out, asserts three things of the Word — that He is eternal in His existence — He was in the beginning; distinct as to His person — He was with God; and He is divine as to His nature — He was God. That the words "In the beginning" reach back into eternity is plain from verse 3, for the Creator of all things ("and without Him was not anything made that was made," whether angels, principalities, or powers, as well as men) necessarily was eternally existent. Creation indeed was the first expression of God, and that, as we here learn, was by Him who was the Word. In Him also was life, and the life was the light of men. (Compare Psalm 36: 9.) Of whom could this be said but of one who was Himself absolutely divine?

Passing now to verse 14 we read: "The Word became" (not was made) "flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." We may read in connection with this, "No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (v. 18.) We have thus brought before us the mystery of the incarnation — the Word became flesh. He who was with God, and who was God, became man, and tabernacled amongst men in a human body. But though His essential glory was thus shrouded from the natural eye, there were those who, with their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, beheld His glory — not simply His moral glory, but His divine glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Thus down here as Man He was the perfect expression of God — the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Creation was an unfolding, a display or revelation of God (see Romans 1: 19, 20); but the Word become flesh was the revelation of the Father, as He said to the Jews, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also" (John 8: 19), and to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (John 14: 9.) What then do we learn from these statements, but that He whom we know as the Lord Jesus Christ was the eternal and divine Word, that He was God, that He was the Creator of all things, and that He stepped forth into time and became flesh, a Man amongst men, "very God and very Man"? And this, we repeat, is one of the essential truths of Christianity.

We will now turn to Col. 1. The apostle tells of how the Father "hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light . . . delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (literally, the Son of His love); and then, after adding that it is in Him (in Him who is the Son of His love) "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," he proceeds to describe His glories. First, He is the image of the invisible God. If the reader will look at Genesis 1, he will see that man was made in the image and likeness of God; and this indicates a twofold distinction. Man was made in the image of God; our blessed Lord was that image. Secondly, man was made in God's likeness; but it would be derogatory to the Godhead of the Son to say that He was the likeness of God. Being Himself God, He could not be the likeness, but, as manifested in time, He was the image of God. Man was made in the image of God, for he represented God in the first creation. When Christ came, He, as the image of God, not only represented Him, but was in Himself the perfect presentation of God. Truly read, therefore, this one brief statement is the assertion of His divine claims. He was also the Firstborn of every creature, or rather the Firstborn of all creation. Let us borrow the words of another as to this: "He is then the image of the invisible God, and, when He takes His place in it, the Firstborn of all creation. The reason of this is worthy of our attention — simple, yet marvellous. He created it. It was in the person of the Son that God acted when by His power He created all things, whether in the heaven or in the earth, visible and invisible. All that is great and exalted is but the work of His hand; all has been created by Him (the Son), and for Him. Thus, when He takes possession of it, He takes it as His inheritance by right. Wonderful truth, that He who has redeemed us, who made Himself man . . . is the Creator! But such is the truth." And then, that there might be no misconception as to the glory of His person, we read, "And He is before all things" — before the existence of a single thing, when the self-existent One, God Himself, dwelt (if we may venture the words) in the solitude of His own blissful being. "And by Him all things consist;" called into existence by His creative word, they are dependent still for continuance upon His power. And be it remembered that these things are revealed, not to be explained, but to be received, and to be received that our hearts may be filled with adoration as we think of the essential glory and majesty of Him who came into this scene as man, and humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

In the epistle to the Hebrews we shall also find, if in connection with another line of truth, the glories of the person of Christ unveiled. God, says the writer of this epistle, hath in these last days spoken to us by the Son; and he adds immediately, "Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds." So that we have in these few lines a very trinity of glories — Son of God, Heir of all things, and Creator. "All the vast system of this universe, those unknown worlds that trace their paths in the vast regions of space in divine order to manifest the glory of a Creator-God, are the work of His hand who has spoken to us, of the divine Christ. In Him has shone forth the glory of God. He is the perfect impress of His being. We see God in Him in all that He said, in all that He did, in His person. Moreover, by the word of His power He upholds all that exists. He is then the Creator; God is revealed in His person." But who, we may ask, is this glorious Being? It is no other than He who was crucified through weakness, Jesus of Nazareth, as He was known amongst men, the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as depicted by the prophet; for as soon as we are told that He upholdeth all things by the word of His power, it is added, that it is He who made by Himself purification of sins, and has thereon sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. This identifies Him at once with the Christ who died on the cross, and who rose again on the third day, and is now at the right hand of God.

There is, however, still more in the chapter. He is the Son of God as born into this world, spoken of as such in the words, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." As the First-begotten, when introduced into this scene, "all the angels of God" are commanded to worship Him. He is addressed even as God: "Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Once more He is pointed out as the Creator; and finally, His position is given at the right hand of God until His enemies are made His footstool. It is glory upon glory which is here unfolded, and all alike centring in and radiating from the Son, in whom, in these last days, God has spoken, and who not only became flesh and tabernacled amongst men, but was also, as we learn from John's gospel, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.

But it is not only in such scriptures as these that the character of the person of Christ is revealed. Every page of the gospels tells that He was the God-man. If, on the one hand, He was a homeless stranger, a weary Man sitting on Samaria's well; if He hungered in the desert, slept in the boat; if He groaned, wept tears of sorrow and sympathy; on the other hand, He wrought miracles, cleansed lepers, opened blind eyes, raised the dead to life, asserted His power over the winds and the waves, controlled the movements of the fish of the sea; in a word, He declared by His mighty acts that if a man He was also God. Hence He said to Philip, "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake." (John 14: 11.) And again, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man" (rather, no other one) "did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." (John 15: 24.) And the testimony which He gave by His words and by His works during His sojourn here was confirmed and sealed by His resurrection from among the dead, for He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1: 4.)

There is even yet another line of truth pointing — unmistakably pointing — to the same conclusion. He received and approved the confession of Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and traced it to a special revelation from His Father in heaven. His disciples and others fell at His feet, and in their measure, and according to their light, rendered to Him what only belonged to God. Nay, He claimed from His own what could only be properly given to God. They were to follow Him, love and serve Him; and on His part He engaged to give them rest, peace, and eternal life; promised to return to receive them unto Himself, that where He should be, after His departure, they should be also. Take the one instance of the thief on the cross. In his penitence and faith he turned to the One who was crucified by his side, and said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." The answer was, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23: 42, 43.) That He was man was proved by the fact of His crucifixion, and these blessed words which He spake to the malefactor demonstrate no less clearly that He was also God.

And such is the professed faith of Christendom, and nothing less can be received as Christian faith. This must be ever insisted upon with uncompromising fidelity, and especially now, when there are not wanting signs of a rising wave of socinianism, which threatens to spread throughout the land, and which; as it is the result of increasing rationalism, is also the sure precursor of wide-spread infidelity, and, it may be, apostasy. The enemy is very subtle. He will even commend Christ as man, if he may but thereby raise doubts as to His Godhead; and for this purpose he chooses rather to use as his instruments professed Christian teachers than open adversaries. We need therefore, as not ignorant of his devices, to be on our guard, and to cling to the precious truth with ever-increasing tenacity, that the Christ, who as concerning the flesh was born of the seed of David, is over all, God blessed for ever. (Rom. 1: 4; Rom. 9: 5.) And it is also written, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." (1 John 4: 15.)

"Thou art the everlasting Word,

The Father's only Son;

God manifest, God seen and heard,

The heaven's beloved One.

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou,

That every knee to Thee should bow."

E. D.

VI.

The Work of Christ.

The person and work of Christ are inseparable, for — as we saw in the last paper — the efficacy of His work is derived from the character of His person; that is, in simple language, no other but He who was both God and Man, who was the image of the invisible God, the Word who was God, and who yet became flesh and dwelt among us, could have made atonement for sin in His death upon the cross. The truth concerning these two things lies at the very foundation of Christianity, and neither therefore could be surrendered without departing from the faith once delivered to the saints.

By the work of Christ, it should be observed, is meant especially what He accomplished on Calvary. The will of God, which He came to do (Heb. 10), would perhaps embrace the whole of His life, as well as His death; but, as that chapter itself shows, it has reference chiefly to His death, as is seen from the words, "By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." In like manner the apostle Paul alludes to His death, when he speaks of the "one righteousness" which is towards all men for justification of life. (Rom. 5: 18, New Translation.)

We propose therefore, in this paper, to enquire briefly into the nature of the work of Christ through His death — a work which is often expressed by the one word atonement;* and if we turn to the sacrificial ceremonies of the great day of atonement, we shall find the materials necessary for our investigation. There are three points to which the reader's attention may be directed. The first is, burning the incense inside the veil before the mercy-seat. After the details are given concerning the sacrifices to be offered, and after the sacrifice was killed, it was said of Aaron, that "he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not." (Lev. 16: 12, 13.) This was the first transaction inside the veil on this eventful day. Aaron had washed himself in water, and put on the holy linen garments, that he might be a type (only a type) of the spotless holiness of Christ. The sin-offering had been killed, death had been brought in upon the victim, the blood which was to make propitiation had been shed; but the first and foremost thing enjoined, before the blood could be dealt with or sprinkled, was, that Aaron should burn the fragrant incense before the Lord in the holiest. The incense sets forth the acceptability of Christ Himself to God; the sweet fragrance of His graces, excellencies, and perfections — a truth not ill-embodied in the lines —

"The merits of the Lord appear,

They fill the holy place."

(*It may be helpful to some readers if it is explained that the word atonement does not occur in the New Testament Scriptures. It is found in the English Translation in Romans 5: 11, but it is wrongly given for the word reconciliation. In Hebrews 2: 17 reconciliation should be propitiation. This double mistake is remarkable, and perhaps significant.)

This will explain to the reader what has already been observed — the indissoluble connection between the person and the work of Christ. Aaron pauses as it were in the midst of his preparation for his sacrificial service, and enters first of all into the holiest with his censer of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord to burn incense; teaching that the graces, the perfections of Christ, tested by the holy fire, by the absolute standard of God's holiness, emitted a cloud of perfume which covered the mercy-seat — the dwelling-place of Jehovah. It is, we repeat, the infinite acceptability of Christ Himself — the acceptability proved by the application of the holy fire. It therefore tells us of God's delight in what Christ was in Himself; not so much God's delight in His beloved Son, as expressed at His baptism and on the mount of transfiguration, but rather His unmeasured complacency in Christ as Man — in Him who had devoted Himself to death, and to death in the place of sin, and for sin, for the glory of His God. Though not the burnt-offering — for that was presented on the brazen altar — yet, in one aspect like it, the incense, when placed upon the burning coals, ascended as a sweet savour unto the Lord.

The next thing was dealing with the blood of the sacrifice. The reader will observe that Aaron was to offer a bullock as the sin-offering to make an atonement for himself and for his house (v. 6); but for the congregation of the children of Israel two goats were appointed — one of which (that on which the Lord's lot fell) was to be killed as a sin-offering, and the other was to be the scapegoat. (vv. 8-10.) It is with the goats that we are concerned in this paper; for while the bullock speaks of Christ equally with the two goats, it is in these latter God has been pleased to show forth the two aspects of the death of Christ. The blood of the bullock was dealt with in the same way as that of the goat of the sin-offering, both alike being sprinkled once on and seven times before the mercy-seat. (vv. 14, 15.) The blood on the mercy-seat was manifestly for God, for the mercy-seat was God's throne in the midst of Israel. (Psalm 80: 1, etc.) That before the mercy-seat was for him that approached — the high priest, in this case — as representing the congregation, and here seven times as a perfect testimony to the efficacy of the sacrifice, while once was enough for the eye of God. What then did this blood represent? It was the blood of the sin-offering, type of the precious blood of Christ, who was made sin in His death on the cross, of Him whose soul — according to the language of the prophet (Isaiah 53: 10) — was made an offering for sin. Hence the apostle Paul writes, "Whom God hath set forth a propitiation [a mercy-seat] through faith in His blood." (Rom. 3: 25.)

In order then to apprehend the true significance of this blood-sprinkling, it must again be carefully remembered that it was inside the veil — in the holiest of all — and on the mercy-seat, where the eye of God alone rested, and that the mercy-seat was His throne. Two things follow. First, that it was for God; and, secondly, that it appeased, answered, according to the nature of Him that sat thereon, the claims of His throne in the midst of Israel. But inasmuch as the holiest was but the pattern (as all the tabernacle), and therefore the antitype of heavenly things (see Heb. 9, 10), we learn from this sprinkling of the blood on the mercy-seat, on the day of atonement, what the blood of Christ was for God. As another has written: "The perfect death of Jesus — His blood put on the throne of God — has established and brought into evidence all that God is, all His glory, as no creation could have done it. His truth (for He had passed sentence of death) is made good in the highest way in Jesus; His majesty, for His Son submits to all for His glory; His justice against sin; His infinite love. God found means therein to accomplish His counsels of grace, in maintaining all the majesty of His justice, and of His divine dignity; for what like the death of Jesus could have glorified them?" This blood-sprinkling on the mercy-seat constituted the propitiation, because it was for God in reference to the claims of His holiness upon men as sinners. Being thus for God, there is no question of application to sinners, though it is the glorious and righteous basis on which God can act in grace, and save every one who receives His testimony respecting it, on which He can be both just and the Justifier of all who believe in Jesus. (Rom. 3: 24-26.) It is this aspect of the death of Christ — the propitiation made through His blood — that has glorified God completely in relation to all that He is, whether as regards His holiness, His truth, His majesty, His righteousness, or His love. Were no sinner ever saved, God would yet have been infinitely glorified by the death of His Son, in the propitiation He has made by His precious blood; for all His claims as a holy God, all the claims of His holy government, have been publicly vindicated in the face of the universe. But, blessed be His name, not only has peace — the peace of God's throne — been made by the blood of His cross, but streams of blessing also have flowed out therefrom, ever increasing in volume, from the day when the malefactor went from his gibbet to be with Christ in paradise until now; and they will flow onward until the last saint is gathered in, whether in this or the coming dispensation.

"Blest Lamb of God, thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till every ransomed saint of God

Be saved to sin no more."

If we now consider the scapegoat, we shall have before us another aspect of the work of Christ: "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness." (vv. 21, 22.) If the blood on the mercy-seat made propitiation, the putting the sin of Israel upon the live goat sets forth the truth of substitution.* Thus, as another has well expressed it, "it is evident that, though the scapegoat was sent away alive, he was identified as to the efficacy of the work with the death of the other. The idea of the eternal sending away of sins out of remembrance is only added to the thought of death. The glory of God was established, on one side, in the putting of blood on the mercy-seat; and, on the other, there was the substitution of the scapegoat — of the Lord Jesus — in His precious grace for the guilty persons whose cause He had undertaken; and the sins of these having been borne, their deliverance was full, entire, and final. The first goat was Jehovah's lot, it was a question of His character and majesty; the other was the lot of the people, which definitively represented the people in their sins."

(*By substitution is meant that the Lord Jesus died in the room and stead of His people — that He took their place, bore their sins, and endured on the cross the just judgment of God — all that was due to them on account of their sins.)

These two aspects are found in the epistle to the Romans. At the end of Romans 3, as already pointed out, we have Christ set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood (v. 25), and in Romans 4 we read: "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," where the being delivered for our offences is clearly substitution, answering to the putting of Israel's sins on the head of the scapegoat. But substitution involves the application of the efficacy of the work, of Christ, and is therefore limited to believers. This is indeed seen in the ceremony connected with the scapegoat. Aaron laid his hands upon its head, and in that attitude confessed over it all the iniquities of Israel. Laying his hands on its head expressed identification with the goat, and the transference, through confession, of the transgressions and sins of the people to the goat, and the goat consequently bore away their sins into the wilderness. Now none but believers are identified with the sacrifice of Christ. It is only when they first came to Christ, having received God's testimony concerning His beloved Son, and confessed their sins, that they were brought under all the value of His work, and learned that all their sins were put away for ever. And if we refer to a few scriptures where the truth of substitution is found, it will be clear, beyond question, that it is limited to believers.

"He was wounded," says the prophet, "for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53: 5.) Such is the language which the Spirit of God has provided, through the prophet, for converted Israel of a later day; for the reader will observe that without faith it would not be possible to say, "He was wounded for our transgressions," or that "with His stripes we are healed." In like manner, when the apostle Peter writes, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2: 24), he expresses the faith of himself and of his fellow-believers to whom he was writing, for he adds, "that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness."

There is another class of scriptures, as the point is important, to which we will briefly refer. Whenever the death of the Lord is looked at in its substitutional aspect, it is limited to His people. Speaking Himself He says, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for [ἀντὶ] many," the many, as shown by the preceding preposition, being a special class; i.e., His people. In the epistle to the Hebrews we also read that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (chap. 9: 28), not of all, because the truth of substitution is again in view. On the other hand, when it says that Christ died for all, as in 2 Cor. 5: 14, or that He gave Himself for all, as in 1 Timothy 2: 6, the thought of substitution is excluded, and carefully excluded, by the language employed. Both things are blessedly true of the death of Christ — He died for all, by the grace of God He tasted death for every man — but, according to the teaching of scripture, only believers are entitled to say that He bore their sins in His death upon the cross, for this involves, as before pointed out, faith in His work, and the application to those who have it of the benefits of His death.*

*Hence the liturgical expression, "O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world," is unscriptural and erroneous. It implies no less than that the whole world must necessarily be saved. This shows the importance of jealously guarding the truth of God from human additions. (See John 1: 29.)

If the reader has followed the above statements, he will have apprehended the difference between propitiation and substitution; for, as the writer already cited says, "These two aspects of the death of Jesus must be carefully distinguished in the atoning sacrifice He has accomplished. He has glorified God, and God acts according to the value of that blood towards all. He has borne the sins of His people, and the salvation of His people is complete." It was by the propitiation that He glorified God, and by which, all His holy claims having been met, God was set free in righteousness to proclaim grace to the whole world, to issue the invitation — "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." It is by substitution that all the sins of God's people have been borne away for ever; and it is these two things that make up the one work of Christ — the atonement — which was wrought out and completed on Calvary, when through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God. There are several aspects of this work, as may be seen in the details of the offerings (Lev. 1-4); but the work is one, and perfect, and eternally complete. In this finished work of Christ God has been abundantly glorified (John 13: 31, 32; John 17: 4), and He has shown His estimate of it by the glory in which He has set His beloved Son at His own right hand. It is moreover, as we have seen, the righteous basis on which God can now in His unspeakable grace send out to the whole world the entreating message — "Be ye reconciled to God" — as well as the all-efficacious ground on which He will put away sin out of His sight for ever. (See Hebrews 9: 26.)

Thus God has His part in the death of Christ. Believers have theirs, inasmuch as they know that by it their sins have been eternally put away. Even the world reaps some of its blessed consequences, in that it is written, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Israel will share in its efficacy, for He died for that nation (John 11: 49, 50); and thus the time will come when "all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11: 26.) The whole creation will in virtue of it be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8: 21); yea, the reconciliation of all things will proceed on the foundation of peace having been made through the blood of His cross. In a word, God will, in virtue of the finished work of Christ, accomplish all His counsels of grace, whether in respect of believers of this dispensation, of Israel in the age to come, or of the whole creation; and together with the introduction of the new heaven and the new earth, all sin will have been put away as the full consequence of the finished work of Christ. E. D.

VII.

Reconciliation.

The very name of this subject points out to some extent its character. It implies, at least, that enmity had somewhere been existing; and when it is remembered that the question is concerning the reconciliation of sinners to God, it may well be asked, Where was the enmity? It is the more important to answer this question, owing to the fact that the statement is continually made, that God is reconciled to man in Christ. This indeed was the general thought at the time of, and subsequent to, the Reformation, and it has found expression in many formal theological treatises. But it only concerns us to ascertain the teaching of the Scriptures. If, then, the reader will turn to Rom. 5 he may read, "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (v. 10.) This places beyond dispute that the enmity was on our part, that it was we who needed to be reconciled to God, and not God to us. The latter thought, indeed, loses sight altogether — as may be more fully seen farther on — of the fact that God Himself is the fountain of all grace, and that it was acting from His own heart "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

There are three scriptures which especially speak of reconciliation — Rom. 5: 10, 11, 2 Cor. 5: 18-21, and Col. 1: 20-22,* and we hope to refer to each of these in tracing out the subject. Let it then be borne distinctly in mind that man, man as such, is an enemy of God. The scripture says, the carnal mind — the mind of the flesh — that is, the mind of every natural man, is enmity against God (Rom. 8: 7), and this was proved when the Lord Jesus came into the world, as He Himself says, "They hated me without a cause" (John 15: 25), and they rested not in their hatred until they had nailed Him to the cross. Perfect goodness did but elicit perfect evil: perfect light was in the world, "and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 3: 19, 20.) Let us now see how God met all this enmity, and what steps He took to break it down, and to reconcile the sinner to Himself.

*In Hebrews 2: 17 the word is found, but it should be "propitiation," whereas the word "atonement" in Rom. 5: 11 ought to be "reconciliation."

Turning, first of all, to 2 Cor. 5, we shall perceive that the Holy Spirit is careful to remind us, what has already been insisted on, that God Himself is the source of reconciliation. "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ," etc. (v. 18.) Of necessity it was so; for how could man make approaches to God when he was already not only a poor, lost sinner, but also his mind was enmity against God, and when there was no foundation laid on which a righteous reconciliation could be effected? No; man was helpless, and could never, even if he had the desire, have bridged over the chasm that separated him from God. God alone could undertake this mighty work. And this expression — "All things are of God" — tells the blessed tale of grace which flowed out from His heart towards poor guilty man, and made provision for his eternal reconciliation. And the passage in Romans, already cited, teaches us, furthermore, that the motive for the action on God's part was in Himself alone: it was when we were enemies — when our backs were turned to Him in our hatred, that was the moment when God unfolded the depths of His own heart in the gift of His beloved Son. (Rom. 5: 8-10.)

We may trace the stream of grace in its onward course. Its first appearance in this world is indicated by the words: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. 5: 19.)* This refers to the attitude of God in Christ in incarnation. He came into a world of sinners, all of whom were under the just judgment of God on account of sin, and who all, had He dealt with them in righteousness, must have been swept away to eternal destruction. But He came in grace, dwelt with sinners, submitted Himself to all their taunts, malice, and hatred, did not for the time impute their trespasses unto them, but bore all their hatred and malice in patience, and even entreated them to come to Him and live. God was thus in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Instead of exacting what was due to Himself, He offered mercy, rest, forgiveness, life, and would fain have in this way broken down the enmity of their hearts. But all was in vain, man would not be reconciled. Still the stream of grace flowed on, for the heart of God was unwearied, even in the presence of the ever increasing manifestation of the enmity of man's heart, which rose up to the total rejection and crucifixion of Him who would if possible have reconciled them to Himself. The cross was the answer to man's hatred; that is, the work that was there accomplished. And the aspect of it presented here is very beautiful, "for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin." It is, as suited to the subject, an action on the part of God. It is God who is reconciling in this chapter, and hence He was acting both in Christ and on the cross (as also in His messengers after the cross), that He might, by the exhibition of His own heart, melt the hard heart of man, break down His enmity. Let the reader ponder this wondrous display of the riches of His grace. For what did God accomplish by the death of Christ? He made Him sin, He exacted from that spotless and willing victim, who offered Himself to endure all that the glory of God demanded on account of sin, all His claims upon us, so that He might lay a foundation, righteous and immovable, on which He could still proceed to satisfy His own heart, in harmony with all His attributes, in His longing desire to reconcile men to Himself.

(*The reader should carefully mark the exact wording of this scripture. It does not say that God has reconciled the world to Himself, as, for example, the Swedish Bible translates, and as was stated recently by one of the most popular preachers in London; that would mean universal salvation.)

The stream still flowed. Christ died on the cross, was buried, rose again, ascended up to heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God. Thereon the Holy Spirit was given, souls were converted and reconciled, and then sent forth with God's message to the whole world. The apostle says, "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." And then he proceeds to describe the carrying out of this ministry: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us: we pray in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God." (v. 20.) Sent forth as Christ's ambassadors, after He had taken His seat at the right hand of God, it is still, as it were, the voice of God beseeching through those who were pleading with men, in the stead of Christ (for He was no longer here), to be reconciled to God. Such has been the action of God with the view of reconciling men. He Himself was here in the person of Christ, here in grace in the attitude of seeking to reconcile, then, still proceeding with His object, He made Him, who knew no sin, sin on the cross, and thereon He took up men, reconciled them to Himself, and put in them the ministry of reconciliation, that the whole world might know what was in His heart. And though the immediate ambassadors of Christ are no longer upon the earth, yet wherever the gospel message is proclaimed there is still heard the entreating voice of God addressed to His enemies.

We may now look a little more closely at the truth of reconciliation; but first it may be necessary to state distinctly its ground. This is brought forth prominently in all the three scriptures named. We take one of these: "Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile," etc. (Col. 1: 20.) Here is given, in precise form, the foundation on which God proceeds; it is the peace which has been made by the blood of the cross of Christ. The reader will at once perceive that this peace is not peace between God and man, not the peace with God which those possess who are justified by faith, because it is set forth as the ground on which God can act in reconciliation. It is rather the peace of God's throne, consequent upon all the claims of that throne, the claims of a Holy God upon sinners, having been completely met by the precious blood of Christ. God, having been thus glorified by the death of the Lord Jesus, is free, in righteousness as well as in grace, to take the first step in the work of reconciliation. The death of Christ is the alone ground on which He acts; so in Romans we read, "We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5: 10); in Colossians, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death." And as it is on the ground of the death of Christ, so it is by the presentation of what God is in Christ, when down here, and through Christ in His death on the cross, that God speaks in power, through the Holy Spirit, to the hearts of sinners, and effects their reconciliation by the revelation of what He is in all His goodness and grace. The work of reconciliation is thus the work of God, even as the apostle says, "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself;" and again, "And you hath He reconciled."

What, then, is meant by reconciliation? Between men who may have been at variance it is the restoration of happy relationships; it is much more than this between God and man. The enmity was in the heart of man alone; and it is not only the removal of this, but it is also bringing man to God according to the eternal efficacy of the perfect work of Christ — a perfect work as estimated by God Himself. It is a reconciliation, therefore, according to all that God is as displayed in the death of Christ, and we brought to be — to quote the words of another — "in absolute harmony with the full display of what God is in His own character and nature." It is not, therefore, merely removing the enmity of our hearts, and God fully and freely forgiving our sins, but it is lifting us up into His own presence, setting us in the light as He is in the light, bringing us to Himself, and causing us to be in harmony with the full manifestation of Himself in Christ. The apostle could therefore say, "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Rom. 5: 11.) That is, the result of reconciliation is that we can joy in God, delight ourselves in all that He is, in His holiness, love, grace, majesty, truth, righteousness — in a word, in Himself. What a contrast between joying in and being enemies of God! And this mighty change has been effected by His grace.

If now we turn once more to the epistle to the Colossians, we shall learn the scope of reconciliation. Believers are reconciled. This is the precise statement of the apostle (v. 21), as also in both Romans and 2 Cor. 5; and the character of it may again be marked from the words he employs in Colossians: it is, "To present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight" Such is the wondrous place in which God brings all whom He has reconciled to Himself, and all, it need scarcely be added, whom He may yet reconcile. But the reader should observe that, while it is God's work, it is through faith, for this opens the door of reconciliation to every poor sinner who listens and yields to the beseeching cry, "Be reconciled to God."

There is, however, outside of believers, another field in which God will work for the same end. The apostle says, "Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (v. 20.) It is of the utmost moment to observe, especially in a day when false teachers, presuming upon a wide-spread ignorance of the Scriptures, are seeking on every hand to substitute their own thoughts for the infallible word of God, that here the apostle speaks of things and not persons. Had it been persons, there were no need to proceed to speak of believers as a separate class. The "all things" that are to be reconciled correspond with the headship of Christ over all creation — "He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." (v. 17) — just as believers correspond with His headship of the body. (v. 18.) And these "all things," "whether things in earth, or things in heaven" — i.e., the heavenly things, which were to be purified by better sacrifices than those used for the patterns of things in the heavens (Heb. 9: 23) — are regarded in this scripture, not only as defiled by sin, but also, through being connected with man and Satan, as under the power of evil, and, therefore, of hostility to God. (Compare Rom. 8: 19-22.) God, therefore, will act in power (peace having been made by the blood of the cross), and bring, through Christ, all these things back into harmonious relationship with Himself. This will be seen in measure during the thousand years, when Christ will wield His kingly sceptre over the whole earth; but it will be then only in measure, for evil, if repressed, will still be there, and breaking forth, under the instigation of Satan at the close of the kingdom, will again defile the beauteous scene. It will be, however, its last appearance; for the dark and awful judgments, which will consummate the ways of God with earth and man, will but be preparatory to the introduction of the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness will for ever dwell. All things are now made new, and "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21: 3, 4.) It is only in this perfect scene — perfect according to the thoughts of God — that we behold the far-reaching consequences and efficacy of the precious blood of Christ; for here we are permitted to see all things, whether on earth or in heaven, actually reconciled; and the foundation on which God will work out this glorious result is the peace which has been made by the blood of the cross. E. D.

VIII.

Prayer.

There is no need to insist upon the importance of prayer; for, while it may often be neglected, there are few who will not admit that it is a necessary expression of the Christian life. Our purpose, however, in this paper is to offer a few considerations upon its nature, as well as upon its conditions and objects.

There are three things contained in prayer — dependence, confidence, and expectation. Necessarily prayer is the language of dependence, springing from the fact, as it does, that we are dependent on Him to whom we pray. When the Lord said to Ananias, concerning Saul, "Behold, he prayeth," He intimated that Saul had now learnt his true place of dependence, along with the conviction of his guilt in persecuting the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the sense of dependence that begets need, and turns our eyes upward to Him who alone can meet it. This is expressed in the language of the psalmist, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." (Psalm 62: 5.) There might, however, be entire dependence without confidence; and in such a case there could be no real prayer. A natural man, for example, might be convinced that he is dependent on a higher power for his existence; but with his carnal mind enmity against God he could not turn to Him in prayer. The believer not only knows his dependence on, but he has also confidence in God.

He has learnt something of His grace, His heart, and he thus, under the sense of his need, casts himself in childlike confidence on God, in the assurance that He will hear his prayer. Then, allied with this, there is expectation, waiting for the answer in faith. No doubt the heart is relieved by the very utterance of its needs before God; but he who prays in the Spirit will be found watching in his prayer for the expected answer. As the psalmist again speaks, "I waited patiently [in waiting I waited] for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry." And again, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning." So in the New Testament we are exhorted to "continue [to persevere] in prayer, and to watch in the same with thanksgiving." As also to "pray without ceasing." (Col. 4: 2; 1 Thess. 5: 17.)

The conditions of prayer according to God are found in various scriptures. Jude speaks in his epistle of praying in the Holy Ghost, and this may perhaps be termed the fundamental condition; for while we read in the Scriptures of prayers offered by natural men, and of such being answered by God in His tender mercy and compassion, it is yet true that no believer could pray except in and by the Spirit of God. It is He who must produce in us the sense of need, and it is He who must lead us into the presence of God, as well as guide us in our petitions. As the apostle says, when speaking of our connection with a groaning creation, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." (Rom. 8: 26.) We are thus as dependent on the power of the Spirit for prayer as for walk. It is owing to the forgetfulness of this truth that Christendom seeks refuge in its prayer-books, both in families and in public assemblies, and at the same time conceals thereby its need and poverty.

Our Lord has also laid down an indispensable condition of prayer — a condition which, when fulfilled, always ensures the answer to our cries. He says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14: 13, 14.) It becomes therefore a matter of the utmost importance to ascertain the meaning of the words "in my name." It could not mean the utterance simply of the words, or closing our petitions with, "through our Lord Jesus Christ." That would attach the answer of prayer to a mere formula. This is impossible, and we shall see that much more is involved. Even in human transactions the name of another cannot be used without his consent and authority. If we ask anything of a third person in another's name, in the name of one that would give us influence in our request, it can only be with his express permission, and a permission which must be proved if the demand is made. In like manner we cannot use the name of Christ in our prayers without His warrant — a warrant that must be found in His own Word. When we have this, and we have it for every petition which is evoked from us by the Holy Ghost, for every prayer which is the expression of His own mind, we appear before God with all the authority of Christ Himself, in all His value and preciousness to God, and hence the prayers so offered ascend with the same power as if presented by Himself This is seen from the promise He annexes to the condition, "I will do it." And He will do it, moreover, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. How blessed then when we thus pray! And what an encouragement thus to pray! And what a foundation, we may also add, for faith to build its hopes and expectations upon!

In John 15 the Lord has given us another condition — "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (v. 7.) This is sometimes spoken of as a lower kind of prayer, but the slightest examination of the terms our Lord employs will dispel the misconception. True it is asking what we will, but this is preceded by a double condition. The first is, "If ye abide in me." Now abiding in Christ is the constant maintenance in our souls of our dependence upon Him for life, strength, and everything; a dependence as complete as that of the branch on the vine for its power to bear fruit. "Apart from me," He says, "ye can do nothing," anymore than the branch could bear fruit after it was severed from the vine. Whatever of life towards God, service in testimony, fruit-bearing of every kind, that flows out from His people, has its source in Him, and can only flow out through them, as the connection is maintained by abiding in Him, realizing that they are dependent on Him, that in this sense they live, move, and have their being in Him. Then He adds, "And my words abide in you." The two things must go together — abiding in Him and His words abiding in us. The first gives the secret of the power and the second the knowledge of His mind; for when His words abide — dwell in us — they become the source of His thoughts to us; yea, they form His mind, and as a consequence what we will is according to His will. This reveals to us that our prayers — the prayers that have power with God — flow from God's own mind as revealed in the Scriptures. An example of this may be found in the life of David. When the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David that not he, but his son, should build Jehovah's house, and gave him promises concerning his own house, his throne, and kingdom, he went in and sat before the Lord with his heart overflowing with gratitude, and praise, and prayer; and, among others, he used these remarkable words, "Thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee." (2 Samuel 7: 27.) That is, David's prayer concerning his house was founded upon and formed by the gracious communications which Jehovah had been pleased to make. So likewise our truest prayers are those which spring from the word of God, the words of Christ, as in John, dwelling in our hearts, because we then pray in communion with, as well as according to, the divine mind, and hence necessarily also in the Holy Ghost.

In the gospel of Matthew another aspect of prayer is presented — "All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matt. 21: 22; see also Mark 11: 24.) James too speaks of the necessity of faith in asking, and adds that a waverer must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Now faith can only spring from confidence in God about the thing sought, and this confidence in God will only follow upon the conviction that what is prayed for is according to God's will; and, it may be added, the assurance that we have the mind of God can only be produced by the Holy Spirit, and by the Holy Spirit, speaking generally, through the written Word. Once having this assurance, we await with the certainty of expectation the answer, according to that word of the apostle John: "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (1 John 5: 14, 15.) This passage is important as showing that faith finds its sure foundation in the knowledge of God's will — a will that is unfolded to us in the Scriptures.

The apostle John warns us of a common hindrance to prayer. He says, "Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3: 21, 22.) Self-judgment and confession, if there has been failure or sin, are therefore pre-requisites to effectual prayer, even as the psalmist says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." This will again link itself with the statement of James — "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The righteous man being, we judge, one who is practically such; one who, in the language of John, "keeps God's commandments." For walking in obedience is not only the path of holiness, but it is also the source through the Holy Spirit of intelligence in God's mind, and thus of confidence in prayer. The very example of Elijah that James adduces is an illustration in point. In the history Elijah announces by a word of the Lord that there should be no rain upon the earth for "these years;" and again, after that period, that there should be rain. And now we learn from James that both the one and the other were answers to his prayers.

We can only touch briefly upon the objects, or, perhaps we should rather say, the subjects, of prayer. From Phil. 4 we learn that we may tell out before God everything which burdens our hearts: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God," etc. It is not said that God will answer all these requests; still, in His love and grace, He would have us unburden ourselves, and He engages that His peace shall guard our "hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Yes, He would have us, as Peter exhorts, to cast all our care upon Him in the knowledge that He careth for us. These requests are connected with our personal needs, but outside of these (and it is our privilege to rise above ourselves) we may have fellowship with the heart of God in His thoughts, aims, and purposes, in His desires for the saints, and in the activities of His grace which flow out towards the world. Take an example from the prophet Isaiah

"For Zion's sake," says the prophet, speaking in the Lord's name, "will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth;" and then afterwards we read, "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night; ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." (Isa. 62: 1, 6, 7.) Thus while He purposes to bless Zion, He would have His remembrancers upon the earth to plead with Him for the accomplishment of that on which He has set His heart. To pray intelligently, therefore, needs acquaintance with His word. It is in the epistles of Paul especially that we find what God's desires are for the saints, in the inspired prayers of the apostle, as well as in the exhortations given for their direction. Besides these the apostle often asks for prayer for his own ministry; and in 1 Tim. 2 he names special subjects for supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks. This will suffice to show the reader that it is from the word of God we must learn what are the suited subjects of prayer; and that if led out, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, into this blessed field of service, he may occupy himself unceasingly with fervent labours in prayer (see Col. 4) in communion with the mind and heart of God.

There are other questions, such as the secret of liberty and power in prayer, the character of private as distinguished from public prayer, or prayer in the assembly, or in unison with others (Matt. 18: 19), which must be reserved for another opportunity. In the meantime the whole subject, both as connected with the Christian life, and the life of the assembly, may be earnestly commended to the attention of the saints. E. D.

The Glories of Christ as the Son of Man

The Glories of Christ as the Son of Man.

E. Dennett.

1. THE TITLE OF SON OF MAN.

EVERY intelligent and devout reader of Scripture must have discovered, to some extent, the vast range of truth which is unfolded and displayed in the various titles of our blessed Lord. Not one of them is without significance; they all indeed present some rays either of His essential or acquired glory. To study them, therefore, if guided and taught of the Holy Ghost, is the way to attain a deeper knowledge of His Person, and thus to be filled with God's thoughts of His beloved Son. We may then well be encouraged to embark upon the consideration of the subject, even if we confine our attention in these pages to the one mentioned at the head of this chapter, viz. that of the Son of Man.

It is found, as the reader will remember, in the Old Testament, and is used, as may be afterwards shown, in a prophetic way of Christ. Both Psalm 8 and Daniel 7 introduce it, and manifestly in connection with the future glory of our blessed lord. It is also used of Ezekiel (Ezek. 2, 3, 4, etc.), and its application to the prophet in his especial circumstances will greatly help us to determine its meaning as assumed by Christ Himself.

We may then pass at once to consider the term as adopted by our Lord and Saviour. Two things will aid us to apprehend its force and meaning — its place in Psalm 8, and the period of its adoption in the synoptic gospels, that is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The subject of the first Psalm is the Righteous Man; in the second Psalm, God's King is introduced, but "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us" (Ps. 2: 2, 3). The apostles cite and apply this scripture to the action of Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel in the rejection of Christ; and they also emphatically declare that the Jews, in crucifying their Messiah, did but accomplish whatsoever God's hand and His counsel had determined before to be done (Acts 4: 25-28).

Thus, while God's purposes can never be frustrated — for He will yet set His King upon His holy hill of Zion — Christ, when presented to the Jews for acceptance, was rejected. The next four psalms depict, to speak generally, the state of things amongst the Jews, consequent upon the refusal of their Messiah, and also the feelings and experiences of the godly remnant who have attached themselves in heart to Christ before He establishes His throne; that is, during the period of His rejection by His ancient people. This brings us to Psalm 8 — a very important one in the ways of God. Its opening sentence, "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" gives the key to its interpretation. It is no longer a question of Israel or of the Messiah, but the whole earth is in view, and all things are put under the feet of the SON OF MAN. Now, inasmuch as Adam was not the Son of Man, it would be plain, even if we had no further light upon the subject, that a greater than Adam was here set forth. But we have an inspired interpretation of the psalm in Hebrews 2, where the writer of the epistle shows that Jesus, who for the suffering of death was made a little lower than the angels, is now crowned with glory and honour; and he proceeds to show, beyond all contradiction, that it is under the feet of the glorified Man at God's right hand, He having tasted death for every man (or everything), all things are put. Indeed, in two other epistles this is directly stated (see 1 Cor. 15: 27, 28; Eph. 1: 22).

The conclusion then is, from the foregoing considerations, that on the rejection of Christ by the Jews He assumes the title of the Son of Man, and as such passes in prospect into a wider circle of glory in which all men and all things will be subjected to His sway. This conclusion will be confirmed by a reference to the teaching of the gospels. In Luke we read, for example, that on one occasion our blessed Lord put this question to His disciples, "Whom say the people that I am?" After they had answered, "John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again, He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God." Then we find that He straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing, namely, that He was God's Christ — the Messiah — saying, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day" (Luke 9: 18-22; see also Matt. 17: 9. Mark 8: 27-31; Mark 9: 9, 12, 30-32).

From these passages it is abundantly clear that the Lord adopted the title of Son of Man in view of His rejection, suffering and death; and secondly, it is as manifestly taught that it is in this character as the Son of Man that He will have universal rule throughout the world. Daniel thus says, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him" (Dan. 7: 13, 14).

Allusion has been made to the fact that the prophet Ezekiel is addressed by the same title, and the remarks of another upon this may aid the reader in understanding its general purport. He says, "The throne of the supreme and sovereign Lord God is seen in Chaldea — in the place where the prophet then was — among the Gentiles. It is no longer seen at Jerusalem in connection with the land; nor have we any law embodied, so to speak, in the throne, according to which an immediate government was exercised. Consequently the voice of God speaks to Ezekiel as to a 'son of man' — a title that suited the testimony of a God who spoke outside of His people, as being no longer in their midst, but on the contrary as judging them from the throne of His sovereignty. It is Christ's own title, looked at as rejected and outside of Israel, although He never ceases to think of the blessing of the people in grace. This puts the prophet in connection with the position of Christ Himself. He would not, thus rejected, allow His disciples to announce Him as the Christ (Luke 9), for the Son of Man was to suffer."*

*The Synopsis, vol. ii., new edition, revised, of J. N. Darby.

To apprehend this teaching concerning the title in question will enable us to pursue our subject with greater intelligence and profit, especially if it be remembered that it is only through the ministry of the Holy Ghost we can know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Cor. 2).

2. THE SON OF MAN "LIFTED UP."

JOHN 3: 11; JOHN 8: 28; JOHN 12: 32.

IT is only in the Gospel of John that the term "lifted up" is used for the crucifixion of Christ It is, moreover, a striking thing that the word so rendered means also "exalted"; and it will be seen in our meditations that while it signifies, as the evangelist tells us, the character of the Lord's death (chap. 12), it includes, in the presentation of the truth in connection with it, His exaltation. It only occurs three times, and each time it is employed in different connections as to the teaching, so that taken together these scriptures set forth an immense scope of truth, embracing indeed the whole of the present interval, the manifestation of Christ to His earthly people, and His exaltation and glory in "the world to come," that is in the millennium, when He will shine forth unhinderedly as the Sun of Righteousness. We may then proceed to consider each occurrence of the phrase, "lifted up," hoping to be enabled to give all outline of its various teachings.

The first time the words are found is in John 3, where, as indeed in each case, it falls from the lips of the Lord Himself. Speaking to Nicodemus, after pressing the absolute necessity of the new birth, He says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (vv. 14-16).

It will be noticed, even by the most casual reader, that the necessity for the Son of Man to be lifted up is as absolute as it is for man to be born again. Both necessities are indispensable — one for man, and the other for God. It is sometimes, indeed, advanced that the necessity for the Son of Man to be lifted up was for man, inasmuch as he could not otherwise have approached God. This is undoubtedly true, but the question is whether this is the aspect of the truth presented in this scripture. Attention to its terms will show, we judge, that it is not, that it teaches us rather that it was a necessity for God in the accomplishment of His purposes for the bestowal of eternal life upon those who should believe in His beloved Son. For this end it was necessary that the judgment of death should be borne, and its power set aside, if life out of and beyond death were to be revealed, into which the believer could be brought in association with Christ. This might be illustrated in another way. Before God could reach the heart of man, and shed abroad His love there through the Holy Ghost, three things were required: Man, the man in the flesh, must come up under the eye of God for judgment, and this came to pass in the cross of Christ and so effectually that he has disappeared for ever from before God; secondly, Christ must be exalted in virtue of His death; and lastly, the Spirit of God must be given (see John 7: 39). In this way God, if we may use the expression, was set free to work according to His own eternal thoughts in Christ Jesus. And it may be added, that these eternal thoughts of His have already been accomplished in the One whom He has glorified at His right hand, for He is the true God and eternal life.

The Son of Man then has been lifted up; and the One who has been thus lifted up is presented as the Object for faith. He has been lifted up "that whosoever believeth in Him." This will explain the remark already made that His lifting up includes His exaltation, for where is He presented to men as the object of faith? Is it on the cross? No, it is as glorified at God's right hand; it is to Him there that the gospel directs men, and it is to Him there that men must believingly look, if they are to enter upon the blessedness here unfolded.

To whom then, it may be inquired, is this gospel proclaimed? It is to the whole world, not only to the Jew, but also to the Gentile; for the rejection of Christ by the Jew was but the occasion for the outflowing of the grace of God to all men of every clime and race. There is, therefore, absolutely no limit; for is the apostle Paul teaches, after he has demonstrated that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This much indeed is involved in the "whosoever," for this term includes the possibility of any one in the wide world receiving the testimony of God.

And together with believing in the Son of Man having been lifted up, but now glorified, is linked eternal life — that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Rescued from the judgment of God under which he lay, from the wrath of God (v. 36), and from Satan's power, so that he should not perish, the believer has eternal life. "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Eternal life is thus connected with the knowledge of the Father as revealed in and through the Son; and it is enjoyed when, in the experience of our souls, we have reached Him on the other side of death, where in association with Him we are as sons before the Father's face. If any one should earnestly inquire how Christ may be reached on the other side of death, the answer may be given in the Lord's own words, "Whose eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6: 54). It is then by the appropriation of (making our own) the death of Christ, and so becoming identified with it in this world, that we pass morally (not actually, but in spirit) out of this world and join Christ where He is, and thus enter upon the enjoyment of eternal life. Every believer in the One who has been lifted up has an undoubted title to eternal life; but it is only through the appropriation of the death of Christ that eternal life can really be possessed. When, however, we are raised up at the last day, according to the Lord's promise, then we shall be actually in association with Christ and all alike will possess, in a sphere where death can no more enter, this divine and unspeakable gift.

One thing more has to be observed. All this blessedness proceeds from the sovereign love of God — God so loved the world. We have said the sovereign love of God; for surely, as every one will admit, there was nothing in the world itself to call forth this expression of His heart. Pity there might have been, but not love; on the contrary, there was everything to call down the execution of His judgment, for all had gone out of the way, and there was none that did good — no, not one. And yet He loved — such is God! And remark that the greatness of the love is seen in the greatness of the gift: He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was the Son of His bosom whom He give; and the Son became Man, that He might accomplish the will of Him that sent Him; and in His death on the cross He endured all the judgment which lay upon man to open up the way by which God could righteously satisfy His own heart in bringing to pass His eternal counsels for the blessing of His people. What a theme for meditation! And it is a theme which, the more it is considered, the more it will beget in the soul thoughts of praise and adoration in the contemplation of such ineffable love and grace.

The second occurrence of the expression "lifted up," as applied to the Son of Man, is found in John 8. Surrounded by the unbelieving Jews, who had refused the plainest testimony to Christ as being the Sent One from the Father, Jesus said to them, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He], and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things" (v. 28). The first thing to notice is that it is not now, The Son of Man must be lifted up, but it is, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, etc. If in chapter 3 it is, as we have seen, divine necessity, here, as evidently, it is the guilt of the Jew. On this account we are here in altogether a different circle. In John 3 it is all the saints of this present period who are in view; here it is the Jew (but including, as representing, the Jews of a later date) who is brought before us in these words of our blessed Lord.

Wherein, we may inquire first of all, lay the guilt of the Jew as here indicated? It may be seen in two ways — in their rejection of the word and works of Christ, and finally in His crucifixion. For the Jew, as indeed for every soul to whom Christ is presented, everything depended upon Who He was. If He were the Sent One of the Father, if God were His Father, as the Jews themselves alleged that He claimed, thus making Himself equal with God (chap. 5: 18); if, moreover, the plainest possible testimony to the truth of His Person were brought to them (John 5: 32-47; John 8: 18, 19), then they had no excuse for their sin in rejecting His claims. In truth they had not, for in their wilfulness they closed their eyes both to the testimony of John the Baptist and to that of Christ Himself; and they waxed harder and harder in their opposition to His claims, so that, while confessing that they could not deny that He did many miracles (John 11: 47), they persevered in their determination to put Him to death. Besides this, they were so obdurate in their enmity that, in order to accomplish their end, they denied before Pilate all their national hopes and expectations in declaring that they had no king but Caesar (John 19: 15).

Such was their shameless guilt; and the Lord, knowing all from the beginning, charged this home upon them in the words, "When YE have lifted up the Son of man." Pilate, indeed, was willing to let Jesus go — to release Him at the feast — and in passing judgment upon Him, he only yielded to the passionate demands of the Jews in giving sentence as they required (Luke 23: 24).

Coming back again to the terms of our scripture, two things would follow upon His being lifted up by the Jews: first, they should "know that I am [He]," and secondly, "that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things." When they asked Him, "Who art Thou?" He replied (we give another translation), "Altogether that which I have said to you," that is, His word was the perfect expression of Himself; but, as we have pointed out, they refused this testimony, and yet the time would come when they would know who He was, and whence His testimony — whether as connected with His word or His works — had proceeded. To what time, then, does the Lord refer? First of all, there may be, and undoubtedly is, an allusion to what took place at Pentecost, when a multitude were smitten at heart with the sense of their sin in crucifying their Messiah. They knew then, and they confessed who He was. Great, however, as was the blessing in these Pentecostal days, there cannot be a doubt that the meaning of these words of our blessed Lord requires a vast extension beyond that period, and that they will include the time spoken of by Zechariah, when God will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; "and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zech. 12: 10).

In the full interpretation, therefore, of this scripture, the Lord undoubtedly looks onward to the time of His appearing, and the effects of it upon His unfaithful people, when, like Thomas, who typifies this remnant, many will see and believe. It may be also that, as Revelation 1: 7 seems to imply, some among them will be convinced, when they see the Son of Man coming in His glory, that Jesus of Nazareth was their Messiah, and yet still resist His claims. This indeed would seem plainly taught, awful as is the testimony to the character of the heart of man, in Matthew 24, 25 and other scriptures. But it should be remembered that Christ is the test of men now, as He will be then, and consequently that our relationship to God depends upon our attitude towards His beloved Son. One remark may be added for the better understanding of this scripture. As will be seen, it is not only that the Jews will know, after they had lifted up the Son of Man, that Jesus, as presented to them in His humiliation, was their Messiah, but they will also acknowledge that He was the Sent One and the Revealer of the Father.

In the first of the passages considered it may be well to recall that the saints of this period are especially in view; in the second it is the Jew; and now, as we may see reason to conclude, in the third (John 12: 32), all men, of every nation and of every tongue, are embraced. It is indisputable that Christ glorified, after He was lifted up, became, as is often said, the point of attraction for all; and the moment the Spirit of God came down to testify of His glory at the right hand of God, souls were drawn to Him on every hand by His mighty attracting power. Still, blessed as that was and is, the promise contained in this scripture is world-wide and universal; and it refers, in its fullest meaning, we cannot doubt, to the coming age in which Christ will have the dominion throughout the world, when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and all men, either really or with "feigned obedience," will be drawn to His feet and own His blessed sway.

If now we attend a little to the connection of the passage, this conclusion will, we judge, be clearly substantiated. It may then be seen, first of all, that the whole of this scripture, from verse 23 to verse 36, springs from the incident of the Greeks who came up to worship at the feast, and who embraced the opportunity of expressing to Philip their desire to see Jesus. When Andrew and Philip mentioned this desire to Jesus, He answered, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a [the] corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The application of these Greeks to see Jesus became to Him the promise of the day of His glory, in which all kings will fall down before Him and all nations shall serve Him, when God will give to Him the nations for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as His possession.

Bearing this in mind, we shall be enabled to apprehend the meaning of His reply to Andrew and Philip. There are, at least, three important truths contained in it. The fundamental one is that He could have no link with man in the flesh — that is, in perhaps simpler language, that grateful as the desire of the Greeks might have been to His heart, He could not then accept their homage, representative as they were of the nations, any more than He could yield to the design of the people, in an earlier part of this gospel, to take Him by force and make Him a king (John 6: 15). Secondly, He teaches that the pathway to His glory in this world lay through death, resurrection, and exaltation to the right hand of God; and, lastly, that it could only be on the platform of resurrection that He could have His people in association with Himself. This principle holds good, whether for believers now or in the world to come — the coming age.

So far, therefore, in the all-embracing significance of the Lord's words all believers are included; for the firstfruits of the death of the Corn of wheat were seen on the day of the Resurrection, when, for the first time, the Lord claimed His own as His brethren, and when He put them into full association with Himself — as sons with Him before the Father's face. And every believer from that day to this, and every believer from now until the Lord comes again, will be the produce of the Corn of wheat as having died, and is, and will be, of the same kind and order as risen together with Him. All this is blessedly true, but, as we cannot doubt, the Lord, when He comes down to verses 31 and 32, opens out a still wider prospect.

Before, however, we come to this, attention may be called to what is involved in this world for those who enter upon association with the Risen One. In one word it is fellowship with His death, identification with His rejection and death, and consequently the hating of their life in this world. Loving our life in this world is wholly irreconcilable with and exclusive of life eternal. But then, what blessed encouragement He ministers to us to take up our cross and follow Him: "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour."

Commending this to the meditation of the reader, we may arrest him for a moment to consider the marvellously solemn words which follow. We have spoken of the Lord's pathway to glory as lying through death; and now this pathway in all its sorrow, and as He only could fathom it, opens out before His soul. The effect is that He exclaims, "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say?" It was the contemplation of the cross and its curse (Gal. 3: 16), as the judgment of God, with all that this involved for His holy soul in the hiding of God's face, which wrung this troubled expression from His lips. And thus exceeding sorrowful as unto death, even as in Gethsemane, He cried, "Father, save Me from this hour." It was a part of His perfection, the perfection of Him who was ever in the bosom of the Father, delighting in Him and being delighted in, in their mutual and complacent love, to shrink from the horror of that great and unrelieved darkness of Calvary — and, as He had come to do the will of God, His blessed and perfect obedience and devotedness shone forth in all their lustre in His adding, "But for this cause came I unto this hour." Then, lost as it were, if such language be permissible, in the absorbing desire of His soul to vindicate the Father's name, at all cost to Himself, whatever might be entailed upon Him of unspeakable sorrow and agony, He said, "Father, glorify Thy name." Thus He offered Himself for the glory of God, and the conflict was ended!

The response was immediate — the delighted response of the Father to the perfect submission of His beloved Son. As He elsewhere said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father." (John 10: 17, 18).

The answer was that the Father had already glorified His Name, surely, in the raising of Lazarus, and that He would glorify it again, that is, as we understand, in the resurrection of Christ Himself (cp. Ps. 21: 4-6; Heb. 5: 7, 8). The victory was therefore won in the assurance of resurrection, and the full results of the cross, as a consequence, opened out before His soul. First, the world was already judged; all its tarnished and defiled glory came morally to an end in the cross, and with it the assurance that its prince would be cast out. Finally, the Father glorified, the world judged, and Satan cast out, the Lord adds, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me."

As we have seen, it was in the first place, "The Son of man must be lifted up"; then, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man"; and now it is, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth." And then we are explicitly told, "This spake He, signifying what death He should die." Our attention is therefore called to the fact that He was cast out of this world, lifted up from the earth, and crucified on that shameful cross. But we behold in this God's triumph over man's sin, and the Lord's own victory over death, the grave, and Satan's power. Man lifted Him up from the earth, as unworthy to live any longer upon it, and there they, to add to the ignominy of His death, crucified Him between two thieves; but God stepped in and, after His burial, lifted Him up still higher, yea, to the highest spot in the universe, to His own right hand, where He has given Him the name which is above every name, and decreed that every knee in all His dominions shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Such was God's response to the rejection of His beloved Son.

It only remains to consider once again the force of the expression "Will draw all men unto Me." We have already said that while Christ is the point of attraction for all during this period, and that while every believer is a demonstration of it, we must look further for the entire fulfilment of this prediction. In Psalm 22, for example, we are told that, is a consequence of the death and resurrection of Christ, all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and that all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him (v. 27). So here, in our judgment, the Lord looks onward to the day of His glory in the coming age, when all men will be drawn to His feet, and when all alike will be constrained from the heart, or otherwise, to own Him in His exaltation as Lord and King. It is then that His salvation will no forth, and His arm will judge the peoples, the isles will wait upon Him, and on His arm will they trust. It is our privilege, in anticipation of that day, to know Him now as the Sun of Righteousness, and to rejoice in the prospect of that time when His blessed beams will reach the remotest ends and corners of the earth.

3. THE SON OF MAN GLORIFIED AND GLORIFYING GOD.

JOHN 13: 31, 32.

WHEN the Greeks desired to see Jesus, He said to Andrew and Philip, "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." The glory of which He thus speaks is rather the result of His work on the cross than the cross itself. It looks onward, we apprehend, as pointed out in the last chapter, to the day of His glory in this world, when as Son of Man He will be the Head of the nations (Ps. 18: 43), and when all things will be subdued under His feet. But when He says in the scripture now to be considered, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him," it is the cross and the work done there, together with His consequent exaltation, which are in view. This fact shows both the fulness of Scripture, and also the need for its careful consideration. The same words in different connections may mean entirely different things, and hence the necessity for the study of the context under the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

It will be profitable, therefore, before examining these profound words, to point out the circumstances under which they were uttered. The Lord had been teaching His disciples, through His own blessed example, and placing them thereby. under the obligation, to wash one another's feet: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (vv. 14, 15). Thereupon He proceeded to draw back the veil which concealed the traitor in the midst of His own. And with what infinite sorrow and compassion for this poor slave of Satan He did it! Yea, we read that after He had recalled to them the scripture, "He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me," He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." It was not simply one of you, but it was one of YOU. Ah! it was that which troubled the Lord in spirit, that one of the twelve, one of His chosen companions, one of those who had heard His blessed words of grace and seen the miracles of His power, one of the objects of His fostering care — that such an one should have yielded to the incitements of Satan to betray Him. Then, in answer to the question of the disciple who was lying on Jesus' breast (Peter could not, and was conscious that he could not, ask it), Jesus said, "He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon." Then we have the solemn statement that after the sop Satan entered into Judas. Morally, it was all over with him from this moment. Hitherto Satan had led this poor man, governed him through his lust for money, and thereby hardened his heart against all the gracious influences of the Lord's presence, of His words and works, but at this juncture, as if his day of grace were past, Satan entered and took full possession of the man, leading him captive for the accomplishment of his will. All this is surely implied in the words of Jesus, which were not understood by the other disciples, "That thou doest, do quickly." What a threefold revelation is thus made: first, that nothing was hidden, nor could be hidden, from the eyes of the Lord; secondly, that man's heart is capable of all iniquity; and lastly, that Satan spares no artifices in his ceaseless activities for the destruction of souls.

The traitor thus exposed went immediately out: and it was night. It was night actually, but assuredly we may attach a deeper meaning to these significant words. "As long as I am in the world," Jesus had said, "I am the light of the world." Judas, captivated by the devil, went out from the rays of that blessed light, and hence, of necessity, when the door closed behind him, it was night — the night of death — the awful darkness of which enwrapped his soul for ever; for he had entered that land of which Job speaks — "a land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness," because, it may be added, there lies upon it the judgment of God.

No one may venture to penetrate, or could penetrate, into the sorrows of the Lord's own heart through this scene, but one cannot fail to perceive that it was a relief to His spirit when Judas had gone out, for the evangelist would seem to call attention to this by saying, "Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." It was indeed the treachery of Judas which brought up before His soul what lay before Him in His conflict with Satan's power on the cross. Satan had tested Him at the outset; but, foiled and defeated, be had departed from Him "for a season." That season was now ended, and his seduction of Judas was but the commencement of his final onslaught, the issue of which, blessed be God, could only be his complete overthrow. For it was through death that Jesus destroyed ("annulled") him that had the power of death, and delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Another thing may be noted. The Lord's heart was restrained by the presence of Judas, and thus it was only after the traitor had gone out that He made the ineffably blessed communications contained in verses 31, 32. And do we — we who are gathered out to His precious name — do we not know, from sad experience, what it is to limit the outflowings of the Lord's heart by the presence of sin? Alas! how often do our feeble meetings testify to this! The Lord may be in the midst of His people as really as He was with His own on this occasion, but how can He display Himself to our hearts unless we are in moral suitability to His presence, unless we have put our shoes from off our feet because the place whereon we stand is holy ground? May the Lord Himself fasten this instruction upon our hearts in the power of the Holy Ghost!

We may now pass to the consideration of the communications made. We cannot doubt that the passage from verse 31 to John 14: 3 hangs together; but we will, in the first place, confine ourselves to what we have in verses 31, 32. It may be at once perceived that there are mainly three things: the Son of Man glorified on the cross; God glorified in Him, the Son of Man; and, lastly, the Son of Man glorified by God in Himself. These we may, however feeble our apprehensions, proceed to meditate upon in the order given.

It may be observed at once that the true character of what was before the Lord may be gathered by the form of His words. As we read it in our translation it is, "Now is the Son of man glorified." What the Lord really says is, "Now has the Son of man been glorified." The incident of Judas had brought before Him the cross and its awful character, and, as having already passed through in spirit all that it involved for Him, He could say, "Now has been the Son of man glorified." The issue of the cross was thus foreseen and stated, in the full assurance of victory over the whole of Satan's power. It might be going too far to regard it as a triumphant outburst, and yet it partakes of this character in that He looks right through all the darkness of the cross and onward to the glory in which He would be glorified at the right hand of God.

What, then, is to be understood by the expression, "Now is the Son of man glorified"? It will be seen at once that the reference is not to His actual glory on which He entered after His resurrection, but that it is rather to the display of His moral glory in His death on the cross. All His blessed perfections came out in a new way and under new circumstances. In all His sojourn in this world, in every step of His pathway, He was ever the perfect One, ever devoted in His entire obedience to the Father's glory, so that He could testify that He always did the things which pleased Him. He was thus always the object of the Father's complacent delight, as indeed it is said, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand." It was not, therefore, that He was more perfect — this could not be — on the cross than in His life. But the truth is that, searched and tested, as He had never been before, by the holy fire of judgment through which He passed when forsaken of God, there was a greater manifestation of His moral beauties and excellencies. All these came out so richly and so fully that He became enshrined, as it were, in their brightness and halo. The light is ever light, but when the rays of the sun are seen playing upon a dark thundercloud their brightness and beauty are intensified. So with our blessed Lord — all that made up the perfection of His life towards God and towards man was enhanced and magnified by the thick darkness of the cross. All that He is was there expressed and glorified.

Let a few words of another be given, that the heart of the reader may comprehend, by the power of the Holy Ghost, this character of the cross, and be more deeply affected by its contemplation. "Now, in Jesus on the cross, the Son of Man has been glorified in a much more admirable way than He will be even by the positive glory that belongs to Him under that title. He will, we know, be clothed with that glory; but, on the cross, the Son of Man bore all that was necessary for the perfect display of the glory of God. The whole weight of that glory was brought to bear upon Him to put Him to the proof, that it might be seen whether He could sustain it, verify and exalt it: and that by setting it forth in the place where, but for this, sin concealed that glory, and, so to speak, give it impiously the lie. Was the Son of Man able to enter into such a place, to undertake such a task, and maintain His place without failure unto the end? This Jesus did. The majesty of God was to be vindicated against the insolent rebellion of His creature; His truth, which had threatened him with death, maintained; His justice established against sin (who could withstand it?); and, at the same time, His love fully demonstrated." And who, we may inquire, was sufficient for this glorious work, to accomplish all these ends, except the Son of Man? There was no other in all God's universe, no creature in heaven, however exalted, who could have stepped in and endured all that the glory of God required on account of what man was, and of what he had done. If this be so, as all Scripture testifies, we can apprehend a little of the meaning of the Lord's words, "Now is the Son of man glorified."

All this may well invite us to a more constant meditation upon this aspect of the death of Christ — we mean the aspect which brings so vividly before us, not only what He effected on the cross for God, though this be the foundation of all eternal blessing, of the vast universe of bliss, nor even what He secured for His people, though without this we could never have been in association with Him before God, but also that which brings out in such a marvellous manner the glories of His person. The more we are affected by these, the more our hearts will be conducted into fellowship with God concerning His beloved Son, and the better we shall understand the greatness of the work which He accomplished on the cross.

The second thing brought before us is that on the cross God also was glorified in the Son of Man: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." "Satan having here all the sorrowful rights that he had acquired through our sin, Christ — perfect is a man, alone, apart from all men, in obedience, and having as man but one object, that is, the glory of God, thus divinely perfect, sacrificing Himself for this purpose fully glorified God. God was glorified in Him. His justice, His majesty, His truth, His love — all was verified on the cross as they are in Himself, and revealed only there; and that with regard to sin." And this witness is true, for God had claims upon man, and of necessity all that He is was against man because of sin. And, blessed be His name, He that knew no sin was made sin for us, and there in the place of sin He met the full and complete judgement of God against it; and He glorified God in all that He is in doing it, so that God, set free in righteousness, can make those for whom Christ died the righteousness of God in Christ. Such is the effect of the Son of Man having glorified God on the cross, and such is God's triumph — the triumph of His grace over Satan and man's sin. In eternity alone will the extent of His victory be displayed.

There is yet another thing: if God be glorified in Him, in the Son of Man on the cross, the Lord proceeds to say, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him. The language is most precise, and the word "straightway" will, we judge, give the key for its interpretation. The first clause cannot mean less than that God, in response to His being glorified in the death of Christ, would glorify Him in Godhead glory, for, as we read in one of Paul's epistles, the glory of God is displayed in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4.) And if in another respect, the reference must be to the same thing when the Lord says, in speaking to the Father, in John 17, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." This much then may be affirmed, in connection with this transcendent subject, that the glory on which Christ has entered as Man at God's right hand is the expression of God's estimate of that glorious work which was wrought out in the death of His beloved Son; and secondly, that by that work Christ established a claim upon the Father's heart, a claim which it was the delight of God to acknowledge in the face of the whole universe. The exaltation of the Lord Jesus is thus the measure of God's appreciation of His having glorified Him on Calvary. And, if we are in fellowship with the heart of God, we shall also delight in the glory of the Son of Man; and the more we meditate upon it the more will Christ be formed in us, inasmuch as it is through the contemplation of the glory, which shines out unhinderedly without a veil, from His blessed face, that we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Lord the Spirit.

It has been mentioned that the word "straightway" gives the key of this scripture. Its use, indeed, in this place is most striking. It calls our attention, we cannot doubt, to the fact that other glories would come in due time — the time already spoken of-in which Christ as Son of Man will be Head of all men and all things, whether in heaven or on earth, and also to the circumstance that while all this was assured in the counsels of God, yet that God would not wait for this manifested glory in its own place and time, but would at once — immediately, as the word means — glorify the Son of Man. This was, in fact, both His answer to man's rejection of Christ, and also the announcement of His perfect satisfaction with what had been accomplished upon the cross. It is thus the complete revelation of the heart of God towards His beloved Son; for the Father loveth the Son and has given all things into His hand. And it is the peculiar privilege of the Christian to know Christ in His glory before He is manifested to the eyes of all, and thus to be associated with Him while He is hidden. It is to this the apostle Paul refers when he writes to the Colossians, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our own life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." John also writes of the same precious truth, saying, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear (is not yet in outward manifestation) what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear (be manifested) we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." To understand this is essential for entering into the proper character of the Christian life, as well is for the possession of the secret of all growth and blessing.

We said at the commencement of this meditation that the rest of the chapter — as well as John 14: 1-3-hang upon the verse we have considered. It might then be profitable to indicate the connection for the guidance of the reader. In the first place, after having told His disciples that God would glorify Him immediately, that there might be no manner of possibility of misunderstanding He plainly tells them that He was about to depart from them. "Little children," He says, "yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come so now I say to you." Then what do we next find? It is this: in the prospect of His absence there is a company — the company of His own (not merely of the twelve, for we read that, after the actual departure of Christ there were a hundred and twenty waiting for "the promise of the Father," but comprising all His followers) — who should be knit together in love, by that love which is the bond of perfectness. As He says to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." That is, His own love, and His own love as expressed in death for them, was to be the standard of their love one towards another. As the writer of this gospel says in his first epistle, "Hereby perceive we the love (what love is), because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3: 16). No lower standard than this could be accepted, because it is the measure of the love of Christ

If this be so, it will readily be apprehended that it is not only the absence of Christ which is here supposed, but also the presence of the Holy Ghost. For love in activity amongst this new company could only spring from the divine nature, from their having been quickened together with Christ, and this expressed in divine power. But it would take us too far to explain the teaching of this now; it will suffice to call attention to this new company bound together by the indissoluble tie, and clad with the beauteous robe of the divine nature — which is love. Remark also that the manifestation of this love to every member of the company, and to all alike, would become their proper testimony in the world. "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." It is not, therefore, the holding of certain truths, not the possession of light, but loving one another which is the testimony that we are the disciples of Christ. Let us not shrink from facing this divine fact; and, as we face it, let us ask ourselves whether this testimony has not utterly failed. The broken state of the Church, the divisions of Christendom, and sectarian rivalries and jealousies alike proclaim our disgrace. And there is another question we might ask. It is whether in the circle of our own fellowship loving one another is the prominent characteristic. Surely if we are faithful in the answer we render, it will bring us into deeper humiliation before God. If this be the effect, it can only lead to blessing, as it must produce self-judgement and restoration. Then the hindrances to the manifestation of love being removed, there will be soon seen, at least in the little circle of believers in which we live and move, the normal testimony of the church in the midst of the world.

The next thing is the intrusion of Peter with the inquiry, "Lord, whither goest Thou?" Peter really loved the Lord, but in the consciousness of this he was under the delusion (alas! how many of us have often made the same mistake!) that he could, in the energy and strength of his own affection, follow the Lord even through death itself. "Lord," he replied, when told that he could not follow Him then, "why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." "Wilt thou do this?" was the Lord's response; and then He drew back the curtain and revealed that, on that very night, before the cock crew, His poor disciple should deny Him thrice.

Such is man, and even man at his best, when trusting to himself. And this is the significance of this scene in this connection. It is the Lord writing the sentence of death upon all that man is in the person of Peter, to the end that man in all that he is may for ever pass away from the eyes of God's people, as completely as he has passed away from the eye of God judicially in the cross of Christ.

Before adding a few words upon the beginning of John 14, let us recall the circumstances of the disciples. The Lord, as already seen, had made known to them His approaching departure, and now He reveals to them that Peter — Peter who had been so prominent among them, and who had been one of three who were permitted to witness His glory on the holy Mount of Transfiguration, as also the sorrows of Gethsemane — was about to fall into the depths of shame through thrice denying his Lord. It was a terrible position, inasmuch as, as far as this world was concerned, they were losing everything. Yea, death was thus written upon all their human hopes; but, blessed be God, it is just when by grace we are enabled to accept death upon everything here that He can open out to our vision the glories of the world beyond. This truth is here strikingly illustrated. It was precisely when the disciples had, through the communications made to them, come to the end of everything, that the Lord said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me"; and then He proceeded to unfold to them the Father's house, that He was going to prepare a place for them in it, and that He would come again to receive them unto Himself, that where He was they might be also. What unspeakable consolation for their sorrowing hearts!

But it is not our purpose to comment at this time upon the revelation thus made to the hearts of the disciples, or the antidote it contains for troubled souls for all time. We only desire now to emphasise its principle, that the brightness of this world must be dimmed, in whatever way it may be brought about, that the end of man and man's hopes must be accepted, that there must be the absolute closing up of all human hopes, if we would gaze with unclouded vision upon, and dwell in spirit amidst, the blessedness of the Father's house, where all the redeemed will be finally gathered, every one of whom will be conformed to the image of God's Son, and where He will for ever be in their midst, in His blessed pre-eminence, as the Firstborn among many brethren.

Does the reader inquire how it is possible to dwell now in that glorious circle? The answer is: only in one way. It is only when, in the power of the Holy Ghost, we admit Christ into our hearts, and yield to Him full and undisputed sway, that, in responsive affection, we shall be constrained to follow Him to the other side of death, where He is, and then we shall live of His life, and feast ourselves upon His own delights.

4. ALL THINGS PUT UNDER THE FEET OF THE SON OF MAN

PSALM 8; HEBREWS 2: 5-9.

IN our consideration of the title of the Son of Man, we necessarily referred to this subject, but we propose now to carry it farther and to call attention to the actual establishment of the supremacy of Christ as the Son of Man in the coming age. The Scriptures deal largely with it, and open out before the believer the blessed prospect of the coming and universal glory of Christ in the world to come; and at the same time we are never allowed to forget that His exaltation is the meed and consequence of His humiliation and death upon the cross. For example, as we read in Philippians 2, "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a [or 'the'] name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (vv. 8-11).

One other remark is necessary for the understanding of the subject. It must not for one moment be supposed that all the things which are put under the feet of the Son of Man are of the same extent in all the scriptures in which they are mentioned. Thus in Psalm 8, whatever might have been in the mind of the Spirit, they do not appear to go wider than dominion over the whole earth. Thus we read, "Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under His feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." But when we come to the Epistle to the Ephesians it is evident that the circle is enlarged to include things in heaven as well as things upon earth. It accordingly runs, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things" (better "head up" all things "in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth" (Eph. 1: 10; see also vv. 20-23). Then also, if we refer again to Philippians 2, we find that things under the earth* are also to be subjected to Christ. Of the limits of His sway there will be no end, as they will be co-extensive with the whole universe, for nothing is excepted, as Paul teaches, save Him, God the Father, who put all things under Him (1 Cor. 15: 27).

*The apparently similar phrase in Revelation 5: 13 is in reality quite different, and only includes animate things which live and move under the surface of the earth. This is the fulfilment of Psalm 150 — "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord" — everything on earth, whereas the expression in Philippians comprises also infernal beings.

This will help us in some measure to apprehend the meaning of the words, "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things" (Eph. 4: 10). For when all things in the universe are put under His feet He will surely flood them all with the light and blessedness of His own glory. Hence the language of the hymn

"Of the vast universe of bliss,

The centre Thou and Sun:

Th'eternal theme of praise is this,

To heaven's belovèd One:

Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou,

That every knee to Thee should bow."

Before proceeding farther it will be profitable to consider the source of this gift of all things to Christ. There are several scriptures, in different connections, which reveal this, but we take, first of all, the one at the end of John 3. The Baptist's testimony closes, without doubt, with verse 34. The evangelist then, as guided by the Spirit of God, says, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand" (v. 35). The Lord Himself, in Matthew's Gospel, speaks in the same way — "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father" (11: 27; see also Luke 10: 22). but it was John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who was commissioned  to reveal directly the Father's delight in the Son as the fount and source of the gift. This divine complacency in the Son is strikingly illustrated in another scripture, as also the delight of the Son in the Father. Answering the Jews, who, in their wicked hate, were seeking to kill Him, "because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God," the Lord said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth" (John 5: 18-20). It is true that it is of Christ as the Son that these things are said, but surely it is of the Son as become man, if not presented here in the character of the Son of Man. In the very next chapter, however, He, the Son, speaks of. Himself as the Son of Man, because there His rejection and death are distinctly in view. But the scripture has only been cited to point out more clearly that it was because of the Father's complacency in His beloved Son that He has decreed that all things should be put under His feet.

It should also be borne in mind, if we would enter into the thoughts of God, that there are two grounds of the bestowal upon Christ of this universal supremacy. In the first place, it is God's response to what the Lord Jesus wrought out on the cross, where He glorified God in all that God is; and in the second place, it was God's answer to man's rejection. Yea, it was through the sufferings of the cross that Christ reached His throne. It is on this account that in Revelation 5, where the Lord takes the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, He is seen as "a lamb as it had been slain." The aspect presented, however, in John's Gospel is, that the gift proceeding from the Father's heart according to His eternal counsels for the glory of His beloved Son, the Son of Man must be lifted up before He could take up His inheritance. What a subject for meditation! And how plain it is that, since all God's thoughts circle around His beloved Son, we cannot be in fellowship with the Father's heart unless the Son be the absorbing object of our affections.

We may now proceed to consider the various steps the Lord takes before He assumes His inheritance. These are pointed out very clearly in Hebrews 2, where Psalm 8 is cited, interpreted, and applied. We are here, therefore, under divine guidance, and we cannot, therefore, be mistaken. If we give the whole passage the reader will all the more readily comprehend its import. It is as follows: "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" [or, every thing].

The point of the apostle then is, after having stated that the world to come is not put in subjection to angels, to show that, according to Psalm 8, it is put under man. Having given the psalm at large, in order to place the matter beyond question, he exclaims: "But now we see not yet all things put under him." This was patent even to the most superficial observer. How then was the psalm to be fulfilled? This he goes on to demonstrate: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." Jesus then is the Man, the SON OF MAN (which Adam was not), under whom all things are to be put.

This having been made evident, the steps are given by which Christ, as the Son of Man, attains His supremacy. The first of these is His Incarnation. This is expressed in the striking language, which needs to be weighed to discover its force and beauty, "Made a little lower than the angels." This could only apply to the form which our blessed Lord was pleased to take when He came into this world, to the body, in fact, which God had prepared for Him; for, as we read, angels were His attendants and ministers in the days of His flesh (Matt. 4: 11; Luke 22: 43). There are several scriptures which show the depth to which He descended, in His blessed grace, even in this respect. Isaiah, for example, says that His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men, the effect in this case, it may be, of His passing through this sin-stricken world, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, inasmuch as He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. Even so, it illustrates the statement, and Paul tells us that, in our blessed Lord's stoop from the highest height to the lowest depth, He took upon Him the form of a bondsman (Phil. 2). Surely then He was made a little lower than the angels and our hearts might well pause to admire and adore, as we think of this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.

The next step is manifestly His death: "Made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death."* There were two reasons for the suffering of death in the Lord's pathway to His exaltation and supremacy in the world to come. In Hebrews 1 we read that He was appointed "heir of all things"; and hence it was a divine necessity that He should take up all the liabilities that lay upon His inheritance before He could possess it. This, in fact, is implied in the clause in verse 9 — "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every thing" — not only for every man, but also for every thing that went to make up His inheritance. Paul touches upon this in Colossians, where He says, "And, having made peace by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven" (Col. 1: 20). And in this passage is also found the other, the first and foremost, ground for the suffering of death-having made peace by the blood of His cross, through glorifying God concerning the sin which had come into the world. On this foundation God can righteously come in and bring everything into suitability to Himself, into ordered beauty before Him, so that He can rest in perfect complacency and delight in the whole scene, the universe of bliss, which has been subjected to Christ and which He will irradiate with the effulgence of His glory.

It is often discussed whether the Lord's incarnation here was in view of the suffering of death, or whether it was on account of the suffering of death He has been crowned with glory and honour. Both are equally true, but we cannot doubt that in this place the former interpretation is correct, and hence that the punctuation in the Authorised Version is correct.

A word or two may be given upon the remarkable connection of this scripture. After saying "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man," the apostle proceeds, "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The significant point is the introduction of the "many sons" whom God is bringing unto glory, in connection with the "all things," thus opening  out the whole scope of the purposes of God, whether in regard to the "all things," or to the "many sons" who are under the leadership of the Captain of their salvation. It is, we cannot doubt, to teach that it was requisite for the glory of God in the accomplishment of His purposes ("it became Him") that the Lord Jesus should pass through the suffering of death. It was in this way that an immutable basis was laid for the establishment of the universe of bliss, wherein all the glory of God will be displayed and where Christ will be the Centre and Sun of all. The reader will also observe the association and identification of Christ with the "many sons" as another reason of His being made perfect through sufferings, for both "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren."

The next step, or rather stage, on His way to His inheritance is that He is "crowned with glory and honour." We have this expression in (indeed it is cited from) Psalm 8, but not the words "for the suffering of death." The time had not come for the revelation (though indeed it is found in a later psalm, and it is implied in Psalm 2) that for the fulfilment of all that is promised there the death of Christ was necessary, and that the whole system of things of which the psalm speaks, even on its earthly side, could only be established on the basis of resurrection (see Eph. 1: 19-23; Phil. 3: 20, 21). All this has now come out in the fullest light; and while waiting for its actual accomplishment, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God. Rejected, disallowed of men, but chosen of God and precious, He will sit there until His enemies are made His footstool, and then will be seen -

"Outstretched His wide dominion

O'er river, sea, and shore,

Far as the eagle's pinion,

Or dove's light wing can soar."

And what Christian is there who does not delight in the present exaltation of Christ, as well as in His forthcoming universal sway over all things in heaven and on earth? Surely it is the joy of all such to contemplate the Crucified One as crowned with glory and honour — God's delighted response to man's rejection of His beloved Son. Wherever there is fervent love to Christ, the joy of the apostle Peter will be understood in proclaiming again and again to the Jews, that "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (see Acts 2: 36; Acts 3: 13; Acts 4: 10; Acts 5: 30, 31).

For the assumption of His universal kingdom, Christ waits at the right hand of God. But in the meantime, in virtue of all things having been delivered into His hands, He exercises His power in blessing in several ways, some of which may be indicated. In the very first place in which our Lord refers to the subject, He gives a remarkable intimation of the use of His power in grace. Rejected by the cities wherein most of His mighty works had been done, the whole scope of the Father's purpose opens out before His holy soul, and, in the midst of the deepening darkness which was settling down upon the chosen nation, He praises the Father because He had hid these things from the wise and prudent, and had revealed them unto babes. With an overflowing heart, if we may venture thus to speak, He added, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Thereupon He unfolds the fact that all things were delivered unto Him of His Father — and He further says, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" — words which, on the one hand, guard and declare for ever the impenetrability of the mystery of Divine Persons in their mutual relationships, and which make known, on the other hand, that the Father is revealed only in and through the Son. It is on this divine fact, wherein the whole truth of Christianity consists (for this revelation is made on the foundation of the Cross, the exaltation of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit), that the Lord cries, in this blessed invitation, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Before His omniscient vision rose up all the burdened souls of every age down to the end of time, and this invitation was but the expression of the yearning of His heart to give them rest. To everyone who responded to it He would give the promised rest by the revelation of the Father — "That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" John 17: 26). Thus the rest and blessedness of heaven may be received by those who are still upon the earth.

Akin to this, there is another activity in the same connection of all things being given into His hands. We thus read, "Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee: as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him" (John 17: 1, 2). Without going into any detail concerning this remarkable utterance, two things may yet be remarked. The first is that Jesus desired to be glorified only that He might glorify the Father. This was His absorbing object, whether down here on earth or at the right hand of God. He had glorified the Father while on the earth (v. 4), and He would still do so when He Himself was glorified. Morally, therefore (if we may thus speak), His life above is but the continuation of HIS life on earth. We may not pause to make the application: the question, however, may be put, whether this should not be also true of the saints of God. If so, what solemn searchings of heart should be produced! Then moreover, it will be seen that the Son will glorify the Father, exercising the authority which has been given Him over all flesh for this very purpose, by giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. And He will do this by bringing them one by one into the enjoyment through association with Himself, of the life which He enjoys in that region which is outside of and beyond death. And the form of this enjoyment is given in the following verse: it will be in the knowledge of the Father and the Son, in that holy circle where the Father's affections and the Son's affections are, known and enjoyed because, as in association with Christ in His own relationship and His own place (John 20: 17), we shall be as sons before the Father's face.

There is also the ministry of the Spirit connected with all things being delivered into the hand of Christ it is thus we understand the following scripture: "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16). If Psalm 8 refers, is we have seen it does, to the earthly side of the world to come, this scripture as plainly points to things in heaven, even though things on earth be not excluded. And what are the things implied in the expression, "All things that the Father hath are Mine"? They cannot be less than the "All things which are connected with the eternal counsels of the Father for the glory of His beloved Son." In Ephesians, a scripture already cited, we see the full and public issue of all God's ways in government, where we read that God has "made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which he hath purposed in Himself: that in the dispensation of" ["for the administration of"] "the fulness of times He might gather together in one" ["head up"] "all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth" (Eph. 2: 9, 10). Lower down also, in the same chapter, the apostle prays that the Ephesian believers might know what is the exceeding greatness of God's power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly place," [see how the Holy Spirit delights to glorify Christ!], "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (vv. 19-23).

We have given this marvellous passage in full, in which expressions are piled up one upon another to call our attention to the greatness of Christ in His unspeakable exaltation and supremacy, as a specimen of the ministry of the Spirit in unfolding the things of Christ, whether as relating to the present or the future. But we must not forget that this ministry is now carried on in our souls when room and liberty are given to the activity of an ungrieved Spirit. The revelation of His glory and of His supremacy is indeed found in the Scriptures, but it is much to be observed that, until this is made good in us by the Holy Ghost, we are not in the light of His glory, whether in this age or the age to come. Nothing is clearer than that the Lord promised His disciples a continuous ministry of the Spirit in taking of His things the things of the Father which are also His, and showing them unto them. We may therefore look for the same unceasing activity; and it is not too much to say that nothing would more delight the heart of Christ than that we should be finding our pleasure in apprehending His things, and in expatiating with joy upon His present and coming glories. If we are found thus engaged, it is very certain that we shall be delivered from this present evil age, and that, like Saul of Tarsus, we shall not be able to see for the glory of the light which has dawned upon our souls. Not that the dangers of this scene will be absent, only if our hearts are occupied with Christ and His glory we shall have no taste even for the brightest things which the god of this world can offer. Surely, then, it will be our constant prayer that our souls may be flooded with the light of the glory of Christ.

5. THE SON OF MAN TAKING POSSESSION OF HIS INHERITANCE.

ALL things as we have seen, are put, in the purpose of God, under the feet of Christ; but, as the apostle expressly says, we do not yet see all things put under the "Son of Man," but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. This, then, is the present position. Christ is the Son of Man of whom Psalm 8 speaks, and indeed, as Hebrews 2 says, He is the Heir of all things; and this very term "Heir" shows that He his not yet succeeded to His inheritance. But the title is His by the will of God (Phil. 2); He has taken up all the liabilities that lay upon His vast domain, for He has tasted death for everything; and now, crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God, He waits for the appointed moment when He shall come forth and take possession of all that the Father has delivered into His hands. There are then three stages to be considered: the present moment, the period during which Christ is exalted on high; His coming forth in power to subdue His enemies, and His rule until all things are subdued under Him Let us then consider these in the order named.

In regard to the first, we have already pointed out several of the exercises of power on the part of Christ in virtue of all things having been delivered into His hands, and these we need not recall. But we may with profit consider the cause of the delay in His assumption of His dominion. It is most strikingly stated by the Lord Himself in the synagogue at Nazareth. When He stood up to read there on that Sabbath day, there was delivered to Him the book of the prophet Esaias. "And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4: 16-19). Turning back to the prophet Isaiah, whence this quotation is made, we find that the next sentence is, "And the day of vengeance of our God." This day has not yet arrived, and hence between the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God the entire interval of the day of grace has to be interposed. If therefore Christ waits at the right hand of God before taking possession of His inheritance, it is in order that the gospel may go forth on every hand, so that those who are to be heirs of God and co-heirs with Himself might be called in, and that the Bride may be conducted across the desert to the true Isaac, who, having presented her to Himself a glorious church, holy and without blemish, will display her in the same glory with Himself, when He comes forth to take possession of His inheritance.

The cause of the delay, therefore, is nothing less than the heart of God as expressed in the gospel of His grace. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life; and the proclamation will be sounded forth in every quarter of the world, until Christ arises from His seat at the hand of God. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. How much therefore hangs upon the present moment! And how it magnifies the grace of God that He should delay to put His beloved Son into the possession of His kingdom because He lingers over the world that cast out and crucified Him! Well indeed might we exclaim with the apostle, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past finding out!"

Before entering upon our consideration of the second stage — Christ coming forth to claim His possessions — it will be necessary to connect this event with the interval between the close of the day of grace and the appearing of Christ As we have seen, — when Christ arises from His seat at the right hand of God the day of grace is closed for ever. It is then that He comes for His people, for all who have been gathered in from the earliest ages up till that moment, or, if we confine our attention to 1 Thessalonians 4, for all His own from the day of Pentecost. To give the apostle's own words — "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (vv. 16, 17). Adding to this the instruction given in 1 Corinthians 15, we have two things: first, that, before the public manifestation of the Lord in glory, He will interpose with power in the domain of death and raise His sleeping saints; and, secondly, that He will change the bodies of the living saints. These are the words of the apostle in this chapter: "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be raised incorruptible" (vv. 51, 52). And let it be distinctly observed that the power which the Lord puts forth in raising the sleeping, and in changing the living, saints is said to be in virtue of having all things put under Him (Phil. 3: 20, 21). It is, so to speak, the first wave of His power, which, flowing forth from the throne of God on which He sits, will flow on until it has submerged every hostile power, and brought everything into subjection to His glorious sway.

The result of this exercise of His power is that the saints are ever with the Lord; for it is consequent upon this that they are introduced into the Father's house, that where He is they may be also (John 14: 1-3). Two other things take place before His appearing in glory: the judgment seat of Christ, and thereupon the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19).

All is now ready for His coming forth; but we may refer to another preparatory scene in heaven which will help in the apprehension of what follows. In Revelation 5 we hear, after being permitted to see the Sealed Book in the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne, a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? There was no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth who could take up the challenge; and then we are told that the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, had prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. Announced under such commanding titles, John beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a LAMB as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. He is a Lamb as it had been slain to show that it was through His death upon the cross that He had won His victorious title to possess all things. It is true that the scene here only embraces the earth; and yet at the close of the chapter every creature which is in heaven, as well as on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea unite in the loud acclaim, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." This scene is most important since it establishes beyond question that it is through His sacrificial death the Lord obtains His universal dominion. It is this indeed that the redeemed, the ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels, and every creature in the wide universe of God, own in their several ascriptions of praise and adoration, as recorded in this chapter.

We may now, all the more intelligently, proceed to dwell upon Christ's coming out to claim His rights and to take possession of His inheritance. It will add to our interest in this marvellous event if we remember that through His grace we shall be His companions in the glorious display of that day; for it is then that He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed. The Lord Himself his described the manner of His appearing in most solemn and striking language: "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." And again: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," etc. (Matt. 24: 27-30). The suddenness of the appearing is much dwelt upon by both Paul and Peter. Both use the expression "as a thief in the night" to describe it, and thus also its unexpected character. As the former says, "When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh." The light of the glory of the Lord will then burst, without a moment's warning, upon the moral darkness of this world, when He comes to take account of everything according to God's righteousness in government, and when He shall send forth His angels to gather out of His kingdom all things which offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is therefore called the day of the Lord, because at that time He will administer the authority of God in righteousness, whether in dealing with evil, or in justifying and establishing His earthly people for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth" (Ps. 96: 13).

There is yet to be considered the sway of Christ in the world to come, during the thousand years, under which all things are subdued or put under His feet. At the outset He will be occupied with the powers of evil. We need not go into details, as it will be sufficient to remind the reader that He will first of all destroy the Antichrist with the brightness of His coming; He will also destroy all the nations that will be gathered against Jerusalem; He will establish His throne in Zion; He will gather His people Israel from the four corners of the earth, for "He that scattered Israel will gather him," and He will settle them in blessing under His beneficent and righteous rule. Then it will be through Israel that He will subdue the nations on earth. Thus Jeremiah speaks, addressing Israel in the name of Jehovah, "Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms," etc. (Jer. 51: 20).

We need not, however, pursue the subject in detail, for the fact lies everywhere, even on the surface of the prophetic scriptures, that when once the kingdom of Christ is established in the age to come, all men must submit to His rule, and that, even though enmity may still possess their hearts, they will proffer their subjection. We accordingly read several times in the Psalms that there are many who, afraid at the display of His power, will yield to Him feigned obedience. As He Himself, speaking in the Spirit, says, "As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto Me" (Ps. 18: 44, 45); and again, "Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in Thy works! Through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name" (Ps. 66: 2, 3). But it is in the seventy-second Psalm that we see the effect upon earth of the establishment of the supremacy of Christ, consequent upon the subdual of His enemies, when there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent. In this beautiful picture of the reign of the Prince of Peace we behold every element of human happiness and earthly blessing. Take the following verses for example: "In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him. For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in His sight. And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised. . . . His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed" (vv. 7-17).

Well indeed might Christ be termed by the prophet Haggai the Desire of all nations, for surely in this inspired description of the state of things under His rule in the world to come, we behold the answer to the longings of men's hearts in every age. Poets have stepped in to voice the inarticulate sorrows of men, but they have only dreamed dreams; prophets have feigned out of their own imaginations a coming era of universal bliss; and politicians have laboured in the fires to redress grievances, to break the yoke of the oppressor, and to pass laws which should secure liberty and freedom for the people. But all these dreams, imaginations, and labours have been falsified in the issue, and have thus come to nought. And why? Let the answer be written large: IT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL IGNORED SIN, AND BECAUSE THEY HAVE SHUT OUT CHRIST. It is through the reign of Another Man, even the exalted Christ, and through His rein alone, that the happiness of man will be secured. Oh that men would acknowledge this even now, and, in view of the coming of Christ, listen to the exhortation of the Psalmist, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him" (Ps. 2: 10-12).

We have not forgotten that, thus far, only the earthly side of the kingdom of Christ has been considered. We turn now, therefore, to another scripture which brings before us all the elements of that day, good now to faith, but which will be, in the coming age, in actual display. The apostle is contrasting the age of law with the world to come — Sinai, as representing the quintessence of law, and Mount Sion, where David established the ark of God, as significant of royal grace. After setting forth the terrors of Sinai, which affected even Moses so greatly that he said, "I exceedingly fear and quake," he proceeds "But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly, and to the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Heb. 12: 22-24).

If the reader has comprehended the slight alterations made in the text, he will the more readily perceive the division of the several clauses, each of which is then introduced by the conjunction "and," as in the original. And if our attention is directed for a moment to two of the things named, the character of the scene here introduced will be placed beyond question. These two are "Mount Sion," and "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." Now it is evident that these do not exist at present, in the sense here intended, excepting in the purpose of God. They are spoken of in the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments, but they are not to be found as yet on earth, and, therefore, it is clear that the apostle speaks of what is true to faith. Hence it is that he can say to believers, "Ye are come unto Mount Sion," for faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In the coming age, the world to come, spoken of in chapter 2, these things will be seen as in actual display, when, as we read in Psalm 48, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king," and in the Revelation, "He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (Rev. 21: 11).

Having made plain that the actuality of these things is in the world to come, wherein all things, whether in heaven or upon earth, are put in subjection to the Son of Man, a brief reference may be made to the several particulars here brought together. The first is Mount Sion, and the next "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem"; these have already been spoken of. Then we have, "And to an innumerable company" ("myriads") "of angels, the general assembly" (or "the universal gathering," that is, of the heavenly hosts). These are the myriads of angels spoken of in Revelation 5, all of whom will be attendants upon the Son of Man in His kingdom, the executors of His commands or the ministers of His pleasure (see John 1: 51). The Lord speaks of Himself also as "the Son of man coming in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8: 38). Next we have (as it should read), And to the church of the firstborn, which are written enregistered in heaven." These are saints of the present period, whose names are recorded in the book of life, those who will form the Bride of Christ, all of whom are counted as firstborn ones in virtue of their association with Him who is the Firstborn from the dead, and who, on this account, will share in His inheritance, and are, therefore, called His co-heirs. Then follows, "And to God the Judge of all." Allusion to this character of God (for it must be remembered that it is the world to come which is in question) is frequently found in the Psalms, as, for example, "He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." But He will do so by "that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead" (Acts 17: 31). Then we have, "And to the spirits of just men made perfect." Another class or family of the redeemed here comes into view, one, it may be judged, which includes all the saints of every age prior to the coming of Christ into this world. As we may gather from Hebrews 11, they were all "heirs of the righteousness which is by faith" (see vv. 4-7), and on them had dawned the light and glory of the world to come (see vv. 8-16). But all the blessing in which they stood before God was in virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ which were yet to be accomplished. Now that redemption has been effected, Christ having obtained eternal redemption, they can be spoken of as "the spirits of just men made perfect," and hence, when Christ comes to claim His people, they will share in the first resurrection. We thus read in Matthew's Gospel "that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8: 11), a time which refers to the period of our subject, namely, the time of the public display of Christ's glory in the kingdom.

The next thing is, "And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant." There is a profound reason for the introduction of this office of Christ in this place. Two things in connection with this subject have been previously taught in this epistle. In Hebrews 8 it is said that Christ, "who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man . . . has obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (vv. 1, 2, 6); and, furthermore, it is said that the new covenant is made with the house of Israel, although it is ever to be remembered, as 1 Corinthians 11 and 2 Corinthians 3 evidently show, that all believers are brought into the enjoyment of the blessings which the New Covenant secures. Now Christ is both High Priest and Mediator. As the great High Priest He appears before God on our behalf; as Mediator He is the One through whom God has approached man. In other words, God comes out through the Mediator, and man (the believer) goes in through the Priest. And there is to be added to this, that the terms of the new covenant explain God's attitude towards man. For Israel it secures, as may be seen in this chapter, the law written in the heart, and forgiveness of sins; and for all believers now, righteousness and the Spirit, according to the apostle's teaching in 2 Corinthians 3.

We may now point out the reason of the introduction of the new covenant in this place. It will form the ground of God's relationship to Israel in the coming age, ratified as it has been in the blood of Christ and it reveals, it the same time, the attitude of God towards all, the terms of His relationship towards all, who are under the rule of Christ in the kingdom. In brief, it will form the basis of His righteous government in grace.

Last of all, and indeed as the foundation of all the blessedness which has been unfolded to our view, we have, And to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." The reference is undoubtedly, we judge, to the sprinkling of the blood upon, and before, the mercy-seat on the day of Atonement, inasmuch as it was the blood upon the mercy-seat, making propitiation as it did, which constituted the efficacious ground of God's relationships with His people. In like manner the blood sprinkled upon the lintel and door-posts of the dwellings of Israel in Egypt secured them from judgment, formed the righteous basis of their redemption out of Egypt, of their passage through the Red Sea, and of their entrance into Canaan. The precious blood of Christ, it cannot be repeated too often or too strenuously, is the foundation of all blessing, for therein God's righteousness has been declared and His heart revealed. And these two things, pursued to their consequences, make up the gospel of the grace of God. It is no wonder, therefore, that the apostle adds, "That speaketh better things than that of Abel." This called down from God vengeance upon Cain, whereas the former, the blood of Christ, has secured the blessedness of believers now, the heading up of all things in Christ in the world to come, and the new heaven and the new earth, after the first heaven and the first earth shall for ever have passed away.

To seize the significance of this glorious scene it is necessary to remember that Christ is the Head and centre of it all. Every redeemed family is brought into it, all the heavenly hosts are there, together with all principalities and powers, and the joy of all alike will be found in their willing subjection to Christ as Head of all. Thus it is a scene on which God will rest in His love, in entire complacency, for then all distance will have been removed, and everything will have been brought back into ordered suitability to Himself. It is then that the song of praise will be uttered by every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." At this blissful prospect the four living creatures said, "Amen." And the four-and-twenty elders fell down and worshipped.* And surely our hearts will also be bowed before God with adoration as we contemplate this glorious period when in the very scene of His sorrows and rejection Christ will be universally exalted and glorified.

*The words that follow should be omitted.

6. THE END AND OBJECT OF THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF MAN.

1 CORINTHIANS 15: 28.

IT will contribute to our comprehension of this final part of our subject, if we first point out the significant place which the above passage occupies in the chapter. The apostle's theme is the resurrection of the body, which some in Corinth had denied. Before developing, and indeed demonstrating its certainty, he recalls to the minds of the Corinthian believers the gospel which he had preached among them, the gospel by which they were saved, if they kept in memory what he had preached unto them, unless they had believed in vain. This gospel, which the apostle had received, for he had only delivered what had been committed to him, consisted of three parts: first, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures secondly, that He was buried, and lastly that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. If therefore this gospel was true, the resurrection was also true; or, as Paul goes on to affirm, to deny the resurrection was to deny that Christ had risen, to assert that the apostolic preaching was in vain, and that their own faith was vain. It was on this account that the apostle gave so carefully the evidence on which the truth of the resurrection rested (vv. 5-8).

But there is another thing. The apostle being about to point out the consequences, the far-reaching results of the resurrection of Christ, in connection with the kingdom, will have us to apprehend that the world to come is to be established on the principle of resurrection, that everything in it will take character from Him who is risen out of death, as the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead. It is thus that in verses 3, 4, after the clause," He died for our sins according to the Scriptures," we are told that He was buried. Man was vicariously judged in the cross of Christ, for He died for all, and in the grave of Christ man was representatively buried, inasmuch as the end of all flesh had come before God judicially in the death of Christ; and, raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, Christ was now of another order, being in the condition of the Second Man out of heaven (v. 47). It is absolutely necessary to comprehend that the first order of man, Adam's order, has been terminated for ever for God in the cross, and that Christ is the Man of His counsels as risen from the dead, as well as that everything now proceeds on the basis of resurrection, if we would enter into God's purposes and thoughts, whether in regard to the kingdom in display or to the saints of this period.

Coming now to our special scripture, it may be seen that it is a parenthesis. Having pointed out the sorrowful consequences of denying the resurrection, the apostle asserts the fact that Christ is risen, and goes on to unfold the whole of its significance, embracing, as it does, eternity itself. It is with this that we are now concerned.

First and foremost, then, Christ risen is the firstfruits of them that slept, "for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. for as in Adam all die" (see Romans 5: 12), "even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Here then is the parting of the ways. Death is the portion of all whose descent is from the first man, Adam; and life is the portion of all whose lineage can be traced back to the Second Man, the risen Christ. The resurrection of Christ therefore — for the subject here is that of resurrection — secures the resurrection of His people, even as the firstfruits are the pledge and guarantee of the harvest. Blessed truth! And how full of consolation to all who mourn over the loss of dear ones who have died in the Lord! Is Christ risen? Then they will also arise at the appointed time; and they will come forth from their tombs with the bodies of their humiliation transformed into the likeness of His glorified body. Well therefore might we cry out triumphantly, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (vv. 55-57).

In the next place we have the order of the resurrection. "But every man in his own order" [or "rank"]; "Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power," etc. (vv. 23, 24). The remarkable structure of this scripture must not be unnoticed. Between the resurrection of Christ and that of His people lies the whole present interval until the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4; and again, between those who are raised at the coming of Christ and "the end," of which verse 24 speaks, we have to interpose the period between the return of Christ for His people and His appearing, and also the thousand years which will constitute the duration of His kingdom. There are thus three great events marked — the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of those that are His, and the delivering up of the kingdom at the end.

In the last chapter we dealt with the character of the rule of Christ in His kingdom. with this agrees the statement here that He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The word "must" in this connection is much to be observed. It is the same word as in the statement "Ye must be born again," and in both cases it means no less than a divine necessity. And wherefore this in regard to the rule of Christ? Surely the reason must be looked for in the fact of His rejection on earth. The very scene that witnessed the contumely, scorn, and hate which men poured on His head, saw Him with the mocking crown of thorns, "the crowned King of all patient sufferers," and put to death as a malefactor, must be the theatre of the display of His glory, and of His universal acceptance. Nothing less would satisfy the heart of God for His beloved Son in this world. Then it is added, to give completeness to His triumph: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Every foe had been subdued, death, here personified as an enemy, only remained, and now, all its victims being rescued from its grasp, it is for ever set aside.

If we turn for a moment to the book of Revelation, we shall find this significant event recorded. In Revelation 20, after the judgment of the great white throne before which all the dead, unconverted while in this world, both small and great, are summoned, and where all receive their sentence according to their works, we read that death and hades were cast into the lake of fire (v. 14). Thereupon in the next chapter, wherein the new heaven and the new earth appear on the passing away of the first heaven and the first earth, and the holy city, new Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband, a proclamation is made: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God." Now mark the infinite tenderness and pathos of what follows: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH." The Lamb of God has now taken away the sin of the world, and hence its bitter fruit of death is gone for ever. He who was made sin upon the cross has for ever abolished death, so that its dark shadow will never more be seen in that world where God will be all in all. What a blessed prospect for those whose hearts are bursting with the sorrows of bereavement! And what an antidote to the fear of death it is to know that its power is already broken, and that it will soon be altogether abrogated! Through the resurrection of Christ the bonds of death have been loosened, life and incorruptibility have already been brought to light through the gospel, and soon we shall be in that scene where old things will have actually passed away, and where all things will have become new. For He that descended into the lower parts of the earth has ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.

Such is the issue of the reign of Christ. When He comes again into the world, men everywhere, save the throng of the Gentiles who are brought through the great tribulation, and a remnant of His ancient people, will be in enmity against Him but He will come forth out of heaven with irresistible grace and power, and, as we have already seen, "all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee" (Ps. 22: 27). Universal subjection to Christ will thus characterise the coming age; every knee on earth, as well as in heaven, will bow before Him, whether really or only professedly, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In the language of the Psalmist, "His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed" (Ps. 72: 27).

We may now consider the end and object of the kingdom. As regards Christ Himself, it is, as before pointed out, that He might be supremely exalted in the place of His rejection, that where He was reviled, contemned, and crucified, He might be acclaimed by all as Lord and King. But our scripture brings before us another object, and it is to this we desire to call the reader's attention. First, then, let it be noticed that an exception is carefully made. It says, "For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted who did put all things under Him." It might seem strange that it should be necessary to make such a remarkable statement. The reason will soon appear, though it may now be stated that it is connected with the ineffable grace of Christ in becoming man, and in remaining man for ever.

There are, then, three steps in the ultimate object of the kingdom. In the first place it is in order to deliver it up to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. We learn from Psalm 2 that He will receive the authority of the kingdom from God: "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession"; and He Himself says, speaking of the same subject, "Even is I received of My Father." His authority will therefore be wielded on God's behalf, and thus, when His mission is accomplished, He delivers up the kingdom which had been committed to His hands. When returning to the Father from the earth, having come to do His will, He said, in His blessed perfection, "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do," and we know that He will be able to use the same language at the close of the kingdom. Being what He is, all His works must be perfect, like Himself. Nor must we lose sight of His own joy in having again glorified the Father on earth, and in finishing the work which had been given Him to perform, nor indeed forget the joy of the Father's heart in receiving from the hands of His beloved Son what He had committed to Him. John 5 gives us a most blessed inlet into the complacent relationships existing between the Father and the Son (vv. 19, 20); and it is therefore allowable to meditate upon the mutual delight of the Father and the Son in the delivering up of the kingdom.

The second step is seen in verse 28: "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him." This brings us at once face to face with the great mystery of redemption, and with the glory of the purpose of God for man as set forth in His beloved Son. What we mean by the mystery of redemption is the Incarnation, that it should please God thus to approach man, to become God manifest in flesh. Two scriptures will unfold this to its: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself"; "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same" (2 Cor. 5: 19; Heb. 2: 14). It was thus in a Man — the Man Christ Jesus — that God drew near to man, and, at the same time, set forth all that God is. But this is not all. Having as Man glorified God in all that God is by enduring all that the glory of God required on account of what man was and is, He Himself has been glorified as Man at the right hand of God. Having become Man for the work of redemption, He remains Man for ever; and thus when every enemy has been subjugated, when all things have been put under His feet, having delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, He remains for ever identified with His redeemed, the Leader of a chosen race, pre-eminent amongst all for whom He died, yet taking the place of subjection to Him who put all things under Him. It was so while in this world. As He Himself said, "I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak," (John 12: 49, 50). So in eternity itself, He, a divine Person, having become Man — a Man of flesh and blood, but now the risen and glorified Man — will be ever Man, and as such subject to Him whose will He came to do. What grace! we cannot but exclaim. For we are made companions of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, and we shall thus remain His companions, as the result of His blessed grace, through all the countless ages of eternity. But it will be the delight of all to acknowledge His pre-eminence, to behold Him anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, for it is then that He will reap the fruit of all His toil and be for ever satisfied.

This brings us to the glory of God's purposes for man. It is as Man that Christ, as we have seen, has been glorified, and Christ glorified as Man is the pattern and expression of what God's purpose is for all the redeemed. One scripture precisely states this: "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8: 29). As a well-known hymn has put it:

"And is it so? I shall be like Thy Son.

Is this the grace which He for me has won?

Father of glory, thought beyond all thought,

In glory to His own blest likeness brought.

"Nor I alone, Thy loved ones all, complete

In glory round Thee there with joy shall meet,

All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord,

Object supreme of all, by all adored."

This glorious goal is made sure by the immutable purpose of God, who chose us in Christ for this before the foundation of the world. But are we to rest satisfied in that we shall be conformed to the image of God's Son? No, though we shall surely be filled with divine joy at this marvellous consummation of the purpose and grace of God, we shall use diligence, just in proportion as we enter into God's thoughts to grow daily in the likeness of Christ. It will be our delight to behold the unveiled face of our glorified Lord, and thereby to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3: 18). We may see in the language of Paul what should be the present effect in our souls of the revelation to us of God's purposes. He says (we give another translation): "I follow after, if that I may get possession of that for which also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3: 12). That is, since Christ had taken possession of him that he might be conformed to His image, he himself, in full communion with this end, the end of the purpose of God, would diligently and steadfastly follow on to this goal. So should it be with every believer; we all alike should seek grace to keep our eye upon Christ the glorified Man, because He is, in that condition, the expression of God's purpose, the Model, so to speak, to whom we are to be conformed. And let it be remembered that the greater our diligence in the contemplation of the Model set before us, the larger our growth in moral conformity to Christ.

The third and last step remains to be considered. It is the ultimate object and end of the delivering up the kingdom, and the consequence of the Son Himself being subject to Him that put all things under Him: it is that GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. We may not attempt to explain these wondrous words, though we may offer a few observations with the view of eliciting the adoration of our hearts in meditating upon this blissful prospect. The end of redemption then is that God may be all in all. If the expression in John 3, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands," is timeless, if, that is to say, it refers to the past eternity, setting forth the Father's delight in the Son, and reaching that it was His purpose, before the foundation of the world, to deliver all things into the hand of the Son, we have a wondrous unfolding of divine thoughts. From all eternity, in that case, it was in the heart of the Father that the Son should be supremely exalted in this scene; and Hebrews 1 teaches that the Son is appointed Heir of all things. For the effectuation of His purpose the incarnation, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God were, as we have already seen, necessary; and now we learn that there was another object in it all, that God might be all and in all. If the Father was bent upon glorifying the Son, the Son was equally bent upon glorifying the Father (compare John 13: 31, 32; John 17: 1, 2).

As to the expression itself, a similar one is found in Colossians 3, but used there of Christ. After speaking of the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, the apostle proceeds, "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but CHRIST IS ALL, AND IN ALL" (vv. 10, 11). This, we apprehend, is not so difficult, as the expression is used in contrast with the distinctions which obtain amongst men. It will mean, therefore, that in this region or circle (that of the new man) all that is of the flesh has disappeared, and only Christ, and what is of Christ, remains, so that Christ is everything (for that is the force of the expression) as well as in all. It is Christ objectively and Christ subjectively, and there is nothing besides. How blessed!

So after the Mediatorial kingdom has been delivered up to God the Father, the Son Himself becomes subject, for He takes His place, as the glorified Man, in the midst of the redeemed, the First-born among many brethren, and God is all in all. He is EVERYTHING and in all — as we read in Ephesians, though in a different sense, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. All that God is, His glory, will be in full display, and He is love: and this will form the element in which all the redeemed will live and move and have their being for ever. God is love, and dwelling in love, they will dwell in God, and God will dwell in them. Thus God will be in all, as well as be everything. And the foundation of all this lies in that stupendous and finished work of Christ on Calvary. Hence it is that Peter says, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3: 13).

It has yet to be remarked that when the name God is used, as in this case, absolutely, it includes necessarily all that He is in the unity of the Godhead, all that He is as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God is and must be God in all that He is as revealed in and Through the three divine Persons. This has to be borne in mind in weighing the words which have been before us. One other observation may be made. In the eternal scene unfolded in Revelation 21: 1-8, it will be noticed that there is no mention of Christ, only of God, whereas in the heavenly Jerusalem it is God and the Lamb. This is in harmony with what has been considered in Corinthians. Christ having become identified with the redeemed, as the Firstborn among many brethren, God is ALL IN ALL; and He therefore, in the blessed and beatific display of what He is, pervades the whole scene.

On such a subject how powerless are human words! But inasmuch as the revelation has been made to us, there is surely blessing to be found in meditating upon it in the presence of God. And may the blessed Spirit of God, who alone can preserve us from error, guide us into the truth of the revelation made, and form us according to it, that God may be glorified in us, and we in Him!

"THOU art coming, mighty Saviour!.

'King of kings,' Thy written name

Thou art coming, royal Saviour!

Coming for Thy promised reign.

Oh, the joy when sin's confusion

Ends beneath Thy righteous sway!

Oh, the peace when all delusion

At Thy presence dies away

Thou art coming, crownèd Saviour

Not 'the second time' for sin;

Thou art coming, thronèd Saviour

Bringing all the glory in.

All Thy Father's house, its glory,

Hangs by sure behest on Thee

Oh, the sweetness of the story!

Saviour, come, we wait for Thee

Christ as the Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness

Christ as the Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness

together with a sketch of the interval between the rapture and the appearing of Christ in glory.

E. Dennett.

CHAPTER 1. THE MORNING STAR.

IN this paper we desire to consider, in some little detail, the scriptural instruction upon the Morning Star and the Sun of righteousness. All, we are quite sure, will admit that, inasmuch as the writers of scripture were led by the Holy Ghost to give to our Lord His several titles, not one of them can be without significance. It is therefore of the first importance that we should seek to understand them, and thus to acquire a deeper knowledge of the Lord Himself in the apprehension of the mind of the Spirit. For what is needed to establish our souls is a larger acquaintance with the thoughts of God concerning His beloved Son, and thereby to be brought into fellowship with His own heart. It is only thus indeed that we can occupy our true place in this world as His representatives while awaiting His return. In this first chapter then we propose to adduce the teaching of the scriptures upon -

THE MORNING STAR.

It is only three times that we find this appellation given to our Lord in scripture — once in 2 Peter 1, once in Revelation 2, and again in Revelation 22. In Peter it is rendered in our translation "day star"; and indeed the word is not the same as that found in Revelation. But the word used by Peter is the proper name of the morning star, and means the "light-bringer," while that used by John, equally applying to the morning star, indicates rather the time of its appearance in the early morning. Whether one or the other therefore, both alike refer to the same thing, and both alike apply to Christ in the same character. This will be fully seen if we consider the presentation of this symbol in the several scriptures where it is employed.

It may be first pointed out, however, that the symbol could only mean one thing naturally — namely, that the morning star not only precedes, but that it is also the presage or the harbinger of the day. This being so, it is easy to gather the sense of its application to Christ. That is, when used of Him, it must likewise signify that He, as so set forth, is the herald of the day; that just as the watcher during the night is assured when he beholds the morning star that the night is passing away, and that the sun will soon arise and flood the world with its brilliant rays, so when the Morning Star has arisen in our hearts, we have the certain knowledge that "the night is far spent" and "the day is at hand," that He, in a word, welcomed by us as the Morning Star, will speedily appear as the Sun of righteousness, who will be "as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." (Ps. 19: 5, 6.)

As we pursue our meditations we propose to take the passages in the order in which they occur, for we cannot doubt that there is a divine reason in this order, and consequently a development in the teaching connected with the subject. It will help if the passage from Peter is given in full. He says: "Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy [or "the prophetic word made surer"]; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts," etc. (2 Peter 1: 15-19.)

There are several points to be noticed in this striking scripture if the mind of the Spirit is to be apprehended. The first is that the subject which the apostle is desirous of establishing in the souls of these believers to whom he is writing (and also in ours) is that of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. To certify them of this, he reminds them that he had been an eye-witness of this on the mount of transfiguration, and that he had heard the voice from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In one word, he had seen and heard, and this is the qualification of a competent witness. (1 John 1: 3.) This accords, moreover, with the historical accounts of this event in the gospels. The Lord had said to them on the eve of taking them up with Him into the "holy mount," "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matt. 16: 28); and we also read, that the three chosen disciples for this privilege "saw his glory." (Luke 9: 32.) Peter was therefore, we repeat, a competent witness of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the scene in the holy mount was, as the Lord Himself has said, an anticipative display of that glorious event — a sample of what will be manifested when the Lord will come, as Son of man, in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9: 26.)

The next point to be observed is that the prophetic word, which had told of the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, was made surer, or confirmed (for this is undoubtedly the sense of the apostle's words), by what was seen when the Lord was transfigured before the eyes of His disciples. No careful reader of the Old Testament could fail to notice the glowing predictions and descriptions of the coming Messiah's kingdom. Thus, for example, David speaks: "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him." (Ps. 72: 7-11; see also Isa. 9 - 12, Isa. 25 - 27, Isa. 51 - 59, Isa. 60 - 62, and many other passages in the prophets.) Now the purport of Peter's statement is, as already said, that all these prophecies were confirmed to the three chosen eye-witnesses of the glory of Christ, and to those who received their testimony, by the honour and glory which our Lord received from God the Father, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The testimony of the prophets was, and is, sufficient as a foundation for faith; but just as God was pleased, out of regard to the weakness of His servant, to add an oath to confirm His promise to Abraham (see Heb. 6), so, considering the weakness of Peter, James and John, and the weakness of His people, He allowed them to behold the Lord in His transfigured condition, and to hear the expression of God's delight in His beloved Son, together with the proclamation that all authority was entrusted to Him, that they might be established in the certainty of the future display of the glory of Christ in His kingdom.

Remark also, that the light of prophecy was, anterior to this, the only guide as to the kingdom in display; and indeed the only light as to it now, unless the day has dawned, and the Morning Star has arisen in our hearts. It is on this account that Peter says that, until this has taken place, we do well to take heed to prophecy as to a light that shineth in a dark place.

This brings us at once to the question as to what it is to have the Morning Star arisen in our hearts. In the first place we know on the authority of the Lord Himself that He is the bright and morning star. (Rev. 22: 17.) This gives us at once the key to the interpretation. It does not therefore mean that this is true of every believer, although it should be so, for it cannot signify less than that Christ has been admitted, yea, welcomed, into the heart, enshrined there in the heart's affections, and that He has been so enthroned in the light of the day of His glory — in the light, that is, of the world to come, or of the display of His kingdom in power.

These statements need to be well weighed as much hangs upon their import. First, however, we should challenge ourselves as to whether we have really thus received Christ into our hearts, whether by grace we have yielded, and continue to yield, to Him the undisputed sway on this throne which He claims, whether we desire our hearts to be a place

"Where only Christ is heard to speak,

Where Jesus reigns alone."

This question answered, it still remains to enquire whether we regard Christ in our hearts in this character, as the pledge and guarantee of the coming day of His glory. If so, the kingdom of His glory is not only certified to us, but it is also established — established in our hearts as the sure precursor of that time when all things will be subjected to His glorious sway. The consequence will be that, while we still rest in undoubted confidence upon every statement of the prophetic writings, we are in a way independent of their light, because the Morning Star has arisen in our hearts, and the day has already dawned. We thus live, for faith is ever the substantiating of things hoped for, in the light of the Lord's coming glory; and in our measure we can say with the Apostle Paul, The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in (or "to") us.

A few words may be necessary concerning a common misconception of the arising of the Morning Star. This misconception may be illustrated from two lines of a well known hymn:

"In hope we lift our wistful, longing eyes,

Waiting to see the Morning Star arise."

It is evident from the language here employed that the rising of the morning star is regarded as taking place objectively, that is, without, outside the soul. And indeed the thought probably is that the Lord descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to fetch His redeemed, whether sleeping or waking, is the rising of the Morning Star. It is never to be forgotten, as already explained, that Christ Himself is the Morning Star, but it cannot be too earnestly insisted upon that in the only scripture which speaks of His arising in this character, the reference is not to the return of Christ for His people, but to His arising in our hearts, and viewed, as so arisen, in the light, and as the guarantee, of the day of His glory. It may also be said with confidence that, until this is true of us of which Peter speaks, there could be no real waiting for the advent of Christ. To look for Him, with eager expectation, is heart work, and hence it is of all importance that we should begin in the experience of our souls with the teaching of Peter on the subject. If we do not, we may believe in the coming of Christ as a sound doctrine, and have the prophetic writings at our finger-ends, while, at the same time, Christ, as in Laodicea, may be vainly seeking for admission into our hearts. There is a divine reason therefore for the way which God has been pleased to present the subject in scripture, an order which cannot be neglected without spiritual loss and detriment.

The apostle concludes this part of his theme with a caution. He warns us that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, inasmuch as the will of man had nothing to do with its production, for "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It is not therefore by single statements, as if they were man's sentences, or even by the study of a single book, that the mind of the Spirit in the prophets can be ascertained. It was one Spirit speaking through many channels; and as a consequence the scope of all their writings, for one was chosen to communicate one aspect and one another, must be apprehended before we can embrace the object God had in view. The same thing is seen in the New Testament. There are four gospels to present Christ, and not one of these may be neglected if we would have God's thoughts concerning His Son, the Man Christ Jesus, as He was here in the world. In like manner all that the prophets teach concerning Christ in a future day must be considered if we would understand the divine idea of His coming kingdom in the day of His glory. But, as has been shown, the moment Christ has arisen as the Morning Star in our hearts, the day for us has dawned, and knowing ourselves as the children of the day, we live in the light of its glory, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. 5: 2.)

We will now pass on to the consideration of the second passage in which the same symbol occurs. It is found in the letter to Thyatira and again, for the convenience of the reader, we will give it. in full: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star." (Rev. 2: 26, 28.)

The reader will observe, in the first place, that these words are not addressed to all the believers in Thyatira, but only to the overcomer. The significance of this will be readily grasped if a few remarks are made upon the general character of Thyatira. The three previous assemblies — Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamos — represent successive phases of the church which have passed away; but Thyatira, as may be seen from verse 25, reaches down and continues to the end. It exists therefore today, and it is consequently of great moment that we should understand her character and heed the instruction contained in this address to the angel. There can be no manner of doubt that Thyatira represents one of the two antagonistic forces against Christianity of which the Apostle Paul speaks in Colossians 2 — that is, Ritualism, whether exemplified in Romanism or in other so-called "churches." It should be noticed, however, that if Romanism and her allies are bore indicated, they are the product of the teaching of Jezebel. The angel was responsible, and his guilt lay in the fact that he suffered that woman (or his "wife," according to another reading), who called herself a prophetess, "to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." The doctrines allowed to be held by some in Pergamos had now been formally adopted, and they characterised the assembly. The effect was that the true nature of Christianity was subverted, legal rites were re-enacted, and thus the end of the man in the flesh was refused. And whence came these bitter waters of corruption which spread desolation wherever they flowed? The fount and source of all is seen in Ephesus having left her first love. Well therefore might the wise man lay upon us this injunction: Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

Another thing claims our attention. There is found for the Lord's own refreshment and joy a little oasis in the moral desert of Thyatira. Standing apart from the abounding corruption on every hand, a remnant, like the remnant in Malachi, sought to maintain fidelity to Christ. In so doing they were slandered by Jezebel and her followers as having commerce with Satan and his iniquities. The Lord saw all this, and He stepped in with special words of encouragement to His poor and afflicted people and sheltered them from the accusations of the enemy. "But unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira,* as many as have not this doctrine [the doctrine of Jezebel], and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak [as they say you have]; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have [already] hold fast till I come." (Vers. 24, 25.)

*The words "and unto" should be omitted, as the Lord is speaking to a faithful remnant. It should read simply, "But unto you I say, the rest in Thyatira."

There are therefore four classes plainly distinguished in Thyatira, the angel — composed of elders and teachers — who had failed to maintain the authority of Christ over His people; corrupt Jezebel and her followers; a feeble remnant who were seeking to keep the word of Christ, and thus to maintain separation; and, lastly, those who might be overcomers, though these would come from the godly remnant which has been specified. It is with this last class that we shall now be concerned, as the promises, and especially that of the morning star, are made to those who by the grace of God should win this title of overcomer, and thereby gain the Lord's approbation.

It will be necessary therefore to explain what will constitute an overcomer, and all the more so in that the question is often put, whether all Christians will not inherit these special promises. To put the question thus is to miss its purport. An overcomer then is one, we judge, who, in the midst of the corruptions indicated as existing in the assembly, maintains in the energy of the Spirit faithfulness to the Lord in holiness of walk and conduct. Realising the supremacy of the Lord's claims he seeks at all cost to acquire a Nazarite condition, and he pursues this end whatever the obloquy, reproach or persecution he may have to encounter. It is as the Lord Himself says, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end." There is therefore, on the one hand, absolute separation from the evils allowed in the assembly; and on the other hand, there is the pressing on, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to keep "the works of Christ," to surrender in fact oneself to Him as the instrument of His will. Such is, we deem, an overcomer, even as the Simeons and Annas were overcomers in their day.

Now it is to such, and to such alone, that these promises are given, and they are given to encourage their hearts, to stimulate their energy and to incite their increasing devotedness in the path of separation on which they had entered. They are given also as a token of the Lord's approbation, and to produce in their hearts the holy purpose to win the victor's crown. In this way all whose hearts are true to the Lord are reminded that His eye is upon them, and that nothing delights Him more than fidelity to Himself in an evil day. Surely then it is not according to His mind that in supineness and indifference we should settle down here with the deceitful thought that all these things will be ours in a future day, and thereby lose the great and present gain of the sunshine of the Lord's favour and blessing. It is quite true that we cannot stem the tide of corruption which has desolated the whole of Christendom; but it is open to us, naming the name of the Lord, to depart from iniquity, and to follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And to do this is to tread the path of an overcomer.

We may now proceed to consider the special promises with which is associated the gift of the morning star: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star." (Vers. 26-28.) If we turn for a moment to Psalm 2, we shall at once understand the nature of the first part of these promises. There we read: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Vers. 8, 9.) Very clearly the Lord refers to this scripture, and this helps us to comprehend the meaning of His promise to the overcomer. It is really the bestowal of His own power as given to Him of the Father; that is, association with Himself when He comes forth to deal in judgment with the nations of the earth, and to subdue them unto Himself, in connection with the establishment of His kingdom.

Such is the prospect which the Lord holds out to His people to encourage them to hold fast until He should come, and thus to be overcomers. And how strikingly does He thereby reveal the grace and love which He has for His own in that He will share with them His own exaltation and glory, not only before the Father's face (John 17: 22, 23), but also (as indeed the scripture in John contemplates) in the display of His glory in His kingdom. And the words, "Even as I received of my Father," are to be much observed. It will be remembered that in His temptation in the wilderness, the devil, having shown Him all the kingdoms of the world, said, All this power will I give thee and the glory of them. . . . If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. But He answered, It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4: 5-8.) He thus overcame the tempter by maintaining fidelity to Him whose will He had come to do, by refusing everything from the hand of Satan, and receiving only from the Father. The path to His exaltation lay through the cross, and there having glorified God in all that God is, victorious over death and the grave, He has for ever set aside the claim and power of Satan, and has established the rights of God, which He will vindicate in due time when He assumes His power, and asserts His sovereign sway over all the nations of the earth.

But for this association with Christ in His glorious reign, the overcomer will have to wait. In the meantime, is he to have nothing? Yea, saith the Lord, during this time of patience I will give him the morning star. That is to be the overcomer's present portion while anticipating the day when the Lord will come forth to put down all rule and all authority and power; for He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. (1 Cor. 15: 24, 25.) It will be seen therefore that the overcomer possesses two present blessings as his stay and support, while waging conflict with the powers of evil and corruption around and holding fast what he has in expectation of the Lord's return. The first is, the light of the coming sovereignty of our Lord over the kingdoms of this world (see Rev. 11: 15), and of his own association with Christ in that day; and, secondly, the gift of the morning star.

It has yet to be inquired, In what way does he possess the morning star? Let it be repeated that Christ Himself is the morning star, and Christ Himself in a certain character; that is, Christ in relation to, and as the pledge of, the day of His glory. The morning star is the herald of the coming day, and when it is seen the watcher knows that the darkness of the night will soon pass away. In like manner the overcomer who has the Morning Star is certified that the day is at hand. The question then returns, How does he possess it? There is only one possible answer, and that is, in his heart. It is there he holds the precious gift, and hence he is superior to all the power of the enemy which besets him around, for his heart is flooded with the light of the day for which he waits. The darkness of the night for him has passed; he lives in the sunlight of the day. (See 1 Thess. 5: 5.)

The difference therefore between this scripture and that in Peter is this: in the latter, when the morning star has arisen in our hearts, the light of prophecy, rendered surer by what took place on the holy mount where the Lord was transfigured, is in a certain way superseded, because we have within us Christ as the Morning Star, the guarantee of all that the prophets predicted. In one word, for those in whose hearts the day has dawned and the morning star has arisen all prophecy concerning the universal kingdom of our Lord has already been fulfilled. In the passage in Revelation the Morning Star is given also in relation to the glory of Christ, but as the present sustenance in conflict, and as the assurance that the overcomer will share with Christ in the exaltation of that day, and in His judgment of, and in His sway over the nations. As the Psalmist sings (and only those who have the gift of the morning star could now join in the song): "Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen [nations], and punishments upon the people [peoples]; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. [Hallelujah.]" (Ps. 149: 5-9.) That this in its application refers especially to the earthly people is undoubted, but it is a most vivid illustration of the Lord's promise to the overcomer in Thyatira as far as power over the nations is concerned. And it is as the harbinger and pledge of this that the Lord gives to the overcomer the morning star for present support and enjoyment.

The final scripture in which the Morning Star is presented is in the last chapter of the same book — Revelation 22: 16. The Lord Himself is the speaker: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and* morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

*Many authorities omit the conjunction: it would then read, "the bright morning star."

Before entering upon the presentation of Christ, as here given, it will be necessary in order to apprehend its significance to touch upon the context. Twice, in the previous part of the chapter, the Lord announces His speedy return (verses 7, 12); and it is essential for us to understand the period to which He refers. Let it then be distinctly said that the rapture of the saints before the appearing of Christ has no place in this book, unless indeed it is seen representatively in the Man Child who was caught up to God and His throne in Revelation 12. The church will be rapt away from this scene before the awful judgments, connected with the breaking of the seals, with the trumpets and the vials, are poured forth; for the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven before the Lord comes out of heaven, together with the armies which were in heaven, as described in Revelation 19. There is no doubt whatsoever of this, however ingeniously men may reason to the contrary; but it is of the utmost importance to observe that the coming of Christ in this book, in accordance with its teaching throughout, relates to the appearing in glory of our blessed Lord. Thus in regard to the announcement of His coming quickly in verse 7, another has said, "Those that keep them" (the sayings of the prophecy of this book) "are those concerned in the book who are warned that Christ will soon be there. No doubt we can all profit by it, but we are not in the scenes it speaks of." And again, "Verse 7 was a warning, in form of blessing, to those in the circumstances referred to, to keep the sayings of the book, but this verse 12 is the record of Christ's coming to the general judgment of the quick." This makes all plain, and if we have entered into it, we shall be the better prepared to consider our special scripture.

There is, however, a remark or two more to be made. It will be noticed that the Lord affirms the solemn statement of His coming by the truth of what He is as the eternally self-existent One: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Then we have a short parenthesis in which is described the blessedness of those who will have the title to the tree of life and to enter in through the gates into the city; and also the several moral characters or classes are specified who will be for ever excluded from that abode of perfection and bliss. The everlasting difference between good and evil (although this will not be finally declared until the session of the great white throne) having been made, the Lord again speaks, "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."

A few words must first be said upon the first character given — the root and the offspring of David. Two or three scriptures will unfold this to us. In the prophet Micah we read, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5: 2.) Here are manifestly the same two aspects as in the words of Christ Himself. Again, in the language of Gabriel, when announcing to Mary the birth of Jesus, he says, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David," etc. (Luke 1: 32.) And finally, the Lord Himself said to the Pharisees, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matt. 22: 42-45.) The answer to these questions is found in our scripture, as also in Micah and Luke, for in all alike it is abundantly manifest that He who was to be ruler over Israel, He who was to sit upon the throne of His father, David, was also David's Lord. As in our scripture, He was the root, the origin of David, as well as his offspring. Herein lies the mystery of God manifest in flesh, which lies at the basis of redemption, whether for Israel or for Christians. Observe moreover that this presentation of Himself determines the character of His coming in this chapter. It shows beyond a doubt that the Lord has in view the establishment of the kingdom, first over Israel and then over the nations of the earth; and that, in His universal sway, He will make good in His government all that God is. Hence the cry of the Psalmist, "Say among the heathen [nations] that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people [peoples] righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people [peoples] with his truth." (Ps. 96: 10-13.) It is then that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth from pole to pole, for it will be a time of universal blessing under the sway of the Root and Offspring of David.

But it is with Christ as the bright and morning star that we are more especially concerned; only it greatly helps us to comprehend the significance of this emblem when we consider the effects of the introduction of the day of Christ. As also in regard to the promise to the overcomer in Thyatira, the kingdom, at least as contained in the character of the Root and Offspring of David, comes first into view. And it is precisely this fact that definitely fixes the import of the morning star, teaching, as it does, that, as in the natural heavens, so here, it is the presage of the coming glorious day. There is, however, one difference to be noted between the scripture now before us and those already considered. Both in Peter and in Revelation 2 the morning star is looked upon as a present possession; in the former as the possible possession of all believers, in the latter as a gift to the overcomer. In the scripture before us it is simply the presentation of Christ in this character to the assembly - and to the assembly as the bride. That the bride will and does cherish the Bridegroom in her affections is undoubted, and all the more in that the church is here seen in her normal condition. Still Christ calls attention to Himself under this symbol in this place, we judge, to draw forth the affections of her heart which He knows to be there, to encourage her to maintain the constant attitude of expectancy of His return, and to cheer her heart amidst the increasing darkness and gloom on earth with occupation with Himself in this character, as giving the assurance that very soon the clouds will be all dispersed when He breaks forth through them all as the Sun of righteousness.

It must again be remarked that there is no question here of the rising of the morning star. Christ has so arisen, and the bride, standing as it were upon the edge of the night, beholds Him, and, while beholding, is entranced with His beauty, as well as convinced, at the same time, that the night is far spent and that the day is at hand when, sharing in His exaltation and throne, He will display her as robed in His own glory and beauty. Two events will, we know, precede this: first, the private presentation of the bride to Himself, "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 27), and the public celebration of the marriage of the Lamb in heaven as described in Revelation 19: but what is contemplated here, in connection with the coming quickly of Christ, is what is revealed to John by one of the seven angels who said, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." (Rev. 21: 9-1l.)

The subject would be incomplete without a few words upon the effect of the presentation of Christ to the bride. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come." How simple! And yet it was the suited response. It could not be otherwise inasmuch as it is the language of the Spirit and the bride. But how the language of both? Because it was produced by the Spirit in the heart of the bride. It was His words, though uttered by herself. (Cp. Romans 8: 26, 27.) The response therefore was the one which the Lord desired to bear, and the only one suited to the moment. And it is much to be observed that it was elicited by the presentation of Himself to the heart of the bride, and if as a consequence her heart overflowed in the one word, "Come," it was the effect of the mighty working of the Spirit. What a lesson to all who seek to minister to God's beloved people? Is it desired to lead them into fuller blessing by awakening in them more fervent affection to Christ? Behold then the Lord's own way. It is to minister Himself in the aspect suited to the need. But for this the one who ministers must himself be in communion with the heart of Christ about His people, and he must be near enough to Him to apprehend His mind for them at that particular moment. Oh! that many such servants may be found labouring amongst the saints of God.

"And let him that heareth say, Come." It is not only the bride therefore who turns upward in the power of the Spirit, as she gazes upon the face of the Bridegroom, and says, with unutterable longing, Come; but the Lord would have every one of His people, wherever he may be, who hears the cry to join in it individually. What could more plainly reveal the Lord's mind for His own, that He would have every saint of God maintaining the expectation of His return. Not one is excepted, and this very fact constitutes a challenge as to our state of soul in view of seeing the Lord face to face; a prospect, when cherished, which constitutes the one great motive to holiness, as the apostle teaches that every one who looks for Christ and being like Him, will purify himself, even as Christ is pure. (1 John 3: 2, 3.)

The circle is now widened. The church is in a sense the depositary of grace; and hence the Spirit of God, speaking through her, or through His servants, thinking upon the multitude of needy, thirsty souls scattered throughout the world, remembering that the day of grace will be closed when the Lord does come, utters the yearning appeal, Let him that is athirst come, As the Lord said when He was upon earth, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, so now the Spirit repeats the invitation. Oh! that weary souls everywhere, souls who have been attempting to slake their thirst at human cisterns, might have their ears opened to hear this pleading invitation; and as they hear it, may they remember the words of the Lord Himself, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well [fountain] of water springing up into everlasting life."

There is yet more. Every person upon the face of the earth is thought of, for it is added, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Nothing could more fully show that the living water which Christ has secured through His death and resurrection is "towards all," that is, that all that is in the heart of God is for man, and consequently that the gospel is to be proclaimed to all, for God has been pleased to assume the attitude of a Saviour God; and since Christ died for all, He would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2) Let this gracious invitation therefore be proclaimed throughout the wide world, and with all the more urgency because of the imminence of the Lord's return.

Finally, attention may be called to the fact, often mentioned, that the presentation of the Lord in this twofold way, as the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star, becomes the occasion for the description of the whole circle of the church's affections. She, as the true bride, begins with the Bridegroom; she then thinks of, for indeed she includes, all who are His; next she remembers all anxious and thirsty ones; and lastly she travels out, and thus becomes the interpreter of her Lord's mind, to all men of every country and clime. Let us then seek grace that we may move in no narrower circle. And mark it well, that the bride begins with Christ, and not with souls, however precious they may be. In the same way, if we are to become in any measure the expression of the heart of Christ, we must begin with Himself. If, forgetting this, we commence first with saints or sinners, our hearts will become contracted and narrow, and we shall no longer he the exponents of His blessed heart and will. Give Him the first place in our affections and we shall be His faithful representatives towards all.

CHAPTER 11. THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE MORNING STAR AND THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

THERE is no interval indicated between the Morning Star and the Sun of righteousness shining forth in His strength. As the beauteous rays of the morning star can be often discerned in the heavens even while the sun is arising above the eastern horizon, so might it have been concluded, from the adoption of these emblems, that the glory of the Sun of righteousness would follow immediately upon the shining of the morning star. But it is not so, for it is apparent that in each of the three cases of the employment of the symbol of the morning star, it is for the comfort and encouragement of the saints of this period, in one word, for the consolation of Christians. But these, as we know from the teaching of scripture, will not be left on the earth at the darkest time of its history, but, as in the promise to Philadelphia, in the words of the Lord Himself, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from ["out of "] the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world [the habitable world], to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Rev. 3: 10.)

Seeing therefore that there is a space of time between these two characters of Christ, we shall all the more intelligently comprehend the whole subject if we consider how this interval of time will be occupied, at least as far as believers are concerned. If now we turn to the first Epistle to the Thessalonians we shall find the most explicit teaching upon this subject. In chapter 1 we are taught that these believers were "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus;" and Jesus, the apostle tells them, was their Deliverer from the wrath to come. (Vers. 9, 10.) Now our view of the latter part of this passage will entirely depend upon our interpretation of the words, "the wrath to come." What is this? Popularly explained, it is hell, the lake of fire, which will be the doom of all whose names are not found in the book of life, at the session of the great white throne. (Rev. 20: 15.) But when 1 Thessalonians 5 is examined it will be seen that, true as it is that all who have rejected God's testimony in any age will be cast in the lake of fire, the "wrath to come" does not contemplate this final issue, but means rather the judgments which in a future day will be poured out upon this world — the wrath connected with the coming of the day of the Lord. It is in contrast with this that the apostle says to the Thessalonians, God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, moreover, it is to be remembered that before the day of the Lord the desolating judgments, of which we have the record in Revelation, will be visited upon the habitable world in its apostasy from God. It is from this wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, from which Christ is the deliverer of His people.

If now it be inquired as to how, or in what manner He vouchsafes this deliverance, the answer is found in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-14. To correct a misapprehension into which the Thessalonians had fallen, the apostle says, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Now it is evident that, if God is to bring back His saints with Jesus, they must in some way be with Him before He returns. It is this very thing that Paul, having received a special revelation upon the subject (for he speaks "by the word of the Lord"), proceeds to explain. He says, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent ["anticipate," or "go before"] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (Vers. 15-17.) The truth then is, that before the day of the Lord, with its attendant judgments, the believers who compose the church of God on earth, together with those who have fallen asleep, will be caught away from the scene, caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and that they in this manner will be delivered from the wrath to come, and obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So great is the tenderness of our blessed Lord, and so unspeakable His love, that He will not allow the church for which He died to be exposed to the coming wrath, or to that great tribulation which will precede the day of the Lord! Blessed be His name for ever and ever. Amen.

It is, however, alleged, while the foregoing statements are admitted, that if the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air as described by the apostle, it is to return immediately with Him when He will break forth through the clouds, which have darkened the earth, as the Sun of righteousness. Can this allegation be accepted? It is impossible, as it allows no room for the three events which in scripture follow upon the rapture of the saints before the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The first of these is the introduction of the saints into the Father's house. If it be true, as it undoubtedly is, that the character of His coming is not before our Lord's mind in John 14, it yet cannot be contested that the object of it is very distinctly. And what do we read of this? "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Nothing short of this, of being with Himself, and to be with Him in the Father's house, could satisfy His own heart; and surely it may be added that nothing less than this could suit the Father to bestow upon the many sons whom He has purposed for glory through the One who had glorified Him on the earth, and finished the work which He had given Him to do. Nay, we may go further back: every believer was given to Christ by the Father, and every one is drawn to Him by the Father. There is therefore full communion between the Father and the Son concerning His people, and doubtless we may see the expression of this in the Lord's message to His own through Mary, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Such is the place which Christ has won for us according to the Father's eternal counsels for the glory of His beloved Son; and hence, if we are now in the realisation of our heavenly relationship and place, in association with Christ, as sons with Him before the Father's face, it could only be to the end that we shall be for ever with Him in the Father's house. What joy then will it be to the Lord Himself to introduce His own into that scene

"Where all those deep affections,

Which fill the Father's heart,

Shall find their satisfaction,

Their joy to us impart;

Where we His throne surrounding,

Shall Abba, Father say,

Within those many mansions —

Prepared for that day."

In a still deeper sense He will surely say again, "Here am I and the children which Thou hast given me."

The next event will be the judgment-seat of Christ. There is very distinct evidence that this will take place before the appearing of Christ, for we read in Revelation 19 that the armies in heaven that followed Christ out of heaven, as there set forth, were "clothed in fine linen, white and clean," and referring back to verse 8 we find that the fine linen, clean and white, is the righteousness ("righteousnesses") of saints. Now this would be impossible before the judgment-seat of Christ, because it is at this tribunal, before which we are all to be manifested (2 Cor. 5: 10), that we shall receive the things done in our bodies, according to that we have done, whether good or bad. Christ Himself is our righteousness before God, or we could have no title to be in His presence, but the righteousnesses of the saints could not be known or declared until the things done in our bodies had been reviewed and appraised according to the unerring estimate of Christ Himself. The whole of our past lives, the significance of every act, its motive as well as its object, will be made clear to us — clear as to the source of all, whether our activities sprang from the energy of the flesh or were produced by the Spirit of God, and how much of mixture there had often been in what seemed to be our most devoted service. All this will be manifested to us at that time in the patient grace of our blessed Lord, to us individually, not necessarily to others in public.

The effect will be that we shall magnify as never before the grace of our God, that grace which will impute to His people as their own righteousness what that same grace had wrought in and through His people. They will be constrained to acknowledge, as the Apostle Paul has said, that it was not they but the grace of God which was with them, that gave both the privilege and the capacity to do anything in His service; but it will, on the other hand, be the delight of Christ in that day to attribute every good work done, good according to His perfect estimate, to His beloved people. Should any one, however, inquire how it will be possible to endure the exposures which must necessarily be made, however tenderly, in the perfect light of that day, let such an one remember that when we are manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ we are already conformed to His image. We shall therefore be in full communion with His own mind, and as such we shall seal with our hearty "Amens" every condemnation which He may be compelled to pass upon any act of the flesh which we had done. Nay, more, we shall rejoice before Him because the issue of our manifestation before the judgment-seat of Christ will but intensify our conceptions of the grace of our God, and enlarge our thoughts of His eternal love which He has revealed to us in and through His beloved Son.

If now for a moment we consider the object which the judgment-seat of Christ has in view, it will confirm us in the conclusion that it must precede His coming forth as the Sun of righteousness. From the parable in Luke 19: 11-27, as well as from other scriptures, we learn that there will be differences in the position of the saints in the kingdom according to the measure of their fidelity in service during the period of the Lord's absence. This will not be so in eternity, because, as the result of the purpose of God, every redeemed one will be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. As indeed it is scripturally put in the familiar lines:

"Thou gav'st us, in eternal love,

To Him, to bring us home to Thee,

Suited to Thine own thought above,

As sons like Him, with Him to be."

But in the kingdom, in its ordering and government, some, to use the language of the parable, may be over ten cities and others over five, and the place of each will follow upon the faithful diligence exercised in the use of that which had been entrusted to them to "trade" with while waiting for the Lord's return. In like manner, the Lord said to His disciples, to those who by His grace had continued with Him in His temptations, "And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke 22: 29, 30.)

Now it will be at the judgment-seat of Christ that the service of each will be appraised; it will be then to borrow the language of the parable, that He will reckon with His servants, ascertain how much every one has gained by trading, in order to assign to each his respective place in His kingdom. Other things will be transacted before this solemn tribunal, but we are only concerned at present with that which will form the foundation of the awards in the glorious kingdom of Christ. At least, however, it may be remarked that it will be a great gain to us to live constantly in the prospect of the manifestation of that day, to use diligence that, whether present or absent, we may be acceptable to the Lord. The apostle was enabled to say, We are made manifest unto God; and if we daily walk in the light as God is in the light, it will be true also of us, and in this way we shall anticipate the judgment-seat of Christ, as well as qualify ourselves for the position which the Lord, in His grace, may assign to us when He comes forth to take His rights and to establish His universal dominion.

The third, and last thing to take place, as preparatory to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, is the marriage supper of the Lamb, as recorded in Revelation 19. With this, however, must be conjoined, as connected with it, an event of which there is, we think, no mention except in Ephesians 5. We read there of Christ's presentation to Himself of His bride, "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Ver. 27) The words in italics — to Himself — reveal most fully the character of this event, that it is a private and not a public thing, that it expresses the joy of Christ in claiming His bride as His own, that bride which ravished His heart when He beheld her as the pearl of great price, in all her beauty according to the counsels of God, the church He loved and for which He gave Himself. Her wilderness sojourn will then be over, the days of her widowhood and mourning will be ended, she will have passed through all needful discipline until, through having been sanctified and cleansed with the washing of the water by the word, she has been made morally suitable to Christ. And then it is that He claims her in the joy of His heart, and presents her to Himself arrayed in all the beauty wherewith He has robed her, that she may be His companion for ever. This, we repeat, is a private transaction, and no "stranger" will intermeddle with the joy of Christ in that day. It will be wholly for His own satisfaction and pleasure; for then in very deed, if we may borrow the language, He will bring His bride into the banqueting house, and His banner over her will be love.

After this private presentation of the bride to Himself, there will be the public celebration of the marriage in heaven. We find a full account of this in Revelation 19, and we give the whole passage: "And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness ["righteousnesses"]of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." (Vers. 5-9.) The connection in which this scripture is found adds greatly to its significance. The great harlot who had corrupted the earth with her fornication, the false bride, had received her judgment from God and had been for ever set aside, adjudged to be, as she was, the murderess of prophets and saints, for in her, says the Spirit of God, was found their blood, "and the blood of all that were slain upon the earth." This avenging judgment was the cause of mourning and lamentation (for so far had men departed from the living God) in all classes of the inhabitants of the earth. But in heaven (and nothing could more completely show the antagonism of man to God) it was the occasion of an outburst of universal joy. And wherefore this overflowing gladness which could only find adequate expression in praise and adoration? It sprang from the fact that God, having judged Babylon the great corruptress of the earth, was about to establish His sovereignty throughout the wide world. Nay, viewing this as already effected, the voice of a great multitude filled heaven with their ecstatic thunderings of praise as they cried, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The heart in which Christ is already enthroned will understand this exultant celebration, as it apprehends that the time had now arrived when God was about to glorify publicly His beloved Son in the face of the universe, when He would exalt even here on earth the One who had once been rejected and crucified, and cause all the nations of the world to own His blessed sway. For then will come to pass the saying written, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations." (Ps. 22: 27, 28.)

But, and this is the point in this heavenly scene, He will not be alone in the day of His glory. His bride, the church, who has been identified with Him in the day of His rejection will, out of His great love to her, be displayed in glory with Him in the day of His exaltation. The marriage of the Lamb is the preparation for this, and hence it is in order that the bride may be a companion for her exalted Lord and Bridegroom that she makes herself ready, and is arrayed before all heaven in her garments of fine linen, pure and white. It is this union of the Bridegroom with His bride that elicits the admiring praise of the heavenly hosts; and so privileged are those who behold it that John is commanded to write, "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." It will be indeed a scene never more repeated, and the joy of the bride in the consummation of all her longing hopes, in the possession for ever of the Object of her affections, will only be surpassed by the joy of the Bridegroom in taking into union with Himself the bride for whom He had already proved His love to the uttermost when He died upon the cross. And the love He showed there was but the measure of the love He had borne for her through every step of her pilgrim way, and indeed of the love expressed in this scene before all the heavenly hosts in the public celebration of His marriage. It was, and is, and ever will be, an everlasting, infinite and perfect love, a love which passeth knowledge — and language will ever fail to convey its fulness and intensity.

It must, however, be again repeated that the marriage supper of the Lamb is but preparatory to His coming out of heaven, when He will break through the dark clouds of earth as the Sun of righteousness. This will be dealt with in the next chapter; but we still have to call attention, if briefly, to what will follow upon the earth while these events, which have been described, are taking place in heaven. There will scarcely be a single ray of light to illumine the darkness which will enshroud the habitable world on the eve of the Lord's appearing, that is, during the last half-week of Daniel's prophecy. To enter into the detail of what will transpire during these twelve hundred and sixty days, or forty and two months, is beyond the scope of our present purpose; but if the reader should desire to do so, he can study, reminding himself as he reads that it is only through the teaching of the Holy Ghost that the mind of God can be apprehended, Revelation 6 - 18. In this portion of the scriptures he will find a full account of the state of things which will prevail before the Lord returns. We propose simply to sketch the main features of this terrible time, concerning which the Lord Himself said, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Matt. 24: 22.)

The first thing then we may refer to is the revelation of the man of sin, the son of perdition. The Apostle Paul tells us that this event will be consequent upon the departure of the Holy Ghost in the church. He says, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [hinders or restrains] will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed." (2 Thess. 2: 7, 8.) This is manifestly the Antichrist, for the apostle describes this man of sin as the one "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (Ver. 4.) It is he of whom John says that he will deny the Father and the Son; and in Revelation 13 we have other details of this incarnation of sin and iniquity, this embodiment of human progress, intellect, and achievement in contrast with, and in opposition to, all that God is as set forth in Christ. And what Paul teaches in 2 Thessalonians 2 is, that the only thing which restrains the manifestation of this monster of iniquity at the present moment is the presence of the Holy Ghost on earth in the church. This is for the comfort of the children of God. The signs of apostasy may be visible on every hand, the corruptions of Thyatira through the teaching of Jezebel may abound, and infidelity, owing to a growing Laodiceanism, may rear its head and boast of enlightenment from human sources in its self-complacent lukewarmness and indifference; but the Antichrist cannot appear above the surface until after the church has been rapt away from the scene, "for greater is he that is in you," writes the apostle, "than he that is in the world. "

It should also be said that before the uprising of Antichrist, as may be seen from Revelation 8, the first beast, the head of the Roman empire, consisting of the ten federated kingdoms, will have astonished the world by his appearance. And it is through his power that Antichrist will be strengthened and sustained; for we read that Antichrist will exercise "all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." (Rev. 13: 12 — see also following verses.)

We do not, however, pursue this further, but we may point out that the time of "Jacob's trouble" and "the great tribulation" will coincide with this period. The former relates to the terrible ordeal of fiery persecution through which the Jews who are in the land will have to undergo — at least those who will compose the faithful remnant of that day — during the domination of Antichrist in Jerusalem; and the latter refers to a similar, and probably a coincident, period of the exercise of tyrannical oppression and its attendant persecutions which will extend throughout the ten kingdoms of the Roman empire. It is this which the Lord terms, in His message to the angel of Philadelphia, "the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Both alike will probably spring from the edict, after that Antichrist has impiously dared to set up the image of the first beast ("the abomination of desolation") in the temple, that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed, that all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, that is, every subject of the Roman empire should receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads (as a sign of allegiance to the existing blasphemous authorities), and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev. 13: 15-17.) It will be a despotism, animated by devilish power as well as untempered by any legal restraints, such as the world has never witnessed, fierce as have been the persecutions of the early centuries of Christianity and of the Middle Ages; and since God never leaves the world without witnesses (Rev. 11), martyrs will abound amongst those who will be tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; while others, as in the early days, will have trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments, and others again will be stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, and slain with the sword. (See Heb. 11: 35-38; Rev. 20: 4.)

The question, however, may be asked, Will not the saints of that day, as now, be under the obligation of obedience to the "powers that be," the existing authorities? The answer is twofold. Whenever, in the first place, an earthly monarch intrudes his supremacy into God's domain, and commands for himself what is due only to God, as Nebuchadnezzar did, then men are justified in refusing compliance to the monarch's decrees, as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the king's image. But, secondly, during the interval between the rapture of the church and the appearing of Christ, there will be no authority owned of God. The powers of that day will not, as at the present time, be ordained of God. The reason is, as we read in Revelation 13, that the dragon (Satan) will give to the beast "his power, and his seat, and great authority." (Ver. 2.) It will therefore be a time of the unrestrained exercise of Satanic power, except in so far as the judgments of God, falling with increasing violence and intensity upon the scene, may alarm the minds of those who wield the authority. But even so there will be no repentance, only an ever-deepening hostility to God and to His people. Altogether there will be, as in the words already cited, such a great tribulation as has not been since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be.

We said in an earlier part of the chapter that the darkness of this day will scarcely be relieved by a single ray of light. There are, however, rays of light discernible by those who have been enlightened by the Spirit, for the curtain has been lifted, and our sketch would not be complete if these were not mentioned. In Revelation 7 we find a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. . . . And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of the ["the" should be inserted] great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, etc. (Vers. 9-17.) This immense company is not elsewhere mentioned in the scriptures; but what we learn is that they all are brought through that awful time of trial which will affect the Gentiles during the despotic sway of the head of the revived Roman empire; that, having received the testimony of God for that time, which has reached them in some unrevealed manner, they came under the efficacy of the blood of the Lamb, and maintained holiness of walk and conversation, and that, in the same grace which met them at first, the blessed recompense is bestowed upon them of being before the throne of God, and of serving Him day and night in His temple, and of having God dwelling among them. It is another illustration of the fact that no power of evil can hinder the accomplishment of the purposes of God; that just as the Lord, when on earth, found His sheep and led them out, spite of the opposition of the Jewish authorities, so in this coming day, when Satan to the outward eye will seem to hold the field, and to reign unchecked, every one whose name has been written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world will be brought out of his hiding place and be made a recipient of God's grace and eternal blessing. Man energised by Satan may do his worst, but he cannot interfere with the counsels of God. We may well therefore take heart in the darkest day as we remember that, whatever the appearance of things, God is silently and surely working, and irresistibly working, towards His goal. Thus He will make the wrath of man to praise Him, while He will restrain the remainder.

Passing now to Revelation 14 we are introduced to another company who have been snatched out of the fiery furnace into which they had been cast, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego of old. It would take us too far to enter minutely upon the subject of this hundred forty and four thousand who were redeemed ("bought") from the earth. It will therefore suffice to say that these firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb will be saved out of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, who will be in the land when their cruel adversary, the Antichrist, rages, as against Christ, so also against His people. But not one of this complete typical number, 12,000 x 12, will be found lacking. As when the Lord in the Gospel of John said, "All that the Father hath given to me shall come unto me" — so in that day all the chosen ones will be brought to own and confess the Lamb of God; and every one of this company will have, not the mark of the beast, but the Lamb's name and His Father's name [for so it should be read] written upon their foreheads having suffered in their measure, as the Lord Himself suffered in His rejection. Hence they receive this special mark of favour, and moreover they will stand with the Lamb upon Mount Sion as well as follow Him whithersoever He goeth.

It is a great encouragement to be permitted to know these blessed alleviations of the unparalleled sorrows of that day of Satan's apparent triumph; and to see, we may repeat, how completely God controls, even if He do not manifest Himself, all the powers of evil for the working out of His own ends, whether in judgment upon His enemies or in the salvation of His people. When Israel has learned this lesson, they will be able with full hearts to adopt the language already written for their use: The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

It may be remarked, finally, that this whole interval will be marked by much seeming progress and prosperity. The arts and sciences, as well as trade and commerce, will flourish in an unexampled manner. If any should hesitate to receive this statement, let them read Isaiah 2 and Revelation 18. The reason is twofold: first, the earth will then witness the development of man, and man's powers in an extraordinary measure; unchecked, and under the inspiration of Satan, man will display what is termed genius in a way never before seen. In one word. the man in the flesh will at that time reach his highest altitude and perfection. Secondly, worshipping the god of this world, as all outside of God's elect will, Satan will grant them the desires of their hearts. (Compare Luke 4: 5-7.) Combined with this there will be a pervading sense, under the seductive influences of the evil one, of peace and security. As the apostle writes, "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (1 Thess. 5: 3.) Or as the Lord said, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all." (Luke 17: 26, 27.) Not that there will be no forebodings. In all crises of the world's history there have been in the minds of many some anticipations of impending remarkable occurrences. And of this time the Lord has explicitly said, "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." And yet the Lord warns His disciples to take heed to themselves, "lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." (Luke 21: 25, 26; 34, 35.)

Such then will be the prevailing state of things after the church has been removed from the scene, and until the sudden revelation of the glory of the Lord when all flesh shall see it together. As Peter teaches, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. It is at His appearing in this way, as will be seen from the next chapter, that He shines forth in the heavens as the Sun of Righteousness when He will be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.

CHAPTER 3. THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

(MALACHI 4)

IT is only once in scripture that we find this appellation of Christ; but what is signified by it comes out in numberless places, as we hope to see while we pursue our meditations. If, however, this emblem is only once explicitly employed, its meaning, especially when taken in the connection of this scripture, is so apparent that it cannot be mistaken. This will be immediately apprehended if we cite the words of the prophet. In the previous chapter, he describes a God-fearing remnant in the midst of abounding wickedness and corruption. All alike were nominally the people of God, but the mass were, if not actual apostates yet characterised by almost every feature of moral corruption, even while cloaking themselves with the garb of a loud profession. (See chapters 1, 2, 3.) In contrast to all this Malachi speaks of those that feared the Lord and spake often to one another, and tells us of the Lord's delight in this faithful residue, and how He would claim them as His own in that day when He made up His jewels, and that, at that time, all should behold the distinction He would make between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. "For, behold," he proceeds, "the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name" (the remnant of the preceding chapter) "shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." (Mal. 4: 1, 2.)

Now it is abundantly evident from this scripture that, just as the morning star is used in its proper sense as the herald of the dawn, so the Sun of Righteousness is brought in to set forth the introduction of the day, that is the day of Christ's glory consequent upon His appearing. As, however, Malachi is writing to the Jews, he confines the application of the symbol to the earthly people; but just as the sun in the heavens is the centre of the whole solar system, and dispenses light and blessing for all, so the Sun of Righteousness must be the centre of God's universe of blessing which, in accordance with His eternal purposes, He will establish on the ground of the death and resurrection of Christ; for He has made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation ("for the administration") of the fulness of the times He might gather together in one ("head up") all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth. The term all things comprises, indeed means, the universe, and we are thus taught that Christ is the Head and Centre of the whole universe of God, that universe which God even now is engaged in establishing, and which will be the result of His making all things new. (See Rev. 21: 5.)

There is another passage in Ephesians which presents this in another aspect. It says, "Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." (Eph. 4: 9, 10.) Here we learn two additional things; first, that all the glory that accrues to Christ now, and in the ages to come, is the result of His redemptive work, of His incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension; and, secondly, that He will fill the universe with His glory. Under the eye of God all this is already accomplished; to the eye of faith old things have passed away, and all things have become new; but for the actual realisation of it, we have still to wait until the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and flood the whole universe with His blessed rays of light and glory.

Before considering what will be effected by the arising of the Sun of righteousness we may call attention to two other scriptures which bear upon the subject. In Isaiah 60 we read, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." (Vers. 1-3.) Again, further on in the same chapter, "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." (Vers. 19-20.) It is almost needless to point out that we have here brought before us the same event as described in Malachi as the arising of the Sun of righteousness. The only difference is that Isaiah shows us the effect of His arising on Jerusalem, the earthly bride; and the pathetic statement, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended, tells us most truly that all her wounds will then be healed.

The other scripture is connected with the transfiguration of our blessed Lord, concerning which we read, "And his face did shine as the sun" (Matt. 17), with which the reader may compare the statement in the vision vouchsafed to John, "His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." (Rev. 1: 16.) These are cited as the indubitable proof that it is Christ Himself who is the Sun of righteousness, even as we have also seen in Isaiah, "The Lord shall be thine everlasting light." This is a great thing for our souls, because it fixes our eyes upon the coming glory of the One who, as our Redeemer and Lord, has already enshrined Himself in our hearts. Where this is the case, there can be no subject so attractive and engrossing as His exaltation and glory; and this will be increasingly the case the more we perceive that He is the centre of all the thoughts of God, the One in whom all God's glory is secured, whether in heaven or upon the earth, and that this glory will soon flood the universe.

From what has been before us, it has then been abundantly shown that the Lord Himself is the Sun of righteousness, that this title has been given Him in connection with the introduction of the day of His manifestation and glory in this world, and that as such He will shine on with increasing lustre and splendour until before the effulgence of His glory all darkness will be for ever dispelled. But so far it is only as the SUN that we have considered Him; and hence we must also take into account what is added to this, namely, that He is the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. It is indeed this term that determines the character of this heavenly Luminary. What marks the present moment is lawlessness, and this will wax more and more apparent until finally, after the church has been caught away from this scene, it will culminate, in the man of sin, who will defy both God and Christ during the little moment of his continuance. But the Lord will consume this lawless antagonist with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming; and then together with this He will bring all lawlessness to an end by the establishment of His righteous throne, whose authority will extend throughout the whole universe. This was the prospect that sustained and enchanted the saints of old in their darkest days; it was the subject of the songs of their prophets; and the psalms are full of the anticipation of the time as they call, for example, upon the floods to clap their hands, and the hills to be joyful together before the Lord, "for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people [peoples] with equity." Or, to give another citation, as we find it in Psalm 45, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." (Vers. 6,7.)

If now we understand God's righteousness to be His rights, to secure which it was first necessary to lay the foundation in the death of Christ (Rom. 3: 21-26), because He must for ever act in consistency with what He is, we shall see that not only will righteousness be the foundation of the throne of Christ, and not only will He judge the world in righteousness, but that He will also establish and maintain the rights of God in every corner of the universe. All lawlessness will therefore be forever abolished, for at length, on the ground of His sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, He will take away for ever the sin of the world, by bringing God into the scene and maintaining His rights. All this blessed work will be preparatory to the new heaven and the new earth wherein righteousness will dwell. He is thus the Sun of righteousness, inasmuch as the establishment of righteousness flows from Him; and this will be readily apprehended if it is understood that light and life and righteousness are bound up together in scripture. (John 1: 4; Rom. 5: 17-21.)

A further remark may be added to point out that the stability of the universe will depend upon the establishment of righteousness; for nothing could be secure where God had not His rights. It might indeed be said that righteousness is the bond that will unite every creature in heaven and upon earth to the immutable throne of God, and bring every heart into willing subjection to Him who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen. Hence it is that, to borrow the language of the prophet, the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

If now we pause for a moment to draw a contrast between man's system, the world of which Satan is prince, and that which will prevail, God's system, when once the Sun of righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings, it cannot fall to be instructive. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that God's system of things, of which Christ is the Head, is already established, though it will not be manifested until after the appearing in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment Christ was exalted and glorified at God's right hand, the immutable foundation of all having been laid in the cross, in the precious blood of Christ wherein God's righteousness was declared, God had established the Head and Centre of that universe of blessing which He had purposed before the foundation of the world. Faith lays hold of this, even as Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ and was glad, and already expatiates amidst its bright and blessed scenes; but we have still to wait for the time when the whole universe will be actually filled with the glory of Christ.

"O love supreme and bright,

Good to the feeblest heart,

That gives us now as heavenly light

What soon shall be our part."

What then are the features of man's system, of that great organisation termed the world? The Apostle John has summed up its unholy principles very briefly; they are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Pause for one moment and reflect upon what would happen if these three things were suddenly removed, blotted out. Why the world would perish of inanition. Its enterprise, its pleasures, its political conflicts, its wars of conquest, its love of place and power would vanish for ever. If the earth were suddenly to stop in its revolution round the sun it would bring death and destruction upon every living thing, and in like manner, if the moral elements of the world — objects presented to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life — were taken out of the way the sustenance of the flesh, of the natural man, being what he is, would be for ever gone. Then, to complete the picture, it must also be pointed out that Satan has founded his throne upon the lusts of men, and upon their fear of death, and also that upon the whole scene lies the judgment of God; for it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment — the judgment of the great white throne, and the lake of fire, which is the second death. Could there be, by any possibility, a darker picture? And yet no human hand could paint it dark enough. What a mercy for man that the whole truth may be discovered in the scriptures!

Turning now to the other side, to God's system, His world, what, let us inquire, are its principles. Three may be at once given: they are righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. There are its moral elements in contrast with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These are, in fact, the moral elements of the kingdom of God at the present moment as described by the Apostle Paul. (Rom. 5: 1, 2; Rom. 14: 17.) Nor can the order in which they are given be changed. Righteousness is, and ever must be, the only basis of peace, whether for the individual soul or for God's government. We thus read, Having made peace by the blood of the cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. God declared, as before said, His righteousness in the blood of Christ, and in it He laid the immutable basis of peace for ever. Thereupon, when peace is secured and enjoyed, joy in the Holy Ghost will spring up and, possessing the soul, will continually overflow in praise and adoration. This, we do not forget, may be the present experience of the redeemed; but it cannot be too much insisted upon that every moral or spiritual principle abides, and that consequently what we enjoy now we shall enjoy throughout eternity.

Take another contrast. In Satan's system of things or circle, HATE is the atmosphere. He hates God, Christ, and men alike; and those that are under his dominion hate God, and hate one another. (See Titus 3: 3.) In God's system of things, of which Christ is Head, love is the law that governs all. Christ loves His people with an undying love, having proved it to the uttermost in His death on the cross; they love Him because He first loved them, and He has enjoined upon them to love one another according to His own standard. Dwelling thus in love we dwell in God and God in us. Is any higher blessedness conceivable? And is it any wonder that the one is denominated by the term darkness, and the other by that of light? And remember, in answering the question, that darkness is always associated with death, as light is with life. As we read in John's Gospel, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1: 4, 5.) Again, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (Chap. 8: 12.) Hence it is also that we read in Colossians of believers being made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and of being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love. (Col. 1: 12, 13.) Who could doubt then where bliss and eternal joys are to be found? This contrast might be put in another very simple way. Eternal life will be, during the reign of Christ, in full display, for, as the Psalmist says of Mount Zion in that day, "There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." But in Satan's dominion darkness, death and judgment will hold undisputed sway.

The final, and greatest contrast of all is found in the respective heads and centres of these circles. Satan, as the prince and god of the world, is that of the first circle, and Christ is the Head, Centre and Sun of the second. All evil is comprised in the first, and he is dominated, as we have seen, in all his activity by enmity to God, to Christ, and to man. The object therefore he has in view is to secure the everlasting misery and destruction of the poor slaves who accept his rule and bondage. All good is centred in Christ, and love to His Father, and to man is the mainspring of that mighty work of redemption wherein He has glorified God in all that God is, and secured eternal blessedness for all who put their trust in Him. Every form of evil is expressed in the former, and all the glory of God is displayed in the face of Jesus Christ.

One other thing may be specified. The basis of Satan's throne is laid in the lusts of men, and the world (the circle of Satan's dominion) will pass away and the lust thereof, and pass away under the eternal judgment of God. In another aspect, it may be said that the foundation of Satan's kingdom is laid in death, and it, as we know, together with hades, is to be cast into the lake of fire, where Satan himself is to have his eternal home. But the foundation of Christ's kingdom has been laid on the other side of death, in resurrection; and hence it is that everything He establishes is on that ground, and is therefore imperishable. As He said to Peter when the latter, as taught of the Father, had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock [the truth of Christ as the Son of the living God — and He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16) The consequence is that everything, since redemption, whether in Christianity or in the world to come, proceeds upon the principle of resurrection. This is brought out in a most striking way in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the first chapter we learn that among the many glories that cluster around the Person of the Son of God, He is also the One by whom God made the worlds — that the Son is the Creator. And yet, in the same chapter, we are taught that both the heavens and the earth will perish. The responsible man, Adam, having sinned, defiled the first creation, and thus both he and it had to pass away from under the eye of God in judgment. This creation suited the first man, but it could not be suited to the second Man who is out of heaven, and therefore could not be allowed to continue in existence although the handiwork of the Son. But as we read on in the epistle we discover that everything which Christ has touched in redemption is eternal. It is eternal salvation, eternal redemption, eternal inheritance, and an eternal covenant. The reason is that already given — that all that Christ now builds, all that He touches is on the ground of resurrection, and it is on this account that everything even in the millennium will proceed upon that principle.

If the significance of this contrast is rightly perceived, it will at once be accepted that Christ must displace (as He already has displaced for God) man, and man's scene which is under the rule of Satan. There will be no room for any one in that new system of things which God has established in Christ but Christ Himself. It therefore says that, Christ has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. But will not all His redeemed be associated with Him in the glories of that scene? Most surely they will be, but every one of these countless myriads will be, according to God's eternal purposes, conformed to the image of His Son. It is therefore all Christ and what is of Christ, and nothing which is not of Christ will, or could, enter the scene. We speak now of the final issue of the administration committed to His hands, for He must reign, till He hath put all things under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. Then for ever will Christ be the Head and Centre of all the redeemed, and the Firstborn among many brethren, Himself expressed in and through all, and His glory filling the whole scent..

"Yet it must be, Thy love had not its rest

Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest.

That love that gives not as the world, but shares

All it possesses with its loved co-heirs.

Nor I alone, Thy loved ones all, complete

In glory round Thee there shall meet,

All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord,

Object supreme of all, by all adored."

It will be felt perhaps that we have travelled beyond our immediate subject, and it may be that we have traced, in our meditations, the glories of Christ far beyond the time to which the title of the Sun of righteousness is applicable. This is undoubtedly so, if we confine it to the time of which Malachi speaks; yet we cannot but believe that Christ will be the Sun of His redeemed, of every family named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, throughout eternity. We now return, however, and will indicate some of the characteristics of Christ as the Sun of righteousness in the world to come.

The first we take from Malachi, where the title is found. He says, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." By the expression — with healing in His wings — we understand that all (the promise is specially addressed to the faithful remnant) who come under the influence of Christ in that day will be the subjects of divine healing, and that this will be effected by the communication of a fuller life. There is a remarkable illustration of this given in the prophet Ezekiel. After the vision of the waters which issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward ' and the description of their ever-increasing volume as they flowed onward in their blessed mission, the angel said to the prophet, "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh." (Ezek. 47: 8, 9.) Thus life and healing are explicitly connected; and we learn moreover from the Book of Revelation that the leaves of the tree of life (and this is Christ risen) will be for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 22: 3.) When we read therefore that the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, what is it but that He will be the source of life for all that are drawn to seek blessing under His protection? And receiving of His abundant life, sickness and disease will be banished, even as Isaiah says, "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick:" and again, "As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." (Isa. 33: and 45) This will enable the reader to comprehend a little of the force and beauty of the expression.

Nor let it be forgotten that we may even now morally anticipate something of this blessedness. Is it not true that our spiritual weakness and "diseases" are to be traced back to defective spiritual life? Christ came that we might have life, and have it abundantly; and if this abundance of life is not expressed by us, it is because we are not completely under His influence, because some part of our life here is excluded from the rays of His blessed sunshine. Let us listen to His own words, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me," as the scripture hath said, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." If this were but true of us, we should indeed present every mark of spiritual health, and thereby it would be proved that no part of our hearts was shut off from the shining of Christ. Paul thus calls upon the Ephesians to remember the word, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (shine upon thee). And just as we can in this way enjoy now in anticipation this action of Christ, so will those who fear His name in that day enter in large measure into the eternal blessedness of relief from everything which might cause Borrow and distress here, as described of the eternal state in Revelation, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21: 4.)

Moreover, Christ, as the Sun of righteousness, will be the source of light and heat. We name these two features together because of their relation to life. Even a plant cannot live without light and heat, and much less the people of God, whatever the character of the period in which their lot is cast. Hence John says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1: 5-7.) As without light a plant could not appropriate its suited nutriment, and without heat it could not grow, so the Christian must be in the light in order to receive, and he needs warmth if he would daily grow in the likeness of Christ. These two essentials he finds in the company of Christ, and in the enjoyment of His love, that love which, proved to the uttermost in His death, He is ever ready to minister to us when we are walking in the light of His blessed presence. So will it be when He shines forth with undimmed lustre as the Sun of righteousness. As the Psalmist says, speaking of the sun in the heavens, but doubtless with a veiled allusion to Christ, "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof;" so when Christ shines forth in the day of His glory all nature even will break forth into song, for then it will be that creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. His light will penetrate into the remotest corners of the earth, scattering all the mists and clouds which have gathered over and darkened the souls of men during their bondage to the evil one, and wherever His light falls the warmth of His rays will be felt, for nothing will be hid from the heat thereof. It is in view of this that the prophet, describing the effect of the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon Jerusalem, says, "Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." In this way men of every clime and nation will be drawn out of their dark hiding-places that they also may share in the blessedness of the light and warmth of that heavenly Luminary which has appeared in the heavens.

It may be permissible to draw one practical lesson of present application. We have spoken of the necessary association of light and heat in the shining forth of the Sun of righteousness, and these two things are always connected in Christ. The snare which besets many of us is to rejoice in the light while we do not admit the heat into our hearts. We do this when we pursue the knowledge of the truth as truth apart from the knowledge of Him who is the truth. This is no uncommon evil, and the consequence is that, priding ourselves upon knowledge, we are, as the apostle speaks, puffed up, and on this very account it is that he proceeds to remind us that it is love, that is, heat, which edifies. So too in another place he exhorts the Ephesian (saints we give another translation) to hold the truth in love that we may grow up to Him in all things who is the Head, the Christ. (Eph. 4: 15.) This is a very distinct illustration of the need of warmth (as in the case of plants) for growth. Whatever the light therefore we may have, it will always be winter in the soul unless we are at the same time nourished and cherished by the love of Christ. The importance of this lesson cannot be unduly magnified, and it is largely to the defect of its apprehension that we may trace our low spiritual condition.

The last characteristic to be named, the chief one in fact, but reserved for consideration in the last place, is that of RULE. The natural sun, we read, was created to rule the day; and the Sun of righteousness will rule the day that is coming in the introduction and manifestation of His kingdom. Now, as He sits at God's right hand as Lord, the administration of all God's authority is committed into His hands, even as He said to His disciples, after His resurrection, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. But it is still the day of grace, and He waits while the gospel is being proclaimed until the moment, ordained of the Father, when, after having descended from heaven to receive His people unto Himself, He will appear and establish His righteous sway of grace throughout the whole world. No one indeed can read the prophetic descriptions of this period in the Old Testament without perceiving that righteousness is the main characteristic of the sovereignty of Christ. As Isaiah has written, "A king shall reign in righteousness" (Isa. 32: 1); and again, "With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth . . . . and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." (Isa. 11: 4, 5.) David's testimony (and indeed that of all the prophets) is of like character, "Give the king," he says, "thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness." (Ps. 72: 1-3.)

It could not in truth be otherwise, inasmuch as when Christ comes, He will make good in government all that God is; and hence the first thing will be to lay the foundation of His throne in righteousness. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." (Ps. 45: 6, 7.) His first work therefore, when He comes out as the Sun of righteousness, will be to establish God's rights, whether in the deliverance of His people, or in the destruction of His enemies. This principle has been exemplified in this period of grace. Until God's rights were secured in the cross of Christ, until, that is, His righteousness had been declared in the blood of Christ, God could not, consistently with all that He is, accomplish the purposes of His own heart in the salvation of His redeemed from the hand of the enemy. This will enable the reader to understand that the first thing which Christ will do, on His return, is to assert, and maintain, the rights of God. The whole universe must indeed, according to what God is, be governed upon the principle of righteousness. If only one planet were to wander from its appointed orbit it would bring confusion into the whole of the solar system. So also in God's universe of bliss  - every part of it must be dominated by its Centre and Sun, as otherwise there could be neither permanence nor stability of blessing.

But when once righteousness has been secured, peace will follow. As Isaiah testifies: the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. Again it follows the same order as in the gospel. As Paul teaches — being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is on this account that the Lord is termed the Prince of Peace. In the character of David He will establish His throne in righteousness, and then He will reign in the character of Solomon, as the Prince of Peace — of the increase of whose government and peace, as Isaiah speaks, there shall be no end. And again, as he assures Jerusalem, in the name of Jehovah, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee . . . . and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isa. 44: 10-13.) Thus as the true Melchizedek, He will be first, King of Righteousness, and afterwards, King of Peace. Such passages might be multiplied indefinitely, and we read moreover that He who will establish His throne in righteousness will also speak peace to the nations, and thus peace will characterise the sway of the Sun of righteousness throughout the whole world. As the hymn expresses it:

"He shall come down like showers

Upon the new-mown grass,

And joy and hope, like flowers,

Spring up where He doth pass.

Before Him on the mountains,

Shall peace, the herald, go;

And righteousness, in fountains,

From hill to valley flow."

Another feature may be mentioned. Righteousness having been established, and peace following as the work of righteousness, grace will have its unhindered sway from pole to pole. Hence it is that the Psalmist, in celebrating this period, says, "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom." (Ps. 145)

The effect of all this will be that, as the Lord said to Moses, the whole earth will be filled with His glory. (See also Habakkuk 2: 14.) What a chain of ineffable blessing, righteousness, peace, grace, and glory! And what joy will thus be brought to the whole earth when the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in His wings! It is for this glorious day that the weary hearts of men, although they knew not what they needed, have sighed in every age, but there is only One who can introduce it, and this He will do when the glory of the Lord (the display of all that He is) shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Happy are they upon whose souls the light of this glory has already dawned, those of whom Paul speaks as rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; for then they are able, in their measure, to say with him, The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in (in respect to) us.

All this, blessed as it is, is but the earthly side of the day of Christ's glory. Before, however, we pass to the other side, a few words must be said upon God's delight in the whole scene. When He created the earth and all that is therein, we read that He saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. But His complacency in the works of His own hand was soon disturbed; Adam sinned and blighted the fair world which God had brought into existence, and He could no longer rest. From that day to this God has wrought for His own glory, after the failure of the responsible man, for the accomplishment of His eternal counsels in Christ. Hence it was that, when the Jews accused the Lord of breaking the Sabbath, He replied, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. For the end of God's purposes we still wait, but God has already glorified the Man of His counsels at His own right hand, and in Him He has established everything, "For all the promises of God in him [in the Son of God, Jesus Christ"] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." (2 Cor. 1: 20.) Meanwhile God has given us in the Mount of Transfiguration a glimpse of the glorious kingdom of Christ. And it was then when the face of Christ did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light, while Moses and Elias appeared in glory and talked with Him concerning His death, the foundation of His accomplishment of the coming glory, that God proclaimed His delight in the words, which the disciples were permitted to hear, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." So will it be when the Sun of righteousness appears and scatters all the mists and clouds which have concealed God from the eyes of men, when He shall have reduced everything to subjection to His sway, God will look down with joy and infinite complacency upon the whole scene. Thus in Zephaniah, although the prophet confines his view to the elect of Israel, we read, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." (Zeph. 3: 17.)

Surely also the same thought may be derived from the descent of that great city, the holy Jerusalem, out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. (Rev. 21: 10, 11.) For the glory of God is the expression of all that He is, and this glory can now, without a veil, shine forth unhinderedly for the enlightenment of the earth, so that the nations will walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honour unto it.

We have dwelt somewhat at length upon the earthly side of the glory of that day, for indeed this is more fully revealed than the heavenly side. Still there are several features of this on which we may well meditate with profit to our souls. The first is the obvious one — that Christ Himself will be the centre of all the glory. This must needs be because of what He is, as well as because of what He wrought for the glory of God in His death upon the cross. None but He could bear and maintain the whole of the glory of God in government. We gather, moreover, that He will appear, when He comes, in a threefold circle of glory. He said to His disciples, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9: 26.) By His own glory, we understand that which is peculiar to Himself as the Man of God's counsels, that with which He is glorified at the right hand of God; by His Father's glory, that which is essential to Himself as God's beloved Son; and that of the holy angels will be that belonging to them in their high estate and perfection around the throne of God. We read, for example, that, when an angel came down from heaven to announce the fall of Babylon, the whole earth was lightened with his glory. (Rev. 18: 1.) This will help us, in a little measure, to understand the intensity of the angelic glory, when "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" of these exalted beings will swell the train of the Son of man at His appearing. Such will be the threefold glory of Christ when He comes to establish His dominion throughout the universe.

There will be another glory in that day, for Christ will come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed. Thus, as the apostle speaks in another place, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3: 4.) It is of this indeed that the Lord Himself speaks in John 17, when He says, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." (Vers. 22, 23.) On such a theme more could not be said, for we have had no experience of glory. And yet it will further us in our meditations if it be again stated that divine glory is the display of divine perfections, even as the Lord's glory, as the glorified Man, is the manifestation of His moral excellencies or perfections; and in the same way angelic glory will be the revelation of the moral beauty of angels, while that of the redeemed will consist in their conformity to the image of God's Son that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren.

It must also be remembered that all the glory of which we have spoken is connected, as to display, with the advent of the Sun of righteousness, who will soon burst into view and flood the whole universe with His blessed light and life. It was with some perception of this that a christian poet, addressing Christ in this character, wrote -

"Shine, till Thy glorious beams shall chase

The brooding cloud from every eye!

Till every earthly dwelling-place

Shall hail the Day-spring from on high.

Shine on, shine on eternal Sun!

Pour richer floods of life and light;

Till that bright Sabbath be begun,

That glorious day which knows no night."

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."