Table of Contents

Thy brother

"Thy brother . . . for whom Christ died"

To Labour in Vain

Women and Children Not Counted

Two Ideals

The Two Ideals

Omission

Service

Ambition

Vain Religion

Imperialism and Socialism

The Losing Side

Difficulties of Unbelief

The Difficulties of Unbelief

On Giving

What is a Christian?

S. L. Jacob - Collected Writings

S. L. Jacob

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Fasting

Thy Brother for whom Christ Died

To Labour in Vain

Women and Children not Counted

The Two Ideals

Omission

Service

Ambition

Vain Religion

Imperialism and Socialism

The Losing Side

The Difficulties of Unbelief

On Giving

What is a Christian?

Fasting

Fasting is often mentioned in Scripture, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New, and, evidently, it has an important place in the believer's life, for it is one of the three things which the Father will specially reward, when rightly done (see Matt. 6). The lack of it seems to involve great absence of spiritual power (see Matt. 17: 21), whilst it is often mentioned in connection with special occasions of drawing near to God. Surely, then, it is highly advisable to enquire what fasting really is, according to God. May God help us in this enquiry.

The dictionary meaning of the word, which gives us the ordinary current use among men, is "Abstaining from food, chiefly on religious grounds." Christians generally look at it either as literally meaning this, or as self-denial in various shapes, culminating in denial of self as a whole, i.e. a refusal to know or to pity ourselves, or to care for self; or else as abstention from natural means of doing the service God may give us to do, as when David refused Saul's armour, or Ezra refused to ask for the king's escort, but betook himself to fasting and prayer. It is not denied that most of these thoughts are true as far as they go, but God's thoughts are not our thoughts, they are exceedingly wonderful. What does He say on the subject? It is remarkable that He tells us both what it is not and what it is. He says:

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

"Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul and Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." (Isa. 58: 1-7.)

(The verses following should also be read.)

Now, the solemn part of this is that it is spoken of those who professedly delighted in drawing nigh to God and doing righteousness, and were very scrupulous in outward observances. These are told that their literal fasting and outward show of sorrow were all vain and that their hearts were wrong.

Then comes the remarkable part of the address, for, after being told what fasting is not, they are told what it is, and, strange to say, it is not negative, as we should expect, it is positive. In other words, it is true philanthrophy.

Now, we cannot understand why many should speak of philanthrophy as if it were a bad thing. Undoubtedly the term (like every other term God uses) has been sadly misused, but the remedy for this is not to say philanthrophy is worthless, but to show the true philanthrophy.

Twice is the word used in Scripture. In Titus 3: 4 it is translated "love (of God, our Saviour) toward man," and, in Acts 28: 2, it is translated "kindness." So far from philanthrophy being worthless, it is what every true Christian must have. He must be a follower of Christ, and have the spirit of Christ. Now, what did He do? Never could anyone show such love to man as Christ did. God was in all His thoughts, but He laid Himself out completely for the service of man. "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto [to be served] but to minister [to serve], and to give His life a ransom for many."

When we think of fasting in connection with the Lord, His forty days' fast before He began His ministry generally comes to mind. But the great point for us is that all His ministry was one of fasting. For, while His whole soul went up to God in the devotedness and obedience of purest love, He entirely spent Himself for man, never thinking of nor caring for Himself, having no leisure so much as to eat, blessing all, seeking all, serving all, doing good to all, and thus, in perfect self-renunciation, showing forth the love in the Father's heart for man.

Yet so little did He appear unto men to fast that they called Him a self-indulgent man, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. He was free to go everywhere, to the house of the Pharisee, though He got no real welcome; to the house of the publican and the degraded of the earth; but always to give, always with grace seasoned with salt, always in utter self-abnegation to glorify God and to do good to men.

What a life of fasting His was, everything for God, everything for man, nothing for self. And yet so different was His life from man's thoughts that they did not understand that He fasted at all. In this, as in all else, He carried out all He taught in Matthew 6 and elsewhere.

What about the apostles? They were to fast when the Lord was taken away. Were they armchair disciples and critics, or did they utterly spend themselves for man in the service of Christ? Surely the latter.

We have not very much about the lives of the twelve, but that of the Apostle Paul is brought before us in detail, laying bare the very secrets of his heart. Oh! how he fasted, as witness 1 Cor. 4: 9-13; 2 Cor. 4: 7-15; 6: 3-10; 11: 24-29, and numerous other passages. Yet, in spite of his marvellous labours, devotion, love, and self-denial, he did not lack accusers, who went so far as to accuse this Christ-like man of walking disorderly, (see Acts 21: 24). He was made all things to all men if by any means he might save some, and to do this he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, yet still many found fault with him, saying he was not a true apostle and detracting from his character continually.

He did nothing ostentatiously, he sought no credit, he wanted nothing in the way of honour from men, he suffered the loss of all things in faithfulness to Christ as he served the saints, and brought blessing to sinners. Yet he was a most practical man. See how he acted on board ship, how he encouraged them all. See him on the island gathering sticks. Had he fasted according to men he would have stood apart with austerity and severity, and let them do these things. But his was the true fasting, which only those whose eyes are open could recognise as such, for he anointed his head and washed his face (figuratively speaking), and thus appeared not unto men to fast. He cared infinitely more for the souls of men than their bodies, yet he did not forget the body, but reached the soul through the body. (See Acts 20: 33-35.)

Let these examples teach us what true fasting is, viz, to be so constrained by the love of Christ as to lay oneself out in true devotion to man, and thus be a true follower of Christ. Let no one say that these things are not up to the Christian level. The glory of God and the blessing of man are indissolubly linked together. They are intertwined in all the life of Christ, in the lives of the apostles and of the saints. They cannot be separated. Glory to God implies blessing to man, and real blessing to man only goes along with the glory of God. Some think they can do good to man and leave God out, a terrible blunder. But it is no less a blunder to think we can glorify God and leave man out. The measure of our love to God is our love to our brother, and sentimentality is of no use in this connection. Downright wholehearted devotion to the good of man, in accordance with the will of God, is what is so much needed in the present day. Knowledge there is in abundance, and there is no lack of eloquent speech. But lives burning with love to God and man are very, very rare, and from this lack we are perishing.

Yet few recognise such lives if they meet them. Most look for external demeanour, something that will appeal to men in the flesh, whereas the true fasting will appear not to men to fast, he will hide what he does, he will be simple, natural, cheerful, unaffected, hearty, loving, kind, and practical. He will not let his left hand know what his right hand does, that is, not only will he seek no credit from man, but, more important still, he will give no credit to himself. He will give up all, be servant to all, seek the good of all, but will say (and think) "I have done nothing, there has been no sacrifice, all has been grace and love to me all along the way." Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, never fails because there is no self-seeking in love, all, all is for God and, being for God, is therefore for man who is made in the likeness of God.

May God raise up those, who truly fast in this manner, for fasting is not a negative thing, but love in activity.

Thy brother

"Thy brother . . . for whom Christ died"

Let us say to ourselves, softly and tenderly as such a name requires, "My brother . . . for whom Christ died." (See Rom. 14: 15.) "My weak brother . . . for whom Christ died." (See 1 Cor. 8: 11.) I may destroy him, I may cause him to perish; I who am to love him as Christ loves me, and be willing to lay down my life for him.

Am I my brother's keeper? Assuredly. And where is my brother? Where is he not? Do not I meet him daily, in the train or in the bus, in mart or street, in private houses and in public places? Do I watch for him, do I rejoice when I find him, do I love and care for him, do I long for the opportunity to minister to him as the Lord enables?

We shall not soon forget how in Edinburgh in 1902 a beloved Persian brother stood up before some three hundred of us assembled for prayer in that city, and spoke to us with tears and broken utterances on the words, "Even thou wast as one of them." (Obadiah 11.)

As he read, "But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity . . . as thou hast done it shall be done unto thee; thy reward shall return upon thine own head!" and as he owned how guilty he felt himself, surely many of us who heard felt very guilty too.

The sectarian spirit is so subtle, so universal, it is by no means easy to be clear of it. How readily do we think, and speak, of our fellowship, our company, applying these terms to a few only of God's children, and knowing nothing of really priestly service on behalf of all those for whom Christ died. If Christ died for them, how dear they must be to Christ; does not this cause the divine nature in us to yearn after them with deepest longings? For whatever there is of Christ in them, shall we not unfeignedly rejoice, delighted to recognise the common bonds we have together in Christ. If, on the other hand, we see any defect (and who has not many), shall we not lay ourselves out to do anything we can to help them, lovingly and graciously with tenderest care; not harshly or in a spirit of superiority, but in a spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted.

How terrible it is that we can destroy, or cause to perish, our brother. Do not say, This does not mean this or that; think of what it does mean, rather than the reverse. Surely it means this much, if not more; a wasted life, that might have been fragrant with Christ — a missing of the mark which God desired for him, a grieving of the heart of the Christ who died for him. Who can measure all this?

And perhaps I caused it, without meaning it, for I was unheeding, and thought only of what pleased myself, so I did what I wished, and did not consider my brother for whom Christ died.

But this is not the Spirit of Christ. He would not offend His Jewish brethren though He Himself was free (Matt. 17: 27); He would bear the storm Himself that His disciples might be spared (John 18: 8). Blessed Lord, who is like Thee? Grant to us of Thy Spirit. Let us be willing to give up anything of our own, if we can by so doing help, or prevent from stumbling one for whom Christ died. "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall in another's way." (Rom. 14: 13.) As we pass through this world, and behold its dainties, let us put a knife to our throats seeing we are men given to appetite (see Prov. 23: 2), for surely we would not for our own gratification do aught that might stumble our brother.

Moreover, seeing that if one member of Christ suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it: surely we should have the deepest care one for another that, at all events as far as in us lies, we should prevent schism in the body.

We cannot dissociate ourselves from the whole that bears Christ's name — we are part and parcel of it, and must share in the honour or the shame, the sorrow or the loss. If we were in a ship that was going on to shipwreck, could we save even ourselves by locking ourselves up in a little cabin and taking great pains to try and keep that in order? To whom God has committed much, from them He will ask the more; and what He has given, He has given for the blessing of all; and great is the loss in the present day, because so seldom is the truth taken by those, who have it, to those, who have it not.

Freely we have received, freely we must give, and everyone who has is a debtor to him that hath not.

God loved, and so God gave. He gave His all.

Christ loved, and this love brought Him down to a sin-defiled world to seek for those whom the Father gave Him out of the world.

Paul loved, so he was made all things to all men that by any means he might save some, though the more he loved the less he was loved.

Is this easy? No, it means a path far more narrow than the legal separatist ever dreams of, and no one can tread that path save he, who is gripped with the almighty constraining love of Christ, and being thus set free, is compelled by that same love to deny himself, to lose his life for Christ's sake, and to yearn after others in some little measure as his Master did before him.

Let our brother be whom he may, let him be called by whatsoever name, be he morally well or spiritually diseased, let us ever remember that he is our brother for whom Christ died, and as such is entitled to our deepest regard, our fondest love. If this be not, where is that proof that we are disciples of Christ?

Many and diverse are the conditions of our beloved brethren for whom Christ died; many are young and tender; many ignorant and ill-instructed; many sick and sorry, weary and heavy-laden; many scattered, driven away, lost and perishing; many lame, halting and stumbled. Oh! do not say they are wilful. Have we tried to help them, have we with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing with them in love, not in a patronizing way, or in a spirit of superiority, sought to heal and restore, to teach and to build up, that we may seek to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?

Mark the tenderness of that man of God, Paul: "We were gentle among you, even as a nurse [nursing mother] cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted to you . . our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged everyone of you, as a father doth his children. . . . When Timotheus came from you to us and brought us good tidings . . . brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith: for now we live, if we stand fast in the Lord." Do read these two chapters (1 Thess. 2: and 3), they are so beautiful. Read 2 Cor. 7, and see his exultation in a single point of obedience by some of his naughty children, though much was still wrong. Read his address in Acts 20, his remarks in Phil. 3: 18, 19, and mark his tears even for the enemies of the Cross. Are we contemptuously to dismiss the thought of our brother with the remark, "He is in system" (very few of us are out of system, if not something worse). They are our brethren for whom Christ died.

Oh! God, melt these stony hearts of ours. Cause us (while indeed we seek to be disciples in the sense of Luke 14, because we have tasted Thy love in Christ, in the great supper that Thou hast spread,) in our dealings with our brethren, who in spite of evident defect may still be more Christ-like than we are, to reflect some tiny portion of the tender grace which Christ shows every day to us, even, remembering that Christ died for them, and loves them as He loves us.

To Labour in Vain

To Labour in Vain

What a marvellous thing it is that the Spirit of God should have put into the mouth of the Lord, speaking prophetically, such words as these: "Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God." (Isa. 49: 4.) Blessed Lord, didst Thou even stoop to this, that Thine unspeakably blessed work should seem to be all in vain? Oh, wonderful grace.

Of course we know that the labour was not in vain, but all the eternal ages will be needed to bring out the meaning and blessedness of that wondrous work; still in appearance for the moment this work seemed in vain. May the sense of this grace sink deep into our hearts.

How many the lessons we may learn from the deep pathos contained in these words. We will only allude to a few.

We see first how mistaken are human judgments, how misleading are appearances, now dangerous it is to attempt to judge the work of others or even our own work. We are utterly incompetent to do this, for we know but little of God's plan and His ways for working out that plan, for these are past finding out; we know so little of the hidden springs in the hearts of man which are all important in determining the value of the actions.

How greatly needed the injunction to judge nothing before the time till the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Cor. 4: 5.)

We may be assured that times without number it will be found that the apparently worthless is most valuable, and the apparently most splendid work of no worth.

We learn also not to be discouraged. All we need to ask is, are we where the Lord would have us be? Are we doing what He has set us to do? If so be of good cheer, dear discouraged worker, even though your work seem an utter failure.

Every servant of the Lord in downright earnest knows well the discouragement of the apparent wreck of that which he is doing. The lowly and the humble are specially prone to this discouragement, but the proud and self-satisfied know it not. Yet God does not want us to be discouraged, even though all appear to be in vain. He knows we are poor things, yet He has called us to put our hand to the plough, knowing we should oft make crooked furrows and imperfectly plough up the soil. Yet knowing this He chose us, He put the work into our hands, and, failure though it seem, yet our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Ours to do His bidding, His to give success or failure, but even the failure is no failure, it is part of the ways of God to bring about His purpose. There is a needs-be for all the trouble, the ruin, the break up, the fiery trial, the bitter tears. Therefore let the tired, weary, baffled worker look up and take courage and count upon the Lord, all will be well.

Only let him who is pleased with himself and his work, and who judges that of others, tremble, for the first shall be last and the last first. He putteth down the mighty from their seats and exalts them of low degree.

Go on then, my fellow-workers, fear not, press forward, the result will be blessed, the Spirit of God is in you, He is working out in you and by you something of God's great plan for the glory of the Son, and the tearful, plodding sower and the joyful reaper will assuredly reap together, and many a one who has done nothing will have done much, and many who think they have done much will find how little it is. The barren bears seven and she with many children has waxed feeble.

Blessed Lord, may we thus learn the gracious lessons that Thou art so patiently teaching us; may we learn of Thee who art meek and lowly in heart, and when all our work seems breaking up, be able (in humility, confession of sin and self-judgment, but with deep thankfulness) to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight."

Women and Children Not Counted

Women and Children Not Counted

Only on two occasions did the Lord command that all His people should be counted, once before the journeyings in the wilderness (Num. 1: 1-4), and once on the plains of Moab, preparatory to entry into the promised land (Num. 26: 1-4), but in each case only the males were to be counted, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel. What are we to learn from this?

First, to look at the question literally, we see that every man was expected to go to war; there was universal service in those days, and any holding back was strictly judged (Judges 5: 23; 21: 8-10). The women and children were loved, nourished and cared for, but the men were to fight the battles of the Lord.

Through the wilderness the armed host had to encamp round the tabernacle of testimony (containing the ark of testimony and the tables of testimony), they had to guard it when stationary or on the march. Fighting was not the business of the wilderness, but fighting there had to be in order that they might move onward.

In the land they had to fight first to take possession and next to maintain possession. To belong to God's army it was necessary to be an able-bodied man, able to go to war. Women and children could not fight, on the contrary, they needed to be protected. Therefore, in the Lord's host, only the men were counted.

Now, what are we to learn from this? Surely that we are to long to be men. Of course, it is not now a question of sex in this matter, a sister may be a man of God (2 John 10). And in Romans 16 where we get a list of God's mighty men (corresponding to the mighty men of David's army, 2 Sam. 23), we find that a large number of them are women. Therefore, it is not a matter of sex, but of spiritual strength and of growth. Every child of God should desire to grow and be strong for the Lord, for it is written, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

But how are we to grow and become men? It is explained in Heb. 5: 12-14. These Hebrew Christians ought to have become able to teach, but had to be taught again the elements of the truth, they were unskilful in the word of righteousness, and were babes, whereas those who are grown up are those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. They did not answer to Christ in glory.

Here is the secret, it is a universal law that powers unexercised are soon lost, while by use and exercise these powers are increased and there is growth. Is not this the secret of much of our stunted growth, our lack of spiritual strength and discernment. Does not this account for the way we hang so much on others, blindly accept leaders, follow the multitude? Unless we make use of what God gives us for the good of others, unless there is exercise every step of our path, unless we are weaned from dependence even on the best of men (Isa. 28: 9), how can we learn, how grow, how become strong? It is impossible. We must learn to find Christ sufficient.

Yet how many of us have thought that to settle down, and make ourselves comfortable, while we keep from gross evils and are regular at services and meetings is all that is desired, and that to fight the battles of the Lord belongs only to the few. This is clerisy, and it is found everywhere, not only where it is accepted in principle, but also where in principle it is strenuously denied. "To him that hath shall be given," "he that watereth shall be watered also himself," "much increase is by the strength of the ox," and "blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass."

Again, it is indeed most important to be separate from evil, but what is true separation from evil? It is emphatically not the separation of the monk and the nun. True separation from evil is Christ-likeness which moves about amongst our fellowmen, but is altogether of a different spirit from that of this world, with other motives, desires and ambitions. Thus it is written, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen," but what about our brother who lives in our street, our neighbourhood, and whom we have often seen, but we have never done anything to show our love to him? Will it do at the judgment-seat to say, he was not "of us," and therefore we were justified in ignoring him. We are bound to shew love to him, how have we done it? Truly we have reason to be humbled to the dust, for we have not neighboured our brother, and if our excuse is, "Oh, he is all wrong," this will only make our own case worse, for the need was all the greater. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works? (Prov. 24: 11, 12.)

We cannot grow unless we use what God gives us, what He gives to one he gives for all. As surely as in nature a limb used grows strong, and a limb unused becomes useless, so in spiritual things, if we are to (as we should) grow up to manhood to be men in Christ, and if we are to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints, so by use in the setting forth of Christ from day to day among men are we to gain appetite, or otherwise we shall not desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby unto salvation. It is those who have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, who are thus addressed. (See 1 Peter 1: 22, 2: 2.)

Services and meetings are, of course, most useful if rightly used, but there must be assimilation of truth, there must be deep exercise, there must be the bringing of the truth into use for the benefit of others. There must be faithfulness to God, but also love for all saints and the seeking the good of all men, if while being children in malice we are in understanding to be men (1 Cor. 14: 20). Here again the subject is the edification of others. Therefore when services and meetings are made the end before us instead of a means towards the end, they become a positive hindrance, just as undigested food does. We cannot be true to Christ and not do good to men; we cannot do good to men unless we are true to Christ.

May God then teach us how best to profit by that truth which He brings before us, how to assimilate it, and how to bring it into use first for God's glory, and then for the good of others, how to shew love to all our fellow-Christians, those who agree with us and those who do not, but especially those whom we have seen (i.e. live round about us), and how like Christ to be in true heart separation to God while seeking the good of all. Only thus can we grow up to be men, and be of those who are counted as able to go to war and share in the conflict that must go on until all enemies are put under the feet of Christ. Till then may we go on unto perfection (i.e. full growth), gaining real personal knowledge, each one for himself or herself, of Christ in glory.

Two Ideals

The Two Ideals

In the beginning God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What did He mean? It is perfectly certain that He did not mean that man should become like God in omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence. He had no thought that man should become God, or share in Deity; that was of necessity an impossibility. Nor did He mean that man should be independent, self-contained and self-sustained, as God is. This, too, is impossible for the creature. God must ever be God, and the creature be the creature, i.e. dependent, subject to God, sustained by Him. What, then, did He mean? Well, we may be quite sure that God had the Man Christ Jesus in view when He said that. And what God proclaimed in purpose was to have in man the perfect answer to what would be seen in God when it pleased Him to take His place among the creatures as the firstborn of all creation (see Col. 5), when He took the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men (see Phil. 2: 7). God never had any purpose but Christ; no one ever satisfied God but Christ; He is the Man of God's counsels, and the Man after God's heart. If man, then, is to be Godlike, that must be the pattern.

How marvellous was the Lord as a Man here. What is the first attribute of Godhead? Independence. What was the special object lesson in the Son incarnate? Dependence. He came to do the will of God, never His own will. Dependence, dependence, dependence every step of the way. The more we study His life, the more marvellous it seems. Nor does He ever leave this place, having once taken it. It might, indeed, seem so, for it is written, "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: 28). May we then logically conclude that Christ was subject as a Man on earth, will be subject again when the ages of trial are over, but is not so in the interval between the two? Impossible. Verse 27 is the answer. Moreover, the whole of Scripture makes it evident the Lord Jesus Christ always carries out the Father's will, not His own (though it is His own, too).

It is not difficult to understand the apparent paradox, for in the millennial reign it might seem as if He were reigning independently, but the climax of manifested subjection afterwards shows that this was not the case. Even in the height of His government He is always doing the will of the Father. We get, then, this marvellous fact, that God-likeness in man means an attribute which seems the opposite of Godhead, viz, perfect and absolute dependence in the highest sense of the word. God is perfect as God, and for God-likeness man must be perfect as man, and for this absolute dependence is necessary; then it is God can do with him the utmost that is possible, and raise him to unimaginable heights, through, in, and with the God-man, Jesus Christ. And this is what God will do in each individual chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love; and not only so, but all these individuals will form one perfect living organism, the Church of God, perfectly dependent in and united to Christ, the Head; and each item thereof will be in most perfect harmony with every other item, each preserving its individuality, but all without a jarring note in the whole, because of the perfect dependence of each member on Him, who is the life of all. Then it is that God's ideal will be fully reached. Man will be in God's image and likeness, and can have full dominion in consequence; and thus there will "be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus, unto all generations of the age of ages." (Eph. 3: 21. See New Trans.)

This is God's ideal and purpose, and He will bring it to pass. There is, however, another ideal set before man. It might seem at first as if the two ideals were not so very diverse, yet they are as far apart from each other as Satan is from Christ.

This other ideal is found in the words which the serpent said to Eve: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3: 5.) We must remember, too, that the Hebrew word Elohim, herein translated "gods," is the same as elsewhere in these chapters translated "God," which makes it more bold and blasphemous still.

We have seen what God meant by what He said in the matter of God-likeness, let us now enquire what the serpent meant by what he said. Now, it is quite plain that the serpent did not mean that Eve (and others) would be exalted in this way beyond himself. If others were to become as gods through his teaching, how much more must he, who knew good and evil, and incited them to this knowledge, be as "gods"? In a sense, what he said was true (see Gen. 3: 22), and, indeed, God speaks in Scripture in a limited sense of others beside Himself being "gods," as in Psalm 82: 1-6; but how different this sense to real Godhead, and also to the blessing which He had in His mind.

The serpent Satan sought to be like God by independence. He would have his own way; he was proud and refused to be subject; he thought he knew best. Independence is the prerogative of God alone. Satan claimed to be like Him, and incited man to follow the same line, and to claim his independence also, seeking happiness in his own way, though the serpent knew what his dupes did not — that the only effect of listening to him, and following his advice would be that man would become like Satan, though he would not attain to Satan's station, and would rather be his slave. This, then, is the other ideal. To be as "gods" means to be like Satan, though even that ideal could never be reached, for even the greatest man that could be after the flesh will owe his greatness to Satan, the dragon, who will give him his power and his seat and great authority, and this only for three and a half years. This, then, is the highest which can be reached in following that ideal, and this by one man only (for a brief moment before his miserable end) out of untold millions. What about the rest?

Yet, strange to say, nearly all the world seek after this latter ideal instead of the first; and alternately the nations, who have professedly accepted Jesus as Lord and Head will openly apostatize, and, without shame, will follow Satan's ideal, by breaking into full revolt and independence. He that sitteth on the heavens will laugh them to scorn, and will know how to bring them down.

Fellow Christians, let us see to it that we are on God's line, and love the dependent pathway, and dread independence above everything else in this world. There is only one thing to be exercised about, and that is — What is the will of God? and then, knowing this, to follow it at all costs, no matter what the apparent consequences may be. A word of caution is however necessary. Dependence means dependence on God Himself. Independence is independence of God Himself in self-will. Now, strange to say, often we hear Christians, otherwise well taught, use the word independence as meaning to be independent of men. (whether these men are saints of God, singly or corporately, matters not).

Now, of course, there are minor degrees of dependence in the world, as children to the father, a wife to her husband, a servant to his master, a subject to the king, etc.; also, we have to be subject to the elders, yea all are to be subject one to another, to hear the church, and so on.

But in one and all the same principle applies. We must obey God rather than man. Therefore, if anyone to whom we would otherwise have to be subject tells us to do anything contrary to God, whether that someone be father, king, saint, elder, or church, we have to answer, whatever its cost and whatever we may have to suffer for it, "We must obey God." Individuals may go wrong, saints and teachers may go wrong, the whole professing Church (and, how much more evil, any section thereof) may go wrong, and has gone wrong. To be an overcomer is to hear what the Spirit says to the Churches, for we must obey God, and God never abdicates His throne.

The final appeal is therefore invariably between God and the individual soul. Let us be humble and broken in spirit, let us wait much on God, let us be willing to hear all that others may say, and give it all attention, let us make no haste, and cry earnestly to God to teach us His way. But when all is said and done, if it seems to us that what man wants us to do can only be done by disobeying God, then let us take the path we see to be right, and with deepest humiliation cast our way on the Lord, looking to Him for vindication when cast out by men as evil — He will not fail us (see Luke 6: 22, 23). Only thus can we follow God's ideal, which is Christ, the Christ of God, the ever subject and dependent One.

Omission

Omission

Have we sufficiently noticed the unity of Matthew 25? To have a measure of dispensational truth is good, for without this it is difficult to understand the Scriptures; but if our smattering of dispensational knowledge causes us to lose the force of any passage, our loss is great indeed.

"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." (Rom. 15: 4.) If this was true of the Old Testament, how much more is it true of the New.

Very seldom indeed is Scripture quoted by the inspired writers for dispensational teaching, but almost invariably for moral application to those addressed. We must endeavour, therefore, to seek the present benefit of every Scripture, remembering there is a voice to us in all.

In Matthew 25, there are three parts or parables, just as in Luke 15. In both chapters a strong family likeness exists between the parts, so that the three in each case make one whole.

The theme of each part in Matthew 25 is plainly "Omission." The foolish virgins omitted to take oil with their lamps; the wicked servant omitted to use the talent entrusted to him; those condemned as "goats" omitted to minister to the Lord by omitting to minister to His brethren in their necessities. If the interpretation of this last part belongs to the time when the heathen will all have heard the Gospel of the kingdom, does that make similar omission on our part any less displeasing to God? If the heathen with their little light will be treated so severely for neglect, what can we with our much light expect, if we do the same? Dispensational knowledge should drive the application home to us with tenfold power, instead of leading us to say, "It does not apply to us."

In these three parables there is a beautiful order. In the first, the lack was the oil, i.e. the grace of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can possibly compensate for this. What is the worth of profession and outward form if that be lacking? Therefore in the forefront of this great parable of the Kingdom we see how fatal it is (though professedly we await the Bridegroom) not to have the inward reality, which the Holy Ghost alone can give.

In the first part, the Lord says, "I know you not," and the door is shut; in the second, the unprofitable servant is cast out into outer darkness; while the third part is the most terrible of all, for there many are cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

The punishment in the first case is awful; in the second case the mere omission to use the talent entrusted brings a still severer punishment; while the failure to show mercy to, and to minister unto the Lord's brethren is the climax of all. Such is the lesson of this great Kingdom parable, showing how it is not enough to keep from evil, but that the lack of positive good, or the failure to carry out our appointed functions, brings about this awful and irremediable loss.

But to apply this last more closely to ourselves. Every gospel takes up this question. The Lord says, "He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me" (Matt. 10: 40; see also verses 41 and 42). Again, "Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in My name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward." (Mark 9: 41; see verses 37 and 42.) See also Luke 9: 48, and John 13: 20. Now, if this be true, have we not all been guilty? The reception is not confined to the Lord's servants, but includes all His people. Let us consider first the servants. Have we not often, not only neglected such, but even repulsed them? Have we not often insisted that they must follow a certain line, if we are to listen, forgetting that God is Sovereign, and that He will use whom He will? Strange are God's ways, for He, who used the mouth of an ass, can, and does, take whom He will to deliver a message. Does this mean that we make light of evil? Surely not. Yet it means we are always to be ready to recognise God's instrument whoever it be. If we can solve the difficulty by working on sectarian lines, and warning off those, who join us not, we can dispense with the greater part of our exercises of soul. Again, have we not sometimes ministered to the necessities of some of the Lord's servants, and afterwards, when they have viewed some difficult question differently from ourselves and been ostracised in consequence, suddenly cut off further supplies, indifferent as to whether these servants lived or died? Will not the Lord take note of these things?

If we think not merely of the Lord's servants but of the Lord's brethren in general, the case is stronger still. Sectarianism blights the affections, selfishness limits our outlook, pride despises others. How little it often is to us that this one belongs to Christ. Yet how much it means to our Lord. "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these My brethren ye did not to ME." What will He, who will speak thus to the heathen, say to us with all our blaze of light and truth?

Let us take heed, for these are not matters to be lightly set aside with the parrot-cry of "looseness." These are words of sobriety and truth spoken by the Lord, and they will abide when heaven and earth pass away.

After speaking thus of the negative side, let us deal for a moment with the positive. Great is the joy of the faithful, who have had understanding of the Lord and His ways, and have recognised Him in His people, and have ministered to Him in spite of obloquy and reproach. The wise who had the grace of God in their hearts, and really longed for the Bridegroom will share in His rejoicing; the good and faithful servants will enter into the joy of their Lord, and how great that joy will be; while those, who have ministered to the Lord will have all the joys of the Kingdom, yea, and more also.

Beloved children of God, let us be exercised about these things. If we are not faithful in the truth of the Kingdom, what use to talk of the Church? If we do not show practical love to the children of God as such, what proof is there that we have any love of God in our hearts at all?

Blessed Lord, make us really true to Thee. It is a great honour that Thou allowest us to serve Thee; teach us how to save our lives by making us to love to lose our lives for Thy sake, and gladly to offer ourselves a willing sacrifice to Thee, to be at Thy beck and call, as glad, happy bondslaves of love.

Service

Service

It is a remarkable thing that as a rule sins of omission trouble us far less than sins of commission, yea oftentimes trouble us not at all. Yet how serious they are.

Is it a light thing to rob God? Yet have we not all robbed God and thought little of it? Is Malachi 3: 8-12 any less true now than in the day in which it was written? Do we still not withhold from God His due?

Two of the Lord's most important parables, the parable of the "Talents" and that of the "Pounds" are on this most important point. What did the wicked and slothful servants do in these cases? They did not squander what they had received, but kept it most carefully, and returned it to the owner. Is that so great a fault, surely it was nothing more than a little culpable negligence? But what does the Lord say? "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." How solemn this is.

The fact is that the moment we come in faith to God, believing that He raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, we also, for salvation, confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. (See Rom. 10: 9.)

What does this confession involve? Surely nothing less than this, that we belong to Jesus as our Lord, that all that we are, and all that we have are His absolute property, for him to dispose of at His will. He has a right to us, we are His bond slaves, and our freedom and our joy are the ability and permission to do His will.

Have we accepted this from our hearts? If not, have we not robbed God, yea, and robbed ourselves of the joy and blessing, which might have been our portion?

But all are not called upon to go out and serve, all are not preachers. Quite true, but all are called upon to own the Lord's claims over them, and He has the supreme right to command and we the right to obey. Yet how often do we hear, "Oh! I could not do this or that." Why not? Surely if the Lord called you to it you would be ready? And if the Lord has not called, why think of it at all? Only let us be exercised about this matter, His will is perfection, then let us be ready to do that will, whether it be to stay at home or to go forth; to work with our hands, to do the most menial offices gladly, or to preach or to teach as He pleases, and according to the ability He gives.

But may we not run unsent? Surely, and this is very serious. But not to run when sent is very serious too, as Jonah found: not to trade where God gives the means is very serious, as the servants will find who hide their talent in a napkin.

Every gift is given for use, nothing is given for selfish enjoyment. Unless shared with others it becomes worthless, being shared it is soon doubled. Is it for nothing that God has given us in England such abundant light, truth, and gift above that given to other nations? Can this mean anything less than that we should give that light and truth to those, who have it not?

But do I want all to go abroad? God forbid. Only that we all may do the will of the Lord, whatever that may be, without a murmur or dispute, but with gladness of heart: only that as we think of the multitudes we may be moved with compassion towards them, as our blessed Lord was moved; only that there may be the principle of equality with us, our abundance being a supply for their want, just as when the case is reversed, their abundance may meet our need.

Nevertheless, fields are white to harvest at this time, and from different parts of the world there do come cries for help to gather in that for which others have sown and laboured patiently. The reaper has much less arduous work than the ploughman and the sower, but both will rejoice together.

Thus may we be exercised about our sins of omission, as well as about those of commission. Let us have the true spirit of a servant as in Psalm 122: 2, the spirit of a disciple, as in Luke 14: 26, 27, 33, the spirit of the good soldier of Jesus Christ, as in 2 Tim. 2: 4, and all to please Him, who redeemed us by His precious blood that we may find our supreme joy in being free to do His blessed will.

We have but this one little life to serve Him in the place of His rejection, and how great the loss if we live for self instead of living to Christ. God grant we may not miss the mark as to this.

Ambition

Ambition

Ambition is especially the sin of the great, and the greatest of all wrongs are due to it. Satan transgressed by reason thereof, and his followers still pursue with eagerness the same course, seeking greatness by following the desires of their own hearts.

Yet there is such a thing as laudable ambition, for in three places in the New Testament the Greek word which means "To be ambitious" (though not so translated in any English version known to us, save in the margin of the Revised Version) is used either by way of exhortation or as a pattern. We propose, therefore, to enquire briefly as to the ways in which it is right to be ambitious.

First, in 1 Thess. 4: 11, 12, it is written "That ye study (lit., ambitious) to be quiet, and to do your own business [or, mind your own affairs — N.T.], and to work with your hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing [or, of no man — N.T.]."

What a lovely ambition, and, withal, within the reach of the lowest. No need to be kings, or of the great of this world, to follow this injunction; but how it would change the Christian world if Christians would only obey it.

David was sent for while he was keeping his father's sheep in order to be anointed of Samuel. Amos was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, and the Lord took him as he followed the flock, and the Lord said to him, "Go prophesy unto my people Israel." To the shepherds following their flocks by night, the word of the Lord came at the birth of the Saviour.

How beautiful it is to see God's people going on quietly and faithfully in whatsoever estate they may be found. These give no trouble in the Church, they desire no human greatness, they are contented with their lot, they interfere not with others, though ever willing to shew others a kindness, and they are ready to give to him that needs. On the other hand, what appalling trouble has been caused by those, who do not interfere with the affairs of others, and meddle with that with which they have nothing to do. Malice, envy, backbiting, slander, and speaking evil of others behind their backs come in here, and fearful mischief is wrought.

"These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren." (Prov. 6: 16-19.)

He, who is ambitious on the line enjoined by the Apostle in writing to the Thessalonian converts, will be kept from these seven sins hateful to the Lord. Alas! for lack of following this injunction, how many (yea, even religious leaders of reputation) have fallen into these great snares, and it has to be said, "How are the mighty fallen!" O God, give to all Thy children this beautiful ambition, which characterizes the weak only!

Secondly, in 2 Cor. 5: 9, 10, it is written, "Wherefore we labour [lit., are ambitious], that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted* of Him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

{*Accepted should be more literally translated, well pleasing to (R.V.), or agreeable to (N.T.).}

This is what Paul and his companions did. And it is written that all of us may have the same blessed ambition, for we all must be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ.

What can be more important, what more worthy of every redeemed soul, than to walk ever in view of the judgment-seat of Christ with a passionate desire to be well pleasing or agreeable to Him? He is our supreme Lord. All rights were His because He is the Creator; but by redemption He has set us free that we may belong to Him by the strongest of all ties. We are infinitely loved, and we have been blood-bought that He might acquire special rights over us in order to bless us beyond measure.

Woe betide the soul, who lets any man, or set of men, interfere between the Lord and his conscience; and double woe will be to him, who seeks to come between the Lord and any other soul. The Lord will make short work of such.

It is of course true that we have to be subject to human authority — to kings and rulers, to parents, masters, spiritual guides, elders, and to the Church (see Matt. 18: 17, etc.), but never to the superseding of the Lord's authority. Whatever men may say, and however specious their arguments, if they ask us to do what is not agreeable to the Lord (as far as we can tell, for we are poor things), then we have only to reply, "We ought to obey God rather than men," and accept the consequences.

In Roman Catholicism the priest comes between the Lord and the believer; but, alas, the principle of Rome extends far beyond Roman Catholicism. Excommunication and boycott and fear are brought to bear in Christian England to force men to stifle their consciences, and to submit to men rather than obey the Lord, and not fear the consequences of so doing.

Beloved fellow Christians, let it be our passion to be agreeable to Him, no matter what it entails. Cannot the Lord comfort even here on earth? Is there not a hundred-fold for him, who suffers loss for Christ, even in this present time? Is it not worth everything for Christ to come in to that soul and sup with Him, and for that soul to sup also with Himself?

It is well to say to the Lord, even with tears, "Lord, I am such a poor thing, let me not be deceived, let me not miss the road, let me hear Thy voice, let me understand and know Thy will. Make me willing to suffer anything rather than turn aside from Thee, Lord." But it is not well, because we are such poor things, to follow any man, or set of men, however great, wise or clever they may be, saying, "What else can we do?" No; let us in the sense of our utter weakness and insufficiency launch out freely, trusting in the all-sufficiency of Christ, and refusing man and all his pretension, if we cannot say the Lord hath so commanded.

We shall soon be before the judgment-seat of Christ. What shall we care for men's censure then? Therefore let us go on now trusting in the Lord, letting everything else go to the winds, that we may be agreeable to Him. O God, make this to be our ambition!

The third occasion of the use of the word is in Rom. 15: 20, 21 "So have I strived [been ambitious] to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation: but as it is written, To whom He was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand."

This ambition is mentioned as personal to Paul, and in the full sense in which it applied to him it cannot apply to many of us, but as all Scripture applies to us all, and nothing is told us by way of gratifying curiosity, therefore there must be a sense in which we profit by these verses.

Even at the present time there are many places where the gospel has not penetrated. True, there has been a wonderful opening of the world to the gospel of late, and there are not now many countries where the gospel has not entered at all. Still there are vast tracts in many countries where none have ever heard of Christ. We may say we are not called to engage in such pioneer work. Well, so be it; but you can bear up with all your sympathy, your prayers, and with your carnal things those whom God has called to these arduous labours. In how many cases has new ground been opened up by many, who have given up their lives to the cause, e.g. in the case of the Congo-Balolo Mission.

Many, who are not generally called martyrs because disease cut them off rather than the sword, are none the less martyrs, and have literally laid down their lives to open one place or another to the gospel of Christ. Dr. David Livingstone was truly one of these, also the Hon. Keith Falconer, and many others. Probably we know some who are attempting such arduous work, and facing the inevitable dangers. If not, we can easily discover such. What are we doing to help them?

We can thus have a little share in this beautiful ambition. May God incline our hearts thereto.

Although the above work is very difficult, and beyond most of us, save by way of fellowship with others, there is a minor sense in which we may have a tiny share in the same ambition. Not many can go to strange countries, but at our doors, and even in Christian England, are many souls as dark and as ignorant of the gospel as the heathen, among the educated and the rich as well as among the poor. Now if you go to some of these, who sit in darkness, and who have never been spoken to personally about their soul in any wise, you will be doing in your very tiny measure what the Apostle did in his mighty measure. God, moreover, is the God of measure, and looks on us according to what we have, and not according to what we have not. May we be faithful in little, and God will bless that little and give us more. Let us not get the sentence pronounced on us which was pronounced on the servant, who hid his one talent in the napkin.

While, therefore, we must earnestly seek to be ambitious on the first two lines spoken of here, let us not neglect the last. God grant in that day we may give an account with joy and not with grief.

Vain Religion

Vain Religion

Thank God for the Epistle of James! It is not as a rule much thought of; it contains none of the great truths and doctrines of Scripture; we do not go to it to learn the deep things of God, or the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory; yet we can only neglect it to our loss, for it fills a most important place, and never more so than at the present time, when there is so much talk and little action, and when practical everyday righteousness in the dealings of man with God and with his fellow-man is so little regarded.

Now James takes up the practical side of life in the sight of God and man, and insists upon the fact that, whatever we hold or whatever we say, it is all of no use unless our lives are right. Talking will not cover our defects in action, nor soundness of doctrine unfaithfulness in every day life. If a man's life is not right, nothing is right about him. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. It is impossible to cheat Him.

We read "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body: what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." (James 2: 14-17.) What could be more simple, more practical? Some are slow to understand doctrine, but here is something all can understand. Let none say it is low truth. It is indispensable truth — which no man can do without. By all means let every Christian seek with all his heart to get hold of heavenly truth, but never to the exclusion of the simplest earthly side of things. Gold and diamonds are far more valuable than iron and earth, but if we had to choose the one or the other of these pairs and could not have both, we should choose the earth and iron, for these we must have or die. The others are luxuries.

Heavenly truth and the truth of the Church will be known at best by the few, but all true Christians have a sense of sin, and know that Christ died to save us from it. They have a desire to be free from sin and to know Christ's saving power, otherwise they are not Christians at all in reality. But it is possible to be a giant in knowledge, and yet, like Balaam, to have the heart set on covetousness and not know the grace of God at all. It is possible to be exalted to heaven and yet to be cast down into hell at the end.

The apostle says: "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." (James 1: 26.) And again, speaking of the tongue, he says: "Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." (James 3: 9-10.) It is not enough to bless God. We must bless man also. It will not do to boast of zeal for the Lord (a Jehu can do this, and, in a measure, truthfully) while the actions may shew that self is at the bottom of all that we do. The royal law is this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and to have respect of persons is to commit sin and to be convinced of the law as transgressors. Is there no word for us in this to-day? Should we not be bowed with shame to the earth, when we think of the back-biting and evil speaking that take place by Christian against Christian, behind the backs of those maligned, and without giving them an opportunity of clearing themselves, while the defects of those in ecclesiastical agreement with ourselves are glossed over as of comparatively small account? Surely these things ought not to be. "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. (James 2: 13.)

The great lack for the day is not high truth, beautiful though it be, but the simpler truths which are daily denied in practice while high truth is contended for in words, and beloved children of God, who are seeking in their feeble way to follow Christ with all their hearts, are often condemned as practically unfit for the company of any Christians, because they cannot repeat a certain shibboleth!

"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if we have bitter envying and strife in our hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." (James 3: 13-14.) Practically righteous we must be, upright, loving, pure, truthful, kind, meek, lowly, gracious, faithful, unselfish, scrupulously honest, and with the fear of God in our hearts, if we are to answer to the description of those whom He has redeemed from all iniquity to purify unto Himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works.

What then is pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father? It is "to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1: 27.) Not the visiting of the fatherless and widow alone, and not alone the keeping of self unspotted from the world, but both to go concurrently. The first alone would be merely philanthropy without Christ, the latter alone would be monasticism, also without Christ, while the two together would shew something of Christlikeness: holiness combined with self-sacrifice for the sake of all, who have need upon the earth.

But if one err from the truth, what then? Are we to have done with him? Not at all, we are to leave the ninety-nine good ones the rather, and seek this one until we find him. Is it separation from evil to occupy ourselves with the ninety-nine, whom we think are right, and leave the lost sheep? Not at all, it is not the Lord's way, and they, who act thus, will eventually be found with, say, one sheep whom they think right, while the ninety-nine to whom the Lord has sent them are straying in the dark mountains, and the Lord will require the flock at the hand of those shepherds. (See Ezek. 34: 10.) What does James say? Let the one who converts him "know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5: 19-20.)

Truly we should be less keen to see the faults of another, did we acknowledge that in such a case we were responsible to restore him. We should then perhaps bow to the word, "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgeth another?" (James 4: 11-12.) "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." (Luke 16: 10.)

The characteristic of the last days is to have a form of godliness, and to deny the power thereof. May we therefore judge ourselves and humble ourselves before God, may we repent of our sins in the ordinary everyday life, remembering that our Lord takes note of everything, and He will judge every man according to his works. Reality He will have, and we need also to insist on reality with ourselves. We are not here as judges, but as redeemed saints, who are to carry out practically in this world that for which they are redeemed, viz. God-likeness in the midst of a sinful world, whilst remembering all the time what poor things we are and how liable to err we are ourselves. Then the sense of the grace shewn to us daily will make us show grace to others, while we are strict towards ourselves.

May God keep us from the shame of those, whose religion is vain while their mouth has spoken great things.

Imperialism and Socialism

Imperialism and Socialism

There are two great perils confronting men in every land, but especially in the lands, which are called Christian, for they are greatly aggravated by a corrupt Christianity. Both will rise to a head before the end, each in its turn, and the real character of each will be manifested before they are put down for ever. In the meantime each is growing, each is an enemy of Christ, though they are also deadly enemies the one to the other.

The first is Imperialism, which wears a grand majestic air. It is robed in purple, great and grand are its schemes, and brilliant its promises of honour and glory for its votaries. In its hands are all the rewards, which this world has to give. It is allied with religion; it would not demean itself by throwing that off. The priests of religion are in its high places. Its name is Babylon — imperial Babylon, with all its glories; religious Babylon, with all its religious honours and reputation; commercial Babylon, with all its luxuries, its arts, and its sciences. All that this world can produce is in her hand. Grandeur and greatness are hers. Well may the men of this world be proud of her. She is like a lion in her strength.

The other peril is like a spectre stalking through the land. If Imperialism is like a lion, Socialism is like the serpent, with its venom, its ominous hiss, its menacing aspect. Imperialism would lift up man to his highest possible greatness; all the glories of this world shall shine for him. Socialism would drag all down; and in her desire to bring down the great, and produce equality in all men, would involve all in one common ruin, and equality would be obtained by oneness of degradation. Socialism is allied with irreligion and infidelity; it sets its face alike against all authority and all religion. Not but that Socialism, too, makes many promises and has great schemes; yet, while Imperialism has its baubles, its delights for the flesh and the eye and its pride of life, Socialism has only its dreams, the awakening from which must be to its horror. Still, be it the one or be it the other, both must utterly perish that the Kingdom of the Son of Man may be established and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord may cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

But why mention these things?

We neither go in for the one nor the other of these evils. We (writer and readers alike) are eminently respectable. We are separate from all that has been spoken of. Can we not thank God that we are not as other men are? We are not Imperialist or Socialist. These shall perish and go to their doom, and we shall be caught away to our bliss and our glory. Thus are we, alas, often apt to yield ourselves to our snug self-congratulation, forgetting that it is possible for us to be all we say and yet, after all, come in for the scathing rebukes which our Lord uttered to the Pharisees, who thought themselves righteous and despised others.

Undoubtedly the full issues of good and evil must be worked out to their ultimate result, the horrible character of this and the beauty of that in the midst of the evil must be fully developed; but

What is the Christian's place in the midst of it all?

Is he not to be here as Christ was? We agree that we are very respectable, we speak the truth generally, we pay our debts, we bear not false witness against our neighbour, the law of the land has no terrors for us. We bear a good character, we do also some good works, we give somewhat of our substance (generally taking care to leave sufficient to have all we really care for for ourselves), we are regular in our attendance at our services. What more could any one ask for, then? We know our Bibles better than most Christians — the mysteries are open to us. Are we not ready, also, to instruct those who will place themselves under our instructions? Is not the Gospel preached, too; can sinners not hear, if they will? If not, it surely is not our fault; have we not done all that could reasonably be expected of us? Maybe, we are strictly orthodox. Maybe, we quickly get rid of those, who think otherwise than we do. Maybe, we tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have a narrow opening through which a man must pass, if he would be with us. It is their fault, is it not? not ours; why can they not conform?

Is this to be of Christ?

Is it thus we can walk as He walked? Is this anything like His walk? Is this anything which will act as an antidote to the terrible power of the world, Imperial, Socialistic, or what not?

To speak after the manner of men, the power of Christ lay in this — He was intensely dependent upon God, His meat was to do His will; He burnt Himself out for God and for man, self-forgetful, self-emptied, self-abased. Yes, for God and for man. There cannot be the one without the other. Are there not the two great commandments, Godward and manward? Was not the law within His heart? By the olive they honoured God and man; the vine by its wine cheered God and man. He who serves Christ in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost is acceptable to God and approved of man. The two go together. Woe be to us if we divorce the one from the other. He, who is true to God alone, does good to men; and he who truly does good to men is the only one, who is true to God.

How did Christ meet Imperialism?

He received not honour from men. He refused to work miracles to suit his own ends, saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." He refused to pander to the prince of this world, saying, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." He refused display, saying, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." He would not be made king. He loved the low place. He emptied Himself. He would take nothing save as the Father's gift. He interfered not with Caesar; on the contrary, He said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's"; but He wanted none of these things. He would not call down fire from heaven. He would not do signs to satisfy curiosity. He would not even defend Himself. What power had Imperialism to touch Him? None whatever!

How did Christ meet Socialism?

He gave His all. He was the last of all, and the servant of all, Who so rich as He? And He lavished it all on others. Who so poor as He? He had to ask to be shown a penny when He needed to see it. He had nowhere to lay His head. He did not lay up treasure on earth. He was anointed to preach glad tidings to the poor, to set the captive free, to break every yoke. He was true to God first, and He spent Himself for man. He sought not His own things. He lost. He suffered. His sleep was forfeited; there was not time to eat in peace, for He was the servant of all, who needed Him. Never was He too wearied to do the will of God, or to serve man. What power had Socialism upon such a one? None. Socialism has no power against those who follow in His steps.

How are we to meet Imperialism and Socialism?

There is no other way than the way of Christ. These cannot be met by Acts of Parliaments, by authority, by words of command; nothing but the life of Christ in His people has any effect. But, it may be asked, will not these things come to pass whether we act in one way, or in its opposite? Surely these two evils will come to pass, but why? Because of the pride and selfishness of us Christians. A dispensation ends when God's people have no longer any faith to utilize the power God puts at their disposal, then is the Christian dispensation drawing to its close. Those with most light feed themselves and feed not the flock; the servants oftentimes eat and drink and beat their fellow-servants, and thank God they are not as other men are. Can God use such?

The end will surely come, and that swiftly; but if we are truly following Christ in these ways the blessing will not fail us. We shall be blest, and made a blessing; but if not, our light and our knowledge will do us no good, yea, rather will enhance our condemnation.

God grant we may truly follow Christ in refusing honour from men, while spending and being spent for men according to the will of God; and it may be that God may grant us a little reviving in this the day of great weakness.

The Losing Side

The Losing Side

What could have been done more . . . that I have not done . . .? Wherefore . . . — Isa. 5: 4.

I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain. — Isa. 49: 4.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; . . . and . . received not the promise. — Heb. 11: 37-39.

I have suffered the loss of all things. — Phil. 3: 8.

All forsook me. — 2 Tim. 4: 16.

There is to-day a losing side; who is willing to be on that side?

The God of Scripture is evidently on that side. He created the glorious angels, and one of the highest, probably the very highest, rebelled against Him, and drew away a great company of angels with him.

Some other intelligent beings were created by Him, and in some way we know not have become demons, unclean spirits, who are all around us, and are so numerous that a legion of them attended one single man.

God created the world in which we live, and the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted with joy; but how soon all was changed. The enemy entered this fair creation, and man turned against God, and to this day man believes that God is a hard God, and that the way to be happy is to live in self-will.

After probably nearly 1700 years of trial God had to sweep away the whole human race by a flood except one family.

He told that family to replenish the earth; their answer was the building of Babel that they might not be scattered.

He chose a family and a nation, did all that He could for that nation, and His name was blasphemed among the heathen through that nation.

He sent His only Son, saying, they will reverence My Son, and they took Him, and killed Him, and cast Him out of the vineyard.

He exalted His Son to His right hand, and sent down His Holy Spirit, and set up the Church to display Christ on earth, and behold that which today bears the holy name of Christ, has become mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

No one is so maligned as God, but God is patient. He is willing to wait for vindication till His whole plan is accomplished. Are we willing to be today on the losing side with God and to wait His time?

Christ outwardly is on the losing side to-day. He who is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace, came into this world, and instead of the world bowing down in adoration they saw and hated both Him and His Father. At first many were attracted to Him, they thought that through Him they would attain their carnal desires; but He was not the hero they looked for, He was meek and lowly in heart. He would not suit them, He would not put Himself at the head of the Jewish nation, throw off the Roman yoke and sit upon the throne of David. The great ones of earth kept aloof from the first, the poor, who at first flocked to Him, fell off. He had not where to lay His head. He was finally left with a few obscure followers, who loved and clung to Him though they could not understand Him, and these at the hour of His direst need forsook Him and fled, and as a malefactor He was held up to scorn and execration. The God in whom He trusted did nothing to save Him, and the bitter cry broke from Him, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Who could have dreamt that this should be the end of His life on earth, that man should thus cast out the Creator-God who came in flesh to bless man in grace and truth.

Since that day of crucifixion the world has seen Him no more.

Also, although He has been exalted to glory and has sent down the Holy Ghost, while He Himself is unceasingly labouring to create Himself anew in the hearts of His own, yet how poor the visible result. No sooner has a testimony been formed by the Spirit, and committed to man than man has corrupted it, and now the last days of the Church on earth are reached. The last special action of the Spirit has taken place, and those who professedly received this testimony have failed even more grossly than their fathers, and it only remains for Christ to take His place as the one faithful and true witness, and to stand outside at the door knocking, if so be one here and one there will open to Him.

Yes, Christ is to-day on the losing side. He is patient, and can wait for vindication till he has carried out the whole will of God. Are we willing to share in the patience of Christ?

The saints, who are true, are ever on the losing side, from the time when righteous Abel was slain by his brother to the time (yet future) when they will overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and love not their lives unto the death.

The saints of old were on the losing side (with rare exceptions for a moment). They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy). They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

These were evidently on the losing side in this world, though it was the time of the earthly calling. Can then those, who have the heavenly calling, be otherwise than on the losing side to-day, if they be true? Is it not true to-day that only those, who lose their lives for Christ's sake can save them?

Man has ever failed, wolves have entered the flock from without, elders have arisen and spoken perverse things. Power and strength in this world have ever been on the side of the majority, and the minority must suffer. It is not pleasant to be cast out to-day any more than of old, but blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Can the present time be an exception? Impossible. Can the last testimony prove any better than the former ones? Impossible. God's true saints must be content to be on the losing side to-day. They must be the persecuted; theirs is no power to persecute, they are the feeble few, they must suffer, they must be condemned by human tribunals, they must to-day be classed among the evil-doers. It is the day of God's patience and of Christ's; there is a silent heaven overhead. They must be content to say: "We are poor, we are feeble, we are of no account, but we must obey God rather than man. We would fain shew love and kindness to all men, but we must obey God."

Such cannot use the rod of authority, the only rod they know is the rod of priestly grace and loving ministry. They will never persecute, they will suffer and be content to be on the losing side to-day, knowing that the losing side to-day will be the winning side when Christ gets His rights, when the first shall be last and the last first, when every table shall be turned, and when those spoken evil of to-day will be with Christ in glory in that day.

Again we ask, who is willing to be on the losing side with God and with Christ to-day?

Difficulties of Unbelief

The Difficulties of Unbelief

Introduction

It is stated that a man once asked his friend, "Pray what is your religion?" He answered, "The religion of all wise men." Again he was asked "Pray what is that?" He answered, "Ah! that is what wise men never tell."

This doubtless may be very pithy and facetious, but is it really the mark of a wise man that he refuses to discuss quietly the matters relating to the invisible world around us and to eternity?

It is alas! only too true that men's fiercest passions have been aroused in discussing such matters, and strife, and even foul murders have been the result. It is also true that it is not wise to speak of these things in heat or excitement. Is it not however possible to speak of them quietly, calmly and deliberately, and are not these matters of such infinite importance that we should be glad to get all the help in them that is possible, and if a friend or a neighbour has had any experience in these matters, and can tell us of the way in which he has found comfort and peace of mind in view of the great change, which must come to us all sooner or later, shall we not listen to him and weigh calmly what he says?

No man is wise unless he is sensible of his own ignorance. Such an one will realize that there is no one from whom something may not be learnt, and he will refrain from judging until he has heard the whole matter. Impatience and unwillingness to listen to others is a proof of lack of wisdom.

This treatise is an attempt on the part of one who, having experienced much comfort, peace and joy in his own soul from what he has learnt of the invisible, desires to tell others of the blessing which he has received, simply asking that what is put forward may be read and calmly weighed without prejudice, seeing that the matter is one of infinite interest to us all.

Can God Reveal Himself?

It will be assumed that we all believe that there is a Supreme Being, whom we call God, that He made us and that we belong to and are responsible to Him. Atheists are few and far between, even if there are in truth any real atheists.

There are doubtless a certain number of evolutionists, but evolution can merely carry us back a few steps more than we thought necessary at first, and does not at all help us to understand the beginning or origin of things, and the most fervent believer in evolution must admit the existence of a Supreme Being with whom all things originated.

The great question is, Has God been pleased to reveal Himself to us His creatures in a way more definite than by the creation around, so that we can understand whence we came and whither we go in a manner, which is quite impossible by the use of our senses, or by the exercise of our reason?

It is very evident that the power of our senses is very limited, and that they can only be used for investigating that which is of the material creation around us. They cannot tell us whence all originated, nor can they tell us the goal that is before us. They cannot penetrate the unseen, nor search out the secrets of that which is not material. Also, as to our reason, it is clear that it is a most untrustworthy guide, for no two men think quite alike, and when men try and learn the secrets of their being by the aid of reason, they are like the blind vainly groping to find an unknown way, they arrive at no definite conclusion themselves, still less are they able to give any assurance to others.

Yet, unless we have a revelation from God, we have nothing but our senses and our reason to guide us, and thus we are indeed unhappy, for as to the most important Matter of all we are hopelessly in the dark.

But has God left us in the dark? To assume that He has so is not the way of the wise, for they assume nothing. To commence by assuming that God cannot or will not reveal Himself and His thoughts to us is to beg the entire question, and is therefore the height of folly. Many, also, pride themselves on the name of "Agnostics," or "those who do not know." They say that they know nothing of the unseen world around. Did they stop there, sympathy and pity might be felt for them, but they do not. In nearly every case they do not content themselves with saying, "we do not know," but they go on to say "you do not know, and no one can know that which we ourselves do not know." Where is the consistency of this? If a man confessedly knows nothing of the unseen, how can he tell what another may know? By saying that no one else can possibly know that which he has not learnt himself he has left the ranks of the wise, and done that which he so heartily condemns in others, viz. made a most tremendous assumption without the least particle of proof. If he be a real agnostic let him stop when he says, "I do not know," and let him admit his ignorance as to what any other person may have learnt, otherwise he only condemns himself by the position he takes up.

On the other hand, there are those, doubtless comparatively few in number, but still to be numbered by tens and hundreds of thousands, who do heartily believe that God has and does reveal Himself; and they do not believe this because of something which they heard, may be, at their mother's knee, and because it is something in which they were born and bred (there are of course millions of this description, but such a belief is of little or no value, it is mere credulity), but because they have gone into the matter for themselves. They believed originally the testimony presented to them, but having so believed they received an inward witness to the same, which has wrought a mighty inward change, and they can therefore testify to the truth of that, which they have received, because they daily and hourly experience the comforts to which they testify. They can say with their Master, "We speak that we do know, and we testify that which we have seen."

Surely the wise man, hearing of many such cases, and seeing too how real the change that is often wrought in those, who thus bear witness, will not begin by rejecting this evidence without investigation and put it all down to imagination, superstition, or fanaticism; he will calmly investigate the matter to ascertain as far as possible whether these people have any ground for their faith. Moreover he will not be turned aside because some professors have in these matters been guilty of extravagance. A wise man in looking into a matter weighs not the worst arguments in favour of the case, but the best. He knows that the best things have been abused, and that there are sure to be spurious imitations of every good thing. If he finds a certain number of cases, which are real, this is enough to prove that there is such a thing as a genuine article, even if there be much imposture as well. In fact, a counterfeit is a proof of something real that is counterfeited.

What is the Revelation Referred To?

The revelation referred to is found in the Scriptures, usually known as the Bible, which was as they believe written by holy men of God, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. While many are open enemies of this book, and denounce it as an imposture, while others calling themselves friends, yet posing as critics, seek to cast doubt upon the inspiration and authenticity of the book, while many call it true with their lips, but by their ways deny its truth, there are those, who with all their heart and soul accept it as the truth of God, and put their whole confidence in it, and say their present happiness, and their future welfare depend entirely on the truth written therein. To all the arguments brought to bear upon them they answer, "We have proved what is written, for having tested we find it true; it has brought peace to our guilty consciences and rest to our weary hearts. We have found a satisfaction we never knew before, and the longer we live the more blessing we find from that which is therein revealed. How then can we listen to any of the arguments brought against the truth of that in which we find our daily joy and strength?" There is in truth no neutral ground to take on such a subject, the book comes to us with such pretension, the ground taken up by the writers is such, that if it is not written by the inspiration of God it is an imposture.

How frequently does the expression, "Thus saith the Lord," appear in the book. One of the chief writers says, "Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth"; and again, "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." Another says, "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

And not only is this the case, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, speaking of the Old Testament, "The Scripture cannot be broken," and quoted Scripture with the words, "It is written," as the end of all controversy.

The ground therefore that is taken up by the writers should cause us to accept the book in its entirety, and to bow unreservedly to what is written therein, or else in all consistency we should merely look at it as a purely human production, and that a most erroneous one, because it makes such unbounded profession, which cannot be sustained. It is useless to say that the writers were good men though mistaken when they said they were inspired. There is something very wrong about a man who makes such grave statements if they are unfounded. The exceeding cunning of many of the present attacks is seen in the argument that the book is a very good and valuable one, though in no wise inspired. This line of argument is taken up because it is perceived that the wholesale condemnation of the book would prove the argument to be utterly false, and many, who now listen to specious arguments, would revolt from the coarser ones altogether. The work of the enemy is better done by the insinuation of a mistake here, and a doubt cast on the narrative there, than by direct attacks, and thus the way is paved to go further. We, however, who believe, say that, while admitting small errors by the copyists, which errors are found by comparing different manuscripts to be very trifling, admitting also mistakes in translations, yet we are convinced that we have by the grace of God the Scriptures in their integrity, and we rely upon them absolutely as containing the whole truth of God.

It may be asked how we can say this seeing that fallible men put the Scriptures together, and they may easily have omitted some portions, which were inspired, and have put in some that were not.

It is granted that this not only might, but assuredly would have been the case unless God had distinctly overruled the action taken. The history of the professing Church is a very sad one, and there was much that was very wrong done at the Councils where the Canon of Scripture was discussed, nevertheless we are convinced that the same God who gave the Scriptures, has taken care that they should be preserved to us in their entirety. We have proved them in a thousand ways, and found them all sufficient. Not an error arises, however novel it may seem, but there is the Scripture ready to expose and refute it, not a difficulty nor a trial arises, but it is fully provided for in the Word, and though written so long ago that it would only be a curious book of antiquity if it had been a human production, yet it is perfectly fresh and powerful and applies perfectly to all the circumstances of the day as well as it did to those of 1800 years ago.

If on the contrary we look at the writings of the early Christians, such as those of Ignatius, Clement, Origen, Chrysostom and Augustine, we see no such pretensions as marked the writers of Scripture, we find ourselves on different ground altogether; with much that is nice we find also much that is puerile and defective, and see at once that a chasm of infinite width divides the one set of writers from the other. It is like stepping off a dry stone pavement on to a morass when the Scriptures are left, and the writings of men of old, pious yet uninspired, are taken as a guide. In the first case there is something far above us, which we feel ourselves incapable of judging, but which judges us; while in the second we feel we are dealing with fallible men, superior it may be but still like ourselves.

Surely it is worth while that the book which comes to us with such pretension, and through which many profess to have found so much blessing, should be carefully studied by us all that we may see whether after all we may not find there the blessing of blessings which we most really need. Instead of this so many are content with reading something about the Bible instead of the Bible itself. How often has the writer of this book been met with the remark, "Oh! the Bible is full of contradictions, and mistakes," yet when he has asked to be told of some, of these he has been answered,  Oh! I do not know the Bible well enough to point out these mistakes, but this or that person has gone into the matter, and found out many mistakes." This is indeed to condemn a witness unheard, yet it is only too common. If the reader be one of those, who has come to a conclusion in this way let me intreat him to read the book slowly, carefully and impartially in all humility of mind, owning his ignorance, and with prayer (any other way of reading it will be in vain): then he may come to see that his hastily drawn conclusions have been utterly erroneous.

The Difficulties of Unbelief as Regards the Story of Jesus Christ

We hear a great deal nowadays about the difficulties of belief, yet it never seems to strike those who enlarge on these difficulties what difficulties there are on the other side, viz, that of unbelief. It is possible that one side of a question may be very difficult, and yet the other side may be far more difficult, or even impossible.

As an instance, try and conceive God, an infinite being existing unchanged from eternity, and the subject is so difficult that the mind cannot grapple with it, but abandon this thought and try and conceive of God as not existing from eternity, but as having a beginning, and we at once see that this alternative is utterly impossible, and that the first idea must be correct in spite of its difficulty.

It is believed that if the matter be calmly and quietly considered by those, who have felt the difficulties of believing that it will be found that the difficulties of unbelief are greater by far.

It is impossible that in a book like this much can be said on the subject, but a few of these difficulties will be lightly touched upon. It is believed that the question will repay further investigation.

The great difficulty of unbelief is that connected with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the theme of Scripture, and around whose Person all the testimony of Scripture revolves.

Jesus of Nazareth is a historical Personage, no one doubts His existence, but how are we to account for Him, if the testimony of Scripture is not correct?

Every one who calmly reads the accounts of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels must be conscious how utterly different He is to himself, and to every one else whom he has ever seen or met. He must recognise unselfishness and love, righteousness and holiness, meekness and lowliness combined with a sense of infinite greatness the like of which was never seen before, and never will be seen again among the sons of men.

Is the story of Jesus true? If so we must accept him as Son of God and Revealer of the Father, the Giver of life and the Source of all blessing. We must in this case accept the Old Testament as inspired of God and then we shall have no difficulty in accepting the New, for it is the Old at which special cavil is made. To say that we believe Him to be what He is said to be, and yet to allow that He made mistakes, and that His knowledge was bounded by the knowledge of the men around him is a quibble, which no honest man would accept for a moment.

It may however be said that the history is only based upon facts, and not to be fully relied on, and that there is exaggeration in it. Even so the difficulty is not lessoned by this supposition.

Who were the apostles that they should invent such a character as this, a character so utterly different from that of all the great men the world has ever seen, and yet so infinitely beyond them? For this invention to have taken place, even if more or less founded on fact, is to suppose a greater miracle wrought on behalf of these deceived, or deceiving men, than to accept the narrative as it is as inspired of God. There never was any one like Jesus Christ, and it is altogether out of human power to have invented such a character shining out from the twelve, who accompanied him as something altogether different from them.

If any one will calmly and honestly weigh the matter he cannot but be convinced that the history and character of the Lord Jesus is that upon which the truth or falsehood of Scripture turns, and will also see that let him adopt any hypothesis he pleases, still the difficulty of unbelief will be far greater than that of simple belief in the gospels, as the inspired narrative of the life of the Son of God incarnate, and when once a man has in simple faith accepted this much he will have no difficulty in accepting the other parts of the Bible as inspired. Once accept wholly and unreservedly the truth as to the person of Jesus Christ, God's Son, and all the other difficulties will vanish. If this is not accepted then it is a matter of absolute indifference whether the rest of Scripture is accepted or not. The morality of Scripture is useless apart from the truth as to the person of the Eternal Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us.

And not only is the above the case, but can it be imagined that a few illiterate persons should invent the story that Jesus was God manifest in flesh, and that when He, who was goodness incarnate, came into the world men should hate Him, spit upon and crucify Him. It is very difficult to believe that anybody could have invented such a story, and still more that it should find acceptance, if not true.

Moreover the gospel narratives are all emphatic on this point that He was not only crucified, but also that He rose from the dead. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the fact upon which the gospel hangs. If then He did rise from the dead, the narrative is doubtless true, and Jesus is indeed the eternal Son of God, who is really all that He professed to be, else why did He alone of all men rise from the dead. If on the contrary He did not rise from the dead, there is the unaccountable difficulty to get over that a few ignorant men should palm a lie off upon the world, be filled with the utmost enthusiasm on the subject, be willing for the sake of this lie to endure scorn, contempt and torture, yea and give up their own lives to carry out their deception. If the narrative is true, and they received supernatural power for the carrying out of their mission, the matter is simple, but if not it seems impossible to make a hypothesis which will account for the known facts. Let the reader test this for himself.

Difficulties of Unbelief in Connection with the History and Prophecies of the Bible

The writers of the Bible were nearly all Israelites, and yet it is most remarkable that they, in narrating the history of their own nation, record a history full of sin and shame, of defeat and suffering, which came upon them because of their unfaithfulness, and disobedience of the commandments of God. From the beginning of the world never was it known of historians writing the history of their own nation in such fashion. The writer remembers being very much struck when as a boy he read a history by a French writer. To his astonishment Cressy, Poitiers and Agincourt were very much slurred over while there was much more elaborate mention of victories of the French over the English about which English histories are altogether silent, or else they occupy a very little space in the record.

Can any one believe that a series of writers of any nation writing at different times, and under a variety of circumstances, should be unanimous in showing up the sin of their nation and the consequences thereof, unless the hand of God was upon them making them to write in this way? Never.

And not only is this the case but the Bible is full of prophecies, it lays itself open to be found out incorrect by freely descanting on the future. The future of great empires such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, etc., is freely spoken of, the downfall of great towns such as Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh, Babylon, etc., is mentioned with much circumstantial detail, much is told us about many kingdoms and kings, while as for Israel and Judah, Jerusalem and Palestine the details are innumerable. In the case of the book of Daniel so vivid are the details that some of the chapters, notably the eleventh, seem like reading history rather than prophecy, so much so that critics have laboured, and are labouring incessantly to prove that the book of Daniel instead of being written by one, who was a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar was written about the time of the Maccabees! The attempts of these critics have recoiled on their own heads, and again and again statements made by them as to inaccuracies in the book have been found false, and those made in Daniel to be true.

Facts have been very unkind to the critics, for alas! for them, no sooner do they prove to their entire satisfaction that some historic statement is not true to fact, as for instance, the story given in Genesis 14 or the accounts of King Ahasuerus or the existence of Belshazzar and Darius, than clay tablets or monumental or other records from Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia spring to light to give the critics the lie. Do they blush and with shame confess their error? Not a whit. No sooner are they proved wrong with one hypothesis than they patch up another which is demolished in its turn. Who reads now the works of Hobbes, Tom Paine, or Voltaire? Practically no one. It needs but a short time and the works by which the Bible has been triumphantly proved to be full of error are relegated to the waste-paper basket, while the Bible is more read than ever, finding great numbers who rely on it with the utmost assurance as the written word of God. Will Welhausen and the modern critics fare any better?

The Lord Jesus Christ appealed continually to the prophecies about himself as a proof of His mission; the Apostles did the same. These prophecies are in great detail. If not true, how easy it would be to prove that Jesus is not the Christ; but if true, then the conclusion is irresistible that the book is given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the One of whom all the prophets from Moses to Malachi wrote.

Alas! how few comparatively will take the trouble to look into these things, infinitely important though they be. How often, as before remarked, has it been said to the writer, "Oh! the Bible is full of mistakes, I cannot believe it." And when the writer has asked "Kindly show me some of these mistakes," the answer almost invariably is, "I cannot point them out, but I read a book, which showed conclusively it was all wrong." Is that the way to examine such a question as this? To condemn a person without giving him a patient hearing is a crime even in the eyes of worldly men; yet there are men all the world over, who are ready to condemn the book, which purports to come from God without taking the trouble even to read it over once carefully.

As regards prophecy, and the truth of the Bible the history of Israel alone would show any candid man the truth. How literally have all the fearful evils spoken of in Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and in the prophets come to pass. Let any one read these prophecies, and then read a history of the Jews, and see whether the prophecies are not divine utterances. Scattered about, persecuted and hated, yet the nation has been preserved, and not become mingled with the other nations, and indications are very clear that in a short time the other prophecies about the nation, which are yet unfulfilled will be fulfilled, viz. that the Jews will return to their land in unbelief (though there will be a believing remnant), suffer troubles even greater than the awful troubles of the past, and be rescued by the appearance of the Lord Jesus from heaven. The other Jews will be brought from all quarters of the globe, while the ten tribes now lost to sight but seen of God will also be brought to the front, and reunited to the Jews, and made one kingdom, which will be the chief of all the kingdoms of the earth, while Jerusalem will be the world's centre. These prophecies are doubtless definite enough, and yet there are clear indications that the beginning of the end is now not far off. The proud Gentiles, who now think that they can divide the world among themselves have to meet God in judgment, and the poor despised and persecuted Jew must become the head of the nations of earth.

Difficulties of Unbelief in Connection with Science

This may seem a strange heading to many, for are we not constantly told that science has shown that the Scriptures are very erroneous? yet if looked at fairly and honestly the justice of the heading will have to be admitted.

The Scriptures of course are not given to teach us science, but on the other hand true science will never contradict the Scriptures when these are rightly understood. It must, however, be remembered on the one hand that a wrong construction may be put on the meaning of Scripture, and on the other many things have been asserted by scientific men to be facts, which later on have been found not to be so, while as to deductions, many put forward with the greatest confidence have been found false.

There is no branch of science which has been considered more adverse to the claims of Scripture than geology, yet is it not remarkable that leading geologists, such as Sir William Dawson in England and Dr. Dana in America, should be firm believers in the inspiration of the book of Genesis? Is it not absolutely impossible to imagine that Moses should have written an account of creation more than 3000 years ago, and not have made hopeless confusion of the subject unless he had been inspired of God? How could he, unless God had taught him, have written as he did? There are other accounts of creation in the tablets of the Assyrians and the Scriptures of the Hindus, yet they are full of nonsense. How was it that Moses could keep clear of fable when his contemporaries are full of it? Had he been uninspired the first dawn of scientific knowledge would have utterly discredited what he wrote.

The writer once made a challenge, which he would repeat here. Let the first chapter of Genesis be rewritten by any men or set of men in the world, the very cleverest and best informed if possible. Then after twenty years let it be placed alongside of the original, it will be assuredly found that the original more than 3000 years old will be seen by all to be more correct than that written but twenty years ago.

Let the reader read carefully the opening chapters of Genesis, the 26th, 38th, and 39th chapters of Job, the 104th Psalm and pronounce whether it was not impossible for any man thousands of years ago to have written them save by the inspiration of God. Let but the reader be honest in this matter, and he will have to admit that what is so often rashly concluded as a positive proof of the non-inspiration of Scripture will be found a positive proof of its inspiration. Thank God that although "the world by wisdom knows not God" and "not many wise men are called," yet some leading men of science in all its branches are devout believers in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, and declare that they could not have been written by any human wisdom.

Difficulties of Unbelief in Connection with the Present Power of the Gospel

We are not, however, left merely to the Scriptures themselves, we have also a witness to the power of the Gospel contained in the Scriptures in the lives of those, who believe it. For more than 1800 years has the Gospel been on its trial. During all this time there has been a company of witnesses, who have testified to its mighty power. By it they have been purged from a guilty conscience, by it they have found satisfaction for the heart. The mighty ones of earth have contended with the Gospel, they have slain and tortured its votaries, they have done all they could to obliterate the Scriptures, and to leave not one copy on the earth. Thousands have gone to the burning stake or to the torture-room rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Thousands have borne witness to the power of the truth contained in Scripture, thousands do bear witness to this to-day. Liars, thieves, adulterers, slanderers and murderers have felt its mighty power when God has spoken to them through it, and turning to God, confessing their sins, have become changed men and women. Many who have been outwardly religious, moral and orthodox, have found that its words have searched them out, convicted them of sin, and have felt obliged to own themselves poor lost sinners deserving of God's wrath just as much as those, who have sinned in a way manifest to all; they have come to God through Christ and have acknowledged to receiving a blessing, which is to them as life from the dead.

By the mighty power of God to-day numbers are finding the words of that book to be morally the means of giving sight to the blind, the making of the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, and of healing sin-sick souls. What religion could never do, what education is powerless to accomplish, the Scriptures when brought home to the conscience are doing day by day. Old men and little children, matrons and girls, learned men and ignorant, come forward in numbers and thank God with all their hearts and souls for the Christ of God of which the Scriptures speak, who is to them the one supreme Object of belief, and the Joy of their hearts.

There has been a wonderful increase in human knowledge of late years, marvellous the discoveries of science, extraordinary have been the inventions; were the apostles and prophets such clever and wonderful people that they could invent out of their own brains that which could minister to an accusing conscience in a way altogether out of the power of the wise men for the last nineteen hundred years to equal? Surely if that, which they proclaimed and wrote was their own, it would have been surpassed over and over again? On the contrary no one can produce anything like it, our enemies themselves being judges.

Are we not all conscious of being something more than the beasts? Do we not know that our existence will go on after that mysterious thing called death has come to pass? What can science do for us as regards the future beyond death? What help is education in these things? Thank God, He has lifted the veil for us in the Scriptures, and told us of the One, who has overcome death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the Gospel. Reader, you will search in vain through the regions of science, you will call on the wise men of earth in vain to give you what you can only receive through the ministry of poor ignorant fishermen and other apostles, viz. a sure and certain hope of eternal blessedness through the resurrection of Jesus Christ together with present joy in acceptance through and association with that blessed One, who died for us, and who lives for us for evermore; and apart from whom the future at best is but a leap in the dark.

Again, is it not true that even those, who scoff at the Bible, and at what is contained therein, really do in their hearts believe in its power, else why are they so ready to sneer at the shortcomings of those, who profess faith in Christ? Why does the world expect so much more from the one, who is a professed believer than from others? If an agnostic, deist, theosophist, unitarian or even a careless nominal Christian falls into sin no special surprise is manifested, but if one, who has made a decided profession of Christ does so, how much is said about it. Does not this show that much is expected of them?

Again, go into the back slums of our large towns, amongst the wretched, the hungry and forlorn, who is it that you find labouring there to relieve the distress? Ask them why they do it? In almost every case is not the answer, "We have believed in Jesus Christ, and He has sent us"? How should this be the case if the Scriptures are not inspired, and Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, risen from the dead?

Go into the heart of Africa where every step has been gained by the laying down of the lives of those, who went before, whom do you find labouring for the good, temporal and spiritual of the poor negroes? Are they not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it not the same all over the world? Are not the believers those, who are in the forefront in caring for the burdened, the sorrowful and the afflicted, the downtrodden and the ignorant? They make many mistakes, they may often quarrel when they should not, and they have many defects, yet will they not readily acknowledge that the failures and the defects are their own, while everything good in them is due to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, and to the Scriptures, which tell of Him.

Again how can we account for the wonderful living energy in the Scriptures to-day. Instead of being an old antiquated book, written so many years ago, do we not feel when we read it that the Author is One, who knows our inmost being, and knows our hearts in a way that we do not even know ourselves? Do we not feel instinctively that it is a book for all time? and that while all other books grow old this maintains its freshness? Why is it that thousands treasure it as they do nothing else? Why was it that Sir Walter Scott, who was such an omnivorous reader when he lay dying, said, "Read the book," and when asked "What book?" replied, "There is but one book, the Bible."

Why is it that when the realities of death stare men in the face they want to hear its words? Why do even careless souls put its texts on the tombstones of those they love?

Why on the other hand do men hate it so? Why are so many straining every nerve to prove it false, why do they show so much bias and prejudice towards it? Is it not because they feel its power so much, and it wounds them so that they would fain get rid of it.

How often has the writer of this seen men proclaim it untrue, yet wince under its knowledge; and the infidel who has called him a superstitious fool has ended the interview by saying "I wish I were you."

Again, though it be but a poor argument, yet it is an effective one. If the unbeliever is right in what way is the believer worse off than he? While if the believer is right woe be to the unbeliever.

How much we, who do believe in the Scriptures and in the Lord Jesus Christ of whom they speak, long that we could shew those who know Him not, whether they be sceptics or merely nominal believers, who know not the power of the Gospel something of the peace, joy and blessedness that comes from the real knowledge of Christ Jesus as a living Saviour in the glory of God.

Conclusion

It will be a great joy, if what has been said here will cause any reader, who has hitherto rejected the Scriptures as unreliable to reconsider the question calmly and quietly, or if it causes any, who hitherto have been merely nominal believers to see the intense importance of the matter, recognising the worthlessness of merely nominal assent to that which if it is worth anything, demands the whole allegiance of the heart as well as of the intellect.

The question is one which admits of no neutrality, for if God has spoken it is self-evident that He expects it to be obeyed, the Gospel in fact is presented to all nations for the obedience of faith. Also if Jesus is indeed the eternal Son of God and Lord of all, and if His death be not a mere martyr's death but a death whereby the infinite love of God is made known and His rights vindicated: if our sins could not be expiated by anything short of this Sacrifice, then it is surely the height of madness and of folly not to believe with all the heart and soul? Surely the gospel of God as revealed in the Scriptures is worth everything or nothing? Either it is the very truth of God, or else is a vain invention of man, and if it is convincing that man could not possibly have invented it any more than men could have set the sun in the heavens, then let there be no neutrality, but let the whole allegiance to our hearts be given to the blessed Son of God, who was and is still rejected by the world at large, but who has been set by God at His own right hand in glory, and who is coming again to have His full rights in the world, and to reign over all.

It should be understood that God can take no counsel with man. It is evident that being God He must do that which He considers right, and must work all things after the counsel of His own will, and it is quite hopeless to fight against His will. At the same time God is love, and His will is that which is the very best of all possible things for His creatures, and blessed is he who bows to that will. If it be asked, How are we to know that God is love seeing that there is so much misery all around? the answer is that this is a time for faith and not for sight. We who have but puny minds, who are acquainted with but one globe, which is but a speck in the universe, and whose knowledge of the past is but as it were of a moment, are, surely incompetent to judge of God, who has the whole universe in the hollow of His hand, and before whom past and future are alike spread. Beside, to all the difficulties, the apparent contradiction, the sorrows we see there is this answer, unsatisfactory doubtless to the one, who would argue with God but perfectly satisfactory to the simple: God gave His Son, He gave His all in so doing, and seeing He has done this He has proved Himself to be love, and therefore we can trust Him to be fully justified in all His dealings in the day when all results are made manifest.

Could puny complaining man be in God's place for a single day, and see all the rebellion and wickedness, the hypocrisy and pretence that goes on in the world, would he not sweep the world out of existence at once? Yet God has gone on in patience with rebellion for all these years, if so be that man will repent and turn to God, but it is a necessity that this should not go on for ever, and God must eventually arise in judgment on all, who oppose His will.

In the meantime the gospel of His grace is going out to all mankind offering not only a present pardon, and a prospect of future blessedness, but a present satisfaction for the heart in the knowledge of that blessed One, whom to know is life eternal. God has nothing higher, nothing better to offer than that which He is now offering in the gospel, for those who receive the gospel know that God has undertaken their cause, and will assuredly carry out His blessed purpose concerning all who believe, for they must be conformed to the image of God's Son and share His blessed lot to all eternity. What more could God offer than this perfect likeness to the perfect One in whom is all God's delight.

It is doubtless very humbling to be told that we are naturally, even man in his best estate, poor lost sinners, and that do what we will we can never make ourselves acceptable to God; in fact that our condition is so desperate that nothing short of the death of God's Son could be of any avail as a remedy.

Man in the pride of his heart would fain consider himself an exalted creature, though strange to say civilised man thinks little of the rights of the uncivilised, and the nations, who have the power, grasp the countries of the weak without scruple. Is not the real reason of the dislike of many to the gospel and to the Scriptures generally that man is really shown up to be the being he is? Other writings exalt man and make much of him, but God's book plainly tells us that he will not do for God, and that there is a Man of another order exactly the opposite of the first man, and that in this second Man is all God's delight and the first must make way for the second, and for those, who are associated with this second Man, Christ Jesus.

Christ is the centre of all God's counsels, the delight of God's heart. Men crucified him, God has exalted Him and the crucial question for the moment is, are we on the side of those, who rejected Him, or on the side of Him, who is rejected? All fall into the former class, heathen, sceptic, deist, or nominal Christian, who have not from their hearts believed on Jesus Christ as Saviour, and owned Him as their Lord. We have not to make ourselves fit for God, we could not do so. All He looks for is a confession of our guilt and need, and a turning from our own resources to Him, who gave His Son for us. All the rest is His work, He receives, He heals, He guides, He brings to glory. It is not that there is any weakness in Him. He must have His own way and therefore if kindness and gentle admonition will not serve their purpose He will chastise, and may be this chastening will be very severe, but whatever it be it will be in love in order that the desired end may be accomplished; and He will not fail, for He will assuredly carry out in the best of all possible ways that which He has set Himself to do. We need not therefore fear that having come to Him through His Son we may yet be lost, because we shall not hold on. God gave His Son, is the answer to an accusing conscience, and God gave His Son is an answer to all our other fears. With that overwhelming proof of love before us there is nothing that need be feared, all we have to do is to trust Him.

Only let us see to this that we do not neglect so great salvation, because if we do, let us be assured of this that the God, who forsook His own Son on the cross where He was the Sin-bearer, will never pass over the sins of him, who refuses or neglects that sacrifice, and stands before God to answer for his own sins. Alas! for such, for them there can be no hope seeing that they have turned their backs on the only One in whom there is any blessing for poor guilty, sinful man.

May God grant that every reader of this little treatise may have his eyes opened to see the love of God as manifested in His gift of Jesus Christ, and that He may commit himself wholly to Him. Then assuredly he will find what a blessed thing it is to belong to Christ, and that the Scriptures are the very word of God upon which he can wholly rely knowing that when all else fails they will prove a sure rock and resting-place for time and for eternity.

On Giving

On Giving

Introduction

God is known to us as a giving God. In giving His Son Jesus Christ, He has given His all. All else could have been given by Him without cost, but this gift cost Him everything. "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.) It is better to give than to receive, and the character of God comes out in this boundless liberality of giving. He is always giving; He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. He is kind to the unthankful and the evil.

So with our Lord. He came to earth as a Giver, He gave Himself, His life, His all. He was always giving, never sparing Himself. He loved to give. He said to the woman of Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." He came in the blessed character of God as a giving God. He did not ask anything from man, He gave all to man. He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. He spent His strength and gave His life in proof of the love and goodness of God, shewing out in what an unstinted way God gives.

This being so, seeing that believers are told to be imitators of God, as dear children, and that the Church is here to set forth Christ in His ways on earth, it is manifest that believers must be here in the same character of givers, for unless they are so, the character of God and of Christ is belied, and we are proved false witnesses of Christ. "Freely ye have received, freely give," is what the Lord said to His own. The disciples, who were to go out without money, were yet to shew boundless liberality. The widow, who cast in two mites, her all, is most highly praised: while the Apostle Paul, in speaking of giving, quotes the strong language of the 112th Psalm, "He hath dispersed abroad; He hath given to the poor; His righteousness remaineth for ever." (2 Cor. 9: 9.)

These, and many other instances, which will occur to every reader, shew how God gives, how Christ gave, how believers should give; and that while of course the spiritual must ever be of incomparably more importance than the earthly, and the moral than the material, yet the giving necessarily includes material things, and care and thoughtfulness for others in matters pertaining to this life. (See James 2: 15, 16; 1 John 3: 17; 2 Cor, 9: 7, etc.)

Now, if this is understood, we shall be kept from two dangers: —

The first is that we should think everything of the earthly and the material. In this case we shall sink into mere philanthropy (falsely so called; for the love of God to man, spoken of in Titus 3: 4, is the real philanthropy) and shall not be here in the character of "sons of your Father who is in [the] heavens" (Matt. 5: 45, N.T.) at all.

The second is that we should imagine that we make everything of the spiritual and moral, while we are indulging ourselves, instead of living self-denying lives. This would be to deceive ourselves, for we have to make to ourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, for he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; if we have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to our trust the true riches? And if we are not faithful in that which is another's, who will give us that which is our own? (See Luke 16: 9-12.)

This little treatise will be mainly occupied with the material side of giving; but this is not because it is considered the more important — far from it — but because our behaviour on this point often affords an indication of our real character, according to the above quoted words from Luke 16.

Will the reader, therefore, kindly bear this in mind, so that it may not be said the spiritual side is neglected or made light of.

The Commandment for Israel

Let no one think that it is legal to enquire into, and to profit by the requirements of the law. Does not the Apostle Paul write, "Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, etc." (1 Cor. 9: 8), and he founds an important truth on it.

In Rom. 8: 4, the object of our deliverance is said to be "That the righteousness [or 'righteous claims,' New Trans.] of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Again, love is the fulfilling [or 'fulness'] of the law. (Rom. 13: 10; Gal. 5: 14.) If, therefore, as Christians we have the spirit of love, we may exceed, but we shall not fall short of, the law.

Now it is commonly thought that because of the mention of tithes, therefore the Israelite had to give a tenth only; but this is a mistake, he had to give far more. Every step of his pathway as a farmer and agriculturist (which is what most Israelites were), had to be marked by giving.

The following may give some idea of what they had to give, though it does not pretend to be a complete list by any means: —

(1) A tithe or tenth, both of grain and fruit, was the Lord's (Lev. 27: 30), i.e. it was to be given to the Levites, who again gave to the priests. (Num. 18: 21, etc.) The tenth of the herd was also to be similarly given. (Lev. 27: 32.)

(2) Another tenth (which must on no account be confounded with the above) had to be reserved to be eaten in the place which the Lord chose to set his name there. (Deut. 12: 17-19; see Deut. 14: 24-27 for the provision when the distance to the place was great.) It may be asked whether a tenth of the increase was not a great quantity for these occasions, but it should be remembered that the Israelite was three times a year to go to the place the Lord chose, viz, at the passover, the feast of weeks, and that of tabernacles. The stay on each occasion would not be much less than ten days (the passover with the feast of unleavened bread lasted eight days, and so did the feast of tabernacles, but as to the feast of weeks no mention of a period is made), so that from twenty days to a month each year would be thus spent, and not only were they not to appear before the Lord empty, but also it was to be a time of rejoicing and of giving to the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and above all to the Levite (Deut. 16: 11, 14, 17); so that the tenth would not be at all too much for this purpose.

(3) Then besides these, there was a third tithing which took place every third year. (Deut. 14: 28, 29.) In this case the amount was to be laid up within the gates for the purpose of supplying the Levite, the stranger (who is never to be forgotten), and the fatherless and the widow, within the gates.

These three sets of tithes would alone amount to between a fourth and a fifth of all the produce, but this is far from all, for we have also the following: —

(4) The fields were not to be fully reaped nor gleaned; nor was all the fruit to be plucked from the trees. These were to be left to the poor and the stranger. (Lev. 19: 9, 10.) Also all were at liberty to pluck corn and fruit in the fields or vineyards. (Deut. 23: 24, 25.)

(5) The fruit of trees was not to be taken for the owner in anywise till the fifth year. (Lev. 19: 23, 25.)

(6) The firstlings of all clean beasts were to be sacrificed to the Lord. (Num. 18: 17.)

(7) The firstborn of men and of asses to be redeemed. (Num. 18: 16; Ex. 13: 13.)

(8) Every seventh year they were not to sow, nor to eat what grew of itself. (Lev. 25: 4.)

(9) On the seventh year every debt was to be released, and the Hebrew slave was to be set free and liberally furnished with all good things.

(10) Besides the above there were the offerings for sin, for trespass, and for uncleanness, even when it was involuntary.

It may, of course, be objected that in some of these cases, notably in the second case mentioned, the owner himself partook of the part reserved. This is true, but it is only what happens continually with the Christian to-day.

He has to help in the provision of a suitable place to meet in, and for the proper upkeep thereof, that all may be done decently and in order, and he will help as to this those who have no means, but he himself will benefit, though the expenditure is for the Lord.

So when he attends conferences, and helps to entertain others; when either individually or with his brethren he lays out of his substance to enable other saints to get together for prayer and reading of the word, or to get to the gospel, is it less giving because he shares with them?

The thoughtful reader will be able to see what is analogous to the different cases stated, so that each one has its counterpart in the Christian's life here on earth, and all the detail given is full of meaning.

Those best able to judge in the matter calculate that the godly Israelite would thus give one third or more of his total produce for the year, as a matter of course as his ordinary duty, before he even began to give for voluntary offerings, free-will offerings, thanksgiving offerings, vows, etc. etc. Nevertheless, there were occasions, such as at the building of the tabernacle, and the provision for the temple, when the people offered most abundantly, with a willing heart, free-will offerings to the Lord. (Ex. 36: 5; 1 Chron. 29: 14, 17.)

It may be asked, How was it possible for them

to give so much?

The explanation is simple. It was because in so doing the Lord would bless them in an extraordinary manner, while if they withheld, they would forfeit the blessing and instead receive a curse. Thus there would be this standing miracle, that those who gave away in great abundance would be far better off than those who refrained from so doing, and it would be proved by practical demonstration that "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth: and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." (Prov. 11: 24.)

A vast number of passages might be quoted to prove these assertions, but a few must suffice.

"When the land remained unsown the seventh year, in the sixth year it brought forth a supply for three years" (Lev. 25: 20, 22). Thus there was positive gain by obedience.

In their liberality the Lord would bless them in all their works. (Deut. 14: 29, Deut. 15: 18, and Deut. 16: 15.) See, too, what happened in Hezekiah's time. It is written, "Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the Lord hath blessed His people; and what is left is this great store. (See 2 Chron. 31: 8 and 10.)

See what happened in Haggai's time, Hag. 1: 2-11, and Hag. 2: 14-19, while no passage can be more to the point in its downrightness than Mal. 3: 8-18. Thus it was that God made Israel to be an object-lesson of the blessedness of obedience and of willing offerings to the Lord, and also of the governmental retribution which followed disobedience and selfishness. (See as to this Jer. 34: 12-22.)

Have we not

much to learn

by these things? Assuredly.

It will, however, be objected, that firstly we are not under the law but under grace, and secondly we are a heavenly, and not an earthly people, and that our blessings are of another order.

To the first of these objections the answer is exceedingly simple: Let it be fully granted that we are not under the law but under grace, then surely grace, when really understood, will exceed law, even as the Lord not only loved His neighbour as Himself, but far more than Himself, and He is our Model, while our commandment is not the legal one, but the commandment of love, which makes the fulfilment easy instead of difficult.

As to the second the reply is: Assuredly the Christian is heavenly, and has a heavenly calling; therefore, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the one with a heavenly calling will surpass, by far, the one that has only an earthly calling, in all that is good.

Moreover, while the Christian is heavenly, yet he is still upon the earth, and, therefore, being in the place of God's people on the earth, he is subject to the government of God in this world. This government is a theme which fills the Old Testament, the first three Gospels, the Epistles of Peter, and the Revelation, and is frequently referred to in the rest of Scripture, and it should be fully understood that the Christian comes under God's government. Grace in no way upsets it, but confirms it, though it turns His government into blessing for those who, being chastened, humble themselves before God and are subject to the Lord.

It is the Apostle of grace who writes: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6: 7), and again: "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Cor. 9: 6). And even of human government he says: "Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power, do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou doest evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." (Rom. 13: 3, 4.) Strange as this sounds in the face of the cruelties of rulers to God's people, there must be profound truth in it. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed on the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." (Prov. 11: 31.) "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." (Isaiah 3: 10, 11.)

The heavenly calling and the government of God on the earth

If, then, we take into account these two things, the heavenly calling of the Christian, and also the fact of his being one of God's people on the earth under the righteous government of God, which rewards the righteous and punishes evil, we see that:

(1) The tendency of all godly, righteous conduct is to bring about a result in blessing even in the present time. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Tim. 4: 8.) "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 that thou mayest live long on the earth." (Eph. 6: 1-3.) Surely this quotation from the law is not without much meaning.

Again another quotation from the Old Testament: "For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. . . For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil," etc. (1 Peter 3: 9-13.)

So with giving, there is the same tendency to present reward: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6: 38.)

(2) While the above is perfectly true, and should never be overlooked, yet there is something higher than receiving the reward in a material way, so the Apostle Peter continues the passage above quoted by saying: "But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye . . . for it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing." (1 Peter 3: 14-17.) That is, that while the natural consequence of the well-doing is the present result on the earth, yet, owing to a higher law coming in, there may be a far higher blessing in being allowed to suffer for Christ for well-doing, and, doubtless, if we are spiritual and heavenly minded, this is the result we shall covet: viz. that all reward shall come in a spiritual way. This was true even in Old Testament times, for even those, who had an earthly calling were called upon to suffer, while we read of those who were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. (See Heb. 11: 32-40.) How much more, then, will this be true of those with a heavenly calling.

Thus it is that while the tendency of a godly walk is always towards prosperity on the earth, and God will assuredly reward His servants abundantly, He cannot be any man's debtor, yet the material may give way to the moral, the natural to the spiritual, and blessings in the kingdom at the present time to blessings in the kingdom in the future, for the righteous may even be called on to die early for the Lord's sake. Let us, therefore, not forget the righteous government of God, while our hearts are at the same time coveting the best things, without desiring that our blessings should take an earthly shape.

It may, however, be asked,

What is our experience?

When we look back, can we not often see that losses in money matters, expensive illnesses in our households, and other similar things have been due to our withholding more than was meet, and God has been speaking to us about it? Few there are, who have had no such experiences. This is not said in order that we may judge others because of their trying circumstances — such conduct is altogether wrong — but that we may judge ourselves.

It might, however, be well sometimes, if we acted as did a Christian merchant, who, having given a certain sum to a work of the Lord, heard directly after of a great loss in his business. He at once sent ten times the sum he had sent before, saying, when asked his reason, that he did not wish to be deprived of his money without the opportunity of doing well with it.

Thus, while it is distinctly evil to sit in judgment on others, and we need to avoid legality in our judgments, even of ourselves, yet we appeal to the reader whether it is not true that he can distinctly trace the government of God with him all through his converted lifetime, and whether in the matter of giving, as in everything else, he cannot clearly see that he who saveth his life loses it, and that he, who loses his life for Christ's sake is the only one, who saves it?

Not, of course, that we are to give for the sake of reward, still less from dread of punishment; love, and love alone, should be the motive, and the coveted reward should be the approval of Christ and increased appreciation of Him. Nevertheless, all these things are written for our instruction. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." (Psalm 107: 43.) Who, therefore, will not love to take heed to that which is written for our instruction, and to trace the Lord's hand all through his life, whether in approval or in chastening, while keeping himself in the love of God and praying in the Holy Ghost, so that it may not be the legality of a slave, which characterises him, but the freedom of a son under the commandment of love?

Let us now return to our subject and ask,

What are we to give?

Well, we wholly belong to the Lord; we are bought with a price; we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and set free, so that it is but natural that the apostle should say, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. 12: 1, 2.)

We cannot, as it were, ransom ourselves by giving up our property. Ourselves, our lives, our souls, our all is His, and this is not a hardship or bondage, but freedom and an unspeakable privilege, transforming what would otherwise be worthless into that which is extremely precious and valuable in the eyes of the Lord of glory, thus giving invaluable opportunities of being, doing, and suffering that which shall be found to honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Let no Christian make the great mistake of thinking that money is the chief thing to give. Far from this, it is the least: we are not our own, nevertheless it is our privilege to yield ourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. How blessed! God does not want our things, unless we own the Lord's rights over us, but when we have done this He allows us to use our all in His happy service. Even in doing good to men, kindness, sympathy, thoughtful, tender service and, most of all, love, will go much further than money; how much rather, then, does God look for the moral beyond the material. With Him the motive is everything, the material thing nothing, so that one may give all one's goods to feed the poor and yet give nothing, and a poor widow may give two mites and the value thereof be unspeakably great.

We are the Lord's, therefore let it be a privilege to own His blessed rights over us, and count it all honour not to live for ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again. Thus it will be our happy service to hold ourselves and our families, our gifts, our talents, our opportunities, our positions, our time and our money at His disposal for Him to do as he will with them, and it will then be a joy to us when we are able to serve Him in any way he pleases. Thus Caleb received Hebron for an inheritance, because he wholly followed Jehovah, God of Israel, and he drove out the giants therefrom (Joshua 14: 12-14, Joshua 15: 14), yet very soon after this same city is taken from him and given to the priests (Joshua 21: 11). What a privilege for Caleb!

It is an immense thing to see that all we are and all we have, the natural and the spiritual, are the Lord's, yet we must not think that all is done when this is acknowledged. The whole of the land of Canaan was given to the Israelites, yet it had to be conquered in detail. Though we as a totality have died and are risen with Christ, yet we are still to mortify individually our members which are upon the earth." (Col. 2: 20, Col. 3: 1-5.) It is one thing to accept a principle in the abstract; it is another thing to work it out in detail bit by bit in daily life, for in so doing we shall often meet with strong resistance, even with regard to matters where we expected none, just as it is incomparably easier to say, in the abstract, "We are altogether sinful," than to confess a single sin in particular.

Hence the necessity of going more into detail.

To whom are we to do good?

We are to love all (1 Thess. 3: 12), to pray for all (1 Tim. 2: 1), to do good to all (Gal. 6: 10), to love and to succour our enemies (Rom. 12: 19-21), and to be kind to the unthankful and the evil (Matt. 5: 43-48). At the same time we are specially to do good to the household of faith, and to love our brethren as Christ has loved us, which means that we are to be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3: 16.)

How much this means! It does not mean that we are to love a special company of Christians with whom we are personally associated, or those with whose views we are in agreement, but that we are to have this special extraordinary love for all the family of God, even when they care not for us, as one said of old, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." (2 Cor. 12: 15.) Anything short of this is sectarian.

Thus also we are to love and do good, in a lesser degree, to all, irrespective of social position, worth, nationality, or any such distinction. Only thus can there be the setting forth of the character of God and of Christ.

One thing, however, needs to be borne in mind, that it is the needy who should be helped, not those who can and will recompense us here on earth. If we desire to be recompensed at the resurrection of the just, we must seek out the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, as did the Lord Himself (Luke 14: 12-14, 21); the principle is that we cannot have rewards from men as well as from God the Father (Matt. 6: 4).

There is a very striking verse in Scripture which says "He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want." (Prov. 22: 16.) This is startling, for it links oppression of the poor with giving to the rich, yet how common is this latter, even among those who would be horrified at even the suggestion of the former sin. Is it not true that the amount of giving to and the feasting of the rich are one great cause why we can give so little to the poor?

Then, while the poor and the needy, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, are mentioned over and over again as those to be especially thought of, Scripture is very emphatic in mentioning the Levites in the Old Testament, and those who minister in spiritual things in the New, in a very special manner as those, who are to be thought of and provided for. So much is this the case that it is very much pressed by the Apostle Paul, that as the Gentiles were partakers of the spiritual things of the Jews, therefore it was their duty to minister to them in carnal things. (Rom. 15: 27.)

If any one ministers spiritual things to us, it is our bounden duty to see his need is supplied in temporal things. This should be looked at as simple honesty, just as it would be to pay our baker's bill, but, besides this, there are many ministering to those, who are too poor to help them, or, may be, are unwilling to do so, then it is the privilege of those who have, to minister temporal things to such. The Levite takes the first place among those who are to be helped.

It may, however, be asked,

Are we not to discriminate?

Assuredly we are to discriminate. How, otherwise, are we to give to the needy? This often means patient investigation, and requires time and patience. It is much easier to give a trifle to one with a pitiful story than to make careful enquiry and then to give liberally or not at all, according to the real need or the reverse.

It seems, however, a strange thing to some, among whom is the writer, that there is little or nothing said as to discrimination in giving in Scripture, save that we should not give to the rich but to the poor.

Scripture seems to enforce the most lavish giving, and never seems to give a caution, such as, "beware lest you pauperize, or give to unworthy objects, encourage lazy people or those who take up ministry for inadequate reasons," etc. It even goes so far as to say, Give to every one that asketh of thee." (See also Luke 6: 38.) Why is this?

The writer has thought about this very often, and the only solution he can offer is this — that we are naturally so selfish, so cautious, so glad of an excuse for not giving, and for spending on ourselves, that it would not have done to have put in any caution. We should probably have fastened on it as a leech, and made this a convenient reason for not giving on all possible occasions. Even 2 Thess. 3: 10 seems not to be an injunction to others, but a word to the man, who did not like to work (because, apparently, he believed in the near coming of Christ), that in all consistency he should not eat either.

As a matter of fact, as our resources are of course strictly limited and not unbounded like God's, therefore we have to discriminate in order that as stewards we may do the best we can with that which is our Master's.

Responsibilities, however, are, not to be disregarded.

As to these the Scripture is very emphatic; we must provide things honest in the sight of all men; we are to owe no man anything save to love one another (Rom. 12: 17, Rom. 13: 8), or, as the saying is, "we must be just before we are generous." This is most important; we cannot give while just claims on us are not settled.

In this connection we should remember Mark 7: 9-13, and the strong censure the Lord passes on those, who said that a man might relieve himself of the claims his parents had on him, if he chose to give the money for religious purposes.

A man's family has the first claim on him, and that not only his own house, but other relatives as well. If he do not provide for them he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (1 Tim. 5: 8.) See also verse 16, and the importance of not letting the Church be charged.

All this is most important, for alas! not only the Christian public, but those, who profess to be real Christians as well, think little of letting their parents and near relatives be chargeable to the Church, while they themselves live very comfortably, but make the frivolous excuse that they cannot afford to support them. Maybe, this excuse will not be found valid at the judgment-seat. Nothing will excuse such. If the parents are in want, it is the plainest duty of the children to take in such, and share and share alike. Even more distant relatives in need should not be neglected, as is so often done.

Strange to say, the heathen often put the Christian to shame. In India the writer has seen a man on a very moderate salary take in, besides his own large family, two widows of two brothers, each with a large family, without any ostentation or thought of merit; and cases of lesser magnitude are of the commonest occurrence.

God never meant the family to be superseded in this world, nor to give to the Church the work which rightly belonged to the family. Any weakening of family ties is to be greatly dreaded as a sign of the final apostasy. All other giving must take place after the needs of those, who have the ties of relationship, have been met. This is emphatic, and no work or service for the Lord so-called should set it aside.

It may then be asked, if we are to provide for our needy relatives, and to be such liberal givers,

How is it to be done?

The answer to this is, mainly by simplicity of living and by self-denial.

There are little touches here and there in the history of Israel, which tell of the beautiful simplicity of the lives in those days. We see Boaz, a mighty man of wealth, talking in all simplicity to the reapers, eating bread and parched corn among the reapers, and sleeping on a heap of barley at the time of harvest, and then when we compare this with our complex civilisation and the vast number of our fancied needs we are astounded. Surely it would be an immense thing, if we Christians would be as simple as possible. Simple in our food and in our raiment, in our furniture, and in our comforts, and without luxuries, simple in movements, manner of life, and in all our ways. It is the varied character of modern life, which makes it necessary for people to work so hard, and yet have so little to give away after all. We look at one another, and what one has we crave for, and instead of seeing what we can do without, we think of what we can have. Thus we act and react on one another in making our lives more complex, we increase our cares, our work, our anxieties, and are less and less free to serve the Lord.

Pray do not misunderstand. The Christian is not to be an ascetic or a recluse; godliness (or piety) owns that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, "for it is sanctified by the word of God and freely addressing Him" (1 Tim. 4: 4, 5, N.T.), "and that God has given us richly all things to enjoy." (1 Tim. 6: 17.) Hospitality is enjoined, marriage is honoured, and family ties maintained. A good report of those that are without is a commendation, and a simple, unaffected life is shown to become the people of God, a life with nothing morose or unnatural about it.

Nevertheless, though this is the case, the same Scripture, which speaks so much of godliness, says "having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." (1 Tim. 6: 8.) It is not that there is anything wrong in having this or that, but that the servant of God wishes to be as free as possible to serve his Master to the best advantage. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." (2 Tim. 2: 4.) He has resources and joys in the power of the Spirit to which the worldly man is a stranger, and it is a pleasure to him to deny himself, to serve the Lord, to do His will, and to be a giver. It is not therefore a hardship, but pleasing to him to live a simple life, to keep under his body, and to bring it into subjection, to be moderate in all things, to seek that his house and household may be simple and orderly, all for this same end that the Lord may be more efficiently served. It has been well said, "If our business or our possessions, be our object, we make them as large as we can; if they are our burden, which we have to carry, we make them as small as we can."

In this connection it is well to take heed to the words of the apostle, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short (or more correctly 'straitened'), it remaineth therefore that both they who have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as those that rejoiced not; and they that buy as those that possessed not; and they that use this world as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away." (1 Cor. 7: 29-31.)

If, too, Elisha could say to Gehazi in the days of the earthly calling of God's people, but in view of the low condition that prevailed morally all round, "Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments," etc., what would the Spirit of God say to-day on this subject?

See, too, Revelation 18: The sin of that foul thing Babylon merely is that she has glorified herself and lived deliciously; she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. She magnifies and enjoys herself just as if Christ were not rejected.

If the prophet could write in Amos 6: 1-6, as he did in that day, what would God say to us now?

God grant we may never forget that Christ is rejected and that all that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but are of the world, and the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. No wonder it is written, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2: 15-17.)

It may now be asked, Is it desirable to

give proportionately?

i.e. to set aside regularly on each occasion of receiving one's income a certain portion to be used in the Lord's service.

If by this it is meant that by giving a proportion we can, as it were, purchase the right to do as we please with the rest, then certainly this is a great mistake. All that we have we only hold in stewardship, so we cannot do this.

This being understood, the matter is certainly worth consideration. It cannot be dismissed contemptuously by the remark that it is legal. Legality is a matter of the spirit and motive of a thing, and not one of outward action. We may refrain from such a course and be full of legality, and we may do it without being legal.

Some have an idea that all order, method, arrangement, in the things of God are illegal, they are said to savour of system, and be evil. This is a great mistake. Is God the author of confusion? Is not the whole creation of God, excepting where sin has marred it, the perfection of method, order, and arrangement? Does not every heavenly body keep its course and time exactly, so that the best timepiece that can be made must often be tested by these bodies, and no one dreams of suggesting that the difference that is found is due to the star being incorrect in its transit.

Perfection of order is of God, and system is God's plan. It is only when man makes a system, which interferes with God's system, and shuts out the action of the Spirit, that it is wrong. It is right to plan, if it be in subjection to the will of God. (See James 4: 15.)

We apportion out our income to the various items of expenditure without being legal. Is it legal to give a daughter a dress allowance? Why should it be legal to put aside a proportion at each time of receipt of income for the things of the Lord.

Granted that if our whole heart and soul were aglow with love, zeal, and devotedness to the Lord, we should not need any such thing. Then in order to serve the Lord to the best advantage, we should seek that all that we have, and all that we are, should be kept in the best possible condition for the Lord. Our eating, our drinking, our waking, our sleeping, would all be regulated for this supreme object. We should do like the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 9: 26, 27), and there would not be the slightest fear of any self-indulgence on our part.

The writer, in 1868, met in Bombay a servant of the Lord, now departed,* who, being unmarried (1 Cor. 7: 33), lived with extreme frugality for the Lord's sake. Being very talented, he could easily have been rich if he chose, whereas he lived on a few shillings a month, yet without any ostentation, asceticism, or display of poverty, and with perfect cheerfulness. Those that were helped by his ministry often sent him presents, sometimes very valuable ones; he thanked them and quietly gave them away to others, and he kept nothing. Such an one had no need of such action: but take ordinary people like most of us, especially those who are married and have families, as most of us have. Is it said in vain that he that is married careth for the things of the world that he may please his wife, and the wife for the things of the world that she may please her husband? Unless, therefore, a portion is regularly set aside, and the rest alone is looked upon as the allowance for the ordinary needs, it will generally be found in practice that uncommonly little is left for giving.

{*The late George Bowen.}

It is true that all we have is the Lord's, and that we are only stewards; nevertheless certain matters are left to our discretion. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. 9, discriminates between what he might do and what he did do. He also says that all things are lawful, but all things are not expedient.

If all was rigid and fixed, there could be nothing but of necessity, and therefore there would be no real giving at all. This would be to contradict Scripture, which says, "Not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9: 7), and the Christian would become a machine, and the work of God rendered of no avail.

It may be perfectly legitimate to buy another coat or dress, yet if the old ones are made to last double the time, in order that the extra amount might go to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, is it not well? If self-denial (usually so called) has no place, then why the frequent injunctions to give all through Scripture, and the promises of reward? And it may be laid down as an axiom that unless we set apart a proportion at the moment we receive, with ordinary Christians our powers of giving will be greatly reduced. This or that will come up until, with all the will in the world, little will be left to give.

There is also the consideration of the following Scripture: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." (1 Cor. 16: 2.)

It may be said that this is special. This is admitted, but it is written for our learning and instruction, and not merely as a matter that concerned the Corinthians only, and we can see a principle here, that of laying in store, week by week, as the Lord prospers. If it is legal to put aside a proportion, then this was legal, but the contention is absurd; it is no more legal to put aside for the Lord's work, than it is for the house rent or your children's education. Both are legal, if done in a legal spirit; neither, if done as to the Lord, in righteousness and love.

It is strongly recommended, therefore, that whenever our income comes in, a proportion be put aside, and that whenever our income rises to let the first part of that increase go for the Lord's service. Those who have tried it can testify how helpful this plan is, how there is no bondage connected with it, and how greatly their powers of giving have been increased thereby.

If it be asked what the proportion should be, the answer is, "Every man as he hath purposed in his heart." (2 Cor. 9: 7.) Nothing can be laid down, but it will be found that the pleasure and luxury of giving increases with the giving, and, as again and again we wait on the Lord about the matter, which we are bound to do under these conditions, we long to give more and more; so that we have heard of a case where one who began by giving a tenth ended by giving nine-tenths.

Thank God none are excluded from this. Every Christian is naturally a giver; rich and poor are alike to give, all will covet to give. None will say, "We are told that Christians are to give, why do they not give to me?" but rather the very poorest will not fail to claim his right to deny himself, and to give to the Lord, as was the case with them of Macedonia. How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality . . . this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." (2 Cor. 8: 2-5.)

Of course, as before pointed out, if after the proportion fixed on for the moment, prayerfully before the Lord, has been set aside, it should please the Lord to ask for any further proportion or the whole, then let us thankfully give, for all is His, and we can trust Him. We acquire no legal rights by laying aside a proportion.

Let us affectionately exhort the reader to be a cheerful, liberal giver, and if he has never given the plan here mentioned a trial, let him try it for a while, and see whether, as so many have found, it does not increase his freedom, his joy, and his power of helping others to a far greater extent than he ever imagined it would, by the grace of God. Those, who have had experience of a thing, are more competent witnesses than those, who have never had any.

Other Questions

As to any other questions that may arise, such, for instance, as to whether one should lay up for one's family, they can only be settled by each one individually waiting on the Lord and receiving special guidance from Him. For his guidance he will find on the one hand such Scriptures as "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed" (Psalm 37: 25, 26); and on the other hand, "I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children." (2 Cor. 12: 14.) Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. One thing is, however, clear, that if a man does not make provision for his family, such as a prudent man of the world makes, and in consequence spends more upon himself than he would otherwise be able to do, expecting the saints to care for his family, and thus throwing them as a burden on the Church, then he is neither acting in faith, nor in an upright, godly manner. Such conduct can unhesitatingly be condemned as unrighteous. If he has faith to spend in the Lord's interests, not only what he would naturally do as a Christian, but also over and above what he would save up for his family, well and good, but without faith it is impossible to please God, and counterfeit faith is worthless.

In any case it is well to take heed to the words of our Lord: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is there will your heart be also." (Matt. 6: 19-21.)

"So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12: 21.)

"Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not, where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth." (Luke 12: 33.)

What are we told by the prophet Isaiah that fasting means "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." (Isa. 58: 6, 7.) Because this is in the Old Testament, is it any the less true to-day?

What does the King say to the righteous when He sits upon the throne of His glory, and all nations are gathered before Him? "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. . . . Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." (Matt. 25: 34-40.)

Is this not written for our learning? Does the fact that dispensationally this applies to the nations after the Church has gone make us think that there is no application to those, who in the present day succour or neglect the witnesses of Christ? If we think this, our dispensational intelligence will only be a curse to us. We do well to remember that whatever the dispensational interpretations may be, yet in every passage there is an application to the saints quite apart from the special dispensational meaning. We have lost much by not understanding this.

It is most remarkable that in the vast number of Old Testament Scriptures quoted in the New (omitting those which personally apply to Christ), all but a very few are quoted for present application, though dispensationally they belong to a future day. We do well, therefore, to remember that all Scripture is written for our learning, so that we may profit by all. (See Rom. 15: 4, and 1 Cor. 10: 11.)

Caution

Just a word of caution seems needed here. All that is said in this treatise is from the point of view of the giver. Some may, however, read it, who are poor and are given to. Now all such must clearly understand that they cannot say, Why do not the saints give to me? They have to do with God, and God alone, as to their need, and not with their brethren. Are you poor and needy?, now is the time to show your trust in God. You are fasting, you have not that which seems necessary, then anoint your head, and wash your face, that you appear not unto men to fast; thus shall you have a reward of your Father in heaven. (Matt. 6: 16-18.)

How much more, then, is this true as to the servant of Christ? The servant of the Lord can never say, Why do you not minister to me? Yea, he will long to be like the Apostle Paul, who, while insisting, "that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel," as to principle, yet adds, "But I have used none of these things," It will be his joy if he can, as far as possible, "to make the Gospel of Christ without charge"; he will be greatly afraid lest he should hinder the Gospel of Christ.

It is not meant that it is wrong for the servant of the Lord to take from others for his support. Not so, even the great Apostle did so at times, but he will see that, generally speaking, it is the happier thing when he can make the Gospel without charge, though he will continually wait upon the Lord, get his directions from the Lord, trust in the Lord, learn how to be abased and how to abound, and be ready to labour at a secular calling, if the Lord desire, or not to do so, if the Lord will. He will not look to his fellow-Christians but to the Lord, and he will be confident that the Lord will supply all his need, and the needs of those dependent upon him, and will not let him lack any good thing.

It is doubtless far more difficult to earn one's living in foreign and poor countries, and to serve the Lord as well, than in England, and, if called to give up the secular calling for this purpose, let it be done in faith without fear. Where the Lord calls, he will sustain. It is He who has said, "The labourer is worthy of his hire," and He, as Master, will see that he gets it, but the labourer will never look to those to whom he goes in order to get. His confidence will be in the Lord alone.

Dear servant of the Lord, suffer a word of exhortation. You are in a prominent position, you will be carefully scanned — your ways, your dress, the way in which you spend your time, the class by which you travel by train or steamer will all be observed. If you have a house, the way in which it is ordered, the style in which you live, will all be taken keen notice of. If married, the behaviour of your wife and children, their dress, their ways, the management of the household, yea, little details will all be noticed. This is pre-eminently the case as to those, who have no means of their own. It is useless to say this should not be. It is certain that such things will be; how carefully, how circumspectly, then, should you walk, lest in any way the gospel of Christ be hindered, or His truth belittled. Men will certainly look to you to be practical exponents of the truths which you proclaim. They will judge of the truth very much more by the life you lead than by the words which you speak.

What heart-searchings, what exercises of soul, will you then pass through, for fear lest in any way you stumble any. If found fault with, you will be patient; if criticized you will weigh the criticism without anger in the sanctuary. You will long to give no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.

But you may say, I thought this was on the subject of giving, and, lo you speak of fasting and suffering. Quite so, this is all part of what God gives to you, and a very rich part it is, for this is the way God takes to make you luminous, a practical exponent of what you teach. He will take care of you and yours, never fear, but He wants you to be occupied with the more important things, and to leave to Him the burden of supplying all your need in this world.

Conclusion

How glorious, then, is our privilege of being here in this world to set forth Christ, to be here for Him in a poor, needy world with our hands full of blessing. He "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.) Again it is written, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men."

If we have the truth given to us, the only way we can prove that we have it is by a more Christ-like life than those, who have it not, for the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power, and it is only by well-doing that we can put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

When the Apostle Paul was confronted by earnest yet false apostles, deceitful workers, he was able to point to his life, and shew how he surpassed them all, and when he speaks of Jannes and Jambres he can say, "But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, patience, persecutions, afflictions."

Again, when he bids farewell to the elders of Ephesus, he ends by saying "I have coveted no man's silver or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

God grant that we may take heed to all these things, and that none of us may forfeit the birthright of every Christian to be ever receiving from Christ, and setting forth the grace of Christ in our pathway through the world where He was and still is, rejected.

We close with an account of an American child, related by the late Dr. Boardman, of America.

Our Lord took a child and placed him in a seat of honour at His side, as the true type of greatness. He has set before me a child as a marvellous example, so marvellous that I cannot refrain from letting you share with me the lessons He teaches by her.

This girl is now thirteen and a half years of age, and has given, in the eighteen months since she was twelve, eighty-two dollars in money to send the gospel to those who have it not.

"She must be rich," do you say?

Not so. Look at her! The clothes she has on are her own handiwork. She spun the yarn, wove the cloth, and made them up with her own hands. She is not worth a penny in the whole world.

"Somebody else must have given her the money, then"; is that your thought?

No; she earned every cent of it by her own hard work.

"Surely, then, she must live where everything favours her, where employment is plenty and wages are high."

Nothing of the kind; all the other way. She lives in a little back-country neighbourhood, where employment is scarce and wages very low.

"The child certainly, then, must have given her whole time to earning the money. She could not have had anything else to do."

Mistaken again. Her mother is a poor widow, almost blind, and quite lame from rheumatic affection. There is in the family an aged grandmother, entirely helpless, bowed double with toil and years, whom they support; the three — grandmother, mother, and daughter — comprise the household, and the child is the mainstay.

A GIRL FARMER

They have a little rough, hill-country farm of twenty acres, which has to be cultivated and kept up, and a cow to be milked and fed. The little girl has therefore on her shoulders the work of a woman in the house, and of a man out of doors.

She helped, while her mother was able to do more than she can do now, to spin and weave coverlets, carpets, and cloth, to purchase their little farm, build their house, maintain the family, and keep out of debt. They owe no man anything but love. With all this she has gone to school in a little district schoolhouse what time she could.

Are you filled with wonder as to how she could earn so large a sum of money in so short a time, with so much besides to do? I am sure I was, and do not yet cease my amazement. The way in which it was done was indeed more surprising than all the rest. She snatched what time she could after school, to pick berries in their season, and before school in the morning she carried them four miles on foot to a village and sold them. By this alone she gathered thirty dollars in a single season. She worked for wages in the hayfield, and earned something by that.

Another employment by which she earned money, I hate to mention, because you will think it so hard. Nevertheless it must not be kept back. Moreover, I remember working in the days of my childhood at the same kind of toil, and it really was not half so hard as you might think. It was gathering stones out of the field and laying them up into a wall as a fence.

Of all her devices, however, that which shows the child-woman most was this. On their little farm stands one lone little sugar-maple tree. As the spring season drew on, and sugar-making time came, she took a gimlet and bored into the tree, and inserted a cut goose quill as a tube or "spile," so called, for the sap to run through and drop into a dish which is placed underneath, that she might take it and boil it down in syrup and sugar to sell and get money. The neighbours seeing this, kindly gave her the use of six other trees on their lands, and tapped them properly for her with augur and spile. Out of the seven sugar maples she drew quite a quantity of golden syrup, and turned it into money for the darling object of her heart.

IS SHE TO BE PITIED?

"Well, she must be large and stout for her age," do you say? No; she is slight in form and bent already with toil. "Poor child!" do you exclaim, "how hard! Oh, how I pity her!"

Yes, indeed, she works hard, but your pity you may keep for those who know not her delights. The Lord has filled her with gladness in Himself such as it never entered the heart of those who do not know Him in His fulness to conceive; and He has taught her His own grand secret, that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

One who knows and loves her well says, "I am sure the world does not contain a happier child than this same hardworking little girl. Look upon her and she smiles brightly; give her a word and she laughs out. She is full of happiness."

One day in the spring she jotted this down in her journal:

". . . It is warm. We may have a run of sap. I would turn the sweet into the sweeter. Verily, there is nothing so sweet to me as to give for the gospel."

"The words of the Lord are spirit and life,

Oh, how I want to send them forth!"

Some rhymes written by her, homespun like her garments though they are, yet tell the story. It seems she had been chided for what she was doing as carrying the thing too far, and so justifies herself in reasoning rhyme. First comes a glance at what is doing in the nations to make the Lord known, and at the bondage of the multitudes who know Him not. Then she ejaculates her deep desire that the work may be carried on, and then asks herself:

"Shall I pray only with my tongue?

My hands, my feet, must also pray:

Each power of mind must work this way."

Then, after accepting the Apostle's injunction to remember those in bondage as bound with them, as rightfully applying to herself, she speaks of the Saviour's example in giving Himself for sinners, and then asks:

"Should I account it much to do,

To earn the dimes and give them, too?

We spend our pence for vainest things,

Which not one drop of comfort brings:

True joy attends the smallest gift

Bestowed from love to Christ.

Some say I make a great ado

It should be great: Christ thought so, too;

He commanded us to send

His word to earth's remotest end,

If Him we love, we'll Him obey,

And work and give while it is day;

Nor loiter till the time is past,

And then regret our wrong at last.

Oh, let us wisely fill each hour,

By doing all that's in our power

To show our Saviour's dying love!

Then rest with Him in realms above."

Behold this child! The Lord sets her in the place of honour that we may see how like Him she is. With her there is no seeking after what she shall eat, drink, or wear, but an earnest desire to save those who are lost.

What is a Christian?

What is a Christian?

Index

The Meaning of the Term

Effect of the Resurrection of Christ, and Coming of the Holy Spirit

Forgiveness of Sins

Justification and Sanctification

The Holy Spirit

Death and Resurrection of Christ

Sonship, Life, and Eternal Life

Membership of Christ

The Hope

Individual Responsibilities

Corporate Responsibilities

Conclusion

The Meaning of the Term

The word Christian is only used three times in the Bible. In Acts 11: 26, it is written, that "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The other occasions where the term is used are Acts 26: 28 and 1 Peter 4: 16.

By the word Christian, in this book, is meant, the people of God during the present time, since the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the coming of the Holy Ghost; and before the second coming of the Lord. These people of God are, in Scripture, generally called brethren, disciples, or saints, though these terms are not confined to those saved during the present dispensation. The word Christian, however, may be used in a double sense; we may apply the word to those alone, who are true Christians, i.e. to those, who are born of God, and have forgiveness of sins, and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells; or, we may use the word in a general sense as applying to all baptized people; and in this latter sense nearly all the inhabitants of Europe and America, as well as some in other parts of the globe, are Christians. Now all these latter, except the few who are real Christians, are indeed Christians in responsibility, and have immense privileges; yet this will only make their doom the more awful, unless they repent and believe before it is too late. It is written: "That servant which knew his Lord's will" [i.e. the nominal Christian] "and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not" [i.e. the ignorant among the heathen] "and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12: 47, 48.)

The object in view is to seek to unfold something of the blessings, privileges, and responsibilities of the true Christian; yet, if it should be, that you, my reader, are one of those, who merely have a name to live, while they are dead; then in this case, I beseech you, ere it is too late, to think what a terrible thing it is to have the name of Christian, and yet to be really without God, and without hope in the world. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, and he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Gal. 6: 7, 8.) It is written: "How shall we escape if we neglect" [merely neglect] "so great salvation." And again: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 2: 3; Heb. 10: 31.) Turn to God while there is yet time, call upon Him while He is near, while the door of mercy is yet open. He is merciful and gracious. He will not cast you out, but receive you with infinite love, blot out all your sins, make you His child now, and afterwards receive you to glory; all in virtue of the merits and death of His Son Jesus Christ. But if you do not turn, then be sure that He who spared not His own Son on the cross, but forsook Him, will assuredly not spare you; but will cast you for ever out of His presence into the lake of fire, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Effect of the Resurrection of Christ, and Coming of the Holy Spirit

We will now look into, some of the blessings enjoyed by the real Christian. But in looking into this matter it must be clearly understood that it is only since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Ghost that Christian blessing has been unfolded. Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, while on earth, did not unfold these blessings. He said: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12: 50.) And again: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16: 12, 13.) The Apostle Paul too, quoting from Isaiah 64: 4, says "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Thus far the prophet Isaiah. But the Apostle does not stop here; he adds "But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 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 which are freely given to us of God." (1 Cor. 2: 9-12.) That is, that those things which the prophet declares could not be known in Old Testament times, we are expressly told, are to be now known since the Holy Ghost has come. Exactly the same testimony is given by the Apostle Peter in his first Epistle, chapter 1, verses 10 to 12. From these Scriptures we see plainly, that the Christian position is only unfolded in those writings of Scripture, which were written since the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, i.e. in the Epistles.

We shall see more of these mighty changes, which were wrought in the position of the believer since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, as we proceed; for all the Epistles are full of this subject. It is only natural that it should be so; for it was absolutely necessary that man should first be thoroughly tested, to see if he could produce works acceptable to God, before God should shew forth the riches of His grace. Why even now, after God has patiently tried man for the 4000 years from the creation of man, to the crucifixion of Christ; — tried him innocent; tried him as left to the light of his natural conscience; tried him for 1400 years under law, with a God-given religion and government, under the most favourable possible circumstances; tried him, too, by His own Son come down to us in infinite grace and love; — still the mass of mankind are so mad in their folly, as to think that naturally they can do works acceptable to God, and absolutely refuse to bow to the truth that the best works of man in his natural state, are abominable to God, — as is set forth by the verse: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8: 8). If then this is the case even now, in spite of God's patient dealings with men; in spite of the fact that we crucified the Lord of glory, who came to us in infinite love; in spite of the clear and unmistakable testimony of the truth of God on the subject; how much worse would it have been had the full grace of God been revealed before man had been fully proved, and the full enmity of his heart brought to light. The result would have been that grace would have been far more despised than even it is now. God, the infinitely wise and good, is sure to be right in all His ways; and we can adore Him because He has acted just in the way He has, and that it was just at the right time that He sent Jesus Christ (see Gal. 4: 4). We can clearly recognise how impossible it was that the present fullness of blessing should have been set forth before the work of Christ was complete and Jesus Christ had come. Let us beware then of making the mistake of looking for the proper Christian blessing in God's revelation, before the death of Christ. It is because so many do this that they remain in bondage and darkness, and at a distance from God; though God would have them in the light, liberty, and nearness of a son's place. Let us then, with all humility, look into the question of the Christian's blessings, ready to accept all that God gives us, with the deepest thankfulness and reverence, recognising that it is no question of our own merits — for we have none, being simply, as looked at apart from Christ, hell-deserving sinners — but a question of the value of the work and person of our Lord.

Forgiveness of Sins

In our natural state we are all sinners, for we are all ungodly and enemies of God (see Rom. 5: 6, 10); and we are utterly incapable of doing anything to please God, as has been already shewn. As a rule, when a person is asked the question: "Are you a sinner?" He replies glibly: "Oh! yes, we are all sinners," But what does he mean by this? Merely that we all sometimes do wrong. This, however, is not at all the meaning of the word sinner, as used in God's word. He whom God calls a sinner, is one who is alienated from God, and all whose works are hateful to God, and therefore, one upon whom the wrath of God abides. And unless you, my reader, are willing to bow to this truth that naturally you are a God-hater, and that your very best works are nothing but a mass of sin, it is useless for you to proceed further with this book. No one will ever understand the grace of God, who does not accept the hopeless and utter ruin of man as a child of Adam. And unless he sees that he needs just as much to repent of his religious deeds, his charities and his good works (so-called), as he does of his so-called sins (for all are alike sins, before God); he cannot be saved. For to be really blessed, we must just come to this — that all that we have done, and all that we are, is nothing but sin.

If you, my reader, have come to this, then blessed be God, you will gladly embrace the grace of God, and you will never, in all eternity, be able to measure the extent of the blessing which God gives you in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel preached to sinners, is the Gospel of forgiveness of sins (see Luke 24: 46, 47; Acts 10: 36-43); and the moment the sinner believes the message thus presented to him, he is forgiven; and learns that Christ, having borne the punishment due to his sins, God will therefore never bring up those sins in judgment against him. The Apostle John says: "I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2: 12.) The Apostle Paul says: "Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light . . . in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1: 12, 14.) Any one who will take the trouble may find many more such passages. He, therefore, who has come to God through Jesus Christ, is no longer, what God calls, a sinner. He is a forgiven person. His sins are put away once and for ever. He used to be an enemy, afar off, but he has become a forgiven person, in close relationship with God. New responsibilities doubtless arise from this moment; but his old responsibility as a child of Adam has ceased for ever. But some one may say: "Yes, I know that my past sins are forgiven, but it is my present and future sins that trouble me." Ah, you have not learnt the truth of God on the subject. You have not, what Scripture calls, a perfect or purged conscience. (Compare Heb. 9: 8, 9, with Heb. 10: 1-14.) You do not know this simple truth, that when you had not committed one sin — for you were not then born — God had so completely settled with Christ the question of your sins, that it is utterly impossible for Him to bring up a single sin against you in judgment. (This truth is of course for believers only; as a propitiation Christ died for all, but the Scriptures which speak of Him as a Substitute and as bearing our sins apply to believers only, i.e. to those who accept the truth of His having made propitiation.) You cannot have settled peace till you learn this important truth. But when you have learnt this, you will know with joy what it is to be perfected for ever (as to the conscience) through the blood of Christ. Heb. 10: 14, John 5: 24 (revised version), and 1 John 4: 17, are also most distinct in saying that the believer shall not even come into judgment (i.e. for acceptance), for as Christ is, so is he in this world. Think of this, my reader, that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, it is as impossible for you to be judged for acceptance as it is for the Lord Jesus to be thus judged. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable grace.

Doubtless a difficulty will arise in the minds of many, viz. that if the Christian is once and for ever a forgiven person, then what about the sins committed after forgiveness is received? This difficulty will be considered in the chapter, which speaks of the individual responsibilities of the believer, i.e. chapter 10. Another class of objectors will doubtless say: "Then if a believer is sure of glory, it is only necessary to believe, and get forgiveness, and then, ever afterwards we can live as we like without fear of consequences." This objection is as old as the Gospel (see Rom. 6: 1). And it is invariably met with wherever the true Gospel of God's grace is preached, from those, who neither know God nor the grace of God. It proceeds either from legalists, who understand nothing of the ruin of man, nor of God's remedy, and are entirely ignorant of the fact that with forgiveness of sins, God implants a new nature, with its new desires, etc., and that therefore it is impossible for the believer to desire to go on in his old way, or else it proceeds from lawless people, whose only desire it is to be free from the dread of hell in order that they may fearlessly live to their own lusts. In either case, the objectors betray themselves by their own words; for they shew that they have no idea of the hatefulness of sin, and assume that punishment is the only thing to be dreaded; so that directly the dread of punishment is removed, all restraint is gone. Nothing more need therefore be said here to answer such objectors; for they have no part or lot in Jesus Christ, and He will Himself deal with them in judgment when He comes again. Such an evil objection can by no possibility proceed from a humble and contrite heart (for such alone God receives and forgives), which hates sin far more than the punishment of sin; and would care nothing for a forgiveness and salvation, which still left one shut up to walk after the desires and thoughts of the natural heart. His object is salvation from sin, how then can he walk in sin?

Justification and Sanctification

The believer is not only forgiven, but he is also justified — that is, accounted righteous. And blessed be God's name, God is righteous in doing this in virtue of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. "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 to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness in the passing over of the sins which were done aforetime" (literal translation) "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.) This shews us that before the death and resurrection of Christ, it was only righteously possible for God to pass over the sins of the Old Testament believers, in virtue of what He was going to do; they could not be justified, for Christ had not died. But now, since the resurrection of Christ, blessed be His name, we who believe are not only pardoned but justified. One man may forgive another for a sin against him; but no man can justify another; you may forgive a thief, you cannot justify him. But God does justify the sinner who believeth in Jesus. It is as if we had gone to the bar of judgment, had been proved guilty and utterly without excuse; and yet, in some wondrous way, had been able to quit that bar, not only acquitted, but even without a stain on our characters.

A forgiven criminal could never feel comfortable in the presence of his judge, nor even of honest men. But, blessed be God's name, we are not only forgiven criminals and sinners; but justified i.e. we are positively accounted righteous; and therefore, we are at peace with God, and can feel comfortable in His presence; as it is written: "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. 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 wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 4: 23-25; Rom. 5: 1, 2.) This is even more strongly put in the verses "He hath 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.) "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us . . . righteousness." (1 Cor. 1: 30.) "Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." (Col. 1: 12.) How clearly these verses shew us, that not only is the believer pardoned, but he is positively counted righteous, and therefore fit for the presence of God Himself. But remember, my dear reader, this is not in virtue of anything he has done, or will do; but simply and solely in virtue of the grace of God, and the work of Christ. This truth is again very clearly brought out in the Old Testament types of the sin offering, and the burnt offering. (Lev. 1 to 7.) In each of these offerings the offerer laid his hand on the head of the innocent animal that was to be offered; and the meaning of this laying on of hands was that the offerer was thus identified with the victim. There is, however, this great difference between the offerings. The carcase of the sin offering was treated as a cursed thing, and burned without the camp, shewing that our sin was transferred to Christ, and He was made a curse for us (see Gal. 3: 13); while the burnt offering, which was wholly burnt as a sweet savour to God on the altar, shews that the acceptability of Christ is transferred to us who believe. To put it in simple language, Christ took our place, was treated as we deserved, that we might have His place before God and be treated as He deserved. No wonder then, that the believer can enter with boldness into the holiest, i.e. the very presence of God, through the blood of Jesus. (Heb. 10: 19.) No wonder that the poor sinful prodigal is received so lovingly; is clad with the best robe, the ring, the shoes, is given the son's place, and seated rejoicing at the Father's table; seeing that in doing all this God is only shewing forth to all the inexpressible delight He feels in the work and person of Jesus Christ, His Son. When we can measure God's estimate of Christ, then we can measure the blessings, which belong to every one, who comes to God through Christ; for the one is the measure of the other.

Reader, have you ever learned, not only that God has forgiven you, but that He positively delights in you, in virtue of that which He sees (not in you, mind, but) in Jesus Christ? He, who has not learned God's delight in the reception of the sinner and in making him fit for His presence, has at best learned but a half Gospel. Alas, alas, that it should be thought a mark of humility to stand afar off, under the shadow of the darkness of Sinai and the law, and to cry out to God not to take vengeance on our sins, neither on the sins of our forefathers, but to spare us, and not be angry with us for ever and to refuse the light, warmth and gladness of the Father's house, and thus to wound the Father's heart, and to cast a slur upon the work of the blessed Lord Jesus. Alas that it should be thought humility to make God a liar. For mark all this, my reader, that everything that is here said, is the proper and normal possession of every Christian: i.e. it is mine, just as much as it is the Apostle Paul's, for it is solely in virtue of what Christ is, and what He did, and has nothing whatever to do with our walk and Christian attainments. And he who says: "Well I have not got this blessing," practically says (from unbelief), that he has not got the Christian's place at all.

But the Christian is not only justified, he is also sanctified; he is a saint (mind, Scripture does not say, as men do, that a few dead Christians are saints, but it says on the contrary that all living Christians are saints). This may startle some who are accustomed to the usual theological expression, that justification is an act done at once, and that sanctification is gradual and progressive. It is not of course denied that there is such a thing as gradual sanctification, i.e. increasing holiness of walk in him, who by abiding in the Son, grows from a little child into a young man and from a young man into a father in the family of God (see 1 John 2: 13; Eph. 5: 26). This growth is a matter of deep importance, and God forbid that we should make light of it. Nevertheless, it is boldly stated that the Christian is said to be in Scripture, according to the ordinary use of the term, a sanctified one, or saint: by which is meant, not one especially holy in walk, but one set apart for God, by the call of God. The Apostle Paul, after enumerating a terrible list of sins, goes on to say: "And such were some of you; 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.) In the second verse of the Epistle he writes to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. This last expression is not quite clear in English. In the Greek it is plain enough "saints by calling"; i.e. by the call of God. In Heb. 10: 10 it is written: "By the which will" (viz. the will of God) "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." The Apostle Jude also speaks of believers as "sanctified by God the Father" (verse 1). And it must be borne in mind, that Jesus Christ is our Sanctification, as well as our Righteousness. (1 Cor. 1: 30.) This sanctification will be better understood by our Lord's words: "For their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified through the truth." (John 17: 19.) It is evident that the Lord could not be made holy, for He ever was holy; but He was set apart as the Holy One for a special purpose: and so believers are set apart as sanctified ones, or saints; not by holiness of walk, but by the call and will of God, though the result of this sanctification should be, indeed must be, holiness of walk. Any one, who will take a concordance, and look up the word "saints," will find that in the Acts and the Epistles, believers are called saints more than fifty times, and that the word is always applied to all believers, and never to certain special believers, whose walk was more holy than that of others. Moreover, God never calls believers sinners. On the contrary Scripture says: "When we were yet sinners" (Rom. 5: 8); plainly implying that we are not so now. The passage in 2 Timothy 1: 15, which is sometimes referred to, is spoken by the Apostle Paul of himself and in it he refers to what he did in his unconverted state. It is therefore very evident that God's people are sanctified ones or saints, and not sinners in His sight.

Objectors will assuredly say: "Then you make out that you saints never sin?" Not so. The common definition of a sinner is one who sometimes sins; and if so, then it is naturally assumed that a saint is one, who never sins. But, according to God, a sinner is not one who sometimes sins, but one who always sins, who never does anything but sin, for he is an enemy of God and an unbeliever, and as such, reprobate unto every good work. (Titus 1: 16.) He is not reconciled to God, and therefore all that he does is sin (see Prov. 15: 8; Prov. 20: 4, 27). The saint on the contrary is reconciled, and can please God (see 1 Thess. 4: 1), though, alas! he does not always do so; for in many things we offend all. (James 3: 2.) Thus we have seen on the unmistakable testimony of Scripture that all real Christians are justified or accounted righteous, and made meet for glory; they are also sanctified, or made saints, by the will of God, through the offering of Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit

The real Christian has also the gift of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of the Apostle Peter, "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 Spirit. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2: 38, 39.) It cannot be too distinctly understood that this gift of the Holy Spirit is not the new birth, but something more. It is a peculiar blessing belonging to the believers of the present time, i.e. since the day of Pentecost. It was not possessed by Abram or Moses or any of the Old Testament saints. The Holy Spirit acted in creation (see Gen. 1: 2 and Isa. 40: 13); and ever since the creation of Adam every good thing that any one has ever done, has been the work of the Spirit. Every Old Testament saint was born of the Spirit, as is clearly proved by John 3: 3-6; for without this new birth it would be impossible for them to enter into, or even to see, the kingdom of God. Scripture is careful to distinguish between the work of God, and God's dwelling among His people. Thus we are told that God visited Adam in the garden of Eden; but He did not dwell there. But after the children of Israel had been redeemed by blood, and by the power of God out of Egypt (all their history is a type for us), then God said: "Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." (Ex. 25: 8.) And after the tabernacle was made He dwelt among them (see Num. 5: 3, etc.). Just in the same way, although the Holy Spirit was ever working among the people of God in all ages, yet He did not come down to dwell in them until the day of Pentecost. It was impossible indeed that He should thus come, until redemption was accomplished, and until Jesus Christ had been glorified after completing the work which He came to do. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, 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. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7: 37-39.) Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." (John 16: 7.) "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." (John 14: 16.)

These passages shew us, without the least doubt, that the Holy Spirit did not, and could not, come to dwell here until the Lord Jesus had entered into glory. Indeed, the two wonderful facts of Christianity are these: first, that a Man is seated upon the throne of God, this Man is of course the God-man Christ Jesus; and second, that God the Holy Spirit, as a consequence of the first fact, has come down to dwell in God's redeemed people on the earth. In Acts 1: 5, it is written: "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." The second chapter of the Acts describes how the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost; and we cannot have it too deeply impressed upon us that the great fact that took place on that day, was not the speaking with tongues, nor the conversion of 3000 persons, but the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell with us for ever. If the presence of the Holy Spirit had been dependent on our faithfulness, we should have driven Him away long ago. But, blessed be God, His presence does not depend on this, but on the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, and therefore it is said, "He shall abide with you for ever." What an unspeakable blessing it is that the Holy Spirit dwells in all of us who are true believers, and will never leave us, but will conduct us safely to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men often say, "Do not grieve the Spirit or else He may leave you." God says "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph. 4: 30), that is, do not grieve the Spirit because He will never leave you. Oh! how different are God's ways and God's thoughts to man's ways and man's thoughts.

If it be asked, When is a soul sealed by the Spirit? the answer is that Acts 10: 34-48 shews clearly, that when a soul receives God's testimony as to forgiveness of sins through a once crucified but now risen Saviour, at that instant that soul is sealed by the Spirit. Reader, have you received this testimony? Are you as certain that your sins are forgiven as you are of the existence of the sun in the heavens? for anything short of absolute certainty is not believing God. Then the Holy Spirit will assuredly have sealed you, by coming to dwell in you for ever, and the result of this sealing will be that the Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, and will teach you to cry: "Abba, Father." (Rom. 8: 15, 16.) Alas! the fact that the majority of prayers are addressed to Almighty God, shows unmistakably the sense of distance left in the minds of believers; for he who is sealed by the Spirit cannot but pray to the Father. How sad then it is that the title, "Our God and Father," which is the one invariably used in the Epistles, should be so seldom heard. Reader, how do you address and think of God?

It is impossible in this short treatise to enter into all the marvellous blessings, which accrue to the Christian through the indwelling and presence of the Holy Spirit. There is only room to say a little more on the subject.

The sealing of the Spirit, and the Spirit within us as the power of sonship, have been already pointed out. The Spirit is also "the anointing" (2 Cor. 1: 21), in virtue of which we belong to a holy and to a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2: 5, 9), and by means of which we are preserved, if we listen to His teaching, from all false doctrine and the seductions of the many anti-Christs that there are around us. (1 John 2: 18, 27.) The Holy Spirit is also the earnest of our inheritance (see Eph. 1: 14 and 2 Cor. 5: 5), i.e. the sample and sure pledge of the glory of Christ of which we shall be sharers. The Holy Spirit unfolds Christ to us in a twofold way; He brings to our remembrance all that Christ was when on earth (John 16: 26), and makes known to us His present and His future glory (John 16: 13, 15). Through the coming of the Holy Spirit, the bodies of those in whom He dwells become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6: 19). The Holy Spirit is the power in us, by which Christ can dwell in our hearts by faith; that we being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3: 16-21). The Holy Spirit is given to us that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Cor. 2: 12).

In fact, though we get every blessing (including the gift of the Holy Spirit), in virtue of the work of Christ, yet it is only by the Holy Spirit that we are able to enjoy these blessings, and it is only through Him that we are enabled to walk in the power of these blessings through a world that has cast out our Lord. Let us then ever thank God with fervent hearts for giving us His Spirit, but let us not be guilty of the mistake of asking God to send His Holy Spirit, seeing He is already here. David in another dispensation could rightly pray: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me"; but we cannot pray this prayer without unbelief. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit the Lord may tell His people to pray to receive Him (Luke 11: 13); but now that He has come, He is given, as we have already seen, to those who accept His testimony as to forgiveness of sins through a risen Christ. The great fact for us now is that He is here; let us then yield ourselves wholly and unreservedly to His guidance and teaching, ever recognising the fact that He is here, and dwelling in us, who believe.

Death and Resurrection of Christ

It is written, that "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Rom. 4: 7, 8); and he whom God calls blessed must be blessed indeed. And yet there is a still greater blessing than that Christ died for my sins, viz. that He died for me; so that not only are my sins put away once and for ever — so completely put away that God will never remember them again; — but also I myself, as a natural man, — a child of Adam, have ceased to exist, as to my old state before God. It is written "I am" (or more correctly "I have been") "crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life that 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.) Thus there was an end of the natural man Saul, and it was Christ, who represented the new Paul before God. What was true of the Apostle Paul, is true of every true Christian before God, however mean and feeble he may be; for it is not the reward of faithful service, but the free gift of God to all, who come to Him through Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul may have entered far more deeply into the meaning of the truth than you or I; but, if we are real Christians, it is as true of us as it was of him, for it is written: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (or rather "creation"): "old things are passed away; behold all things are become new; and all things are of God." (2 Cor. 5: 17-18.)

And here it is well to sound a note of warning. There is nothing more common than to hear many saying when a truth is presented to them: "Oh! I don't feel that," and then, by reason of their experience, to reject the truth. To do this however is very wicked, for it is practically setting ourselves up above God, and is the very essence of pride. True humility accepts as truth all that God says, and rejoices in the blessings: while pride and unbelief cavil, and cannot enjoy the blessings because God is not believed. This is very specially the case as to the last quoted passage, for experience will say: "Oh! I don't feel that the old things have passed away, that all things are new and of God." Faith on the contrary, says "I know it to be true, because I believe God." And the knowledge of the blessings thus received by faith cannot but give great joy. Those, who are ignorant of God and His ways, are always ready with the cry of pride whenever they see any one accepting with simplicity the blessings, which God thus freely gives, and rejoicing in them; but in truth those, who accept are the humble ones, and those who refuse to do so, the proud ones. The secret of refusal is undoubtedly pride; for the utter depravity of the natural man is not accepted, and some good is still looked for within; and until this truth is accepted it can never be known what it is to be "in Christ," and not "in Adam," at all. When, however, by the grace of God, a soul is brought to accept the truth, not only of his having sinned, but that he is so corrupt, in his Adam nature, to the very core, that he could not be improved (see Rom. 8: 7, 8), and that the only thing to be done to him was judicially to set him aside altogether by the cross of Christ, and to put him out of God's sight; — then, and not till then, will he be able to rejoice in the blessed truth of being no longer in Adam but in Christ. Thus he learns that not only is he forgiven and not condemned, but also that the very one who committed the sins has judicially ceased to exist before God. In Rom. 1 to 5: 11, the question of sins is gone into, and complete forgiveness and justification brought to light; from Rom. 5: 12 to 8: 39, a new subject is entered on, not that of sins but sin, i.e. it is no longer the sins I have committed, which are in question, but the corrupt nature, which committed these sins. For my sins there is forgiveness; for the corrupt nature there can be no forgiveness, it is therefore judged and set aside altogether. The old man (i.e. the corrupt Adam nature) is crucified and buried with Christ (baptism is the symbol of this burial), Rom. 6: 3-6; and we, who believe, who were dead in trespasses and sins, are now alive unto God: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For 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" [i.e. set aside] "sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8: 2, 3.) So that now, we who have believed on Christ, are entitled to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6: 11.) We shall indeed have to carry the corrupt nature about with us, but we are entitled to reckon it a corpse; we know that God has set it aside; and we are no longer subject to it, for we have been made free by the Spirit of God that we may walk in newness of life.

It may be that the subject of this chapter may seem difficult to the reader, and it is true that many, who know forgiveness of sins, are quite ignorant of this further truth, and think that the latter part of the seventh chapter of Romans is an expression of proper Christian experience, instead of being the experience of one in bondage and not yet delivered; while in the eighth chapter we get the experience proper to the Christian. I beseech you, my reader, not to rest satisfied till you have learnt for yourself from God the meaning of being "in Christ" and not "in Adam"; of being delivered and not in bondage; of being in the Spirit and not in the flesh (Rom. 8: 9); of having died with Christ and being alive in newness of life. All this is a matter of unspeakable importance, and until we enter into its meaning we shall make but little progress in spiritual life.

The difficulty lies in this that in order to enter into this truth there must be the practical acceptance of death with Christ in the power of the Spirit of God, and this is the last thing that we are naturally willing to do. We cling to the belief that we can improve, school or regulate the flesh, and it is only after repeated struggles, the character of which is described in Rom. 7, that a soul is ever made willing to accept deliverance through death, i.e. to die in the sense of his own soul in order that he may be alive unto God.

The so-called holiness by faith is really holiness without dying, and therefore not the real thing; but it is accepted by many because we all would like holiness without having to accept death. We dearly long to cherish the best things of the flesh and to avoid the application of death to them in the power of the Spirit of God.

I beseech the reader earnestly to ponder these things, for it is by the non-acceptance of this truth that growth is often stopped for years, and also many never learn it at all.

In the Epistle to the Colossians, another step in advance is shewn us, for we are not there merely alive unto God, but "risen with Christ." (Col. 3: 1.) The Epistle to the Ephesians goes further still and says: "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2: 6, 7.) Not yet "with" Christ Jesus, but "in" Christ Jesus. That is, God has united us to Him by the Spirit, He sees us in Him, and where He is, is our place; for we are "in" Him. There is a beautiful illustration of this in Joshua 3 and 4. Twelve stones are set in the midst of Jordan where the priests' feet had stood, the waters of the Jordan roll over them, and they are lost to sight for ever. These twelve stones, one for each tribe, show how in God's sight the old man is crucified, dead and buried with Christ. Then twelve other stones are taken out of the same spot, and set up in Canaan to be a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever, thus symbolizing resurrection with Christ, and being seated in heavenly places (our true Canaan) in Christ, so that in the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2: 4-7.) What wondrous truths these are; our old state judicially passed away for ever before God, and we ourselves separated by death and resurrection from the very place of doom — that world to which we belonged — and brought into a new sphere where all things are new, and all things are of God! In the body of course we are yet in the old creation, and as such we groan in sympathy with a groaning creation around (Rom. 8: 23); but how blessed to know that while in the body we are not of the world, but are sent into it as Christ was sent into it, to be in it as He was in it; for spiritually in very deed and in truth, we are as far separated from it as death and resurrection with Christ can make us.

What a wondrous and blessed truth this is, and yet how little known; and even when presented by the teachers whom God has raised up, how few will accept it. Alas, that the reason for this should be such a sad one; it has been well said that forgiveness of sins never separated a man from the world, but if once the truth of death and resurrection with Christ be really accepted, not as mere doctrine, but as a deep practical reality, then it cannot but sever him, who has this blessing, from the ways of that world, which crucified the Lord of glory. Alas! separation from the world's ways, especially from the religious ways of the world (and these are more hateful to God than anything else of the world), is just what so few are willing to accept. The Abrahams are few, the Lots are many, and therefore it is that so few know and enjoy the blessings and privileges, which really belong to every Christian. Resurrection with Christ can only be practically enjoyed when we are severed from the world; remaining in it, not to enjoy it, but to testify against it that its deeds are evil (John 7: 7); for it is written "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." (John 15: 29.)

Reader, remember that the twentieth century Christian world, as it is called, is but the world after all, governed by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life: and if you are not willing to be hated by it, rest assured that you will never while on earth enjoy the power of resurrection life with Christ. May God grant that you may see such beauty in Christ that you will gladly embrace the offence of the cross for His sake, and be able to say with the Apostle "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." (Gal. 6: 14.) You may have to suffer down here, but you will receive a hundredfold even in this present time, and the joy of Christ will cause you to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory even in this world of sorrow.

Sonship, Life, and Eternal Life

When the prodigal was trudging homeward the thought in his heart was, "Oh! if I can only get a servant's place"; and indeed the creature could naturally, even if unfallen, never look for anything higher than to be servants of the good God and Creator. What a privilege to be allowed to serve God as our Master, doing our work under His watchful eye and tender care. How wonderful then that the heart of God cannot be content without giving His redeemed ones the place of sons. No wonder the Apostle exclaims, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (1 John 3: 1.) How little we know the heart of God, how little we enter into His delight in the Gospel, how little we understand that the Gospel not only meets man's need, but the need that God had. He needed a way to make known the riches of His love and grace, and seeing these could never be displayed by creation, therefore He permitted (we cannot say He caused) sin to come in, that His heart might be fully manifested in the Man Christ Jesus, and to those, whom He has predestinated that they should be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Rom. 8: 29.) And, oh! blessed thought, these brethren are entitled to know now, what all the world will know hereafter, that the Father loves them with the love wherewith He loved His Son. (John 17: 23.) Reader, do you know what it is to be a son, not merely an adopted son, but a son in the fullest sense of the word? Many who know a little of the subject, do not get further than this, that God has adopted us. But the Greek word "huiothesia," which is translated "adoption" (see Rom. 8: 15, Rom. 9: 4; Gal. 4: 5; Eph. 1: 5; these are the only places where the word is used except Rom. 8: 23, where it has another meaning and applies to the redemption of the body) means the full place and privilege of sonship rather than that of our word adoption. When we speak of adoption we mean one, who is not really a son, he has not the inward nature of his adopted father. But we who believe are not only born of God, as it is written, "As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them who believe in 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); but they also have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them to give them the inward sense of relationship (Rom. 8: 15, 16; Gal. 4: 6, 7), and to make them inwardly one with the Father and the Son. (John 14: 20.)

Where the word "teknon," a "child," is used, the affection which the child receives as the object of the Father's heart, is rather in view; whereas where the word is "huios," a "son," the thought is the full privilege and honour of sonship and of being an heir. The Apostle Paul uses both terms, while the Apostle John uses the first only though unfortunately in our English translation the words "child" and "son" are often transposed. One of the great objects for which the Lord Jesus came to this earth was to reveal the Father. This truth is especially brought out in the Gospel of John; and apparently before He left the cross, the desire to reveal the Father's name, in the manner which could only be done after His resurrection, was especially on His heart, for it is written (apparently of the thought of Christ upon the cross), "I will declare Thy name" (i.e. the name of Father) "unto My brethren." (Ps. 22: 22.) Therefore His first message to His disciples when He rises from the dead is, "Go to My brethren and say unto them I ascend to My Father and your Father; and to My God and your God" (John 20: 17); thus showing them that they now possessed the same relationship as Himself. Mark, you never get the expression, "Heavenly Father," or "Our Father which art in heaven," either in the Gospel of John or in the Epistles, but only in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This expression refers to an earthly people looking up to God their Father in heaven, and it was used by Christ to see if the knowledge of God as their Heavenly Father, would produce fruit from the heart of man, who had been so unfaithful under law. But like every other remedy it would not answer. Christ must die, nothing else would help sinful man. Therefore Christ has died and risen and gone up on high, but from henceforth the people of God are a heavenly people, because Christ is in heaven, and God is not called Heavenly Father, but our God and Father, for we are in Spirit connected with Him in heaven in the place where the Son is.

Gal. 4: 1-11 is clear in shewing us the son's place could only be known and enjoyed since the work of Christ was finished, and the Holy Ghost had come. It is not only the new birth that is needed, but also the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to give the enjoyment of sonship, and therefore the place, privilege and liberty of the son's place could not be enjoyed before the day of Pentecost, and we look in vain for it in the Old Testament. How then can we take the Psalms as the expression of proper Christian worship seeing that they express the feelings of those, who were under law and bondage, although they are of course perfect utterances under those circumstances. The Christian, however, is not under law; he has the liberty of sonship, and when he voluntarily puts himself under law, as alas! is done by the mass of Christians of every sect and denomination, he grieves the Spirit, and wounds the loving Father's heart. The law is holy and just and good, and it is perfect as a rule for man in the flesh, but Christ has redeemed them, who were under the law, and if we now, that Christ has risen, return to the law, with its rules, religion and ordinances suited to man in the flesh, but found utterly powerless to help him because he is a sinner and incapable of being helped, we return to that which the death of Christ has set aside, and thus practically say that Christ died in vain. (See Gal. 2: 20.) The whole of the Epistle to the Galatians is connected with this matter, and how sternly the Apostle deals with this great sin. How sad then is the present state of Christendom, where law, bondage and distance are taught as proper Christian position and experience, and where the liberty of the son's place is almost unknown. Reader, will you accept God's liberty, or will you, in order to please men, put yourself under the yoke of the commandments and traditions of men (see Matt. 15: 9), and thus remain in bondage? Will you not come out from all that is of man to rest fully on the infinite wisdom, love, and power of the Father?

Just One more thought before the subject is closed, and that is, to beg the reader to beware of the evil thought that is now so prevalent, viz. that of the so-called universal fatherhood of God. The Apostle John says that the world does not even know the children of God (1 John 3: 1); he also speaks of the children of God and the children of the devil (John 3: 8-10), showing clearly that he knows nothing of this universal fatherhood. The Lord Jesus says the same thing (see John 8: 44). In fact the universal fatherhood of God entirely upsets the whole truth of Christ's mission and work, for we are most distinctly taught that He came to redeem us out of the world. (John 17: 6; Gal. 1: 4.) Reader, beware that you are not led away by such an evil doctrine which so terribly dishonours the truth of God, having just enough truth in it (see Acts 17: 29) to make its poison very deadly. With the question of being a child of God and knowing God as Father, the truth of eternal life is intimately connected, for present eternal life is the knowledge of the Father in the Son, as it is written, "These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, 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. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." (John 17: 2-3.) The Old Testament saints were born of God, but life and incorruptibility were only brought to light by the Gospel. (2 Tim. 1: 10.) It was only by the appearing of the Son that the power and the character of life from God were made known. The Lord said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10.) This more abundant life is evidently eternal life. It is only the Apostle John, who brings out the truth of present eternal life, elsewhere in the Scriptures it is looked forward to in the future (Rom. 6: 22); though we find much in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul about life as a present thing.

Life in Scripture never means mere existence, but always implies health, strength, and joy, just as the word is sometimes used by those in depressing circumstances, when they say, "We do not live, we exist (see John 4: 50-53; 1 Thess. 3: 8); and mere spiritual existence, such as is seen in the man in Rom. 7, is not therefore called spiritual life. Life is found in the eighth chapter, where it is written, "The Spirit is life, because, of righteousness." No one can be said to have life in this sense unless he has the Spirit, although a work of God may possibly have commenced in his soul, and if so, he will never be lost.

Moreover, although the Spirit is life, yet in thinking of life, we must not look within, but at Christ, as it is written, "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" [or rather mind], "on things above, not on things on the earth. For 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: 1-4.)

The thought here as to our life is not its security, though of course it is secure, but where and in whom it is, viz. in Christ in heaven. The sphere of our life is not earth, but heaven, and all its springs, its strength and enjoyment come from there, though as to our bodies we are on earth as pilgrims and strangers.

So in Gal. 2: 20 the Apostle Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives 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." Here Christ lives in him, and yet evidently the whole Epistle shews he is not occupied with Christ within, but with Christ in glory.

No one can really take the Apostle's words to himself till he has also accepted death with Christ in his own soul as his portion here, and is content to derive his spring of life from the glory instead of from the earth as he used to do.

Eternal life is commonly thought to be eternal security, i.e. it is made equivalent to the expression "never perish," whereas it means infinitely more. It doubtless includes eternal security, but to whittle down its meaning to this is miserably to lower God's thought on the subject.

Eternal life carries our thoughts back to the time when the Son was alone with the Father before all creation, and it is manifested in the Son of God made flesh. (1 John 1: 1-4.)

Nothing connected with the eternal life is temporary; very much was done by our blessed Lord in infinite grace for our redemption, and all He did was of course always perfect, but eternal life is connected with the life, which He had with the Father before the world was, which He manifested here according to the writings of the Apostle John. He died, rose and went to the Father and sent down the Holy Spirit that we might have and know eternal life as a present possession. (John 17: 1-3; 1 John 5: 13.) While in all other writings eternal life is looked on as future, in the writings of John it is shewn as a present possession to be known and enjoyed now. Eternal life is in the Son (not in Christ, though the Son and Christ are the same Person, yet Scripture carefully distinguishes the eternal relationship of Son from the official title Christ), and if we may use very homely language without irreverence, it may be said that eternal life is for us the home life of the Father and the Son, which is now ours since we are children of the Father, and this home life can now be known and enjoyed as a present blessing by the power of the Spirit of God. This life is necessarily outside the things of time and sense, the communion of the Father and Son are all in all there. It must be experienced to be known, no explanation will convey any meaning to the soul, who has not experienced a glimpse of it for himself.

It is not possible in this short compass to give further explanation of the subject. I can only entreat my reader to earnestly study and pray over the writings of John, especially chapters 14 to 17 of the Gospel and the first Epistle. It will afford unspeakable joy to get a glimpse of what it is to be with the Son in the place where He is, and to have the Father and the Son making their abode within. See John 12: 26, John 13: 8, John 14: 3 (do not relegate all this to the future for, whatever more it may have, it has certainly a present application), and John 14: 23.

But do not make the mistake of thinking that because you know you are eternally secure that therefore you know you have eternal life. Many know their eternal security, who have not the faintest idea of the wonderful blessing called eternal life, but because they think that eternal life means no more than eternal security they are no more exercised on the subject, and perhaps go through their whole life without having the least apprehension of the wondrous joy there is in the present knowledge of eternal life.

May God exercise your heart about it, my reader, and may you find the fulness of joy there is to be found therein.

Membership of Christ

Hitherto we have only been considering the individual blessings of the Christian. We have now briefly to look into his corporate blessings in virtue of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. One object of the death of the Lord Jesus was to bring all the children of God into one unity. He has done this by the descent of the Holy Ghost, whereby the scattered children of God have become the one body of Christ, "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 the 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.) This is the wondrous mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God; by which He willed to make known His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, viz. that the Gentiles, who were before without hope and without God in the world, should be joint heirs, and of a joint body and joint partakers of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel. Christ has abolished in His flesh the enmity between Jew and Gentile, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace (see Eph. 2 and 3.)

This is the wondrous truth now revealed, that a Man has so glorified God on the earth, that God has glorified Him and set Him on His own throne at His right hand, and the Holy Ghost has come down to unite believers to that glorified Man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, His body, and we who are indwelt by the Spirit of God are the members. Oh! what a wondrous privilege to be members of Christ. Reader, are you a member of Christ? Do you recognise that while men speak of being members of this or that church or society, Scripture only speaks of membership of Christ? What can be a closer bond to Christ than this? What can be a closer bond with other believers? Do you think you can improve upon this? How near we are to Christ, members of His very body, part of Himself, so that He can say to Saul, who was persecuting His people, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (see Acts 9: 4). This is a blessing which belongs peculiarly to the present time since the descent of the Holy Ghost. It is as the risen Man, that Jesus Christ became the Head of the body, and it was the baptism of the Holy Ghost that formed the body of Christ on earth. The Old Testament saints, blessed though they are, do not share this privilege, nor do they form a part of the church. They are the friends of the Bridegroom and rejoice to hear His voice (John 3: 29); but they cannot form part of the body of Christ; for the church, as this body, was only first formed at the day of Pentecost, and will be complete on the day that the Lord calls the sleeping and living saints to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess. 4: 15-17.) What can be nearer than the body? Then let us accept these truths with deepest reverence and thankfulness, and praise the Lord for His infinite grace.

Besides belonging to the body of Christ, the Christian also forms a part of God's house, God's habitation, God's temple. "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house." (1 Peter 2: 5.) "Whose house are we." (Heb. 3: 6.) 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 into a holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2: 19-22.) "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (2 Cor. 6: 16.) Reader, have you recognised what it is to be a living stone of God's house, that spiritual house in which God dwells? Do you know what it is to form a part of God's habitation, God's temple? Or do you think that a building built of stone is the church of God, the house of God? If you do, you will never understand the truth of God's spiritual house, and you will lose much.

Besides the blessings that have been here mentioned, the Christian is also a sharer in the kingdom, though this is not a blessing peculiar to the present time, but is shared with believers of other ages. It should be clearly understood that "the kingdom of heaven" does not mean heaven, neither does it mean the church. It means a kingdom on earth, though ruled over from heaven. The prophets all spoke of this kingdom, foretelling its glories during the reign of Christ. "Many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." (Micah 4: 2-4.) This kingdom in manifested glory, power and righteousness, has yet to be set up. If the people of Israel had accepted Christ as the Messiah, the kingdom would then and there have been established in power, but owing to their having rejected Him, therefore the kingdom in power is postponed until such time as Israel repents. And we have instead the kingdom in tribulation and patience (see Rev. 1: 9). The secrets of this kingdom are unfolded to us in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, for Jesus said to His disciples, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (verse 11). The parable of the sower is the introductory parable, showing how the seed would be sown throughout the world. After this come six more parables, each beginning with the words, "The kingdom of heaven is like." These six parables are divided into two sets of three each. The first set of three, viz. the tares, the mustard seed and the leaven, were spoken to the multitude outside the house, and give us the outward aspect of things, telling how sin would be introduced and spread. The second set of three, viz. the treasure hid in the field, the pearl of great price, and the drag net, were spoken to the disciples in the house, and they tell us the inward aspect of the kingdom in God's sight, and cheer us by shewing us Christ's extreme delight in that which He sees within the kingdom in spite of all our failure. Blessed be God, although we have so grossly failed in all that which was committed to our responsibility, yet the purpose of God and the work of Christ can never fail, and this is therefore our comfort and our joy.

The Hope

Hitherto what has been written about are all present possessions; the Christian (who knows the Christian's place) does not hope for forgiveness of sins, or for justification, for he is forgiven and he is justified. He does not hope to possess the Holy Spirit or to be made a child of God, for he knows that he has received the gift of the Holy Ghost and that God is his Father. He knows that he has eternal life, he knows that he has died and has risen with Christ. He knows that he is a member of Christ, and forms part of His body. All these marvellous blessings are his already; he does not pray for them, he thanks God for them, and he cannot ask for that, which God has already freely given him. He has received all these blessings by simple faith, for God's word does not tell us to ask for them, but says that they are given to every one that believeth; and in the prayers recorded in the Acts and in the Epistles never are any of these things asked for, for the simple reason that every real Christian has them, while every unsaved soul will have them directly his pride is broken, and he comes as a beggar to God through Christ, to receive all these things as the free gift of God.

How sad a thing it is that among the millions, who call themselves Christians, so few should be in the conscious possession of those blessings, which are the common possession of every true believer in the present age, and that it should be thought humility to go on asking for that, which God has already given to every soul, who has come to Him through Jesus Christ alone. In addition, however, to all these present possessions, the Christian has a most blessed and glorious hope.

It must, however, be most clearly understood that "hope" in the word of God, never means an uncertainty, but on the contrary always the certainty that the thing hoped for will be possessed, although not possessed at the present time. "Hope that is seen" [or 'possessed'] "is not hope: for what a man seeth" [or possesseth] "why doth he yet hope for." (Rom. 8: 24.) Although therefore Christians are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1: 3), yet they enjoy them at present in mortal bodies, and in a sphere of sin, sorrow and death, and in consequence they, having the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. They cannot but do this, because the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Rom. 8: 22, 23), and above all, because they are living in a judged world in which their Lord and Master has been rejected, and of which Satan is the prince (John 16: 11), and god (2 Cor. 4: 4); and how can they but feel deeply the way in which Christ is rejected and hated?

Doubtless there are many that deny this, and think that the world is growing better, and look for the conversion of the world by the preaching of the Gospel. But those, who think thus, have not learnt that God is now not dealing with the world as such, but He is gathering out of all nations, a people for His name (Acts 15: 14) to be the body of Christ. God can save out of the world in virtue of the atonement of Christ, but when God the righteous Governor of the universe, begins to deal with the world, then it must be with the most terrible judgments. The death of Christ has a double aspect; He suffered at the hand of God, "Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death," and the result of this is, unmixed blessing to all who are willing to have blessing (see Ps. 22, which is all blessing as the result of Christ's death); but He suffered also at the hand of man, and the result of this must be the most awful judgment upon the world, which murdered Christ, and upon those who belong to the world, because they have not severed themselves from it by judging themselves and it, and laying hold by faith of that blessed One, who is now at the right hand of God. To-day is the day of grace, i.e. the acceptable year of the Lord. But this must be succeeded by the day of vengeance of our God (see Isa. 61: 2, Isa. 63: 3-6, Isa. 66: 15; 2 Thess. 1: 8, 9, etc.). Then will come to pass that which is written, "Because I have called and ye have refused; I have stretched out My hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early but they shall not find Me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Prov. 1: 24-32.)

Reader, bear in mind that just as the cross of Christ assures us of perfect forgiveness, if we accept its shelter now, so the same cross declares in the plainest manner, that God will not, cannot, let off the sinner, who refuses this great salvation. It is one and the same cross (combined with the resurrection of Christ), which reveals both the righteousness of God, and also God's wrath from heaven against all ungodliness. (Rom. 1: 17, 18.) Blessed be God that before this awful time comes to pass upon the earth, the Christian will have left this scene, according to the promise, "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 on the earth." (Rev. 3: 10.) The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself our hope (1 Tim. 1: 1). He Himself is coming for us, that we may be with Him for ever. (1 Thess. 4: 13-18.) Death is in no sense the Christian's hope. Death, as the penalty for sin, is altogether passed for him, and he will never see death (John 8: 51); death (or rather sleep, as the Scripture always terms it), as the decay of the natural faculties, may indeed come to him, if Jesus tarry; but it is distinctly written, "We shall not all sleep" (1 Cor. 15: 51), and therefore there is no need of our dying, and we shall not die if the Lord come during our lifetime. If death should come, we know that "to depart and to be with Christ is far better" than to abide in the flesh (see Phil. 1: 23, 24).

It is the personal coming of Christ, which is always held out as the Christian's hope. Death, if it occurs, is an individual thing, but the coming of Christ is the beginning of the fulfilment of the full purpose of God, when Christ shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and all the saints will be satisfied also, because they will awake with His likeness (see Isa. 53: 11; Ps. 17: 15; Phil. 3: 21; 1 John 3: 2). The manner of this coming is thus told us, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and 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); and again, "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). Bear in mind, it is only the believing dead, who are raised, the rest of the dead sleep on in their dishonoured graves one thousand years more (Rev. 20: 5), and with them (the believing dead) only the living believers are caught up; the world goes on as before except that the acceptable year of the Lord will be over, and the day of God's vengeance with all its terrible judgments will then begin. The Christian's just hope is then the personal coming of Christ, when Christ shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and the Christian will be like Christ, and be with Him for ever.

With Christ, he and all saints will ascend to the Father's house. It is there that the Church will enter into the full sweetness and blessedness of what Christ is, and of what His work has done. He will present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish, (Eph. 5: 27.) She will satisfy and delight His heart far beyond all the glory, which He will acquire as Head of all things, just as the headship of Adam over all earthly creation was as nothing compared to her, who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. The Christian, as a part of the Church, will come with Christ when he comes to execute the vengeance of God's wrath upon the earth (Rev. 19: 11-21); for Christ is coming with His saints to judge the ungodly (Jude 14, 15); and when Christ, who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory. (Col. 3: 4.) The Lord Jesus has been the despised and rejected of men upon this earth. God will take care that He is fully glorified in the very scene of His rejection. His saints have been rejected with Him, they must be manifested in glory with Him too, for He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe (2 Thess. 1: 10). The world will then know that God sent His Son, and has loved us as He loved His Son (John 17: 23), when it sees the Church sitting with Christ upon His throne (Rev. 3: 21 ), and sharing His glory (John 17: 22). Oh! what joy to see Christ so glorified in the world where He is now so neglected and slighted. Reader, is this your desire and your hope? Not only will the Church share in Christ's reign over the earth, but in Christ's headship over the whole universe of God's creation (Eph. 1: 10); for the Church is His body, the fulness of Him, who filleth all in all, and most intimately connected with Him in all this glory. (Eph. 1: 22-23.) In all this manifested glory it is rather the reign of Christ for one thousand years than the eternal state that is spoken of. At the end of this reign, the wicked dead will be raised to receive their final sentence, the earth will be burnt up, and heaven and earth will pass away, and there will be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3: 10-13; Rev. 20: 1-5.) But the eternal state will not diminish, but only increase the Christian's blessedness, and as part of the body of Christ, he will never lose the nearness and close association with Christ, which is his portion for ever, and by reason of which he is the most blessed of all the creatures, which inhabit the whole universe of God. Reader, does not your heart burn at the thought of all this blessedness? Will you not say with the Apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out?" Praise, O, praise Him continually for His wonderful goodness!

Individual Responsibilities

Hitherto the Christian's blessings have alone been spoken of, yet it must be clearly understood that all his blessings have their consequent responsibilities. As a child of Adam, his responsibility was to keep the law of God; on this ground he was wholly lost. But blessed be God, Christ came to seek and save that which was lost, and when found and saved, he who was lost, is brought as a Christian into an altogether new position, and he has become possessed of all the blessings we have spoken of. His old responsibility as a child of Adam ceased, but new responsibilities based on his new position, blessings, privileges and relationship, sprang into existence. All positions and relationships in the natural life have their attendant responsibilities; thus the wife is responsible to act as a wife, because she is a wife; the master as a master, because he is so; and the servant as a servant, because he is a servant. Even so it is in the things of God. The law came to the sinner, and told him to act as if he were not a sinner; but grace does not act like this, grace takes up the sinner, and giving him a new life and position, brings him into new relationships, before it ever demands (or will accept) anything from him; but afterwards it tells him to act according to what he has now become. The law tells a man to act according to what he is not; but grace first gives a new life and new place before it speaks of acting in accordance with them. Thus the law expects something unnatural, i.e. holiness from the sinner; but grace only expects the Christian to act according to what he is, and this is but natural.

The Christian is forgiven, justified and saved from self, sin, Satan and the world; he is responsible, then, to act as a forgiven, justified and saved man. He is responsible to confess Christ openly before men, for it is as true now as ever, that whosoever shall be ashamed of Jesus and of His words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also will the Son of man be ashamed "when He comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8: 38.) He who does not openly confess that Jesus, having saved him, is now his Lord, has no right to expect to be owned as a Christian. Also, being a saved man, saved from self, sin, Satan and the world, he is responsible to walk no longer according to the will of the flesh, but according to the will of God; for what is the use of a man saying "I am saved," if he is still acting according to the thoughts and desires of his own heart. He is merely a self-deceived man, for "to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness." (Rom. 6: 16.) The Christian is dead unto sin (see Rom. 6: 2-11, but alas! how few even know the meaning of this expression) and alive unto God. A new and holy nature has been implanted in him, and God's Spirit is in him, he is therefore responsible to walk in holiness and obedience. This was impossible while he was under law; but it is now possible, for grace has made him alive with a new life.

Does the Christian then never sin? Alas! he does, for he still carries about with him the old corrupt nature; but now he need not sin, and while he walks in dependence, reckoning himself dead to sin, and abiding in Christ he will not sin, but directly he ceases to be dependent (and alas! how soon does pride come in), he sins. The creature has no right to do his own will in anything, and when the Son of God became man, and dwelt among us, it was not that He might do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. Thus He was the perfect pattern of all that the creature should be. To act in self-will is sin, but alas! how common it is for Christians to say, "Is there any harm in this or that?" How the very question betrays the heart, for it shews that the questioner desires to act according to his own will, only he is rather afraid of doing so. The Christian is told that whether he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does, to do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10: 31); and before he does anything, he should see, not if there is harm in it, or not, but that it is to the glory of God.

Does this seem, my reader, to be bondage? If so, be sure it is because you have not learnt that true liberty is to be made free from everything and everybody, to do the will of God alone; and anything else is bondage. The only true liberty is to find enjoyment in doing the will of God. But a man may say, "How am I to know the will of God?" Well, if any man will do (i.e. is willing to do) His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God," (John 7: 17.) There is no way whereby an unwilling heart can learn the will of God, but if a soul be but willing, the Holy Spirit acting through the word of God, will always show him the way wherein he should walk. The word of God, as applied by the Spirit, is the perfect rule for all circumstances; and be sure that when we do not know what to do, it is not because God does not shew us, but because our hearts are not willing, and the only thing to be done is to confess this as sin to God. The Christian is dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, how then can he be subject to the "touch not, taste not, handle not" of men's commandments? (Col. 2: 20-23.) Men, wise after the wisdom of this world, seek to school the flesh by such means; as witness the temperance societies, purity societies, etc., on all sides; but they have not understood that they are only trying what God has Himself tried for 1500 years by means of the law, and the result was that those to whom the law was given, were worse than the heathen around. God did not do this in order that He might learn the character of the flesh, but that it might be manifested to us.

The Christian is risen with Christ; then instead of grovelling in the world, and seeking the good things of the world like those who are of the world, let him seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; let his mind be set on things above, not on things on the earth. (Col. 3: 1-4.) Let him bear in mind that if he minds earthly things, he is an enemy of the cross of Christ. (Phil. 3: 18, 19.) The Christian is seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2: 6); he is joined to the Lord by one Spirit (1 Cor. 6: 17); he is therefore responsible to walk through this world as a heavenly stranger. He is not put there, as so many think, to enjoy himself; he is put here to be in the world as Christ was. As the Father sent Christ, so does He send us into the world (John 17: 18); so that we being in it, are not of it; and moreover we are put here to testify against it that its deeds are evil. (John 7: 7.) Testifying at the same time to God's grace, which yearns over sinners that they may be saved and enjoy the precious fruits of Christ's work.

Reader, are you seeking to walk as a heavenly man through the world, and does your walk testify to the world that its deeds are evil? Does it point sinners to the glorified One at the right hand of God? The Christian has received the Spirit of God, he is responsible to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5: 25), listening to His teaching and guidance, letting the Spirit have full sway over his mind and heart, not grieving Him by independence and self-will, but through the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the body (Rom. 8: 13); so that the Spirit may be free to take of the things of Christ and present them to him. The object of the Spirit is to unfold to us the beauties and glory of Christ, but directly we walk in self-will, He has to stop this work in order that we may judge ourselves for our self-will; for He cannot unfold the glories of Christ to a self-willed child. The Christian is a child of God, and he is responsible to show forth the character of his Father in the world. He is called upon to be as Christ was in the world, to do well and suffer for it, to bear reproach and scorn, and to love and bless those, who act wrongly towards him; indeed to be the exponent of the Father's love and grace in a Christ-hating and Christ-rejecting world. (Matt. 5: 43-48; 1 Peter 2: 19-25.) The Christian has eternal life, he is made a partaker of that life, which from eternity was with the Father and was manifested in the Son in the world. He is responsible to shew out that life, by abiding in the Son and walking as He walked (1 John 2: 6), in dependence and obedience, in grace and in truth.

But it may be asked, Who is sufficient for these things? How can any one possibly walk like this? Well, be sure that God will give us no lower standard or model. Our standard is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and in Him we get a pattern, which delights the heart of God. How then did He walk? Why, every deed, every word, every thought of His was perfect; in nothing did He fall short of the glory of God, not a single word had ever to be recalled; all, all was as perfect as God is perfect. What folly then on the part of those poor self-deceived creatures, who talk of attaining to sinless perfection. Do they walk as Jesus walked? And if not, why talk of sinlessness? "If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1: 8.) And the Apostle James says in the most positive way, "In many things we offend all." (James 3: 2.) If this book falls into the hands of any, who think that they have thus attained, or who are pleased to hear people speak of this attainment, let them reflect on that absolute statement of the Apostle, and may God open their eyes to their true state. At the same time, beware of the abominable error of saying that the Christian must sin. God has made the fullest provision for him, so that he need not sin, and when he does sin, it is because he chooses to sin, and not because he need have done so (see 1 Cor. 10: 13, and James 1: 13-15). The Christian is never shut up to sin; he must therefore confess his sins, and own that they were committed of his own free will.

Many think that Romans 7 gives us proper Christian experience, and that every Christian finds it true of himself, and has to say, "the good that I would I do not, but the evil that I would not that I do." But this is not proper Christian experience at all, it is the experience of an undelivered, self-occupied man, under law; in contrast with Christian experience proper, as shown forth in the eighth chapter of that Epistle. Note how in the seventh chapter it is all "I, I, I"; while in the eighth chapter it is all "the Spirit, the Spirit." In the the seventh chapter the undelivered soul is seeking with all his might to keep the law, and all is failure; in the eighth chapter the delivered soul has learnt that what the law could not do God has done, viz. that the sentence of condemnation has been passed on the old man, i.e. on sin in the flesh, and that he stands before God, in Christ, no longer in Adam; and that the Spirit of God who ever directs him to Christ is the power of a new life, so that he need no longer be defeated, but be a conqueror.

Reader, if your experience is that depicted in Romans 7 bear in mind that it is the experience of a soul in bondage and undelivered; and do not try and comfort yourself with the thought that it is only what must be expected. Alas that so many should rest satisfied with such a state and be full of self, instead of being full of Christ. The proper attitude of the Christian is to be occupied with Christ in glory, and to be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by gazing at Him. (2 Cor. 3: 18.) If, however, the Christian does sin, does he lose his sonship or his eternal life? Has he ceased to be what the word of God calls a forgiven soul? Not so; for as we have seen before, all these blessings are given to him unconditionally and eternally. What, then, has he lost? Well, he has lost his joy, and his communion, or his fellowship with the Father and the Son is broken. The Father will not give the joy of His company to a naughty child, and therefore directly sin takes place, the joy is gone until the sin is judged and confessed, but the relationship abides eternally. The only place where forgiveness is spoken of in the Epistles, as necessary for the Christian, is in 1 John 1: 9, where it is not a question of salvation at all, but of fellowship, and we are told that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is, the joy of fellowship cannot be restored without self-judgment and confession. And bear in mind, confession of sin is a much deeper thing than praying for forgiveness, which latter is generally done without exercise of soul at all; and when God tells us to confess our sins He means it, and does not mean that we should merely ask forgiveness. The Christian's relationship as a son of God is eternal; his eternal life is eternal; his forgiveness as to the eternal judgment of God is also eternal. But he does, as we have seen, need daily forgiveness for the maintenance of fellowship with the Father, and the way to get this is by confession of the sin or sins committed. All sin must be confessed to God. If committed individually, then confession must be individual. If committed corporately, then confession should be, if possible, corporate as well as individual. If man, as well as God, be wronged, then confession (and restitution when necessary) to man, as well as to God, should be made. (Matt. 5: 24.) But beware of asking in a general way for forgiveness of sins, and of general confessions of sin than which there is no more certain way of deadening the conscience and hardening the heart. The devil dearly loves to hear people calling themselves miserable sinners, and making general confessions, knowing how well it serves his purpose. The publican said, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and went down to his house justified; but thousands weekly call themselves miserable sinners over and over again, but do not go to their houses justified; and thus Satan soothes souls, and carries them down the cleaner side of the broad road to hell, telling them all the time that they are not like the proud Pharisee, but humble like the publican.

If however the Christian, when he sins, does not confess to God, but goes on in his sin, then what happens? Well the Father cannot cast him off, because he is His child, and the Father has given him to Christ, and is pledged therefore to bring him home in safety; for "whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." (Rom. 8: 30.) He cannot therefore cast him off, but being a holy God, neither can He let him go on in sin. Therefore He must chasten him down here; "for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." (1 Cor. 11: 31, 32.) If we are bastards and not sons, then we may go on without chastisement, because there is the judgment to come; but if we are really sons, then He must deal with us now, because, as we have before seen, we shall not come into judgment for salvation at all (see Heb. 12: 5-11; also John 5: 24).

Let no one think that sin in a child of God is a light thing, or that the chastening of the Lord is light; far from it. Sin in a child of God is far more terrible than sin in the sinner, and there is no anguish so painful on earth as the anguish of a real but rebellious child, when the chastening hand of God is breaking down his stubborn and rebellious will. Christian reader, hasten to judge yourself in order that the loving Father may not have to take His rod and chastise you. No chastening seemeth for the present to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Heb. 12: 11.) If however, my reader, you are living carelessly, and yet without chastisement, then tremble, for you must be a bastard and not a son, and your judgment will take place hereafter, and you will perish eternally, unless you quickly turn. But if, reader, you are a real Christian, yet one who trembles at the responsibilities of your new position, then hear the voice of God saying unto you, "Fear not"; that which is impossible with men is possible with God. All power is stored up for you in Christ, "He giveth more grace, wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (James 4: 6.) Christ's strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor. 12: 9.)

The more you feel your weakness, the more you distrust yourself, the more you feel obliged to look to Christ in everything, and for all things, the more will His strength be manifested, and His name glorified in you. Rejoice evermore; greater is He that is for you, than all that are against you; greater are the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, than Satan, the world and self; you shall be more than conqueror through Him that loved you. How blessed to know that God is your Father, who loves you with infinite love, and is leading you with infinite skill through all the difficulties and temptations of this present evil world, to His house above. Cast then all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto Him, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus (see Phil. 4: 6, 7).

Corporate Responsibilities

Yet as there are individual responsibilities, so there are also corporate ones; for the Christian is not only saved, and a child of God, but he is part of an assembly, society, or body, which is called the Church of God. Seeing that the Lord Jesus died that He might gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad (John 11: 52), we cannot act independently, without sin. Many tell us that the Church of God is invisible, but you will find nothing about an invisible Church in Scripture. On the contrary the Church is always a visible thing in Scripture; for before Christ died, the children of God were scattered, i.e. invisible; but Christ died to end that state of things, and to make the Church the one visible witness for Himself on the earth; the Church was to be the light of the world; and like a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. An invisible witness, an invisible light, an invisible city, is a contradiction of terms, and if the Church be invisible it only shows how completely it has failed in its purpose, and how truly it is (as far as committed to man) in an utter state of ruin. We read, "the Apostles went to their own company," "of the rest durst no man join himself to them," "certain men crept in unawares," "false brethren unawares brought in." Now men cannot join an invisible thing, nor can deceivers creep into an invisible thing. The disciples were told, "receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (Rom. 15: 7); and again "put away from among yourselves that wicked person." (1 Cor. 5: 13.) Now no man, or set of men, can receive or put out from an invisible thing. The Apostle wrote letters to the Church at Corinth, etc. Now letters cannot be written to that which is invisible.

In his days there was a known company called the Church at Corinth forming a part of, and having in every respect, the same rules as the whole Church of God. In 1 Cor. 5: 12, it speaks of a "within" and "without"; because those within were a definite known company gathered out of the heathen, and these were all addressed as saints, forgiven people and children of God; there might be, and doubtless were hypocrites and false professors here and there among them; but that did not affect the general character of the assembly, as an assembly of God. How different is it all now. We now have the huge but corrupt churches of Rome and Greece, in which the church is the world, and the world the church; we have national systems, which fly in the face of God (for He has made one Church out of the believers of all nations), they bind together the believers and unbelievers of a nation in one common national system; and we also have voluntary systems of the various denominations, in which believers, and sometimes many unbelievers, are joined together by voluntary agreement. Besides this we have societies, whose name and purpose is legion, for every conceivable thing under the sun. Alas! where in all this is there the least recognition of the Church or Assembly of God? Where is there an assembly where there is room for every believer, who is seeking to walk in holiness, and yet no room for any one but God's children (though it is possible of course that hypocrites may accidentally creep in)? Where is there an assembly where the word of God is the only rule, instead of having a set of rules culled more or less out of the Bible? Where is the presence of the Spirit of God so owned that He is not systematically quenched, but has liberty to act in worship and prayer through whom He will? Where are those alone recognised as ministers, who are seen to be ministers by their works, instead of ministers being those ordained of men?

Alas, we have walked in our own ways, and followed the devices of our own hearts, in all these things. We have rebelled against God our Father, and Christ our Lord, and we have so deliberately rejected the Holy Ghost, as the Jews of old rejected the Messiah. When Christ was in their midst they were still praying for the Messiah to come, and even so are Christians now praying for the Holy Ghost, apparently ignorant that He came at Pentecost to abide with us for ever, and that consequently He is still here, although He is so terribly grieved by our sins, and although He is quenched on every side, by the rules and the systems of men which make one man a mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost, and forbid all others to open their mouths, at least without man's permission. Thus man usurps the Lord's place, and it may be said of the Church of God, that from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And where are those that sigh and cry for all these abominations? Alas many think that as long as souls are saved, nothing else need be troubled about, and that which is needful to salvation is generally called essential, while that which is for the glory of God is called non-essential! Surely the Lord has a controversy with us for this, and it must be a source of great weakness in the Church, on account of which we should be deeply exercised.

The Christian, as we have seen, is a part of the house, habitation and temple of God, and he is also a member of Christ: and as the habitation of God is holy, and Christ is Son over His own house, therefore we are called upon to stand apart from all iniquity, for it is written: "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? [i.e. unbeliever] and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 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. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 6: 14-18, 2 Cor. 7: 1.) Until the Christian therefore, as a part of God's temple, separates himself from unbelievers, he will not be in the enjoyment of sonship.

Alas! the union of saved and unsaved, in one common religion, is the crying sin of Christendom. The children of God should be united, but union at the expense of truth is worse than useless, and God does not tell us to seek unity, but to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4: 3); Christ did not merely pray that we might be one, but that we might be one in the Father and the Son. (John 17: 21.) Every other unity and oneness is but hurtful, for it shuts out from the eye the only unity and oneness which God can recognise.

The Christian is a member of Christ; this is the only membership owned in Scripture, Alas! that this bond should be practically set aside by the societies and sects of man's framing. It is as if a man were to say, the joints of my body are not well joined together, I will make a better joint by tying them together with string. We should think that man a lunatic; but what about those, who think with their churches and societies to bind more closely together those whom God has made one with Christ and with each other by the Holy Ghost? The Christian is therefore responsible to stand apart from every union, society, church, etc., made by men, that he may own nothing but the one body of Christ. This is just as much his responsibility, as it is that of the husband to know no woman but his wife. He cannot however walk alone, because he is part of the body of Christ, and therefore he must own that union, though he holds aloof from the unions of men. Being a member of Christ, how can he become a member of the associations of men? At the same time he should abhor the independency and looseness of those, who profess to be unsectarian, and yet go anywhere and everywhere as suits their fancy; or where, as they think, good is being done, He cannot therefore belong to a world church, or to a national church, or to a sect, but he seeks to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, and endeavours with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering and forbearance, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

As this will involve going outside the camp of men's religious systems, it will entail also the bearing of Christ's reproach. (Heb. 13: 13.) He will be esteemed narrow-minded, bigoted, sectarian, and will be despised and disliked, but he will enjoy the company of the Lord Jesus in a way which he can never do within the camp. Reader, is that company so sweet to you that you are willing to suffer reproach for it? As part of that which is the body of Christ, the Christian is responsible to keep himself unspotted from the world. No sin can be greater, than for one professing to form part of Christ's body, to glorify himself and live deliciously; see the terrible judgment on Babylon, who saith in her heart "I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," (Rev. 18: 7.) It is a sad thing when the Christian seeks glory in the place where his Lord met with nothing but dishonour and shame (see 1 Cor. 4: 7-14). There is not space now to enter further into the corporate responsibilities of the Christian as belonging to the kingdom, than to, say that as such, he needs to stand aloof from the prevailing lawlessness, and to bow to the authority of Christ alone. The Christian enjoys all the privileges of the kingdom, and how great these are we can see by comparing Christendom with heathendom. It is this which makes his responsibility so great, and which will make the judgment of the lawless so terrible.

Conclusion

There now only remains to say a few words in conclusion. This is but a slight and imperfect sketch. But if it has but the effect of causing some heart to turn to Christ as it thinks of the marvellous blessings which are freely given to us of God in Christ Jesus; if it should but awaken some soul to a deeper sense of the responsibilities which flow from the new position, blessings and privileges of the Christian, then it will not have been written in vain. Doubtless, some of the things that are said, will appear strange to some of the readers; but let me beg of you not to reject what is written because it is strange. We are commanded to prove all things (1 Thess. 5: 21); and how can we prove them? The word of God is the alone test. It is written of the Bereans "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so." (Acts 17: 11.) The Apostle Paul, in leaving the disciples at Ephesus, had no one to commend them to but "to God and the word of His grace." (Acts 20: 32.) The Apostle Peter, in like manner, appoints no successor, but writes his Epistles, that we may be mindful of the words, which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour. (2 Peter 3: 1, 2.) The Apostle John says, "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error." (1 John 4: 6.) In a similar way, all these Apostles tell us of the errors that were abroad, or were coming in. The Apostle Paul says, "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Tim. 4: 3, 4.) The Apostle Peter warns of false teachers, and tells of scoffers that will come. (2 Peter 1, 3) The Apostle John says, "It is the last time, and as ye have heard that anti-Christ shall come, even now there are many anti-Christs; whereby we know it is the last time" (1 John 2: 18); and again, "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 shall continue in the Son and in the Father." (1 John 2: 24.) And yet again, "This is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that as ye have heard from the beginning; ye should walk in it." (2 John 6.)

Let me then entreat you, my reader, earnestly to examine the truth of God for yourself, that you may see if these things are so. It is better to trust in the living God, than to put any confidence in man. The meek He will guide in judgment, the meek He will teach His way. Fear not to trust Him wholly and unreservedly; the path of faith is a strange path, a path impossible for flesh and blood, for sight and sense, and only possible in the power of the Spirit of God; nevertheless the footprints of the Lord Jesus are there, and you shall have His company, and the sweetness of His presence in a way that they shall never know who tread the beaten paths marked out by men's theology and men's systems. Do not believe those who tell you the Bible is a difficult book. It is the book sent by the Father for His children; it is very simple, for He knows our frame and He reveals Himself unto babes. It is true, of course, that there are innumerable differences of doctrine abroad, but the reason is, not that the word of God is not simple, but it is because of the pride and insubjection of the heart, which makes the many come to the word of God with preconceived opinions, in order to find what they want, instead of coming with the deepest submission to hear what God has got to say.

Let me beg of you to weigh everything in the presence of God, and in the light of His truth, and not to reject it because it is not called orthodox, nor what is held by those amongst whom you live. Whatever is of God is worth everything; and the greater the difficulty in being true to it, the greater the blessing to those who hold to it, and are valiant for truth. It is quite true that the truth of God may cause separations in households. It was so in the Lord's time; it has been so ever since, notably so in the Reformation, and it will be so now; for Christ has plainly told us that He does not bring peace, but a sword; and that a man's foes shall be they of his own household. (Matt. 10: 34-36.) It is quite true, that for the truth's sake, men may hate you, and separate you from their company, and reproach you and cast out your name as evil for Christ's sake, but great shall be your reward in heaven, (Luke 6: 22, 23.) We cannot serve God and mammon. If we are of the world then the world will love his own; but if we are not of the world, the world will hate us. If we want the world's friendship it can only be at the cost of being guilty of spiritual adultery. (James 4: 4.) The word of God will test everything in that day when the Lord will bring to light the counsels of the heart. Oh! let it test everything for you now. Do not say "I may do anything that is not forbidden by it." Not so, this would imply that you know everything in it, and such a way of acting will lead you into many errors. The only safe way is to insist on a "thus saith the Lord" for all you do. This may seem slow and narrow-minded in this go-a-head twentieth century; but Christ will be ever with you, and the joy of the Lord shall be your strength. Every trial and sorrow shall be stepping-stones to lead you into a deeper knowledge of Christ and of His love. God will set before you an open door and none, shall shut it, and though your path will be lonely here, yet by and by you shall go out no more, and the approval of the Master shall sound unspeakably sweet to your ears and repay you a thousandfold for all that you may have to suffer here. May the Lord in His grace grant that it may indeed be thus with you.