Table of Contents

Letters and Papers

MDCCCXXXVIII.

Letters.

Letter 1.

... 1821.

T. A. HOWARD.

Letter 2

T . A. HOWARD.

Letter 3

Letter 4

Letter 5

Letter 6

Letter 7

Letter 8

Letter 9.

Letter 10

Letter 11

... 1826.

Letter 12

Letter 13.

T. A. P.

Letter 14.

T. A. P.

Letter 15.

T. A. P.

Letter 16

Letter 17

Letter 18.

Letter 19.

Letter 20

Letter 21

Letter 22

Letter 23

1829.

Letter 24

... 1829.

Letter 25

Letter 26

Letter 27.

Letter 28

T. A. P.

Letter 29

Letter 30.

... 1830.

Letter 31.

...1828.

Letter 32.

T. A. P.

Letter 33

T. A. P.

Letter 34.

T. A. P.

Letter 35

T. A. P.

Letter 36

Letter 37

T. A. P.

Letter 38

T. A. P.

Letter 39

T. A. P.

Letter 40.

T. A. P.

Letter 41

... 1831.

Letter 42

Letter 43.

T. A. P.

Letter 44

Letter 45.

1831.

Letter 46

T. A. P.

Letter 47

T. A. P

Letter 48

T. A. P.

Letter 49

T. A. P.

Letter 50.

Letter 51

Letter 52

Letter 53.

Letter 54.

Letter 55.

Letter 56.

T. A. P.

Letter 57.

Letter 58

Letter 59.

Letter 60.

Letter 61

T. A. P.

Letter 62.

Letter 63.

... 1834

Letter 64.

Letter 65.

Letter 66.

Letter 67.

... 1835.

Letter 68.

Letter 69.

Letter 70

Letter 71

... 1835.

Letter 72.

Letter 73.

Letter 74.

T. A. P.

Letter 75.

T. A . P

Letter 76.

Letter 77.

Letter 78.

Letter 79.

Papers.

Genesis 22.

Psalm 22.

Psalm 23.

Faithful Sayings

Messiah the Prince

*****

*****

1. CHRIST AS MESSIAH.

1. HEROD HEARD AND WAS TROUBLED.

2. SCRIBES HEARD AND WERE INDIFFERENT.

3. THE WISE MEN HEARD AND REJOICED.

1. THE WARNING OF JOHN.

2. THE WORK OF CHRIST.

3. THE WITNESS OF THE FATHER.

SEVEN MARKS OF CHRIST'S GLORY AND POWER.

THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY.

THE INVOCATION: OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN

1. HALLOWED BE THY NAME.

2. THY KINGDOM COME.

3. THY WILL BE DONE.

THE LORD SAYS THERE ARE

LIFE ETERNAL.

THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON.

THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS MISSION.

2. THE GIVER OF LIGHT.

3. THE GIVER OF SPEECH.

3. THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER'S CARE.

2. THE NATION'S ATTITUDE.

3. THE NATION'S FUTURE.

1. ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN.

2. I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

3. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU AND LEARN OF ME.

3. THE MUSTARD TREE.

2. HE IS WATCHING OVER US.

3. HE IS COMING FOR US.

1. THE FORMALISM OF THE PHARISEES.

2. THE FACT OF SIN.

4. THE FAVOUR OF CHRIST.

2. WHAT GOD-GIVEN FAITH SAW IN HIM.

3. WHAT HE WAS ABOUT TO DO.

4. WHAT WOULD MARK THOSE WHO FOLLOWED HIM.

4. "BE NOT AFRAID."

FORGIVENESS IN THREE ASPECTS.

THREE THINGS FOLLOW.

1. THE INVITATION OF LOVE.

2. THE RECEPTION OF GRACE.

3. THE CONDITION OF ENTRANCE.

THE YOUNG RULER.

3. PETER'S QUESTION.

SEEN IN WHAT HE WAS.

SEEN IN WHAT HE SAID.

SEEN IN WHAT HE DID.

1. THE KING PROMISED.

4. THE KING PERSECUTED.

1. THE MARRIAGE.

2. THE INVITATION.

3. THE CONDITIONS.

THE GREAT PROPHETIC SECTION OF THE GOSPEL.

THE JEW.

1. HIS TEMPTATIONS.

2. HIS TRIALS.

3. HIS DELIVERANCE.

THREE PARABLES REFERRING TO CHRISTENDOM.

1. THE FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT.

2. THE EVIL SERVANT.

THE PARABLE OF "THE VIRGINS"

1. CHRIST'S COMING AS THE BRIDEGROOM.

2. THE TARRYING.

3. THE MIDNIGHT CRY.

4. THE COMING REALISED.

5. THE MARRIAGE.

6. THE SHUT DOOR.

7. THE VAIN APPEAL.

THE SEVEN JUDGMENTS OF SCRIPTURE.

5. HOW IT WAS TO BE OBSERVED:

THE FIRST "SUPPER OF THE LORD."

2. THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

2. THE GUILT AND FATE OF JUDAS.

3. THE LORD BEFORE CAIAPHAS.

4. THE LORD BEFORE PILATE.

THE RESURRECTION AND ITS RESULTS.

1. TERRIFIED KEEPERS.

2. REJOICING BELIEVERS.

3. THE VICTORIOUS LORD.

Wycliffe's Work for England

CAEDMON'S POEM

THANK GOD FOR THE BIBLE, THE BEST BOOK OF ALL.

Moses - The Man of God

ISBN 0-88172-134-4

BELIEVERS BOOKSHELF INC.

Preface 5

PREFACE

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, CALLING

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. FAILURES

THE PASSOVER NIGHT

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Psalm 77: 20

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

FROM SINAI TO KADESH

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

THIRTY-EIGHT MORE YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Four truths Every Christian Should Know About Salvation

Truth 1: Forgiveness

Truth 2: A New Nature

Truth 3: The Holy Spirit

Truth 4: Fellowship

The Eternal Son

"The Only-Begotton Son"

The Truth Concerning the Eternal God

Can Only Be Known by Faith

Plurality in Unity

Dependent Man

The Truth of the Eternal Sonship of Christ

Is a Vital Truth of Scripture.

In Becoming Man He Did Not Give Up His Eternal Deity nor His Eternal Relationship In the Godhead

He Who Was Son in Deity Takes up Perfect Manhood into Union with His Person

The Father Manifests His Love In Sending His Son that We Might live Through Him

God Creates the Worlds by His Son

The Son of God in Manhood

The Son, in Taking up Manhood into His Being, Voluntarily Took the Place of Submission and Dependence

Not Inferior to the Father in the dignity of His Person

The Use of the Name God as Applied to the Three Persons of the Trinity

The Son Took up Manhood into Inseparable Union with His Person

You can have a happy life

BURDEN OF GUILT

DEALING WITH GUILT

SEEKING PEACE

OBEDIENCE NEEDED

GOD WORKING

PEACE OF MIND

ABOUT OUR FEARS

CONFESSING OUR SINS

JOY OF FORGIVENESS

PATH OF PEACE

FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD

ADJUSTING OUR ATTITUDES

PEACE ASSURED

TRUSTING GOD

PROVISION OF PRAYER

VALUE OF THANKSGIVING

EXAMPLE FOR US

LEARNING FROM HIM

FINDING REST

HIS POWER

HIS WILL

SEARCHING SELF

HIS CHASTENING

EXAMPLES OF CHASTENING

HIS PURPOSE

UNSELFISH SERVICE

POWER OVER SIN

HAPPY LIVING

John 16: 33

Peace and Joy in Time of Trials

The Purpose of Trials

What God Allows

Who's in Charge?

The Long View

Five Necessary Things

A Cause for Rejoicing

Needed Needs

Sanctifying Solitude

The Eternal Son of the Father

INTRODUCTION

REASONS ADVANCED IN SUPPORT OF THE TEMPORAL SONSHIP DOCTRINE

THE PROOF OF THE LORD'S DEITY

ETERNAL SONSHIP THE PROOF OF GOD'S LOVE

THE FATHER'S BOSOM

TWO TEXTS USED TO SUPPORT THE NEW THEORY

THE TRIUNE NAME

The Incarnation of the Son

(1) TRUE GOD

(2) PERFECT MAN

(3) REAL MAN

(4) ONE PERSON

(5) TWO DISTINCT NATURES

The Altar of Ed

Joshua 22: 34.

"A Christian Conscience."

Do All Believers Receive The Holy Spirit?

The Sonship of Christ

Pre-Incarnate, Eternal Sonship

The Sonship of Christ and His Incarnation

The Sonship of Christ as Seen in His Pathway

The Sonship of Christ in Relation to the Jews

The Sonship of Christ and Christianity

Extract

Christ Everything

"Canst thou by searching find out God?"

Inclusive and Exclusive

Disciples Indeed

REAL DISCIPLESHIP,

DIVINE ASSOCIATION.

"WHEN THEY HAD SENT AWAY THE MULTITUDE."

"THEY TOOK HIM EVEN AS HE WAS IN THE SHIP."

"HE . . . . WAS ASLEEP ON A PILLOW."

BUILDING AND FIGHTING,

A KING GOING TO MAKE WAR.

The Old Paths

1. THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD

2. THE BELIEVER AND THE TWO NATURES

3. THE HOUSE OF GOD ON EARTH AND THE BODY OF CHRIST

5. THE TWO MINISTRIES OF THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY

6. DISCIPLINE IN THE ASSEMBLY

7. THE SUPPER AND TABLE OF THE LORD

8. THE TABLE OF THE LORD AND THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT

9. THE GOOD OF THE FLOCK OF THE LORD

10. AN APPEAL TO OUR HEARTS

Psalm 23. A Paean of Praise

Psalm 23: 1.

LOVE'S SWEET COMPULSION.

Psalm 23: 2, 3.

COMPANY IN THE VALLEY.

Psalm 23: 4.

THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH.

Psalm 23: 5.

Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment

G. Cutting.

"WHICH CLASS ARE YOU TRAVELLING?"

UNCERTAINTY

THE WAY OF SALVATION

Dost Thou Believe On the Son of God?

THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION

MORE THAN THE SPRINKLED BLOOD, WE HAVE THE UNERRING WORD OF GOD ABOUT IT.

'WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD

"It's a settled thing now,"

His word settles it."

THE JOY OF SALVATION

Christ's Work and Your Salvation

Your Walk and Your Enjoyment

The Holy Scriptures and Creation

The Cross

20 Gospel Tracts

Assembly Order

Love of God

Spirit Characteristically

Present Blessing

Prophecy and the Day Star

God's Delight in Blessing

The House of God

Freedom

Marks of a True Teacher

Thy brother

To Labour in Vain

Women and Children Not Counted

Two Ideals

Omission

Service

Ambition

Vain Religion

Imperialism and Socialism

The Losing Side

Difficulties of Unbelief

On Giving

A GIRL FARMER

IS SHE TO BE PITIED?

What is a Christian?

Various - More Writings of Various Authors

Various

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

Letters and Papers

by the late

Theodosia A. Viscountess Powerscourt.

edited by the Rev. Robert Daly, A.M.

Rector of Powerscourt, in the Diocese of Dublin

London: Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly.

William Curry, Jun. and Co. Dublin.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

Dublin: Printed by John S. Folds, 5, Bachelor's Walk

Preface.

In offering the following Volume to the public, it is, perhaps, necessary that I should prefix a few words, to state what the reader is to expect, and what he is not to expect, in these Letters and Papers. He is not to expect anything in the character of religious gossip; any anecdotes of, or remarks concerning, living persons, with whom the writer had intercourse. Those who had the privilege of receiving Letters from the late Lady Powerscourt, know well that she delighted to dwell on much higher subjects than the actions, or opinions, of her fellowmen. If every thing she ever wrote was submitted to the public eye, it would be, perhaps, a subject of surprise to some, how very little was said about other persons in her extended correspondence. But, in the following selections, I have studiously omitted every thing in the least degree personal. Those, therefore, that shall take up this Volume with the hope of reading Lady Powerscourt's opinions of this person or that person of this or the other movement, in or out of the Church, will be disappointed. I trust that these pages will furnish no food that would gratify such appetites. Had the correspondence, from which it has been my part to make selections, afforded such materials, I should never have been the instrument of making them public. But that eminent disciple of our blessed Lord, whose Letters are now printed, with a hope and prayer that they may tend to the edification of the Church, lived in a higher atmosphere; inhaled herself, and breathed forth, a purer air. She, of all the Christians I have been privileged to know, came nearest to that which she has, in such strong uncommon terms, stated to be her idea of a Christian: "Not one who looks up from earth to heaven, but one who looks down from heaven on earth". She appears to have ascended a high and holy eminence, and from thence to have looked down upon those earthly scenes, with which too many are entirely engrossed, living up to that high spiritual requirement of the Apostle, "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Those who take up this Volume may expect to find the language of a heart thus lifted up above the world, the free and unrestrained breathing of a soul whose "conversation was in heaven;" who was "raised up, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

The only thing which induces me to publish the following Letters and Papers, is the conviction that they express the sentiments, and experience, and heaven taught spirituality, of one who had made more rapid advances in the divine life, than is ordinarily found in the Church below. I thought that this candle, which the Lord had lighted, should not be hid under a bushel, but put on a candlestick, that it might give light to all that are in the house. There will be found original and strong thoughts, clothed in original and strong language: indeed the strength of the language may sometimes startle some of those who read these Letters, and may be such, that had the writer revised them for publication, she might have, perhaps, somewhat softened her expressions; but, as Editor, I did not think myself authorised, even if I had felt disposed, to do so. In truth, (whether erroneously or not,) I like those strong expressions: I would not wish to alter one of them: they bring back to my recollection, the image of the strongest mind that I ever met in any woman: they help to remind me of that which was her peculiar characteristic, uncommon masculine strength, combined with the extremest feminine gentleness: they help me to apprehend the power with which she realized those important subjects about which she wrote; and I am not without hope that, through the blessing of God, they may be made instrumental to convey the same reality to others.

Whilst I believe that all intelligent readers may derive benefit and edification from these pages, I conceive they may be especially profitable and comfortable to mourners; to those "who are afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate." Lady Powerscourt was one acquainted with grief. She had had severe and heavy trials; and she was thus, in a peculiar way, fitted to sympathise with all tried Christians. She was enabled "to comfort those who were in any trouble, with the comforts wherewith she herself had been comforted of God." When she knew of any of her friends being in trial, she seems to have felt herself especially drawn to write to them a "word in season". Therefore many of the Letters in the collection are addressed to mourners, and will, I trust, be found comforting and strengthening to those who are in similar circumstances.

There is one subject which occupied much of Lady Powerscourt's attention, which does not appear in the following pages, as prominent as many of her religious friends might have expected, and that is, the subject of prophecy. She was known to have very deeply considered it, to have conversed with those persons who were most remarkable for their study of it, and to have consulted the books which have been written on it; and, above all, to have read the Scriptures with much deep attention to the subject and yet, very little on prophecy appears in her correspondence. Lest any persons should think that, in making the selection, I have thrown aside Letters on the subject, I think it right to state that I have been myself surprised to find how little, upon this interesting subject, has been left among her papers. I had expected to have found much clear statement of the result of her deep consideration of prophecy; and though she should have stated that which did not agree with my views, I should have published her's, and allowed those interested in the subject to exercise their judgment thereon. I should certainly not do what some persons, whom I esteem, have done, — publish the sentiments of another, though at the time considering them erroneous, on the fundamental principles of the Gospel but I would publish the sentiments of another on the future prospects of the Church, though in those sentiments, I thought the writer was mistaken; because I consider the first subject to be vital, and that error on it is essentially dangerous. I do not so think of the other subject. I consider the whole Church of Christ to be much in the dark with regard to prophecy, and more or less in error concerning it; and that the best way to correct the error, and attain more light, is to encourage free discussion upon it. In order to reach the end, it is essential not to mistake as to the way. It is not equally essential to form correct anticipations, as to what shall be found at the end. Those who are on the way shall reach the end, and then all their mistakes concerning it shall be corrected.

I feel myself called upon to return my thanks to the correspondents of Lady Powerscourt, for the kindness and confidence with which they have entrusted me with her valuable Letters. They will see, I trust, that I have not violated their confidence. I have selected according to my best judgment; I have altered nothing, and corrected little, except when necessary to make the sense clear, which will often be indispensable in publishing from an uncorrected manuscript. I have been obliged to omit some very beautiful letters, on account of the recurrence of the same sentiments and expressions in other Letters. It appears to have been frequently the case, that some scriptural subject, with a suitable train of thought, was very deeply impressed upon Lady Powerscourt's mind; and she recurred to that subject and train of thought, in writing to her different friends, at the same time, in different places. I have generally omitted the Letters in which the sameness of thought was observable; but I have sometimes admitted a repetition, where I must otherwise have rejected a Letter, in other respects valuable, or have made omissions which might have rendered the sense less clear. I hope her correspondents will excuse me for the omissions, and the readers for the repetitions they may observe.

As my object is simply to present to the Church the sentiments of the writer, which appear to me to be likely to promote edification, I have omitted even the names of the persons to whom the Letters were addressed; and I have abstained from prefixing to this Volume any thing in the way of a memorial of the departed writer. It would be impossible to write any biographical sketch of her that is gone, without stating particulars as to those that remain, which might give them a publicity which would be distressing to their feelings. I send, then, the Letters before the public, without any recommendation except their own intrinsic worth. I publish them, not because they were written by my dear departed friend, but because, in my judgment, (not unprejudiced, I admit,) they appear to be in themselves such as ought to see the light.

I have added, at the end, a few Papers, which seem to have been her private exercises on scriptural subjects. They will show how deeply she considered, and how powerfully she reasoned, upon the word of God. It may, indeed, be said of her, that her "delight was in the law of the Lord, and in his law did she meditate day and night."

It only remains that I should commend this Volume to the blessing of Him, "without whom nothing is strong — nothing is holy". He was pleased to make the writer of these Letters a very signal monument of His grace. She bore witness to His grace in her life, and by her life; and I pray, that He may vouchsafe to allow her, "though dead, yet to speak," to the edification of His people, and to the glory of His holy name.

Powerscourt Glebe, April, 1838.

Letters.

Letter 1.

... 1821.

I am glad to hear you have a good opinion of ... I almost envy any one a strong feeling of sin, but I am sure our wise and tender Father knows best how to measure that out to us, in proportion as He sees us able to bear it; though it seems sad not to grieve at offending such a Lord. It gives me much pleasure to hope there are ... in this house seeking him, whom, I trust, I at least desire to be dearer to me than all the world. It is cheering to see even a Christian's face. I do not expect to go to ... either Wednesday or Thursday; but perhaps the less of these enjoyments we have, the more shall we long for an eternity of them, when all foolish worldly gossip, which weighs us down now, will be over for ever.

Yours, most sincerely,

T. A. HOWARD.

Letter 2

.

Dear Mr ...,  I return the sermon with many thanks; I am greatly obliged to you for it, and particularly for your kindness in saying I am heartily welcome to it. I trust the Lord may bring me, and all dear to me, to the blessed state which the sermon describes that of a Christian to be. I must also thank you for your little prayer at the end of your note, you have not one in your parish who needs it more. You say you hope I sometimes offer one for you; it would be strange if it was only sometimes, but if you knew what my prayers are, you would beg to be left out. Indeed I am not satisfied on that head; for some weeks I have not been able to pray at all, and seldom to read (I mean in private), and it is more wretched than I can say. Perhaps if you are not engaged, you will be kind enough to send me a few lines to say, if you ever knew this to be the case with any of whom you had hopes, and what you think is the cause of it, for I suppose it must be my own fault. I sometimes fear the Lord's Spirit will not strive with me any longer. I hope you will excuse my troubling you about myself; but there is no peace, while the Lord hides from us the light of his countenance. It will be a happy time, when we shall have done with this body of sin.

Yours, most sincerely,

T . A. HOWARD.

Letter 3

.

...I have just been reading two such sweet verses, 12th and 13th of Col. 1, and almost fearing such great things cannot be intended for such a log; however, the thought of being a partaker of that inheritance is sometimes very sweet, and I believe I may as well enjoy the thoughts of it here, even if I never do arrive at it...

Letter 4

.

London, April 9th, 1823.

My dear ...,  I hope you will not think my long silence a mark of ingratitude for your goodness in writing to me so long and kind a letter, but between ... illness and ... I have had but little time to myself, and that little I know you would rather I should give to the Bible, than to you. Besides, I wished to be able to tell you that ... was quite well, which I think I can say, thank God, now. His illness has been a very trying one, and more tedious, from its having been so much on his nerves. But the Lord has only brought us in view of great misery, that we may feel more dependant on him, and the more watchful to be ready for every thing. I wish I could say this was the effect it has had on me, or that anything ever moved this cold stony heart. Indeed I have long been in despair about that, and often wished to speak to you on the subject; so much so, that I had resolved to visit you the morning before we left Powerscourt, but thinking that perhaps you would consider me troublesome and very full of self ..., and as you proposed writing, I determined I would postpone asking your advice, till I had the pleasure of hearing from you, and I think you deserve a scolding from me, for you must have remarked how much I had fallen away from the Lord, for I did not try to hide it, and you know you should have spoken to me about it. But it is only wonderful that I am not more unhappy; for I do not think I have any feeling of any sort on the subject remaining, or hardly any care whether I have part or lot in the matter. I have not felt particular harm from moving about, for I could not be worse, than I was before leaving Ireland. I had nothing to lose. I often fear my name has been blotted out from the book of life, and that the Lord is weary of entreating me to accept all the blessings of the Gospel. I know you will set about comforting me, but it is not that I want; what I feel is an apathy, and indifference, whether one of the promises belongs to me or not. Oh, If you knew the difference of my feelings from this time last year, you would think the same as I do ... I was so happy in him then, that I thought I could never be moved — the Lord, of his goodness, had made my hill so strong. I remember telling ... that, let events turn out as they might, my happiness was ensured; even if shut up for life in a dungeon, I could be nothing but happy, with the prospect of being one with my Saviour. But He hid his face from me, and I have been troubled. I find I can do without anything but Him; but having once tasted his love, everything else has lost its sweetness. I feel now that I care for nothing: not for the things of another world, and I am sure, not for the things of this. Instead of running to my Bible, as a hungry man to his food, I read it as a task. Prayer is no more my sweetest pleasure, but a duty which I feel glad to have over; and when I go to it, I have nothing to say to my Lord. The contemplation of Heaven used to be so sweet, it made everything earthly appear as nothing. Now I do not feel it would give me the least pleasure, to hear that I was to be there tomorrow. Oh, if you knew how unmoved my heart is at all the wonderful means of grace I enjoy, one beautiful sermon after another. I feel none of the delight I once used at seeing a Christian walk into the room. Instead of loving to hear them talk of the Saviour, I am at a loss for something to say; indifferent, totally so, about the souls of others ... I am in an awful state. I could tell you a great deal more, but it would be only tormenting you. I tell you this much, not expecting you to understand my case, for I do not suppose there ever was such another, but that you may not think me interested in all those things, for which I feel 60 little. I know you can do nothing for me, but this I hope you will do — strive hard for me, strive hard for me in your prayers: I owe you more than I can say, humanly speaking, and I would not write to you this way did I not feel you are the only person who feels for my soul, as I feel for it myself, for we have both to give an account of it. This I can say, you are pure from my blood. Oh! may I still be your joy and crown of rejoicing in the last day; and may all your instructions not cast me deeper into hell. At other times I think I used to look at religion too much as a pleasure, and that having lost her with whom I used to enjoy this pleasure, it has lost much of its delight ... How very full of self you will think me, but I want your advice, and your constant earnest prayers, I was sorry to hear you had such a bad cold. I hope you have recovered your voice for this week, and that you have not given up your trip to London. We have been so much shut up by Lord P.'s illness, that I have not been able to hear many good preachers on week days, but hear Mr ... regularly on Sunday. Last Sunday I went to Mr. Howell's church, whom I liked very much, though his style is rather odd. He says very strong things, lowering the creature, and exalting the Saviour...

Forgive this long letter, and believe me,

Very affectionately and gratefully,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 5

.

September, 1823.

Dear Mr ...,  I should have answered your kind letter before this, had I anything to tell you that could have given you any gratification. But alas! I have been as desolate within as without. My earthly husband hid from me, my heavenly one I cannot find; and Satan hard at work tempting me to say what is this black thing I have done, which makes my Father so angry with me. But oh my dear Lord, let him not rule within: quench his fiery darts: show me that I deserve far worse, even all the wrath of an offended God. But Jesus has "borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." These trials are only blessings to fill up that which is behind of his afflictions. I am also tempted to think, that I cannot be his, for I feel none of that comfort his children always feel, and I used to find in the hour of trial ... Jonah doest thou well to be angry? I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned grievously against him. Oh dear Mr ..., you do not know, what it is to lose one so dear, so very dear; I can only compare it to the tearing asunder all the strings of the heart. Then such a gloomy prospect here the rest of one's life. After watching him day and night with so much anxiety, anticipating the joy of being allowed again to be with him; all at once so unexpectedly to have my hopes dashed from me, was what I did not think for some days, I could have borne, because I forgot that as my day so should my strength be. In any other loss I have had, I never could pray for the bodily life of my friend, but in this to which no other loss can be compared, night and day, I could not help entreating the Lord to spare me the heavy blow. I really did think he meant to answer me, and hoped against hope, till the last breath left that dear body ... But I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that in very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me — I must wait to know and see why it is, till I know as I am known. That it is unspeakable love, I have no doubt, because he who has sent it is no new friend, but a tried and precious one; and when it is good for me He will allow me to see that this God is Love. But oh I tremble when I look at my rebellion, and ingratitude, throughout it all. I have had much to show me myself this last year — to dig up the mud hid under the smooth surface. How it will astonish you — astonish angels, when the book of my sins is opened, except they are so blotted out with blood as to make them illegible.

I do not suppose there could be a stronger lesson of the vanity of every thing earthly than to look at me last year and this. The prospects of happiness I seemed to set out with! And now where are they? A living monument that man in his best estate is altogether vanity — and see how my heart, without my knowing it, was on earth. I could not have thought one who professes to believe in the joys of heaven, and had tasted the realization of them by faith, could so mourn, as one without hope, could so willingly call him back again. But I shall say no more, for these complaints only grieve my God, and annoy you. But, indeed, I am at times greatly oppressed, and feel this evening as if there were a parcel of devils within tearing me different ways, and refusing me any rest. I beseech you pray for me, and write to me,

Your unalterably affectionate

And grateful friend,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 6

.

February 18, 1824.

... How I shall long to join you all above. I fear I need patience, and find it hard to reconcile my mind to the possibility of my living three times as long as I have lived yet. When I look back upon a few months, and remember the happiness I used to feel when I expected my dearest love and ..., to spend the evening at ... and to have a little reading, I can hardly persuade myself that I am the same person. Two now in possession of what they then, blessed be God, enjoyed by faith, and I left alone. — But I forgot — r determined never to murmur again. It needs a great stretch of faith sometimes, when the enemy comes in like a flood, to believe that God is as much at peace with me through Christ, as with those already above; that Abraham now in glory is not safer than I am. Is that presumption, do you think? What a precious name, a strong tower, into which if we run, we shall be safe. Were I left to myself I should run from it. I would not trust myself to his word, but seek to save myself from danger. But almighty love arrests me, pulls me in; and then rewards me for coming. How much in those words, "are safe," to think we are safe from every thing! No evil shall ever touch us, evil at the end, or evil on the way. All paved with love; "all things shall work together for good." I have got the promise of all others I want — "let thy widows trust in me." I once wished there was a richer, sweeter promise to widows, but I believe it requires to be brought into different circumstances, in order to feel the force of different promises. For the Lord knew that none so suited widows, as these few words. In looking round the wide world, so filled with wickedness, and seeing one has to pass through it alone, one would fear every step one took so unprotected and forlorn, only for this promise. With this "when I am weak, then I am strong." It is not like him to invite us to trust in him, and then let any evil come nigh us. If his everlasting arms are underneath, I "shall dwell in safety alone." Let there be rebellions, revolutions, persecutions, earthquakes, anything, every thing, "let thy widows trust in me," should be enough. I know my tabernacle shall be in peace. Sweet to think that the eye of the Lord is upon us, to deliver our soul from death. It seems to me, as a nurse keeps her eye upon her child lest it should destroy itself, or as a keeper keeps his eye upon his poor lunatic, "the Lord is thy keeper." Then unbelief jumps up and says, how do you know all this is for you? Then I do not know what to say, but "my Master told me so." His Spirit witnesses with my spirit. He has given me the earnest of the spirit. To those who believe he is precious, and I think he is precious to me — "a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me." Oh that I could keep close to him; I want to be fixed on the rock. My grief is, that the waves of sin and the-world give me so many shoves off it. Will not you pray for me, for I greatly need it; and will you not write to me, and exhort me with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord; and tell me if you think me presumptuous, or going wrong in any way. That old serpent is so cunning. Will you forgive me for speaking so much of myself, but speaking of what He can do for me, magnifies the power of his grace, more than if I was to speak of it with regard to any one else upon earth.

Yours with Christian affection,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 7

.

... All creation seems to be travailing to bring forth some mighty event, and poor Ireland is coming up in remembrance before God. Oh what are we, to be able to look any thing, every thing in the face, and know assuredly without a peradventure, that all is, shall, and must, work together, for our everlasting good; that had we sense, it is just what we should order for ourselves, to have fresh comfort in every fresh putting forth of his omnipotence, for this God is our God. Though even the earth should be shook to its very centre, though we might feel outwardly the curse of sin, yet no evil henceforth for ever can befall us, we shall only behold, and see from out of the cleft of the immoveable rock. From thence we may boldly challenge distress, persecution, etc. etc. our dwelling is the Most High. We may be thrown like a shuttlecock, from self to Satan, and back from Satan to self, till weary of both; but neither sin, self, or Satan, shall or can ever reach our lives, for they are hid with Christ. Because he lives we shall live also. What a happy confidence in such a world, to be able to look up, and say, my Lord and my God, and to know also the Captain of our salvation as our bosom friend. Whilst engaged in calling in his people from North, South, East and West, he does not forget those already within the fold, but comes and whispers them in the still small voice of his word; tells me, I shall never be forgotten, let his works be ever so stupendous; tells me, he cannot live in glory, and leave me behind; that the angel can no more swear, that time shall be no more, till the last of his elect shall be sealed on their foreheads, than his truth can fail. I think there is a danger in these times of the feelings being so kept alive by excitement, as to lead us to forget, that as we have received Christ, so we ought to walk in him, built up as well as rooted; stablished in the faith ...; so eager for the battle as to forget our armour. I trust you remember us, that you are often present with us in spirit, and pray without ceasing that we may stand complete in all the works of God, that he may set us as lights on a hill, by the splendour of our walk, illuminating many from the kingdom of darkness unto the kingdom of God's dear Son; that we may walk worthy of our high calling in all lowliness; that we may see in a degree with the eye of God, that we may live but for one end, that we may occupy till he come, reaching forward towards the prize, running the race set before us, looking unto Jesus; that we may have nothing to do with any pursuit or happiness ending in time; neither entangled with the cares, nor intoxicated by the fascinations of the world; and that every action of our lives may declare plainly, that our kingdom is not of this world. Pray that for us, and I will pray, that the answer may rebound into your soul...

With sincere Christian affection,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 8

.

January, 1826;.

I have to thank you for your other kind long letter. There is a certain drawing out of heart towards those who care enough for us, as to point out in what way we may be grieving our Lord. Your accusations, I fear, are quite just, and I hope I may have your prayers, that I may be enabled to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. I think it is in the Lord, we are told to rejoice, a joy which can be felt while sorrowing, a good cheer in tribulation. I sometimes sit in astonishment why my cup should run over with this blessing, and I have more when the heart is brought low to receive it, than when it is (which is often the case) intoxicated. own I feel sometimes cast down and desolate, but not unhappy. I have had a deep, a very deep wound; the trial has been very severe; but how should I have known him as a brother born for adversity, without it. How should I prize him as my strength, if I am not sometimes left to feel my perfect weakness. The heart is too selfish not to drop a tear sometimes, but I hope no longer a rebellious one. The wound is closed, but very little bursts it open. The marble must be allowed to melt a little, but only enough to send to that good physician, who maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole. I understand these lines,

"Cry and groan beneath afflictions,

Yet to dread the thoughts of ease."

However, if it is more to his glory, that I should take pleasure in the many blessings left in this world, dreary as it may seem through the glass of affliction, "behold I am here Lord," if to be kept low — even so. May I only be able to lay this soul as helpless on the great "I AM." And I can assure you, however appearances may contradict it, I have much joy and peace in believing, find life a flux and reflux of love; Jesus is precious to me. I find his banner of love extended over Edinburgh; his promises here also, are as honey dropping from the comb. There is not one on earth I desire but him; he is all my hope and all my salvation; and I can go on with confidence, knowing he can never deny himself or say "I never knew you," for he testifies not only that he knows me, but that he loves me, by enabling me to say, "thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."

Sometimes we appear such insignificant grasshoppers that it is hard to conceive that he can think of us and our foolish concerns; at other times one feels of such immense importance, that one wonders that Christians can live like other people, such as when we read of the burst of joy from the heavenly host, and find this the sign that their Lord whom they adore has become a despised babe, and all, because peace is brought to earth, and good will to man. Peace seems just what we want here, purchased by his blood, left as his legacy. What simplicity there seemed to be in his words after his resurrection. He seemed to enjoy the travail of his soul, when distributing his peace. May he impart largely of it to your soul, and while recommending the inexpressible treasure of his word to others, may you be enabled yourself to feed on it, by faith with thanksgiving. May he empty of his fulness into all our bosoms, and enable us by using, to show we value the privilege of drawing near to him, to tell him of fear the world cannot allay, of wants the world cannot satisfy, of blessings the world knows nothing of.

Your affectionate,

T.A. Powerscourt.

Letter 9.

... Is your happy soul still lifted up? able in His light to walk through darkness? I know the dreary waste that lies before you. How his dear, dear company is missed — how tasteless and insipid every thing appears — how you want that affection which entered into every trifle which concerned you — how you want an adviser, a protector, such a companion — one to weep when you weep — to rejoice when you rejoice. I know well what it is to lie down at night and say, where is he? — to awake in the morning and find him gone — to hear the hour strike day after day, at which you once expected his daily return home to his too happy fire-side —  and find nothing but a remembrance that embitters all the future here. Oh my poor, poor ... if I cannot feel for you who can? — who so often partook of your happiness? — sweet precious time I have been allowed to enjoy with you both, but past. However, it is well that you have another to feel for you. If I know the meaning of the word sorrow, I also know of a joy a stranger intermeddleth not with. How tenderly our compassionate Lord speaks of the widow! as a parent who feels the punishment more than the chastened child. He seems intent to fill up every gap love has been forced to make; one of His errands from heaven was to bind up the broken-hearted. He has an answer for every complaint you may ever be tempted to make. Do you say you have none now to follow, to walk with, to lean on? He will follow you and invite you to come up from the wilderness leaning on him as your beloved. Is it that you want one to be interested in all your concerns? Cast all your cares upon him, for he careth for you — a protector? Let thy widows trust in me —  an adviser? Wonderful Counsellor! Companion? I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you; I will never leave you, nor forsake you; I have not called you servants but friends; behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with me. — One to weep with you? In all their affliction he was afflicted; Jesus wept. When you lie down — safe under the shadow of his wings, under the banner of His love. When you awake — still about your path and about your bed. It is worth being afflicted to become intimately acquainted, and to learn to make use of, the Chief of ten thousand — the altogether lovely — the brother born for adversity —  the friend that sticketh closer than a brother — the friend of sinners. Pray write often to your poor sister; tell me every thing that interests you; do not let the children forget me...

Letter 10

.

My dear Mr ...,  Though he was a shining light by whom God was glorified, yet, I think, in him more than in others the power of God was manifested in the inner man; the mind that was in Christ was stamped on him; every disposition led captive to Jesus. But it required to live with him, and see him in every turn of life, to know how beautifully the Spirit was moulding him into the image of his Master. It appears to me, there were four graces peculiarly striking in his character, some of which you have mentioned.

First, his entire forgetfulness of self in every thing, (this was very remarkable), accompanied with a watchful attention to the wishes of others, a tenderness to their feelings, a fitting of himself into their prejudices, and, as far as he could, entering into their pursuits, so as by any means to win some.

Second, most striking trait, which I believe you have mentioned, but which those who knew him but little did not perceive, was a loathing of himself, as if he really felt sin a burden; but, at the same time, the most happy and simple confidence of his safety in Christ. It often reminded me of Isaiah 59. 19. He seemed to feel the evil heart as a flood which would overwhelm him, was not the soul continually directed to Christ crucified as to its resting place.

Third, is what you have already expressed much better than I can; such a thirst for truth upon every subject as enabled him to lay aside prejudice, and every impediment in the way, and made it visible that to reach and receive it was his object.

Fourth, we may say, the cause of his being so unlike his natural man, was his mind being kept in a continual turning to Christ, as the element in which he delighted. He was alive to spiritual subjects, should they be brought forward at any moment. Though zealously engaged in controversy with the enemies of truth; though enjoying with gratitude his social happiness; though necessarily occupied in much and different business, he was enabled to live alone, and seemed to have learned the difficult lesson of using the world without abusing it; like the needle, which may be turned from the pole by superior force, but when let loose, returns to its proper position; so with him, when the pressure of business was taken off his mind returned to his rest in God.

I fear, were I to say all I thought of him, I should draw a perfect character, for love covered all faults; and after all, the various graces of the Spirit were so blended, it is difficult to say which was most predominant. It might truly be said of him, that he adorned the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things. It is difficult, when speaking of a character so beloved, to exalt the Saviour, not the creature, to leave an impression that sin was all he could call his own; all that was lovely, the comeliness which Christ put on him.

This is a long note, but you know it is the property of women to multiply words, and express little...

Yours truly,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 11

.

... 1826.

... I think dear ... death was made a great blessing, which I fear has only taught me one painful lesson, that a blessing does not necessarily follow an affliction. I need not repeat, (for the Lord has already proclaimed it so loudly by sending affliction line upon line, affliction precept upon precept,) that no one needs trial more, no one needs so much of the Bible as I do, and on none do both tell so little. It requires all the energy of God to bend my will to his; and while it may be sometimes hard to be content with outward providences, it is still more hard to feel resigned to be what one is, not to wish for another's spirit, another's disposition; to be resigned to lie as a bit of clay in his hands without dictating the best way of being formed into a vessel fit for the master's use; satisfied with good as well as evil, knowing that what he has undertaken he is able to perform; hard to feel resigned to dishonour him, whom we adore, all our lives; to love His presence above every thing else put together, and yet, continually, by our own folly and neglect, lose it for trifles which we most despise; very hard to be resigned to oneself; to be ever worshipping, and placing, this Dagon in the temple of our beloved, and to be haunted by it wherever we go. I do think one chief part of our happiness hereafter will consist, in our having done with wretched self, God being all in all...

...Altered as that spot has been these last two years, I expect to find it still more so on our return. I did value more than I can utter that dear dear saint's visits; the prospect of them cheered the time of his absence; and even all unpleasantness was removed from all secular affairs by the interest and part he always took in my concerns. However, there is always but to the Christian. But now I hope to be cheered, in expecting the coming of the "altogether lovely," to be upheld by the interest, and part, he takes in all that concerns me. And if I know myself, my ambition is to live simply to His glory; to be a burning and a shining light, only that the splendour of my walk may bring glory to His name, to glorify him in spirit as well as body, which are altogether His, paid for by him. Soon we shall see him really ours; soon shall we join the company of the just made perfect, know, and perhaps be able to tell them, how every rough blast of human woe has hastened on our little bark to shore. In the mean time, may our Lord's blessing and presence, so interwoven with our comforts, rest upon you and ...

I am always a great egotist in my letters to you, because I fancy you feel an interest, at least, in the spiritual feelings of all your flock. Pray, write soon, and do not think, while you are writing, that you are losing time. I hope your throat is better. You have not the privilege of being afflicted for yourself alone, but for our consolation and salvation. My love to all who care about me.

Believe me my dear Mr ...

Yours, with true affection,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 12

.

Powerscourt, 1st February, 1826.

My dearest ...,  So I must write and receive no answer; that is very hard indeed; if I thought, or could think, it could possibly give one moment's comfort to an afflicted saint, I should be more than resigned; how sweet it would be to be a cup of consolation in the temple of our God. Well! if I have not that privilege, I hope to be a vessel of mercy through eternity. Yes, the poor sinner would not, if he could, be saved any way but as he is. Our proud nature at first rebels against being objects of pity, we should prefer having salvation as those who had no need, rich and increased with goods; but when forced to throw down our arms of rebellion, and come as beggars, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, then we feel it is such a blessedness to be objects of pity to a God full of compassion, that we glory in our infirmities, because they bring us in contact with Him for every thing, food, clothing, etc. The greater our necessities the more we have to do with Him. How well you must know Him! How often he has strengthened you upon the bed of languishing! How he has made all your bed in your sickness! How often he has enabled you to carry your weak soul in the arms of faith, and lay it down on this resting place; His precious word, a bed of consolation stuffed with sweet and precious promises. I think the believer even while in the furnace, at the moment of experiencing that his trials are not joyous but grievous, feels so convinced He is doing all things well, that he would not have it otherwise, had he his choice; and such a desire has the new man to be made partaker of his holiness, to enjoy the peaceable fruits of righteousness, which these exercises produce, that he turns, and kisses the rod, saying Amen, deal with me as with a child. The poor world may have a reprieve here from suffering, but the child of God may not, would not if he might. Happy confidence, He will not lay on us one unneedful stroke, for as a father pitieth his children, etc. Happy confidence, he will not keep back one needful stroke, for he scourgeth them whom he loves, that he may receive them, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Is it not strange that the moment he is acting most the part of a parent, is just the moment we are most apt to forget we are his children; he tells us, we forget the exhortation that speaks to us as unto sons. It is pleasant, as he takes these precious relationships on himself, to take his at his word, and plead them before him; sweet to look up and say, Abba, Father; to leave all temporal concerns in his hands, because "our heavenly father knows we have need of them;" reminding him it is a father's part to provide for the want of his little ones. When we come to make known our spiritual wants, to remind him it is a father's feeling, to be willing to give all within his means; and, even, when we sin against him, depart, backslide, return base ingratitude for love, out of this depth, to whom shall we naturally look, but to our parent? As the prodigal, when confessing he was not worthy to be called his child, begins his sentence with "father." No, nothing can change this relationship. "Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, thou, O! Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting." He will spare as a man spares his own son that serveth him; even though forced to speak against his dear son, his pleasant child, He earnestly remembered him still — his bowels were troubled for him; he could not help having mercy; and he will lead us also; cause us to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein we shall not stumble — for he is a father to Israel; he will put on us the best robe in his wardrobe — the righteousness of Christ; he will give his greatest gift as a token of his love — his holy Spirit; he will cause us to be shod with the gospel of peace; when tempted to doubt his faithfulness, he points to David's feeling when crying out, O! Absalom my son, my son, would to God I had died in thy place; and appeals to our hearts, if David could have afflicted Absalom willingly; he points to what his servant Moses has left on record is to be expected from that parent, (Num. 11. 12.) that he should carry his sucking child in his bosom, and reminds us, by taking that relationship on him self, he has bound himself thus to act, and he will carry us in his bosom to the land of promise, and we shall not halt till He is wearied, nor fall till He stumbles; none shall pluck us out of his hands, till the arm of Omnipotence fails from weakness; no lion shall overtake, no enemy overcome, while the -everlasting arms are underneath, and the banner or love above. This is your portion and mine, dear fellow pilgrim. "Lord what is man that thou shouldst magnify him, that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him — that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment;" and this to such as we, who require a fresh exercise of mercy every moment to keep us out of hell; yet, even here, to know while feeling a weight of sin pointing to the very heavens, that there is a heap of mercy reaching into the heavens, "built up for ever;" that neither past sin shall condemn, for his mercy is from everlasting; neither shall future, because his mercy is to everlasting, they have all been laid on him — carried off into the land of forgetfulness, never to be laid on us again, until east meets with west. Under the old dispensation, remembrance was made of sin every year, because, and to show, that the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin; but now, the very declaration so often repeated, that sin shall be remembered no more, proves the blood of Christ sufficient to cleanse from ALL sin. May we every day dive deeper into this unfathomable love, every day increase in the knowledge of this love that passeth knowledge, till filled with the fulness of God, moulded into the mind that was in Christ Jesus; and when he shall open his casket and display his treasures, may we, and all dear Christian friends, whom I long to see again in the flesh, be found among those who spake often one to another of his dear name, who thought upon it.

If such the views which grace unfolds,

Weak as it is below,

What rapture must the Church above

In Jesus' presence know!

when time shall be no more — the bustle past. By the by, what insignificant names our God uses when speaking of this life: — grass, flower, dust, wind, shadow, a leaf going to and fro a weaver's shuttle;... Scatter my good wishes around, particularly to ...

Believe me dear ...

Very affectionately yours,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 13.

12th May 1826, Antrim Castle.

My dear friend — I put off writing till I should arrive at Powerscourt, expecting then to get a frank as my letters are not worth postage, but I can refrain no longer, thanking you and your dear sisters for your very great kindness to my children, etc. It was doubly gratifying, because any kindness shown to me, must be for my Master's sake. How manifestly His only aim is our happiness — witness, "this is my commandment, that ye love one another." We may well, then, trust it in his hands, who spared not His own Son. May we not lie like the helpless sheep on the shepherd's shoulder, content for him to carry through prosperity as well as adversity; through life, as well as death? Not only is our path already marked out by infinite wisdom and love, but has been trodden by the man of sorrow; be it ever so rugged, we still have the sweet comfort of tracing in it the footsteps of the Captain of our Salvation; every need-be pang, then, is but an echo from the inner sanctuary — "If ye suffer with Him ye shall be glorified together;" and as he entered the everlasting gates, triumphantly crying, "He is near that justifieth me, who shall contend with me?" So may his poor weak followers walk, saying, "who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" No one I think, who reads the Bible, can hesitate whether or not, it was written by one who knowing every distress, into which every believer from the beginning to the end would ever be brought, could provide a word in season for each, or whether or not, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in that man, who, inviting all who labour and are heavy laden to come to him, could promise rest to their souls. And do we not need every consolation laid up, word upon word, promise upon promise. In order that our comfort may abound, He has so graciously left us dependant one upon another, and provided so many relations calculated to support on our way to him, and, yet, as if to show they all concentrated in one, he takes to himself the name of each. I love to think of him as a Father, for it is written, "What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not." And the heart feels assured that his tenderness will neither spare too much, nor will our rebellion prompt him to say, "Let it alone." While the compassion manifested in the very chastisement proves, as words cannot, that he does not afflict willingly, but as a father pitieth his children so he pities us; yet, to think with all this, that I should ever murmur! I who may well say, his love to me is a wonder to myself; and this too, while having tasted of his trial, I can, in a degree, sympathise with him, for I do think, he is never more wounded in the house of his friends than when they murmur. Nothing seems so to overcome his forbearance with the Israelites. O! then, dear ... may we be able to say under every circumstance to the full extent of the words, "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want," resigned to live, or resigned to die, resigned to prosperity, or resigned to adversity, only, "Father glorify thy name."

To live is Christ! am I resigned to live

When Christ is with me, holds me by the hand,

Follows my footsteps, watches by my bed,

Bids the warm tear of grateful exultation,

Washing the stain the tear of sorrow leaves,

And makes some evil seem so like to good

I scarce can call it by another name.

I hope I am resigned the harder task to bear-

The plague of a rebellious heart,

To bear to wrong the Being I adore,

To love Him and yet forget Him, to desire

His Presence, more than all the things of earth,

And yet neglect and lose it for their sakes,

To seek for holiness and find but sin,

To war against myself and long to be-

Yet feel I am not-what my Maker is.

To die is gain! am I resigned to die?

IT IS NOT SO; that cannot be the word,

That speaks the Christian's feelings when she hears

The distant sound of her Redeemer's foot

Hasting to fetch her to her Father's throne;

When the first beam from heaven's unclosing gate

Falls on her path, to light her to her home,

And angel's voices vibrate on her ear

Preparing songs to greet her welcome there.

Could you see the heart turned inside out as God sees, you would join in exclaiming unworthy, unworthy; may it be written as of Ephraim of old, "his iniquity is bound up, his sin is hid." I trust my visit to Edinburgh has given me a spur in hasting unto the coming of our Lord. I do not feel friendship the same as I once did. I used to feel my pleasures here were increased. Now I feel my tale is told, and ties of friendship are drawing towards an hereafter, while we are only left in Satan's kingdom, for the Lord to finish his work in us and by us. For this end it seems to me, we should watch, the old serpent's aim to resist, and Christ's to further; the aim of the former seems to he to drive closer and closer to self, and even when his hopes are frustrated of getting the believer to fall down and worship this idol, he strives with it to muddle his comfort. Does not the aim of our dear Lord seem to be to give strong consolation to those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them? Let us then further this end, not only by opening our mouths wide for ourselves, but by declaring on the house-top what is whispered in our ear in the closet, and by testifying to our poor fellow pilgrims, that in our experience we have found, "faithful is he that hath promised."

Some of my friends accuse me of writing very uncomfortable letters; but I say, if you want to hear of me, you will find my future life folded up in that verse, "all shall work together for good," and only let me speak of my beloved. But this I must say, although I have quarrelled with evidences, one is now staring me in the face, in the love I feel towards you, dear ... it is such as a stranger intermeddleth not with.

Yours, dear friend, with cordial affection,

T. A. P.

Letter 14.

Glenart, October 1827.

My very dear sister in the Lord — Is it not true that we are very often a wonder to ourselves, think of my having a friend in the world. that I believe would not think a letter from me troublesome, yet that I can be one or two months, only intending to write, even though by doing so I might hope for a letter in return! I trust you open that door for many, into which if any enter, they are saved. I hope you are able to go in and out yourself, finding rich pasture. O! that our hearts were always bubbling up, boiling with this matter, like wine which hath no vent, ready to burst its bottles, constrained to speak about our King. O! that He so dwelt in our hearts by faith, that out of their abundance, our speech might be as spikenard sending forth its pleasant smell, ointment pouring forth his name, that this good treasure, this mine of wealth might be continually emptying itself in consolations into our own bosoms, and enriching all around. But who is this King! that we should leave all other subjects to speak of him? the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in our battles, the Lord of Hosts, the King of glory. — My Lord, who sits at the Lord's right hand, till every evil in my heart shall become his footstool. — The King, who in spite of the heathen raging, the kings of the earth standing up, the rulers taking counsel against him, shall be set on the holy hill of Sion. — A King who has come to his people in a chariot paved with love. — A King with many crowns, the most radiant, the most becoming of which, is the one he received in the day of his espousals, Cant. 3.2. — A King whose greatest glory is his bride, that he has overcome and new created the sinner, betrothed and united himself to such for ever. — A king who in the day of the gladness of his heart shall stretch forth his hand to you and me, and say in presence of men, angels and devils, "come ye blessed of my Father," etc. — A king who has himself prepared the kingdom, who by the love tokens he distils on us day after day, viz. by his dispensations, and his consolations, proves he has considered our frame, knows what will satisfy, even to enter into the joy of our Lord, who having prepared a kingdom that will satisfy!!! is now preparing us for it. — A king who has enriched his church by his poverty, nourished it by his riches; in a word, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Say, dear friend, have we not volumes to unfold respecting this king; why then so often do we spend our time, while in company with our fathers' children, talking on subjects we despise and consider trifles; is it not because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks? Alas! how grievously have I to accuse myself on this point; m nothing do I feel so dependant, and when I do speak, how many double triple motives; how often seeking self instead of Jesus, proved by silence before those who dislike it; how often ashamed of him, how often irritated when opposed; how often playing with the subject; how little feeling what I speak; how humbling; how astonished you would be, did you know me; all the love of angels and saints put together, could not have patience with me. . He alone could silent stand, and wait to show his love. Surely it is no hard demand is required only to be loving subjects, and how gracious where he demands this; He does not call on us to love an unknown friend, but with his own pencil has drawn for us the object to be loved. Two questions are natural when called to give our affections. 1st. What sort of person is he? 2nd. What is his mind towards me? Let us hear what answer God has given. What sort of person? "chiefest among ten thousand," "fairer than the children of men," "altogether lovely," "as the apple tree among the trees of the wood," not only "the first born of every creature" but "the image of the invisible God, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person," even God himself, who made and upholds all things in heaven and earth. What does Peter say, when he was the witness of his majesty? What does John, when he saw him standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks? Every knee bows to his name, every tongue shall confess him Lord, for He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, this is our King. But what is his mind towards us? "full of grace and truth;" out of his fulness ever emptying grace upon grace. His words to us are powerful, to overcome by love, a sharp two edged sword, yet as the sound of many waters, "most sweet" , as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh; "never man spake as he spake," gave his enemies testimony; for they "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." This is your beloved, and friend, as well as king, who has grace poured into his lips on purpose to speak a word in season to the weary; blessed weariness which brings a word from him; sweet to have our beloved, our king; comfortable to be able to say, my Jesus reigns; with what confidence we may lay ourselves back in his arms, and say "undertake for me;" blessed to be one with him whom God has blessed for ever; blessed to have our salvation and his glory bound up in the same bundle. Blessed to know he has gone through every class in our wilderness-school. Are you satisfied with this King? for he is your King for ever and ever, may our repose in him answer the question. Are you contented to have him, and leaving all others to cleave only to him? for this beloved is yours, and you are his; may the devotedness of our affections, lives, and words, answer, "Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." And O may we be kept from acting as one who is ashamed of his choice.

"Rather may this our glory be,

That Saviour not ashamed of me."

My eyes are not at all better, though at times more comfortable; the last fortnight I have suffered much with them, and a lump has appeared upon the good eye, but I trust it may go away again without making me quite blind; at all events I have a light that shines in darkness, that nothing can take from me; in his light shall I see light, even see him who is invisible.

Believe me, my very dear friend, now and ever your warmly affectionate sister in everlasting bonds,

T. A. P.

Letter 15.

Powerscourt, 26th July, 1828.

My very dear friend — I do not know where you are, but I think you must imagine, I have bade an eternal farewell to everything below, so long have I been answering your letters; but there is one you may write to, who will be sure to answer immediately. Our life should be, I conceive, a continual interchange of care for peace. I saw some of your friends in London; we hoped to see ... but it seems to have been a false report that she was coming to London. Oh! reality, reality, how immense all before us, yet how we shrink from apprehended evil, though we know Him too well to take one single want out of his hand. His will, nothing but his will... We have a wonderful advertisement of a physician, from the Spirit of truth, "who healeth all thy diseases;" we who know something of the plague of a human heart, can understand in a measure how great the undertaking. He says himself "come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He must have foreseen every weight his people ever should be burdened with, when he undertakes to give rest to all, and truly he does, for he himself carried all our sicknesses. Can he heal hearts wounded with guilt and care? wounded with rebellious murmuring at his dispensations, and coveting what he has withheld, delighting in broken cisterns, as though they were the fountain of living waters? Can he heal hearts of wandering and distracted maniacs; maniacs ever engaged in taking poison? Can He heal the bruises of our falls, the dislocations of our backslidings, wounds corrupt through foolishness? It is written, "who healeth all thy diseases;" it made little difference in the days of his flesh, what the disease was, that was brought to him, palsied, maimed, blind, deaf, possessed, dying, dead. Then let us come in the simplicity of sickness, in the helplessness of want; to trust is to be healed, to touch the hem of his garment is to be whole; but let us keep touching him, for virtue is ever coming from him; he waits to apply all the virtues of heaven's dispensary to our case whatever it be; he is master of that disease, we have all his promise, all his skill, all his power, all his love; his skill is infinite, his compassion boundless; though ascended to heaven, he has left his heart on earth; he gives US all his attention, as if there was none else to think of on earth. He requires but one thing, to take all he has prescribed, BITTER as well as SWEET. Dear ... let us put a blank into his hand for time, and for every thing, confident that with him he has freely given us all things. Is there one thing we would keep back? Let that be just the thing to commit with most anxiety; we need the substance of things hoped for, to be put in the scale of judgment and conscience, against the things of time; then as surely as substance outweighs shadow, so surely must we judge of things accurately, till all our sorrows shall be left behind; and from the Jerusalem above, we shall be able to trace his hand leading us by ways we knew not, to the manifesting and magnifying of his faithfulness and grace. Then shall we see how contemptible were all our fears, when omniscience which foresaw, omnipresence that prevented, and omnipotence that laughed them to scorn, were on our side. Let us get well acquainted with our physician; let us take lodgings in his neighbourhood; let us see him every day; let us hide nothing, but open to him our whole case, and say as David when under his care, "let me hear what God the Lord will say to me;" and let us venture on his testimony, who declares him to be our peace, for "he forgiveth all our sins, and healeth all our diseases." Mr. Howels said one day, speaking of this beloved physician, where was Jesus educated? where did he graduate? He was educated in the Lazar-house of human suffering, and he took his degree in the infirmary of the human heart — whenever he visits a patient He says, this sickness is not unto death; He is not only the physician, but he is also the medicine of the soul. History tells us of a queen who, when her husband was wounded by a poisoned arrow, extracted the venom with her own lips, at the risk of her life. Our physician has done more — He has extracted the poison of sin, which the bite of the serpent infused into our constitution, at the expense of his life. He has carried all his human sympathies into heaven, and He never ceases to exercise them; we can sometimes look back upon a scene of suffering, or of trial which was exquisitely painful at the time, but there was no diminution of sympathy in the breast of our physician. The trial was appointed or permitted in Love; and we shall soon see that it formed part of a merciful design which was superintended and tempered by the physician himself. Dear ... how well you know him, since he is just suited to our need. Have we not cause to glory in our need then? nor can I wish anything for you, but that you should be exactly in the state this letter shall find you, for "he performeth that which is appointed" for you. He who appointed life and glory to be the end, has also appointed this condition, that affliction, for the way. He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He may have the pre-eminence in all things; therefore "He makes all things work together for our good, for He is of one mind, and who shall turn him? What his soul desires, that He does, therefore we know we shall be like him when He shall appear. If you are in darkness, light is sown for you; you are still on the way to perfection, learning not to make idols of your feelings, treading in his steps, who was made perfect by suffering, and who never travelled with such velocity to perfection, as when He cried out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." I long to hear from you again; tell me what you think of dear ...

Believe me, my very dear friend,

Truly affectionately yours,

T. A. P.

Letter 16

.

Glenart, 1827.

My dear Mrs ...,  I have many apologies to make for having so long neglected answering your inquiries, but thought should I defer it until my arrival here, I might be able to have a comfortable few moments' intercourse with you on paper; not but that I might at ... but those who are cumbered about much serving, or fancy they have much to serve in, are especially cumbered when leaving home for a few days. Blessed to have our thoughts and joys not only "packed up," but gone before. Well to have all our riches in moveable goods, that like the present Jews, we may be ready to be off to Jerusalem at a moment's warning. I cannot answer your question till I talk to you a little about our dear, dear, friend. Stop! are we sure He is our friend? yes, for he is the friend of sinners. His name is the refuge of the oppressed — the helper of the needy, no particular need specified, for be it what it may, He has a help, even himself. In the world, tribulation, (oh how deep a word,) in me, peace. No oppression too trifling, no need too great, He who is our refuge, knows our frame; He knows the disorder of every little nerve, can cause even a voice or a step to be an oppression — so foolish the oppression, as hardly to allow it to ourselves, yet may we run from it, and hide ourselves in him, a refuge even from ourselves. What can be our need when our help is the God of Jacob, a covenant God, who keepeth truth for ever; when our hope is in him who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them? How beautiful the 146th Psalm, where we see, His greatness consists in being just fitted for the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner, the blind, the bowed down, the stranger, the fatherless, yes, and the widow. You ask me if I have read Romaine on Canticles? No, never! but the Spirit has, I think, expounded to me some of the verses when doing his office as Comforter, and I sometimes think none can so enter into the emphasis of feeling expressed in that book, as the widow, for none so know the preciousness of any blessing, as those who have lost it — how much more that blessing, without which even paradise was not complete; and if when all was peace, and joy, and love, man needed one to bear his part in bliss, Oh! how much more when care and sorrow fill our hearts with anguish and our eyes with tears. Who can so value that everlasting is, and am, as one who is every turn forced to remember, my beloved was mine, and I was his; yet happy helplessness, blessed difficulties, which bring to our assistance such a helper. There is hardly, I believe, a name implying poverty and want in the creature, and strength for this poverty in himself, that he does not take — father, brother, friend, prophet, priest, king, physician, help, health, refiner, light, life, counsellor, guide, anchor, sanctuary, all in all, our portion for ever — but the most wonderful endearing and sufficient, is this, the husband of his church, or rather the bridegroom, (his name in this sacred song) for the marriage supper of the Lamb is not yet come, the bride not being yet ready. Speaking lately to ... of those verses you mention, this verse seemed to me particularly sweet. "Who, is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?" True, the church is in the wilderness, but it is only for an appointed time; her place has been prepared of her God; she is fed, she is not forgotten, she is on her way up, and she has a strong support. (Rev. 12. 6.) Her very situation makes her feel protection, support, and consolation needful, but it is in order that she may trust for all in her beloved, and in doing so, find perfect peace; for "in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength;" her very helplessness forces her to prove his faithfulness, power, and tender watchfulness. The stronger she leans, the more she knows of Him in whom she has believed, and if her sense of infirmities had not obliged her to have recourse to foreign strength, never could she have learned to say, "most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me". "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in necessities, etc., for when I am weak, then am I strong." But while every thing around is saying, "arise, this is not thy rest," how marvellous that we need afflictive line upon line, precept upon precept, to remind us we are in the wilderness, so heavily we go to reach eternal joys. Oh, how dull we are in learning difficult dependant lessons! how many rebukes, chastisements, reproachful looks, we learn from our patient Master, before we can be persuaded to accept of happiness in leaning on him! Surely, the malignity of sin is no where so visible as in the bosom of the child of God. Satan sins not in spite of light, love, and knowledge — redeeming love. It is truly humbling, that nothing less than God can make us understand what is plain, desire what is good, avoid what is evil; how much more so is it, that at the very moment our judgment tells us, there is but one path of pleasantness and peace, at the moment conscience is convincing us how grievous and bitter a thing it is to depart from our God, when past experience with an enlightened understanding unite in exclaiming, "To whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life; even at that very moment, nothing less than an Almighty spirit can make us will, not to forsake the fountain of living water which we have tasted, and to hew out with labour, to our misery, cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water. Oh! let us beware of our first neglect of our Lord. Our beloved can bear any thing better than neglect. Let us with John, lean on the bosom of Jesus; there learn love, as he learned it. Thus shall the mind be in us that was in Christ; for love is the fulfilling of the law. I did hear something lately unbecoming a Christian, of ... and in dwelling on it, I hope to benefit myself; for it is a point, alas, I particularly fail in, as, no doubt, you have observed. I mean, speaking severely of God's children, forgetting that he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye; that words aimed at them, pierce him; that all is laid at the charge of that cause for which we profess to live, and to be willing to die. I think we should be very sure of an action, before we speak of it, which we do not consider commendable, and not then unless for good...

Letter 17

.

October 23, 1827.

... Often, often has Satan stopped my way, not only by the idea that those I spoke to might think I practised what I said, but because I found hid in some chamber of imagery a desire that they should think so; but at last I found out the idea came out of Satan's opiate box. Some lessons we do not learn till after long experience, such as these: — First, we are not to do evil that good may come. Second, when sin lies heavy on our conscience, we are to force ourselves into the presence of God — not skulk from him, etc. Third, we are not to flee from Satan, but resist, in order that he may flee from us; blessed to be under the Lord's teaching, to be trained up by him in the way we should go, to have Jesus representing God to us, representing us to God, to have Jesus interceding for the sinner with God, to have the Spirit interceding for God with the sinner. Blest to be rising in his school, though every class presents a more difficult lesson. Blessed to have a waste heart, to feel it a wilderness, a desert fitted to receive and rejoice in such promises as this, (true with regard to us though stolen from Jews,) "The Lord shall comfort thee; he shall comfort all thy waste places; he will make thy wilderness like Eden, thy desert as the garden of the Lord," "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."...

Letter 18.

May 30, 1828.

... In what a ruinous heap is all God's work, once declared to be very good; from the top, to the bottom of creation, from the lion, to the spider, each carrying on the history of Cain and Abel; man most like Satan of all, for instance, slaves. And shall it be always so? Shall this be Messiah's conquest? that his saints are to take flight and leave his handy work to be destroyed? What a triumph to Satan to sweep away in his destruction that lovely work of six days, on which Jehovah looked with delight, over which "Wisdom" rejoiced and delighted — the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy! No! let creation groan and wait a little longer for the redemption of the body; for then shall the purchased possession be redeemed, then shall be the restitution of all things. Then shall the sons of God, whose sonship is now questioned, be declared to be the sons of God with power, by the resurrection of the dead even as their elder brother before them. Now, their life is hid with Christ in God; but when he shall appear, they shall appear with him and like him in glory — our life shall be manifested. "Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our God, shall bless Israel, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God!" Mark the adoptions spoken of in Scripture: — National, which, though it does not secure salvation, brings into particular relationship and consequently, subjects to greater judgments. Personal adopt-ion, which does secure it, that spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father, and if children, heirs, etc. And third, manifested adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, (Rom. 8.) But I had better stop, as there is neither beginning nor end to the subject. I will only add, "Time is short;" other nations may have other opportunities; but Ireland, having received national adoption now, now is the time to cry aloud, "come out of her (Babylon,) come out of her, come out of her, my people," and may the testimony be borne of us which was said of a great sinner greatly pardoned, "She hath done what she could." It is said, "as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God;" then, since we are sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, we are led by the Spirit. What a gift is this Spirit! The Comforter, which shall abide with us for ever. Not only shall He teach us things freely given us of God, but He shall seal us his — an earnest of our inheritance — will not suffer sin to have dominion over us; shall dwell in us as a well of water springing up into everlasting life — upwards, in love, joy, peace; overflowing, scattering round, in long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; what better confidence can we have that we are his, than having been delivered from the spirit of bondage, and given the spirit of adoption; his Father our Father; his God our God — doubly dear? And though He leads us in the midst of the paths of judgment, yet, while teaching us to profit, He shall prove to us, He is leading to the land of uprightness in the right way. And after all, the sum of happiness we find, even in the new Jerusalem, is this, "I will be his God and He shall be my son." Let us, dear friend, among those we live, every day, hour, moment, walk as children of light. Oh, what difficult preaching is this! Let us drink in largely every morning of the unction of the Spirit, which the busy bee (not the wasp) knows how to sip from the garden of the Lord; that through the day we may breathe out the atmosphere of heaven all around; we have a right to wear a sweeter smile than even angels wore; and since suffering displays the riches of our inheritance, may we not bless him, if our lot should be among the exercised in soul...

Letter 19.

25th May, 1828.

... There is only one enemy we cannot escape, though our whole lives should be a running from it — monster self: I am quite weary of this heart — Satan's workshop — always going on hammer, hammer, hammer, stealing every grace given, to manufacture into some adornment for the idol self. It reminds me of Newton's description of an oratorio. Oh! what will it be to have an innocent satisfaction in ourselves! Yet, let us not shrink from, but penetrate every nook and corner of our hearts with the eye of Jesus, while, at the same time, we view him, let us learn the meaning of words out of God's spelling-book; we so blunder over our lessons, taking sorrow for joy, joy for sorrow, happiness for misery, misery for happiness, expecting beauty and perfection, where He has left us only for discipline — we hardly get above ground. It is under-ground-work here, our roots taking a firm grasp of the rock of ages, in order to our springing up and flourishing in the courts of the house of our God. I think the most humbling description of human nature is being "haters of God;" and his word says, If haters of God — lovers of death — we hate excellence, because, it is excellence, and we hate him in his creatures, be they ever so accommodating or prudent." They hated him, for what cause? Because He delivered them who were his enemies; because he went about doing good; because He offered life to whoever would; and, how careful his apostle Paul was, that when hated, it should be without cause. Freely He received, freely gave. How desirable, could the world have no just point on which to fix their enmity against Christ in us; if we so unfolded the mind that was in Christ, as, at least, to do the part of the law, bring them in guilty; if we were fleshly tables, living epistles. What a proof of the divinity of Christ, that he gives testimony of himself being the Son of God, for surely, He was a righteous man; none but himself could have gone through life, pursued by every different class, trying each to catch him in something; yet, all forced to confess at the end, they could find no fault in him. And have we not miracles, also, to confirm the witness? You and I now speaking with delight about our once hated Lord! — greater miracle than, "Lazarus come forth!" I have also been thinking what a proof' of the divinity of Scripture it is, that we find an answer provided for every error, a consolation for every wound, especially in the book of Psalms, that gospel in prophecy; it seems to me as if God had provided a text for every experience his church ever should want, took them, and as it were, shook them together in a bag, and left them there to be drawn out, that each might fit himself; for instance, that verse so consoling to so many: (Ps. 27. 10,) "When father and mother forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up;" coming in unconnected with any thing before or after. I have much more to say, but as I dare not wait any longer, I must conclude; I shall tell you all by and by — a joyful wondrous story, such as angels love to hear — as beautiful a similarity, yet diversity, in the spirits, as in the bodies of each — all singing the same song, yet, each having a page of his own, to fill up the volume of faithfulness. My answer to your question about prayer will be found in the following texts: (John, 14. 13. Matt. 28. 18. 2 Cor. 12. 8, with the 9th verse,) "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son." "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." "And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee." I give you two questions in return. How shall the Christian get the little good from another Christian, that is in him, without imbibing of the much evil? And how far should the Christian fit himself into the prejudices of the ungodly, without letting them lose sight of his being one of a separate and peculiar people?...

Letter 20

.

July, 1828.

... I was truly rejoiced to hear of the Lord's goodness to you. I cannot only thank him for displaying himself faithful, but, that it has been shown in faithfulness to you. You say nothing of your little gift from the Lord. Those two texts go well together: "She remembers no more her anguish for joy," etc. and, "forget not all his benefits." It is written of all creation, that it is travailing in pain, and soon shall it be said of it, "She remembers no more the anguish for joy, that a man is born into the world." His dealings here are but displays of his riches of glory on his vessels of mercy, afore prepared for glory. Let us be on our guard against this snare of Satan's, seeking to know more than others, but may every truth, as revealed, sink deep! The grace I have been praying for of late has been patience, for I think it a grace much wanting in the church, for its want can be as much from indifference, as from too ardent a longing for the appearance of Christ —  patience expressing repressed longing. It seems to me to be a grace made up of two — hope and experience — realizing hope, repressed by experience of wilderness love. It was worth parting with, all for, and truly, it marks how unworthy present suffering is to be compared with future glory; when even it is light compared to the heaven it yields here; (yes, I can even say so now, though brought through a furnace, in the flames of which it would be impossible to feel it, even the furnace of another's affliction; and that another — the beloved of my heart.) It is comparatively easy to believe, that it is worth parting with all, to have the soul translated from darkness into light; but, faith often fails in making us feel that it is worth parting with all for the loosing of bonds, with which, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we are too often, though children yet, bound; and why is this? Because of the selfishness of our religion. It consists in high ideas of our own safety, instead of God's glory; and never can we run in the ways of his commandments until our hearts have been set at liberty. What a promise we are given with which to face the world: "All things shall work together for our good" — a promise not to be trampled under foot. Many things in themselves would be evil, but, I think, his watchfulness is seen, in so making his providences to meet, as to burst in blessings on our head, and like his other works, one means works many ends; one providence does not bring one blessing, but a string — tribulation, patience; patience, experience; experience, hope, etc. Yes, and so exactly does it fit the case of the believer, that one trial shall as much suit the particular need of all concerned, as if sent alone for each. Oh! the Christian is a wonderful creature — impossible to sink him! The deeper he is plunged, the higher he rises. Do pray for me, that I may be given the grace of patience. How often the apostle Paul makes mention of this grace! In praying for the church, it was, that they should be directed "into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ." In giving thanks, it was for their "patience of hope," as well as "work of faith" and "labour of love;" while he speaks of it as the fruit of their being strengthened with all might by his Spirit. If the furnace of affliction so made the first believers need exhortation to patience, how much more should the church now need it, when she is thrown into the furnace of prosperity. It strikes me, it is often before sending tribulation, that a spirit of search into prophecy is poured out, that the church may not only be found on the tip-toe of expectation, when the arm of the Lord shall be stretched out, as if no strange thing had happened to her, but also, in the attitude of hope; it being, when we hope for that we see not, we can most patiently wait; and in this the mercy of the Lord, I think, is often manifested to individuals, as well as to his body the church. Before sending a trial, He makes the need of it to be so felt, that the believer even desires, what, at the time, is most grievous and dreaded — so much is desire of conformity to the Lord and his inward presence above every other desire. Let us not, then, forget to take for our helmet the hope of salvation; we need it, though children of light we need to be driven to the light; so heavily do we go to reach eternal joys, so continually are we manifesting our molish natures, preferring to grub into our own hearts, and hide ourselves in the dark, instead of running in his steps, who was also sustained in his race by patient hope; "For the joy set before him." We learn the secret of being able to run, in the kind exhortation to lay aside every weight on him who is at our right hand, that having our eyes lifted up from every thing that can distract, our feet disentangled from all that besets, our eyes may be steadily fixed, while running through the vista of time, on the light at the end — every care giving us a shove, till our whole weight is proving the immutability of our firm anchor. The poor world thinks we are imposing much on ourselves in giving up the pleasures of sin. But, oh! how easy the Christian finds this in comparison to walking on the good of life, counting it dross, that the affections may more tightly grasp Him, who alone can satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness... You may well say she writes seldom, but when she does, she sends a volume. Well, I will leave you with this precious text, Ye are not your own; we have no right to ourselves! He is the best judge how we can best serve him to his advantage; our highest excellency is subserviency to him; our highest pleasure, serving him, though, in so doing, we are wasting ourselves...

Letter 21

.

Dec. 28, 1828

... I think there is much spoken of, in Scripture, of God's riches, as if too much for God to contain within himself; comprised in him it cannot be witnessed; therefore has He set us apart, has "before ordained us," from the beginning chosen us, "prepared us," "even us," as vessels of mercy, in which to show forth the riches of his grace, in the riches of his mercy now, and the riches of his glory hereafter. Sweet thought! our being now vessels of mercy, (because of the great love wherewith He loved us,) evidences that He has set us apart, to display in us the riches of his glory! by nature fitted to destruction, vessels of wrath, but having emptied all this on the head of our Jesus, He has now put Jesus at the bottom of the vessel, therefore, we run over with loving kindness and tender mercies. How the thought, that this is God's end should keep from doubts; the more He gives, the more grace now abounds over sin; the more shall be seen his riches in glory! has He not abounded towards us? predestinated — accepted — called — justified — in him glorified — sins all forgiven — quickened — strengthened — begotten again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away — made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light — our portion, Christ within us — all things working for good — our enemies defied by omnipotence — our shield interposing himself between the redeemed soul and the destroyer — (Exodus 12. 23.) The Lord will pass over the door, and Jehovah the deliverer, will not suffer Jehovah the destroyer to come into your houses to destroy you. Leaping forward to deliver, "as the mother birds hovering over their young, so shall Jehovah, God of Hosts, protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering; leaping forward and rescuing her" (Louth's translation of Isaiah, 31 . 5 . ) — spreading over his cherubic wings, or wings of covenant love, a fourfold presence of the most excellent animals, (Ezek. 10.) — the ox, first of tame beasts; man, first of creation; the lion, first of wild beasts, and the eagle, first of birds, uniting in one body and spreading their wings, on both sides. This is expressly said to be a representation of the God of Israel. They guided the wheels of providence by infinite wisdom; for their whole body, their backs, their heads, their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about; this, says the prophet, is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar. Of this vision we have a description in the 1st chapter, and He there calls it the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The ox is considered as an emblem of the Father, the lion and man, which are always united, (Ezek. 1. 10.) of the Son, taking our nature into personal union with the divine, and the eagle of the Spirit, expanding his influence in all the work of God. This was the mystic figure placed in the holy of holies above the ark. There they all looked down with delight on the memorial of a dying rising Saviour's work, when the priest ministered there on the day of atonement. Thus we see the design of the term, "dwell under the wings of the cherubim," was but another expression for abiding under the care of a reconciled God and Father, in Christ Jesus, where is perfect safety and heavenly bliss, (Dr. Goode,) propped up with sweet and precious promises, fulfilling all the good pleasure of his will, and the work of grace with power; that we may be vessels fitted for the master's use; why? "That in ages to come, He may show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us," "when He shall come to be glorified in his saints," He glorified in us, we glorified in him. And what means this word glory? It quite puts me out of breath, the thought of all that is before us. Wonderful creatures! brittle earthen-ware, yet not broken by all the knocks of tribulation flesh is heir to, in present things, or things to come; though not hidden up, but held out in the midst, to the inspection of men, angels and devils, to the praise of the glory of his grace, for held by his almighty power; and surely it shall not a little add to the glory of his abundant mercy, and the display of the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, that He shall thus hold his vessels of mercy without fainting or being discouraged, until He ushers them into his presence more than conquerors! Which vessel should you like to be? gold, silver, wood, or earth? I think the worse the material, the more the ability of the workman is seen in forming it for the king's use.

I had a new thought on the book of Job, which book I have been hobbling through in the morning to the family, but did not get my thought, till the last chapter. Though I have not been able to find any commentator agree, I cannot help thinking it was intended to shadow forth the Jewish people. The adventures of one individual are not intended to occupy all ages; so loving a spouse as the church could not be satisfied in continually conversing with her beloved, concerning the adventures and sentiments of a stranger, when she has such an overflowing fulness to express in her own feelings, and in her admiration of her beloved. Nor was it like David, to call on all generations to tune their instruments, only to sing of him. It seems to me the Lord often brought his Prophet into circumstances which should explain the dark sentences he caused them to utter, yet was this explanation but a dark veil, through which it was difficult to perceive the mysteries within; but we having the gospel lamp, may penetrate the darkest recesses of his providence and grace, and find our Immanuel behind each; and surely that wisdom must be divine, which as in the book of Psalms, and Job, is so fruitful in language, as at one and the same time, to express the situations and feelings of the writer, the situations and feelings of the Lord, and the situation and feelings of his church, and each individual believer, to the end of time. But I think Elihu fixes the book of Job, as referring to the Jews. By the way, to be a prophet was no light matter; yet did they consider it worth going through all for. And I hope your dear husband, in counting the cost, thinks it worth learning the consolations of scripture by experience, that others may find it good, if he should be afflicted; for in this view, it is no light matter to be a minister of the consolations of the gospel, for I believe the Lord still explains the meaning of words by his providences; and a greater than all, thought it not too much to be tempted in all points, that He might be suited to his people in the midnight of adversity, as well as the noon-day of prosperity. But to return to Job — do you not think the amount of Job's restoration to happiness, strikingly coincides with the promises respecting that church. What have Christians ever been casting against that afflicted church, but just what Job's friends brought against him? that they are cast off for ever, because of their sins. What has been and is the Jews warm contention? Job's to his friends; that they are not such sinners, not so rejected; man's taunts have been in vain to humble them; they manfully contend that they are not in punishment for their sins; servant upon servant was sent to them; at last God sent his only begotten Son, but still they would not be humbled; they rejected all admonitions, and so they shall, till God appear to take his cause into his own hands; then humiliation will be their first movement towards Him, "they shall look on him, they have pierced, and mourn." Then shall they say, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Then, shall be manifest that God's thoughts towards them, have been "thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give them an expected end;" and "they shall call on him, and go and pray unto him, and He will hearken," then shall be seen "the end of the Lord, that He is very pitiful and of tender mercy." My reasons for thinking Elihu means Christ are these: — 1st. Because the meaning of the word Elihu, is "God is he." 2ndly. He says, he stands in God's place as a day's-man. 3rdly. When God commands Job, in chap. 42. 8, to pray for his friends, that they may be accepted, Elihu is not mentioned, as if he needed it not. Now if you think it worth while, look for these references — God is against those who contend with Job, Zeph. 2. 8-11; Isa. 51. 22, 23. — 8th v. Job a blessing to his enemies, Zech. 8. 13; Ezek. 34. 26; Isa. 66. 21; he did speak right in that he was not cast off. — 9th v. Job is accepted, Jer. 30. 17, 18,19, 20; Ezek. 20. 40-42. Isa. 65. 18, 19. — 11. v. Job is enriched by his friends, who come to him, now that he is restored to prosperity, Isa. 60. 1, and 10, 12, 13. He had double for the blessing of the Lord, that it is which makes rich, Isa. 40; Mal. 3. 10, 12. Isa. 60. — 14 v. everlasting joy shall be on their head . — 15th verse, he gave his children an inheritance, Psalm 45. 10. Is there not something remarkable in the name of Job's daughters, Jemima, the day; Kezia, pleasant cassia or fine spices; Kerenhappuch, beauty; in that day emphatically called, the day of the Lord, shall he come down into his garden of spices, his presence shall cause his spikenard to send forth the smell thereof, Cant. 1. 12. Then shall he indeed say to the daughter of Jerusalem, "thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." — 16th verse, when Job was restored, he lived to be a great age, Isa. 65. 2O. — 17 verse, we find the blessing coming upon Job, that Eliphaz said belonged to the afflicted righteous, chap. v. from 17th verse to end. Tell me if you agree. Perhaps you will say, you have filled your letter with what is not applicable to me. "Truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table." Oh how many crumbs of comfort thus prepared, and spread out for the children, may we dogs pick up, and nourish ourselves with. But I must think of finishing; I hope the length of this letter will satisfy, if not weary. It would be sweet to me, to be a stream of comfort, making up the Lord's desire, that your peace should be as a river, emptying itself into the ocean of his glory! surely were we permitted to be a rivulet of consolation, to any afflicted child of God, and one drop in the ocean of his glory, we should not have lived in vain. It is very sad about your schools, very trying, but it is well to have our trial, God's cause. Look at Isa. 40. 28-31, and the connection between the possessions of Jehovah, and those offered to the acceptance of his waiting children. How kind, he gives us a way to express our affection to him! "if you love me, keep my commandments;" for love is restless till it communicates what it feels to its object. May your faith have such substance, as that you could take the promises in your finger, and handle them, (as an old woman described Mr ... words to me, the other day,) may He often look forth at the window, showing himself to you through the lattice, (glimpses of Him in those providences, most calculated to exclude him,) ... . may you daily more see that there is enough in Jesus to meet all your wants, be what they may; while feeling there are hidden depths within of iniquity, may you know and remember there are depths in Jesus' love, your eye has never yet seen, your ear has never yet heard, your heart never even conceived of: but God sees it! In short, may the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing, and make you abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Your sincerely affectionate friend, bound up in the same bundle of life...

Please tell ... that the little book he left me to read, smells of Satan's dispensary.

Letter 22

.

Dec. 18, 1828.

My dear Mr ...,  I enclose you what I promised, but I have since thought it was very conceited of me to offer to send you what I remembered. I send you a sermon remembered by another lady, who does not murder them quite so much. There are some sweet consolatory ideas in it.

When God takes up the lesson and the rod, how differently he teaches from man. Truths which we have been accustomed to repeat, and feel In some degree, with what force they come home, when taught by experience. When I look back upon this time last year, how weighty are those words, "all is vanity," not merely an expression. In drinking of the bitter cup, called "LIGHT AFFLICTION, one feels with a weight no tongue can express — what must be the miseries of hell, when this is but a spark from it; what must be the evil of sin; the emptiness of this masquerade of a world; the sufferings of Christ; the happiness of heaven; God's hatred of sin; his love to the sinner! May he grind them more and more into my heart, so that I may never again be entangled or intoxicated with these baubles; but may he clasp me so close to himself, that there may be no room, for a cloud to pass between me and the light of his precious countenance! Pray let us soon hear from you; for I sometimes fear lest the Lord should remove from us our candlestick, not because we do not prize it enough, but for valuing the stick too much. May he teach us, without that the difficult lesson, that "Christ is all." I will fill up the rest of the paper with a short extract from a letter which I received from Mr. Howels, which I think you will like.

Your sincere and grateful friend,

T. A. Powerscourt.

After speaking on the Lord's prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, he adds: "One idea more before I conclude — you and I are immediately interested in the prayer of Jesus, ' Father, forgive them.' In answer to that prayer, a gracious Providence once watched over us while sinning, ignorant and thoughtless of what we were doing. In answer to this prayer, we were delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And did he feel so intensely, and pray so earnestly, in the midst of his own better sufferings, for his enemies and murderers, and will he forget his friends now, he is seated on a throne of bliss, in the zenith of his glory? Infinite eternal impossibility!! We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. His intercession comprizes all the love of his Deity, all the worth of his atonement, all the love and sympathy of his humanity, perpetually sounding ill God the father's ears, ' Father, forgive them.'"

Letter 23

.

1829.

My dear Mr ..., Many thanks for your very welcome letter; we all rejoice to hear such good accounts of your throat. I fear Irish air is the cause of all the throat complaints. ... is now attacked with it, and ordered to England for his health. To him, as well as to you, it is the greatest trial could be sent; but the Lord generally sends a trial where it will be felt. I believe our usefulness does not depend upon pursuing a line marked out by ourselves, but in giving him just what he has need of from us; — in patience, as well as in faith, followers of those who inherit the promises. I rejoice to hear so good an account of ... she must be a nice Christian from your description. Of course, you heard of poor ...'s end. ... says their only comfort is, that he died in such an enlightened state; but though there was graciously a straw to lay hold on, I trust that none dear to me may ever be taken, without more undoubted evidence. Oh! that it was to be a warning to all sportsmen.

I suppose you will see and hear dear Mr. Howels and ... You will find them full of the times, and horror of emancipation. Such great things are spoken on one hand of the evil, and on the other hand of the good of these conversions of opinion, that either one side must misunderstand Scripture, or the other be wonderfully blind. May we not, by taking the beast unto our bosom, thrust out God; and blasphemy being found on our forehead, have to take our lot with Babylon? It is lamentable that there seems to be no Christian voice raised up in the midst of so much infidelity. Every principle of error seems to have its representative in a professed Christian senate, while Christianity is the only mute, and apparently indifferent, spectator. The way that Mr. Irving's, and Mr. Howels' petitions, are ridiculed, shows that the Word is still foolishness to the Greek. Nevertheless, it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." "For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; yea, things that are despised hath God chosen." But I am forgetting that it is one of the signs of the times, that ignorant people, such as I am, set themselves up to judge upon such matters. It is the privilege of women, to have nothing to do with politics, but to stand and admire man's ignorance, and God's facility in bringing about his purposes. The question with us seems to be, How shall we, in serving our generation before we fall asleep, testify against the crying evils of the church, as well as the world? Since He must at all times, have some to bear him faithful witness, how shall we be among this privileged set? Since He has shown his love in trusting his cause to ours, lent us volumes of his library for the perusal of the world, surely it is an interesting question, How shall we be faithful to our trust? I hope you have been considering this point, that we may have a little pillar of truth raised up in this valley with "love," inscribed upon it. This reiterated command, "love," so trampled under foot, seems to express every thing demanded of the church; to exhibit it in the greater union of the body — in more diffusing around the heavenly atmosphere, in more demonstrating it in action. With good intentions, many are ignorant. We forget the assembling of ourselves together, and need to be exhorted to love and good works, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. Faithful parochial ministers content themselves with the work of an evangelist, neglecting their most difficult duties. To preach the gospel, is necessary for all; but surely there is strong meat, and there are precepts, which suit not the world. The strong meat of experience, being exposed to ridicule, prevents its benefit, by stirring up jealousy. The precepts either must open to the world the wounds of the church, or the probe not be deep enough to benefit the believer. You must watch, warn, exhort, prove from Scripture, errors in spirit, errors in life; and, though last not least, we must make each others wants and sorrows, as well as the church's, our own: so that the answer to each should multiply the thanksgivings of all, and redound to the glory of God. Surely, we should not find so many Christians of the world, if one half of the Bible was not necessarily left out of the pulpits. I believe the fault lies more with the church than with professors, that Christianity is so much more profession than confession. We strive to live our doctrines, instead of confounding the world by the contradiction of our walk and our belief. It seems to me this is the fault of the Walkerites. As the world cannot explain the seeming contradiction of doctrine and precept in the Word, neither should it be able to do so in the believer. While trampling works under foot, should we not live as though to be saved by works — boasting in our liberty, yet under law to Christ? We wear Christ too like a loose garment, to be put on and taken off as convenience offers — denying him, by not confessing him; not as lights, which hypocrites fear to approach, lest their deeds should be reproved. I hope you are lifting up your voice against these things in ... for religion and the world are comfortably walking arm and arm there. Perilous times, when Christians have time to play with idols; have time to feast the world; to nestle themselves as the world; to go rounds of formality; have time to pick faults in their neighbours, their brethren; have time to amuse themselves in religious dissipation; have time to talk to be admired; to listen to contradictory opinions, each proved from Scripture; while the misgiving of our own opinions, through a perceptible mixture of error and prejudice, keeps us picking our steps through slippery paths, instead of running in the way of God's commandments. Certainly, times of persecution, are times of prosperity to the church; — Satan is not asleep — and is more to be dreaded when undermining by expediency than when openly destroying; deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect. Times of persecution will only admit of drawing up every faculty of the soul to one point. How splendid the grace of patient waiting in persecuted Christians! If times of trouble are about to come, how friendly to make us feel our need, that when they shall come we may not be staggered. Love almost calls for it, in the painful suspicion of disfiguring His cause whom we do love. Faith cannot live settled: she must hold her life in her hand; must point to Jesus, and lead the way; be in the attitude of patient waiting; must be a bird of passage, refusing to build her nest in so cold a clime. In these days of deception, may the Lord sift, thrash every principle, rummage our hearts, and lead in the way everlasting. May our souls be enabled, in looking to his second appearing, to bound forward; and may we be given, in deed and truth, a "Love," which shall engulf pride, and haughtiness in ourselves, and all disagreeableness in others-this God-like grace.

Dear Mr... has been all but taken from us. I did not in the least expect his recovery. May we bear the rod and be enabled to read this providence! It is, I think, one of the beauties of God's works, that while we labour to effect one end by many means, He with the utmost facility effects many ends by one means. This is striking in his providences. When he sends an affliction, it is so exactly suited to the case of all concerned, as to seem purposely sent for each; and when he shakes his rod over his children, surely it means a gracious call. We tremble when we enter into the cloud often; but there comes a voice from the cloud saying, this is my beloved Son, hear him; — and what can Jesus' word declare but, see how I love? Do pray that this visitation may be attended with good to those near him. Nothing can withstand his power. No heart is too hard for him. This is our comfort for ourselves, "He is greater than our hearts;" and his love is as great as his power, without measure and without end.

The District Society goes on flourishingly. All satisfied in hearing you are to be the treasurer, for they know you. Great lesson for us, let us be satisfied in deposing body, soul, and spirit, in the hands of Him, who has undertaken to lose nothing the Father has given him to keep, but to raise it up at the last day. Surely he will return all, with a rich premium. Let us not dishonour him, by questioning what He is doing with our deposits, for we know the man....

Yours, with true affection,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 24

.

... 1829.

My dear Mr ..., Though I hope to see you in a few days, I must write a line, just to assure you, it has been neither want of gratitude, affection, or value for your letters, which prevented my not placing you in my debt long since; for there are few things would give me greater pleasure than seeing a letter brought in directed by you. We are now some miles nearer home than when we parted. It cannot have been for nothing our Father has been separated from us for these months. He has been proving and trying us in some way to do us good at our latter-end, and surely, we have been proving and trying Him. I have met with much Christian love, for Christ's sake. I have seen in different Christians different beautiful features, to make me desire to see every feature united in the great Original. I have heard deep, high, sweet, experimental truths from dear Mr. Howels. I have heard some future prospects from ... and have had humiliating lessons in others, how even the most spiritual need the everlasting, quickening, and almighty energy of the Eternal Spirit, to preserve perpetually from earthly idolatry; while in myself, dependant weakness has now feelingly convinced me, that in my preservation, a miracle is momentarily witnessing, I am a child of God. And shall not Jesus himself very soon show me how this and that, and that and this, like a Mosaic, have been needed to form us into the image of our God? I now hope to return to occupy till my Lord shall come, or send for me. I feel very pleasant that I have done with life, have learned to read through the glow spread all over it "all is vanity" — to feel the buzz about, as the buzzing of flies about a dead corpse. My tale being told already, I would not be as my poor sister here ... beginning life under the delusion, that happiness is to be found in it; yet, it is vain to say, till God teaches that every dream of happiness below the sun is but a picture, painted and varnished by Satan, involving in it his original lie: "God's word is not truth." In giving us himself, I believe, He has given us all God can give, and surely it is the triumph of faith, while feeling we have not what we think we need, still to rest confident, that with him, He has given us all good things... Oh! what a thing it is, dear Mr..., even for this life, to have a hope full of immortality. — How sweet for you to have been made the communication of this bud of happiness to one destined to tribulation — the unfolding of which has been so unspeakably sweet and sustaining! Though still bound with the bondage of corruption, what a thing to be prisoners of hope! — of a hope that will never make ashamed, for happy is the man whose hope the Lord is! for his eye is upon them that hope in his mercy, and even in DEATH he shall have hope. How Scripture always pushes us forward for happiness! In defence, our helmet is to be hope; our attitude, waiting for his appearing; our happiness, rejoicing in hope; all seems expressed in one verse, "We know not what we shall be — we shall see Him —  we shall be like Him." May we be enabled to keep our eyes steadily on things invisible; may every care give us a shove, till our whole weight is cast upon our immutably fixed anchor! I desire to be as a meteor passing through time, not left a moment longer than the Lord has need of me. The world thinks the Christian is imposing much upon himself, in giving up the pleasures of sin; but how easy the Christian finds this in comparison to walking on the good of life, counting it dross, that his affections may more tightly grasp Him, who alone can satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with gladness. — Whatever the name, the character, the relationship, He vouchsafes to take, He excels in that point all others: —  "Fairer than the children of men." Is He a father who cannot refuse his child's petition? — "How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask Him." Is His tenderness compared to a mother? "She may forget, yet will not I forget thee." A brother? — "One that sticketh closer." A friend? — One whose friendship passes the power of expression, for the utmost bound was passed while yet enemies. A husband? — One that can say, even after we have "gone after many lovers," yet return again to me. A prophet? — One that "spoke as never man spake," "was in the counsel of the Father from eternity." A priest? — One that has sat down on the right hand of Omnipotence — "continueth for ever" —  "hath an unchangeable priesthood" — "able to save to the uttermost" — "ever lives to make intercession" — one, and the only one who becomes us; for He excels all priests, in that He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens." Is He a king? — "King of kings, and Lord of lords!" A shepherd? — "The good Shepherd." A light? — "The light of the world" —  "The Sun of Righteousness!" Food? — "The bread from heaven that gives eternal life." Water? — "The fountain- of living waters, of which if man drink, he shall never thirst again." A tree? —  "As the apple tree among the woods." If in heaven? — "Who in heaven can be compared to the Lord?" If on earth? — "Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?" Then, what is He to the church? — As the bridegroom in comparison of all others, and not only does He excel, but in her estimation, He must increase while all others decrease, for "He that cometh from heaven is above all" — "This God is our God for ever and ever." May He, dear Mr ... fill you more and more, with joy and peace in believing, and may you abound in lively hope, through life, and in death! This is, believe me, a very sincere prayer, and one often put up for you,

By yours very affectionately,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

And, no doubt, you will find by and by, that the means used for communicating to you some of the graces of the Spirit you possess, has been these prayers.

Letter 25

.

15th February, 1829.

My beloved friend,  I have long been wishing and intending to write to you since I heard of your overturn, but as Mr. G ... told me you were almost well, still I wanted to be able to sit down and write a long letter. I wish you to tell me the particulars, that I may join in praise. I have so much felt, and do feel, the great privilege you allow me in remembering me in your dear little meetings, it is the sweetest blessing you could give me. Oh! do not pray for my body, but that I may not misrepresent His truth in my life. Well, that little fall was yours, among the inventory of His laid-up gifts. What we want is, to be taught to make use of the promises. Too apt to be satisfied with enjoying his word in reading and meditating on it, then to go our way and forget it till the next stated time returns; it is then, well to get scratches from little briars and brambles on the way, to be sent for healing to "it is written," — to be made feed on the promises all the way; thus to have our appetite whetted, that He may fill the hungry soul with goodness. It is not His will we should merely draw upon our bank of consolation for large sums which we think it worth drawing for, but to return again, and again, for every shilling, for ever sixpence of comfort; for, sweet thought, we cannot trouble him. How much is implied in that short sentence, "I shall not want." Why? because He wanted all. I shall fear no evil in walking through the dark valley on account of his presence, because He cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We shall triumph in confidence in the midst of our enemies, because He was reproached and despised of the people, "a worm and no man;" and I know (not hope) I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, because He has said, thou hast heard me. Sweet to know the whole flock are under the same guidance, that in experience of His watchful tenderness, we may be able to say of others under every circumstance, they shall not want — the 22nd Psalm, the ground of the confidence expressed in the 23rd. How safely we may leave ourselves in such loving hands. He is our treasure; let us deposit with him, body, soul, and spirit, for we know him. He has promised to lose nothing which the Father has given into his hands, but to raise it up at the last day. Let us not seem to suspect, by questioning what He is doing with our deposit, but rest satisfied it shall be restored abundantly enriched, on the morning of the resurrection. Then shall we not refuse to be found among the oppressed and despised, who have followed him through evil report, as well as good, since the path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown! I have been thinking lately of angels. What a subject of humiliation they should be to the believer: alike in one thing — both hearken to the voice of his word; unlike in state, unlike in service. The believer nearer, dearer, his "bride;" where sin aboundeth grace having much more abounded. Yet, how much more ready they are in their service: their beauty seems reflected on earth in their deep humility; witness their joy at the raising of sinners to a superiority to themselves. How different the Jew at the reception of the Gentile! How different the Gentile at the promised glory of the Jew! How different from the elder brother at the return of the prodigal! Hear their thunder clap of hallelujahs: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace towards men." In what haste would the twelve legions have descended to the aid of the Lord, had He, in his agonies, demanded their service; but preferring the sympathy of his children, He looked for pity from them, but there was no man; for comforters, but there were none — they were heavy with sleep. Were angels now told, "inasmuch as ye do it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye do it to me," would they move so heavily to feed him when hungry, to give him drink when thirsty, to take him in when a stranger, to visit him when sick and in prison? Above all, were they sent with glad tidings of great joy? No, they would fly as Gabriel to Daniel, as the angel to take a cake to Elijah. At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth, and "I am come" — the commandment given at the beginning; He came before the end! But there is one office they cannot render the church; they are unfit for comforters; having known no sorrow, they cannot sympathize. This is our privilege; the most honourable service in the temple below; we are cups of consolation in his hands, who emphatically came to bind up the broken hearted. No vessels but vessels of mercy can contain this cordial; and as every blade of grass shines with the splendour of a little diamond globe, when the sun arises after a night of dew, far surpassing the grass at noon day; so shall the tears of this night of time, throw a lustre over the believer, when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear in the morning of the resurrection — far surpassing those "who excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His words." They know the bliss of power — we the happiness of weakness; — what it is to lay the hands of weakness on I am; to glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on us, to carry the helpless soul in the arms of faith, to rest on sweet and precious promises. I have heard it told through one who was present at the shipwreck of the Kent, as a remarkable circumstance, that every mother in their imminent peril, as if by instinct, turned to her youngest child and clasped it in her arms. So does the Lord to the helpless believer. Will any say, that those children, who exulting in strength were left to themselves, were more safe than the helpless infant whose life depended on the parent's life?

Maternal love alone

Preserves them first and last;

Their parents' arms, and not their own,

Were those that held them fast.

Blessed be God, he loves not according to our desert, but according to our necessity. Blessed be God, it is not written, his blood can cleanse from all the evil we see, but what He sees... Many chambers within are unopened yet to us; we see but through the crevice; yet his blood gets entrance, and drowns all. May we be given grace, dear sister, in the Lord, to leave him the steering of our little bark; to trust Him with every wind that seems against us; to go straight as an arrow on our way, believing He will not leave us to ourselves. May He keep us from weakening the hands of others by our example. Though deserving, He should plead against us with His great power, may He put strength into us, and enable us to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. —  Crucifixion cannot but be painful; but whether crucifixion or amputation, under any circumstances, be appointed to us, may He make most legible in our lives, "Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." Let not us alone be silent in praise, when our theme is so great — that when John was given to hear the hallelujahs of such as were living continually in his presence, witnessing unceasingly the unbounded wonders of his perfections whose name is Love, all was swallowed up in this one song — redeeming love. And shall redeemed sinners be silent? All his works praise in obeying — go, and they go — come, and they come. To the sea He says, go so far, there let thy proud waves be stayed; foaming mountains high, there it stops. The firmament showeth His handy work. We can best glorify Him in trusting Him. Let us venture, then, to be confident. Goodness and mercy shall follow us, like as the river from the rock followed the Israelites all through the wilderness. Whatever is sent it is goodness and mercy; and this goodness and mercy but the earnest of future joy, the embryo of our future inheritance — an enjoyment by faith of promises there to be fulfilled. We are children of promise —  heirs of all the promises. Children of light, waiting for the morning! My dear ... may your light shine more and more to the perfect day. Affectionate love to your dear sisters, and all who love me in the Lord. Pray write very soon, and believe in the sincerity of

Your very affectionate sister in hope,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 26

.

Dublin, 17th April, 1829.

... Indeed my very dear friend, had I for a moment an idea you could have been so ill, I should not have waited for an answer to my letter, could I also have conceived mine of any possible comfort. I can only say, I can sink into the very dust, that my Lord should make use in any way of so vile, so wretched an hypocrite. He has indeed shown you great and sore trouble, yet in the midst of the trouble, how loving to allow you to testify that his comforts have refreshed your soul: surely we are left without excuse in our unbelief; yet whenever He leads us to the brink of the waters of tribulation, we tremble and shrink as much from entering, as though the waters had not before parted, and become a wall of support and consolation on either side. How blessed to be under a dispensation of mercy which God has as it were set apart for mercy. We find out our hankering after self-righteousness, from our fresh astonishment every day in being treated so differently from what we expect and feel to deserve. How often arc we dictating by our fears to the Lord, but He is better to us than all our fears, in the midst of judgment remembering mercy. "Hear ye the rod and him that appointed it;" often He seems to shake the rod over his children, but is unable, if we may so speak, to inflict the blow. May we go softly all our days, seeing our comforts are held by so slender a thread; may it teach us to rejoice with trembling. David was greatly distressed, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God; so arc we often distressed with outward things, and ever have cause from inward things. Such sunk hearts, so weighed down to earth, after all they have learned of earth, all they have learned of Jesus; often it seems as if we had all to learn over again. "So foolish and ignorant are we, even as beasts before him" — yet let us encourage ourselves in the Lord our God; encourage ourselves in his character; encourage ourselves in his compassion; he will not shut up his tender mercies in anger, but will shut us up in his tender mercies, for his compassions fail not. Let us say of them: this is my hiding place, here will I nestle from sins, temptations, falls, and ingratitudes. —  Feeling his tenderness to be that of a jealous God, we are too apt to go to him, as to a tender jealous friend, keeping back what is likely to grieve love. —  But no! Our Jesus is not like an earthly friend even in this, there is no loosening his love by suspicion. He knows all our baseness, yet loves unto the end! therefore let us go tell him all; even those feelings we would hide from ourselves, let us drag out before him, and pour out our complaints of ourselves into the bosom of our master. Often we find ourselves shrinking and crying out at the very thought, that in very faithfulness he will afflict, at the very moment we are saying, soberly and steadily,

"Less than thyself will not suffice,

My comfort to restore;

More than thyself I cannot crave,

And thou canst give no more."

Strange mixtures we are! We may confess all, for he is our hiding place, who can sympathize with the shrinking of the flesh from the Father's will, without laying it to want of love; for he has said, "Father save me from this hour."

We may trust his compassions. We may throw ourselves into his lap saying, "undertake for me." "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great." The same God now, as had an eye to the sparing of even the cattle, in withholding judgment from Nineveh. — Sweet to have our will sunk into his, who is so slow to anger, so ready to forgive, that when his prophets lost all patience with the people, so as to make intercession against them, yet even then, could he not be got to cast off this people whom he foreknew, for his great name sake, because he had made them his people, neither will he now. — He has engaged for that. — May he grant that our joy in restored blessings, may be abundant in Christ Jesus. May our love be as greedy of love as his is; may he be our end in joy, our end in sorrow; may we be able to say, "To live is Christ"; may he not suffer us to abuse his wonderful mercies; but may sin and weakness have the effect of driving us to Him, without which, the expenditure of every twig in his rod would be of no avail. — O let us not be as his people of old, after every mercy stiffening our necks, hardening our hearts, casting his law behind our backs, and provoking him more and more: but let our conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, standing fast in one spirit, striving together with his people for the faith of the Gospel. I can say of myself in utmost weakness, the spirit is willing that He should answer this prayer, and not spare the rod because of our crying; but may He pity, for the flesh is very, very weak. Behold here I am, let him do what seems to him good. — I desire to say this in spirit, as well as with the mouth; in feeling, as well as judgment: Lord make me desire to be able to say it. Let us thus, dear friend, encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, not terrified by our adversaries, but praising him. He gives us, not only to believe, but to suffer for him, and with him; and for his rich answers to prayer, for making known such a Lord to encourage ourselves in, may we so loudly shout hallelujah from the hiding place of his compassions, as shall make the vaults of Satan's kingdom ring with the name of Jesus. Farewell my beloved sister in the Lord...

... Very affectionately Yours,

Dear...

Theodosia Powerscourt.

"And there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud; but there came a voice out of the cloud, THIS IS my beloved Son — HEAR HIM".

Letter 27.

Paris, 26th April, 1830.

... Ever since I heard of your illness, and the Lord's mercy in sustaining and restoring, I have been intending to write to bless the Lord with my very dear sister, and ask for some words to strengthen my faith, in detail of your cup having run over in the hour of need. Is it not, indeed, the bleating of Messiah's sheep "I shall not want?" "shall not want," because the Lord is our shepherd; "shall not want," because our shepherd is the Lord! Our shepherd, the all-sufficient! nothing can unite itself to him, nothing mingle with him; nothing add to his satisfying nature; nothing diminish from his fulness. There is a peace and fulness of expression in this little sentence, known only to the sheep. The remainder of the Psalm is a drawing out of this, "I shall not want." In the unfolding we find repose, refreshment, restoring mercies, guidance, peace in death, triumph, an overflowing of blessings — future confidence, eternal security in life or death, spiritual or temporal, prosperity or adversity —  Time or eternity. May we not boldly say, "The Lord is my shepherd;" for we stand on the sure foundation of the 22nd Psalm. How can we want when united to him! we have a right to use all his riches. — Our wealth is his riches and glory. — With him nothing can be withheld. Eternal life is ours, with the promise all shall be added; all He knows we want. Our shepherd has learnt the wants of his sheep by experience, for He was himself "led as a sheep to the slaughter." — Does not this expression, dictated by the spirit, imply a promise, and a full promise, when connected with his own words, I know my sheep: by what painful discipline He was instructed in this knowledge, subjected himself to the wants of every sheep, every lamb of his fold, that he might be able to be touched with a feeling of their infirmities. The timid sheep has nothing to fear; fear not want, fear not affliction, fear not pain; "fear not," according to your want shall be your supply — "The Lord is my portion," saith my soul, therefore will I trust in Him; does the silly sheep cry to be kept from want? it may well be answered, ye know not what ye ask; it knows not of what it would rob itself in receiving the supply provided for that particular want. In the midst of danger, we have no cause of alarm, we have been taken hold of by Omnipotent love, "shall never perish." "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." All to be expected of a shepherd, shall be found in one, who so loved us, as to lay down his life for us. Dear sister, have you a want, keep it not, carry it to Him, it shall be on the mercy-seat to be considered; in due time shall be written on it, "to be provided for." Have you a want for any dear to you? He has promised you shall not want; if your demand is not exactly answered, you shall receive something better; it shall be satisfied. His fulness is as much at our disposal, as if in our own hands. He keeps it in himself, that every blessing may be richly doubled. Moses said to the children of Israel in the wilderness, "the Lord thy God knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness those forty years. The Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast asked nothing.'' Our wants are fathomless! our help infinite! none but God can tell the uttermost a God can do. Oh let us, who are the sheep of his pasture, give him thanks, and show forth HIS praises by venturing on this confidence. There is no want to his flock; the young lion may lack and suffer hunger, but the good shepherd's helpless, foolish sheep, shall not want any good thing. He is our shield against every foe, he is our guide in every danger, no good thing can he withhold — Grace now! glory hereafter! But it is you must tell me these truths, for you bring them fresh from the furnace. How blessed when he takes his bit of clay, and forms it into a vessel fit for the master's use, especially if he choose for us to be a vessel of consolation to his little ones. We like the office, but we do not wish the forming: for we can only comfort with the comfort wherewith we have been comforted. Oh! what a blessing, we are not left to ourselves, that when we drag the skein of our life into the most desperate tangles, mercy will sit down patiently to unravel ... What a blessing to be allowed to fall in every possible way, that self-opinion may come tumbling down, and that we may learn to leave our righteousness behind, and come to Jesus in our sins, instead of leaving our sins behind, to come in our righteousness; and how blessed we are, not allowed to appear to others what we really are, full of pride, vanity, selfishness, selfseeking. Oh! what motive within motive, deceits, hypocrisies, lying in our very representations of Christ! we desire all should read, I am comely. Is it so with you?

Letter 28

.

Powerscourt, October, 1828.

My dear friend — The church's husband hath not where to lay his head; the wife always takes the place of her husband. If such is the character of Christ's church, can that system be right, which expressly encourages the opposite practice? Lord instruct me, I am a fool. As to this trade, and that trade, being supported, let the dead take care of the dead; our business in life is not to keep the world a going, but to manifest the christian's glorious hope. Each book treats of its own subject, and is not to be blamed for not instructing in all. We are living epistles, but from God's library, to teach a particular subject; and oh! what a glorious subject! we have nothing to do with the world; we cannot live too differently. Your sister says, this is Satan's kingdom; surely then we are not needed to uphold his system. Poor ... is in grief about her sister, left in India a widow; but how kind of Him to afflict us to try our faith; we talk of the promises, but how different to make use of them! how difficult to take Him at his word without an evidence; how merciful to be so let into the secrets of his love, that he does not suffer us to walk smoothly down the stream of time, but sends large and rough billows to dash us on the promises; sweetens our bitterness, and embitters our sweets. This should be the christian's elevation, to walk on the promises. The more we are forced to prove them, the more highly favoured, because our ideas of things are not according to this world. It is a great thing really to trust Him through thick and thin, believe our sorrow is our joy, our misery our happiness. He deprives us of provision for earthly affection, that these affections going in search of their object, may take a grand grasp of Him, the archetype, the fountain of every excellency; all love in comparison is but the rivulet to the ocean, one limited to the nutshell of a human heart; the other immense, as the infinite mind of Jehovah. Let us then use our privilege, dear friend, and launch our souls upon the promises of Him, who means what He says. With affectionate love to your dear sister

Believe me very affectionately yours,

T. A. P.

Letter 29

.

Brussels, Dec. 15, 1829.

We have been here six weeks and have had no improvement in any art but patience; worth coming all this way to learn that; thus the Lord lays His plans for us, calls us sometimes into the wilderness to speak comfortably, admits this world to be tribulation, does not make light of it, tells us not to expect any thing else in it, but gives two famous recipes for patience under it, "rejoicing in hope," "instant in prayer." I trust my faithful heavenly friend has been pointing out to me of my faults. The instrument with which He probes the wound, is so oiled with love, it heals in wounding. I have been thinking, my dear sister, time is so short, it would be better could we throw all our powers into straining every nerve for His glory, in the situation in which He has placed us, instead of losing time in doubting whether we are in the right situation. These doubts prevent the gratitude He expects; for there is a right side in every thing; there must be, because it is His will that "in every thing we should give thanks." There is a blessing, I am persuaded, in every snare, could we cherish and make use of the blessing, and roll the snare on him. May He put a new song in my mouth, even thanksgiving to our God. Tell me what you have been thinking of? and what state religion is in where you are? This town is in a sad state, wholly given to idolatry, because Roman Catholic; three English churches, but no gospel. The French Walloon minister we hear is very good, but the town is full of English who could not understand him. All I can find we are sent here for, is to pray for them, and that is not little; a day spent in prayer is a truly profitable day, its usefulness ceases not with the day. Let us then be Phebe's, seek to carry cups of consolation to the church; she carried a large cup to Rome. If we ask any thing according to His will, we may believe we have the answer. It is His declared will — He wills not the death of any, but that all should be saved. We have not because we ask not. Do we indeed believe He is soon coming? Would it be found out by a beholder? Are we so fitted into those precepts which, put together like a mosaic, make up the image of Christ, as to force lookers on to say, "I would see Jesus?" He does not mistake either what is for our good or for His glory. I have discovered He has locked up my happiness in the concave of His shield, to shelter it from being subject to the influence of any creature. Why should those mourn at anything here, who are reconciled to the Judge of all the earth? who have access to Him at all times, and friendly intercourse with Him; whose hope is founded on His love, and look forward to seeing Him, as a long tried friend; whose very tribulations are turned into blessings, and not only so, but also have God for their God, who understands to bless them according to His name — God? All belonging to Him is ours; as that dear letter said. I have had great delight in the remembrance of that letter, I have searched into Scripture on the subject and have been refreshed; if you have heard from her on communion with the Father, or the Spirit, will you not send me the letter? I shall return it quite safe, His power is ours — none shall pluck us out of his hands. His wisdom — for all things shall work together for our good. His holiness — for sin shall not have dominion over us. His justice —  for He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. His faithfulness — because it secures the fulfilment of all his promises. His eternity — "because He lives we shall live also," so shall we be for ever with the Lord, "my Lord and my God." Every sin should increase our trust — seeing it proves to us in the most convincing manner, that He is absolutely necessary. Weakness is ours — since it forces us to live by faith on one mighty to save. The drying up of earthly streams makes us cleave to Him who is all in all, prevails on us to find happiness in His fulness. Every thing around rings in the ear, go to Jesus. It is an unspeakable blessing in such a world to be able to see anything coming straight from Him without any second cause between; it would keep us very patient thus to possess the soul; we know He has a design in all He does; the more grievous the dispensation, the more certainty of its need; what He does, we know not now, but shall know hereafter. His purposes are ripening fast, unfolding every hour. Even in the consequences of sin, as in David's case, it is not said the child fell sick, but the Lord struck the child, and it was very sick. The child of the man after God's own heart! he prayed, he entreated, yet was refused; yet he says, "call on me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." "Yes, he shall deliver in his own way; and whatever be the way, in that thing we shall glorify him!" "I wound and I heal." The hand pierced for us, alone can wound tenderly, alone can heal perfectly. It is almost worth having a wound, to prove how tenderly He heals. Has he not taught us much this last year? Oh! how he spares, when we deserve punishment. How gently he deals; shakes his rod over us, to bring us to our senses. Often the very dart he uses to inflict a wound, in order to pour himself into it, is the very sin He desires us to hate; while his still small voice whispers, return unto me for I am full of compassion, slow to anger, and repent me of the evil, which seems to threaten. I have learnt that I am a learner, because a fool — must sit to receive, instead of give, comfort; learnt utter dependance for every comfort for myself; for every thought! have no stock to use; learnt more of "any thing with thy smile, any thing but thy frown;" learnt vanity of resolutions, which cries out beware; learnt insincerity of motives, much more, how many ends he gains by one means.

Let us, dear Mrs... occupy diligently till He comes, in the situation He has placed us in. Though we give our bodies to be burned, though we give all our goods to feed the poor, though we speak on these subjects as angels having all knowledge, in these all shall we utterly be condemned, without "give me thine heart." Happy consolation! He will never be weary of our complaints! He loves us when we weep, as well as when we smile. He loved Mary's tears — they spoke volumes to him. Soon shall these trifles be thrown away as children's toys. God looks upon our follies, as a wise man upon his infant, with loving pity. Soon our tale shall be finished, and the history of our lives put by in the library of God, as an old volume of his faithfulness. Soon we shall see him face to face, know as we are known. Soon prophecy shall be all fulfilled! "Every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted," shall be rooted up; but the little grain of love, scattered by his own hand, in our hearts, shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God, for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Soon, soon; why tarry thy chariot wheels, why so long transplanting from thy nursery, into the paradise above?...

Letter 30.

... 1830.

My dear Mr ..., Many thanks for your very welcome letter, though it does give so sad an account of that blessed town. The Sun of Righteousness did shine on me so splendidly, when there, I can never think of it but as a green pasture. Good shall come out of this seeming evil, to the church. Oh! that we loved her, as the Wise and All-powerful loves, and we never should suspect what He is at in his permission of evil. How beautiful the machinery of grace! How one part acts with another! How glorious will be the discovery at the end!

While man uses so many means for one end, God brings about so many ends by one means. One, that having made prayer the channel of conveying his blessings, that in blessing, He may bless many —  strengthen faith — awaken gratitude, and bring glory to his name as a hearer and answerer of prayer. Expect to find my soul being saved has been in answer to some prayer, in some part of the world. It can be said of bountifulness in prayer, as well as alms, "the administration of this service, not only supplieth the wants of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God." Then let us thus return them liberally. It would be very sweet, could we see every thing in the light of Christ, with reference to him — that as Joseph and Benjamin were dear above all the children of Jacob, because children of Rachel, so the church might be dear to us above all that is called dear, because dear to Christ. That peace should be precious to us, not so much because happiness in itself, as because it breathes "by my bruise ye arc healed." This I should think would be one good in the study of prophecy. To see every thing with reference to Christ, instead of seeing Christ with reference to ourselves. If dwelling on a crucified Saviour is valuable to the soul, in lifting us out of self; surely, dwelling on a glorified Saviour must be doubly so, in giving a far greater lift. A suffering Jesus, though full of consolation, reflects back on our wilderness troubles, and under-curse state; a glorified Jesus, darts us forward to the time when all tears shall be past for ever, in his glory and our own. The most wonderful thing to me in this town is one, I fear too stale to you for me to indulge myself in dwelling on — namely, that I am of God, while most of those around are in the arms of the wicked one. — Wonderful to receive this message, morning after morning, "thy sins, which are many, are forgiven!" — Wonderful to have so patient a Teacher! — Wonderful, a day is coming when I shall be satisfied with myself; without pride! But passing wonderful, that "He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself!" etc. Mr. Howels had this text last Sunday. He remarked from it that the desires of God's children, when good for them, will surely be answered. Job said, "Oh! that my words were written, graven in the rock;" but he had above his desire, more than he asked or thought. Had that been granted, all the elements would have waged war against and erased it. But the Rock of Ages descended; had it engraven in his bosom, which nothing shall ever efface, but it shall be read by all, time without end. He said, "Redeemer" and kinsman were the same; spoke of him as kinsman in avenging the death of his brother, on his murderers — He pursued, and overtook the enemy on Calvary; also as raising up seed to his brother, in uniting himself to humanity, which before had none. A rose never so sweet as when bruised and squeezed. When the rose of Sharon was bruised, and trampled on, the fragrance filled every breath of heaven. —  When Christ came, the bosom of Deity was opened for our perusal. Either Christ is God, or the worst in hell — reprobation the child, not the parent of sin. In marriage, the maiden name is annihilated — the church's maiden name, not blotted out, but annihilated — no longer known by it; so any believer who has but one grain of grace, has no right to be called ungodly; henceforth his name is "the Lord our Righteousness." He introduces schism into our corruptions, and thus makes them destroy themselves, and each other; and out of each fall rises a grace, as the phœnix out of its own ashes. The woman clothed in the sun — the believer clothed in his God for ever. He, a shield, interposes himself between us and every enemy. What can penetrate infinity and eternity? By and bye, we shall see all the evil from which we have been shielded. How often, that we do not know, have we been carried past them, as children over whose eyes you put your hand while carrying them across, that they may not see the danger. The poor are shielded from riches — the rich from poverty...

Yours most affectionately,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 31.

...1828.

My dear ..., I am glad to hear you are in our neighbourhood, though grieved for the cause. But why?

Trials make the promise sweet;

Trials give new life to prayer;

Trials brings me to His feet,

Lay me low, and keep me there.

Then let us enjoy our wilderness blessings: —  here, ruffled peace. Future joy, and joy yet future, we shall have eternity for. Only for a few moments joy in sorrow; calm in a storm. Then I will rather wish you joy, that by the pressure of his dear hand, He thus keeps up in your mind — "Behold! how I love you." How needed it must be, when compassion wounds, when love chastens. The Lord "has need" now, not of your strength, but of your weakness. What a day is before us! when we shall be able to adore his faithfulness without the teaching of it by a crossed will, and disappointed prospects; when we shall be able to know the sweetness of confidence, without trust; humility, without pride to humble; the fulness of his presence, without a waste heart; the sympathy of our Comforter, without sorrow; the gentleness of our physician, without pain; the tenderness of our nurse, without sickness; yes, and even the abounding of grace, without sin.

"For ease should I praise! but if only for this,

I should leave half untold the donation of bliss;

I praise thee, I bless thee, my King and my God,

For the good and the evil thy hand hath bestow'd."

I write to let you know that (as your mouth is shut, and perhaps you would like to indulge your ear,) Mr... will lecture at two o'clock this day.

Yours, dear Mr... very sincerely,

For the truth's sake,

T. A. Powerscourt

Letter 32.

Powerscourt, 11th February, 1829.

My dear friend, I have been much arrested of late by Acts 5. 12 - 14. Just what believers should be among men. The question is not, shall we put out this or that person from our society; but shall we not so live, so speak, that no man who was not in reality durst join himself to us? Oh! what perilous times these for the church. We see the merciful wisdom in the necessity of persecution and tribulation, to keep the church in the world. She is in prosperity, when in persecution. Satan is not asleep; is more to be dreaded when undermining by expediency, than when openly destroying; deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect; leading them to do his works with plausible motives, and in spite of most sincere hearts; wishing to correct a false idea prevalent in the world — namely, that all religion consisted in living differently from others. The church has now ended in living in strict conformity to the world; so that, in preventing the mistake, she has become unfaithful to her trust, by misrepresenting Christianity, and presenting a false likeness of her Lord; reconciling, indeed, the world, in a great measure, to that which, if faithfully represented, it never could be reconciled to; therefore testifying against herself in the very reconciliation. Is not this the cause why Christianity is so much more profession than confession? ... Though scattered abroad, we are not scattered abroad preaching the Gospel; we have sallied forth into the world, walked among its children, stood, and at length sat down amongst them, stretched out our hands to the world, and, consequently, it has stretched out its hand to us; and now we are walking comfortably arm in arm. Did we not meet them in luxuries, they would not meet us. Did our conversation and deportment testify against them, they would soon bid farewell to us. Perilous times when Christians have time to play with idols ... A dear friend says, "The church is become so satisfied with her widowhood as to cease to look out for her Lord." Such are we. Times of persecution will only admit of drawing up every faculty of the soul to one point. How splendid the grace of patient waiting in Rutherford, and other persecuted believers. Love almost calls for troublous times, in the faithful suspicion of disfiguring HIS cause whom WE DO LOVE. The more rejoicing there is in the Lord, the more the idea grieves. How often we feel this in individual cases, in the toleration of one's family; how less burdensome often their rejection would be, though they are still so dear. That this is the evil state of things, is evident to all. It is little use mourning over it; but the question with us is, how shall we in serving our generation before we fall on sleep, testify against these evils? For since he must have some in every time to bear Him faithful witness, how shall we be among this privileged set? Since he has shown his affection in trusting our love, (by lending us volumes of his library for the perusal of the world,) surely, it is a most interesting question, how shall we be faithful to our charge? Is not the answer briefly expressed in his own reiterated command, so trampled under foot — Love; to exhibit it in the greater union of the body; in more diffusing around this spirit, this heavenly atmosphere; in more demonstrating it in action. How He entreats, as to this grace; upon what a basis He grounds the entreaty — if ye love; how unlimited He leaves it — "as I have loved you." Self-denying love — "though rich, for our sakes became poor," etc. Devoted love — "gave himself for us" — "kindly affectionate" — "courteous" — "having compassion one of another" — "weeping with those that weep, rejoicing with those that rejoice" — "if one member suffer, let all suffer" —  "not minding our own things, but every man the things of another" — "walk in love, as Christ loved you" — the same love will be well pleasing, a sweet incense — "condescending to those of low estate" —  "consider one another, to provoke to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching;" showing meekness, gentleness, faithfulness, forbearance, long-suffering. It appears to me, if each body of Christians were to aim more at this, in action, word, and spirit, in each separate place, the world would be more convinced by this oneness, than by using methods of expediency to be of use to them; such as religious parties, etc. Hypocrites would be more ashamed of putting on Christ as a garment of fame; while believers would be fitted into him more closely, as a garment bound round with the bond of perfectness — the badge of discipleship.

It seems to me faithful parochial ministers now content themselves with the work of an evangelist, neglecting the most difficult part of their office —  heart searching work ... The minister should watch over, warn, exhort, point out from Scripture errors in spirit, and errors in life, and, though last not least, the body should make each others circumstances, as well as the church's interests, more its own; so that the faithfulness shown to each individual would multiply the thanksgivings of many, and redound to the glory of God. It would be sweet to have this pillar of truth, with love inscribed on it, erected in different parts of the country, in the parish of every faithful minister. I would especially enforce on myself, that outward demonstrations of love are far easier than the spirit — our real want is more of the spirit; without this, all endeavours to love, to show humility, spirituality, would be a mimicking Christ, a carcass without a soul. Nothing seems so likely to place in a state of expectation and looseness to the world, as keeping the eye on his second coming. It enables the soul to bound forward, as the struggle which Satan has made to maintain erroneous views on this subject is sufficient proof. I would also enforce on myself, that to give money is the least gift we have to give in token of love. Love, while producing self-denial, also produces generosity in every way in which we can possibly show kindness. Love is not always counting its pence. Then, dear friend, let us behold, as in a glass, every day more of the glory of God, till we are changed into his image. Let us get heat, by living near the furnace of love. May he mellow our hearts into his own spirit! May the fountain poured in overflow to all around! Have we not been loved? Do we not love? Are we not in the light? Are we not the subjects of his petition, "that they may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee?" Perhaps my poverty in this grace, makes me feel the need of it so much in the church. May my want lead to more earnest prayer, to be enabled to "love unfeignedly with pure hearts fervently," "in deed, and in truth," "as ourselves;" not love proceeding from duty, but love that shall produce duty; "as brethren," to those we live with, as well as those we occasionally meet! Is not this godlike grace endeared by being his command, his last, shall I say only command, given when his own feelings and agonies were forgotten in anxiety to comfort his sorrowing disciples? Is it not the embryo of his future kingdom? Alas! my leanness, my leanness! Yet I often think we do not enough wonder at the grace already bestowed. There is so much evil within, we fear to look in even at his grace, and we see it so mixed up in others often, we cannot separate it from the creature; but yet a little, and all his handywork in us shall be shown to his praise and his glory. Every receiver of a cup of cold water shall stand up to witness to it; we shall not recognise ourselves, (Matt. 25. 37.) Till that day I put by my hallelujahs, except for this, that there shall be a day in which I shall be able to praise him. I expect in that day to have much, oh, how much! of his faithfulness to tell you — a joyful, wondrous story, as wonderful to myself, as it shall be wonderful to you. I have thus poured out to you my sentiments, not only to have your opinion, if all this is a fancy of my brain, but if not, for you to try and induce the ministers with whom you have influence, to set an example to others in these perilous days. Pray write soon, and exhort me in that in which you see me most wanting.

Yours, in the sincerity of Christian affection,

T. A. P.

Letter 33

.

Powerscourt, 7th April, 1829.

My dear friend — Tell ... with my love, that the people imagine a vain thing, and the rulers, in taking counsel against the Lord; for He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and shall deride them by setting his King upon his holy hill of Zion. Nothing shall retard his approach and glory. Each event shall as surely hasten it, as days, and months, and years, bring on eternity.

I hope you sometimes think of me when you go in before the Lord. Oh! you have much to ask for me; and how blessed would be my necessities to you, could they keep you but a moment longer in communion with the Friend of Sinners! Thus might our infirmities, as well as our graces, be made blessings to our friends.

Yours, my dear friend, in Him who is our all in all,

T. A. P.

Letter 34.

Powerscourt, 24th July, 1829.

My dear friends must think me dead and buried; yet you see I am revived. I long to hear from you again; what a sad spirit seems to be exhibited in many parts of ... ! such a spirit, so much seen in the writings of those who stand up for our glorious prospects, seems to do more against the good at which they aim than all their writings can do for it, at least on this side the water.

Is not the old covenant completely abolished, instead of remaining to be executed? Will you tell me if you think this conclusion just, which I have come to on the subject? Covenant just means God's plans fixed in eternity, being unfolded in the promises, and confirmed by sacrifices. God's great purpose from eternity was, that an inheritance should be possessed by Abraham and his seed, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. A promise to this end was given in Eden, renewed to Abraham, then to David. The whole arrangement of the Jewish ceremony called the old covenant, or arrangement, were the same promises handed down by types, instead of word; the confirmation of these promises was Christ's sacrifice, of which the smoking furnace and burning lamp were types, like as were the sacrifices. An ordinance of confirmation, relating to the same promises, is still kept up in the Lord's supper; which, while reminding in His sacrifice of the security of God's promise, by repeating as often as we partake of it, "until my coming again," still carries us on to his appearing a second time, without sin unto salvation, when shall be the execution, and full operation of this everlasting, ever new, covenant! I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, etc. I will sprinkle clean water upon them, (Exodus, 36. 23.) I do not see any difference between covenant and testament; for a will is simply the promise of a free gift, with the promise well secured. The will may be made and secured many years before it is executed. Will you take the trouble of pulling this to pieces? I was going to say much more, but have not time. — May He who hath mercy on you, lead you by springs of water — may He guide you wherever you go this summer — may He lead, He who leadeth Joseph like a flock, He who leads the blind by a way they know not, He who will not overdrive his flock, but gently lead the heavy laden — may He go with you and before you. You cannot go from his presence, whatever labyrinth you may get entangled in; He shall so shine forth as to make it a plain path. In the multitude of strange notions that surround, He shall lead you in his truth; in the multitude of sins, He shall lead you in paths of righteousness; in the midst of mortality, He shall lead you in the way everlasting, ever leading to the Rock that is higher than you.

I leave you in His safe keeping, and remain, though a silent, yet a very sincere and hearty friend,

T. A. P.

Letter 35

.

Brussels, 2nd March, 1830.

My very dear friend — How is your sister? had no idea she was so ill. How much you must both have suffered! I put off every post writing, hoping to give you an answer about ... but I cannot wait longer, for I really wish to hear you are both delivered from your troubles. What a comfort to remember there is a great meaning in glorifying God, and that He does use his creatures for that end! There was a great meaning in all your dear sister suffered, and all you suffered in her; to be purified in the furnace of another's sufferings is difficult, it shall be found to his glory at his coming! The world thinks us insignificant creatures; but, oh! how important all we do, all we say. Nothing is trifling. We are a spectacle to the invisible world, &c; the subjects of competition between powers of light, and powers of darkness — pillars on which Christ's kingdom is sustained in Satan's world, temples of promise, therefore houses of prayer, habitations of the spirit. When we pray to be spared a trial, it may well be answered, "ye know not what ye ask," — we know not of what supplies we should thus deprive ourselves. Yes, we are a people to be wondered at. How extraordinary that we should be marked ones, and that all should be forced to see that our kingdom is not from hence, and that our hope is laid up in heaven!

That is very superficial which is only learnt by rote, we must come into the school of experience in order to learn by heart. Alas! what idolatry, what mockery, what mummery around me. May He quickly come, and set all things in order, for this confusion is the earnest of hell!

Tell your dear sister, with my sincere sympathy and affectionate love, I remember her to the All-sufficient. Pray write soon to your very affectionate friend,

T. A. P.

Letter 36

.

Paris, May, 1830.

My very dear friend — Truly I feel for your fresh trial, one peculiarly trying to you: how graciously He has taught you to bend under it! One sermon from himself is worth a thousand from any man. Never so sweet is it to be raised up, as when He has cast down. Are we not given to drink largely of refreshment, and consolation from the Comforter even in the desert, to lie down in our field of promise. "When he giveth quietness, who then shall give trouble?" Enemies may surround, but our Shepherd is near; enemies may be in ambush, but the shepherd is on the watch. But could we only recount our repose and refreshment — should we not leave half untold the donation of bliss? Is it not blessed to be able to sing of judgment as well as mercy? Surely it is among our chiefest blessings that it has never yet been said of us, "let them alone." Israel was blessed, while God brought down their heart through heaviness, for they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. Israel was blessed, while they slew them: then they sought him, and remembered God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. The sorest word ever spoken to them, I think, was "why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." But though silly sheep still, though still straying, counting the cost, we can say, "seek thy servant." Cannot we testify that love has rebuked, and chastened again and again, when we have turned aside? Has he not been unwearied in preserving our faith? Though Satan has been permitted to sift, his grain of wheat has not fallen to the ground; though cast into the furnace, the refiner has sat over his treasure, because to him the trial was precious. When sin has separated between Him and us, where idols have scattered our thoughts here and there, has He not been bent on restoring? has he not yearned over his Ephraim? Sometimes He almost breaks the heart with such a look as He gave Peter; sometimes he overcomes by passing by iniquities; sometimes by feeding with the rod and judgments. But of this we may rest assured, blessed thought! He will restore, till we can say in the spirit of him who was dumb before the shearers, "any thing with, thy smile," any thing but thy frown? I think at other times the soul feels so conscious of ingratitude and baseness, that its own convictions suppose displeasure in the Friend of Sinners, which needs a strong expression to prove it otherwise. At such times it is not sufficient to know He is a friend, we need a smile to infuse confidence. The conscious prodigal expects a rod, his father runs, "falls on his neck and kisses him." We cannot long read the volume of his providence, it appears to me, without experiencing this dealing; for He delights to expose the soul's proneness to expect dealing according to desert, by sparing when we deserve punishment, and in the midst of judgment remembering mercy. Alas! how slow we are in learning not to turn from, but flee to Jesus in our extremities, as our hiding place and guide. Satan's constant aim I think seems to be, to lead from the simplicity which is in Christ —  Christ's to restore us to it, and lead us in it. I believe we are only wise in giving ourselves up to his guidance, and in following whithersoever He leads. Followers of a crucified One, we must expect a thorny, though a trodden path; but He will not leave till He has satisfied, yea, satiated the hungry soul with goodness. His glory is bound up in us! his name is in us! I suppose you have seen... since his return, who has told you all about this place. Infidelity is horrible in the world, more boldly confessed I should think than formerly. Much good here, and nice preaching; simple, joyful, marrow of the Gospel, though not much deep experience. We need to have the enemy met in the avenues within, and overcome with a text. This is where Mr. Howels excels. Tell me some things he has said of late in his sermons.

Yours in truth and faithfulness,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 37

.

Paris, June 8, 1830

My dear friend — I should be pained, indeed, if you were to consider I have not often, often, thought of, and deeply felt with you in your last most trying, most peculiarly afflictive visitation. I have remembered you, where alone I could be useful; and I doubt not, you have received some sweet drops of cordial from His faithful messenger. I trust now, as of old, you can say, "It has been good." You have had an experience of his tenderness, which you would not be without, and we know little of. He allots you the most favoured place in his church on earth, to glorify Him in the fires. Behold, how He loves! What a reality ill the promises when learnt in the furnace! What pains He takes in your education! How bright He means you to shine! My dear friend, I have also most gratefully to thank you for the trouble you took for me in the long instructive and interesting letter you last wrote. I have, also, considered your fresh trial, and seen the hand of the Lord in it. Oh! is it not well for us that the cup of consolation is not in our hands? There is One who holds it, yes, holds it for you; and though he mingles the bitter ingredient of sickness and trial, yet, there are drops from the fountain of everlasting love mingled to sweeten the draught; and it has been sweet; yes, I know it has, and wait to hear it from your own mouth in a very few days, if the Lord conduct us in safety. My God does all things well. We cannot see it, we cannot feel it, but He has said, therefore, in spite of sense, faith shall see and faith shall feel, "He does all things well." "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons." Mr. Howels says, A father's heart is not wholly seen till it descends in tears on the rod of chastisement — he knows where to chasten, where the heart feels the rod. Sometimes he sends a rod which is light to ourselves, while a whip of scorpions to others. He also knows when to strike; takes the best opportunity of correcting us the best way; often takes to the edge of a precipice to show us the abyss down which he could dash our hearts till they might shiver to pieces at the bottom; and this, perhaps, when we are complaining of something else, some providence or dispensation. He just shows what he is able to do, to humble and chasten at the moment we require. He cannot mistake as to the matter, manner, time, or place; all selected by infinite wisdom. Oh! "He doeth all things well." Infinite love is in the arrangement. There is the love, pity, vigilance, tenderness, anxiety, sympathy, caution; the whole head, the whole eye, the whole heart of a Father at work. None but a Father can tell the feelings of a father, when, indeed, He chastens, not for the indulgence of his own temper, but for the good of the child He loves. And who can tell what the refinement, exaltation, perfection of paternal feeling is in the bosom of him, who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son? That Father who spared him not, but gave him up for us — How shall He not with him give all things? How unsearchable must be the love of God to his poor sinful worms where the paternal feelings for Jesus, as to the infliction of sufferings, were (if it be not presumptuous to say) sacrificed to save his people from suffering? Oh! when we so much need the rod, shall we faint under or despise it? May it be sweet to us in the apprehension of faith, however bitter in the feeling of sense. Till I have the pleasure and profit of seeing you and your dear sister, please Providence, believe in the sincere affection and sympathy of a true friend in Christ,

T. A. P.

"Now I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me, in your prayers to God for me, that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. The God of peace be with you."

Letter 38

.

Powerscourt, 21st August, 1830.

My dear friend — I was most truly grieved not to find you in London when I passed through. I counted that I should have had four days of your society, and could not help dropping a few tears of disappointment on receiving your note. I wonder if we shall ever meet again. Mrs... is dying. Her's is a happy lot; but, that of her devoted husband, experience tells me, will be a long, long, black and sad one; but in His light, no doubt, we shall walk through darkness. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me. It is well to have reality brought before us, to be forced even for others to seek out the promises. We discover ourselves so secure, ingenuity and unbelief cannot find a hole for doubt to creep in. He has provided for every case, and thus proved ours has been foreseen. I love to take the promises out of Christ, to see them lodged in his experience for our use; to remember He earned the fulness treasured up in him — his unsearchable riches. I believe his sympathy to be quite beyond any thing that has ever entered into our hearts. He had a power of receiving his people's feelings into his own bosom, so as to wipe, as it were, their very tears. This sensibility united with his purity, brought forth a remorse, a stinging of conscience more piercing than that of David when he said, "I have sinned." More bitter than that of Peter, when "he went out and wept bitterly." It is an argument with some, that as He could not feel remorse for sin, it is vain to seek to prove that He was in all points tempted like as we are. I believe He could with truth say, "Thou knowest my foolishness, my sins are not hid from thee." I believe in Peter's denial; He felt his ingratitude as a man, and the abhorrence of his sin as God, which wrought within him so grievous a wound. He could well say, "My wounds stink, and are corrupt through my foolishness." Likewise, in his tears over Jerusalem, there was a remorse as to his own, who should crucify Him, as well as compassion for those who should remain in impenitent unbelief, which enabled him also to say, "mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden; they are too heavy for me." How mysterious his sufferings. They appear more so every day, especially when we remember, that there is a depth of truth in every word He uttered, as expressed in the Psalms.

Thank your dear sister for her letter. You cannot think how much I enjoy both your letters. They are streams from the Fountain of consolation helping to make up my river of peace, consequently drops in the ocean of his glory. How blessed, that when He says it is his will, that his people should have strong consolation, He has ordained it should be communicated through his members!

I want very much to know how far I am to take the promise, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." I find it quite a common idea, that when I ask for bread, I may be given a stone; for fish, I may be given a serpent; that his "liberally" means to let me run into all sorts of error. His "not upbraiding," to deliver me up to the guidance of Satan. At least, I think, it is the same thing to say, I am not to consider what I learn in the study of Scripture, with prayer, the teaching of God.

Believe me, dear Friend,

Faithfully and affectionately yours,

T. A. P.

Letter 39

.

Probably, 1830.

... It is said when He comes, shall He find faith in the earth? but while taking shame on this ground to ourselves, in having so badly used the talent entrusted to us, let us rejoice that the church is not invisible to her Lord. If it is true of Jews still beloved for the Father's sake, how much more may we say, still beloved for the Son's sake; still is He the head and husband of his church, the Saviour of the body; still does He love her, for whom He gave himself; still does He sanctify and cleanse her; still does He look forward to presenting her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, holy and without blemish; still does He love her as himself; still nourish and cherish her as members of his body, his flesh, his bones; still does he cleave to his wife, for they two are one spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. As individuals, we are sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty — as a body, the church, — His celestial bride, (see Rev. 21. 9.) "This," says the apostle, "is a great mystery!" all said of the terrestrial bride, glorified Jerusalem, is true of her spiritually, "Jerusalem from above." Though no individual, or body of individuals, is infallible, yet does infallibility dwell in her, inasmuch as all possessed of His mind, possess an infallible teacher; though no individual or body of individuals is omnipotent, yet does omnipotence dwell in her, inasmuch as a God of power inhabits his people; therefore the gates of hell shall not prevail. What a mysterious subject is Jesus' knowledge as man, an interesting subject! I dare say I before wrote to you on the subject. There is a knowledge which He possesses from everlasting to everlasting, which has been ever perfect admitting of no increase, by which His scrutinizing eye flies through earth and hell, penetrating the bosoms of the lost; but His knowledge as man in which He grew as He grew in years, by which He "knows his sheep," implies love. Love brought Him into our school, led Him through every class in that school. Love educated Him into the knowledge of death and the grave. —  With this love, He embraced the individual temptations of all his family, so as to be able to say to all, "Come unto me, and ye shall find rest." This knowledge includes sympathy, for He remembers every lesson learned under the rod — without this knowledge, He could not hold the reins of government, nor present millions every moment to his Father. — By this knowledge, He pursues the lost with mercies, till they cast themselves into the pit of destruction. — By this knowledge, He is familiarly acquainted with all our necessities, and has experienced how we stand in need of his covenant in all its fulness, and all its perfections every moment, all his grace, all his love, all his truth, all his justice. We experience his knowledge, in the aptness by which He applies all He can confer, to our multiplied intricate cases, making us at the same time capable of receiving all He has to give. Sometimes we are reminded of his knowledge, in his noticing our sins, either by throwing into our faces the sparks of hell, as when He looked at Peter, or sometimes by tenderly kissing them away, as when three times asking, "Lovest thou me?" — But He learnt in order to communicate! We may hunger and thirst, for we shall at length be capacitated to receive all the treasures of wisdom, a knowledge hid in Him for us! Angels have no such capacity — "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that," etc. etc. We desire the knowledge of our master, yet refuse the same discipline, but we are learners — we are not ambitious enough. He expects us to learn with the celerity of instinct. — Let His discipline teach us what now to expect — to be giants in knowledge. Jesus was once an infant; He attained his size, because He eat his food, "grew in wisdom." There is something sweet in spelling out of a book, the leaves of which were cut by Him! In his school we must learn most painful lessons of dependance — sometimes be almost flayed alive to keep us from worshipping ourselves. In his school (I mean the one in which He was educated) we shall learn in every difficulty to turn to the Father, as an infant in its mother's arms, at the approach of danger hides itself in the bosom of its best friend, and is happy. In his school, we shall get knowledge to learn to live, to learn to ward off ALL the fiery darts of the wicked with the shield of faith, to learn to walk on the waters in the trials of life, to walk on burning coals in its prosperity, to learn to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, for his rod and his staff comfort. From the meekness and lowly heart of our teacher we shall learn the docility of learners, the bleating of Messiah's sheep, "I shall not want." How the Lord labours to get us to believe that as He is, so are we! Was not the glorified body of Jesus standing at the right hand of God in the light of the highest, when the apostle declared, "Our vile bodies shall be fashioned like to His?" see Rev. 1. 16; Matt. 17. 2; then Matt. 13. 43. See Him as he is, and be like Him! John 14. 3-6. "enter into joy of Lord," John 17. 22; Rev 3. end — "so shall we be ever with the Lord," never tainted with sin, never clouded with sorrow, where death shall have no name, and falsehood be unknown. We shall not long have to write or speak, our eyes will be occupied fully — our ears in ever new delight: God alone will be able to satisfy glorified ears.

Your very attached Friend,

T. A. P.

Pray write soon, and empty out the full of your heart, the evils, the good, and the affections. How I love those dear creatures you are with! I hope your time may be as agreeable as mine with them.

Letter 40.

17th July, 1831.

My very dear Sister in a happy family. — We wait with much anxiety to hear from you respecting your husband. We have heard he was very ill. May you have fresh mercies to recount of our faithful God. Oh! how dependant we are on Him! how many vulnerable points! poor triflers that we are! how soon He can bring us into reality and make us real! I trust you may not have had cause to blame me, etc. etc. Whatever is, whatever has been, whatever shall be to you, is well. May you have faith to see it, in all the wanderings you may yet have before you, in this vain, this dark howling wilderness; and when we cannot unriddle, may we learn to trust.

Yours faithfully, and with much sincere affection,

T. A. P.

Letter 41

.

... 1831.

You have no doubt heard of the death of our dear ... after five days illness; typhus fever, so short a time did he enjoy what he was so happy in being spared! Vanity of vanities! His poor wife is every day expecting her confinement, but altogether satisfied with her Father's determination concerning her; love sent it, not only love for time, but for eternity. Can love injure? Yes, in time, for a benefit through eternity. How true, "life is but a vapour." Every thing which tends to aggravate a trial seems more loudly to speak the amazing love which sends it — deep love — when he smites it is to wound, to cause pain, not for His pleasure, but for our profit. It is "through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom." They on whom the Lord most bestows trouble here, will shine most brightly in the kingdom — polished stones fit for the royal diadem; — tribulation of every kind — not merely persecution for the Lord's sake, but tribulation; and who partook of all so much as the King of glory? The troubles incident to humanity, Jesus made his own, all were appropriated by Him, found in the cup He drank of, and were the essence of the baptism which he was baptised with — to which cup and baptism we are invited. This love threatened to send her last year into the upper chambers of our Father's house, and has actually called him; and if the Lord comes not, though she will not see Him with these eyes till then, she will soon also leave these vaults, and ascend to the house top. What an advantage he has over us I Another sheaf housed, another witness added to the cloud around. It was in ministering to the bodily wants of the poor he took his fever. How full of wonder all His church will be, when at the last the manifold wisdom of God shall be exhibited in the individual and collective salvation and glory of his people.

Most decidedly your, loved in the Lord and in the flesh,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 42

.

My dear Mr ...,  How does your throat get on? I fear not better. This is just what we need — these little changes — to be taught to make use of the promises. Too apt to be satisfied with enjoying His word, while reading and meditating on it, then go away and forget it till the next stated time returns; therefore, it is well to be scratched on the way with little briers, that we may be sent for healing to "It is written," to be made to feed on promises all the way; He creates an appetite for this divine food, then fills the hungry soul with good things — sweet to have a care that we may cast it on Him. I believe it is not his will, we should merely draw upon our bank of consolation, large sums we think worth drawing for, but He wills we should return, again and again, for every shilling and six pence. We cannot trouble Him, and surely, never does he deal more tenderly, than when expecting us to trust, in things about which, He has made no agreement, for no greater proof is there of affection than to confide in love ... We know the Lord! therefore can leave ourselves to Him without asking for an explanation till the day of hallelujah. This much we are sure of, every cup our Father puts into the hands of his children must be a cup of blessing, because more or less, the communion of the blood of Christ, it infuses health before we drink, therefore given with Him, every curse is turned into a blessing, every blessing kept from being a curse. I cannot pity you in being shut up, for you have so large, so beautiful a field of meditation to walk in — Christ crucified — Christ applied — Christ glorified! He hath done great things for us! Great things are spoken of us! Oh, may we be enabled to keep his end in view simply as our end; namely, his glory. For so admirably has He interwoven his glory and our happiness, that while our happiness constitutes his glory, his glory constitutes our happiness; and never shall we know what true satisfaction is, till we cease to fight to be gods, and take our place as nothing, till self is lost in the "all in all" of God ... Excuse this long letter, but I was reading, that it is our Father's will his children should have strong consolation, and I thought it would be a nice thing to be a rivulet of comfort, helping to make up your peace as a river, and thus be also a drop in the ocean of His glory...

Yours very truly,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 43.

My dear Mr ...,  I heard yesterday you were not well. I hope it is nothing more than cold, and that you have not laid in your hoarseness for the winter, not only for our sakes, but it must be a trial to the friend of the Bridegroom, to be unable to nourish and comfort his friend's bride, especially, when, in entrusting him with so precious a charge, during his absence, He has manifested such a confiding affection, "lovest thou me? Feed my sheep." Well, you have one more difficult task, than, either defending, or supporting her — that is, comforting her. She so often asks, "Watchman, what of the night? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?" She so often complains "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." She so often needs to be reminded, that He has indeed left this message with you for her, that "the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee," — "I will never leave thee," and to be urged — "Though He tarry, wait for Him, for He will come, and not tarry." May you be much cheered in contemplating the day of the Bridegroom's return, when you shall restore your precious charge, when your joy shall be fulfilled, in hearing His voice, and receiving "Well done, good and faithful servant," etc. How I should like to be a minister...

Very truly,

T. A. P.

Letter 44

.

March 3rd, 1831.

My dear Mr ...,  I have been dwelling a good deal lately on the sweetest of all subjects — our union with Jesus. It is a holy and mysterious subject, but since our teacher is one who searcheth the deep things of God, is it not our privilege to venture under his guidance into all revealed, even into the most High; to walk about and consider this our habitation, and call all within, our own. Whatever declares the identification of Jesus with us, also witnesses to our identification with him. He was educated and disciplined in every thing. He was taught by the Spirit; led the path of faith, not only for our sakes, but our inheritance. We have an interest in his person, as well as in his office and character. We must live in God, inhale his breath, for like the sun, we can only know him by his own influences proceeding from himself. How holy would be our walk! how much of the atmosphere of heaven we should diffuse around, if we always came forth into the world, from the secret place of the most high, as our abiding place. What a field of delight this opens to us in the anticipation of our own loveliness, full of grace and truth, like Jesus! heirs of all the wealth of him who is God — precious in itself, doubly precious from being his. But not only future delights, but present privileges; for united to him, though a beggar in rags, yet in graces is not the believer this moment, our dear Brother in embryo? I speak not of Jesus our Lord, as God over all —  the "I am," or "my fellow," neither as "the Word," who was "in the beginning with God," "by whom all things were made;" who came out from the Father, to testify what he had seen and heard. But the union which, as Jesus of Nazareth, He possessed when anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power. He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed, because God was with him, which is expressed (it seems to me) in, "we are one," "the Father in me, and I in him." It having pleased the Father, all fulness should dwell in him, even all the "fulness of the Godhead bodily," which oneness He declares, we shall know at that day. This union, whatever it is, is ours. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." He that keeps his commandments — whosoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God — he that dwells in love — he that loves his brother, God dwells in him, and he in God — "We will come and make our abode with him," "Christ in you," and in "that day," this oneness shall also be known, for "ye shall know in that day, that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you!!!" From this union seems to flow every other blessing. Being members of his body, of his flesh, and his bones — "joined to the Lord," therefore "one spirit," the same things which are true in God, are also true in us, who are Christ's. Oh, what a world of glory is opened to us in these words, "my beloved is mine, and I am his!" Nothing can separate us from Jesus. Nothing extracts Jesus from the cup presented. Laden with him every event must be full of love, though perhaps blessings in disguise. He gives to drink of his own cup of blessedness, and glory. The grain of wheat having fallen into the earth, taken root in the depths of hell, we have sprung up in him. If exposed to the same blasts, we also enjoy the same refreshing dews, the same enlivening sun. Possessed of his nature we shrink, as the sensitive plant, from the touch of sin, but with him shooting up into the very heavens, we drop into the Father's hand, the tender grapes of his choice vine. "All our fresh springs," are in him.

Your description of all the dear Christians at ... is lamentable; sad, very sad, the members should be so unlike the head; and this alas! is too true of us all. The transcript of the Spirit, though executed with exquisite nicety, is scarcely perceptible through the thick veil of flesh that covers it. It seems no longer true, "no man ever hated his own flesh." Whether we look at the want of his power in his church, or of the fruit of his Spirit in his members, still are we inclined to ask, has the Spirit of the Lord fainted? Is He exhausted? where is he? Query, is not this quarrelling among the children of God, the natural result of want of communion? The religion of Jesus especially enforces and cultivates union. Satan's wiles seem set at the dispersion of the members. So that now the principle is almost denied, and Christianity merely a business between God and the soul — and where it is sought, it is usually only union of sects — must not then, the graces which are the fruit of love, want cultivation? "suffereth long, is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, etc." In this how entirely Satan has succeeded in the Roman Catholic religion. Each has his own prayer to say, they do not seem to know there is such a thing as united prayer. I heard a minister say the other day, he thought his business was to convert souls. From scripture it seems to me, a minister's chief business commences instead of finishes, when a soul is brought to life, and for this how much more is needful, than the public congregations. However for such dead souls, is not storm better than stagnation? I am sure the evil is not in differences of opinion, for this is the necessary result of increase of light, but our evil is more, that we cannot allow another to see things differently from us. But we are in a warfare, and though not receiving wounds from the flesh in the shape of persecution, we must be receiving them from some quarter. The flesh still wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, because still contrary one to the other, and if in the spirit, we must feel it so, from wounds without or wounds within. Most painful, if from the flesh of a beloved brother or sister. But does not this even turn to us for a testimony? and does it not give opportunity of showing, that the flesh is subdued, by loving, and persevering to love through all? If in every rub, our concern is for his glory having suffered, surely we shall then strive to disappoint Satan in our brother. All would be much easier to endure, if instead of taking it as from this sister, or that brother, we could take it as from our common enemy, the flesh. Wounds, one from the other, seem more now, our appointed trial of faith than open persecution, and had we not this, we might forget we were in a conflict, and put off our armour, therefore in these wounds let us not wonder, as though "some strange thing happened, but rejoice in being by any means partakers of his sufferings", for if this whole dispensation is not the day of the church's; fasting, a day of temptation, and suffering, how could the promises of being partakers in the glory of a suffering Saviour be ours? To suffer with him and to be glorified with him, seem closely connected. There is something sweet, in being pruned by a wounded hand, and oh! when we feel the drowsiness of our affections, our proneness to depart from him, and to be satisfied at a distance, have we not cause to be over head and ears in love with trials? that He should be so jealous of our friendship now, to force true happiness upon us, in spite of ourselves, to drive us to his strength, to live upon his promises, and lay our head upon his breast — He is not satisfied his tried children should be common Christians — He considers us — and if He says, "prove me my child," it is that He may introduce us into the innermost chambers of his faithfulness. No doubt in a short time, we shall know much of this, but persecution is the Christian's halo, and trial his triumph. He is called to glorify the Lord in the fires. It is a noble thing to be accounted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake. What soldier would flinch from the combat, when his captain is gone before him in the forefront of the battle? What soldier of Christ is he, who having the assurance of victory, and honour, accounts it a privilege to be out of the field? Are we not called to suffering? are we not chosen as witnesses to his resurrection, in being above, far beyond its sting? Let us expect a succession of trial, and suffering — to have just to post fast, from trouble to trouble. In our God, we are able. As the spirit of prayer strives to be heard, and the spirit of thanksgiving breaks forth into singing, so does the spirit of martyrdom delight in the sphere of action. We are superior to the power of death. Death, in his own domain shall acknowledge us risen. We have overcome the grave, and are set down with Christ our Lord, in the glory of the Highest. How jealous we should be, to show forth his active, as well as passive graces, while left in an enemy's ground! There is nothing else to live for. I feel that a desire to have been more spent, and to have suffered more for my beloved Master, in this theatre of his humiliation, is the only thing, could make me hesitate, in my longing desire to be with Him, who is, and has been, so abundantly with me. But we are such creatures, God cannot accomplish his will, or allow us our heart's desire, without severe discipline. Every day afresh, He has to pursue us out of self. The old man must be kept low, emptied out, to enable us to be filled, with the fulness of God. Oh! to bid an eternal adieu to self; as a tormentor! Oh, to be able to be nothing! This is my idea of the height of glory. We are everlastingly grappling at his honour. In the secret, lower chambers of the heart, we devise means to rob him of this, his due — then we know not how to wear it. The robe of glory was never made to fit us. We carry it with the most absurd awkwardness. Thinking ourselves something, we become perfectly ridiculous. In these fearful days, I should fear much for myself, were I not able to take a full, strong grasp of his promise, "If any man lack wisdom," etc. I cannot think when I ask bread, He would give me a stone. Did I not think my teacher as faithful as He is infallible, there is no book, I should so fear to handle as the book of God. Left in any degree to ourselves, it would be as the plunging into a sea of errors. Such is the poison of the human mind, it requires all the wisdom, and energy of omnipotence to prevent our salvation becoming our destruction. May we be in earnest, may we live while we live — may we know more of that love, which will take a brother's failings to a throne of grace, while throwing over them a cloak of charity — which will fix on his grace in a brother, and render thanks for it — which will be faithful in reproof, as well as jealous in defence. May the beam be more and more extracted from our own eyes, that we may see fewer motes in our brother's. I do not know what to say for writing so long a letter.

Faithfully and affectionately yours,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 45.

1831.

My dear Mr ...,  I have a feeling about me, that I have left something undone; and the only thing I can think of is, that I have been so long from home, and have not written to you. I suppose you have all been going on as usual, at least Mr... from whom I heard lately, does not say any thing to the contrary. We hope to be home the beginning of next week. I am sure you were much shocked at the death of dear Mr... It was a striking lesson to the whole parish, so soon after rejoicing with him. It is a loud voice to us, "up and be doing." The time is short, and very uncertain. He is safely, and very unexpectedly, housed in the Lord's barn. There was much that was lovely in his character; a laying aside of self, and his own pleasures, and pursuits, to be of use, and comfort to others, was especially striking. As doing this from duty is rather irksome to those to whom the attention is shown, therefore, I think, to seek to have formed in us the mind which was in Christ, is better than to seek to imitate him. Does it not seem that the world is breaking up? Does not Satan seem to be arranging his forces, so as to be ready for the battle of Armageddon? How we should be bespeaking strength for the day of trial. I cannot help thinking we also shall have trial, though not to partake in the despair and desolation of the last end. Does it not seem that the end brought about by the man of sin — the last Pharaoh — Dragon incarnate, will be the demonstration of our patience, and the faithfulness of Him who will keep us from falling? Are we not told under the 5th seal, that martyrdom shall continue until the hour of God's vengeance? More martyrs, therefore, are to be slain; for the blood of God's servants is not yet avenged — judgment must begin at the house of God. Matt. 24. 22, says, that unequalled tribulation shall be shortened for the elect's sake, while every declaration of Christ's being come, is a falsehood. It seems to me that the verses 15 and 28 of Luke 24. prove the destruction of Jerusalem not to be the entire fulfilment of this prophecy. Mark, in chap. 13. seems to says, that it is, after the Gospel has been preached in all nations, brother shall betray brother, etc. It is said of this time, "Here is the patience of the saints." Blessed then the dead, that die in the Lord; oh what a time! shall we see it? Surely we need to count the cost, to put on the whole armour of God, that we may enter boldly into the battle, since our enduring will be for our Captain's honour, and to the proof of his power. It seems the church must walk in the footsteps of her Lord. It will be terrible to be betrayed by one's own child, by one's familiar friend — to see the name of Jesus almost eradicated — the worship of a devil set up — we ourselves assaulted with Satan's most cunning, because last, snares; and if to pass through his experience, to drink indeed of his cup, and be baptized indeed with his baptism; our hearts may be poured out like water, we may sink in deep mire, and our Father's face be hidden; for unless these days be shortened, no flesh could be saved, but for the elect's sake these days shall be shortened, for then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. The Lord tells us to watch and pray, that we may be accounted worthy to escape, what is coming on the earth, etc. It cannot mean a prayer to die, for there is a great promise to them who endure to the end, those who overcome. Does there not seem to be two distinct destructions spoken of, Babylon, and the Beast? But how blessed to be among those whose sufferings will be full of hope! Does it not seem from the types, that His people are to be delivered not from, but out of affliction. He knows how to deliver us out of temptation. We are witnesses of His resurrection. He was only the first fruits. We are superior to all the power of the enemy. He died through weakness, but was raised in power. To this power we are united. What a triumph over death it will be, in his own domain (when as it were, death shall be let loose on earth,) the gathering up of his saints! What a thunderclap of hallelujah, when all the prayers of all saints for our poor world, long, long laid up, shall all be answered in one event!!...

... Ever most affectionately yours,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 46

.

April, 1831.

Dear Mr ..., I write to accuse you of want of love; — our Master's badge of discipleship, who is love. — His last and dying command. — No doubt you will agree with me that all the Gospel, as well as law, is contained in that word love. How much we need to be led into the height, depth, length, and breadth of his own word. Is it not poverty of love makes us crave the spirit, and forget the practice? is it not the same poverty enforces the practice, neglectful of the spirit? Oh! that all the church would unite, in each putting, at least, one stitch in that rent mantle, with which the apostle enjoins us to cover a multitude of sins. — Oh that we could more decidedly pluck out the beam from our own eye, that the mote in our brother's might appear less! Oh that we more honoured the spirit, in giving credit to the principles of those who love the Lord in sincerity, and by our faithfulness more drew upon those principles. It seems to me the nature of love is twofold. — First, it is given to excuse, instead of accuse. Second, it is equally jealous in covering and detecting evil — covering it from others — detecting it to the individual concerned. Pardon me for saying, it seems to me you have failed towards me in both these points — Christian love, where God's glory is the simple motive, no doubt would lead us to consider others, both in feeling ourselves bound to give thanks, and to glory in what God has done for them, and also in carrying the blind, maimed, halt and infirm, in the arms of faith, to place them at the feet of Jesus. My accusation is, I have heard from two or three quarters that you have brought me forward as an example of inconsistency in having ... Is that all you saw inconsistent!!! I do not write to justify myself. I can "lift up my face unto God;" neither do I profess to act for man's judgment. But was it consistent, was it Christian love to condemn, unheard, not to point out by word or letter this evil in your sight? Was it being jealous over God's glory, to be so little jealous over my walk? Alas! how little sympathy of conscience, how little help we meet in our most difficult paths! nevertheless, though overlooked at the time, since pointed out, I confess the appearance inconsistent. Do not, dear ... think me offended; I am not in the least so, but should be glad you were to continue using my example if it can be of use; but my motive in writing is to prove to you by this your failure, how much we need mercy one from the other, as to our consistency, and how ill we can sustain judgment. If not falling on one side, we are on the other. A deep sense of "Behold, I am vile," will settle us in our right place, as respects God, others, and ourselves; truly we are given to totter in our own conceits, as a stick balanced on a man's finger falls either to this side or that, we are ever going, going, but blessed be God, never quite gone, because the finger is Omnipotence. Let us pray that in striving to represent, we do not altogether misrepresent, the lowly walk to which our high vocation calls us.

Yours, dear ...

With sincerity, etc. etc.

T. A. P.

Letter 47

.

Powerscourt, February 18, 1831.

My dear friend — I was indeed surprised to hear of ... How little similitude exists between the members and the Head; and this, alas! is too true of us all. The transcript of the spirit, though executed with exquisite nicety, is scarcely perceptible through the thick veil of flesh which covers it. It seems no longer true — "No man ever hated his own flesh." Whether we look at the want of power in the church, or of the fruit of the Spirit in the members, still are we inclined to ask, has the Spirit of the Lord fainted? Is He exhausted? Where is He? "Now when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not, until I have shown thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." But we are in a warfare; this is the battle hill; and though not receiving wounds from the flesh, in the shape of persecution, we must be receiving them from some quarter. The flesh still wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and if in the spirit, we must feel it so from wounds without, or wounds within. Most painful, if from the flesh of a beloved brother, or sister. But does not even this turn to us for a testimony? And does it not give opportunity of showing, that the flesh is subdued by loving, and persevering to love through all? Wounds one from the other, seem now more our appointed trial of faith than open persecution; and had we not these, we might forget we were in a conflict, and put off our armour. Therefore, let us not wonder at these fiery darts, as though some strange thing happened to us, but open our bosoms to receive of his suffering, and rejoice in being counted worthy of being partakers of them by any means; for if this whole dispensation were not the day of the church's fasting, the day of his temptation and suffering, how could the promise of being partakers in the glory of a suffering Saviour be ours? To suffer with him and to be glorified with him, how closely connected! Dear friends, take this as from the Lord, even as you do. He is pruning with a wounded hand; and, oh! when we feel the drowsiness of our affections, our proneness to depart from him, to be satisfied at a distance, have we not cause to be "over head and ears in love" with trial, that He should be jealous for our friendship now; so force true happiness upon us in spite of ourselves, so drive us to his strength, to live upon his promises, and lean our heads upon his breast? He is not satisfied that we should be common Christians. Oh! bless him and kiss the rod. He is considering you. Let us leave ourselves to him. If He says, prove me, my child, it is that He may introduce you into the inner chambers of his faithfulness. If he places you in difficulties and perplexities, it is that He himself may expound his promise in your experience: "I am your shield, your exceeding great reward."

"Venture on Him, venture wholly.

Let no other trust intrude;

None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good."

We are all too apt to feel that had we some other race to run than the one set before us, we could go lightly, and run swiftly. Now I feel impeded by the weight of being called queen of a castle; and imagine, could I lay it aside and have nothing, then I might run with more patience after the Crucified. I am inclined to say, in your race you have no misgivings of conscience; you feel assured that you are just as He has placed you! Thus He sets a race before each, and gives a sufficient remedy for all, "looking unto Jesus." But I know the sorrows of your mind, and pray that balm may be poured into the opened wound. May your spirit be kept above with Jesus, and the spirits of the just! Look forward. That new song requires our parts to complete the harmony. He could not be satisfied with the travail of his soul, until he had worked out our salvation. Oh! mysterious Jesus, teach us thy works and plans. Let our hearts pant after thee as the harts after water. Create a thirst which nothing shall satisfy but the fountain of eternal love. See the velocity with which the needle flies to the magnet when it gets within distance; so shall we hasten to our magnet, our Beloved, as we approach him. Then, to be delivered from the noisome pestilence within, to rise from among the pots, and to be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, will draw forth such hallelujahs! May He make us what He would have us to be; give singleness in the eye, and fidelity in the conscience! I hope you or ... will soon be able to write, and tell us how you have decided.

Believe me, yours very affectionately,

T. A. P

Letter 48

.

Powerscourt, 14th May, 1831.

My dear friend — I have wondered at all you have told me. Oh! all the foundations are out of course! What disorder, what confusion on all sides! what sin, what misery! Nehemiah would not accept the service of the Lord's enemies in building the temple. Does not the world stand to the believer in the same place, as the Gentile to the Jew? Are we to permit them to have common cause with us in his work? Are we so to declare that the Lord's servants are not sufficient for his work? Surely they would be, if as devoted as Satan's servants. Are we to cringe to the world for its influence, its wealth, its labour? The world is not less dangerous now; not less an enemy to truth, than when Christ prayed his people should be kept from its evil. False friends arc the worst of all enemies; wolves in sheep's clothing. But where is the world? If all are Christians, there is no world. What a state of disorder and confusion we have got into! All our precepts necessarily thrown overboard. We are enjoined to closest union with Christians; distinct separation from the world. We cannot exercise the latter with those we professedly acknowledge brethren; we cannot exercise the former with those with whom we have no sympathy; all being shut up to profession. None profess, while in conduct we give every day a lie to our profession, in judging those who profess to profess. The church and the world are like tumbled drawers. May the great Head of the church, the King of the universe, quickly come and put all in order! What a glorious destiny awaits us! how the dwelling on it should humble us! "When Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that He was come from God and-went to God, He laid aside his garment, took a towel, girded himself, and began to wash his disciples' feet." Pray let me hear what you do. It is refreshing to hear now and then of his faithfulness in guiding you continually. It is well to trace his footsteps through the dark and hidden providences with which we are exercised. Depend upon it, He is leading by a right way to the city of habitation. Though the path may not be clear, his faithfulness is — "I know in whom I have believed." Oh! the peace of being brought in sincerity and truth, to lie back in his arms, saying, "undertake for me."

With true affection,

Yours in our real hope,

T. A. P.

Letter 49

.

Powerscourt, 2nd September, 1832.

My dear friend — It is long, very long since I have heard from you. I hope you will not therefore refuse to write to me a very long letter, and tell me all your present sentiments and experience, and what the Lord has been instructing you in the last year. I know it is goodness and mercy which have followed, but it strengthens faith to hear the hows, and the whens. As for me, to all appearances, I have been going on in a quiet sameness, yet never, I believe, has the Lord been more dealing with me, exposing me to myself, and bringing me low, than during the last year. I have learnt some very bitter lessons, because I am a great dunce. I should be glad to know what you think concerning reigning with Christ. Do you think it is for all, or only for martyrs? I have been thinking a good deal on the subject of late. It seems to me that the reason why it belongs to this dispensation to reign with Him, is because this is the dispensation of martyrdom; the fast days of his church, because of the absence of her bridegroom. Rest at any time seems a mere accident. "Sheep appointed to the slaughter;" "the offscouring of all things;" "bearing about the body of the Lord Jesus;" "always delivered unto death," — this is the character of these promised days of tribulation. It is still his hour of temptation. Acts, 1. 4, 5. Luke, 22. 28. When God would heat his furnace to the height for an example of faith to the end of time, what did he prepare? Not suffering of the body, but the furnace of affliction, "thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest." It does not seem to me to signify so much what the trial is, as the coming out of it, saying, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." I conceive we are all given opportunity of this martyrdom. It seems distinguished from the suffering which we have in common with the world, in that it is a suffering for principle, a trial of faith, a voluntary preference of suffering in the flesh, to denying Christ in any wise. It is a denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, a cutting off a right hand, a plucking out a right eye, rather than offend. Oh! how many secret martyrdoms are thus endured unknown to man, but precious to God! Now, I do believe, never was there a time that this doctrine (the connexion between reigning and suffering) would bear less to be overlooked, or required more to be brought forward; for truly, there is such a thin,, as refusing martyrdom, even as much as if we were to turn from the stake. I speak from experience. The Lord wants proofs, not words. After Peter, much distressed, answered, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee;" Jesus answered, "prove it." I believe there is such a thing as even the believer's being so allured, so led captive by things of sense, as for even the mighty argument to be overpowered, "If ye love me keep my commandments," — and that many Christians under the conviction that their souls cannot be lost, live in the indulgence of unlawful gratifications, rather than go through the torture of the whole heart being drawn and quartered. But, surely, if the millennial reign of Christ be a particular reward to Him for his sufferings, as "Son of man," "Son of David," distinct from the everlasting glory, those only who have partaken with Him, shall reign with Him. Do tell me what you think of this; for it seems to me that though there are now many saved Christians, there are but few reigning ones, — "rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy," — "if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you," — "if we die with Him we shall live with Him," — "if we suffer, we shall reign with Him," — "we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer," — "to them that overcome" are the royal promises given, "to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father". "I will give him THE MORNING STAR." "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown," — "I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name," — "him will I grant to sit with me, on MY THRONE," etc. And "if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we maybe also glorified together," — "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comfortable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of or from the dead." — "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might be partakers of a better resurrection." When asked by the mother of Zebedee's children, for the highest places for her sons, when they should come into his kingdom, He answers, "Ye know not what ye ask; are you able to drink of my cup, and be baptized with my baptism?" Therefore the disciples rejoiced, that "they were counted worthy to suffer," — "that they were given not only to believe, but to suffer." Do not think from this that I would make light of the all-prevailing principle of Love, and wish to go back to rewards; no. Get the heart, and you have got the man. Love makes drudgery divine. Love cannot help itself, it outruns and leaves law far behind. The question is not what must I do, but what may I do? In grieving its object, love grieves itself. This is the secret spring of the believer's actions, which makes him often pass in the world as an enthusiast. Love will stop at nothing; it takes up its cross and travels after its object over every mountain and hill of difficulty. It was this strengthened Mary, when the soldiers quaked with fear; it was this kept her hovering round the sepulchre, when all the disciples went to their own homes. Love desires all to be partakers of its own bliss; it overleaps human opinion; it runs on with an unceasing cry, "what shall I render for such benefits?" "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." But I mean that all arguments the Lord has used are needful, so dead often is even love, in sleep from continued lullabies of the flesh, and opiates from the devil. What poor empty creatures we are! I am quite out of conceit with myself; such tossings to and fro, such ebbs and flowings, sometimes lifted up to heaven, sometimes sunk into the depths; the soul fainting within because of trouble. Satan is so watchful and well experienced when and where to assault the soul with most effect. He delights to get a soul into heaviness through manifold temptations; and it is not always easy to find patience in the assurance that for these there is a needs be; and though we know each tossing draws us nearer the land of our inheritance, sometimes faith fails when "for many days neither sun nor stars appear, and no small tempest lies upon us," yet how often are these things for the purpose of lightening the ship, or perhaps for the trial of our faith, or for exposure of our little faith. But though the end be useful, the exercise is not less painful; and it is humbling, (therefore it is good), it is humbling, to have the question put home, where is now your faith? Nevertheless, how often in these things our gratitude is called forth, to him whose love and faithfulness have not failed, when our faith and hope have failed, that, though forced to acknowledge "my foot slipped," we can also add, "thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." The gold of the sanctuary must be tried before accepted; and it is thrown into the fire, not because it is of no value, but because it is so precious. What a sad state poor Ireland is in! But we are above every thing of Satan's working. From the secret place of the Most High we can look down and smile; our enemies are all conquered by that spirit in Christ's humanity which dwells in us: so we are more than conquerors. With love ...

Believe me, dear friend,

Affectionately yours,

T. A. P.

Letter 50.

June, 1832.

My precious friend — What excuse can I make to myself for my long silence? I should like much to hear from you all that is in your mind ... told me you wanted my thoughts on the ... tongues. What are my thoughts? Are they the Lord's thoughts? Come, and see. As to these dear creatures, I say not a word; I dare not; but if in any thing I be otherwise minded from his truth, God will reveal even this to me. Yes, let us not be more unbelieving as to that promise than any other; He has undertaken to lead. Let us but keep the eye of faith on His eye. It still appears to me, that we should not expect gifts now. One difficulty with me was Eph. 4. 13; but when I compare it with 1 Cor. 12. 28 verse, I find all miraculous gifts excluded, in the one to continue, while mentioned in the church then at Corinth. It may be objected, He would not give such minute directions concerning what was to cease, yet He does on other subjects; for example, about meat offered to idols. Another difficulty with me was 1 Cor. 13. 10; that which is perfect not being come; that which is in part must continue. But I observe, that tongues are left out, when explaining what was in part (9th verse.) Again, Mark 16. 17. If you turn to I Cor. 15. we find He was seen of five hundred brethren, then of all the apostles. It seems, when He appeared to the twelve was the time which is mentioned in Mark, after which He ascended; and when He appeared to the multitude, was the time mentioned in Matthew, where no mention is made of the miraculous signs. See Luke also, and Acts. He was with the eleven when He ascended. If this is so, may not the miraculous gifts have been given on the introduction of the new dispensation, even as Moses was given power at the introduction of the former, to show it was from God; as our blessed Lord said, in healing the man sick of the palsy, "that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed and walk," etc. It is not said that more than the apostles received the gift on the day of Pentecost; and does not Paul say, "the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds?" He does not mention that these are the signs of ministers, 2 Cor. 6. etc. May it not have been poured out on the apostle to communicate by the laying on his hands? I see but one instance without the laying on of hands, and that is the case of Cornelius, "as on us at the beginning," as a sign from God, and of his having called the Gentiles. Also Paul tells the church of Rome, he desired to go to them to impart to them some spiritual gift, that their faith being strengthened by this, his might be by theirs. Also, see Rom. 15. 18, 19. I do not think history would be satisfactory; we may judge even from the variety of opinions, and different views of things now. But good historians, who have studied with that view, say there is nothing satisfactory. Ireneus says in his days there were miracles, but he only says so from the authority of another, not from having seen them himself. Have you read ...? What do you think of his views? His books on Second Advent and Revelations? Tell me, especially, what you think about all not reigning with Christ? You know there is so much to say to you, there is no use in saying any thing. What do you think of the world? "These things must first come to pass, but the end is not yet." "See that ye be not troubled."

I sometimes long so much to hear from you, but cannot get leisure to sit down to write you a long letter, without neglecting something that seems at the moment quite necessary. We estimate, I believe, very badly, what is, or is not, for God's glory. I, every day, see more and more how His glory is only to be found in simply obedience. When we settle our own plans, we go too much on current opinions; and thus often deprive ourselves of much blessedness, both in our own experience, and the good done. So it was with Peter, when he said "thou shalt not wash my feet." He intended well, was full of love and zeal, and surely the answer given him well suits us. Though we may not see his end, let us simply obey, and what we know not now, we shall hereafter, when the Master Builder has brought forth the head-stone with shoutings, "grace, grace." Soldiers do not question, why this, or why that? The general has the place and end before him: the soldier has only to stand when desired, and go when commanded; let each take his own way, and all is confusion. Oh! how sadly ignorant we are of His will and mind, because so sadly ignorant of Scripture! we work, work, work, all in the dark, till night breaks in upon us, and we find we have been spending our strength for nought. In these times we need to be imbued with truth, instinctively to recoil from error and embrace truth. Either light is so bursting in, or else darkness so thickens, or perhaps both, that there is no time to take this, and take that, to examine; we arc through ignorance at our wits' end, "tossed about with every wind of doctrine." "Teach us." Then give us courage to act, not only in opposition to the opinions of the world, but with all humility, in opposition to the opinions of Christians. You ask me what I have learnt lately. That none but God could know and endure me; that the discovery of me will make even devils stand aghast! it is quite true. He has been leading me in ways I knew not, though I might have known them; and though I am altogether weary of myself, He has not fainted, nor is He discouraged yet. The hottest of all furnaces in which He tries faith, is that heated with our own sins. Oh! what sweet truths He often whispers to His saints from behind clouds! till sometimes they almost dread the thought of ease — yet the ear of faith is too often stunned by the roaring of the thunder, while under the cloud, hears not, till the small voice follows. The path of each is just the kindest and best, that Love and wisdom could devise when sitting in counsel upon it before the world was! He makes our wants occasions by which to enrich us. He seldom calls His child to descend into trial, but we find He has been in it beforehand, therein depositing unsearchable consolations, and we come up enriched, invigorated and purified. May it be so, dear friend, in your experience. He is saying in each providence, "drink, oh! drink abundantly, oh! beloved!"

Yours in much attachment,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Are not the Roman Catholics going on in a very strange way? Prepare us for whatever thou art preparing for us! When in Dublin I went to see for the last time, dear ... his end expressed the same as his life — I have proved, and "I know in whom I have believed." Remember me cordially to your dear husband.

Letter 51

.

... I have laid your verse before Mr... and Mr... for what am I to answer it? This is Mr...'s answer (Matthew 5. 19.) "The most desirable thing would be first to discover a fixed determinate meaning of the phrase," the kingdom of heaven," but I fear this is not easy. The two ways of explaining it are: First, as the Christian religion itself, or the spiritual and invisible power by which it is maintained in the heart. Secondly, as a kingdom yet to be set up in the literal acceptation of the word, of glory and power; and now I quite incline myself to the latter signification, and that any other use of it is only this transferred, as we know is commonly done with terms that are of wide and extensive signification. A great part of Christ's office consisted in his introducing a new religion, which religion it was necessary for all to adopt and profess, who looked for entrance into his destined kingdom. There may be some difficulty in interpreting all the particular passages in which the phrase occurs upon this principle, and the passage before us may be an instance of this. But, nevertheless, I conceive that it would be established by any patient examination of the Scriptures on the subject. It may also be difficult to determine, when it is used in its proper, and when in its transferred signification. I will therefore give an interpretation which will meet both. First, he who falls into such misconstruction of Christ's doctrine, as to esteem lightly himself, or to teach others lightly to esteem the precepts of God in the smallest particular, shall have the lowest rank of felicity in Christ's kingdom. Secondly, if it refers to the religion, then I think it means that all they of the kingdom of heaven (whose characteristic it is to cleave fast to the pure law of God without men's glosses) shall have such a teacher in no estimation, shall not seek or follow him. In which sense you see I take the kingdom of heaven, to mean those who have had their heart's eye purified to discern the real nature of the kingdom which is to be set up. I cannot offer you any thing better than this; but one thing is plain, and herein may we be exercising ourselves day and night, to hate every crooked way, and to esteem all his precepts concerning every thing to be right."- So much for Mr... now for Mr...'s "kingdom of heaven in this passage, and every other, means the visible church, that is, all baptized persons!" Now I have filled almost all my paper, and left little to tell you how goodness and mercy have been following me. I feel a great desire to send you a full account of my dear ... : because you ask me, if we had answers to prayer, and because it would express to you, that I believe you are interested in what concerns me. I will write out extracts of some letters for you. When you read them, you will not be surprised that this unexpected, miraculous, satisfactory conversion, and answer to my many prayers, should have filled my heart with joy unspeakable, almost to the exclusion of every other feeling. How could I do any thing else but rejoice when I realized the welcome, he was receiving, when ushered into the midst of the heavenly host, at the very moment they were rejoicing with Jesus, that he, who had been dead, was alive for evermore! I seemed also to hear the music and dancing as he drew near the house. And every step in the affliction was so thoughtful! so very faithful! such distinct answers to prayer! such an evident struggle with Satan for that dear prodigal! but the accuser was disappointed; the body was delivered to him, that the spirit might be saved. His light afflictions worked for him a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. He dealt with him as with Job, diligently covered his poor body with sores, but could not touch his life, till from his Lazarus-body angels carried his spirit into the bosom of the covenant! The good Shepherd laid him on his shoulder, after seeking him out! then causing him to know his voice, he carried him off triumphantly to heaven! We never were so near. Formerly there was a great gulf between. Now we are united in one; a little thin veil of flesh between, which just prevents us hearing, and seeing, one another; but very soon and very easily will it be torn asunder. And can we not wait, dear friend, for that day, since we know in whom we have believed, and are persuaded He is able to keep all we have committed to Him, not to be lost, but to be restored, richly restored, in that day? He is sleeping in Jesus, I dwelling in Jesus; he tasting rivers of pleasure, the streams whereof make me glad. We never understood each other before. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." He is removed from our family, but received into the family of God, into Jesus "of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named," — and dirty and soiled as the prodigal was found, "by riotous living," yet is Jesus not ashamed to call him brother, for He has had part with the children, that He might taste death for every man. "He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, being all of one." How refreshing, in the middle of the 5th chapter of Luke, in the middle of so many proofs of his godhead, to find Him withdrawing into the wilderness to pray: he needed to receive, and what an argument against what Satan often puts before us, that because we are engaged about some useful business, some charitable work, we may put off prayer: this is our weakness. I fear you are very unhappy about ... to be separated from him when ill —  how painful! but remember how precious is his body to the Lord; it has been purchased as well as the soul — not his own, not yours, but the property of Jesus. Oh! we have not entered at all yet into the fulness and freeness of His love. Each day teaches that we knew nothing of it the day before, and when we shall come really to behold it, we shall find we knew nothing at all. We come to him with so much suspicion, so much as if He were loath to give, so much as if he were looking for some excuse to get out of His promises. We have no idea of His longings to bless. How He only wants some excuse — how he is the first mover in every mercy. "In ages to come shall appear the exceeding riches of His grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." Pray on, trust on, very dear sister! Blessed to know the character of Him with whom we have to do. Pitiful, tender, full of compassion, waiting to be gracious, keeping mercy, plenteous redemption. It is enough if there be willingness in us for anything which is of the Father; his very office proclaims "I will." Now let us rise, trust Him for more and more, glorify Him; thus expect largely, He is willing!!! It is not Jesus in humiliation, but Jesus in glory, beseeches us to receive all fulness treasured up in him for us. All we see and admire in him, not a cry we send up to him, but is a prayer from him to us to receive what we ask him to give. There is no sound but comfort in the voice of Jesus. No sovereign act comes spontaneously from Him yet but is mercy, though it may involve judgment to some. He was bent on mercy to Israel when Pharaoh crossed his way; yet how he strove with Pharaoh; how often Pharaoh hardened his own heart, before God did so finally and judicially; yet even then was it but to carry on his designs and determinations of mercy! How a message was sent to him first, then three plagues before they touched him materially, and every plague calculated to bring him to repentance. Lay your dear ... on the lap of prayer, and all is well — see all His providences in the light of the rays which shine from the new Jerusalem, then we see them in their true colour. "Father of lights, in whom is no variableness;" this is his disposition. An act of love may be very kind, but there is no security for the future; but when the disposition is love, unchanging love, all must be loving, because he is love; all must be wise because he is wisdom ... Powers are at work, let us nestle into the bosom of a Father! Ireland may have to be put into a strait waistcoat; the church may go mad; but Jehovah is always in His right mind, always knows what he is about. May He, my dear friend, lock you up in the concave of his shield.

Most affectionately yours,

Theodosia A. Powerscourt.

Letter 52

.

Powerscourt.

My dear Mr ...,  I sit down to write to you, not with the hopes of suggesting any comfort, for I know by experience that it is He alone who maketh sore, who can bind up; He alone who wounds, whose hands can make whole. But I cannot help telling you how deeply I feel for you, and ... Few have had more cause to weep for themselves; therefore few ought to be able to weep so sincerely with others, or to tell them of that comfort, whereby they have been comforted of the Lord. Oh, indeed at such moments, this world is a sad, sad, blank. All seems mysterious, confused — desponding. The devil suggests questions and rebellious feelings, which at other times, we should shudder at the very idea of; and we almost say "I do well to be angry." Is this your case, dear Mr...? or can you, through the cloud, so perceive the smile, not only of peace, but of affectionate tender love, in the countenance of that Father who holds the rod, as to be constrained to run into those very arms which chastise. Oh, how blessed you are if enabled to take this comfort and are spared the agonies, I was permitted to feel for a while, when with all the promises I could feel no comfort in believing them to be all mine; but found I could not grasp at them in my own strength, but needed the support of the same spirit as sustained Christ on Calvary. Never, but for the books of Job and Jonah, could I have believed that my tender Father could stand by, see it all, and yet wait to be gracious to such a wretch. But "faithful is he who hath promised:" — "He will not leave you comfortless." It is in faithfulness He has afflicted you. Because you are his son He deals with you as He has dealt with his Son. Even if shut out from sensible communion with Him, so was he, whose only support was, that He could still say, "my God." No affliction at the time seems to be joyous; but wait on the Lord, He will comfort your heart. I know He will. That Comforter, who made up for his bodily presence, is still all-sufficient to make up for your dear child's. If we could but see one glimpse of his love in these afflictive dispensations, if we knew now, as we shall know hereafter, we should indeed say, "Our Jesus has done all things well." No metal on earth is of sufficient value to show how precious to Him is the trial of your faith, as it shall be to his honour and glory, at the great day. Oh! what a great need-be there must have been for this blow, when He could so chastise his beloved ones. Not one pang could be spared; for he sits Himself as a refiner over his fire to temper the heat, and he feels every anguish with you; not like the pity of a friend who never knew what sorrow was, but the sympathy of Him who was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," who experienced all we can possibly feel, that he might be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and succour us when tempted.

Ah, what lessons our dear Lord is now teaching you, lessons which angels can never learn, teaching by heart, which was perhaps only known before by rote. When He takes up the lesson we find none can teach like a parent. How differently we read "all is vanity," — "oh, that I had wings like a dove." How it shows us what must be the odiousness of sin, and the greatness of the Saviour's love to the sinner: ... What hell must be, when this one spark from it is sufficient to make us rejoice for ever in having escaped it. How unspeakable and incomprehensible must be the weight of glory, when the Holy Spirit can call these light afflictions in comparison, not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And does it not also teach us to sympathize with our dear Lord, in his sufferings, when we cannot even taste his bitter cup, without foreign strength; while Father, Son, and Holy Ghost seem united in comforting us: — cordials at hand for every woe, in the exceeding great and precious promises wherewith they comfort us. He could say, I looked for some to have pity upon me, but there was none; for comforters, but found none. Alas! I believe there is even in the mind of the believer, something which disposes him to turn to things of time and sense, though his judgment is convinced of their insufficiency to make him happy. One thing after another must be cut off, which binds us to earth, and it may be, the strings of our heart almost broken by the operation, but the Lord is determined to separate us from sin. I do believe He has purchased these afflictions for us, as well as every thing else. Blessed be his name, it is part of his covenant to visit us with the rod, little as we may be worthy of it! May we be enabled to wait for the issue. He says, with power, "give me thine heart." How shall I give up any part of it?

"He breaks our schemes of worldly joy,

That we may seek our all in Him."

And can we quarrel with him for so loving us? He who could say for us, "Reproach hath broken my heart, I am full of heaviness, my tears have been my meat day and night." Oh! that I could say any thing that could be of any comfort; but all I can do is, to try and tell you what He has been to me in my troubles. He seems (if I may so speak) to have watched every opportunity in which I should be most likely to feel my loss, as if it were to fill up the gap with his precious presence. Have I in the rebellion of my heart said, I have no companion, I am left quite alone? He has spoken to me so sweetly in his word, that in spite of myself, I have been forced to say, He is enough. Have I said, I have none to open my mind to? He has led me to, "then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, here am I." — Have I said, I have lost the kernel of all my earthly joys, I have lost my husband? He has led me to, "Thou shalt call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali." — Have I said, I am left an unprotected creature in the midst of a wicked world? He has led me to, "Let thy widows trust in me." — Or, a foolish creature with no adviser? He has led me to, "His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor!" "I will guide thee with mine eye." — Or has it been, I have no prop to lean upon going through this dark howling wilderness? He has shown me where the church is represented "coming up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved." And He is the same now, and I doubt not, but He is saying to you, why weepest thou? why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten children? I believe it to be his love expressed in a peculiar manner. Peace unspeakable can be enjoyed in the midst of tribulation; the soul is able to realize the joy hereafter, and pant for it, as at no other time; and he is made more acquainted with himself and his Saviour, which I believe is the only real happiness after all.

Then to draw the veil and look at her as she is; your prayers fully answered: Are you regretting that she is not left to know more of the woes of this unhappy world? Was it not for the Lord that you were bringing her up? was it not your first desire for her, that she should be found in his narrow way: and what is that? "Much tribulation." How far she has left you behind: perfect in the praise you are only learning to lisp. A child's death seems to be the triumph of redemption: — left on Satan's kingdom for a short time as if to laugh at his power. He did not think it too much to give his Son to be made miserable for you: will not you give him your child to be made unspeakably happy? You would not wish her back only that she might speak to you, and you to her. Could you form an idea of the reception she met with when ushered into the presence of her Saviour and her God? could you see the wisdom and love which fixed the period of her existence here, you not only would not part with one pang, but would delight in the dispensation. By faith you are enabled to say, "ALL IS WELL"; and if a voice could reach you from the everlasting, would it not re-echo back, "ALL IS WELL"? No longer any distress; not one distracting thought, but peace reigning for ever — love the everlasting theme; — love to Jesus, who is very near also her weeping friends; who walks with you in the furnace; who puts under you his everlasting arms, and, in a few short years, will bring you to meet her, know her, and be happy with her for ever; "so shall ye be ever with the Lord."

I fear I have been tormenting you sadly; pray pardon me; and do not answer me if painful to you. Pray give my love to dear ... Tell her how sincerely I feel with you both; but she has still a husband, and you a wife. Oh! value that treasure while you have it. Do not say you are bereaved, while you have one to live for, to mourn with you, and to whose sorrows you may add by over much grief. May you be long, long spared that unparalleled blessing! May Jesus now lift up on you his countenance, that in his light you may walk through darkness! May sad remembrance not draw your spirit down to earth! May faith pierce the cloud of sorrow, and keep your happy soul above, rejoicing in that bliss which will soon be yours! A little while, and you will behold Jesus, and find him really yours for ever; a little while, and you shall join the just above; a little while, and you shall see how this rough blast of human woe has hastened your little bark to shore. May you know more and more of the value of the balm of Gilead, more than you ever did before, and be able to say,

What thou canst, without thee I am poor;

With thee rich, take what thou wilt!

Yours, dear Mr...

With Christian affection and sympathy,

T. A. Powerscourt.

This came, though veiled in darkness from above,

A dispensation of eternal Love.

He who perceived the dangerous control,

The heart-twined spell, was gaining on thy soul;

Snatch'd from thine arms the dangerous decoy,

To give the brighter hope, and purer joy.

Oh! see how soon the flowers of life decay,

How soon terrestrial pleasures fade away!

This star of comfort, for a moment given,

Just rose on earth, then set to rise in heaven.

Turn back thine eye along the path of life,

View thine own grief, and weariness, and strife;

And say, if that which tempts thee to repine

Be not a happier lot by far than thine.

If death in infancy had laid thee low,

Thou hadst escaped from pain, and sin, and woe.

The years thy soul the path of sorrow trod,

Had all been spent in converse with thy God

And thou hadst shone in yonder cloudless sphere

A seraph there, and not a pilgrim here.

Oh! it is sweet to die, to part from earth, —

And win all heaven, for things of little worth.

Then, sure, thou wouldst not, though thou couldst, awake

The little slumb'rer, for its mother's sake.

No ill can reach it now, it rests above,

Safe in the bosom of celestial love.

Its short, but yet tempestuous way is o'er,

And tears shall trickle down its cheeks no more.

If bitter thoughts and tears in heaven could be,

It is thine infant that should weep for thee!

Letter 53.

Brussels, June 1st, 1830.

... May the Lord's blessing be on this step! and though the path to glory must still be a path of tribulation, yet much may be done to aggravate, much to alleviate, in this tender tie. — But the Lord only knows what is before us all. — Happy to know He is our Shepherd, therefore, happen what may, we may boldly say, I shall not want. —  And what an immensity is contained in that short text! — The greater our necessities, the more his all-sufficiency gains utterance, so as to force us to glory in our necessities. I hope you will write very soon, and tell us every particular about your dear sister. I trust you may be able to say she is better. — Yet, is there any thing in this world you would offer her in exchange, for what you desire to keep her from. Oh no! there is but one concern, are we really on our way to Him? When the curtain shall drop on the dearest friends, forced at length to give up their hold, shall it, indeed, be, "I fear not, because Thou art with me." Though the subject does not seem very appropriate to matrimony, yet, as in the midst of life we are in death, it would be well for us all, at all times, to strive to keep in view this end of our existence, this solemn thought, we have to die. It would be well to try to realise how we shall feel, standing alone with Jesus in that untried, unknown somewhere. There is nothing ugly in death to the believer. I have been lately called in expectation to face him. There is an honesty in his countenance, which while terrifying the ungodly infuses such a holy confidence into the child of God, that he will conduct in safety to Jesus. We are left to the single thought of how we shall meet him. Had we no other motive, what a powerful one is this to cultivate an intimacy with him now, to prove Him; to make Him our secret keeper, our bosom friend; that when we meet, it may be meeting one "whom, not having seen, we have loved!" And having proved His faithfulness all along the paths of righteousness, we may not feel a suspicion of His deserting in the last step of faith. To the believer it cannot be a dark valley; for there is no need of sun or moon where the Lamb is the light thereof, and His rainbow is thrown over it. Oh, what rich feasts "the dogs" may gather from the crumbs which fall from the children's table! — I mean how richly we may partake of promises addressed to the Jews — see Isaiah 43. He has redeemed us, he has called us by name — He has not spared his only Son for us, we are His; so precious in His sight, therefore honourable; and he loves us, has CREATED us for His glory, therefore to us also He says, "fear not;" again, "fear not, for I am with, thee." What shall we be called to this year? to pass through the water, to wet our feet with the uncomfortable cares, perplexities, disappointments of this life: fear not Israel! Prince with God! I am with thee, the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel (thy property,) thy Saviour — what have we then to fear? Only remember all through the year, "I am with you"...

Letter 54.

Brussels, Feb. 23, 1830.

... Blessed portion her's! The crown without the cross! Oh, does it not make us love that Saviour who extracted all the bitter, and left her only a cup of love? Dear ... you do not, you cannot wish she had staid in such a world (that you might look at her, and talk to her,) where pure happiness is only to be found in the ocean of tribulation, through which you now all wade — "She came to show how sweet a flower in Paradise would blow." — Now she is safely locked up in the casket of her God, to he brought forth when he shall open his jewels. Ah! I have not lived in this world many more years than she has; and I can tell you God meant what he said, when He gave one promise for this world —  "Much tribulation." There is a depth of meaning when "The Truth" speaks, which we must learn by deep experience — the meaning of words is only taught in the school of affliction. We think it worth travelling the path of sorrow only for the earnest of what remains for her: the earnest alone is far, far beyond all your fondest desires could have heaped upon her. Treasure up these choice moments, when enlightened by the furnace. The vanity is made legible, which the finger of God has imprinted on all below. How near it brings another world, that one of ourselves, brought up with you, exchanging with you every desire and interest, should now be there. The object is only removed from earth to heaven round which your affections were entwined, that your hearts may be drawn up, instead of downwards. Yes! we need these realities to make us real. We are believers in profession; we are atheists in lives. We must live for eternity, we must be what we seem to be! While our Bridegroom tarries, we either slumber in stupidity, or dream in sleep the greatest nonsense possible, even of earthly happiness; while our very disappointment in not finding it, testifies to our unbelief. We need continually to be thus roused, that casting off our works of darkness we may at the Bridegroom's call, be found clothed in light.

"We've no abiding city here,

Then let us live as pilgrims do;

Let not this world our rest appear,

But let us haste from all below."

One has said, "they pass best over the world who trip over it quickly, for it is but a bog. If we stop, we sink."...

Dear, dear Mr... He has indeed suffered much. Ah! but he is now privileged in being called before he leaves Satan's kingdom to exhibit in living words, before those to whom he has long recommended his Lord, that there is in him a spring of consolation, the world knows nothing of? It was seeing this in his mother that first arrested the great Cecil in his career of infidelity. Lying one night in bed, he was contemplating the case of his mother. "I see (said he within himself ) two unquestionable facts. First, my mother is greatly afflicted, in circumstances, body, and mind; and yet I see she cheerfully bears up under all, by the support she derives from constantly retiring to her closet and her Bible. Secondly, that she has a secret spring of comfort, of which I know nothing; while I who give an unbounded loose to my appetites, and seek pleasure by every means, seldom or never find it. If, however, there is any such secret in religion, why may not I attain it, as well as my mother? I will immediately seek it of God." He instantly rose, and began to pray. May he be given faith, to glorify his faithful God in the fires. May not his excess of grief bring up a false report of Him, who has answered so tenderly his many years' prayers, and even given him to hear it from her own mouth, — yet a little, and he shall see how blessed she is! How preferable to have her safely locked up in a bosom of love, he has proved, he can trust, before him, to leaving her in a world of woe and temptation after him. It is no light thing to profess love to a "jealous God," — It shall be tried, because much more precious than gold that perisheth. He vouchsafes to tell us the trial shall be found to His praise, honour and glory, at his appearing; needful to Him; needful to us! Sometimes it is purified in the bleeding of another's heart. We can talk, we can suffer, we can do, we can die; but one thing, says Christ, thou lackest — prove me paramount to your dearest idol. — How you must miss her in every turn, in every thing you do — but the end of all things is at hand! Let faith take her stand on Mount Zion, and look on present things with a retrospective view. — A hill looks different from the top and bottom. — Do not look at the way — you know Him who has engaged to carry you through; you shall go from strength to strength. —  The furnace shall be heated, proportioned to your faith; but He is the refiner, who swept the house, sought out and rejoiced over his bit of gold; you shall not be lost, for His name is in you. He sends you word, "Behold I come quickly." Let hope spread out the wing of contemplation, fly over all between, anticipate your meeting with your betrothed husband, and your re-union with the family of God! so that joy and sorrow may be alike swallowed up in the rejoicing of hope. — No regret in that wedding — nothing but joy. Oh! when He sets about blessing, He shall satisfy, for He blesses like a God — you shall be satisfied with him: He shall be satisfied with you, for the day of the gladness of his heart was the day of his espousal to his church. (Can. 3. 2.) — You shall enter into the joy of your Lord, satisfied with the way you have been brought — satisfied with the provision of your Father's house — satisfied with his likeness in yourself. Shall not the first words this family shall express one to the other be, "Was it not worth all." — "It was a true report." — "The half was not told." He has said all possible to raise our expectation to the highest. — Surely it is not like him to put us off with a trifle. "Oh, how great is the goodness thou hast laid up, etc." Our universal song, "Worthy the Lamb" — our particular song, "Our Jesus hath done all things well." Is this indeed ours, and will you lament? — is this your dear sister's, and will you repine? Oh no! let the rest of your life be one expression of gratitude for his having snatched one so loved from the very jaw of the lion — for having translated her from the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God's own Son — for having chosen her in him before the foundation of the world — for having written her name in the Book of Life — for having dissipated every doubt of her peace in Jesus — for having so gently carried his lamb- in his bosom — for having followed her with goodness and mercy through the valley, till safely housed in her Father's home. Whether we sleep or wake, we live together with Him; we lie upon the same bosom, and you shall find it filled with love. When experiencing his sweetness, let it remind you what He must be to her; let every tear whisper "Faithful is He who promised." Look at your dear father's sorrow and remember, He who holds the rod has said, "As a father pitieth his children, so He pitieth you." Time is so short, see how short, do not spend the little moment in only lamentation: you are called to glorify your God in a manner you shall not be able to do, all through eternity. The morning cometh! do not sleep as do others! Be a light, by holding forth the Word of Truth; let it be legible in you, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." I do not attempt to express what I feel for dear ... and all; that would be poor comfort; but I have reminded One of you all, who needs no reminding; who is peculiarly with you at this moment — a present help in time of trouble. He draws near in his own time, with consolation which He alone can give. "In your afflictions He is afflicted" — enter into this truth, till it shall spread abroad in your heart a peace passing understanding...

Letter 55.

Bushy, October 1835.

... I trust this may be a fresh link to heaven, being received from heaven; if not, it will not be his fault, for he intends blessing, full blessing in all his gifts. Any thing let down in the white sheet to us, cleansed of God, a resurrection gift, is no more common or unclean, if we have grace to receive it from heaven instead of earth. How happy is Jesus, rejoicing in the joy of his people; He learnt to weep with those that weep; that He might be able fully to rejoice with those that rejoice. So should we, his people. If we had more of church feeling, less of individual feeling, the joy of each would make us more happy than the one rejoicing. How happy must we then be! and Jesus loves to see us happy. He sorrowed, that we might rejoice; it is the best recompense we can give Him, for what could He have done more for us than he did? He came, that we might have life! He spoke, that our joy might be full! We are not united to a broken heart, but to a heart which has been broken, full of the tenderest sympathies; but every sympathy filled with life. He stood as the recipient of death — He learned the word thoroughly, and now must have all the glory. Every thing may be to us the communion of the body of Christ, on which we may feed by faith with thanksgiving. May you find it so in your dear little one! To every thing there was a meat offering, to be ate by the holy priest in the holy place, because most holy; to them belonged every dedicated thing. It is a difficult lesson to learn, but a great one to have learnt — that the fear is, not our loving earthly objects too much, but of loving them wrongly; that God's object is not to destroy the affections, but to direct them, as Mr... remarked. The poisoned pottage is a description of the natural heart of man: the moment the prophet poured in the meal, it is, "pour forth, there is no harm in the pot." The moment the relation between the heart of God and man is perfected, the moment the handful of meal is thrown into the heart of the saint, the command of God is to pour forth all these relations. There is a master principle put into these relations which governs them; there is not less power in them, but a new will in them; our affections ascend through the heart of Jesus; the heart of Jesus is a filial heart, and when our affections are lodged in this heart, they become filial also; there is but one will, all one. I think I have remarked that in entering on a Christian life we think much of how we believe, how we do, how we suffer, but we take love as an easy enjoyment. Now it seems to me, however difficult to believe, to labour, or to suffer, nothing is so difficult as to learn to love. Nothing so dangerous as to love wrongly. Nothing will through our course give us so much suffering, because it is heaven, which knows no law, but the spirit of God let loose on earth. It is life in close contact with death. Dear ... open wide your hearts to this fresh stream from heaven, keep it pure, that there may be a continual reflection of love, to the gladdening the heart of him, who was joyless, the man of sorrows, that you might receive your little one, and love him without fear ... today while it is called today labour, exhort one another, be up and doing — tomorrow we shall see him! and all his saints with him. No yesterday, but the cross of Jesus; no tomorrow but glory; no today but Christ, the day of Salvation! To me to live is Christ, may it be so with us all. I believe I desire nothing else but to be used as He will for his glory. I know that I desire to desire nothing else; but oh our will, our will so often pretends to be his, there is so much to learn in that verse, applied to ourselves "when thou wast young", when first setting out "we gird ourselves, and walk where we will", we are long before we learn to stretch forth our hands, (so expressive of leaving ourselves to another, ) and let him gird us, and carry us where we would not...

Letter 56.

July 16th, 1833.

My dear Mr ..., Oh, what a relief! when He will appear on the heavenly hill! to set all in order! with the same delight and readiness, as hitherto He has shown in his work of redemption. Love still moves quickly towards its object; runs while yet a great way off; hastens to heal the backslider; to receive graciously, to love freely! with every temptation, makes a way to escape; while yet praying, hears; is a very present help in trouble; hides but for a little moment; longs after us, (Phil. 1. 8.) With the same alacrity He is coming; not a moment will He delay beyond the appointed time! If love could say of suffering, "It is my meat, and drink," for the joy set before him, what a joy He will have in coming to receive his own "to himself, that where He is, there may they be also." No sooner shall the strong voice, and mighty cry be heard, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," than shall follow another cry from heaven — "come out of her my people." He waits for the last signal, when, immediately after the tribulation, shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; when the last elect shall have been born into the world, and fitted for glory, He will be found ready; and as though too impatient to wait till earth is prepared for his reception, we shall be "caught up to meet him in the air." He remembers He has jewels in Babylon; He will gather them for his crown when about to visit the earth as King. He will come — He will not tarry — to welcome his bride; for his last message to her, which she treasures, and ever carries in her bosom, was, "behold, I come quickly!" "Make haste then my Beloved, and be thou like unto a roe, and to a young hart, upon the mountains of Spices." Prophecy alone can keep us in impatient patience, even in the spirit of Lot. Indifference to the evil was not ready — his children had to be dragged out, and he waiting for them. A mixture in the evil is not ready — some of his children were left behind. A heart in the evil is not ready — his wife looked behind. It must be a spirit vexed with surrounding ungodliness. May we be among the sighers and criers, not among such as love to have it so. The more God has lost his witness in the world, through his people's unfaithfulness, the more, surely, we should labour individually, to let his truth shine out in us. May He, in order to this, take care of his little precious seed, sown in the barren soil of our hearts, all nigh choked! May He descend into this, his conservatory, and in the stillness and seclusion of it, with all his own tenderness and skill, root up every weed, and dress about his lovely exotics, which He brought from heaven to earth, even all the graces of his Spirit. May He cause them quickly to burst forth in splendid bloom, and rich verdure, to bless and praise him. Dear Mr... do not cease to pray for the most needy of the Lord's saints. I have written too much about myself. It is doing to you, as I should like to be done by. Please write without delay...

Very affectionately, yours,

T. A. P.

Letter 57.

Lough Bray, November 26, 1833.

... You see, much loved brother in the Lord, what an unconquerable correspondent I am; but you know we shall very soon meet, never to part again. This is our privileged time of labour, and only what may be considered in that light is our lawful occupation; but this is among the labours of love, at least should be, for I think we should have a conscience neither to speak in vain, nor write in vain. I wish you were, indeed, coming over to us. Much as I have written to you, I do not feel to know much of your internal man, either your outward or inward exercises. Do write me a history of your life from the beginning to your present trials, and joys, and blessings from without. Then write and tell me all your inward experiences from the beginning, and whether now you are a happy believer; if you have unclouded faith and realizing hope; whether the joy of the Lord is your strength. And do not leave out little things, because, it is such things show me your confidence in my interest in and affection for you. I feel it is for this reason, that the Lord loves us to take our little things to him. I like to be told all that concerns, even down to the kitchen maid, and stable boy; for what are we here but to suffer one with another, even now in a sense to judge the world, or to be the communicator of blessings to the world from above. Will Jesus strengthen? It is mostly through a saint. — Will He comfort? It is through a saint. —  Will He sympathize? Again it will be usually through a saint. We are losers, when in our pride we refuse to be dependant one upon another. Dependance is the Christian's proper position, therefore, for his happiness; and it was, no doubt, a new pleasure Jesus learnt, as a creature, both dependance on the Father, so beautifully shown throughout, and dependance on his creatures. They ministered to him, He looked for pity from them, (the most humiliating thing we can receive). Oh! if we lived as members of Christ, and members one of another, each saint would discover a prop in his fellow saint. Such seemed his intention in a church. — His wisdom saw that our necessities so required, and, therefore, provided — his thoughts towards us being mercy and love; but we marred his intention; nevertheless, is it not beautiful to see, even in our wants, how well He understands us; it brings the conviction, that when He shall set about satisfying, how well He will understand it. "When I awake in his likeness, I shall be satisfied." No, nothing else will ever do. We have by faith seen the glory of our risen Lord. Nothing can satisfy us but resurrection. To the end, we go on in some shape believing Satan's lie, that we can find good here in its present state — but the thing is impossible. It must be but repeated lessons of disappointment, because Satan has defaced our God from his creation, therefore in it destroyed our enjoyment. Nothing but resurrection is worthy the gift of a God, or worthy for us to receive — being risen, united with Jesus in his resurrection. The best testimony we can give Satan that the whole is ours by right and title, is to receive no part from him. To refuse to have any thing to say to it, till we receive it redeemed from its lawful King, who has paid the redemption price. The things of the world and the things of the kingdom must be for ever and absolutely distinct. One from beneath, the other from above; one of Satan, the god of this world, the other of the Father, the reward he has prepared for his Son, proportioned to his sense of merit, in the work of his Son, risen Lord of a risen creation. For a little moment, even while merged in the curse, his works now appear often lovely, but quickly are we reminded that Satan rules. Our proper position is, therefore, as those that wait till the manifestation of the sons of God, when creation shall put on its beautiful garments, its resurrection robes, its robes of glory, to welcome its King of kings. Well for us, as little as possible to know any thing after the flesh; for this world's strength is defiance of omnipotence — its wealth, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life: —  its wisdom, rejection of Him who was the whole wisdom of God: — its affections, friendship with the world which is enmity with God: — its glory, having succeeded in turning out of it the Prince of life. Life rejected, life turned out, — its glory! it is nothing but a sepulchre, death, and all comprehended in that awful word; a beautiful ruin that attracts the eye, but when we look in, — the sepulchre of Jesus. — But our hope!!! had any of the princes of this world known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; destruction and death have only heard the fame thereof with their ears. Blessed thought! There is nothing which belongs more to the resurrection, than hope; therefore, Satan so fights against the second advent. "Begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." It is in the power of this hope, which is the power of the resurrection, that we can alone mount up with wings as eagles, be dissociated from all around, and stand aloof from all below. I think this truth also, brings strongly to the mind now, that every good gift is from above, and comes down to us from the Father of lights, it is "wisdom from above" — new will, new affections, new taste, new understanding, not the old sanctified. May we, dear brother and friend, have power to digest these truths, so that health and strength may be by them diffused through our spiritual system — may we be as the living among the dead, maintaining his right and his cause in the hour of his rejection... I am writing, as you see, not from Powerscourt, but from Lough Bray, a little fishing cottage over a lake embraced in high mountains, of majestic, threatening appearance, seeming to defy the approach of any evil to the children of the Most High. The invisible things of God, even his eternal power and God-head, are clearly seen from the creation. To us it has a voice, i.e. "it is all yours," all this majesty and greatness; for, as the mountains stand about the lake, even so mercy embraceth us on every side. It is a lone spot, three miles from Powerscourt, up the Glenchree mountains, where I used to visit the Roman Catholics; our nearest neighbour is the priest. People who judge only by sense, say, we shall be shut up by snow and starved, not able to get help in illness, — that we shall die of cold, inflammations, etc. — be murdered by the Roman Catholics, — but I have an answer for all, "Let thy widows trust in me ... When Jesus saw the multitude following Him, he turned and said," He that forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple." Yes, the true disciples must take the shame of the many professors. We know our hearts to be separated from these trifles; therefore we think the outward expression of it of little moment; but did we declare plainly that our kingdom is not from hence, that we seek a city, so many whose hearts are not separated, would at least count the cost. "They seek to carpet the way to heaven." It is therefore I have taken a cottage in the neighbourhood, to make the principle more clear. But it is all His doing; I held back as long as I could; I said, impossible; but He pushed me to it, shut me up to it, then made darkness light before me, crooked things straight, and do you think He will fail me? "They shall receive a hundred fold more in this life, and in the world to come."

It is a foolish thing to resist conscience, better to do an hundred other foolish things, for they at least express our sincere desire to the Lord to follow Him, at any cost; and he that does his will shall know of his doctrine, while the resisting of conscience, brings us to a stand still.

Letter 58

.

My dear brother in the Lord, — Which is most wonderful, for a moving mass of sin to be accounted holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, or for one who knew no sin, to be treated as a mass of sin? Is it really so? Has the offended really endured the infliction of the law for the offender? Has the infinite space between God and the sinner been filled by himself? Has He really taken bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, to enable Him to stand in the gap? and not only so, but does he now put himself into the attitude of a beggar to implore sinners to be reconciled to Him? Can earth show a more wonderful a more stupendous mystery? Yes. The sinner refusing to be reconciled!! Hear, oh heavens! and give ear, oh earth! and learn the manifold wisdom of God, in his tender compassion. Yet what an unspeakable blessing, that all doubt of willingness lies on our side. No danger of his pleading with his great power against any who come, be they ever so far off. Though Ethiopia but stretch forth her hand, still He will in no wise cast out. Though we go, have gone, and do go, to the furthest boundary of sin, sorrow, remorse, anguish of spirit, hardness of heart, unbelief, ingratitude, backsliding, still it is written, "He is able to save to the — uttermost — uttermost — ALL that come unto God by him." Yes, we are precious to him; He has valued us at the price of his own precious blood. We carry about in our body as a casket, a pearl of great price to Jesus, one of the pearls belonging to his crown of glory. Let us treasure it, let us not trifle with it, let us not cast that to swine, which is to be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, to make up a royal diadem in the hand of our God. Yet among all the wonderful truths which are almost too good to be believed, the one we first mentioned seems to me the most so. —  That inasmuch as our surety has been treated as we deserve, so are we altogether as our surety deserves; that as God loves Christ, so he loves us; that in the court of justice we are one and the same, we shall be argued about, as though we had done and suffered all He has. Do we ask, how much are we one with the second Adam? just as much as we are one with the first. Let us allow ourselves the full strength of this belief, so that every recollection we are forced to of our oneness with the first Adam, may remind how closely we are united to the second. It is no more with us, is God angry with me? But is He angry with his Son? Not, — shall he condemn me? But shall he condemn my surety? Not, —  shall any abomination, and ingratitude pluck me out of his hand? but shall it pluck Jesus? Surely that robe is sufficient to hide us altogether, which was made to his dimensions. How out of character for the believer to take delight or interest in that to which we are dead, "how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ;" and being "risen with Christ, let us seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth." The bustle of life should be no more to us than the buzzing of flies round a corpse. Since the Father reckons us one with his Son in his death, let us reckon ourselves one with him in our life; one in what he loves, what he desires, what he abhors. In return for a love many waters cannot quench, all He asks, is "love." Oh! may we ever remember that though we give all our substance, time, talent, any thing, and yet keep our hearts for idols, it will be utterly condemned. Now it is time to thank you for your three welcome letters. It is pleasant to write to one who proves he values a letter. I suppose Mr... told you he left us at P... at least if you touched on so insignificant a subject: and gave you a lesson that while man proposes, God executes; that while the lot is thrown into the lap, the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. Sweet to lie passive in his hands, and know no will but his. We are now settled at ... ready to receive you when you come. I wish we were able to offer you a bed, but the only house we could get, is a little nut-shell, a nice little baby-house, very clean and new. You will have to come side-ways through the hall, and up the stairs. The three drawing-rooms would all go into the one in ... the fog of London is as stupefying, as the wind of Edinburgh is bracing. If you do not make haste, I shall be in a stupefaction before you come.

My purpose is to hear Mr. Howels, Sunday morning and evening, and Mr. Wilkinson, Tuesday morning.

Letter 59.

London, May 8th, 1833.

... I am now going to allow myself the pleasure of writing to you, dear and kind friend in Jesus. We do not communicate much on the way; we shall have more to tell at the end — a joyful wondrous story, such as angels love to hear. — Then shall all our trials of faith be to His honour and glory! What intense interest, therefore, must be each trial of faith to the invisible world. Many are our expressions of love to our God, and most valuable to him are those expressions; but He is a jealous God, words are not sufficient. Again and again, the anxious enquiry comes, "lovest thou me more than these?" Till tried, we know not how little faith we have. Faith must be put in the scales with something very near our hearts — yes, with what is nearest, for it still must be "more than these." The furnace must be heated in proportion to the increase of our faith. Is it, because God willingly afflicts? No, but the trial of faith strengthens; faith consumes its dross. The trial is precious to God — more precious than gold, because it shall endure. It is his riches, his treasure, precious to him is it to have proof from his child —  "Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." Is not every painful providence a messenger direct from the throne to our hearts — a ministering spirit sent forth to the heirs of salvation? It brings this message — now I will put home the question in a way that shall be felt. Are we ready to say, I could have borne any thing but this? Then let us remember the greatest compliment God can pay us, is to heat the furnace to the utmost. He is, in fact, then saying, "great is thy faith." Little furnaces are for little faith; and is not trial valuable, even to earthly affection? Do we not seize every opportunity to give proof to expressions of love? Oh! let us count the cost when we say, we believe. It is a word of deep meaning in the dictionary of God. Paul's belief was ready to do, but what was the answer, "Thou shall see what great things thou shall suffer for my name sake." It has been so from the beginning. We would not be without that trial of which all the church have been partakers. We would not that He should be so indifferent to our love, as never to question us about it, or desire an evidence of it. Does He not ponder each? He takes all into consideration. What would be felt in one, would not in another. Nevertheless, while it must be felt, He pledges his faithfulness, that with each temptation He will make a way of escape, that we may be able to bear it. He will never try us above what we are able to bear. Though it may seem that we are shut up on every side, He knows how to deliver! What a trial to Isaiah, when sent to tell the people of Israel, that their hearts should be made fat, their ears heavy, and their eyes shut, lest they should be converted and healed! What a trial to Abraham to go out of his country and from his kindred, and come into a strange land, not knowing whither He went! What a trial to Noah, to be mocked and regarded as a fool while building the ark, according to the command of the Lord! How Isaac's faith was proved in Jacob; how Jacob's was in Joseph; how Moses' was in choosing rather to suffer affliction, esteeming the reproach of Christ great riches. What a trial to forsake Egypt under the wrath of the king! When we seek to place ourselves in the condition of each of these sufferers, and consider every accompanying feeling, how it makes our trials say to us, "Oh! ye of little faith!" Gideon! Barak! Samson! Jephtha! David! Samuel! — Yet out of weakness were they made strong! Words quickly said, but what suffering! — in "mockings, scourgings, bonds, stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, wandered about in sheep's skins and goat's skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented!'' Truly, "of whom the world was not worthy." Oh! what meagre Christians! Should we draw back if such were our prospects? May He not say, where is your faith? Let us love the prospect, clasp it to our bosom, as a token of his love. When standing as we expect, among the great multitude escaped out of great tribulation, would we be found alone without this family particularity? Does it not distinctly pronounce that name which includes all blessedness — "my Son." When Abraham shall tell of his Isaac; Isaac, of his Jacob; Jacob, of his Joseph; David, of his Absalom; Jeremiah, of his dungeon; Peter, of his stripes; John, of his banishment; Paul, of his perils, wearinesses, watchings, hunger; his thorn in the flesh; his buffetings of Satan: shall we be content to have nothing to bring forward to his praise, honour, and glory? for it shall not be forgotten, God is not unrighteous to forget our love for him. Hezekiah was left of God to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. — God let the nations loose against Israel to prove them. — He allowed false prophets among them to prove them. — He sent them manna to prove them — brought them to the waters of Marah to prove them. — He led them forty years in the wilderness to prove them — to know what was in their heart; for while "the fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, it is the Lord that trieth the hearts." And "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." Let us then, dear brother, welcome every trial. In them we shall prove our God. How full of compassion his approaches at such seasons! He comes with all the tenderness of one who knew that he was about to wound a heart he loved. Have you ever marked his gentleness when bringing a painful message? How He usually calls by name, Abraham, Abraham — Moses, Moses. He tells us why I have called you by name, because you arc mine. His own sheep "He calls by name." As many as He loves he rebukes, but He would have us understand it to be a rebuke of love. Now we arc "a spectacle to angels and devils;" let us not bring up a false report of our God. — Let it be seen that "tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope;" yea, that we can "glory in tribulation," for "we know the end of the Lord, very pitiful, and of tender mercy" — let us trust him without an explanation. When let behind the scenes in the case of Job, how we feel a desire that Satan should be disappointed. — Then let us glorify the Lord in the fires. — Satan will be as disappointed in us, for Job was not a whit more beloved. Let Jesus' "strength be made perfect in weakness," it is the glory of this dispensation. Abraham's faith has been to God's glory; the will was accepted as the deed. Heb. 11. 17; James 2. 21. We may rest assured, that the day is coming when the bitterest dealings shall be to us the sweetest. Every trial of faith in Hebrews 11. was some affliction. Let us accept tribulation as the boon we are most unworthy of. If we were without tribulation, of which all are partakers, then were we not children. Rather let us bless him — Oh, let us bless him, that He has not pronounced that which would be indeed the desert of our rebellious hearts. — "Let them alone." But why do I write so to you. I hope you are in no trouble. — What is it? for I asked the Lord to let me write that, which would be just what you needed: and I have written this. — Ah! if you need it not now, you have needed it, and you will, if you stay long in this world of sin.

I have been looking at Abraham's trial of faith; it must be to us important to dwell on, as it is proposed as the pattern of faith to the end of time. —  If to be the pattern, God must have sought for the most trying proof; and in it, does not God seem to say, behold my love: for God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, etc. How touchingly this same trial is described in Judges 11. 30, etc. How we read, "in this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world:" have we not in this a proof, that the sacrifice of God in slaying his Son, (to speak after the manner of men,) was the utmost pang the Divine mind could devise; for it was the one chosen as a pattern of faith to the end of time. God would thus, it seems, sustain us in all our minor trials, by an apprehension of his own love embodied in that of Abraham, by setting him up before us as the Father of the faithful, and pattern of faith. He would check our doubts, of his willingness with his only Son to give all things, seeing that in Abraham not sparing his beloved Isaac, He asked no more: while he would also draw out our love and gratitude, that our requirement is not our first-born, for our transgression; that having been done for us at an expense of love set forth in Abraham, we have only, to "LOVE MERCY, and to walk humbly with our God!"

The fire was in the father's hand, and also the knife, when to Calvary they went both together. The transaction was all between these stupendous acts fulfilling, while foolish man gazed on with unmeaning gaze. Blessed to have such a wise, as well as loving God to undertake for us. Let us lay aside every weight, asking no questions, looking at no consequences; let not unbelief say, how shall I stand the trying day! but let us "run with patience the race SET before us, looking unto Jesus." It may be a difficult race; let us be bent on it; if faint, yet pursuing; let us lay aside, cast on His omnipotent shoulder, every hindrance, that might impede our progress, or make our bold resolute willingness falter. We often forget that it is the race of faith we are running. We ought to appear deranged to the by-stander, for to the mere looker-on, the cross is "foolishness." Every weight of sense must be put out of the way; I believe that holy bold resolution in this, will do much in keeping us steady. Often we see nets spread before us in our path, and though it is written, "in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird," yet so does man excel in folly even the beasts of the field, and birds of the air, so infatuated, that we run into our favourite snares with our eyes open, though perhaps determining not to be held, but to struggle out of them; present weakness not being sufficient to correct confidence in future strength; till our feet are entangled, our race impeded, and we discover too late, that the God of strength has refused to accompany us into the snare, has been left behind, and we stand alone against the enemy. Oh! that we were wise. Oh! that we had grace to be resolute to turn aside from pits, into which our weakness has fallen again and again, and our faith has well-nigh been drowned. — The wise man speaking of temptation, (which is true of all temptation,) says, "avoid it, pass it not by, turn from it and pass away," how wise not to parley with the old serpent, for his arguments are most ingenious; to resist, or else flee from him. May we examine ourselves in this. May we see to it, that nothing impedes our race, weakens our faith, or prevents our obedience. We have before us the majesty of that love which set its face stedfastly to go to Jerusalem, in perfect acquiescence to the will of the Father. Let us be honest with ourselves and in earnest with God. Let us treasure no Babylonish garment however goodly. Let us sanctify ourselves, for if there be an accursed thing hid in our hearts, we shall not be able to stand in the day of trial; we lose much time in our progress by needing such repeated lessons on each truth. When we should have been wise, we are still found fools. He has said, whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. We are following a crucified one!

We remain here till the end of May — further I see not. Oh! for simplicity in discovering His will, and submissiveness in following. This is a lesson some are long in learning, I have been all my life talking of it, but always following my own will except his was mine...

Letter 60.

Lough Bray, September, 1834.

My beloved friend. — It has not been indeed because of the want of a heart to write, that I have not done so long since — but my father, at whose bidding I desire to move, did not say go, till this moment, and you know you would not hear from me but as his scribe. God grant me thy words, and thy thoughts, that this may be to us both, an ordinance of thine own! I have with gratitude heard good accounts of your dear ... from different quarters, which I shall rejoice to have confirmed by your own hand. You know one of the explanations of his OWN name is, "keeping mercy." -

"Thou alone couldst silent stand,

And wait to show thy love."

I so feel for our young people now. I feel more for my ... than your ... It was wisely ordered that through persecution and tribulation we should enter the kingdom. They have the misfortune of seeing Christianity in their parents and friends, which causes them to set out with a low standard. Oh! I feel this; how different our conversation, from what we would that they should consider the Christian's calling! so that the very respect and esteem, it is desirable that they should entertain for us, is against their whole future life; and inasmuch as it is below, and different from, the way in which we set out, so in proportion will their Christianity in some years be below ours. This, with many other things, shows me that even in this relationship we must be resigned to decrease, and let the Lord be all! We often think it is for their good, and the Lord's glory, that we desire to be identified in their minds with the gospel, but our very disappointment when we fail, proves it to be secretly a desire of obtaining for ourselves that worship which is its due and effect. I desire to be willing they should be able to discover both grace, and nature, in me, that my inconsistency may not detract from its glory; and I desire also to be able, now that they have come to full reason, and the Lord has taken them up, I trust, to let go my dominion and too great anxiety over them, and so prove that not for myself, but for Him, I have watched over them. How difficult it is, dear friend, to be only for Him in this world, especially in our service towards them we call our own. We are ready to be interested even for the Lord's work, because the bit he has given us, instead of, because His. Still self, self — we need a heart large enough to embrace the universe, yet contracted enough to lend all its energies and sympathies to each case, "diligently to follow every good work," elastic hearts! ... I believe you expected I was to have more leisure up here, than at ... quite the contrary, I never had so little leisure or time for communion, in my life! not because of the change of place, but more from the loss of ... besides, new situations bring new duties and new trials.

"Joy to find in every station

Something still to do or bear."

Yet never once have I regretted the step I took, but find new, unlooked-for mercies every turn. In my former situation were large trials to meet, large temptations, needing large supplies of grace, opportunities to draw these supplies; my work, when coming down from Him, more spiritual and direct, more out of the reach of the little foxes that spoil the vines, less intercourse, except spiritual, with others. I feel that formerly there was in me but an outline of the image of Christ, now He would fill it up with the graces of the Spirit; He would, but I find when he demands their use, I have none of them. Blessed be his name for bringing me into circumstances to draw them out! He saw I desired to come down, and he will do it; his own work shall be to humble — we need no more time for communion than He allows, he can be learnt in the most servile works, and the most common providences, as much as in the word, if we have eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to understand, which is also needed for the word. Oh! it is not the word, but his blessing, which is the guide and teacher of the heart, and happiness comes not from our measure of knowledge, but from our measure of subjection — to live in his presence "in the heavenlies," is one lesson, but to find his presence in every duty, to live on Him in them, is a further lesson; we are apt to look with panting heart for the time of communion, as if our retired time was the time of communion, but to walk with God is to dwell in communion, to have the soul stayed on Him. I have also been learning that it is an abiding sense of weakness which is our safeguard, not strength even from above; and many a tumble we shall have, before we have an abiding sense of weakness, and yet we need the Spirit of power to meet the fiery darts of the wicked one, a shield from which they will rebound. The Lord will be prevailed with, but it must be through wrestling; poor Jacob, his trials began from the moment he received the blessing. I am indeed the most inexcusable of all creatures, if I am not thankful and contented, as you would say, could you see ... so much for self. Am I ever to see you here? The 25th of this month our time is up here; I have not yet ascertained whether it be the Lord's will for us to continue yet some months; if He has nothing for us to do, I pray not; though it is just beginning to be very lovely. The questions you asked me, I take for granted you have long since answered to yourself. You have, no doubt, heard of dear ... happy removal — she sleeps in Jesus, and though he suffers severely, was able to give her up with outstretched arms. I hope you enjoy more every day, even as I trust I do, the promises handed down to us, through the experience of Christ in the psalms, He seems to lay open his heart filled with our necessities, that out of his experience, we may draw of his fulness. Our promises having lighted upon his head, they descend to the skirts of his garments, we have thus not only the word, but the example of his faithfulness in our own every case, whatever it may be; and this seems the great argument used by our Lord throughout them, as his voice in the church, — "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but I HAVE OVERCOME"; for example, in the 3rd Psalm, the believer cries, "how are they increased that trouble me?" And Jesus answers; "I cried, and he heard me out of his holy hill." Again, he says, "ten thousand of the people, have set themselves against me round about;" Jesus says, "arise, save, for thou hast smitten mine enemies," etc. Again, the body lies down to rest; Jesus says, "Fear not, I awaked, for the Lord sustained me." In a word, "now is Christ risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep." How precious among all the hallelujahs of heaven, that our cry is heard out of his holy hill; yes, even our sigh! There seemed in Him on earth, such a wonderful mixture of condescending humility, and divine authority, one can hardly comprehend what it was about Him, which made all the people walk quietly out of the temple, to their own great loss, — and yet did not prevent the blind and lame coming to Him, at the very same time into the temple, as if there was an attraction towards Him to want and necessity, and a repulse to Pharisaic hypocrisy — as if the one felt a right to Him and to the temple. What was it made them submit to his thus with authority calling the temple "my house?" Could they not all have risen against this one poor man? What made all the city moved, was it so wonderful for a poor man to ride in on a borrowed ass, without even a saddle? Yet, not more striking was the display then of the wisdom of this world, contrasted with the wisdom from above. The chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, and heard the miraculous hosannas of the children, and were sore displeased; while the babes and sucklings acknowledged in spite of them all, the great mystery of godliness. Dear Friend, I sometimes tremble at the resemblance between the Church now and then. The mass holding evangelical doctrines are so like the Pharisees! The knowledge of Scripture so much like their wisdom, sore displeased if any thing is believed beyond the beaten track, or not received through the set teachers. Would that my knowledge was not like theirs, a searching of the understanding; I desire the wisdom of babes and sucklings which can only be a communication of the Spirit. How little by searching we can find out God! His work is on the spirit, not on the head. When he brings down, when he brings us to dependance and quiet waiting on him, then He will teach us himself. He upbraideth not. The only time we read of his upbraiding ("oh fools! and slow of heart to believe.") we immediately read, He himself began from the beginning to the end of Scripture to expound to them all concerning himself, and never fainted nor was weary till their eyes were opened. Blessed stupidity that brings us his wisdom. It must be in due time, He will impart; we are too impatient. He brought his Son, will He not bring us each truth as we can bear it? What a cluster of graces James shows us to be contained in that one word, wisdom. Yet all in him, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom for us. Not only will he not upbraid, but he invites us to receive, in commanding us to ask, and that we may not doubt his willingness, we are reminded that in him who so loved us, there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. Let us ask, without doubting, and we have; for this wisdom, in him for us, is full of mercy and without partiality. It can only be received through faith, and acts by faith. I believe it is quite different to have faith for the whole, and to have daily faith in our every day little walk; yet I believe we need even for this latter, only a single eye, and to be little in our own eyes. Much wisdom we now need in these difficult times. Christ says, "as the Father hath sent me into the world, even so have I sent you." Oh! that we could so be in this dirty world! our clean spirits not even spotted by it! did He not stand in it only for the purpose of blessing, intent on finishing the work GIVEN HIM to do? This was his meat and drink, because his Father's work, but dispatching it with all expedition in order to be off again to the Father, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father." The work dear, because the Father's, therefore not dearer than the Father's presence. To do our business (works of faith, labours of love, patience of hope) as one in a shower of rain. Our risen hands must not touch any thing below, accursed in Satan . All is ours: yet touch not, taste not, handle not, till made fit to be presented by the Father to his risen ascended Son; till the purchased possession is redeemed, faith must act as to the things of this world, as Cecil expected from his child when he threw her toys into the fire. It is not our dispensation to sanctify evil, but forsake it; to set forth our portion to be in the heavenlies, in the midst of the earthly; the apostle tells us to know our calling; alas! we have fallen beneath it...

Letter 61

.

Powerscourt, 18th May, 1834.

My dear friend — I think I have seen more clearly this last week than before, the Davidical reign, which is to precede the Solomon one. I think the descent from the heavens, the gathering up of the saints, and the return of the Jews, will synchronize, and that there will be a great sifting in the land, before Israel is visited in the wilderness, and afterwards brought back. Do you see whether the ten tribes shall be gathered together first, and restored together, or whether they shall come from different parts in different ways? It is evident, as seems to me, that they will be found idolaters. I agree with you, so far, that our Lord's conduct before Caiaphas, showed he did not literally mean to offer him the other cheek, but I think it did show that we are to bear injustice, and not exercise power in our defence. Oh! look at him — "then they did spit in his face and buffetted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesy," etc. How they "laid to his charge things which he knew not." Yet, what do we hear of Him who could have called for legions of angels? "Jesus held his peace." I quite agree with you, that martyrdom is not always outward suffering; or always from or through man. I believe all are given opportunity of martyrdom, because, this is the dispensation of martyrdom; but I do not think all suffering is included. It seems to me, that in martyrdom, there must be, necessarily, a choice — a good way without suffering, a better way with suffering. I believe it can be refused, and that they will be sufferers who do refuse. To what you say about the Psalms I can heartily say, "truth." It is the book, of all others, we could not do without. It testifies to the heart that it is of God. There we find, the master of the feast has kept the good wine to the last. There, before the chosen depositories of his sighs, the man of sorrows spreads his consolations, saying, drink, yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved. How often in the Psalms the Father's dealings with Him, are his ground of consolation as to his church. May we not so consider him, when ready to faint in our minds?

Affectionately yours, dear friend,

T. A. P.

Letter 62.

November 18, 1834.

My dear Mr …,  I trust your throat is improving, and that it is not a crop of care laid in for the winter. What various ways He has of educating us, to enable us to bear the weight of glory He has laid up for us. One part of the explanation He gives of his own incomprehensible name is, "keeping mercy." Blessed assurance! we shall never be tempted above that we are able to bear. I have been looking at this, in the case of Abraham. Had the Lord been a moment sooner in his command to stay the trial, Abraham would not have been entitled to all the blessed results of "Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." Had He been a moment later, Isaac was gone. The sitting of the Refiner over his furnace is so precious. He did not seem to be heeding Abraham, when for so many days they went both together to the mountain — when he allowed the altar to be built — the wood laid — Isaac bound; yet, his compassions only waited for the very nick of time to manifest themselves. The same with poor Hagar, though her sin brought her to her extremity. She had sown to the wind, why not let her reap the whirlwind? She sowed upon a bed of flint, she had only to expect to reap a crop of troubles. But, no; she was friendless, comfortless — it was enough — He could not forsake the poor destitute. He went out to look for her. He found her in the wilderness. He comforted her with kindness, because the Lord had heard her affliction. There is something so tender in —  "The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, what aileth thee, Hagar? fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad." This was enough; "He hath heard." — Is it not so with us, often surrounded by providences, which seem ready to overwhelm, and crush our faith altogether, so that we know not how to overcome? Like as thrown adrift upon a stormy sea, surrounded by storms, and shoals, and rocks, through which we cannot steer, and we feel totally unable to escape; yet, our little bark is carried safely along; we cannot tell how, except that, the fact that it is so, is proof enough to the heart, that there is, and must be at the helm, an almighty, though unseen, hand; — which conviction throws us to cling afresh with every wave, to this sure hold, and thus we expect to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. David had fainted but for this; not till at their wits end, they cried unto the Lord, and He heard. So shall it be with all our trials and temptations; like Abraham's knife, they are messengers from the throne to the heirs of promise. Let us welcome them. Let us love the cross. It is a faithful friend, so far, but no further, though as near consumed as Isaac —  the knife stretched out. When the carpet shall be turned, at which He works, we would not have been without the bitterest trials; the more bitter the more certain of its blessings, because we know his heart is toward his little ones. And what a reproach to us is that word to Abraham. Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,"(as it were,) I can trust thee for all — I can enter into the richest friendship. — The friend of God. — I can confide in thee. — I can unbosom myself unto thee, — "Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." And is it wonderful He should afterwards expect us to trust, that He will, "with him," give all things, when He has not spared his Son, his only Son, but gave him for us? Dear Mr... pardon my thus indulging myself in writing to you. You know I could not send the paper empty. It may not be just now applicable to you; yet, can it ever be inapplicable to hear from experience, "Faithful is He who hath promised, who also will do it." And truly, I can set to my seal, that He speaks truth when He promises it shall be through much tribulation we shall enter the kingdom; — that I have found extremity to be His opportunity; that He knows our souls in adversity; that He is a present help in times of trouble; it is then, when the soul is outcast, and there is none to feel, none to help, or deliver, then it is Jesus draws nigh, spreads out his arms of consolation, and embraces the believer on every side. Yet a little — his messengers shall have finished their work; faith have been made perfect, and at his presence and bidding, sorrow and sighing shall flee away. "Make haste my Beloved." "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Absence is absence, and we can never be at rest till we are united to him for ever. It is not enough that we are now secure of him, and that He does love, and will love us to the end. We know it. We value his love-tokens, we have our confidence fixed not in them, but in himself — his trustful character. Nevertheless, we cannot do without Him. It is His presence we want; — not only by faith, but in his arms, to say, "My Beloved is mine and I am his."

Very affectionately yours, in His love and truth,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 63.

... 1834

... I was distressed to read yours in such low spirits, and to find even in outward things you are not as comfortable as we wish: yet, dear ... you have every thing. I know you are so convinced of this, you would not alter the smallest circumstance, nor put one ingredient into your cup if you could. And have you not a right to be satisfied, when you POSSESS GOD? Oh! how well for him to deprive our earthly affections of all nourishment, that they in vain going in search of their object, may take a grand grasp of Him, who alone can fill every nook and corner of the heart.

"... Ah, how base was I

To quit the pillow of eternal peace,

And seek repose among the thorns of time."

See how he yearns over your heart as a jealous God. He says, how can I give it up? my temple where I delighted to dwell and show forth my glory — my portion. He seems sometimes to plead thus, "I set my love upon thee when thou wast in thy blood, and I followed thee to do thee good; I delivered thee out of the mouth of the lion; I have put thee among the children; I have betrothed thee to my Son; made thee joint heir with him; have given thee all my promises; have enabled thee to rejoice in them; have watched thine extremities as my opportunities; have delighted over thee to do thee good; have been a present help in time of trouble; have made all thy bed in thy sickness; when cast down I have whispered, I am thy great salvation;" when desponding, have whispered, "I am Jesus;" when inclined to say, how shall I stand the trying day? "I have answered, thou shalt see that as thy day, thy strength SHALL be"; and if that had been too little, "I would, moreover, have given thee such and such things." Judge, I pray you, what could I have done more than I have done. Hast thou not felt satisfied, when from the bottom of the heart, thou hast been able to say, "There is not one on earth I desire but thee? Yet, alas! now all this availeth me nothing — so long as one wish lies ungratified." Is this the answer of faith, to Him who spared not his only Son, but gave him up for you? Is it not unkind? does it not grieve him? He has a human heart — witness his feeling Peter's unkindness. It was sharper than any nail, any thorn, when at the very moment of receiving sentence of death, he heard the crow of the cock. Let us not force him to give the reproachful look which cost Peter so many tears. Much we need faith to be tried — for, humbling though it is, yet even the believer finds it very difficult to conceive, that God speaks truth. Though the promises are ours, our portion in which we do delight; yet how difficult to make use of a promise, to see such a substance in "things hoped for," as to esteem afflictions with the people of God greater riches than any, or all the treasures of Egypt. We often find out how little we believe his word concerning futurity, in our little faith in his word as to present vanity; how little we believe things that are not, to be what they are, by discovering how much we believe things that are, to be what they are not. But He is teaching us the meaning of words, sweetening our bitternesses, embittering our sweets, that we may understand present happiness to be present unhappiness; and present unhappiness to be present happiness; as Pollock says,

"Attempt! how monstrous! how surely vain

With things of earthly sort — with aught but God,

To satisfy and fill the immortal soul.

Attempt! — vain inconceivably! attempt

To satisfy the ocean with a drop:

To marry immortality to death;

And with the unsubstantial shade of time,

To fill the embrace of all eternity!"

Then let us thank him for cutting one string after another, which binds our balloon of faith to earth; that being let loose, it may be wafted above every mountain of vanity into the regions of reality. Now, dearest ... remember your high calling; you are not intended for such beggarly elements as the bliss of this world. He does not think that worth offering you, which he throws to the world. Let not an heiress of a throne in the new Jerusalem, waste one sigh on not being allowed to nestle in Satan's kingdom. Let us pursue intently the business for which we are left here, that we may hasten to be gone. We are living epistles, lent to the world from God's library, to teach a particular subject — to manifest the Christian's glorious hope. Satan grins with delight in getting your pages so blotted over with sorrow that works death, as to render this glorious truth illegible. We have so few years, perhaps days to stay; and surely, if we shall have one regret on the borders of that inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that passeth, not away, (where friends shall meet to part no more,) it will be, that every moment of our short existence has not been gathering glory to Him, during the only space through eternity, in which the church shall be privileged to preach to principalities and powers in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God; on this (to angels) wonderful text, "Cast down, but not destroyed, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, poor, yet making many rich, having nothing, yet possessing all things." — Blessed be his name for so letting us into the secrets of his love — secrets He never whispered to angels: though I sometimes think some of these volumes of faithfulness (believers' lives) are so tragical, that when read aloud hereafter, even the angels must drop a tear. — Yet, "hallelujah!" Oh, sing it loud, greatly beloved; for behold how He loves you! not even with the common love to his children; he has not suffered you to walk smoothly down the stream of time; but by large and rough billows has dashed you on the promises. — This is the Christian's elevated station, to walk on the promises, leaning through thick and thin on this sustaining staff, — "I know the Lord;" every blessing is preserved from being a curse, by having this label "with Him." Every curse with the same label becomes a true blessing. And shall he not "with Him give us all things?" Sweet to have a care by the casting of which on him, we may prove, He cares for us. Sweet to have something dear, by the giving up of which we may give Abraham's proof, we care for Him. Let us then be Nazarites indeed, separated from the dead, not touching that which might lead to evil; a burnt offering; all the baubles and idols of time, cast into the furnace, on which we offer up body, soul, and spirit. I shall end with an extract of an exhortation of dear Mr... in a sermon preached here. "We have found a pearl of great price, for which we may well sell all. If we would know the full happiness that belongs to them that are in Christ, we must present ourselves without compromise, take up our cross, and follow Christ, deny ourselves and follow Him whithersoever He goeth, actuated by a real and scriptural conviction on our conscience, that we are in the right way; we should boldly and manfully follow God our Saviour, and then when our affections arc solely surrendered to the Author of our being, we shall receive a rich and abundant recompense, being filled with all the fulness of God. Oh! my believing friends, that our hearts were more open to the immensity of the privileges, to which the great Head of the church has called us. Oh! that we could feel more, what is the nature of that high and heavenly vocation wherewith we are called, that we knew more the full meaning of being his peculiar people, his chosen generation. The Christian church is the moral representation of God, in this dark and benighted world; it is called to manifest the divine glory in the face of Christ; it should be practically embodied in their spirit, and in their life, that the world may take knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus; and beholding the practical influence of the Gospel on them, may see there is something real and substantial in the religion of Christ's everlasting kingdom. We are called the sons and daughters of the Most High; would to God, we all felt by our own personal experience, — how impossible it is to know the extent of this immeasurable blessing. Then we should be able gladly to cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, for his sake. May God show us the vanity of every object the world holds dear, and may He tear away the veil, with which the god of this world clothes these objects to hide their nakedness, that we may see the world as it is. May the light of eternal glory throw a rich flood of knowledge over our understandings, that his glory may fill the largest capacities of our soul, that we may prove Him under every circumstance, to be the pearl of great price."...

Letter 64.

January 28th, 1835.

Poor dear ..., how much you must have gone through! yet, has it not endeared Jesus; made you feel more the value of "my beloved is mine," and "I am his," and "who shall separate me from this love?" No, I do not think any expectation of future good satisfies for the denial of a present desire. I believe it will be only subjection, and the resignation of the will, that can bring peace; and it does bring peace to the humbled under the mighty hand of Him who, we feel certain, "careth for us." No position of the mind is so blessed, or so happy to ourselves, as, "I behaved and quieted myself as a child weaned from its mother." "My soul is as a weaned child." Therefore is the arm of the Lord's discipline to subdue us; and blessed be God, "He is able to subdue ALL things to himself." The surrender of the spirit after a struggle, brings more real happiness, than would the possession of the good, struggled for; but it needs many a struggle, and many a victory. I believe the only thing is to resign ourselves immediately to God, and give ourselves to him to crucify our affections, and desires.

Dear Sister, I believe the life of faith is a thing very few of us attain to, we have much rejoicing in our security, because of the election, and promised preservation of a crucified Saviour; — we have bright anticipations of his coming again with his saints, but we have a gap between; even the whole of this dispensation; — Jesus, and the resurrection; — The risen, everlasting, more abundant life we receive because of union with him; — his death and resurrection; —  the spirit of God within us, constituting us sons of God; — one with our elder Brother in all his sufferings and privileges; — we know I think little of this; at least I know little of this, in its death and in its life; — the continual crucifixion and death of the flesh, because we are dead; — the letting the Spirit work, whose work is to subdue, in order to his life being manifested in us; — in order to his graces being able to flourish within. — Oh! it is a resurrection life we possess, and therefore must possess it through death, and if we would know the heavenly nature of this life, we must die, die, die. It is immortality; — it is spiritual; —  it is heaven; "the kingdom of heaven," the Lord calls it; there must be a complete separation from mortality, from flesh, from earth. And only in proportion to death, will be the enjoyment of life. —  What attainments we might be given! How we might be blessed! What blessings we might be made, if we had but courage to yield ourselves as victims to the Spirit of God. If we would deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the man of sorrows, the solitary Jesus. We should never regret it; holy and salutary exercises! a bringing down to our proper position; not only not expecting any thing from beneath, but refusing it: not satisfied with the good part, but choosing the better, because we know the times, that "the night is far spent and the day at hand," therefore let us not be making provision for the flesh and its enjoyments, but putting on our armour of light, preparing for the battle. Let us so show our feeling for the church of Jesus, as to seek to present in our lives that which it most needs. Let us show plainly we seek a kingdom, that our kingdom is not from hence. Let us show plainly that we are one with the Lord from heaven; that we wait for Him, who has delivered us from the wrath to come; that we have crucified the flesh with its affections. Let us deliver ourselves to death, that the life of Jesus may be more manifested in his body, the church; if we love his appearing, our solicitude must be about his church, not about ourselves. We shall grieve most, that our sin is a blot in his church. We shall feel the sins of the body, as our own; for we are members one of another. Oh may he give us this, to see such a substance in things hoped for, as to make every thing else appear in its naked nothingness, and so be satisfied to wait to receive all good "with Jesus." If we are waiting for him, we are also waiting for his saints, for they shall come with him. It is enough of argument for the Apostle, quite conclusive, — Jesus is to come, therefore those who sleep in him, must come with him. As if a thought of separation between Christ and its members could not be. Do not think, love, that I have learned this lesson. No, but I am seeking to lay myself low, to be crucified. May we be counted worthy of this experience, for "if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live," and perhaps after being conformable to his death, and knowing the power of the resurrection, even the power of an endless life, we may be admitted to taste of fellowship in his suffering. Amen, amen. What more can I desire for you dear ... than discipline and sufferings in his hands? and surely you shall have with it "I will not leave you comfortless."...

Letter 65.

April 5th, 1832.

My  dearest ..., I hope you do not think, because silent, I have forgotten you and dear ... I have, indeed, been intending to write ever since I left you, but am so terrible a procrastinator, that before the pen got on the paper, I had lost your direction, you having moved to some new place. But I have not been unmindful of you in your many trials. Poor ... so many trials coming upon her at once. I trust she has been upheld, and that her health has not suffered materially; yet, the Lord has mingled much mercy in the cup. What a faithful God! What a hearer of prayer! What confidence it gives for the future! Though we may have many to plead with him for, yet, not too many for his grace, for "He is rich in mercy to all that call upon him." We never hear of his refusing to heal the body of any one taken to him in faith; and why? that "we might know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins," (Luke, 5. 24.) ... Where is Lady ... Poor thing, what an upset for her in one moment! Yet, dear ... we need all the discipline our tender Father sends. How patient He is in sending so many chastisements, that our perverseness has not long since wearied Him out; that we have not forced him yet to say, "Let them alone." I believe there is nothing we are so undeserving of as affliction; yet, still He sends afflictive line upon line, afflictive precept upon precept, and each so exactly suited to the particular character and particular feelings of each individual. It is very touching to read Israel's wilderness mercies, and wilderness perverseness, with application to ourselves. It helps to bring us to believe his simple declaration, in spite of appearances, that "all things work together for good." How little it could have appeared so, when He turned the hearts of their enemies to hate his people, and to deal subtlely with his servants. He brings us out into the open wilderness, that He may have opportunity of manifesting this love, in spreading over us his protecting power, and fitting himself into our every want. He never calls us to descend into any trial, but we find He has been in it before us; that He has therein deposited his unsearchable wealth, so we come up enriched. How often "waters gush out of rocks" to us. We meet his consolations where least we expect, even where it seems impossible; and in the many dry places which we meet in our march to the city above, He makes waters run, even to give drink to His people, His chosen. "This rock was Christ." And why all this? Because He remembers his promise to Jesus, our surety; and because He would purify to himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Yes, the whole course of nature shall be changed before He can fail in the least promise to the most insignificant child. What a mercy that we have a God of truth to deal with! without exaggerations, with equivocation! that we have only to cling to his naked promise, and to glorify him simply in obeying him...

Letter 66.

December, 1834.

... How pleasant it is to live for an end, and for an end so worthy of our life! that "whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; so that living or dying, we are the Lord's." And in the mean time, what great lessons He is teaching us, even the knowledge of himself; and He is disciplining us not only for our place in the church below, but for the place in the kingdom, for which He designs us in futurity. When the mother of Zebedee's children asked him for the place, on his right hand and left, in his kingdom, He answers, "are ye able to drink of my cup and to be baptized with my baptism?" as much as to say, "The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." We have taken up our cross to follow the crucified One. We are to count the cost. To expect any thing else is unbelief. We have been signed with the sign of the cross, as a token that we are to fight under his banner. Our capacity of enjoyment, because the proper condition of a creature, consists not in liberty, but in learning dependance and submission. If we knew it, it is happiness we are called to, in being required to be dependant one upon another. It will be so hereafter. We are called to nothing but what would be happiness, could we submit to it. Pride is our misery, our greatest enemy. Blessed be his name! He promises to resist it. Dependance and submission seemed a new happiness obtained by our blessed Master as a man. Not only did He submit to his Father, but see how He leaned on his brethren. "He looked for some to have pity upon him." "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" "He came to his own, and his own received him not." "I am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop." "I looked on the right hand, and there was none; and on the left no man cared for me." "Refuge failed me; then said I unto the Lord, thou art my refuge and my portion." Having to rule and reign with Christ, we must come to the same school to learn to govern. He was educated in our necessities. Whence comes all the sympathy we experience day by day, but because He suffered, being tempted? Oh! yes, let us have patience. — "Let patience have her perfect work, wanting nothing;" for "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."... I do not know if you will care for this, but I think you ought to care for all that concerns the glory of our beloved Lord. We need large hearts, not only large enough to hold your small house, or your parish even, but to hold not only the universe, but all the kingdom of heaven — to hold God, and with him all dear to him. What a largeness! all dear to Him, who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, etc.! Do you ever pray for me? I pray for you. It is so pleasant, and so profitable to talk to the Lord about our friends — we send them sweet messages of love, by a faithful messenger. We do not know its sweetness till we try it. It is time well spent, to talk to him of them, to talk to them of him. We deprive ourselves of much real happiness by not living in heaven. Believers should be but as variegated lamps, hung out to lighten the feet of passengers from the kingdom of darkness. Our kingdom is not from hence. We should be looking at earth as from heaven, instead of looking at heaven from earth; as though present things were already past, and future things already present; and so they soon will be, for "the fashion of this world passeth away."...

Letter 67.

... 1835.

... I should like much to know what you now think of all things around us. The worldliness of the church has been carried to such an extent, it seems to me that there is no alternative, that we must choose either to belong altogether to the heavenly, or altogether to the earthly kingdom. The serving two masters makes our path an unhappy one; the limit becomes uncertain, and different in the minds of each, as to our permitted path on either side, and we who believe become responsible for the much profession, and more hypocrisy which exists. Could we stand on more holy ground, there would be less ambition to be found on it. There is much, seemingly, to be said for the things of this world being sanctified to heavenly uses; yet I cannot help feeling more and more assured every day, (though my foolish thoughts are little worth,) that a divorce must take place, that God and the world cannot be joined — that it behoves us to make plain that we are the risen ones, by our portion not being in any degree from hence; — that we are not struggling upwards through mire and dirt, but we are as let down from heaven; we take our stand in the kingdom of heaven, looking from above at earth, not from earth at heaven. And the less the body of' Christ is such, the more jealous should we be to attain it individually; because the wheat is mixed with the tares, therefore should we be the more desirous, that a distinction should be seen for the glory of his beloved name. I have been thinking of late, that one evil effect of our little apprehension of our present life being a risen life, united to the Lord from heaven, is a forgetfulness that the constant enjoyment and power of that life, will be in proportion to the mortifying and death of the natural life. I do not know if you will think me wrong, but it seems to me to be a mistake I have been under, with many believers, and therefore, why I have attained so little, that I have expected death would be in proportion to life, instead of life in proportion to death. The work of the Spirit after entering his temple is to subdue, in order to the flourishing of his grace within; that our part, instead of rising up against things which seem contrary to us, is to let him work, and to join with him against the evils which most easily beset us. So our very evils become nails in the hand of the Spirit by which to crucify the flesh. For though, like Adam and Eve, we are ever ready to accuse circumstances or natural dispositions, yet is the failure all our unbelief. We must be conformable to his death, before we know the power of "his resurrection, and only in proportion to our mortifying the deeds of the body through the spirit," can we live. The path of humiliation is a happy experience; and He is able to subdue all things to Himself, blessed be his name! and every conquest in us, is a witness to Satan that he is overcome, and shortly shall be trodden underfoot. Pardon me for trespassing so long on your time, but I feel you are peculiarly loved of the Father, and I could not forbear.

May the voice of the loving, longing, heavenly dove, calling for her mate, be alone heard from our consecrated hearts! May the Holy Spirit so perpetually sound there the name of Jesus, that it may be as ointment poured forth over every intention, word and action!

Believe me with affection yours,

In the hope of the kingdom,

T A Powerscourt.

Letter 68.

August, 1835.

... I hope you are learning how to love. It is difficult to do, and difficult to suffer, but there is nothing so difficult as to love as a Christian. In proportion as a thing is good used rightly, so in proportion is it evil, abused. Eve was Adam's acme of blessing; therefore, abused, she became his greatest curse. May your husband and child not be resting places for your heart, but channels to and from God! then will they be blessings indeed, far more assimilating to Christ than having the heart pent up into itself. How like Christ we should be, if we would learn diligently in all our lesson-books, instead of being such dunces!...

Letter 69.

December, 1835.

O, my poor dear, dear ..., Indeed, I do feel for you. Such short-lived happiness! Oh! what a weight of glory must there be, if these afflictions are not "worthy to be compared" to it! May He give you out of the depth to say, it is all love! To believe it to be so, is very hard: — "blasted my gourd, and laid it low." This is the way I answer prayer for faith and grace. It is good to learn the meaning of words out of Christ's lesson book. He learned it by the things which He suffered. Oh, dear sister, we are God's treasure! We often said all is vanity; often, that this is not our home. No, no; we belong to God, and are only here to be fashioned for him. He will not have us mistake it. He is a jealous God. His is not foolish tenderness. Oh, no, blessed be his name! He loves too much to spare one necessary pain. He loves too much to give one unnecessary one. He as a refiner sits over his furnace. Wait, and you shall see that this is just the thing in life you would not be without. And he is not lost, he is only gone before. Heirs together of the grace of life. Blessed word! and without you, he cannot be made perfect, the Scripture says. He therefore will wait for you on the bosom of Jesus. Surely you would not have him rather with you, only that you might speak to him, and hear him speak to you. You are together, inasmuch as you are dwelling in Jesus, the same life in both, the pulse of which beats in the heart of Jesus. You have communion, for his thoughts are all about Jesus. When Moses and Elias appeared, they were speaking about Jesus. Much loved sister, you are about to enter into realities of consolation you have never imagined to be in God. I seem to see you stepping down into a deep through which I have been wading; and it is saying, very, very little, to say I feel for you; I pity you; I almost tremble for you, but that is not all; I can tell you I would not exchange what I have experienced of Jesus there, though it was the survivor died. I would die a thousand deaths, rather than not have gone through all. I would not part with one pang, though still often smarting under it. I mean to say, dear ... that seeing things in the light of eternity, you have not only reason to bless God for him, for his certain, undoubted happiness, but to bless him for what he is about to teach you, through long days, and longer nights, of sorrow — lessons for eternity, which none but God can teach; only to be learned in this world; joy in sorrow; a calm in the midst of a storm.

May the God of peace be with you! He will —  I know he will. He will not suffer you to be tried above what you are able to bear. — To be confined after he is gone! Oh, how wonderful that grace which is able to sustain! "Let thy widows trust in me."

I took this verse; I set my seal to it. He has never failed them that trust in him. Pardon so much. You will, perhaps, not be able to read it: but I felt unable to keep back, as though Jesus entitled me to enter the house of mourning.

Your very affectionate and afflicted sister,

T. A. Powerscourt.

Letter 70

.

5, Stephen's Green, February, 1835.

The religion of Jesus is a life of humiliation. It will not do to play with it for our own name and praise. If we surrender ourselves to his holy guidance, it will, it must be, a life of severe discipline. We have, blessed be God! one fixed desire which He has placed in our hearts, and he is faithful in working towards that, though it be by the upsetting and opposing of our will and affections: it is a deep work, a work in earnest. Have we counted the cost? Let us not be willing to lose any part of our reward by our fooleries here — let it be a full reward. You know, love, we are dead with him, and are risen with him, therefore our life is no longer from beneath, but from above. — The life we have, is that spirit he obtained for us in His resurrection, when He became a quickening spirit, the second Adam; being united to him in his resurrection as well as death, we partake of his new, his more abundant life ... If we set ourselves in truth against our own evils, really opposing them guilelessly with God, we shall have a world of watchful occupation within, as the Spirit's servants. What havoc even of our amiabilities, what self-renunciation, and all this is necessary to a life of love: earthly affections concentrate the heart after all upon one self: charity is a dissemination of the affections through the body, the church: ... Why do we live in this poor, dying way? Why so much in the flesh, when we are citizens of the heavenly city? We forget how completely heaven and earth are separate; therefore what suffering there must be in the dissociation! because we live too low in spirit, we neglect to live lower in flesh. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life shall find it." — It will be present reward. Do, dearest, raise the church of Jesus where you are by so loving Christ; show there that it is not talk, or even basking in the promises, but "if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me;" so shall we be able in love to serve one another, to lay down our lives for the brethren. Do you see any marks of our dear Lord's near approach on the continent? Surely, there is a little noise about Jerusalem to be heard. I see every thing here declaring it — all minds seem driven to one point — prayer, which must precede his arrival. No refuge for Christians in the midst of conflicting opinions, but prayer; no place of safety for them to meet, but on their knees; no ground where they can extend the hand of fellowship to another brother, but prayer. Yes, we are on our way to our Isaac. — Many a jolt the camels give us, but our guide goes before, saying to all opposition, "hinder me not till I get to my master." Flesh would say, "let me a little longer enjoy this loved association to earth:" "no, hinder me not," says our faithful guide, the servant of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Let our willing hearts answer, "I will go," leave all now known; and at the report of the messenger, leave all to be his for ever:

"Brushing with hasty steps the dew away,

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn."

May this be our hearts! May we when we go forth into the world estimate every thing according to the measure of the weights we use, when in our closets we "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of his glory."...

Letter 71

... 1835.

... How could you say that you feared to express your kind sympathy? I feel most grateful to you. She is, indeed, no common loss; but we shall see her again! We wait not alone for Jesus; we also wait for all his saints with him. If we can wait for him we may well wait patiently for them. We shall see them first, though we expect him so very soon. And the next time we meet, we shall be both on our way to see Jesus at last. And He ... Was He not the object of our fondest desire, about whom only we met to take sweet counsel, though dear, very dear to one another? She was humble — He has, therefore, given her more grace, for it is far better "to depart and be with Christ." Truly, she possessed all here, that was calculated to draw her down, as though she possessed nothing.

The moment Jesus shall come to awake out of sleep that dear body, now lying as a seed in his garden, of which He keeps the key, she will rise up quickly a glorious body to his delight and glory. "Earth shall cast forth its dead, and they who dwell in dust shall awake and sing" — whilst even the tears of this night of sorrow shall sparkle in the light of his glory, as the dew of herbs. Oh! dear brother, what a hope is the resurrection! What a rich grape for Jesus to have left, and for us to possess in the midst of death, is HOPE! its energy is marvellous, reaching forth to that within the vail, to a risen Jesus, to a life beyond the reach of death. Death is no where so ashamed, as in the dying chamber of a believer. — There the victory is felt. Weakness, mortality, corruption, all proclaim, "as she has borne the image of the earthly, so shall she bear the image of the heavenly." Yes, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. And we who remain unto the coming of the Lord, we are not less blessed, for we may still a little longer suffer with Jesus. We may still hasten his coming, for He waits. Faith viewing things in this light, sees a thousand years as one day. Today, then, let us be diligent, that tomorrow we may be found of him in peace, waiting. For, doubtless, He shall come again, bringing his sheaves with him!...

Letter 72.

March, 1836.

My very dear Mr ..., I fear I shall not be able to go to you this time; and as I have to leave next Monday, I do not like to propose your coming here, though I should be so very glad to see you. You said you had something to tell me I ought to know; what was it? I should like much to hear something about yourselves. I am taking pleasure in the thought that the Lord does not need a courageous heart; but expects our heart to be ever failing, that He may glorify himself in such! Flesh and heart failing is just what He wants, for it is in weakness his strength is made perfect. May we but give him all! The whole. of this dispensation is contained in that little word, ALL. His all is himself, heaven, and earth! Our all, two mites. Dear Mr... is it not strange that I am still here, and she taken? It makes me feel gone too. We were sisters all our lives. Somehow I feel like something that should not be here; yet, I am nearer to her, and more in communion. than when on earth; for do not we dwell within the vail? then there were two bodies to hinder, now only one. I am living where she is — in abiding at home, I am with her; before we had to leave our home, to speak of it on earth. How kind of the Lord to have let us look at one of his exotics, that we may follow after! It is a great secret the apostle teaches us, when he tells us, He forgot the things behind. To rest in the things behind is to sit down in Satan's enchanted bowers, in the flesh. There was no resting place provided in Christ's race —  pressing forward, pressing forward, "faint, yet pursuing." Very dear friend, this presses on my spirit to be in earnest, as we never were before; our time is very short; let us not lose it in looking back, time enough for that hereafter. It is such a calling we are called to, how diligent we should be! We live in very peculiar days, in which Jesus is much dishonoured by his own children, because neither cold nor hot. We are afraid of being desperate Christians. Oh! let us be desperate. The church needs extremity; a great tug out of the world; to be in earnest as in the days of Ezra. We have talked long enough now about, how much?. He has had long patience. Now is our opportunity, or never; the time past of our life will suffice to have lived according to the course of this world, or in seeking to sanctify the world; now let us testify against it, that it is evil...

Letter 73.

Cecil Street, Limerick.

Beloved friend, — What am I, or what that I can say, that you should think of me at such a time, to ask me to write? I wish I could know how you found ... for I know not whether you will be even able to read this when you receive it. What a journey you must have had, yet from ... letter I trust the worst was over. May it be blessed to ... and may God's faithfulness be shown out to his praise and glory! Your last letter distressed me much, and I was longing to write ever since. Only I had so many that should come first, that I lost all courage. Very sure I am, God was not that hard God, Satan was suggesting to you; and sure I am that He is always more ready to receive you, than you to go to Him. But I know how we can be so unkind and ungrateful, because such had been exactly my own experience, before the time I received your letter. Oh! I believe, the church must go through the hour and power of darkness. Blessed those who are counted worthy to bear the burden and heat of the day, who can endure! We see the agonies of temptation in our beloved Master, and how earnestly He did beseech his church, (or its representatives,) to watch and pray against their hour of temptation; not only watch but pray, not only pray but watch; not by running into temptation, knowing the spirit was willing; but that ye enter not into temptation, because the flesh is weak. Have you dwelt much on the wonder of being friends to Jesus, and the condition of friendship? "If ye do whatsoever I command you," in that readiness of obedience as to be prepared for the discovery of any thing in the opening out of his mind; then He will keep nothing back in faithfulness. He has received nothing for Himself alone, all fulness is treasured up in Him for His church. Why do we not know more of his mind? Because not obedient to the light already given. Why not more manifesting Himself to us? Because we are not obedient. Why not dwelling more fully in us? Because not obedient. These all following obedience, while friendship finds it as impossible to refuse, as love to receive payment. Therefore, whatever his friends ask, they shall receive; and why not, when He first gave Himself?

Letter 74.

My dear Mr ..., (JND) I cannot let your kind note go without my thanks, and acknowledgments, though seeing you, or hearing from you, always makes me sad for the remainder of the day. Not that we are separated for ever; — oh! no — I shall yet be a very great joy to you, and I joy to believe it. In the day of his appearing, I may have many masters, but can have but one Father. It is sweet to think of the nearness and inseparable union of believers. Being each united to Jesus, they must be to one another; and all Satan can do, he cannot separate them. The life which runs in them is the same, the pulse of which beats in the breast of Jesus — crumbs of the same loaf. As long as the question is, who can separate from the love of Jesus? it is, who can separate from one another? In waiting for Him, we wait for his saints; for they shall come with Him, and the Lord's supper is his yea and amen, to these blessed, blessed promises. We are not sailing into port, alas! as one family, embarked in one vessel; yet we are all united as shipwrecked together, and though one may be on one board, and another on another, yet we are all making to, and shall surely arrive on the same shore — not seeking our own safety by sinking our neighbour's board, but helping one another with all the energies of love...

Believe me, dear Mr ... the most affectionate, and most grateful friend you have in the world after all.

T. A. P.

Letter 75.

June 21. 1836.

My dear Mr ..., Truly, it is a great reality to be a Christian! He knew little what he was saying, who proposed to follow our beloved Master whithersoever he should go. Well might Jesus urge it upon him- to count the cost of his "whithersoever;" but it was not this world and himself, but Himself in exchange for all that could be desired here below — not only its superfluities, but its necessities; not only its necessities, but its dearest affections. Blessed, if while holding these subjectively, He stands out disunited from every thing else, the supreme of our hearts. If God fills our embrace, every thing else is lost — swallowed up in Him. How little we have the mind of Jesus, about his Father's glory; we let his cause wait our convenience. All went to their own homes, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. We are called in wonderful days, therefore is ours a responsible calling. In days when the Lord's people are attempting, what the Lord could not do, to bring the world with them, by walking arm-in-arm with it, He calls upon his true-hearted ones, for courage to give a tug upon the other side. We need to be reminded that our calling is heavenly; that we are from above: that henceforth we are to know nothing after the flesh, because all things are become new; that we are to have as little to do with those who crucified the Lord, as those who are alive from the dead, for our habitation is within the vail; our life is hid with Christ in God. In times past, we lived according to the course of this world; in times past, we fulfilled the desires of our mind. But now we are quickened, raised up — citizens of heaven, and to walk worthy of this calling in all lowliness. How sad to love Him, and yet love him so little! It seems an insult to that love which gave ALL for us, to say we love, and yet stop to calculate about giving all to Him, when our all is but two mites; His all, heaven, earth, eternity, himself. Better not to love at all; better to be cold than lukewarm. We may well be sick with him, in hearing the precious promises delighted in, only as allowing in unfaithfulness. We have not even honourable feelings about his having trusted his whole cause, his Father's glory, to our faithfulness, having so unguardedly, so unconditionally, thrown himself upon our love! May it not be so with us, but may we be able to endure hardness in this hour of his necessity! May we go very softly, and be kept from entangling ourselves with the things of this world, that we may please him who called us to be soldiers...

Very affectionately and gratefully yours, always,

T. A . P

Letter 76.

Powerscourt.

My very dear brother — I thank the Lord for allowing me, this morning, the sweet employment of writing to you. You know my time is not my own, having been bought with a price to be my Master's servant; and a blessed service it is — perfect liberty. But you know a servant's time is not his own; they must go where he calls, and do as he bids. This has been the cause of my long silence; for, indeed, I have had it in my heart to write to you, night as well as day, especially when you gave me some hints of not feeling for you. I am sure, I do not feel as I ought to feel for any of the saints, because of selfishness; yet I trust I do feel with you, and wait to see the loving tenderness of the Lord. In this I find a difference between Christ's sympathy and his people. They, when they want to be dissociated from all below, seek to harden themselves against the feelings and sympathy of human nature. He left open all the feelings and sympathies of human nature, received pain, laid bare his breast, while passing on before the sheep, that the bleeding of his wounds might serve as balm for the wounded brother; yet was he dissociated from all below. What account from your dear son? Mrs... told me he was better. It was pleasant to see her; it brought me back to Scotland — her dear Scotch voice. I wonder you never come over to see me, the passage is so easy — my English friends repeatedly come over, but you know the Scotch had always all head, and no heart. But, no! this is not the time for enjoyment — I forgot — I should be sorry, very sorry, were you to come, having nothing to do, but to see me — sorry that money and time should, in one sense, be wasted on me, though in another sense, if for my benefit, it would not be wasted. I believe the whole life of a Christian, Christianity, the life of heaven on earth, is love —  the love to serve one another. It is a most interesting life when really entered into — it is incompatible with the sustaining of rank and station; it must be down, down, for it exalts the treasure, not the grace. Jesus did not hand down his blessing, but became poor, that he might, through his poverty, make us rich. It must be service, watchful, diligent, alive to the wants of others; its spirit is surrender — surrender of every good; our comforts. Like our Master, we must gird ourselves and stoop down, if privileged, to wash the saints' feet, if allowed to communicate not only temporal, but as our great Priest, (who is now seeing us) dispensing life-giving, spiritual refreshment. This was a glory he obtained, and never will part with — to be our servant. He loves it: even when coming again, he is represented as making his people sit down and coming forth to serve. What poor, wretched servants we are, forgetting continually we are not our own; squandering his goods! Surely were we the masters, such servants should long since have been packed off. Pretending that our time and all are his, and yet engaging also with the enemy.

"All that I am, all that I have,

Shall be for ever thine;

Whate'er thy wisdom bids me give,

My cheerful hands resign.

Yea, tho' I might make some reserve,

And duty did not call;

I love my Lord with such a love,

That I would give him all."

It is a strange, treacherous domination of the god of this world, to be able to have the Lord's servants sent below for his work only, and that the wages he allows them is the gilded dust and baubles of the world, (which they know to be only death.) We must have a different kind of Christianity, dear brother, in these days of profession; not satisfied with the excellent way, but following the more excellent. That there is so much profession without confession, must be laid at our door; for we have not given them to see outwardly, what we do believe inwardly. We have thought it enough that the heart should be right, therefore our representation of truth has contradicted the declaration of our blessed Lord, "these things ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone." Our blessed Lord did not come to judge: nothing but gracious words proceeded out of his mouth, but the light in Him convicted each conscience. How beautifully is this evidenced in the 8th of John! After the grace of 7th chapter, 37th verse, — the acknowledgment in the 46th verse of the same chapter; — the mercy shown in the beginning of the 8th, — all seemed to produce nothing but conviction; — then, as if explaining it all, he declares 12th chapter, 8th verse, "for the poor ye have always with you, but me ye have not always." It either acts repulsively, or draws us, as we see in the woman of Samaria; now she tried at first to turn it off to idle questions, till she surrendered her heart to be searched by the light. I only mean to say, ye are now the children of light, walk as children of light: light maketh manifest; all things reproved are made manifest by light, but it must be pure, heavenly light, which has no fellowship with darkness, but a continual reproving of it. This is our calling, my dear brother; our prospects are bright: seeing you look for such things be diligent, and so much more as you see the day approaching.

Letter 77.

10th November, 1836.

... I comfort myself, that the first stone of Babel destroyed itself by its confusion. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the church — He will work, and who shall let him. It is his glory "out of the bitter to bring forth sweetness." And by the very confusion, He will bring forth order. What was the order doing which did prevail? only building Babylon. If the faithful are ever found in the position of the wise virgins, trimming their lamps, expecting their Lord, there must be a separation from those who are only discerning that they have no oil. If saints are ever thrown out from the mass of professors, the church must be as a basket turned topsy-turvy, and that is confusion. Iniquity abounding, causing the love of many to wax cold, is surely one of the signs of the times of the end. May we be found faithful!

There is much, moreover, in the church's confusion to call out our gratitude, I think. Is it not, in a measure, the consequence of increased light, of the quantity of neglected evil which the light meets in the heart, because of the quantity of neglected truth? We setting ourselves up as judges of God; saying, this truth is profitable; that, of no moment; whereas, all truth must be necessary, if given — it may not be necessary for justification, but necessary to transforming us into that mind of Jesus into which we are predestinated, that He may be "the first-born among many brethren." We like to repose in the promises of safety so freely bestowed, and so that I am happy, I have communion with God, I have peace, I escape sin by getting to heaven at last — all is well. What is the glory to me separate from I, myself I? surely my salvation is his glory — Is it not so, dear brother? Then if another comes forward, leaving that behind, (perhaps too much,) and speaks of His glory as to be attained in the day of His coming, or His glory as witnessed by his body, the Church, now in the midst of Satan's kingdom; or if His glory be desired in more conformity to his image, in more simple and entire obedience to his commands, there is an immediate jealousy, as if the Cross was forgotten. Too long has the Cross been made the end, instead of the foundation of our cause — because we are saved, we are to go on; not, because we are saved, to sit down and rest. This seems to me the chief cause of all the want of love among the dear children of the same family. It is not that they do not love; they do love. My heart tells me they do love all — it is the more they love the less they are loved, because the Spirit dwelling in them is love — it is not that love is less than formerly, but love is more tried than formerly, and evils, which we thought we had not before, having been found by the entrance of the light of truth, we find ourselves full of envies, jealousies, suspicions, and we find that while thinking we were only seeking Jesus, we have been living and seeking self — Oh! how I have lived to prove this — and sometimes think, dear brother, we may never meet again, or perhaps even you may put me down among the dangerous ones. But is it not most precious in the midst of all to know that our Beloved is the beloved of the Father, is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother? — There our hearts meet in Jesus — the only resting place; mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth. He loves us, in connection with him He loves. He loves Him, in connection with us. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again." — The fulness which fills God, the perfection which satisfied God, may well fill and satisfy us — He can supply every need, and every out-going of the poor heart — His children need not be pent up, and withered in self; the heart finds its out-goings in the Beloved. He is one we never shall be ashamed of loving. — There are two things necessary for happiness — perfect satisfaction in the one loved, and perfect confidence in his perfect satisfaction in us, with a love which will secure a continuance in the same, without fear of any new discovery turning aside — these we have to perfection in Jesus, and only in Jesus — The more we know him, the more we must be satisfied with him, and go to him with confidence for counsel, depending on his wisdom, in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom; and the more we know him, the more we feel able to take to him every little trifle, because sure of his interest in us; the only one who can give all his heart to each. This is our Beloved — this is our friend; and, blessed be his name, he is a tried and faithful one, not only in loving to the end, but in holding us by his mighty power in tender jealousy as His, to the end — when he causes us to set out in security, desiring to be His only, He is prepared for us to be often led to deal very treacherously, he is prepared for us to be often seduced by Satan's lie, that there is good in every thing forbidden; though most base in us to be deceived, because if we would but abide in his heart, read circumstances by his love, in place of his love by circumstances, it would be enough to assure us a thing was evil, that it was not given. Yes, He is prepared for the foolishness of our poor earthly hearts, and He stands in the majesty of his own perfection, long and often, and patiently, answering Satan's objections and seductions with — "Mary hath chosen that better part which shall not be taken from her." Had He left us to ourselves, how often would a deceived heart have turned us aside. How often should we have put evil for good, and bitter for sweet. — Our flesh makes great cries, but with long suffering patience. He, as one who hears not, puts all these prayers aside, and keeps in steady faithfulness to our original desire, the uncalculating surrender of our first love, because he stands in a sense of his own superiority over all, in the confidence of being able to satisfy the desire of every living thing. — Oh, it is a precious thing in this tempestuous world to wrap ourselves up in a sense of His unchangeable love, His inexhaustible grace, — to be able to meet every event with, "I know and believe the love He has to me," and so credit the apostle's assurance, "all things are for your sakes;" — deeply sensible of our undeservingness, as chief of sinners, receiving all as grace, returning him all glory. Is it not his nature to bless? Has he not in Jesus's human heart formed for himself, as it were, a recipient for the fulness of love — His love. — If he has placed us in the one whom he delights to bless, is it not that precious ointment may descend ever to the beloved. May we then cleave to the beloved of the Father, and get grace for grace! May we be resigned to our portion — "all spiritual blessings in Christ." What a proof in Balaam, that all must be grace from beginning to end? while the future glory of God's people, and the future destruction of the nations of the world, even both were full in view; his heart was so cleaving to the dust, that the former was nothing to him, while he was refused rewarding the latter. Surely then, if chosen, it is grace; if chastened, it is grace; if humbled, it is grace; if not revolting, it is grace...

Letter 78.

August, 1836.

...

If you want rest, die with Him.

If joy, ascend with Him.

If you want to suffer with him, descend again with him into the church — it will break your heart in pieces for you. — We wait for a glorious time! It is a testimony to the indwelling of God's Spirit, this unsatisfied longing for the very order and beauty which he has appointed. It is a continual witness to the heart, both that nothing here can satisfy, and also that He knows our wants, and is able to satisfy. May He now give an earnest in causing to descend his shechina of glory — his new Jerusalem (as it were) in all its harmony, and order into the ... He that follows me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life How pleasant to feel to be getting into the taste of Christ, and an increasing distaste to the wisdom of this world, and to be able to covet and admire the simplicity of foolishness! — Oh, that we could lose our reputation for every thing, and be the offscouring of the church, as well as the world! then we should be safe — any thing to get hid out of this world's cruel kindness. — When I see how saints are spoiled, oh! I tremble, and wish I could hide myself from even the love of Christians ... Let us keep our eye on the Lord; while gazing on him we are changed. — Many snares we have in church and world, but there is one remedy, "Looking unto Jesus," this lets out self, and lets in God. May we more and more know that we are really nothing, and so live in Christ, as to live above every thing else! Be patient, the day draweth nigh when Jesus in his beauty shall be manifested, when he shall unfold it to us, and we in it all; when he shall delight and present all the members of his body, one and the other, and will joy to see them rejoice together. The Lord keep you in patient continuance of well-doing! Surely, if we desire to be shining lights, we must be first burning, and we shall neither be burning nor shining, unless sometimes snuffed. There was a golden snuffers provided in the temple. — Is not gold the emblem of Divinity? May my God make me willing to be nothing, expecting to be the refuse and offscouring of all things! — May he shelter our feelings, and shelter our affections! they are too keen for such a world; they need to be sheathed in himself, embosomed in him, till the time when they shall be able to expand to the creature, without idolatry, without a wound, without a sorrow.

Be not weary of afflicting — snuff the candle, if needful — only let it be with thy golden snuffers. Lord, come down into thy chambers in this heart! Is it not thy habitation through the Spirit? purify then for thyself — clean it out, fumigate it. May the incense of thy sacrifice ascend, as a sweet odour, taking away a contaminating influence, which without this is ever ascending. "The throat is an open sepulchre!"... Furnish it with all fit for the Master's use, that it may be a castle worthy of thyself. — Give me faith, give me the wings of faith, to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and leave my body and all my entanglements with thee. On earth we can get rid of cares by leaving them, when we leave them in hands we can trust. — Though we see it not, goodness and mercy are folded up in the darkest events, which by and by we shall see in his light. May we walk as citizens of the land of uprightness, sit upon the throne of his approbation — keep human opinion as footstool! Shall we fear to step down into the depths of faithfulness? Shall we even desire to walk through waters only to the ankles? Can we doubt that according to our day He has strength laid up? Has he not promised, "from strength to strength?" — When we pray, if possible, let this cup pass from me — may not He answer, ye know not what ye ask? — we know not what we should be depriving ourselves of — Let us wait and show forth in a body of humiliation, graces which we cannot in a body of glory. Do we speak without meaning, when we say that we desire to live to His glory? He desires not empty expressions. — Do we really desire but one thing, His glory?

Letter 79.

Bushy, Enniskerry, December 5th, 1836.

Dear ..., ... I fear you think me very ungrateful for so long neglecting to answer your kind letter — a word of exhortation from you always does me good; and, indeed, we need every help to keep these heavy souls on their way. — It is a great gift to be able to speak a word in season — "How good it is!" Solomon says, "As apples of gold in pictures of silver." Jesus learnt it. I believe it is by little things, the children are fed; He gives us our meat in due season. In this way I have often found letters special and precious means of grace, and I believe they would be more so, and no loss of time, did we more write in faith, and more live each day upon what may be prepared for us by the Spirit of God. When present with a person, we may try to make a thing applicable, or be tempted to do so — when absent, if their case is met, it seems more that the Lord has considered the case, and sends his message through his scribe, while it cheers the heart of the writer in passing. There is truly in the ways of God with his own children, and when the Spirit finds a Mount of Olives in our hearts, to pour forth his intercessions in, we must be let into many also of his secret dealings with the family of heaven. It was not, I trust, because I have not thought of you, or spoken about you to the Lord, that I have not written; above all, I have asked him, if in any thing you are ignorant of yourself, to search you out with his candle of truth, and discover it to you in his own tenderness — but who am I to speak of others? TRULY, of sinners I am chief; I am persuaded there will be no specimen brought forward of his tried patience with any member in his blessed family, so bright, as his long suffering forbearance with me; thus shall I also be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

I do not know whether you have been in ... or ... I long to hear of one, and love to hear of the other. — No doubt you have found blessing, wherever you are, and humbling; for that seems his business with us in which we give him no help. — What insignificant creatures we are, and how ridiculous we look when we clothe ourselves in robes of glory! They were never made to fit us; we cannot fill them; and yet, how self works through every thing! Often a little thing discovers this to us, how we have been speaking for, and seeking self, while apparently and intentionally we have been even jealous for Jesus. I feel that the children of God have very much, indeed, to detect this in themselves. If it is really our dear Lord we are seeking, we shall be willing for him to be glorified, in ourselves being hated, as well as loved — willing to be misinterpreted, and misunderstood — willing to be the dark back ground, in the image we present, if it throws out more his light as the object on which the eye may rest. How often we think in our communion with others, we are rejoicing in their response of love to Jesus, when some hint against ourselves will turn the current, and so expose to our hearts, our self-idolatry. I am not certain that this has ever been your experience, but I am sometimes quite disgusted with myself, to find I can steal his gifts and graces, to deck up this household God; seeking also to sustain a good opinion of myself, while verily knowing neither good nor evil. We ourselves are witnesses how difficult it is for us to let Him rule and guide his church, in finding how difficult to let Him rule ourselves — against palpable evil we co-operate with him, but in seeming good we are often seeking different ends, and working different ways; so when we get a view of how each member is striving against the Spirit, it leaves little surprise that the church is found in opposition, treasuring a quantity of things He can have no communion with, so quenching his willing gracious light; her confession of weakness is only in words, for her only true confession would be delivering herself up to him, to will and to do in her of his good pleasure, even all the good pleasure of his will. I believe if He ever blesses us as a whole, it must be by first humbling us to submit to be blessed at any cost, and to let the Spirit take his own place, casting down every high imagination, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...

I do not feel to have any particular call to any place, except an anxious desire in all places to be preserved by his grace from hindering his work. — He can use me any where for the saints in prayer. "Mary, who bestowed much labour on us," I covet. Have you been led much into Scripture of late? much into the holy of holies?... Is it not most precious, in the midst of all, to know that our Beloved is a friend, who sticketh closer than a brother — that he is the beloved of the Father — the father's meeting place with our hearts, His only resting place in all he has created, and we in him our only resting place, and He in him — that He loved us for his sake, and loves him because he laid down his life for us. The fulness which fills God, the perfection which satisfies God, may well fill and satisfy us. He is a supply to every need, and every out-going of the poor heart. — He is one we shall never be ashamed of loving, one we shall never be disappointed in loving; no fear of any new discovery turning him aside; his interest extends to every little trifle, while his counsel is, all the treasures of wisdom. He is prepared for us often to deal very treacherously, and to be often deceived by Satan's lie, that there is good in forbidden fruit; yes, he is prepared for all our foolishness. —  He turns to Peter and says, "Lovest thou me? feed them." He turns to the Father and says, "Lovest thou me? bless them." Oh, it is precious in this tempestuous world, to wrap ourselves up in a sense of his unchangeable love, his inexhaustible grace, and be able to meet every event with, "I know and believe the love he has to me," — and that "all things are for my sake." May we have grace to cleave to Jesus, and be resigned to have for our portion "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Balaam's heart was still on the earth while looking at its destruction, and God's glory — All is grace from first to last. — What an honour to be counted worthy to stand in the crisis! —  the honour to which all Scripture from the beginning has been looking; — the winding up of time. — Let us bear in our bodies the last blows of the flesh, —  let us manifest in our mortal bodies that Jesus is alive, — let us be willing to endure all things for the elect's sake, — let us put by our play-things, because the world is in flames. — Why creep about in this deadening atmosphere of falsehood, instead of ever abiding in the region of truth and reality? Why are not our visits to earth only as messengers of mercy to dress the wounds of the Church — to glorify Him by finishing the work he has given us to do? sent of Jesus, even as he was sent of the Father. And while seeking to be worthy of the name put upon her, may she remember that it is not of herself the bride is to speak, but her object, her subject, her delight, her hope, her only resting place is her Beloved — the bridegroom of her heart.

Papers.

Genesis 22.

There are two things to be remarked in this most touching portion of Scripture. 1st. God's motive for, and manner of thus trying Abraham. 2dly. The way in which Abraham receives it. Many were Abraham's expressions of love to his God; and most valuable were those expressions. But God is a jealous God; words are not sufficient. Faith must be put to the trial. Again, and again, the question will be put: "lovest thou me more than these?" Till tried we know not how little faith we have. Faith must be put in the scales with something very near our hearts; — yes, with what is nearest; for it still must be, "more than these." The furnace must be heated in proportion to the increase of our faith. Is it because God willingly afflicts? no; but the trial of faith strengthens faith, consumes its dross. This trial is precious to God, more precious than gold; it is his riches, his treasure; and precious to him is it to have proof from his child, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou seest that I love thee." We know not the intense interest which every trial of faith produces in the invisible world; or how these light afflictions are not merely now precious, but shall be to his honour and glory at the day of his appearing. Abraham was the father of the faithful. There must be an exhibition of faith worthy his name, for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe; if only to part with something of no value, of little worth, what thanks? could not even the heathen so? Remember this in every providence, every trying providence. It does not speak God's love changed, but it is a messenger direct from the throne to your heart, a ministering spirit sent forth to the heirs of salvation — it brings the message, I will put you to the test now, I will put home the question in a way that shall be felt. Arc you ready to say, I could have borne any thing but this? then remember the greatest approbation God can give us, is to heat the furnace to the utmost. He is in fact saying, "great is thy faith," little furnaces are for little faith; and is it not valuable even to earthly affection, do we not seize every opportunity of giving proof to expressions of love? Think how dear must Isaac have been to Abraham; God gave him this son, after an hundred years' desire. In his death all God's promises and blessing, not only to himself; but to the world, must be entombed. He had been accustomed to look upon Isaac as his peculiar treasure; not only a beloved son, but a token of good from his covenant God. When we hear that it was "very grievous" to Abraham to cast out Ishmael, how much more to slay Isaac; yet after he has long enjoyed him, just come to an age when even in natural providence a common bereavement of him would have been most grievous, God determined to put his faith to the test, and prove whether still it would not stagger, but being rich give Him glory; how often we think we value the gift only for the sake of the giver, till God exposes us to ourselves, by demanding his gift. Oh! let us count the cost when we say we believe, it is a word of deep meaning in the dictionary of God. Paul's belief was ready to do, but what was the answer, "Thou shalt see what great things thou shalt suffer for my name sake." It has been so from the beginning; you would not be without that trial of which all the church have been partakers, you would not that He should be so indifferent to your love, as never to question you about it, or desire an evidence of it. How full of compassion His approach to Abraham! He comes with all the tenderness of one who knew he was about to wound a heart he loved; and is it not so with us? Have we ever marked his steps, his gentleness when bringing a painful message? It is to be marked by every attentive observer of his providences. "Abraham," I have somewhat to say unto thee, "I have called thee by name;" why? because thou art mine; He, as it were, beckoned him into the wilderness saying, "come, let us reason together," that in the end he might speak comfortably.

Verse 1. Every thing to aggravate, to draw out Abraham's feelings in the wording of this command, nothing to be discovered after, all laid out before him; Son, only son, thy son Isaac, the son of thy love, the son of promise: when promising him he said, ch. 17-19, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him."

Verse 3. "Early," no hesitation — no time lost in murmuring — simple immediate obedience is faith — no questions; he obeyed because commanded. Prompt obedience is expected, "I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments." In Abraham's faith, we see nothing is too difficult for love — we also perceive there is a love that excelleth the closest, most endeared tie, love that constraineth, not that which goes to the task, as though saying I do it because I must. Flesh murmurs; self-will repines; self-indulgence rebels; but faith looks up for the promised strength, and by it conquers — stops the mouth with a hush, "be still, and know that I am God." Let us look at Abraham saddling his ass, rising early, walking three days with his knife in his hand, taking his last look at his Isaac, and learn to count it all Joy, should we also be deemed worthy to attain to such grace, even though it be through fiery trial. The cross is the only way to the crown; if for a proof, if for benefit, it must touch something most valued; withered must be every gourd, torn away every prop, every thing of which we would say "This same shall comfort me."

Verses 5, 6. When going up with Abraham and trying to realize his feeling at this moment, let us not forget that we are told it is a figure. The love of the Father is the origin of all the work of Christ; this is kept before us in this figure, the love of the Son is often erroneously considered as pacifying the wrath of the Father. The Father laid it on him, and because it was laid on him by the Father, because it was the Father's will, it was his meat and drink to suffer it, until finished. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." It pleased the Lord to bruise him; and Abraham was to be a pattern of faith to the end of time, therefore must the most trying proof be sought for, and in it God seems to say, behold my love, for God "so loved the world," etc. — the same trial is touchingly described, (Judges 11-30. etc.) Now we read (1 John 4, 9, 10,) — "In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his Son into the world that we might live through him," etc. Here we have proof that the sacrifice of God in giving his Son, (to speak after the manner of men,) was the utmost pang the Divine mind could devise, for it was the one chosen as a pattern of faith to the end of time. God would thus, it seems, sustain us in all our minor trials, by an apprehension of his own love, embodied in that of Abraham: by setting him up before us, as the father of the faithful and pattern of faith. He would check our doubts of his willingness, with his only Son, to give all things: seeing that in Abraham's not sparing his Isaac, He asked no more; while he would also draw out our love and gratitude, that our requirement is not our first born for our transgression; that having been done for us at an expense of love set forth in Abraham, we have only to "love mercy and to walk humbly with our God." The fire was in the Father's hand, and also the knife, when to Calvary they went both together. The transaction was all between them. Stupendous acts were being fulfilled while foolish man gazed on with unmeaning gaze, but was as little admitted into the secret wonders of the transaction as the young men who remained with the ass were with Abraham and Isaac's; and in all they saw must it have been as contradictory to mercy, as opposed to common sense. Abraham laid aside every weight, asked no questions, looked not at consequences, said not, how shall I stand the trial? but "ran with patience the race set before him, looking unto Jesus," It was a difficult race — but he was bent on it. if faint, yet pursuing, and any hindrance that might impede his progress, and make his bold, resolute willingness falter, he laid aside.

He was running the race of faith. To a bystander he might have appeared very unfeeling; nay, he must have appeared deranged. What a lesson not to judge by the understanding! The cross is to the mere looker-on "foolishness." We have also in Isaac a view of the majesty of that Love which set its face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, that rebuked Peter with "Thou art an offence unto me," because he would dissuade him from it; neither moved by contradictions, ingratitude, or feeling, we see perfect acquiescence in the will of his Father. It was the vengeance of God which sore afflicted his righteous soul, he endured the malignity of man with pitying love. In this figure, therefore, let us see Jesus bearing his cross, and going forth to Golgotha.

Verse 7. Here we have the property of a child. In one point, there is a resemblance between a servant and a child. It is the part of both to obey, not to consult, plan, argue, or direct; but in this there is a difference, — it is a child's privilege to ask the parent's reason, still remembering it is the parent's privilege to refuse to give it, without the child's obligation to obey being altered. In this simple address, "my father," all confidence is expressed. Abraham's silence thus interrupted, must have ploughed up every parental feeling within. Abraham seemed not to have courage to tell him.

Verse 8. Much seems contained in the answer, probably more than Abraham was aware of; observe "will provide himself" — here is our blessed security, that He did provide it for himself: therefore is he called the Lamb of God; though he cried to him, God spared him not, but laid him on the altar with his own hand, and sacrificed him; why? that we might live. The language of flesh would have been, but what becomes of his promises? If Isaac is taken, where is the promise that in his seed should all the earth be blessed? The language of faith is, God can provide himself a lamb. Trust him to accomplish his own promises, only obey. Sense is ever questioning, oh! but if so, and so, this and that will happen, which God cannot mean. Faith answers, what He has promised he is able to perform. This command of God could not have been more confounding, more opposite to all Abraham could have expected from the promise; this is faith. To act when all is clear to our senses, is sense, not faith; to act upon God's word, is faith; we do not enough consider this in our daily walk, and difficulties. It is not our part to seek to bring about God's prophecies or promises, we understand not the ways of the Lord. He brings about his own purposes, in the most contradictory ways. It is our prudence to leave the management to Him, who sees the end from the beginning. Let us not mar his work, but submit; we may, being sons, ask to understand our Father's will, never is it our place to think for Him. Did he fail? Did he not provide a Lamb without blemish or spot, fore-ordained before the foundation of the world? "In due time Christ died," etc. As the Lamb of God, does he appear in the midst of the throne, while the 10,000 times 10,000, ever put their seal to this word, crying out, "worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing." As I before said, we have in this transaction the Father's love, and the Son's love in the work of redemption, even as both are set forth in the 53d of Isaiah, end of 4th and 6th verses. Of the Son, it is said, in the 7th, 9th, and 12th v. in conformity with what we hear Him saying, John, 10. 18. "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." He humbled himself, he suffered himself to be bound, though they had no power over him; like Samson, he could have burst their bonds, yet he was bound, led away, delivered to Pontius Pilate, the governor. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, (Phil. 2. 8.) Because this commandment he received of the Father.

Verses 9 and 10. Abraham built the altar, Abraham laid the wood in order, Abraham bound Isaac, his son; Abraham laid him on the altar, on the wood, and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Abraham's faith by this was justified; when he took the knife and stretched forth his hand, the deed was done! He was not one who only says he has faith. See James 2. 21.

Man's extremity is God's opportunity; — he knows our souls in adversity, is a present help in time of trouble; when there is none to hear, none to succour, Jesus then draws near, spreads out his arms of consolation, and embraces the believer on every side. Example, John 9. 34, 35. Also Hagar, Gen. 16. 5, etc.; 21. 9, etc. and though her affliction was the effect of her own sin, she sowed to the wind, and it was just she should reap the whirlwind; she sowed upon a bed of flint, and had no right to expect to reap but a crop of cares, yet the Lord meets her with a promise; and oh! how all-powerful to heal is a promise when spoken home by Him who has been instructed to speak a word in season to the weary! So it was with Abraham, he sees himself surrounded by a Providence ready to overwhelm and crush his faith; he knows not how it can be overcome; but he knew his God, and that God was not unmindful of Abraham; he was so intent upon him that he was ready at the very nick of time; his compassions waited to manifest themselves while seeming to have no regard. The three long days Abraham was walking up the mount, though he seemed left alone to his griefs and perplexities, yet the eyes of the Lord were upon the righteous, and by works Abraham's faith was made perfect. This trial was but a messenger to the heir of promise at God's command it came — at God's command it departed; and though the knife was stretched out, yet at his presence and bidding, sorrow and sighing fled away. We have a strong lesson in this, what real good and real evil mean, the very same act may be one moment evil, and the next good.

Verse 14. Meaning the Lord will see to it —  in this mount, or in the extremity, the Lord will see to it. Or, perhaps, the very name of the mount was to be a continual remembrance, that God would provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering. See examples of extremities, 2 Cor. 1. 8, 10; Dan. 3. 17; Ps. 22. 4.5. This is comforting for others, as well as ourselves. It was customary to call names in remembrance of help received in time of need. Gen. 16. 13, 14. — Thou God seest me — Beer-lahai-roi. Ex. 17. 15. — When the Lord helped against Amalek — The Lord my banner —  Jehovah-Nissi. 1 Sam. 7. 12. — When the Lord helped against the Philistines — Eben-ezer — the stone of help. We think it strange to see the man of God setting value on worldly honour and riches, because God says they are evil; but it is less surprising to find the man of God sinking under trial, when God says it is good? If we believe, should we not hail it, should we not clasp it to our bosom, as a token of his love? When standing as we expect among the great multitude escaped out of great tribulation, would we be found the only one without this family particularity? When standing at the close of life, and taking a retrospect in his light, will not trial be that in which we shall with most distinct emphasis be able to distinguish that name in which all blessedness is included — my son? Heb. 12. 7. Let us accept tribulation as the boon we are most unworthy of. "If ye were without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then are ye not sons." Rather let us bless him. Oh! bless Him that he has not given that which would be indeed the desert of our rebellious hearts, i.e. "Let them alone." For us to be able to run the race of faith, every weight of sin, like Abraham's, must be put out of the way — laid aside. Holy, bold resolution, in this will do much in keeping us steady in our race. Often we see nets spread before us in our path, though it is written, — "In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird;" yet so does man excel in folly, even the beasts of the field, and birds of the air, that we run into our favourite snares with our eyes open, though, perhaps, determining not to be held, but to struggle out of them; present weakness not being sufficient to correct confidence in future strength, till our feet are entangled, our race impeded, and we discover too late that the God of strength has refused to accompany us into the snare, has been left behind, and we stand alone against the enemy. Oh that we were wise! oh that we had grace to be resolute! wise to turn aside from pits, into which our weakness has fallen again and again, and our faith well nigh been lost. The wise man speaking of temptation, says, "Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away" — parley not with the old serpent, for his arguments are most ingenious; resist, or else flee from him. Hearken not to the voice of this charmer, charm he never so wisely; let us examine ourselves in this, see to it that nothing impede our race, weaken our faith, or prevent our obedience. Let us be honest with ourselves, and in earnest with God. Let us treasure no Babylonish garment, however goodly; let us sanctify ourselves, for if there be an accursed thing hid in our hearts, we shall not be able to stand in the day of trial; we lose much time in our progress, by needing such repeated lessons in each truth; when we should have been wise, we are still fools. We also learn in this Scripture how little life there is in faith, till that faith is called into action; though faith may be absolute, and love ardent, yet how many tests it needs, before we really love what we believe. God requires many proofs of love before He will confide in us as friends; it was so with Abraham; but when he, indeed, found he would not withold his son, his only son, He calls him the friend of God; then upon the soul thus brought under his will, He rises with healing in his wings, enters into the richest friendship, unbosoms himself, says, "I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward;" while all the efforts by which faith has been made perfect, what have they been? Just so many opportunities of blessedness, whatever the travail. It must have been so to Abraham. In him we have verified, that no temptation shall take the servant of the Lord, above that he is able to bear; but with every temptation shall be a way of escape, that he may be able to bear it. He knows exactly the moment to help; His time may be a protracted time, it may be three such days; circumstances may be aggravated to the utmost, for he is a surgeon that will not lightly heal over a wound, but must get to the core; therefore is the knife so often used, after knife. He does not the work by halves, his work is perfect; his child may be tempted to think himself a mark for his arrow, one may so swiftly follow the other, so nigh to overwhelm. We may be ready to cry out, "Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?" but, Deut. 32. 36, "the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone." This is His way, has been His way, and will yet be His way, because "His compassions fail not." He visits, He brings low, only because needful, to enable us to receive the happiness he has provided; so has been his way with his people Israel, among whom his providential dealings have been chiefly exhibited, Micah 4. 10. Let us then in this portion, as well as every other of God's word, "Behold the Lamb of God." And may the Father of Glory give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of himself! Let us look unto Jesus: he has taken the curse and wrath out of our sufferings, even though called to pass through a burning fiery furnace. Is it not Almighty love which calls to it? not to hurt, but to try; to give happy proof of the soundness of that faith which is his own gift. He would have us know that faith, trusting in His tried word, is invincible. He would bring us to the experience of the Psalmist — "Thy word is tried to the uttermost, and thy servant loveth it." In Abraham, God's word was tried: the trial proved its truth, and increased his confidence in its truth, and so confirms ours also in beholding, "He that believeth shall never be confounded." May we grow daily in this faith of our father Abraham, and so prove ourselves Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, having "put on Christ, in whom is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus."

Psalm 22.

A well-known writer has said concerning David, the inspired writer of the Psalms, "his place in the church was to hand down an organ, to express the feelings of every individual of God's people, through time; therefore was his education and discipline suited to this end. He was prepared of God for the work he accomplished, and thus it was that one man brought forth that vast variety of experience, in which every soul rejoices to find itself reflected. John the Baptist, being to be used for rough work, was trained in the rough desert. Paul, being to be used for contention and learned work, was trained at Gamaliel's feet. Daniel, being to be used for judgment and revelation, was trained in the wisdom of the East. Joseph, being to be used as a providence to Egypt and his father's house, was trained in the hardest school of Providence; and every one in God's church has been disciplined by God's providence, as well as furnished in nature, for that particular work for which the Spirit of God designed him. Therefore had David that brilliant galaxy of natural gifts, that rich and varied education, to fit him for his high office. His harp was full strung, and every angel of joy and sorrow swept over the chords as he passed; but the melody always breathed of heaven, and such oceans of affection lay within his breast, as could not always slumber in their calmness. For the hearts of an hundred men strove and struggled together within the narrow continent of his single heart. We would especially mention those called Penitential Psalms, for they discover the soul's deepest hell of agony; and though by no means defending his backsliding, even out of his evil much good has been made to arise. Had he not passed through every valley of humiliation, and stumbled upon the dark mountains, we should not have a language for the soul of the penitent, or an expression for the dark troubles, which compass the soul which fears to be deserted of its God. Let us remember the part he had to act was a difficult one. The shepherd, the hero, the friend, the outcast, the monarch, the poet, the prophet, the regenerator of the Church, and the man — the man, who played not into these parts by turns, but was the original of them all; and let us remember that until an individual, however pure, honest and honourable he may have thought himself, and been thought by others, discovers himself to be utterly fallen, defiled and sinful in the sight of God, a worm of the earth, and his soul cleaving to the dust, and bearing about with it a body of sin and death; and until for expression of his utter worthlessness, he seeks those Psalms in which David describes the abasement of his soul, — yes, and can make them his own, that man knows nothing of spiritual life; for the heart must break up, be contrite and broken, to be the abode of the High and Holy One, who inhabiteth eternity."

But in all the Psalmist's discipline, we find not the experience here expressed. The words, as in the other Penitential Psalms, leave David behind, and carry on the mind to David's antitype. There is a loving confusion between David and Messiah in this book: and with the head all the members are closely united, — they cannot be separated. The believer cannot sing His praises or triumph, but he must take himself in as a part, and be embraced in his glory.

Let us drink deep into this book, and we shall find ourselves linked to the spiritual David by a thousand tender ties; for every line breathes of Messiah, and every sentiment leads to him. In c very thought he has a share — "Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending, first and last" of the soul's delight. Were it not for the Book of Psalms, we should know little of the mental sufferings of our blessed Lord; for except when wrung from him on the cross, and in the garden of Gethsemane, when, looking for some to have pity, he cried out, "my soul is exceeding sorrowful;" and it was with expressive silence he went through all, as a lamb taken to the slaughter, or as a sheep dumb before the shearers. We might have supposed, that being God, he could not feel as man; but it is in the Psalms we peculiarly discover this incomprehensible truth. — He was as perfect God as perfect man; as perfect man as perfect God. It was this marvellous combination of majesty and weakness which the prophets enquired and searched diligently into, not being able to comprehend beforehand the "sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow." He made himself dependant on God and dependant on man; yet infinite power was displayed in the sufferings of Christ, in sustaining his humanity. Jesus is essentially the Son of God, not officially so, —  officially he is a servant. The worship of Messiah is a personified perfection of Deity. The Saviour was a volunteer in all his sufferings and temptations. Did man put himself into temptation, it would be a sin. The Saviour, in becoming our security, took upon himself all the consequences of our sin: sin separates the creature and Creator; sin disposes man to hate and fight against his God. Sin makes the creature the enemy of the Creator. O ye who trifle on the precipice of destruction, this truth will be experienced in all its energy and bitterness in hell! devils tormenting the lost, the lost tormenting each other. The bosom of the Saviour is now open — flee, flee, flee from the wrath to come.

There was a remarkable similitude, and yet a striking contrast between the first and second Adam. Adam was type of Christ; as Lord of all, he was monarch of the earth; in consequence of transgression he forfeited all, hence the cause of the Saviour's life being a life of suffering and shame. He was treated as we deserved, therefore denied a cup of cold water when he cried, I thirst. The contrast is also striking between the first and second Adam. The first, in Eden, with nothing to want, became a prey to all. The second, in the midst of want, triumphed over all. He gave his enemies every advantage that he might trample them under foot; he fasted forty days and forty nights, it is emphatically added, afterwards he hungered. Who can calculate the sufferings implied in these words? Read the siege of Jerusalem; read of mothers eating their own children. What must have been their sufferings, before a mother could kill her child, then eat it? This was his at the moment the Devil said, "If thou be the Son of God," etc. Our poor finite understandings can have but faint ideas of the only suffering on earth which could satisfy for sin; but hereafter, perhaps, he will himself explain it to His children. This we know, never was there such a sufferer either in kind or degree. The holiness of his nature aggravated it to the highest pitch; hell, which is separation from the Source of happiness, was raging in his holy bosom the moment he uttered these mysterious words, 1st verse. His sufferings at that moment exceeded that of the lost, they are separate from One they hate; He from One still loved. This is not complaint, but the expression of love seeking its object. There was no complaint at the insults or malice of devils or men, but love must everlastingly travel after its beloved. Here is the law honoured in its curse; all our enemies tried him to the uttermost; every thing the arch enemy of God and man could do to fill his holy soul with horror was done, v. 14, 15, 16, and all these the effect of our sin. His love was put to the severest tests, yet in proportion as the necessity of his people expressed itself in ingratitude, weakness, and enmity, so in proportion his love seemed to gain utterance; it was entirely unconnected with any thing in man. He chose not His people for anything in them; so nothing he discovered could turn him from his purposes of mercy. It was only "if be possible," let this cup pass from me — extreme love, and extreme misery met in this expression; the same love which brought him down, carried him through his path of sorrow; his whole life was an emptying of this principle from furnace into furnace — yet "having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end," not because ignorant of what was in them, not because the remembrance had been blotted out, but at the very moment when his disciples forsook, denied, betrayed Him, in the midst of this he laid down his life, "loved us and gave himself for us." We have an High Priest who knows well how to enter into the feelings of the tried, even the inmost recesses of the bosom, and administers most effectual relief. Jesus learned God to perfection — Jesus learned man to perfection. Every avenue of attack is opened to him; how to meet his people's enemies in them, and how to overcome — Jesus learned sympathy to perfection. He threw his heart from the zenith of glory into the bosom of his people, and is able to be touched with a feeling of their infirmities. He estimates all their sufferings by his own, so as not to lay on them one unnecessary feather.

In the 17th verse, we find how keenly he felt the conduct of the bystanders. The simple remark made by the evangelist is, these things the soldiers did; while all the complaint we hear from him is "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" and if the conduct of the soldiers, how much more that of his disciples, pained him. In psalm 69, we read, "reproach hath broken my heart. I looked for some to have pity on me, and there were none; for comforters, and I found none." Instead of complaint, we hear from him the only excuse he could offer, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Were it not for the psalms, we should know nothing of this — when tracing his conduct to his disciples at the end, we hardly need to be told by the apostle, that having been tempted in all points, He was full of compassion; — we cannot but be struck with the delicacy with which he seemed to touch every feeling which might be excited to pain — how sensitively he felt all their infirmities and weakness — how exquisitely and continually alive to all the amiable, though too often painful, feelings of the human heart; how patient with their prejudices; how he seemed to shrink from wounding them, as if in so doing he must wound himself — when broken hearted with his enemies, he turned to his friends — what condescension, how entirely human! he placed himself in a situation to be ministered to by his own creatures, and sought for comforters among poor weak sinful men! He remembers we are dust — he only asked for pity — only to watch — they could not; well might he say with surprise, "could not ye watch one hour?" Had it been the world, it would have been different, but ye, my disciples, my friends, whom I have been watching over continually — only one hour! Oh, how little can we do for our Lord; and when we attempt, how different to what he does for us! Alas! human nature is still like itself, drowsy and sleepy about its best interests; but blessed be God! he is, and only is still like himself — while they slept, he was awake, not only awake, but in agony for their souls; — yes, we have a living Head to direct us, filled with all the wisdom of God — we have a human heart to sympathise, filled with all the compassions of Jesus. In casting the soul on One mighty to save, we have the consolation of reposing on a bosom which having sighed for itself, is full of tenderness for us, for "though a son, yet learned he obedience by the things he had suffered." It is on the cross of Christ we see reality in God's hatred of sin, and his love to the sinner. We hear of this stupendous mystery, God manifest in the flesh, too much as a tale that is told — we set about seeking an interest in it too much like a child's play, but we cannot dwell long in Gethsemane, or on Calvary, without feeling, there is a reality in sin, a reality in justice, a reality in purity, a reality in love. This is the central point round which perfection rallies, and from which perfection emanates — never are we in so right a mind, as when faith is meditating on the Redeemer's humiliation; or hope contemplating the Redeemer's glory. Let me ask, do we really believe all this, that Christ trod our earth, really suffered, exhausted the cup of wrath, drained it to the dregs, bore all the misery which is the essence of the curse, was besieged by sorrow, was in an agony, his heart broken, his spirit distracted, and oppressed? and why? For the joy set before him of bringing many sons to glory. This was the prospect which brightened his dark and dreary path of humiliation. Some mourn, needing a friend into whose bosom they can pour their sorrows. Here is Jesus: mourner in Zion, he learned your sorrows on Mount Calvary — now his business is, "showing mercy." Perhaps some will say, but I have brought myself into such difficulties by sin, you can have nothing for me. Yes, I have, Messiah is alive! The man of sorrows holds the rein of government, He says, "little children, sin not; but if any man sin," etc. Truth never drives to despair, but like a skilful general surrounds the enemy. The command is sin not; but must the believer be overcome if he does fall? no, the Spirit points to Jesus.

In the 21st verse of this psalm, it is testified thou hast heard me, and verse 24, and the concluding part goes on to show the happy results of these sufferings, the restoration of Israel and conversion of the whole world to God. Verse 27, "To him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father." But the 22nd verse seems a peculiarly interesting one. It is that voice, which at the beginning said, "Let there be light and there was light." It is that voice, which once shook the earth, and yet once more will shake both earth and heaven. It is that voice which in agony exclaimed, "My God, my God!" — which "in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears to Him who was able to save him from death." "Thou hast heard me," exclaims the Great Shepherd of the sheep, when, by the God of peace, the pacified Divinity, brought again from the dead; and now in the celestial temple, in the height of Mount Sion above, he proclaims with a voice powerful as that of many waters, yet sweeter than all the music of angels or redeemed harps, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren." How he shall declare his Father's name to his brethren of the church triumphant; — how in the midst of them he shall lead the hymn of thanksgiving, we cannot tell; but this we know, the whole of his mediatorial administration is a declaration of his Father's name to his brethren on earth, and a hymn of praise to him as the God of salvation. Is he not daily, hourly, continually in "the word of the truth of the Gospel," in the ordinances of his appointment, in the efficacious operations of his Spirit, proclaiming the name of his Father more plainly than it was before proclaimed? "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty," — has yet set forth his Son a propitiation through faith in his blood; — the Just and the Saviour, Just and justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. Does he not in these inspired Psalms which refer to the exercise of Messiah the conqueror, even in the church below, everlastingly sing the praises of him who has given him the victory? and does it not well become us his brethren, to listen with attention and faith to the declaration which he makes of the name of his Father and our Father, his God and our God, and to join with him in his eucharistic song? This is the exercise of heaven, and were we more habitually engaged in it, it would convert earth into the porch of paradise. It is a touching remark of the inspired author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in reference to the subject we have been adverting to, "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." These words are a very striking, though indirect proof of the Divine dignity of our Lord and Saviour. For a mere man, a partaker of human nature in its present corrupted state, to be ashamed to call his fellow man brother, however dignified might be the station he occupied, would be intolerable haughtiness. — But it is a condescension in Him to call us brethren. Well might he be backward to own such a relation to us — a perfectly holy man, as he was, might be ashamed to call guilty, depraved men, brethren. People are commonly shy in acknowledging their relationship to those, who have incurred the displeasure of government, lest they should be involved in difficulties and disgrace. But though He knew full well that the acknowledgment of such a relation to us, traitors, should involve him in a serious responsibility, that he would be laid hold of as the "goel," the kinsman, redeemer, yet he is not ashamed to call us brethren. Persons possessed of high honours, or looking forward to them, are often ashamed to acknowledge connexion with the poor and mean; but He, the destined Lord of the universe, hesitates not to say to us, "I ascend to my Father and your Father." But it is the Divinity of his person which chiefly magnifies his condescension in calling us brethren. That the only begotten of God, that God over all, blessed for ever, should not be ashamed to call us dust and ashes, sinful dust and ashes, "brethren," is a mystery of condescension which eternity itself will but imperfectly disclose to the enlarged minds of the spirits of the just made perfect — and yet there is a sense in which we may safely say he has no reason to be ashamed, when he calls us brethren; in Heb. 11. it is said, God is not ashamed to be called his people's God, seeing he has prepared for them a city. — These words seem to imply, that if God had not prepared for his people a portion, worthy of himself, suitable to his infinite greatness and benignity, he would have been ashamed to have called himself his people's God. But the portion he has provided is altogether worthy of him, and therefore he is not ashamed to be called their God. There are persons who behave so unkindly to those related to them, they should be ashamed every time their relationship is mentioned. It is not so with our elder brother — He has acted the part of a kind brother: He humbled himself to the condition of his brethren, and will never rest till he raises them to a place with him on his throne. Surely we, whom he calls brethren, should not be ashamed to call him brother; if he is not ashamed of his relationship to us, we should not be ashamed of our relationship to Him; and yet, how often do we think and feel, and act as if ashamed of him. — In one point of view we may well be ashamed, for our conduct has often been any thing but brotherly to him — our behaviour to him has often been what no mere human fraternal affection would have tolerated; yet we can do nothing which can so offend as to distrust his love. —  When we have acted a part unworthy our relation, let us not turn away from him, for to whom can we go but to him: let us look to Jesus, and we shall see in his countenance what Peter saw, deep disapprobation, but tender pity, unutterable love, something that says, "Is this thy kindness to thy friend, return to me, for I have redeemed thee;" and in spirit we shall rush into his arms, and weep in his bosom.

Psalm 23.

This Psalm, like most other promises and prophecies in the Old Testament, is to be applied literally to the Jewish people, still "beloved for their Father's sake," and spiritually, to the Christian church. On examination we shall find Christ was also the Shepherd of the Old Testament; and it is in this character they wait for him, though they know it not. For proof of this a few texts will suffice, Jer. 23. 3, 4; Ezek. 34. 23, 24. Micah. 5. 2. This is yet to be fulfilled by him, born in Bethlehem Ephratah, when the chief Shepherd shall appear; therefore is the cry of Israel. Psalm 80. 1. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that feedest Jacob like a flock; thou that sittest between the cherubim, shine forth." "They shall lie down in green pastures," Isaiah, 49. 9, etc. also Jer. 31. 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 32. 36, 43. Observe how sovereignly he comes down with his mercies, not because of deservings, but necessities. This shall be for his name's sake, that it may not be polluted among the heathen, his name is in them. See Ezek. 20. 14, 22, 44, fulfilling the 3rd verse. Hosea 14. to end, Micah. 7. 8, 9. Take it literally, it is applied to the Jews, v. 18, 19. When the Shepherd shall shine forth, (Psalm 80.) then shall they feast in the midst of their enemies. Isaiah 25. 6, 8. But as applied spiritually to the believer, there is a peace and fulness of expression in this little sentence understood only by him. The whole remainder of the psalm is but a drawing out of this "I shall not want." In the unfolding we find, 1st, repose and refreshment. 2nd, restoring mercies and guidance. 3rd, peace in death. 4th, triumph and overflowing blessings. 5th, future confidence and eternal security either in life or death, spiritually or temporally, in prosperity or adversity, in time or eternity; for standing on the sure foundation of the former psalm, the suffering, resurrection, and promise of Christ, the believer can boldly say, "The Lord is my Shepherd." The believer shall not want, because his shepherd is the Lord. The believer shall not want, because the Lord is his Shepherd. His Shepherd is the All-sufficient, nothing can unite itself to Him, nothing mingle with Him — nothing add to His satisfying nature — nothing diminish from His fulness. His treasury of gifts has been dearly purchased when he has paid the uttermost farthing. When justice, who held the key of mercy, said enough; when by the blood of the covenant, the Father became debtor to his Son, the Father presented to him His church. Like the good shepherd he went forth into the regions of darkness to search his sheep, and seek them out; found her in the depth of hell, yet loved her there as he never loved before; (for his love gains utterance from his people's wants,) she, and only she, rose with him. The shepherd brought his sheep on his shoulder through the grave and gate of death triumphantly exclaiming, "O grave, where is thy victory?" The grain of wheat fallen into the ground died and brought forth-much fruit. The rolling away the stone from the door of the sepulchre was, as it were, the signal of the load of sin being rolled away which kept shut in his treasury of gifts. Neither is he ever weary of the wants of' his little flock; for each gift, each supply, is a declaration of the Father's satisfaction in the soul's travail of his beloved Son. Being united to him, quickened with him, his church cannot want, she has a right to use all his riches, her wealth is his riches in glory. With Him nothing can be withheld; eternal life is hers with the promise that all things shall be added, all He knows she wants. The Shepherd has learnt the wants of his sheep by experience, for He was himself led as a sheep to the slaughter. This expression being dictated by the Spirit, implies a promise, it is a full promise, when connected with his own words, I know my sheep. He was disciplined by most painful lessons into this knowledge; He subjugated himself to the wants of every sheep, every lamb of his fold, that he might be able to be touched with a feeling of their infirmities; therefore is the bleating of Messiah's sheep, I shall not want. Timid sheep, fear not want, fear not affliction, fear not pain, "fear not;" according to your want shall be your supply. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I trust in him. When the silly sheep cries to be kept from want, it may well be answered, ye know not what ye ask; it knows not of what it would rob itself, in the supply provided for that particular want. His flock in the midst of danger have no cause to fear. They have been taken hold of by Omnipotent love. My sheep, says Christ, "shall never perish," etc. "It is the Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom." All to be expected of a shepherd, shall be found in this Shepherd, who so loved as to lay down his life for his sheep. Have you a want, keep it not, carry it to him — it shall lie on the mercy-seat to be considered; in due time shall be written on it, "To be provided for." Have you a want for any dear to you, He has promised, you "shall not want." If your demand is not exactly answered, you shall receive something better — your demand shall be satisfied; his fulness is as much at your disposal as if in your own hands; He keeps it in himself, that every blessing may be received richly doubled —  Moses said to the children of Israel in the wilderness, "The Lord thy God knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness these forty years, the Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing" — your wants are fathomless, but your help infinite, "None but God can tell the uttermost a God can do;" you who are the sheep of his pasture, give him thanks and show forth his praise, by venturing on this confidence; there is no want to his flock — "The young lion may lack and suffer hunger," but the good Shepherd's helpless foolish sheep shall not want any good thing. He is their shield against every foe, He is their guide in every danger, no good thing can be withheld —  grace now, glory hereafter. But let us proceed to see how the Spirit unfolds these words; how his sheep shall go from strength to strength, till they appear before God in Zion. In the 2nd verse we find they possess food, drink, repose, and refreshment. What is the pasture of the soul, is it not the bread of life? we see here the pasture is the sheep's repose — Christ is the soul's rest, He is a field of promise; therefore, as expressed in the Canticles, this bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloes, cinnamon; waters of refreshment flow in this pasture, even the "pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;" "the streams whereof make glad the city of God." There shall be in you, says Christ, "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." This, adds the apostle, "spake He of the Spirit, which those who believe in him should receive." Sheep lying in a green pasture, on a hot summer's day, near a clear flowing stream, is ever a refreshing sight. The believer who rests in Christ shall drink largely waters, and refreshment, and consolation from the Comforter, even in the desert. There is a sweet quietness expressed in this verse, Christ's flock shall not eat in haste, as if in dread of the devourer — "He that believeth," the Scripture says, "shall not make haste." "When He giveth quietness, who then shall give trouble?" enemies may surround, but the Shepherd is near; enemies may be in ambushment, but the Shepherd is on the watch. — It is He makes lie down, it is He leads by still waters. But were his sheep only to recount the repose and refreshment, they would leave half untold their donation of bliss. No, the believer can sing of judgment as well as mercy, verse 3 — for He reckons it among his chiefest blessings, that it has to him never yet been said, let him alone. There was hope for Israel, while God "brought down their heart through heaviness," for "then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble." There was hope while He smote, for then they sought him, and remembered "that God was their rock, and the High God their Redeemer." But the sorest word ever sent to Israel was, "Why should ye be stricken any more, ye will revolt more and more?" Christ's sheep, still silly sheep, left to themselves will still stray; but from afar they cry, whatsoever the cost, seek thy servant, for I forget thee not. — Believer, has He not restored your soul again and again? When you have turned aside, has not love rebuked and chastened? Has He not been unwearied in preserving your faith? — Though Satan has been permitted to sift, has his grain of wheat fallen to the ground? —  Though cast into the furnace, has not the Refiner sat over his treasure? — When sin separates between you and him, when idols scatter your thoughts here and there, is He not bent on restoring? Does He not yearn over his Ephraim? Sometimes He almost breaks the heart with a look, as He gave Peter; sometimes He overcomes by passing by iniquities; sometimes by feeding with the rod and judgments. Rest assured He will restore, till his sheep, in the spirit of him who was dumb before his shearers, can say, "Any thing with thy smile, any thing but thy frown."...

But, alas! how slow are his sheep to learn in their extremities not to turn from, but to flee to him, to hide them, and to be led in the way of righteousness. — "Cause me," says the Psalmist, "to know the way wherein I should walk; teach me to do thy will; lead me into the land of uprightness." Christ says, "I am the way." The apostle says, "As ye have received Christ, so walk ye in him." It is Satan's constant aim to lead from the simplicity which is in Christ. — It is the Shepherd's to restore, to lead in that path, blessed thought! The Shepherd leads, though often by paths we know not, till he brings into the path of righteousness, for he has trod the path of faith before us. The good shepherd, as the gospel of John says, goes before his sheep, meets the enemy first; they follow in his footsteps, therefore must they expect a thorny, though a trodden path; but their Shepherd is with them — His presence makes darkness light; crooked things straight. — The silly sheep are only wise in giving themselves up to his guidance, and in following whithersoever he leads. He will cause to walk in a straight way wherein none shall stumble to hurt, for he rejoices over his people to do them good. If they fall He lifts them up; if they sit in darkness, it is enough, He is near; He pleads their cause; He executes judgment for them; He will bring them forth to the light, and they shall behold his righteousness. What they know not now, they shall know hereafter; all their sin shall be cast into the sea, as a great stone to be found no more. He delighteth in mercy, and will not leave till he has satisfied, yea, satiated the hungry soul with goodness. His glory is bound up in their bundle of life "His name is in it." For thy name's sake, says David, lead me and guide me. — Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. Deliver us, purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. Therefore is the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment.

But more — plenty, security and triumph are also expressed in the 5th verse. Anointed is frequently read "making fat," as the original word in this place may be translated; and is so in the margin, implying cheerfulness, strength or gladness. It is also used as well-looking, prosperity, Psalm 22. 29, a sign of health and peace of mind, so as to cause to flourish: this is expressed in feeding among enemies. This spiritual feast cheers, gladdens, makes the heart run over with joy, makes the soul flourish The anointing of God is poured over, shed abroad in the heart, is an unction which enriches. This is the oil which ran down Aaron's beard, and makes glad the countenance. What is it which thus enriches and fattens the soul? Feasting, drinking abundantly of the cup prepared of the Lord. David says in another psalm, "The Lord is the portion of my cup," therefore it is this cup which runs over with blessings, Christ being the portion. We find in it many precious ingredients. — His life — "Because I live, ye shall live also." His love — "As the Father loveth me, so have I loved you". His friendship — "I have called you friends." His wisdom — "Made to us wisdom." His righteousness — "Made to us righteousness." His fulness — "All that I have is thine." His sorrows — "If the world hate me, they will also hate you." His strength — "My strength is perfect in weakness." His peace — "My peace I leave with you." His joy — "These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain with you, and your joy might be full." This is the present portion presented in the believer's cup of blessedness; one only ingredient is kept back. — Absolute rest. "That if love draw not, restlessness may toss into his breast." Having a life which none can touch, his sheep feed in the midst of enemies, "go in and out, and find pasture." The believer's security in the midst of enemies is no presumption, for it rests not with himself, but in the covenant-engagements of the Trinity; we have this forcibly demonstrated, John, 6. 37-40. It is well to study these four verses; they combine all doctrine; election; — the willingness and irresistible power of the Son, in saving all those elected of the Father — calling; — perseverance through faith; called and preserved, in order to be raised at the last day. All this, through grace, not merit, and to the end of glorifying God-man. The Father gives a people to be saved, wills it. The Son comes down from heaven for the express purpose of accomplishing this will; promises, and his word is truth, in no wise to cast out any, to lose nothing committed to him, to raise up all such at the last day, "and I will raise him up at the last day." The Spirit prepares these vessels of mercy for this end — and how? By bringing them to Christ; taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto them, so that their eyes being opened to his loveliness, they embrace, and are persuaded of the truth as it is in Jesus, and in the midst of the world, flesh, and devil, the Spirit preserves through this belief. The Father gives his elect to the Son to save; the Son gives this his "Father's gift" to the Spirit to educate, by leading back to Christ; he glorifies not himself. Christ keeps, by casting them in supplication on the Father; "Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me." Each person in the Godhead thus becomes debtor to the other, in consummating the bliss of God's chosen people. We must follow the believer into all the intricacies of his experience, before we can understand the full meaning of the word no wise, how impossible to weary or tire out his love by all our backsliding and ingratitude; "no wise" and "uttermost" are two words the believer takes his life to learn; not one has ever outstretched his uttermost, or wearied out his no wise. The examples of his word, as well as truth of his oath establish this, notwithstanding appearances and feelings; the soul of the believer is never even retarded in its progress; every event, and every state, as surely forwards its course, as years, months, and days, bring on eternity. Remember it is the Father's will, not against his will, that his people should be saved; so undeniably his will, that when nothing else would do, it pleased the Lord to bruise his own Son, and put him to grief, that his soul making an offering for sin, the pleasure of the Lord might prosper in his hand. In these four verses we also find the mark of his sheep, the only mark required: "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." No ifs, no buts, no ands, no peradventures. The covenant is "ordered in all things and sure," for the glory of the Eternal has interwoven itself into the safety of his elect people. Thus, in the midst of enemies may his people triumph, "man's extremity is God's opportunity", — the greater our want, the deeper we shall drink into this cup of consolation, for you "shall not want." He laid up help for each, therefore he can say to every sheep ye "shall not want." There is not only enough, but overflowing. Enemies that surround wonder! To them it is a secret, often they wish to worry the Lord's little flock, but every attempt is baffled — they cannot find out the believer's peace — some strive with cutting words as with a sword to wound — but he hides in his pavilion from the strife of tongues — words aimed at him, pass him by, reach the upper sky, pierce the Shepherd, who receives each into his bosom, to be answered for. "Saul, Saul," cried Jesus from heaven, "why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest." "He that toucheth thee, toucheth the apple of mine eye." Lions roar around, wolves prowl about — but his sheep feast quietly, are strengthened and refreshed with the cup of salvation; their joy, no man taketh from them; their cup runneth over; because supplied from on high, from him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, while he cries, drink, yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved. This blessed flock have not only present happiness, but the experience of present promises gives security for future ones — "I am come," says the good Shepherd, "that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly" — joy in sorrow is their present promised lot, therefore is the sustaining joy of hope a pledge of the satisfying fulness of sight. The Lord's supper when rightly observed is a feast in the midst of enemies, so it was to the disciples in the midst of persecution. It expressed in action every doctrine of the gospel, and believed, brings corresponding joy. I would also observe from this verse, security is the open door to every blessing. If not secure, in the midst of enemies, we can neither be refreshed, invigorated, or nourished by our feast — constant terror will cause leanness of spirit — faith void of security, (if such can be called faith) opens but a crevice of the door — life may be communicated through this open crevice, but security of faith, or faith stripped of self-righteousness, throws it open, so that his gifts rush to overflowing into the believer's soul.

Verse 4. — The shadow of death seems to express that the gloomy darkness of hell overcasts it. Job, speaking of the grave, calls it "the land of darkness and the shadow of death — a land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadows of death without any order, where the light is as darkness." Luke, speaking of spiritual darkness, represents it as sitting in the shadow of death. We have each to face death. There is an honesty in that monster's countenance, which makes him the king of terrors to the ungodly, but infuses a holy confidence into the believer, and leaves in him such assurance of being safely delivered up, that his thoughts arc released from contemplating death, to the joyful anticipation of meeting his Beloved. Do you ever realize what will be your feelings in passing through that vail which separates from the unknown: when the curtain shall have dropped on all below, and all around is reality? Much is contained in these words, Thou art with me. This is the rainbow of light thrown across the valley, for there is no need of sun or moon, where covenant love illumines; but we must find His presence superior to any joy here, if we wish to find it superior to any terror there. Like Enoch, we must walk with God here, if we desire Him to walk with us there. We must find him all, in the midst of all, if we would find him sufficient, when possessed of nothing. We are in a world in which we know not what a day may bring forth; we may have to pass through rivers of tears, furnaces of temptation, or it may be only waters of perplexity and cares. Be it what it may, he says to the children, "Fear not, I am with thee: when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, thy Saviour." True, this promise is given to the Jews, but the dogs may eat of the crumbs that fall from the table; for he has redeemed us, he has called us by name, we arc his. Not Ethiopia, not Egypt, but his own Son has he given; he has created his people for his glory. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble," says David, "thou wilt revive me, thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me." God is in the generation of the righteous. The Lord said to Jeremiah, "Be not afraid, but speak; hold not thy peace, for I am with thee." So said he, on leaving his apostles, "I am with you always, even to the end." His name is "Emmanuel, God with us." Do you know the sweetness, the security, the strength, of "Thou art with me?" When anticipating the solemn hour of death, when the soul is ready to halt and ask, how shall it then be? can you turn in soul-affection to your God and say, "There's nothing in death to harm me, while thy love is left to me?" Can you say, "O death, where is thy sting?" It is said, when a bee has left its sting in any one, it has no more power to hurt: death has left its sting in the humanity of Christ, and has no more power to harm his child. Christ's victory over the grave is his people's. "At that moment I am with you," whispers Christ, "the same arm you have proved strong and faithful all the way up through the wilderness, which has never failed, though you have been often forced to lean on it all your weakness." "On this arm," answers the believer, "I feel at home, with soul confidence, I repose on my Beloved, for he has supported through so many difficulties, from the contemplation of which I shuddered. He has carried over so many depths, that I know his arm to be an arm of love." How can that be dark, in which God's child is to have the accomplishment of the longing desire of his life; how can it be dark, to come in contact with the light of life? It is His rod, His staff, therefore they comfort. Prove him — prove him now, believer; it is your privilege to do so. It will be precious to him to support your weakness; prove that when weak, then are you strong; that you may be secure, His strength shall be perfected in your perfect weakness. Omnipotent love must fail before one of His sheep can perish; for, says Christ, "none shall pluck my sheep out of my hand," "I and my Father are one;" therefore we may boldly say, "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."

But in the last verse, is put forth another effort of faith, not only in death, but through life: surely, says the believer, "goodness and mercy shall follow," even as water from the smitten rock followed Israel all through the wilderness. There is no promise of being delivered from this or that terrible event; but still into every want, every sin, goodness and mercy shall follow. When he falls, it shall be but into the arms of mercy. "I shall not greatly fall," says the Psalmist, "for the Lord upholdeth with his hands, mercy embraceth on every side." However afflicted, the child of God can say, goodness and mercy have pursued, goodness and mercy sought me out — goodness and mercy afflicted —  goodness and mercy sustained — goodness and mercy shall follow into my Father's house . Here is the climax of it all, to "dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Christ has said, "in my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you." The beauty and accommodation of that house shall be according to His means, His taste, our necessities. When we are about to visit a person's house, our expectations correspond with our knowledge of the proprietor; when we receive a friend to our house, it is customary to give ourselves to please them, our aim is their profit and pleasure, all the pleasure our house affords is brought forth for that end. So in our Father's house, we shall have intercourse with the owner, may I say, He will give himself to our happiness. Oh! what powers are in Him when he sets about blessing; when his aim is to bless, he blesses like a God; all that his house affords shall be brought forth, while the mind of the Great Original, as an unfathomable mine of wealth, shall be an ever-constant, ever-new delight. There is a vast difference in his visits to us here, and our being received into his habitation to go no more out. "In his presence is fulness of joy, at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore." This is what we cannot conceive; while in the flesh, joy destroys itself, immediately intoxicates; so frothy is the mind, it could not bear much even of spiritual joy. "The breath of heaven might swell the sails to inflation, and endanger the vessel, did not our Captain add the ballast of trials to steady her, and cause her to go on her way softly and with security." But when we shall behold his face in righteousness, when we shall wake up after his likeness, we shall be satisfied. Oh! what a burst of truth shall then rush upon the mind, when we shall be like our elder Brother, full of grace and truth; even in the believer, now falsehood is interwoven; never till then, shall the creature find in the creature a rose without a thorn. When the door shuts in the children with their Father, the enemy in vain shall knock; sighing even shall flee away. What a thought for his children! We shall be really there! as certainly as that now we are sitting here, we shall "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God." What manner of persons ought we to be? Shall we all meet in our Father's house? before we again meet, we may have all experienced what it is to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. Shall we all be able to say, goodness and mercy followed? What a thing to be able to face such a world, with "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me," etc. even till mortality is swallowed up of life.

If often, often, while girded with sackcloth, mourning has been turned into dancing, what shall it be when the mourner in Zion shall put off sackcloth, and shall be girded with gladness? Do you desire a map of the way to your Father's house? Take this little psalm; He presents you with this picture of the good Shepherd with his sheep. Faith believes all to be goodness and mercy, when we cannot see — "we walk by faith, not by sight."

The End.

Faithful Sayings

Faithful Sayings

being a reprint of some of the writings of

Colonel Sydney Long Jacob, R.E., C.I.E. (1845-1911)

and a selection from notes taken of addresses given by him

together with a short sketch of his Life

London: The Central Bible Truth Depot, 12 Paternoster Row, E.C.

India: Walter Saunders, Bible Truth Depot, Landour, Mussoorie, U.P.

Contents

Part 1 (This file)

Preface

Biographical outline

Apples of Gold

Eternal Life (Poetry)

Part 2 Addresses

The Love of God

The Spirit Characteristically

The Importance of Present Blessing

Prophecy and the Day Star

God's Delight in Blessing

The House of God

Freedom

Rich and Poor

Joy

The Marks of a True Teacher Sent from God

Part 3. Collected Writings

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?

Preface

At the earnest request of many, who knew and loved my father, and who have been encouraged and strengthened by the ministry, which God was pleased to give him, some of his writings have been collected and reprinted in this volume, together with a short sketch of his life written by one intimately acquainted with him in later years and greatly beloved.

The chapter headed "Apples of Gold," written also by an old friend, is reprinted here by kind permission as representative of the feelings of many, who had the privilege of knowing my father.

Suffice it to say that it is desired by this means in some small measure the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be magnified. Expression is given to this desire by the pen of the Apostle Peter in the precious words of the Holy Scriptures:

"I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance."

And

"Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance."

Look not on the servant, but on his Lord and Master, and happy, indeed, will be his portion if

it remains his privilege, though dead yet to speak, and so to stand continually as a sign-post on the road pointing the way to the true and only Source and Fountain of Life and Light until the day dawn and the shadows flee away.

To the tender mercy of our God is this volume humbly committed with the desire that His blessing may rest upon it.

A. Jacob.

Biographical Outline

In issuing the following selections from the ministry of the late Col. Jacob, it is thought that a brief sketch of this beloved servant's life will be interesting to the reader.

The materials for this sketch are largely of his own gathering, being taken from a booklet which he published when retiring from Government service in the year I goo. A few other details have, however, come to hand, and, of course, the particulars of the last ten years of his life are altogether independent of that aid.

Sydney Long Jacob was the son of the then Capt. Jacob, of the Bombay army, and was born in July, 1845, at Ahmednagar, in India. With others of the family, he was sent to England in 1851, when quite a child, and placed in the care of relatives, who, after a short interval, took their young charges to Lyme Regis, in Dorset, where the eldest three children went to school. After a few years Sydney, the subject of this memoir, in company with his elder brother, was transferred to a school at St. Albans, and then to one at Taunton.

Later on, in 1858, Capt. and Mrs. Jacob left India, and settled in England. Their son was thus able to live once more under the home roof at Bath, attending Lansdowne College as a day scholar. The head master was a clergyman, and with him young Jacob soon became a favourite. Already he showed signs of that energy and remarkable intellectual ability, which distinguished him in after life. Already, too, it would seem that some thoughts other than those of the hour presented themselves at times to his mind, but in the one thing needful the head master was himself deficient, and could give him no help.

At the age of fifteen he was confirmed. He records that he was "a good deal awed at the Confirmation service and made many mental resolutions" of future good conduct.

Pre-eminence soon marked him, and, as after-events proved, consistently abode with him. Both in the schoolroom and the playground he became acknowledged leader, so that it is not surprising to be told that, two years later, in 1862, he went up to Woolwich, there to be initiated into the early stages of what was to prove his secular career.

Of his opening experiences at Woolwich we may best let him speak in his own words:

"The Royal Academy was not a pleasant place for the newly joined, as one great amusement of the older cadets was to get as much fun as possible out of the last joined, by playing all kinds of tricks on them, often in very rough and unpleasant ways. It was therefore a very pleasant surprise when a senior cadet and corporal came up to me one day, and spoke to me in a friendly manner, saying I might look on him as a friend. He ended by asking me to go to a meeting held by the Chaplain that evening. I was so touched by his friendliness that I promised to go and went. I do not think that there was anything in what was said of a character to help me, but, feeling rather homeless and lonely, my heart was tender, and I made up my mind to turn to God, and though I was in gross darkness, and did not in the least understand the heart and mind of God, I believe God had touched my heart and was drawing me to Himself. . . .

From that night I began to pray again, for I had given up the prayers taught me in childhood, and again began to read the neglected Bible. I tried hard to be good, thinking that when I was changed God would have mercy upon me, but I found that sin was too strong for me. I cried to God for help, but I seemed only to grow worse and more powerless, and sin had dominion over me, though before men I had an unblemished reputation. Sometimes I thought I had not prayed enough, sometimes that I did not read my Bible enough, and so on, but nothing did me any good. Sometimes I would drop the effort in despair, or sometimes forget all in worldliness, but then the desire would revive again."

As we read this fragment of autobiography may we not say in the words of Scripture, "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man."

But his spiritual struggles did not diminish the young cadet's keenness in his profession, nor his diligence and ability in mastering it. Faithful to the promise of his schooldays he became the leading cadet at Woolwich, won the Pollock Gold Medal, the Sword of Honour for good conduct, and many other prizes, eventually passing out not only first, but nearly four thousand marks ahead of the second on the list. As captain also of the football team, and winner of the cup for racquets, he showed that his religious exercises were neither the puerilities of a fool, nor the dreams of a morbid recluse.

He obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers in February, 1866, and proceeded to Chatham for his two years' course. There he soon found out the Christian officers, both senior and junior, and attended the meetings held in each other's rooms for reading the Scriptures. But his struggles continued; he seemed to get further and further from the object of his desires until he became quite hopeless. For a whole year this was his unhappy experience; discouraged and baffled in all his efforts to attain real happiness, it seemed that he must give all up and make himself as happy as he could in worldly ways.

"The darkest hour is just before the dawn," and the dawn of a brighter day for our beloved friend was just about to break after this night of sadness and growing darkness. We will again let him tell his own tale:

". . . One evening in January, 1867, when sitting in my room by my fireside, and thinking sadly of these things, suddenly it came to me, Why, what a fool you are, you are trying to do what no man has done or can do, viz.: to make yourself good, in hopes that God will accept you do you not know that Christ died for sinners, yea for sinners?

In a moment the gloom was gone. I knew that all was done. I had nothing to do, for my sinfulness was my claim, all else was effected by Christ on my behalf when He died on the Cross and then rose from the dead. I believed, my sins were forgiven, the judgment of God had passed for me in the death of Christ. I was justified by faith. I had peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ. I had the present favour of God for my portion, and rejoiced in the hope of the glory of God. What a change, what joy, what blessedness, and in a moment this had transpired. Outwardly nothing had changed, but in reality all was changed, for the light of God's love had broken in upon me, and I knew that God was for me. . . ."

Such was dear Colonel Jacob's "conversion," and for a time his joy and blessing were great. Both at Chatham and afterwards at Plymouth and Weston-Super-Mare, he entered heartily and decidedly into Christian work, finding his happiness in fellowship with other earnest Christians. Whenever he went home, too, he used to read the Scriptures with his brothers and sisters, and speak to them about the things of God, and his friends remember how at once he sought to give up what was not according to God's will. While engaged on fortification work at Steep Holme, an island in the Bristol Channel, he asked guidance from the Lord as to what he should do, and then used to go to that little island from Saturdays to Mondays in order to hold services for the men engaged on the works.

During the year 1868, however, the joy of his conversion appears to have waned somewhat, and he tells us he was "more often overcome than before by sin." But before proceeding to relate his further spiritual experiences it may be well here to summarise briefly his secular career, as the reader will then be able to follow more intelligently what is subsequently narrated.

At the latter end of 1868 he sailed for India, and was posted to the Public Works Department, first in Poona, then in Bombay, and afterwards in the Punjab. There he was transferred to the Irrigation Department, and in this branch of the Service, save for the last three years, he spent the rest of his official career. In due course he had charge of each of the five circles, or districts, into which the Irrigation Department at that time was divided. He also saw service in the Afghan War, 1879-80, acting as Field-Engineer in the Khyber Pass. In 1897 he became Chief Engineer and Secretary to Government in the Buildings and Roads Branch of the Public Works Department, Punjab, remaining in this position until his retirement in July, 1900, occasioned by his having reached the age limit.

As to his commanding ability, the following Indian Press reference where, of course, his work is best known, will be read with interest. After speaking of the promise of his early years it proceeds:

"Human nature is ever full of contradictions: and modest and retiring as Col. Jacob always was as far as his own merits were concerned, no officer was ever more vigorous and forceful and pushing in official policy.

A born engineer, a natural and skilled mathematician, a writer, who expressed himself with fluency in trenchant sentences conveying no uncertain meaning: a worker of extraordinary rapidity and decision of mind, he will be remembered for the farsightedness of his views, and the courage with which he cut straight to the heart of any question before him."

Again, at the time when the South-East Punjab was visited by its greatest famine, it was Col. Jacob who directed the relief operations of that time, and how ably he did so is shown by the remarks of the Lieutenant-Governor in his review:

"he [Col. Jacob] devoted signal zeal, ability, and energy to the organisation of relief works. He was indefatigable in his attention to the control of the works, and his direction of them was marked by deep sympathy with the distressed, as well as by care for the interests of the State."

In 1869 he was married, at Bombay, to Elizabeth Petronella Selby, a lady who proved a true helpmeet in the years that followed, and whose sympathy and hearty co-operation with her husband in the Lord's service only ceased with her life. She always accompanied him in his yearly visits to India after his retirement, and shared with him, too, the labour and discomforts of the long journeys to out-of-the-way places, undertaken for the help of native Christians. During one of these yearly visits she was taken ill, and fell asleep in Jesus at the house of her married daughter at Cawnpore, January 17th, 1910.

Returning now to the spiritual exercises which Col. Jacob passed through in his earlier years, we have seen that towards the end of the year 1868 his joy appeared to wane. His transference to India did not mend matters in this respect. He did not get on as a Christian, but slowly drifted backwards, struggling hard, yet losing ground. The things of this life, he records, became entwined round his soul, and he did not see the truth of the words,

"The flesh profiteth nothing." As to this period of his life he says

"I was making the very same mistake in the pursuit of holiness that I did before in the pursuit of forgiveness and justification: that is, I was seeking to do my best with Christ's help, instead of letting Him do the whole in complete dependence. Thus I went back and back, got unhappy, sought pleasure in the world, and finally gave up prayer, and tried to forget the things of eternity by enjoying the things of time: but a child of God cannot get happiness thus, and I was really miserable."

This experience of religious drift and deterioration was a long as well as a sad one. It would seem that it lasted until 1880, at the beginning of which year he was transferred, in his official duties, to Ferozepur, and there came in contact with several Christian men. But it was not to men that he was to be indebted for his full deliverance; like his conversion, this was to be effected, independently of human instruments, by the power of the Spirit of God. In later years Col. Jacob was in the habit of referring to the incident about to be narrated as the time when he came into full spiritual liberty. Once, when conversing with the writer, he asked, somewhat abruptly, "Have you received the second blessing?" The reply took the form of a look indicating doubt, and, possibly, a little shyness of a phrase connected with a particular school of Christian thought. "Well, call it what you will," said he, and then he went on to refer to that FACT "over twenty years ago," which had left such a permanent mark on his own spiritual life. This is how he describes what took place at Ferozepur at the time referred to (1880 or 1881):

"I was conscious that God was working with me, and became more unhappy. I had been in Ferozepur about a year when one day I was reading a sermon out loud. I have no notion what it was about, but I read these verses, "What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and desireth conditions of peace" (Luke 14: 31, 32). The thought rushed irresistibly into my mind — "God has not twenty thousand, but myriads of myriads. I have not ten thousand, but am one poor sinful person alone. I must just surrender at discretion, and cast myself on His mercy." In a moment it was done, even while my voice faltered not in reading, and I knew I was restored and brought into favour. On what ground? The ground of my exceeding sinfulness, and God's exceeding grace, in virtue of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The insuperable difficulties were no longer insuperable, the obstacles, which seemed like great mountains barring my path, melted away, the seemingly impossible became possible."

Did this happiness pass away? Listen to our brother's own testimony:

"I was free, and since then my life for more than twenty years has been a very happy one, though many doubtless think that they would be miserable, if they led such a life, but this is only because of unbelief."

It will be readily understood that if, when he was not yet in Christian liberty, his zeal and energy in the Lord's service were marked features of his character, these distinguished him no less after the emancipating experience which has just been narrated. Wherever his official duties carried him there also was to him a sphere for witnessing for his Saviour and Lord, and for helping spiritually those around him. For many a year he always had a little service in camp on Sunday afternoons, attended, as a rule, by all the officers, both those over as well as those under him. In the same way he held meetings for the natives, and, with respect to these, it was only two or three years ago that our brother was much cheered by a young native, the grandson of one of the servants, telling him that he had listened to his addresses as a boy, the truth of them had since come home to him, he had come to Christ, and had been baptised (a momentous act for an Indian). He appeared to be leading a consistent Christian life. Col. Jacob maintained, too, the wholesome custom of family prayers, whether in station or in camp, thus creating an atmosphere of piety in the daily round seldom found under similar circumstances.

That there was opposition goes without saying, but Col. Jacob has himself stated that it was very little, and, on the part of the Government, none at all. On the other hand, the life of practical godliness, which he led, unostentatious but real, won for him the respect of his associates. This, coupled, as it was, with an honest desire, and active endeavour to further the welfare of others, which is inseparable from true piety, produced for him feelings of esteem and affection on the part of the men in his department, which were indicated by the letters he received when the time came for his retirement.

Reference may well be made here to another field of service in which Col. Jacob actively engaged. This was the native element in India. Not only were Europeans sought and ministered to in spiritual things; the Indians themselves also found in our brother a sincere friend and active helper. He laid himself out very much on their behalf. He knew several Hindustani dialects and spoke them with the greatest ease and fluency. In fact, he has been known at morning readings to pray in Hindustani without himself being aware that he was doing so! He translated a great many hymns, and also composed many more, the hymn-book now used in some native Indian meetings being the result of his labours. He also wrote several books and tracts in the vernacular. But, above and beyond all this, he zealously mixed with all classes of Indians, speaking with them face to face, thus acquiring first hand an intimate knowledge of the native character and standpoint, and he was thereby able, by the grace of God, and his clear, quick brain, to meet the more intricate questions and difficulties of the educated native gentlemen, and then to open up the way to a simple unfolding of the gospel.

The severance of Col. Jacob's official connection with India did not weaken his interest in the spiritual needs of that vast country. He made a practice of visiting it each year, and spending some months in travelling about amongst the various centres where meetings could be held, or intercourse with individuals profitably carried on. This work proved to be most arduous, and our beloved brother did not spare himself wherever, as it appeared to him, there was a need or an opportunity for presenting Christ. On the many voyages to and fro, which were thus necessitated, he had daily Bible readings on board ship, as well as individual talks with his fellow-travellers, etc.

Another work in which Col. Jacob was keenly interested was the little famine colony at Panahpur, in the north of India. Needless to say, as he was chiefly responsible for its establishment, so he watched over it with constant care, devoting his engineering skill to the reclamation and irrigation of the land, and exercising loving supervision over the spiritual welfare of the boys and girls, whom he had rescued in the first instance from death by famine, and who are now growing up to manhood and womanhood. He has not lived to see the complete carrying out of the scheme he originally formulated, but during his lifetime he was careful to associate others with himself in the general oversight, and in their hands, with God's blessing, it is hoped that the Colony will eventually prove self-supporting.

During the ten years, which have elapsed since Col, Jacob retired from the service of the Crown, he has made his home at Highbury, and has engaged in the work of the ministry at various places in London and in the provinces. Himself strongly imbued with the missionary spirit, and with no small amount of practical missionary experience, his house has been a centre where homecomers from the mission field have ever found a ready welcome, and where they have found, too, valuable help and advice derived from his own ripe experience.

In addition to his public ministry, our brother will be gratefully remembered by many, who had the privilege of being visited by him in their own homes. Anxious to turn all forms of service to account, he diligently practised this one, and always having the Lord's things before him, rather than ordinary topics of conversation, he afforded much instruction and comfort in these face-to-face talks. He would almost invariably conclude such visits with prayer, and many have testified since his departure that it is these prayers, which stand out in their memories as specially distinguishing his personal intercourse with them.

In January, 1911, Col. Jacob left Cawnpore on a long missionary tour. He then appeared in his usual health. The journey and accompanying experiences proved unusually trying, and when he arrived at Yercand, a hill station in the south of India, he was found to be suffering from an overstrain of the heart, and complete rest was ordered. After a week's stay the journey was continued to Coimbatore, where two meetings were held, and to Ootacamund, where he was only equal to holding a few drawing-room meetings. Then he turned his face homewards, travelling to Bombay via Coimbatore and Bangalore. He embarked for England, under the care of relatives, on March 27th, and arrived safely in this country on April 12th. But his work was done; the Lord had need of His faithful servant, and after a lingering illness, borne with the same quietness of spirit as that, which had for so long characterised him, he was "put to sleep by Jesus" on July 28th, 1911.

This brief sketch of Col, Jacob's life would be indeed incomplete, if no mention were made of the lowly spirit, which consistently animated him. This was a distinguishing trait of his character. It is seldom that such a complete absence of all pretension, such readiness to give way on purely personal matters, such an entire laying out of one's self for the welfare of others are found united with such natural energy, and commanding mental ability. We refer particularly to the last ten years of his life when, possibly, this Christian grace had become habitual through the maturing and ripening of his character under prolonged spiritual influences. Be that as it may, the spirit of meekness and gentleness (that "fruit of the Spirit," Gal. 5: 22, 23) will always be associated with Col. Jacob in the minds of those, who knew him, and will constitute a precious memory, which we trust will yet bear more fruit to the Lord's glory in those, who seek to profit by his example.

As an instance of this lowliness of spirit, the following incident, which occurred during his last illness, may be narrated. He was exceedingly fond of the English collection of hymns composed by Tersteegen, Suso, and others, and often quoted them. One day, as he lay upon his death-bed, he asked his daughter to fetch the volume, and to read to him the poem entitled "The Border of His Sanctuary,"* commencing with the last part of the sixth verse:

"Shame — that all that desert journey

Nothing more could prove

Than the marvels of His patience,

How divine His love.

"Tale of weakness, sin, and folly,

Tale of wandering feet —

Tale of strength, and grace, and wisdom,

Victory complete.

Sin and death and Satan trodden

'Neath those feet at length,

In the glory of HIS triumph

Greatness of His strength."

{*The whole poem should be read to properly enter into our brother's feelings.}

Col. Jacob here said, referring to his past service, "This is my side." Then he continued by quoting from memory the first part of the sixth verse:

"Not our sorrow we remember,

All is lost in bliss —

But our shame gives deeper sweetness

To the Father's kiss."

We may conclude this brief outline of Col. Jacob's life by repeating the substance of an address given in Abney Park Cemetery on July 31st, 1911, when the body of our beloved brother was committed to the grave. The incidents recorded form a striking illustration of his habit, his readiness to make every circumstance serve as an occasion for speaking a word for his Master, and at the same time they may constitute an appeal to us (though he himself has gone from our midst), which he would desire should be ever present to our hearts.

This is what was said, after a few introductory remarks:

. . . As I looked into the grave just now, my thoughts were carried back about twenty-five years, when our brother had a very serious illness in India. During his convalescence he wrote me a letter, the spirit of which made a mark on my soul then, and I pray God that it may never leave me. That letter seemed to come from one, who had been to the gates of the grave, to whom the Lord had given "a fresh lease of life," as we say; and who had come back with a firm determination to spend that restored life entirely for Christ. How faithfully he fulfilled that determination is well known to all, especially those, who knew him in India, where Christianity has to be lived under adverse circumstances, which are unknown in this privileged country. I often think it is easy to sit at home, at a comfortable fireside, and legislate as to how the Lord's servants should carry on their service; but did we know the vicissitudes of their service, we would pray for them more, and criticise them less.

One sentence in that letter has helped me often during the past twenty-five years; and it is that sentence, which I specially wish to pass on to my YOUNGER brethren. It ran thus:

"Soon every opportunity of following and serving a rejected Christ will have passed and gone for ever. Oh! that, while we have the opportunity, we might seize it, and use it for His glory, who loved us, and gave Himself for us."

His opportunity has passed, and gone for ever. How well he used it we can testify with deep thankfulness to God. Yours and mine remain. The question is — What are we going to do with it? Are we going to use the remainder of our very short lives for His glory, who loved us, and gave Himself for us?

This carries me on to about twenty-five years later — a few months ago, when I had the privilege of entertaining our beloved brother at my house. On the morning of his departure he stood with his Bible clasped to his breast with both hands, and after looking at me intently for a moment or so, he said, in his usual blunt style:

"How old are you?"

"Close on fifty," was my reply.

"Well," he continued, to look at you, humanly speaking, you have about twenty-five years to live, what are you going to do with them?"

Yes! that is the question. What are we going to do with those few short years during which the Lord may leave us down here, should He tarry?

As I look into this open grave the words in that letter seem to come home with greater power than ever to my soul. I think of the twenty-five years during which he himself carried out, in a life of devotedness to Christ, the desire he so beautifully expressed in that sentence. I pass it on to my younger brethren with the earnest prayer that it may be made, through God's grace, even a greater blessing to their souls than it has been to mine.

"Soon every opportunity of following and serving a rejected Christ will have passed and gone for ever. Oh! that, while we have the opportunity, we may seize it and use it for His glory, who loved us, and gave Himself for us."

Apples of Gold

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

Prov. 25: 11.

In the following notes I have wished to recall some of dear Col. Jacob's words, in the hope that, with the Lord's gracious blessing, they may bring to some other heart a little of the light and gladness they have been to my own. The verse above seems just to describe them; they were indeed fitly spoken, spoken in season, and how good they were! It is not difficult to repeat his words, many of them long treasured, but I am sadly conscious how little I can give the impression of his spirit, or of the wonderful grace of his lowly, gentle, presence; as a youth where he stayed expressed it, "There is a savour left in the house after he has gone."

The first time I saw him was at a prayer-meeting. He did not speak till late in the evening; then he knelt and said, "O God, we do thank Thee that we are so exceedingly dear to Thee." There was more which I do not remember, but those opening words were to me like the key to his life and ministry. He was then just returning to India; but some months later I had the privilege of meeting and hearing him, publicly and privately, and the theme of his teaching was constantly "God loves you so much, He longs to bless you, He wants to make you happy, it is your own will that is all the trouble"; and one night, at the end of his address, he asked, "Will you put yourself unreservedly into God's hands? All you have and are? Your health? Your strength? Your usefulness?"

"Your usefulness!" That was the hardest of all; but to one of his hearers, at least, that was the beginning of a new life.

Once he told me how, as a young man, he wanted to understand the Bible, and to know more of God's ways, and he thought if he read the "Synopsis" he would know a good deal; so he bought the books, and read them through. "And then at the end," he said, "I had just to say, 'O my Father, I am only a poor, stupid child, Thou must teach me.'" He did not undervalue "helps," but he had learned that they could not take the place of the soul's learning with God.

He dreaded souls being led by others, and not having to do with God for themselves. "In the last resort," he said, "the appeal must ever be between the soul and God." I remember his saying once very solemnly, "If you believe God has taught you anything, you are bound to act on it, no matter what any one may say. If you are mistaken, He will put you right."

He deplored assumption and the use of the terms of so-called high truth without there being real soul apprehension of them; he said, "We are like little children playing at being grown-up men and women." He grieved over the disagreements among Christians. "There is so much to humble us," he would say, "the people who are most right will be partly in the wrong, and there will be some good even in those who are wrong."

He loved to recognise the good in others. "The youngest and feeblest Christian," he said, "knows something of God that I do not know, and I should be able to learn from him." Again, he said, "When you meet a Christian, do not begin upon the points on which you differ, see how far you can go together." "It is so different in India," he would say; "there you may be miles and miles away from all Christian fellowship, and perhaps in some lonely place you hear of one Christian. You do not begin by asking if he is with you as to outward fellowship; you are so rejoiced to meet him at all." He had been speaking to an Indian Christian about trusting God, and the native asked, "Sahib, have you ever gone without food?" He could not remember that he ever had. Said the Indian, "I was once three days without food." He said he felt this dear man had learned some lessons Which he knew nothing of. He would tell of another native who prayed for some breakfast, but who said, "God did not send me any breakfast, but He sent such joy into my soul that I prayed, 'O God, send me many such breakfasts.'"

Speaking of our ways with children and young people, he once said, "There has often to be a kind of compromise; it sounds bad, but yet it seems to me this is how God deals with us, waiting so patiently while we learn, and bearing with our ignorance and folly."

He had such a wise, tactful way with strangers. I remember an unconverted husband and wife very much afraid he might speak to them about their souls, and ready to parry him at every point. He did not attack them, but spoke of India and what was generally interesting, till presently he asked, "Did you ever hear of Chundra Lela?" And he told so simply of her efforts to find peace with God in the rites of her cruel religion that, before they were aware of it, they were listening without resentment to the presentation of the Gospel.

Another time it was a lady troubled with infidel thoughts; but he seemed to see what the real difficulty was, and dealt faithfully with her about her sins and her state before God.

Then a little maid, recently converted, asked him about a Scripture that had puzzled her; and, after answering her question, he asked, "Would you go into a shop and pay a sovereign for something that was only worth a shilling?" "No, sir," she said. "Then if you paid a sovereign for anything it would be because you wanted it very much?" "Yes, sir." "Tell me, then, what did God give for you and me?" Wonderingly, she replied, "His Son, sir." And he said, "And don't you think God must have wanted us very much to give such a Gift for us?"

Again, I remember his trying to explain the difference between the work of the Lord on high and the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, and using the illustration of a camera. The sun illustrates the Lord up there, and the Holy Spirit works in the heart to make an impression there, just as the sensitised plate in the camera receives the picture the sun makes.

I had been ill, and Col. Jacob came to visit me, and after a few sympathizing words, such as he knew so well how to speak, he said, "Well, you know, there has to be winter as well as summer." I think I answered that it had hardly been winter with me, and he said so brightly, "Ah! that will do; if you will only let God have His way with you, He will make you so happy you cannot contain yourself."

Twice he came to a London hotel, and after a helpful talk in a quiet corner, he said, "No one will mind, we will just have a word of prayer," and, bowing his head, he prayed just there. It seemed quite natural in him, but I do not think many could do it.

"In times of trial and sorrow," he once said, "it is not sufficient that the soul bows under God's hand; there must be exercise to understand what His meaning is in it — what is it He would teach me through this sorrow?" One day he asked me, "Has your soul had a mother?" I said I thought not, and he said, "But see what you have missed; God says He pities like a father and comforts like a mother. "Which is the happiest day in your life?" he would ask; and the various answers all being wrong, he would say, "To-day; because you know God better to-day than ever before."

He loved the Gospel of John, and often spoke of it. He pointed out that the miracles there are different from all others, in that they are signs. There are seven, besides the one in the last chapter, which is a kind of postscript to the Gospel. "In them," he would say, "the Lord is dealing with the hindrances to the enjoyment of life," and he would instance the fever — the restlessness of nature, and the impotent man — the weakness of nature, etc. Once he said, "It was possible to live and die; here, and go to heaven at last, and never to have lived as Scripture speaks of living." I remember he said, "In the epistle to the Romans you do not get life in this sense, only if you mortify the deeds of the body you shall live."

"What is the dawn of life consciously in the soul?" I asked him. He spoke of a child. "There was a time when that child only slept and ate, but one day it looked up in your face and smiled, and you saw it knew you. It is like that with the soul. For a time it can do little but rest and feed; and then there comes a moment when it looks up to God for the first time in the sweet consciousness, 'I am known, I am loved.' Who was the more glad the day the child knew you, you or the child?" "I." "Yes; and who has the greater joy when you look up to God in the consciousness of being known and loved?" Oh! the surpassing sweetness of that thought. May my soul ever cherish it!

The last time I saw him we had spoken of "abiding in Christ," and he went to have a season of prayer before going out to give an address. Just as he was leaving he said, "Here is another little thought for you about 'abiding in Christ.' I think it is like rhythm. You know, if you place a B and a C tuning-fork on the piano, if you touch the note B the B fork vibrates, and the C is silent; while if you strike the note C, the C fork vibrates and the B is silent. It should be thus with us — our souls should vibrate in response to the Lord, in harmony with him."

Long ago, when I knew him first, we had been speaking of "reconciliation," and he unfolded it a little, and then went on to dwell on his favourite theme — the blessedness of being brought near to God, in the conscious present enjoyment of His love, and of doing His will "always," as he said, "the very best for us"; and, with the glow of his words upon me, I expressed the desire that I might be in this path of knowing God's love and doing His will alone. And he said, so tenderly, "But are you prepared for it? It will not make you persona grata here, be sure of that." His own path was but the proof of it, a path, he would have said, I know, of infinite compensations, but one of deepest sorrow and misapprehension. And I pass on his warning. His own testimony as to his life was: "It has been one long story of my failure, but of God's faithfulness." What of ours, if this were his?

He sent a last loving message to some Christians who were gathered for a Conference "Looking back from the gate of the grave, he had nothing to take back of what he had taught, he sent them his love, and besought them to love their Bibles, and to love one another."

His last few weeks, as most know, were spent in great weakness and weariness, all borne without a murmur. He would say often, "It is all peace, perfect peace." At first when he could bear it, he would have a portion of Scripture read to him, and one of Tersteegen's beautiful hymns which he had long loved. Thus he passed peacefully away, to be for ever with the Lord, with whom he had walked and communed here. And now that his fragrant and fruitful life has been taken from us, we can only give thanks that he is gone where there are no misunderstandings. We miss him here, oh! so much, but rejoice that he is transplanted to the place where the river from which he lived here flows in all its glorious fulness.

Eternal Life

The following lines, which were much loved by Col. Jacob, are reprinted here as expressive of eternal life learnt and known experimentally in Christ (1 John 5: 20). May He be the portion of our hearts at all times.

Eternal Life

1. To praise Him in the dance! O glorious day!

The pilgrim journey done —

No more press forward on the weary way,

For all is reached and won!

2. His hand at last, the hand once pierced for me,

For ever holdeth mine —

O Lord, no songs, no harps of heaven will be

Sweet as one word of Thine.

3. Lord, altogether lovely! then at last

High shall the guerdon be;

Thy kiss outweigh the weary ages past,

Of hearts that break for Thee.

*         *         *         *         *         *

4. Yet now I know Thee as the hidden bread,

The living One, who died —

Who sitteth at my table — by my bed —

Who walketh at my side.

5. I know Thee as the fountain of deep bliss,

Whereof one drop shall make

The joys of all the world as bitterness,

My Lord for Thy sweet sake.

6. Lord, Thou hast loved me; and henceforth to me

Earth's noonday is but gloom;

My soul sails forth on the eternal sea,

And leaves the shore of doom.

7. I pass within the glory even now,

Where shapes and words are not,

For joy that passeth words, O Lord, art Thou,

A bliss that passeth thought.

8. I enter there, for Thou hast borne away

The burden of my sin —

With conscience clear as heaven's unclouded day

Thy courts I enter in.

9. Heaven now for me — for ever Christ and heaven —

The endless NOW begun —

No PROMISE, but a gift eternal GIVEN,

Because the work is done.

Henry Suso, 14th Century. From Three Friends of God, by Mrs. Frances Bevan.

Messiah the Prince

Messiah the Prince

An Outline of Matthew's Gospel

by Laurence Laurenson

Editor of "Loving Words."

Contents

Foreword

Section 1. — Matthew 1, 2.

The Genealogy and Birth of the King

Section 2. — Matthew 3, 4.

The Forerunner Introducing the King and the Kingdom Presented

Section 3. — Matthew 5, 6, 7.

The Laws of the Kingdom

Section 4. — Matthew 8, 9.

The Dignity of the King and the Characteristics of His Mission

Section 5. — Matthew 10, 11, 12.

The King's Messengers, the King's Message, and the King Himself Rejected

Section 6. — Matthew 13.

The Outward and Inward Aspects of the Kingdom in the Absence of the King

Section 7. — Matthew 14, 15.

Man's King and Man's Character Contrasted with God's King

Section 8. — Matthew 16, 17.

A Prophecy of the Church with a Glimpse of Kingdom Glory

Section 9. — Matthew 18 — 23.

The Characteristics of those who enter the Kingdom, the Responsibility of those connected with it, and God's way of bringing Men into it: The King presented, and the Leaders of Israel morally judged

Section 10. — Matthew 24, 25.

The Great Prophetic Outline. The King's Dealings with the Jew, the Church, and the Nations

Section 11. — Matthew 26 — 28.

The King goes into Death and Judgment, in order that His Followers may enter into Life and Glory

Section 12. — Matthew 28. Resurrection, Victory, and Joy

Notes and Outlines

Foreword

The four Gospels present to us an inexhaustible theme in Christ and all that was revealed in Him during the brief years of His earthly sojourn. We may go even further and affirm that each several Gospel is inexhaustible in the fulness and depth of that aspect of the Christ of God which it places before us. Hence the many and various expositions of the Gospels which have seen the light of day and proved of profit to their readers.

In this book a new unfolding of Matthew is placed in the reader's hands. The author does not address himself to the learned, but rather to the ordinary believer who may not have access readily to the larger and more exhaustive expositions already published, and who might not be able very easily to digest their contents if he had ready access to them. To such readers — and they are very numerous to-day — this book will, we trusty prove full of instruction, suggestion, and spiritual help. May it be prospered in its mission to this end. F. B. Hole.

Section 1. Matthew 1, 2.

The Genealogy and Birth of the King

In seeking to grasp the contents of any book it is necessary to be so conversant with its subject matter as to be able to go over it in outline in our own minds.

If this be true of the writings of men, how much more so of the Word of God? This is not the difficult matter it may appear at first sight, and there are several ways it may be arrived at. In studying Matthew's Gospel, for example, if we take one leading thought or incident from each chapter, or section of the book, other related facts will naturally group themselves round these to complete the picture. And it will be found that the various events are so linked together in a divine order that the heart is led on from Matthew 1 to Matthew 28 in ever-increasing enjoyment of all the varied truths presented to us in this Gospel, so full of instruction pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is worth noting at the outset, that in the Scriptures themselves we are more often urged to search and meditate thereupon, than merely to read. And the reason is obvious. They have to do with the heart. In twenty-two different ways, in the twenty-two sections of Psalm 119, the Psalmist expresses the attitude of his heart toward the law of God. He "Believes it," "Keeps it," "Rejoices in it," "Declares it," "Loves it," "Hides it in his heart." If the reader will make a complete list, his profiting will be great.

In some such way let us endeavour to approach the study of the Gospel before us.

Beginning, then, with Section 1, Matthew 1 and 2, we get as leading thought, in Matthew 1, The Genealogy of the King; in Matthew 2, The Reception He met with.

We are arrested at the very outset by the differences between the Gospel of Matthew and the other Synoptic Gospels. There is a fulness and a wealth of detail in the introduction in this Gospel which is wholly absent in Mark: while in Luke quite another series of events is placed before us, equally minute in detail, but all given with divine wisdom and in keeping with the end in view.

If we arrange the early incidents in the first three Gospels in parallel columns we shall see these differences at a glance: —

Matthew Mark Luke

1 * * Visit of Angel to Zacharias.

2 * * Visit of Angel to Mary.

3 Visit of Angel to Joseph. * *

4 * * Birth of John.

5 Birth of Jesus. * Birth of Jesus.

6 * * Angel's Visit to Shepherds.

7 * * Shepherds' Visit to Bethlehem.

8 Appearing of the Star. * Presentation in the Temple.

9 * * Departure to Nazareth.

10 Visit of the Wise Men. * Annual Visit of Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem.

11 Presentation of Gifts. * (Abiding at Bethlehem.)

12 Joseph warned by the Angel. * *

13 Flight into Egypt. * *

14 Return to Galilee. * Dwelling in Galilee.

15 * * Visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years of age.

16 Preaching of John. Preaching of John. Preaching of John.

Two things mark the language of Inspiration, what it includes, and what it excludes. Surely it necessarily excludes every shadow of error. Nothing but what is absolutely true could find a place if the Spirit of God inspire the record, and, in spite of all that men may say to the contrary, nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the Four Gospels, where, amid all the differences, there are no contradictions. Then, as to the former, the facts given in any Scripture will be in relation to the subject of the writer. Thus Luke writes of the Lord Jesus specially as the "Son of Man," and so gives, as will be seen above, in large detail, everything needed to be known of His parentage, human birth, and childhood — perfect from every standpoint.

Mark, writing of Him as the devoted "Servant of God" and of men, omits everything of this, and introduces, at the very outset, His Messenger, John the Baptist, preparing His way before Him. Then He Himself is at once seen entering upon His public ministry.

But in our Gospel, He is presented as "The King," and thus everything narrated is in connection with His kingly character.

Turning forward again for a moment, we see Him in John's Gospel as the "Son of God." Luke tells us that He became the "Son of Man," and Mark says that He took the lowly place of the "Servant" of all. But Matthew declares that, nevertheless, He was "God's Anointed King," who will yet sit upon the throne of His father, David, and sway a mightier sceptre than either David or his princely son, Solomon, ever dreamed of.

Ezekiel presents this wonderful "fourfold" in striking and symbolic imagery in Chapters 1 and 10, and again we see it reproduced in the vision of the Seer of Patmos (Rev. 4), where the order of the manifested characteristics is that of the Four Gospels.

Matthew represents Him as the "Lion" of the tribe of Judah.

Mark sets forth the patient service symbolised by the "Calf" or "Ox."

Luke describes the perfect "Man" — yea, the Pattern Man, able to sympathise, to succour, and to save.

John tells of Him as the Heavenly Stranger upon the earth — the "flying Eagle" being an apt picture, for He was "Come from God and went to God" (John 13: 3). "He was with God, and was God" (John 1: 1).

But a king must be able to trace his descent in the royal line, and this is placed before us at the very outset. He is the Son of "David the King," and thus the Heir to David's throne. He is the "Son of Abraham," and thus Heir to, as well as Fulfiller of, all the Promises. Matthew carries down the line of kingly succession from Solomon. Luke traces that of Nathan to Mary, and, however widely they may have diverged during the thousand years that lay between, both meet again and are completed in "JESUS who is called CHRIST."

There are many genealogies in the Old Testament, but only one in the New. The genealogies of the Old Testament lead to Him in whom everything centres, and from whom everything begins, for He is the Head of the new creation, the First-born from among the dead.

But we find Him here born into this world, a Man among men; nevertheless, He was Emmanuel. The sign promised 700 years before by the prophet (Isa. 7: 14) was fulfilled, and the character of the One so born declared. He was "God with us," and God come down in grace. And we naturally ask, What reception did He meet with? and what were the condition of things in Israel's land when He thus presented Himself?

Over 500 years had passed away since Ezra, by the decree of Cyrus the Persian, had led a little remnant of the people back from Babylon to rebuild the shattered fortunes of the nation, after the terrible overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar, which began about 606 B.C. It was but a small proportion of the many thousands who had been carried away, but their hearts were towards the land of Israel, and the Lord had blessed and multiplied them greatly. The intervening years had been times of varying fortunes for the little hierarchical state. The Persian monarchy, which had been the means of their restoration, had been overthrown by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C., and Palestine then came under the power of Greece. Daniel had described, in few words, the character of the "mighty king" and the break up of his kingdom, "divided towards the four winds of heaven" (Dan. 11: 3). This was an event of much political importance to Judea, for it found itself — as it will be in a later day — the bone of contention between the king of the South, Egypt, and the king of the North, Syria. The first hundred years of this period the land was under the power of Egypt, and though ill-governed at the best, it had not reached the depth of suffering measured out to it during the Syrian oppression. The terrible cruelty and madness of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) has seldom been equalled in the world's history. The ruling passion of his wicked life was hatred to the Jew and the religion of Jehovah. On one occasion he captured the city of Jerusalem, slaughtered 40,000 of the inhabitants, sacrificed a sow upon the brazen altar, and erected a statue to Jupiter in the Temple courts. This brought matters to an issue. Under Judas Maccabeus and his brethren the War of Independence began, which resulted in Judea once more becoming a free state in 161 B.C.

Rescued thus from Syrian oppression, it was wisely ruled by the Maccabean family for over one hundred years, but it then fell under the power of the Romans, about 60 B.C.

Herod, an Idumean, first appointed by the Romans as tetrarch, became king in 31 B.C., and aimed at creating an independent monarchy in his own family.

The sceptre had departed from Judah.

Such was the political condition of the Lord's land when the Messiah was born. A usurper, supported by Gentile power, was reigning in the land, and the people loved to have it so. There is a wonderful analogy between this and what prophetic Scriptures reveal as to His Second Coming. Then the Antichrist will be on the throne, and he and his supporters will think to treat the King come in power as before had been treated the King come in grace, only to find that He will "break them with a rod of iron," and "dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Ps. 2: 9).

But when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and when the tidings reached the guilty tyrant who sat upon the Jewish throne, he "was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." The men of the city had already made their choice. They were on the side of Herod — not on the Lord's side.

The Scribes, intelligent in the Scriptures, as far as the letter went, knew, or should have known, many things about the Coming King. The prophets had clearly pointed out: —

1 When He would come (Gen. 49: 10).

2 How He would come (Isa. 7: 14).

3 Where He would be born (Micah 5: 2).

But they had no heart for Him, and as to the mass of the nation, there was neither love nor loyalty to God's King. Yet we learn from Luke's Gospel (Luke 2: 38) that there were still the hidden ones, even in Jerusalem, who looked for redemption in Israel; as there will be in the day of His power, to whom He will appear as "the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4: 2).

But if there was no heart for Him in Jerusalem, and no room for Him in Bethlehem, a testimony was to be raised up from among the Gentiles; and "wise men" — wise, surely, in every sense of the word — divinely led, seek Him, recognise His divinity, worship Him, and present to Him their threefold gift, "gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon she brought "gold and spices." In a coming day, when the kings of the Gentiles come to worship the glory of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will bring "gold and incense" (Isa. 60).

In neither the historic nor the prophetic Scripture is there any mention of that which is here connected with these two things, namely, "myrrh." Why is this? Is there not a threefold meaning in their gifts? In the Babe of Bethlehem they saw the One who was "born King of the Jews," and to Him, as such, they presented the royal offering of gold. But there was the recognition in the frankincense that He was more than man — that He was the promised Saviour; and the myrrh spoke of that of which the wise men could have but dim vision, and that was, that before He sat upon the throne of His glory He "must suffer many things . . . and be killed and raised again the third day" (Matt. 16: 21).

And even while but a child, to escape the wrath of the false king, the true King has to flee unto Egypt, and be there till the death of Herod, that the prophecy might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son" (Hosea 11: 1). Thus the Lord began where His people began, but how different their pathway from His?

When the call came to Joseph to return, he is instructed to go into the "land of Israel." Twice in Chapter 2 we have this title; and yet at the moment the land was only a despised province of the Roman Empire. But few of the men of Israel dwelt in it. The Gentiles ruled it. A mixed race from the East dwelt in one of its chiefest cities, Samaria; and Galilee, its largest province, was densely peopled with a purely heathen population, a few poor Jews residing amongst them.

Yet in spite of appearances God recognises the land by its true title. It is God's land for His people, and He will yet vindicate their rights and make them good.

But when they returned they found another usurper filling the throne, and Joseph, with the holy Child Jesus, turned aside to dwell at Nazareth. At the very beginning of His pathway He had been the rejected One; now He becomes the despised One. Even the upright Nathanael shared the popular prejudice — if it was only prejudice — that Nazareth of Galilee could produce no good thing. It was the most despised town of the most despised province of a despised land.

Thus at the very outset of His pathway of lowly grace the Lord knew what it was to be "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53: 3),

Section 2. Matthew 3, 4.

The Forerunner Introducing the King; and the Kingdom Presented

The second section of our Gospel begins with the Message of the Baptist. A convenient synopsis, round which other thoughts can be gathered, will be: —

1 The warning of John.

2 The work of Christ.

3 The witness of the Father.

A full generation has passed away since the close of Matthew 2. King Archelaus, after a wicked reign of ten or eleven years, had been banished by the Romans. Judea had ceased to retain even the semblance of a monarchy, and is now under Roman procurators, of whom Pilate is the fifth, in a descending scale of wickedness.

Doubtless the Visit of the Wise Men, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Glory Song, and the Virgin Birth had been long forgotten. The glint of the glory had died from the plains of Bethlehem: the angels had long since gone away again into heaven, and so far there seemed little promise of that "peace on earth" of which they had so sweetly spoken.

But Heaven again breaks the silence. "In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 'Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'"

Apart from the imperial glory of the world, as seen at Rome, apart from the religious system of men, as seen at Jerusalem — John was found in the wilderness; that arid tract of desert land on the west of the Dead Sea, extending northwards to the Jordan. His food and his raiment marked him out as one apart from common men.

Luke has given us his previous history.

John has given us his testimony to the Messiah. Matthew here gives us his message.

The warning words of John reach even the lifeless professors at Jerusalem. Pharisees, and even Sadducees, come to his baptism.

The message he brought was the nearness of the long-expected. Kingdom, and the importance of a moral preparation for entrance thereinto.

Every instructed Jew knew what the prophet Daniel had said as to the Kingdom to be set up by the God of Heaven, but they had little knowledge of the condition of heart which entrance into that Kingdom demanded. Even Nicodemus (John 3) failed to see more in it than a mere paradise regained for man, as man, upon the earth. The new birth, the essential qualification for even the Jew to enter into and enjoy the promises of God for His earthly people (Ezek. 36: 26) had evidently been totally lost sight of, since even one of their best-instructed rulers was ignorant of it. And so the Lord has to say to him, "Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things?" (John 3: 10). Hence the importance of John's warning word, "Repent" — a total change of heart and mind was imperative if men would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

We shall find this term — Kingdom of Heaven — about thirty-three times in this Gospel, and nowhere else in the New Testament. Five times we get "Kingdom of God" (Matt. 6: 33; Matt. 12: 28; Matt. 19: 24; Matt. 21: 31, 43), where "Kingdom of Heaven" would not convey the intended meaning. Other Scriptures speak of "the Kingdom of the Father" (Matt. 13: 43); "the Kingdom of the Son of Man" (Dan. 7); "the Kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. 1: 13); "the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1: 11).

All, of course, refer to the rule of God; but why these varied designations? As we have already noticed, Matthew alone uses the term, "Kingdom of Heaven." Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was writing as a Jew to Jews. Any hope of an earthly kingdom was fast passing, if it had not already passed, away. The little gleam of royalty, manifested for a moment, under the king of nonnative stock — Herod — had faded, and a deeper bondage still, all thinking men saw before them.

Under these conditions, the coming Kingdom is announced as the Kingdom of Heaven, for the kingdom on earth is in hopeless ruin. And it is striking to notice that in no other book of the Bible do we read so often about Heaven as in Matthew. We are forcibly reminded that, in spite of the failure of His people and the enmity of His foes, yet the God of Heaven has taken up the question of the earth, and that He will, even here, work out, in His own time and way, His gracious purposes of blessing for His redeemed people, and glory for His beloved Son.

The Rule of God, then, under this title, was familiar to the Jew. It was spoken of in the Law. Had that law been obeyed from the heart, the promise was that their days would be multiplied and be "as the days of Heaven upon the Earth" (Deut. 11: 21). The Psalms bore witness to it. The Seed of David would endure for ever, and "his throne as the days of Heaven" (Ps. 79: 29). The prophets, in more definite language still, describe Him, who became the Son of Man, receiving that Kingdom and glory which should never pass away (Dan. 2: 7).

This Kingdom John announced as being "at hand." The King was here; but, the King being rejected, it assumed the "mystery" form (Chap. 13: 11) which it still bears in the absence of the King.

By comparing Matthew 11: 11 with Matthew 16: 19, we learn that the Kingdom of Heaven had not then commenced, and, indeed, it did not do so until the Lord had taken His seat on high. Then Peter, having received "the keys" (Chap. 16: 19), unlocked the door to both Jew and Gentile, and although the favoured nation refused their King, and with Him, the "days of Heaven upon the earth," yet it is now given to the believer to know, in a deeper and fuller way than Israel ever will, the Rejected One; and every day may, to the Christian, be as the days of Heaven upon the earth. May our hearts enter into it more and more, and be more engaged with Himself, while we wait for His Coming.

"The Kingdom of God" occurs five times in our Gospel. It clearly expresses a different idea from the above. It has been described as "the exhibition of the ruling power of God under any circumstances." It was thus manifested when the Lord was here. So He could say (Luke 17: 21), when unbelievingly asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was coming, "the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you." It was there represented in His Own Person.

At the day of Pentecost, and afterwards, those born from above, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit's power, exemplified in themselves the same blessed character of that heavenly rule, as seen by its fruits of "righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14: 17). This is the divine aspect.

But this term is also applied to the human side, or the Kingdom as seen in the hands of men, as Luke 13: 19-21 shows: "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it;" and again he said, "Whereunto shall I liken the Kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Here we get its external appearance and internal condition: an overgrown abortion, sheltering much that is evil. An adulterated mass permeating much that is good. Such is Christendom to-day. Evil men allowed, and evil doctrines accepted, have produced the condition so vividly pictured in the above Scripture.

The Kingdom of the Father and the Kingdom of the Son of Man will be a development of the Kingdom of Heaven, and will be seen when the present mystery form is at an end.

The Kingdom of the Son of Man will be the rule of God, seen in the hands of His Son, in the coming day, when the Kingdom is set up in power in the earth. Then the redeemed people will say, "Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth" (Ps. 8: 1). He will assume the Lordship lost by Adam, and it will be exercised by Him in righteousness, both in blessing to the godly and in judgment upon the transgressors. The Father's Kingdom, on the other hand, applies to the heavenly side. It refers to things above, as the other refers to things below. The Kingdom of the Son of His love is our present place in grace: that circle of which Christ is the centre, as He is the centre of the Father's affections, and the One around whom the Father delights to gather the objects of His love — even us who were once in the Kingdom and under the power of darkness.

If the last is our present place in grace, the Everlasting Kingdom is our future place in glory. The Apostle there (2 Peter 1: 11) is giving instruction as to the future glory of the Kingdom manifested before the eyes of men. They — the Apostles — had seen His glory in the holy mount. Peter prays that believers may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom in which that glory will be displayed.

So the Kingdom was announced as being "at hand," but there was something else. The "axe" was at the root of the tree of Jewish profession. Very soon the Master of the vineyard would have to say, "These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13: 7). Barren for many a long year, the final test was now presented. Messiah rejected would mean the nation cut off. Nevertheless, there was blessing for all who truly repented, for He baptized with the Holy Ghost — grace and salvation: as well as with fire — judgment and condemnation.

It is of the utmost importance to be clear as to the meaning of these two statements. They define, what we might call, the two extremes of the Lord's ministry, and everything connected with the present day of grace lies between. The presence of the Holy Spirit is that which marks the present age. He is with and in the believer. He has been pleased to take up His dwelling, and make our bodies His temple (1 Cor. 6: 19), and the sanctifying influence of His presence should be seen in our daily lives (Gal. 5: 25). He dwells in the Church; and His presence here is also a proof of the world's guilt, for He is here because Christ is absent (John 16: 10), and Christ is absent because men slew and hanged Him on a tree (Acts 10: 39).

But the "Age of the Spirit" will pass: the day of grace will come to a close, and when the Lord comes the second time, His dealings with the wicked and the oppressor will be with "fire" — the stern and unsparing, righteous judgment of God. So it will be then. "They shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 13: 41-42). It is the certain result of rejecting the Gospel, and it would be well if every Gospel preacher had this solemn truth deep in his heart as he proclaims the grace of God. For in proportion as grace is known, so surely will judgment be executed, if the offered grace be rejected. There can be nothing else. The threshing floor is purged, the wheat and the chaff each assigned to its proper place.

But, further, there is the Witness of the Father, and this is very beautiful. The Lord enters upon His public ministry, and His first action is to come from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized of John. No wonder John "urgently forbade" Him. Just a short time before (John 1: 27) John had declared himself unworthy to do the meanest office for that Wonderful Person whom he was announcing, and lo! here was that same Person taking His place among those who had gone down figuratively into the waters of death, confessing their sins. The Spirit's first work in the heart of the sinner is Repentance — self-judgment and confession of what we are. This brought the remnant to John's baptism, and thereby separated them from the guilty mass of the nation. It was no question of confessing sin that brought Him there. God forbid. Something else He instructs us in. "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Righteousness brought Him, where sin brought the people. He, the only righteous One upon the earth, associates with Himself those who sought after a moral preparedness for Messiah's Kingdom. "And, lo! the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him: and, lo! a voice from heaven saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'"

Beautiful testimony from Heaven of the only One upon the earth who was the Object of Heaven's delight. In Genesis 6 God looked down and dealt in judgment. Here God was come down in grace. In a coming day He would lay down His life for the sheep.

But now, after the Anointing and Sealing of the Holy Spirit, the first step on His pathway to the Cross was to meet and overcome the one whose great object was to turn Him aside from that pathway.

Scripture is silent as to what took place during the "forty days" — period of perfect testing. It was clearly something that we could not enter into; therefore it is not revealed. But the three forms of temptation at the close of that period, and the way in which our Lord overcame the tempter, are written for our instruction. For we, too, are called upon to "overcome" even as He overcame (Rev. 21), and the promise to the overcomer is that he will sit with the Faithful and True Witness upon His throne. The two weapons the Lord used — the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit — we may use also. Indeed, we are instructed to lay hold of them in order that we may "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Eph. 6: 16).

The first temptation is a question of circumstances. Can we trust God for daily need?

In Matthew 6 the disciples are led on to realise that they can rest in a Father's love and knowledge of their daily needs. Here the Lord exemplifies this principle of simple dependence. He would wait on His Father's guidance, and — using the "Sword of the Spirit" — He chose the right word to meet the enemy. "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Deut. 8: 3).

If the first temptation was a testing of self, the second would lead to a testing of God. Cast Thyself down and see if God will be true to His word or not. This was to instil doubt into the mind, instead of unwavering trust in God. Just what Satan succeeded in doing in Eden. The whole point of the argument in Romans 8 is that God is for us. To test or question it would be to show our own faithlessness. Israel did so in the wilderness, and said, "Is the Lord among us or not?" (Ex. 17: 7).

But the Lord again replies in the very words of Scripture, and uses a plain word to confute what Satan had misquoted and misapplied.

In the third temptation it was a question whether the things of this world are to be received from Satan or from God. Doubtless Satan had some dim knowledge that the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them would not always be his to give; that, as the first man had lost them by yielding to temptation, so the second Man might be tempted to acquire them by the same easy path. But in this case the kingdoms of the world are presented to the eye of One who has had the testimony of the Kingdom of Heaven, has seen the opened Heaven, and, as a Man upon the earth, listened to the Father's voice of approval and delight.

In proportion as the same heavenly vision fills our souls, so will the things of the world lose their attraction for us also, for our hearts will be where our treasure is, with Christ at God's right hand.

We have next to consider what the Lord met the tempter with. David of old could say, "By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer" (Ps. 17: 4), and here the Lord shows how that same word can be used to foil every device of the enemy. David had five smooth stones in his scrip. Only one was needed to slay the giant — type of him who was here in the presence of David's greater Son. The Lord might have drawn His arguments from the five books of Moses. He uses only one — Deuteronomy — and from it selects the weapon that both exposes and defeats the foe. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Deut. 6: 13; 10: 20). And here let us also notice that which is of the utmost importance. The Lord quotes the very Scripture that met the case in hand. So there is guidance and instruction in Scripture for the believer, for every circumstance, or difficulty, that may arise in his pathway, but he must know where to find it. We must make it our business to be so well acquainted with the Holy Word of God as to be able to bring out at the moment the needed truth for the time of need.

"Then the devil leaveth him." Satan was defeated. Thank God, he is a defeated foe. He may roar, but he cannot rend; he may deceive, but he cannot destroy.

In closing this section let us notice seven beautiful things, manifesting the grace and power and glory of our blessed Lord: —

1 The voice of the Father points Him out as the Object of Heaven's delight.

2 The descending Spirit abides upon Him as the Son of God, whom "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto."

3 Angels delight to minister unto Him, as once before they had heralded His birth.

4 Satan flees defeated from the presence of a Man in the wilderness. Four thousand years before he had triumphed, with the same temptations, over a man in a garden.

5 The Lord becomes the light to them that sit in darkness — Galilee of the Gentiles — that part of the outskirts of the nation which was most despised by the religious leaders. There, the Lord, rejected at Jerusalem, goes in grace and gathers to Himself a people who owned His claims and obeyed His Word.

6 He begins His wonderful mission, and its divine character is marked at the very outset by His victory over disease, death, and the devil. It is the powers of the world to come in the hands of the King. Lunacy destroyed the mind; palsy destroyed the body; demon-possession destroyed both; but Jesus healed them all.

7 Then He is seen attracting to Himself the hearts of men. Nets, boats, relations, and calling — all are left to follow the Lord Jesus. The most powerful attraction set before the soul is not "I ought," or "I must"; but the fact that One has gone through this world before us: attracted our hearts out of it to Himself, where He now is on the throne: given us His place before the Father (John 17: 14), and now He expects us to fill His place before the world.

We are not of the world. Let us show it more and more in Christ-likeness day by day.

"His Cross behind: His Home before.

Himself to-day, and evermore."

Section 3. Matthew 5, 6, 7.

The Laws of the Kingdom

*****

An Outline of the Interpretation and Application of Matthew 5: 1-12

Text.

Verse 3.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

Poor = humble. Derivation from beggarly — in the sense of having nothing.

The Believer has nothing in this world.

Parallels.

Isa. 57: 15. "The High and holy One . . . I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a poor and contrite spirit."

Isa. 66. "To this man will I look . . . that is of a poor and contrite spirit."

Promises.

"Theirs is the Kingdom."

Inheritance WHEN the wicked — the proud have been cut off.

Mal. 3: 15. "NOW we call the proud happy."

Mal. 4: 2. "BUT unto you that fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings."

Warnings.

Mal. 4: 1. "BUT the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the PROUD . . . shall be as stubble."

Isa. 2 "The DAY of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is PROUD."

The Great Example — Christ.

2 Cor. 8: 9. "HE who was RICH, for your sakes became POOR, that ye through His poverty might be RICH."

Phil. 2. "He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a SERVANT."

*****

In Matthew 4 we saw the King triumphing over all the powers of Satan. The devil is defeated, and his works — disease and death — flee before the Divine Healer.

The fame of the Lord Jesus being thus spread abroad, He now (Chaps. 5-7) announces the Laws of His Kingdom and begins to unfold the great moral principles upon which it is founded.

We have to keep in mind that the Kingdom of Heaven is not Heaven, nor, properly speaking, in Heaven. It is the rule of Heaven on this earth (Deut. 2: 44; Deut. 7: 13-14). As we have seen, both John and the Lord Jesus announced that happy time as at hand, but, alas! the nation of Israel rejected both the King and the Kingdom. Hence the Kingdom in power was deferred, and we have now the Kingdom in mystery. We shall find the teaching as to this fully developed in Matthew 13.

But here, at the very outset, the Lord begins by describing the characteristics of those who belong to the Kingdom. It is the exact opposite of what men upon the earth manifest. Indeed, it is the opposite of what they either look for or expect. To be meek, merciful, or pure in heart necessitates a regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and this is assumed to have already taken place in His hearers, for He is teaching disciples. The pronouns "they" and "ye" in Matthew 5: 1-12 may indicate the time to which the promises apply. Taking the list of "Blesseds" in their order, the promises in verses 1-10 will be literally fulfilled to those who find their lot in the latter day when "transgressors are come to the full" (Dan. 8).

In that day the men of pride will be exalted, and the poor in spirit — the godly remnant of the nation, who wait for Jehovah — will be counted as the offscourings of all things. But the Lord will hearken and hear, and in His Book of Remembrance their names shall be written, and they shall be His when He makes up His jewels. Then, "the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble. . . . But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings" (Mal. 4). And the meek — they shall inherit the land (of Israel) when the wicked have been destroyed out of it. The Reign of Righteousness will satisfy those that hunger and thirst after righteousness; and the pure in heart — they shall see God. The rewards and promises in this section are connected with the coming Kingdom, but, of course, while this is true historically, nevertheless, in its application, every believer, in every dispensation, should manifest every trait of the beautiful life of blessing outlined by the Lord, and by so doing, prove to all that they are indeed the children of the Kingdom.

In verses 11-12 we read, "Blessed are ye and great is your reward in Heaven." Here the Lord addresses His disciples there present. This would be true of them, and of every true disciple through all time. Later on, in His teaching, He gives them the principles that would mark them out as heavenly men upon the earth, and also make manifest the secret of the world's hatred. "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." . . . "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me" (John 15: 19-21). So we have the double result of being true to Christ in the day of His rejection, and that is, persecution here and great reward in Heaven. It is the heavenly side of the Kingdom.

But it is well to note that He who spoke these words was the only One who ever became the perfect Examplar, in all things, and has left us His example that we should follow in His steps. This will be better seen if we arrange any one of the "Blesseds" in tabular form, as on page 25. It is a most helpful and profitable study. Every longing after the rule of God in righteousness will be found fully expressed in both Prophets and Psalms. It was that to which the godly of that dispensation looked forward, just as the coming of Christ is the hope of the Church to-day. Coupled with the promises there are also, as ever, the warnings of Jehovah against those who oppose His power and despise His grace.

But believers are also the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world." There is a twofold meaning in this. Salt is used in Scripture as a figure of God's rights, or the righteous principles of God's dealings with the earth. It is this we see expressed in the judgment on Lot's wife and the Vale of Sodom which became the valley of salt. Disciples "salt" the earth by maintaining these righteous principles and standing for the rights of God in a world that refuses to recognise either God or His rights.

The other figure used is "light." They were "the light of the world." As the first conveys the thought of righteousness, the second speaks of grace. Light shines for others and before others. It may be a guiding light or a warning light, but it is there for the good of others, and so should believers be in this world.

But coupled with the figure there is also the warning. The salt may lose its savour, and the light may get hidden. In both cases they become useless for the purpose for which they were intended. It was a warning to those whom He addressed, and to disciples of every age, and we do well to remember that we can only be "kept by the power of God unto salvation."

Then we come to something that probes the inner man. The Lord brings the light of Heaven to bear upon the motives of the heart, for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23: 7). Violence and corruption marked the ways of man from the fall (Gen. 6); but every trace of either in the child of the Kingdom must be dealt with in unsparing self-judgment.

Under the old economy we find that the law laid down the principle, in righteousness, "An eye for an eye" (Ex. 21: 24), thereby restraining the wrath of man. Otherwise he would have demanded two eyes for one, in vengeance. But here an entirely new principle is introduced. "I say unto you that ye resist not evil." It is the very opposite of nature, which loves to avenge itself. It is different from righteousness, which measures out even-handed justice. It is the beautiful spirit of grace, manifested in all perfection in Him who "when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not." Even so the disciple should be more than righteous: he should be gracious, and while walking through this world, it is better to lose his "cloke" than give up those lovely principles of grace that mark him out as one who belongs to Christ.

But again the Lord introduces something higher still — indeed the highest standard possible. The standard for the new dispensation is nothing short of that of the character of the Father Himself. His ways are to be our ways.

To review our chapter shortly: It begins by showing what kind of people enter the Kingdom.

What the actions and character should be of those who take part with a rejected Saviour now.

Then the law is brought to bear upon the motives of men, showing that corruption and violence are the two principles of evil that govern the natural heart.

That salvation from the consequences of sin must be had at all costs. If eye, hand, or foot hinder, it must be "cut off."

That the righteousness needed must be more (i.e., of a different kind) than that of the Scribes and Pharisees; and that when this salvation is known, it so moulds the heart that the believer is passive under all kinds of reproach and injustice.

That tribulation and injustice only open the way for the activities of love seen in returning good for evil — the marks of the new dispensation, and of the children of the Kingdom.

Matthew 6 opens with the great principles of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — right relationships with our fellow-men, with God, and with self. These are the righteousnesses of saints — the positive outcome of a life which has all the springs of its moral being in God Himself.

God is revealed to us as the giving God. He gave His Son (John 3: 16). Christ gave Himself (Eph. 5: 25). God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9: 7). We do well to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20: 35); and believers are instructed to "labour that they may have to give to him that needeth" (Eph. 4: 28). The importance of this cannot be over-estimated. We are in a world of need, both material and spiritual, and the heart that knows the grace of Christ will be a heart that has learned the secret and the joy of giving. "The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand" (Isa. 32: 8). There is ever the danger that through unfaithfulness in "that which is another man's" (Luke 16) we may lose "that which is our own." In other words, we lose the enjoyment of those heavenly blessings which are properly ours in proportion as we are unfaithful stewards of the bounty God has entrusted us with here.

Next we come to "the prayer that teaches to pray" — when and how it was to be used. Unlike the vain repetitions of the heathen, or the ostentatious display of the hypocrite at the street corner, the disciple is to seek the secret place and deal with his Father there.

Doubtless the form of words here given was intended to guide disciples before the Holy Spirit was given, but every word of the Lord was necessarily perfect; and these various petitions express the need of disciples in a way that only the Lord Himself could teach. No doubt fuller development was given when further truth was made known, and the time was coming when, instructed by the Holy Spirit, they would ask "in the name of Jesus" and receive that their joy might be full (John 14: 13).

This knowledge of their new standing in Him they could not have before the cross, and therefore could not pray "in His name." But in the meantime they were brought into all the conscious and enjoyed knowledge of relationship with a Father who loved, cared for, and watched over them day by day.

After the acknowledgment of the relationship into which they were brought, and which is expressed in the words, "Our Father," there are six petitions setting forth in order: —

Reverence. Rule. Obedience.

Dependence. Restoration. Preservation.

It will be noticed that the first three are Godward, and the second three are manward. Also that the last three deal with the present, the past, and the future.

No greater compass of truth could possibly be brought within the bounds of so few words. Then our Lord goes back to the fifth petition to enforce the principle of Christian forgiveness. We shall meet with an even fuller development of it later, but here it is laid down as the basis on which God deals with His children in government. We may be smitten (verse 39), wronged (verse 40), sinned against (verse 41), despised (verse 44), hated or persecuted (verse 44). How are we to meet it? By asserting our rights and demanding apology and reparation? The world would do so, and it would be considered right in the eyes of the world. But, "No," says the Lord, "forgive men their trespasses." And more, it is not that the Christian walks through this world a merely passive or impassive sufferer. The very suffering he may be brought into only brings out the spirit of Christ, who was Himself, the perfect exponent in His own history of His divine teaching, and who is our perfect Example. So the Apostle could say, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves" — the first thing nature thinks of. But here is the divine way, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

Fasting involves the setting aside of self. And not only self looked upon as connected with the evil within; but it is the setting aside of the claims of nature itself in order to have to do with God. It is a recognition that there are spiritual things on hand of deeper importance than even rightful claims of the body. And then there is a wider sense in which the believer goes through this world abstaining from everything in it. He is "anointed" and "washed." His heart is right and his life is right. He does not appear "of a sad countenance," for the joy of Heaven fills his heart while upon the earth, and the Father who seeth in secret rewards him.

The more we value the things of earth, the more care and anxiety we create for ourselves in acquiring and retaining them. And if these things become our "treasure" — that on which the heart is set — alas! for us, for our hearts will be earthward instead of heavenward. We may procure locks and bars sufficient to defy the modern burglar, but the thief, Time, will ultimately steal ALL. He will steal them from us, and us from them.

If, on the other hand, Christ in glory has become the hope and object of the heart, then both the treasure and the heart will be above, and we shall be known as heavenly men upon the earth. By and by we shall reach our native land, enter the eternal home, and dwell in the Father's House, to go no more out. Even here we have a foretaste of it all — forgiveness, sonship, and everlasting life. Thus, in whatever circumstances we may be, our hearts can be in perfect rest. God has chosen us out of the world. He is carrying us through the world, and His object is to conform us to the image of His Son. Meantime we rest in the sense of His knowledge and of His love, that knows and provides for our every need.

If Matthew 6 gives us, principally, right relationships with God our Father, Matthew 7 begins with what should be the relationships of believers among themselves. Having been brought into the Kingdom and into relationship with the Father, we are to manifest righteousness by consistency of walk (verses 1-6). We must judge ourselves, but we may not judge each other. The judgment of others here spoken of, is that censorious criticism which "sets at nought" our brother (Rom. 14: 10), and is really closely allied to evil speaking. We have an outstanding instance in the Old Testament how God regards it, in the case of Aaron and Miriam who "spake against Moses." And Jehovah rebuked them in words pregnant with meaning" Were ye not afraid to speak against my servant" The very fact that any one slips into this only shows that they "have a beam" in their own eye.

Confidence in the Father is next seen — expressed in genuine asking, earnest seeking, and urgent knocking. This is coupled with the certain answer of grace, and illustrated by the response of even the natural man to the requests of his children.

When the subject of supplication is introduced there is an increasing urgency in the instructions, marking out the one who is in earnest, and there is a need-be for it; for there is no aspect of the spiritual life which Satan is more opposed to than the hidden life of prayer. We have all the power of Satan out to hinder and prevent our dependence upon and communion with God, and we do well to remember it. The Lord recognises it. Do we? It would seem as if promise (John 15: 7), and precept (1 Thess. 5: 17), and illustration (2 Kings 4: 33), and example (Dan. 6: 10), and exhortation (Eph. 6: 18), and warning (Matt. 26: 41), were all enlisted to enforce and press home the important truth that "men ought always to pray and not to faint." We are in an enemy's country and must keep the communications open with headquarters. We are in an element which is fatal to spiritual life, and must therefore draw all our supplies from above. "I will therefore," said the inspired apostle, "that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting" (1 Tim. 2: 8).

But Christianity is marked not only by what men are to believe. The true outward test of it will be what they do; and the practical results flowing from a true knowledge of the Father will reflect His character among men; and thus we shall carry out the golden rule, and do as we would be done by.

The entrance to the Kingdom is next spoken of under the figure of a "strait gate." There must be purpose of heart to separate from the crowd, and take an individual path at all costs. David had it (Ps. 17: 3), Daniel had it (Dan. 1), and Barnabas exhorted the young believers of Antioch to seek after it if they would make progress in the new life. There is no middle path here, and no middle place hereafter. The issues are simple, if inexpressibly solemn. A good start — the strait gate entered, the narrow way trodden the end, everlasting life. Conversion and Regeneration are the doors of entrance. Holiness marks out the pathway that leads from the strait gate to the gate of pearl. And few there be that find it. But for grace no one would.

On the other hand, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Everything agreeable to the flesh and pleasing to the eye may be carried through the wide gate and taken along the broad way, but the pleasures of Sin are but for a season, and the end is — Hell.

But the devil has many devices, and a very favourite one of hoary antiquity is the "false prophet." The first false prophet we read about in Scripture was Satan himself, and his first effort — in which he was very successful — was to challenge the truth of God's Word.

This is still his strong point, and there are many men in Christendom to-day doing his work. "Wolves in sheeps' clothing." Unconverted men, with a profession of Christianity and a show of learning, using their abilities to endeavour to throw doubts upon the inspiration, authenticity, and authority of God's Holy Word. Short and simple is the test given to detect them. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The world may admire and applaud. The disciple turns away. From such he gets neither joy for his heart nor food for his soul. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" What the thorns and thistles are in the natural world, these are in the spiritual. And the Lord, in closing, sums up the whole field of profession, by showing that the truly wise man hears, obeys, brings forth good fruit, and continues; while the mere professor, building his house on the sand, sees his house and his hopes swept away together. Many hear the sayings and do them not — a proof of their indifference and insincerity. But here, doing the sayings of Jesus is likened to building on a rock, and proves that the inward springs that govern the moral nature have been reached by the truth.

Section 4. Matthew 8, 9.

The Dignity of the King and the Characteristics of His Mission

The Gospel takes up a lost sinner in order to make him like Christ. It gives him: —

A place in His favour.

A prospect of His glory, and

A power to bring him there.

It finds him guilty and brings him pardon.

It finds him lost and brings him salvation.

It finds him helpless and brings him power.

We shall find this illustrated in the very beautiful section of our Gospel we are now entering upon, for it shows us all the activities of the power and grace of Christ meeting and defeating all the malignant power of Satan — meeting and supplying all the deep, deep need of sinners. It is really the gospel of the Kingdom introduced with a manifestation of the powers of the age to come (Heb. 2: 5). We must not confound it with the present gospel of the grace of God. The gospel of grace might come to a poor sufferer on a sick-bed with saving power for the soul, but the body is not necessarily benefited thereby. On the other hand, we find every individual brought in contact with the Lord on earth, blessed both in soul and body. It was a proof that He was there, acting in the power of the coming Kingdom, out of which, in a coming day, when it is set up upon the earth, every trace of Satan's power, and all the effects of sin, will be cast for ever.

To-day it is the Kingdom and patience of Christ we are to manifest, till He comes again. We can imagine Peter had before him these various scenes detailed in Matthew 8 and 9, when, in Cornelius' house, he declared how "God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil: for God was with him" (Acts 10: 38). He was indeed the "Man approved of God by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him" (Acts 2: 22).

The Spirit of God, then, in these two chapters particularly, sets the Lord before us as the One who had come to destroy the works of the devil. In Matthew 5 He went up into a mountain, and we are instructed as to what men ought to be. In Matthew 8 He came down from the mountain, and we find out what men are.

But in the midst of it all we see the Lord moving in the calm dignity of grace and power, dispensing healing and blessing to all who were brought to Him. And it is interesting to notice here that out of all the cases of individual blessing recorded in our Lord's ministry, nearly all were brought to Him by others. Only of some six or seven is it said, "they came." Surely here is another incentive to those who know the Lord to seek to bring others to Him. "Andrew first findeth his own brother Peter." "Philip findeth Nathanael" (John 1: 41-45).

The various miracles in this section are evidently grouped together for a special reason. By referring to Mark we find that Peter's wife's mother was healed long before the leper. May the reason for this not be that these striking miracles are placed before us here in a moral order, and designed to show the power and grace of the King in the face of the strongest opposition Satan could bring against Him; designed also to show us the results of sin, which works havoc both in soul and body.

In the eighth chapter, then, we have: —

1 Grace forgingin sins.

2 Grace calling sinners.

3 Grace bringing joy.

4 Grace raising the dead.

5 Grace restoring the diseased.

6 Grace opening blind eyes.

7 Grace unloosing the tongue of the dumb.

Seven notable proofs of Jehovah's presence among His people in power and blessing.

The first miracle in Matthew 8 is that of the leper. "There came a leper." He came, confessed the power of the Lord, and was cleansed. Then he was instructed to go to the priest. The priest had before pronounced the man unclean. Now he is called upon to pronounce him clean, and in doing so to proclaim the fact that there was One in their midst who was more than man. The King of Israel (2 Kings 5) had to say, when appealed to in Naaman's case, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive?" Leprosy was known as a disease beyond the power of man. Only God could heal the leper. Here, then, was a leper healed, and the priest was bound to announce it, and offer the prescribed offering for the occasion (Lev. 14). It was a positive proof of Messiah's power.

But in the second miracle it was a Gentile who got the blessing, and there was no question at all in the mind of the centurion of either the grace or power of Christ. His faith counted upon both, and thereby the Gentile, outside the scope of promise, honoured the Lord, and was rewarded. In commenting upon this faith, the Lord points out, in marked contrast, the unbelief of Israel, and foreshadows the rejection of the nation till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Next we find the Lord in Peter's house; and, taking the fever patient by the hand, he lifted her up (Mark 1). Surely she might well remember that hand-clasp. And the hand of weakness grasped by the hand of power, might well become a ministering hand henceforth.

Referring again to Mark, we learn that this miracle was wrought upon the Sabbath day, and then "when the evening was come" — that is, when the Sabbath day was past — "they brought unto him many that were possessed with demons, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick." Man's day was setting in darkness and sorrow. Earth's sinking sun saw only suffering humanity, but the Lord brings grace for the guilty, salvation for the lost, and deliverance for the captives of sin and Satan.

"Oh I with what various ills they met,

Oh with what joy they went away."

The Lord then sets out to cross the Sea of Galilee to the land of Gadara, originally inhabited by the tribe of Gad. And this long and, as it proved, dangerous journey is undertaken with the object of bringing deliverance to two men possessed with demons; but the occasion of the crossing became also the occasion of testing two would-be disciples. The Lord's answer to the first is very striking. "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have their nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." There was room and a home on earth for that which men think of little value. There was a place for that which men count even injurious, but the King of Glory was a homeless Stranger. Peter's fisher coat might afford Him a rough pillow while crossing the lake; but the Son of Man had not where to lay His head. And here for the first time we get this new title He applies to Himself. It spoke volumes to Israel, could Israel have understood, for He did not become the "Son of Man" until He had first become the "rejected Messiah."

If the first follower was hindered by worldly position, the second was hindered by worldly ties, and neither can be allowed before the claims of Christ. The beginning of all discipleship is unquestioning obedience produced in the heart by love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord might have prevented the storm; He allowed it, and that for two reasons. The disciples had to learn what manner of MAN this was who was with them, and the second was that HE was the One to whom to turn in every difficulty. Doubtless their seamanship had often been tested in days gone by on that same lake, but here was evidently something out of the common. They saw nothing before them but disaster, and although the Lord was with them, and though they had witnessed His power so often before, yet they "were afraid." They had not yet learned to trust Him wholly. The Lord first reproves them for their fears, and then delivers them from their dangers. One has said, "He did not chide them for disturbing Him with their prayers, but for disturbing themselves with their fears."

What comes out in the closing half of our chapter is the power of Satan, seen in three ways: (a) Over the elements, in his attempt to raise a storm that would destroy the Christ of God Himself; (b) over two men so under his power as to be worse than the wild beasts of the earth; (c) lastly, over a people so blinded by sin that when One was present in grace and power to bless, they "besought him to depart out of their coasts." And the Lord does so.

Matthew 9 shows some of the characteristics of the wonderful mission that brought the Son of God to earth. It was not only a question of delivering from the effects of Satan's power, but removing the cause which gave him that power over men. And so when the Lord saw the faith of the friends of the palsied man, doubtless reflected in the heart of the man himself, He responds in the first place, not by healing the man's bodily disease, but by touching what was deeper, the disease of the soul — He forgave his sins. Which brings out this, that here in His own city — Capernaum — where many of His mighty works had been done, the Scribes saw in Him only a man, and dared to say that He was a blasphemer.

At Matthew 8: 34, His works were rejected: here His divine person and heavenly origin is despised, and later in our chapter the leaders of the people commit the unpardonable sin by ascribing His acts of power to Beelzebub. Such is man by nature, even at his best. Everything was leading up to His rejection by the nation, and the nation's rejection by Him.

But not only is He the Forgiver of Sins. Grace brings sinners into His own presence — yea, even to the table with Him; just what the same grace is doing to-day to all who own their guilt and accept His mercy.

The call of Matthew is an occasion where we see the activity of grace in the heart of one who has become a recipient of it. From Mark's Gospel we learn that Matthew was so enraptured with the grace that had deigned to call a poor publican like himself, that he made a great feast in his own house; and a great company of publicans and sinners were gathered together to meet with Jesus. And there was great joy in that house, for the blessed ones were in the presence of the Blesser, and in the realisation of what the Psalmist experienced when he said, "In thy presence is fulness of joy: at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Ps. 16: 11).

The Pharisees raise the question of fasting, but the One who alone was the source of all true joy was in their midst: how unseemly, then, to be occupied with that which was an expression of sorrow.

The Lord next develops the principle of this new thing in the two short parables which follow. The "new cloth" and the "new wine" are the principles of sovereign grace, as opposed to the old covenant of legal righteousness.

Israel of old was under a covenant of works, but, when Christ came, the end of that economy came with Him. Henceforth God was dealing with men in pure unmixed grace. The publican and the sinner were nearer the Kingdom of God than the ceremonially perfect Pharisee, who boasted in his own righteousness and despised others — nearer because they owned their badness, instead of boasting in their fancied goodness. Neither would it do to mingle these two things. Law and grace cannot be blended. The Galatians tried to mix them, and were soundly rebuked by the inspired Apostle. Christendom is doing it to-day, and the result is that the terror is taken from the law by the effort to pare it down to meet men's failures, and all the sweetness is taken from the grace of God by a system of works which tries to earn His favour.

Rightly understood the holy law of God must ever be a source of terror to unholy man, for under it there is no hope for him at all. It demands righteousness from man, without giving him power to produce it. It exposes and condemns his sins, without providing any way to remove them.

Grace, on the other hand, is the sweetest sound that ever reached the sinner's ears, for it deals not at all with what he is, but with what God is: God, who gave up His Son unto death, and that for the ungodly, Christ who redeemed him from the curse of law by being made a curse, and now the Holy Spirit of God come down to make good in his heart these precious truths and lead him into the enjoyment of all the boundless privileges grace has heaped upon him. There can neither be deliverance nor worship until grace is known and enjoyed.

Next in order we have the case of one who was dead, of one with an incurable disease, of two who were blind, and of one who was dumb. Could any addition be made to this sum of human misery? Could the works of the devil be more manifestly displayed? And all this in the midst of the Lord's own nation of Israel. And, figuratively, it is a picture of Israel; and the mighty works the Lord did in their midst, for individuals, form a type of what He will yet do for the nation, when He sets His hand, in a coming day, to recover and restore His ancient people.

But what we have specially to notice at the close of our chapter is this, that the Pharisees and rulers of the people, after all that they had seen of His works of power, and after all that they had heard of His words of grace, gave it as their considered opinion, "He casteth out devils through the prince of devils" (verse 34).

The King was definitely rejected. The blind men (verse 37) acknowledge Him as "Son of David," and by David's greater Son they are healed: but it was done "in the house" apart from the multitude; and when healed they were charged no longer to proclaim Him as such. His relationship was now no longer that of "Son of David" to the nation, but the wider one of "Son of Man" to the multitudes who were "scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd."

From this standpoint the Lord begins another circuit of Galilee, and in patient grace we find Him going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. We have before noticed that the expression "Kingdom of Heaven" is found only in Matthew; and only in Matthew do we get "Gospel of the Kingdom," and that thrice repeated (Matt. 4, 9, 24). Here was the cure for all the ills that afflicted Jehovah's land; but, alas! Israel refused the Gospel of the Kingdom then, as sinners to-day refuse the Gospel of Grace. And there never was grace like the grace of Christ. He was moved to compassion by the sight of the fainting multitudes, and He would have His disciples to share the same compassion for the lost as moved His own heart. With this motive they would pray with a sense of the urgency of the need, and this need is as great to-day.

The three short commands, "Pray ye," "Look ye," "Go ye," are intimately connected. Can we truly obey one without obeying all?

Section 5. Matthew 10, 11, 12.

The King's Messengers, the King's Message, and the King Himself Rejected

It is very important to be clear as to the teaching of this section of our Gospel in order rightly to understand the whole. It records the events that lead up to, and introduce the change of dispensations following the rejection of the Messiah.

In the first place the King's messengers go out with the King's message. The nation rejects the messengers and refuse the message. John, the forerunner, is imprisoned. The people that rejected both John and the Lord are likened to children who would respond to the voice neither of mirth nor of mourning. The pride and worldliness of Tyre and Sidon would meet with a less severe judgment than the cities of Galilee which had seen His mighty works. But though rejected by the people and their leaders, yet the weary and heavy-laden would come to Him and find rest; and as the Sabbath was intended to be a sign of a kept law, He exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who professed to keep the Sabbath and yet rejected the Lord of the Sabbath. Their only reply to His words of grace and acts of power was to hold a council against Him, how they might destroy Him. Henceforth it was all over with the nation. The new thing was announced according to prophecy. Judgment would go forth to the Gentiles who were outside the scope of Jewish promise, in the darkness of heathendom and the prison-house of the devil. The result would be the "new song to the Lord" and His praise to the ends of the earth (Isa. 42: 1-10). The Pharisees desire a sign, and get two, which showed them, could they only have seen it, that they would be condemned by the faith of those who had both less light and fewer privileges. Jonah did no signs, and Solomon's wisdom was not to be compared with that of Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

But looking a little closer into details we find that Matthew 10 opens with the mission of the twelve. At the close of Matthew 9 they were instructed to pray for labourers to be sent forth, and here we find them being sent forth themselves. The disciples now become apostles — sent ones. Hitherto they had been following with the Lord, as disciples; now they go forth for the Lord, as servants, and the chapter is full of the deepest practical instruction for every servant, now, as well as then.

In the first place we get a list of the names of the twelve, and here only Matthew is called "the publican"; it is as if the writer desired to express his appreciation of the grace that could take up a poor publican and number him among that select company — the Apostles of the Lamb.

The Lord then instructs them as to: —

1 The sphere of their mission.

2 The persons to whom the message was sent,

3 The character of the message, and

4 Its evidences.

It was a purely Jewish mission of Jewish apostles to the Jewish people, and, this being so, neither Samaritan nor Gentile has any part in it.

This should make it clear to all that this mission of the twelve had nothing in common with the present Gospel of the grace of God which goes out to all, world wide, without exception or distinction, consequent upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here the apostles are instructed to go only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." They were as sheep having no shepherd, or even in a worse position still, according to Zech. 11: 5, as a flock of slaughter The nation had reached the period when "their possessors (the Romans) slay them and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them (the Herodians) say, 'Blessed be the Lord for I am rich': and their own shepherds (the Pharisees) pity them not." Such was Israel's miserable plight when the Lord Jesus appeared, God come down in grace to deliver, proclaiming as "at hand" that Kingdom which had been so long promised through the prophets. But in spite of all He said, or did, or was, the King — the true Shepherd of Israel — was rejected, and what the prophet Zechariah had foretold now took place. "I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people" (Zech. 11: 10). The whole chapter is of great interest in connection with this portion of our Gospel.

The character of the message and its evidences bear further testimony that it was the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy. That the Kingdom was near was evidenced by the powers of the coming age having been conferred upon, and now to be manifested by, the King's messengers. Four things they were instructed to do: —

Heal the sick.

Cleanse the lepers.

Raise the dead.

Cast out devils (demons).

In short, disease, death, and the devil would yield to the power of Jehovah exercised by His servants, as they will again do in a coming day, when Jehovah is Judge, Lawgiver, and King, and "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick" (Isa. 33: 24). But to apply such a scripture to the present dispensation only betrays ignorance of the ways of God. The man who bases on this for so-called faith healing is equally bound to raise the dead; and his failure should convince him of his folly.

But their mission would be in no wise accepted by the nation. Indeed, the Lord warned them that they would find themselves as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore their dependence was to be upon God Himself. Their Lord had been persecuted and rejected; so would they be. The Person of Christ, the people of Christ, and the Word of Christ, are three things that the world hates. Satan and the works of Satan it can tolerate; for, alas! the evil heart of man understands them; but, when One came from God with power to deliver, the only answer the world had was "crucify Him." The Master was called Beelzebub, so would the servant be.

It is important to note that this mission is looked upon as continuous, right on "till the Son of Man be come" (verse 24). No doubt it was interrupted at the Cross, and from then until the Church period is over, it will continue to be so. But when the Church is rapt to the glory, Messiah's messengers will again go forth with the Kingdom Gospel, and Messiah Himself will appear to establish His Kingdom in power, as we shall see more fully in Matthew 25.

But in the meantime, and until that day of power, the disciples would be in the place of testimony for a rejected Lord, and therefore hated by the world, and it is beautiful to notice how He fortifies their hearts against the world's opposition. In the first place: —

They were the objects of the Father's care. If that care extended even to the unimportant sparrow, how much more to the confessors of Christ? And so intimately are they known to Him that even the very hairs of their heads were numbered — nothing could really harm them. Again:

Their faithful testimony here would ensure honourable mention in the day of glory. It is one of the ways of God with His children here, that we are often delivered from occupation with present things, by having the light of the future turned upon them. So Paul reckoned that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed (Rom. 8: 18). For if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him (2 Tim. 2). The Cross-bearer here is going to be Crown-wearer by and by.

But there is further encouragement for them of a different character at the close of the chapter. only one Servant was ever able to go on in a path of unceasing rejection, and that was the Master Himself. He had to say: "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). His path, uncheered by earthly smiles, led only to the Cross. But for these servants, if some rejected them, there would be those who would receive their testimony, and the receivers would be blessed of the Father and inherit the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world (Chap 25).

We can see clearly, as we study these chapters, how Israel was now on her last trial. In her past history she had turned to idolatry, from the living and true God. Elijah's accusation was a true one when he said: "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword." Bitter captivity, as they had been forewarned, had followed fast upon their sin; but grace had again intervened, and a remnant of the nation was once more in Israel's land. Now, it was no more a question of broken laws, neglected altars, or persecuted prophets; but a question as to Messiah Himself. Jehovah — Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us — become, in grace, the Servant, although the very King of Glory. He was in their midst; and, if He was rejected, there only lay before them the last Roman captivity, as foreshadowed by Daniel's devouring "beast" (Dan. 7), Jerusalem's desolation, as foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the Kingdom of God taken from them, and, finally (Messiah having been rejected), the Antichrist would be accepted, and so bring upon the nation the great tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, before the Lord returned in power and glory.

The study of this chapter is of the utmost importance, in order rightly to understand the ways of God with men.

Matthew 11 lays bare the springs of evil in the heart of man, that could reject both the grace and power of Messiah, as shown in Matthew 10 by His messengers, and His own gracious ministry (Chap. 11: 1). The wicked king, the "idol shepherd" — Herod — had imprisoned the faithful and fearless Forerunner. In the gloomy dungeon of Macherus, John, brooding alone in his bondage, would seem to have questioned whether, after all, his own mission had not been a failure. Where was the Kingdom he had announced, and what proof was there that the King was really present? Hence the questionings of his spirit found utterance in the inquiry, "Art Thou He?"

The Lord replied to His dying witness by acts of power and words of comfort. When the disciples of John had departed, the Lord praises the devoted constancy of His servant. John was no weakling — no "reed shaken with the wind." King's courts were not familiar places to him, and the smiles and frowns of kings were matters of equal indifference. lie was "more than a prophet," for he was honoured by being the immediate messenger of Jehovah. Himself. But the Lord marks the change of dispensation by announcing that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, as sons of God, had a nearer relationship than even John — "no greater" servant of woman born. Prophetic testimony had been since Abel downwards: that was now ended, and Messiah Himself was present, of whom all the prophets had spoken: and this fact made the sin of the age — the rejection of Jesus — the greatest it was possible for man to commit. Tyre's worldliness and Sodom's immorality were eclipsed by the unbelief of the cities of Galilee.

Turning from them, the Lord in verses 25-30 reveals the divine purposes and counsels whereby "the babe" (the true disciple) is instructed into the deep things of God. Here our Gospel touches on the main subject developed in the Gospel of John — the revelation of the Father and the Son. The Lord returns, as it were, back to the eternal purposes of God. If the throne of David was denied Him by the nation, all things were given Him by the Father, and He alone could reveal the Father to His own. The ineffable Godhead glory of the Father could only be revealed by the Son. But that He could reveal it, proved His own Personal Deity, for who but God could reveal God? Further, a knowledge of the mystery of the divine Son of God incarnate — His Being and Person — very God, and yet a true Man upon the earth, could be known only by the Father alone.

This One then calls to Himself the weary of every class, and clime, and nation, in order to give them rest. Here only was rest to be found, for He alone could lay the foundation upon which every purpose of God in grace to the world was to be established.

Not only was rest of conscience to be given there was also rest of heart to be found but the last is only promised upon the ground of discipleship. To learn of Him: to be yoked with Him: to be meek and lowly like Him — is there a power in earth or hell that can disturb or distract the soul that has entered, in a practical way, into these sublime and heavenly truths?

In Matthew 12 we find Messiah's messengers an hungered, even in Messiah's land, so thoroughly had their Master been rejected. Walking by the side of the corn-fields, the disciples pluck the ears of corn and eat them, which was allowed by the law (Deut. 23: 25). The Lord then uses the opposition the Pharisees made to this, to show them, both in teaching and practice, that every link with God, for that generation, was now completely severed. What were mere forms of godliness, when the Son of God Himself was despised? In the nation's history, in days gone by, there had been a time analogous to the present. David, the true king, was rejected and fleeing for his life. The people's king, Saul, was on the throne, and God's king was an exile. On the Sabbath day (compare Lev. 24 with 1 Sam. 21) David and his followers did eat of the shewbread, which pertained only to the priests, and were blameless. But what the Pharisees did prove by their opposition was their own inconsistency and guilty rejection of divine power, made manifest before all. And this would ultimately be the cause of their own rejection by God Himself, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Following upon the next miracle of healing the man with the withered hand — apt picture of Israel who should have been strong for God, and was not — the Holy Spirit directs attention to the true Servant, and His beautiful characteristics as described in Isaiah's glowing page.

1 He was the Chosen One.

2 The Beloved.

3 Filled with the Spirit.

4 The One who would show judgment to the nations.

5 Patient and Tender.

6 Finally Victorious, and

7 The One in whom the Gentiles would trust (Isa. 42).

Henceforth it is no longer a question of blessing to Israel only; the gracious service, in the hands of the Perfect Servant, the "Son of Man," now assumes a wider aspect, and there is final blessing for the whole earth.

In Isaiah 5 the prophet describes what God had done for the nation, and what the nation had failed to be for God. The six "woes," in the same chapter, describe the sad result "because they had cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel" (verse 24). But the True Servant "shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law" (Isa. 62: 4).

One other miracle the Lord works about this time, as if to show conclusively His divine authority: There was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and He healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. We have had blind eyes opened and deaf ears unstopped, but here both together, in one subject, are brought before us as a picture of where the nation now was, led on by their blind guides, refusing either to see or confess their own Messiah in their midst. The people might say, "Is not this the Son of David?" but the foes of Christ charge Him with being the minister of satanic power, and thus commit the sin of sins by blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God.

Even after the Cross, the first martyr, Stephen, had to charge home upon their conscience the same terrible guilt, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost" (Acts 7: 51).

The Lord goes on to show: —

That Satan did not war against himself.

That the Kingdom of God was among them.

That the "strong man," Satan, had been bound, and

That "his goods," the souls of men, could now be set free.

However, that generation was judged. It was a corrupt tree and could not bring forth good fruit. Being evil, their words were idle and evil, and for every idle word they would come into judgment. Their fathers in the wilderness had spoken against Jehovah in their midst in power, and His anger was kindled. Here Jehovah was in their midst in grace, and as their fathers had done, so did they.

It is remarkable, how that after all the mighty works the Lord had done among them, the Pharisees should still demand a sign, and it is also well to notice that out of the forty-six recorded miracles of our Lord, no less than thirty-three were wrought in Galilee. No further sign would convince them, but the Lord gives them two that would condemn them. Jonah, up from the depth of the sea, type of Christ risen from among the dead, and preached in grace to the Gentiles, was the first. But if Messiah was cut off, what hope for that generation? And the fact that the men of Nineveh received and bowed to the voice of the prophet, while the men of Israel refused the voice of One greater than Jonah, would add tenfold to their condemnation.

The second sign was the attractive power of the wisdom of Solomon for the heart of the Queen of Sheba. The fame of this wisdom (1 Kings 8) produced something in her heart beyond the mere repentance of the Ninevites. It had the effect of bringing her into the presence of the king; and the result was that every desire of her heart was satisfied. How much greater was the One in whose presence they were? The One who had given to Solomon his wisdom, and his riches, and his glory, was in their midst, but they saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him.

And then the Lord passes to the end, and with sad and solemn words, in parabolic language, describes the present and future history of the nation.

Of all the various forms of evil with which Satan has sought to lead men from God, no form seems to have been so successful as idolatry. We do not know that it was in the world before the flood. Then the devil wrought through the unbridled passions of men, left to the freedom of their own lusts. When the sword of justice was put into the hands of Noah and his sons, restraint was put upon physical violence, but moral evil thereupon blossomed unchecked. Because men did not like to retain the knowledge of the true God, and because they must have a god of some kind, at the instigation of Satan, they made gods for themselves, and attributed to these idols all the evil passions that filled their own hearts. Soon idolatry had filled the whole known world; and God, in electing grace, had to call Abram entirely out of his father's house, in order to become the "father of the faithful." Yet how successfully the "unclean spirit" carried on his operations, even amidst the chosen seed, may be seen when we find idolatry tacitly allowed even in Jacob's household, in the wilderness openly indulged in, and publicly provided for under the reign of Israel's wisest king, until God, through His prophet, had to warn, in the days of Manasseh, what the result would be. And very soon afterwards Jerusalem was "wiped as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down" (2 Kings 21: 13).

From that day till the present moment idolatry has been unknown among the Jews. The "unclean spirit" went out, and the house was left empty, swept, and garnished. It was not that evil under other forms was not among them, but idolatry was not there. Nevertheless, the Lord says that in a coming day, a sevenfold spirit of evil — idolatry and worse — will take possession of the guilty generation. Man himself will usurp the place of God, and demand and receive that adoration and worship which is only due to God alone. Both "the beast" and his "image" will be worshipped, and that by men and by a nation of the highest intelligence upon the face of the earth. There is no form of evil that men, in spite of all their boasted civilisation, will not indulge in, if left to the control of Satan and the desire of their own wicked hearts.

But when man has reached his lowest, God comes in, and He will take a hand in the affairs of Israel, and of the earth, in judgment, and "destroy the men who destroy the earth" (Rev. 11: 18).

This chapter should be studied in connection with that beautiful section of Isaiah 49 — 53. In Isa. 48 Israel, who should have been the servant of Jehovah, is charged with obstinacy and treacherous dealing, and formally set aside. In Isa. 49 the True Servant is announced, and after His mission to Israel, He has to say, "I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. . . . And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth" (verses 4-6). There would then be blessing, not for Israel only, but for all nations. This was now beginning to be fulfilled, but the Cross had to come in before there could be blessing for any.

Isaiah 50 deals with the Blessed One upon the earth: His life of obedience to God and suffering at the hands of men. "The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiter, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting" (verses 5, 6). In Isaiah 51 the day of redemption has come, and there is a threefold call to the remnant to "hearken," and the promise that the days of mourning are ended and those of joy and gladness begun. The cup of trembling is taken out of her hands, and Jerusalem is exhorted (Isa. 52) to awake and put on her beautiful garments. Then Jehovah turns (Isa. 53) to contemplate His perfect Servant, upon the earth, in all His wonderful pathway of dependence and devotedness to the will of God: of rejection and suffering at the hands of men.

But there was still a deeper depth. Expiation, atonement, and propitiation could only be through blood-shedding and death, and He became obedient unto death, "wherefore God also hath highly exalted him" (Phil. 2). His work is above every work: His name above every name.

As one result of that work, Israel's blessing is secured upon the ground of sovereign grace, and, in the bright millennial day (Isa . 54), she is invited to break forth into singing. She is no longer Lo-Ami (not my people), but her Maker is her husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name.

It seems hardly necessary to add that the prophet, after describing "the sufferings of Christ," goes on to describe "the glory that should follow." He necessarily passes over the Church, which was a mystery then hid in the counsels of God, but to be revealed after the Lord had taken His seat on high.

But all this was consequent upon the rejection of the Messiah, and coming back again to the close of Matthew 12, we find (verse 46) that the Lord now, in figure, breaks the last earthly link with Israel after the flesh. Everything of the old economy was over. The Jews might boast of having Abraham for their father, being Moses' disciples, having the law, and the prophets but prophets, priesthood, law, or kingdom was now of no account before God. The abuse of these privileges only rendered their guilt the deeper. In short, this chapter brings us to the close of the moral history of the nation.

But new relationships of a spiritual character were about to begin, and these would be manifested by: —

1 Following Christ.

2 Hearing the Word of God.

3 Doing the Father's will.

Section 6. Matthew 13.

The Outward and Inward Aspects of the Kingdom in the Absence of the King

The Bible is a book in two parts. The Old Testament has to do with the earth. It is the mind of Heaven revealed to man upon the earth to fit him for the earth.

But man closed his ears to the voice of God, disobeyed the divine will, and made himself unfit for the earth in which God had placed him. Eden and innocence were lost by Adam. Canaan and liberty were lost by Israel. Happiness and holiness have been lost by all because of sin and disobedience.

Hence the New Testament has to do with heaven. It reveals the mind of God as to how men, who had made themselves unfit for the earth, might be made fit for heaven itself through the Gospel.

The portion of our Gospel which we have so far been considering has had to do with Israel, still dealt with on the ground of responsibility. Messiah was presented for their acceptance or rejection, as men upon the earth; and, as we have seen, He had been rejected. Accordingly, at the close of Matthew 12, the Lord announces new terms of relationship — even that which was of a spiritual character. "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother," and the same day He went out of the house and sat by the seaside.

Then follows the most remarkable series of parables given in any of the Gospels. Their number — seven — is in itself suggestive. We meet first with this number in Scripture in Genesis 2, where the seventh day is called the "Sabbath" from a root meaning to be "full," "satisfied," or "perfected." So God rested on the seventh day. His work was perfected. Nothing could be added to it.

These seven parables then set forth in symbolic language, systematic order, and historical sequence the moral characteristics of: —

The origin,

Outward progress,

Declension, and

Consummation

of the Kingdom of Heaven as seen in the hands of men. At the same time, they also disclose the true inward and hidden aspect of that Kingdom in mystery, God's husbandry, God's building — against which neither the wickedness of men, the assaults of Satan, or the powers of hell can prevail.

Thus we see unfolded before us: —

1 What Christ does.

2 What Satan does, and

3 What men do.

Parable 1

The object of the opening parable is to show: —

1 The way in which the Word of the Kingdom is introduced.

2 The hindrances it encounters, and

3 The results it achieves.

The sower is the Lord Himself. He is no longer seeking fruit from Israel, but He is beginning in the world at large a new work of grace, which, like the good seed, will reproduce itself.

But, as there were obstacles in the way of the seed, so there are hindrances to the operations of grace.

The devil, the world, and the flesh oppose: —

1 Some of the seed fell "by the wayside." Here we have pictured that condition of heart which is, alas, but too common wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. There are hearts so careless and indifferent that they fail to see either their danger in rejecting the Gospel, or their blessing in receiving it. And in addition to this there is the enemy without who is ever ready to take advantage of the condition within. He catcheth away the word. These are the Hard-Hearted.

2 Again, some of the seed fell upon stony places where there was not much depth of earth. Two things are said of these. They had no depth of earth, hence no root, and when the sun was up they withered away.

In His interpretation (verse 20) the Lord says of these here represented that they received the word with joy, but when persecution arose they were offended (stumbled). Joy, though a very important part of Christian experience, is not usually the first result of the Spirit's work in the soul. If the conscience be ploughed up there will be deep exercise as to sin, and joy will only come when the sin question is settled. Hence we gather that there was, on the part of those spoken of here, no real knowledge of either sin, self, or grace, and so no ability to continue when persecution arose for the Word's sake. In short, they are the Faint-Hearted.

3 "And some fell among thorns." Here the ground is already occupied with something else, and something also which is indigenous to the soil. The thorns were there before the seed fell amongst them. So much so that Matthew takes no account of the apparent growth of the seed at all — only of the thorns, and Luke notices it only to show that the flourishing condition of the thorns choked the seed.

The Lord shows here the utter impossibility of producing fruit for God while the heart is occupied with the world, and in Luke the whole circle of worldly influences is represented its cares, its riches, or its pleasures. The three combined, or any one of them, may so fill the heart that the Word of God, though falling on the ear, and even being tacitly consented to by the mind, may yet produce no saving faith in the soul or fruit in the life, because there is no purpose of heart for God and no break with the world.

These may be classed as the Half-Hearted.

Yet, in spite of all the opposition of the devil, the flesh, and the world, the Word accomplishes the most remarkable results.

4 Some fell on good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Is the difference to be accounted for on the ground of fidelity or opportunity? The Lord does not here take up the question, but other scriptures show that both will be taken into consideration in the great Day of Rewards.

But the disciples understood none of these things until the Lord opened out the meaning before them. To disciples it had been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom; and the Lord's interpretation of the "sower" and of the "tares in the field" would, no doubt, instruct them in the meaning of all parables.

Broadly speaking, the results of the sowing are such as follow the preaching of the Gospel in all ages and among all nations. Some are "good ground" hearers, and produce good fruit. Many, alas! are careless, and whether the hindrance be the devil, the world, or the flesh, they bring no fruit to perfection.

Parable 2

But in the next parable we have a further development of the history of the Kingdom, as committed to the hands of man, and four things follow: —

1 There is carelessness on the part of those who should have been watchers.

2 The enemy no longer "catches away" that which was sown. He adopts a new plan, and sows tares among the wheat.

3 The servants get instructions for their guidance under the new conditions, and

4 The Lord shows what is in store for both "wheat" and "tares" at the end of the age.

The Book of Acts reveals to us how very early in the history of the Church Satan began his operations of introducing the "children of the wicked one" among the "children of the Kingdom." And though faithfulness on the part of Peter was able to detect and expose Simon Magus (Acts 8: 21), yet such godly care and watchfulness soon, alas! disappeared, and evil men crept in unawares, just as the Lord here foretold.

The servants, however, in the parable were prompt to appraise the evil at its true value when it showed itself, and they seek instructions from the Lord for wisdom to deal with it. And here we must note carefully the Lord's interpretation of the parable to understand rightly the force of the instructions He gives them.

The field is the world — the kosmos. Here the word "world" indicates the sphere where the Word of God goes forth. In verses 39, 40 it indicates the space of time allowed for its dissemination. It is no longer a question of the land of Israel and a testimony to Messiah inside, with no appeal to Samaritan or Gentile outside of it, but the scope of the operations of grace will be world-wide, and the Kingdom of Heaven will be open to all without exception or distinction.

The good seed are the children of the Kingdom. There is here a historical as well as a moral development. It is not a question of seed to reproduce itself as the result of a sowing, but it deals with what has been produced and is now in evidence in "the field." The "children of the Kingdom" are there, as was to be expected. But there are also the "children of the wicked one," wholly unexpected on the part of the servants who knew not the forces of evil at work, though unseen by men. It is the beginning of the "mystery of iniquity." Of those who bear the name of Christ, but have not the Spirit of Christ — unconverted and unregenerate, yet in the field of Christian profession, the Lord says, with solemn emphasis, that they are the "children of the wicked one."

The servants have a suggested cure for these unexpected conditions, but the Lord shows them that their method is not the divine way. Penal judgment in divine things is never committed into the hands of men. The "tares" are in the Kingdom, and are to be allowed there until the "harvest." Evil men are not to be put out of the Kingdom, which could only be done by putting them to death.

Rome, interpreting "the field" to be "the Church," though in plain contradiction to the scripture, and which it is not, has endeavoured to root out those whom she branded as "tares," and thereby made herself responsible for the blood of fifty millions of the saints of God. Protestantism has gone to the opposite extreme, and with a spirit of latitudinarianism utterly regardless of the claims of Christ or the holiness of the House of God, has allowed all kinds of men and many forms of evil doctrine to enter the professing Church, arguing that as there were "tares" in the "field," so there would be the unconverted in the Church — a right premise, but an utterly wrong conclusion.

How important it is to divide rightly the word of truth (2 Tim. 2: 15).

Continuing His instructions the Lord unmasks the cause of this condition of things: —

The enemy that sowed them is the devil. For reasons beyond our ken, Satan is allowed to carry out his plans to the apparent disorganising of the plans of God. It was so at Eden, and his apparent success ended in man's expulsion from the paradise of God. In the post-diluvian world, although the original curse was partly removed and violence was no longer allowed to fill the earth to the same extent as before the flood, yet Satan was ready with something else to take its place, and mankind in the mass very soon became wholly given up to idolatry. No sooner was Abraham called out from his own country to be a stranger in the land of Canaan, than we see the wiles of the enemy under another form, and the son of the bondwoman is foisted into the place of the true seed. Foiled again in this, we trace the workings of the old serpent in the hatred of the ten brethren against Joseph, the uprisings against Moses, the grievous departure from God when in the land, the revolt of the ten tribes from the house of David, and the rapid declension of both kings and people from the ways of God, until He removed both Judah and Israel out of their own land because "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36: 16).

When Israel, for the time, is set aside, and the Kingdom of Heaven introduced, the enemy, alert in evil as ever, is ready with an imitation of that which is real. But the Lord brings the light of the future to illumine what is dark in the present, and He tells His disciples that the enemy's success is only for a time. Both wheat and tares grow together until the harvest, but at the harvest — the end of the age everything will come out in its true colours It cannot be too often repeated that it is not the end of the world that is in view here, but a definite moment in the dealings of God with this world, and from other scriptures we learn that that time will be just before the setting up of the Millennial Kingdom. It must be carefully distinguished both from the coming of the Lord for His people (1 Thess. 4), which takes place shortly before this, and also from the Judgment of the Great White Throne (Rev. 20), which does not take place until a thousand years afterwards.

When the Lord comes for His people it is a question of the righteous being taken out from among the wicked.

Here it is a question of the wicked being taken out from among the righteous.

At the Judgment of the Great White Throne, there is no separation at all, for all alike have died in sin, been buried in sin, and, raised again unrepentant and unforgiven, are alike cast into the lake of fire — solemn thought!

But here the Lord takes the character of Son of Man, and as such He deals with the earth. He will come to deliver the faithful, judge the ungodly, purge the earth, fulfil to the suffering ones of Israel every promise of Matthew 5, and introduce the long promised Kingdom in power, and in glory, and in universal blessing according to Isaiah 60 and Zechariah 14.

Further, this scripture tells us how this will be done: —

The Reapers are the Angels. — There will be angelic ministry in that day, such as heretofore the world has only had glimpses of. Under the old economy the angels were, if we might so say, in the place of rule (Gal. 3: 19). In the present day of grace they are seen in the place of lowly service to the children of the Kingdom (Heb. 1: 14). But in the coming day will be seen the angels of His power as the executors of the judgment of God upon evil, and evil men.

Just as the husbandman gathers together the useless tares, and binds them in bundles with the ultimate object of their destruction, so evil men will be found at the close of this age banded together against the Lord and against His people, and as such their confederacies will be dealt with by the Lord. Their solemn end is the furnace of fire, where there is "wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Then will be seen the final triumph of the ways of God, and the crushing failure of all the wiles of the devil. The wickedness of men, the malice of Satan, and the fruits of sin will all be fully exposed, righteously judged, and eternally punished.

The triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ over all authority and power will be manifested.

The righteousness of God will be vindicated.

The redeemed will be brought into all the blessings of the New Covenant of Grace (Ezek. 36), and Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

Parable 3

Parable 3 (verses 31, 32) brings out a further development of world principles in the outward aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Not only would there be a mingling of wheat and tares — of mere professors with the children of the Kingdom — but here we are given to see that that which began as a small thing in the earth, and was to be heavenly in its character, as it was in its origin, would become a great "tree in the earth" — ever a symbol of world power — under whose branches the "birds of the air" — servants of the wicked one — would find a lodgment. It is what corresponds to the Pergamos period of the history of the Church (Rev. 2: 12), and historically would doubtless begin with the Empire of Constantine the Great, A.D. 312. When Christianity ceased to be the persecuted, despised, and down-trodden confession of the few, but, embraced by the Emperor of the Roman world, received world-wide patronage and protection one, among many, of the evil results was that the way to become powerful in the world was to become great in the Church. Immediately "grievous wolves" (Acts 20: 29) entered in, not sparing the flock. The professing Church became a great world power. It was no longer thought necessary for the bishops to fulfil the conditions of 1 Timothy 3. They would much rather sit on "thrones" drawing ample revenues, dispensing the "patronage of the Church" to their own advantage, and, alas! sometimes be found eating and drinking with the drunken (Chap. 24). This is no exaggerated picture, as every student of. Church history will admit. Take either the earlier times or the later. Perhaps it was more marked in the fourth century because it was a new thing. Up till that period, to be an outstanding man in the Church was to be a mark for the shafts of persecution. After Constantine, it became a position to be coveted by the man of the world, for it brought with it money and fame and worldly influence.

In short, the Kingdom of Heaven in the history of its administration by the hands of men, became a great world power, affording lodgment for much that was evil (the "birds of the air") instead of maintaining its heavenly character of separation from the world, holiness before men, and lowliness before God.

Parable 4

The next parable lays bare the inward principles which were at work, unseen, but pregnant with power, and that, alas! a power for evil.

It begins in the Thyatiran period when the "Woman Jezebel" (Rev. 2) is allowed to teach and seduce and, historically, it will have its complete fulfilment in Babylon (Rev. 17) when that which is merely hypocrisy and false profession will have passed beyond the Laodicean stage and become wholly satanic and abominable — the leaven hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.

There is a certain definite area supposed in the "three measures" inside of which the "leaven" works. Leaven being everywhere else in Scripture a type of that which is evil, we must so expect to find it here, and only thus can we have an orderly and progressive setting forth of the subject dealt with.

Just as former parables have shown the "children of the wicked one" in the Kingdom, so here we have shown to us that which fills their hearts. They are those "who receive not the love of the truth" (2 Thess. 2: 12). "They will not endure sound doctrine" but "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables" (2 Tim. 4: 12). They are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith (2 Tim. 3: 8). Let anyone but look round to-day and he will see how rapidly things in Christendom are hastening to the above consummation.

Think of some only of the great and rapidly increasing cults of evil doctrine in our midst to-day, such as Spiritism, Eddyism, Russellism, and many others. Then consider that these rapidly growing organisations are being recruited from the ranks of those who once made a profession of Christianity but are now apostate therefrom.

Then, in the various so-called "orthodox" denominations, see the indifference of many, and the opposition of some to the very cardinal doctrines of Christian truth. For example, take the Inspiration of Scripture. How loosely men talk and write of the "mistakes" of Moses, the "contradictions" of the Synoptists, or the "errors" in the later Scriptures, "understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm" (1 Tim. 1: 7). They have not hesitated to bring their irreverent and unregenerate minds to pry into the sacred mystery of the Son of God come down in grace; and teachings are received without protest, derogatory alike to His Holy Person, His finished work, and His divine glory.

These are but illustrations of the corrupting form of the leaven at work at the present moment in that which bears the name of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here, then, in these three parables we have set forth a developing and an increasing growth of evil, both externally and internally, in that which professes to represent the rule of heaven upon the earth. At the beginning, a few tares among the wheat, at which the servants are surprised. Then a great tree instead of a lowly mustard plant. And, again, a leavening process by the evil doctrines of men, instead of the truth as "the truth is in Jesus" (Eph. 4: 21). And at this stage, these things are accepted as matters of course. There is apparently no one now so much in the mind of the Master as to inquire: "Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field?"

In view of these startling and wholly unexpected (on their part) developments, well might the disciples say, "Declare unto us the parable of the tares in the field."

Verse 36 begins the second section of the chapter. In the house the Lord expounds the parable to His disciples. As we have seen, the just judgment of God will clear the ground for the reign of righteousness to begin, and the wicked will no longer be allowed to remain in the Kingdom, or even on the earth. They will be cast — solemn thought — into a furnace of fire. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

Parable 5

The next two parables are of special interest. The action of the narrative is no longer occupied with the development of events within the Kingdom either for good or for evil. It is no question of what men may either do or teach; but the mind and heart are centred upon the ONE who, in wonderful condescension and marvellous grace, became the Finder of the treasure and the Seeker of the pearl. As we get occupied with Him, we feel at once that we are in a different atmosphere. We no longer stand, as it were, on the plains of Moab, contemplating Israel as a "stiff-necked people" (Num. 22), but We are beside the prophet on the "high places." It is no longer what the people are for God, but what God is for His people, and in spite of all Israel had been He could say, He had not "beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel" (Num. 23: 21). In the very beginning, or ever the earth was, that Blessed One could say, "My delights were with the sons of men" (Prov. 8: 31). In grace, and with satisfaction He views His people as grace will ultimately make them. His earthly people, redeemed Israel upon the earth: His heavenly people, a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The Kingdom in the hands of men had been shown to be mingled with that which is unreal, united to that which is earthly, and permeated with that which is evil. As such, all that was false and unreal was fast hastening on to judgment. It was necessary that the disciples should now see what was real and true, amidst all the confusion. To them it was given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us note here that the character of the figures is now changed. It is no longer, as at the introduction, "good seed" that could reproduce itself. Nor is it a "sowing" where darnel might be mingled with the wheat. Much less is it that which might become contaminated with evil men or evil influences externally as in the "mustard seed," or corrupted by false and satanic doctrines internally as in the "three measures of meal." But here we have a definite precious deposit of intrinsic excellence, and which, though hid in the earth, could not be defiled by the earth.

The figures are few and simple, and other Scriptures accurately guide us in the interpretation.

The field is the world. The Finder of the treasure and the Purchaser of the field is the Lord Himself. No other interpretation is possible. Who but He could purchase such a field? Who but He had anything to "sell" at all commensurate with the value of the object to be acquired, for in the field there was a treasure for which possession of the field was sought, and which was of infinitely greater value than the field itself.

In Exodus 19, in that wonderful personal interview between Jehovah and His servant Moses, He could say, "If ye will obey my voice . . . ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people that are in the earth." Now we know that Israel did not obey that voice; but where Israel failed, grace triumphed on the ground of redemption; and we have already seen what God could say of His people in the plains of Moab, even when Satan had them, as he thought, at a disadvantage. How much more will this be evident when Psalm 135

"The Lord hath chosen Jacob for Himself,

And Israel for His peculiar treasure.

Blessed be the Lord out of Zion

Which dwelleth at Jerusalem,

Praise ye the Lord."

But before all, or any, of this could be accomplished, He, the gracious Finder of the treasure, had to buy the "field" itself at the cost of all He had.

There is, however, a wider application. There can be no blessing for either the earth, Israel, or the Church, apart from the death of Christ, and just here comes in one of the special points of this parable. The Lord Jesus by His death has purchased all mankind. This truth is of world-wide application, and on this ground His messengers can go forth and proclaim an accomplished work on the ground of which men are besought to be reconciled to God.

The world to-day is still ruled over by the usurper Satan, and men love to have it so. The Lord when on earth spoke of the devil as the "prince of this world," and after the Lord had been rejected and crucified, Scripture calls Satan the "god of this world." In other words, men are willing to accept from Satan both their rule and their religion, hut it will not always be so. There is the earthly side as well as the heavenly side of the Kingdom. The earth, already purchased, will in that day be redeemed, and suitably prepared for the dwelling-place of saved Israel, under the New Covenant, and the nations who inhabit the millennial earth, for there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

Parable 6

But a further figure is required to set forth the unity and the beauty of those who compose the heavenly side of the Kingdom. This is found in the "One pearl of great price." And remark here that, in the previous parable, the finder of the treasure bought the field that contained it. But here the merchantman seeks to secure the pearl only. There is no question of its surroundings. The pearl is taken out entirely from the place in which it was, in order that it may become wholly the delight of the heart of the finder. The parable without doubt marks the special place which the assembly occupies in the counsels of God and in the mind of Christ.

It is impossible to overlook this, and almost impossible to overestimate it. There are four remarkable ways in which the saints of this dispensation are looked at in the New Testament.

If it is a question of relationship, they are called "children of God" (1 John 3: 1).

If it is a question of responsibility for God upon the earth, they are looked at as the "House of God" (1 Tim. 3: 15),

If it is a question of nearness and unity, they are spoken of as the "body of Christ" (1 Cor. 12: 12).

If it is a question of their affection and of their participation in His glory in the day of display, when all the ways of God in grace with men will be manifested, then the company of redeemed ones are brought before us under the striking figure of the "Bride of Christ" (Rev. 19: 7-9).

These are four different aspects of the assembly of God, but all setting forth in a remarkable way the place of nearness, relationship, and affection which the Church occupies. Here it is a question of its unity and beauty, hence the figure of ONE pearl of great price — loved, sought, and purchased. "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 26-27). "To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white" (Rev. 19: 8).

May there be the practical answer in the life and walk of every redeemed one, to that position of wondrous blessing in which grace has placed us, and in which in the day of glory we shall be displayed. We may well adore the grace that sought, the love that suffered, and the power that triumphed over all the forces of sin, death, and Satan: and the day is fast approaching when the full results of His mighty work will be manifested before the universe; and, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow to the glory of God the Father.

Parable 7

Still another similitude was needed to show the disciples the course of events at the close of that mysterious dispensation of the Kingdom of Heaven in the absence of the King, and this the Lord furnishes under the figure of the draw-net cast into the sea, and gathering of every kind. And in order to grasp the point of this, the closing parable, we need to keep in mind what has gone before.

At the beginning we see the Son of Man coming forth as the Sower. The results of the sowing are then given, and the general effects in the hearts of men. Next, the enemy is seen at work introducing the tares among the wheat; and this knowledge becomes a guide to the servants under the new and unexpected conditions. The next two parables give the developments of the foregoing conditions — evil men and evil teachings waxing worse and worse. But following these, Parables 5 and 6 show that which is hidden and real and that which the Lord's heart is set upon; whether the saved remnant of His ancient people under the new covenant, or the Church which is His Body — both are before Him — and every event in His dealings with men and nations is leading up to a complete fulfilment of all the irrevocable counsels of God on their behalf.

But there is still the question of the nations of the earth: manifestly the Kingdom of Heaven in its widest sense must include Israel, the Church, and the saved nations of the millennial earth. What events will lead up to, and what will ultimately determine the final separation of the "good" from the "bad"? This the Lord sets before us in His closing parable. And note here that, although there is a close similarity between this parable and that of the "tares," there is by no means a repetition. There the point and object of the teaching is, as already remarked, instruction for the servants for present need, in the light of the future, in what was to them an unexpected condition of things in the absence of the King. Here it is the grand results of the operations of grace, and the final assignment of every one to his own place, either in the Kingdom of Heaven, or — solemn thought — in the furnace of fire.

The figures employed are few and simple, but divinely expressive: —

A draw-net.

Cast into the sea.

"Every kind" gathered within its sweep.

When full, drawn to shore.

A sorting process, and

A separation.

The figure employed is of a net of the largest kind known or used by fishers. Where suitable circumstances permit, it may be as much as half a mile in length. Hence in its immense sweep it "gathers of every kind" — that is, of every species.

When, then, is the net cast, and of what is it a figure? Are we not reminded by it of Mark 1: 1 "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God," and also of verse 37 of our chapter, "He that sowed the good seed is the Son of Man." But while the casting of the net would seem to synchronise with the beginning of the Gospel, yet the net itself is of wider application than the Gospel as we understand it. May it not correspond to all the dealings of God with men from the time the Kingdom began to be preached until the time when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and before Him are gathered all nations. Cast into the "sea" (of the nations) would seem to indicate the worldwide scope of its operations. No longer Israel only, or even professing Christendom, but every nation under Heaven to whom, in a future day, the Gospel of the Kingdom will be announced. Thus, from first to last it may well be said to gather of every kind. It is evident that the "servants" do not draw the net. It is drawn when "full," and it is equally evident that it is not "full" yet, else the gospel day would be over indeed. The ending of this solemn scripture is given more fully in Matthew 25. It is the sessional judgment of the Son of Man. They "sat down," conveys the thought of orderly and deliberative selection. The "good" gathered into vessels. The "bad" cast out of the net. It is the final sorting out of those who had heretofore been going on together; alike perhaps in profession, but unlike in reality; and only the Lord Himself had omniscience and authority to decide.

Just as the Jew, according to the Mosaic law, (Lev. 11: 9) separated the contents of his net, the "clean" from the "unclean," so, the Lord says, will it be at the end of this age. And this will be done by angelic ministry (verse 41). The wicked are cast into the furnace of fire. The righteous are safely preserved for the Kingdom, and they enter into all the blessings that accompany and follow the introduction of the reign of righteousness over the whole earth in the day of Messiah's glory.

What a wonderful unveiling of divine counsels these seven parables present. Fortified with this knowledge of the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, the believer can calmly survey all the varied phases which the great "harvest field" may present. He rests assured that, however contradictory things may appear, yet in spite of all the wickedness of evil men and all the opposition of Satan, God will assuredly bring to perfection every purpose of His counsels for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How far the disciples "understood all these things" we do not know, but we may rest assured that when the Holy Spirit came down He would bring all things to their remembrance and guide them into all truth.

They already had information, in all its full and varied details, in the Old Testament Scriptures, as to the glories of the Kingdom, and what it would be in the day of its display. That which was "new," as to the Kingdom in the absence of the King, He had now taught them. They were to regard such knowledge as a precious thing to be "treasured," and "brought out" when occasion required. Just as an householder becomes a dispenser of good things to his guests, so were disciples to be in a world that knew not the grace of Christ.

Section 7. Matthew 14, 15.

Man's King and Man's Character Contrasted with God's King

The Holy Spirit in Matthew's Gospel delights to group events in, what we might call, a moral order, instead of a strictly historical order, and the result is that we get striking contrasts between the ways of God and the ways of men which we might otherwise overlook. It is so in the two chapters now before us.

But to go back for a moment to the last section, not the least remarkable thing in that remarkable chapter is that everything is viewed as in the absence of the King. But why was He absent? Departure from God and blindness of heart led the nation and its rulers to reject their King come in grace and power, as witnessed by His mighty works. And not only so, but the close of the chapter shows Him as the prophet of God despised and rejected in His own country. They might own His wisdom and His works of power. These they could not gainsay. But unbelief prevented them from sharing the blessings grace was willing to impart. Could unbelief go further than to see in Him only the "Carpenter's Son"? Nicodemus long before, with perhaps fewer opportunities of judging, had seen in Him "a teacher come from God," and owned that God was with Him. Of His own countrymen, it is said, "they were offended (stumbled) at him."

Now, at this point (Chap. 14) the Spirit turns back to recall events which had taken place previously, that is the circumstances connected with the murder of John, and to set before us THE Two KINGS.

CHRIST, in His compassion, power, and grace.

Herod, in his cruelty, lust, and pride.

In Matthew 15 we get the two hearts. The heart of man with its seven streams of incurable evil, and the heart of Christ yearning to bless, whether it be the poor of the flock in the land or one poor Gentile at the utmost borders of Israel.

In Matthew 14, then, we get in a short historical setting a vivid description of the moral corruption of things in Israel's land. Shortly, the case was this. Herod Antipas was a son of Herod, miscalled "the Great," of Matthew 2. He was the wicked son of a wicked father. At the death of Herod I. the kingdom was divided by the Romans, and Herod Antipas became "tetrarch" of Galilee, with the courtesy title of "king." He married a daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia, but afterwards made guilty overtures to Herodias, his brother Herod Philip's wife. Nothing loth, the profligate wanton responded, and the two were living in open sin.

The righteous reproof of the fearless prophet rankled in the revengeful heart of the wicked woman, and, when the opportunity arose, she was ready to embrace it, in order to satiate her hatred. Herod, in spite of his conscience, became a pliant tool in her guilty hands.

Herodias' daughter danced, and John the Baptist died.

Let a man but start on the downward road, and the devil is never at a loss for some one to put a hand on his back to push him on. So it was with Herod, and in such a setting Israel's ruler is shown to us. An oppressor, an adulterer, a proud boaster, and a murderer; and yet the king. It reveals how the very foundations of virtue were gone, and utter moral and spiritual corruption ruled in the kingdom of men. What marked Herod's dance, and every similar dance since, was the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; and the end of these things is death.

Herod's case is a warning to all of the danger of trifling with the voice of conscience. Led on by the wiles of the devil, the hardening process grows apace, and a man soon finds himself performing actions, which a short time before he would have shrunk from with horror. Hazael, when warned by the prophet Elisha, could say, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?" (2 Kings 8: 13). Yet the very next day ambition led him to take the first guilty step in his downward career by murdering his master.

At the beginning of John's ministry we read that "Herod was the friend of John and kept him safe" (Mark 5: 20, R.V.). He believed John to be "a just man and a holy," and this made his own actions all the worse, for they were done in the face of light. But it is one thing to give an outward assent to truth, while continuing in the practice of sin: it is another thing to have truth in the inward parts, changing both life and actions. The latter Herod never knew. He loved his sins. John's stern reproof was his last warning. Henceforth he became "that fox," and it was the Lord Himself who so entitled him (Luke 12: 32).

In his short history we see man in sin and under the power of it. Man in his folly rejecting the last warning of the prophet of righteousness. Possibly John was the only man with sufficient moral courage to point out to Herod "all the evils which he had done" (Luke 11: 19). Then, again, the moral weakness of the man comes out in his "fear of those that sat at meat with him." In short, Herod was what every man is by nature, afraid, before his ungodly companions, to do the right, but not ashamed to do the wrong.

What a remarkable contrast comes out in the man sent from God whose name was John.

His ministry was short, his message was short, his life was short; and there is little said about his history, but that little brings out in a wonderful way the lovely character of the Forerunner.

How beautiful is his humility! "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (John 1: 23). "The latchet of His shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose" (Mark 1: 7).

How great is his faithfulness! "Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham for our father" (Matt. 3: 8).

How absolute is his separation from the guilty nation and its more guilty leaders! "He came baptizing in the wilderness" (Mark 1: 4).

How unflinching is his courage! and how tender his compassion for the poor and needy (Luke 3: 11).

In every aspect of his character we see reflected some of the many beautiful traits which came out in perfection in his blessed Master. The Lord could say of him that he was "a burning and a shining light"; that "among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist" (Luke 7: 28). But immediately after describing the elevated and outstanding position filled by the great Forerunner, the Lord adds the remarkable words, "He that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he."

John was rejected and slain. His Master was about to be treated in the same way, but the result of the Lord's atoning death would be to introduce a new order of things in Christianity, founded upon redemption and the purgation of sins, wherein would be manifested greater grace, fuller privilege, and more intimate nearness to God than ever could be known under the old economy of which John formed the last — if the greatest — prophet.

Everything in Judaism spoke of an unrent veil, and therefore of distance from God. Everything in the Kingdom of God is founded upon accomplished redemption. The VEIL is rent, and we have liberty to draw near. Yea, more, we are privileged to dwell where He dwelleth. Many believers, alas! are ignorant of this, and therefore they neither have settled peace in their hearts, nor yet can their lives present a consistent testimony.

By comparing Mark 6, Luke 9, and our present Scripture, we find that the mission of the twelve, sent forth in Matthew 10, expired about this time, and they returned to tell the Lord "all things both what they had done and what they had taught." John's disciples just about the same time come to Jesus also. These brave men for it requires courage to take sides with an apparently defeated man had boldly gone into Herod's dungeon to recover the outraged body of their martyred master, and with hearts full of grief had piously performed the last rites for the one they loved.

Now they come and tell Jesus.

Christ's disciples come to Him with their mission of success.

John's disciples come to him with their mission of sorrow.

There is a precious lesson here for disciples still. Whether it be success in service or sorrow in life, He is the One to confide in, and by so doing we shall find rest unto our souls. May we daily practice it till the changing scenes below end in the unchanging bliss of His presence on high.

The Lord's answer was to take them apart with Himself into a desert place near the city of Bethsaida on the shores of the lake. Doubtless the object was to seek opportunity in this seclusion for more intimate counsel and instruction for the disciples. But in any case the privacy was soon invaded by the multitude, who, at least, believed in His power, and were in earnest to secure blessing, for they brought their sick to His presence.

"And Jesus, moved with compassion" — nothing can exceed the beauty of this and what immediately follows. The Lord had just heard of, and doubtless sorrowed over, the death of John. At Nazareth, at the outset of His ministry, He had been met with open violence (Luke 4). On His recent visit to His own city of Capernaum He had been treated with rude contempt, yet nothing could stay the outflow of heavenly grace. He had compassion on the multitudes and healed their sick. It was the perfect contrast to Herod slaying the prophet.

And not only is His grace brought in in contrast to Herod's cruelty, but in the next few verses it is contrasted with the disciples' helplessness in the face of the needs of the multitude. It was not only that the disciples could not meet that need, but they could not even trust the Lord to do so. "Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?" He said to Philip, "and this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do" (John 6: 5-6). Philip and the other disciples had come to an end of themselves, but, alas! not to a beginning of faith in their 'Waster, so their ready advice was to send away the multitudes. But He said, "Give ye them to eat," and they discovered that their whole resources were five loaves and two small fishes. Five barley loaves and two small fishes AND Christ were, however, resources enough for any number, had the disciples but known it.

Many disciples to-day are like what the disciples were then. They are ignorant of the resources of faith at their disposal, for they have never drawn upon them. The Christian life to them is a valley of Baca all the way, without any "wells," and seldom any "rain." Like the widow of Sarepta, they have only a handful of meal and a little oil, not nearly enough for themselves, much less to share it with others. But the day the widow went out to gather two sticks to prepare her last meal, and then die — that day was the beginning of a new life and a new experience. The word of the Man of God in the gate changed her objective. "Fear not," said he, "make me a little cake first" (1 Kings 16). Grace would lead her gently at first; and doubtless the prophet's cake grew larger as the woman's faith grew stronger But from that day she discovered that she had inexhaustible resources, and henceforth the famine was over in her experience. Her own needs abundantly supplied, she became a dispenser of blessing to others; and this is exactly what the Lord expects His children to be to-day. And having the "meal" and the "oil" (Christ our life, and the Holy Spirit the power of it) though living in a world of dearth and drought and death, we can and ought to be channels of blessing to others. "As Thou hast sent me into the world, SO have I also sent them into the world" (John 17: 18).

But there is also the dispensational view of this chapter. The miracle of the "five loaves" is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. It is here a foreshadowing of what was spoken in Psalm 132. What marks the governments of to-day is that the people provide for the King. When Messiah reigns the King will provide for the people, and there will be neither grinding poverty, oppressive taxation, nor discontent. In our chapter we have an Edomite ruling in the land, and he a poor slave of the Romans, as well as a usurper and an oppressor. The true King is in the desert, but there He demonstrates His resources and His grace according to prophecy, "He shall satisfy his poor with bread."

The disciples embark. The multitudes depart. The Lord goes up into a mountain to pray.

Prayer expresses two things — dependence and submission. These two things come out everywhere in the life of the Lord as Man below. He was pre-eminently the Man of Prayer and the Pattern of Prayer.

On at least fourteen different occasions do we read of the Lord "alone praying."

1. At His baptism, "Jesus also being baptized and praying" (Luke 3: 21).

2. At Capernaum, at the beginning of His ministry, "Rising up a great while before day" (Mark 1: 35; Luke 5: 167).

3. On the occasion of choosing the twelve apostles (Luke 6: 12).

4. After the miracle of the loaves (Mark 6: 46).

5. Before Peter's confession of Him as the Christ (Luke 9: 18).

6. On the mount of transfiguration (Luke 9: 28).

7. When He taught His disciples to pray (Luke 11: 1).

8. When He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11: 41, 42).

9. The prayer in view of His sufferings (John 12: 27).

10. The Lord's prayer (John 17).

11. His intercessory prayer for Peter (Luke 22: 32).

12. The prayer in Gethsemane before His sufferings (given in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

13. His prayer for His murderers when nailed to the Cross (Luke 23: 34).

14. At His death, giving up His Spirit to His Father (Luke 23: 46).

But in Matthew's Gospel the only recorded occasion of prayer (with the exception of Gethsemane) is in the chapter before us, and it is in keeping with the dispensational character of this Gospel. Rejected as King, the Lord has gone on high as Intercessor, and in the "fourth watch" He will come forth to succour and to save the distressed and storm-tossed remnant of Israel.

But there is also the present application. The Lord is on high. He is there executing His present service of grace, as our great High Priest and Advocate. He is praying for us, for while we are in this world we are in a scene of danger. The business of the world seeks to engross us. The pleasures of the world seek to attract us. The associations of the world seek to annex us. The opposition of the world seeks to hinder us. So we need the grace and power which He alone can impart. And He is watching over His people with that very end in view. "He saw them toiling in rowing" (Mark 6: 48). But whatever the difficulties, and however contrary the winds may be, we can depend upon His watchful eye, powerful arm, and loving heart. "Light and truth" shall go before us (Ps. 43). "Goodness and mercy" follow after (Ps. 23). And the moment is fixed and may be very near when He will come to receive us to Himself, as later He will appear for the deliverance of His earthly people, whose hearts, turned to Him in repentance, will joyfully receive Him with songs of thanksgiving. The apostate nation was soon to cry, "Crucify him, Crucify him." In the coming day the converted remnant will say, "Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him" (Isa. 25: 9).

But meantime the question is, "Can you walk on the water?" Peter did. We want to be more occupied with his success than with his failure. Affection for his Master led him out of the boat. Faith in his Master made him superior to nature. "He walked on the water to go to Jesus." The Red Sea and the Jordan were divided for Israel, as later, the same river was divided for the prophets Elijah and Elisha. But nowhere is there such a scene as this. It is a picture of a Christian walking through a world where everything is opposed to him, supported by power from on high. But the great point of the lesson is, that it is only as so supported, and only as depending on that support, that he can so walk. "Hold Thou me up," said the Psalmist, "and I shall be safe" (Ps. 119: 117). And this Peter proved in his extremity, when he prayed the prayer that never fails to be answered on the spot" LORD SAVE ME."

If the beginning of Matthew 14 shows the works of men to be evil, Matthew 15 shows why they are so. The reason is, the heart is wrong. "Out of the heart proceed." Here we have hearts unveiled: verses 1-21 describe the heart of man, and it is seen to be incorrigibly evil. From verses 22-39 we gather something of the grace that was in the heart of the Lord Jesus. We see Him bringing blessing to one outside the circle of promise, healing all oppressed by the devil, and providing in the desert for "so great a multitude."

But the Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisees who had followed the Lord into Galilee, seeking to catch something out of His words that they might accuse Him, had no eyes and no heart for grace such as this. They made the common mistake that exterior things will do for God, and forgot that Satan can use even a religious system as a power for evil. The Lord showed them that their hollow formalism had led them into the much more serious evil of hypocrisy, proving from their greatest prophet, Isaiah (Isa. 29: 13), that the tradition of men had led them into a course of action in direct contradiction to the Word of God. The subject is more fully developed in Mark 7. The gift (Corban) given to enrich the priest, instead of being employed to provide for the needs of relations, was only one of the "many such things they did." And although by doing so, they were disregarding the ties of nature, yet the priests, by their traditions, pronounced them to be free.

The moment men's opinions are brought in as a standard, there is distinct danger. Priestcraft, whether in Judaism, Roman Catholicism, or Protestantism, is ever fain to hark back to tradition to buttress up its own unscriptural positions; and thus its votaries are insensibly led to minimise the authority of the revealed mind of God over the conscience. May God save us all from such an insidious evil. It is an immense thing when the soul is guided by the direct Word of God alone, owning no intermediary whatever between itself and God.

The Lord next shows the cause of this condition of things, and takes occasion to charge home the fact of sin by the terrible exposure of the heart of man given in verses 19, 20.

Man's moral centre is the heart. Out of it proceed seven streams of deadly evil, showing the inward moral pollution which the history of fallen man, from Cain downwards, has abundantly proved to be true.

Now, this exposure is the very thing the natural man is averse to. His desire is to cover up everything under a fair show of religion and keep the evil out of sight. Hence the Pharisees were offended, and so is the natural man still. He will not believe that man is lost. Education, culture, environment, morality, surely these things can elevate and ennoble the man. That is the creed of the moralist to-day, just as it was of the Pharisees of old. But God says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing will do for God but a new creation. "Ye must be born again."

The Lord, after exposing the human heart, manifests the Divine love in the heart of God for sinners by walking over twenty miles to meet and bless one woman for whom Satan had done his worst. And here was a remarkable case. A "woman of Canaan" accosts the Lord and claims blessing from Him as the "Son of David." Now as Son of David, His relation to the Canaanite could only be judgment, for they were the race Joshua was commanded to root out of the land because of their terrible iniquity. But the incident is doubtless inserted here to show the only ground on which any of us can get blessing, and that is on the ground of free grace alone, for we are, as she was, but "sinners of the Gentiles" (Gal. 2: 15). And so grace wrought in her heart until she was led to take the only place she could really lay claim to. Then mark the blessed result. She owned she deserved nothing, she would be thankful for anything, and she got everything her heart desired. Such are the ways of grace.

The faith of the Gentile may well be placed in contrast to the unbelief of the Jew. This woman owned His authority by calling Him Lord, and she prayed what we might call a companion prayer to that of Peter in Matthew 14; and, as in Peter's case, the answer was graciously given immediately.

And now the Lord, making a circuit round the extreme north of the land, continues His ministry throughout the region of Decapolis, on the east of the Sea of Galilee. This country was formerly inhabited by the half tribe of Manasseh, and at this time abounded with Gentile residents. The mixed population was looked upon with the greatest contempt by the southern Jews of Judea proper, who considered them a degree still lower than even Galileans. Yet even among these were found some of the poor of the flock, and to them the heart of the Lord went out in compassion. And so engrossed were they with His miracles of healing and His wonderful teaching that they abode with Him three days; and, after witnessing all His wonderful works, they might well exclaim, as Mark tells us, "He hath done all things well." Any food they may have brought was now exhausted, and the Lord proposes to His disciples the question of feeding the multitude before sending them away. At once the disciples see the difficulties, without seeing the resources. Did we not know something of our own hearts we should here be surprised. How shortly before had they seen the previous miracle of the multiplied loaves. Yet here their faith is not one whit greater. Still in patient grace the Lord continues to teach them as to the resources that were in Himself to meet every need for their service. Almost reluctantly, it would seem, they give the information that they have seven loaves for themselves, and a few small fishes. It is enough. With His blessing added, they will be able to supply the hungry multitude with enough and to spare. The feast began with seven loaves, and ended with seven basketfuls. The previous miracle (Chap. 14) was a proof that Messiah was present in the midst of His people according to the prophecy of Psalm 132, and the "twelve baskets" was indicative of perfect testimony to that event. The present miracle (Chap. 15) was a proof of the long-suffering grace of the Lord, that, though rejected by the nation, He still carried on His mission of mercy in their midst. It also looks on to millennium times, and the "seven baskets" speak of divine completeness and ample provision for every need.

There is much practical instruction in this section of our Gospel. In it we are taught, both by precept and example, man's utter ruin, morally and spiritually. Man's actions, prompted by his sinful fallen nature, are only evil continually. That which is of the flesh is flesh, though we are slow to learn it. But when the lesson is truly learned, we say with the apostle, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth NO good thing." Now the soul is prepared to take sides with God against the flesh, and that is the first step in Christian liberty.

But not only is the evil heart of man exposed. The grace of Christ shines forth in greater beauty, if that be possible, against the dark background of a graceless world. He walks through it in moral dignity and holy separation. He is seen as the Heavenly Stranger upon the earth, feeding the hungry, succouring the needy, compassionating the despised ones, healing the sick, and bringing blessing to those who were afar off. This section begins with man's utter ruin and ends with God's perfect grace.

Section 8. Matthew 16, 17.

A Prophecy of the Church with a Glimpse of Kingdom Glory

"When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son . . . that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father." But even this, great and blessed though it is, is only preparatory to the supreme revelation that God has made of Himself, and to the place of blessing into which believers of the present time are introduced. This is set before the Ephesian saints as the mystery of His will now made known through the apostle, that in the dispensation (or administration) of the fulness of time He might gather together all things in one, in Christ. And then Paul prays that the saints may be brought into the knowledge of the position in which grace has placed them. His desire for them is that they might know: —

The hope of His calling.

The riches of His grace, and

The greatness of His power.

God has put all things under His feet, and given Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. To the Apostle Paul it was given "to complete the Word of God," and until the revelation of the mystery of the Church, the body of Christ, His counsels could not be fully known.

A glimpse of this wonderful subject comes before us in the section of our Gospel which we now reach. In it we have: —

1 The revelation of the Person of the Christ.

2 The confession of His Divinity by Peter.

3 The promise of the new thing — the Church — which He was about to build.

4 A glimpse of His glory as the One who would be the Administrator for God — Head over all things.

5 The Foundation on which everything would rest in righteousness.

We find here (Matt. 16: 1) that Pharisees and Sadducees for the first time join their forces against the Lord. Bitterly opposed to each other both in their politics and their faith, they were united in their opposition to the Lord, and come to Him here only to have their ignorance and wickedness exposed. The solemn thing here is, that there is no longer either teaching or exhortation for them. They seek a sign and get a warning. Able to discern the face of the sky, they were unable, because unwilling, to discern the presence of the Lord in their midst, and if He was rejected, disaster (foul weather) must assuredly follow. The sign of the prophet Jonah could only add to their condemnation. He was, in type, a man out of death, preaching to the Gentiles, but before what that typified could take place, the nation of Israel must be set aside till the fulness of the Gentiles should be come. "And he left them and departed," as very soon He would leave the guilty nation, and that by the way of the Cross then, risen out of death, send the glad news of salvation and blessing far hence to the Gentiles.

But even the disciples had much to learn. They could not easily free themselves from the evil doctrines of the Pharisees, nor yet from the opinions of men as to the person of the Master.

This point the Lord is about to make clear to them, and in Matthew 16 there comes before us, in the first place: —

The revelation of the Person of the Christ.

Leaving the Sea of Galilee, the Lord journeyed with His disciples to the coasts of Caesarea Philippi. There, in that place of Gentile influence and display — for there Herod the Great had built a royal city in honour of the Emperor — He proposed to them the two great questions which laid bare the hearts of the men of that generation, and the heart of every man and woman since: —

1. "Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?"

This, the first of these two questions, brought out two things. And taking the latter and more important first, He asserts that He is the Son of Man.

He was that sublime Person whom Daniel the prophet had portrayed on his mystic page, as coming to the Ancient of days and receiving "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7: 14).

He had been rejected as Messiah. He would now take up His title of "Son of Man" and bring in blessing for all the earth.

Every title given to the Lord is of the deepest significance, whether in connection with His official, essential, or acquired glories, and they are ever used in a discriminating way. There are at least 350 such titles, and more might be found by the diligent student. In Matthew 16 we have (1) the Lord rejected as Messiah, (2) confessed by Peter as Son of Me Living God, and (3) soon to return in glory as Son of Man. Under this last title, as we have seen, He will dispense blessing world wide. Meantime He demands of His disciples what "men say" of Him, in order to demonstrate that the wisdom of men is but folly with God.

All alike are forced to own that He is some Great One, and their opinions range from the prophet of fire to the prophet of sorrow, but -none are able to see in Him the Sent One of God. This faith alone can discern; and when He demands an answer from His disciples to His second question: —

2. "Whom say ye that I am?"

Peter, taught of God, can answer, unhesitatingly, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

It is faith's unchanging answer to the question of the ages made good in the experience of every true believer.

This confession of Peter's is twofold.

By "The Christ," (Heb.) Messiah, (Eng.) the Anointed One, Peter is led to declare all the official glories which centred in Him as Man upon the earth. He was "The Woman's Seed," the Root and Offspring of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Shepherd of Israel, and the Blesser of every Nation.

But in addition to what the Lord was as the Sent One of God, there was also revealed to Peter something of the personal and essential glories of the Eternal Son. He was the Son of the Living God. Peter, taught of God, is led to declare something of that divine mystery as to what the Lord was in His Person, Nature, and Being in relationship to God the Father. This is more fully developed in John 1, Phil. 2, Col. 1, Heb. 1: —

"In His Existence — Eternal."

"In His Nature — Divine."

"In His Person — Distinct."

He was the Word in all eternity — the Eternal Son of God.

This revelation to, and confession by, Peter gives occasion for the Lord to reveal now, for the first time in Scripture, the secret of the ages — His Assembly. He was about to begin a work of which nothing had ever been revealed to saint or prophet in Old Testament times (Eph. 3: 4, 5; Col. 1: 26) Under the new economy believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, would be builded together for a holy temple in the Lord. They would be "The Body," "The Bride," "The City." They would be holy and royal priests to God now, and co-heirs in the regal glory of the coming day. This building would be His work alone (Acts 2: 47), and would be founded on what He was as Son of the living God, according to the confession made by the apostle.

No wonder, then, that the "gates of hell" — all the adverse powers of the unseen world — would not prevail against it. To destroy her, Satan has used his utmost endeavour; the greatest of earthly powers have exhausted all their resources; but the true Church of God continues to triumph over every foe, and continues to point dying men to her risen, living, and glorified Lord, her Head on high, with whom she is united by the Holy Spirit.

The Father calls, the Spirit unites, the Lord builds; and not man, angel, or demon can hinder that constructive work of the Son of the living God the formation of His Church, which is, while in the world, the "pillar and ground of the truth."

Following on Peter's confession, we get Peter's commission. To this warm-hearted disciple was given the "Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven." That is to say, in figurative language, that into that new economy about to begin on earth, Peter would have the honour of introducing both Jew and Gentile, as we find later in the history of the Acts he did (see Acts 2 and Acts 10). And further, we learn from Matt. 18, that this same power of "binding and loosing" was afterwards conferred upon the whole company of the disciples.

But we must keep in mind that it was the "Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" that were given to Peter; not the keys of the Church (if there be such), in spite of all that either Anglican or Romanist may say to the contrary. In the Book of Acts, Peter preached Jesus as "Lord" and "Christ," both titles distinctly connected with the Kingdom of Heaven, and by these names of authority he commanded the Jews to own His rights, bow to His claims, and be baptized in His Name (Acts 2). Similarly, in the centurion's house, after Peter had learned the great lesson that all earthly distinctions of clean and unclean had been abolished, and when he had seen the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Gentiles, he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord (Acts 10: 48).

Peter's ministry never goes beyond this. To another servant was committed a further revelation as to the mystery of the Church, and Paul, immediately after his conversion, began to preach Jesus as "The Son of God" (Acts 9: 20). This is the first time we get this title in Acts (Chap. 8: 37, it should be noted, is, according to the best authorities, not in the original text).

But, returning to our chapter, we here find (Matt. 16: 21) a striking dispensational change. The disciples are commanded no longer to testify of Him as the Messiah. As such He had been rejected. For Him there was to be at this time no national recognition of His just rights and divine authority. Instead of a Crown, the nation was about to give Him a Cross. Instead of a palace, a grave. "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day (verse 21). Only on the ground of death and resurrection could there be either earthly blessing for the Jew, or heavenly blessing for the Christian; and, had Peter known this, he would never have taken upon him to "rebuke" the Lord as he did. Israel will be associated with Him in the day of earthly glory. The Church, on the other hand, will be associated with Him in heavenly glory, but meantime she shares with Him in His earthly rejection. We have this lesson to learn in a practical way, and so the injunction to every disciple to take up his cross and follow Jesus. The man with a cross on his back being led to the place of execution was finished with the earth for ever. So the figure is here used of the Christian's relationships to things of the world. The believer is dead to sin (Rom. 6: 11), dead to the law (Rom. 7: 4), and dead to the flesh (Rom. 8: 9); but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6: 11), and, in the power of resurrection life, he stands fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free. He shares with Christ now, in His rejection, as he will share with Him, by and by, in His glory. The world, under Gentile rule, crucified the Son of God, and is fast going on to judgment. The Kingdom of Heaven, in the hands of men, is fast hastening to that terrible climax when it will be seen to be a "cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18: 2, compare Matt. 13: 32). But before that moment arrives, when "the whole will be leavened," the Lord Himself shall descend (1 Thess. 4), and His waiting Church will be called up to meet Him in the air. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus. Afterwards, as the Son of Man, He will come in the glory of His Father, with His holy angels, and then shall He reward every man according to his works. A glimpse of this Kingdom glory the Lord was now about to give to the three disciples specially chosen to be witnesses of it.

It is a feature of the dealings of God with His people, that He often delivers them from present things whether it be the sufferings, the trials, or the glories of earth — by bringing in the light of the future. So with Stephen amidst his murderers: so with Paul, who counted present sufferings not worthy to be compared with the glory that should follow. On the other hand, Moses was enabled to forsake the glory of Egypt and endure as seeing Him that is invisible, and when the disciples were becoming occupied with the magnificence of their earthly temple, the Lord dispelled their illusion by setting before them the startling truth that the time was near when not one stone would be left upon another.

The disciples here, had had their first lesson in Cross-bearing. The Lord was now (Chap. 17) about to give them a glimpse of the time when the Crown-wearing would begin. The Father had revealed the glory of the Son to their minds. He was now about to reveal it to their eyes. Later on (2 Peter 1: 17) Peter would set the glory before the eyes of suffering saints as salvation ready to be revealed at the appearing of Jesus Christ," reminding them also, that he himself had already been an eyewitness of that glory when with Him in the holy mount.

And with the Lord were seen Moses and Elias, talking with Him (as Luke tells us) of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. These two blessed men, already in their glorified bodies are talking with the Lord Jesus upon that very subject — His death — on which their present blessing was founded. And so when at home in the glory, the very delights of Heaven will only cast our minds backwards with ever-increasing awe and wonder to THE CROSS on which the Lord of Glory died. There was laid in righteousness the foundation upon which all the grace and glory of God will be displayed, whether in righteously saving sinners of the Gentiles, or righteously gathering out of His Kingdom all things that offend and them that do, iniquity, and casting them into a furnace of fire.

These two honoured servants were also doubtless representative of those, who, in the coming day will "shine forth as the sun" (Chap. 13: 43). Moses, a type of those dead and raised again at the first resurrection; Elias, of those translated without tasting death, which will be the happy experience of those "who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord" (1 Thess. 4: 15). And, in addition, there were present in this display of Kingdom glory, the three chosen disciples, typical surely of the nations who walk in the light of the city (Rev. 21: 24). The men of the earth will be blessed upon the earth, under the reign of righteousness of the Son of Man.

Well might Peter say, "It is good for us to be here," and well had he said no more. Yet Peter's mistakes only bring fuller revelations, and the Father's voice is heard in testimony to the Son.

The mental attitude of the devout Jew was summed up in the words, "we are Moses' disciples"; and nothing but the voice of divine authority could convince the disciples that a "greater than Moses was here." The glory cloud overshadows the mount. Moses and Elias depart, and the Son of Man descends from the mount — to suffer. He might have ascended to reign, but how then could the Scriptures have been fulfilled?

It is interesting to notice that at the four lowest points, if we may so say, to which the Lord went in grace, we get Heaven's appreciation visibly expressed. Thus, at His humble birth, the angel host came down with the message of peace and goodwill. When He took a place beside the repentant remnant and went down into the waters of. Jordan, Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. At the close, when He bowed His head in death, and it seemed as if the enemy had triumphed after all, then we read of rending rocks, and quaking earth, and opening graves. And so here, though finally rejected and disowned as King of the Jews, yet Heaven owns Him, and the Voice of the Father proclaims Him as, "My Beloved Son," adding the expressive words, "Hear Him."

Peter, in haste to honour the heavenly visitors, would put all on the same level, but he had to learn what Christendom has not learned yet, that the day of both Lawgiver and Reformer had gone by. What could law do for lost sinners? Only condemn them. What men need is regeneration, not reformation — "Ye must be born again."

And in the "Beloved Son," there would be a revelation of God far and beyond any yet given through Old Testament servants, however great these may have been. In Him, God would be known as Father, and to know the Son would be to know the Father also.

Coming down from the mountain the Lord warns His disciples to "tell no man." Further testimony to His Messiahship could only add further condemnation to those who deliberately rejected Him. The shadow of the Cross was fast darkening across His pathway. A few short months, and all that was written of Him would be fulfilled. But the vision would be a stimulus to the disciples' faith in view of the fact that they would soon be compelled to he the helpless witnesses of His Crucifixion; and the conviction was being gradually forced upon their unwilling minds that there would be no throne for Him in Jerusalem at this time at least. Their great object now was that He should escape that Cross of which He had so recently spoken. Hence their unwillingness to accompany Him on the last journey to the city (see John 11).

The hope of the earthly glory was dying out of their hearts. The dread that He might be taken and slain oppressed them. Faith in the word He had spoken that He would rise again, had, as yet, no place in their hearts. But deep and true affection for their beloved Master comes out in the few simple words in verse 23 — "They were exceeding sorry."

Now, as they tried to reconcile Old Testament prophecy with this new teaching as to His death, they ask a question which gives occasion for the Lord to open up Scripture both for them and for us: —

"Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come?" If the Son of Man is to be slain, where is the mission of Elias, who is to come as the restorer, before the great and terrible day?

And the Lord shows them that in the spirit and power of Elias, John the Baptist had come, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of a rejected and suffering Forerunner, introducing a rejected and suffering Messiah. Malachi's prophecies will yet be fulfilled by the prophet of fire, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come; and more signal success will attend his mission in the days of Antichrist than ever attended it in the days of Ahab, great though that was.

But, best of all, immediately following it the conquering and glorified Lord Himself will appear — no longer now as the Star of Bethlehem, but as the Sun of Righteousness "with healing in his wings." What promise of fulness of blessing is contained in that one word — healing. It is just what this poor earth stands most in need of, after centuries of sin and strife, ruin, and want, and war.

But if disciples on the mountain top were learning the secrets of Heaven as to the glory of the future, disciples in the plains below were face to face with the power of the devil. If those in the mount saw the King in His beauty and had visions of God, those below saw but the results of Satan's handiwork in the case of the lunatic son, sore vexed.

Now, so far. the believer of to-day is in both these positions. On the mountain top the Kingdom glory is present to faith, but as to experience, we meet with the power of Satan in evidence in the world every day. He has been defeated, but he is not yet expelled from the scene of his usurpation. And we do well to mark that the cause of the disciples' failure to cast out the demon was their want of faith. This, on the other hand, brings out the deeply important principle that the man of faith is superior to all the power of evil. If it be the world in its ways, or its influence, or its oppression — "this is the victory that overcometh the world — our faith" (1 John 5: 4) If it be the direct assaults of Satan, he can be resisted, if we be "steadfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5: 9). Here the disciples at the foot of the mountain were out of touch with the Lord above, and there was failure on their part, as there must ever be for us all, under like conditions. Neither is it any guarantee that because a man overcomes at one time, he may not fail before the same difficulty on another occasion. These same disciples had doubtless met cases just the same before (see Chap. 10). Why, then, had they failed here? Because, there they went in the power of the Master, here they went in their own power. "Why could not we cast him out?" they ask. Later on they would learn the great lesson of John 15: 5, "Without me ye can do nothing." The two grand principles, against which all the power of Satan is harmless, are prayer and fasting; for prayer brings God in, and fasting puts flesh out, and where there is self-emptiness, and divine fulness, there will ever be overcoming power.

The closing incident in Matthew 17 really comes within the scope of the next section, but we notice it here in order to keep within the present arrangement of chapters. It is also a beautiful introduction to that which characterises the next portion of our Gospel. For while the believer is placed by grace in the highest possible position as a child of God, even while here, yet the same grace enables him to walk through this world seeking no place in it, and accepting no place from it, other than the place given to the Lord Himself — that of being both despised and rejected. And just in proportion as he is true to the Lord, so will he find that the world will treat him as it treated his Master. Here we find that this truth is developed as the outcome of Peter's hasty assumption that the Lord, as a good Jew (for Peter's appreciation of the Lord here rises no higher), would necessarily pay the temple tribute.

But the Lord takes occasion to teach Peter three lessons.

First, that when the kings of the earth levy tribute, they take it from strangers: their own children are free.

Second, that He, though He was the Son of. God and Lord of the temple, yet claimed no right and demanded no place, but maintained His position of lowly grace, and was willing to be treated, even as the kings of the earth treat "strangers," as indeed He was — the Heavenly Stranger upon the earth. And

Third, He would associate with Himself, His followers, providing for them at the same time and meeting every need of their pathway.

Here, as in other places, our Gospel testifies to the eternal power and Godhead of the Lord Jesus. The following list might be greatly extended.

1 His power over Satan (Chap. 4: 4).

2 His power over disease (Chap. 4: 23).

3 His power over demons (Chap. 4: 24).

4 His power over the elements (Chap. 8: 26).

5 His power to forgive sins (Chap. 9: 6).

6 His power over death (Chap. 9: 24).

7 His power to increase the provision (Chap. 14, 15).

8 His power over creation (Chap. 17: 27).

9 His power to foretell the future (Chap. 24: 25).

10 All Power in Heaven and in earth (Chap. 28: 18).

Now all this is very blessed, for it shows that all the power of God is for the believer now, as to the difficulties of his pathway, and it is a matter of individual experience in a scene where everything is against him.

But when the Kingdom comes in manifested glory, then will be seen the full display of all that of which we have had but glimpses.

If it be a question of Satan, the accuser of the brethren, he will be bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20: 2).

If it be a question of evil men, they will be gathered out of His Kingdom (Chap. 13: 41).

If it be a question of disease, "the inhabitant shall not say 'I am sick'." (Isa. 33: 24).

Then Creation itself will undergo a remarkable change: the very nature of the wild beast will be transformed, until the wolf and the lamb shall feed together (Isa. 65: 25).

Under present conditions, the peoples of the earth are taxed to maintain their kings but in that day the order will be reversed. The King will maintain His people, according to the prophecy of Ps. 132: 15.

Thus, then, the believer walks through this world in the conscious knowledge that he belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven: that when the Son of Man comes again in power and great glory to establish His rights over the whole earth, he will come with Him, and reign with Him. Surely in the light of these heavenly truths, we may well walk through this world as those, who, though in it, are not of it, for we have been saved out of it and are here only to witness for our absent Lord in this the day of His rejection.

Section 9. Matthew 18-23.

The Characteristics of those who enter the Kingdom, the Responsibility of those connected with it, and God's way of bringing Men into it: The King presented, and the Leaders of Israel morally judged

We have now reached, in the history of our Gospel, the last winter of our Lord's ministry here below.

By comparing the other Gospels, we find that much patient service and gracious teaching were crowded into these few closing days.

At least two visits to Jerusalem were made between this time and the day when the last journey began. From Galilee He went up privately (John 7) for the Feast of Tabernacles, which took place in the seventh month of the Jewish sacred year — Tisri, corresponding to our September October and the narrative in John's Gospel, Chapters 7-9, details the events which then took place.

The ever-increasing enmity of the Jews led Him to retire from the city at this time, but from John 10: 22, we learn that He paid another visit to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Dedication, which was held in the month of Chisleu, or about the beginning of December. When the Jews again sought to take Him, He went away beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there He abode (John 11: 46).

This period would seem to correspond with that of Matthew 19: 1, and here, "in the wilderness of Judea" (Chap. 3: 1), the Lord spent the few remaining months of His earthly sojourn.

Let us follow Him with reverent footsteps and share in the precious ministry of the Kingdom vouchsafed to all who drew near.

If Matthew 17 gives us a glimpse of Kingdom Glory, Matthew 18 reveals to us something of the moral atmosphere that should exist in that Kingdom into which men are born from above.

The Lord shows that meekness, grace, and forbearance should characterise the disciple, even as these, and every other grace, shone forth in perfect display in the Master. In our chapter we have this teaching developed, and it is further enforced by the parable of the two debtors, and the discipline measured out to him who failed in grace in his dealings with his fellow-servant.

The broad outlines of Matthew 18 are: —

1 The Way into the Kingdom (verse 3).

2 Unsparing Self Judgment as to Walk and Ways (verse 8).

3 The Spirit of Grace to be manifested by every child of the Kingdom (verse 15).

4 The Centre of Gathering (verse 18).

5 The Great Lesson of Forgiveness enforced (verse 22).

6 And Illustrated (verse 23).

The Lord's teaching is ever both formative and corrective, and both are needed by the believer.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3: 16). Of this, surely, apostles stood in need; and in these closing counsels the Lord was fitting them for the position they would have to fill when He was no longer with them in the flesh. Then, with opened understandings, and the indwelling Spirit to bring all things to their remembrance, they would be able to bring forth from their treasures things both new and old.

In the present case (Matt. 18: 1) the disciples had apparently been unable to settle among themselves the ever-recurring question as to what qualification entitled a man to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Their minds were ever hankering after earthly greatness, as men in the flesh, and so far, they seemed to have grasped divine things in but a very feeble way.

In correcting their mistaken ideas, the Lord begins at the very foundation, and shows that so far from ambition and self-seeking giving them a high place in the Kingdom, these things would prevent them altogether from even entering into it. The very first essential would be to lay aside all these and be converted. Not, of course, that the disciples were not converted, but it is the broad principle of entrance with which the Lord is dealing. To manifest the new nature, men must have the new life, and this truth needs to be enforced to-day, as much as ever it did, if not more so. There never was a time when the foundation truths of the Gospel were more insidiously attacked than at the present moment. Men point to the life of the Lord Jesus as our example, while denying the necessity of His death as an atonement for sin. Such teaching is deadly error. That perfect holy life, apart from that vicarious death, could only show the sinner the extent of his failure, and add to his condemnation. Moreover, far from being able to imitate it, he is unable even to take the very first step, for he has no desire to do so. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Every blessing for man must begin with the death of Christ; for, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. The Lord might have stepped back into the glory from any point of His earthly pathway, but if so He would have been in that glory alone as far as the sons of earth were concerned. But "the Son of Man must be lifted up." There must be a work done for us, and we "must be born again." There must also be a work done in us, and all is brought about by the sovereign grace of God alone.

This, then, is Conversion, and everything in Christianity begins here. Let us mark it well. The character of one thus born again, the Lord illustrates by the little child. The child is simple, loving, forgiving, truthful, trustful, and humble. All this should come out in the character of the one who is turned from Satan to God; from sin to holiness. David's mighty men were great in the earthly kingdom according to their great deeds in war and in the overthrow of their foes. But in the Kingdom of Heaven the very opposite of this subsists. The truly great in this wonderful new dispensation are marked by the spirit of meekness, gentleness, and faith. And as these very characteristics would naturally lead the one who manifested them to be oppressed by the world, the Lord immediately warns as to what would be the fate of those who so "offended" them. And so it will be, though the world little realises it. If it could be said of His ancient people that He "kept him as the apple of his eye" (Deut. 32: 10), shall His care be less over us?

Next the subject of self-judgment is dealt with in the most solemn way possible. It is a question of responsibility in the Kingdom to manifest the character of the King. Nothing short of "Be ye holy for I am holy," is to be the believer's standard, and in order that nothing of flesh may come out in our ways, the very beginnings of sins in our members are to be checked.

Doubtless the Kingdom is here viewed in its broadest aspect, and men are looked at on the ground of their outward profession. If a man is walking in the ways of his heart and in the lust of his eyes, there is no proof at all that he is converted, and though in the Kingdom by profession, there is no assurance that he may not end in hell-fire.

The place occupied by children, in the economy of grace, the Lord next illustrates, using the child He had called to Him in verse 1 as an object lesson.

Even disciples might think lightly of children, and despise them; and in the kingdoms of earth they have little weight. But the Lord lifts the veil for a moment and gives us a glimpse into the unseen. "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven." They are not innocent, neither are they hardened in sin. But they are lost, because come of a fallen race; yet the Son of Man has come to save them, and it is not the Father's will that one of them should perish. The joy of the shepherd expresses the delight of the Great Shepherd, and His joy in saving the lost. Lost because Adam sinned. Saved because Jesus died.

In verses 15 to 20 we next get the most important guidance as to the course of action to be taken when sin is manifested in another. The early part of the chapter instructs as to personal holiness Here the question is, "If thy brother trespass [against thee]." The last two words are of doubtful authority here, while their place and importance in verse 21 will be seen later. Here it is the broad aspect of a brother "sinning." What then? Love, not law, is to be set in motion, the object being the recovery of the erring one, that the name of Christ may not be dishonoured in the world.

But, oh, what grace is needed here. To go to such a one in the spirit of self-righteousness and superiority, will only tend to harden him in his sin. The "meekness and gentleness of Christ" (2 Cor. 10: 1) are required by the under shepherds in a very special way when they have work like this to do. And they have need also of the apostle's exhortation, to consider themselves, lest they also be tempted (Gal. 6: 1).

But progress in the path of departure is not easily checked. It is possible that the individual personal dealing of the one who alone knew of the sin may be disregarded. If so, it becomes necessary to take "one or two more with thee, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." With the failure of these, if they fail, the privacy of the matter ends. Sin cannot be ignored. The holiness of God's house demands that it should be dealt with. "If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church." Here the importance of the witnesses come in. They are able to give a faithful report of every word, said both to him, and by him, and by their testimony every word is established. If he neglect to hear the Church, the Church, as the custodian of the rights of God on earth, will have to deal in righteous discipline with the unrepentant one, and no longer accord him the place his sin has unfitted him to fill. "Let him be unto them as an heathen man and a publican." And this action of the assembly will be ratified in Heaven, either in "binding" the sin upon the guilty one, or in "loosing" him from it, when there is evidence of true repentance and restoration of soul to God.

Now, in all this, the Lord is speaking anticipatively. In Matthew 16 He had spoken of "My Church," but there the expression comprises every believer from Pentecost to the Coming. Here, for the first time in scripture, we get a local assembly mentioned, and connected with it are the foundation principles upon which such a gathering rests.

1 Its CENTRE of gathering is the Lord Himself. Believers are gathered "unto His name."

2 LOVE is the ruling principle in the intercourse of its members, one with another; and

3 HOLINESS characterises its testimony in the world, to ensure which, the Lord promises His Presence, His Authority, and His Approval of what is done in His Name.

Mark the grace that condescends to be "in the midst" of the "two or three," so gathered. Encouragement in prayer is in the same connection, for be it remarked that all Answered prayer is Conditioned prayer. Mark 11: 24; John 14: 13, John 15: 7, John 16: 23, 24; 1 John 3: 22, further develop this deeply-important subject.

Peter's question in verse 21 gives occasion for the Lord to bring out in the most beautiful way the absolute superiority of grace over every form of evil. You cannot offend a truly gracious man, for he refuses to take offence. You cannot take down "a truly humble man, for he is already down. All that may be done against such a one, only the more brings out the grace that is in him, and the more others seek to do him evil, the more he desires their good.

And this not "seven times" only, but without end. Jewish Rabbins had said that forgiveness was to be extended three times to the repentant brother. Peter is willing to extend it seven times, but the Lord says in effect, "How great is the restoring grace of God, and how often has it been extended to you? If you are in the sense of that grace, manifest it to others without any limits. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him" (Luke 17: 4).

But there is the other side. If grace be not manifested, God will deal in government with the one who so fails, and in the end, it may be shown by his final and eternal condemnation, that he was never in the Kingdom at all, except on the mere outward ground of profession only. This the parable of the Unmerciful Servant teaches us.

It will be noticed that in this section (Chaps. xviii to 23) there are four different kinds of parables. Five parables in all.

1 The Unmerciful Servant (Chap. 18) teaches us Responsibility in the Kingdom.

2 The Labourers in the Vineyard (Chap. 20) teaches us that God is Sovereign, and maintains His rights as being such.

3 The Two Sons, and the Wicked Husbandmen (Chap. 21) declare the setting aside of Israel; and

4 The Marriage of the King's Son (Chap. 22) shows God's way of bringing men into the Kingdom.

Our chapter deals with the first of these subjects. But it may be well to notice at the outset, before looking at this great object lesson of Forgiveness, that there are three aspects of Forgiveness in Scripture: —

1) Forgiveness for Sinners, or Eternal forgiveness, is received, and should be enjoyed by every believer. But many do not enter into it. Some hope for it. Some think that they were once forgiven, but may lose it again. Others suppose they are partly forgiven. God says, "I write unto you children, because your sins are forgiven you for His Name's sake" (1 John 2: 12).

GRACE provides it. The BLOOD procures it. The SPIRIT proclaims it. FAITH appropriates it. Because God has spoken, I am sure.

Three things follow: —

1 It produces Happiness. "Blessed (happy) is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Ps. 32: 1).

2 It produces LOVE. "Much forgiven, the same loveth much" (Luke 7: 47).

3 It produces holy fear. "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared" (Ps. 130: 4).

2) Forgiveness for BELIEVERS, or restorative Forgiveness.

When we were converted, we were received into the family of God and became children. Confession of our many failures restores to us the joy of forgiveness, and we remain happy children. Instructions to railwaymen are that "when a train breaks down, report to headquarters." So must we. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1: 9).

3) Governmental Forgiveness is what the parable in this chapter deals with, and closely connected with it is the supreme importance and necessity of forgiveness by believers of each other. Any other attitude is contrary to the whole spirit of Christianity, and there is no evidence that the man who cherishes an unforgiving spirit is a Christian at all. Having been forgiven our "great debt," we ought to forgive each other without limit. To do otherwise is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

But there is also the dispensational aspect of this parable.

"The King" is God. The "Great Debtor," Israel. "The Debt," all the privileges and blessings they had received from God ever since they became a nation. For the "taking account" compare Matthew 3: 10. The axe was then at the root of the tree. The "patience" following first on His three years' ministry among them, and again on His prayer for them on the Cross — "Father, forgive them" — was extended down to Acts 7.

The "hundred pence" debtor may represent the Gentiles. The attitude of the Jew towards the

Gentiles and towards God is shown in many passages in the Acts. Compare Chapters 7: 51, 13: 45, 14: 2, 17: 5, 21: 27, 22: 21, 28: 28, and it is finally summed up in 1 Thessalonians 2: 15: —

1 They killed the Lord Jesus.

2 And their own prophets.

3 They persecuted the Apostles

4 They please not God.

5 They were contrary to all men.

6 Forbade to preach to the Gentiles, and thus they filled up their sins so that wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. In the words of the parable, they have been "sold" — cast into the prison of the nations, as they are to this day, and will be until the time spoken of in Isaiah 40, when the punishment of the guilty nation will be completed, her warfare accomplished, and her iniquity pardoned.

There is here indeed a solemn warning to every servant, in every dispensation to walk in love, humility, and lowliness; forgiving from the heart every one his brother their trespasses.

Two words give the secret of the unmerciful servant's failure. He "went out" from the presence of his Master. In a spiritual sense this will always mean failure. To abide in the light is to abide in communion with the Father and the Son. May this ever be our happy experience, and so shall our "joy be full." Matthew 19 may be divided into four parts: —

1 Marriage.

2 The Little Children.

3 Creature Goodness; and

4 Discipleship.

Here we come, in the first place, to the Lord's teaching as to the relationships of nature which had been established by God Himself, and which, being of divine origin, and being ordained "from the beginning" must necessarily continue to exist in the Kingdom.

The Pharisee's question — "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause" — was put with no desire on their part to accept from Him an authoritative ruling on the subject, but only to entrap Him into taking sides in the great "divorce controversy" then raging. A school of Jewish Rabbins were busy endeavouring to undermine the law of God, given through Moses, and provide scope for the carnal passions of men to work unchecked. The door had been opened wide enough to allow of "many causes" instead of the one, but all so trifling that the Lord refuses even to take notice of them. So may we. The great point is established that marriage, as originally instituted by God Himself in Eden, subsists in the kingdom on earth; and if the man and the woman act according to the spirit of that kingdom, there will neither be the occasion nor the need for separation between them.

It is God's order for man in nature, and it is an evidence of the greatest human love. But it is more. It is a type of the most wonderful thing in the universe, and that is — Christ and the Church.

The Pharisees endeavour to quote Moses against the Lord, but He at once shows them that Moses, instead of condemning Him, condemned them. Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered — not commanded — her to be put away. Here, as on another occasion, Moses, instead of becoming their vindicator, becomes their accuser and judge. "There is one," the Lord says, "that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust" (John 5: 45). It is ever a dangerous thing for a sinner to take his stand upon the law, which can only expose and condemn him with no power to pardon and forgive.

Now, the disciples' comment on this teaching brings out another phase of wrong-thinking. The Pharisees would have marriage with all the licence that their loose morals craved for. The disciples, if marriage was to be without these liberties, would argue that, "it is not good to marry." But this was to contradict the very words of God. At the beginning He had said, "It is not good that man should be alone," and this ruling still exists. Christianity may produce in some that which is beyond nature, and for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake a man may have a special gift so to abide.

Nothing is more illustrative of the tender grace of the Lord than His attitude towards the little ones, and nothing can be more encouraging for all who have to do with such, be it either parent or teacher. He had already taught (Chap. 18) that what should mark the one who was in the Kingdom was that which did mark the child. Here the further truth is revealed, that such are in the Kingdom. Who brought the little ones to the Lord we are not told, but it is clear that having come themselves they had faith to bring their children also. And this faith the Lord honoured. They sought that He would put His hands on them and pray. He did more. He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them (Mark 10). Not only was He willing to invoke the blessing; but, being Himself the Blesser, He was able to bless. So it ever is where there is real faith. "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3: 20).

But if the Lord graciously responded to the claims of faith, the Spirit of God, on the other hand, gives us to know His attitude towards even His own disciples when they misrepresented Him. They rebuked those who brought the children. He rebuked them, and so much was the spirit they manifested opposed to the spirit of the Kingdom that, as Luke tells us, "He was much displeased" (Luke 18). Still seeking for honour and place, they thought to find it in being the disciples of so great a Rabbi. Alas! how little they knew as yet either His true greatness or that spirit which marks the truly great. This lesson He was now about to teach them (Chap. 20: 26). But before that they got an object-lesson as to the real value of all earthly things, be it either riches or rank, and as a result, there had to be in their case a revaluation of values in the light of Heaven, if they would arrive at that which was the current coin of the Kingdom.

The Rich Young Ruler to whom we are now introduced was no common man. As far as this world went he had everything that it values, and he was everything that it respects.

He was a religious man, a ruler or judge among the people. He had money, friends, position, and influence. He did all that the law commanded, as far as he understood it, and he was sincere in thinking that by the deeds of the law he could enter into life. In short, he is set before us as the best that nature could produce, but the Lord has now to show him, and us too, that nature's best is not good enough for God. To do so He brings the true inwardness of the law to bear upon his heart and conscience. If he really loved his neighbour as himself, why not share with him in all he possessed? Put in this way, the idol of riches in his heart is exposed, and in spite of what he professed his failure is manifest, for "he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen" (1 John 4). And this young man had professed to love both God and his brother.

Verse 21 is not the Gospel; it is the Lord exposing the young man's heart to himself. The Gospel is not "give up" this or that, but take Christ, and with Him pardon, forgiveness, and life; peace, power, and joy.

But with Him also the Cross; and, at this saying, the rich young man was very sorrowful. Treasure in heaven doubtless he would receive, for the "Good Master" had said it. But treasure in heaven was far away, and to him but visionary. His own riches on earth seemed to him both real and tangible, but alas! he forgot the thief of time who would ultimately steal both them from him and him from them.

"And Jesus beholding him loved him" (Mark 10). It is one of the most interesting stories in the Gospels: also one of the saddest. Instead of owning himself condemned by law and casting himself upon the mercy of Christ, he clung to his rank and his riches, with all that they cost him, and all that they lost him, "and went away grieved, for he was very rich." So will it be with every one who shuns the narrow path of following Christ. To suffer with Him here is to reign with Him in Kingdom Glory hereafter.

Now the thought of the disciples was that riches was a sure mark of the favour of God, and that they at least supplied the means of doing good. If no one was "good," and riches — the means of doing good, not only valueless, but in themselves a positive hindrance — "who then could be saved?" The Lord's answer is emphatic, No one. On the ground of human merit, a camel might sooner pass the needle's eye than a rich man, trusting in his riches, enter the Kingdom. But with God all things are possible. Grace makes no account of what man is, either at his "best" or his "worst." Salvation is of the Lord.

Peter, doubtless seeing the young man going away preferring his possessions to Christ, ventures the question, "We have left all. . . . What shall we have therefore?"

In His reply the Lord gives some of the most precious encouragement as to discipleship, coupled as ever with that which will guard it from the abuse of human merit.

This we have in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. The apostles had done what the young man had been invited to do. First, then, the Lord says, that, as to His immediate followers, the disciples, they would be princes in the Kingdom. And all, at all times, and in all places, who prefers the name of Christ above what is dear to nature shall receive an hundredfold here, and life everlasting hereafter. He had already told them of the persecution and suffering they would have to endure by becoming His followers. Now He reveals to them something of the glory that should follow. And even here more friends would be raised up to them for Christ's sake than ever they had lost for their own sakes.

The day of Kingdom Glory is the time of recompense, and nothing done for Christ will be forgotten by Him in that day.

But along with this cheering promise goes another line of truth intensely solemn, and that is that "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Cor. 3: 13). And the gain or loss of that day will be in accordance with the character of the work done in this. May the thought have due weight with each one of us, so that everything be done in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ, and all our ways below may meet with His approval. Peter, perhaps, put a value on his boat and nets which they never possessed, and we are all in danger of doing likewise. But Peter had forsaken them to follow the Lord, and nothing is little in His eyes where the motive is true love to Himself.

Only lest we should go to the opposite extreme in self-righteousness and be tempted to put our own value upon our own work, we get the Parable of "The Labourers," in which the further truth comes out that God is Sovereign, and will do just as He pleases; and that what He pleases to do is right. Self-righteousness may lead a man to estimate himself as "first," but, if so, the true estimate may show that he is last of all. This the parable develops, and shows that rewards in the Kingdom will be in accord with the principles both of sovereignty and grace There are five groups of labourers: —

1 The First Company go into the vineyard early in the morning, having agreed for a penny a day.

2 The Second Company go into the vineyard at the third hour, depending on the promise of the householder.

3 and 4. The Third and Fourth Companies go into the vineyard at the sixth and ninth hours on the same terms as the second.

5. The Fifth Company go into the vineyard at the eleventh hour with no promise at all, if we omit, with the best authorities, the last clause of verse 7.

It is a manifold picture of sovereign grace: God continuing to come out unceasingly, in order to bring men into the place of blessing; and not only so, but to give them the honour of serving Him: give them grace to serve; and then, and beyond all, reward them for the service that His sovereign grace has enabled them to fulfil.

"So when even was come the Lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, Call the labourers and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first." And when the eleventh hour labourers came, they received every man a penny. And when the first company came they also received every man a penny. People argue that all were rewarded alike. But not so. The point of the parable is, that all were rewarded. Not that all were rewarded alike. There is a great difference between a penny a day and a penny an hour. Nevertheless, what right had the first to murmur? They had been dealt with in perfect righteousness. They had received what they bargained for, and what had they to do with the value of other men's service? That lay with the goodness of the householder. If all reward be a reward of grace, as it is, that reward can only be measured by the sovereign grace of God alone. If He make the last to be first who shall question His ruling? Many who thought themselves to be first may be seen to be last, and many who came in late may get a first place. The dying thief came in at the eleventh hour surely, but his one short hour of witness to Christ was given at a time when all had forsaken Him.

We must ever keep in mind that the Parables in general deal with Kingdom truth on the broad lines of profession. There will be no murmurers in the day of glory. Whatever the penny may have meant to the first group in the parable, it certainly means no place in the Kingdom for those to whom the parable applies, and it is equally certain that love for the Master had no place in their hearts. It is a scriptural principle that "the labourer is worthy of his hire." But, on the other hand, if he work for his hire only, it proves him to be merely a hireling who has never known what the true spring of service really is. How beautiful it is to compare with this what the apostle knew to be the compelling power in all true Christian service. "The love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge that, if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again" (2 Cor. 5: 14, 15).

We may well pause here for a moment. This parable dealing with service, and God's rights in rewarding it according to His own sovereign grace, are the closing words, given by our Evangelist, of the Great Servant, before setting out on the last sad journey to Jerusalem.

His holy life of devoted service had been marked by obedience to the Father's will and love to the souls of men. He was the Dispenser of blessing wherever He went, and men wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth. Yet in spite of all this perfect display of heavenly power and grace, He had to say, "They hated me without a cause."

Now He is on the way to the Cross, and once again He takes the twelve apart by themselves in the way, to give them the third recorded lesson as to His rejection and death; and to prepare them for what must now be to them the shattering of all their hopes. For even yet their eyes and hearts were filled with visions of an immediate earthly reign, and to secure first places there, James and John endeavour to forestall the others.

This self-seeking appeal for the Sons of Zebedee gives opportunity for the Lord to bring to light the things of the spirit. He had come as the Messiah, bringing blessing for Israel, and had been rejected. Laying aside His rightful claims as Israel's King, He had then announced Himself as the "Son of Man" — a wider title which declared His rights world wide, and therefore spoke of blessing for all. But before there could be blessing for any, the Lord must die, in order to lay the righteous foundation on which all the purposes of God might rest secure.

All this the disciples were as yet ignorant of. But before that day of display came, He had something to give to His followers. It was suffering. They were slow to learn that this was the highest honour they could have from the world. So are we. Knowing not what it involved, they said, in answer to His question, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of?" "We are able." Circumstances would very soon test their pretensions. And yet if at one time it had to be written — "They all forsook him and fled" — the Spirit is careful to record of them on another occasion, that "they departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name" (Acts 5: 41).

But if the Sons of Zebedee were full of themselves, the ten, when they heard it, were full of indignation. They wanted to put the two down, perhaps only in order to put themselves up. But again the patient grace of the Lord shines out. He called them around Him, not for rebuke but for instruction. He, the Son of Man, the Lord of all, had become a Servant, and gone to a lower place than it was possible for any one else to reach. They were not to imitate the rulers of the nations, but to follow Him. So should we. If you want to be great, go down. If you want to be greater, go lower; and the lower we go, the nearer we get to the Master "who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." His service here was leading Him on to that supreme act of self-surrender — laying down His life for the sheep. Now in the glory His service of love still continues, though in another character. He is there as our great High Priest, and His priestly service is able to maintain us in the light of the presence of God, and in the sunshine of His love every moment.

Soon the day of Kingly service will come, when He will come forth to serve; and we shall be with Him and like Him as He is. What a day of blessing will it be when such a King reigns in righteousness.

May the contemplation of such love produce in each of us the Christ spirit — which seeketh not his own, and is ever ready to lay down life itself for the brethren. "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister (hired servant), and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (slave)." The man in whom self is least in evidence is the man who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Passing through Jericho the two blind men are met, and healed. They hail Him as "Son of David," follow Him, and become witnesses to His power. It is fittingly the last-recorded miracle of healing in Matthew's Gospel, and it is a dispensational picture of the time when the "blindness" that has happened to the nation will be done away, and the remnant will recognise and acclaim their rightful King that cometh in the name of the Lord. This the multitude now do, according to the prophecy of Psalm 118. When they reach Bethphage He sends for the ass and the colt, both doubtless used by Him in succession, according to Zechariah 9: 9. Matthew alone mentions both animals: typical they are, no doubt, and, with many similar things, it looks on to the day when the remnant of the nation will be brought into blessing under a King come in power.

But the meek and lowly One is about to be rejected, and the next verse of the prophecy (Zech. 10: 10) remains unfulfilled until the day when He comes again riding upon the "white horse" (Rev. 19). The procession reaches the brow of Olivet, and the city bursts upon their gaze. Just in front, on the other side of the Kedron Valley, shining in all its recent adornment, stands the Temple — the Holy House, as the Jew so fondly called it, soon to be left desolate, and in a few short years become a prey to consuming fire. To the left, on the Hill of Zion, lay the "City of David," recalling all the glories of their greatest ruler. And here was David's Royal Son, surely, thought the disciples, now about to assert both His authority and His power.

But, see, the King weeps! (Luke 19). It is no scene of triumph His eye rests upon. The inconstant multitude will soon change their cry of acclamation to cries of derision. Jerusalem, knowing not the day of her visitation in grace, will soon bitterly realise that the day has come for her visitation in judgment. Yet still His heart yearned over them. How often would He have gathered them as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings? — "I would: ye would not."

Ascending up from the Kedron, they enter the Temple, probably by the East gate, "and the whole city was moved." But, alas! however moved, they knew Him not. They can only ask, "Who is this?" And the voices that acclaimed Him at Olivet as "Son of David" can now only reply, "It is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth." He had reached the city, not to reign, but to die.

"And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple" — it is the evening of the First day of the week — and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, He went out into Bethany with the twelve (Mark 11). Not till next day — Monday — as Mark tells us, did He cleanse the temple. Matthew, as we have seen, groups the incidents in keeping with his subject, and so we have together, the withering of the Fig Tree, the Parables of the Two Sons, and that of the Wicked Husbandmen, teaching so plainly the setting aside of Israel, that even the Pharisees understood it. And let us notice that neither of these two parables is said to be a "likeness of the Kingdom of Heaven." That new thing begins consequent upon the rejection of Messiah, and so we have in order, in Matthew 22, the Parable of the Marriage of the King's Son, showing God's way of bringing men into that Kingdom. The Jews would not come. The Gentiles will, as we shall see later.

"Now in the morning (Monday) as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, 'Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.' And presently the fig tree withered away."

Here we have both a miracle and a parable. It is the only miracle other than that of blessing the Lord ever performed. And as to the parable, if we connect it with the parable in Luke 13, we shall find that three years of patient cultivation had been spent before the word went forth, "Cut it down." The Lord's ministry of patient grace had continued for a somewhat similar time, but now it was over, and Israel's day had gone by. As to the action itself, it was symbolical, and for the instruction of disciples. So must we understand the teaching consequent thereupon. They would nowhere have to do either with a literal fig tree or a literal mountain. But, as God's planting, Israel was the "fig tree"; and as a power in the earth, Israel was the "mountain." The day came, in apostolic service, when an apostle was led to utter the warning, "Behold ye despisers, and wonder, and perish" (Acts 13). And again, "The Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles" (Acts 28). Even after the crucified and risen Lord had gone back to the glory, one last message of mercy was sent again to His earthly people, through Peter, and after their rejection of it, and the murder of His witness, Stephen, Israel was indeed cast into the sea of the nations. She had proved conclusively that, in her history, there had neither been fruit for God, nor power among men.

But there is more. In verse 22 there is the most unqualified assurance that all things would be given to the man of faith. So accustomed are we to the little faith (often no faith) of our own hearts, that, when we find such a statement as this, we are tempted to explain away the power of it. But there it stands for believers of all time. The twelve were about to be parted from the Master upon whom they had relied in every emergency. He now connects them with all the power of God on high which they were to lay hold of, by faith, for their service; assuring them that, to the man of faith, all things he asks, he shall receive.

When He reached the Temple, He cleansed it, as we have noticed, and at once begins what we might call His closing public addresses. For His last words of encouragement and instruction to His own we must look elsewhere, but Matthew gives us very full details of the public ministry of these two busy days. The nation was hearing the voice speaking in grace, which it would not again hear, until that same voice speaks in judgment in a later day. But now it was only a question of setting forth in symbolic language the state to which the blindness of the leaders had brought the nation.

The outline of the Temple addresses is as follows: —

1 The Jews refuse to obey God (Parable of the Two Sons).

3 They refuse to bring anything to Him (Parable of the Vine-dressers).

3 They refuse to accept anything from Him (Parable of the Marriage of the King's Son).

4 Grace refused goes out to the Gentiles (The Second Invitation to the Marriage Feast).

5 Their political bondage turned on what they had failed to be for God (The Tribute Money).

6 Sadducean difficulties are shown to he the result of Sadducean infidelity (The Woman and Seven Husbands).

7 The law exposes the motives of the heart: till that is right everything must be wrong (The Lawyer's Question).

Let us look into these things in a little more detail. The Lord no longer replies to the cavils of the elders, except to bring truth to bear upon their consciences. They ask Him for His authority. Had it not been displayed before their eyes in acts of power, which proved that it must be heavenly in its origin? But now, would they answer His question, "John's Baptism, was it from heaven?" He had been a burning and a shining light and they had been willing for a season to rejoice in that light (John 5: 35). Their national pride had gloried in a prophet being raised up amongst them, as so often among the fathers of old, but their self-righteousness had prevented them from accepting his testimony to Messiah. John had been murdered and his Master they had rejected. Hence their difficulty. Rather than own their sin, they refuse to answer. Then the Lord brings their moral state before them in the parable of the Two Sons.

Open opposition to the father, followed by repentance, marked the first. False profession, unrepented of, marked the second. Open sinners were converted by the preaching of the fearless Baptist and brought into the Kingdom of God. Self-righteous Pharisees saw no need for repentance.

In the next parable a deeper principle is touched upon. The nation was not only in a state of malevolent neutrality, it was in a state of active opposition to God and His ways of grace. Israel had been likened to the vineyard of the Lord, as they very well knew from their own scriptures (Ps. 80 And according to Isaiah 5 everything had been done for it that the care and forethought of the husbandman could do. Indeed the prophet had challenged the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah on this very point. And what? — "When I looked that it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wild grapes." Then the Lord shows from their dealings with His servants, the prophets, what their moral history had been, until that moment when their hearts were fully exposed by the presence of the Son Himself in their midst, and their diabolic counsel among themselves was "This is the Heir, come let us — kill Him." It is no question of ignorance. He is known, and when known, hated. So trenchant and convincing is the argument that they are forced to answer the question — "When the Lord of the vineyard cometh what will He do?" God was about to take a hand in the affairs of men. What will happen to those who up to that time had been the custodians of the Kingdom of God: of whom were the fathers, and to whom were the promises? "Did ye never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." He was the Stone of Israel (Gen. 49), the Tried Stone, the Precious Corner Stone, and the Sure Foundation (Isa. 28). But to Israel He became a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence (Rom. 10). Nevertheless, though disallowed of men, He was chosen of God and precious, and on Him the spiritual house is now being builded, and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded (1 Peter 2). If they who stumbled at the Lord come in grace would be "broken," what could happen to those with whom He had to deal in judgment, but that they should be "ground to powder" (compare Dan. 2: 35). It is the inevitable end of all who would contend with God.

Then He tells them that the "Kingdom of God" should be taken from them. It is the last time we have this term in Matthew, and it marks in a very specific way the difference between it and the Kingdom of Heaven. The Jews, entrusted with the revelation from God, owned Him as their King, and were in His Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven was the form the Kingdom of God would take, consequent upon the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ to the right-hand of God on high.

The Kingdom of God, then, taken from the Jews would be given to a "nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." This, doubtless, has a twofold meaning. Peter, writing to believers, could say, using no doubt Old Testament forms of speech (Deut. 10: 15), "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2: 9). Then, in a coming day, it will be said to Israel, in the sublime words of the prophet, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come . . . thy people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever" (Isa. 60: 1-21). But meantime it is proved conclusively that men under the best of conditions could produce nothing for God. Not only so, but in addition to abusing the servants, they murdered the Son. Enmity could no further go. What will God do now? Can grace meet such a condition as this? Verse 1, Matthew 22, answers the question. It is no longer a question of what man has done, but of what God is doing; and the Lord hereupon gives a similitude of the new thing, and God's way of bringing men into it, under the form of the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son. And here a further startling development of evil is seen. Men not only refuse to bring anything to God: they also refuse to accept anything from Him. This is a true picture of the natural heart, and a very humbling truth indeed. But for sovereign grace, not a single soul of Adam's race would ever be in the glory of God.

"A certain king made a marriage for his son:" The world dishonoured the Son. God will have Him to be honoured. The world gave Him a low place. God will give Him the highest place that heaven affords. Every knee must bow to Him, and those who will not bow in grace shall bow in judgment. The Lord puts the divine counsels in true perspective. The proper "point of sight" is not so much man's need, as God's glory, and while the convicted sinner naturally views the Gospel from the first standpoint, the believer should seek to see things from the last.

The Marriage Feast sets before us the way grace goes out either to Jew or Gentile; and along with that there is the response it meets with. As to those that were bidden, "they would not come."

A second invitation manifests the indifference of some and the malevolence of others. The agricultural and mercantile classes (verse 5) are singled out from the remnant (verse 6), who slew the servants. These last would fittingly represent the leaders who were ever the first in persecution.

In the first invitation we have the ministry of the Apostles before the Cross. In the second, the preaching of the Apostles after the Cross, and until the death of Stephen. "Repent ye therefore and be converted," Peter could say, "that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3: 19, R.V.). But they repented not. Instead of their sins being blotted out, their city was burned up as the parable had forewarned.

Now, the call of grace can go out to all, without exception or distinction. It is no longer, what man is, but, what God is. A praying Lydia, or a jailer steeped in sin, need, and alike receive, the same grace. From the "highways" the servants gather both "bad and good," and the wedding is furnished with guests.

But something more was needed. The glory of the King, and the honour of the King's Son, demanded that there should be not only acceptance of the King's invitation, but fitness for the King's presence. This the "Wedding Garment" supplied. It was needed by the guests, and provided by the King. Hence there was no excuse for the man without it. His "best" would not do for the King, neither will man's best do for God. Only as a sinner is clad in God's righteousness, can he stand before Him, and God's righteousness is Christ Himself. The measure of the believer's standing is nothing less than Christ risen. Wonderful truth. How little we enter into it. But there could not be Christ risen, until He had first gone into death. Apart from that atoning death to which He went down in grace, He must have been alone in the glory. But, blessed be God, risen out of death, He became the First begotten from the dead, and the First born of many brethren. The prodigal's highest aspiration was the place of a hired servant. But nothing less than the robe and the ring and the feast would satisfy the heart of the father.

The close of the parable looks on to the end, and the judgment is solemn, final, and eternal. It is the end of every mere professor — outer darkness and untold woe. Oh that men would be warned in time. Notice that the word translated "servants" in verses 3, 4, 6, 8, is not the same as that used in verse 13. The first (bondservants) refer to those who go forth with the Gospel. The second (ministers) refer to the angels who are the executors of His judgments. These two things are never confounded.

The later half of the chapter brings out the folly of the three great classes of the nation, in their endeavour to "entangle him in his talk."

The Pharisees were the religionists of the day, the descendants of the patriotic men who had so nobly supported the Maccabees in the War of Independence. The Herodians were those who, in their endeavour to perpetuate the national existence at any cost, were willing to give up the national faith, in order to support the anti-national Idumean succession of the family of the Herods. These two classes, whose principles were diametrically opposite, and who hated each other with age-long hatred, agreed together to tempt the Lord. With divine wisdom, and grace combined, the Lord meets these men. Showing them that He knew their thoughts and thereby exposing them to themselves, He sought to deliver them from the snare of Satan into which they had fallen. Had the rights of God been rendered to Him, Caesar and his legions would have had no power in their land. The reply was unanswerable, but though they marvelled, they did not believe.

The hypocrisy and infidelity of the Sadducees are next exposed. As to creed, they denied everything that the Pharisees believed. The law of Moses, as they expounded it, had to do only with the earth. There was no future life. Now they come to the Lord, apparently anxious to settle a question about the resurrection, when the very fact of the resurrection itself they denied. Could hypocrisy go further? The Lord showed their difficulties arose from two sources. The first was their ignorance of their own scriptures, and the second was their ignorance of the power of God. Slow to own the first, they are equally slow to ascribe to God that power which belongs to Him by sovereign right, and thus they perish in their own folly. Unbelief is ever ignorant. "By faith we understand."

But here comes a lawyer. He is a learned scribe, and everything that is to be known about the law he knows. The One who was among them in a love that went far beyond law keeping he knew not. His question, however, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" brings out God's standard for men upon the earth, a standard from which he has fallen, alas, how far. The mission of the prophets was restorative, and intended to bring the people back to the ways of God. But they only added to their guilt. The law they had broken, and the prophets they had slain. Law knows nothing about producing conditions in which its righteous precepts can be displayed. That awaited a later revelation. Only when a man is born of God, can he display the character of God. Then, the flesh set aside, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom. 8: 4).

These three questions asked and answered, the Lord next propounds to them the question of questions: — "What think ye of Christ: Whose Son is He?"

Earlier in our Gospel (Matt. 16), a somewhat similar question had been asked of disciples, and answered in a way that spoke of spiritual enlightenment and intelligence in the ways of God. Here there is only the darkness of unbelief. As David's Son, He had presented Himself to them and had been rejected. The day was coming when they, as His enemies, would be made the "footstool of his feet."

And so the tempters, confounded in all their tactics, withdraw from the conflict, and the disciples and the multitude listen to the summing-up of the righteous Judge (Matt. 23), before whom the hearts of all are exposed.

But first of all He sets up the Scribes and Pharisees, not as an example, but as a warning, whose works the disciples were to avoid. Whatsoever they taught from the law was to be observed, for the age of law was not yet closed. God still recognised that order which He had ordained, however much men had abused it. So the Lord speaks of them as "sitting in Moses' seat," that is — continuing his teaching. As such they were in the place of responsibility — before God, and would be held to be so. As the principles that governed their lives are exposed, we can only exclaim with the prophet, "The heart is deceitful above all things: who can know it?" And the answer is: — "I the Lord" (Jer. 17: 9). Here we get that which appeals to the natural mind.

Imposing on others what we refuse in ourselves (verse 4).

Wrong motives in service (verse 5).

Spiritual pride (verse 5).

Outward appearances (verse 6).

The applause of men (verse 7).

Deference from the world (verse 7).

Surely all of these are out of place in the character of the disciple of Christ, and yet how much there is in every heart to which these things appeal.

Such things were not to be among believers, and the Lord next puts His finger, as it were, upon the beginnings of things, which, if allowed, would produce the very same thing in Christianity as they had done in Judaism. Hence —

1 They were to avoid the principles of the Rabbi who sought to form a school around himself. Their Instructor was Christ, and His word their sole authority and unerring guide.

2 Nothing was to be allowed that would weaken their sense of relationship to God as their Father.

3 And there was to be no leadership, apart from the leadership of Christ Himself. One is your Master, Christ, and all ye are brethren.

Alas, how these three great principles have been ignored in Christendom, and the result has been that things are as we see them to-day. Sects and parties have been formed around men, which must ever be wrong, or around doctrines which may, in themselves, be right, but the True Centre — Christ — has thereby been ignored, and the Sole Authority, the Holy Word of God, has been set aside for the traditions of men.

The great moral principles of Christianity are again enforced in three short apophthegms: —

1 The greatest among you shall be your servant.

2 The self-exalted one shall be abased.

3 The humble minded shall be exalted.

He could say, "I am among you as he that serveth," and it could be said of Him, "Therefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name" (Phil. 2). The first man in the pride of his heart sought to go up. The Second Man, in the grace of His heart, went down, even to the dust of death.

The Seven Woes that follow (for verse 14 is of doubtful authority) disclose not only the condemnation of the leaders of Israel, but why they are condemned.

Tradition played so large a part in their system that by it the Word of God was made of none effect. Indeed, it was made to mean the very opposite of what it said, and thus the light to them became darkness, and what was darkness, that, it follows, they held to be light. A single illustration will make this clear. Under the ceremonial law, creeping things were pronounced unclean. Yet no one was admitted a member of the Sanhedrim who did not possess sufficient ability, or rather ingenuity, to prove by many reasons that creeping things were clean. Well might the Lord say of such that they were hinderers in the way of life, neither entering the Kingdom themselves, nor allowing others to do so.

Those whom they succeeded in proselytising, reproduced only the positive evil of their teachers.

All righteous principles were set aside by vain casuistry, and they could so arrange the "Corban Oath" (see Mark 7) that they made their own gain out of the temple gold. To fill up the Corban treasure, men were taught to break the fifth commandment. His own teaching on vain swearing had already been given (Matt. 5: 34), and it is well to compare it with what we have here.

In the third woe, He had condemned their corrupt teaching. Here, in the fourth, He condemns their corrupt practice, and, in the next, we get, under a correct exterior, the corrupt affections of the natural heart. Again, they were more anxious to appear right before men, than to be right before God. It was outward paint to cover inward pollution. The grass grown green on the sides of the volcano snow lying white on a manure heap.

The last woe is more comprehensive still in its sweep. It looks both backwards and forwards. Their fathers had killed the prophets. They professed to abjure their fathers' deeds by building tombs for the slain, but both their hypocrisy and wickedness would be exposed by the way they would "kill, crucify, and scourge" the "prophets and wise men and scribes" of the new dispensation. This can be followed out in the short forty years that remained of their national history. Much of it is recorded in the Book of Acts. We need not further pursue it here. But it is well to notice how Christendom has copied, and indeed far surpassed in extent, the persecuting spirit of the Jew of old. It is believed to be a fair estimate that the Apostate Church of Rome is responsible for the blood of fifty millions of the saints of God. Well, truly will it be said of her that she is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev. 17: 6).

The Lord, having now finished His public ministry, by convicting and condemning the leaders of Israel, seems, as it were, to cast His eye forward to that time when, God's patience being exhausted, the just judgment which grace alone had restrained, would fall. As He views it, the love of His heart for the guilty city again overflows.

What love indeed is here? In the very place where prophets had been slain, and where He was about to die, He would have "gathered her children together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings." "I would — ye would not." It is the mystery of the perverted will. And because of it their house would be left desolate, as it has remained until this day, and will so remain until the remnant, converted and brought into blessing on the ground of the New Covenant of Grace, shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Ps. 118). Then the Stone rejected by the builders of the past day will become the head Stone of the Corner, and the temple choir of redeemed Israel will chant the National Anthem,

"O sing unto the Lord a new song,

For He hath done marvellous things.

His right hand and his holy arm

Hath gotten him the victory.

The Lord hath made known his salvation:

His righteousness hath he openly showed

In the sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and his truth

Towards the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth

Have seen the salvation of our God" (Ps. 98: 1-3).

Section 10. Matthew 24, 25.

The Great Prophetic Outline. The King's Dealings with the Jew, the Church, and the Nations

There are many wonderful things about the Word of God. No other book is like it in this, that it has a Divine Author. God has spoken. What He says must be true, authoritative, and final. It can be subject neither to revisal nor development, for the Author is infinite and All-wise.

Then again it does what no word of man can ever do in the same way — it speaks to the conscience. Men address their words to the intellect, the emotions, or the imagination. God speaks right home to the conscience. He deals with the foundation questions of man's sin, and God's righteousness, and so unconverted men hate the Book because they love not its Author.

Yet another most wonderful thing about the Bible is that it tells of the future. Other books tell of the past, or give details of current events, but when the line of the present moment is reached, all beyond it becomes mere idle speculation.

God's Book with graphic touch, and precise definition, gives an outline of the course of time, from the time that time began, until the time when time shall be no longer. It lifts the veil that shuts in the future from mortal ken, and shows us the glories of the ransomed around the throne of God, and the awful fate of the lost in that place where hope never comes. We can know about the end of time with just as much certainty as we know about the beginning of it, for the same word has revealed both.

With this assurance of faith, then, let us draw near and listen to the words of the Lord Jesus, as recorded for us in these wonderful chapters. He here takes the place of the Prophet of God, according to what was before spoken of Him by Moses: —

"I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren . . . and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him" (Deut. 18: 18). It was a solemn moment in Israel's history when He went out and departed from the temple. Never more would His voice be heard in its courts. Never again would His feet stand within its gates. Jerusalem had rejected her King, and the things that belonged to her peace were hid from her eyes.

The temple was that in which the Jew of that day made his boast. Even disciples were still occupied with its glories, and the Lord, to deliver them from the influence of things seen, brings in the light of things as yet unseen. Doubtless it was with something of dismay that they heard of the day of distress so soon to overtake their "beautiful house," and they waited only for a more convenient season to learn more about such a startling event. That occasion soon presented itself. Leaving the temple and the city, they take their way towards Bethany, and when sitting on the slopes of Olivet, it may be to rest after climbing up from the Kedron Valley, the disciples come to Him, eager for information as to the solemn events of which He had but darkly hinted, as they left the temple courts.

With this object they put to Him the three great questions: —

1 When shall these things be?

2 What shall be the sign of Thy Coming?

3 What shall be the sign of the end of the world (age)?

The Lord, in replying to their questions, gives them, as is ever His wont, instruction and guidance far beyond what they had asked for. And in the present section of the Gospel we have an outline of events beginning from the moment then present, and carrying us on to that time of blessedness for the earth, still future, when "the King shall sit upon the throne of his glory," and the Kingdom will no longer exist in mystery, but will be seen in manifestation, and "everything that hath breath shall praise the Lord," according to Psalm 150: 6.

The prophecy divides itself into three distinct parts, which we must carefully distinguish, if we are to profit by our Lord's teaching: —

1. The First Part has to do with the Jew (Matt. 24: 1-41).

1 His Trials (Matt. 24: 9).

2 His Temptations (Matt. 24: 24).

3 His Deliverance (Matt. 24: 31).

2. The Second Part has to do with Christians (Matt. 24: 42 — 25: 30).

1 As Ministering (Matt. 24: 45).

2 As Waiting (Matt. 25: 1).

3 As Working for their Absent Lord (Matt. 25: 14).

3. The Third Part has to do with the Gentile Nations (Matt. 25: 31-46).

1 As Receiving (Matt. 25: 34); or

2 As Rejecting the King's Messengers (Matt. 25: 41).

It will be seen at once that the first part of the prophecy carries us right on to the "coming of the Son of Man," taking no notice of the Church period, which must necessarily lie within its bounds. Having done so, the Lord turns back to deal with the Christian position, not so much in relation to "times and seasons" which have to do with the earth, but giving instead an outline of what the motives which govern Christian profession are, whether real or unreal; with the necessary teaching connected therewith. And this is as we would expect, and is on the lines of all prophecy which, strictly speaking, has to do with the earth, and an earthly people. So Peter says the prophets "spake of the sufferings of Christ — and — the glory that should follow." To them the mystery of the Church had not been revealed, and the disciples here were in a somewhat similar position. They are looked upon representatively, as the followers of Christ, in His absence, and at His return to the earth.

Let us notice further that Matthew does not give us, except in a general way, the Lord's answer to the first question — "When shall these things be?" — that is, the overthrow of their temple and polity. The answer to this is given very fully in Luke, see Matthew 21: 12-24, and is in keeping with the line of truth he is presenting. As a Gentile, writing to Gentiles, Luke shows the results of Gentile invasion of the land, which was, in its immediate consequences, the destruction of both temple and city by Titus, 70 A.D.

But here the Lord sets first before the disciples what would be the state of the world after He left it, and what would be their own condition in it. As to the nations of the earth, they would not only hate the disciples, but they would hate each other. Wars and rumours of wars would be the result. The King of Peace rejected, peace will never again find a home on earth until He returns. Famine follows war. Pestilence follows famine. And not only are these dreadful results seen as the effects of men's sin, but inanimate nature itself seems to respond to the universal unrest.

Such would be the condition of things in the absence of the King. They would be the "beginning of sorrows." In addition to the persecution from without, there would be that which would cause them even greater suffering than the physical torments to which they might be subjected — many would be false to their profession. The persecution of the world tests the reality of the professor. Many such are offended, and instead of standing firm as confessors of Christ, they become, alas! betrayers and haters of those they once professed to love and serve.

With minds in such a condition the words of the false prophet find ready reception, and, turned aside from the truth, many are deceived thereby. The deadening effect of abounding iniquity is also seen in another way — the love of many waxes cold. Ephesus is not alone in this. Who is there among us who has not experienced it? Grace alone can keep.

Many deceived: many offended: many disheartened.

Many false Christs: many false prophets: many betrayers.

Every art of Satan is here laid bare by the eye of Omniscience, and the encouragement is added to the faithful that he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

We are introduced in verse 14 to something which marks in a special way the time of the end. "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come."

We must not confound the Gospel of the Kingdom with the Gospel of the grace of God. These are two distinct lines of truth as we shall see.

We get the Kingdom Gospel first mentioned in Matthew 4, where the Lord Himself began to preach it, and along with it went the healing miracles which marked that dispensation. Again, in Matthew 10, we find the proclamation more widely extended by the twelve apostles, still with the same signs following, but with the definite injunction to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As we have seen, Israel rejected both the Kingdom and the King, and with the ascension of Christ to the right hand of God on high, the "good news" is now of a different character. It is no longer a call to Israel to repent and be converted in order to be ready for an earthly reign, but it is a command to all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. Before that day comes, God, in the operations of His sovereign grace, is saving sinners out of the world, and uniting them to Christ in heavenly glory; uniting them also to one another as well as to their Head on high, and forming the Church which is His Body. When the last member has been gathered in, the Lord Himself shall descend, and we shall ascend to meet Him in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4). This is the "Blessed Hope" set before the believer now, and we shall rejoice in the Hope, just in proportion as our hearts are occupied with the Person of our risen and glorified Lord on high.

But none of these things are developed in Matthew's Gospel. They were still future, and could only be spoken of in type and figure, as we shall see.

What we now know is that God is saving souls out of this world in grace, and the day is coming when He will establish a Kingdom in this world in power, and the preacher who is taught in the word will not fail to declare both these precious truths.

Here in our Gospel, then, we have reached a period beyond the rapture of the Church, and just before the "end." In spite of all the opposition and persecution of the world, there will be an evangelistic revival, such as this world has never yet witnessed. From restored Israel will go forth foreign missionaries, with something at least of the zeal and devotion of the greatest and most successful foreign missionary that this world has ever seen — the Apostle Paul. And their message will be, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters" (Isa. 55: 1)." The Lord. God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, yet will I gather to the gathered ones" (Isa. 56: 8). "Also the sons of strangers that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord . . . even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer . . . for my house shall be called an house of prayer for all people" (Isa. 56: 6-7). The Lord had reminded them of this prophecy when He cleansed the temple (Matt. 21: 13). Its fulfilment awaits the day when He shall sit as a Priest upon His throne. In short, there will be a world-wide testimony to a coming Messiah. Christendom has never accomplished this with the Gospel of the grace of God. In spite of the utmost self-denial and self-sacrifice on the part of very many devoted servants of Christ, whose efforts have been beyond all praise, yet it is a fact that Christendom, in modern days at least, has never succeeded in evangelising more than half of the known world. And the opinion of those best able to judge is, that the heathen nations of to-day are increasing faster than the present missionary activity can overtake. It is a humbling thought for all of us, if so it be.

But the Lord now goes on to say that when this has been accomplished, the "end" shall come. It is no question of the world being entirely converted. That it will not be so, other scriptures clearly prove. But the testimony goes out, and in Matthew 25 we shall see what the results of accepting or rejecting that testimony will be, to the nations then upon the earth.

Of what "end" does the Lord here speak? Clearly not the end of the world, as many teach, and as we shall endeavour to show later; but the end of the "age" about which the apostles had inquired in verse 3. That "age" would expire with the expiry of the period spoken of by the angel to Daniel the prophet (Dan., Chap. 9: 24) as "seventy-sevens," beginning (as we know from the same scripture) at the 20th year of Artaxerxes in the month Nisan, B.C. 454. As every careful reader knows, that period is divided into three parts. "Seven weeks," "Three score and two weeks," and "One week ": and it began at the restoration under Nehemiah, when the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Seven "sevens" (forty-nine years) of "troublous times" passed, during which the city and state were being laboriously reconstructed in the midst of many enemies. Another three score and two "sevens" pass, and again it is the month Nisan (April), 29 A.D. The Messiah of Israel presents Himself as her King, but instead of receiving the Kingdom He is cut off and "has nothing." Instead of sitting upon His rightful throne He is cast out to lie in a borrowed grave.

Evidently the seventieth "week" is still future, and two reasons out of many will show it:

1 In Daniel 9: 24, the angel gives the prophet to understand that at the end of the last week, six things would be accomplished, and the sorrows of Jerusalem and its people be over. These six things are set out in detail in the text referred to; none of them are yet accomplished, and Jerusalem's sorrows only began after the Lord was crucified.

2 In Daniel 9: 27, we learn that the prince that shall come shall confirm a covenant with (the) many for "one week." This "prince" is clearly not Messiah, for when He came, He was "cut off ": it is as clear that it is not Titus who is referred to; for when he came, instead of making any covenant with the Jews, he destroyed both their city and their state. The whole of Daniel 9: 26 is fulfilled between the end of the sixty-ninth and the beginning of the seventieth "week." It is the great "interval" during which the mystery of the Church is brought to light, and when that period is over, times and seasons referring to earth will again begin to run their predestined course. The "coming prince" and the "last week" is still future. This "week" will be divided into two parts. Verses 4-14 of our chapter, while giving a description in a general way of the world in the absence of the King, will really find their complete fulfilment in the first half of the "week." Verses 15-28 describe the events which take place in the latter half.

These we now have to consider.

Just as the making of the "Covenant" marked the beginning of the first half of the week, so the breaking of the "Covenant" marks the beginning of the latter half of the "week." This event, according to Daniel 9: 27, 12: 11, is followed by the taking away of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up of the "abomination that maketh desolate." Our Lord refers to this in verse 15 of our chapter, and also connects with it another thing, and that is — the great tribulation.

If we set out these events in order we shall find that the latter half of the week is marked by seven important occurrences:

1 The Covenant confirmed by the Roman prince with the mass of the Jews is broken by him.

2 The antichrist arrogates to himself the titles of Christ, and endeavours to manifest the power of Christ.

3 The ordered temple services are interrupted.

4 The abomination that maketh desolate (or astonisheth) is set up in the Holy of Holies.

5 The Great Tribulation begins, as the result.

6 The Testimony of the "two Witnesses" continues during three and a half years.

7 The faithful remnant who remain true to God, and refuse the mark of the beast, are persecuted and slain.

In the midst of this "time of trouble," the great arch-enemy, Satan, is abroad in the earth (Rev. 12: 12), and true to his character as the Deceiver, he at once raises up false Christs and false prophets to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect (verse 24). His two great masterpieces of evil we get in Revelations 13. The one a "beast" out of the "sea" — the political unrest of the nations — and heading up in himself all the forces of infidelity and militarism which, though prominent now, will then be all but universal. He will be the finished product of man's will as opposed to God: the super-man, in whom wicked men will find a chief so much superior to themselves in wickedness that they will fall down and worship him. He will both blaspheme God and persecute His saints. And, as his henchman, he will have the "beast" out of the "earth," who, although he may have "two horns like a lamb," yet betrays his Satanic origin by speaking like a dragon. Under his sway idolatry is again introduced into Jerusalem. The unclean spirit returns to his house, and in his company seven other spirits more wicked than himself. It is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Matthew 12: 45. One very subtle form of the coming idolatry will be this — the worship of a living man. Such a thing had been foreshadowed in the history of King Darius, Daniel 6: 7. Here we have it full blown. And what makes the delusion more strong is that the false prophet has power to give breath (not life, as in the common text) to the image of the beast, so that it shall be able to speak, and to cause those who refuse their homage to be killed. The "fiery furnace" will be seven times heated again, and so fierce will be the persecution that it will have to be written "Blessed are the dead" (Rev. 14: 13). But God is over all. A limit is ever set to the power of evil — "He shall continue forty and two months" (Rev. 13: 5). At the end of the latter half of the last week the judgment of God descends, and the beast and false prophet, "these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rev. 19: 20).

In the midst of this terrible persecution disciples are warned not to be deceived by those who say that Christ has come in secret. Before the dread event of that coming, all the powers both of nature and government seem to lose their wonted control, as the symbolic language of verse 29 would (seem to) indicate, and instead of any secret coming, His appearing would he like a lightning flash, sweeping with dazzling intensity across the vault of heaven from the east unto the west. "And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

Now has come the day of deliverance for elect Israel, and of vengeance for their oppressors. God has taken in hand to "destroy them that corrupt the earth," and just as Israel had been "spread abroad as the four winds of heaven" (Zech. 2: 6), so will they be gathered from the four winds. The "great trumpet" shall be blown (Isa. 27: 13), and the outcasts shall be gathered, converted, and purified to worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. Scattered by the oppressor because of their sins: regathered by angelic power, according to the free and sovereign grace of their covenant-keeping Jehovah.

The rapidity with which the events move which lead up to all this, is doubtless taught by the "parable of the fig tree" — ever an emblem of the nation. As leaf and fruit appeared in rapid succession, so would the Lord hasten the day of deliverance for the people of His Covenant.

And there is a needs-be for His solemn assurance in verses 32-34. "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Now, some at least of those who listened to His words, and many of those to whom they would be repeated, would see the city and land swept clean of its inhabitants — "wiped as a man wipeth a dish; wiping it, and turning it upside down" (2 Kings 21: 13); and they might well be tempted to think that all was over for the nation — and the promise unfulfilled after all. "Not so," says the Lord; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." We have only to look around to see the confirmation of that word. The prophet Hosea, who flourished in the days of four of Judah's greatest kings, 800 years before Christ, had said, "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hos. 3: 4). It may be that speaking as he did in the palmy days of Judah's history, few believed his words, but so the Jews abide to-day. Having neither a king nor the hope of one, unable to sacrifice to the true God, yet so far they are preserved from image worship. With all genealogies lost, no one can lay claim to wear the priestly ephod wherewith to ask counsel of God; neither do they seek after oracular responses of lying spirits, through teraphim, as their fathers did of old. But to the same prophet was given the promise that "afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the later day" (Hos. 3: 5).

Amid all the changing scene of time the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

Three things come out in the next section of our chapter (verses 36-44): —

1 The Day of the Coming of the Son of Man is known only to the Father.

2 The Coming will introduce a time of discriminative judgment for living men upon the earth: "taking," as in Noah's flood in judgment, or "leaving" upon a redeemed earth for blessing.

3 To the men of the earth, the Coming will be as that of a thief in the night, unexpected, and unprepared for. [Hence the necessity for disciples to watch, for their Lord was coming, and as "Son of Man," coming to the earth. The world might say "Peace and Safety" when the dark cloud of "sudden destruction" was just lowering over it, but they were no longer in darkness, that that day should overtake them as a thief (1 Thess. 5: 3, 4).]

We turn next to consider the three parables which have to do with Christianity. Strictly speaking, they do not contain any outline of prophetic events, but deal rather with the moral condition of things which will obtain, as well as with what ought to obtain, on the part of those professing to be the Lord's servants in His absence.

Three things confirm the view that the Lord is here speaking of Christianity: —

1 The Coming for which believers are here enjoined to wait, is the Coming of the LORD. The title — Son of Man — which He takes in connection with the earth, does not occur in any of the three parables under consideration. (The best authorities omit the last clause of Matthew 25: 13.)

2 No "times or seasons ": no synopsis of earthly events: no signs, preparatory or introductory, are anywhere mentioned. The absent Lord is coming for His waiting people. It is the outline of truth more fully developed later in 1 Thessalonians 4 and other scriptures of the New Testament prophets.

3 No Old Testament prophecy in connection with this subject is quoted in any part of the section, and this is as we should expect, for no such prophecy exists. Many prophecies — at least three hundred — speak of the Coming of the Messiah, His rejection, and death. And again, many glowing pages picture the glory of the Kingdom established under the King in power. But the period of the Kingdom, in the absence of the King, during which the Church is formed, is nowhere spoken of in the Old Testament. Of what would transpire in this period the Lord here speaks to His disciples, using language they were able to understand, and yet in such a way that further light would enable them to comprehend more fully the deeper things of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The first parable then, Matthew 24: 45-51, deals with the servant in his Lord's Household. He is placed there for the express purpose of giving them meat in due season. Why, of the three parables, does this come first in order? Is it to show that the Lord's interest in His people down here holds the first place in His heart? The thrice repeated injunction to Peter in John 21 to feed the flock, shows at least the importance of the position of the household servant. He may be a "faithful and wise" servant, or, on the other hand, he may be an "evil" servant. The condition of things is still viewed here, as in all the parables, on the ground of profession. But the servant is in "the house," and on the ground of responsibility. As such he will be dealt with when his Lord returns.

His commission is from the Lord.

He is responsible to the Lord.

He will be rewarded by the Lord.

Taught in the Word himself, he is to teach others. He is to "give them meat in due season." If in the mind of his Master, he will provide the "sincere milk of the word" for the "babes," and "strong meat" for those of mature age. He will be blessed at the Coming of his Master, if found so doing. But there is more. The Lord adds that "he shall make him ruler over all his goods." We shall get further light here by comparing this with Revelations 2: 26. The promise to the Thyatiran overcomer was power over the nations. The apostasy of Thyatira will mark the time of the coming, and the servant found true to his master, in time of peril, will by his master be promoted to power in Kingdom glory.

But there is another side, as there is in all the parables. The hope of the coming was, alas! soon lost, and those who should have been "faithful and wise" became unfaithful and evil. Then, again, connected with the loss of the right spirit came the assumption of the wrong position and fellowship with the wrong company. He is found "eating and drinking with the drunken."

Morally, this is a complete inversion of true service, as defined by the Lord in Matthew 19, where, as we saw, the two great principles that actuated the true servant were love and humility. Here it is exaltation of self and oppression of others. And it is not difficult to trace the progress of this spirit in the history of the professing Church through the ages. Even in the days of the Apostles men were found who "loved to have the pre-eminence," and they soon had many followers. But the Lord is not unmindful of the interests of His people, and He will recompense. The "evil servant" is a hypocrite, and, in the day when the Lord judges, his place will be appointed with such.

We must not confound the coming in verse 46 with the coming in verse 50. The faithful and wise servant is living in the expectation of his Lord's return. All his service is performed in view of that-to him-longed-for moment. To the evil servant, the coming is an event both unexpected and undesired. It carries us back to verse 37, where the wicked, whether open foes or false professors, meet their doom at the hands of the Son of Man.

The next parable opens in a somewhat remarkable way, by indicating a particular time when the Kingdom of Heaven would be likened to "Ten Virgins." That time was clearly some period near the end of the age, when the various events would have transpired, of which the imagery of the parable treats. It contemplates the history of the Kingdom, not in a forward view, as in Matthew 13, but is, as it were, a backward view over its history from the time when the Ten went out on the ground of profession, until the moment when the Five went in to the marriage feast.

The great subject of the parable is readiness to meet the Bridegroom. The chief business of the household servant in the last parable was occupation with his Lord's interests. Here pre-eminently the great thought is occupation with the Lord Himself. May we all know more of it in a practical way day by day. The Coming of the Lord is the Hope of the Church, and therefore necessarily the hope of the individual believer, and it is from this latter standpoint it is looked at here.

The imagery of the parable is extremely simple, yet divinely expressive.

"Virgins" — Separated ones, from a Greek root to "set apart."

"Lamps" — Profession.

"Oil" — The Holy Spirit.

"Vessels" — Hearts.

"Bridegroom" — Christ.

"Sleeping" — Unwatchfulness. The hope of the Coming lost to the Church for many ages.

"The Midnight Cry" — Is this truth restored.

The first thing that the Lord emphasises is that the ten Virgins "went out" to meet the Bridegroom. And this is another proof, if such were needed, that He is here contemplating the heavenly calling of believers of the present dispensation. In no sense could the Jew be said to be called out of the world. Indeed, the world was, and is yet to be, the sphere of his blessing. But to His own the Lord could say, "Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hateth you" (John 15: 19). When the Church lost that "called out" character and gave up the Hope of her heavenly calling, she began to fraternise with the world. When she came down to the world's level, the edge of the world's hatred was blunted, persecution ceased, and the Virgins "slumbered." Very soon even real Christians became like the world, and the world took on a profession of religion and became like the Christians, as we see in Christendom to-day. The result was that the precious truth of apostolic days, dear to the heart of every persecuted saint — the nearness of the Coming of the One he loved — was lost to view. Christians were at home in the world and did not need Him. Mere professors did not want Him. True and false, they all slumbered, and finally slept.

But an explanation of the promise was needed and easily found. It was taught by those who wanted to prophesy smooth things, that He "often came." So He came at the fall of Jerusalem, or at the Reformation. So He comes at death, and will come at the "day of judgment." How any one of these comings — if we may call any of them such — agrees with the Bridegroom character of the Coming of the Lord Jesus, it would be difficult to say.

The turning point of the parable is the Midnight Cry: "BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM!"

Evidently it is the Spirit preparing His way by means of watchmen raised up for the purpose.

Is the midnight cry and the recovery of the doctrine of the coming, so long lost, one and the same thing? If so there is this difficulty that in the parable, after the cry, the awakened foolish Virgins were too late to procure oil for their dying lamps. But we could not carry the simile into history or else we should have to say that it is now too late for the mere professor to be saved; which, thank God, is not the case. May it not be, that, even as, after the Lord was crucified, risen, and ascended, there was still the lingering of grace over Israel, according to Peter's testimony in Acts 2; so it is to-day. The Bridegroom has been announced, yet the long suffering of our God, which is salvation, induces Him to tarry yet a moment longer before the trumpet sounds. If this be so, how near is that moment? He is, as it were, on the way, and may arrive at any moment. May our loins be girded about, and our lights burning, and we, like unto men that wait for their Lord (Luke 12: 35).

When the awakened foolish Virgins realised that even the possession of trimmed oilless lamps was not sufficient preparation for the Bridegroom, they further manifested their foolishness, by going for oil to the wrong place. So it is, and so it will be in Christendom. Mere professors may hold even the truth of the Lord's Coming as a mere doctrine or creed, which never influences either their hopes or their ways. They will learn, alas! when too late, that nothing but saving grace in the heart communicated by the Holy Spirit Himself can fit any soul for the Coming of the Lord; and the great point of the parable is preparedness for that coming. The great essential for the Virgins was oil. The one thing needful for all is the Holy Spirit in the heart. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8: 9). "They that were ready went in with him" — it is the heavenly hope realised. The Bride is not mentioned. Co-related truths are never all stated in one parable. In Matthew 22 we have a parable dealing with the condition of the Guests. Here it is a question of the Corning of the Bridegroom. In Revelations 19 we get a glimpse of the Bride in her bridal array, and in Revelations 21 we again see her, but now it is the day of display. "And the door was shut." Five little words, yet of the most solemn import. To-day they come to all as a warning. Some day soon they will express an accomplished fact, with tremendous realities for all. Some will be shut IN, with the Lord they have loved and longed for; in the presence of the Father, and in the Father's House.

"Oh I what a Home, but such His love

That He must bring us there."

"And the door was shut." Some will be shut OUT from all the joys and all the glories of the heavenly home, and shut out for ever. To the impassioned prayer, "Lord, Lord, open to us," the answer is, "I know you not." Scripture knows nothing of a "second chance," or "larger hope." These are vain ideas conceived only in the minds of foolish men, who love sin too much to turn to God now in the day of His grace, and so fall into the snare of Satan, to the loss of their souls.

Is the reader a mere professor only? If so, oh, be warned in time, for the Coming of the Bridegroom is nigh, even at the door.

"Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour" (verse 13).

One other parable was needed to express yet another aspect of Christian profession during the absence of the King.

He has gone into a far country, and the question is, "What are His servants doing for Him in His absence?" In the first parable of our chapter He takes the title of "Bridegroom," and every thought connected with that is of love and affection. It is pure grace on His part without any thought of merit on the part of the loved one, and that is one aspect of truth. But here He takes another title, that of "Lord." He was "the Lord of those servants" (verse 19). As such, they were under His authority, and it was to Him that they should render an account, on His return, for the "goods" He had committed to their trust. We do well to remember that this is before each one of us. "Wherefore let us labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be acceptable to Him" (2 Cor. 5: 9, R.V.).

In the parable the servants receive, in varying amounts, goods from their Lord to trade with in His absence. It is grace going out to others, and by those who have received gifts from their risen Lord so to serve Him. The parable is similar to that in Luke 19, only there, the great point is the Christian's responsibility according to his opportunities. There, all received equal amounts, but produced different results, for which they are rewarded differently. Here they receive different amounts, and secure different results, but the good are rewarded each cent per cent, because both were alike faithful to the amount of their gift. Here it is the sovereignty of God. In Luke it is the responsibility of man.

The talents, then, were given to be used for the Lord, not for the glory of the servant. We are in a world of need, and there are souls to be won for Christ. Just as a business man is in business, to do business, so should the Christian be here for Christ. The Lord Himself could say, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business" (Luke 2: 49), and He was the Pattern Servant.

We may gather from the Lord's teaching that every believer has some talent imparted to him according to his "several ability," and that it is expected of him that he will use that gift or talent for the Lord's glory. Now, ability may be either natural, or acquired, and, if acquired, may also be developed in proportion as he seeks diligently so to do. This, taken in connection with the injunction to Timothy to stir up the gift that was in him, would show that by diligent and faithful exercise of our talents and abilities, both the vessel and the talent it contains will alike increase, the sphere of service widen, and the blessing extend. This should be the desire of every servant — the object in view ever being the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, even a believer may allow his gift to lie dormant, and through mere slothfulness either of body or mind, neglect to equip himself for the service and opportunities that may lie just at hand. A man cannot "do the work of an evangelist" unless he goes where souls are to be found. The Word of Christ cannot "dwell richly" in a saint unless he make it his study. No Sunday school teacher will succeed unless he seeks diligently, earnestly, and prayerfully to learn the Book he has set out to teach. To speak a word in season to him that is weary, we must be ever drinking from the Living Spring. There are ever very practical lessons to be learned when the Lord is the Teacher. No one teaches like Him.

But the possibility is counted upon here, as in all parables, of a man taking the place of a servant who never knew the Lord. There is no question at all of the "wicked and slothful servant" being a Christian. He was not. His words, his actions, and his end abundantly prove it. But the Lord uses the case, and the end of the mere professor, to warn of the possible danger a real Christian is exposed to in this matter. The man hid his talent in the earth, instead of using it for his Master, and it may be possible that for some the "earth" is a greater snare than the "world." A Christian man may have no desire for the world's concert rooms or theatres, and yet allow his business concerns so to engross his heart and life that every moment is devoted to the things of earth, and he can find neither time nor interest for the things of the Lord. It was the man with one talent that proved false to his trust, and it may be safely assumed that men of this class compose the majority of the servants. Outstanding "five talent" men are but few; hence the warning in the parable extends to the greatest number. We are tempted to think that because we can do but little, that little left undone will not matter. But not so. The sons of Merari bore the pins and cords of the Tabernacle, and their service was just as important as that of the sons of Kohath, who bore the sacred vessels.

We have next to consider the Lord's relationships to the earth in His character of "King." He has already been before us as "Bridegroom," and "Lord," and if, as the Bridegroom, He touches all the springs of the heart's affections, so as Lord, He reminds us of the salutary truth that we belong to Him. He has bought us with His Blood.

But nowhere in Scripture is He spoken of as King of the Church. He is the King of Israel and the King of Nations: when He reigns, "all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him. Men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed." Well might the Psalmist, as he considered that Glorious One, of whom Solomon in all his glory was but a faint type, exclaim, "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious Name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory" (Ps. 72). The introduction of this day of blessing for a groaning creation is now set before us.

"When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Chap. 25: 31-32).

It is no question of a general judgment at the "end of the world," as so much of the current theology of the day would teach, but which scripture nowhere warrants. If it be compared with the judgment of the "Great White Throne," it will be seen that the subjects, test, time, place, and sentence are all different. Far from there being only one judgment spoken of in the Bible, there are at least seven: —

1. The Judgment of the Cross: the basis of every blessing for man.

2. The judgment Seat of Christ: the manifestation day for every believer (2 Cor. 5: 10).

3. The Judgment of the Living Nations upon the Earth (Matt. 25: 31).

4. The Judgment of the Great White Throne, when earth and heaven have fled away (Rev. 20: 11).

5. The Judgment in the House of God: the Father dealing in Government with His own (1 Peter 1: 17).

6. The judgment by the Assembly, as to that which is in keeping with the Name of Christ (1 Cor. 5: 4).

7. The Judgment of ourselves, by ourselves, so as to allow nothing in our ways inconsistent with Christ's death (1 Cor. 11: 28).

Here, in our Gospel, however, we have the details of the picture of which Matthew 13: 41-44 gives the outline. It is the deliberative, sessional judgment, by the Son of Man of the living nations upon the earth at His appearing. The passage links up with Matthew 24: 31. The Lord takes up the thread of events in connection with the earth and pictures what will take place after the upheavals of the "last week." At His appearing He has destroyed the beast and the false prophet, taken, as it were, in red-handed rebellion against Him (Rev. 19; 2 Thess. 2: 8). He is now about to put right the place they had put wrong: to measure out judgment to their self-deluded followers: recompense to the faithful of the earth who had been true to the Hope of His Coming, and introduce the righteous nations into all the blessings of the millennial Kingdom, of which Psalm 72 gives so glowing a description.

What, then, is the condition of things upon the earth just before the Son of Man appears, and who are its occupants? The Church has been called away to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4), and with the Church, the Holy Spirit, whose operations of grace will, after that period, assume a new form. Men of the world little realise how much the world owes to the presence of the Spirit of God now. He is that restraining power who is preventing the outbreak of the powers of evil. When the Spirit is taken out of the way, evil will come to a head, under a man so wholly possessed by the spirit of Satan, that Scripture knows him as the Man of Sin (2 Thess. 2: 3). Ten different names are applied to him, clearly defining both his origin and his character. He is called: —

1 The Man of the Earth (Ps. 10: 18).

2 The False Prophet (Rev. 19: 20).

3The Antichrist (1 John 2: 18).

4 The Beast from the Earth (Rev. 13).

5 The Son of Perdition (2 Thess. 2: 3).

6 The Man of Sin (2 Thess. 2: 3).

7 That Wicked [One] (2 Thess. 2: 8).

8 The Idol Shepherd (Zech. 11: 17).

9 The King (Dan. 11: 36).

10 One Coming in His Own Name (John 5: 43).

It is the revealing of this Person that brings matters on earth to an issue. To-day, the question is — For Christ, or against Him? Then the question will be — For Antichrist, or against him? The mass of the Jews will be "for him." Having come in his own name, he will be received by them as the Lord forewarned them (John 5: 43). Apostate Christendom, taking pleasure in unrighteousness, and having refused the love of the truth, will believe "the lie" and find themselves in the same unhappy company. It is a most solemnising thought, that, when the Lord comes for His people, the day of grace for Christendom will be over for ever. Sudden and rapid will be its development into the "Babylon" of Revelations 17, and as swift will be its overthrow at the hands of the Son of Man.

In addition to the nation of the Jews gathered back to Palestine in unbelief, and apostate Christendom in European and other lands, there will also be the vast masses of the hitherto unevangelised heathen nations. How will the solemn events of the time of the end affect them? To answer this question we must turn to Romans 11. See the whole chapter. The argument there is, that Israel, rejecting Christ, was rejected. Israel rejected, blessing thereupon flowed out to the Gentiles. God visited them to "take out of them a people for his name" (Acts 15: 14). "Now," says the apostle, "if the fall of them, (the Jews) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?" (Rom. 11: 12). In other words, Israel's fall brought blessing to the Gentiles, and Israel's restoration, when the Lord comes back, will bring double blessing — "life from the dead."

This blessing these nations are offered in the proclamation of the Kingdom Gospel of Matthew 24: 14, and Revelations 14: 6; and the acceptance or rejection of the King's messengers ("My brethren") fixes their place and title to life, or condemnation.

But the King's commendation of the righteous here (Matt. 25: 34-36) brings out another thing. Those who had heralded the tidings of the Coming King had done so in the face of the greatest difficulties. Antichrist's followers had accepted the "mark of the beast" (Rev. 13), and were content with the great pseudo-religious-social system introduced by him. They wanted neither God's King, nor God's righteousness. So hunger and thirst, banishment, nakedness, and prison lay before the evangelists. With these servants the King here identifies Himself, even as with another persecuted company, when He arrested their persecutor, Saul of Tarsus. And those who ministered to their necessities hear, with joyful wonder, that what they had done was reckoned by the King even as if done unto Himself.

And now we reach the time when the promises in Matthew 5 will receive their complete fulfilment. "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (verse 34). Now, the mourners are comforted; the meek inherit the earth, and the merciful obtain mercy. The day of regeneration has come, and they go into life eternal.

But there is the other side. He gathers out of His Kingdom all things that do offend. It must be so, for righteousness is about to reign. During the present day of grace righteousness suffers because evil is predominant. In the eternal day it will dwell. Every stain of sin will then have been for ever eradicated.

But here, not only is there the company on the right hand — "the sheep"; but there are also those on the left hand — "the goats." And the remarkable thing about the latter is that their judgment, as here set forth, is simply on the ground of what they had not done. It would seem as if they had tried to take a middle course between the "for" and the "against." They had not been among the followers of the "beast," taken in high-handed rebellion against the King, and slain with the sword (Rev. 19: 21). Nevertheless, neither had they identified themselves with His cause and with His servants. They had seen the servants both persecuted and slain, and had extended neither succour nor sympathy, thereby showing the state of their hearts. Is not the lesson here, that, in divine things, there can be no middle ground. Men are for the Lord, or against Him, as He has already declared.

Solemn and sad is their doom. They had done the devil's work by abstaining from the work of God, and they find their place in "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." "These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

It is well to note that every mark of the moral condition of the later day is with us now. Superstition and infidelity are as rampant in Europe to-day as ever they were during the dark ages. In addition, men of the world are binding themselves together into all kinds of "associations" and "brotherhoods" to further their own selfish ends. And, sad to say, many Christians are voluntarily joining themselves up with such, thereby both slighting their heavenly calling and participating in the "unequal yoke." In a coming day the "beast" will grasp the reins of all such confederacies, and use them for his own ungodly ends. Mark the fidelity of the coming witnesses, who will rather give up life itself than compromise their testimony by receiving the mark of the beast. The Father's Name on their foreheads will bring persecution and death here, but life and glory hereafter.

Well will it be with us if our every gift, every power and every hour, be consecrated to Him alone, who, in grace, hath called us to be for Him, in a world that is still against Him.

Section 11. Matthew 26 — 28.

The King goes into Death and Judgment, in order that His Followers may enter into Life and Glory

What feelings of awe and wonder must have filled the hearts of the disciples, as they sat on the green brow of Olivet, in the dusk of that April evening, and listened spell-bound to those prophetic utterances which fell from the lips of the Master. With words of startling imagery He had unrolled before their gaze the scroll of time, right up to that moment when — the "Times of the Gentiles" ended — His feet would again stand upon that same mount. The sorrows of earth: the glories of Heaven: the unutterable woes of hell, had been revealed to them, by the One who alone could reveal them. And when He ceased, their minds might well be arrested by the contemplation of the solemn events of which He had spoken.

But His next words were more arresting still.

"Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified" — that which they had so long feared, had come at last. Their Master was about to die. And with saddened hearts they rose up and pursued their way to Bethany.

The next day (Thursday) until the evening, seems to have been spent here by the Lord in seclusion and retirement. We may not seek to enter into that which occupied His mind during this — the one day of repose in all His public ministry. But with reverent and subdued hearts let us follow the narrative of that which is revealed.

On this same day, it would appear, His enemies in Jerusalem were busy plotting His death, not like the dignified and responsible authorities of an ordered state, in open Council Hall, but plotting in darkness, in the high priest's house, like a company of lawless brigands. So are Israel's rulers here set before us.

And now our Gospel goes back to tell us of another meeting, which had been held four days previously (see John 12) in Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper. In point of time, this feast had taken place on the evening before He rode into the city; but Matthew frequently groups the events of his narrative so as to present arresting contrasts to the reader.

Here we have two gatherings, both occupied with the Lord Jesus. The first, a gathering of His foes, thirsting for His blood. The other, a gathering of His friends, longing to lavish upon Him the tribute of their love. Only two feasts that we read of were ever made to the Lord. The first we get recorded in Matthew 9 and Luke 5. There a great company of publicans and sinners had gathered around Him for blessing, and blessed they assuredly would be. Here, it is a company of believers gathered in type on resurrection ground. Lazarus, who only a few weeks previously had been raised from the dead, was one of them who sat at the table. And Martha, busy as of old — served. But Martha's spirit is mellowed and ennobled with the passing years. She is no longer the critic of others, as we first find her in Luke 10, and doubtless the Lord's eye here rests upon her with approval. This feast is not in her own house. She might have claimed the place of a guest at the table, beside her brother; yet such is the humility of her mind, or shall we say, the activity of her temperament, that she prefers to be among them as one that serveth. If the disciples had not learned the lesson, she had.

The Church of Christ owes much to the patient, hidden, unselfish, devoted service of sisters like Martha. Their service may be unrequited and unacknowledged on earth, but "the day" will disclose it, and the reward is sure.

Lazarus is in the place of communion, but Mary alone enters in spirit into the "fellowship of His death." The King is going into death and judgment that His followers may enter into life and glory. She pours the precious ointment on His head. She anoints the King, but it is for His burial. These three were in the circle of closest intimacy with the Lord, and it would be unwise to appreciate the one at the expense of the other. Communion, service, and worship they assuredly typify, and these three things make up the sum of all true Christian life.

So far the disciples had learned none of all this. But we must not forget that, historically, they were still on the road to Jerusalem. They had not yet seen the reception He met with there; neither had they as yet heard the words recorded in verse 2 of our chapter. Visions of earthly glory may still have been before them, with themselves in places of honour as almoners for the King. John's Gospel shows us that the spokesman on this occasion was the betrayer; and one sinner destroyeth much good. Alas, that real disciples should have manifested the Judas spirit, where, by closer intimacy with their Master, they might have exhibited that of Mary, and shared in the blessed memorial of the one who "did what she could" (Mark 14).

For Judas nothing was of value that could not be turned into money. Christ Himself, to him, was only an object whereby he might add to his ill-gotten gains. For half the cost of the ointment or less, he was willing to betray his Lord — himself a deceived tool of the devil, before he became a willing tool of the priests. Such is the danger of trifling with temptation. From that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

This opportunity Judas found on the evening of the Passover.

The Passover is a subject of the deepest interest, and it is all-important to get a right view of the truths taught thereby. It is God's starting point in all His ways of blessing.

God is essentially holy. Man is essentially sinful, and the question was — How can a holy God righteously bless a sinful man?

Adam — a sinner and forgiven — where was God's righteousness? Adam — a sinner and punished — where was His love? But in the Cross, of which the Passover was a type, every attribute of the character of God is displayed, and all the deep, deep need of sinful men fully met.

The Passover spoke, in the first place, of the just judgment about to descend upon every house in Egypt not sheltered by the token of the blood. God was seeking sinners to slay — not to save. The Blood on the lintel stayed the stroke of justice, for it showed that death, in type, had already been there. They were sheltered. Inside the house, and under that shelter, they partook of the lamb roast with fire. It was identification with the victim, and thus a confession that death was deserved. Sheltered by the blood and sustained by the feast, Israel marched out of the land of bondage. God was known to them first as a Judge, whose claims had been righteously met in the death of another, and then as a Saviour-God, whose power and grace were now free to flow out towards them without measure and without end.

The death of the Lord Jesus not only fulfilled every type of the old economy, but brought in blessing far beyond what Old Testament saints could have dreamed of. The supper is not a type of His death, as the Passover was, for in His death the type is fulfilled. It is a memorial of dying love. The shed blood in the sacrifices of old spoke only of a remembrance of sins. The Blood of Christ declares the glorious truth that now there can be remission of sins. The sins are gone, and the believer is brought to God.

The bread broken, and the wine poured out, speak of Christ in death. We remember Him in the place of death, where He has been; but we know Him now alive for evermore. And further, we do this in expectation of seeing Him again — "till He come." The Coming of the Lord is what we wait for. This feast is a testimony to the world that we take our place with the Lord of Glory whom the world crucified. In the presence of God, of angels, men, and demons, we "show the Lord's death till he come." The blood is shed for "many." If Israel reject Him yet the blessings procured by the Cross will flow out world-wide, and Gentile aliens will become, through grace, partakers of the heavenly calling. Luke records the Lord's touching request, "This do in remembrance of me." His people are ever on His heart. He would have us never to forget His dying love. Four things come out in connection with this feast of love: —

1 The Word of Christ — "This do."

2 The Work of Christ — "In remembrance."

3 The Person of Christ — "Of ME."

4 The Coming of Christ — "Till He come."

When He comes the Supper will cease.

The Passover is unlike the Supper in this: It was to be "observed as an ordinance for ever" (Ex. 12).

And in the coming millennial day, the Passover feast will be celebrated with greater solemnity than has ever yet been seen. The bullock, which speaks of fullest intelligence, will take the place of the passover lamb, and living waters will go forth in abundance from the threshold of the house, nourishing the tree whose fruit is for meat, and whose leaves are for medicine (Ezek. 45).

Then, again, the Supper cup is the blood of the new Covenant. The old Covenant was a covenant of works, and the blood in Exodus, which sealed it (Chap. 24: 8), was a sign of death for the Covenant-breaker, as Israel has proved to their sorrow. The New Covenant is also with Israel, but the shed Blood in connection with it, speaks, as we have seen, of remission, instead of remembrance of sins, and Israel through it, will be brought into blessing on the ground of sovereign grace alone.

Believers today are blessed exactly on the same ground, but with this difference, that with Gentiles there was no Covenant relationship, yet all that Israel will receive as the earthly people, we shall receive in a richer, higher, and fuller way as a heavenly people, and this, too, before Israel's day of blessing is introduced.

The day is soon coming when He will drink the cup in a new way, with His own in the Father's Kingdom. Then, indeed, will have come the time of which the prophet spake — "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied" (Isa. 53). At His Table we respond to His desire, remember His death, return His love, rejoice in His presence, and our hearts beat high in the prospect of soon seeing Him again (John 16: 22).

But men are ever ready to abuse what grace provides, and Christendom, by making this memorial into what they call a "sacrament" (from the Latin "sacramentum," the Roman military oath), and defining it as an "outward and visible symbol of an inward and spiritual grace," have largely lost the true meaning which the Supper is intended to convey. Not only so, but the first error has led to others, Transubstantiationists believe that, at the word of the priests the bread and wine changes its substance and becomes the very body and blood of Christ. Such is Romanist ignorance, darkness, and blasphemy.

Consubstantiationists believe that with the bread and wine there is present the body and blood of Christ. Such is the error which one man, otherwise greatly used of. God, has brought into the Lutheran Church. Consecrationists believe that before there can be a "real communion" the bread and wine must be "blessed" or "consecrated" by the ordained "priest" who officiates.

Thus, what was intended by the Lord to be a loving remembrance of accomplished Redemption, has become, in the minds of many, mystified into what they call a "sacrament," or a "means of grace." Ritualism has taken the place of reality, and man has usurped the place of the spirit of God. Others, alas, who profess to love the Lord, ignore His last request by neglecting altogether this wondrous privilege of the saints.

May we take heed to the apostolic injunction,

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is" (Heb. 10: 25).

In the Gospels, then, we get the Supper Instituted; in the Acts we get the Supper Celebrated; and in the Epistles we get the Supper Expounded.

"And when they had sung an hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives."

The Jews at their Passover Supper were in the habit of reciting Psalm 113 and 114 after the "first cup"; and then, after the "third cup" — called the "cup of blessing" — they sang Psalm 115 to 118. If the Lord here used the same psalms, how well they would apply and be fulfilled in Him —

"The sorrows of death compassed me,

And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:

I found trouble and sorrow.

Then called I upon the name of the Lord;

O Lord, I beseech thee,

Deliver my soul.

God is the Lord, which hath showed us light:

Bind the sacrifice with cords,

Even unto the horns of the altar" (Ps. 116: 3-4; Ps. 118: 27).

And now He goes forth to Gethsemane's sorrow. But before entering the garden He warns the eleven that they were about to meet a time of testing which flesh and blood would not be able to bear. All would be offended in Him. The shepherd smitten, the sheep would be scattered. But what a word for their hearts, had they but had faith, even as a grain of mustard seed — "When I am RISEN AGAIN I will go before you into Galilee."

Peter's history here comes before us as a warning against self-confidence. And we have to mark that neither love nor knowledge is sufficient provision against the power of the enemy. That Peter loved his Master with all the true warm love of which his impulsive and affectionate nature was capable is certain (John 21: 15). That he knew Him to be the Christ of God is equally certain (Matt. 16: 16). But let us be less occupied with Peter's failure than with the lesson for ourselves arising therefrom. And that is, that if the first of the Apostles needed a strength beyond his own in the hour of trial, how much more do we need it?

Taking with Him the three disciples who had stood with Him at the bedside of Jairus's daughter and there witnessed His power — who had followed Him to the Holy Mount, and there witnessed His glory, He went a little farther, and, counting upon their human sympathy, said unto them, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me." Alas, they prove as unsympathetic towards His sufferings as before, they had been irresponsive to His glory. Just here the secret of all the failure comes out. A prayerless life is a powerless life. There can be no standing for God, where there is no dependence upon God; and if there be no going forward in the Christian life there is certain to be failure and backsliding. So Peter found to his cost. At the close of the chapter he gets his own moral weakness disclosed to himself, by the One who alone could restore, strengthen, and forgive. Peter is seen (verse 33) self-confident, (verse 40) sleeping, (verse 51) rash, (verse 56) cowardly, (verse 70) bold in denying his Master. Inside the high priest's house there was the good confession of the Master; outside there is the thrice-repeated bold denial of the disciple — "I know not the man."

And yet, as if torn two ways, love makes him linger near. The cold, weary hours of the April morning creep slowly past. 'Peter is sitting with the servants and warming himself beside their fire (Mark). Suddenly, what would be to others a common and unimportant sound, reached their ears. But to Peter, no thunder-burst could have been more appalling. In letters of light, his every word, motive, and action of the last few hours rose before him, and turning away from himself with utter loathing, he rose up, went out and wept bitterly. What a fall! What repentance, and what grace that could produce such a recovery! It is here we get a true insight into the real character of this great-hearted disciple whom we have learned to know and love.

But to return. Verse 39 — "And he went a little farther, and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Now He is alone with the Father. The moment was near when even God would forsake Him, and He would be alone, as no one ever was before, or could be. Separate from men because of what He was — the Holy One of God — He, on that Cross of shame, would he separated from God because of what He had voluntarily become — the Sin-bearer.

No human eyes witnessed that scene in Gethsemane. No human ear listened to that cry of sorrow. Matthew, who wrote this account of it, was not even among the favoured three, who were the nearest to their Lord. The Holy Spirit of God alone inspired the record, and, in revealing the details of this solemn scene, surely He had something for us to learn therefrom. It is clearly the anticipation of the Cross. But if this is the anticipation, what must the reality have been? Shall we ever know? He knew, and spread it all out before His Father. The thrice-repeated prayer could not be heard. The Son of Man must be lifted up. As the Holy One, we see Him shrinking from becoming the Covenant-Victim, yet as the Obedient One, He receives the cup "from His Father's hand." Our sins had filled it. Satan presented it But here He looks past all these, and in perfect communion with His Father says, "Thy will be done."

The prophetic utterances of Psalm 22 had already given the exercises of His soul, in view of, and upon, the Cross; as Isaiah 53 had spoken of Him as the great substitutionary Victim — the Lamb led to the slaughter.

In Psalm 22: 2, He speaks of a prayer that is not heard, but Hebrews 5: 7, referring surely to this same solemn moment, tells of Him "offering up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, to him that was able to save him from (literally, out of) death; and was heard, in that he feared." And saved out of death He was; and in resurrection life, and power "he became the Author of eternal salvation, unto all them that obey him."

Returning to the three disciples, the Lord found them asleep and, addressing Peter, He said, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation." The gentle rebuke might well have been a warning to Peter. Not many hours had passed since he had vowed to die with his Master. Might he not, then, be expected to watch with Him? But if he refused to profit by the Lord's instructions, he had to learn by his own bitter experiences, what the flesh is even in an apostle. So will it be with all who enter the school of God.

The traitor comes. The Lord, having passed in anticipation through all the awful agony and sorrow of the Cross, is now calm in the presence of the ruffian mob.

Oh, what a scene is here! Judas in his treachery. Peter in his rashness. The shrinking disciples The priestly hirelings. The Lord Jesus in divine dignity in the midst. One word from His lips and twelve legions of angels would have taken the place of Peter's faltering sword. But it was their hour, and the power of darkness.

The chief priests in the high priest's house sit in judgment, not to find the truth, but to find false witnesses. And even here their search is vain, for though many are called, yet none agree. Before the priests the Lord is condemned because of His own confession that He was the Son of God. But on their part, Caiaphas's question itself was only a cover for their hypocrisy. His death they had long ago decided on, and any means to reach that end was acceptable in their eyes.

The Lord, as ever, gives them truth beyond what they desired to learn. The day was coming when they would see Him, as "Son of Man," sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. At the moment, the power seemed to be on their side, and they would use it to the full.

No sooner has He been unjustly condemned than His judges step down from the bench to spit in His face (Mark), while the servants buffet, blindfold, and mock Him. It is neither the rude soldiers of the governor, nor the Gentile executioners here. It is the leaders of Israel that are so brought before us. They are seen seeking false witnesses: condemning the guiltless and setting an example in hatred and cruelty. The Son of Man thus stood before the leaders of Israel. What a moment when the leaders of Israel shall stand before the Son of Man.

Matthew 27 opens with "all the chief priests and elders" united in the awful sin of delivering up the Son of God to the Gentile power. Thus the greatest guilt falls upon those who had the greatest light. So Peter, in Acts 3, charges home their guilt upon them. Having condemned the guiltless, they now seek to colour their unholy proceedings with a show of legality, and deliver Him bound into the custody of Pilate.

Meanwhile, if they are not seized with remorse, Judas is. He brought back the wages of unrighteousness, and confessed his sin to the priests instead of to God. Satan, having finished with his dupe, insults him before destroying him. "What is that to us?" is their sneering answer to his conscience-stricken cry. Casting down the money he had sold his soul to acquire, he hastens, bent on self-destruction, to carry out the will of the devil. And now the hypocrisy of the human heart is here laid bare, as lately was its cruelty. The priests, with the money, purchased a burying-ground for strangers; but the public voice which is often keen to detect the motives of public men, gave the field its rightful name "Aceldama" — "The Field of Blood." Such their city and land soon became. And, alas, the whole world; for the guilt of Innocent Blood rests yet upon the world where the Lord of Glory died.

"And Jesus stood before the governor" — the presence of the Lord exposes the motives of every heart, and here we have next unfolded before us the heart history of a man scheming to retain place and power in this world, and utterly infidel as to the next. The policy of the priests, in bringing Him to Pilate, was to secure the intervention of the military power, and so shift the odium of the crime from their own heads, to that of the Romans. Pilate easily saw through their hypocrisy, and very soon arrived at the conclusion, which he held all through the closing scenes, that "it was for envy they had delivered him up." Finding no fault in Him, Pilate from henceforth sought to release Him. But though strong in brute force, Pilate was wholly lacking in the true strength of moral principle. To release the Lord, Pilate must first placate the priests, in order to secure his own position with the cruel and suspicious Tiberius at Rome. Three attempts were made without avail. First, Pilate declares, "I find no fault in him." Then he offers to release Barabbas. And lastly, as if in the endeavour to assuage their thirst for blood, he declares himself willing to scourge the One whom he had thrice declared to be innocent. Such is the righteousness of man.

But no man goes to hell unwarned. For the Roman of that day, the old "gods" of the Pantheon were "dead." A less virile and still more degrading superstition held them in bondage. Signs and omens were their guiding lights, and voices from the mystic land of dreams held powerful control over their minds. And God used what was perhaps the only avenue left open to that man's conscience, through the message sent to him by his wife. Her urgent entreaty but added to his indecision and increased his guilt, without giving power to do what he knew to be right.

Pilate's next shift was to send the Lord to Herod. And now the two Kings are together God's King and Man's King. We have already seen the character of man's king in Matthew 14 Here his acts are in keeping with his character. "And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate" (Luke 23: 11).

One more effort the governor made, but it was answered by the fierce cry, "If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend" (John 19: 12). It was their last argument, and it prevailed. To retain the favour of Caesar, Pilate knowingly condemned the Innocent. That Pilate, after all, lost that favour, history, which we have no reason to doubt, records. And shortly afterwards he followed Judas on the same road to self-destruction. His mockery of hand washing was a feeble attempt to conceal his weakness and shift the guilt of his crime, but it was enough to induce the priests to invoke the consequences of the awful crime upon themselves and their children. That God in righteous government took them at their word, their history conclusively declares.

What a revelation of hearts is here, and all against the Son of God.

The leaders persuading the people to choose a felon.

The governor yielding up to death the Innocent.

The king of Israel mocking Israel's Messiah.

The people willing to accept any one if only the Lord is condemned, and finally accepting the responsibility of slaying the Prince of Life.

Now Pilate scourges the One he had thrice pronounced innocent. The soldiers gather round to satiate their cruelty with a sight of His sufferings. Here it is not the Jews that surround Him. The soldiers of the governor had little in common with the servants of the priests, but they were alike in this — the natural cruelty of the human heart, led on by Satan.

He is (1) stripped; (2) scourged; (3) buffeted; (4) mocked; (5) spit upon; (6) crowned with thorns; (7) crucified. Sevenfold sufferings measured out to the Holy Son of God by the guilty sons of men.

The Jews demand His blood. The Gentiles shed it. And psalm and prophecy is fulfilled as they gather round His Cross to insult the Holy Sufferer. Even the guilty robbers can forget, for a moment, their own agonies, to add to His.

But to continue the narrative of our Evangelist — let us notice here how God overruled all the malice and mockery of men for the fulfilment of prophecy and a testimony to His Son, the very opposite of what they intended. Matthew records that they put on Him a scarlet robe, and by that kingly colour they thereby declared that He was the King of the Jews. In Herod's palace He was arrayed in a "gorgeous" (white or shining) robe, thereby testifying to His sinless character. The priests and scribes who had followed might stand and "vehemently accuse" Him. He was arrayed before them in that which spoke of perfect innocence. Mark and John, again, tell of a purple robe. All are divinely suited to the way in which the Lord is brought before us in the different gospels. John tells us that He was the Son of God. Mark says that He became the Servant. But blessed be His name, the Son who became the Servant will in a soon-coming day be known as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His Imperial character, expressed by the purple, will then be manifested to the whole universe.

And so again at the Cross, Pilate wrote a title — was it not this time to mock the Jew, instead of mocking the Lord? —

"This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." So the complete title read, but each of the evangelists gives that portion suitable to his subject. They may be compared as under: —

This is Jesus * the King of the Jews (Matt.)

* * * The King of the Jews (Mark)

This is        * *The King of the Jews (Luke)

* Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews (John)

Such was man's part.

But "from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." God draws a veil of darkness round the scene when the great question of ATONEMENT is taken up.

The bitter cry from that darkness, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" expresses a forsaking which He, the Holy Victim, could alone measure.

As we contemplate this most solemn scene we can only bow our hearts and worship.

It has been well said, that the Cross is the centre of two eternities. The past eternity, if we may so speak, looked forward to it. All eternity to come will look back. In it God was fully displayed as Light and Love. His righteousness was so vindicated that His mercy might flow out unhinderedly. By it we are brought to God. "He is the propitiation for our sins." God's holy nature has been glorified. God's perfect love can now be lavished upon those who have been reconciled to Him by the death of His Son.

The Great Work of ATONEMENT is God's wonderful provision whereby all this may be accomplished (Lev. 16).

God has been pleased to present this to us from different standpoints: —

1 The propitiatory character of the death of Christ provides the ground where God can meet the sinner in righteousness (1 John 2, Rom. 3).

2 The expiatory character of the death of Christ meets our guilty condition. We were sinful, and sin must be put away (Heb. 9).

3 The substitutionary character of the death of Christ meets our responsibility. We were condemned, and Another must take our place and bear our judgment (1 Peter 2).

4 The redeeming character of the death of Christ meets our state. As slaves of sin and Satan, only a mighty ransom could deliver us. We are now no longer slaves, but sons, with the spirit of sons, and waiting for the redemption of the body (Rom. 8; Rev. 5).

Here at the Cross every question is raised and settled. God's glory is righteously vindicated. Man's need is fully met. Satan's power is for ever broken.

But — to complete the mighty work — it remained but for Him to die. Death followed sin; and, taking the sinner's place, He met the sinner's doom. But He went into death in order that He might destroy him that had the power of it — that is, the devil. He was already the Victor over him. Now, by the assertion of His divine power, He dismissed His Spirit and died. He had power to lay down His life and power to take it again (John 10: 18).

There are seven utterances on the Cross, somewhat in the following order: —

1 "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23: 34).

2 "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23: 43).

3 Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani (Matt. 27: 46).

4 "Woman, behold thy Son!" (John 19: 26).

5 "I thirst" (John 19: 28).

6 "It is finished" (John 19: 30).

7 "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23: 46).

The Prince of Life has gone into the domain of death. Great results will certainly follow, and they begin immediately.

The number of separate striking incidents which are grouped together within the sixteen closing verses of this wonderful chapter is remarkable.

The first and immediate result of the Lord's death was the rending asunder, from top to bottom, of the temple veil. And this event was coincident with the offering of the evening sacrifice at the ninth hour. Our Evangelist records the fact. Another inspired apostle gives us the divine commentary thereon. Never more need another innocent lamb bleed under the sacrificial knife. The true Lamb of God, the great Antitype of every sacrifice, had died, and now, for the believer, there is remission of sins, instead of their remembrance (Heb. 10: 3-14).

The temple, as is well known, was divided into two parts. Into the first went the priests daily. In the second, or Holy of Holies, there was, in Solomon's temple, a manifestation of God in the Shekinah glory. Man durst not go in, and God did not come out. But now the rent veil spoke of the fact that God, through the death of the Lord Jesus, was fully revealed, without a veil, either to hide or separate. And further, there is also what that death has done for the believer. It has fitted him for the presence of God in light. And so, to refer again to Hebrews 10, we are fitted to draw near. We are invited to draw near, and we have a Great High Priest to maintain our souls ever in the place of conscious nearness. THE BLOOD is the foundation of our every blessing.

Nature itself seemed to have its part at this sublime moment. Quaking earth and rending rocks were doubtless only the agencies employed by the mighty hand of God to open the graves of the saints, but they testify to the solemn character of the events which are taking place. And Scripture is careful to state that it was after His resurrection that the saints themselves arose.

There is also the effect upon the Gentile centurion. All the synoptists record it, but only Matthew includes "those that were with him." Our Evangelist, as we have frequently seen, often indicates the widening out of Kingdom blessing far beyond the narrow bounds of Israel, and here for the first time we have a Gentile company convinced and confessing, "truly this was the Son of God" (verse 54).

Let us pause here, and contemplate for a moment the condition of things on the evening of this day of days in the world's history.

It is between the hours of four and six o'clock (our time). A dead Christ, refused by His nation, betrayed by one of His own disciples, murdered by the Gentiles, hangs upon a gibbet. His few followers, in whose breasts hope and fear had alternated during the week gone by, now find themselves with every hope gone, fear crushing out their courage and despair filling their hearts. Only one of them — the one who had lain in His bosom, now stood by His Cross.

But if disciples fail, there are others who do not. The women that followed Him from Galilee, are, at the beginning, seen "afar off" (as we should expect) from that scene of horror: but later, it would appear ( John 20), draw as near as the javelins of the Roman guard would permit. Faith may have died out of their hearts, but fear found no place there. Love — never stronger than when its object is most in need — is what characterises them, and the Spirit of God so describes their devotion. They would watch by His body until the stone concealed it from their sight.

And now, to prepare for their "high day," the priests desire Pilate to order the removal of the bodies from the Cross, doubtless to be cast into a felon's grave. But again prophecy was to be fulfilled to the letter. "His grave was appointed with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death" (Isa. 53). They might break the legs of the others, but "a bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19). After the witness of the blood and water, which flowed from His spear-pierced side, God took care that no indignity should he offered to Him in death, who had so perfectly glorified God in His life. And just as one professed disciple had been bold in denying Him, so now a secret disciple becomes bold in confessing Him. Love for the Lord overcame the fear for his fellows. And Nicodemus, another rich man, shares in this most privileged service. If John 3 be Nicodemus's Conversion, and John 7 his Confession, here surely we have his Consecration. In open face of His enemies, in the time of their seeming triumph, these two devoted men identify themselves with their crucified Lord.

Joseph's new tomb receives His body. Love laid Him there. Hatred sealed the stone and set a watch. The women who had followed Him from Galilee, and who had waited at the Cross, to see, as they thought, the end, wait still to see the place where He was laid.

Three of the Marys are here there are four mentioned in the Gospels — and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward. Salome also is here with all her high hopes for James and John, which hopes now lie buried in His tomb. And so perhaps with them all. Nevertheless, oh, how they loved Him!

But two of the Marys are singled out beyond the others — apart from the others. The great stone has been rolled to the door of the sepulchre. Joseph and the others have departed to their own homes, but "there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre" (verse 61).

It is the gathering dusk of the Friday evening. We shall meet them again in the glorious dawn of the third day morning, once more wending their way to the same spot, to be the first to hear from angel lips the heart-gladdening words, "He is not here: He is risen."

But if Joseph's tomb received His body the priests would make sure that it should remain there. With this end in view they request from Pilate that means be taken to "make it sure." Pilate said unto them — was it again in mockery? — "Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can." What words are adequate here? Imagination itself fails to cover the ground between the opposing forces. The puny power of the priests on the one side: on the other the almighty power of God. Man striving with his Maker.

Nervously, tensely apprehensive of that "third day," in spite of their apparent triumph, the priests are now as anxiously considering the question of how to keep a dead Man in the grave, as but yesterday they were scheming how to slay Him.

But God overrules all for the glory of Christ. The world will demand proofs of His resurrection. His enemies will supply them abundantly. So again the servants of the priests visit Golgotha. They affix the official Great Seal of the Sanhedrim to the stone covering the door of the sepulchre. They set a watch — a watch of soldiers — of the best soldiers in the world — a watch of Roman soldiers, and depart to keep their "high" Sabbath, while the Lord of the Sabbath lies low within the tomb.

Surely death, the sealed stone, and the soldier guard can be jointly trusted to keep their prey secure. The seeming triumph of Satan is complete.

Section 12. Matthew 28.

Resurrection, Victory, and Joy

The great apostle of the Gentiles, in restating the foundations of Christian truth, emphasises three great cardinal facts: —

1 That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

2 That He was buried.

3 That He rose again the third day (1 Cor. 15: 1-4).

"If Christ be not risen," argues the apostle, "then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." "But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept."

Our Evangelist gives us the historical narrative with which these truths are connected. The first and second we have already considered. The third comes within the scope of the present chapter. Matthew 28 is the Victory Chapter, and it opens with all the pomp and circumstance connected therewith. Triumph is its keynote, joy its dominant, and all power its climax. Man might set his seal upon the grave of Christ, but here God sets His seal upon the work of Christ. Having gone down under all the wrath of God and exhausted it, He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Spite of stone, and seal, and soldier guard —

"Up from the grave He arose

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes, Hallelujah."

Of what use, then, all the scheming and planning of the priests? Much. They provide proof positive to the world of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The believer has, of course, another set of proofs which other Scriptures fully develop. But let us look at those His enemies supply.

The Lord had so frequently foretold His resurrection, that, although His disciples ha .d forgotten it, yet His enemies could not. Hence all their plans to prevent it. That He was dead before being taken down from the Cross, is proved by Pilate's refusal to allow the Body to be removed until assured by his own centurion that the Lord was already dead (Mark). The priests also testified to the fact when they demanded the watch — "He said, while he was yet alive." Now they knew He was dead. Again, they themselves, or by their servants, sealed His body in the tomb; and further, they drew a cordon of sixty soldiers round the sepulchre. Yet, notwithstanding all the precautions taken by the Jews to prevent it, early on the morning of the third day the stone was rolled away and the tomb was seen by all to be empty. The frightened soldiers announce it. The priests confess it. Fifty days afterwards the disciples proclaim it throughout the city, and the priests never once challenge their veracity.

In our chapter we have two different accounts of how this event took place, one by His friends and another by His foes.

Let us look at the latter first. Early in the morning some of the watch, fleeing from the terror of the angelic presence, entered the city to report the extraordinary event to their employers. The question now before their third council was no longer — How to keep Him in the tomb, but — How to conceal the admitted fact that the Lord was risen. Boldly they will attempt the impossible. In the face of a rent veil the priests invent the lie. In face of angel and earthquake and empty tomb the soldiers disseminate it. They told the truth to the priests. Bribed, and taught by the priests, they lied to the people — "His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept." The words of the priests so evidently carry their falsehood in their face that the Evangelist does not trouble to refute them. Neither need we. But it is well we should mark this: There is no fact of history more credibly attested by human evidence than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, when anyone, be he open infidel or religious "professor," denies this fact, he also denies with it the value of evidential testimony to all other facts of bygone time.

Nothing can be more conclusive than the way in which that great master of logic, the Apostle Paul, marshals the proofs of the resurrection for the Corinthian doubters; and the testimony of 500 witnesses cannot easily be overthrown. See the whole passage, 1 Cor. 15: 1-8. There is: —

1 The testimony of the Scriptures (verses 3, 4).

2 The testimony of Cephas (verse 5).

3 The testimony of the Twelve (verse 5).

4 The testimony of about 500 brethren (verse 6).

5 The testimony of James (verse 7).

6 The testimony of all the Apostles (verse 7).

7 The testimony of Paul (verse 8).

A sevenfold chain of evidence, convincing and conclusive. Modernism, when it denies the fact of the resurrection, proclaims itself to be not only infidel, but illogical. Scripture exposes both its wickedness and its weakness.

But let us return to the narrative of inspiration.

Very early on the morning of the first day of the week, the two Marys again seek the one spot on earth round which their affections centre. So far as their knowledge went, their visit could only result in "seeing the sepulchre." Did not the stone conceal the grave and the guard defend it? But early though they went, a visitor had been there before them who could brush these things away as the mists before the morning sun. The angel had come from the land of light, and brought with him some of the characteristics of that land. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment as white as snow. We are going to that land, and it is our privilege to have the light of it in our hearts even now. That which brought fear to the keepers, brought joy to the women — deeper in that it was so wholly unexpected, and to still further deepen, as they would learn later, all that the resurrection meant to His followers.

And they in turn are commissioned to carry the message to the disciples. This portion is very beautiful. The angel, in calm dignity, sitting on that which had covered an empty tomb. His very presence, without any exertion of power, is sufficient to overcome the guard. His intelligence in the mind of the Lord is as marked as his activity in the service of the Lord. He could instruct the women, and through them, the disciples, where to go to meet the Lord. Another Scripture describes angels as ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. 1: 14). And even the Lord Himself, when on earth, was frequently the recipient of their ministry. On one occasion we read of an angel from heaven strengthening Him. The thought of the Creator and Lord of Angels being strengthened by an angel, gives a wonderful glimpse of the real manhood of our blessed Lord. Their mission of service to believers is often mentioned in the New Testament. We find them in Matthew 18 watching over the little ones. In Luke 15 we read of them rejoicing over the repentant ones. In 1 Corinthians 11 they are present with the worshipping ones; and in Luke 16 they are seen bearing the spirits of redeemed ones to paradise. Thus they are represented in the present age as the ministers of God's grace to believers: in the coming day they will be the executors of His judgment upon the guilty.

But if the presence and message of the angel filled the hearts of the women with mingled fear and joy, Another was about to meet them who would banish fear from their hearts for ever and communicate to them, in His soul-inspiring word of greeting, something of the joy that filled His own heart on that glorious morning.

"And as they went to tell his disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying, All hail."

We are so accustomed to be occupied with our needs, and to rejoice in our blessings, that we are in danger of failing to enter into His joy. And yet it is only as we enter into His joy that we perceive the basis on which our highest joys rest. He had to say, before the Cross, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished" (Luke 12: 50). Now, on the further side of the Cross and the grave, standing on resurrection ground, He can associate with Himself, in resurrection life, those on whom His love has been set from all eternity. Redemption's work completed, nothing intervenes to hinder all the love and grace of His heart flowing out to His own, in order to bring them into the place of established relationship with the Father and conscious nearness before Him: and not only so, but giving us a nature that enjoys the light of His presence, knowing that the glory of that light only manifests the perfection of our standing, which is nothing less than Christ Himself.

Doubtless but little of this could be known by the women in our chapter, but the great point here is, that they had found the One who was the centre of their heart's affections, and "falling at his feet they worshipped him." Here is the first essential of all worship, and the greater the love, the higher the worship.

The Lord confirms the angels' instructions; but by changing one word, He adds a link of precious intimacy which never could have been known before the Cross. It is no longer "my disciples," but "my brethren." Disciples they still were, of course, but He was about to declare the Father's Name to them, according to the prophecy of Psalm 22: 22, and from henceforth become the Leader of their praises. The congregation of them that praise Him has but a small place in the world to-day, but the day is fast nearing when He will be the Centre of the Great Congregation, and "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee" (Ps. 22: 27).

At the Cross the foundation was laid of which this will be the glorious consummation. On that first Lord's day morning the keynote was struck of that universal song of praise which will fill the redeemed earth. It will be expressed in the language of Psalm c., and men will learn, according to the theology of the psalmist, that Jehovah is God, and that Jehovah is good. Even "the creature itself will be brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 21).

All this is intimately connected with the presentation of Kingdom truth in Matthew's Gospel. The disciples are instructed to meet Him in Galilee, not in Jerusalem. The nation and its capital city no longer represent God's centre upon the earth. A Kingdom is about to be instituted, the scope of whose operations will not be confined to one nation, but will go on expanding and increasing until every nation under heaven be brought under its beneficent sway.

But before following the company into Galilee, it may be well to notice the ten different appearings of our Lord, to His disciples, after His resurrection. They are as follows: —

1 To Mary Magdalene alone (Mark 16; John 20).

2 To the women returning from the sepulchre (Matt. 28).

3 To Simon Peter alone (Luke 24).

4 To the two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24).

5 To the Apostles at Jerusalem, Thomas being absent (John 20).

6 These first five appearings all took place on the first Lord's day.

7 Eight days afterwards to the disciples, Thomas being with them (John 20).

8 To seven of the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (John 21).

9 To the disciples in Galilee (Matt. 28; 1 Cor. 15: 6).

10 To James alone; time and place unknown (1 Cor. 15).

To the disciples at Jerusalem, on the day of the Ascension (Luke 24; Acts 1; 1 Cor. 15: 7).

By comparing 1 Corinthians 15: 6 with verse 10 of our chapter it would seem that the appearing in Galilee was to the whole company of the brethren, and that the occasion was the institution of the Kingdom in world-wide character. Matthew began his career as a disciple by gathering in a "great company" into his own house. He is now to learn from the lips of the Lord that the blessing is to extend to every house under heaven, the scope of Kingdom blessing being nothing less than "all nations," in contrast with the mission in Matthew 10, which extended only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel."

But how much needed was this word of encouragement — "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." The disciples could not be ignorant of the fact that, all the powers of the world, backed by the power of Satan, were against them, as they had been against their Master, and they needed to be reminded that their Master was the Victor over every foe. He had already said to them, as another Gospel tells: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16: 33). And the same apostle who records the fact gives us later the key of the overcoming life: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith" (1 John 5: 4). The man of faith, walking in faith, is invincible. Satan has no dart strong enough to pierce the shield of faith. The world has no allurement sweet enough to attract the heart that is filled with the love of Christ. The world is an enemy's land, but Satan, the prince of it, is a defeated foe, and ALL POWER is in the hands of our risen Victorious Lord. Oh, that every young believer would firmly grasp at the very outset of his Christian pathway this great and inspiring truth — the LOVE and POWER of Christ are both for ME, to-day, and all the days, until I see His face.

Now we get, in closing, the Great Commission. It will be noticed that each of the Gospels give this in different terms: the superficial reader may think, in contradictory terms. But not so. A little closer attention will show that all four are required to express the different aspects of the great work of grace that began in the world at Pentecost, is going on to-day, and will continue all the days, until the consummation of the age.

Beginning first with John's Gospel (John 20: 21), we have brought before us the Person who sends, and the fact that the disciple goes forth with the message of grace in the same manner, sent by the Lord, as the Lord Himself became the "Sent One" of the Father, "full of grace and truth." He came, suffered, died, rose again, showed them His hands and His side, became the Door, that by Him "if ANY man (no longer Jews only) enter in he shall be saved (John 10). Judaism knew nothing of this. It was a new and wondrous truth even to Apostles, and were we less familiar with the Gospel sound, it would be the same to us.

In Luke we read (Luke 24: 46-49): "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things."

Here we get the foundation on which the proclamation rests, coupled with the moral condition produced by the reception of the testimony.

Mark sets before us, in few words, the responsibility of the hearer, with the results of either the acceptance or the rejection of the gospel of grace. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16: 16).

Returning now to the Commission as given by our Evangelist, we find that Matthew carries us onward to the grand climax of all the ways of God in grace, with men. The Father's Name is revealed, and "all nations" are to be baptized — no longer into John's baptism, as in Matthew 3, or even Messiah's baptism, as in John 4 — but "in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The whole wide world is the sphere of the testimony, and the day is coming when the Commission will have been executed, the Testimony received, and "they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord" (Jer. 22: 34). "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2: 14).

Till that moment the King, though absent in Person, has been, is, and will be present with every servant, in the face of every foe, every day, and all the days until the "end of the age," when "He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Then —

"Kings shall fall down before Him,

And gold and incense bring.

All nations shall adore Him —

His praise all people sing.

Outstretched His wide dominion

O'er river, sea, and shore,

Far as the eagle's pinion,

Or dove's light wing can soar."

Notes and Outlines

1. Matthew 1.

1. CHRIST AS MESSIAH.

1. Introduced as "Son of David," and, as such, Heir to the Throne of David. Compare Psalm 89: 29: —

"His seed will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven."

2. Also as "Son of Abraham," and, as such, Heir to all the Promises. Compare Galatians 3: 16: — "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."

"In thee shall all nations be blest" (Gal. 3: 8).

2. NOTE THAT THE GENEALOGY is divided into three parts, and traces His descent from His kingly ancestor, David, and the Receiver of the Promises, Abraham.

1 Abraham to David — Promise.

2 David to the Captivity — Declension.

3 The Captivity to Christ — Darkness.

3. FOUR WOMEN are introduced, and show God working out His purposes of grace in spite of man's wickedness and folly.

1 Thamar — The Sin of Man.

2 Rahab — The faith of the Gentile laying hold of the promise of God.

3 Ruth — The grace that can set aside the claims of Law.

4 Bathsheba — The blessing God can bring out of even the failures of His people.

2. Matthew 2.

THREE Companies found in this chapter.

THREE Effects produced by the presence of the Lord Jesus.

1. HEROD HEARD AND WAS TROUBLED.

Herod was an Idumean, and therefore a usurper. He had no legal right to the throne of David. He was the type of man's King — Satan, the usurper.

2. SCRIBES HEARD AND WERE INDIFFERENT.

The Scribes were the doctors of the Law, and knew the sacred writings so well that they could tell the king at once where the Lord was to be born, but they did not trouble to go and see.

1 They had the Scriptures, but believed them not.

2 They had a measure of light, but loved the darkness.

3 They had the "key of knowledge" (Luke 11: 52), but were ignorant of the ways of God.

3. THE WISE MEN HEARD AND REJOICED.

1. They found the "One born King of the Jews," worshipped Him, and presented their gifts.

2. Three things mentioned: 1, gold; 2, frankincense; 3, myrrh. Gold — their tribute to His essential Divinity. Frankincense — offered to Him as God manifest in flesh. Myrrh — emblematic of the suffering and death into which love led the Holy One of God. In a future day they will bring "gold and incense" but no myrrh. Compare Isaiah 60.

3. Matthew 3.

1. THE WARNING OF JOHN.

A new dispensation is beginning; therefore repent in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. No time to lose: it is near.

1 Repent because men are sinners.

Repent because sinners cannot enter without a change of heart.

Repent because the kingdom is at hand.

2 Repent "because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge" (Acts 17: 31).

Just now He wants to bless. The goodness of God produces Repentance. This goodness is expressed in the Gospel.

2. THE WORK OF CHRIST.

1 A Converting work. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" — Laid hold of by the Spirit for blessing NOW.

2 A Separating work. If blessed now, separated from the world and saved from its doom. If Christ is rejected now, then, when "He baptizes with fire," the sinner will be separated from God for ever.

3. THE WITNESS OF THE FATHER.

1 As to His Relationship — "My Beloved Son." The Believer, through the wonderful grace of God, is brought into the same relation- ship (1 John "Now are we the Sons of God."

2 As to His perfect life below — "In whom I am well pleased." See 1 Peter 2: 21, and compare 1 Timothy 4: 12, "Be thou an example."

4. Matthew 4.

SEVEN MARKS OF CHRIST'S GLORY AND POWER.

1 The Voice of the Father.

2 The Descent of the Spirit.

3 The Ministry of Angels.

4 His Power over Satan.

5 His Authority over Disease.

6 The Light to them that sat in Darkness.

7 The attraction for the hearts of men.

1. THE POWER OF CHRIST to Defeat the Devil.

Satan presented Three great Temptations — "all that is in the world."

Before these our first parents and every other son of Adam's race had failed. But Christ was tempted and emerged victorious. Compare 1 John 2, "The Lust of the Flesh" — what can I get? "The Lust of the Eye" — what can I see? "The Pride of Life" — what can others see in me

2. THE POWER OF CHRIST to Attract the Heart.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John FOLLOWED JESUS.

1 The secret of the attraction — LOVE.

2 The object of the attraction — HIMSELF.

3. THE POWER OF CHRIST to introduce Blessing and a new order on Earth.

1 By the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom which was at hand. Men to repent and get ready to enter.

2 By undoing the evil Satan had done. Annulling the power of the devil, and delivering his lawful captives.

5. Matthew 5.

1. The Lord describes the characteristics of those who enter the Kingdom coupled with the Blessings they will enjoy in the day of EARTHLY DISPLAY.

Characteristics.

1 Poor — Entrance to the Kingdom.

2 Mourners — Comfort.

3 Meek — Inheritance.

4 Hungerers after righteousness Satisfaction.

5 Merciful — Mercy.

6 Pure — See God.

7 Persecuted — Joy.

2. Contrast the last of the "Blesseds" with the first, where the pronoun is "they." Here it is "YE," and great is your reward IN HEAVEN.

When Persecuted for CHRIST'S SAKE, Three things follow: —

1 We are drawn nearer the Lord.

2 We get a deeper sense of His love and power.

3 We shine more brightly before the world.

3. Vv. 13 and 14 show what the True Believer is In the world and To the world.

1 SALT — That which Preserves. So the disciples were to stand for the rights of God.

2 LIGHT — That which Reveals, Guides, or Warns. So Grace was to go out from disciples to a lost world, heedless of its danger and doom.

The Warning. — The salt may lose its savour.

The light may be put under a bushel.

6. Matthew 6.

THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY.

Contains Six Petitions following the Invocation. Three of the Petitions are Godward; three are Manward. The last three deal with the Present, Past, and Future.

THE INVOCATION: OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN

Teaches us To Whom to pray. The thought of FATHER implies Relationship, and so we are reminded of the Cost of making this possible, through Death and Resurrection. With this before us we say "OUR FATHER," and we ought to say it

HUMBLY because it is God who is our Father, LOVINGLY because God is our FATHER,

WITH ASSURANCE because GOD IS our Father,

HOPEFULLY because All POWER is His,

REVERENTLY because He 1S in HEAVEN.

1. HALLOWED BE THY NAME.

The NAME declares the measure of the Revelation.

To ADAM — THE LORD GOD Creator Relationship.

To ABRAHAM — GOD ALMIGHTY Power For Him.

To MOSES — JEHOVAH — The Eternal, Self-existing, unchanging, Covenant-Keeping One.

To CHRISTIANS — FATHER — Relationship and Love.

2. THY KINGDOM COME.

Three things in every well-governed Kingdom.

1 SECURITY — Compare Believers Present Position — "They shall never Perish."

2 LIBERTY — Compare Believers Present Position — "Ye shall be free indeed."

3 PLENTY  — Compare Believers Present Position — "ALL Spiritual Blessings."

3. THY WILL BE DONE.

Seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus.

Should be seen in Believers.

Will be seen in the Coming day of display

When, all usurpers put down,

THE RIGHTFUL KING Will reign in RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7. Matthew 6.

THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY (continued).

4. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD." — Present.

The Rich who are able to buy, or the Poor who must condescend to beg, equally need to pray this petition. God has provided once for all, all the minerals men may need but for our Daily Bread we depend on the Daily Faithfulness of a Covenant-Keeping God (Gen. 9: 9) in giving annually seedtime and harvest with unfailing grace.

1 So we ask with the knowledge of His Power to supply.

2 And we ask with a Sense of our need.

The object. — Continue us in life to glorify Thee.

5. "FORGIVE US." — Past.

The sense here is Restoration: in order that we may continue in Communion with a Father who always acts in grace.

So we too must act in grace to others — "as we forgive." Forgiveness means to "Let off." The Sinner should be "detained" and "punished," but God is ready to forgive.

1 Christ died to make Forgiveness Possible.

2 All need Forgiveness.

3 We are commanded to Preach Forgiveness in His Name.

6. DELIVER US. — Future.

Expresses the need of being kept from Satan's Power. Not to be tried as Job or Peter, lest we may become more like Peter than Job.

Paul's beautiful and Confident testimony.

He Hath delivered (Col. 1: 13).

He Will deliver (2 Tim. 4: 18).

See also He Doth deliver (Psalm 97: 10).

8. Matthew 6.

"SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD" (Ver. 33).

1. "SEEK" a Divine Command.

Because by nature men are astray and lost. This lost condition shows itself in two ways: —

1 Opposition to God (Illustrate, Pharaoh).

2 Indifference to God (Illustrate, Gallio).

2. "FIRST" a Definite Time.

Remember now . . . in the days of thy youth (Eccl. 12: 1).

In the morning of life.

Because seeking "other things" first

1 Grieves the Spirit.

2 Hardens the heart.

3 Sears the Conscience.

3. THE KINGDOM OF GOD — a Particular thing.

"The Kingdom of God" is opposed to the "world of Satan."

The World is going on to Judgment.

The Believer is going on to glory.

Each one is either in God's Kingdom or in Satan's World.

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world

And lose his own soul?"

4. OTHER THINGS shall he added — a Sure Promise.

Be not anxious for to-morrow.

Your Father knoweth your need.

"My God shall supply all your need" (Phil. 4: 19).

9. Matthew 7.

In Matthew 6 we learn "How to give."

In Matthew 7 we learn "How to get." Men say "get to give." God says "give to get."

The Grace of God enables the Believer to do so.

He manifests the Grace by practising the "Golden Rule."

This can only be done in the

1 Power of the New Life, by those who have

2 Entered in at the STRAIT GATE.

THE LORD SAYS THERE ARE

Two GATES.

1. The Strait Gate. ENTERED by Conversion "Strive." Only those in earnest, The Few, find it.

Two WAYS.

"The Way of life."

"The Way of the Lord."

"The Way of Good Men (Prov. 2: 20).

"The Way of Wisdom" (Prov. 4: 11).

"The Way of Truth" (Ps. 119: 30).

"The Way of thy Testimonies" (Ps. 119: 14).

"I am the Way" (John 14: 6).

Two ENDS.

The END of your faith.

The SALVATION of your Souls.

LIFE ETERNAL.

9. Matthew 7. — continued.

Two GATES.

2. The Wide Gate. Entered by Rejecting the Saviour and Turning away from the Cross. Held in it by —

1 Chains of Sin.

2 Fear of Men.

3 Power of Satan.

Two WAYS.

"The Way of Death" (Prov. 14: 12).

"The Way of Sinners" (Ps. 1) .

"The Way of a Fool" (Prov. 12: 15).

"The Way of the Evil Men" (Prov. 2: 12).

"The Way of Darkness" (Prov. 13).

"The Way of the Wicked" (Prov. 15: 9).

"The Way of Destruction" (Rom. 3: 1 6) .

Two ENDS.

The Great White Throne.

The Judgment.

Condemnation.

The Second Death.

10. Matthew 8.

THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON.

1. THE LEPER: Picture of the DEFILEMENT and HOPELESSNESS produced by Sin.

1 He knew he was a leper. "All have sinned."

2 He heard of a Saviour. Good news to him: The Gospel is good news to sinners.

3 He believed in His Power.

4 He received the Blessing.

2. THE PALSIED MAN: Picture of the HELPLESSNESS Produced by Sin.

1 We CAN do nothing. The Work to be done completely beyond our power. Satan to be defeated — Death overcome — Judgment borne.

2 We NEED to do nothing, for the work is done. The hatred of man brought out the love of God. "I will come and heal him." "He came to seek and to save."

3. THE WOMAN SICK OF A FEVER: Picture of the UNREST produced by Sin.

"No Peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa. 57: 21).

"The Way of Peace have they not known" (Rom. 3: 17).

BUT Christ Made Peace (Col. 1: 20).

Christ Brings Peace (John 20: 19).

Christ Preaches Peace (Eph. 2: 17).

Christ Is our Peace (Eph. 2: 14).

Illustrate

A Purchased Peace (2 Kings 15).

A National Peace (1 Kings 5).

A Universal Peace (Isa. 9).

11. Matthew 8.

THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON.

"Man's Day" sets in darkness and sorrow (verse 16). When earth's sun was sinking, suffering humanity came to Christ and experienced all the grace and power of God. That power which works through the "night" and in the "morning" will display all the divine and glorious completion of His purposes of love and mercy.

Man's day — "Morning and Evening."

God's day — "Evening and Morning" (Gen. 1).

1. THE LORD PURPOSES TO CROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE and two men are tested.

1 The first is hindered by the world.

2 The second is hindered by his relations.

The foxes had holes.

The birds had nests.

Christ had nowhere to lay His head.

A man's foes shall be they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than ME is not worthy of Me.

2. DISCIPLESHIP — "His disciples followed Him" (verse 23).

The beginning of discipleship is obedience produced in the heart by the power of love.

We "obey from the heart" because we love.

So we have a chain of four links: —

A heart full of Love is a heart full of joy.

A heart full of Joy is a life full of power.

A Life full of Power is a mouth full of praise.

A mouth full of Praise is a Life full of FRUIT.

12. Matthew 9.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS MISSION.

1. THE FORGIVER OF SINS (verse 2). The sin question must be faced first, when Men are brought to God.

Sins either put away or punished.

Sinners either forgiven or judged.

2. THE RECEIVER OF SINNERS (verse 10). God hates sin but loves sinners. Satan loves sin hut hates sinners. Christ died to save sinners. Holy Spirit pleads with sinners.

3. THE BRINGER OF JOY (verse 15).

Joy the normal condition of Christianity.

A Man who is Forgiven, Justified, Delivered from Satan's Power and on his way to Heaven OUGHT to be happy.

Illustrate: Matthew; Great Feast; Great Company; Great Joy (Luke 5).

4. IN THE BRIDEGROOM'S ABSENCE (verse 15).

The disciples will "fast."

Our attitude to the world now.

We go through it, being

"Not of it" and taking nothing from it.

BUT "I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you" (John 16: 22).

13. Matthew 9.

1. THE GIVER OF LIFE (Janus' Daughter raised from the dead, verses 23-25).

Sinners are "Dead in sins" (Eph. 2: 5).

Believers are "Dead to Sin" (Rom. 6: 2).

Believers are Dead to the Law (Gal. 2: 19).

Believers are Dead to the World (Col. 3: 3).

BUT Alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6: 12).

2. THE GIVER OF LIGHT.

Sin Blinds the mind to the things of God (2 Cor. 4: 4).

Men are blind to their danger, to their need, and to the beauty of the Lord Jesus.

The Gospel of God is sent to "open their eyes" (Acts 26: 18).

Christ is the "True Light" (John 1: 9).

Believers should walk in the Light (1 John 1: 7).

And be the Light of the World (Matt. 5: 14).

3. THE GIVER OF SPEECH.

Unloosed Tongues Confess Jesus as Lord (Rom. 10: 9).

Show forth His Praise (Ps. 51: 15).

Talk of all His Wondrous Works (Ps. 105: 2).

Speak of His Majesty (Ps. 145: 5).

Worship God (Rev. 4: 10).

14. Matthew 10.

In Matthew 10. The King sends forth His Messengers to announce the Coming Kingdom.

The Lord is presented in a threefold way —

1. As Son of David; 2. Son of God; 3. Son of Man.

1. THE LORD JESUS as Son of David and David's rights.

Messiah come and the Kingdom announced.

The defeat of Death, Disease, and the Devil, will mark the Kingdom when established in power. Righteousness will Reign, and there will be world-wide Blessing.

2. THE OPPOSITION to both Messiah and His Kingdom

(1) By the Rulers; (2) By the Men of that Age.

This opposition was manifested in a threefold way.

1 Against the Person of Christ.

2 Against the People of Christ.

3 Against the Word of Christ.

3. THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER'S CARE.

1 Raises the Believer above the fear of men.

2 Makes him a Confessor.

3 Makes him a Cross-Bearer.

15. Matthew 11.

Matthew 10 is the King in long-suffering grace sending forth the twelve apostles to all the cities of Israel to work miracles, while He continues to teach, so that there is blessing for both the souls and bodies of men.

In Matthew 10 — The Kingdom is announced with signs of Power.

In Matthew 11 — The nation rejects the King.

In Matthew 12 — The King rejects the nation.

1. JOHN'S QUESTION "Art Thou He?"

1 The Lord bears testimony to John.

2 The Lord's works bear testimony to Himself.

3 John, a faithful witness suffering for Righteousness sake.

2. THE NATION'S ATTITUDE.

1 Indifferent to the Call of Grace (The Lord's Ministry).

2 Careless as to the warnings of danger (John's ministry).

3. THE NATION'S FUTURE.

Judgment greater than that visited —

1 Upon the sensuality of Sodom, or the Pride and Worldliness of Tyre and Sidon.

2 Because the Jews had rejected the ministry of the Lord Himself.

4. THE CALL OF GRACE — "Come unto Me.

To Me the Rejected One, but

1 The One to whom ALL THINGS are delivered.

2 The Revealer of the Father.

3 The Giver of True Rest.

16. Matthew 11.

Two Invitations — "Come" — "Take."

The Rest given is the result of Coming to Christ as a lost sinner and getting forgiveness.

The Rest found is the result of "taking the yoke of Christ" — that is, accepting the place on earth which He took in grace — "the lowly subject One."

1. ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN.

A universal Invitation. Sin is like a heavy burden.

1 It burdens the Conscience with Guilt.

2 It burdens the Heart with Grief.

3 It burdens the Mind with Regret.

4 It burdens the Body with Disease.

2. I WILL GIVE YOU REST.

A Definite Promise.

1 Rest from Sin, from Doubt, from Fear.

2 Rest of Conscience because

3 Peace with God.

3. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU AND LEARN OF ME.

Yoke — picture of Fellowship.

Grace calls believers to have fellowship with Him.

"Learn of Me" — a Divine Teacher.

"Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard His Words."

4. YE SHALL FIND REST to your souls.

"I have learned" — Paul (Phil. 4: 11).

17. Matthew 12.

The Pharisees raise the Sabbath question, and thereby only expose their own pretentious hypocrisy, because, while professing to keep the Sabbath day, they condemned the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath rest was a sign of the Law of God perfectly kept; but in rejecting Christ they had broken every link with God.

1. This gives occasion for the Lord to announce the only principle upon which men can be blessed. "I will have mercy."

Mercy for Sinners. Grace for the Unworthy. Pardon for the Guilty. Salvation for the Lost.

— Through a Crucified Saviour.

2. The man with the withered hand is an illustration of a man who got blessing on this ground. Also of Israel as a nation — withered and fruitless. Only the Power of God could restore.

3. The Pharisees first Counsel to destroy Him.

His Enemies plot His destruction.

He continues His works of blessing.

BUT, for the nation, the day of Grace was over.

He charged them "not to make Him known."

18. Matthew 13.

Seven Parables setting forth the

(1) Origin; (2) Progress; (3) Declension; and

(4) Consummation of the "Kingdom of Heaven" in the absence of the King.

1. THE INTRODUCTION OF THE WORD OF TRUTH by the Lord Himself, but giving no final results. These are developed in the six following parables. "The Word" divides the hearers into Four Classes: Hard-hearted, Faint-hearted, Halfhearted, Honest-hearted.

2. THE TARES: Evil men and evil teaching introduced by the devil. Nearly all false teaching spring from two sources: —

1 Denying that Christ was really God. — Ebionism.

2 Denying that Christ was really man. — Gnosticism. Both had their origin in the first century. They are with us still.

3. THE MUSTARD TREE.

An abnormal growth. Christendom has become a great world power with root in the earth; instead of maintaining the separate heavenly calling.

Roman Catholicism aims at becoming a great temporal power.

Protestantism aims at becoming a great political power.

4. THE LEAVEN. Every reference in Scripture to leaven shows that it is always a type of evil. Here it indicates the evil and unscriptural teaching which has been introduced, and is permeating the whole of professing Christendom.

5. THE TREASURE. Something valuable, to be sought, purchased, and guarded.

6. THE PEARL. Something beautiful and precious, to be displayed.

7. THE NET. The solemn events which take place at the end of this age. The Church wrapt to glory: the net drawn, and the mystery finished.

19. Matthew 13.

The chapter opens with a parable introducing the Lord Himself as the "Sower," and goes on to give six similitudes of the Kingdom. These show the new aspect the Kingdom would assume in the absence of the King. Christ, come in grace to establish it, is rejected. The word of the Kingdom is sown in the hearts of men, and they are left with it in Responsibility.

The First parable gives Four Results in Four Classes of Hearers.

1. THE WAYSIDE, or THE HARD-HEARTED.

Hearts are what we make them. Pharaoh hardened his heart before God hardened it.

Word not even retained in the heart.

Birds, type of Satan, catch away that which was sown.

Here the power of the devil prevails.

2. THE STONY GROUND, or THE FAINT-HEARTED.

Mere profession without conscience work. Eager to be in the forefront when Christianity is popular. When Persecution comes, eager to be somewhere else.

In this case the world prevails, and it is manifest that there has been no reality.

3. THE THORNY GROUND, or THE HALF-HEARTED.

The importance of definite decision. In this case it is absent.

The Word is entertained, but other things come in, in greater place. "The cares" or "the deceitfulness of riches," and so the flesh prevails, and the word is "choked."

4. THE GOOD GROUND, or THE HONEST-HEARTED.

Understanding hearts understand the meaning of the Gospel and its relation to themselves.

"Keep" the Word — Faith.

Bring forth Fruit — Works.

20. Matthew 13.

The Second Parable is that of The Tares among the wheat.

The Lord sows the Good Seed of the Gospel.

Satan sows Error. He introduces the Imitation among the real.

1. The Unwatchfulness of Christians allowed it. "While men slept." First mentioned is "Simon the Sorcerer" (Acts 8).

2. Both are to grow together until "the harvest." To "The Servants" is committed the precious ministry of blessing through the Gospel.

To the Angels (verse 49) is committed the dread service of being executors of judgment.

The Beginning, Course, and End of the Two Classes may be traced as follows: —

Those Represented by "The Good Seed."

1 Receive the Gospel — God's good news.

2 Believe the Truth —

About God.

About themselves.

3 Live for Christ —

A new object.

A new centre.

4 End in the Kingdom.

Their place there will be according to their faithfulness here.

Those Represented by "The Tares."

1 Ignore the Gospel — Unbelief.

2 Believe Error —

Minds must believe something.

3 Live for self, the world, or Satan.

Every life lived for something.

4 End in the "burning," solemn reality — and He who knew declared it.

21. Matthew 13.

The Son of Man sows the "Good Seed" —

That which was capable of Reproducing itself.

The Evil One sows "Tares" —

That which is fit only for the fire.

The Third Parable is that of The Mustard Seed.

The Smallest of Seeds: The beginning of the Gospel.

Became a tree: an abnormal growth.

Birds of the Air: picture of the powers of Evil.

Lodge in its Branches: Evil men no longer outside, but within the sphere of profession.

The Fourth Parable is that of The Leaven.

Evil principles at work, morally corrupting the whole mass.

Of the Pharisees — Hypocrisy (Matt. 16: 6).

Of the Sadducees — Infidelity (Matt. 16: 6).

Of Herod Worldliness (Mark 8: 15).

The Old Leaven — Sensuality (1 Cor. 5: 7).

The Fifth Parable is that of The Treasure Hid in a Field.

"The Field is the world" (verse 38).

Treasure hid in the field.

Only One knew of its Presence.

Something valuable and precious.

Picture of Believers as Christ sees them.

To possess them, He buys the "field" — the world.

The day is coming when He will take possession.

22. Matthew 13.

The Sixth Parable is that of The one Pearl of Great Price.

If the "Treasure" conveys the thought of something valuable, the one Pearl conveys the thought of something beautiful.

His love in seeking Believers looked at in their oneness as the Church (Eph. 5: 25).

The Price He Paid (Phil. 2: 5-8).

What He Purchased (Eph. 5: 25).

His object in purchasing (Eph. 5: 26).

The day of display (Rev. 19: 7).

The Seventh Parable is that of The Net cast into the Sea.

The point of the Parable is the Drawing of the net.

Attention is directed to events at the end of this age.

Then "good gathered into vessels." God calling out a people for His name now (Acts 15: 14).

Three things mark the end of the age—

The Midnight Cry.

The development of the Apostacy.

The gathering of the Jew to Palestine in unbelief.

23. Matthew 14.

In Matthew 14 we have the Two KINGS —

Herod in his sin. Christ in His grace.

The actions of Man and the actions of the Lord.

What marked Herod's dance (Mark 6) was the "lust of the eye" and the "lust of the flesh."

BUT the Lord Jesus on the mountain top illustrates the present position of the Saviour in relation to His Own.

1. HE IS PRAYING FOR US. Because we have an enemy, and we need to realise that he is sleepless, alert, cunning, relentless, cruel.

1 He tempts us (1 Thess. 3: 5).

2 He accuses us (Rev. 10: 10).

3 He assaults us (1 Peter 5: 8).

But the Lord said, "I have prayed for thee."

2. HE IS WATCHING OVER US.

"He saw them toiling and rowing."

"Light and Truth" go before (Ps. 43: 3).

Goodness and Mercy follow (Ps. 23: 6).

The Lord is thy Keeper (Ps. 121: 5).

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil (Ps. 121: 7).

3. HE IS COMING FOR US.

In the "Fourth" Watch He Came.

Compare Matthew 24. The faithful and wise Servant was "ready to open" immediately.

Note three things about Peter's Prayer (verse 30) —

It was an urgent need — Save.

It was a personal need — Me.

Only the Lord Jesus could meet it — Lord.

24. Matthew 15.

In Matthew 12 (verse 54) we find the Lord renouncing all earthly ties. In Matthew 13 He opens to His disciples the form the Kingdom would assume in His absence. In Matthew 14 the opposition develops into open hostility, and we see man's King taking away men's lives — the Forerunner is slain — but God's King saving men's lives.

Matthew 14 shows men's works to be evil. Matthew 15 shows WHY they are evil. The reason is — the HEART IS WRONG.

Matthew 14 shows the two Kings. Matthew 15 shows THE Two HEARTS.

The heart of man with its Seven Streams of Evil (verse 19).

The heart of the Lord Jesus in bringing blessing to all.

Note FOUR Points —

1. THE FORMALISM OF THE PHARISEES.

A mistake all men make.

Thinking a correct exterior will do for God.

Satan can use even a religious system as a power of Evil.

But the Lord brings home to the conscience.

2. THE FACT OF SIN.

"Out of the heart proceed." Hearts produce Evil because hearts are Evil.

Men think lightly of Sin. They deplore its fruits.

God speaks solemnly of Sin. He exposes its roots.

Sin separates from God, now, and produces unhappiness.

Sin fills the heart with selfishness and produces oppression.

Sin separates from God eternally and produces eternal misery.

Before it could be put away Christ must die.

When men cover their sins, God uncovers them.

When men uncover their sins, God covers them.

3. THE FAITH OF THE GENTILE. She felt her need.

Her need brought her to Jesus. She owned she deserved nothing.

She would be thankful for anything. She got everything.

4. THE FAVOUR OF CHRIST.

The Lord returns to Galilee and shows His grace in

Feeding Four thousand with Seven Loaves.

Feeding Five thousand (Chap. 14) was a proof that Jehovah-Messiah was present.

This Miracle was a proof that, though He was rejected by the nation, He still continued His works of mercy in their midst.

25. Matthew 16.

Matthew 15 closes with Grace to one who had no hope but in Grace. The Central thought of Matthew 16 is the revelation of the person of Christ.

1. WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT ABOUT HIM (verse 13). The Pharisees and Sadducees, blinded by the devil, reject Him. Of such, beware.

The men of the age with their opinions and speculations — John, Elijah, or Jeremiah, but consciences unreached and hearts unattracted.

2. WHAT GOD-GIVEN FAITH SAW IN HIM.

Peter's personal confession — Thou art

THE CHRIST — the official glory of His Person — the Promised One — Seed of the Woman — Seed of Abraham — Son of David — Sun of Righteousness — Fulfiller of every Promise of God.

THE SON of the LIVING GOD — His personal glory The Divine, Eternal, and Lifegiving Word (Phil. 2), (Col. 1), (Heb. 1), (1 John 1).

3. WHAT HE WAS ABOUT TO DO.

"I will build" — My Church.

Its Foundation "upon this Rock" (1 Cor. 10: 4).

Its materials (1 Peter 2: 5).

But before this could take place the presentation of the Kingdom had to be set aside and the Cross brought in.

4. WHAT WOULD MARK THOSE WHO FOLLOWED HIM.

Self denied.

The Cross taken.

Christ confessed.

Eternal reward in the Coming Kingdom.

The Man with the Cross on his back has finished with the World.

The Man with the World on his back has evaded the Cross.

26. Matthew 17.

Matthew 16 is the Revelation of the Church; Matthew 17 is a glimpse of the glory of the Coming Kingdom.

At the four lowest points of our Lord's humiliation we get confirming proofs of His Divinity.

1. His Birth. 2. His Baptism. 3. His Temptation. 4. His Death.

Having been rejected by the nation, and confessed by Peter, God manifests Him in the Centre of the Shekinah glory cloud as the "Beloved Son."

1. MOSES — The Law Giver.

But the result was a broken law and a condemned people.

No hope for sinners under law.

2. ELIJAH — The Reformer.

But Reformation cannot help sinners.

Because the past exists.

There must be Regeneration.

"My Beloved Son" is The "Transformer."

Men say "John," or "Jeremiah," or one of "the prophets."

God says, "My beloved Son, hear Him."

He brought the best news that ever came to earth. He now takes the supreme place.

4. "BE NOT AFRAID."

Men by nature are "afar" and "afraid."

Before Peace of Conscience, the

Question of Sin has to be settled.

Before there can be peace of heart, the

Question of Circumstances has to be settled.

"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of."

27. Matthew 18.

"IN THE MIDST" (verse 20).

1. "IN THE MIDST" for Atonement (John 19: 18).

1 The Cross brings out —

2 The Love of God.

3 The Devotedness of Christ.

4 The Malice of Satan.

5 The Hatred of Man.

6 The Righteousness of God.

7 The Awful Nature of Sin.

The Guilt of the World.

2. "IN THE MIDST" for Peace and Power (John 20: 19-23).

1 The first thing a believer wants to know is peace.

2 The first thing a believer wants to experience is power.

3 Christ made peace.

4 The Blood Cleanses. The Holy Spirit brings Power.

3. IN THE MIDST FOR GUIDANCE (Matt. 18: 20).

One Condition on which He vouchsafes His presence, "Gathered in MY NAME."

1 The work of Christ brings us all our Blessings.

2 The Person of Christ brings us all our Reproach.

But — "If reproached for the Name of Christ, Happy are ye" (1 Peter 4: 9).

4. "IN THE MIDST" for Judgment (Rev. 5).

Christ on the throne.

The Rejected One of Earth Exalted in Heaven.

"Seven Horns" — Divine Power.

"Seven Eyes" — Divine Discrimination.

"Seven Spirits" — Divine Intelligence.

Note the Various Thrones: —

1. The Throne of Holiness (Ezek. 10); 2. The Throne of Grace (Heb. 4); 3. The Throne of Glory (Matt. 25); 4. The Throne of Judgment (Rev. 20).

28. Matthew 18.

FORGIVENESS IN THREE ASPECTS.

1. FORGIVENESS for Sinners — Eternal Forgiveness.

Many not clear on this elementary doctrine.

Some hope for: some think once forgiven.

Some suppose partly forgiven.

God says: "Whosoever believeth shall receive" — "Your sins are Forgiven for His Name's sake."

Grace provides: The Blood secures.

The Spirit proclaims: Faith appropriates.

Because God has spoken, we are SURE.

Because we are sure, we are HAPPY.

THREE THINGS FOLLOW.

It produces Happiness — "Blessed" (Ps. 32).

It produces Love — "Loveth much" (Luke 7: 47).

It produces Holy Fear — "That Thou mayest be feared" (Ps. 30).

2. FORGIVENESS FOR BELIEVERS, or Restorative Forgiveness.

Confession as sinners brings Eternal Forgiveness, and we become children.

When our walk breaks down daily Confession keeps us happy children.

"He is faithful and just to forgive."

More often than Peter's "seven times."

Though Eternally forgiven, yet we may suffer

Governmentally if we do not forgive others.

Therefore "Be kind one towards another . . . forgiving one another."

The "unmerciful servant" failed in the spirit of forgiveness because he "went out" from the presence of the Master.

29. Matthew 19.

In Matthew 19 the Lord recognises and owns all that is lovely in Nature, but goes on to show that the best of Nature will not do for God. "ONE is good."

1 Marriage God's own institution from the beginning, but abused by the lusts of men.

2 The little children — an illustration of the spirit which characterises the Kingdom.

3 The Young Ruler — not far "from," but not in the Kingdom.

1. THE INVITATION OF LOVE.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me."

The Invitation, designed to rebuke the pride of the disciples, expresses the love of Christ.

2. THE RECEPTION OF GRACE.

"He took them up in His arms" —

The place of safety.

Divine shelter from every foe.

"He blessed them" (Mark 10).

The Condition of Happiness and Eternal Joy.

3. THE CONDITION OF ENTRANCE.

Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10).

The little child is simple — we must believe God. The little child is trustful — we must rest on His Word.

The little child is humble — we must come down.

30. Matthew 19.

THE YOUNG RULER.

The most interesting of all the Gospel stories — also the saddest. He was really in earnest to KNOW. But not really in earnest to DO.

No common man.

Looked up to as a leader of morals.

If he was not right, who was?

Yet he felt he was not right. He was not sure about Eternal life — therefore unhappy.

And all he WAS, HAD, or DID, failed to bring happiness.

1. (1) He was a religious man — A Teacher, a Ruler, a Judge.

(2) He had youth, money, friends, Position, influence.

(3) He did all the second table of the law required. But all failed to bring happiness. The reason was, he was making two mistakes.

2. (1) He did not know himself.

Did not believe he was a lost sinner.

Did not realise that he needed a Saviour.

Looked to the Lord only as a Teacher.

(2) He did not know God.

Was trying to establish his own righteousness.

Desired to know what to do.

3. PETER'S QUESTION.

Peter, anxious to know, whether what the young man went back to, or what they were going forward to, was best, asks —

"What shall we have?"

That which the young ruler missed and one hundredfold more.

31. Matthew 20.

The Son of Man Betrayed: The close and reward of three years of devoted, self-denying, gracious ministry.

That grace had been

SEEN IN WHAT HE WAS.

The Divine Son of the Living God (Chap. 16: 16).

The Word made Flesh (John 1: 14).

The True Light (John 1: 9).

The Revealer of the Father (John 1: 18).

SEEN IN WHAT HE SAID.

"Never man spake like this man."

"The gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth."

SEEN IN WHAT HE DID.

Feeding the Hungry.

Healing the Sick.

Raising the Dead.

All His miracles were "grace" miracles.

JAMES AND JOHN desire High Places in the Kingdom. But learn that it is better to suffer here, and

Leave Results and Rewards — to God.

CHRISTIANS suffer

Because Satan is prince of this world.

Early Christians rejoiced in suffering.

WHAT enables the Christian to suffer?

They "See Him who is invisible."

They have the Holy Spirit's power within.

Illustrate — Peter, before and after the Cross.

32. Matthew 21.

This chapter begins with the presentation of the King to the nation. Their responsibility for His rejection is established, and the measure of their guilt filled up.

1. THE KING PROMISED.

1 The Men of Faith (Gen. 3; Jude 14) looked forward to Him.

2 The Men after the flesh persecuted them that were after the Spirit (Gal. 4: 29).

2. THE KING PROPHESIED OF (Gen. 49).

Three thousand five hundred years pass and God announced —

1 How He would come (Zech. 9: 9).

2 How He would be received (Zech. 13: 6-7).

3. THE KING PRESENTED (Matt. 21).

1 The nation "at a place where two ways met" (Mark 11: 4).

2 Every hearer of the word at the parting of the ways.

4. THE KING PERSECUTED.

1 The Nation reject and Crucify their King.

2 God rejects and scatters the nation.

5. THE KING PROCLAIMED (Ps. 2).

1 Crowned with many Crowns.

2 Ruler over every nation.

Four Crowns for Believers —

For those who LIVE for Christ: The Incorruptible Crown (1 Cor. 9: 25).

For those who DIE for Christ: The Crown of Life (Rev. 2: 10).

For those who WATCH for Christ: The Crown of Righteousness (2 Tim. 4: 8).

For those who CARE for the people of Christ: The Crown of Glory (1 Peter 5: 4).

33. Matthew 21.

A Short Synopsis of the Section, Matthew 21-25.

Matthew 21-22. — His Enemies morally judged and silenced.

Matthew 23. — The Eight Woes that would fall on the guilty Leaders.

Matthew 24 — 25. — Instruction for the disciples into the truths of the Kingdom.

Matthew 21. — Begins with the Fulfilment of Zech. 9: 9. But the Leaders can only ask, "Who is this?"

The Three Parables following, with that of the "Barren Fig Tree" in Luke 13, teach the definite setting aside of Israel.

1. The Fig Tree:

The Nation in Profession: No Fruit. Compare Ex. 19: 8, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do," with 1 Thess. 2: 15, 16. What they did.

2. The Two Sons:

No reality — Lip service only.

The Leaders proved worse than the publicans (Luke 7: 29).

3. The Wicked Husbandmen:

Open opposition.

Refused to bring anything to God.

In Matthew 22, Refuse to receive anything from God.

4. The Sure Foundation Stone:

1 Falling over the stone: Christ in Humiliation.

2 Falling under the stone: Christ in Glory and Power (Dan. 2).

Refer to Genesis 49, Psalms 118, Isaiah 28, Matthew 21, Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2:

34. Matthew 22.

Note the intimate connection between Matthew 21 and Matthew 22, though teaching different truths —

Matthew 21 — "The Vineyard" is Judaism to the Cross.

Matthew 22. — "The Marriage Feast" is the Announcement of the Kingdom.

The First gives the Attitude of Men to God.

The Second gives the Attitude of God to Men.

The First is God dealing with men in Responsibility.

The Second is God dealing with men in Grace.

Not now God requiring in Righteousness, but God displaying the riches of His grace. No longer man's ways to God, but God's ways to man.

1. THE MARRIAGE.

The central thought.

Honour for the King's Son.

"Far above . . . every name that is named" (Eph. 1: 21).

2. THE INVITATION.

First Announcement — by the Apostles before the Cross.

Second Announcement — to Israel at Pentecost. Third Announcement — world wide — "Bad and good."

3. THE CONDITIONS.

The Gospel produces what suits God.

The fitness for the feast was not their best, But the Robe of the King's providing.

4. THE JUDGMENT fell because there was — Indifference to the King's Provision, and thus Dishonour to the King's Son.

35. Matthew, Matthew 24, 25.

THE GREAT PROPHETIC SECTION OF THE GOSPEL.

Scripture speaks to men in many ways. To the unconverted, it brings a warning of coming wrath and an offer of present mercy. To the Believer, it brings instruction and guidance for the way. To the Disciple, it comes as a revelation of the mind of God as to His present and future purposes.

These two chapters are divided into THREE SECTIONS

Matthew 24, verses 1-44 — THE JEW.

His Temptations: Trials: Deliverance.

Matthew 24: 45 to Matthew 25: 1-30 — THE CHRISTIAN.

As Ministering: Waiting: or Working

For his absent Lord.

Matthew 25: 21-16 — THE GENTILES.

As Receiving, or Rejecting

The Kingdom Messengers.

THE JEW.

1. HIS TEMPTATIONS.

The True Messiah having come and been rejected, False Christs arise to deceive many.

Note. — The Jew is warned against false Christs. Christendom is warned against false Spirits (1 John 4: 3).

2. HIS TRIALS.

Wars and Rumours of Wars.

Danger for their land. Personal tribulation, the Jew is to escape from: The Christian is to glory in.

3. HIS DELIVERANCE.

By the Judgment of Antichrist, the reign of Christ, and the wicked taken out of the earth for Judgment. The Christian looks to be taken out of the earth for blessing.

36. Matthew, Matthew 24, 25.

THREE PARABLES REFERRING TO CHRISTENDOM.

1 The Good and Evil Servants illustrate what should, and should not, be our attitude towards each other.

2 The Virgins illustrate what should, and should not, be our attitude towards the Lord Jesus.

3 The Talents illustrate what should, and should not, be our attitude towards the world.

1. THE FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT.

1 Honoured by his Master (Chap. 24: 45).

2 Loves his Master's interests (Chap. 24: 45-46).

3 Cares for his Master's Household (Chap. 24: 45-46).

4 Rewarded by his Master at His Coming (Chap. 24: 47).

2. THE EVIL SERVANT.

1 Has no love for his Master. His heart wrong.

2 Oppresses his fellow-servants. His actions wrong.

3 Associates himself with the world. And thus renounces his heavenly calling.

4 Shares the doom of the hypocrites To which class he belonged.

37. Matthew 25.

THE PARABLE OF "THE VIRGINS"

In the Parable of the "Ten Virgins" there are Seven important points.

1. CHRIST'S COMING AS THE BRIDEGROOM.

Some deny it — Opposition to the truth. Some ignore it — Indifference to the truth. Some "love His appearing" — True affection. In the 260 Chapters of the New Testament the Coming is mentioned about 300 times.

Some expect Him, and because they expect Him, they trim their lamps and go out to meet Him.

2. THE TARRYING.

Its effect upon the Church (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10), and upon the world (2 Peter 3: 3).

The reason for it (2 Peter 3: 9).

3. THE MIDNIGHT CRY.

The "cry" goes forth at darkest period. World grows dark in proportion as divine truth (light) is rejected.

4. THE COMING REALISED.

Not the "end of the world."

5. THE MARRIAGE.

Picture of complete happiness (Rev. 19: 7).

The Christian will be happy hereafter, and should be happy here.

6. THE SHUT DOOR.

Inside — Life: Light: Joy Salvation.

Outside — Death: Darkness: Sorrow: Despair.

7. THE VAIN APPEAL.

The Result of Opportunities Neglected.

Warnings Slighted.

38. Matthew 25.

THE PARABLE OF "THE TALENTS" — SERVICE.

The Holy Spirit, Who is the power of the new life, enables the believer to enjoy the presence of God, and TELL OF CHRIST to others.

Judaism only produced one man (Jonah) who became a missionary.

In Christianity every man should be a missionary.

Every Servant has some talent.

This Parable illustrates its use, or its abuse.

1. THE IMAGERY EMPLOYED, and its meaning.

1 "A Man" — The Lord Jesus.

2 "Travelling" — His departure from this world and present period while He is in Heaven.

3 "Talents" — Gifts given by the Lord.

4 "Servants" — All who make a profession of Christianity.

2. THE GOOD SERVANT is marked by

1 The Sense of Responsibility "Thou deliveredst to me."

2 His Faithfulness.

3 His Devotedness.

3. THE EVIL SERVANT is marked by

1 What he thought of his Master.

Wrong thoughts, which led to Foolish Actions.

2 What he did with his Money.

Used for Earth what should have been Devoted to the things of Heaven.

39. Matthew 25.

THE SEVEN JUDGMENTS OF SCRIPTURE.

1 The Lord Judges (1 Cor. 11: 32) — Correction.

2 The Assembly Judges (1 Cor. 5: 12) — Discipline.

3 We Judge Ourselves (1 Cor. 11: 28-31) — Self-Examination.

4 The Judgment of the Cross — Atonement.

5 The Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5: 10) — Reward for Faithfulness.

6 The Judgment of the Living Nations (Matt. 25.) — Preparation for the Kingdom.

7 The Judgment of the Great White Throne (Rev. 20: 11) — Condemnation.

Our Chapter deals with No. 6.

It is the fulfilment of Ps. 2, Acts 1: 11, etc.

When the Lord came the first time, He was cut off and had nothing (Dan. 9: 26). When He comes the second time

He will vindicate His rights and

Judge in Righteousness.

Historically these events take place immediately after the "Warrior Judgment" of Rev. 19.

THREE COMPANIES are manifested —

1 "THE SHEEP": Those who received, believed, and befriended the Kingdom Messengers.

2 "THE GOATS": Those who refused the Messengers, Ignored their sufferings, and Rejected their testimony.

3 "THE BRETHREN": Jewish Messengers of the Coming Kingdom, who complete the testimony of Matthew 10: 23.

40. Matthew 26.

THE LAST PASSOVER (Refer to Ex. 12).

In Egypt God took in hand to settle the Sin question. But before executing Judgment, He made Provision for righteously delivering His own. This was done through THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. Notice six things: —

1. THE LAMB SLAIN: Death must enter every house.

But for the Israelite, a substitute was provided.

2. THE BLOOD SPRINKLED: It was not enough that the Lamb was slain. There must also be the obedience of faith, and personal identification with the shed blood, which was put outside for the eye of God to see.

3. THE PEOPLE SAVED: No question of what they were.

The Blood on the lintel was their Security.

The Word of the Lord was their Assurance.

4. THE FEAST INSTITUTED: A Feast speaks of Joy.

Egyptian bondage was past for ever.

They were going OUT of Egypt saved by the LORD.

Outside, death and Judgment.

Inside, a saved and happy people.

"Unleavened Bread" — Holy separation from Evil.

"Bitter herbs" — The memory of what they had been redeemed from.

5. HOW IT WAS TO BE OBSERVED:

With Girded Loins: Redeemed for Service.

Shod feet: Ready to march.

Staff in Hand: Outside support. Pilgrims here.

6. WHY IT WAS TO BE REPEATED: To keep in memory the LOVE, POWER, and GRACE of their Deliverer.

They were a Redeemed, Separated, Dependent, and Expectant People.

41. Matthew 26.

THE FIRST "SUPPER OF THE LORD."

The Central point of Christianity is the Lord's Supper, because it has its origin in the love of the Lord for His own, and His desire that their love to Him might never grow cold.

"Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13: 1).

1 His OWN by Gift of the Father.

2 His OWN by Purchase of Blood.

These He gathers around Him on the dark night of betrayal.

They knew of the foe without.

Now they hear of a traitor within.

Suspicion of each other, uncertainty, and unrest fill every heart.

HE SPEAKS OF PEACE, for He was about to

LAY DOWN HIS LIFE to procure it.

Now He institutes the Supper in

Remembrance of His dying love.

It speaks of THREE things: —

1. THE WORK OF CHRIST: His body broken. His blood shed.

He died for our Sins. He gave Himself for us.

In the presence of God, angels, demons, and a hostile world,

WE SHEW THE LORD'S DEATH, by which

He glorified God, Defeated Satan, and Put away Sin.

2. THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

The Work of Christ meets the Conscience.

The Person of Christ meets the Heart.

His Work brings us all our blessings.

His Person brings us all our Joy.

3. THE COMING OF CHRIST (1 Cor. 11: 26).

To take us out of the place of testimony.

To take us into the place of glory.

42. Matthew 27.

1. THE SELF-CONFIDENCE OF PETER: Ignorant of what he was.

Verse 58. Wrong Position: "Followed afar off."

58. Wrong Company: "Sat with the Servants."

74. Wrong Testimony: "I know not the man."

2. THE GUILT AND FATE OF JUDAS.

The Greatest Sin ever Committed.

The Greater the privilege, if neglected, the Greater the Condemnation.

The traitor's reward purchased a Field of Blood.

The Death of Christ made a City of Blood, and a Land of Blood, and a World of Blood.

3. THE LORD BEFORE CAIAPHAS.

The False witness and the "Faithful Witness."

The Criminal on the Bench, and

The Judge at the Bar.

Christ given up to Death, and

The Nation of the Jews given up to Blindness.

4. THE LORD BEFORE PILATE.

Jew and Gentile agree to condemn the Just One.

Three times Pilate declares —

"I find no fault in Him" (John 19).

Pilate's wife's advice: "Have nothing to do with that Just Man."

No Man goes to hell unwarned.

Pilate rejected the warning, and

Condemned the Just.

43. Matthew 28.

THE RESURRECTION AND ITS RESULTS.

FOUR THINGS worthy of note: —

An Open Grave: Christ Risen (Matt. 28: 6).

An Open Heaven: Christ on the throne (Acts 7: 56).

An Open Heart: Christ Believed on (Acts 16: 14).

An Open Mouth: Christ Confessed (Rom. 10: 9).

1. TERRIFIED KEEPERS.

The Folly of Men.

The Failure of Men.

The Fear of Men.

2. REJOICING BELIEVERS.

1 The Foundation of Christian Joy is the Finished Work, and the Resurrection of the One who did it.

2 The Secret of Christian Joy is

The love of Christ,

Realised by "continuing" in His love (John 15: 9-11).

3. THE VICTORIOUS LORD.

God glorified, and the basis laid in righteousness for all the Counsels of God to be fulfilled.

The Power and love of God Vindicated.

Satan defeated.

Sin Put away.

The Power of death Broken.

The Resurrection is a matter of the fullest joy to the believer, but it should be a matter of the greatest dread to the unbeliever —

Because "God hath appointed a day in which He will Judge the world," and the Judgment is committed to the One who has been raised from the dead.

Wycliffe's Work for England

Wycliffe's Work for England

L. Laurenson

Contents

1 The Most Interesting Book in the World

2 Rome: Mediaeval and Modern

3 Conversion and Conflict

4 Wycliffe and the National Opposition

5 Wycliffe and the Bishops

6 The "Poor Priests".

7 More about the "Poor Priests"

8 Rome attempts to extinguish the light

9 The Wonder of the Book

10 The Oldest Book in the World

11 The Early Christian Centuries

12 The Rise of the Papacy

13 Christianity in Early Britain

14 The First English Bible

Chapter 1

The Most Interesting Book in the World

What is the most interesting book in all the world? Perhaps different people would give different answers to this question. Boys might think of books describing the lives and actions of great men in history: the battles they fought, the brave deeds they did, and the wonderful things they accomplished. And girls might think of the life-story of some noble woman, less prominent on the world's stage but equally brave, and perhaps more useful and helpful to those with whom she came in contact.

But while such books are both interesting and helpful, yet there is ONE BOOK that far surpasses all others, not only as a book of history and narrative, but in every other way. That book is THE BIBLE.

In it are found stories of the very earliest times. The first of all stories and the most wonderful of all stories is found in the first Chapter of Genesis. There we read how God, in six days, prepared this world to be the habitation of men, providing for their use, with gracious care, every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food. Then, when our first parents had sinned and brought ruin and death into the fair scene, God in wonderful grace gave them the promise of a SAVIOUR.

Moreover, we know from the Bible that God will again prepare a new Heaven and a NEW EARTH wherein righteousness will dwell and into which sin cannot enter. Between the accounts of these two most wonderful events we find other stories of great and good men, brave and strong men, wise and noble men; of gentle and loving women, faithful and true women, kind and useful women.

All these stories of men and women who have lived for God are recorded for our example, for only those who are really good can ever be truly great.

But that which makes the Bible the book of supreme interest is that in it we find the wonderful STORY OF LOVE — the story of the Life and Death, the Resurrection, and Ascension to Heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ. All who know the Saviour love the Bible, for everything in it, in some way or other, speaks of Him. The Bible thus becomes to them a very precious possession. H. M. Stanley, the great explorer, when he set out to find Livingstone, took with him one hundred books to read while on his journey. As the difficulties of the march increased, and the loads of the carriers had to be lightened, everything not strictly necessary had to be thrown away. One by one the books followed, until ninety-nine out of the hundred had been left in the swamps of Central Africa, and only ONE remained. Which book do you think that was? It was the Bible. Stanley had selected the hundred most interesting books, but he found that the most interesting of all the hundred was the Word of God.

In our days Bibles are so common and so easily procured that we are apt to think that they have always been so. And while we are deeply thankful for an open Bible in our Protestant land, yet we do well to remember that England has not always been a Protestant country, and the following pages are an endeavour to trace how the Scriptures came to us, and what a noble Englishman did and suffered in order that we might be able to read the Scriptures in our own language.

We shall have much to say in the following pages about the "Church of Rome"; therefore it will be well to remember that the Papacy was only a sect which broke off from the early Church, and introduced a great many unscriptural doctrines and practices in total contradiction to the teaching of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles.

The early centuries of the Christian dispensation were ages of marked intellectual ability. The great names that are mentioned in history confirm this. Tertullian in the second century wrote his famous Apology. Origen manifested his zeal and learning by editing the celebrated Hexapla edition of the Holy Scriptures. Jerome translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and the New Testament from the Greek originals into the Latin, then the language of the West. John, called Chrysostom, or the "golden mouthed," was the greatest preacher of his time. Augustine was the greatest teacher. Many others might be mentioned who were not only familiar with the Scriptures but did everything they could to make their contents known to others.

But when the bishop of Rome adopted the blasphemous title of Vicar of Christ and became a temporal sovereign, all this was changed. Rome's motto then became, "We do not want learned men, we want submissive subjects," and of course the more ignorant the subjects were, the more submissive they became.

Private confession to the priests of Rome has been called the foundation stone of popery, and this "stone" was laid as early as the fifth century by Leo I. With audacious blasphemy, priests of Rome, sinful men themselves, and ofttimes both ignorant and wicked, were supposed to be able to "forgive sins." Succeeding popes followed this policy because it increased their revenues, and these men, though living always in luxury, and ofttimes in idleness and vice, were ever on the outlook for fresh fields over which to extend both their temporal and spiritual sovereignty.

Cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and all the multifarious hierarchy of popedom were appointed by the Pope on condition that he was well paid for doing so. These men were under his power, and, even among the sovereigns of the nations, few were found that dared to disobey him.

Every effort was made to keep the people in ignorance and darkness, and at the same time everything that Rome supplied had to be bought with money. One has well said, "Not an article was there in her creed, not a ceremony in her worship, not a department in her government that did not tend to advance her power and increase her gains. Her dogmas, rites, and orders were so many pretexts for extorting money. Images, purgatory, relics, indulgences, pilgrimages, jubilees, canonisations, miracles, and masses were but taxes under another name, so many drains for conveying the substance of the nations to Rome."

A "pall for an archbishop" cost from 1,000 to £10,000, and every new "saint" that was canonised cost the country of his birth 10,000 crowns. "Truly," says another, "Rome takes your gold and gives you nothing in return but words."

In short, nothing could be got from Rome without money, and nearly everything for it

These years are known in history as the "Dark Ages," and one reason among others for this prevailing darkness was the fact that the settled policy of Rome was then, and is yet, to keep the Bible from the people.

And we can well understand why she did so, for in the Scriptures there is the light of Truth which exposes and condemns all the false pretences of the Apostate Church. The people had been taught that there was a series of priests, popes, and "saints" between them and God. From the Bible they would learn that there is One Mediator — the Man Christ Jesus. Rome taught that pardon was to be purchased by paying her priests to say "masses." The Scriptures declare that "we have redemption THROUGH HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1: 7), and that "BY HIM all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13: 39).

Rome may well fear an open Bible. The power of the priest is at an end when we learn the pardoning love of a Saviour God through virtue of the finished work of Christ at Calvary. For about nine hundred years from the time that the monk Augustine, in 597, landed with his forty followers, England was more or less under the power of the Pope. Augustine thought that "faith and holiness were less essential to the Church than authority and power, and that its work was not so much to save souls as to collect all the human race under the authority of Rome." This man's character has been summed up as a mixture of ambition, superstition, and zeal. As soon as he got a footing for himself and his attendant monks he began his work of aggression against the British Christians, and he and his successors did not rest until the papal supremacy was established all over the land.

And this is just the attitude of Rome to-day. Her age-long motto is "Semper eadem" (ever the same), and she is working harder to-day than ever before to recapture England. Monasteries and nunneries are more numerous in our land to-day than they were before the Reformation. Priests and Jesuits enter in ever-increasing numbers, and each and all are doing their utmost to overthrow the good work of the Reformation. Romanists are active and awake; Protestants are in many cases half-hearted and asleep.

Chapter 2

"Rome": Medieval and Modern

Carry your mind back for just over six hundred years. It is the year 1324, and at that time was born a man who in the good providence of God did much to deliver England from the thraldom into which she had fallen, both socially and religiously. That man was John Wycliffe. And the England of the fourteenth century was a very different country from what it is to-day. The population numbered only about three millions, and fully one-third of these were slaves or serfs (villeins), who cultivated the ground for the lords of the manor, and were bought and sold with the land whenever it changed owners.

Edward II. was reigning, but his feeble career was drawing to a close. During his reign the nation had lost much of the power and prestige it had acquired under his warlike father. He had applied to the Pope for at the Pope's "shop" you could purchase anything — for "a box of ointment to make him brave" before he set out to conquer Scotland. But in spite of, or because of his "box of ointment," his Scottish wars ended disastrously. He lost both his battles and his courage, and perhaps his "box" as well, and fled back to England to save his life. Then his struggles with the barons further added to his unpopularity. We read of misery and sickness caused by poor harvests. "The dead bodies of the peasants were found by the roadsides. The dead in cities were buried in trenches; the gaols were full of thieves; people were driven to eat the flesh of dogs and horses and even of children."

Amidst all this misery we get a glimpse of some wise men who could make good laws. It was enacted that "less grain be made into beer and more into bread." Our land would be all the better were this ancient policy in force to-day.

But as usual, while the common people suffered so sorely the upper classes were living in luxury, and most of all the monks and friars who were "at no period so splendid in their equipages and households." Again, we read of a "dole" of bread being given out at a rich man's funeral in London, and so great was the need of the starving poor that over fifty people, old and young, were crushed to death in their efforts to secure a portion.

London had already become the headquarters of all the colours of the begging friars. Whatever the good intentions of their founders may have been, corruption and decay soon set in among their followers. They rapidly fell into the besetting sin of everything connected with Rome, and began to "add house to house and field to field."

The Dominicans reached England about 1220 and settled in Holborn. Though vowed to poverty, they soon were able to put up a convent, the most splendid in London. The Franciscans followed a few years later and settled at Cornhill. Within twenty years their brotherhood numbered eighty friars, and a church and convent was built by them far surpassing in splendour those of their rivals.

Following hard upon the Franciscans came the Carmelites in 1240, and still another of the begging orders — the Austin friars — arrived in 1253. Like a cloud of locusts they covered the land, licking up every green thing, so that it was reckoned that in the time of Wycliffe nearly one-third of the nation's wealth belonged to the Church of Rome. These men were directly responsible to the Pope, and were known as the regular clergy in distinction to the parish priests, who were the secular clergy and were under the rule of the bishops.

It is interesting to hear Wycliffe's opinion of these "holy beggars" in his own times, when they had further increased both their wealth and their begging effrontery. From the initials of their names he formed a word which we should call an acrostic — "CAIM." The Carmelites supplied the first letter, the Austins, the Jacobins (or Dominicans), and the Minorites (or Franciscans) completed the fanciful idea. This word he connected with Cain who slew his brother, and he found many analogies wherewith to make vigorous and trenchant exposures of their hypocrisy, greed, and evil deeds. Their so-called poverty, he says, is nothing but a lie, for it is based on the lust for wealth and robbery, and is really an inspiration of the devil.

He shows us also how their practice of entering the parishes of the secular clergy and persuading the people to "confess" to them, led to a fearful increase of licentiousness and sin. "For thus did they whisper to one another, 'Let us follow our pleasures: some friar whom we never saw before and may never see again may come this way. When we have had our will we can confess to him without trouble.'"

Is the system of Rome any better to-day? The poor deluded votary goes to "Confession" and thinks he can procure forgiveness from a "priest," then being "absolved" he is free to go on again in his course of evil.

We can thus see how this unscriptural system sears the conscience, belittles sin, and blinds the mind to the holiness of God who has appointed a day in which HE WILL JUDGE the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead.

Thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ to-day is a SAVIOUR, and this is the Day of Salvation. The day is fast approaching when He will take the place of a Judge and then the Day of Salvation will be over.

Chapter 3.

Conversion and Conflict

Let us now return to the early days of Wycliffe, and see how he was prepared for his great work of reformer before the Reformation.

As we have seen, he was born in a Yorkshire village in 1324, where his family had been lords of the manor since the Conquest. No records of his childhood or youth have come down to us; so we cannot tell how his boyhood days were spent, but, as youth is the formative period of life, we may conclude from what we know of his later years that he made the best of whatever opportunities he had.

Character is built up step by step. Single actions repeated, form habits, and habits form character. At an early age his parents sent him to Oxford. In those days boys of fifteen years of age were entered as students, so it is likely that Wycliffe began his career at Oxford about the year 1340.

His habits of diligence and application served him well at the University, for even his enemies bear witness to his proficiency and abilities. One of his bitterest opponents says, "He came to be reckoned inferior to none of his time in philosophy, and incomparable in the performance of school exercises, a man of profound wit, and very strong and powerful in disputation, and who was by the common sort of divines esteemed little less than a god." In later years, after he had taken his degree of doctor of divinity, he came to be known as the "Evangelical Doctor," and he required all his "profound wit," learning, and ability to meet the assaults of his enemies. Doubtless, in the providence of God, he was being prepared in those early years for the service he would be called upon to perform in later life.

So the early years of his scholastic life passed on, and while he was still a young man an event happened — the most important event in the life of any man — Wycliffe was converted to God. About this time Europe was visited by the dreadful pestilence known in history as the "Black Death." Such an awful scourge may well have brought all thinking men to face seriously the issues of life, death, and eternity. Many were led to true repentance towards God. Many others became callously indifferent to all the sorrow and suffering around, or saw in it only the means of enriching themselves at the expense of others. Crossing from Asia to Constantinople, then to Italy, its ravages swept away half of the population. The filthy condition of European cities in those days provided a fruitful soil for contagion, and all suffered alike. It has been estimated that in Europe 25,000,000 human beings perished, though this number is no doubt greatly exaggerated. London had a comparatively small population, but 100,000 of its citizens died. Huge pits were dug to hold the bodies. Rivers were "consecrated" by the priests for the same purpose. Everywhere death stared men in the face. Even ships at sea were attacked, and when all their crews had died, drifted aimlessly until stranded on some shore to spread still further the infection.

In the midst of this convulsion of society the young and learned Oxford student was driven to study the Scriptures, and, like Luther later, in them he found the words of eternal life. At this time he wrote his Commentary on the Apocalypse. With other pious men of his time, he seemed to think that the dreadful woes overspreading the earth, coupled with the moral and spiritual corruption of the Church, pointed to the time of tribulation spoken of in the Apocalypse.

Now we know that this was not so, but Wycliffe used the circumstance as a call to the unconverted, and from this time we can trace his closer application to its study. When in later years he became a professor or lecturer to Oxford students he insisted on the authority of the Scriptures.

It has been said that pagan Greece or Rome never had so many "Gods" and "Goddesses" as had the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages. Wycliffe had learned much when he boldly announced that "Whosoever entreats a 'saint' should direct his prayer to Christ as God, not to the saint but to Christ. Nor does the celebration or festival of a saint avail anything, except so far as it may tend to the magnifying of Christ. Hence not a few think that it would be well for the Church if all festivals of that nature were abolished. For the Scriptures assure us that Christ is the mediator between God and man. Hence many are of opinion that when prayer was directed only to Him for spiritual help the Church was more flourishing than it is now, when many new intercessors have been found out and introduced."

Words like these were something new to men of that time, but they were also true, and truth was not wanted by the priestly authorities. When warned of his danger Wycliffe replied: "I have learned from experience the truth of what you say. The chief cause beyond doubt of the existing state of things is our want of faith in Holy Scripture. We do not sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or we should abide by the authority of His word . . . which is of greater weight than any other. . . . It is His pleasure that the books of the Old and New Law (Old and New Testaments) should be both read and studied, and that men should not be taken up with other books, which, true as they may be, and containing even Scripture truth, are not to be confided in without caution and limitation. If we follow this rule the Scriptures will be held in becoming reverence. The papal Bulls will be superseded as they ought to be."

These were bold words to speak in 1372 and were enough if reported to Pope Gregory XI. at Avignon to cause the poor man to gnash his teeth.

That Wycliffe recognised what they might entail we learn from another sermon: "For the believer," says he, "in maintaining the law of Christ should be prepared as His soldier to endure all things at the hands of the satraps of this world; declaring boldly to pope and cardinals, to bishops and prelates how unjustly, according to the teaching of the Gospel, they serve God in their offices; subjecting those committed to their care to great injury and peril, such as must bring on them a speedy destruction one way or another. All this applies indeed to temporal lords, but not in so great a degree as to the clergy, for as the abomination begins with a perverted clergy, so the consolation begins with a converted clergy. Hence we Christians need not visit pagans to convert them by enduring martyrdom on their behalf, we have only to declare with constancy the law of God before Caesarian prelates, and straightway the flower of martyrdom will be at hand."

Loving the book with all the depth of his powerful nature and finding in it truth to meet the conscience and satisfy the heart, he determined to translate it into the common language of the people, so that all might hear the word and understand the message.

But this, he felt, would be a matter of time, and while it was important to translate the Scriptures, his busy mind formed another plan for spreading the truth until his great work of Bible translation could be accomplished.

This plan was no less than to send out men whom we should now call home missionaries, who, travelling from town to town and village to village, would preach to the people in simple language the Gospel of God's free Salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These men came to be known as Wycliffe's "Poor Priests," and we shall learn more about them in a later chapter.

Chapter 4.

Wycliffe and the National Opposition

So far we have been tracing the history of our Reformer in his work and teaching at Oxford. But events happened about this time which brought him forward in a more public capacity as a champion of national freedom against the usurpation of Rome in the State. Other men had done so before Wycliffe, but he did not stop here; he saw that the Pope's usurped control over the consciences of men was a worse thing than control over their bodies and goods, and so he set himself to oppose both.

To trace the course of these events we must turn back in history for over one hundred years to the time of King John, who, as we all know, had yielded up England and Ireland "to St Peter, St Paul, and Pope Innocent III." John abjectly laid his crown at the feet of the haughty Pandulf, the Pope's legate, who is said to have kicked it and rolled it in the dust of the muddy floor as a worthless bauble. However, he very condescendingly allowed the humbled John to resume it on condition that he would pay the Pope £666. 13s. 4d. per annum and also become his vassal.

This payment had been very irregularly made, and since the majority of Edward III. it had been entirely discontinued. Suddenly Pope Urban V. in 1365 sent in a claim not only for the annual amount, but also for all the accumulated arrears. The papal Court has been famous at all times for its love of money, but at this time the Pope could not help himself. It was the period of the "Babylonish Captivity," when the papal Court had been transferred from Rome to Avignon, and was therefore under the power of France. Charles the Wise of France hoping to humble Edward the Warrior of England had forced the Pope's hand. This situation gave Wycliffe his opportunity and produced events the benefits of which we are reaping to-day.

But Edward III. was no weakling, as was King John. The man who had humbled France at Crecy and Poitiers, and who at that very moment was titular monarch of one-third of its soil was little likely to yield to the insolent demands of Urban, who was but a tool in the hands of Edward's enemy. So Edward wisely said "No," and summoned his Parliament to support him.

The Commons complained that the Church drew five times more money from the nation than did the King's exchequer. Moreover, they were not afraid to criticise the morals of "His holiness," and these were certainly open to criticism, for at this time the Papacy had probably reached its lowest stage of corruption, degradation, and debauchery. At Avignon benefices in every part of Europe were openly put up for sale and handed over to the highest bidder. The purchaser in turn squeezed out of his parish not only enough to repay his outlay, but sufficient to allow him to imitate the luxury of his superiors. So the Commons of even Roman Catholic England might well complain of the simony and corruption of Avignon.

All these evils were coming to a head when it pleased God to raise up His servant Wycliffe to oppose them. At this time he was a King's Chaplain, and his principles influenced both King and Parliament. The prelates were in an unfortunate position. They had either to become traitors to the Pope or traitors to the King. If they disobeyed the Pope they risked their spiritual dignities. If they disobeyed the King they risked their worldly possessions. They were wise in their generation, and submitted to the power nearest at hand.

"With the other dukes, earls, barons, and great men" they answered that neither King John nor anybody else could give away his kingdom and his people without their consent.

But though the prelates had betrayed the interests of their master the Pope, the friars were not so disposed to yield. They declared that, according to the Canon Law, the King, having defied the Pope, ought to be deposed. Then the question arose, what did the Canon Law say, and the Oxford professor was at once appealed to.

But Wycliffe neatly turned the tables on the friars by declaring that the point was not what saith the Canon Law? but WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURES? It was language new to the men of that age. "Canon Law," said he, "is of no power when it is opposed to the Word of God."

But God had more important work for Wycliffe than worldly politics. His lectures to his students were those of one "having authority." Other masters taught from the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which Sentences, as their name implies, were a collection of aphorisms compiled from the works of Augustine and other of the early "Fathers" on various points of Christian doctrine. But Wycliffe went direct to his Latin Bible and showed his hearers that in the Word of God there was not only the way of life, but the rule of life, and that both flatly contradicted the doctrines of Rome.

It was about this time no doubt that he began to gather around him many of those friends who became light bearers all over England in later years, and who helped to spread the truth and light God was graciously revealing to the people.

How thankful we should be that, although wicked men, led on by Satan, have often attempted to suppress both truth and light, they have never quite succeeded. Such attempts were made later in the time of Henry VIII. who "broke with the Pope" only to set himself in the Pope's place and measure out, if that were possible, equal cruelties against the saints of God. Again, the Queen who has earned the unenviable title of "Bloody Mary," became an abject slave of the Papacy, and by its instructions condemned to the awful death of fire three hundred of the best men and women in. England. The haughty prelates of the Church of England, at the Restoration, thought themselves vastly in advance of papal Rome, yet they continued the old persecuting spirit and brought in oppression, both sustained and severe, against the Puritans, who were the most godly people in the nation at that time. On Black Bartholomew's day (24th August 1662) over two thousand ministers were ejected from their parishes for refusing to accept the Act of Uniformity, and were "left without house or bread, their people unable to help them and not daring to do so even where they could." Mr Jeremy White compiled a list of 6o,000 persons who between the Restoration in 1660 and the Revolution in 1688 had suffered on account of their religion, 5,000 of whom died in prison. In Scotland during the same period some 28,000 lost their lives under the persecuting monarchs, Charles II. and James II.

The same principles are at work to-day, for Rome never changes. In our country she cannot appear in her true colours just yet, but she has been steadily working ever since the Reformation to undo that great work. The way to defeat the works of darkness is to spread truth and light. Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? It is the duty and privilege of all who have the light to "let their light shine."

From exposing the wicked practices of Rome Wycliffe was led on to denounce her evil doctrines, and while the first offence might be ignored, the second must be dealt with and punished without mercy.

We shall see in our next chapter what means Rome adopted to do so and how far she succeeded.

Chapter 5.

Wycliffe and the Bishops

We noticed in a previous chapter that our Reformer was now devoting himself more and more to the study of Scripture, and it was by this means that he was able to deal those resounding blows to the Papacy, the echoes of which reached to Rome itself. So the Pope issued a Bull enjoining the English clergy to crush "this formidable heresy," for such the plain teaching of Scripture was called. The priests needed little incentive.

Courtney, the Bishop of London, "a proud and fierce man," energetic in all he undertook, and "possessed in full the violent manner and overbearing temper of a great noble," roused up the meek old Archbishop Sudbury to persecute the Reformer. "By the report of persons truly worthy of credit," says the papal missive, "it hath become known to us that John Wycliffe, Professor of Divinity, or more properly, a Master of Error, hath proceeded to a degree of madness so detestable as not to fear to assert . . and teach propositions, the most false and erroneous, contrary to the faith, and tending to weaken and subvert the whole Church." As every reader may see, Wycliffe is here falsely accused of doing what the popes for nearly one thousand years had been really doing. They were the men who had laboured to teach and enforce by fire and fagot "propositions, the most false and erroneous," and utterly subversive of the truth of the New Testament.

But with the true spirit of popery the epistle goes on to say, that "means be taken with the said John Wycliffe to commit him to prison and retain him in sure custody."

Sudbury seems to have been a quiet, peaceable old man, more interested in collecting his revenues than in caring for the good of his people, as the people remembered against him in the day of his extremity. His own friends accused him of allowing the "evils" of Wycliffism to go on till it was too late to arrest them. "Too late the bishops roused up their father the arch-bishop, as one from a deep sleep . . . or rather as a hireling drunk with the poison of avarice, to recall the wandering sheep from feeding on the food of perdition, to give him to the keeper of the sheep for cure, or, if need be, for the knife." The last three words express papal policy in short and forcible language.

The "proud and fierce" Courtney cited the "wandering sheep" to appear before "the hireling drunk with the poison of avarice." Poor Sudbury! We could wish that his friends had given him a better character to hand down to posterity, for next time we see him he is deserving of all respect.

Four short years afterwards he had to take refuge in the Tower of London in hopes to escape from the rebels during the Peasants' Revolt. With the mob raging round the doors he calmly celebrated the Lord's Supper, preparing both himself and his fellow-prisoner — the Treasurer Hales — for death. Then, when the ruffian crowd burst in, the brave old man quietly accompanied them across the moat to Tower Hill, there meekly laid down his grey head upon the block, and so finished his course for good or evil.

Meantime Courtney took charge of the proceedings against Wycliffe. He had been cited and he did not fail to appear. "His right hand is raised, clutching his tall white staff. His clothing consists of a dark simple robe, belted about the waist, and dropping in folds to the feet; while above that grey and flowing beard you see a set of features which speak throughout of nobleness, and which a man might do well to travel far even to look upon."

With Wycliffe came his serving man carrying his books, and especially THE BOOK, for he knew that the strongest weapon in the battle of truth was the Sword of the Spirit. But with Wycliffe came two powerful friends. The one was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, and the other was Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England.

An immense crowd thronged the approaches to St Paul's Cathedral. Insults were offered to the old man by some of the ruffian mob, and loud hootings by the partisans of the priests filled the building when he appeared. Courtney ordered that the prisoner should stand to hear his indictment read. Percy ordered him to sit. "You have much to reply to and need a soft seat," said he to Wycliffe. Courtney insisted. The Duke lost his temper and abused the priest, "muttering in his beard that he would drag the bishop out of the church by the hair of his head." Others of the mob now broke in, and a wild melee took place between the citizens and the soldier guards of the noblemen. The assembly broke up in confusion "before nine o'clock," Wycliffe being the most unmoved person in it. What he thought or said we do not know. But next year a new set of papal Bulls arrived from Rome. Three were addressed to the priests, one to the King, and another to the University of Oxford.

It is interesting to look over the shoulders of the writer and see what Gregory XI. thinks of the man about whom he has taken the trouble to write five letters. He is both "surprised and indignant" that the heads of the University, "notwithstanding all the privileges granted to them by the See of Rome, had, through sloth and negligence, allowed tares to spring up among their wheat." Then he seems to have quite forgotten that the Lord Jesus said in the same Scripture from which he quoted (Matt. 13), "Let both grow together till the harvest," for he goes on to root up the tares by "seizing the person of the said John Wycliffe and delivering him a prisoner to the Archbishop." Sudbury, as we have seen, was a man who was willing to have peace at any price, Courtney was a man of a different stamp, but both had to obey the Pope's behests, and Wycliffe was cited to appear before the bishops at Lambeth. This time no powerful earthly friends appeared on his side. His patron, King Edward III., had just died. His previous protector, John of Gaunt, wrote to him beseeching him not to "ruin a fine political career by an insane love of the truth." Whether the opposite course would ensure a "fine political career" we cannot say, but evidently John of Gaunt thought so. Here the two men part company and Wycliffe had to face his enemies alone, and yet not alone for God was with him and gave him grace to witness a good confession.

But the priests had again overreached themselves. No brief from the Pope could have authority in England without the King's consent, and this had not been obtained. In the midst of their proceedings the royal messenger, Sir Henry Clifford, arrived from the Queen Mother to forbid the court. The citizens of London had also veered round from their attitude of the previous year. They were ever jealous of their privileges and would allow no interference with what they considered their rights, and, though papists, they were ready to cry "no popery" when it suited them. So the bishops, as the old writer scornfully says, "became as reeds shaken with the wind. Their words were softer than oil. They made public shipwreck of their dignity. You would have thought that their horns were gone."

Thus a second time Wycliffe was preserved from his enemies to continue his work for God. He produced a paper setting forth his faith in the Word of God, and again protesting against the errors of the Church. In the first place," said he, "I am resolved with my whole heart, by the grace of God, to live as a sincere Christian, and, while my life shall last, to profess and defend the truth of Christ as far as I have power." Sometime shortly after this Wycliffe fell suddenly and dangerously ill. He was now an old man and had lived a life of incessant labour coupled with harassing and persistent persecution which had told seriously upon a constitution never very strong. The priests, and especially the friars, whose vices he had so scathingly exposed, were delighted. They hoped now to get rid of their life-long enemy. But greater far would be their victory if they could induce him to recant. So a deputation was formed. It consisted of a representative from each of the four begging orders of friars and some of the aldermen of Oxford. They proceeded to his lodging and were admitted into his chamber. We can imagine how hypocritically they condoled with him on his illness, and then exhorted him, as a dying man, to do all in his power to atone for the injuries that their society had experienced at his hands.

The old man listened in silence, and then ordered his attendant to raise him up in the bed. Looking sternly at his visitors and gathering up his strength he cried, "I shall not die, but live, and again declare the evil deeds of the friars." They left the room disappointed and in confusion, and the Reformer recovered, as he had prophesied, to go on with his work.

It was at this time that the great papal schism occurred (1378) — an event which greatly helped to free men's minds from the foolish belief that creatures so utterly wicked and fallible could ever be "infallible popes."

Gregory XI., the last of the "Babylonish" popes, returned from Avignon to Rome in 1377. Next year he died and Urban VI. was elected; the first time a pope had been elected at Rome for seventy-five years. Urban was a man of mean birth, so "harsh and offensive in his manners" that thirteen of his cardinals forsook him and elected another "infallible pope," who styled himself Clement VII. The northern nations, including England, supported Urban. The southern countries, including France, Spain, Naples, also Scotland, supported Clement. Immediately Urban issued Bulls of excommunication against his rival, calling him a heretic, a liar, and anti-pope, and every other evil thing he could remember. Clement replied with like vituperation, and who was in the right or who was in the wrong no man knoweth till this day. This dual popery continued for nearly forty years, and all that time "two popish heads were inside one popish crown" and little love lost between them. Then in 1407 all the cardinals of the opposing camps got tired of the game at which the two popes had been playing, and, assembling a Council at Pisa, they deposed both and elected another, whom they called Alexander V. But as both the old popes refused to be deposed and there was now a new one elected, the only result of the celebrated Council of Pisa was that there were now three popish heads inside one popish crown, and no love lost among them at all. Alexander died, and John XXIII., who had been a pirate, reigned in his stead. We shall notice only one event in the five years of his history he condemned all the writings of Wycliffe to be publicly burned on the steps of St Peter's. The popes hated each other well: they hated the truth more.

One pope was bad: two popes were worse: three popes were unendurable. At the Council of Constance (1414-15) all three were deposed: John because of his "evil deeds," and the other two because they refused to attend. So, John of the many numbers stole out of the city "on a sorry nag" and fled. But he was caught and put in prison where, it is hoped, he had time to repent of his "evil deeds."

This digression comes into our story only to show the effects all these events had on Wycliffe. Up till the time of the papal schism he had recognised the Pope and tried hard to reform him. Now with the monstrous spectacle of "two heads" to the Church, and both "infallible," he saw that reformation was impossible. Henceforth he banished both of them from his scheme, and lost no opportunity of exposing the unscriptural, worldly, and wicked character of the whole papal system in spite of its pretensions to sanctity.

He continued to preach at Oxford, and we find him getting access to many pulpits even in London. He wrote tracts, both in Latin for the learned and in English for the common people; but the heaviest blow he inflicted upon the Romish Church was his attack upon and denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. This blasphemous doctrine (of which we can use no milder word) was a terrible engine in the hands of Rome, and it was round this doctrine that the battle of the Reformation raged. If this point was gained, the power of the priest over the conscience was gone and he became weak as any other man. So all the armies of the Prince of Darkness were marshalled to defend the citadel. Alas! that in the Church of England to-day so many of her so-called "priests" are going back to the darkness and delusions of Rome, to deliver them from which many of our forefathers suffered imprisonment, torture, and death.

A few more years pass. It is 1381, and the "proud and fierce man" Courtney is now Archbishop. He had marched to the archiepiscopal throne over the dead body of Sudbury, murdered, as we have seen, during the Peasants' Revolt. With the proud title of "Primate of all England" he would see if he could not do what he had failed to do as Bishop of London. Assembling a Convocation at Oxford, Wycliffe was again summoned to appear.

The indictment was read and he rose to reply. As of old, he repelled their charges and challenged them to convince him of error before they condemned him. "Ye are the heretics," he cried, "who teach your foolish traditions instead of the truth of Scripture. Why do ye propagate such errors? Why? Because, like the priests of Baal, ye want to vend your masses. With whom think ye that ye are contending? With a frail old man on the brink of the grave? No, with truth, which is stronger than you and will overcome you."

His judges were astounded at his bold words which they knew to be true. They had no legal power to detain him, so he left the court unmolested. Though now an old man, "on the brink of the grave" as he said, yet the greatest of all his works was yet to be done. We shall see later what that work was and how he accomplished it.

Chapter 6.

The "Poor Priests".

We have already seen that Wycliffe's progress as a Reformer began with his attacks upon the wicked practices of the priests of Rome. From the Pope downward he unsparingly exposed the hypocrisy of men who professed to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, and yet lived in pride, luxury, and sin. But by and by he came to see that not only were the deeds wrong, but that many of her doctrines were wrong also. And as he had now learned, in everything, to refer to the Word of God as the sole authority, he saw the importance not only of denying what was false but of affirming what was true.

To do so, he was led to turn to that great plan first practised by the Lord Himself on the green hillsides of Galilee, and enjoined by Him upon His disciples in all ages. Wycliffe's plan was to PREACH THE WORD. But how could one man, and that man advanced in years, hope to reach many with the sound of the Gospel? If he could not do it single-handed he could induce others to help. Sometime, then, between the years 1375 and 1380, that band of men were gathered together who were known as Wycliffe's "Poor Priests." Rome, too, had her preachers, and they were found mostly among the friars. But they were by no means poor priests. They invaded the parishes of the secular clergy, who hated them just as bitterly as both combined hated the Reformer. Under their wide flowing robes they carried large bags into which they put the gold, silver, or provisions they succeeded in begging from hall or hut wherever they went. They well deserved the name of Mendicants, for their principal business was filling their wallets. Their "preaching" consisted in telling stupid, foolish, and fabulous stories of the "lives of the saints," too silly to repeat in our pages, or legends from the Siege of Troy. Afterwards, they spent their time in the alehouses or at the gaming-table.

When they came into a town they proclaimed to all that they had power from the Pope to pardon all sin. Relics of wonderful virtue were produced from among their other treasures capable of performing all kinds of cures, either upon man or beast. These relics usually consisted of old sheep's bones or other similar rubbish. But though easily procured and easily carried, they were parted with for one commodity only — money, and still more money. And one of the curious things about them was that if you purchased your old bone for silver your crops increased only twofold, but if you gave the rascal friar gold for his old bone, then, in some way which neither he nor we can explain, your crops increased fourfold. So the wily friar defrauded the poor people, enriched his greedy order, and offended a holy God.

In all this we see but a baptized paganism, much worse than even that of heathen Rome. In the "good old days of Rome" the priest believed what he preached. Here we find men who knew that they were deceiving the simple people, yet deliberately continuing to do so in order that they themselves might amass wealth by robbing the poor.

Wycliffe's "Poor Priests" seem to have been friends like-minded with himself who had gathered round him while he was at Oxford. We get a glimpse of them as "men travelling barefoot." Their clothing usually consisted of a "long russet gown reaching down to the heels, without pockets." The last two words remind us of our Lord's instructions to the seventy disciples sent out to preach the Gospel (Luke 10), "Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house." This seems to have been the model on which the Wycliffe preachers were formed, and it might truly be said that they went forth as "lambs among wolves."

The bishops had recourse to their usual weapon persecution, and had a law passed for any King's officer to arrest the preachers and commit them to prison. The parish priests and friars, though they agreed on little else, agreed on this and acted as policemen. When the humble evangelist began to preach, they set off for assistance. But the Gospel was a sweet sound in the ears of the people, and they at least had a welcome for the preacher, so that ofttimes when the King's officer appeared to arrest him, a "body of stout men stood forth, surrounded their preacher, and bore him off in safety."

When persecuted in one place the devoted missionaries fled to another, and, whether seated in castle hall or beside cottage hearth, whether preaching to the crowd at the cross-way or to the merchant in the busy mart, they spoke of full and free salvation by grace alone, not of works lest any man should boast.

It was hardly to be expected that seeing all the corruptions both of life and doctrine which Rome had introduced they would abstain from attacking her errors. And here indeed there was scope and matter for all their fiery indignation. There was the hypocrisy of the friars, who pretended to be poor men, but who were bent only on enriching their order. There was the worldliness of the higher clergy, who were more interested in State preferment than in performing their spiritual duties. There was the pollution and degradation of the papal Court itself, which instead of setting a standard of righteousness was at that time sunk in the lowest depth of infamy.

Then it became their duty to warn the ignorant people that payment of money to a priest or friar could not put away sin; and that the worship of images was no part of Christianity, but only a pagan practice introduced by Rome. How very true this charge was can easily be verified. Rome taught then, and teaches now, that without baptism there can be no salvation. She thus makes the way of salvation baptism instead of the Lord Jesus, who alone could say, "I AM THE WAY." So far is this false doctrine pressed that even infants are included, in express denial of the beautiful words, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 19: 14).

Rome's fond deceit is "justification by works," but the Scriptures say, "BY HIM all that BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13: 39). The heathen nations of old were required by their priests to do works of penance and self-mortification, even cutting their flesh with knives like the priests of Baal, whom we read about in 1 Kings 18: 28. So Rome teaches that God is not satisfied without tortures of the body and penances without number. But this is a denial of the value of the FINISHED WORK of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the PRECIOUS BLOOD that alone cleanses from ALL sin.

Again, we read that just as there is One God, so there is "ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the man CHRIST JESUS" (1 Tim. 2: 5); but Rome puts the Virgin Mary in a higher place than the Lord Himself. A well-known Romanist tells his readers that the sinner who ventures to come directly to Christ may come with dread and apprehension of His wrath, but that if he comes through Mary, the wrath of "her Son" will be at once appeased.

In the days of Jeremiah (Jer. 44: 19) the paganism of the heathen nations had invaded Judea, and women were seen offering cakes to the Queen of Heaven. The same Scripture gives us the origin of Rome's blasphemous "Mass." The "cakes" that were offered to the "Queen of Heaven" were small, round, thin wafers, the pattern of which we have with us to-day in Rome's "wafer god."

The doctrine of purgatory and prayers for the dead comes from the same heathen source. Neither the one nor the other is found in the Bible, but both go hand in hand with Rome, for they are two of her best money-making devices. For no prayers are of any value except the priests' prayers, but "no pay no prayer," so that unless the priest be well paid, purgatory holds the victim.

It is difficult to write calmly about this atrocious system of deliberately making merchandise of the tenderest feelings of the human heart sorrowing over departed loved ones. Priests of paganism in Egypt or in Greece, priests of the Jews, or priests of papal Rome have all alike been adepts at "devouring widows' houses."

Again, the idol worship of Rome might well arouse the indignation of men who had learned the truth of Scripture for themselves. A Romish procession, bearing a figure either of the Virgin Mary or some other saint, might well remind us of what Isaiah says: "They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god; they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place he shall not remove."

Pagan idolatry in principle has been deliberately annexed by Rome.

Now, all these things were the recognised order of things in papal England in the fourteenth century, and we have to thank God that we are in some measure delivered from it, and think ourselves too wise to go back to it; yet Rome to-day is making an insidious, determined, and untiring effort to reintroduce the same conditions into this Protestant land.

Alas for men's poor man-made religion in contrast to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God concerning His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. His finished work on Calvary settles every question of sin, both to the glory of God and the blessing of men, and He is to-day the Only Saviour of Sinners. From the glory He is saying to-day, "Come unto ME and I will give you rest."

Chapter 7.

More about the "Poor Priests"

It is interesting to trace further what the men of that day, whether friends or enemies, thought of Wycliffe's "Poor Priests," and we will begin with our old acquaintance, the proud, fierce man," Courtney.

He had reached the lofty position of Archbishop, as we have seen, over the headless body of the murdered Sudbury. One of his first efforts to extinguish the new movement was to call a council at the Convent of the Blackfriars in London, which then stood where the offices of The Times newspaper stand to-day. So these great men assembled — eight bishops, twenty doctors, fifteen friars, and four monks — and their object was to put down the new opinions and prosecute all who were suspected of holding them, especially John Wycliffe. Here Wycliffe's doctrines were examined and, of course, condemned by all present. But an event happened on the very day of the council meeting which completely destroyed the effect of the council's decision. "About two o'clock that afternoon, while the Churchmen were sitting round the table at their pious work, a terrible earthquake took place which struck all with panic except the zealous Archbishop."

These things were not looked upon as accidents in those days, and the friends of Wycliffe loudly proclaimed that "their Master had been condemned by the bishops, but that the bishops had been condemned by God."

Courtney was not content with mere councils, however. King Richard II. was no statesman like his grandfather Edward III., and he foolishly allowed Rome more power than was good for either his kingdom, his people, or himself. Courtney saw his opportunity and had an Act passed, in spite of the opposition of the Commons, to make persecution legal.

But Englishmen as a nation are not a bloodthirsty race. Torturing, maiming, and burning to ashes living men and women were strange sights to them, and sights at which the native character revolted.

This policy of fiendish cruelty had its origin at Rome. For the century and a half it existed in our country, during which its tracks were marked by bigotry and blood, the councils, both of the Church and of the nation, were swayed by the agents of Rome. When the last popish King and humble servant of the Pope stole out of his palace and fled secretly, with no man pursuing him, then men began to breathe freely. They awoke, as it were, from a hideous nightmare and determined that as far as in them lay, they would take steps to prevent such chains ever again being riveted either on their own necks or on the necks of their children.

We may well be thankful for the liberty we enjoy to-day, and we should ever be thankful to the brave men and women who won that liberty for us. Many of them loved the Lord Jesus more than they loved their own lives. May we be as true to the truth we know as they were!

So Courtney's Act read that: "Sentence being duly pronounced, the Magistrate shall take into hand the persons so offending and any of their supporters and cause them openly to be burned in the sight of all the people, to the intent that this kind of punishment may be a terror unto others, that the like wicked doctrine . . . be no more maintained within this realm."

Courtney had triumphed for the moment, but his triumph was short-lived. The Commons returned to the matter next session. "Whatever was done," say they, "was done without our consent. Let it now be annulled, for it is not our intention to be tried for heresy or to bind over ourselves or our descendants to the priests more than our ancestors have been in the past."

There is a ring of sturdy independence about this deliverance which later Parliaments might have copied with profit. So the Commons rescinded Courtney's Act, and not till 1401, in the reign of Henry IV., was the infamous "burning statute" passed. History will ever record it as a disgrace on the reign of a king whose father was a friend to the great Reformer.

But Henry IV. had arrived at the throne by the defeat and murder of the rightful King and the help of the priests. To maintain his usurpation he had to bind himself to "support the Church." The priests were overjoyed. They seemed like bloodthirsty animals let loose, and for the next hundred years and more they literally revelled in the blood of the saints of God.

We may here look forward to an incident which illustrates the above remarks, and which shows both the savage cruelty of men calling themselves priests and the bigoted folly of a man calling himself a king. The event to which we refer took place in 1413. Henry V. was reigning. Sir John Oldcastle, who had been the King's companion before he came to the throne, and one too who had fought bravely in the King's service, had become obnoxious to the priests because he had embraced the reformed doctrines. The "fierce and cruel man" Courtney had died in 1396 and gone to his own place, and the "crafty Arundel" was now Archbishop. He had been banished as a traitor by Richard II., but made himself useful as a tool of the Duke of Lancaster who effected the revolution of 1399. The priest having helped the King, the King's son will oblige the priest. Sir John was arrested and lodged in the Tower. His good confession is worth recording, but first the King in person will try to induce him to abjure his faith.

To the King he said, "I am, as I have always been, most willing to obey your majesty, as the minister of God appointed to bear the sword of justice for the punishment of evildoers, and the protection of them that do well. . . . But as to the Pope and the spiritual dominion which he claims, I owe him no service that I know of, nor will I pay him any, for as sure as God's Word is true, to me it is fully evident that he is the great Antichrist and son of perdition."

Before the priests his words were of no uncertain sound. He declared in plain language his denial of Transubstantiation, the idolatry of image worship, and the folly of pilgrimages. Then turning to the people, he cried, "Look, good people, for the breaking of God's law these men never cursed me, but for the sake of their own law and tradition most cruelly do they use both me and other men."

Such opinions Rome could only meet in one way. When reason failed, force might succeed. He was condemned, but escaped from the Tower. Four years afterwards he was recaptured and the original sentence carried out. He was hanged (as a traitor) over a slow fire, in order that he might at the same time be burned as a heretic. Truly the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Chapter 8.

Rome Attempts to Extinguish the Light

We saw in a previous chapter that the Commons had repealed Courtney's persecuting edict, but with the deceit to which Rome often descends, the bishops concealed and denied the fact. There were no Parliamentary Reports in those days, and no daily newspapers: few would have been able to read them even had they existed. So Courtney determined to use his present authority to purge Oxford if he could.

This brings before us some glimpses of others of Wycliffe's friends and followers at Oxford who became his helpers in the work of the Gospel. Dr Nicholas Hereford had learned much from his master at Oxford, and was so ardently convinced of the truths of Scripture which Wycliffe had opened up to him that he thought all men would believe the truth of the Gospel as soon as it was put before them. His faith took in even the Pope himself, and he promptly set off to Rome to show him a better way.

Alas, he did not know the Pope. Urban VI. was no better, and he could hardly be much worse than some of his predecessors. He promptly thrust into a Roman dungeon for life the man who should dare to question Rome's best money-making conceit of Transubstantiation. And life with Hereford, if left to the Pope's tender mercies would have been short indeed. But the city that was governed by the "Successor of St Peter" and the "Vicar of Christ," as the "Holy Father" loved to call himself, was possibly the worst governed city upon the face of the earth. The miserable inhabitants, goaded ofttimes to fury, made periodical risings against their "Holy Father," stormed his castles and emptied his prisons. Such a rising took place after Hereford had been two years in captivity, and he having escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowler, wended his way back to England, a sadder and a wiser man. But he could not now go back to his lecture room at Oxford, so he joined Aston and some others of the brethren in the west.

We are grieved to find that this man, who in his early zeal aimed at converting the Pope himself, after preaching the Reformed doctrines for some years, "made his peace with the Church and rose to high preferment." Do these last four words convey the reason of his falling away from the truth? Only grace can keep anyone. Let us not judge him. The paths of these early confessors were spread with thorns, and to all is not given the courage to resist unto blood striving against sin.

John Aston, Master of Arts, was another of those who were brought up before Courtney as "one who troubled Israel," and one who had "cost the Bishop of Lincoln many a sleepless night." Now if the good bishop had been as anxious to put the truth before the people as he was to keep it from them he would have had our sympathy, but this was far from being the case. Dr Aston is described by his enemies as "a man of great scholarship and of ardent zeal and earnest effort," but his efforts in preaching the Gospel to the People were not at all to the liking of his enemies. They said he was "like a bee, always on the wing," or "like a hound, ever ready to start up from his repose and bark." And the bishops did not like Aston's "bark," There was a menacing ring in it that spelled the downfall of their power and pride. There was an echo to it that made the walls of their princely palaces to shake.

The question against him was again the old fable of Transubstantiation. This was the key-stone of their arch on which all their power over men's consciences was built. Were this knocked down, many other things would follow. So Aston was called upon to answer to certain questions in relation to this doctrine, and he replied that his faith on this subject was the faith of the Church, meaning the true faith of the true Church. Then, speaking no longer to his judges, but to the great congregation of people who had crowded in to watch the proceedings, he declared what the true faith of the true Church was, until he was hastily called to order, and "commanded to speak in Latin that the people might not understand him."

In the end his opinions were condemned, as we should expect, but as yet the bishops had no power to arrest his person, so "this long lean man" went forth again to travel on foot from one part of England to another preaching with the zeal of an apostle," and "like a bee ever on the wing." Like a bee, also, he carried a sweet message of truth and grace to many a heart tired of the penances, pilgrimages, and works of merit, which could give neither peace to the conscience nor rest to the heart. It was a new and a joyful sound to hear of ONE who could say, "Come unto ME and I will give you REST."

And there were many who received and rejoiced in the new-found truths. Beginning at Lutterworth, which was Wycliffe's parish, as a centre, we find the new doctrines extending north through Leicester, Loughborough, and Nottingham; going west there were many of Wycliffe's followers found in Coventry; in Worcester — where the poor bishop had "so many sleepless nights," and in Hereford. Further south the light spread to Gloucester, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and in the extreme south Sussex also came under its influence. Even in the Archbishop's own town of Canterbury were found many who had passed out of the darkness of Rome into the light of the Gospel.

Nor must we overlook the life and work of Dr John Purvey, who was one of Wycliffe's closest friends, and who rendered valuable help with Bible translation as we shall see later.

Possibly Purvey was one of the most able and learned men among the early Reformers, and when Wycliffe and his friends were finally expelled from Oxford, Purvey resided at Lutterworth and helped in the publication — if not even in the writing--of the many books and tracts issued during the closing years of Wycliffe's life. The efforts of the latter during these closing years must have been incessant and untiring. Over ninety tracts and pamphlets were issued in Latin for the learned, and some sixty five in English for the common people. Some were written as instruction for his "poor priests," some dealing with the way of Salvation; many, as we should expect, attacking the manifold errors both of the Pope and of the papacy.

After Wycliffe's death Purvey joined some others of the company of "poor priests" in the west, and continued the work of Evangelisation. The little community were residing in an old disused chapel, where there still remained a wooden image of "St Catherine" standing in a corner. Finding themselves short of fuel one cold evening, they pulled down the image and promptly split it up for firewood. When knowledge of this "terrible act of sacrilege" came abroad it caused a great sensation, as we might have expected. But it also led people to think. Why should they worship stocks and stones as pagans do? Were they not, in name at least, Christians? So the fire lighted by the broken fragments of St Catherine helped to shed additional light, both on the errors of Rome and into the minds of the people.

We meet with Purvey again nearly twenty years later. There is another fire before him this time, more fierce than that kindled by St Catherine. At this time, 1401, the "crafty Arundel" had succeeded in getting the Act, "de Haeritico Comburendo," placed on the Statute Book, and William Sawtre, the first of England's modern martyrs, was wrapt to glory in a chariot of flame. He had dared to say to the priests, "I will worship Christ who died on the Cross, but I will not worship the Cross on which Christ died."

Three days after Sawtre had gained the martyr's crown, we listen sadly to Dr John Purvey reading a recantation, at St Paul's Cross, of all he had said and done. And so the old man passes into the shadows.

As far as we can trace he was the last of the Oxford scholars that had originally gathered round the Reformer, but they had done their work. The seeds of truth they had sown bore fruit in the next generation. The banner of truth had been raised, and though many standard-bearers fell on the field of conflict, others were found to grasp what soon became indeed a bloodstained banner and bear it on to victory. The death fires which were first lighted in 1401 continued to burn till 1558, and never more fiercely than during the last six years of that period. Men and women, even boys and girls, sealed their testimony with their blood. To read the Scriptures or even to possess a Bible was considered a crime only to be expiated at the dreadful stake. Tortures, conceivable only by men inspired by the devil himself, were inflicted on delicate women until their poor bodies were so maimed and broken that they had to be carried to the death fire and chained erect to the post. Men had their feet burned to the bone, and were then put in the stocks the night before they were to die, in order to add to their sufferings. All these things were done by the priests of Rome, and all these things were suffered by the martyrs of Jesus. We, to day, have our liberties as the result.

Chapter 9.

The Wonder of the Book

It is a day in summer in the year A.D. 33. A large crowd of excited people are gathered together in an Eastern city. They have come from many parts of the world and speak many languages. Some have travelled from Parthia, Media, and Elam in the north; others from the far east of Mesopotamia; many from the west of Asia; and some from the distant south of Egypt and Cyrene.

But the remarkable thing about their meeting to-day is that they are listening to men otherwise uneducated, who yet are able to speak to their audience, to each man "in his own tongue wherein he was born." Then the subject of which they speak is of the deepest importance, for they are declaring to the assembled multitudes the "wonderful works of God."

We all recognise this as a story found in Acts 2, and we repeat it here because it was to this most interesting chapter that Wycliffe trenchantly appealed when he began to assert the rights of the common people to have the Word of God in their own tongue.

"Those who call it heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in English must be prepared," says he, "to condemn the Holy Ghost who gave it in tongues to the Apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven."

Then, growing bolder, he challenged the priests as being the real heretics. "Those heretics are not to be heard," he says, "who fancy that secular men ought not to know the law of God . . . for Scripture is the faith of the Church, and the more it is known the better. Therefore, as secular men ought to know the faith, so it is to be taught them in whatever language is best known to them."

These words carry us back to the words of a greater man than even John Wycliffe — even the words of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul. When writing his inspired Epistle to the Colossians, he said, "When this epistle is read among you, cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea."

In the days of the Apostle there were no recognised orders of "clergy" and "laity." The scriptural simplicity of the early faith was held by all. They recognised, according to the Lord's own teaching, that all were brethren in Christ, and they "called no man father," much less "Holy father," a title applied only to God Himself.

In Wycliffe's opinion there were still the "clergy" and the "laity," but he had made a great advance on the teaching and practice of Rome when he boldly advocated that the "laity" ought to have the liberty to read the Bible in their own language.

We may gather something of the determined opposition he had to encounter from the bishops when we see what they said about his work when completed.

One says, "This Master John Wycliffe has translated the Gospel which Christ gave to the clergy and doctors of the Church to be by them communicated to the weaker sort and the laity according to their need, and has thus made it more accessible to the laity and to women who are able to read than it was before to the well educated and intelligent clergy."

Another says, "He has completed his malice by devising a translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue."

In the year 1408, when the priests had more political power, they issued a very stringent order, drawn up by the persecuting Archbishop, the "crafty Arundel," that "no unauthorised person should hereafter translate any portion of holy Scripture into English or any other language by way of book or tract, and that no such book or tract should be read, either in whole or in part, publicly or privately, that was composed lately in the time of John Wycliffe or since, under the penalty of the Greater Excommunication, until such translation shall be approved by the bishop of the diocese." But the bishops were more anxious to burn the Bible than to approve it, and in very many cases they burned the possessors of the Bible with the book hung round their necks.

But before we look at Wycliffe's translation, let us turn back and trace shortly how this wonderful Book of God came to men, and also notice some things about it which make it so different from all other books that it has become known now as THE Book.

In 2 Peter 1: 21 we read that "prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." God, the Holy Spirit, was the Author of the Scriptures. He used "holy men of God" to write what He inspired. Therefore the Word of God is perfect. It could not, as the Word of God, be otherwise. When men say that the Bible is only a textbook of morals and not a textbook of science, thereby inferring that its science is not "up to date," they involve themselves in a glaring contradiction, for the Spirit of God, who is the "Spirit of Truth" (John 14: 17), could not surely inspire men to write what was not true. Much of the so-called science of fifty years ago flatly contradicted the Bible. Much of the science of fifty years ago has been proved to be wrong. Much of the so-called "assured conclusions" of modern science rest on nothing more solid than a basis of unproved theories which future scientists may discard and disown. If the so-called science of to-day contradicts the Bible, so much the worse for the science. The Bible is the Judge. We may confidently rely upon this: as men approach nearer to the truth in their study of the works of God, so in proportion will they draw nearer to the Bible, the Words of God; and both are PERFECT. True science can never contradict Scripture.

Not only is God the Holy Spirit the Author of the Holy Scriptures, but God the Son is the great Subject of this wonderful revelation from Heaven.

He was the promised Seed spoken of in Genesis 3: 15 who would bruise the serpent's head. He was the One of whom Adam or Abraham, Isaac or Joseph, David or Solomon were but types. He was the One to whom the paschal lamb in Egypt and every sacrifice in Israel's temple pointed. Psalm and prophecy, and parable, all spoke of Hint. Kings and conquerors were only dim shadows of the One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Judges of Israel and saviours of the people were but faint shadows of the One whose name was called JESUS, for "He shall save His people from their sins."

Then, when He is born into this world as the Babe in Bethlehem's manger, all Heaven is interested in the wonderful event, and a multitude of the heavenly hosts chant the words which mean so much to every one of us: —

"Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace,

Goodwill towards men."

Four separate accounts are given to us in the four Gospels of His life on earth.

MATTHEW speaks of Him as the King of Israel and the One who will yet sway the sceptre of the universe of God in righteousness, power, and glory. To Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

MARK tells of Him as the One who in grace became the Prophet of God and the Servant of Men. The Psalmist had said, "Grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever" (Psalm 45: 2); and in Luke 4: 22 we read that all the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And well they might, for "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God" (John 3: 24), and "never man spake like this Man" (John 7: 46).

LUKE, the beloved physician, tells of One who was a more skilled physician still — the wonderful Man of God's counsels who came into the world

To preach the Gospel to the poor.

To heal the broken-hearted.

To preach deliverance to the captives.

And recovering of sight to the blind.

To set at liberty them that are bruised.

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord . . . (Luke 4: 18, 19).

And that "acceptable year" of grace, first announced in the synagogue of Nazareth, is still being proclaimed: blessing is still flowing forth to sinners, and the Lord Jesus Christ, now at God's right hand, is still saying, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest."

When we come to JOHN'S Gospel we learn that the Man Christ Jesus, who became the Servant of God and men, though He was the King of Israel, is no less a Person than the One of whom Isaiah's glowing page foretold: "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end" (Isa. 9: 6, 7).

The ACTS OF THE APOSTLES and the twenty-one EPISTLES continue the theme and tell us from every varying standpoint what Christ is to God and what Christ is for His people.

In the BOOK OF REVELATION we are carried on to a time when time shall be no longer; when the mystery of God shall be finished and the Lord Jesus will rise up to purge the earth, deliver His people, and introduce the reign of righteousness and world-wide blessing.

Then this Book of God speaks to the conscience. It deals with men as sinners. It brings them, as it were, into the presence of a holy God and convinces them that by nature they are unfit to be there. But it also tells of the Way of Salvation, and points to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

Another thing, among many, that makes the Bible different from all other books is the prophecies of Scripture. If we confine ourselves to one theme alone — that of the promised Messiah — we find that 4,000 years before He was born it was prophesied that He would come. Micah foretold the place where He would be born (Micah 5: 2). Daniel told of the time when He would appear, and named the very day when He would present Himself to the nation as their King, and also indicated how the nation would reject Him (Dan. 9: 26). Isaiah portrays the remarkable way in which He would enter into this world (Isa. 7: 14); then that He would be despised and rejected, and finally that His death would be the great propitiatory offering for the sin of the world.

All these things are spoken with exactness of detail, and all have come to pass exactly as foretold, proving conclusively that the writers spake by the Word of the Lord, who alone knows the end from the beginning.

Chapter 10.

The Oldest Book in the World

We have seen in a previous chapter that the Bible is the best book in the world: it is also the oldest. No other book can compare with it in this respect. Herodotus, who is known as the "father of history," dates back only to 480 B.C., shortly before the closing book in our Old Testament was written. The ancient poets Homer and Hesiod are supposed to have flourished — for no one really knows — about the time of Hezekiah, King of Judah. But 75o years before that time Moses had written the five books which we know as the Pentateuch. So that the Bible presents to us the oldest authentic records of the history of the human race. Egyptian history cannot be traced farther back than 270o B.C. The Chinese records go nearly as far. Babylonish history begins about 2450 B.C. Greek history dates from the Trojan War — if that war ever was fought — I200 B.C. Rome was busy founding its capital about 758 B.C., and Persian history begins 200 years later still. But Bible history carries us back for 4,000 years before the Cross, and gives us in the words of Inspiration the history of the very beginning of our present ordered earth and all that it is necessary for us to know about the story of man's creation to inhabit it.

The oldest vestiges of human construction are the Pyramids of Egypt, and the oldest of these is supposed to have been built shortly after the Flood. A French engineer has estimated that there are materials in this vast erection to build a wall one foot thick and ten feet high right round France, or about 1,800 miles.

For 2,500 years or thereby the world had no Bible — no written word of revelation from God. But it is remarkable that this long space of time was bridged by the lives of but three men. Methuselah, the oldest man that ever lived, is one of the links that connect with Adam on the one side and on the other with Noah, who passed through the Flood and lived for 300 years after it.

Adam lived for 965 years, and during that time he would be able to teach his descendants all the wonderful revelations which God had made to him both before and after sin came into the world. Generation after generation would hear from his lips the story of Eden, the fail, the promised Deliverer, and the way of approach to God.

If we turn back to 1 Chronicles 1, the opening three verses give us one of the wonderful sentences of Inspiration. It is a sentence containing ten proper names and not a single verb. The names are these: Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. Dr Kitto has pointed out that these ten names literally translated in order form the following most remarkable sentence in English: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation. Thus the very names of the antediluvian patriarchs would be a standing testimony to the world. Methuselah's name in particular was a warning message to the sinners of old. The prophet Enoch, whose own name marked him out as one able "to instruct," named his son in words prophetic of coming judgment that would "descend" after his death. The very year in which Methuselah died, the Flood came. One cannot help noting that after the name of the oldest man this world ever saw, God wrote "and he died."

How interesting it would be for us now if any person was alive who had come over with William the Conqueror. Such a person would be able to tell us, for example, about the various dynasties who had ruled in England — the Normans, the Plantagenets, the Yorkists, the Tudors, the Stuarts, and the Hanoverians. We should also be able to provide much interesting information about the laws and customs during the various periods of his life, and to hear such an account from his lips would be as interesting as to read it from a book. So during Adam's long life many people of the ancient world would learn from him all that God had been pleased to make known of Himself at that time.

Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah, lived with Adam for over 240 years and nearly boo with his grandson Noah. To Noah he would doubtless communicate all that he him- self had learned from his ancestors. Shem, the son of Noah, lived after the Flood for 500 years until the days of Abraham, who was called out from his country and kindred to become the father of the faithful and the repository of all the promises of grace to the nation of Israel.

Five hundred years later we come to Moses, the man of God, and the first of the illustrious men who were chosen by God to write for us the "Scripture of Truth."

And so the good work went on; the various revelations extending over a period of some 1,600 years, until the Apostle John, in Patmos, wrote the last book in our New Testament, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," telling us about the solemn events that will usher in the closing days of men in responsibility upon the earth and of the time when "time shall be no longer."

Kings and nobles, priests and prophets, physicians and fishermen, tentmakers and tax collectors are found among the writers (over forty in all, and all inspired by God Himself, so that "the law of the Lord is perfect").

We may well pause here and ask, How has this wonderful Book been received, and how have these sacred writings been treated by the men to whom they have been sent? And in trying to answer this question we shall see that the Bible, not unlike the Person of the Lord Himself when on earth, sharply divided men into two classes — those who loved the Book and those who hated it.

In Deut. 31: 24-26 we read, "And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." And, again (ver. 10), "And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law."

It is very clear from these words that God intended everybody to hear and understand His Word. Even the children are not left out, so that when Rome says that the Bible is for the priests only, she is flatly contradicting the words of God Himself.

But let us follow the history of the Book. Placed in the side of the ark, as we have seen, it entered the land with the nation and was with them in all the wars of Canaan. It abode with the ark in Shiloh for 400 years, went with it on that strange pilgrimage when the ark was taken by the Philistines, and with the ark returned again to Kirjath-jearim, whence David removed it on his "new cart." Three years afterwards, when David had learned his lesson, the ark was brought into the tent prepared for it in the City of David.

We know from 2 Chron. 6: 11 that the same autograph copy which Moses wrote was still in the ark in the palmy days of King Solomon, when he finished the first temple and put the ark in the holy of holies. And it is just possible that it is the same roll we hear of 400 years later in the darker days of Josiah. This pious King was one of those who loved the Book, for, after it had been found among the rubbish in the neglected temple, we read that, just as Moses commanded, he gathered the people together and "read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord." It is always good to read the Bible. God honours in His providence both men and nations who honour His Word. The history of our own country abundantly proves this. Compare England's greatness under Cromwell with its abject condition under Charles II. Queen Victoria rightly called the Word of God "the secret of England's greatness." Only comparatively few years have passed since the good Queen died, but we may well ask, Does the Bible hold the same place in the nation to-day as it did then?

But succeeding Kings of Judah were not all so pious as the good King Josiah. We have a sharp contrast in the actions of his son Jehoiakim. Let us pay a visit, unasked, to this King's palace. We find him in his "winterhouse" with a fire burning before him. Another portion of God's Word is being read in his presence, but taking the roll out of the hands of the reader, "he cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed" (Jer. 36: 26). He was the first person we know of who ever dared to destroy any portion of God's written Word, and short and sharp came his judgment. "God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Pagan Rome and papal Rome have only too well followed this wicked King's example, but the Word of God is indestructible; it liveth and abideth for ever.

Soon Judah was carried captive to Babylon, but during the long years of captivity God watched over His Word, and provided men to preserve it. It was copied and re-copied with the most meticulous care. Jewish scribes knew the Scriptures so well that they could tell how many words were in each book. They reckoned up even the number of individual letters, so that they knew, for instance, that the letter Aleph occurred 42,377 times, the letter Beth 38,218 times, and so on, right through all the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

So God used this scrupulous care in order that His Word might be faithfully preserved through all time.

The seventy years of the Babylonish Captivity came to an end at last. The pride of Babylon was humbled before the might of Persia. King Cyrus, who had been mentioned by name by the prophet Isaiah 176 years before he was born, issued a proclamation enjoining the Jews to go up to Jerusalem and rebuild the house of the Lord. We learn from the book of Ezra that "forty-two thousand three hundred and three score" (Ezra 2: 34) led by Zerubbabel formed the first company of returning exiles that reached Jerusalem to set about the task of restoring the fortunes of their overthrown country.

The first thing they did was to set up the altar and offer burnt offerings upon it. They thus declared their faith in the words, "God is our refuge and our strength"; and then, when the second modest temple was founded, very touching it is indeed to be present, in fancy, at the ceremony of laying the foundation stone. Old and grey-headed men are here who can remember Solomon's temple with all its magnificent architecture and golden furniture, and the present building which they are so painfully rearing up in the midst of their poverty and distress seems to them so insignificant that they weep as they think of what once was and of what now is.

On the other hand, the young men who had been born in exile, when they saw the work so far advanced, shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. Twenty years afterwards this second temple was completed, and later, when the energetic Governor, Nehemiah, arrived at Jerusalem, the city wall was built and prosperity began again to smile upon the long-desolate land.

But what concerns us most in our present inquiry is the work that Ezra the scribe did when he came. He was the Religious Reformer of the day, just as Nehemiah, who came after him, was the Righteous Ruler.

Passing over many of his drastic reforms, both among the priests and the people, let us hasten down to Watergate Street, on the east side of the temple, for Ezra is to hold a great open-air reading meeting there to-day. A great pulpit of wood "made for the purpose" has been erected here, and the "ready scribe in the law of Moses" climbs up into it, with six men on his right hand and seven at his left, and opens the BOOK in the sight of all the people. From the time that it was light until midday the reading went on, "and all the, people were attentive unto the book of the law" (Neh. 8).

We note with pleasure the attention of the people to the words of the Book, for dark days are coming soon both for it and them. They had returned to a land not yet recovered from the desolation of the great overthrow. Jerusalem, the "holy city" towards which their hearts had yearned with such intense longing during the weary years of the captivity, was a mass of ruins. Their old enemies the Philistines were pressing in from the west. The Edomites — foes of a thousand year feuds — had pushed north as far as Hebron, the ancient capital. Moab and Ammon, on the east, are again contracting alliances with the Arabians to the further hindrance of the work of restoration.

We cannot linger longer to hear Ezra, however much we should like to do so, for we have still a long way to travel before we come to the times of John Wycliffe. But one other thing it is interesting to notice before we pass on, and that is that Ezra is believed to have compiled and arranged all the books of our Old Testament as we have them to-day (including, we believe, even Malachi), so that those who came after him had a complete copy of "The Law," "The Psalms," and "The Prophets," according to the three great divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Leaving the Jews to meet and conquer their many foes as best they may, we must take a glance at the blank leaf between our Old Testament and the New.

It was a period of stirring times for the land of Israel. Systematic and diabolical persecution, such as perhaps no other nation could have survived, occupied part of this period. Remarkable victories, gained by a few patriotic men over multiplied enemies, followed. Finally, corruption and decay set in, until all that was good and noble disappeared; and we open our New Testament to find Herod, an Idumean usurper, reigning in the Lord's land: the "sceptre has departed from Judah."

But to return. It is the year 277 B.C. Alexander the Great has met and overthrown the might of Persia more than fifty years before, only to be himself overthrown soon after by his own passions. But in the great city of Alexandria, which he built to keep his memory green, and colonised with many races, there is now a population of 100,000 Jews. We pause here to take a glimpse at some seventy learned Rabbis engaged upon the first complete translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into another tongue. This translation into Greek is known as the Septuagint Version, and was the Bible read in the time of our Lord and the Apostles. Many of the quotations from the Old Testament found in the New are from this version; hence the slight textual differences which sometimes appear. There are 275 Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament, and about forty are from the Septuagint. The Apostle Paul quotes from the earlier Scriptures about one hundred and twenty times.

Another step of about one hundred years and we find that the domination of Babylon, of Persia, and of Greece is a thing of the past, and Palestine finds itself in the power of a more bitter foe than any of these had been. Antiochus Epiphanes (the Illustrious), or some would call him Epimanes (the Madman), is ruler of Syria, and Judea lies at his mercy. He has determined that he will destroy the race of the Jews and banish the name of the God of Israel from the earth. To do so, Antiochus saw that he must first get rid of the "Law of Moses." Perhaps never, either before or since, has the BOOK passed through such an extreme crisis. Copies of it, laboriously written by hand, could be but few. Those who possessed them were weak and their enemies were strong, but God was over all.

We read that "Antiochus went up to Jerusalem with a great multitude and proudly entered into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof . . . and there was great mourning in Israel. And he commanded the holy place to be profaned . . . and he set up the abominable idol before the altar of God, and cut in pieces and burned with fire the books of the Law of God. And every one with whom the books of the Testament of the Lord was found, and whosoever observed the Law of the Lord, they put to death according to the Edict of the King . . . and there was great wrath upon the people."

Just let us take a glance at one of the dreadful things which were frequently taking place in Jerusalem under the rule of this wicked King. We shall not linger, neither shall we return, for the sight is too appalling to witness. If we were to linger, many such dreadful spectacles of suffering should we encounter.

A mother and seven sons are led, bound, before the King, accused of "faithfulness to the law of God." One by one they are scourged, the woman being no exception. Then they are commanded to eat swine's flesh and sacrifice to idols. When all refuse to obey, the eldest son is first brought forward to the torture. A sharp knife is drawn round his head, cutting in to the bone, and skin and hair are torn from the living scalp. Again he is ordered to sacrifice in order to save his life. Still refusing, his tongue is cut out, part of his hands and feet are chopped off, and, while still alive, he is cast into a red-hot brazen cauldron to be slowly roasted to death.

One by one the heroic little band of witnesses passes through the same dreadful ordeal till only the youngest is left. Then the King promises with an oath that he will make him a rich and happy man if he will only disobey the law and sacrifice to idols. But he, refusing, as the others did, "the King rages against him more cruelly than all the rest." Last of all the woman dies also. "And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." And Antiochus, what of him?

"The murderer and blasphemer, being grievously struck, died a miserable death, being eaten up of worms, in a strange country" (2 Macc. 9).

A dark day this indeed for the ancient people of God, but man's extremity is God's opportunity, and the very wickedness of the King brought to the front a hero and a man.

Judas Maccabees, the chief of five brethren, was used by God to punish many of the proud oppressors of the land, recover possession of the temple, and restore the worship of Jehovah. The Feast of the Dedication, instituted by Judas in 165 B.C., which we read of in John 10, was intended to keep in remembrance this great national event. The feast began on the twenty-fifth of the month Chesleu (our December). The nations around them were celebrating the heathen Festival of the Sun. The Jews were joining in praise to Jehovah, the only true God.

Just 196 years afterwards we read, "And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And JESUS walked in the temple in Solomon's porch" ( John 10: 22, 23). This brings us to the central point of all the revelation of the ways of God in grace. In the Old Testament we read what men ought to be. In the New we find out what God is, and what God is to men. Two sentences in the first Epistle of John convey to us in the fewest possible words the two grandest truths of Scripture "God is light" and "God is love" (Chaps. 1: 5 and 4: 8, 16). This love has so wrought for His own that every stain of sin that light could detect love has found means to put away. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

In our next chapter we shall follow the fortunes of the Book during the early Christian centuries.

Chapter 11.

The Early Christian Centuries

In this and the following chapters we must trace the Book for a period of some 1,300 years, or from the time that the New Testament was completed until the time comes that we can look into Wycliffe's study at Lutterworth and see him busily translating his Vulgate copy into the then spoken language of England.

And just as we found in our rapid survey of the history of the Old Testament Scriptures that at various times enemies had striven to destroy them, so we shall find the same thing repeated with the New Testament in an even more determined and bitterly hostile way.

We know that all the twenty-seven books of our New Testament were written before the close of the first century. When and by whom were these various books of the New Testament completed and arranged in one volume as we now have them? Of all the various opinions that have been expressed, it seems most probable that the beloved disciple John was used by God not only to write the closing words of inspiration, but also to collect together those already written. Whether this be so or no, we know from many testimonies that by the middle of the second century all the books of the New Testament were known and read in the Christian assemblies. The Apostle's life was lengthened out for about one hundred years, and during that time he had seen the Church in its pristine freshness and unity, as described in Acts 2, and seen also the corruption, declension, and decay which set in when, even at Ephesus, believers "left their first love."

The letters to the "seven churches" in Rev. 2 and 3 describe the departure from the truth of "all in Asia," and also supply the needed correction, not only for them, but for believers in all time, "till He come." If we divide the 1,300 years before us into two periods we shall better understand the methods of opposition given to the Book.

The first period would last from Apostolic days down to the time of Constantine the Great. These were the years of the great Pagan persecutions.

Church historians have usually divided these into ten, reasoning that the prophetic word in Rev. 2: 10, "ye shall have tribulation ten days," foretells in a mystic way the long period of sufferings under the savage rulers of heathen Rome.

Different authorities give different dates for these persecutions, but the most common reckoning is as follows:

1 Under Nero, A.D. 64.

2 Under Domitian, A.D. 95.

3 Under Trajan, A.D. 107.

4 Under Hadrian, A.D. 125.

5 Under Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 165.

6 Under Septimus Severus, A.D. 202.

7 Under Maximinus, A.D. 235.

8 Under Decius, A.D. 249.

9 Under Valerian, A.D. 257.

10 Under Diocletian, A.D. 303.

But indeed the whole period of Early Christianity was one of persecution in some part of the Empire. The dates given above only indicate times of special outbreaks of the latent hatred shown to the followers of the Lord Jesus.

We find the beginning of this opposition in the Book of Acts. A few short weeks, or months at the most, after the Lord ascended to Heaven, we read of Stephen, the first martyr, being stoned to death. Saul, the persecutor, being, as he says himself, "exceedingly mad" against the believers, was making so close a search for them that he was entering into every house and committing men and women to prison and to death.

Ten years afterwards, Herod the King took up the work so dear to the hearts of the Jewish priests and "slew James the brother of John with the sword; and, when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also" (Acts 12: 3). But Peter's work was not finished, and Herod's chains were but cobwebs when they resisted God's purposes.

Space permits but a passing glance here and there as we hasten forwards.

Saul the persecutor was changed into Paul the Apostle, and by his ceaseless labours, ardent zeal, and tireless activity the Gospel had been preached in every quarter of the Roman Empire before his death, somewhere about the year A.D. 66.

At this time Rome was ruled by possibly the most wicked man this world has ever seen. Nero had murdered his brother, his sister, his two wives, and his mother. His hands were red with the blood of assassination and murder. His morals were such as we may not describe. To his many misdeeds he added the burning of Rome, and then laid the blame on the Christians.

And so began the first pagan persecution.

Now the Book and its followers are no longer confronted only by the Jewish priests in Palestine and elsewhere. They are face to face with the formidable power of the Roman Empire. So far, the imperial laws had been in their favour, impartially protecting those who were freemen from mob violence, as we see in Acts 18: 12. But if there is "another King, one Jesus," Rome will take steps to protect herself by dooming to death all who confess His name. For to confess the name of Jesus was to be in the eyes of the authorities an enemy to Caesar. If they refused to worship Nero they were counted atheists. If the Alexandrian corn ships were delayed by contrary winds, the Christians were to blame. If it did not rain, or if it rained too much, it was they who had offended the gods. "If the Tiber overflowed its banks," says Tertullian, "or if the Nile did not, the cry was raised, 'The Christians to the lions.'" In addition to all this, the trade interests of the image makers, and all the craftsmen connected with the idol temples, were in danger if Christianity prevailed. Truly, it was no small undertaking to turn the ancient pagan Roman Empire "upside down," but Christianity did it. Not by force of arms was this accomplished, but by the power of the gospel of peace, and by the efforts of men and women who loved the Lord more than they loved their own lives. When the persecutors had done their worst, friends lovingly gathered the mangled bodies or scattered bones from the blood-stained sands of the arena, and conveyed them to those wonderful places of interment known as the Catacombs, which became, during the early days of Christianity, both the meeting places and the burying ground of the believers at Rome. It has been estimated that over three millions of graves exist in its vast galleries, whose intricate network of passages is believed to extend some 587 miles — a distance equal to the entire length of Italy.

We cannot trace in detail all the records of those early years. If we did, we should see exposed on the one hand the hatred of the human heart to the name of Jesus, and on the other we should be amazed at the numbers of men and women who fearlessly suffered and overcame all the cruelty that barbarous and savage persecutors could inflict. But if we look below the surface we shall see that the chief actor was Satan himself. After all, he has but two methods of opposition to the things of God. The one is violence. The other is corruption.

For the first 300 years he tried the first method, and stirred up his servants to exterminate the Book of God and the followers of Jesus. But the blood of the martyrs has ever been the Seed of the Church, and like Israel of old, the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew.

So the 300 years of pagan persecution drag their leaden feet along the track of history. But we notice that the Christians are winning. All the tower of the Empire, backed by all the will of the rulers and supported by every effort of the governors in every province is unable to stamp out either the Book or the followers of the Book. On the other hand, the numbers of the believers are increasing so fast that Tertullian (A.D. 200) can challenge the oppressors by telling them, "We are but of yesterday and we have filled everything that is yours: cities, islands, castles, factories. . . . We have left you nothing but your temples."

Many standard-bearers fell in the battle front. If we may rely on history, all the Apostles but John died violent deaths. Ignatius, one of John's disciples, was brought from Antioch to Rome to be thrown to the lions to make a Roman holiday in the year A.D. 107. Justin Martyr, with six companions, was beheaded in A.D. 163. Polycarp, with eleven fellow-sufferers, was burned alive at Smyrna in A.D. 167.

The Emperor Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 161-180, has been much admired as a philosopher, but evidently he had not wisdom enough to see that, when he unjustly condemned to death men like Justin Martyr and Polycarp, he was destroying the noblest and most loyal of his subjects. In spite of his "philosophy," or because of it, he was one of the most cruel oppressors of the Early Church. Every year of his long reign was defiled with innocent blood. The Church at Lyons in France produced many faithful witnesses.

The old writer says, Then were we all much alarmed because of the uncertain event of confession, not that we dreaded the torments with which we were threatened, but because we looked forward unto the end and feared the danger of apostacy."

Attalus, Maturus, and Sanctus sustained "tortures which exceed the power of description." Blandina, a female slave girl, shared in their sufferings and triumphs. After a whole day of tortures too terrible to narrate, she could only be compelled to say, "I am a Christian and there is no evil done among us." She was scourged, seated in a red-hot iron chair, then, still alive, thrown to the beasts, and so she won the crown of life.

Under Septimus Severus (A.D. 193-211) the stern edict was issued against the Christians, "It is not lawful for you to live," and the military despot who had marched to the throne over the murdered bodies of his nearest friends was not likely to allow such a law to remain a dead letter.

From Lyons we must cross over to Carthage and listen to the touching words of the young and noble Perpetua, who with many others suffered at this time. "After a few days we were cast into prison. I was terrified, for I had never before been in such darkness. O miserable day! — from the heat of the crowded prisoners and the insults of the soldiers. But I was wrung with solicitude for my infant."

Later on in these affecting memoirs we read: "And the prison became to me like a palace, and I was happier there than anywhere else." "When the day of trial came," she proceeds, "we were placed at the bar, and my father came with my child, and said in a beseeching tone, 'Have compassion on your infant,' and the procurator said, 'Spare the grey hairs of your parent; spare your infant; offer sacrifice for the Emperor.' And I answered, I will not sacrifice.'

"'Art thou a Christian?' said he.

"I answered, 'I am a Christian.'"

Hung up in a net, she was exposed to wild beasts to amuse the populace, and, when gored and torn, a gladiator was sent to put her to death. He added to her sufferings by clumsily wounding her in the side, and she herself finally guided the sword to her throat, thereby setting her free from further suffering.

But it is in the closing years of the third century and the opening of the next that we see the most determined efforts put forth that ever were made to extinguish Christianity.

At this time the Roman world was divided under four Emperors — Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius. We must take a glimpse at these before passing on. Two men are sitting alone in secret serious conference in the palace of Nicomedia. One of them is the old Emperor Diocletian, the other is his son-in-law Galerius. The younger is urging his proposals with vehemence. The elder is listening with apparent reluctance to what might well be, even to him, a revolting proposal. Galerius is insisting that the whole Christian community should be put outside of the laws, and that all who will not worship the Roman gods shall be burned alive.

The winter of A.D. 302 was spent in frequent conferences. The prudent Diocletian proposing milder measures, Galerius urging on his scheme of fire and blood, until the old man finally gave away and allowed the storm to break.

"It was in the ninth year of Diocletian, in the month Xanticus, which one would call April, according to the Romans, about the time when the Paschal festival of our Saviour took place, that suddenly the Edicts were published — everywhere to raze the churches to the ground — to destroy the Sacred Scripture in the flames — to strip those that were in honour of their dignities — and to deprive freedmen of their liberty if any persisted in the Christian profession."

The first Edict ordered the Sacred Books to be everywhere destroyed and the churches to be demolished. By a second Edict all bishops and ministers of churches were cast into prison. Shortly afterwards a more fearful act came into force. Magistrates were empowered to compel by torture all their prisoners to renounce Christianity and worship idols. New and hitherto unheard of torments were to be invented for this purpose. It was thought that if the shepherds yielded their flocks would follow.

The next step was to extend this order so that it included every follower of Jesus, without distinction of rank, age, or sex. Multitudes were immediately imprisoned in every place, and the dungeons "formerly filled with criminals and murderers were now filled with bishops and presbyters, and deacons, readers and exorcists, so that there was no room left for the real criminals."

This dreadful persecution extended to nearly every city and town of the Roman world. Even far away Britain had its confessors and martyrs. In Gaul alone, where ruled Constantius Chlorus (father of Constantine the Great), was there any respite.

It is a pleasure to contrast the life of this man with his three compeers. Many Christians were found in his own household, and when the first Edict was issued he ordered all who would not retract to quit his service. Then, contrary to all expectations, he dismissed the apostates and reinstated all who had held true to their faith, remarking that men who were faithful to God would be true to their Prince. "Neither did he demolish the churches, nor devise any other mischief against us, but protected pious persons under him from harm. At length he enjoyed a most happy and blessed death, being the only one of the four Emperors] who at his death did peaceably and gloriously leave the government to his own son."

Constantius Chlorus died at York in A.D. 306. It would be impossible to arrive at any estimate of the numbers who perished during the ten years that this persecution lasted. In one province alone 150,000 are said to have been put to death. Some villages entirely Christian were surrounded by soldiers and totally consumed by fire. In some cities the executions reached one hundred daily. Magistrates vied with each other in inventing new and excruciating forms of torture; but all to no purpose: the Christians would rather give up their lives than give up the Book of God.

Wearied at last with murder, the authorities authorised a more "humane" policy. Maiming was resorted to: many had their right hands cut off, and yet others one of their legs. But we must complete this sad story in the words of the old historian and eyewitness, who says: "To mention each name would be a long and tedious work, not to say impossible."

The enemy had launched his master stroke and failed. God, who overrules all things, now laid His hand on the savage monster of cruelty, who so far had appeared to have all things his own way. "Galerius was smitten of God," Eusebius says, and some of his physicians, because they could not give him relief, were "slain without mercy."

"Then, struggling with so many miseries, he began to have compunction for the crimes he had committed against the pious . . . First of all he confessed his sin to the supreme God . . . then ordered that without delay they should stop the persecutions and hasten to rebuild the churches . . . and offer up prayers for the Emperor's safety."

The Christians might well hail this new Edict like a trump of liberty. It struck the fetters from those in the dungeons. It released the captives from the mines. Those still hiding in the dismal Catacombs were able once again to appear in the light of day, but above all, it was no longer death to be found reading the Book.

But God is not mocked. Galerius died. Died as only few men in this world have died. It had to be said of him, as of Herod of old (Acts 12: 23), "He was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." History records the same fate of Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod the Great, Philip II. of Spain, and Lauderdale of the killing times in Scotland — all opposers of God and oppressors of His people.

Meantime Constantine was marching from far distant Britain. Slowly but surely his iron legions were closing in on the heart of the Empire. From Milan he issued the great decree of universal toleration. "We give," said he, "to the Christians, and to all, the free choice to follow whatever mode of worship they wish." Maxentius (son of Maximian), now ruler of Italy, was defeated at Turin, then again at Verona, and finally at the battle of Milvian Bridge near Rome, A.D. 312. Fleeing from the stricken field, the last of the oppressors, endeavouring to force his way across the crowded bridge, fell into the river and was smothered in Tiber mud. Next day Constantine entered Rome and became sole Emperor of the West. His brother-in-law, Licinius, was ruler of the East. With the supremacy of these two men, though both were pagans, pagan persecution ceased. Satan had endeavoured in vain to burn the Book. We shall see in our next chapter how he tried to banish it, and we shall see that he failed in this also.

Chapter 12.

The Rise of the Papacy

We have reached a period in history when we might expect that the fortunes of the Book and the followers of the Book would enter upon a time of peace and prosperity. The reign of Constantine certainly forms a remarkable era in the history of the world. In matters both political and social there was a great advance on what had gone before. But the same cannot be said of that which concerns the Church. We have now reached the time spoken of by the Lord Jesus in Matt. 13: 32, when the "grain of mustard seed" had become "a tree," with the "birds of the air" lodging in its branches. Evil men, who before had "crept in unawares," now found that the professing Church was the best place for earthly preferment. The company of believers at Rome soon ceased to be known as "the Church in Rome," and became "the Church of Rome." Two little words, but how great the difference in meaning. The Christian religion was legalised, and became a State-aided institution, as paganism had been before it.

This period saw also a marked distinction among the Christians themselves. In Apostolic days all believers were looked upon as God's Kleros (clergy or lot, 1 Peter v. 2). Now sharp and very distinctive lines were drawn between the "clergy" and the "laity" (the people). Next the "clergy" began to be divided among themselves into ranks of greater or lesser precedence. Deacons considered themselves greater than readers; presbyters considered themselves greater than deacons; bishops assumed authority over presbyters, and soon there was a strife among bishops themselves as to "who should he the greatest." This unscriptural supremacy was sought for, assumed, and finally asserted by the Bishop of Rome. The finished product was the "popes," and everything that bishops should not be they have been. All alike would seem to have forgotten the divine word, "One is your Master even Christ and all ye are brethren" (Matt. 23: 8). Instead of seeking in love to serve one another, they soon began to "beat" and abuse their fellow-servants and "eat and drink with the drunken" (Matt. 24: 49). Not only so, but so great became their pride and assumption that they impiously declared that all who would not bow to the rule of Rome were on the sure road to hell. Outside of the Roman Church there is no Salvation. And such folly and impiety is still taught among the sect of the Roman Catholics to-day. It is folly, because the Apostles were "outside of the Roman Church." It is impiety, because it transfers the way of Salvation from the Lord Jesus, the alone Saviour of Sinners, to a perverted sect calling itself Christian, but which has both in its history and doctrines manifested everything that is unchristian and of the world.

At this period, too, the bones and relics of the martyrs became articles of great importance and high mercantile value. Not only so, but in a most remarkable way the supply was always equal to the demand. Peter's chains multiplied as fast as credulity could purchase, and blacksmiths have been making chains for Peter ever since. Even Joseph's "latest breath" received in Nicodemus's glove could be had for a consideration.

In all this we see that the Prince of Darkness was beginning to build up a new system of opposition to the truth out of the debris of his former cruelties. From pagan persecution came papal superstition. Thus the Church gave up entirely the truth of the "heavenly calling" and adopted all the principles of the world. Even the cruelties she had suffered in the early days she, in turn, inflicted in the Middle Ages on all who truly witnessed for Christ.

Constantine now began to fashion the Church after the pattern of the State. The "priests" were made princes of the Church. (Alas! the Church had forgotten that all believers are priests.) They wore splendid robes similar to the Emperor's. Now, also, we read of them sitting upon "Episcopal thrones" and wearing "mitres." Half-pagan and half-Jewish millinery also began to play some part, for we get a glimpse of "sacred gowns" and other trumpery ill-suited for men who were "not of the world." The bishopric became an office of dignity and influence, and, in the natural course of things, only palaces could be suitable accommodation for such magnificence. These followed next.

Thus the men who had been the mark for Satan's keenest shafts now found themselves patronised by the Emperor and fawned upon by the world. The Church had given up its heavenly calling. We have difficulty in recognising these men as followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, who had to say when on earth, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Matt. 8: 20). In the first century the Church turned the world upside down; now the world had turned the Church upside down.

From this time the Church rapidly fell away from Apostolic teaching and practice, and the results were manifest to all when the Christians began to quarrel among themselves. From quarrelling they came to fighting, and as usual the victors persecuted the vanquished.

Constantine called himself the bishop of the bishops, and in order to settle their differences summoned the first Great Council to meet at Nicea. It is said that a "golden altar" was erected in the centre of the hall, and the Book, which for 30o years had been the object of the world's fiercest enmity, placed upon it. Constantine also ordered fifty copies to be specially bound and sent to the principal Christian assemblies. Three hundred and eighteen bishops met on this occasion, and men who, a few short years before, had lived in danger of their lives found themselves now treated as guests and friends of the Emperor. Many of these men bore in their bodies the marks of the sufferings they had endured. Some were twisted out of human shape, their bones had been broken by torture and badly set afterwards. Some could not sit erect, the muscles of their sides and shoulders all drawn together after having been seared with hot irons. Others walked lame, with legs and sinews torn and burnt. When they were all invited to the splendid banquet given them by Constantine, they must have gone greatly wondering.

One result of this Council was that Christendom, for the first time in its history, found itself in the possession of a Creed. But however Scriptural this may be, we are better with the words of the Book itself than with any definitions therefrom made by men.

Another thing we must notice here before we leave. The Emperor had been besieged with petitions from all the discordant parties accusing each other. Before the debate began he called for a brazier and, declaring he would not read one of them, cast them all into the fire, adding, "It is the command of Christ that he who would be forgiven must first forgive his brother."

The years that lie before us are rapidly shading down to the Dark Ages. Dark deeds took place in the Emperor's own family, which finally led Constantine to transfer the seat of Empire to his new city on the Bosphorus, which, through the munificence of the Emperor, soon became greater and more populous than Rome itself.

The departure of the Emperor saw the arrival of the "pope." The bishops of Rome from this time began to seek a place of power and influence both in things spiritual and in things temporal. When the break-up of the Western Empire took place about one hundred years later, they aspired to become earthly princes and rule over this world, forgetting alike both the words and the spirit of Him who said, "My Kingdom is not of this world."

But amid all these dark clouds there were in many places silver linings; and instead of dwelling longer on the evils that everywhere abounded, we shall look at a young man who lived in Constantinople somewhere between the years A.D. 335 and 345. He was a Goth from the region of the Danube who had come to Rome as a hostage, and while there he had been converted. He conceived the purpose of preaching the Gospel among his heathen countrymen, and to this end very wisely decided to begin by giving them a translation of the Book. But as their native language had not yet been reduced to writing, he had to form an alphabet as well as make a translation of the Scriptures. Both of these things he accomplished with great success, and a MS. of this version, written in silver letters on purple vellum, is preserved at Upsala in Sweden.

Ulphilus is known as the "Apostle of the Goths." He laboured among them with much success for nearly forty years.

Another devoted servant was Severinus, the "Apostle of Noricum." He travelled through the district barefooted, "fasting and praying, and calling upon men to repent."

Prisoners of war in those days met a hard fate. If not massacred on the field of battle, they were condemned to the harshest form of slavery. Severinus interceded with King Flethus and the barbarian chiefs in their favour, collected money, redeemed many, and sent them to their homes — enriched himself by their gratitude and blessings.

When the old man lay dying he sent for the King and Queen. Gisa, the Queen, was a wicked woman, who had been harsh to the captives and severe in the terms of their redemption. Stretching out his hand to her, he said, "Which lovest thou best, O Queen, thy husband, or gold and silver?"

"I love my husband better than all treasure," she replied.

"Beware, then," said the dying man, "of oppressing the innocent, lest their oppressions bring your destruction. Abstain from evil deeds and adorn your life with good works."

When his royal visitors had departed, he asked his attendants to sing Psalm 150. He feebly joined with them in the closing verse, and with the words on his lips, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord," he passed home to his reward.

We may pass over in a few words the reputed "conversion" of Clovis, King of the Franks, in A.D. 496. The Bishop of Rheims was a different type of man from the Apostle of Noricum. What he looked for was change of profession; change of life and nature might, or might not, follow. That they did not is shown by the complaint of his neighbour, the King of Burgundy, who said of Clovis, "A cruel and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sincere conversion; let him show his faith by his works." Already a "Cathedral Church" had been erected at Rheims. We read of "costly tapestries," "sweet strains of music," "wafted perfumes," and "numberless candles."

When the barbarian King, about to be baptized, entered the large building, he asked in an awestruck whisper, "Is this the kingdom of heaven?" We are inclined to question the truth of the bishop's reply when he answered, "No, but it is the way to it." Rome was too anxious to number a king among her vassals to make the gate either strait or narrow. Clovis was baptized and became "The Eldest Son of the Church." His warlike Franks, nothing loth, changed their religion to please their master.

We notice this here only to show that Roman missionary methods now aimed only at conversion en bloc. When a king or chief was "converted" by these methods, his followers had to obey or be put to the sword. This, we know, was far from the Apostolic method, but the Christianity of the sixth century was very different from the Christianity of the first. In many cases it was merely paganism with new titles. The methods of the Book were no longer followed. We may notice here that so far it had not been forbidden, it had only been forgotten. The neglect of the Book, however, was the secret of all the errors, both in doctrine and in practice, we have been noticing.

But God has ever had in this world a testimony to His Name and His truth. This we must now seek for outside the Roman Church. Or shall we say Rome was careful to try to extinguish that testimony in fire and blood as soon as she discovered it.

We now take a long step forward in history, and find ourselves in the year 1172 or thereby. Much has taken place in the interval, and Rome now has become, in type at least, "that great city which ruleth over the kings of the earth." Not only the King of the Franks, but all the Kings of Europe, Russia alone excepted, have bowed their necks to her yoke. She is now at the height of her power and pride and glory outwardly. Morally she is at the lowest depth of vice and degradation and infamy.

We are in the sunny south of France, and when things can be no darker, God is about to kindle a light that all the power and cruelty of the Pope will not be able to completely extinguish.

A rich merchant of Lyons has been truly converted, and by the study of Scripture he has conceived the desire to bring back the Church to the teaching and practice of the days of the Apostles.

His first thought, like that of every true Evangelist, was that the people should read the Book for themselves. At that time the only version of the Bible in Western Europe was Jerome's Latin Vulgate, but Latin was now a dead language, and even the priests, who by this time were alone expected to possess it, were ignorant of the truths it contained. So Peter Waldo succeeded in making a translation into what was called the "Romaunt" tongue. He then gave his money and goods to the poor, and not only began to preach the Gospel himself, but collected round him other helpers like-minded to assist. Just as those who helped our English Reformers were called "Wycliffe's Poor Priests," so Waldo's assistants came to he known as the "Poor Men of Lyons."

Soon Waldo's Testament spread widely through the Waldensian valleys, but as copies had to be written out by hand, and were thus expensive to produce, the young people were taught to commit large portions to memory so as to be able to repeat them in their assemblies when there was no Bible present. Many could repeat complete Gospels without an error. We wonder if even one out of the many readers of this book could do so!

These men hoped to reform the Church, and reform was long overdue. Pride and luxury marked the higher clergy; ignorance and sensuality characterised the lower. But reform was the last thing in the mind of the Pope. He sent instead a company of friars to find out the state of affairs, and take note of who should be burned when opportunity came.

Now for the first time we come across this dread word — Inquisition. It speaks of torture and tears, of suffering and blood. Inside its dark chambers of hellish cruelty we get glimpses of men wholly given over to the devil, and left free to work out their diabolical delights on the sensitive bodies of men and women by inflicting the most acute and protracted forms of suffering that Satan himself could inspire.

But the result of the Inquisition made by Dominic and his fellow-friars was that a "holy war" was preached against the Waldenses. Rewards, both temporal and spiritual, were offered to the ruffian crowd to induce them to join the Pope's army. They were told that the men, women, and children they were called upon to slay were "accursed of God and the Church" — that to shed their blood was to wash away their own sins. The Pope pledged his word that at the moment of death the angels would be in attendance to carry them to Paradise. And for all this they had only to serve a campaign of forty days. Truly the Pope made Paradise cheap. Such were the blasphemous teachings and the bloodthirsty instructions of that which professed to be the Church of Jesus Christ. But enough — here we see Romanism undisguised, Satan's agent and counterfeit of true Christianity.

At last the ruffian army marched. The three divisions were led, one by the Arch- bishop of Bordeaux, one by the Abbot of Citeaux, and the third by the Bishop of Puy. And these Churchmen were more keen for blood than even their rascal followers. The city of Beziers was their first objective. Inside its walls many had fled for refuge. The gates were forced and the city was taken. The Abbot, instead of showing mercy as we might have expected, urged on the work of death. "Kill all," he cried, "the Lord will find out His own." Seven thousand of the women and children fled to the churches. Seven thousand dead corpses lay there at night. Fired in various places, the once flourishing city became a vast funeral pile. Not one house was left standing, not one human soul left alive. Sixty thousand human beings had perished. Mohammed himself never perpetrated deeds such as these. He offered "death or the Koran." Rome's cry was "death" without option.

There is a day coming when the Archbishop, the Abbot, and the Bishop will stand before the Judge of all the Earth, and when "He makes inquisition for blood," the blood of Beziers will not be forgotten.

And so the work of extermination began, and continued in the various Alpine valleys for nearly five hundred years.

We have selected one example out of many, and that not one of the worst. The record of the sufferings and tortures inflicted on the Waldensian Christians was of such a nature that the details may not be printed in the English language. And these things were done with the full approbation of the Romish Church. The leaders were honoured, the rank and file were rewarded. And these deeds have the approval of the Roman Church to-day, for Rome never changes. What she has done in the past she would do again did opportunity offer and her policy require it. Whatever Rome may profess, we do well to remember what Rome is.

But Peter Waldo in translating the New Testament had done a work mighty in its results. The thirteenth century saw but the faint shimmering of the dawn. The fourteenth was destined, in the good providence of God, to see the Book translated into the language of a people that would ultimately carry its message of life and peace, pure and unadulterated, to the utmost ends of the earth.

In the fourteenth century, as we have already seen, was born John Wycliffe. In the fourteenth century, for the first time in their history, the people of England had the Book of God in their own language.

Chapter 13.

Christianity in Early Britain

Romanism in England was not indigenous. It was, if we may say so, an imported religion. Many, if not all, of its dogmas were foreign to the native mind. Compulsion is the first thing Rome has to offer, and it is the last thing to which a Briton is willing to submit. Our country, though apparently under the sway of the Pope from the seventh to the sixteenth century, yet produced many men who refused his supremacy and spurned his teaching.

The true light had reached Britain long before Augustine and his forty monks landed in A.D. 597.

Let us go back to the beginning of the two thousand years of our island's authenticated history. We have no reason to be ashamed of the men who then inhabited Britain and became the foundation strata of a strong and virile race.

The earliest Roman invader, with his "twelve thousand warriors," was so roughly handled that he had to hie him to his ships before the first wild winds of winter and flee to safer quarters. Learning wisdom by experience, Caesar next year appeared with "thirty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, conveyed in eight hundred transports." The size of his new armament was a tribute to the courage of the islanders he was striving in vain to subdue.

The danger was great, but, as ever in our island history, with the hour came the man. Looking back over the years, Cassivellaunus is to us now but a name. Emerging out of the darkness on the one side, we see him striking his many bold blows at the haughty Roman, and then he disappears into the darkness again. We know little of the social life of the period, and less of the religious, save that Druidism, with its Egyptian lore, its stern doctrines, its gloomy rites, and its blood-stained altars, held sway over the minds of men. So far, the glorious Gospel of Peace was unknown.

Another hundred years, and again we see through the mists of time another hero letting loose the British lion against the Roman eagles. But Caractacus's nine years' struggle ends in disaster, and we sadly watch the fettered chief, "with his weeping wife and children," transported as captives to Rome. Step by step the natives are forced back. The last refuge of the Druids in Anglesey is invaded, and the heathen worship is extinguished in fire and blood. The "sacrifice to devils" (1 Cor. 10: 20) is coming to an end. The knowledge of the True God will soon find entrance, and to men who have lived in darkness and the shadow of death, the light of life is about to arise. But that, though soon to be, was not just yet. Another startling figure now emerges. Stung to hatred and madness by insult and suffering, the "British Warrior Queen" once again arouses the spirits of this fighting race. Fear and terror marched before: carnage and death accompanied her, and 70,000 Romans lay dead in and around London as the result of that stern campaign. But with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause, Suetonius again gathers his scattered legions, and after the next clash of arms, Boadicea, at the close of a lost battle, perishes by her own hand. And so passes another leader worthy to be remembered — noble men and women all.

But we come now to what interests us more than warfare or battles. We catch glimpses, for the first time, of some of those noble Britons who proudly refused to bow to imperial Rome, and see them now bowing in faith and worship at the name of the Lord Jesus. What missionary company first found their way to our shores? Did they bring the Book? Neither question can be answered, but it is almost certain that Roman Christians would follow Roman conquest. Indeed, many soldiers in the imperial armies were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing we know is that books at this time were comparatively cheap. Bookselling in the first century was a flourishing trade, and Rome then was to literary men what Athens had been before, or what London or Edinburgh is to-day. Publishers employed a staff of girls to copy out, in neat characters, the works of their clients, and so expeditiously was this done that a book of over 200 verses could be sold for about one penny. In later years, as the power of the Empire declined, learning was neglected, and ultimately found a home in the monasteries, where pious men, fleeing — mistakenly perhaps — from the evils of the world, spent their time in copying the Scriptures. Much evil sprang from the monastic system of the Early Church. This is one of the good things: let us not overlook it. It has been estimated that at the close of the second century there would be three millions of Christians and some 60,000 copies of the Scriptures. We may well conclude, then, that the early Christians in Britain were possessed of many copies of the Gospels in the original language, for Greek was still the literary language of the day.

After the coming of the Romans, the next important event in our island history was their departure. Paganism in the Empire came to an end, as we have seen, early in the fourth century. Thus British Christians were free to carry the Gospel to the Picts and Scots in the North, which we know they did. And well it was so, for here the light continued to shine when it had been almost extinguished in the South.

Ninian, who built the first church in Scotland, was born about 360. He laboured in Strathclyde. Then we read of one "Calpurnius, a deacon of the church at Bonavern," near Glasgow. To him was born about 372 a son named Succat. His mother's name was Conchessa, and she must have been a very superior woman, to judge by her son's career. When only sixteen years of age, young Succat, while playing on the shore, was captured by pirates, carried to Ireland and sold as a slave. Here the lessons of his Christian home came back to his mind and led him to faith in Christ. Succat was converted. Some years afterwards he escaped and rejoined his family. But the desire now filled his heart to return to Ireland and preach the Gospel. He did so, and his labours were greatly blessed. From Scotland Ireland first received the Gospel. Two hundred years later Scotland was to receive in return a missionary who did much, not only for Scotland, but for other parts of Europe as well. Columba reached Iona in 563.

But before we notice the labours of Columba, we must look at other and less welcome visitors who landed in the South in 449. The departure of the Romans left the nation to struggle unaided against their ancient foes, the Picts of the North and the Scots from Ireland. In an evil moment for his race, Vortigern, the British King, sought help from the Saxon rovers, Hengist and Horsa. With them landed at Ebbsfleet another conqueror, with flaxen hair and blue eyes, and never a shield or spear. But the fair Rowena soon had the British ruler at her feet. The heathen bride was married to the Christian King, who from love for a fair face plunged his kingdom into misery. This much of good we may trace in her tragic story: that through all his troubled life she was true to her husband. And whether her friends or his friends were losers in the many fights, hers was ever the sorrow, for she had relations in both camps. At last she perished with him in the flames that destroyed the fortress in which they had taken refuge after his last lost battle. Poor Rowena! Did she continue to cling to the worship of her father's war gods, or did she open her heart to the sweet influence of the love of Christ? Who shall say. Anyway, in that little Welsh fortress, firmly facing the greedy flames thirsting for her life, beside the husband of her youth, Rowena bravely met her doom.

And so the wild welter of war went on for some sixty years, until nearly every vestige of Christianity had been swept from the land. For it was against Christianity that the rage of the heathen Saxons most fiercely burned. They destroyed the churches, or turned them into idol temples. They slew the clergy. Above all, they burned the Scriptures wherever found, for as of old the Book was the object of men's fiercest hate. The powers of darkness were putting forth another effort to retain the land under the sway of the Prince of Darkness. It reminds us of the tenth persecution, only acted upon a smaller field, but with even more effective results.

But just as Diocletian failed, so failed the present reaction in Britain. By many and various agents God continues to work out His purposes of grace, and these go ever forward until the day comes when angelic hosts will chant the song of final victory. "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11: 15).

Chapter 14.

The First English Bible

We shall not trouble to trace how the many companies of Saxon invaders quarrelled and fiercely fought among themselves, shaping out the various kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy. Let us look rather for the brave men who were willing to risk everything in the endeavour to relight the lamp of truth in eastern Britain.

As we have seen, Columba formed a Christian community at Iona in 563. From this centre Evangelists went forth all over the north of Europe. Burgundy, France, and Switzerland were reached by these earnest men. The islands of Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe were not neglected, and we read that even Iceland was visited, though we may well doubt if their frail boats could possibly navigate such dangerous waters.

Kentigern was labouring meantime in Cumberland. Had he received more support from the Iona brethren, England might have been saved from the Romish invasion. Columba died in 597: in 597 Augustine landed in Kent. Here begins the Italian mission: it is going on still.

But much of the apparent success of the sixth century has to be greatly discounted if we are to arrive at a true estimate of its real worth, as we shall see later.

Kent was chosen for a landing-place because here reigned the Christian Queen Bertha, with her pagan husband Ethelbert.

Royal ladies fill a large place in life, and just as Rowena, unintentionally perhaps, had brought evil, so Bertha brought good. In the first place she induced the King to receive the missionaries kindly. Next year he professed to be converted, and 10,000 of his people followed. If we are to believe Augustine's report, all were baptized in one day. We hear nothing, alas! of the vital essentials of repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. The 3,000 converted on the Day of Pentecost were pricked in their heart and said, "What shall we do?"

Augustine then "converted" the temples by washing them with "holy water," and instead of heathen idols he substituted popish idols, with relics of the saints. Soon, alas! the savage worshippers of Odin saw little difference between the old religion and the new.

We read of one, King Redwald, who had been baptized, but who had "an altar to Christ, and another on which he immolated victims to the devil."

Pope Gregory was overjoyed at the success of the mission. He made Augustine an Archbishop, and wrote to him: "All the bishops of Britain we comit to your charge, that the unlearned may be instructed, the weak be strengthened, and the perverse be corrected by your authority."

But the British churches refused the authority of the monk, and very rightly said: "We will have no master but Christ." Conferences were arranged at which the proud Archbishop, "seated upon his throne," tried to bring them to subjection without success. Losing patience, it seems, in face of their devotedness, he threatened that if they would not receive the papal agents as friends they would find them to be enemies.

Augustine died. Ethelbert died. The good Queen Bertha died. Eanbald succeeded to the throne. Soon the priests quarrelled with the new King. Then the King went back to his heathen rites, "and a great portion of his subjects changed their religion with him." The "success" of the Romish mission had been more apparent than real. It is one thing to profess a religion it is quite another to see ourselves as lost sinners needing a Saviour. In the kingdom of Essex the same events took place, and the priests had to flee. Then King Eanbald "became a Christian again." Let us hope that this time it was more than mere profession. Anyway, he hurled down his heathen idols and pagan altars; he forbade sacrifices to Odin, and invited the priests from Essex to take refuge in his kingdom. Very right, too, were the scruples he urged when the young King Edwine of Northumbria sent to demand his sister in marriage "It is wrong," said he, "for a Christian maiden to become the wife of a pagan husband; of one who would neither share with her in the holy sacrament nor kneel down with her to worship the same holy God."

The Scriptures say, "Be not unequally yoked together," and this erstwhile pagan King had learned the lesson yet to be learned by many today who profess to call Jesus, Lord.

King Edwine, however, solemnly promised to give every freedom, both to his young bride and to all the Christians who might come with her. So, like her mother before, the royal lady set forth to sojourn among strangers. Like her mother, also, her influence was for good in the end.

Queen Edilburga listened to the preaching of the Bishop Paulinus who had accompanied her, and her gentle spirit was strengthened by the truth of the Gospel. To Edwine the stormy halls of Odin were, as yet, more congenial than the grace and peace of Christ. When his little daughter was born he "gave solemn thanks to Odin," but he also allowed her to "be baptized as a Christian."

We see in King Edwine a true-hearted man in dark days seeking after light. He next called a conference of his ealdormen and pagan priests to discuss the new religion. We must pause a moment here and listen to their interesting conversation. Coifu, the chief priest, spoke first, and spoke well.

"Not one of your whole Court, O King," said he, "has been more attentive to the worship of your gods than I myself, although many have received richer benefits and prospered more than I have done. Now, if these gods had been of any real use, would they not have assisted me? And in the new preaching, I freely confess, I seem to find the truth I sought, for it promises us the gifts of life, salvation, and eternal bliss."

Coifu sits down, and no one seems able to refute his able argument. We look into the dark faces of the priests of Odin and the stern countenances of the Saxon warriors gathered round their King to see who will rise next. An aged councillor, with a faraway look in his eyes, makes answer: "The soul of man, O King, is like a sparrow which, in a dark and dreary night, passes for a moment through the door of your hall. Entering, it is surrounded by light and warmth and is safe from the wintry storm. But after a short spell of brightness and quiet, it flies out through another door into the dark from whence it came. Such, O King, is the life of man: for a moment it is visible, but what was before or what comes after we know not. If this new religion can tell us anything about these mysteries, by all means let us follow it."

After this they went to Godmundham (the house of gods), destroyed the idols, and levelled the buildings with the ground.

We trust Paulinus was able to teach them clearly about the life and immortality brought to light through the Gospel, and we are sure that both he and his fellow-labourers were faithful to the truth they knew, or else they could never have made the good impression they did among the fierce idol worshippers of Saxon England. Edwine used his powerful influence to support the missionary efforts in various directions, and extend his own power as well, for it seems he had ambitious dreams. His rule reached to the sea on the west, and extended north as far as Edwinsburgh, where "he built for himself a great castle on the rock," and there it is until this day. So he went on and prospered.

But Edwine's greatness came to a sad end. The fierce pagan King Penda of Mercia, "a man who could no more live without fighting than he could without food," came against him with a great army, and Edwine was slain. On that dark battlefield he laid him down to sleep the sleep no dreams disturb, and men began again to think that the "new religion," which taught peace and goodwill, was not good enough for kings.

And so nearly all the land became pagan as before. The gentle Edilburga, with her children, fled to Kent, and Paulinus fled with her. Her brother received her kindly and sorrowfully, and she afterwards retired to a convent. Such was the ending to a lifetime of dramatic events. As a little girl, forty years before, she had no doubt learned the Gospel at her mother's knee. Then she had seen the strange procession of monks that visited her father's Court. She had looked with childish awe and wonder on the figure of the Redeemer exhibited on the missionaries' banners. She had seen her father throw down his blood-stained altars at the call of the true faith, and had witnessed the same experience in her husband's history.

But all the good work had not come to an end. We read much in the Book of Acts about the influence of devout women, and we find many similar cases in Saxon history. Edwine's little girl, who had been "baptized as a Christian," grew up to be the wife of another Christian King of Northumbria, and Queen Eanflaed, like her mother and grand-mother before her, used her influence in a right way.

But meantime one King after another stepped on to Edwine's vacant throne. We seem to see mere phantoms lifting a crown on to their brows, only to be hurled down in a moment, and they themselves passing to an untimely grave. But what we are most interested in is the sad fact that during these civil commotions it seemed as if a wet sponge had been drawn across the face of the land and had wiped Christianity entirely out of Northumbria. "It was a time that was hateful to all good men."

But when heathenism seemed about to close in once more, a young heir to the throne appeared in the person of Oswald, the "Saint King," who had been an exile in Iona. Oswald set himself to recover his people to the faith of the Gospel. The Latin missionaries had fled from the land when Edwine was slain. Oswald, therefore, turned to Iona, and from Iona came the man who has been called the "Apostle of England," St Aidan. For the eight years of Oswald's reign these two men, with their fellow-helpers, worked nobly together. No sanction from Rome was asked for. They had learned the Gospel of Christ, and in His Name they went forth to proclaim it. The King often acted as interpreter to the missionary until Aidan acquired the language.

Aidan's headquarters were at Lindisfarne, a short distance from Bamborough, the royal residence. Here a school was established, and young men trained for the mission field.

But the heathen King Penda was again on the march, and after eight short years all Oswald's good work had to be laid down. But the javelin that transfixed him on his last fatal field did not overthrow the work so well done during his life.

Oswy, his younger brother, came to the throne, and once again the old heathen King appeared. Oswy retreated as far north as the Firth of Forth, and offered large gifts. But Penda declared that he came to make an end of Oswy and not to take tribute. In the battle which followed, the last champion of the heathen gods fell on the field, and with the death of Penda the most powerful opponent of Christianity passed from the scene. Never again did the land revert to the heathenism introduced by the Anglo-Saxons.

Two other events we must notice about this time, and then we shall cease to follow the fortunes of the followers of the Book and come back to the Book itself.

The first of these events introduces us to another devout woman of the period. The Abbess Hilda was of the royal house of Edwine, who was her grand-uncle. She had been baptized when a girl of thirteen, and was one of the educated women of the time who gave themselves and their possessions to the cause of the Gospel. With the help of Aidan she had founded a monastery and school at Whitby, and from it many missionaries went forth not only through Northumbria but as far south as Essex. Here lived Caedmon, who has been called the father of English poetry. His verse had this recommendation, that it put the words of Scripture in simple language before the people. Here is a sample.

CAEDMON'S POEM

"Go thou, with utmost haste, Abraham, journeying set thy steps, and with thee lead thine own child. Thou shalt Isaac to me sacrifice, thy son, thyself as an offering, after thou mountest the steep downs (the ring of the high land which I from hence will show thee) up with thine own feet: there thou shalt prepare a pile, a bale-fire for thy child, and thyself sacrifice thy son, with the sword's edge, and then with swart flame burn the beloved's body, and offer it to me as a gift."

Soon the controversy between the Romish mission and the Evangelicals became acute. It was no longer merely the time of keeping Easter or the shape of the tonsure that was at issue. What Rome demanded now was subjection to the fiction of the "Supremacy of Peter," or in other words, to the authority of the Pope, apostolic succession, and the adoption of all her other rites and ceremonies.

So King Oswy summoned the famous "Synod of Whitby" in 664 to settle their differences. Colman of Lindisfarne, successor to Aidan, with Hilda and others, supported the cause of the Gospel. They held that every Christian ought to be a preacher according to his ability. The Romish doctors declared that Peter was the "prince of the Apostles," that all authority must come from him, and that to him all must submit. We have met this word — submit — before. It is Rome's only argument. Now King Oswy had married the "little girl who had been baptized as a Christian," and, unfortunately, Queen Eanflaed was in the Roman interest. She persuaded her husband to submit. He submitted and declared himself on the side of the Pope. Colman and the others refused. Leaving their all in Lindisfarne they went back to Scotland, and the "Romans" took possession.

We may sum up in a few words the results of the last hundred years by saying that Scottish missionaries Christianised England. Augustine and his followers Romanised it.

We come now to the second event we purposed to notice, and that is the birth of Baeda, or the Venerable Bede, as he came to be called later in life. And this brings us back to the Book, for Bede was the first who endeavoured to translate a portion of Scripture into the native tongue. He had spent his life in the monastery of Jarrow, and was one of the most accomplished men of the age. Six hundred scholars attended his lectures, and his last days were occupied in translating the Gospel of John. Some say he died when he had reached the ninth verse of chapter six, others that he completed the book; then, with the words "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost" on his lips, passed to his rest. Anyhow, we know that he was the first Englishman who really set himself to this good work.

Let us now, in a single step, pass to the year 848, when Alfred the Great was born. In him we again find a man fitted for the great work that lay before him. Just as the heathen Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century swept away nearly every vestige of Christianity, so the Danish Invasion seemed to threaten a like result in the ninth. It was the last effort of the Prince of Darkness to heathenise England and it failed. Everywhere the Scriptures were destroyed. Great monasteries, such as Croyland and Peterborough, with all their books, treasures, and manuscripts, were given to the flames, while hundreds of priests were massacred in cold blood. But Alfred contended unflinchingly and successfully with all his foes. He not only delivered his kingdom from foreign invasion, but he set himself to rule his subjects in the fear of God. Not content with having learned men among the clergy, he endeavoured to teach the people also to read, and many of the nobles, encouraged by his example, were to be seen conning their alphabet. He founded schools, both for English and Latin, and books of various kinds were translated into the language of the people. But valuable as all these things were, we may well conclude that his greatest work was the translation of some parts of the Bible. He is said to have died while engaged on an English version of the Psalms.

Let us now pass on to the year 1324. Many things have taken place in that long interval. One of these things has been the steadily rising power of the popes, who were seeking to bring all the nations of Europe under their sway, and drain the wealth of the people into the coffers of the Church. Another has been the Norman Conquest, and with it has come a race of Kings who offered unvarying opposition to papal encroachments. When Gregory VII. wrote to Norman William to "do him fealty" for the realm of England, the King replied, "Fealty I have never willed to do to thee, neither do I will to do it now." It required a strong man to speak thus to the greatest of the popes, but William was strong. The people of England, too, were beginning to resent the frequent visits of Roman tax-gatherers. One such was told, "If you stay three days longer, you and your company shall be cut to pieces." A papal legate was hunted out of Oxford amid cries of "Usurer" and "Simoniac." "Where is the gaper for money who enriches foreigners with our spoils?"

And so legate Otho "is fain to put off his official robes and escape in the night as best he may." An anti-Roman spirit was rising in the nation, and even bishops of the Church, such as Robert Grosseteste, were among the leaders. When two friars came from Rome to demand from him 6,000 merks, he refused to accede to their extortionate demands. In the end the Pope excommunicated the bishop, and the bishop excommunicated the Pope. Then the bishop appealed from the tribunal of the Pope to the tribunal of Christ. "After which he troubled himself no more about the matter, but died quietly in his bed."

Such a man was no unworthy forerunner to John Wycliffe, who may well be called the "Morning Star of the Reformation." Seventy years after Grosseteste died, Wycliffe was born. To him belongs the honour of producing the first complete translation of the Bible into our language. To Rome belongs the shame of ordering — after that noble work was issued — that "all who read the Scriptures in their mother tongue shall forfeit lands, cattle, life, and goods from their heirs forever." Rome's vengeance stayed not even at death. She dared to prejudge the cause of her victims and consign their souls to Satan.

And now we reach the time when we can look into the quiet little study at Lutterworth and see Wycliffe and his helpers busy in penning the Words of Life in language understandable by the people. Busy and willing must have been the many hands at work, for it requires sixty hours even to read through the Bible. How many it would take to write it we do not know. Earnest and faithful, too, must have been these helpers, for Rome was determined the people should not read the Book, and soon was coming that dreadful statute condemning men and women to the flames for daring to read the Word of God. But the good work went on. Neither the labour of production nor the cost of purchase hindered it. Latin had been a dead language in Europe since the break up of the. Empire, but all MSS. of the Scriptures had been copied in that language ever since Jerome's Latin Vulgate had been issued nearly eight centuries before. Now, clothed in the language of the people, it came home to the hearts of the people. Men were so eager for the Words of Life that they risked their lives to procure them. Soon it could be said that every third person in England was a Lollard.

Here is a sample of Wycliffe's translation. Can you read it?

"Yan whan He was borne in bethleem of Jude, in ye dais of Herod kinge: Se ye maistres come from ye est to jerusalem, and saiden, Where is he yat is born ye kinge of Jues, For whi we sen his sterre in ye est and we come to adore him: And Herod ye kinge whan he herd yis is greteliche troubled, and al ierlm wiy hi. And he gadred alle princes of prestes and maisters of ye folk, and asked of hem where yt crist was borne: And hy saide to him In bethleem of Jude: For so is it writen yom ye prophete. And you bethleem lond of jude you nart nouzt lest in ye princes of Jude: For of ye schal corn out aduk yat gouerney mi puple of isrl."

The Pope summoned Wycliffe to Rome to answer for his errors, but Wycliffe replied by "giving the Pope some good advice."

With the completion of his English Bible, Wycliffe's work was done. He was stricken down with paralysis on the last Lord's Day of 1384, and on 31st December passed home to his reward.

Let us take another short step, this time of forty years only, and again we are back at Lutterworth. Is it a public holiday, or have all these churchmen come out to do honour to the memory of Wycliffe? Archbishop Chichele is here, dressed up in all the gaudy show of Romish pomp, with many other priests and bishops as well. And all are marching to the grave of Wycliffe, but, alas! it is not to do honour to the Reformer. They have come to burn his bones. And yet may it not be that Rome, in basely desecrating the grave of the dead, has done him more honour than she intended. She was unable to reply to him when in life. She now shows her fear of his work by revenging herself on his body when dead. Many of the inhabitants of the village would be able to remember the good old man who had counselled them, and preached to them, and pointed them to the One Way of Salvation. Now they are silent but not indifferent witnesses to the ceremony of to-day. A bonfire is lighted near the bridge, the grave forced open, and with childish spite the bones are flung into the fire, burned to ashes, and the ashes cast into the river. The spectators that day received a lesson as to what Rome is.

But Wycliffe had done a work Romish intolerance, spite of its utmost efforts, has never since been able to undo. She hates, and also fears, an Open Bible. He was a sage counsellor who said to the priests later, when Tyndale's printed Testament appeared, "We must get rid of printing, or printing will get rid of us." So far Rome has not "got rid of printing," but in every place where the Bible is read and believed men are "getting rid of Rome." And to-day there are more Bibles than ever before. It has been estimated, from the records of the three great Bible Societies, that over six hundred millions of Bibles have been produced since the art of printing was discovered. The Bible has been translated into over eight hundred different languages, and in embossed printing it can be read even by the blind. To all it brings the true light; to all it offers life and salvation through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

We may well say with the Psalmist, "The entrance of thy word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple."

THANK GOD FOR THE BIBLE, THE BEST BOOK OF ALL.

In the preparation of this book the following works have been consulted, and the help received is herewith gratefully acknowledged by the Author.

GREEN: "A Short History of the English People."

TREVELYAN: "England in the Age of Wycliffe."

PENNINGTON: "John Wyclif: His Life, Times, and Teaching."

HOOK: "Ecclesiastical Biography." 6 Vols.

NEAL: "History of the Puritans."

SHORT: "History of the Church of England."

RANKE: "History of the Popes." 3 Vols.

VAUGHAN: "John de Wycliffe, D.D."

ROBERTSON: "The Roman Catholic Church in Italy."

HISLOP: "Two Babylons."

M'KILLIAM "A Chronicle of the Popes."

SYDNEY: "Modern Rome in Modern England."

O'DONNOGHUE: "The Peculiar Doctrines of the Church of Rome."

EUSEBIUS: "Ecclesiastical History." Cruse's Trans.

MILMAN: "History of Christianity." 4 Vols.

WITHROW: "The Catacombs at Rome."

MUSTON: "Israel of the Alps." Hazlit Trans.

By the same author

"Four Points about a Wonderful Book,"

"The Inspiration of the Book,"

"The Vital Importance of the Book,"

"Britain's Open Bible,"

"A Bright Sunset,"

"Those 37000 Children,"

"The Story of Rebekah,"

"The Story of Ruth,"

"The Story of Christianity in Britain."

"Messiah the Prince."

"My Class for Jesus."

"The Great Prophetic Outline." An Exposition of Matthew 24, 25.

"The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

"The Man Who Did His Best."

The Captain's Heroism."

"How Young Hislop Died for the Truth."

"Maggie's Resting Place."

"John Wycliffe's Great Work."

"Bonfires of Bibles."

"The Boy Martyr of Brentwood."

"Mason's Mistake."

"Suddenly."

"Forgiven."

"Trying to be a Christian."

The Sailor's Devotion."

"The Sailor's Folly."

"Outline of the Book of Exodus."

"What Saith the Scriptures?" (A Reply to Dr Black.)

"Seven Wonderful Gifts."

Moses - The Man of God

Moses — The Man of God

G. André

ISBN 0-88172-134-4

Published 1990 by

BELIEVERS BOOKSHELF INC.

P. O. Box 261, Sunbury, Pennsylvania 17801

About the Author

Is it possible to combine a fruitful Christian life with a successful business career? For many years, Mr. André has worked for an international company. However, his first love has been to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. While principally involved in Bible camp work in his native country for a number of years, he has maintained a keen interest and involvement in the work of the Lord worldwide.

Mr. André has preached the Word of God both orally and with his pen. Although the many books he has written are better known in French, German, Italian and some other languages, an increasing number of them are being translated into English. They are available from Believers Bookshelf, Inc.

Contents

Preface 5

1. Childhood, Youth, Calling 6

1. The parents' faith 6

2. The choice at the age of forty 9

3. The vision at the age of eighty 12

Thinking things through 16

2. In Egypt — The Deliverer 17

1. Failures 17

2. Who are they that shall go? 20

3. The Passover 23

Thinking things through 27

3. First Steps in the Wilderness — The Shepherd 29

1. Deliverance at the Red Sea 29

2. Bitterness at Marah 32

3. The lessons of Rephidim 34

Thinking things through 36

4. At Sinai — The Mediator 38

1. Receiving the law — The lawgiver 39

2. The crisis of the golden calf 42

3. The tent of meeting — The intercessor 45

Thinking things through 49

5. From Sinai to Kadesh 51

1. Eyes in the wilderness 51

2. The burden of all this people 53

3. Bitter disappointment at Kadesh 55

Thinking things through 59

6. Thirty-eight years in the wilderness 61

1. Meekness and humility 62

2. Tension at Meribah 68

3. Alone at Pisgah 70

Thinking things through 74

PREFACE

Numerous young people in Switzerland and other parts of Europe have been blessed by the ministry of this book. Presented first in lecture form in a camp setting, its influence and usefulness greatly expanded when it was printed in French, then in German.

Now by the help of God we are privileged to present this ministry in English. It should be especially useful for study by Bible classes, youth camps, Sunday Schools, etc., because of the discussion questions provided at the end of each chapter.

With appreciation for the diligent work of Daniel K. Dreyer in translating this book into English, we commend it to the prayerful study of young and old.

“. . . Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a testimony” (Heb. 3: 5). “Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example “ (James 5: 10).

Grant W. Steidl. June 1975

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

Many editorial changes have been made in this second edition. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New Kings James Version, Copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Grant W. Steidl, March 1990

J. N. Darby's Synopsis of the Books of the Bible and C. H. Mackintosh's Notes on Exodus and Numbers will help the reader to a deeper understanding of this outline of the life of Moses. It is recommended that the Scripture passages listed under each chapter heading be read carefully before proceeding into the chapter itself.

About the book…

Moses was born in a period of great stress and persecution by Pharaoh upon the children of Israel. But Moses' parents had great faith in God and so could commit their beautiful child to His care and keeping. Many lessons can be learned by Christian parents today from the example of Amram and Jochebed.

What prompted Moses to forsake the riches of Egypt for the reproach of Christ?

Why did God allow a great man like Moses to spend 40 years on the back side of the desert?

Learn from Moses' handling of disappointments and discouragements how you can and should react to distressing circumstances.

The author, in his own straightforward manner, makes many applications from the life of Moses, his personality, his training and his instruction in the path of God, that will benefit all who will read this book with a desire to please the Lord.

Chapter 1

CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, CALLING

1.  THE PARENTS' FAITH:

Hebrews 11: 23; Acts 7: 20-22; Exodus 2: 1-10.

Amram and Jochebed, according to Exodus 6: 18-20, belonged to the tribe of Levi and to the family of the Kohathites. It was a family which in the future would perform such important duties in relation to the tabernacle.

Three children at this point are mentioned in the word of God: Miriam — probably ten to thirteen years old at Moses' birth; Aaron — three years older than Moses (Ex. 7: 7); and Moses.

According to Pharaoh's decree, issued shortly before the birth of Moses, the Israelites were to cast into the river every son that was born. Only the female infants were to be kept alive. What an exercise of soul it must have been for Jochebed during the long months prior to the birth of the child! Would it be a daughter whom she would have the right to keep?

The child came into the world and it was a son; but not an ordinary boy. By faith his parents discerned in him a special beauty. Acts 7: 20 reveals that he was “exceedingly lovely” (literally “beautiful to God”). Hebrews 11: 23 expressly emphasizes that it was because the child was beautiful that his parents hid him.

There was no room in the world for this one whom God singled out from birth as special for Himself. Centuries later, there will be no room at Bethlehem for the Child Jesus. King Herod will try to slaughter Him as Pharaoh tried to destroy the child Moses.

As then, so today faith adheres to the One whom the world despises, the One who in the eyes of faith is “more beautiful than the sons of men.”

Moses' parents were not afraid of the king's edict. For the first three months they did everything they could to keep the child hidden. Yet the moment arrived when this was no longer possible. With what care the mother prepared the ark of reeds, plastered it with resin and pitch, put the child in it, and placed it near the bank of the Nile River. There Miriam would keep watch on him from afar.

For a few years the children of Christian parents are under the special influence, protection, and care of their mothers. Then the moment comes when they must be exposed to the outside world through school and contact with other children in the neighborhood. Knowing very well that she cannot keep her treasures with her for ever, a Christian mother will be careful to take every possible precaution to prevent her child from becoming exposed to harmful influences during this new period. Above all, she will need faith to commit him to the care of the Lord who is able to keep him.

How marvelous the answer to the confidence expressed by Moses' parents! The hand of God appears in every detail: the selection of the place and hour at which Pharaoh's daughter comes down to bathe in the river; her compassion at the sight of the child; Miriam's presence of mind; and the kindness of the princess who delivers the child to his own mother for the first years of his life.

At home Moses will remain under the training of his parents — “The child grows.” Later on he will be in the royal place where the daughter of Pharaoh will bring him up “for herself” (Acts 7: 21). Moses, instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, will become mighty in his words and deeds just as Jesus was mighty in deed and word, in Luke 24: 19 and Acts 1: 1! Also, Moses knows the pleasures of Egypt.

Which of the two educations will prevail? Will it be the one imparted during the few years at his father's home where Amram (whose name means “God of thy father” Ex. 3: 6) and Jochebed assuredly did not neglect to speak to Moses of the Lord and of His promises to His people? Or will it be the one provided at the court? Will the many years at the court erase even the memory of what Moses had heard in his parents' home?

Is not this problem still very prevalent? Christian parents endeavor to bring up their children for the Lord instructing them in the Word of God. They also take them to Sunday school, to the meetings, and to special occasions for further teaching from the Word. On the other hand, the influence of studies, apprenticeship, and/or professional training will certainly be felt; and it will cause a young heart to forget what it had received at home from the parents unless there is personal and living faith in the Lord Jesus. The case of King Joash demonstrates that a faith based exclusively on training vanishes when the supporting influences disappear.

2.  THE CHOICE AT THE AGE OF FORTY:

(Exodus 2: 11-15; Acts 7: 23-29; Hebrews 11: 24-26).

When Moses had reached the age of forty it came into his heart to visit his brethren. He went out to them, looking on their burdens. Certainly he had not learned at the court of Pharaoh that these despised Hebrews were his brethren; still less that God had made promises about them (Gen. 15: 13). However, the teaching received from his parents was still deep-rooted in his heart.

The day of decision arrived, it seems, when he was to be officially called “the son of Pharaoh's daughter.” Moses refused! (Heb. 11: 24). We may well imagine that the reaction of the princess (about which the Word of God says nothing) was terrible. Moses' renunciation involved immense loss in terms of an honored position, material advantages, riches and “delights.”

Similarly, we live in days when we must be able to say “no.” Joseph's action in Genesis 39: 10 illustrates this. In a situation where a wholehearted decision to cling to the Lord was required in order to refuse, break off, and go away from temptation, he triumphed by God's grace.*

Even if we are never called to renounce all that was refused by Moses, we can be sure that we also will face tempting circumstances. Some material advantages of this contaminated world will have to be declined so that they might not stand in the way of our fellowship with the people of God — even if such a decision involves a measure of self denial.

This takes more than the negative side of renouncing. Moses “chose.” What did he choose? “To suffer affliction with the people of God.” Although our level of decision may not reach to that of Moses, we also will find many opportunities to choose in favor of those whom the Lord loves.

The Word says that the “pleasures of sin,” as real as they may seem, are only for a time; “but he that does the will of God abides for eternity” (1 John 2: 17). Moses' renunciation and choice would later confer on him the authority necessary to ask others, especially his own people, to do the same in their measure.

Hebrews 11 gives us some insight into the heart of Moses and reveals to us the secret that prompted his faith. He did not choose by sheer force of will or through asceticism, but because he “esteemed” the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The museum of Cairo and the tomb of Tutankhamen prove that no little wealth was meant by these riches. However, that which pertained to Christ (although no doubt only in figure) had more value for Moses' heart than everything else; it was a greater treasure!

Moses thought that his brethren would certainly admire his self-denial and devotion to their cause. As Acts 7: 25 says, “he supposed that his brethren would understand that God would deliver them by his hand.” What terrible disappointment! “They did not understand.” The very Israelite whom he was reproving for wronging his neighbor “pushed him away.” What was the good of having “refused,” “chosen,” and “esteemed,” if this was the result?

Fearing Pharaoh, Moses fled to Midian and sat down near a well. There the most bitter reflections must have weighed on his mind, but he did not lose courage. As he witnessed the vexations to which the daughters of Reuel were exposed, he did not remain engrossed in his own pain but came to their help. Thus he remains in character a deliverer and a servant.

How was all that possible? Hebrews 11 reveals it: “He looked to the reward.” His eyes were not cast in the direction of the immediate future with its lost advantages and ongoing afflictions. Even at the well of Midian and in the depth of distress, his actions prove that faith was enduring in his heart. He was looking farther ahead and higher up. In fact, the path which he had begun to walk was to lead him to the song of triumph at the Red Sea, to the revelations of Sinai, to the glory reflected on his face, to the intimate relationship with the Lord on Pisgah, and finally to the glorious appearing on the mount of transfiguration.

There is another side to this account. Before going out to his brethren in Egypt, he did not consult the Lord. The Lord's time had not yet come for the people nor for Moses. It was in his own strength that Moses was going, and this way did not exclude the fear of men. On the contrary, “he turned this way and that way” (Ex. 2: 12).

However, in Midian under quiet conditions and alone with God, he would be trained as a shepherd, just as Jacob and Joseph had been trained before him and as David would yet be trained. Moses' faith was real and deep, but he needed to pass through God's schooling.

3.  THE VISION AT THE AGE OF EIGHTY:

(Exodus 3 and 4; Acts 7: 30-35).

“The time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham” (Acts 7: 17). Years of silent training had forged the instrument. For Moses, the wilderness of Midian was what the prison had been for Joseph, what Cherith and Sarepta would be for Elijah, and what Arabia would be for Paul.

If in our lives God sometimes allows periods such as these that we cannot understand — if sickness or other circumstances interrupts our work and we are put aside, should we not use such seasons to feed more closely on the Word and to learn in the school of God what we would never learn in the activity and turbulence of our normal lives? Such periods can be wasted on vain regrets or in scattered and futile endeavors; but if we use them wisely, they will form the foundation for blessed service on behalf of the people of God.

God is now about to reveal Himself to Moses and call him to the service for which He had been preparing him from birth. How extraordinary and unique is the moment when a soul feels the presence of God and His holiness in a special way; when he hears His voice distinctively! Such a vision will mark his entire existence from then on, and render it fruitful or sterile according to the response made.

“Come now therefore, and I will send you” (Ex. 3: 10). The moment of God has arrived. Formerly Moses wanted to go without waiting for God's time, but now he is about to hesitate. God does not say “Go” but “Come.” It is with Him, in His company and fellowship that Moses is sent. However, Moses is not disposed to respond. He brings before God four successive objections:

Who am I?...I am unable...I am not prepared...I will not know how to act. How many similar excuses have arisen from generation to generation in the hearts of those whom God was calling? “I will be with you” is the peremptory and clear answer which should suffice for every servant. A Gideon, a Jeremiah, the apostles at the feet of their risen Lord, Paul in prison, and how many others have heard this answer and have made the happy experience of the preciousness of God's presence in the way!

For Moses, however, this promise was not sufficient. He raises another objection: “The sons of Israel will say to me: `What is his name?' What shall I say unto them?” Full of gracious condescension, God then reveals himself as the One who ever is: “I am that I am.” Before, in, and after time, He ever remains the Word which “in the beginning . . . was with God” — Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and for ever.

Every necessary instruction is given to Moses but still he is not satisfied. Pleadingly he says: “But behold, they will not believe me” (Ex. 4: 1). God then gives him three signs through which his mission is to be accredited:

(1) The staff changed into a serpent which Moses can take by the tail. This is an illustration of the power which God imparts to His instrument in the presence of the enemy.

(2) Moses' hand that becomes leprous when placed into his bosom and then afterwards is made pure. This shows that God alone can heal the leper and purify the sinner.

3) The water of the Nile (the source of life for the Egyptians) that is changed into blood. This is a proof that judgment is about to come upon this rebellious people.

Moses, however, is still not willing to go: “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant” (Ex. 4: 10). Earlier when he went out of Pharaoh's court, Moses had been mighty in words, but the years spent in the wilderness taught him the small value of this natural ease of speech. The Lord tells him: “And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and will teach you what you shall say.”

Once more Moses raises an objection, though with more moderation this time (v.13). Compelled by the Lord's anger, he finally yields; he goes and asks his father-in-law's permission to leave and go back to Egypt, and prepares his return. It seems, however, that he delays in Midian and again the Lord must remind him to “Go, return to Egypt” (Ex. 4: 19).

On the way God gives him instructions, and also brings to his attention a secret and deep obstacle — a small sin perhaps, but God sees everything and allows nothing in His servant that is contrary to His clearly revealed Word. As a concession to the Midianites, probably to Zipporah, Moses had not circumcised his son. Now amid the dust and confusion of the caravan, alive with people and animals, Moses becomes ill and is about to die. Zipporah discerns in it — and rightly so — the judgment of God, and hastens to perform the neglected rite of circumcision. Moses is restored in soul and body, and goes to meet Aaron. Together they will carry out the work for which God is sending them. In all likelihood, Zipporah goes back to her father. She will join Moses again at the mountain of God (Ex. 4: 25).

What would have become of Moses, had he not obeyed on that supreme day of his life when God called him? No doubt, he would have remained in Midian, an unknown shepherd of whom we would never have heard. Israel would have remained in the bondage of Egypt; or rather God would have used another instrument to deliver the people.

Compelled by the faithful call of God, Moses answered. Through the years, he grew in the intimacy of the one whom he had learned to know as the God of grace who had appeared to him “in the bush” (Deut. 33: 16).

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Describe some of the circumstances which God arranged to preserve Moses in spite of Pharaoh's commandment.

2. Do you face decisions in your life similar to those faced by Moses when he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter?” What do you learn from his example that will help you to make the right decision?

3. Why did God allow a great man like Moses to spend forty years of his life in obscurity, tending sheep?

4. Consider again the four objections raised by Moses when God would send him to deliver the Israelites. How do they compare to objections you may have been using to resist God's will in your life? What is God's answer to these objections?

Chapter 2

In Egypt — The Deliverer

(Read Exodus 5 to 12; Acts 7: 35-36; Hebrews 11: 27-28)

1. FAILURES

At the burning bush Moses had received an immediate mission that was perfectly clear: “Bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Ex. 3: 10). God had not concealed from him the obstacles he would face: “I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a powerful hand. I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof; and after that he will let you go” (Ex. 3: 19-20). There in Midian God had even given Moses to understand that Pharaoh's resistance would be terrible, compelling Him to take the extreme measure of killing his (Pharaoh's) firstborn son.

Arriving in Egypt, Moses and Aaron gather all the elders of the children of Israel who accede to the message, bow their heads and worship (Ex. 4: 29-31). Feeling quite encouraged, they go to Pharaoh and ask him to let the people go and celebrate a feast to the Lord in the wilderness. Pharaoh's insolence soon reduces their courage, but they still try to say to him: “The God of the Hebrews has met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness …” (Ex. 5: 3).

The royal rebuff is explicit: “Why do ye, Moses and Aaron, wish to have the people go off from their works?Away, to your burdens!”

Instead of alleviating the people's burden, this first interview only makes it heavier still. Part of the Israelites must scatter about the country and gather the straw necessary to make brick; yet the same amount of bricks is required each day. Therefore, a reduced number of people must work all the more in order to fulfill the requirements. The officers of the children of Israel try to complain directly to Pharaoh without going through Moses and Aaron, but this only makes matters worse.

It is easy to understand Moses' distress at that hour, one of the darkest in his life. The Lord has not delivered the people at all through him.On the contrary, the people are oppressed more than ever and those whom he wanted so much to serve reproach him severely. What should he do?Should he once more give up, leave the people to their fate, and return to Midian?

Moses is at the end of his resources. Nevertheless, his faith stands fast (Heb. 11: 27). In his deep distress he returns to the Lord (v. 22) and pours out before Him his affliction. Like so many times later on, he experiences the grace of his Lord who does not rebuke him. On the contrary, He reveals Himself still more to him.

Is there not an important lesson for each of us to learn through the misfortunes, disappointments and trials of this life?One person works hard to pass an examination and yet fails. Another tends a loved one with great devotion, and yet this loved one is taken away by the Lord. Still another tries to bring a soul to Christ, but Satan seems to hold that soul still more firmly in his shackles. What is to be done? We must not yield to depression but rather pour out our supplications before God as the Psalmist did — and then rely on His grace. He will not fail to reveal Himself still more to the soul that seeks after Him, and He will carry the matter to its conclusion.

At the beginning of Genesis, God had revealed Himself as the Creator: Elohim — Deity in the absolute. With the patriarchs He had assumed essentially the name of the Almighty — the one who meets all the needs of those who are pilgrims of faith and strangers on the earth. To Moses at this decisive hour, God reveals Himself as the Eternal God (Jehovah, or Yahweh) — the God of the covenant who looks after His people; the God who does not change and who acts in time according to what He is in Himself and not according to the merits of those favored ones on whose behalf He is operating (Ex. 6: 2-8).

Having regained confidence in his mission, Moses goes back to the children of Israel, but they do not listen to him because of their heavy bondage. The Lord does not wait for another entreaty from His servant. He immediately strengthens his faith and orders him to go in and speak again to the king. Moses objects again: “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” The Lord then gives Moses and Aaron commandments for the children of Israel, and for Pharaoh that he might let the people go out of Egypt (Ex. 6: 10-13; Ex. 7: 1-5).

Moses and Aaron, fully confident in God's promises (for they “persevered, as seeing Him who is invisible”) go to the king. They acquire increasing boldness and authority during the entire time of the plagues upon Egypt, being strengthened in faith through the display of their God's power. Moses increasingly gains the upper hand, being fully aware that he speaks in the name of the Lord who spreads out “his strong hand and his outstretched arm” in favor of His people.

2.  WHO ARE THEY THAT SHALL GO?

(Exodus 8: 25-28; Ex. 10: 8-11, 24-26)

There are signs for the people of God, and plagues for the Egyptians as the judgments of God come down upon the land. Seven times Pharaoh hardens his heart (look it up for yourself), and seven times the Lord hardens the heart of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh begins to yield a little, however, so that the Lord might withdraw the poisonous dog-flies from the land, and proposes to Moses that they go and sacrifice to their God “in the land.” Immediately Moses answers: “It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God … We will go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He will command us” (Ex. 8: 26-27).

This illustrates the first snare of Satan — that those who worship God do so in the world and as mixed with the world. How successful Satan has been in bringing about such a condition in Christendom: In many Christian congregations, probably in the most important ones, believers and unbelievers mix together in the same “religious service.” As to the leaders, some of them no longer have faith in the Word of God or in the redeeming work of the cross.

In order to worship truly, a definite separation is necessary. There must be “the three days' journey into the wilderness” — a picture of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Pharaoh, harassed by the successive judgments which ravage his country, later yields still more. He calls Moses and Aaron and precisely asks the following question: “Who are they that shall go?”

Moses answers: “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go” (Ex. 10: 8, 9).

This, however, is not the way in which Pharaoh understands it, and again he sets a new snare before the servants of God: “Go now, you who are men, and serve the LORD.”

In some countries today young people can attend a Christian meeting only from the age of eighteen; in other countries one can present the gospel only to those over twenty-one. Even among Christians in countries which enjoy liberty, the enemy strenuously endeavors to induce parents not to take their children with them to the meetings; or he persuades them to think that attending Sunday School or other special meetings for the young is too taxing for them! The enemy's tactics have not changed. He knows very well that youth is the favorable age to turn to the Lord, for then the entire life becomes oriented toward Him to be lived for Him.

Nehemiah 12: 43 describes a day of worship and rejoicing when all the people — not only the men but also the women and the children — were happy to be gathered in the presence of the Lord. When on the other hand, it was a question of listening to the reading of the law, Ezra spoke “before the congregation, of men and women and all who could hear with understanding” (Neh. 8: 2).

Does this not teach us that we should all come to the worship meeting, including our children as soon as they are old enough to remain quiet? The oft-cited excuses about household chores and schoolwork should not prevent this. As for the meeting for Bible study where the Word of God is explained and studied, do not the Scriptures instruct us to bring along “all who could hear with understanding”? (Here understanding refers to natural intelligence, not the renewed intelligence which can exist only through conversion).

In the face of Moses' categorical refusal of his offer, and in order to avoid a further judgment of three days of darkness, Pharaoh devises still another solution. He says: “Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you” (Ex. 10: 24). Moses, however, knows very well that if the flocks and herds are left behind, the heart of the people will be drawn back again to Egypt. Hence he answers: “You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind.”

Let us be careful to keep our hearts from clinging unduly to the material possessions which God has entrusted to us. They could become a hindrance to the worship which the Lord expects from us. As Luke 16 teaches, the “unrighteous mammon” is entrusted to our management, but our hearts should not become attached to it as a treasure. It must always remain at the Lord's disposal to be used according to His will.

Because Moses himself had earlier refused the riches of Egypt and chosen the reproach of Christ, he now had all the more authority to urge the people to place everything that they had at the Lord's disposal.

3.  The Passover

(Exodus 12: 1-28; Hebrews 11: 28)

The Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes that Moses celebrated the Passover “by faith.” His parent's faith had been necessary to first hide him and then expose him on the river. Then at forty years old, his own faith was manifested through the choice that he made. Again he displayed this faith in “holding fast” in Egypt, despite the king's anger.

Why was faith necessary for the Passover? Pharaoh had nothing to do with it. At this point it is not faith acting in the presence of the enemy or under difficult circumstances, but it is still the same faith. It was not the enemy but God that was to be faced in judgment. During the nine preceding plagues the people had remained spectators, and beginning with the fourth plague had actually been protected in the land of Goshen. But now the people must act — and this in accordance with the Word of the Lord to Moses. Faith was required as to what God had said.

The people were just as guilty as the Egyptians, and even more so because their responsibility was greater. As other portions of Scripture reveal, they had indulged in idolatry in spite of some knowledge of the Lord; and in a considerable measure they had abandoned their God. If the destroying angel must pass through the land and kill all the firstborn, why should he spare the Israelites? After all, God's justice acts without respect of persons.

Only the blood of a spotless victim — a type of One who would come later — was able to shelter the people from the judgment. The Lord reveals this to Moses and Aaron (Ex. 12: 1-20), who in turn instruct the elders of Israel. Moses' faith is an inspiring example: “The people bowed their heads and worshiped … and did as the Lord had commanded” (vv. 27, 28).

Abel's sacrifice demonstrates that the blood of atonement was necessary to come near to God. Genesis 22 presents the thought of substitution: Abraham offered a ram as a sacrifice instead of his son. The offerings of Leviticus, through the placing of the offerer's hand on the head of the victim, express the identification of the one approaching with the sacrifice. (In the sacrifice for sin, the offences of the guilty one pass onto the victim, whereas in the burnt-offering the merits of the victim are credited to the worshipper.)

In the Passover, the individual appropriation of the sacrifice is perfectly stressed: “Every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household” (Ex. 12: 3). Moses did not offer one lamb for the entire people; each family had to slaughter a victim, the blood of which was to shelter them.

So it is in the gospel. Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2: 2). The value of His work in the sight of God enables God to offer His forgiveness to the whole world.

Other passages show just as clearly, however, that whereas the value of the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for the whole world, only those who accept it through faith are made beneficiaries of His work. In Romans 3 the righteousness of God is manifested “toward all, and upon all those who believe.” Only those who believe are justified “through faith in His blood.” Likewise John 3: 16 teaches that God loved the world, but only those who believe in the Lord Jesus have life eternal. John 1: 12 says that those who receive Him are given the right to be called children of God. Romans 10: 9 says that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” It is a matter of personally and individually accepting and confessing the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

According to the Passover instructions, the blood of the lamb is put on the two outside doorposts and on the lintel of each house. The family gathered inside the house eats the Passover lamb with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. The family does not see the blood and assess its value but the Lord does. He declares categorically: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you” (Ex. 12: 13). Likewise, the repenting sinner who comes to the Lord Jesus is unable to assess the value of His blood; God alone does that. It is because of this blood He forgives and receives. The one who receives the Word of God as being true finds his certainty in the declarations of God's Word. He cannot explain it, but he knows that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1: 7).

THE PASSOVER NIGHT

(Exodus 12: 42)

For Israel, the months began with each new moon; they were lunar months. Since the Passover took place on the fourteenth day of the month, the Israelites went out of Egypt on the full moon. In the evening they ate the lamb; their loins were girded; they were ready to leave. “At midnight … the LORDstruck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt … So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead” (Ex. 12: 29, 30).

One can understand the bewilderment of the Egyptians, each one rushing out of his house and telling the sad news to his neighbor; and then hearing his neighbor reporting the same calamity. With Pharaoh at their head the Egyptians drive Israel out of the land. The people, according to the instructions of the Lord to Moses (Ex. 11: 2, 3) ask from the Egyptians silver and gold, a well-deserved compensation for all their years of hard work and bondage.

Throughout the night, from various parts of the land of Goshen, the columns get under way “according to their hosts.” Their immediate goal is to reach Rameses and Succoth. Six hundred thousand men on foot with their families, plus a mixed multitude that went up with them — from two to three million souls, beside all the cattle that accompany them.

What a moment for Moses! When he was forty years old, he had wanted to give his brethren “deliverance through his hand” and now the time has arrived. After the tension caused by the successive plagues and the drama of this eventful night, a new life was to begin. The Lord had displayed His power and fulfilled His promise.

No doubt a feeling of deep gratitude was arising in the heart of His servant. Considering the problems which would soon assail him, what responsibility rested upon him! He had to lead this great multitude through the wilderness — a desert which he knew by experience — up to the promised land. The immense task that God had entrusted to him was just beginning.

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Describe some of the discouragements and trials Moses faced as he went back to Egypt and talked with his brethren and with Pharaoh. Why did God allow these?

2. How does God deliver Moses and Aaron from their discouragements? What is the best way for us to get deliverance from our discouragements?

3. How would you apply to your own life the four compromises proposed by Pharaoh to Moses?

4. How did the passover differ from all the other plagues upon the land of Egypt? Does the passover have a personal application to your life?

5. Suppose yourself to be a firstborn son of an Israelite on the passover night. Describe in your own words the dramatic events of that night.

Chapter 3

First Steps in the Wilderness — The Shepherd

Psalm 77: 20

The last verse of Psalm 77 reads: “You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Certainly, during the crossing of the Red Sea and through the wilderness Moses assumes this character of a shepherd.

The psalm further emphasizes: “Your way was in the sea, Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known” (v. 19). Such was the experience of the people. For them, the way of God was incomprehensible. It took them through deep waters — not only those of the Red Sea, but those of the successive tribulations which were intended to test their faith. The psalmist, however, adds: “Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary…” (v. 13). What God intends for His own is indeed constantly before Him and is perfectly made known by His wisdom and love, even when it seems to them to lead them through deep waters.

1.  DELIVERANCE AT THE RED SEA

(Read Hebrews 11: 29; Exodus 13: 17-22; Exodus 14)

From the starting point of Rameses and Succoth the people had reached Etham at the edge of the wilderness. Normally the shortest route would have passed northwards through the land of the Philistines. God, however, was not willing that His people should face war during their first steps in the wilderness. He rather chose to lead them by His own path to Sinai.

But first the pillar of cloud led them to pitch their camp at a place as unsuitable as possible from the standpoint of safety. It hemmed them in between the mountain and the sea, leaving no exit except the way they had just come.

After a few hours, this sole exit was occupied by Pharaoh and his host: “…the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them” (Ex. 14: 10).

Will Moses now lose the marvelous deliverance that God had wrought through his hand? He is not worried. Rather he stands fast by faith as seeing Him who is invisible.

The people, however, are not entertaining the same feelings. A great fear fills them and they cry out to the Lord. In their hearts they reproach Moses and rebel (Ps. 106: 7). Panic-stricken they exclaim, “it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness!”

This produced the first crisis in the relationship between Moses and Israel. It would be followed by many others. Assured of the deliverance of the Lord, Moses inspires the people with his faith: “The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

The enemy, however, does not let people escape easily. Even today when one has placed his trust in the blood of Christ for forgiveness of sin, Satan tries to instill in that person doubt, unbelief, and uncertainty about salvation. His aim is to fill us with affliction and doubts instead of with joy in our Lord's accomplished deliverance.

Only the Word of God can give certainty as to salvation. Redemption is secured through the work of Christ. Since He performed the work that was required, we need not worry. The certainty of our salvation derives, through faith, from the declarations of the Word of God. We are called to behold “the salvation of the LORD” and to stand still, resting fully on the many passages of the word such as Romans 8: 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”' and John 3: 36: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.”

Still another effort of the enemy is to keep those who are saved in the “world system” and under its grip. How many Christians, although washed in the blood of Christ, remain morally wrapped up in the world — in Egypt? They actually comply with Pharaoh's injunction: ”Sacrifice to the Lord your God in the land.”

God, however, wants to have His own truly for Himself. So at night He opened a pathway for Israel through the stormy sea. The people “went through the midst of the sea on the dry ground; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” Hebrews 11: 29 states very precisely: “By faith they passed through the Red Sea.”

In this incident, faith characterized the people as a whole, whereas the earlier accounts in Hebrews 11 emphasize only Moses' faith. It was no trifling matter for them to start walking between those two walls of water which at any moment could cover them. It required trust in the word of the Lord through Moses.

“Toward the morning” the Lord threw the army of the Egyptians into confusion. As dawn broke, the sea resumed its strength, engulfing the enemy in its midst. “Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt … and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” On the shore of the Red Sea a song of praise arises, sung by every one of the children of Israel. It is the first song in the Bible.

Only the redeemed, conscious of their deliverance, can sing. The psalmist and the prophets will never cease celebrating this memorable event. Indeed, the song of the redeemed which arose from thousands of hearts in Exodus, resounds on up to the the book of Revelation. The song exalts the slaughtered Lamb, the One who is the eternal center of praises for all His own.

2.  BITTERNESS AT MARAH

(Read Exodus 15: 22-26)

Moses was acquainted with the wilderness — its aridity, heat and vastness (Ex. 3: 1). What responsibility faced him there! He must lead an entire people with their flocks and herds through that wilderness.

As for the people, their new-found faith is about to be put to the test. The same thing frequently happens in the life of new Christians. After a brief period, God allows trials to arise in order to demonstrate whether our faith is real; and whether we will or will not trust in Him.

One day, two days, three days are spent in the wilderness, and no water is found. Finally arriving at Marah, they “could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.” The people murmur against Moses and he cries to the Lord. “And the LORD showed him a tree; and when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.”

In the types used in the books of Moses, wood usually speaks of the humanity of the Lord Jesus — that perfect humanity in which He always did the will of God, even up to the supreme moment of Gethsemane where He was able to say: “Not as I will, but as You will.”

If trials arise in our lives, the first lesson to be learned is to accept them as coming from God. In the path of faith, we must submit to His will, knowing that He wants what is good for us. We must try to understand the special lesson taught by the difficulties thus encountered. For example, someone has applied for a position and is refused. A young father devotes himself entirely to supporting his family and furnishing his new home, but sickness stops him. A longed-for invitation fails to arrive. Someone is disappointed by the friend on whom he relied. Faith rises above bitterness and disappointment, finding in the perfect sympathy of the Lord Jesus, the strength to accept as from God's hand the trials of the way that are so bitter.

At Marah, the Lord reveals Himself by a new name: “the Lord who heals you.” The waters become sweet. The healing of the Lord restores. Their next stopping point, Elim, illustrates refreshment and necessary food. And after that comes the manna, provided each morning for the needs of the people. What a marvelous experience!

3.  THE LESSONS OF REPHIDIM

(Read Exodus 17)

The purpose of this book is to understand what the Word of God says to us about Moses: his personality, his training, and his instruction in the path of God. Therefore, we cannot go into all the details of the wilderness and are omitting, among other, the chapter about the manna.

So far, everything has succeeded for Moses. Insolent and haughty Pharaoh has been overthrown. The Red Sea has been opened. The manna has met the requirements of the people. For the servant of God, however, it was necessary to further learn his helplessness again and again, and he learns this at Rephidim.

THE ROCK (verses 1 to 7)

At Rephidim there was no water. The people disputed with Moses and even spoke of stoning him. they said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” Pharaoh had wanted to hold back the children and the cattle in Egypt, and now the people reproach Moses with having brought them out from there.

Entirely powerless before this unjust contention, Moses cries out to the Lord and says: “What shall I do with this people?” Now he will learn a new lesson — the very presence of God suffices for all the needs of His own. God says, “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock.” In 1 Corinthians 10: 4 we read: “The rock was Christ.” The rock must be struck by the rod of Moses, the rod of authority and judgment, so that the waters — a picture of the Holy Spirit — might flow in abundance (John 7: 39).

Since Moses was personally attacked, he must now be personally honored. It is as He continues with dignity before the people in the presence of the elders of Israel that the water comes out of the rock for all to drink (v. 6).

AMALEK (verses 8 to 16)

Another obstacle arises during the march through the wilderness — Amalek. As a type of the flesh in us, Amalek attacks and harasses the people in the wilderness, especially the stragglers and the weak. There is the necessity to fight, but how?

This situation presents another new lesson for Moses. Joshua, a type of the risen Lord and of the Holy Spirit, is placed at the head of the people as they go out to battle. This is an illustration of Galatians 5: 17, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”

It is not enough, however, for Joshua to fight. Moses must go up to the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand and intercede for the people. There he is not precisely a type of Christ, but of those who come near to God through Him to intercede either for themselves or for His redeemed ones.

Moses is aware of his own weakness: “And so it was when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” But Moses' hands become tired. Is it not the same with us? Even if we have understood that the sole remedy for our infirmity is to persevere in prayer, we often are slack and lack constancy! Aaron and Hur come near and support the hands of Moses. Here Aaron is a type of Christ as Priest, “always living to intercede” for His own.

In his youth Moses wanted to fight: he killed the Egyptian. Now well on in years, he joins his brother and his companion in praying for the people of God.

The presence of God and the prayer of intercession — such were for Moses the great lessons of Rephidim.

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Explain why God so quickly led the people to a spot where they were entrapped between the mountains, the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptian army.

2. How does the pursuing Egyptian army illustrate the efforts of Satan against those who are newly redeemed by the blood of Christ? How should we respond to his efforts?

3. Can you think of an incident in your life similar to the Israelites' experience at Marah where the waters were bitter? How did the Lord make the bitter waters sweet and give healing in the situation?

4. Again and again, the problem facing the Israelites in the desert was lack of water. Why didn't God give them an abundant and visible supply? For example, what lesson did the Lord wish to teach Moses and the people at Rephidim?

5. What do you learn about prayer through Israel's battle with the Amalekites?Try to think of at least two practical ways in which you might improve your prayer life.

Chapter 4

AT SINAI — THE MEDIATOR

(The first year)

In the first month after their departure out of the land of Egypt, the children of Israel come into the wilderness of Sinai (Ex. 19: 1). Through Moses, the Lord gives them these remarkable words: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself” (v. 4). The unruly multitude that had gone out of Goshen was about to be formed into a nation (v. 6), complete with laws, worship, a center and a well-ordered army.

The first year of the exodus begins with the Passover and the Red Sea, and continues with God's care in the wilderness: the manna, the water from the rock, and the victory over Amalek. Then at Sinai the people receive the law and the statutes.

In its moral application to us, this first year refers essentially to our individual life: remission of sin, redemption, personal feeding of our souls, and our personal walk with the Lord.

The second year (Ex. 40: 1-17) starts with the erection of the tabernacle. It continues with the consecration of the priests, the offerings of the princes, the institution of the rituals, the arrangement of the camp, and the march in the wilderness. In contrast to the first year, it emphasizes the collective life of the people.

So it is with us. As believers we have not been redeemed to live and walk alone, but rather to be found in the company of his brethren. Christ died to “gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.”

Already during the second year the people could have undertaken the conquest of Canaan, had they not lacked faith at Kadesh-barnea after receiving the report of the spies. In this sense, the additional thirty-eight years spent in the wilderness were not necessary at all; but Israel had to learn to know itself and to know God (Deut. 8).

1. RECEIVING THE LAW — THE LAWGIVER

Confronted with the majestic display of God's holiness, the people tremble (Ex. 19: 16). Moses himself (as Hebrews 12: 21 reminds us) was so fearful of the sight that he said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.” Then God pronounces the ten basic commandments on which the moral law is founded.

The people are frightened and stand afar off. They say to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” They remain at a distance, but “Moses drew near.”

On another occasion, seventy of the elders of Israel go up with Moses to the mountain, along with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu; but Moses alone comes near to the Lord while the others stand back. As for the people, they must not even touch the mountain, much less go up with them. The sole information given about the vision of God as seen by the elders is that “there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity” (Ex. 24: 10).

Finally, Moses goes up on the mountain and hears the divine communications. He spends six days on mount Sinai in the company of Joshua. On the seventh day Moses alone enters into the cloud and remains in the presence of God forty days and forty nights. At that time He receives the two tables, the statutes, and the instructions relative to the tabernacle.

On three occasions when Moses relates to the people the words of God, they answer: “All that the Lord has spoken will we do!” (Ex. 19: 8; Ex. 24: 3, 7). In no way, however, would they be able to keep the law. As Galatians 3: 21 says, “if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” By committing themselves with this rash promise to keep God's commandments, the people revealed that they really knew neither God nor themselves. Someone will ask, “Why then was the law given?” This question is answered by the apostle Paul in Galatians and Romans: “I would not have known sin except through the law.”

A child might easily promise to behave well and always obey his parents. God, however, will allow definite situations in which the child will find himself at fault so that his conscience might be reached. Would there be any real conversion without at least some measure of the conviction of sin? Some realization of one's own ruin? Some impression of the holiness of God?

When young Isaiah entered the temple, he exclaimed: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6: 5). Peter, sensible of the honor done to him, received Jesus into his boat; but after launching out into the deep and witnessing the miraculous “haul of fishes which they had taken” he understood that his passenger in the ship was God Himself. Then he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5: 8).

Likewise, we must place ourselves before the ten commandments and seriously examine whether we have observed each one of them. It is not enough to have refrained from stealing. The mere wish to steal is a transgression of the tenth commandment! Which young man can say that the lust mentioned in Matthew 5: 28 never arose in his heart? Are there many people who have never said “fool” to a brother or friend? (Matt. 5: 22).

When suddenly convicted by the Word, one of our young friends stated that he deserved hell since he had treated his brother in this way more than once. What should be said in answer to his confession? Something like: “That was not so serious. Your brother got on your nerves, and you got angry with him?” Certainly not! Every sin is serious according to the Word of God. The Lord Jesus condemns even slight anger at one's brother. Therefore each one of us deserves hell!

Of course. our young friend was trembling at this thought. At such a point, how marvelous it is to present the work of the Lord Jesus. He atoned for our sins, bearing them in His body on the cross. The chastisement that we deserve fell on Him. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3: 13).

2.  THE CRISIS OF THE GOLDEN CALF

(Exodus 32)

In making the golden calf, Aaron and the people did not really want to abandon the Lord. They rather transgressed the second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down to them nor serve them” (Ex. 20: 4, 5).

The human spirit always tends to materialize what is spiritual. It must have a visible form, an object that can be at least revered, if not worshiped. This was Aaron's problem. As he saw the golden calf, “he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” (Ex. 32: 5). In their thoughts, Aaron and the people lowered the Lord to the level of the gods of Egypt, saying, “Here is your God.”

Idolatry always brings man down and leads him to disorder (v. 25), orgies and licentiousness (v. 6). Romans one shows this convincingly. Nothing is more serious than to associate the name of the Lord with idolatry.

What will be Moses' attitude in this situation?

(A) On the top of the mountain, the Lord informs Moses of what has taken place (v. 7-10). Putting him to the test, He proposes to consume the people and then make a great nation out of Moses. What an opportunity for him to be carried away by anger, and to accept this divine proposal! After all, the people have murmured so many times against him.

However, he has the interests of his God too much at heart to act in this way. Instead, he immediately beseeches the Lord, setting forth two decisive arguments for sparing Israel: (1) What would the Egyptians say if the people of Israel were annihilated from the face of the earth? They would boast, saying that God is powerless. (2) The Lord had promised positively to the patriarchs that He would multiply their seed and give to them the land of Canaan. What would become of the fulfillment of this solemn promise?

Is it not the same in our intercession for our brethren? On the one hand, we must remember the faithfulness of God, his promises, his righteousness toward Christ (“He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”). On the other hand, we must think of the testimony which Christians bear before the world: “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life” (1 John 5: 16).

(B) When Moses sees the calf and the dancing (v. 19), his anger burns and he shatters the tables of the law. This was righteous anger and not an outburst of carnal feelings. Scarcely had the law been given, and it was already transgressed. He takes the calf, grinds it to powder, scatters it on the water, and makes the children of Israel drink it. They must realize the gravity of their sin.

Likewise, if we have gravely failed, we must acknowledge it and confess it before God; but we must also feel deeply in our souls how serious sin is and how abominable it is to God.

Moses entrusts to the Levites the terrible mission of exterminating those who apparently had plunged more deeply into idolatry. Even their brethren, their neighbors, or their intimate friends must not be spared. Three thousand men thus perish. This stands in contrast to the introduction of grace on the day of Pentecost some 1500 years later. As the gospel is preached on that first day of a new dispensation, three thousand souls are brought to the Lord (Acts 2).

(C) By the next day, the tumult and anger have subsided. Will Moses now say: “Yesterday I became angry, but the evil was not so serious?” On the contrary, he speaks again with deep feeling: “You have sinned a great sin.” Having pondered the matter in his innermost heart, he goes up again to the Lord, declaring, “Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin'' (v. 30). He does not reveal what means he will use to do this, nor is he even sure that this means will succeed.

Bowed down with grief before the Lord, Moses acknowledges that the people have committed a grave sin. He adds: “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin ...” He is not able to finish his sentence for he knows well that God cannot forgive without atonement being made. Hence he expresses what he has secretly conceived in his heart: “If not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” He thus offers himself as a propitiation for the people. He has not yet learned what the psalmist will declare later: “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psa. 49: 7).

And yet, the Lord forgives. However, He cannot accept that Moses should suffer for the people: “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.” If the Lord seems to bear with sin, it is because He has before Him the future coming of Another One who will offer Himself in sacrifice for sin. Through Christ, He will set forth a mercy-seat, so that He might be just, and the Justifier of the one that has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3: 24-26). It was possible for God to endure in absolute righteousness “the sins that were previously committed” (that is, those committed during the entire period of the Old Testament) because He had before Him the perfect Victim who would be manifested in His own time.

Thus God will be just and He will also forgive. He will be faithful to His promises (Ex. 33: 1) while also maintaining His glory as to the Egyptians. In His “government” however, He will have to chastise His own; He withdraws His presence from their midst (Ex. 33: 3).

3.  THE TENT OF MEETING — THE INTERCESSOR

(Exodus 33: 7-11)

After the sin of the people God departs, saying “I will send My Angel before you” (Ex. 33: 2, 3). Upon hearing this disturbing word, the people mourn and strip themselves of their ornaments.

What is to be done under these circumstances? The camp had been abandoned to confusion. The presence of God was withdrawn. Moses, however, had already received on the mountain the instructions to build the tabernacle; the habitation of God was to occupy the central place and the tribes were to camp all around it.

Since the people are in utter confusion, Moses realizes that it is no longer possible for God to dwell among them. Will it then be necessary to renounce every manifestation of the divine presence for those who fear the Lord? Moses takes a tent and pitches it for himself outside the Camp, far from the camp, and calls it the tabernacle of meeting. “And it came to pass that every one who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting.” So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle” (vv. 7, 8).

Thus there were two categories of persons: those who were seeking the Lord and went out of their tents; and the others who only looked afar off from the entrance of their own tents.

Do we not have a similar instruction in Hebrews 13: “Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”? Christendom, because of its confusion and errors, resembles in many ways the camp of Israel. Like the godly Israelites who went out to Moses, it is possible for us today to go forth out of the camp; and in recognition of 2 Timothy 2: 19-22, to meet simply to the name of the Lord Jesus. We can do this with full confidence in His promise of Matthew 18: 20: “Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there I am in the midst of them.'' Since everyone does not obey the Lord's commandment, only a “remnant” gathers around Him; but this remnant can fully rely on the promise of His presence.

“And it came to pass, when Moses went out to the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.” The entire people could recognize that the presence of the Lord was manifested there, and no longer in the midst of the camp. In that outside place Moses, the faithful servant, could find a communion which he had never known before. The Lord speaks with him “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”

Moses then intercedes for the people on the principle of grace, a new principle at this point. Being aware of himself as the object of God's favor, he beseeches the Lord to extend His grace to the entire people. He receives the marvelous answer: ''My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” This, however, was not enough to satisfy Moses. Since he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he intercedes that God might go with the people as well as with himself. Finally the Lord yields to his prayer: “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight” (Ex. 33: 17).

The Vision Of Grace

Moses, deeply encouraged by this intimate relationship with his God, fervently prays to see the glory of His face. However, the moment has not yet arrived for the knowledge of the glory of God to shine in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4: 6). Therefore, the Lord must say to His servant: “You cannot see my face; for man shall not see Me, and live.” Although the Lord cannot yet reveal His glory, He declares: “l will make all My goodness pass before you.”

Thus placed in the cleft of the rock and alone in the sanctuary of God's presence, Moses receives a new revelation of God whom he has so faithfully followed until now. At the bush, he had learned to know Him as the one who does not change: “I am that I am.” In Egypt, God revealed Himself to him as “The Lord, the God of the covenant.” At Sinai, he received the law from “the righteous and holy God.” In the cleft of the rock, however, he learns to know the very nature of the One who is love: “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 34: 6, 7).

Later, in the secret of the temple, young Isaiah will learn to know the grace which takes away his iniquity and makes propitiation for his sin. In the vision at Horeb, Elijah will hear the soft and gentle voice which will touch his heart. In the temple at Jerusalem, Paul will see the One who sends him to the nations far off. And alone in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and flooded with the light of the resurrection morning, Mary of Magdala will fall at the feet of her risen Savior.

One may well understand that after coming down from the mountain, Moses is no longer the same. He now has in his hands the tables of the law. They are not shattered this time, but placed intact into the ark, a type of Christ. He no longer comes chastising the culprits and spreading terror in the camp. The skin of his face shines, reflecting the goodness and grace of which he had caught a glimpse. He had “spoken with Him.” Aaron and the people, afraid at first, come near to him and Moses puts a veil on his face. The time had not yet come for the glory of grace to be fully revealed. Even today the veil remains on the hearts of the people of Israel (2 Cor. 3: 15).

However, God has shone forth the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ. All of us who know the Lord Jesus can contemplate with unveiled face this glory of the Lord. We can be transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit (2 Cor. 3: 18).

Have we not noticed the details of this remarkable verse? “We all . . . are transformed?” It is not now as it was with Moses the privilege of one particular man or the prerogative of some eminent servant. This marvelous vision is there for all. There is no longer any veil . . .but one must have the time and a heart to contemplate it.

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Explain how Israel's first year in the wilderness illustrates the individual Christian life; and how their second year illustrates the collective Christian life.

2. Pick out one feature from the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai which especially impresses you. Tell why it impresses you.

3. What was God's purpose in giving the ten commandments?

4. How does the Golden Calf incident illustrate the meaning and results of idolatry? Is it possible for a true believer to be guilty of idolatry? Explain your answer.

5. Describe Moses' reaction to the Golden Calf incident. Note his intercession, his righteous indignation, his decisive judgment on the people, his self-sacrificing concern for them. What is your response when other Christians sin and publicly dishonor the Name of the Lord?

6. What practical lessons do you learn from Moses' pitching the tent of meeting outside the camp? What were the two opposite responses of the people to his action?

7. Review the various ways in which God revealed Himself to Moses: at the burning bush, in Egypt, at Sinai, and in the cleft of the rock. How did these revelations change Moses? What revelations have we had from God's Word that have changed our lives?

Chapter 5

FROM SINAI TO KADESH

(The Second year)

On the first day of the first month of the second year after the children of Israel had left Egypt, the tabernacle was set up (Ex. 40: 2). Different events occurred one after the other: the consecration of the priests, the offering of the princes, the celebration of the Passover. On the first day of the second month Moses proceeds to number the men “that go forth to military service” (Num. 1: 3).

Finally, on the twentieth day of the second month of this second year, the cloud over the tabernacle begins to move. The children of lsrael leave the wilderness of Sinai, for the first time following the commandment of the Lord about journeying. Six tribes preceded the ark and the sanctuary, and six tribes formed the rear-guard.

1.  EYES IN THE WILDERNESS

(Numbers 10: 29-36)

Fundamentally the cloud directed the movements of the people (Num. 9: 15-23). When the children of Israel were to strike camp, the priests blew the trumpets (Num. 10: 1-8). The Lord had provided everything, and His presence accompanied Israel.

Why does Moses wish for some human help in the person of his brother-in-law, Hobab? Being a Midianite, he would, of course, be well acquainted with the wilderness and the places where to encamp. It can further be said that Moses seemed to have his welfare in mind, insisting on letting him share in “whatever good the Lord will do to us.”

Actually, Hobab will not precede the people and find the place to encamp. The ark itself, proceeding out of its normal place in the midst of the tribes, will go before them “in the three days' journey” to search out a resting place for them! The movement of the cloud ratifies that they are to move, thus manifesting the divine presence. This is God's gracious answer to the persevering intercession of Moses, despite the lack of confidence in God which he displayed in asking for Hobab's assistance.

Is it not the same with us? In John 10 the Good Shepherd puts forth His own sheep and .”he goes before them.” The sheep follow Him, because they know His voice. This precious experience of knowing that “He goes before” can be made at any age.

If you are facing an unknown stage in your life: a new period of studies, a sojourn abroad, another course of professional training, remember that “He goes before.” Trust Him and rely on Him. The ark leaves three days in advance so there is no need to hurry. It is enough to quietly follow the way He opens. “Whoever believes will not act hastily” (Isa. 28: 16). May we avail ourselves of the promise made to the psalmist: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Ps. 32: 8). We get this instruction from the word of God, applied in practical fellowship with the Lord.

2.  THE BURDEN OF ALL THIS PEOPLE

Numbers 11: 10-17; 24-29)

Numbers is the wilderness book; it is also the book of complaints. How many times the Israelites complain, weep and wail! In our chapter “the people complained...the people cried out to Moses ...the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again...Moses heard the people weeping...every one at the door of his tent.”

One can understand how these constant complaints (which brought on Israel the chastisement of the Lord) could overtax the patience of their leader. So Moses pours out his complaint before God: “Why?...Why?...they weep all over me...I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.”

Exodus 18 tells how Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, advised him to obtain some help in administering justice by providing able men: chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. His counsel was that these men judge the people at all times and bring only the great matters to their chief. On the one hand, Moses would “stand before God for the people, so that (he might) bring the difficulties to God.” And on the other hand he would teach them the statutes and the laws. Moses followed this advice, taking it as from God (Ex. 18: 23). In Deuteronomy 1: 9-18 he recalls the incident without adding any negative comment. A counterpart to this might be found in 1 Corinthians 6: 4.

However, in Numbers 11 it was not a matter of dispensing justice or hearing problems. It was rather Moses' feeling of being overwhelmed with the burden of his responsibilities. Certainly God was able to give Moses the means necessary to carry out his charge, and He had instructed him to lead lsrael.

Today, in the light of the New Testament, one must acknowledge that it is not God's intention for His people that only one man assume responsibility for the entire service of the local assembly. The decision of Acts 15 was not reached by one apostle, however prominent, but by the apostles and the elders, with the concurrence of the whole assembly (v. 22). According to passages such as Philippians 4: 3 and Colossians 4: 11, Paul had several “fellow laborers” whom he sent here and there, or who accompanied him on his journeys.

Passages such as 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 show that each member, every joint, has his/her particular service in the body of Christ; and that all work together for the advantage of the entire body. The Lord alone imparts through the Spirit various gifts, not only the fundamental ones of shepherd, evangelist or prophet, but also every kind of work and function to be performed in the body. All do not have the same qualification, but all the members must equally care for one another: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4: 10).

Hence, even if it was not proper for Moses to complain to God in this way, we can think that God answered him in grace by giving the seventy elders to assist him in carrying the burden of the people. And Moses did not take it in the wrong way. When Joshua wanted to prevent Eldad and Medad from prophesying in the camp, Moses replies: “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!” (Num. 11: 29). Moses did not at all wish to be the sole channel of the Spirit of God.

First Corinthians 12: 21 reminds us that “the eye cannot say to the hand, `I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, `I have no need of you.' Each of us has received from the Lord a service to perform, and we cannot abandon it to somebody else. Neither should we despise or try to imitate the function which God might have entrusted to others. All are called in dependence on the Lord, to be “joined in the work and laboring” (1 Cor. 16: 16 JND) in a spirit of submission and mutual esteem (Phil. 2: 4; Rom. 12: 3). This is not collaboration as understood in a human organization. Rather, it is cooperation in a living organism, each member operating at the place assigned by the Master (Eph. 4: 16); and particularly today in the scope of 2 Tim. 2: 19-26.

3.  BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT AT KADESH

(Deuteronomy 1: 19-46; Numbers 13 and Numbers 14)

“It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea” (Deut. 1: 2). A few days would suffice to reach the frontier of Canaan. Yet, more than thirty eight years after the departure from Sinai we meet the people at Kadesh-barnea again (Num. 20: 1). So today, the spiritual progress of a soul can be rapid, but often many years are wasted through lack of faith, vigilance, and love for the Lord.

This is just what happened with the people of Israel. As the starting point for the conquest, Kadesh-Barnea was situated at the frontier of Canaan. Moses mentions it in Deuteronomy one. After the “great and terrible wilderness” which they had crossed, the lsraelites had only to move forward fearlessly and take possession of Palestine. As Moses said, “You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged” (Deut. 1: 20, 21). In these words one can sense all the relief felt by Moses. He had brought the people through the different stages of the wilderness up to the frontier of Canaan. Just a few more efforts, and through God's kindness he would soon be able to lay down his heavy burden and enjoy rest.

Why then was the course of events different?

(A) The people conceived the blameable wish to send spies to examine the land. Was it not enough that God had declared to them that it was a country flowing with milk and honey, and that He would accompany them in their conquest of it? No, they want men to examine the land on their behalf and bring them news about it. Numbers 13 describes how the Lord accedes to their request and tells Moses to send out spies. In this way, He tries the people to see whether they will trust Him or not.

(B) The people wrongly accepted the majority report of the spies. True, these men reported that Canaan was as God had promised: “The land...truly flows with milk and honey” (Num. 13: 27). However, they quickly add that the people dwelling in the land are strong; the cities are walled and very great. They discredit the land and completely discourage the children of Israel from conquering it.

Caleb protests boldly: “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” The following day. Joshua joins him, insisting that Israel must not “fear the people of the land, for...the LORD is with us” (Num. 14: 9).

Will Israel listen to the disheartening declarations of the ten, or to the two men of faith who, trusting the Lord, assure them of the victory?

How is it with us? Are we among those who recommend “the land” or those who hold back souls from following the Lord? Are not criticisms, detractions, depreciation of the ministry of the Word, negligence in attending the meetings, and so many other insinuation elements which discourage our brethren from possessing the spiritual blessings given by God? Let us, like Joshua and Caleb, rely on God to take possession of what He has given us, and incite others to do the same.

(C) The people listen to the ten spies. During the entire night they lift up their voice, crying and weeping. In the morning they reject Moses and prepare to appoint a captain who will lead them back to Egypt. They further declare that Joshua and Caleb should be stoned.

What a terrible hour for Moses! It may have been the darkest hour in his life. How many times had he not interceded for this people? He had even offered himself for them as a propitiation for their sin, if this had been possible. With faithfulness and constancy he had led them up to the frontier of the promised land. Now they reject him and want to return to Egypt. He falls on his face before the entire assembly, painfully aware that the promised rest is about to be forfeited.

The Lord puts his servant to the test by again proposing that He destroy the people and make of Moses a nation greater and mightier than they. Moses, however, would not accept to enter the land alone, sacrificing his brethren and the glory of God (v. 16). He beseeches the Lord to forgive once more “according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now” (v. 19). “Then the LORD said: I have pardoned, according to your word.”

Moses, however, will have to submit to the discipline that will strike Israel on account of their unbelief. The entire generation that came out of Egypt will perish in the wilderness. What a faithful servant is Moses! He accepts rather to be thirty-eight years in affliction along with the people of God than to witness their destruction and himself be honored. He bows down, submitting to the suffering which he has not deserved. He will see the bodies of his companions fall one after another and die in the arid solitude. As he sees it at this time, only four will survive the thirty-eight more years in the wilderness and enter the promised land: himself, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb.

Several of the people seem to reconsider: “And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, `Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned!'” (Num. 14: 40). However, they are persisting in their own strength. Moses rather submits to the divine discipline and remains in the camp. Then, as he expresses with deep melancholy in Deuteronomy 2: 1, “...we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me.”

Making all due allowance, do we not at times face the same experience? Must we not also humble ourselves and bow under the hand of God who disciplines His people, even if personally we have had no direct part in the fault that brings divine chastisement upon us?

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Describe the camp of Israel as they left the wilderness of Sinai. In what ways do you see God's concern for them, His desire to be among them and lead them?

2. How is the functioning of various members in the body of Christ illustrated by the distribution of Moses' responsibility among seventy of the elders of Israel? What is your place and function in the body of Christ?

3. What factors prevented the Israelites from going in to possess the promised land when they first arrived at the frontier town of Kadesh- Barnea? What was the result of their failure to possess the land at that time?

4. What are some of the ways in which we hinder one another from possessing our land of spiritual blessings in Christ?

5. How does Moses' great heart for God and for the people of God shine forth once again at Kadesh-barnea?

Chapter 6

THIRTY-EIGHT MORE YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS

In Deuteronomy 2: 14-15 we read: “And the time we took to come from Kadesh-Barnea...was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp.” A choice had been made at Kadesh by these men; they did not have the faith to go up and conquer the land of Canaan, as Caleb and Joshua had urged them to do. Frightened by the enemy, they had renounced God's desire for them to possess it.

Regarding salvation or the daily walk, there are decisive days in life when we too are confronted by a crossroads. Will we really decide for the Lord, adhering to Him and giving Him the first place? Or do we still want to enjoy the things of this world a little longer? The broad road will lead us far away from fellowship with the Lord. For the lsraelites there was no return, no recovery. Under the government of God, the face of the wilderness was strewn with their graves.

We will not take time to consider the various incidents recorded in the Word which occurred during these long years. However, three of them may retain our attention as marking more particularly the character of Moses. These are: the criticism by Miriam, the rebellion of Korah, and the tension at Meribah.

1.  MEEKNESS AND HUMILITY

(A) In The Face Of Miriam's Criticism

(Numbers 12)*

Miriam, the older sister of Moses, had come out with him from Egypt. She had led the choirs of the women in the song of triumph after the Crossing of the Red Sea, and had no doubt acquired an important position within the family and among the people because of her age (Micah 6: 4).

Now however, Zipporah** (who had left Moses for a time) reappears (Ex. 18: 2). Now that Moses has a wife again, Miriam can no longer have the same place as before. As easily happens under such circumstances, Miriam starts to criticize her brother, speaking against him and belittling him. She wins Aaron over, and together they ask insinuatingly: “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” (Num. 12: 2).

How many times, even among us, do envy and jealousy cause criticism and slander? 1 Peter 2: 1 teaches us that we must lay aside all envyings and jealousy if we want to be fed by the pure milk of the Word; if we want to come near the Lord and worship Him. The account in Numbers 12 emphasizes the seriousness of these faults.

Furthermore, Miriam and Aaron, blinded by their self-importance, refuse to acknowledge the place given by God to Moses. “And the Lord heard it” (Num. 12: 2). Someone may think that he has whispered a critical word only in the ear of a brother or sister, advising him or her not to tell it to anybody else. Let us remember that the Lord has heard it and will hold us accountable.

Moses probably knew the criticisms that Miriam was spreading against him. However, as the Word of God says, he was very meek, “more than all men who were on the face of earth.” Humbly he kept silent, just as his Master would do in a future day. When we become the objects of criticism or even slander, should we not also leave it to God? He will bring everything to light at the right moment, and will not allow any bad effect beyond what He deems advisable for his servants.

“Suddenly” the Lord intervenes, calling Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the tent of meeting. Perhaps Aaron and Miriam imagine that what had just happened with the seventy elders will now take place with them. That is, the Lord will take of the Spirit which is on their younger brother and place it on them. If this is what they think, their eyes will soon be opened. The Lord summons Miriam and Aaron to appear alone before Him. Undertaking Moses' defence, He says: “Why...were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

We may well underline this verse in our Bibles so that we might take care not to do the same. Criticisms against the servants of God, against their ministry, and against their behavior are so easily expressed!

“So the anger of the LORD was aroused against them, and He departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow.” She must suffer the consequences of her failure. Moses intercedes for her, a fresh proof of his love and humility; but the entire people will know the chastisement that has struck the prophetess who had not been afraid to criticize her brother. During seven days she is to be excluded from the camp; and Israel cannot journey until Miriam is healed and received back into the camp. Regretting a fault is not enough. We must feel deeply within ourselves its gravity in the eyes of God, if not in those of men.

Let us emphasize the attitude of Moses who prays and intercedes for his sister, just as Job did for his friends, and as John invites us to do if we see a brother sinning. Matthew 18 teaches us to go and see such a brother and try to win him. If this move although made in the humble spirit of footwashing as described in John 13 — remains fruitless, two or three brothers must be taken along in order to try to recover the guilty one. It is only after the second visit has failed that one must tell it to the assembly, and then only if the case is sufficiently serious. Evil must in no way be spread abroad. Let us not forget how much Miriam suffered for it.

(B) In The Face of Korah's Rebellion

Numbers 16 relates the most serious difficulty faced by Moses during the forty years in the wilderness. Korah, a Levite of the family of the Kohathites, becomes puffed up. Rallying two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly to himself, he intends to seize religious power. He boldly asks, “Why is the priesthood reserved for the family of Aaron? Why do the Levites not have access to it? Since the entire assembly of Israel — all of them are holy and the Lord is in the midst of them, why do Moses and Aaron lift themselves up above the congregation of the Lord?”

It is not only in our days that an alleged zeal for the holiness of God's assembly is used as a pretext to put oneself forward and to gain influence!

Dathan, Abiram and On of the tribe of Reuben also attack, so to say, the civil authority of Moses, saying, “Is it a small thing that you...should keep acting like a prince over us?” (v. 13).

The double rebellion grows to the point of involving the whole assembly (v. 19). What will Moses do? As at so many other times, he falls on his face (whereas Korah exalts himself) and leaves the decision to God, saying, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will show ...whom He chooses” (v.5). On the one hand Moses relies on the decision of God to confirm the position which He has given to each one; on the other hand he waits until “to-morrow.” He does not want to act hastily in spite of the gravity of the situation. He would rather allow Korah and those with him enough time to repent.

The ingratitude and rebellion experienced by Moses might have caused him to go away and leave the people to their fate. He stays however, aware of the responsibility involved in his God-given position. He keeps his position of authority without losing his spirit of grace and humility.

Is this not the first lesson that we must learn from this chapter, that is, to acknowledge the position imparted by God to each one of his people? In the body of Christ the members do not all have the same function. God has placed each one in the body as it has pleased Him. None can say to the others: “We do not need you.” Members who seem less important cannot think that they therefore do not belong to the body.

The Levites, as Moses emphasized, occupied a privileged position. They could come near to God in performing the service of the tabernacle (v. 9). Why then should they also want to assume the priesthood for themselves? If God has entrusted it to the family of Aaron, should they not acknowledge this special position? And if God has invested Moses with authority, must not His decisions be obeyed with all submission?

Today it is not quite the same since all believers are priests. However, The Word of God does mark out some as elders and some as leaders to be obeyed. Those who labor in the Word must be highly esteemed in love. It is important for us to first discern the place of personal service which the Lord has entrusted to each of us. Then in dependence on Him, seek through His grace to faithfully fulfill that place without trying to encroach on the ground entrusted by the Lord to others.

Faced with the insolent attitude of Dathan and Abiram, Moses once more places himself in the hands of the Lord (v. 15). The day after, Korah gathers his two hundred fifty men. As they all offer incense together at the entrance of the tent of meeting, thus acting as priests, the Lord again threatens to destroy the entire people (v. 21). Moses, however, intercedes for them, and the Lord spares them on condition that they depart from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Because the case is so serious, God cannot show mercy. A simple exclusion from the assembly is no longer possible for these men. One must depart from them and leave them to their fate.

These men learn nothing from the situation. On the contrary, they stand in the entrance of their tents with their wives, their sons and their little ones, defying the entire assembly. Suddenly, the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up! Fire from the Lord also consumes the two hundred and fifty men who offered the incense. Thus the entire people must learn that only the intercession of Moses — a type of Christ — was able to keep them from perdition; They also must know that God's judgment does not spare the guilty ones who do not repent.

As with the incident of the golden calf, order is not yet restored by the following day. The whole assembly again murmurs against Moses and Aaron, saying that they have killed the people of the Lord. A plague breaks out and would have destroyed them all, had not Aaron taken a censer upon Moses' instruction, and stood between the dead and the living. Thus, the plague is stayed. The incense speaks of an offering, the sweet odor of which would ascend before God. It is a perfect figure of the Victim who alone can save from eternal death those who trust in Him.

This time 14,700 people die. This shows how serious it is to continue to rebel after God's judgment has been clearly declared.

God, however, wanted to confirm openly the priesthood of Aaron. Hence, He gives a sign to clearly designate the one whom He has chosen. It is not a sign of death like the fire which consumed the two hundred fifty men, but a sign of life. The rod of Aaron, placed in the sanctuary together with the rods of the princes of the twelve tribes, alone buds forth, bearing flowers and fruit. Thus, Aaron is a type of that other Priest, “...Who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7: 16).

2.  TENSION AT MERIBAH

(Numbers 20: 1-13)

It is now the fortieth year in the wilderness. Since the incident of the spies in the second year, the people have been roaming about and have finally gathered again at Kadesh.

At this time, Miriam dies and is buried.

Once more there is no water. How will the new generation, raised in the wilderness, react? They know the law and the statutes, they have celebrated the Passover, and the tabernacle is dwelling in their midst. One may understand the murmurings of those brought up in Egypt, but the younger generation had heard the teaching of Moses. They were the object of his care. They saw the glory of the Lord so many times in the wilderness. Will they not behave better than their fathers?

Not at all. The human heart remains the same and again murmurings,reproaches, and questions are raised, this time from the new generation. Moses and Aaron fall upon their faces, not before the congregation as on other occasions, but “at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (Num. 20: 6 JND). The glory of the Lord appears to them, this time not to consume the people but to use grace. Such grace would be shown on the basis of the priesthood, confirmed through the life manifested in the rod of Aaron.

The Lord gives Moses precise instructions: he must take “...the rod from before the LORD” (Num. 20: 9) — the rod that had budded forth. He must gather the assembly together and speak before them to the rock. Moses takes the rod as the Lord had commanded him. The two brothers gather the congregation before the rock.

It is a moment of tension, irritation, and indignation for Moses whose career will be broken down through his ill-considered action on this occasion. He says to them: “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock? Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod.”

Had Moses' faith decreased? Had he become somewhat tired of the prolonged ingratitude of the people? Whatever the case might be, he lacks the faith that would enable him to simply speak to the rock. He wants to use authority in striking it with his rod. He thus disobeys the Lord's precise order to only speak to the rock while holding in his hand the rod of grace connected with the priesthood.

Grace alone was able to introduce the people into the land. Neither authority nor the rod of judgment could do so. The whole incident is a picture of Christ who would be offered only once. Even if Moses was unable to understand the entire import of his gesture, it still was a serious matter to strike the rock a second time.

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, `Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land” (v. 12). In our eyes, the divine sentence seems to be out of proportion to their fault. However, the Lord holds more responsible those who have received much, especially his servants (Luke 12: 48).

Several times Moses beseeches God to revoke his sentence, but the divine decision remains inexorable (Deut. 3: 25-26). The old servant of God recovers communion and intimacy with the Lord, but under the divine government, the consequences remain: “You shall not go over this Jordan.” A similar thing occurred with regard to David and Bathsheba's child.

3.  ALONE AT PISGAH

(Deuteronomy 34)

A short time after the contention at Meribah, Aaron, along with Moses and Eleazar, must go up on mount Hor. There Moses strips his brother of his priestly garments and puts them upon Eleazar, his nephew. “Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain” (Num. 20: 28).

At the time of the golden calf, Aaron had been spared. When the fire of the Lord destroyed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire, Aaron had kept silent, aware that the fault of his sons was not as grave as his own had been. Once more he is spared. Now at the end of his life he must die, stripped of the garments that marked the high position to which he had been called. His faith, like that of his brother, had been defective at the critical moment.

For a few more months Moses will remain alone at the head of the people. His last year is quite occupied. The entire book of Deuteronomy is filled with his memories. As legislator, he briefly restates the ordinances, gives new instructions for the land, and makes his last recommendations to the people. In the presence of all the people he invests Joshua with the authority needed to assume the succession. He gives expression to the song which will remind Israel of the warnings of the Lord. Before dying he blesses the tribes one after the other, thus showing that he is aware of the future ruin of the people as well as God's resources for them.

Before leaving those whom he has served and led so faithfully, he pronounces these last words: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33: 27). In his prayer preserved in Psalm 90, he can say: “LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Had not this communion, this intimacy with God, marked his career on earth from the burning bush to the plains of Moab? Alluding to such vital fellowship, the Lord Jesus will later say: “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15).

The God whom the fathers had known, the God who had revealed Himself to Moses, was always the same. His eternal arms had carried him as He carried his people through all these years.

The last day arrives. Moses leaves the plains of Moab where the tents of the people were pitched, and slowly goes up to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah. His work is completed. He has led this nation through so many difficulties and obstacles up to the frontier of the land. He has also communicated to them the thoughts of God. Now his task is finished, although not in the way he would really have liked, since he cannot introduce Israel into the land. Unlike Aaron, he does not have a brother and a son near him to assist him in his last moments. Even his faithful Joshua who had accompanied him at Sinai has remained in the plain.

A greater One, however, comes near to him and lets him experience His presence and intimacy: “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, `I will give it to your descendants.' I have caused you to see it with your eyes.'” Abraham of old had walked “in the land through its length and its width,”. knowing that God would give it to his descendants (Gen. 13: 17). The men of faith of Hebrews 11 saw from afar the promised things, the heavenly land, and they embraced them. John at Patmos, aware of the ruin of the assembly (Rev. 2-3), saw the heavenly city, the Lamb's wife (Rev. 21).

At the thorn-bush, Moses had been alone with God on holy ground. There the I AM THAT I AM revealed Himself and constrained His servant to accept the mission being entrusted to him. At Sinai as lawgiver, he had been alone with the Lord on two occasions of forty days each. Then in the cleft of the rock, he had learned to know God's thoughts of grace.

How many times this leader, tired of the ingratitude of the people, had entered the most holy place to listen in the silence of the sanctuary to the voice speaking to him from off the mercy-seat? (Num. 7: 89). “And he spoke to Him.” Now on barren Pisgah at this supreme moment of Moses' life, His faithful and well known Friend is there near His servant.

After contemplating the good land which God will give to His people, Moses, alone, falls asleep. The Lord Himself buries him in the valley and no man knows his sepulchre to this day. God takes care of the body of His servant, just as later He will make sure that the body of His Son is given the right burial. The Epistle of Jude records a dispute between Michael and Satan about the body of Moses. God watches, lest the enemy might make of it an object of veneration and idolatry as he did with the brass serpent.

One day Moses did enter the promised land. On the mount of transfiguration, he saw in glorious humanity, the Face that had remained hidden at Sinai (Luke 9: 28-31). The purpose of this meeting was not to speak of the past and of all that had been involved in the journey through the wilderness. Neither was it to consider the remote future when the glory of the Son of God would shine in His kingdom. Rather, it was to speak of His death which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

In the Passover lamb and in the Levitical sacrifices, Moses had presented the type. Now the reality was there: Jesus was to be presented as the propitiation “that He [God] might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The marvelous vision disappears; the cloud takes away Moses and Elijah until the day of resurrection; the disciples no longer see anyone but “Jesus alone with them.”

Moses — man of God, man of faith, deliverer, leader, shepherd, lawgiver, mediator, intercessor, prophet, and so frequently a type of Christ. This great figure of Moses remains before us unique and lonely so that considering the outcome of his conduct, we might imitate his faith (Heb. 13: 7).

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

1. Describe the unhappy situation in which Miriam and Aaron begin complaining against Moses because of his wife. How does this illustrate the strife and murmurings which can arise in an assembly?

2. What personal lessons do you learn from Moses' response (or lack of response) to the complaints against him?

3. Consider the rebellion of Korah and his allies against Moses and Aaron: their complaints, their presumption and God's judgment upon them. Why do you suppose the congregation generally sided with these rebels after all Moses had done for them? What can you learn from Moses about the right attitude towards those who show cruel and unjust ingratitude towards us?

4. Explain the difference between priesthood then and now. Considering this vast difference, what are the lessons we can yet learn from this rebellion against God's established priesthood?

5. Describe the incident at Meribah where Moses hit the rock. Considering the forty long years in which Moses had borne with this disobedient and rebellious people, we might excuse him for acting in anger and self-will, but how did God view it? Yet, what do the further references to Moses in the Bible reveal as to what God wants us to remember about His beloved servant? (Luke 9: 28-31; Acts 7; Heb. 3: 1-5; Heb. 11: 23-29; etc.).

6. Walk with Moses up to Pisgah and meditate there upon his last moments, alone with God. Such times with God had been the secret of his blessed and fruitful career, and his refuge in frequent troubles. How much do you know of time spent alone with God? Consider your daily schedule in the light of this vital necessity.

Four truths Every Christian Should Know About Salvation

Four truths Every Christian Should Know About Salvation

E. C. Hadley.

Many believers are frustrated and troubled about their walk, sometimes doubting their salvation because of so much failure in their lives. The following four truths about salvation should be helpful to anyone with such thoughts.

Truth 1: Forgiveness

When we come to the Lord Jesus as sinners and accept Him as our Savior, God forgives our sins and justifies us because of the shed blood of Christ (Rom. 3: 23-26).

When Jesus was on the cross, our sins were laid on Him and He took the punishment for them. There is no more judgment for sin for all who accept Christ as their Savior. Every sin that comes into our lives has already been judged and punished when Christ died for us on the cross (Isa. 53: 5-6; Heb. 9: 28; Heb. 10: 12-14).

Perhaps someone might say, "If that is true it does not make much difference whether we continue to sin or not." But it does make a tremendous difference, because there are three other truths to consider about salvation.

Truth 2: A New Nature

When we accept Christ as our Savior, God not only forgives us and justifies us, but He also gives us a new (divine) nature. We are born again_we become God's children (1 Peter 1: 23; James. 1: 18; 2 Peter 1: 4). This new nature loves God and hates sin; it makes us desire to live without sinning and makes us feel miserable when we do sin. No born again Christian can be truly happy in sin.

But someone asks, "Why do I do sinful things if I have a new nature? I really do not want to do them, but even with all my good intentions I eventually give in and do them again."

We not only have a new nature that hates sin, but we also still have the old (sinful) nature that loves sin. There is a conflict going on within us. The old nature wants to sin but the new nature wants to please God.

Besides this, we have consciences which tell us that what the new nature wants is right, and what the old nature wants is always wrong. But we find all too often that the old nature, with its desires and lusts for sinful things, is the strongest in time of temptation. It carries us away captive and we do those things which our new nature hates and our consciences denounce.

After it is all over we regret it and resolve that we will never do it again. However, it just seems as if we don't have any strength to resist temptation. What is to be done? Here is where the third truth of salvation comes in.

Truth 3: The Holy Spirit

When we accepted Christ as our Savior and were born again, God gave us His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts (Eph. 1: 13; Gal. 4: 6). This Holy Spirit pours out the love of God in our hearts and causes us to feel the peace of Christ in our souls. As a result, we are happy! (Rom. 5: 1-15).

But when we give way to sin, the Holy Spirit is grieved. He cannot give us joy, because that would encourage us in those sinful things which He hates. He is one with God the Father and Son in His hatred of sin and love of righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4: 30).

The Holy Spirit is given to us not only to pour out the love of God in our hearts. He also gives us power to say "No!" to the desires of the old nature, and to yield ourselves to the will of God, doing those things that please Him. "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16).

It is just like Peter walking on the water. As long as he was counting on the Lord to hold him up, all went well; but the very moment he noticed that the wind and the waves were rough, he became afraid and began to sink. In our Christian experience we must count on the Lord to hold us up each step of the way by the power of His indwelling Spirit (Matt. 14: 24-31; John. 15: 4-5).

Truth 4: Fellowship

Salvation brings us into fellowship with God. There is a happy feeling between God as our Father and us as His children. We can enjoy hearing what He has to say to us by His Spirit through His Word. We feel free to talk with Him about all our troubles, just as a child is free with his earthly father whom he knows loves him. He makes us happy by his smile.

However, when a child disobeys, he knows his father will be displeased. Instead of a smile he has to experience discipline. The relationship between father and child has not changed, but the fellowship and the happy feeling between them has been broken.

So it is with our heavenly Father. When we sin we are still His children. It is also true that Christ already took the judgment for that sin; it has been put away by His sacrifice on the cross. But fellowship with our Father and with our Savior is broken and the Holy Spirit is grieved. The Father has to rebuke us for our disobedience and perhaps even chasten us, especially if we continue in it.

If we come to Him with confession, humbled because of our sin and disobedience, then we can experience His forgiveness as a father forgives his child. Fellowship is restored and we feel free and happy in His presence again (1 John. 1: 9).

So then, when a child of God sins he is not lost, because God has accepted him on the basis of Christ's sacrifice for our sins. Neither is his relationship with God broken. He is still God's child and God is still his Father. But his fellowship with the Father is broken, the Holy Spirit is grieved and he is subject to the Father's chastening. When he is humbled about his sin and confesses it to his Father then fellowship is restored.

There is one thing we lose by sin that can never be restored. Christ said that a cup of cold water given in His name would never be forgotten (Mark. 9: 41). He is going to give a reward for everything we do to please Him. Therefore, if instead of giving way to sin we had been obedient and done something that pleased Him, we would have received a reward in heaven.

But now that reward is lost because we have lost the opportunity to gain it. That is an eternal loss, since every reward Christ gives in heaven is an eternal reward.

This should make us careful not to lose the opportunities we have each day for faithfulness to the Lord. If we let them slip by, both the opportunities and the  rewards are lost forever.

We will have all eternity to rejoice in the rewards for our victories, but we have only the present moment to win them. There are no victories to be won in heaven — they must all be won now or never.

The Eternal Son

The Eternal Son

E. C. Hadley.

God is. His essential name in the Old Testament is Jehovah — the "I am that I am," the living, eternal, self-existing, unchangeable One, acting from Himself and according to Himself in all that He does.

Man's intelligence cannot understand it. It is folly to reason about Him. We would have to be God to comprehend Him. But it becomes us as His creatures to accept and hold fast in simple faith what He has been pleased to tell us in His Word about His eternal being.

In His essential being He is inscrutable and invisible to the creature, "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (1 Tim. 6: 16). Yet it has pleased the Triune God to give us a revelation concerning Himself.

But here lies a difficulty. Human language is suited to express human relationships and things within the sphere of human conceptions and ideas and is therefore deficient to describe adequately the divine being of the eternal God and the uncreated relationship that must exist essentially without beginning or end between the three persons of the Triune God. Whatever expressions God uses to reveal to us these divine things must necessarily be couched in human language that we humans are liable to wrest and distort by reading into them our own human ideas if we at all attempt to reason about what God says about Himself and our pride of reasoning ever inclines us to do so.

But God has come in His sovereign goodness towards us in this our natural weakness. In giving us His divinely inspired statements about Himself He has not at all left us to our own reasoning powers to speculate about what He says; but He has made us partakers of His own divine nature which has a capacity to grasp divine things when revealed, and then He has given us His own Holy Spirit to dwell in us to interpret His Word and to enlighten our renewed understanding as to its true meaning. This is a great boon. But it is only as we lean not on our own understanding and have a submissive will and a teachable heart that He can guide us into all truth (John 7: 17; Prov. 3: 5, 6; 1 Cor. 2: 10, 12, 14; John 16: 13).

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness unto him. Neither can the child of God receive them by his natural reasoning powers. They are communicated to our intelligence by the energy of the Spirit of God when our understanding has been opened by the Lord to understand the Scriptures, and they must be received by faith. (Luke 24: 45; 1 Cor. 2: 12-14).

This is where many have failed in their comprehension of divine truth as touching the eternal God and the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. They try to enter into the meaning of the Scriptural expressions by a process of human reasoning instead of abandoning all confidence in themselves and letting the Spirit communicate in His own power to their souls these divine and precious truths the Triune God has been pleased to give us in His Word concerning Himself.

This reasoning of the human mind about the Godhead has led to different errors by introducing certain elements that have to do with our human relations down here into their reasonings about the Godhead, but which evidently cannot be applied to that eternal, uncreated, unchanging and unchangeable relationship that subsists between the three persons of the Triune God.

The Word of God is decisive as to the eternity of Christ's being, "God was manifest in the flesh," "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," "Before Abraham was, I am" (the eternal I am) (1 Tim. 3: 16; Micah 5: 2; John 8: 58).

But soon after the apostles' days the theory of eternal generation was brought out — that is that the Son of God as to His being exists eternally, but as a father is the source of a son he begets, therefore the Son of God exists as a sort of eternal or continual generation from the Father. This human theory, arrived at by introducing an element that has to do with the purely human relationship into their reasonings about the uncreated eternal relationship of the Godhead, actually deprives the Son of His co-equality with the Father and reduces Him to a derivative form owing His existence to the Father.

Today in Christendom there is another widespread error that also is the result of introducing another element of human relations into the divine, uncreated, essential relationship that subsists in and between the persons of the Triune God. They say that the term son implies "graded relations and relative inferiority"; and therefore they reason the term "Son of God" can only apply to Him as Man born of the virgin and can have no application to His pre-incarnate relationship in the deity. This terrible error robs Him of His pre-incarnate relationship as Son well beloved of the Father which is the keystone of the whole New Testament.

First it is not true that sonship even in human relations necessarily implies inferiority. Who would dare to affirm that Abraham was inferior to his father Terah or Moses to his father Amram or David to Jesse?

What then is the meaning of the term Father and Son when applied to the uncreated Godhead? There must be some reason why God chose these terms in speaking of Himself. We should carefully weigh the fact that nowhere in Scripture do we find Christ spoken of as a child of God. (In Acts 4: 27, the expression, "Thy holy child Jesus" is not the usual word for child in the Greek and should be translated "servant"). Child would imply immaturity and weakness. It is always Son of God. A son is of the same nature and essence as his father and in the normal relationship, the son is attached to his father and is the object of his father's deep affection and enjoys close intimacy with him. All this then is implied in the term Father and Son when applied to the Godhead-being of the same nature and essence and having deep mutual affection and intimacy.

"The Only-Begotton Son"

Then when we get the term only begotten we get the additional thought that He is the only one having this relationship to the Father and as such is the special object of the Father's deep affection and eternal delight. Take the account of Abraham offering up Isaac in Gen. 22, which is clearly intended to be a type of God sparing not His own Son but offering Him up for us all, what do we find especially stressed there, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest" (v. 2; Heb. 11: 17).

This we see in the five passages where the term "only begotten" is used.

In John 3: 16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" the Lord would definitely bring out in bright relief the immensity of God's love towards a guilty world in giving His only begotten Son, the One who was from all eternity the object of His deep affection and delight. To say that the term here "only begotten Son" is applicable to Christ as Man only and has no reference to the pre-incarnate relation of the Son to the Father in the eternal Godhead, dims at once the greatness of God's love to a guilty world that is clearly intended to be set forth in all its depth and fullness by the fact that the One He gave for a lost and guilty world is His only begotten Son, the One who dwelt from all eternity in His bosom as the object of His eternal delight. This is also very evident in 1 John 4: 9, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

"We joy in our God, and we sing of that love

So sovereign and free, which did His heart move,

When lost our condition, all ruined, undone,

He saw with compassion, and spared not His Son.

"His Son, His delight, His loved One, He gave

The cross to endure, by dying to save:

Sure love so amazing, unmeasured, untold,

Since Him it has given, no good will withhold."

In John 1: 14, 18, it is His competency to reveal the Father that is enhanced in virtue of being in His eternal Person the only begotten of the Father, sharing with Him the same nature and essence and dwelling from all eternity in the Father's bosom as the eternal object of His heart's affection and in the intimacy of all that heart contains. Therefore He is fully competent to manifest to all that God is in His character and nature and to reveal His eternal love and purposes towards us.

The only other place is in John 3: 18, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Here the terrible state and guilt of the unbeliever, hating the light and loving darkness, is brought out emphatically by his refusal to put faith in the name of the only begotten Son of God come in grace as the Father's love gift to a lost world, and he therefore is justly condemned.

The Truth Concerning the Eternal God

Can Only Be Known by Faith

It is the height of folly for man with his finite mind to try to reason and speculate about that which is infinite. Every time he attempts to do so he is sure to fall into some error by introducing some human idea derived from purely human relationships into his reasonings about the uncreated, eternal, unchanging and unchangeable relationship subsisting in the essential Being of the eternal Triune God, which is far above and beyond human relationships and lies away outside the scope of human reasoning powers to speculate about.

Just as "through faith we understand (without trying to reason it out) that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. 11: 3) so also through faith we understand upon the authority of God's Word that this uncreated relationship of Father and Son and Holy Spirit subsists from everlasting to everlasting in the eternal Godhead without trying to reason it out. Even more, because of our unshaken faith in His divine Word we resolutely refuse to allow our finite minds to reason or speculate about these divine eternal things, knowing intuitively that our finite minds are utterly incapable to reason about that which is infinite. Yet how grateful we should be to God, our Creator, that He has given us a mind capable of accepting, when enlightened by His Spirit, as divine truth what He has been pleased to reveal in His Word concerning Himself, and to rejoice in this divinely given knowledge with hearts overflowing with praise and adoration and joyful abandon of all our being into His blessed hands, Who has manifested the immensity of His eternal love towards us in sending His only begotten Son into this world His hands had made that we might live through Him.

"Father divine, in grateful love

We bow before Thy face,

While for Thy gift unspeakable

Our souls o'erflow with praise;

Thine only Son, Thy heart's delight

Far back, ere time began,

Thou in Thy boundless love didst give

To die for ruined man.

"Father this mystery of love

Must all our praise excel:

No human, no angelic tongue

Its wondrous depths can tell;

For what were we that Thou on us

Such love shouldst ever pour?

We bow, and, filled with joy and awe,

Father and Son adore."

Plurality in Unity

The unity of the Godhead is declared repeatedly in Scripture. "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah" (Deut. 6: 4, J. N. D. Trans.). "One Jehovah, and His name one" (Zech. 14: 9, J. N. D. Trans.). "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me," "I am God and there is none else" (Isa. 45: 5; Isa. 46: 9). Yet that there is plurality in this divine unity of the Godhead is equally revealed from the first verse of the Bible on. In the Hebrew the Name for God is in the plural and the verb in the singular. "In the beginning God (plural) created (singular)" thus showing plurality in unity. And in Gen. 1: 26 we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image." Here clearly plurality is revealed, each distinct in personality so that they can address one another, "Let us make man," and yet having one likeness and working together in concert to carry out one purpose, neither acting without the other.

In comparing Gen. 1: 2 with Prov. 8: 27-30 and Heb. 1: 2 this comes out all the more clearly in connection with creation and the reforming of the earth for man. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." "When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: when He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: when He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him as one brought up with Him (or, as His artificer, see margin of J. N. D.'s Trans.): and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." "God...hath...spoken unto us by (in the Person of) His Son...by whom He also made the worlds."

Plurality in unity is here clearly revealed, each Person having a distinct personality and a distinct part and sphere of action in all that the Triune God does, yet not independent of, but in essential relationship one to the other.

For example, the Father sends the Son. This was a distinct act on the part of the Father. Yet the Son acts in His own proper Person in coming into the world. "I proceeded forth and came from God"; "I came down from heaven"; "I am come into the world" (John 8: 42; John 6: 38; John 16: 28). He did not however act apart from the Father but in full harmony and coordination with the Father's will and purpose in sending Him. "Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me." "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will but the will of Him that sent Me" (John 8: 42; John 6: 38).

So also when it comes to the Son assuming the form of a man, we find each of the three persons of the Godhead active in it. Christ speaking to God the Father says, "A body hast Thou prepared Me" (Heb. 10: 5). In Matthew 1: 20 we read that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Here we have God the Father and the Holy Spirit both acting in harmonious accord, in the forming of this holy humanity of our Lord. But the Son is also seen in His own proper action in taking up manhood into union with His Person. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." "He emptied Himself taking a bondman's form, taking His place in the likeness of men" (Heb. 2: 14; Phil. 2: 7, J. N. D. Trans.). And so in all the activity of the Triune God.

Being One in nature, substance and essential being, they love necessarily the same things and so have the same thoughts, will and purpose about everything, though each having His distinct part in activity and relationship in all that the Triune God does, but always working together in complete unison carrying out one common purpose and will. Thus of Christ, the incarnate Son, we read: "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." "Believest Thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." "I cast out devils by the Spirit of God." "Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" (Col. 2: 9, John 14: 10; John 5: 17; Luke 4: 14; Matt. 12: 28; Heb. 9: 14). Each Person of the Godhead takes part in what He, the incarnate Son, does. (John 1: 14; 1 John 5: 20; 1 John 3: 8).

Dependent Man

In manhood He kept the place that He had voluntarily taken according to the divine purposes as dependent man doing all by the power of the Spirit, and yet the Father was in Him as the source of His words and deeds. But it was He, the eternal Son who was there in person in the form of a man. He was there in all of the divine power of His eternal being that created and upholds the universe. And He could say of those works of which the Father in Him was the source and the Spirit the power, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." (John 17: 4).

It is a divine mystery where human reasoning is sure to stray if it tries to speculate or figure it out, but which faith rejoices to believe and finds therein the spring of eternal delight.

So if the Son takes a place of apparent subordination to the Father and the Spirit takes a place of apparent subordination to the Son, yet it is apparent only, for in fact, each is willingly doing His own part in conjunction and concert with the other two in carrying out one common purpose and will. All three are coequal in deity, essential in being and nature, but distinct in personality and in eternal unchanging relationship to the other and each having His own part and activity which He willingly does in carrying out one divine plan and purpose. Understand it we cannot, speculate on it we dare not, believe it we must, or else we make the divinely inspired Word of God a lie.

The Truth of the Eternal Sonship of Christ

Is a Vital Truth of Scripture.

We will now turn to Matt. 28:19. Jesus in giving instructions to His disciples, says, "Baptizing them in the Name (not names) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Here we have the Triune God revealed under one Name but this one name embracing three persons in divine relationship to one another as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This divine uncreated relationship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is characteristic of the three in one and is essential to the eternal subsistence of the Triune God. The Father is and ever was and ever will be the Father in His essential being in the Godhead and so the Spirit is and ever was and ever will be that person designated as the Spirit, co-equal with the Father in deity but always and eternally in His person the Spirit. He cannot exchange His place and personal relationship as the Spirit with that of the Father nor can the Father exchange His place and personal relationship as Father with that of the Spirit in that eternal unchanging subsistence of the Godhead and this is also true of the Son. This is not cold logic nor human reasoning but holding in simple faith, without doubting or disputing, the plain and uniform revelation of the holy Scriptures. "I am the LORD, I change not;" "I am that I am" (Mal. 3: 6; Ex. 3: 14). Unchangeableness is characteristic of the Godhead The Godhead is what it is and unchangeably so. The Son has taken up manhood into His being so that there is a change in outward display and form but He has never ceased to be that He ever was and ever will be in His essential being in the Godhead, the Son.

This truth of the eternal Sonship is the basic truth underlying the full revelation of the Triune God in the New Testament. It is because He is the eternal Son co-equal in deity and one in nature and essence with His Father, ever dwelling in the bosom of His Father, knowing the full depth and extent of all His feelings, thoughts and purposes, that He could and did manifest the Triune God. "God manifest in the flesh, If He had been in any point inferior, or if there had been the least thought in the Father's heart or of the Spirit's that He did not know and fully share with them, He could not have manifested the Triune God.

This truth of the eternal relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is vital. To have three beings coequal in deity without relationship would be three Gods, not one Triune God.

In Becoming Man He Did Not Give Up His Eternal Deity nor His Eternal Relationship In the Godhead

We will look at some scriptures confirming this vital truth that He was Son in Deity before incarnation. But before doing so, it is well to look a moment at Phil. 2: 6, 7, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." J. N. Darby's translation reads, "Who, subsisting in the form of God . . . but emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form, taking His place in the likeness of men." W. Kelly translates it, "Emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form, being come in men's likeness." The emptying of Himself has to do only with the form He had. Emptying Himself of the outward majesty and glory of the Creator, having authority and never under command, He takes a servant's form and takes His place in the likeness of men to serve God and man in His obedience unto death. In doing this He in nowise gave up His essential deity or any quality or attribute of it nor did He divest Himself of His eternal and unchanging relationship in the Godhead. This He could not do. He could not empty Himself of what He was essentially in His being, but only of — the outward form. So we read, "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." (Rom. 9: 5).

He Who Was Son in Deity Takes up Perfect Manhood into Union with His Person

He took up perfect manhood into union with His Person. His incarnation did not in the least detract from His eternal deity nor from His eternal relationship in the Godhead, but only gave to His humanity His infinite perfection. So in manhood He was Son as He ever was in that eternal, unchanging and unchangeable relationship which He had with the Father in the Godhead.

"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." "The Son of God is come." "The Son of God was manifested" (John 1: 15; 1 John 5: 20; John 3: 8).

The plain and simple force of such scriptures is that He was Son, the only begotten of the Father before He came in flesh, before He was manifested. It was the eternal Son that was manifested by coming into this world in the form of a man. He did not become Son by becoming man, but the Son became man in order to manifest Himself and undo the works of the devil and give us a full revelation of what God is in His moral nature and character so that we might know Him. He was God (the Son) manifested in flesh, so that in manhood as in deity He was ever the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father (John 1: 18).

We will look at some more scriptures confirming this blessed truth of His eternal Sonship.

In John 17 we see Him standing in the midst of His disciples in the likeness of men. He lifts up His eyes to heaven and speaks to the Father. His words reveal His deep inner consciousness of the unchanging eternal relationship He had as Son with the Father before the world was. "Father...glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.... And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." (Verses 1, 5).

Just a little while before He had told them, "I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16: 28) There could be no Father if there was no Son. And here we see the relationship of Father and Son was there before He came into the world. In coming forth from the Father and coming into the world He, the Son, took His place in the likeness of men. It is this great fact of what He is in His eternal person the Son, that gave value to all He did as dependent Man. And it is just this great fact that He was God's own Son eternally, that brings out in all its brightness and depth the love of the Father in sending Him that we might live through Him. Take away the truth of His eternal Sonship and you take away the measure by which we know the fullness of the Father's love to us, and the great incentive we have for adoring Him.

"What was it, blessed God,

Led Thee to give Thy Son

To yield Thy well-beloved

For us by sin undone?

'Twas love unbounded led Thee thus

To give Thy well-beloved for us.

"What love to Thee we owe,

Our God, for all Thy grace?

Our hearts may well o'erflow

In everlasting praise

Make us, O God, to praise Thee thus

For all Thy boundless love to us."

The Father Manifests His Love In Sending His Son that We Might live Through Him

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (1 John 4: 9). Here clearly He was the only begotten before He was sent "into the world." It is just this great fact that makes God's love shine out in its fullness in sending Him.

"There all the saints of every clime shall meet,

And each with all shall all the ransomed greet,

But oh, the height of bliss, our Lord, shall be

To owe it all, and share it all, with Thee."

We have also Rom. 8: 3 and Gal. 4: 4, "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (of Christ made sin for us)" and "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." He was God's Son in His pre-incarnate relation with God when sent. Born of a woman in the likeness of flesh (of men) is the form He assumed in coming. To affirm that He only became Son in being born of a woman not only violates the language used, but what is worse robs these passages of their clear evident intention to emphasize the immensity of the love and grace of God the Father in sending His own Son, who was from all eternity the object of His deepest affection and delight and one with Him in nature and essence, to bear the judgment of sin in our stead. It is just this that gives force to what the Apostle goes on to point out in Romans 8, "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8: 31, 32. See also Rom. 8: 38, 39).

God Creates the Worlds by His Son

Heb. 1: 2 is another passage that ought to settle fully any mind that is subject to Scripture as to Christ's eternal Sonship. "God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by (or in the person of) His Son by whom also He made the worlds." God created the worlds by His Son. He was in that relationship as Son at the time He created the worlds. Who could question this clear implication of this passage? Col. 1: 13-17 also says the same thing. "For by Him (the Son, see verse 13) were all things created."

Other passages could be cited, but these are ample to convince any person who is ready to accept in simple faith God's own divine statements without doubting or reasoning.

The Son of God in Manhood

One more passage may be examined with profit. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1: 35). This name is not a new one given Him but His eternal one confirmed. It is not said "shall be the Son of God" as this would indicate that He was Son only as man born of the virgin and was not therefore Son in pre-incarnation. But the passage says, "shall be called the Son of God." That name which was His from all eternity "the Son," He carries over into manhood so that even as to His holy human nature conceived by the Holy Spirit He is called Son of God. Thus He is the Son of God in manhood as He is and always was and always will be in deity.

The Son, in Taking up Manhood into His Being, Voluntarily Took the Place of Submission and Dependence

He took up humanity into union with deity in His Person; yet His incarnation did not in the least detract from His deity nor His eternal relationship as Son to the Father but only gave to His humanity His infinite perfection. Each of His two natures retained its own proper character without any confusion. His human nature as well as His divine nature possessed each their excellent characteristics and both united to form His glorious Person as incarnate Son. Scripture never divides the Person nor confounds the natures. They are united in His Person by a unique and inscrutable bond. He is the God-man He is God in all that God is and He is Man in all that man is, apart from sin. Such is the Son of God come in flesh — the God-man — that He might manifest the Godhead in the flesh and by His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, might redeem us unto God.

As the incarnate Son He ever kept and will keep eternally (1 Cor. 15: 28) that place of a perfect Man in complete dependence, entire submission and implicit obedience to His Father's will and yet in it all He ever acts in His own Person as Son from eternity, who voluntarily took His place in manhood (being one with the Father in His will and purpose in it) that He might manifest unto us the Father and accomplish His will and the desire of His heart in our redemption to the praise of the glory of His grace. As incarnate Son He continually displays absolute submission to the will of the Father, yet this sacred service was and is equally the exercise of His own will, which was and always is uniform with that of His Father both in His deity and His perfect manhood.

Not Inferior to the Father in the dignity of His Person

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5: 17). They work together in perfect accord, each having His respective part in carrying out one unique divine plan.

"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth" (John 5: 19, 20), and "I can of Mine own self do nothing" (Verse 30). Some say this could not apply to the Lord as eternal Son but only to Him as Man. But this is bringing in human reasoning. We must not confuse the dignity of His person with the place He has voluntarily taken in carrying out the divine purposes. The Son is seen in this chapter as coequal with the Father, quickening whom He will and judging all, but He is not acting independently of the Father nor is the Father acting independently of Him. The Father shows Him all He does and the Son does nothing without His Father. There is complete equality and oneness in purpose and thought in carrying out one common plan. The Son has voluntarily taken the form of a servant for accomplishing the divine purposes of the Godhead with which He is fully one. But this does not render Him in anywise inferior to His Father by doing so. We must not confuse the dignity of His Person with that place He has taken in full communion and oneness of thought and purpose with the Godhead in carrying out the divine purposes.

The Holy Spirit also now takes a place in the present dispensation that appears to be subordinated, He "proceedeth from the Father" and is "sent" by the Father and the Son. And having come, He does not speak of Himself but whatsoever He hears He speaks. His mission is to "glorify Christ" in receiving the things that are His and showing them unto us. (See John 15: 26; John 16: 13, 14). All such expressions as these appear to give a place of subordination to the Spirit as others appear to do to the Son but it is in appearance only and in respect to the place they have taken and the part they play in carrying out the divine purposes and not in anywise as to the dignity of their Persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are coequal in deity and all are one in thought, will and purpose though each has His respective part and sphere of action in the carrying out of the divine purposes.

A human example might help to see this more clearly. Three brothers undertake a manufacturing business as coequal partners and they sit down together and plan it out. By common consent, one is to take the general management of the business, the other takes the direction of the work in the plant and the third takes charge of the sales department. The general manager might appear to some to be in a place of superiority and the other two in the place of inferiority. But it is not so in reality. They are all coequal working together in full accord to carry out one common plan and purpose. The general manager would never think of his brother who is directing the work in the plant as his inferior. No part of the business is in reality inferior where what each does is essential to the success of the whole and all are working with that one purpose in view-the success of the business. So in this divine plan that the Triune God has purposed for the display of the Godhead glory and our redemption we cannot think of any part in it as being inferior where all the details are linked in one perfect whole. Though each Person of the Godhead has His respective part to do in carrying out of the whole, yet all is of co-equal importance.

The Son in carrying out His part took "His place in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2: 7 J. N. D. Trans.) but He did not in anywise surrender His coequality in deity nor the dignity of His Person in doing so. And as we see Him here in that perfect dependence and obedience that became the place He had taken, let us beware of thinking it was subjection by reason of inferiority. Indeed it is His unique glory that while there in that place of complete dependence He was as ever "over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. 9: 5). "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4: 34). He had voluntarily undertaken that work with all that it entailed, including incarnation, and the cross, and was carrying it out with full delight of heart. It was His meat. He was absolutely one with the Father's will in it all. If He had been in the slightest degree inferior in His personal dignity to the Father in the Godhead, He could not have accomplished that work to the glory of the Triune God nor have manifested God here in the flesh It was His absolute coequality with His Father that gave its infinite value to all He did as the incarnate Son.

The Use of the Name God as Applied to the Three Persons of the Trinity

In Scripture the name God is often used as embracing all three persons of the Trinity especially in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament the Father alone is often addressed as God, while the Spirit and the Son are not addressed as God in this way. For example, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4: 6). This is not because of superiority in the Godhead, but rather because in the working out of the divine purposes the Son has taken His place as a servant and the obedient Man, and the Spirit takes the place as sent by the Father and the Son to glorify the Son. So in the place they have taken in the working out of the divine counsels they could not be called simply God in the way the Father is; though the Son is God and the Spirit is God, both coequal with the Father in deity.

In the working out of the divine counsels we see that God, the Father, is looked upon as the author and source of all things, the One who chooses, predestinates, calls and justifies and works all things after the counsel of His own will. (See 1 Cor. 8: 6; Eph. 1: 3-11; 2 Tim. 1: 9; Rom. 8: 28-33, etc.). The Son is looked upon as the workman or artificer by whom all things are made and upheld, the One in, by and through whom all the counsels of the Triune God are realized and made secure and the work of redemption is accomplished, and the One who, in coming in the flesh, manifests and declares and reveals God to man. (See 1 Cor. 8: 6; Eph. 1: 2 Tim. 1: 9; John 1: 18; 1 Tim. 1: 16; Phil. 3: 21, etc.). The Spirit of God is looked upon as the One who works directly in power upon and in the creature or created things. (Ps. 104: 3; Judges 14: 5, 6; Eph. 3: 16; 2 Cor. 4: 4, 10, 12-14; Rom. 8: 4-16, 26, etc.).

The Son Took up Manhood into Inseparable Union with His Person

It is well to note another point. Some would seek to distinguish in the Lord's actions and words that which is manhood and that which is deity. But this is indeed slippery ground. It leads inevitably into attributing a dual personality to our Lord, the one manhood the other deity kept distinct in separate compartments, so to speak, in His being. But this is purely human reasoning contrary to the way Scripture presents our Lord's Person.

Scripture never divides His Person into two parts, one human and one divine, but reveals Him as having taken up perfect humanity into union with His eternal deity so that they are united in one unique, inscrutable and indissoluble bond in His Person. While Scripture never confounds the two natures it never divides the Person. Even what He does in manhood is still the action of Himself, the eternal Son, who has of His own self, and without giving up His personality as eternal Son, "taking a bondman's form, taking His place in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2: 7, J. N. D. Trans.). It is He the eternal Son that is there as Man. It is this fact of His Person as the eternal Son of God, having taken His place as Man, that gives the infinite perfection of His unique Person to all that He does as incarnate Son. It is this indissoluble union of perfect manhood with eternal deity in His unique Person that constantly comes out in all that He does as God (the Son) manifest in flesh.

"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." "What and it ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?" (John 3: 13; 6: 62).

He unites in such complete union perfect manhood and eternal omnipresent deity that He can speak while calling Himself the Son of man, as having come down from heaven or ascending up (He, the Son of man) to where He was before or even say of Himself, while He was bodily present here on earth, "The Son of man is in heaven."

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6: 51). He speaks of Himself as the living bread come down from heaven and yet in the same sentence says that He, the One who came down from heaven, will give His flesh as bread for the life of the world. While the two natures, manhood and eternal deity, are clearly seen here in His Person yet it is impossible to separate them in His actions.

"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." "The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." "Upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (1 Peter 2: 24; Gal 2: 20; Heb. 1: 3). It was Himself, the omnipotent One, Who upholds all things by the word of His power, that gave Himself in sacrifice for our sins. He, the eternal Son, bare our sins in His own body on the tree — not the Man as man nor yet Deity as deity, though perfect manhood and full deity were there united in His Person. It was the Person who had taken up manhood into union with Himself that purges our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Manhood and deity are both there clearly, but we cannot separate them in His actions or words.

And so we gaze upon that Man, sitting weary from His journey, on Jacob's well, asking for a drink of water in John 4 and we exclaim with Thomas, "My Lord and My God!" Who would want to rob Him of His Godhead glory, the glory of His grace, as we see Him there come to give those living waters to a weary sin-sick soul in the thirst of His own soul to bring her to share with Him His own everlasting joy?

We cannot reason these things out. They are beyond the reach of human reason to speculate about. But we can receive them in simple faith as glorious facts on the unquestionable authority of His divinely inspired Word, and worship and adore. Such worship and the devoted service that flows from it will expand our hearts and enrich our lives, but to speculate about His inscrutable person will shrivel up our souls and sap all true communion with God in His thoughts and delights in His Son.

"No man knoweth the Son (in the sense of understanding the union of perfect manhood and eternal deity in His Person) but the Father." But how blessed it is to believe it simply on the authority of God's Word. For here we have the revelation of God's eternal love to our souls and the sure foundation of eternal bliss together with Him. Almighty God, some dreaded potentate with invincible power, who, if we dared to resist Him, could crush us as a moth, and we, ignorant of His inner thoughts concerning us, would not know what He might do next — what terror this could be for our souls. But, oh, what joy, what eternal bliss, God is no longer for us an unknown and unknowable something. He has been manifest in the flesh in the Person of His eternal, only begotten Son full of grace and truth and of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace.

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2: 13, 14).

E. C. Hadley.

You can have a happy life

You can have a happy life.

E. C. Hadley.

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." John 15: 11

Why are so many Christians restless, worried and unhappy, even though the verse above tells us clearly that this is not what God intends for His children? In this booklet, we hope to address this question to discover God's remedy so that we might be able to say with Paul, "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content" (Phil. 4: 11).

BURDEN OF GUILT

One of the basic causes of unhappiness is a sense of guilt that burdens the conscience and robs the soul of peace. Before we can have true happiness there must be peace with God.

If there are any doubts about our peace with God, there can be no settled peace in the soul. If we are to succeed in finding peace, and the happiness that results from it, we must begin with this question of guilt and how it can be removed.

Guilt destroys happiness and peace. It breaks down self-esteem and robs us of self-confidence. How can we trust ourselves when we know that we have done many wrong things? We may try to run away from our conscience by pursuing earthly pleasure, or we may attempt to quiet its voice by reasoning that times have changed, and that now "everybody does it."

Still, there is that uneasy feeling that something is not right. We instinctively know that God has not changed and that sin never ceases to be sin. No matter how much we try to repress the guilty feeling, it is still there — making us restless, uneasy and fearful.

Coupled with a sense of guilt is a consciousness that we deserve to be punished. This increases our fear. God, who knows all about this, has said: "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Num. 32: 23). We cannot have peace and true happiness until the question of our guilt is settled in a way that is just.

Our God-implanted conscience, part of the moral nature of man, makes us feel guilty when we have done something wrong. It also makes us realize that we deserve punishment. Some try to ease their guilt by joining a church and getting involved in religious activities, but they know deep down that this will never bring peace.

DEALING WITH GUILT

Guilt produces a fear of God whom we know we have offended, and a fear of the punishment we instinctively know we deserve. There is only one way to lift this depressing sense of guilt and fear. It is through justification by faith in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. In the epistle to the Romans, Paul deals directly with the question of our guilt and God's answer to it. There we read that all the world is guilty, but God provides the means for our justification: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus  -  that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3: 23-24, 26).

In that same epistle, we also read of the results of that justification: "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ  -  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation" (Rom. 5: 1, 11).  God's way not only lifts the depressing load of guilt but also gives us a consciousness of God's love that produces joy.

The guilt that once made us tremble at the thought of judgment now becomes the means by which we measure the love of God, who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us. The memory of our guilt, becomes a wellspring of thanksgiving to God who redeemed us and justified us.

How can a guilty soul have peace with a holy God? The only answer is through the blood of the cross: "Without shedding of blood there is no remission" for sin (Heb. 9: 22). On the cross, Christ was made an offering for all our sins, and He bore the punishment due our sins (Isa. 53: 4-6, 10). This suffering and death of Christ are the only grounds upon which a righteous God and a guilty creature can be at peace.

SEEKING PEACE

Once a sinner acknowledges his sin, his first concern is how to obtain peace with God. But the great question is not, "How can a sinner make peace with his God?" It is, "How can a holy, sin-hating God make peace with this sinner?" God accomplished this by giving His Son as the sacrifice for sin: "Having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col. 1: 20). It is not by any effort of the sinner that peace is made; God has already made peace through the blood of the cross.

Peace with God does not depend upon our feelings. We may deceive ourselves into believing we will come out all right in the end. But such false peace is the fruit of unbelief, for God plainly states, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 23). The only way to true peace is repentance; the Bible says, "Unless you repent you will — perish" (Luke 13: 5).

The first step to true peace then is to accept this fact. The next step is to believe God's evaluation of the sacrifice of Christ: "Who  -  when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1: 3). Peace is an accomplished fact; and God is so satisfied with that sacrifice for our sins that He has placed His Son at the right hand of His own throne in glory to prove it.

God always sees the believer as clothed in all the merits of that sacrifice, which washed away all his sins once for all and obtained eternal redemption for him (Heb. 9: 12). Therefore, God's attitude of peace towards the believer is unchanging because the sacrifice upon which it is based is perfect. However, the measure to which the believer enjoys it may vary greatly. If we get self-occupied we may lose the sense of it. We can only enjoy it as we rest in full assurance of faith in the sacrifice of Christ.

We may know that God is at peace with us through Christ and still not have a sense of the peace of God ruling in our hearts. Sin may bring us under the chastening hand of God. In chastening, He is only seeking to deliver us from those things which are robbing our souls of the enjoyment of His peace. (See Heb. 12: 5-11.) He chastens in love, not counting us as enemies, but always as His well-beloved children.

OBEDIENCE NEEDED

The conscience enlightened by the Word of God demands obedience to God who loves us and has redeemed us. If we do those things which displease Him, or if we leave undone things He wants us to do, our conscience accuses us and inward conflict results. We have no peace because we cannot quiet the voice of our conscience.

Besides the conscience, every believer in Christ also has the Spirit of God abiding in him. (See Rom. 8: 9, 15; Eph. 1: 13; Gal. 4: 6; 1 Cor. 6: 19.) One activity of the Spirit of God is to bring to our hearts the love of God, and to show the things of Christ to us (Rom. 5: 5; John 16: 14). Both give joy and peace to the soul, but "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another" (Gal. 5: 17). The constant effort of the Spirit of God is to oppose the flesh and prompt us to do the will of God in obedience to the Word of God.

If we yield to the flesh we throw ourselves into conflict not only with our conscience, but also with the Spirit. On the other hand, if we yield to the Holy Spirit and to our conscience, He gives us the strength to do the will of God. And what happens then? Instead of inward conflict, we are in harmony with God, His Word, and His Spirit; and consequently we enjoy a deeper sense of His love and a fuller measure of His joy and peace.

When we walk in obedience to God's revealed will, we enjoy His love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (1 John 4: 9; Rom. 5: 5-8). Then we can say, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8: 31). Trouble may be all around, but we will not fear because Psalm 4: 8 tells us: "I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

If we are disobedient, the peace of His presence will be lost and our conscience will accuse us while the Holy Spirit convicts us. When the Word of God is neglected, the soul does not enjoy peace. The power of God, which gave the heart confidence while walking with Him, will now work to humble us.

We will meet with disappointment. Plans will be overthrown. Things we thought would be sweet to the taste become bitter. He uses circumstances to make us taste the bitterness of disobedience and to break down self-will. His chastening hand is felt.

GOD WORKING

How graciously God works to bring us to our senses! Waywardness not only dishonors Him but also robs us of joy and peace. If God allowed us to continue in the path of disobedience, we would eventually have to reap the consequences. But in love, He lets us feel His chastening hand and uses circumstances to break down our rebellion to His will. Proverbs 3: 11-12 tells us: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."

A loving Father may have to chasten His child for his own good. The child may doubt the motives of the Father, but the child's inability to discern the Father's purpose does not change the Father's love or methods. If the child had more confidence in his Father, he would believe Him — even though unable to understand. This makes it easier to yield to the Father's will and obtain peace as well. Confidence in God is necessary to enjoy peace.

The Holy Spirit speaks to our heart and conscience, through chastening and the Word, to bring us to confess waywardness and turn again to the paths of righteousness: "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12: 11). Humbled "under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5: 6), the soul is once more able to walk in the path of righteousness and reap its peaceable fruits.

If we learn the lesson of God's chastening, we acquire peace. If we keep His commandments, we gain even more, because "in keeping them there is great reward" (Ps. 19: 11). "Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! — Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble" (Ps. 119: 2, 165).

PEACE OF MIND

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16: 33). When we read the account of the mock trial of our Lord, one thing really strikes us — Him standing peacefully in the midst of that mocking, hypocritical mob. How could He do it? He gives us His secret in John 16: 32: "I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

He was in perfect submission to His Father's will, whatever the cost. He was with His Father throughout the ordeal, and so His peace was never interrupted. His Father's plan was perfect and His faith looked on to the glorious results of that wonderful plan: "For the joy that was set before Him (He) endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12: 2).

Now He has overcome the world and sat down in the glory. All power in heaven and earth is given into His pierced hand. What peace for our hearts and minds! He has a perfect plan for each one of His own. Let us trust Him then, knowing that His will is best. When we walk with Him, there is blessing and peace in our future: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13: 5).

Why do we complain about our circumstances when His pierced hands are guiding us and His infinite wisdom has planned the future for us? Either we don't trust Him or we don't want to go the way He is taking us. Our deceitful heart manifests itself by not trusting Him who died for us and into whose pierced hands all power in heaven and earth has been given.

For our own good, we must surrender to Him. The Potter is forming a useful vessel. Should the clay rebel when it feels the pressure of His fingers as He molds, turns and shapes it on the spinning wheel?

Trust in Him: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace" (John 16: 33). Our circumstances may not change, our sorrows may not be removed; but if Christ is brought into our grief, we will be able to say with the psalmist: "You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance" (Ps. 32: 7).

His wisdom cannot err. His power cannot fail. His love can never change. Even His direct dealing with us is for our deepest spiritual gain. Knowing this should lead us to say in the midst of sorrow, pain, and loss: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1: 21).

ABOUT OUR FEARS

One of the greatest hindrances to peace and security is fear — of sickness, accidents, death, job loss, financial trouble and so on. How can we have inner peace in a world full of injustice, conflict and uncertainty, where life is one long struggle for existence?

Job confessed that even in his great prosperity he was harassed by fears: "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes" (Job 3: 25-26).

If we had a father who was very wise, had inexhaustible resources, and would do anything for our good, wouldn't that calm our fears and give us a sense of security? As a child of God we have all this in our heavenly Father.

If He invites us to cast all our cares upon Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5: 7), why then can't we turn our fears over to Him? Is it because we are afraid He will let us down? Is it because we are not willing to submit our wills to Him? Are we letting the devil get the best of us by making us feel we would be the losers if we completely surrendered our lives to Him?

We cannot leave God out of our lives and have freedom from fear. In the deep recesses of our souls we know that God exists and has almighty power. If we are not giving God His rightful place, we will have fear even though we may refuse to admit it. Denying God produces fear. It's as simple as that.

Fear is the painful sensation that danger threatens. The danger may be real or imagined, but the fear is real. Anxiety and worry are forms of fear. Anxiety is fear of anticipated danger. Worry is a brooding over these anxious fears.

Fear, anxiety and worry sap our energy and undermine our peace of mind. They are like weeds that grow and crowd out the flowers in our garden of happiness. Where do these weeds come from? Is there no way of getting rid of them? Has God left us with no way to cope with them?

CONFESSING OUR SINS

The Bible traces these fears to their real source and gives us the only effective remedy: "God is love  -  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4: 16, 18). Nothing will cast out fear like confidence in God's perfect love. Since love has blotted out all our sins through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we can be sure that God has forgiven them and will never again hold us accountable for them.

An accusing conscience, that says that punishment is due us, is one of the major causes of anxiety, fear and worry. Genesis gives us the first record of fear that man had. In the Garden of Eden, after he had eaten the forbidden fruit, the Lord said to Adam: "Where are you?" Adam's response was, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked" (Gen. 3: 9-10). He was afraid because he knew he had sinned and deserved to be punished.

Down deep we know that sin deserves punishment, and that there will be no deliverance until the things that are troubling our conscience are cleared up in a way that is satisfactory to God.

When our conscience is troubled, we may try to forget our sins. It is natural to push them out of our mind or repress them altogether. But we can never really succeed, because deep in the unconscious mind the memory of them keeps surfacing in one form or another.

We may not be fully conscious of the fact that sin and self-will are the cause of our anxious fears. It is so easy to deceive ourselves and make ourselves believe that someone or something else is responsible. However, we will never get rid of our fears or have any real peace until we admit the truth and get things right with God.

A young lady, brought up in a Christian home, began to do things that her conscience condemned. Unwilling to admit them and confess them to God, she began to persuade herself first that God didn't care, and then that there was no God. For several years she claimed to be an atheist. But the sin in her life gradually developed into anxiety and fear.

She finally felt like she was losing her mind and ended up in a mental hospital. Many remedies were tried, but no relief came until she faced the fact that she was trying to rule God out of her life. Once she confessed her sins and surrendered to God, she was able to leave the hospital with her anxieties and fears gone and her mind clear.

JOY OF FORGIVENESS

We have to be conscious of God's forgiveness and His perfect love to have our fears cast out. But we can't have confidence in Him until we are sure we are forgiven. We can't have this assurance while we are unwilling to confess our sins to Him: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-9).

There are three steps we must take to really get rid of anxiety and fear:

1. Recognize the sin that is at the root of our anxious fears.

2. Believe that God really does forgive our sins when we confess them.

3. Put our sins, along with the anxiety and fear they produce, out of mind. Whenever they do come to mind again, instead of feeling anxiety, we will be reminded and thankful that God has forgiven them all.

When we take these three steps, we will be able to say with the psalmist, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want  -  I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me  -  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Ps. 23: 1, 4, 6).

A little child awakened by a storm cries out in fear. His father comes and takes him in his arms. Soon the child is asleep again. The storm has not ceased but the child's confidence in his father gives him a sense of security and removes his fear.

PATH OF PEACE

What comfort and peace would come if we would just cast ourselves fully on Him and willingly let Him plan our life! His plan is infinitely better than anything we could ever work out for ourselves. His plan embraces all the details of our life here, and also has in view our eternal happiness.

What comfort to have Him as our Shepherd, Caretaker and Friend — to be able to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." (Ps. 23: 1). Rest and satisfaction belong to the believer who is willing to trust and follow the Shepherd: "He leads me beside the still waters" (v. 2). The storms may rage around us, but when we are close to Him, we are at peace. If we are in a place of unrest, we can be sure He has not led us there, though He may let us pass that way to teach us how bitter it is not to listen to Him.

Are we listening to His voice in our daily life? Are we following Him step by step regardless of how rough the road? He says, "My sheep hear my voice — and they follow Me" (John 10: 27). What a comfort to have such a Friend going all the way with us in every trouble, great or small.

What a path the Christian is called to follow! The Almighty Creator and Sustainer of this vast universe gave His life for us and now ever lives to comfort, counsel, guide and lead us. How is it that we let Satan get our eyes off Christ and rob us of our peace, giving us unrest and fear instead?

Satan wants us to doubt and fear. Will we yield to him or to the loving hand of God? Which path will we follow? That of sight that sees only the storm upsetting our plans, or that of faith that sees our Good Shepherd's loving hand guiding us into a fuller communion with Himself?

Are we in trouble? Do we fear tomorrow? Are we sick, sorrowing or in debt? Dear child of God: Christ died for us! Do not distrust His love. By these very trials He is working out for us a deeper joy and happiness than we could ever have any other way.

Paul triumphantly shouts in the midst of great troubles and distresses: "We do not lose heart  -  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4: 16-18).

The language of faith is brave because the eye of faith does not let the things seen occupy the mind. They are seen only as the elements that God is using to develop a richer, fuller spiritual life in us. We must keep our eye on Him who will lead us into  peace and out of fear.

Certainly, there are trials in the path of faith, but each trial is a door to richer joy and peace in Christ. Don't shrink back at the entrance. If we do, we will find that there are greater trials in the path of unbelief, which are always bitter and disappointing in the end.

Christ endured the cross for us. If He sees fit to lead us through trying times, He will sustain us so that our joy will be richer for having endured the trial. As Paul met new trials, his eyes were on the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" that would come to him because of them. He was not looking at his troubles in the light of the present, but in the light of the future eternal results.

If our heart is not at peace, what do we think we need to make it so? Write down what it is and take a good look at it. Now honestly ask, "Would its attainment restore the peace and quiet we want in our soul?" Satan wants us to think, as Eve did, that what God has withheld is something to be desired. (See Gen. 3: 1-6.) Be sure that peace for our soul is found in our willingness to let God have His way in our circumstances.

FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD

The Shepherd is waiting for us to follow Him. We will gain nothing by murmuring and rebelling against His purposes; we will only make our misery greater. But, if we yield to Him, then He will fill our heart with joy and peace. If there is failure and sin, we must confess it, and believe that He forgives it according to His promise: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1: 9).

What comfort for the weakest child of God who is submissive enough to trust Him: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You  -  In YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength" (Isa. 26: 3-4). To the extent that we are able to do this, we will have a steady peace which changing circumstances cannot take away.

It is a great thing to be persuaded by the Lord's love. The Lord of heaven and earth loves us with an everlasting love, which fills the heart and casts out fears. There is no other remedy. We do not need to say, "I am resolved in the future to do better." That would be leaning on self. Don't do it! Just say over and over again: "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. All His resources are mine. I can lean on Him."

But if we refuse to hear His voice, His blessings will be far from us and we will have nothing but self to fall back on in the shifting circumstances of life. Whether we admit it or not, when we are out of touch with the Shepherd, we are in trouble. Is there anything then that we cannot submit to, if it is the will of Him who sacrificed Himself on the cross for us?

ADJUSTING OUR ATTITUDES

It is not circumstances that make us happy or unhappy, but our attitude towards them. We are always striving to control our circumstances, and are able to do so to some degree. But many circumstances are beyond our control. Our tendency is to become discontented or even bitter when things do not go the way we want them to go. We act like children, crying or sulking or throwing a tantrum when we can't have our own way.

On the other hand, some are able to make the best of what can't be changed, by adjusting to their circumstances. Paul said: "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content" (Phil. 4: 11). A Christian knows he is a beloved child of God, and that His Father has all circumstances under control, allowing only those things that are for our greatest good: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God" (Rom. 8: 28). This is true, without qualification.

We are able to face whatever circumstance comes up and say with  assurance: "My Father has a lesson for me to learn. He has a blessing for me in this. He's giving me a golden opportunity to exercise patience, submission, faith and confidence in Him as His child."

Read the life of Christ in the Gospels. Look at the circumstances He passed through. They were surely not what the natural man would like: fleeing for his life to Egypt as a baby (Matt. 2: 13-14); working as a carpenter in the despised town of Nazareth (Mark. 6: 3; John 1: 46); having nowhere to lay His head (Matt. 8: 20); called crazy by His friends (Mark. 3: 21); called a demoniac by the crowd (John 8: 48). What scoffing He endured! But He received all these circumstances from His Father's hand and found in them an opportunity to manifest His divine nature.

Now each child of God has been made a partaker of that same divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4). He has Christ as His life. So all the circumstances we are passing through are God-given opportunities to let Christ take over and live out His life through us. This is exactly what Paul meant when he said, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1: 21).

This should be the Christian's attitude toward the circumstances of life. And what a different outlook it gives to everything! No longer are things seen by human standards as trying and distasteful. They are now golden opportunities to develop our spiritual life as "children of God  -  in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights" (Phil. 2: 15). Even afflictions when looked at this way become an occasion for thanksgiving: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5: 16-18).

A positive Christian attitude brings true contentment to the child of God. All things are viewed as coming from the tender hands of a loving Father and are opportunities to learn valuable lessons in self-control, patience, faith and obedience, while gaining a rich blessing. Outward circumstances don't make us happy or unhappy, but our inward attitude towards them and towards God in them. Song writer Bill Gaither puts it this way:

I found happiness, I found peace of mind,

I found the joy of living, perfect love sublime,

I found real contentment, happy living in accord;

I found happiness all the time,

Wonderful peace of mind,

When I found the Lord.

PEACE ASSURED

"The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4: 7). Who does not desire such an experience: the perfect peace of God Himself filling our hearts and minds? But why just desire it when we can have it? It is there for every child of God who wants it enough to meet the conditions.

Our Creator is the only one who fully understands the workings of our minds and all those feelings that well up in our hearts. Some of us have more emotional stability than others and do not swing as far and as often between extremes. Yet how few really know much of the perfect peace so necessary for true happiness. No matter how much or how little we have experienced this sweet peace, we want more.

If we are hungry and neglect to eat the food God has provided to satisfy hunger, we can't blame others if we starve. Neither can we blame others if we are unhappy but don't make use of God's provision for happiness. The whole fault lies in us. It is important that we face this squarely; otherwise we will never make use of God's provisions.

In Isaiah 26: 3 we read His first provision, which is trust: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." In Philippians 4: 6-7 we find the other two, which are prayer and thanksgiving: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

These three things — trust, prayer and thanksgiving — can give peace of heart and mind only to those who have full assurance of salvation. Many have assurance of sins forgiven; they know they are saved and have no doubt about their eternal security through the finished work of Christ. Yet they are often unhappy because they do not have that peace they desire and which God intends for them. They are neglecting these three simple tools.

TRUSTING GOD

What hinders us from trusting God? To trust Him we must first surrender ourselves to Him. No child can trust his father while walking in self-willed rebellion against him. Neither can one confide in God while walking in disobedience to Him.  We know that He will not help us with something that is contrary to His Word.

Our failure to believe that God's way is always best makes it hard to yield fully to Him and trust Him with all our heart. With distrust comes lack of confidence. With lack of confidence comes restlessness and unhappiness.

When Satan talked Eve into believing that God was withholding something good from her, she began to distrust God.  He had told Adam that if they ate the forbidden fruit they would die (Gen. 2: 17). But Eve looked at the forbidden tree and decided that it was "good for food  -  pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise" (Gen. 3: 6). She relied on her own judgment instead of yielding to God's. What unhappiness she plunged herself into!

Today this is still the root cause of all the unhappiness in the world. Keep this fact clearly in mind: If we want happiness and peace we must stop thinking we know better than God what will make us happy. We need to be willing to yield to Him and let Him have His own way with us. His infinite love and His infinite knowledge assure us that He knows what is best for us. His infinite power guarantees His ability to make it happen.

We cannot let our thoughts go astray; we must keep them on Him. Isaiah 26:3 tells us the Lord will keep us in perfect peace if we keep our minds on Him and keep trusting Him. Why let our thoughts run wild with anxious fear? The Lord has all things under control. He is, after all, the One who is above all and able to change all; and He wants to do what is for our greatest good. If we trust Him completely and keep our thoughts on Him, we will have peace of heart and mind.

Notice in the Psalms how often David talked to himself about God's care for him when he was cast down and harassed with fears. He was taught by God to do this, and was inspired to write these experiences for our encouragement. For example, when depressed and fearful he wrote:

• "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God" (Ps. 42: 11).

• "I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you" (Ps. 116: 6-7).

• "The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  -  Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear  -  For in the time of trouble He shall hide me" (Ps. 27: 1, 3, 5).

• "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You  -  In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?" (Ps. 56: 3-4).

We can never go wrong if we follow David's simple method of exhorting our own souls. It is not only psychologically correct, but also scripturally sound. We need to learn these verses and repeat them over and over again when we feel depressed, fearful or discouraged. Doing this will work wonders for us just as it did for David and many others who have followed his example. It will help to keep our minds fixed on the Lord instead of on our feelings or circumstances.

PROVISION OF PRAYER

Prayer is a wonderful provision of God to ease our burdens, tensions and fears, and restore peace to our hearts and minds. The value of prayer as a vital factor in a life of peace and happiness can never be overestimated. (See Phil. 4: 6-7.)

When we speak of the relationship of prayer to happiness, we are not talking about a few minutes spent each day repeating a stereotyped form of petition. Scriptural prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in simple childlike trust: "Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us" (Ps. 62: 8).

A school child comes to his father and says, "Father, will you help me solve this problem? I don't understand it." From this honest, simple request we can learn seven simple steps that govern effective prayer:

1. The child is conscious that he is in the presence of another person.

2. This person has the ability to solve his problem.

3. There is a relationship that the child is sure of — he's talking to his father.

4. He has confidence that his father has a personal interest in him and his problem.

5. He openly confesses his need for help with the problem.

6. He states his problem as clearly as he can.

7. He confidently waits on his father to show him the solution.

When we take these same seven steps and apply them to our prayer lives, they become simple rules for effective prayer:

1. When we pray, visualize in our souls that we are addressing a Person who is just as present as any earthly father could be.

2. Think for a moment of who He is and of His infinite power, wisdom and ability to understand and solve our problems.

3. Be conscious of our relationship with Him: He has made us His children; He is our Father.

4. As our Father, He has a very personal interest in us and our problems — more than any earthly father ever could. If He gave up His dear Son to die on the cross for us, we can be sure He is ready to give all that we need for our good.

So often we believe our prayers will be answered only if we do something to merit an answer. Since we know deep down that we have not been faithful to God, we feel we don't deserve what we are asking for. Therefore, we don't have confidence that He will answer. We must change our thinking.

Never ask anything on the grounds of personal merit, but simply on the grounds of our relationship with a loving Father who takes a personal interest in us. After all, by His grace He made us His for eternity. The Lord Jesus said: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matt. 7: 11).

5. Since we are relying on our Father's personal interest in us, and not our merits, we can freely confess our ignorance, our inability, and even our failure to Him. If there is any guilt weighing on our conscience, we should confess it to Him and get the burden lifted. He is more than ready to forgive, for He already settled the account when He gave His Son to die on the cross for us. Thus we can have confidence as we present our problems to Him. (See 1 John 1: 9.)    6. Tell Him what our problems are as honestly as we can. So often, when we don't really understand our problems, talking them over with our Father helps us get a clearer understanding of them. The very act of putting our problems into words gives us a clearer picture of them. Then too, telling Him about them gives Him an opportunity to give us a clearer picture of what our real need is.

He invites us to bring our requests to Him, but we are not telling Him something He does not already know. In fact, He knows them better than we ever will! By unburdening our hearts to Him, we get in touch with Him about them.

7. Confidently expect that, because of His personal interest in us, He will give us the solution to our problems at the right time. This attitude opens the way for Him to lead us into the right solution, or to solve our problems through divine intervention.

The invitation to bring our requests to God — "in everything by prayer and supplication" — does not necessarily mean long hours spent on our knees pouring out our hearts in prayer. While quiet times are important, we cannot overstress the importance of constantly talking to God about everything during our daily activities.

This is what is meant in 1 Thessalonians 5: 17: "Pray without ceasing;" and in Ephesians 6: 18: "Praying always." Habitually referring everything to our Father in the midst of our daily routine keeps us in touch with Him so that His peace can keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

VALUE OF THANKSGIVING

If we are sad and depressed, we need to try thanksgiving. If we are discouraged and feel like complaining, we must try praise. God tells us in His Word that we should be found "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5: 20). Let's discover how we can do this.

The prophet Jeremiah was greatly depressed as he listed many things that weighed him down: "He has set me in dark places  -  He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out  -  He has made my paths crooked" (Lam. 3: 6-7, 9). In all, he named some thirty complaints about his desperate circumstances, ending on this sad note: "My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord" (Lam. 3: 18).

He felt as though he was hopelessly sinking under his burdens. But then his thoughts suddenly turned to God and he broke out with another thought altogether: "This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion  -  therefore I hope in Him" (Lam. 3: 21-24). What a change! And that's always the way it is when we turn to God in our troubles. We find there is so much to thank Him for.

We should take all our sorrows to the Lord, and give Him the opportunity to show us why these things are in our life; but we should never leave His presence without thanking Him for all our blessings. This will surely turn our complaining into praise, and our depression into rejoicing. Paul made no mistake when He wrote, "In everything give thanks." He knew what was needed to lift us up. The unconverted have nothing to fall back on in times of trouble. But we have the eternal God with unlimited resources who takes a personal interest in us.

How sad to see so many confused and burdened Christians disregarding the Lord's gracious offer: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11: 28). How grateful we should be, knowing that He will sustain us when we come to Him with all our burdens. We should even thank Him for our troubles, since they bring us closer to Christ and are stepping stones to a higher spiritual plane. (See 2 Cor. 12: 7-10.)

Some of us bring our burdens to the Lord, but are still weighed down with them, because we do not heed the Lord's simple instructions to give thanks in everything. If we did this every time we talked over our troubles with the Lord, we would find our souls uplifted by the awareness of our many blessings. We remain preoccupied with our troubles, when instead we should go on our way rejoicing because we have a loving Father who never fails His children. Praise and thanks work wonders.

EXAMPLE FOR US

If the Lord Jesus exhorts us to give thanks in every situation, He is not asking us to do something He Himself did not do. We should never forget that He was tested in every point just as we are. When He was tested by that unrepentant generation, even after all His labors of love and mighty miracles, notice how He reacted: "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth  -  for so it seemed good in Your sight" (Matt. 11: 25-26). And in Luke 10: 21, where the same incident is recorded, we find it also recorded that "Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit."

As always, in these trials He saw His Father's hand and heard His Father saying, "This is from me." He recognized that His Father had power over heaven and earth, so He willingly bowed to His ordering of these painful circumstances, giving thanks. If we yield to our Father, we too will find great relief from distressing circumstances and also find renewed strength in our souls.

If we are not inclined to answer and say, "Thank you, Father," it only proves that our own wills are not surrendered to His. We don't want Him to have His way with us, and so we fret and complain, making ourselves still more miserable.

Don't forget that in all circumstances, we respond to God who is speaking to us through them. Our response may be, "Thank You, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." Or we may say, "Father, I won't thank You because I don't want what seems good in Your sight." We might be thinking, "I would never say such a thing to my heavenly Father." But if we fret and complain about our circumstances, our response has no other meaning than that to God.

When we learn the Lord's secret of rejoicing in adverse and painful circumstances, we will find rest for our souls. His delight was in His Father's will. We too will find happiness when we give up our will for His. But we must try it to see what a wonderful change it will make. Our painful circumstances may not change, but we will see a rainbow in the cloud and hear a song in the night.

Perhaps our Father has ordered our difficult circumstances just to teach us to yield to Him and say, "Not my will but Yours be done." If this is the case, when His end is achieved in our lives, He will alter our circumstances accordingly.

The Lord found peace in the midst of trials by submitting to them and thanking His Father for them. We will find peace too if we do likewise. There is no other way. We cannot get peace by worrying or complaining. The more we yield our will to His, the more we will find the peace and joy of Christ in our souls.

LEARNING FROM HIM

When the Lord says, "Learn from Me," it is as if He were saying: "I know what I am talking about. I am your Creator who became your Redeemer. Don't be deceived by your own reasoning or by the opinions of men. Learn from Me, and you will find rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. But the yoke of self-will and sin is heavy with conflict and bondage."

Would our loving Creator and Redeemer deliberately make it hard on us if we surrender our will to His? Of course not! As our perfect example, Jesus submitted to the Father when He said: "Father  -  not my will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22: 42). We are called to do likewise: "I beseech you  -  present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12: 1-2).

Our will, if not surrendered to God, is self-will. And self-will is the root of all the sin, misery and unhappiness that has ever come into our lives. Don't be deceived: it is not Satan, other people or our circumstances that bring about unhappiness in our lives; it is self-will. But God's Son came into this world to do His Father's will in love for us that we might have rest and happiness. A will surrendered to God is the gateway to happiness.

FINDING REST

To have a happy life, it is essential to be at rest. In explaining the way to find this rest, our Lord says: "Come to Me  -  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me  -  and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt. 11: 28-30).

The One who asks us to take His yoke upon us, gave us an example when He submitted to His Father's will saying, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God" (Heb. 10: 9). To find rest we too must surrender our wills to God's. That's what it means to "take My yoke upon you." Have you ever seen a yoke of oxen? When they are yoked up, they submit their will to the master.

Sin is the cause of all unhappiness in God's universe, and the root of all sin is self-will, or substituting our will for God's. Not only does this bring us into conflict with our Creator, but it also creates a conflict within us.

A child of God receives a new, divine nature when he is born again. This divine nature loves God and hates sin. The Christian also has the Spirit of God dwelling within him. For these reasons, inner conflict arises when a child of God yields to self-will and sin.

When we make something, we have the right to govern its use. Likewise, God has a right to say what we should do, because He has created us. When we buy something, it belongs to us. God has purchased us with the blood of His Son: "You are not your own  -  you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6: 19-20). When a child is born, he is expected to obey his parents. When a person is born again, God expects obedience from him (John 3: 3; 1 John 5: 18; 1 Pet. 2: 1-2).

We cannot disregard God's threefold claim over us — as His creation, His possession and His children — and expect inner peace. We must recognize God's rights. Therefore, if we exert our self-will in rebellion against God's will, inner conflict results.

HIS POWER

The power of God is so overwhelming that it should strike terror in the soul that is out of harmony with Him: "Even the demons  believe — and tremble!" (James. 2: 19). The power of God causes them to tremble. The legion of demons that possessed the maniac of Gadara trembled when Jesus commanded them to depart from him, because they knew His irresistible power (Luke 8: 31). Only man is foolish enough to try to persuade himself that he has nothing to fear: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps. 53: 1).

Paul knew of this latent fear in the heart of men and he used it to awaken them to their need for the gospel: "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Cor. 5: 11). There is an unconscious fear of God in every human being regardless of how ungodly he is or how much he tries to suppress it. Man's cursing, swearing and statements of unbelief are an effort to drown the innate fear of God that is troubling him because he knows he is out of harmony with God.

No one can ignore the power of God and expect to have peace: "God is greatly to be feared  -  and to be held in reverence by all those around Him" (Ps. 89: 7). It is this inherent fear of God latent in every human soul that Christ appeals to when He says, "I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" (Luke 12: 5).

He goes on to couple this fear of God's power with a sense of confidence in God's care for them: "Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Luke 12: 6-7).

The Lord continues to develop our sense of security with these examples of God's care: "Consider the ravens  -  God feeds them  -  How much more value are you than the birds?  -  Consider the lilies  -  If then God so clothes the grass  -  how much more will He clothe you  -  Your Father knows that you need these things  -  all these things shall be added to you" (Luke 12: 24, 27-28, 30-31). What a comfort to experience God's awesome power over us and His care for us. Elizabeth Cheney wrote:

Said the robin to the sparrow,

"I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings

Fear and fret and worry so?"

Said the sparrow to the robin,

"Friend, I think that it must be

That they have no heavenly Father

Such as cares for you and me!"

HIS WILL

It is a self-evident truth that God's power is always subject to His will. If we are sure that we are His, then we can be sure that He is working out His will for our present blessing and our eternal good. He has irresistible power to carry out His wonderful purpose concerning us. With this in view then, let's look at three statements about God's will for His children.

First, in Ephesians 1: 4-5, we learn what God's will was for us even before creation: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

Who could ask for a higher place than to be His sons brought into His eternal favor? Could anything be more blessed than this? Angels are creatures before the Creator, but we are beloved sons of our Father. And all this because it was the good pleasure of His will.

Second, we know His purposes concerning us in the ages to come from Ephesians 2: 4-7: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ  -  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

Here God reveals that in the future, His will is for us to discover the exceeding riches of His grace. Surely, God could not give anything greater than this! Why should we fear His power when we know the good pleasure of His will concerning us? His power, in fact, is our guarantee that His purpose concerning us will be accomplished in due time.

Third, in Romans 8: 28 we find His purposes revealed in the events and circumstances that touch us in our daily lives: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Should we dread His irresistible power and sovereign will when we know that He is making all things work together for our present and eternal good?

How narrow-minded of us to complain about our circumstances in the face of such plain statements! What a shameful way to treat our God who has willed such marvelous things for us! We cannot have peace in our soul when self-will and a refusal to submit reveal our distrust in God.

Remember, we are fighting in vain when we fight against God: "Woe to him who strives with his Maker" (Isa. 45: 9). Putting our trust in the One "who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11) is the happiest thing we can ever do.

SEARCHING SELF

Can we pray this practical prayer from our heart? "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand  -  Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139: 17-18, 23-24).

If we search, we will find that God, in His great love for us, will show us both what is causing our trouble and what is hindering our peace. Thinking about His will for us should bring great peace. And thinking about His power should assure us of His good purposes concerning us. However, if we are not submissive, we should tremble, because we will discover that self-will leads to grief.

The children of Israel were self-willed, and great sorrow resulted: "'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the Lord, 'who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who  -  go down to Egypt, and have not asked My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!'  -  The Egyptians are men, and not God  -  When the Lord stretches out His hand, both he who helps will fall, and he who is helped will fall down; they all will perish together" (Isa. 30: 1-2; Isa. 31: 3). Now, contrast this to those who love and do His will: "Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble" (Ps. 119: 165).

HIS CHASTENING

It is foolish to think we can have happiness and peace while showing disrespect for God's power to chasten us: "For whom the Lord loves he corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights" (Prov. 3: 12). As His children we should never disregard His authority. He is training His children: "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11: 31-32).

How foolish to ignore His will and expect to have peace! We know we can't break His natural laws and expect to get away with it. If we touch a live electrical wire we will get a shock. If we take poison we will suffer the consequences. Just as there are natural laws that operate in His physical creation, so there are moral laws that operate in His moral creation. We cannot ignore one any more than the other and expect peace and prosperity. It is foolish to try.

In fact, many of God's moral laws have both a moral and a physical effect. For example, anger not only produces unhappiness but also effects the functioning of our vital organs. The worry, anxiety and tension that follow a fit of rage make us feel miserable and depressed. One hour of worry can cause more physical exhaustion than a whole day's work. How many people are nervous, irritable and tired all the time simply because they are breaking the laws of God governing their moral being!

But apart from these laws which have a uniform effect upon both body and soul, there is also a direct dealing by God resulting in discipline, correction, chastening, and training for the practical holiness of His children, as well as for their peace and happiness: "Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives  -  Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12: 6-7, 11).

We should be aware that God's hand is behind everything that affects us in our bodies, our souls and our circumstances. It is surprising how many of God's children go through life oblivious to this important fact. No wonder we drift along making so little spiritual progress and having so little real peace. If only we were more interested in learning the lessons and reaping the benefits of His chastening, how much misery we could spare ourselves and how much happier our lives would be.

God never wants to harm His children. He wants to deliver us from those traits that are harmful and develop those habits that produce peace and happiness. For example, if we are inclined to be proud, God may allow someone to make a derogatory remark about us for our own development. But if we do not recognize this as God's discipline for our correction, we are likely to get angry and say or do something we may regret later. However, if we see how God is delivering us from pride and giving us an opportunity to show a Christ-like spirit of meekness, forbearance and grace, His chastening will make us happy and peaceful.

God is always teaching us to renounce pride, hatred, anger, irritability, resentment, jealousy, envy, worry and anxiety, because these make us miserable and unhappy. He uses circumstances to give us the opportunity to develop the Christ-like traits of meekness, humility, gentleness, goodness, patience and self-control, because these produce peace and happiness.

God's chastening allows us an opportunity to renounce self and develop that new nature we have as His children. If we yield to His chastening and cooperate with Him in it, the results will be inner peace and happiness. If we ignore His discipline and decide to rebel, our Father may chasten us through sickness, accident, loss or some other providential means. He loves us too much to allow us to go on in self-will which robs us of peace, joy and fellowship with Him. God cannot make His children happy while they ignore "that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12: 2).

EXAMPLES OF CHASTENING

The Bible is full of examples of God's chastening. In the case of Jonah, God used a great storm, an east wind, a beating sun, a great fish and a worm to chasten and discipline His rebellious prophet (Jonah 1: 4, 17; Jonah 4: 7-8). God has all things under His hand, and can use something as insignificant as a worm for chastening when He so chooses.

He used leprosy when chastening Gehazi, Miriam and King Uzziah (2 Kings 5: 20-27; Num. 12; 2 Chr. 26: 16-19). The sword, revolt and adultery were used with David (2 Sam. 11-12). Storms, famines, sickness, locusts, wars, and so on were repeatedly used by God to chasten His people for sin and rebellion. In 1 Corinthians 11: 30, Paul states that many were weak and sick, and some even died under the chastening hand of the Lord because of their sinful conduct.

An example for us today is that of a young woman dying from cancer. As a child, her godly mother taught her to know the Lord; but after her mother's death she drifted far into the world. Her battle with cancer brought her to the point where she could say: "My suffering will soon end in death, but the Lord has been speaking to me through it. I know why I had to suffer, and it has resulted in happiness." After a few weeks of peaceful suffering, the Lord took her home. Only the Lord knows how much suffering she might have been spared if she had surrendered to Him sooner.

While God uses sickness, accidents, and other trying situations to chasten His children, we must never conclude that God is disciplining us only because of sin. (This was the mistake Job's friends made regarding his suffering.) The Lord often uses sufferings and trials to draw us closer to Him. He may seek to strengthen our faith by putting us in situations where we have to depend upon Him.

When others are suffering, it is never wise to think that God is chastening them for wrong doing. We are not to judge; that's God's business. However, when we are being chastened personally, we should ask God whether He intends it as correction, training for usefulness, or character development. If we do not get in touch with Him about His purpose, and cooperate with Him, we will not gain the happiness and peace He intends for us. Remember, God's dealings are a reality, and we will suffer great loss if we pass over them lightly. On the other hand, they will contribute greatly to our peace and happiness if we take them seriously. We can brighten our testimony for Him by cheerfully accepting our trials.

HIS PURPOSE

No matter what our circumstances, there is no reason to become upset or discouraged, because God is ordering them for our good (Rom. 8: 28). This is the blessed truth that God wants His children to grasp. With a surrendered will and a confident heart, the child of God should be able to take everything from his Father without fretting or fighting. Instead, we should look for the benefit in it.

Let's make a mental list of all the things that upset us. Are others hurting our feelings? Are our surroundings getting to us? Do we seem to be battling against overwhelming odds? Are we nervous, tense and unhappy? Doesn't the God who allowed these circumstances also have the power to change them? Then why doesn't He? Because we know He does not send trials just to see us suffer, we can be sure that He has some lessons for us to learn.

How did Christ act in the circumstances of his life? Was he upset by them? No, He took them from his Father with a  submissive heart, as an opportunity to display His own divine nature. Now He is abiding in us by the Holy Spirit as our source of power and strength for daily living. We need to let Him take over and live His life through us so we can find His peace and happiness. Like Paul, we want to be able to say, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil. 1: 21).

Nothing will give such peace and happiness as a life lived in conscious harmony with our heavenly Father's plan for us. Let's yield our lives to God and view our circumstances as ordered for our good. Let's see in them a God-given opportunity to live in harmony with His purposes for our lives. If we do this, we will experience His sustaining power and His peace. Our circumstances may never change, but our lives will take on new meaning that will make for peace, happiness and a life worth living.

UNSELFISH SERVICE

A self-centered person never serves others unless there is something in it for him. But how different is the service of the child of God who finds true satisfaction and happiness in doing unselfish deeds. His good deeds are a source of joy and a spontaneous expression of his new nature.

Every born-again child of God has been made a partaker of the divine nature. This new nature is implanted in the believer by God's Spirit through the Word. It finds its greatest pleasure in helpful service to God and man. The believer can only be happy as he lives this kind of life.

Why did God redeem us by sacrificing His own Son? Why was Christ willing to die for our redemption? Because His own nature found its pleasure in unselfish love and service to others. A child of God partakes of this same divine nature and so unselfish service makes him happy. But a self-centered life depresses the believer and makes him miserable and unhappy.

We can only be happy when we act in accordance with our new nature which always finds its greatest pleasure in unselfish service to God and to man. But to understand why a true child of God is often unhappy, we must remember that we have two natures with opposite tendencies: a new, divine nature that we have received from God when we were born again; and our perverted, fallen nature that we have received from Adam by natural birth. To the extent that we yield to the natural, we will be unhappy.

POWER OVER SIN

Sin is destructive to happiness because it conflicts with the divine nature of the believer. It produces a humiliating sense of defeat. When we do things that our conscience condemns we feel miserable. We may try to forget about it but that is no solution to our difficulty. Power over sin is the only thing that can make us happy. But how can we get that power?

Before he learns the secret of victory, every born-again believer commits sins that he hates but seems powerless to overcome. Here is Paul's description of this struggle that leads to finding victory in Jesus: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells — For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin" (Rom. 7: 18-25).

There are three laws spoken of in these verses. The law of God is that revelation of His will for man. The law of the mind is the working of the new nature in every born-again soul that delights in the will of God and hates sin. The law of sin is the working of the old nature that always wants to have its own way in opposition to God's will. These two natures — the divine nature that every Christian receives from God, and the sinful nature derived from Adam by natural birth — are entirely opposed to one another. One loves and clings to sin, while the other loves and desires to do the will of God. Struggles result, and the believer is sad whenever he gives way to sin.

This experience of struggle and defeat, often prolonged for months and even years, is very humiliating and painful. But it brings the believer to realize two things: that there is no good thing in him by nature; and that even after he has been made a partaker of the divine nature he has no power in himself to carry out the will of God.

While learning these painful truths, of our utter sinfulness and powerlessness to combat sin in our own strength, we often cry out in desperation as Paul did: "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7: 24). We have to learn that if we are ever to get the victory over sin, the power has to come from a source outside ourselves.

As soon as we look outside for a deliverer, we discover Jesus Christ as the answer to our agonizing cry, "Who will deliver me?" He is the only One who can set us free from both the condemnation and power of sin.

HAPPY LIVING

Much of the misery of this struggle with sin is due to the conscience continually condemning the believer for giving way to sin. But the great and glorious fact of the gospel of God's grace is that though our conscience condemns sin, God never condemns us, because He sees us in Christ, who has already paid our penalty for sin on the cross. So we are free and beyond condemnation and judgment: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8: 1).

The life we now have flows down from Him, its fountain and source, into our souls. "Because I live, you will live also" (John 14: 19), are His own words to us. Our response is: "Christ  -  is our life" (Col. 3: 4). This is the great soul-delivering truth of God. He does not see us in our old nature any more. He is done with that and sees us only in the new life we have in Christ. And He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us, to develop His new life in us and to give us His power over sin.

So Christ is the answer to all of our struggles. We must stop trying to overcome the sinful tendencies of our old nature in our own strength and begin to let Him work in us that deliverance and victory over sin we so much long for. Likewise, we have no power to produce fruit, even though in our new nature we long to do so. What relief from our misery when we come to the end of ourselves and begin to trust Him. When we realize our powerlessness and look to the Lord, He gives victory over sin and produces fruit that brings joy and peace.

Christ gave us a simple illustration of how this works: "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15: 4-5). Where did the branch get the power to produce such wonderful fruit? Not from itself, but from the vine which sends its invigorating sap flowing into the branch to produce fruit.

Never lose sight of the great fact that Christ is the answer for every trouble. Without Him we cannot overcome. The more we keep in touch with Him the more fruit we will produce. Without Him fruit bearing is impossible. Without Him we will never have true and lasting happiness. He is the source of all joy. In Him we can have a happy life!

"These things I have spoken to you,

that in Me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation;

but be of good cheer,

I have overcome the world."

John 16: 33

Peace and Joy in Time of Trials

Peace and Joy in Time of Trials.

E. C. Hadley.

The Purpose of Trials

Trials teach us submission to the Lord and deliver us from our own ways. They are God's way of developing patience in us. About the purpose of trials in our lives, James wrote: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1: 2-4).

If everything went just the way we wanted, we would have nothing to be patient about. Patience requires setting aside our own will. Therefore trials show just how much we are willing to give up our own will to accept God's will for us.

What God Allows

We must never forget that, whatever our circumstances, God has allowed them for our good. God's choice for us sometimes seems very hard to bear. But this is because we are not fully surrendered to Him or because we lack confidence in His love and wisdom. God is either choosing the very best for us in what He allows in our lives, or else He deliberately chooses for us what He knows is not in our best interest. Would we dare charge God with the latter?  Never!

In His providential dealings with us He either orders or allows all that comes into our lives. He has the almighty power to prevent anything from happening, so if it happens, He has allowed it. Therefore, complaining is the same as saying that we know what is best for us better than God does, or else that God does not care enough to give us what is best. One is pure pride, the other is distrust of His motives.

Who's in Charge?

We sometimes think, "Doesn't the devil also have a hand in what happens to us?" That is very true, as we see in Job's case. But we also see how the devil could not go beyond what God allowed (Job 1: 12; Job 2: 6); and what He allowed He used for even richer blessing in Job's life than before.

The devil is powerless to do anything without God allowing it. He is only a creature, as are all his hosts of demons. God is above them, no matter how mighty they may be. So even if we see the devil's hand in what happens, we must not forget to see God's hand above the devil's. God only allows him to go as far as it suits His sovereign purposes, to turn it into blessing for His people.

The Long View

"All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8: 28), and that includes even what the devil is allowed to do.  Do not forget that God is working with a view to our eternal good and not simply with regard to this present time.

We so often look at things from a "here and now" perspective while God works with eternal results in view. God may choose a hard road for us, not because He delights in our suffering hardship along the way, but because of the eternal blessing it will bring us.

"Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress" (Ps. 4: 1 KJV). Distress is not sent from God for the sake of suffering but for the sake of  enlargement. In times of distress, God sympathizes with His own. Paul referred to Him as "the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation" (2 Cor. 1: 3-4). And Paul's troubles were not light, for he says, "We were burdened beyond measure — so that we despaired even of life" (2 Cor. 4: 8). However, with eternity in view, he refers to them as light afflictions "working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4: 17).

Five Necessary Things

Five things are necessary to have peace and joy in time of trial:

1. Keep your mind on the Lord: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" (Isa. 26: 3).

2. Keep in touch with God by prayer: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil 4: 6-7).

3. Meditate upon the Word: "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15: 4).

4. Yield your will to God: "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12: 11).

5. Know that the Lord will sustain you: Last, but not least, let us not forget that even though our trials or circumstances may continue for a long time, the Lord says, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor. 12: 9).   He will sustain the soul that submits to Him and leaves all in His hands.

A Cause for Rejoicing

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love" (1 Peter 1: 6-8)

E. C. Hadley.

Needed Needs

Needed Needs

J. B. Stoney.

The circumstances in which we learn most are those which most expose our weaknesses. As a rule we are placed in circumstances which demand that which we are most defective in. We are set in such and such situations, not because we can handle them, or behave in them better than anyone else; but on the contrary, because we need to be invigorated by grace in the defects which they are fitted to expose. They disclose to us where we need grace, so that constantly we are failing where we are expected to excel. We are put there to cast us on the Lord, and to teach us that we can do nothing of ourselves.

If we could excel there, we should glory in our success, but when we find that we are placed in the very circumstances that, perhaps, more than any others expose our weakness, we then see that we have no hope of being able to stand or succeed, unless we obtain grace to do so. I am not placed where I could excel most, but subjected to those difficulties in which I can best know my need of grace, and best learn dependence.

If I could get on without grace, I should grow elated with myself. But when I find that unless the Lord maintains me I shall surely fail, then I am humbled as to myself while at the same time deepened in dependence which the demand of my circumstances has, in a way, forced on me; and having learned the blessing of dependence, instead of regretting the difficulties which made it necessary to seek help, I am the more cheered and encouraged to go on in them.

For learning or service every one is placed where there is demand on him. The boy at school is not in the easy circumstances of home or the playground. The horse in harness is not in the ease of being in the stable or at grass.

The situations we are subjected to are the ones in which we can best learn and be most useful. It is not because we have nothing to learn or nothing to do for others. If we had naught to learn, there would be no difficulty in the lessons required of us every day. The fact that there is difficulty in them proves that we are not proficient, and that it is necessary that we should be subjected to that which discloses to us what we require to learn, or to draw from us what we can render.

Your weakness is exposed that you may acquire strength, and having received of the Lord, you will then be called on to render unto others — to comfort others, as you have been comforted of God; so that whether learner or servant, you are always set in circumstances where there is exaction, and not ease. If the learner were to keep at the same lesson always he might feel his difficulty over, but so would his learning be over.

Are you learning? Are you useful? Whenever you are either, you will find that you are in exacting circumstances, and therefore not those where you are most at home and at your ease; but the more you turn them to profit, the more you are learning of grace, and the more useful you are in sharing what you have acquired.

Sanctifying Solitude

Sanctifying Solitude

J. B. Stoney.

For a saint to have solitude is of the deepest importance, because it is then the heart renews its acquaintance with the Lord Jesus who only has entrance into our most solitary retreats. When we are thoroughly alone and apart, He loves to be our companion; it is, so to speak, the time for Him to come, like the ray of light which permeates into the dark cavern wherever it can; and to the inmate of the cavern never was light more prized.

I believe there are two things learned in solitude that cannot be gained otherwise — one, that I see myself apart from everyone and everything, a very necessary matter; and the other, that I see the Lord in quite a peculiar light, in a singular and unique way, apart from everything and everyone. His individuality, blessed be His Name, comes out to me in solitude in a way it never does in a crowd.

Canticles gives you very much the idea of this: what one is oneself when quite alone, and what He is to one thus alone. When I am alone with Him, He obtains His singularly pre-eminent place, not as a Saviour, though He is that to faith; but He is known to the heart as the sun. He "rules the day," so that when all other objects are visible, He is still entirely pre-eminent, and the sense of His supremacy, well-known and well-sustained, is the most effectual resource for the heart all the day long, and abides with it through its most anxious encounters.

In solitude with Him, the value and resource He is to the heart is learned, and when busied in responsibilities, it turns to Him as the needle to the pole, or as the flower to the sun. Where the soul has acquired the sense of His sovereignty in its solitude, when it has to return to others and to duties, everything falls in relation to Him. He is first, and things and people assume and derive importance, not as to whether they are pleasing or otherwise, but as they relate to Him.

If you make the claims on you the sun of your system, instead of the Lord Jesus, whatever seems to come short throws your day into darkness, because the claims are not answered to as you desire them to be, and there is the sense of an eclipse. If the Lord were the distinct, known magnet to YOU, every responsibility would be less anxious, and you would fulfil each better, and instead of being saddened and disappointed, you would hear Him saying, "She hath done what she could," and with this, you would have a weight that would render whatever you did more appreciated.

It is not the amount one does, nor the consciousness of one's own usefulness which makes one happy in serving, but the assurance that one would be called on and used in case of need. Love never likes to see its object needing. It serves because it loves. Do not try to arrange your world with only a lamp in your hand; why, if you had a sun, all would be easy enough! It is in solitude with the Lord Jesus that one learns to find Him as the Sun. When the heart has found its rest and satisfaction in Him, it can turn to Him naturally and continually in every circumstance."

The Eternal Son of the Father

The Eternal Son of the Father

W. R. Dronsfield.

INTRODUCTION

Of late years, a doctrine has been formulated and taught amongst many Christians that has been termed the "Temporal Sonship" doctrine, as opposed to the orthodox doctrine of "Eternal Sonship". The hitherto generally accepted view that our blessed Lord and Saviour is and was the Son of God from all eternity, was challenged in 1929 by J. Taylor of New York when he was in England at a series of readings held at High Barnet. At first it was only said that Divine Relationships in eternity were unknowable, and therefore the Lord's Sonship before incarnation could not be affirmed, but soon by 1932 it was being boldly taught that the Lord's Sonship began at incarnation, and Eternal Sonship was directly denied.

This doctrine has been confined to those known as "Taylor Exclusive Brethren", at one time a very numerous company. It is resolutely refused by others also known as Exclusive Brethren and by well-known teachers amongst the Open Brethren. Owing to the sad break-up of the Taylor company, many individuals and meetings have been forced out of their original fellowship, and would dearly like to be able to share unity with the brethren who have never been in fellowship with J. Taylor. However, because they are still unable to affirm that the Head of the Church is the Eternal Son of God, they have been refused, or, knowing that they would be refused if they applied, they have never pursued the matter. It is with the desire to help any who may be confused on this issue, that this little book is written.

Right at the commencement, let it be stated that nobody has ever failed to confess that the Lord is an Eternal Divine Person, without beginning or end. It is not His personality but His eternal relationship as Son of the Father that is questioned. That the Trinity, three Persons in One God, has always had existence, is a truth held by all. Also we do not wish to evade the arguments advanced by the exponents of J. Taylor's doctrine. We assume they only have the Lord's honour and glory in their motives when they advance these teachings, but firmly believe that they are sadly mistaken. The only authority to which we can turn when the Truth is at stake is the Word of God. We will avoid as far as possible, therefore, using the support of human authorities.

Many, when they learn that the Lord's Godhead and Manhood are not apparently affected, regard the question as not of fundamental importance. They point out that the words "Eternal Son" and "Eternal Sonship" are not in Scripture, and therefore do not see why they should be required to use them. But many words that are not in Scripture are used to define scriptural doctrine. Where are the words "Trinity", "Divine Person", "Vicarious Sacrifice" or "The Fall" for example? Many formulae are used that are succinct statements of scriptural doctrine, but are not themselves in Scripture. It would be impossible to give exposition of Scripture if we could only confine ourselves to direct quotations. This excuse, used to avoid grasping the issue, is not tenable. Our aim in this book is to show that a fundamental issue is involved.

REASONS ADVANCED IN SUPPORT OF THE TEMPORAL SONSHIP DOCTRINE

Here are some of the main arguments of these teachers:

(a) A son is in a place of subjection to his father. Even when a son reaches a high position and state, he still gives honour to his parents. This is a principle found throughout Scripture. There can, however, be no subjection or obedience between Divine Persons as viewed absolutely in the Godhead; therefore the Lord's Sonship has only to do with His mediatorial position taken up in Manhood.

(b) The word "Only Begotten" refers to birth. There was only one time when He was born, and that was at the incarnation.

(c) "He is in the bosom of the Father" (John 1: 18). The word "is" does not imply an eternal state as in the name "I AM" (John 8: 58) but a present state. The word "in" is the Greek word eis which implies that He came into that state. Elsewhere in the chapter the past tense is used to describe Him in the Eternal Godhead (verses 1 and 2).

(d) Throughout Scripture the term "Son", "Son of God" is only applied when referring to the Lord in Manhood, and the position He then took up. To the simple objection that the Father must have had a Son in order to send Him into the world, it was pointed out that present relationships are often used to identify persons in events before the relationships existed. For example a man might say, "When my wife was a little girl". She was not his wife when she was a little girl, nevertheless he still refers to her as his wife. In John 17: 3, it is "Jesus Christ Whom Thou has sent", but He was not Jesus Christ before He was sent. In John 3: 13, the Son of Man came down from Heaven, but He was not the Son of Man before He came down. "Jesus Christ, the Same yesterday and to day and for ever" (Hebrews 13: 8). Here we have the attributes of Deity ascribed to the Lord under His human name and title.

(e) Scriptures used to support the doctrine are Psalm 2: 7, "This day have I begotten Thee", and Luke 1: 31, which it is claimed shows that the Lord was not called the Son of God until His birth.

Many have found it very difficult to refute these arguments in a convincing manner. Most of the followers of J. Taylor were persuaded to accept the new teaching. Those who took the lead did so with an acute intellect and knowledge of Scripture, and one may acknowledge that they appeared to have a genuine and reverent desire to honour Divine Persons. Some of those who rushed into print to oppose the doctrine seemed confused and caught off guard. For example, they asserted that the new doctrine was Sabellianism, which was not true. It was a new teaching (to them) and first the Scriptures needed to be searched to see if these things were so. We are convinced, however, that it was really a very subtle attack on the fundamentals of the Christian Faith. We must look beyond the dear brethren who taught the error and see the enemy at work. Satan was behind it, using godly men that he had taken unawares. In doing so, he effected the ruin of a portion of that great movement of the Holy Spirit in the last century which rediscovered the precious truth of God's assembly. It is one's desire, in producing this booklet, to present a case from Scripture that will convince of their mistake those who have imbibed the temporal sonship doctrine. Many an argument has been put forward in the past that seems conclusive to those who already accept the orthodox view, but very weak in the judgment of those who are opposed.

THE PROOF OF THE LORD'S DEITY

See John 5: 17-18. The Lord had just healed a man on the Sabbath Day, to the anger of the Jews. His answer to them was, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work", which appears to be the first time He said publicly that God was His Father. This condemned Him utterly in the eyes of the Jews, for they saw that by saying that God was His Father He made Himself equal with God.

Here we see that the Lord's Sonship demonstrated His equality with Deity — not His subjection as the followers of J. Taylor teach. Could it be that the Jews had reached the truth of His claim to equality by the wrong reasoning? No, the inspired words do not say that it was just what the Jews said, but assert plainly that He made Himself equal with God by saying God was His Father. The reasoning of the Jews was as correct as their conclusion.

Why did the Jews see this? Because in the Hebrew thinking, and in the Scriptures, a father is presented as being of the same nature as the one he begets. Here are a few examples:

There is the common term, "sons of Belial". Belial means "worthless", so the term "son of Belial" simply means a worthless person.

Joses was surnamed Barnabas by the apostles (Acts 4: 36), meaning "son of consolation", because he was by nature one who consoled for he was a good man who exhorted the brethren that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord (Acts 11: 23-24).

The Lord surnamed John and James the sons of thunder.

Judas is called the son of perdition because he was by nature one that would perish. Perdition means perishing.

He called the Pharisees a generation of vipers because they had the nature of vipers. See also "children of light", "children of wrath", "child of the Devil", etc.

Every being begets after his own kind (Genesis 1). Therefore the Jews saw that if God has a Son, that Son has the nature of Deity. There is only One True Son of the same eternal essence as the Father — the Only Begotten Son.

But the objection will at once be raised, "If God has begotten a Son, there must have been a time when the Son was begotten, and therefore He has a beginning". This is quite wrong reasoning, for the right implication is exactly the opposite. If an eternal Father, without beginning nor end, begets a Son, that Son also must have neither beginning nor end; else He is not a True Son according to the Father's essence. God's nature is infinite, therefore His Son's nature is infinite.

We must abandon all reasoning from the finite. Every finite creature begets a finite creature with a beginning, but the Infinite begets the Infinite with no beginning. The word "Only Begotten" does not imply carnal or low thoughts of begetting, but implies equal nature. This is what the ancient orthodox teachers called "The Eternal Generation of the Son". The begetting is not an event of the past, however distant.

Let us not lessen the force of the word "Only Begotten" by saying that it might just be translated "Only" or that it means simply unique or uniquely precious. It means far more than that. It means that He is the only Son according to the Divine Essence. To justify this lessening of the force of the word "Only Begotten", the case of Isaac is put forward who is called Abraham's only begotten son although there were other sons. However, in God's eyes, Isaac was the only son. Abraham said, "O that Ishmael might live before Thee!" but Ishmael was not recognised by God, the covenant was not to be with him (Genesis 17: 18-19). On the other hand it has been stated, that because of the Septuagint use of the word "only begotten" for the Hebrew "only one" (jachid), that "only" is all that is meant by it. But the Septuagint is often an inaccurate translation and certainly cannot be cited as a greater authority than the New Testament itself. Those who have come to the defence of Eternal Sonship by denying that the real meaning of the Greek word monogenes is "only begotten", have actually obscured the issue.

But what then are we to say about all the other sons? Are there not many sons brought to glory? (Hebrews 2: 10). Are we not sons? (Galatians 4: 6). Are we not begotten of God? (1 John 5: 1, 18). Are not the angels called sons of God? (Job 1: 6/38: 7).

It is true that we are brought into sonship by the grace of God. We have been begotten of God as regards the new nature, when we were born again by the Word and the Spirit. This is the divine nature (1 Peter 1: 4). It is the nature of God morally — God's true nature from the moral standpoint, but it is not sonship according to essence. That is, we do not partake of Deity and thus become omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, etc. Only the Son has Sonship according to essence. From the moral aspect He is the Firstborn among many brethren, but from the point of view of Divine Essence He is the Only Begotten with no brethren.

As regards the angels, the Scripture insists that the Lord's Sonship distinguishes Him from them. "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Hebrews 1: 5). Never has God called an angel His Son. Yet the angels are called sons of God in the book of Job. We suggest that this is because they had no progenitors and are all directly created by God to reflect His glory. In like manner the only man to be directly created by God, and not humanly generated, was Adam, and as he had no progenitor, he is called the son of God (Luke 3: 38).

We will now consider other scriptures that support this truth. Here it is necessary to find scriptures where the abstract concept of sonship is the subject matter. It is not sufficient to look at places where the name "Son of God" is mentioned because, as we have seen, it is common to identify a person by a name or title even when referring to occasions when the person did not possess that designation. All the scriptures which say that the Father sent the Son do not prove to those who hold the temporal sonship theory that the Lord was the Son before He was sent, because, they say, the Divine Persons were not known by any distinct names before the incarnation, and therefore can only be referred to by the names they took afterwards.

Hebrews 5: 8. "Though He were Son". There is no definite article before Son; it is characteristic, and the relationship of Sonship is the prominent thought. "Though He were Son, yet learned He obedience". As the Son, the experience of obedience was unknown to Him, and so He learned what that experience was by the things that He suffered. In this passage we see that the idea of obedience and subjection was foreign to His Sonship. This is the opposite to the doctrine of temporal sonship which maintains that His Sonship is to be identified with subjection. No, it is not as the Son that He learned obedience, but in spite of His being such. The reason a man is subject and inferior to his father in human relationships is that the son is always the junior, the father obviously being born first. To argue from this that the Lord's Sonship denotes subjection is plainly wrong for there can be no seniority between Divine Persons. It is another example of trying to understand the Infinite by a comparison with the finite.

Now turn to John 1: 14. The literal translation is "We beheld His glory, the glory of an only begotten with a father". The glory is that of the abstract relationship rather than that of the Person Himself, that is to say, the glory in this passage is specifically that of His Sonship. This glory shone through the veil of His flesh so that His disciples recognised it. It was His Divine glory.

This will be immediately challenged by those who deny His eternal Sonship. They will say that it is His moral glory, which He had as the Perfect Man. We will, therefore, test this by searching the Scriptures. When those who had to do with Him in His life here were constrained to confess Him as the Son of God, what made them do so? Was it His moral glory or His Divine glory? Let us look at the incidents involved.

(1) Nathanael (John 1: 49) confessed Him as the Son of God and King of Israel. It was His omniscience that opened His eyes. The Lord had shown that He knew some secret that only Nathaniel could have known.

(2) The disciples in the boat. (Matthew 14: 33). The Lord had just shown His Divine power as the Creator and Sustainer of all things, walking. on the water and stilling the wind and the waves. Here we have Him as the omnipotent One.

(3) Martha (John 11: 27). The Lord had just revealed Himself as the Source of Life. Only God is the Source of Life. All other beings receive their life through Him.

(4) The man blind from birth (John 9: 35-38). Here the man is told directly from the Lord Who He is. It is the man's reaction that is noteworthy as he immediately worships the Son of God showing that he recognised His Deity; for the Lord accepted his worship as offered intelligently. We can contrast this with the man in Matthew 19: 16-17 who said "Good Master". At once the Lord checked him, because he had ascribed something to Him that only applied to God, without realising that the One he was speaking to was indeed God.

(5) The Centurion (Matthew 27: 54; Mark 15: 39). Here the reasons for the centurion's confession are plainly stated. In Matthew it was due to the severe earthquake, the rending of the rocks and the opening of the tombs. In Mark it is specifically stated that it was due to the Lord's shouting with a loud voice just before He gave up His spirit. This was remarkable to the centurion who had no doubt seen large numbers of such executions. A man crucified gets weaker and weaker until he cannot speak above a whisper. Here was One who could shout with a loud voice just before He died, showing supernatural strength. It was, therefore, not His moral glory that convinced the centurion, but His Divine glory, as was the case in all the foregoing cases.

We will refer to Peter's great confession in Matthew 16: 16 and John 6: 69 later.

We are therefore fully justified in asserting that the Lord's Sonship denotes His Deity and does not pertain to His lowly dependence and obedience as the Perfect Man. A possible reason why some think that the glory of John 1: 14 is moral and not Divine, is the words that immediately follow: "full of grace and truth". We are sure, however, that the Authorised Version is correct in putting the clause "and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father" in brackets. The words "full of grace and truth" refer to the statement before the parenthesis: "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us". The parenthesis is put in to show that in spite of the veil of flesh, the Divine glory shone through for His own to see. In saying all this we are not wishing to infer that moral glory is not included in Divine glory for "God is Light". The idea that we are opposing is that it was exclusively His moral glory as seen in manhood.

Many are convinced of the Lord's Eternal Sonship but do not rank it among the fundamentals. They point out that its denial may be sincerely done in the belief that it is something that guards the Lord's glory, and that it is not accompanied by any doubt as to His eternal personal Being. We, however, maintain that it is a necessary component of the Doctrine of Christ. To demonstrate this, we will refer to the early contention in the professing church when the greatest challenge to the Truth came from Arius, who denied the Lord's Deity.

Now Arius was not like the modern Unitarian who thinks that the Lord was a mere man. His system taught that the Lord was the first and greatest creature that God made, and the only creature that God made directly. To this great creature God gave the task of creating everything else, so all things, apart from Himself, were created by Him. He was God's representative, and expressed God to every other creature. As God's representative, He was entitled to worship, and as such was rightly addressed as God. One thing only Arius would not accept, and that was the truth that the Lord was of equal substance (or essence) to the Father. He said that he was of similar substance but not of equal substance to God.

These two expressions, "similar substance" and "equal substance", differing in Greek by only a single letter, became the great battleground on which the whole of Christianity depended. Athanasius was the great orthodox champion. Constantine the Emperor favoured Arius, and Athanasius had to go into exile. Only to the Scriptures did both protagonists turn. Every Scripture that showed that the Lord was God, that proved He is the Creator of all things, that showed He must be worshipped and honoured by creatures as though He were the Father, was accepted by Arius as agreeing with his system. What scripture then was left to prove that the Lord was of equal substance to the Father? Mainly the truth of Eternal Sonship — the bulwark of John 5: 18, that His Sonship proved His equality to the Father, because of His eternal generation.

At first the Emperor did not realise the vital importance of the controversy, and he issued an edict that as the words "similar substance" and 11 equal substance" were not in the Scriptures, the contention was to cease as being an insoluble question. This, however, was not obeyed. How like was Constantine's stratagem to those today, who say that as the term "Eternal Sonship" is not in Scripture, they will neither affirm nor deny the doctrine!

How right Athanasius was when he pointed out that although the difference between the contenders might appear to be small, yet really the difference was infinite! Truly the difference between the finite and the infinite is infinity, no matter how great the finite might be. How serious it is to take away this most important weapon of Eternal Sonship, which proves the truth of the Lord's Person!

Let us also notice the extreme importance that is placed in Scripture upon the confession of the Lord's Sonship. In 1 John 4: 15 it says, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God". Such a blessed spiritual result as this does not come, of course, from the repetition of a form of words but from the affirmation of the heart in complete awareness and acceptance of the confession's full implications. Many a time, representatives of the Jehovah's Witnesses — the modern Arians — have called at the front door, and to the question "Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?", they willingly give the answer in the affirmative. Does God dwell in them and they in God — these deniers of the Lord's Deity? Obviously not, for they do not affirm His Eternal Sonship, nor accept that it is essentially connected with His Deity. In their minds the Lord's Sonship had a beginning; not in incarnation but far back before any other creature had been created.

Peter's confession of Matthew 16: 16 also brings before us the great importance of this doctrine, for we find that it is the foundation rock on which the Lord builds His church. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God". Because He is the Son of God He is God. The Father is the Living God, who has life in Himself, the Source of Life, so likewise the Son is the Living God and has life in Himself, the Source of Life. In Mark 8:29 and Luke 9: 20, the story of Peter's confession is given, but only the first half, "Thou art the Christ" is mentioned. Consequently there is no reference there of its vital importance as the foundation rock of the church. Without Eternal Sonship the foundation is missing. How solemn that some well-meaning brethren have so little understanding that they are tampering with the church's foundation!

ETERNAL SONSHIP THE PROOF OF GOD'S LOVE

We have been considering the Eternal Sonship as the supreme proof of the Lord's Deity. Now we would bring out the second important thing that Eternal Sonship demonstrates — namely the infinite love of God.

"God so loved the world. . ." How much? So much that He gave His only begotten Son. There is nothing that shows His love more.

But, of course, those who teach temporal sonship do not deny the infinite love that has ever existed between those Divine Persons that they say are now known as the Father and the Son. The Scripture is plain, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17: 24). But though this love is not denied, the demonstration of it is denied.

How weak John 3: 16 would sound if the words "only begotten Son" were omitted, and the words "Divine Person" put in their place! Over and over again the love of God is measured by the fact that He gave His Son. He that delivered up His Own Son for us all, shall He not freely give us all things? (see Romans 8: 32). No gift can be as great as that.

In the very first mention of love in the Bible, the supreme sacrifice that the Father made in giving His Son is brought before us: "Take now thy son, thine only son ... whom thou lovest ... and offer him . . . for a burnt offering." (Genesis 22: 2). The love of the Father for His Son comes first, and typically the love of Christ for His Church is the second mention of love in the Scriptures (Genesis 24: 67).

The main point of the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mark 12: 1-9) is that after the lord of the vineyard had sent his servants (prophets), he sent his son. "Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him last unto them, saying, 'They will reverence my son'." Does this look as though the one sent only became his son when he was sent? The objection is made, "It is only a parable". We acknowledge that a parable is not usually an allegory, but one cannot get away from a parable's main point in this way. The whole meaning of the parable stresses that the lord of the vineyard had sent the one he valued most because it was his well-beloved son.

We feel that it was terrible presumption to deny the validity of this demonstration of love to say, as it were, to the Father that His Son only became such after He had entered the world. We ask reverently, may this not have given great offence to both the Father and the Son? Is this not an explanation of the strange madness that splintered that company? Were they given up to be defenceless before the onslaughts of Satan? We urge earnestly that the seriousness of this error be not underestimated.

THE FATHER'S BOSOM

John 1: 18. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him".

This passage has always been taken by orthodox Christians to mean that the Son is eternally in the bosom of the Father, and therefore is able to reveal the inmost secrets of the Father's heart to His own. Those who deny Eternal Sonship, however, must teach that His dwelling in the Father's bosom had a beginning when He became a man.

Here we have the present tense used to deduce eternity, as it is in some other places in the Scriptures. The Lord said "Before Abraham was, I AM" and thereby showed that HE was eternal. If He had said "Before Abraham was, I was", it need only have meant that He was older than Abraham, but the present tense gives the sense of eternal existence — no beginning and no end. In John 8: 24, the Lord said, "If ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins". The insertion of the pronoun "he" in the A.V. is quite unwarranted. The context does not show that the Lord had said that He was anybody that the "He" could refer to. It is the assertion of His eternal Godhead. There are other similar passages.

Why then, argue the opposers, did John 1:1, which clearly refers to eternity, use the past tense. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". One feels that the answer to this is that the inspired writing is taking us back to the earliest conceivable beginning of anything at all, and saying that the Word was already there. It is the past eternity here, and the future eternity is not in view. Where the thought of eternity without end as well as without beginning is brought before us, the present tense is used. Of course with God there is no past or future, but that is beyond our comprehension. For our finite minds the Holy Spirit uses words that are within our grasp.

Another objection centres round the preposition "in" which here is the Greek word eis denoting "motion towards", similar to our word "into" or "unto". If I say "I walked in the house" it indicates that I was walking in the house all the time, but if I say "I walked into the house", it indicates that my presence in the house was due to my walking into it. In English, I cannot say, "I am into the house", but in Greek that form of words could be used, and it would indicate that my present position in the house is due to my past moving into it. Consequently (say the objectors), the preposition eis shows that He is in the Father's bosom as a result of a past act of movement into it.

To this objection we answer that "eis" does not necessarily denote physical motion. When one believes in the Son of God (John 3: 16), the preposition "in" is eis. It denotes a movement of the heart or will. This eis of "in the Father's bosom" shows movement of the affections. We have here another example of the way these teachers reason from the finite when they are dealing with the infinite. If there is movement here it is the eternal movement of Divine affections. What could be a more beautiful or profound thought? Let us not dare to doubt that a Father's bosom has been the blessed portion of the Son for all eternity, His rightful and deserved place. As one has written "How fearful we should be, lest we admit of any confession of faith that would defraud the Divine bosom of its eternal ineffable delights, and which would tell our God He knew not a Father's joy, and would tell our Lord that He knew not a Son's joy in that bosom from all eternity" (The Son of God, by J. G. Bellett).

TWO TEXTS USED TO SUPPORT THE NEW THEORY

"This day I have begotten Thee"

We now come to certain texts which have been used to support temporal sonship. One of these is first mentioned in Psalm 2:7, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee". It is quoted three times in the New Testament Acts 13: 33, Hebrews 1: 5 and 5: 5. This sentence is taken up to show that the Lord's Sonship began when He was begotten on a certain day.

The usual interpretation by those leaders whom we should remember with respect (Hebrews 13: 7) is that this does refer to the Lord's incarnation when He was born in time, and that it speaks of the Lord's Sonship in manhood. These brethren never thought of it as casting a doubt on the Lord's Eternal Sonship which they regarded as true and distinct, not to be confused with the text. Some divided the text into two — "Thou art My Son" being His Eternal Sonship, and "This day have I begotten Thee" His Sonship in time. One would not contend with anybody who is satisfied with this explanation.

For those who may feel that this interpretation is not quite convincing, it may be as well to look at the passage more closely. It was not the interpretation made by the ancient orthodox scholars who lived before the so-called Brethren movement, for they regarded it as an affirmation of the Lord's Divine Sonship throughout.

Firstly, let us look at the second Psalm. Beginning with the time when the nations are raging against the LORD's anointed, it goes on to speak of the day when the King is established on the holy hill of Zion, ruling the nations with a rod of iron. We find that in this context the decree is made, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee". So "this day" in the Psalm appears to be referring to the beginning of His glorious reign.

Secondly, Acts 13: 33. This is in the context of the resurrection (verse 30). In verse 33, the quotation from the psalm is given to support the statement that God has raised up Jesus. Many think that this does not refer to His being raised from among the dead as in verse 30, but to His being raised high above all, but in either case it does not refer to His lowly birth in a manger.

Thirdly, Hebrews 1: 5. Here the quotation is given to show that He is so much better than the angels having obtained by inheritance a more excellent Name than they. Is this inheritance connected with His birth in manhood? If not, why is the quotation given here? Does it not fit in better if it has to do with the inheritance that is His Own by Eternal Sonship?

Fourthly, Hebrews 5: 5. Here it is connected with the text, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec". Melchisedec is seen (as a type) made like the Son of God, without father or mother, descent, beginning of days or end of life (Hebrews 7: 3). But the Lord by incarnation had a legal father, true mother, descent (genealogy) and beginning of days. To bring in a quotation which refers to the days of His birth, when the whole point is the eternal continuance of His priesthood does not seem right. It is His Sonship in eternity that is more suitable to the context.

So orthodox Christians have taught that this verse refers to "eternal generation", to which we have already referred; that "This day" or "Today" has the well known meaning (to them) of the Eternal Today, the ever present now, a decree declared by the Infinite God.

One leaves it to the reader to decide. We have shown, however, that it is a very inadequate reference to support such a revolutionary new doctrine as temporal sonship.

Luke 1: 35. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God".

This verse is much used by opponents of Eternal Sonship. Attention is drawn to the words "therefore also", and it is said that the child became the Son of God by the Holy Spirit and the overshadowing of the power of the Highest. But the passage before us is indited with the perfect accuracy of the Holy Spirit, and the exact words need to be examined.

One of the points stressed by the ancient expositors is the term "Holy Thing". The adjective "holy" is definitely neuter, and "Holy Thing" is the accurate English translation. There must be a reason why it is neuter and not masculine, and the reason is that the perfect manhood conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, was not a person in itself, but a nature. Though body, soul and spirit, it was personal only because the Eternal Person of the Son of God took it to Himself. It had no separate personality. This brings us to the heart of the mystery of the incarnation which no human mind can comprehend. Body, soul and spirit make up a person in every merely human individual, but in His case it was a nature, made personal only because He took it into His Person. He is One Person, not two. Everything that the Man Christ Jesus experienced was the experience of the Son of God. There were not two sons, but only one. Because of the overshadowing of the power of the Highest, that Holy Thing, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, is rightly called the Son of God. He went through human experiences from birth to death, with human body, human soul and human spirit, yet the Person who did so was never anyone else but the Eternal Son of God.

This is a great mystery, and all the historic fundamental errors concerning His Person have been attempts to explain it in some measure. It is inexplicable. He is a real Man and true God in One Person. The two natures, manhood and Deity, are not joined together to form one nature, but are united in One Person. They ever remain distinct but are never separated. Their union is personal, not consubstantial.

Therefore, it is quite true that the Holy Thing born of the Virgin Mary could not be called the Son of God without the overshadowing of the power of the Highest, but neither His Eternal Person nor His Eternal Sonship changed at all at that time.

THE TRIUNE NAME

We believe we have written enough to show that the Lord's Sonship is eternally bound up with His Godhead. finally let us think briefly of the Triune Name of Matthew 28: 29, "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit".

The Name of the Father proves Godhead, for it shows that He is the Source of all (Ephesians 4: 6).

The Name of the Son proves Godhead for it shows that He is of the same essence as the Father (John 5: 18).

The Name of the Holy Spirit proves Godhead, for God is spirit (John 4: 24). The Spirit of God is the essence of God.

These three Names are One.

W. R. Dronsfield.

(Pub.: Chapter Two 1987. ISBN 0 947588 11 6)

The Incarnation of the Son

The Incarnation of the Son

W. R. Dronsfield.

There is no more profound subject than that of the incarnation; yet though unfathomable to the wisest, nothing is more enthralling to the affections of the Lords people. The wonderful truth is that One who is God Himself, while never ceasing to be God, became a real man, living amongst men on earth. The Holy Spirit has given us four accounts of that immaculate life. No creature could have thought up such unimaginable details: a perfect human life, yet with glimpses of the glory of His Person shining through the veil.  If any human intellect tries to add anything from its own thoughts, how hollow and confused it sounds! as the spurious gospel of Thomas demonstrates.

Though the incarnation is beyond our reasoning powers, there are certain truths about it which we can confidently affirm, because they are firmly based upon the Holy Spirits own account in the Scriptures.

(1) TRUE GOD

The Eternal Son of God became Man, yet He never ceased to be the Infinite Creator. He emptied Himself of His reputation.  His Manhood veiled His glory so that He did not receive the universal obeisance that was His due; yet He never ceased in His Person to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, upholding all things by the Word of His power.

(2) PERFECT MAN

He became a Man, entirely untainted by the fall. His Manhood was the same, in essence, as unfallen Adams, though, of course, there were differences. The main one was that His Manhood, though truly human, was joined to Deity in His Person, and therefore vastly glorified. Also Adam was innocent; that is to say he had no knowledge of good or evil. The Lord was not innocent, but He was holy. The Lord was in the midst of evil, but wholly undefiled by it.

(3) REAL MAN

He became a real Man, body, soul and spirit. When God created Adam, He breathed into him the breath (spirit) of life and he became a living soul.  The animals were also living souls, but they did not have life by receiving spirit from God. As well as being a living soul, Adam had a spirit. In his soul he had physical life and emotions; in his spirit he had reason and awareness of himself and God. He could have rational communion with God and give God pleasure by his fellowship. For this he was created. The subject of soul and spirit is a study in itself, and cannot be more than touched upon here.

The Lord took body, soul and spirit to Himself. He had a real body, visible and tangible, made of flesh and blood, capable of pain and suffering, but not partaking of the consequences of the fall. He was not subject to death as an inevitable event. He died by His own power.  The ageing process, which is a result of the fall, was not in Him. His body was perfect. Also, as having a soul, He had real human emotions but without any sinful tendency. In His spirit He had real human thoughts by which He could have, even as Man, perfect fellowship with His Father.

(4) ONE PERSON

The Son of God is One Person. The Son of God is the same Person as the Son of Man. Now we are beginning to come up against the inscrutable mystery. Men will argue that body, soul and spirit make a person. This is correct. Therefore (they say) the Son of God and the Son of Man are two persons in unity. No, certainly not! The Scriptures are dead against such an idea. The Person who is in the form of God at the beginning of the sublime sentence in Philippians 2 verse 6, is the same Person who was obedient to the death of the cross in verse 8. The subject of the sentence is the same throughout. There is no change of Person halfway.

We may shrink from saying baldly, God died. How can God die who has immortality and is the Source of life? The bare statement, God died, needs important qualification. Firstly, the One who died was God the Son, not the Father or the Holy Spirit. Secondly, He did not die as God, but in the Manhood He had taken. However, to qualify a statement is not to deny it. To say it was the Son of Man and not God who died, is to divide His Person and make Him two Persons. The fact is that God the Son became a Man for this very purpose, that He might die.  He did not cease to be God when He died. The blood that He shed was human blood, but it was the blood that He had taken as His own.  The Son of God shed His blood, and experienced death.  He who is God laid down His life for us.  It is the infinitude of His Person that produces the infinite atonement.

This is the marvellous thing that takes our breath away. A divine Person has been through human experience from birth to death. He who is God, remembers His human experiences from birth to death, and sympathises with us in our infirmities. One who is both God and Man feels for us for He has felt the same. What a great High Priest He is!

(5) TWO DISTINCT NATURES

The opposite error to saying that He is two persons is to say that His two natures have combined into one. It was an ancient heresy that the two natures, Manhood and Deity, merged together. For this reason the writer does not like the expression the God-man. It implies to him (though not to many orthodox Christians) that He is half man and half God. Such an idea must be resisted. He is wholly Man and wholly God. He possesses all the attributes and properties of real, unfallen, holy Manhood, and at the same time possesses all the infinite attributes and properties of Deity. The unity consists, not in the amalgamation of essence, but in the Oneness of His Person.

If we suppose an archangel becoming incarnate, a creature tremendously powerful but still finite, and by becoming incarnate having two finite natures (but natures very different), we would say, rightly, that such a situation was impossible. Here would be a baby, unable to do anything except to cry and suck, with no ability to talk, unable to understand a word his parents were saying; at the same time that person would be an archangel with tremendous power, not only able to understand the parents but knowing far more than they did. We would say, quite correctly, that it would be impossible for such things to be true in one person at the same time. Our finite judgment would be competent to come to such a conclusion. We would say that the archangel was only pretending to be a baby.

Of course, it is not an archangel but an infinite Person who has become incarnate. When we are facing the infinite it is right beyond our ken. We can make no judgment. Mathematicians tell us that both opposites and parallels meet in infinity. We cannot understand, and never will understand it, for we will never have infinite minds. But God has revealed it to us, and so we believe it.

The Lord grew in wisdom, yet was always omniscient, as we have seen. He said He did not know, and yet He knew all things. Yet it is very important to see that He could not make a mistake in what He said in Manhood; it would have been God who had spoken falsely and that would be a moral impossibility. To take human limitations is grace, but to take human fallibility would be to compromise Gods holy nature.

Lastly, let us consider Matthew 11:27: No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Here we see that it is possible for a man to know the Father if the Son reveals Him to him, but, without exception, it is not possible for a man to know the Son. Why then, is the Son unknowable, but not the Father?  It is not the inscrutability of Deity, for that would apply equally to both Father and Son. Nor is it the inscrutability of divine relationships for if the relationship of the Son to the Father is unknowable, so would be the equivalent relationship of the Father to the Son. Clearly, it is the Incarnate Son who is unknowable. The Father, Himself, cannot explain this to us, for to understand the incarnation we would need to have the infinite understanding of the Father Himself.

W.R.D.

1 John 1: 14

2 Philippians 2: 7

3 John 2: 24-25; 21: 17

4 Matthew 8: 27

5 John 3: 13; Matthew 18: 20; 28: 20

6 That is to say, He had body, soul and spirit

7 Genesis 2: 7

8 Genesis 1: 21 & 24. (The word creature in the King James translation Nephesh should be translated soul as elsewhere).

9  1 John 1: 1-2

10 Hebrews 2: 14

11 John 10: 18

12 The Lord grew to maturity but this was not ageing in the sense meant here.

13 Matthew 26: 38; John 12: 27

14 Mark 2: 8; 8: 12; Luke 23: 46; John 19: 30 (dismissed His spirit).

15 1 Timothy 6: 16

16 Hebrews 2: 9

17 Acts 20: 28. (I believe the King James translation and most other translations are correct here).

18 1 John 1: 7

19 Romans 5: 10

20 1 John 3: 16

21 Hebrews 2: 17-18; 4: 14-16

22 Luke 2: 52

23 Mark 13: 32

The Altar of Ed

The Altar of Ed.

Joshua 22: 34.

J. W. H. Nichols.

The two and one-half tribes of Israel — Rueben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 32) remind us somewhat of Lot, the earthly-minded companion of Abraham, who chose the well watered plain of Jordan, which appeared to him as "the garden of the Lord" and who failed to appreciate — as did Abraham — the call of God. Yet in other ways they were dissimilar, for it could not be said that, like Lot, their lives were formed by mixed principles, which led to unholy associations with such direful consequences, but they were evidently a people fully owning and wishing identification with those who obeyed the call of God, yet they were not prepared to walk in the power of it.

"The eyes of man are never satisfied" (Proverbs 27: 20), and Lot-like the tribes lifted up their eyes, "saw the land," and "behold the place was a place for cattle." (Num. 32: 1). But it was on the wilderness side of Jordan, and alas they evidently thought less of God's call to Canaan and the pilgrimage of their brethren, than present advantages. Abraham, their progenitor, knew nothing of that side of Jordan. Moses had not mentioned it, and when they left Egypt nothing short of the promised land was before them. But as they journeyed their earthly possessions increased, and they had much cattle. Evidently they reasoned, that since the plains suited their pursuit, nothing would be gained by crossing Jordan, and they, therefore, ask for an inheritance on the plain of Jordan and so came short of the call of God. There was no thought of giving up their portion as Israelites, no rebellion, but their cattle led them to seek what suited them, and so they remained on the wilderness side.

What a voice this has for us! How many true Christians there are who come short of appropriating their heavenly possessions! Like the two and half tribes, they have no thought of being untrue to their Christian position, but are content to know their salvation is secure, and settle down in congenial circumstances.

To Moses their proposal came with misgiving, it was so far short of the purpose of God made known while they were still in Egypt. "I will bring you unto the land concerning which I did swear to give it to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it to you for an heritage: I am the Lord." (Ex. 6: 8). He chides them and speaks of the way their brethren had been discouraged by the spies sent out from Kadesh Barnea, and the resulting forty years wandering in the wilderness. They repudiate all thought of alienation from their brethren, and signify their willingness to go with them to war until the land is possessed. In this they were unlike Lot whose conduct separated him from Abraham. They did not want to forfeit fellowship with their brethren, but they were not in the moral power of the call of God, something less than the land sufficed.

In Joshua 22 we find the sequel. All that was commendable in them Joshua recounts, but it is evidently with some misgiving; he blessed them, and sent them away, saying, "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, charged you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." So they returned to the wilderness side of Jordan, and on settling down in their chosen possessions, we read they "built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to" (Joshua 22: 10). But it was not the altar. They were far from the tabernacle with its ark of the covenant and accompanying mercy seat, of which God had said, "There will I meet with thee and will commune with thee." (Ex. 25: 22)

No altar, however "great to see to," could possibly make up for the loss of this. Upon their altar, they are free to own, no burnt offerings or meat offerings or peace offerings could be offered (verse 23) — it was simply to "see to," and lest their children should cease to fear the Lord, and as a witness of their place and portion in Israel.

All this shows, they had some fear that their desire to remain in the plain of Jordan might not bring unmixed blessing. We can never step out of the path of obedience without consequent spiritual loss. Israel, when they heard of the altar built on the other side of Jordan, gathered together at Shiloh to go up against their brethren, but on hearing the purpose of. it, and the avowed loyalty of the two and a half tribes, they were satisfied and returned.

What a lesson is here, for those who have eyes to see and hearts to understand. How many there are whose place and portion among the people of God cannot be questioned, who, however, are not prepared to take possession of their heavenly position, and so settle down in congenial surroundings, the wrong side of Jordan, i.e., know little of what it is to be dead and risen with Christ and are not found seeking those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God (Col. 3: 1, 2). Content to maintain their Christian profession in a religious world, where there is often "a great altar to see to," they come short of their heavenly calling, and often become world-borderers. All this inevitably brings corresponding loss — loss of present Christian joyfulness of joy of which the blessed Lord speaks in John 15: 11, and future, reward, when every bit of faithfulness and testimony will be remembered.

The Lord grant that writer and reader may not fall short, or desire less than our God-given heavenly position and calling.

"A Christian Conscience."

"A Christian Conscience."

Edification Vol. 8, 1934, page 212.

(Editor's Note:- The following extract impressed us as we read it. Feeling that it contains a very wholesome word of admonition, we ask our readers to give it their careful attention).

"This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you." — John 15: 12.

"My Commandment." So our Lord Jesus has commandments for His disciples! This reflection may cause surprise if we are uninstructed and unthinking. Grace and favour are the notions most easily connected with Him. It almost shocks to be asked to think of His having claims and making demands upon us. "Commandments" suggest Moses rather than Christ. Many have not learned that there is also "the royal law," "the law of liberty" (James 2: 8; 1: 25), "the law of Christ" (Gal. 6: 2). The need to know the Redeemer as our Lawgiver is a vital one. It is true, blessedly true, that we have been redeemed from under the law of Moses, but it is equally true, and also blessedly true, that we have been placed under law to Christ. It can never be too strongly emphasized that we have not been saved by law, but that glorious statement needs to be accompanied by another, namely, that we are saved unto law. License is, of all things, the most foreign to the spirit of the new life in Christ.

"My Commandment." Here our Lord speaks of one, elsewhere the word is plural, "My Commandments," (John 14: 15, 21). His commandments are many, scattered throughout the New Testament; sometimes spoken by His own lips; sometimes by the lips of His apostles. How many, I wonder, of our Lord's own commandments could the average Christian repeat? The commandments of Moses we know. The Decalogue is in the memory of us all. Why then this strange ignorance of Christ's commandments? Is Moses our Lord? Is it of more importance that we should keep the "law that gendereth to bondage" shall the "law of liberty"? Or, is mere morality the ideal of our Christian life? Can it be that we have not yet descried those heights of Christian sanctity which beckon us to their ascent? Such heights as, for example, are caught sight of in such commandments as, "Resist not evil", "Love your enemies"; "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth"; "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness"; "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Here are some summits in the range of Christian ideal, and it seems an utterly impossible position to be under the Grace of Christ and at the same time aspire to nothing higher than the law of Moses. He who gives us grace must also be allowed to give us His commandments.

It startles us when we realise that the conscience of Christians, frequently, is hardly a Christian conscience at all. Its light is, not Christ, but Moses. . . A Christian conscience, one fears, is surprisingly rare. The ready and crushing proof is in the open fact that transgressions of the Ten Commandments shock us, transgressions of the commandments of Christ stir us but little, if at all. A murder! Robbery! Adultery! We hold up our hands in horror. No one, of course, complains of such sensitiveness. It is right; it is good. But where is equal sensitiveness when the commandments of Christ are broken? Why are we not shocked when we meet a believer who stubbornly refuses to forgive the brother who injured him; or when two sit down to eat bread and drink of the same cup, but who have not spoken to each other since something happened years ago? and why are we not shocked when brother is angry with brother, or when believers, violating the law of their separation, hobnob with that enemy of Christ — the world? Is Sinai, then, of more importance in our eyes than Calvary? In which school was our conscience educated? Is there not urgent need that we should change its teacher, so that it may become truly a Christian conscience, sensitive to every commandment of Christ and shocked by every violation of the same?

Do All Believers Receive The Holy Spirit?

Do All Believers Receive The Holy Spirit?

A. J. Pollock

(Extracted from Scripture Truth Vol. 33, 1941, page 8.)

Yes, Scripture is abundantly plain on the point. How pointed is Romans 8: 9: "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of His."

If a believer has not the Spirit of God he is in the flesh, and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8: 8). That could not be said of any believer. Moreover the Scripture just quoted says, "He is none of His," that is, he does not belong to Christ at all. To deny the Holy Spirit of God to a believer is to unchristianise him, a very solemn thing to do.

Ephesians 1: 13, too, is a very enlightening Scripture. We read: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." This Scripture makes it abundantly plain, that when a man or woman or child truly trusts the Saviour, that one is indwelt thereupon by the Spirit of God.

I remember being at a Bible reading years ago when an eminent servant of Christ was asked, "How long after receiving the gospel do believers receive the Spirit? May it be at once, or may it be after a lengthened period of time?" The answer was most satisfying. The servant of Christ replied, "It is not a question of time, but of order; first the gospel believed, then as a consequence the Spirit received." The illustration was used of the blow of a sharp sword and the cut resulting. You cannot reverse the order, the blow must come first and the cut follows. It is not a question of time, but of order; of cause and effect.

Receiving "the gospel of your salvation," surely means hearing and receiving a gospel that assures the one, who believes, that he is saved, that his sins are forgiven, that he is justified from all things through Christ and is. the possessor of eternal life in Him. Can anything be clearer?

It is striking that redemption and the indwelling of the Spirit are linked together. We read: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30).

Furthermore, Romans 8: 11 links up the indwelling Spirit and the power of resurrection together in a remarkable way. "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." God raised Christ from the dead. The Spirit of God is given to the believer as the pledge that when the day of resurrection comes he will share in its triumph. The resurrection of the believer is linked up and flows from the resurrection of Christ. This Scripture, however, has the living saints in view. The saints, who have fallen asleep, will be raised. We know that from other Scriptures. The living saints will have their mortal bodies quickened; that is, if these saints lived on to the natural terminus of life mortality in their bodies would work on till death ensued. But the moment the Lord comes and shouts the summoning shout that moment their mortal bodies will be entirely quickened, that is every trace of mortality swept away, a spiritual body will be theirs, a new creation body, a fit vessel for the heavenly scene. If we have not the Spirit of God this promise would be null and void, and that cannot be.

When the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost the assembled believers "were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 11: 4). Notice the word ALL!

When the Apostle Peter preached his famous Pentecostal sermon, and his hearers were pricked in their heart, and asked what they should do, the answer given was, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2: 3: 8). Notice the words, "every one of you."

In this Scripture the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit are linked together, the one following the other in sequence. There was no discrimination now.

In the interesting incident of the Gentiles coming into blessing in the case of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his friends, we read, "While Peter spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word" (Acts 10: 44). Again there was no distinction between believer and believer. Notice the word, ALL!

One who is not indwelt by the Spirit of God, cannot be a member of the body of Christ. How the Spirit of God is emphasised in relation to the one body: "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor 12: 13). Notice again the word, ALL!

Can we imagine one believer being outside the one body — Christ the Head in heaven; His saints the many members, the body on earth?

There is a remarkable case of disciples in Acts 19: 1-7, who had not received the Holy Spirit. To base teaching on an exception as if it were the rule is foolish. There can be no case like this now-a-days. The John the Baptist ministry is past and we live in the full light of the gospel of God. This incident we are about to adduce fell in a transitional period.

When these ten disciples were asked the question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" their reply was, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." They were then asked, "Unto what were ye then baptized?" They replied, "Unto John's baptism." Paul then said, "John verily baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe in Him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus."

These disciples up to then had not heard the gospel of their salvation (see Eph. 1: 13). When they did hear it they were sealed by the Holy Spirit of God.

John, the Baptist, preached repentance, exhorting his disciples to believe on the One of whom he was the forerunner, even on the Lord Jesus Christ. "When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus." Then Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.

This interesting narrative showing the difference between John's baptism and Christian baptism, and how the one superseded the other, with all the implications involved, only supports what we have been adducing from Holy Scripture, that those, who receive the gospel of their salvation, receive as a consequence the gift of the Holy Spirit. To teach otherwise is confusion and the unchristianizing of believers.

But now for a few words of practical import. We, believers, who have received the Holy Spirit of promise, may well ask ourselves as to what use we make of this wonderful gift. Are we sufficiently impressed by the fact that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit of God? We are exhorted not to grieve the Spirit, or quench the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, and manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

Alas! how many believers walk in a worldly carnal way and grieve and quench God's Holy Spirit. This we may well be exercised about.

This teaching that some believers have the Spirit and some have not, causes introspection of an unhealthy nature. We may be depressed, if we imagine we have not received the Spirit on the one hand; or elated, if we think we have received the Spirit in contrast to other believers. This is not of the Spirit of God.

To fasten on one Scripture and twist it to bear a meaning that contradicts the general trend of Scripture, and that occupies saints with themselves instead of with Christ is simply a device of Satan. May we be preserved from this, and seek in all simplicity of mind to walk in the Spirit.

The Sonship of Christ

The Sonship of Christ

R. F. Wall.

Pre-Incarnate, Eternal Sonship

There are a number of passages we can turn to that show the Lord Jesus was Son before the incarnation. In Hebrews 1 we read: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1: 1-2). It was by the Son, as such, that the worlds were made. Creation is also attributed to the Son in Colossians chapter 1, though there He is presented as the Son of the Father's love. Paul and Timothy give thanks to the Father, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son (Darby gives here, “the Son of His love”)... Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created” (Col. 1: 12-16). We have then, before the incarnation, the One who is the Son, God's Son, the Son of the Father's love.

We might also notice how Hebrews 1 and Colossians 1 distinguish these two aspects of our Lord's pre-incarnate Sonship. As God's Son He has the nature of God. In Hebrews 1 we read that God, “maketh His angels spirits.” That is their nature; they are spirit. “But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” The nature of the Son is deity; He is God. In Colossians 1 where He is presented as the Son of the Father's love the emphasis is more upon relationship with the Father and the love that belongs to this relationship. Both the relationship and the love of the relationship are shown to be present before creation. We see this in John 17 too. In verse 5 the Son praying to the Father speaks about the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and lower down He speaks of the love belonging to this relationship: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17: 5, 24).

The pre-incarnate Sonship of Christ is also seen in this, that as the Son He is sent, and comes, from outside of the world, into it. In John 3: 17 we read that, “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” In John 16 the Lord Jesus says to the disciples: “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16: 26-28). The sending of the Son does not imply that as the Son He was in any way inferior to the Sender. In Galatians 4 His being sent is put alongside the sending of the Holy Spirit. We read there that, “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” But just a verse lower down we read: “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4: 4, 6). The Greek word for sending forth is the same in both cases and in both cases the sending was of Divine Persons from heaven into the world.

There is another reference to the sending of the Son in 1 John 4 verse 9: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” The expression “only begotten” is a translation of the Greek word monogenees. This is derived from the Greek words monos, meaning only, or alone, and genos. Genos occurs 21 times in the New Testament and is variously translated1. It is rendered “offspring” (x3), “born” (x2), and “generation” (x1). But the Name “only begotten Son” cannot refer to the incarnation because this verse tells us that it was as the only begotten Son that He was sent from outside of the world into it. He was the only begotten Son before He came. What meaning then is to be attached to the expression “only begotten”?  The word genos is also translated kind, kinds or kindred (x8) and the writer believes this is its meaning here. The only begotten Son of God is of the same kind as God. He is of the same kind as God because He has the nature of God. And He is the only Son like this. We know that others are called sons of God. The angels are called sons of God and believers during this present dispensation of grace are called sons of God, but the only begotten Son is alone in having the nature of God in all its fulness. As the Son He has not only the moral nature of God but deity too.

1The references are as follows: KIND-Matt. 13: 47; Matt. 17: 21; Mark 9: 29; NATION-Mark 7: 26; Gal. 1: 14; KINDRED-Acts 4: 6; Acts 7: 13; Acts 7: 19; COUNTRY-Acts 4: 36; STOCK-Acts 13: 26; Phil. 3: 5; OFFSPRING-Acts 17: 28; Acts 17: 29; Rev. 22: 16; BORN-Acts 18: 2; Acts 18: 24; KINDS-1 Cor. 12: 10; 1 Cor. 14: 10; DIVERSITIES-1 Cor. 12: 28; countrymen-2 Cor. 11: 26; GENERATION-1 Peter 2: 9.

It is well known that the word monogenees2 occurs nine times in the New Testament. John uses the expression five times, only of the Lord Jesus. In Luke's Gospel it is used three times of only children. In Hebrews 11: 17 it is used of Isaac. While Isaac was not the only child of Abraham, he was the only child of his kind-he was the only child of promise.

The Sonship of Christ and His Incarnation

It is important to distinguish between the expression “only begotten” and the words in Psalm 2, “this day have I begotten Thee.” “This day have I begotten Thee” refers to the incarnation, as the New Testament quotations show (Psalm 2: 7; Acts 13: 33; Heb. 1: 5; Heb. 5: 5). But even in Psalm 2 the order of the words guards against the thought that the Son became such by incarnation. It is not said, “This day have I begotten Thee; Thou art My Son,” but “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” This is consistent with what has been noticed already. In Luke 1, answering Mary's question how she could conceive in the womb and bear a son seeing she knew not a man, the angel says: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1: 35). In considering this verse the writer has found it helpful to keep Psalm 40 in mind: “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God” (Ps. 40: 6-8; Heb. 10: 5-7). The words in Psalm 2: “this day have I begotten Thee,” refer to the humanity of Christ. They refer to His human spirit and soul and body. But Psalm 40 shows us the Son, the One that was sent from heaven by God and by the Father, coming to take the body prepared for Him. The Eternal Son, having become incarnate, would “be called the Son of God.”

2The nine references are: ONLY-Luke 7: 12; Luke 8: 42; ONLY CHILD-Luke 9: 38; ONLY BEGOTTEN-John 1: 14; John 1: 18; John 3: 16; John 3: 18; Heb. 11: 17; 1 John 4: 9.

Before proceeding further it may be well to notice a passage in Revelation 2 where there is the greatest possible contrast between Christ as the seed of the woman, the Son of Mary, and Christ as the Son of God. In writing to the assembly at Thyatira John says: “These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass.” Thyatira represents the Roman Catholic system in its worst excesses. To this assembly, that gave (and gives) such a large and unscriptural place to Mary and thinks of the Sonship of Christ so habitually in relation to her, Christ presents Himself as the Son of God. As Mary's Son He is the Son of man, but as Son of God He is “the Ancient of days” (Dan. 7: 9, 13-14, 21-22; Rev. 1: 12-16).

It is true to say, and important to maintain, that the incarnation did not change the Person of Christ. He did not for a moment cease to be what He had always been. What did change was the position in which He, the Son, was found. Psalm 40 has shown us that He came to do the will of God. He came not to command but to obey. In Philippians 2 we see the One who is in the form of God taking the form of a servant, and becoming obedient unto death. What is of particular interest in relation to the present subject is the way that Scripture contrasts the Sonship of Christ with these two things; with servanthood and obedience. In John 8, where the word for servant or bondman is the same as in Philippians 2, the Lord says: “the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Phil. 2: 7; John 8: 35-36). In Hebrews 3 we have a similar contrast. Moses “was faithful in all His (God's) house, as a servant” (Heb. 3: 5). According to Mr. W. E. Vine the word for servant here (therapon) “is a term of dignity and freedom.” Yet the very next verse contrasts the Sonship of Christ with this. “But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we...” (Heb. 3: 6). The beginning of Hebrews 3 shows us why this contrast is made. “For He has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, by how much He that has built it has more honour than the house. For every house is built by some one; but He who has built all things is God” (Heb. 3: 3-4-J.N.D. Trans.). In Hebrews 5 we read that “Though He were Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5: 8-J.N.D. Trans.). Obedience was outside the experience of the Son. He had been the One who was to be obeyed. But now having come into the world He learned in His own experience the cost in suffering that obedience entailed. This verse shows us His perfect obedience, even unto the death of the cross.

A similar contrast between His Sonship and the position of obedience which He took at the incarnation is seen in His temptation by the devil. In Matthew 4 the devil twice addresses Him as the Son of God. He knew very well who He was, but he says: “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” The devil sought to induce the Lord to exercise His own power and will as God and had He done so He would have proven that he was the Son of God. The Lord answers in a way that shows He would not be moved from the position of obedience which He had taken: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:3-4). In the second temptation it was a question of showing that as the Son of God He was the object of the love and care of the Father. “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone” (Psa. 91: 11-12; Matt. 4: 6-7). It is striking that in the third of the temptations the devil doesn't address the Lord as the Son of God. There is a simple explanation for this. In the third temptation the devil calls on the Lord to worship him. But the Divine Sonship of Christ is connected with His Eternal Personality and deity. As the Son of God He is the One who is to be worshipped and the devil knew that very well. The Lord answers with words from Deuteronomy 6: 13: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

Later in Matt. 14, we find that there were those who did worship the Lord Jesus, and they worshipped Him as the Son of God. After the feeding of the five thousand (five thousand men, beside women and children) the Lord had sent the disciples across the sea of Galilee. A storm arose but Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When He came into the ship, the wind ceased, and “they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God” (Matt. 14: 22-33).

Those who desire to pursue this study may find the following listing from the New Testament helpful:

There are 47 references to the “Son of God” in the AV, and 42 in the JND Translation. The 42 references occurring in both Translations are as follows: Matt. 4: 3; Matt. 4: 6; Matt. 8: 29; Matt. 26: 63; Matt. 27: 40; Matt. 27: 43; Matt. 27: 54; Mark 1: 1; Mark 3: 11; Mark 15: 39; Luke 1: 35; Luke 4: 3; Luke 4: 9; Luke 4: 41; Luke 22: 70; John 1: 34; John 1: 49; John 3: 18; John 5: 25; John 9: 35; John 10: 36; John 11: 4; John 11: 27; John 19: 7; John 20: 31; Acts 9: 20; Rom. 1: 4; 2 Cor. 1: 19; Gal. 2: 20; Eph. 4: 13; Heb. 4: 14; Heb. 6: 6; Heb. 7: 3; Heb. 10: 29; 1 John 3: 8; 1 John 4: 15; 1 John 5: 5; 1 John 5: 10; 1 John 5: 12; 1 John 5: 13; 1 John 5: 20; Rev. 2: 18. The references occurring only in the AV are: Matt. 14:33-Darby gives “God's Son;” Luke 3:38 (referring to Adam)-Darby gives “of God;” Luke 8: 28-Darby gives “Son of the Most High God;” Acts 8: 37-Darby omits this verse; 1 John 5: 13-Darby omits the first reference.

There are 35 references to Christ as “The Son” (with no other words added which expand or describe that Name) and of these 33 occur in both the AV and JND Translations: Matt. 11: 27 (x3); Matt. 21: 38; Matt. 28: 19; Mark 13: 32; Luke 10: 22 (x3); John 3: 35; John 3: 36 (x2); John 5: 19 (x2); John 5: 20; John 5: 21; John 5: 22; John 5: 23(x2); John 5: 26; John 6: 40; John 8: 35; John 8: 36; John 14: 13; 1 Cor. 15: 28; Heb. 1: 8; 1 John 2: 22; 1 John 2: 23 (x2); 1 John 2: 24; 1 John 4: 14; 1 John 5: 12; 2 John 9. The AV has a reference to the Son in Hebrews 7: 28, but JND gives “a Son.” Darby has a reference to (the) Son in Hebrews 1: 2, where the King James Translation gives “His Son.”

In addition to the above there are 38 other references where Christ is called Son, and these include those occasions when He is called “My Son,” “His Son” etc. References which refer to His being Son of man, Son of David, Son of Mary etc. are not listed. There are 34 references common to both the AV and the JND Translations: Matt. 2: 15; Matt. 21: 37 (x2); Matt. 22: 2; Matt. 22: 42; Mark 12: 6 (x2); John 3: 17; John 17: 1 (x2); Acts 13: 33; Rom. 1: 3; Rom. 1: 9; Rom. 5: 10; Rom. 8: 3; Rom. 8: 29; Rom. 8: 32; 1 Cor. 1: 9; Gal. 1: 16; Gal. 4: 4; Gal. 4: 6; 1 Thess. 1: 10; Heb. 1: 5 (x2); Heb. 3: 6; Heb. 5: 5; Heb. 5: 8; 1 John 1: 3; 1 John 1: 7; 1 John 3: 23; 1 John 4: 10; 1 John 5: 9; 1 John 5: 11; 1 John 5: 20. References included in the AV only are Acts 3: 13; Acts 3: 26; Heb. 1: 2. There is also a reference in the JND Translation in Heb. 7: 28.

Some other designations (not included in the references above) are: “My Beloved Son”-Matt. 3: 17; Matt. 17: 5; Mark 1: 11; Mark 9: 7; Luke 3: 22; Luke 9: 35; Luke 20: 13; 2 Peter 1: 17. “Son of the Living God”-Matt. 16: 16; John 6: 69 (in John 6: 69 Darby gives “holy One of God”). “Son of the Most High God” or “Son of God Most High”-Mark 5: 7; Luke 8: 28. “The Son of the Blessed”-Mark 14:61. “Son of the Highest”-Luke 1: 32. “The Son of His love”-Col. 1: 13, JND Translation. “The Son of the Father”-2 John 3.

The Sonship of Christ as Seen in His Pathway

We have seen that the nature of the Son is deity. We have seen that He has an eternal relationship with the Father and that this relationship is a relationship of love. Each of these hallmarks of His eternal Sonship were seen in the Son in this world.

In John 5, having healed the impotent man on the Sabbath day, the Lord was confronted by the Jews. In verse 17 we have the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: “But Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Verse 18 tells us what we are to understand from these words. It is not merely what the Jews inferred from them, but what John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote: “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” This passage shows that the incarnation did not change the nature of His Sonship. Just as He was not one whit less God after the incarnation than before it, so His Sonship too was unchanged by it (See footnote on next page). John 10 shows this just as clearly. The Lord says: “I and My Father are one.” He is of the same nature, of the same essence, as the Father. The Jews knew very well what the Lord was claiming and they accuse Him of blasphemy, “Because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God” (John 10: 30-33). As proof of His Divine and eternal Sonship the Lord there refers to the fact that He was sanctified and sent by the Father into the world, and that as having come into it He did the works of His Father (John 10: 34-39). These works showed that as the Son He has the nature of God in all its fulness. In John 5 we read that: “The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth,” and “What things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5: 19-20). As the Son He could be shown everything that the Father was doing, and as the Son He could do the same things Himself. But there is one work in particular which shows that the nature of the Son is deity: He gives life to the dead. “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5: 21). It is this attribute of Deity that Paul refers to in Romans 1 in proof of the Divine Sonship of Christ: He is “Marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead” (Rom. 1: 4 — J. N. D. Trans.).

The Lord Jesus has the nature of God in all its fulness, and as the Son He also has an eternal relationship with the Father. This relationship with the Father characterised the Son as come into the world. It didn't begin when He came into the world, and neither did it cease then. The relationship continued without interruption. On only one occasion in the Gospels does the Lord address God, and that is on the cross: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt 27: 46; Mark 15: 34). At all other times He addressed God as His Father and this known and enjoyed relationship with the Father was the home of His heart. He referred to it in His first recorded words in this world. Mary and Joseph found Him in the temple and Mary mistakenly reproved Him: “Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us?  behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing” (Luke 2: 48). Was Mary forgetting that while legally Joseph's son, the Lord Jesus had been born “before they came together”? (Matt. 1: 18). The Lord answered with words to Mary's conscience: “How is it that ye sought Me?  wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?” (Luke 2: 49). The Father had sent the Son and the Son had come down from heaven, not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him (1 John 4: 14; John 6: 38).

His last words upon the cross were addressed to the Father. While the Son was in the world, the Father who had sent Him had been with Him. He had not left the Son alone, because the Son had done always those things which pleased the Father (John 8: 29). Now that the work was done, and in the unclouded enjoyment of that same eternal relationship, it is to the Father that He sends away His spirit. “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost” (Luke 23: 46). The Lord had been hanging on the cross for six hours, yet shortly before those words were spoken He had been able to declare, “It is finished,” with a loud voice (Mark 15: 25, 34; John 19: 30). How was this possible?  Mark tells us that: “When the centurion, which stood over against Him, saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15: 39). In John's account of the crucifixion we are told that “He delivered up His spirit” (John 19: 30). He had power to lay down His life and power to take it again. Even in the circumstances of His death His glory is manifested, and it is the glory of the Son.

This relationship between the Father and the Son was and is a relationship of love. As being one with the Father He can say: “All things that the Father hath are Mine” (John 16: 15). Yet as the incarnate Son all things are given to Him by the Father. That the Father gives Him all things is a proof of the eternal love of the Father for the Son: “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand” (John 3: 35). In John 5 it is this eternal love of the Father for the Son that leads the Father to show the incarnate Son all things that He is doing: “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth” (John 5: 20).

This love for the Son is also seen in the various ways that He is described. He is the Father's “beloved Son” (Matt. 3: 17; Matt. 17: 5; Mark 1: 11; Mark 9: 7; Luke 3: 22; Luke 9: 35; 2 Peter 1: 17), “The Beloved” (Eph. 1: 6), God's “own Son” (Rom. 8: 3, 32), and the Son of the Father's love (Col. 1: 13).

The Sonship of Christ in Relation to the Jews

The Sonship of Christ was a central issue with the Jews. We have seen from John 5 and 10 how He pressed it upon them in plain words. Later, in the counsel of the Jews, the high priest adjured Him by the Living God to say whether He was the Christ, the Son of God (Matt. 26: 63-64; Mark 14: 61-62; Luke 22: 70). His answer was “I am” (Mark 14: 62).

The Lord also pressed His Sonship upon the Jews in parables. In Matthew 21 He speaks about a certain householder who planted a vineyard. It is a picture of Israel nationally, planted by Jehovah (Jer. 2: 21; Jer. 11: 17). When the time for fruiting drew near servants were sent to receive of the fruit. Some were beaten, some were stoned and some were killed. Last of all the householder sent his son, saying, “They will reverence my son” (Matt. 21: 37). In Mark's Gospel it is added that: “Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him last unto them” (Mark 12: 6). But those to whom the son is sent reject him and as a consequence they are themselves rejected and judgment falls upon them.

In Matthew 22 there is a parable that is only recorded in that chapter. A certain King makes a marriage for his son. Those first bidden to the wedding refuse the invitation and others fill up their place. Matthew's Gospel repeatedly contrasts the dispensations of law and grace and this change of dispensation is shown to hinge on the rejection of the Son.

At the end of Matthew 22 the Lord refers to prophetic Scripture. When He had answered the contrived questions of the Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees, He confounds the Pharisees with a question of His own: “What think ye of Christ?  whose Son is He?”  He refers to Psalm 110, and they cannot answer how, if He is David's Son, David should call Him his Lord, saying, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Matt. 22: 41-46; Mark 12: 35-37; Luke 20: 41-44; Psalm 110: 1).

What was the outcome of this presentation of His Sonship to the Jews?  His claims to Divine Sonship were utterly rejected. On the basis of His confession in the counsel of the Jews He was condemned to death (Matt. 26: 65-66; Mark 14: 63-64). When He was taken to Pilate the Jews said: “We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19: 7). He was mocked as He hung upon the cross. Those that passed by reviled Him, “wagging their heads, and saying... If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matt. 27: 39-40). “The chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said... He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for he said, I am the Son of God” (Matt. 27: 41, 43). If, as the Son of God, He has the nature of God in all its fulness, had He not power to come down from the cross?  If He has an eternal relationship with the Father and this relationship is a relationship of love, would He not be delivered?  Those that mocked Him supplied the answer, though they did so in unbelief: “He saved others, Himself He cannot save” (Matt 27: 42). As the Son He had power to lay down His life. This commandment He had received of His Father, and on this account the Father loved Him, because He laid down His life that He might take it again (John 10: 17-18).

This really brings us to another point. Since the coming of the Son of God into the world, all blessing hinges upon receiving Him as such. This was true of the Jews when the Lord was here. The man in John 9 who was born blind, had his eyes opened and worshipped the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. He typifies the remnant of the Jews (John 9: 35-38). We see the same thing with Saul of Tarsus. When “There fell from his eyes as it had been scales... straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9: 18-20). This testimony to the Jews as to the Sonship of Christ was continued in the epistle to the Hebrews. And the eyes of the remnant will be opened to this Personal and eternal glory of Christ after the church is taken to heaven.

At the beginning of John's Gospel we read of three days. There is one day, and then “The next day” (John 1: 29, 35), and then “The day following” (John 1: 43). The spiritual bearing of these days is this. The ministry of John the Baptist and of the Lord on earth is connected with the first day. What marks the second day are the features of Christianity. Christ is known as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and as the Son of God who baptises with the Holy Spirit (John 1: 29, 33-34). But what characterises the third day is the opening of the eyes of the Jewish remnant to the Divine glory of the Lord Jesus, even in the face of their long prejudice against Him. Like Nathanael towards the end of John 1 they will confess Him as the Son of God and the King of Israel (John 1: 43, 47-49).

The Sonship of Christ and Christianity

The Gospels by Matthew, Mark and Luke are largely occupied with the ministry of the Lord Jesus outside of Jerusalem and Judaea. They record the animosity of the religious leaders toward Him and also trace out the stages in His rejection by the common people. As this rejection becomes more and more apparent a new work comes into view. If He is rejected as the Christ it is upon Him as the Son of God1 that this new work is founded. In answering the Lord's question, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter confesses, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee... upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16: 15-18). John's Gospel is more concerned with events in Jerusalem and Judaea. In this centre of Judaism He is rejected from the outset and we are occupied with this new work from the beginning (John 2: 18-21; John 3: 14-16; John 4: 23-24; John 5: 23-25; John 6: 53-57; John 7: 37-39 etc.). We might well call John's Gospel the Gospel of Christianity.

1In the parallel passages in Mark 8:27-9:1 and Luke 9:18-27 He is confessed as “the Christ,” but there is no reference to His being the Son of God or to the building of the assembly.

John's Gospel was written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, we might have life through His Name (John 20: 31). Eternal life is connected with the knowledge of God, who is made known to us as the Father by the Son (John 17: 3; 1 John 1: 2; 1 John 5: 11). This revelation of God is brought before us in John 1 where we read that “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1: 18). This verse shows that there are Divine Persons within the Godhead and that these Divine Persons are in relationship with one another: they are Father and Son. Furthermore, this relationship is shown to be a relationship of love. The only begotten Son is in the bosom of the Father. This is how God is declared to us. It is not what God became, but what He has always been. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned here because it is objective revelation. He works in our hearts to give the capacity to receive the revelation (John 3: 5-8). The revelation itself is of God the Father by the Son.

This revelation is at the very heart of the gospel. God is “in the light” (1 John 1: 7). He no longer dwells in the thick darkness which concealed Him before Christ came (Ex. 19: 9, J.N.D. Trans.; 1 Kings 8: 12; Ps. 97: 2). It is in this light that our sin is exposed. There is at the same time the manifestation of all that can be known about God, and the manifestation of the truth about ourselves. Yet God is revealed as One who loves us and who provides for the need which He shows to exist. The Father sends the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4: 14). It was in this that the love of God toward us was manifested, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him (1 John 4: 9). And when expressing the love of God to the world it is not said that God gave the Son of man, but that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3: 14-15). He gave the One who was the eternal and always worthy object of His love and delight.

Those that believe on the Son have eternal life. They receive it when they receive Him, for “He that hath the Son, hath life; and He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life” (1 John 5: 12). He is “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” (1 John 1: 2).

Just as the initial receiving of eternal life is bound up with the receiving of the Son, so growth in the divine nature is connected with the knowledge2 of the Son. In 1 John 2 it is this that marks the fathers, those who are spiritually mature. They know the Son, the One who is “from the beginning” (1 John 2: 13, 14). The gifts given by an ascended Christ have the same end in view: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (full-grown) man” (Eph. 4: 13). There can be no advance from this knowledge, as the two references in 1 John 2 show (Verses 13 & 14). It is knowledge that is gained as we keep company with Him. Like the disciples of old we can see where He abides (in the Father's bosom), and abide with Him (John 1: 38-39). We can contemplate His glory, “a glory as of an only begotten with a father” (John 1: 14 — J.N.D. Trans.).

2In Matthew 11: 27 we read, “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” The Greek word for “knoweth” is the same in both places (epiginõsko). Since the Father, who is not incarnate, can be known by those to whom the Son reveals Him, it does not seem that the Lord is here referring to the impossibility of the creature comprehending God (1 Tim. 6: 16). Rather, it is the incarnate Son who cannot be comprehended-it is impossible for us to understand how Deity and Humanity can be united in His Person. This is a great mystery (1 Tim. 3: 16). Such verses as these should not be used to deny or oppose what is revealed (Matt. 16: 16-17). The same word (epignõsis) is used in Ephesians 4: 13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

These and other verses show that the Sonship of Christ has a vital bearing upon everyday Christian living. It is certainly not an abstruse point of doctrine with which we need not concern ourselves. This is also seen in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” The law did not give life and because of what we are according to the flesh, it was really a ministry of death and condemnation (2 Cor. 3: 7, 9). It set no object before the soul, apart from the obedience which it required, and it imparted no power in order that that obedience might be rendered. The verse here in Galatians 2 shows that these three things are connected with the Son of God. Paul had received Christ, the Son, and life in Him. And the Son of God was the constant and sustaining object of his faith. The love of the eternal Son of God was set on him, and Paul had a deep, present, consciousness of it. He had given Himself for Paul and having Him before his soul he was furnished with the power that enabled him to live such a victorious and exemplary Christian life.

The One who came from heaven and gave Himself for Paul and for every believer, is coming again. The life of faith will then be at an end. Are we waiting for His coming?  The believers at Thessalonica had “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1: 9-10). Is there not a parallel between this verse and Galatians 2: 20?  The other references to the second coming in this epistle all speak about the “Lord Jesus Christ” or “the Lord” (1 Thess. 2: 19; 1 Thess. 3: 13; 1 Thess. 4: 15; 1 Thess. 5: 23). He has absolute authority and we are accountable to Him, but the reference in the first chapter seems to lay particular stress upon the Person who is coming. The love of the Son for them was such that there was no question of their being left in the world when the day of the Lord should be present (2 Thess. 2: 2, J.N.D. Trans.). He had delivered them from that coming wrath. Having Him as their object and hope, the One in whom the love of God and of the Father had been so perfectly manifested, they were kept in peace. We know from the second epistle that it was this hope that the enemy sought to shake, but Scripture clearly teaches that the saints will be caught away from the world before the hour of trial comes upon it (1 Thess. 4: 16-17; 1 Thess. 5: 2-5; 2 Thess. 2: 1-8; Rev. 3: 10).

In his epistles John shows a similar concern for those who were in danger of being deceived. It was not deception connected with wrong teaching about the timing of the day of the Lord, but what is even more serious, deception flowing from wrong teaching about the Person of Christ. Does not the apostle John insist upon the vital nature of the doctrine of Christ?  In his first epistle he especially warns the little children. “Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?  He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (1 John 2: 22-24). In these verses we have again the same elements that we have seen before. He is the Christ, the Son of God and of the Father. Like the Thessalonian believers, the little children that John addressed knew that Antichrist was coming (1 John 2: 18a) but he warns them that, “even now are there many antichrists” (1 John 2: 18b). What constituted them antichrists was the denial of the truth as to Christ's Person. They professed themselves to be Christians while at the same time denying the revelation of the eternal God that has come to us in the Son. The safeguard of the little children was to abide in the teaching of the apostle's concerning Him. They were to receive no new, no novel teaching about the Person of Christ. The Unction (the Holy Spirit) which they had from the Holy One (the Lord Jesus) would enable them to continue in the Son and in the Father (1 John 2: 20, 24).

In his second Epistle John writes to “the elect lady.” She too was vulnerable. It was not the man, but the woman who was deceived by the serpent and John writes that “many deceivers are entered into the world” (1 Tim. 2: 14; 2 John 7). It was the doctrine of Christ that was to be the touchstone, and if those who professed to bring something brought not that doctrine she was not to receive them into her house: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.” (2 John 9-11).

In closing let us call to mind again how the Sonship of Christ is interwoven with every strand of Christian truth. It is by the Son as such that God is revealed to us. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1: 18). We receive this revelation when we believe the gospel and the gospel of God concerns “His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1: 1-3). Believing the gospel we are delivered “from the power of darkness,” and translated “into the Kingdom” of God's “dear Son” (Col. 1:13). Those so translated form part of the church that Christ is building on the unshakeable foundation of His own Person as “the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16: 15-18). While that building continues we are waiting for God's Son from heaven and while we wait it is our portion, like Paul, to live by faith, “the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (1 Thess. 1: 10; Gal. 2: 20). It is clear from these and many other passages that the Sonship of Christ is not peripheral to Christianity. Indeed, how can anything that is so vitally bound up with His Person be peripheral?  To maintain that it is so is to depredate His glory and to manifest that Laodicean spirit which is such a dishonour to Him. Christianity is centred in Christ, the Christ of the Scriptures, and any false idea we have of Him is not only fatal in itself, but will also (eventually) show itself in a wrong idea of Christianity, and in wrong practice (1 Cor. 15: 33).

May the Lord grant us a deepening appreciation of His glory and the desire to be faithful to His Name.

R. F. Wall.

Extract

Were you to apply the directions given for judging immorality to fatal error touching our Lord's person, you would have a very insufficient measure of discipline. False doctrine does not touch the natural conscience as gross conduct does. Nay, you may too often find a believer drawn away by his affections to make excuses for those who are fundamentally heterodox. All sorts of difficulties fill the mind where the eye is not really single. Many might thus be involved who did not themselves hold the false doctrine. If I accept the principle of dealing with none but him who brings not the doctrine of Christ, it will not do; for there may be others entangled by it. What is any individual, what is the church even, in comparison with the Saviour, the Son of the Father?  Accordingly, the rule laid down by the Spirit for vindicating Christ's person from blasphemous assailants or their partisans, is infinitely more stringent than when it is a question of moral corruption, be it ever so bad.

W. Kelly-Lectures on the Gospel of Matthew, page 324.

Christ Everything

By the Editor of Scripture Truth before J.T. Mawson

In thinking over the Scripture, "as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him; rooted and built up is Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Col. 2 : 6, 7), I was carried back in thought to my own real start  with the Lord. I had from my earliest knowledge of anything known the Gospel, but the time came when I definitely received Him — "You'll trust Him?" was the question put to me and I said "Yes." I remember the following day that the name Jesus was continually before me. I printed it in large letters and set it where I could see it continually. It was just Himself — not the blessing that I had received — but Himself.

I could not have explained it all then, but now I see that the Spirit of God had led me to Him, it was not belief in a text of Scripture, but the reception of a Person about whom the Scriptures speak, and He was very real to me. I realised a personal link between myself and the Lord and longed to remember Him in His death, but I was afraid to make my desire known. After much faltering, I awoke to the fact that I was losing time and slipping back for I was not keeping His word. I had not advanced in this desire beyond what was individual, it was simply the Lord's love to me and my response to His love, but so far it was very real — and it was Himself and my desire to keep His commandments.

Then followed the desire to serve Him. I felt that to serve Him who had done so much for me would be a great honour and I have no doubt that He then gave me a definite call to preach the Gospel. The opportunity came for me to preach, and I spent some days in careful preparation of a sermon on the wisdom of building on the rock and the folly of building on the sand. As I walked to the preaching room, 3 miles away, there rang insistently in my ears "Behold the Lamb of God" and all my sermon slipped out of my memory. I passed through an agony of exercise and the more so because on arriving at the meeting I could not find the passage of Scripture that I had studied so carefully. And still the voice continued within me, "Behold the Lamb of God."

It was time to begin and I was reminded of this by a brother sitting near to me. I picked up my hymn book and the first hymn that my eyes alighted upon was "Behold the Lamb, 'tis He who bore my burden on the tree." I was greatly comforted and felt that I could trust the Lord to give me words to speak upon the text "Behold the Lamb of God." While I spoke an old man of 74 who had been long anxious, believed the Word, and passed from darkness to light. I was greatly cheered and began to see the way of the Lord. It was as though He said by the exercise I had passed through, "If you are to serve Me you must speak about Me, you must begin with Me. I must be your theme." It was Himself again.

Zeal for the Gospel laid hold of me, and day and night my thoughts were filled with the Gospel and my service in it. On reading C. H. Spurgeon's very helpful and delightful "Lectures to my Students" I longed to get the help I felt he could give, that I might be more efficient in the preaching. But just then the Lord came in and led me one step further. A servant of God visited our town and in the first address that he gave he spoke on Matthew 18: 20, pressing the reality of the Lord's presence in the midst of His assembly. It was a revelation to me. It was not the brethren, whether nice or otherwise who made the meeting what it was, it was Him — He gave character to the place. If I went it was to meet Him in His own circle, where He gathered His own about Him according to His own divine right.

I shall never forget the light that this was to my soul. I had to get away from everybody to dwell upon it with the Lord. From that time I have been unable to understand brethren saying "I will not go to the meeting, if such and such a Christian is permitted there; or threatening to withdraw, if what they think right is not done. To me everything lies in the Lord being there, and if He is there I must be.

This was a great joy, but it soon involved me in further exercise, for, I had to face the fact of failure, I discovered that confusion and division had wrought much havoc in that which appeared to me so blessed and which I had considered to be above the failure of men. Moreover I discovered that even those who I believed held or, to the truth, had sadly failed in the way they had done it, and the spirit that had been displayed. That party spirit could have entered that sacred enclosure with such disastrous results was to me a heart-breaking surprise. I was greatly shaken and I wondered whether it would not be better to devote myself exclusively to the Gospel, and let all else go as being impossible to carry out.

But I could not do this. I had tasted me joy of Christ and His assembly; to that I felt I must cling, and I went a step further and learned that everything was established and secured in Him. I learnt this from 2 Timothy, and I found from that Epistle that I could hold fast that which I had learnt and that it would be as a light and guide to me in the perilous times; I had got the clue to the maze. It meant that I must turn my eyes from the confusion and be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, remembering Him, raised from the dead according to Paul's Gospel, and test things henceforth by His word and authority. It was Himself again as meeting the exercise arising from our great failure in the truth.

I can see how falteringly I have followed these things so clearly shown to me. Known only to the Lord and myself has been the continual failure in walk according to that which I see and know to be the way of truth. But to these things in His great grace He has held me, and how patient He has been. I realize that, in every recovery of soul that I have known, He has brought me back to the joy of these things. They abide and will so long as the Spirit of Truth abides on earth.

It is plain to me that everything depends upon Christ personally having His place. We are to receive Him, walk in Him, be rooted and built up in Him, every advance is in Him. We may have doctrine and fight for "principles" and maintain a legal separation from what is wrong, but if that is all we shall become withered ourselves and a menace to the peace of our brethren. We shall abound in thanksgiving as together we continue in Him.

There have been many crises in my life, too intimate, too sacred, to commit to writing, but I have found that if He has drawn near to me in them I have gained in spiritual substance, no matter what else I have lost, and I have feebly learnt that for my own blessing as for His glory He must be all and in all, He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Beginning and the End. He is this for God, and He must be this for every creature that is to be finally and eternally blest. This is the lesson that the Spirit of God is teaching us today. Happy will all those be who learn it.

"Canst thou by searching find out God?"

"Canst thou by searching find out God?"

Henry Wilson, Inkongo.

CANST thou by searching find

The Almighty God? Can puny man

Take in the One who was ere time began,

With his own finite mind?

I use a microscope, and scan

A tiny parasite,

Brought to the light

Of my research and vision as a man;

Yet is that tiny mite

Unable quite

To understand that I not only see

And know it, but control its destiny.

So it would seem that puny finite man

Can never scan

Or know the mighty God, who fills eternity.

Some say God can be found

In Nature; and 'tis true indeed

We there His wisdom and His might can read,

And see His skill abound.

The tiny animalculae,

More wonderful by far

Than man's inventions are,

Display His handiwork with certainty.

Each plant that grows

Most plainly shows

The imprint of a wise Creator's hand,

On viewing which amazed and awed I stand.

But 'tis His work, not God Himself I see,

Nor can it be

That viewing Nature only I shall understand.

Behold the starry sky!

What human mind can comprehend

Where the beginning is or where the end

Of such immensity?

What do the many names convey?

The 'Serpent' shining bright,

The 'Cross,' emblazed in light,

The 'Crown,' the 'Wounded Conqueror,' what are they?

Again I stand amazed;

The mind is dazed

Before the sky's expanse, so great, so wide:

And yet one's longing rests ungratified;

And life's hard problems and its deepest need

Remain indeed

Unsolved, unmet. The heart is not thus satisfied.

Turn now and view with me

A group of humble men gathered around

A central One, for in that One are found

A lofty majesty,

Surpassing wisdom, gentleness,

A knowledge of men's needs,

A tenderness that heeds

The faintest cry of sorrow or distress.

Then Philip speaks this word-

'Show us the Father, Lord,'

And thus the Lord replies with voice serene

'He that hath seen Me, hath the Father seen.'

O wondrous, glorious mystery, that God,

The eternal God,

Has revealed Himself in this our earthly scene.

Then onward to the Cross,

Displaying God's great love to you and me,

Behold the Lord, advance unflinchingly,

Unmoved by shame or loss.

But, risen now at God's right hand,

Upon His glorious face

God's glory we can trace,

And seeing Him, our hearts can understand.

He knows our every need,

And He can read

Even the longing we can scarce express,

And knowing, 'tis His great delight to bless,

The weary heart can find in Him its rest,

And, fully blest,

Be filled with heavenly peace and joy and happiness.

While He is still away,

His people here are left to set Him forth,

And show His glory and His matchless worth,

And God Himself display.

We well may own with grief and shame

How much we fail to show

God's nature here below,

And how we do dishonour to His Name.

Yet let us fix our gaze

On Him, whose rays

Will brighten, change us, cause us now to be

More like Him, so that all around may see

In us a little of that radiant light,

And glory bright,

Which we shall bear throughout a glad eternity.

Inclusive and Exclusive

Inclusive and Exclusive.

H. J. Vine.

It is important, in relation to the oneness of the saints of God, to understand the truth of the one body; to grasp in faith the fact of it. "There is one body." This is a fact whether we grasp it or not, but the Holy Spirit has given us the truth of it through Paul, in the Scripture, that we might be always kept in the sense of the necessity of every member of the body of Christ, for all are included in the body. Oh! that we may learn deeply and truly this blessed inclusiveness. That teaching of exclusiveness, which says that certain members are excluded on the principle of the one body, is not the truth of God. indeed, it is very serious error. That teaching which maintains that wicked persons (those characterized by lawlessness in word or way) are to be excluded from Christian intercourse is according to the truth. The difference between the two is very great. To use the truth of the one body for the exclusion of members, is to act ignorantly, to misapply scripture, and to injure the saints. To exclude wickedness and those characterized by it as unsuited to the holiness of God's house, is to obey the Word and to preserve the saints, but for the latter other scriptures are needed.

As to the inclusiveness of the one body, we are told, no member can say to another, "I have no need of thee" (1 Cor. 12: 21). Every member is necessary. Exclusion is not to be thought of. "God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to the part that lacked." And the reason for this divine wisdom and care is, "That there be no division in the body" (25)! Inclusiveness is the truth here. The teaching of the "one new man," and of access to the Father by "one Spirit" in Ephesians 2: 15-18 has the same end in view; as also has the fact that we are "joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers" of God's promise in Christ Jesus. Indeed, the very gospel-preaching of Paul was ''according to the revelation of the mystery' (Rom. 16: 25); and the right effect of that would bring all the saints "to be likeminded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore," continues the Apostle, "receive ye one another according as the Christ also has received you to the glory of God" (Rom. 15: 5-7). In this way the oneness becomes practical in the love and grace of the truth.

For a Day of Failure.

The outward failure and breakdown as to this very truth amongst those Who claim to be the church, or of the church, could not be greater, but it was all foreseen and foretold in the Scripture, and provision has been made in view of the failure in the ministry given through John. So that those who are really "of the truth" may be preserved and maintained in fullness of joy, and according to the oneness of which we speak, in spite of the outward breakdown.

No outward divisions or separations are seen by John, among the living company of true believers on the Son of God, for whom he writes. His Gospel is written that they may have life (John 20: 31): his first Epistle that they may know they have eternal life (1 John 5: 13). He sees one family, all loved alike by one Father, indwelt by one Spirit. In the Gospel he sees one flock, all having eternal life, and all safe in the hand of one Shepherd. The flock is identified with the assembly by Paul's words in Acts 20: 28. It is true that here, as well as in John 10, the Holy Spirit foretells trouble from those who should succeed the apostles. Grievous wolves are spoken of, and also those who would speak "perverted things"; but the one flock, the true assembly, remains.

John 10 tells of the thief coming to steal, to kill, and to destroy; but the Shepherd, the Son of God, holds all His own in the hand of omnipotence. Unlike the thief, the good Shepherd came that His sheep might have salvation, liberty, and life abundantly. The wolf worries and scatters the precious sheep of Christ, and the hireling's heart is on his wages; he cares not for the sheep, and flees when danger comes; but the good Shepherd knows each sheep by name, and He loves each one with so great a love that He laid down His life for the eternal welfare of every one of them. Notwithstanding all the trouble the thief, the hireling, and the wolf cause, the one flock is safe, because it is in His hand, and in the Father's hand; and He has said: "No one shall seize them out of My hand," and "No one can seize out of the hand of My Father. I and My Father are one." Every sheep is included in the grasp of love and omnipotence. He speaks of inclusive oneness.

Those who are excluded in John's epistle exclude themselves-they go out. They apostatize (1 John 2: 11). In the third epistle of John, Diotrephes "cast out" the brethren; this treatment was meted out to the best saints. He could only cast out of the assembly where he had usurped the pre-eminence which belongs to Christ; he could not cast them out of that of which we are speaking. But it should be a warning to us to see to it that we have more than mere talk about assembly, which is dangerous; for even in apostolic days the state in this connection could be such that an apostolic communication could be refused; and even apostles themselves: "I wrote something to the assembly; but Diotrephes, who loves to have the first place among them, receives us not " (3 John 9). Certainly it was the work of an individual whose fleshly pride had made him Satan's tool, and who took and loved the first place among them. It is a significant fact that the only mention of the assembly in John's writings is in connection with this evil Diotrephesian conduct; doubtless this is to cast us back upon the living and inclusive oneness, to which prominence is given in his ministry by the Holy Spirit. The violent exclusiveness of Diotrephes was evil. It excluded the best. It is therefore said to Gaius: "Beloved, imitate not what is evil, but what is good. He that does good is of God" (11). That is the path which is surrounded by the abiding blessings of God.

Disciples Indeed

Disciples Indeed

"Will ye also be his disciples?" — John 9: 27; Mark 4: 35-41; Luke 14: 25-33.

Being Notes of an Address by A. Mace.

Publisher: G. Morrish.

It might be helpful if we look a little at the subject of christian discipleship. Discipleship is viewed in scripture in two aspects. It is looked at merely as a profession, and also as a great reality.

Have you ever marked in reading John's gospel, that there seemed to be a crowd round the Lord continually? In John 6 the throng leaves Him because He said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." That was the point which tested them. But the Lord turns to the twelve and says, "Will ye also go away?" Then Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life." There you find two classes of disciples — the mere camp followers, who followed for the loaves and fishes, and those who followed for what they had found in Him, and though they might be, and surely were, searched and rebuked, still, they clung to Him.

What I want to bring before you is

REAL DISCIPLESHIP,

thorough going, out-and-out decision for Christ, and whilst I am conscious of what a very poor exponent I am of it, still, beloved friends, we have to face the truth, and it is very wholesome to see things as they are in scripture. Never lower the standard because you are not up to it. Far better to confess your failure, own that you come short, but say at the same time, that is what I want to be.

The Lord Jesus Himself was a disciple. Now, I would not like to say that without a word of explanation. In Isaiah 50 we read, "the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner."

The blessed Lord took the place of the disciple here on earth. That was how He got, as Man the tongue of the learned. "He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner." He thus becomes the pattern of what a disciple should be. In other words, He followed in the path of the Father's appointment. As the Father gave Him commandment, so He spoke, and He could say, "I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."

In John 5 we read, "the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." There you have the whole life of Christ. He never spoke from Himself, and never acted from Himself. His words were the Father's words, and His works were the Father's works. His ear was wakened to hear the Father's voice. He trod in that path, and therefore is the pattern of our discipleship.

Now turn to Mark 4: 35 again. "And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side." Observe, it is "let us pass over." That is

DIVINE ASSOCIATION.

Christ has a company here in connection with Himself. Those walking in the path of the divine will form this company, and to them He says, "Let us pass over unto the other side." Unto what other side? Why to the gloryland, that is the other side. This is the world's, man's and Satan's side. We have heard that blessed One say, "let us pass over unto the other side." There is one thing that ought to comfort every Christian, expressed in these lines:-

"One sweetly solemn thought,

Comes to me o'er and o'er;

I am nearer the glory today,

Than ever I was before."

We are in the boat so to speak, the oars are moving, we are being rowed over, we are travelling on to it, we were never so near it as we are now, and perhaps we shall get there today. The Lord Jesus has connected His people with Him in this blessed path of discipleship. I hope there is no exception in this room. I hope that every one of us has been taken hold of by the Lord to be connected with Him in this way. It is not only to be in heaven when we die, but we are so linked with Him, that we are travelling under His leadership to the other side.

Now, what follows?

"WHEN THEY HAD SENT AWAY THE MULTITUDE."

This is the first thing to be done. Every one has his or her multitude. A person may be a Christian, yet not a disciple, a child of God, an old believer, and yet never have sent away the multitude.

I am speaking now of discipleship in its real character, as it is presented in Luke 14. I repeat, beloved friends, you can be a true believer, and never have entered this path of identification with Christ. The sine qua non, the essential point for it is, that you must send away the multitude, and so break with things. and hindrances here. It is no use saying things will drop off, they won't. I used to say that at one time, but I do not now. They do not drop off.

I remember once in Rochester, U. S., having to walk a considerable distance about the city with a number of silver dollars in my pocket, as heavy as five shilling pieces. I said to a friend, Can you change these into paper money for me? And I put my hand into my pocket, and gave him the silver dollars, and took his paper ones. Those heavy dollars would not drop out of my pocket, I had to put my hand in, and take them out.

In Hebrews we read of weights. Weights are not always sins. Suppose I read the newspaper for an hour every morning. I should consider it a weight, but not necessarily a sin.

I remember once seeing a man outside Watford station. He was smoking. I noticed him look at his watch, and then he suddenly began to run. Directly he began to run, he took the pipe out of his mouth. We never find out what weights are till we begin to run. Let a thing become a weight, and it has to go.

You may say very pretty things in prayer, but are you laying aside the weights? It is no good asking for this and that, and yet when He points out the weights you do not send them away; it is practical hypocrisy.

Beloved friends, you have a multitude, a social, commercial, or domestic multitude. The first thing is, to send it away. Whatever the hindrance, and there is no one in this room who has not some kind of a block under the wheel, send it away. It is no use to ask for more power. For example, some one is trying to push a cart up a hill, and he cannot move it. He calls for more help, and a number of people come along, and all try to push it up, but still it will not move.

Why, you say, they are all blind. You see in a moment what the hindrance is, there is a block under the wheel. What do you do? You just remove the block, and the thing goes along smoothly.

I am quite certain that there are hindrances in the Christian's history, things that hinder our getting on in the things of God. There is a multitude that you have never sent away, but be sure of it, if you are to be out-and-out for Christ, you must take it into the Lord's presence, wrap it up into a bundle, and write across it "dismissed."

God said to Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house." He did not do it. You notice it is, "the Lord had said unto Abram." It is in the past. Not till some time after did he send away his multitude. What was it? His relatives. Lot was a hanger-on. We see afterwards what he was, he was looking for the well-watered plains of Sodom. Abraham subsequently sent Lot away, and then the Lord said unto him, "Lift up now thine eyes . . . . northward and southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Then he was to walk through the land, to possess it. He was losing blessing, because he had not carried out the three-fold commandment, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house."

Beloved friends, I beseech you to let His blessed eye pass over you. In secret let Him point out what that multitude is, and have done with it. If ever there was a day when we needed to be for Christ, it is now. Our time is brief. The great delay, the great hindrance to souls getting on, is that God puts His finger on certain things, and we do not refuse them.

Now there is a negative and a positive action here. First, they dismiss the multitude, and then

"THEY TOOK HIM EVEN AS HE WAS IN THE SHIP."

How was He in this world? Born in Bethlehem's manger, a homeless wanderer, rejected from the very outset. They identify themselves with Christ, "they took him even as he was."

Israel did not take the manna as it was in Numbers 11. They "ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it," It is an awful chapter, a chapter of apostasy, in which they say, "make us a captain." They did not take the manna as it was. If we look around Christendom today, is it a rejected, crucified Christ that meets our eye in those who profess His name? I know He is the eternal God, but I am speaking now of His blessed path of discipleship. He went through this world, and He is my pattern. He was wholly for God.

Well, they are crossing over to the other side, and they meet with a twofold opposition, wind and waves. Wind is an emblem of Satan's power. Oh! you say, you told us the other day it was a type of the Spirit. So it is, my friends, and of Satan too. There are two hidden powers at work in this world, the Holy Ghost, and Satan — the prince of the power of the air. The wind is a type of them both. If there were no wind there would be no waves. The waves are people. It is the wind that puts the waves in motion, the devil behind the scenes, who sets up human opposition to that company, who are travelling to the other side.

Depend upon it, if we want to go on smoothly and easily the devil will let us alone. If you want a kid-glove easy-going Christianity, it is there for you to have. But if you are to be with Christ, you will meet with wind and waves. What do we know of waves and storms and clouds?

There were other little ships. You can go in them if you like, but we never hear of them again. The storm comes and they are gone. Very likely they made for the shore. You may be in one of them if you please. If you travel with Christ you must expect opposition. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." It will not be the inquisition or the rack, but it will be the go-by, and the opposition of even worldly believers.

I ask you, is it your desire and mine to be in that ship where Christ is? There is a beautiful touch just here,

"HE . . . . WAS ASLEEP ON A PILLOW."

This is the only gospel that mentions it. Mark is the gospel of the Servant. Did He push that pillow away? No. There was no monasticism, no asceticism in Him, He accepts the Father's provision, and goes to sleep in the storm. "Carest thou not that we perish?" they say. Oh! that miserable " we." His "us" took them in, their "we" left Him out. Perish with Christ on board! It only wants to be thought of for a minute. What ought Peter to have done? To have put his head on His bosom, and gone to sleep too. He did afterwards go to sleep in a storm. He slept between four quaternions of soldiers. He had learnt his lesson then, he could sleep in the storm at last. But now the end is reached, they get to the other side. And so shall we presently:-

"Safe to the land, safe to the land,

The end is this;

And then with Him go hand in hand

Far into bliss."

But, if there is one thing we shall regret, it will be that we did not go through the storms better. "He rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." He is the only One who can meet the power of Satan.

First we get the path itself — Christ's — then the opposition and the resources. The opposition is the wind and waves — the resources, "what manner of man is this?" Oh! how brief our moment here! Shall we trifle with it? May God give certainty and definiteness to our very desires, and may they be — Christ.

Now we will turn to Luke 14: 26. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Now, if the Lord had put in, cannot be a Christian, or cannot be a believer, or cannot be saved, beloved friends, who would get the blessing? But no. In Luke 14 there are two "F's," feasting and following. "A certain man made a great supper and bade many." He brings them there to feast. They feed till they are satisfied. Now, they come out to follow. We go in to feast, and come out to follow. In the feast, He meets all the cost. He provides everything. They have only to come, and partake of what He provides. But, what now? "There went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

There are seven things here, ending with "His own life also." That is the last thing that we bid good-bye to. Unless we hate these seven things, hate their influence, "he cannot be my disciple." That is, we do not suffer them to hinder discipleship.

You remember the man who said, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father." The Lord said to him, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." As much as to say, If you are a disciple, He must be first. "Suffer me first to go and bury my father." No, that cannot be, for though we know that God has instituted all these relationships, and blessed relationships they are, yet the moment you enter into the path of following Christ, He says, I must be first. There are two things that make up discipleship,

BUILDING AND FIGHTING,

the sword and the trowel, only He puts the trowel first. "Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost?" Building the tower, I believe, is that secret work of God that goes on in your own soul, by which you are built up. You see, he sits down to count the cost. He estimated it. In the case of salvation, it cost Christ everything and me nothing, but to be a disciple, I have to sit down and count the cost.

It is the first of all necessities to be alone with God. We began to build when we were first saved. How much time do we spend in prayer and over the word, and do we tell Him everything? "This man began to build." We were not occupied with the building, but people looked on, and they saw the earnestness and bent of our souls. "This man began to build." Is it so today? Is there the same earnestness, the same searching of the scriptures as when we first knew Him? We have to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. It is what goes on between God and our souls in secret, that enables us to resist the devil.

If you are busy outside and slothful inside you will make shipwreck. You keep a feast without for other people, but you are starving within, Do not live on public meetings and addresses and fail to get alone with God, or you will become inflated and think you have things, that you have never really made your own before God. Some have more time than others I know, but depend upon it, we have all the time we want. If we want to do a thing, we do it. Perhaps it is 25 years ago since you began, perhaps more, well, go on. Barnabas had a bright start, he gave up everything for, Christ, did he sustain it, was he able to finish? "Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off." Time tests us as Christians. It is not the first blush. We get to know things, we acquire a knowledge of Christianity, we receive certain truths, but unless they are made good in the secret of our souls, that tower will stop building, and all who look on will mock, saying, "this man began to build and was not able to finish."

Barnabas appears to have made shipwreck, not of Christianity but of discipleship. He and Mark sailed to Cyprus. That was where Barnabas came from. It is most important that we should seek God in secret. These are shallow days. It is there you get fed, there you get help, there you have to do with God.

I thank God for public ministry, but if you are living on it, sooner or later you will be an ignoble shipwreck. "This man began to build." Every Christian ought to sit down and count the cost, and beloved friends, when you thus sit down do not leave out all the blessing and the infinite resources God has for you. I believe it is far easier to be out-and-out than to be half-hearted, because you find all His resources at your disposal. Christ satisfies your heart. You may, and you will find difficulties, it is impossible to get on without them, but if you get into the "counting" house and deliberate, saying, I shall have to break with this and that, and you begin to put down the expenses, remember on the other side you have the Father's love, the presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, and that will keep you going on, and you "will grow up unto him in all things." Well, that is the inside. The next thing is,

A KING GOING TO MAKE WAR.

This is active, not passive. We are all supposed to fight. Depend upon it, we are all expected to be doing two things — building and fighting. Nehemiah and his companions held the sword in one hand, and the trowel in the other. They fought, and built the wall. They did not take their clothes off. They went on building, and they were ready for the enemy when he came. Do not suppose you are not to fight. Each one has to face the enemy.

"See the mighty host advancing,

Satan leading on!"

If you are to go against that mighty host, just lift your eyes to the glory and say, Can I? Yes. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me power." Never surrender your position. Never. "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." show me a person who feeds in secret, and I will show you a person who fights in this great battle against the powers of darkness. But here is one who having fought, after a time holds out a flag of truce. There is a compromise with the devil. He started well, but the battle was too long and too strong, and he gives in and desires conditions of peace. Oh! may this never be said of you and me. You will get to heaven? Oh! yes, you cannot get anywhere else, if you are a Christian. It is not a question of getting to heaven, it is a question of this little brief interval when we have to build and fight. I urge you to use the opportunities. It is a most wonderful moment, to seek to be here for Him, to be disciples. The Lord enable us to keep up the building with God, the secret communion, that hidden life within, and then to start to do battle with the foe. God will show us what we have to do. It is a fight. It may be long, longer perhaps than we expected, but victory is bound to crown the effort of the soul that goes on with God.

The Lord help us to be disciples. Not one of us would like to say, I am one. But is that what you are set for? Is that your object, that as He is for you in the Father's glory, you want to be for Him here? Then get to Him, get on your knees before Him, and then come out to be for Him here against all the power of the devil. The Lord grant that each one of us may do so, for His name's sake. Amen. Alfred Mace.

The Old Paths

The Old Paths

J. Müller.

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.  But they said, We will not walk [therein]." Jeremiah 6: 16

"Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." Proverbs 22: 28

"But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned [them];" 2 Timothy 3: 14

We live in the distressing times of the last days, during which the power of godliness would be enfeebled to the profit of external forms (2 Tim 3: 1, 5).  The danger for us lies in doing everyone that which is right in our own eyes (Judges 21: 25), in neglecting the testimony that God has confided to His assembly on earth (1 Timothy 3: 15).

The lines that follow recall some of the things that we have learned, in order to exhort us to walk together in the old paths for the rest of our souls and for the joy of Christ.

1. THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD

The complete expression of the thought of God, the inspired Scripture has an absolute authority.  The rule of our Christian life as of the life of the assembly, it is the word of the grace of God; by it God builds us up (Acts 20: 32).  Obedience to the Word is the sole road of blessing.  There does not exist a formal text to answer every one of our circumstannces;  but the thought of the Saviour is always known by the heart (Prov 2: 10) and the conscience, in submission to the Scriptures.

2. THE BELIEVER AND THE TWO NATURES

Every human being born into this world is a lost sinner (Romans 5: 12); the evil is neither in the material itself, nor in the human organism and its faculties.  But in a man, descendant of Adam, all is misery and filthiness (Isaiah 1: 6).  God declares that that state is hopeless (Isaiah 2: 22).

By faith in Christ and His work, the believer receives as a gift of God eternal life, which is Christ himself (1 John 5: 11).  Having put off the "old man", the believer puts on the "new man" (Ephesians 4: 23).  He becomes a child of God (John 1: 12), and is made part of the family

of God (1 John 3: 1).

From that point on, the human being of the believer (spirit, soul and body), with all its faculties, carries in him two natures, that which is "spirit" and that which is "flesh" (John 3: 6).  The coexistence of the two natures in the believer involves an internal conflict between the flesh and the Spirit (of which the body of the believer is the temple).

If he is negligent, he can produce the sad "works of the flesh", instead of offering to God "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5: 19, 22).

3. THE HOUSE OF GOD ON EARTH AND THE BODY OF CHRIST

Each believer (born anew and sealed with the Holy Spirit) is a living stone in the house of God on earth (1 Peter 2: 5), as well as a member of the body of Christ.  That vital link of the body of Christ can not be broken, or even altered.  On the other hand, the initial thought of God with regard to His house on the earth has been lost by the unfaithfulness of man.  Christendom has become a great house where only "the Lord knows them that are His" (2 Timothy 2: 19).

The first characteristic of the house of God, temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3: 16) is holiness (Psalm 93: 5; 1 Peter 1: 15, 16).  Now that which is holy does not do away with defilement, and defilement always profanes that which is holy (Haggai 2: 12, 13).  Leaven (figure of moral or doctrinal evil) corrupts the whole mass (1 Corinthians 5.6; Galatians 5: 9).

Thus all believers who desire to be faithful to their Lord are called to separate themselves for Him (2 Timothy 2: 19, 21, 22) and to go forth unto Him (Hebrews 13: 13).  Those who call upon Him out of a pure heart then find themselves together in order to realize the promise of the Lord to be in the midst of them (Matthew 18: 20).

4. THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY — ITS NATURE AND ITS RESPONSIBILITIES

In a locality, those Christians, separated from iniquity and gathered to the name of the Lord, are — if they realize the thought of God with regard to His assembly — the local expression of the assembly, the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27).  Such gatherings of believers are not independent one of the other: their unity is that of the body of Christ, represented locally by each one of them.

Christ is the source of all the activity of the saints, Who works through the Holy Spirit, for the edification of the body, the assembly.

All the believers, members one of the other, are exhorted to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4: 3).

The local assembly is the sphere of the collective life of the saints.

It is there where worship is rendered to the Father and to the Son, there where is presented the prayer of the assembly.  There also the spiritual nourishment of Christ for His body is received (through the gifts).  Any activity exercised in a spirit of independence vis-a-vis the assembly can be blessed in the long run, even if it appears useful for a time.

The assembly possesses furthermore the prerogative of binding or loosing on earth (Matthew 18: 18).  An assembly decision, taken in the name of the Lord, in one place, by those who are gathered around Him, is ratified in heaven;  all the gatherings who represent the body of Christ

recognise it.  This practical solidarity of the assemblies is an essential truth.  It flows from their very existence.

5. THE TWO MINISTRIES OF THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY

During the present period of grace, God calls (out of the world) a people for His name (Acts 15: 14).  The thought of Christ is of realizing the "increase of His body to the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4: 16.  To this end, He gives some evangelists for bringing souls to Him, joining them to His body which grows in number.  He gives also some pastors and teachers in the assembly, for the perfecting of the saints; the body thus grows in the knowledge of Christ.

The apostle Paul was a servant of the gospel and servant of the assembly (Colossians 1: 23, 25);  his two minitries were exercised in harmony in order to accomplish the design of God.  In turn, we are invited to cooperate together in the two aspects of this work, "according to the effectual working by which every part does its share" (Ephesians 4: 16).

6. DISCIPLINE IN THE ASSEMBLY

The responsibility of the assembly is exercised in the sphere that the Word calls the "within" (1 Corinthians 5: 12), there where effectively the rights of the Lord are recognised, that is to say at His table.   The solemn authority conferred by the Lord to His assembly on earth ought to be exercised with fear, in seeking the mind of the Lord, and the profound conviction of His approval.  The assembly is not infallible; a decision, even if taken by the many (2 Corinthians 2: 6), can be erroneous.  He who feels himself to be the object of an injustice ought to commit his cause with confidence to the Lord (Psalm 37: 5, 6).

Humility, patience and softness of spirit are necessary for all.  The Lord will not fail to intervene when our "obedience has been fulfilled" (2 Corinthians 10: 6).

An assembly that refuses to judge evil by discipline looses its character as an assembly of God.  On the other hand, grace alone wins souls and picks up the fallen;  and discipline (where the purpose is always the healing of plagues) is precisely the prerogative of love.

The Word invites us to moderation in our judgements.  With regard to believers, the term "evildoer" is only employed for one who is in a persistant state of grave evil, moral or doctrinal.  The table of demons (1 Corinthians 10: 21) characterizes idolatry and cannot be applied to any Christian gathering.  The expression is applied by the apostle (with regard to things sacrificed to idols) to illustrate a very important general principle: to participate in a table involves communion with all that is in fellowship with that table.  Thus, many pious Christians are connected ecclesiastically with errors, without presenting the character of evildoer, and even less participating in a table of demons.  Still, despite the vital link that unites us in Christ, we cannot have communion with them at the table of the Lord.

7. THE SUPPER AND TABLE OF THE LORD

The supper is the precious remembrance of the death of the Lord during His absence (1 Corinthians 11: 26).  Each Christian ought to respond from his heart to the touching invitation of His Saviour.  At the same time, to partake of the one broken bread (symbol of the death of Christ, Man, in His body given for us) expresses on the earth the unity of the body (spiritual) of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17).

The supper (the memorial) and the table of the Lord (the communion) are distinguished in Scripture but are inseparably tied together.  To respond to the desire of the Lord (in participating of the supper) implies the recognition of His rights over our personal life (1 Corinthians 11: 27-32) and in the assembly (at the table of the Lord).

There, the believers are subject to the discipline of the assembly under its various forms;  they are in practise "submitting to one another in the fear of Christ" (Ephesians 5: 21).

8. THE TABLE OF THE LORD AND THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT

To take the supper of the Lord in being gathered at His table is a collective act done in the consciousness that the saints gathered in assembly are a local expression of the entire body of Christ.

The Lord invites us then to receive at His table every believer sound in his walk and in the doctrine of Christ.  He who desires to approach ought nevertheless to be conscious of the path to which he commits himself, as also of the character of the collective testimony.  He enters into the domain where the discipline of the assembly is exercised.

This same truth of the unity of the body involves other practical consequences:

(a) No Christian can participate in the supper on his individual responsibility alone in evaluating his own state.  He is not free to break bread at his own will in any Christian place of his choice.

One brother alone has no authority for deciding who can participate in the supper.

(b) To receive a believer occasionally at the table of the Lord cannot be done except with great prudence, under the profound conviction of engaging the conscience.  This ought never to be the deliberate sanction of a state of independence of one who desires to keep liberty to come and go.

(c)Finally, an assembly gathered to the name of the Lord may not allow that the supper be taken by a person who presents himself  on his testimony alone.  The letter of commendation (2 Corinthians 3: 1) is the scriptural means of maintaining in practise fellowship among the assemblies.

9. THE GOOD OF THE FLOCK OF THE LORD

In times of decline, separation from evil remains the divine principle of the unity realized around Christ.  Gates to the city of Jerusalem were missing in the times of Nehemiah, as were also watchmen on the walls (Isaiah 62: 6).  Applying all to us in realizing this separation with sorrow and humiliation, let us think of the good of the Lord's flock;  let us preach grace, which attaches our souls to Christ, and directs the desire of our hearts toward Him, in awaiting His coming.

10. AN APPEAL TO OUR HEARTS

Well-beloved brothers and sisters, the Lord has revealed to us His thought with regard to the heavenly destiny of His assembly, but also with regard to its walk and its testimony on earth.  To keep the good deposit of these truths (2 Timothy 1: 14) is a charge that we are together invited to maintain (Malachi 3: 14).  Contrary to the thought expressed in the time of the prophet, there is profit in walking mournfully before God, and it is not vain to serve Him in fearing Him.

Have we not abandoned our "first love" (Revelation 2: 4) for Christ?  He calls us to repent, to "strengthen that which remains" (Revelation 3: 2), in keeping His word and in not denying His name (Revelation 3: 8).

Together, then, may we hear His voice, with a tender heart (2 Chronicles 34: 27), with a broken and humble heart (Psalm 51: 17), but confident in the resources of His grace and the full sufficiency of His name that gathers.

Jean Muller

Translated from the French by Richard K Gorgas and taken from the January 1994 issue of "le messager Evangelique," a monthly publication now in its 135th year.  Used by the author's permission.

Psalm 23. A Paean of Praise

Psalm 23. A Paean of Praise.

(A Bible Reading with A J Pollock, Hamilton Smith, W Bramwell Dick, J T Mawson, & E D (Dennett?). Extracted from Simple Testimony Vol. 35, 1918-19, page 143 etc.)

Psalm 23: 1.

P. V. W. APPROPRIATELY the translators of our English Bible labelled this psalm "David's confidence in God." God's grace it was that relieved us of the burden of sin; it supports us all along our journey, and teaches us to walk in God's ways.

Q. How far is the language of the psalm that of the Lord Himself in His pathway here?

A. J. P. Surely as a dependent Man (though "God over all blessed for ever" at all times), the Lord could adopt the language of Psalm 23, save on the cross itself, when His language was, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" rather than "Thou art with Me." But in all His perfect life down here He could surely adopt the language of this psalm. Remember "He restoreth my soul" is in the sense that rest or food restores, and not the recovery from backsliding which, needless to say, could never apply to the Lord.

Q. How far may a Christian employ the psalm as expressing his own experience? Does it not rather belong to Israel?

P. V. W. This psalm cannot be sung by Israel until she is restored. As the redeemed of the Lord, we anticipate Israel in this song of praise to our Saviour.

A. J. P. It is one of the psalms that the Christian can quote entire as his experience, for it describes a Person, and personal relations with Him. Dispensations may change, but Jehovah is ever the same.

"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."

Q. Who is the Shepherd?

H. S. The Lord, Jehovah. And Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New. He is the forsaken Man of Psalm 22, the accepted Man of Psalm 24.

W. B. D. Psalms 22, 23 and 24 form a group presenting Christ as the Good Shepherd in death, the Great Shepherd in resurrection, and the Chief Shepherd in glory.

A. J. P. The connection is obvious. Psalm 22 gives us the Saviour, in His past activity; Psalm 23, the Shepherd in His present activity; Psalm 24, the Sovereign in His future activity.

H. S. In Psalm 22 His strength is "dried up like a potsherd"; in Psalm 24 He is "strong and mighty." In the former He is "a worm and no man," in the latter, "the Lord of hosts" and "King of glory." This is the One who is "my Shepherd," One who has descended first into the lower parts of the earth," "who has ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things." He has filled every position in which a man can be found, from the utmost distance to the highest glory. He has trodden every step between these vast extremes. With such a Shepherd we need fear no evil, nor wonder at any blessing He bestows.

Q. What thought is conveyed to the mind by the word "shepherd"?

W. B. D. It suggests solicitude, strength tenderness and, in the case of our blessed Lord, before everything else, self-sacrifice. Can we conceive anything more beautiful than the words of Isaiah 40: 11: "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom"?

Q. There must, of course, be the appropriation of the Shepherd as one's own, must there not?

H. S. It is one thing to speak of the Lord as the Shepherd, quite another to say, He is my Shepherd. The first is a matter of knowledge; the last, a question of experience. "The Lord is my Shepherd" is the language of one who has proved the Lord in the varied circumstances of his pathway and gladly submits to His leading.

E. D. To say "my" Shepherd is the language of faith; the word "my" is therefore the doorway into the psalm.

H. S. All questions as to our standing before God must be presumed to have been settled. I could not say, "my Shepherd" if I had a lingering thought that after all He may be "my Judge." "My Saviour" must come before "my Shepherd."

J. T. M. This Psalm is full of wonderful blessings, and all depend upon the first sentence. Think of the immensity of the grace that is in it, the love that has made it possible for poor, despised people, thought nothing of in the world, to say: The Lord is my Shepherd, I belong to Him and He is mine.

Q. This implies, does it not, that we are everlastingly safe?

J. T. M. To be sure. If you can say "The Lord is my Shepherd," then, on the authority of His own Word you can say, "I am everlastingly safe." Do you not remember how He said, "My sheep hear My voice . . . and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." The hand that broke the power of death, and that annulled the mighty power of the devil, is the hand that holds your soul secure.

Q. But on our part there must be a cleaving to the Lord, must there not?

J. T. M. Yes. We are exhorted to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. But it does not say, Cleave to the Shepherd, or to the Saviour. We are to cleave to Him as our Lord, another character entirely.

W. B. D. But our safety is not the only thing. He who can truly say "The Lord is my Shepherd" is entitled to add "I shall not want." To question the latter would be to doubt the former, and to have fears as to the efficiency of the Shepherd.

H. S. If we look at this world with its many wants and failing supplies, it is no small thing to say "I shall not want." But with a great Shepherd we can say great things.

E. D. We shall not want, not because we are sheep, but because He is our Shepherd. This conclusion flows not from what we are to Him, but from what He is to us.

P. V. W. What He is, has done, and is now doing, gives perfect rest to those that know Him. He has charged Himself with all our cares and needs-we shall not want. Both vagabondage and want have ceased for those represented in this psalm, because they have returned to the Lord.

A. F. P. The emphasis is on Lord, who by virtue of the sufferings of Psalm 22 is qualified as Shepherd, having proved faithful unto death; and also because of who He is the Psalmist can triumphantly say, "I shall not want."

W. V. B. The Psalmist seems to give a graphic review, under the eye of the Shepherd, of his whole life in the wilderness pathway, commencing from the moment of his realization that since Jehovah was his Shepherd it was impossible for him to want.

Q. But the children of God are often in want. Take Paul, for instance. According to Philippians 4: 11, 12, was he not sometimes in want?

W. B. D. Certainly; otherwise how could he say, "I shall not want"? If a child is hungry, it comes to its mother to have its want supplied. It knows that its want will be met, so that it can say, "I shall not want." When Paul had wants he turned to the Shepherd, confident in His care, and as a result He could say, "I have all things and abound."

REMARK. What we lack sometimes may not be good for us to have. It says, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing" (Psalm 34: 10).

A. J. P. Paul might be in want of food, raiment, shelter and liberty. But the Shepherd supplies what is necessary to keep the soul at rest in whatever circumstances the sheep may be. Whatever might be Paul's privations affecting the outer man, the inward man knew no lack.

P. V. W. If we think of our many needs, both in our testimony for God and for the present life, He is (and we must learn to make Him so) our competence for all the way. With Him filling the soul's vision it is easy to say, "I shall not want." With Him on board, our little boat cannot go down, no matter how big the waves. It is the sense of the Lord's love and presence that gives the holy boldness in our psalm's expression, "I shall not want."

LOVE'S SWEET COMPULSION.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters."

Psalm 23: 2, 3.

A. F. P. A sheep only lies down when satisfied. When it says "He maketh me," the idea is not force, but the result of satisfaction in consequence of the Shepherd's care.

W. B. D. The sheep is not here brought to green pastures to have need supplied, but because it has eaten well. Every want has been met, and amid peace and plenty, under the protection of the Shepherd, it lies down.

P. V. W. What a lovely picture of repose in safety! We could not thus lie down if the enemy were at our gates, and we were in fear of what might befall us. The soul is in sweet contemplation of Him who, having defeated the enemy and borne sin's judgment, becomes now the object of the soul's affection. Now, in LOVE'S SWEET COMPULSION, He makes His obedient sheep to "lie down."

H. S. Not only does He provide for our temporal needs, but He satisfies us with spiritual blessings. He would set me free from earthly cares to fill my soul with heavenly joys. He not only brings His sheep to pastures of tender grass, but there He makes them lie down. No hungry sheep will lie down in green pastures; the hungry sheep will feed in the pastures of tender grass, but the satisfied sheep will lie down and rest. So our Shepherd not only provides us with spiritual nourishment, but He fills our souls with satisfaction and rest.

J. T. M. Then He leads us beside still waters. The words are better rendered "waters of quietness," signifying peace, no matter what the circumstances.

W. B. D. It is what another has termed "a scene of satisfied desire."

A. F. P. Not only does the Shepherd satisfy hunger, but thirst also, by these still waters, as He himself said, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst."

J. T. M. You may have to go through scenes of trouble; the storm may rage about you, and you may have your share of trouble. But the quietest life in regard to these things is not always the most fruitful; that is, those who have the least trouble in this world do not always yield the most glory to God.

Q. But what about the waters of quietness? How can we talk about waters of quietness if a storm is raging about us?

J. T. M. We have a lovely illustration of it in the case of the sudden storm on the Galilean Sea, when

"All but One were sore afraid

Of sinking in the deep

His head was on a pillow laid,

And He was fast asleep."

But why did not the disciples lie down beside Him? They would have been just as safe as they were when the great calm, at His bidding, stretched itself upon the waters. It does not matter what our circumstances are. If we can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd," we can have quietness and peace like that.

P. V. W. Everlasting goodness takes us by the hand and leads us beside the still waters. These waters were not always quiet, they were not so in the former psalm, but now He has stilled them for His own beloved sheep. When the waters came in unto His soul at the cross (Psalm 69: 1) they were a mighty flood. But these waterfloods are passed; Christ has stilled them; He has made them "still waters" for us.

H. S. Our Shepherd ministers refreshment to our souls. He leads us not by running streams that dry up, but the deep still waters of the well. We sometimes sing:

Is the wilderness before thee,

Desert lands where drought abides?

Heavenly springs shall there restore thee

Fresh from God's exhaustless tides.

Like Israel, who forsook "the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water," we too often seek satisfaction in earthly things, only to find that all earthly springs run dry. If only we could trust the Lord, not only to save our souls, but to satisfy our hearts, He would lead us into the green pastures that never wither, and beside the still waters that never run dry.

"He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

P. V. W. This is not a once accomplished work, never to be repeated, but a present ministry of our Lord toward us. It is the expression of His care and thoughtful provision for every step of our journey through the world. "He restoreth" and "He leadeth."

W. V. B. The Shepherd takes the direction of the sheep entirely under His own supervision, conducts it the whole length of the pathway; nothing can harm it, for He is there. It is "He" and "me" all the way through. How touching are these expressions: "He maketh me," "He leadeth me."

Q. What is the thought of restoration in verse 3?

J. T. M. When it says "He restoreth my soul" it means, He invigorates my soul. He gives me spiritual tonics. They are not tonics that brighten you up for a few hours and then leave you more depressed than you were before. When the Lord invigorates us He makes us strong for that which is before us.

A. F. P. The sustainment is constant, giving strength to walk in the paths of righteousness.

Q. There is also the thought of restoration from wanderings, is there not?

W. B. D. If wearied, He lifts us up; if downcast, He encourages us; if wandering, He brings us back.

H. S. Alas! we often turn aside. And after a season of deepest spiritual blessing we are in the greatest danger. In Matthew 26 we find priests and scribes plotting to kill Jesus. But in the upper room all is quietness and peace. The Lord has been leading His poor weak and weary sheep into green pastures and beside still waters, and they close that time of sweet fellowship by singing a hymn. But the Lord warns them that that same night all would be offended because of Him, and every one would be scattered. Singing a hymn in His company one hour; offended and scattered the next. But if they wander, He restores. He restored Peter. How often we are like Him, and like Naomi who said, "I went out," but had to add, "The Lord hath brought me home again."

W. B. D. He who in verse 2 leads us beside still waters, in verse 3 leads us in paths of righteousness. Having led us in, He leads us out, that, satisfied with His provision, refreshed with His blessing, encouraged of Himself, we may walk here to His praise and glory.

Q. What is meant by paths of righteousness?

J. T. M. It was once true that all we like sheep turned every one to his own way. Then our straying feet trod the paths of unrighteousness. But now we have heard the Shepherd's voice, and as we follow Him obediently and adoringly we are walking in the paths of righteousness, for we are taking His way, not our own.

REMARK. He leads us beside the still waters for our sake, that we may be refreshed. But He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake, that He may be glorified.

H. S. He leads us so to walk as to glorify His Name. That Name stands for all that is holy. He leads in paths that accord with His Name.

J. T. M. He does it; but He does not drive or drag, He leads. I watched a lady teaching her little boy of fifteen months to walk. She did not make him take long strides nor make him go fast. She shortened her steps to his, and went the pace that he could manage, and she knew it exactly. As I watched her, this verse came to my mind. That is how the Lord leads us. We may trust Him altogether, all the time, and for everything, and He will lead us in right paths for His Name's sake.

COMPANY IN THE VALLEY.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

Psalm 23: 4.

W. B. D. This verse is full of cheer and inspiration. If it is a "valley," it means that there is something, or some place, above and beyond. If we "walk through," it indicates that we shal1 certainly emerge. And if there is a "shadow," it shows that the light of the scene beyond the valley is illuminating the darkness, cheering and beckoning us onward and forward.

Q. What is meant by the valley of the shadow of death?

A. F. P. It refers, I judge, to this world, where death abounds.

A. J. P. We can understand how, when David was being hunted from one place to another, that his experiences, never knowing when the bolt of death would reach him, would lead to such an expression. The valley of the shadow of death refers to the whole of our life down here. But the believer of this Christian dispensation can say in triumph, "Death is ours."

J. T. M. This world is just the sepulchre of Jesus, and the more faithful we are to the Lord, the more the world will be to us the valley of the shadow of death. The shadow of His death lies on the fairest prospects that present themselves to us here.

REMARK. In another sense, the valley of the shadow of death is the path we have to tread when death is actually in view, and perhaps even the path through death itself.

H. S. Speaking of it thus, the paths of righteousness may lead into the valley of the shadow of death. It was so with the martyrs. They suffered death rather than sin. But there is no need to fear.

Q. What is the particular "evil" referred to in this verse?

A. J. P. "I will fear no evil" simply means, "I will not fear evil." Evil, or harm, of any kind.

H. S. Four reasons are given in this verse why we need not be afraid.

(1) We are only "WALKING THROUGH" the valley. We do not fear when we enter a tunnel because we believe we are going through it, and that soon we shall reach the bright sunshine on the other side of it.

(2) It is only the valley of death's "SHADOW." When the Good Shepherd took His lonely way down into the dark valley it was to encounter the "substance" of death in all its terror, as the wages of sin. If the believer is called to go through the valley, it is but the "shadow" that he has to meet.

P. V. W. A shadow may frighten, but it cannot harm.

H. S. Sheep are poor timid things and easily frightened, even by shadows. We come now to another thing to silence our fears.

(3) If we pass the way of the valley we have COMPANY, and such company-the One who has already been through death's raging flood journeys with us. Well may we say, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

Q. Do we not find a striking illustration of this in the case of the three Hebrew youths in Babylon?

H. S. Yes: the path of righteousness led Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego into the valley of death, but the flames that encompassed them only unloosed their bonds and put them in company with the Son of God, according to the word that says: "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned" (Isaiah 43: 2).

Q. What is the fourth reason given why we need fear no evil?

H. S. (4) Because of the Shepherd's rod and staff. The Psalmist says: "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

J. T. M. When the Psalmist comes to the valley of the shadow of death, he changes the pronoun. Up to this point he has been speaking about the Lord; now he speaks to Him, showing how near the Shepherd is to the sheep. He says "Thou."

Q. What is the difference between the rod and the staff?

W. B. D. The rod may speak of power (compare Ex. 7: 10-12; Ex. 17: 5, etc.), or, as is generally supposed, of correction, while the staff is for support. But whether His power, His correction, or His support, all are for our "comfort" in difficult circumstances.

A. F. P. I have thought that the rod with its crook would be used by the Shepherd to help the sheep out of a ditch back into the path, or to restrain it from straying into danger. The Shepherd would use the staff to drive off savage beasts. In Palestine they were in the habit of carrying a club for this purpose. In other words, what comforts the one who has to pass through the valley is the Shepherd's power to direct and to protect.

P. V. W. All that the rod in the hand of Moses meant to the people of Israel (see Ex. 14: 16; Ex. 17: 5) Christ Jesus is to us now, He who opened the sea for our deliverance from a worse bondage than Israel's. The staff occupies a large place in Scripture, and is a symbol of support and strength. For us, Christ is the reality of what the staff implies, to sustain the Christian through this life. Every other staff, every other confidence fails. Christ is the true Priest-not encompassed with infirmities as Aaron-Who can carry His people through the whole journey to the end. He is God's wisdom and resource for us, in all circumstances and in all things.

THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH.

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."

Psalm 23: 5.

Q. How does the Lord prepare a table for us?

A. J. P. The allusion is to the work of the Shepherd in finding out suitable pasture, and taking care that the sheep are secure from attack by serpents and wild beasts, the natural enemies of the flock. Surely it refers to the ministry of the Lord to His people, giving them the sense of His love and care so that it should be as a feast to their souls, and that in a hostile world like this.

P. V. W. The table is the place where the children sit down in their Father's presence and company to enjoy His prepared bounties.

W. B. D. There is not only the Shepherd's abundant provision for His own, but His VINDICATION of them. Surrounded by enemies who watch in order to see what it costs to be a Christian, and by reproaching us (if we give them cause) to malign our precious Lord, He anoints our head with oil, causing us ever to rejoice; and He makes our cup of blessing always to overflow.

A. F. P. The table prepared in the presence of enemies seems to indicate that He has made communion possible in spite of all the powers of evil. His being superior to all enemies is, I think, emphasized rather than the thought of the table.

H. S. Many of the sheep may never have to take the way of the valley, but even so, they will have enemies to face, and in the presence of the enemy the Lord can uphold His people. We have a Shepherd who can provide for, and sustain, His sheep in spite of all that man can do.

Q. What thought is conveyed to the mind by the anointing of the head with oil?

A. F. P. It suggests friendship, for did not Christ complain that Simon did not show this mark of friendship to him? (Luke 7: 46). The oil may well remind us that only the Spirit of God can make such friendship a possibility. The result is that the soul is more than satisfied, and there is the overflow.

W. B. D. For a practical illustration of this in real life, read Philippians 4. Then let us each look in the mirror and ask if there we see a present-day sample of it.

J. T. M. The Lord, spreading a table for us, makes us to feast. Then comes "the oil of gladness" that makes the face shine, joy. Then you have the overflowing cup.

A. F. P. The cup, I judge, simply indicates the soul's capacity, but surely the fullness to Over-flowing is the thought brought before us rather than the cup itself. The blessing is more than the soul can contain and runs over in worship to God, and in telling of His grace out of a full heart to those around.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (v. 6).

H. S. With such a Shepherd, what other conclusion can we reach? The Lord goes before, the sheep follow after, and goodness and mercy bring up the rear. How blessed that goodness and mercy should follow behind, just where they are wanted, for there are weak, and sick, and lame sheep, which lag behind and follow afar off. Goodness and mercy will pick them up. If we cannot count upon the tender mercies of one another, this at least we know, the goodness and mercy of the Lord will follow us all the days of our life.

A. F. P. This last verse is the language of a heart fully persuaded of the never-failing supply of God's goodness and mercy every step of earth's journey, and of glory in the life to come.

Q. What is meant by "the house of the Lord"?

P. V. W. No doubt the Psalmist was thinking of an earthly kingdom and city, with God's dwelling-place and throne in the midst thereof out of which should proceed law and authority, and light and blessing for all the earth. But the hope of the Christian is above even this glory and blessedness.

REMARK. For the Christian, "the house of the Lord" is the Father's house.

J. T. M. The Psalm that begins with "The Lord is my Shepherd" would not be complete if it did not close with "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." The one is the consequence of the other; they go together; they are twin statements.

W. B. D. Faith always looks forward, and we have THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH over difficulties without and failure within, as the believer exclaims, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." HALLELUJAH!

W. V. B. What a Companion is Jesus! Food for my heart; Refreshment for my spirit; Restorer of my soul when I have wandered in a by-path; with me through the valley of the shadow of death; filling my cup to overflowing; His goodness and mercy following me every day, and I am going to dwell throughout all eternity with Him. HALLELUJAH!

H. S. This is the glorious end of a great beginning. For what can be greater, in this poor world, than to go through it with the Lord Himself for your Shepherd? And if He is indeed my Shepherd, it must follow that not only will He lead me through this wilderness, but will bring me at last into the glory where He Himself has gone.

Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment

Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment.

G. Cutting.

"WHICH CLASS ARE YOU TRAVELLING?"

What an oft-repeated question! Let me put it to you my reader; for travelling you most certainly are travelling from Time into Eternity, and who knows how very, very near you may be this moment to the GREAT TERMINUS?

"Which class are you travelling?" There are but three. Let me describe them that you may put yourself to the test as in the presence of "Him with whom you have to do."

1st Class — Those who are saved, and who know it.

2nd Class — Those who are not sure of salvation, but anxious to be so.

3rd Class — Those who are not only unsaved, but totally indifferent about it.

Again I repeat my question — "Which class are you travelling?" Oh, the madness of indifference, when eternal issues are at stake! A short time ago, a man came rushing into the railway station at Leicester, and while scarcely able to gasp for breath he took his seat in one of the carriages just on the point of starting.

"You've run it fine," said a fellow passenger. "Yes," replied he, breathing heavily after every two or three words, "but I've saved four hours, and that's well worth running for."

"Saved four hours!" I couldn't help repeating to myself — "four hours well worth that earnest struggle! What of eternity? What of eternity?" Yet are there not thousands of shrewd, far-seeing men today, who look sharply enough after their own interests in this life, but who are stone blind to the eternity before them? In spite of the infinite love of God to helpless rebels, told out at Calvary, spite of His pronounced hatred of sin, spite of the known brevity of man's history here, spite of the terrors of judgment after death, and of the solemn probability of waking up at last with the unbearable remorse of being on hell's side of a "fixed" gulf, man hurries on to the bitter, bitter end, as careless as if there were no God, no death, no judgment, no heaven, no hell. If the reader of these pages be such an one, may God this very moment have mercy upon you and while you read these lines open your eyes to your most perilous position, standing as you maybe on a slippery brink of an endless woe.

Oh friend, believe it or not, your case is truly desperate. Put off the thought of eternity no longer. Remember that procrastination is like him who deceives you by it — not only a "thief, but a murderer." There is much truth in the Spanish proverb, which says, "the road of 'By-and-by' leads to the town of 'Never'. " I beseech you unknown reader, travel that road no longer. "Now is the day of salvation."

But, says one, I am not indifferent as to the welfare of my soul. My deep trouble lies wrapped up in another word:

UNCERTAINTY

i.e. I am among the second-class passengers you speak of.

Well, reader, both indifference and uncertainty are the offspring of one parent — unbelief. The first results from unbelief as to the sin and ruin of man, the other from unbelief as to God's sovereign remedy for man. It is especially for souls desiring before God to be fully and unmistakably SURE of their salvation that these pages are written. I can in a great measure understand your deep soul trouble, and am assured that the more you are in earnest about this all-important matter, the greater will be your thirst, until you know for certain that you are really and eternally saved. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul."

The only son of a devoted father is at sea. News comes that his ship has been wrecked on some foreign shore. Who can tell the anguish of suspense in that father's heart until, upon the most reliable authority, he is assured that his boy is safe and sound. Or, again, you are far from home, the night is dark and wintry, and your way is totally unknown. Standing at a point where two roads diverge, you ask a passer-by the way to the town you desire to reach, and he tells you he thinks such and such a way is the right one, and hopes you will be all right if you take it. Would "thinks" and "hopes" and "maybes" satisfy you? Surely not. You must have certainty about it, or every step you take will increase your anxiety. What wonder, then, that men have sometimes been unable either to eat or sleep when the eternal safety of the soul has been trembling in the balance!

To lose your wealth is much,

To lose your health is more,

To lose your soul is such a loss

As no man can restore.

Now, dear reader, there are three things I desire by the Holy Spirit's help, to make clear to you; and to put them in scriptural language, they are these:-

1. "The way of salvation.," (Acts 16:17).

2. "The knowledge of salvation." (Luke 1:77).

3. "The joy of salvation." (Psalm 51:12).

We shall I think, see that though intimately connected, they each stand upon a separate basis; so that it is quite possible for a soul to know the way of salvation without having the certain knowledge that he himself is saved, or again, to know that he is saved, without possessing at all time the joy that ought to accompany that knowledge.

First, then, let me speak briefly of

THE WAY OF SALVATION

Please open your Bible and read carefully the thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Exodus; there you find these words from the lips of Jehovah — Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt NOT redeem it, THEN THOU SHALT BREAK HIS NECK: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem."

Now, come back with me, in thought to a supposed scene of more than three thousand years ago. Two men (a priest of God and a poor Israelite) stand in earnest conversation. Let us stand by, with their permission, to listen. The gestures of each indicate deep earnestness about some matter of importance, and it isn't difficult to see that the subject of conversation is a little ass that stands trembling beside them.

"I am wondering," says the poor Israelite, "if there cannot be a merciful exception made in my favour this once. This feeble little thing is the firstling of my ass, and though I know full well what the law of God says about it, I am hoping that mercy will be shown, and the ass's life spared. I am but a poor man in Israel, and can ill afford to lose the little colt."

"But," answers the priest, firmly, "the law of the Lord is plain and unmistakable — 'Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck.' Where is the lamb?"

"Ah, sir, no lamb do I possess."

"Then purchase one and return, or the ass's neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die or the ass must die."

"Alas? then all my hopes are crushed," he cries, "for I am far too poor to buy a lamb."

While this conversation proceeds, a third person joins them, and after hearing the poor man's tale of sorrow, he turns to him and says kindly, "Be of good cheer, I can meet your need;" and thus he proceeds: "We have in our house on the hilltop yonder, one little lamb brought up at our very fireside, who is 'without spot or blemish.' It has never once strayed from home, and stands (and rightly so) in highest favour with all that are in the house. This lamb will I fetch." And away he hastens up the hill. Presently you see him gently leading the fair little creature down the slope, and very soon both lamb and ass are standing side by side.

Then the lamb is bound to the altar, its blood is shed, and the fire consumes it.

The righteous priest now turns to the poor man, and says: "You can freely take home your little colt in safety — no broken neck for it now. The lamb has died in the ass's stead and consequently the ass goes righteously free, thanks to your friend."

Now poor troubled soul, can't you see in this God's own picture of a sinner's salvation? His claims as to sin demanded a "broken neck" i.e. righteous judgment upon your guilty head, the only alternative being the heath of a divinely approved substitute.

Now, you could not find the provision to meet your case; but, in the person of His beloved Son, God Himself provided the Lamb. "Behold the Lamb of God", which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29).

Onward to Calvary He went, "as a lamb led to the slaughter," and there and then "He once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (I Peter 3:18). "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4:25). So that God does not abate one jot of His righteous, holy claims against sin when He justifies (i.e. clears from all charge of guilt) the ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus. (Romans 3.26). Blessed be God for such a Saviour, such a salvation)

Dost Thou Believe On the Son of God?

Well, you reply, I have, as a poor condemned sinner, found in HIM one that I can safely trust. I DO believe on Him. Then I tell you, the full value of His sacrifice and death, as God estimates it, He makes as good to you as though you had accomplished it all yourself.

Oh, what a wondrous way of salvation is this) Is it not great and grand and Godlike — worthy of God Himself? The gratification of His own heart of love, the glory of His precious Son, and the salvation of a sinner, all bound up together. What a bundle of grace and glory) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has so ordered it that His own beloved Son should do all the work and get all the praise, and that you and I, poor guilty things, believing on Him should not only get all the blessings, but enjoy the blissful company of the Blesser for ever and ever. "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." (Ps. 34: 3).

But perhaps your eager inquiry may be, "How is it that since I do really distrust self and self-work, I have not the full certainty of my salvation?" You say, "If my feelings warrant me saying that I am saved one day, they are pretty sure to blight every hope the next, and I am left like a ship storm-tossed, without any anchorage whatever."

Ah, there lies your mistake. Did you ever hear of a captain trying to find anchorage by fastening his anchor inside the ship? Never. Always outside.

It may be that you are quite clear that it is Christ's death alone that gives SAFETY, but you think that it is what you feel, that gives CERTAINTY.

Now, again take your Bible, for I wish to say a little about how a man gets

THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION

Before you turn to the verse which I shall ask you very carefully to look at, which speaks of how a believer is to KNOW that he has eternal life, let me quote it in the distorted way that man's imagination often puts it. "Those happy feelings have I given unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Now, open your Bible, and while you compare this with God's blessed and unchanging Word, may He give you from your very heart to say with David, "I hate vain thoughts; but Thy law do I love." (Psa. 119:113). The verse just misquoted is the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter of the first epistle of John, and reads thus in our version:- "These things have I WRITTEN unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that we may KNOW that YE HAVE eternal life."

How did the first-born sons of the thousands of Israel know for certain that they were safe the night of the Passover and Egypt's judgment?

Let us take a visit to two of their houses and hear what they have to say.

We find in the first house we enter that they are all shivering with fear and suspense. What is the secret of all this paleness and trembling? we inquire; and the first-born son informs us that the angel of death is coming round the land, and that he is not quite certain how matters will stand with him at that solemn moment.

"When the destroying angel has passed our house," he says, "and the night of judgment is over, I shall then know that I am safe, but I can't see how I can be quite sure of it until then. They say they are sure of salvation next door, but we think it very presumptuous. All I can do is to spend the long dreary night hoping for the best."

"Well," we inquire, "but has the God of Israel not provided a way of safety for His people?"

"True," he replies, "and we have availed ourselves of that way of escape. The blood of the spotless and unblemished first-year lamb has been duly sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop on the lintel and two side-posts, but still we are not fully assured of shelter." Let us now leave these doubting, troubled ones, and enter next door.

What a striking contrast meets our eye at once! Joy beams on every countenance. There they stand with girded loins and staff in hand, enjoying the roasted lamb.

What can be the meaning of all this joy on such a solemn night as this? "Ah," say they all, "we are only waiting for Jehovah's marching orders and then we shall bid a last farewell to the task-master's cruel lash and all the drudgery of Egypt."

"But hold. Do not forget that this is the night of Egypt's judgment?"

"Right well we know it; but our first-born son is safe. The blood has been sprinkled according to the wish of our God."

"But so it has been next door," we reply, "but they are all unhappy because all uncertain of safety."

"Ah, " responds the first-born firmly, "but we have

MORE THAN THE SPRINKLED BLOOD, WE HAVE THE UNERRING WORD OF GOD ABOUT IT.

God has said,

'WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD

I will pass over you.' God rests satisfied with the blood outside, and we rest satisfied with His word inside."

The sprinkled blood makes us SAFE.

The spoken word makes us SURE.

Could anything make us more safe than the sprinkled blood, or more sure than His spoken word? Nothing, nothing.

Now, reader, let me ask you a question. "Which of those two houses was the safer?"

Do you say No. 2, where all were so happy? Then you are wrong. Both are safe alike.

Their safety depends upon what God thinks about the blood outside and not upon the state of their feelings inside.

If you would be sure of your own blessing, then, dear reader, listen not to the unstable testimony of inward emotions, but to the infallible witness of the Word of God.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me HATH everlasting life."

Let me give you a simple illustration from everyday life. A certain farmer in the country, not having sufficient grass for his cattle, applies for a nice piece of pasture-land which he hears is to be let near his own house. For some time he gets no answer from the landlord. One day a neighbour comes in and says, "I feel quite sure you will get that field. Don't you recollect how that last Christmas he sent you a special present of game, and that he gave you a kind nod of recognition the other day when he drove past?" And with such words the farmer's mind is filled with high hopes.

Next day another neighbour meets him, and in the course of conversation, he says, "I'm afraid you will stand no chance whatever of getting that grass-field. Mr. has applied for it, and you cannot but be aware what a favourite he is with Squire — occasionally he visits with him, etc., etc." And the poor farmer's bright hopes are dashed to the ground and burst like soap bubbles. One day he is hoping, the next day full of perplexing doubts.

Presently the postman calls, and the farmer's heart beats fast as he opens the letter; for he sees by the handwriting that it is from the Squire himself. See his countenance change from anxious suspense to undisguised joy as he reads and re-reads that letter.

"It's a settled thing now,"

exclaims

he to his wife; "no more doubts and fears about it. The Squire says the field is mine as long as I require it, on the most easy terms. I care for no man's opinion now.

His word settles it."

Now many a poor soul is in a like condition to the poor troubled farmer — tossed and perplexed by the opinions of men, or the thoughts and feelings of his own treacherous heart! and it is only upon receiving the Word of God as the Word of God, that certainty takes the place of doubts. When God speaks there must be certainty, whether He pronounces the damnation of the unbeliever, or the salvation of the believer.

"Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119: 89): and to the simple hearted believer HIS WORD SETTLES ALL.

"Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? (Num. 23:19).

"I need no other argument,

I want no other plea.

It is enough that Jesus died -

And that He died for me."

The believer can add -

"And that God says so."

"But how may I be sure that I have the right kind of faith?"

Well, there can be but one answer to that question, i.e.: Have you confidence in the right person? — i.e. in the blessed Son of God? It is not a question of the amount of your faith but the trustworthiness of the person you repose your confidence in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man's grip; another but touches the hem of His garment; but the sinner who does the former is not a bit safer than the one who does the latter. They have both made the same discovery, viz.: that while all of self is totally untrustworthy, they may safely confide in Christ, calmly rely on His word, and confidently rest in the eternal efficacy of His finished work. That is what is meant by believing on HIM. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me HATH everlasting life." (John 6: 47).

Make sure of it then, my reader, that your confidence is not reposed in your works of amendment, your religious observances, your pious feeling when under religious influences, your moral training from childhood, and the like. You may have the strongest faith in any or all of these and perish everlastingly. Don't deceive yourself by any "fair show in the flesh." The feeblest faith in Christ eternally saves, while the strongest faith in anything else is but the offspring of a deceived heart -- but the leafy twigs of your enemy's arranging over the pit of eternal perdition.

God, in the gospel, simply introduces to you the Lord Jesus Christ, and says, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." "You may," He says, "with all confidence trust His heart though you cannot with impunity trust your own."

"Blessed, thrice blessed Lord Jesus, who would not trust Thee and praise Thy name!"

"I do really believe on Him," said a sad looking soul to me one day, "But yet, when asked if I am saved, I don't like to say Yes, for fear I should be telling a lie." This young woman was a butcher's daughter in a small town in the midlands. It happened to be market day, and her father had not returned from market. So I said: "Now suppose when your father comes home you ask him how many sheep he bought today, and he answers, 'Ten.' After a while a man comes to the shop and says, 'How many sheep did your father buy today?' and you reply, 'I don't like to say, for fear I should be telling a lie.'" "But," said the mother (who was standing by at the time, with righteous indignation, "that would be making her father a liar."

Now, dear reader, don't you see that this well-meaning young woman was virtually making Christ a liar, saying, "I do believe on the Son of God, but I don't like to say I am saved lest I should be telling a lie," when Christ Himself has said, "he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life"! (John 6:47). "But, says another, "How may I be sure that I really do believe? I have tried often to believe, and looked within to see if I had got it, but the more I look at my faith the less I seem to have."

Ah, my friend, you are looking in the wrong direction to find that out, and your trying to believe but plainly shows that you are on the wrong track. Let me give you another illustration to explain what I want to convey to you. You are sitting at your quiet fireside one evening, when a man comes in and tells you that the stationmaster has been killed that night at the railway. Now, it happens that this man has long borne the character in the place for being a very dishonest man, and the most daring and notorious liar in the neighbourhood.

"Do you believe, or even try to believe that man?"

"Of course not," you exclaim, "I know him too well for that."

"But tell me how you know that you don't believe him? Is it by looking within at your faith or feelings?"

"No," you reply, "I think of the man that brings me the message."

Presently, a neighbour drops in and says, "The stationmaster has been run over by a freight train tonight, and killed on the spot." After he has left I hear you cautiously say, "Well, I partly believe it now for, to my recollection this man only once in his life deceived me, though I have known him from boyhood."

But again, I ask, "is it by looking at your faith this time that you know that you partly believe it?"

"No," you repeat: "I am thinking of the character of my informant."

Well, this man has scarcely left your room before a third person enters and brings you the same sad news as the first. But this time you say, "Now, John, since you tell me, I believe it."

Again, I press my question (which is, remember, but the reecho of your own), "How do you KNOW that you so confidently believe your friend John?"

"Because of who and what JOHN is," you reply. "He never has deceived me, and I don't think he ever will."

Well, then, just in the same way I know that I believe the gospel, viz. because of the One who brings me the news. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His son . . . He that BELIEVETH  NOT GOD HATH MADE HIM A LIAR: because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son." (I John 5:9, 10). "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." (Rom. 4:3).

An anxious soul once said to a servant of Christ, "Oh sir, I can't believe!" to which the preacher wisely and quietly replied, "Indeed, WHO is it that you can't believe?" This broke the spell. He had been looking at faith as an indescribable something that he must feel within himself in order to be sure that he was all right for heaven; whereas faith ever looks outside to a living Person and His finished work, and quietly listens to the testimony of a faithful God about both.

It is the outside look that brings the inside peace. When a man turns his face towards the sun, his own shadow is behind him. You cannot look at self and a glorified Christ in Heaven at the same moment.

Thus we have seen that the blessed Person of God's Son wins my confidence; HIS FINISHED WORK makes me eternally safe; GOD'S WORD about those who believe on Him makes me unalterably sure: I find in Christ and His work the way of salvation, and in the Word of God the knowledge of salvation.

But if saved, my reader may say, "How is it that I have such a fluctuating experience — so often losing all my joy and comfort, and getting as wretched and downcast as I was before my conversion?" Well, this brings us to our third point, viz.

THE JOY OF SALVATION

You will find in the teaching of Scripture, that while you are saved by Christ's work and assured by God's word, you are maintained in comfort and joy by the Holy Spirit who indwells every saved one's body.

Now you must bear in mind that every saved one has still within him "the flesh," i.e. the evil nature he was born with as a natural man, and which perhaps shows itself while still a helpless infant on his mother's lap. The Holy Spirit in the believer resists the flesh, and is grieved by every activity of it in motive, word, or deed. When he is walking "worthy of the Lord," the Holy Spirit will be producing in his soul His blessed fruits — "love, joy, peace," etc. (See Gal. 5: 22). When he is walking in a carnal, worldly way, the Spirit is grieved, and these fruits are wanting in a greater or less measure.

Let me put it thus for you who do believe on God's Son:-

Christ's Work and Your Salvation

stand or fall together.

Your Walk and Your Enjoyment

stand or fall together.

If Christ's work could break down (and blessed be God it never, never will) your salvation would break down with it. When your walk breaks down (and be watchful, for it may) your enjoyment will break down with it.

Thus it is said of the early disciples (Acts 9:31), that they "walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost."

And again in Acts 13:52 — "The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost."

My spiritual joy will be in proportion to the spiritual character of my walk after I am saved.

Now, do you see your mistake? You have been mixing up enjoyment with your safety — two widely different things. When through self-indulgence, loss of temper, worldliness, etc. you grieved the Holy Spirit and lost your joy, you thought your safety was undermined. But again, I repeat it -

Your safety hangs upon Christ's work FOR you. Your assurance upon God's word TO you.

Your enjoyment, upon not grieving the Holy Spirit IN you.

When as a child of God you do anything to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, your communion with the Father and the Son is, for the time, practically suspended; and it is only when you judge yourself and confess your sins that the joy of communion is restored.

Your child has been guilty of some misdemeanor. He shows upon his countenance the evident mark that something is wrong with him. Half an hour before this he was enjoying a walk with you around the garden admiring what you admired, enjoying what you enjoyed; in other words, he was in communion with you, his feelings and sympathies were in common with yours.

But now all this is changed, and as a naughty, disobedient child, he stands in the corner, the very picture of misery.

Upon penitent confession of his wrong-doing you have assured him of forgiveness, but his pride and self-will keep him sobbing there.

Where is now the joy of half an hour ago? All gone. Why? Because communion between you and him has been interrupted.

What has become of the relationship that existed between you and your son half an hour ago? Has that gone too? Is that severed or interrupted? Surely not. His relationship depends upon his birth; his communion, upon his behaviour.

But presently he comes out of the corner with broken will and broken heart, confessing the whole thing from first to last, so that you see he hates the disobedience and naughtiness as much as you do, and you take him in your arms and cover him with kisses. His joy is restored because communion is restored.

When David sinned so grievously in the matter of Uriah's wife, he did not say, "Restore unto me Thy salvation," but "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation." (Psalm 51: 12).

But to carry our illustration a little farther.

Supposing while your child is in the corner, there should be a cry of "House on fire!" what would become of him then? Left in the corner to be consumed with the burning, falling house? Impossible.

Very probably he would be the very first person you would carry out. Ah, yes, you know right well that the love of relationship is one thing, and the joy of communion quite another.

Now, when the believer sins, communion is for the time interrupted, and joy is lost until with a broken heart he comes to the Father in self-judgment, confessing his sins. Then, also he knows he is forgiven, for His word plainly declares that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).

Oh, then, dear child of God, ever bear in mind these two things, that there is nothing so strong as the link of relationship; nothing so tender as the link of communion.

All the combined power and counsel of earth and hell cannot sever the former, while an impure motive or an idle word will break the latter.

If you are troubled with a cloudy half-hour, get low before God, consider your ways; and when the cause that has robbed you of your joy has been detected, bring it at once to the light, confess your sin to God your Father, and judge yourself most unsparingly for the unwatchful, careless state of soul that allowed the thief to enter unchallenged.

But never, never, NEVER, confound your safety with your joy.

Don't imagine, however, that the judgment of God falls a whit more leniently on the believer's sin than on the unbeliever's. He has not two ways of dealing judicially with sin, and He could no more pass by the believer's sin without judging it than He could pass by the sins of a rejecter of His precious Son. But there is this great difference between the two, viz. : that the believer's sins were all known to God, and all laid upon His own provided Lamb when He hung upon the Cross at Calvary and that there and then, once and forever, the great "criminal question" of his guilt was raised and settled — judgment falling upon the blessed Substitute in the believer's stead, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." (1 Peter 2: 24).

The Christ-rejecter must bear his own sins in his own person in the lake of fire forever. Now, when a saved one fails, the "criminal question" of sin cannot be raised against him, the Judge Himself having settled that once for all on the cross; but the communion question is raised within him by the Holy Spirit as often as he grieves the Spirit.

Allow me, in conclusion, to give you another illustration: It is a beautiful moonlight night. The moon is at full, and shining in more than ordinary silvery brightness. A man is gazing intently down a deep, still well, where he sees the moon reflected, and remarks to a friend standing by: "How beautifully fair and round she is tonight; how quietly and majestically she rides along!" He had dust finished speaking when suddenly his friend drops a small pebble into the well and he now exclaims: "Why the moon is all broken to shivers, and the fragments are shaking together in the greatest disorder."

"What gross absurdity!" is the astonished rejoinder of his companion, "Look up man! the moon hasn't changed one jot or tittle; it is the condition of the well that reflects her that has changed."

Now, believer, apply this simple figure. Your heart is the well. When there is no allowance of evil, the blessed Spirit of God takes of the glories and preciousness of Christ, and reveals them to you for your comfort and joy, but the moment a wrong motive is cherished in the heart, or an idle word escapes the lips unjudged, the Holy Spirit begins to disturb the well, your happy experiences are smashed to pieces, and you are all restless and disturbed within, until in brokenness of spirit before God, you confess your sin (the disturbing thing), and thus get restored once more to the calm sweet joy of communion.

But when your heart is all unrest need I ask, Has Christ's work changed? No, no! Then your salvation has not altered. Has God's Word changed? Surely not. Then the certainty of your salvation has received no shock.

Then, what has changed? Why, the action of the Holy Spirit in you has changed, and instead of taking the glories of Christ and filling your heart with the sense of His worthiness, He is grieved at having to turn aside from this delightful office to fill you with the sense of your sin and unworthiness.

He takes from you your present comfort and joy until you judge and resist the evil thing that He judges and resists. When this is done, communion with God has again been restored.

The Lord make us to be increasingly jealous over ourselves, lest we "grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30).

Dear reader, however weak your faith maybe, rest assured of this, that the blessed One who has won your confidence will never change.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and FOREVER" (Heb. 13: 8).

The work He has accomplished will never change. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be FOREVER: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it" (Eccles. 3: 14). The word He hath spoken will never change.

Thus the object of my trust, the foundation of my safety, the ground of my certainty, are alike ETERNALLY UNALTERABLE.

Once more let me ask, WHICH CLASS ARE YOU TRAVELLING? Turn your heart to God, I pray you, and answer that question to Him.

"Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 3: 4).

George Cutting

The Holy Scriptures and Creation

The Holy Scriptures and Creation.

L. Gaussen.

(Extracted from Scripture Truth Vol 3, 1911, page 243-4.)

There is no physical error in the Word of God.... Examine all the false theologies of the ancients and moderns; read in Homer, or in Hesiod, the religious codes of the Greeks; study those of the Buddhists, those of the Brahmans, those of the Mohammedans; you will not only find in them repulsive systems on the subject of the Godhead, but you will meet with the grossest errors in the material world. You will be revolted with their theology, no doubt; but their natural philosophy and their astronomy also, ever allied to their religion, will be found to rest on the most absurd notions. Read, further, the philosophers of Greek and Roman antiquity - Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny, Plutarch, Cicero. How many expressions of opinion will you not find there, any single one of which would be enough to compromise all our doctrines of inspiration if it could be met with in any book of Holy Scripture. Read Mohammed's Koran, making mountains to be created "to prevent the earth from moving, and to hold it fast as if with anchors and cables." Read even the cosmogony of Buffon, or some of Voltaire's sneers on the doctrine of a deluge, or on the fossils of a primitive world. What might we not have been entitled to say of the Scriptures had they expressed themselves on the phenomena of nature as these have been spoken of by all the ancient sages? Had they referred all to four elements, as people did for so long a period? Had they said the stars were of crystal, as did Philolaus of Crotona? And had they, like Empedocles, lighted up the two hemispheres of our world with two suns? Had they taught, like Leucippus, that the fixed stars, set ablaze by the swiftness of their diurnal movement round the earth, feed the sun with their fires? Had they thought, like Philolaus, that the sun has only a borrowed light, and is only a mirror, which receives and sends down to us the light of the celestial spheres? Had they, like Anaxagoras, conceived it to be a mass of iron, and the earth to be a mountain whose roots stretch infinitely downward? Had they imagined the heaven to be a solid sphere to which the fixed stars are attached, as was done by Aristotle and almost all the ancients?

Open now the Bible. Study its fifty sacred authors, from that wonderful Moses, who held the pen in the wilderness four hundred years before the war of Troy, down to the fisherman son of Zebedee, who wrote fifteen hundred years afterwards in Ephesus and in Patmos. Open the Bible and try if you can to find anything of this sort.

No! None of those blunders which the science of every successive age discovers in the books of those that preceded it. None of those absurdities, above all, which modern astronomy points out, in such numbers, in the writing of the ancients, in their sacred codes, in their systems of philosophy, and in the finest pages even of the Fathers of the church. No such errors can be found in any of our sacred books. Nothing there will ever contradict what, after so many ages, the investigations of the learned world have been able to reveal to us of what is certain in regard to the state of our globe or of that of the heavens.

Carefully peruse our Scriptures from one end to the other in search of such blemishes there; and, while engaged in this research, remember that it is a book which speaks of everything, which describes nature, which proclaims its grandeur, which tells the story of its creation, which informs us of the structure of the heavens, of the creation of light, of the waters, of the atmosphere, of the mountains, of animals and of plants. It is a book that tells us of the first revolutions of the world, and foretells us also of the last; a book that relates them in circumstantial narrative, exalts them in sublime poesy and chants them in strains of fervent psalmody. It is a book replete with the glow of oriental rapture, elevation, variety, and boldness. It is a book which speaks of the earth and things visible, at the same time that it speaks of the celestial world and of things invisible. It is a book to which nearly fifty writers of every degree of mental cultivation, of every rank, of every condition, and separated by fifteen hundred years from each other, have successively put their hands. . . . Well, then, search through these fifty authors, search through these sixty-six books, search through these 1189 chapters and these 31,173 verses. Search for one single of these thousands of errors with which ancient and modern books abound when they speak either of the heavens or of the earth, or of their revolutions, or of their elements; search, but you will search in vain.

(L. Gaussen.)

[The above extract from a volume entitled "Theopneustia. The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures." By L. Gaussen may well lead every reader to purchase the book for himself. He will find in it rare treasure in a day when the inspiration of every scripture is so flippantly denied. (J. Wilson Smith.)]

The Cross

The Cross

Matthew 27: 33-36; John 19: 25-30, 38-42.

A. Dockerty.

An Unedited Gospel Address.

I want to read tonight, first of all, in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, verse thirty-three. "And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched Him there."

Nineteenth chapter of John's Gospel, verse twenty-five. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."

Verse thirty-eight: "And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave Him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand."

I want to take you with me tonight, and we want to stand by the Cross of Jesus — the familiar story, perhaps, to everyone of us here tonight; but I am assured, not a familiar story to everyone in this country, as it is not in the country from which I come — England itself. There was a brother told us of an incident that happened at one of the high schools in the south of England. There was a new teacher arrived at this school and she was set over a class of girls fifteen to seventeen. She was a Christian woman; and when it came to the Scripture lesson, she began to tell them the story of the Cross. She arrived at the place where He was taken into Pilate's hall, and before she could get much further in her address to the girls in that high school, the bell rang. School was to be dismissed. There were four girls in that class that crowded around the teacher, and this was the question that they asked, "Did He get off?" Could you credit that? Did He get off? My friend, I'm going to assume here tonight that you know very little about the Cross, and I'm going to speak to you about it. I want your heart to be affected by the story of the Cross; and if you stand by it with me tonight, I trust that that stony heart of yours is going to be broken.

I realize here tonight, dear friends, that there's no appealing on my part that's going to affect anything. It's such a story as we have here tonight, the story of the Cross. If it doesn't affect your heart, if it doesn't break you down in true repentance to see that this Blessed One whose love has been so great toward you, if you don't see that that love demands your love and your obedience, there's no appealing on my part that will be any way successful.

They led Him out to this place of a skull, Golgotha, to crucify Him. There are two sides to this question, dear friend: He was delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, but men with wicked hands took and crucified the Lord of Glory. And here in the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew we have what they did to Him in great detail. We learn, perhaps, a different story, or a different aspect of the story when we come to John's Gospel.

The first thing that they want to do, as no doubt they did to other criminals who were to be put to death, they gave them this stupefying drink that would make them insensible to all that was going on. But my friend, Jesus refused that. Peter tells us that "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." A wonderful verse, that. Three wonderful things in that verse, you know. When men want to write to impress you and me, they write volume upon volume. But listen to what God puts into the space of this short verse: "Christ also hath once suffered for sins" — propitiation; "the Just for the unjust" — substitution; "that He might bring us to God" — reconciliation. And think of it, dear friend, the Word of God — it has a majesty, it has a dignity of its own that men needn't elaborate on it whatsoever. It's a word that comes from God Himself. And it's dynamited with mighty power to grip the heart and consciences. You know, that's the confidence of the preacher as he seeks to make known the story of the Cross to men and women. He's not depending upon his ability. What a poor thing it would be. But He's depending upon the mighty power of God, and the use of that precious Word, simple as though it may be spoken, to reach hearts and consciences. I trust it's going to reach yours tonight, dear friend.

He refused the stupefying drink. He was quite sensible to all that was going on, and they took Him there and they nailed Him to that accursed Tree. You know what the Word of God says? "Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree." I want to say, dear friend, because of your sins, you're in a cursed position; but there's One who has borne the curse by hanging upon Calvary's Tree,

They heaped upon Him every indignity He was stripped of everything, even of His clothes. One thing they couldn't take from Him, that was His body. And listen, friend, the Bible tells us He gave His body. And listen, friend, the Bible tells us He gave that, He gave it. He gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, in due season. And the reason of the testimony going forth, of Him giving Himself a ransom for all, it is dear friend, that you might receive it. The testimony comes to you for your obedience. It's looking for an answer in the hearts of men and women here this evening. That's what God is looking for.

But they heaped upon Him every indignity: mocked Him and scourged Him, spit in His blessed face. My friend, I say to you here tonight, Does this not touch your heart — to think of the Lord of Glory suffering such indignity, such hatred and enmity from the heart of man in all wickedness that was expressed there at the Cross of Calvary? Does it not touch your heart tonight? Oh, I want you with me to come near to the Cross tonight, to see it as you have never seen it before.

You know, there was a young fellow got converted in Northumberland. He wasn't very long in seeing his place, and he asked the saints, "What about me taking my place to remember the Lord?" Oh, they could see he was in dead earnest. They gave his name out that very Lord's Day, and the next Lord's Day he broke bread. He remembered the Lord, the One who died for Him upon the Cross of Calvary. He'd only been converted about three months. After the Breaking of Bread the others got up and they began to discuss how much they had sold their cows for at one of the farm sales. They were discussing anything and everything, but the Lord Himself. He was still sitting in his seat, with tears — tears rolling down his cheeks. You know what he said to them? He said, "Have you got used to this?" Have you got used to this? I make no further comment to that. It speaks for itself.

I say to you tonight, young friend, how many Gospel Meetings have you attended? How many times have you heard this story of the Cross of Jesus in His wonderful love, going there and dying for you and suffering all these indignities at the hands of men, as well as the judgment of a righteous and holy God, because of your sins? How many times have you heard it? Let me ask you, Have you got used to it? Have you got so used to listening to this story that it means nothing to you? Jeremiah the prophet, in his Lamentations says, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger."

Oh, friend, to rightly value the Cross of Jesus and His sacrifice in laying down that sinless, spotless, holy life, as a sacrifice for your sins. I say to you, is your heart not affected by it?

We read of these people, "And sitting down they watched him there." It seems as though they had come to the end of their tether. There wasn't another thing that they could think about that they could do; and in cold blood they sat down, and they watched Him there in His agony.

I just want to emphasise these two words: Him there. Why was He there? Pilate's wife wanted to give her husband a bit of good advice, as she thought. "Have thou nothing to do with this just person, for I have suffered many things in a dream because of Him." Advice that Pilate couldn't take, and advice that you can't take either, friend. You've got to do with Jesus just as much as Pilate had.

Pilate says, "I find no fault in Him." His wife said He was just a person. Those weren't the only witnesses, you know — witnesses that you and I would have never thought of bringing forward. Judas says, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." Pilate here says, "I find no fault in Him."

Him there? Why was he there, friend? He was there because you and I should have been there. He was there answering to the holy God in your place and in my place. He became, as the Proverb said, "He became surety for a stranger and He was made to smart." Listen, friend, this is no cheap salvation that we are preaching to you tonight. It's a salvation that cost God Himself, the very best, the very choicest of heaven's store for you, the rebel sinner.

Visiting one of the villages in the lake district over in England, and after having a Gospel Meeting in the open air, we went around the doors, giving out little gospel booklets; and I knocked at a door, and the lady's voice inside shouted, "Come in," and in I went. She said, "What is it?" "Oh," I said, "I've brought you a little gospel booklet to tell you the way to heaven." "Oh," she said, "you know, I've had a good bringing up." And she began to tell me of the good bringing up that she had. She said that from a girl, as far back as she could remember, she was taken to church three times each Sunday. She said that she had real good parents, they themselves were church members, and she had been brought up to attend church regularly

You know, dear friend, it's not a good bringing up that many people want, it's a good bringing down. I said to her, "Oh," I said, "yes, I've had a good bringing up too." And I quoted her from Psalms forty: "He brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God." I said, "That's the good bringing up that I've had." I had no good bringing up, friend. I was dragged up. Not speaking in any way disrespectfully of my parents. Brought up in a Christian home? Never cease to thank God for it. You know what I was used to? — a drunken fight, that started from Saturday night and went right over until about the Tuesday until everything was spent up, and our clothes were put into the pawn, and that money was spent as well. That's the bringing up I had. Thank God for the other bringing up. "He brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings And He hath put a new song in my mouth."

I tell you here tonight, dear friend, I appreciate the grace of God that picked me up, saved my precious soul, and gives me to stand before you here tonight. Have you been affected by the Cross of Calvary, by Jesus dying for you?

In the nineteenth chapter of John we have a company of them standing by the Cross. But before we go there, again let us remind ourselves of these two words — I didn't want to pass over them so easily — Him there. Listen, friend those are two words that you'll never forget if you go to hell for all eternity. Him there! Christ, hanging upon the Cross of Calvary for you a sinner, and you refused Him as your Saviour. Don't come away with any idea that God is a sort of a kind, old grandfather, that's going to say to you, you know, that after having set to one side the gospel message, and neglected this salvation, don't think that as an old, kind grandfather he is going to pat you on the back and say, "Well, of course, you weren't a good lad; you could have been better, but come on in," and He's going to take you to heaven.

My friend, there's no such representation of God in the Scripture of Truth. God is a righteous God, and if you want to know how that God is going to deal with you about your sins, God has demonstrated that at the Cross of Calvary. He didn't spare our first parents in the Garden of Eden for one sin; he turned them out. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. He cast down the angels that sinned, and they're reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the day of judgment. Listen, friend, He didn't spare His own Son when He took your place and mine. The very heavens above Him were as brass, and in anguish He sobbed out those words, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" He was forsaken, friend, that you might be accepted. The judgment was poured upon His blessed head that you might go free. Do you appreciate that? He's looking into your heart tonight. He's searching places that I cannot see. He's looking into your heart tonight, and He knows just exactly what your attitude is. Friend, I trust that it's affected, that it's melted with the story of the Cross of Jesus dying.

In the nineteenth chapter of John we have this little company at the Cross, and we have Jesus speaking down from the Cross to that company. You know, there's a verse in the epistle to the Hebrews that says this, "He endured the Cross, despising the shame," and it says it was for the joy that was set before Him. This was His concern for His loved ones, even there upon the Cross. I'm going to say to you here tonight, referring back again to Matthew twenty-seven, those very persons that were sitting down in cold blood, having done all that they could; — He was dying to save them, but He died to save you, dear friend, even in spite of your attitude here toward Him tonight.

He spoke to His mother, "Woman, behold thy son!" Oh there's a touch here of the love that pervades the Christian company. He said to John, "Son, behold thy mother!" John understood it. From that moment he took Mary into his own house. Christian love? I tell you, dear friend, there's nothing like it in the world. I've got some friends that I'm hoping to see, blood relation — very shortly after this conference, if the Lord wills. There are men and women in this audience tonight who are far more dear to me than even those blood relations. This is the Christian circle of love and fellowship that's being bound up in that one bundle of Life.

But listen, dear friend, in John's Gospel, I dare say you have noticed it as well as I have, the Lord, the Lord is not forsaken in John's Gospel. It's just like what we have in connection with Abraham and Isaac. The father and the son, they go together. And the moment has been reached dear friend, when this work — that was going to be so glorifying to God — it was nearing its completion. What a moment for this world, the nearing of the completion of the work that was not only going to save sinners like you and me, but the work that was going to clear sins out of the whole universe of God. And that's the work that I'm resting upon tonight for the forgiveness of my sins: that work which is going to clear the whole universe of sin. Jesus said, after having received the vinegar, "It is finished." Three words in the English language, but they tell me that in the Greek language it's just one word. And you know, it wasn't the cry of a man, whose life was ebbing out. Jesus didn't die like the two thieves, you know; Jesus dismissed His Spirit. We sometimes sing, "The storm that bowed Thy blessed head." The storm didn't bow His blessed head; He bowed His head in the storm. He was superior to it all. He was able to accomplish the work that He came to do. "Once in the end of the age hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." And there upon the Cross of Calvary, dear friend, He was able to say "it is finished" and completed. And in the seventeenth chapter of this very Gospel, speaking to the Father — you and I are privileged to hear — it's a privilege to hear each other praying, but what a privilege to listen to the Lord praying! He said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."

Friend, we present to you tonight, the Saviour who has completed the work that was necessary for your soul's salvation. You're not asked to add anything to what He has done; He's completed it to God's glory. Don't tell me, don't tell me that you expect something more than God expects! A little hymn says, "GOD is satisfied with Jesus, I am satisfied as well." Will it satisfy your heart tonight, dear friend? You know, I read those verses from the end of chapter nineteen to show you the reaction that it had upon two men, and I trust that it's going to have this effect in your heart tonight. Did you know that in that verse where we read at the end of the chapter it says, "And after these things" — after what things? — after what things? — After Jesus had been crucified; after they had witnessed all that had been done to Him; after they had listened to the seven cries that came from His blessed lips upon the Cross, beginning with "Father" and ending with "Father"; "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." And the last one, "Father into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." After these things, something takes place.

Here are two men, to me who were secret disciples — men who were not bold enough to come out and to confess the Saviour. After these things they come out, true witnesses of the Saviour. Joseph of Arimathaea, a rich man, a counsellor. Who are you friend? You've perhaps gone to a high school; you perhaps might have a good education. Here is a man who was in a high position — Joseph of Arimathaea a rich man, a counsellor. He couldn't vote openly when the whole world was against the Saviour, and he associated himself with the Christ of God who had died and he begs His body.

Oh, I trust, dear young friend, that after these things you've been hearing tonight, that perhaps your parents are not quite sure whether you're a Christian or not. You're going to make it known tonight, aren't you? You say, "What shall I say? What shall I do?" Listen, you perhaps know the verse, "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "The Word is nigh thee." You needn't move from the seat where you are. "Even in thy mouth and in thy heart." That's not very far away is it? Right where you're sitting now you can confess with your mouth. It's a good thing to confess Jesus. You know what He says? "He that shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before the holy angels." Would you like to be talked about in heaven, friend? If I thought they were talking about me in Buckingham Palace, where the Queen of our country lives, me chest measurement would be expanded — to think that they would be speaking about me in Buckingham Palace.

Listen, you've got the privilege here tonight of being spoken about in heaven — Christ confessing you after your having confessed Him here as your Lord and Saviour. What a privilege! But mark what He says — the confessing with your mouth and the believing with your heart. God says, "Thou shalt be saved." We can depend upon that, friend. You can depend upon God's Word, whatever He says to you. You can set your feeling to it, whatever God says, it is true.

We're coming to the end. I want to tell you a true incident: Way down in the centre of England there's a place called Worksop  -  it's in Nottinghamshire. Just outside Worksop, there's a little village called Whitwell. There was a young woman there — eighteen years old, brought up in a Christian home, and she knew the way of salvation, perhaps just as well as the preacher could tell it. She had gone away with some friends, like the prodigal did, you know, and not only the prodigal but his brother too. You remember his brother said to his father, "Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." He seemed to have friends that his father didn't know anything about. I wonder if you've got some friends that your father and mother don't know anything about? They are not going to do you much good. This young woman, she had some friends too, that her parents knew nothing at all about; but what they did know — they knew that the friends she had were keeping her away from the meeting. And she was invited over and over again to come to the Gospel Meeting, and they did get her along this Sunday evening. And the gospel preacher, he certainly reached her conscience and she was troubled about her sins.

Listen, friend, it's amazing how far some people can get. But listen, the Lord had to say with regard to one young man — do you remember him? — "Thou art not far from the kingdom," he was on the very threshold. Listen, friend, you're on the very threshold here tonight. And this young woman, she sat in that meeting, spellbound as she heard the story of the Cross and of the love of Jesus and she was really affected and the preacher saw it. He spoke to her after the meeting. He said, "Now, what about it? Are you going to decide for Christ tonight?" You know what she said? She said, "No, not tonight." She had made arrangements to go to a dance with this friend that she had taken up with. She went to bed on Sunday night: she couldn't sleep. She was troubled, mightily troubled about this preaching which she had been listening to earlier in the evening. She lay, tossing in her bed. Eventually she got up. There was a voice speaking in her ear, and speaking so loudly that tears were rolling down her face; she was in such distress, that she was roaming up and down her bedroom, not knowing what to do. She had a Bible in her hand, because what the voice was saying to her was this: "Ezekiel seven and eight! Ezekiel seven and eight! Ezekiel seven and eight!" And I'll read it to you. Before I read it, let me tell you what happened. Her mother, who was sleeping in the adjoining room, heard the commotion that was going on, and she came in. Seeing her daughter in such distress, she was very anxious about it, and seeing the Bible in her hand and hearing her exclaiming, "Ezekiel seven and eight, Ezekiel seven and eight." She couldn't find it for the blinding tears. Her mother took the Bible from her. She sat her daughter down in the chair and this is what she read: "Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations." And her mother turned to the chair where that young woman was sitting, and she was dead.

That's not something I've read in a book, friend. That's an incident that I heard of definitely at Whitwell in Nottinghamshire, just outside of Worksop. Friend, I say to you tonight, how long, how long is God going to suffer you? The number of times that He has spoken to you! Is this going to be the last voice that He's going to give you in this meeting tonight? Oh, I say to you — be wise, be wise, friend. I'm coming to a close with this meeting. I'm going to take it no further. I say to you right now, friend: Don't wait until we've sung the closing hymn. Bow your head, bow your heart before the blessed God and tell Him how thankful you are tonight for sending Jesus to die for you; and take your place along side the Cross and be able to say like the great apostle Paul, "Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Oh, may you, may you come to Him tonight.

Friend, you're being prayed for. These meetings have been held up to the Throne of God on your behalf. There's prayer ascending even at this very moment as we come to the close of our meeting. And I want to say to every Christian friend here tonight — don't let the devil in at the end of the Gospel Meeting. It's just then that He takes advantage, at the end of the meeting, to get us all conversing together and the whole thing confusing to anyone under deep exercise before God. Oh, let us not be ignorant of his devices, but let us prayerfully and quietly leave this auditorium, and leave it with the solemn thought that there might be someone like that young girl, that we just mentioned, here tonight, that may be saying NO to the Saviour; and going to her bed, and perhaps being found dead in the morning. I know, I know what people say — it could happen to anybody but you, eh? My friend, don't be just so sure. Make sure of this, make sure of this: that you get right with God before it's too late. Trust the Saviour and trust Him NOW, and make it known. Openly confess Him. Make it known to every one in the auditorium.

Friend, Christ was out in the open for you. He was crucified there in the midst of a mocking crowd. Are you afraid, are you afraid to confess Him as your Saviour in the company of Christians? My word, how easy He's made it for you! — hard for Him, easy for you. Don't miss the opportunity. Trust Him, trust Him NOW, and go on your way rejoicing — for His Name's sake.

Now we're going to sing together hymn number thirty-five — hymn number thirty-five. We're not going to sing all the hymn. We're going to sing two verses of it; and I want to, I want to give you the opportunity afterwards, dear friend, of making known to us that you're going to trust the Saviour tonight. Don't put it off, friend. Don't be out of this blessing. God wants you to have it, and it's here for you tonight. "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me, see on the portals He's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me." We're going to sing the first and the third verses. "Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing." The first and the third verses of hymn number thirty-five.

Listen, before we close in prayer: you know, I want to give you every opportunity that we can. If there's anybody here tonight that would like to openly confess Christ as their Saviour tonight for the first time, you do so! Is there one who would openly like to confess Christ as their Saviour for the first time tonight and own Him as their Lord and Saviour? Is there one? An opportunity that we thought we'd give you, friend. We want to do everything in our power to put you into the way of salvation. I commend you to God in prayer.

20 Gospel Tracts

Edinburgh Series.

Wm. C. Reid.

1, Redemption. 2, Forgiveness. 3, Reconciliation. 4, Deliverance.

5, Salvation. 6, Justification. 7, Peace. 8, Joy.

Distributors:

Galashiels — T. Oliver, 90 Channel Street.

Sydney — Tract Depot, 302 Pitt Street.

New York — Bible Truth Depot, 19 West 21st Street.

Redemption.

Redemption brings to light the power and glory of God, and presents to the believer in Christ the forgiveness of sins. The first chapter of Colossians sets forth a rich array of the glories of the Son of the Father's love, and these are introduced with "In Whom we have redemption — the forgiveness of sins." Before the glories of the Son, and the grace, power and glory of God can be known, the forgiveness of sins must first be enjoyed.

After crossing the Red Sea, where they had seen the display of God's power and glory, Israel sang, "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed." They had been redeemed from Egypt and from the thraldom of Pharaoh by the blood of the paschal lamb and by the mighty hand of God. Similarly those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are redeemed from their sinful estate by the precious blood of Jesus, and from the authority of Satan by the mighty power of God, Who translates them into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

Jewish believers were told in 1 Peter 1, that the precious blood of Christ had redeemed them from the vanities of a corrupted Judaism. In the same way, Gentile believers have been set free from all the corruption of the human religions in which the Gospel found them, that they might live for God's good pleasure in the obedience of Jesus Christ, having come under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Silver and gold could never secure this great redemption; but God has procured it at infinite cost to Himself.

Shortly before Jacob's death, in blessing Joseph and his sons he said, "The angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads." Redemption for Jacob evidently meant his deliverance from all the dangers and troubles of his tortuous path. Christians too can count upon the strong arm of the Lord to bring them safely through all the vicissitudes of the wilderness they have been called to pass.

Although already enjoying the blessed fruits of redemption in our souls, as having bodies of humiliation, we are hindered from full enjoyment; but this imperfect condition will be done away when the Lord Jesus comes to give us that for which we wait, "The adoption (or sonship), the redemption of the body." (Rom. 8: 23).

In glorified bodies the saints of God shall enter into the full blessedness of the joys of the Father's House, and shall possess the inheritance that God has given them in Christ. This immense possession has already been purchased at the price of Jesus's blood, and at His coming the Lord Jesus will redeem the possession He has purchased by removing from it those who have taken unlawful tenancy. Till that great and glorious day for which the Christian longs, God has given to the heirs His Holy Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. (Eph. 1: 14).

Forgiveness.

Throughout the Christian ages, great and successful efforts have been made by Satan to rob believers in the Lord Jesus Christ of the knowledge of forgiveness of sins. When on earth the Lord Jesus said to a man, "Thy sins are forgiven thee" (Luke 5: 20); and to a woman, "Thy sins are forgiven." (Luke 7: 48). These two would therefore be assured that their sins were forgiven. All true believers should possess the same assurance for it is written in the Scriptures, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2: 12).

The forgiveness of sins rests on the foundation of the great redemptive work of Christ, and all the efficacy of the accomplished work abides in Him where He dwells before the face of God. No other could atone for sins. When Israel sinned at the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses pleaded with God for them saying, "If thou wilt forgive; and if not, blot me, I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written." But Moses could not be accepted as a sacrifice, even for one sin. His zeal for Israel was wonderful; his sentiments were noble; but how could a sinful man, even though he was the meekest man on all the earth, die for sinful men? At the appointed time, God sent forth His Son, Who became Man, and as the holy, spotless Lamb of God laid down His life and shed His precious blood, so that a righteous and Holy God might be able in perfect consistency with His character and nature to forgive sinners who believe in Him.

With the sacrificial work of Christ in view God was able beforehand to forgive sinners of a previous dispensation. This is taught in Romans 3: 25; and in Psalm 32: 5. David in confessing his sin to God availed himself of this great benefit, even although, he could not know the glorious plan of redemption that was in the mind and heart of God. David said, "I acknowledged my sin to thee — and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin"; and this is an excellent example for all. That all may receive the same forgiveness as David is clearly taught in John 1: 9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Scripture also teaches governmental forgiveness of sins. This character of forgiveness was really granted to the man in Luke 5: 20; and is also indicated in John 5: 14 and 8: 11. God not only deals with His people in grace, but chastens them in His government; and some may be laid upon a bed of sickness because of some particular sin. James 5: 15 shows that such may be healed and governmentally forgiven. On this line Peter received authority from the Lord to bind and loose sins on earth, and his actions were to be ratified in heaven. This of course is governmental; and the case of Ananias and Sapphira demonstrated how heaven ratified the sin that Peter bound upon them.

Reconciliation.

Reconciliation is getting right with God. When Adam sinned, moral distance separated him from God, and he became an enemy of God. To be reconciled, man must be brought back to God with the enmity removed from his heart. Perhaps the outstanding picture of reconciliation in the New Testament is found in Luke 15. The need of bread, and the realisation of his Father's goodness awoke within the Prodigal the desire to return; but he had no idea of the reconciliation that the Father had prepared for him. A servant's place would have sufficed the Prodigal but the kisses, the best robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf, and the music and dancing revealed the resources of the Father for the satisfaction of his love. These things were all enjoyed by the erstwhile wanderer when the distance had gone, and the enmity displaced from his heart by the Father's love.

Old Testament incidents also help us to understand the truth of reconciliation. Absalom's murder of Amnon alienated him from the house of David, and although he was ultimately brought home he was not really reconciled. His rebellion against David proved there was enmity in his heart towards his Father. Absalom never confessed his guilt, and a reconciliation without confession and repentance will never do for God. With Mephibosheth it was very different. When brought from the distance of Lodebar, the kindness of God lavished upon him by David dispelled his enmity; and this was evinced in his mourning for David during his absence in rejection.

God reconciles sinners by bringing them near to Him in Christ, His Beloved, and by displacing the enmity from their hearts with the knowledge of His love. The love of God and enmity towards Him cannot remain in the heart together. Christ's wonderful death has fully manifested God's love for ungodly sinners who were His enemies, and this love has been shed abroad in the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit. (See Romans 5).

But reconciliation is also connected with the truth of the new creation. This is taught in 2 Corinthians 5; where the Christian is seen "In Christ" before God. The new creation describes the new conditions of life in which the believer exists; where death cannot come, and where there is no distance and no enmity. Every feature of this new existence in which saints have been created is portrayed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Soon the Lord will return to reconcile all things to the fulness of the Godhead; which shall be completed when every sphere of government and authority on earth and in the heavens is recovered to God. By the exercise of His mighty power the Lord will remove His foes from these spheres and fill them with His glory, that God might be glorified in all things for the ages of ages.

Deliverance.

Elihu told Job that God speaks to man in various ways to instruct him, and to keep him from his purpose and pride. God speaks by dreams, by preserving men from violent deaths, by pain, sickness and disease, and by bringing men to the very point of death. All these things are to teach men the grace of God, and that they might hear Him saying, "Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom." (Job 33). To be the subject of this deliverance from divine judgment, the sinner must acknowledge his sin, saying as in this chapter, "I have sinned and perverted that which was right"; then "He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." (v. 28).

Deliverance from the bondage of the law is realised by the knowledge that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; and this liberty is given to Christians that they might live for the will of God to give Him pleasure. This is taught in Romans 7; the next chapter shows that the individual believer can enjoy deliverance from the law of sin and death. Before God, every true believer is looked at as liberated both from the law and from the bondage of sin; but the practical experience of these things is another matter. To enjoy deliverance from sin we must reckon ourselves as dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Having learned to do this the Christian will be able to say with Paul "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." Like Israel under the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt the sinner is under the yoke of Satan as the god and prince of this world. It is the privilege of the saints of God to know that the Father has delivered them from the power of darkness, and has translated them into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Col. 1: 13).

Our God and Father desires that we should be delivered from this present evil world. (Gal. 1: 4). We learn how this is brought about in the same epistle, (Gal. 2: 20 and Gal. 6: 14). "I am crucified with Christ" is the experience of one who has allowed the truth of the cross to affect his whole moral being; and "I live by the faith of the Son of God" meant that Paul's whole life and being were bound up in communion with Jesus his Lord. Then in chapter 6 we see a man who realises that the world has been completely exposed and judged in the cross, and that that same cross which measured the world's hatred of God and His Son revealed the world's estimate of him as Christ's disciple. These are the lessons to be learned if deliverance from this present evil world is to be realised. When this guilty world receives its just judgment for the murder of God's Son, we shall not be here, for Jesus is "our deliverer from the coming wrath." (1 Thess. 1: 10).

Salvation.

Jonah, the prophet, had remarkable experiences, and doubtless made great discoveries during his sojourn in the whale's belly; but his release from such a prison would be the most blessed of all his experiences, and this was when he discovered that "Salvation is of the Lord." The discovery that we need salvation may be very painful, accompanied with anxiety and deep distress, as with Jonah. This will occur if we realise before God that we are ruined, guilty and lost; and powerless against sin and Satan.

Salvation is not procurable by human efforts, for Titus 3: 5-6 points out that we are saved by God's mercy, and not by works of righteousness which we have done. This is also emphasised in Ephesians 2: 8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast." God in sovereign love has secured this great salvation for us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Aged Simeon knew this when he said, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." The Samaritans learned it when they heard Jesus speaking, for they said, "We know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." There must be personal contact with the Son of God to know Him as the Saviour. Peter, the great apostle, who truly knew the Lord said of Him, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Many true believers have doubts and fears about salvation, not having in their souls the assurance that God gives in His word. The woman in Luke 7 would not have the slightest doubt on this question after the Lord said to her, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." Nor should we have the semblance of a dread, for the Scripture tells us that "God — hath saved us." (2 Tim. 1: 9). The word is not "may save" or "will save," but "hath saved." But we need to be preserved amid the dangers and snares of the world, and for this the Lord Jesus Christ has become our Great High Priest; and as such "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7: 25).

Complete salvation will be effected for us by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints. Then we shall be delivered from our present circumstances, and shall be taken to heaven to be for ever with the Lord. While awaiting this momentous event, we "are kept by the power of God through faith." (1 Peter 1: 5). If this salvation in all its parts is to be ours, we must heed the word spoken by Paul to the Jailor at Philippi, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Justification.

When Job contended with his friends, who ignorant of God's dealings with him, falsely accused him, the cry was wrung from his grief-stricken but self-righteous heart, "How should man be just with God?" His three "comforters" could not rightly answer this question, but the true answer was given when God revealed Himself to Job, and when he replied, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." To tell God that we are loathsome sinners deserving only divine judgment is the way to be just with God. The same lesson is learned from the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18. Proud in his self-righteousness the Pharisee justified himself before God, but the Publican condemned himself, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Of the self-judged man the Lord said, "I say unto you that that man went to his house justified rather than the other."

Justification is simply to be righteous in the sight of God: to be cleared from the imputation of guilt. No man is free from guilt, for "all have sinned"; and none can redeem himself, for we are without strength." Therefore if sinners are to be justified, a means for its accomplishment must be found outside of themselves. God in infinite wisdom has devised the means, which manifests His great love and the riches of His grace. On the cross, the Lord Jesus endured the divine judgment merited by sinners, and shed His precious blood; and this enables God in perfect righteousness to clear from every charge of guilt those who believe on Him.

But there are those like the haughty Jews of Romans 10, who, seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Like the man at the wedding feast they refuse the wedding garment provided by the King. Unlike the Prodigal they will not confess, "I have sinned," and so lack the best robe and all else provided by a loving Father, and remain like the elder brother outside the Father's house with its merriment and joys. The apostle Paul had once sought to establish his own righteousness, and thus be just before God; but his interview with the Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus disclosed to him the unsuitability of such a garment when exposed in the light of the glory shining from the face of Jesus. He desired thereafter "to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." (Phil. 3: 9). While those who have neglected or refused the righteousness of God are sorrowing in the darkness for eternity, those who have received the abundance of grace will be displayed with the Lord Jesus in glory as "The righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5: 21).

Peace.

No one will gainsay that all the prodigious efforts of men to procure peace for the nations have ended in failure; but few realise that the explanation of this failure lies in the world's rejection of the Son of God. With the coming of the Babe of Bethlehem the entry of peace into the world was celebrated by the praising heavenly host saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace"; but the portending departure of peace was proclaimed just before Christ's final rejection, by the multitude crying, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." Not until the Lord returns as Prince of Peace will peace be found on earth again.

But God in infinite wisdom and compassion used the very occasion of the cross to secure for men a more wonderful peace than that brought to earth in the Son's incarnation. This peace was made by the blood of His cross, and it is proclaimed in the Gospel. Indeed, in Ephesians 2: 17, Christ is presented as the great Preacher of peace both to Jew and Gentile. It is because of this peace received from Him that we can have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace when standing in conflict in the evil day.

The troubled sinner needs peace for his conscience, and he receives this when he believes the Gospel. Romans 5: 1, unfolds this, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment illustrates this beautifully. Trembling she came to Jesus, only to hear from His lips, "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." (Luke 8: 48).

Those enjoying peace with God soon realise that if faithful to Christ they will share the reproach of His rejection, and be the object of the world's malice and opposition. When forewarning His disciples of this the Lord said, "These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace." (John 16: 33). There is no peace for the Christian here; but while passing through tribulation for the Lord's sake he can have the bounty left by the Lord, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you."

Although brought into divine favour the Christian is not relieved from the trials that are common to men; and these are apt to bring anxious care. For such circumstances the believer may have the peace of God which passes all understanding, and this by making his requests known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. (Philippians 4: 6-7). God's peace is not disturbed by the unrest and conflicts of the world, and this is the peace that is held out to His people. To enjoy this divine peace in its varied aspects, the Christian must abide in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, for "He is our peace."

Joy.

Natural joy is very precious and according to the Preacher in Ecc. 2: 26, it is one of three things that God gives to a man that is good in His sight. Natural goodness, in the government of God brings its own reward of natural joy. But the joys of nature quickly fade before the trials and sorrows that man inherits, and the exercised soul at length discovers that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. The transient character of natural joy was demonstrated at the marriage feast of Cana of Galilee, when the wine ran out; but it was there the Lord Jesus revealed that in the best wine of His providing there was a source of an entirely new kind of joy. This new joy is from God, and is known in the reception of the Gospel. As a result of Philip's ministry at Samaria, where he preached Christ unto them, we read, "And there was great joy in that city." (Acts 8: 8). In the same chapter, Philip spoke to the Ethiopian about the Lord Jesus, and having believed the word spoken, it says of him that "He went on his way rejoicing."

Many new things bring joy at their reception or beginning, and afterwards the joy is displaced by distresses that eat like a canker. But Christianity is very different. Having saved us from our sins, God brings us into His kingdom. This kingdom is characterised by "Joy in the Holy Spirit," and in order that we may possess the joy constantly, God has given us the source of it by shedding His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which He has given to us. One of the precious fruits of the Spirit as delineated in Gal. 5: 22, is joy.

The joys of nature are dependent on circumstances. If a man's circumstances are grievous, his joy disappears. But the joy given by the Lord is independent of circumstances, and therefore persists in seasons of trial and sorrow. Although the Lord Jesus on earth was "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" it is written of Him "He rejoiced in spirit." His joy was from communion with His Father, in spite of His rejection by men. The apostle Paul following in the steps of His Master, shared His rejection and sorrow but knew the blessedness of His Master's joy, and commended this joy to others. In his epistle to the Philippians more than once he says "My joy," and he exhorted them to "Rejoice in the Lord alway."

On the night of His betrayal the Lord Jesus spoke of many things to His disciples. He warned them of the tribulation they should receive from the world, but He also promised them His joy. He said, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15: 11). From 1 John 1: 1-4 we see that this joy is realised as we learn the reality of eternal life in communion with the Father and the Son. May we truly know His joy in communion with Him.

Cumberland Series

1. An Officer's Faith

2. Brought Down on Reconnaissance

3. A Storm at Sea

4. The Wrong Uniform

An Officer's Faith.

The searchlight of God's gracious dealings with men in this world of darkness allows its beam to pause upon particular incidents in Holy Writ and for the gaze of all holds in its ray God's attitude towards His creature estranged from Himself by sin. So, in the Gospels there are recorded many instances of the Grace of God reaching men through the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ who, as the Vessel of Grace, was alone competent to fulfil such a work. Whether in preaching the Gospel to the poor, healing the broken-hearted, delivering captives, recovering sight to the blind, He is presented in the Gospel of Luke as the Perfect Man in the activity of grace. It is not to call attention to the kind of faith, viz., an officer's, that this incident from Luke 7 has been chosen but to show that in the Scriptures the military forces are not excluded from the many walks of life in which examples of the gift of God (Eph. 2: 8) are found. What marked the unnamed centurion was a faith which surpassed any found amongst a people privileged above all others as to the things of God (v. 9) and which got an answer (v. 10). We do well then to consider this soldier's reaction to faith if we would be pleasing to God (Heb. 11: 6). Here was a man with a deep need but he was in the favourable circumstances whereby he could hear of Jesus (v. 3). His sphere of service as a soldier happened to be cast in the very territory which was graced by those Divine footsteps. How often privileges are taken for granted! How often is the opportunity of hearing of Jesus in this favoured Island Home of ours spurned! But the centurion was not content with simply hearing of Jesus, faith was in exercise, for he approached Him in such a way as to bring out the glory of the Perfect Man which is the particular theme of Luke's Gospel. He thus solicited the aid of the elders of the Jews (v. 3) and clearly indicated the ground of repentance for he took sides with God against himself (v. 6). Moreover, there was the recognition both of the ability (v. 7) and the authority (v. 8) of the One to whom he addressed his appeal in his deep need. It may be that news of the man who was healed of the palsy (Luke 5: 18) had reached the ears of this centurion and, as his servant was suffering from the same complaint (Mat. 8: 6), he had concluded that Jesus might cure him. However, this would only have involved the exercise of natural intelligence. What the Lord recognised and answered was the faith which expressed itself in such a way, the need being felt, as to produce repentance on the part of the centurion and appreciation of the power of the Lord to help him.

Dear reader, may it be yours in all your deep need as a sinner to exercise repentance toward God, i.e., taking sides with God against yourself, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e., bringing in God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself (Acts 20: 21). In this way you may have the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins, which is undoubtedly your deepest need (Acts 13: 38). The One who met the centurion in his extremity is the only One who can meet you in yours. "He is the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever" (Heb. 13: 8). J. Wilson.

Brought Down on Reconnaissance.

The title of this tract will doubtless divert thought into the avenue of aerial activity and to the brave men engaged in the hazardous work suggested, but such is not its aim. The desire is to isolate the principle of ascent, and, through clothing it in a moral garb, show that it originated with Satan himself and which has been manifested ever since by men as fallen creatures. We do not wish to detract from the value of reconnaissance work in the ways of men nor to belittle those who display natural courage, but to stress that in the ways of God the practice by men of ascendency in a moral sense never leads to salvation or blessing; this is the thought of God for all men for "God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2: 3-4). To trace the principle to its source we must go back to the fall of Satan from heaven. God has carefully recorded this incident in Isaiah 14: 13. "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. . . ." As a fallen creature and under the dominion of sin (Rom. 6: 14) man has never ceased to give expression to the rule. In Genesis 11 the Tower of Babel is a monument to the desire and efforts of men to enjoy the atmosphere of heaven in their own way. The confederacy would be the witness to the former and the brick an indication of the latter. Then, as though to guard against the fallacy that the principle had been eradicated either by the passage of time or the transition from the Old to the New Testament, Zacchaeus is introduced in Luke 19. Evidently there was still the desire after what was of God for "he sought to see Jesus who he was" and the efforts to satiate that desire was seen in his own scheming for he climbed into a sycamore tree, noted for the thickness of its foliage; only to find, however, that his own efforts were but taking him farther from the place of blessing. The higher he climbed the greater was the distance he had to come down.

Dear reader, if hitherto you have been seeking to merit salvation by anything you are doing, no matter how commendable it may appear, take warning from what God has recorded in His Word in connection with this little man! "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down" indicated the way of salvation, on the line of his humbling himself before the One who had become Man that He might bring salvation within the reach of men in their lost estate. "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51: 17). Moreover, far from being obtained by the efforts of men, the blessing was to be had only on the principle of faith "forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham" and that in the Son of Man who came to create the sense of need in the soul and to satisfy it. Have you humbled yourself before the Saviour in the confession of your lost condition and through the exercise of faith in Himself received the salvation which he waits to impart? If not, learn the lesson taught in the Scriptures of Truth by Zacchaeus who was brought down on reconnaissance to have the word of salvation spoken by the Saviour Himself. J. Wilson.

A Storm at Sea.

In these days when engineering seems to have reached the peak of accomplishment it is difficult to understand the dangers which attended a storm at sea in bygone days. However, history shows that the destinies of nations have been moulded by such an event. For instance, the Spanish Armada was one of the most outstanding events in that connection, but the destiny of a nation pales into insignificance in comparison with an individual soul in the sight of God. "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Thus the sea storm described in Matt. 14: 23-33 is concerned largely with the Lord and Peter. In these few verses there is given a beautiful example of the Lord's help to His own in distressing circumstances.

But ere we pass on to develop this a little, let us consider for a moment the character of the one who reaps the benefit of the Lord's gracious support. He, who is presented in Matthew 14 is the same as is dealt with in Luke 5. It is important to grasp this, bearing in mind that Peter's experience in Luke 5 is antecedent to that in Matthew 14, for it clearly shows that the man the Lord was dealing with in the latter instance had judged his sinful condition in His presence. "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But Peter stayed where he was at the knees of Jesus until the words of peace had been spoken to his conscience. "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." He had made his confession to the only One Who had authority to set his conscience at rest. Peter was to prove the truth of these words on many occasions subsequently; this is one from Matthew 14. But Peter is only taken up representatively to show that the Lord's support can be enjoyed by all who have judged their sinful condition before Him and who have had the word of assurance spoken to the conscience.

The Lord goes up into a mountain to pray, indicating the place of exaltation which He occupies to-day (Heb. 9: 24) on behalf of His own who are left below where the rough seas are encountered. But it is blessed to notice that He is mindful of them in all their toil and comes to them in the fourth and last watch, which suggests that all during the night of His absence, the Lord's own people can count upon Himself. Surely it is a word of encouragement to them to-day for Scripture clearly represents this as having the character of night! (Rom. 13: 12; Rev. 22: 16). But there is One who is able both to succour and to sympathise in connection with all the weakness and infirmity which abound. In spite of all that is calculated to disturb, there is One who moves above these things for the sustenance of His people. Jesus comes to them walking on the sea!

May the Lord give you, dear reader, if you have not already done so, to judge your sinful condition before Him, that when the storms come you may know where to turn for the Pilot! J. Wilson.

The Wrong Uniform.

The wearing of the correct uniform is a matter of prime importance to-day if we would move through our country with impunity. The donning of an enemy uniform would probably lead to immediate enquiry, if not arrest and imprisonment. Care is, therefore, exercised that our clothing is so regulated as not to offend the eyes of men. But how careful we may be sometimes about suiting the eyes of men who, after all, can only touch the body, and forget to consider our suitability to the eyes of God who is concerned with the soul! A consideration of the parable spoken by Jesus in Matt. 22: 1-14, therefore, may help in the latter matter which is infinitely more important as it raises eternal issues.

In the parable we are told of a King who has designs of blessing for His Son and, with this in view, proposes a wedding. The necessary accompaniments which attend such a desire are then considered and the invitations are given verbally by the servants. The result, however, is startling! The would-be guests refuse to accept the King's invitation and are much more concerned with the mundane routine of earthly toil (one went to his farm and another to his merchandise). This is almost unbelievable until we remember that we are considering a parable which portrays the refusal, on the part of the Jews, of all God's overtures of grace. Man's history from the commencement shows that he has always been much more concerned about earthly things than heavenly things! But the King would not be thwarted and we are beautifully introduced into that which God is doing amongst men to-day, by the Gospel, that the wedding may be furnished with guests. God is inviting men and women to-day to the marriage of His Son, a marriage which, as yet, has not taken place (Rev. 19: 7), but the guests must be arrayed suitably. Moreover, they are held individually responsible for being so; the guest in the parable was speechless when questioned for he knew quite well what was required but he evidently thought that his own clothes would do. They may have been ever so nice and well-fitting but they did not meet with the approval of the King and this, after all, was the acid test.

Dear reader, do you think that any righteousness which you may suppose you possess will be suitable clothing for the marriage of His Son to which God now invites you? If so, be warned by what God has recorded here and elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures. "All our righteousness are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64: 6). "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3: 10). The guest who is taken as an example only made one mistake — he failed to avail himself of the wedding garment — but it resulted in "outer darkness." Dear friend, are you garbed in the righteousness of God for of such does the wedding garment speak? If not, turn to Romans 3: 21, 22 and learn that the righteousness of God which has been manifested . . . by faith of Jesus Christ is unto all so that it may be yours but it is only possessed by those who exercise faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is upon all who believe. It is here on earth that the question is settled for we are told in the parable that the servants gathered in both bad and good and there will be certainly no bad connected with heaven and its glory (Rev. 21: 27). J. Wilson.

Preach The Word Series

The Counsel of Peace.

If there is one thing needful for the troubled nations of the world, or for the distressed individual, it is lasting peace. For the world there can be no abiding peace until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to put down all evil, and establish His kingdom in righteousness. Peace was offered to the world when God's Son came into it as the Babe of Bethlehem, even as recorded in the angelic praise, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace." This divine overture was rejected when the world put the Son of God upon the cross; and this shameful rejection is the cause of the world's incurable wounds of sorrow and distress. So far as the individual soul is concerned, peace of conscience and heart are unknown until Christ has His true place in the heart and life. Man is by nature a sinner, and at a distance from God, subject to divine judgment because of his sins, from which he cannot escape by his own efforts. Apart from God's intervention on his behalf, in sovereign mercy, man must perish for ever in his sins; and the thought of this troubles the conscience and distresses the mind of the awakened soul.

We may well thank God for the deep interest He has shown in His erring creature. "The counsel of peace" (Zechariah 6: 13) tells how God and His beloved Son have devised the means for securing the blessing of peace for the repentant sinner. This wonderful plan involved the coming down into this world of God's own Son, so that He might go to the cross to suffer for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3: 18). This great work was completed; peace was made by the blood of His cross; the efficacy of the work is infinite and eternal, and through it, whosoever will may come to God and receive the blessings of the counsel of peace.

So that men might partake of the fruits of the counsel of peace, God has sent forth His gospel. To the Jews, who crucified His Son, and said "His blood be on us and on our children," God offers peace in the gospel; and many of Jacob's troubled sons and daughters have found their rest in this deep peace. This blessed message of peace comes to you and me, poor sinners of the Gentiles, far from God by nature and by practice; a peace that dispels every bit of dread from the heart, and brings the tranquil soul to delight in the presence of God.

Have you peace with God? Do not say that this is impossible to have. We read in Romans 5: 1, "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God." There is no need for you to continue in doubts and fears if you desire the peace of God. But there is only one way of procuring this inestimable blessing. You must come to God, as a poor sinner, confessing your guilt, and bowing the knee in true repentance before the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him NOW; and hear Him say to you, as He once said to a poor repentant sinner, "Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace" (Luke 7: 50). (R. — Wm. C. Reid.)

The Cup of Salvation.

God desires the salvation and blessing of his fallen creature, man; but, like the writer of Psalm 116, we have to be brought low in the presence of God before we are ready to accept the cup of salvation that He offers. Describing the experience through which he had passed, the Psalmist says, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow." This was surely a dreadful plight; when in the extremity of human weakness, and beyond all creature aid, the gates of death and hell were open wide before him, ready to receive him. What could he do but throw himself upon the mercy of God? Therefore he says, "Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul."

Man's extremity is verily God's opportunity, as witnesses the Psalmist. After extolling the Lord for His grace, righteousness, and mercy, he can say, Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." And this is also the blessed experience of all who, on being brought low before God, cast themselves upon His mercy. God has no pleasure in the sorrows of men, but in His great mercy and wisdom He often brings them into ways of sorrow and distress, so that they might come to the end of themselves, and trust wholly in Him. We are poor guilty sinners, deserving only death and hell; but God has procured salvation for us through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; and this is the blessing He desires that we should drink from the cup of salvation that He offers.

The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us that this is a "Great salvation," and that it began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. Do you remember the tragic story of Lot's wife? Salvation was almost hers. She was actually out of the doomed city of Sodom, but on disobeying the divine command, she was turned into a pillar of salt. Salvation may be almost yours, and yet you may miss the blessing. It may be that you mean to be saved; yet you still neglect the great salvation preached to us in the Gospel. Listen to the solemn warning of Scripture, "If the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"

Perhaps you would like to work for salvation? The word of God tells us, "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." This clearly shows that we cannot get salvation apart from receiving it as God's free gift. Our Psalmist asked "What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits towards me?" His own answer was, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD." This is the simple way into the blessing. Take then that blessed cup now; for "Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." (R. — Wm. C. Reid.)

An Anchor of the Soul.

A wise man, in considering a new position or job, is concerned about its prospects, knowing that it will probably determine how he is to be occupied, and perhaps where he is to reside for the rest of his natural life; but how few give consideration to, or have concern for the prospect beyond the grave. And yet this is a matter of much greater import, involving the eternal destiny of the soul. Many refuse to face the eternal prospect, and if questioned about it, endeavour to evade it, clearly manifesting that they do not have the Christian's hope "As an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast" (Hebrews 6: 19).

God, in His word, has plainly spoken of the judgment awaiting those who have neglected the blessings of the Gospel, or who have refused His grace. This world is guilty of the death of God's Son; and all who form part of the world will share its judgment. When on the cross, the Lord Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;" and because of this wonderful intercession, God is prepared to treat us as manslayers rather than as murderers. Those who refuse this offer of divine mercy will have to answer to God for the murder of His Son.

The true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has "fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," and this hope is the God-given anchor of the soul. Of old, the manslayer was sheltered in the city of refuge (Numbers 35); and the Christian is sheltered from judgment in Christ, even as we read in Romans 8: 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." God Himself provided the cities of refuge; He would not have the manslayer treated as a murderer; nor will He have you treated as guilty of the murder of His Son, if you flee to Christ, the refuge He has provided in the richness of His mercy. The hope of the manslayer was liberty through the death of the High Priest; those divinely sheltered now have the blessed hope of actually entering God's presence and glory at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Alas! many do not realise their need of the refuge God has provided; nor have they the blessed hope that God has given to the believer in Jesus. They may be willing to admit that all are sinners, but say they hope to get to heaven at last because they are no worse than many. There is no place in all their thoughts for the refuge and the hope God has provided. A sure anchor is one properly formed and fashioned, one that can hold. Has your anchor been formed aright? Has it come from God, or is it the creature of your own thoughts and imagination? A stedfast anchor must be holding on proper ground. Is your anchor secure within the vail of heaven, or does it rest on the shifting ground of man's philosophy and false hopes? See to it that you get the anchor that God gives, a hope that will never fail: be sure that your hope for eternal blessing rests on Christ, Who is sitting at God's right hand in heaven. (R. — Wm. C. Reid.)

No More Conscience of Sins.

Why did Adam hide himself among the trees of the garden of Eden after his sin against God? Was it not because of the sense in his soul that he was guilty? The Scripture tells us that "All have sinned" (Romans 3: 23), and the guilt of our sins resting upon the conscience makes us dread the searching light of God's presence. The very best of men have confessed themselves altogether unfit for the presence of a holy God. At Sinai, Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake" (Hebrews 12: 21); Job, the best man of his day, said "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 1: 8; Job 42: 5-6). Isaiah, who had just been pronouncing woes on evildoers, on entering God's holy presence, said "Woe is me! for I am undone" (Isaiah 6: 5). Before God, Daniel, a truly lovely character, said of himself, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Daniel 10: 8). And how do we compare with these holy men? Are we better than they?

If God has brought our guilt before us, it is not to have us ever conscious of it; but rather that confessing it we might avail ourselves of the wonderful blessing of "No more conscience of sins" (Hebrews 10: 2). To bring this inestimable blessing to men, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's own dear Son, came down from heaven, and on the cross offered Himself a sacrifice for sins. That one offering has glorified God, completely satisfying the claims of His holy and righteous throne; enabling Him to clear the guilty from every charge of sin, if they will but confess their guilt and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So clear can we be, that not one stain remains on the conscience; and we can enter with holy boldness the very presence of the God against whom we had sinned.

In the sacrifices of the Jewish law, God had indicated His desire to take away sins; but such sacrifices could never take sins away; their blood had no intrinsic value, but they pointed forward to the spotless victim, the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose precious blood can remove our sins. Let no one be deceived, there is no other way of having "no more conscience of sins," but by resting in that one sacrifice, the death of Jesus.

The time must surely come, when each one of us will leave this world, and appear before God. When your time comes, will you go with the guilt of your sins upon your conscience, or with "no more conscience of sins?" This is a most solemn question, which should be faced without delay. So many put the matter off until it is too late. You may never have warning that your end is near; even if you have, the poor body languishing in pain or sickness may leave you unable to consider this all-important matter. Be wise therefore, and have the question of your sins answered before God while still you have the opportunity, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. (R. — Wm. C. Reid.)

Be Reconciled to God

There are few who realise that by nature and practice man is far away from God, with very wrong thoughts and feelings of God. In His well-beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God has perfectly expressed His attitude towards poor sinful man, for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. 5: 19). Alas! instead of receiving the Lord Jesus, men took Him, and with wicked hands crucified and slew Him. But man's crowning sin has not impeded the outflow of divine grace, for God is still sending forth His messengers with the Gospel, bidding men to get right with God. The day rapidly approaches when the glad news of the Gospel will cease, and God will require the blood of His Son at the hands of men and every one who has refused or neglected the message of grace must give account to Him.

When Adam sinned, he not only became guilty of disobedience, but the principle of sin entered into his nature, and he became estranged from God. Every child of Adam inherits his sinful nature with its enmity towards God, and is born in the distance from God. Coming down to Eden, after man's fall, God called to Adam, "Where art thou?" God had not only come to convict the sinner, and to pronounce His righteous judgment, but, in wondrous compassion, to seek the lost ones and rescue them from the consequences of their dreadful sin. Before men can be saved and brought near to God, they must first realise the enormity of sin, and be found in confession and repentance. A just and holy God cannot overlook sin; and the cross shows how God maintains His righteousness and holiness while pardoning the repentant sinner. There, the Lord Jesus Christ became the sin offering, and accomplished the redemption that enables God to offer pardon to every sinner.

Have you availed yourself of this offer of pardon? You will never be right with God unless you do so. You may try to overlook the consequences of your sins: God cannot. God could never fill heaven with unrepentant sinners! Do you remember what happened when King David brought back the unrepentant Absalom? He plotted against his Father, and sought to kill him. If Absalom had confessed his sin, and repented of it, there would not have been enmity in his heart towards David. How could God have sinful men in the heavenly courts of light and love with dark hatred and enmity filling their hearts?

In Luke 15 the Lord Jesus gave a lovely illustration of one truly reconciled. Having learned that the pleasures of sin are but for a season, the Prodigal remembered the goodness of his Father, and this brought him back to ask for a servant's place. Instead, the Father kissed the Prodigal, gave him the best robe, the ring, the shoes, and the fatted calf and rejoiced in receiving the lost one safely home. If you will come to God, like the Prodigal, in true repentance, confessing your sin, God will give you a wonderful reconciliation. (R. — Wm. C. Reid.)

A Grave Warning and Its Sequel.

1. The Warning.

Some years ago the writer was spending a holiday at one of our large East Coast resorts. There he made the acquaintance of a local resident who kindly offered to conduct him round the town and surrounding district, visiting specially the beauty spots. One place he considered to be particularly charming and a special day was arranged for our visit thereto. We were glad that the day, when it dawned, proved an ideal one as far as the weather was concerned. The sun shone in all its brilliance and on reaching the railway station we observed that others besides ourselves were

apparently bound for the same destination. When we left the train, we found ourselves after a short walk, in a lovely wood. The writer well remembers what a pleasing sight it was to look upon the blue expanse of the North Sea; the view being broken in places by the trunks of fine old trees, whose contrasting colour seemed to enhance the beauty of the sea beyond. But sore disappointment was in store for us. We had not been there long before the sky suddenly became overcast. Darker and darker grew the prospect, and the sea which just a few moments before had gladdened our vision, now reflected and emphasized the threatening aspect of the sky above it. We concluded that a severe storm was about to overtake us, and as neither of us had made any preparation for this unexpected change in weather conditions, we set off with all speed to reach a shelter of which the writer's friend was aware. We were just in time. Already a goodly company had gathered, but there was enough standing room for us to have the protection we so much needed. The rain descended in torrents, the frequent flashes of lightning almost blinding us, and the responding peals of thunder making us feel that the earth trembled beneath our feet. My friend and I were well placed to view the faces of those who had gathered, and we could see that many of them bore the signs of mingled fear and disappointment. A solemn silence prevailed, a silence intensified by the contrasting thunder and the falling rain outside, and one felt that God was speaking silently yet powerfully to the hearts and consciences of the people.

The writer himself was moved by the circumstances of the occasion, and he thought of another storm and another shelter, both of which he felt impelled to speak. Before so doing he prayed to God that a suitable message might be given him for the people, and also courage to proclaim it faithfully and fearlessly. Quicker even than the lightning flash the message came, but before delivering it, he sang the words of a well-known hymn, most suitable for the occasion: —

"The Lord's my Rock, in Him I hide,

A shelter in the time of storm,

Secure whatever ill betide,

A shelter in the time of storm,

Oh! Jesus is a Rock in a weary land

A shelter in the time of storm."

After singing the hymn the speaker was encouraged to find that every one seemed ready to listen to his God-given message. He reminded his audience that the storm which raged around them in all its fury, had overtaken them very suddenly and unexpectedly, and being without protection of any kind, they had all hastened to this welcome refuge. He also suggested that every one present, including himself, must feel in their hearts that they owed a debt of gratitude to those whose kindness had prompted its erection.

These introductory remarks led him to the theme that burdened his heart. This was none other than the solemn fact of the coming storm of God's judgment, and His wonderful and gracious provision for all who desired a shelter from it. It is an appalling fact that there are multitudes to-day who never think of eternity, and consequently have no regard for the welfare of their precious souls, nor of the precious salvation God is offering them through the death of His own beloved Son. Their brief span of life which God's word declares to be "even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4: 14) is so engrossed with the pursuit of pleasure, or wealth, or fashion or one of the many other things wherewith Satan lures his victims to destruction, that all thought of eternity and the all-important matters relating thereto, are quite excluded. The same gross folly was seen in the days of Noah, as Matthew 24: 38-39, states: — "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage . . . and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

How solemn are these words of the Son of God! How strongly they refute the claims of those who maintain that the world is getting better, and that we are on the threshold of a glorious age! Let there be no mistake, this world, far from showing any repentance towards God, is ripening fast for judgment.

Towards the close of his remarks, it was the speaker's joy to turn from the note of warning (necessary though it was to arouse his hearers to a sense of their danger) to the sweet notes of the Gospel. God is holy, He is righteous, He cannot look upon sin, yet He is a God of wondrous love with infinite compassion for His creatures. It is not His will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He provided a shelter for the people in the days of Noah, and such was His long-suffering that He pleaded with that wicked generation for one hundred and twenty years. But all His pleadings were in vain, and His plan for their salvation was rejected. Only Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were saved. Man's only hope of salvation from the flood of judgment was the ark. Man's only hope of Salvation from the future judgment is Christ. Those outside the ark perished when judgment fell, and, just as surely, those outside of Christ, will have no shelter, to which they can flee from the coming storm. Blessed are those who can sing: —

"Death and judgment are behind us,

Grace and glory on before,

All the billows rolled o'er Jesus,

There they spent their utmost power."

Urging his hearers to flee to Christ and to put their trust in Him, and His atoning death, the speaker concluded.

The storm now began to abate and while the clouds were lifting he had much pleasure in speaking to individuals and giving gospel booklets to all before they left. Time and space forbid him to recount all that was said, but it was evident that the message had been appreciated. One dear woman whose heart was filled to overflowing with the love of Christ, and a love for perishing sinners, could not refrain from giving utterance to a song of praise. Sweetly she sang: —

"Jesus, the very thought of Thee,

With sweetness fills the breast,

But sweeter far Thy face to see,

And in Thy presence rest."

On reaching the place where she stood, the writer was privileged to engage in conversation with one of the most devoted Christians he had ever met. She told him that when she arrived at the shelter and observed the disappointed and sad looks on many faces, she prayed silently to God asking Him to send a message of love and warning through the lips of one of His servants, should such be present. At once, she said, I saw you remove your hat and I thanked God, for I knew my prayer was answered. Her parting words were that she would pray for God's blessing on the solemn message, and doubtless the interesting sequel about to be given, is one result of the prayers of this devoted woman.

2. The Sequel.

Holidays were over. The writer returned to home and friends in the North, to whom he related his holiday experiences, including the thunderstorm incident. Some years afterwards, one of these friends was on a train journey to a town in Lancashire. Evening was approaching and he became anxious about reaching his destination before darkness closed in. Two young ladies sat opposite to him in the compartment, and he gathered from their conversation that they were travelling to the same town to which he was going. He ventured to explain to them that he was a stranger to the district and would be glad if they could direct him to a certain street. In reply they informed him that they knew where it was, and they would be pleased to show him the way to it. A most interesting conversation followed.

After warmly thanking them for their kindness, he asked if he could be of any service to them by showing them the way to Heaven. To his great surprise and joy they told him they knew the way. Struck with their ready and happy response, he expressed the desire to know how and when they found the way thither. With keen attention he listened to their story. One of them said that three years before she had gone to S— for a holiday. While visiting a pleasant spot in the district she was overtaken by a severe thunderstorm. She hurried to a place of shelter and while there heard some one singing "The Lord's my Rock in Him I hide, a shelter in the time of storm." (Needless to say, my friend was now most interested, but did not interrupt as she continued her story). After singing the hymn he warned the people of another storm and of the good news that God had provided a shelter which was available, for all. On the Cross Jesus had borne the judgment our sins deserved, and the speaker urged every one to flee to Christ, God's only refuge. She felt that the message was meant for her, and though up to that moment she had trusted in her own good works she found that these were hopeless to afford her soul any protection from the coming judgment. At once she took the advice given, she fled to God's shelter and trusted Jesus as her own personal and precious Saviour. Having finished her story, great was her joy to learn that the man to whom she had been relating the glad news of her Conversion was a personal friend of him who had spoken during the thunderstorm three years previously. As to her companion, it appears that when her friend returned from her holiday looking so bright and happy and testifying to her "Conversion" she was astonished. She could not comprehend why one who was the most zealous of church workers and the most devoted of Sunday School teachers should need to be "Converted." But after a time of misery and doubt, she also confessed her need of a Saviour, and put her whole trust in Jesus and His Salvation.

To the Reader.

Dear Friend! I know not what your opinion is after reading this booklet. Some people, no doubt, will consider the storm, the provided shelter, the company, the speaker, his remarks, the remarkable meeting in the railway train, to be all due to mere chance and unworthy of further consideration. Certainly the happy women my friend met three years afterwards, would entirely disagree, for evidently God ordained everything for their salvation. And, by whatever means this booklet has reached you, please do not attribute your possession of it to mere "chance," for a God of love is seeking your welfare and waiting to bestow on you His richest blessing for time and eternity.

There is a tendency among men to leave everything to chance — even their future destiny. A short time ago five words on a wayside pulpit riveted my attention. They were

"Choice, Not Chance, Determines Destiny."

How solemn! how true their message! They mean nothing less than the fact that it is left to every man, and woman, to fix their own eternal destiny and their decision is final. Christ said to the people

"Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life" (John 5: 40).

In closing, I would urge you to choose your destiny and to do it now. Is it to be with Christ and the myriads of redeemed in Heaven — or in that place of endless remorse where hope and mercy are unknown? Oh! flee to the Saviour, and if words fail you in His holy presence, just repeat the well-known words of Charlotte Elliott —

"Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God! I come."

Robt. B. Wilson.

A Message from the Sea.

As a boy the writer well remembers an incident, recorded in one of his school books, which made such a deep impression on his youthful mind, that the ups and downs of a busy life of over seventy years have not effaced it. The story narrated the loss by fire of a large vessel outward bound from this country to some Eastern port. It had been long overdue, and no one knew what calamity had befallen the gallant ship and her crew and passengers, among whom were several notable people. A bottle, washed up by the waves some time afterwards, revealed the terrible secret. Inside was a piece of paper bearing this brief message: —

"THE SHIP 'EAST INDIAMAN' IS ON FIRE. ELIZABETH, JOANNA AND MYSELF COMMIT OUR SOULS INTO THE HANDS OF OUR BLESSED REDEEMER. HIS GRACE ENABLES US TO BE QUITE COMPOSED IN THE AWFUL PROSPECT OF ENTERING ETERNITY."

This was the only news received from the doomed ship. Many years must have elapsed since this note was penned, and many hearts must have been touched when its pathetic message was read. God grant, that, at this far distant date, many more hearts may be constrained to follow the example set by the writer of the message and his two companions, as they committed their souls into the hands of their blessed Redeemer.

The message is a very brief one, yet surely it merits the most earnest consideration on the part of all who are privileged to read it. Note: —

Firstly. — In the presence of death, their only concern was

Their Souls' Eternal Welfare.

Everything else was apparently forgotten. All their ties with this world were severed. Their friends, their wealth, their pleasures, their ambitions, were no longer of any avail to afford satisfaction to their hearts or occupation for their thoughts in that dread hour.

Reader! In view of the uncertainty of life, a fact which must have been impressed on every one during the late terrible war; when many thousands of people — soldiers and civilians — were launched into eternity without any warning, would you not be well advised to consider your own soul's eternal welfare? King Solomon spoke wisely and solemnly when he said "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (Prov. 27: 1).

Do not follow the example of the young man who asked a divinity professor how long before death ought a man to prepare himself for it. "About five minutes," said the professor. The young man turned away with relief, making up his mind to see life, to sow his wild oats, to enjoy the pleasures of the world and then turn to God at the end of his days. "Stop," said the professor, "when are you going to die?" "That I cannot tell," said the young man. "Then you had better prepare for death now, for you may not have five minutes to live."

One can only hope that the young man took to heart the sound advice given to him.

Secondly. — They speak of One whom they knew as

Their Blessed Redeemer.

With no earthly voice to cheer them, no out-stretched arm to save them, and the pitiless waves waiting to engulf them, yet in the company of their Redeemer they awaited their end in perfect calmness of mind and spirit. In the message they cast on the waves, no sign or expression of fear is traceable. The Christian's confidence as expressed in the lines: —

"Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours,

Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers,"

seems to have been theirs in full measure.

How wonderful is the peace which God imparts to His people! The world with all its allurements and attractions knows nothing of it, nor has it anything to compare with it. Not only do they enjoy the companionship of their Saviour throughout life's journey, with its many trials and temptations, but as the end of that journey approaches, the comfort and presence of their Lord, become sweeter and stronger than ever before. Death, that dread monster, whose approach strikes terror into the stoutest heart, has no terror for the believer. To him, death is only his servant, come to usher him into the presence of his Lord.

Now, it is most important to note that the little company on the doomed vessel speak of Christ as their "Redeemer" and not as their "Exemplar." In many religious circles there is the belief that Christ came into the world merely to be our example, and that, if we seek to live as He lived, God will pardon our little short-comings and failures, and that all will be well with our souls for eternity. However pleasing such a doctrine may be in the estimation of men, there is not a verse of Holy Scripture to support it. No man, either of the present day, or of the past, has possessed the power to live as Christ lived, unless indwelt by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God only dwells in those, who, like the Apostle Paul freely admit that "in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7: 18). Further, they endorse with all their heart the fact, that "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5: 6).

How can any accomplish their own salvation when Scripture declares definitely that they have not the strength to do so? It is utterly impossible. Hence our dire need of a "Redeemer" not an "Exemplar." How true and precious the words: —

"I would not work my soul to save,

That work my Lord has done,

But I would work like any slave,

From love to God's dear Son."

Thirdly. — On the burning ship the little company were sustained by the

Grace of their Redeemer.

Grace is surely one of the sweetest themes that fill with joy the hearts of the redeemed. How they delight to sing: —

"Grace is the sweetest sound,

That ever reached our ears,

When conscience charged and justice frowned,

'Twas grace removed our fears."

"Grace taught our wandering feet,

To tread the heavenly road,

And new supplies each hour we meet,

While travelling home to God."

Grace is heavenly in its origin, it is like a mighty river whose source is the very heart of God. It speaks of God's boundless liberality in contrast to man's utter unworthiness. It was the grace of God that sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world, not because we merited such a glorious visitation, but as another has said "Man's misery, not his merit, was the magnet that drew the Saviour from the skies."

Only those whose hearts have been touched by the love of Christ, and whose knees have been bowed in true repentance at His feet, know anything at all of the beauty and perfection of grace, and of the wondrous gifts it bestows on its humble recipients. One of the greatest of these is the knowledge of salvation, for we read "By grace are ye saved" (Eph. 2: 8), and it is through Christ that grace reaches us for in the Gospel of John 1: 17 we read "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

How beautifully does grace shine forth in all the words and works of the Lord Jesus as recorded for us in the Gospels. Anyone who can read that wonderful story and yet remain unmoved by it must possess a heart of stone. Those who heard Him "wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth" (Luke 4: 22). As to His works they had to admit "He hath done all things well" (Mark 7: 37).

But the grace that was manifested so wonderfully during His life could not avail to save us from our sins, nor open wide the gates of Heaven for our admission there. Only His death on the Cross could accomplish that. The tide of grace that flowed so gently, yet so deeply, during His life, was destined to burst forth in a mighty cleansing flood at His death. Yes! for the salvation of mankind, the mighty, the glorious Son of God submitted to an ignominious death upon a cross. Blind unbelief would aver that this is the end of the story. But what meaneth that triumphant cry "It is finished," uttered by Him in the moment of His death, a cry that has brought eternal peace to millions of sin-sick hearts? What means that earthquake, and the rending of the rocks? What means the opening of the tombs, and the appearance of their former occupants in the holy city? What means the rending of the temple veil?

They are all the tokens of a mighty victory over sin, death and the grave; a victory unequalled in its results, in the records of Heaven, earth and hell.

And to think that the first trophy of His victory, — the first of the mighty host of redeemed sinners — was a poor repentant malefactor on a nearby cross. What wonderful grace! Unsearchable in its heights! unfathomable in its depths! Many there are who would reckon such an outcast as the dying thief to be utterly unworthy of the Saviour's saving grace. Suffice it to say in reply "This is the Lord's doing it is marvellous in our eyes."

Fourthly. — It was the knowledge of the Redeemer's grace that enabled them to be

Quite composed in the awful prospect of entering Eternity.

This prospect lies before every member of the human family. The writer, and every reader of this narrative, whoever he or she may be, must enter eternity. There is even the possibility that we may be like the subjects of our story, on the very threshold. The old hymn-writer says: —

"Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

Bears all its sons away."

Away! Yes! But whither? Is it not a lamentable fact that many of the sons of time are living in ignorance of the awful truth that their heritage is not one of Time only, but also that of Eternity?

What are the fleeting years of time compared to the long ages of eternity? One may well repeat the lament of God's servant in a past day: —

"O that men were wise. . . . that they would consider their latter end."

"I have no time," said the railway guard, as he rudely pushed aside the loving hand that offered him a little gospel tract just as he stepped on to his train. But his foothold was insecure, and in a few moments his mangled and lifeless body lay across the rails. No time for God, no time for Christ, no time, no care for his soul. How terrible his remorse, if he has now a long eternity to mourn his own neglect! Remember the solemn question in Hebrews 2: 3,

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"

In closing, dear Reader, allow me as one who has a care for your soul, to counsel you to get alone into the presence of God, and face the fact of eternity. If you are yet without the knowledge of the Redeemer's grace, the prospect may well make you tremble, yea, it may even produce a state of soul agony. But, thank God, this is often the first step on the way to Heaven, leading you to repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross.

May the calm unruffled peace that filled the hearts of the little company on the "East Indiaman" be yours in the prospect (be it near or distant) of entering eternity. This is the heartfelt wish of the writer for every reader of this true story. Robt. B. Wilson.

Assembly Order

Assembly Order

A Bible Reading — 1 Cor. 12: 18-27.

Things New and Old, Volume One 1933

This paper is the substance of a reading at a Conference In Toronto, July, 1900 (now over thirty-two years ago). Messrs. S Ridout, B C Greenman, Enefer, and A E Booth were the chief speakers. The first three are with us no longer; they have been called Home. Their voices we shall hear no more in Bible readings. The reading had in view the correction of certain views and practices in the assemblies of an independent character. The reading was published in pamphlet form (now out of print) and is again printed that all our readers may benefit by it and consider afresh the truths contained therein. Guides may pass away, but Christ our Lord and the Truth ever abide. "Remember them that had the rule (guides) over you, men that spake unto you the word of God and considering the manner of their life, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yea and forever." (Heb. 13: 7-8. R.V.)

B.C.Greenman.— 1 Cor. 12: 18-27. It is very important in reading a scripture like this to recognize the twofold application of it; that is, if we rejoice, as we do, in our blessed privilege as members of the body of Christ, we must also recognize the same unity as to the visible local representations of the body of Christ as there is between the individual members of it. Hence Paul says: "Now ye are the body of Christ," addressing the Corinthians, "and members in particular." He addresses them as though there were no other Christians in the world, and says: "Ye are the body of Christ." Would that each child of God would get into his soul the blessed sense of this — a member of that body, of which Christ is the Head, in which the Holy Spirit dwells. What honor that places upon us. A little assembly might say that we are set in this world to be a perfect representation of what the body of Christ is; a body ruled by the Head, and indwelt, every member of it, by the same Holy Spirit. We could not possibly think of a body in which the parts of it were at variance with each other except the head is wrong The Head being right all the members of the body are supposed to be governed by that Head and energized by the Spirit that dwells throughout it. That which has caused all the sad denial of this, practically and other wise, is a lack of knowledge as to the way this works practically. So, neglect in getting a letter of commendation shows ignorance or indifference. When leaving home, with the same care as a man gets his railroad ticket, he should get his letter of commendation from his brethren. He should not leave the place that he goes from without a letter of credit to the meeting that he goes to, and if we expect a fellowship worth anything to us, it should be a fellowship that we seek to maintain in all its integrity; and if we value it in that way, we expect others to value it likewise; because a thing that puts down all fences — a field that has no fence around it, is soon a common; and has nothing for anybody.

A.E.Booth.— I will read a verse giving the Church as the house. 1 Tim. 3:15.

B.C.G.— The thought added to the previous one is, that there the Church was presented as the body of Christ, and that truth must be maintained by all of us. In this, the Church is the House of God and we must maintain an order suitable to Him that dwells there.

S.Ridout.— Eph. 4: 2-4. That is, the unity of the Spirit is the unity which we are to keep in the bond of peace. There is a unity of the body, and the order of the house; and the power which is to make practical the unity of the body and the order of the house, is the unity of the Spirit. One thought; one mind; one principle; one truth; one government — one control throughout the body and throughout the house. The unity of the Spirit is a different thing from the unity of the body or the order of the house, in this that it gives us the vital principle in which we are to live and act as members of the body and as being in the house. As the body gives us the activities and ministries of the Church, so the house gives us the order and the government of the Church, but the unity of the Spirit gives us the oneness in ministry and the oneness in government. Whether we look at the Church as the body or the house, there is the oneness of the Spirit which we are to keep in the bond of peace. This requires lowliness, meekness, forbearance, but at the same time it must express itself identically wherever the house is or wherever the body is. That is a most important principle. The unity of the body always exists, but if we are practically to be a testimony to it there must be the endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit.

B.C.G.— As an illustration of what our brother has been presenting, there are two species of things in contrast with it which are found in Christendom. The one is the thought of union, which is not unity, which puts contradictory things together and just glosses that over with a union, the elements of which are not put together by the Spirit of God. That is man's substitute for a divine truth. If I cut off all the fingers of my hand and tie them together, that would be a union but it would not be a unity. The fingers would be together, but they are not together as united, running to the centre of the palm of the hand. If I took a piece off the tips of the taller ones, making them all of the same size, that would be another phase of things — uniformity. The Word of God does not present either of those things; it presents unity. There are differences of attainment; differences as to growth, but there is a unity which God forms, and He forms it with relation to Christ the Head, so that now, as God has given us a hand we have not any of us to make a hand; we have to keep one. God has given us the various parts of our bodies to maintain intact, and so He has formed the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and it is our business to keep the unity of the Spirit.

S.R.— As illustrating that in a very simple way: here we are together this morning from all parts, and soon we will have to be separated, bodily. We will suppose that we were to break bread this morning, or, what is the same thing, take some action as gathered to our Lord. Let us notice it — we are always at the Lord's table; not simply on Lord's day morning, but we keep the Passover seven days. That is, there is no time when we are not at the Lord's table. Our whole life is at the Lord's table, just as Mephibosheth was always at the king's table. Not that he was eating all the time, but his position was that he was at the king's table. Now, someone seeks, we will say, to minister, and it is not the truth of God; it is not for edification; then, of course, it fails to edify us as gathered here. I judge that we would say that ministry was more particularly connected with the body, just as government is more particularly connected with the house. You would say that if one's ministry is not edifying or is not true, he would come under the government of the house — that is, we would have to deal with him. Would we not, if some one came here and taught Unitarianism or something that denied Christ, would we not arise at once and put him from our midst? We would not go on with it at all. That is the order of the house, of course. If a person applied for fellowship who was not in a right state or held false doctrine or anything of that sort, we would not receive him. That is connected with our responsibility as members of the one body and as members of the house.

But now we separate. Have those principles changed in the least? Some of us go to western Ontario; some of us into the States; some of us to Nova Scotia, and all that. There is the same precious gospel; the same kind of ministry; the same application for fellowship. What would you do in any one place differently from what we have done as gathered together? Would not our act be identically the same if it were done in some local assembly as if it were done in this large and representative gathering? There is the application of the unity of the Spirit — the truth of the unity of the Spirit to the saints as gathered in various places; and if we are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, it must be acting separately just as we would act were we all together and the act of the separate assembly representing the action of the Church of God — the action of the House of God, just as much as if we were all together in one large united meeting. There is no separation; in other words it is identical.

B.C.G.— The first is a thought which may be new to some — "we are always at the Lord's table" — are never seen distinct and severed from it. We are not always in the act of taking the bread and wine, but you see we, are identified with that. Read 1 Cor. 10, beginning at the seventeenth verse — "For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lords' table, and of the table of devils." So he puts it upon them seriously: How can people who are partakers of the Lord's table — that is their every-day character — how can they rally themselves with what is the most distinct denial of that

S.R.— We ought to have it stamped upon us; we are people in this world who are identified with His name and His table.

Ques.— How can that be carried out practically, that we are always at the Lord's table?

B.C.G.— Having the sense upon us that we are associated with Him in that fellowship which is expressed at the Lord's table.

W.McC. — And in our practices during the week or any of the intervals between the time that we would be sitting at the Lord's table, actually partaking of the loaf and the cup, our associations and all should be consistent with the moral significance of the feast that we partake of, we should not be playing fast and loose with things as we see some. The authority of His name must be maintained there; so, as those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, we are bound to refuse any who are careless. We are the stewards of the Lord's table; we are to keep His name clear in relation to what is associated with it. So the very name, Lord's table, puts it upon us that we cannot be indifferent to the Lord's holy claim to it.

G.M.— To illustrate what our brother R.— said: A few weeks ago, I was very deeply and forcibly impressed, when I was at a place, that whatever I was doing there, though as an individual, I was doing for all, and it was not a question of any personal estimation of persons or liberty that I could have myself, but it was a question of all — the whole body.

A.E.B.— That is important. It would be nice if all the laborers would remember that.

S.R.— Acting not as individuals, but for all. That what was sought to be done was to carry out the Lord's interests for all His people, and that nothing inconsistent with that should be done.

A.E.B.— I wish all the laborers would just keep that same thought before them. In all our service, that we are to act for the whole, and especially where little gatherings are formed and the Lord's table is spread.

S.R.— Just there is a point of importance; the formation of new gatherings. It is a very important thing that new gatherings should be formed, but the table should not be spread in any place without, if possible, the practical fellowship of some gathering near by — at any rate, with the written fellowship. Let it be known that the saints are contemplating breaking bread, and seeking the fellowship of their brethren. I think some of the brethren here could give very interesting illustrations of how the neglect of that has worked harm, and how the observance of that principle has been for blessing.

B.C.G.— It would be just as imperative — it is just the same thing — supposing there were two or three suburban meetings here, that the same fellowship should be between them as if it were two or three meetings here in the city. The point is to recognize fellowship with each other, and if these little gatherings are formed, they should be formed in relation to those which already exist.

To follow up what we have been saying; when persons would ask us for some definite scripture with reference to it, I would like to call attention to two or three passages to show that there was not a diverse order as to assemblies in the earlier days, and there should be no more now.

1 Cor. 7: 17. Without looking at what was in the beginning, it says in the last part of the verse, "And so ordain I in all churches." That is, what the apostle insisted upon there he insisted upon everywhere. The arrangement of things was universal. He had not one order for Corinth and another for Ephesus. God's order he claimed was divine authority.

S.R.— Just with your finger on that verse, I would like to quote what has been said, "What has Ephesus to do with evil at Corinth?" How absolutely contrary to the word of God such an expression as that would be, which has been used and maintained as a principle of independency.

B.C.G.— The sixteenth verse of the eleventh chapter is in the same line. And this is the epistle of order in the house of God. This is what might be deemed an unimportant 'matter, but the apostle insisted upon it here, (and he would if he were here now), "If any man seem to contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." That is, he could not yield to any man who wanted to set aside God's order.

W.McC.— Let us remember in studying first Corinthians that it was not confined in its address to the church of God in Corinth, but to "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours"; so that its application is as much for us in the last days and last hours, and for every saint of God, as it was for them. That was a special remark that widened out to all; while we know that all Scripture is of universal application, in another way this has a special stamp upon it.

A.E.B.— "If any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom," — that is, we the laborers, nor the assemblies of God. There is perfect unity amongst the laborers, and perfect unity amongst all the gatherings. That is a very important thing.

B.C.G.— Here he has spent half a chapter upon such an unimportant matter, seemingly, as to how brethren should be distinct from sisters in the Church of God. But some have said that Paul says, if any one objects to that, he does not hold to this. If any one objects, we have no such custom — we yield. That is not true in the least. If any one is objecting and is contentious, why he is rejecting the universal custom of the laborers, of course, and the universal custom of the assemblies of God.

F.J.E.— That should be well taken notice of, because there has been a great misconception about that verse. It has often been quoted the way you have put it with reference to what you have stated just now in connection with the sisters.

S.R.— The apostle says in another place, "If any man will be ignorant, let him he ignorant." Such an one is still ignorant, that is all.

B.C.G.— Chapter 14, verse 33 is on the same line; and we know that is the chapter that regulates the ministry of the Church when it comes together. It is a sample case. After giving all these directions, he says the reason is, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." In all the churches it is the same. How could the apostle say this — how could he vouch for the various gatherings if this were not so? It is not but that gatherings may differ in their spiritual condition, but there was but one order maintained. There was but one centre; but one order of the assemblies coming together. So he can speak for all the assemblies of the saints. Now this is specially to be noticed, for I was challenged more than once across the sea, and have been this side, as to this expression which has been used, as to the "Circle of Fellowship." A person said to me: I do not agree with what some of you American brethren say as to the Circle of Fellowship. Well, I said, if you can give us a better name to express a divine fact, we will be glad for any good name, because we know the name is but human but the thing is divine, and we do not want you, in objecting to the name, to do away with the thing. Here is a circle of fellowship — here is an order that the apostle can vouch for — that if you leave Corinth and go to Ephesus you will find it there too. So we have got to look into it to see what this order is. If we go to Ephesus, what ought we to do? We bear a letter from Corinth, we go to the same fellowship in Ephesus that we leave in Corinth; we are in the fellowship wherever it may be. Some people, for convenience or other reasons, do not put in their claim elsewhere, and they say they do not belong there for the time. That is not true. The day they land at the other place they belong there.

S.R.— Yes, and are under the discipline of that place — of the saints as gathered there. We, for instance, have been under the discipline of the assembly at Toronto for the last three days; subject to the discipline of the House of God as expressed in the assembly of Toronto of which for the time being we form part.

B.C.G.— In connection with that, then, if we had presented something here that the brethren were assured was a very evil thing, and they protested against it, and we still held to it, then the next thing, inasmuch as the order of the Church of God is but one, there should at once be an appeal made from us to those we came from. Why? because they are responsible — they sent us in a sense, or commended us; so that would stop any such mischievous notion as that we should deal with evil short and sharp and cut people off before those they came from have a full opportunity to identify themselves with the matter. If you are right in taking us up for something we have presented here, then the brethren, in deference to them should have an opportunity to act with you in all that is done.

F.J.E.— In connection with the circle of fellowship, would you say now that in view of the failure that has come in amongst those professing to be and actually gathered out to the name of the Lord, that that "circle of fellowship" is confined to those who are holding to the truth of God as it was accepted when the movement first took place?

B.C.G.— Certainly.

F.J.E.— That is to say, to take ourselves, for instance: Is it not confined to that "circle of fellowship" apart from other companies of those who are called brethren?

S.R.— Certainly. We cannot vouch for other people maintaining that which we do not know they are maintaining.

F.J.E.— If that is the case, we would say we are in the "circle of fellowship" on what ground? For what reason?

S.R.— To maintain the truth which we find in the Scriptures.

F.J.E.— Then that practically condemns the other circles.

S.R.— It does, unquestionably, brethren, and I do not believe we ought to have the slightest hesitation in saying that we are where we are by conviction, and that by God's grace we maintain in love and lowliness, but with all firmness, our separate position as gathered to the Lord's name in subjection to His word, and that we look on our dear brethren in the sects, and on our dear brethren who are not but who are practically forming sections in that way, we look on them all alike; we test them all by the word of God. Some have more truth; some have less truth, but none of them, for one reason and another — none of them can have that which commends them to us as being on the ground of God's word simply and only. The only way we can leave the ground we occupy is by conviction that it is wrong and unscriptural. That is the only upright and conscientious way that we can change our position — that it is not according to God, and take a position that is according to God, whether it be with some other company or if we have to stand alone.

W.McC.— There are some today who have the thought that the corporate testimony is gone, and that there is nothing remaining for Christians now, but individual Christian testimony. They do not set themselves — they do not intend to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; they do not recognize that there is any more responsibility, or at least that there is any more possibility of the children of God — the members of the body of Christ gathering together as such, and maintaining together the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace; they have given up that idea. They have expressed it in words like this: "Oh, your theory of the one body is exploded," and they point to the numerous defects among us to prove it. But that does not prove that we are cleared from the responsibility of still obeying the fourth chapter of Ephesians; that does not change the fact that God had made of twain one new man, so making peace, that He has joined Jews and Gentiles together by the baptism of the Spirit into one body. That fact remains, and will remain until Christ takes the Church out of the world, but as long as it does remain, we, as individuals are responsible to endeavor, collectively — every individual that sees the truth, is responsible with every other individual who sees the truth, to maintain that truth, to walk together in the uniting bond of peace. Ignoring this, many give up this endeavor — the endeavor which should arise from a firm belief of the truth as to this.

B.C.G.— That is a most mischievous notion; it is wider spread than we have any idea of.

S.R.— And it shows really that they have had their eyes on their fellow-brethren instead of on the Word of God and on the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been looking at one another; and if we have failed, then everything is gone.

F.J.E.— It would be wrong for me then, believing that I am where the truth is, to say to these other circles: Now let us come together; we are all wrong?

S.R.— Certainly. Why should I confess as wrong that which is the truth of God? There may be details which one would be glad to clear up, provided they were not understood as giving up the ground of God's truth.

A.E.B.— Another point as to this. Not only has the Scripture put us in this position, but certain circumstances in connection with our brethren have compelled it. We all know that our hearts' desire is not to be separated from them, but it is because they will not follow the truth, we have been forced into separation from them. And on the other side there are others from whom our hearts' desire is not to be separated but who take unscriptural, sectarian ground. So in that way I think that our consciences are perfectly clear before God as to practice.

F.J.E.— If I believe I am where the truth is, it would not be right for me to go to another company of brethren and say, Now let us get together; we are all wrong, and make a confession and see if we cannot get together again.

S.R.— That is going out to one of the cities. Leaving Jerusalem and going out to Ono. (Neh.6: 2)

B.C.G.— Except we have something to turn to in Scripture to tell us the principles that God established at the beginning have been rendered null and void by any failure of His people, we must go back and see what was that order that God established at the beginning, and we must aim definitely and continuously to carry out that order. We never can buy off from those things, and it is just the devil's trick to get us to excuse ourselves from responsibility and say: "everything is gone; we cannot maintain anything," which is to say that Christ is no longer head of His Church; His word is not sufficient guidance for us in all our pathways here, and the Spirit of God is not competency to obey the will of God. It is a surrender of everything.

S.R.— Speaking of going back reminds me of another thing that is very important. In the movements towards union that have been made, and which have brought such sorrow in some quarters, there has been a distinct refusal to go back to the start of the trouble. If I see aright in Scripture, the only way to get right with God and to get right with one another, is to go back to the root of the thing and judge that. Here is a division, for instance, which took place many years ago. They plead the statute of limitations and say, That happened fifty years ago; what do we know about it? Let us take things as we find them now. Here is a company of saints; they love the Lord Jesus, and their walk is right. Well, beloved, how about fifty years ago? If they love the Lord Jesus, and if their walk is right, is it such a hard thing to walk back fifty years with the Word of God in our hand, and say: Here was something said: here was a principle adopted that was contrary to the word of God, and it was wrong? We go back 6000 years. We take our Bibles and turn to to the first part of Genesis, and we say Adam and Eve sinned. We have no hesitation in saying this thing. Somebody might say: That happened 6000 years ago; what difference does that make? It is just as fresh to-day as it was then. And so a principle adopted fifty years ago and acted upon as the principle of fellowship amongst Christians is just as fresh to-day, and has got to be judged. If it is a right principle, dear brethren, you and l have got to go back those fifty years and confess before God our wrong in resisting that principle. If it is unscriptural, our brethren, no matter how dear they may be as children of God, no matter how nice their companies may appear, they must go back and judge that principle too, or there can be no godly basis of fellowship.

B.C.G.— We have definite Scripture as to that: the apostle speaks of some who walk in the way of Cain; so, though Cain is dead and gone, his ways are here yet. And the Lord tells the people who are rejecting Him, in the eleventh of Luke, forty-ninth verse. "Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute; that the blood of the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation." The point which is of great value there, is this; that there was a people who never shed Abel's blood, who are charged with it; there were people who never shed the blood of Zacharias, but they were held accountable for it. Why? Because they identified themselves with the people who did it; We cannot get out of it; this principle of association is one of the most serious things possible, and if we learn it well and deeply it will root us out of things which people are so utterly careless about now. I give you one good example. When we were remonstrating with a brother whom we heard was associated with the Free Masons, and he said he was not much of a Mason — he scarcely ever went; just kept his name on the books by paying up his dues once in a while — we followed him up by this: that if he was a Mason at all, he ought to be a good Mason. It is a good thing for a man to be zealously affected in a good thing, and if it is a good thing he ought to get his brethren to join too. We would like to belong to a good thing. We sought to show him that he was identified before God with what Masonry was in God's sight. We said, Now, we will give you time to consider it duly, but if the Scripture says; "Love the Brotherhood," that shuts out every brotherhood but one; there is only one to which the definite article is applied, and that is the Brotherhood of the people of God; these are the devices of the enemy, for God is an exclusive God and says, I am God and there is none else. The brotherhood of His people is an exclusive brotherhood which shuts all other brotherhoods. Thank God, the dear man, after a good deal of exercise, decided to withdraw entirely from Masonry. Another way the devil has of holding a Christian is because he has insured his life, and has paid out a good deal of money to a society and he wants to get his money's worth.

Let us carefully discriminate. Supposing we say that is an unequal yoke; but it is an unequal yoke of a very serious nature. Here is another man who thinks he sees what a terrible curse intemperance is, and he sees the misery that it brings, and so on, and believing he is here partly to set the world right, he goes in with others in a temperance movement. It would be very ill-used judgment, and not weighing things properly to put those things down side by side as of equal gravity; while both are unequal yokes. Free Masonry is not only an unequal yoke, but it has most serious things attached to it, and we have to discriminate as to it.

S.R.— As to the principle involved, we must remember that each case has its details which render it distinct. We must take into account that discipline is by the priests, as you might say, and that, by the way, includes all the assembly; not the brothers only. The brothers may be the Levites and have their meeting, and get things in order so that the priests may examine the case and decide upon it, but the brothers alone do not settle cases of discipline. It requires communion with God, and discernment, which comes from communion with God, of the state of soul. But you see in the plague of leprosy there were all kinds of things; there was a freckle; there was a bald head; there was a boil — there were such things. There were things that speak of mere natural infirmities or the ebulition of nature which do not represent the deep root of leprosy or association with leprosy; so we have to use wisdom and discernment, and as our brother has pointed out, give the brother who is entangled in these things time, and let him understand that we are not standing with a pistol pointed at him, and counting, so to speak; — we are to give him time in that way, and have our arms about him and helping him out of the thing.

I would not say that life insurance was an immoral thing; I would say it was a distinct lack of faith. It shows a state of soul, but it is not exactly an unequal yoke with unbelievers; and being a question of faith, we cannot give people faith, but we can exhort them and counsel them; that is all. But in the case of the Christian identified with Free Masonry, we could not put it on that ground. That is a question of obedience and not of faith.

F.J.E.— There are many who join Free Masonry for the benefits that their wives and children may get, and themselves too.

S.R.— There are two distinct errors there. We must sympathize with one another in a want of faith, but not sympathize with each other in direct disobedience. A man might be tempted to insure his life, and we could ask God to encourage his faith; but if he associates himself with Free Masonry, put things before him showing him the extreme gravity of one in distinction to the other. Things are going to become more and more difficult.

It is the question of association that is the far graver question. And there is another thing about association that reaches a little more widely than that even; and that is that association by one who is clear individually with those who are not clear, which is worse than the association of a person who is not clear. For instance, if I, knowing the truth of God, associate with those, we will say, who are Unitarians, I am far worse than if one ignorant were to associate with Unitarians. One might say, These are nice people, and I do not accept their heretical doctrine of annihilation or whatever it might be; I repudiate that. Then I say to such a person, you are a great deal worse than a person who is blinded. You are in the thing with your eyes open. And so, personal clearness, if it is associated with evil, is worse than blindness associated with evil. So, when they say — We received this person as an individual; he is personally clear. I say, What? personally clear and yet associated with evil? What is his moral state, then?

B.C.G.— Some would like scriptures to look up, possibly. As we cannot consider them all this morning, and as this is a very important thing, and far reaching in its consequences, I would like to call your attention to two or three which you can easily remember. The thirteenth of Deuteronomy, and just note very briefly the points in it. It points really to a false prophet. That you could mark in ver. 1.

S.R.— One interruption at the beginning. It is frequently said: We object to this use of Old Testament Scriptures for New Testament saints. The apostles trod on this ground themselves. When the apostle was establishing an order amongst the Corinthians, speaking of the maintenance of God's servants there, he goes to the Old Testament for several Scriptures to prove it; and inasmuch as God has laid down there principles for the maintenance of what is due to His Name in connection with His people, those principles are never altered or changed in any dispensation. If you cannot find the same thing in the New Testament, it would be folly to go to the Old Testament for it. And that is exactly how the apostles did themselves, and we cannot teach any better. Is not the Old Testament the book of divine government just as the New Testament is the book of divine grace? I mean broadly speaking. And so when you get the principles of government you will find they are the same from Eden down to the pearly gates of Heaven itself. Government is always the same.

A.E.B.— Only they become clearer with revelation. The fifth Book, Deuteronomy, is the book of divine government — not simply law — law is part of it — so you go through the whole Book, and it is the book that opens up the government of God in a marvelous way.

B.C.G.— Here we have now amongst a number of other laws, we might say, principles which some reject and say: Some of these laws have passed away. But no moral principle ever passes away. It is true, that prohibition as to eating certain things which were ceremonially unclean, have passed away, but the underlying principles have not. We are to eat to the glory of God. Just as in this chapter, the first verse is their relation to the prophet, and they were not to listen to him, for he leads them away from God.

The sixth verse is their relation to a brother. The prophet in the Old Testament answering to the teacher in the New; the brother in the Old Testament answering to the brother in the New.

The twelfth verse: "If thou hear say in one of thy cities." And a city in the Old Testament would answer to a company — a shut in company of God's people in the New. A city had walls, and just as a city had walls so the assembly has its bounds, and the people outside are not in. That is sufficient. You can look it up with care; I take it they are easily remembered. The thirteenth of Deuteronomy is a sample case of how God called His people to refuse false testimony; not to go on in fellowship with one disowning His name, and that the same rule existing between brother and brother existed between city and city.

S.R.— In connection with the city, we might add 2 Sam. 20 from the sixteenth verse. You have one wrong doer in a city who embroils the whole city. The whole city is responsible for the presence of one wrong doer, and unless he is judged, the people of God must be against that whole city. From the sixteenth to the twenty-second verse. The whole tribe of Benjamin in the book of Judges were all guilty on account of evil-doers allowed among them.

B.C.G.— There is the principle announced in the thirteenth of Deuteronomy; the application is given in that chapter of 2 Samuel. In the thirteenth of 1 Kings we have this lesson emphasized for us in connection with the division. This is important. A division among the people of Israel, between the ten tribes and the two, and how God chose a servant of His who was in Judah — a man of God out of Judah to go down to Bethel to bear testimony against an altar there which was associated with idolatry. How was he to go? Sent by God, he was to go and bear his testimony against it, and then his practice must be like his testimony; what he said must be like what be did. See how serious the charge was. Eat no bread and drink no water there, nor come back by the way you went. Three pointed things: he was not to get any strength there; eat no bread. He was not to be refreshed there, and he was not to come back upon the same track, which would look as if he made a mistake in going there. He must come back another way. He goes and delivers the testimony faithfully, and when the king tempts him with great reward to come into his house, he says, openly and frankly, in the eighth verse — "If thou give me half thine house I will not go with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place." He holds definitely to his original orders. I will do what I am told. And see how he was holding — "For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying: Eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the way that thou camest." But now, the next thing we see an old prophet of Bethel finds out what has happened and goes out to him and tells him an angel has told him to go and get him back. Meantime the Lord's word seems to have weakened in this man's soul. He does not say as he said to the king, "I will not," but "I may not return with thee nor go in with thee" (ver.16). And he does not say, "It was charged me by the word of the Lord," but he says, "It was said to me." Now there is something in that. In the first case he realized under the solemn charge how he must not deviate a hair's breadth from it. In the second case that does not seem to have the same hold upon his soul and he goes back and dies under the judgment of God. And the eighteenth verse, "The old prophet said unto him I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel has spoken to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water; but he lied unto him." He said he was a prophet too. I am like you — I am just like you; but then it was an angel only that spoke to him, so he said. Paul says: "Though we, or an angel from heaven." Not an angel — but the Word of God. The written Word of God is better than all the prophets' and all the angels or anything else it is just the simple Word of God. We must not trust an angel, against the Divine testimony. How careful we need to be as to all the commands of God. "Barnabas was carried away by their dissimulation." He thought a good deal of Peter, and when Peter just goes wrong, the whole thing was gone, if it had not been that the apostle Paul stood for God. Barnabas was carried away, so we have got to guard against those who are near and dear to us. If they do go wrong, we have got to keep to God's word.

S.R.— To not eat bread and all that, applies in many ways. People are put away from the Lord's table. If we have the truth as to the Lord's table, we know, that includes the whole life. But if putting away from the Lord's table means merely putting away from eating bread on Lord's day morning, that is not being put away at all. "Put away from among yourselves," is what the apostle says, "the wicked person." As to companies of the Lord's dear people, of course, they are not wicked persons, let us remember that; and God will never go with us in using stronger language than He does. Let us never do that. Let us treat in all love, in tenderness and compassion, those with whom we cannot be identified; but notice, "Not to eat bread there." Of course, that would be, primarily, not to break bread. We could not go and break bread with a company that is not clear. So we can only go and bear our testimony and then come back. As our brother said, not treading the same path twice even, — not making it an accustomed thing even, — just to go around and come back — just to circle through as bearing witness against a thing, in love, tenderness and in meekness, seeking to deliver souls, but not going on with their course.

Love of God

The Love of God

1 John 4: 7-21; Hebrews 12: 29

Seventy or eighty years ago Mr. Haldane came from Scotland to the city of Geneva, and having heard of some young men there of a sceptical turn of mind, he became much interested in them and sought an interview. This was arranged and they met together, an interpreter being present as Mr. Haldane could not speak French. Mr. Haldane began by saying, "God loves Himself supremely, and all He has done is to gratify Himself." "Translate that," said he. "I cannot," said the interpreter, "it would never do." "Translate it," said Mr. Haldane sternly, and it was translated. It was God's message to these young men, and great was its effect. Six of them were brought to God, and among these were the famous Merle D'Aubigne (Author of the History of the Reformation) and Caesar Malan used of God so greatly in Switzerland and elsewhere.

We greatly need the same truth presented by Mr. Haldane, and so much owned of God. When we love ourselves it is because we are selfish, but God in loving Himself shews His unselfishness. He is all that is perfect, He must love Himself, and He must labour unceasingly for the gratification of His own love. He must have the happiness of blessing, we may have all the happiness of being blessed. Would that we understood this better.

It may however be asked, What scripture do you give for this? The answer is that God says, "My glory will I not give to another." What is God's glory which He cannot give to another? The glory surely of being the source of all goodness and blessing. He cannot be otherwise than what He has ever been. "God is Love," and He cannot but sustain that character. This is His glory. Ours is to know Him in the love and to reflect that character.

I have felt very much of late the difficulties we have in understanding God's language. He has a language of His own because He is God, and although He uses man's words, they are so changed by His handling, so enriched and wonderful have they become that they are no longer recognizable without a new power and a new inward state. Unless there is this power of the Holy Spirit, and this spiritual state, God's language is a sealed book to us though every word in it is quite familiar to us according to the language of men. To understand God we must become like little children; however wise we are we must become fools to learn. Nothing is so fatal to the understanding of divine truth as the idea that we have some knowledge, hence the Father reveals Himself to babes, and hides Himself from the wise and prudent. He speaks to the heart instead of to the intellect.

Take, for instance, the word "love." There is no commoner word, the mass of poetry, and most of the books written are on the subject of love, yet that which God calls "love" is but little understood even by the people of God, and it is a blank  to the world. So much so that the God who is love is more maligned than anyone else, and men find fault with His ways because they say they are lacking in love. Look at verse 7. This shews us that patriotism, a mother's love, and all the other human forms of love are not such as God can call "love." Love, according to God, is far higher than all these. God does not call that love which does not act through righteousness, and in which there is any selfishness or any motive save the glory of God. Man's love is greatly alloyed with selfishness, and neither righteousness nor the desire for the glory of God are necessities to that love. So different are men's thoughts to God's.

It is because of this great difficulty in the apprehension of love that there is not much about love in the Old Testament. We learn much there about righteousness, much of the mercy and loving-kindness of God, but not that God is love. In the Old Testament we only get the back parts of the glory of God. Before His face could be seen, and we could understand that God is love, it was necessary that the righteousness of God should be manifested. Love will make any sacrifice, will go to any length to gratify itself, but it can only act in the way of righteousness.

But how are we to learn love? We cannot learn what love is by what we see around us. The creation around does not manifest love; on the contrary, it is full of confusion, and those who judge by what they see are full of perplexities. There seems no clue to the mystery, and the wiser the enquirer, the more the pain, as the wise man tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is because men will judge in this way that they have such hard thoughts of God, and God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, is so misjudged. You and I would never endure it if we were misjudged as God is.

Verse 9 shews how the love of God has been manifested. God has sent His Son; and it shews too the object of this manifestation of love, that we may live by Him. Live when? Not by and by in heaven, but live now. How do we live? By the sense of love. There is no other way.

Verse 10 shews us what love is, that its source is the heart of God. Love is not indigenous in man. It comes from God to him. How do we see this? In the sending of His Son to be the propitiation for our sins: not to make* propitiation, but to be it, see 1 John 2: 2. It is not a past thing, it is a present blessing, which the soul enters into. A present sense of favour owing to what God's Son is as to our sins.

{*There is only one place where to make propitiation is spoken of, i.e. Heb. 2: 17, New Translation. This is priestly work for the seed of Abraham and not a work for sinners as it is so often understood to be.}

God is so anxious for us to enter into present blessing, but we have been always thinking that we shall get a blessing some day, and thus losing the present blessing, which is God's special thought. What assurance have you of future blessing, if you are not blessed now? Years ago we learnt forgiveness of sins, we found peace with God, we heard that Christ was coming again for us, and we began to look out for Him. Also we received the Holy Ghost. This is very right and very blessed, and yet if we stop here we lose the main blessing altogether and fail to give the joy to Christ which He looks for.

We must begin by being babies, and a baby is a beautiful thing; but would you have the baby remain a baby? He would very soon be a monstrosity, and this is what so often occurs with us. We started well, but soon our growth became stunted, for we did not go on to get the present blessing by which we would be matured and ripened unto perfection or full growth. This is what God wants, and for this we must be enjoying love, and by enjoying love we shall be formed in love. There is no other way.

What has God sent the Spirit here for? Not to give us what the saints had before. They anticipated the glory and all the blessings of God by faith, but present entrance into these blessings was not possible to the Old Testament saints: this present entrance is reserved for us. if we have it not, the whole point in the coming of the Holy Ghost is lost. I fear we are not sufficiently exercised as to this. May God exercise us.

What have we generally understood when we have said we were saved? Did we not mean that we were sure of heaven? But if this is all, we are not there yet. Salvation (except where it refers to the full result including the resurrection body) is something for the present, and if we are not in the possession of present power over sin, we do not know salvation. So it is with all God's blessings, they are for present enjoyment, power and use, and we have made a great mistake in relegating them to the future. This is pressed in the chapter we are considering, "As He is so are we in this world." These last words are added in order to press the present aspect of the blessing. Moreover, there is nothing in this chapter for faith, but all is for the sense and consciousness of love that God may be satisfied by making us satisfied. A satisfied heart delights God.

When it says that God sent His Son that we might live through Him, what does it mean? When we are in the enjoyment of that love, which will form the delight of heaven, then it is we live, Therefore it is that life is so little understood; a dissatisfied heart does not live, it only exists. If you would live, drink in the love of God to-day. It is all present; to-morrow will take care of itself. Our place is to bask in His love to-day.

When we relegate the blessings of God to the future we can pass muster as tolerable Christians, but when we see that they are all present then we have to own with shame how little we have pleased God the Father, how little we have honoured the Son, how little we have used the Spirit. Who is it that honours the Son? Not those who merely ascribe to Him an equal place with the Father, but those, who let the love of God flow through the heart of the Son into their hearts, whose hearts are made free by that love, and who have lost the sense of distance they once had, for they know that they are before God in all the value of the Son. They dwell in God and God in them. All this is lost to the one, who puts the blessings of God into the background of the future. Alas! we are all guilty. God grant we may not be guilty of this any more. We must enjoy the love of God, if we are to please Him. It is this sense of being loved that makes us superior to the power of the world. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, but this refers to the Spirit as characteristic, otherwise this power will not be known.

We have often thought of heaven as a prettier kind of earth, and the description of the heavenly Jerusalem is often taken literally, but let us get into the truth of the chapter before us, dwell in God and know God dwelling in us, then we shall know what heaven is. No one will get to heaven if heaven does not get into him. Shall it be that God takes all this trouble in order to bring us into present blessing, and we not respond? Shall we have the opportunity of rejoicing the heart of the Son and be oblivious to it? There is such a golden moment for us now, all the world is slighting God's Son; how blessed are those who, during the present period, can shew the love of the Son rejoices their hearts.

The love of God is the most real of all things, yet we may deceive ourselves and think we love Him when we do not. There is much sentimentality abroad, and we have to take good heed that we are not ensnared thereby. Because of our liability to err God graciously gives us tests to try ourselves by. It is easy to ascertain how much I love God, for my love to my brother is the measure of my love to God. When we test ourselves thus, then our love seems woefully small.

We must understand, however, that this love when present is shewn as God's love is: that is, love is intensely anxious for the best blessing of those loved; the spiritual is far more important than the natural, yet this latter is not neglected. Love, how- ever, can only act in righteousness, though it will go to any length in order to fulfil righteous claims in order that love may have its desire.

The test is a very real one when it is a question of those to whom we are not naturally attracted; those of different dispositions, different social position, and above all of a different race. Do we love those brethren, who are naturally most removed from us, and do we seek their good with all our hearts? Our Lord said, "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples that ye have love one to another." Do we really show our discipleship in this manner? It is useless saying that we love the God whom we have not seen, if we do not love the brother whom we have seen.

Mind you read the scriptures aright. Often when we read, "Love one another," we say, "Why do not my brethren love me?" This is how the devil teaches us to read scripture. We are not told to get love, we are told to love. Love where we are loved, and love where we are hated. To love always and in all circumstances, never mind whether others love us or not. Many read scripture backwards. When they read "Give" they say, "Oh! that is very nice, who is going to give to me?" Do you think such people know the love of God, or get any good from scripture? Impossible. One professor said to me, "I ask because I want to give my brethren an opportunity to fulfil Matt. 5: 42." I said, "Be consistent then, go about smiting your brethren, suing at the law, and forcing them to come along at your bidding in order to give them the opportunity of fulfilling the three previous verses." Alas! let us see to it that when we read, "Love ye," we do love, and when we read, "Give ye," we give, and so with everything. The one who yields all gets all; the one who keeps all, loses.

Also do not forget 1 John 5: 2, 3. Love must be shewn according to the commandments of God. But what are the commandments? Are they the ten? Surely not. They are not, Do this, and do not do that. To get these commandments we must be formed in love. Then we shall understand, not otherwise. What is love? To walk after His commandments. But what are His commandments? To love one another, see 1 John 3: 23 and 2 John 5, 6. Clever people will tell us that this is not logical, it is merely reasoning in a circle. Quite true, and an uncommonly good circle it is for those who understand it, for the rest it is necessarily utter foolishness. Explain as much as you like and the carnal will not understand, because these things are only known experimentally: to the poor in spirit it is all simple and easy.

I also read Heb. 12: 29. It seems very different to say, "Our God is a consuming fire" in contrast to "God is love," but really these statements go together. Our God is a consuming fire because He is love, because there must be an intense action both preservative of the good and hostile to the evil. Can God be indifferent to that which would hinder His love being known? Impossible. How does the mother feel towards the snake, which would bite her child? Love is a fire which many waters cannot quench, and he who understands the jealousy of love will be thankful that God is a consuming fire. He will understand it. Our jealousy is the result of selfishness, but God's jealousy is the result of absolute unselfishness. If we know the love of God, we are thankful for every attribute of His. If not, even His kindness fills us with dread.

When Jacob was at Bethel God appears to him in a vision and shews Jacob that he is the object of God's tenderest care. Does Jacob rejoice in this? No, he says, "How dreadful is this place." This shews he did not know God, and was not at home with Him. How different was the case with Abraham, the Friend of God.

How is it with us? To have received innumerable benefits from God is one thing, to know Him, to be at home with Him, to bask in His love is another thing. Have you ever said with a saint of old who had not a tithe of the light you have?

"To Thee, Lord, my heart unfoldeth,

As the rose to the golden sun —

To Thee, Lord, mine arms are clinging

The eternal joy begun."

When you know this you will not need to ask, as so many here are doing, What is this life eternal? You will have it, and will not need to ask What is it? Its joy will fill your soul, and you will wonder how it was you missed it before, for now you cannot exist without it.

Spirit Characteristically

The Spirit Characteristically

1 Cor. 12: 11-13, 25-27

I will tell you of a mistake I made myself for many a year, and only got clear on the subject little by little, and I press it on you because we naturally attach great importance to what we learn in our own soul's experience. Well, I used to think that whenever the Spirit is spoken of in scripture it only referred to the Spirit personally and not the Spirit characteristically. It is, of course, an immense thing to get hold of the truth that the Holy Ghost is a person, just as much a person as the Father or the Son. He is really God. The Holy Ghost is God, and He is a person. I use the word "person" for want of a better. This comes out in that part of the chapter where it says in verse 2, "Dividing to every man severally as He will." An influence could not do that. It could only be done by a divine person, who has a will of His own. Of course, His will is not like ours. Our will is a wrong will, His is right.

The Holy Ghost, according to scripture, came down to dwell on earth at Pentecost, and He is dwelling here to-day. We need to get hold of that truth very clearly. It is one of the great truths God was pleased to restore to us in the early part of the century, and it is extremely important, but we should not stop there as we are apt to do. I admit that I read the passages where the Spirit is spoken of very differently to what I used to in days gone by. The Holy Ghost is a divine person, and He came down to earth in order that He might form Christ within us, so that might be our character, and that we might express Christ, not self. It will only take us a very little way, if we have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, if He does not also characterize us. It would be like a householder, who had a beautiful cooking stove in the house, but the meals were daily cooked in the primitive Indian fashion on three bricks; the stove is there, but for practical purposes it might be non-existent.

We read in the thirteenth verse, "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." This you will understand is characteristic. Now supposing I were to say the Boers in South Africa are all animated and imbued with one spirit, you would understand that easily enough. They are all of one mind, they are all bent on the same thing; heart and soul they are seeking the same object. Well, that is what we get here, "We have all been made to drink into one Spirit." What is that Spirit? It is the Spirit of Christ, that Spirit which produces likeness to Christ. What is "the Christ."* The company of Christians in Corinth, that is called "the Christ?" Why is it thus named? The Spirit had formed this company, and it was given this name that Christ might be manifested in Corinth. It has not at all come home to us in power, that seeing that the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is a divine person there can be but one result, viz. that Christ be set forth in us; that the likeness, the lineaments, the features of Christ must be seen in us, if there be any reality in this great truth.

{*It is not meant that "the Christ" always means this. All that is meant is that this is the meaning in this passage.}

I feel sure that you will find this same thing running all through scripture. I will just give one or two instances, because they will help us. Take, for instance, the eighth of Romans, the last part of the ninth verse. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His." What does that mean? Years ago I would have explained that wrongly, for we are slow to learn. What it means is this: If a man is not like Christ, he cannot claim to belong to Him. If you want to claim to belong to Christ here upon earth you must shew your likeness to Him; and if you do not, then what you say is worthless. That is very simple. We often make everything a matter of whether we get to heaven or not, but that is not God's thought. The point is where and what are you now? Not where and what are you going to be by and by. Taking it in a general way, we are very poor judges of what is going to happen to a man in eternity. Do not attempt to judge as to your neighbour in this matter. The great thing is, Do we belong to Christ to-day? and God wants us all to shew whether we belong to Him or not. Supposing a man comes to you and he has got thick lips and the crisp, curly hair that belongs to the African negro, and he says to you, I am a European. You will at once say, I don't believe you, your features betray you. Well, in the same way, unless we are Christ-like it is useless to claim to belong to Christ to-day.

I will give you another example. Turn to 1 Cor. 2: 13. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." What does that mean? It is characteristic. It does not mean that the Holy Ghost dictated things to the apostle Paul as you would to an amanuensis, but rather that the apostle gave out that which had been formed in him experimentally by the Holy Spirit (there is no article in the Greek before Holy Spirit), and all ministry must be of the same character, if it is to be worth anything. First there must be the inward entrance into the truth, and then the giving out of what has been first experienced within. If not, the ministry is a sham. Of course, when the scriptures were written the writers were kept from all error, while as to our ministry we are liable to error, but otherwise the principle is the same, and the apostles gave out that which they had first learnt experimentally; unlike the Old Testament scriptures which the prophets themselves studied but could not fully understand. See 1 Peter 1: 10-12.

Just one more example. See 2 Cor. 3: 17. "Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." When you have got the mind, the thought of the Lord, you are in liberty. If you are like the Lord, you are in liberty. Was not the Lord in liberty? Whatever He had to do was not only done in obedience to the will of God, but He delighted in doing that will. This is liberty. There is no other way of liberty than that.

Mr. Darby, in his introduction to the new translation, speaks of the difficulty in the use of either the big or the little "s" for spirit, because so often the word means both the personal Spirit, and the result of the Spirit's indwelling. I feel this difficulty much. If you put in the little "s" you are apt to lose the sense of the personal Spirit, and if you use the big "S," you leave out the inward work of the Spirit as characteristic, and the loss is immense. Please, always remember this. I sometimes wish we had no capitals because of the difficulty in their use. Be sure it is not for nothing that Bible MSS. had only one kind of letter. Two kinds are most convenient, but they may easily mislead. On no account leave out the thought of the Spirit as characteristic.

Well now, to come back to 1 Cor. 12, it says in verse 13, "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." Now I feel a constraint upon me to say what I am going to say. The great point here is that all, whether Jew or Gentile, are made of one mind — one spirit — for the setting forth of Christ. Now I want you to weigh what I am going to say, which is this, That although we here are not a company composed of Jew and Gentile, yet in this tent* there are two quite different races, two different nationalities with different natural ideas, ways, and methods. In consequence of this I believe that we have an opportunity for the display of Christ, which scarcely any other people on the face of the earth enjoy. An opportunity, for instance, which the Christians have not in England. What have they in England? English Christians, in France French Christians, in America American. In America they have the opportunity, but as far as I know they do not generally avail themselves of it. The white and black races are not manifestly one in Christ. In South Africa the negroes form separate congregations. They are not one. We, in this country, of India, have a splendid opportunity of shewing out a little bit of the truth that was being pressed on the Corinthians at that time; that, no matter what the nationality, one spirit animates the whole. Let this be true, then the Jew no longer exhibits the Jew, or the Gentile the Gentile. It is no longer English and native: the natural tendencies are overpowered by a stronger power still, and instead of the display of what is national, Christ is displayed in all.

{*At a conference in India.}

This marvellous display is unknown where all the company is composed of saints out of one nation only. Social differences are very strong, but national are far stronger. When the power of the Spirit causes one and the same display in saints nationally diverse it is a most wonderful testimony. I verily believe we are very guilty in this matter. Oh! you say, it is very difficult. Of course it is. If it was meant to be otherwise, where would the wonder be? Do not you think that I feel the difficulty as much as you do? Oh, you say, I have come across so much that is counterfeit and unreal. Be it so, this will not in the least exempt you from responsibility. We have an opportunity in this country which is, as far as I know, unique on the face of the earth. If we had really drunk of the one Spirit we would shew that one spirit animating saints both the Europeans and the people of this land. We Europeans are very guilty as to this, and will have to answer for it at the judgment seat of Christ. I find that when an Englishman goes to France, within two years at most he is perfectly familiar with the French language, and has made many friends in the country; and so when he goes to any other country where he finds social equals and an interesting literature.

When he comes to this country it is different. There is no literature worth having, there is no society among the natives which he cares for, and often he never learns the language or gets to know the people. Nothing better can be expected from those who know not Christ, but what about us who do? Will not the love of Christ constrain us to do what the love of society and love of literature constrain the English people of this world to do when they get to another European country? Do you think that the excuses many of us offer will be accepted at the judgment seat of Christ? I am constrained to say these things. I feel that God is making me speak thus. Now that I am going away from this country, I am pressed to bring this matter home to you. Some of us may have to answer at the judgment seat of Christ about our neglect of our native brethren, because of our lack of love. We had better take heed because, believers or unbelievers, we do not want to be pulled up at the judgment seat. Surely we would all far rather be pulled up now while the remedy is possible than when it is too late.

Here then according to this passage there is one Spirit, and He is forming exactly the same thing in each. Nothing but Christ comes out of each saint who is so characterised. Could we say that this is manifested in us? Doubtless this has to be made good in the midst of disadvantages, through all kinds of difficulties and dangers. All these things are allowed of God that we may be tested to see whether we are willing to carry out the truth in the face of everything that is contrary, just as the Lord Himself did when here, The power given us is adequate for this display.

The chapter goes on to say everyone of us is necessary to everyone else. You say, That brother is so bad; but I say, He is necessary to you. You say, Oh! but he troubles me so much, there is this thing and that thing about him. Well, that is the very thing you want. Do you think there is a single thing that happens that is not necessary to us? This world is God's training ground, and God sees to it that there is everything to exercise us, and even to rub us up the wrong way, in order that He might have the opportunity to strengthen us and make us faithful. Thus it is that our spiritual muscles are developed, and we become Christians in truth instead of being sham ones. Oh! we should be magnificent Christians in our own opinions, if there were no difficulties, no obstacles, no stumbling-blocks; but really we should only be a set of hypocrites, because we should not know ourselves. We do not know what we are till we are tried. When we have to carry out the truth of God in the midst of very difficult circumstances then we learn whether we are in the truth or not, and generally the lesson is a very humbling one. It is only when a soldier goes to war that you can tell what kind of a soldier he is. Remember then, that everyone of us is necessary to the rest. If one is a bright Christian, he is necessary; if one is only a poor kind of Christian, he is necessary also, If you try to do without half the company you will suffer for it in your soul.

I often say to Christians in England when they talk of the one body, I do not think you know very much about it practically, for this reason, we are not tested as to this truth until we have a company composed of saints from diverse nationalities, which naturally do not amalgamate. The presence of a stray Christian or two from another nation is no test, for he has to fall in with the ways of the mass, but it is when those of another nationality are numerous enough to make their presence felt, if they walk in the flesh, then the test is felt, and it is very severe. Here in India we have this test, and we shew how poorly we have learnt the truth. How far have we advanced in the carrying out of this truth in heart and spirit? Very little. If this be so we are missing a most glorious opportunity. If we do not realise this now, then when we get to heaven we shall find out what an opportunity we had and we did not take advantage of it, and we shall see what a loss it has been. See that you do not lose this great blessing. If we have drunk of the one Spirit it will be effectual in making us overcome natural prejudices, and the testimony thus manifested will shew forth the attraction of Christ, and the power of the Spirit, more than anything else.

There is one thing more, "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." This is not a matter of exhortation, it is a matter of fact. If I am in a bad way I affect you all, hinder you all. This is not the same thing as you get in Romans, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." There it is an exhortation to shew sympathy, but here it is different. If a fellow-member of the body of Christ is in a low spiritual state the other members suffer spiritually in spite of themselves. If your foot aches you cannot disregard it. Then, you say, I shall always be thinking about somebody else. All the better. If you only think of them in the right way that Christ may be glorified in them, the more you think of them the better.

There should be no schism in the body. What is schism? Schism is division. At the present time the professing Church of God is fearfully divided even in an outward manner, and any number of separate companies are seen on every side. This is dreadful, but there may be schism without outward division or separation. God wants us to be one in aim, in mind, in heart and soul, in everything. God's object is for Christ to be set forth. The Church of God has terribly sinned as to this, and the difficulty is immense; at all events, seek to carry out the truth of this chapter with the company with which you are. I do not say confine it to that, but unless you carry it out there, you will not do it anywhere else. It is very easy to love in the abstract, to love (or rather to think you love) those who are afar off, but do you love those with whom you meet day by day? Do you love those saints with whom you would not naturally associate and who rub you up the wrong way because they belong to Christ? I know these things are very difficult for us, but if we want to please the heart of Christ, if we want to enter into the love of Christ, then this is the only way. It will be made up to you a hundredfold by the sense of love that will be poured into your heart. If you will only think of Christ and of all He went through, it will not be so difficult. If He loves you, and wants you, and walks with you, bearing with all your follies, blunders, and denseness. If He goes on with you in spite of the thousand things in which you grieve Him, is it so very difficult to walk with your fellow-Christians in the same way. Oh! but you say, I do not quarrel with my fellow-Christians, I do my best for them, but you cannot expect me to love them all; then I say, This is all worthless. You must love all, or it is of no use. Suppose a husband says to his wife, who is pleading for love, Why, what do you want? Do I not give you a house, food and clothes, all the necessaries and comforts of life, and many luxuries? What else do you want? If she be a true woman she will say, I do not want things, I want love. Nothing will do but love. Surely that is simple. The Spirit we all drink of is the Spirit of love; and unless we love we know not the Spirit. May God in truth give us to know the Spirit in this way.

Present Blessing

The Importance of Present Blessing

Judges 21: 25; John 10: 3-5, 28-30

These are two very different passages. I will speak about the one in Judges first. What was going on then is just what is going on all round us. There was no king in Israel, and every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. The same thing is happening to-day. There is no king, that is, the King is absent and invisible, and is only perceived by the spiritual, and therefore nearly everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes. When the King returns, and is on earth, He will make His presence felt very clearly. He will put down evil with a strong hand, He will not allow rebellion, and it will be no longer possible for men to do what is right in their own eyes. But this is yet future and as yet the kingdom is in mystery, and during the absence of the King all has got into almost hopeless confusion. It is not only that there is much open evil, but there is also so little knowledge of the will of the Lord that even the zealous and the earnest are continually adding to the confusion.

Why were the Israelites in such a state? They had the law, they had the Priests with the Urim and Thummim, they had the place where the Lord chose to set His name, but they were not sufficiently spiritual and dependent to reap advantage from these things. The tabernacle instead of being at Shiloh has somehow or other, how we know not, got to Bethel (see Judges 20: 18, N.T.). Very little is heard about the priests throughout this book, and even on the occasion when they did wait on the Lord there was much self-will mixed up with their actions. They did what they thought was right, but they knew not the mind of Jehovah, hence the terrible condition into which they had fallen.

Yet, terrible as it was, this and even worse is the condition of the professing Church of God to-day. You may say, "Yes, I see how wrong people are." But look within and you will see the counterpart of all the wrong there is around you, in your own heart. We have not come here to run down our fellow-Christians. We are come to humble ourselves before God and to learn of Him. If we are not spiritual we shall not profit much by the guidance which the scriptures give, and unless we are humble and broken in spirit we shall go utterly wrong in our interpretations. We only understand scripture up to the measure of our spirituality and by the Holy Spirit's teaching, and if we are not spiritual we shall go astray even though we have the scriptures. I will prove this to you. Look at 2 Peter 3: 16; there, in speaking of the apostle Paul, he says, "As also in all his epistles, speaking of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." What did they do with scripture? Why, they turned it up the wrong way, and to their own destruction. It is very easy to do that if unlearned and unstable in the things of God. We may he learned and stable in the things of this world, but this will not help us unless taught of God and established by Him. Our present spiritual condition is the measure of our understanding of the mind of God. Having been spiritual yesterday will not enable me to understand to-day. Hence it is that we see sometimes the mighty man of yesterday misses the simplest road to-day. Why is this? He is out of communion, and is seeking to interpret God by means of his intellect and not by the Spirit of God. There is no possibility of getting the mind of God merely by reading the scriptures intellectually. How differently people interpret scripture. Why is this? Because there is so little spirituality in us.

The first thing is to be poor in spirit. What do you look for as a sign of the work of God in a soul? The sign I look for is that of a humble broken spirit, a soul that is sensible of its own utter worthlessness, and with that a sense of the goodness and love of God. I have seen some people, who are not clear about a single doctrine, but I believe they are very sensible of the love of God, and I am very glad to meet with these people. Again, we meet with some wonderfully clear in doctrine, and they glibly say they are saved, but there seems to be no humility and brokenness of spirit in them. Where this is the case you may be sure they are not pleasing to God. God wants me to say, "I am all wrong, but God is right." I want to get God's mind in the matter. If you are in this condition, i.e. broken in spirit, God can speak to you. He says, Except ye become as little children ye cannot enter the kingdom of God. We must come down to enter into it in truth.

The peculiar character of the kingdom of heaven to-day in its outward aspect is, that a fearful amount of licence is possible, and we have fallen into the snare, for we can pass current as good Christians while yet we are full of lawlessness, doing a great deal that we call good, but which is only the activity of our flesh. Hence hopeless confusion characterizes the visible kingdom to-day.

What is the real state of Christendom? Think of what India was in the days of the mutiny and of the confusion that existed then. Was it not terrible? and yet I say India in the time of the mutiny was in far better order than Christendom is in to-day. I am far more afraid of lawlessness than Ritualism or Roman Catholicism. However bad the latter may be, yet lawlessness is the thing above all others that we should be afraid of. There is a great deal of lawlessness that professes to be full of love, earnestness, and faithfulness, and many are ensnared thereby. It is a day when there is very little brokenness of spirit, very little trembling at the word of God, very little thought of obedience, though there is very much activity, and the benefit of man is very much thought of. Let us take heed that we are willing to go God's way even in doing good, and that we do not try and persuade ourselves that we can get God round to our way of thinking. This can never be.

Now, what is the Bible? The Bible is a heart-book; it speaks to the heart. And what is the gospel of John? It is just the centre, so to speak, of this heart-book. How we come to so much grief is we do not read it as if it were a heart-book, we read it critically. This will not do, but if you come with a humble and a broken heart to find a satisfaction you have failed to get elsewhere, it will tell you of the One who alone can satisfy, and in the company of that One you will find your heart's desire. Have you read it thus, and have you found the One of whom it speaks, and has He satisfied?

John speaks essentially to the heart. Once we know rest of conscience by the finished work of Christ then we want to know the person of Him who has given us this blessing. He is the Son of God, and it is especially in this gospel we learn Him thus.

The early chapters of the epistle to the Romans are to shew us the way to get rest of conscience through the righteousness of God, but eternal life of which John speaks is all for the heart, and even the epistle to the Romans, though it begins by leading to rest of conscience, cannot stop there, it goes on to teach of love, for we do not know God until we know love, and God must ever, therefore, lead us on to know love. Never think that you have found the goal until you are grounded in the sense of God's love.

Who are the sheep mentioned here in John 10? How am I to know that I am one of the sheep? A sheep here is one that hears the voice of the Son of God and follows Him. Have you heard His voice? You say, I know my Bible from beginning to end. This is quite possible, and yet you may never have heard His voice once in all your life. This voice is an inward thing, and can only be heard by those, whose ears are opened to hear. Their state is such that they can hear now that which they could not hear before, and they prove it by following Him. Follow Him where? To the place where He has gone. Where is that? He has gone out of this world unto the Father, and you follow Him into this out-of-the-world condition of things to the place where He has the pre-eminence. The preeminence of love. It is not an outward thing. Outwardly all may be unchanged, and yet inwardly all be different because you are changed and belong to a new sphere; in the sense of your soul you are outside the old.

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." This is characteristic. Do get hold of the present tense. Some people say, Do you believe that "Once saved for ever saved?" I say, I don't like it put in that way, for that is not the way in which the scriptures speak; and, dear friends, you will soon be led into error if you do not adhere to scriptural ways of expression. I see no comfort in this book for the man, who says, "I [am?] the one who is in touch with Christ to-day. I see no comfort in this book for the man who says, "I did believe once," but I see every comfort for the man who is connected with a living Christ to-day. I see nothing for the man who says he had something yesterday but has not got it to-day. The whole point is that God is speaking about to-day. The question is, Are we His sheep to-day? If you are, what happens? Why, you are hearing His voice today. Not the voice of scripture only that everybody hears, but that inward small voice that only His own hear. No one else hears it, but you hear, and you are attracted. You say, "There is no one like that One who is speaking to me. He wants me, and I must follow Him. There is no one like Him. Even though it goes against father, mother, children, my best interests here, I must follow Him."

It is a thing for to-day, not for to-morrow, and everything is his, who is in that place to-day, while there is nothing for anybody else. More and more it comes home to me how much all that the scripture speaks of is for to-day. A person says, Don't you believe in the eternal security of the believer? Of course I do, but how am I to know I am a believer unless I am believing to-day? God does not want to comfort a man in carelessness, to encourage him in a bad, wrong, proud, self-satisfied condition of soul, God would humble not comfort him. God cannot tell that man that he is all right. But if you want God to-day there is everything for you. God's day is to-day. Who are the sheep of the Son of God? They are those who are hearing His voice to-day, and following Him to-day. He set their conscience at rest by His work on the cross. That settled the question of their sins, but that is not enough. We need something for the heart — we want company. The whole point in scripture is that God wants to satisfy Himself by giving His creatures the enjoyment of Himself as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ. If your heart is not satisfied, you have not got as yet that which is in God's heart for you. You may say, I have the forgiveness of sins, I have justification, I have this and that, but it will not do. Have you got the satisfaction that the knowledge of the perfect love of God gives? If not, do not rest. You have not received as yet that which God gives. Supposing you marry a wife, what do you want? You want her to be satisfied, don't you? With what? With your love, and not with a fine house, fine furniture, position in society, etc.? No, not if you are a man. You want her to be satisfied because you love her and she shares your heart and all that is yours. God wants you to be satisfied because He loves you. And why is it we are such poor Christians? Because really we do not know this, and, therefore, not being attracted by the love of God's Son, we are always hankering after something or other in this world. That we are Christ's sheep is proved by the fact that we hear His voice, and can go on in quiet confidence and rest while all is in confusion around us. There is no other voice for us because His voice is heard, and we must go after Him because there is none like Him. We must have Himself, He has won our hearts.

We must, I believe, be careful to avoid definitions, but we are very fond of them. God's word always deals with characteristics, while we want definitions because we are carnal. Definitions will not help us. People continually ask, Do tell us what this eternal life is. I say, When you have eternal life you will know well enough what it is. Until a person gets possession of a thing, and knows it experimentally he will never understand it. This is true in natural things. There was a blind man to whom some friends tried to explain the meaning of colours. When they had finished they asked him as a test, What is red like? He replied, It is like the sound of a trumpet. Poor man! how could he know? He had never seen colours. So with us, no amount of definitions will help, but get the blessing and then you can recognise what it is by the characteristics thereof recorded in the scriptures, but for these characteristics we should not be able to say what it was we had received.

For instance, take up "Born of God." "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," and again, "Whosoever is born of God does not commit [practise] sin." If these two characteristics are found in us then we are born of God. These characteristics prove it and are most useful for the encouragement of God's children, and for the detection of all counterfeits and imitations.

Here also it is a question of the characteristics of the sheep. A sheep is one, who hears the voice of the Son of God, and follows Him. If this characteristic is not found in me, what is my claim to be a sheep founded on? God challenges us. Can you take that place? We need the boldness of faith, and the confidence, which the sense of being loved inspires. No amount of explanation will shew you what a blessing means unless you are in the blessing itself. Once you are in the power of the thing then fixing the right name to that thing may help you, and you will see the place it has in the mind of God. Definitions do not do any good, they cramp and narrow the soul, and lead us into many errors; but get the blessing, and then your heart will be enlarged.

We are always wanting a cut-and-dried method of arriving at the point God would lead us to without the exercise of soul which is so necessary, and without real vital contact with the Son of God, and this cannot be done. In these matters men try to deal with things as wise men deal with them, whereas God's way is to be like a little babe. You ask a babe, What is an apple? "Oh!" it says, "very good," but that is no definition. It says again, "It is very sweet, and I like it very much." Well, that little child, who has eaten several apples knows much better what an apple is than all the wise men in the world, who have never eaten an apple, but only reason about it from its shape, colour, etc. Be like the child. Give it a fruit, what will it do? Why, begin to eat it at once. Do not reason about God's feast but eat, listen to Wisdom's call in Proverbs 9. She says, "Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved." Then when you have done this you will get the enjoyment and strength you lack. There will be plenty of time to get the right name by and by; at all events, see that you get the thing.

All blessing is obtained by contact with the Son of God. We get nothing really apart from Him. He has no intention of giving us anything in order that we may go away and enjoy it apart from Himself. He will give you everything with Himself, but nothing apart from Himself. It is like the case of Ruth's next of kin. He would have liked the possession, but would not marry Ruth, so he got nothing. If we have not Christ we have nothing. That is the point we want to ascertain, Is it Himself that is before me? With many of us it is not Himself who is our object. We want to be sure of getting to heaven by and by, and in the meantime we want to get as much comfort down here as possible. We do not want to taste of heaven now. We say that we want heaven by and by, but we prove the falsity of our claim by seeking to gratify the flesh (though, of course, we are very respectable people, and would not like to do anything wrong). What is profession of this kind worth? It is neither flesh, fish, nor fowl. It is a dreadful kind of thing, an abomination to God. God has got everything for the man that wants Christ to-day, but nothing for anyone else.

I said to a little boy one day, "Which is hotter, the sun or the moon?" "The sun," he replied. "How do you know?" I asked. "I read it in a book," was his reply. Now that is how we would fain learn the things of God. We read about them in a book. Well, I said to him, "You go and sit for a couple of hours to-morrow in the sun at midday" (it was in the hot weather), "and see if you do not get some better way of knowing that the sun is hot than by reading about it in a book." My advice to you is, Do not be bothering about definitions, but go and bask in the sunshine of the love of the Son of God, and let that warm you. The beauty of it is that His love must have vent, and, therefore, He cannot do without me, while I am so needy I cannot do without His fulness, so that we are just suited to each other. When the sense of that love permeates your soul you will then know what eternal life is, but no amount of definitions will help you a bit. May God give us the childlike spirit that must abide in the presence of God's Son and must have Him. The one who has this spirit will find that he has everything.

One word more. It says in John 10: 6, the disciples did not understand the things which Jesus spake unto them. Why was this? They were still Jews, still attached in heart to the things of the flesh, and while in that condition they could not understand these things. Alas! that so many of us Christians are only Jews (practically), hence we do not understand.

When the Spirit had come then a change came over the disciples (yet even with them it was not in a moment but gradually). Jesus had died, and they loved Jesus supremely, and they learnt that the death of Jesus had broken their links with that which was down here. Not only the links with bad things, but with good things, even with the very best, i.e. with the Jewish system. They were delighted to have their place with Him outside. In heart they were outside, because He had gone outside. They were glad when they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake. I am so glad, said the apostle Paul, that I have lost everything, and I count it all but dung that I may win Christ. It was not only that he lost what was material. He lost his reputation, his honour, and all that men glory in. He was looked upon as a lunatic and a fool, but it was his delight to suffer shame for the sake of Him to whom he had gone out. Every one of us has to go out, so to speak, if we are to share with him, for He is outside all the range of things ordered by man. If you do this, you will seem a fool according to the wisdom of men.

What has Christ to offer us here? His path was one of shame and loss and reproach down here, and He can only offer to those who follow Him the same kind of path as that which He Himself had. He was cut off and had nothing, so it will be with us according to the measure with which we follow Christ. But in this losing we gain everything, and in retaining we lose everything. This is one of God's strange paradoxes so difficult to the wise, so simple to the childlike in spirit. If you love your life you lose it. If you hate your life you keep it unto life eternal. Alas! we are most unwilling to let go our honour, our position, our place. A man says, "I have always been an honourable man, I am not going to stand reproach." Then I say, "You must be content to be without Christ, that is all." Surely you cannot accept such loss. You must have His blessing no matter at what cost. Well, every blessing in this book is yours if Christ is yours to-day. Do get hold of that. The test is not in that which is told us about the past, or about that which is to come, but the test is this, What is my attitude towards God and His blessed Son to-day. That is what God wants us to get hold of. The world is morally exactly the same as it has been all along, and therefore you may be certain that all that applied 1,800 years ago applies now. There has been no change in the world, and most certainly there has been no change in God and His truth. If, therefore, there was perfect satisfaction for those who followed Christ, then there is the same now, and if there was reproach for the disciples then there must be so now. Once we are spiritual then what is written in this book becomes the living voice of God to our hearts. God wants us for Himself. However much we may lose in this world there is infinite gain to be found in the Son of God, but the only way to get it is by following Him and having Him as the object of our hearts.

Prophecy and the Day Star

Prophecy and the Day Star

2 Peter 1: 19-21

Prophecy has its place, and a very important place; but blessed as it is there is also something better. A very large portion of scripture, as we know, is corn-posed of prophecy. Now what is the object of the study of prophecy according to the mind of the Spirit in this passage. "We have a more sure word of prophecy," or, "word of prophecy confirmed," "whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." The light, or the lamp, is the light of the truth as to what God is going to do with the world, and how He looks on it at present.

What are you going to study prophecy for? There is a wrong reason and a right reason. I may be curious, or I may want to pass as a knowing person, therefore I would like to know what is going to happen. Such are very wrong reasons. The right reason is when we want to be with God in the matter, and to understand what is according to God, and what is contrary to God, as to all that is around. We cannot understand these things unless God teach us: otherwise we have an altogether wrong idea of the bearing of things. We need to comprehend what it is that He will spare and what it is on which His judgment will come, so that we may be in correspondence with Christ in all these things. Judgment is hanging over the world, and we want to be morally apart from it, and according to the mind of Christ during His absence. This world is contrary to Christ. It has cast out Christ, and judgment is coming down on it. God is going to judge this world in righteousness by that Man whom He has appointed, and we want to have His mind about the whole matter. Christ is going to reign, and He is going to smash up all that is contrary to Himself.

Prophecy teaches us how He will deal with the things of the earth upon the earth in order to abolish all rebellion and self-will, and will instead establish that which is according to the mind of God. We are walking through a vain show, a scene in which man is magnifying himself, and making himself great on the earth. We want to be on God's side, to judge now what He judges, and to cling to that which He upholds. To be like Abraham on the heights of Mamre, where he had communion with God, who called Abraham His friend. To him was revealed the fate of Sodom, and he knew it would be destroyed before Lot did. Lot was in Sodom, and had not the mind of the Lord about Sodom as Abraham had.

Now what is this better thing, better than the understanding of prophecy according to the will of God. "Until the day dawn." What day is this? It is no outward day. Until the day dawn for you. I do not think it is the rapture at all. I will tell you what I think it is. Recollect that the day-star arises in your heart. It is something in your heart, and not anything in the world. The light of prophecy is to tell us what the world is, its end, and what God is going to set up in its place. But more than this, there is such a thing as the day dawning in your heart. That is something deeper and more blessed even than the light of prophecy, for it is Christ known, not as He is revealed in prophecy as God's King who must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet, but as One in heaven. As He is in Himself in His own person. Prophecy will teach us what He is going to do, but when the day dawns we shall be led in spirit away from the earth altogether to the place where Christ is, then it is that over and above His acts we value Him for what He is: the heart attracted to Himself because of what He is in Himself apart from the benefits we derive from Him. The attraction to Himself for His own sake outside the order of things which is down here is what is doubtless meant by the day star arising in the heart, and in this way Christ is known in a far deeper manner than He can be by the study of prophecy.

Prophecy is most useful for the dark night of Christ's absence as it is a lamp in this dark place, throwing a measure of light on what is around, but when the day dawns it is a far greater brightness to the soul, and there will be an entrance into the love of Christ in a way that is impossible while only prophecy is known.

Let me then ask you, Do you know Christ as the Day or Morning Star because you are attracted to Him away from this present scene? There is nothing that will please the heart of Christ so much as being wanted for His own sake. When you find that He Himself is infinitely beyond all His gifts, and He is the desire of your heart for His own sake; then, I say, the day has dawned for you, and the day star has risen in your heart.

God's Delight in Blessing

God's Delight in Blessing

Luke 15: 11-32

What we are presented with here is not a picture of something for eternity, but for time. A picture of something to be known and enjoyed now. God does so want to bring us to His own Son, and where He is there is the Father's house.

It is the action and the joy of the Father which are in view, nevertheless the Father employs His servants in fellowship with Himself in this blessed work of putting on the best robe.

Who are the servants? Are they not Peter and John and Paul, whose ministry the Father is still employing to make us to know His will? For instance, How should we know the truth as it is in Jesus (Eph. 4: 20-24), if it had not been for the apostle Paul (though, of course, it is all of God)? What is this truth? It is that of new creation. Old things have passed away in Christ (the old self along with these old things), and new things have come to pass, for God has reconciled us to Himself for His own good pleasure.

If we turn to the ministry of the apostle John we do not find the truth put in the same doctrinal way as in the writings of the apostle Paul. He gives us the truth in the way of its characteristics. For instance, the Lord says, "If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." The truth as to the person of the Son apprehended in the soul makes us free by making us suitable to the Father. Thus it is that the Son gives us the freedom of the house.

In John 17 you see the Son about to leave this scene, but before He does so, He puts His own into the Father's hands to have the same place with Him which the Lord Himself had. They are so dear to Him that nothing short of this can satisfy Him. He prays "that the love wherewith thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them." This unspeakable love cannot but render the objects of its love suitable for its own presence and delight. Love is inexorable in its demands, and though it must fulfil the claims of righteousness yet it will go to any cost to make good its own desire.

Many are continually asking, "Do tell me what eternal life is?" I can only say, Get hold of the truth of the Father's love, and the truth of the Father's house as known in the Son, and you will know what eternal life is. It must be enjoyed in order to be known.

The best robe is not what some of us thought it to be, viz, justification. True, God justifies the ungodly, but if that were all, it would only be a clean robe put on a dirty person. He is clean outside, but he is not clean within, but God could not justify the ungodly unless He meant to complete the work, and unless He were going to make him to be what He begins by counting him to be, a righteous one. Thank God that nothing short of our being with the Father according to His own desire will ever satisfy Him.

We begin by learning justification, that God counts us to be what we are not. This is our side, and it is a great blessing when we learn it. We learn that we are sinners, the judgment of God rests on us. We ask, How can a man be just with God? And it is great joy when we learn that God has justified us. Our sins are gone to rise no more against us in judgment.

But after this comes up the question of our state. We find a bad state within, and this troubles us dreadfully. We do not learn this all at once, but step by step. Then we see that it is not self-improvement which is the goal, but that self has to go in order that that which is new, the work of God, may come in its stead. That which was self is then no more self once we are really in Christ, i.e. subjectively. Of course, there is no other way of realizing practically the truth but this, only sometimes we accept the doctrine while knowing not the power thereof. Such acceptance is purely nominal. If we are in Christ, i.e. of His order, we are no more in Adam, and we reckon ourselves dead unto sin and the Spirit is that which is characteristic of our new state before God and not the flesh.

Here, however, it is not put doctrinally but in a simpler and more easily understood manner. The point is, I must get to the Father, all blessing is there, therefore I must get there.

It never entered into the prodigal's mind that it was possible that he should become more to the father than if he had never sinned and had never left his father's house. I think, too, it is a long time before it ever enters our mind that we are far more to God than if we had never sinned.

How slow, too, we are in learning that the Father gets far more out of us than we from Him. Yet it is so simple. It is more blessed to give than to receive, and He, the Blesser, must get more than we who are blessed.

What is the theme of this chapter? Is it not the gratification of God Himself, His unspeakable delight in blessing? Oh! how happy it makes God to do this. If we only saw this better we should better apprehend the character of the blessing, for we should see that God blesses us for His own satisfaction and joy, and how much this will do towards making us at home with Himself. His unspeakable love will make it such joy to be consciously in His presence. Do you find it hard to realise this? Does not the mother get more out of the baby than the baby gets out of the mother? Does not this help you?

Moreover, what He does for me must be commensurate to the value which He sets upon His Son. We know God so very very little. What we generally call love is not love at all. It is pity, kindness, mercy, etc., that we see, but God wants us to see that He cannot do without us. Have you ever said, "The Father loves me so much He cannot do without me." I believe that most of us see this much, that God is very good and kind, but what we do not see is this; because God is love, and I am one whom He has linked with His Son, therefore He cannot do without me, and heaven would not be heaven for Him if He could not have me there.

If you get hold of this truth you will not have any difficulty in understanding eternal life. You know the story of the mother whose daughter went astray. The door was never closed for many years, and one night the girl came back and found the door was ajar. She said to the mother, "How was it that the door was not closed to-night?" The mother replied, "That door has never been closed from the time you left us; it has always been left ajar for you. All these years I have been waiting for this moment." So God cannot do without His children, He must have them with Him. He is so happy in blessing them. We are defective in everything, but the special point in which we are most defective is in the sense of His love. What does God's Son deserve? Everything. Then that is the value of what God gives to you. He must lavish everything on you.

What is the best robe? It is not something put over us to hide our nakedness as clothes do, but, God's clothes are inside; it is Christ formed within. It is the divine nature formed by divine love, that which is altogether new; His own workmanship for His own pleasure. He enjoys Himself by making us capable of enjoying what He enjoys. You see that this is something which goes far beyond justification.

If you want to gratify the Father's heart you must enter into this love and enjoy it, and the more you enjoy it the more He will be pleased. I have heard a story of two children to whom two kittens were given. One had one and the other the other, and they loved them much, but one day one child was seen crying over her kitten. Why was this? she was asked. Her answer was as follows: "Oh! the kitten that Bobby has whenever he strokes it is so pleased and it purrs; but my kitten, no matter how I pet it, it will not purr, and never seems pleased." How many of us are like that kitten? we do not show our pleasure in response to the infinite love of God shewn to us. Is it not sad that we should be so ungrateful for this love? If you want to give satisfaction to God you must be like the kitten who purrs. You know what pain it gives you parents when you find that your child thinks you do not love it, and are not doing the very best for it. How often have parents to feel this pain, and sometimes when two children are treated alike one is so pleased and bubbles over with joy, while the other is glum and dissatisfied, and his conduct pierces the father's and the mother's hearts?

What then is the fatted calf? The fatted calf is the Son. It is God's feast of joy in His own Son. Nowadays a rich man often makes a feast for a number of poor people, but he does not sit down and share it. He does not make it for himself. He does not say, "Let us eat, and be merry."

It is the Father who gets the most joy of all, and no one enjoys the feast as much as He does, and how little we enter into His joy. Self is so fearfully predominant.

Take the Lord's supper, how much do we enter into this? Very little, I am afraid. The Lord's death is generally looked at from the side of our need, but this is not to eat the Lord's supper as we should. The Lord's supper is feeding upon the love of Christ, delighting in Him for what He is, not delighting in His gifts, but in Himself. If we really eat the Lord's supper we are with Him in happy liberty, and are perfectly at ease with Him. You wanted Him for Himself, and now you have Him your heart is satisfied.

The elder son was further away from the father than even the younger son was when he was in the far-off country. This is the worst place of all: to be positionally near, while in reality to be very far off. We are often deceived thus, and think all is well when all is wrong. He shews when he speaks. This is what we all do, as it is written, "By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." We may be in the most blessed place nominally and in reality have nothing because we have never touched divine love at all.

When the elder brother said, You never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends, he shewed what was in his heart. He wanted to make merry away from his father. There is no happiness to be found in this way.

The people said to the disciples, Why does your Master eat and drink with publicans and sinners? The disciples might have answered, Because it makes our Master so happy, and it makes God so happy to bless.

When we repent we say, I am all wrong, I must let God come in and have His way, and this it is that makes God so happy, for then He can come in and bless.

I am sure we shall all find it a very blessed thing to get a real taste of this love. There is a very great lack here, and the sense of being loved is something better than all the intelligence in the world.

When we really have a grasp of this love we shall find the joy thereof such a strength and power. What is so powerful as love? There is a well-known story that an eagle carried off a babe on to a high mountain. Among those who witnessed it, and sought to save the child, was a sailor. He, with others, tried to scale the cliff, but even his head swam, and though he climbed further than the rest, yet he had to return. When this happened and all seemed hopeless, lo and behold the mother started up, and in some wonderful and semi-miraculous manner clambered up the cliff, clinging to the ivy or whatever there was. Up and up she went while all gazed on her with awe till she reached the eagle's eyrie and brought back her child safe and sound. If this is what love will do in natural things, what will not divine love do? What will not God who is love do? And above all, He will cause us to have the best robe, and thus to be formed in love ourselves. There is no real power save that conferred by the sense of love.

Faith is that with which we begin, but we must go on to love; and how does faith work? By love, and by love only.

The House of God

The House of God

God has always had in His mind and heart to have a house for Himself to dwell in. God must have a house for Himself, for this is one of His chief ways of blessing by coming to dwell in (which is best of all) or with His people.

It will be helpful to us if we trace in the scriptures from the beginning God's thought about His house. The Old Testament is full of the truth of the house of God. There is not much of it in Genesis, but you get Jacob saying, "How dreadful is this place; this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Gen. 28: 17. Doubtless Jacob understood but little of this, but he spoke prophetically for our sakes.

In Exodus the children of Israel learn in the song of Moses, "Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation"; and we have God saying to Moses on the mount, "Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." From that time onwards the truth of the house of God is inseparably bound up with the history of the people of God. When the house was in its right order there was blessing on the nation, but when the house was slighted or abused then judgment and trouble came upon the people. Every faithful servant of God had a zeal for the house of God.

When king Hezekiah came to the throne, he called together the priests and the Levites and said to them, "Hear me ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers. . . . For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord. . Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing as ye see with your eyes." Then they cleansed the house that the wrath of the Lord might turn away from them.

During the time of the captivity, though the house was practically non-existent, for it had been burnt down, yet Daniel, even at the risk of his life, must in praying look towards Jerusalem; where to faith the house still stood, see 1 Kings 8: 44-48, though he knew that for so doing he would be cast into the den of lions, and he might have avoided this by praying in secret. Thus he shewed how dear to him was the place in which the Lord chose to set His name, however desolate it might be.

When Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the remnant of Israel came back from the captivity in their weakness they at once began to be occupied with God's house. They set up the altar as their protection, and then they laid the foundation of the house. But alas! opposition daunted them, they ceased to build, and sorrow and trouble came upon them. Why was this? We are not left to conjecture, for it is written, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways: Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much and, lo, it came to little, and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man into his own house," Hag. 1: 7-9. But directly they began to build the Lord's house the prophet was commissioned to say, "From this day will I bless you."

How then was it when the Lord Jesus Christ was on the earth? Did He, because He was spiritual, make light of the earthly house of God? We find that He could not bear to see that material house desecrated. You see Him (speaking with reverence) more moved on that occasion than at any other time, driving the people out of the house with a scourge of small cords and pouring out the changers' money and overthrowing their tables with the words, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise," and the disciples remembered that it was written, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up."

Then again we know that in the age to come there will be a material house of God once more, and the prophet Ezekiel gives us a great deal of detail about that house which will be very precious to God as the house of God was in the days of the tabernacle and temple of old.*

{*It sometimes puzzles some to understand how, when there is no material house now, that there can be a return to a material house in the millennium. The explanation is that the present period is unique, and though chronologically it comes before the millennium, yet as to its blessings it is essentially spiritual, and it belongs to new creation, and to the eternal state, and therefore morally is after the millennium.}

Why was this house so dear? It was a shadow of good things to come, a figure or picture of a very blessed reality, and it was very dear on this account. Thank God, we have that of which this house was the figure, and if the figure was so dear, how much more dear the reality. God in His grace has been pleased to educate us by pictures and figures, and they are an immense help to us as long as we do not take the figure for the thing signified. The law only had a shadow of the things to come. The real habitation of God was not yet present, though this was a picture, and even as a picture it was exceedingly dear to the heart of the Lord, and to the heart of every faithful follower of the Lord, and it was meant to be so. I have heard of a daughter, who always dusted her mother's picture herself, and would let no one else touch it, because it reminded her of her mother.

Simeon, the well-known evangelical clergyman at Cambridge, had the picture of Henry Martyn hung on the wall before him, and he used to say, "If ever I feel inclined to trifle the one whose portrait is there seems to say to me, 'Don't trifle, life is too solemn for levity.'" And I say this house of God under the law, though it was only a shadow, was very precious, and we shall benefit exceedingly, if we closely study all the instruction on the subject given to us in the Old Testament. I am sure we lose very much by not studying the types; all the Old Testament is written for our learning, and is exceedingly helpful for those who learn the spirit thereof and are not carried away by the letter into legality and idolatry, and see the difference in the dispensation.

I say it solemnly that the Old Testament is very much neglected by most of us, and our souls suffer in consequence. No person can expect to prosper in his soul if he neglects the Old Testament, which is the divinely given book of illustrations of the truth of God.

Under the law, the house was a figure of something to come. Now that thing has come, but still we have got a figure, though we have got the reality as well. The temple is gone, we have no earthly figure of that sort at the present time. Men may build a house of brick or stone and call it the house of God; thus showing they have lost the divine idea. What then is the figure in these times? We, who are assembled here,* are a part of that figure — just a tiny portion. The visible company of the professing people of God forms the house of God, but that is the figure. The reality is invisible, but only the spiritual have that. Nevertheless the figure is a very important thing. Look at a man. What do you see? You say you see him. No, you do not see him, you see his figure, the real man is invisible. A man could not speak to you except he had a body, but the body is not he. That which dwells in the body is far more important than the body. The body will pass away, but the man will remain.

{*At a conference in India.}

Well, there is to-day an outward figure, and that outward figure is called the house of God. Thus 1 Tim. 3: 5, 15, "If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" and "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." Now that is the outward thing, yet that outward thing is the house of God, and very important it is, nevertheless there is a deeper thing, and that is the spiritual and invisible thing. All this that we see is temporal, it is only the things not seen which are eternal.

The outward thing can be seen; the inward cannot. We must not despise or think lightly of the outward, but we must give the full place to the inward and invisible.

Roman Catholics and Ritualists confound the two, as if they were one and the same, and we are not free from the same error, for we are apt to see no assembly but the outward and visible company. This is a great error. On the other hand there are those who say, "The Church is invisible, and there are true believers everywhere," as an excuse for going anywhere, and associating with anybody and anything they like. This is pure lawlessness, and is worst of all.

The same kind of thing often happens in other matters. Take baptism: many attribute to the form all that is said of it on the supposition that it is the sign of an inward reality. This is very evil. It is gross legalism. Many others, especially in this country of India, say, What matters the form? belief in the heart is everything. I believe, and am not going to be baptized. This is very evil also. It is pure lawlessness.

Now turn to 1 Peter 2: 4, 5. "To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house." Here we have the reality. If this passage is true of us what have we done; to what or to whom have we come out? I do not mean with what saints have we fellowship? That is an outward thing. But in our souls have we come out to share the lot of a rejected Christ? A number of stones piled together do not constitute a house. So it is we have not only to be saved, but to be builded together by God. This is divine work with divinely formed material. For this there must be Christ formed within, and there must be the strong attraction to the Christ of God, drawing away from the world, and making us willing to share Christ's rejection, and to take the outside place of shame and reproach. He will then be more to us than Naomi to Ruth or David to Ittai. The world does not want Him, the mass of so-called Christians do not want Him. Alas! even the majority of converted souls are satisfied with His gifts, and know not the sweetness of sharing His reproach. This is the sad feature of the day, and great is the dishonour to His name in consequence. The question, therefore, for us is, Has Christ been formed in us, and have we been made willing to come out to the rejected One because of what we find in Him? If so we shall know what it is to be built up a spiritual house, to be made part of that spiritual edifice in which God takes up His abode. It is a spiritual thing, and must be made good in our own souls. We must learn it in the power of the Spirit of God. The proof that we have learnt this truth is that we share the rejection of Christ because He has won our hearts, and we cannot do without Him.

As regards the outward thing it is a different matter. Everyone who is called a Christian has certain great privileges, but he has the consequent responsibilities, and so with every outward position. Everyone in any position has the privileges thereof, and he must bear the responsibility too. Everything outward only has its value if it is an outward expression of an inward reality. If it is not this it is hurtful and a sham.

Do not let anything satisfy you short of having the spiritual reality as well as that outward thing, and remember that no outward position can give you the truth inwardly. It is true that the right inward condition may, yea must, lead to a right outward position, but we cannot reverse the order. Men hope to produce the inward by adopting the outward. We have all been more or less affected by this snare, but it will not do. The more blessed the place the worse for us if we are there in a carnal condition, and unless we are prepared for suffering with Christ, unless willing to share His rejection, the sooner we get out of that position which professedly is connected with His reproach the better, for we shall only hinder others and be there for our own hurt. It was in the presence of Christ that Satan entered into Judas.

It cannot be too much pressed on us that the real thing is the invisible and spiritual, and that the inward reality must force us into every visible place or position, or all will be wrong. That is, an inward power must force a saint to take the place of an evangelist, or of teacher, or of one who takes the oversight. An inward reality must force us into fellowship with those, who are in the place of reproach. If it is not so, every apparent advance we make will only be so much condemnation upon our head. It is a solemn thing to take a prominent place among the people of God. Woe betide us, if we put ourselves forward. We must go forward if the Spirit of God forces us, but we ought never to seek prominence. If one seeks it for his own exaltation, it is the worst of sins; better to do anything than that.

I beg you to weigh the matter before God. It is of the deepest importance.

I must, however, speak a little more of the outward, visible, responsible thing. It is God's house and God dwells there, therefore we ought to have an exceeding zeal for it and an intense longing that the arrangements of that house should be, as far as is possible, in a day of ruin and confusion as now, according to the mind and will of God. This is not a matter of our progress as separate individuals (though our individual spiritual state must tell very much upon the corporate condition); but it is in connection with our corporate responsibilities, with our worship, our waiting on the Lord together, and together seeking the interests of the Lord, our discipline, our order, and all such things as these. Do not despise these things for they are matters of great importance, and the spiritually minded man feels an intense interest in the house of God, and all that is connected with it, even as Christ did in the earthly house, and he will labour incessantly for the well-being of that house because it is God's house and God's honour, and the honour of God's Son is connected with it.

Do let God have His own way in His own house. The first thing then to be done is to find out what is God's way. We can only find out God's way if we are spiritual. We cannot ascertain what is right by looking up the texts bearing on it. Many think this can be done, but if this could be done, then all that is necessary would be a good verbal acquaintance with the scriptures, a good memory, sound common sense, and good reasoning powers; and there would be no need of spirituality, of exercise of soul, of dependence on the Spirit, and of a deep sense of one's own nothingness. No, this will not do. To arrive at spiritual conclusions we must be spiritual. You may have the Bible at your fingers' ends and not know the truth.

The ruling characteristic of God's house is holiness, and we ought to be deeply exercised as to whether we are in accordance with the holiness of that house, and also as to whether our spiritual associations and ways are suited to Him who dwells in that house.

I will read, a passage. "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? 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 I 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 — 7: 1. Here we have mention of God's dwelling-place and of the holiness of associations in consequence of connection with it. The apostle is speaking of outward results when he says, "Be not unequally yoked," etc.

Have you a zeal for the house of God, and are you exercised about the matter? There are great sins committed. One is that men have set their own rules and regulations in the house of God. This is a great evil. Fancy man presuming to do such things instead of being in awe of the holiness of God's house, Now who is it that has done this sin? You may say that good men have been thus guilty equally with bad, that Roman Catholics have most deeply sinned in this while Protestants are guilty too. Well, go further and own that your own heart is just as bad. You need never look outside for any sin. There is no sin ever committed but that you can find the counterpart within. Do you know that you were born with a Roman Catholic heart? What is Roman Catholicism? It is a religion marvellously adapted to suit poor fallen man according to his natural ideas. It is perfect for this, and, therefore, in spite of its unblushing effrontery and wickedness it still seduces millions. Yet remember whenever we rest in an outward form we are practically Roman Catholics in heart. Whenever we take the Lord's supper in a formal way, because we say it is right to take it on the first day of the week, we are before God Roman Catholics.

Yet bad as that is there is something even worse than this. It is a man refusing to be subject to man's rules and regulations, not in order to be subject to God, which is very blessed, but in order to do his own will. This is the worst thing of all. Man practically making himself God. Such an one may look down on the superstitious souls in bondage, but there is more hope for them than for him. The worst of all is when every man does that which is right in his own eyes. This is the acme of wickedness. Eve was tempted with the idea of being as gods, and since then man is continually aspiring to this: to choose for himself and plan for himself; of course, he has many reasons for what he does, and he does not say that he is doing wrong, but he does his own will and calls it right.

These two things, men assuming on the one hand to make rules for the house of God and men casting off every yoke to do their own will, are devastating and ravaging the house of God to-day. If we want to do right we must be broken in spirit, because of the intense pride of our hearts. We have to say, God is right, I am only a fool; God must do it all. God must arrange, God must plan, God must order, or all is wrong. We must be brought down that we may be lifted up. There is no way of being exalted except that of being abased first. Down we must come. The lower we get the higher we are. The more we lose for Christ the more we gain. The more we taste of death for Christ the more we shall enjoy life.

Then there is another thing: that is that you must consider your brother. You cannot do anything just because you have liberty to do it. You may have liberty to eat meat, but if your eating makes your brother offend then you must not eat meat lest you make your brother to offend. You use your liberty in this way, and you forego this or that, even though quite lawful if it causes your brother to offend. You think very much of the welfare of your brother, if you are in the truth of the house of God; and you forego many things you might otherwise do, because you want to profit your brother. You abstain from using your liberty in certain cases, though you maintain that you have this liberty. There is a great lack in this respect. One often hears, "Why should I not do so and so; I see no harm?" Still, if it harms your brother, do not do it. Abstain, unless you have a command from God. This tenderness for your brother may seem to hamper, but it will bring a rich reward.

It was fifteen years ago when we had our first Conference at Umballa. One Indian Christian was present, now you see a great many present, and the lot of the English Christians is irrevocably bound up with their lot. The thing is done and it cannot be undone. Some have said, "Why did we not go our own way?" But what is done is done, and we must accept the fact that our lot is bound up with theirs. If their state is good we shall prosper, and if their state is bad we shall suffer. Remember that you cannot help it, do what you will, As long as I have been here I have laboured among the people of this land as well as I could, till sometimes my own children have said to me, "You love the natives more than you love us," while the Indian Christians have often thought that they were not loved at all, That is the peculiarity of God's things, they will be either our blessing or our scourge. A blessing if we accept them from God, a scourge if we refuse or neglect what God lays on us. The only thing to do is to rise to the responsibility and to accept it while feeling our utter feebleness, our own utter insufficiency for it. We must accept our responsibility, each one according to his measure, or we shall suffer for it in our own souls.

There are a number of Indian Christians among us for better or for worse, and you have got to make the best of it. A measure of the truth which God has given us has been widely spread in North India, and we have to see that souls are cared for and nourished in the truth. Of course, this responsibility is not a thing to be taken up lightly, but it is not a thing to be left alone. It needs to be taken up in the fear of God, and in brokenness of spirit.

There is nothing on the face of the earth so beautiful as men from two nationalities, with diverse ways, opinions, and tastes, who have naturally little in common with each other, united in one common bond, by the one Spirit, and this one Spirit creating common joys, common feelings and tastes, and binding all together in one blessed fellowship in the house of God. Where all the company are of one nationality only, little of this is known; and we in India have an opportunity of shewing the power of the Spirit in a way altogether unique. I know the difficulties and I know the blessing of it, and I warn you not to be neglectful and to think that you can treat the matter lightly. Find out for yourselves what God wants of you. Accept your burden, and your burden becomes your gift (see Psalm 55: 22 and see marginal reading), your sorrow will become your joy. But if you refuse and say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" you refuse God's gift, and you refuse that whereby God wants to bless you richly in your soul.

We do not as children of God remain units. We become welded into a whole, whether as the house of God, or the body of Christ; and you cannot separate yourselves from that in any way according to God, or say, My brother is responsible for himself. You are welded into one whole. That is the truth of God. The view that some of us practically take is just this, that we are like a number of shot brought together in one box. We come together at will, and separate if it does not suit, but this is not the Church of God at all. Put that box into the fire and the shot will be fused into one whole. That is more like what the Church of God is.

Responsibility is a peculiar thing. Do what you will you cannot get rid of it. The most irresponsible act of our lives was when we were born. Since then we are tied down in every direction by responsibility though utterly unable to fulfil it, and the only thing to be done is to accept our responsibilities in brokenness of spirit rolling the burden on to Christ. You see God makes us responsible for what is absolutely impossible, and He wants us to accept the burden looking to Him, then He fulfils that which we could not do, and brings blessing out of that which otherwise would only be a curse. Blessed be His name.

Freedom

Freedom

John 8: 30-36

"If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." We will look a little into this matter of freedom. It is said some believed on Him, and the Lord says to them, "If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed." Now that is not the way some of us would have spoken. Some of us are very fond of that expression, "Once saved for ever saved," but it is not a scriptural expression and therefore to be avoided, and, moreover, it has obtained with some a very false idea attached to it. Practically with some it has come to mean that if some time or other, by hook or by crook, you can get yourself to believe or fancy that you believe that you are saved, then you are safe for ever, and no matter what you do nothing will upset this. Well, such an idea as this is certainly not the gospel of God. It is perfectly true that when God begins a work in a soul God will go on with the work in that soul for ever, but the only test of reality is continuance, and if you do not continue, you have no ground for saying you are saved.

"He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved."  Some say, Oh! that is said to the Jew. True, it is so: but it as true of you and of me as of the Jew. Do you understand scripture so little as not to see that while there is a present salvation there is also a salvation which is future; see, for instance, 1 Thess. 5: 8, 9. Who are the people who get this? Are they the ones who prove their reality by continuance or the reverse? The passage is as true of me as of the Jew, and I say, If I remain to the end I shall be saved. Does this disturb me? Not at all. I know God has wrought in me, and I know that He will continue to do so. I am quite at rest about it. If, however, a professed believer turns away, and does not endure, but lives in sin, can we say that it is sure to be well with him? Never. The proof of reality is continuance. The proof that it is going to be well with you at the end is that it is well with you to-day. There is every comfort in scripture for the man who is connected with Christ to-day. I believe we do not half enough press the living present reality of God's blessing, but rather try and rest on the past.

The whole of the first epistle of John is on this point. Its object is to lead real souls into a deeper enjoyment of the love of God and of all that which that love has provided, and also to expose unreality, and to prove the hollowness of that which is not in touch with God and with His Son to-day. If Christianity is a reality, then it is for present power and enjoyment. Christianity is not something to get a man to heaven by and by, while in the meantime he lives for earth and earthly things. It is to make us know heaven and the things of heaven to-day. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." That will be the result, but how are we to get this freedom?

Those present when the Lord spoke did not understand this. They said, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man. How sayst thou then, Ye shall be made free?" Jesus tells them the plain and naked truth. "Whosoever committeth (or practises) sin is the servant of sin." How exceedingly plain and yet how solemn. He cannot be free who is a servant of sin — a slave of sin. So simple that a babe can see it at once, and yet we could not find it out. It was necessary for God's Son to come from heaven to teach us this truth, and even now the mass of Christendom knows it not.

What is sin? It is the action of self-will. The creature asserting itself against the Creator by assuming the right to do what it thinks fit. What the man does need not be anything that people would call wrong, but if the will of poor fallen man is in action it is sin. Doubtless you may not like to offend against the rules of society, or to do anything which men would condemn, but you may desire to have your own will, that is the essence of sin. It is not freedom to think you are free. Let us take an extreme case. A man who drinks thinks himself a jolly fellow, and that he is in bondage to no one, but when he wants to give up drinking. he finds he is a slave. So it is with us all in everything, while we thought we were free we were in the most terrible bondage to a greater power than ourselves. So it was with the apostle Paul. He says, "When the commandment came, sin revived and I died . . . the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin."

The servant does not abide in the house for ever, but the son does abide for ever. This is not a contrast between the servant and the eternal Son. The question is, Are you a servant or a son? If the former you must go, but if the latter you remain.

What is the great point in being a son? It is likeness. The son must take after the father. Now I ask, Who is your father? I wish to press it home. I say you must be like your father. God will not allow the relationship unless you can shew likeness.

The Jews said, "Abraham is our father." But the Lord will not allow this for a moment. He admits the natural connection, for He says, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed"; but He adds, "If ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham." He insists on likeness being essential, and He goes on further and says, "Ye are of your father the devil." Why? Because there was the terrible likeness stamped on them. Is it not a solemn thing that day by day and hour by hour we are shewing our parentage? What is God? God is love. Well, then, to be like God we must be formed in love, then we are sons. If not, we make the claim, but it will not be admitted. Is this not a solemn matter? But remember there is no other way of freedom but by sonship, and we cannot be sons of God but by divine generation, and the divine nature, which results in likeness.

Do not think, Shall I get to heaven by and by? Ask yourself this, Am I right to-day. He who is right to-day is right for eternity, but he who is wrong to-day is wrong for eternity. To-day is the day of salvation, not to-morrow. Many think, Oh! to-day is the day for getting it; this is true, but that is not the meaning here: it is the day for having it, the day for enjoying it, the day for shewing it, We shall not talk about salvation in heaven, there will be nothing there to be saved from. Salvation implies danger, enemies, etc., and there will be none of these things in heaven. I, however, want to press on you the value of "to-day."

People generally take up these things quite in the wrong way. They put everything off to the future, and thus they get rid of present responsibility and miss present enjoyment. With God it is the present that is pressed. How is it with us to-day? Let us ask ourselves, Are we free to-day? Are we sons to-day?

What is the sense of sonship? Why, that God's love is streaming into our souls. "Oh!" you say, "He loves me so much I cannot do without Him. I want to have His company, I want to walk with Him. I want Him to-day, I want Him all the time; I cannot do without Him. He is so good, and He loves me, He wants me; He cannot do without me. It is so blessed to know His love."

You cannot get liberty in any other way than this, for God must be supreme. He is free because He is love, and He must be sovereign in love. If you have the divine nature you are free, because you want what God wants, but if not you want to walk in your own way, and do not love God's way, and you are not free. What will the freedom of eternity consist in? Why, in God having His own way, and all delighting in that way. Well, the freedom of eternity is the freedom of to-day. Forgiveness of sins will not make us free. Justification will not make us free. For freedom we must be formed by love. To be free we must walk in God's way and enjoy so doing. It must be a willing thing, a thing of the heart. It is not freedom to do a thing while not liking to do it. For freedom I must love to do it, and find it my delight. How was Christ free? Because He found it a delight to do the will of God. (See Psalm 40: 8.) What made it a delight to Him? "Oh! My Father is love, He is so good, His way is perfect." Nothing else is freedom. Whatever God my Father does must be best for me, and the best also for everybody else connected with me. He wants the best thing for me, He loves me so much. Nothing is freedom short of this. How does the Son make us free? He brings us to Himself, He lifts us out of ourselves, He renews us within so that we love to dwell with Him. He makes us to share with Himself, He seeks to absorb us with Himself that we may delight in Him, and it may become grief to do what is not according to His will, because in so doing we lose the conscious joy of His presence, which forms our life. We walk in the light of His presence, and His love gives exceeding joy to our hearts, and the bonds fall off, for there are no bonds in love. Sonship is through love, and love carries freedom with it. Is Satan free? No, he is the greatest slave of all, because he is a stranger to love. Is he who grumbles or frets free? No. Is the one who feels wronged free? No. Christ was free, for He took all things from God. (See Matt. 11: 25.)

Remember, therefore, that it is the Son, who makes us free. We would all like to be free, but none of us can make ourselves free. No power of man can make us free. Money will not set us free. The payment of our debts will not set us free. You may be in the power of an earthly tyrant and yet be free. You may pride yourself on your freedom and be a poor slave. May God give us to understand this blessed freedom.

Freedom is the consequence of the work of the Son within us, it is the result of divine power acting on us inwardly, whereas we are always thinking of circumstances, but alteration of circumstances does not effect anything for God in our souls. Another thing that we are most unwilling to believe is that the state of things is as bad as the scriptures make out. It is hard to believe that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, it is hard to believe that Satan is the prince and god of this world. It is hard to believe the state of things described in 2 Tim. 3: 5 is a true picture of the state of Christendom to-day. It is hard to believe that the best things of the natural man will not do for God, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. It is hard to believe that only Christ will do for God, and that what is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Yet these lessons have to be learned, and when learnt we thank God for teaching them to us in order that we may condemn that which God has condemned, that God may be free to work out His will in us, and bless us according to His mind and purpose.

What is God's purpose? It is that we should be conformed to the image of His Son. This is the work He begins now, and it is divine material formed within, formed in love. The work is done by the Son, and it is like growth; we are not conscious of growing, but we grow. So with the work of God's Son, if we are with Him, and we let Him have His way, and we do not fight against Him, He will work in us, and though we shall not be conscious of the work going on yet it will be manifested by its results. Moses was in the presence of God, and when he came out his face shone. He did not know that it shone, but others could not help seeing it. This is how God's work is done. It is like the growth of fruit, and not like the manufactories of man, which are carried on with great noise. Put a seed in the ground, it grows and grows, yet the growth is noiseless, almost imperceptible, and yet so real. It drinks in the dew of heaven, it extracts nutriment from the soil in which it is set, and it grows. The sunshine and the storm alike aid its growth, the rain and the wind and the heat are each good for it. Thus it is you will grow in the divine nature, if you will let the Son have His way with you, You will not have to do anything. It will all go on of itself, and it will be real solid work, and not like a piece of electroplate. Men take a vessel of brass and put it through a certain process, and it becomes coated with silver, but inside it is just as much brass as it was before. But God's work is from the inside, and it acts by displacement. In electroplating the silver does not displace the brass. If you scrape off the silver you come to the brass, that is the way man works, he seeks to cover up the old thing by civilisation, by education, by rules and regulations, but the old thing is there all the time, and the affections are untouched. God's way is quite the reverse. He forms new affections within by the revelation of His love in His Son, and displaces the old affections by the new which He has formed.

What is the character of the old affections? They all centre in self. One may be what the world calls selfish, another may be devoted to his family, his country, or even for the race of man; but if that is all, in the sight of God self will still be the object, for in the new affections Christ is the centre, for God cannot form affections, which have not that supreme object before them. Thus it is that God makes free. We are not free unless the new affections cause us to delight in the will of God.

I will give you an illustration. I once had an old "chaukidar" (watchman), to whom I said, "You are getting rather old for night work, and if you prefer, I can give you day work instead. Now tell me what you would like?" He replied, "I want to do whatever your honour wishes." I said, "You need not mind telling me what you would really like, for I really want to meet your wishes." His answer was, "I really like what your honour likes." "Now," I said, "look here, I want you to let me know what you have got in your inmost heart." "Well then," he replied, "if your honour really wants to know what is in my heart, that which I have never told anyone, that which I really desire above everything, it is this — that I like best what your honour likes best." When we can say this in our hearts to the Lord then we taste the sweets of freedom. If in some little measure we can say, "Oh! God is so good, I am quite sure He is doing all things well: I am sure of it, because He gave His Son, and I would not have it otherwise than according to His will for anything; I am certain that His way is perfect, even when I cannot understand," then we have begun to enjoy true freedom.

But this cannot be done in the flesh. It is not stoicism, nor is it resignation, it is really being made a sharer with God's Son in spirit in resurrection. It is not effort, the Son of God produces it. His desire is to have us for Himself for His own joy and delight. Can you say, "The Lord must have me for His surpassing joy," then you have made a great stride towards freedom.

I have not much more to say, but I hope I have said enough to make you see what a wonderful thing this freedom is. Of course, it is a very difficult thing to speak of. I fear none of us have more than a glimpse of its blessedness. We have thought, "Ah! Christ has died for us, we believe on Him, and we know that we are going to get to heaven by and by," and there we often stick for years: but as for getting to heaven now, and getting the joy of heaven as a present reality, most of us know very little of it. Can you say to the Father, "I know that Thy commandment is life eternal?" Unless we enter into this now we have not reached Christianity as yet. How much of heaven have we tasted? This is the measure of our Christianity according to God.

We say we want to get to heaven eventually; but, alas most of us want as much of this world's good as possible while we are on earth. I must acknowledge this is what we have all done over and over again, and it is a terrible thing. Babylon is the mistress of enchantments. She is so clever, such a witch, such a conjurer, that she often persuades us that we are uncommonly good Christians when we are absolutely living for the world. She has got a golden cup full of her enchantments, and by her fleshly piety she takes us in fearfully. Do not say, Yes, I know other Christians are thus enticed, but I am free from her snares. Not at all, you are no more exempt from her enchantments than anybody else. You need not look outside for evil, you will find it all in your own especial company and in your own heart. Have you not read, "Till the whole was leavened?" It is divine love alone which can expel the other affections and lusts that are in the heart, and nothing but their expulsion by this love will bring us into freedom. It is divine nature and divine material; all divine work from beginning to end, and it must work by expulsion. A strong affection crowds out lesser ones, so divine love must expel all those things that are contrary to God's will. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is not monasticism, not is there anything morbid about this love. If you have it you will love your wife and your children a great deal better than you did before, only now the love will be true love instead of the selfish love of the past.

There is nothing in divine love to make you walk about as if you were a medieval saint with a halo round your head, and too good to think of what is down here. You will be interested in all you meet, but in a new way. You will be longing for Christ to have His good pleasure in them. Never was there such a natural* man in the world as Christ; there was nothing forced about Him. There was nothing in Him for the smallest child to fear. He always did what was in His heart. He had nothing to hide as there is often with us. He was always natural. All was spontaneous with Him. Wherever He went He was always the same. He could say, "I am altogether that which I say." What came out of Him was just what was in His heart. He was the most natural person that ever walked this earth, for there was no effort in anything He did.

{*Of course this does not refer to fallen human nature, nor even to Adam's nature unfallen.}

The ascetic is not so. With him all is forced and strained. It is all very different. Look at the Lord. He could go into the Pharisee's house and be just Himself; He could be before the king or ruler and be Himself; if with publicans and harlots He was just Himself. In every company and amidst every variety of trying circumstances He was always the same; just Himself, because He walked with God, and God was with Him. He always knew the will of God, always did it, and was always happy in doing it. There was absolute freedom with Him, because He was always dependent, and He had no desire but to do the will of God.

May we, too, learn the joy of finding our pleasure in the blessed will of God.

Rich and Poor

Matt. 19: 24-26; 2 Cor. 12: 9

Now I think it must strike anyone when he gets a glimpse of what God's thoughts for the believer are, what high thoughts God has about him! We exclaim, "Oh! this is absolutely hopeless. It is impossible." Well, that is perfectly true. It is impossible. The impossibility and the hopelessness of being what God wants us to be is the beauty of it. It stamps the matter as from God. If it were only very difficult indeed, there would be no encouragement, at all events, for ordinary people like ourselves, and it would only be a human thing after all. One or two especially earnest and devoted people with extraordinary natural powers might be able to attain to it, but the mass would have to give it up and say, It is too hard for us.

But, thank God, it is absolutely out of the power of man altogether; and therefore, if done at all, God must do it, and is not that a comfort to you and to me? Remember that it is not difficult but absolutely impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, and yet every man is rich naturally. Yes, it is perfectly true that we are all naturally rich, for every one of us has an uncommonly good opinion of himself, and is therefore a rich man. Yet it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God; no one enters there till he is stripped of all, and is rich no more. Then, when stripped of everything, he finds he is really rich, whereas when he was rich he was really poor. This is God's way, and it is wonderful in our eyes. Take the convicts in a jail, or take the man, who is a drunkard in rags, still he thinks well of himself, and makes excuses for himself, till God strips him.

It is a great thing to see that what Christianity brings in is divine from beginning to end. God has to do it all. Nothing of man comes into it at all. Who is the best off, the one who has most of what we call the natural good qualities? Not at all. The greatest hindrance to arriving at the point of blessing are the qualities men admire. "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." That one is best off, who most quickly learns that he has nothing of his own but his sin, and that he has no strength to be any other than what he now is, struggle how he may. Therefore the more wicked I see myself to be, and the bigger the fool I recognise in myself, the better it is for me and the better for God, for then, and not till then, God can work. As Billy Bray said, when asked how it was he got on so well, "It takes most people such a long time to learn that they are fools, and I knew I was a fool to start with." But we think so well of ourselves that we struggle and fight for years and years rather than come down to this: we think if we do we shall forfeit blessing, whereas it is only then that blessing can come, for not till then can we belong to the company of the "blessed poor" spoken of by the Lord in Luke 6: 20. The difficulty is not in our badness, in our helplessness and need. The whole difficulty lies in this that we fancy we have resources, and will not abandon this idea. It is easier to give one's body to be burned than to realise nothing is our own but our sin. Once we come to know this all is easy, then God does the rest, and the impossible is brought to pass.

But till we come to this no blessing can come, for it is impossible that God should give His glory to another. Did He do so, He would cease to be God. He cannot hand over His place to you; He cannot give you the credit that belongs to Himself alone. Blessed be God, He must have the glory. Therefore it is that God must smash us to pieces in order to bless us, because only thus can He be glorified in His Son, and it be seen that He alone is worthy. Man is worthless, he is done for, there is not a single good thing in him at all. God has set him aside and begun again in a new Man according to His own heart, and when God works in us all is well, not otherwise.

Well, I know that you have an answer ready for me. You will say, "Then I am not responsible." "Oh! yes, you are, you are responsible all the time." You say, "This is not logical, not according to reason." But you are mistaken. Take God's word in its simplicity, accept it all, give each part its due weight. Accept all that is said about God's sovereignty. Accept all that is said about man's responsibility. Do not shirk either. It will prove to be perfectly according to reason, only that reason is of such a high order that man's reasons cannot reduce it to reason. Man is out of joint, and he will not understand till he gets into joint again. In the meanwhile we have to accept the truth like a little child would; then all will be simple, for we shall then be the subjects of divine power, and find that our badness and our foolishness are just the occasion that God desires that He may come in with His divine power. God has everything for the one, who takes his place as a poor one before Him.

God grant we may all hear the Lord's voice saying to us, Blessed poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? What are the kingdoms of men? Kingdoms where men have sway, and, therefore, all is wrong. The kingdom of God is where God has sway in grace according to His love, and all is blessedness there. Therefore let Him smash you up and break you to pieces. You will find this the road to blessing. The reason why we have to be so smashed up is because we are something, and this something hinders blessing. "Nothing" cannot be smashed up, "nothing" cannot be squashed, "nothing" cannot be humiliated, "nothing" cannot be put down lower, "nothing" cannot be hurt. Oh! if we were only nothing to be made nothing of. If we would only let God come in in this way, and make room for all His blessing how happy He would make us.

Look at the cross on the one hand, and the glory on the other, Christ Himself was cut off and had nothing, therefore we have the answer to the cross in the glory. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

Joy

Let us look a little into the subject of joy as spoken of in the writings of the Apostle John.

"He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled." (John 3: 29.) Now that is the joy of John the Baptist, and very beautiful, unselfish joy it is. A wonderfully beautiful joy, for he had not the best place, and he knew there were others, who would have a deeper joy; still it was intense joy to him to hear the Bridegroom's voice. There was no jealousy about it, he delighted in the blessing he had, and in the thought that others would have a better place still. It is a very sad fact that at least half the sorrow that there is in the world is because of the blessings of others. This sounds very strange, but if you look into the matter you will see that it is true. The thing, which troubles most people and causes the most discontent and murmuring, is that some one else is better off than themselves. Oh! the misery caused by this envy and jealousy. If you take up one of the Indian papers, you will see it full of letters complaining because some one is better off than the writer is. In contrast with this it is very beautiful to see the unselfish joy of the Baptist.

Now we may have a far higher joy set before us, and yet we may have little or no enjoyment of it. We will come to our proper joy presently, but first wait for a moment and contemplate this unselfish joy. My mind is so taken up with it that I do not like to leave it, for I do see every day how the fact that some one has a better thing so often spoils a thing before delighted in. But there is no need to look outside for evil, for there is not a single evil that you find in the world that you will not find among ourselves. And there is no evil in the world that you will not find an answer to in your heart. The selfishness, oh, the terrible selfishness of our hearts, how it comes in! What damage it does. There is not a day but it comes in to hinder the cause of Christ.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15: 11.) Now see the beauty of the Lord Jesus in speaking thus so that His joy, the joy of the eternal Son, who became flesh and dwelt among us, that His joy might abide in us and that our joy might be full. Now this is a joy much deeper and greater than that of John the Baptist. What is this joy? It is the joy that came to the Son from the knowledge of the intense love that the Father had for Him, and His desire in these chapters is to put His own into His place, that there might be the same sense of the Father's love that He had, and that thus their joy might be full. Now I want to say a warning word. I think some of us are over-zealous in some matters. For instance, some Christians, if they see a person saying the Lord's prayer, at once tell him he is all wrong and not spiritual. They take him beyond his depth, and make him legal, and in result he often breaks down altogether. If you take a Christian beyond where he is in his own soul, the result will be disaster. A snake for instance does not cast one skin till there is another ready to take its place. If a person gets a sense of the blessing spoken of in these chapters he will not be able to help seeing that dispensationally this prayer is in some measure out of place for him. If, however, he has not reached this in his soul, you will take him beyond his measure and damage him.

As a matter of fact most of us have not got beyond the title, "Our Father, which art in heaven." The question is have we got up to it, for it means a great deal? If I know God as my Father in heaven I shall not have a single anxiety about myself, because I know that my Father is looking after me with tenderest love, and has a thought for everything concerning me down here. Even this will not take us to the end of this wondrous title. It goes far beyond this, it includes the truth that the Father will take care of all the interests of His Son on earth. Look at Matthew 16 and 18. This is the title used there, and therefore all that is revealed there is involved in that title. The title taken by the divine Person is always the key to the revelation.

Now is it not true that a great many of us have not got up to this title much less got beyond it. Can I say to God that not only have I not got a single care, not only do I know that He will perfectly care for my interests, but also that I am sure that He will look after the interests of Christ down here, so that I can rest about Christ's interests as well as my own because He is the Father in heaven.

When, however, you come in your soul to the title "The Father," then you have more even than what is stated above. That something more is that you have entered into what the Father is to the Son, and what the Son is to the Father outside the interests of this world, outside of everything that goes on down here. It is only where we enter into this love and this joy that we know a higher title than Our Father which art in heaven."

John 16: 23, 24 is, however, sometimes brought forward to shew that this prayer is not meant to be used by us. The argument is this, the Apostles had up to that time asked nothing in His name, that prayer is not in His name; therefore as all prayer henceforth is to be in His name this prayer must necessarily be dropped from the time of His death. I think, however, that those who use this argument do not understand the force of the passage, nor have they understood what asking in the Son's name involves.

The Apostles of course had not asked in the name of the Son up to the time of Christ's death: but to ask in His name is not the tacking on of certain phrases at the end of the prayer. It is right enough to say, For the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ," "but to ask in the Son's name is much more than this. It implies a state of soul, and is not a matter of words. When you pray in His name, it is not yourself at all, it is Himself who asks. You are lost, you are gone. That prayer must be answered in full. There is no other condition necessary to such prayer as this. When you pray in the name of the Son, it is the Son asking through you. How can it but be answered. If, however, you say to me, Would you like all your prayers answered thus? I say, God forbid! I could not imagine a greater curse. Look at 1 John 5: 14, "If we ask any thing according to His will He heareth us." That is another matter, that is not asking in His name, but that when we ask according to His will He hears. This is very blessed, but it does not rise to the asking in His name. So also Phil. 4: 6, 7. This, too, is very blessed, but does it mean we get all we ask? Certainly not, that would be the worst result. We get a much better thing. We get the peace of God which passes all understanding. No one can ask in the Son's name but as identified with the Son The speaker is gone, and there is nothing but the Son, who is speaking and acting in him. Thus it is that it is not the words, which are said, which constitute asking in the Son's name, but a state of soul in which you are lifted outside yourself by the knowledge that you are here as the Son was, and loved with the same love wherewith He was loved.

If you really want to get on and rejoice the Father's heart you must have this joy. This does not mean that you will have no sorrow; on the contrary, you may have very difficult circumstances indeed in your pathway here, but you will be so lifted up above these circumstances by the Father's love that your heart will be filled with joy. This is not patience or resignation, it is fulness of joy, an infinitely higher thing, the same joy the Son had from the sense of the Father's love.

But why is the next word about loving one another? Because the sign of all signs of this joy being made good in us is that we love one another: that we have the deepest longing for the interests of God's Son in one another. If now there was only something of that among us how it would stop ten thousand things that continually happen among us. Mind you "one another" means "one another." It does not mean certain special Christians, it includes all. But you say, So-and-so is not nice. Well, if you can only love the nice ones how do you differ from the world, You must love the nasty ones as well as the nice ones, if you are to carry this out; and you will not be able to help yourself. If this nature is in you you must love all the family. You do not try to, the love comes of itself. You must love.

Well, it was the joy He had in His Father's love which kept the Son amid all the ignominy and the shame of His sorrowful life down here. The love of the Father filled His heart and He does long for us to have this joy. (See John 16: 19-24.) How full these verses are of joy. He says, Ye shall weep. Why? Because you love Me and you will weep for My absence, but your sorrow will be turned into joy because you have Me back again, and far nearer than I ever was. The Son has not gone further away by going to the Father, on the contrary He has come much nearer. He is a great deal nearer now than when the disciples handled Him with their hands, and when John leaned upon His bosom. There is a far nearer place for you, if you will have it. Those were the figures, you may have the blessed reality figured by that handling and that leaning. How marvellous, the Father Himself loves you, not pities you, nor is gracious to you, but He can find His joy and pleasure in you. It is the same delight that He, the Father, found in His own Son. It is so blessed, so wonderful. There is nothing which can be compared to it. It is outside all the sorrowful circumstances of earth. This love takes us to the place where none of these things ever come: the place of the infinite love of the Father to the Son, outside all the failure and the strife down here, and the sense of this love fills your soul while you walk down here. Alas! how very little we know, it is such a very wonderful joy. Then He goes on, "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." It is identification with the Son, the promise is absolute. There is no condition there except that you ask in the Son's name. These truths are so blessed and we lose so much by refusing entrance into them. The world seeks to rob us of this joy by presenting what will allure the flesh.

The Lord wants us to challenge ourselves about this, whether we know anything about this deep joy. It is the wonder of wonders that, at the present time, while yet in the body, and walking in the scene of His rejection, we should have the same joy that the Son had when He walked through this world of sorrow.

In 1 John 1: 3 and 4, the Apostle tells us that he declares to us that which he had seen and witnessed of the eternal life, which was with the Father in the eternity passed, and was manifested unto them, the Apostles, in time. The Apostle declares this that we may have fellowship with them, and their fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. This it is which will give you fulness of joy. It will be the part fulfilment of the prayer given us in chapter 17. In verse 11 it is the blessed fellowship of the Apostles with the Son in His fellowship with the Father. They were brought into this blessed fellowship. In verses 20 and 21 we are brought in. "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." This is a lifting out of all that is of ourselves, there is nothing of human nature here, nothing even of Adam unfallen, but a new order altogether. All brought to the same blessed fellowship of life and affections; one aim, one desire filling all, the same love permeating all and bringing all into the same joy.

This love is altogether unique, it is not a thing of earth at all. The Apostle will not call that love which is not of God, nor will he allow that any one can love, who is not of God. (1 John 4: 7.) Even a mother's love is not love according to John. Just as the brightest light that you can make upon the earth, if held up before the sun, becomes a black spot; so it is that a mother's love is no love in the presence of the infinite love of God Made known in the Son. We all know that God is very good to us, we are thankful He has blotted out our sins, but how little we know of love. This alone will give fulness of joy. This alone will bring you into a fellowship where there is no failure, and no breaking down. This fellowship is in the light, there the Father is fully expressed in the Son, and there it is that the love of the Father is known in contrast with all that is of the world.

"I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full." (2 John 12.) "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 4.) Now this shews what was the practical outcome of that love in the Apostle.

The sense of the love must manifest itself thus. The Apostle had a great joy in his children and he longed to be with them that his joy might be full. His love came out thus. He would be with them for his own joy. Love seeks the company of the loved ones. Yet this was not the love that allows a person to go on with evil. "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." His joy was in the truth, and in seeing his children walk in truth. It is not the false love, which acquiesces in that which is not of the truth in order that Christians may be pleased. In both these little epistles we see those, who have to be resisted. It is the love, which is founded on the truth; and which, while it must love, and cannot help loving, yet must act according to truth. This is love that we walk after His commandments, and this is the commandment that, as we have heard from the beginning, we should walk in it. Those, who love thus will have much sorrow, but their joy will super-abound above all the sorrow, for in the midst of the sorrow they will be filled with joy. It will happen to them as is said in Isa. 43: 2, death will prove to be their life, their sorrow, will turn into joy and that which threatens to consume will only consume that which hinders their entrance into the life of joy eternal. No lesser joy than this can the Father give to His own seeing He has to express by this joy His delight in His own Son.

Marks of a True Teacher

The Marks of a True Teacher sent from God

I want to speak to you of the marks or the character of a true teacher sent from God. I will speak to you in a personal way, though it is not exactly what I passed through personally, I wish to portray the way in which a real seeker after God will be led, and when I look back upon my own past life I find I was led upon lines somewhat like those about which I am going to speak to you.

Imagine then a seeker after God. He wants to know what he has to do, what way he has to go; how he is to act, how he is to get blessing. Thus I look around, and I want to know who will show me any good, not something to enable me to get on in this world, but something that will set me right with God. I am sinful, and I want someone to help me in this condition. I look around and I find no one to help me. What am I to do? I want to know someone, who has come from God and can help me. Being in what is called a Christian land I naturally turn to the teaching of Christ. What do I find there? I turn to and read from the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. . . 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."

I would like you to read very carefully the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. I find that every person admits that they are most excellent teaching. Now this Man has one of the first marks of a true teacher. His teaching commends itself to every moral sense that I have.

The next thing I find is that I want something more from a teacher than to tell me what is right. Does the teacher himself carry out what he teaches? That is a most important point. The true teacher must himself walk in the way he teaches to others. I remember some time ago hearing a person, who talked so nicely, that I said I should like to go and see him at home. But then I heard that his life was very different to his teaching. Of what good is that? Now let us ask about this wonderful Teacher, who taught these wonderful things that I read to you. How did He live? Thank God, He lived all that He taught and more. He said, "Pray for your enemies." What did He do? When His enemies nailed Him to the Cross He prayed for them, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." When they crowned Him with thorns, and when they spat upon Him, He bore it in meekness.

He taught men to trust in God, and when the devil tempted Him (after He had fasted forty days and was hungry), to use His own power and convert the stones into bread, He was not moved from the path of dependence upon God. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." He tells us to be kind to those, who treat us badly, and when He was going to a village that treated His messengers badly His disciples wanted Him to call down fire from heaven upon them, but He rebuked them saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them,"

Now I find that everything this blessed Teacher taught He did, and more, in His blessed life of love down here in this world. He met all the ignominy and shame and contempt, all the malice and ingratitude of men, shewing all the time grace and kindness, meekness, goodness and truth, never getting into a passion, He went on unweariedly with all His works of love and goodness. I find in Him not only a Teacher, who could teach wonderful words, but who also lived a life more wonderful than His teaching.

Now I look around at other of the world's great teachers. I find great names, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mahomed, Krishna, Buddha, Gautama. I find in their teaching beautiful words. But you will not find in all their teaching anything like the teaching of Jesus Christ. Suppose I take the testimony of a man well-known, Professor Max Muller, who did so much to make English people acquainted with the literature of the East. Well, what does he say? Why he says, no one in his senses would dream of comparing the Bible with the Sacred books of the East, they have a jewel here or there, but the Bible is all jewels throughout. Now I see these teachers, and I enquire as to their lives. Some lived good lives, and some horrible lives, but I do not find anyone, whose life was like that of the Lord Jesus Christ as I desire to follow Him.

Well now, when I take the teaching of Jesus Christ, then the more I try to carry out what is enjoined in the sermon on the mount the more I find how utterly unlike it I am.

I appeal to you, if you have ever tried to follow a code of morals (and every one of us has some code or other), whether you did not find yourself incapable of attaining it, Jesus said, If you look on a woman to lust after her you have committed adultery in your heart. Are we able to follow His teaching? There is something in us that makes us unable to follow His teaching. There is no power in fallen man to enable him to carry into practice the true teaching. I need, therefore, that my teacher should be something more than a teacher, and much more than an example. I need a Mediator, one who will bring God to me or me to God, so that I, a poor helpless person, may find my sins blotted out, so that I can have to do with God. Such a person is Jesus Christ: not only do I find in Him a perfect Teacher, and an example in Himself of all that He taught, but that He came into this world to die for sinners, to reconcile men to God in His own body on the tree.

This is a tremendous thing. I find that this wonderful, remarkable, extraordinary Person actually died for me; died in order that I, at a distance from God, might be brought to God, so that I might meet with a loving welcome, and find, like the prodigal, my past all blotted out, and that I am reconciled to God. I receive a loving welcome, the best robe, a ring on my finger, shoes on my feet, and the fatted calf killed. The Father says, "Let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found." Then I find my teacher is my Mediator, and my Redeemer, and I am reconciled to God. I find nobody else, who can do that. Neither Buddha, Krishna, Mahomed nor any of these teachers could do that, whatever else I can find in their lives when it comes to this they are left far behind; Jesus Christ alone will do for me.

But I find I want still more than this. I am even yet powerless. How am I to live a holy, pure and unselfish life in this world? I want power, and power is just the thing I cannot acquire myself. Supposing I say, "I'll never do wrong again." That will not do. We shall never set ourselves right that way. Paul says, "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died." He found he was powerless to keep the law or the code of morals, which his conscience thoroughly approved. The more conscientious you are, the more you will find how powerless you are to do good, and that evil is present with you.

Therefore this teacher of mine, who is my Exemplar and my Redeemer, must also be One who will give me power. Thank God, Jesus does give me power. He, the last Adam, became a life-giving spirit. He says, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Living for self is not living. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Paul could say, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Jesus Christ gives me power to live. He puts the Spirit of God into my soul.

You remember that at Pentecost Peter said, "This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."

Now I have found not only a Teacher, an Exemplar, and a Redeemer but also a Life-giver. Now I can understand things I could not understand before. I have a new power in me which is more powerful than the old evil nature. I do thank God that the blessed Lord Jesus Christ is the Giver of the Spirit, the Giver of life. Now I know God, I know His love, I know He is for me, and all His thoughts towards me are thoughts of mercy and blessing. I live, because I live to Him. It is not that I always do right. I still need to confess my sins to Him. Nevertheless, my whole life is changed. I have a new life. Oh! how I thank God for Jesus Christ.

Well now, having found that, I have taken a great step, so to speak, on the way. I find I needed a power, and a life which I had not got naturally, and I find all this in that blessed Teacher, Jesus Christ. But I want even more. I find I am surrounded with temptations and difficulties and many snares, and I have many enemies, not only men and women, but evil spirits, i.e. spiritual enemies. Satan and his hosts are against Christ and His people. Therefore I not only need a Teacher, an Exemplar, a Redeemer, and a Life-giver, but I want the support of that Person all along the way. Now this also I have in Jesus. He is my Shepherd, He guards and He keeps me. He is my blessed Head in heaven. My High Priest, for He represents me before God. He is my Advocate with the Father. He intercedes for me that I fail not, and if I fail His intercession restores me. In fact, He undertakes to look after me every step of the way. How great then is this Blessed Teacher. He is not now on the Cross, though He did die on the Cross, but He is a living Man in the glory, and He has sent down His Spirit to dwell in me. Still He has not done with me. He is caring for me every day. He hears my voice, He shepherds me. Grace and mercy follow me all the days of my life, and I have every reason to trust Him for every stage of the way. Not that the Christian life is an easy one. God loves us too much to let the Christian life be an easy one. He piles difficulties on us in order that we might find how much we need the support of Christ all along the way, and thus we learn to know that blessed Person.

Therefore I say beginning with Him as Teacher I find Him my Exemplar, I trust Him as my Redeemer, I know Him as the One who gives me life, and I have Him as my support all along the way.

But even that is not enough. I need to get satisfaction for the heart. Man is such a wonderful creature, he has been made in the image of God, and nothing will satisfy Him but that which is divine.

God has been pleased to set forth the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, not only in all these ways which I have enumerated, but also as the supreme object of our affections, because He is the Object of the Father's affections.

Thus I have learned that God the Father has set His love upon me, that Jesus His Son has set His love upon me, and, strange to say, I am essential to their happiness. Love surpasses every other quality. Where you love you want the company of the loved object. Many people illustrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ somewhat in this way. Let us say there is a very poor man, he is sick, penniless, and out of work. A kind person comes along and finds him employment, having been very kind to him and providing for all his need. Now he says I have found you a nice appointment. I have set you on your feet, now go your way happily.

That is not in the least like the Gospel. The Gospel is this. God never sends us adrift to make our own way. We are essential to His happiness. The wonderful part of the Gospel is this, that I a poor worthless thing, horrible sinner that I am in myself, He has taken up, and taken such pains with that I may be His for ever. He died for me to cleanse me. He lives for me, He loves me so supremely that I am indispensable to His happiness, and He Himself is coming for me to take me to Himself, to live for ever with Him.

Jesus Christ said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." "Where I am," is the great theme in the Gospel of John. In John 17 He prays, "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am that they may behold My glory." "With me where I am." Dear fellow Christians, He wants us. He cannot do without us. We are necessary to His happiness. Does not this make your heart run over with thankfulness? Now I have got all these six things in Him, and I say that He has left all His competitors far behind. No one could honestly compare Jesus Christ with any of the world's great teachers, Confucius or Buddha, Gautama, Mahomed, Krishna or anybody else. He is absolutely supreme in His excellence. All before Him must vanish as the stars before the rising sun.

There was a time when I longed to disbelieve all these things. I was very anxious to be a sceptic because I felt the sting of sin, I should have been very glad to believe that Christianity was based upon fable, but when I read infidel books their bias was so evident, their arguments so false, I  could not in decent honesty accept them at all, and I felt that as they had not better arguments than these they were but deceivers. Then I turned again to Christ, and found how blind I had been, and how fully a poor sinner could trust that blessed Person.

Now then I have found that this wonderful person, who is my Teacher, my Exemplar, my Redeemer, my Life-giver, my Support all along the way is also a Satisfying object for my heart. But He is even more than this. I needed to know that my Teacher was so great that He could not only take up my case, my helplessness and my need, but also everybody else's. In fact, I wanted to know whether He could deal with the need of the whole universe, and so deal with all the sin and evil which had come in, that sin should not be able to lift up its head again. Well this also I find in Him. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, when he saw Him pass by said to his disciples, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Yes, although God, He became a Man, humbled Himself and laid down His life, shed His blood in order that He might purge the whole universe of sin. God has committed to Him the task of setting everything right. This world belongs to God, and God has no intention of giving it up to the devil. God is going to get the whole world set right. He will fill the earth with righteousness, the heavens being full of righteousness also. This wonderful Person has shed His blood, and He has gone up on high far above all heavens. What for? Why, that He might fill all things? Everything, the whole creation is going to be brought into subjection to Him, everyone is going to own Him as Lord. Under His mighty power all will have to bow to Him. God is going to fill the new heavens and the new earth with Christ, so that God can dwell there, as it is written in Rev. 21, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

How blessed is it then beginning with the enquiry for one to teach me, to find a Teacher who leads me on step by step, and as I go on I find that He is greater and greater than I ever imagined. A Teacher, who not only teaches the truth, but who has lived it out in the midst of the greatest difficulties. One who laid down His life to redeem. His people. One who gives them His Spirit, and thus is their Life-giver. Then He sustains them all along the way, and He Himself becomes their Object, their satisfying Portion. Then greater still, I find that He is sufficient to satisfy the heart of God. He is sufficient to bring the whole heaven and earth into subjection to Himself, and when He has done that He will hand over the kingdom to God even the Father that God may be all in all.

Therefore I say in my soul's experience He has led me to see what a wonderful Person He is, and what an abominable thing it would be if I did not put my trust in Him, and seek to be in this world for Him.

There are a great many people now attacking Christianity. Well, thank God, the more they attack Christ the more His perfections are seen. The sad thing, alas! is that there are so many who are called Christians, who are not real Christians, and both from within and from without these enemies are pressing to the attack. A powerful argument in their hands is this, that we Christians are so little like Christ. If we were like Him it would be such a standing miracle before men that they would be obliged to confess that Jesus Christ is far more than they thought Him to be from reading the Bible. Nevertheless, nothing is more pitiful than to see a Christian ashamed of Christ and of His cross. A real Christian has the utmost confidence in Christ, and he is quite sure that Christ will triumph completely.

The Bible is quite clear as to the defection that would take place together with a departing from the truth. In 2 Timothy third chapter we read, "In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Therefore we have not the least fear when we hear that men are turning away from the faith, and that false teachers are seeking to undermine the faith of Christ, only it makes us keep close to Christ. We know that the world will not be converted to God except by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some perhaps are hindered by what they see in the lives of Christians, and we are sorry for this, but I say to you; be honest. I desire myself to be honest. I say if you are honest you will see that, there is nothing in heaven or earth like the Lord Jesus Christ, for one reason which alone will suffice an honest person. This reason is that He rose from the dead. He is a living man in the glory of God; you will find that there is but one Man, who will satisfy the necessities in which you find yourself as a sinful man in this world, and therefore you are bound to believe on Him. If you do find this I beg of you to have the manliness to Own Him, because if you do not, it will cost you infinitely more to reject Him.

As to those who are Christians in name I appeal to you. Are you real Christians or not? Have you received the Holy Ghost? Have you been born again? If so, you have found what a blessed thing it is to be a Christian, to know the Blessed Son of God.

But there are some people, who call themselves Christians, who complain of Christianity. They thought by becoming Christians they would improve their circumstances. Oh! this is a horrible thing when men become Christians for the sake of worldly gain. One such Christian does more harm than a hundred heathen. Be real. Christ never came into this world that His people might get gain in this world. When one said to Him, "I will follow Thee," He replied, Are you prepared for it? "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." It is a very real thing to be a Christian. You will find the power of the world and the devil against you, but you will also find the power of God for you. That is why the early Christians turned the world upside down. But alas 1 most of us who are real Christians are halfhearted followers of Christ, and the mass of Christians have the name without the reality. Do not let this, however, hinder you if you have never come to Christ, come to Him now. If you have come to Christ, then live to Him. Is He the supreme object of your heart's affections? He is so worthy. He is so wonderful. Be a real follower of Christ. Follow Christ with all your heart. He has said, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." He will satisfy. I lilting with all my heart to see men, who will be true to Christ, seeking nothing from the world, but longing supremely to live for Him, who died for you and rose again. There is nothing better in this world than to be allowed in some little measure to suffer for Christ. See you lose not this honour.

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. H e 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 cup 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 some- thing 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 Or 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, their 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: 13-1 4.) 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 thing's 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 it- self. 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 Israelites 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; 17 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 (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 shew 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?

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 I 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 I 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 uncertainly, 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, Le. 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 1 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 in 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!I 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.