The Remembrancer: 1891

NOTICE.

This little periodical does not profess to put forth anything new or original, but chiefly extracts from J. N. D,. J. G. B., G. V. W., and a few others. " To stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," or bring the truth in them before some who may never have read them.

The initials are left out, in order that the reader may judge what he or she reads, not by the reputation of the writers, but by the word of God. It is not promised that a new number shall come out every month regularly, but as the Lord may lead and give matter for it. This makes it difficult in asking for subscriptions. But trusting that the Lord will help us to provide for mostly every month, and counting on the love and forbearance of God's dear children who may subscribe for it, your prayers are asked that God would graciously use it for blessing to souls, and that it may not take Christians away from the written Word of God, but to it, more than ever.

J. DUNLOP.

As regards settled peace, the great secret is the full and abiding consciousness that in us there is no good, and looking ever at Christ as our only and own perfect righteousness before God. But there is another kind of peace which we must not confound with this, the peacefulness of heart which flows from conscious relationship with God. When this is in simple exercise, we rest in the sense of His goodness, and enjoy it, and this is very sweet to the soul. If we are not walking in heart or ways in consistency with this relationship, then we have to think of ourselves, and at any rate by God's own discipline, we do not enjoy the light of His countenance in the same way. We must not confound this with righteousness. This is ignorance of divine righteousness, and tends to put us back under law and make us doubt. This is not of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost dwelling in us cannot make us doubtful of our relationship with God. He is the Spirit of adoption, "crying Abba, Father," but He does make us sensitive of the approbation of God and what suits His presence. Abel had testimony by his gifts (that is, Christ, the Lamb,) that " he was righteous," but Enoch, before his translation, had this testimony "that he pleased God." You may find the two kinds of rest in John 14:27. Our present relationship is a constant source of joy, and to be carefully cherished. Our righteousness, on which it is founded, is unchangeable in the presence of God. The gracious Lord keep us walking diligently.

PSALM. 16

This Psalm depicts Christ as the dependent devoted man. Dependent, obedient, taking no place with God, but before Him as responsible as man upon earth, and looking towards the place of perfect blessedness as man with God, by being in His presence, which would be fullness of joy for Him, a place which, when having His nature, we can have with Christ. It is man, partaker of the divine nature, for so only it could be, but having God for His object, His confidence, as alone having authority over Him, entirely dependent on God, and perfect in faith in Him. This could only be in One personally partaker of the divine nature, God Himself in man as Christ was, or derivatively, as in one born of God. The divine presence in Him is viewed here in its effect in His absolute perfection as man. He is walking as man morally in view of God. He had said to Jehovah, " Thou art my Lord," that is "I am subservient to Thee." He had taken a place, while never ceasing to be God, (and which Godhead alone could fulfill the conditions of,) outside Godhead, but in which as man to satisfy God, to glorify God in an earth of apostacy and sin.

Jehovah was the portion of His cup. Nearer than all circumstances which otherwise could have pressed upon His heart as man-and which he fully felt. So truly was Jehovah the great circumstance and substance of His life in and through everything, that He could only wish that His joy might be fulfilled in His disciples. But then it was Jehovah only, and therein His perfection; the world a dry and thirsty land, where no water was; but Jehovah's favor was better than life; and was His life, practically, through a world where all was felt, but felt with Jehovah realized, Jehovah and His favor, the life of His soul, between Hint and all. So the Christian, forsaken, perhaps, and imprisoned, " Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice." Nature has circumstances between itself and God; faith has God between the heart and circumstances. And what a difference! No peace like the peace which hiding in the tabernacle from the provokings of all men gives. But this is a divine life passing through the world. " Delight thyself in the Lord, He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Faith leans on Jehovah, on the Father's love and Jesus.

For the securing infallible happiness and peace we need not look to circumstances, save to pass through them with Him. This was perfect, in Christ; He had only this, nor looked for aught else. We see it brightly manifested in Paul. In principle it is the path of every Christian, and some time or other he is exercised in it. The life of faith is this: God Himself the portion of our inheritance and our cup; He maintaineth our lot.

The lines fallen in pleasant places, I believe to be His joy as man in God, and in what was before God. In what follows we have the active expression of this life, in reference to God. " I will bless Jehovah who giveth me counsel." We need in divine life the positive instruction of wisdom, counsel; wisdom, a divine clue and direction in the confusion of evil in this world-to be wise concerning that which is good. " Not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time," "not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Jehovah gives counsel, So "if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to every man liberally and upbraideth not."

There is the immense privilege of the positive direction and guidance of God—the interest He feels in guiding the godly man aright, in the true path suited to God Himself—across the wilderness where there is no way. So Christ walked. So He guides His sheep, going before them; and now we are led of the Spirit of God, as ourselves sons of God. It is the divine path of wisdom, which the vulture's eye bath not seen; the path of man, but of man with the life of God, going towards the presence of God and the incorruptible inheritance. God gives counsel for it. I repeat He is interested in the guidance of the man of God, and the soul blesses Him. In this path Christ trod. The written word is the great means of this, still there is the direct action of God in us by His Spirit. But there is also intelligence. “My reins also instruct me in the night seasons." The divine life is intelligent life. We can be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Thus, when removed from external influences, the secret workings and thoughts of the heart show what is suited to the path and way of God in the world. In Christ this was perfect, in us in the measure of our spirituality; but that to which, the Christian has to give much heed, that he neglect not the holy suggestions and conclusions of the divinely-instructed life when freed from the influence of surrounding circumstances. It may seem folly, but if found in humbly waiting on God, will in the end prove His wisdom. And the controlling judgment of God's word which overrules the whole divine life is there to judge false pretensions. To this the divine life is always absolutely subject. Christ, who was this life, yea, was the Word and Wisdom, yet always wholly honored the written word as the guidance and authority of God for man.

But guidance by the Lord is not quite all the practical process of the exercise of divine life. It looks entirely to the Lord, "I have set (says Christ, walking as man on the earth,) Jehovah always before me." He kept Him always in view. How our hearts have to own that this is not always so! How withdrawn from all evil-how powerful morally in the midst of this world should we be were it always so 1 There is nothing in this world like the dignity of a man always walking with God. What absence of self, what renouncement of all evil, what singleness of eye, and hence bright and earnest activity of purpose when the Lord is the only object before the soul! I say the Lord, for no other such object can command and sanctify the heart-all would go against duty to Him. He alone can make the whole heart full of light when duty and purpose go together and are but one. Indeed this is what James calls " the perfect law of liberty," perfect obedience, yet perfect purpose of heart. As Jesus says, " that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do." We say, as Christians, Christ is all, and he that loves Him, keeps His commandments. Thus Jesus set Jehovah always before His face. This is man's perfection as man. This is the measure of our spirituality, the constancy and purity with which we do this. But if Jesus did this, surely Jehovah would not fail Him nor us. So walking, He maintains the saint in the path which is His own. I set Jehovah always before my face, He is on my right hand, so that I shall not fall. This is known by faith. He may let us suffer for righteousness' sake—Christ did so—be put to death —Christ was—but not a hair of our head can He let fall to the ground, nor fail in making us enter into life according to the path in which we walk, but here it is 'Confidence in Jehovah Himself. Faith in walking in the path of man according to God's will, and towards God solely as the sanctifying end and object, knows that God is at its hand. Jehovah will secure. How or through what, is not the question. What strength this gives in passing through a world where all is against us, and what sanctifying power it has! There is no motive, no resource but Jehovah, which could satisfy any other craving, or by which the heart desires to secure itself, in seeking aught else. Hence, come what would Christ waited patiently for Jehovah, looked for no other deliverer. Nor have we to seek any other, and this makes the way perfect. We turn not aside to make the path easier.

Christ trod this path, only perfectly apart from sin, and only with God, doing His will, showed this path of life in man, then, having died to sin, (in the full result of this life in its own place, where no evil is,) lives to God. He did so, by faith, when down on earth always, but as man, in a world apart from God, and taking the word as His guide, living by every word that came out of the mouth of God, as we have to do. The resurrection demonstrated the perfectness of a life which was always according to the Spirit of holiness; but now He lives in it in its own place, and this is what, though through death, in an undiscontinued life He anticipates. "In thy presence is fullness of joy." This, alway His delight, was now His perfect enjoyment, and " at thy right hand." (Divine power had brought Him to this place of power and acceptance—the witness of His being perfectly acceptable to God.) "Are pleasures for evermore."

Such is life as life with God-life shown as man in this world. Life before God, and looking ever at Him. A life which, though free from sin, neither innocent nor sinful man could know; which, in fact, had not to be lived in Paradise, which could not be lived as belonging to the world, but which was lived to God through it: setting Jehovah always before it as its object.

Such is the life we have to live. " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

In this world there is no other for a man. A life which has no object but the Lord Himself. This is a wonderful point—not one object in the world at all. For otherwise, it is not faith, but sight, or lust. Innocent man had no object; he enjoyed in peace God's goodness. Man departed from God—had many objects; but all these separate his heart from God and end in death. But the new life which comes down from the Father looks up with desire to its source and becomes the nature in man which tends towards God—has the Son of God for its object. As Paul says, " that I may win Christ." This life has no portion in this world at all; and, as life in man, looks to God, leans on God, and seeks no other assurance or prop, obeys God, and can live only by faith.

This life, of man Christ led and filled the whole career of. Out of this Satan wanted Him to come in the wilderness, and have a will, Make the stones bread, distrust, try if the Lord would fulfill His promise or fail Him, have another object-the kingdoms of the world. This last destroyed the very nature of the life, and Satan is openly detected and dismissed. Christ would not come out of man's dependent, obedient place of unquestioning trust in Jehovah. His path here was with the excellent of the earth, perfect in the life which was come down from heaven, but which was lived on earth, looking up to heaven.

Whatever our privileges in union with Christ, it is all important to live in the fear and faith of God, according to the life of Christ, It is not man's responsibility without law, or under law as a child of Adam; it is all over with us on that ground. It is the responsibility of the new life of faith, which is a pilgrim and a stranger here, a life come down from heaven. " God bath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son: he that hath the Son hath life," but a life which man lives in passing through this world, but wholly out of it in its object-a life of faith which finds in God's presence fullness of joy.

We have to remember that the development of this life in us is not, as in the Psalm, in connection with the name of Jehovah, but with the full revelation of the Father and the Son.

This Psalm, gives, us the inward spiritual life of Christ, and so ours, ending in the highest joy of God's presence.

CO 4:10 {" Then you come to the way the vessel is dealt with, in Paul, (a man with sin in him like ourselves). A thing with a will is not a vessel: a person is acting for himself if he has a will; he must not think or will anything for himself; and therefore it says, Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.' That is obedience of course. Christ was obedient unto death; that is not a man's will, and I am always to bear about in my body His dying: that is Christ's dying, or being put to death, as we have it in Peter, Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind,' Christ did actually die, and Peter had just been speaking to them not to suffer for evil doing, but if it were God's will, for well doing; arm yourselves, therefore, with the same mind. This would be carrying about the dying Christ had died; and this dying of Christ I apply to myself, so that the body never stirs, and the will of the body never moves.

We have then these two things: first, Paul, as a faithful man, never allows the vessel to have, for one instant, a will or a thought of its own. Just as much as Christ died, and completely died, so Paul was carrying this about constantly, and says, 'Now you are as dead as Christ was,' and though Paul was very faithful in that, the Lord helped him by sending him through circumstances, so that he despaired of his life. It was not chastening, but he was having the sentence of death written in himself. He held himself practically for a dead man, and the Lord says, Well, now I must bring death right on to you, and so you will be a dead man.' In his case it was making it good by the trials he went through, and with this object, that nothing but the life of Christ should come out. The Lord says I must make this thorough that he may realize it in himself,' and then Paul sums it up by saying, so then death worketh in us, but life in you,' that is, Paul was so entirely a dead man, that nothing but the life of Christ wrought in him towards the Corinthians. Wonderful description! If the vessel thinks or acts, it is spoiled. There is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to come out, and if the vessel is anything, by so much the light is hindered: but if the vessel is kept dead, nothing but the life of Christ is there to come out. It ought to have been the same in them as in himself; but it was not; of them he says, life in you.' Death was working in him, and so nothing but Christ's life worked out in them. Death and life are both taken morally in this verse. Read verses 10 to 12. There would be no so then,' if it had been death in the Corinthians already. It is a wonderful thing to say for anybody, but it is said of Paul. The treasure was, as we have seen, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It shined' into Paul's heart.

But the vessel is in danger of working, and so he applies Christ's death to the vessel and then there is nothing but Christ's life to come out. But it was death to him as a man."

We fully sympathize with you in your feelings as to professing Christians going in debt.

The utter want of conscience on this subject is really dreadful. It must sadly grieve the Spirit of God, and bring in leanness, barrenness and deadness of soul. If I am in debt, I have no right to give money in charity. Were I to do so, there would at least be, as another has said, a measure of honesty in my writing on the back of whatever I bestow, these words, " Borrowed from my creditors without their consent." But, dear friend, we should go very much further than this. We believe that, as a rule, Christians should not go into debt at all. " Owe no man anything," is so plain. Rom. 13:8. We do not here enter upon the question of how far persons engaged in trade can carry out this holy and happy rule.

There are certain terms upon which the manufacturer sells to the warehouseman, and the warehouseman to the shop-keeper. Such as, for instance, " Cash in a month." We believe that it would be far safer and better in every way, for persons in trade to pay cash, and take the discount.

It is a poor, hollow, worthless, unprincipled thing, for a man to traffic with fictitious capital, to live by a system of " kite-flying," to make a show at his creditor's expense. We fear there is a deplorable amount of this sort of thing even amongst those who occupy the very highest platform of profession. As to persons living in private life there is no excuse whatever for going into debt. What right have I before God or man, to wear a coat or a hat not paid for? What right have I to order a ton of coals, a pound of tea, or a joint of meat, if I have not the money to pay for it? It may be said, what are we to do? The answer is plain to an upright mind and a tender conscience, we are to do without rather than go in debt. It is infinitely better, happier, and holier to sit down to a crust of bread and a cup of water paid for, than to roast meat for which you are in debt.

We do not believe that the word of Christ can be dwelling in a person who has no conscience as to debt, and we are disposed to think that faithful personal discipline in all such cases, would have a good effect. We should feel called upon to mark such a person and have-no company with him. (2 Thess. 3 chap. 6th and 14th verses.

As to persons who have failed in business and compounded with their creditors, we consider them morally bound to the full amount of their liabilities; and they are in debt until that amount is paid. No legal exemption could ever release a really upright person from the righteous obligation of paying what he owes. We feel called upon to write strongly on this subject, because of the sad laxity which obtains amongst professors with respect to it. All we want is to see some exercise of conscience; some measure of effort, however feeble, to get out of an utterly false position. A. man may find himself unavoidably plunged into debt in fifty ways, but if he has an upright mind and a healthfully exercised conscience, he will use every effort, he will curtail his expenses within the narrowest circle possible, he will deny himself in every way, in order to pay off the debt, even by twenty-five cents a week. May the Lord give us to look at this great practical question with that amount of seriousness which it demands! We fear the cause of Christ is sadly damaged, and the testimony of professing Christians marred, through lack of sensibility and right-mindedness as to going into, and being in debt. Oh, for a tender conscience.

PE 1:7{The heart being in communion with God, affection flows out freely towards those who are dear to Him, and who, sharing the same nature, necessarily draw out the affections of the spiritual heart: brotherly love is developed.

There is another principle which crowns, and governs, and gives character to all others:—it is charity—love, properly so called. This is its root, is the nature of God Himself—the source and perfection of every other quality that adorns Christian life. The distinction between love and brotherly love, is of deep importance; the former is indeed, as we have just said, the source whence the latter flows; but as this brotherly love exists in mortal men, it may be mingled in its exercise with sentiments that are merely human-with individual affection, with the effect of personal attractions, or that of habit, of suitability in natural character. Nothing is sweeter than brotherly affections; their maintenance is of the highest importance in the Church; but they may degenerate, as they may grow cool; and if love—if God—does not hold the chief place, they may displace Him—set Him aside—shut Him out. Divine love, which is the very nature of God, directs, rules, and gives character to brotherly love; otherwise, it is that which pleases us— i.e., our own heart—that governs us. If divine love governs me, I love all my brethren; I love them because they belong to Christ; there is no partiality. I shall have greater enjoyment in a spiritual brother; but I shall occupy myself about my weak brother, with a love that rises above his weakness, and has tender consideration for it. I shall concern myself with my brother's sin, from love to God, in order to restore my brother, rebuking him, if needful: nor if divine love be in exercise, can brotherly love or its name be associated with disobedience. In a word, God will have His place in all my relationships. To exact brotherly love in such a manner as to shut out the requirements of that which God is, and of His claims upon us, is to shut out God in the most plausible way, in order to gratify our own hearts. Divine love, then, which acts according to the nature, character, and will of God, is that which ought to direct and characterize our whole Christian walk, and have authority over every movement of our hearts. Without this, all that brotherly love can do is to substitute man for God.

1 JOHN 4:7, &C.

JO 4:7{Here it will be worth our while to notice the order of this remarkable passage (7-20). We possess the nature of God, consequently we love; we are born of Him and we know Him. But the manifestation of love towards us in Christ Jesus is the proof of that love; it is thus that we know it (11-16); we enjoy it by dwelling in it. It is present life in the love of God, by the presence of His Spirit in us; the enjoyment of that love by communion, in that God dwells in us, and we thus dwell in Him (17); His love is perfected with us; the perfection of that love, viewed in the place that it has given us-we are, in this world, such as Christ is (18, 19); it is thus fully perfected with us-love to sinners, communion, perfection before God, gives us the moral and characteristic elements of that love, what it is in our relationship with God.

In the first passage, where the Apostle speaks of the manifestation of this love, he does not go beyond the fact that one who loves is born of God.

The nature of God, which is love, being in us, he who loves knows Him, for he is born of Him, has His nature and realizes what it is.

It is that which God has been with regard to the sinner, which demonstrates His nature of love. Afterward, that which we learned as sinners, we enjoy as saints. The perfect love of God is- shed abroad in the heart, and we dwell in Him. Already as He (Jesus) is, in this world, fear has no place in one to whom the love of God is a dwelling-place and rest.

The reality of our love to God, fi.uit of His love to us, is now tested. If we say that we love God and do not love the brethren, we are liars; for if the divine nature so near us (in them) does not awaken our spiritual affections, how then can He who is afar off do so? Accordingly, this is His commandment, that he who loves God love his brother also. (See also chap. 5:1, 2.)

But a danger exists on the other side. It may be, that we love the brethren because they furnish us with agreeable society, whose conscience is not wounded. A counter-proof is therefore given us. "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, if we love God and keep His commandments." If I walk with the brethren themselves in disobedience to their Father, it is certainly not because they are His children that I love them. If it was because I loved the Father and because they were His children, I should assuredly like them to obey Him. To walk, then, in disobedience with the children of God, under the pretext of brotherly love, is not to love thorn as the children of God. If I loved them as such, I should love their Father and my Father, and I could not walk in disobedience to Him, and call it a proof that I loved them because they were His.

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

"Moreover the semblance of love which does not maintain the truth, but accommodates itself to that which is not the truth, is not love according to God.
It is the taking advantage of the name of love in order to help on the seductions of Satan.
In the last days the test of true love is the maintenance of the truth. God would have us love one another; but the Holy Ghost, by whose power we receive this divine nature, and who pours the love of God into our hearts, is the Spirit of truth; and His office is to glorify Christ. Therefore it is impossible that a love which can put up with a doctrine that falsifies Christ, and which is indifferent to it, can be of the Holy Ghost-still less so, if such indifference be set up as the proof of that love."

Of Him who has died for me-

Here share, O my Lord, Thy rejection,

Ere I sit on Thy throne with Thee.

I see Thee alone, broken-hearted,

Of comforters findest Thou none;

Yet thine was the gladness of heaven,

The love and the glory Thine own.

Thus to show to the, world that rejects Thee,

To show to the angels above,

How blessed Thy yoke and Thy burden,

To him who has tasted Thy love.

The maiden who gathereth roses,

Another, another would find,

So sweet are the tracks of Thy sorrow,

To him who would follow behind.

Thus would I press on to glory,

A knight in the army of God,

Whose march will be onward and upward,

Because of the foes on the road.

EB 13:17-25{The spirit of obedience is the secret of all godliness. The spring of all evil from the beginning has been independence of will. Obedience is the only rightful state of the creature, or God would cease to be supreme-would cease to be God. Wherever there is independence, there is always sin.

This rule, if always remembered, would wonderfully help us in guiding our conduct.

There is no case whatever in which we ought to do our own will; for then we have not the capacity either of judging rightly about our conduct, or of bringing it before God.

I may be called upon to act independently of the highest authority in the world, but it ought never to be on the principle that I am doing my own will, which is the principle of eternal death. The liberty of the saint is not license to do his own will.

An entire self-renunciation (and this goes very far when we know the subtlety of the heart) is the only means of walking with the full blessing that belongs to our happy position of service to God, our brethren and mankind.

If anything could have taken away' the liberty of the Lord Jesus, it would have been the hindering Him in being always obedient to the will of God. All that moves in the sphere of man's will is sin. Christianity pronounces the assertion of its exercise to be the principle of sin. We are sanctified unto obedience (1 Peter 1:7): the essence of sanctification is the having no will of our own. If I were as wise (so to speak) as Lucifer, and it administered to my own will, all my wisdom would become folly. True slavery, is the being enslaved by our own will; and true liberty consists in our having our own wills entirely set aside. When we are doing our own wills, self is the center.

The Lord Jesus " took upon himself the form of a servant" and " being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:7, 8.) When man became a sinner, he ceased to be a servant, though he is in sin and rebellion, the slave of a mightier rebel than himself. When we are sanctified we are brought into the place of servants as well as sons. The spirit of sonship just manifested itself in Jesus, in doing the Father's will. Satan sought to make His sonship at variance with unqualified obedience to God: but the Lord Jesus would never do anything, from the beginning to the end of His life, but His Father's will.

In this chapter the spirit of obedience is enforced towards those who rule in the church, " Obey them that have the rule over you," (v. 17.) It is for our profit in everything, to seek after this spirit. " They watch for your souls," says the Apostle," as those that must give account." Those whom the Lord puts into service He makes responsible to Himself. This is the real secret of all true service. It should not be right that guides, either those who rule, or those who obey. They are servants, and this is their responsibility. Woe unto them if they do not guide, direct, rebuke, etc.; if they do not do it, the Lord will require it of them. On the other hand, those counseled become directly responsible to "the Lord" for obedience.

The great guardian principle of all conduct in the Church of God is personal responsibility to " the Lord."

No guidance of another can ever come in between an individual's conscience and God. In Popery this individual responsibility to God is taken away. Those who are spoken of in this chapter, as having the rule in the church, had to "give account" of their own conduct, and not of the souls which were committed to them. There is no such thing as giving account of other people's souls: '" every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." (Rom. 14) Individual responsibility always secures the maintenance of God's authority. If those who watched for their souls had been faithful in their service, they would not have to give account " with grief," so far as they were concerned; but still it might be very " unprofitable " for the others if they acted disobediently.

Wherever the principle of obedience is not in our hearts, all ie wrong, there is nothing but sin. The principle which actuates us in our conduct should never be, "I must do what I think right;" but "I ought to obey God." (Acts 5:29.)

The Apostle then says, " pray for us; for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly," (ver. 18.) It is always the snare of those who are occupied with things of God continually not to have a "good conscience." No person is so liable to a fall, as one who is continually administering the truth of God, if he be not careful to maintain a "good conscience." The continually talking about truth, and the being occupied with other people, has a tendency to harden the Conscience. The Apostle does not say " pray for us, for we are laboring hard," and the like, but that which gives him confidence in asking their prayers is, that he has a "good conscience." Where there is not diligence in seeking to maintain a "good conscience" Satan comes in and destroys confidence between the soul and God, or we get into false confidence. Where there is the sense of the presence of God, there is the spirit of lowly obedience. The moment that a person is very active in service, or has much knowledge and is put forward in any way in the Church, there is the danger of not having a "good conscience."

It is blessed to see the way in which in verses 20 and 21 the Apostle returns after all his exercise and trial of spirit, to the thought of God's being the "God of peace." He was taken from them, and was in bondage and trial himself; he enters more over into all the troubles of these saints, and is extremely anxious evidently about it. And yet he is able to turn quietly to God, as the " God of peace." We are called to peace. Paul closes his second epistle to the Thessalonians with, "Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means." There is nothing that the soul of the believer is more brought to feel, than that he has " need of patience." (Heb. 10:36.) But if he is hindered by anything from finding God to be "the God of peace," if sorrow and trial hinder this, there is the will of the flesh at work. There cannot be the quiet doing of God's will, if the mind be troubled and fluttered about a thousand things. It is completely our privilege to walk and to be settled, in peace; to have no uneasiness with God, but to be quietly seeking His will. It is impossible to have holy clearness of mind, unless God be known as the "God of peace." When everything was removed out of God's sight but Christ, God was the " God of peace."

Suppose then that I find out, that lam an utterly worthless sinner, but see the Lord JeSus standing in the presence of God, I have perfect peace. This sense of peace becomes quite distracted when we are looking at the ten thousand difficulties by the way; for, when the charge and care of anything rests on our minds, God ceases practically to be the " God of peace."

There are three steps:

1st. The knowledge that Christ has " made peace through the blood of the cross." (Col. 1:20.) This gives us " peace with God." (Rom. 5:1.)

2nd. As regards all our cares and troubles, the promise is, that, if we cast them on God, " the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (See Phil. 4:6, 7.) God burdens Himself about everything for us, yet He is never disturbed or troubled; and it is said, that His peace shall " keep our hearts and minds." If Jesus walked on the troubled sea, He was just as much at peace as ever; He was far above the waves and billows.

3rd. There is a further step, namely, He who is the " God of peace " being with us, and working in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. (See vers. 20, 21. The holy power of God is here described as keeping the soul in those things which are well pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ.

There was war—war with Satan, and in our own consciences. That met its crisis on the cross of the Lord Jesus. The moment He was raised from the dead, God was made known fully as the " God of peace." He could not leave His Son in the grave; the whole power of the enemy was exercised to its fullest extent; and God brought into the place of peace the Lord Jesus, and us also who believe on Him, and became nothing less than the " God of peace."

He is "the God of peace," both as regards our sins and as regards our circumstances. But it is only. in Ills presence that there is settled peace. The moment we get into human thoughts and reasonings about circumstances, we get troubled. Not only has peace been made for us by the atonement, but it rests upon the power of Him who raised up Jesus again from the dead; and therefore we know Him as the "God of peace."

The blessing of the saint does not depend upon the old covenant to which man was a party, and which might therefore fail; but upon that God who, through all the trouble and sea and the power of Satan, " brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus " and thus secured " eternal redemption." (Heb. 9:12.)

All that God Himself had pronounced as to judgment against sin, and all the wicked power of Satan, rested on Jesus on the cross; and God Himself has raised Him from the dead. Here then we have full comfort and confidence of soul. " Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," argues faith, (see Rom. 8:31-30), for, when all our sins had been laid upon Jesus, God stepped in, in mighty power, and " brought again from the dead that Great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." The blood was as much the proof and witness of the love of God to the sinner as it was of the justice and majesty of God against sin. This covenant is founded on the truth and holiness of the eternal God having been fully met and answered in the cross of the Lord Jesus. His precious blood has met every claim of God. If God be not the "God of peace," He must be asserting the insufficiency of the blood of His dear Son. And this we know is impossible. God rests in it as a sweet savor.

Then as to the effect of all this on the life of the saint, the knowledge of it produces fellowship with God and delight in doing His will. He " works in us," as it is said here, " that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ."

The only thing that ought to make any hesitation in the saint's mind about departing to be with Christ is the doing God's will here. We may suppose such an one thinking of the joy of being with Christ, and then being arrested by the desire of doing God's will here, (see Phil. 1:20-25.) That assumes confidence in God, as the "God of peace," and confidence in His sustaining power whilst here. If the soul is laboring in the turmoil of its own mind, it cannot have the blessing of knowing God as " the God of peace." The flesh is so easily aroused, that there is often the need of the word of exhortation, "I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation," (ver 22.)

The spirit of obedience is the only spirit of holiness. The Lord give us grace to walk in His ways.

" Commit thy way unto the Lord,"

-Psa. 37:5.

" Commit thy works unto the Lord,"

-Prov. 16:3.

"Cast thy burden upon the Lord."

-Psa. 55:22.

I would say a word as to the way in which Christ may be considered as our food. He may be looked at as the food of the Christian in three ways: First, as a redeemed sinner: secondly, in connection with sitting in heavenly places in Christ and thirdly, as a pilgrim and stranger down here. But this last is merely accessory and not the proper portion of the Christian.

The Lord said to Israel that He had come down to deliver them from. Egypt and bring them into the land of Canaan.

He did not say a word about the wilderness when He came to deliver them from Egypt, because His interference for them there was in the power of redemption and for the accomplishing of His promises. However, there was the wilderness as well as redemption from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan; and Christ answers as our food to these three things. Two of them are permanent, for we are nourished by Christ in two ways permanently, that is, in redemption and glory. The third way is as the manna which we have all along the road. It is in these three ways that Christ meets His people and nourishes them all the way. Two of them remain, as we have seen, but the third ceases when the circumstances it was to meet have passed away. They did eat the passover and the manna until they got into the land, then the manna ceased; but they continued to eat the passover.

Now there are two ways in which it is proper for us ever to be feeding on Christ. First as the pass-over, for they ate the paschal lamb when the wilderness had ceased and Egypt had been long left behind. When in Egypt, the blood was on the lintel and the door-posts, and the Israelites ate of the lamb inside the house. The thought they had while they were eating was, that God was going through the land as an avenging judge; and the effect of the blood on the door-posts was to keep God out, which was a great thing to do, for it brought into God's presence as a Judge. Woe unto him in whom sin is found. The state of the one who now eats of Christ is just according as he estimates the value of the cross, through fear of what sin actually merits.

When we have got into the effect of the blood of the paschal Lamb, we have got into Canaan and enjoy the peace of the land as a redeemed people, having crossed the Jordan-not only the Red Sea. That is, we have passed through death and resurrection; not as knowing Christ dead and risen for us merely, as presented in the Red Sea, but as being dead with Him and entered into heavenly places with Him, as in Jordan. Then the character of God is known as their God, that is as the accomplishd of all that which he purposed towards them. It is not keeping God out now, but it is enjoying His love; not looking at God as in the cross pouring out wrath in judgment against sin.

In Jesus on the cross there was perfect justice and perfect love. What devotedness to the Father and what tender love to us! And this is the way the saint who is in peace feeds on the cross. It is not feeding on it as knowing that he is safe; for Israel's keeping the passover after they got into Canaan was very different from their keeping it when judgment was passing over. In Canaan they were in peace, and they were able to glorify God in this way, in the remembrance of their redemption from Egypt.

In this type we see presented, not the sinner that feels he is safe, but the saint that can glorify God in his affections; his heart confidently flowing out to Him, and feeding on Christ as the old corn of the land-the second Adam, the Lord from heaven.

We see Christ now by faith at the right hand of God as the glorified man, not merely as Son of God, but as Son of Man. As Stephen, when the heavens were opened to him, beheld Jesus at the right hand of God. We also see Him up there. We do not see Him as He is represented in the Revelation, seated on a white horse, coming forth out of heaven. He will indeed come forth and receive us up where He is, and we shall be like Him and be forever with Him. But we shall feed on Him as the old corn of the land when we are there, and this is our proper portion now; manna is not our portion, though it is our provision by the way.

Joshua sees Jehovah as the Captain of Jehovah's host, and Israel feeds in the land before they fight.

And our portion is to sit down in it before we fight, because God has given it to us. They do not eat the manna in Canaan, because it is for the wilderness. The manna is not Christ in the heavens I it is Christ down. here. It is not our portion; our portion is the old corn of the land. That is, the whole thing, according to God's counsels, is redemption and glory. But all our life is exercise down here, or sin, (excepting that God has given us moments of joy), because while here there is nothing but what acts on the flesh, or gives occasion for service to God. We may fail, and then Christ comes and feeds us with the manna, that is, His sympathy with us down here, and shows how His grace is applied to all the circumstances of our daily life, and that is a happy thing. For most of the time, the far greater part of our life, we are occupied in these things, necessary and lawful things no doubt, but not occupied with heavenly joy in Christ. And these things are apt to turn away the heart from the Lord, and hinder our joy. But if we would have our appetites feed On Him as the old corn of the land, we must have the habit of feeding on Him as the manna. For instance, something may make me impatient during the day, well then, Christ is my patience, and thus He is the manna to sustain me in patience. He is the source of grace; not only the example which I am to copy. He is more than this, for I am to draw strength from Him, to feed upon Him daily; for we need Him, and it is impossible to enjoy Him as the paschal Lamb, un less we are also feeding on Him as the manna.

We learn that God delights in Christ and He gives us a capacity to enjoy Him too. To have such affections is the highest possible privilege, but to enjoy Him, we must feed on Him every day. It is to know Christ come down to bring the needed grace and turn the dangerous circumstances with which we are surrounded, to the occasion of feeding on Himself as the manna to sustain us, and strengthen us in our trial.

But if, on the one hand, priesthood must lead the people through the wilderness, and if Moses' rod of authority cannot do this, it can only smite; on the other, there must be a provision connected with it for the removing of the defilements taking place during the journey, that the communion of the people with God may not be interrupted. That is why the sacrifice of the Heifer is placed here, apart from all the others, because it was prescribed in order to meet the defilements of the wilderness.

But if the consideration of Christ (even though it was Christ offered for sin, and the participation in His priestly work, in connection with that sacrifice), was a most holy thing realized in the communion of the most holy place; being occupied with that sin, even in a brother, and that to purify him, 'defiled those who were not guilty of it.

These are the subjects of chapter 19. What follows is the ordinance given on this occasion. To touch a dead body was indeed being defiled with sin; for sin is here considered under the point of view of defilement which prescribed the entrance into the court of the tabernacle. Christ is presented in the Red Heifer as unspotted by sin and as never having borne the yoke of it either, but He is led forth without the camp, as being wholly a sacrifice for sin. The priest who brought the Heifer did not kill it; but it was killed in his presence. He was there to take knowledge of the deed.

The death of Christ is never the act of priesthood. The heifer was completely burned, without the camp, even its blood, except that which was sprinkled directly before the tabernacle of the congregation, that is, where the people were to meet God. There the blood was sprinkled seven 'times, (because it was there that God met with His people), a perfect testimony in the eyes of God to the atonement made for sin. They had access there according to the value of this blood. The priest threw into the fire cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet, (that is, all that was of man, and his human glory in the world). " From the cedar down to the hyssop," is the expression of nature, from her highest elevation to her lowest depths. Scarlet is external glory, (the world, if you please). The whole was burnt in the fire which consumed Christ, the sacrifice for sin.

Then, if anybody contracted defilement, though it were merely from neglect, in whatever way it might be, God took account of the defilement. And this is a solemn and important fact; God provides for cleansing, but in no case can tolerate anything in His presence unsuited to it. It might seem hard in an inevitable case, as one dying suddenly in the tent. But it was to show that for His presence God judges of what is suited to His presence. The man was defiled and he could not go into God's tabernacle.

To cleanse the defiled person, they took some running water, into which they put the ashes of the heifer, and the man was sprinkled on the third and on the seventh days; then he was clean; signifying that the Spirit of God, without applying anew the blood to the soul, (that in the type had been sprinkled once for all when the people met God), takes the sufferings of Christ, (the proof that sin and all that is of the natural man and of this world have been consumed for us in His expiatory death), and applies them to it.

It is the proof, the intimate conviction, that nothing is nor can be imputed. It was in this respect wholly done away in the sacrifice, whose ashes, (the witness that it was consumed) are now applied.

But it produces upon the heart the deeply painful conviction that it has got defiled, notwithstanding redemption, and by the sins for which Christ has suffered in accomplishing it. We have found our will and pleasure, if only for a moment, in what was the caw of His pain; and this in the face of

His sufferings for sin, but alas! in forgetfulness of them-even for that sin, the motions of which we yield to so lightly now; a feeling much deeper than that of having sins imputed. For it is in reality the new man, in his best feelings, who judges by the Spirit and according to God, and who takes knowledge of the sufferings of Christ and of sin, as seen in Him on the cross. The first feeling is bitterness, although without the thought of imputation-bitterness, precisely because there is no imputation, and that we have sinned against love as well as against holiness, and that we must submit to that conviction.

But lastly, (and it seems to me it is the reason why there was the second sprinkling) it is the consciousness of that love, and of the deep grace of Jesus, and the joy of being perfectly clean through the work of that love. The first part of the cleansing was in the sense of the horror of sinning against such grace; the second, the mind quite cleared from it by the abounding of grace over the sin. Here it is the practical restoration of the soul inwardly. There is no sprinkling with blood; the purifying is by water. Christ's death being fully brought in, in its power by the Holy Ghost. The details show the exactness of God, as to those defilements, though He cleanses us from them.

They show too, that any one who has to do with the sin of another, though it be in the way of duty to cleanse it, is defiled, not as the guilty person, it is true, but we cannot touch sin without being defiled. The value of grace and priesthood is also made evident.

" The Spirit and the bride say, Come." We get the whole circle of the Church's affections. When the Spirit of God is working in the saints, what will be the first affection? Christ. The Spirit and the Bride turn to Him and say, "Come." What is the next affection? It is the saints. Therefore it turns and bids him that heareth say, "Come." If you have heard Christ, you come and join in the cry. Even if you have not the consciousness of relationship, would you not be happier if you saw Him as He is? Therefore say, " Come."

The first affection is towards Christ Himself; but the Bride would have every saint to join in these affections and in the desire to have the Bridegroom come. But does it stop with those who have heard the voice of the Lord Jesus? No: the first effect of the Spirit's turning our eye to Christ s the desire that Christ should Come! And next, that the saint who hears His voice should have the same affection. And what next? We turn round. to those who may be athirst, bidding them come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

The saint who has the sense of the blessedness of having drunk of the living water which Christ gives, wants others to have it also.

(From a letter to a friend.)

Two things are essential to the nurture and maintenance of a fresh and healthy state of soul; the reading of the Word and Prayer: nor can we afford to neglect either the one or the other, if we desire that our hearts and lives may answer to the grace bestowed upon us. If the reading of the Word be neglected, there will be the danger of our prayers becoming the expression of mere natural desires instead of.` intercession according to the will of God." We need to have our desires even for spiritual blessings formed its the atmosphere of the Word, in fellowship with the Lord himself, and by the power of His Spirit; while whore this is lacking, the more earnest the soul is, Oho more danger will there be of a real that is not according to knowledge. An opposite danger, on the other hand, is that the reading of the Word without prayer, tends to a spirit of INTELLECTUALISM, ending in a cold, barren state of soul in which there is neither power nor joy, but abundance of spiritual pride. There is nothing more deadening to spiritual vitality than to have the mind occupied with Divine truth, while the heart and the conscience remain strangers to its power; and this is sure to be the case just in proportion as prayer is neglected. There can be no surer and more certain sign of a low, unhealthy spiritual state thou the absence of prayer, and there can be no better proof that a man is " filled with the Spirit," than to know that he "gives himself unto prayer."

Beloved brother, is there not a great lack of prayer amongst us? Alas! must we not confess that our closets, our households, our assembly meetings for prayer, bear witness to this and prove that we are oftentimes culpably indifferent to this high and holy privilege of expressing OUR interest in all that interests the heart of God, and affects the glory of His beloved Son.

Let us consider Him-our blessed Example and Pattern. He commenced, carried on, and ended His ministry with prayer. We read of Him praying at the time of His baptism, Luke 3:21; " He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed," Luke 5:16; "He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God," Luke 6:12; "He was alone praying," Luke 9:18; "He took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain to pray," Luke 9:28; "He was praying in a certain place," Luke 11:1; " He kneeled down and prayed," Luke 22:41; " He prayed more earnestly," Luke 22:44; and finally, at the very close of His marvelous life, amidst the agonies of the cross, He prays for His enemies, Luke 23:34.

Consider Paul, who has exhorted us to be "followers of him even as he also was of Christ." When we think of his arduous and unremitting labors in connection with the ministry of the Word, while pursuing at the same time, when necessary, his calling as a tentmaker, we almost wonder how he found any time for prayer, and yet as we read his epistles it seems as though he did indeed "pray without ceasing." See Rom. 1:9; 10:1; 2 Cor. 13:7; Eph. 1:16; 3:14; Phil. 1:4,9; Col. 1:3,9; 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:10; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:3; Philem. 1:4.

Remember the repeated exhortations of the Word -" PRAYING ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." "1 exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." " Continuing instant in prayer." " Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving." " Brethren, pray for us." " Praying in the Holy Ghost." " Pray without ceasing."

Think of the blessed results that have ever followed the expression of dependence upon God in united or individual prayer. The Pentecostal baptism with the Holy Ghost took place at the close of ten days spent in continued prayer and supplication. The disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and made bold to speak the Word of God " after they had prayed," Acts 4 The angel of the Lord delivered Peter from prison in answer to the prayer which " was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him," Acts 12. Scripture is full of instances of the prevalence of prayer. 2 Chron. 32:20; and James 5:17,18: are conspicuous examples. And without doubt when the history of the Church is surveyed from the glory, it will be seen that every wave of blessing to saints, and salvation to sinners, has been proceeded by the effectual fervent prayers of many whose labors are better known in heaven than on earth. Men and women like Epaphras, Col. 4:12, who have prevailed with God in their closets, and like Jabez, 1 Chron. 4:10, have had granted to them that which they required.

Again-and brother beloved, I would press this upon you with all the earnestness of which I am capable, meditate upon the unspeakable need of the present moment. Look at the appalling condition of the Church of God. That which was the wondrous subject of His counsels long before the world's foundations were laid-destined to be the magnificent display of His glory to admiring myriads of His unfallen creatures in ages yet to come-even now, in spite of its ruin, the object of His unceasing solicitude, and His measureless love. Oh! brother, think of the Church! Torn asunder by a hundred factions; paralyzed by a practical infidelity; stupefied by the deadening influence of an indifference to Christ, which is as general as it is deplorable; bound hand and foot with tradition, organization, and human arrangement; desolated by worldliness'; and shorn of that HEAVENLY aspect and beauty which is her own peculiar portion, she nevertheless vaunts herself in the midst of her ruin, and is ready to say with the apostate whore, "I sit a Queen, and am no Widow." Awful picture! Then consider the state of individual souls. How few of those quickened by divine grace have settled peace with God! How few are personally in the enjoyment of the liberty wherewith Christ makes free! How many doubts and fears are entertained by God's people to their own loss and His dishonor! Dear brother, can we cease to pray? And are there not other things before our eyes at this time that surely might bring us to our knees in an agony of desire? Look at the twos and threes who have been gathered by the Holy Spirit in these last days to the confession of Christ's name out of the ruin of Christendom. Is not that blessed hope, which came home to souls fifty years ago with such separating and purifying power, losing its hold upon us? Are not the earthly-mindedness and the worldliness that so often and in so many ways are manifested, the " settling down " on the part of many, and the turning aside of many more to things which " minister questions rather than godly edifying," are not these things the Sad and solemn proof that the doctrine and the hope have been dissevered, so that many are to be found boasting of the doctrine, whose lives are the standing witness that they are strangers to the HOPE, for wherever this exists it does and must necessarily produce its proper effects. 1 John 3:3.

Lastly, remember that God is gathering out His elect by the preaching of the Word, and ours is the blessed privilege of interceding for the salvation of the lost. The consideration of the realities of heaven and hell, a perishing world, a loving God, a waiting Savior, and a world-wide gospel, surely should constrain us to more prayer.

The word is " Praying always," by which I understand that a believer, though not always in the act, should always be in the spirit of prayer. His constant state is one of dependence, therefore his constant spirit should be that of prayer. But there are special seasons when, either alone or with others the soul turns aside from all else to have to do with God himself, and pour out its desires and requests to Him, Suffer me, in conclusion, to beseech you to embrace every opportunity of thus continuing instant in prayer. Redeem every moment, and you will be surprised to discover how many opportunities for a few minutes of prayer you have hitherto suffered to pass idly away. Then, when a brother calls, or a few saints come together for a little fellowship, what a sweet opportunity for prayer. We can then plead the promise to " two of you," and blessed it is to do so. Such a privilege should never be neglected, and would there not be 'much more prayer than there is, if every coming together of saints was characterized by it?

Then the assembly meeting. Well, introduce me to saints who are much in private prayer, and given to social prayer, and I will chew you a gathering where the prayer-meetings are bright, fresh, and happy; full of vigor, faith, power, and liberty. Where the prayer-meetings are cold, formal, and lacking in fervor and liberty, depend upon it the closet could tell a tale of indifference and negligence in respect to prayer, of which the more public barrenness is only the painful indication and the sad result.

... I believe that the bread remains simply and absolutely bread, and the wine, wine-that physically there is no change whatever in the elements. To seek for material and physical things in such a precious institution of the Lord is, to my mind, a poor and miserable manner of regarding it. I have a charming portrait of my mother, which reminds me of her just as she was. If I am told of the canvas or the coloring, I should feel that those who spoke thus knew nothing about it. That would not be my mother. That which is precious in it to me is my mother herself; and they turn my attention from her to the means employed to recall her to me; and the reason is, that they have no idea what my mother is to me. The portrait has no value except as far as it is a good representation of her who is not there. I say, it is my mother. I could not throw it aside as a mere piece of canvas; I discern my mother in it. I cherish this portrait; I carry it with me; but if I stop at the perfection of the painting as a work of art, the link with my heart is lost.

There is more than this in the Supper of our Lord, because the Lord is really present with us in it spiritually, according to the intention of the institution; and this is very precious. But it has pleased Him to give us a physical means by which we may be reminded of Him, so that I am authorized to speak of a portrait by way of comparison.

The Supper presents Christ in that which is so to speak, central; it presents to us a dead Christ; but this foundation of all, this precious truth, which could be a motive even for the Father Himself to love Christ-this fact, that it is a dead Christ which is presented to us, is the proof that we could not have a living Christ presented to us in the elements. This would be to deny the state of death, and to destroy the object and intention of the institution. This institution presents to us the death of Christ-a dead Christ-His body broken and His blood shed; but there exists no dead Christ. He desires that we should remember Him: " Do this in remembrance of me;" but I do not speak of the remembrance of Christ living in heaven. I live by Him, He is my life; I enjoy communion with Him; I dwell in Him; He dwells in me; there is no separation. If through my folly, communion is interrupted, it is no question of remembering Him, but of being with Him anew-with a Savior who manifests Himself to us as He does not to the world

Do we diminish the importance or sweetness of this institution? Quite the contrary; we hinder the materializing of it, and we insist that the spiritual realization, or that which it represents, be in the heart, instead of that which is called an opus operatum, (mere outward work) which is purely material. We are united to Christ glorified; this is the point of departure: there is no longer a dead Christ: death has no more dominion over Him. I enjoy communion with a glorified Christ; I am one with Him; I shall be like Him. I rejoice; my heart is full of love at the thought of seeing Him, at the hope of the glory of waking up in His likeness. Shall I, therefore, forget His death and His sufferings? God forbid! It is precisely this which binds us to Christ by the most tender affections. There where He had to suffer and to do everything, He was alone; my heart at least will be with Him. He does not ask me to be one with Him there; I could not have been. There He was willing to be alone-blessed be His name!-and He has accomplished all. But the heart which would give itself for me there is the same which thinks of me now, and which loves me. In remembering His death, His love, His sufferings, what shall I say?-divine though human! I am united in heart with Him there, where He is, on high, it is not another person, another love. Whether in the Supper, where we remember Him in such a peculiar and touching way, or whether at other moments, when I think of His death, when I eat Him as dying for me, I am in communion with Him living, and I realize the love of Him who lives-that same love, that same heart of the Savior; I dwell in Him, and He in me. It is not said exactly, " Do this in remembrance " of my death, but, " of Me." Still we remember Him on the earth, in His incarnation, in His life of humiliation, and finally and specially as dead on the cross. I remember Him!-not Him in the heavens, but Him who lives in heaven as once humbled and dead for me; there is also a certain action of the heart-we eat. In John 5 the Son of God quickens whom He will: here (John 6) we eat the bread come down from heaven; we eat His body, and drink His blood.

It is most important to understand that it is a dead Christ, who in this state exists no longer, because we cannot have any relationship with a Christ living on the earth. If even as Jews we had had this relationship, we should have been obliged to say with Paul, "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." Death bath put an end to all the relations of Christ with the world, according to the flesh, and He lives now as the head of a new race-the second Man. Thus then, in John 6:53, the Lord lays down, as a necessary condition of life, the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of His blood-receiving Him in His death. Hence we remember Him before His resurrection; as He has said, " except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Thus our union is with a Christ glorified; we do not know Him otherwise; but the most powerful spring of affection for the heart is a Christ, man in the world, and a dead Christ. I am nourished by this; I eat it, and I live by this; but if we wish to bring back, so to speak, a Christ such as He has been in this world, as present, we overthrow entirely the intention of this institution, and even Christianity itself. Every time that we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord's death till He come: but if we will introduce a living Christ to animate this dead one, so to speak, we destroy Him. Why then is it said, " They discern not the Lord's body "? What body? His dead body. A perfect love, His accomplished work, an obedience which was arrested by no difficulty, present themselves to our eyes! Is there anything else there but a dead body?... If so, I know not where I am, nor what the Supper means. Do not animate it with the life that Christ had before death; His obedience was not yet finished, nor His work accomplished, nor His love perfectly demonstrated. Do not animate it with the life of a Christ now risen; you take Him from me as dead; death is no more there-death which is the basis of salvation, the proof of obedience, the glorification of God. Take not from me this death, this body broken, this blood forever shed, which tells me that all is accomplished, and-through the love of my Savior-that sin is put away forever. If you can lead me to grasp more firmly what is precious in this dead Savior, in the death of Him who is the eternal Son of God; if you can make me eat Him with more faith, more spirituality, more divine intelligence, more heart-ah! I shall be very grateful to you; but let it be my dear Savior that is left to me! When one is in communion with Him living, there is nothing so precious as His death; yes, precious even to God. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." For my spiritual intelligence it is the end of, or rather the proof and the consciousness that I have done with the first Adam; that the first creation no longer exists-blessed be God 1-for faith; for the heart it is the tender and perfect love of the Savior. I am no more either Jew or Gentile, or a man living on the earth; I am a Christian. The death of Christ, Head of all, has put an end to the first creation. He has introduced us into a now creation as firstfruits united to Him.

I discern then the body of the Lord broken-His blood shed-His death. It is not an ordinary repast, a simple remembrance, if you will, but an institution that Christ has given to His own; not that they may find in the element anything else than the bread and the fruit of the vine, but that their faith may, in the sweetest way, by the power of the Holy Spirit, nourish itself by Jesus, by that which He has been for them when He died upon the Cross-a work of which the efficacy remains eternally, even to the Father's eye, but of which the love is all for us. If I treat this memorial with lightness, I am guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, for it is that body and blood which are presented to me in it. I doubt if there is any one in the world who enjoys the Lord's Supper more than I do (though I doubt not that there is with many more piety); but that which makes me enjoy it is that it presents to me the body and blood of my Savior dead, and consequently a perfect love and a perfect work. But He cannot be in His dead body, which I discern there by faith. He is in me, that I may enjoy Him: if He is introduced living, that which I ought to discern no longer exists. All this in connection with the fact of the entirely new position of the living Christ-a doctrine which Paul presents to us with such divine energy, and which the enemy has always sought to hide, even under the form of piety, and for the preservation of which Paul so contended. What anguish he suffered from the efforts of the enemy to draw souls back to Judaism, as if they were still living in the world! " Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

May God give us to discern more the body of Jesus-to eat His flesh and to realize His death more! Yes: this death is precious. It meets us in our need just as we are, and it delivers us from it by introducing us there, where He is, in the power of a new life which by His death knows not the old.

I have written you at much length. I could willingly enlarge on this subject, for instead of thinking lightly of the Supper of the Lord, it is of all institutions the most precious to me; only to be so it must be a dead Savior that is presented to me in it. I am living with Him now in heaven.

"And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow."-Mark 4:38.

It might be that some kind hand had placed this pillow for Jesus. He had said on one occasion, "The foxes have boles, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man bath not where to lay his head." And it is remarkable that Matthew (viii. 19-27) puts these words of Jesus just before His embarkation, though they were possibly uttered at another time. It may be that some loving hand arranged that pillow for Him, knowing that He was weary. It was evening when He entered the ship, probably after a long day's toil.

We may learn a lesson from that pillow. Jesus never asked for a comfort from any when He was down here. He did ask the poor Samaritan woman for a draft of water-not that He was seeking her care, but that He might draw out her need. Still, He gave opportunities to those who longed to show their love and attention to Him. Sometimes we may not have it in our hand to give when we have it in our heart. No matter; He looks at the heart. Do not let us judge Him with man's judgment, and say, " I cannot do so and so; then why need I wish to do it?"

It may be that the one who arranged that pillow (if such were the case) was gladdened afterward to find that He had fallen asleep upon it. In any case, He accepted it then-yes; used it fully for Himself. It may be, too, that there was no one of all His disciples whose heart was open to give Him "the tribute money." If there had been one, He might have allowed that one to do it unto Him; but a fish must be the giver. Doubtless, if there had been one at the moment who would have longed to give Him the money, He would have sent Peter to such an one, and not to a fish. He displayed His lordship over creation in the act, of course; but would He not rather have had the need filled up from some loving heart which was looking for. an opening to help? Could it be possible that at that particular moment not one on earth was longing to aid the Man of Sorrows? I say, "at that moment;" for it is not enough' that life from God must be present in him who acts for Jesus; he must also be in a moral state of soul, in communion with God, ere Jesus will ask for his aid. The ravens fed Elijah. But if there is even a Sidonian widow, with nothing save a little oil and a handful of meal, she will have the blessedness of helping the servant of the Lord.

The Lord loves us to give to Him, but " a cheerful giver " is the one He wants. When He wanted the ass for His entry into Jerusalem, He knew well who really was willing. There He sent, and asked. All that was needful to say was, "The Lord hath need of him." "Straightway " he would be sent. Perhaps the owners of that colt were anxiously waiting for some opportunity of service. If so, how it strengthened their faith to find that Jesus knew all about it!

In the case of the man with the pitcher of water (Luke 22:10) we see the same thing. The "good man" of that house may have been thinking of Jesus, and saying, " My room is a large one: how suitable it would be for the Lord and His disciples How I wish He would eat the Passover at my house!" If so, how his heart must have leaped when the two disciples, Peter and John, came into his very house to tell him that the Master was coming! Little did the man with the pitcher know what his carrying the pitcher signaled. Anything, everything, can be used by God to accomplish His purposes.

But to return. We may say that we cannot lay a pillow for the head of Jesus now. I think we can lay many for Him. Is not every believer now a member of His body? Many of those members need our pillows-so. to say. The " Head" is in glory, and as such, He needs them not. But Saul could persecute Him-" Why persecutest thou me?" Every word of comfort, then, every act of kindness, every little succor towards a saint, because he belongs to Jesus, is an odor of a sweet smell, Godward.

What mean the words, "And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment?" (John 12) Sooner or later, all will know what is done for and to the Lord. The people on the house-top could know that something sweet was being offered below. Do not the angels know what is done to Jesus? We smell, as it were, the sweetness of Abraham's sacrifice, although no eye saw it, save that of Jehovah. (Gen. 22) Envious ones may have been attracted by the odor in that house, who would not own Mary's devotedness at all. They could not help smelling its sweet savor.

We cannot do too much for the Lord; and nothing is too little or insignificant for Him to notice. Alas! how many are making pillows for their own comfort-beautiful pillows-provisions for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts! When we are thus occupied we have not large hearts towards the Lord. " The flesh " always narrows our hearts in divine love. When separation from self and the world is going on, there is room for enlargement in love and heavenly activities. (2 Cor. 6.)

The soul is the dwelling place of the truth of God. The ear and the mind are but the gate and the avenue; the soul is its home or dwelling place.

The beauty and the joy of the truth may have unduly occupied the out-posts, filled the avenues and crowded the gates-but it is only in the soul that its reality can be known. And it is by meditation that the truth takes its journey from the gate along the avenue to its proper dwelling place.

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