Bible Treasury: Volume N7

“That this version is incorrect, every Greek scholar must be convinced, on considering that there is no article prefixed to the participle; that the original is not πάντα ἄνθρωπον τὸν ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν χόσμον, but πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον χ.τ.λ. In the latter construction, if the particle be taken in connection with ' every man' the import of the words must necessarily be, every man at his coming into the world.'“

“But there is a degree of ambiguity in the structure of the original, which may in some measure be conveyed to the English reader by rendering the Greek words literally, and in the precise order in which they stand—'the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world.' And on such a literal translation the question may be raised—What is it that is spoken of as ‘coming into the world '? Is the participle ‘coming' to be connected with ‘every man,' or with the word with ‘the true light, which coming into the world lighteth every man.' I maintain the latter, for reasons that I shall proceed to state: only first repeating the remark that, if any will persist in maintaining the former connection of the words, they yet must abandon the present version of them; as the Greek cannot justly be rendered ‘every man that cometh into the world,' but would then necessarily import ‘every man at his coming into the world.'

“Now that the words ‘coming into the world’ are really to be referred to ‘the true light,' the Messiah, is at once rendered exceedingly probable, if we observe that the Evangelist immediately subjoins in the very next verse, ‘He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.' The phrase also of ‘coming into the world,' and other similar phrases, are of the most frequent occurrence in the scripture of the New Testament, as applied to the Messiah. Nay, in John 3:19, the expression is applied to Him in the very same connection, as ‘the light’: ‘this is the condemnation, that the light is come into the world, but,' etc. And again in 12:46, ‘I am come a light into the world.'

“But do we find the same phrase of ‘coming into the world’ applied in like manner, to express the birth of men generally? No, truly. I believe that not a single instance of it in point can be adduced from scripture. That which might seem to approach nearest to it is, perhaps, the apostle's language in 1 Timothy 6:7, ‘We brought nothing into the world’; but here, the mention immediately subjoined of our leaving the world— ‘it is certain we can carry nothing out’—at once accounts for the phraseology in the former clause. When the Messiah is said to come into the world, to be sent into the world, etc., there is evidently implied a reference to the antecedent glory, which He ‘had with the Father before the world was’ (John 17:5). But the Scriptures nowhere intimate any such antecedent existence of the human race in a former state, as would justify the same general expression for their being born.

“On these grounds, I conclude, without any hesitation or uncertainty, that the words ‘coming into the world,' in John 1:9, refer to ‘the true light’; and that the passage ought therefore to be rendered— ‘that was the true light, which coming into the world lighteth every man.' Before the coming of Christ the revelation of the true God was confined (almost exclusively) to the posterity of Abraham, the Jewish people. ‘To them were committed the oracles of God.' But when, in the fullness of the appointed time, ‘the sun of righteousness’ arose, its light was universally diffused. The long-foretold appearance of the Messiah introduced a dispensation which extends to every kindred, and tribe, and tongue, and people, with a universality including Gentiles as well as Jews; and which, in this view, is continually contrasted with the Jewish dispensation, that was confined to the Hebrew nation; the whole code of Levitical observance forming a ‘middle wall of partition’ between them and the rest of the world, till all the Levitical law passed away as a shadow, receiving its full accomplishment in Christ, and the things of His kingdom.

“In establishing the correct translation of the passage, I have abstained from noticing those most unscriptural doctrines, which the common version has been often employed to countenance—the doctrine that the mind of the infant is at its birth in some mystic way enlightened, without the communication of any truth, human or divine; and the doctrine, that Christ actually enlightens every individual in the world, although that individual live and die disbelieving the word of Christ, and therefore under the power of darkness; or without his having ever had even that hearing of the word of Christ, by which faith cometh (Romans 10:14-17).” J. W.

Mark 9:15; 10:32

The Gospel of Mark abounds in vivid touches. He is the most graphic and pictorial of the four Evangelists. And, though it is well to bear in mind that style per se is a very minor thing, at any rate when compared with the truth presented, yet the Spirit of God knows how to make use of natural gifts to promote the ends that He, as the real author of “every scripture” has in view. It is but an exemplification of the general principle, one that applies, too, to lowlier departments of Christian service than the writing of inspired books, that gifts are given “according to the several ability” of the recipients, as we learn from Matthew 25:15. Thus, as one has said, the same divine water flows through all the vessels, but it takes the form of the one through which it happens to be flowing. So does the Lord deign to acknowledge the mental endowments of His servants. For this is abundantly seen in a John, a Paul, and a Peter, pre-eminent among the apostles, as here in this most precious Gospel, which portrays our blessed Lord in His servant-character, though all the time He is seen also as the wonder-working Son of God; and that by the pen of one who had once drawn back from the work, but was subsequently deemed “useful for ministering,” as well as in more exalted ways.

Now, among all the vivid touches referred to as so characteristic of Mark, none are more striking than those in the verses that head this paper. Let us turn to the passages, and first to chapter 9. The Lord had just come down from the holy mount, and it would seem, on comparing the account in Mark with those in the other Synoptists, that the Savior's aid was sorely needed in view of an aggravated case of possession. This apparently had caused the collection of the crowd. Then, when Christ appeared, they were at once struck with amazement, and so powerfully affected that they ran to Him and saluted Him. It is clear there must have been something unusual in the Savior's appearance. For while the wonderful glory of His person must always have been discernible to faith, and a divine brightness in His glance in no wise conflicting with the concomitant of a sorrow—marred visage—a divine brightness, certainly not a nimbus, as Jerome intimates by his “something starry,” and which painters love to depict—yet the gay and the thoughtless, the busy and the engrossed passed Him by as having “no beauty that they should desire Him.” But at this moment all is changed. The multitude is eager to greet Him. Doubtless the glory that had been so dazzling on the Mount of Transfiguration had not wholly faded; and, while it lingered, there was that which could not but attract the wonder and homage of men. It is the more noticeable as being in marked contrast with the case of Moses when he descended from Mount Sinai with the tables of stone, and that, too, not the first time, but the second, when grace was somewhat mingled with law. But law prevailed—stern, majestic, and inexorable—and we read the children of Israel “were afraid to come nigh Him.” Truly there is one splendor, one glory, of law, another of grace. I do not enter now into another interesting point, viz., the fact, emphasized by Paul in 2 Corinthians that the old dispensation was merely visited by glory (shall I say?), whereas the new is established in glory. In other words the one, that of law, was rather διχ δόξης the other, of grace ἐν δόξη. The point to emphasize now is that the brightness connected with law alarms, while that of grace attracts. Yet only three had been permitted to gaze on its full radiance. Now not apostles only, but the humblest believers, are privileged to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The second passage, in chapter 20, is not less vivid, but how different? True, that on Mount Hermon (for the weightiest opinion is in favor of this more northerly hill, lofty and apart, which Mount Tabor in no sense was), as we read in Luke, the subject of converse had been His decease, His “exodus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” (chap. 19.). But now the time was drawing very near, the shadows were deepening, and the Lord was actually on the road. And He walks before the disciples, who instinctively fell behind, awestruck, and, we read, “as they followed they were amazed.” They, like Bartimus, “followed Jesus in the way,” now emphatically the way of the cross; truly the way of light ultimately, but meanwhile of awful horror and the “power of darkness.” A sad hour for the disciples, too, so slow to understand what lay before their Master, though before this He had apprised them of it. But they had not heeded. So again, the Lord tells them of what was before Himself. He had a baptism to be baptized with, as we read in Luke 12:50, and, He added, “how am I straitened till it be accomplished?” It is well to note the word, for it is the same, with difference of mood and tense only, as is rendered “It is finished” (one word only in the Greek) in John—an altogether unexceptionable translation, of course. But if we say, “It is accomplished” an interesting link is established. For, while no doubt what I may call the doctrinal and more theological significance is paramount in that triumphant cry of the dying Redeemer, yet may we not reverently think of the infinite relief most blessed, most longed for, with which the divine Sufferer, who had been so straitened, said, “It is accomplished"? It may be remarked, before passing on, that in the passage from Luke, already referred to, about the Lord's exodus, the word for “accomplished” is one that means to fulfill (πληροῦν). But in the verse, “The things concerning Me have an end” (Luke 22:37), the word for “end” is τέλος –in short, from the same root as the verb rendered “accomplished” in Luke 12 and John 19.

We may also observe that the word meaning “amazed” in Mark 9 is somewhat stronger in force than what is substantially the same word in chapter 20, and is rightly given “greatly amazed.” It is the same word in the last chapter, where we read of the women being affrighted” in the A.V. But the R.V., as in so many instances of this kind, gives the stricter rendering “amazed.” In fact, no English word could express better the very forcible original, being itself most forcible. To one more passage I may allude, and this, if possible, even more solemn than in Mark 10, where it is said—another most striking instance of this Evangelist's vivid description— “He began to be sore amazed and very heavy” (ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι καὶ άδρμονεῖν); this in xiv. 33. The latter verb is rendered “sore troubled” in the R.V., and this, too, is closer to the original. The word άδημονεῖν is what may rightly be called a pathetic word, and, according to a very possible derivation, denotes the homeless feeling of one who is away from country and friends. Hence the employment of it accords well by reason of its energy with what we have been endeavoring to show is so characteristic of Mark. Yet it should be noted that it is found in the parallel passage in Matthew (26:37), but only once more in the New Testament, viz., Philippians 2:26, of Epaphroditus. Needless to say, the word is charged in the Gospels with a quite unique intensity of meaning: “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow.”

In these two passages, taken thus by themselves, we have the reverse of the usual order, not the sufferings first, “and the glories that should follow,” but first a most interesting incident bearing on the coming glory, a side-light, so to speak, or rather, we may say—comparing the Gospels as a whole to some colossal architecture majestic and sublime—a bit of exquisite tracery; in short, of fine carving, as one has called it, showing that in every detail there is the infinite perfection that it is only natural to expect in the records God has given us of His Son. And, as of the first passage in chapter 9, so in the next may we speak of the graphic portraiture of the divine Lord, followed by His trembling disciples, and steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).

R. B.

Time of the End, but the End Not yet — 1. Not Christian but Jewish

The sanction which Christ has attached to this prophecy possesses unusual solemnity: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,” applicable no doubt to all His words, but specifically spoken of this particular prophecy (ver. 35). Let us therefore approach its consideration with a full regard to the warning sentence with which the Lord has protected this special scripture. The globe on which we walk will pass away; the heavens, as a scroll when it is rolled up; but not a syllable of these utterances of the Lord Jesus shall fall to the ground unfulfilled.

The Christian observes this with devout acceptance. Yet there are parts of the prophecy which, while he cannot refuse them, occasion as he reads considerable perplexity. The conviction that this perplexity may be largely removed by pointing out the true bearing of the prophecy is what prompts these few pages of explanation.

Be it remembered that Matthew's is the Jewish Gospel; that is to say, in Matthew we have with special emphasis the presentation of the Messiah to Israel, and His rejection by that people. Hence that Gospel is the only one in which (chap. 16.) the church is mentioned, because the church was to replace Israel as a testimony upon the earth.

In chap. 23 is the well-known scathing denunciation of religious leaders, with its dread burden, “Woe unto you,” seven times repeated, the typical number of perfectness in scripture (vers. 13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29), concluding with that heartfelt lament over the beloved city and her people: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee! How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! “adding—and this is of significance— “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Notice that this discourse is not a casual incident in the ministry of Christ, not a mere denunciation of hypocrisy, however vile that may be. It is the Christ's terminal testimony in the midst of Israel. The solemn conclusion of His three years' ministry was the judicial sentence, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” And Jesus went out and was going away. But the disciples, not perceiving the inward meaning of the Lord's words and action, came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. Their hearts were attached to the earthly system of which it was the center. But a temple, however splendid, is of no value when its God is disowned; and Jehovah was there in the person of Jesus, not known, not recognized by the nation; or if recognized, rejected. He leaves the temple with sorrow, and desolate indeed is that which Jehovah forsakes. The Lord's reply then, when His attention was drawn to the magnificence of the buildings, was, “See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Now, in what follows, the Lord is in the character of prophet according to the word of Moses, “A prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee of thy brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things” (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22). Due weight should be given to the capacity in which our Lord is here speaking, for the chapter before us is really prophecy, as defined in its nature as that of Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Daniel.

The disciples came to Him and made these definite inquiries: (1) When shall these things be (that is, the destruction of the temple and connected events)? (2) What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world (more exactly translated the “completion of the age”)? In the first reply to these questions, there is a finger-post for the interpretation of the whole prophecy. The Lord utters a caution which could only apply to those who were in expectation of the Messiah—to Jews. He says, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am the Christ, and shall deceive many.” This obviously cannot be a danger to Christians. It can relate only to persons under the influence of Jewish hopes. The Christian knows, indeed, his very existence, religiously, is based upon the facts that the Christ has come, been crucified and buried, that He has risen and ascended to heaven. This being the Christian's creed, a claim to be “the Christ” would be to him simple nonsense. A man must be a Jew to be deceived by such a pretense. But they who are not aware that the Christ has come already, they who have rejected the true one will be especially susceptible to the fictitious claims of a feigned Messiah. Thus in the early part of this prophecy we find Jewish surroundings. The danger indicated is one for Jews; the principal scene is Judea ("let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains"), the temple is in view—abomination standing in the Holy place; the restriction of a Sabbath day's journey is contemplated in the direction to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day (vers. 16-20). Note then, as a first principle in the interpretation of this prophecy, that its bearings are Jewish, not Christian.

If now, this prophecy was future when Christ spoke it, and it does not apply to Christians—where, chronologically, does it come in? To answer this, some little explanation is necessary. The Christian reader will easily recollect that scripture is clear as to Israel being again taken into favor when “the fullness of the Gentiles” shall “be come in” (Romans 11:25). But let us look at a few passages which establish this.

In the very scripture already quoted, the Lord intimates the possibility of a future repentance of Israel, in the words, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39). But in writing to the saints at the great center of Gentile power, Rome, Paul deals elaborately with the present position nationally of Israel towards Christianity, and announces their future. Not to follow all the verses through, the gist of his argument is this: First, as to the Gentiles, God was found of them that sought Him not, and was made manifest unto them that asked not after Him. As to Israel, Jehovah's testimony against them was, “All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Romans 10:20, 21). The apostle then shows that notwithstanding the national rejection of Messiah, grace still saves some. “There is a remnant according to the election of grace” (11:5). And this is true at the present time. Rare as is the conversion of a Jew, the Christian rejoices to know that there is still, here and there, one and another whom grace enlightens and saves from among the Jews. But nationally they are cast away (ver. 15). Paul intimates, however, that the fall of the Jews nationally is not hopeless. “Have they stumbled that they should fall (that is, finally)? God forbid” (ver. 11). Then he states in ver. 25, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved” (vers. 25, 26). That is, there is a day coming in which Israel will be saved as a whole—as Israel; contrastedly with the present time, when a mere remnant is saved, who, by their very conversion cease to be Jews, and become merged in the church, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision (Colossians 3:11).

Before quoting the next scripture let us remember the character of the present time. What is it? Israel nationally laid aside; the gospel accepted mainly by Gentiles with, however, a remnant from Israel; and Jew and Gentile united into one body in Christ (Ephesians 2:12-16).

This sheds great light on the very interesting seventh chapter of the Revelation. The church, in the type of the seven churches, is seen on earth in the second and third chapters—but in Laodicea the very profession is spued out of Christ's mouth. The ecclesiastical period is closed, and in the next chapter (4.), the translation to heaven has taken place, the church being seen in heaven under the figure of the twenty-four elders, and thenceforth in the Book the church never again appears on earth. But the course of the world rolls on. Now in chap. 7 of the Revelation, divine dealings with Israel are resumed. What we have, however, is not as yet Israel saved as a whole but a numbered company out of that nation. Accordingly, the winds of judgment are held in restraint, that they should not hurt the earth neither the sea nor the trees, until the sealing of a definite, and elect, remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel (vers. 1-8). A hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed out of all the tribes of the children of Israel, that is, twelve thousand from each specified tribe. Alongside of this is a companion picture of a great multitude; not now a definite number, but a saved multitude whom no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and tongues (vers. 9-17).

Many have thought these two companies represented the church, but they are really in direct contrast with it. In the church “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek” (Romans 10:12). Here we find two distinct and separate groups: Israelites saved as such, and Gentiles as Gentiles. Of this Gentile multitude we shall see something later. At present the passage shows us very clearly the sealing of an elect remnant of Israel after the church has been taken to heaven and is there seen under the figure of twenty-four elders.

As then the Lord's prophecy in Matthew relates to Israel, and Israel as Israel is laid aside while the church is on earth, it follows that the prophecy must apply to the time when the people of Israel come again under the divine dealings towards the end of the age, and after the completed church has been safely housed in heaven. A mountain of misunderstanding is removed by seeing that Matthew 24 does not relate to the church-period or to the saints now upon earth. Chronologically, it follows that period.

We have before us, therefore, in our chapter, what is abundantly prophesied of in other scriptures, namely, a godly remnant in a time yet future, having Jewish aspirations and Jewish surroundings: the hope of the Messiah in their hearts, the temple in existence (ver. 15), and other Judaic elements as already pointed out. All this is confirmed when we recall that though the Lord's death “as a sacrifice for sin” was, in grace, made available for all men ("I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me,” John 12:32), yet His personal mission was to Israel only: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Rejected by the people, He gathers around Him a remnant whose hearts He has touched; and in the instructions of our chapter, He treats them as identical in principle with the remnant of the last days. Hence He says, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.” That is, He addresses them as representatively the Jewish remnant of the last days. It is impossible to get a clear apprehension of prophecy, unless the church-period is seen to be a hiatus between the breaking off of Jewish connections and their resumption in the last days. The same principle explains Matthew 10:23, a verse which has puzzled many. The Lord was sending out the twelve apostles to preach, and He says, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come.” Now the Son of man at that time was there, so that it must be His future coming that is in view. The explanation is, that identity is supposed between the preaching of the kingdom then, and that predicted in Matthew 24:14, and which continues from that time on until the coming of the Son of man. In the interval of the church, Jewish things would be laid aside, and the remnant would become merged in the church— “the Lord added together daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47), and this company is spoken of in chap. v. 11 and onwards as “the church.” But this when our Lord was here, was not yet, and meantime, having the remnant around Him, He furnishes them with instruction which would hold good for the last days, instruction which probably the actual remnant of the future will use and profit thereby.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 5

The judgment upon the children of Bethel (2 Kings 2:23, 24) calls for little comment. It was not properly Elisha's act and therefore not to be numbered with “all the great things that Elisha had done.” Rather was it one of divine vengeance in which God takes the part of His insulted servant, and so would prevent any further display of levity, which, if not checked at the outset, might place serious difficulties in the way of His servant, and discredit the new testimony which was to characterize the prophet's service. Besides, it was a more serious thing than appeared on the surface. The translation of Elijah and the appointment of Elisha as his successor were facts well known, but conjecture was not wanting then, as now, and this is seen in the thinly veiled infidelity of even the sons of the prophets in their eagerness to account in a natural way for what was really beyond them. So, to-day, the unbelief of God's people, whether of real or only of professing Christians, if not checked, will assuredly lead to scoffing profanity on the part of those who make no profession of faith in God. A testimony which is essentially of grace is peculiarly open to the attacks of scoffers. The salvation which grace brings is despised, and the warnings of coming judgment are unheeded. The wicked behavior of the “little children,” or “young lads,” was an outcome, no doubt, of the general remarks of their elders. Elisha, in his cursing them in the name of Jehovah, referred the matter to God, and He wrought for the vindication and protection of His servant. The moral effect of this overshadowed Elisha's subsequent career.

We are next invited to consider a marvelous intervention of the sovereign mercy and power of God, where, not the king, but the prophet, is seen to be the real link between God and His people. For not even the pious king of Judah could effect the desired deliverance; yet, nevertheless, it was to his presence that all concerned owed their salvation. But let us look more particularly at the leading characteristics of the scene here brought before us.

“And the king of Israel said, Alas! that Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab! But Jehoshaphat said, [Is there] not here a prophet of Jehovah, that we may inquire of Jehovah by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here [is] Elisha, the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of Jehovah is with him. So the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, went down to him. And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay: for Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, [As] Jehovah of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee” (2 Kings 3:10-14).

As usual, man tries to cast the blame upon God. “Nay, for Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab.” In point of fact, Jehovah had not been consulted until death stared them in the face, nor had He “called them together” at all. It was an unholy alliance formed for selfish purposes, in which one at least of the three kings felt terribly uncomfortable. The moral confusion of the whole circumstance serves to illustrate the condition of things in Christendom to-day, in which are some who, with some regard for God and His word, nevertheless allow themselves to be drawn into worldliness and sin, but through the mercy of God are, upon recovery, made use of to bring salvation to others. For a child of God may go far away from Him in folly and self-will, yet does God know how to reach the conscience, when (to quote the words of Job) “the root of the matter” is in him. Jehoshaphat's previous experience of his alliance with Ahab, and the faithful speaking of the prophet Jehu, should have preserved him from such a failure (2 Chronicles 19:1-4).

But we are not to conclude hastily that his repentance on that occasion was unreal. The evil of our nature is deeply rooted in our hearts, and we are, alas! so tenacious of our own way. We may, in part, have judged our evil course, but repentance has not been thorough-the evil fruit has not been traced to the root of bitterness. There are differences to be noticed even in the divine record of the failures of the Lord's servants. Jude would have us take notice of these points of difference in a godly way. “And of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 22, 23). If we cannot do this we are unskillful in the word of righteousness.

The circumstances of the case before us were different to the going up to Ramoth-gilead. There the faithful witness for God was brought upon the scene only to be despised, insulted, and persecuted, while Jehoshaphat had the shame and pain of standing by, helpless. Here Jehovah's servant is sought unto and entreated, but Jehoram was “not like his father.” He had his own evil characteristics indeed, but Elijah's testimony had borne fruit, and here it was— “for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made” (3:2). It was the purpose of God to introduce Elisha to the scene of his ministry, and to give a remarkable witness to that power of grace which was far beyond the sin of the nation. Therefore was it all the more important that Elisha should denounce the wickedness of king and people-should witness for truth before manifesting that grace which brings salvation. They are inseparable. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” To the king of Edom Elisha had nothing to say. He represented the profane person-the scoffer. “The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night; if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come” (Isaiah 21:11, 12). “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled; lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Hebrews 12:15-17).

These, then, are the characters brought before us by the Spirit of God. Firstly, the king of Judah, a pious gracious man, a servant of God, but morally weak and unfaithful, appearing in such company and in such circumstances as must surely serve as an object-lesson for us, and a witness to our hearts that “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.” And again, “Nevertheless, the sure foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:19-21). Secondly, the king of Israel, a reformed man who had suppressed the worship of Baal, with its abominable associations, who had swept and garnished the house, but had left it as empty and desolate as before. Jehovah had not returned to His house, nor did the king desire His presence. Thirdly, the king of Edom, having a knowledge of God, of grace, and of truth, but manifesting undisguised contempt for, and aversion to, both. In the midst of such defiled and defiling influences as these it is that the testimony of God and the witness of grace are to be maintained in all their divine purity and freshness. May the Lord give us grace and faithfulness to “take forth the precious from the vile” that we may be owned of Him in our service and made channels of blessing to others! [G. S. B.] (To be continued)

The Constancy of Christ's Love

It is evident that Jesus here addresses the disciples who then were around Him; but what we see there of Jesus draws the soul to Him. That which draws the sinner, which gives Him confidence, is what the Holy Ghost reveals of Jesus.

I desire we should consider what is found in verse 1, that is, the constancy of Christ's love-a love that nothing damped nor weakened. If we think what the disciples were, and the world, and the adversaries, we shall find that Jesus had a thousand reasons putting a stop to His love. We see round Him three kinds of persons—the disciples, the indifferent, and the adversaries. The latter are more especially the children of the devil. They are those who, when they saw the Lord was going to take the kingdom and reign over those things, said, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” There are some who from the bottom of their hearts have the certainty that Jesus is the Christ, and who will not have Him. The adversaries may draw away the indifferent. All that was in their world was of a nature to destroy Jesus' love, had it not been perfect and invariable: for there is nothing that wounds love more than indifference.

We naturally love sin, and we would make use of all that God has given us to satisfy our lusts. Jesus saw all that. He saw the disgusting state of this world and said, “How long shall I... suffer you?” When we are in the light of God, it is thus we judge sin.

Where are the parents who would not desire their children should avoid the corruption they knew themselves? It was because Jesus knew the sad state of man that grace led Him to come to take him out of it. God sees everything. In His compassion He takes cognizance of everything in order to meet our wants. But what does He meet with? Indifference of heart. The heart of the natural man sees in Jesus something contemptible. He cannot acknowledge his own state, and he will not be a debtor to God to get out of it. He prefers remaining in indifference with respect to that God who loves him; and, again, let us remember that there is nothing that discourages love more than indifference.

Jesus met with hatred also. All those who loved not the light, because their deeds were evil, hated Jesus. Pride, carnal assurance, self-will, everything in man, repelled God. There was nothing in this uncleanness, this indifference, and this hatred, that could attract the love of Jesus. That love might have been led to give up when, for instance, Jesus saw that Judas was betraying Him.

If a person were going to betray us, we should be too much occupied with ourselves to think of those who will not betray us. This was not the case with Jesus.

Although iniquity abounded, Jesus sheaved all His love; and finally, His disciples themselves forsake Him also! Those who loved Him were so selfish and so much the slaves of the fear of man that it was impossible for Jesus to reckon upon them. Such is the heart of man that, although a man may love Jesus, yet his heart is worthless. Jesus had to love in presence of a hatred which never relented. He loved us even when we were covered with uncleanness, indifferent, full of hatred for the light and having denied it a thousand times. He who knows himself best knows best how true this is. If we were to treat a friend as we treat Jesus, friendship would not last long.

What a contrast we shall find, if we consider how different that which Jesus found on earth is from what He enjoyed in heaven! There He found the Father's love, and in the presence of that perfect love, the purity of His own could not be manifested, because it found no obstacle. But here below, remembering what He had left, He loves His own, even in their uncleanness; this itself draws out upon them His compassion. The object of grace is iniquity and evil. The indifference of His own proved to Jesus all the extent of their misery and the need they had of Him! Even the hatred of man showed that man was lost. God came to seek man, because he was not in a state to seek God. How many things God has borne with! What indifference, what betraying, what denials! One would be ashamed to act with Satan as one acts with the Lord. Nevertheless, nothing stops Jesus: He loves His own unto the end. He acted according to that which was in His heart, and all the wickedness of man was for Him only the occasion of manifesting His love.

The Lord has done all that is necessary to reestablish the soul in relationship with God. Sinners as we are, the grace of God came to seek us. Righteousness and law require that evil and the wicked be removed. John the Baptist required repentance; it was the beginning of grace. But pure grace (far from saying to man, Leave thy state and come to me) comes itself to man in his sin; it enters into relationship with him, that God may be much more manifested, than if there had been no sin.

Grace applies what is in God to the need which is produced by the ruin where we are. Jesus loves unto the end.

What consolation to know that Jesus is all that is needed for all that we are! This places us in that which is true, and leads us to confess the evil which is in us, and not to hide it. Grace alone produces sincerity (Psalm 32:1, 2). A man who has a profession to follow wants to appear strong even when he is weak. Grace produces truthfulness-makes us acknowledge the weakness and infirmity in which we are. If we were in the place of Peter, we would do what Peter himself did, if we were not kept. Jesus loves His own “in the world,” in their pilgrimage and their circumstances, in spite of their misery, of their selfishness, and of their weakness. All that Satan could do, and all that was in man, was quite of a nature to hinder Jesus' love: nevertheless, “He loved them unto the end.”

Can you say, “I have a share in that love, in spite of my weakness? I have understood the grace and the manifestation in Jesus of the love of the invisible God.” Have you acknowledged that it was necessary that Jesus should come into the world, in order that your soul might not go to the place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth?” Have we made up our mind to acknowledged ourselves to be what we are? This is disagreeable to the flesh, it is painful; like the thorn of Paul, it is something that continually tells him, “Thou art weak”; and that is precisely why God allows it to remain. Is the flesh sufficiently mortified in us for us to be content that Jesus should be all, and ourselves nothing, and for us to rejoice in seeing our weakness, since it is to manifest the strength of God in us?

Jesus has not forgotten any of our wants. The heart which is free from selfishness thinks only of that which love would do. Thus it is that Jesus, on the cross, does not forget His mother, but commends her to the disciple whom He loved. J. N. D.

The Glory of God (Duplicate)

THE path of the glory through Scripture may be easily tracked, and has much moral value for us connected with it.

Exodus13 It commences its journey in the cloud, on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, when the paschal blood, in the grace of the God of their fathers, had sheltered them.

Exodus14 In the moment of the great crisis it stood, separating between Israel and Egypt, or between judgment and salvation.

Exodus16 It resented the murmurings of the camp.

Exodus 24 It connected itself with Mount Sinai, and was a devouring fire in the sight of the people.

Exodus 40 It leaves that mount for the tabernacle, the witness of mercy rejoicing against judgment, resuming also in the cloud its gracious services toward the camp.

Leviticus 9 The priest being consecrated, and his services in the tabernacle being discharged, it shows itself to the people to their exceeding joy.

Numbers 9 Resuming their journey in company with the tabernacle, the congregation enjoy the guidance of the cloud, which now attends the tabernacle, while the glory fills it.

Numbers 16 In the hour of full apostasy it shows itself in judicial terror in the sight of the rebellious people.

Deuteronomy 21 In the cause of Joshua, an elect and faithful vessel, it reappears in the cloud.

2 Chronicles 5 On the temple being built, a new witness of grace, the glory and the cloud reappear to the joy of Israel, as of old.

Ezekiel 1-11 Again, in another hour of full apostasy, the glory, taking wings and wheels to itself, as it were, leaves the temple.

Acts 7 Stephen, an earth-rejected man, sees it in heaven in company with Jesus.

Revelation 21:9. In millennial days it descends from heaven in its new habitation, the holy Jerusalem, “the Lamb's wife,” resting above in the air, from whence it shades and illumines the dwellings of Israel again (Isaiah 4:5), as it once did from the cloud in the wilderness, or enters the second temple, the temple of the millennium (Ezekiel 43, Hag. 2).

Such is the path of the glory, the symbol of the divine presence. Its history, as thus traced, tells us that, if man be in company with grace, he can rejoice in it; but that it is devouring fire to all who stand under Mount Sinai. It tells us also that, while it cheers and guides them on their way, it resents the evil and withdraws from the apostasy of God's professing people.

It is very instructive and comforting to note these things in the history of the glory, which was the symbol of the divine presence. And if that presence displays itself in other forms, the same lessons are still taught us. The most eminent of the sons of men were unable to brook it in themselves; but in Christ all, high and low, unnamed and distinguished ones, could not only bear it but rejoice in it.

Adam fled from the presence of God. But the moment he listened to the promise of Christ, believing it, he came forth into that presence again with fullest and nearest confidence.

Moses, favored as he was, could not abide it save in Christ, the Rock, the riven rock, of salvation (Exodus 33).

Isaiah, chief among the prophets, dies at the sight of the glory, till a coal from the altar, the symbol of Christ in His work for sinners, purges his sin away (Isaiah 6).

Ezekiel and Daniel, companions with him in the prophetic office, with him also fail utterly in the divine presence, and are able afterward to stand it only through the gracious interference of the Son of man (Ezekiel 3, Daniel 10).

John, the beloved disciple, the honored apostle, even in the very place and time of his suffering for Jesus, takes the sentence of death unto himself at the sight of the glorified Jesus, till He who loved and died and lives again spoke to him, and gave him peace and assurance.

These distinguished ones cannot measure the divine presence by anything but the simple virtue of what Christ is to them and for them. In that virtue they abide it at peace; and so, with them, does the most distant and unnamed one of the camp witness a scene already referred to (Leviticus 9). There, all who stood at the door of the tabernacle, beholding the consecration and services of the priest, the typical Christ, triumph in the presence of the glory; as also in another scene referred to (2 Chronicles 5), when the ark, another type of Christ, is brought into the house of God.

Sin and righteousness account for all this.

Sin is attended by this, as its necessary consequence—a coming short of the glory of God. “For all have sinned and do come short of the glory of God.” This has been illustrated in the cases or in the histories I have been tracing. Sin incapacitates us to stand the force of the divine presence. It is too much for a sinner. But there is full relief, for if sin and incapacity to brook the presence or glory of God be morally one, so is righteousness and a return to that presence.

Sin implies a condition or state of being; and so does righteousness. And, as sin is incapacity to come up to God's glory, righteousness is that which comes up to God's glory. It is capacity to stand in the fullest brightness of it; as those histories also illustrate. For in Christ, through the provisions of grace, and set in the righteousness of God by faith, all those whom we have looked at, whether great or small, found themselves at ease in the divine presence.

We experience all this toward our fellow creatures. If we have wronged a person, we instinctively “come short” of his presence; we are uneasy at it, and seek to avoid it. But if we receive a pardon from him, sealed with the full purpose and love of his heart, we return to his presence with confidence. And how much more so, I may say, if we saw that he was pressing that pardon upon us with all the skill and diligence of love, and at the same time telling us that all the wrong we had done him had been infinitely repaired, and that he himself had good reason to rejoice in the wrong [?] because of the repairing! Surely all this would form a ground, and be our warrant for regaining his presence with more assurance and liberty than ever.

Now, such is the gospel. It warrants the sinner to entertain all these thoughts with full certainty. The wrong we had committed, the offense which Adam did against the love, the truth, and the majesty of God, has all been gloriously repaired by Christ. God is more honored in the satisfaction than He would have been had the wrong never been done. All His rights are provided for in their fullest demands, and to their highest point of praise. He is “just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”

Faith assumes this, and the believer, therefore, does not “come short “ of the glory of God, though as a sinner he once did. Faith receives “the righteousness of God “; and the righteousness of God can and does measure the glory of God. In His righteousness we can stand before His glory. And that it can in this sense measure His glory—that faith in the gospel, or in the ministry of righteousness, can set us with liberty or open face in presence of the glory of God—is taught in 2 Corinthians 3; 4; yea, indeed, that the expression of that glory can be had only in the ministry of righteousness, the full glory only “in the face of Jesus Christ.” J. G. B.

Notes of an Address Titus 2:11-14 and 3:4-7

Our subject to-night is, “The washing of regeneration.” But first, a few remarks on two points regarding salvation. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared!” Salvation must start from God. There are many who think that there must be some previous work of themselves for it—good desires, or perhaps contrition, etc., etc. But salvation, God declares, is brought to us. It is brought to “all” men. The anarchist and the most devout professor alike need it, and it is brought equally to all. Whether all accept it is another thing. And it does not depend on our understanding it or our appreciation of it. The reception of the Lord Jesus (John 1:12), and His work of redemption, gives not only eternal life but salvation. However little we may know about Him, yet in receiving Him we receive a full Christ, and once having life in Him we must desire to know Him better. Thus Peter says, “Being born again... by the word of God... as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.” Zacchæus apparently knew very little. He does not seem from his words to have learned much even about himself, but he desired to see Jesus. And the Lord says, “This day is salvation come to this house.”

Not only has the grace of God brought salvation to all men, but we find a change of expression in chap. 3:4. After that “the kindness and philanthropy of God our Savior appeared... He saved us.” Not only must salvation be brought, but His kindness and love are needed to make us accept that salvation. “Oh!” you say, “Mr. So-and-So put the gospel so forcibly that night that I was obliged to accept it.” My dear soul, do leave Mr. So-and-So for a few moments and look higher. It was the direct action of the kindness and love of God that made you accept it. And now presuming that not only has salvation been brought to each one here, but that we have all received it, I want to consider a question seldom brought before saints— “How was I saved?” These verses are here addressed not to unsaved people, but to Christians—Christian servants—that they might adorn the doctrine in their path of life. And I suppose a Christian is seldom happier than when occupied with the gospel. “Preaching the gospel?” you say. “No, no, not preaching it (though that is blessed), but feeding on it.”

How then were we saved? By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. What is the washing of regeneration? Few words are more misconstrued. Clever, learned people tell you that a little water sprinkled on the brow of an unconscious infant with the prayer that it might become so, makes the child regenerate! Though how it is so is a matter I cannot understand. What then is the meaning of “regeneration"? Nine out of every ten will tell you that it means the “new birth." Then where does the washing come in? The new nature certainly cannot require it, for there is nothing to cleanse in that.

There are two ways in which cleansing is spoken of in the Scriptures. We find them in the blood and water which flowed from the side of the Lord Jesus, and both are frequently spoken of. But the blood must come first. I find myself as a sinner alienated from God, like the prodigal unaware of the father's love, while that father received none of his. And how can I be brought back? Only by a ransom. “Made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Yes, but God is righteous; the claims of His throne must be vindicated, and we find them so in the place where that blood was shed—the cross has met all, and we are “justified by his blood.”

There is also another side; not only is He a righteous God on the throne, but He is a holy God in the sanctuary. How can I approach where even angels veil their faces and their feet, as they cry, “Holy, holy, holy"? In the Hebrews we do not read one word about “justification"; in Romans not one word about “sanctification” (except in 15:17, “offering up of the Gentiles—being sanctified"). Still by that precious blood, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19).

The First Epistle of John, which sets us in the full blaze of that holy light, telling us that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all,” declares at the same time that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” So that whatever the light discovers is all covered by the blood.

But an act repeated soon become a habit, and habits form character; and we learn what a man is (in a moral point of view) from his character. He has been a depraved, had man. Well, believing, he is justified—his sins are gone, through faith in Christ's blood. Quite true. But there is, also the “washing of regeneration.” Turn to Colossians 2:11-15; there you find it. Not only has all that I have done been met by the cross, but all that I am, morally, as well. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” “A very difficult verse,” you say. “I cannot understand it.” It refers, we know, to the Jewish rite of circumcision. Abraham was not allowed to come into covenant relationship with God until he had taken the place of mortifying the flesh, putting it off. Very dimly indeed was it seen in those early days, but it is fully shown in the New Testament. But what Abraham did with a part, Christ has done with the whole. “The body of the flesh” has been crucified with Him. What I am has been judged, so that now it is “I” no longer. The next verse (12) goes further. Not only dead, but buried. What has the world to do with a buried man? Even after his death it will heap honors upon him. If he is in high position there will be lying in state and a gorgeous funeral, but when once he has been buried, all is over. He no longer belongs to this scene; he is gone, and has done with it forever. Thus it is with us. We are no longer of the world; it knows us no more. But are we not here still? Yes, in it, but not of it. It has nothing to say to us.

Then we get something more. “Quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” A new life in the power of His resurrection, and all the past forgiven. Verse 14 refers to the Jew. They had put their hand to the document which they were unable to meet, and yet its requirements were demanded of them, and that, too, has gone. “Taken out of the way,” the nail run through it; that it might not appear again against the believer.

And even this is not all. The powers of darkness are silenced, yea, spoiled—powerless to condemn again. “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (ver. 15). W. B.

Lectures on Jude 16-19

“These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts, and their mouth speaketh swelling things, admiring persons for the sake of profit. But ye, beloved, remember ye the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they said to you, In [the] end of the time shall be mockers walking after their own lusts of ungodliness. These are they that make separations, natural (or, soulish), not having [the] Spirit” (vers. 16-19).

“These are murmurers.” Murmuring is a more serious sin than many think. It could not but be that among Christians there are many things that do not go according to what we like. Suppose it to be even a man of sound wisdom; but if people are not very well founded they are always apt to be disappointed at something. It is natural for people to begin to murmur. The Israelites were constantly at that kind of work.

Now, he says, “These are murmurers,” and he adds, “complainers” —not content with their lot (the strict literal meaning of the word). They are persons who like to be something more and greater than they are, than God ever called them to be. They want to be somebody.

“These are murmurers, complainers “; and what is the cause of that? “Walking after their own lusts.” Lust is not to be supposed to be merely gross lusts. There are refined lusts—vanity, pride, ambition; what are all these but lusts? They are all lusts. The lusts of the devil. These are not the same kind of lusts as the lusts of the flesh. Satan was lifted up with pride, and we are warned against falling into the fault or “condemnation” of the devil. It appears that the things mentioned in this verse are very much the same thing— “their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.” They are fond of having a party, particularly if they can number some rich among the party, “because of advantage.”

What I particularly draw your attention to is this. Enoch prophesied of these. I do not know anything more striking than that. There are the same persons now as in Enoch's day. There can be no doubt that these people lived in the time of Enoch. But Jude carries us on to the coming of the Lord. The people who are on the earth when the Lord comes will be the same kind in their wickedness as in the days of Enoch and of Jude. Evil, you see, goes on. Evil retains its own terrible character—malignancy and rebellion against God, and all self-sufficiency, and all these terrible things that are so entirely opposed to Christ. Enoch prophesied of these and of the judgment coming on. them.

“But ye, beloved, remember ye” —to confirm this— “the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

Well, we have at least two of these apostles. Surely, that is quite enough. Very likely the other apostles taught the very same things by word of mouth. But we have it written down—this warning about these characters—by two besides Jude. One the apostle Paul; the other Peter, and in both his Epistles. In his First, that the time is coming when judgment must begin at the house of God, and judgment on just this kind of ungodliness that was then working up; but in the Second Epistle of Peter there is a deal more. And I think that Jude goes still further, and that his Epistle was written after 2 Peter and for this reason, that it is an advance of evil. Peter speaks of unrighteous men, Jude speaks of men that once seemed to have the truth, and through their bad life, bad ways, pride, vanity, or whatever it was, they lost it. That is quite a common thing. By common, I don't mean that any very great numbers break off in this way, but that it is a sin that every now and then breaks out. Why, even since “Brethren” began there have been the most terrible cases of people giving up all the truth. The greatest infidel of modern days was one of the early “Brethren.” He was a very clever man, and gave up his fellowship at Baliol to go to the Eastern world, among Arabs and Persians and the like, with the gospel. He seemed to be devoted to the Lord. But even on his way out he betrayed that he was not a true believer at all. How! By doubting about the full proper deity of the Lord Jesus; and when he came back brethren inquired into it. There had been whispers of it before his return, but then he was out of the way, so that till his return it was not possible to deal with him fairly, or to examine him fully, not merely whispers. When he came back he was seen and written to, and his words were the words of an unbeliever, and he was therefore refused any place in our fellowship. After this he went among the dissenters, who welcomed him most heartily, and he preached in their chapels and was most acceptable among them, particularly as he ran down the “Brethren” pretty hot. At this time he still appeared to be pious in his outward ways and manner, and still read the Bible. But he gradually gave up everything and gave an account of it in a book which he wrote bearing a very anomalous title indeed, for it would appear that he really never had faith. He was a man who was very impressionable, and he easily took the color of those with whom he was. He valued and was charmed with the sound of the truth, and thought he had it, but I am afraid he never had. So he lived and so, I fear, he died. There have been others of no such prominence who have had a similar end. Not so marked, perhaps, but as sad. And this in some who had once been in fellowship, and seemed to be very honored persons for a time, before they were known. And it falls in with what we have here.

There were persons still among them; and it is not merely the teachers. Peter speaks about teachers, but Jude looks at them more widely; but they are evidently responsible even though they are not teachers. If others dishonor the Lord who are not teachers, they are responsible. There is this character in Jude: they are apostate from the truth, they have not gone out of fellowship yet. That is the very thing he says. There they are, although it is likely that no one but Jude who saw these persons could speak of them, and Peter saw them where he was. They appeared fair enough, just as there were many at the time when the person referred to was in fellowship. Many would not believe a word of it. They thought he was a very good man, and that it was a scandal to speak hardly about him. They never could see till the thing came thoroughly out. We are not all “eyes” in the body. We may have an important place. The hand or the foot can do a work that the eye cannot, and there are those who could see far before others, and it is important for people to make use of those who have proved their competence. Otherwise we are apt to get wrong.

It is an immense thing to say that we have not only teachers now and preachers to spread the truth in spite of their weakness and their liability to err; but we have also those that were kept from error, in what they have written, absolutely kept from error; and these are here brought before us as the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were men of like passions as we are ourselves, but the peculiarity in the case of those apostles and prophets is, that in the midst of their weakness they were preserved—it was not, it is true, like Christ, absolute perfection—but there was the perfect preservation from error in what they wrote. And it was all the more remarkable that it was in one generation only. It was not like the succession that there was in the old dispensation of God. There we have prophets raised up at all times, wherever they were needed; but there was this great peculiarity, in the church and in the Christian, that we have not merely words that were perfect for their purpose, and words that were given faithfully by God in the midst of all the errors of Israel, but now we have a perfect revelation in all respects, by men themselves imperfect, but nevertheless kept, and empowered by the Holy Ghost to say the truth without error whatever.

Now there are two things in the words of the apostles, and the first is, the mind of God for the glory of Christ; and that we have in all the books of the New Testament. But in the midst of these words, and more particularly in the latter time of giving these words, we have the most solemn warnings that are given in any part of the Bible. It was not at all that all these characters of evil came out so that the Christian could discern them, but they came out sufficiently for the apostles to discern them.

Now we have our lessons for practical guidance in the words of the apostles. They are the persons through whom we have received the full truth of God. There was not an error that ever crept into the church but is provided for here. There is not a good thing that God had to reveal but what is revealed here.

For we are not meant to be inventors, we are not meant to make discoveries, like the men of science. The reason why there are inventions in the arts, and discoveries in science, is, because all is imperfect. But perfection is what marks the word of God—not merely relative perfection, relative to the state of Israel at different times, but—absolute perfection. What brought in absolute perfection? Christ. There is the key to all that is blessed, to all that is most blessed. There is what explains what is most of all peculiar. It was according to Christ that all the truth should be brought out, unstinted, and perfectly providing for everything that might be through the ages that follow down to the present time. And this in order that we might never have to look outside scripture for the proof of any error, and also for the provision of anything good. All is in the word; this word that we have got. The Old Testament is full of value, but, nevertheless, it is only general. Our special instructions are in the New Testament, for we can easily understand that there was no such thing as a Christian in Old Testament times. They were believers, but not Christians. A Christian is a man who is not merely looking for the promises, but who has the promises—accomplished in Christ. Well, of course, the Old Testament saints had not got this, and the church was an absolutely new thing. It was not merely promises accomplished, but the mystery revealed: the mystery that was hid in God up to that time. There was no revelation of it in the Old Testament whatever. Now it is revealed, and it is given to us. And how? By these perfect writings of the New Testament, that left nothing to desire, nothing for faith to desire. Plenty for unbelief to add, still more for unbelief to depart from; but nothing for faith to desire. We have all here, and it is only for our faith to discern it, and to practice it.

Now for this reason all came out in one generation. John, the very last of all, was the one that saw the Lord from the beginning. He was, not only one of the apostles, but, on of the first two that ever followed the Lord Jesus and entered into living relationship with Him here below. And he was kept here, beyond others, in the wisdom of God. But we have another, also, of those who were eminently favored, and were conspicuously used. Although Jude wrote a short epistle, what a great deal there is in it.

Now turning to what we have already touched upon. “But ye, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; that they said to you, In [the] end of the time shall be mockers walking after their own lusts of ungodliness.” That there should be, not merely unrighteous men, or lawless men, but, one of the worst features of evil, “mockers.” Why, in the Old Testament, when it was only a question of children that could not resist giving way to their humor—I may call it very bad humor, and very bad manners—but still they mocked the old prophet, they mocked Elisha. And even he, the man of grace, was no doubt led of God to call forth the bears that tore them all.

Here we find that it is not little children in their folly (for we know that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child"), but the case of men who claimed wisdom; and the way they sheaved it was by “mocking” “Mockers in the last times, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” their own lusts of ungodly things. It is rather stronger. Their lust was after ungodliness. That is what characterized their lust. It is not a mere vague term; it is a very succinct term— “lusts of ungodlinesses.” Now this is an awful thing. And resulting from what? Well, I will not say it results from Christianity, from the truth. God forbid. But it resulted from the fact that they were there, and that their hearts got tired of it, and they became the enemies of it. There is nothing more blessed than a Christian man walking in simplicity. There is nothing more awful than a Christian man who casts off Christianity, and who becomes a mocker after the lusts of his own ungodlinesses. That is what is described here, and what the writer prepares us for. No one could have believed that in early days.

These mockers once looked fair. They once spoke fairly. They were received, they were baptized; they remembered the Lord Jesus, taking part in the assembly, no doubt. They may have been preachers, very likely; but here it was evident they were given up to their own lusts of ungodliness and they were mockers; accordingly, they therefore turned with the greatest spite and hatred upon that truth that once separated them from the world. –They were professedly believers, but it is evident they were in reality the emissaries of Satan. And the Epistles (some of the last in the Bible), as well as the apostles of our Lord, laid down this: that these mockers were to come in the last time. The last time was therefore to be a peculiarly evil time, and it is a very solemn thing that we are in that time most fully now. I do not say that it may not be lengthened—that is entirely a question of the will of God. The lengthening of evil may be just as much as the lengthening of tranquility. There is the tranquility for one, and it may end in greater departure than ever, or it may be the means of repentance, and extrication from these toils of the enemy.

But here at any rate he declares, “These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” It is important to understand this verse, for there are various kinds of separations mentioned in the New Testament. Sometimes, it is separation within; sometimes, it is separation without; sometimes, it takes the character of parties as yet joined with the rest in outward observances, but their spirit alienated. Those are the persons the apostle refers to in Romans 16: persons “which cause divisions and stumbling-blocks, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned” (ver. 17). That doctrine was that we should walk, not only outwardly together but, inwardly, with real love. It is true it may not always be approving of what each may do and say, but with earnest desire that things might go well, and that those even who are in any way caught by the enemy might be delivered.

Now, the persons in the sixteenth of Romans were not to be “put away,” but avoided; and the object of that avoiding was to make them feel and reflect upon what they were about. Suppose they were preachers or teachers, avoiding such would be not to invite them, or if they invited themselves, not to accept their offer. Of course you can understand that they would not like it, unless they were really broken in spirit. In that case all would terminate happily, but if they were bent on doing their own will they ought to be avoided as the apostle says, and if they do not like this avoiding, and grow bitter under it, the effect would he that they would make a division “without” if they could, instead of “within.” They would “go out” themselves, and try and leaf away others.

There are these kinds of spirits First, they have an alienated mind within, and self-seeking; and because that is blamed by all that have the good of the saints at heart, and the glory of the Lord before them, they resent it strongly, and, instead of breaking down and judging themselves, they become worse, and then it is not a division “within,” but “without,” that they make. The former is called a schism, the latter a heresy. For I particularly press that on everyone here who may not have observed it—that “heresy” in scripture does not mean bad doctrine at all. There may be bad doctrine, of course, along with it; but this is rather heterodoxy—strange doctrine. There are proper terms for all forms of evil: falsehood, deceit, blasphemy, and the like. But heresy means the selfwill that does not care for the fellowship of the assembly in the least, and is so bent on its own object that it goes outside. That is what is called heresy. Now that is what the apostle means in 1 Corinthians 11 He says, “There are divisions (or, schisms) among you. For there must be also heresies (or, sects) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (vers. 18, 19).

But there is no “must be” in reference to heterodoxy. People might remain, and like to remain, with their heterodoxy, but heresy does not mean bad doctrine, although this might go along with it. But it means that people might get too hot in their zeal, and, being reproved for their party spirit, they refuse to stand it any longer, and they get away. They break loose from fellowship and form some new thing that has not the sanction of the word of God. That is, in Scripture, what is called heresy. The doctrine might be sound enough in a general way. There might be no blasphemies, or heterodoxy, strictly speaking, but there is the heart entirely wrong and seeking its own things instead of those of Jesus Christ.

So in the verse before us, “These be they who separate themselves,” it means those that separate themselves “within” not “without,” at all. This is very evident from the early part of this Epistle: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 4). Certain men crept in. They are the same people that Jude is talking about all through. Unawares, they had “crept in,” not “gone out.” Now that is what gives the true force of the words— “those that separate themselves.” We can easily understand it if we bear in mind the Pharisees. The Pharisees never separated themselves from Israel, but the very name of a Pharisee means “a separatist.” They were separatists within Israel. These were separatists within the church and in both cases it was not going out, but it was making a party of pride and self-righteousness within. And who are they? Ungodly men; these were the men that were proud of themselves; those men who had these wicked lusts. They were the persons who assumed to be pre-eminently faithful; and, I believe, you will generally find that it is so, that, when persons are given up to delusion, they always have a very high opinion of themselves. No matter how violent they may be, no matter how evil in their spirit, they claim to be more particularly faithful, and they have no measure in their denunciation of every one that stands in their way. That is exactly the class here described.

“These be they who separate themselves.” And what sort of men were they? “Sensual.” That word “sensual” is important to understand. Every man has got a soul, converted, or not. Now when we believe, we receive a nature that we never had before; we receive life in Christ. These men here described had nothing but their natural soul. They had not received life in Christ. They were merely “natural” men. “Sensual,” in our language, is very often taken to mean people that are abandoned to immoral ways. These people may have been so, but that is not the meaning of the word. The meaning of the word is that they were just simply “natural” men. It is the same word that is translated “natural man” in 1 Corinthians 2:14, contrasted with the “spiritual man.” So he adds here, “not having the Spirit.”

Now, having not the Spirit is to want the great privilege of a Christian. This is the great difference between a believer now resting on redemption, from an Old Testament believer. They were waiting for the Spirit in the days of the Messiah. Although the Messiah is rejected, the Holy Ghost has been poured down on us, but not on those that are still waiting for the Messiah. The Jews are still waiting and have not the Spirit. These men although they had taken their place in the church, had not the Spirit. They were natural men. We are therefore given this further development of the terrible evil that had come in even then, although the great mass of the saints, you may be sure, very little understood it, very little perceived it, and therefore it was of the greatest moment that the apostles should, that there should he inspired men, or, at any rate, inspired instruction upon that which otherwise people would not have been in the least prepared for, and would have counted it a very fierce and terrible picture without any good ground for it—that it was making the worst of everything instead of the best. But the Spirit of God does give it just as it is. [W. K.] (To be continued)

The Righteousness of God

In a recent notice of “Mr. William Kelly as a Theologian,” which also claims to present “a summary account” of Darbyism “in the form it assumed under the hand of Mr. Kelly, who was unquestionably its most learned, systematic, and lucid representative,” the following occurs under the head of “Justification “— “Closely linked in Mr. Kelly's mind with this doctrine of justification is his explanation of the phrase, the righteousness of God. This is not God's gift of righteousness, nor anything in the same order of ideas. Neither is it God's attribute of righteousness. It is God's personal righteousness in the act of justifying the ungodly. This sense, which seems to be required in Romans 3:25, 26, Mr. Kelly assigns to the expression throughout Paul's argument.”

Now the analysis just quoted from cannot, as to this section at any rate, on Soteriology, be said to be an unskillful one. Particularly clear is the confession of the baselessness of the charge of antinomianism so often laid against “the Brethren's” doctrine of justification. And so in measure as to their definition of the term “righteousness of God.” It is not theirs only, no doubt. The same, or a similar interpretation, had been given before, but had fallen into disfavor in presence of that which made it to be, in the words of the reviewer, “God's gift of righteousness.” But there is in his second negative— “Neither is it God's attribute of righteousness” —an implication, if taken absolutely, to which some will demur. Mr. Kelly may perhaps seldom have, in so many words, used the term “God's attribute of righteousness"; but it is questionable if he or Mr. Darby, of whom he is here said to be the interpreter, would, either of them, have been satisfied with the definition from which it was thus peremptorily ruled out.

In W. K. 's “Notes on Romans,” for instance, in chap. 1:17, “the righteousness of God,” διχαιοσύνη θεοῦ is given as signifying a “habit or quality of righteousness,” and (translated “God's righteousness”) is said to be a similar phrase to “God's power” just before, and “God's wrath” just after.

Again, in his tract “The Righteousness of God: What is it?” quoting from the late Bishop of Ossory, where the latter admits that “the righteousness (justice) of God regarded as a divine attribute” is the “easier and therefore better” interpretation of Romans 3:25, 26, W. K. accepts the concession as true “as far as it goes.”

Then, as to Mr. Darby. In a reply to the Record, dealing with Romans 3:25, 26, we have (in “A Letter on the Righteousness of God”), “I say, then, in this capital passage it is a character or attribute of God, which is made good by the blood of Christ—in respect of sinners, so as to favor them.” Again, in a Letter (on “The Pauline Doctrine of the Righteousness of Faith") reviewing the Christian Examiner— “First, as to the term, 'righteousness of God,' I should not call it properly an attribute of God, in the common sense of the word attribute. The word is generally used for what is essential to His being and nature, as power; whereas righteousness is a relative term. But 'the righteousness of God'... means a quality in the character of God,... that which characterizes Himself,... and is a far wider term than His being the Author of it.”

The true statement of the matter would probably have been given had the writer qualified it by saying that the righteousness of God in Romans 3:25, 26, is not merely God's so-called attribute of righteousness; but the brightest and fullest manifestation of that quality in His action of justifying the ungodly. Accompanied by the extract from the article “Righteousness of God,” which he quotes, he would then, I think, have better expressed the teaching he seeks to present as Mr. Kelly's.

It is interesting to notice that the generally accepted signification of this important phrase is being called in question in quarters far removed from Mr. Kelly's school. It has had the field to itself for long. As remarked by the late Editor of Bible Treasury in a very early number (1857)— “It is a singular fact that, while God used Romans 1:17 to Luther's conversion, and we may say to the Reformation, neither he nor his companions, or their followers, ever apprehended the full truth conveyed by this blessed expression— ‘righteousness of God.' Hence it is habitually mistranslated in Luther's German Bible, where διχαιοσύνη θεοῦ is rendered 'the righteousness which is available before God.'"... “It is a humiliating circumstance that the professed comments on scripture” (up to our day) “are so barren as to this grave and deeply interesting theme.”

In 1890, however, to trace its recent history so far as related by one who himself feels the insufficiency of the former interpretation, something in the nature of a new departure was made. In the “Romans” volume of “Pulpit Commentary,” a view of its essential meaning differing from the current one was propounded. This view was subsequently adopted by Revelation Dr. Robertson, Principal of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham, in a paper to the Thinker (November, 1893). More recently Prof. Sanday and Mr. Headlam in the “International Critical Commentary” allude to these two protests “quite recently raised against what had seemed for some time past to be almost an accepted exegetical tradition.”

To quote the first mentioned on Romans 1:17. “It is usual to interpret this as meaning man's imputed, or forensic, righteousness, which is from God— θεοῦ) being understood as the genitive of origin. The phrase in itself suggests rather the sense in which it is continually used in the Old Testament, as denoting God's own eternal righteousness.” Again, “It cannot be denied that the word διχαιοσύνη is used in a secondary sense to express, not absolute righteousness such as God's; but the state of acceptance, or acquittal, into which, through his faith, the believer enters. But we contend that it never has this sense when, without a preposition intervening, it is followed by θεοῦ, and also that God's own righteousness is never lost sight of as the source from which such acceptance or acquittal flows.”

To sum up in the words of Mr. Kelly himself, “There is nothing to hinder our understanding διχαιοσύνη θεοῦ in its usual sense of an attribute or quality of God.... The definition of Luther, Calvin, Beza, Reiche, De Wette, etc., is unsatisfactory, as Luther's version, which is a paraphrase of it, is erroneous.... Of course it is not divine righteousness abstractly (which is perhaps the unconscious difficulty of most who approach the subject), but God just in virtue of the Savior's work. How does He estimate it, how act on it, for the believer? The infusion of divine righteousness has no just sense, or appears to confound justification with life; whilst the idea that it means mercy is a poor evasion which weakens the grand truth that not His love only but His justice justifies the believer.” J. T.

Whom … Ye Denied

It would be called effrontery amongst men for one to charge home on others the thing he had been guilty of himself, and to reiterate the charge. But it ceases to be so if we think of the previous word of the Lord Jesus to Peter in full view of his denial of Himself. “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32), which along with his Lord's warning doubtless was included when we are told in Matthew 26:75, “Peter remembered the word of Jesus which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.” It is always grace which leads to repentance.

“The word of Jesus.” Yes, that must have its weight with a true believer. It had none with the betrayer who “went and hanged himself.” The charge which Peter prefers against the Jews after the great Shepherd of the sheep had been brought again from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20), the infinite value of which was proved thereby, and which Peter knew as cleansing us from all sin, was, we may say, on four counts, viz.:

They denied Jesus as “the Christ.” For in Matthew 27 we find Pilate so presents Him. “Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ?” (ver. 17). And again, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified” (ver. 22).

They denied Jesus as “King of the Jews.” In Mark 15 we read Pilate's queries, “What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him” (vers. 12, 13); and this was emphatic, for he had previously asked them, “Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?” (ver. 12).

They denied Him as “the Man” —the Man of whom we read in Philippians 2:5-7, “Christ Jesus, 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.” For Pilate says to them (Luke 23), “Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people, and behold, I having examined him before your have found no fault in this man, touching those things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet Herod, for I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him” (vers. 14, 15). But Pilate's pleading was all in vain, for “They were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified” (ver. 23).

They denied Jesus as “the Son of God.” For when “Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him, the Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:6-7). Had they said, He is the Son of God, but has made Himself of no reputation, and become a man, they would have been right. But no, they took Him and led Him away to Golgotha, “where they crucified him and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst” (ver. 18). How right, therefore, was Peter in his accusation, “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just” (Acts 3:14).

How many glories, however, center in that Name of which the poor lame beggar proved the virtue, and the worth of which Peter knew something; for, while Peter with John at the outset had said, “Look on us,” it was only to transfer his attention to another. Peter was conscious enough of his own poverty, and he had no doubt of the riches of his Lord when he said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” So to the people greatly wondering at the miracle which had been wrought, he is quick to deny himself, saying the reverse of what he had said to the lame man, “Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” telling them that the God of unchangeable promise, “the God of their fathers had glorified his Servant Jesus, whom they had delivered up” —the Prince and Author of life, whom they had “killed.” “And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (ver. 16). How God-glorifying is all this! Let us note the order.

First and foremost, His Name.

Second, faith in its own proper place, the gift of God, not of self.

Third, faith linked with its object, “which is by Him” —that object is always and exclusively Christ.

Fourth, the results for the truster— “strong” and “perfect soundness.”

May we, then, as saints or servants, take heed to it for ourselves that with us it may be only and always “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). W. N. T.

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 1

Before we enter on the consideration of these words, we would remark, that whilst the first of these seven addresses to the churches in Asia was sent to the scene of the apostle Paul's protracted labors, it was not so with the Epistle from which the above words are quoted.

Yet there is this in common, that both Ephesus and Laodicea were alike favored with the same wonderful communication from the apostle, as that which we know under the title of “The Epistle to the Ephesians.” For we have no doubt that this same apostolic writing is the one referred to in Colossians 4:16, where we read, “And when this epistle [to the Colossians] is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the [epistle] from Laodicea.”

This “epistle from Laodicea,” being an inspired epistle, is not a “lost” one, as some unhappily, as we think, have concluded, but a copy, or duplicate, of the one addressed to the Ephesians, and which copy had been brought forward as far as to Laodicea, and left there, to be subsequently sent on to Colosse, which lay about eighteen miles to the cast of Laodicea. The saints at Colosse are here apprized by the apostle of an epistle which was coming on to them “from Laodicea,” to be read by them, in the same way as the one they at Colosse had now received, was to be sent to Laodicea to be read by the saints there.

Our reasons for this view are as follows. It is well known that the words “in Ephesus” (Ephesians 1:1) are omitted by the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. (of the fourth century); are remarked by Basil as not found in the ancient copies (ἐν τοῖς παλαιοῖς τῶν ἀντιγράφων); and as not known at all by Origen (third century); though later MSS., and the Vv. contain the words.

Marcion and Tertutlian (of the second century) knew this epistle as connected with the Laodiceans, so that it is difficult to account for this knowledge without some basis for it.

Then again, there is the remarkable absence of personal salutations in the epistle, although the apostle had lived amongst them for three years, and knew the Ephesians well. Only, as we think, by recognizing the fact that the letter was meant for others besides the Ephesian saints.

And if we take into consideration the character of the Epistle as a whole, it is difficult to account for this knowledge on their part without sound basis for it. (To be continued)

LONDON: T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 6

“And Elisha said, [As] Jehovah of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass when the minstrel played, that the hand of Jehovah came upon him. And he said, Thus saith Jehovah, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith Jehovah, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye sec rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is [but] a light thing in the sight of Jehovah: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand. And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. And it came to pass in the morning, when the meal offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water” (2 Kings 3:14-20).

Whenever God has been graciously pleased to intervene between man and the fruits of his sinful folly, it has been at the same time necessary to maintain a testimony for truth and holiness; and, further, that whoever might be the witness for God in His grace visiting poor sinful man in the circumstances of his sorrow and wretchedness shall, in whatever time, be identified in spirit with the One who sent him. Most blessedly was this manifested in “the faithful and true witness,” the Lord Jesus Christ, who was here, the Sent One, “full of grace and truth.” If God in His own character were not fully revealed man's need could never be perfectly met. God must be made known as He is to those who have lost that knowledge, before we can benefit by that which He has for us. This accounts for the many occasions of seeming delay or reluctance in the ministry of the Lord Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, before accomplishing the coming miracle. Not that there was any real reluctance on the part of the blessed Lord, for His grace was ever ready, but man himself, with the working of his thoughts, stood in the way of the blessing. When people came to know something of the wondrous power of the Lord's ministry, there was a desire to take advantage of it in their own interests, rather than inquire why the blessing and the Blesser were here. Still less did they care to inquire too closely into the causes of their poverty and misery, as we may see more clearly, perhaps, from the following scriptures.

“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed [them]. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching” (Mark 6:4-6). “And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tire and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know: but he could not be hid. For a woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed” (7:24-30). “And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain” (32-35). “And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that, he put [his] hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up; and he was restored, and saw every man clearly” (8:22-25). “And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away; and I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child; and ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people were running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, [Thou] dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him” (9:17-25).

Many more examples might be cited, but these instances, all to be found in that Gospel which presents the Lord Jesus as the servant Son of God, may suffice to show that the Lord never made the removal of human misery, or the satisfaction of man's need, His primary object, but the glory of God. Yet His gracious, loving heart, again and again, was “moved to compassion,” and “in all their affliction he was afflicted.” With us, indeed, how different it would have been! But He was the Sent One of the Father, and delighted to do His will and pleasure. His activity received a divine, not a human impulse. He would not be forced or hurried beyond or before the will of God, not even to appease His hunger. He lived by every word of God. So again we find, “Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Juda into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die” (John 4:46-49). “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that saith he to the disciples, Let us go into Judæa again” (11:5-7).

In the activities of daily life and service amongst men here below, never did Jesus depart from the holy intimacy of His own proper relationship to the Father; and what was exhibited in divine perfection and beauty in the service and walk of Christ on earth, is here seen, in its own scanty measure, in the way in which Elisha entered upon the scene of his service and testimony to Israel, and how much depends upon the spirit we cultivate. It is easy for one with favors to bestow to become popular with men; and the preacher of grace will be acceptable in proportion as he makes light of sin, denies the judgment of it, misrepresents God, and flatters men. It was the mission of the Son of God to reveal the Father in light and love in the midst of a ruined world. Such an exhibition must and did bring Him who made it into circumstances of suffering, because “the darkness apprehended it not.” He became an object of scorn and hatred to those whom He would fain have blessed.

Elisha at once takes the place, of a witness to the truth and, of a servant of Jehovah. He was not flattered by the inquiry of Jehoshaphat, nor by the coming down to him of the three kings. If a matter of urgency on their part, not so with him. To him the question was, Where was God in all this? and what about Jehovah's glory? His name had lightly, and with profanity, been brought in, but they had not sought the will of God. What had Elisha to do with Jehoram? And why had the king of Israel, in the present extremity, sought to a prophet of Jehovah? “Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother.” These former were, ostensibly, prophets of Jehovah. Were they not sufficient? Alas! it had been fully and openly proved that they were as much the creatures of the king his father, as the prophets of Baal were the creatures of his mother Jezebel. Satan could as well use one as the other (see 1 Kings 22). Now, in very truth, this is the position of Christendom to-day. Principles of Biblical interpretation, as dishonest as they are profane, have been applied to Scripture until such as have still, if but a modicum of, reverence for God's word are vainly searching elsewhere for a divine pronouncement worthy of the name of truth. Is this “The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture,” or is it not?

In what a solemn way do we see, all around us, the fulfillment of scripture warnings! “Behold the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find” (Amos 8:11, 12). Religious people are, to-day, exultant over the decay of faith and the advance of rationalism under false colors, who will vainly seek light once despised and rejected. How faithfully does the inspired apostle Paul, who clearly anticipated the present developments of ecclesiastical iniquity (as did also Peter and Jude), set before us the judgment in store for those who reject the present testimony of grace and falsify the truth. “For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let] until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of his coming: [even him] whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of a lie, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish: because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12).

It is the spiritual discernment of evil principles, that hide their proper character in the “great house,” which attest the man of God now, and his well-pleasing to the Lord Jesus. Clearly and unhesitatingly did our prophet, in the scene before us, expose and denounce the hidden evil. Judgment would in due time be pronounced upon the Edomite scoffer. “The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come” (Isaiah 21:11, 12). The inconsistencies of the godly king of Judah would at another time, and in another place, call for rebuke. It is not God's way to rebuke His servants in the presence of the enemy: but the spiritual mind feels and sorrows over the moral confusion of the whole scene. The playing of the minstrel soothed the spirit of Elisha, and enabled him to rise above the depressing influence, which weighed upon his spirit. Like another, he would “stand upon the watch-tower.”

When in the heart of man confusion prevails, and the issues of life and death are involved, the soul instinctively feels and realizes that God must speak-that He alone can act to any real purpose: “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither fruit [be] in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah God [is] my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' [feet] and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). When God is thus sought and appealed to, He acts in a manner worthy of Himself—the deliverance overlaps the need— “this is [but] a light thing in the sight of Jehovah,” etc.

Thus, meditating upon such displays of mercy, we feel constrained to say, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us; unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20, 21). [G. S. B.] (To be continued)

Exodus 17:1-6 and Numbers 20:1-11

It is very important for us to keep to all the words of Scripture. Because, being God's word, every one is accurate, pure and tried; and it is hazardous to leave out, or overlook, any, however apparently unimportant, for doing so may lead to serious results. God never repeats Himself in the way that we do often, and where He gives an account twice over it is with a different aim. Unbelief says, Moses was inaccurate in these two accounts. We bow and own God's goodness in giving both. Not seeing the two truths brought out in these types leads to much of the confusion around, i.e. the distinction between the Lord's work for us and His present work in us, the difference between the sacrifice and the priest. As guilty sinners we need a Sacrifice; as needy saints we want a Priest.

Israel, as we are, was in a “dry and thirsty land,” and they required water, they needed life. There is no life for the sinner unless the judgment of God—the wages of sin—is spent on some one, and if these dying 600,000 are to have life it must be through that which typified the judicial rod of God smiting His beloved Son. Moses was told to take his rod—that rod which had been given him in the place of judgment, and with that rod to smite the rock. It told of the judgment of God falling—not on the sinful, murmuring people, but—on Christ, when on the cross made sin for us. The Rock bore the strokes due to them, and from the riven Rock the waters flowed—the living waters. “The gift of God is eternal life” —life beyond death and judgment, life flowing for all who will drink of its streams.

But there is more even than this. The Holy Spirit has come down, and the believer possesses not only life, but life abundantly in the power of the Holy Ghost, “a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” Do you ask, Whither does it go? To its source—Christ in glory. But, before I pass on to the later of these two accounts, I would say, that while truly we have eternal life now, we do not lose while down here the old nature, which we have of the first Adam. We have, however, a new nature, as it is said, “made partakers of a divine nature” —being born again of water (the word of God) and Spirit. These two natures continue side by side, and the old remains as corrupt as ever, but God has condemned it in the cross of Christ. So when we turn to the account in Numbers 20, many years afterward, we find the same murmurings, etc., as before. What is the remedy? A fresh sprinkling of the blood, a fresh salvation? No. Such a thought is a gross dishonor to the finished and everlasting work of the Lord Jesus—completed once for all, one only sacrifice. It is remarkable that the scripture which dwells so much on this one offering (Hebrews 9) is the one which contains the wind up of men. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after that the judgment.” Numbers 20 begins with a very different state of circumstances to that in Exodus17 Miriam, who had led their song and dance on the shores of the Red Sea, is now dead—the freshness and brightness of early days may be gone, yet God is the same. And they ought, after all their experiences, to have known it. Had He not given them something fresh in chap. 17? The rod of Moses had been replaced by the rod of Aaron, and this is most important. They had murmured against the sovereignty of God in the matter of the priesthood, and He had been very wroth and judged them accordingly. Yet in their midst He had wrought new thing. The rod of Aaron, budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit, is laid up before Jehovah. Christ in His priesthood proved to be the chosen One by the buds and blossoms and fruits of His holy life in this world's night—living now in the power of what He is as our great High Priest. In Hebrews 4, which looks at us as in the wilderness going on to the rest before us, we have two things by the way—the word of God and the great High Priest.

And Jehovah tells Moses to take “the rod” not “his rod,” but the rod that had budded, etc.—and to speak, with that before him, to the rock. Moses does indeed take “the rod,” but, instead of “speaking to,” he smites, the rock twice with “his rod,” and so, in his unbelief, failed to sanctify Jehovah in the eyes of the children of Israel. Instead of being occupied with “the rod” of Aaron, in all its beauty of living vigor and fruitfulness, taken by divine command from “before Jehovah,” he looks at the rebellious people and addresses them. Don't we often do the same? Alas, that it should be so! But all he needed was to present Jehovah's rod and “speak,” and the waters should flow out. The Rock already smitten (Exodus17) must not be smitten again. Moses' rod had done its work. But Christ, having “once suffered for sins,” now lives on high, “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” in the power of priestly grace to intercede for His needy people here below. Having such a “great High Priest,” may we be kept from failing of the grace of God. G. G.

The Temple of God and Its Worship: Part 1

In the two temples, that at Jerusalem in the old dispensation, and that of the Spirit in the new, we see a meaning in everything within them. Hebrews 9:8, 9 gives us notice of this touching the sanctuary, and shows the character of the service there; the veil being constantly down to forbid the access of the worshipper into the presence of God, or holy of holies, was the figure for the time then present. It exhibited the character of that dispensation which never, with the sacrifices it provided, gave the sinner confidence, or purged the conscience—never brought him near as a worshipper. We see the same significancy in the New Testament temple; everything said of it has a voice which tells us of the time now present, and exhibits the character of the dispensation in which we are, as clearly as the other did. In proof of this, I would look at 1 Corinthians 11, where from ver. 17 (and down to the close of chap. 14) the apostle is treating of the ordinances and worship of the house of God, or the New Testament temple. This chapter, in its latter half, assumes the saints to be in assembly or church order, and in looking at their order as detailed here, several objects strike our notice.

First, we see men and women seated together. This tells of their equal and common interest in Christ, where there is neither male nor female, as we read here, “For neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord “; for, personally considered, they have the same standing in the church of God.

Secondly, we see the man uncovered, and the woman covered. This tells us of their difference mystically considered, as we read here, “For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man” (8th and 9th verses). And these two things are true, not only of Adam and Eve, but of Christ and the church, so that in the assembly—where she is not permitted “to speak” (1 Corinthians 14:34), or when prophesying, which she may do elsewhere (Acts 21:9)—the woman is to carry the sign of subjection (i.e. the covered head) Genesis 24:65, and the man to appear without it, thus mystically setting forth “Christ and the church.”

Thirdly, in the next place we see the Supper spread. This tells why the saints have come together, and the character of the dispensation into which the church is now brought; for it shows us the veil is gone. The blood of Jesus has rent it, and been brought in its stead. The table tells us of the Paschal Lamb and of the feast of unleavened bread upon it, and thus of the full remission of sins, and also of the exercise of self-judgment; and these are just what the church enjoys and observes till the Lord comes.

Thus these features in the assembly have all their signification. And, in this manner, the assembly of saints formed the New Testament temple of living stones, and, thus raised, is a blessed testimony to the time now present. Every object tells us of its character; we look into the assembly of saints, and see the great truths of the present age reflected as in a glass, just as in the sanctuary under the law there was a figure of the things then present.

All this is clear and simple; but in further meditation on the subject, observe that there is still more meaning in the covering of the woman in the congregation than I noticed before (1 Cor. 11:5, 6). This power of covering on the head is primarily to be regarded as signifying that subjection which the woman owes the man, who is her head, or the subjection which the church owes her Lord. Power, or covering on the head, was the sign of that, and therefore was suitable to the woman in the congregation, because without it she thus dishonored the man, who is her head (ver. 5).

But there is more than that, for the apostle adds, that if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn or shaven, which he then says would be a shame to her (ver. 6). What was the shame of which the shaven or shorn state of a woman's head was the confession? This must be determined by a reference to the Law, and under it we find two occasions on which the woman was shaven, or uncovered. First, when she was a suspected wife (Num. 5.). Secondly, when she had lately been taken captive and was bewailing her father's house, not yet united to the Jew who had taken her in battle (Deut. 21.). This shaven state of a woman thus expressed showed that she was not enjoying either the full confidence, or the full joy, of a husband.

Now the woman ought not to appear with such marks on her; for the church ought not to be seen as though she were suspected by Christ, or still felt herself a sorrowing captive. This would be her shame! But the covering on her head shows the church to be in neither of these states, but, on the contrary, happy in the affection and confidence of Christ; and this is as it should be—this is her glory.

Thus the woman covered in the assembly shows out the two things touching the church—the church's present happy honorable estate with Jesus, as well as her entire subjection to Him as her Lord—i.e. both owning Him as Lord, and enjoying the cherishing presence of Christ, which puts away the sense of captivity; while on the other hand the uncovered head would be a denial of both—a dishonor to the man, and a shame to the woman, and it would bear a false witness to angels, who are learning the deep mysteries of Christ from the church (Eph. 3.; 1 Cor. 9.). Christ was seen of them first (1 Tim. 3:16). They marked and attended His whole progress from the manger to the resurrection; and now they are learning from the church and mark her ways, and if the woman in the assembly were to appear uncovered, the angels would be learning the lesson incorrectly. The shorn head of the woman would have done for the dispensation of the Law; for then the sense of captivity was not gone, the spirit of bondage was yet in the worshipper, kindredness in the flesh was not then fully forgotten; but now “we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,” as being joined to the Lord, and there is liberty and not bondage.

With this little view of the temples, let us consider the worship which might fill them. True worship, like true knowledge of God, flows from the revelation of Him, for man by wisdom knows not God. Worship, to be true, must be according to that revelation which God has made of Himself, and this I would trace a little through Scripture.

Abel was a true worshipper; his worship or offering was according to faith—i.e. according to revelation (Heb. 11.). The firstlings of his flock which he offered were in view of the bruised Seed of the woman, and according to the coats of skins with which the Lord God had clothed his parents.

Noah followed Abel, and also worshipped in the faith of the woman's bruised Seed; he took his new inheritance only in virtue of blood (Gen. 8:20); he was therefore a true worshipper—worshipping God as He had revealed Himself.

Gen. 12:7; here we see Abraham following in their steps, a true worshipper. I might observe that there is strikingly an absence of self-will in Abraham; he believed God, and what was told him; he went out as he was commanded; he worshipped as then was revealed to him.

Isaac, precisely in the track of Abraham, worshipped the God who had appeared to him, not affecting to be wise and thus becoming a fool, but in simplicity of faith and worship, like Abraham, raising his altar to the revealed God (Gen. 26:24, 25).

Jacob was a true worshipper. The Lord appears to him in his sorrow and degradation, in the misery to which his own sin had reduced him, thus revealing Himself as the One in whom mercy rejoiceth against judgment; and he at once owns God as thus revealed to him, and this God of Bethel was his God to the end (Genesis 48:15, 16). Here was enlarged revelation of God, and worship following such revelation, and that is true worship.

The nation of Israel was to be a worshipper. God had revealed Himself to Israel in a varied way—He had given them the law of righteousness, and also shadows of good things to come. By the one He had multiplied transgressions, and the other provided the remedy: and the worship of Israel was according to this. There was an extreme sensitiveness to sin, with burdens to allay it, which they were not able to bear, and thus the spirit of bondage and fear was gendered. Israel had thus become increasingly acquainted with the good and evil, and their worship was accordingly. The tabernacle or temple where all the worship went on as the established worship might still be set aside, because it was not the perfect thing, and God might show out the better if He pleased in spite of it; and so He did on various occasions. Witness Gideon, Manoah, and David.

Gideon worshipped according to a new revelation of God in spite of Shiloh and the tabernacle; his rock became the ordered place, or the anointed altar, just because of this revelation and command of God (Judg. 6:14-26). Manoah turns what he had supposed a repast into a sacrifice, because the Lord had revealed His wish that it should be so (Judg. 13:15, 19). David at the bidding of the Lord turns from the ordained or consecrated altar to another, which was in the unclean inheritance of a Gentile, where, however, as at Bethel of old mercy had rejoiced against judgment, and where accordingly God had built Himself another house. “This is the house of the Lord God,” says David (1 Chronicles 22). Thus, then, these three instances were cases of true worship, though manifestly a departure from God's own established worship.

The healed leper was a true worshipper, though in like manner he departed from the established, the divinely established, order, just because without a command he apprehended God in a new revelation of Himself (Luke 17:11-19). The healing had a voice to the ear of faith, for it was only the God of Israel who could heal a leper (2 Kings 5:7). This was more excellent even than the same kind of faith in Gideon, Manoah, or David. J. G. B.

An Epistle of Christ: Part 1

2 Corinthians 3

I. The apostle, in the beginning of this chapter, tells us what a true Christian is. He calls him an epistle of Christ. He is a person upon whose heart God has written Christ, as Moses wrote the law on tables of stone. This the apostle opens out; but first he states what Christians are in contrast with the law. A Christian is a person on whom Christ is engraved, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart. If the heart is serious, one must see that many have not this. We see many persons very amiable, and others with a trying nature. But here it is not difference of mere natural character. This is not the point. Natural amiability of character is not Christ graved on the heart. It has nothing to do with being a Christian, which is a positive real work of God. It is the Holy Ghost engraving Christ on a man's heart, putting Christ into his thoughts, his words, and his ways, just as the law was put upon stones. Now a person may get angry at this; but nevertheless Christ is the object of a Christian's life, and your own conscience must judge if it is so with you. It is not that there is not failure. A man who is seeking to make money does not always succeed; but everybody knows what his object is. Just so Christ is the object of a believer's life.

God gave the law, not to make men righteous, but to prove that there was none righteous. The law condemns every one. It was the ministration of death. But after men had broken God's law, He sent His Son. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.” God's Son has been in the world. How comes it that He is out of it? The world would not have Him. Men spit in His face. This is what the world has done. Now I do not ask you about duties; but I ask, Is Christ engraven on your heart? We cannot kill Him now; but our hearts can reject Him as much as ever the Jews did. An honest man—I do not speak of a Christian—will own that from morning to night Christ is not in his heart.

Now what was the apostle doing? When a Christian went from one place to another, it was customary to give him a letter of commendation. But, says the apostle, Do I want a letter? If one came to him to ask what he went about doing, he would say, Look at these Corinthians (for they were going on well then): they were his letter. How so? Because they were Christ's. Now I leave it with you as to whether Christ is on your heart. I do not ask if you love Him as you ought; for if you love Him at all, you will not say that; He is too precious for that. But if you are a Christian, you are sure there is not anything that you would not give for Christ. You may not be able to govern yourself, still Christ is the object of your heart.

Notice now another thing: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” It is not liberty to be fearing and trembling before God. “Liberty” is to be happy with Him. When the Holy Ghost begins to show me my sins, I have anything but liberty. I begin to be afraid of my sins; I do not know whatever to do with them. False liberty is taken away, and true liberty is not given. And this will always be the case until the perfect love of God is seen. Now law will never teach me that. Suppose I command my child to love me, and threaten him if he does not; will that make him love me? Why, it will make him tremble. This is what the law does. It cannot produce the love, it can but command. What is the effect? I cannot stand in its presence. When Moses had been up on the mount, his face shone. He had been with God. And when he came down with the two tables of the law, the children of Israel were afraid to come near him. He had to put a veil on his face for the glory of his countenance. After being in the presence of God's glory, they cannot bear to look on him. The only effect of the revelation of the glory of God is to drive me away as far as ever I can get from Him against whom I have sinned. There is not a pleasure in the world that the presence of God would not blast in a moment. There is not a happiness of man, as man, that is not spoiled by the very mention of the name of God. Now think what a terrible state that is to be in.

The apostle calls this claim of God by the law the “ministration of death” and “of condemnation “; because it claims righteousness, and does not produce the thing it claims. Whenever a person is looking to his conduct for what he ought to be, he is under the ministry of death and condemnation. That is not the way to get Christ written on the heart.

Before we turn to look at Christ as He is now, let us look at what He was, God manifest in the flesh. In what state did He find men when He came? He found them “all under sin.” And what does Job say of himself, as being in this condition? “If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his fear away, then would I speak; but it is not so with me.”

Now what do I find in Christ when He came? I find “a daysman” —the very thing that Job wanted. Was there fear in Christ? Was any one afraid of Christ? If a sinner was ever so burdened, he could go to Christ and thus to God. Now here I find that though my sins hindered me from going to God, they could not hinder God from coming to me. You will never find a single case in which Christ did not receive the sinner with open arms-never. Now that is what you want. Christ did not say, Get righteousness and come up here, and I will have you. No; but He came down here to meet us here. This is an entirely new thing. Christ came in this way to win our hearts thus. And therefore they reproached Him with receiving sinners, and eating with them. It is quite true, He replied, but is not a father glad to receive his lost son? Even so is it with My Father in heaven; and therefore am I come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now this is grace.

But there is righteousness too. When the father fell on the neck of the prodigal, he was in his rags. The father could not bring him into the house in his rags; it would dishonor the house. So His blessed love goes on—and Jesus gives Himself for the sins, which unfit me for the Father's house. I see that the very Lord, against whom I sinned, has taken my sins and put them all away at the cross.

Now where do I see the glory of God? No longer on the face of Moses—I could not look on it there. But now I see it in the face of Jesus Christ. Ah! I say, that is the One who died for my sins. He could not bring my sins into the glory, and therefore He put them away. I have got His word and His work for it, and the glory for it too; and therefore God is now ministering righteousness. Now it is “the ministration of righteousness.” The sins are not passed over. He sweat great drops of blood for the sins. He has really gone through everything that holiness required on account of them, and now He is in the glory; so that every ray of the glory I look at is the proof that my sins are put away. When I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, it is the very thing I like to look at; because the Man whom I see in the glory is the One who bore all my sins. Oh! I delight to look at Him. And this is the way I get Christ graven on my heart by the Holy Ghost. “We all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It is the ministration of righteousness, because the Holy Ghost comes and tells me that there is a righteousness accomplished “by one man's obedience.” It is the ministration of the Spirit, because the Spirit is given on the foundation of the righteousness. And now the man is at liberty, because his conscience is perfectly purged. Here he will have trial and conflict, it is true; but as between himself and God he will never have anything but perfect peace.

This is God's way of graving Christ on the heart. First He gives a man the consciousness of being entirely condemned, showing him that his nature is enmity against God; that the law he has broken; and that when He has brought him to this in his conscience, then He shows him that the God against whom he sinned has come and wrought out a righteousness for him, and that this blessed Man is now in glory.

Now mark how the heart thus learns to trust God. What love! when I was in my sins, God came and put them away. My sins are the very thing that give the greatest proof of His love. He has given Christ for them. Well may I trust Him for everything else.

Let me now ask you, dear reader, if your confidence is in this God? Has your heart been brought to submit to His righteousness, for you have none of your own? Oh, it is the hardest thing for the heart to be broken down so as to be willing to have righteousness by the obedience of another! “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). But if you have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ you will desire to “be found in him, not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God, by faith.”

An Epistle of Christ: Part 2

2 Corinthians 3

II. It is good for our souls to dwell on what it is to be an epistle of Christ, though I am sure none of us can express the greatness of the calling. Any gathering of the saints is the epistle of Christ, “to be read of men.” They are His letter of recommendation to the world. The world needs to ascertain what Christ is from the lives of the saints; although they might learn it, it is true, from the word. And the great importance of this place of witness is brought out by the tacit contrast with the law, “written in tables of stone.” Just as the ten commandments were the declaration of the mind of God, under the dispensation of the law; so now the church is the engraving of Christ, “written, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,” to show forth the virtues of Him “who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

I would refer to one great thing in the life of Christ, namely, that He never, in one simple act, word, or movement of His heart, did a single thing to please Himself. “Christ pleased not himself “; and so “we ought not to please ourselves “; for “none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” Jesus said, “that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” This was obedience flowing out of love, and manifesting love. Nothing ever moved Him from that. The temptation to move from obedience to a commandment might come in a very subtle form, with all the ardor of affection; as when Peter said, in answer to the Lord's word about His sufferings and death, “This be far from thee, Lord.” It was affectionate in Peter; but the Lord would not own it, for this would have been to turn from the Father's commandment. And what does He answer? “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

Another thing I would remark. Not only was Jesus heavenly in His nature, but, as Son of man, He lived in heaven-as He said, “the Son of man which is in heaven.” The whole spirit of His mind, the tone of all His feelings and thoughts, was heavenly. So if there is any motive in my heart which I could not have if I were in heaven, I am not like Christ.

Again, all the grace that was in Him was brought out to meet man's sorrow and misery, and to bear on every earthly circumstance. In this we often find our failure. Even when the motive is right, the manner is wanting in graciousness. But it was never so with Christ. He was always seeking to promote the glory of God; but never did He in manner, on any occasion, depart from the spirit of grace. We often are not close enough in our communion with God to have confidence in Him. We become impatient, and resort to means that are not of God, as Jacob did, who had not confidence enough in God to say, “He will secure the blessing.” Would not God have made Isaac give the right answer? Surely He would. So we often fail by not waiting upon God, who will bring the thing to pass most surely, though we know not how. So it was in the sorrowful case of Saul. He would not wait; yet Samuel came at the end of seven days, and Saul lost the kingdom. And those who really are the children of God always sustain loss when they depart from confidence in Him. Christ was always trusting in God, and always waiting upon Him; and so He was ever ready for every sorrow and misery; ever ready to bring out the resources of God to meet every necessity. It is touching to read Matthew 5. Every beatitude is a lively portrait of Christ. Who so poor in spirit as Christ? Who mourned as Christ? Who so meek? so hungering and thirsting after righteousness? His whole life was hungering and thirsting after righteousness. “The life was the light of men.”

But, further, Jesus was the victorious man over all opposition, even though it were death itself. There is a great difference between good desires and power. The quickened soul may say, “O wretched man that I am “; but we cannot be the full epistle of Christ, unless we exhibit power over all obstacles—even over death. Death is given us. The believer, living in the power of Christ's life, has entire power over death.

J. N. D.....(To be continued)

Washing of Regeneration and the Holy Ghost Shed

Regeneration is a new state of things, and not merely “to be born again,” as any one can see in Matthew 19:28, “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” It is the changed state of the earth which the Lord will introduce at His coming, as the kingdom of God pre-supposes according to John 3. That state is not yet come; but there is an action of grace which already apprehends a believer for it the moment he receives Christ. Of this baptism is the sign—not of the new birth, but of deliverance from sin and its effects, by the death of Christ witnessed in the power of His resurrection that has taken away the sting. Superstitious men, who know not God's grace in Christ, can only misuse the sign and confound it with the thing signified. The gospel may not dispense with the outward side; but it announces an everlasting reality in Christ risen. How blessed to have our part in this new creation even now (2 Corinthians 5)! How wondrous to know that “if any one is in Christ, it is a new creation! The old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” Before this is manifested to every eye, the Christian has the washing of regeneration now and renewing of the Holy Spirit also. This makes the force evident. If the washing of regeneration is an objective sign, the renewing is a real and divine work in the soul. In order that it should be so, the Holy Spirit, as He does invariably, takes His suited and efficacious part, which is no mere token but a reality in power.

It is well known that some are disposed to understand here “the laver of regeneration.” The A. V. did not recognize this; the margin of the Revised Version does. It is well that the revisers did not venture farther. The notion is absolutely unfounded; for λουτρὸν never means laver but washing, or the water for the washing (in the sense of hath) as is notorious. Never in the N. T. occurs λουτὴρ which is the proper word for “laver.” They are both found in the Septuagint, and even λουτρὼν a place for washing or bathing-room. It is strange indeed that a commentator of learning could say that λουτρὸν is always a vessel or pool in which washing takes place, here the “baptismal font.” Liddell and Scott do, it is true, give “a bath, bathing place,” but not a solitary instance of such usage. Their abundant references are to hot or cold bathing in the sense of washing, or water for it, or even libations to the dead; but λουτὴρ is the tub or laver, as λουτρὼν is the place or bathroom. Bp. Ellicott and Dean Alford misrepresent the Lexx., of course only through haste or preoccupation. The word is correctly translated “washing” in our text. There could be no question about the matter unless there had been a prejudice to warp the mind. The wish was father of the thought.

Salvation then is no outward work; nor is it now mere deliverance by power, but personal and inward “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” There is a total change of position in Christ, a new place which is given to the believer, as well as another state subjectively. This is expressed by the washing and renewing. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. For now the believer is in Christ. As a man he was in Adam. Faith is now entitled to know that we all stand in Christ by God's mercy, and altogether independently of what we did ourselves. Thus the evil is gone before God and for the conscience; for Christ is risen, the full expression of the state into which the Christian is brought by grace.

But, besides the subjective change and the objective place, there is an incomparably blessed power which works in those who are brought into this standing. It is not only that there is the “renewing,” perfectly true as this is; but the Holy Ghost Himself has been poured out upon us in all fullness, as it has been said here, “Which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (ver. 6). This covers the entire Christian life. It is not merely that He effectually works, but He abides with us forever. This is of immense value and in evident contrast to Old Testament privilege where the danger of His leaving is felt and deprecated, as we see in Psalm 51. Under the gospel our privileges are known as abiding. The life is eternal, and so is the redemption, as well as the inheritance. It is in short eternal salvation. The Holy Spirit Himself is even called in the Hebrews the Eternal Spirit, though there it is in His special connection with Christ offering Himself without spot to God. But beyond controversy it is the same Spirit who is now by grace imparted to us, or, as is here expressed with peculiar emphasis, “poured out upon us richly.” Undoubtedly this could not be, save “through Jesus Christ our Savior"; but so it is added here, that we might dream of no other ground, on the one hand, and on the other have the fullest assurance of abundant and unfailing grace in the power of the Spirit personally through such a Savior. It is a privilege which never can lapse, any more than God revokes it where faith is living, as it flows through Christ and His redemption.

We know that, on the day when this privilege was first made good, powers and wonders accompanied; but no mistake can well be more pernicious than to confound the gift (δωρέα) of the Holy Spirit with those gifts (χαρίσματα) and signs and miracles which were external vouchers, as well as the display of the victory of the ascended Man over all the energy of evil. The presence of the Paraclete is an incomparably higher and deeper thing than all the mighty deeds which He wrought. Just so the grace and truth of our Lord rose above the signs which pointed out who and what He was. Even tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not; and yet tongues, the characteristic Christian miracle, approach nearer to that which edifies than any other exertion of divine power. But the gracious action of the Holy Spirit conveyed by His personal presence rises far above all such accompaniments, as the cause does above some or all of its effects.

Hence the all-important truth for all saints is, that while displays of power have passed away, as unsuited to the ruined state of the church, that which always was and is most needed and precious abides, because it rests on His work, finished on earth and accepted in heaven, who never changes; and it comes to us through Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and forever. It is He who gives us to cry, “Abba, Father,” and this is in the Spirit of the Son. It is He who takes the things of Christ, and shows them to us and glorifies Him. It is He who searches all things, yea the deep things of God. He gives us communion with the Father and the Son, no less than He helps our infirmity and makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, because He makes it for the saints according to God. It is He who is all-powerful on the one hand for service in testifying of Christ, on the other for the worship of saints, in the assembly above all.

The Holy Spirit has abdicated His relation to the assembly no more than to the individual Christian. It is only by the Holy Spirit that every believer can say that Jesus is Lord; but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each to profit withal, for to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. If there are external ornaments taken away, we can and ought surely to justify God; but He withholds nothing that is really necessary or profitable and for His own glory. Just as of old, so it is now—one and the same Spirit works all, dividing to each one severally as He will, for He is sovereign; and woe be to those who presume to control Him! He abides therefore for the blessing of the church and of individual saints to Christ's glory.

The wealth of our privileges in the present gift of the Spirit corresponds to the nearness of relationship with the God and Father of Christ, and to the oneness with Christ into which only the Christian is introduced; and these are every one of them blessings not more intimate, and rich beyond all other times, than permanent: of none is this predicated more emphatically than of the Holy Spirit. But the unbelief of Christendom apprehends none of them as now revealed; and even God's children for the most part are a prey to doubt and darkness as to each, through the spirit of the world that has invaded them all but universally, even where they have not become victims of the delusion of the enemy in a vain pretension to a special revival. From all this evil on either side faith preserves the soul in peace. For if the Holy Ghost is still “poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (and to deny this is in principle to deny the perpetuity of Christ's body and of the personal Pentecostal presence of God's Spirit), there is no room for a restoration of what God never took away. And, again, if the Spirit is still here in person, constituting God's assembly, how sad and shameless for those who believe in it to allow arrangements which grew out of unbelief in His presence and oppose His free action in the assembly or by the gifts of the Lord for the edifying of His body! Would that they who err in spirit might come to understanding, and they who murmur might learn doctrine! “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength,” as wrote the evangelical prophet. W. K.

Fear and Trembling

Where it is a question of the word of God, or the work of the Lord Jesus, the believer is entitled to have the fullest confidence. Thus the apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5, in full view of all the perils of death which daily confronted him, does not hesitate to say “We are always confident” (ver. 6), and to repeat it, “We are confident.” Nor was this a solitary instance. For on that voyage where “no small tempest lay on” them (ver. 8), and which ended in shipwreck, we find the same apostle, when relating the visit to him and saying of an angel of God, thus quietly speaking of himself, “Whose I am and whom I serve,” and no wonder! for he adds, “I believe God” (Acts 27:23-25).

Then, if the believer thinks of the enjoyment of the divine presence now, it is “in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him” (Ephesians 3:12). Whilst God's word is our authority for this boldness and confidence, the work of the Lord Jesus is equally our ground for it, as we read in Hebrews 10:19, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Further, if one has reason to believe that the Holy Ghost has begun a work in any soul, it is no presumption to say, “being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). And as regards ourselves, “we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14), a proof in its place that we have been born “of the Spirit,” for by nature we were children of wrath, “hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

We learn, however, from 1 Peter 1:18, 19, that whilst we “know” we are “redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” the very fact of our calling on the Father (who judges each man's work without respect of persons) is urged as a reason why we should pass the time of our sojourning in fear (ver. 17).

We find how this worked with the apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 2:3 he recalls to the saints at Corinth how he had been with them “in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling,” as their state was so carnal, and there was the flesh in him (that unimprovable enemy which we have to carry with us to the end of the journey), and he knew how easily it could answer to his surroundings. It was no light thing to him to “declare the testimony of God,” “to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified,” and to have his speech and his preaching only “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Doubtless, his weakness, fear, and much trembling led to his being “out of weakness made strong,” as he says of others in Hebrews 11:34. Again, we find in 2 Corinthians 7:16, in regard to these very same saints to whom the apostle had had to write so strongly in the matter of discipline, that he says, “I rejoice that I have confidence in you in all things.” Why? Because that Titus, whom he had sent to them to see how his First Epistle had wrought among them, had returned refreshed in spirit, and with increased affections towards them as he remembered the obedience of them all, how “with fear and trembling” ye received him. Blessed fruit of the Spirit indeed is this, when the saints' ways are in question, for He who of old charges His angels with folly, says, “To this [man] will I look, [even to him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).

Servants, in relation to their masters according to the flesh, are exhorted to be obedient to them “with fear and trembling” in singleness of your heart as unto Christ, so that while the work, however menial, can be done to such a master, it is not to be done carelessly, but the reverse, yea, “as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:5). How blessed will be the “good thing” they “shall receive of the Lord” by and by who serve in this way, and with what interest will He repay it.

Then we are all exhorted (Philippians 2:12)—not to work for, but—to “work out (what is distinctly ours) your own salvation.” Nothing can be clearer; but how is it to be done? “With fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” And shall we not fear and tremble lest we give a wrong impression of Him? If we do, we shall be sustained, for there is a lovely paradox in Psalm 145:14, where it is written, “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all that be bowed down.” The Lord grant us, then, this grace of “fear and trembling.” In Hebrews 12:26-28 we are told that not only earth is to be shaken, but also heaven, and that it signifies “the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” The last is what the believer has, even “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” The shaking is therefore to him a “promise” (ver. 26). But what effect should this have on him as regards his ways or service? Beautifully enough here-not trembling (that is left out), but-he is “to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.” May we have grace to remember it, and so to do; whilst we rejoice in that salvation of God which has been sent to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28), and which through grace we have believingly heard and received. W. N. T.

Fear and Love

There is no fear when it is a question of God's love. “Perfect love casteth out fear, for fear hath torment; he that feareth is not perfected in love.” And the love of God has been manifested “to us,” that it may also he perfected “in us,” as, further, it is perfected “on our behalf,” so that we have boldness in the day of judgment.

Lectures on Jude 20-21

Well, now we come to a very comforting word. “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in [the] Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in [the] love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal” (vers. 20, 21).

So then we are not to be cast down, we are not to be disheartened even by these terrible pictures of evil. They are revealed in order that we should not be deceived, that we might really know what the actual state of Christianity is before the eye of God, instead of yielding to false expectations and wrong and imperfect judgments of our own. But even in the face of all that, there is this call to these beloved saints to build up themselves on their most holy faith. This is very carefully worded. There is nothing at all said in this epistle about leaders, or guides, or rulers, or preachers, or teachers either. In a general way, as far as there were any, they have a very bad character, not of course that all that preached or taught were so, but that there were many of that class that were so especially. The saints are exhorted themselves directly. They are not to give up their privileges, or to imagine, that because it is a day of such abounding evil, they are not to be very happy. They are comforted with this; that the blessing is perfectly open to them, and they are called to more faith than ever. There is no time when faith shines brighter than in the dark day, and there is no time when love is more evidently discerned than when there are not many to love, not many that do love—where there is the reign of selfishness and indifference, and people care for other objects, and put them before that which is imperishable.

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” This is the only place in all the New Testament where faith is called “our most holy faith.” It might have been thought that when things are so evidently wrong we must not be too stringent, that we must not be too exacting, that we must not look for such care as on the day of Pentecost. Why, so far from that being so, we require more care. And instead of its merely being called the holy faith, or precious faith, now Jude calls it, “your most holy faith.” The saints, in short, are encouraged to cleave to the truth in all its purity, in all its divine character, in all its sanctifying power. We cannot think too much of “the faith” of God's elect. I am not speaking now of faith looked at in the saint, but of “the faith” looked at in itself. It is the thing that we believe, that is the meaning of it here. It is not crying up individuals, but what these individuals receive from God. That is what he calls it— “the faith.” There is a great difference between faith and “the faith.” Here it is “the faith.” Faith is a quality of you, and me, and every believer. But that is not the sense in which it is looked at here, which is, “the faith once delivered to the saints,” as he says in this very epistle.

Well, there you look at it. When it came, you may say, It came down from God out of heaven, revealed through the apostles—Christ Himself of course in particular. There, was “the faith": what we are called to believe, that which separated us to God from everything here below. Well, here we have the same faith, only, it is not said, “once for all delivered to the saints,” although that remains true. Here it is called “most holy.” What! has it not got tainted? Has it not got lowered now? Woe be to those that do! “The faith” is just the same faith now as on the day of Pentecost, the same faith that Peter preached, and also Paul, and all others of the apostles. And we have got Peter and Paul, i.e. we have got their words. We have got the most careful words they ever spoke. We have got the words that they were inspired to write from God. We do not therefore merely listen, as some of the early fathers talk about a man that saw the apostle and heard the apostle; and it appears that the man that did so was a poor foolish old man. Very likely. Well, and what have you got by a poor foolish old man between you and the apostle? Little or nothing. But Peter and Paul and Jude were not foolish, and whatever they may have been in themselves, there was the mighty power of the Holy Ghost that gave them the truth of God absolutely intact; and here it is His word now, and we come into personal contact with it by faith. We that believe receive that “most holy faith,” and what is more, we are called upon to act upon it now.

And what are we to do with it? It is not only that we impart it to others, we “build up ourselves on our most holy faith.” Nothing, therefore, can give a more delightful picture of the resources of grace for as bad a time as can well be conceived—as that which we have here. “Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith"; it is not on a little bit of the faith, not on the faith that was given to you through the intervention of a poor foolish old man. No, here it is, fresh from God—kept fresh and holy, unmixed with anything that could lower it.

“Praying in the Holy Ghost.” What can be better than that? There were men that spoke with tongues in the Holy Ghost. Do you think that is half so good as “praying in the Holy Ghost"? Why, the apostle Paul says, that the men that spoke with tongues in the Holy Ghost were to hold their tongue, unless there were an interpreter there present so as to give what they spoke in a tongue, and make it intelligible to others. It was a real power of the Spirit of God, but it must not be exercised unless there were an interpreter. But think of the apostle silencing a man praying in the Holy Ghost! No, the very reverse. There is a great deal of prayer that is not in the Holy Ghost. And we are not at all called upon only to pray in the Holy Ghost. Happy is he who does, and happy are they that hear prayer in the Holy Spirit. And where there is prayer in the Holy Spirit it is all thoroughly acceptable to God, every word is so. Every word of such prayer expresses perfectly what God means at that time. But there are prayers that begin in the Spirit and do not end in the Spirit. Prayers that are often rather mixed, and that is true even with real believers; and sometimes we pray foolishly, sometimes we pray unintelligently! That is never in the Holy Ghost.

And, what is more, we are encouraged to pray at all times, even supposing we say what is foolish. Very well, it is better to say it, than to be silent. Much better. Because prayer is the going forth of the heart to God, and it may be like the words of a prattling child to its father or mother. It is all right that the child should prattle, far better than that the child should be dumb. But the best of all is when it is really prayer in the Spirit of God; yet that is a thing rather to desire than to presume that we have attained to. We have to be very careful indeed that we do not give ourselves credit for more activity in the Holy Ghost than we really possess. This supposes entire dependence, and no thought of self, and no opposition to this or to that. These are things that, alas! may be, and they all weaken and hinder “praying in the Holy Ghost.” But here you see the very same grace that encouraged the saints even in the darkest day, “to build up themselves on their most holy faith,” instead of having the notion—Oh! it is hopeless to look for that now; when Peter or Paul was there we might have the most holy faith, but how could it be guaranteed now? Well, there it is in this precious word. And those that cleave to this precious word will find it out, and if their heart is full of it, their mouth will abundantly speak of it; and there is no ground to be discouraged, but the very contrary.

So, in this twentieth verse, we have two of the most important things possible—the one is, the standard of truth not in the least degree lowered, but maintained in all its highest and holiest character, even in that dark day; and, the second—the most spiritual action that could be in any believer here below, viz., “praying in the Holy Ghost.” Why, this is even more than preaching or teaching, because the heart is sure to be in the prayer. A man that can speak well and knows the truth—this may often be a snare. There is a danger in such a case to say the truth, and speak it out, and earnestly too, without there being the present power of the Spirit of God. But to pray in the Holy Ghost is another thing altogether. This cannot be without the immediate action of the Spirit in this most blessed way.

“Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Here, he is looking at the practical result of these two things. “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Now, could we keep ourselves in anything better? Was there ever anything higher than the keeping ourselves in the love of God? Love is of God, and we are to keep ourselves in that, instead of being provoked by the evil things around us, instead of yielding because of others yielding. This necessarily supposes great confidence in God and delight in what God's own nature is—the activity of His nature. Light is the moral character of God's nature; love is the active character of God's nature. Light does not allow any impurity; love goes out to bless others. We are called to keep ourselves, not merely in the light of God—we are there, we are brought there as Christians—but, in the love of God. We are not meant to have that doubted. We are to keep ourselves fresh and simple and confident in His love.

And he further adds, “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” I think that mercy is brought in especially here because of the great need, because of the distress, because of the weakness, because of everything that tended to cast people down. No, he says, do not be downcast, look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it only by the way? No, it is all along the way, to the very end “unto life eternal,” the great consummation. This could not be unless they already had life eternal in Christ now; but this mercy of God, “of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal,” looks at the full heavenly consummation.. [W. K.]

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 2

Again, there is the singular absence of the apostle's personal salutations, though he is writing to those who had known his presence and labors amongst them for three years—quite inexplicable if the letter was one indeed, sent only to the saints at Ephesus, and containing neither greetings from, nor greetings to, any one there by name. On the other hand, when writing to the Colossians, whom he had not even visited (Colossians 2:1), we do meet with salutations—from Epaphras who, now at Rome with the apostle, is named as “one of you”; from others also, and finally from the writer himself. Further, there are two amongst these “saints and faithful brethren” at Colosse, who are singled out, viz., Nymphas and Archippus, so that we are in no way left in doubt as to the destination of this Epistle.

Then further, in considering the general character of the teaching in these two writings, we see that—whilst in Colossians we are in face of specific dangers (chap. 2) against which these saints are warned, and the essential and relative glories of the Lord Jesus are anticipatively presented (chap. 2) as the safeguard, and the true corrective to “not holding the Head,” etc.—in the Epistle to the Ephesians we have brought before us the eternal purposes and counsels of God, revealed for the common blessing of all that now believe “the word of truth, the gospel of... salvation.” Is not this meant for all saints? And there is, as it appears to us, this remarkable propriety in eliminating everything from this epistle that would in the slightest degree tend to restrict the wonderful blessings here unfolded to a special or favored class. What is true for the Ephesians is also for “all the saints” to “comprehend” likewise (3:18).

This may then suffice in confirmation of the view we have taken as to the Epistle to the Ephesians being sent, at least as specifically, to Laodicea as to Ephesus.

It may be interesting to some to know that Beza appears to have been the first to suggest this probability of the share of other assemblies in the receipt of this same Epistle. For in his first and second editions (1559, 1565) of his folio Greek Testament no comment is made, but in his third (1582) he is inclined to think that this epistle was sent (as he says) to Ephesus, rather than to the Ephesians, in order that it might be passed on to the other churches of Asia. Deans Howson and Alford are scarcely correct therefore in attributing the first start of this “hypothesis” to Archbishop Usher, as his “Annals” did not appear till seventy years later. (To be continued)

.(Continued)

LONDON: T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 7

Little indeed remained in Israel in the degenerate days of the son of Ahab upon which any godly expectation of blessing could be founded, or around which faith might linger, but the Spirit of God would make the most of such as remained. The Lord Jesus, in the hour of bitterest sorrow and disappointment, did in like manner address Himself in words of gracious encouragement to His poor, weak, trembling disciples, freely and fully acknowledging and crediting them with all that which His Father had wrought in them. “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28-30). We have already seen that, disappointing as Elijah's ministry appeared at the time, the eye of God saw with clearness what His heartbroken servant did not know (1 Kings 19:18). Although “the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin,” still vitiated the public worship of Jehovah in Israel, giving it a false and human character, it would appear that the morning and evening sacrifices had not been altogether given up by the nation (1 Kings 18:36); for in the scene on Carmel we find the divine answer connected with the evening sacrifice. Yet, in view of the fact that in Ahab's days Baal was so openly and shamelessly worshipped, we may well question whether, at that time, the public offering of these sacrifices to Jehovah had not well nigh lapsed, and so, called loudly for this striking and decisive interference on the part of Elijah as Jehovah's witness, to recall the apostate nation to the worship of the true God.

Here, in 2 Kings 3, we have also the time of the offering, and the offering effected, and again, as with the “burnt offering” on Carmel, so now with the “meal offering” here presented (type of Christ in His perfect, uncorrupted humanity, Leviticus 2; 6), we have in both cases the blessing connecting itself with the offering.

“And it came to pass in the morning, when the meal offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood in the border. And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side red as blood. And they said, This [is] blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil! And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in [their] country. And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof: howbeit, the slingers went about and smote it” (2 Kings 3:20-25). This connection with the sacrifice is not unimportant. In some way it may be traced in all Elisha's miracles. The condition of the people did not warrant any display of power on their behalf, but God is gracious, and full of compassion. “I Jehovah change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed,” When man can bring nothing to God, God finds in His own loving-kindness the reasons for merciful interposition. In Judah, when the temple service was maintained according: to the ordinances of Moses and of David—such as the blowing of trumpets, the singing of the Psalms with its musical service—this was used of God for the strengthening of faith and increase of piety, and as a means of blessing to the people as a whole (see 2 Chronicles 13:10-12; 20:19, etc.).

In the circumstance before us, however, it could not be that God would formally acknowledge either Israel or Judah as His people, yet would He not set Himself against Edom and Moab. It was a mere striving of the potsherd of the earth, and Jehoshaphat should have been outside all this. Six hundred years before had these two kingdoms been brought close together in the same place. The wilderness of Edom and the desert of Zin were not far apart. They served as a border for Edom. At an earlier period of Israel's history, before their entrance into the promised land, there had been no water for the people to drink, “and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way” (Numbers 20; 21:4). But God had the people under His charge, and He was in no difficulty. He led forth His people in triumph, supplying all their need. If Edom then showed hostility to his brother Jacob in refusing Israel a passage through his country, it is not so on this occasion. In guilty indifference to the will of God, the king of Judah is here seen in unholy alliance with Edom as well as with Israel, but God was the same and knew how to succor His people without sanctioning their iniquity.

So in our day, the outward blessings of Christianity may follow the profession of the “Christian faith,” and by some may be construed into evidences of the divine approval. Doubtless the widespread profession of Christianity has been an immense boon to the world at large-it could hardly be otherwise. Eliezer (in Genesis 24) brought (to speak antitypically) the gospel message and its heavenly call to Rebecca alone, who in faith responded and left her father's house, her kindred, and her country, as Abram had done sixty-five years before. Was not her family advantaged by the visit of Abraham's servant? For did he not give “also to her brother and to her mother precious things” (ver. 53)? Nevertheless, the blessings proffered to man in the gospel invitation of “to-day if ye will hear his voice,” are only appropriated, realized, and enjoyed by. believing souls, while, on the other hand, the bulk of Christendom may go on content only with the outward appearances and accompaniments of religion, so called. For, in truth, the world has entirely mistaken the divine aim and object of Christianity. God's object has been, and is, not the improvement of the world, or the enrichment of man in it, but his deliverance from it-” Who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:4).

This point is of such importance, and has such close relation to the subject before us, that no apology is needed for illustrating it by a reference to the Apocalypse, where is seen the final sweeping away of all human plans and purposes, and the ultimate accomplishment and display of the counsels of God. In this last book of the Bible we have presented to us three mystical women. The first is in Revelation 12, where, under the symbol of “a woman clothed with the sun,” etc., we have God's earthly people Israel (whose history occupies so large a part of the Old Testament) in circumstances of sorrow and travail, “of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.” There is no room for the Jewish nation in the world as it now is, so “the woman fled into the wilderness” —after giving birth to the man-child “caught up to God and his throne,” who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron— “where she hath a place prepared of God,” and is providentially preserved, until the time of Israel's blessing and glory comes. Then in chap. 17, “a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast” —the residium of religious profession after the Lord Jesus has taken His own beloved ones out of it. This woman has made herself at home in the world, and is seen arrayed in all its glory and splendor, now ripe for judgment. And lastly (21:9-27) we are shown “the bride, the Lamb's wife,” the contrast in every way to the harlot of chap. 17 Heavenly both in character and position, holy and without blame, she fully satisfies the affections of Christ, and, as “the holy city Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God,” she is presented as “having the glory of God.”

Whatever confusion now may be in some minds as to these three representations, each will stand out in its own clearness and distinctness by and by. The earthly people, Israel, shall be in their decreed position of earthly supremacy and glory, no longer “the tail,” but the head. Christendom, having lost all reality, and utterly spurious, will be destroyed by “the ten horns... and the beast” (Revelation 18:6), “for strong is the Lord God that judgeth her”; whilst all true Christians, now “espoused” will be displayed in heavenly glory as “the bride of Christ,” when His church is presented to Himself, “glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” Repeating, then, what has already been observed, the scene before Elisha is one of utter confusion—on man's part, inconsistency and perplexity, but on God's part patient grace in His waiting to respond to the cry of man's need. Yet was the divine attitude in perfect consistency with all that Jehovah had revealed Himself to be. Faith was indeed wanting, but an appeal was made to Jehovah, and the answer was immediate and complete. The use which man makes of the deliverance is another thing. “Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:9-13). In the gospel is that which fully meets the deep need of the heart, yet does it not set aside existing conditions and obligations. All is rapidly ripening for judgment. That blessed hope is before us. We are delivered in spirit though not yet in body. Grace is a reality, and where accepted changes everything for the believer. Elisha could thus go in and out amongst men distributing, in obedience to God, whose servant he was, the blessed fullness of that grace of which he was the witness and expression. Having done so, he goes his way. We may remark as well the order in which these four kingdoms—Edom, Moab, Judah, and Israel—are named for judgment in the prophecy of Amos (1:11; 2:1, 4, 6), as also the apparent reference therein to this very event we have been considering (see 2 Kings 3:27, Amos 2:1). Those who despise grace do but “treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” [G. S. B.] (To be continued)

Lectures on the Book of Job: Introduction

Job 1; 14

My object is taking up Job now is a general one. It is to help souls towards a better understanding of a book full of interest and of great practical profit, but not so easy for most to seize, either in its design and scope as a whole, or in the way in which the different parts of it conspire to effect that design. There is nothing which can make up for the constant, habitual study of the word of God for our souls. And indeed ministry would be a positive curse, instead of a blessing, if it did not make the word of God itself to be more precious because more entered into, and God Himself more enjoyed. And this is exactly the measure of the value of that kind of ministry, at any rate, of what has to do with the interpretation of Scripture; for every truth must ultimately rest on that word. Indeed, not merely is the word the source and supply of truth, but God alone is capable of presenting thereby the truth perfectly and livingly. When therefore truth is taken out of its connections in Scripture there is always danger. Hence it is of the greatest moment that our souls should have the habit of reading the word of God. And I do not now mean merely as a matter of intelligence, but for the soul's healthy condition, that we might be refreshed day by day in the reading of it. In order to this, however, it is a very great help where we are enabled, by the grace of God, to take in the word as a whole, and not merely to have the blessing of certain parts which we all feel to be precious as isolated communications from God. But my object now, whatever it might be in speaking from time to time in an ordinary way, is to help to a general apprehension of what it is that the Holy Ghost intended for the people of God in the book of Job.

The first thing which it is well to hear in mind is that the book was written in the earliest days of revelation. It would be hazardous to say that any book of Scripture preceded it. That the writer of the book of Job (writer I say advisedly; for God of course is the real author of all Scripture), that the one used to give us the book was a contemporary of Moses, if not Moses himself, would seem to be not far from the mark. Of course one can only give a conjecture on such a point. Scripture has not defined the author; and, in my opinion, it would not become any man to do more than express a judgment as far as the Lord gives him a moral estimate of its character, without now discussing certain other marks of a more external kind. But it is very plain that, whether Moses was the writer or a contemporary of the writer, the groundwork of the book lies in a day previous to Moses. Nor should we doubt that it is the authentic account of all, a real history of Job and his friends, which is presented in the book. We see from the book itself, for instance, that the age of Job was extended after his trial, and he was by no means a young man when the trial came; so that, unless there were some singular exception in his age of which Scripture never speaks, Job himself must have been previous to the days of Moses. Now Moses was an exception, and Scripture itself speaks of Moses living so long in his day as a remarkable feature; and indeed it follows from his own words, from his own prayer, in Psalm 90, that the age of man, as a general rule at that time, had been reduced practically to very much what it is at the present. Moses was one that stood out from his fellows in more ways than one, even of an outward nature, not to speak now of his faith; for it is plain that both he and his brother were remarkable exceptions. Job, however, must have lived somewhat before them from the way the facts are stated.

There is another thing still more important to consider before we enter into the book: Job lived outside the chosen people. Surely this is a surprising fact in the midst of a revelation which, as a whole, has its root in Israel. The Old Testament, for that very reason, is called the law. Not merely the Pentateuch, or the Psalms, or the Prophets, but the whole book, as we know, is comprehensively and repeatedly called “the law.” The reason is, because what was said afterward to the people who had the law of God affirmed that character of revelation. Every part of the Old Testament derived its name from the central characteristic fact of the law that was given by Moses; and yet there, in the midst of it, from its earliest days, stands one book at least, where the person who most of all is brought before us is the object of the deepest concern to God, drawing out such terms as God never applied even to the fathers.

Abraham might be and is called the friend of God; but not even Abraham similarly arrested the attention of God, not even he was pointed out to Satan as a worthy object to be put to the proof. There is nothing, in my opinion, therefore more striking than that God should guard against the narrowing effect of ritual. He was about to give the law by Moses. He was about to make one people—a small population in a little land—the peculiar object of His dealings. And these dealings too were for a long while to come; it was no merely passing season. He was taking them up to be His people forever; and at that very time, not later than His call to Moses, not later than the law given to Israel, God gave a book entirely devoted to a single person, an individual. The nation must not blot out the grand truth that God interests Himself most deeply about a soul. And this is exactly the snare into which Israel came, spite of the book of Job.

But God took care that there should be not more surely the Pentateuch than the Book of Job. In Genesis everything prepares for the chosen nation. When the law was given, God treats the Gentiles as entirely outside. So they were. Alas! we see Israel narrowing more and more in their feeling, and denying that a Gentile was anything but a dog in the sight of God. We find them shutting up their bowels of compassion from others, and in every way denying, after all, what God took care, even in the law itself, to correct and condemn. But even before the law was given we see God, in this most remarkable book, guarding against the snare into which they were subsequently drawn. Is it not an anticipative and blessed vindication of God? Job was a Gentile; and one who, as far as the locality is concerned, seems to have been in anything but a favorable quarter. The land of Uz is connected by the prophet Jeremiah with the land of Edom. Nothing could be more suspicious to an Israelite. If there were any people that had a hatred toward the Jews, it was the Edomites; and this was not at all a new feature. It is not meant that Job was an Edomite; but to a Jew, ready to take fire at anything which did not allow the peculiar place of the chosen nation, I say that his locality was suspiciously near. For it was at the borders of Edom; and the reader of Genesis knows that hatred had shown itself from the earliest days, even in the forefathers; and hatred that had never been extinguished in the children up to the latest days, from Genesis to Malachi; Edom's undying enmity to Israel, if not on the part of Israel against Edom. The hatred is apt to be in that which has neither God nor His blessing; nay, which resents those that have it. So it was therefore with Edom, and there it abode, and the Jew would the more feel the testimony to one who lived near their borders.

The grace of God then was pleased to work in this individual man; and there was the great fact of one solitary soul being an object of the deepest interest to God Himself, and this revealed in His word, not merely before His heart silently. It was far more than this. There was a wise and worthy purpose in causing it to be written. It was expressly to be the revealed interest of God in Job, interest that He made known to heaven at once, interest that He has revealed to all time in the Holy Scriptures; so that when the day came for Israel to lose their place, and when the mighty grace of God could be pent up no more, when it refused to flow only in the narrow channels which He had been pleased to employ before in His government, when it was now a question of His grace undertaking to work for the glory of His own name, as well as by Him who came down Himself in His own person to make it known, and by His own work to cause it to flow out according to all the large thoughts and purposes of God, here was the book that could prove it was no afterthought. Here was the book that could at once be appealed to as the witness of His condescending mercy outside Israel. Could the Jew say it was a strange thing? Could he venture, with the Book of Job before him, to say that God thought nothing of a Gentile? Where of old was the man that God ever spoke so highly or so much about? They might search through all the books of the Old Testament: where was there one who has an entire and a long book devoted to his experiences?

And this is felt so distinctly that in modern Judaism—always the leader of infidelity-what does its spokesman say? That Job cannot have been a real person at all, seeing that it is impossible God should have spoken in such terms about a Gentile! But there is the pith and beauty of the book. It was about a living man, if we are to believe the prophet Ezekiel and the apostle James, and a man outside that elect people, but none the less a man in whom God had graciously wrought for the admiration of heaven and the provoking of Satan, which gave occasion to unheard-of trial, so as to set forth the best reality till Christ came; not a single act of faith in the giving of what was most dear (and given of God for blessed and glorious purposes) at His word, as in Abraham's trial, but where Satan was allowed to wreak his malignant and destructive power in vain on property, family, person, followed by the deepest trouble and exercise of soul before God. What could there be deeper until He came who above all suffered perfectly for righteousness, and alone for sin as it deserved from God? What there could be there is. The book is the witness and revelation of God's dealing with souls, and turning all things for their good, even where Satan, and men, and the saints fail. Hence experience of all these things comes before us. But in the end God shows what He is; and He is exceeding pitiful and of tender mercy.

As the first thing, however, we have Job himself introduced. We see a man sincere, true, and blameless; in the enjoyment of every element of happiness on earth, blessed in his circumstances as well as his family, and God-fearing habitually. If he was the greatest of the sons of the east, this was what gave the more point to the trial. But was he not blest? Exceedingly so. He had seven sons and three daughters. He had the most ample possessions of that in which wealth lay in those early days, and in that quarter; for it was not a pilgrim and a stranger that we find in Job. To that God called out the fathers. But Job was not of the fathers; he was outside the covenant of Abraham, yet evidently blest, and expressly by God. God doubtless blessed the fathers; but in keeping His promises He never bound Himself not to step beyond them. This is what we see in Job, and it is exactly what grace loves to do. Grace is never limited to promise; while it does faithfully accomplish the promise, as it most surely will, in the fullest manner and before all the world, by-and-by; but grace maintains its own sovereign title to bless beyond that measure. Covenant is in no way the measure of grace, which can go forth in its own boundless strength where promise cannot follow. Nor is there any excuse for us at least not to know this well, because, as individual Christians and as the church of God, we are in Christ brought into a fullness of blessing, to the glory of His grace, incomparably beyond the promises. And indeed it is one of the saddest causes of the ruined state of Christendom, and the low character of that which is taught, that men seldom rise beyond the promises, even those who hold what is called evangelical doctrine. For the very essence of evangelicalism as a system is to deny the special favor and glory displayed in the mystery of Christ and of the church, and make the law the rule of Christian life, thus reducing the New Testament to the standard of the Old, instead of learning that each of the so-called Testaments has its own proper character and distinct aim; and that it is no mere question, therefore, of promises for the earth, nor even of a deeper and higher promise than they, but that there had been always a secret in God, which in other ages and generations was undivulged, and, consequently, that our richest blessing in Christ was no question of promises revealed to man at all. If it is at all to be called a promise, it was a promise between the Father and the Son; but this is not what men commonly mean by promises. It was entirely outside Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. What did they know of the purpose for heavenly glory revealed by the Spirit, as between the Father and the Son? But now it is made known; and therein is seen to be exactly where the New Testament claims for itself a totally new character, impossible to exist while God was dealing with Israel, till the rejected Christ had accomplished redemption, and the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven in consequence to baptize Jew and Gentile that believe into one body. It is Christ exalted on high and the church united to Him, a mystery hid in God till the time came to reveal it all, and now to us of the Gentiles, who least of all could have expected it; for God would thus show out the full character of grace on every side—on the heavenly, in its being entirely above the fathers, however honored; on the earthly, in its going far beyond the children of Israel in indiscriminate mercy, and consequently finding objects, not only for salvation, but for union with the heavenly Head among the most despised and abject of this world. [W. K.].. (To be continued).

The Temple of God and Its Worship: Part 2

The church of God is a true worshipper on exactly the same grounds, worshipping according to God's enlarged revelation of Himself. The true worshippers now are those whom the Father in His grace has sought and found, and their worship proceeds on this—that the Son has revealed the Father to them, and they have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This is still, like all the other cases of worship in truth, because of God's revelation of Himself.

But there is something beyond this in the present worship of the church; it is “in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24), as well as “by the Spirit of God” (Philippians 3:7), because the Holy Ghost has been given us that we may so worship, enabling the saints to call God “Father” and Jesus Christ “Lord.” There is now communicated power, as well as revelation for the ends of worship. The worshippers are sons, and also priests (Galatians 4:6; Revelation 1:6); having access with filial confidence they are in the holy place—the brazen altar (the remembrance of sin) behind them, and the fullness of God disclosed, and all that must be for blessing. Everything is told to the worshippers now, for the second veil is rent before them, and they see their Father on the mercy-seat, on the throne of the sanctuary; the blood of the Son has introduced them there, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost makes them to worship in a way worthy of such a sanctuary; and the Father seeking such to worship Him does not rest on anything short of this, which thus the confidence and love and honor of children give Him. Such is worship, I judge, “in spirit and truth,” for thus it is where it is according to revelation, and in the grace of the Holy Spirit.

But its materials or its form may be very different, as we may further notice; for, properly and simply understood, it is rendering glory to God in the sanctuary, according to His own revelation of Himself. Many things may gather around it or accompany it, but which are not so properly and simply worship. Abel worshipped when he laid his lamb on the altar, though that was very simple; but it was enough, for it was meeting God in the appointed way, and owning His glory.

So did Abraham worship when he raised an altar to God, who appeared to him (Genesis 12:8). Israel worshipped when they bowed the head at God's revelation by Moses (Exodus4:30, 31; 12:27); as Moses did at another revelation (Exodus34:8). So David worshipped (2 Samuel 12:20). And so Solomon's congregation (2 Chronicles 7:3) and Jehoshaphat's (2 Chronicles 20:18) worshipped; and though it be not so called, yet Jacob's anointing the pillar at Bethel was worship, because it was owning God according to His revelation; and so David's “sitting before the Lord” was worship, I judge, on the same principle (2 Samuel 7). Job worshipped when he fell down in subjection to God's dealings with him. Eliezer worshipped when he bowed his head, for in that act he owned the divine goodness to him (Genesis 24:26, 52). The nation of Israel worshipped when they presented their basket of first-fruits, for their basket told God of His own gracious ways—set forth His praises in the sanctuary (Deuteronomy 26). The appearing of the males at the three annual feasts in “the city of the great King” was worship, for such feasts set forth God's own gracious acts and ways, and that is worship. What were all these acts but the thankful acknowledgment of God, according to what He had either done or spoken, and the acceptance of His mercy accordingly?

It appears to me that the congregation of the Lord should enter the sanctuary of the Lord now with like worship—with the purpose of showing forth God's praise—the virtues or praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light—the praises which He has earned for Himself by His own blessed acts and revelations—and this is done in breaking of bread with thanksgiving, according to His ordinance. That is the service which sets forth what God has done, declaring that He has provided a remedy for sin. It is a remembrance, not of sins, like the legal sacrifices (Hebrews 10:3), but a remembrance of “Me,” says Jesus, and consequently of sins put away. Thus it is an act of worship, or a giving to God His own proper glory—the glory of His acts and revelations. To pray about the forgiveness of sins would be discord with the table; it would be (quite unintentionally, it might be) a reproach upon the sacrifice of the Son of God; it would be building again the things that Christ had destroyed; and, in the language and sense of Galatians 2, making Him the minister of sin—making His blood, like the blood of bulls and goats, only the remembrance of sins, and not the remitter of sins.

But to surround the table with thanksgiving, and wait on the feast with praise for redemption, this would be honoring the work of the Lamb of God which the feast sets forth, and, accordingly, it is always as thus accompanied that Scripture presents it to us. Jesus, in taking the bread and the cup, “gave thanks” (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22). He did nothing else. The words blessing and giving thanks are, to all moral intent, used in the same sense; and, in the like mind, the apostle calls it “the cup of blessing which we bless,” because by that cup, or by that death and blood-shedding of Jesus which it sets forth, He has richly entitled Himself to praise. It may be accompanied with confession of sin, for such confession would not be in discordance with this supper. But still we do not find that alluded to in any passages which refer to the Supper; by them it takes the simple form of being a Eucharistic feast, or a season of thanksgiving for the remission of sins. It says (at least the table has this voice in it)— “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts: let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.” Yet, surely, the service of self-judging and self-examination may well precede this feast.

In due order the covered women and the uncovered men appear before the Lord, and they break bread (1 Corinthians 11). This is taking the place the Lord has called them to, and this, therefore, publishes His name and praise, and that is giving Him the glory He has so blessedly earned; so to speak, it is like Israel presenting their basket. It is like bowing the head at the revelation of His mercy.

The service is Eucharistic. It is a feast upon a sacrifice. It is the Father's house opened upon the prodigal's return. And this is our proper worship, for it is “in truth,” according to the revelation, according to that perfect provision which our God has made for our sins in the gift and sufferings of Jesus.

Accordingly, when the first disciples came together, it was to this act of worship or service (Acts 20:7 Corinthians 10; 11). Other things may gather round it or accompany it, but this was their worship; this brought them to the sanctuary—this was their business there. I find in Deuteronomy 26 that other things might accompany the worship, for after Moses directs them as to their basket, he tells them about confession and prayer. So Moses prayed after his worship in Exodus34 So the elders ate and drank in God's presence, which was properly their communion or worship. But Moses had previously spoken to them about the covenant (Exodus24), as in Acts 20 the disciples came together to “break bread,” but Paul addressed a long discourse to them; as also, at the first institution of the supper, the Lord gathered His disciples purposely for the supper, but He teaches them about other things also, and ere they separate they sing a hymn; and most significantly is the same thing conveyed to us in 1 Corinthians 11 and 14, where the house of God, or place of present worship, is widely opened to us.

For there the apostle shows the disciples mystically, and duly covered and uncovered, in the worship, a service of breaking of bread. He clearly tells us it was for that end they had met together. But then he considers “spirituals” (1 Corinthians 12:1). He considers what may accompany worship—the calling upon Jesus, or the ministry of the word in the life and power of the Holy Ghost given to the saints—and thus he unfolds the sanctuary and its actions and furniture, showing what the worship itself was, and then what might duly attend upon it. In 1 Timothy 2 we get directions as to the further service of the saints in the assembly—that prayer and intercession, as wide and free as the grace that had rescued themselves, should mark their union and fill God's living temple. But still this intercession is not simply and properly worship. Their worship was still the breaking of bread, because that was the act which set forth God's praise, or gave Him the glory of His present acts and dealings with them and for them, and that was what brought them together. The giving of alms also duly accompanied the worship, as prayer and ministry of the word may; but, in like manner, it is simply an accompaniment, like the releasing of the prisoner at the feast.

The two things are presented distinctly in Abraham's history. He is a worshipper at his altar. But then we hear no supplication addressed to God by him. He is a suppliant about Sodom, and there we see no altar (Genesis 18:23). This is very plain, clearly defining the character of worship, and showing that the breaking of bread is clearly the service of the sanctuary now, whatever else may enter with it. For God is to be worshipped according to Himself (John 4), and the taking of anything as authority in religion but what is from Him mutilated worship, as the Lord told the Jews in Matthew 15 (of which principle Deuteronomy 12 is a further witness. Clearly man is not to determine his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; willfulness destroys it all. Of their own voluntary will they brought their offerings (Leviticus 1:3; 7:16); but this was to be done as and where the Lord willed. So with us; we are to worship “in spirit,” that is most true—and in the grace and liberty of the Holy Spirit which is given to us; but we are to worship “in truth” also, according to God's revelation of Himself and of His worship. This I have already spoken of. The maintenance of groves and high places in Israel was always the witness that the people had not duly prepared their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, the only true God, who had set His name at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 14:3; 15:17; 17:6; 19:3; 20:33).

On the subject of worship, I would still add that joy and a spirit of thankfulness and liberty have characterized it at all times. Adam's enjoyment of the garden and its fruits was worship. Israel's presentation of the basket and their keeping of the feasts was worship, and what gladness and thanksgiving suited such occasions! The saints surrounding the table of the Lord is worship now; and the spirit of filial confidence, of thanksgiving and of liberty, should fill them. All these acts of worship at different times were marked by joy in different orders, for surely a God of love is a God of joy. J. G. B.

New Testament Scripture

There is a disposition at the present time to belittle the writings of the apostle Paul on the alleged ground that his teaching is superseded by that of the then surviving apostle John, who lived some thirty years beyond. It was bad enough when some at Corinth said, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,” but this is infinitely worse; for in their writings, which we have, they were divinely and equally inspired, and preference is therefore out of place. The Lord Jesus specially prayed for the apostles. “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name” (John 17:11, 12). And further on, He adds, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (ver. 20). “Their word” then should be of all importance to all those who have, through grace, been given to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ through their testimony—whether that testimony be of an apostle appointed by the Lord when on earth (Luke 6:13), or of an apostle commissioned from on high “by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1).

Now we find in 1 Corinthians 14:37 the apostle Paul thus writes: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” And remark here that it is not what “we,” but what “I” write, and further, it is written, “The word of the Lord endureth forever” (1 Peter 1:25). Let us turn now to the apostle John, and hear what he has to say. “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). We may note the use here of the plural pronoun, in contrast with the singular as in the case of Paul, so that his testimony goes along with, and not apart from, any of the others.

Come we now to the apostle of the circumcision, and listen to Peter, when writing his Second Epistle. “This now a second epistle, beloved, I am writing unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (3:1, 2). Then, as if the Scripture foresaw the slight in these last times to be put upon Paul, he adds, in the same chapter, “And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation—even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you—as also in all (not, some only) his epistles, speaking in them 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” (vers. 15, 16). We thus see how that Peter, at any rate, gives to the writings of Paul the same reverence as he did to the “other Scriptures.”

Jude, too, exhorts in his epistle, brief but all-important as it is, “But ye, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 13). Not one only, nor some, but all. In Ephesians 2 we are told that we are built upon the foundation of “the apostles and prophets,” Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone (ver. 20). This brings in the writings not only of apostles, but of prophets (i.e. of the New Testament, compare Acts 13:1), such as, for instance, Mark and Luke of the Evangelists, who, though not apostles, were nevertheless “prophets,” whilst Matthew and John were “apostles.” Yet are the truths of Mark and Luke equally binding on us as those of Matthew and John.

Paul, in view of his departure, and of the entrance of “grievous wolves,” who would come in not sparing the flock, warned the Ephesian elders thus: “And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). How blessed to be thus commended to what always abides! We have no sufficiency in ourselves, and we need both God and His word, and this is vouchsafed. He is the eternal “I am,” and the word of our God shall stand “forever” (Isaiah 40:8):

So also Peter, equally solicitous for the saints in the prospect of the putting off of this “my tabernacle,” desires that what he writes should be had in remembrance. “I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance” (2 Peter 1:12-15). How truly we need his writings even as those of John and Paul! We may therefore, finally, thank God that “all (or every) 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, throughly furnished unto every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). If we are obedient to but a part of Scripture we cannot be thus perfected. But may we heed the words of Agar, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Prov. 30:5, 6).... W. N. T.

Inspiration

The whole authority of Christianity as a revelation fails, if the inspiration and authority of Scripture fails. There is nothing else certain in it. It professes to give it as a security always, and especially where men failed in practically acting up to it.”

An Epistle of Christ: Part 3

2 Corinthians 3

Again the Lord Jesus, amidst all His zeal, never failed in love. Strictly speaking, there is no motive in love, though there may be joy in its exercise; and this is our triumph. If I look for a motive, it is not love. Therefore love enables a man to meet all trials. Should one spit in his face, this makes no difference, for love abides; because it never draws its strength from circumstances, but rides above all circumstances. Nothing can be presented to a saint which can separate him from the love of God. The love which he enjoys triumphs over all circumstances. If we do not show this heavenly-mindedness of the love which is of God, doing nothing from any motive but obedience, we are not a true epistle of Christ. I might be walking lowlily, but if I did not show out Christ, I should be nothing. So Christ. He gave no answer when God gave no word. And we, in passing through the world, should stand still and wait if we cannot see how we may so walk as to please God.

In the latter part of the chapter, the apostle tells us how we may be acting as the epistles of Christ—ministers, not of the letter, but of the spirit. The letter refers to the requirements of God from man, which necessarily was a ministration of death. But the gospel is the manifestation of God, not from Sinai requiring righteousness; but from His own throne revealing the accomplishment of His own righteousness, and sending a message concerning it to draw our hearts to Himself. To those who submit themselves to this righteousness, the Holy Ghost is given on the foundation of the righteousness, and He is in them a Spirit of power. So now we can use great plainness of speech, because we are speaking of grace. We can tell men that they are wicked, wretched, and helpless. We can speak all things plainly, because we are not expecting anything from them, but telling them of God's grace to just such as they are. We can speak plainly of God, for it is of the God of all grace. Israel could not look at the reflection of the glory in the face of Moses, poor though it was; but now man can look plainly—wonderful to say—at the full glory of God, because it is now in the face of Jesus. It is this very glory that tells me of the putting away of my sins. I see the glory of God, not dimly, but as of one who put Himself in my place as a sinner, and who could not be in that glory if He had not put away all my sins; for my sins are enough to dim any glory. What a glorious thing, not only to see God visiting my soul in grace, but that, so to speak, the glory has taken the place of my sins! The transition from the cross has left nothing between them! Thus we get righteousness in our Head, and the Spirit goes with the message, so that there is power, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

The soul that submits to the righteousness of God becomes the epistle of Christ, because he is looking at Christ in the glory. This cannot be while only looking at Him down here; but when the eye is fixed on the Lord Jesus in glory, we are changed into the same image. The heart living in the glory counts all things else but dross and dung in comparison. This is the real victory—when all of this world surrounds me, to say, I do count them but dross and dung. This is being like Christ. We soon learn the weakness of the flesh in this, but the faith that thus looks to Christ is the true victory. The apostle said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” We sometimes say this too lightly, for we have not proved it. We may say a believer can do all things, but he could say, I can do all things through Christ, for he had proved it by deep experience and arduous conflict.

The Lord give us so to recognize the power there is in Christ, as that we may heartily walk in the strength of it; though it humble us in the dust.

That which alone can make us an “epistle of Christ” is looking unto Jesus, or, as in verse 18, “with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.” The ministry of the Spirit is “taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto us.” There is power as the consequence of the Holy Ghost being here. Until Jesus was glorified, there could not be power nor anything to reveal. It is called the ministration of the Spirit. “Ye shall be endued with power,” etc.

It has struck me latterly in the last verse, we never attain the glory while down here, yet are always looking at it as an object, and “changed into the same image,” but we are not actually in any sense the same. Still we are daily growing up into Him who is the Head-who is in the glory. Paul says, “I press towards the mark... if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection,” at the end rather than at the beginning of his course; yet he had attained a great deal, if you look at him as to the realization of power. Now, that is what the individual Christian is called to, founded on the ministration of righteousness: glory and righteousness go together. It is not now merely that God forbears—this He did before; but He declares His righteousness; it is a righteousness now obtained, not a future thing. The law required righteousness from man, but that is a different thing from the administration of righteousness to man. Now He, Christ, is giving it unto us. The law was called the ministration of condemnation. The ministration of righteousness is also called the ministration of the Spirit, because the Spirit is here in virtue of accomplished righteousness in the person of Christ, who is up there in the glory. “He that ministereth to you the Spirit.” God ministers to each saint since redemption the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness is shown by God in two ways: first, in setting Christ at His own right hand; secondly, in not letting the world see Him any more, whom it rejected and cast out. The Spirit now convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: “of sin,” in rejecting Christ; “of righteousness,” because Christ is gone to the Father; “of judgment,” because the prince of this world is judged. If I receive the demonstration, I partake of it, and the demonstration of righteousness placed Christ on the throne at the right hand of God. “I go to my Father.” In verse 7: “So that they could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,” etc. There was no veil, but the state of Israel was such that they could not bear a sight of the glory, “which glory was to done away.” So in verse 13, Moses put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel might not look to the end of that which was abolished; showing, I believe, the moral condition of the people, for Moses had no veil when he went to God, but they could not get beyond the outward thing. The veil was over Moses' face, and all was veiled to them, so that they could not see to the end. He is here giving the meaning of the act: they could not see to the end, but stopped short in the things given. The veil is now not on the things but on their heart, which is done away in Christ; “nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” In Christ everything is fully revealed in the reality and truth of it, not in mere types and shadows. They could not see to the end; it is always because of the hardness of their hearts, though the veil is at one time on the glory, and at another on their hearts. Moses put a veil over his face, but it was God's purpose being fulfilled. Now we are not as Moses, but use great plainness of speech. It is not now about the people, but about the ministration.

The Holy Ghost is come down here, because Christ is in the glory; therefore we do not leave people in dimness and darkness. We speak boldly; we tell you plainly you are “accepted in the beloved,” righteous as He is righteous, and the glory is your portion. We speak thus very boldly about it; “For we are not as many who corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.” The difference in the subject of ministration gives this greater boldness. It is not a certain working of the soul to get up to Christ; but when Christ is thus really and truly revealed to the heart, it is inwrought by the Spirit of God in the soul, and graved and written on the “fleshy tables of the heart.” The soul will be exercised upon receiving this glory, not to be satisfied in knowing merely as a fact there is this righteousness, but to have it wrought in the heart. We should be not only thinking about Christ sometimes, but wholly occupied with Christ Himself. What a little compass it reduces a man into when Christ is received in the heart! Paul says to the Corinthians, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts.” He carried them about with him, though they were leaving him and preferring other teachers; but he appeals to them as a proof of his ministry, and his commendation is seen and read in them as his converts. Therefore he is proved to be an apostle. There was the public testimony to Christ, and what evil had there been permitted amongst them was corrected. So he could say, Titus brings me an account of how you received my first letter, and he writes a second, now that he is happy about them, in which he speaks of the glory of God who “comforteth them that are cast down,” and of faith and obedience, etc. Still he was jealous over them with a godly jealousy, because of judaizing teachers.

The end of that which was to be abolished was Christ. In Hebrews Christ is the starting-point of His house; if they departed from that, they were not His house at all. The law was only a shadow; the substance or body is Christ. The Lord was the body, so to speak, of the spirit; and that is what is meant, I take it, here, “Now the Lord is that spirit.” The spiritual meaning of all is the Lord. They had neither the image nor the reality; but the Holy Ghost gives the meaning of those things in the power of a glorified Christ. “If the ministration of death was glorious,” etc. There was glory in the establishment of the law, not in the law itself, but going with it. “For even that which was made glorious” —which was introduced with glory— “was not to remain “; but the glory in Christ is not merely introduced; it is a reality which will remain forever. The law was the shadow, Christ was the fullness. That shows what the things He manifested were, “those which remained.” It looks at first as if characteristically the things Paul ministered were to remain, but it is the glory of Christ's person remains. It is the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, that gives a distinct character to Paul's gospel—not merely the glorious gospel, but really the gospel of the glory of Christ: the glory of God shines in His face.

Short of this, you cannot minister righteousness; you may set forth all the attractiveness of Christ and draw sinners, like the woman who loved the Lord, as a sinner attracted by His grace, but had not found righteousness yet, till sent away in peace. “Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee.” The Holy Ghost tells us now of righteousness, because Christ is set down on the Father's throne; He declares God's righteousness by and in “Jesus Christ the righteous.” As soon as you have unqualified righteousness, you have a present heavenly character; you are not merely attracted to Christ, but suffering with Him who is in the glory.

People are told sometimes, practically, they must find out what work the Spirit has done in them, instead of having set forth the work of Christ as accomplished for them. None went beyond the preaching of the cross for many ages past, fearing to preach God's righteousness, lest it should lead to Antinomianism. But now we see it is the ground of perfect righteousness we start upon; and that is the very reason we desire to walk so as to please Christ.

In John 15 we are spoken of as being loved according as we have loved Him, not as in grace, but by the Father. The place righteousness is put in shows that the church's place is with God. The heavenly position is shown. God receives us into His presence in Christ when Christ is received. Having the Spirit, we “wait for the hope of righteousness.” What is that? Oh, it has set Christ at the right hand of God, and in Him sets you there too. “Set in heavenly places” is the church's place properly. In Rom. 3:22 it is not the righteousness of a certain class of men for God, but God's righteousness for man who had none of his own-"none righteous.” It is “unto all,” as much for the Gentiles as Jews, “and upon all that believe “; though presented to all, it is by imputation (that real by grace, and not by accomplishment) on them only that believe. God ministers righteousness, which we have none of our own (that is the gospel), because Christ is set down at the right hand of God. But we should have been ignorant of the fact if the Holy Ghost had not come down to tell us of it. The church's proper association is with Christ in the heavens. And when in the glory, I shall only have my body put right, for everything else I have now by the Spirit. The coming of the Lord is to take us into the place, where we are in spirit by faith already, to which we belong.

“I have finished the work thou gavest me to do... Now come I to thee. “We shall be to the praise of His glory then, as we are to the praise of His grace now. In Ephesians Christ's coming is not even spoken of, because they were seated in heavenly places; and therefore all that was spoken to them was about the inheritance; the thing set before us is the inheritance in heaven, the possession, not the glory or translation. In Colossians it is “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”

Why? Because they were not holding the Head, but holding angel-worship and all sorts of things. They had slipped down from the full possession of their place, and he is getting them back. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” In Ephesians they were going on properly, and he could unfold to them all. In Peter it is “to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled... reserved in heaven for you “-” ready to be revealed.” Here they are seen as begotten again, walking towards heaven, and therefore the word is “as pilgrims and strangers in the earth,” in virtue of the resurrection. If the flesh be not judged, one will not stand. The coming of the Lord is the proper hope of the soul to be converted to; as in Thessalonians, “to wait for his Son from heaven.”

It is of the utmost importance that we should thoroughly get hold of what the church is and its identification with the Lord Jesus. Its importance may be gathered from the very many and various ways the enemy seeks to attack that truth, and it is always liable to be let slip, for it is easily lost. To have the one truth, that I am in and associated with Christ, uppermost in my thoughts, is a most difficult thing, and the easiest lost of any, because it is a thought, of course, of the Spirit, and nature will always sink the soul down into something in itself by which it is to satisfy God. I am to understand that the power working in my soul is “according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” And it will not do if the soul has not taken up its position with Christ. One need not speak of hypocrisy, but sincerity will not do. I ought to crucify the world, and the heart should settle down easy and happy. This puts Satan out. I do not mean that there would be no conflict with him, but we must keep him outside. Satan always acts on the flesh; he has no power over the new man. If we are in the light, all things are made manifest. What a wondrous thing to say we are “one spirit with the Lord!” “He that, is joined to the Lord is one spirit “; and what ' persons we should be if abiding under the power! of that one spirit with the Lord in heaven! What great peace we should enjoy, now that nature is duly judged! The knowledge of righteousness, without the present power of the Holy Ghost, has led many into Antinomianism. They have turned to the flesh to keep down the flesh; and it is impossible, if a man is so occupied with himself, to keep him from self-importance. A danger exists that, when some have seen the truth of the church being in heavenly places, and there has been the labor and working of the soul itself, they may get a great many ideas of the blessedness of the glory, without having got peace, because they have not got their souls on the ground of righteousness, by which alone we are enabled to crucify the flesh. If, all of a sudden, the question were seriously put, Are you safe and ready to be taken? they would be all aback; the. ground of the heart is not so thoroughly plowed up as that they know they are made the righteousness of God in Him. Job said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself,” etc. Was that the first time Job had seen God? Yes, in that way. God will have nothing but good in His presence, and the soul finds itself nothing but evil, and says, “then I cannot have it.” But it is His grace that is working. The soul, brought into the presence of God in that way, rests in His perfect grace, and has done with itself; then all the bright place into which it is brought is enjoyed; and we eat the corn of the land.

Moses saw the promised land from Pisgah, but did not go into it; to see it from outside is a different thing from entering it. It is easier than as Joshua who went in by conflict; Moses on the contrary did not strike a blow. You know now what it is to sit in heavenly places, and what it is to enjoy “the things that remain.” It is true, there is conflict; but you do get into possession. It is wonderfully connected with the whole armor of God, always the defensive first. The person is first thoroughly preserved spiritually, before a sword is put into his hand. Temptation would pull us down from the place God has set us in: but when it is conflict, it is fighting as in danger of being turned out. A person not spiritual cannot tell what it is to be fighting with wicked spirits in heavenly places. He would say, all his battles were on the earth, neither does he know the joy of sitting above. The difference between the Red Sea and Jordan is that the Red Sea is Christ's dying and rising again for us effectually; in Jordan, it is our death and resurrection with Him. Therefore the moment they had passed the Jordan, they were all circumcised. The first thing in the knowledge of the church's place in heaven is the destruction of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ (where it is real). We want to have things real with God and not ideas. We cannot go on without faith.

The coming of Christ is such a different thing to the soul when our true position is understood. Instead of my desiring it that I may get rid of myself and what I may be doing on the earth, it will be that I may enjoy Him and be with Him in heaven. The affections may be attached to Christ; but unless righteousness is known, there cannot be the quiet waiting for Christ. I dare not look for Him until I know the righteousness of God in Christ. If I have not liberty, I may be wishing for Christ to give me liberty: but when the soul has liberty, it is the peaceful enjoyment of the soul with Him and happy affections! Nothing more easily slips from our souls, even when there is a true desire for it, than the coming of Christ. “Be not conformed to this world.” J. N. D.

(Concluded)

Lectures on Jude 22-23

Now we come to a passage which I feel to be unusually difficult to expound; and the reason is this. The original authorities and the best authorities are all in confusion about it. That is a thing that is very rarely the case in the New Testament. It is the case here. All the great authorities are at sixes and sevens in the report that they give of these two verses (22, 23). And, to show you how great that is, our Version—the Authorized, so-called—looks at two cases only, “And of some have compassion, making a difference” —that is one class; “and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” —this is the second class.

Now I believe there are three classes and not two only. That will show how uncertain it is. Although, as I have said, I am very far from presuming to give more than my judgment as far as the Lord enables me to form one, I am open certainly to anything that might be shown to the contrary, but as yet no one has shown it. No one at all. I think those that know best about it are those that have spoken most cautiously as to it. Many who trust themselves are apt to speak more confidently.

First of all he says, “And some convict when contending. “ That is the idea— “when they dispute"; not, “making a difference,” as of the man that shows compassion. The fact is compassion belongs to another class, not to this one at all, as far as I am able to judge, which depends upon looking at all the authorities and using one to correct another. That is what it comes to in this particular case, which is a very exceptional thing in the great original authorities; but God has been pleased in this particular case not to hinder their difference.

Some, then, “convict when they dispute.” I think that is the meaning of it. “Making a difference,” as in the Authorized, should rather be “when they dispute.” It is the people that are being convicted that of course make the dispute, instead of the person that shows compassion making a difference among them. It is quite a different idea. The first class is given (in my belief) very wrongly indeed, in this twenty-second verse.

Well, then, the next is, instead of “convicting” people so as to leave them without any excuse for their disputatious spirit, another class is looked at— “others save, pulling them out of [the] fire"; then, a third class, “and others pity with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (ver. 23).

These then are the three classes: a disputatious class, to be convicted and silenced—then, those that are to be saved, snatched out of the fire—and, others to be compassionated with fear, hating the garment spotted by the flesh. So that this all tends to complete the picture of the danger to souls. There is the all-importance of grace in the midst of it, but the truth maintained in all its power. And, you observe, it is for the same persons who are building up themselves on their most holy faith to do this. It is work that is thrown on the responsibility of those that were thoroughly happy and walking with God. These are the persons that would be able to silence the disputatious if they would be silenced by any one. But even apostles could not always do that. The apostle John speaks of the “malicious words” of Diotrephes. These words were directed against himself, and even an apostle could not hinder that. The apostle Paul complained of “evil workers” that pretended to be quite as much apostles, (if not more) as himself. He refers to them in very trenchant terms in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. He could not hinder that. And when there was the great meeting in Jerusalem, where all the apostles were present, there was a deal of disputation and discussion there. It was only after it burst out in a noisy meeting at first, that Peter, as well as Barnabas and Paul, gave their testimony, and then James summed up the decision of the assembly.

I only mention if to show that a like state of things existed at that time as now. We often look on the apostles as the painters represent the Lord. If you look at the pictures of the Lord Jesus, He is generally represented as going about with a halo of glory about His head. Well, if that were true, one might expect all the multitude to be down on their knees looking up to the man with this golden halo around him. But that is just what imagination does. It puts a halo around the Lord, and it puts a halo around the apostles; so that people do not realize at all the terrible evils that had to be faced. And that was the portion too of those that were serving God even in the best of times. How much more may we expect it now! As the Psalmist said, time was when the work of the sanctuary was regarded as a good thing for a man to have put his hand to: all that fine carved work, all that grandeur of gold that gleamed in the sanctuary; but now it came to that pass, that a man was prized because he brake it all to pieces.

Well that is what we have in the increasing lawlessness of Christendom, but let us not be downcast. Let us remember that the prize is coming; that the Lord puts especial honor on those that are faithful to Him in an evil day. The Lord grant us that great privilege.. [W. K.]

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 3

How then, it may be asked, does all this bear upon the Apocalyptic addresses to the seven churches in Asia? In this way, that although Laodicea may represent the last phase of the church, viewed in its progressive history on earth, and thus, as far removed from apostolic times, it nevertheless is no less responsible than Ephesus to continue in the truth as revealed— “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Both, receiving the same apostolic epistle, were alike privileged and responsible to “walk as children of light,” who, “at one time darkness,” were “now light in the Lord.”

In the address “to the angel of the church in Ephesus,” we have before us those who had been favored with the personal ministry and oversight of an apostle, and he had “not shunned to declare to them all the counsel of God.” In Laodicea, on the other hand, we have those who had not been so privileged, yet had they, as we have seen, this same apostle's written words, if not his presence—words affecting every saint on earth, both as to his present blessings in Christ in the heavenlies, and his responsibilities, individual and corporate, down here.

We see how the Lord values the love of His own, in that He is not content with activity of service where first love is lacking. “But I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works” (Revelation 2:4, 5). What is our love worth indeed, we might say? Yet does He value it, look for it, is not satisfied without it, and calls to repentance where this love is wanting. Oh, what a rebuke of our inconstant hearts! His love is unchanging, and never fails. Why should we not be on to know and appreciate it better that so His love may indeed call forth ours in deeper intensity?

Looking, then, at these several addresses as not only sent to seven actually existing churches of the apostle John's days, presenting the respective features here disclosed to us, but as also prophetic of the successive phases of “the church” condition (and in the case of the last four, going on concurrently after they have severally arisen), during its existence on the earth, we shall be prepared to appreciate the singular appropriateness of the Lord's touching appeal to our own very selves in this our day.

By “the church” is meant not the aggregate of believers from Abel down to the end, but those converted and formed into one body by the Holy Ghost sent down at Pentecost as the consequence of Christ's work and exaltation on high. As our Lord predicted (Matthew 16) that upon Himself, the Rock, He would build His church, so we find that saints now are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (of the New Testament), Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone (Ephesians 2:20). Before Christ died, He was alone (John 12:24). There could be no “union in incarnation,” for death was before Him, and the judgment of our sins, and into that judgment the blessed Lord would not take His own. The believer comes not into judgment (John 5:24). It was “by Himself He made purification for sins” (Hebrews 1:3). Alone in life and on the cross, He, the Risen One, is no longer alone. Now living, to die no more, He can say, “Go to my brethren.” For His God is our God, His Father is our Father.

So also we see that His death was not for “the nation” only, but to “gather together into one the children of God that were scattered abroad,” and it is because He has been “lifted up from the earth” that He draws all to Him.

Clearly, then, it is not before but after Christ's death that this is brought about. “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.” This is the explanation of Pentecost, and later, we learn by another apostle, that “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles” (Acts 2:33 Corinthians 12:13)..(To be continued)

(Continued)

LONDON T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 8

“Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear Jehovah: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bond-men. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors [even] empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought [the vessels] to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel, and he said unto her [There is] not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest” (2 Kings 4:1-7).

In striking contrast to the great public and national events of the preceding chapter, where the affairs of nations were decided, we have here the sorrows and difficulties of a bereaved family. The case is far more simple. There were no complications. The pride of man, or self-will, so often opposing the action of grace, are not seen here. There are no unbelieving questions or reflections upon God, such as, “Alas! that Jehovah hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab.” With earnestness and truth the facts are made known to the prophet, who immediately interests himself in the circumstances of the poor widowed woman. He enters into her sorrows, and brings her into touch with the fullness of the grace of God. It was a pitiful tale, and it pointed, not so much to the sins of an individual as to the nation's failure, and moral bankruptcy before God. The responsible man, the head of the household –had he been living—might have hesitated to disclose the sorrowful facts; but he was dead and the woman's plain speaking simplified matters exceedingly. Things were all wrong in Israel, for God had been forsaken and His covenant broken, yet was He visiting His people in grace, and it was for faith to seize the opportunity to count upon Him in its confession of the whole sad truth without concealment (Psalm 32).

Now, wherever the distinctive testimony of the people of God is obscured, it is for faith to go back to the truth, as originally presented, of God's relationship with His people, and to look in faith to Him for blessing according to all that is implied in that relationship. Again and again, in Israel, then, was what bore witness no less to the faithfulness of God than to Israel's unfaithfulness, and whatever of individual faithfulness there might be at any time, so far from screening from suffering, it would rather expose the faithful to it. In a day of evil the righteous suffer, whilst of the wicked there may appear to be no bands in their death as “they cry not when He bindeth them.” In this case the coming of the creditor was the trouble, and God in His word had anticipated and provided for such a difficulty (Leviticus 25:39-43). Faith and obedience would have recognized in such a case the opportunity of showing grace, especially towards a poor widow. But the compassions of God are deeper and richer than even the most merciful of His people. Faith sets up its claim upon the heart of Him who has said, “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me” (Jeremiah 49:11).

“Thou knowest thy servant did fear Jehovah” –that is just the character of faith which delights the heart of God. The Lord Jesus looked for it in the day of His presentation to Israel, but looked in vain as far as the nation was concerned. “Now when he had ended his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum, and a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this, for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; wherefore, neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth [it]. When Jesus heard these things he marveled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Luke 7:1-9).

It is the faith that will not be refused which honors God and gets the blessing. Nevertheless, God will prove it, that others may be strengthened, and the hearts of his servant cheered, by its manifestation. “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Then, again, God will exercise our souls as to what He has already given. Has he taken it away? Have we lost it? If not, why not use it? After the same manner did the Lord Jesus test or prove the hearts of the twelve. “When Jesus then lifted up [his] eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?... When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered [them] together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten” (John 6:5-9, 12-13).

The disciples failed to count upon the power and goodness of the Lord Jesus, with whom they were called to walk. Whenever we are made to feel the extent of our spiritual poverty, and the lamentable bondage— “the creditor is come” —which prevails amongst the people of God, it is well for us to remember that God has a house which “wisdom hath builded.” In patriarchal times we see isolated individuals and unconnected, who were called to walk with God, but they were not builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, as believers now are said to be since redemption. If tempted at times to disown this truth and to walk alone, as easier and more agreeable to nature, though I may be forced or drawn into a very narrow path indeed, and my fellowship he very circumscribed, yet if I have learned the truth of the church, it must affect my walk and testimony in the most practical way. “Tell me, what hast thou in the house?” may well sound in our ears as a divine challenge to-day. The woman when she went to God about her poverty little thought that all the while she had in the house that which God would use for her deliverance. She was required in faith and obedience just to make use of that which she had already with her, just as was the case with Moses. “What hast thou in thy hand?”

Now it is quite true that the fullness of grace which came by Jesus Christ has been refused, as He also who brought it has been refused likewise. “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you.” Yet for all that “wisdom hath builded her house,” and furnished it sumptuously, providing abundantly for the need of all within it. “When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” The testimony of the Holy Ghost to a risen and glorified Christ at God's right hand in Acts 2; 3 was of such a character as made its way to the hearts of those who had before despised and refused it. “And the multitude of them that believed, were of one heart, and of one soul. Neither said any of them, that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands, or houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need” (Acts 4:32-35).

The power and grace which produced these blessed results in the early days of the church's history still remain, though the same effect may not now be seen. The Holy Ghost is sovereign in His action, and according to the Lord's own word, abides with us forever since Pentecost; for so long as the assembly is here, where His power and grace are needed, so does He remain. Elisha's instructions to the distressed woman reveal the character of God's usual way of acting when Himself appealed to. He will have His own really exercised about the need, but we have to learn that our sufficiency is of God, who works according to His marvelous patience and infinite wisdom. He may revive long-forgotten truths in all their original power and freshness within our hearts, just at the moment they are really needed, or He may set us down to learn the value and application to ourselves of scriptures we had long professed to believe and know as expressive of the doctrines of Christianity. But the challenge, “What hast thou in thy house?” sets us thinking, and casts us upon that which God has already given. And is not this truth peculiarly applicable in the present-day, since God has given now in Christianity all that He ever will or can give for this poor ruined world? All is presented in the gospel, which if refused to-day will form the ground of judgment another day. Of course, in Old Testament days there was always a certain reserve, something to hope for, and a great and wonderful reserve indeed.

“And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged [a place] for the wine vat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season, he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And, again, he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again, he sent another, and him they killed: and many others, beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said amongst themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard” (Mark 12:1-8). From the standpoint of the Lord's ministry upon earth love and patience could go no farther, and therefore judgment was the only thing. But now, from the standpoint of the Christian position, a completely new and unexpected development of grace is presented, in connection with Christ in heaven and the Holy Spirit on earth. What is more needed, then, to make effectual for man's blessing that which God has already given us, and which we have in “the house” (the church), than in simple faith and obedience to bring empty vessels into the house, and shut the door? God will do the rest.

“And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full” (verse 4). It is the truth so blessedly brought out in Luke 15. The great thing was to recover the lost. The prodigal was an empty vessel, brought into the house and filled. The elder son was not an empty vessel. He was full of the pride and self-importance which refuses grace. He would not go in. But what became of the full vessels? They are set apart—consecrated. Righteousness is vindicated, the creditor is paid in full, the lawful captive is delivered, and there remains an infinite reserve of grace, which we can never exhaust. “Live thou and thy children of the rest.” A beautiful illustration surely of divine grace in the manner of its present working, and everyday application to the personal needs of God's people, and connecting itself most blessedly with the Lord's gracious consideration for us in this present scene of disorder and ruin. [G. S. B. ] (To be continued)

Lectures on Job 1

Here, then, we find Job in the most marked place of a man blest of God in everything that heart could desire. It is needless to tell you that without one divine element there could have been no stable blessing according to God, but only a deception and a snare. And what was that? He was a man of God, “perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil.” He was not an angular or one-sided man, not defective in some and remarkable for other qualities. He had whole-heartedness and integrity; and this based on the fear of God and marked by the refusal of evil. The inner and the outer life were right all round. The word “perfect” gives no countenance in any degree to the foolish dream of the extinction of sin in the flesh. This is not the force of “perfect” in Scripture, but completeness of character spiritually with integrity. He “feared God and eschewed evil.” There we come to the roots of things. He was one who gave God His place and abhorred the evil surrounding him here below which was contrary to God. He was clearly a man born of God, one who walked in simplicity and trueness of purpose before God. Nor was this said of him in a merely general way. His position is brought before us, his family life, with remarkable beauty; his zealous, nay, jealous, piety; for even if sons and daughters met together on a special occasion, of what was Job thinking? He had his fear. How often is such a gathering a moment of danger for the soul! How it affords an opening for Satan! And so Job dreaded lest anything might have crept in and be a virtual renunciation of God, lest, as it is. said, they should have cursed [literally, blessed] God in their heart. We need not suppose anything formally uttered or done, but the heart thus failing at such a season in an unguarded moment. And this, too, was not merely on some particular occasion, or at a peculiar crisis when his sons stood exposed to the enemy. There is a still higher feature that characterizes him: “Thus did Job continually.” It was the tenor of his life. Such was the man whom God could single out in love; that He did so the book shows us.

But there was something more. It is not only that evil abounds in the world. There is an unseen enemy, and if we do not take account of him adequately according to God, we are in no small danger. We shall be perplexed and fail gravely in knowing how to estimate that against which we have to watch and with which we have to contend.

There is another thing here made apparent, that events on earth turn on the springs of heaven. Now doubtless the Christian is admitted to look into the opened heavens; but before this could be, through Christ's ascension and the descent of the Spirit as now, God could and did give glimpses of heaven. Not merely was there no great movement of the powers here below which did not turn on the mind of heaven, but the opening chapters let us know that it is as true of a single saint. Satan might pervert the truth into his lie of astrology for curious but unbelieving man: still the truth abides. The world might be in confusion, the eyes of the judges be blinded, oppression in the place of righteousness, groaning and misery everywhere; but, spite of misrule and rebellion, in heaven is the spring and center of power. It is not yet the day to put down evil, and enforce the government of God; still, even Satan himself cannot act without God. What an immense comfort! But there is another and a greater comfort for the child of God, that it is never Satan who begins the movement, but God Himself. It may be the direct calamity, the extremest suffering. Even so; God is at the helm, and God alone gives the word. The consequence is, that there is another feature attaching to it. Not only is God at the beginning, but He will surely be at the end; and meanwhile God puts limits on it. The way may seem dark and hard, and surely this book shows that Job at last proved utterly unequal to the strain, for he was not Christ. But Job learned at the end, if not at the beginning, that it was the gracious God who opened his heart at length and gave his lips to justify Him frankly and absolutely.

Here, then, is communicated to us what could not else be known, that it was God, and not Satan, who began the whole transaction. It was God who took notice of His servant Job, and it was His delight in His servant (for He does delight in His saints) which roused the malice of Satan.

Another thing may be here added by the way. It may seem very peculiar to some minds, but this is simply a consequence of not knowing the scriptures; namely, that Satan should come in among the sons of God. At first sight it may strike one as out of place, Satan coming in among the sons of God! meaning clearly the angels of God in His presence. But it appears to me that one better acquainted with scripture would see it as part of that mystery of God (Revelation 10) which forbears as yet for the highest ends to put down evil. He that is imbued with the mind of God in the word would feel rather that it is just what we might expect. Do you know who and what Satan was? Had he not been among them? Yes, of them. This helps us to understand quite simply how such a being, though fallen, should be allowed access till judgment come. For it is not man only that has sustained a fall. There was another and an anterior fall, and from a higher estate; though men are not wanting who, as they are now giving reins to their unbelief about man's fall, are bold enough to deny Satan altogether. And no wonder. Men easily disbelieve what they dislike, and the truth of the fall is offensive to their pride, so still more is their slavery through sin to Satan.

But why is the fall of both angels and men so repulsive to man's mind? Because it is the confession of creature guilt and ruin. It supposes the reality of creature weakness, and it enforces the need of dependence on God. The state of the creature before either fell testifies manifestly to God's goodness at a time when there was no evil above, no evil below; yet the creature left his first estate. Here we are let into a sight of Satan, the restless leader of sin. He is powerless to deceive the holy and elect angels; he can accuse the saints with a show of truth. Here the earliest and the latest revelation meet. One ceases then to see any unintelligible peculiarity in his coming, among the sons of God, into His presence. Alas! we are reminded that he well knew what it was to be there under very different circumstances. Among those sons of God he had once shone. What was he now? A rebellious and miserable being, who had made self his object and not God; and now, self failing to satisfy itself, he goes forth in malice against every other, especially against the objects of God's love, occupied in thwarting God and in hating man, in hating most of all such as God delights in.

But is there not a measure of comfort to the heart in the fact that the enmity of Satan, so bitter in its effects in our experience, bears witness to the love of God, which provokes him against us? If we know in sorrow the reality of Satan's efforts and assaults, let us not forget for our joy whence they spring. Is it not because of what we are to God? Is it because of what He says and Satan hears of any? If we have the same spirit of faith and are walking faithfully, Satan dislikes us no less than Job, and we are entitled to the comfort of this as of other scriptures. The same principle is true of every believer now. Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren; and the Father, one may say, does not withhold His love to them as children: each one is an object of the deepest interest to God Himself. Satan knows it well and for that reason he cannot endure them. It may be very trying to experience what the malice of the devil is; but what a comfort to know of God's love and gracious care and personal delight. Yet just this it is which excites the enemy to do us all possible damage.

Accordingly, then, on the day when the sons of God, the angels, came to present themselves before Jehovah, Satan came also among them. “And Jehovah said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?” He would bring it out. It could not be, of course, that God did not know; but, as in Genesis so here, we are in the atmosphere of those early days when God dealt as with children, and brought out things plainly for those who needed the plainest truth. Hence, therefore, we see Him elsewhere coming down to look after man. He knew perfectly well without calling after Him in the garden of Eden; but it is for us that He reveals it thus. And so it grieved Him at His heart when He saw man's wickedness great in the earth. Further, if it is a city and a tower that they unite to build in the land of Shinar; if the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, He comes down to see whether things are really so bad as they seem. All things are naked and open to His eyes; but God would give us the grave lesson of never being precipitate in the judgment of evil; He knows right well how hasty we often are. Even God Himself will go down and sec whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto Him; and if not, He will know. Appearances deceive men at least, and God would teach us how to guard against mistake. He loves patience in judgment. His word implies the utmost possible care. It is the same God who afterward ordained that the priest should judge in a suspected case of leprosy; but what waiting, and what shutting up again and again, unless there could be no mistake! What cherishing of the least hope of good! of any diminution in the evil! But what solemn sentence of judgment when the evil was all out! It is the same God everywhere; but what varied lessons on lessons for us!

So here: God speaks graciously in presence of all, and brings out the restless hate of the evil one, in contrast with Him who would come down in love to seek the lost. “Come unto me,” said He in the hour of His rejection—not unchafed only, but in overflowing love— “and I will give you rest.” Satan knows nothing of it, nor do the wicked. They are like the troubled sea; but Christ gives rest to all that labor and are heavy laden. I do not say it is all rest. There is such a thing as the work of faith and the labor of love in an evil world; but there never can be true labor unless there be a foundation of true rest—rest in Him. There must be Christ giving us rest first, if we are to acceptably labor in this scene which so loudly calls for it, and so deeply needs it. But here is the enemy of God and man, who knows no rest and displays his unrest in malicious activity, as we find afterward, till, wholly baffled, he disappears. He is not only a murderer but a liar; still he is obliged to tell out, as God is pleased to draw from him, his thoughts and wishes.

[W. K.] (To be continued)

Day of Visitation - Bethsaida

Scripture contemplates a day or time of visitation (Jeremiah 8:12; Luke 19:44; 1 Peter 2:12).

Such a day may come on an individual (1 Peter 2), or on a city (Luke 19), or on a nation (Jeremiah 8).

It is either in mercy (Luke 19; 1 Peter 2), in judgment (Jeremiah 8).

And, again, it may either be used, so as to glorify God by it (1 Peter 2), or it may be slighted (Luke 19).

The visitation in mercy goes before the visitation in judgment—and the interval may be long or short. We see this in the moral history of different nations—such as Egypt, Israel, and the world itself.

As to Egypt; Joseph was given to that land in mercy, and by him God made it the head of the nations, and the granary of the whole earth. But Joseph was forgotten, mercy was slighted, and then Moses and the plagues were sent.

As to Israel; Jesus was given, Messiah was sent, and healing was dispensed, and covenant blessings were brought to the door. But Jesus was rejected, and now desolation and captivity have succeeded.

As to the world; the death of Christ is now preached in its saving virtue, as that which has forever and fully satisfied for sin. But that being slighted, the same death of Christ shall be visited in judgment upon the world, that is guilty of it.

What simple consistency may be found in God's ways! What moral perfection! What a relief to discover it, in the midst of all human, earthly confusions!

The visitation in judgment may not follow, as I have already noticed, till after a long interval—as in the last case I have noticed, the moral history of the world—for the present day of grace tarries long indeed, and judgment is slumbering century after century. But again, the interval may be short; and we see this, on two distinguished occasions in the moral dealings of God with His people. The Spirit was poured out largely just before the captivity of the ten tribes by the Assyrian; as on the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, Micah and others. He was again still more largely poured out just before the captivity of Judah by the Chaldean; as on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and others.

These things are so. But I must add, that such a day, a day of visitation, leaves the place or the person, if that day be slighted, in a worse condition than it found them.

Bethsaida, in the history of the Gospels, I believe, illustrates this.

That city had a day of visitation. It had been greatly favored. The Lord's mighty works had been done there, beyond the common measure—and Andrew, Peter, and Philip, three of the Lord's apostles, had belonged to that town (see John 1:44).

But such favor, such a day of merciful, gracious visitation, had been slighted. The place had not turned to Him that had blessed it. It had not repented (Matthew 11:20). Still, it was not altogether beyond the reach of the abounding, though slighted, grace of Christ. The Lord visits it after all this, and when He visits it, He has the resources of His grace and power with Him.

The way, however, in which those resources are now brought forth, after they had been, as we have seen, slighted and unused, is full of meaning, and has a great moral, or lesson, for us (Mark 8:22-26).

A blind man of Bethsaida (or at Bethsaida) is brought to the Lord, and they beseech Him to touch him.

Surely a touch or a word would have been enough. The healing, obedient to the Lord of life, would have followed, and followed at once. But it is not so. There is reserve and delay, a more gradual process than the power of Christ (had it felt itself fully free to act) would have demanded, or than it had ever demanded on any former occasion. We have to mark it carefully.

He takes the blind man by the hand, and leads him out of the town. This was significant. Bethsaida had, at this time, lost title to see the works of Christ. For He had called, and that place had not answered. He had done His works there already, and they had not repented. He now takes the blind man out of the town; as of old Moses had taken the tabernacle of the Lord out of the camp (Exodus33). Both of these acts were judicial. They spoke of a distance which the Lord had now, in righteousness, taken, whether from the camp, or from the town.

But this reserve or distance left each individual Israelite at liberty to seek the Lord at the tabernacle outside the camp—and here this blind man of Bethsaida may meet the healing power of Christ outside the town.

What consistency in the ways of God! How bright they shine! How divine glory is stamped on the great material or substance of Scripture, and how it glows in the very tone or style of Scripture!

But while this man of Bethsaida shall meet the healing virtue of the Lord, it must be after a manner that shall eminently distinguish itself.

He spat on his eyes and put His hands on him, and then asked him “if he saw aught.” This was strange and peculiar. Had the Lord ever before questioned His power? Had He ever hesitated about the perfection of His acts? No—nor does He now, though His words may sound that way. He did not question His power, nor was He ignorant of the present condition of this poor man. But he must and will give character to this occasion. It was a special moment, and He must let it distinguish itself. He would have it now be known that slighted mercy is sensitive. It ought to be so. It is so with us, ourselves being judges. Would we go and repeat our kindnesses and services to those who had already despised and disregarded them, without at least letting it be known that we felt something? Let the goodness be exercised surely, but it is morally fitting that some expressions should accompany it. And if it be thus with us, so it is thus with God. The whole current of the Book of Judges lets us know that. Each succeeding deliverer is raised up in the behalf of Israel, with increased reserve, because Israel had been sinning against the previous, earlier mercies. And so it is thus with the Lord Jesus in these His doings with this town of Galilee.

The healing proceeds slowly. To the inquiry, if he saw aught, the man has to reply, “I see men as trees walking.”

Still strange this is! How everything signalizes this case! It was not thus with the blind men at Jericho, or with the blind beggar in the ninth of John. One of them has but to say, “I went and washed, and came seeing.” And of the others it is written, “Jesus had compassion, and touched their eyes, and immediately they received sight and followed Him.” But here the healing is tardy and labored. Jesus has still to work. He put His hands a second time upon him, and then made him look up. And then, but not till then, not till the end of this lengthened process, was he restored. That is—he was not fully brought under the grace and power of the Son of God; for that is our restoration, becoming nothing less than what that grace and power would have us and make us. “He saw every man clearly.”

Valuable, serious, weighty narrative! How do all His acts, in the days of His flesh here among us, illustrate some secret of the divine grace and wisdom! Oh, the marvelous moral variety and fullness that are found in Scripture! Bethsaida was not a fresh material in the hand of Christ. It had been untrue to Him, and it must know that this is felt by Him, though His grace abounds.

And when the mercy is perfected, and the blind man sees everything clearly, the Lord closes the scene by saying to him, “Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.” And this is still of a character with all the rest. As a town, Bethsaida's day was past. “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace!—but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Its condition was sealed. Judgment because of slighted mercy was before it—as the Lord had already distinctly told of it, in Matthew 11:22. Therefore is it now said, “Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.”

Thus it is—but in contrast with this case, I may say, Oh, what comfort is to be found ofttimes, in a fresh material. The Lord Himself found it so; the Spirit still finds it so; and we, the saints of God, find it so—as surely many a sample of divine workmanship in this present day of revival or visitation, may remind us.

The Lord Himself found it so. This He did in Samaria. How free and happy was He there, whether at the well of Jacob, or in the village of Sychar! He was there, as at home, for two days; for the ground had been freshly plowed up and visited. Sinners were learning salvation, and their faith spread a feast for Him. He had meat to eat there, which was not to be supplied Him even by the diligence of those who were constantly with Him.

The Spirit still finds it so. He would have us always “as new born babes” coming with freshness and taste and desire, to the milk of the word which He Himself has prepared and provided for us (1 Peter 2:2).

And we ourselves find it so—as I have instanced, in our experience of this present day, through which we are passing, in the grace of God.

The Lord Jesus invited Himself to the house and hospitality of Zacchæus, who was then in his freshness, with the bloom of early affection upon him—but “He made as though He would have gone further,” when He reached the house of those who had been for a long while walking with Him, but who had just been reasoning with thoughts arising in their hearts.

Surely again I may say, Oh, the wondrous moral variety that is to be found in the Book of God! And what expressions of divine secrets, the secrets of grace and of wisdom, what indications of divine sympathies and sensibilities, do we get in the pathway of the Lord's spirit through the circumstances of life, as He went through them day by day! J. G. B.

Till He Come

Surely if any words find an echo in the believer's heart the above are they. And if there is any center on earth to which with peculiar significance they attach it is surely when, mindful of the Lord's own words, “Blessed are they that have not seen and vet have believed,” we gather to His name on the first of the week, to remember Himself, and to announce His death “till He come.” Has not that death brought us all we have? Was it not at the cost of that body given for us, and by God's will once offered, that we are sanctified—here shown in the loaf? And was it not also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood—shown in the cup, He suffered without the gate? Can we forget those sufferings on Calvary? Yet, alas! we may forget. We need the table of remembrance to call hack our hearts to Him, and His devoted love to us, until the time come when we shall need it no more, when He shall come to meet us in the air and we shall be forever with the Lord. May it then be emphatically true for us, “As often as ye eat the bread and drink the cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

At other times He says to us, “Occupy (or trade) till I come” (Luke 19:12-13), for we are His servants. It is only in Luke that He is spoken of as “a certain nobleman.” Such, indeed, He was and is. When here, He “went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” Yet “not this man, but Barabbas,” was the object of the popular choice. Do you ask His life? It is not to be found in the earliest list of peers that we have, even amongst the dukes of Esau as given in Genesis 35 That would be far below His dignity, as James says in chapter 2:11, “Our Lord Jesus Christ of glory,” and Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “the Lord of glory.” Well, “He has gone to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return.” It is now our business here to serve Him, as in that coming day His servants shall, “and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:3, 4).

As the One who has gone to the Father's house of many abodes (which in no way conflicts with His having taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high as the purger of our sins), He says, “I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” Is this “blessed hope” (not to be confounded with His appearing, which, too, we love) to be stigmatized, a selfish one? If so, may we in like spirit with the spouse of Sol. 7:10, who could say, “I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me” —may we desire, in face of all animadversion, to become even more selfish than ever in this respect, that is, to court His approval and delight in us. For do we not “love Him because He first loved us"? Then, truly, we shall desire earnestly that “upon Himself shall His crown flourish” (Psalm 122:18). Yet will not the wish to be with Him predominate? And would He not have it so? “He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom.”

In view of His coming for us, how blessed is the assurance given in Revelation 3:10, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,” not merely “my word” (as in John 14:23, R. V., where “word” comprehends His words as a whole), but “the word of my patience.” He is patiently waiting for those concerning whom He says, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” How blessed, then, is His assurance that “I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Connected with these words of cheer, what gravity, nevertheless, in the promise and exhortation, “Behold I come quickly! hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown.” The crown may be taken. Or do we despise the warning? For these words are the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, though given to us by the apostle John, who in his second epistle (ver. 8) admonishes us in connection with the glory of Christ's person, “Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” Well, “He that shall come will come and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37). May we, then (as “the just"), live by faith and not draw back, lest it should have to be said of us, “My soul does not take pleasure in him.”

We have been meditating on the Lord's coming for us. Let us, for a while, consider it as regards His coming to Israel.

Jacob's dying charge to his sons is particularly blessed as to Judah; “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the peoples be” (Genesis 49; 10). Now, if Shiloh be taken to mean “sent,” or “peace,” as some aver it may be, how comforting it is to know that He who at His first advent came unto His own and they received Him not, shall, when He comes back, “receive the obedience of the peoples unto him” (R. V.)!

And, again, “Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city” (Numbers 24:19). “For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). Cain's city was built after the murder of his brother, and when he “went out from the presence of Jehovah.” But destruction shall fall on “him that remaineth of the city.” But there is a city—not of man—which Abraham, the friend of God, looked for, even “the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Until He come! “And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity [shall have] an end. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Remove the diadem and take off the crown.” What now is shall be no more. The word is, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it (or, this also) shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it” (Ezekiel 21:25-27).

Further, He shall repay recompence. So shall they fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of Jehovah shall raise up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah” (Isaiah 59:19, 20). Yes. “They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother; saying, Know Jehovah, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:11, 12).

But for ourselves, we wind up with the promise thrice given in the last chapter of the Revelation, and a threefold cord is not easily broken, “Behold, I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (ver. 7). And, “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be” (ver. 12). Finally, “He which testifieth these things saith (not, behold), Surely I come quickly” (ver. 20). May our hearts respond, “Amen, come, Lord Jesus”! Meanwhile, may His grace be “with all the saints,” and be enjoyed and counted on by them, for His name's sake! W. N. T.

Death to the Believer

2 Corinthians 5

Redemption sets us at rest and in peace in the presence of God. The whole character of Christian life flows from being brought back to God, and thus we are called to walk with God. To believe that we are brought back into the presence of God is not presumption; it is faith. It is presumption to think that we can be saved in any other way.

The character of our life is that of constant dependence on divine power. If we are “troubled on every side” without being distressed, it must be because the power of God is working. If “perplexed” without being in despair, it is because the power of God is there. But then I must hold myself entirely as a dead man as regards nature, and in the possession of a new life in Christ. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:10). With Paul the flesh was not allowed to interrupt the power of this divine life, so that it flowed on in an unhindered way. This is a blessed state, and we should know it in our measure. Whenever the life is in activity it always rests on its object; while the character of the life is that of perfect obedience and simple dependence. The obedience of Christ is very different from our thoughts of obedience, which often imply a will opposed to God, and, moreover, it involves in us much that is to be abstained from, as well as many claims to be yielded to. With Christ, the Father's will was the motive, the only motive for whatever He did or suffered. Hence the motive I have in acting, as far as I am a new creature, is the doing of God's will.

It is an important fact that sacred scripture never tells me to die to sin, for this I never could do. But the scripture tells me that I am dead, having died with Christ, and this is Christian liberty. I begin with being dead with Christ. For I cannot die to sin, when sin is the character of my whole life apart from Christ. But how, then, have I this death? I have another life; I am alive in Christ. I am to mortify the flesh most surely, but then it is only in the power of this life which I have in Christ that I am able to do that; and God's dealings with us will help us therein. But when I look at self, this is not faith: I cannot indeed see what the life is which I have got, it is all so marred. But when by faith I look at Christ, faith's object, I see it all—love, joy, patience, obedience. And we are partakers of this life, as Christ said, “Because I live ye shall live also.” And again, “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” I thus get confidence with Him, and then His perfectness, which shines as light, shows me all my inconsistencies; and the more I see of them in the light of Christ's perfectness, the better.

In the power of this life I find myself practically dead, and I see my house in heaven, as it is expressed in verse 2. This makes me groan. But why do I groan? Because I have seen and tasted the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in person I am not there yet. The groaning is not from disappointment, but from earnest desire, “Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (ver. 2). And yet we are not in the positive possession of this glory, but longing to possess it; for faith rests on the ground of our position in that deliverance which has been wrought for us. Hence there is no Christian, however weak, but has a title to long for the glory to which he has been predestinated. It is true of every believer, that “He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”

But we must not think that the earnest of the Spirit is the earnest of God's love. It is the earnest of the inheritance, the earnest of glory; as in Ephesians it is said, “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory” (1:13, 14).

What God has done to save, He has done perfectly. He has loved us also perfectly, and because of this “we have boldness in the day of judgment.” Not only have we boldness before the throne of grace, but “boldness in the day of judgment.”

Christ also, into whose presence we go, if we depart, and before whose tribunal we are to appear, gave Himself for us, as the apostle says, “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” He gave not His life only, nor merely His word, but Himself. We have not a thought of blessedness in Him, but He has given it to us. For though we are the subjects of redemption, He who has wrought redemption has an eternal interest and stake in it; as it is said, “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.”

There is no kind of hesitation or fear about himself or about believers when Paul says, “We must all appear,” or, as it might be read, “We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ.” Faith realizes this manifestation before God as a present thing, and this is most healthful to the soul. It is that which gives activity to conscience, which is a most necessary thing in our daily walk with God and before men. Paul's conscience was always at work. He exercised himself day and night to have a conscience void of offense towards God and towards men. His was a purged conscience, still it was an active and an exercised one; and it was manifest before God.

It may be that there is no outward or allowed evil, but there is something in every heart which we cannot help knowing that we are sparing, something that is not Christ in us. But we must be manifested before the tribunal of Christ. All is indeed grace, but the present working of grace is to exercise the conscience. The effect of grace is now to bring into the light and to make manifest. Having salvation in Christ, and being seen in Him, and righteous, too, in Him, and consequently having peace of conscience and rest of heart, I can afford to judge myself: to judge myself in the light which makes all things manifest. The Lord grant us deliverance from every reserve in our poor hearts! For there is power of life in Christ to enable us to triumph over sin and death, and to live not unto ourselves, but unto Him who loved us, and died for us, and is now seated at the right hand of God. We are already risen in Him and are to be manifested with him in the glory. Shall I, then, allow any wretched object or idle vanity to occupy me instead of Christ? It may be perhaps some folly, or some piece of self-importance, or some evil disposition, or even the cares of this life! All this grieves the Holy Spirit of God, and the consequence is that the eye is dimmed and the power is gone. Of the good Shepherd it is said, “He restoreth my soul”: and therefore our hearts should not be satisfied to go on at a distance from the Lord, or in a state that will not bear to be manifested by the light. When life acts, it acts upon its object; and just as far as I am occupied with an object outside of myself, I get rid of self. This is true even naturally.

The life that I now live, live by the faith of the Son of God; and hence I do not measure sin by breaking commandments merely, though that, of course, is sin, but rather by the presence of the Holy Ghost in me; as it is said, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” If I grieve the Spirit I lose my discernment, and sin dims my power of sight, and deadens my spiritual senses; so that the Spirit of God is obliged to bring me to the miserable work of being occupied with my sin (as Peter was) instead of being occupied with all that is precious and joyous in Christ. It is very grievous that, instead of doing the work which it is His delight to do—even revealing Christ—He is obliged to reveal our sins to us, till we weep like Peter over our self-confidence and departure from the Lord. All is manifest unto Christ.

For a moment look back on all your ways from your youth upwards (but you cannot bear to do this if you have no settled peace), look at them all, and look at them all in the light of God's word and Spirit. Look at your sins before conversion and after conversion: how many there are! By this review, again and again, as humbled and led of the Spirit, I get a special increase of blessing. I retrace the foolishness and sinfulness of my doings and the patience and long-suffering of my God. I see Him guarding me here, teaching me there, lifting me up when I was ready to fall, and comforting me when I only expected punishment; and hence I adore and praise Him the more! But if it be thus in looking back now, how much more will it be in the moment when set in the glory! I shall then know Him and see Him, and trace all His ways in the fullness of that light which now, in the measure of it I possess, manifests Him and myself in contrast. For surely it is just in the measure in which I can judge my ways in His presence, that the effect is adoration and praise.

It should always be remembered that Christ is not our life, without being our righteousness; and the neither is He our righteousness without being our life. If this be surely grasped, it will enable the soul to look at the judgment seat of Christ with perfect calmness; and only, as has been stated, to use the thought of our being manifested there to give present activity to conscience if thinking of oneself, or if thinking of others to persuade them, if haply they may be brought now in grace, into the light in which all will be manifested ere long for judgment. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” And then the apostle immediately adds, as regards himself, “But we are made manifest unto God.” This is a present thing. It is the light in which he is already manifested, and in which he seeks to walk. The knowledge and power of the life we have will bring us peace in the place of terror, for Christ is the object of this life. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.” This fullness of glory, the glory of God Himself, we have as the treasure in our own souls, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Paul goes on to resurrection, and comes back again to the object of his faith, and then sees himself in the glory. I look to attain to this resurrection (Philippians 3), and would have my conversation in heaven. In result we get a double truth, the power, the expectation working in us, and the blessed fact that He will Himself receive us into the glory. The doctrine of all this is found in the last verse of the chapter. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Confidence is founded on His being made our righteousness, who was made sin for us! But there is another thing which is exceedingly sweet to me, a profound consolation, a wonderful depth of joy, namely, to look on Christ, and to say, That is my life. Death has no power over the life of Christ. Divine power, working in life, swallows up death, and brings entire deliverance from what sin has wrought. The same divine power which wrought in Christ, in raising Him from the dead, is now working in us and will raise us up by Jesus. And then how plainly do we see, that God does not take counsel of man! He takes His own thoughts and executes His counsels in the riches of His j grace. The prodigal's own thought was to be made “a hired servant.” But the father received him according to his thoughts, robed and fed him according to his thoughts.

So the Lord has set us in His place as man. As He said, when on earth, “Not as the world giveth give I unto you.” The world gives something out of itself; but Christ brings us into Himself-into His joys, into His peace, into His glory. If Christ comes, mortality will be swallowed up of life; if He does not come, I shall give up mortality. We shall all appear before the judgment-seat, but before that we shall be up in the glory; received there by Christ, as He says in John 14: “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.” Can I, then, be afraid of the tribunal? No. The more we learn of God's ways, the more we shall delight in God's ways. It is an amazing and solemn thought, that we are made manifest unto God! But faith realizes this position, namely, our position in the presence of God. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord,” what then? Is he afraid? No! But the knowledge gives activity to love. “We persuade men.” Paul stood in the presence of God, and manifest to God; and if we thus stand in the presence of God, we shall find out how little the heart knows of “bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus.” We do not find it out, unless we are thus in the light.

The right effect of the judgment-seat is, not what shall be disclosed by it in future, for that is Christ, and I have solid peace because it is Christ in whose presence I shall appear, but the present power to be before it, making it the test of conscience now, and the standard by which we try our thoughts and ways. May we each know it and walk in it! J. N. D.

Holiness

“Holiness then is to temper, guard and govern the joy of fellowship. And the flesh that toucheth anything unclean shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire! Undue familiarity is an offense in the expression of praise and blessing. What is it to sing to God that which we know is neither true nor becoming? How solemnly we are bound that it disappear!”

Lectures on Jude 24-25

In the body of the epistle we have already had the coming of the Lord in judgment, that is to say, bound up with the awful departure from the truth which was to be found in the Christian profession. This is what many souls are very unwilling to face. It is natural for man to think that everything must be progressive—the truth as well as all else. No one ever drew that from the Bible, and every part of the Bible from the first book till the last, shows us man set in a place by God, and abandoning it for Satan. And there is the same story here. No doubt it is unspeakably terrible to find that what bears the name of Christ should turn out worst of all. I need not say the guilt of that is entirely man's, and that the secret source of that evil is still Satan, as Satan is always behind the scenes in his antagonism, not only to God, but more particularly to the Lord Jesus. He is the One that Satan hates and hates most of all, because He became Man to glorify God where man had failed, and as Man to glorify God even about sin. Therefore, there is, what we might call, a natural antagonism in the devil, being what he is, against the One who is to crush him at last. He well knows that, and there will come a time when, as he knows, he will have but a short time. That time has not yet come, but it is coming, and coming fast.

So Jude introduces the coming of the Lord in a very remarkable manner—not by a new prophecy, but by the recovery to us of one of the first prophecies that ever were uttered, and, certainly, the first prophecy that took the shape, the ordinary shape, that gave its character to all others that follow. For nothing could be more in the prophetic character than these words: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam (to distinguish him from the Enoch who was the son of Cain) prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodlily committed, and of (what people think little of) their hard words which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” “Words” are the common expression of man's iniquity, because he cannot do all that he would like to do, but there is nothing that he cannot “say.” Consequently it is said, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” This character of evil, so far from being a light thing, is one that is presented with the utmost gravity, and that by Enoch before the flood: and it is nowhere else preserved. Here, thousands of years afterward, Jude was enabled to disclose this to us—by what means we do not know. The Holy Ghost was perfectly capable without using any means. Whether there were any, we know not, but we know that there it is, and that this is the certain truth, not only of God, but through Enoch before he went to heaven.

But there is another connection with Enoch that we have now to look into, in the verses that close the epistle. That is, that we may regard a latent connection with the blessed manner in which Enoch was taken out of the scene altogether. Now, this fell to Jude and not to Peter. I have already compared the very great marks of distinction between Peter's treatment of these very cases and Jude's. Peter's view is purely as a question of unrighteousness, and he looks also at the teachers as being the most guilty parties in that unrighteousness—generally done for gain, or fame, or for some earthly motive of the kind that is not of God. Jude looks at it in a still deeper light; for he does not make so much of the teachers. The awful thing to Jude was, that the church, that the body of the saints, who ought to be the light of God—the heavenly light of God in a world of darkness—that they were to become the seat of the worst evil of Satan; and this through letting in (no doubt, by carelessness, by lack of looking to God) these corrupters. That is his point of view. Not so much unrighteousness as apostasy. There is nothing so terrible as apostasy. In the case of unrighteousness it might be merely that of men going on with their badness. But apostasy always supposes that people have come out of their badness professionally, that they have received the truth professedly, that they have professedly received grace from God in Christ the Lord, and have turned their back upon it all. There is nothing so bad as that. So that you see, if there were not the gospel, and if there had not been the church, there could not have been so bad an apostasy as that which Jude contemplates here from first to last.

We have, first of all then, as I have already shown, the tracing of that apostasy as it presented itself to Jude by the Holy Ghost. And he takes his great figures of it from Israel, which after it was saved became the enemy of God, and fell under judgment. Peter does not say a word about that; he looks at merely wicked men, consequently he is more occupied with the evil that brought on the deluge. Jude does not say a word about the deluge, because there was no question of a people being saved. There was a family—a few individuals—but there was not a people. Jude looks at the church, and compares the church getting wrong and losing everything after, apparently, having gained everything: according to the picture of Israel, that it was saved out of Egypt, and nevertheless, that it all came to nothing.

We see how beautifully the figures employed, and the illustrations used, are all perfectly in keeping with the great differences between the two epistles of Peter and Jude. And I mention it again, as I have already done, as a proof of the blindness of men in our day, in what they call “higher criticism.” They will have it that the one epistle is only a copy of the other. Why, they are perfectly contrasted the one with the other. Here are some points, of course, that must be common—the wickedness of man, the grace of God, the truth of God. All that must be common to the two epistles.

But the character of the truth in the one case is simply, men corrupting righteousness into unrighteousness—that is Peter. In Jude it is men, that were blessed by the revelation of grace, turning it to licentiousness, those who had not merely the authority of God, but the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter does not say a word about that. It is God's authority. Even the Lord is there looked at as Master—a Sovereign Master—not in the attitude of “our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude adds that. So Noah is the great figure in Peter; whereas Enoch, and not Noah, is the figure before us in Jude.

Now, I ask, how could the wit of man ever have done that? Even when people have read the two epistles, many Christians have not noticed these differences, yet there they are. What learned men see is, the apparent resemblances between the two. But that is an altogether unintelligent way of reading anything. Because, even if you look at all the men of the world, well, they all agree in being men, but just think how foolish a person must be who could sec no difference between one man and another because they are all men! That is just the way these learned men talk. They see no difference between Peter and Jude, the one copied the other. Whereas the striking thing is that, although they both go over the same ground they look at it in different ways—both full of instruction, yet such instruction as only the Holy Ghost could give.

Oh! how solemn when we read this last epistle, which bears upon the apostasy of Christianity, or rather of Christendom, of those that were introduced to the richest blessings of God's grace and truth in Christ, yet turning to be the bitterest enemies of it (not only abandoning it, but) treating it with contempt and disdain, and with hatred to the last degree.

That is exactly what we have in the middle of the epistle. We saw the characters that it takes, particularly Cain, Balaam, and Core—the beginning, middle and end, I might say. The unnatural brother that hated, not a mere man only, but his own brother, and slew him. The bitterest enemies of the faithful are always those who profess to be faithful and are not. There is no bitterness so deep as an unworthy bearer of the name of Christ. Well, that is Cain. Not a word of that in Peter. That belongs to Jude and is here.

Then Balaam figures in Peter because he is a false prophet that figures the false teachers, which are more the thing in Peter, but not in Jude; for here it is the saints, the body of the saved ones—at any rate in profession. That is what alarmed and shocked him. And he puts it forth for us, that we might now understand it, that we should not be too much perplexed by any of these terrible things that might break out at any time in our midst. There never was a more foolish idea, perhaps, entertained by some of us, that whoever might go wrong this could not happen amongst those called brethren. Oh! foolish brethren! to flatter themselves in such a way as that. Why you, we, for I take my place along with you in it altogether—we are the persons most liable to have the highest flown expressions and pretension to the greatest piety, while there may be an enormously evil thing going on. How are we to judge of such things? By the word of God. And you will always find that those that are carrying on in that way slip from the word. They do not want the word. They want something new, something that will go on with the times, something that will make the brethren more popular, something that will get bigger congregations, and all these things that are flattering to human vanity; and the consequence is they are naturally afraid of the word. No wonder. No one ever quarreled with the word of God, if the word of God did not condemn them. Every person who loves the word owes to it all his entrance into blessing—he derives all from that precious word, and that precious word reveals Christ. Consequently we should not be occupied about pleasing others and about their work, but with Christ. And we want all God's children also to be occupied with Christ as the only ground of any solid and sure peace. [W. K.] (To be continued)

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 4

(Continued from page 48)

OF Jews and Gentiles there has now been created “one new man,” where national distinctions no longer obtain (Ephesians 2:15, 16; Colossians 3:11), so that whilst before the cross all mankind were comprised under two heads (whether believer or unbeliever), namely, as either Jew or Gentile, it is not so since the cross. There is now the introduction of a third class, hitherto non-existent, as in 1 Corinthians 10:32, “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.”

The “church” of God, then, comprises all believers since Pentecost, “baptized into one body,” and who are “the body of Christ, and members in particular.” But in the first three chapters of the Revelation we have the churches before us under the symbol of—not “one,” but— “seven golden lampstands,” in the midst of which is seen one like to the Son of man with eyes as a flame of fire, and from whose mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. Here we see that the “seven churches” are viewed as under Christ's judicial eye and word in regard to their individual and collective responsibility as light-bearers. “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.” And “the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

Let us hear, then, what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord, in His faithful love to His own, has His eye upon us in this scene of danger and difficulty, and lets us know what He looks for from those who profess His name. He is not indifferent to our walk and testimony, but would have us to be in the intelligence of His mind and will, and in fidelity of heart to judge whatever is abhorrent to Him.

Hence the call in five of these seven addresses to “repent.” Where is repentance if the state of things under His condemnation is continued? To repent is, in holy judgment of the evil, to depart from it. We are to “cease to do evil,” and to “learn to do well.”

In chapter 2:4, the charge against Ephesus is, “Thou hast left thy first love,” with the call to “remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” What are works worth without love? The true answer of our hearts to this appeal of His affection will be the walking after His commandments (2 John 6). If we love Him that begat, we love Him also that is begotten of Him, and hereby “we know that we love the children of God when we love God, and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:1-3).

If then we are thus walking, Christ will be the one object before our eyes; and our ambition will he, not to be pleasers of men, but to be well pleasing to Him. And in this, too, what a blessed example we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, who set the Lord always before His face. “For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” If we are reproached for the name of Christ, how happy! And if the going forth to Him without the camp entails this reproach, let us not shrink on that account, but, in dependence upon Him, obey. May our “ministry of song,” the confession of our lips, our activity of service, and the bounty of our hands be in divine harmony, for “with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:13-16).

“We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that abideth in love abides in God, and God in him.” “We love, because He first loved us.” And this commandment have we from Him, “That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:16, 19, 21).

To the Thessalonian saints the apostle Paul could say, “As touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And, indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren which are in Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.” This increase of love will not tend to laxity, or indifference, for love is of God, and God is light as well as love. And so we read, also in this same epistle, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we toward you, to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13; 4:9, 10). And without practical holiness no one shall see the Lord (Hebrews 10:14).

It is when, losing the sense of Christ's deep love to us— “He loved me, and gave himself for me,” we fall from our first love to Him, that other objects crowd before the eye and enter the heart. It is no longer Christ—He has been displaced. Moses and Elias were honored saints of God. But He is above all. And where it is not “Jesus only” that commands the mind and heart, how He feels this lapse from “first love"! “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” May we heed indeed this necessary warning!

LONDON T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 9

The Spirit of God here sets before us in a systematic and progressive way the great results for faith now of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, going on to the day of His glorious manifestation when the dearth which man has brought in (2 Kings 4:38-41) shall have been cast out, and the abundance of the earth made to be sufficient, and more than sufficient for the blessing of such as acknowledge God and His Man-the “man Christ Jesus” (vers. 42-44).

The immediate result of the world's rejection of Christ was not, as might have been supposed, instant judgment, but the sending down of the Holy Ghost to witness to the sufficiency of Christ's work for the satisfaction of every demand of a righteous God upon man. The “Creditor” indeed come, but to make known to all who acknowledge themselves debtors that every claim had been fully met. In proof of this He who had become bondman for us has been released by divine power and glorified in the heavens. This was made known at Pentecost in every known language, that all might know and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ makes the believer free. There was no longer any creditor to fear except for those who despised and refused such a settlement. “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses... Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” “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. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:32, 36, 38, 39). “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (3:19). Again, “through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (13:38, 39).

But God had still greater blessings than this for believing man, as the result of Christ's presence in heaven, and the Holy Ghost's descent upon earth. To be delivered from the fear of death is a great relief indeed to the soul, but what shall we say of the positive blessing into which the emancipated one is introduced? If “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,” it is “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit “'(Romans 8:2-4). Here is the spiritual meaning of the words, “Live thou and thy sons of the rest.” As believers, “we boast in hope of the glory of God.” We know that, ultimately, things on earth shall be reconciled as perfectly as things in heaven; that the state and condition of man on earth will then answer to the mind of God in virtue of Christ's death on the cross. But the power by which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself is, as regards our souls, already known by faith, and will be known also for our bodies by and by (Philippians 3:21). We have here, then, God's immediate answer to the proved wickedness of man, and especially of Israel, in the rejection of Christ. That answer was the gift of the Spirit, and justification from all things, that we might enter upon the enjoyment of every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Times of refreshing for this poor world have indeed been postponed meanwhile, yet are held in reserve, when the futility of all man's energy and forethought shall give place to the glorious results for Israel and for the earth which shall be brought in by the Second man—the Lord from heaven. Our more blessed portion is to walk by faith, not by sight. The millennial earth shall be the theater of the displayed glory of Him who has already triumphed over death and Satan; but the world as it now is gives occasion for the moral victories of faith in which we are more than conquerors through Him that loveth us.

“And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where [was] a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And [so] it was [that], as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this [is] an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick; and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there. And he said to Gehazi, his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what [is] to be done for thee? Wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What then [is] to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily, she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, [thou] man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life” (2 Kings 4:8-17).

This story of the Shunammite woman is of exceeding beauty, and sets before us in figure what the Spirit will accomplish in the heart of the nation in a future day, when it shall turn to the Lord, and the veil that is now upon their hearts shall be removed.

The husband (of whom we hear but little) appears to have been profoundly indifferent to the presence of Elisha in their immediate vicinity, and as little affected by divine things and objects as Nabal the Carmelite, who only saw in David one of the many “servants that break away nowadays every man from his master” (1 Samuel 25:10). But with this man indifference did not develop into aversion, contempt, or hostility, as it did with Nabal. Still, there is no evidence of spiritual desire being awakened, or of any such response to the grace of God as was manifested in his wife. A veritable son of Issachar, “in whose inheritance they dwelt” (Josh. 19:18), he seems to have answered fully to the prophetic blessing of that tribe pronounced by Jacob. “Issachar [is] a strong ass, crouching down between two burdens, and he saw that rest [was] good, and the land that [it was] pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute” (Genesis 49:14, 15)—a description which is undoubtedly applicable to Israel as now. Here, however insensible the responsible man may be (as now with the nation at large) we see in the deeply interesting history of his wife how much God can accomplish with but indifferent materials and environments. His ways and methods are full of instruction for us, for we have in the case before us the general characteristics of the Spirit's work in the soul as in all true cases of conversion to God. There is first Israel's awakening; then, after severe and protracted trial, a re-awakening of faith and hope towards God on the part of Israel so long unbelieving. But it is not Israel after the flesh reawakened, but “the Israel of God.” “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart, and with my whole soul” (Jeremiah 32:37-41). “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

God will accomplish this in His own infinite mercy by working on the hearts of His people, who will become the nucleus of the new nation. It is now brought about in the case of any Jew now believing the gospel. He is henceforth separated from earthly hopes, being made “partaker of a heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3:1). The apostle Peter very forcibly puts it, “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3-7).

Observe here how carefully the inspired writer avoids giving the least encouragement to those false hopes of regaining earthly blessing and worldly power, which then occupied (as even in our day) the hearts of so many. Begotten again unto a living hope, the inheritance is reserved in heaven for them and believers are kept by the power of God, not for immediate possession but to be revealed in the last time. There is a marvelous similarity in the work of God in all ages. Our love to God whom we have not seen is manifested' by our love to our brother whom we have seen. Interest in divine things is evidenced by appreciation of such as minister them to us. Faith in God finds in the need of His servants its opportunity for fruit-bearing. So will it be in the last days, as Matthew 25 shows us. There are precious fruits of faith, and evidences of life, peculiarly gratifying to the Lord's suffering and faithful servants; but how offensive when looked for or demanded as a right! There is a gracious way of proffering, as of receiving, such acts of kindness as may be rendered one to another in the fear of the Lord. Christ is the divine test, and faithfulness to Him establishes a claim upon those who belong to Him. The love of God gives its own character to both giver and receiver.

The Shunammite had rightly gauged the need and ministered to it in simplicity and delicacy, not stepping out of her place in so doing. Her husband might be indifferent to the fact that God was visiting his house in the person of Elisha, but she joyfully and heartily owned it. Nevertheless, it was not for her to act, but rather to suggest. It would have spoiled all and given occasion to the enemy had she ignored her husband in such a matter. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation teaches us “that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godlily” (Titus 2), and to this grace, as far as then revealed, she was, we may say, in her day a witness. [G. S. B.] (To be continued)

Lectures on Job 1-2

First of all he tells himself the tale of his restless going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it. God is then pleased to single out and speak of His servant: “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?” What does Satan? He turns the divine blessing into an insinuation. Job does not fear God for naught; he has a selfish motive; it is all for what he can gain by it. An evil mind cannot conceive motives other than its own. Have not You hedged him in on every side, blessing him in everything that he has? “But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and—if he curse [bless] thee not!” “And Jehovah said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power [hand]; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.” This was to be the first trial.

Soon are seen on earth the results of the permission. The rest of the chapter shows us disaster following quickly on disaster. Not a finger of Satan appears; yet his hand was in everything. They are earthly events accomplished by ordinary instruments, falling doubtless with extraordinary rapidity, and this was no small part of the trial. It would not have sufficed to allow any very long interval to elapse between the blows. It was most skillfully arranged by the enemy that these calamities should wear the appearance of divinely-sent judgments—unsparing judgments; and yet by outward and earthly means. So, first of all, when the day came, and his sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house, there came a messenger who announced a raid by the Sabeans on the cattle. “The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword” (Satan's hand most manifestly—the destroyer); “and I only am escaped” just so far as to tell the dismal news, and thus as the solitary survivor to give the more poignancy to all. Had in each case not one escaped, the news could never have come after such a sort. The mischief was consummate; yet Job felt, as we, too, should, that all was under the eye of God. Never let us forget Him. If Satan's hand was hidden under these afflicting strokes, God's hand was above Satan. How sure and great the comfort!

So accordingly, unseen again, comes the rest of these troubles. “While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep” (of course, referring to lightning), “and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans” —an enemy from a totally different quarter— “The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness.” Thus we find it from all quarters, and then, too, the weightiest of all, the destruction not merely of property, but of all that he had, taken to the very letter. Had he not sons? Had he not daughters? All was swept away, and swept away too in a manner peculiarly distressing to the heart. Was not God above? Does not God take an interest in everything? Had not this been the history of Job's life—the interest and the blessing of God, not merely upon himself, but upon all that he had? And now in one day all that divine blessing had given is gone, and gone most painfully. Had God forgotten? Did God take no heed? “Nay,” says Job, “naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.” So said this righteous man, as he arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head—for he felt it, and was right to feel it—and fell down upon the ground; but then he worshipped and said, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly"; nothing unsavory or abnormal. The first assault totally failed. Stripped of all, Job sinned not.

Another day came when the sons of God presented themselves once more in heaven, and Satan not only came in their midst, but, here it is added, to present himself before Jehovah (ch. 2). One might have thought that surely he will now be ashamed. He had had all his way, and God was only the more magnified. But no; the unjust—and one need not say that Satan is the leader and spring of such—knoweth no shame; at any rate, there he is. And Jehovah again questions and brings out too that His servant Job, although Satan had tried to set him against Him, “holdeth fast his integrity.” He could add, “although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” Satan asks for one more trial. “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” “Skin for skin,” like for like, as many take it; or it may be that he lowers all that had passed to a superficial trial, that it had merely touched the surface of things— “Skin for skin.” But he says, Let there be something deeper now, and we shall see. Let it not be “skin for skin,” or a skin-deep trial; “but put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Behold he is in thy hand; but save [literally, abstain from] his life.” The reserve of his life was not with the view of mitigating the trial, but in order to the triumph of God for the good of the afflicted, the moral of the book. The trial, in fact, would have been less in every way, and its purport lost, if God had been pleased to let His servant Job be removed like his children; and, when Job broke down, death was exactly what he impatiently desired. It would have been the readiest relief to have died. He had no fear whatever as to God's loving him, if he were only with Him; and the most calamitous plight into which he was reduced by the enemy after this would have found an instantaneous close in quitting the scene of such suffering. But God reserved his life when allowing Satan to do his worst, not, in my judgment, to spare Job anything, which was far indeed from the point, but because it would have interfered with His own gracious purpose of blessing in the face of evil and the enemy. And this is what we find in the book, that God had such a purpose, and that, even great as He is and infinite in His resources, each saint is an object of care to Him, and His purpose alone prevails. Whatever of sorrow may come in, they are but the circumstances of the way, and this not merely now, but then, even in the days before redemption. The great principle is always true, because God is always God, if there be not the manifestation of Christ as yet.

So Satan goes forth, “and smote Job with sore boils [the collective singular, a grievous sore] from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him” —it was a great aggravation of his suffering that she should fall, yet not Job; but she who ought to have been a helpmeet to him was wearied of the strain, and says in her bitterness— “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse [lit. bless] God and die.” It was a frightful speech, but through Satan's instigation wrung out of her, and as undoubtedly through her lack of looking up to God. Indeed we do not know what or who Job's wife was; it forms no particular part of that which God brings before us; it is her one appearance in the history of the book. “But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one” —for even here we find a wonderful measure of patience in his words. He does not say, “Thou speakest as a foolish woman;” he goes no further than, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish ones.” It is well known that the word “foolish” has a morally bad sense in scripture. It is no question of feeble intellect, but of that worst moral depravity, which blots out God, and so makes nothing of His word. Ill as she had spoken, he does not charge her with this; but simply that she spoke like such. “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” Satan had no resource more. Job owned God's title to take all he had, and smite himself from head to foot. It was evident that Job served God at all cost.

But at this point a change ensues, and a new trial. It is the more to be observed, because not merely does the wife disappear from view, but, what is still more striking, Satan also is spoken of no more. We never hear a word of him again. Satan is completely defeated. And it is an immense comfort for all assailed by him to know that Satan is never the conqueror, though he may gain temporary success. It does not matter what it is you look at, Satan never triumphs but for a little moment. He may win a battle but he is beaten in the war. He who always has his way is God Himself; and when we know who and what He is, what a comfort! Of course, I am speaking now of the children of God, and of God's dealings with them; and I affirm that Satan only comes in by the way, does his worst, fails, and vanishes. Such has been and is his history, and it will be so to the end. So it was found here. Not a word more is said about him. The great problem remains, which God still pursues. God would bring out the true lesson of trial, and the supremacy of Himself over evil.

Three friends then, pious men, too, heard of all this evil that was come upon him, and “they came everyone from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.” The trouble must have evidently gone on for a considerable time. We are not to suppose that job's trial was measured by a few days. It was limited by God, but this was not necessarily of a brief time. The terrible disease which had followed after the destruction of his property, family, everything here below, was known to friends who lived at comparatively distant points; and so they had to make an appointment to come together. This alone supposes the lapse of some time, and what we find in Job's complaints afterward entirely falls in with and corroborates it. “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not” —so extreme the change in what, after all, could have been no long while, so distressing the change, whatever the time might be— “they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.” Those wrong them who deny their true affection for Job: the failure lies altogether elsewhere. It is an entire mistake of the point and instruction of the book to conceive that their feelings were shallow, or that they had but little love for their friend. Not so: God is showing us the insufficiency of every one and everything but Christ. This the book of Job proves; and consequently, the more you lower Job or his friends, you gather the less of its profit. Let us give them each and all their value, still they are immeasurably below Him in and by whom we know the Father. We are told then that they came and “sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights” —one does not often find such friends with such reality, or at any rate such depth and display of sympathy— “and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.”

Here begins the great action of the book. Job, who stands such a model of patience up to this point; Job, who had bowed to God under such a weight, and such a breadth, and such a rapid succession of calamities as never met a single individual from the beginning of the world till then; Job, who had honored God even more in his trouble than in his prosperity—who could find fault with him? Had the trial stopped at this point the lesson of the book would have been lost. We should have heard of the patience of Job and seen him honor God as unflinchingly in abject misery as when blessed on every side. We should have seen what Satan is on his unwearied and audacious and causeless malice, and seen him defeated utterly; but we should have lost that which it was the great object of this book to communicate in what follows.

But now God brings forward three men of weight, old, real, and worthy friends that felt deeply for him. Who can reasonably doubt it? The description of their grief proves it. For all that, here begins the saint's failure, which we shall find running its course through. It was their theory which misled them on the one hand, while Job on the other adhered to his conscious integrity, till he was driven from all thought of self to stand on what God is to him, not what he had been and was. For God loves His saints too well to allow anything derogatory to Himself unknown to themselves which would hinder the fullest blessing, and He graciously employs trial in order to accomplish that blessing. He gives us the inexpressible consolation of knowing that it is not Satan who purposes and effects aught, but Himself, and that it is Himself in perfect wisdom and righteousness, but withal the God of grace, spite of even these tremendous calamities which sin has introduced, and which Satan is allowed to wield against His servants.

This is unraveled gradually in what follows. Job must know himself, as he never could have conceived otherwise. To know one's self is a very different thing from being converted to God, and necessary if we are to be fully blessed. Further, the friends had to learn as well as Job, being objects of similar grace, though far below Job. They were pious men; but a man might be so and have never been practically in the presence of God for himself: I mean now for thorough judgment of self measured by God Himself. This is what the book opens out to us, as far as it could be before Christ came. [W. K.) (To be continued)

Thy Right Hand

May we not recognize in these three words of Exodus 15:6, a latent reference to our Lord Jesus Christ? Here we have the magnificent victory over the enemies of Israel, when Jehovah saved His people out of the hand of the Egyptians. “Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is become glorious in power; Thy right hand, O Israel, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.” Infinitely more glorious was the victory of our Lord Jesus over all the powers of evil at the cross, where “having spoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” And not only this, but “when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive,” so that now, our enemies vanquished, His people are forever free.

Yet was the victory obtained through weakness. “He was crucified through weakness,” and it is written, “It pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.” That pleasure could only have been effected by Jesus (the name of humiliation and exaltation), and in such a way. For the objects of eternal love, whatever their class and whatever their election whether to heavenly or to earthly glory and to whatsoever sphere in either, were lost, ruined, yea, dead in trespasses and sins. And grace could only take them up in virtue of His sufferings who tasted death for every man (or, thing), and bearing the judgment of sin, “that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, Jesus suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). But that pleasure prospers now, for “as concerning that he raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David” (Acts 13:34). These sure mercies (to quote from the same chapter) are all found on the “word of God” (verses 5, 7, 44, 46), and in connection with “the doctrine” or “word of the Lord” (verses 12, 48, 49). They provide the believer with “a Savior” (ver. 23), “salvation” (26), “forgiveness of sins” (38), “justification” (39), “everlasting life” (46), all flowing from “the grace of God” (43).

Salvation of the soul (though now enjoyed, and its fruition awaited in connection with the body) does not, however, even in the wilderness, preserve the believer from conflict. “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way and smote the hind-most of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary” (Deuteronomy 25:17, 18). So, many a believer, in weakness of body, has felt the cowardly assault of the enemy and has rejoiced in the intercession of One whose arms need no holding up, and “who is able to save them to the uttermost (or, completely) that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. “Moreover, what a triumph!” The hand upon the throne of Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus17:16). Yes, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20). And it will be by our Lord Jesus Christ, whose grace the apostle prays to be with us.

In Daniel 5 we have an awful instance, not merely of pride (as in Nebuchadnezzar's case, for he had been proud enough, yet through grace he had learned his lesson), but of impiety and of deepest dye. Those golden and silver vessels taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, in one way or another, pointed to the adorable person of the Lord Jesus. And that profane lords and wives, etc., should drink wine out of them to praise the gods of gold and silver, was to Daniel intolerable. “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote” (ver. 5). No wonder “that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another!” Christ in judgment is an awful reality. Nor need we be surprised that Daniel in his bearing towards Belshazzar was altogether different to what he was to Nebuchadnezzar. As to the latter, he could be astonished, and his thoughts trouble him. Addressing him as “My lord,” he desires that “the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies,” and could give counsel “if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility.” To Belshazzar he shows not the same respect, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another.” Jehovah's Christ was attacked, and the indignation just.

Do we know how to make these differences? Has the incident no voice to us? “Then was the part of the hand sent from him (i.e. the Lord of heaven): and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres, Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (vers. 24-28). Contrast this with “the hand” —the Lord Himself—in the three ways here spoken of. First, Peter in his Second Epistle, exhorts (chap. 1:11), “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” —not, one that can be “numbered and finished.” Second, of the Lord Jesus it is recorded, “Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). And He could say, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4)—not, “weighed in the balances and found wanting.” Third, as regards the earthly kingdom of our Lord Jesus, we read, “Then [cometh] the end, when he delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father: when he shall put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24, 25). No earthly monarch has ever done the one or the other, for they have been called away, either by violent or natural death, and have never reigned to the exclusion of others. His kingdom will never be divided, nor given to others.

In 1 Kings 18:44-46, we have, in connection with “the hand,” the triumph of grace consequent on the acceptance of Elijah's burnt sacrifice. “And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare [thy chariot] and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” “There shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26) even towards such an one as that. Are you surprised at this? Remember, when it is a question of making a marriage for the king's son, “both bad and good” are gathered together, and it is only the wedding garment that avails there (Matthew 22:1-13). Well for us, then, that whilst saying with Job (chap. 9:32), “He is not a man as I [am, that] I should answer him [and] we should come together in judgment,” we can blessedly add (in contrast to his next words in ver. 33) that there is a “daysman betwixt us that can lay 'his hand ' upon us both.” “For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5, 6). W. N. T.

Journeys to Jerusalem

The journey of the wise men from the east, as we read it in Matthew 2, and the journey of the queen of the south, as we have it in 2 Chronicles 9, shine with something of a kindred beauty and significance before us. They, all of them, go to Jerusalem—but the wise men of the east began their journey under the sign or preaching of the star; the queen of the south began hers simply on the ground of a report which had reached her in the distant land. For, at times the Lord has visited and guided His elect by signs, visible tokens, dreams, voices, angelic visits, and the like—at times He has simply caused them to hear a report, as in the case of this illustrious lady. But let Him address us as He may, faith is cognizant of His voice, as in these cases. “My sheep hear my voice—and they follow me.”

The wise men went to worship, and took offerings with them: the queen of the south went to inquire at wisdom's gate, and to learn lessons of God; and trafficking for that which was more precious than gold or rubies, she took with her of the choicest treasures of her kingdom.

The journey of the wise men is rich in illustrations of the life of faith. But Jerusalem did not satisfy them. They had to go on to Bethlehem to reach the object of their faith. In the earlier journey of the queen of the south, Jerusalem answered all expectations. In it we may find some striking moral characteristics, which carry several healthful and significant admonitions to our own souls.

In the first place, I observe, that the report which had reached her touching the king in Jerusalem, at once makes her dissatisfied with her present condition, wealthy though it was, and honorable in no common measure. For she sets out immediately—leaving behind her her own royal estate, with all its advantages in the flesh and in the world. The fact of her journey bespeaks the uneasiness and dissatisfaction which tidings about Solomon and Jerusalem had awakened.

This speaks in our ears. It tells us of the operation upon our hearts, which the report that has gone abroad about a greater than Solomon, should produce. In like spirit, to this day, the quickened soul, under the report it has received about Jesus, is convicted, and made restless in that condition in which nature has left us, and this report has found us. We have been upset by it—turned out of all the ease and satisfaction which we before may have taken in ourselves and our circumstances or our character.

But, again. As soon as this elect lady reached Jerusalem, she set herself to survey all the estate of the king there. She came on that business, and she does it. She is not idle. She acquaints herself with everything. She puts her hard questions to the king, listened to his wisdom, and surveyed his glories. The very sitting and apparel of his servants did not escape her—nor surely did the ascent by which he went up to the house of God.

This again speaks in our ears. When we reach Jesus, our souls make Him their object. We learn Him, we talk of Him, we search the secrets of His grace and glory. We carry the sense of this one thing, that our business is with Him. He is our object.

But thirdly. After this stranger-queen had acquainted herself with all that belonged to the king in Zion, she was satisfied. Her soul was satiated as with marrow and fatness. She knew not what to make of herself. She did not understand her new condition. The joy was overwhelming. The half had not been told her, she says; and Solomon exceeded the fame that had reached her about him. There was no more spirit in her. She returns to her land and to her people, filled. She left him, as the woman of Sychar left Jesus; emptied of all beside, but filled and satisfied with her new-found treasure.

Such had been her wondrous path. Her journey had begun in the restless, uneasy sense of need; all her former fair surface of flattering circumstances being broken up. She had acquainted herself with the vast, mysterious treasures of the place where her journey had led her; she had done this carefully, with a heart only the more engaged and interested as she went onward in her search. She ended her journey, or returned to her own land as one filled to the very brim of all her expectations and desires.

The journey from the south to Jerusalem, recorded in the New Testament, has much the same characters. I mean that of the eunuch of Ethiopia, in Acts 8.

He begins his journey as with an unsettled conscience. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship—but he left the city of solemnities, that city of the temple and service of God, with its priesthood and ordinances, still unsettled and we see him an anxious inquirer on his way from Jerusalem to the southern Gaza. Nothing in that center of religious provisions and observances had given rest to the soul. He was dissatisfied with the worship he had been rendering there. His conscience was not purged. He had as yet no answer for God. There was no rest in his spirit. Jersusalem, I may say, had disappointed him, as it had the wise men.

But if, like the queen of Sheba, he were at first, on starting on his way, uneasy and dissatisfied, like her he was deeply engaged with what God was providing for him, through His witnesses and representatives. The word of God was addressing his soul. The prophet Isaiah was taking him out of himself. He started not at the surprise of the stranger's voice in that desert place. All he cared for, all he thought of, was the secret of the book. He was inspecting that witness of God's grace, as the queen had once inspected Solomon's estate, the witness of glory. And Philip let him into the secret that he was searching.

And then, he is satisfied. His heart, like hers, is filled with what had now been discovered to him. He pursues the second stage of his journey, from Gaza to Ethiopia, “rejoicing.” Philip may leave him, but he can do without him. The woman of Sychar may again leave her water-pot, and find Jesus everything to her. With a soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness, he can go on his way. Another returns to the south, to Sheba or Ethiopia, with a heart rich in the discoveries he had made on this his visit to Jerusalem.

These kindred characteristics are easily traced in these narratives. But it was rather conscience that set the eunuch on his journey; it was desire that moved the queen. And she came in contact with glory, in the court and estate of Solomon; he with grace, in the words of the prophet Isaiah. But whether God address us with a revelation of His grace or of His glory; whether He address the conscience or the heart, it is His high and divine prerogative, to satisfy us—as He does these two distinguished individuals. He satiates the soul with a manifestation of Himself, let that manifestation take what form it may, or adapt itself to whatever exigency or demand of the soul it please. And such satisfaction we get differently, but very blessedly, exemplified in these two cases.

And let me add one other feature that is common to both. Their spirit was free of all grudging. The queen surveyed the glories of Solomon, and she could look on his higher, more eminent and excellent estate, without the stir of one single jealous, envious movement. She was too happy for that. She could congratulate the king in Zion, and his servants that waited on him, and his people who heard his wisdom, and return home as one that was privileged only to visit him; but she begrudged them not the richer portion they were enjoying. Her own share of blessing filled her, though her vessel was comparatively small. And so the eunuch, I am full sure. He was willing to be a debtor to Philip—to know that it is the less that is blessed of the better. Be it so, his spirit would say. He was happy, he was filled; and if there was no void in his spirit, so we may assure ourselves, there was no grudging there.

What joy there ought to be as we look at such samples of divine workmanship! The soul disturbed by reason of its own condition—fixed in earnest searching after Christ—satisfied by the discovery of Him—and then, too happy to dwell amid the tumults and jarrings of that nature that lusteth to envy! And how noiselessly the process is conducted! It goes on in the spirit of a man by the power that works after the pattern of the wind that blows where it lists, but whence it comes and whither it goes we know not.

I have, however, another thought upon this subject of the journeys to Jerusalem. At times we find, as in the case of the queen of Sheba, that that great city answered all the expectations that had been formed by the heart respecting it. What was there deeply and fully satisfied her, as we have seen. But Jerusalem has at times grievously disappointed the heart. It did, as I may say again, the wise men from the east, who went there looking for the King of the Jews. They had to pass it, and put themselves on another journey, down to Bethlehem in the south. It disappointed the eunuch also, as I have also observed. He had gone there to worship—but he left it unsatisfied in spirit, and searching for that rest which, as we saw, all the religious provisions of that city of the temple and priesthood did not, could not, give him. And I may add, it disappointed the Lord Jesus likewise. Instead of finding His welcome and His place there, He had to weep over it and to pronounce its doom, and meet there in His own person what we may here rather remember than mention.

It will, however, in the last days, as it were, revive, and take again the character that it fulfilled in the first days. It will answer all the richest expectations of those multitudes who will then, like the queen of the south, go up there to see the King in His beauty. The highways will then be thronged with joyous visitors, and the hearts of the thousands of the nation's will repeat again what they have found in the holy city. “All nations shall flow into it,” as we read; “and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.” And again we read: “It shall come to pass, that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year, to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” And again: “I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah: our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go up; the tribes of Jehovah unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah.” These are among the divine, inspired witnesses of the satisfying virtue of these journeys to the city of the great King in the day of the kingdom, when the pledge which the journey of the queen of Sheba has given us shall be blessedly redeemed in the joy of the hearts of the thousands of the nations who, in the coming day of Zion's restoration, shall wait there to do willing service to the Lord of the earth.

The sequel, then, is simply weighed. Journeys to Jerusalem either satisfy or disappoint; and it is the Lord Himself that has to determine which. His glory was at that time displayed or reflected there, and therefore her visit satisfied the queen of Sheba; His grace was not then ministered or testified there, and therefore his visit disappointed the eunuch of Ethiopia. And thus the value of that city of solemnities was to be measured by the presence of Christ there.

And so, let me say, of all ordinances and services. Jerusalem is but “a city of the Jebusites,” if Jesus be not the life and glory of it: it is “the joy of the whole earth,” if He be. So too, with mount Sinai or Horeb. It is but “mount Sinai in Arabia,” or it takes the dignity of “the mount of God,” according as the Lord adopts it or not. The ordinances of the law were “shadows of good things to come,” the furniture of God's “beautiful house,” or mere “beggarly elements,” as Christ used them or disowned them.

J. G. B.

Our Portion in Christ: Part 1

EPHESIANS I.

PART I.

There are two ways in which we may look at man in relation to God: first, in responsibility; second, in the counsels of God.

It is important to know the full value of the work of Christ and our present relationship. All duties and right affections flow from relationships; the Christian lives in those new relationships into which God has brought him. We find in this chapter our relationship to the Father as children (the individual relationship has the first place in Ephesians); then comes in the unfolding of the unity of the body of Christ.

God put man originally in a certain relationship with Himself in innocence; that relationship—the claim of it—must subsist. You cannot destroy God's title by human sin, but on man's side the relationship is gone and broken. Wickedness on one side does not destroy rights or claims on the other.

As to the history of God's ways and dealings, man's responsibility has closed at the cross; it is not a time of probation now, though the individual is proved. In the same cross Christ perfectly glorified God Himself. We find the two things quite distinct: responsibility; and the intentions of God before any responsibility was in question. This epistle takes up the side of these counsels.

In Philippians we are looked at as running the race through the wilderness with our eye fixed on the glory. In Ephesians we are seen as brought completely to God and sent out into the world to show God's character. In Romans we see the responsibility side simply, the sinfulness of man, what man is without law and under law, and the justification of a sinner. The counsels of God are only just touched on in the verse, “For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Man is proved to be a sinner; the blood of Christ is that which cleanses us. There we get responsibility, as also justification—not in Ephesians. God has no need to justify the new creation.

In 2 Timothy 1:9 we see that what was before the world began is now made manifest. We have the same thing in Titus 1. This thought of God is very distinct.

In Genesis we begin with the responsible man. All depended on man's responsibility; but nothing could be more complete than his fall. He distrusted God and believed Satan. Distrust of God is the essence of all sin. There is no way back to innocence. We may get divine righteousness, and may be partakers of His holiness; but we shall never have innocence again. Christ was “the seed of the woman.” All God's thoughts and counsels and plans were around the Second man. Promises there were, and prophecies clearer and clearer; but what God was actually doing up to the cross was trying man on his responsibility.

Before the flood testimony was given; but there were no particular dealings of God. Then the world became so bad that God had to bring in the flood. When God begins again with Noah, he got drunk. The world subsequently went into idolatry.

Adam was the head of a fallen race, Abraham was the head and father of all that believe. When God had scattered the people of Babel, from among them He takes a people for Himself; then, having chosen Abraham, He gives him promises. The apostle in Galatians spews how the promises to Abraham could be neither disannulled nor added to. The law came in by the bye. To Abraham there was not a question of righteousness—no “if.” The law was the perfect measure of what man ought to be. Before ever Moses came down from the mount the Israelites had made the golden calf. At last God says, “I have yet one Son,” one thing more that I can do. The husbandmen cast Him out of the vineyard and slew Him.

Thus in the cross the history of responsibility (not individual responsibility) was closed. Sin had been fully brought out. Man was lawless; then, when the law came, there was the transgression of the law; and when the blessed Lord in wondrous love and grace came into the world and went about doing good, they could not stand God's presence. “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” Stephen gives us the summary—prophets slain, the Just One killed, the law broken, the Holy Ghost resisted. “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Christ interceded for them on the cross, “they know not what they do,” and the Holy Ghost in answer to this says by Peter, “I wot that through ignorance ye did it.”

The history of Adam, the moral history, is closed; that is, what we are. In all this we have God's history of man's responsibility. I find in the cross that I am in a condition which God must reject. Christ has come to be made sin, and a work has been done according to God's holy and righteous nature. If I look up to God now, I find no sin in His presence; I go there by the work of Christ, and God cannot see the sins. Not only has Christ died for my sins, but I have died with Him, I have done with the nature. First, I find the putting away of sins, and along with that I have died with Christ. Christ did much more than this at the cross. Sin was in the world, evil was rampant, Satan reigning, God 's glory in the dust, the earth full of violence (whatever the signs of wisdom). It was not merely a question of my sins; but God was compromised in a sense. Christ then was Jehovah's lot.

Suppose God had cut off Adam and Eve, there would have been righteousness, but no love. Suppose He had spared every one, there would have been no righteousness. If I look at the cross, there is righteousness against sin—never such displayed before. And there I learn the perfect love of God. At the cross I see God perfectly glorified in a Man, His own blessed Son, but still a Man. There is a Man in the glory of God. Not only is there one man out of paradise, but another Man is in paradise. The work, by virtue of which He is sitting there, can never lose its value. Now the counsels of God can be brought out. If sin is cleared away, why should I be in the same glory as the Son of God? We do not get the one without the other; but nothing can be the result of that work on the cross less than the glory. There are two things: not merely are my sins cleared away, but I stand in the light as God is in the light, as He is. This we are in Christ; and we are to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” Now we are brought as Christ and like Christ. He is the “firstborn among many brethren.” “Tell my brethren that I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God.” This is our present place. “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” But, says the Lord, you need not wait till then: “to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

O how the things of this world are dimmed by this that we are loved as Christ is loved! What a blessed place this is! Christ has taken all on Him as man, that we may be forever with Him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places [a remarkable expression, in the best place, in contrast to Judaism] in Christ Jesus.” There is not one possible blessing into which Christ has entered as man that we are not brought into. Christ never gives away; He brings us into enjoyment with Himself: “not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” This is perfect love.

Have you ever thought of God's thought about you, that you are “to be conformed to the image of his Son?” “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” This cannot fail. The Lord presses on our hearts that He brings us into association with Himself. “Then are the children free.” He “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God gives us His own nature, “holy and blameless before him in love.” He puts us in this place answering perfectly to His nature, and with a nature to enjoy it. We are in Christ: that is God's thought. I get the place of a son with the Father. Servants would not do for Him; He takes us as sons. We are “accepted in the beloved:” “in Christ” would not do here. “I was daily his delight.” In this One, who was always God's eternal delight, we are accepted. Have you the thought of God's heart about your blessing? Is the thought you have that you are loved as Christ is loved? Are you able to see God's heart as He has revealed it? Where shall I get what is in God's heart? Is it in my heart? If the angels want to know what love is, it is in us they see it. Is this the way you think of God? We soon find out what poor creatures we are. Quite true, but can you say, There is where God has set me? This is the very thing that makes us see our own utter nothingness. The reasonings of the Holy Ghost are always downward from God to us; the reasonings of conscience are always upward from us to God. “For if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” The Holy Ghost reasons downward: is this the way we reason? If you are naughty, do you feel you are a naughty child? You cannot be a naughty child, sad as this may be, unless you are a child. If I am a child of God, am bound to live like one. He expects children's affections, children's duties. Have you given up the first Adam entirely, and found your place in the last Adam, “accepted in the beloved?” J. N. D.

Lectures on Jude 24-25

In Enoch's prophecy, we may observe once more, that it is not exactly “the Lord cometh,” but, “Behold, the Lord came.” That is quite usual in the prophets, and that is the reason why they are called “seers.” What they described they saw as in a prophetic vision. John saw all the various objects which he describes in the Revelation. He saw the heaven opened and the Lord coming out, and the throne set. But it does not mean that all this was accomplished then. He saw it all before it took place. So did Enoch. He saw the Lord come—he presented it in that way. In Isaiah 53 we see the same thing. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” It does not mean that there was any doubt about its being all future; but that he saw it before his eyes, the eyes opened by the Holy Spirit. It is the same thing here. He is seen at the close of the age coming with ten thousands of His saints to take judgment, to inflict judgment on these apostates, and the Spirit of God here intimates that the same family likeness of departure from God has been going on since the days of Enoch, and that is, that it was not only in Jude's day but it was to go on in the future till the Lord comes. It was all one in character hatred of God. And you see how entirely that falls in with what I have been saying, that man always departs from God. It is not only that he is rebellious, not only that he behaves himself badly, not only that he violates this and that, but turns his back upon God altogether and His truth. That is apostasy, and the spirit of it is already come. It will come out thoroughly, and then the Lord will come in judgment. But now the hope! What is that? Well, it is implied in what we saw. “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his saints.” The question is, How did they come with Him? If the Lord comes with His saints, He must have come before to fetch them to Himself, and that is just what He will do. But that is a thing entirely outside the prophetic introduction of the Lord's coming. The Lord's coming for His saints is not a matter of prophecy at all. It is a matter of love and hope; we may say of faith, love and hope. They are all in full play in that wonderful prospect that grace has opened out before our eyes. Therefore it is that the Lord does not introduce that, except in a very general way, in any of the Gospels so much as in John. “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” (John 14:2, 3).

There is nothing about prophecy in that. It is future, but its being future does not make it prophecy. It is an abuse of terms to think that prophecy is essentially bound up with judging a wrong state of things and replacing it with a better. But in this case, as in John 14, the Lord, when He comes to put us in the Father's house, does not judge a wrong state of things. It is consummating His love to the dearest objects of His love, not merely on earth but for heaven, and it is in that way that the Lord speaks. It is the same thing in the Revelation. After He has done with all the prophetic part, He presents Himself as “the bright and the morning star.” And when the church has that before her, we find a new thing, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” That is not prophecy; that is the church's hope, and it is strictly the church's hope. Because when you say, “The Spirit and the bride,” it is not merely an individual, it is the whole-personified of the saints that compose the bride. “The Spirit and the bride!” What a wonderful thing that the Spirit should put Himself at the head of it! “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” It might have been thought, Oh! that is only a sanguine hope that the bride has got. But, no; you cannot talk about anything sanguine in the mind of the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” Hence you see that the great object of the Lord, in that close of the Revelation, was to show that you must not mix up the hope of the Lord's coming to receive us to Himself with the accomplishment of prophecy. The hope is entirely apart from any prophetic events. It is not in the seals, it is not in the trumpets, still less is it in the vials. It is after all these things have closed that the Spirit of God, in the conclusory observations, there gives what the Lord had given, when Himself on earth, to His disciples, The Spirit of God takes up there what was suited to the then condition of the church. The church then knew that she was “the bride” of Christ. That had been clearly shown in more than one chapter of the Revelation. In chapter 19 the marriage of the Lamb had come, and the bride had made herself ready That could not be the earthly bride. How could the earthly bride celebrate a marriage in heaven? And how could the heavenly bride celebrate it there unless saints composing it had been taken there before? That is just what I am about to come to.

Well then, this coming of the Lord, which is “our hope” is exactly what Jude takes up here in the closing verses.

“But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory; to an only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time, and now, and unto all the ages. Amen” (vers. 24, 25).

“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling.” How appropriate when thus presenting the dangers, the evils, the horrible iniquity of apostasy from all Christian grace and truth that might have the effect of greatly dispiriting a feeble soul! No one ought even to be dispirited; not one. “Now unto him that is able to keep” that clearly refers to every step of the way, and there is power in Him to keep. It is we who fail in dependence. Never does He fail in power to preserve. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless.” Where? “Before the presence of his glory.” Where is that? Is not that the very glory into which the Lord has now gone? And does not He say, “That where I am there ye may be also"? Here we find that the hope of the Christian and the hope of the church is entirely untouched by all the ruin that had come in. Spiritual power remained intact. And not only that: this glorious blessed hope remains for our consolation and our joy in the darkest day.

“Now unto him that is able to keep you without stumbling and to set you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” There we have what falls in, not with Peter but with Jude. Jude, of course, entirely agrees with Peter, and confirms Peter as to the judgment that is to fall on those that were not only unrighteous but apostate. But then Jude does not forget that there are those that are true, that there are those that are faithful, that there are those that are waiting for Christ, that there are those that are even more appreciative of the blessing because of the unbelief of man. Therefore it is that He brings in this present power that entirely depends on the Holy Spirit's presence to keep us; and, further, the blessed hope depending upon Christ's coming to receive us to Himself, “and to present us faultless.” That will only be because we are glorified; that will only be because we are like Himself. He was the only one intrinsically faultless, and He is the one who, by redemption, and then also by the accomplishment for the body—for redemption is only as far as the soul is concerned now, but when He comes it will be for the body as well—will present us faultless both in soul and body “before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”

(To be continued)

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 5

We will now briefly glance at the addresses that follow.

To Smyrna there is no word of reproof, but of encouragement; and if the saints are in “tribulation and poverty” as far as earthly circumstances are concerned (“but thou art rich,” is what He says), the tribulation is not without its limit, and they are called to be “faithful unto death.” Should we be less faithful in the more subtle, but less avowed, antagonism of to-day?

How different is the state of Pergamos, where, not content to “dwell alone” (Numbers 23:9), the church is seen as dwelling where is Satan's throne! Is it, then, to be wondered at-for “evil communications (` consortium et sermones ') do corrupt good manners” —that we find here the toleration in their midst of some “holding” the doctrine of Baltiam, as well as of others that “of the Nicolaitanes in like manner”? Is this a small evil? “Repent, therefore, or else I am coming unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (2:14-16). These are the words of Him who presents Himself to this church as having “the sharp two-edged sword” (ver. -12), and He threatens His instant coming and war against these holders of evil doctrines.

An advance of evil comes before us in Thyatira. If in Ephesus there was the righteous abhorrence of the “deeds” of the Nicolaitanes, so hateful to the Lord (ver. 6), in Pergamos we have the sufferance in the midst of the holders of the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes,” &c. (ver. 15); whilst here in Thyatira there is the “letting alone” of the woman Jezebel who “teacheth and deceiveth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (ver. 20). How grievous where there is (by “letting alone,") this sinful acquiescence in guilty commerce with the world (what is here signified by “fornication”), instead of holy separation from it, and there is acknowledgment of other claims on the heart than those of the Christ of God (the eating of “things sacrificed to idols”)! His eyes are as a flame of fire, and His feet like to burnished brass, and He will have all the churches to know that He searcheth reins and hearts, as well as ways and deeds. The indictment here is—not the personal guilt of the teacher only, but the suffering or allowing what another does. “But I have against thee that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel.” To be personally clear of, and to condemn, the evil doctrine taught-important as this assuredly is for every child of God-is not enough. We see from these addresses that the Lord calls for more, viz., that where there are those that teach or even hold what is offensive to Christ, He demands that we “repent” of their presence in our midst, for all are affected by the tolerance of the evil within, whether actively taught or only passively held. Are we sufficiently alive to the defiling power of sin? Do we really believe that “a little leaven” —whether of doctrine (Galatians 5:9), or of walk (1 Corinthians 5:6), “leavens the whole lump”? It is not our measure of what is wickedness, but what God reveals in His word so to be. Our thoughts—even of “the wise of this world” —are vanity. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,” &c.

Sardis-” Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful... for I have not found thy works complete before my God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard; and keep, and repent” (3:1-3).

Insubjection to the word of God leads to forgetfulness of how and what we may have received and heard. But we need to be brought back, and are exhorted to keep or hold fast what we have received from the Giver of every good. The truth does not “accommodate” itself to the fitful changes of time, but is ever according to godliness. It sanctifies divinely, and commands our obedience. Our loins are to be girt about with truth, and our souls are purified by obedience to it. Do we desire that our works should be “complete before God?” This is what the Lord desires, and should we not be “ambitious (φιλοτιμούμεθα) that, whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to him” (2 Corinthians 5:9)? There were a few in Sardis that called forth the Lord's approval, and who are they? Those who had “not defiled their garments” in their walk here below, of whom it is said, “They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” How blessed thus to have “honorable mention” from Him! And if so for the few in Sardis, may we in these days not despise such an encomium.

What of Philadelphia? “Thou hast little strength!” How despicable in the eyes of onlookers! Man wants something great and commanding. Even the prophet Jeremiah warned Baruch, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” But how great is the snare even to-day! What is mostly “great” in this book of the Revelation is what comes under judgment. Apostate Christendom will become great. “Great Babylon” will come in remembrance before God (16:19). “The great city” Babylon shall be thrown down with violence. “The great men of the earth” shall be her merchants (18:23). And later there will be “the great supper of God” to which all the fowls that fly in mid-heaven shall be called to eat the flesh of kings... and of all men... both small and great” (19:17, 18).

But what is according to God is holiness. He “showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (21:10)-spoken of the bride, the Lamb's wife (ver. 9). This is not a description of heaven, but of saints since Pentecost, who as forming the church, are now espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). Then the marriage of the Lamb will have taken place (19:7), and the bride (18:21) is seen displayed as “the holy city” having the glory of God. “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them,” said our Lord to His Father. “And when Christ who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). Here, then, is the glorious fulfillment.

We have in display, first Satan's wonderment, his counterfeit, in all its meretricious gorgeousness (17:14), of that for which Christ gave Himself for presentation without spot-holy and blameless. “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual” —may apply here. The judgment of the corrupt vine of the earth clears the way for the subsequent manifestation in glory of that which is according to the mind of Christ.

But, if in possession of “little strength,” Philadelphia had kept Christ's word, and not denied His name. And He, “the holy” and “the true” records it, and promises exemption from the hour of temptation. May we hold fast what we have, till He come.

(Continued from page 64)

(To be continued).

1;Y TIE: LATE IV. KELLY.

GOD'S INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES (New Edition) 4/6 net. IN THE BEGINNING (Genesis i.-ii. 3), New Edition 1/6 net. THE PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON (1 Peter

iii. 18-20) . . . . . . . 146 &

GOSPEL. OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST (2 Corinthians 3:4) 2d. CHRIST FOR THE SAINT, AND CHRIST FOR THE SINNER

(Revelation 22:17) . ..... 2d.

WE SHALL ALL BE MANIFESTED (2 Corinthians 5) . . 2d.

THE SOUL NEITHER MORTAL NOR TO SLEEP. .

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE-A DELUSION OF THE DAY, 6d. per doz.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 10

The blessing brought into the Shunammite's household was entirely unsought. Welcome, indeed it was, but in striking contrast to the preceding case of the woman and the creditor. It is well when trouble leads us to God as the only resource in difficulty and trial. He does encourage us to make of Him our refuge and resource at such times. “Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me.” And in the New Testament we read also, “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God,” and this is accompanied by the assurance that “the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

But there are some things for which we never should have prayed to God. The chiefest blessings “of Christianity are the unspeakable gift of God-His beloved Son, and the gift of the Spirit. Of the first of these we may say, it was the measure and the expression of the boundless love of God to a ruined world which, so far from feeling its need of and praying for such a gift, did its best to get rid of Him when He came into this scene. Significantly true “there was no room for them in the inn.” “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And again, “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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10).

In giving His Son to die for us God was gratifying His own heart of love, as also in the subsequent fulfillment of His promise of the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This was the answer to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 14: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: [even] the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him “not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you” (vers. 16, 17). This promise of the Father (not to the world, or to men in their sins, but to the Lord Jesus, who had already prayed for it), the Lord when risen and exalted on high, received, and so poured out the Spirit upon His disciples when waiting for the promise they were all together in one place (Acts 2:1).

The natural man has no taste for divine things, nor appreciation of God's greatest and best gift. But in the case of this Shunammite we find beyond a doubt that by His Spirit God had already been working in the heart of this woman, producing spiritual discernment, faith in God, and an appreciation of holiness, which bore its own blessed fruit. So, too, in a later day a Lydia, of the city of Thyatira, was chosen and prepared by the same Spirit for the reception of still greater honor and blessing, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought [us], saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come in to my house and abide. And she constrained us” (Acts 16:14, 15).

It was the Lord Himself who said, “He that receiveth you receiveth me,” and the reality of a divine work in the soul may be discerned in this way. May we not look upon the instance of the Gentile widow to whom Elijah was sent (1 Kings 17) as affording both a parallel and a contrast? With the woman of Sarepta it was at the end of the Lord's dealings with her and as Elijah's visit was drawing to a close, that she learned to regard him as a man of God who had the word of Jehovah. “By this I know that thou [art] a man of God, that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth [is] truth” (1 Kings 17:24); while with the Shunammite she has this knowledge at the commencement and acts upon it. If the natural man raises difficulties and gives not God credit for being as good as His word, and able to perform what He promises, the believer it is who believes God and receives the blessing. But there can be no security of blessing in any promise of God to fallen man as such. The wonderful communications of God's word are for faith to rest on, and await the accomplishment of what is foretold. Some may ask, But did not the Lord God in Eden, while judging the transgression make a promise to man concerning the birth of a Savior? Not at all. There was no “promise” made to man-disgraced, discredited and judged-but there was an announcement to the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve of coming judgment, that the seed of the woman (not, of the man) should bruise the serpent's head. No doubt this declaration, mysterious as it must have appeared to our first parents, was meant for faith to lay hold of and confide in until it pleased God to give added light by the further revelations of His purposes of blessing for man, and the discomfiture and final judgment of man's greatest enemy and God's.

The Shunammite woman, then, had already been the subject of divine workmanship. God had opened her heart to give heed to the things spoken by Elisha. She perceived that he who passed that way so frequently and was pleased to accept of her hospitality, was indeed “a holy man of God.” It was the only character which justly became one doing the work of God in Israel at that time. Kings and priests had corrupted themselves, and blessing could not come to any in Israel through such defiled channels. So in a later day when Judah had become corrupt, and God would yet in mercy linger over His guilty people, foretelling to them brighter days to dawn upon them, we see that Ezekiel, who was given by God these prophetic communications, although himself a priest, yet was he habitually addressed as son of man, as was also Daniel, of Judah's royal family, although less frequently.

If we turn to the apostle Paul we shall find that in both of his epistles to Timothy he speaks of the “man of God.” In the first, Timothy is so addressed. “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed the good profession before many witnesses,” etc. (6:11, 12). And in his second epistle we read, “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 every good work” (3: 16, 17). A title without honor or authority of a worldly sort, it doubtless expresses the true character of such as God would use in His service in a day of declension and departure from the faith.

As to the particular manifestation of the power and goodness of God in this case, may we not see in it a personal type of the Lord Jesus Christ? We may note four such remarkable interventions of God in the history of the nation recorded in the Old Testament. Each one, doubtless, not without relation to the divine announcement in Genesis 3 already referred to. Each of a progressive character, too, i.e., in their typical significance, each being an advance upon its predecessor.

God in the exercise of His sovereign right made choice of Abram to be a witness for Himself, and to be the depository of promise. “Now Jehovah had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed..... And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him” (Genesis 12:1-3). This, however, was but general. It was not until he had refused the proffered gifts of the king of Sodom that God made a definite promise, which could only be fulfilled in his own family. “After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I [am] thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, 0 Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house [is] this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of Jehovah [came] unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in Jehovah, and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:1-6). But that which faith values is also used for disciplining the individual. It was so in Abram's case, as Genesis 15-21 abundantly illustrates. Moreover, it was not until twenty-five years had elapsed that God fulfilled His own promise. Each succeeding year must have seemed to make the promise still more unlikely of fulfillment, so that we can hardly wonder at Abram's laughter in chapter 17, nor of Sarah's in the chapter following. In the birth of Isaac, coupled with his surrender (in chapter 22.), we have by far the most striking type of Christ to be found in the Old Testament.

But when the children of promise had received the blessing because of God's faithfulness, and forfeited it because of their disobedience, God visited His people in sovereign mercy, and caused another barren woman to give birth to a deliverer. “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, who name [was] Manoah; and his wife was barren and bare not. And an angel of Jehovah appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean [thing]. For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:1-5). Here there was no discipline or trial of faith, as in Abram's case, but a beautiful type of the man whom God made strong for Himself, breaking the power of the enemy and delivering His people, although they did not deserve it and did not know Him when come. “And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto Jehovah. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of Jehovah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor? And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Why asketh thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful” (vers. 15-18).

Further, when the priestly family had corrupted themselves, and caused the Lord's people to abhor Jehovah's offerings, the faith of one (who in herself typified the godly remnant of Israel in the last days) finds approval and encouragement. Again the barren woman-Israel after the flesh-(see Isaiah 26:17-19) is made to be the joyful mother of children. On this occasion we see the spirit of prophecy awakened, the prayers of the godly are heard and answered, confidence in God sustained in expectation of what Jehovah would accomplish by His anointed king. “Jehovah killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich; he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall be thunder upon them. Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his Anointed” (1 Samuel 2:6-10). Lastly, in the case before us, things are even worse in the nation, but God knows how to reach the hearts of His people. First of all He gives the hearing ear and then the understanding heart, leading them to acknowledge that God is indeed visiting His people in unsolicited goodness.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 3-14

We hear the outbursts of passionate grief at last from Job (ch. 3.). He could not stand the presence of his friends. Many sorrows and bitter suffering he had borne; but these friends came and looked on his misery without a word. It was too much for Job. Did they suspect him? He could not endure doubts Godward, especially from them. Were they not friends? If they loved him, why that silence—that ominous silence for seven days and seven nights? It might begin with deep feeling for him; but why not a word? Why not one drop of comfort for his parched lips? They began to think; and thinking is a dangerous thing. In God's presence we judge self and hear Him. These thoughts of ours, how often they mislead! What we want is to pray and hear, that we may from God receive His word. Ah, this is another thing, and exactly what is wanted! Their ear was not open. There was One who was wakened morning by morning, and whose ear was opened, who never knew our dullness of hearing God. But the three friends!-they first preserved this dread and distressing silence towards Job, who soon and bitterly had to learn what came out of that silence. Though he began, they followed; but it was their own thoughts and not the mind of God.

Job then bemoans and curses his day-not God, nothing of that kind; but still he unbecomingly expresses his horror of the day in which his birth was announced. His whole birth-scene was before him, wrapped in gloom. Everything connected with his coming into the world was horrible in his eyes; and so he bitterly launches forth: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness.” And afterward, “Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.” He asks why he had ever been born, one who was destined to such wretchedness? why he was not rather left, as he says so scathingly, “with kings and counselors of the earth, which build desolate places?” Is this what the greatness of this world comes to, kings building ruins for themselves? “or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver?” But gold and silver cannot redeem from sorrow or death. Was this life? or the work in which the kings of Egypt sought renown, the building of their own tombs? But his seemed more dismal still. Why had not he a lot to be laid in a desolate place like theirs? or why was he ever born at all?

Then opens the first debate of his friends, founded on this outburst of Job. We may notice these friends speaking with a certain difference of character and always in a similar order, throughout the three great discussions in the book. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar follow in regular succession, Job replying to each of them. In the third discussion it may be observed that one of the three

Zophar-drops off, while Job continues his discourse so long that we might almost think it an answer to that unspoken speech; that is, what Zophar would have had to say if he had spoken, Job completely refutes. In short, the main central portion of the book is occupied with what I have just described: three lines of arguments, sustained by the friends of Job on the one hand, and answered, each separately and fully, by Job on the other. Then follows a new personage, Elihu, Who silences Job as decidedly as Job had silenced the three; and finally Jehovah closes all, solving the problem of the book at the last. We shall look a little into the first discussion, if it please God; but must be brief on what I draw your attention to at this time.

Eliphaz the Temanite, who appears to be the oldest and the more dignified of the three friends, rebukes Job first of all for want of firmness in meeting the first distress which has befallen his family and himself. Not content, however, with this, he reproaches Job that he who had so well known how to meet others in their sorrows, failed when the trouble came on himself. He stands to the sure righteousness of God's way, who could never forsake the innocent any more than spare the guilty. He goes farther, and gives an account of that which appeared to him by a spirit, as he says, what was secretly brought to him, and his ear received a little thereof in thoughts from the visions of the nights. He describes graphically the apparition in these visions, which uttered a deeply solemn word in his hearing; the gist of which was the presumptuousness of mortal man daring to arraign God in any way. He insists on the folly of turning to creature help. All things are in the hand of Him who suddenly deals with the foolish who thought himself secure. Lastly, he calls on Job to repent; that if he would only humble himself before God, this trial would not be turned away, but leave him more blest than ever. This, I think, gives very briefly the general purport of the first discourse of Eliphaz, in chapters 4, 5.

Yet it is too remarkable to be passed by, that we have the Spirit of God employing as scripture the very words subsequently treated by Jehovah as a false estimate not merely of Job, but of Himself. It is not what Jehovah said at last, not what Elihu says as interpreter by the way, not even what Job pleads. The words of Eliphaz are quoted by the apostle Paul in the New Testament. This is very striking. God Himself pronounces what they had said to be not right words; but for all that the Holy Spirit gives all by inspiration, and employs the words of one as Scripture. Assuredly these two things can be reconciled, and very simply. One has only to examine the words of Eliphaz in order to see that in themselves they contain nothing but truth; but if we weigh them, as applied to Job, they are inexcusably wrong. How wise is the way of the Lord! how admirable the depth of what is given us in the scripture! The New Testament, both in the first epistle to the Corinthians and in the epistle to the Hebrews, quotes the words of Eliphaz; but then the application is perfectly good. In the history given in the Old Testament the application was wrong, and the speakers were reproved for it. In the New Testament the application is as right as the words themselves; all is in place. It is a marked instance, therefore, of the wonderful way in which God meets all in His own wisdom. But this merely by-the-bye.

Job then answers him in chapters 6, 7, but with considerable pain: “Oh, that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.” Thus Job's piety made him own that God not only must be, but was, concerned in all these calamities; and he was right so far. Job did not lay the blame on the Sheba or the Chaldeans, the lightning, the hurricane, or the elephantiasis, but looked far beyond the secondary instruments. He was right in bringing God into the trouble; only he was wrong, as we shall find at the end, in either supposing that there was nothing to correct in his soul, or that God could be anything else to him than gracious while faithful, and long-suffering while righteous. He did not take into account the power of evil and of Satan which is permitted but measured by God. He did not hold fast as he ought that it is in love to His own God allows them to be peculiarly sufferers in this world. All this practically he had to learn, so that at first sight his very piety made the difficulty greater in attributing everything to God, apart from His way and end; if so, how objectless seemed the crushing blows which had fallen thick and fast upon him! how could he reconcile it all? He was sure that God is righteous and holy, that He must be good and true and faithful; and yet it was from God that all these miseries came on him, a saint! It was a difficulty, and so much the more terrible for the man who lay under the anguish of these troubles at the moment, and not a person calmly reflecting afterward. How different for one who reads in the book of God the solution of all! We must remember this when we look into these matters. This, then, is what I would suggest in weighing that which follows in the reply of Job, who in his despondency desires to be cut off by God; especially as he had only disappointment from his brethren, as a thirsty caravan before the dried-up bed of waters they had longed for. He does not deprecate reproof; but theirs were but words caviling at his words. They had in no way reached the case. He could only again wish for death, and even expostulates with God, but soon owns his wrong, and implores forgiveness, but death too.

Next comes Bildad the Shuhite (chap. 8.), who succeeds Eliphaz, but with a great deal more of asperity, and consequently bringing out from Job a greater tartness in his rejoinder. He does not scruple in reproving Job to suppose that his children had brought on themselves the due reward of their deeds, and throws out hints that he himself could not be what he seemed. He speaks and thinks only of justice, yet urges repentance on Job, which would assuredly be followed by more blessing than ever. The juiciest and greenest herb is the first to wither, and the hope of the hypocrite or polluted is no more than a spider's web, whose place will deny the sight of him the upright is filled with joy.

In chapters 9, 10. Job repels the insinuation of Bildad, and maintains still that the very majesty of God made it impossible for him, a poor weak man, to stand up against the blows of such a God. This is the great point. It shows, therefore, that, even if he wished, he could not, however righteous, plead his righteousness before God—that God's all-holy eye must see sheer failure and imperfection in him; so that his only wish was that there might be a daysman between them both—some one who would be able to adjust the balance between God and man. He could only wish for death in his incompetence to resist the overwhelming might which had crushed him. This seems the, chief peculiarity of Job's reply to Bildad.

Then follows Zophar, in chap 11, who is the keenest of the three and the least considerate. He taxes him with moral blindness as well as mere bluster. He takes up the harsh thoughts of those who attacked, and gives no value at all to the pleadings of Job in his wretchedness. On the contrary, he begins to harbor that sad thought, which gets expression from them all, of some grave and secret evil which must lie at the bottom, the cause of the manifold and unparalleled calamities of Job. He is as decided as an evil surmise makes one. We shall find, however, considerably more of this when we come to look into the second argument between Job and his friends. Upon this we may not enter now.

But I close with stating that Job replies to Zophar, setting forth very completely the weakness and wretchedness of man doomed to die on the earth. None then could speak of the power of life. Christ, who has alone gained the victory over evil, was as yet in the future; but Job looks at man on the earth, and owns, in a most pathetic way, man's utter weakness, as born to trouble, before the incomparable majesty of God Himself. In this reply Job opens with some sarcasm. But he meets the hypothesis of present retribution with the most distinct negative and disproof. “The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure.” Nor was this confined to man. Every form of animate nature proclaims the same fact: the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea declare plainly that the violent carry it over the weak. God is sovereign; but for that very reason their law of government is a sophism, and to apply it to him unjust. God does as He pleases, and among men above all reserves all calculation.

Such had been the fruit of Job's observation (chap. 13.), and he was conscious of being more right than his friends. It was with God he wished to speak, not with such quacks as they, whose wisdom would be to hold their peace. What they had said he counted to be said wickedly and deceitfully for God, who had given them no such authority, and would surely reprove them, as in fact He did. His integrity he would hold fast before Him, say what they liked, and he knew he should be justified. He asked but a reprieve from suffering, and that His dread should not overwhelm him; he wished to find out all that was wrong in himself, and begged to know why he was driven to and fro like a leaf or dry stubble. He did not yet know the grace that was giving him self-judgment. He sees only a record kept of bitter things, and himself made to inherit his youthful iniquities, his feet put in the stocks, his ways watched, the very soles of his feet marked, whilst he was but consuming as a rotten thing or a moth-eaten garment.

He closes his answer (chap. 14.) with more general reflections on man's miserable lot in this world, frail and faulty in nature, and hopeless of revival in this life, unlike a tree, which may sprout again if cut down ever so low. But man cannot till the heavens be no more: then he too will wake from sleep. Again Job prays that he may be hidden in the grave till his change or renovation come, when God will call and he answer. Meanwhile he sees no ground of hope; for as even the strongest things fall to ruin, man passes so completely that, whether his sons come to honor or are brought low, he knows nothing.

But I hope to pursue a little more, on this day week, the chapters that follow, so as to present the scope of the great argument carried on between Job and his friends, and in its course to give a few hints—for I do not pretend to more—towards helping the children of God to the more profitable study of the book for themselves.

[W. K.]

Evidence of the Purchase

“These are ancient things,” we may say, for even as far back as the days of Abraham, he whom Jehovah told to “Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee” (Genesis 13:17), was, as to actual possession, a stranger in it, and bought a burying-place therein of “Ephron the Hittite,” one of the very nations whom his seed was to dispossess. The purchase-money, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant, was duly weighed and handed over, and then “the field, and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession... of a burying-place, by the sons of Heth” (Genesis 23:17-20); and there Abraham buried Sarah. How strange a proceeding for “the heir of the world” (Romans 4:13)! Where those title deeds were deposited for safe custody one is unable to say. But we may be sure that the God of Abraham will see to it when He, “who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power,” comes to take up His earthly rights in connection with His ancient people.

There is another very striking transaction recorded in Jeremiah 32. To appreciate it we must remember what was recorded of Jerusalem at that time. “Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and behold, thou seest it” (ver. 27). Jehovah had said also, “Zedekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape out of the hands of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.... And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be till I visit him, saith Jehovah: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper” (vers. 4, 5). The captivity of all the men of might, craftsmen, and smiths, with those strong and apt for war, and the taking of Zedekiah himself and his being carried to Babylon, are all fully set out for us in 2 Kings 24; 25.

Now it was in view of all this, when naturally one would think the purchase of land in such a place to be out of the question, that Jeremiah was instructed of Jehovah to buy the field in Anathoth, of Hanameel his cousin, and this he carried out, weighing for its purchase seventeen shekels of silver. As he himself adds, “I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.” We may observe that the payment is twice recorded; and it is not without interest to note the particularity displayed in connection with the title deeds. “So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's [son], and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days” (vers. 11-14). Here we are told of the custodian of the title deeds, and how they were to be preserved. We have met with “an earthen vessel” before. We have it in Leviticus 14 in connection with the cleansing of the leper-"the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water” (ver. 5). May not this point to Him who coming into the world saith, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5), with all that it involved? “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (ver. 10), and by the Holy Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2), the efficacious power—the “running water,” we may say. For of that same Blessed One it is written, in connection with His precious blood, “Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (9: 14). He through His own death and blood-shedding has made good the title deeds of far more than Jeremiah's field. We wonder not, therefore, that Jehovah said, “Houses and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land,” awful though the condition of the people was, as verses 29 to 35 fully bring out. But what cannot grace do where it reigns “through righteousness even through Jesus Christ our Lord”?

The people, alas, did worse than even Jeremiah describes. For when the “Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,” came unto His own, “his own received him not.” Instead of reverencing “my beloved Son,” when they saw Him “they reasoned among themselves saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Luke 20:13-15).

But His title deeds, His evidence of purchase, yea, of redemption, could not be in better custody. And so we read in Revelation 5:1, “I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals “-the evidence, surely, both sealed and opened, which He is worthy to come and take out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, and He alone. For He it was, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, who had prevailed to open the book. And to Him, as the Lamb that had been slain, shall we render the ascription of praise: “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever,” and we too “fall down and worship.”

W. N. T.

No Man Knoweth the Son but the Father

These words should be an end of controversy. They are a sort of signpost, warning the traveler not to proceed on a dangerous path. The subject is foreclosed for us. The inscrutability of the Person of the Son must ever baffle the ingenuity of man, even of pious and erudite men. Nor is its solution to be gained by some rare spiritual attainment. On the contrary, the most spiritual will be the first to bow before the ineffable mystery, and to say, as did one of old, after stating the scriptural doctrine of the Christ, “So much we know; the seraphim veil the rest with their wings.”

Yet the subject has a singular fascination, and has had in all ages. The annals of Christendom are strewn with the wrecks of venturesome and ingenious theories, the heresies of Arius, of Apollinaris, of Nestorius, and others. Hence the origin of at least two of the well-known creeds, the Athanasian and the Nicene, which most undoubtedly declare the facts as to our Lord's Person with admirable point and emphasis, as they were composed with that object. But nothing can equal the precision of Scripture. Here alone we get the truth in its fullness. No doubt in this verse it is given somewhat negatively, though immediately after the admonitory words as to the Son, we have the positive statement that they know the. Father to whom the Son reveals Him. The knowledge of the Father therefore is moral; the want of knowledge as to the Son is in a wholly different category. Even when we most heed His word, and learn of Him, as He bids us, we can make no progress towards comprehending the mystery of His Person. We are not meant to do so. But the Gospels are full of the revelation of the Father. All that our Lord said and did perfectly expressed Him. So He gently rebuked Philip for having failed to realize during his privileged intercourse with Himself (strikingly characterized by Him as “so long time"), that He had been manifesting the Father.

But what disaster has been wrought, not in ancient times merely, to which allusion has already been made, but in modern, by inquisitive prying into, and often confused and confusing analysis of, the sacred mystery! Some try to buttress their theories by appealing to the undoubtedly Scriptural doctrine of the κένωσις. Yet surely that “self-emptying” points to restraint of power, not to limitation of knowledge. Better to heed the warning of Scripture. No doubt these adventurists flatter themselves that they mean well. They wish to elucidate the obscure; and metaphysics, theological or other, have a singular attraction for some minds. But no; it is a perilous quest. The divine and the human, like gold and silver threads in some precious work of art, wrought by deft fingers, are indissolubly blended and defy dissection. “God and Man are one Christ.”

But let us hear what follows. He who has just uttered words of awe-inspiring majesty, goes on to speak in gentlest accents of love. “Come unto me; learn of me” (on which we have already touched), encouraging us to realize that, though we may never grasp the mystery of His Person, we can and should grow in knowledge of His love, of His goodness, His power, and His works. We learn of Him in all His perfect ways, how “He does,” as one has truly said, “what is most human, but lives absolutely in the divine, ever the Son of man which is in heaven.” Never was there such a marvelous blending of majesty and humility, severity and tenderness, burning zeal and supreme calm, so that, in the words of another again, “There is the meekness of the Lion of Judah and the wrath of the slain Lamb.” So believers gladly testify, but we may quote one who, alas! apostatized from the faith, a brilliant writer of the last century in a neighboring land. This man described the words of our Lord in the Gospels as “characterized by a flashing brightness, at once sweet and terrible.” This witness is true, but the terribleness is only for the rejector.

“No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” Such is the doctrine of the first Gospel, and we have the same impressive words in Luke. For vain is the contention that only in Johannine scripture do we get the superhuman claims of Christ. Nothing can be farther from the fact. Take, for instance, the words in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” Insufferably arrogant, had He been only man; most comforting as well as sublime when we bear in mind who He was and is that uttered them. And, again and again, the blessed Lord held similar language, yet coupled with the most complete self-abnegation and approachableness. No wonder some (unbelieving I fear, but thoughtful) mediaeval writer said that Jesus Christ was the enigma of the ages. Yes, surely, if we deny His divine glory. But if we bow to Him, if, while fully conscious of our inability to fathom the awful mystery of His Person (which will ever remain unfathomable), we own Him to be God manifest in the flesh, then He ceases to be an enigma. He commands our adoration. No doubt along with this will ever go the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart and conscience, and all that this involves, when the soul learns that not even that precious-life can save from sins, apart from the “precious death.”

“No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” These words are in the Synoptists, not in the Gospel of John. Doubtless the fourth Gospel differs widely from the others, but the harmony of all is perfect. And here in this eleventh of Matthew we have a statement as absolute and profound as any in John, in whose writings, however, we have longer and more elaborate unfoldings of the truth. It is not fanciful to consider how the beloved disciple must have mused on what he had “seen and heard” of his Master. He says indeed, “we contemplated his glory” —conviction sinking deeper and deeper into his heart through the mellowing years. He begins his Gospel with a peal of spiritual, thunder, as Augustine finely said. Anyhow, he was no weakling, nor ever had been. As more than one has observed, nothing can be more mistaken than the supposition that John was a mild-eyed, perhaps somewhat effeminate visionary. Nay, he was a son of thunder, naturally a robust soul, as always are those who strongly love. For very sufficient reasons, we may be sure, the Lord called James and John “sons of thunder,” and Peter “a stone.” None of the rest were so honored. We may not forget the exceeding greatness of Peter—I mean, of course, greatness when compared with other men, even with other apostles. It is needless to say that in one sense, the highest sense, none are great, but the Master alone. Yet, as disciples, as apostles, Peter, James and John, and subsequently Paul, are great, we know, beyond the measure of any others. And administratively, at any rate, Simon Peter was greatest of all. Was he not given the keys of the kingdom of heaven?

But to return to our main point. We may be sure that Peter and John and Paul would have loved to enforce these words, spoken as they were by the Lord Himself, and written “for our learning” by the erstwhile tax-gatherer. For negatively they define the divine glory of the Son of God as absolutely as the terse declarations of Paul, or as did the apostle John with his contemplative calm.

R. B.

Our Portion in Christ: Part 2

I may remark that it is our positive place before God that lets us into the counsels of God. There is no real knowledge of these counsels except as we stand in our place before God. Knowledge that puffs up is always defective and sterile; it is a statue, not life. There is nothing really connected with it in the mind, when it puffs up. There is a certain place for the believer before God; into this the heart has to get. We are made partakers of the divine nature. Then all these thoughts and counsels of God come to be precious, not as knowledge, but as belonging to the glory of Christ. “I... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness.” Where our own souls are before God, according to God, of course there is fellowship and communion with God. Activity, of course, even right activity, tends to bring self in. Take Paul: there was danger of his being puffed up; and the Lord sent a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. When he came down from the third heaven into the ordinary activities of life, there was danger. The thorn was a hindrance to him in his ministry, that the power of Christ might be made manifest in him. The moment he finds what it was, he says, “I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” God chooses things that are weak that no flesh may glory in His presence.

Taking the general principle, if I enter into the knowledge of divine things, it must be along with God. Love is never puffed up; love likes to serve. I am thus blameless that I may have communion. We cannot have practically a more important truth than that all real divine knowledge is found by being in the presence of God; and whenever we are in the presence of God, there must be lowliness of heart and mind and spirit. God's presence is always a holy thing. There is no true knowledge, and no true communion unless the soul is in that state before Him. There is no more dangerous thing than a certain apprehension of divine things without the soul learning them with God; as we see in Balaam and in Hebrews 6, where you get all the wondrous things of Christianity poured on the mind and natural heart. This is dangerous even if there is life, and fatal if there is not. The revelation of the counsels of God is founded on knowledge of our place with God. The eye cannot bear light from God except so far as we are right with God. Having brought us into the blessed consciousness of this place, where we are at home with God, now He can unfold His counsels, as to Christ Himself. Having brought us there in grace, He can trust our hearts with all His plans. There is no real divine knowledge of the counsels of God except so far as we are personally with Him. “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” He reveals to Abraham what He is going to do, not with Abraham, but with Lot.

All flows from the soul being consciously in the place where it is set, in Christ. He can then trust us with the knowledge of His will; He can trust the sons of the family with the family affairs.

Christ was a true real man in this world: was He occupied with the interests of His family, or the interests of man? He was subject to His parents. There was in Him perfect obedience, perfect confidence, and—what is so hard for us—perfect waiting. He gave Himself for our sins; He says, “Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This is not merely an outward thing. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Christ was a dying sacrifice. The Christian is to be a living sacrifice: this is to be the whole life of the Christian. We are set at liberty by the power of the life of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is in us, and then we yield ourselves to God. We cannot yield ourselves of ourselves; but the moment we are risen with Christ from the dead, we have the power of the Holy Ghost. Suppose a child is exceedingly anxious to go and see something, if his father desires him to go, there is an instance of perfect liberty and obedience also at the same time. It is a “law of liberty” to us; the new man having the mind of God, its delight is to do the will of God. We do not belong to anything in this world, but only to God. I have no duty that does not belong to a man who has died and is alive again. Blessed path of liberty it is, but a path of liberty to one who has no object but Christ! This is the Christian's place, entirely separated to God. If I am my own, I am a poor sinner (Christ never called Himself His own); we are bought with a price, and we belong to God. When in that case, He can open out to us all His wisdom and prudence; “we have the mind of Christ.”

Thus I first get Christ's own place; and this is exceedingly blessed, because it puts us into our place. Our calling is what we are towards God. Remember you do not get dispensed glory, until as a first thing you get to God. Christ offers Himself up to God; you have a life to God down here, and then a death to God, before you have the glory. Our relationship to God Himself comes before any acquaintance with the dispensed counsels of God. Responsibility and the counsels of God are distinct. I was a poor sinner: but I find, through the work of Christ, that all that was against me is gone. God's counsels and plans have nothing to do with man's responsibility. When man had come to the point of positive hatred against God in killing Christ, then the counsels of God were brought out, the mystery hidden in God. All this plan and counsel of God were before ever the world was. Christ in His rejection does the work which is the foundation of everlasting righteousness.

Everything that concerned the person of Christ was revealed before in the Old Testament, but not these counsels of God. You may find the ascension, resurrection, gifts—all that concerns the person of Christ—but nothing of union with Him, of being members of His body, joint-heirs with Him: all these counsels were hidden. I was a poor sinner, I must have my responsibility met; but this does not say that I should be in the same glory as the Son of God. Not merely has He cleansed our sins, but He has glorified God. Man goes into the glory of God because Man (He was more than man of course) has perfectly glorified God. We are loved as Christ is loved: the world will know it when He appears. Ah! if we only saw where the Christian is placed! It is a terrible thing to see all this rest on the surface. Are you conscious that the Father loves you as He loves Jesus?

The “fullness of times” is spoken of here, not eternity; in eternity we find God all in all. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ.” This is the thought and purpose of God that everything He has created He will bring under Christ's moral power as Man. He created all things, we read in Colossians. He is going to reconcile the state of things: but we are reconciled. The place of the Christian is absolutely reconciled to God in a world that is not reconciled at all. Everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled. If you want to go as Christians through the world, you must go as absolutely reconciled to God among things not reconciled. You have nothing to do with “things under the earth” here: in Philippians they bow at the name of Jesus. The scene He created He will perfectly restore. His first title is Creator; His second is Son—He is the heir of all things.

Actual creation is always referred to the Son and Spirit—God of course. Man is to be set over it all, set at the head of everything in the fullness of times. As we get into Christ's place in our calling, we get into Christ's place in our inheritance. Whatever He created as God, He inherits as man.

“By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified “; the work is complete and finished for His friends, and He is waiting till His enemies be made His footstool. When that comes, He leaves the Father's throne and takes His own. He who created all things is Son and heir of all things, and He inherits them as man. We are joint-heirs with Him. In the thoughts of God, His Son having become a man, we have become completely associated with Christ. He went alone through the earth; but, the moment redemption was completed, He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren.” How thorough is this association! Christ became a man, and in perfect love He brings us to everything He has as man. If He takes everything in heaven and earth, we are joint-heirs with Him (as Eve was with Adam), members of His body. When Mary Magdalene comes to the grave, He says, “Tell my brethren that I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

God's heart is set upon me. It is the fixedness of heart on an object, but besides that I have the confidence that He never takes His eye off me. We get divine love in the nature of God, and, besides that, love set on an object. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” My inheritance is in Christ, because God has associated me with the Lord Jesus. See the way the apostle dwells on and repeats this word “in”!

If I have the love of Christ in my heart, can I look on a world that is under Satan's power, and not be a man of sorrows? We have joy through Christ, if you take that side. If a holy being is in a world of sin, he must suffer; if a loving person is in a world of misery, he must suffer.

It is not that the glory is the highest thing, for it concerns self. At the transfiguration Moses and Elijah were in the same glory as Christ; but more than that, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Jehovah was in the cloud; and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son.” When they went into the cloud, the disciples were frightened. The cloud, so to speak, answered to the Father's house.

This chapter invariably refers to God, His calling, and His inheritance.

“That we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ” —hoped before He appears. The world will get a portion under Him, but we a portion with Him. While we must be born of God, there is in the proper sense of the word no glad tidings in telling a man that he must be born again. The thing revealed in the gospel is, that the grace of God which brings salvation has appeared; there is remission of sins and full salvation. Have you never been in God's presence? Were you fit to be there? The veil is rent: we are just as much in God's presence as if already in heaven; we shall see it more clearly then. I have everlasting life, I have divine righteousness, because I am in Christ. I am brought into God's presence, and I am not there without being fit 1 through the work on the cross. We have not got anything of the inheritance as yet, but we are sealed with the Holy Ghost. The blood of Christ having cleansed me from all sin, the Holy Ghost can take His place because I am clean. “Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost?” What if the apostle were to write this to you? Being born again, I have life; when sealed, I have God dwelling in me. The Holy Ghost can take His place as a witness that in God's sight I am as white as snow. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” Oh! beloved, what a place the Christian is in! If you confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God is dwelling in you. How are you treating the divine guest? “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed.”

It is not merely quickening, which was from the beginning: but when there is life, the Holy Ghost becomes the seal. I do not want an earnest of God's love. He loved me so perfectly that He gave His Son for me. His is a love proved in the death of Christ, and known in present consciousness. The Holy Ghost is the earnest of the inheritance. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Do not you be looking into your heart to find if He is there. Imagine a child inquiring if he is a child! Look if you are walking up to that. “We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Do you believe in the truth that “Jesus is the Son of God?” “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” But “they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again.”

The apostle's prayer here is to “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that the saint might know what He has wrought, and would do for them.

Do you believe that Christ has put you in the same place with God as He Himself is in? We are in Him, we shall be with Him, and like Him, and He gives us the knowledge of it now.

Have your hearts gone back, when accepted, to look at this model? Have your hearts burned within you as you have seen Him, and talked with Him, and have you said “His path is mine”?

Has it possessed your souls? This is a matter of daily diligence and conflict. The time will soon come when we shall say, of all that has not been Christ in our lives and ways, “That was all lost.”

J. N. D.

Lectures on Jude 25

“To the only [wise] God.” The word wise has crept in here. In all correct texts that word “wise” disappears in this place. It is perfectly right in Romans 16:27. And I just refer to that to show its appropriateness there: “To God, only wise.” I presume that that is the passage that led the ignorant monk, or whoever he was that was copying Jude, to (as he thought) correct it. But we cannot correct. All these human corrections are innovations, and our point is to get back to what God wrote and to what God gave. Everything except what God gave is an innovation, but God's word is the standard, and all that departs from, or does without it, is an innovation.

Now, in this chapter in Romans, what made the word “wise” appropriate and necessary there, is this—that he refers to the mystery. He does not bring out the mystery in Romans; but after completing the great subject of the righteousness of God, first, in its personal application as well as in itself, secondly, comparing it with the dispensations of God, and, thirdly, in its practical shape—personal, dispensational, and practical—he here adds a little word at the close, “Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.” The revelation of the mystery—he had not brought this in. But he maintains that this gospel of his was according to it. It was not the revelation of it; but it did not clash with it. There was no contrariety, but that revelation of the mystery was left for other epistles, Ephesians and Colossians more particularly. Corinthians also in a measure, but chiefly Ephesians and Colossians.

Further he says, “which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by prophetic writings” (or, scriptures—namely, those of the New Testament. I understand that what is called here “scriptures of the prophets” are the prophetic writings of the New Testament, of which Paul contributed so much) “according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all the nations” —that shows it is not the Old Testament prophets referred to here at all— “for the obedience of faith; to God only wise be glory.” That is to say, this concealment of the mystery and now bringing it out in due time—not in Romans, but in what would be found to agree with Romans and confirm Romans when the mystery was communicated to the saints in the epistles that had to be written afterward—all this showed “God only wise.” It is in connection, you see, with this keeping back for so many ages, and now for the first time bringing out this hidden truth, the hidden mystery, as he calls it, to our glory, which is involved in Christ's exaltation at the right hand of God, and in His leaving the world for the time entirely alone, whilst meanwhile forming the disciples according to the truth of His being in heaven.

In Timothy, however, we have exactly a similar expression to what we have here. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Timothy 1:17). There is the word “wise” brought in again in our Authorized Version. There is no reason for it there. So that there is the same error brought in in Timothy as there is in Jude, and both of them brought from what we already have in Romans 16, where it ought to be. There, again, we find what a dangerous thing it is for man to meddle with the word of God. The apostle is here looking at God Himself, not at what He particularly does. The wisdom of His revelation—that is Romans. But here it is, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.” There might be all these pretenders, these gods many and lords many that Paul knew very well among the Gentiles, and Timothy also, and particularly at this very Ephesus where Timothy seems to have been at this very time. That is where the famous temple (one of the wonders of the world) was, what is called the temple of Diana. Artemis is the proper word. Diana was a Roman goddess. Artemis was a Grecian goddess quite of a different nature, although there were kindred lies about the two.

Here, therefore, in Timothy the apostle presented with great propriety and beauty “the only God.” Bringing in the “wise” God introduces quite another idea that does not fall in with the context, it does not agree with it properly. It is just the same thing that we find in Jude. So that the comparison, I think, of the three scriptures will help to show that “the only wise God” belongs to Romans; that “the only God” —who is presented in contrast with idols and imaginary beings—brings in the force of the “only” true God to Timothy.

In Jude we have it for a slightly different reason, but equally appropriate. He is looking at all this terrible scene and at the greatness of the grace of God towards His beloved ones carried through such an awful sea of iniquity and apostasy. But if our eye be fixed on Christ, my dear brethren, it does not matter where we are or when we are, smooth or rough. Some would make a great deal of the large waves, and I have no doubt that Peter was frightened at the big waves on which he found himself walking, and when he looked at the waves down he went. But if there had been no big waves, all as smooth as glass, and Peter had looked down on the glassy sea, down he would have gone all the same. It is not, therefore, at all a question of the particular circumstances—the fact is, there is no power to keep us, except a divine one, and it is all grace; and the grace that supports on a smooth sea is equally able to preserve on a rough one. Whatever, therefore, may be the special characters of evil and of danger at the present time, all turns upon this: What is Christ to my soul? And if I believe in His grace and in His truth then what does not my soul find in Christ?

“Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy.” For the grace on His part is just the same as if there had been no departure, no apostasy, no wickedness, no unrighteousness of any kind. He wrought His marvelous work of grace for us when we were nothing but sinners. He brought us to Himself when we were no better—unmoved, perhaps, by that wonderful work when we first read and heard about it. But when the moment came for us to believe on Him, how it changed all! And surely the times that have passed over us have only endeared the Lord more to us. I hope there is not a soul in this room but what loves the Lord a deal better to-day than the day on which he, or she, was first converted. It is one of those notions of Christendom that our love is always much better and stronger on the day we were first converted. Never was there greater mistake. There was a feeling of mercy, no doubt; a deep sense of pardoning grace, but, beloved friends, do we not love the Lord for incomparably more than what we knew when converted? Surely that love has grown with a better knowledge of His love, and of His truth. And here we find that His grace is exactly the same, that the grace that brought Him from heaven, the grace of Him who lived here below, that died here below, and is now gone back into glory, is without change; and that that exceeding joy or exultation will be unquenched in the smallest degree when the blessed moment comes. “He will set us blameless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.” It is not very much to find where the exceeding joy is. I am persuaded it is both in Him and in us. Perhaps we may be allowed to say, “which thing is true in Him and in you.” That was said about another thing altogether—the love that He put into our hearts when we knew His redemption; for until we know redemption there is not much love in a believer. He may have a good bit of affection for the people that he is intimate with, but he is very narrow at first, and till he knows the love of Christ his affections do not at all go out to all the saints. Here then we find, at any rate, this glowing picture of that bright hope, when it will surely be accomplished.

Now, he adds, “To the only God.” For who could have met all this confusion? Who could have conceived and counseled all this grace and truth? Who could have kept such as we are through all, remembering our total weakness, our great exposure, the hatred of the enemy, the contempt of adversaries, of all that are drawn away, all the enticement to go wrong, all the animosities created worst of all by any measure of faithfulness? Yet He does keep through it all. “The only God our Savior.”

Not only Christ our Savior. Christ is the accomplisher of it all, but here he looks at God as the source, and it is no derogation from Christ. It was the delight of Christ on earth to present God as a Savior God, and not merely that He Himself was that personal Savior, the Son of man. So here the apostle desires that we should ever honor God our Savior, as indeed we find it rather a common expression in those very epistles to Timothy.

“To the only God our Savior.” All other dependence is vain, all other boast is worthless. We are intended to rejoice, or, rather, more strictly to “boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation.”

“To [the] only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority, before all time, and now and ever (or, to all the ages).” It is a very interesting thing to note here the propriety with which Jude closes the epistle. He says, “be glory, majesty, might and authority, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.” He looks at the full extent of eternity. It is much more precise than what we have in our Authorized Version; and is here given according to the reading of the best authorities, and rightly adopted by the Revisers.

Peter also closes his Second Epistle in what is said to be the same. But there is this distinction, that whilst Peter speaks of “glory both now and unto eternity's day” (3:18), Jude brings out what was, and is, and is to be, in all its full eternal character in the remarkable completeness of his closing ascription.

W. K.

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 6

We are now arrived at the last of these “seven addresses,” and what a picture is here unfolded to us as represented by “the church in Laodicea!”

From an earlier writing than this Book of the Revelation (the latest written, as is clearly evidenced internally, spite of its rougher Greek, in keeping with its character as the closing book of prophecy), we learn how “Jude, a bondman of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,” had had necessity laid on him (ἀνάγκην ἔσχον) to write exhorting to earnest contention for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. But, as far as Laodicea is concerned, this exhortation might never have been. For where is the zeal for the truth of God against the many errors of to-day? “As many opinions as men,” what is truth? So asked Pilate but waited not for answer. And so here it is like indifference that we see. “Thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spue thee out of my mouth.” How offensive is this easy going latitudinarianism to the “Amen, the faithful and true witness”!

Then, again, the self-satisfied and boasting spirit of the age has affected the church. It not only thinks, but proclaims, itself “rich and established in wealth, and in need of nothing,” and knows not its real poverty, nakedness and blindness.

If the world is eager in its pursuit after wealth which cannot be carried above (Job 1, Psalm 49), why should not we be as eager after the true and abiding riches? There is imperishable gold and purified by fire to be obtained, and we are counseled to buy it where only it can be had-"of Me.” So we find the apostle Paul in the Holy and divine “reckoning” of Philippians 3, saying, “But what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss on account of Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all these things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my righteousness that is of law, but that which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Is not this the “buying of Me gold purified by fire”?

So, too, the “white garments that thou mayest be clothed,” i.e., the saint's practical righteousness of every day, cannot be apart from Him, “for without (or, apart from) me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). “Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments that he may not walk naked.”

When self displaces Christ, how blind indeed is the soul! And lukewarmness towards Him is the fit soil for this self-occupation. There is no clear perception of spiritual truth. We see neither Him aright nor ourselves. “Thou knowest not that thou art the wretched one and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” “As many as I dearly love (φιλῶ), I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.”

And where is Christ? Where shall we find Him where all is so abhorrent? He is outside! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock!”

(Continued from page 80)

(To be continued)

Dead to Sin, Dead to Law, Crucified to the World

Q.-What is the difference between “dead to sin” (Romans 6), “dead to law” (Romans 7.), and “crucified to the world” (Galatians 6)?

Omega

A.-It is not only blessedly true that the Lord Jesus “was delivered up for our offenses,” and that He “died for our sins,” but there is the further truth (so little understood by believers in general) that in Christ's death I too have died, outwardly confessed in my baptism (Romans 6:4,), 8; Colossians 2:11-13), and so passed out of the condition where “sin reigned in death,” into another where “sin shall not have dominion over” me; nor am I any longer “under law but under grace,” which now reigns (instead of sin) “through righteousness unto life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20, 21; 6:14).

As has often been remarked, the earlier chapters (1-4:11) of Romans deal with our guilt, the “sins” we have committed, of which there is no remission without shedding of blood. But from v. 12, we have the involvement of universal sinnership, “through” the disobedience of the one man “-Adam (ver 19). We were “by nature children of wrath, but now no longer in Adam we are in Christ Jesus; and to such there is no condemnation. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and of death (8:1, 2), so that now we walk and serve in newness of life and of spirit.

That evil principle, or “law of sin and death” which is in us—here and elsewhere called “sin” —is the root from which is produced that evil crop ("sins” ), and to which the Christian has died. It is not dead— “if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves” —nor is it forgiven. But it has been judged and condemned in Christ's death (8:3), and I am called no longer to own its authority or reign, but to reckon myself “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus,” in the power of a new and risen life.

So, too, with the law. It is not abrogated, but is in force “for lawless and disobedient,” &c., but its jurisdiction is gone for men that are dead, and the Christian has been “made dead to the law by the body of Christ” (7:3, 4). “But now we are clear from the law, having [or, seeing we have] died in [respect of] that in which we were held” (ver. 6). “I through law have died to law, that I may live to God. I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ liveth in me; but that which I now live in flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19, 20).

“Crucified to me, and I to the world.” It is crucified-no longer sought after by the Christian; its charms are gone. It crucified the Lord of glory. How can it any more be an object for me? “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” And I—I am crucified to it. No longer of “its own,” the child of God is despised and hated by the world, and should he content to be so for the Master's sake are we content to be thought nothing of, and to be thus a spectacle to it?

May we seek grace to be truly the followers of the “despised and rejected” One of earth, but the “exalted” of the Father, “received up in glory.” He will be wondered at in them that believe in the coming day of glory for this earth, when the now reproached sons of God shall be manifested in the same glory with Christ.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row.

The Altar and the Hebrew Servant

That the awful terrors connected with the giving of the law should be immediately followed by two enactments which beautifully and significantly bring before us the person and work of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace by Him, is like an evening rainbow after the thunder, lightning, and storm of a summer's day.

“An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and bless thee” (Exodus 20:24). That the law could never bring, for “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” But the altar here prescribed with its offerings gave a means of approach to God in which the comer would be blest. Anything that would savor of man-his tool on stones, or steps by which he might carry himself up-would only work pollution, and discover man's absolute nakedness or want of resource.

In Psalm 84 we have the utterance of a heart that delights in the tabernacles of Jehovah of hosts, that would be, not in spirit only but, in heart and body there, which is what we are to understand from the words, “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” And he is jealous of the birds that find a resting place in such courts. But what must be the ground on which I can be there? The answer is, “Thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God” (verse 3). Well will it be for Israel in that day when they seek no longer to a law that can only condemn! and their petition shall be, “Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed” (ver. 9). One can understand how a brief day spent “in thy courts is better than a thousand” passed elsewhere. Do we long, beloved, to be in the place where, as He says, “I record my name”? “For where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), or, are our hearts cold about it? Oh! that we might gather up somewhat of the Psalmist's warmth in this matter! For “we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle” and a righteous title of entrance within the veil is ours because “Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Yes, called as we are to go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, we have, on the other hand, boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, who so suffered for us. May we be stirred up, therefore, having a great priest over the house of God, to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). “By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, confessing (margin) to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

In the Hebrew servant of Exodus 21, how blessedly we see Him who is “My servant, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42)! Assuredly, He is the one who distinctly said, “I love my master,” for is not this (we say it reverently) the Master's account of Him, “Who took upon him the form of a servant,” who “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"? He, by that death, glorified God (and how fitting that God should always have the first place!), and met, too, the need of the wife and the children, for whose sake He would not go out free. It is good to trace this Hebrew servant who did “not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street,” who never asserted His rights, yet He is the One whom Jehovah has given, not only to be “a covenant of the people,” but “for a light to the Gentiles,” “to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” He alone can do it, and will do it unaided. And surely the seal is set to that in this that follows: “I am Jehovah; that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another.”

View again the servant “in whom I will be glorified” in Isaiah 49. Apparently, as regards Jacob and Israel, He has spent His strength for naught and in vain, but “though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah.” Truly He is. For “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). Thank God for this, and for what Isaiah adds, “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 end of the earth” (49:6). And so the Perfect Servant's commission, when He had died and risen again, was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15, 16). And how fitting that He, “Jesus Christ the Son of God” (Mark 1:1), this wondrous Servant, should have it recorded of Him in the concluding chapter of this Gospel, “So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God!” And our hearts would have it so indeed, for He is worthy.

W. N. T,

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 11

By the word of prophecy God kept alive in the hearts of His people the hope of Messiah's coming. His mercy was indeed the only resource. They had corrupted themselves in the very blessings they had received from God, and the hope of the faithful lay in the salvation to be brought in by the Eternal Blesser of His people, to whom all prophecy pointed. It was not indeed that the child promised and given to this daughter of Sarah was himself a type of the Messiah long promised to Israel, but his remarkable birth, death and restoration to life, taken in connection with the mother's subsequent loss of, and reinstatement in, house and land (2 Kings 8:1-6), form a chain of circumstances full of interest, and, at least, suggestive of Israel's future restoration to their inheritance, when they shall in deep repentance and genuine faith appropriate the Christ whom they rejected and crucified. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:7). This will be the divine way of re-establishing His people in the inheritance from which, by reason of sin, they have long been exiled. Here, if not a personal type of Christ we surely have a very instructive one of Israel, “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came” —the mother widowed and exiled amongst the Gentiles, awakened by God's Spirit to a sense of her proper relationship to Him whom she once despised and rejected. In her case there was no expression of unbelief, only the very natural difficulty she experienced in understanding how the promise of the man of God could be realized. “Nay, my lord, man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid” (1 Kings 4:16), just gave expression to this difficulty. It was not unbelief, although very near it.

We find the same difference noted between unbelief and ignorance, in connection with the birth of John the Baptist and of the Lord Jesus. In the former case we are introduced to a righteous man, “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless” (Luke 1:5, 6), and having, in virtue of his office, unusual opportunities for making himself acquainted with the divine way of fulfilling the hopes and desires awakened in the heart by the word of prophecy. We may opine that Zacharias had often-times read the very Scripture we are now considering besides others already referred to. Cherishing the hope of Israel, he may well be reckoned with such as were at that very time awaiting its consolation (chap. 2:25). There were also the Old Testament Scriptures pointing to the messenger who should go before Jehovah's face. The study of the holy oracles had been his constant occupation, or ver. 6 could not have been true of him. His office necessitated it, and God acknowledged both him and his wife as righteous. Nevertheless, the divine announcement to him disclosed not ignorance but real unbelief. “And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw [him] he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall. be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering, said unto him, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (vers. 11-20).

Here, in one whose priestly occupation brought him into touch with the sacred writings and institutions connected with the worship and service of God, we find carnal reasoning and unbelief, as if the weakness of nature could prevent the fulfillment of God's promise. In pleasing contrast with this was the simple reverence and submission of Mary, sure evidence that the Spirit of God had prepared her to believe and to receive the promise. “And the angel answered and said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.... And the angel answered and said unto her, 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. And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord” (vers. 30, 35, 45). Truly, God has marvelous patience with our weakness and ignorance, but how obnoxious our pride and unbelief! A divinely wrought condition is indeed necessary for the reception of the blessing, but when faith is established and borne witness to by its fruits, there is the further dealing of the husbandman that the fruitbearing branch may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2).

“And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head! And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door] upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, [It shall be] well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not riding for me except I bid thee. So she went, and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant, Behold, that Shunammite! Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, [Is it] well with thee? well with thy husband? well with the child? And she answered, Well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the foot, but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her; and Jehovah hath hid it from me, and hath not told me” (2 Kings 4:18-27).

We may here call to mind the case of Abraham offering up his son Isaac (Genesis 22). As to discipline and fruitbearing, there might be, to a certain extent, a parallel, but we see far more of contrast than of similarity in the two cases, for we know that Isaac was a personal type of the Lord Jesus Christ, whilst we cannot say that of the son of the Shunammite. Nevertheless, it is an important and instructive lesson we are set down to learn, viz., that of man's inability to keep the blessing God bestows. If faith has been in exercise in connection with the gift and its reception, it is still needful that we should learn how necessary it is to have to do and go on with God alone, even in the surrender of His own gifts. For if we are unable to do this the blessing itself may become a snare. The creation of the woman and her presentation to Adam (Genesis 2:18-25) is set before us in a way distinct from the history of creation as such, given us in chapter 1. There is unfolded to us God's loving care and solicitude for the perfect happiness of the one whom He had set as lord of creation in responsibility to Himself. Yet did she not become a snare to her husband, who deliberately disobeyed the word of the Creator by receiving the prohibited fruit from her hand? God must be more to us than all the blessings He has bestowed. It is thus that God is glorified, and grace known and received becomes the principle of our relationship to Him, and the only guarantee for the permanence and continual enjoyment of the blessings bestowed. It pleased God to withdraw for a time the son He had given to this dear woman, that she might receive him again in resurrection, and recognize His power and prove afresh His goodness. It was remarkable that God did not make known even to His servant Elisha what He was doing. Man could not help her, she must come to God and have to do with Him alone. The occurrence of death had raised questions which God alone could answer.

We see this also in the two disciples going to Emmaus. They had known Christ after the flesh, and indeed had believed in Him, but the occurrence of death shook their faith, although it did not destroy it.” And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel, and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.... Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory” (Luke 24:25, 26, 18-21)?

But we shall see how perfectly resurrection as the witness of the mighty power of God, answers the questions raised by the presence of death, and establishes the soul before God in blessedness more secure and permanent than before death had broken in upon, and marred, the whole scene.

.[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 15

IN following up the further discussion between the friends of Job and the sufferer himself, I shall endeavor to give a sketch which by the Lord's grace may help souls. It cannot pretend to be more than suggestive; for it is needless to say that no more could be attempted in the few lectures now proposed. But this is what a considerable part of those conversant with Scripture most need. There is a time and a place for the most minute search into every word of God; but many a Christian craves something of a distinct outline, brief perhaps but comprehensive, so as to seize what it is that the Spirit of God is here setting before us; what is the main truth that God is now teaching us, as well as Job in that day. And this seems the first requisite if we would read the book intelligently and to profit, that we should have an adequate sense of the grand object of God in giving it to us. Of this, then, as far as the central part of the book is concerned, I hope to speak so far as time permits.

The first thing to which your attention may be well called, is the mistaken principle underlying the thoughts of not Eliphaz only but also Job himself. It falsified the application of every word of his friends; it was rebuked finally by Jehovah Himself at the close of the book. In due time we may the better for this show where it was that, with all his faults, Job was right, while his friends were wrong; for this is the clear issue at the end, although there was that which needed correction and called for self-judgment, as it surely came and was carried on deeply in his soul at last. This is not at all a question of anyone's opinion; it is the sentence of God for every believer's instruction.

Where was it then that there was so wrong a start? Wherein consisted a view that offended God so- deeply? The three were friends of Job and unquestionably pious men; yet did they err grievously, and needed God's pardon as we know. What was it then which vitiated the wisdom, experience, and friendly purpose of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar? What irritated Job, and made all their appeals powerless to deal with his conscience? What, in short, made them not only without ability to help his soul in the tremendous extremity to which he was reduced, but, further, exposed themselves to the unsparing rebuke of God Himself?

Their error was by no means a singular one, more particularly among the righteous, who, knowing God, have nevertheless never been thoroughly broken down as to themselves. Such persons one finds still among His own people on the earth. It was common to them all, yet there must have been some ground of righteousness in their thoughts, as every believer would allow. But here was where they went astray; they assumed that the present aspect of the world is an adequate expression of His judgment of men's ways. This assumption we find running through the speeches of the three friends, at first expressed with comparative calmness, but ripening at length into severity, as Job's passionate outburst resented what they increasingly imputed as the hidden explanation of the facts. Here was a soul suffering a succession of troubles beyond all example. Who could point out the man subjected to such dealings since the world began?

The difficulty increases at first sight, when we remember how precious he was to God, and the tender mercy of God to His children; when you think of such trial on earth, after hearing what God said about him in heaven. But then a main part of the profit which the book discloses depends on the fact that both God's estimate and Satan's trial were only made known in heaven; that the reason of the trial was a secret for the present—a secret not there, but here. Neither Job nor his friends knew anything of what God had said about him. Satan well knew; but could not conceive disinterested suffering integrity.

Consequently here we have the other side, not what was on high, but what was seen here below. No contrast could appear more complete. The whole reasoning of the friends of Job assumed, on the contrary, that what was permitted on earth must be the adequate reflex of God's mind in heaven. Hence, therefore, the more that Job had seemed pious and prayerful, and that his life had been one of the most even character—that he had been singularly blest, as indeed he had walked with habitual dependence on God, the more was all now turned to his disparagement as mere subtlety. We must remember that it was only a process of conviction going on. They did not arrive at this conclusion at first. There was anxiety first, then suspicion; and I have already passed with you over the chapters where the suspicion is seen growing up in the minds of his friends. Then was shown Job not only yielding to complaint under the unexplained trial, but stung and touched to the quick by the imputation of his friends.

Henceforth there was no more disguise. He treated them as those who had no knowledge whatever of his case, no sound understanding of God's ways. Nor had they really. Consequently there comes out on the one hand the impatience of Job, weakening their confidence in the reality of his goodness; on the other their yielding to the spirit of evil surmise and suspicion; so that all power, either of consolation or of godly reproof, was entirely destroyed on both sides.

This then seems exactly where we find ourselves at the end of chapter 14. So Eliphaz takes up the word in chapter 15 with no small degree of disgust at the state of Job's soul. He had judged from the surface. “Should a wise man,” he says, “utter vain knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk?” This he considered to be the character of Job's defense. “Yea, thou castest off fear.” Now it is no longer insinuation, he ventures to pronounce on Job. “Thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.” How did he know this? He had come too hastily to the inference; and it was false. Job had in no way restrained prayer before God, as we may find not only from his character but from his answers soon.

There cannot be a more instructive lesson to us of the danger of judging by appearances. It is beyond question a main point in this marvelous book. A superficial survey is never the way to form a righteous judgment; as the Lord Himself warned in His day. If it was wrong then in them, much more censurable is it in us? Here we find an entire book devoted to the purpose of guarding us from such a snare. “Thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer from God. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.” Therefore they found no more in their judgment than a gloss in all his expression of desire to draw near to God, and of confidence in God's acquitting him of the suspicion they had formed. Passing all the bounds of loving solicitude, they feared not to utter direct judgment. But their failure is exactly the way that God takes to warn us of like danger in our own ways. Appearances were against Job. “Thine own mouth condemneth thee,” says Eliphaz, referring to his undoubtedly improper expressions. “Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee. Art thou the first man?” Then he lets out a little of the evident feeling that Job had shown them disrespect. No doubt they were more aged than he, and from a distance had come to him as those best suited to console and comfort. But if disappointed, had they not themselves abandoned the ground of dependence on God? They had indeed done so, although they had preserved their silence for a considerable time. It was not merely a question of Job's breaking out; but what about them? It was not merely that God was holding up before all that tried sufferer, and how He would carry to a good end the bitter lesson that Job was passing through; but God was also showing the danger of misjudgment even for holy men of God. The profit of the book is entirely lost if we regard them as mere self-righteous men in the bad sense of the word. Not that there was not self-righteousness in them, or even in Job; for God convicts them all of it. There is no denying therefore that flaws and faults were found in the friends and in Job; but we may rightly seek to gather wherein they wholly and he in part missed the truth, and what it is that God would use the book to guard our own souls from.

Eliphaz then deals such a severe rebuke, that it is anything but in keeping with the calm with which the debate had begun; for he passes into a comparatively bitter setting down of Job as one who should feel his inexperience as compared with them, and the impropriety of such freedom of speech addressed to his elders. But all this shows us how solemn it is, and what a danger, even for a saint, to have self rather than God in one's thoughts, and this not meaning God in general, but above all the God of grace. The friends spoke much of God, but the manner in which they looked on Him was purely as a judge. This was surely a great defect, and the correction is just the moral of the whole book. Those who make the one question that is before God now to be His marking our deserts in the present life, must fail entirely to understand that God has taken advantage of the evil that is here to show the grace that is in Himself above the evil. It is true that the time was not yet come to show evil completely baffled and set aside, because this could not be till Christ and the cross. For all this, God is God and loves to be known as the God of grace, and it came out in the midst of all the evil that was in this world. Could it be said to be a new thing? The pledge of grace in Genesis 3 had testified, even when sin had just entered man's heart, that God is the God of grace. The woman's Seed to bruise the serpent's head was the very first intimation after the fall of man. I do not deny that there was judgment too; but while there was an expression of present judgment in the earth becoming a scene of curse and trial with thorns and thistles externally, with death and sorrow for the future life of man and especially of woman, there was the resource of grace above all, the suffering but victorious destroyer of the evil one, the Seed of the woman.

Is it not remarkable that not a thought of the woman's Seed is breathed through the friends of Job. On the contrary, in the portion that comes before us at this time, the Seed of the woman had a most central place in the heart of Job. It is not in the least denied that the others were believers; but “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Why is it that they never once touch on that blessed One that was to make good and manifest the superiority of grace over all evil? Why was it that they could not rise above the fear of evil underneath? that they thought it useless, along with bright promises of present good in repentance, to do more than censure and warn and threaten, turning even to bitter account now the testimony of Job's former life? Their conclusion was that his evil was finding him out, that judgment was pursuing the hypocrite. Alas! not one man among them knew what it is to overcome evil with good. Doubtless there was present and open failure in Job, though not the hidden evil of their suspicious minds. But grace overcomes evil with good. Why did they not? There was deplorable failure in all but God; and this too the book clearly shows.

But there is another lesson which we find the more that they advance in their injurious insinuations. It is hard to conceive anything that is more crushing to the spirit of a godly man; for, as there is no plain distinct charge, so they allege no facts to be laid on the conscience. The judicial spirit that governed them withdrew their hearts from waiting till God manifested the truth of things, and disposed them hastily to take advantage unconsciously of the sufferer's intemperate speech, to found on it the suspicion of worse deeds behind it all. They could say here, “Thine own mouth condemneth thee; thine own lips testify against thee.” And what could poor Job say? Was it quite false? It was too true; but what did they gather from it? Some dark, deep iniquity that God was judging. Nay, but they were judging and judging wrongly.

There was faith underneath, and a believing in God incomparably stronger and truer in Job than in any one of those that blamed him, as God failed not to bring out in the end.

Let us pursue the book a little. Eliphaz, then, after reproving Job for his disrespect to his elders, comes to what God is in His perfect holiness, and on the other hand to man in his sinfulness. Perfectly true; but how did this meet the difficulty? Is that the whole case as it stands? Is there nothing but man suffering for his abominations in the world? Is there no room for a righteous man to suffer in this world? Is there no enemy to afflict, no God to chasten? To them there was but the one thought of judging sins. Their heart had never yet faced the solemnity of the righteous tried deeply, of God allowing His own to be put to the proof peculiarly and to suffer. They had narrowed their minds to the one thought that, whenever severe blows fell on a man they were the unerring indication of something uncommonly bad. If therefore unparalleled troubles had befallen Job (and who could deny it?), it must be that Job was the worst of men.

Such was the theory and their application of it. They were thoroughly wrong. It was not sin, nor was it ill will; yet equally uncharitable in result was the working of their ignorance of God's ways. And surely there is in this history grave matter for our reflection if we would not thus fail. There was no intentional flagrant mischief, nor indeed is this the usual way in which a child of God injures or is injured. As a rule, it is partial truth that damages his spirit. An unconverted man is swept away by his own will and Satan's lies; but he that fears God may be misled grievously by a partial view of God or man. Hence the immense moment of our seeking not merely a truth, but the truth. For us, too, there is the less absence of excuse now, because of the unspeakable privilege that we have the truth fully revealed in Christ, who is not merely a truth, but the truth objectively, as the Spirit is in power.

How then are we using the grace thus shown us? Is it Christ or our own thoughts that we bring in as a standard to judge whatever comes before us? Now had the friends turned, I will not say to such a revelation of God as we possess, but to what is given in the very first communication of God, the third chapter of Genesis to which we have referred, what would have been the result? How does God speak of Him there, and how would it have applied to the case in hand? Would it not have kept them from unrighteous judgment in this way? There surely, if anywhere, is the pattern of all perfection in this world. Was He to pass through without suffering? Would the serpent spare Him? Before his own head should be bruised he was to bruise His heel. The first revelation of God then about the Seed of the woman, the coming Deliverer, ought to have guarded them, like others, from the sad mistake which the book of Job is designed to correct. It is a bruised One that is to bruise Satan finally. He must suffer many things, whatever the glories that should follow. And what believer could think of evil in His case? Does suffering, if unequaled, suppose evil in Him? In no wise. The theory, therefore, that the sole cause of suffering for a man in this world is the evil of which God sees him guilty, is false, and not the less but the more mischievous a falsehood, because of a certain measure of truth in it. A narrow view may be most pernicious.

For it is untrue, on the other hand, that evil has nothing to do with man's suffering in this world. If there were no evil, there had been no suffering. Sin then, no doubt, has an immense deal to do with it as the general rule. Take man here below; take any one indulging in any evil: does he not suffer? Of course he does. Thus it is a positive principle of God's righteous government that evil never can be indulged in without entailing the solemn dealing of His hand, though room be left for the distinct working and even suffering of grace. It is true, not only in the future, but also in the present, that one reaps as one sows. But is it the sole or the whole truth? Is God limited to His government? In no way. There was where Eliphaz and his companions were wrong; and Satan knows well how to bend to his own purposes that particular side of truth which we either choose or overlook.

There comes in the immense importance of seeing the early lesson of the book, which is that we have to do with not only God but Satan. We have to resist one who is not only an accuser before God, but, as the last book of the Bible teaches like the first, a deceiver among men. It is inexcusable that we should be deceived, because we have now that scene, and a vast deal more, made known to us plainly. That which could not have been then rightly laid before Job and his friends, as it would have been altogether premature, is as a whole laid bare to us, who are now by redemption, and in a new life, responsible to walk according to the light of God fully revealed in Christ.

The Christian is now not in the dark, as they comparatively were. We walk in the light. And carefully remember, my brethren, that to “walk in the light” does not mean merely according to the light, important as this is, and our clear duty. That we walk in the light is universally true of the Christian. Thereby is not meant, as many assume, the special attainment or high measure of spirituality reached by some Christians. That we walk in the light flows from our being brought to God, who is light, and is the revealed place of nearness where grace has put all that are brought out of darkness into the marvelous light of God, that is, every Christian person now. We are light, and in the light; we are walking there, and not in darkness. And because by grace we walk in the light, we are bound to walk according to the light.

But our responsibility to walk according to the light is wholly different from, though founded on, our walking in the light. If we are Christians really, we follow Christ, and have the light of life; and so we walk in the light, as men do literally while it is day. It is precisely where the knowledge of Christ as the light places us all. For now no man can follow Christ, or, in other words, can be a Christian, without walking in that light. It is not the spiritual only but every Christian who enjoys this as his settled constant privilege. But although we walk there, it does not follow that we walk faithfully according to the light. This is where we see practical differences abound among Christians; but there is no difference at all in the great truth, that now we all walk in the light as God is in the light. As yet, however, it was not the time for that light to shine, and therefore we are far less excusable than they if we forget it; for all this is made known to us to preserve us from the mistakes into which even good men then fell.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

Work of Christ and Witness of the Holy Ghost Will of God

HEBREWS 10.

The basis of the argument of the apostle in this chapter lies more in the contrast than in the comparison between the law and the good things to come. The law, he says, had only a shadow, not the very image of things. For example, under the law the priests ministered in infirmity; now Christ ministers in glory. They offered oftentimes the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins; He one sacrifice—once for all. Then there was a veil; now there is none. Then the priests could not enter into the Holiest; now we have boldness to enter in by the blood of Jesus. The law had a shadow of good things to come, not the very image. It was a mere figurative witness of the things that were to be spoken after. Just as the shadow of a man gives some general indistinct idea of him, but does not present a single feature clearly; so it was with the law. It could never make the corners thereunto perfect, as the repetition of its sacrifices showed. Now the unity of the sacrifice proves its perfection; and the present position of the worshippers gives the most complete contrast possible to that under the law, though there is a certain measure of analogy.

There are three things brought out in this scripture: first, the source from which all blessing springs; secondly, the means by which it is accomplished; and, thirdly, the testimony by which it is known.

This last is a most necessary part of the matter, in order to our communion; because, unless we know our sins to be all put away, it would be absolute madness to attempt to enter into the presence of God: a Jew even would not have thought of such a thing, much less a Christian. If I am not as clean as an angel, the presence of God is no place for me; and the attempt to appear in it would be to follow the example of Cain, who thought to stand before God as a worshipper without blood. We may cry to him from the depths, of course, and He will ever hear; but if the conscience be not perfect, we cannot go into His presence to worship.

With the Jews this perfection was, of course, only ceremonial; with us it is real: with them the veil hid God; now that it is gone, and that we enter into the holiest of all, there is the greater need of perfection of conscience. This is why the apostle insists so strongly on the word “once.” Indeed, all the reasoning of the chapter depends on it. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” If those sacrifices could have wrought perfection of conscience, would they not have ceased to be offered? Christ was once offered, thereby proving the perfect result of His work; it needed no repetition. That is why he says, elsewhere in this epistle, that, if this be rejected, “there remaineth no more offering for sin.” If that has not made perfect, there is no hope. If that be rejected, there is only “a fearful looking for of judgment.” In the repetition of sacrifice there was a remembrance made of sins. It was not God's saying, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Christians now have often a mind to be in the same place still, and call their unbelief humility. With the Jews, of course, it must have been so, because it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sins. Therefore God changes the whole thing. “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”

This brings out the first principle to which I alluded, namely, the source of all blessing. It originates in the divine will. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” It originates in the will of God, and not in the will of man: this is only sin. As a creature, man should have no will of his own, just as Christ had none. The principle of his obedience was not a controlling power, hindering the operation of His own will; but, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” This was perfect obedience as a man. God's will was His; and that will alone brought salvation and life, where man's will had only brought sin and death. This gives stability and perfection to everything, to find its source and origin in the will of God. If it had been the result of my will, all would have been vacillating and changing as man's will is; and, moreover, if we had earned heaven by our own will, there would have been no love of God in the matter, and we should lose the sweetness of holding everything as the fruit of divine love.

This will of God is not presented to man to do; it is the Son of God who says, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” Men could never have done the will of God; the last Adam does it. As belonging to the first Adam, our place is to confess that we have not done, and that we never could do, the will of God. When brought back to Him, of course we have nothing else to do, for we are sanctified unto obedience; but, as regards acceptance, it is the result of the work of another. “By the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” God does all for us in grace, and leaves man out in both the will and work. Salvation is the result of God's will and Christ's work. And it gives quietness and confidence in this work, to see that it was not a work done to turn God towards us, as it were, but that from all eternity it was counseled by Himself. We have the source of all in the unchangeable purpose of God.

Secondly, we have the work itself. It is a wonderful thing for us to be thus let into what passed between the Father and the Son before the world was; and most blessed to see the freewill offering of Christ. If it were God's will to be the author of our salvation, it was equally Christ's to be the instrument of it; and whilst He, in order to be so, makes Himself a servant, His divine power is still evinced in the very expression, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” That could be said by none but one competent to execute any command of God. Supposing that command had been to make a world, instead of to save one, Christ was the only one who could do such a will; and in fact, both divine power and divine love were evinced in redemption and resurrection, in a higher degree than in creation.

In verse 5, where the quotation is from Psalm 40, the verbal difference is considerable, but the sense identical. “A body hast thou prepared me,” and “Mine ears hast thou opened,” or “digged,” are both expressions of assuming the form of a servant. The ear receives commands, and the boring of the ear was making one a servant forever. So when a body was prepared for Christ, He took on Him the form of a servant.

Thus far we have the will of God working in grace, and Christ undertaking to accomplish it.

Then in verse 11 we have the contrast between the priest standing and Christ sitting. His work is finished—there is nothing further to do; and He sits down till His foes be made His footstool, “Forever,” in verse 12, means “continually” or “constantly"; not that Christ will never rise again, but as regards His sacrifice for sins He will never have to rise again to do anything more. Having offered one sacrifice for sins, He sits down till His foes be made His footstool. As regards His friends, all is done—not as to intercession of course—but as to acceptance and perfecting the conscience. But He has still to deal with His enemies; therefore is He waiting, still retaining His servant character, until God makes His foes His footstool. We, too, are expecting, till Christ rises up from the throne and judges His enemies. This is not done yet: else wickedness would be purged from the earth; and it explains the call for vengeance in the Psalms, which sometimes puzzles people— “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered,” &c.; and, “Of thy mercy cut off mine enemies.” These surely are not the cries of the church. She does not want to see her enemies judged but saved. She goes to meet the Lord in the air. Not so the Jewish remnant. It passes through great tribulation; and “except those days were shortened, no flesh should be saved.” So they call earnestly enough for deliverance. But such is not our part at all; we are associated with Christ while expecting; in grace now, and in glory by-and-by, but not in judgment.

In verse 12 we have seen that Christ's one sacrifice was such that He has sat down forever; so in verse 14 we read, that “by one offering he hath perfected forever” —or “continually” “them that are sanctified.” Thus we are continually perfect; not practically here—though the Spirit sanctifies the heart and affections as far as this goes—but here the work of Christ makes the conscience constantly perfect. “The worshippers, once purged, should have no more conscience of sins.” Thus we are brought into the presence of God, never to have any more conscience of sins. “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” We are called so to know Christ's work, as to see that it is quite impossible for us to have sin on us before God. Sin cannot be in God's presence. There is nothing but perfection there; and we are there because perfected forever by the one offering of Jesus. We are in God's presence because we are clean, as clean as He could wish us to be. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” It is quite true we have to keep a conscience void of offense, and not to grieve the Spirit; but we are sealed of God unto the day of redemption; and there can be no mistake. The Holy Ghost could not dwell in us unless cleansed by the blood of Christ; and then He is the witness, not to the fruits, but to the virtue of that blood. The fruits could not be produced unless He were there, of course, because they are “the fruit of the Spirit,” and when produced, the order is, first, the internal ones, then all the rest. “Love, joy, peace,” precede the outward manifestations of the Spirit's presence.

The Christian ought to keep himself in the present communion of his known place before God, because then, besides the joy, the Holy Ghost has its full flow in using him as a vessel to others, in God's service; whereas otherwise He must occupy us with ourselves. I have not only communion, but power, only as thus in immediate intercourse with God in His presence.

We now come to the third point. Having seen the source of all in the divine will, and the accomplishment of all in the divine work, we get the testimony to it all in the divine witness. “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after that he had said before, This is the covenant,” &c., then He said, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” And here is the secret of settled peace. If I think that God will ever remember sins, I am denying the will, the work, and the testimony of God. In short, if a believer in Jesus, it comes to being a sin to have the least thought of God's ever imputing a sin to me. It is just as much a work of the flesh as to commit the sin. He does not now impute sin, and He never will. “Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin,” sweeps away every refuge of lies, and lays the blessed foundation for full confidence. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus,” shows that the very way we enter into God's presence proves that the thing which shut us out is gone forever.

“Our bodies washed with pure water,” refers to the priests, who were washed with water, sprinkled with blood, and anointed with oil. The latter is not mentioned here. After they were once washed, the priests needed only to wash their hands and feet. The anointing with blood of the ear, the thumb and the toe, was the application of the work of Christ to the whole moral man. The work of Christ is always set first, then follows the work of the Spirit. In Ephesians it is said, “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.” Therefore in the tabernacle the first thing you meet is not the laver, but the altar. As a sinner, I must first meet the blood; then I am fitted for service, by the removal of all that is contrary to God: but I cannot skip the altar to reach the laver; I must there own myself a sinner first; then I can delight in the holiness of God, and understand it too.

The apostle then goes on, “Consider one another to provoke unto love,” &c., that is, having got to God in grace, we must be diligent in acting towards others in grace. He introduces “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together,” to meet the tendency there was to avoid public testimony, and to think that private faith would do in times of persecution such as these were. This was their natural tendency; and, whether it be persecution or reproach, it is the same thing. The latter is perhaps our snare. “And so much the more as ye see the day approaching;” for judgment is surely coming. If the power of evil increases there is the more need to cling closely to Christ. And we must not suppose that the world is improving because the Spirit is working; on the contrary, this is just the proof that judgment is nearing. The more rapidly souls are gathered in, the more reason have we for believing the coming of the Lord to be' at hand. Whilst the long-suffering of God is salvation, the hope should ever be a present one to the church. It was the wicked servant who said, “My lord delayeth his coming;” yet He did delay it.

Then, in verse 26, it is as though he said, If you do not hold fast—if you will give up, and abandon this perfect sacrifice, then there remains nothing further; there is no year of atonement to come round again with a new offering; but just as those who believe are eternally perfect, so he who refuses is left remediless. It was he who despised Moses's law who died without mercy, and not he who broke it; so it is he “who counts the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and does despite to the Spirit of grace, that shall be counted worthy of a sorer punishment"; not he who fails. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins"; such is the gracious provision for failure through infirmity—advocacy, righteousness, and propitiation. But if a man, after having seen all the grace and fullness that are in Christ, deliberately choose sin as his portion; and, rejecting the blood of the new covenant as insufficient, turns back again, then he must take the consequence. God's grace is His last resource, so to speak, for winning man. If that does not suffice, judgment must take its course; and “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” On this ground the position is at once that of “adversaries,” and we know Him that hath said, “Vengeance is mine, I will recompense.” “Let us, therefore, hold fast our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward"; and let us remember that we shall “have need of patience; but yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.”

J. N. D.

BY THE LATE W. KELLY
GOD'S INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES (New Edition) 4/6 net.

IN THE BEGINN4NG (Genesis i.-ii. 3), New Edition.

1/6 net.

THE PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON (1 Peter 3:18-20).......

1/6 &

2/-

THE GOSPEL OF TILE GLORY OF CHRIST (2 Corinthians 3:4)

2d.

CHRIST FOR THE SAINT, AND CHRIST FOR THE SINNER (Revelation 22:17).....

2d.

WE MUST ALL BE MANIFESTED (2 Corinthians 5). .

THE SOUL NEITHER MORTAL NOR TO SLEEP. . 12d.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE-A DELUSION OF THE DAY, 6d. per dos.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 12

The deep sorrow of bereavement was not the only burden pressing upon the heart of this saint of God. To whom should she look for comfort and consolation at such a moment if not to the father of her dead son? The lack of sympathy and inability on the part of her husband to understand her reasons for going to the prophet, must surely have intensified the trial, but it made manifest that she alone was the subject of the Lord's dealings at this time. Whilst many may pass through similar circumstances, yet few get the blessing in result which God has intended. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But it ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth a matter of joy, but of grief; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:6-11).

The unexercised soul goes through the trial in pride, or in the strength of nature. The heart is hardened and perhaps the conscience seared, and so the blessing is lost, for God would deal specially with the conscience. We see this in Elihu's answer to Job (Job 33:19-25). It is said of one of the most self-willed kings of Judah, that “At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.” “For Jehovah brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against Jehovah, and Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of Jehovah, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria; but he helped him not. And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against Jehovah: this is that king Ahaz” (2 Chronicles 28:16, 19-22). Ahaz was a man whom affliction could not soften; on the contrary, it hardened him.

It was not that there was anything very bad in this woman's husband. We do not read that he opposed or attempted to hinder her, but he failed to hear the voice of God. Passing through the same circumstances as his wife, he was not exercised thereby. He received the gift without either astonishment or thankfulness. In the death of his son he had no question to ask of God or of His servant, and henceforth he disappears from view. Such people prefer instead to have some kind of religious profession-a lamp, even if they have no “oil in their vessels with their lamps” (Matthew 25:4). They remain satisfied with mere externals, “new moons and sabbaths.” They know nothing of the power of revealed truth received by faith that sets the soul in the immediate presence of God outside and above all such influences. We may notice here that faith grows with exercise. The more that grace is manifested so much the more does faith press its demands. We need not marvel at this when we consider that the God who blesses is the same God who by His Spirit awakens desires towards Himself, which He alone can satisfy. Surely we may say with Hezekiah, “What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live” (Isaiah 38:15, 16).

The man of the world desires nothing better than uninterrupted peace and prosperity. The Christian can “glory in tribulations also,” because every fresh difficulty or painful trial sends him to God in prayer, and each new experience of the Lord's unbounded love draws out his heart afresh in thanksgiving to God. Where this is the constant habit of the soul there will be no intemperate display of either joy or grief before the world. And so with this Shunammite; she has but one answer to all inquiries as to her trouble, for “the heart knoweth its own bitterness and a stranger intermeddleth not with its joys,” and, in a way, even her husband appeared a stranger to her.

“So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite! Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, [Is it] well with thee? well with thy husband? well with the child? And she answered, Well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet; but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her; and Jehovah hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her” (2 Kings 4:25-30). It is evident that the deep exercises of her heart found no expression in her outward demeanor. Faith and spiritual discernment had drawn her to the prophet, and to no one else would she make known her sorrow. It would have been waste of time. Her behavior under this deep trial was beautiful. Like another, she could say, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself like a weaned child.” This is the first manifested result of having to do with God. “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 passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6, 7). The trial may not yet be removed, but the heart is satisfied, and it is only a question of waiting His time. “Thou wilt keep [him in] perfect peace, [whose] mind is stayed [on thee], because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in Jehovah forever: for in Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:3, 4). Faith gets the victory and blesses God for it, but the soul thus blessed does not spread before others the secret exercises of the heart. These are before God in the sanctuary.

“It is well” might suffice for first her husband and then Gehazi. But to the man of God she reveals the depth of her sorrow, yet in such a way as made it evident that she had grown wonderfully since the promise had been given. She reminds him that she had not desired the son now lying dead in the prophet's room. Was, not this equivalent to setting up a claim upon the living God that He should give her back her son in resurrection? Faith is bold and God delights in encouraging and satisfying the faith which honors Him. The unbelieving and the unspiritual are left far behind here and faith gains its end. Even Elisha finds himself at fault, although his ignorance of what had actually happened was used in the wisdom of God to complete the test that so she might be shut up to God Himself. Her knowledge of the ways of God, learned under Elisha's ministry, forbade her expecting any good results from the prophet's staff in the hands of his servant. This was to be classed with the “new moons and sabbaths” her husband spoke of, and which, through human interference with divine institutions, had been deprived of their value. In point of fact there was nothing real in Israel now. The emblem of power in the hands of a hireling could accomplish nothing. She was not to be put off with such. A very definite need was pressing upon her heart which God alone could meet. Her strong faith did not prevent her from feeling deeply the weight of the trial. Words and actions alike gave expression to it. “Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?” Her faith was indeed sorely tried, but the end was near. The divine Husbandman was purging this promising branch and pruning the tender plant with infinite skill and patience. Only what is of God will stand such searching tests. The dross is consumed, the gold abides. Human workmanship is destroyed, for “the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”

From the very earliest days it has been the sin of the church to deny the presence and operation of the Holy Ghost and to substitute human activity and human wisdom, both in the worship and service of God. Of course, this has not been done openly, although the progress of “Modernism,” the “New Theology,” the “Higher Criticism,” etc., are every day bringing us nearer to the apostasy of Christendom and its judgment. They alone are safe who in the consciousness of weakness cling tenaciously to all that God has given, and which faith values. In Elisha's day what was there of reality in Israel but that tender mercy and compassion of God in which Jehovah visited His people? There was nothing he could connect Himself with, hence the necessity of getting rid of whatever interfered with the free action of God's Spirit, or that obscured the testimony to that boundless love and mercy in which God was yearning over His poor sinful people to do them good. The worldly wisdom of the husband must be set aside. He could see no reason or utility in drawing near to God or seeking Him at such a time. So, too, must the zeal of Gehazi for his master be disowned. It would have kept her away from the Lord she sought. Officialism or delegated power or authority breaks down and fails completely to meet her case, but she never trusted it. The words, “As Jehovah liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee,” attested the reality of her faith and the depth and intensity of her spiritual convictions. These words are the same in which Elisha's faith at the commencement of his career had declared itself in his own attachment to Elijah. These are not mere sentiments, but the unmistakable signs of divine workmanship giving the individual where all is lost as to collective and united testimony to take his stand upon divine principles and to say to the Lord Jesus, “Come what may, I will not leave Thee.”

“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Holy One of God” (John 6:68, 69).

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Nehemiah 8

This chapter both teaches and illustrates a truth which pervades the Book of God, and on which our salvation depends—that grace prevails; the work of Christ, through the blood of Christ, over the work of Satan, sin, and death; the gospel of peace over all the terrors and accusations of the conscience.

It was thus in the story and in the experience of Adam. He ruined himself and retreated from the presence of God, a sinner; but the voice of mercy, revealing the mystery of the bruised and bruising Seed of the woman, followed him into his guilty distance, and drew him back to God in peace and assurance.

The end of all flesh again came before God in the days of Noah. But the ark which God had prescribed, and which faith had adopted, rode above the water floods.

Judgment entered the land of Egypt, having title against every house there, the Israelite's as well as the Egyptian's. But the blood on the lintel, which grace had prescribed and which faith had used, sheltered the house which had thus been let into the secret of God.

The thunders of Sinai made all the host to tremble. Even Moses could not stand before them. He quakes and fears exceedingly. He can no more stand there than the feeblest Israelite. But he is taken above the place of the thunders to the place where Christ is revealed to him in the shadows of good things to come, and there he is with unveiled face.

After this, judgment enters Canaan, as it had afore entered Egypt. But grace again prescribed what faith again used; the scarlet line was now hung out, as the blood had then been sprinkled, and judgment passed by.

It was after this same pattern, in some sort, all through the times of Israel; for during that age. Mosaic or legal or conditional as it was, there were ordinances that bespoke the old truth, the truth that had been taught from the beginning. The temple set aside the sabbath then; that is, the priest did the business of the temple on the sabbath day; in other words, the service of grace prevailed over the demands of law (Matthew 12).

In due season, the gospel comes forth to reveal this great, this earliest truth in all its glory. For this is the gospel in the blood of Jesus. “Grace triumphant reigns.” It reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

This beautiful eighth of Nehemiah has a vivid illustration of this same truth, which thus, as we see, pervades, and I may add, necessarily pervades, the Book of God.

The law was read, in the presence of the congregation of Israel at Jerusalem, on the first day of the seventh month. That day was the mystic or typical day of revival, the day of the blowing of trumpets, and of the new moon (see Leviticus 23; Psalm 81).

The people, listening to the law on such a day as this, are commanded by those who then sat in Moses' seat, to let their minds be formed by the day, and not by the law. That is, they were told not to mourn, but to be merry. Very right that they should mourn, if they heard the law alone, but hearing it on such a day as the first day of the seventh month, they heard it as in the presence of the grace and quickening and salvation of God, and their place and duty is to have their souls formed by grace. Right, again I say, it is, nay needful, that we should be broken-hearted in the sense of our sin and of our ruin, and under the hearing of the law; but when the healing of God visits us, we are to learn the joy that healing imparts, and have our minds framed accordingly. If the law and the first day of the seventh month come together, as here—if the service of the temple, and the sabbath are in collision—the claim of the law must give place to that of that mystic day, and the sabbath yield to the temple—as we learn from Matthew 12:5.

We may remember our condition as sinners, but we are to enjoy our condition as saved (Ephesians 2:11-18).

Booths were made in the Feast of Tabernacles. But they were only remembrancers, in order to enhance the present joy of the tribes of the Lord, in the cities and villages and land of their possession, telling them, as such booths did, that they had once traversed a wilderness. So again, in the ordinance of the basket of first-fruits: that his father had been a Syrian, ready to perish, was, on the occasion of that ordinance, to be remembered by the Israelite; but his well-filled basket was at that moment in his hand and under his eye, that he might worship in the sense of a present goodly inheritance (see Leviticus 23:33-43; Deuteronomy 26:1-11).

And so here, in this beautiful chapter. The law rightly caused the people to mourn—but, the day on which it was now read to them, being the first day of the seventh month, mourning under the law must give place to joy. Yea, and more than that. It must now form the mind and character of the people.

And blessed it is to see grace forming character (see Titus 2:11-14). We may see it doing so in each of the cases I have noticed.

What, let me ask, formed Adam's character, as we see him and his company in Genesis 4? It was the redemption he had learned. He was there seen as a stranger on the earth, and a worshipper of God.

What formed Noah's character in the ark? The deliverance he was then proving. We do not find him, in the spirit of fear, with an uneasy mind handling the gopher-boards of his house, to prove whether they were keeping the waters out; but we see him opening the windows, to take a look out, in expectation of the new world.

What formed Israel's character in the paschal night of Egypt? They were feeding on the lamb whose blood at that moment was sheltering them. They were doing this in liberty of heart, and not anxiously thinking of the scene outside, whether indeed the angel had passed by their door.

What gave Moses a character, when he was up with God above and beyond the fires of Sinai? He is there, with unveiled face, as at home with the Lord.

What gave Rahab her character after she had hung out the scarlet line? She got as many under the salvation of it, as ever she could, desirous to share her own well-assured and enjoyed blessing.

And what characterizes Nehemiah's congregation here, as soon as they learn the mystery of the first day of the seventh month? They send portions to others, eat the fat and drink the sweet themselves, and learn the lesson of glory, now standing in the salvation of grace.

And I now further ask, What is to give the believer his character, what is to form his mind and his experience? Surely, the consciousness of being quickened and saved and accepted. He is to know himself brought nigh by the blood of Christ; though he may remember that he was a Gentile, a sinner, uncircumcised, far off, without God, without hope, a child of wrath even as others. The joy of the Lord is to be his strength, as it was to be Israel's in the day of Nehemiah 8—a strength that shall deliver from self-seeking and the love of the world in its vanity and covetousness, leading him with largeness of heart, as it did Israel then, to seek to make others as happy as himself, and to wait for the glory, or the heavenly Feast of Tabernacles.

For, as the gospel prevails over the law in the progress of the dispensations of God, so is it to prevail in the heart and conscience of the people of God. Many of us may be feeble, hindered by nature and by Satan, and the good Lord knows how to comfort the feeble and to support the weak, but still we must recognize this which we speak of, to be His way, and recognize it also as what ought to be our way.

God is to be apprehended by us in grace. We are to know Him as love, and find our dwelling in Him, on the title of the sacrifice which He Himself has accomplished in Jesus. The law may have taught us to deal with Him as righteous, and to think of Him as a Judge—and He is all that, it is true; for all glories belong to Him, whether of power or of holiness, of majesty or of truth, and of all beside; but the gospel teaches us to know Him likewise in grace, gives us communion with Him as a Savior, and forms our character accordingly.

J. G. B.

Lectures on Job 16-19

NEXT, in the answer of Job (chaps. 16, 17.), we may observe that he expresses his deep sense of their complete failure in meeting his case. “I have heard many such things,” said he: “miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead,” he adds very affectingly, “I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.” Just let them change places, had this been possible; let those three friends be in the position of Job; let them have, not only their possessions, but their families, completely swept away by the besom of destruction, and in a manner that looked like the effect of divine displeasure; let their persons too suffer in a way as marked and excruciating as Job's, so as to afford to the most careless eye the most unmistakable sign of some peculiarly tremendous dealing with them; let them be only in such circumstances, and Job be the friend that comes to speak with them: could he not have indulged in words and looks quite as severe? I cannot but think the answer here a most touching appeal, especially when he goes on, “But I would strengthen you with my mouth.” There he has the unquestionable advantage in grace over them. “I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.” Not a word had come from them with such a character or purpose.

“Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?” Certainly he did not disown what they interpreted to his disadvantage, the depth of his desolation. Had they pressed against him the fact that God had permitted it all? It was this very thing he felt so keenly. Thus far Job was, beyond contradiction, pious. He acknowledged the truth. He does not lay his ruin on the Chaldeans, or other secondary causes. He does not explain it away by instrumental circumstances. He saw God's hand without in the least entering into His mind about the trial, still less His love; and that was just the reason why all was at present so inexplicable to his soul. He holds fast his integrity, perfectly sure that there was nothing of that which they imagined against him, no dreadful secret, no burdening sin, which God was therein avenging. His conscience was good. Job could not tell how or why it was, while he mournfully felt that God was in it all; but he was no less certain that his friends foully wronged him; and that, if they stood in his shoes, far different would his words have been to them. “But now,” says he, “he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company. And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me.” There was no hiding, no hard pretension in any way that he was suffering less than the reality. Nay, he goes to the opposite extreme, and uses language exceedingly to be regretted: “He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.” This is strong language when we remember whence Job felt his troubles come, whoever might be the means or instrument of them. Still he admits, and holds to it firmly, that the enemy could not have discharged his vials of wrath upon him unless God had given the word. He saw then the twofold truth, on the one hand, of God holy, just, good; on the other hand, of God visiting him with trials unexampled and utterly overwhelming. But he could not solve the problem, still less his friends, who misread both to growing doubt of Job's faith and probity.

But Job clung still to God, though he complained bitterly and unbecomingly. How and why such trial of himself could be, wherefore God should reverse His ways with him, he could not understand; but he does not deny the truth for a moment. He does use language painfully descriptive of the distress his soul was passing through: “They have gaped upon me with their mouth.” It is not at all the only time that we may have to take notice of language that remarkably connects itself with that of the Psalms. Anyone that will take the trouble to compare the two books, may readily see a number of expressions pointedly similar. The instance before us may illustrate. Who in the Psalms speaks of their gaping like a ravening lion? It is the Lord on the cross. But what a difference! “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Not a word of this is heard on Job's part. In consequence of the fiery trial that Job was passing through, he speaks as if God were dealing hardly with him, as if He were become mysteriously his enemy; consequently he breaks out into bitterness, the natural effect of such a thought. The state of the soul must always depend on how one looks, or fails to look, at God. How all-important, therefore, that one should have and enjoy the knowledge of God as He is, that the soul should be at ease and at home with Him, self-judging and resting in His love.

The effect of real enjoyment of God's love, of course, is that love flows from us. It was not so with anyone there. Job was right enough in feeling that God had to do with his sore trial. Little did he know what had taken place on high, which afforded the key at least to part of it. Still he could leave God out of no part, which, as it wrought in his friends to judge unduly of Job, and falsely of God—for they were wholly wrong—so it tended for the moment to give Job hard feelings about God. He murmured as if he were dealt with hardly. “God hath delivered me,” says he, “to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.” He avows with the utmost frankness that without Him none of these trials could “happen.” There was real faith, although he was imperfectly instructed as yet. “I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.”

But was it true that he restrained prayer before God? Listen to his own words: “My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.” Eliphaz had thoroughly wronged him. “O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high;” that is, he as to this can turn to God. Whether prayer had been restrained could be judged absolutely by none but God Himself. Job acts upon it here, it would seem; and, if I be not mistaken, this is just his appeal: “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.” It was utterly false that he did not cry to God. “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.”

And so through the next chapter (17.), where he pours out his lament, we find this. Had the suspicion—one might call it the charge—of his friends been true, there is one thing that, above all others, would have been terrible in his apprehension. Need I say that it would be death? So far from this, however, there was nothing that Job so much desired as death. It was in vain to talk to him about any change for him on earth; it was vain to talk to him about his family; or any retrieving the disasters that had swallowed all up. None of these things would have afforded the smallest comfort to the heart of Job; but if he could only die, if he could only approach near enough to God to plead before Him, not even now did he doubt what he would find there. How plain that, if it was only a partial revelation which had formed the heart of Job, still the substance of the truth was his.

Assuredly there is nothing that could more thoroughly test a man than that. A bad conscience would have shrunk from death, as the stripping it of all disguise, and destruction to the soul. Job, on the contrary, proved not his reality alone, but the state of his conscience, by the fact of his earnest desire to depart and be with God. We see his confidence in God then, even while he spreads out his sorrows, with no other thought than death before him. “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.”

Then (ch. 18.) the second of Job's friends takes up the word. As we noticed in the former debate, Bildad has much less gentleness of spirit and less self-restraint, than his older friend Eliphaz, who takes the lead in all these discussions. He therefore is much more unscrupulous in bringing out his doubt of Job, his implication of hypocrisy; for this is really what soon comes out. “How long will it be,” he says, “ere ye make an end of words? mark and afterward we will speak. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight? He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place? Yea, the light of the wicked” (was this what he insinuates to be in Job, “the light of the wicked”?) “shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him. The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.” “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Such is the spirit of Bildad. He was satisfied that, whatever might have been the appearances, they were all hollow, and that now the truth could no longer be hid: God's judgments and Job's language were making it manifest that he had been simply a prosperous fool, with its just and usual end in this life. We all understand, of course, what is meant in Scripture by the “fool” —a man without God. No folly is like it. So he believes it to have been with Job. Is it not humbling and solemn that we may be ever so sincere in what we believe, but completely wrong? We are just as responsible for what our convictions are as for what we do or say. The only one that is competent to give us the right thought or feeling is He who alone gives the wisdom and strength to carry it out. It is God Himself. We are entirely dependent on Him to form our thoughts and feelings according to His mind just as much as for our ways.

But to proceed. Bildad adds, “He shall have neither son nor nephew among his people.” It is painful to see how his hard spirit takes advantage of the pitiful calamity that had blotted out the children of Job. “Nor any remaining in his dwellings. They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.” Was Job such in the estimation of Bildad?

As this was the worst of the speeches hitherto, Job under the hand of God is led far out of and beyond himself. It may be slowly, and but for a little; still following this comes a bright glimpse at Him that is coming, the Seed of the woman, for whom saints waited from the first. “How long,” answered Job (ch. 19.), “will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?” for he felt that in their reproaches there was no weight, nothing but words.

I turn now to what Job says in reply to Bildad: “And be it indeed,” says he, “that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.” He felt that they had in no wise corrected it. “If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach” —too hasty to take occasion by his deep and accumulated afflictions “know now that God hath overthrown me.” How boldly he speaks out. And this, as far as it goes, could not have been without real faith, though it was far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord. Did they say that God was against Job? “God hath overthrown me,” he acknowledges. If it was any comfort for them to know, he confesses that his trouble came from His hand, that He “hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.” He himself points, not they, to his universal desertion, to the desertion of his wife, of his brethren, of his servants, of his household: in short, even youngsters acting contemptuously towards him. Those who once revered had all now deserted him. “I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. Yea, young children despised me.” So complete, as well as sudden, was the descent of Job. “All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.” It was the painful truth; and he allows it all.

“Have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.” This, so far as it went, seems to be excellent on Job's part. It was not the whole truth; but it was true, and not at all enfeebled because he holds fast the certainty that it was not for any wickedness that was in his hands. No evil had he been consciously cherishing; yet there was the undisguised fact—God was smiting him. He did not lay the blame on others; he would not attempt to account for it by human reasoning; just because he felt it to be from God, he felt it to be so painful. Whatever might be the means employed, it was God, the same God who had hedged him in and blessed him uniformly hitherto; and how to conciliate the present with the past he knew not. For that he had to wait. The answer came at last, when patience had its perfect work.

But he does not spare remonstrances or rebuke. “Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?” It was distress enough that he was suffering in this way. Were they justified in destroying his confidence in God? The drift of what they were doing was to make him doubt the sincerity of his own faith, which is clearly the devil's work. The Spirit of God never leads to a doubt. “Oh that my words were but written, that they were but inscribed in the book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Here we come to the very distinct confession of his faith. “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Beautiful too it was at such a time, in the deepest desolation and distress, where there was not one solitary friend among men, and God Himself was smiting him. How like Christ up to a certain point in his circumstances! How little like Him in his unwavering acknowledgment of God's holiness, as free from hardness as from repining! Still here we have a blessed confession, the more so because of the gloom, pain, and desertion in which it was uttered. “I know... 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.”

Some will probably have heard that people question, for one reason or another, the meaning of these words, or perhaps affirm that they mean “out of my flesh.” But then it ought to be remembered that “out of my flesh” can mean from within it, as you might look out from a window. It does not mean the separate spirit divested of the flesh. We must not confound “out of my flesh” with “without my flesh,” which it does not at all necessarily imply. It is the expression of his holding fast what every person, more particularly in the Old Testament, would maintain; that is, the true having to do personally with God, and in Old Testament thought personality meant the person fully, not merely therefore the soul and the spirit separate, but in the body too. So it is with Job; and this is what gives emphasis to his words. He can see the dissolution of his body at hand; he beholds everything crumbling into dust, and his flesh becoming the food of worms; but none the less does he cleave to the confidence that not only shall he see God, but this from out of his flesh. The resurrection therefore is clearly supposed in these words, and all the efforts of men to destroy the force of the passage are utterly vain.

But it is surely striking that we should hear such thoughts and language from these early days outside Israel. How comes it to pass? It is very evident that, after all, if there was but little made known by God, if there was but a comparatively small volume of truth revealed at that time, the Spirit of God gave that small revelation great force in the souls of those who believed it; and so we may be constantly surprised in the book of Genesis to find the advanced sentiments of one or another. I am far from saying that they speak in the know, ledge of the full light by which a Christian ought to judge now; but they display no mean acquaintance with the mind of God from time to time. Hear what Abraham and Isaac say, what even Jacob may utter, although it is granted that he has not at all the same moral elevation as Abraham; but still one learns from all that is recorded how much more they knew and could use in testimony than we might infer from their circumstances. It reminds me of a word in Proverbs, “There is much food in the tillage of the poor.” Thus, if there were but little, God knows how to make the little go far. This seems to be what He did with the patriarchs. Our danger now is in exactly the opposite direction. Grace has now revealed in Christ the fullness of truth; but, beloved brethren, how far do we turn it to His account? How does our “much” appear as compared with what we find these saints doing with their “little"? If theirs indeed was but a little, certainly God made it mighty, as we cannot deny, in its moral power and effects.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 2. Difficult Texts

If the general setting, so to speak, of Matthew 24 as now explained be apprehended, the details which follow will be found harmonious.

But the reader may ask: What about the wars and rumors of wars which the prophecy predicts? Surely that applies to the present time! One may boldly say that it does not. In a general way it may certainly be predicted of the whole period of the world's existence: but this prophecy is of something special. There is not now, nor has there been, any condition that would fulfill the language of the text: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places” (vers. 6, 7). So far from its being applicable to the present time, at the moment of writing this paper, except for the rising of an African tribe against the Germans, the whole world is at peace. For the insurrection in Russia is not war in the sense of our text; it is not nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; it is internal civil strife. Indeed, if we consider the pugnacity of man, it is rather surprising that there have not been more wars. For the last thirty years writers have been predicting a general European outbreak. During a length of time it was annually declared to be certain in the ensuing spring; but it has not yet occurred. The Franco-Prussian war was no sooner ended than a war of retaliation in a few years was declared to be a sure event, yet a generation has passed away without it.

Nor have casus belli been wanting. The Fashoda incident threatened war; yet England and France were never more friendly than to-day. The attack by the Russian Fleet in the North Sea upon harmless British fishermen might easily have precipitated, not only an Anglo-Russian, but a general. European war, yet were the hostile elements composed with little difficulty. Only recently a European Sovereign has had his dominion—Sweden and Norway—rent in twain, and one half placed under another king in whom a new dynasty has been founded; and this without the firing of a gun or the drawing of a sword. Another Sovereign, perhaps the most influential of the world at the present time—King Edward of England—has been visiting various Courts of Europe in the interests of peace, spreading quietness and assurance in every direction. The German Emperor threatening the world with his “mailed fist” is an anachronism, for the genius of the time is pacific. Had it not been so his notorious telegram to President Kruger might have lit the fire of war through Europe; while his attempt to embroil the nations over the Morocco affair has proved a fiasco.

It is possible that the misapplication of this notable text has, within the area of Christendom, unconsciously influenced the public mind, augmenting the fear of wars, causing a bellicose attitude, and been not uninfluential in the excessive increase of armaments amongst the nations. Whatever wars may have been in the past, they have not been as a rule simultaneously numerous: and it is questionable whether any state of international strife has ever existed, commensurate with the terms of the prophecy, much less when we collate it with the vivid vision of the Apocalypse with which it coincides in both time and character, viz: “And when he had opened the second seal, there went out another horse that was red, and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword” (Revelation 6:4).

The figures here are too graphic and obvious to need elucidation. But preceding that is the first seal, which is a direct contrast. In the second seal the horse is red, indicating bloodshed, and to its rider is given a great sword. In the first seal, however, the rider has a bow, less fateful and less hurtful, yet signifying distant achievements as contrasted with the near conflict of the sword; and consistently with this the rider goes forth “conquering and to conquer.” But the controlling feature in each of the four seals is the color of the horse, and this horse is white. One of the ablest expositors of the Revelation says upon this: “Aggressive power which subjugates is meant by the horse in every color; but in the first case that power seems to subject men bloodlessly. He had a bow, emblematic of distant warfare, not close or hand to hand. The measures are so successful—the name itself carries such prestige with it—that it becomes one onward career of conquest without necessarily involving slaughter. But in the second seal the great point is that the peace of the earth is taken away, and 'that they should slay one another.' “

Now the seals are the first series of events in the book of the Revelation. So far, therefore, as prophecy is concerned, the proximate outlook for the world is not any special or extraordinary time of warfare or disasters. There is nothing in scripture to indicate fundamental change in the course of the age until after the church is translated; and even then the outburst will not be immediate, though there will be, and already are, premonitions. But the winds of judgment are held in restraint, as we have seen, until the elect of the twelve tribes of Israel have been sealed; and the first event of the first series of events in the Apocalypse reveals the rider on a white horse, one whose measures will be far reaching and marvelously successful, but whose conquests will be peaceful. There will indeed be wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places; but that will be very different from the present quietude of the world, and they who think they see the prophecy fulfilled in present occurrences have little idea of what is yet to come. But Christian! be not thou alarmed: thou and all thy fellow-believers will be removed from the world before those times of terror. And when the church has been safely rapt to heaven, according to scripture; when the elect of the twelve tribes of Israel have been sealed, then will the thunders of God's temporal judgments begin to roll over the earth. But that is not now.

The same principle of interpretation applies to the latter clause of verse 7, “There shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places.” Such events can be traced in the whole course of the world's history, but they have not been frequent—rather extraordinary—while the text obviously implies frequency of occurrence, and that, probably in different places simultaneously. How often has a Christian, on hearing of an event of this class, said, “Surely we must now be in the time of the 24th of Matthew!” while on the contrary the very fact of its exciting remark as a rare event shows that we are not yet in that time. There would be no sense in predicting for a particular time, events of a character which had always been known before. If, for example, one were to say, “During the next three years the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening,” the ready reply would be, “Such has always been the case.” It is logical, therefore, to infer that the prophecy signifies famines, pestilences and earthquakes to a degree and over an area beyond previous experience.

The subject of earthquakes may, perhaps, from its recent prominence, seem to need fuller consideration. Just after the California, Valparaiso, and Jamaica earthquakes one would, if guided only by impressions, be inclined to infer that we are in a special era of those phenomena, such as predicted in our text. So perhaps thought Seneca when he wrote, many centuries ago: “How often cities of Asia have fallen in one earthquake! How often those of Achaia! How many towns in Syria, how many in Macedonia have been swallowed up! How often this calamity has laid waste Cyprus! How often has Paphos collapsed within itself! Frequently is the extinction of whole cities reported to us” (Ep. 91, 9).

But impressions are not reliable. A philosophic consideration of historical records is necessary to the forming of a just conclusion. Dean Alford, who is interested in the scheme of applying the prophecy to the destruction of Jerusalem, is at pains to enumerate all the earthquakes to be found on record at the time, but is only able to cite six in the period—about forty years—between the prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem. Still the fact is remarkable that the number of known earthquakes has increased immensely in the later centuries. Mallett, however, in his important and elaborate work on the subject, observes that the increased number almost coincides with the increase of human progress in discovery and observation, implying that the increase is not one of fact, but of record. The proportion of the earth's surface known to the ancients was small, and the means of observing and recording natural phenomena still smaller. On his breakfast table the modern man has a broad sheet displaying all the public events of the day flashed by electric power from remote parts of the earth. But with many such events as earthquakes, the historians of ancient times may have been quite unacquainted. Mungo Ponton says: “Even at the present time, many an earthquake might happen in Central Africa, or in Central Asia, of which we might never hear, and recollection of which might die out among the natives in a few generations. In countries, too, which are thinly inhabited, and where there are no large cities to be overthrown, even great earthquakes might happen almost unheeded. The few inhabitants might be awe-struck at the time, but should they sustain no personal harm the violence of the commotion and the intensity of their terror would soon fade from their memories."

Professor Milne, in the preface to his work on the subject, remarks that during an eight years' residence in Japan he had the opportunity of recording an earthquake every week. Nevertheless, he says, with reference to Mallet's work before mentioned— “If we compare Mallet's records as he invites us to do, with the great outlines of human progress, we see that the two increase simultaneously, and we come to the conclusion that, taken as a whole, during the historical period the seismic activity of the world has been tolerably constant."

Granting, however, all that may legitimately be inferred from the difference in completeness of ancient and modern records; granting that the number of earthquakes has not been greater in anything like the proportion which the records show, it still remains a question whether it has not been greater in some proportion, and if so, how much. The Christian knows for a certainty from scripture that there will be an increase of earthquakes (as well as of wars and rumors of wars) in the coming time, and such an expectation is strictly consistent with natural science, for—

“The earth is slowly cooling. The earth's internal heat reaches the surface and passes forth into the utter coldness of space. The loss of heat is imperceptible; but it was estimated by Haughton that the heat annually lost would melt a layer of ice a quarter of an inch thick over the whole surface of the globe.

“As the earth cools, it shrinks in size. The earth's crust is hard and rigid, and, as the central mass contracts, it must leave part of the earth's hard shell insufficiently supported. Such unsupported areas of the earth's crust will sink, as the ground sinks on the falling in of the roof of an abandoned gold mine. Wherever a block of the crust founders owing to the withdrawal of underground support, the sinking areas will be marked off from the adjacent country by lines of fractures and fissures. The sunken area will be separated by folds, where an area sags gently downward in the center. In either case the subsidence will subject the rocks below it to heavy pressure. If the rocks be plastic through intense heat, and can reach fissures leading to the surface, then the rock material will be forced up and discharged in volcanic eruptions. “

Since therefore the earth is cooling at the rate stated, there will, even from a philosophic standpoint be nothing surprising in a distinct progression in the number of earthquakes. The man of science takes cognizance of natural law only; the Christian knows that God can make natural law synchronize with His moral purposes; and therefore the appalling events of recent years may quite possibly be an earnest of that condition of the globe which is ordained, at a time perhaps not far away, to produce not merely earthquakes with long years between, but “earthquakes in divers places” impliedly simultaneous.

Indeed, if we consider the circumstances, there seems to be a moral fitness in such a visitation at that time. For the tendency of thought already is distinctly towards Atheism. Comte's manifesto is, “The reorganization of human society without God or king “; and that of Nihilism, “No law, No religion—nihil” — “Tear out of your hearts the belief in the existence of God."

Renan says: “The historical sciences are based on the supposition that no supernatural agent comes forth to trouble the progress of humanity; that there is no free existence superior to man, to whom an appreciable share may be assigned in the moral conduct any more than in the material conduct of the universe. For myself, I believe there is not in the universe an intelligence superior to that of man; the absolute of justice and reason manifests itself only in humanity; regarded apart from humanity that absolute is but an abstraction. The infinite exists only when it clothes itself in form.”

Thus, men seem prepared to philosophize God out of existence, and this will grow instead of lessening, for Paul announces that “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” and Jude shows the same character of men in existence when the Lord comes in judgment (2 Timothy 3:13; Jude 15, 16). In these circumstances God addresses men's fears with a specimen of His power. The stout and vain heart of man, presuming on God's forbearance, and assuming the continuance of all things as they are, denies the existence of God, worships the creature instead of the Creator, attributing to matter the potentialities and eternity of being, which are attributes of God alone. To such audacity, what fitter reply could there be than to cause the very earth to rock under men's feet. Indeed, we learn from Luke that, besides these alarming phenomena upon earth, there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11, Acts 2:19). The heavens, indeed, in their silent splendor, declare the glory of God, but their very permanence and regularity have been taken to imply that they exist of themselves, and the Creator is bowed out of His own universe. This opposition to God is now in its incipience. What will it be when the church has been removed to heaven and, with it, the restraint upon men produced by the present special presence of the Holy Ghost in the church? God will answer the blasphemies of men with earthquakes upon earth and, in the imperturbable silence of the heavens, will cause awful apparitions and great signs, to show that there is still a living, personal God behind the veil of His magnificent creation. Things uncatalogued by silence will be beheld. Fearful sights and great signs will there be from heaven. [E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

Even as He Was

The words which form the heading of this paper occur in no other Gospel, and are very expressive. “The same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.” But what a day it had been of unwearied devotedness to His Father's will and of love to man! The many healed of plagues, the unclean spirits cast out, the appointment of twelve to be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons, the regathering of the multitude so that they could not so much as eat bread together, with the parables He taught, were all a witness of His continued service toward God and men. Do we wonder, then, that in the little ship, in which His disciples were with Him, He should he asleep on a pillow?-a hard lump of wood, so great a contrast to a sofa appendage! Truly He was Jehovah of Psalm 121:4, of whom it is written, “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,” but He had deigned to become man, and to be the perfectly dependent and obedient One, and as such He could be wearied, as at Sychar's well—holy, harmless, separate from sinners as He was, for weariness of body does not flow from sin, even as we read of Adam when innocent, “he slept” (Genesis 2:21). But what love on His part to put off sleep till such an opportunity!

Well, now we have the circumstances all before us—Himself, “even as He was,” the great storm of wind, the waves successful in filling the ship, so that the disciples awake Him. Why should they? Could they possibly perish with Him in any condition on board? Why indeed were they fearful and had no faith? Blessed for us, He is “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” and He has but to arise and rebuke the wind and speak to the sea, “Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” How magnificently He did it; not a zephyr stir nor any movement of ocean left! “And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Why, my reader, are you also astonished? He was the Man of chapter 1 (ver. 41), the same Jesus, who, “moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched [the leper], and said unto him, I will, be thou clean.” Yes, He could dismiss defilement by His touch, but never contract it. He was the Man also of the second chapter, who could in the freest way (for faith is never a purchaser but a receiver of blessing) say to the palsied one before Him, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” We may for once agree in this point with the scribes sitting there-though entirely apart from their spirit-and say, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” for Jesus is “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen” (Romans 9:5).

How quietly chapter v. opens with, “And they came over unto the other side of the sea.” Of course they did! How could it be otherwise when He had said, “Let us pass over unto the other side?” Dear fellow believer, as regards ourselves, “Christ also hath once suffered for sins the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,” and to God, as to our souls, we are brought now, and as to our bodies certainly we shall be by and by. Never should we allow anything to weaken this confidence, for it is wholly a question of what He undertook to do; and “whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can he put to it, nor anything taken from it” (Eccl. 3:14).

Well, if it was thus all right with them when they took Him, “even as He was,” what for us now that we know Him as He is? If then all power was His, what as to Him now when He is risen and glorified? Was there not a light from heaven above the noonday brightness of an eastern sun that brought the persecuting Saul to the earth, and a voice in the Hebrew tongue that in the short sentence “Why persecutest thou Me,” gives us to know His undying love and interest in His own? Yes, beloved, “It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:34, 35). Find the answer, then, in this, “We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Meanwhile the “God of all grace who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:11).

W. N. T.

Rome and Modernism: Part 1

It is a fact well known to students of physical geography that the inland seas have, in common with the greater oceans abroad, their tides and currents of more or less account. And, after all, when it is considered to what these movements owe their origin, it is not surprising that, wherever we have the gathering together of waters, which God called seas, the influences producing such movements should be apparent.

A great land-locked sea, the Church of Rome throughout the centuries, in many respects has appeared to be shut off from the tides and movements of human thought and mental activity, not to speak of something higher still—the free circulation of divine truth. Yet in reality she cannot pretend to have been uninfluenced throughout by changing opinion. The main currents as they flowed on, have always sooner or later penetrated to her depths, or have been reproduced at least on her placid surface. However quiet the composure she may profess, however complete the stagnation to onlookers may appear, isolation from the effects of the intellectual progress around, modern history, in particular, forbids her to claim. It may be questioned, however, if in all her history the tide of contemporary thought has ever produced within her borders a movement of exactly the same character or intensity as that now appearing under the name of Modernism. The mention of the famous Galileo recalls no truly analogous movement. The Reformation was of another character entirely. The agitation in the thirteenth century again has been seized upon by Liberal Catholics as an appropriate historical allusion. It was concerning Aristotle's natural philosophy during the time of Pope Gregory IX., who at first forbad its study, and step by step thereafter came round to its sanction. The precedent may, or may not, be followed by Pope Pius X.; but there is no true parallel, for the nature and the extent of the dispute are both entirely different. Wherein this is unique may appear, if we but consider, on the one hand, not only the nature and history of Modernism in the Latin church, but also the unprecedented nature of that more widespread eruption of which this is but a local manifestation, and on the other, remember the essential character of the special zone here seen to be, equally with the rest, affected.

First, then, to consider the nature and history of the movement itself. As stated by Father Tyrrell, a prominent Modernist in our own country, who also has received the distinction of being “excommunicated” on account of his rebellious attitude, the chief points raised in the controversy may be summed up as follows—

On the one side “there are those who hold that the Roman Catholic Church, with the Papacy, the sacraments, and all its institutions and dogmas, was in its entirety the immediate creation of Christ when upon earth; that there has been no vital development, but only mechanical unpacking of what was given in a tight parcel two thousand years ago; that the scriptures were dictated by God, and are a final court of appeal, while all doctrinal guidance, etc., is mediated through the infallible Pope from God to the Church.”

On the other side are those, with whom he ranges himself, still loyal to the adopted church of John Henry Newman and others in a spiritual ancestry of which they are proud, “who do not believe that truth has been stagnating for centuries in theological seminaries; but has been streaming on with ever-increasing force and volume in the channels which liberty has opened to its progress.” In contrast to those “who will not allow the least truth or value to the mental and moral progress of recent centuries,” theirs is a belief “in time, in growth, in vital and creative evolution.” Of one point in all this we may take especial note—on the one hand are those who stand for art authoritative standard of truth, on the other those who press for liberty and free thought.

Then as to the history of the controversy. The campaign against Modernism is held to have been inaugurated by the late Pope's Encyclical of 1893. The Americanist controversy, and the condemnation of Schell's works were early stages in that campaign, also under his late Holiness. An astute ecclesiastical statesman as Leo XIII. is on all hands allowed to have been—even his hand at last was forced, by the magnitude of the evil becoming apparent. But with the advent of Pius X. all appearance of hesitancy was laid aside. A different temper at once became apparent in the conduct of affairs. The trouble with France was its first-fruits politically, while in the theological field our Modernist friends early came under the notice of the Holy See. Almost immediately, an eminent writer, Abbe Loisy, regarding whose case a certain amount of action had already been taken, had his chief writings placed upon the Index. Others, less heard of, followed—Houtin, Denis, Georgel. The distinguished French Catholic Viollet's brochure on the Syllabus and the infallibility of the Pope, and Laberthonniere's philosophical works have since shared the same fate, as did even a novel by Fogazzaro, the Italian, characteristically a work of fiction, and which has had a phenomenal circulation. There is also Le Roy, whose statement of the Modernist position is described as masterly, besides Battifol and Tyrrell.

On the part of the Vatican itself, there has been, not merely the placing upon the Index Expurgatorius the books of these individuals, but positive action to stem the tide has been taken. The Biblical Commission has given two findings—one, already noticed in this magazine, dealing with the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the other maintaining the Johannine authorship of the fourth Gospel, and its historical character. It is asserted that the present Pope secured these judgments, so satisfactory to believers everywhere, by a process we might describe as packing the jury, the expert members appointed by Leo XIII. being swamped by ignorant reactionaries. Be that as it may, the Modernists have considered that the Commission has been pressed into service against them.

The in no wise uncertain sound which the trumpet has given forth is indeed disconcerting, not only to those in the front rank of that movement, but to such moderate critics as Dr. Barry, whose little book, “The Tradition of Scripture,” one learns with surprise, received the imprimatur of none less than the Archbishop of Westminster. Somewhat ruthless in its antagonism to all but an ultra-conservative standpoint towards the Bible, the reigning power must appear to such to be. In comparison with scholars beyond her pale, these Romanist higher critics have for the most part been contented with but a short flight into the airy realms of “speculative” theology. And even Loisy himself, who cannot be described as moderate, has kept up the appearance of being most conciliatory towards, what our own critics do not hesitate to sneer at as, Bibliolatry. He lays it down as an axiom, and constantly emphasizes that “the critical method of dealing with scripture does not mean forgetting the supernatural character of the sacred books.” But regardless of, and quite ungrateful for, all such concessions, the Vatican will tolerate no half measures. In this respect at least Rome shows more real insight as to essentials than others who are deceived by similarly hollow professions. Thus if the mild tone on the one side is in contrast to much of the criticism we are accustomed to, the uncompromising stand on the other just as greatly differs from that which those who guide and control Protestant thought adopt.

And a similar intolerance is shown all round to so-called liberal tendencies of whatever kind. Eminent Romanist laymen, both in France and Germany, who thought to relieve the tension—the one petitioning their bishops, the other appealing direct in extremely modest fashion for a reform of the Index—fared but ill, being, in the rebuke administered, accused of impertinence and conspiracy respectively. In Italy such things as the literary and social movement identified with the name of Romolo Murri proved troublesome thorns in the side of the new Pope. Upon its intellectual side the danger was considered greatest no doubt, the open letter of the group of priests to Pius X being serious enough. In the one department advocating reform of the Church's attitude towards democracy it is no less revolutionary in the other by its avowed conviction of the reality of “the revolution which has been wrought in our conception both of the nature of truth, and of the methods necessary to its establishment.” This remarkable manifesto of Liberal Catholicism was no doubt a direct reply to the Papal Allocution of April, 1907. On that occasion the Pope called upon the bishops to co-operate with him in driving out those who were “rebels, who dreamed of the renewal of dogma by a return to the pure gospel apart from the authority of the church and of theology.”

Then came another decree of the Holy Office, the Syllabus, of which the last twelve articles in particular were directly aimed against Modernism. Take, as a sample of the gravity of what is in dispute, Article 64— “It is an error to say that the progress of the sciences requires a change in the Christian doctrinal conceptions of God, of creation, of revelation, of the Word incarnate, and of the redemption.” But the climax was reached when the Encyclical of September, 1907, appeared, which definitely pronounces Modernism to be dangerous in philosophy, faith, theology, history, criticism, and reform, and thence draws the conclusion that Modernism is the synthesis of all heresy, and must logically lead to atheism. There is no call upon us to consider the remedial measures which the final section of that deliverance enumerates, but its analysis of the Liberal Catholic position is most decidedly noteworthy. The issue is clearly between “the extrinsic conception of authority,” as M. Paul Sabatier has called it, and that new conception of truth as “not communicated directly and from the outside by God to men,” but as a kind of internal inspiration not to be hound by any dogmatic expression.

So much for Liberal Catholicism itself, but to see it in its true perspective we must be reminded of its relation to a larger field. Recent times, as all are aware, have witnessed a new and most important departure in the theological world. Among other contributions, the nineteenth century has given us Biblical literary science, otherwise known as higher or historical criticism. And this it is which furnishes the most important item of the Modernist program, on its intellectual side at least. Now this new “science” (!) has raised a question of intense interest and moment to believers everywhere, and to trace its workings is a matter of first importance. The claim of the literary method of studying the scriptures to be a recognized and legitimate science, though but of yesterday, is already conceded in full by not a few Protestant scholars and theologians. There are as yet but few results, as far as (what they will call) established conclusions are concerned; but of what so-called conclusions there are, much parade has been made. There are many professing Christians, however, still far from concurring in any conclusions, who yet profess to believe the methods of this science legitimate and harmless, and deprecate a firm stand as to the real inspiration of the scriptures as being either obscurant or over-suspicious of new light. But simple believers, to whom the Bible is indeed the word of God, have all along distrusted the entire scheme, method and conclusions alike. Not only so, but they emphatically deny not only its harmlessness but also its legitimacy.

Further, its remarkable development has impressed many of them with the thought that the movement is in reality a great and grave crisis in the closing days of the church's testimony, if not indeed a most impressive precursor of the predicted apostasy. Consider how revolutionary the whole system is. In the comparatively short time it has been with us, it is no exaggeration to say, that it has succeeded in q great measure in transforming the standpoint of modern theology towards the Bible. The age-long strife between truth and error has now entered on an entirely new phase. Christendom has witnessed in the past many lapses from the faith, and departure from the truth has since early times been characteristic of the mass; but that which is now in progress is properly speaking neither lapse nor departure, but surrender of the divinely-appointed standard of truth. Doubtless surrender is not what is at present demanded; re-adjustment is all that is asked. But the re-adjustment is likely to affect, and in many cases has affected “our conception of the nature of the truth” as well as of “the methods necessary to its establishment.” [J. T. I

(To be continued)

Published

T. WESTON, 53, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 13

“And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, laid upon his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto Jehovah. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and The child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out” (2 Kings 4:32-37).

We may notice here a striking analogy between this case and the similar instance of the son of the widow of Sarepta (1 Kings 17:17-24). In the earlier case God made it manifest that He would be no man's debtor, even when Israel was under His governmental dealings. His servant Elijah, the object of the people's malice, as also of Ahab their king, was not allowed to be dependent upon any in Israel for food and shelter. “I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman a widow” (Luke 4:25, 26).

God graciously provided for the need of that Gentile widow and her son for “many days.” Nor was this all. When death claimed her son, and the mother was reminded of the sins of her past life, Elijah, in communion with the mind of God, would not allow it to be said that in yielding obedience to the claims of God she had really lost. Elijah took up her dead child and gave her a living one. It was sovereign grace acting in divine power which, if Israel refused, the Gentile would profit by. Here, however, in the woman of Shunem, a far deeper lesson is before us. Every one who has had to do with God in such extremities of need will have learned somewhat of His ways. Though the circumstances indeed may differ, the manner of the deliverance may have much in common. Nevertheless the distinctive pathway of each, with its fruitful results to the exercised soul, has its own appropriate character before God, as well as for ourselves. The obvious lesson for us in both cases is that whilst Christ, the Son of the living God, has broken the power of death for him that believes, the fruits of His victory remain to be realized and appropriated by faith.

We may also notice that the gracious sympathies of the one in whom divine power is acting have their full opportunity of display. They are not shut out or rendered superfluous by the existence of a power able and ready to act (see John 11:35-38). A living man, the obedient one, has gone down into death that so His love might be fully manifested, and that those subjected to death might be raised up. “Jesus said unto her [Martha], I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” The righteous sentence of death upon man had to be upheld, but God, manifesting His love, “sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Other truths, indeed, have their own place and value, but it is good for the soul to meditate upon the matchless love of God that takes account of our wretched condition to work for His own glory and for our deliverance. Christ has come down into our depths of misery and death, entering fully into our circumstances that we might be delivered and raised to His heights. He took hold of the seed of Abraham.

What amazing condescending grace! What abundant manifestations of love in considerate regard for others do we find! What untiring service! What self-abnegation, etc.! Surely all this should have reached the hearts of His people, and have made way for the message which he brought from God! But alas! instead of this, he had to say, “For my love I had hatred,” and “they hated me without a cause.” Notwithstanding the wonderful display of divine goodness-brought down to man in the person of Him who was “God manifest in flesh” walking this earth—divine goodness in the midst of all the circumstances in which man was found, and brought about by the presence of sin and death-we see that this display was in itself powerless to effect any real change in man as he was. The Son of God had become the Son of man, yet the corrupt heart of the sinner was hardened and closed against this love of God. This blessed One, God's righteous Servant, took account of every witness to man's guilty and helpless condition, and offered up Himself, the one infinite sacrifice which alone could avail for life, salvation and peace.

There were occasions on which it seemed as if the continual proofs of God's power and goodness were in some little way beginning to tell upon those who witnessed them. Such as, for instance, the desire of the Greeks to see Jesus. “And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship during the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:20, 21). But the Lord invariably rejected all these desires and professions that rested only upon the flesh, and by which man deceived himself and denied the truth as to his real condition in God's sight. “And Jesus answered them saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (vers. 23, 24). “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (vers. 31, 32).

The solemn truth of man being wholly under the power of sin and death is constantly before us in the Gospel of John. It seems to be borne witness to in the restoration to life of the Shunammite's son, as also of the widow's son (1 Kings 17). In both, there is the personal contact of a living man with a dead body, that is, Christ's going into death, not to challenge Satan's right over the body founded upon man's act of disobedience, but to nullify those rights wrongfully obtained, and to set them aside by the completion of that one righteous act on which our salvation is founded. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.... Therefore, as by one offense judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by one righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:12, 18, 19).

But there is a great difference between type and antitype. Elijah and Elisha must needs make this personal contact, for they could not die for another. Their action was but figurative of Christ's great work. The Lord Himself, when on earth working similar miracles, had but to speak the word “and it was done.” Take, as an instance, the Lord by the bier of the young man, “the only son of his mother,” the widow of Nain. “And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother” (Luke 7:11-15).

And from another Gospel. “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes; and his face was hound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go” (John 11:41-44). All this is but anticipating the greater power that shall be manifested at His coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). The victory over death, which Christ has obtained for the believer, is known and appropriated now by faith, even though death is working in our mortal bodies. And if we realized this truth more, it would save us much bitter experience, for we are far too ready to cherish desires and to form plans (even of a religious character) which suppose something good in fallen man that God will use. When this is the case, we have to learn experimentally the painful truth of Romans 7, that we may also know and enjoy the real deliverance and power of Romans 8-” The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The glorious resurrection of the sleeping saints, and the equally glorious change and rapture of the living ones (the one event for which we wait), are made to depend upon a work already accomplished and accepted by the God who gave His Son, and which is also attested by the Spirit's presence on earth and His indwelling of the Christian. It is not dead bodies but living ones that He inhabits. “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 Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But 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 because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:9-11). “Behold, I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55).

The victory which Christ has already obtained shall then he celebrated and published (at least to spiritual intelligences). With regard to the future restoration of Israel, other principles will be brought into operation. The elect of Israel forming the nucleus of the new nation will, individually and collectively, be the subject of the Holy Spirit's action, who will awaken, convict and instruct by the scriptures. This we may see prefigured by the Lord's gracious and convincing testimony to the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:25-27). He will open the understanding of the elect remnant that they may understand the scriptures, and more especially those parts in which the sufferings, sympathies, and graces of Christ rejected by His people are before us. Then will repentance, faith, and spiritual affections be evoked from His (now unbelieving) people in that day.

For proof of this two or three quotations may suffice. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. And ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:25-28). “Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath into you, and ye shall live: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (37:4-6, 9, 10).

“Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.” “Thy dead shall live, my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 26:15, 19). The remnant of Israel will then he chastened and humbled that God may lift them up when He seeth that their power is gone. “Jehovah shall repent himself concerning his people.”

God's purpose in thus dealing with this daughter of Abraham was now attained. The promise had been fulfilled, the power of God in resurrection had been established. All through the history she had shown herself to be a believing woman. She is now a worshipper. “Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.”

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 19-31

To resume then, Job says, “In my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself.” It is not merely the hope of blessing for himself, but real personal enjoyment of God; and this without fear or shrinking in the least. “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” He might come to nothing meanwhile; but in that day God will be everything, and prove it by maintaining His own in their full personality before Him. “But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? Be ye afraid of the sword.” He sees too that in that day divine judgment was coming. It was not merely that there was a Kinsman-redeemer in prospect to vindicate His own people, but in that day, as all Scripture shows, would be a time of judgment. “Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.”

Did Job's confession touch the hearts of his friends? On the contrary, there follows an uncommonly bitter speech from Zophar (ch. 20.). He seems to have been the lowest morally, of the three, and, as one generally finds, the most presumptuous in word and least broken in spirit. “Therefore do my thoughts,” he says, “cause me to answer.” And truly it was so. He gives us his “thoughts.” It was in no way that the fear of God moved his lips, or jealousy for His grace and truth. We have his own thoughts. “Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste"; which a believer does not. “I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short?” That is the one thought of Zophar. “The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.” Job was the wicked; Job was the hypocrite. “Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; yet he shall perish forever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream.” And so he pursues to the end of the chapter this reckless onslaught—for I can call it no less on a man incomparably better than himself. What is it all but persevering, laborious, and extravagant effort to wound him whom they failed to convict or convince, if it were possible, by the words of their mouth? The words of their mouth were drawn swords.

“But Job answered and said, Hear diligently my speech.” From this point there appears to be a certain improvement in Job. It is not that his soul as yet was brought into the presence of God; for this we must wait for another dealing of God, which we may hope to have before us on the next occasion. But every view of grace is strengthening to the soul; and I think that Job never gives way, either to the same measure of hardness in speaking of God, or of despondency; nor does he yield to such desire after death as a release from suffering. It is not unnatural for a believer who saw nothing before him but the most dismal condition here, and this from God. It would be great relief to go into the presence of God; and he knew what he would find there from Him. What marks the change not a little is, that he allows henceforth whatever there was of truth in what his friends had urged on him. Scarce anything shows a man gaining the advantage morally over his adversaries so much as this. What can be less happy than to see two debating, where they take up each a side of truth? There is never a satisfactory close to the question until you acknowledge whatever is true in him that opposes you. It is a plain enough proof that God is giving you a victory over self; and this is great gain. So we find that Job from this time acknowledges the measure of truth there was in what his friends—sad to say his adversaries, as really they were—had said. But he does also demonstrate the folly of shutting one's eyes to God's actual long-suffering in respect of evil-doers. “As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” Thus, before he concedes their point, he draws attention to the undeniable fact that, so far is the present life from being an adequate expression of God's moral government, there is nothing more startling than to find wickedness so often allowed to triumph, and the righteous as often utterly cast down and tried peculiarly. This was a flat contradiction, no doubt, of their thesis; and he draws it out before making the concession already referred to. “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?”

What have his friends to say in answer? The ground was cut completely from under them. They had assumed that, according to God's government, no wicked man prospered, no righteous man but must prosper. A falser view of the world that now is there cannot possibly be. When the Lord takes the reins, it will be so. Then indeed the righteous are to be established, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth; then there will be no such thing as evil tolerated. But who can look upon the world as it is, and seriously allow such a thought?

But how came these pious men to make such a strange mistake? There are none who make stranger mistakes than the pious when not walking in dependence on God. Their very piety gives them a stronger abhorrence of evil; and if there be not the power of grace, and the sense of their need of grace in God Himself guarding them, none will be more severe, none less just. This is a solemn warning. And how comes it to pass? Is it merely that no flesh shall glory in the presence of the Lord? There is more still; there is an adversary, the devil, as well as God, who will have us learn that only His grace is sufficient for us.

To this point tends the whole action of the book; not only the intervention of Elihu and the decision of Jehovah, but the reasonings of the interlocutors. But each part has its own moment; and it is well for us to take all into account.

Job describes then the wicked in prosperity in strong terms. “Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.” It is not merely that you have one here and there, but the wicked really take root in the world; they are at home there. “Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.” They come under no special chastening. “Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.” It is they that enjoy the world, if you leave out God, and take man's appreciation of present life. There is no disputing that such is the fact, account for it or not, if one looks at the world as it is. “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” In their case it would have been true to say that prayer is restrained.

Impiety has ever characterized the world. But is this all the truth? “Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!” Here, it will be seen, he acknowledges the other side; and it is no less true that God does not leave Himself without witness. He presses the fact that the present world is no expression of God's moral government; but he acknowledges that in the midst of men's seeming prosperity a divine blow falls on them; in a moment their candle is put out. Exceptional dealings, therefore, are admitted. There was another sort of dealing that he did not yet see, and this was what he had to learn, that God acts among His own in the way of chastening, trial, or discipline, just as surely as He may lay His hand on the wicked in the way of a solemn judgment.

But beyond a doubt the time is not yet come for all things to be manifested in power according to His mind and will. It is in vain for Israel or the church to hurry it, as both have done; for the due time cannot be till Christ comes. “Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth them, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see his destruction.” That is, it is not merely the man himself, but sometimes his family; and this accordingly is pursued fully to the end of the chapter.

Eliphaz, exceedingly taken aback by so complete an answer to his argument, tries to reply, for the last time, in the chapter before us. One cannot wonder that he fails. “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?” The ground taken now is, that God is above all questions of whether a man's conduct is useful to him or not. “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect? Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?” Job's maintenance of his integrity against their imputations he does not scruple to brand as wickedness. “Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?” Provoked by such a clenching answer to his argument, he now distinctly charges Job with hidden evil. He that suspects upon appearances will soon dispense even with appearances. “Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite? For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for naught, and stripped the naked of their clothing.” It was the very reverse of Job's real character! “Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink” —Job gave more than ever Eliphaz did “and thou hast withholder bread from the hungry.” What could be less true? “But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honorable man dwelt in it. Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are round about thee.” “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace:... and the light shall shine upon thy ways” (chap. 22.). Totally wrong in all his charges, this grave old man waxes bold enough to call job to cease from his impiety, and to humble himself before God. “And thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee.” He means that there was only one door open—humiliation of himself before God because of his hypocrisy.

Job answers, “Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him.” Is this the language or the feeling of one conscious of wickedness before God? We never hear such language even from Eliphaz or any other of the friends. I am not denying their faith, but only saying that their state was not comparable with that of job, in spite of all his bitter complaints. “I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power?” Job knew God better. “No; but he would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered forever from my judge” (chap. 23.).

Their spirit was judicial from beginning to end, and such a spirit is always wrong. There may be a measure of truth, but a judicial spirit, as it never saves a soul from death, so it profits least those who indulge in it: it does not suit a saint in such a world as this. But there was exactly where they were. They did not know God as Job did. “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there.” This was his trouble. He could not enjoy God; for he had not yet the key to his distress at His hand. He desired Him, and was miserable to be practically at a distance from Him, with all these troubles intervening to cloud His goodness from his soul. “When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” He knew not how it could he for His glory or his own blessing he should be so tried; but he was thoroughly satisfied that hypocrisy was the last thing that could be justly ascribed to him.

In the next chapter (24.) he describes, in a touching and solemn way, the nature of the often successful wickedness in this world. On that I need not dwell now.

Next comes Bildad, who is reduced to what might be almost called a few platitudes about the glorious power of God. Who doubted what is said? It is all true; but how did it apply to the case? How was Job's soul met? or their suspicions justified? (chap. 25.).

And what does chapter 26 let us hear Job saying in answer? That, after an ironical compliment to the speech just delivered for its power and wisdom, as the settlement of the question in debate, he can set forth the power of God, in spite of all his misery, far more comprehensively as well as more glowingly than they. He adds the solemnities of the unseen world.

In chapter 27 he handles another topic, not the glory of God, but the wretchedness of the hypocrite, and his awful doom, in stronger colors than they themselves had done, but still with the firmest maintenance of his integrity, though God had not yet vindicated him, and they had been unjust.

This is followed by a chapter yet more remarkable, in which he sets forth man in his eager pursuit of what is rare in this world—his restless search after gold, silver, and precious stones of every kind. But where is wisdom to be found? Man can, no doubt, steer his course across the waters; man can cut a road through the rocks; man can not only level mountains and fill valleys, in his eagerness for his own objects, but he can go where the vulture flies not and sees not; he can pierce where no wild beast ever penetrates; he can sink a shaft into the earth; he can make his way in quest of that which he values where no creature burrows, where the wildest would fear to follow. But where is wisdom to be found? The finest gold cannot buy it; the most precious gems and the finest works of art can be no meet exchange; the treasures of the deep, even pearls, fail in comparison. Man knows nothing of wisdom; but it is not here. Death and destruction have heard the report of it; they have heard that it is somewhere. It is not in this world; it is not in man as he is: avidity after present objects only excludes it. There is no wisdom here. In death and destruction there is at least a sad reality. “But where is wisdom to be found?” The answer comes at last from God Himself, and it is this: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding.” To this Job brings all. Is it not solemn, yet the foundation of all, and verified in the conversion of every soul? Such is the wonderful end of a wonderful chapter (chap. 28.).

In what follows we have the final defense of job. Had he been able, Zophar might here have brought in his little word; but he was shut up to total silence. If Bildad had little to say, Zophar has absolutely nothing. Thus the friends were completely refuted, even by the sick and suffering Job. For the moment, and really as far as they were concerned, Job has it all to himself, and proceeds to speak at great length. He sets forth in an affecting manner his former brightness (chap. 29.), and the painful blight that had come over him and his (chap. 30.). In chapter 31 he protests his innocence in the most solemn way, his personal purity, his equity and consideration of his servants, his remembrance of the poor, his horror of idolatry, his freedom from vindictiveness, his cultivation of hospitality, his non-concealment of any iniquity, and this without fear before the Almighty; and if his fields could testify of fraud or force, he prays for thorns instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley. I do not know a finer piece in this way, unless indeed when it is not merely the experience of a man under such a tremendous reverse from God, but the same man bowing down afterward in his perfect submission to God. But on this I will not treat now, reserving the great final lesson of the book for the next lecture.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 2. Difficult Texts, Continued

Another part of our chapter around which immense misunderstanding has gathered is that verse in which the Lord says, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto nations: and then shall the end come” (ver. 14).

How often in sermons, and at missionary meetings has this been used as an incentive to the preaching of the gospel abroad! How many earnest servants of Christ have gone to remote corners of the earth under the impression that they were promoting the Lord's coming by carrying the gospel where it had never been before! Such devoted labor will no doubt be accepted by the Master and richly rewarded, but nevertheless, so far as it rests on our text, it is based on an entire misconception.

In the first place, “the end” here is not identical with the Lord's coming for His saints, or the end of the church period. It is “the end” about which the disciples had just been inquiring— “the end of the age.” 1 Thessalonians 4 shows that the Lord comes and takes suddenly to Himself those of the church who then are alive and remain; and we have already seen that when, thus, the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, divine dealings with Israel are resumed. Jewish matters, now in abeyance, then come into position again. Many things were altered by the cross. The relations of Jehovah with Israel were broken off and suspended. But when the church-period terminates, the course of “the age,” disrupted by the rejection of Messiah, commences again to run: the end of that age, precedent to the glorious age of the Messiah, is “the end” which the Lord was discoursing about. The church is, as it were, an intercalation between the breaking off and the re-commencement of dealings with Israel.

Secondly, the gospel to be preached prior to “the end of the age” is not the present gospel. The reader may be startled to hear that there are two gospels; but as a fact there are more than two spoken of in scripture. Israel in the wilderness had a gospel declared to them of a land flowing with milk and honey—type of heaven to the Christian; and Hebrews (4:2) says that “to us has a gospel been preached as well as unto them.” The twelve apostles had a gospel to preach after the Lord's resurrection. And again, Paul, by the Spirit of God, speaks of what he designates “my gospel “: that is, Paul, called later than “the twelve,” had revealed to him further and fuller truth than was embodied in the commission of “the twelve” (Romans 2:16; 16; Galatians 1:11; 2:4; Ephesians 3:2-4). The very text with which we are dealing distinctly implies that there are various gospels, for it says particularly, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached,” etc. The language of scripture is exact, and many a misconception is formed, many a doubt is thrown on scripture, simply through inattention to its actual words. So here. The Lord specifically declares that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness unto all the nations, and then shall the end come.” Through inattention to the terms men have come to think that the present gospel was meant.

What then is the “gospel of the kingdom"? Certainly not the gospel as we have it now—the gospel of full redemption—for redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord had not been accomplished, and therefore could not be preached. What then was it? It will be necessary to trace it slightly through scripture. So early as the time of David, the kingdom forms the subject of prophecy. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” (Psalm 2:6-8). Needless to say, this is prophetic, going in its terms far beyond David, Solomon, or any other than the Messiah. Here is a king decreed to be set upon the holy hill of Zion, who is also Son of God, begotten (as to His humanity) in time; One who is to have the nations (Gentiles) for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. To the godly Israelite who pored over the scriptures this and other Messianic prophecies were familiar. Thus Nathanael, the moment that the displayed omniscience of Jesus brings to his mind who the wondrous Person is who stands before him, immediately recognizes Jesus as the promised King, and applies to Him the very terms of the second Psalm, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel” (John 1:48, 49).

In the book of Daniel the kingdom is very distinctly foretold. “The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed,” etc. (2: 44). “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven... and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (7:13, 14).

When we see how this magnificent kingdom was the goal of Israel's hopes, light is thrown upon that which was the burden of John the Baptist's testimony, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That was the Baptist's gospel. Jesus took up and continued it after that John was delivered up. “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2; 4:12, 17). In passing, note the character of this gospel. A mighty kingdom had indeed been predicted for Israel, and now it was imminent. But it was not to be the mere advent of power to deliver the people from their Roman oppressors. The condition they were in was chastisement for their sins, and repentance was called for. Jehovah was not going to bring them into blessing as they were: that would have been unholy. It would have been the acceptance and sanction of their sins and their sinful state. This moral character of the kingdom was what made the preaching a stumbling-block to the Jews. They would have been glad indeed to have been delivered from the power of Rome, and set in their due place at the head of the nations. But to enter in through the strait gate of repentance they would not. So is it ever with the natural heart. Men to-day would hail a millennium of delights brought in simply by power. But repentance!—without which God, being holy, cannot meet them—this is foreign to their hearts and repugnant to their will. The sermon on the mount accordingly gives the character of the subjects of the kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:2). Both the twelve and the seventy were sent out with the same message: “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:9).

This slight tracing of the subject of “the kingdom” illustrates the specific force of the Lord's words, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world.” The expression is not vague. It is not “the gospel,” nor “a gospel,” but definitely, “This gospel of the kingdom.”

A point important to observe (as there is misconception with regard to it) is that “the kingdom of heaven” is not heaven. It is just the contrary. It is the earth, but the earth under the rule of heaven. “The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom,” that is, over the earth. The Son of man comes “with the clouds of heaven, and there was given him a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him.” Nations and languages are not in heaven; they belong to the earth. But the kingdom is now in mystery, because the King has been rejected and is concealed in heaven. The establishment of the kingdom in power as prophesied, and as it will yet be, is now in abeyance, and the present form of the kingdom is the word sown, and left as a system of truth on earth. This was all fully explained by the parable of the sower and the other parables of Matthew 13, which are stated to be the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (ver. 11), consequent upon the rejection of Christ by Israel (vers. 14, 15). This teaching was prior to the statement about the keys in chap. 16. It was of the kingdom in this form that the keys were conferred on Peter, who accordingly opened the door to the Jews by his preaching in Acts 2, and afterward formally admitted the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius and his house (see Acts 10:44-48). But heaven itself is another thing. And Peter has no more to do with the admission of a soul to heaven than has my reader.

The kingdom of heaven is not spoken of in the Acts or the Epistles. Indeed the term is found in Matthew only. “The kingdom of God” spoken of elsewhere is not quite the same thing. It is a larger expression and finds its fullness only in heaven. Hence in one place in scripture it is spoken of as heaven— “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50); but the phrase “kingdom of heaven” is never so employed. That is the kingdom of heaven over the earth. In the kingdom of heaven there will be flesh and blood, but into the kingdom of God flesh and blood cannot enter.

We have seen that the gospel of the kingdom was preached by John the Baptist, and by our Lord, and—before the cross—by the twelve apostles and by the seventy disciples, whom He commissioned and sent throughout the land. But, except for the little band whom He in grace gathered around Himself, the preaching ended in His total rejection. Israel was nationally apostate, when they cried, “We have no king but Caesar,” and demanded a felon's death for the Lord of glory (John 19:15). An offer of repentance to Israel was still held out by the preaching of Peter in Acts 3 consequent upon the glorification of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. But the offer was futile as regards the nation. They ratified the crucifixion of Christ by stoning His witness Stephen, whose face shone as an angel's while he bore testimony to the glory of Jesus (Acts 6:15; 7:54-60). They had already cast the Heir out of the vineyard and slain Him according to Matthew 21:39; and now, in the murder of His servant Stephen they fulfilled the other parable, and “sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).

The consequence of all this was the abrogation of relations between Jehovah and Israel as the chosen nation, the detailed results of which that unhappy people are reaping to the present hour. “His blood be upon us and on our children” was their own awful imprecation against themselves (Matthew 27:25). But Israel being nationally laid aside, God now in wondrous forbearance sends out the gospel to Jew and Gentile alike. The message is intrinsically the same to each, though if there be a preference it is to the Jew— “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). But this is not the gospel of the kingdom. It is sovereign and free grace to every man (Colossians 1:23).

There is yet another misapprehension lying across the face of this scripture, which it were well to remove. The Lord said, “This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:32; Luke 21:33). Many have taken this to mean that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in the lifetime of persons then present in the world. And this erroneous supposition has entailed two further errors. Rationalists have based upon it a claim that the prophecy has broken down, and others have put a strained interpretation upon it in order to reconcile the seeming contradiction. It has been said, as an explanation, that the coming of the Son of man in the chapter was no more than death—an hypothesis which will not bear examination, yet it was the common teaching in pulpits about fifty years ago. But had it been so that would not remove the difficulty, because not only is the coming of the Son of man to take place before that generation passes, but also “all” the things foretold in the prophecy.

When, however, the proper meaning is seen, the supposed contradiction vanishes and all is clear. It is a positive error to take the word “generation” in the meaning referred to. There is an obvious principle of interpretation which indeed is recognized in law, that when a word has different meanings that one must be adopted which carries out the intention, not one which frustrates the intention. Now any person who turns to a good English dictionary will at once see that the word “generation” has a variety of meanings. Webster gives seven; and while one is the sense referred to, namely, “the mass of beings living at one period,” another is “race, family, kind.” This latter is the true sense of “generation” in Matthew 24:34. What the Lord really says is that the Jewish race—and more especially that moral character of it then present—should not pass away till all those things should be fulfilled.

The existence of that generation—the Jews dispersed amongst all nations and yet separate from them—is indeed one of the wonders of the world. Bishop Butler refers to it as “the appearance of a standing miracle, in the Jews remaining a distinct people in their dispersion.” He says, “The Jewish nation and government were destroyed in a very remarkable manner, and the people carried away captive and dispersed through the most distant countries, in which state of dispersion they have remained fifteen hundred years; and that they remain a numerous people, united amongst themselves and distinguished from the rest of the world as they were in the days of Moses by the profession of His law, and everywhere looked upon in a manner which one scarce knows how distinctly to express but in the words of the prophetic account of it, given so many ages before it came to pass: Thou shalt became an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee" (Deuteronomy 28:37).” Here we have the fulfillment of the Lord's words, “This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled.”

If we take the word in the original Greek (γενεά), either in the New Testament or the Septuagint, we shall find it abundantly used in both senses. Let us look at the latter, that is, the sense in which it ought to be taken in our text. But remark that what is meant is not merely the race of the Jews, but that adverse moral character of it which stood around and resisted Jesus in His life and pursued Him to a cruel death. As another has said, “The non-believing race of the Jews is not to pass away till all these things have taken place. Thus the same generation which crucified the Lord of glory is going on still, and will, till He comes again in the clouds of heaven."

Now for the scriptural use. In Deuteronomy 32 Moses is recounting the faithfulness of Jehovah and the unfaithfulness of Israel throughout their whole history from its commencement, and he says: “They have corrupted themselves they are a perverse and crooked generation” (ver. 5). Then, referring to the present era when Israel is cast out by Jehovah, and which has already lasted for centuries, “I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith” (ver. 20).

Palpably, here “generation” is used for the people or nation of Israel. Of those termed a perverse and froward “generation” in vers. 5, 20, it is said in ver. 28, they are a “nation” void of counsel. Thus the word is used as the synonym of “nation.”

Again, “Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith Jehovah” ( Jeremiah 7:29, 30). “Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family” (chap. 8:3). Here the word is properly rendered “family” without any limitation of time. In the very discourse which the Lord concluded in Matthew 23, He uses the word “generation” in an extended sense— “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (ver. 35). He addresses them nationally, and then adds, “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this 'generation '“ (ver. 36).

Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, gives as a meaning of γενεά “Men of like quality and disposition, though of neither one place nor age “; and this is amply borne out— “Thou shalt keep them, O Jehovah, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever “(Psalm 12:7). In this text “generation” is obviously not limited to the set of people at any one time upon the earth. Again, “God is in the generation of the righteous” (Psalm 14:5). “The generation of them that seek thee” (24: 6). “If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children” (73:15). “There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, 0 how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth” (Proverbs 30:11-14). In these verses a certain moral character or kind of persons is implied. More evidence might be adduced, but is scarcely necessary. When the Lord said, “This generation shall not pass,” He referred to the Jews, both ethnically and morally—as in the apt phrase already quoted, “the non-believing race of the Jews.”

“This generation,” then, will continue until the whole prophecy of Matthew 24 is fulfilled. Indeed the Jews will be far more prominent as we shall see, in the closing scenes of the age, than ever they have been in the centuries of Christianity.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

In That Day

It is interesting to note the threefold character of this great utterance of our Lord. Numbers, we know, play an important part in the communication of divine truth, and not least the number three, which has been called, not too fancifully, the ‘numerical signature ' of the Godhead, implicit in the Ter Sanctus, the Holy, Holy, Holy, of Isaiah 6. Again, Christ speaks of Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and Paul exalts the three abiding virtues—Faith, Hope, and Love. Here, no doubt, the same number points, as always, to completeness—completeness of doctrine and completeness of blessing. “At that day,” says the Savior, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.'“

“At that day.” This began at Pentecost, and, though the knowledge then revealed will not reach its maturity till hereafter, when we shall know as we are known, yet surely it has deepened much since that wonderful epoch, notably perhaps during the last seventy years or so; at any rate in intelligent realization by the saints of God. Yet we must not forget, in calling attention to Philadelphian recovery of truth, that the reality of it may often, by God's grace, have been enjoyed where there was little or no power of conscious entering into it. But, be that as it may, we proceed to note that twice more in the course of these last words of the Lord He refers to “that day,” viz., in vers. 23, 26 of the sixteenth chapter of this Gospel of John; the point in the former verse being apparently that the disciples would be so illuminated by the Holy Spirit as not to need to ask for the solution of perplexing mysteries, whereas in the latter the announcement is made that they will ask in His name. Again in verse 26 the word rendered “ask” is linked with the idea of supplication (αίτήσεσθε) while in ver. 23 it is the word that a seeker after knowledge would naturally use (ἐρωτήσετε). The lesson to be drawn, as pointed out by an eminent divine no longer living (Bishop Westcott), seems to be that fullness of knowledge would be followed by fullness of prayer. In fact, as has been finely said, “the fullness of knowledge leads to fullness of prayer.” At any rate, no knowledge can lessen the need of prayer; rather must it make such need more imperative, lest there be lack of humility. Moreover, as we know, supplication was to be made in the Name of the Lord—a new thing, as the Lord tells the disciples in chap. 16:24. For, exquisitely beautiful and comprehensive (a model of what prayers should be) as is the prayer that at an earlier date our Lord gave the disciples at their request, there was no asking as yet in His Name, nor could there be.

But let us look at each section of the verse somewhat in detail, if briefly and cursorily. The threefold character has already been noted. We may now note the order of the statements. We find then that what is absolute and transcendent comes first. It would be true, if nothing else followed, though it be the foundation of what follows. “Ye shall know,” says the Lord, “that I am in my Father.” Here we have most emphatically objective truth. on which it is of all importance to be sound, i.e., truth that in itself is altogether outside ourselves. If we were non-existent, if there were no ransomed sinners, no church, still the Son would be in the Father. He ever was in the Father. Even on earth He was the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. Here no doubt the fact is enforced as the basis of our blessing. But still its objective character should be carefully remarked. It would be equally true if, to use the modern and rather colloquial phrase, we did not “come in” at all. Yet still this sublime fact would abide. It is indeed one of the most salient and glorious characteristics of Christianity that it consists of facts. Merely human religions can only give us speculations, dreams, imaginations. Such are the lucubrations of philosophers and poets alike, the former never rising above their perplexed controversies, the latter now and then giving hints of something nobler and higher, but vague and hopeless as to any real attainment, as it was all bound to be. But how different is our “most holy faith,” which is founded upon the impregnable rock of divine knowledge and certainty. So the Lord says, “Ye shall know,” ye shall with ever deepening appreciation know that “I am in my Father.” Needless to say, none can ever sound the depths of this great mystery, but we bow our heads in grateful adoration, as we enter further and further by the Holy Spirit's aid into the blessedness of the revelation. And while such words of our Lord are unlike any other words, unlike in their simplicity as in their profundity, we can at least see how fittingly and reassuringly this great truth takes precedence in the declaration by the Lord of this threefold doctrine. For it is, as we have seen, the basis of what follows, and to which we pass on.

“Ye in me.” Here we have Christian position or standing, as it is called, as in the first statement the position of Christ is defined—a position that implies how He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and seated at His right hand, and that for our blessing among we know not what more universal results of the counsels of God (and the work of Christ) into which we are incompetent to enter, as reverence would forbid, whatever the spirit of speculation would say. For speculation must be vain when not actively pernicious. And in such matters the wisest man knows nothing more than a child, unless God is pleased to reveal His mind. But this by the way. Here, as we know, reference is made to the standing of believers, with which, theoretically, at least, we are so familiar. For does it not belong to that department of truth which those known as “Brethren” were largely instrumental in recovering? The Epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians are, as we know, to a great extent but a commentary on these three words, as they severally concern the individual and the church. It is without doubt an aspect of Christianity that many pious souls most inadequately enter into, though not to be separated from the practical side, in short, with what is known as “state,” with which the verse concludes. For indeed the three truths herein presented are as essentially connected as inseparable, as they are literally linked together. While all revelation hangs together in harmonious union, especially must this be the case with doctrines that our Lora has placed in close association. Doubtless when the perception of any one of them is weakened and dimmed, the others are in like degree. So it is, as one has said, with faith, hope, and love. Weaken one and you enfeeble the energy of the others.

Lastly, the Lord says, “And I in you.” Now we come to what is purely subjective, and what all who are truly converted must in their measure realize. They may have little appreciation of the sublime truth that the Son is in the Father, but a feeble conception of standing in Christ; but none can fail, if they believe at all, to feel within, the comforting or the reproving influence of the Spirit of Christ. Yet we may confidently say that what the Lord has joined together spiritually He intends to be realized synchronously (if I may use this word for want of a simpler). It must be at least as true of spiritual things as of natural. This point I would press, the other being the precedence taken by objective truth, by which one means, to put it briefly, the transcendent side of revelation.

R. B.

Rome and Modernism: Part 2

Precisely here is the point on which attention will, perhaps, very strongly he concentrated—not so much the question whether the inerrancy of the Scriptures is necessary for their revelation of the truth—but the very necessity of a standard at all, such as the Scriptures are thought to provide. For adherents of Biblical literary science, enamored of their new discovery, while claiming, many of them, that it makes the Bible for them a new book, do not perchance perceive that in their chosen course they are fast drifting on to another momentous question—what the truth is—whether a divinely given, fixed, guaranteed “faith once for all delivered unto the saints,” or a matter of flux and change, of humanly acquired discovery, requiring, as time goes on, that “re-statement of Christian doctrine” which so many to-day even are agitating for! The statement of the Encyclical as to “logically leading to atheism” may in this become a prediction justified by event. Without a doubt serious consideration confirms the thought that such is the shore towards which the current sets, although what we see now be no more than a loosening off from the moorings. This ought not to be dismissed as unduly pessimistic. It must not be imagined that a limited area is all that has come under the disintegrating influence of “higher criticism.” Every branch of Western Christendom has been affected by it, and by what is probably the majority of representative teachers throughout Protestantism the only real alternative to it, the true and divine inspiration of the Scriptures, is no longer honestly contended for. That it should make its appearance in the Roman Catholic Church is not at all surprising; but its alarming progress in a few years within such a conservative body is remarkable, and testifies to the attractiveness and power of infidelity over those who surrender to the mere intellectualism of our times.

The intolerant attitude of the Vatican towards it is not surprising either. The Roman Catholic faith stands for a conception of things with which the new spirit can have nothing in common. The one recognizes authority, the other the rejection of it. The nature of the authority in question can be taken into account later, but the present point is that Rome is based upon the recognition of an authoritative standard of truth, upon dogma, to use a common phrase. A famous statement of Harnack— “Dogmatic Christianity, in the strict sense of the word, is Catholic” —would be just as true were the first and last terms transposed. Newman, the convert to Rome, became such, no doubt, because dominated by the thought that external authority was absolutely essential, and assuming that an infallible church provided it. “Dogma was the fundamental principle of my religion. I could enter into no other sort of religion." There is this in common then between Latin Christianity and true Christianity, that in each, truth is conceived to be absolute and unchangeable, capable of being presented in complete and perfect objective form. Wherein they differ is that true believers find this objective testimony presented to their faith in the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are perfect and sufficient in themselves, through the Holy Spirit's power, to reveal God's mind and will; whereas Rome teaches that in addition to the Bible the tnagisterium, or teaching authority of the church is needed, not only to interpret the Scriptures, assuming them to be obscure, but also to authenticate them to us, denying their authority, apart from the sanction of “the pillar and ground of the truth.''

Rome is right then in its conception of the truth as being a definite, guaranteed objective testimony, a “depositum fidei” as it has been called; wrong, essentially wrong, in claiming for the voice of the church the share in that agency which she does. The authority it calls for allegiance to is a usurped authority. This seems to be a fundamental principle in this “Mystery, Babylon the Great” that truths are more refused than rejected, less denied than perverted. Orthodox, yet infidel she is, paradoxical as it may seem. Rome, it has often been remarked, is comparatively free from heterodoxy as to the great facts of Christianity, the Atonement, Trinity, Incarnation, etc. Yet in the case of every one of these truths their applicability to the human soul is annulled through her adulterations. So as to the truth itself, both the need of a divinely given standard, and the inspiration of the Scriptures, she holds and is ready to contend for; but to what account does she turn their admission when made? What rebuke does she bestow on her own children who forsake them? They are “rebels” who aim at the discovery of the truth “apart from the authority of the church and of theology!”

And this it is necessary to be reminded of in the ensuing controversy. There is much to admire, perchance, in the conduct of a Pope, who has the courage to so expose and denounce the infidelity as to Scripture in the ranks of his own communion; and at first sight much to gratify the believer in the publication of the decisions of the Biblical commission already alluded to, and in such steps as his authorization of a revision of the Vulgate. But, rooted in the system itself, there is infidelity of another complexion, with which such action, praiseworthy in itself, is still quite in keeping. Essentially, Rome is a system of error, and no true friend or guardian of the truth at any time. Her antagonism to it has been long and marked, and from the testimony of scripture itself will end only when she herself does. There must be no mistake. Whether the present firm attitude of the Vatican is a genuine stand for the truth as conceived by one who is faithful to what he knows of it, or the more likely reiteration of the apostate system's claim for the implicit obedience of her subjects in presence of a rival system of error, one thing is clear—that Rome at the bottom can never be anything but an enemy of God's truth. The apostasy in which Christendom ends, and to which events hasten, has ample room and accommodation for both elements—the haughty claim to be the sole and infallible depositary of the truth, and the infidelity that denies such a thing as divinely revealed truth altogether. Incompatible as their different pretensions are, this they have in common, that they both exalt themselves against God and His infallible word. We know also that the system that now rejects and casts forth the incipient “atheism” appearing in her midst will one day be repaid in full by the same “atheism” fully developed, for “the ten horns shall hate the whore, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17:16).

Critical indeed are our times. It is not so long since one remarked that “one of the worst signs of the present day, and which is observable everywhere, is that deliverance from superstition and error is not now by means of positive truth,” but that “liberalism is simply destructive,” and who stated his belief that “the manifest conflict of the near future would be between superstition and infidelity,” that “the opposition to Popery will be infidel not protestant.” In truth they pretty well divide the camp.

Happy the believer who, through the grace of God is “without the camp,” and, possessed of that which neither enjoys, has the blessed assurance of possessing God's own truth in God's own word—at once a direct and abiding communication. This it is alone to which the believer must stand, in the face of opposition as in the midst of declension. Both are present in that controversy to which attention has been drawn. Were it a mere wrangle over the political relations, or even the theological status of the Romish church, it might be left unnoticed. But the nature of the case makes it of serious interest to every child of God, as a striking instance of what is abroad, and as a solemn feature of the character which antagonism to the truth of God is now rapidly assuming. The truth of God we must hold fast.

Theology may drift; creeds and confessions no longer suffice to hold mere profession to ancient anchorage grounds; a tide of questioning criticism may flow around, submerging shores even the most secluded from ordinary currents, its dissolving and disintegrating influence permeating every system of doctrine man has framed; and thus many, concerning the faith, make shipwreck. But, holding fast the precious word, admitting its claims, accepting its light, obeying its directions, we have abundant assurance of its reliability and unchangeableness. J. T.

(Concluded from page 128)

Confession and Forgiveness

Until there is confession of sin, and not merely of a sin, there is no forgiveness. We find David in Psalm 51, when he was confessing his sin, saying, “Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” etc., not merely I have done this particular evil; that he does (vers. 1-4); but he recognizes the root and principle of sin. When our hearts are brought to recognize God's hand, it is not merely, then, a question of what particular sin, or of what particular iniquity may need forgiveness; God has brought down the soul, through the working of His Spirit on it, to detect the principle of sin, and so there is confession of that, and not merely of a particular sin. There is then positive restoration of soul.

Now this is a much deeper thing in its practical consequences, and the Lord's dealings thereon, than we are apt to suppose. Freed from the bondage of things which hinder its intercourse with God, the soul learns to lean upon God, instead of upon those things which, so to speak, had taken the place of God. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32). There is its confidence.

We are often like the horse, or the mule, every one of us—and this, because our souls have not been plowed up. When there is anything in which the will of man is at work, the Lord deals with us, as with the horse or the mule, holding us in. When every part of the heart is in contact with Himself, He guides us with His “eye.” “The light of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11:34-36). When there is anything wherein the eye is not single, so long as this is the case, there is not the free intercourse in heart and affections with God; and the consequence is, our will not being subdued, we are not led simply of God. When the heart is in a right state, the whole body is “full of light,” and there is the quick perception of the will of God. He just teaches us by His “eye” all He wishes, and produces in us quickness of understanding in His fear (Isaiah 11:3). This is our portion, as having the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, “quick of understanding in the fear of Jehovah,” hearts without any object, save the will and glory of God.

J. N. D.

Washed

Q.-What is the difference between “washed us from our sins” (Revelation 1:5); “washed their robes” (Revelation 7:14); and “our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22)? R. M.

A.-In Revelation 1 “the disciple whom Jesus loved” addresses “the words of the prophecy” (ver. 3) to the seven churches in Asia, and wishes for them grace and peace “from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” No sooner is the Lord Jesus in His life and death, resurrection and kingdom relationship before the mind of the apostle than he breaks forth in words that can be taken up by all saints since Pentecost. For the knowledge of Christ's redemption, evokes from our hearts the confession of His worth who died for us and rose again. It is He who has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. We “have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (or offense), according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). As this could not be known and enjoyed before redemption was accomplished, so is it characteristic of the time since then and not yet ended. John therefore speaks for himself and for those who have believed on Jesus through the apostles' word. It is the Christian note of praise, and anticipates the universal ascription of glory and might to the One who went down into death for us.

But in Revelation 7 (and 22:14, “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”) we appear to have rather what applies to an earthly (i.e., a people for the earth, whereas the Christian is for heaven) and millennial people who pass through “the great tribulation” and are not (as we) kept “out of the bonds of temptation which shall come upon all the habitable world.” They have been given to wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore are they before the throne of God,” though not in heaven, as verse 16 clearly shows. For hunger, thirst, or the falling of the sun on them, or heat, has not to do with a people above the sun in heaven. Gentiles on earth, they are followers of the Lamb who leads them to living fountains of waters, and, like another company (of Jews, chap. xiv.) they are not defiled. Nevertheless, we cannot suppose them at all up to the heights of Christian truth as we enjoy it in the possession of a purged conscience: but their walk is according to their knowledge of what the blood of the Lamb has effected.

“Our bodies washed with pure water” is the effect of the cleansing power of the word of God (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26). As “not by water only but by water and blood,” Jesus came, so here we have the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood (Hebrews 9:14), and the body cleansed through the operation of the truth, as in John 13 He that is “washed"... “and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 14

“And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat: and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Baal-shalisha and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husks thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith Jehovah, They shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah (2 Kings 4:38-44).

The spiritual awakening of Israel having been perfected typically God sets Himself in grace to meet His people's need. It is life that demands nourishment. The mighty power of God had been shown out in resurrection. His goodness and tender mercy are now manifested in ministering to the needs of His creatures. “The eyes of all look to thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.” There is a return to the beginning of Israel's history at Gilgal, where it was said in the early days of their occupation of the land, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you” (Joshua 5:9). Yet another reproach has been incurred. They have done wickedly, exceeding that of the original inhabitants of the land, and famine and desolation prevail around. Nevertheless, inside the house are the sons of the prophets sitting before Elisha in happy and patient expectancy. The miracles we have been considering have produced a profound impression upon them. All the more necessary was it then to deepen and strengthen this effect and to see to it that what is ministered should be good and wholesome. At the time to which this scripture points, there will be a great thirst for knowledge, and corresponding activity developed in supplying it. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” It is not as vet the millennial kingdom fully established, for then there shall be no evil occurrent. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.” The moral or spiritual education of Israel will be in progress during the millennium. Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss, but at this time—the time of the end—the greatest care will be necessary in regard to what is ministered, and as to what is received. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and shall deceive many.” If it were possible the very elect would he deceived.

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:14). The faithful remnant, looking for light and guidance would find both, as indeed does every earnest seeker after truth. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8).

But the increase of knowledge should be met with increased vigilance on their part, lest readiness to hear and thirst for knowledge should lay them open to the fatal error which would be one of the dangers of the last days—a danger of which the Lord frequently warned His disciples. Their responsibility was, according to the light and privileges they had received from Himself, to “take heed lest any man deceive you” (Mark 13:5). Peter, more especially in his Second Epistle, seeks to put the saints on their guard. His watchful eye discovered the same danger. So also Jude, in a spirit of earnestness peculiarly his own. We need not refer to Paul's writings, which have more particularly in view the church. The earlier warnings, though having, without doubt, a present application and use, nevertheless point to a time still future, in which they will find a larger call than now. For this is pre-eminently the day of the Holy Spirit's presence and operation in the church. Every Christian is now sealed with the Spirit, and even the veriest babe in Christ, having an unction from the Holy One, should be able to brand as a lie the modern teaching that flatters and exalts man and belittles the Christ of God. The Spirit of God will indeed be working in the Jewish remnant in the last days, but not as an indwelling power as now; nor will all scripture in the same way as now be illuminated and used for the profit and blessing of God's earthly people. Is the reason not obvious? For what is now in course of building will then have been completed and removed from earth to heaven.

Many portions there are of scripture which are occupied with Christ risen and glorified in heaven—there in all the completeness of the work by which He glorified God in the propitiation of sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Other scriptures set forth the acceptance of the believer in Christ, according to the value of that work on the cross; whilst others again reveal the heavenly calling and hope of the church, that saints are now (to faith) raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. God the Spirit will indeed at that time satisfy those desires toward Christ which He will produce in the hearts of the faithful. He will open up those portions of the written word which shall be applicable to them. Nevertheless, there will be much of what we now rejoice in and turn to profitable use for present testimony that will be as a sealed book to Jews waiting for deliverance and looking for light. On the other hand, scriptures which we fail now to understand, through our unskilfulness or indolence (“for the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting”), will then shine out with a peculiar brilliancy and sweetness that shall not fail to satisfy many a longing soul.

Scripture is complete in itself, yet the carnal mind can neither receive nor understand it, but man would presumptuously add thereto. Signs are not wanting to-day of this readiness. But when “He who now letteth” shall have been removed, how much more ostentatiously will this be the case, in spite of the warning of Revelation 22:18, 19. But God has surely anticipated, and in His word provided, that which will be suitable for those who in that day “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” “And therefore will Jehovah wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted that he may have mercy upon you; Jehovah is a God of judgment, blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he shall answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:18-21).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 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. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12).

The association of this miracle with Gilgal is most significant (see Josh. 5). It was on Israel's first entrance into the land, the place where they submitted themselves to Jehovah's requirements and accepted the sign of God's covenant with their fathers, “wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day” (Josh. 5:9). But they were not slow in involving themselves in a vet deeper reproach, as portrayed by the prophet Ezekiel (chap. 20.) in great detail. First, in the land of Egypt (vers. 5-9); secondly, in the wilderness (vers 10-26); thirdly, in the land (vers. 27-32); the chapter closing with a description of the way in which God will cause them to “pass under the rod,” when He brings them into the land and into the bond of the covenant. The “dearth in the land” witnessed to Jehovah's faithfulness. It was His way of bringing them into the bond of the coven ant.

“And I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out from the countries wherein ye are scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured forth. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:34-37). But this second gathering to, and occupation of, the land of Israel will be in virtue of the new covenant and not of the old. The latter was ready to vanish away in Paul's day (Hebrews 8:13); yet it has not, for its curse is still in operation. But in that day it shall have entirely disappeared, and if man, in his efforts to add to the feast, only succeeds in marring it, there is such virtue in the blood of the new covenant, such power in its bond, and such grace in Him who is prefigured in the meal, that when this was cast into the pot there was no evil thing there. The virtue of the work of the Second man annuls all that the first man brought in by disobedience (see Romans 5:17-21). The intercession of God in grace by the Man Christ Jesus has made it quite safe to sit at such a table where the Lord has healed, and to partake of the feast which He has blessed. All shall be satisfied, for the word of Jehovah must be fulfilled. Every pledge and promise of blessing shall be more than made good for Israel and the nations by Him who has brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 32-33

The first of these chapters introduces a new speaker into the great debate. Elihu, it is well known, has been the occasion of a great deal of speculation. It seems to be rather discreditable to the judgment of those who have conjured up or yielded to such difficulties. There is scarcely more reason to doubt of Elihu than of Eliphaz, of Job himself, or any other. The historic reality of all stands or falls together. Nor is there better reason for imagining a superhuman personage in Elihu than in Melchizedek. Doubtless as Melchizedek was the type, and in a very striking way too, of the Lord Jesus as the royal priest, Scripture recording neither birth nor death, neither predecessor nor successor, and this in order to suit the more impressively His glory who was shadowed, so here comes forward one who remarkably exemplifies—for I should call him not a type, but one who exemplifies—the Spirit of Christ which we know did work in the saints of old. In some it took a prophetic character. Here it is more in the way of dealing with conscience and vindicating the character of God. This is indeed what Job needed and had longed for, as we gather from earlier words. The very things he desired were in due time vouchsafed by grace. He had asked for one of like passions when crushed in spirit under the hand of God. He pined after a man who should intervene between God and him. And God now gives him his desire (not yet the man Christ Jesus), a man of God indeed, but with infirmities like his own. Elihu takes particular pains to insist that he presumed on no higher ground than this. Impossible, if it were any anticipative intervention of the Lord Jesus, that he should speak of his “opinion” and the like. We see how constantly he talks about giving his opinion. The Lord Jesus, let Him take the lowest place, never spoke as the scribes, but always as One giving out the word of God and the words of the Father. His mission indeed was to manifest the Father. The only begotten Son who was in His bosom, He declared Him. Elihu takes no such attitude. He was a man, but one in whom the Spirit of God was working then, and who gives us the reason why he had not appeared on the scene before. He was comparatively young, and in those days different feelings governed from those of the present day. There was a strong sense of propriety in the deference due to elders from those younger. Saintship strengthened instead of weakening this. Elihu might, as compared with Eliphaz and the rest, enter much more into the mind of God; and it seems evident that he did so, more than Job himself, not to speak of the three friends—these “very old” men of whom he speaks. But until they were fairly silenced, until they had not a word more to say against Job or for themselves, Elihu abides in the shade. But, though he introduces himself with a good deal of preface, and apologizes for one comparatively young giving his opinion, when he does speak, wisdom from God is in it. Does not all this show us how men were given to understand, even in these earliest days, what was becoming; and that the power of the Spirit, far from destroying relative decorum, does, on the contrary, set it off with a greater force than natural reverence because it judges self in the presence of God? At the same time, as there was a free opening for the light of God to enter, so it does not fail to shine. Elihu lets us know the deep feeling that filled his soul as, on the one hand, he looked at these three men who were more vexed at their failure than humbled, because they had not really weighed the question in the light of God's presence; and, on the other hand, at Job, who up to the present had failed to learn the lesson of subjection of heart to God, although a terrible process was going on; and I am very far from meaning that God does not give wholesome lessons before the full blessing comes out. There is no time or form of God's dealing, beloved brethren, he assured, that is lost to the soul. Nor is it by any means what most appears that is the most important part of the blessing. One might venture to say, that in all the good that abides and bears fruit there is a groundwork that is unseen—or what goes on within—which, although it be by no means the fullness of the blessing that God intends for us, is its all-important and necessary condition. Just so, consequently, there was a work now going on within. Job was learning himself. Neither his complaints of God, nor his collision with respected friends, could he have believed possible; he never had known such thoughts or feelings in all his previous experience. It is evident, too, that his friends were wholly unprepared for the exhibition that had taken place, quick as they were to see the faults of Job. But had they seen their own? There was a beam in their eye as truly as there was a mote in Job's. What wonder then that they should see badly? In part, therefore, this closing portion of the book is meant to bring before us the manner in which God brings the whole question to a solution, as far as this could be till Christ came. So, after Elihu has thus made his excuses for speaking, he takes the last place, really the weightiest of all, though he was so little to be thought of that we had not even heard his name before. And this is one of the things that men habitually fail to understand, that the last should be first, and the first last. To my own mind it is one of the moral congruities, not of this book only, but of Scripture, and of God's ways generally, who brings people forward at the right moment. It is an important lesson, therefore, that God is teaching in that very fact. Man would not have done so. If he had essayed to write such a book as this, he would have prepared us for such an one as Elihu at the very outset. God acts with supreme wisdom; and the force with which Elihu comes into the scene when needed is so much the greater because of the retired and lowly place that he had maintained up to that moment.

Here let me take the opportunity of stating that we must not be misled by the word “inspiration” here. Elihu does not claim it in the same sense in which the apostle Paul applies it to all Scripture. He uses it simply as the source of that understanding which God gives to man, and in no way pretends to the unfailing, absolute, perfectly communicated word of God. When we talk about “inspiration,” we mean the mind of God conveyed so that error is absolutely excluded. Does Elihu herein pretend to any such thing? Would he talk about his opinion if it were so? This is the more necessary, because often one sees danger through a tendency, on the one hand, to let slip the force of Scripture as inspired of God, and, on the other, to weaken it by giving other men or writings such a name as “inspired,” which can only be in a lower poetic or figurative sense. The context must always direct us in deciding such questions. In the present instance of Elihu the context seems to me conclusive that inspiration, as applied to him here, does not mean what Paul predicates of every Scripture in 2 Timothy 3. Of the Scriptures, of course, the book of Job is part, and so inspired. The Holy Ghost, from whom it came, whoever might be the instrument, gave us a book as truly inspired of God as 2 Timothy which vouches for all. But the inspiration of the Almighty of which Elihu speaks does not go beyond the source of human understanding.

But in chapter 33 we find the first grand principle introduced for meeting the question of Job. He begins to open the moral reason for God's dealings, and for those trials under which job had been groaning. “Wherefore, Job,” he says, “I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Then he puts forward the very point referred to already. “Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay.” This is exactly what Job had desired, and now beyond his expectation, when he was entirely disappointed in his friends, God furnishes the help that was needed—a patient consideration of the awfully trying circumstances, with jealousy for God's glory at the right moment, and doubtless from the last quarter to which Job should have looked for it. “Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid.” He had complained that God acted thus on his soul and body. Was he a land or sea-monster that God should treat him as He did? for Job indeed had used most uncomely words. But should no account be taken of his friends' provocation and of his extreme agony in soul and body? “Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.” It was God's hand that Job had so strongly deprecated. “Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.” Beyond a doubt Job had gone too far. It was quite true that there was no such unseen wickedness as his friends insinuated, but it was utterly false that God had not the wisest reasons for withering self in Job's eyes.

Job had, by the very contemplation of the grace that had wrought so much in and by him, lost sight of the source of grace. He had been occupied with its effects; and the doubts of his friends, in addition to the dealings of God, had well-nigh maddened him. Instead of directing him to the grace that is in God, Eliphaz had thrown him more and more on himself and his ways, which was precisely the error into which Job had fallen. That is, Eliphaz thought that if he made righteousness his confidence, if he had a true ground of practical godliness in his life, it was impossible that he should be afflicted of God as he had been; whereas it was really because Job had slipped into the error of thinking too much of his own righteousness, necessarily breeding not a little self-complacency in his soul, that it was a needful discipline for God to bring him down. If to be blessed fully, he must have a sound judgment of himself, as well as a truer estimate of God; and this grace did give.

Now we do need practical righteousness and a good conscience as well as faith to resist the enemy, as we see in Ephesians 6 But we want something far brighter than this armor as a robe before God; we want divine righteousness here; and this Job had to learn. He had confounded the two things, as many a saint does to-day, to his own loss and the dishonor of God.

Elihu then puts clearly before him that he had spoken wrongfully of God, as well as too highly of himself. “Behold, he findeth occasions against me.” Was it comely so to speak of God? “He counteth me for his enemy.” Elihu justly complained of such language. A saint should be reverent. “He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths. Behold, in this thou art not just.” Is it possible that a godly man should allow his lips to accuse God of injustice? “I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against him?” The three friends had failed to convict Job rightly while suspecting him wrongfully. Not only was Job judging God, but also he was not subject to Him. There was insubmission of heart. If God was dealing with him, why did he not inquire of Him, instead of murmuring? “Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters. For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.”

In this very chapter then Elihu points out to Job a rather ordinary way of God's dealings, though not by any means an invariable one. God is not at all limited in His methods of reaching men, but can in divers ways act on the soul. Here Elihu begins at the beginning with the greatest propriety. He begins with the first work of God in the man who does not know Him. It is grace working to awaken an unconverted soul. The reason for the remark will appear presently. Such is the first installment to the solution of the difficulty which all had felt; but as yet it remained entirely unsolved. “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” It is exactly what characterizes divine mercy in appealing to the unconverted man. He is carried away by his own will. But God knows how to bend or break it. “He keepeth back his soul from the pit” (such is the merciful object of God's intervention), “and his life from perishing by the sword.” Here is more than a dream of the night or passing vision; here are corrective ways, as well as glimpses of God's light, or of His judgment that he was despising. “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious unto him.”

It was of old then as now. God, who uses these outward means of dealing with a man, works by His word, and as an ordinary rule too by a messenger that He employs an interpreter, as we are told, one among a thousand. “Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” —a singularly vivid mode of presenting that which God was about to accomplish in due time, and not merely here in a typical form of promise. Here we have plain enough language perhaps, indeed, as distinct words as any in the Old Testament, in anticipation of that infinite work which we now know to be finished in the cross of Christ.

What is the consequence then to the soul that thus bows to God while he listens to an interpreter, such as Elihu was himself? “His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth: he shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right.”

Accordingly we find that there is not only grace on God's part, but there is wrought repentance on man's—a repentance which is given him just as truly as faith. This answers to grace; and the sinner confides in God, when He can have no confidence in the sinner. Grace puts God and man in their true place. The question in conversion is, whether man is brought down to distrust himself, and thankfully to receive the testimony of God. For the sinner awakened it is the only true confidence in God. And faith does thus confide, and shows it wherever the testimony truly enters by repentance. The language of his heart is, “I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not.” And what does God in such a case? “He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man.”

It is not a doctrine how grace arouses sinners from the sleep of death; but there is a sketch to the life of His detailed ways; the use of sickness and sorrow, as of dreams or visions; His employment, especially, of those who come with the light of God to deal with the conscience of man. All this is brought out graphically, and the effect produced “To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.” Indeed it speaks to the point so forcibly that we know how often it is a favorite theme for those who preach the gospel to the unconverted even to this day. It is not meant, by any means, that Elihu's words furnish the fullest material or the deepest ground to preach from; but still it is a striking instance of living power that attaches to the earliest detail of God's way with a sinner in his awakening, that so many hundred, and indeed we may say two thousand, years before the gospel of God's grace was sent: out, we should have so ample an anticipation by Elihu the interpreter that intervenes for the help of Job himself, converted as he was.

Elihu then takes his stand first on God's using dreams and visions, trouble and sickness, as well as more directly spiritual means for blessing to the soul. But it is for one that knows nothing of God, that he may be brought into the enjoyment of His favor. Surely it is His favor that was pleased thus to work in the man, but now he is made conscious of His favor as far as the revelation went.

Thus, although the world be a ruin before God, and although it is too evident that Satan is the restless worker of all evil here below, which is brought before us in the plainest manner in this book, God who is above it all, and who seems to take no part in it, carries on His gracious ways, and this to convert and deliver those who have been wretched, vile, and rebellious. It is not that retributive government to which man's heart would constantly limit God, but a government of souls while the world goes on in pride. Man likes to see people punished when they deserve it. It is natural to the heart. There is something in our nature which, when one is not actually suffering or dreading it, likes to find some (shall I say good or bad?) reason why another should be punished if he does suffer. This was at work in the three friends. But the book of Job is intended to show that they were all wrong in their application of this truth. Not that there will not be perfect retribution when the time comes for it, by the only One capable of carrying it out; but that it is only partial now. Christ alone will act perfectly in it by and by; but the time awaits His coming. There will be no adequate retributive government till the Lord Jesus takes the reins. He Himself was in this world the greatest of sufferers, as we know; and so the saints were sufferers before Christ, and still more since Christ. At any rate, the grace now displayed is such that God counts it a privilege given us to suffer for His sake; so that we surely ought to be able to bless God for it in a way that Job and no other could, because we have Christ fully revealed. Job did not know why his gracious Master gave him up to such tremendous and reiterated trouble. He had to learn why, and to learn it slowly and painfully, but blessedly at the end. We begin where he ended. Having in Christ the true light of God, we have not only His perfect love, but that there goes on a kind of divine government quite different from retribution; that there is a gracious dealing of God for the good of souls, and connected with it a moral government, unheeded by the world, which, spite of all appearances to the contrary, never fails. It is not a government consisting in what is public, or what natural men can judge of. It is none the less God dealing with souls, and to all that how to His word and to Himself ineffable blessing. The discipline may be painful, not to say that it must be. What blessing can there be without it in our nature and in this world? The cross tells what it cost the Lord Himself to make our blessing a righteous thing; the manifestation of the same truth in the highest and deepest way. Where is there a single joy for us, once dead in sins but now saved by grace, that had not its root in the sorrows and sufferings of Him who bore our judgment? And so it is for those that learn what sin is in the presence of God.

But this is only the first part of God's government, what is taught by God's dealing with a sinner to bring him into the apprehension of his own guilt and need, as well as of God's goodness. He is thus delivered from going down into the pit.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

On Discipline: Part 1

We ought to remember what we are in ourselves, when we talk about exercising discipline—it is an amazingly solemn thing. When I reflect that I am a poor sinner, saved by mere mercy, standing only in Jesus Christ for acceptance, in myself vile, it is evidently an awful thing to take discipline into my own hands. Who can judge save God? This is my first thought. But we are bound to be clear of evil in God's way.

Here I stand as nothing in the midst of persons dear to the Lord, whom I must look upon and esteem better than myself, in the consciousness of my own sinfulness and nothingness before the Lord, and to talk of exercising discipline! It is a very solemn thought indeed to my own mind; it presses on me peculiarly. Only one thing gets me out of that feeling, and that is the prerogative of love. When love is really in exercise, it cares for nothing but the accomplishment of its object. Look at it in the Lord Jesus; no matter what stood in the way, on He went. This is the only thing that can rightly relieve the spirit from the sense of an altogether false position in the exercise of discipline. The moment I get out of that, it is a monstrous thing. Though the subject matter of conduct he righteousness., that which sets it going is love—love in exercise to secure, at all cost of pain to itself, the blessing of holiness in the church. It is not a position of superiority in the flesh (see Matthew 23:8-11). The character of discipline as master we have not at all. Though influenced by love to maintain righteousness, and stimulated to a jealous, watchful care one over another, we must ever remember that, after all, “to his own master” our brother “standeth or falleth” (Romans 14:4). Love alone guides it, and the service of love displays it; but love that must have holiness, the true character of divine love. We do see that character of discipline in the Lord Jesus, when He took a scourge of small cords to drive out the desecrators of the temple (Matthew 21; John 2); but it was anticipative of another character of Christ, when He will execute judgment.

There are two or three kinds of discipline full of comfort, as showing the association of the individual with the whole body, and with God, which have been ordinarily confounded amongst Christians.

There is in this country a great deal more difficulty connected with the question of discipline than elsewhere, because of certain habits of action whereby discipline has come to be looked at merely as a deliberative and judicial act. Persons have been voluntarily associated, and there has been a habit of legislating for the credit of the voluntarily associated body. Because people must secure themselves, each society makes its own rules. Now, that principle is as far from the truth as the world from the church, or light from darkness. One cannot admit of any principle of voluntary association at all, or of preservative rules of one's own. Man's will is that which brings in everlasting destruction. It may be modified, but the principle is altogether false. There is no such thing as voluntary action on man's part in the things of God, it is acting under Christ by the Spirit. The moment I get man's will, I get the devil's service, and not Christ's. This has occasioned a mass of practical difficulty that those abroad do not feel. When I get the notion of a judicial process going on for the trial of crime by certain laws, I find myself altogether off the ground of grace: I have confounded all sorts of things.

The developed statement of Matthew 18:15-17, though often cited, does not seem to touch the matter. It is a question of wrong done to a brother; and it is never said, concerning the one who has done the wrong, that the church is to put him out, but “let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” This may have to be the case as to the church subsequently, but it is not its character: here it is simply, “Let him be unto thee,” etc.—have nothing more to do with him. It supposes a case of wrong done to an individual, as in the trespass-offering, where it is said, “If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor,” etc. There is the sovereignty of grace to forgive, even to the “seventy times seven” ; but “thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.” An individual has wronged me, how am I to act? I go not to the Father's discipline, nor to the Son's discipline over His own house; but, acting towards him in the love of the brotherhood, I go, and say, “Brother, thou hast done me wrong,” etc. There is, first of all, this remonstrance in righteousness, yet the path is such that it may not get out of the scope of grace. Having done this, if he will not hear me, I take with me one or two more, “that in the mouth of two or three witnesses,” etc. If that fails, I then tell it to the whole assembly. If he refuse to hear the church, “let him he unto thee,” etc. The thing prescribed is a course of individual conduct, and the result individual position towards another. It may come to a case of church discipline, but not necessarily. I go hoping to gain my brother, through repentance, to replace him in his right relation in fellowship with myself and God. (Where there is failure in brotherly love, it necessarily affects communion with the Father). If my brother is gained, it goes no further, it ought never to pass my lips; the church knows nothing of it, or any other creature but we two. If there is failure, I act to restore him in fellowship to all.

As to the discipline of the Father, there is a great deal more of individual prerogative of grace in this. I doubt whether it comes under the care of a body of Christians at all; it is individual exercise of care. I do not sec that the church stands in the place of the Father. The idea of superiority is true, in a certain sense: there is difference of grace as well as of gift. If I have more holiness, I must go and restore my brother (Galatians 6:1). But then this individual action in grace is not church discipline. It is most important to keep these things clear and distinct, so that, whilst one is quite ready to be subject to the two or three, individual energy should not be at all restrained, but remain clear and untouched. The Holy Ghost must have all His liberty. I could suppose a case where an individual had to go and rebuke all round, as Timothy: “Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering,” &c. (2 Timothy 4:2). That is discipline; but the church has nothing to do with it; it is individual action. But, again, the church may be forced to exercise discipline, as in the case of the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 5). The Corinthians were not the least prepared to exercise discipline, but the apostle insists upon their doing so. There is that which is the individual exercise of the energy of the Spirit, in the ministry of grace and truth and the like on the souls of others, and church action not at all involved. It is a mischief to make church discipline the only discipline. It would be a most awful thing, if it were necessary to bring every evil before all. It is not the tendency of charity to bring evil into public. “Charity covers a multitude of sins.” If it sees a brother sin a sin which is not unto death, it goes and Prays for him, and the sin may never come out as a question of church discipline at all. I believe there is never a case of church discipline but to the shame of the whole body. In writing to the Corinthians Paul says, “Ye have not mourned,” &c.: they were identified with it all. Like some sore on a man's body, it tells of the disease of the body, of the constitutional condition. The assembly is never prepared, or in the place, to exercise discipline, unless having first identified itself with the sin of the individual. if it does not do it in that way it takes a judicial form, and that will not be the ministration of the grace of Christ. Christ has not yet taken His full judicial place. The moment it comes to that, the saying, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still,” &c., the church has departed from its place altogether. Its priestly character in the present dispensation is one of grace. [J. N. D.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 3. Analogous Prophecies in Mark and Luke

III.-The Analogous Prophecies in Luke And Mark

One great loss in the study of Scripture, and in its edifying power upon the soul, is the denial of its inspiration, or even a mere lessening in one's mind of the sense of the integrity and fullness of that inspiration. The apostolic doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16) is that “every scripture is inspired"; further, not merely inspired in a general or vague sense, as might be said of the animated utterances of a man of genius, but “inspired by God” (θεόπνεθστος), and in that way marked off from all other writings of men. Still further, that the very “words” used in so communicating spiritual things are “words taught by the Spirit” (γόλοις... διδακτοῖς πνεύματος), so that not only are the things communicated “spiritual,” but the “words” by which they are communicated are “spiritual” also (1 Corinthians 2:13). This is the authoritative apostolic doctrine on the subject. But still more. Scripture is, in all cases, the final appeal by the apostles, and—highest of all—by the Lord Jesus Himself. “As it is written” is Paul's appeal (Romans 3:10), “What saith the scripture” (Romans 4:3), “He” i.e., God) “saith also in Osee” (Romans 9:25), “For the scripture saith'' (Romans 10:11). Here are four instances from one epistle, showing what scripture was to an apostle. The Lord Jesus Himself says, “The scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). “It is written in the prophets,” He says again (John 6:45); and He places Moses' writings as a moral test on a level with His own precious words, “If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words” (John 5:47). “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written” (Luke 24:45, 46). “And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (ver. 27).

If therefore the Christ Himself is an authority on Christianity, and if His apostles may be supposed to know His doctrines, scripture is, in the fullest sense, in its very words, inspired by God. It follows from this that whether the four Evangelists, or the three, copied from a common document is a worthless speculation. He who holds that cardinal truth of Christianity, the inspiration of scripture, goes back to a higher source, the fountain-head, God Himself, who inspired the scriptures, and who has thus conferred upon us the priceless boon of having His own exact words. The rejecter of inspiration reads Scripture under a great disadvantage. When he comes to a seeming discrepancy, instead of reverently waiting for illumination, his spirit frets at the difficulty, and he proceeds to force things into a uniformity which was never intended. To have given a mere chronological narration of events and discourses would have been mechanically simple, but not so has the inspiring Spirit wrought. He has given us four distinct views in the Gospels, which we simply spoil by forcing them into what is misnamed “a Harmony.”

Now if Scripture be inspired, the differences are as much a matter of divine intention as the coincidences, and this line of reflection finds an illustration in the four Gospels. If our gracious God has given us four differing Gospels, it is our wisdom to heed the differences, instead of trying to obliterate them and thus merge all in one dead level of uniformity.

There are two chief differences between the prophecy of Matthew 24, and the similar prophecies in Luke 17 and 21. Matthew 24 gives “the abomination of desolation” but does not give the destruction of Jerusalem. Luke 21 gives the destruction of Jerusalem (vers. 12-24), but does not mention “the abomination of desolation” or “the great tribulation.” The scope and intention of the prophecy in Matthew are, in the main, quite distinct from the scope and intention of that in Luke, though in some points they overlap, as will be shown. Failure to perceive the distinction of subjects in the two scriptures has led to great confusion in expositions of them. It has been supposed that Matthew 24, which really relates to the Lord's future coming, applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that Luke's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem was intended to include Matthew's prediction of the coming of the Son of man in glory. The result is a baffling and confusing amalgam of what divine wisdom had made distinct. Take the two prophecies separately, as given to us by inspiration, and all is plain.

Comparing Luke 21 with Matthew 24, it will be found that verses 8-11 of Luke give the “beginning of sorrows” corresponding with verses 3-14 of Matthew. Then in Luke there is an express turning back at verse 12, introduced by the words: “But before all these things they shall lay their hands on you” (vers. 12-24), forming an interlude in which are announced the persecution of the disciples, the destruction of Jerusalem, and “the times of the Gentiles” —a passage which finds no place in Matthew. After this, the subject of the last days, broken off at ver. 12, is resumed at ver. 25, and what thence follows belongs to “the time of the end,” the same as in Matthew.

This simple explanation is the key to the difficulties which have perplexed commentators in reconciling Matthew 24 with Luke 21. These difficulties have arisen from the attempt to amalgamate what Scripture has separated—to force the destruction of Jerusalem, which is proper to Luke, into Matthew 24, where the Spirit, who indited that chapter, never intended it to be. The following table exhibits the division of the subjects in question in Matthew and Luke respectively—

Matthew 24

Luke 21

Vers. 3-14.—The beginning of sorrows.

Vers. 8-11.—The same

A parenthesis—not given by Matthew.

Vers. 12-19.—Persecution of the 1st century (A.D.) antecedent to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Vers. 20-24.—Siege and desolation of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) and its downtreading “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

Vers. 15-28.—The time of the end (including the great tribulation)

Not given by Luke.

Vers. 29-41.—The appearing of the Son of man in glory.

Vers. 25-33.—The same.

Luke 17 Vers. 22-37.—The same.

Possibly this explanation will suffice for the ordinary reader. If he choose to skip the remainder of the present chapter he can do so without detriment to the understanding of the subsequent ones. What here follows, however, will, it is thought, assist those who may wish to compare more fully Matthew 24 and Luke 21.

In Matthew 24 the disciples ask two very precise and definite questions: (1) “When shall these things be” (the overthrow of the Temple just referred to)?; and (2), “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?” But these Dean Alford blends into one, with the remark, “We must, I think, be careful not to press the clauses of it too much, so as to make them bear separate meanings, according to the arrangements of our Lord's discourse” (Greek Test. in loco). One may well ask, “Why?” For, as a matter of fact, disregard of the clear-cut definition of subjects in the disciples' questions is what has beclouded the expositions of commentators. Starting with this initial error it is not surprising to find the worthy Dean afterward expounding the following verses of Matthew 24 down to ver. 28, as applying to both “the destruction of Jerusalem and the final judgment.” It is true that there are phrases in the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction which resemble phrases in Matthew 24, and this has too readily led some to suppose that the theme of both prophecies was identical. Thus Luke says that when Jerusalem should be compassed with armies, the disciples were to know that the desolation thereof was nigh. But the “desolation of Jerusalem” is a wholly different matter from the “abomination of desolation” spoken of in Matthew. The desolation of Jerusalem given in Luke took place in A.D. 70. The abomination of desolation will not be until “the time of the end,” as will be clearly seen if attention is paid to the due connection of vers. 14, 15, 16, 21, 29 of Matthew 24.

Again, Luke says, referring to the destruction of Jerusalem: “Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto” (21:21). And in Matthew the same means of safety is prescribed on the abomination of desolation being set up. But is it surprising that for local peril in Jerusalem—though at different dates—the same way of escape should be enjoined (a way which the mountainous cincture of Jerusalem renders peculiarly fitting)? The directions, however, in the two cases are not the same, though similar. In Luke there is a command that those in Judea were to depart to the mountains, and that those in the country were not to enter in. Yet there is no note of alarming urgency, such as we find in Matthew at the setting up of the abomination of desolation. In the latter case the delay of an instant is prohibited. He that is on the housetop is not to come down to take anything out of his house, and he who is in the field is not to return back to take his clothes. Another incident which is similar in the two events is that a persecution of the disciples precedes both. Accordingly, this is predicted of each, in terms similar, but not the same (see Luke 21:12-19, and Matthew 24:9, 10). The pictures of these two persecutions, and what is said about each, are so much alike that without attention to the era within which they respectively fall they might easily be supposed to be identical. Yet there are differences which show that they relate to distinct periods of time. Thus, in the early persecutions of Luke 21:12, synagogues—an institution of that time—are mentioned, but not in the persecution of the last days given in Matthew 24:9. Again, in Luke the disciples are to be brought before kings and rulers for Christ's name's sake. But in Matthew they are, for His name's sake, to be “hated of all nations.” Now this is a striking difference, for the hating by all nations is a natural consequence of that detested preaching of the gospel for a witness to all nations, which is predicted for the time of the end. So, while on a superficial reading the two passages may seem identical, a careful scanning reveals minor verbal differences, which are both accurate and designed.

The subject of the destruction of Jerusalem being, in Luke 21, finished at ver. 24, that of the last days (which was interrupted at ver. 12) is now resumed, but with briefness, for in Luke it has already been dealt with in chap. 17. Neither in chap. 17, however, nor in 21 is it treated with anything like the detail of Matthew 24. And this, indeed, is characteristic and appropriate as regards each of these two Gospels.

A word or two respecting Luke 17. The prophetic section vers. 22-37 is obviously the same instruction as we have in Matthew 24 The latter may have been a repetition of what we have here in Luke 17 and which (as already given to us in chap. 17.) Luke does not repeat in 21. It is not imperative, however, to suppose this, as there is nothing in Luke 17:22 to indicate that what follows was spoken at the time of the conversation with the Pharisees in vers. 20, 21. The verse simply states, “And he said unto the disciples,” without saying when or where. It may, or may not, have been immediately after the conversation with the Pharisees in the verses preceding. If it was, then the motive is apparent for Luke's omitting it from chap. 21. If it was not, then it is easy to see that it is introduced here because of its appositeness, and naturally therefore omitted from 21.

The minor differences between Matthew 24 and Luke 17 and 21 are thoroughly characteristic. Thus Luke, where he gives the last days, coincides—so far as he goes—with Matthew's Gospel. He gives the same note of urgency (21:31) for flight as Matthew, but, as we have seen, not quite the same as in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. He does not, however, mention “the abomination of desolation,” that subject being reserved by the guiding Spirit for Matthew and Mark. Again, Matthew gives the question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?” Mark and Luke omit this. But agreeably with this distinction, Matthew's Gospel gives the close of the dispensation, with an amount of detail and emphasis not found in the other two, and omits any answer to the first question; while Luke gives what was nineteen centuries before the close of the dispensation, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem.

Not only Alford, however, but Olshausen, Lange, Bloomfield—indeed most who have written on the subject—labor under the mistaken idea that in each and all of the three Gospels the prophecy is intended to give as well the destruction of Jerusalem as the Lord's coming; whereas Matthew and Mark give the Lord's coming, but not the destruction of Jerusalem; and Luke, in the verses dealing with the destruction of Jerusalem (12-24), specifically demarks it (ver. 12) from the current of other events. Olshausen speaks of the overthrow of Jerusalem being blended in the prophecy with the Lord's coming, and quotes Fritzsche, Fleck, Schultze and de Wette as supporting him. But this it just their mistake, for the blending is in their comments, not in the Gospels. Olshausen, erroneously assuming that “this generation” meant the persons then living, argues from ver. 34 that the prophecy must belong to the time then present. “Hence,” he says, “we do not hesitate to adopt... the simple interpretation—and the only one consistent with the text—that Jesus did intend to represent His coming as contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem” (pp. 233, 234). The interpretation, however, is the opposite of simple, for Jerusalem has been overthrown, but Christ has not come. Then, amongst other means to reconcile the difficulty, Olshausen says (p. 236) that “Christ is constantly coming in His kingdom.” But Christ is not constantly coming. Scripture is emphatic in representing Him as, during the present period, waiting in expectancy at the Father's right hand. His position now is that of Psalm 110: “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” The Lord Jesus in Matthew 22:24 applies this to Himself, and the apostles likewise apply this scripture to Christ (Acts 2:34, 35; Hebrews 1:13). Acts 3:21 shows that He must be in heaven until the “times of restitution of all things.” To say that Christ is constantly coming is, besides being untrue, really an absurdity, into which commentators are forced by their mistaken scheme of interpretation. Christ is in session at the right hand of God, and will remain so until the Father's moment for Him to rise up and claim the kingdoms as His own. Then will be fulfilled that verse in Matthew 24, “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (30).

The theory indeed is laminated confusion. First, Christ is made to represent His coming as contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem; but this could not be because it is not true. Christ did not come at the destruction of Jerusalem. No one saw Him then. When He comes “they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Secondly, to get over this difficulty it is said, inter alia, that “Christ” is constantly coming in His kingdom,” but this clashes with two other lines of scripture-teaching, (1) that Christ's coming is to be like lightning in the wide heavens, (2) that Christ's present position is in session, in expectancy, in patience (Hebrews 10:12, 13; Revelation 1:9; 1 Corinthians 4:8). And all these difficulties are incurred through not taking the Gospels simply as they are given to us.

The prophecy in Mark (chap. 13.) is like Matthew 24, in that it makes no reference to the downfall of Jerusalem. It conforms very much, however, to Matthew 10, which, as already explained, is a charge to the remnant in view of their testimony—initiated while Jesus was upon earth, but not to be finished until the Son of man be come (vide ante)—the present, or church-period, being a gap between the commencement of this testimony and its resumption after the church is gone. This explains the occurrence of phrases or passages common alike to Matthew 10; 24 and Mark 13; also found in Luke, chaps. 12, 17, and 21. Whenever indeed Christ is seen instructing the remnant in their testimony, there will be found like, if not identical, instructions.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

( “Gospels,” vol. iii, pp. 234-6, clark's 2nd edition.)

After the Lord Had Spoken

One cannot but be struck with the unique character of the winding up of the Gospel of Mark. The testimony of every one who speaks seems to fail in its effects. The “young man” in the sepulcher, “sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment,” beseeches the women not to be affrighted, for “He is risen,” but to go with a message to the “disciples and Peter.” They flee, however, afraid, trembling, and amazed. “Neither said they anything to any one.” So much for the first communication. What as to a second? “Mary Magdalene... went and told those that had been with” Jesus how “that he was alive and had been seen of her.” “And they, when they had heard... believed not!” Yet another case! The two, to whom He had “appeared in another form” as they walked and went into the country, went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.”

We see then that in each case the testimony given through His own fails, and one would be disposed to be cast down, but that the value of His own direct word shines out by contrast, for so long as He is glorified, that is all we want. “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen” (ver. 14), and then He adds those memorable words, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Notice now the result of His direct speaking to them.” So then after the Lord had spoken unto them... they went forth and preached everywhere.” What a contrast! And has it no lesson for us? As believers do we not want Him to speak directly to us, in His word? And as servants, if grace uses us to bring the soul of a sinner to Himself, do we not need to be taken at once out of the way, as Philip was by the Spirit of the Lord” when the eunuch saw him no more. For (R. V.) he went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). That is, he was so happy that he forgot all about Philip! Surely, too, the same principle should prevail in our service to saints, “for,” as says the apostle, “we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5)-His own personal name.

There could have been nothing more grateful to the woman of Samaria than when the many more who believed because of His own word said explicitly to her, “We believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” Nature might take that as a snub, but grace in her would give the saying a loud Amen.

What made the two going to Emmaus have their heart burn within them? Was it their conversation? It had been of Christ before the stranger joined them. Was it not Himself “while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures"?

Moved with compassion, Jesus put forth His hand and touched the leper (in Mark 1:41), and said unto him, “I will; be thou clean.” But let us not overlook what follows, nor divorce it from what precedes. “As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”

Is it not similar in the case of the disciples when He was on earth, and our own case now? What could that which calls itself the Church do for us with all its ordinances? Can it give us in them the peace and assurance that flow from these, His own words, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3)?

Moreover, is it not from His own lips speaking these words, “These things I have spoken to you being yet present with you,” that we have also the truth of what He is for us now? Even thus, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it,” and again, the further blessedness of the Holy Spirit's presence with us as the other Comforter who is to abide with us forever. The apostle, in writing to the Corinthians, may unfold the authority of the Holy Spirit in the assembly and the working of the various gifts, etc., but who unfolds to us what He is as adequately filling now His own place, as the Lord Himself?

Much more might be said as to the force of His own words. But this must be paramount for us each one-that when Peter asked Him, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” he was met with this reply, “If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee? Follow THOU ME” (John 21:20). Inferences upon His sayings may be current now, as then, among the brethren, but we are in no way absolved from our own personal allegiance to our Lord. Let us remember His words, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). May He ever give us grace so to do, for His name's sake! Amen.

W. N. T.

Mark 16:20

“They went forth and preached everywhere” —for there is this character of largeness about Mark— “the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” Would a forger have kept up the bold thought of “the Lord working with them,” while every other word intimates that He was then at least quiescent? W. K.

Notes of an Address on Revelation 1:1-7

It is very important when studying any portion of the word of God to take notice, not merely of its context but, of the scope of the book in which it is found. We are so apt, when coming to the Scriptures, to simply seek what meets us in our present circumstances—most necessary at the beginning, when grace shows us our need as guilty and undone, and God does guide more or less to that portion which meets us, but afterward when we are established in the grace of God it is the Spirit's work to show us what concerns Christ and the varied aspects in which He is presented. Thus, as has often been said, if I want to learn the gospel I must begin with the Epistle to the Romans, for that unfolds “the gospel of God concerning His Son,” and not only gives me forgiveness of sins, but complete deliverance from law, self, and Satan, and does not leave me till it has told me of the love of God that is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to us, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father,” and that there is no condemnation for me in Christ, and that there is no separation from His love.

Take another epistle—Ephesians—this, in one sense begins where Romans and Colossians leave off, or rather, though it starts with the same faith, yet it leads me into the counsels and thoughts of God about me—what was in His heart before time began.

So in this often neglected book of the Revelation we are treading quite different ground. It was given to John, the last of the apostles, at the fag end as it were, when the church having been set up failure had come in. When everything of man's responsibility had failed, it discloses God dealing in judgment. It completes the word of God as to books. There is a verse in Colossians which speaks of Paul being raised up to “complete the word of God.” That, I apprehend, was as to subjects—the mystery being revealed to him—but not as to books.

It is with the preface we are occupied to-night, and we know how important in human writings the preface is. It gives the scope of the book in a nutshell, and no careful reader will overlook it. So here in a divine way.

Ver. 1.— “The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him.” A remarkable statement! But we must remember that our Lord Jesus took the place of a servant, and as the Servant He is going to receive the kingdom. Doubtless this explains the words, “which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” etc. It is all “servants.” The Lord Jesus receives this Revelation and sends and signifies it by His angel to His servant John, who writes it to the seven churches.

Ver. 3—How blessed that such words should he found in the preface of this book of judgment! If God gives us the book He intends us to read it, and by His help to enter into it; yet He deigns to pronounce at the very outset His blessing on those who do so.

“The time is near.” This book is not a sealed one in the sense in which Daniel was told to seal his prophecy. Then the time was distant; now it is at hand.

Ver. 4 So John writes to these seven churches.

Notice how he greets them. How different to the nearness we see in the form of greeting in the Epistles— “Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Here it is far more distant, because relationship is not in keeping with the character of the book. “From him which is, and which was, and which is to come” it is God revealed in His Old Testament character of the Eternal Jehovah.

“And from the seven Spirits.” You will search in vain for any such expression in the Epistles. There, you will find “one body, and one Spirit,” “by one Spirit were we all baptized,” etc. In connection with the church, unity must be expressed; here “seven” sets forth the perfect, complete action of that same blessed Person. “Before his throne.” As you are aware, there are two thrones spoken of in this book, the “great white throne” at the end, before which all the dead stand, and the throne “set in heaven” in chap. 4, upon which God sits as Creator, and which the Lamb afterward occupies. The “seven Spirits” seen before it seem to set forth the Spirit's action in preparing the way for the setting up of the throne on the earth.

Ver. 5—Now we come to the pith and marrow of this introduction (if I may so say), “Jesus Christ” —the Christ of God, the Anointed One here below, Jesus His own personal name which He took here—my Savior. “Grace and peace from Jesus Christ”! Oh, how blessed to get such a greeting on opening the book of judgments which begin as they must, at the house of God. “Who is the faithful witness.” This gives a key to the book. Though all else have proved unfaithful, God has had one “faithful witness,” not a but the faithful One who trod that path unswervingly from the manger to the cross. At the end, as Paul says, He “witnessed the good confession.” Pilate, the representative of the Roman Empire (of which you and I once formed part, but who are now “not of the world”), might ask, “What is truth?” and reject it in the person of the One before him. Yet then was He witnessing “the good confession” even in the face of death at the hands of cruel men, that death as the holy Martyr—a murder of which the world stands condemned to this day.

“And the first begotten of the dead.” Oh, are you not glad to think of it! Not only the “faithful witness” here, but in death, and through death, and beyond it, the Victor, the firstborn of the dead, who has conquered all connected with it, and is now the Head of a new creation, the other side of it.

“And the prince of the kings of the earth.” Do you believe that? Amid all the upheaval of nations and the efforts of man to “balance the powers,” do you believe there is one who is the Prince of them all, and who shall reign “from the River to the ends of the earth?”

But there is something beyond. Not only are there His threefold glories revealed, but our God would have us know Him as the lover of our souls. “To him that loveth us.” To Him whose affection is ours, and who “has washed us from our sins in his own blood.” He has not only set His love upon us, but He has freed us completely from our sins. They are not only forgiven but forgotten. He may and will deal with us for our ways and works. He must appraise us (as He did the seven candlesticks), but the question of our sins can never be raised again for judgment. We do not “come into judgment,” but are already passed out of death unto life” (John 5:24).

Ver. 6— “And hath made us unto his God ... kings and priests.” Do you know your dignity? Royalty and nearness to God seem the two thoughts expressed here. In Peter we are called a “holy priesthood,” and a “royal priesthood “; the latter is the thought here. A little later on, the elders are seen sitting round the throne “with crowns of gold.” Yes, we shall reign with Him. But here—as brethren and companions in tribulation and the kingdom and patience of Christ (which will not be forever) we wait. Soon we shall be with Him; and with Him all the saints—not as now, unknown, despised, and scattered—shall be manifested in glory. Yet, while waiting, we are already “priests” — “He hath made us priests to his God and Father.” We have access now.

Ver. 7—This is our last point—testimony. “Behold, he cometh with clouds,” not for His saints but with them. “And every eye shall see him,” without exception; “and they also which pierced him.” In Zechariah 12:10, we have a prophecy as to this, and, in the day that is coming, the Jews who cried, “His blood be on us and on our children,” will find it on them in terrible vengeance indeed. “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” Is this the Christian hope? Assuredly not. For the believer in view of all the terrors that are coming can be tranquil and calm. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” So we can say, “Even so. Amen.”

G. G.

Errata

P. 144, col. 1, line 7 from bottom.-For “spirits” read “Spirits.”

P. 144, col. 2, line 8.-For “offense” read “offenses.”

P. 144, col. 2, line 26.-For “bonds” read “hour.”

P. 144, col. 2, line 38.-For “heights” read height.”

By the late W. Kelly.
CROWN Syn., CroTil.

" In the Beginning," and The Adamic

Earth.

Second Edition....

6 net.

God's Inspiration of the Scriptures.

Second

Edition.

6 net.

Exposition of the Epistles of Peter.

2 Vols.

The Preaching to the Spirits in Prison.

Cloth

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

Abraham

The elevation of Abraham in Genesis 18; 19, is something very peculiar.

He seems to apprehend the divine Stranger and His angelic companions at once, needing no introduction, or notice, or revelation—as Joshua, Gideon, and others, in like circumstances, did. “He was accustomed to the divine presence,” as one has said. This opens these wondrous chapters.

The Lord does not come to regulate him in any way, either to rebuke or instruct him morally. Abraham is before him in the place and character and attitude of one who was fully prepared for His presence.

Accordingly, the Lord makes His ways and thoughts known to Abraham, as a man would to his friend. He reveals secrets to him which do not concern himself—had they done so, in a sense Abraham would have been entitled to hear them; the Lord would surely tell them to him. But he has no personal concern in the matters communicated. They are the Lord 's thoughts and purposes touching a city and a people with whom Abraham had no intercourse whatever. They were strangers to him and he to them—and that, most advisedly. So that the Lord now deals with Abraham as a friend—not even as a disciple, much less as a sinner, but as a friend.

Abraham apprehends this. He was entitled to do so. Grace expects to be understood, and surely delights in being understood. And so, if the Lord invite us we should go; if He draw nigh to us, we should draw nigh to Him.

And so it is here. The angels, seizing on the mind of their Lord, retire; and Abraham, doing the like, draws near, and there speaks for this city and people. He has nothing to ask for himself. No, surely. He had no confession to make or requests to prefer for himself, but as the Lord had spoken to him about Sodom, he now speaks to the Lord about it. He intercedes, as one near to God, as one who was at ease touching himself, and thus at leisure to attend to others.

Every feature in this picture is full of grace and dignity. There is nothing of feebleness or dimness here—all is strength and elevation. But this is continued.

The next morning, as we read in chapter 19, Abraham gets him up to the place where he had been speaking to the Lord about Sodom, somewhere on the hills of Judea, overlooking the plain of Jordan, or the vale of Siddim, where Sodom lay; and there he beholds the burning of that city under penal fire from heaven. He sees the judgment of the Lord. He sees it from on high, where he and the Lord had been talking together the day before.

Now this is of one character with all the rest. This is still elevation of the highest order. This is heaven's relationship to judgment, God's own relationship to it. Abraham was not rescued out of it like Lot; nor calmly taken through it like Noah; nor merely borne away ere it came like Enoch—but beyond them all, he is given heaven's own place in relation to it. He looks down upon it executed on others, having nothing to say to it whatever, not having to be either removed from the scene of it before it come, or carried safely through it after it had come. He was in nothing less than heaven's own relation to it.

This is very great indeed. And this is the church in the Apocalypse; not as in 1 Thessalonians 4 simply, but beyond that; as in the Apocalypse. The crowned Elders there are on high, as the judgments take their course on the plain or earth below. Abraham-like, they behold the judgments as from God's place. It is not mere translation to heaven before they come, like Enoch (for that had taken place before), nor is it simply carriage through them, when they had come, like Noah; but they behold them executed, like Abraham from on high.

As Abraham's place in chapter 18 had been the present place of the church, learning the secrets of God (see John 15:15), so his place in chapter 19 is the Apocalyptic place of the church, surveying the judgments of the Lord on the earth. Abraham had the fact communicated to him first; and then he saw the accomplishment of that fact below, and apart from himself. In these things he is as the church of God.

But these wondrous chapters suggest a general thought upon divine judgments. We trace a series of them in scripture: as in the days of Noah; Lot; Israel in Egypt; Israel on the shore of the Red Sea; Deborah in the Book of Judges; the church on earth, as in 1 Corinthians 11; the church in glory, as in Revelation 5; the elect remnant in Revelation 15; the heavens in Revelation 19 And on each of these occasions we see the people of God differently, or rather variously, occupied. And there is beauty, force, and significancy in it all; for the manner in which faith occupies itself will be found to be suited to the character of the judgment.

Noah witnessed divine judgment on sin, and his own deliverance, through grace, out of it. He worshipped, rendering a burnt-offering to the Lord (Genesis 8).

Lot was rescued—saved so as by fire—and suitably with such a fact, we get no altar or sacrifice, under his hand. He was pulled out of the fire, and that was all (Genesis 19).

Israel in Egypt, like Noah, witnessed divine judgment on sin, being, in like manner, themselves delivered by grace. And, like Noah, they worshipped, celebrating their redemption by a feast on a sacrifice, eating of the lamb whose blood was sheltering them (Exodus 12).

Israel on the shore of the Red Sea, different from this, were delivered from the hand of enemies, judgment on whom they were witnessing. They, therefore, had a song—as well became them on such an occasion (Exodus 15).

Deborah was in the same conditions, the same relation to divine judgment. She witnessed God's judgment on the enemies of her people; and therefore, like Israel at the Sea, she and Barak had a song (Judges 5).

The church on earth witness God's judgment upon sin—and, by their feast, like Israel in Exodus 12, they celebrate their own redemption. They rehearse, with thanksgiving, the salvation of God, in the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11).

The church in glory witness God's judgments on the world, anticipating their own kingdom—and consequently, like Israel at the Sea, or Deborah in the Book of Judges, they have a song prepared for their heavenly harps (Revelation 5).

The heavens triumph with a great shout, when she that had been corrupting the earth with her fornication falls under the hand of the Lord (Revelation 19).

Here we have variety in the way in which faith occupies itself in a day of divine judgment. There are judgments on sin, and judgments on enemies; and corresponding deliverances by grace and by power. It is seasonable to sing, when a judgment on enemies has been accomplished, and a deliverance out of it by power; but a judgment on sin, and our deliverance by grace (we ourselves having been guilty and exposed to the judgment), have rather to be celebrated in a worshipping, chastened spirit. There was, therefore, no song in Exodus 12; there is a song in Exodus 15.

But in the midst of all this, Abraham's act and attitude are as full of beauty and fitness and significancy as anything we see in these cases. He surveyed a scene of judgment upon sin—but he had not been in danger of the judgment, he had had no part in the sin that was judged. He had not been exposed to it. He had had nothing to say to the cities of the plain. In this his story differs from that of Noah—for Noah was in the scene of judgment—and from that of Israel in Egypt, or of the church of God on earth. They, like him, witness of the judgment of sin—but they had been exposed to it themselves, and were delivered by grace and the blood of Jesus. Not so Abraham in chap. 19. He needed no personal deliverance from the judgment that had visited the cities in the plain of Jordan; but he surveyed it. He had heaven's relation to it. He stood in the contemplation of it on that height where he had, the day before, been with the Lord.

J. G. B.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 15

“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor; [but] a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha” (2 Kings 5:1-9).

A remarkable illustration of the principle of grace is here set before us in great precision and minuteness of detail. Divine purpose makes itself evident in every line of the chapter. The ministry of Elijah had not succeeded in effecting any radical improvement in Israel's condition (1 Kings 18:37; 19:14). Elijah, in the great scene on Carmel, had summed up the whole case for Jehovah as against Baal, and the people had there confessed the supremacy of Jehovah. But their more deliberate and formal answer we see disclosed in the message of Jezebel to the prophet. The heart of the nation was not really turned back again; it was unchanged. But in the chapter now before us the question is, Had the grace which found its expression in Elisha's ministry softened their heart and turned it again to the Jehovah of hosts, the God of their fathers? Clearly it was not so. Yet it pleased God in His infinite wisdom to furnish this magnificent exposition of the way in which grace delights to act, with its characteristic methods, and its fruits, as also of its own essential principles. “For the grace of God that bring eth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godlily,” etc. (Titus 2:11-14). In 2 Kings 4 we have seen how this grace is inexhaustible. “So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah” (ver. 44).

But a more serious question than that of poverty comes now into view, namely, of sin in all its guilt and uncleanness, for “many lepers were in Israel,” yet were they indifferent to this manifestation of it in their midst. The Lord Jesus in the day of His visitation of His people witnessed to the excellence and efficacy of that grace in which He came to them as the sent One of God, when coming to Nazareth and entering their synagogue He read from the prophecy of Isaiah (61.), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” etc., and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Yet their hearts were closed against Him, their consciences were not awakened, they refused to acknowledge their guilty and defiled condition and their own deep need. “Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:16-29). They stumbled at the sovereign grace of God. So it was in our Lord's days, and so it is now. “For as ye [Gentiles] once disobeyed God, but now were objects of mercy by their disobedience, so also they [the Jews] disobeyed your mercy [i.e. disbelieved the mercy shown to you] that they too should he objects of mercy” (Romans 11:30, 31). Grace displays itself to the unworthy where there is the confession our sins and the submission to the righteousness of God instead of the establishment of our own (Romans 10:3), and the acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ. The fact that there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha's time was a testimony to the uncleanness of the nation in God's sight. But instead of exercise of heart before God about it, there was none. Had Jehovah not said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26)?

From the time that sin found an entrance into this world God has never ceased to plead with man, testifying to divine goodness in Himself, but to ingratitude and rebellion in the creature. The many uncleansed lepers in Israel in Elisha's day, the great multitude, in the days of our Lord, of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the waters of Bethesda's pool, the ten lepers of Luke 17, all alike bore unequivocal testimony to the real state and condition of the nation and the insufficiency of ceremonial which, while contenting the people did not meet the gravity of sin before God. So with Elisha, as we have seen, there was a similar testimony to the low estate of the people, yet was there the sovereign and waiting goodness of God for any truly confessing their need. The great in Israel discerned it not, yet, nevertheless, it could be known in its freeness and efficacy by the “stranger” who came in the expectancy of blessing. This blessing was in the land of Israel—there to be found, for it did not travel outside of its sown proper sphere as yet. God was not then making generous overtures to the Gentiles outside the land, however sorely Israel might provoke Him to do so. The Lord Jesus, of whom Elisha was but a type, would not allow Himself, as sent to the lost sheep of Israel, to depart from the path of obedience, nor would He distribute (without a protest) the children's food to dogs. For Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him all ye peoples. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall Gentiles hope” (Romans 15:8-12).

God, in blessing Jew or Gentile, is ever true to Himself. The foolish conceit of the Gentile no more will be allowed a place than the unbelieving pride of Israel. We get both in this our chapter; and we find the prophet so instructed in the ways of Jehovah that he rebukes the one (ver. 8), and refuses to acknowledge the other (ver. 10).

A few words as to the leprosy itself may not be out of place here. Its moral significance is plainly enough set before us in Scripture. No doubt leprosy was more or less prevalent in Egypt and the East, and perhaps particularly so in Syria. But God could not tolerate its presence in the camp of Israel, as we learn from Numbers 5:1-4. God had taken the people at their word and had consented to dwell amongst them (Exodus15:2; 25:8). His presence could not but judge all that was opposed to His own holy nature. He would not be a consenting party to His own dishonor. So too, when the ark of God was taken into Dagon's temple, Dagon was judged (1 Samuel 6:4). They are commanded therefore to “put out of the camp every leper,” etc., etc. Everything unsuited to His presence as in their midst was to be put out of the camp, “for Jehovah thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp.” Before very long, the children of Israel were called upon to put this word into operation in regard to a very specific case of leprosy which appeared in one of their three leaders (Micah 6:1) “And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous..... And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days; and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again” (Numbers 12). She who had led the women of Israel in song after the passage of the Red Sea (Exodus 15) is stricken by the just judgment of Jehovah with leprosy, and is shut out from the camp. We know that Aaron the priest was himself guilty likewise, although for obvious reasons not dealt with in the same way. Still more awful was the divine visitation upon Uzziah, king of Judah, recorded in 2 Chronicles 26.

These scriptures are sufficient to show that the infliction of leprosy was the expression of God's righteous judgment of sin, and also of His rejection of man—religious man—in his fleshly pretensions and assumed competency to draw near to God and in the refusal of the truth of his actual condition. Sin, in its inward workings as known to God, made to appear outwardly in all its repulsive, revolting character, is what is shown by leprosy. Its manifestation in the flesh of the leper occupies the greater part of Leviticus 13, whilst the next chapter sets before us “the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.” What is within displays itself in outward acts, vet it is not these but the principle, or working, of sin itself that is signified by leprosy. “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,” and “the judgment was by one to condemnation,” yet the law dealt with sinful acts and condemned them. It failed to condemn sin in the flesh. Had it done so, it would have had nothing more to say, for man is that and nothing else. But when the Holy One was on the cross a sacrifice for sin, then sin itself was condemned. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to flesh but according to spirit” (Romans 8:3, 4). The believer now knows to his comfort and deliverance that as surely as Christ “was delivered for our offenses,” so too “he was raised again for our justification.” Death and resurrection are God's remedy for sin, and He requires submission to Christ (see Romans 4:25; 14:9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21).

It must be evident that when it is a question of what sin is before God, there can be no distinction between Israel and the Gentiles. “There is no difference, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” “The same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon him.”

“He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean: his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Leviticus 13:44-46). What God now calls for is the soul's bowing to His judgment of our state, and of our sins, in Christ's death. Heart belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the abiding efficacy of His precious blood that cleanseth from every sin, gives eternal forgiveness and peace.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 34-38

But Elihu does not stop short with this. In chapter 34 he unfolds the truth farther. We may well suppose a pause. Was there anything to be answered now? Had they gleaned a better knowledge of the truth? We must wait for this. Not that Job may not have profited a little, but I fear that we cannot hope it of his friends. Till conscience judges self before God, the mind labors in vain in the field of God. Be assured that there never can be real stable blessing apart from the breaking down of ourselves.

“Furthermore Elihu answered and said” (he begins again), “Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. For the ear trieth words, as the Mouth tasteth meat.” He blames Job in very faithfulness, sprinkling reproof now and then with all these gracious words. Is not this too a needed and happy lesson for our souls? This is exactly what the apostle pressed on the Colossians so pithily. The speech of Elihu was always, we may say, “with grace, seasoned with salt.” The seasoning is not wanting in this chapter. “Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment. Should I lie against my right?”

Indeed Job had been exceedingly unbroken. “My wound is incurable without transgression. What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?” He does not say “iniquity,” as Eliphaz did; but he does impute to Job that he “drinketh up scorning like water.” His words were unbecoming and irreverent. He did not attribute some secret crime to him which God must avenge unsparingly. But Job, sure of his integrity, was resting unduly on what he was by grace for God, of which He must make nothing in his own eyes. “Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity.” He does not mean in his practice, but in his expressions; for Job had ventured to speak too unguardedly, provoked by Eliphaz and the others, who insisted that bad men were invariably punished, the good always prosperous in the world, to the overthrow of the afflicted Job's faith, if it had been possible. Job had met that, but much too intemperately, in honest hatred of their false principle; for Job gave the impression not only that he was just, but that God set it aside unjustly, and that there was no need whatever for his trial-language eminently calculated to encourage evil-doers. And what did he mean by saying that to delight oneself in companionship with God does no service? It is quite evident that neither one nor other had hit the mark. The Judge of all the earth could not be unjust; and was Job justified in such thoughts or words?

Elihu then condemns Job's words severely; but there he stops. It was not yet the time when God mold call His people Israel as a whole to that special trial through which He had put Job. The Christian now is called to be always bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus; and I cannot but think that this goes more deeply than any trials then. But then Christ had not opened the door for it.

Meanwhile Job was singled out, not because there was something evil hidden beneath apparent blamelessness, but because he was the most upright man then living on earth. The Lord plainly indicates this as the true groundwork of his unexampled trial. Before angels, holy and evil, before God and man, it was proved that instead of serving God for gain or ease, he clung to God when all was lost, and no gain save the intensest suffering for soul and body, because he took it all from God, without in the least knowing why the blessed and blessing God should so give up to torture the one He loved. In the full conclave of heaven Satan sneered at the notion of such absolutely disinterested God-service. But Satan, as we saw, was utterly baffled; and God was proved dearer to him incomparably when he was suddenly thrown down to nothingness and suffering, from all the prosperity which God had hitherto poured on him. God then drew out of Job's heart what neither he nor other men nor Satan had suspected; and this by the presence and sympathy of three friends. Who could have looked for it? The patient man broke down in impatience, and, provoked by the misjudgment of his friends, gave way to the bitterness of his soul as if God were become his enemy, for he could not draw near to Him. There was just his sorrow—that thick cloud between his soul and God. And there was the reason why he was from time to time all but despairing. It was not as to death, which he knew would close his grievous calamities; but why was it that such a God should so deal with His servant Job?

Thus he had spoken so improperly of God on the one hand, and on the other so slightingly of the way in which wicked people flourish in the world, that Elihu could not but say, “He goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men.” It was just such language as would please them; it was language that would tend to weaken conscience, and to encourage sinners as much as it would grieve saints. “For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. For the work of a man shall he render unto him.” Quite true; but then God has His own time for doing all, and His own way, even short of that final retribution which awaits the workers of iniquity: “Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.” Elihu holds to that firmly, as we have seen—the greatness of God that comes down in condescending mercy to bless man even in the sorrows of this world. He gives God His honor, and stands assured of His inflexible righteousness. “If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words.” Then he shows how far Job was from the truth, for God At only deals with man, but, as and when He pleases in His sovereign wisdom, executes judgment on wickedness, even in this world. It is neither an invariable rule or fact, as the friends argued; nor, on the other hand, could Job rightly affirm that God is indifferent about it, as his words seemed to imply. That is, he corrects both to the end of the chapter.

Then again, in chapter 35, he takes up his pretensions to superior right. “Elihu spake moreover, and said, Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's?” Job really had ventured to speak crudely and arrogantly on this head. “For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou. If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him?” Thus he shows that it is not a question of man's profiting God, but of God's profiting man; for, besides what is due to Him—will, and love, and glory—impossible is it for man to walk in His ways without the richest recompense of blessing. In every possible sense it is God that giveth the increase. And this is independent of dispensation. It was neither the kingdom, when all will be ordered in righteousness, nor yet in the light, which could not yet be till the True Light shone. Still there was a witness of enjoyed favor and blessing from God for the soul, though not manifest to all. So the wickedness of man does not lower the majesty of God, but is ruin to him that walks in it; as we have seen that the obedience of man brings no profit to God, but ensures exceeding real and rich blessedness to him that is so led.

But now, in chapter 36, comes in another weighty lesson. “Elihu also proceeded, and said, Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.” He always takes his stand upon that—the impossibility of God either saying or doing what was beneath Himself. “For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee. Behold God is mighty, and despiseth not any.” There we have a beautiful intimation of the grace of God. “He is mighty in strength and wisdom. He preserveth not the life of the wicked.” He bears it. It is not, therefore, to be called preserving. “He giveth right to the poor. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne.” It does not matter whether it is the poor on the one hand, or the kings on the throne—they all come under the eye of God. “Yea, he doth establish them forever, and they are exalted. And if they he bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; then he showeth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.”

Here, I apprehend, it is not a question of the unconverted brought into God's favor; rather is it the discipline of the converted under His good hand. It is the ways of God, and the righteous government that He maintains with His own. But even such might slip aside. Alas! who does not know it? And here we see that from the very beginning the ways of God were substantially what they are now. I am speaking of His moral dealings with the individual soul; not of standing, or counsels, or power, or privileges. Of course, not the smallest comparison is intended as to the depth of the grace manifested, or with the glory now seen, in Christ. Nothing of the kind is meant. But the great moral principles are most instructive; and as God from the beginning did deal with souls to convert them, so He did deal with His own to lead on and correct them. The discipline of His saints then is the chief subject that we find in this chapter. “If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.” It is not, of course, that every word of the chapter applies only to His saints; but just as in the New Testament we find that in the midst of a record of privileges that belong to those that are His there may be warning words about those that deceive, so it is found in the Old. “They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression. Even so would he have removed thee.”

Now he applies the principles he had laid down to Job himself. “Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee. Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength. Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.” For he had done so. “Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?” It is the teaching of God then that is the point pressed here; not merely God's saving a soul from going down into the pit, but the teaching of God. “Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?” It means, Who can say it to God? “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we know him not.” And thus he continues through the chapter.

Chapter 37, after turning our ears in the chapter before to the ways of God in providence, which are manifestly righteous and good, mighty as He is, and especially in corrective blessing, where men rebel not to their own shame and ruin, finally turns our eyes to the wondrous works of God in the outward world, following up the close of chapter 36, which singled out the rain and the thunder-cloud. These, I admit, are very far indeed from presenting the depth of the truth that the doctrine of Christ or His grace affords. It is not the unseen, but the visible. Here we can understand that we are in the infant days of even God's saints, when they spelled the vast letters of heaven and earth seen before the Scriptures were read. We are in these early seasons, when God was pleased to illustrate things by the speech which day unto day uttereth, not by the gospel preached to every creature, not by the Son that had come down from heaven to show us the Father in Himself. For that very reason, because Christ was not here, the outward world is taken up to show God's majesty, faithfulness, and gracious power in all that surrounded man.

To what then have we come in the course of this book? What have we been taught by the help of Elihu? Much every way, I believe. Job had failed in understanding the purpose of God in that most pitiless storm to which he had been subjected. The friends of Job had failed far more seriously; for Job was rather negative at worst, while his friends were positively wrong at best, quite out of the mind and current of God. Elihu brings in, as far as man could in that day, the light of God. He shows that, instead of there being mere judicial dealing, there is a righteous and gracious discipline on God's part, which, as it deals with the unconverted to break him down, and save his soul, so also addresses itself to the converted for his correction where he has slipped aside, and encourages him where he needs to be quickened in his pace while following the Lord. And so he spreads out before him and vindicates the worthy ways of God, reproving Job's self-righteousness and impatience and irreverence, but eschewing any such imputations on Job as his friends had allowed; for we have seen Job in the agony of grief, again and again giving way to the sense of desertion by God, and then uttering cords rash and violent, but soon again asking pardon after each fresh outbreak, when stung to the quick by the deeply cutting words of his friends—the more cutting because they seemed quiet, but not the less severely wounding to his open and generous spirit. In Elihu we have had quite another tone and judgment—a man who does not spare impropriety, or conceal its heinous consequences; but who can see in the darkest troubles the gracious end of God in His ways, even with the unconverted, and particularly so with His saints.

What remains then? There was only one that could possibly add weight to the interpreter. There was but one thing more that fitly concludes and crowns the intervention of Elihu. And what was that? The incomparable favor that Job had also in a frantic way implored. He asked that a man rather than He might meet him; but he asked that he might find God too. And so he does. God appears. Jehovah Himself gives His answer from the whirlwind. It is not for us to say what the manifestation may have been; but, as there should be nothing more certain than that the Lord did answer Job, and this in the hearing of them all, so His words should be conclusive on this great question. How it was done would be mere speculation, and presumptuous too. That it really was, it is for us to believe; and this is indeed the special value in the close of the book of Job, that God does not wait till the day of judgment to decide where there is faith to look for Him. Only now it is His word, and in no way a theophany. Had Job a desire to meet God? Jehovah meets him here when Elihu's word had done its work.

And you will observe therefore that it is not merely God or Eloah that is employed now. Throughout the book in general there is God or the Almighty or the like, with only one exception (chap. 12:9). In all the discussions of the book Jehovah, with that exception, appears not; but now, as at the beginning, it is Jehovah. This surely has great moment. The historian or writer was familiar with that revelation of Himself to the children of Israel. Not that the word Jehovah was absolutely a secret before Moses, but that it thenceforward was the name of special relationship. Job and his friends habitually spoke of God, of the Creator, and even as the fathers knew Him (Shaddai); but here there is more made known. It is the God of Israel who shows His tender mercy to the Gentile that sought Him and the revelation of His mind.

Observe also, it is not: an abstract revelation. It is a distinct dealing with the case before him. The godly man had been utterly crushed, and the presence of his misjudging friends had aggravated his anguish to the core. If he had indulged in wistful longing that he could find God, Jehovah does answer him: “Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins.” He had asked God, challenging Him to such a meeting; and God replies “Gird up now thy loins like a man.” It is not now, “What is mortal man?” as job had said, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” He used the word “man” in the sense of mortality or weakness. But God employs a very different word: “Gird up now thy loins like a hero “; for this is pretty much the force of the word. It means a strong man. He had challenged God to this judicial trial, and he was now heard: “For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” Nowhere. “Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof?” He is silent again. Not a word did he know; and what is more, here are these words at the beginning of the world's history—not so very long after the flood, and after man began to spread himself a second time over the earth. If man boasts abundantly of his acquisitions and his skill, of knowledge, science, and civilization since, why not he answer the challenge of God now?

The wisest of men are the most ready to own their incompetence, and how little they know. This at least they know, that they cannot answer God. I dare say there may be men so ignorant as to fancy that they could. It is precisely in this way that ignorance often betrays itself. An ignorant man may not flatter himself, perhaps, that he can answer; but, unacquainted with the limits of human power and knowledge, he fancies that there are behind him those of reputation who can. Some doubt not for a moment that it must be an easy affair, in the present march of intellect, and in material science above all, for somebody wiser than themselves to answer questions as to nature asked three or four thousand years ago.

The truth then is, that God appears on the scene for the express purpose of annihilating the pretensions of man; and here in the most magnificent language, as far as I know, that was ever uttered on such subjects—language worthy of Him who is said to have spoken—Jehovah appears to put Job in his true place, and that place was dust and ashes, morally death, where self was to be withered up before Him. Who and what was Job to speak or murmur against God? Jehovah only touches the skirts of His power, the outer domain of His glory; yet what had man to say? What could Job answer? Not a word. Such seems to be the force of it. And did he who could not explain God's least things presume to judge the deepest part of His ways and designs? For is there anything so deep as what concerns His purposes, affections, and ways with the saints that He loves, and this in the face of their weakness and of a mighty and subtle foe?

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

On Discipline: Part 2

What is the character of fatherly care and discipline? How does the father exercise it? Is it not because he is the father? He is not in the same place as the child. This is the principle of it. There is one superior in grace and wisdom, he sees another going wrong in judgment, and he goes and says to him, “I was once there, etc.; do not go and do so and so.” It is entreaty and exposing the circumstances in love; though in case of hardness rebuke may come in. The father can make all allowance for weakness and inexperience, as having passed through the same himself. Make yourself ever so much the servant, the principle of the father must be maintained, and it is a principle of individual superiority, however accompanied by grace. All the world should not stop me: it is the prerogative of individual love to say, “Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” It flows from the father's love, and leads me to the other, not to let him go on wrong, for love's sake. It is not a case of trespass against me, but a case of walk or conduct against his place as a child. We fail because we do not like to go through the pain and trouble of it. If a saint gets into trouble, he is Christ's sheep, and I am bound, in whatsoever way I can, to seek to get him out of it. He may say, “What business have you to come?” and the like; but I ought to go and lay myself at his feet, in order to get him out of the net which he has got into, even though he dislike me for it. This needs the spirit of grace, and the seeking to bear the whole on one's own soul.

The other kind of discipline is that of Christ, as “Son over his own house.” The case of Judas is of great value here. It will always he that, if there is spirituality in the body, evil cannot continue long; it is impossible that hypocrisy or anything else should continue where there is spirituality. In the case of Judas the Lord's personal grace overcame everything; and it will always be so proportionably and practically. The highest manifestation of evil was against this grace: “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.... He then, having received the sop” —grace thoroughly came out when the evil was shown to be done against Himself-"went immediately out” (John 13).

This discipline never acts beyond what is manifested, and therefore we see the disciples questioning one another what these things meant, before the evil was done; it did not touch the conscience of the assembly. The Father's discipline comes in where there is nothing manifest, for that which is secret, or which may come out years after. If an elder brother, and seeing a younger one in danger, I ought to deal in this fatherly care, and tell him of it; but this is very distinct from church discipline. The moment I exercise fatherly discipline, it supposes a communion in myself with God about the thing—a discernment of that working in another which may produce evil, that he has not; the perception of which I have, by my spiritual experience, which authorizes and incites me to act in faithful love toward him, though without, perhaps, any ability to explain what I am doing to a human being.

The mixing up of these three things, individual remonstrance, the Father's discipline-in this fatherly care, and Christ's discipline “as Son over his own house"-ecclesiastical discipline, has led to all manner of most dreadful confusion.

The great body of discipline ought to be altogether aimed at hindering excommunication—the putting of a person out. Nine-tenths of the discipline which ought to go on is individual. If it comes to the question of the exercise of the discipline of “the Son over his own house,” the church ought never to take it up, but in self-identification, in confession of common sin and shame that it has come ever to this; so it would be no court of justice at all, but a disgrace to the body.

Spirituality in the church would purge out hypocrisy, defilement, and everything unworthy, without assuming a judicial aspect. Nothing should be so abhorrent as that, in God's house, such a thing had happened. If it were in one of our houses that something dishonorable and disgraceful had happened, should we feel as though we were altogether unconcerned, that we had nothing to do with it? It might be that some reprobate son must be put out, for the sake of the others; he cannot be reclaimed, and he is corrupting the family—what can be done? It is necessary to say, “I cannot keep you here; I cannot corrupt the rest by your habits and manners.” Would it not, nevertheless, be for weeping and mourning, for sorrow of heart and shame and dishonor to the whole family? They would not like to talk on the subject, and others would refrain from it, to spare their feelings; his name would not be mentioned. In the house of the Son, how abhorrent to be putting out! what common shame; what anguish! what sorrow! There is nothing more abhorrent to God than a judicial process.

The church is indeed plunged in corruption and weakness, but this is the very thing that would make one cling to the saints, and the more anxiously maintain the individual responsibility of those who have any gift for pastoral care. There is nothing I pray for more than the dispensation of pastors. What I mean by a pastor is a person who can bear the whole sorrow, care, misery, and sin of another on his own soul, and go to God about it; and bring from God what will meet it, before he goes to the other.

There is another thing most clear: the result may be putting out, but, if it ever comes to a corporate act in judgment, discipline ends the moment he is put out, and ends altogether. “Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth” (1 Corinthians 5:12).

The question whether I can sit down with this or that person who is within never arises. A person staying away from communion because of another, of whom he does not think well, being there, is a most extraordinary thing; he is excommunicating himself for another's sake. “For we being many are one bread [loaf], and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). If I stay away I am saying that I am not a Christian, because another has gone wrong. That is not the way to act. There may be steps to pursue; but it is not to commit the folly of excommunicating myself lest a sinner should intrude.

All discipline until the last act is restorative. The act of putting outside—of excommunication—is not, properly speaking, discipline, but the saying that discipline is ineffective, and there is an end of it; the church says, “I can do no more.”

As to the question of unanimity in cases of church discipline, we must remember it is the Son exercising His discipline over His own house. In the case in Corinthians, it was the direct action of Paul in apostolic power on the body—not of the church. The body claiming a right to exercise discipline! one cannot conceive a more terrible thing; it is turning the family of God into a court of justice. Suppose the case of a father going to turn out of doors a wicked son, and the other children of the family saying, “We have a right to help our father in turning our brother out of the house” —what an awful thing! We find the apostle forcing the Corinthians to exercise discipline, when they were not a bit disposed to do so. “Here,” he says, “there is sin among you, and ye are not mourning, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you” (he is forcing them to the conviction that the sin is theirs, as well as that of the man); “and now put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” The church is never in the place of exercising discipline until the sin of the individual becomes the sin of the church recognized as such. There is all this “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear” (1 Timothy 5:20); “Brethren, if a man he overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such,” etc.; and the like. But if evil has arisen, of such a character as to demand excommunication, instead of the church having a right to put away, it is obliged to do it; the saints must approve themselves clear. He forces these people into the recognition of their own condition, gets them ashamed of themselves; they retire from the man, and he is left alone to the shame of his sin (see 2 Corinthians 2 and 7). That is the way the apostle forced them to exercise discipline: the conscience of the whole church was forced into cleanness, in a matter of which it was corporately guilty. And what trouble he had to do it. That is, I think, the force of “To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” What the devil was at was this—the apostle had insisted upon the excommunication (1 Corinthians 5:3-5), and the church did not like it. He compelled them to act; they did it in the judicial way, and did not want to restore him (2 Corinthians 6; 7). Then he makes them go along with him in the act of restoration: “to whom ye forgive,” etc. The design of Satan was to introduce the wickedness, and make them careless about it, and afterward judicial; and then to make it an occasion of separation of feeling between the apostle and the body of saints at Corinth. Paul identifies himself with the whole body; first forcing them to clear themselves; and then takes care that they should all restore him, that there should be perfect unity between himself and them. He goes with them, and associates them with himself in it all; and so, both in excommunication and restoration, he has them with him. If the conscience of the body is not brought up to what it acts—to the point of purging itself by the act of excommunication—I do not see what good is done; it is merely making hypocrites of them.

[J. N. D.]

(Continued from page 153)

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 4. The World Without the Church

IV. —THE WORLD WITHOUT THE CHURCH

Resuming now the instruction which the chapter affords us, notice that it deals with a “beginning of sorrows” and the “time of the end.” Wars and disasters are “the beginning of sorrows,” “but the end is not yet” (vers. 6-8). Lower down, the Lord announces that the time of the end will commence at the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world. “The end” is not the end of the church-period set forth in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 when the Lord comes for the church, but the end of the age when the Lord comes and appears to the world. This it may be well to elucidate, though to some the subject may be familiar. Christ's coming or appearing to the world is as the coming of the lightning out of the cast, and its shining unto the west (ver. 27). “Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him” (Revelation 1:7). “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

Now another Scripture says, when He “shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). If therefore the saints of the present time appear with Christ when He appears, it follows that they must. have been taken to be with Him before; and this indeed is what is specifically announced in 1 Thessalonians 4. Are there then two comings, one for the church, the other afterward, public to the world? No; there is only one coming. But Scripture shows that the saints of the present period meet the Lord in the air, prior to His manifestation to the world. To take an illustration. When the Governor holds a levee, His Excellency receives privately in a drawing-room a short time before the public reception, persons of rank and distinction who have the privilege of entree, such as judges, executive councilors, and high officers of state. Then, attended by this distinguished cortege, the Governor proceeds to the public room. It is one levee, but when the Governor appears to the public he does so attended by the persons of high position who have been received in private a little while before. This is in exact analogy with the Lord's coming, and is consistent with the whole of Scripture-testimony on the subject. The saints of the present period meet the Lord privately as it were, at His coming, before He appears in public to the world.

There is no reason to suppose, and there is no Scripture to show, that this resurrection of the dead in Christ, and their being caught away into heaven together with those who are alive on earth at the moment, will be visible to mortal eyes. Indeed, the Lord's ascension is, in the first chapter of the Acts, specifically stated to be a model of His return. It is said (ver. 11), “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Here is announced, not merely His coming again, but the manner of the coming; and Christ's ascension, mighty an event as it was, was not public to the world. He left Jerusalem and led His disciples out as far as Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, and thence from among the privileged disciples, He ascended to the Father. It was a sight enjoyed by His own privately; and so with the descent of Christ into the air, and our rising to meet Him. It will not be viewed by the world, for when Christ appears, we appear with Him in glory. And again, as a cloud received the Lord, so we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. Further, we have a type of the church's rapture in that of Elijah, which was not viewed by the world any more than was the ascent of the Lord Jesus. It was beheld only by Elisha and a company of the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2).

Perhaps the reader feels that the rapture of the church to heaven while the world goes on as before, is an event very strange, if not difficult of credence. But already in the world's history it has had typical foreshadowings; for Enoch and Elijah were both caught away to heaven without dying. The former, Enoch, is a remarkable type, for while he was translated before the judgment of the flood fell on the world—in this a figure of the church—Noah, type of the Jewish remnant, was left behind to preach righteousness and pass through the judgment.

There are Scriptures too, on this subject, like others previously explained in these pages, around which misunderstandings have clustered. But it is the misunderstandings of the scriptures, not the scriptures themselves, which hinder a clear view of the rapture of the church. One of those difficulties is connected with the expression “at the last trump” in 1 Corinthians 15, viz., “Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (vers. 51, 52). Many have supposed that the expression “the last trump” must refer to the solemn closing up of all human affairs, when the wicked dead will be raised to stand before the “great white throne” (Revelation 20). But this is quite a mistake. The phrase embodies a figure drawn from a usage of the Roman army, and we all know Paul's liking for military figures. The last trump was the signal to march. The first trumpet was for the lowering of the tents in the camp; on the second, the army took marching order; then, on the last trump, they all started. This is the sense in which the summons is “the last trump.” The church's testimony below will have been finished, the dead in Christ will have been raised “for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” —then, “we [the living] shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” That it is not the last trump in the popular acceptation is certain, for the wicked dead will not be raised until the second resurrection, more than a thousand years after this. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5).

Nor is there any reason to suppose that this trump will be heard by others than those for whom it is intended. In our understanding of such passages we are too much limited by our natural ideas, and think that because there is a loud sound all must hear it; but even with the human voice, only those who have the requisite faculty will hear. If deaf, they do not hear. That trump will be of a nature and have a direction by which it will reach all for whom it is intended, while the self-engrossed world will be going on, building and planting, buying and selling, oblivious to divine and heavenly transactions taking place above their heads. Even now the voice of the Son of God is sounding in the gospel, and they that “hear” it live, but all do not “hear” it (John 5:25). They hear indeed the preached gospel, but the divine voice in it they have no faculty to perceive. Like the soldiers who were with Saul at his conversion, they heard a sound (Acts 9:7), but, as Paul states, “they heard not the voice of him that spake to me” (Acts 22:9).

The analogous passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 has been similarly misunderstood; but many misapprehensions of scripture arise from lack of close attention to its words. Thus, verse 16 says that “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.” But the expression in the original (κελεύσμα) means a particular kind of shout. “It is used for a general's call to his soldiers, for an admiral's to his sailors, or sometimes more generally as a cry to incite or encourage.” Obviously the last is not the sense, while the former—a general or an admiral calling to his men—suits the case exactly. Dr. Weymouth translates it “a loud word of command,” which, though periphrastic, gives the sense better than the hare word “shout” in the Authorized or Revised Versions. Mr. Darby's rendering is “an assembling shout"; Mr. Kelly's “a shout of command.”

From all this it will be plain that the word in the text does not at all convey the idea of a shout that will be heard through the universe. Just as a general's command is heard by his own forces, but not by the foe, so will be the blissful shout which will be heard by the redeemed. The Lord will descend into mid-air and gather His own, dead and living, to Himself, leaving the world to proceed in its course. Archangel's voice will also be there, probably marshalling angelic hosts who will attend that wondrous pageant.

To create the orbs that roll in space was glorious, but to exhibit in heavenly splendor countless millions of souls who had fallen under the dominion of death through sin, this is surpassing glory! Their sins cannot bar them, for they are without blame in the presence of Him who died for them. “It is God that justifieth! Who is he that condemneth?” Death cannot now retain them! At the “keleusma” of Christ they will burst its bonds; “the gates of hades shall not prevail against” His church. It was to this event that Christ's words pointed forward, not to the earthly success of the Church of Rome. Outwardly the true church may seem to be defeated. Men may point in scorn at Christianity. But the church will yet be seen in glory, and in glorious unity. Then, and in heaven, will be the church's triumph, not now and upon earth. Reader, where are you and I looking for success? Upon earth or in heaven? “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God... When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).

Let us now endeavor to seize what the state of things on earth will be after the church will have gone to heaven. No doubt the unexplained absence of a considerable number of persons must cause remark. In the catalog of Adam's descendants in the fifth of Genesis, the phrase “and he died” is the melancholy close to the mention of each individual except one. Death was the universal sentence upon the race. But even so early there was proof of divine power over death. Grace exempted Enoch from the common lot. He “was translated that he should not see death, and” (it is significantly added) “he was not found” (Hebrews 11:5). He had not died, yet was he not to be found!—in this a type of the church. In the similar type furnished by the translation of Elijah there was, except on the part of Elisha, perplexity as to the event, and search for him was made upon the mountains. There will come a day on earth when there will be the mysterious absence of a number of known persons, and who yet will not have died! This puzzling occurrence, however, may soon be forgotten, and the more so as, from the intense earthliness of the time, there will be every motive to put it out of mind. It may perhaps be a nine days' wonder, leading only to a deeper plunge into ungodliness. In the world too at this time there will probably be a short period of delusive peace, as already stated.

Without asking the reader to go at all deeply into the Revelation, it may be useful to explain just so much of its construction as is almost necessary to elucidate the present subject. The strictly prophetic part of the Apocalypse begins with chap. 6, the first five chapters being introductory. There are two main ways of interpreting the prophecy, each of them true in principle. That is, the prophecy has an inchoate as well as a complete fulfillment, and may be interpreted with reference to either. This is so with other prophecies as well. For example, Peter in the 2nd chapter of Acts applies Joel's prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now Joel's prophecy goes on to events which have not yet happened— “wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath,” etc.—and it will be noticed that Peter does not say that the prophecy was then fulfilled. He says, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” It was of the character and nature of that prophecy. An incipient accomplishment, the fulfillment is even yet future. So with the Revelation. The announcement, for example, in chap. 11:15, that “the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,” may refer in the first instance to that great event, the public acknowledgment of Christianity under Constantine, and the formal expulsion of idolatry from the imperial nation. But the proper, the full accomplishment, is yet to come, and will not be until Christ reigns over the whole world in the millennium. Thus the Revelation has a legitimate application to past history, while its full accomplishment is yet to be. The former has unfortunately given rise to much speculation, because the allocation of historical events to the prophecies affords scope not only for proper and sober consideration, but also for mere ingenuity and imagination, and it is these latter that have brought a measure of discredit on the study of the book. The past application of the Apocalypse may be, and indeed is, an interesting study, but that which is of living importance to the church to-day is what lies yet in the future—how near a future we do not know.

The division of the book, on its own authority (chap. 1:19), is into three parts, viz.—

1.—The things which thou hast seen” —i.e. the vision already given in chap. 1.

2.—The things which are” —i.e. the existing things of the church period, shown under the figure of the seven churches in chaps. 2, 3.

3.—The things which shall be after these (μετὰ ταῦτα)” —i.e. the really prophetic part of the book from chap. 4 to the end.

Now in the latter view of the Revelation just referred to, sometimes called the Futurist, the seven churches of chaps. ii., iii., cover the whole period from Pentecost to the rapture of the church. That is, the beginning of the church is the first-love of Ephesus; and subsequently varying phases of church history are represented until in Laodicea the dead profession is spued out by Christ, the living saints having been caught up to heaven. It follows from this that the whole of the third division of the Revelation is yet future, consisting, as it avowedly does, of things which shall be after the “things that are.” Chapters 4, 5 are introductory to the last division of the book (as chap. 1 is to chaps. 2, 3.). When the Lamb takes the book in chap. 5 then only does the roll of events upon the earth commence to be unfolded.

In this view then of the Revelation, the point of interest for us in connection with the prophecy in Matthew is, that both these prophecies have their commencement after the rapture of the church. The first events to happen upon the earth are contained in a book “sealed with seven seals.” The seven are divided into two parts—four and three. On the opening of each of the first four a horse with a rider is seen, and the color of each horse gives the character of the vision. The horse as a prophetic figure always denotes conquering power, while the throne indicates power in session. The horse in ancient times was used almost exclusively for war, not as a beast of burden, and hence the significance of the figure. Be it observed that the judgments of the seals are not direct inflictions by God, but occur providentially. The rising of a great leader, such as we shall see under the seals, might occur without any outward indication that it was ordained by prophecy. The Lord's interposition is not visible, though the first seal is introduced by a voice of thunder, which may possibly intimate the voice of the Almighty to him who has “an ear to hear” (Psalm 18:13; John 12:29).

The first seal has a specially interesting character, not only because of its being the first in the series of the events, but because of the peaceful time which it foreshadows. A remarkable personage arises—a rider on a white horse—who goes forth conquering and to conquer, that is, he has a career of astonishing and continuous success, his victories being distant as well as near, and comparatively peaceful, as has been already explained. He does not appear to be a royal personage at first, but a crown is given to him; this in striking contrast with the next seal, where the horse is red, and to the rider was given not a crown but a great sword, and it was given to him to “take peace from the earth.” Thus, succeeding the rapture of the church, there appears to be under the first seal a momentary hush over the world. Men will not know the reason of this. Christianity as a vital force being got rid of, and this great statesman or conqueror having arisen, they may think that a millennium of prosperity without God is dawning on the world. But Scripture shows us that the winds of judgment are restrained until the servants of God have been scaled in their foreheads. That is the reason of the calm. “God is behind the scenes, but He moves the scenes which He is behind.” So far, however, there will have been no divine interference with the world's material prosperity: possibly, indeed, that prosperity may be enhanced by the political measures of the rider on the white horse; certainly it may be favored by the restraint of judgment during the sealing of the remnant of Israel in Revelation 7.

It should be observed that the two visions of Revelation 7 form no part of the sequence of the seals. The sixth seal has been opened, and the seventh seal is not come to until the 8th chapter these visions being introduced as something separate, as it says: “After this I saw,” etc. They are a parenthesis or intercalation between the sixth and seventh seals. Indeed they could not form part of the seals, for they are different in nature. The seals are judgments; these visions are visions of remarkable grace—to Israel first, and also to the Gentiles. There is a moral beauty in this interruption. The seal judgments are rolling on; the sixth has been reached; but the Lord stops the procession to exhibit this magnificent display of grace—in wrath He remembers mercy. But this obviously leaves quite open the question of where, chronologically, the two visions of Revelation 7 have their place. Their occurrence between the sixth and seventh seals is not decisive. But the command, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads,” seems to assign the sealing to the quiet time of the First Seal, or possibly even before. The ingathering of the Gentile multitude, however, would probably be continuous until the coming of the Son of man.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

Scripture Queries and Answers: Then I Restored … ; He that Hath Suffered in the Flesh

Q.-Psalm 69:4 (5). What is the meaning of “Then I restored what I took not away"?

R.M.

A.-As this query has already been put and answered in Vol. 20 (December, 1894), of this magazine, we give again what there appeared— “Our Lord pleads that He was not guilty of the wrong, but yet it was His to make good the right. His causeless enemies were innumerable; they were as strong as they were false, and where He was unrighteously charged, He walked in grace, seeking at all cost nothing but Jehovah's glory.”

Q.-1 Peter 4:1, 2. “For he that hath suffered in the flesh,” &c. To whom does the “he” refer in these two verses? R.M.

A.-To the believer—who, refusing to yield to the solicitations of sin, suffers thereby instead of gratifying the flesh. As Christ once suffered for sins not His own—Himself the ever sinless One—but ours, so are we called to let this suffice, as well as “the time past of our life,” and if now we suffer from without it should be not for sins but for righteousness (3:14), or as a Christian (4:14-16). Arming ourselves “with the same mind” we refuse the evil at whatever cost, that we may live to the will of God.

Errata

P. 107, col. 2, line 22.-For “thereby” read “by.”

P. 121, col. 2, line 29 from bottom.-For “predicted” read “predicated.”

P. 125, col. 1, line 7.-For “silence” read “science.”

By the late W. Kelly
CROWN 8vo., CLOTH

" In the Beginning," and The Adamic

Earth

Second Edition....

6 net.

God's Inspiration of the Scriptures

Second

Edition.

...

6 net.

Exposition of the Epistles of Peter

2 Vols.

The Preaching to the Spirits in Prison

Cloth

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 16

The cleansing of this Syrian leper was indeed a wonderful witness to the sovereign grace of the God of Israel, a witness not without blessing to the Gentile, if disregarded by His people. “The law of the leper in the day of his cleansing,” as set out in Leviticus 14, was no longer known in Israel, for though there were many lepers in the land, none of them were cleansed. And where was either priest or sacrifice that God could own? The ministry of Elisha was outside the nation's ritual, such as it then was. The altar of Elijah had testified in its day (1 Kings 18), but where afterward do we read of it? It is a serious thing when the ordinary channel of blessing, because of its defilement, can no longer be made use of, for grace must maintain its own character of holiness, and will be neither hindered nor defiled by human interference. So, as we review the miracle now before us, we cannot but feel that for this reason it was that Elisha avoided reference to the Mosaic rite.

Let us now examine for a little the details of our chapter as affording a representative case. “Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper” (2 Kings 5:1). Here we have an experienced soldier, an able general, a successful man, justly esteemed, honored, and rewarded, by his master. His name signifies “agreeableness,” and Jehovah had used him to bring victory to Syria in chastisement of His own guilty people. We read, again and again, how in the time of the judges God was grieved for the misery of His people, and raised up one and another to deliver them from their oppressors. Not because Israel deserved deliverance, but because He pitied them. So, here, the distressed condition of the Syrians had appealed to the tender mercy of Jehovah. God had permitted Israel in the reign of Ahab to defeat the Syrians repeatedly (1 Kings 20). “And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith Jehovah, Because the Syrians have said, Jehovah is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah” (20:28). Three years after, when Ahab attempted to recover Ramoth Gilead out of the hand of the king of Syria, Israel was scattered and Ahab slain. Jehoshaphat, in guilty league with Israel's wicked king, was nevertheless delivered, “so as through fire.” Subsequently recovered, Ramoth Gilead appears again in the possession of Israel, who used it as a military center.

Coming back to our chapter, however, we read that Jehovah had granted deliverance to Syria, by one that was a leper. However great the victory, yet Naaman could not get away from the bitterness and sorrow of his being “a leper.” This marred everything. Man in his best estate betrays the sin of his nature, and the dreaded, inevitable end is constantly in his thoughts, and casts its shadow on all earth's glory. Death! And after death, the judgment! The greatest measure of worldly success and prosperity cannot shut out the gloomy prospect from the soul. Indeed, they only increase its terror, for while death itself may come as a relief to the wretched and the poor, the wealthy and honored naturally cling to what vainly satisfies them here, with nothing beyond but eternal judgment! The soldiers of Naaman had brought into their lord's house one who was indeed a messenger of mercy. A captive out of the land of Israel, this little maid waited on Naaman's wife. “And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” Seldom indeed is the heart of a proud rebel against God softened, or improved, by adversity. Much less is found a nation, or any great part of a community, truly humbled by reverses. Of such it can be said, “They cry not when he bindeth them.” And again at a later day it is written, specially of Israel when suffering defeat at the hands of the same enemy, where we have doubtless a prophecy of the yet more acute tribulation of the last days, “The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore Jehovah shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth.... For the people turneth not to him that smiteth them, neither do they seek Jehovah of hosts” (Isaiah 9:8-13). But the gracious ministry of Elisha, overlooked and despised by the great ones in Israel, had found a response in the heart of one of Jehovah's “little ones “-the unmistakable evidence that God had been at work. The “still small voice” bore witness that “his mercy endureth forever,” and had found its way to the heart of the little maid that was “of the land of Israel.” Grace with her had borne fruit, both for God's glory and man's blessing. Naturally she might have brooded over her wrongs, over the loneliness and misery of her now daily life. For although in the midst of affluence and splendor, she might naturally have regarded her lord with aversion as being the direct expression of the power of the enemy in the havoc wrought in Israel, separating her too from her home and friends.

Would it have been surprising if, instead, she had presented an impassioned appeal for mercy that would give her back to the land of her birth, to her friends, and to her home? Yet, on the contrary, her earnest desire was that her master, and not herself, were with the prophet that is in Samaria! How perfectly does grace deliver the soul from selfishness, or self-occupation. How it enlarges the heart, and elevates the downtrodden and oppressed! Who can doubt that there shone more true nobility of spirit in her than in her master, or in the king of Syria? Grace, in that early day, fore-impressed its own character upon the heart of the receiver (Titus 2:9-14). Surely, she had either witnessed with others, or proved in herself, the power of grace to change the heart. For it was not a studied part which she was acting, with selfish desires for her own ultimate good, nor yet a mere submission to the inevitable, but a truly simple, yea, almost passionate expression of what occupied her heart. Even for how long previously we cannot say. But we may say of her likewise, “She did what she could.”

For whom was it done, as regards her feelings and intelligence? was it for Naaman only? Was not the glory of God before her, however little she might be conscious of it? Whatever brings true blessing to the soul has God for its source and its object. God's greatest and best gift has been His beloved Son. When that Blessed One was about to leave the world, having finished the work (as to His service of grace) given Him to do, we find the Spirit of God bringing together and connecting the beginning with the end of His course, thus giving us the object, the method of realization, and the results of His presence in the world in relation to God, to man, and to Satan. “Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, that he should deliver him up, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and was going to God, riseth from supper,” etc. (John 13:1-3). Blessing from God received by man in faith returns to God in worship. So, too, the apostle Paul, after tracing and expounding the ways of God with Israel and the Gentiles, brings us to the same conclusion. “O depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? or who has first given to him, and it shall be rendered to him? For of him and through him and for him are all things: to him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).

There was then a purpose of blessing for Naaman in the heart of Jehovah. The leper was to be cleansed, but his heart was also to be renewed by grace, so that he might be brought to God as a worshipper. The first link in the chain of blessing seemed weak indeed, and all who were used in this work seemed to have been chosen of God with a view to humbling the pride of the Gentile. Man is slow to admit that there is any barrier between God and himself but what he can set aside. The faithfulness and simplicity of the little maid were admirable. The principles which guided her were in effect those upon which the great apostle of the Gentiles took his stand. For the same power and grace were active in each case. “And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not in excellency of word, or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear, and in much trembling; and my word and my preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Lectures on Job 38-42

You have heard a saying not unworthy of a good and great man, “that all matter never produces mind, and all mind never produces love.” God had acted on the same principle here, in these words taking up but a small part of His wisdom and power in the outward world; and this just because they are so insignificant an object compared with the ways of His grace. They are no more than what, so to speak, His fingers have formed. If I look at the heavens the firmament showeth His handywork, as David says in Psalm 19. Do you suppose that His ways with us are the mere fruit of such skill? They speak of incomparably more. His heart, His thoughts, His plan of love and goodness—all that God is—has come out in the blessing of His saints, because He has Himself appeared on their behalf in Christ, the One who is not merely the alone true, but also the full, expression of what God is in Himself and towards us. Here He does not, of course, bring out, even by the most distant anticipation, what was to be unfolded in the New Testament. He does refer, as we have seen, to the external manifestation of His power and glory: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth?” &c. It did not matter whether He pointed up to the heavens, or whether He looked down into the sea: in every part of the creation man's ignorance and powerlessness are evident. No answer to a single question of Jehovah could be given. “When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” (chap. 38:4-11).

Thus it is evident that God is here bringing to nothing all the proud talk of Job. But He does not content Himself with demonstrating man's littleness by that which is vast; He takes up what we might think comparatively small things. After traversing the immense heavens and the uncontrollable sea, and then again the treasures of the snow and the hail, of the lightning and the waters, He notices various heavenly bodies in detail; but descends at length towards the end of the chapter to the little things of nature, where man is equally at fault. Thus it matters little whether we gaze at the greatest, or whether we look into the least, of the works of God; everywhere meets us that which is entirely beyond the ken of man. “Who can number,” said He, “the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, when the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.” What could better expose the futility of man's arraigning God? Job had even pretended to judge the depths of God morally; but he could not face, nor had he the slightest adequate idea of, what God is in the least part of His universe.

In the next chapter Jehovah carries on the same appeal to Job, here taking up animate nature more fully. What did he know of the mountain goats and the hinds? what control had he over the wild ass or the wild ox? Let him weigh the sovereignty of God as to the ostrich and the war-horse, the hawk and the eagle. Into this we need not enter more, however beautiful may be the details.

Let me only draw your attention to His putting the question pointedly in chapter 40 to Job in person. “Moreover Jehovah answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?” He ought to be able, if he judge God. This is precisely what fills Job with shame: “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?” Job had contended with the Almighty. “He that reproveth God, let him answer it.” And Job does answer. This is important as connected with the unraveling of all at the close. Job was thoroughly brought down in his own conceit, and ashamed of having murmured against God and His ways without understanding the least of them. Having accepted this, and bowed to God, assured in his soul that God must have a most worthy and gracious end in all his troubles, Job now does answer. This is important. He no longer holds his peace like the others. “Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, Behold, I am vile” —not a word more about Jehovah now— “I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”

Thus he has been brought to nothing before God, and to this humiliation as to himself with confidence in God; for a mere withering up of man would be little but despair, unless the heart turned in confidence to God. And this is of great moment in our practical walk. Take, for instance, the principle of separation, without which there can be no real holiness. But what is the worth of separation, brethren, if it spring not from communion with God? Be assured there is no small danger when people get the habit of harping on separation without dwelling on its only divine power. Severed from that gracious spring and motive, it becomes not only hollow, but really repulsive. Those formed by a dry principle are mere Pharisees, instead of witnessing Christ, the Holy, the True (Revelation 3). Thus it is of deep consequence that we should always have not merely the outward manifestation, but the root, which alone gives divine sap and the real pith.

Here, then, in Job's case we have both manifested—his own vileness, but his confidence in God; and it was the latter, we may be very sure, that made him feel and own his vileness. His grace is the power. The last thing a man comes to is to think ill of himself.

Again, in the last two chapters of Jehovah's answer (40, 41.), on which I must be very brief, we have God surveying, not the whole realm of nature, but quite enough, and more than enough, to convict Job of ignorance and incapacity to speak before God. This he needed to learn in order that he might distrust himself as well as confide in God. In these He takes up, as we may see, only two of His creatures—one, a powerful beast of the earth, in chap. 40; the other, an equally mighty monster of the deep, in chap. 41. There is behemoth on the one hand, and leviathan on the other. The two chapters indeed give the finest description that ever was written of these works of God.

But His object seems to be not the least that for which men use them. Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself; for if the works of God be so wondrous, who is He that wrought the work, and what is man if he dare to judge such a God? This is the point in hand. God's object therefore, in describing them in magnificent language, is not in the least to induce us to rest there, making them a study so as to occupy our minds and arrest our souls; but the very reverse. He would turn us away from ourselves to confide in Himself. Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all. The people, therefore, that spend their time and thoughts on the wonders of creation, and cite these chapters to that end, do evidently show that they have not entered into the purpose of God in the least. It was not even so in the Old Testament, still less in the New.

Let us now briefly turn to the account of the final result. “Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not.” He takes up the humbling words that God addressed to him in order to apply them to himself. This was right; he owns they were “things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.” So had God before said, and he repeats them to his own humiliation. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” It was nothing external now; no mere distant rumor. “Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself.” Do you think that searching into the structure or habits of behemoth and leviathan would have led to anything of the sort? Assuredly not. He had to do with God Himself, who used them for the express purpose, and had thereby turned Job from all to Himself. “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” So in the New Testament the Lord used the crowing of a cock to convict the great apostle of the circumcision.

And it was so that, after Jehovah had spoken these words unto Job, Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends.” He singles out the oldest of them, who after all, had spoken with the least acrimony of the three, but still guiltily; for he as the wisest ought to have known best. “My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” What is that especially which God singles out as the right thing? For on the surface of the book one might think that Job had been saying as many wrong things about God as the rest. Indeed it would appear to a superficial reader that Job had spoken more rashly than either Eliphaz or his two friends. But the truth is that the grace of God bears much more tenderly than men suppose with the random words that men utter under the pressure of so terrible a trial as that of Job.

Do not think that this in any way makes light of Job's faultiness. I repeat that there is all the difference in the world between three men that were not in trial and the man who was. It is all well for those that are not suffering to find fault with the embittered words of one under such pressure. But God felt gravely as to men, who assuming to speak properly, underneath that calm surface wholly failed to apply the truth of God to the case. And let me say that this is much to be observed, and can only be through the Spirit. Abstract truth is altogether in vain for the saints of God. There may be more harm done by things which are true, misunderstood and misapplied, than by many a thing that is false; because misapplied truth gives the apparent authority of God to an error, which has all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If a foolish thing be said, or one unequivocally false, people despise it; but no believer can slight the truth of God. If the truth of God, therefore, be wrongly used—if it be applied to crush one that is an object of intense interest to God at the time, how foreign and offensive to His mind! How hateful that His name should be so perverted. They were guilty of this. How often is the truth of God now used to exalt self; yet how utterly opposed to His character and will! Had they not done both these things?

The mistakes of Job are palpable enough. Wherein then was the thing that was right? There was this that we can readily see. It was assuredly to say the thing that was right when he humbled himself utterly before God. I do not say it was the only thing right in Job; but this none need hesitate to accept or endorse. Job had said that which was right in his last words, his answer to Jehovah's appeal to him. There he was brought into the presence of God. There he does speak as became a man that had right feelings at the bottom of his heart; but at the surface, ah, there was many a thing wrong! But now Jehovah brings to light the depths of his heart. Now he himself has got there at length. All the rest, all that was superficial, had been judged. Consequently here we may be sure there was what was right to speak of, none else now: Job's justifying God at his own expense; Job's maintaining, not his righteousness now, but his own nothingness and vileness in dust and ashes before God whom he owns unreservedly to be perfectly right.

Then God tells Eliphaz to take unto him “seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering.” At this time it does not appear that there were sin-offerings; and this is no small intimation of the exceeding early date of the book, or rather of the circumstances recorded in it. It must have been before the law. In Levitical days there would have been of course a sin-offering offered; but before the law had brought out that careful and minute prescription of what was required in the case of sin, the burnt-offering regularly was offered. So we find at the beginning, in Noah's time, as in other cases. One might have thought otherwise that the sin-offering ought to have been here; but God speaks of burnt-offerings in that day.

This He prescribes as a solemn confession of sin: “lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” It was done, of course, accordingly. “And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends": a beautiful expression of the work of grace. It was not merely that He turned their punishment away when Job prayed, but He turned Job's own captivity when his heart went out on their behalf. Job himself now was consciously delivered. He had felt himself a captive held in a vice up to this time, one may say; but Jehovah turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. His heart was active in grace; he had seen grace, and now he expressed grace, and this too for the very people that had wounded him most. Job never had been so grievously wounded by any in the world as by his three friends. They were now the very persons for whom he prayed. And God loved to see it, and turned his captivity when he prayed for them.

But Jehovah also gave Job twice as much as he had before; for the book could not end without a witness of God's goodness even outwardly. Though it be not yet the time for careful adjusting of all that is crooked, or of remembering every good or righteous deed, yet Jehovah does not allow His saint to go without a proof of His interest and of His blessing. Job therefore received even then this testimony of what God is. He did not forget the man who had passed through such a storm of trial, and who had held to Him when He seemed against His servant, though obliged to learn what he was himself when the devil left, after the first question had been decided against the enemy. But Job only held fast God because God held fast Job. Such was the real root of the matter. It is grace after all that gives and keeps integrity. But God was not unrighteous to forget Job. He showed His sense of all, even before the day of requital came. The fullest testimony of respect and confidence poured in from all his relatives and even his acquaintances. “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. So job died, being old and full of days.”

May the Lord then bless His own word, and bless His saints who deeply need to cleave to that word in this day of increasing confusion and unbelief.

W. K.

The Forsaken One

THERE is an utterance, in the twenty second Psalm, of deep and marvelous import—a sentence to which there is no parallel in the volume of God. It is this, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” Never, we may safely say, was there such a question asked before; never has there such an one been asked since; nor shall its like ever be asked again. It stands alone in the annals of eternity.

Reader, let us dwell upon it for a few moments. Who was it that asked this wondrous question? It was the Eternal Son of God, the One who was in the bosom of the Father before the foundation of the world. The object of the Father's infinite delight. Moreover, He was Himself God over all, blessed forever. The Creator of all things, the Almighty Sustainer of the wide universe. Finally, He was a man—a spotless, holy, perfect man—one who had never sinned, nor could sin, because He knew no sin. And yet, withal, a man, a real man, born of a woman, like unto us, in every possible respect, with one solitary exception—sin. In Him was no sin; and, further, “He did no sin; neither was guile found in his mouth.” He did ever those things that pleased God. From the manger of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, His whole life was in perfect accordance with the will of God. He lived but to glorify God. His every thought, His every word, His every look, His every movement, was an odor of ineffable sweetness which ascended to the throne and refreshed the heart of God. Again and again, the heavens were opened upon this blessed One; and the voice of the Eternal Father bore witness to Him in such accents as these, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

This, then, was the One who asked the question. He it was who said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And is it really true that such an One was forsaken of God? Did God, in very deed, forsake His only begotten, well-beloved Son? Did He actually hide His face from the only sinless, spotless, perfect Man that ever lived in this sinful world? Did He close His ear to the cry of One who had lived but to do His will and glorify His name? Yes; marvelous to declare, God did this. God, who withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous; whose ear is ever open to the cry of the needy; whose hand is ever stretched forth for the defense of the weak and the helpless—He, even He, turned away His face from His own beloved Son, and refused, for the moment, to hear His cry.

Here we have a profound mystery on which we cannot dwell too deeply. It contains in it the very marrow and substance of the gospel—the grand basis-truth of Christianity. The more we ponder the glories of the One who asked the question—who He was, what He was, what he was in Himself, and what He was to God, the more we see the marvelous depths of the question. And further, the more we consider the One to whom the question was put, the more we know of His character and ways, the more we shall see the force and value of the answer.

Why, then, did God forsake His Son? Oh! reader, dost thou know why? Dost thou know it in its bearing upon thyself personally? Canst thou say, from thine inmost soul, “I know why God forsook that blessed One. It was because He had taken my place, stood in my stead, and taken all my guilt upon Himself. He was made sin for me. All that I was, all that I had done, all that was due to me, was laid on Him. God dealt with me in the person of my Substitute. All the sin of my nature, and all the sins of my life—all that I am, and all I have ever done, was imputed to Him. He represented me and was treated accordingly.”

Say, beloved reader, has God's Spirit taught you this? Have you received this, in simple faith, on the authority of God's word? If so, you must have solid peace—a peace which no power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever disturb. This is the true and only foundation of the soul's peace. It is utterly impossible for any soul to have real peace with God until He knows that God Himself has settled the whole question of sin and sins, in the cross of His Son. God knew what was needed and He provided it. He laid on Christ the full weight of our iniquities. God and sin met at the cross. There the whole question was divinely gone into and settled once and forever. Sin was judged as well as sins. The Sin-bearer went down under the billows and waves of divine wrath. God brought Him into the dust of death. Sin was dealt with according to the infinite claims of the nature, the character, and the throne of God; and now the One who was made sin for us, and judged in our stead, is at the right hand of God, exalted, crowned with glory and honor; and the very crown which adorns His blessed brow is the proof that He has made purification of sins, so that ere a single sin can be laid to the believer's charge, that crown must be torn from the risen Savior's head.

But there is another element of ineffable preciousness and sweetness that enters into the answer to the mysterious “Why?” of the forsaken One. It is this, the amazing love of God toward us poor sinners—a love that led Him not only to give His Son from heaven, but to bruise and forsake Him on the cross. Why did He do this? Because there was no other way possible in which we could escape. It was either a question of an eternal hell for us, or of infinite wrath for the Sin-bearer. God be praised, He chose the latter, and hence the place which Christ now occupies as raised out of death is the place of all who truly believe in Him.

ANON.

Kinds of Discipline: Part 3

The house is to be kept clean. The Father's care over the family is one thing; the Son's over “His own house” another. The Son commits the disciples to the care of the Holy Father (John 17); this is distinct from having the house in order. In John 15 He says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches, my Father is the husbandman,” &c.; it is all the Father's care. The Father purges the branches, to the end that they bear as much fruit as possible. But in the case of the Son over His own house, it is not the individual, but the house kept clean. “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged,” &c.

There are then these three kinds of discipline:

1st, That of brotherly relationship. Here I go as a person wronged, but it must be with grace.

2nd, That of fatherly care. The father exercising it with loving-kindness and tenderness, as over an erring child.

3rd, Where the Son is over His own House, and, where we have to act in the responsibility of keeping the house clean, that people should have their consciences according to the house in which they are. Not only the individual, but the house, the body, the conscience of the body must act. The effect may he, graciously, that the individual is restored, but that is a collateral thing; when you come to that point, there is something besides restoring, there is the responsibility of keeping the house clean—the conscience of all there; and that may sometimes give a good deal of trouble.

As to the nature of all this, the spirit in which it should be conducted, it is priestly; and the priests ate the sin-offering within the holy place (Leviticus 10). I do not think any person, or body of Christians, can exercise discipline, unless as having the conscience clear, as having felt the power of the evil and sin before God, as if he had himself committed it. Then he does it as needful to purge himself. It will all be for positive mischief, the dealing with it, if not so. What character of position does Jesus hold now? That of priestly service. And we are associated with Him. If there were more of that priestly intercession implied by eating of the sin-offering within the holy place, there would be no such abomination as that of the church assuming a mere judicial character. Suppose the case of a family, in which a brother had committed something disgraceful; would it not be for bitterness and anguish to the whole family? what common anxiety and pain of heart it would occasion! Does Christ not feed upon the sin-offering? does He not feel the sorrow? does He not charge Himself with it? He is the Head of His body the church—is He not wounded and pained in a member? Yes, it is so. If it be a case of individual remonstrance with a brother for a fault, I am not fit to rebuke him, unless my soul has been in priestly exercise and service about it, as though I had been in the sin myself. How does Christ act? He bears it on His heart, and pleads about it, to draw out the grace that will remedy it. So with the child of God; he carries the sin upon his own heart into the presence of God; he pleads with the Father, as a priest, that the dishonor done to Christ's body, of which he is a member, may be remedied. This I believe to be the spirit in which discipline should be exercised. But here we fail. We have not grace to eat the sin-offering. I come to church-action, and there I find yet more. It should go humble itself, until it has cleared itself. That is the force, to me, of “ye have not mourned,” &c.; there was not sufficient spirituality at Corinth to take and bear the sin at all; “You ought to have been bowed down there, broken-hearted, and broken in spirit, at such a thing not being put out-concerned as to the cleanness of Christ's house.”

It is another part of priestly service to separate between clean and unclean. The priests were not to drink wine nor strong drink, that they might keep themselves in a spiritual state, by the habits of the sanctuary, being able to discern between clean, &e. This is always true. We must take as our object in dealing with evil God's object. God's house is the scene and place of God's order. If it be said that the woman must “have power (a covering) on her head because of the angels” (1 Corinthians 11:10), it is as the exhibition of God's order. Nothing should be permitted in the house that angels could not come in and approve. All is in thorough ruin. The full glory of the house will be manifested when Christ comes in glory, and not till then; but we should desire that, as far as possible, by the energy of the Holy Ghost there should be correspondence in spirit and manner with what shall be hereafter. When Israel returned from the captivity, after Lo-ammi had been written upon them, and the glory had departed from the house, the public manifestation was gone, but Nehemiah and Ezra could find that in which to act according to God's mind. That is our present condition. But we have now what they had not. We were always a remnant; we began at the end: “Where two or three are gathered to my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). If the whole corporate system has come to naught, I get back to certain unchangeable, blessed principles, from which all is derived. The very thing from which all springs, to which Christ has attached, not only His name, but His discipline-the power of binding and loosing—is the gathering together of the “two or three.” This is of the greatest possible comfort. The great principle remains true amidst all the failure.

If we turn to John's Gospel, chap. 20, we find that when He sent forth His disciples, He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” There is nothing like a corporate church system here, but the energy of the Holy Ghost in spiritual discernment in the disciples as sent from Christ, and acting on behalf of Christ. Discipline is a question of the energy of the Spirit. If that which is done is not done in the power of the Holy Ghost, it is nothing.

In principle what was needed has been said. I do not see any difference, whether it be in the hands of a remnant or anything else, because then we get into the structure of a judicial process at once-sinners judging sinners. It is, first of all, a question what the energy of the Spirit is for ministry in God's house. The unanimity is a unanimity of having consciences exercised and forced into discipline. It is a terrible thing to hear sinners talking about judging another sinner, but a blessed thing to see them exercised in conscience about sin come in among themselves. It must be in grace. I no more dare act, save in grace, than I could wish judgment to myself. “Judge not, that ye be not judged: for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:1, 2). If we go to exercise judgment, we shall get it. I speak of the spirit in which it is to be done; for we have to judge them that are within.

As to the difficulty of saints meeting together where there is not pastorship, my prayer is that God would raise up pastors; but, I believe, where there were brethren meeting together, and walking together on brotherly principles, provided they kept to their real position, and did not set about making churches, they would be just as happy as others in different circumstances. One thing I would pray for, because I love the Lord's sheep, is that there might be shepherds. I know nothing, next to personal communion with the Lord, so blessed as the pastor feeding the Lord's sheep, the Lord's flock; but it is the Lord's flock. I see nothing about a pastor and his flock; that changes the whole aspect of things. When it is felt to be the Lord's flock a man has to look over, what thoughts of responsibility, what care, what zeal, what watchfulness! I do not see anything so lovely. “Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs.” I know nothing like it upon earth—the care of a true-hearted pastor—one who can bear the whole burden of grief and care of any soul, and deal with God about it. I believe it is the happiest, most blessed relationship that can subsist in this world. But we are not to suppose that the “Great Shepherd” cannot take care of His own sheep because there are no under-shepherds. If there were those who met together and hung on the Lord, if they did not pretend to be what they were not, though there were no pastors among them, there would be no danger; they would infallibly have the care of that Shepherd. We must not impute our failure to God, as though He could not take care of us. The moment power in the Spirit is gone, power in the flesh comes in.

J. N. D.

(Concluded from page 172)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 5. Apostasy

V.—The Apostasy

What will be the end of the course of events in Christendom? Some think that it will go on indefinitely, much as at present; others suppose that modern progress in science and civilization tends to a perfection which the world will some day arrive at. The teaching of Scripture is very definite and very different. Although an interval of peace and prosperity may immediately follow the rapture of the church, the end of the age will be the advent of the Son of man in power and great glory (Matthew 24:30). The finished refinement of the world being linked with blasphemy against God will bring down sudden and terrific judgment.

But before that, as we have already seen, true believers will have been taken to heaven. This will be the end of Christianity in any true sense. With the translation of the church, its mission will have been completed. Left behind, however, in the world will be the vast but lifeless body of professing Christians. This religious body, perhaps still nominally Christian, may continue for a time, although rejected by Christ; and it is solemn to reflect that this is a condition which, while at present let us hope exceptional, may in places be already existing. Are there not even now so-called churches presided over by men who are themselves strangers to the new birth? and the people over whom they preside—whole congregations—with quite possibly not a new-born soul amongst them; yet the routine of what is called “public worship” proceeding placidly as a decent but empty form? And should there be a sprinkling of half-a-dozen really saved persons there, what is to prevent the entire ecclesiastical machinery still moving on, even if those few be subtracted? So probably will it be when all who know the Lord have been quietly withdrawn to heaven. Indeed, the absence of all vital godliness will be felt as a relief by the worldly who are left. Blinded by self-complacence, the sentiment of such a company will be, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,” not knowing that it is “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” And the ministry amongst such need not be so very different from what one reads about in the newspapers to-day: a honeyed explanation that the Bible is a bundle of old myths; that hell is a fable, and the eternal punishment of sin, instead of that to save us from which Christ died, is merely an old woman's fear! However, this dead profession will be no longer acknowledged by Christ. It will be spued out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16, 17). All this is, according to Scripture, the destiny of the numerous denominations of Christendom, in which at the present time, infidelity of every form is heaving and swelling like leaven (Matthew 13:33). Alongside, however, will be the Papacy, flourishing in undiminished, perhaps augmented, power; for it is clear from Revelation 17:16 that the Papal harlot is in existence after the appearance of the Roman “beast,” though receiving destruction from it as we see.

Scripture informs us that this lifeless religion—equally corrupt in Protestantism and the Papacy—will not last, but will terminate in “the apostasy.” Paul says, referring to the “day of the Lord,” “that day shall not come unless there shall have come the apostasy first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). This quotation is taken from Dean Alford's translation, as the term “falling away” used in the Authorized Version and uncorrected in the Revised, is quite inadequate. Mr. Kelly says on the question of rendering— “Our authorized translators have utterly weakened the sense by rendering ἡ ἀπ. 'a' falling away. Beyond doubt it is 'the apostasy,' and there is no ground whatever for depriving the phrase of its intentionally definite force." True it is that in 1 Timothy 4 the apostle states that in latter times some shall apostatize from the faith in the way he there mentions—a movement the features of which find their counterpart in Romanism. But Romanism, evil as it is, is still a profession of Christianity, of which it is a perversion, not a public renouncement. It does not answer the terms of what Scripture here signalizes by the term “the apostasy,” and which is nothing less than the overt and definitive abandonment of Christianity, finally issuing, as we shall see, in its relentless destruction by the civil power over which it had previously exercised rule.

“The apostasy,” strictly speaking, is negative in character. Apostasy is a turning away from something; in this case, from the revelation which God has given of Himself in Christ. It is not the same thing as the Antichrist, though some Christians speak as if it were. Indeed so little are scriptural distinctions apprehended, that “the harlot,” “the [Roman] beast,” “the apostasy,” and “the antichrist,” are sometimes referred to as if they all meant the same thing—and some Christians can see nothing but the Papacy in each. But Satan is waiting to introduce the Antichrist, a yet deeper form of iniquity, to make room for which even the name of Christianity must be cleared away. Corrupt Christianity having served his purposes, he discards it. In one view the apostasy is man rising up against ecclesiasticism, which, as he thinks, has so long enthralled him; but in reality, as we shall see later on, it is God using evil powers, “the ten horns... and the beast” (Revelation 17:16), for the punishment of the harlot. The apostasy, culminating in the destruction of the harlot, is the clearing away of corrupt Christianity; the antichrist is the filling of the gap which has been created. The apostasy leaves the house “empty, swept, and garnished"; the antichrist enters and fills it.

A source of edification in the study of prophecy is that, being informed beforehand of an event to come, one is enabled to detect and identify principles already working in that direction. Thus, while prophecy predicts “the apostasy,” the Christian recognizes an advanced movement towards it in that most solemn feature of the age—the change which has taken place in the minds of men towards Christianity. And there is this lamentable circumstance, that the scribes and doctors of Christianity are foremost in teaching the people that they need no longer believe the Bible. They are the converse of Paul's noble example. For instead of preaching the faith which once they destroyed, by an inverted and miserable repentance, they destroy the faith which once they preached. As an ecclesiastic has indeed owned, “The great, novel, and awful characteristic of the present age is, that... open-mouthed infidelity has issued from officiating ministers in the church itself." Assaults on divine revelation are no new thing; but formerly it was the pride and pleasure of powerful intellects in the church to defend the book of God. Here is a list of a few such works, which have passed into standard literature, and well they deserve it, as models of irrefutable reasoning, viz.:-

“The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature,” by Joseph Butler, D.C.L., Bishop of Durham

“An Apology for Christianity” (a reply to Gibbon), by Richard Watson, D.D., Bishop of Llandaff

“An Apology for the Bible” (a reply to Thos. Paine), by ditto

“Evidences of Christianity,” by W. Paley, D. D., Archdeacon of Carlisle

“Hore Paulinae; or the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul,” by ditto

“The Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion,” by Soame Jenyns, Esq.

“The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated. A dialog between a Christian and a Deist,” by the Revelation Charles Leslie, M.A.

“A Short and Easy Method with the Deists,” by ditto

“A Short and Easy Method with the Jews,” by ditto

“Plain Reasons for being a Christian,” by Samuel Chandler, D.D.

“The Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul of itself a demonstration of Christianity as a Divine Revelation,” by Lord Lyttleton

“Dissertation on Miracles” (reply to Hume), by George Campbell, D.D., Principal of the Marischal College, Aberdeen

“The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus,” by Thomas Sherlock, D.D., Bishop of London

“A Sequel of the Trial,” by ditto

“The History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” by Gilbert West, Esq.

“The Transmission of Ancient Books,” by Isaac Taylor

“Logic in Theology and other Essays,” by ditto

This list might be largely extended, but it suffices to show the noble work of Christian men of those times. Now we have a Bishop (Dr. Colenso) disputing the authenticity of the Pentateuch. Almost simultaneously, the notorious “Essays and Reviews” heralded, for England, a new and dire epoch as regards Christianity. It was already initiated in Germany, as indeed Dr. Williams says, in lauding Bunsen's views, that they “tend more and more in proportion as they are developed to justify the presentiment of their creating a new epoch in the science of Biblical criticism” ("Essays and Reviews,” 10th Ed. p. 528). The pre-sentiment has been fulfilled. It is a new epoch indeed; the smoke of “the abyss” darkening the atmosphere of Christianity! Following is the outburst of what is now rampant under the title of “Higher Criticism” —a catching name which has great advantages as advertisers know. To gauge its character, however, we may take the naive confession of its own exponents, viz.— “What is the position of students and teachers of the Bible to-day? They are face to face with a treatment of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, which half, nay, a quarter of a century ago, would have seemed utterly irreverent, subversive of the foundations of the faith; and which still seems to many (it is not to be wondered at) irreverent and mischievous” ("The Higher Criticism,” by the Revelation Professor Driver, D.D., and the Revelation Professor Kirkpatrick, D. D.).

Here is an acknowledgment by themselves of the true nature of a movement which Doctors of the church are leading—twenty-five years ago it would have been deemed “subversive of the foundations of the faith!” At a meeting in London at which Lord Kinnaird took part, the Revelation James Douglas called the Higher Criticism “the most colossal imposition ever palmed upon a credulous public"; and Dr. A. T. Pierson said, “If it had not been invented in hell, it ought to have been” ("Daily Mail,” London, 27th Feb. 1907). These are strong words, but not a whit too strong, though not quite scriptural. However, with the averment of these two ministers as opponents on the one hand, and with the open avowal of Drs. Driver and Kirkpatrick on the other, we hardly need to go further for evidence of the momentous change as to God and His revelation, now taking place in the mind of Christendom.

But in addition to the Higher Criticism there is now—its twin brother—what is called “The New Theology.” If “new,” it is not Christianity: for Christianity, once delivered, cannot be altered. The instructed Christian knows that we are called upon by the apostle Jude to “earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (see R.V. and Alford). Scripture contains a remarkable text in which progress beyond “the doctrine of Christ” as given at the first, or departure from it, are expressly condemned. The Authorized Version gives the text in question as: “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God” (2 John 9). The word “transgresseth” here (προάγων) should really be “goeth forward,” or onward, as it is, very properly, so rendered in the Revised Version. There are two things condemned by this Scripture—one, “going forward” beyond the doctrine of Christ as revealed; and the other, “not abiding” in that doctrine, that is, giving up what has been revealed. Either one or the other is disloyalty to God in the complete and perfect revelation which He has vouchsafed. Going forward, or going backward, from the once-delivered doctrine of the Christ, are alike departure from Christianity.

However, this new creed is mournful and awful. Denying the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, it removes the foundation of Christianity and destroys the sinner's hope, leaving him without any defense against the righteous wrath of God. Further, it insults the Lord Jesus Christ by rejection of the truth of His Person. Be it observed that while the will to reject divine revelation is manifested, the effort at present is to proceed under cover of the name of Christianity, and to clothe the varied falsities in Christian phraseology. Take the atonement—the name is retained, but the true sin-bearing on the cross is reasoned away. Again, the name of the Lord Jesus is retained, but in what fashion? Hear the Revelation R. J. Campbell— “Whether Jesus the carpenter had any more right to speak about the mysteries of the universe than I or you have, who can tell? We cannot be sure” (Sermon preached in City Temple, 8th October, 1903). Christianity then is rejected; but rejected covertly. It is apostasy in principle, but as yet dissembled. This measure of restraint is the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the church. There is a power that restrains, “For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only there is one that restraineth now until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). But at the translation of the church, this restraint will be lifted off. Whatever then the outward condition of the world; whatever its material prosperity and luxury, a moral change of immense moment will have taken place. Not only will the church have gone, but the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit who came down at Pentecost (John 14:16, 17; Acts 2:33; Ephesians 2:23; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17). That blessed Spirit is still here, notwithstanding that He is resisted by the world, grieved and quenched in the church, and He will remain here so long as the church is on earth. His power and testimony have at times been solemnly manifested, leading up to the overthrow of paganism in the Roman Empire. The church is “the pillar and stay of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). There only is the truth found; outside, all is spiritual darkness and delusion. The presence of the church inhabited by the Spirit acts as a repressive weight upon the evil of the world; indeed, even the presence of an individual Christian is felt as a curb in a company of the ungodly, for the Holy Spirit dwells in the individual believer as well as in the church collectively. What a change has been wrought on the face of the world by the Holy Spirit's presence! What then will be the inverse change when that gracious, holy presence departs? The dead professing body left by the Holy Ghost will be like the earthly temple abandoned by Jesus; and, as with the earthly temple, will not long be tolerated by the profane world. It may be content enough to go on without Christ, but its destiny is to be cast off by the very world to which now it basely accommodates itself.

The symbol of the gaudy harlot riding the ten-horned beast of the Revelation scarcely needs to be explained (for it is proverbially recognized) as representing corrupt Christianity, which has its darkest development in Romanism—though by no means its only one, for the harlot has daughters (Revelation 17:5). “Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth” (ver. 9). Now it is stated in this same chapter of the Apocalypse, “The ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire” (Revelation 17:16).

“The beast” symbolizes the civil power of the Roman Empire over which the woman has ruled; and “'the ten horns” are ten federated kingdoms. which will constitute the revived and reorganized Roman Empire of the future. Thus the solemn ordering of God is that, corrupt Christianity, the false church, will be dealt with in judgment earlier than any other entity upon earth. She is not allowed to go on until the appearing of the Lord. Her judgment is earlier. God puts it into the heart of “the ten horns and the beast” (giving them one mind for the purpose, Vers. 16, 17) to turn upon and destroy the harlot. The very kings and powers of the world, over whom she has had sway, with whom she has committed fornication, and, most especially, the Roman Empire which had been her signal boast—all these God uses for her punishment. If there is a name which the Papacy has gloried in, it is Rome. By Rome the Papacy will be destroyed. All ye high church ecclesiastics who are aspiring to and aping the Papacy! take note of what is awaiting the harlot, and learn that the greater your success, and the nearer your approach to Popery, with one and another of you dropping from time to time into the jaws of her fascination—the earlier will be your judgment from God. “Her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her” (chap. 18:8). Read the 18th chapter of the Revelation and see the cataclysm of ruin in which the glory of symbolic Babylon is brought to naught.

This is only in accordance with divine principles of action, for that which is professedly near to God, is always first taken in hand for judgment. The direction for the judgment of Ezekiel 9:6 was “Begin at my sanctuary.” So Jehovah said to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Similarly with Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; their judgment should be more terrible than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their greater privileges (Matthew 11:20-24). Again, if the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Greek, in the same order comes the judgment— “Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile” (Romans 2:9). “Judgment begins at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Upon this principle the harlot of the seven-hilled city (Revelation 17:9) is judged and destroyed, while the profane world is allowed to go on till the coming of the Son of man. Macaulay, in one of his brilliant essays, describes the marvelous influence of the Roman Church, and in view of its seeming immovable permanence arrives in his climax at those well-known words, “And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveler from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.” This might indeed be supposed by the most philosophic observer apart from God's word; but in His revealed purposes the doom of that church is already decreed. And so far from truth is the imagined perspective of the Essayist that the Papacy will be the very first of the objects to fall under the judgment of God in the closing scenes of this world's history. Against that mystical Babylon there has gone forth a handwriting of fate, not indeed upon the wall as of old, but in the word of the Lord that endureth forever.

The destruction of the ecclesiastical harlot by the beast will be the consummation of the apostasy which is now working in mystery. Do not suppose that only the Papacy will be affected; she is the mother of all the corrupt ecclesiastical systems of Christendom. There is, however, to be absolute apostasy, of which the crowning act will be the tremendous ruin of that evil institution. The “Higher Criticism” and the “New Theology” may do for the present, but they are only preparatory. Men will not always be satisfied with a giving up of the essence of truth while retaining its form. They will throw away even the form. They will burst through such hypocrisy and tear it to shreds. The apostasy will be total; every form of Christianity will be thrown off, including its most guilty corruption—the Papacy. There have already been pre-manifestations of the spirit that will do this. It was seen at the French Revolution. On a smaller scale it is now at work in the revolt against church authority in France.

Reader, if such is to be the end of Christendom, where are we now on the road? This is not the place to state or refute the doctrines of the “Higher Criticism” and the “New Theology"; what is important is to point out their significance prophetically. Are they not way-marks that intimate the near end of the journey? See we not infidelity and atheism ready to burst forth? But they cannot do so while the restraint exists which has been already explained. The apostasy will not come until that restraint is removed. But the Lord Jesus will descend into the air and catch up the church to be forever with Him. And with the church the hindrance to new evil will have gone. Who shall say that that moment may not be close at hand? Looks it not as if things below were ripe for the event? And should not these reflections stir up Christians to a more vigilant watching for the return of the Lord? To wait for Him in loyalty without any sign was always the duty of the church. But when we see before our eyes alarming developments which are to come to a head immediately after the church's rapture, the inference unavoidably strikes the mind that the Lord's coming may be nearer than we had ever supposed it.

[E. J. T.]

Hebrews 1:3

A word suggests itself on a portion of this striking and familiar verse, “The brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.” So our Lord is described. Now in the first place it may be noted that the Revised Version rightly does not put the first “his” in italics, as does the Authorized Version, but in ordinary type, and for the very sufficient reason that though not actually in the original, it is virtually there. In this respect at any rate the Revisers' practice has been sounder than that of the most estimable men who gave us the admirable version we still use and reverently cherish. For it need not be said that what is virtually in the text should be preserved in its counterpart.

Next, we have the word rendered “brightness” in the Authorized Version, undoubtedly a just translation. Yet it falls short of the original, not only because of its extensive application to common life, but more particularly because it fails to give an important shade of meaning, a nuance may I say, that the Revised Version again, as also J.N.D., gives more adequately by the term “effulgence.” It is really a “shining off from” The force is of beams of light radiating from a luminous surface. Thus the word is most picturesque, full of active energy, if I may so call it. There is probably no single English word that renders the original Greek (ἀπαύγασμα) so well as “effulgence.” As one has said, it is “light from light.” How admirably the doctrine here accords with the Johannine statement, “the Word was with God,” may here be profitably recalled. “With God,” literally, “towards God.” It is like face answering to face in a perfect mirror. It is not too fanciful, I think, to speak of the original (apaugasma) as a word of delicate bloom.

But this is not all. We have the blessed Lord further declared to be “the express image of his (God's) person.” Now, first of all, it is interesting to note that in the Greek there is only one word for the twofold English term “express image.” And it is a most forcible one. It has been bodily transferred to English in the well-known word “character,” which is pure and unaltered Greek, and means (see Liddell and Scott), strictly, an instrument for graving, and then that which is cut in or stamped. To use a homely illustration, one may perhaps think of that which has taken the form of a mold in which it has been cast in liquid shape, and then solidifying. Thus the third stage of meaning is much the same as our word “character,” which is now so English, and yet, as already stated, is unchanged Greek.

The English reader, of course, would naturally suppose there were two words in the Greek as in the English, as seen both in the Authorized Version “express image,” or the more precise and literal rendering (“exact impress”) of the Speaker's Commentary. J.N.D.'s rendering, “exact expression,” is also more to the point perhaps than the Authorized Version. Thus we see that “image” is not in the original, through giving a very fair idea of its force. It is otherwise in Colossians 1:15, where our Lord is said to be the “image of the invisible God,” an all-important declaration, introduced, after the apostle's wont, apparently as if he were going off at a tangent, but really in vital connection with his previous statements. Here then, in Colossians, the word image (εἰκὼν) is emphatic, as it is not in Hebrews. For the point in the former epistle is to enforce the representative functions of the Lord Jesus. As Man He represents God on earth, and that in perfect moral beauty and holiness. “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father,” as He Himself says. We carefully note that Christ is not said to be the “likeness” of God. Things are like that are not identical. But who shall divide between the Father and the Son? Nay, the renewed mind rejoices in the sacred mystery of the Son's inscrutable person. But this by way of digression. These brief remarks are rather intended, however imperfectly, to call attention to the striking characterization of the Savior in this wonderful verse in Hebrews 1.

Lastly, we may observe, what students of J.N.D's version, as well as others, well know, that “substance” is a more correct rendering of the Greek ὑπόστασις than the word “person,” which has such wide ramifications of meaning, though rightly enough employed in defining the truth as to the blessed Trinity. To say more would be foreign to one's purpose, and more suited to a philological treatise. Here direct spiritual profit is one's aim.

R. B.

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 7

Our attention and our hearts are here arrested by the opening words of this 20th verse (Revelation 3). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”! “The faithful and true witness” can no longer be identified with that which-set to be the “pillar and stay of the truth"-is so grossly indifferent and latitudinarian, so boastful and self-satisfied, that it wants not the Giver of real treasure, of divine comfort and becomingness, and of spiritual intelligence. He is outside, standing at the door and knocking! “Having loved His own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end,” is still blessedly true; and so, though refusing to be identified, as we have said, with the corrupted state of things, He does not forsake His own, but standing at the door, He knocks that to the one who hears and opens, He may come in and “sup with him, and he with me"! The blessed Lord Jesus longs for communion with His own down here, that we too may have the deeper joy of communion with Him even now in this world! Oh, wondrous love! Is He not indeed the everlasting lover of our souls? And shall we deny Him this quest? Let those who will, doubt our having fellowship in heaven (!), the simple, restful Christian is assured that, as we are even now called to the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9), and are written to by the beloved apostle “that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3), so our fellowship in heaven will be sweeter still, unhindered and without alloy.

But what is most affecting is that the Lord Jesus not content, may we say, with the presence of heavenly hierarchies, the general assembly of myriads of angels, the called out gathering of firstborns enrolled in heaven, the spirits of perfected just ones (i.e. of just ones who had “perfected,” or completely run their course here below), still desires and seeks communion with His own now traveling through this squalid scene, wherein, nevertheless, we are day by day to keep ourselves “unspotted” (James 1:27; Peter 3:14; Jude 23), refusing within or without whatever has not His approval. We are not exonerated from our responsibilities because of the condition of the professing church. We learn that it is grieving to Him if we allow even in our midst any that hold what is obnoxious to Him (2:14, and compare 2 John 7-11). And as we are called to walk before Him well pleasingly, both personally and in our associations (of whatever kind, ecclesiastical or otherwise), love, divine love, His love counts upon hearts that so respond and are true. If others faithlessly plead in excuse that departing from evil will not end the evil left behind! the plain, unequivocal incumbency, nevertheless, abides, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19).

The professing mass will still remain and go on, with Christ outside it, to end in the apostasy-the giving up of all divine truth, denying the Father and the Son. But the true and faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, seeking only that which meets with the Master's approval, discerns His voice, and opens the heart to Him. So doing we shall not find ourselves alone. We shall, above all, find Him whom our souls love. We shall find others calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart, who with us shall contribute to His heart's joy in the communion of His love, and ourselves shall know still, what many of us have already long proved, His grace and faithfulness unchanging. May we, as Paul exhorts, “continue in the things we have learned,” seeking only His will in all things, not hereafter, but now, before He comes.

“If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Have you then opened the door to Him? and in the enjoyment of His entering in to sup with us and we with Him, do we disavow and refuse whatever is not according to the loving desire of His heart as richly made known to us in the abiding word of God? So shall we grow in grace and in the deeper knowledge of Himself.

E. B. T.

(Concluded from page 96)

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

THE BIBLE TREASURY

No. 157 New Series JANUARY, 1909 Price rid., by Post 2d.

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Ministry of Elisha (continued)

193

The Time of the End, but the End not Yet (continued)

195

Simeon or, Christ Revealed, Possessed and Declared

199

The Apostleship of Paul

202

An Inspired Prayer..

205

Keeping Christ's Word

207

Scripture Query and Answer

208

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 17

It might be deemed only natural that the king of Syria, on hearing of a possible cure in the land of Israel for the leprosy of his servant, should address himself to the king of Israel, but he need not have ignored the prophet so entirely as to frustrate the mission, but for the over-ruling providence of God. Would not the king of Israel (if anybody) know all about it? And considering how recently Naaman had harassed Israel's land and people, a little diplomacy was, doubtless, called for. “A man's gift maketh way for him.” Certainly he did his best to get on good terms with the one whom he thought most likely to help him in the matter, and we cannot be surprised at this. The infidel spirit, however, shown by the king of Israel was inexcusable, but God is pitiful and was working in spite of hindrances. How many there are to-day who, in touch with the people of God and familiar, it may be, with truth in its outward expression, are found to be the greatest strangers to its power and reality. “They profess that they know God, while in works they deny him,” and are enemies of the cross of Christ. Here, in the case before us, is evidently set forth the present unbelieving state of the Jewish nation. God is owned in a way (“Am I God to kill and to make alive?”), but the witness and vessel of grace is ignored—Elisha was forgotten. The “poor man” who, by his wisdom, delivered the city, was not remembered by any one (Ecclesiastes 9:14, 16). The prophet's ministry stayed the hand of God in judgment, yet Israel's king ignored the prophet.

But the world was farther astray in regard to Christ than even Israel, for “the world by wisdom knew not God.” “He was in the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10, 11). It is thus that the world in its wisdom has allied itself with a corrupted testimony, refusing the witness of grace and denying alike the disease and its remedy. The professing church responsible according to the grace now revealed has failed in its testimony of, and subjection to, Christ, the Son of the living God. Christendom, in its high-mindedness, is giving up faith, by which alone it can stand; and, not continuing in God's goodness, shall be cut off. “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee; behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity; but toward thee God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:18-22).

In the Apocalyptic address to Laodicea, we see how a boastful, self-satisfied spirit had usurped the place of dependence. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:17, 18). Its judgment is thus already pronounced. Is not all this a stumbling block in the way of an exercised soul desiring blessing? The sin of Israel has been the sin of the church. The Lord Jesus scathingly denounced the hollow profession of the religious guides of the people in His day (Matthew 23:13-39). So also Stephen could charge against them, regardless of personal consequences, “Ye stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy. Ghost; as your fathers did so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53).

The sin of Elymas the sorcerer, with its judgment furnishes a striking illustration of Jewish infidelity and opposition to the grace of God; whilst in the record we meet with two expressions which aptly describe the poisonous nature and results of what we now know by the names of “The Higher Criticism” and “The New Theology.” “But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Paul... said, Oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:8-10)? The apostle Paul, notwithstanding his ardent love of his nation and desires foe their blessing, had to own that this obstinate refusal of mercy for themselves, and the persecution of those who were preaching to the Gentiles, was what would, in God's righteous government, bring upon them wrath to the uttermost. “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thessalonians 14-16).

Although the king of Israel's words did not go so far as the attempt of Elymas “to turn away the deputy from the faith,” they were yet the outcome of the ceaseless activity of the devil in seeking to hinder souls from getting blessing. But Jehovah interfered by His servant Elisha, who “sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean” (2 Kings 5:8-10). With the real or imaginary grievances of Israel Elisha had nothing to do. But he could not allow it to be said that Naaman, the leper, had come into the land of Israel asking blessing and cleansing, and had returned disappointed. It was not, however, the testimony for the moment that God dwelt in Israel, for Jeroboam, its first king after the division, had cast the God of Israel behind his back and discarded the priests of Jehovah. It remains for a yet future day for the testimony to go forth (to the terror of all enemies) that the name of the city shall be, from that day forth, “Jehovah is there.” Naaman should indeed own that (ver. 15), but the measured utterance of the prophet was, strictly speaking, more correct than the language of the one who had but just learned what it was to have to do with God in grace.

Jehovah had been cast out of Israel, and had not returned to the nation. He had not, however, cast away His people on that account. On the contrary, He had sent His servant in grace that it might be manifest that there was a prophet in Israel. Man's way had proved distinctly disappointing, but God graciously opened up a prospect of deliverance and blessing, just as despair had, for the moment, taken possession of Naaman. A like experience we see in the case of God's redeemed people at the beginning of their history (Exodus14), and indeed all the way through, as they will own in a future day in words especially prepared for their use in Psalm 107 (see Hosea 14:1, 2). The word of God through the prophet to the king, arrests Naaman in his perplexity, and—in its form of an invitation, “Let him come now to me” —is suggestive of the present invitations of grace, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). “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” (John 7:37). And in the closing book of revelation, “Let him that is athirst come; whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

It is the more necessary to press these generous invitations at the present time since the god of this world is blinding the minds of them that believe not lest the glory of Him who invites, and their own deep need should be discerned. For the time is near when the leper will be left in all his uncleanness in the outside place, and the sinner who dies in his sins will be raised in order to appear before the great white throne for eternal judgment. “And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him he holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work is” (Revelation 22:10-12). “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (20:11-15).

Naaman responded to the gracious invitation in a very ungracious spirit, only to find that pride must be humbled. He might make a display of glory and self-importance at the king's palace, but it was altogether out of place at the door of the house of Elisha. He might be a “great man with his master, and honorable,” but Elisha was not affected by the display of this world's glory. He saw in him who stood at his gate an enemy of the people of Jehovah, an unclean leper to whom he could not come out seeing he was not a priest (Leviticus 14:3). And he had a sense of what was due to God, of what alone could he efficacious for the leper. It is only in God's presence, and in subjection to His word that we realize how completely sin separates us from God and from His people if faithful. The thoughts of man are all wrong, both in regard to sin and its remedy. The brief message of the prophet to Naaman was a disclosure of what his real condition was in God's eyes. “And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean.” Unclean, he needed to be cleansed. Up to this point everybody had spoken of “recovery” (vers. 3, 6, 7, 11; with Leviticus 13:45).

The thoughts of men to-day, and especially of religious men, are set upon recovery, improvement, reformation, whether by moral or scientific means. But the Christian has learned that the flesh cannot be improved. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love.” “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new” (John 6; Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:6). How humiliating for the proud Syrian to hear the words, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times.” The remedy was simplicity itself-"Go and wash.” Yet did it imply that he was in his leprous condition unclean, so that the man of God could not tolerate him in his presence.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 6. The Jewish Remnant

VI.-The Jewish Remnant

BUT a beautiful antithesis to the apostasy will be the testimony of the remnant in that day. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). Prior to the cross, the gospel of the kingdom was strictly confined to Israel. “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matthew 10:5). But now, behold a devoted band going forth to the nations, announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that the Son of man will come in power and great glory to judge the world. It will be a marvelous thing, when Christ has been given up by Christendom, that the savor of His name will be borne through the world by despised Jews!

The circumstances of this evangelistic remnant are very interesting. First, it appears that, though Jews, they have come to see that the Jesus whom they had crucified was really the Messiah, and so their persecution by the nations is not merely as Jews, but, the Lord says, “for my name's sake” (Matthew 24:9). And this coincides with the language prophetically provided for them in the 53rd of Isaiah. Its touching expressions are familiar to Christians and applicable no doubt to them, but the passage belongs chiefly and properly to repentant Israel. A new light is shed on this exquisite chapter when we see that this is its primary intention. With what peculiar appropriateness will they be able to say, “He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (vers. 3, 4). The first verse too is especially for Israel. It is the remnant bewailing the rejection of their testimony as well by the mass of Israel as by the nations at large, “Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed?” “Arm of Jehovah” is not the character in which Christ is now preached. It is, however, that in which He intervenes in power on behalf of His people (51:9), and which will be actually fulfilled when He appears “in power and great glory,” delivering both the remnant and the Gentile host out of the “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:30, 31; Revelation 7:14). The preaching of the remnant will announce this intervention, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The “report,” however, will not be heeded by the mass of the Jews or the Gentiles, any more than was the preaching of Noah in his day; for, “as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37).

No doubt this powerful testimony will be grievous in the eyes of the proud skeptics of Christendom—then Christendom no longer. They had thought to have finally got rid of Christ, but have to witness the power of His name again demonstrated by a new and strange evangelism. Doubly obnoxious also to the mass of Israel will be the conversion of a great number of their own race, repenting and owning their sin in having crucified the Lord Jesus. Accordingly, it is not surprising that this devoted and godly remnant will be subject to persecution and martyrdom.

A feature, too, which will probably make the testimony odious to the pleasure-loving dwellers upon earth is that it will be capable of a definiteness as to time which does not pertain to our gospel. The present gospel warns men of the coming of the Lord in judgment. But no one is authorized to say when that will be. The church was put into a waiting attitude when the Lord went away, and should have maintained it. Instead, she adopted the sentiment of the unfaithful servant, “My lord delayeth his coming.” As belonging to heaven, the church has nothing to do with times and seasons on the earth. Her duty is simply to wait for the Lord from heaven. Before His ascension, He told the disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons"; and Paul, to the Thessalonians, likewise says, “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you” (Acts 1:7; Thessalonians 5:1). We, therefore, have no sign given to us, no event but the coming of the Lord to look for, and no event before it. It has been a mistake to suppose that any further preaching under Matthew 24:14 has first to be completed. So far from that, it will not have been commenced.

But the Jew has signs, many and various. For instance, there are signs that “the end is not yet"; and later, that “then shall the end come.” The preaching of that day, therefore, will, probably from the very first, indicate the near approach of judgment; for even the events as to which it is said, “the end is not yet,” are, nevertheless, the beginning of sorrows, which precede “the end” as its penultimate. Thus, the remnant will be able to announce that the coming of Christ in judgment, of which through centuries the world has been warned, is now at last drawing near. If, however, this is an element even in the early stage of the remnant's testimony, in the later stage when “the time of the end” is entered upon, it becomes urgent and imperative. “Fear God and give glory to him” is then the cry, “FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME” (Revelation 14:7). How unwelcome, like a knell of doom, this will be, to those who have settled down to the enjoyment of the earth. No wonder if they try to silence it by affliction, imprisonment and death (Matthew 24:9; Revelation 20:4). But blessed will be those who in that time receive the testimony, and who come out of “the great tribulation,” having “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

Another interesting point relating to the remnant's testimony is that: it appears to take on a distinctive character at the time of the end. At first it is the gospel of the kingdom. But when that has been preached in the whole world (Matthew 24:14), “then shall the end come.” The abomination of desolation is set up, and Satan worshipped instead of God, as will be shown in subsequent chapters. This is the time to which applies the vision of Revelation 14:6, 7, viz.: “And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having the everlasting glad tidings to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and do homage to him who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters.” This is a testimony which, very clearly, is correlated to the evil of the time, for the preceding chapter tells us, “They did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast: and they did homage to the beast” (13:4). Thus Satan and the Roman beast are worshipped. In these circumstances God is identified in the gospel as the One who created all things. What a comment upon the state of the world, that men are so carried away by Satan's influence that when God claims the worship that is His due He has to define and specify Himself as the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters! Now, at that time, what will be the position? Christendom will have apostatized; all fear of God is cast off; the very being of the blessed Creator is ignored or denied; and Jews and Gentiles worship the dragon, the Roman beast, and the antichrist, in lieu of God. Moreover, seven angels are in readiness to pour out the bowls of divine fury upon this wickedness (Revelation 15; 16). But God is “rich in mercy,” and it is just then that we have that beautiful intimation of His grace—an angel flying in mid-heaven having “EVERLASTING GLAD TIDINGS to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” This will be no feeble voice among men; the call will be as from mid-heaven, and the voice is loud (ver. 7).

The glad tidings are everlasting. They were coeval with the fall of man, when God declared that the Seed of woman should bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). In richer, fuller form, they are still sounding—salvation to the believer, though foolishness to them that perish. In the time to come the gospel is apparently reduced to its lowest terms—to fear God and give Him glory, and to do homage to the Creator in repudiation of the dragon and his trinity. Whoever accepts that message of grace will be saved. The result is magnificent, for we have already seen from Revelation 7, that besides the elect of Israel, a host so vast that no one could number them, accept this gospel, and emerge triumphant from the great tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. By all this will be manifested the character of God who “will by no means clear the guilty"; yet is “abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6, 7). It is a relief, amidst the judgments of the Apocalypse, to see thus the brightness of divine grace, bursting through the dark clouds.

Besides the external sufferings of the remnant, their trials from within will be poignant. Under the strenuous temptation of the time, there will be treacherous defections from their ranks, with all the mortification and disappointment which such lapses must cause. There will be, too, the rending of ties and severing of friendships, as we read, “Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And because lawlessness (ἀνομία) shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). The “many” here must mean of the remnant. It could not mean of Israel at large; for they will, as now, be hardened in estrangement from God. Those, therefore, whose love cools must be those in whom there was love that could be cooled. So while some will desert and betray, many will become halfhearted, to the grief, no doubt, of the zealous and true. Then follows a text which has troubled the peace of many a Christian, but which really belongs to the Jewish remnant of a future day “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” It refers to salvation when the Lord appears in judgment. Many will fall away under the influence of the delusions of the time, but there will be a discriminating judgment when the Son of man appears. Then, there may be two in the field, and one may be taken and the other left. That is, one taken in judgment, and the other spared or “saved” to pass into eternal life on the earth under the Son of man in the millennium and beyond. Besides these things there will be to the godly remnant as to Christians now, all the dangers arising from personal unwatchfulness. “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts he overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:34-36). Here, what is in view is clearly not the catching up of saints out of the world, but an escaping through judgments, and passing, saved, into the millennium.

What now will be the light and intelligence which will be possessed by the remnant? This is a question not quite easy to answer. But God's book, the Bible, will still be in the world, and there is instruction in Matthew 24 provided for the Jewish remnant, which fact would imply that they will have recourse to the New Testament as well as to the Old. But the Epistolary part at least, of the New Testament, will be to the remnant in the same relation as the Old Testament scriptures to us. The remnant will perhaps look back to those writings as we to the Prophets or the Psalms; but the church being gone, they may well be in doubt whether they can appropriate privileges which belonged to a calling which will be past and over. Possibly, they may regard with a kind of pious envy the heavenly privileges of the church, which Christians now so little value or even know. How far they will have spiritual understanding of the scriptures is doubtful, for they will not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the Christian now has; and every mature believer knows what a difference there is between the scriptures as he now grasps them, and as they were but dimly understood before he was sealed by the Spirit. Indeed, the condition of soul of the remnant would seem to be analogous to that of a person at the present time who has been converted, but has not yet found peace. Such an one is quickened with eternal life, but does not know it; clings to God earnestly, but as yet has not the Spirit of adoption; has not salvation. That, indeed, is intensely longed for; there are times of joy and hope and anon of depression approaching despair. All this is aptly expressed in the Psalms, which give Jewish experience, not Christian. No child of God now should he in this state, because the gospel announces eternal life and peace simply on believing. The remnant, however, will probably have but dim light. The reader will doubtless remember, even of the disciples who were with Jesus upon earth, how poor was their comprehension of what He said to them. See Mark 9:32; Luke 2:50; 9:45; John 10:6; 12:16. The last-mentioned text intimates the reason of this mental dullness, “These things understood not the disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified then remembered they that these things were written of him.” The explanation is that, when Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit was given, and their minds were illuminated. And the remnant, when the church is gone, will be in a somewhat similar condition.

If, however, the remnant have not the presence of the Holy Spirit as we now, yet the Spirit will work in them; and besides, a most interesting feature is that there is made repeated mention of those “that understand among the people,” who appear to be a class raised up for the help of Israel in that dark day. This has always been a resource provided by God for His people especially in difficult times. Of old, there were men of Issachar, who “had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). So the remnant in the days of Ezra had assistance from “men of understanding” (see Ezra 8:16-18), and so will it be with the future remnant. “They that understand among the people shall instruct many” (Daniel 11:33). “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end” (ver. 35). “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). It is to this class of understanding ones that reference is made in connection with “the number of the beast.” “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six” (Revelation 13:18). Thus, what now is an enigma, will doubtless in the day when required for practical use, be expounded by “them of understanding” for the instruction of God's people.

We have already seen from the Revelation the sealing of a remnant of Israel, while in Matthew the existence of that remnant is assumed, for the prophecy gives instruction and cautions for such a remnant in the last times, firstly in the beginning of sorrows, and afterward at the time of the end. This fits with the doctrine of Romans—that when the church-period closes, divine dealings with Israel are renewed. God leaves not Himself without witness. A remnant of Israel stands out boldly for Him in the world. The sealing, obviously, is the setting apart of the individuals for God, and the seal being in the forehead probably intimates that their character will be manifest—visible to all. Notice that they are not merely sealed for God, but as “the servants of our God.” It is in this character that they carry the gospel of the kingdom to the nations. The number 144,000 is of course symbolical, implying that the remnant is a definite number proportionate to the twelve tribes, not a countless host, as in the case of the Gentile multitude.

The development of a new national sentiment by a large number out of Israel must necessarily create considerable stir. One of the first results will probably be the revival of what is now dead in the heart of Israel, expectation of the Messiah; and there will be the fraudulent pretense of many ambitious men who will present themselves in that character for the acceptance of the Jews, which has before been a danger to that people, as Josephus tells us. There will also be “false prophets,” and many will be entrapped by these imposters, but the godly are elaborately cautioned against them. And at the time of the end (vers. 23, 24) when Satanic power is rampant, they will exhibit great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, the very elect. The elect here are the elect of Israel, not, of course, of the church. But while the mass of the Jews are in darkness and at the mercy of these delusions, the remnant are instructed that the coming of Messiah will be like lightning shining from the east unto the west. It will be (1) from heaven, (2) public and unmistakable, (3) glorious and terrible. They will know, therefore, that any report as to the Messiah being here or there, in any earthly locality, must necessarily be false.

(To be continued)

[E. J. T.]

Simeon, or Christ Revealed, Possessed, and Declared

The birth of the promised Messiah and Savior was of great moment to the world, and to the Jewish nation. When sin entered the Seed of the woman was promised. To Abram and his seed were the promises made; as also David's royal throne was pledged to David's greater Son who should sit upon his throne. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). This destined King on Zion's holy hill is meanwhile the Savior of mankind. Little wonder, therefore, that His birth should be of wonderful interest, whatever way or form it may be brought about. Unspeakably so is it to God, for He has made all blessing and salvation to hang on Christ.

The Gospels, then, are where we may look for an unerring record of Christ's remarkable advent into this our world, with its attendant circumstances. Both Matthew and Luke supply special see death accounts; one in connection with the wise men and the star; the other with the shepherds and the glory of the Lord. The “King of the Jews” was the object of the Magi's inquiry. The “Savior” born for all the people, though no less the Christ, was the One sought for by the humble shepherds. Yet in both, the interest centered in the Christ of God, and concern was awakened by the signs thus given which led to their search and final reward in seeing Him on whom all were dependent, whether in regard to the throne or the altar, to the earth or to heaven, whether as Israel's King, or as the one and only Redeemer, the Savior. Alas! Jews and Gentiles were alike asleep, only awakened by idle curiosity, or selfish interest, as Herod and the heartless Scribes proved. They were content to go on in their sin and shame, following with open hatred and murder, if God's Christ had come (as they thought) to displace them.

Notwithstanding this, there were some exercised and waiting ones, who were anxiously and prayerfully looking for consolation and redemption through the promised Seed of the woman, the Savior and King. Such was pious old Simeon, and now the long-expected moment for which he and others had waited, had come, when he should see, possess, and bear testimony to Jehovah's Anointed. Israel's redemption and consolation governed his thoughts and heart, and Simeon had learned that this could only be by the coming of the promised Messiah, the Object of His people's hope. Does this not speak to restless man to-day, with his desires for, and expectations of, a better state of things? As in Simeon's day, so in ours, there are those who believe and know that Christ alone can be, and is, the source of all blessing for the earth and for man—even He who is now the Savior, and will hereafter he manifested as King, who shall judge the world in righteousness. Not for His lowly birth in Bethlehem's manger do Christians now look, for that is past, but for His glorious appearing, when His foes shall be subdued, and His rule for God, both over Israel and all the nations of the earth, shall be established.

Returning to Simeon, his waiting attitude known to God was in due time honored. For the made known to him that he should not before he had seen the Lord's Christ. His was this unspeakable privilege, surpassing that of all the distinguished saints and prophets who had before spoken of the coming Messiah—not only to know the fact of His birth, but that He should be really seen, known, and possessed. The temple is the favored divinely ordered place where Simeon and the Messiah would meet, for had not Zechariah prophesied that He should be “a priest upon his throne” (6:12, 13)? There Joseph and Mary brought Israel's King and Savior, to do unto Him according to the law. There, by the blessed Holy Spirit, was Simeon given to know that the babe on Mary's knees was no less than Jehovah's Christ. Then, the indescribable ecstasy when he received Him into his arms, mid now possessed the everlasting Blesser and Redeemer, our Lord and Savior, and their King.

What a fact and voice for to-day, that Jesus has come, has been seen, and been possessed, by a just and pious Jew, in himself but a poor sinner needing a Savior as others, but who could say, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation"! The mere religious professor may own that Christ did indeed come, yet deny that He, and He only, is the Savior, whether for heaven or the earth; nevertheless the truth remains that there is salvation in no other name than His, the woman's Seed, the Son of God, the Holy Sin-bearer. The first fruit of possessing the Christ was to bless God in the holy and happy and grateful acknowledgment of His salvation now seen, gladdening the heart of God by the reception of His Anointed. Not only this, but Simeon declares in his song and testimony marvelous things about the Child, the Gentiles, and His people (and in this order), with the blessed effect upon himself in a satisfied heart, a peaceful spirit, and readiness to depart out of the world—an experience that is ours also, for all things are ours, whether life or death, and “to depart and he with Christ is far better” than to remain here where He now is not.

The Lord has changed His place and position. No longer the Babe of the temple, He is seated at the right hand of God, in all the value of an accomplished redemption, and because He lives we shall live also. And He is coming to receive us to Him self, that where He is, we may be also. Simeon, then, having blessed God, expresses his desire to depart in peace according to Jehovah's word, because his eyes Thad beheld His salvation. Precious testimony with its all sufficiency then! How much more for to-day, when the Holy Spirit has come, the witness to the shed blood of Calvary, to the One now exalted in heaven, “a light for revelation of Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.” This is what the faith of Simeon declared, that the whole range and extent of blessing and glory depended upon the Babe he was leaving behind. Yea, if eighteen centuries have since rolled away, yet shall Jew, Gentile, and the earth be blessed in and by Him, who is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Then Israel and the nations shall own and call Him blessed. He who was the wondrous Babe of Bethlehem is the Lion of Judah's tribe, and He who “emptied Himself” shall sit on the throne of His glory. In that day “shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace,” with deliverance from sinful oppression and poverty now baffling man's wisdom and resources. Kings and subjects will alike find their center and restful satisfaction in Christ, the King of Israel and of the nations. “His name shall endure forever” (Psalm 72), and all shall flourish in the abundance of His resources in established world-wide peace. Men, then happy and content, will render the worship of gladdened hearts, freed from all envy and rivalry, in blessing His glorious Name, from the temple at Jerusalem to the ends of the earth now filled with His glory. Well may we re-echo the conclusion of this Psalm, and say likewise, “Amen and Amen.”

Such assuredly, with much more, was the happy confession of Simeon in the presence of the Babe. And with a further testimony as to what would be prior to all this, he who had blessed God now blesses Joseph and the mother, telling Mary that the child was “set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that should be spoken against; yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.”

In these few but weighty words we have, foretold, His rejection and cross at the hands of man, with solemn results yet unseen, and an experience awaiting the crisis when, in answer to Pilate's question, “What, then, shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?” they all say, “Let him be crucified.” “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. . . When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith to his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!” Here then we have the fact of the stricken heart of Mary, who having heard the wonderful words of the throne and kingdom, pledged by the angel Gabriel concerning her promised son, now sees the fulfillment of that part of Simeon's prophecy as touching herself, and the crucified One a sign to be spoken against. Christ's rejection and cross still tell their tale as to this earth with its scene of sorrow and woe, where man's rule and resources fail to meet the conflicting clamor and unrest existing in all lands, plainly declaring that the full accomplishment of Simeon's song awaits another day, when Christ shall be confessed as the only Savior and rightful King (Ezekiel 21:27). Yet man refuses to learn that the blessing of both heaven and earth depends absolutely upon Christ and His work on the cross.

Thank God, there are souls now who by the grace and Spirit of God know and confess, not only that Christ was born into this world, that He lived, and died on the cross for our sins that we might know redemption through His blood, but that He is coming into the air to receive us to Himself, that where He now is we may be also who shall in due time be manifested as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Then will follow the “rising again of many in Israel,” to be blessed in Immanuel's land, as we meanwhile, during their “fall,” are called to heavenly glory. For Him who is our Life and our Hope, we wait now whilst strangers here, so soon to be manifested in glory with Him when He shall return to this earth to reign, filling the universe with blessing and glory. Be it so, Lord Jesus, Thou all worthy Christ of God! “He, who with hands unlifted Went from this earth below, Shall come again all gifted His blessing to bestow.” Amen, Come, Lord Jesus.

G. G.

The Apostleship of Paul: Part 1

The book of the Acts of Apostles is rather the book of the acts of Peter and of Paul, the apostle of the circumcision, and the apostle of the Gentiles. In the events recorded in that part of it which gives us Peter's ministry (that is, chaps. 1-12.), I judge that we can discern such an order and meaning as prepares us for the Lord's further purposes among the Gentiles by the subsequent ministry of Paul. I would thus briefly notice and interpret these events.

1.-While waiting, according to the commandment, for the promised power from on high, the disciples, under the leading of Peter (constituted chief in the Jewish ministry, Luke 22:32; John 21:16), commit it to the Lord to fill up the vacant bishopric of Judas. This was needful, as I shall observe more particularly by-and-by, that the Jewish order of twelve apostles might stand full and complete; and that this was done with the full intelligence of the mind of God, appears further from this-that the Lord seems at once to undertake what His servants thus commit to Him, for He honors the lot (the Jewish form of discovering the divine will in such matters, Josh. 19:10; 1 Chronicles 24:5; Numbers 26:55), and Matthias is numbered with the eleven apostles; and the Holy Ghost in the next chapter seems to adopt Matthias in his new office, by falling upon him equally with the rest without any rebuke.

2-7.-The number being thus filled up, the Holy Ghost is given according to promise; and Peter again takes the lead, and preaches the risen Jesus to the Jews. The enmity of the Jews, however, sets in, and proceeds through these chapters, increasing gradually, just as it had done before against the Lord. The apostles, however, like their Lord, go on with their testimony undismayed; great grace is upon all—holy discipline keeps them pure—and with great power the apostles give the testimony to the resurrection. But as the enmity had worked against the Lord till they crucified Him, so now does it work against the apostles, till they run upon Stephen and stone him. And as the heavens had received the crucified One, so do the heavens open to His fellow-sufferer and witness. And in him the church receives a living pledge that the heavenly glory was for her as well as for her Lord, for the world had now rejected both.

8—-This being so, Jerusalem could no longer receive the sanction of God, for it had fully declared its sin, and for a season must be cast out of His sight. The disciples are therefore now scattered from Jerusalem, and the Jewish order is disturbed. This chapter giving us the acts of one who had been sent forth, neither as from Jerusalem nor by the apostles at all. Philip goes forth-and at first preaches Christ in Samaria, and is then sent down by the Spirit “to Gaza, which is desert,” to bring to the flock a lost sheep that was still straying there, but known to God before the foundation of the world. But immediately afterward he is borne by the spirit to Azotus (the place next to the desert where men and women could be found), that he might proclaim there, and in all other places, the grace which says, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Thus by his mission to Gaza, and then by his rapture to Azotus, Philip's ministry is made to signify the sovereignty and universality of that grace which the Lord was to publish.

9.-The channels for the life and power that is from the Son of God to flow in among the Gentiles were now fully opened; for Jews, Samaritans, and Proselytes, had now been called. All was ready for the gathering of the first-fruits of the Gentiles. But before this was done, and present judgment upon Israel thus publicly sealed, the Lord gives, in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, a sign of the future conversion of Israel (see 1 Timothy 1:16). A sample, no doubt it is, of that long-suffering that saves every sinner. But Israel is to be made the great final witness of that long-suffering, and is principally pointed at by this sign; and therefore all that accompanies this great event is a foreshewing of the things that are hereafter to mark and accompany the repentance of Israel. Saul's looking on Him whom he (not personally, of course, but as one of the nation) had pierced—his being shut up three days without sight, and neither eating nor drinking—the removal of this judgment, and his baptism, all shows us the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem looking on Him whom they pierced, and mourning, every family apart, and their wives apart, and then proving the virtues of the cleansing fountain opened for their sin and for their uncleanness. Jerusalem will then be the signal witness of sovereign grace, as Saul now is (Zechariah 12; 13). And in further proof of this mystical character of Saul's conversion, we may observe that he tells us himself, that he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief; and this is the very ground of final mercy to Israel; as the Lord prayed for them, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (See also Acts 3:17.)

10-11.-A pledge of Israel's future conversion being thus left them, proclamation of present judgment upon them is made by the call from among the Gentiles of a people for God. This is done by the ministry of the apostle of the circumcision; and most fitly so. For he had received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and was also the representative of Jerusalem, who is however faithless, and as such divorced for a while. But Peter's title to this, as representing Jerusalem, being thus allowed, we find a church of Gentiles gathered at Antioch by other hands, and Barnabas and Saul, rather than Peter, called to the help and comfort of it.

12.-And now the Lord had only publicly to dismiss Jerusalem for a season. But as He had before pledged Israel's future conversion, so does He, as I judge, now pledge to them their future restoration. To me, I confess, this chapter has great beauty and meaning, presenting both the sorrows and the deliverance of the remnant in the latter day, and the full ruinous overthrow of their enemies. James is slain with the sword, as hereafter at Jerusalem the complaint will be this, “their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem” (Psalm 79; 2; 3). Peter, also, the hope of the circumcision, is cast into prison, the enemy thus all but prevailing against the Israel of God.

But he was to go no farther, for Peter is to appear to be the Lord's prisoner, rather than Herod's. He sleeps between his keepers. He lies there “a prisoner of hope. '' The enemy is strong and mighty, and the remnant have no relief but in God. But that is enough. They make prayer without ceasing for him, till at length this prisoner of the Lord is sent forth out of the pit, as Israel will be in the latter day (Zechariah 9; 11; 12). At first he was like one that dreamed, thinking that he saw a vision; and so were his company, saying, “It is his angel.” But so will Israel be hereafter.

They will sing, '' When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” But in the sudden joy of their heart, they will have to add, “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing “; as Peter, coming to himself, now says, “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”

All this is to me sweetly and strikingly significant. But the sign does not end here. In royal apparel, Herod sits upon his throne, having thought it well to be highly displeased, as though vengeance belonged to him. He makes an oration to the people, and they give a shout for him, saying, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.” Thus he takes to himself the glory which was God's, and immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, “and he was eaten with worms, and gave up the ghost.” So will “the lawless one” magnify himself above all, and sit upon the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north, saying, “I will be like the Most High.” He will do “according to his will!” but “he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:36, 45). “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.”

Thus is final mercy pledged to Israel. Under these signs of their conversion and restoration, and of the overthrow of their enemies, they are now left prisoners of hope. The Lord Himself gives them a sign, and then hides His face from them; goes His way for awhile, and leaves His sanctuary. All this prepares us for a ministry beyond the bounds of Israel; and accordingly, in the opening of the next chapter, we find the word sent forth to the Gentiles, Jerusalem as the source of grace and ministry forgotten, and the name of Jew and Gentile left without distinction.

Such I judge to be the course and meaning of the events that occurred, during the ministry of the circumcision, under the hand of Peter, as we have them recorded in these chapters. But what, I ask, was the nature of the ministry itself? What were the hopes that it spoke of to Israel? And what was the call that it made upon Israel? We shall find, in answer to these inquiries, that the apostles spoke of the proper national hopes of Israel, calling on them to repent in order that they might attain them, and be blest on the earth. They declare Israel's sin in crucifying the Prince of Life; God's acceptance of this crucified One; and, upon repentance, the remission of Israel's sins, and the fulfilling of Israel's hopes.

Thus, in Peter's sermon in the second chapter, his testimony to Israel was this—that the resurrection secured the promises made to David's throne; that the ascension was the source of the given Spirit; that Jesus was to abide in the ascended place till His enemies were made His footstool; and upon all this he calls on Israel to repent. But he says nothing about the church ascending after her Head, and her consequent heavenly glory. So in the third chapter (after he and John had recognized God's house in Jerusalem), in his preaching he calls on Israel to repent in order that the times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord, when Jesus should return to them, and all things promised by Moses and the prophets be accomplished. But all this, in like manner, was a testimony to the hopes of Israel and the earth, and not a testimony to the heavenly glory. It was a publication of the acts and promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the children of the prophets and the children of the covenant. And so in the fifth chapter we have this-"Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins"-words very strongly marking the value which the Spirit in Peter gave to the resurrection of the Lord in its application here to Israel as God's nation.

And as the proper fruit of this preaching and of these hopes, we find the conduct and practice of the saints to have been this—they present beautiful order and grace in the way of settling their earthly possession—they get favor with all the people, as Jesus had in His infancy at Nazareth—they continue daily in the temple, as though they knew not how soon the Lord might return to it—and they heal all disease among the people, as the Lord had done when He walked through the cities and villages of Judea. But beyond all this, perfect as it was in its season, there was something still. The church had still to take with Jesus her earth-rejected and earth-rejecting character. Citizenship in heaven, death as to the world, and life hidden with Christ in God; a looking forth towards the things within the vail after the glorious Forerunner, were great and new things still to be brought out of the treasury. Neither Peter's testimony, nor the church's conduct, were such as exhibited them. The glory within the vail first looks through, when Stephen's face shines as the face of an angel. And this was beautiful in its season also; for Stephen was soon to be made the first witness of the heavenly calling. Martyrdom was the needed ground of the full manifestation of this calling. The apostles might have suffered shame, and stripes, and imprisonment; but there was still space for repentance to Israel, as there had been during the Lord's ministry (though He in like manner suffered shame and rejection) till his last visit to Jerusalem. The cross, however, had closed the earthly things upon the Lord: and so did the martyrdom of Stephen close them now upon the church; and awful separation for a while was made between all who are the Lord's and the present evil world.

Thus till this death of a saint after the resurrection, the time had not come for the bringing out of this thing (the heavenly calling of the church) from the treasury of the divine counsels. Types, and the other intimations of it had been from the beginning. Our Lord had given the vision of it on the holy mount, but it was dimness in the eyes even of the apostles. He hinted at “the heavenly things” which the Son of man alone could speak of (John 3), but they were not perceived. “The little while” of His abiding with the Father, was as strange to the disciples as to the Jews. His ministry of these things was to them proverbs (John 16:25). And so even the ascension of the Lord was not of itself adequate ground for the manifesting of that glory. For it was needed to Christ's forming the Jewish believers for godly citizenship on the earth, the Holy Ghost being received through the ascension, “for the rebellious,” that is, for Israel, “that the Lord might dwell among them"-dwell among them here. But on the martyrdom of a believer in the Lord thus risen and ascended, the time had fully come for the manifesting of the heavenly calling, for the showing out of this mystery, that Christ was to have a body which was to share with Him the glory on high into which He had himself ascended, whose citizenship was not to be in Jerusalem, but in heaven.

“In the regeneration,” as the Lord speaks, that is, in the coming kingdom of the Son of man, there will be saints that will find their proper place on earth, the Israel of God. Then the twelve apostles will be manifested in connection with the twelve tribes, and the saints with the world (see Matthew 19:28; 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3). All this will be the glory and joy of that happy time, and most beautiful and perfect in its season. The Son of man seated on His throne of glory—the apostles judging the twelve tribes—and the saints, the world. The servants will then share in the kingdom of their Lord, having authority with Him and under Him over the cities of His dominion. But this time is now delayed, for the earth has refused it. Israel has cast the heir of the vineyard out, and killed them that were sent to them (1 Thessalonians 2:16). Another testimony was therefore now to go forth, a testimony to the loss of Israel's and the earth's hopes for the present, and to the call of an elect people out of the earth for heaven. And Saul the persecutor, that is, Paul the apostle, was made the special bearer of it.

How rich was the grace displayed by the Lord in choosing Saul to be the vessel of this heavenly treasure! At this very time he was in full enmity against God and His anointed. At his feet the witnesses whose hands had been first upon Stephen, laid down their clothes. But this is the man that is to be made God's chosen vessel; and such is the way of the Lord in abounding mercy. Before this, man's fullest enmity had been met by God's fullest love; for the cross was at the same moment the witness of both, as the person of Saul is now. The soldier's spear, as one has observed, drew forth the blood and water—sin has drawn forth grace. And now, as we may say, Saul's journey to Damascus was the spear making its way a second time into the side of Christ; for he was now going with commission and slaughter against the flock of God. But it was on this journey that the light from heaven arrested him. The blood of Jesus thus again met the soldier's cruel spear, and in Saul is shown forth all long-suffering for a pat tern to them which should hereafter believe.

The sovereign grace that saves the church was thus displayed in Saul. But the heavenly glory that is reserved for the church, was also displayed to him, for he sees Jesus in it. And by these things his future ministry is formed.

[J. L. H.]

(To be continued)

An Inspired Prayer

There are many points of profound interest in these well-known verses. In the first place they embody a prayer, and, what is more, an inspired prayer, so that we may take up the words with the fullest confidence, knowing that we are but echoing God's gracious will concerning us. Moreover, in this prayer there are, needless to say, no superfluous words, and every word tells. Sublime and all-important doctrine is linked with gracious supplication. Such is the general scope of the passage.

The next thing to note is the character under which God is spoken of. He is called the God of peace. That is how we are directed specially to think of Him in this prayer. We have other epithets elsewhere. God is spoken of as the God of hope (Romans 15:13), the God of love and peace (2 Corinthians 13:11), the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3), the God of patience and consolation (Romans 15:5), and again the God of peace (Romans 15:33). Incidentally it may be remarked that God is never called the God of faith. Nor does it demand any special spiritual judgment to sec that with no propriety could such a term be applied to the Infinite, the Almighty, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent. It is different with the other characterizations. For the God who bids us be patient exceeds in patience, the God who bids us love is Himself love, and what can compare with His peace and His joy, yea, with His hope-His gracious expectation, if we may reverently so put it? But faith—ah, that applies to the creature only, who without it cannot please his Creator. But this by the way. Here, in the verses before us, we are directed to think of “the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep"-of the peace that that gracious Shepherd made by the blood of His cross.

It is interesting to note the order of the words, and hence of the thought, in the original. “Now the God of peace, who brought again from among [the] dead the Shepherd of the' sheep"-that is how it runs. Then the apostle says, “the great One,” for there are under shepherds; and finally, after saying “in virtue of [the] blood of an everlasting covenant,” he adds “[even] our Lord Jesus” (ver. 20).

Now this collocation of the words plainly shows that the Shepherd character of the blessed Lord is the most prominent thing here. The sweetness of this is too apparent to need any laboring of the point. “The good Shepherd” (for all who have any acquaintance with Greek are aware that the adjective is emphatic by a device that is one of the numerous felicities of that most admirable tongue) gave His life for the sheep; “the great Shepherd” is brought again from among the dead by the God of peace. Then the apostle tells us that the great Shepherd is, needless in one sense to say, the Lord Jesus. But His lordship is not the most salient feature of the passage. Yet this is a truth of which all genuine believers are rightly most tenacious. “Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am” (John 13:13), said the Savior just before He suffered. Even so; but now one aspect of truth, now another is in strong relief in the inspired word, and that according to the manifold (πολυποἰκιλος—literally, variegated) wisdom of God.

The expression “God of peace” naturally suggests the well-known passage in Philippians about the “peace of God.” The former, of course, goes further, intimating that, as we have virtually said, peace is so characteristic of God that He can be called the God of peace. But the latter phrase the “peace of God"-(and how much more is it than a mere phrase, describing, as it does, a blessed reality) is strikingly beautiful. The other day I was reading an article in one of the most outstanding of weekly journals, called “Gentle Bigotries,” and some verses were quoted descriptive of the gentle bigotry (or rather what would seem to a careless outsider as bigotry) of one who must have been a saint of God. It spoke of her as living in a small paradise of her own, and so safely housed that

“Nor day nor night had power to fright

The peace of God that filled her eyes.”

What more admirable description could be given of a believer in Christ, having “peace with God” (Romans 5:1), letting “the peace of Christ” rule in the heart (Colossians 3:15), and “filled with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13)? And it struck one that this most desirable end must have been attained because the God of peace was working in her that which was well-pleasing in His sight.

But to proceed. We read next of the power in virtue of which our Lord was brought again from the dead. It was “by the blood of an everlasting covenant.” Oh, the amazing potency of these words, of whose profound meaning we can, as it were, but touch the fringe! The readers of this magazine, less than most perhaps, need to be reminded of the abiding efficacy of that sacred, that cleansing tide, the precious blood of Christ. But none can fathom the counsels of eternity. There are, as we know, somewhat parallel passages in the New Testament, equally sublime, equally unfathomable. Elsewhere the Savior is spoken of as “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4), even as “by the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14), where the power of the blood of Christ is strikingly enforced. It purges the conscience; it lays the basis of an eternal covenant of another day, into the antecedent blessings of which we meanwhile are brought who now believe. And in the power of that blood so charged with blessing for man did God raise our Lord from the dead. Undoubtedly, also, the Lord ascended by His own inherent right and power. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). And more than this. The corn of wheat might have abode alone, and never died at all. But then, where had we come in? “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).

A word on the expression “make [you] perfect.” There are various senses, as we know, in which perfection is spoken of in the New Testament. There is perfection of standing, which is absolute, and the same for the humblest believer as for the apostle Paul, there is the sinless perfection that cannot obtain while we are here below, and there is at least one other perfection, that of full growth, which would seem to be alluded to in the passage we are considering. But the term perfect (τέλειος) or “full-grown,” is really not used in our text. “Make perfect” is here but one word, and might be rendered “adjust.” For that is the literal force of the word, shading off, as here, to the idea of making, complete or perfect. The same word is found in Galatians 6:1, where it is rightly rendered “restore” (see Authorized and Revised Versions, and also J.N.D.'s). There is implied, as one has said, the supplying of whatever has been defective, the repairing of whatever has been decayed. And all this, of course, for the paramount reason that God's will must be accomplished in His children.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the word rendered: “working” is not the same as in the familiar passage in Philippians, where we read that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). There God is said to be the One who energizes the believer, the Holy Spirit being, of course, the power. Here the word used is that which habitually means to create, and the result, rather than the process, seems to be the leading thought of the apostle. Each word is surely appropriate in its place. And it is well to note also that even here in Hebrews, where, as it appears, results are the chief point, yet the means cannot be left in the background. It is “through Jesus Christ.” And so with a due ascription of praise to Him who is Lord of all ("to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen”), the beautiful prayer closes.

R. B.

Keeping Christ's Word: Part 1

“Thou hast kept my word” is the first matter of distinct commendation as to Philadelphia which we can lay hold of as shoving what is in the Lord's mind as to them; and I do not ignore in this that the people thus commended are, first of all, Philadelphians. All the more striking on this account is what He commends in them. It is of great import and worthy of fullest emphasis that, while it is to a company of people who are characterized by “love of brethren” He is speaking, His praise is not that “thou hast loved the brethren.” This does not even form part of it. His thoughts seem elsewhere: the commendation is, “Thou hast kept my Word, and not denied my Name.” Again, “thou hast kept the word of my patience.” Yet in the promise to the overcomer He does not omit what has reference to the name they bear: for on the “pillar,” which he who has here but “a little strength” finally becomes, is inscribed not only “the name of my God,” and “my new name,” but also “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem.” This is the home of the “brethren,” and has, I believe, distinct reference to “Philadelphian” character. Yet, I repeat, in His commendation of them, He says nothing of this. Is it not right to ask ourselves the reason of what is at first sight so strange? Now the title under which the Lord addresses them fully accounts for it. They are Philadelphians whom he is addressing: it is thus plain that if people have not this character He has nothing here to say to them. It is to those He is speaking whose hearts would seek, if it were possible, the recovery of this “church,” which should have been like “a city set on a hill,” or “a light upon a candlestick,” but has dropped, alas, into the invisibility which men ascribe to it, as if it were the necessary and normal state. Yes, it is to these that the Lord is speaking; and the first words He utters remind these, the seekers of church visibility, of His own essential holiness and truth: “These things saith he that is holy, he that is true.” How much need will they have to remember this! Think of the church that is scattered, and which we would so desire to see restored: what are we to do for its restoration? Shall we proclaim to them all, that it is the will of God that His people should be together? Shall we spread the Lord's table, free from all sectarian names and terms of communion, and fling wide open our doors, and invite all that truly love the Lord to come together? For in fact the “one loaf” upon the table does bear witness that we are ''one bread, one body"; and there is no other body that faith can own, but the “body of Christ.” Why should we not then do this?

I answer: “Tell them by all means that the Lord has welcome for all His own: that is right; but tell them it is the 'Holy and True' who welcomes, and that He cannot give up His nature.” How has the true church become the invisible church? Has it been without sin on her part? is it her misfortune, and not her fault? Take the guidance of these seven epistles in the book of Revelation, and trace the descent from the loss of first love in Ephesus to the sufferance of the woman Jezebel in Thyatira, and on through dead Sardis to the present time: can we just ignore the past, and simply, as if nothing had happened, begin again? What would it be but mere hardness of heart to say so?

Suppose your invitation of “all Christians” accepted, and that in the place in which you give out your notice, you are able really to assemble all the members of Christ at the table of the Lord—bring them together with their jarring views, their various states of soul, their entanglements with the world, their evil associations—how far do you suppose, would the Lord's table answer to the character implied in its being the table of the Lord? How far would He be indeed owned and honored in your thus coming together? With the causes of all the scattering not searched out and judged, what would your gathering be but a defiance of the holy discipline by which the church was scattered? what would it be but another Babel?

Can you think that visible unity is so dear to Christ, so that He should desire it apart from true cleansing and fellowship in the truth?

F. W. G.

(To be continued)

Sufferings and Afflictions

Q. Colossians 1:24. Are the “sufferings” and “afflictions” of this verse the common privilege of all saints, or only peculiar to the apostle Paul?

R. M.

A.—To the devout Ananias it was declared by the Lord Jesus that Saul was “a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.” Taken out from among the people and the Gentiles, Paul was pre-eminently the suffering apostle of the nations.

He here rejoices in his sufferings for them (Gentiles even whom he had never seen!), and fills up that which is behind (or, lacking) of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, “for his body's sake which is the church.” What these afflictions were we may learn in part from such scriptures as 1 Corinthians 4:9-13; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28; 2 Timothy 3:10, 11.

For our sins the Lord Jesus suffered once for all on the cross, and in this He is alone, in which none can share. But if Isaiah 63:9 reveals the divine sympathy for His earthly people, how much more does Acts 9:4, 5 tell out His identification with the persecuted confessors of His name, the partakers of a heavenly calling. And as every Christian now suffers with Christ, if not indeed for Him, so should he take his share in affliction as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We are called to be followers of the blessed apostle, as he was of Christ, and to “endure all things for the sake of the elect” (2 Timothy 2:3, 9, 10).

NOW ON SALE

" Bible Treasury," half volume for 1908. Paper, 1,'6 net. " Gospel Gleanings." Vol. VIII. (1908). Cloth, 1/-.

" Message from God." Vol., 1908. Cloth, 1/6.

'' Glad Tidings for the Young." Vol. IV. (1908). Cloth, 1/6.

SHORTLY.

Victoria Hall Addresses. NEW SERIES. By Heyman

Wreford.

No. 1.-" One Wonder Hour by Galilee." Price ld.

monthly. By post, lid.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 18

“But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Ahana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned, and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? Hove much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and he clean? Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5:11-14). It was not alone the simplicity or the brevity of the message sent out to Naaman which stumbled that “great and honorable” man, but Elisha refused to acknowledge the glory which distinguished him amongst men as of any account before God. His gifts, too, which would have made way for him in his own sphere, were altogether valueless in the presence of God.

It is a great and fundamental truth of the gospel, and that which staggers the pride of man, that “there is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” As long as man keeps away from God differences can be made and maintained for whatever they are worth, but God has decreed that no flesh shall glory in His presence, and where a soul is consciously in the presence of God there is as little inclination as there is power to maintain the conventional distinctions of men. The light of God entering the soul gives it to bow to the truth of God's word and to own its authority. “Then Job answered Jehovah and said, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further” (Job 40:3-5). “Then Job answered Jehovah and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 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” (42:1-6).

Only in one of two positions can man stand in God's presence—either as a repentant sinner bowing to God's righteous judgment of him, or as a worshipping saint justified by faith. All attempts to establish a character or a righteousness to satisfy even oneself must break down. The instructions as to leprosy in Israel (Leviticus 14) illustrate this, as we have before seen, but what is so exceedingly important and interesting to notice in the cleansing of Naaman is that in the absence of all ritual God yet required that which signified the entire submission of the soul to death, and the obedience of faith. Israel has long ceased to be the executive of God's righteous government of man in the world, and it refuses the mercy and grace in which the blessed Son of God came to them. The present testimony is one of sovereign grace, and addresses itself to the whole world. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name” (Romans 1:1-5).

But if God has rejected the fleshly confidences of Israel (Jeremiah 2:37), still less could He regard with favor the boldness of religious profession which would ignore the difference between Israel and the Gentiles, and, taking advantage of the unbelief of the former, would at least claim equality with, if not superiority to, anything of which Israel could boast. Nothing amongst Gentiles had ever had the shadow of divine authority to plead in justification. The objection of Naaman witnessed that the carnal mind is indeed enmity against God, that it entertains nothing but contempt for what God may have established or for what meets with His approval upon earth. Naaman was disposed to prefer the waters of Syria to those of Israel. We may be sure there were no inherent qualities in either for cleansing from leprosy. All such virtue rested in the word of God, and this demands the obedience of faith.

The river Jordan doubtless had its typical import, but then was not the time to reveal it. We who now know something of the precious truth that in the death of Christ we have also our death to sin might be disposed to dwell, somewhat on this part of the history, but as the sixth of Romans has its typical counterpart, not here but, in Joshua 3; 4, we pass on, and would seek to learn the purpose of God in dealing thus with this Syrian leper. Do not the words of the leper himself supply the answer? “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” We here see how ready the human mind is to reason about the divinely simple but efficacious way of blessing for man's deep need, instead of bowing thereto in simple trust in God's unerring wisdom and gracious means. Naaman attached importance to his thoughts-how vain are the thoughts of man (Psalm 94:11)-and did not disguise his contempt for the people and land of Israel. He betrayed the very same spirit which in an earlier day had brought the judgment of God upon his nation (see 1 Kings 20).

The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, and displays itself in this way-that, where obedience of faith is required, intellectualism is ready to question. But “God giveth not account of his matters.” The gospel is preached among all nations “for the obedience of faith,” and the simple and lowly receive it and get the blessing. So, in the case before us, it was the servants of Naaman who, by their remonstrance with him as he turned away, helped their master, and so, also, had the little captive maid been used of God at an earlier stage. The simple, cogent reasoning of the servants proved its superiority to the vain thoughts of Naaman, disclosing at the same time their affectionate solicitude for their master's welfare which was truly touching. They put before him how he had nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by complying with the prophet's instructions. The very simplicity of the gospel is what first stumbles the soul. The “Wash, and be clean” of this chapter strikingly point to the “Believe... and thou shalt be saved” of the New Testament. There is a kind of desperation of soul, the result of trying human schemes of reformation only to be disappointed, in which the Spirit of God works for the bringing of the soul to give up its own “thoughts,” and way, and unreservedly to cast itself upon the mercy of God. If not, indeed, faith of an exalted order, yet still it is faith. “If I perish, I perish,” said Esther; so similarly, the answer of the twelve apostles to the Lord's challenge exhibited the same character of faith. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the holy One of God” (John 6:66-69). Peter confessed his faith in Christ, and his love for Christ, but it was not knowledge or intelligence which held them. They could not better themselves elsewhere. “To whom shall we go?”

By whatever means the sinner is brought to believe in God and to cast himself upon Christ for salvation, the result is ever the same. It was not the healing virtues of the waters of Jordan which Naaman proved, but the virtue of the prophet's word, and that Israel's God was indeed a Savior God. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good” (Numbers 23:19)? “His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth.” That which washed away the leprosy of Naaman cleansed his soul from its unbelieving utterance. Dipping “seven times in Jordan “his lowly submission was complete; so also was his cleansing. “His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Notes on Zechariah and Joshua the High Priest

This is one of the numerous passages in the word of God about which failure to understand dispensational truth has, caused a great deal of difference of judgment. A very general idea, which is allowable as a secondary application, has been to the effect that, Joshua, being spoken of as “a brand plucked from the burning,” must necessarily represent a sinner saved by grace from eternal punishment in the lake of fire. This may, no doubt, he so applied by an evangelist; but it is not its real meaning, which I have no doubt is connected with Israel as a nation, or rather with the godly remnant of Israel. Taking for a moment the evangelist's view, the removal of the filthy rags and replacing them by goodly raiment takes our thoughts forward to Luke 15, to the prodigal son whom the father welcomes with a kiss, and on whom he causes the attendants to put the best robe. The fair miter too tells of the way in which God looks on the believer, as being “holiness to the Lord,” in the sense of being separated to Himself, and also as suggesting the responsibility of each such believer to keep himself or herself apart from the spirit of the age, and also “unspotted from the world.”

Another view, which, however, is altogether untenable, is that, because Joshua—or Jesus in the New Testament—is the high priest, and wears the miter, he must represent “our high Priest,” the Lord Jesus Christ, who is passed into the heavens. But the expression, “Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?” is utterly inapplicable to Him, and the filthy garments were never really on Him, although “He who knew no sin was made sin for us,” and, in His wondrous grace, took our place so completely when “he bore our sins in his own body on the tree,” that He could say, “My iniquities,” as our Substitute. No doubt also Satan withstood Him to the utmost, but he had no power to touch Him, for He laid down His life of Himself, none taking it from Him. This view, therefore, may be altogether set aside.

The other, and, indeed, the only correct view, as pointed out above, is that which applies this incident to “the godly remnant of Israel.” It has been specially impressed on many of us lately, while studying the book of Genesis, and the Gospel according to Matthew, that not only in the prophetical books, so called, but from Genesis to Malachi in the Old, and in many parts of the New Testament, the ultimate object and complete and final realization is in one way or other connected with the glorious reign of the Messiah in the millennium. This line of thought, although undoubtedly correct, is not familiar, perhaps, to the general run of readers, even if believers, inasmuch as, from the utterly ignorant and often absurd headings of the chapters in many Bibles, and from erroneous teaching, they have got the habit of applying everything of blessing to individuals, and still more, in some cases, to the church of God, of which this very application of such passages shows how truly vague are their ideas of that which is the mystical body of the Christ, and the future glorious sharer with Him, as His bride, not only of the earthly millennial kingdom, but also of the far higher and more glorious blessings of the eternal state. If the word of God were more carefully studied under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Christians more generally would understand something of the pleasure God always had in His earthly people, and how the promises He made to Abraham as the father of many nations, and later to Jacob the immediate head of the twelve tribes, will be carried out as clearly and fully as those made to Abraham as the father of the faithful, and to Isaac as the promised seed, type of the true Seed, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior now, our joy and delight in the eternal state, and crowned with eternal glories.

We will now explain more fully. Joshua here, as the high priest, is the representative of the godly remnant of Israel, and the period in question appears to be in the latter part of the great tribulation under the antichrist, shortly before the Lord makes His appearance on earth, in His manifested power and glory. In Matthew 12:9 we have Satan and his angels cast down to earth, out of the heavenlies; and then in his rage he causes some tremendous wave of trouble to come upon Israel, the woman's seed—not here Christ Himself, who, as the Man-child, was caught up to heaven long before, but some of the godly remnant, who are succored by some of the Gentile nations, and saved from destruction, while others are destroyed and referred to in Revelation 6:9 as souls under the altar. Satan then (Revelation 13:1) taking advantage of the general anarchy, raises the beast out of the tumultuous sea, and makes him emperor and dictator of the west. After apparent order has been thus established, under the beast's iron rule, another beast is raised up out of the earth (Judaea), who is the antichrist, or willful king, who reigns in Palestine, and issues his command that all shall have the mark of the beast on their forehead, even his name, or the number of his name; and that all who will not worship the image of the beast shall be killed. Satan will thus do his utmost to withstand the restoration of Israel to their own land and blessings, but no doubt many will escape, and, joining those already with the friendly nations, will become the nucleus of the restored people, the righteous nation.

Then the filthy rags of self-righteousness— “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)—will be removed, and the robe of righteousness—the goodly garment—will be put on, and the righteous shall enter in and take possession of the promised land.

Then, too, the fair miter will be put on, and so correct will be the motto on the blue ribbon, that as stated in Zechariah 14:20, 21, “In that day there shall be upon the bells (or, bridles) of the horses, Holiness unto Jehovah “; and further, “Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto Jehovah of hosts"; while Jerusalem itself, as the center of blessing, shall be called “Jehovah our righteousness.”

The nations who have helped the remnant will receive a blessing from the Lord for their kindness to Himself, in the persons of His brethren after the flesh (Matthew 25:41), while those who injured them receive their eternal doom, with the beast and false prophet, in the lake of fire.

This application of our subject is further confirmed by vers. 8-10, where Joshua and his companions are spoken of as “men to be wondered at,” and God says He will bring forth His servant the Branch (Isaiah 11:1). Then, in the next verse, is the statement, “Upon one stone seven eyes,” “the stone which the builders rejected,” “the Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God” (Revelation 5:6). Also, as to the land itself, “Jehovah of hosts” says, “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day,” and finally we have, “every man under his vine and under his fig tree” —showing the quiet, restful, condition of the same righteous nation in their glorious land.

Thus the types of the wicked and fruitless generation in the Lord's sojourn on earth, will become the fruitful blessings of the restored people. Then also the prophecy of Zephaniah 3:14-17 will be fulfilled, especially the last verse, closing with “He shall be silent in his love, he shall rejoice over thee with singing,” as though—with deepest reverence we suggest it—His delight for the moment was too deep for utterance; and then, unable to restrain it, He bursts forth in a glorious strain of joyful melodious song.

Some Christians, in the selfish enjoyment of their own assured salvation, may be inclined to say, “This doesn't concern us.” But, beloved brethren, if God is going to “rejoice over Israel with singing,” because of His great love for His earthly people, is it 'nothing to you, whom the Lord has redeemed with His own blood, that He should have other glories, and other joys besides those He has in you? If He rejoices with you, cannot you rejoice with Him?

But again, if the true explanation, as here submitted, should be, from various causes, either unintelligible to some, or, unhappily, uninteresting to others, we would then ask such to turn again to the thought first referred to as allowable from an evangelist's point of view, and consider, as a practical reality, that, after the Lord has put the miter on the head, and the motto, “Holiness to the Lord,” He expects as a result that such should be endeavoring to make it practical, by a walk of separateness from the spirit of the age. When the Lord said to His Father (John 17), “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, b that thou shouldest keep them from the evil,” or evil one, I believe that while one of His meanings, and perhaps the primary one, was that His disciples should still be left in this scene, into which He was sending them, yet that He also had in mind the fact that a large proportion of His followers would have to provide their earthly food, by means of some occupation in the world, and therefore He prayed that they might be kept front its spirit, and safe from him who causes that spirit to be so developed, and who indeed is himself emphatically “the god of this age.” I therefore lay it upon all our hearts and consciences to see how far we are practically answering to His prayer and following in His steps. May He give us so to “walk even as He walked,” in perfect obedience to His Father's will, and perfect dependence on His Father's care.

Before I close I may remark that, while what I have given above is the direct and primary interpretation of the chapter we have been considering, yet, as “all scripture is given for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope,” we have a right to recognize, also the spiritual meaning of it all, not now from the evangelist's point, but from the blessed knowledge that, however great may be the blessing of Israel in the coming day of their restoration, we who believe now in the Son of God, shall have everything in a tenfold degree of blessing; and that, if those words in Zephaniah 3 declare God's joy in His earthly people, as the children of Abraham, the friend of God, they tell it far more richly and much more fully of His delight in those whom His beloved Son has now brought into the position of sonship—children of God His Father, the members of His own (the Christ's) body now, and the bride of the Christ of God hereafter, in the millennial day and the glorious eternal state. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

C. A. B.

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Most likely this text has not been proofread. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 7. Time of the End

VII. The Time of the End

Making our way slowly, but we trust surely, through the 24th of Matthew, we have passed in our progress these events—

(1) The rapture of the church to heaven,

(2) A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"),

(3) The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom,

(4) Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus,

(5) Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumors of wars: peace is taken from the earth; but the end not yet.

Previous pages have afforded some explanation of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom; but in verse 14 of our chapter we reach a signal mark for the division of the prophecy. Verses 4-14 give “the beginning of sorrows,” not “the time of the end.” Now, however, it is stated, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable earth for a witness unto all the nations: and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). The prophecy now therefore enters upon “the time of the end.” “The end” or “The time of the end” is a technical term of prophecy. Thus in Daniel 11:35 we are told that some of the understanding ones should be tried (persecuted) and fall (that is, martyred) “to the time of the end.” In verse 40 is predicted war by the king of the south, and by the king of the north, “at the time of the end.” In chap. 12:1 (connect with 11:40) the same period is referred to as that in which “the great tribulation” should take place. And our Lord in Matthew 24, after stating in verse 14 that “then shall the end come,” goes on to say, “Then let them which be in Judah flee into the mountains... for then shall be great tribulation,” etc. (vers. 16, 21); adding, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened... and then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven” (vers. 29, 30). “The end,” therefore, is a period within which events happen; not the exact moment of the coming of the Son of man, but the last brief epoch of the age, commencing with “the abomination of desolation” (ver. 15), and culminating in the appearing of “the sign of the Son of man, in heaven” (ver. 30). It is the latter half-week of Daniel 9:27 when the Roman prince abrogates the Jewish ritual, causes the oblation and offering to cease, substitutes for Jehovah's worship the worship of “the man of sin” in the holy place. These then are distinct sections of our chapter, viz., vers. 4-14, the beginning of sorrows; vers. 15-44, the time of the end.

Before leaving verse 14, let us notice that the common acceptation that the gospel of the kingdom here spoken of must be preached to every individual nation or tribe before the end can come, is scarcely borne out by the text. The verse does not say that the gospel must be preached to every nation, but that its being preached in the whole habitable earth (no longer confined to Israel) was to be a witness to all the nations. Just as the reading of the Riot Act puts a city under responsibility, though every individual person might not hear the words; so the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in the wide world (ὑλη τῆ οἰκουμένη) will be as a trumpet blast to the nations, requiring them to bow to the universal authority of Christ. It will be one more, one final, appeal, just prior to the coming of Christ in judgment. The kingdom of heaven will then indeed be at hand, and that, in awful significance.

However, on the gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole habitable earth, “then shall the end come,” and the initial event of that period is given in the succeeding verse: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains” (vers. 15, 16). What now is meant by this mysterious expression, “the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place"? Of all iniquities, that which is pre-eminently abominable to God is idolatry, for it is the formal, overt denial of His Godhead, and the substitution of the creature for Himself, the Creator. Hence we find in the Old Testament that the word “abomination” has a special use as signifying an object of false worship. Thus, “Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians; Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites; and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon." The “holy place,” of course, means the temple. The Lord had announced with reference to the temple then standing, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down” (ver. 3). Hence it follows that in the interval the temple will have been rebuilt. Take in connection with this, 2 Thessalonians where the apostle Paul speaks of one who is to be revealed before “the day of the Lord,” namely, “That man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (vers. 3, 4). Here we have in the apostle's teaching, the two points of Matthew 24:15—the temple recognized as again in existence; and an exorbitant phase of idolatry, a man setting himself up as God, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself that he is God. This somewhat illuminates the expression, “abomination of desolation,” but it will be more fully explained later on.

In the verses just quoted from Matthew 24 it will be observed that our Lord makes pointed reference to the prophecy of Daniel. The parts of that prophecy which principally relate to the subject are in the 9th and 12th chapters. The ninth gives in vers. 24-27 the celebrated prophecy of the “seventy weeks,” viz., “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The weeks here, it is almost unnecessary to explain, are hebdomads of years, not of days. This prophecy is introduced by the exhortation, “Understand the matter, and consider the vision” (ver. 23). Then it says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city.” These seventy weeks, then, relate to Daniel's people, and to Jerusalem. The church-period, therefore, in which we now are, is no part of those weeks. As a matter of fact it is a gap between ver. 26 and ver. 27, and this harmonizes with what has already been shown, namely, that the church-period is a hiatus between God's past dealings with Israel, and those yet to come. A careful reading indicates that the “seventy weeks” are divided into three parcels, viz., seven, sixty-two, and one. The seven, plus the sixty-two, i.e. sixty-nine, bring us (see ver. 25) to Messiah the Prince—leaving one week of the seventy unaccomplished, and this, the last week, is in ver. 27. But several events, the cutting off of Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem, are subsequent to the sixty-nine weeks, and yet before the seventieth, of ver. 27, clearly showing the broken currency of the weeks, broken between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth, so that the whole of the present period, from the cutting off of Messiah, to the appearance of the Roman prince who will confirm covenant with the many, is a gap or interval forming no part of the seventy weeks. For our purposes in considering these weeks we need not go further back than ver. 26, for there we get a clear point of time in the cutting off of Messiah. That event is stated to be “after the three score and two weeks” (virtually, after the sixty-ninth, i.e. seven plus sixty-two).

An important error exists in ver. 26 as given in the Authorized Version. It reads, “Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.” The correct translation is, “Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing.” That is, the Messiah did not take the kingdom, though it was His by right. Being rejected and crucified, He could only have taken it by judgment in power; and His then mission was not one of judgment but of salvation (John 3:17). So He was “cut off,” and went back to heaven with “nothing.” There are also some minor errors in the Authorized Version, but the following is a correct rendering of vers. 26, 27, with which we have now to do, viz., “And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war—the desolations determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations [there shall be] a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate [one].” The first item in this prophecy—the cutting off of Messiah, has been already explained. Next, there is the destruction of the city and the sanctuary—not, mark, by the prince that shall come, but by the people of that prince. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was by the Romans; and though a Roman prince, Titus Vespasianus, was with the Roman hosts at the time, the destruction of the temple was emphatically by them, not by their prince. It was contrary to his express commands, and he exerted himself to his utmost power to prevent the destruction of the temple. (See Milman's History of the Jews, pp. 408, 409, 2nd Ed.; and Josephus, Wars, VI. ch. 4, pp. 5, 7). But here we have an intimation that that important personage, “the prince that shall come,” and who is referred to in the next verse as “confirming a covenant with the many,” will be of the same nationality as the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary—the Romans.

(To be continued)

[E. J. T.]

The Apostleship of Paul: Part 2

And here I may observe in connection with this, that at the times of calling out new ministries, there have commonly been characteristic exhibitions of Christ. Thus, when Moses was called forth at Horeb, he saw a burning (but yet unconsumed) bush, out of the midst of which Jehovah spake to him. And the ministry which he then received was, according to this vision, to go and deliver Israel from the affliction of Egypt, in the midst of which God had been with them, preserving them in spite of it all. When he and the people afterward stood under Sinai, the mountain was altogether in a smoke, so that even Moses himself exceedingly feared and quaked. But all this was so, because there was about to proceed from it that law which poor fallen man can never answer, and which therefore is but the ministry of death and condemnation to him, though he be such an one as Moses himself. When Moses afterward drew towards God, standing between Him and the people, he receives (in accordance with the mediate place which he thus occupied) his commission to deliver, as the national mediator, the laws and ordinances of the king. But when in the last place, he goes up to the top of the hill, far beyond both the region of horrible fire and the mediate place which he occupied as the mediator of the nation, and where all was calm and the presence of Jehovah around him, he receives the tokens of grace, the types of Christ the Savior and Priest, and is from thence made to minister to Israel “the shadows of good things to come.” In all these we see much that was expressive of the ministry about to be appointed.

So afterward, though in a more limited way. When Joshua was about to receive a commission to compass Jericho with men of war, Jehovah appears to him as a man of war with a sword drawn in his hand. When Isaiah was called to go forth as the prophet of judgment against Israel, Jehovah was seen in His temple in such terrible majesty, that the very posts of the door moved at His voice, and the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6). When our Lord stood in the land of Israel, the minister of the circumcision, according to this place and character He appoints twelve to go forth to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But after the resurrection, when He stood on the earth in a larger character, all power in heaven and earth being then His, He commissions his apostles accordingly-” Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” And so now-ascended into heaven, and having there become Head of the church, He appears to Saul from that glory; and in him appoints a ministry formed upon the principle of this manifestation. Heaven was the birthplace of Paul's apostleship; and according to this he was sent forth to gather out and raise up a people from earth to heaven.

Thus, from the place from whence his call into office came, we at the beginning might be prepared for something new and heavenly. But his apostleship was out of due time, as well as out of due place (1 Corinthians 15:8). It not only did not come from Jerusalem, but it arose after the apostleship there had been perfected. Judas's forfeited bishopric had been filled up by Matthias, and thus the body of twelve, as ordered by the Lord at the beginning, was again complete; and Paul's apostleship is thus, we might say, a thing “born out of due time.”

But though in this respect, “out of due time,” yet not so in every respect. The times and seasons which the Lord has taken for the unfolding of His counsels are, doubtless, all due and rightly ordered; and having “the mind of Christ” —the present inheritance, through grace, of every spiritual man—we may seek to know this; remembering first of all, whose counsels we are searching into, and how it becomes us to walk before Him with unshod feet. May He keep us, brethren, thus treading His course, and may the haste of inquirers never take us out of the place and attitude of worshippers. Let us remember that it is in His temple we must inquire (Psalm 27:4).

To these times and seasons, then, we may observe that our Lord marks successive stages in the divine procedure with Israel when He says, “the law and the prophets prophesied until John.” Here he notices three ministries—the law, the prophets, and John. But these extended only down to our Lord's own ministry, and therefore now, in the further progress of the divine counsels, we can to these add others.

The Law.-This dispensation put Israel under a covenant which exacted obedience as the condition upon which they were to continue in the land, and in the blessings which Jehovah had given them. But we know that they broke it.

The Prophets.-After trespass and transgression had come in, prophets were raised up; among other services, to warn and encourage Israel to return to Him, from whom they and their fathers had revolted, that they might recover their place and blessing under the covenant. But Israel, we know, refused their words, stoning some, and killing some.

John.-The Baptist is then raised up, not as one of the prophets merely, to call Israel back to the old covenant, and to the obedience which it required, but to be the herald of a kingdom that was then at the doors, the forerunner of One who was coming with the sure blessing of His own presence. He summoned the people to be in readiness for Messiah. But John they beheaded.

The Lord.-Thus introduced by John to Israel, the Lord accordingly comes forth and offers the kingdom in His own person to them, and Israel is summoned to own it and worship Him. But we know that the heir of the vineyard was cast out by the husbandmen. “His own received him not.” The builders disallowed the Stone. They crucified the Prince of life; but God raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

The Twelve Apostles.-They had accompanied with our Lord all the time that He had gone in and out among them, from the baptism of John to the day that He was taken up from them, and they were now called forth (being endued with the Holy Ghost) to be witnesses to Israel of the resurrection. And these witnesses tell Israel that the times of refreshing, the times of accomplishing all promised good to them, waited only for their repentance; for that Jesus was now exalted to be a Prince and Savior to them. And now the final trial of Israel was come. What could be done more than had now been done? Trespass against the Son of man had been forgiven, or at least, the way of escape from the judgment which it called for had now been thrown open to Israel by the testimony of the Holy Ghost in the apostles; but what could provide relief, if this testimony were now despised? (See Matthew 12:32). But the Holy Ghost is resisted, the testimony of the Twelve is despised by the martyrdom of Stephen, and the Lord's dealings with Israel and the earth are therefore necessarily closed for a season.

Paul.-The apostle of the Gentiles then comes forth, fraught with further treasures of divine wisdom, revealing purposes that had been till now (while God was dealing with Israel and the earth) hid in God. He comes forth with this testimony—that Christ and the church were one; that heaven was their common inheritance: and the gospel committed to him, was the gospel, as he expresses it, of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” This gospel he had now to preach among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:16; Colossians 1:28).

We are thus enabled to see the fullness of the times in which the mysteries of God have been revealed. It must be so we know, for God is God. But through His abounding towards us in all wisdom and prudence, He gives us grace to see something of this that we may adore Him, and love Him, and long for the day when we shall see Him face to face, and know as we are known. For all these His ways are beautiful in their season. Israel was the favored earthly people, and it was due to them to try whether or not the fountain would be opened in Jerusalem, from whence to water the earth. But this debt of Israel had now been paid by the ministry of the Lord, closed in by that of the Twelve; and Stephen's address (in the 7th of Acts) is God's conviction of Israel's rejection of all the ways which His love had taken with them. They had silenced, as he there charges them, the early voice of God in Joseph—they had refused Moses the deliverer—they had persecuted the prophets—slain John others, who had showed before of the coming of the Just One—been the betrayers and murderers of that Just One Himself—and finally, were then in his person resisting, to the end resisting, as they had ever done, the Holy Ghost. The Lord therefore had only to forsake His sanctuary, and with it the earth, and the martyr sees the Lord in heaven under such a form as gives clear notice that the saints were now to have their citizenship in heaven, and their home in the glory there, and not on the earth.

This martyrdom of Stephen was thus a crisis or time of judgment, the final one with Israel; and a new witness to God is therefore called out. There had been already such times in the history of Israel. Shiloh had been the scene of the first crisis. The ark that was there was taken into the enemy's land—the priest and his sons died ingloriously; Ichabod was the character of the system then, and Samuel was called out as Jehovah's new witness—the help of Israel, the raiser of the stone Ebenezer. Jerusalem was afterward the scene of another crisis. The house of David had filled up its sin; the king and the people with all their treasures were taken down to Babylon, and the city laid in heaps; and Jesus (for the interval as to this purpose need not be estimated) is called forth, God's new witness—the sure mercy and hope of Israel. But He was refused, and in judgment turned His back upon Jerusalem, saying, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” That was a season of judgment also-judgment of Israel for the rejection of the Son of man; and another witness is then called out—the twelve apostles, who testify, as I have been observing, in the Holy Ghost, to the resurrection of the rejected Lord, and that repentance and remission of sins were provided in Him for Israel. But they also are rejected and cast out. Then comes the final crisis. Stephen is their representative, and he convicts Israel of full resistance of the Holy Ghost; and then a new and heavenly witness is called forth. Such witness is the church; and, of the church, and of the church's special calling and glory, Paul is made in an eminent sense the minister.

“It pleased God to reveal his Son in me,” says he. This is the ground of the church's special dignity, and the gospel which Paul preached. It was not the gospel of Messiah, the hope of Israel, nor the gospel of the once crucified One, now exalted “a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins “; but it was the gospel of the Son of God revealed in him. The Son had been revealed to the disciples by the Father before (Matthew 16.17); but now He is revealed in Paul. He had “the Spirit of adoption.” The Holy Ghost in him was the Spirit of the Son; and anointed with this oil of gladness, he had to go forth and spread the savor of it everywhere. And upon the Son thus revealed within, hangs everything that is peculiar, as I have observed, to the, calling and glory of the church. Thus we read, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:16, 17). And again, we read, “that we are predestinated to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ,” that is, as Paul here speaks of himself, to have the Son revealed in us. And this being the predestinated condition of the church, there comes forth, as in the train of this, all the church's holy prerogatives—acceptance in the Beloved, with forgiveness of sins through His blood-entrance into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so as to have made known to us the mystery of the will of God—future inheritance in and with Him, in whom all things in heaven and earth are to be gathered—and the present seal and earnest of this inheritance in the Holy Ghost. This bright roll of privileges is inscribed by the apostle thus-” spiritual blessings in the heavenlies “; and so they are, blessings through the Spirit flowing from and linking us with Him who is the Lord in the heavens (Ephesians 1:4-12).

All this follows upon the Son being revealed in us, by which the church puts on Christ, so as to be one with Him in every stage of this wondrous way; dead, quickened, raised, and seated in heaven in Him (Ephesians 2:6). And of this mystery, Paul was especially the steward. The Lord had hinted at it in the parable of the Vine and the branches. He had spoken of it as that which the presence of the Comforter was to effect, saying, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” He spoke of it also to His disciples through Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, saying, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God “; thus telling them that they were to be one with Him in love and joy before the throne, all through this present dispensation. But this mystery did not fully come forth till Paul is sent to declare it. It is a calling of exceeding riches of grace, but nothing less could meet the mind of God towards His elect; for He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified, were to be all of one (Hebrews 11). Thus stood the covenant of love before the world was. A mediator such as Moses, whose best service was to keep Jehovah and the people asunder (sec Deuteronomy 5:5), could not answer the purpose of this marvelous love of our God; but in the Son the elect are taken into fullest favor; and while His work and merit are all their title to anything, they have everything by their oneness with the Mediator Himself (John 17:26). Nothing less than this could fulfill the desire of our heavenly Father's heart towards us. The partition wall, whether between God and sinners, or between Jew and Gentile, is broken down; and we sinners stand together on its ruins, triumphing over them in Christ, our heavenly Father rejoicing over them also. This is the marvelous workmanship of the love of God, and the forming and consummation of this union of Christ and the church is the husbandry which God is now tending. He is not, as once He was, caring for a land of wheat, and oil, and pomegranates, that His people might eat without scarceness of the increase of the field (Deuteronomy 11:12); but He is the husbandman of the vine and the branches. He is training the church in union with the Son of His love, “till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man.” It is this union which makes us of the same family with the Lord Jesus, and entitles us to hear of Him as “the First-born” (Romans 8:29). It is this union which gives us the same glory with the Lord Jesus, and entitles us to look after Him as “the Forerunner” (Hebrews 6:20). It is this which gives character to that life which we now have, and to that glory in which we shall be manifested, when He who is our life shall be manifested.

[J. L. H.]

(Continued from page 205)

(To be continued)

Perfection or Full Growth

Nothing seemed to be a greater burden on the heart of Paul than to keep the saints up to their privileges. The Hebrews saw that Christ had died for them, though this had not the power over them which it ought to have had; but they were risen with Him also. They were in Christ in heavenly places within the veil, and the question was, were they realizing that?

There is great force in the expression he uses in chap. 5:6, “ye are become, such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” “Are become” marks the process by which they had reached the state they were in.

Freshness of affection, and quickness of understanding go together. There is less spring, less apprehension, less clearness when our hearts are not happy. On the other hand, my judgment is clear when my affections are warm. Motives that acted before cease to be motives when my affections are warm. Freshness of affection being lost, the Hebrews were “dull of hearing"; and so were “become such as had need of milk, and not of strong meat.” And then the apostle explains that those who use “milk” are unskillful in the word of righteousness, and are babes; while “strong meat” belongs to those, not who have made great progress, but who are of full age—men in the truth in opposition to being children or babes—and who have “their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

But how can I separate the “knowledge of good and evil” from the knowledge of Christ? If I were to try to separate between them of myself, shutting Christ out, how could I? He is my standard of good; and it is what I find in Him that gives me power to judge what is evil. How can I walk as He walked without Him? “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ [or, the word of the beginning of Christ], let us go on to perfection.”

Instead of wasting your time with what has passed away, go on to the full revelation of Christ. Be at home there, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. For how can I walk as He walked without Him? I know not how to attempt it. The secret of everything is found in that truth, “Ye are complete in him.” As Christ Himself also has said, “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me.” But what is that? and where is Christ now? In heaven. Then I am there too, and my affections should be there also. My hope is to be thoroughly identified with Him. For the portion I have is what He has—life, glory, all that He has risen to—and all my associations are with Himself. There is the difference between “the word of the beginning of Christ” and the full perfection. Of Christ Himself it is said (chap. 5:9), “Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.”

Now He was not made perfect down here, but in being glorified in heaven. He went through the experience down here; as it is said, “He learned obedience by the things which He suffered,” and then went into heaven to be Priest, because our blessings and associations and hopes are all up there. He is “made perfect” as our High Priest in heaven and not down here. He had not received that point in the counsels of God in glory, when He was down here. Now He is there He has associated me with Himself in that place. I can see that Christ has been through this world so as to be able to sympathize with me in all my sorrows and all my trials; and He has also borne my sins in His own body on the tree. But where is He now? He is in heaven; and I am there too in spirit, and He will soon bring me there in fact. Where He is, is His being “made perfect.” The work is done, and now He is showing me the effect of its being done; and is teaching me the walk that belongs to the redemption He has wrought out. He has taken my heart and associated me with Himself, and He says that is the perfection I am to go on to.

Where did Paul see Christ? Not on earth; for long after Christ had left the earth Paul was a persecutor; but he saw Him, as we all know, in heavenly glory. His only knowledge of Christ at all was of a Christ in heaven. His course on earth he might learn; but the revelation of Christ that brought his soul into the presence of God in the power of an accomplished redemption, was the revelation of Christ in heaven and in glory. Hence he says, “Though we had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” The Christ he wanted to “win” (as he says in Philippians 3) was a glorified Christ. It may cost me my life, but never mind. That is my object; after that I am reaching. I am alive from the dead, because Christ is; and I want to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. I am not in the flesh, but in Christ. I have the consciousness that this work of Christ has put me in a new place, (not yet glorified in body, but) in a new place as to my life and associations and home; and this is the perfection we are to go on to.

It was this that ruled the apostle's affections, as he says, “that I may win Christ.” This was his object, to “bear the image of the heavenly.” His mind was full of it. The Holy Ghost has come down to bring all these things to our remembrance. Believers are united to Christ in glory. It is never said that Christ is united to man; but believers are united to Christ. Then the apostle was living by the power of the Holy Ghost; so that one may conceive what a trial it was to him to see these people going back to “the first principles.” They were all true, but if people stop there they stop short of a glorified Christ. To the Galatians he says, “Who hath bewitched you?” but of himself he could say, “I know a man in Christ.” “A man in Christ” is a man risen out of all that connects itself with the law and ordinances, as well as with sin and death, and all that is sorrowful or attractive in this present evil world. His spirit is broken to find the saints resting with things on earth about Christ. The Holy Ghost was come from heaven to make them partakers of a heavenly calling; to associate them in heart and mind with Christ, and to show them things which would not only keep them from “the evil which is in the world,” but from the world itself.

The Hebrews had a temple standing when Paul wrote, where Christ Himself had been. Why, then, should they have left it, if Christ had not judged the flesh, and shown that “they that are in the flesh cannot please God"? “The middle wall” had been put up by God Himself; how should they dare to break it down, if God had not done it? If God had not said that He would not have to do with flesh any more, how could they dare to leave the camp, and go outside? Christ glorified is the end of the first principles, and we have to go through the world as strangers and Pilgrims. The only thing God ever owned in religion was Jewish, which had to do with the flesh—with men here in the world—but that is gone by the cross. All is crucified; “the handwriting of ordinances” has been blotted out— “nailed to the cross” —and thus taken out of the way; and in a glorified Christ we see the end of all that is abolished. Henceforth our life, our home, our associations, are all in Christ.

But “the doctrine of the beginning of Christ” was not that.

What do we find as long as Christ was upon earth? Why the testimony of the law and the prophets, which taught righteousness and called the nation to repentance and faith. Christ Himself also speaks of a judgment to come, which they believed. The Pharisees believed in a resurrection of the dead. Baptisms or washings, and the laying on of hands, they had them. They constituted the elements of a worldly religion, and were sanctioned by God until the cross. The Messiah coming on earth is the “doctrine of the beginning of Christ"; but now I leave that and go on to perfection. I do not deny these things, but I go on to the fuller revelation of Christ. These first principles are all true, but then I have other and far better things.

Saul might have been the brightest saint going under the old order of things, but not knowing Christ. But supposing a person got into the heavenly things and was “enlightened” and had “tasted the heavenly gift, and was made partaker of the Holy Ghost, and had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,” and then gave it up what could he do then? What else was there to present to such an one? There might have been a going on from faith in an humbled Christ to a glorified Christ, but there is nothing beyond. For it should be observed there is nothing of life signified here. The expressions do not go beyond the indication of truth that might be received by the natural mind, and the demonstrative power of the Holy Ghost, which persons might partake of, as scripture shows, without being participators in eternal life.

There may be light in a sense without the smallest trace of life, of which Balaam is an ex ample. Of the stony ground hearers also it is said concerning the word that “anon with joy they received it” —they “tasted the good word of God.” Moreover, Judas could cast out devils as well as the rest: he was a partaker of these “miracles of the coming age.” And Christ had said (Matthew 7:22), “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? “Still they are disowned of Christ as “workers of iniquity.”

But there is this further in the case supposed: “They had crucified the Son of God afresh,” by turning back again from these heavenly things, and therefore could not be renewed to repentance. The nation had indeed crucified Christ, but they did not know what they were doing. This could not be said of those of whom the apostle is speaking. This was not ignorance, but will.

There is a great difference in what is expressed by “anon with joy they received it,” and the word plowing up the soul, giving the sense of sin and bringing into subjection to God's redemption. The result of life is seen in fruit, not in power. In the parable of the sower, the seed received into good ground “brought forth fruit.” In the other cases there was no “fruit brought to perfection.” If there is any fruit, the tree is not dead. Hence the apostle says, “We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation.” These were not power merely nor joy; for these might exist and there be no life. Judas could cast out devils as well as the rest; but Jesus said, “Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” The connection of your heart with Christ—the consciousness of God having written your name in heaven is the blessed thing. The fruit which the apostle takes notice of in verse 10 is love to the brethren. This was there, and showed itself in the active ministering to the saints, out of love to the Lord's name; while full assurance of hope to the end was to be desired. There might be working of miracles without knowing or being known of God; but fruit-bearing in grace is the token of being branches of the true vine.

In the example of Abraham, the apostle presents an encouragement to their faith, which needed to be strengthened. Abraham had the promise of God, and he believed it; he had His oath, and he trusted it: but we have more. It is not to us that God presents a promise of future blessings, and adds an oath to assure us of their accomplishment; but He has performed all that He calls us to believe. We have a redemption now in the presence of God. Christ, having wrought the work, is sitting down in the presence of God, and in spirit has brought us there. But we have more than that; for, in hope, we are partakers of all the glory which belongs to that redemption. We have life, redemption, the Holy Ghost as the seal, and more. The Forerunner is gone in, and the Holy Ghost gives us the consciousness of our union with Him, and not merely that our sins are put away through the blood-shedding of Christ. We have the Spirit in virtue of Christ's redemption, and He is come to tell us that we are in that Christ who wrought the redemption and is now in the power of an endless life within the veil.

But what is the practical consequence of all this? Why, if the glory He has is mine, and I am going on after Him, then all the world is but dross and dung in my esteem. This will be faith's estimate of everything in the world, when Christ is filling the heart's affections, and when the soul is pressing on after Him, in the certain hope of being forever with Him. One moment's real apprehension of Christ in the glory is sufficient to dim the brightness and glitter of every earthly thing; but the soul must be occupied alone with Christ for this.

If our affections and desires are lingering on earth, or stopping short of a glorified Christ in heaven, as the One in whom our life is hid, and to whom we are presently to be conformed in glory, and that in the glory where He is, we shall find soon that earthly things are something more than dross and dung. Leave a stone on the ground for a time and you will find that it will gradually sink into it. And our hearts, if they are not practically in heaven with Christ, will soon become attached to earthly things.

There is a constant tendency in earthly things to press down the affections. Duties are more apt to lead away the soul from God than open sin. Many a Christian has been ensnared by duties, whose heart would have shrunk from open sin. But we have only one duty in all the varying circumstances of life—to serve Christ. And we should remember that if things on earth are dark and the heart is tested in journeying through the world, all on the side of God is bright. “Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." J. N. D.

An Address on Hebrews 9:13-17: Part 1

Before entering on this next rather peculiar passage, take notice that as we had “eternal Spirit,” so here “eternal inheritance” follows. The Jews were peculiarly sensitive on the subject, for alas they knew to their cost that their “inheritance” was most transitory. They had been turned out of their land for many years, and afterward never got properly into the land again: only a poor remnant and in poor circumstances indeed. And now they had been guilty of such unpardonable sin against God and His Christ and the Holy Spirit, that they were going to be outcast from the land once more, and for an incomparably longer period. They could therefore understand how little they could boast of an “eternal” inheritance. But this is precisely what expresses adequately the promise received by Christians. As it is, “eternal” salvation and “eternal” redemption, so is it “eternal” inheritance. The privileges peculiar to Christianity are characterized as everlasting. Therefore there is no force whatever in persons reasoning to us from the conditional state of Israel: no doubt such was Judaism, but Christianity is in contrast. The reason is plain: one depended on man, and what is he to be accounted of? The other depends on Christ, and what is He not to be accounted of? There is the sure and blessed difference. Christ, both by the perfection of His person and by the everlasting efficacy of His work, brings us into the blessing which only He deserves, and which is of faith that it might be according to grace, wholly independent of our deserts or failures. Not that we lack provision for failure, as typified even of old and noticeable in verse 13. There is first of all the blood; then the ashes of a heifer. The ashes of the red heifer were for meeting the passing defilements of the one who had been cleansed by blood. The blood remained in all its value; but the ashes of the heifer counteracted defilements by the way. Alas! that distinction has slipped entirely out of the minds of God's children generally, and to their great loss, because to mix them up is to lose the truth. Thereby is weakened the everlasting efficacy of the blood, in order to gain a means of clearing the difficulties of the way.

Let us now pass on to the promised illustration, so as to bring out in a few words the special force of verses 16 and 17; the only instances, we may once for all remark, in the whole of scripture where “testament” has a right to stand in our Bible. This is easily remembered, if not so easily proved. For this reason I shall endeavor to make the truth clear, because scarce anything is worse for God's people than vague uncertainty fostered by such as seem to have no other knowledge than of some people saying this and of others who say that, whereby souls are reduced to utter unbelief of the truth and live in a mere see-saw between conflicting opinions. What can more effectually deprive men of the power and happy certainty of the word of God? Uncertain one may be, but is it not my fault? Do not cast the blame on the word or Spirit of God. Never admit that we are doomed to doubt. Assure your soul, scripture is so written as to make it our unbelief if we do not receive and enjoy the true meaning of God's word. Perhaps for want of having that conviction, our translators seem to have thought that the word might be “covenant” or “testament,” just as they pleased. They were too fond of change elsewhere. Here it was worse than usual. In every part of the New Testament where the word often occurs, I hope to show that it is “covenant,” save in vers. 16 and 17 of this chapter, where it is rightly “testament,” and not “covenant.” In every other passage it ought to be “covenant,” and not “testament.”

Begin with the first in Matthew 26:28. Can there be the shade of a doubt here, or in Mark 14:24 (substantially equivalent), about the matter? Our Lord is speaking of the cup that He gave the disciples, saying, “Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new covenant.” First, Where would be the propriety of “new” applied to a “testament” or will? Nobody ever talks about a “new” will. But, secondly, there is another and stronger objection. What has “blood” to do with a testament or will? The moment we turn to the new “covenant” all is in place. The blood of Christ is exactly its foundation. The first covenant may have had the blood of victims connected with it, as its sanction, threatening death on those that proved unfaithful. This is the meaning of the blood in the first covenant (Exodus 24), which said as it were: If you fail to obey the law, you must die, as these victims died. The blood of the new covenant has an altogether opposed character. Christ's blood, as a starting-point, secures a perfect clearance for every soul who believes in Him. So the Lord, in giving the cup to the disciples, says, “This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” What has a “testament” to do with “remission of sins"? What has a will to do with blood? These constitute the strongest proofs that “covenant” is the thought, and that “testament” has nothing whatever to do with this place.

In Luke 22 you will find similarly, where our Lord is speaking on the same occasion. Therefore we need not dwell on it. “This cup is the new covenant,” etc. The expression is different, but the same truth appears. It is the “new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.” The idea of a will is wholly foreign to the place. If we said, “the new will,” what would be the meaning of this? How could there be a “new will” in His blood? “Covenant in His blood” is perfectly intelligible, and is in fact the chief distinction of the new covenant in contrast with the old which sought but found not man obedient. The old had for its sanction the threat of death; the new on the contrary is based on the “blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanseth from all sin.” Compare also 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle gives language similar to the words in Luke, and therefore calling for no other notice than that “testament” is wholly inappropriate there for the reasons given.

There are places where the Authorized Version gives “covenant,” and which we of course pass by, because they are quite right. But we may turn now to 2 Corinthians 3, which is the first that occurs in order after these, where “testament” is wrongly given. Ver. 6 says, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament.” As we have already seen, “new” is out of place with a will. It ought therefore to be “covenant.” It may be observed that there are two words for “new,” one of which means “freshly made,” which might in some cases have been applied to a testament. The other means “of a different character entirely “; new in principle, whether recent or not. Now this last is the word employed here. What has it to do with a will? “Freshly made one” might sometimes apply; but “one of a totally different character” does not apply to a will, but admirably to contrasted covenants. What the apostle implies is that, although the new covenant is not yet formally brought in to the houses of Israel and Judah, the Christian anticipates the blessing, as the Christian servant is characterized by the new covenant, not in letter it is true, but in spirit. We come under the power of the new covenant before it is actually brought to bear on the two houses of Israel. Oh! what a comfort this is. Thus the notion here, too, is “covenant,” and not “testament.” In this same chapter he says (ver. 14), “For until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament.” A great many, no doubt, fancy this means the Old Testament scriptures, and so men have adopted that very term as their title. But what really is the “old covenant” here? The covenant of law that condemned Israel. Here again there would be no good sense in reading the “old will.” It can only mislead, whereas if we say “old covenant” we can all understand this, which is exactly what the Jews had to do with.

There is only another passage outside Hebrews—in Revelation 11:19. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in the temple the ark of His testament.” And here the Old Testament affirms what one might argue out. “Ark of the covenant” is scriptural; but what is the “ark of a testament"? Has the ark of a will any just sense. As far as my memory serves, I do not recollect any other instance of “testament” employed, excepting in Hebrews, where it has been once or twice before us, and therefore to these I turn to finish the subject, even if it seem a rather minute examination, which I hope may prove a good confirmation of your faith in the word of God as well as in learning how necessary is the Spirit of God to give certainty of understanding the word. Had it not been for these considerations I should not have occupied your time with the matter. In the Authorized Version of Hebrews 7:22 we read, “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.” There again, Is not “surety of a testament” strange language? Surety “of a covenant” is as important as intelligible, as even the Authorized Version uniformly renders in chap. 8 following. Therefore the inference is unavoidable, that the context in every case indicates the right counterpart, whether “covenant” or “testament.” But if I am right in interpreting the context in detail, you may rest assured that in the Bible wherever the word “testament” occurs, it ought to be “covenant,” except in the two verses immediately before us, Hebrews 9:16, 17.

To these, then, let us turn. Can anything he plainer than their reference to a will in order to illustrate the death of our Lord? “For where a testament is, there must of necessity he the death of the testator.” This is sufficiently evident. Were “covenant” said it would not even be true. Where men make a covenant, is it in the least necessary that either of the contracting parties should die? Jacob and Laban made a covenant between them; but did it at all demand, in order to its validity, that Jacob or Laban should die? If either had died, there would rather have been an end of it so far. But when he who makes a testament dies, then only can the children, or others to whom he has devised his property, receive the benefit by virtue of the will. “Where a testament (or will) is, there must of necessity be the death of the testator, for a testament is of force after men are dead.” In wills only, and not in covenants, is such a necessity universally found. A man makes a will, but it does not come into force so long as he lives—only when he dies. On this hinges the apostolic illustration, which is as apt as it is undeniably evident. The effect of a will is only after the death of the testator. Perhaps something may be contingent upon the death of another; as a man leaves to his children upon the death of his wife. But in any case death must intervene, if any are immediately concerned in the property. It is only after one or more are dead that the living heirs inherit. “Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” Nothing can be more telling or simple. In the case of a covenant, is there anything of the kind? A covenant comes into force while people are alive. Take Jacob and Laban, where neither was called to die. Take an earlier covenant, where God makes one between Himself and the earth, as revealed to Noah.

I am aware that some try to slip in the death of sacrifices here; but the word means not a covenanting victim, but a “testator"; and all efforts are vain to upset or change the idea. It is the death of the person who made the testament. It is not necessary to insist on more than the principle generally, but if the application be pressed personally, how does this apply to the Lord? Very exactly indeed; for the Lord became a man in order that He might die, to give us (a vast deal more, but also) an everlasting inheritance. He that had spoken at Sinai is the selfsame One that came to die. The figure, therefore, of a testator applies in all its force. He was pleased thus to die, although One who in His divine nature could not die. He therefore deigned, in the infiniteness of His grace, to partake of blood and flesh that He might die. Therefore, nothing can be simpler, nothing more certain, than His death, in virtue of which we inherit the richest blessing evermore.

Beloved brethren, what wonders in the word of God! and how He delights in conveying the truth in the most striking way to help feeble souls. All turns on the death of Christ. There was no Christianity without it. As long as our Lord was here in the body, it was as the corn of wheat that abode alone by itself till it fell into the ground and died; but after death, “it beareth much fruit.” There Christ's own words set forth the effect of His death. As long as the Lord lived, the middle wall of partition stood Firm. Neither the Jews could draw near to God, nor the Gentiles be joined with the Jews, who were expressly kept apart. But when our Lord died, the vail was rent, the partition fell; and it was not merely the Gentiles coming into the place the Jews had occupied, but believing Jews and Gentiles entered alike into immediate nearness to God. Along with this, the conscience was purged perfectly, in order to serve the living God in thanksgiving and praise, as well as every other service, and furthermore, every blessing eternally secured. Oh! how wondrous is that which God has given us through the death of His Son!

W. K.

(Concluded from page 237)

Keeping Christ's Word: Part 2

Surely this address to Philadelphia is completely in opposition—in designed opposition—to all such thoughts. Why should it be that here we have not the Lord presenting Himself as One who “has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” —plenitude of spiritual power, and His people in His keeping—but as “the Holy and True"? Strange indeed it may seem that dead Sardis should be thus reminded, and not Philadelphia! But to Philadelphia such an utterance would seem as if it meant no less than the recovery of the church by their means. To Sardis it is manifestly exhortation instead of assurance. Philadelphia, even as Philadelphia, needs rather the warning that they must not mistake, in any sanguine interpretation of present blessing, what the days are in which they live, and that they must guard against such a conception of practical unity as would set aside all the value of unity. How perfect in its place is every word of God!

Let us notice then, again, what the Lord commends. “Thou hast a little power—hast kept my word and not denied my name—hast kept the word of my patience.” Every one must remark these “My” 's, which continue to the end of the address. They show that the true Philadelphian clings to Christ Himself, to His word, His person, His strangership in the present, His certainty of the future. His work is to obey Christ, hold fast the truth as to Him, be waiting for Him. The work of gathering may, so to speak, look after itself, if this be done. We are to be united by the Center, and not merely or mainly by the circumference. And thus alone can there be anything that shall have fruit for God or commendation from Him who here speaks to His people.

It is easy to be seen then how the Philadelphian character may be lost by a false conception of it. “Brotherly love” is a precious thing when it is really what it purports to be; but see where the apostle, in his exhortation, puts it. “Add to your faith,” he says, “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly love.” If this be the order (and as order he gives it), how many things are needed to precede its proper development! No doubt all these things are in the Christian in some sense at the beginning, just as petals, stamens, and other parts of the flower, are wrapped up in the bud before it opens. But there is a relation of these to one another shown in the order of appearance; and that is what is important here. No “love of brethren” —no Philadelphia—is true, save as these things are found in it. For it all, Christ must be both sap and sun; and this is what the word in Revelation emphasizes.

Philadelphian gathering is to Christ, then; and it is Christ who gathers. A common faith, a common joy, a common occupation, find their issue in that which is the outward sign of the spiritual bond that unites us. Who that knows what gathering at the Lord's table means would suppose that communion there could be other than hindered by the presence of what was not communion, any more than harmony could be increased by discord? Of want of intelligence I am not speaking: there is no discord in the presence of a babe; but an unexercised conscience, a heart unreceptive of divine things—which means receptive of how much else!—how must the power of the Spirit be hindered by them! The Scripture rule for times of declension is— “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22); and the way to find these is not to advertise for them, but to “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace “; walking on the road in which they are walking.

It results, I am confident, that if we really seek the blessing of souls, we shall guard with more carefulness, not with less, the entrance into fellowship. We shall see that it be “holy and true,” as He is with whom all fellowship is first of all to be. Careless reception is the cause of abundant trouble and may be of general decline. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” When trial comes, those that have never been firm of purpose, never, perhaps, convinced of the divine warrant for the position they have taken, scatter and flee from it with reckless haste, carrying with them, wherever they go, an evil report of what they have turned their backs upon. Such persons are, generally speaking, outside of any hope of recovery, and often develop into the bitter enemies of the truth.

We are incurring a great responsibility if we press or encourage people to take a position for which they are not ready; in which, therefore, they act without faith. It is just in principle what the apostle warns us of, the danger of leading others without an exercised conscience, to imitate a faith that is not their own. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” No wonder there are wrecks all along the track of a movement for which this is so constantly required, and in which so many are endeavoring to walk without it. Ought we not to remember that it is the Holy and the True that is seeking fellowship with us? and that nothing but what answers to this character, can abide the test that will surely come?

F. W. G.

(Concluded from page 208)

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher,

53, Paternoster Row

The Perfume

It seems worthy of note that this perfume consists of three sweet spices with pure frankincense—four component parts—whereas the holy anointing oil, just before alluded to, was made up of four principal spices and of oil olive, or five ingredients. In the case of the perfume, each ingredient was to be of a like weight, though that weight seems purposely not to be stated; but in the anointing oil, the weight of each compound is given and varies.

The perfume brings the excellencies of Christ for God very specially before us. The ingredients, represented by the figure four, set forth completeness on earth, and are generally divided into three (reminding us of the Trinity) and one. The four Gospels may serve as an instance, three leading up to the rejection of our adorable Lord, and one, that of John, commencing with it.

It is said that stacte (nataph) signifies “to distil"; and that it was “distilled myrrh.” Onycha (shechaleth) is understood to be the cover of a shell fish, like the purple, found in the spikenard lakes of India, and giving a sweet odor; for the shell fishes there feed upon spikenard. And galbanum (chelbenah), derived from a root signifying “fat,” was useful as an ingredient to make the perfume retain its fragrance. Taken together then, do not these compounds speak to us of the depths of suffering, divine love made the Lord Jesus to endure? Think of Gethsemane and of the “distilled myrrh” —His being “overwhelmed” as in the inspired heading of Psalm 102, and yet as the One who had made the fragrant, yet perishable, shell fish, for “they shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed” (ver. 26)! And is there no preserving galbanum in this that follows: “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (ver. 27)? Beloved, may we never forget the perfume was to be beaten “very small” (ver. 35)! The marginal reading of the 35th verse of our chapter seems preferable to “tempered together,” and reads “salted.” Pure and holy, it also was. Do we wonder that in verse 36 it is written, “It shall be unto you most holy”?

In verse 25 we read of the oil as “an holy anointing oil,” and in verse 32 it is said of it, “It is holy, and it shall be holy unto you “; and, anointed with it, the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, the table and its vessels, the candlestick and its vessels, the altars of incense and of burnt offering, with the vessels, the laver and its foot—all are sanctified, “that they may be most holy; whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.” But of the perfume itself it is recorded, “it shall be unto you most holy.”

Is not the reason for this to be found here, “Ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for Jehovah”? As one has written, “Here it seems to be not so much what we have by Christ, but the fragrance in Christ Himself, of which God alone is the adequate judge, and which rises up before Him in all its perfection. How blessed for us! It is for us, but it is only in Him before God.”

We can appreciate to the full the five component parts of the holy anointing oil, which was not to be poured on man's flesh, but only on Aaron and his sons. Still, as they were taken from among men, five was the figure used, as is the case when man is in question, and it was excellent for “ordinances of divine service, and the worldly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1). And blessed are these seven (mystical perfection) ordinances, given us in verses 26 to 28, and lovely in their place as types. Nevertheless, as we contemplate what is represented by the perfume, one can but feel that here, as elsewhere, there is “the glory that excelleth” (2 Corinthians 3:10).

W. N. T.

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 19

“And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As Jehovah liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take, but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto Jehovah. In this thing Jehovah pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way” (2 Kings 5:15-19).

It is not to be supposed that the man of God was ignorant of, or indifferent to, the struggle that had been going on in, the heart of Naaman between faith and unbelief. It was in reality a conflict between God and Satan for the possession of a soul. The Spirit of God had brought it to a happy termination. Human instrumentality, insignificant and unpretentious in this case, had been largely made use of, but the chief actors had not, up to this point, discovered themselves. We cannot but admire the wisdom and propriety with which Elisha carried himself all the way through, standing aside while the conflict was in progress as a servant that “knoweth not what his lord doeth.” He has but to deliver Jehovah's message without addition or diminution, as becomes one entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation. But the mind of man reveals its disappointment and dissatisfaction with the gospel of the grace of God, and manifests, as in Naaman's case, its open rebellion against the means prescribed by God to induce the sinner to give up his own thoughts and the reasoning of unbelief. The ambassador has faithfully to deliver the message committed to him, and to leave the result with God. It is not his to try and make it palatable, by giving up what arouses opposition. He knows that at all times God is well pleased when His beloved Son is well spoken of, and the gospel faithfully preached. “For we are a sweet odor of Christ to God in the saved and in those that perish; to the one an odor from death unto death, but to the other an odor from life unto life; and who is sufficient for these things? For we do not, as the many, make a trade of the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15-17).

A spirit of earnest sincerity, witness of a love that seeks in order to save and bless, underlies the gospel, which in itself rarely fails to attract. “Let him come now to me,” awakened hope in the heart of Naaman, but the more peremptory command, “Go and wash,” destroyed those hopes which had been wrongly placed. “Behold, I thought,” revealed the pride of a corrupt heart, which (in the matter of salvation) would dictate terms to God, but the light of God had nevertheless truly dawned upon him, and so eventually we hear his confession of it in the words, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.” What an amazing discovery! And in what a way of grace to make it! The only God in all the earth had been found of a poor Gentile leper; found, too, in Israel's land, while certainly Israel's king acknowledged Him not. But Esaias is very bold, and says, “I have been found by those not seeking me; I have become manifest to those not inquiring after me. But unto Israel he says, All the day long have I stretched out my hands to a people disobeying and opposing” (Romans 10:20, 21).

Well might the great apostle of the Gentiles, with a heart full of love for his brethren after the flesh, seek to use such a marvelous fact for the blessing of some of them. “For I speak to you, the nations, inasmuch as I am apostle of nations, I glorify my ministry; if by any means I shall provoke to jealousy them which are my flesh, and shall save some from among them” (Romans 11:13, 14). And will not God use it effectually in a day which is yet future, in answer to the prayer of an afflicted and repentant remnant (Isaiah 64:12, and 65:1)? Then will assurance and certainty, as the result of God's work in the soul, take the place of “vain thoughts,” fruits of a darkened understanding which had repelled grace and insulted Jehovah and His servant. “Better things... and things which accompany salvation,” we may say, were now to appear in the case before us, and these were wonderfully similar in character to those fruits which rejoiced the heart of the apostle Paul as he marked their development in his beloved Thessalonians. “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you at our prayers, remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labor of love, and enduring constancy of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father” (1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3). The Thessalonian converts had believed the gospel which Paul preached, responding heartily and in all simplicity to the grace presented. They had borne fruit in like character to that divine grace which had visited them. And, in its measure, it was so with Naaman. One hardly knows which to admire most-the generous devotion of the cleansed leper pressing his gifts upon Elisha, or the faithfulness in which the latter refused all that was offered, declining to enrich himself by compromising the testimony of that free yet sovereign grace of which he had been the channel.

The tribute of the Gentiles has been rendered to God's earthly people in the past and will yet again be rendered to Israel in the future (compare 2 Chronicles 9:23, 24, with Psalm 72). Their gifts shall come with acceptance to the earthly dwelling-place and altar of Jehovah. But at this time Israel was unbelieving and contemptuous of the grace represented by the ministry of Elisha, so that no glory could in truth accrue to Israel, or indeed to any but to Jehovah Himself. It would be better and more excellent for the Syrian to return to his own land, and build an altar to Jehovah there, as in coming millennial days when God shall have accomplished all that He has ever promised for Israel, it shall be said, “In that day there shall be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah.” “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land. When Jehovah shall bless saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands; and Israel mine inheritance” (Isaiah 19: 19, 23, 25). Truly God has given in His word many a pledge and guarantee of blessing which awaits not only Israel, but the world, when there shall be the universal acknowledgment of Jehovah and subjection to His order then established in power on the earth.

How perfect is divine workmanship! He who had but a little before spoken disparagingly of “the waters of Israel,” now begs for two mules' burden of earth! Had it been suggested to him earlier as an essential condition to his cleansing, he might have regarded it as an unnecessary incumbrance; but in his altered state of mind the very soil of the land of Israel was sacred to him, where he had come to know God as Jehovah Rophi— “that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26). When God is known thus as a Savior God, to build an altar to Him (in a manner of speaking) is the suited thing to do. Now that Christ has come, God can only he truly owned and worshipped as a “just God and a Savior” when He is known as One who, in the death of His Son, has laid a righteous and adequate basis for the everlasting deliverance and blessing of man. So also did Jacob, at an earlier day, when bidden by God to “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee.” “So Jacob came to Luz...that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Bethel, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother” (Genesis 35:1, 6, 7).

Grace manifested in Christ removes man's disabilities, sets before him an object to be worshipped, and supplies both motives and methods such as God can acknowledge and accept. To have learned only that “there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” could but bring sorrow to Naaman; for he dwelt, not there, but in Syria. But this was not all that he had learned. He had learned the true character of God Himself, who had established him in the position of a worshipper, cleansed, accepted, and welcome to draw near, even as the heirs of promise. Naaman was to go back to his own land with all the riches he had brought. They had been refused, but he had been cleansed and accepted. The same God who had delivered Israel from the bondage of Egypt and set Himself before them as the one object of worship, had been revealed to Naaman with the same result. To Israel, He had given the ten words, which proclaimed His holy jealousy against all false gods, and then He adds, “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen; in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee” (Exodus 20).

“And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods but unto Jehovah. In this thing Jehovah pardon thy servant: when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon thy servant in this thing” (vers. 17, 18). The revelation of God as He has declared Himself, the association of His name with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that which gives the character of truth to worship; while the passing away of all forms and ceremonies now rendered obsolete by the death of Christ requires that worship rendered to a God as now revealed in Christianity should be spiritual. “Jesus saith to her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeketh such as his worshippers. God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24).

The question then arises, Who are they who are thus eligible to draw near and worship? Those who have bowed to the truth and believed the gospel. So did Naaman. The revelation of the Father which the Son alone was competent to make was not indeed anticipated, nor was it a question of place, or Jerusalem would have been insisted upon. But the same Spirit of God who now witnesses to the efficacy of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:15) instructed in that day the cleansed Gentile leper in his acknowledgment of benefits conferred. We may well marvel at this propriety of action and correctness of expression on Naaman's part did we not know that the Teacher was divine and His way is perfect. Elisha could but stand aside, and refrain from hindering where he had no authority to sanction. For such a work was quite outside the revealed ways of God with Israel, and apart from all that had hitherto been made known, whether of leprosy and its cleansing, or of worship and its essential requisites. Yet surely Elisha was here a type of God's righteous Servant, who, when here on earth, in the same place and in similar circumstances acknowledged the faith which God had wrought in the heart of a stranger and accepted the worship (as unconventional as that of Naaman) which was rendered to Him by the cleansed Samaritan of Luke 17:11-19.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 7. Time of the End, Continued

VII.—The Time of the End (continued)

Now we come to that verse of deep significance, the 27th. “He shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week.” The pronoun, of course, refers to the last person mentioned, “the prince that shall come"; that is, of the Roman people. It is needless to say that this covenanting of a Roman prince with the Jewish people is an event yet future. No Roman prince has yet made such a covenant; nor has that people been in a position to reciprocate, since the destruction of Jerusalem and their scattering over the face of the earth. Here, however, we have the last week of the seventy. The expression “the many” means the majority of the nation, in contrast with the godly remnant already placed before the reader. At the time of the end, therefore, there are to be dealings between the Roman Empire and the mass of the people of Israel, and we have already seen the prominence of Israel in the latter day.

Events of current history help us to understand this. Who has not noticed the great stir of late amongst the Jews? What means the “Zionist movement” but the incipience of a corporate and national activity? Is it not a budding of something that will yet bear fruit? In ver. 27 we see a covenant with the mass of Israel which a Roman prince is to confirm for a hebdomad. This has generally been taken to mean that he shall make a firm covenant; but there seems no reason why the phrase should not be understood in its simple sense of confirming a covenant already made. Indeed, the latter sense would coincide with the general tenor of prophecy as regards Israel, for, near the close of the age, we find Israel having a national and religio-political existence; their land restored to them, and the temple rebuilt. When one considers their present position as foretold by Hosea, viz., that “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 epod, and without teraphim” (chap. 3:4); when we see them persecuted, barely tolerated, exiled through centuries from their own land; and their highest ambition to gain equality with Gentiles; when we find all this reversed, and that they are in a position to make a treaty with the head of the Roman Empire, it is obvious that a vast political change must have occurred as regards that people.

If, however, scripture shows that some great power will take up the case of Israel, sending ambassadors to them, it becomes easy to understand that when the Roman prince of Daniel 9 comes upon the scene, he might find a treaty or covenant with Israel in existence which it would be to his interest not to set aside, but to confirm.

Strikingly apposite to this is the 18th chapter of Isaiah. The Authorized Version of this chapter is preferable to the Revised, which latter appears to have got further away from the sense of the original. The following is the corrected rendering of the late Mr. J. N. Darby— “Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush, that sendest ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, [saying, Go, swift messengers to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible (or, marvelous) from their existence and thenceforth; to a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, see ye, and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye! For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will observe from my dwelling-place like clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning knives, and take away [and] cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth; and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a people scattered and ravaged—and from a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth, a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled,... to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion” (vers. 1-7).

This remarkable prophecy points to some nation very distant from the land of Israel— “beyond the rivers of Cush,” described as “shadowing with wings,” which sends “ambassadors over the sea to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible (or, marvelous) from their existence and thenceforth, to a nation of continued waiting and treading down” —which latter terms graphically outline the nation of Israel. Here is indicated the befriending of Israel by some maritime nation of widely extended protective power— “shadowing with wings.” Vers. 3-6 intimate that Jehovah stands utterly aloof from all this, for the movement is purely worldly and political, without a trace of repentance on the part of the guilty people. Probably the befriending nation makes a treaty with Israel to restore their land to them and protect them in building their temple and re-establishing their worship. At all events the Roman prince will “confirm a covenant” with the mass of the nation.

Should the reader be curious as to this most interesting chapter of Isaiah, it may be well to explain, without staying now to prove it, that ver. 1 expresses the aloofness of Jehovah from Israel when returned unrepentant to the land; vers. 5 and 6 the awful carnage which comes in judgment upon the apostate mass who will have received and worshipped “the man of sin” ("the antichrist") in the temple; while ver. 7 represents the godly remnant, brought as an offering or present to Jehovah of hosts, when the wicked of Israel will have been destroyed. With fullest desire not to travel beyond the record, yet the description of the tutelary power in Isaiah can scarcely be read without the mind receiving, from the terms of the prophecy, a suggestion of England. No country could be better described as “shadowing with wings,” nor more distinguished for friendship to oppressed peoples—especially the Jews. It would be wrong, however, to assume that England is necessarily indicated, for we do not know what nation may, or may not, at the date in question, answer as well or better, to the terms of the prophecy. The phrase, “Woe to the land shadowing,” etc., is preferably translated, “Ha! land shadowing,” etc., and “beyond the rivers of Cush” may be simply expressive of extreme and unknown distance from the land of the prophet, beyond the remote parts of Africa.

Reverting now to the last week of the seventy, we find that in the midst of that week the Roman prince causes the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This shows that the Jewish ritual is at this time established; not that the Roman prince caused it to be installed, as that probably was a subject of the covenant which he “confirmed” for a week. But now in the middle of the week, he breaks the covenant, obviously, in order to substitute for the Jewish sacrifice the worship of himself and of the antichrist in the temple. This seems a legitimate inference from the general tenor of the prophecies. That is, “abomination” is a name for an object of idolatrous worship, and we find that the antichrist is to set himself up for worship in the temple. It seems unavoidable that this must be the “abomination of desolation” which scripture predicts to stand in the holy place—a view which is somewhat confirmed by another verse of Daniel which makes the two events to be simultaneous, inasmuch as that they together, are given as a point of time, from which a certain number of days is to be reckoned, viz., “From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days” (12:11).

Now the instruction for those of the remnant who are in Judaea at this time is immediate flight into the mountains: there is not to be a moment's delay for any consideration whatever. Notice, in passing, the tender solicitude of Christ for His persecuted people. They are told to pray that their flight might not be in the winter, neither on the sabbath day, for then ensues a tribulation such as the world has never yet seen, nor ever will again. “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). We of the present day who may freely hold and profess whatever faith we choose, enjoying the beneficent protection of government, can have but a faint apprehension of the cruel and relentless oppression of that time. An image is to be made of “the beast,” and all who will not worship the image will be killed (Revelation 13:1.5). As beheading (20:4) is stated to be the mode of this death, probably the guillotine will be again at work. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (13:16; 17). Thus, even short of death, there will be harassments and persecutions from which there will be no escape. Acknowledgment of the dragon's representative, the beast, will be insisted upon. The mark must be in the right hand, or on the forehead; no occupation can be followed, no one can sell and no one buy, except in the name of the beast; no exception will be allowed; the noble and the peasant, the poor man and the millionaire, the slave and the freeman must bow to and acknowledge Satan in his representative—the beast. The prophetic words are only the graphic touches of a sketch, but reading, as it were, between the lines, one can understand that the tribulation will be, as the Lord said, “such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be.”

This great tribulation will probably have its vortex where the image of the beast is set up—in Jerusalem—but it will be world-wide; for the great multitude of Revelation 7 (see vers. 9-14), and who are of every nation and tribe and people and tongue are stated to have come out of “the great tribulation” —not merely (as in the Authorized Version) great tribulation, such as might happen to any godly person at any time. This is “the great tribulation” (ἡ θλίψις ἡ μεγάλη)

And what will be the end of all this? The Lord says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Matthew 24:29). This is the symbolical language of prophecy; but how is it to be interpreted? Peter tells us that no prophecy of the scripture is of its own, or isolated interpretation (ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως.); that is, the whole of the scripture hangs together, and there is a consistency, if not uniformity, in the use of prophetic figures. Now in Genesis the greater light, the lesser light, and the stars are described as ruling the day and the night respectively; and it will be found throughout the Revelation and prophecy generally, that the heavenly bodies are symbols of rule—the sun supreme authority, the moon reflected, while the stars represent the minor and subordinate vessels of rule. In the 29th verse then is symbolically portrayed the complete upsettal of all government immediately upon the conclusion of Daniel's seventieth week. What follows the great political convulsion? “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the land lament, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). To all, except the godly, how appalling will be this sight; but to the Jews who will have accepted, and glorified in, the “lawless” king, the antichrist, how terrible will it be to see the Jesus whom they had crucified and despised, suddenly appear on the clouds of heaven in supernal glory!

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

The Apostleship of Paul: Part 3

Our life and glory are thus both of a new character. The life is a new life. The man in Christ is a new creature; he is a dead and risen man. His powers and affections have acquired a new character. His intelligence is spiritual understanding, or “the mind of Christ.” His love is “love in the Spirit.” The power in him is “glorious power,” the power of Christ's resurrection. And so he knows no man after the flesh, but all things are become new to him. It is not enough that human affections or natural tastes would sanction anything; for, being after the Spirit, he minds the things of the Spirit. He serves in newness of spirit, and the name of the Lord Jesus is the sanction of what he does either in word or deed. He has been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and there he walks, going forth in assurance and liberty to do service from morning till evening, living by faith on Him who loved him and gave Himself for him.

The glory is also a new glory. It is something above all that was seen in previous ages. Excellent things have been spoken of Adam—and of Israel; but not equal to what is told us of the church. Christ is to present the church to Himself, as God presented Eve to Adam, to be the companion of his dominion and glory. The saints are to be con formed to the image of the Son. It is “the joy of the Lord” that is prepared for the saints, a share with Christ in the authority of the kingdom, in that which He has received from the Father. They are not so much brought into the glory as made glorious themselves; as we read, “The glory that shall be revealed in us"; and again, “glorified together,” that is, “together with Christ"; “fashioned like unto his glorious body.” The place of the Son is the scene of their glory. They are not to stand on the footstool, but to sit on the throne. Israel may have the blessings of the earth, but the church is to know the upper or heavenly glory.

And it is life and glory that makes us what we are. The life makes us children, the glory makes us heirs, and our sonship and inheritance are everything. And it was the gospel of this life and glory that Paul was specially called out to minister. Peter and the others forwarded it we know; but Paul was the distinguished steward of it. And Peter and the others did not forward this gospel as being the twelve at Jerusalem. As the twelve, they had borne their testimony to Israel, and been rejected like their Lord, and now had become witnesses to the heavenly calling of the church. The vision which instructed Peter in the fact that God had sanctified the Gentiles, might also have told him that God had made heaven, and not earth, the place of their calling, and the scene of their hopes. The vessel with its contents was let down from heaven, and then taken up again into heaven. This was, by a symbol, a revelation of the mystery hid from ages. It denoted that the church had been of old written in heaven and hid there with God, but now for a little season was manifested here, and in the end was to be hid in heaven again, having her glory and inheritance there. This was signified by the descending and ascending sheet, and such, I judge, is the character of the mystery hid from ages and generations. And according y this, Peter, under the Holy Ghost, speaks to the saints of their inheritance “reserved in heaven"; and exhorts them to wait with girded loins, as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. He presents the church as having consciously come to the end of all things here, and looking, like Israel in the night of the passover, towards Canaan, having done with this Egypt-world.

But Paul was apprehended in a special manner for this ministry. A dispensation of the gospel was committed to him, and woe to him if he did not preach it (1 Corinthians 9:16, 17). Though, as he speaks, it were even against his will, yet he must preach it. The Son was revealed in him for this very purpose, that he might preach Him among the heathen (Galatians 1:16). For when the Lord converted his soul, He sent him out with this gospel, “Rise, and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.”

I do indeed judge that it is very profitable to the saints that they discern rightly, that Paul's ministry was thus one stage in the divine process of telling out the purposes of God. That he holds a distinguished place in the church, the feeling of every saint will at once and without effort bear witness; for there is no name more kept in the recollections of the saints than that of our apostle, save the name of Him who in the hearts of His people has no fellow.

And his office being thus from heaven, he refuses to confer with flesh and blood-refuses to go up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before him. He was not to get himself sanctioned there or by them. Before this, the twelve at Jerusalem had all authority. But the apostles at Jerusalem are nothing to Paul or his ministry. They had not cast the lot over him, nor are they now to send him forth; but it is the Holy Ghost who says, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” And having thus received grace and apostleship from the Lord in the glory, and being now sent forth by the Holy Ghost, in full consistency with all this, he and Barnabas receive recommendation to the grace of God, from the hands of some unnamed brethren at Antioch. All this was a grievous breach upon that order that was to establish the earth in righteousness, beginning at Jerusalem.

And not only was Paul's apostleship and mission thus independent of Jerusalem, and of the twelve; but the gospel which he preached (the nature of which we have before considered), he did not learn either there or from them. He received it not from man, neither was he taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He goes up, most truly, from Antioch, with Barnabas, to Jerusalem, to confer with the apostles about circumcision; but before he does so, he withstood some, though they had come from James, and rebuked Peter before them all. And these thinks were ordered in the provident wisdom of the Spirit; just as our Lord's rebukes of His mother; the Spirit of God foreseeing the boasts in the flesh which would arise from both these sources, from Mary and from Peter; and thus has given the wayfaring man these tokens of his heavenward path. He circulates the decree upon the question of circumcision, for present peace. But when counseling the Gentile churches afterward on one of the subjects which this decree determines, viz., eating meats offered to idols, he does so on the ground merely of brotherly love. He never refers to this decree (1 Corinthians 8). He was taught his gospel entirely by revelation (Galatians 1:12), for at his conversion it had been so promised to him (Acts 26:16). And accordingly it was from the Lord Himself that he received his knowledge of the death, burial, resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3), and his knowledge also of the last supper and its meaning (1 Corinthians 11:23); though these things lay within the common acquaintance of those who had companied with the Lord, and he might have received them from them. But, no; he must be taught them all by revelation. The Lord appeared to him in those things of which he was to be a minister and witness. The Lord was jealous that Paul should not confer with flesh and blood-should not be a debtor to any but to Himself for his gospel. For as the dispensation was to allow of no confidence in the flesh, neither was Paul's apostleship. All that might have been gain in the flesh, was to be counted loss. Conference with those who had seen and heard, eaten and drunk with Jesus, might have been gain; but all this was set aside. Paul would thankfully he refreshed in spirit by the mutual faith of himself and the humblest disciple. Nay, he would have such acknowledged; all such in whose belly the Spirit had opened the river of God for the refreshing of the saints (Romans 1:12; 1 Corinthians 16:18). But he could accept no man's person. The previous pillars of the church could not be used to support his ministry.

The Jewish order was gone. Of old, Jehovah, we know, had respect to that order. It was according to the number of the children of Israel, that at the first He divided the nations (Deuteronomy 32:8). Afterward He distributed the land of Canaan according to this number also, that is, among the twelve tribes (Joshua 13-19.). So David in his day, under the guiding of Jehovah, had respect to the same number, when he settled the ministries of the temple, and the officers of the palace at Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 23-27). And in like manner, the Lord provided for the healing and teaching of Israel, appointed twelve apostles, still having respect to the Jewish order. And this order of twelve apostles was preserved, as we have seen, under the hand of Peter afterward; for he was the guardian of the Jewish order, and pastor of the Jewish saints. But Paul's apostleship is at once an invasion upon all this. It has no respect whatever to Jewish, earthly, or fleshly order. It interferes with it. It is a writing under the hand of the Spirit of God for the revoking of that order. And this was, as was natural, a great trial to the Jewish Christians. They could not easily understand this undue apostleship, and we find that he was considerate of them under this trial. And, indeed, those who stand with him in the assertion of the sovereignty of the Spirit, and in the rejection of all fleshly authority, should with him likewise be considerate of the difficulties which many now experience from the Jewish feelings and rules of judgment, in which they have been educated. But still, Paul was an apostle, let them hear, or let them forbear.

And not only was it a trial to Jewish believers, but there were found evil men moved of Satan, who made their use of this state of things. We find it to have been so at Corinth. In Galatia it was not this. In his epistle to the churches there, he does not speak of his apostleship because it had been slandered among them, but because it was the divine sanction of that gospel which he had preached, and from which they had departed. But at Corinth his apostleship had been questioned, and by what witnesses would he have it approved? why, by his pureness, his knowledge, his armor of righteousness (2 Corinthians 6). How does he seek to be received? why, because he had corrupted no man, he had defrauded no man (2 Corinthians 7). How does he vindicate and establish his ministry? read his proofs in such words as these-” Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are ye not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you, for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 9). And again, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4). Does he not by all this commit the proof of his apostleship to the manifest presence of the Spirit with him? His children in the faith were the seal of his office (1 Corinthians 9:2); the epistle that ought to commend it to the acceptance of all men. The signs of an apostle had been wrought by him (2 Corinthians 12:12). And must it not have been so? What office or ministry could now be warranted without the presence and exercise of the gifts received for men? Could the purpose of the ascension be evaded or annulled? Could fleshly authority and order be allowed in despite of the revelation now given, that the ascended Head was the dispenser and Lord of all those ministries that were for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ? When the Lord ascended, on His way up, He was a conqueror in triumph, leading captivity captive. But when He reached His heavenly seat, He became a crowned priest, and sent down coronation gifts to His church, by the ministry of which He is either forming or strengthening the union between Himself and the members here, and their union among themselves. These ministries thus act like the joints and bands in the human body; and all other ministries the apostle sets aside as “rudiments of the world,” fitted to those who are alive in the world, but most unsuited to those who are—as the church is—dead and risen with Christ (see Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 2:19-23).

[ J. L. H.]

(Continued from page 219)

(To be continued)

Address on Hebrews 9:13-17: Part 2

We have seen three grand connected and essential truths of Christianity from the point of view which the Holy Ghost is bringing before us in this Epistle. The first is, that we draw near at once and immediately into the presence of God. I mean “at once,” because it is entirely dependent upon the work of Christ; it has nothing at all to do with any measure of attainment on our part, but by the simple faith of the gospel; and I call it “immediately,” because there is nothing between God and the believer, as was the case under the Levitical system. It is a cardinal truth of Christianity, in short, that there is no veil between God and him who believes in Jesus Christ. And this is no question of a privilege enjoyed at rare intervals, or under specially happy circumstances; it has nothing at all to do with progress; it is the fruit of Christ's work, and nothing else, except that the Spirit of God has brought a soul to own its sins as well as the Savior. It is to confess the Savior in the faith of what the Savior has done; for it is very possible for a soul to look to the Savior and still to keep, like the publican in the parable, afar from God, in the consciousness of his failure, beating his breast, and calling upon God to show His compassion to him, the sinner. Now there are a great many souls—perhaps the great mass of those that are born of God—who are in this condition now; but it is not Christianity. I do not mean by this that they are not Christians, but it is not Christianity. Christianity supposes immediate access to God Himself, a privilege which evidently cannot be without the complete removal of every hindrance. This is precisely what the death of Christ on the cross has effected, and now the gospel comes to bring the believer into the confession and enjoyment of it. Till a person therefore enters into that enjoyment it is not really and properly Christianity, although the man may be truly born of God. This then is one thing; but there is another blessing connected with it, that it is not for a time, as it does not depend upon anything transient: Christ obtained eternal redemption. It is in contrast with the temporal deliverance of Israel. It was pointed out last Wednesday that the words “for us” venture to say what no man ought to add. As God has not done so, it is presumptuous for man to insert them. They are not only not necessary to fill up the sense, but introduce another thought which overlays what is meant. For the chief of all requirements is that God should be free to deal with man, and this Christ has amply secured. He entered into the holiest having found eternal redemption. God's rights were upheld, and this forever. There is a third truth connected with it all, and that is the purging of our conscience. Under the Jewish system it was a question of flesh being sanctified. A man defiled himself by touching a dead body; a dead man in a tent, or anything that was not according to the exigencies of God's law. Unquestionably there was provision to meet the defilement; but while he remained defiled, he had no right to argue about matters, or reason as to how this could affect God: there was the plain fact that God pronounced him a defiled man, and if he ventured to despise Him, death might have been his portion in a moment. They were under the direct government of God, till this terminated with God's writing Lo-ammi on His people, as we all know. God even removed the last sign of it at the time of the Babylonish captivity. Then every vestige of theocracy was completely swept away, and never since replaced, as it never will be until our Lord returns to govern the earth. There was no doubt the still more wonderful presence of God when our Lord Jesus came down here below, but this was for a still more wonderful purpose, namely, the accomplishment of righteous access to God in all its immediateness: the perfection of redemption in all its eternal character; and, finally, the purging of the conscience by Christ's blood. For if a man has a bad conscience what good end could immediate access to God serve on his behalf? And where would be the value of redemption as eternal if the man abode miserable in his soul? What would take away that misery but the certainty that all his sins were completely remitted, and that his conscience was perfectly purified by the blood of Christ? This was quite a new status for a soul.

“If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean.” There are two things-"the blood of bulls and goats” on the one hand; and “the ashes of an heifer” on the other. The distinction was briefly pointed out on the last occasion, and a few words upon it may be well now, because it completely disposes of the common idea of a frequent recurrence to blood, which is one of the tests of a human gospel instead of a divine one. A human gospel always imagines that a man must, when he fails, begin again: that the believer, whenever he may have sinned, must as often go back to the blood. Certainly, if he has lost the blood; but is this true? What sort of a gospel is that? The Christian is eternally redeemed then, which is really the fact. Eternal life is very little believed in by God's children, and eternal redemption, if possible, less. Now it is one of the striking contrasts of Christianity with Judaism that in Judaism all was tentative and experimental in the sense of its being a trial: all was of a temporary character and conditional on the good behavior of the person; whereas now that Christ is come, all is changed, and all blessing depends upon Him. And what is more, Christ our life produces fidelity toward God no less than self-judgment, and hence humility in presence of His grace.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

Separation From Evil, God's Principle of Unity: Part 1

The need of union is felt now by every right-minded Christian. The power of evil is felt by all. Its pressure comes too near home, its rapid and gigantic strides are too evident, and affect too nearly the particular feelings which characterize distinctively every class of Christians, to allow them to be blind to it, however little they may appreciate its true bearing and character. Better and holier feelings, too, arouse them to the sense of common danger, and, as far as it is entrusted to man's responsibility, the danger in which the cause of God is, from those who never did, and never would spare it: and wherever the Spirit of God acts, so as to make the saints value grace and truth, it tends to union, because there is but one Spirit, one truth, and one body.

The feelings which the sense of the progress of evil produces may be different. Some, though they are but few, may yet trust to the bulwarks they have long looked at, but which had their force only in a respect for them which exists no longer. Others may trust to a fancied force of truth, which it has never exerted but in a little flock, because God and the work of His Spirit were there. Others, to a union which never yet was the instrument of power on the side of good; that is, a union by concord and agreement. While others may feel bound to abstain from such an agreed union, by reason of previously subsisting obligations, or prepossessions, so that the union tends to form only a party. But the sense of danger is universal. That which was long mocked at as a theory, is now too practically felt to be denied; though the apprehensions of the word, which made those who were subjected to that mockery foresee the evil, may be rejected and slighted still.

But this state of things produces difficulties and dangers of a peculiar kind to the saints, and leads to the inquiry, where the path of the saint is, and where true union is to be found. There is danger, from the very blessedness and desirableness of union, of those who have long truly felt its value and the obligation that lay on the saints to maintain it, being led to follow the impulse of such as refused to see it when it was spoken of from the word, and to abandon the very principles and path which their own clearer apprehension of the word of God led them to embrace from it, as foreseeing the coming storm. They learn from that precious word that it was coming; and, while calmly studying it in the word, saw the path marked out there for the believer in such, and indeed, in every time. It is now pressed upon them to desert it for that suggested to men's minds by the pressure of the anxieties they anticipated, but which, though there may be an impulse of good in it, the word of God itself did not furnish when inquired into in peace. But is this the path of the saints? To turn from that which generally rejected intelligence of the word afforded them, to pursue the light of those who would not see? This, however, is not the only danger; nor is it my object to dwell on the dangers, but the remedy. There is a constant tendency in the mind to fall into sectarianism, and to make a basis of union of the opposite of what I have here just alluded to: that is, of a system of some kind or other to which the mind is attached, and round which saints or others are gathered; and which, assuming itself to be based on a true principle of unity, regards as schism whatever separates from itself. Attaching the name of unity to what is not God's center and plan of unity. Wherever this is the case, it will be found that the doctrine of unity becomes a sanction for some kind of moral evil, for something contrary to the word of God; and the authority of God Himself, which is attached to the idea of unity, becomes, through the instrumentality of this latter thought, a means of engaging the saints to continue in evil. Moreover, continuance in this evil is enforced by all the difficulty which unbelief finds to separate from that in which it is settled, and where the natural heart finds its ties, and, generally, temporal interests the sphere of their support.

Now, unity is a divine doctrine and principle; but, as evil is possible wherever unity is taken by itself, so as to be a conclusive authority, wherever evil does enter, the conclusive obligation of unity hinds to the evil, because the unity where the evil is, is not to be broken. Of this we have a flagrant example in Romanism. There the unity of the church is the grand basis of argument; and it has been the ground of keeping the world, we may say, in every sanctioned enormity, and made the name of Christianity its warrant: an authority to bind souls to evil, till the name itself became shameful to the natural conscience of man. The plea of unity may then be in a measure, the latitudinarianism which flows from the absence of principle; it may be the narrowness of a sect formed on an idea; or, it may be, as taken by itself, the claim to be the church of God, and hence in principle secure as much indifference to evil as it is the convenience of the body of its rulers to allow, or is in the power of Satan to drag them into. If the name of unity then be so powerful in itself, and in virtue of blessings withal which God Himself has attached to it, it behooves us well to understand what the unity He owns really is. This it is I would propose to inquire into; acknowledging the desire for it to be a good thing, and many of the attempts at it to contain in them elements of godly feeling, even when the means may not carry conviction to the judgment as being those of God.

Again, it will be at once admitted, that God Himself must be the spring and center of unity, and that He alone can be in power or title. Any center of unity outside God must be so far a denial of His Godhead and glory: an independent center of influence and power, and God is one—the just, true, and only center of all true unity. Whatever is not dependent on this is rebellion. But this so simple, and, to the Christian, necessary truth, clears our way at once. Man's fall is the reverse of this. He was a subordinate creature, an image too of Him that was to come; he would become an independent one, and he is, in sin and rebellion, the slave of a mightier rebel than himself, whether in the dispersion of several self-will, or its concentration in the dominion of the man of the earth. But then we must, in consequence of this, go a step further. God must be a center in blessing as well as power, when He surrounds Himself with united and morally intelligent hosts. We may know that He will punish rebellion with everlasting destruction from His presence into the hopelessness of uncentred and selfish individual misery and hatred: but He Himself must be a center of blessing and holiness, for He is a holy God, and He is love. Indeed, holiness in us, while it is by its nature separation from evil, is just having God, the holy One, who is love too, the object, center, and spring of our affections. He makes us partakers of His holiness (for He is essentially separate from all evil which He knows as God, though as His contrary); but in us, holiness must consist in our affections, thoughts, and conduct being centered in, and derived from, Him a place maintained in entire dependence upon Him. Of the establishment and power of this unity in the Son and Spirit I will speak presently. It is the great and glorious truth itself on which I now insist.

This great principle is true even in creation. It was formed in unity, and God its only possible center. It shall be brought into it yet again, and centered in Christ as its head, even in the Son, by whom, and for whom, all things were created (Colossians 1:16). It is man's glory (though his ruin as fallen) to be made, thus, a center in his place—the image of Him that is to come; but, alas, his imitation in a state of rebellion in this same place, when fallen. I know not, I would venture to say no more, that angels were ever made the center of any system; but man was. It was his glory to be the lord and center of this lower world; an associate but dependent Eve his companion and help in his presence. He was the image and glory of God. His dependence made him look up; and this is true glory and blessedness to all but God. Dependence looks up, and is exalted above itself. Independence must look down (for it cannot in a creature be filled with itself) and is degraded. Dependence is true exaltation in a creature, when the object of it is right. The primeval state of man was not holiness in the proper sense of it, because evil was not known. It was not a divine, but it was a blessed, creation state; it was innocence. But this was lost in the assertion of independence. If man became as God, knowing good and evil, it was with a guilty conscience, the slave of the evil he knew, and in an independence he could not sustain himself in, while he had morally lost God to depend on.

With this state, for we must now descend to the present actual question of unity, with man in this state—God has to deal, if true real unity such as He can own is to be attained. Now, He must be still the center. It is not therefore in mere creative power. Evil exists. The world is lying in wickedness, and the God of unity is the holy God. Separation therefore, separation from evil, becomes the necessary and sole basis and principle, I do not say the power, of unity. For God must be the center and power of that unity, and evil exists: and from that corruption they must be separate who are to be in God's unity, for He can have no union with evil. Hence, I repeat, we have this great fundamental principle, that separation from evil is the basis of all true unity. Without this, it is more or less attaching God's authority to evil, and rebellion against His authority: as is all unity independent of Him. It is a sect in its lightest and feeblest forms. In its fullest it is the great apostasy, of which one of the characteristics, as ecclesiastical or secular power, is unity; but unity by subjection of man to what is independent really or openly of God, because it is of His word: not established by subjection to the holy One, according to His word, and by the power of the Spirit working in them that are united, and by His presence which is the personal power of union in the body. But this separation is not yet by judicial power, which separates, not the good from the evil, the precious from the vile, but the vile from the precious, banishing it from His presence: in judgment binding up the tares in bundles, and casting them into the furnace of fire—gathering out of His kingdom all things that offend, Satan and his angels being himself cast down, and all things thereupon being gathered together in one in Christ, in heaven and in earth. Then the world, not the conscience, will be cleared from evil by the judgment which will not allow it, but early cut off all the wicked; not by the power and testimony of the Spirit of God.

It is not now the time of this judicial separation of the evil from the good in the world as the field of Christ, by the cutting off and destruction of the wicked. But unity is not therefore given up out of the thoughts of God, nor can He have recognized union with evil. There is one spirit and one body. He gathers together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad.

And now as to the principle in general. God is working in the midst of evil to produce a unity of which He is the center and the spring; and which owns dependently His authority. He does not do it yet by the judicial clearing away of the wicked; He cannot unite with the wicked, or have a union which serves them. How can it be then, this union? He separates the called from the evil. “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.” As it is written, “I will dwell in them and walk in them,” etc. Now, here we have it distinctly set forth. This was God's way of gathering. It was by saying, Come out from among them. He could not have gathered true unity around Him otherwise. Since evil exists, yea, is our natural condition, there cannot be union of which the holy God is the center and power but by separation from it. Separation is the first element of unity and union.

[J. N. D.]

(To be continued)

Erratum

P. 213, Col. 2, L. 11-For C.:1. B. read C.R.B.

'VICTORIA HALL ADDRESSES By DR. WREFoun New Series ONE PENNY 1.:ACII No. 1.-" One Wonder Hour by Galilee " What is there after Death? " The Majesty of Suffering " (in preparation) For Free Distribution, 50,- net per 1,000

Published

LONDON T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 20

While grace thus manifested its presence and character by positive fruits in a way acceptable to God and cheering to the heart of His servant, the evidence of an exercised conscience bore convincing testimony to the reality of the change which Naaman had experienced. The circumstances before us are not the portrayal of the case of one breaking with old associations, or departing from evil habits, but of one returning a changed man to his responsible position in the service of the king of Syria. Worship of Jehovah and obedience to Him would not be easy in the midst of idolatrous surroundings, and already, before his return to Syria, Naaman contemplated in a very different way to formerly the circumstances and requirements of his honorable position. To be closely associated with his royal master on all state occasions, and to take part in the worship of Rimmon, had hitherto been congenial to his feelings, and indeed flattering to him as a distinguished courtier. But the very thing which formerly ministered to his pride is now distasteful, and becomes an act of sin calling for judgment if not pardoned. “And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way” (ver. 19).

What had changed? Only the heart of Naaman. What made the difference? The light had broken in upon his soul. A new moral standard was set up within him. “The entrance of thy word giveth light,” and all outward action must conform to the purity of that which had established its own authority within him. It was not a law from without requiring obedience under promise of blessing, or putting a restraint upon him with pain and penalties in case of disobedience. Nor was it only the divine authority of that word to which he had reluctantly submitted, but the revelation had been one of grace. Jehovah, the only God in all the earth, had interested Himself on his behalf—himself a miserable, unclean Gentile leper; and when the great ones of Israel would have sent him away, Jehovah had sent His servant with the message, “Let him come now to me.” Obedience of faith receives the blessing, and grace impresses its own character upon the receiver. “For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously, in the present course of things, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).

In Naaman's case there was but a limited display of grace and personal to himself, having reference solely to his own bodily condition. It was not calculated to lift him out of himself, and did not set before him a “blessed hope.” But the grace which came by Jesus Christ, and is now in presentation by the gospel, has appeared in all its fullness, bringing salvation for all men and opening up a prospect of glory and blessing, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the center and effulgence. It is impossible that such grace should visit the soul and leave it unchanged. Once received, it teaches, and so it was with Naaman. Divine wisdom characterized Elisha's reply. He neither sanctioned a relapse into idolatrous practices nor imposed the law of Moses upon a Gentile. “Go in peace” left him free to follow the leading of that light and grace which had entered his soul. This display of grace was perfect according to God's own character and way. But now we are given to see the counter working of the adversary of God and man.

“But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought, but as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him and said, is all well? And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow” (2 Kings 5:20-27).

A solemn picture indeed! needing but little in the way of explanation. We have seen that the same malignant power of Satan was actively working in many ways to prevent the reception of the blessing. Defeated in that, he uses the most suited instrument to his hand to give God the lie, and to rob Him of His glory. That instrument was found in the service of the man of God-one who dwelt in his house and had doubtless seen many other displays of grace, but who was himself absolutely indifferent to Jehovah's glory and unaffected in heart by all that he had been privileged to witness. He only saw in this recent example an opportunity of enriching himself at the expense of the testimony. See how contemptuously he speaks of the one whom God had blessed! and how profanely he makes use of Jehovah's name to sanction the infamy which he proposed! “Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian in not receiving at his hands that which he brought; but as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.” As we have before seen, grace received imparts its own character to the receiver; and not only so, but having its source and spring in God's love as now manifested in Christ, it takes its course of blessing through the saints making them channels of blessing to others, and returns to God in worship. This is true now of saints individually (see John 7:37-39), as it will also be manifested corporately in the church's relations to the millennial earth, as we see in Revelation 22:1-3.

The reverse of this is to be seen in the ease of such as have become familiar with truth as to its outward expression and the present ways of God in grace, while themselves strangers in heart to the power and reality of either. Just as Naaman had exhibited the fruits of grace received in tenderness of conscience and devotedness of heart, so did the unrenewed heart of Gehazi display itself in all the horrible repulsiveness of nature. Satan works most readily and effectively upon the religiously instructed mind. It is those who have learned about God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, and who have thus some knowledge of the truth, that are more efficient servants of the devil than are those who have not such knowledge. The sin of Gehazi has been the sin of Christendom. In the early days of the church's history, the new testimony to the name of Jesus was maintained with such power and earnestness, and so abundantly blessed by the Holy Ghost in this same city of Samaria, that there was great joy in that city. Grace was there again asserting itself, and also maintaining its own proper character. But just as the covetousness of Gehazi betrayed him into the hands of Satan for the corrupting of the testimony, so in that early day the same evil principle manifested itself in New Testament times in one who had the reputation of being called “the great power of God,” who also “believed” and was baptized, and was admitted into the Christian profession. Such was Simon Magus (Acts 8), a professed believer, but who was proved to have “neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.”

These tactics of the devil are more effective than open opposition; interfering with the action of grace, and corrupting the motives and testimony of such as proclaim it. But there was in the early history of the church the spiritual power and energy of the apostles, which exposed and judged these evil ways, and for the moment restrained its fuller development as manifested in later days. From 1 Tim. 6:10 we learn that “the love of money” is one of the roots of all kind of evil (not “the” root, but “a” root, R.V.), and the natural man is ever ready to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and to use the Christian profession as a means of exalting and enriching himself, holding godliness to be a means of gain; and the lordship of Christ is practically, if not formally, denied. With Gehazi it was not alone the cupidity disclosed, nor the falsehood and deception practiced that exposed the offender to the withering rebuke of the prophet and the swift and solemn judgment of God, but the occasion-” Is it a time to receive,” etc. God had drawn near to His revolted people in grace, which could neither be monopolized by Israel, nor patronized or purchased by the Gentile. Elisha as a spiritual man entered fully into the mind of God, and refused the gifts Naaman would have pressed upon him. Yet his servant had thought it a time to enrich himself by grasping at that which his master had refused.

The moral application to the present day is obvious. It is not here unbelieving Israel—forbidding that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, but the corrupt professor, the wicked servant, doing his utmost, and using his knowledge and position as a servant in the house, to counteract the work of God in the soul, and mar the testimony of grace so as to belie its true character. No sin is more heinous and deadly than sin against the grace of God, as seen in those who deny the Lord that bought them, and who bring upon themselves swift destruction. There were many lepers in Israel when Naaman was cleansed. One more was added to the many. “And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 8. The Future Religion - Worship of Satan

VIII.—The Future Religion-Worship of Satan

Genesis, presenting man in innocence, shows that he is confronted by a being who seeks to supplant God in the mind and heart of His creature, man. Satan insinuates that, in the nominal act of fealty imposed, God was keeping back something good; he seeks to appear more generous than God—always his policy—and through that, tempts man to his ruin. Satan really cares naught for man, but he gains his object of displacing the good Creator from man's loyal affection. Now Genesis is a book of beginnings. It exhibits either in fact or in type all the principles of the relationships of men with God; and the Apocalypse which closes the canon of Scripture, shows the ultimate issue of all that Genesis gives in embryo. Thus, if Genesis shows the initial effort of Satan to gain an entrance into man's mind, the Apocalypse exhibits, in full development, Satan obtaining at last, publicly and openly, worship by the world as God.

Such is the appalling maturity of influences and movements which even now are working like a ferment in men's minds. Through the ages Satan has been aiming at this, but heretofore has only placed other objects before man for his worship, gaining thus, however, the primary step of supplanting God, but not, so far, offering himself as the direct substitute. He is indeed “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), but is worshipped through other objects which are pleasing to mankind. The time is coming, however, when the veil will be removed, and Satan be worshipped without ambiguity. So saith the scripture: “All the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast” (Rev. 13:3, 4). The ultimate doom of this malignant being is to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (chap. 20:10), and tormented forever and ever. But this will not be until his furthermost efforts against God have been put forth and frustrated. At the present time his activity is ceaseless—though, in an age of rest which is coming for this world, he will be bound and imprisoned for a thousand years (vers. 1-3).

With our ideas it may seem incredible that sober people of modern civilization should become idolaters, and, strangest of all, that the Jews should revert once more to their ancient and special form of wickedness of which they had seemed to be so thoroughly cured ever since the Babylonish captivity. But in a parable in Matthew 12 the Lord prophesied that it would be so. That chapter gives the rejection of Christ by the Jews, a council being held as to how they might destroy Him (ver. 14). The rest of the chapter is mainly occupied with His judgment upon that “evil and adulterous generation"; and at ver. 43 He puts forth the following parable— “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”

The concluding words clearly define the parable as prophetic of the future history of that wicked race, the Christ-rejecting Jews. It has other applications, but this is the direct and principal. The demon of idolatry has been cast out, but has not been replaced by the true worship of Jehovah, for they have rejected Him in the person of the Christ. In the language of Hosea already quoted they are “without a sacrifice” (i.e. the worship of Jehovah), and they have not filled the void with a false god, for they are also “without an image.” The house, then, is empty, swept, and garnished. The result will be the return of the unclean spirit—idolatry—in more than seven-fold force. The seven spirits which are added to the first are more wicked than the original one, even as the worship of the antichrist will be more blasphemously evil than the ancient worship of Milcom, Ashtoreth, or other abominations. The rejection of their own Messiah leaves the Jews peculiarly liable to the delusion of the false Messiah when Satan's time shall have come to present him for their acceptance. This is what the Lord referred to when He said, “I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43); and again He said, referring to His own rejection, “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry” (Luke 23:31)? If such were the budding iniquity of that day, what dreadful fruit might there not be in the maturity of the plant.

But the parable of Matthew 12 is direfully appropriate to Christendom as well as to the Jews. That the course of Christendom will terminate in the abandonment and repudiation of the Christian faith has been shown in chapter v. of this paper. The house then will be empty and swept; but more, it will be garnished. Mentally intoxicated by scientific discoveries and the refinements of high civilization, and no longer restrained by the true knowledge of God, the minds of men will be prepared to accept the Satanic delusions of the end of the age, and will fall into idolatrous worship of the antichrist and the Roman beast, and even of Satan as we shall see. Accordingly, we find in the Revelation, that “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Roman beast), whose names are not written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb slain" (chap. 13:8).

It is impossible to get far in dealing with prophetic subjects without having recourse to that invaluable part of scripture named pre-eminently “The Revelation,” and which, although hasty and unbelieving men may say that it is impossible to be understood, is yet the only book of the Bible to the reading of which there is an exceptional blessing attached, “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein” (1:3). From Daniel 9 it has been shown that a Roman prince fills an important place in the doings of the last days. But only in the Revelation do we get the full portrait of this remarkable character. In Revelation 17 is exhibited the judgment of Babylon the great, symbolized as a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. This woman, “the great harlot,” is demonstrably the Papacy—but at present our purpose is not with her but with the beast that carries her. The angel-guide who exhibits and explains this vision to John, says, “I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, that it was, and is not, and shall be present. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is yet to come, and when he cometh he must continue a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and he goeth into perdition” (vers. 7-11).

In the interpretation of these symbols there is one very clear mark. Rome has ever been famous as the “seven hilled city,” and the seven heads are here stated to mean seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. This symbol, therefore, identifies with Rome the beast which carries the woman. But the seven heads, besides furnishing clear topographical indication of Rome, also signify seven kings, i.e. seven different forms of government: five had been, one was, and the seventh was yet to come. Now in the apostle's time, Rome had had five forms of government, viz. kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, tribunes. The empire was that which existed in the time of John. That is the sixth; and the beast—the revived Roman empire—will be the seventh, yet counted as an eighth.

The greatness of ancient Rome is famous, and her decline and fall proverbial, but men are little aware that there is yet to be a revival of that empire on a scale of magnificence which will evoke the amazement of the world. “They that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, when they behold the beast that it was, and is not, and shall be present.” In that mystic phrase is prophetically condensed the history of the Roman Empire. Its resurrection will be contrary to any previous experience. Empires hitherto have gradually risen, attained their zenith and then fallen; but though the Roman Empire seems to have received a deadly wound, that wound is to be healed—and the new empire will be the seventh head—but so marvelous and distinct in character that it is counted an eighth. “I saw one of his heads wounded as it were to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast... and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him” (Revelation 13:3, 4)? Considering the far from leading position of Rome at present, surprise may be felt at the idea of her being once more the leader of the world. The explanation is found in the significant statement that the beast is “to come up out of the abyss” (17:8, already quoted). This is an index to a condition of the world of which men have hitherto had no experience. At the risk of digression, it may be well to trace this matter a little through scripture.

(To be continued)

[E. J. T.]

The Apostleship of Paul: Part 4

We, are therefore not true to the ascension of our Head, if we do not look for His ascension-gifts in those who minister in His name. They constitute the handwriting of the Lord in the church's genealogies. The Jews were careful to put from the priesthood those whose genealogy could not be proved. They refused to register them (Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:63). And this too in a day when all was feebleness in Israel. No cloudy pillar had led them on their way home from Babylon—no arm of the Lord had gloriously made a passage for them through the deserts—no rain of angels' food from heaven, nor ark of the covenant was with them. All this, and more than this, was gone. But did they plead their feebleness, and do nothing? Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah do what they can. They cannot recover everything, but they do what they can: and among other services, they read the genealogies, and do not allow the holy things to be eaten by unproved claimants of the priesthood. And ours, dear brethren, is a day of feebleness like theirs. Much of the former strength and beauty is gone, and we cannot recover everything. But it is not therefore to be a day of allowed evil; nor are we, in the spirit of slumber, to fold the arms, and say, “There is no hope.” We should do what we could, and among other services, we can study the genealogies, when any one seeks their register: and thus they run, “A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre” (1 Timothy 3).

Thus run the genealogies of the bishops of the flock of God; thus has the Spirit of the ascended Head of the church written in His word. The time for glorying only in the Lord, and in that authority, and in that only, which had been formed by the Holy Ghost had now fully come; and therefore the fact that the Lord had given Paul authority in the church, was shown by witnesses to the presence of the Spirit with him. The signs of an apostle were wrought by him. His authority stood approved by this, that he could “do nothing against the truth, but for the truth"; and because the power used by him was used “to edification, and not to destruction” (2 Corinthians 13:5-10). He claims no authority, save what was thus verified by the presence of the Spirit with him, and used by him for the furtherance of the truth, and the profit of the church. For the Holy Ghost had been publicly avouched to be sovereign in the church, as the Son had been proclaimed Head to the church.

The gifts of the Spirit may be among us in various measures of strength; but the Holy Ghost in us is the title of all present worship and service. Whatever worship is now to be had in “the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3), is to be in the Spirit; for “we are the circumcision which worship by God's Spirit.” And the apostle, speaking of worship, says, “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord (that is, no man can call Jesus, Lord, or say, ‘Lord Jesus '), but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:2). So whatever service is now to be rendered in the church is with this limitation, “according to the ability which God giveth “; it is by this rule, “the manifestation of the Spirit.” Paul might lay hands on Timothy, and Titus might appoint elders; but the presence of the Spirit was in measure according to the authority and service. Timothy was left in Ephesus; but the charge entrusted to him there was according to the gifts bestowed upon him (1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6). To assume any ministry beyond this measure is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think (Romans 12:3). And as every individual saint has title through the indwelling Spirit to “prove all things” (with this condition doubtless, that he “hold fast that which is good”); so the congregations of the saints (or “God's temple” ), as spiritual, are to judge also (1 Corinthians 14:29); and if the resources of the flesh, the name, the human advantages, or earthly distinctions of men be gloried in and trusted, the temple is defiled. And the temple of God at Corinth was thus defiled (1 Corinthians 3:16-23). Some had rested in Paul, some in Cephas, some in Apollos. But this was carnal. This was walking as men, and not in the presence and sufficiency of the Spirit, whose temple they were. They became untrue to the Spirit who dwelt in them.

And here let me say, that it is not so much right to minister which the New Testament speaks of, as obligation. If any man have the gift, he is debtor to exercise it, and to wait on his ministry. The habit of looking on ministry as a right, rather than as an obligation, has given the church its worldly aspect. The “great house” has forgotten that service on earth is glory. But our apostle did not forget it, and he never affected anything that might have its influence in the world, upon the world's principles. He was one whom the world would pass by. He labored with his own hands, followed his trade, and made tents, just at the time when in the authority of the Spirit he shook his raiment upon the unbelieving Jews. He was among the meanest of his company (mean in the world's judgment), gathering sticks for the fire when in the power of Christ he shook the viper from his hand. Beloved! this is unlike all that which corrupted Christendom has sanctioned in her ministers as their due and suitable dignities! But Paul was in his own esteem (and would have others esteem him by that rule also) just what the Lord made him. He would not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ had not wrought by him (Romans 15:18). He measured himself only by that line which the Lord had distributed to him (2 Corinthians 10). What folly does he count all boasting in the flesh. He was compelled for a little moment thus to be a fool before the church at Corinth, but with what zeal, with what revenge, with what clearing of himself does he leave off this “folly” as he calls it (2 Corinthians 11)! Would that the same mind were in us all, the same zeal for the Lord, the same revenge upon the flesh which is fit, like the offal of a sacrifice, only for the burning outside the camp.

To me, brethren, I confess, these principles are very clear from the New Testament. The Lord knows that naturally I would rather have all continued and settled in the flesh, that we might the more securely hold on our quiet and even way. But I pray for more faith, for more living and powerful apprehension of this truth that the earth and its works are to be dissolved, and that Christ alone is to bear up its pillars. We need the faith that would root us out of that earth in which the cross of the Son of God was once planted, and in which the course of this world, continuing the same as it then was, has fixed that cross only more firmly. We want that faith that would call us to arise and depart from it, and to go forth and meet the Bridegroom.

But I would now hasten to a close, having extended my paper further than I would have chosen, and take a few short notices of our apostle in his person, ministry, and conduct; for in these he will be found to illustrate many features of the dispensation, as his apostleship was the general sign of it.

In his person we see much of the dispensation reflected. He could call himself the chief of sinners when he would magnify the grace of the dispensation, and show that it could reach over all the aboundings of sin. But he could also call himself blameless as touching the righteousness which is in the law, when he would make known the character of the righteousness of the dispensation, and show how it sets aside all other as loss and dung (1 Timothy 1:15; Philippians 3:8). These things are wondrous and yet perfect. Saul of Tarsus is taken up by the Spirit, in order to present in him the grace and the righteousness that are now brought to us. Strange that we should find the first place in the first rank of sinners occupied by him who as touching the law was thus blameless. But so it was. A fair, bright, and full example of the workmanship of the dispensation is given to us in him who was made the representative minister of it. The grace of God and the righteousness of God are displayed in his person.

So in his person we see the “thorn in flesh.” And let this particularly be what it may, it was in the judgment of the world a blot. The comeliness that the world could estimate was tarnished by this. In the Spirit he had wondrous revelations, and the secret of God was blessedly with him; but before men there was a stain upon him. But all this is in character with the dispensation. The saints exalted in Christ, before men are to be humbled. The world is not to know them. The dispensation admits of no confidence in the flesh. In it God has set the flesh aside as profitless. The right eye is gone, and the right hand is gone; things after the external appearance are not to be looked after; there is to be no measuring or comparing of things by any such rule. And according to this, Paul had a temptation in the flesh. There was put upon him something that tempted the scorn of men. As when Jacob became Israel, he halted across the plain of Peniel. The flesh was marred, when before God he got a new and honorable name. But the shrinking of his thigh was in the same love as his victory over the divine stranger. And so the thorn in Paul's flesh was in the same love as his rapture into paradise. Hezekiah in the day when he was exalted, had been left alone, that God might prove him (2 Chronicles 32:31). But the Lord was gracious to Paul, and would not leave him alone, but put a thorn in his flesh. And if he had stood in the full intelligence of the Spirit, he would not have prayed for its removal; for he had soon to recall his prayer, and to glory rather in his infirmities. Thus there is none perfect, dear brethren, but the Master Himself. Favored and honored as Paul and others may have been, there is none perfect but the Lord. This is comfort to our souls. God rests well pleased in Him forever, but in Him only. He never had a desire to recall, never a prayer to summon back from the Father's ear “He was heard.” But Paul had to learn that he had mistaken the rule of blessing and of glory; he had to learn, as every saint has, that when he was weak, then he was strong. And thus with the thorn in his flesh, but the power of Christ resting on him, he shows forth the saints in this dispensation.

(Continued from page 234)

(To be continued)

[J. L. H.]

An Address on Hebrews 9:13-17: Part 3

This it is which draws out affection by letting in what we can hardly call affection, but divine love—the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us. Faith in Christ sets agoing the affections of the new man, the Spirit of God giving him power all through his course. Thus you must have your soul settled and established in God's perfect love (1 John 4); for if there were a suspicion whether or not it rested on our souls, would not love be fatally wounded? Now God leaves no room for that because the blood of Christ, according to His word, meets perfectly every lack spoken of. Whether it be approach to God, this is perfect; whether redemption, for securing God's rights also, it is eternal; and now our conscience is brought up to the mark suitably for drawing near to God, and for resting upon this eternal redemption. Consequently here follows the practical effect of it: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” There you have the religious service of the believer. I do not mean the rendering this or that to a man, which is here entirely excluded by the character of the word used.

Here again is a remarkable instance how the thoughts of men differ from God's word. His thought in giving man such an infinite blessing is not primarily to set him about working for others. In fact, when you do this, you assume a measure of superiority over the person you work upon. As we all know, he who even in a small way is ministering the word, speaks with authority to those who may not know the word. Now this gives the preacher a certain measure of importance in the eyes of others, and, sad to say, sometimes in his own. But here we have another thing: it is serving God; it is not only gospel or church service, to win or to help souls; it is connected with the worship of God. This seems the kind of service, instead of being merely what people call ministry. As you know, scripture has more than one word for service; and this has to be borne here in mind. No doubt ministerial work is excellent in its own place, and of very great importance; but it is of immense moment that we should always recognize God's rights; and were this really before God's children, do you think any person would make it a sort of open matter what they did, where they went, whom they served, and how they worshipped? Certainly not. The blood of Christ is for this express purpose. See what it undertook to do, and does. Of Christ we are told that He “through the eternal Spirit, offered himself up without spot unto God.” It is the only place in scripture where “eternal” is applied to the Holy Ghost; and it is introduced here as the qualifying term of the Spirit-in order to show the absolute way for everlasting issues in which the Offering was then presented to God: a Man, but with this truly divine character of never-waning value. Certainly if there be anything which marks the difference between God and the creature, it is this quality of “eternal.” Here a man on earth presents Himself in this wonderful character.

Again, He “offered” Himself without spot to God. It is not the word for bearing our sins, strictly speaking. There were two parts always in sacrifice: the one is the victim simply, presented as an offering; the other is the sins laid upon the victim. Now this word expresses only the former element, which, by the way, detects the wrong use of that term in Peter, where it is said that “he bore our sins in his own body” —as the margin and some others say-"up to the tree.” Now the usage is strictly limited to the textual sense “on the tree.” If it had been the word here called “offered” there might have been some show of reason for it, because “offered” has reference to the presentation of the victim when the sins were not yet laid on it. The fact is that the phraseology excludes a continuous action and asserts a subsequent and transient fact, contradicting the whole idea; in short, the notion confounds the offering of the victim first, with the laying the sins upon him afterward. Now the passage in Peter speaks expressly of the final moment when the sins were laid upon Christ. Consequently the teaching is as utterly false as it is possible to be. The “offering” is distinct from the bearing of the sins, and each of the two parts has its own moment.

The first thing God looks for in the sacrifice is its perfect acceptability, but if the sins were already laid there, where would be the manifestation of that? It would be merging in one two things wholly distinct for an offering to have already the sins attached to it. In our Lord's case the first was the evidence that He was “without spot.” If He had had all our sins ever on Him, could this have been the case? At the last no doubt they were imputed, and this was essential of course. The second part of Christ's work is His perfect identification with our guilt, without which our sins could not have been taken away. But God's making Him sin for us at the end supposes all His previous life when there was no imputation of sin whatever, and our Lord appeared in all His perfection before God. Thus He, “through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God.” This being done, Jehovah “laid upon him the iniquities of us all.” It is certain that the passage in Peter refers only to the closing scene. The fact is that the true sense turns not merely on the word “up to,” or “upon,” but on scriptural usage generally as alone perfectly revealing the truth; and we have seen that the general truth refutes the idea. Undoubtedly one might go a little farther into detail; only this would take us into critical nicety of words, which I do not desire to discuss on such an occasion as this. However, it can be easily shown from the Sept. Vers. of Leviticus and elsewhere, that the word which is rendered “up to” by those who are so anxious so to translate the text, is never used in such a sense in the matter of sacrifice. In such a connection the preposition always means “on,” as here, “on the tree,” and never “up to” it.

Returning, however, we sec here One who acts in entire dependence on God; One who in all the perfectness of a man would not do even this, although He came for the purpose, without the Holy Ghost. This was the perfection of our Lord in presenting Himself. He never acted simply from His own person, but in the power of the Spirit of God, from the time when, to commence His public ministry, He received the Holy Ghost, for scripture is express that our Lord did receive, and was anointed by, the Holy Ghost. It was not only that He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in coming into the world, but He was sealed by the Holy Spirit, as we know, at the time of His baptism. He is thenceforward the dependent Man; whatever He did, all was done in virtue of the Spirit, even this act of His offering Himself up as a spotless victim. The aim and the effect are eternal redemption. Thus is our conscience purged by His blood, “from dead works” which everything must be until redemption is made good for us, “to serve the living God.”

“And for this cause He is the Mediator of a new 'covenant.'“ Whoever heard of such a thing as the mediator of a “testament”? “Testament” means a will, and a mediator is entirely out of place in the matter of such a disposal of goods. Let me just take this opportunity of showing that you do not require to be a scholar in order to be perfectly certain when it ought to be “covenant,” and when the right meaning is “testament.” Each case admits of proof. The men who made the Authorized Version were as learned persons as ever perhaps were found together in this country; yet they only made confusion in the matter. This demands no effort convincingly to show, though I yield to none in respect for themselves and their work. And although there may be none here present as much versed as they were in all of erudition, it seems to me practicable to put the most unenlightened Christian in a position to decide with certainty where they are right and where they are wrong in dealing with this term. How comes this? By the written word; for the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. It is so little a question therefore of learning that every Christian man may have the absolute certainty where the word should be rendered “testament,” and where “covenant.” Both words are true according to context. Such is the peculiarity of the term; the same word means either, but it cannot mean both in the same sentence. This would be to blunder, not to communicate the truth.

There are certain landmarks in every sentence which determine which of the two senses is meant. The case occurs where it must mean “testament"; there are other instances where nothing will do but “covenant.” When the different passages in the New Testament are set out, it will help to ground every believer's trust more and more in the perfectness of scripture. Begin with this very verse, “And for this cause he is mediator of a new covenant.” Our translators ought to have seen their error, and that here the word could not possibly mean “testament,” because such a functionary is unknown to testamentary business, instead of being universally recognized. Besides, “new” contrasted with “the first,” cannot point to “testament,” but “covenant.” Now the apostle, for I have no doubt he was the writer of this epistle, writes, using a figure that would be known in every country under heaven, and be perfectly familiar to any intelligent persons such as the Jewish believers were. Indeed, there are few things that even ignorant men know more about than “a testament,” or “a will.” It comes home to men's bosoms and business notoriously. Sons inherit from father or mother, and sometimes they derive from other relatives or friends besides their parents; and as such a thing awakens interest in the dullest, they understand that “a will” only comes into force when the one that devises the property is no more.

That is what the apostle reasons about in vers. 16, 17. He wants to show both the necessity and the importance of death previously (not here, you observe, of “blood,” but of “death”). Hence the figure is so far changed from what preceded. It had been “the blood of Christ” about which he was speaking before in ver. 14. Now, in ver. 15, we have the transition-” for this cause he is mediator of a new covenant, that by means of death,” etc. We can all perfectly understand this. “Death” is a larger thought, and this begins the link, though he still speaks only of covenants. But from the idea of “inheritance” he slides off from the meaning of “covenant” into that of “testament.” The same word is susceptible of either signification, but the context never leaves it a doubtful thing whether the word means the one or the other. The decisive point, which shows that in this verse it must be “covenant,” is not the word “mediator” only, but the contrast of “new” with the “first” covenant which created transgressions. Every one must surely confess that a mediator is most intelligible with, and essential to, the new covenant; but mediator of “a testament” is a relationship that nobody ever heard of at any time, or in any country on the earth. You may find a lawyer, a testator, an executor, and the heirs, which are familiar enough. All these may belong to a testament, but there is no such personage as “mediator” of a testament.

“Mediator of a covenant,” therefore, is alone meant or possible in ver. 15; although he does purposely bring in “death,” and afterward an inheritance, to pave the way for the idea of “a testament,” in vers. 16, 17. As yet, however, in ver. 15, he adheres solely to the notion of “covenant,” because he is speaking of a mediator. “For this cause he is mediator of a new covenant, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first,” etc. First what? “Testament” is said here, but it is clearly wrong. How speak of “the transgressions of the first will"? What legitimately could be made of such an expression? Whenever there is a second will, the first is of course annulled; whereas here it was painfully efficacious, for it produced “transgressions.” A second will renders the first one entirely invalid. You could not therefore have the transgressions of the first. Besides, what have transgressions to do with “a will"? The moment you bring in “first covenant,” all is quite easy, plain, and forcible; because the first covenant was the law, and what the law brought in was transgressions. Therefore the immediate context is decisive; as beyond controversy it is the unfailing criterion where we have to judge of the questioned force, not only of any general teaching of the word, but even of the propriety of a single word; or when, as here, the ambiguity admits of two meanings. So perfect is the context of scripture for giving the believer to decide with certainty which of the meanings is the proper one. Both the “mediator” shows that it can only be a new “covenant,” and the “transgressions” prove that it was the first covenant, and not a will or testament, that preceded. Where is the law ever styled a “testament” in O.T. Scripture?

“That they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” It is this last word, evidently, which furnishes the transition to the notion of a will. The moment we come to an inheritance the suggestion of a will is simple. It is the common way of inheriting; and the Jews knew this as well as others. It was possible, doubtless, to inherit without a will, Jewish property if you can call the land property which was all in the hands of God, being arranged by God to go regularly without any such intervention. Therefore, as far as I recollect, the word for “will” is not once mentioned in the Old Testament, as we all can readily understand. There was God's law, which dispensed with the necessity of a testament, because it was all settled successionally for His people. But the Jews had long been in an abnormal state, and some had houses and land that had nothing whatever to do with the original disposition of things by God; and of these could dispose as they pleased. And so it was perhaps universally with the Gentiles. So that inheriting by “will” was a most familiar idea. [W. K.]

(To be continued)

“And for this reason he is mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those that are called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.”

(Continued from page 223)

Separation From Evil, God's Principle of Unity: Part 2

We may now inquire a little further into the manner in which this unity is effectuated, on what it is based. There must be an intrinsic power of union holding it together to a center, as well as a power separating from evil to form it; and this center found, it denies all others. The center of unity must be a sole and unrivaled center. The Christian has not long to inquire here. It is Christ—the object of the divine counsel—the manifestation of God Himself—the one only vessel of mediatorial power, entitled to unite creation as He by whom and for whom all things were made; and the church as its redeemer, its head, its glory, and its life. And there is this double headship, He is head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. This will be accomplished in its day.

For the present we take up the intermediate period, the unity of the church itself, and its unity in the midst of evil. Now there can be no moral power which can unite away from evil but Christ. He alone, as perfect grace and truth, detects all the evil which separates from God, and from which God separates. He alone can, of God, be the attractive center which draws together to Himself all on whom God so acts. God will own no other—there is no other to whom the testimony could be borne, who is morally adequate to concentrate every affection which is of God and towards God. Redemption itself, too, makes this necessary and evident; there can be but one Redeemer, one to whom a ransomed heart can he given, as well as where a divinely quickened heart can give all its affections, the center and revelation of the Father's love. He, too, is the center of power to do it. In Him all the fullness dwells. Love (and God is love) is known in Him. He is the wisdom of God and the power of God. And yet more than this, He is the separating power of attraction, because He is the manifestation of all this, and the fulfiller of it in the midst of evil; and that is what we poor miserable ones want who are in it, and it is what, if we may so speak, God wants for His separating glory in the midst of evil. Christ sacrificed Himself to set up God in separating love in the midst of evil. There was more than this—a wider scope in this work; but I speak in reference to my present subject now.

Thus Christ becomes not only the center of unity to the universe in His glorious title of power, but (as the manifester of God, the one owned and set up of the Father, and attracter of man) He becomes a peculiar and special center of divine affections in man, round which they are gathered as the sole divine center of unity. For indeed, as the center, necessarily the sole center, “he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” And such, as to this point, was the object even, and power of His death— “I, if I be lifted up... will draw all men unto me.” And more specially, He gave Himself “not for that nation only, but that he might gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad.” But here again we find this separation of a peculiar people. “He gave himself for us, that he might purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” He was the very pattern of the divine life in man, separate from the evil by which it was universally surrounded. He was the friend of publicans and sinners, piping in grace to men by familiar and tender love, but He was ever the separate man. And so He is as the center of the church and high priest. “Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” —and, it is added, “made higher than the heavens.” Here in passing we may remark, that the center and subject of this unity then is heavenly. A living Christ [on earth] still became the instrument of maintaining the enmity, being Himself subject to the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Hence, though the divine glory of His person necessarily reached over this wall as a fruitful bough of grace to poor passing Gentiles without (and it could not be otherwise, for where faith was, He could not deny Himself to be God, nor what God was, even love); yet in His regular course, as a man made of a woman, He was made under the law. But by His death He broke down the middle wall of partition, and made both one, and reconciled both in one body unto God—making peace. Hence it is as lifted up, and finally as made higher than the heavens, that He becomes the center and sole object of unity.

Let us remark is passing, that hence worldliness always destroys unity. The flesh cannot rise up to heaven, nor descend in love to every need. It walks in the separative comparison of self-importance. “I am Paul,” etc. “Are ye not carnal and walk as men?” Paul had not been crucified for them, nor had they been baptized in the name of Paul. They had got down to earth in their minds, and unity was gone. But the glorious heavenly Christ in one word embraced all. “Why persecutest thou me?” This separation from all else was more slow among the Jews, as having been outwardly themselves the separated people of God; but having fully shown what they were, the word to the disciples was, “Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” The Lord, when as the great result He would have one flock and one shepherd, put forth His own sheep and went before them. Indeed we have only to show that unity is God's mind, and separation from evil is the necessary consequence; for it exists as a principle in the calling of God before unity itself. Unity is purpose, and as He is the only rightful center, it must be the result of holy power; but separation from evil is His very nature. Hence, when He publicly calls Abraham, the words: “Get thee out of thy country, and out of thy kindred, and from thy father's house.”

But to continue. From what we have seen, it is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ on high is the object round which the church clusters in unity. He is its head and center. This is the character of their unity, and of their separation from evil, from sinners. Yet they were not to be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil, and sanctified through the truth; Jesus having set Himself thus apart to this end. Hence, as well as for the public display of the power and glory of the Son of man, the Holy Ghost was sent down to identify the called ones with their heavenly Head, and to separate them from the world in which they were to remain; and the Holy Spirit became thus the center and power down here of the unity of the church in Christ's name—Christ having broken down the middle wall of partition, reconciling both in one body by the cross. The saints, thus gathered in one, became the habitation of God through the Spirit. The Holy Ghost Himself became the power and center of unity, but in the name of Jesus, of a people separated alike from Jew and Gentile, and delivered out of this present evil world into union with their glorious Head. By Peter, God visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name; and of the Jews there was a remnant according to the election of grace. As Paul, one of them, was separated himself from Israel, and from the Gentiles, to whom he was sent.

And so was the constant testimony. He that saith he hath fellowship with Him and walketh in darkness, lieth, and doeth not the truth. Separation from evil is the necessary first principle of communion with Him. Whoever calls it in question, is a liar—he is, so far, of the wicked one. He belies the character of God. If unity depends on God, it must be separation from darkness. So with one another. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And mark, here there is no limit. It is as God is in the light. There the blessed Lord has placed us by His precious redemption, and hence, by that, the whole manner of our walk and union must be formed; we can have no union (as of God) out of it. The Jew could, because his—though separation, and hence the same in principle—was yet only outward in the flesh, and the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest (no, not even for the saints, though in God's counsels doubtless they were to be there through the sacrifice about to be offered).

So, again, one with the other. What fellowship hath light with darkness? Christ with Belial? What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? And then, addressing the saints, the Holy Ghost adds, “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.” Otherwise we provoke the Lord to jealousy; as if we were stronger than He. Of this unity and fellowship, I may add, the Lord's Supper is the symbol and expression. “For we, being many, are one bread (loaf), one body, for we are all partakers of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).

We find there most distinctly, that as the unity of Israel of old was founded on deliverance, and calling from the midst of, and maintained separation amongst the heathens which surrounded them, so the church's unity was based on the power of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, separating a peculiar people out of the world to Christ, and dwelling amongst them; God Himself thus dwelling and walking amongst them. For there is one body, and one Spirit, as we are called in one hope of our calling. Indeed, the very name of Holy Spirit implies it, for holiness is separation from evil. Whatever failure, moreover, there may be in attainment, the principle and measure of this separation is necessarily the light, as God is in the light; the way into the holiest being made manifest, and the Holy Ghost come down thence to dwell in the church below, and so, in power of heavenly separation, because the indwelling center and power of unity (just as the Shekinah in Israel). He establishes the holiness of the church and its unity in its separation to God, according to His own nature, and the power of that presence. Such is the church, and such is true unity. Nor can the saint recognize, intelligently, any other, though he may own desires and efforts after good in that which is short of it.

(Continued from page 240)

(To be continued)

[J. N. D.]

Independency

“We shall find that independency” is one of the most successful means of evasion of scriptural discipline that could perhaps be imagined—one of the most successful snares by which the children of God can be seduced into resistance to the will of God, while to themselves they seem to be standing only for the principles of the word against 'confederacy,' for purity, and unsectarian maintenance of the body of Christ. We must therefore look seriously and with sufficient care into the matter: first, at what independency really is, and then at the fruits which make manifest the tree.

“In its simplest and boldest form independency appears as the denial of any scriptural authority for any ‘circle of fellowship' outside of the individual gathering, wherever it may be; and this denial is made in the interests, as they imagine, of unsectarian recognition of the one church only, which is the body of Christ. The formation and maintenance of any such circle is, they maintain, sectarian, and the adoption by such circle of a common discipline is sectarianism full-blown. It constitutes the whole a ‘party,' which may take the name of Christ, as some at Corinth did, and only be perhaps on that account to be the more avoided, as making that precious name an instrument of division.

“This charge is not, it may he, that of denying the name of Christ, but it approaches it so nearly as to make it of the most serious consequence. Those who hold to a circle of fellowship and yet refuse the adoption of a sectarian name, with what is implied in this, can neither afford to give up their claim of gathering simply to the name of Christ, nor accept the truth of what is charged against them. Let us examine then what is meant by these assertions, neither shaken from our convictions by their boldness, nor refusing to bring all these to the test of scripture, as often as may be needful. That which is true will only gain in its hold on us by every fresh examination, and the only danger is in this being lightly and not thoroughly carried out.”

“Now what is a 'circle of fellowship'? That all such is not forbidden must be believed by the objector himself, if he have but ‘two or three ' gathered with himself in any local assembly. For this, I suppose, is not the whole ‘assembly of God ' there, but something indefinitely less than this. Yet, here there must be a within and without, a being, in some sense, of us or not of us—a something which is saved from being a party, not by having no walls or door, but by its having no arbitrary, no merely human, terms of admission. If it have no terms, then it is a mere rabble of lawless men, and as such to be refused by every Christian.

“If you say, ‘No, it is scripture to which we are subject,' that brings in at once the implication that it is scripture as you see it, not as your fellow Christians see it; and you take your place as before the Lord, to be judged of Him in regard to this. Your being a separate somewhat, a ‘circle of fellowship,' does not constitute you a party: you own Christians everywhere, as members of the body of Christ, and receive them wherever a scriptural hindrance to their reception does not exist, and you speak of being gathered simply to Christ's name, without an idea that you are making the name of Christ a badge, or sign, or instrument, of division.

“Well, then, in this place, at least, there exists a gathering of Christians that I can recognize—I suppose, ought to recognize—apart from the whole body of Christians in the place. I say ' ought ' because I have duties in regard to the assembling of ourselves together; and here alone I find those with whom I can assemble, no unscriptural condition being imposed on me. Were there another assembly in the same place and of the same character, then I should have to ask why they were not together: for the sin of schism is a grave one in scripture, and I should have of necessity to refuse this.

“If, then, in this place, I repeat, there is a gathering that I can own, and must-suppose, now, I went elsewhere and lived—found perhaps there also one that I had equally to own as gathered to Christ's name alone, would it be right for me in the new place to refuse to own as a separate company those in that from which I came, whom, when I was there, I had to own, and whom, if I were now there, I should have to own? Is it possible that my going from A— to B— should make that wrong for me at B— which at A— would be quite right, and if I went back there, would be right again? If so, that is independency in earnest; or else it is the most curious shifting of right and wrong that one can conceive of; morality shifting every few miles of the road, whichever way I travel. And yet, if not, we are connected in principle, to a ‘circle of fellowship '!

“The recognition of each other by such gatherings throughout the world is, therefore, right; and everything opposed to it is false and wrong. Nay, it is impossible to maintain practically, if principles are of [no] value to us. For, were I taking the journey spoken of, must I not inquire for those who are of one mind with us in B— ? and would those in B— expect anything else of me? To refuse a circle of fellowship may be held as a theory: the facts [however] will always be [found to be] discordant with the theory. The theory itself [if that be all] cannot be truthfully accepted by any one who has given it any sober reflection; except it mean independency of the grossest and narrowest kind; that is, associating where one will, and recognizing obligations nowhere but where I will. And this would be indeed the most perfect sectarianism that could well exist.

“But we are to recognize the whole body of Christ! Surely, but not their unscriptural associations. In the interests of the body of Christ I refuse denominations; but in the same interests I am bound to accept the circle of unsectarian fellowship. The gracious words which, providing for a day of failure and confusion, sanction the two or three gathered to the Lord's blessed name, sanction such gatherings in every place, and therefore a circle of such gatherings. It would be as sectarian to refuse identification with these as to take our place with the various denominations. Nay, it would be more so. Nor would it save us from this, to say we were acting for the good of the whole church of God, when from Scripture itself the disproof is so easy.

“Now, another step. To accept these is to accept their discipline. For the Lord's sanction of the gathering is the express sanction of their discipline. Of course, I do not mean by that that they can add to Scripture, or invent a character of discipline that is not found there; nor yet that He could sanction what might be a mistaken judgment. He is the Holy and the True, the Lord and Master of His people always; and that is quite enough to say as to all this. But authority for discipline these 'two or three' have; and woe to him who resists its rightful exercise “If he hear not the church, let him be to thee as a heathen man and a publican ' is said of just such feeble gatherings as these.

“It is plain that precisely the same thing is to be said for the discipline as for the gathering itself: if it is to be respected at A— where it is exercised, it is just as much to be respected at B— or at C— . If it be the decision of a local matter, then the Lord has plainly put it into the hands of those who are in circumstances to judge of it aright, though protest and appeal are surely to be listened to, and they are bound to satisfy consciences where honestly exercised about it.

“As to a question of truth, as such it affects all consciences; it can be put before all: no local gathering has authority in any such matter; it would be making a creed to be subscribed. The truth as to Christ is a deeper and more vital matter, for we are gathered to His name. Where truth of this kind is subverted the gathering exists no more, except as an instrument in the enemy's hand, and is to be refused, with all who take part with it.

“If on the other hand, the question be of facts, then those who have them are bound (if these affect more than the local gathering) to make them known to their brethren; and here a circular letter may rightly have its place, not to establish a rule or principle of action, but as a witness: which of course is open to question, as all facts are, if there be contrary evidence, or that given be insufficient. No circular has authority in itself: it is purely a question of facts and of the credibility of the testimony.

“With these limitations, which are the results of the frailty and fallibility which are common to us all, we have necessarily to own a circle of fellowship and the discipline connected with it, if we would be free from the charge of real independency.

“And real independency is not of God, but always and everywhere acts against Him. It is to make the members of the same body say to each other, 'we have no need of you,' and to deny the unity of the Spirit which should pervade the body. The more we lament and refuse the sectarianism which exists, the more are we compelled, and shall rejoice, to own the body of Christ wherever possible. And this circle of fellowship, while it is not the ‘body,' furnishes us with the means of owning this in a truthful and holy way, so far as the state of ruin in which the church exists permits it to be done. With love to all Christ's own—with an open door for the reception of all according to the conditions of truth and holiness—such a circle is not sectarian, but a protest against it, while the meeting that refuses connection with it is sectarian in fullest reality.

“And this is what is meant by the 'ground' of the one body. It is as different as possible from any claim to be the one body, and does not in the least imply any sectarian conditions of intelligence in order to communion. The maintenance of a common discipline is in no wise sectarian, but part (and an essential part) of that communion itself: absolutely necessary if the holiness of God be the same thing wherever it is found, and not a thing for the two or three ' anywhere to trifle with as they list.

“Independency, in setting aside the practical unity of the church of God, sets aside a main guard of holiness itself. It makes this no object of common care; it does not seek common exercise about it. It releases from the sense of responsibility as to the house of God: it is my own house I am to keep clean after my own fashion. And this real laxity as to the people of God at large (but which is so consoling to an unexercised conscience, that it is the great charm undoubtedly to multitudes to-day) naturally has the effect of lowering one's estimate of holiness altogether, and so prevents my own house being kept really clean.

“Where, however, a circle of fellowship is in fact maintained, along with and spite of the protest against it, or where there is not the maintenance of a common discipline—where perhaps as the natural fruit of independency also, the unholy principle is contended for that an assembly cannot be judged for that which would compel the judgment of an individual, there, as is natural to expect, any local discipline almost can be evaded by a little dexterity. If the gathering at B— will not receive you from A— it will from C—, and C— will receive you from A—. No one is safe anywhere from the violation of a discipline which he himself recognizes as a scriptural one. Any particular person, if he be not too prominent, becomes lost to the eye amid the maze of bewildering differences. He who has conscience, and would fain be clear, has soon to resign himself to a general hope that what looks so like confusion will in the end conserve the interests of holiness; or in despair, to wash his hands of what he cannot avoid.

“Yet it is an ensnaring system; for in this way pessimism and optimism both can find apology for it, and go on with it. One gets free of an amazing amount of trouble; and while not seeming to have given up all ecclesiastical ties, as many have, yet be practically free as they for the gospel and for the wearying responsibility of being one's brother's keeper! Why should we be? when we only get our trouble for our pains, find a narrow path instead of the broad, open one, which is so pleasant to all of us, and for this have only to shut our eyes at the proper time, and ignore what it seems we cannot help!

“And in fact the countless small breaches of independency make less show than the terrible rents which we are exposed to otherwise. Why not let this sad-faced Merarite go, with his pins and cords of the tabernacle always getting into entanglement, and be content with Kohath and with Gershom?

“Still if the TABERNACLE OF THE LORD is to be set up in the wilderness, how shall we do without the pins and cords?

“In result it will be found that it is the truth of God which suffers, and tends to pass away and be lost. What wonder when we begin with choosing what we will have of it, and what we will discard! Fellowship becomes a thing of most uncertain quality: and what wonder, if obedience to the word have anything to do with fellowship! Worship is largely displaced in behalf of service: for we have lost the necessary pins and cords. We may go on with the help of what truth we can still borrow and find room for; but the truth tends somehow continually to slip away from us; and in the jangle of many utterances, it is ever getting to be of less account.

“One's voice may be little heard in a day like this; but I would do what I can to press upon the people of the Lord first of all their Master's claim. I press that this independency, little as one may imagine it, little as many may care to entertain it even as a question, means ultimately shipwreck to the truth of Christ, because it means independency of Him. One may find in it plenty of associates, for it makes little demands upon one and gives the kind of liberty which is so coveted to-day. The authority of Christ is not in it. It may support itself by the help of other names—names in repute as Christians too—and be in honor. It cannot have the commendation which Philadelphia, spite of its 'little power,' finds from her gracious Lord: ‘Thou hast kept my word, and not denied my name.'“

-F. W. G.

VICTORIA HALL ADDRESSES
By DR. %VREFORD

New Series ONE PENNY EACH NET

/No. 1.-" One Wonder Hour by Galilee "

What is there after Death? "

The Majesty of Suffering " (in preparation) For Free Distribution, 50/- net per 1,000

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 21

A Touching incident follows in the little domestic scene, of which the prophet is the chief actor. It seems to illustrate the deep interest taken by God in all that concerns His people. Nothing is too trivial if it troubles us. “In all their affliction he was afflicted.” Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matters to us very important are as nothing with Him; while sometimes an important principle affecting His glory is involved in things which appear to us insignificant. In fact, there is nothing great or small before Him, who “knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.”

The borrowed ax must be returned to its owner, while the manner of its recovery brings before our minds the truth that Christ in His humanity has come down into our very circumstances in grace, that He might sympathize with us, and also that He might by power lift us above them.

A great difference manifests itself here between Elijah and Elisha. The former maintained at all times an almost forbidding attitude. There were none in Israel with whom he could associate. “I, even I, only am left.” The latter was ever a gracious man, though no less holy, but he was one to rally the faithful in Israel, had there been such. Grace in him was seen in its power to attract and to charm the hearts of Israel, foreshadowed perhaps early in his history by his request for a minstrel. But the nation was like a deaf adder which refused to be charmed; only a little remnant gathered around him.

An important change is now to be noticed in his ministry. Hitherto in a comparatively secluded sphere, now we see him controlling the destinies of armies in connection with Israel and Syria. “Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?” (2 Kings 6:8-12). It was of little use for the Syrians to plot and plan if the light of God was thrown upon their schemes, and their secrets became known to the enemy. God's goodness to His people Israel is thus shown in a remarkable way. Unsought, He continues to defeat the plans of the enemy without any special intervention in power.

Quite different was Jehovah's way with Judah in Jehoshaphat's reign about this time. “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in Jehovah your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto Jehovah, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise Jehovah, for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, Jehovah set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir utterly to slay and destroy them, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped” (2 Chron. 20:20-2).

The people still held to their profession, and whenever their relationship to Jehovah was pleaded God would make good all that was involved in that relationship, although even here we may notice a change in the manner of the divine interference as contrasted with the times of David or Solomon. The personal faith and piety of the king, and the institutions which God Himself had appointed were there. Here, however, there was nothing in the nation that God could own, yet His mercy still lingered over the guilty people. Although they had forfeited all claim upon God, Jehovah disappointed the plans of the enemy and delivered His people for His own name sake.

For the time Elisha was the real link between God and His people. He had the secret of Jehovah; and we see what power and peace this brings to the soul, and how it makes us superior to circumstances because it is God with whom we have to do.

The times of Elisha corresponded in a remarkable way with the present day of grace in this respect, that the nation participated in the blessings associated with grace which then flowed in a certain channel without any interference with the course of judgment, except indeed there was a respite. God would not allow the enemy to triumph over His servant. The presence of the latter saved Israel, for we cannot doubt that God wrought in a remarkable way for Elisha's safety. Men could not do as they liked with him. When Jonah ran away from God and took his passage in a ship bound for Tarshish a terrible storm was sent on purpose to wreck the ship or to compel the surrender of Jonah. And if God used such exceptional means in the case of a disobedient prophet, how much more would He take a real interest in the preservation of one not disobedient, but exposed to peculiar danger. “And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that he with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, O Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (vers. 15-17). But there was, in fact, nothing unusual in this; it was not wonderful to Elisha, though quite a revelation to his servant, affording a striking illustration of the truth that “The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear Him.”

The springs of human action are in the unseen world; whilst man is weak and shortsighted. He should, therefore, be consciously dependent. If he is not, he is nevertheless influenced by the prince of this world or restrained by divine power and made to do the will of God blindly. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him.” We greatly need to have a sense of the power of God, and that it is on our behalf; so that we may reason with the apostle, “If God be for us who can he against us?” We can see what is ordinarily around us, but the illumination of the Spirit of God is needed to give us an apprehension of things spiritual.” The apostle's prayer was that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:17-20).

The wisdom of God characterized Elisha, yet he could not impart the same to those about him, but he prayed, and God answered him as one familiar with His way and having a heart trained in subjection to His will. The promise of the Lord to every believer now was surely made good to him.

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Although we have many illustrations of prayer and its uses in the Old Testament scriptures it does not there represent the ordinary resource of the people of God. It seems rather to have been special and exceptional. In ordinary circumstances there might not appear the call for it. The power which undertook for Israel's blessing provided for every contingency sufficiently and liberally, and left nothing to chance. But for its smooth and regular working, obedience was required, and here, alas, Israel broke down. The necessity for prayer is seen when something is wrong in the relations between God and His people. It was practically so in Elijah's day. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (James 5:16-18). Nor can we have the least difficulty in perceiving the object God's servant had in view. The people were to be exercised in conscience about their recently introduced Baal worship; hence Elijah's deep disappointment with the result (see 1 Kings 19:1-4). God threw out a challenge to Israel (therefore the showers were withholden), and they could not reply, yet they continued in rebellion until Lo-Ammi and Lo-Ruhamah were written upon the nation.

God was constantly in love and faithfulness dealing with them for restoration, creating circumstances of such difficulty that in their misery they might look to Him and He would save them. Elisha lived always in the consciousness of what that power was upon which Israel might count, and of what was its general way of working. Prayer should be with us constant and systematic, for the course of this world is evil and presents constant difficulties in the way of the Christian. It is not alone our personal need that should lead us to God, but the circumstances of the testimony, the need of such as cannot pray for themselves— “Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” There is a real danger of becoming intensely selfish in prayer, from which an earnest desire for the glory of God and the blessing of souls would deliver us. If “the peace of God which passeth all understanding” were garrisoning our hearts and minds, would it not at times give us to be silent, restful, and trusting in the presence of God rather than to be ever putting God to the proof (so to speak) as to His ability and willingness to answer prayer? There is nothing that so searches the heart and judges the motives as prayer. With too many of us it presents a ready and easy way of getting relief from difficulties. We know that “all things work together for good” to us, but it is our real, spiritual good, and it might to the natural eye be anything but good. The question, “What use am I going to make of the answer?” is an important one, for we read of one (Hezekiah) who “rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him.” The king of Israel would have greatly dishonored God and seriously compromised Elisha had he been allowed. “And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them; wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel” (vers. 21-23). But God was over-ruling in this case as in many others, and proving that He was working, not by kings and their armies, but by the self-restrained, well-disciplined servant who had the mind of God.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Indifferentism

Present-day indifferentism declaims not against those who “call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20)!

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 8. The Future Religion - Worship of Satan, Part 2

VIII.-The Future Religion-Worship of Satan

All government in the world has heretofore been of God. In the remarkable clash of opinions today, and wild projects for the improvement of the world, there has arisen a company of men more dangerous from their audacity than their number, who call themselves Nihilists in Russia, and in other places, Anarchists. The etymology of both names indicates the principles held—no government of any kind, no law, no worship, no God—nothing—nihil! Or, anarchy—without a chief, but with all that this chiefless lawlessness involves mankind to be left to their own ungoverned impulses. And from this low-level swamp into which all evil will drain, the anarchists are deluded enough to expect that good will arise to humanity. Alas! for the neglected light of the Bible! Had they known the Scriptures they might have seen that in the varied demonstration of principles which God has wrought out on the platform of this world, man has already been tried on the very ground of no government; for that was the condition of the world before the deluge. There is no record, no trace of any government until then. Man, now that he had listened to Satan and rejected God, was allowed to display what he would come to without law and without interference. And what was the result? “The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them from the earth” (Genesis 6:5, 11, 12, 13). That was the development of fallen human nature left to itself.

How little do men reflect or even know, that for 1,600 years man has been tried on the very principles which anarchists now advocate; and that the awful product was a chaos of iniquity—corruption on the one hand, and violence on the other, such as brought down the vengeance of the Almighty upon the whole race, Noah (the “just man and perfect,” Genesis 6:9) and his family being alone saved. Is it not strange that the Flood, the greatest event which the world has witnessed (except the visit and murder of the Son of God), is totally ignored, and its moral significance unknown or despised? But there is a will in this ignorance. Men do not wish to be reminded of the judgment of God, either past or future. Hence they ignore that the earth has already once been swept by judgment, and is now reserved to a more awful visitation. Meanwhile the fact of the deluge remains a testimony—(1) That the world has not continued from its creation as it now is. (2) That the race has already been visited with appalling judgment for wickedness. (3) That man left to himself, so far from developing in the direction of goodness and happiness, sinks lower and lower into filthy corruption and frightful violence. THAT IS THE LESSON OF THE DELUGE. “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7).

Government, prior to the deluge, had not, so to speak, been invented. For example, Cain slew Abel, but there was no judiciary to deal with the crime. God personally intervened in this particular case; but there was no general administration of justice. Lamech openly avows that he had slain a man because of injury (Genesis 4), but there is no allusion to the existence of any law to appeal to, or any government to protect. The primitive private war, the shootings and stabbings, which we read of in America, the unauthorized killing of negroes for alleged crimes, but without process of law—these are, in their measure, a reversion to the state of unregulated society before the flood. But what in that respect is now exceptional, was then general— “the earth was filled with violence. “

In the commencement of the new world, however, a change was made in various matters, and amongst them the principle of government is for the first time found— “whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). Here is the germ of government divinely instituted for the restraint of human evil. The punishment of crime in man is solemnly and expressly placed in the hands of his fellow men, and henceforth the magistrate “beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God.” The abolition of capital punishment therefore is the rejection of a divine institution designed for the repression of evil. The full doctrine on the subject is given in the Epistle to the Romans, where the apostle Paul states “that there is no authority except from God: and those that exist are set up by God” (chap. 13:1).

The “divine right of kings” is a faulty expression. The authority of kings is indeed divine, but so also is every authority in the world, whether it be that of a king, or the president of a republic; whether it be that of a governor, a judge, or a magistrate—down even to a policeman or a taxgatherer; and, in other spheres, an officer of an army or a ship, or a foreman of laborers, a husband, a father, or a schoolmaster. All existent authority in the world is divine; and government in the present fallen state of man is a divine blessing. Man may abuse the authority entrusted to him, and for that will give account in the judgment. But the authority which he either uses or abuses is placed in his hand from above; and as long as it exists, cannot be disobeyed with impunity. The dogma that “power proceeds from the people,” is a fallacy. Historically, it has not been the fact. Under a democratic government it may appear to be so, simply because God may permit that form of administering His power; but in the history of mankind, democracy has been exceptional, and the prevailing governments of Christendom, excepting America and France, are even now, either of a mixed nature, or, as in Russia, autocratic. The case of Russia itself refutes the axiom. The population is over 125 millions; power is not with the people there, much less does it proceed from them; indeed, they are engaged in a frantic struggle to clutch it. British India contains one-seventh of the population of the globe. Does power inhere in its people? On the contrary, its millions have been controlled to the present time by a handful of Englishmen.

It is well to understand thus, the true nature of present government, in order to appreciate the change which there will be in the closing period of the present age. There will not then be government of divine origin as now; neither will there be the negation of government as desired by anarchists, except perhaps briefly during the tumult out of which arises the Roman beast (Revelation 13:1). Government there will be, but its dreadful character is that it will be energized by Satan. The Roman Empire has been; then there is a period of non-existence; but in its final form it comes up out of “the abyss” —is of Satanic origin. The prophet in this enlightens us as to the true origin of the beast, although instrumentally and proximately it arises from amongst the mass of the nations in a state of confusion; for the beast is seen “rising up out of the sea” (Revelation 13:1). Now, “waters,” as a prophetic symbol, is interpreted in 17:15 to mean “peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues.” By analogy, then, “the sea” would mean the same in a state of agitation and commotion—possibly anarchy.

How strong already is the tendency to this state of politics is plainly to be seen. Anarchy is now openly professed. A few years back, to say that any given course tended to anarchy or even socialism was to condemn it; but anarchism is now a force to be reckoned with, and so indeed are milder forms of dangerous opinion, whose inevitable goal is the upsetting of authorized government. Out of the midst of such a state of the world, Satanic influence will raise up a mighty head of the Roman Empire, who will receive universal acceptance and homage. Thus is “the beast” to come up out of the abyss. The source of power or government in that day will not be as now, divine, but it will be “the dragon” that will give to the beast “his power, and his throne, and great authority.” This is necessary to be explained in order to understand the nature of “the great tribulation.”

Considering that the revival of the Roman Empire was prophesied of nineteen centuries ago, it is not a little remarkable that, quite apart from prophecy, the idea of that restoration is now beginning to occupy men's thoughts as a measure of practical politics. Two principal movements of our day occasion many anxieties to statesmen and to all who look below the surface of daily events. One is the enormous increase of armaments, so great—and still multiplying—that the wisest wonder where it all leads to. The other is, accretion of power in the hands of the people, along with the fostering of such wild 'schemes of socialism and anarchy, as threaten the very existence of society. “A future Roman Empire: a possible result and solution of some modern political and economic problems,” is the title of a most thoughtful and interesting book by Mr. G. E. Tamer (London: Elliot Stock). The title itself indicates the aim of the work. The author says, “In a former treatise on some conspicuous developments of the times—'State-provided Education,' ‘Combinations in Restraint of Trade,' and ‘The Gradual Transfer of Political Power to the Largest Class'—I attempted to show that their mutual action, proceeding unchecked on present lines, would result in producing a state of things in the form of a universal anarchy that humanly speaking could only be effectually dealt with by a Roman Emperor” (p. 2). Referring to the loss to the world through the dissolution of the ancient Roman Empire, Mr. Tarner remarks, “The Roman policy, which, while welding together for imperial purposes the diversified components of the empire... produced such a general confidence, and consequent material prosperity, throughout its various provinces, as to result in long periods of profound internal peace and general tranquility—the Pax Romana” (p. 11).

Mr. Tarner quotes Merivale to the effect that, “The wars of the ‘kites and crows' were succeeded by a period of internal tranquility, more extensive, more durable, and more profound than any other in human annals. The Pax Romana stands out a unique phenomenon in history” (p. 16). Mr. Tarner graphically depicts the advantages which might be expected from a re-constitution of the mighty Roman Empire: “And so once more the ‘Pax Romana' might be brought within the possibility of realization. The practical immunity from war, otherwise than from without the empire (the knowledge of its enormous resources reducing such probability to a minimum) would naturally permit, and, in fact, necessitate, a large individual disarmament by the states comprising it; but still providing for the protection of their several colonies against external aggression and internal disorder: thus to a great extent meeting the aspirations of the peace party without falling into a ‘peace-at-any-price' policy, and practically solving the disarmament question.” His book affords the remarkable coincidence that that which the word of God has through centuries declared will ultimately come (though then through evil agency) is now actually proposed as a definite political measure. The re-establishment of the Roman Empire as prophesied in holy writ is certain to take place; but equally certain is it, that that event will occur in the manner and time which scripture indicates, and not as a philosophical proposal for improvement, as so lucidly and thoughtfully projected by Mr. Tamer.

But let us turn again to scripture for light on this important subject. In the 13th chapter of Revelation there are three distinct personages who act as one. They are indeed a Satanic anti-trinity. A distinguished writer has remarked that from what the Bible tells us of Satan, he appears to have no originating power: he can only imitate. God sets up a church; Satan has his false church. God has His Christ, Satan his antichrist. And here in this chapter of the Revelation, there is a Satanic anti-trinity, consisting of Satan himself, the Roman prince (eighth head of the beast), and another beast, which has “two horns like a lamb” (imitation of Christ), but “he spake as a dragon” (ver. 11). Satan's grand aim is to get himself acknowledged in the place of God. He is the rival as well as antagonist of God, and seeks to use man as the instrument of his exaltation.

With these remarks as a clue, the reader will probably be assisted to grasp the significance of this solemn and important thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, which for convenience of reference follows here (Darby's translation)—

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea; and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, and upon its heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like to a leopardess, and its feet as of a bear, and its mouth as a lion's mouth; and the dragon gave to it his power, and his throne, and great authority. And one of his heads [was] as slain to death; and his wound of death had been healed: and the whole earth wondered after the beast. And they did homage to the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast: and they did homage to the beast, saying, Who [is] like to the beast? and who can make war with it? And there was given to it a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to it authority to pursue its career forty-two months. And it opened its mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and those who have their tabernacle in the heaven. And there was given to it to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to it authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell on the earth shall do it homage, [every one] whose name had not been written from I the] founding of [the] world in the book of life of the slain Lamb. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone [leads] into captivity, he goes into captivity: if anyone shall kill with [the] sword, he must with [the] sword be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.

“And I saw another beast rising out of the earth; and it had two horns like to a lamb, and spake as a dragon. And it exercises all the authority of the first beast before it, and causes the earth and those that dwell in it to do homage to the first beast, whose wound of death was healed. And it works great signs, that it should cause even fire to come down from heaven to the earth before men. And it deceives those that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs which it was given to it to work before the beast, saying to those that dwell upon the earth to make an image to the beast, which has the wound of the sword, and lived. And it was given to it to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should also speak, and should cause that as many as should not do homage to the image of the beast should be killed. And it causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bondmen, that they should give them a mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead: and that no one should be able to buy or sell, save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of its name. Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast: for it is a man's number; and its number [is] Six hundred [and] sixty-six.”

[E. J. T. ]

(Continued from page 245)

(To be continued)

The Dream of Pilate's Wife

This is a unique incident in the Gospels, peculiar to St. Matthew; yet, however slight it may seem, we may be sure there was a divine reason for its insertion in an inspired writing, where nothing is casual. Seemingly the verse containing it might be removed without affecting the sense or the sequence of the passage. The contrast between Pilate's better spirit and the envenomed malice of the chief priests would be equally vivid. But the statement anent Pilate's wife clearly shows that he was somewhat at least influenced by her. It is well known that such influence was often exerted by women, and naturally exercised as a rule on the side of mercy. Indeed, the Romans on this very account objected to provincial governors taking their wives with them, lest they should be deflected from the line of rigid justice. And we know how severe the Romans were, though there was much that was excellent in their discipline. Every student of Roman history is aware how conspicuously the manlier virtues stand out in the records of her chroniclers.

But, with dominion, luxury and skepticism had increased, and there was a condition of over-elaborated culture that is only too closely paralleled by not a little that we see around us now. It is always so in the history of nations: first, power; then, wealth and luxury; then, degeneracy. And of such over-ripe, exotic culture Pilate was probably a crucial type. His very question, “What is truth?” addressed to our Lord, indicated the languid cynicism with which he regarded the matter. For undoubtedly the interpretation placed on the question by Lord Bacon, usually so sage and shrewd, is quite wide of the mark. That great philosopher says in one of his famous essays: “What is truth, said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.” But Pilate was not jesting at all; his question was simply the outcome of his despairing pessimism. Alas! he knew not that Truth embodied in a Person, in the Son of man, stood before him. But of this presently. Meanwhile, it is easy to realize how in his wavering mind the admonition of his wife must have reinforced the arguments suggested by his intellectual keenness, and perhaps some vestiges of compassion.

But to return to Claudia Procula, the name (according to tradition) of the lady whose disturbed dream is recorded by the Evangelist. And, first of all, may we not surmise, for the reason stated above, viz., that nothing is casual or insignificant in scripture, that it was not merely superstitious feeling that prompted her action; that her heart, nay, perhaps her conscience in some measure had been reached in God's mysterious providence, and that, if not then, yet in the sequel she may really have bowed to Him who is the Truth, as He is the Way and the Life—the only Savior? Of course, it would be unwise to dogmatize; the evidence is not forthcoming, and speculation, unsatisfactory at all times, is nowhere more so than when indulged in the things of God. We simply do not know; we can only recognize the numerous ways that the Spirit of God has of dealing with men and women, and that dreams at times have played a not unimportant part in spiritual experiences. But it is far from unlikely that Claudia may have seen our Lord. What more probable than that, on one or more of her comings and goings to and from her husband's palace, she may have come across Him during His visits to Jerusalem, or even elsewhere? There may have been a great concourse, as on the day when the Lord repaired to the house of Jairus, and when He healed the woman with the issue of blood. We know how dense the throng was on that occasion, and on some similar one the litter, borne by numerous slaves, of the highly-placed Roman lady may have been, in modern parlance, “held up.” Then she may have beheld that gracious Presence, and God may have first led her to see something awe-inspiring as well as holy in “that just man.” Either this, or it was revealed to her in the dream itself that He was something far above the common run of men. All this may have been. Now let us turn to the application.

I suppose this verse is not very frequently selected as a text. In the course of a fairly long life I have heard hundreds of sermons (some of the best by lips never more to be heard on earth), but never from Matthew 27:19: “Have thou nothing to do with that just man.” Nay, but with Him we must all have to do. Claudia Procula, and her husband the Roman Governor, and all mankind—as Savior or as Judge. Of course, we know what she meant. She did not wish Pilate to take' upon himself the responsibility of condemning an innocent man. Somehow she know He was innocent; nay, just, for she does not use a merely negative term. Truly, if she knew little, and was still far from the kingdom of God, the Governor was much farther off. He certainly thought the lowly prisoner at the bar at whose claims to kingship he had half-contemptuously, half-pityingly marveled, had to do with him, Pontius Pilate, the representative of the mighty Empire of Rome. “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee” (John 19:10). We all know with what divine dignity and calm the blessed Lord replied. No wonder the Governor was more and more perplexed. Yes, all of us must have to do with “that just man.” Blessed are they who have to do with Him now, who bow to Him now, and prove the value of His precious blood that cleanseth from every sin. Is it not striking how unconsciously Pilate's wife deprecates what is imperative for all of us, if we would be saved? Of course, she was right from her limited point of view. But, how terrible to have no link with Him! This poor woman little knew how far it was from being merely a question of common rectitude in a ruler; little knew that the terrible thing would be, if Christ let her alone! if God said, as once of old, “Ephraim is joined unto idols; let him alone.” Nay, that were the most dreadful thing of all-to be let alone now, to be judged in a future day! For “all things are naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). Let us have to do with Him now.

Pilate's indecision brought, it would seem, additional suffering on our Lord. Avowing that he found no evil in Him, yet he had Him scourged, and what he proposed as an alternative to the crucifixion was really an aggravation of the Savior's bitter pains. For after all, and against his better judgment, the Governor, spite of his wife's remonstrances, was craven enough to yield to the wicked importunity of the Sanhedrin. He had, we know, very cogent reasons for giving way to the Jews, inasmuch as he was in very bad odor in Palestine because of his misdeeds. He was therefore, as Mark tells us (chap. 15:15), “willing to content the people.” He did not doubt for a moment that his prisoner had to do with him as duly appointed judge. Poor, unhappy Pilate! His was a sad record, and tradition has it that he committed suicide in Gaul. Legend also became busy with his history in connection with Mount Pilatus, in Switzerland. A small thing for him that his name is immortal with unenviable notoriety by reason of his association with that very One whom he doubtless regarded as merely a Galilean peasant. Yet but for this connection with the Savior of mankind he would probably have been no more famous than any other governor of an (in Roman eyes) unimportant province. It is singular to think how his name is daily heard in the creeds of Christendom. Alas! no mere outward link avails. The Roman Governor was confident that our Lord had to do with him; he did not know that he and all mankind have to do with Christ. And so he gave orders that it should be as the chief priests required. And in the energetic and most pathetic language of Luke 23:25, “He released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.” For, as we read, they asked for Barabbas, whose name, by a singular coincidence, means “son of the father.” The true Son of the Father was crucified.

But to return to Pilate's demand, “What is truth?” This is a question that is asked now-a-days often enough, sometimes half languidly, or half cynically, as Pilate asked it. Others say we must ever pursue after it, but never imagine we have got it. And if by truth people mean mere knowledge, they are undoubtedly quite right. For is not science ever having to revise her judgments? A notable instance of this occurred only recently, when the discovery of radium and radio-activity, threw much suspicion on the soundness of a long-established chemical axiom, viz., that each element is essentially differentiated from every other. Yet long ago Sir William Hamilton, a noted Scottish philosopher, declared that of things in themselves we could know nothing. Even so; and that spite of the marvelous and, in themselves, most admirable discoveries of science. But “the truth, where is that?” Only in Christ, even as grace and truth come by Him. “God,” scripture declares, “is light,” and “God is love.” Love and Light revealed to guilty sinners take the shape of grace and truth.

And as our Lord reveals, nay, is “the truth” (i.e., He reveals God to me, shows me what I am, and what God is; also shows the remedy for me, else it were sad indeed), what is revealed is fact. Christianity rests on the bedrock of fact. The well-known creeds of Christendom were attempts to embody these facts, at least the main ones, in succinct language; and with all their defects, they have doubtless been a help to very many. It need hardly be said that no formal recitation of a creed, however correct, can save the soul. Moreover, they are not inspired; the scriptures are, and we must ever refer all to the “word and the testimony.” Probably in the past, when few comparatively could read, the salient facts of Christianity were by such means conveniently committed to memory. And Christianity is either fact or fiction. We cannot have it both ways, as so many, alas! in a vague and indifferent fashion, are content to do. The resurrection, in short, may not be spiritualized. As one has said, unless we believe as literally in the resurrection of Christ as in His death and burial, we are not Christians at all.” Thus wrote many years ago the late Bishop of Durham. But the majority of the readers of this magazine will rightly regard this most important statement as too obvious to need emphasizing. Christianity requires no vehement protestations in defense of its supernatural origin. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself” (1 John 5:10). And may we not say, in conclusion, that all who believe thank God for opening their eyes, thank Him that they have had to do with His Son in this day of His grace?

R. B.

Studies in Mark: the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God

I.— “The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, The Son Of God” (1:1)

It is both interesting and instructive to observe what guards are set in holy Scripture to prevent our misapprehension of its main object. For while all divine communications are didactic and disciplinary (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) in a general. sense, their supreme characteristic, in the New Testament at any rate, is that they constitute the revelation of the Father and the Son, and on this account such precautions are rendered the more necessary. In that sacred monologue to which we are graciously made privy in the Fourth Gospel, the eternal Son, speaking to the holy Father concerning His followers, said, “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me” (John 17:8). How shall we not then prize such utterances, given by the Father to Jesus, given by the Son to us, that we might know both the Sender and the Sent One! But then we are in danger of missing the lofty nature of these communications.

Do we on all occasions realize the personality of the Author, speaking Himself and of Himself to us as we read the Bible? This, however, is the aim of our spiritual education—that we should, above the din of controversy and the bustle of the marts, hear habitually the voice of Him who saw us “under the fig-tree.” We shall find an abundance of smooth stones in the stream, with which our Goliaths may be smitten down. But we cannot slake the thirst of our spirits with pebbles. We need to drink “of the brook in the way,” of the water of the well in Bethlehem. Truly, the power of God can make such stones bread; but we are not entitled to expect that Christian vigor will be maintained by perpetual miracle, and in order to live we need “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” as our Lord Himself said.

And the construction of the phrase just quoted is highly significant. This vivifying power of the word of God is here intimately associated with its reception direct from “the mouth of God.” It was the breath of the Almighty that infused the spirit of life into Adam's inanimate clay at the beginning. Through grace we have been created afresh in Christ Jesus, and it is the theopneustic scriptures which sustain the new man. And their special value in this respect lies in the fact that in them we receive a personal communication from Him who is the Life.

Men labor zealously, but fruitlessly, to invent a definition of the inspiration of the Scriptures which shall be alike agreeable to the “honest doubter” and to the simple believer. But light and darkness may be as readily reconciled as doubt and faith. And after all, the definition of a fact is of negligible importance in comparison with the fact itself. And while few are qualified to judge of the adequacy or otherwise of a proposed definition of inspiration, it is within the power of the humblest saint to hold to the invincible authority and the incorruptible truth of God inherent in the Scriptures, both being qualities which are inseparable from a communication made by God to man.

The foregoing remarks have been necessarily somewhat abstract in character. It is proposed, therefore, to illustrate their general drift by examples from the Bible itself—one from the Old Testament and one from the New.

Abraham was a man who understood what it was to receive personal communications from God. One such instance in his career of faith is recorded in Genesis 15, and this will suffice to indicate the principle involved. Abram had arrived at a critical epoch in his history. For nearly ten years he had now been wandering as a pilgrim and a stranger in a land definitely promised to his seed, he himself to become the channel of blessing to all the families of the earth. After all those years of patience, these promises still seemed but a mirage of the desert. Abram was a childless man of eighty-five, the apparent heir to his possessions being Dammesek Eliezer.

It is at this juncture that the word of Jehovah comes to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.” But this reassurance only awakens a fretful plaint from the man of deferred hopes as though he had failed to judge Him faithful who had promised. And how is this flickering flame of faith rekindled? It is significant to note that again we read, “The word of Jehovah came unto him [but not in a vision this time], saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” This, however, was not an impersonal word, but such a communication as brought Abram into personal intercourse with Jehovah Himself; for it is added immediately, “And HE brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and HE said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

This was a confirmation in amplified terms, though not yet with the oath given on mount Moriah (Genesis 22:16-18; Hebrews 6:13-18), of the initial promise to Abram, whose faith and hope now needed “encouragement.” How it would revive and strengthen his faith to hear the voice of Him who had promised, and to be assured that though long years had passed He had not forgotten! Moreover, to accomplish this result the more thoroughly, the Lord Himself conveyed this reassurance to His patient but not perfect servant. Accordingly we gather that the desired end was attained. The faith of Abram, impressed by the authority and faithfulness of Him who was speaking, laid hold of the living God, so that we find it written, “He believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” And here we have the cardinal principle, which must ever underlie the life of the just, as the New Testament fully shows, wrought in the heart of this ancient saint by the word as it proceeded out of the mouth of God.

In Mary of Bethany we have a New Testament instance of one whose inner life received sustenance and nourishment by personal communications from the lips of the Lord Himself. On a memorable occasion she sat at His feet, and heard His word (Luke 10:39), selecting this attitude of her own free choice, impelled thereto no doubt by some sense within her of the real personality of the lowly Prophet of Nazareth. She received His words at first hand, choosing in this “the good part"; and they were not received in vain. Living, as we thus see her, by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God's Spokesman, she learned what most seemed to have missed, that the way of the Lord to the hill of glory lay through the valley of death. Six days before the Passover Mary came to the house of Simon the leper to anoint His body beforehand for the burial. Neither did she undertake the vain errand of seeking that body at Joseph's tomb on the first of the following week. She knew He was not there, but risen as He had told her and many besides. But was not her superior intelligence due in great part, if not entirely, to the fact that her teaching was viva, voce, while she, realizing in some degree who the august Person her teacher was, received His instruction in all faith and reverence?

Only in like manner can the maximum value be obtained from the Scriptures to-day. Those alone who humbly and prayerfully seek Him who is the Author and Subject of the Bible will hear His voice. To seek Him apart from the word is to be cheated by the vain imaginings of our deceitful nature. To read the word apart from Him is to expose ourselves to a similar cheat. He who is the Truth is to be found only in the word which is truth.

These reflections have been awakened by the phrase standing at the commencement of Mark's Gospel— “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Its abruptness has occasioned much divergent opinion as to its exact meaning, though in this particular it accords perfectly with the terse and staccato style of Mark. The simplest and most acceptable view seems to be to regard it as forming the inspired title to the whole book that follows.

For what is the object of an inscription to a given volume? Is it not to prepare the reader for what is to be found therein? And this divine title to the Second Gospel is preparatory, informing the reader of its sacred contents, that with reverence and godly fear he may receive the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is easy to forget that it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came forth from Nazareth in Galilee, who ate with publicans and sinners, who was accused by the scribes of blasphemy and of casting out demons by Beelzebub, who was mocked, scourged, and crucified. But can any believer doubt the deeper significance these facts assume to us as we read them in the remembrance of the eternal Godhead of the holy Sufferer, and even more so when in the communion of the Holy Spirit we receive them as it were from His very lips?

Jesus Christ is presented in this Gospel as the Servant of Jehovah, who, according to the ancient prophecies, was to come into the world. How fitting before we read an account of His ways in lowly service that we should be reminded of His Deity, lest we should in heart detract from His glory! He who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, learning obedience by the things He suffered, was Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Philippians 2:6-9; Hebrews 5:8).

But adequate testimony to His Sonship is recorded in other parts of this Gospel. There is a double witness from on high. At the baptism in Jordan a voice out of the heavens declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (1:11), a testimony repeated from the “excellent glory” on the Mount of Transfiguration (9:7). There was also a double witness from beneath. Unclean spirits fell down before Him, saying, “Thou art the Son of God” (3:11). So also Legion says, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not” (5:7).

We may also refer to His own recorded witness before the high priest. When the latter asked Him, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” and received the reply, “I am,” he understood the nature of the claim thus made.."The high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy; what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death” (14:61-64).

The remarkable expression of the Roman centurion at the crucifixion is also given in this Gospel. “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” (15:39). There has been some discussion as to the exact sense in which the soldier used these words, and whether he is to be regarded as a confessor of Christ like Simon Peter (Matthew 16:16). But it is sufficient to see that he rebutted the charge of the Jews who said to Pilate, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). After witnessing the portentous signs of His death, the centurion was constrained, impartially if not unwillingly, to declare, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Thus we see that in this Gospel which portrays the Servant of Jehovah in His ways of perfect obedience, His eternal Sonship is jealously guarded, and that this character is given Him from its opening sentence. Incidentally, we also gather that there is cogent internal evidence for the retention here of the phrase, “the Son of God,” which some critical editors of the text have rejected on insufficient external grounds.

[W. J. H.

(To be continued)

The Apostleship of Paul: Part 5

IN his ministry we see something of the dispensation also. “The foolishness of God” and “the weakness of God” (that is the testimony to Christ crucified which the world judges “mean and slight”) were now dispensed, and according to this was Paul's ministry. It was weak and foolish in the judgment of the Greeks of this world. He came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom. His preaching was not with enticing words, but he was among saints in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling (1 Corinthians 2).

But further extended as his preaching was over the world, it set forth the comprehensiveness of the grace of God in this dispensation. In principle the sound of this grace was to go to the ends of the earth; and so Paul speaks of his ministry as stretching itself on the right hand and on the left, from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum. He had received “apostleship for the obedience to the faith among all nations,” and he felt himself debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. He spake to the Jews, and to the devout persons, to the common people as many as he met with; and then with the philosophers (Acts 17). His purpose was to compass the whole earth. And thus he speaks continually to the churches of passing from place to place, by Corinth into Macedonia, returning thence to Corinth again, and so being brought into Judea; and again—he speaks of going to Rome as he takes his journey into Spain. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and the Spirit that was in this apostle of God, therefore, thus reached the ends of the world. He was calling on men everywhere to repent, as did the dispensation. And when he could no longer go about with the gospel, being the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles, “he received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:30). All this was expressive of the comprehensiveness of the grace that was calling in “bad and good, that the wedding might be furnished with guests.” In the Jewish times the ordinances of God were all at Jerusalem. It was there that men ought to worship. The priest abode in the temple, for the dispensation was one that refused converse with men, but in righteousness kept the flock of God folded in the land of Judaea. But now the dispensation is one of grace, going forth in the activities of love, to gather home the lost sheep that had gone astray upon the mountains; and preaching is therefore the great ordinance of God now. Preaching is the new appointment of God, something that is beyond the mere services of a secluded temple; and of this new ordinance Paul was made the most distinguished minister.

Then in his conduct, I may say that in a very general way it was made to exhibit the dispensation. In his conduct, as he says, there was “a manifestation of the truth.” And this is what faith always in measure does. Faith in a living form reflects the truth dispensed. The conduct of faith, as one has observed, is always according to the principle of God's present dealing. As John says, “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” And as Peter says, “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing” (1 Pet. 3:9). That is, blessing being bestowed on us, blessing is required of us. And so in Paul's conduct we trace the great principles of God's present dealing with the church. The Son of God emptied Himself of the glory that He had before the world was; and while on earth ever refused Himself. With title to call for legions of angels, He was dumb as a sheep before His shearers; being free as the Son, He submitted to the exactions of others (Matthew 17:27). So Paul, though free from all, made himself the servant of all, becoming all things to all men for their good (1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:29). And mark his words to the Ephesian elders, when he takes leave not only of them but of his ministry, ready to go into prison and onto death for his Master—Jesus (Acts 20:17-35). Mark what he there declares his conduct in his ministry had been, and how he testifies of himself that “he had showed them all things” —thus telling them that he had been made to take the honored-place of reflecting the actings of God in the gospel, letting the churches see in him the blessedness of dealing in grace, which is (as we to our salvation know) the way of the Son of God in the gospel. “I have showed you all things, how that so laboring 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.” This was a holy testimony which the Spirit enabled him to bear. And in a certain sense I would say that he even surpassed the gospel; not the spirit of it (that was impossible), but the mere conditions of it. The Lord had ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel; but Paul had not used this his power in the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:12). He might have been burdensome to the disciples as an apostle of Christ, but he was desirous to impart to them—not the gospel of God only, but his own soul, because they were dear to him (1 Thessalonians 2:9). But what does this reflect but the unmeasured and untiring love of God, which has visited us in the gospel? So effectually had he learned Christ-so blessedly was he through grace enabled to exhibit the dispensation—and beside, so fully was he a pattern of that conversation to which the dispensation calls us, that he could say, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an ensample; for our conversation is in heaven.” He lives on earth as a citizen of the heavenly city, and was (as the Spirit allowed him strikingly to express it) “unto God a sweet savor of Christ.”

But, however honored he might thus have been as the apostle of the Gentiles, and in his apostleship, person, ministry and conduct, the witness of the dispensation; yet he was not sent, as he tells us, to baptize, but to preach the gospel. For there was now to be no gathering point on earth. If any such, this apostle would have been it. But no! Christ was the center of all renewed souls, and He was in heaven. The Lord was not now setting up one visible point as he had once done at Jerusalem. The dispensation was heavenly; its source of power and its place of gathering was the upper sanctuary. It was “a citizenship in heaven” that was now enrolling, for not yet was it to be said of Zion, “This and that man was born in her.” All that in every place called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, were now recorded on high, as in the Lamb's book.

Such was our apostle; and far more might be added of the same character, but I will not further speak of them. I would now notice only one other thing, that was peculiar to him also. I mean his rapture into paradise. In this he stands also as the representative of the dispensation, inasmuch as it was as “a man in Christ” that he was favored with this rapture. In it he knows himself only as such, and therefore this paradise is the portion of all such. I judge it assuredly to have been the place of the spirit of the saint while absent from the body, and to which the pardoned thief went on the day of his crucifixion. Paul was actually caught up to it for a season, but no other man has ever had the same joy. He calls it “paradise” — “the third heaven,” the place of abundant visions and revelations. Whether in or out of the body he knew not, but there he was. He has not been allowed to tell us much about it, and scripture is generally silent on the nature of it. But there he was, and in this rapture of our apostle, as by the teaching of scripture, it is witnessed to us that it is better to depart and be with Christ, and that the place of the delivered spirit is a place of abundant revelation, and a paradise of visions of Christ.

The actual being of such a place was opened fully to the faith of the church (though it might have been apprehended before) when He, who is now its Head, said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” And again was it verified to our faith when Stephen, “a man in Christ,” said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” But still this is not the church's perfection. The Spirit given to us of God is but the earnest of the house “eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5). The throne of the Son of man is the inheritance of the saints, and the glory for which the church waits. But that place of glory is not yet prepared, as the place of the spirits of them that depart in the Lord is. There may have been visions of it, as on the holy mount, but it rests still only on vision; it is the hope still long deferred. Christ waits at God's right hand for it, and the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The whole creation groaneth for it. But it still tarries. However, beloved! the word is, wait for it—it will surely come and will not tarry.

Many whom I love much in the Lord may not judge with me in these things. And surely I know that we know now but in part, and therefore can but prophesy in part. But we may be helpers of each other's joy, and so has the Lord appointed it. Nevertheless, let us take heed, brethren, that we be not taught the fear of God by the commandment of men. Let us take heed of obedience in the flesh; but watch that we do what we do in the power of communion with the Lord. And in whatever of enlarged knowledge we are instructed through others, let us have grace to try it all by a conscience exercised before our God, and inquire after truth as in His presence. Be it so with Thy saints, blessed Lord, more and more! Amen.

J.L.H.

(Concluded from page 248)

Separation From Evil, God's Principle of Unity: Part 3

Here I might close my remarks; having developed the great, though simple principle, flowing from the very nature of God, that separation from evil is His principle of unity. But a difficulty collateral to my main object and subject presents itself. Supposing evil introduces itself into this one body so formed actually on earth. Does the principle still hold good? How, then, can separation from evil maintain unity? And here we touch on the mystery of iniquity. But this principle, flowing from the very nature of God, that He is holy, cannot be set aside. Separation from evil is the necessary consequence of the presence of the Spirit of God under all circumstances, as to conduct and fellowship. But here there is a certain modification of it. The revealed presence of God is always judicial when it exists; because power against evil is connected with the holiness which rejects it. Thus in Israel God's presence was judicial; His government was there, which did not allow of evil. So, though in another manner, it is in the church. God's presence is judicial there. Not of the world, save in testimony, because God is not revealed yet in the world; and hence it plucks up no tares out of that field. But it judges them that are within.

Hence the church is to put out from itself the wicked person, and thus maintains its separation from evil. And unity is maintained in the power of the Holy Ghost and a good conscience. And indeed, that the Spirit may not be grieved, and the practical blessing lost, saints are exhorted to look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. And how sweet and blessed is this garden of the Lord, when it is thus maintained and blooms in the fragrance of Christ's grace. But alas! we know worldliness creeps in, and spiritual power declines; the taste for this blessing is enfeebled, because it is not enjoyed in the power of the Spirit; the spiritual fellowship with Christ the heavenly Head, decays, and the power which banishes evil out of the church is no longer in living exercise. The body is not sufficiently animated by the Holy Ghost to answer the mind of God. But God will never leave Himself without witness. He brings home the evil to the body by some testimony or other; by the word, or by judgments, or both in succession, to recall it to its spiritual energy, and lead it to maintain His glory and its place. If it refuse to answer to the very nature and character of God, and the incompatibility of that nature with evil, so that it becomes really a false witness for God: then the first and immutable principle recurs, the evil must be separated from.

Further, the unity which is maintained after such separation, becomes a testimony to the compatibility of the Holy Ghost and evil; that is, it is in its nature apostasy; it maintains the name and authority of God in His church, and associates it with evil. It is not the professed open apostasy of avowed infidelity, but it is denying God according to the true power of the Holy Ghost, while using His name. This unity is the great power of evil pointed out in the New Testament, connected with the professing church and the form of piety. From such we are to turn away. This power of evil in the church may be discerned spiritually, and left when there is the consciousness of inability to effect any remedy; or if there he an open public testimony, it is then open condemnation to it. Thus, previous to the Reformation, God gave light to many who maintained a witness to this very evil in the professing church, apart from it; some bore testimony and still remained. When the Reformation came it was openly and publicly given, and the professing body, or Romanism, became openly and avowedly apostate, as far as a professing Christian body can, in the Council of Trent. But wherever the body declines the putting away of evil, it becomes in its unity a denier of God's character of holiness, and then separation from the evil is the path of the saint; and the unity he has left is the very greatest evil that can exist where the name of Christ is named. Saints may remain, as they have in Romanism, where there is not power to gather all saints together; but the duty of the saint as to it, is plain, on the first principles of Christianity, though doubtless his faith may be exercised by it. “Let every one that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” It is possible that “he that departs from evil may make himself a prey” but this, of course, makes no difference; it is a question of faith. He is in the true power of God's unity.

Thus, then, the word of God affords us the true nature, object, and power of unity; and in so doing, it gives us the measure of it, by which we judge of what pretends to it, and the manner of it; and, moreover, the means of maintaining its fundamental principles, according to the nature and power of God, by the Holy Ghost in the conscience, where it may not be realized together in power. Its nature flows from God's; for of true unity He must be the center, and He is holy; and He brings us into it by separating us from evil. Its object is Christ; He is the sole center of the church's unity, objectively as its Head. Its power is the presence of the Holy Ghost down here; sent as the Spirit of truth withal from the Father by Jesus. Its measure is walking in the light, as God is in the light; fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus, and, we may add, through the testimony of the written word—the apostolic and prophetic word of the New Testament especially. It is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (of the New Testament), Jesus Christ Himself being the corner stone. The means of maintaining it, is putting away evil (judicially, if needed), so as to maintain, through the Spirit, fellowship with the Father and the Son. If evil be not put away, then separation from that which does not, becomes a matter of conscience. I return, if alone, into the essential and infallible unity of the body, in its everlasting principles of union with the Head in a holy nature by the Spirit. The path of the saints thus becomes clear. God will secure by eternal power the vindication, not here, perhaps, but before His angels, of them who have rightly owned His nature and truth in Christ Jesus.

I believe these fundamental principles are deeply needed in this day, for the saint who seeks to walk truly and thoroughly with God. Latitudinarian unity it may be painful and trying to keep aloof from; it has an amiable form in general, is in a measure respectable in the religious world, tries nobody's conscience, and allows of everybody's will. It is the more difficult to be decided about, because it is often connected with a true desire of good, and is associated with amiable nature. And it seems rigid, and narrow, and sectarianism to decline so to walk. But the saint, when he has the light of God, must walk clearly in that. God will vindicate His ways in due time. Love to every saint is a clear duty; walking in their ways is not. And he that gathers not with Christ scatters. There can be but one unity—confederacy, even for good, is not it; even if it have its form. Unity, professed to be of the church of God, while evil exists, and is not put away, is a yet more serious matter. It will always he found to be connected with the clerical principle, because that is needed to maintain unity, when the Spirit is not its power, and, in fact takes its place, guides, rules, governs in its place, under the plea of priesthood, or ministry, owned as a distinct body, a separate institution. It would not hold together without this.

J. N. D.

(Concluded from page 253)

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 22

It is surprising how little impression seems to have been produced upon the people generally by the wondrous manifestations of power and grace hi connection with Elisha. They might pay him outward respect, but that was all. Neither Israel nor Syria was seriously affected thereby, although, as we have seen, both nations in turn had profited by the goodness shown. For as to Syria, “The Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.” The leader of the Syrian army had been cured of leprosy, and a considerable number of the king of Syria's soldiers, caught as in a trap in the midst of Samaria, instead of being destroyed, were by Elisha's word royally entertained and sent back in safety to their master. Thus if for a time matters between Israel and Syria might improve, it was not so for long. Pride was wounded, and the Syrians waited their opportunity, which came at last. “And it came to pass after this that Ben-hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his host and went up and besieged Samaria, and there was a great famine in Samaria” (2 Kings 6:21). War with all its attendant horrors was there impoverishing and brutalizing. Nevertheless, the hand of God was working in more ways than one. He would not cease to warn His people of the consequences of their fatal obstinacy, and not until every means had been exhausted did God ultimately dispossess them of their land. What we are now entering upon had long ago been graphically predicted in Deuteronomy 28:52-58.

The king of Israel could not at times but be sensible of the power of God, but he soon forgot, and his attitude in general, alas! was one of indifference. We see how easily indifference may change into pronounced hostility to the truth, and, of course, to any one who at any time may stand as its representative. In point of fact, the spirit of grace is no more acceptable to the natural man than that of righteousness. “And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him; and he said, Behold this evil is of Jehovah; what should I wait for Jehovah any longer” (vers. 30-33)?

To so grievous a condition had sin brought the nation, and so insensible were the people to the voice of God! But Elisha finds in the acknowledgment of the hand of God stretched out in judgment the only hope of deliverance for the city. It would seem that the prophet is here before us as mediator; and the only just basis of mediation is the acknowledgment of the truth. In the sin of the golden calf, the confession of Moses on behalf of the nation was, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.” Joshua, with less spiritual discernment than Moses, failed to grasp the cause of Israel's failure and defeat at Ai, and it was necessary therefore that God should reveal to him that Israel had sinned (Joshua 7:6-11). The truth here was, “Behold, this evil is from Jehovah.” None in Israel cared to own this, while their king had almost run his course, for little time now remained to him. “The son of a murderer” had now proved himself to be, in spite of his rent garments and sackcloth within, possessed of the same murderous spirit as Ahab in his avowed hostility to God's servant. The king's hypocrisy is now openly disclosed and his guilt clearly revealed. Elisha's exclamation, “Behold, this evil is from Jehovah; why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?” was clearly connected with this disclosure. Now that the lowest depth of iniquity was sounded, there was nothing to wait for but that God should glorify Himself in showing mercy to whom He would show mercy. He remembered the 7,000, the sons of the prophets, etc., while the king himself was but ripening for judgment (chap. 9:24).

His conscience too was so seared that he could take a profane oath binding himself to the commission of murder, but it was in the heart of God at this time to deliver His people once more, and none should hinder. Neither the wickedness of the king nor the cynical unbelief of the courtier should prevent the carrying out of God's purpose. He had wrought many times before when His soul was grieved for the misery of His people. Only unbelief would deprive any of the blessing. God is able to fulfill His own predictions, as also to bring the provisions of His grace within the reach of all. Things could not have been worse in Israel—iniquity in high places, infidelity rampant, God's merciful intervention unsought by the people, and the king himself ready to destroy the one by whom so much blessing and so many deliverances had come to Israel! With a conscience unaffected by anything that had happened, he was fully prepared to incur the guilt of slaying the prophet of Jehovah, to whom he had basely ascribed the calamities that had overtaken his people.

One or two points of interest call for notice here as illustrating the way in which the salvation of God is realized, and who are the people that get the blessing. “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour he sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the lord on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if Jehovah would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate; and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: it they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household” (chap. 7:1-9).

We look in vain for any evidence of faith working in the heart of the people. There is nothing approaching it. Nothing seemed more improbable than that deliverance should come within such narrow limits of time; and indeed it must come quickly, or not at all. Truly it was Israel's extremity, and deliverance was only to be found in full submission to death. The four lepers proved it; their condition was indeed desperate, as was that of the nation, and worst of all of the king and the great ones. But these last were more guiltily responsible, for the word of God had come to them. Nevertheless, they had dared to reason as though Elisha did not know what he was saying, and as if God were promising what He had no power to perform. Israel had lost faith in God; they had no apprehension of His loving-kindness any more than of His truth. Infidelity is never more hateful than where the most light is to be found. Knowledge stands in the way. To be simple, and subject to the word of God, is the only sure way of blessing, for the springs and channels of human knowledge are poisoned. “And Jesus said, For judgment am I came into this world, that they which see not may see, and that they which see may become blind.... And they said to him, Are we blind also? Jesus said to them, If ye were blind ye would have no sin; but now ye say, We see; your sin remains” (John 9:39-41).

In the case before us the sequel showed there was no physical impossibility in what Elisha had predicted, nor was it the first time in Israel's history that such a display of the power of God to move the heart of man had been known (see chap. 3:23). God can work in influencing armies as well as individuals; so too in a subordinate way can evil spirits (see Psalm 78:49; 1 Kings 22:19-23); while the sarcastic retort of the captain on whose hand the king leaned loses all its point in the light of a subsequent scripture—Mal. 3:10. The difficulties that man puts in the way of the accomplishment of God's promises are puerile and nugatory. They all vanish before the simple faith that takes God at His word, and says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Specially important is it to maintain this in a day like the present, when there is such an effort on the part of many to frustrate the grace of God by carnal reasoning. The enterprising, inventive spirit of the day would set no bound to the possibilities of man's genius while questioning everything which the word of God insists upon. The servant of God has no need to meet this infidel-spirit by argument, but by solemn warnings of coming judgment. God is very patient and would have His servants patient with the simplicity of the inexperienced, and the real difficulties arising from various causes which many find in their reading of the scriptures. But the greatest difficulty of all is to become as a little child and to justify God in all that He has said. Timothy is instructed in the divine way of meeting error— “But foolish and senseless questionings avoid, knowing that they beget contentions. And a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend; but he gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness setting right those who oppose if God perhaps may some time give them repentance to acknowledgment of the truth, and that they may awake up out of the snare of the devil who are taken by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:23-26).

While the great ones of Israel were unaffected by the announcement of immediate plenty, God was preparing competent witnesses to its reality, who could say, “We have seen and bear witness.” All this is in harmony with the ways of grace previously noticed as characteristic of our prophet's ministry. Just as God was pleased to use the simplicity and faith of a little captive maid to bring Naaman and Elisha together, and then the simple reasoning of the servants to overcome the reluctance of Naaman to avail himself of such a remedy as Elisha proposed, so God was pleased to make use of the testimony of these four leprous men to relieve the famine-stricken inhabitants of Samaria. Those lepers had nothing to lose, but everything to gain; their condition could not have been more helpless or worse than it was. They had the sentence of death in themselves, and they accepted it. Something of the spirit of the gospel is surely foreshadowed here. The testimony of God is to man's complete ruin and coming judgment, yet it leaves him not without hope. “And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this judgment: so Christ also having been once offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time apart from sin to those that wait for him unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27, 28). “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). “Through this Man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe if one declared it to you” (Acts 13:38-41). The gospel could not be revealed in all its fullness in Old Testament times as it is now made known since the death and resurrection of Christ, but it is surprising how often the mercy of God is seen even in those early days. In health and prosperity, the sinner turns a deaf ear to the gospel, but when these fail, and death stares him in the face, then the convicted, repentant sinner becomes ready to accept the proffered salvation.

This position is outlined by the scriptures before us in the case of the lepers, etc. In Samaria itself there was no faith, not even when the lepers brought the tidings into the city. The word of God by Elisha (7: 1, 2) found no place in the hearts of the inhabitants. “So they came and called unto the porter of the city; and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and they told it to the king's house within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left us in the city (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed): and let us send and see” (vers. 10-13). Thus faith in Israel was indeed at a very low ebb; they must see before believing; and even when they did see they thought it was a trap laid by the enemy. The Spirit of God is particular to notify the literal fulfillment of the prophet's word. “And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. And that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if Jehovah should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died” (vers. 17-20). Even thus shall it be when He shall come, and every eye shall see Him; when He shall be glorified in His saints and be admired in all them that believed (2 Thessalonians 1:10). But those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, will then believe the lie-who had pleasure in unrighteousness. Alas! everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power will then be their inevitable doom. But to-day is a day of salvation for all who now come to the Savior believing God's testimony to the finished work of His Son.

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 8. The Future Religion - Worship of Satan, Part 3

IT will be seen that the first beast rises up out of the sea, the symbolic meaning of which has already been explained; but if waters means peoples and nations, and if sea means the same in a state of commotion, then earth would mean the peoples and nations under settled and ordered government. The resurrection of the Roman Empire out of the tumult soon produces stability, and then out of the peoples and nations in this organized form arises the second beast—he comes up out of the earth (ver. 11). The first beast is a political power; the second is more religious— “he had two horns like a lamb.” But for all his lamb-like semblance, his voice betrays him. It is not the voice of “the good shepherd” — “he spake as a dragon” (ver. 11). Yet, though the dominant feature of the first beast is imperial power, and of the second religious, nevertheless they both have, in some measure, the same attributes. Thus the first has, in addition to political eminence, a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and the second, though characteristically religious, is nevertheless represented as a “beast,” which in prophetic symbolism, denotes an imperial power, and later on we shall see that he is indeed a king.

Here then is exhibited the awful display of Satanic action and influence at the close of the age. An empire is erected by Satan, coming up out of the abyss (17:8). It is to have universal dominion— “authority was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations” (13:7). “And the whole earth wondered after the beast” (ver. 3). It is formally and openly blasphemous— “upon his heads are names of blasphemy” (ver. 7). “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies... and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (vers. 5, 6).

But there is the second beast (ver. 11). This really is the antichrist, the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians. There is perfect concurrence between the dragon and the first beast and the second beast—they mutually co-operate and support each other. The dragon confers power an authority upon the first beast, obtaining through this the homage of men— “they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast” (ver. 4). Then the second beast exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast (ver. 12). “And he docth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (vers. 13-15).

Here there is Satan's imitation of Christ. As Christ testified of the Father, so this beast bears testimony to the first beast, while Satan himself is the moving spirit behind all. It is of importance to apprehend the distinctness which Scripture thus exhibits not only between the three members of this Satanic trinity, but more particularly between the beast that is the head of the Roman Empire and the second beast that comes up out of the earth, since it has been a frequent error of prophetic writers to confuse these two. What is affirmed of the antichrist has been erroneously applied to the eighth head of the Roman Empire. Indeed, all the predictions as to the willful king of Daniel, the Roman prince, the second beast of Revelation 13, the little horn of Daniel, the antichrist and the man of sin, as well as expired prophecies relating to Antiochus Epiphanes, have been indiscriminately applied to one person.

The time will be one of abounding delusion. A judicial principle traceable in God's dispensational dealings with men is, that when light from God has been despised and resisted, blindness is sent. So was the heart of Pharaoh hardened. The Jews are another instance. Jesus admonished 'them: “Walk while we have the light, lest darkness come upon you... While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light” (John 12:35, 36). Now, as the consequence of their rejection, not only of the Savior, but of the testimony of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost and onwards, Paul tells us, “Their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart” (2 Corinthians 3:14, 15). Then he tells us, in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, that “wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (chap. 2:15, 16). So also in Romans 11, “For I would not brethren, that ye should he ignorant of this mystery... that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (ver. 25). And Scripture announces the solemn doom as the end of the unbelief of Christendom— “Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved,” God will “send them a working of error that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11).

Anyone who reads attentively the 11th chapter of Romans will perceive that Paul there treats of God's dispensational dealings with Israel and the Gentiles. Israel is cut off because of unbelief (ver. 20), and light and blessing have flowed to the Gentile. But this is accompanied by ominous warning, “Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: OTHERWISE THOU ALSO SHALL BE CUT OFF (vers. 20-22).

The present attitude of men towards Christianity has already been referred to under sect. v. But if Christendom's status with God depends on the word, “Thou standest by faith,” what is that status to-day? The emptiness of pews and desertion of ecclesiastical edifices is the wail of every denomination. Not only, however, are the mass of people outside the buildings, but, their being so is, sad to say, expressive of their sentiments towards revealed truth. At the same time the leaders of the Christian religion are modifying their tenets and debasing their standards to suit the unregenerate mind of man—a leveling down instead of leveling up and pro tanto giving up “the faith.” A leading European journal has teemed with letters under the heading, “Do we believe?” collected now into a ponderous book. Is the Gentile then really standing by faith? The Jew has been cut off and is judicially blinded, and to the Gentile the Spirit of God says, “Take heed lest he also spare not thee.” The preceding quotation from Romans 11 shows that if the Gentile does not continue in God's goodness in the gospel, the sentence upon him is, “Thou also shalt he cut off.” This synchronizes with what has before been shown—that Christendom, when become void of faith, will be spued out of Christ's mouth. Following that, however, will be the blinding power of Satan, to which men will be judicially subjected in righteous retribution for not receiving the love of the truth that they might be saved. The apostasy comes first, and the flood of delusion follows, culminating at the revelation of the man of sin (see Revelation 13 already quoted).

Who that has had much discourse with men respecting Christianity is not cognizant of a desire on their part, deep and strong though perhaps denied, to find out at last that Christianity is not true, not obligatory as a message from God? Immense labor and perverse ingenuity are expended in the effort to prove it false. With crass illwill men set themselves to the task of picking holes in the gracious revelation which God has given, to find flaws in the beauteous message of His grace. The desire is plain, though so far, it is desire only—perhaps will; but with the advent of the antichrist there will be sent a working of error (ἐνέργεια πλάνης) that they should believe what is false. Now they wish to believe it; then they will have no doubt. The mental atmosphere of the time will be different, and, what is Satanic falsehood will appear as marvelous light. This is one fundamental change which will occur at the end of the age. In Christendom at present, most people believe, in a general way, in the trueness of Christianity (however rapidly it is being given up); and those who do not, feel that they are in opposition to what is generally accepted as truth; a militant minority bravely battling as they suppose against an effete superstition. But this position will be reversed. With the apostasy Christianity will be relinquished; with the coming of antichrist delusion will prevail and Satanic falsehood be accepted as truth. Reader, such is the prospect of modern civilization! However bright it may appear, this dark cloud lowers on its horizon. With all its promise, and with all its intellectualism, this will be the outcome: Christianity abolished, the worship of Satan supervening, and then, very soon will follow, the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory, to judge living men upon the earth.

The coming of the antichrist is stated to be “according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish; because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, New Translation). By this, as well as by the previous quotation from Revelation 13, it will be apparent that the man of sin works miracles. Here, in Thessalonians, his coming is said to be “in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood"; and in Revelation 13 “he does great wonders so that he makes fire to come down from heaven on the earth before men,” and deceives, by his miracles, those who dwell on the earth; also he has power to give breath unto the image of the beast, etc. Thus the second beast is the great delusory agent, and uses his powers to attest and to aggrandize the first beast.

The first beast does not work miracles or signs; he impresses by his political and military greatness— “they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” The resuscitation of the great Roman empire, not only with undiminished but with augmented glory, is such a marvel, that the minds of men are carried away by it— “the whole earth wondered after the beast.” Three times in this chapter (Revelation 13) is the surprising fact referred to, and from the way in which it is spoken of, the event will probably be of a magnitude, compared with which the rapid rise and ascendancy of Bonaparte will have been but feeble. The first mention is in ver. 3, where the wondering of the whole earth after him is in connection with the healing of his deadly wound; then in ver. 12 where the second beast causes the earth to worship the first beast, he is described as “the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.” And this is not for the purpose of designation, because for that the term “first beast” would have sufficed, but obviously it is for emphasis. Again, in ver. 14, the miraculous powers of the second beast are exerted that the dwellers on the earth should make an image—to what? To “the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.”

The “first beast” having its seat in Rome will be the western power; and we have seen from 2 Thessalonians that the man of sin (the second beast) is present in the temple, that is, in Jerusalem; so that there will be two great imperial powers, one in the west and one in the east, at Rome and Jerusalem respectively.

There can be no doubt from Scripture that the eastern potentate is identical with a character who is abruptly brought in in Daniel 11:36 as “the king.” Indeed the second beast of Revelation 13, the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2, the king of Daniel 11:36-39, and the antichrist of 1 John 2:18, 22, are clearly identical. Some in reading Daniel 11 have thought that the expression “the king” in a chapter dealing with the king of the north and the king of the south, must refer to one of these two. But for an Israelite to mention his own king in this indefinite way is perfectly natural both here and in Isaiah 30:31. When an English newspaper announces that “the King” is going to Scotland, it would be quite superfluous to say “the King of England"; while, if speaking of another king it would be necessary to specify—the King of Spain, or whatever other king might be meant. So Daniel and Isaiah, when referring to kings, specify king of the north or king of the south, etc., but “the king” without further definition, means of course king of Israel. The chronological place of this king is determined by the 40th verse (Daniel 11), which says that “at the time of the end” the king of the south shall push at him. This occurrence we do not now discuss, merely adducing the proof which it affords that “the king” previously referred to is found “at the time of the end.” Two interesting features may be remarked in Daniel's sketch of the antichrist. One, that he will not regard the desire of women. This, in a Jewish prophecy, refers to the proper aspiration of Jewish women to be the mother of the promised Messiah. That this is its significance is confirmed by the collocation in which the expression occurs, both that which precedes and that which follows it, viz., “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all” (ver. 37). Secondly, the God of his fathers is twice referred to, which is a probable indication that this person will be of the Jewish race—a high qualification in one presenting himself to Israel as Messiah and Messianic king.

Now notice the concurrent testimony of prophecy as to this personage.

1—Lawlessness— “The king shall do according to his will” (Daniel 11:36). “Then shall be revealed The Lawless One” (2 Thessalonians 2:8, ὁ ἄνομος—inaccurately rendered in A.V. “that wicked").

2—Self-exaltation and antagonism to God— “He shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods” ''And he will not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he will magnify himself above all” (Daniel 11:36, 37). “The man of sin,... the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth down in the temple of God showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 1). “Ye have heard that antichrist shall come....He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:18, 22).

3—Gives his support and influence to the first beast— “And in his place (or office) will he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not will he honor with gold and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things” (Daniel 11:38). “And he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.... And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:12, 14, 15).

On the page of Scripture and of eternal history, two men stand out as exact opposites. One is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of righteousness; and the other the man of sin, in whom culminates the wickedness of the race. Jesus being God, emptied Himself to become a servant; the other, only a man, shows himself in the temple that he is God. Jesus, having already condescended to become man, humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross; the man of sin exalts himself. Jesus, when they would have made Him a king, declined, for He had come to suffer not to reign; the other takes the place of king and will exalt and magnify himself. Jesus came down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him; as to the other, “The king will do according to his will.” Jesus was the good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep; the idol shepherd slays all who will not worship him. Jesus was rejected and crucified; the man of sin will be accepted and worshipped.

And what will be the end of all the opposition to God which has been slightly placed before the reader? At the coming of the Lord Jesus, the man of sin, and the beast before whom he wrought miracles, being found in open and audacious rebellion, will be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:19). There have been two who have been translated to heaven without seeing death—Enoch and Elijah. As these two were eminent in faithfulness and devotion to God, and were eminently rewarded, so the two who will have been pre-eminent among mankind in evil and sin will pass alive to their horrible and summary doom.

[E. J. T.]

(Continued from page 263)

(To be continued)

Grace the Power of Unity and of Gathering: Part 1

What is important to be understood is, that the active power that gathers is always grace-love. Separation from evil may be called for. In particular states of the church, when evil is come in, it may characterize very much the path of the saints. It may be, that through many acting under the same convictions at the same time, this may form a nucleus. But this in itself is never a gathering power. Holiness may attract when a soul is in movement of itself. But power to gather, is in grace, in love working; if you please, faith working by love. Look at all the history of the church of God in all ages, and you will find this to be the case. Gathering is the formative power of unity, where it does not exist. I take for granted here that Christ is owned as the center. If evil exist, it may gather out of that evil, but the gathering power is love. The paper which I would pass under review is a tract, which, from circumstances, is not unknown: “Separation from Evil, God's principle of Unity.” I trust I shall have grace to acknowledge error where I thought there was such, and I am sure I owe it to the Lord to do so; but my object here is somewhat larger. That tract refers to the state of the church of God at large, and not any particular members of it; but as one part of truth corrects an evil, so another, by its operation on the soul, may enlarge the sphere, and strengthen the energy of good. There are two great principles in God's nature, owned of all saints—holiness and love. One is, I make bold to say, the necessity of His nature, imperative, in virtue of that nature, on all that approach Him; the other, its energy. One characterizes; the other is, and is the spring of activity of, His nature. God is holy—He is not loving, but love. He is it in the essential fountain of His being; we make Him a judge by sin, for He is love, and none has made Him such. If there he love anywhere else, it is of God, for God is love. This is the blessed active energy of His being. In the exercise of this He gathers to Himself for the eternal blessedness of those who are gathered, its display in Christ, and Christ Himself, being the great power and center of it. His counsels as to this are the glory of His grace, His applying them to sinners and the means He employs for it, the riches of His grace. And in the ages to come He will show how exceeding great these were in His kindness to us, in Christ Jesus.

Allow me, in passing, before entering on the examination of the point, which is now directly my object, to say a word on the sweet passage I have referred to, because it opens out God's full thoughts in bringing into the unity of which that Epistle speaks. We are blessed in Christ, and God Himself is the center of the blessing, and in two characters, His nature and His relationship; He is both as related to Christ Himself, viewed as man before Him, though the beloved Son. The verses I refer to, are Ephesians 1:3-7. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord, when ascending up on high, said, “I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God"; only that here He goes on to their unity in Christ. There Christ speaks of them as brethren. In this double character, then, in which God stands to Christ Himself, He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, none left out, in spiritual places, the best and highest sphere of blessing, where He dwells; not merely sent down to earth, but we taken ourselves up there, and in the best and highest way, in Christ Jesus, save His divine title to sit on the Father's throne. Wonderful portion, sweet and blessed grace, which becomes simple to us in the measure in which we are accustomed to dwell in the perfect goodness of God, to whom it is natural to be all that He is, who could be no other.

In verse 4, we have “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” according to the glory of the divine nature, introducing into His own presence in Christ that which shall be the reflex of itself, according to its eternal purpose. For the church in the thoughts of God (and, I may add, in its life in the Word), is before the world in which it is displayed. Here, it is His nature. We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before Him in love. God is holy, God is love, and in His ways, when He acts, blameless. Then there is relationship in Christ, and His is that of Son. Hence in Him we are predestinated to the adoption of children to God Himself, according to His good pleasure, the delight and goodness of His will. This is relationship. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as God. This is the glory of His grace; His own thoughts and purposes, to the praise of which we are. He has shown us grace in the Beloved. But in fact He finds us sinners. He has to put sinners in this place. What a thought! Here His grace shines out in another way. In this same blessed one, Christ the Son, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins—what we need, in order to enter into the place where we shall be to the praise of the glory of His grace—and this is according to the riches of His grace; for God is displayed in the glory of His grace, and need is met by the riches of grace.

Thus we are before God. What follows in the chapter is the inheritance which belongs to us through this same grace—what is under us. Into this I do not enter; only remarking, as I have remarked elsewhere, that the Holy Ghost is the earnest of the inheritance, but not of God's love This is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. These two relationships, of God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be found to unfold much blessing. They are of frequent occurrence in scripture.

But interesting as this subject is, I turn now to the one before me. I have read over the tract I have referred to. I confess, it seems to me that one who would deny the abstract principles of that tract is not on Christian ground at all. I cannot conceive anything more indisputably true, as far as human statement of truth can go. Still there is something more than truth to be considered, and that is, the use of truth. God's imputing no sin to the church, through grace and redemption, is always blessedly and eternally true. To a careless conscience, I may have to address other truth. Now, I repeat, that on reading that tract I do not see how a person resisting the principles stated, is on Christian ground at all. Is not holiness the principle on which Christian fellowship is based? And the tract is really and simply that. But two other points I believe it important to bring out along with that-one, in relation to man; the other, to the blessed God. The first is this: human nature we all own, and in a measure know, is a treacherous thing. Now separation from evil, when right, which I now assume, still distinguishes him who separates from him from whom he does so. This tends to make one's position important, and so it is; but with such hearts as we have, one's position mixes itself up with self—not in a gross way, but in a treacherous one; it is my position, and not only so, but the mind being occupied with what has been important (justly so in its place) to itself, tends to make, in a measure, separation from evil a gathering power, as well as a principle on which gathering takes place. This (save as holiness attracts souls who are spiritual by a moving principle in them) it is not.

There is another danger: a Christian separates from evil, I still suppose, in a case in which he is bound to do so. Say, he leaves the corruptest system in existence; on this principle, it is the evil acting on the conscience of the new man, and known to be offensive to God, which drives him out. Hence he is occupied with the evil. This is a dangerous position. He attaches it, perhaps anxiously, to those he has left, to give a clear ground why he has done so. They conceal, cover over, gloss, explain. It is always so where the evil is maintained. He seeks to prove it, to make his ground clear; he is occupied with evil, with proving evil, and proving evil against others. This is slippery ground for the heart, to say nothing of danger to love. The mind becomes occupied with evil as an object before it. This is not holiness, nor separation from evil, in practical internal power. It harasses the mind, and cannot feed the soul. Some are almost in danger of acquiescing in the evil through the weariness of thinking about it. At all events power is not found here. God separates us surely from evil, but He does not fill the mind when it continues to be occupied with it; for He is not in the evil. It is quite true that the mind may say, “Let us think of the Lord and drop it,” and get a measure of quiet and comfort; but in this case the general standard and tone of spiritual life will be infallibly lowered. Of this I have not the shadow of a doubt. The positive evil will not be actually acquiesced in; but God's horror of it is lost in the mind, and the measure of divine power and communion just proportionately lost, and the general path shows this. The testimony fails and is lowered. This is the widest evil—where there is conflict with evil not maintained in spiritual power—and creates the most serious difficulties to extend unity; but God is above all. The new nature, when in lively exercise, because it is holy and divine, revolts from evil when it comes before it. The conscience, too, will then be in exercise as responsible to God. But this is not all, even as to holiness. There is another, which in many (I may say, at bottom, in all) cases distinguishes real holiness from natural conscience, or conventional rejection of evil. Holiness is not merely separation from evil, but separation to God from evil. The new nature has not merely a nature or intrinsic character as being of God; it has an object, for it cannot live on itself—a positive object, and that is God. Now this changes everything; because it separates from evil—which it abhors, therefore when it sees it—because it is filled with good. This does not enfeeble its separation. It makes its abhorrence of it lively when it has to be occupied with it, but it gives another tone to that which is abhorrent to it, the possession of good sufficient (when it is not forced to think of evil) to put it quite out of mind and sight. Hence it is holy, calm, and has a substantive character of its own, apart from evil, as well as abhorrent of it. With us this can only be in having an object, because we are and ought to be dependent, only so far as we are positively filled with God in Christ. We are occupied with good, and hence holy, for that is holiness; and therefore, easily and discerningly abhorrent of evil, without occupying ourselves with it. It is God's own nature; He is essentially good; delights in it in Himself; and therefore He is abhorrent, in virtue of His goodness, of evil; His nature is the good, and hence in His very nature He rejects the evil. He will do so authoritatively, no doubt, in judgment; but we now speak of nature.

Hence you will find, that when it is in power, love precedes and makes holy, whether it be mutual or the enjoyment of it in the revelation of God. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13). So in 1 John 1-"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”

[J. N. D.]

(To be continued)

Studies in Mark: Quotations From the Old Testament

II.-The Quotations From The Old Testament (1:2, 3)

“Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face who shall prepare thy way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (1:2, 3, R.V.).

In the abrupt manner characteristic of this Gospel a citation from the ancient prophecies is placed as a preface without any such introductory phrase as is used, for instance, by Matthew: “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,” etc.; and again, speaking of John the Baptist, “This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice,” etc. (Matthew 1:22; 3). Luke also, like Matthew, places the historical fulfillment before the prediction itself. He records that John came preaching the baptism of repentance, “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, The voice,” etc. (Luke 3:3, 4). Mark, in contra-distinction from these two, first quotes the written prophecy and then relates the historical fact of John's preaching and baptism. Why is this inversion of the usual order which we find in John's Gospel (19:24, 28, 36), as well as in the two Synoptists? Believing as we do in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, we believe this reversed order is designedly so arranged. Before, however, seeking to discover the purpose of this arrangement, another noteworthy circumstance must be mentioned which can hardly escape the diligent student of this Gospel. The quotation is singular in this respect, viz., that it is the only reference made by Mark, in the course of his narrative, to the Old Testament as prophecy, or authority. The other Evangelists, especially Matthew and Luke, make more frequent reference. Mark's first word almost is the recital of an inspired utterance, but it is the only instance. Many examples occur in which this Evangelist gives the words of our Lord Himself containing His quotation of the scriptures (see chaps. 4:12; 10:6, 7, 8, 19; 12:1, 10, 19, 26, 29, 31, 36, et al.), while he also in the course of the narrative makes more or less evident allusion to Old Testament phrases (see 1:44; 2:26; 4:29, 32; 6:34; 11:9, 19; 15:24, 29, 36; 16:19); but in the latter instances the fact that the phrases occur elsewhere is not mentioned.

Here, however, the quotation is made by Mark himself, and is introduced impressively by the statement, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,” showing (1) that it is a written record, not an oral tradition, and (2) that it is an ancient prediction by a prophet of God. Then the terms of the prophecy having been recited, its historical fulfillment in the preaching of John the Baptist is duly stated.

Let us now consider why this Old Testament scripture is brought before us here, and why it is placed before, rather than after, the notice of the event to which it is shown to relate.

And the first general consideration is that this passage, so strikingly emphatic by its singularity, establishes before the history begins an unmistakable connection between this “gospel of Jesus Christ” and the burden of ancient prediction concerning the coming One. It is true that here in Mark “there is no blowing of trumpets to usher in the King in due style and title” as in Matthew. Neither have we the fullness of detail concerning the birth and early days of the Son of man amid circumstances of lowly Jewish piety such as are given by Luke. In John, human genealogy would obviously he out of place in the Gospel that treats of Him as the Word who was God, as it would equally be, for contrasted reasons, in Mark's Gospel, where He is portrayed as the Servant. As another has said, “Mark is devoted to the details of His service, especially His service in the gospel, accompanied by suited power and signs.... Hence as the Lord was the perfect Servant, so the perfect account of it says nothing here of a genealogy; for who would ask the pedigree of a servant?”

But if the genealogy of a servant is not an essential preface to an account of his labors, is it not fitting that his credentials should be stated? Here was the One from God, even “as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began” (Luke 1:70). God, “having raised up his Servant Jesus, sent him to bless” the people in accordance with the testimony of the prophets of Israel (Acts 3:26, R.V.). Jehovah's guarantee that Jesus was the promised Servant should have ensured His acceptance by the people who were the chosen guardians of the prophetic oracles. And the gravamen of Peter's charges against the Jews for their guilt in delivering up and denying in the presence of Pilate God's Servant Jesus was that they did so in face of the united testimony of the prophets, who had, moreover, testified of this particular guilt of theirs (Acts 3:13, 18, 21-26). Here, in Mark, a couple of pregnant sentences are sufficient to indicate that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Jehovah's Servant, is the One whose coming had been long foretold, and these should he ample to awaken our adoring contemplation of Jesus Christ come in flesh.

But, in the second place, as we consider the position of this citation in relation to its context, are we not entitled to ask whether it may not be connected with the antecedent verse as well as with the subsequent one? The words of the prophecy quoted have certainly a general reference to One whose advent was imminent as well as to one who was to herald that advent. His coming One is referred to in the first verse, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"; and His forerunner is introduced in vers. 3-8. In this view the Gospel opens not only with the assertion of the deity of the Servant by the Evangelist himself (ver. 1), but with the confirmatory prophetic testimony that He was Jehovah (vers. 2, 3).

Let us now examine this passage more closely, and in our further consideration notice—

The phrase, “as it is written;”

The phrase, “in Isaiah the prophet” (substituted by the Revisers for “in the prophets");

The quotation (ver. 2) from Malachi;

The quotation (ver. 3) from Isaiah.

(1) The phrase, “as it is written” (καθώς γέγ Rev. Text), is that occurring frequently in the N.T. as an introduction to scriptural quotations, and it is found about fourteen times in the Epistle to the Romans alone. The general sense in which it is used seems to be that the written words cited have a direct bearing upon the person or event named in the context. The historical event is thus authoritatively declared to be in accordance with what had been prophesied of old, while it is not thereby necessarily implied that the prophecy has received its complete fulfillment. It may, or it may not, have done so, but this is to be determined apart from grounds afforded by the words “as it is written.”

On examination of the various occurrences of this phrase, it will be found that this is not the only instance in which it precedes a composite quotation. In Romans 9:33, Isaiah 8:14 is combined with Isaiah 28:16; in Romans 11:8-10 we find Isaiah 29:10, Deuteronomy 29:4, Psalm 69:22, 23; and in Romans 3:10-18 several passages are united. Here in Mark, Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 are conjoined.

(2) “In Isaiah the prophet” is the accepted reading in place of “in the prophets.” It may be mentioned that this is the only case in which the name of a prophet is given after the phrase “as it is written.” In Luke 2:23 we have, “As it is written in the law of the Lord,” and in Acts 7:42; “As it is written in the book of the prophets"; but in all other places no personal reference is made.

The amended reading obviously creates a difficulty, as the passage is cited partly from Malachi and partly from Isaiah. Scriptural difficulties, however, only call for patient waiting upon God for light, which when given reveals the hidden beauty and subtle perfections of Holy Writ. To regard the words as a blunder on the part of the Evangelist is unthinkable. In the words of another, “Even on human ground it is absurd to suppose that the writer did not know that the first words quoted were from Mal. 3:1, and, if inspiration he allowed, the only question is as to the principle of thus merging a secondary in a primary quotation. Compare the somewhat different use of Jeremiah (from that of Isaiah 40:3) in Matthew 27:9, 10. There is purpose in both, which cursory readers have not seen, and so they have been as quick to impute a slip as the later copyists were to eliminate it. But it is as irreverent as unwise and evil to obscure or deny the truth even in such points as these, because the modes of scripture application differ from those of ordinary men, and we may not at a first glance be able to appreciate or clear up the profound wisdom of inspiration.”

The author goes on to say: “Kilster's conjecture that the reading was originally 'in the prophet' seems a mere effort to get rid of what he did not understand, which really, like such attempts generally, leaves the chief point where it was.” Dr. William Lee's suggested explanation is also inadequate. He assumes that Malachi's prophecy is no more than a quotation from Isaiah. He says, “Malachi is merely the auctor secundarius; and the Evangelist points out that this is the case by ascribing both commentary and text to Isaiah, whom he thus represents as the auctor primarius, the commentary being placed first, as it serves to elucidate the text." Whether Malachi only echoes Isaiah's prediction, as here stated, we will now proceed to inquire.

(3) The quotation from Malachi. “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way.” (The words, “before thee,” are here omitted, though they are quoted in Matthew 11:10 and Luke 7:27.)

Now there are two very striking features prominent in this prophecy—(1) the personality of Jehovah's messenger, who is honored and dignified by being such; and (2) the personality of the coming One who is declared to be Jehovah Himself. In regard to the first of these points, it will be remembered that the passage from Malachi occurs in Matthew and Luke, not in connection with John's preaching, as is Isaiah's prophecy (Matthew 3:3, Luke 3:4), but with John himself. When the Baptist's testimony was past and he was in prison, and to outward appearance he and his work had failed, the Lord said definitely,

“This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face who shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:10, 11; Luke 7:27, 28). He was the “prophet of the Highest,” and indeed much more than a prophet—the immediate forerunner of the Lord, going before His face to prepare His way. But it is well to see that while he abased himself in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah (John 1:23), the Lord exalted him in accordance with the prophecy of Malachi.

In the second place we have here Jehovah speaking, and Jehovah sending— “Behold, I send my messenger.” And as it is Jehovah sending, so it is Jehovah who is coming. In Malachi the language is precise as to this, “Behold, I send my messenger before my face.” The pronoun in Mark is changed from the first person to the second— “before thy face” —because of the incarnation. He who sends had taken the place of the sent One, but the Sender and the Sent are one. “I and my Father are one.” Thus He who is before us in this Gospel as Jehovah's Servant is the One who sends the greatest of all servants beside Himself. Elsewhere we read John was a “man sent from God,” while the Servant-Son was God.

It is further to be observed that the prophecy of Malachi is in particular connection with the day of Jehovah. The One predicted is the coming Judge, for the prophet continues, “Behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver.” This looks forward to a day of judgment yet future; but the same Person who is then to come as supreme Arbiter came to John to be baptized of him in Jordan.

(4) The quotation from Isaiah. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” A scrutiny of this passage in comparison with the previous verse makes it plain that there are such differences as forbid the thought that the later prophecy is a repetition of the earlier.

In the first place, while Malachi foretells the messenger who was to usher in the promised One, Isaiah prophesies of the message which should be proclaimed in anticipation of Messiah's advent by a nameless and obscure “voice” crying in the wilderness. In Malachi the messenger prepares the way; in Isaiah the voice calls upon the audience to make ready the way. The later prophet looks on to coming judgment, the earlier to coming salvation— “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). Each prophet has therefore a distinct point of view; and Dr. Lee's theory of one being an echo of the other is not tenable. Neither can Malachi he regarded as amplifying the prophecy of Isaiah, though it is clear from the coupling of the two passages by Mark that there is a connection, but surely not that of commentary and text, as has been alleged. Such an explanation is confessedly a weak one, since it states that the Evangelist names Isaiah because the quotation from Malachi which is prefixed “only serves to elucidate the text.”

But is not the true connection between the two passages to be traced in the manner and measure of the fulfillment of the prophecies in question What was the preparation made for the coming Jesus Christ? John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Those who confessed their guilt were those who were most truly ready for the coming of Him who had power on earth to forgive sins. This moral preparedness therefore as the result of the strenuous call to repentance by the voice crying in the wilderness is the burden of Isaiah's prophecy. And this prediction was actually fulfilled before the coming of the Lord. And because it was accomplished, a specific reference is made to Isaiah by this Evangelist, as also in a similar connection by Matthew and Luke. But Malachi's prophecy, on the other hand, only received a partial accomplishment. John was the messenger to prepare Jehovah's way, but not yet as the Judge of Israel. And the very omission of the prophet's name to this prophecy, making it appear to be an interpolation, becomes significant of some special sense in which it is quoted. And this sense is, it is submitted, that of its partial accomplishment in John the Baptist, somewhat in the same way that Malachi's other prophecy (4:5) concerning the coming of Elijah the prophet received an anticipatory fulfillment in the same person (Matthew 11:11; 17:11, 12) so far as relates to the inward effects of his testimony for God. The application of the two prophecies quoted by Mark to the Baptist is also seen in the words of the angel to Zacharias, “He shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient [to walk] in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared [for him]” (Luke 1:17, R.V.). In the last clause we have the words of both Malachi and Isaiah, as given by Mark. John was to prepare the way; the people were to prepare their hearts; even as those holy men of old foresaw and spake accordingly, being moved by the Holy Spirit. To sum up: the moral preparation which was the result of John's preaching being the subject of the Evangelist's history, the prophetic reference is accordingly made, by name, to Isaiah who prophesied of this rather than of the future day of judgment which will be heralded by a messenger of Jehovah even as the present day of salvation. And from this point of view, the deliberate and evident exclusion of Malachi's name, although his words are quoted, becomes as strikingly emphatic as the Lord's abrupt closing of the roll of Isaiah's prophecies in the synagogue at Nazareth. Most, if not all, of His hearers must have known that He had suddenly ceased in the middle of a sentence. He would thus impress upon them that He had not come to introduce “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:1, 2; Luke 4:16-21). Similarly the omission of Malachi's name here is eloquent of the truth that “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” is in accordance with the prophecies of mercy rather than with the prophecies of retribution.

[W. J. H.]

(Continued from page 268)

(To be continued)

How to Run, or Strength for the Pilgrim Journey

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.... I therefore so run, not as uncertainly.” These are weighty words from the pen of the inspired apostle of the Gentiles, and may well afford solid food for our soul's meditation. Self-denial and earnestness alike characterized this beloved servant of God, and it need scarcely be said that, in order to run well, the true pilgrim, like the true soldier, needs strength. The question of how to obtain this strength is therefore of the deepest moment, and scripture, in at least three different ways, provides a complete answer. The life we now possess, as believers in a risen Christ, needs to be sustained as we press forward in that heavenly race where human effort, not only counts for nothing, but would be a positive hindrance to the true pilgrim. The Holy Ghost has come down from a glorified Christ as the indwelling and abiding Spirit of power for each believer, yet none the less it is interesting to notice that God's word, continual prayer, and a heavenly Christ to attract the heart, furnish a threefold cord of divine strength for the journey, and provide sinews for the race that can never fail. The Psalmist could say, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” “Strengthen thou me according to thy word.” “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Jeremiah takes up the strain and says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” In this connection the waiting attitude of the prophet Habakkuk, amidst the gross corruptions and idolatry of his day, is worthy of note. Confiding in God alone, he stands like a sentinel, yea, as a ready listener, to hear what God has to say-"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower; and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.” The vision might tarry, and he might have to wait for its fulfillment, but meanwhile the prophet's soul is strengthened by faith in God's word. While he was waiting in patience for the promised deliverance, Jehovah answered and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Strength for running would thus most assuredly be found in reading God's word, while meditation thereon would be as marrow to his bones, and his loins would he girt about with truth. Whatever might come, the prophet finally exclaims, in the confidence of faith, “The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places.”

If God's word thus gives strength for the journey, earnest and believing prayer is no less important, for “they that wait upon the Lord shall change their strength (see margin); they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” What an interesting proof of this is seen on mount Carmel in Elijah's day! In answer to prayer, God had already fully rewarded the prophet's faith and courage by sending fire from heaven which “consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. The victory over the prophets of Baal was complete, but no spirit of boasting marks God's faithful servant. For three and a half years previously the heavens had given no rain, in answer to Elijah's earnest entreaty, but now that God's authority was both proved and owned, the prophet simply says to Ahab, “Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain.” But Elijah is once more on his knees, and in due course, in answer to continual prayer, the tiny cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, rises out of the sea, and the warning message is sent to Ahab to prepare his chariot lest the rain should stop him. Meanwhile, the dark clouds gather fast, the rain falls in torrents, and Ahab rides in his chariot. Not so Elijah; he needs no human help; he has “changed his strength” in prayer, and with the Lord's hand upon him he runs with girded loins, and in God's strength gets to Jezreel before the king. Prayer has strengthened his sinews for the race; 'tis thus he runs, and God is glorified. Scripture is full of many similar instances, yet is there still a further source of strength for the believing runner, and it is always found when the eye of faith rests only on an unseen but glorified Christ.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have the hortatory words of the great apostle, “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking off unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” What a divine object is here presented to our souls' vision, and what a powerful magnet to attract our hearts from all earth's fading scenes! Our great “Forerunner” has trodden the pathway first, and faith delights to follow in His holy footprints, who has not only shown us how to run, but also the way He trod. He who while here below as the dependent Man ever found His resources in God, having run the race, from first to last, to the glory of God, has taken His seat in triumph on God's throne, and in His own person has become the divine object to attract our hearts heavenward. Just as our eyes undistractedly gaze on that heavenly Overcomer, where He now is, so shall we gather both patience and strength for the homeward race. It is the attractive power, grace and glory of Christ's person that lends strength to our girded loins. Thus it was with Paul, who could say, he did “not run uncertainly.” His eyes, like Stephen's, gazed steadfastly upward to the Man in the glory of God, and his words may well find a place in our hearts to-day, “This one thing I do; forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and, if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” —Remembering all these precious truths, may grace be given us, not only to hide them in our hearts, but practically to prove their sweet reality each day to the praise of God's glory!

S. T.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 23

“And Elisha spake unto the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for Jehovah hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. And the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now” (2 Kings 8:1-6).

God was still dealing with His people. An unusually protracted famine came upon them; and He would have them know that His hand had done it. Moreover, He could exempt whom He would from its operation. The Shunammite woman had passed through her trial, and had glorified God under it. The discipline to which she had been subjected had indeed brought forth the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” to her exercised soul, and God does not prolong discipline unduly. “He doth not willing afflict, nor grieve, the children of men,” and in all cases where the object of the trial has been attained, His holiness and truth vindicated, and the lesson learned, He withdraws the trial. In the case before us we have reason to believe that this woman had now become a widow, otherwise it would be difficult to understand her taking the independent action she does here, so evidently in contrast with the propriety of her action on a previous occasion (4:8, 9). The sorrows of her people are strikingly illustrated in her experience, but in close connection with the grace that sustains, and the faith which shines out all the brighter for being tried. The kindness of God toward her is beautifully shown out in His caring for her during these seven years of famine. Jacob and his household were preserved and nourished by Joseph in Egypt. Both are typical of the nation preserved and spared and kept alive, until God's time for bringing them back to the land of Israel.

Yet there is another side of the truth as to Israel in exile; and we must not omit to notice it. “It came to pass in the days that the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem-Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, with her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and they dwelled there about ten years. And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband” (Ruth 1:1-5). Here we see a proud, self-sufficient Israelite, who, if he find difficulties in Palestine, will go to live elsewhere. He attempts to run away from the hand of God, and death overtakes him. His two sons choose themselves wives of the women of Moab in disobedience of God's warning, and the hand of God reaches them also. Then it is that Naomi, humbled and weakened, submits to God's hand, and foreshadows the spirit of the remnant, who in the coming day of their repentance, will cast themselves upon the mercy and faithfulness of Jehovah, and will find Him gracious unto them.

Here it is the faithfulness of God secretly working for His people and restoring to them the land and its increase. They will get more than they have lost, and possess it in Christ, the Heir, who has been brought again from the dead. This, however, is still in the future; the seven years are meanwhile running their course; but the land is being reserved for them, and they are preserved for the land. When that time comes it will be seen how God wondrously over-rules and causes all things to fall in with His plans for the accomplishment of the promises made to the fathers, and will indeed give to the people the sure mercies of David. God, in His own due time, after many preliminary dealings with His earthly people, will dispose the hearts of even the most unlikely nations to assist them; but that is when He takes up their cause, as we learn from many scriptures. Even now there is the providential secret working of God on behalf of His people and land, as beautifully portrayed in the scripture before us.

Gehazi (spiritually, a castaway) has advanced greatly in the things of the world. He enjoys the royal favor. To the king, who had asked him to relate all the great things that Elisha had done, Gehazi tells the story of the woman's son restored to life. No doubt it was gratifying to the king to know that he had such a remarkable man as Elisha in his kingdom, as it also ministered to Gehazi's self-importance. But had these miracles no voice from God? Was not the guilt of Samaria increased tenfold thereby? Ought not the king to have understood that these gracious displays of the power of God were so many calls to repentance? Where there is exercise of heart and conscience the goodness of God does indeed lead to repentance. Is it not evident that the hearts and consciences of the people were as insensible to the ministry of Elisha as to that of Elijah? The spirit of scornful indifference so painfully manifested by Gehazi and the king (as also by the king's attendant in the previous chapter) was identical with that which opposed itself to the ministry of the Lord Jesus, of whom Elisha was indeed a type.

“But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of tax-gatherers and of sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. Then began he to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe to thee, Chorazin! woe to thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee” (Matthew 11:16-21).

It is exceedingly solemn to find every testimony and ministry of grace closing in judgment; the more hopeless because the light has been practically extinguished, patience exhausted, every warning neglected, and the pleading of grace answered by the scoffing of unbelief. The Lord Jesus, the rejected Messiah, described and judged the nation's criticism of Himself, as well as of John the Baptist. So too the Holy Ghost here closes the public ministry of Elisha and unsheathes the sword of judgment—first, that of Hazael, then of Jehu (see 1 Kings 19:17); shaking to the very foundations the throne of David, and sweeping away the whole house of Ahab as a thing of naught. Not that Elisha's service in Israel was yet ended, but it had to give place to judgment. Indeed, the office of anointing both these kings, committed to Elijah, had been relegated to Elisha, the minister of grace. With this burden upon his heart Elisha came to Damascus, and the king of Syria (with no true piety, but with a false idea of the superhuman powers of Elisha,) sought to propitiate him with a present, as formerly in Naaman's case. Certainly there was no real turning of the heart to God, any more than there had been with Ahaziah, the king of Israel, when he sent to Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, a precisely similar message. In the case of the Syrian king, however, though it was Jehovah that was appealed to, yet the known character of God was despised. Ben-hadad had come to know a good deal about Jehovah—the cleansing of Naaman, the refusal of the king's gifts, the exposure of his plans against Israel, the sending of his bands to take Elisha, their discomfiture and inflicted blindness, together with the generosity shown them and liberty of return to their master—all these displays of the power and goodness of Jehovah made the Gentile king responsible and without excuse for such a sad mistake.

How offensive to God it is for unrenewed man to ignore the question of sin and come before Him with a gift. We see this plainly in Cain's case; yet infinitely worse is it now since God's Son has been here in grace, meeting only with hatred and death! We have now the Spirit's testimony to the full display of all that God is in Christ. There can be no mistake now as to God's true character—light, love, righteousness and grace—all have been declared by Him who is the “brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person.” It was not, however, here a question of correcting mistakes, or of instructing, as in Naaman's cleansing, but of judgment. This was Elisha's business in Damascus, not himself exercising judgment personally, but giving the divine authority to such as were to execute it, and to whom it would be congenial work. “And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Jehovah by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit Jehovah hath showed me that he shall surely die. And he settled his countenance steadfastly, until he was ashamed; and the man of God wept” (vers. 7-11).

Here is the light of God shining through Elisha, and making manifest all the workings of the unrenewed heart. Man in the presence of that light is as uncomfortable as he can possibly be. Hazael simulated grief, but Elisha, with a heart overcharged with unaffected sorrow, gave expression to his feelings in an unmistakable way. The servant of Jehovah felt the solemnity of the message given him to deliver, and so it is to-day with every true servant of Christ-divine sympathies are awakened and declare themselves in a way not to be imitated by the cold-hearted professor. Thus it was with another faithful servant of God in his day. “Hear ye, and give ear: be not proud; for Jehovah hath spoken. Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock is carried away captive” (Jeremiah 13:15-17).

But if the man of God was thus affected whilst giving his testimony, very different was it with Hazael. First, a hypocritical show of grief-"the show of their countenance witnesseth against them “; then, an outburst of indignation that he should be thought capable of such enormities. “And Hazael said, But what is thy servant? a dog, that he should do this great thing?” And having failed to deceive the man of God, he returns to his master, gives him a false version of the prophet's message, and proceeds at once in the most callous way to fulfill the prediction of Elisha. “So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead” (vers. 13-15).

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Divine Preparations

Prov. 9; Matthew 22

In Proverbs 9:1-5 we have wisdom's feast. Who this wisdom is may be gathered from the previous chapter, where it is written, “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was” (vers. 22, 23). “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; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men” (vers. 29-31). Of whom could this be here but of “the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father,” and who declared Him? and of none other indeed, for “no man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18).

Wisdom sets out in connection with the house she has built, stability-"She hath hewn out her seven pillars” ; and as for her feast, readiness “she hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also furnished (or prepared) her table"; and the invite is characterized by openness and broad daylight-” she hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places of the city.” And the apostle Paul could say, We “have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2). Further, there is no disguise as to the character of the persons invited. For, whilst making them welcome, she lets them plainly know how she regards them “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.” How blessed it is to adopt God's estimate of ourselves and to accept of His bounty!

In marked contrast to all this are the ways and allurements of the world (chap. 7.)-"The stranger which flattereth with her tongue,” whose call is given “near the corner,” “in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night” ; for she is “subtle of heart"-no security about it. The most she can allege is, “the goodman is not at home.” But, “when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 Paul quotes from Isaiah 64, “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.” But he adds, “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” And these things are connected with Jesus Christ, once crucified, but now glorified. And the apostle's testimony was not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, for he felt that what was entrusted to him was God's testimony. So he goes on to say, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained (or, predetermined) before the ages for our glory.” What a mine of boasting we have in our Lord Jesus, a mine which “the princes of this world” [or, age have rejected, for “had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” But of the blessings connected with the eternal state (see Revelation 21:1-7) we read, “He that overcometh shall inherit these (not “all,” as A.V.) things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.” The character of the overcomer is given us in 1 John 5:4, 5, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.” If we think only of the millennial state, is it nothing to be part of “the bride, the Lamb's wife” ? to have one's share in “the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal” ? Nothing to be part of that city of which it is written, “I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” ?

Truly lovely is the preparation of the king's marriage feast for his son, as given in Matthew 22. In contemplating it we must be careful to note the leading thought of the Holy Spirit, which is, “a certain king made a marriage feast for his son” (ver. 2). The king-” the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, only God” (1 Timothy 1:17); the son—Christ Jesus, who “came into the world to save sinners” (ver. 15). Surely at such a feast all would be of the best; it would be below such royalty to provide anything inferior, or that could even be matched. And the guests who receive and accept the invitation have an entertainment as far transcending that provided by Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1-8) as the light unveiled by. cloud of the noonday sun is above the glow worm's gleam. But the idea of the whole is not how the guests will fare, or even be arrayed, but what is worthy for Him whose “portion shall be with the great” and His “spoil with the strong"-for whose glory the feast was instituted, and who is in all things to have the pre-eminence. Let us seize this thought, and then everything else in a certain sense will cease to be wonderful. Yes, tell them, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen, and [my] fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage feast.” Who, in view of such extensive preparations, could think of taking with him provisions or garments of his own? To do so would be a direct insult to the king's “all things.” And who could keep away in the light of such a gracious injunction-"As many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast” ?

So these wise servants “gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.” Who then could doubt his welcome? for in the world mankind is either “good” or “bad.” But God's word concludes all in unbelief-there is none “good,” for all have sinned, and come short of His glory (Romans 3:9-23). Do you think of the furniture that becomes the abode of royalty, and on such an occasion? Do you ponder the “white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds of gold and silver upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble” (Esther 1:6)? Are these, or even superior, glories the furniture that attracts the attention of the king? No. The wedding was “furnished” with guests. And every guest there spoke to the King's eye and heart of the unexampled sufferings of His Son, of the depths of the lowliness to which He went, of the grace that led Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Yes; those marriage robes—how they must have brought it all before the King's heart. And if before the feast began they sang, “Unto him that loveth us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto his God and Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen,” would they not be in perfect unison with the King's own thoughts and wishes (see John 5:23)? Needless is it to remark in the vernacular of to-day, that a man “not having a wedding garment” was indeed not in it.

But there is one other preparation we may allude to before closing. And it is a scene not of glories, blessed as they are in their place, but of the heart's affections. Before the Lord Jesus left this world He spake thus, “In my Father's house are many mansions (or abodes); if it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also” (John 14:2, 3). Comment fails us here. The One who comes to fetch us, the prepared place to which He will bring us after first receiving us to Himself, and the being with Him in His Father's house (and that forever), are enough to fill to overflowing any heart that has tasted His love.

W. N. T.

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 9: Sundry Points

IX.-Sundry Points

1. That “the elect” of Matthew 24 are not “the elect” of the church, will be recognized by those readers who have grasped the truth that the whole of Matthew 24 from verse 3 to verse 44 applies to the post-church period. It is, however, not only in that chapter that the remnant are referred to as “elect"; scattered intimations of this characteristic may be found as early as Isaiah: “It shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem” (chap. iv. 3). “I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (plural) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there” (lxv. 9). So Daniel, speaking of the time of “the great tribulation": “At that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book” (xii. 1). The Revelation—as previously quoted—shows the remnant to be definitely numbered, and individually sealed for God (vii. 1-8); and it will be remembered that Paul, when dealing with the casting away of Israel, and the subject of a remnant, says, “God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:2).

2. The carcass and the eagles.— “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matthew 24:28). For the understanding of this it is necessary to observe, that though included in one verse, there are here two distinct figures of two distinct events, which are not identical even in point of time. In prophecy there is nothing more usual than the announcement in close conjunction of events quite distinct, and sometimes far separated as to time. An eminent case is that of Isaiah 61:2, where two clauses of the same sentence link events which are near two thousand years apart: “To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God.” The Lord Jesus stated that the first part of this—the proclamation of the acceptable year of the Lord—was fulfilled in His first advent; and in the reading of the scripture He stopped at that point, closed the book and returned it to the minister (Luke 4:19, 20). The second part of the sentence— “the day of vengeance” —He had not then come to proclaim; that awaits His second advent.

In our text the lightning as a vivid figure of the coming of the Son of man needs no explanation; but absurd and very objectionable interpretations have been proffered of the parable of the carcass and the eagles. There need, however, be no great difficulty, for the meaning is comparatively plain. A carcass, with vultures crowding to prey upon it, is manifestly nothing very pure or lovely. The carcass is a figure of the dead and putrifying nation of Israel; and scripture shows that the nations will gather to prey upon Israel, and these are aptly figured in the eagles or vultures. Old Testament prophecies are abundant and graphic in their portrayal of this feature of the last days. In Zechariah this future attack of the nations is given, “Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken,” etc. (14:1-3). Again in Isaiah: “Woe to the multitude of many peoples, which make a noise like a noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters” (17:12). Then as to the effect upon Israel:

“They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them” (18:6). Details cannot here be set out, but this attack of the ungodly nations is in scripture a large event of the last days, which, while permitted as a judgment on the apostate mass of Israel, will yet be checked by the Lord in the interests of the pious remnant. The reader who may consult the scriptures quoted, will recognize these two elements of the great event in question.

3. The sign of the Son of man in heaven.— “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the nations of the earth (or, land) mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). The disciples had asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?” The Lord had already instructed them about the end of the age; now He tells them that the sign of His coming will be the coming itself, for they should see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The expression, “sign of thy coming,” is the genitive of definition, for Mark and Luke give the substantial coming of the Son of man without referring to it as a sign.

4. The angels and the trumpet.— “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Whatever in that day may have been done by man, as a political measure, in placing Jews in the Holy Land, and though that people may have autonomy under their own false king, the antichrist, yet the scattered condition of Israel under the sentence of Jehovah remains. But when the Lord comes, He will, by the instrumentality of angels, gather His elect from the most distant parts of the earth. How beautiful will it be to the despised, persecuted, and oppressed remnant, to suddenly find that they are the objects of inquiry and succor by the angels of the Lord! Romance cannot show such a brilliant reversal of position—yesterday, thought not fit to live; now, the quest of Jehovah's angels! How good has it ever been and ever will be, to be faithful to God in the face of a corrupt and unbelieving world.

5. Angelic activity is prominent at the appearing of Christ.—All the angels will then attend upon the Son of man (Matthew 25:31), and will act both in blessing, as we have just seen, and also in judgment. The Son of man will send His angels to gather together His elect; but likewise; the Son of man will “send his angels and 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” (Matthew 13:41). Isaiah alludes to this gathering of the remnant, and to the great trumpet whose sound will reach them in the distant places of the earth— “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship Jehovah in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (27:12, 13). Many may have sent ambassadors by the sea to this nation (Isaiah 18:2), ignoring the divine displeasure which rests upon it. With this movement Jehovah has no sympathy, as shown in an earlier chapter. Man places unrepentant Jews in the land, where they become the persecutors of the godly, and they themselves ultimately the prey of vultures—the other nations. Jehovah then stands quite aloof; but now has come His time. The Son of man comes in His glory and sends His angels, not to the case-hardened Jews, but to the faithful and godly remnant amongst them, who shall be saved and delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (Daniel 12:1). The blowing of the trumpet is mentioned in Isaiah 18:3 in connection with the same subject. The result of the assemblages of Jews in ungodliness is shown in ver. 6; but an ensign is lifted up and a trumpet blown, and in ver. 7 the remnant is brought as an offering to Jehovah of hosts. The blowing of a trumpet may of course be symbolical of the loud joyful message which will summon the remnant to mount Zion.

6. One shall be taken and the other left.—In describing the judgment at the coming of the Son of man, the Lord says, “Then two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40, 41). At a first glance some have thought that this was like the rapture of the church, but it is exactly the converse. At the rapture the saints are caught away, and the world is left to proceed in its course. But when the Lord comes to the judgment of the living upon the earth, the taking away is in judgment, and the righteous are left to pass into blessing upon the earth at the millennium. This is plain from the parallel passage in Luke 21. There, speaking of the same judgment, the Lord states that “as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth"; and the disciples are exhorted to watch and pray that they “may be accounted worthy” —not to be caught away into heaven, but— “to stand before the Son of man"; that is, when He comes to the earth and the wicked are taken away in judgment. The judgment, however, is strictly discriminatory, wholly different from what takes place in the slaughter and sack of cities after conquest. Whether men in the field, or women at domestic operations, one is taken and another left. Sudden it may be, but it is judicial.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

Studies in Mark: Baptism of Jesus and the Witness From Heaven

III.-The Baptism Of Jesus And The Witness From Heaven

“And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him; and there came a voice out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased“ (1: 9-11, R.V.).

All three of the Synoptical Gospels record the baptism of Jesus in Jordan, and also the heavenly testimony which accompanied it. The Fourth Gospel refers only to the descent of the Spirit which attested His divine Sonship, this being the main theme of this Evangelist, rather than the Lord's coming in accordance with prophecy, as is so carefully shown in the first three Gospels.

The testimony of John the Baptist to the Lord is divided chronologically into two distinct sections by the baptism of Jesus; the first being his announcement that the Messiah was about to come, as Paul said—John “first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel” (Acts 13:24); and the second being his declaration that the promised One had now come— “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.” “I saw and bare record that this was the Son of God” (John 1:29, 30, 34). The first part of this testimony is recorded exclusively by Matthew, Mark and Luke; the second part by John only.

It is evident therefore that the event of Christ's baptism coincided with the conclusion of prophetic (that is, predictive) testimony to Him. And it will be remembered that the prophecy of John was singular in respect of the entire absence of any accompanying miraculous voucher. Moses' rod becoming a serpent, the long drought at the word of Elijah, the brackish springs at Jericho purified by Elisha, Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream recalled and interpreted by Daniel, are all instances of signs given to show that the men so acting were servants of the most high God. But John's testimony lacked support of this nature, and was attested by its immediate fulfillment and verification. Thus it was said, “John indeed did no sign, but all things whatsoever John spake of this man were true” (John 10:41). Those who heard his prophecy also saw its accomplishment.

John was divinely instructed to look for the specific fulfillment of his own prediction. He said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

“I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11; John 1:33). This descent of the Spirit was therefore the appointed sign to John that the promised One was come, and that He was moreover the Son of God, for none beside could baptize with the Holy Spirit. As soon as John the Baptist had witnessed this sign from heaven he was thereby qualified to commence the second part of his ministry. This he did, pointing so definitely and effectively to the Lamb of God in their midst that his own disciples left him for his Master (John 1:35-37).

But John based this testimony upon what he himself saw at the Jordan Apart from this, speaking officially no doubt, he says, “I knew him not.” He does not hereby deny any previous acquaintance with Jesus, but he does deny that his declaration that Jesus was the Jehovah, whose way he was sent to prepare, was grounded upon any deductions he himself had drawn, or upon any estimate of His personality he himself had formed. It rested upon a heavenly revelation he had personally received, just as Saul's preaching of Christ as the Son of God (Acts 9:20) was founded upon the heavenly voice and vision that came to him on the road to Damascus. In neither case was the testimony humanly derived; and this the Baptist implied, when he said, “I knew him not.”

But while the divine seal was set upon John's ministry at the baptism of Jesus, it must not be supposed that his preaching was previously without effect upon men. The fiery words of the Baptist penetrated the consciences of many, so that they not only repented, but reasoned in their hearts concerning John himself, whether haply he were not the Christ (Luke 3:15); while all the people held him to be a prophet (Matthew 21:26). Can one number the publicans and sinners who were baptized of John in Jordan, confessing their sins, and were afterward received by the Lord, so that they said, “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them"? These were they who “justified” God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him (Luke 7:29, 30). Though he came unto them in the way of righteousness, they believed him not, but said, “He hath a demon” (Matthew 21:32). And as the leaders of the people rejected the prophet of righteousness, and refused to own that his baptism was “from heaven” (Matthew 21:25), so they rejected a greater than he—Him by whom grace and truth had come (John 1:17).

It is well to see, however, that scripture shows that a great moral work of preparation was wrought by John's preaching, and in consequence a company gathered around him, who exhibited deeds “worthy of repentance,” mainly in their confession of sins and submission to baptism. The plowing had been done; it was time for the Sower to come forth to sow. A little flock of straying sheep had been collected in the sheepfold. Accordingly the Shepherd of the sheep appeared at the door of the sheep-fold, and to him the porter opened (John 10).

This formal act was not undertaken, however, without remonstrance on the part of the Baptist, when Jesus “came from Nazareth of Galilee” to be baptized of him in Jordan “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? exclaimed the astonished prophet, seeking in his ignorant impulse to oppose the divine will by his notions of human propriety. But whatever John might think, the way of Jehovah lay through Jordan Jehovah-Jesus was looking towards those who were poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembled at His word through His messenger (Isaiah 66:2). The way of righteousness was that by which John had come to the people (Matthew 21:32). And the Lord meant by a public and unmistakable act to own that way, and, graciously answering the one who sought to hinder Him, said, “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). This was indeed a gracious reply, and in it the Lord at once maintained His authority and illustrated His grace. There was the gentle insistence that His will must be done, while at the same time with peculiar grace He yoked John with Himself in that submission which godly service ever involves. “It becometh us" are His words, for He was now stepping forth into the public eye, as the Servant of Jehovah, and this initial act was proper both to the baptizer and to the Baptized.

[W. J. H.]

(To be continued)

John 14:1-3

It is very common even among the children of God to confound the Christian hope with prophecy, but Scripture gives no countenance to anything so lowering to the heavenly calling; though prophecy is a very important part of scripture, either directly or indirectly as in the book of Genesis. All the blessings of a converted soul in the days of Genesis lay in the future, so that it is not in order to disparage prophecy that I claim a higher place for the Christian hope. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It was so in Old Testament days, and will be again. The more we distinguish that which is for the earth from that which is for heaven, the more honor we give not merely to the heavenly, but also to the earthly. God's purpose is to bring both earth and heaven under the Lord Jesus. The great mistake is to make the earth the scene of the Lord's being peculiarly glorified, and the saints with Him. For the earth is what God means for Israel. They are the people to be exalted in the earth. There is not one part of the universe (I do not speak of that awful but suited vision throughout eternity of the lake of fire) in all the scene of blessing but will be under the direct control of the Lord Jesus. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are the heavenly blessings than the earthly.

God means to bless every family of the earth. It was the promise given to Israel ... But what about saints raised from the dead and glorified? To have them for the earth is a terrible blunder. It is a sorrowful thing that any saint could look for a place on earth when a heavenly hope is made known. The effect is to blot out Israel's portion (which cannot fail), and to lose all sense of heavenly glory into which Christ is gone, and gone as our Forerunner.

Now it will help if I show the context of the words read; for you are never sure you have the real truth if you take a few words by themselves. But if the surroundings are of a similar character, they strengthen the true meaning. From the beginning of John 13 the Lord opened out the entirely new character of Christianity; that which follows His total rejection by Israel. The great doctrine of the Gospel of John is that we are children of God and know it, and are now fitted to enjoy it. As the apostle Paul, who says we are to bear the image of the heavenly when Christ comes, also says we are heavenly now. “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” John 13 brings before us a most remarkable act on the part of our Lord. After the intimation that He was going to leave them, for the chapter begins with, “When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,” etc.—that is the way His departure is looked at; not that He should die, though He was going to die—it proceeds, “And supper being come (not “ended")... Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands...he riseth from supper,” etc. Here is a very remarkable thing, though we might pass over it as nothing peculiar. Jesus is here not looking for the throne of David, for Jerusalem, and the land—all to be given Him by and by. That is what God will do for His Beloved Son, who by His death not only reconciles the creature with the Creator, but glorifies God about that in which He had been so dishonored. But now that the Lord Jesus (no longer in the world where we still are, but) is gone to the Father, He devotes Himself on high that we, whilst walking here, may nevertheless by His advocacy there, be maintained in blessed communion with Him now glorified. This is to have “part with him,” and is effected by His cleansing our feet—from the defilements of the way—by “the washing of water by the word.”

In these chapters the Spirit of God gives a far deeper account of that which ever had been revealed in the Old Testament. What! the Messiah wash our feet! There is nothing in the Old Testament scriptures nor in the heart of man to prepare for such a thing, and it astonished the disciples; it astonished Peter. Peter had part in Christ, eternal life in Christ; but the Lord would give him part with Christ, i.e. communion with Him in heaven whilst we are still walking down here on earth. Christianity is not only being born of the Spirit; the Old Testament saints were that, though they did not know it. They rested on the coming Savior, and there is nothing good for God without that, without faith. What is needed is that which is of God. We are called to acknowledge the utter ruin of all that is of ourselves. This is repentance, taking part with God's righteousness and holiness against myself. But this is negative; faith gives us the positive—the Lord Jesus. He presses on Peter the necessity of washing his feet, not his whole body; for if a man is regenerate by being born of water and of the Spirit, that is done once; there is no repetition, as there is none of the death of Christ.

Washing of feet meets defilement of our walk. Is that nothing? or am I merely to fall back on forgiveness of sins through His blood? It is as Advocate He washes our feet. The advocacy is one grand characteristic of Christianity. His priesthood is quite distinct. As Priest He strengthens us against the enemy, but if we break down His advocacy comes in. What makes a man repent? Not sinning, that hardens. It is an Advocate with the Father. Not with God—God is the Judge of sin—but with the Father, for we are children of God.

In the case of Peter we see the Advocate. He was warned not to enter into temptation. The Lord endured temptation. That is very different from entering into it. But Peter, bold enough to get into the difficulty, failed; and when he denied the Lord, the Lord looked upon Peter; then Peter remembered. This is a little specimen before the time of advocacy. It is eminently belonging to the Christian. Though Christianity rests on Christ's death, it is characterized by His resurrection and ascension—all facts. There is nothing so simple as a fact, but these facts are the groundwork of all the truth of Christianity.

The same chapter also shows the death of Christ in quite a different way from Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22. Judas went out to betray the Lord, “and it was night “; and he was going into the deepest darkness that a poor soul could enter—going to sell the Lord for the price of a slave! What does the Lord say? “Now is the Son of man glorified.” What, by being crucified! Yes. There is no glory so bright as moral glory. It was an easy thing for God to give the Lord Jesus actual glory, but it was no easy thing for Christ to suffer. In that, God was glorified, not as Father, but as God, the Judge of sin; and that insoluble question was about to be settled for all eternity! The Father had been glorified in all the life of Jesus; He was His delight. Christ, who by His love, humility, entire obedience had glorified Him in good, had now to glorify Him about all that was bad. “If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself and shall straightway glorify Him.” That is what He has done. God having set Him, not on the throne of David, but on the throne of God, where no man can sit but Himself, He is there as Man; but if He were one hair's breadth less God than the Father there could be no Christianity.

He is glorified in Himself—that brings in Christianity. The Holy Spirit is sent down from Christ in glory, and every one who truly believes is “one spirit with the Lord,” and this leads me into my subject to-night. “Let not your heart be troubled.” It seemed one of the greatest troubles that He was going to leave them, but He says, as it were, “You ought to rejoice if you cared for Me, for I am going to the Father; but I am going to care for you in a way impossible otherwise.” “Ye believe in God,” though you never saw God; “Believe in Me,” when you no longer see Me. Thomas gives a good sample of the Jew, but “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Who are they? Those who, unlike Thomas, believe on Him before they see Him; though it was precious also to see Him, for His life lays the foundation for love of His person.

“In my Father's house.” The temple was entirely too low. What can match the Father's house? the description of that place where God the Father shows His delight in His Son! Here is the blessed hope—room for you all; room for every Christian, room for you to be “with Me.” In all heaven there is but one Father's house, only one place worthy of the Son, and, says the Lord, “I am going to have you with Myself.” They are to be “with Me.” Prophetic scriptures are connected with Israel's hope. Association with Christ is ours now, and by a tie that cannot be broken—the Holy Spirit.

Every member of Christ's body will be there—a matter entirely of sovereign grace, though there will be reward according to faithfulness.

W. K.

The Permanence of Divine Things

“Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. But shun profane babblings; for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene; of whom is Hymenus and Philetus; men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some. Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his, and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness” (2 Timothy 2 R.V.).

In the latter part of this scripture we have truth that has already been brought before us to-day. For we have been reminded what are our duty and responsibility in the present condition of things. Only we have here a little more than a reminder of what is due from us. It is needful for us also to know what we have been made in Christ, and what we inherit in the things that God has given us and which we can never lose. If called to the path of duty we must have that which gives us strength. It is no use to go to an anemic person and tell him to have strength; he needs it. Amid the wreck of Christendom what have we still remaining? Do we not find ourselves desponding oftentimes because we look at what we have not, instead of what is secured to us in Christ?

This Epistle was written in view of what had come upon the church in apostolic times. There were those who had seen the fair scene in Jerusalem at Pentecost, when all were filled by one holy Personage. The astonishing outward unity was true not only in Jerusalem, but Gentiles were brought in, who forgot racial animosities, and the love of God was shed abroad alike in all their hearts. But how soon this faded! In half a century it was gone. In the days in which Paul writes, how much had come in to sadden his heart! It was a trial and a sorrow to such an energetic man to be shut up in Rome while tidings came in from all parts of the world that assemblies were departing from the faith, who forgot to love one another. Disciples turned away from him, forgot him, and were ashamed of his chain! If so then, what now? Men then were erring from the truth, and God's providence overruled this for our profit, that in the counsel given for that day we might have guidance in paths of similar difficulty. Hence we have words in this Epistle which send a flash of light over the dark waters of strife and confusion. Men were misconstruing the word of God; and it was needful for a workman, if he did not wish to be ashamed, to handle it rightly. It is a solemn thing to take the scissors and the paste and seek to improve the word of God. Let us heed the warning of the apostle here, and be careful to divide rightly the word of truth. Men Paul knew who had missed the mark. People like something new, and so did Hymenxus and Philetus. They talked of the resurrection as having taken place already, and overthrew the faith of some. A man who speaks to others on any subject takes a great responsibility upon himself, but how much more do those who speak of the word of God?

But the apostle has a word of cheer and comfort, and it is this which is on my mind to-night—the last words I read. “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure,” or, as it should read, “The firm foundation of God standeth.” I think it a needed word at all times; and from what has been before those assembled here to-day it is clear that it is intensely needed at this time. In face of apostasy the apostle turns to what is immoveable and imperishable. Never mind the fables of Hymenmus and Philetus; you have what God has established and which abides evermore. In spite of all that is bewildering at the present time, this is as true and fresh to-day as ever; and there is as much power in it as ever. We need not want to go back to Pentecost. What have we got now? The foundation of God. What is it? Because it is not defined people begin to speculate. You have only to consult commentators to see what confusion is the result. Some would refer you to a concordance. A concordance is excellent when used as it should be, but it is not the Bible. It will help you to find parallel references to a text, but it will not give you its meaning.

The foundation, I believe, refers here to that which God has established for the comfort of our souls. It is not one thing or another specifically, but a general word which comprehends those things He has given us in Christ Jesus. But three things are specially prominent among those secured to us in these days, and they have all been before us at various times to-day. In Hag. 2:4 we have Jehovah's word, “I am with you.” The New Testament answer to this is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His fullness and sufficiency. And, blessed be God, this is not dimmed. The prophet spoke also of the Spirit and the word of God. And we still have all three (2:5).

Think now what this implies to me and to you. We have Christ as He was given to the church at the beginning. Take John's Gospel. In chap. v. the Lord is spoken of as the Giver of life, while in chap. vi. He is the Supporter of that life, its bread. And the believer whose hunger has been satisfied is the one who knows how to continue to cat His flesh and drink His blood (ver. 56).

What gives support to the soul in days like this? We look back on One who was ceaselessly active when here, yet abiding in unbroken communion with the Father; and we have the privilege of hearing His words and seeing His actings to all sorts and conditions of men. As we read these things our souls are fed. In chap. x. it is the Shepherd who cares for the excommunicated sheep of chap. 9. When through faithfulness to Him we find ourselves alone, is He not there to welcome us? He is the same to-day as ever.

In chap. 13 we have infinite comfort. The Lord Jesus Christ just before He was crucified is in the midst of His own. They are only a very few, but a Judas is there, and a Peter is there, so self-confident. But are His loving words affected by what He sees in their hearts? He speaks to lead them on in the knowledge of Himself, liable as they are to temptation; and by words and illustration intended to fasten the truth on their hearts He washes their feet, removing the defilements of the way. Amid all the confusion of the present time we have One who acts for us in glory as in the upper room. We have Him still in this way; for amid all the wreck of ecclesiastical things this firm foundation stands.

That is John. There are some who delight to set Paul at loggerheads with the other apostles, but he is not so in the scriptures, when read aright. Nor is he as to our subject. The apostle has a deal to say to the Hebrews about the Mosaic system set aside to make way for Christ. But though the Jewish system is shown to decay, in the first and last chapters we are reminded that Jesus Christ never passes away. “Thou art the same.” “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever” (Hebrews 1:12; 13:8). It is true that we ourselves have seen things and instititions fade away; but in the person of Christ we have One on whom change can never come; and He abides in ministry as at the beginning. In the Revelation, amongst the churches where is the Lord? Still there, walking among the candlesticks.

But we have also the Spirit of God. The Lord promised another Comforter, or Paraclete; One who should be as much to them as He Himself had been here in this world. He should come down and remain until the bride of Christ is ready and the Lord comes for her. There is a lovely picture of this in Genesis 24, where Eliezer convoys Rebekah across the desert to Isaac. Is it not the blessed office of the Spirit to cheer our onward way by the ministry of Christ? The great sin of Christendom is the practical denial of the presence of the Holy Ghost. If we realized His presence when gathered together for worship, how softly we should move, how slow to speak, how much we should fear to break the silence of the Spirit! He remains in all the sovereign activity He had at the beginning. Why do we not see more of His activity? Because we look amiss; we look for great things, and forget the still small voice. Two things ever characterize the work of the Spirit. He is here to glorify Christ, and is the power by which we worship the Father and the Son. And one absolute mark of the Spirit is this glorifying Christ. But this in itself might be misleading. Hence we have a criterion. The Spirit always works in accordance with the word. There is a threefold cord—the Son could say, “I am... the truth” (John 14:6); so also, “the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:6); and “thy word is truth” (John 17:17). If I find myself taking a certain course of action, how am I to know if it is in accordance with the Spirit? I have the word as a guide. And so we can try this on ourselves, only we prefer to try it on others!

A word now on the treasure we have in the word of God. This is only refreshing when we come to it, with human theories placed on one side. Some come with the set notion of supporting their own fancies, and look out texts accordingly. We need the word as a continual power in our own souls, and this alone can keep our souls in communion.

If we set up a religious routine of our own; it is possible for persons to fall in with it and trust to that routine for benefit to their own soul. A person may go to the worship meeting looking for a word, and, if there is no word, go empty away; and serve him right. We must go to the word of God for ourselves. Why do we not? Because it proceeds to set us right and to discover what is wrong with us. And this firm foundation abides, whatever the circumstances.

We must regard it as the word of the Lord, not one jot or tittle of which can fail. It is settled in heaven, and by it we are admitted into the counsels of the Most High. A great many think the Lord may speak to them of their personal ways, but apparently has no right to interfere with ecclesiastical matters. Some say, “I believe that where I was converted, the Lord means me to stay.” We ought to be in our ecclesiastical associations only where we can, and do, obey the commandments of the Lord.

None shall overthrow the foundation of God. But it has a seal. A foundation is supposed to be out of sight, but the word of God is above the language of the schools. We have two metaphors here. A foundation is that which is unalterably settled, and a seal is the emblem of authority. Think of it in connection with the One who put it there. The seal is open to the inspection of all. There are great truths here in God's seal and counter-seal, which all can lay hold of, and which indeed ought to lay hold of us. Without discussing the foundation, does it not come home to us as a power to comfort, that whoever may misunderstand us, the Lord knows us. The knowledge of the Lord is what we have to fall back on in the present mass of confusion.

Peter was particularly instructed as to the knowledge of the Lord. He lent the Lord his boat to preach from, and the Lord knew his circumstances as a fisherman, for He was not oblivious to the anxieties of a business man. “Let down your nets for a draft.” “At Thy word I will—just one net.” The Lord knew, but Peter did not know, or dream, how much the Lord knew (Luke 5:1-11). They enclosed a great multitude of fishes, but the net brake. The Lord said “nets,” but Peter let down one only. In John 21 there is an echo of a sadder scene—his denial. When the Lord probed his heart to the bottom, he cried, “Thou knowest.” How comforting to be brought back to this. We may be alone and scorned “the Lord knoweth.” When all doubt us, He knoweth.

One other word the apostle adds, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” This cannot mean personal conduct, for if a man is a Christian at all he has given up unrighteousness. Are we then to set up to be judges of what is iniquity? We have both Guide and guide book as to this, and it is incumbent on us to depart from iniquity.

We are each building, according to the Lord's parable (Matthew 7:24-27). This is not preaching; but the man who digs deep is the one who is doing the will of the Lord. We are rearing a building in our individual lives, and now and again we shall have a storm, and then it will be proved on what we are building. If we are not building on the word of the Lord it will quiver, and shake, and go down.

Having received anything from the Lord, let us hold it fast for Him. He is soon coming, and He will then have something to say to us about our conduct. Whatever is not of Him will go, and go forever. We have not to make a way for ourselves, nor to build up our own associations. The way is here for us in the scripture. May we keep His word, for His name's sake.

W. J. H.

Grace the Power of Unity and of Gathering: Part 2

Now here the separation from evil, walking in the light, in God's revealed character in Christ, in the practical knowledge of God, as revealed in Christ, in the truth as it is in Jesus, in whom the life was the light of men, is fully insisted on with lines as clear and strong as the Holy Ghost alone knows how to make them. He who pretends to fellowship, and does not walk in the knowledge of God according to that knowledge, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But what makes the fellowship? This keeps it pure—but what makes it? The revelation of the blessed object, and center of it, in Christ. He was speaking of One who had won his own heart—who was the gathering power into fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. He knew by the Holy Ghost, and enjoyed what the Savior had said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.”

This was love, infinite, divine; and, through the Holy Ghost, the witness of it had communion with it and told it out, that others might have fellowship with him; and truly his was such. They joined in it. Now that, I apprehend, was gathering power. The object gathered to, necessarily involved what follows. So, indeed, he closes the epistle. “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true; that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” That is, the gathering power of good comes before the warning. This is the more remarkable in this epistle, because it is, in a certain sense, occupied with evil, is written concerning those that seduced them.

Holiness, then, is separation to God, if it be real, as well as from evil; for thus alone we are in the light, for God is light. This is true, in our first sanctifying—we are brought to know God, brought to God. If we come to ourselves it is, “I will arise and go to my father.” If it is restoration, “If thou wilt return, return unto me.” Indeed a soul is never restored really till it does; for it is not in the light so as to purge flesh, even if the fruits of flesh have been confessed; nor is sin seen as it is in God's sight. Hence love comes in, in all true conversion and restoration, however dimly seen, or through however dark workings of conscience. We want to get hack to God; there is forgiveness with Him that He may be feared; otherwise, it is despair which drives us farther away. Indeed, what would or could restoration be if it were not to God? But, in the full sense of gathering, that is, to common fellowship, it is clearly the blessed object which reveals that in which we are to have the fellowship, which so gathers. We are to have fellowship in something, that is, with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This, then, must draw hearts to itself, that in their common delight in it their fellowship may exist. The principle of the tract is this, that in doing this it must separate from evil. It is the “this-then-is-the-message” part of the statement. So Christ says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Now here was perfect love, entire separation from all sin and condemnation of it. “In that he died, he died unto sin once"-separation from the world, and deliverance from the whole power of the enemy and the scene of it. It is perfect love, drawing from everything to itself; showing all was evil, absorbing the soul into what was good, in a saving way from it. But when we follow Him into life, all is gone from which He separated. “In that he liveth, he liveth unto God “; that is His whole being, so to speak. Now He is, in this life, made higher than the heavens—the divine glory I do not here enter into, but the life. It is a heavenly place He takes, and our gathering through the cross is to Him there, in the good where evil cannot come. There is our communion entering into the Father's house in spirit. And this, I apprehend, is the true character of the assembly, of the church, for worship in its full sense. It remembers the cross, it worships, the world left out, and all known in heaven before God. He gave Himself that He might gather into one. But here I anticipate a little, for I am speaking as yet of the object, not of the active power. I apprehend that what separates the saint from evil, what makes him holy, is the revelation of an object (I mean, of course, through the Holy Ghost working), which draws his soul to that as good, and thereby reveals evil to him, and makes him judge it in spirit and soul: his knowledge of good and evil is, then, not a mere uneasy conscience, but sanctification; that is, sanctification is resting, by the enlightening of the Holy Ghost, on an object, which, by its nature, purifies the affections by being their object—creates them through the power of grace. Even under law it had this form, “Be ye holy, for I am holy “; though, I admit, there it partook necessarily of the character of the dispensation. In the cross we have these two great principles perfectly brought out. Love is clearly shown, the blessed object which draws the heart; yet the most solemn judgment of and separation from all evil; such is God's perfectness—the foolishness and weakness of God. Divine attraction in love, evil in all its horror and forms, perfectly abhorred by him who is attracted and attaches himself to that. The soul goes with sin, as sin, to love, and goes there because love thus displayed has shown him that it is sin, in being made sin for us. This is the power objectively which separates from evil, and ends all connection with it; for I die then to all the nature I lived to. Evil ceases to be, through faith, as I live hereafter in blessed activity in love. But I have, perhaps, dwelt long enough on what objectively gathers and gives fellowship; and surely, our fellowship, communion, is in that which is good—and as heavenly by no evil being there. Imperfectly realized no doubt here, but so far as it is not, fellowship is destroyed, for the flesh has none. Hence it is said, “If we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” But we cannot walk out of darkness but by walking in the light, that is, with God: and God is love, and were He not, we could not walk there.

[J. N. D.]

(Continued from page 283)

(To be continued)

NOTICE

DEATH AND BEYOND: a Christian's Reply to Sir Hartley Williams, by Irenaeus. Second edition. 48 pp. (cloth 9d. net, paper 4d. net). T. Weston.—This pamphlet is the reprint of a reply, published in Melbourne, Australia, to a series of lectures antagonistic to Christian truth delivered in that city. The first edition was well received and circulated overseas, and it is hoped that the present publication may be extensively distributed also, since, alas! the spread of error such as Irenaeus seeks to combat is not confined to either hemisphere.

JUST PUBLISHED.

Three Lectures on the Book of Job. By W.K. New Edition. Cloth ... 1/0

Separation from Evil, God's Principle of Unity.

By J.N.D. New Edition. ... 2d.

Perfection, or Full Growth. By ld.

The Permanence of Divine Things. By W.J.H. ld.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 24

“And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber. Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not. So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain. And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of Jehovah, even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Jehovah, at the hand of Jezebel” (2 Kings 9:1-7).

The time had now arrived for God's judgment to be executed upon the house of Ahab. And Elisha, whose ministry was so eminently characterized by grace, was the chosen vessel God made use of to sanction and attach His own authority to those retributory forces both in Syria and in Israel which were to carry all before them. We might have thought that Elijah would have been the more suited servant for such a work, and as to his personal temperament, if that were all, undoubtedly he was. It still, however, connected itself morally with the ministry of that holy man, but in the many manifestations of mercy experienced by Israel and Syria, mercy was debating with judgment, and now judgment must have its way. “Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it; he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind” (Isaiah 27:7, 8). It is interesting and instructive to observe the way by which the man of God approached this somewhat unusual service. He did not actually anoint Hazael, nor did he require of him any pledges as to his subsequent conduct, although the divine insight given him into the future by Jehovah was of such a disquieting nature that “The man of God wept.” Just the briefest intimation of the fact that he was to be king of Syria was enough to act upon Hazael's ambitious nature, and to urge to the commission of such deeds as he himself would under other circumstances have shrunk from in horror.

A different subject is before us here, but scarcely a more inviting one. The prophet does not personally act; he does not appear in the business, but he lays strict injunctions upon the young man as to his conduct in the matter. It may be that in this there is a lesson for us. Spiritual discernment was the great thing in Elisha's ministry.

He felt and rebuked its absence in those about him. In one way or another it appears in every one of his miracles. Truly it is no less important in this clay of the Spirit's presence upon earth and in the church. Christ Himself being now necessarily absent (John 16:7), the Spirit of Christ is here to make known what He is, and He produces that which answers to His character and that meets with His approval. A mechanical service will not suit Him. The written word throws its light upon the whole scene. The Spirit of God enables us to understand and apply it, and thus the spiritual character is developed in the saints. It is not enough that Christians are in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. We are exhorted to be “filled with the Spirit.” “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Then we shall be not carnal, walking like “men,” but “spiritual.”

The apostle Paul based all his exhortations in his epistles upon this fact—so lost sight of in Christendom—that the Spirit of God now abides in the Christian. It is not intelligence or vigilance merely, but the quickness of affection to follow up and act upon that which is grasped by the mind. Here the young man was to faithfully represent the one who had sent him. There were reasons, as we have seen, why Elisha could not go himself. There was to be no show of fellowship where it could not be real. Jehu was a vessel in which God could have no delight; nor could His servant Yet was Jehu put under the responsibility of specific instructions, with power given for carrying them out. If God lays a responsibility upon any He does not withhold the power needed for carrying it out, if looked to and counted upon. But power does not of itself set us in communion with God, or keep us in His presence. We see this in the history of Jehu, for did not power characterize him right through? Yet the spirit in which he fulfilled his mission was most offensive to God. However commended for his zeal, it was but a fleshly energy in which he could and did boast—it fell in with his own ambitious projects.

One scripture will be sufficient to illustrate this: “And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing-house in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing-house, even two and forty men: neither left he any of them. And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he saluted him and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah. So they made him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of Jehovah, which he spake to Elijah” (chap. 10:12-17). It was the fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy, and the answer to Elijah's complaint on mount Horeb.

We now come to the closing act of Elisha's ministry, so beautifully in harmony with his long life. “Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face and said, O my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows: and he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow: and he put his hand upon it; and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of Jehovah's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shall smite Syria but thrice” (chap. 13:14-19).

Scarcely less glorious than the translation of Elijah was the calm and dignified ending of Elisha's service. The king of Israel might lament over him in a natural way, but it seemed more like “late remorse” than any genuine appreciation of the great realities which Elisha's ministry represented. We know not whether king Joash had any understanding of the significance of his own words, but certain it is that just as the cloud in the wilderness appropriately enough represented Jehovah's care and goodness in guiding and protecting His people passing through that great and terrible wilderness, so just as suitably the chariots of fire represented Jehovah in all His power and majesty on behalf of Israel against their enemies. God might at all times be trusted to do this, but the failure has always been in His people, who would not trust Him; and Elisha immediately puts the question to the proof with the same result as ever. God in His power and goodness was the same still, but Israel was not ready, they would not trust God or give Him credit for sincerity. “According to your faith be it unto you.” The faith of Joash could only trust God for three victories, but the five or six would have been definitive. So we see the apostle Paul at a later day rebuking the half-hearted timidity of the Corinthians: “But as fellow workmen we also beseech that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I have listened to thee in an accepted time and in a day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold now is a well-accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:1, 2). “Our mouth is opened to you Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. But for an answering recompense (I speak as to children), be ye also enlarged” (2 Corinthians 6:11-13).

This dear, dying saint, we might almost say, like Paul, would commend to God and to the word of His grace. Israel was not then, nor are they now, ready for the glory. The “chariots of fire and horses of fire” might go back without them, as indeed they have, but the day shall yet come when Israel shall own and worship Him who shall come in the name of Jehovah. The praise that is now silent in Zion shall then be rendered to its worthy object. This joyful resurrection of the nation seems to be typified in the incident which closes Elisha's history. “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha. And when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet” (vers. 20, 21).

When Israel are confessedly in the place of death, and bow to the righteous judgment of God, then will they find that One has been there before them, who has robbed death of its sting and of its victory. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it.” “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they rise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 25:8; 26:19).

“The glory” cannot identify itself with the people until they have reached the lowest point and are ready to own it. “Then shall they look upon him whom they pierced, and mourn for him.” Elisha's ministry was the pledge and guarantee of that faithfulness which never fails. He will guide by His counsel, and “after the glory” He will receive them (Psalm 73:21; Zechariah 2:8).

G. S. B.

Daniel 8, 9, 11

IN the second chapter of this book the four great world-powers are described under the type of metals; in the seventh, as wild beasts. But here in chap. 8 the second and third of the four monarchies, namely, Medo-Persia and Greece, are designated, not under the symbol of “a bear” and “a leopard” respectively as in the previous chapter, but as a “ram” and a “he goat,” and these two quadrupeds are distinguished from the ravening wild beasts as being “clean” animals, which the others were not. Why then, it may be asked, have we this difference of description here? It is not that there is any change in the character of these world-powers as such, but that Persia and Greece, who alone were kind to God's ancient people, are here marked off, because of their treatment to Israel, in contrast with the other powers who were cruel. If the Babylonians took Judah captive, Cyrus the Persian it was who gave commandment for the remnant to return; and so he is not only honored by having his name recorded in the word of God, but by having it placed there some two hundred years before he himself appeared. In the vision, it is not the “saints of the high places” that are seen, but “the host of heaven” and “the stars” —the whole people are before us, not the godly ones only.

Do we wonder that God should speak in such terms of poor, sinful Israel? Let us remember how He has spoken of us. “Herein is love with us made perfect.” Where do we find such language used of Israel? And the result!-” that we may have boldness in the day of judgment!” Why? “Because as he is, so are we in this world.” In these chapters of Daniel we shall find that the figures become more distinct as we go on. From dead types we pass to living; from unclean to clean, till in chap. 9 the figures are dropped, unless indeed we can call “weeks” of years figures!

Here, then, we see the ram with two horns (symbols of power), the dual kingdom of Media and Persia, the higher coming up last. Persia rose after Media, and far surpassed it in power. The kingdom spread and became great till its adversary, Greece, arose. This had one horn (Alexander), which overthrew and stamped on the ram. But when “he was strong the great horn was broken.” Alexander died a young man at Babylon. The horn—not the goat—was broken, and four horns came up in place of the broken horn. After Alexander's death his generals quarreled, and at last they divided his empire among four of themselves. From one of these arose a “little horn,” to be carefully distinguished from the Roman or western little horn of chap. 7, for this one comes from Greece. Antiochus Epiphanes was a typical personage, fore-shadowing the one who shall come, for we are distinctly told the judgment falls on him “at the last end of the indignation,” after the tribulation and the destruction of antichrist.

In chap. 9 we find Daniel a student of prophecy. He is studying Jeremiah. Instead of being puffed up and delighted by the near approach of the return from captivity, he (knowing the mind of God) mourns and weeps. He confesses his own sin as well as the nation's, for the nearer a man is to God the more he feels his own sin, while the proud cold heart can hardly acknowledge its fault, however great. And Gabriel is sent to tell the prophet more details. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,” etc., evidently Jerusalem, though who but God would call it “holy”! But when have all the following events been accomplished, as far as Israel is concerned? Never. The Jews still look for their fulfillment; they own that all is wrong, and they wait for it to be put right. The command to restore and to build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes. And we have the book of Ezra to give us the command, while Nehemiah shows us how it was carried out. So we possess both the prophecy and its fulfillment. Seven weeks (during which the remnant were settling in the land) are divided from the sixty-two, but together make sixty-nine, until Messiah. “After” (not In) “the threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” Space is left here, and dates cease. A break occurs; “Messiah shall be cut off and shall have nothing” (the margin is correct). He is raised from the dead-not to the throne of David, but-to the throne of God, an entirely distinct thing.

“The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” Who did destroy Jerusalem? The Romans. Thirty years ago there was no prince of Rome, but God, in His providence, has allowed that there should be one now. “And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week” — “the many” being the apostate nation. The future head of the Roman empire will make a covenant with antichrist to restore the temple service, and so help him against the king of the north. What can we say of those who suppose our Lord would make a covenant for seven years? When He makes one, it is everlasting. But seven years is a long time for this wicked man—too long—for he breaks it in the middle of the seven years, and brings in Gentile abominations-idolatry. The Jews think they are safe from idolatry now, but none are safe but those who are on the Rock, the tried Stone, the precious Corner-Stone, the sure Foundation.

Throughout the book we have seen the visions rising from inanimate figures to living ones; then to clean beasts. For the unclean “bear” and “leopard” of chap. 7 are seen in chap. 8 as the “ram” and the “he goat.” Not, as has been already pointed out, that their character was changed, but because of their kindness to Israel. Cyrus the Persian sent the captives back; Alexander, “the first king” of Greece (8:21), put them on a level with his Macedonian subjects, and God marks this conduct here. Then in chap. 9 symbols are discontinued for the time, for plain language has come, the Lord Jesus being brought before us-Messiah the Prince, and He cut off.

Our chapter (11.) to-night is historical—the only really and truly historical prophecy in the word of God. Though with breaks in the history, yet are the main features here given more clearly than by any human, though later, historian. “Behold there shall stand up yet three kings of Persia.” We know from chap. x. that Cyrus was reigning at the time of the vision; he was succeeded by his son Cambyses, an unworthy son of a great father, and was followed by an usurper, Smerdis, a Mede who sought to upset Persian policy, and was the Artaxerxes of Ezra 4, who listened to the enemies of Israel. He was destroyed, and Darius the Persian (not the Mede), known in history as Darius Hystaspes, reigned. He was followed by Xerxes, “richer than they all,” who led (including camp followers) 5,000,000 people across the Dardanelles into Greece, but to be defeated, and in his turn invaded by Alexander, “a mighty king.” Broken at the zenith of his power, Alexander's kingdom was divided into four parts-his widow and son being murdered that his possessions might not be “to his posterity.”

The terms “king of the north” and “king of the south” must be taken in relation to the land of Palestine. Egypt was to the south, and Greco-Syria (the present Turkey-in-Asia) to the north—the Ptolemies and Seleucidae being the lines of kings mentioned. During the period of the history of these kings we find the Romans coming into power; and a Roman consul was the “prince” of ver. 18 who ordered the king of the north to go home again. The Romans are also seen as the ships of Chittim in ver. 30.

“The abomination of desolation” (ver. 31) was the first placed there by Antiochus Epiphanes, but is not the one spoken of by our Lord in Matthew 24 That we find in chap. 12:11 at the time of the end. The Maccabees did “exploits” —they were heroes, not martyrs, and God used them as such, for they were faithful to His word. But those of “the end” will be saints, not heroes, and will perish, as we find from the Revelation. The cross comes between, and alters these things.

Ver. 35 brings us to another break, and then “the king” abruptly comes in. Who is he? Not of either north or south, for both these come against him (ver. 40). He is the king of Isaiah 30:33, and “the man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians 2—the great antichrist. Daniel speaks of his political, Paul of his religious, character. He is a Jew, for “neither shall he regard the God of his fathers (Jehovah), nor the desire of women (Messiah), nor regard any god,” yet he is an idolator. He invents a god. “And he shall cause them (his party) to rule over [the] many, and he shall divide the land for gain.” Only one land, where the eyes of Jehovah can rest, is called “the land” —the land of Palestine.

“At the time of the end.” This is his epoch. He is not spread over centuries, as a line of kings, but only appears at the end. The king of the south pushes at him, the king of the north too, and it is the latter that is the subject of the close of the chapter. We know why. The Lord Jesus, by the brightness of His coming, destroys antichrist just at the time when the king of the north goes in great annoyance to fight against meddling Egypt; for “he shall overflow and pass over.” This is his first invasion of Jerusalem spoken of in Zechariah 14:2. Three countries escape him. Edom, Moab and Ammon, because they are reserved for Israel to deal with (Isaiah 11:14), and they will not escape their hand. But tidings out of the east and out of the north “trouble him,” and he goes back to plant his tabernacles between the seas (the Great, or Mediterranean, and the Dead Seas), in the glorious holy mountain Jerusalem. Then comes the fulfillment of Zechariah 14:3, 4. Jehovah goes out to fight at the head of His people. He alone destroys antichrist from heaven. Here His feet stand on the earth, the mount of Olives. And Olivet owns the presence of its Creator and parts asunder. It is not riven yet—a proof that this prophecy awaits fulfillment. But the valley thus formed affords a way of escape for Israel; they flee by it, and the natural ordinances of day and night are changed-” at evening time it shall be light,” to enable them to gain the victory.

W. K.

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 10. Conclusion - the Time When These Things Shall Be

X.-Conclusion. The Time When These Things Shall Be

The interesting inquiry: When these things are to happen, was addressed by the disciples to the Lord, and the curiosity is natural to all. It has indeed given rise to the wildest speculations, which often have only proved the folly of those who would force from scripture more than it was intended to convey. The question naturally falls under two heads, viz., as to the Jews, and as to the church.

First—As to the Jews. After announcing His coming in Matthew 24:30, 31, the Lord goes on to say (vers. 32, 33, 36-44)— “Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, no, not the angels in heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

There are three points very noticeable here: First, that the disciples are given distinct signs by which they will know that the Lord's advent is near—very near. Enlightened by scripture and instructed by the understanding ones, they will be able to comprehend, at least to some extent, the significance of the astounding political developments of the time. The marvelous resuscitation of the Roman Empire, at which the whole earth wonders, will have an inner meaning for them. But the first prominent sign is that given in the “parable of the fig-tree.” This tree is an emblem of Israel, and the putting forth of leaves may well indicate a national revival of that people. When the second beast (Revelation 13:11), Israel's false king, arises, this will be patent. But before that, while the branch is yet tender, there is a putting forth of leaves, and this is a sign to the remnant. The movement called “Zionism” now already commenced amongst the Jews, feeble, undefined, and tentative as it is, may be the commencement of what, after the church is gone, will become the putting forth of leaves of the fig-tree. The national revival of Israel, be it remembered, does not wait for the resurrection of the Roman Empire; the beast finds a covenant with Israel in existence, which he confirms. But when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world, the remnant will know that they are in “the time of the end,” with all its awful accompaniments, but that Christ is coming for their deliverance and in judgment upon their enemies.

Secondly, the Lord intimates that though His coming will then be very soon, yet that the actual time of His appearing will be a close secret even in heaven itself; the angels will not know it. In Mark's Gospel it is added, “neither the Son” “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (13:32). This is a remarkable text, which has puzzled many believers, and been used by adversaries against the deity of Christ. Of this truth the believer does not need proofs; his armory is well furnished with texts, such as, amongst numerous others, John 1:1-4; Romans 9:5; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:16, 17, 19; 2:9; what he requires is to see the relation which an isolated text, such as that in question, hears to the larger truth of the deity of the Lord Jesus.

That text then is really only an evidence along with many similar, of the perfection with which the Son took the place of man, and, as man, of servant. He “emptied himself,” so we are taught in Philippians 2:7 (Greek), and took the place of a servant. In this His self-subordination was perfect. The works which He did were the works of Him who sent Him (John 9:4). He sought not His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him (5:30). His words were the words given to Him of the Father (17:8). “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things” (8:28). “The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak” (12:49). It is remarkable that that Gospel whose specialty is the deity of the Son, should also exhibit so signally the perfectness of His self-subordination as man. Now this beautiful and wondrous position of condescension which the Son has taken in love to us, still continues notwithstanding that He has entered into glory at the Father's right hand. He is indeed no longer in humiliation as when He was here. Jehovah, however, has said to Him, “Sit at my right hand until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet” (Psalm 110:1). It is in accordance with this that when, in Patmos, John was given to see Jesus, though His glory was overwhelming and John fell at His feet as dead, yet the Apocalypse is described as “the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him"; and the Revelation itself, the Lamb receives out of the hand of Him who sits upon the throne (Revelation 1:1; 5:7). And the Lord, after His resurrection, tells the disciples that “the times and seasons” are placed by the Father “in his own authority” (Acts 1:7). In exquisite harmony with all this is the text which we have been considering—Mark 13:32. Even amongst men there is a personal knowledge, distinct from official knowledge. Personally a judge may have learned from newspapers the facts of a crime, but when he takes his seat upon the bench to try the case, that knowledge is laid aside. He officially knows nothing, and his mind is a tabula rasa for the reception of what may be brought before him in court. And so with the Lord Jesus. The omniscience pertaining to Him as God, is, in the instance quoted, held in abeyance, consistently with the proprieties of the position which He has condescended to take as the divine and perfect Servant.

Thirdly, notwithstanding the preaching of the remnant, the world will be in utter unbelief, wholly immersed in affairs of the present life, alike heedless of divine warnings, and oblivious of anything beyond the material world, just as men were at the previous awful judgment of the flood. So also states the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, “But of the times and of the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (5:1-3).

Secondly—As to the church. Be it remembered that signs are not for the church, but for the Jew of the coming day. The calling of the church is to wait for the Son from heaven, without any sign; so that the first prophetic event upon the list is the removal of the church to heaven. Now if the events of prophecy do not commence until the church is taken to heaven, the question arises, When will this occur? Near two thousand years have passed since the church was placed in a waiting attitude. Has the Lord Jesus Christ then forgotten or relinquished His intention to come for the church? Impossible. His last message to His church is in the Revelation, and thrice in the last chapter of that book He impresses the verity of His coming. “Behold I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book” (ver. 7). “Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be” (ver 12). “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus” (ver. 20).

It is not for nothing—this threefold warning of the Lord's return. It is not for nothing that the last of the three is an asseveration, “Surely I come quickly.” This betokens not slackness, but the Lord's eagerness for His return. Is it not the identical sentiment which we have in the fourteenth of John— “that where I am there ye may be also"? Plainly, it is His desire to have us with Himself. Yet some will say, How can be reconciled the Lord's coming quickly with the time that has elapsed since the promise was made? Well, when a mighty ship sets out from England to Australia, her throbbing engines force her huge bulk through the water at almost railway speed. She comes quickly, yet it will be long before she reach her port. Take another illustration. The swiftest thing within human knowledge is light—186,000 miles per second is its rate of travel. Yet at that inconceivable speed it takes a ray of light three years to reach us from the fixed star which is nearest to our own system (a Centauri). That ray of light indeed comes quickly, though three years must elapse before it reach our earth. And so with the Lord's coming. There is no delay; it is approaching with all the speed that can be, though nineteen centuries have passed. Not that there is any prophetic requirement to be fulfilled. The clue to the lapse of time is found in the explanation of Peter, that the object is the salvation of others yet to be called (2 Peter 3:9, 15). The gathering of souls is going on—the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. But there will be a moment when the last elect member of Christ's body will have been brought in; and then the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will be raised, and, joined by the living, pass into heaven. It is literally true, therefore, that we do not know the moment when the Lord will come.

But although we have no sign to look for, the growth may be unmistakably discerned of tendencies which will blossom in the changed moral atmosphere of the post-church period. Scripture reveals stupendous events which are to follow the church's rapture, and two of these have really begun to appear in our own day—at least so far as they can while the restraining presence of the Holy Ghost in the church remains below. They are—the apostasy of Christendom, and national activity amongst the Jews. The former has been sketched in previous pages; and the second, “Zionism,” which has been but a few years in existence, is a national political agitation amongst the Jews such as has been unknown before, since their dispersion. At a meeting of the English Zionist Federation held in London in September, 1903, Mr. I. Zangwill stated with reference to the sixth Zionist Congress held at Basle that “the conclusion which he had carried away from it was that never for the last eighteen hundred years had Palestine stood so near to Zionists as it did that day"; and, so definite and tangible is the Zionist movement, that a letter was read “from M. de Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior, in which he announced the willingness of Russia to assist Zionists in obtaining Palestine for them."

There is, however, dissension amongst the Jews on the subject, a large number having no zeal for their ancient patrimony, and no exalted national aspirations; all they desire being an amelioration of their worldly condition. Accordingly, M. de Plehve has since opposed the Russian Zionist Societies, on the ground that they have changed their policy of furthering the emigration of Jews to Palestine, into an endeavor to form an inner organization of Jews in their present place of domicile.

Still, the inception of a definite political movement to obtain Palestine for the Jews is certainly remarkable, as is also the offer of one of the great Powers to befriend and assist it. Let it be attempted now to realize the immense truth, that there is nothing revealed as necessary to occur before our Lord may descend into the air and translate the living saints to heaven; and not only so, but that the anointed eye can discern premonitory movements towards events which are to burst on the world after the rapture of the church. This surely is a solemn reflection. The reader may believe in a second advent of the Lord, and that there will be some who will be alive and caught up into glory; but does he recognize that according to the whole tenor of scripture, it is his duty and privilege, if a Christian, to expect to be one of those? Inspired scripture never says they “which are alive and remain"; always we. “Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52). “We look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation,” etc. (Philippians 3:20, 21). “The Lord himself will descend from heaven... then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (l. Thessalonians 4:16, 17).

Summing up, then, the subjects we have been considering, we have revealed to us the following—(1) The rapture of the church to heaven. (2) A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"). (3) The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom. (4) A parallel movement in the hardened Jews. Under the wing of the protecting power of Isaiah 18, they enter into possession of their land, the temple is rebuilt, and ritual established. (5) Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus. (6) Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumors of wars; but the end not yet. (7) The nations (western) come into a state of tumult and revolution with awful threatenings; society is alarmed, men's hearts failing them for fear. (8) Reconstitution of the Roman Empire in ten kingdoms, with Rome at the head. (9) The new power (the beast) confirms a covenant with the Jews for seven years. (10) The ten horns and the beast destroy the harlot (corrupt Christianity), utterly abandoning and ending Christianity, thus consummating the apostasy in the west. (11) The beast breaks his covenant with the Jews, abrogating the Jewish ritual, causing the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This in the east is really the full consummation of the apostasy. The destruction of Christianity in the west, and Judaism in the east (10 and 11) prepare the way for “the man of sin.” (12) Revelation of the man of sin—the antichrist and second beast of Revelation 13:11-18. (13) The gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole world, the time of the end comes on. The accomplishment of the preaching being a matter of degree, the criterion which determines and characterizes that time is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. (14) The great tribulation. (15) Complete subversion of all government and the Son of man is seen coming in the clouds with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

If the result of these papers be to clear the views of anyone as to when and where prophetic events are to be expected; if they assist to show that many things which had been thought to precede the Lord's coming, are really to follow it, and that the first prophetic event is the rapture, or catching up of the church, to meet the Lord at His coming, these pages will not have been written in vain.

E. J. T.

Studies in Mark: Baptism of Jesus and the Witness From Heaven

III.-The Baptism Of Jesus And The Witness From Heaven (continued)

We now come to the testimony rendered to Jesus from heaven in the hour of His baptism. This witness was of a double character, viz. (1) the visible descent of the Spirit upon Him, and (2) the audible voice out of the heavens acknowledging Him. And in this character the witness was to be considered as valid and adequate from a legal Standpoint, since, as the Lord reminded the Jews on a subsequent occasion, it was a written axiom of their law that the testimony of two persons is true (John 8:17). Here then the Father and the Spirit attest the Son. Can such witness be exceeded? The Spirit witnessed to the unblemished and impeccable humanity of Jesus, and anointed Him for service. The Father acknowledged the Man, Christ Jesus, to be His dearly-loved Son. Thus we see in this context the Evangelist establishing on divine testimony the titles given to Jesus in the opening sentence of the Gospel, viz. (1) Christ (the “Anointed”), and (2) the Son of God (1:1).

Considering then first of all the outpouring of the Spirit upon Jesus, we may remark how it witnessed (1) to His holy humanity, and (2) to His anointing for service. In lowly grace He submitted to the baptism of repentance, but with no need for repentance. He publicly joined those who had confessed their sins, having no sins Himself to confess. Will unbelieving and carnal hearts think otherwise of Him, misconstruing the act of grace? To check such a hateful imputation, immediately as He emerged from the water the heavens were rent asunder, and the Father, jealous for the glory of the Son, gave the Holy Spirit to abide upon Him. Of all others baptized, though sins were confessed, their consciences were still unpurged from dead works and sinful stains, and must remain so until He came who had power on earth to forgive sins. But Jesus was the Anti-type of the meal-offering of fine flour mingled, and anointed, with oil, apart from the cleansing and atoning blood, and was thus in contrast with the Aaronic priests who received the anointing oil subsequent to an application of the blood. Here was a holy temple in which God the Holy Spirit could and would dwell. He was the Second man, the Lord from heaven, and on Him alone in this polluted earth the dove-like Spirit found a resting-place, as God the Father's seal (John 6:27), altogether apart from atonement.

But the descent of the Spirit had an official as well as a personal significance. The formal induction of kings, priests, and prophets into office was by anointing with oil, and prophecy as well as type indicated that the promised One would be so distinguished. Indeed He was expected in that character. Accordingly, when Andrew heard the testimony of the Baptist that the Holy Spirit had descended upon Jesus, he communicated the good news straightway to Simon, his brother, saying, “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ“ (John 1:32, 41). The Samaritans had a similar hope, hence the woman said of Jesus, “Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?” (John 4:29).

The “Anointed” was the burden of the oracle of prophecy. Hannah looked forward to the day when the horn of Jehovah's anointed would be exalted (1 Samuel 2:10). The royal Psalmist foresaw a dark day when the rulers of Israel and Gentile kings would enter into an unholy alliance against Jehovah and His Anointed (Psalm 2:2; Acts 4:25-27). Daniel predicted the date of the coming of Messiah the Prince, and its result (Daniel 9:25, 26). According to another Psalm, God would anoint Him “with the oil of gladness above His fellows” (Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). As the “Rod out of the stem of Jesse,” it was predicted that “the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah” (Isaiah 11:1, 2). It was also stated specifically that Jehovah's Servant should receive the Spirit. In words fulfilled at the Jordan, Jehovah said, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him” (Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18). The dove-like form symbolized the meekness, lowliness, and absence of self-assertion, which were the particular characteristics in which the energy of the Spirit would manifest itself in Jesus.

And all this came about. God “anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power” (Acts 10:38). And the Lord made allusion to the unimpeachable credentials furnished by this unction, when He announced at Nazareth the fulfillment of another prophecy concerning Himself “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek [poor],” etc. (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18).

The Servant of Jehovah therefore entered upon His ministry in the full consciousness that everything was in due order according to the scriptures. This is indicated here, so far as the anointing is concerned, by a statement peculiar to this Gospel. Jesus Himself is said to have seen the Spirit given: “Coming up out of the water, he [Jesus] saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him.” John the Baptist also saw (though we know of none besides), as we find in John 1:32, 34, and Matthew 3:16, no witness being named in Luke 3:22. John bare record of what he saw, and others believed because of his testimony.

But let us pass on to consider the testimony of the heavenly voice out of the opened heavens, succeeding and silencing the voice crying in the wilderness. The heavens were not opened to disclose an object there, as in the case of Stephen. On the contrary, heaven had found an object upon earth—the sinless and obedient Jesus. To Him came the voice, not of an angelic choir as to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem, but of the Father Himself, saving, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.” As Man He was hereby assured of the divine complacency in Himself, and thus He commenced His ministry as the Servant of Jehovah in the full personal consciousness of His own Sonship. “Though he was Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and He continued to abide in the sense of His Sonship throughout (John 10:33). He said to the Pharisees, “I know whence I come, and whither I go,” and, again, speaking of His Father He said, “I know him, for I am from him, and he sent me” (John 8:14; 7:29). So that the whole of His multifarious service was ennobled and enriched by His divine nature as Son of God, which gave it a character absolutely unique.

The voice from heaven was, in Old Testament times, familiar as a vehicle of direct communication from Jehovah. That voice was known in Eden, and is there associated with the presence of the Lord God Himself (Genesis 3:8). Moses reminded the Israelites of the manner in which Jehovah promulgated His law; “the LORD spake unto you,” he says, “out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of words, but saw no form; only ye heard a voice” (Deuteronomy 4:12, R.V.). The glory and majesty of this voice is the subject of Psalm 29. It came to Elijah and Isaiah as servants of Jehovah (1 Kings 19:9-18; Isaiah 6:8). Now it is heard saluting the newly-baptized Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God.

It will be observed, that as it is here stated that Jesus saw the descent of the Spirit, so it is also stated, as in Luke, that the voice was addressed to Him. On the mount of transfiguration, the voice which then came forth from the cloud, the “excellent glory” (2 Peter 1:17), spoke of Him to the auditors— “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is so also in the account in Matthew of His baptism (3:17). But in Mark and Luke the words recorded are, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.”

This personal address was in accordance with Messianic prediction in the Second Psalm: “I will declare the decree; Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (ver. 7). Paul, in his discourse at Antioch, applied the passage to the “raising up" of Jesus (Acts 13:33), as he did again in his Epistle to the Hebrews in two connections (1:5; 5:5). The divine Sonship is therefore predicated of Him at His birth in time (Luke 1:32, 35), throughout His service, and also in resurrection.

But in Mark an addendum is made to the declaration, “Thou art my Son.” He is also styled” the dearly-loved"; “in thee,” says the voice, “I have found my delight.” God had found His good pleasure (εὐδοκία) in man, according to the angels' song (Luke 2:14, R.V.). And who shall measure this ineffable joy between the Father and the Son, from which the Spirit was not excluded? No wonder we read, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand” (John 3:35; 5:20).

The words of another, by way of brief summary, may well conclude our meditations on this passage. “Though truly God, He was man; though a Son, He became a servant, and was now about to enter on His ministry. He receives the Spirit as well as the recognition of His Son-ship. He had justified God's sentence on, and call to, Israel—yea, He had in grace joined the souls who had bowed to it in the waters of Jordan; but this could not be without the answer of the Father for His heart's joy in the path He was about to tread. The one was the fulfillment of every kind of righteousness, and not legal only (this in grace, for there was no necessity of evil in His case); the other was His recognition thereon by the Father in the nearest personal relationship, over which His submission to baptism might have cast a cloud to carnal eyes. “

[W. J. H.]

(To be continued)

Acts 4:23-33

“Being let go they went unto their own company.” Is not this, in a small way, what we, as believers, have been doing since Saturday? “Their own company,” we clearly understand, were believers in Jerusalem. In chap. 2 we read, “All that believed were together.” They had one center, one object of attraction—the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was there they found rest, sympathy, and genial society; and “our own company,” as saints of God, is as great a reality as at the beginning. For sanctified, or set apart, by the Holy Ghost, we are Christ's, and are claimed by Him.

In Malachi's day those that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard. There you see a company of “their own.” When you see one who claims to be a Christian going on in fellowship with the world, you may be sure that he is going wrong. Must we not do business in the world? Certainly. But to find congenial society in the world that cast out the Son of God is another thing.” If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). The apostles Peter and John had been brought up before the Sanhedrim as criminals because they had healed a poor cripple, for the natural heart of man will not have Christ. So they went to their own company, and they tell them all that befel them. “And they lifted up their voice,” etc. Could they have done better? Nothing so good. They brought the matter into the presence of God, where is always our resource and hiding-place. One greatly admires the conduct of these men. They bring the matter to God, and that is truly the wise course. In this day we are not troubled by the authorities in the same way as they. There is no violent persecution; but there are often things we find ourselves powerless to move. The stolidness of the masses against the gospel; hearts bent on pleasure; how difficult to get people to hear the gospel. The best news that ever reached the ears of men and women is treated with contempt. Instead of sitting down and sighing over this great indifference, let us rather lift up our voices with “one accord” to Him who can control everything in heaven or earth. Let us get His ear; for can we not go into “the holiest” with assurance?

Here is a model prayer meeting—a sample of what a prayer meeting should be. There is great danger of falling into mere routine—there must be a hymn, and then a long pause, and then—instead of asking what we want—a further pause! I was once in a meeting of this kind, where only three opened their mouths during the hour, and yet the Lord was waiting to hear if they would call upon Him. I could not help saying to them, Brethren, you remind me of that scripture, “rich... and have need of nothing.” You have nothing to ask!

But how different was it with these two apostles! These must have help from God, or be swamped! They address God as the supreme Ruler who made heaven and earth. It reminds one of Nehemiah” Remember the Lord which is great and terrible,” etc. Are we not in danger of forgetting the might and power of our God? We need to take hold of the Mighty One. If we came together with one mind and heart there would surely be a gracious awakening. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done.” You have heard that before. Here you see these men acting on it. There is the promise to the individual saint, “Every one that asketh receiveth,” etc. God has promises for individuals as well as for assemblies.

I commend to your notice that wherever you find saints “of one accord,” there is power and blessing. In Acts 1 they all continued with “one accord,” etc. In chap. 2 also; then in chap. 5, “and believers were the more added to the Lord.” Watch over that evil heart of yours that no jealousy be allowed to hinder your being of one accord with your brethren. Notice ver. 29. All they say about their enemies is, “Behold their threatenings.” They bring the matter before God and leave it to Him; they do not attempt to get better laws, etc. The Lord had said, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight,” etc. (John 18:36). Their second petition is for boldness. They cry to be moved themselves; and that has its application to some of us. We may pray for others to be moved, but how are we moved ourselves? To act with power on those around us it needs that we be right. They had nothing but the word in those days, and they stuck to it. It is a two-edged sword—nothing sharper. What a short prayer! Four petitions only! Yet they were “of one accord,” and in earnest, waiting for the answer, like Elijah sending his servant to watch for the cloud from the sea. The little cloud was the answer. We want to be real with God. I am certain that if some of the things we ask were granted to us, we should be perfectly astonished. It was not one answer they got, but a perfect golden cluster.

It is an oft-quoted principle, “Bring all the tithes into the store-house and prove me now.” That is God's gracious way. And is it not just like Him? We ought not to be surprised that our souls are filled with blessing. When they had prayed, the place was shaken; and better still, “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” They had not asked for this; they had asked for boldness, and they got it.

I have been greatly refreshed by the ministry of the last two days. There has been much said about the Holy Spirit. We started with it, and have had much throughout about it, and this scripture has been on my mind, but no one touched on it. No doubt we know we are born of the Spirit, and are sealed with the Spirit; but to be filled with the Spirit goes farther. This blessing is not confined to the apostles. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). God has given the Spirit to them that obey Him, but how many are filled with the Spirit? Do you think that is only attained by a few? In Ephesians 5 we are exhorted to be “filled with the Spirit.” Is that an impossible thing? or is the exhortation not needed? We all should seek to be “filled with the Spirit,” which means our whole being to be under His control. We may hear outcries about weakness, smallness of numbers, not much gift, no big brothers. It may be so. So long as you are thinking of yourselves, no wonder if there is lack of power. Does not the Spirit dwell in us? Is He not God? Trace what scripture says of His mighty acts since He brooded upon the face of the deep. By His Spirit He garnished the heavens, and by the Spirit the Lord Himself was quickened from the dead. In the eyes of the world we are despicable, but the Spirit dwells in us. If we remembered this, we should not hear croakings of weakness. The Holy Spirit dwells in each saint; He dwells also in the assembly and divides to each one severally as He will. Do we believe in these things as realities?

To the woman of John 4 the Lord spoke of the water which He should give, “springing up into everlasting life.” That is individual, as also in chap. 7, where also there is distinct advance. “The Holy Ghost was not yet,” etc. But when Jesus was glorified, then was He given to abide and be in us; and so there flow from our belly rivers of living water. When He fills the soul there is overflowing. Do we covet such a result? You see the secret. “He that believeth on Me"-our faith resting on Christ glorified at God's right hand. He is the fountain, we but vessels-leaky, no doubt, but if constantly poured into, even leaky vessels may be kept full. It is no use to work oneself up to some ecstatic feeling; it is more solid. Let the Holy Ghost assume control, our bodies being His temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). How many of you will take this up and reflect upon it? The Lord said, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you.” How careful we should be not to grieve or quench Him. The only power in this world in which God's work can be carried on is the Holy Ghost. Only God can draw sinners to Christ, and this He delights to do. The Holy Ghost is here to maintain the interests of Christ. Let us see to it that we give Him His right place. He is the power; the word of God, the means.

They needed very great spiritual strength and courage; and see the result! “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart,” etc.-thoroughly knit together in love. Why not now as then? We have the same Spirit, the same throne of grace. But we need to gird ourselves in these days, when it is fashionable to be religious. Satan is more to be dreaded for his wiles than for his roaring. There is much of the enchanted ground around. “They were of one heart and soul,” etc. They were not commanded to have all things common; it was the power of the Spirit in them. When saints are enjoying the love of the Spirit there is no lack; the poor are cared for, and every need met. When saints are happy they are glad to do anything for Christ, like David, who could say, “Of thine own have we given thee.” They were filled with joy. As to niggardly souls, what can we say of them? But “the liberal soul shall be made fat.” It holds good to this day. “Honor the Lord with thy substance,” etc., is a word we do well to remember. Will it not impoverish us? Not a bit. God knows how to deal with begrudging souls, and to get the money out of their pockets in spite of themselves.

Finally in ver. 33, it is all in answer to that short prayer. The place shaken, all filled with the Holy Ghost, great power and great grace upon all. Is our God less gracious now? Let us seek to know Him better. “Some have not the knowledge of God.” It is when we come to know Him, and how He is for us, and with us, that we become strong; though we shall never boast of our strength, for without Him we can do nothing. But all is of Him, and His strength is perfected in weakness. To our faith then, may we add courage, and quit ourselves, as says the apostle, like men. R. K.

Grace the Power of Unity and of Gathering: Part 3

But we have other privileges; God's love in Christ is not only an object which gathers—it is an activity which does so. Love is relative; it acts and shows itself. Hence God has acted. It is not the silent depths of self-consciousness which heathenism made of God, as mere intellect, though erroneously supposing matter equally eternal receiving merely form from God; though it then became active in generating thoughts—and, delighted with them objectively, became active in creation to produce them according to truth. In this scheme they justly made primeval darkness the mother of all things. But such is not our God. These, save in benefits sensibly known in creation, knew not love in God. Jesus has revealed Him, and we thus know Him to be love, and light, too. Blessed knowledge! It is, as given to us in the word, eternal life; and this life is occupied with it, as we have seen, with the Father and the Son. But we can equally say that we know this sweet and blessed truth: “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” It is the activity of love which is the power of gathering. “He gave himself... that he might gather into one the children of God, which were scattered abroad.” Even in Israel: “How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Here we have not only the attractive, sanctifying object bringing into fellowship, but the activity of love, which acts, gives itself, in order to gather; in this we are allowed to have a part. It is this, while sanctifying and maintaining His holiness, making us partakers of it, reveals God and gathers weary souls.

Now this alone is the proper principle and power of gathering. I do not say on which souls are gathered; for that is clearly holiness-separation from evil in which alone communion is maintained—or darkness would have fellowship with light. But love gathers; and this is as evident to the Christian as that it gathers to holiness, and on the principle of it. For when would the mind of man separate from and leave the evil in which it lives, which is its nature, alas! as to its actual desires, and the sphere in which it lives? Never! Alas! its will and lusts are there—it is enmity against God. This is what the presenting of grace in Jesus has so solemnly proved. Law was never given to gather; it was the rule of a people already with God—or a convicter of sin. Sin does not gather to God, nor law; and one or other is all man's state unless grace acts. Besides, grace alone fully reveals God; and hence without grace that to which we are to be gathered is not manifested. Grace alone reaches the heart so as to bring it all short of this is responsibility merely, and failure. It is Christ gathers, and hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us.

Indeed, truth itself is never known till grace comes. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law told man what he ought to be. It did not tell him what he was. It told him of life if he obeyed, of a curse if he disobeyed; but it did not tell him that God was love; it spoke of responsibility; it said, “Do this and live.” All this was perfect in its place, but it told neither what man was nor what God was; that remained concealed; but that is the truth. The truth is not what ought to be, but what is—the reality of all relationships as they are, and the revelation of Him who, if there are any, must be the center of them. Now that could not be told without grace, for man was a ruined sinner, and God is love. And how tell, moreover, that all relationship was gone—for judgment is not a relationship, but the consequence of the breach of one—as the truth of any existing one, but in the revelation of that grace which formed one of this very ground by divine power? Hence we read “of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures “; that incorruptible seed of the word. Hence Christ is the truth. For sin, grace, God Himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, even, are revealed as they are; what man is in perfection, in relationship with God; what man's alienation from God; what obedience, what disobedience, what holiness, what sin, what God, what man, what heaven, what earth; nothing but what finds itself placed where it is in reference to God, and with the fullest revelation of Himself, while His counsels even are brought out, and of which Christ is the center. Hence grace is the acting power in, and alone capable of, revealing truth; for Christ's being here is grace-His working effectual grace. Now, the very existence of such an object and such a power would prove a gathering power, gathering into unity, for it must, being divine, gather to itself; yet, we are not left to abstract consequences, however practically familiar to every renewed soul who does and must know, that all such are drawn together in Christ. The word of God is plain: He gave Himself to “gather together into one the children of God which are scattered abroad.” I speak of these things as characterizing the power which gathers. Christ, though the truth itself, yet, while here, was lonely truth: no new relationship was established on a divine basis for other men. Hence presented grace was rejected grace; the corn of wheat abode alone; but, dying, redemption was accomplished and atonement made. He was no longer “straitened"; the grace and truth shut up, so to speak, into His own heart, could now flow freely forth. The highest love was shown; and sin in man, instead of hindering its application and barring relationship, was its object, at least that as to which it was displayed; and thus, therefore, He gathers. Divine righteousness supplants-what, indeed, never existed, though it was called for—human righteousness; divine life, mere human life; and God finds His glory in salvation. Grace reigns through righteousness.

I believe I have said enough to make what is in my mind plain; and I am more anxious to state than to insist on it. In the full divine sense, without grace, there is neither truth nor holiness (out of God, of course, I mean), save as holiness may be applied to the elect angels—nor can be; because it is impossible that a sinner can he with God but on the ground and by the power and activity of grace. The power of unity is grace; and as man is a sinner and departed from God, the power of gathering is grace—grace manifested in Jesus on the cross, and bringing us to God in heaven, and bringing us in Him who is gone there. This is holiness: certainly the cross was not acquiescence in evil.

J. N. D.

(Concluded from page 304)

Laodiceanism

“So repulsive does the Master declare it to be, that one need not wonder that most are unwilling for it to be their lot, or that it can he, as it is, the last recorded phase before the church is traced no more on earth. People vainly dream of progress, and flatter themselves. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot,” etc. (vers. 15-18). They wanted everything that was characteristic of Christianity: ‘gold,' or 'divine righteousness in Christ, that thou mayest be rich '; and ‘white garments,' or the righteousness of saints, ‘that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not be manifested; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.' They had lost the perception of what God values. All was dark as to truth, and uncertain as to moral judgment. Holy separateness and savor were gone. 'As many as I dearly love, I rebuke and chasten,' etc. (vers. 19, 20). The Lord presents Himself even there in His pitiful way to meet their every want.

“He that overcometh,” etc. (vers. 21, 22). The utmost promised in the word that closes the epistle goes not beyond reigning with Him. It is not anything special. For everyone that has part in the first. resurrection reigns with Christ, as even shall the Jewish sufferers under earlier enemies (6:9), or later under the Beast (13:15; 20:4). It is a mistake therefore to suppose that it is a singular distinction. For all amounts to this, that the Lord will hold, after all, to His own truth in spite of unfaithfulness. There may be individual reality, even where the surroundings are miserably untoward. But all that are born of God and are Christ's share the kingdom.”

W. K.

Advertising

JUST PUBLISHED

Three Lectures on the Book of Job. By W.K. New Edition. Cloth ... 1/6

“Covenant” or “Testament.” By W.K. 2d.

Separation from Evil, God's Principle of Unity. By J.N.D. New Edition... 2d.

Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering. By

J.N.D. New Edition ... 1.1d.

Perfection, or Full Growth. By J.N.D. ld.

The Apostleship of Paul. By J. G. Bellett. New Edition 3d.

The Permanence of Divine Things. By W. J. Hocking ld.

VICTORIA HALL ADDRESSES

New Series by DR. WREFORD

111d. each post free; 12 Copies, 1/-; 100, 6/-; 250, 14/-;

500, 26/-; 1,000, 50/-

No. 1.-” One Wonder Hour by Galilee.”

What is there after Death?”

The Majesty of Suffering.”

The Recompense of Tears.”

Divine Photography.”

Others to follow.

Published

LONDON

Christ and the Church

The way in which Christ and the church are linked together in Scripture is indeed wonderful. In Genesis 1 we read, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (vers. 26, 27).

How strikingly different are these words, “And God said, Let its make man in our image, after our likeness,” etc., from all that we have had previously of God's speaking “and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast”! Of light it was, “Let there be light,” and “light was.” “Let there be an expanse,” and-” God made the expanse.” “Let the waters be gathered together,” and “It was so.” Thus was it throughout the five days.

So also on the sixth day. “God said, Let the earth bring forth,” etc., and “it was so.” But when man is to be created, we see, as it were, the Trinity conferring—Father, Son and Holy Ghost— “Let us make.” And further, “in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion,” etc. “So God created man... male and female created he them.”

Do we see in this no veiled allusion to Christ, the Second man, the last Adam, in whom “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9)? Nor to “the church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22, 23), which, in the closing book of the Bible, is represented as “the bride, the Lamb's wife” (21:9)?

The dominion given to Adam we see shared by another in companionship with him. “God blessed them, and God said unto them.... have dominion,” etc. (ver. 28). So it is, when Christ takes the kingdom, we shall be associated with Him. Though called to “endure” now, we then shall “reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12).

Then again in Genesis 5 we read, “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him, male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” Is not this a further foreshadowing of the truth we now know as Christians that “Christ and we through grace are one”?

There will be no difficulty to faith (if to fallen man's reason) in understanding still more. “And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him an help-meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). The love that had blessed with so much had further good in store, and that in the form of one who should be worthy of the object of such love and goodness.

How was this to be brought about? “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept,” reminding us, firstly, of what Jesus said in Psalm 22:15, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death”; and secondly, as to the laying down of His life, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:18). “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” He went down into the dust of death, but rose again.

“He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man builded he a woman” (ver 22). So in Ephesians, saints now are said to have been made alive together with Christ. The same almighty power that raised Christ from the dead, is the power that has wrought in quickening us who were dead in our trespasses and our sins. “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, quickened us together with Christ” (1:19, 20; 2:4, 5). But further. The Lord God “brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.” So speaking of the great mystery—Christ and the church—the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul (in Ephesians 5:30), tells us “we are members of his body, [of his flesh and of his bones].” We have thought then of His love in the past-” Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it” —a collective love which we do well to rest in, and which in no way impairs the enjoyment of the individual love of Galatians 2:20, “The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What is the operation of that love now as regards the church? “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Do we thus yield ourselves to Him to be washed, and do we seek to be obedient to Him in all things? It is a day that reminds us of the last verse of that sad book, The Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes”; all authority was set aside. But we have no such excuse, for God hath made Him “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), and, “He is head over all things, to the church” (Ephesians 1:22). We are set apart by the Spirit “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2), and nothing absolves us from this obligation. But what is the object of Christ's love, for the future-” That he might present it to himself”; not, to another; not, here, to display it to the world, but, “TO HIMSELF,” “a glorious church.” Yes, not a church in shame, but glorious, “not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,” but that it should be “holy and blameless” (Ephesians 1:4; 5:27). Is it not delightful to think that such will be the church, in that day, “brought” to Him, worthy of Him, and which He will own as “taken out of” Himself, for we are now “members of his body.” We may, however, dwell a little more on the future of “the bride, the Lamb's wife,” as recorded in the word. In the eternal state, in the scene of the new heaven and the new earth, with its new conditions, with the first heaven and the first earth passed away, we have an unfading picture of surpassing loveliness, “the holy city” (not, the “great city,” Babylon was that) “coming down from God” —from God Himself! Oh, what purity she must have! “Out of heaven” —no earthly one this. “Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!” Let us ponder these last four words and ask ourselves if in the light of them we could hear the thought of indifference to His wishes now! Thank God SHE will be for HIM then. Oh, her place in the coming day!-” the tabernacle of God,” where He Himself dwells, truly with men. And their blessing? Immense! “He will dwell with them (not, visit, as in Eden), and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them their God.” But this “holy city, new Jerusalem,” is the bride, the Lamb's wife—the tabernacle of God—His dwelling-place. Well, “He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (21:5). The enemy cannot upset nor enter in, as in Eden. He will be in “the lake of fire.” And God commits Himself to it, for it is added, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Is there one who has read of this time of eternal blessing with God—Jesus could dry up tears when on earth, but here it is God, God Himself, wiping away every tear; “And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” —and who would not like to be in it, yea, in the best part of it-the church's part? Well, what does God say? Does He not make you welcome to it? For He adds, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” God does not offer you less than Christ. He is the fountain. Jesus may offer “the water of life” also freely, and He does, and in the widest way, in the closing chapter of the book, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (ver. 17). But God presents His Son, and the blessing along with Him-” This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” May both reader and writer ever be in the enjoyment of it! And remembering that the Lord Jesus is both Head of the church and the fullness of the gospel, may we be found in fullest sympathy with both!

W. N. T.

Is There Not a Cause? Part 1

David was introduced to Saul, the first king of Israel, as “a man that could play well upon the harp.” Saul was seeking such, an one. David was a musician, and much more. Indeed the description given of him by one of Saul's servants seems to have been almost prophetic, viewed in the light of his subsequent history. May we not say that the Spirit of God was prompting that servant to the utterance of thoughts beyond his own?

“But the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, a cunning player on the harp; and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely person, and Jehovah is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favor in my sight. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him” (1 Samuel 16:14-23).

The desire of Saul, the rejected king, was not a godly one; he should have sought in his own conduct for the cause of his trouble. But in his own sad condition we have only too truly a prophetic picture of the nation in the last days of the kingdom. Judgment had already set in. Divided, disorganized, and ruined, they nevertheless turned a deaf ear to all God's solemn warnings by the prophets. Especially was this the case when, the first captivity having taken place, God continued to plead with His people by His servant Ezekiel. Would He not have been to them, as He said, “as a little sanctuary” amongst the heathen whose captives they were? But they refused to take it seriously, or to allow their consciences to be exercised by what God had to say to them.

“Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them” (Ezekiel 33:30-33).

Judah in the days of Ezekiel, and Saul in the days of Samuel, were alike in this—they refused to own their sin before God and to bow to His righteous judgment. Had they done so, Saul, as well as Judah, would have been healed. God had other work for His servant David than playing upon the harp to relieve the king's malady, as later He had a serious and solemn message for the Judean captives by Ezekiel the prophet. The necessary preparation of David for the kingdom comes before us in 1 Samuel 17 Saul had had no such disciplinary exercises, and he showed himself to be morally unsuited for the position to which he had been exalted. David must be a prepared servant—a vessel sanctified, and meet for the Master's use. No doubt those who knew of the anointing of David to be king over Israel would regard the circumstance of the shepherd boy's introduction to the royal palace as most providential. For would it not in the most favorable manner accustom him to the responsibilities and surroundings of royalty? So the adoption of Moses by Pharaoh's daughter, with his subsequent education in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, might have been considered a providential preparation for the part he was to take in relation to Israel. But God's direct preparation of Moses was not carried on in Pharaoh's palace, but in the backside of the desert. So it is written of him, “By faith he forsook Egypt.”

And now, we see how God had similarly prepared David, whom He Himself had chosen for the kingdom-not in the palace of Saul, but in the wilderness, and the valley of Elah. It is not that preparation is unnecessary, but that the preparation must be divine if we are to have divine suitability. Though David's ministry and music might be used of God to the relief of Saul and (it may be) to his own profit also, yet it did not advance things at all. David leaves Saul's house and is forgotten by those whom he had benefited. He went back simply and naturally enough to keep his father's sheep. There had been a false start, and so there must needs be a beginning afresh. Not that blame attaches to David in this matter. But we are given to see the worthlessness of Saul's character, and the incompatibility of human cooperation with divine purpose. It was particularly important that from the very beginning David should owe nothing to the reigning monarch, for God had rejected Saul; and the two houses must be kept distinct and separate.

We find, then (chap. 17.), that God begins with David by calling him from the comparatively humble occupation of a tender of sheep into the very midst of Israel's difficulties that He might see how he regarded them and in what way they would affect him. “Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and were pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammin. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side; and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:1-11).

The incompetence and helplessness of Saul is made manifest—personally and officially. As king, he should have been the one to take up the challenge of Goliath. Faith in God would have more than compensated for the physical inequality, of which he was painfully conscious; for faith is the only safe principle on which to act. The reasoning of nature is always at fault, but faith has a line of reasoning all its own (Romans 8:31-39), and David is the one to employ it here. Let us trace his way. In the first place, we have to discern and test the motives by which we are governed. Are they according to God, or for the gratification of self? Is my object Christ's glory or my own? In what way does David come upon the scene? Was it not in obedience to his father, and in love to his brethren? As far as we know, he was entirely in ignorance of the state of affairs as between Israel and the Philistines, except, of course, that there was war. Could we have more excellent natural motives than these? Filial obedience and brotherly love are surely calculated to comfort the heart and to strengthen for action. Yet it may be that even these excellencies may arouse jealousies and even unjust accusations against their possessor. A keen sense of injustice rendered me may prompt me to wash my hands of the particular business, and so, by relinquishment, fail in one's duty. Or, if vindicating oneself from a false charge, we need to guard against conduct in oneself that may be equally reprehensible, only in another form. May we not say that Paul himself—apostle as he was—on a memorable occasion, in his resentment of injustice, exposed himself to the just rebuke of a bystander, from which God would surely have preserved His servant had he been more watchful? How different the lowly Jesus, when He was reviled! But only One is perfect (John 18:22; Acts 23:3).

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Studies in Mark: Wild Beasts and the Angels

IV.-The Wild Beasts And The Angels

“And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him” (1:12, 13, n.v.).

The real nature of the sin-stricken world into which the Servant of Jehovah had entered to do in public the will of Him that sent Him is thus briefly indicated by the Evangelist. And emphasis is given to his concise statement by the dark contrast in which it stands with the verses that precede. There we read of the effulgent glory emanating from the rent heavens upon the lowly Jesus come forth from Nazareth of Galilee, of the dove-like Spirit of God anointing and sealing the Servant of Jehovah, and of the Father's voice declaring His complacency in the Baptized One, His beloved Son. Here we read of Him hurried by the Spirit into the wilderness, tempted there of Satan forty days, and with the wild beasts. From the scene of heavenly light Jesus passed immediately to encounter the power of darkness, for this He had come to do. As yet the heavens could open thus upon but One Man here below, though this transient gleam afforded an earnest of the coming day of glory for the whole earth, when the service of Jesus, which was then beginning, should be fully accomplished.

It is thus impressed upon us by the brief reference in the verses before us that Jesus was anointed to serve, not as angels do in the purity of heaven, but in a world of sin, where all creation is groaning together and travailing in pain because of present evil (Romans 8:22). The wilderness was there; the wild beasts were there; Satan was there. The whole world was in subjection to that wicked one, that arch-rebel against God and archenemy of man (1 John 5:19). But the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

It is to be noted that in each of the three Synoptical Gospels the temptation in the wilderness is recorded immediately after the baptism and the anointing. For forty days Jesus the Christ, the Savior of men, was alone in the wilds with Satan, who is Apollyon, the destroyer of men. He who had entered the strong man's house to spoil his goods must first bind the strong man (Matthew 12:29). Accordingly Jesus, marked out of old as the Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, met the ancient adversary of man alone in the solitudes of the wilderness. Soon He would effectually annul the power of Satan, but now He withstands his subtleties, and is victorious.

In the preceding, and the succeeding, Gospels the three final efforts of the enemy at the close of the forty days' temptations are narrated in detail, Matthew placing the three in strict chronological sequence, while Luke reverses the second and third for moral reasons, consonant with the purpose of that Gospel. Mark, however, states simply, “He was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan.” He records the fact of the temptation, but states nothing regarding its nature, nor the manner in which the obedient and dependent Man overcame the wiles of the wicked one. It was sufficient here to let it be known that at the outset the Servant of Jehovah, apart from human view or aid or interference, joined issue with the enemy of God and man. The struggle was upon the question of His own personal allegiance to the One who had sent Him. But this character of the temptation is not mentioned here, nor even His victory and Satan's departure at the close. Two figures loom upon the sombre canvas—the elect Servant and Satan, with the wilderness and wild beasts in the background, while ministering angels shed light upon a scene otherwise of darkness.

Any further remarks that may occur on this passage may, for convenience' sake, be grouped under one of the following heads:-(l) The energy of the Spirit. (2) The temptation by Satan. (3) The company of the wild beasts. (4) The ministry of the angels.

(1) “Immediately the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness.” The phrase is one expressive of intense energy and instant action. The Father had bestowed the Holy Spirit upon Him “without measure,” and Jesus, in the plenitude of that Spirit, took the pathway which led into the wilderness. In that He was driven forth, it is proved how perfectly and fully He was possessed of the Spirit; in that this was done immediately, it is proved how swift was the Lord's response to Him by whom He had been anointed for service. There are two marks of perfection in service complete, unrestricted obedience, and also ready, unhesitating obedience. They both characterize the Lord at the beginning of His service; they are not less conspicuous at its close.

But such a quality as obedience is not appreciated in a world where all naturally are the sons of disobedience. Submission in the eyes of men is only weakness, a lack of fiber and force. Yet with what moral magnificence was the obedience of Christ invested as He, the dearly loved Son of the Father, is pleased to yield Himself up in the fullest degree to be led of the Spirit into the wilderness, as later to Calvary. It is a fruitful and practical subject for our meditation, since we are sanctified unto the obedience of Christ, and exhorted to be filled with the Spirit. And what is inculcated by precept and doctrine in the Epistles is enforced by illustration and example in the divine biography of the Gospels, where the moral glory and beauty of the subjection of Christ shine forth at every step. The life itself was for the glory of God; the record of that life is for the comfort and joy and emulation of His people.

But this driving forth of Jesus recalls, by way of sad contrast, the history of Eden and the expulsion of our first parents. Of them we read, after the fall, “Jehovah God sent him [Adam] forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23, 24). This ejection was the penalty of Adam's disobedience; the passage from Jordan to the wilderness was the obedient act of Him who was the incomparable Servant of God, because He was His Son.

(2) The way of service for John the Baptist brought him into the wilderness to cry to guilty Israel to repent, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The way of Jesus, the Servant of Jehovah, led Him into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan forty days. Misguided men have sought the wilderness to evade the power of evil. Jesus sought it with the express intention of meeting the evil one. He alone was perfect within, and while He Himself was led up to meet the tempter, He taught His disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil [or, the evil one]” (Matthew 6:13). And when a self-confident apostle of His was about to venture into the midst of the temptations of the foe He made supplication for him. “Simon, Simon,” He said, “behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31, 32).

Man always underrates the power and subtlety of Satan, but the Lord, who fully knew, and also measured by experience the strength of the “strong man,” went forth to meet him and to endure from him every form of temptation (Luke 4:13, R.V.). Though “in the likeness of sinful flesh” He was “without sin,” and “knew no sin.” The temptations, therefore, came to the Lord exclusively from without, as was also the case with unfallen Adam, though true of none on earth besides.

It was made known at the beginning that the manifestation of the Son of God would be for the destruction of the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Jehovah said to the serpent in Eden, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). In the Gospels we are shown historically that this was so. We find that when Jesus was born, Satan, using Herod as his tool, attempted to destroy Him (Matthew 2:16; Revelation 12:4, 5). Satan also sought, through Simon Peter, to stumble the Lord in the way to the cross (Matthew 16:23). For His betrayal Satan himself, not a demon or unclean spirit, took possession of Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3; John 13:27). “This is your hour,” said the Lord to the chief priests, “and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). And though Satan seemed for a moment to triumph in the death of the Lord, thereby bruising His heel, by that same act his own head was bruised, according to the saying of old. For the power of Satan was annulled not by incarnation, but by death, as the Scripture declares. He became flesh “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

It is clear, from these scriptural references, that the Servant-Prophet whom Mark delineates would have in His service to meet the devil, the adversary of man, and especially the foe of Him who had come to be the deliverer of man, and to heal those who “were oppressed of the devil.” Accordingly the Evangelist records that immediately upon His baptism Jesus encountered the prince of this world, being subjected to his temptations for forty days in the wilderness. It was not consonant with the special object of his Gospel to specify in detail the three final assaults of the evil one. It sufficed to state the fact of the encounter, while the personality of the tempter is emphasized here by the use of the name, Satan, rather than the more general term, “the devil” (διάβολος), as in Matthew and Luke.

(3) “He was with the wild beasts.” While Mark omits many details of the Lord's temptation which are found in Matthew and Luke, this circumstance is peculiar to the account by the Second Evangelist. Its mention here is the more noteworthy because of the succinctness of the whole paragraph. The theorists on the subject of the origin of the Gospels find it difficult to invent a plausible theory to fit this awkward phrase on the assumption that the Gospel of Mark is an abridgment or precis of those of Matthew and Luke. Besides this phrase, there are miracles, a parable, and some incidents also, peculiar to this Gospel, and to account for the presence of these it is imagined by others that all the Evangelists compiled their accounts from an “original” or “primitive” Gospel, or that Mark's Gospel was the earliest; for when it is a question of the imagination, “historic” or otherwise, you cannot expect general agreement among the various theories advanced.

To illustrate how these various hypotheses leave one still groping in the dark, I quote from a writer of much acumen, whose remarks are based on extensive research into the subject in hand. He says: “I believe, therefore, that the compiler of the Second Gospel could not but have been acquainted with the tradition [of the temptation] recorded by Matthew and Luke, of which I look on Mark 1:13 as an abridgment. Yet the mention of wild beasts leads me to thinks that in the case of the opening, as well as of the concluding verses the abridgment was made by one who wrote so early as to be in independent possession of traditions.''

Without here discussing this theory of abridgment, it may be pointed out that Dr. Salmon admits that the presence of this phrase requires a special explanation. He suggests feebly that Mark acquired it from some independent source. How does such a supposition help us? To regard the phrase as one supplied by Mark, either from memory or from some special source of information, and that it was added here just because it is not mentioned in the other Gospels, is virtually to rob the Holy Record of all aim and purpose, and to suggest that the Evangelist was most inefficient even as a compiler! Besides, if he added the circumstance of the wild beasts, because it is not recorded elsewhere, why does he mention along with it the ministry of the angels, which occurs also in Matthew 4:11?

The truth is that in this account, as we have it, the Evangelist wrote as “moved by the Holy Spirit,” and it is to be feared that this fact is overlooked in discussions as to “Petrine tradition” and “double” or “triple tradition.” The question of the origin of a given phrase in the narrative is altogether a subordinate and unimportant detail, when the Holy Spirit has been pleased to weave it into the fabric of the Gospel. It is possible that we may be slow to perceive its exact bearing in the scheme of the Evangelist. It is, in any case, becoming on our part to seek to learn this by patient inquiry, and by diligent waiting upon the Spirit for His illumination.

Jesus ''with the wild beasts” is a graphic touch of the inspired penman to indicate the fallen world which was the sphere of service for Jehovah's Servant. Adam was created to rule for God over the terrestrial works of His hand. All beasts of the field were subject to him, not in fear and dread as afterward was the case (Genesis 9:2). They were brought to him in the garden of Eden, and by him named (Genesis 2:19, 20). In the wilderness of Judaea, however, they were wild, needing to be tamed by the power of man, and formed in themselves so many witnesses of the desolateness of a sinful earth, utterly devoid as the whole scene was of any of those alleviating circumstances known as human comforts.

Man, by his departure from the knowledge of God, has brought himself morally to the level of the beasts that perish (Psalm 73:22; 2 Peter 2:12); and, in prophetic imagery, a wild beast is employed as the symbol of worldly power and kingdom. This is so notably in references to Gentile rule, for when dominion was taken from Israel and placed into the hands of the kings of the earth, none of them ruled in the fear of God. Nebuchadnezzar, as an example and warning to others, who, like him should, in the vanity of their hearts, forget God, was driven from men to dwell with the beasts of the field, until his understanding returned and he blessed the Most High (Daniel 4).

In Daniel's vision of the four great world-empires he saw them as wild beasts (Daniel 7), and John beheld the revived Roman Empire of a future day under the figure of a beast (Revelation 13); for, like wild creatures, none of these kingdoms carry out the will of God except under His direct coercion. The wild beast is one that has shaken off the yoke and bondage of man. It is not, therefore, a stretch of imagination to see in the picture of Jesus among the wild beasts a shadow of the perfectly obedient Servant of Jehovah come into a world of fallen men, who owned no authority higher than the strongest or the most cunning among themselves.

(4) “The angels ministered unto Him.” Here we have a lovely contrast with the dark desolations of earth, amid which the Son of man is displayed to us in the wilderness. The ministering spirits of heaven attend upon Jesus in the scene of His temptation. Though surrounded by the darkness of this world, the light of the glory above is seen still to shine upon Him. Jesus had come as the Servant of Jehovah to serve the lowliest and the wickedest of men, but the highest celestial being would find it a joy to seek Him out in His solitude to do Him homage, and to serve the One who was learning what need was, though He possessed all things.

In His subsequent pathway, others gathered round Him to wait on Him, though He Himself was among His own as One who served. The twelve were His chosen body-guard, but He did not treat them as servants knowing not what their Lord did. Martha of Bethany served Him in the house of Simon the leper. Galilean women ministered to Him of their substance. He Himself asked a woman of Samaria to supply Him with a drink of water. But was it not fitting that the first to serve the Servant of Jehovah in His public service should be those august servitors whose functions lie in heavenly courts? Indeed, it was but in accord with an ancient prophecy that when the First-begotten was brought into the world all the angels of God should worship, as well as serve, Him (Deuteronomy 32:43, LXX.; Psalm 97:7; Hebrews 1:6).

On this occasion the heavenly service was rendered in private, unseen of man. But in the coming day of glory, when the Anointed appears in His majesty, every eye shall see Him and His angelic retinue too (Matthew 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7). This future attendance will be public, and unmistakeable even by unbelief. But while the service in the wilderness seems to have been personal and unwitnessed, angelic homage to Himself was announced by the Lord in the earliest days of His ministry as a form of testimony which His own should receive in the days of His flesh, the ampler witness awaiting the millennial day. To Nathanael He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, [Henceforth] ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John 1:51).

[W. J. H.]

(To be continued)

Mark 1:12. —To translate here ἐκβάλλω by “driveth,” appears to go beyond the due requirement of the context which in all cases is the true arbiter of its force. Suitably rendered for the most part by “cast out,” there are instances nevertheless, in our A. and R..V. where our translators have justifiably presented a more congenial rendering. Take the following—Matthew 9:38 “send forth,” Mark 1:43 “sent away” (or, “out,” R.V.), John 10:4 “putteth forth” “hath put,” R.V.), Revelation 11:2 “leave out” (or, “without,” R.V.). In this very chapter (ver. 43) did our Lord ("moved with compassion,” 41) immediately after “drive” away (!) the cleansed leper? Why then “driveth” in verse 12?

Christ the Life: Part 1

He that spoke these words was the lowliest of men. How then did He come to utter them? Did ever a man since the world began take such a place? “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me”; even as just before He had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There was not a word of boasting; it was never the way of Jesus to boast. Transparency was the thing that especially marked Him, and Him alone; and His love was as real as His lowliness. His was a self-sacrificing life continually. As a child it was the same; in the then single fact recorded of Him we have His own words, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?” And who was He that so spoke? and what entitled Him so to speak? It was not only that in Him was perfect wisdom and perfect goodness, and that He was the truth, but if He were not God (and I use the word in all its strength), how presumptuous His words!

But He was Son as no one else is son. The word of God speaks of many sons, but Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father. He became Captain of salvation. Was He a sinful man? He was the Savior of sinners. How could this be if He were not a divine person? Every one else is a sinful man, every man born into the world; for Adam never had a child till he was fallen. Even Enoch was a sinful man, although in due time translated. Elijah was caught up; but of Jesus it is said that He ascended up. Now, He that ascended, first descended; and He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. Of whom else could this be true? Of none but the Lord Jesus Himself.

In Christ the full truth broke in. He came not to display the glory that He had with God; this would not at all have met the need of sinners. He who had the glory gave it up; He first emptied Himself, and then humbled Himself. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, to make good the glory of God and the salvation of man. He showed in the world what it was to be here, in the face of all opposition and suffering, only to do God's will; and thus God's will was fully done by a man on the earth, and this not by power, but by obedience in suffering. Adam in Eden was not called to suffer. Jesus was the only holy man that suffered for sin. If you leave out that, you leave out the other grand pillar of the truth, that Jesus is He who was manifest in the flesh. He might have come in divine or in angelic glory, and need not have taken upon Himself the form of a man, by being born of a woman; but then how should the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? And, further, if He had not, how could there have been salvation for us? It is of all importance to weigh and hold fast this truth, simple as it is. Man is a sinner, away from God, and knows it in his conscience, and owns it when he is brought face to face with God.

It is not the Bible that makes man a guilty sinner; but the Bible is the only key to all, and explains it fully and worthily. This book alone carries conviction for every heart that is willing to how to God and be saved; but the truth is that people do not want to be saved in God's way. They prefer the full activity of life to be their own, and to enjoy the world as long as they can. They may wish to be saved at the end, but there are many things that they feel unprepared and unwilling to give up yet. They will turn to God on their death-bed. But they feel that if saved, they must be saved to do the will of God, and not their own will; and, if saved, they are the servants of Christ. But do you want to be Satan's servants? Remember, you cannot be your own master. You must either be the servants of God or the slaves of Satan; for a man who does his own will is the slave of Satan. You may not believe this, but it is true; and a time will come when your own conscience will make you feel the truth of it, and that too when it will be the distressing harbinger of still worse distress; perhaps, in the moment of dying. What a terrible reality to wake up then with the awful words ringing in your ears-Too late, too late, too late! But I bless God that I have the happier task of pressing on you now the way that God has opened in Jesus for you, and the truth that God proclaims to the simplest soul.

Into the midst of this world's activities, when the fourth empire was in its power, came Jesus. How did He treat this book, the Bible? As none other; it was the book of books to Him. Scripture was His food and His weapon always. It was not the New Testament yet, for this was not written then. It was the very part that high and low most try to get rid of. Men say it is the writing first of one man, and then of another, sometimes put together by a third one or more. What folly! How then has it such astonishing unity of purpose and mind? It is madness and impiety for men to speak against the book that Jesus treats as the word of God.

He who raises the dead and quickens, does not (as some think, without love) let men slip unwarned into all superstitions. The true God is a God of active love. Scripture allows no such thing as God not caring for what is going on. But you say, “Does He not allow evil?” Certainly; He let angels and men fall; but this in both was the fault of the creature only. Have you not all known, at some time or other of your life, a season when you resolved to repent and to do good? How has it turned out? Did you succeed? or have you not proved that you are had, and can do no good thing? How comes this? Did God make man so? God made the earth and the race without one evil in either; God pronounced everything to be very good; and evil would have been kept out if man had looked to God. But man fell; and since “the world by wisdom knew not God,” the wisdom of the world does not want God. Man wants his own way and will; whereas the glory of one that knows God is to do His will. But how is God's will to be known or done? I am a sinner, know nothing, can do nothing pleasing in His eyes. The Bible read in faith explains, not merely how evil spoiled all, but how Jesus came as the way, the truth, and the life, and how He justifies God in receiving poor sinners. Grace alone can meet the need; and as He came in love to win us, so He died in the fullness of love, to give us a purged conscience, that so, reconciled to God, we might worship and serve Him. If He had left man in rebellion, it would have been a strange proof of love. Where would be grace in giving man food and all things necessary for this life, and then to let him perish forever at last? But no; He gave His Son that the believer should not perish.

The very least thing that God made bears the stamp of His hand; and not only so, but of His mind, of His beneficent goodness. From the first God looked into man's condition, and graciously met it all, unsought and unexpected, in His grace. He sent His Son, His well-beloved, His only-begotten, the One who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. This is the One God gave for your salvation. No effort of your own avails. You have neither power nor fitness to get rid of your guilt. Have you not tried? and have you not found out that you cannot? If you have what they call an elastic conscience, you may think that God is not going to be too nice about sin. But such a thought is really a most fatal blow at His holiness and His truth, for He has declared the contrary. But God has done what is far better than slurring over your sins; He spared not His own Son.

And mark the manner of it. The Son became man, the obedient One, the only man who never sought to do his own will. Where was there ever such a sight, such a reality, before? He could say, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.” The very idea of such obedience was as far from every heart till Jesus came, as was God's love to lost sinners. Nor this only. Jesus, when asked, “Who art thou?” could answer, “Absolutely what also I say to you” (John 8:25). Who could ever say this but One? Jesus always was just what He also said. Blessed truth, and how suited for God and for man He Himself was the truth, the perfect truth, sent down, to poor sin-blinded man; so that he has the truth, not only detailed in a book, but embodied in a Person, and this a man in the world tried as nobody ever was. It is everywhere the same truth, and all is perfect harmony with the utmost variety. No doubt there are shades of distinction in many different books of the Bible, but it is surely our ignorance when we find them irreconcilable.

The mere handiwork of God is beyond the wisest of men, and the wisest are precisely those who are most ready to acknowledge their ignorance. The more men really know, the more deeply they feel and own how little they know. Just so with the word of God. What are difficulties to me may not be so to some one more spiritual; and when by faith I see more clearly, the difficulties not only vanish but turn into the strongest confirmation of revealed truth. One person puts everything into its proper place-Christ. If He were not God, He could not bring into relation with God; if not a man, He would have no point of contact with me. Both are necessary for His work. It is He who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Man feels his weakness, his unworthiness, his unfaithfulness, when he judges himself before God. What life is this that Jesus is? what life did He manifest? Was it the life of Adam? Adam, we read, was made a living soul; but who and what is Christ? A quickening Spirit. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Was it of angels? No; of men. It was not merely for Israel; the pride of the Jew did not like such grace.

[W. K.]

(To be continued)

Sanctification: Part 1

John 17

I have it on my heart to say a few words on this chapter in reference especially to the character of sanctification.

At this moment, as we all know, the Lord was rejected. From chap. 13 we get Him speaking on this ground. Jesus knew “that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father.” All through this Gospel from chap. 1, He is unknown to the world, and rejected by the Jews. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” But from chap. 13 He speaks as going out of the world and ascending on high.

In this chapter, however, what is brought out is, that He came forth from the Father, not from God only; and this involves “eternal life” — “to know thee [the Father], the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” That is where eternal life comes in. Its character is that it is the knowledge of the Father; for the Father sent His only begotten Son, that we might live through Him. Of course, therein we know God also, “who by him do believe in God"; but it is in the knowledge of the Father, and Jesus sent by Him, that there is eternal life. And then the character in which we know Him is that of “holy Father"; and this is sanctification. When it is a question of the world, it is “righteous Father.” It is not that grace does not go out to poor sinners in the world to deliver them out of it, but that saints are not of it, and have done with it.

In some places it is a current thought that Christ came into the world to connect Himself with humanity—that He united Himself to man in the incarnation—which is utter falsehood. He was a true man—in one sense more man than we are, for a perfect thing is more than a corrupt thing. The union of God with man—with humanity as it was—is wholly unscriptural; there is none before redemption. Nor is it ever said that God, or a divine person, united Himself to us. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, true man in the flesh, but no union with us; and to maintain that there is, is totally false. I refer to it, because it is very current amongst Christians of all shades and forms. The doctrine of scripture is that we are united to Christ after redemption is accomplished—to a glorified Christ. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone” —entirely and totally alone.

We have here a most important point practically, because “the friendship of the world is enmity with God.” Whenever I let the spirit and associations of the world in, I am associating myself with that which has rejected Christ. It may seem harsh, but it is not so harsh as the world rejecting Christ when He was here in grace. So the judgment of God is connected with it. He says, Righteous Father, I have manifested Thee, and the world has not known Thee. So when it comes to the Holy Ghost, it is, “Whom the world cannot receive,” because it does not know Him; it is only the believer who can. The world is a judged system, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The Lord laid the foundation of an entirely new state of things, as to which He says, “Holy Father.” As to the world, it is said, it “hath not known thee;” and you cannot present God better to the world than Christ did.

You will find as things go on in these last days that this question will come up. Faith sees by the Holy Ghost what God's thoughts about it are, and our part is to get hold of them. When the Lord comes, it will be too late for the world; that is the day of judgment.

“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The Father has a world of His own which He has given to us, to which He has taken Christ to be the center—the new creation. The world, as it is, rejected Christ when He came into it, and now all that is over. He came in grace; God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” And now we are to walk by faith as to these things, and not by sight, for the whole thing we belong to is a new creation. “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” That is what a Christian is; and we have to keep hold of it in our walk and in our testimony. I do not know what good we are if we go along with the world that rejected Christ. It is true we have the treasure in earthen vessels, but we belong entirely to the new creation; the treasure is not in its natural associations as to its surroundings here.

It is a solemn thing to say, but it is the truth, that we are begotten by the word of God. Plenty of creatures He had before; you might call Adam a kind of firstfruits if you like; but the saints now are the firstfruits of a creation that is not manifested at all, except as they live according to it here. We have to show it out in our bodies until Christ comes.

We read also, “By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.” In Hebrews it is always sanctification by the blood—on the cross. There was a complete breach between God and the world, and the believer was set apart to God. Here there is a double ground of sanctification—God's will, and Christ's offering. And thirdly, which is the practical part of it, we get the Holy Ghost as Him who actually works it, the immediate agent of the work in us. “Elect... through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” There is the communication of a new life in Christ: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” It is the spiritual life, of course, he is speaking of; a man has not got life at all if he has not got the Son.

But, you say, Do they not all know this? No. The common doctrine is that you are born again, but this is viewed as a change of the old man. They say that you were spirit, soul, and body before, and that you are only spirit, soul, and body after, only in a changed state, and that it is an exaggeration to speak of anything more—of two natures—of any new nature added. But it is a totally new thing—Christ our life, so as even Adam, innocent, had it not. And this is really the principle of holiness. That which is born of God is a holy thing; we are “born again... by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,” for the word of God does abide forever. It is a totally new thing; in the unconverted world it is not there at all; and therefore the Lord stops Nicodemus by saying, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"; he must be born of water and the Spirit. Many, I trust, do know this, but, where there is ignorance as to it, it will work gradually out in some shape; and it makes all the difference whether I distinctly recognize that it is a new man, Christ living in me, by which I live to God.

Christ is that eternal life, which was with the Father, and becomes spiritually our life; it is nothing that is in man or of man. That gives it its true character. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” We have seen eternal life in the person of the Son come down from heaven; He was made a man; so in John we read, “The life was the light of men.” It is emphatic there. It is not the light of angels. It is what you call a reciprocal proposition. That is, life and light of men answer completely to each other, and each may be affirmed of the other.

All that which was simple failure at the beginning came out as enmity against God's own Son when Christ was in the world. He displayed divine goodness and power, all that divine grace could be; but this manifested God, and this man would not have at any cost. He says, “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” He was rejected in His word, and in His work, as is brought out in John 8 and 9. Thus it was not a question merely of failure and sin; there had been plenty of that before He came; it was that God Himself had been manifested in goodness before men, and because He was God they would not have Him. The world has been tested in this way, and the result is that, fallen man having been turned out of paradise, God, as far as man could do it, has been turned out of the world into which He had come in grace, when it was in the sin and ruin into which man, that was turned out of paradise, had got. And so the world will not now bear a man that is like Christ. It will bear plenty of Christians; an amiable Christian it will get on with; but a Christian is called to be faithful. Remember, the Christian has two natures, and whenever he gets on with the world, it is the Christian who goes to the world, for the world cannot go to the Christian; it has only one nature.

“The carnal mind is enmity against God.” Says the world, We will not have Him. So “He gave Himself to deliver us from this present evil world.” Thus I get the One, the Man that the world rejected, and that God delighted in; and God says, I must carry out My purposes of grace; and to Christ, Come and sit at My right hand till I carry them out. So that is where He is gone, and the world sees Him no more.

Now for the character of sanctification connected with this.

In Israel it was a little different. God was amongst them as a delivered people. He said to them, “Be ye holy, for I am holy"; I will not have you in my camp without holiness. God was there; within the veil certainly; but still He insisted upon it that they were a people whom He had taken to Himself, and that they must behave themselves as such. The veil was there unrent, “the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest"; this characterizing the whole of God's dealings then with man as to the revelation of Himself. He was sitting within the veil; death to any man who came in; even the beast that touched the mount was to be stoned. God was saying, I am so holy that I cannot let anyone come near Me. I will give you laws and promises, but into My presence you cannot come. It is not so now. When Christ died, the veil was rent, and we have “boldness to enter into the holiest.” What was, was that God did not come out to man, and man could not go in to God. Keep the law, and have human righteousness, but still do not come near Me. All this closed in the rejection of Christ. What is, is that the veil is rent from top to bottom, and that the only place I have to walk in is in the light as God is in the light, and if I cannot walk in the light, I cannot walk with God at all. A Christian's place is not that he ought, but that he must walk in the light as God is in the light, or he cannot walk with Him, or in relationship with Him at all, for now there is no veil. We have a title to be in the holiest by the blood that brought us there, and are fit for it as cleansed from all sin, and there is no other place to walk in with God. But we reckon ourselves also dead to sin, to all that is without. This is the very thing that gives us deliverance. I am not in the flesh at all, therefore I can go in with boldness. We then come to what this sanctification is positively. God has personally accepted man in Christ; the Son of God is in the glory. Our actual condition is never spoken of except as being in connection with the Second man in glory; our only connection with God is in Christ; we are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This is not a question of our responsibility; it all depends upon the finished work of the Second man; it rests upon what is done. Christ has obeyed even unto death, and is glorified. As the result of His work, we have been begotten again with the word of truth, we have been made the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, and thus have a new nature. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

[J.N.D.]

(To be continued)

Practical Remarks on Prayer: 1. Expression of Dependence 2. Jesus as a Man of Prayer

I.-The Expression Of Dependence

How blessed is the subject of prayer! And if scripture research can assist the tried and buffeted saint to a better understanding of its principles, and how to utilize it more fully in daily difficulties, how welcome such a result! Let us, then, seek to enter upon the observation of some of the teachings of scripture on this subject. First—prayer is the language of request addressed to God. It is important to distinguish between prayer and worship, though they may both be found together in the same address to God. In worship, we give something to God—our thanksgiving, praise, or adoration. “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15). Praise, then, is an offering, but prayer is a request. The common phrase “offering a prayer” is therefore a mistake. We may offer worship, praise, adoration, thanksgiving. Prayer, however, is not an offering to God, but a request of something from Him. Secondly—prayer is the expression of dependence. Dependence is the due attitude of the creature towards the Creator. God alone is sufficient to Himself. Every creature, whether he know it or not, is really dependent; and prayer, in its foundation principle, is the expression of this dependence. To acknowledge it, is to live in truth; to deny it—to live the prayerless life—is to walk in darkness. Man, as revolted, has lost the sense of dependence upon his Creator. He has slipped his moorings, got away from moral connection with the blessed Center of the universe, and, wandering in sin and darkness, thinks it the finest and grandest thing to be independent. This, the very principle of his life, is a falsity; he “maketh a lie” (Revelation 21:27). It was to a new feature, therefore, in the life of Saul of Tarsus that the Lord directed the attention of Ananias, when, sending him to Saul, He said, “Arise, and go...and inquire... for one called Saul, of Tarsus; for behold, he prayeth” (Acts 9:11). Here was a remarkable thing. Yesterday he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter; now he is upon his knees. Man, in this instance, had got back to his bearings; the creature was humbled before, and reconciled to, his Creator. Thus, prayer is one of the earliest, truest instincts of divine life in man; and in this view it may be said that the first genuine breathing of the soul to God is the beginning of an eternal communion. A stream has started which will flow, and flow forever—like the water which Christ gives the soul, and which is in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Not that this communion or intercourse will always have the character of prayer—that is the form which it takes from the nature of the scene where it occurs—a world of sin and of necessities. In the future scene the language of dependence will not be that of request, for satisfaction will have taken the place of need, and every vessel will be full. As is often sung,

“Hope shall change to glad fruition,

Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.”

But in the present time, and in the place where we are, dependence, really felt, expresses itself in prayer. To be dependent on one who is capricious, or ill-willed, is misery; but to be dependent upon God, whose nature is love, and whose power is limitless—this is happiness!

II-THE LORD JESUS A MAN OF PRAYER

The blessed Son of God, when becoming a man, though not Himself a creature, took so fully man's place of dependence that we find He prayed habitually. “Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervor of His prayer.” Beautiful indications are the prayers of Jesus of the reality of His manhood—He kneels down and prays. Preeminent in all things, He is an example in this. So He entered upon His ministry with prayer (Luke 3:21). And may we not say, as a canon of Christian life, What is begun with prayer will end in praise? It was when praying thus at His baptism that the heavens were opened to Jesus. Prior to choosing apostles He spent the night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12, 13). Again, in Luke 9:18, we find Him “alone praying.” It was “as He prayed” on the mount of Transfiguration that the fashion of His countenance was altered, and He received from God the Father honor and glory. He did not go up to the mountain to be glorified; He went up “to pray,” and was glorified. The object was prayer, the result was glory (Luke 9:28, et seq.).

The principal recorded instances of the Lord's praying appear to be: (1) At His baptism (Luke 3:21). (2) On the first great spread of His fame (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:15, 16). (3) Before choosing the apostles (Luke 6:12). (4) After feeding the five thousand (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46). (5) At the virtual crisis of His testimony, when He forbids His being announced as Messiah, and predicts His death (Luke 9:18). (6) At the transfiguration (Luke 9:28). (7) Occasion not mentioned (Luke 11:1). (8) At the raising of Lazarus (John 11:41). (9) In view of His death (John 12:27). (10) His wonderful prayer to the Father, “The hour is come” (John 17). (11) Intercession for Peter (Luke 22:32). (12) Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-44; Mark 14; Luke 22). (13) Intercession for His murderers (Luke 23:34). (14) At death, commending His spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46).

We see then, that when, in the maturity of manhood, having patiently passed thirty years in privacy, He is at last about to enter on the momentous undertaking of His life, He does so with prayer. “And it came to pass, all the people having been baptized, and Jesus having been baptized and praying, that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon Him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I have found my delight” (Luke 3:21, 22, New Translation).

Following this, He is subjected to the temptation—the Spirit, who has just descended upon Him, leading Him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Emerging victorious, He now, under the Baptist's testimony, becomes the center of gathering, calling upon men to follow Him (Luke 5:11, 27; John 1:43), and exercising authority in bestowing a name upon one of them (John 1:42). He thus formally begins His work and testimony. So far, however, the work is in His own hands alone; the campaign is opened, but is only in its first stage. The field is white unto harvest. Now an important development takes place. There is a night of prayer. “And it came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). The result of this exercise in seen. When it is day He assembles His disciples, and out of them selects twelve to be apostles. He is already Center of gathering, now He becomes Source of mission. The work widens, and, He employs others under Him to carry the testimony throughout the land. Thus, in the record of the Lord's life great occasions are signalized, or brought about, by special prayer. Not only, however, did the Lord pray specially at special crises, but He had a practice. He would go, distinctly and on purpose, to pray. Thus, “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray” (Matthew 14:23). “And it came to pass, as he was alone praying” “And it came to pass about an eighth day after these sayings, he... went up into a mountain to pray” (Luke 9:18, 28). “He went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives... and kneeled down and prayed” (Luke 22:39, 41). Shall we not be gently led by so sweet an example? He had not where to lay His head—but with Him the solitudes of the mountain served for the walls of a closed chamber; and thus, is it not true with regard to prayer, that “Where there is a will, there is a way”?

The Lord is never recorded as praying with His disciples. He taught them to pray. He prayed about them, prayed for them, not with them. For His own position was unique. Our prayers are on the basis of what Christ is for us. He could draw near to God, as qualified in His own person and dignity; we, only in His name. This explains a verse which otherwise would seem a contradiction. “As he was alone praying, his disciples were with him” (Luke 9:18). The disciples were there, but He was “alone praying.” And in Gethsemane He told the disciples to pray; but He, to pray, withdrew from them about a stone's cast (Luke 22:40, 41). This is important, as everything is which affects our thoughts about Christ. Christians sometimes speak of the Lord as “Our Elder Brother,” Scripture never does.

“Ye call me Master and Lord,” He says, “and ye say well, for so I am.” One has even heard him addressed in prayer as “Dear Lord” —a familiarity which is certainly not quite reverent. We cannot exaggerate the grace of Christ towards us, but it has been well said that: “The personal dignity of Christ is never lost in the intensity and tenderness of His love. True saints among the Moravians have called Jesus Brother,' and others have borrowed their hymns, or the expression. The word never says so. He is not ashamed to call us brethren, but it is quite another thing for us to call Him so."

[E. J. T. ]

(To be continued)

Advertising

JUST PUBLISHED

Three Lectures on the Book of Job. By W.K. New

1/6

“Covenant” or “Testament.” By W.K. 2d.

Separation from Evil, God's Principle of Unity. By J.N.D. New Edition... 2d.

Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering. By

J.N.D. New Edition ... •••

Perfection, or Full Growth. By J.N.D. ld.

The Apostleship of Paul. By J. G. Bellett. New

3d.

The Permanence of Divine Things. By W. J. Hocking ld. Notes of Address on Acts 4:23-33, by R. Kerr ...

VICTORIA HALL ADDRESSES

New Series by DR. WREFORD

1.1d. each post free; 12 Copies, 1/-; 100, 6/-; 250, 14/-;

500, 26/-; 1,000, 50/-

No. 1.-” One Wonder Hour by Galilee.”

What is there after Death?”

The Majesty of Suffering.”

The Recompense of Tears.”

Divine Photography.”

The Mother of Our Lord.”

The Biography of a Christian. Others to follow.

1-1

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

Laish

ONE can hardly read the account given us in these chapters, of the movements of the tribe of Dan and of the conduct of the man of mount Ephraim, Micah, without being arrested by the way in which the Holy Spirit describes the whole proceedings. In the book of Judges we read twice, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (17:6; 21:25), and again, twice, “In those days there was no king in Israel” (18:1; 19:1). Were not these days to be deplored? And are not the events here recorded written for our learning, that we may be saved from motives of lawlessness? For “lawlessness” is sin, and, “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4)—this being, what grammarians call, a reciprocal proposition, both clauses being convertible. What can one think of a man stealing eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother, and she cursing about it? but when the son owns to the theft, the mother, instead of rebuking him for what he had done, unconcernedly saying, “Blessed be thou of Jehovah, my son.”

Had she forgotten, “Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7)? Blessing her boy for thieving! And then again, on his restoring the money to his mother, she further says, “I had wholly dedicated the silver unto Jehovah, from my hand, for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image,” in direct contravention of the command, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Can we in any way imagine God accepting aught offered in contravention of His will and word? Yet here we have His name on the lip, and things dedicated to Him for uses which are an abomination in His eyes.

Further, the mother takes two hundred of the silver shekels, and gives “them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image, and a molten image; and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim” —quite a pantheon in its way— “and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.” In process of time, however, “a young man out of Bethlehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite,” comes to Micah's house. In verse 30 (chap. 18.) we read, “Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan,” etc., but if we follow the Revisers (who, supported by Jewish authority, believe the text as we have it here to have been corrupted) we shall read, “Moses,” in place of “Manasseh.” From this it would appear that Jonathan was Moses' grandson, and if so, it marks the conduct of Jonathan in becoming a priest to such a man as Micah all the more sad and reprehensible, for Moses was no idolater, even if Aaron his brother fell into the snare and sin of making the golden calf in the wilderness. This Jonathan then, the grandson of Moses, Micah engages to be to him—for the yearly salary of ten shekels of silver, a suit of apparel, and victuals—a father and a priest, and he consecrates him, saying, “Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.”

What is the sequel? The Danites are seeking an inheritance to dwell in, and send from their family five mighty men to spy out the land, who come to mount Ephraim, to Micah's house. They recognize the voice of the young man the Levite, and learn all about his relations with Micah, and end by requesting him to ask counsel of God, “that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.” It is not recorded whether he did ask counsel, but that he said unto them, “Go in peace; before Jehovah is your way wherein ye go.”

The five men come back and tell the Danites about the people of Laish, and their habits; six hundred girded men go forth to take the place, and on their way they call at the house of Micah. It is instructive to note what they say to their brethren, “Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image?” —evidently things right in their eyes, and to be desired— “now, therefore, consider what ye have to do.” The result of their deliberations was, that despite Micah's remonstrance, they forthwith appropriate all these things, with the young man the Levite, who acquiesces in it all, thinking it better to be a priest unto a family and tribe in Israel than to be so to only one man.

Then they “came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure, and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man” (18:27, 28). A similar description is given in ver. 7 of the same chapter. Do we note what we may reverently call the pitying way in which the Holy Spirit describes this transaction? and have we any such compassionate record of the taking of Jericho and Ai, when Jehovah's commandments were being carried out in the destruction of the inhabitants of these two cities?

Note further, “They built a city and dwelt therein, and they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their father, who was born unto Israel.” Why are we told this? Not indeed because we do not know it well. Are we anywhere else told about the doings of any other of Jacob's offspring in a similar manner? There is then a reason for this remark. And may it not be this—that we could hardly have believed (without the Holy Spirit's assertion) that the descendants of one of Israel's sons could have done such things—things “right in their own eyes”? But what may not a believer do when not following the Lord? “He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Yes, it may even come to that!

How refreshing to turn to Him who could say, “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 1:4); again, “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as Jehovah's servant” (42:19)? And, further, speaking of the Rod out of Jesse's stem, of the Branch out of his roots, and the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon Him, it is written, “And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of Jehovah, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears” (11:3). We read of the Lord's own words as to His Father, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29); also of the Holy Spirit's testimony regarding Jesus, “For even Christ pleased not himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me” (Romans 15:3). And for us it is written, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

May we have grace so to follow Him, for His name's sake! Then we shall neither be found doing, nor shall we want to do, what “is right in our own eyes,” as if we had neither guide nor authority. We have both—the guidance of His Spirit and the authority of His word—for both individual and corporate walk and testimony till Christ comes for His own. “Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” “Yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.” “So run, that ye may obtain.”

W. N. T.

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

“Now the God of peace... make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”

Is There Not a Cause? Part 2

“And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause” (1 Samuel 17:26-29)?

Not only was David blessed and strengthened of God for the service rendered to Israel that day, but through grace he was preserved in a spirit which was altogether excellent. He does not resent the imputation of his elder brother; but conscious of the integrity of his motives, he leaves his character and himself in the hands of God for their due manifestation in God's good time. His strength here, as subsequently in the kingdom, lay in the acknowledgment that Israel was the one nation God had chosen and redeemed for Himself. So, to him, it was not merely the Israelites who had been insulted and defied, but—the “armies of the living God.” And this was faith. Saul; on the other hand, spoke of them after the manner of their enemies—Let “the Hebrews” hear. David takes up the position that God cannot deny Himself. He had pledged His word to the establishment and protection of Israel as a nation, and faith manifested itself in David in the very face of the enemy by the open and public acknowledgment of this truth. God's immutability, and faithfulness to His sure word of promise (Hebrews 6:16-20), has ever been the resting-place for faith amidst all the failures of the creature, “for wherein is he to be accounted of.” So it was in the darkest hours of Israel's history in the past, and so will it justify divine interference in the future. This latter we may see in such scriptures, amongst others, as Zechariah 3; 13; 14

No doubt the portion of scripture we are considering is typical of that final catastrophe of the enemy and decisive victory for God's people when the antitype of David shall suddenly and unexpectedly appear, to the surprise and discomfiture of their enemies, but for the relief of those who have waited for Him. Faith will, alas! be at a very low ebb ("when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"), yet there will be a waiting people (prefigured here by Jonathan) who will say, “Lo this is our God, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” In an evil day faith finds its encouragement in all that God is, and will manifest Himself to be, for His people.

This then was David's answer to the senseless taunt of Eliab. Was there not indeed a ground of action? Israel insulted, the God of Israel defied, the enemy triumphant and blasphemous! Well might David query, “Is there not a cause?” Saul was not equal to such an emergency as this. David takes up the challenge in a simple way, but in the reality of faith, having a clear perception and grasp of divine principles such as evidently impressed even the heart of Saul, who found it easier, no doubt, to bless and encourage another than to go himself. God was making way for His own king; He was introducing him to the nation, but in such a way that faith alone could own him and appreciate his motives. A most severe test had yet to be applied. The man of God will find himself more cast upon God and shut up to Him when the world is generous and patronizing than when he has to encounter its opposition. It is the friendship of the world we have to fear, and its offers of assistance may often have to be refused. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4). Faithfulness to Christ will strengthen the soul against its open attack, and will preserve from its ensnaring influence. The confidence of the man of faith is considered extravagant and without foundation in the eyes of the worldly wise. It is beautiful to see the youthful David, a vessel in course of preparation for the honorable position he was destined to fill, brushing aside one difficulty after another—the contempt of his brethren, the abject terror of Israel, the arrogant boast of his contemptuous opponent, the fear and unbelief of Saul—finally clearing himself of the last vestige of fleshly confidence and standing on the only safe ground of faith.

“And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him” (vers. 38, 39). “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will Jehovah deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that Jehovah saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is Jehovah's, and he will give you into our hands” (vers. 45-47).

There is no doubt that the pretended kindness of Saul concealed a real and dangerous snare of the enemy, for God's purpose had been openly declared (chaps. 13:14; 15:28). It was within the knowledge of Satan, who sought in every possible way to corrupt the man after God's own heart, so as to bring about, if possible, his downfall, or at least to compromise him at the very commencement by committing him to human principles, expediency, and worldly methods. Saul could then have said, It was my armor and my sword that was superior to the armor and the sword of the Philistine. But God watched over His servant who trusted Him, and overruled all, so that a blessed experience of the faithfulness and power of God was stored up in David's soul to find expression at the right moment in worship of God, in and for Israel's instruction and edification. This we see in David's song of praise (2 Samuel 22). “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried; he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. For who is God, save Jehovah? and who is a rock, save our God? God is my strength and power, and he maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation; and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued my enemies, and destroyed them: and turned not again until I had consumed them; and I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle; them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me” (vers. 31-40).

The lesson for us is singularly appropriate in the present day, when man and his doings occupy such a large place, and faith and obedience are so little thought of. It was not that David despised any reasonable precaution or instrumentality—even the sword of Goliath had its use, “There is none like that; give it me.” But the best service we can render to God and His people, when His word has lost its value in the eyes of professors, and is in danger of losing its authority over the hearts of His own, is to contend earnestly (as Jude writes) for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. By a self-sufficient world, intoxicated with its brilliant discoveries and its imaginary knowledge, the word of God may be treated as antiquated and obsolete, but our wisdom and duty is to maintain its divine authority and sufficiency both for faith and practice, whatever may be the claims of anything new either in doctrine or methods of service. “Every scripture is given by inspiration of God ["who cannot lie”], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” Here is the divine competency of God's word for every good work. And “if a man therefore purge himself from these [vessels to dishonor], he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2:21). David could say with regard to Saul's resources,

“I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them.” All that is worth doing is what God approves and commends to us in His word; it is proved also in the experience of all Christ's faithful servants. May we then “hold fast that which is good; abiding in the things which we have learned, and of which we have been fully persuaded, knowing of whom we have learned them. For evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” “We are of God,” says the apostle; “he that knoweth God, heareth us [the apostles]; he that is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”

G. S. B.

(Concluded from page 325)

Christ the Life: Part 2

But let us go back to a Sabbath-day at Nazareth, when our Lord went into the synagogue, and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him, and He read those blessed words of chap. 61, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,” etc. He declared that this prophecy was that day fulfilled in their ears, stopping short in the middle of our verse 2, the point then accomplishing, as distinct from the future “day of vengeance of our God” ; for when He had read so far, He shut the book and sat down, with words of grace to all. Did He speak the truth? A great deal turns on this for your souls. Was He really the One foretold by the Spirit of Jehovah, the One that God the Father had sealed? If so, your salvation turns on Him. Do not say that words of grace are hard. What? hard to be saved by God, according to the fullness of His mercy in Christ! The same Lord that saves now will be the judge by-and-by. God “hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained,” the same Jesus whom God hath raised from the dead. It is proof to all. Either you are in Him now, or you must stand before Him then as your judge.

Remember that, when you stand before Him as your judge, there will then be no salvation. He went down into death to bear the judgment of every one that believes on Him. Was not this infinite love? Yes; but it was more, it was righteousness. It was not by power that He met the judgment due to sinners; it was by suffering. He suffered, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. This explains the way, certainty, and fullness of salvation, which would be all a myth if He were not God as well as man. There is nothing that binds all the truth together if He be not Emmanuel, God with us. The Jews will by-and-by be gathered in a different way, but it will be faith in the same person. There is no gospel that is not grounded on Him as the sacrifice, yet a divine Person; for if He were not also a man, He could not reach me. Jesus, then, came and lived a man that He might do the will of God. What was that life? He lived on account of the Father (John 6:57). It showed itself in unwavering subjection and constant obedience. No man ever has capacity for obedience until he becomes a partaker of that life. Without this life no man can please God in the walk of faith now, or stand in the presence of God; therefore it is of the deepest necessity.

“In this was manifested the love of God.” Is it because He gave the law? No; for this brought in nothing but condemnation on guilty man. Although the law was in itself righteous, at best it made men feel their state. Love was “because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him,” and this brings out the glory of His person. He was the Son of God, above, outside, and beyond all else, both the Increate and the Creator, the eternal Word of God; and the Father would have it known. It was necessary that the testimony should go forth, if man was to live God-ward and be blessed.

And what was the purpose for which this only-begotten Son was sent? “That we might live through him.” We were hateful, and hating, serving divers lusts and pleasures, disobedient, living to ourselves. It was nothing but sin; whenever we do our own will, we sin. Being born thus, we go on accordingly; and what will be the end of it? God's glory? or exclusion from Him, eternal punishment? Ah! we want a new life. Where shall we find it? Not in Adam, but in Christ.

Adam only transmitted his own fallen nature; but in Christ we have One who only did His Father's will, and He is a life-giving Spirit—the Head of a new family. Look thus to Him and live. God declares, that whosoever believes in Him hath everlasting life, and shall be saved. What grace! And this is the sure but the only way. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

The question, then, resolves itself into this, Do I prefer my own thoughts, or the word of God? Are you now trusting in yourself, or confiding in Him? You ought to know; for if depending on your efforts, you are trusting a most miserable and broken reed. God bids me believe on Him, the only-begotten Son. Is Christ not worthy? Is God not true? He sent His Son into the world for the express purpose that we who believe might have life. Even supposing I show a desire to read His word, to pray to Him, and to do His will, what is to become of all the evil I have done, and the evil which alas! even as a believer I still feel within, and I may still fall into? For I have within me, that is, in the flesh or old nature, the tendency to pride, vanity, selfishness, self-will, temper, etc. How is a soul to be kept from yielding to these? Have you the power because you are converted? Conversion means the turning to God in your heart, mind, and ways, instead of to yourself. But what is to be done with these evil things, not only before, but after conversion, if we fall at times into them? The new life shows itself in dependence on God; and is there anything more suited to man than to look up to God? But with a bad conscience, how can one do so? In the misery of such a state, one is glad of anything that shuts out God—that keeps one from thinking of oneself and of Him.

But the grace of God has provided a remedy in the blood of Christ. The atoning work is done; but the truth is that naturally people do not want to be saved all at once. They would like to go on with the world a little longer. How deeply we need the life of Christ, in order that we may live to God, just as much as His death that our sins may be blotted out! If it were your death for your sins, you were lost forever; if His, and you believe in Him, how blessed! He, the Eternal Life, came to die atoningly; He became a man in order that He might die for our sins. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He became a man, not only that I might partake of this life, eternal life in Him, but that He might die to take away my sins. It is God's testimony about His Son; it is His declaration of Himself, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” Life is given me now in this world that I may live the life of Christ, and not according to my own old life.

The moment we have life in Christ, we have a divine sense of our sins as hateful and intolerable. You know that all you have been doing has its spring in self, in nature. But if you receive the new life, you have also in Him the efficacy of His death to meet your sins; and this is salvation. It is sad shortcoming to preach only the death and not also the life of Christ, to be satisfied with merely showing how sins may be forgiven by the blood, without a word about life in Him. It looks like man taking only what man wants; the negative relief of what clears conscience, not the positive devotedness to God. But this is not enough for the saint, still less for the glory of God. We cannot have part of the blessing, but a whole Christ. God's will is, that every believer should live in and of this new life; that is, the life of every soul who is born again. God is better to Him than his own thoughts. The truth is that it is Christ, and not his own notions, or even conscience, that he must rest on by faith. Endued with natural life as a son of Adam, the believer has just as truly a new divine life in Christ. Is it possible to lose this new life? It is eternal life. What does “eternal” mean? But it is possible and easy to lose the joy of this life.

It is of all moment for a believer to distrust himself; but it is a wrong to God and His word, as well as weakness to self, to doubt His faithfulness, or that Christ's life does not stand forever. If the new life in any way depended on himself, he must soon fall away into irreparable ruin. People talk of “the perseverance of the saints,” as if it were they who held fast, whereas it is really they who are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” It is not then my perseverance, but divine power, that keeps me through faith.

Do you think that God does not look in compassion on the guilty sinner? Come then in the name of Jesus to Him, and confess your sins without extenuation or palliation as you could to none other. Already does He know the very worst of us. I can tell it all out to God, and even this is no small blessing to my soul, for then, for the first time, one becomes really honest, “without guile,” as says Psalm 32 I need have no reserve, I can or would not keep hack anything from God. Why should I wish it when there is this precious blood and water from the Savior's side, a Savior for all that come, who “suffered once for sins, just for unjust, that he might bring us to God”? This is the word that I would leave with you. How plain it is that the whole practical walk of believers flows from life in Christ, and is based for their peace on the blessed fact that they have been brought to God. The death of Christ takes away my guilt and bonds; but what is to be the spring of new life? How am I to mortify my old life? You may tell the old man to die, but it does not wish to die. God declares that He has given me, if a believer, another nature, new life in Christ. Nicodemus had to learn that he needed to be born afresh, not only to hear what Jesus had to teach. You may be sure that, when a soul really goes to God for its wants, He always receives through the Lord Jesus; whenever a soul asks, in faith, God fails not to give. Grace never sends empty away.

Where is the man who looked to Christ and did not find Him? Does He not say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”? He is the only way of deliverance from all danger, evil, and sin; His blood, if you believe, brings you now to God without a stain upon you. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” If you have Him you have life in Him. Mere nature is incapable of pleasing God. Faith is the means of life, pardon, peace, strength, everything for the needy; and faith lays hold of what God says and does and gives in Christ, and it is the Spirit of truth which produces faith by our hearing the word. Thus we see the importance of the Spirit applying the word to our souls. But all-important as both the word and the Spirit are, neither could avail for the soul without Christ for life, and Christ's death to take away our sins.

W. K.

(Concluded from page 331)

Sanctification: Part 2

Now this new nature must have an object, and God has given it one that is not in this world at all. There is not a single thing in this world that will not unsanctify us if we go after it. Sanctification is all connected with Christ in glory. The whole thing is new; the nature, the character, the object by which we are sanctified through the Holy Ghost, is outside the world entirely. The work being fully accomplished, the Holy Ghost comes down and says, Now the world is done with, and if you do not come out of it in body, be out of it, and in heaven, in spirit. I have come down purposely to connect you with One outside it. The object before us is a glorified Christ; He is our life: we are “created in Christ Jesus.” The believer has duties here, and is not taken out of the world; but his life is wholly connected with Christ at the right hand of God, and everything that diminishes our perception of Him there diminishes our practical sanctification here.

Our testimony is that the Man whom the world rejected is at God's right hand. Where the gospel begins is (not with Christ come into the world, great as was the grace and love shown in that to win man's heart, and to which he turns to feed on with delight when saved, but) with Christ turned out of it. The world rejected Him, and God took Him up into heaven and made Him there the head of the new creation, and we are to be conformed to it. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” “Sons of God “; we have the title of Christ: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” This was never said before redemption.

And just mark how the apostle identifies us with Christ; “the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” He completely associates us with a rejected Christ down here. “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be” —we have the treasure in poor earthly vessels now; “but we know” —we are so identified with Christ— “that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is “up there in glory. We shall never see Him as He was down here in humiliation, but in glory we shall see Him as He is.

And now, what is the effect of this? “Every man that hath this hope on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” I see the work of redemption accomplished; I see Christ at the right hand of God; that is the Man I am connected with; and as to this first Adam, I must reckon it dead; it is enmity with God, and I am not in it though it he in me. When we look at our portion, it is that “we are sons of God, and ... when he shall appear we shall be like him.” That is the Christian hope, beloved friends, and the only thing that there is for the Christian's heart.

He “purifieth himself even as he is pure.” I can never be as He was, for He never had any sin in His nature; but I am going to be perfectly like Him. Thus I may do without all the notions of men as to perfection in this world; these are a mere delusion from beginning to end, for it is a glorified Christ we are going to be like, and no other Christ. He does not say we are to be pure as Adam was.

And why purify myself? Because I am not pure, and therefore I must purify myself. He does not say, pure as He is pure. But He is the standard by which I purify myself—Christ, as He is, there above. I am to be like Him, and the life I have of Him can never be satisfied till then. I have ever to purify myself.

You may find other passages on the subject, but there is no other way of looking at sanctification in scripture. There is no setting apart to God except in the Second man. It is, “Beholding with open [unveiled] face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” Into what image? Why, the image of the One I am looking at—Christ in glory. We have it expressed in three ways: “Beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord"; then “the glory of Christ who is the image of God"; and then “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When I come to associate it with man, I must get it as it is in Him up there. If I say, Where am I to look at God's holiness in a man? I answer, In Christ in glory. He was the Holy One and walked according to the Spirit of holiness down here, and I am to walk as He walked; but that by which the Holy Ghost works this in us is by looking at the glorified Christ up there; by having an object and a motive up there which takes my heart out of all that is here, as His was who walked through the world, as I have to do. I am going to be with Him and like Him. A man who, in heart, is not only with God and for God, but even now an imitator of God as a dear child—that is Christian sanctification.

And as when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, and we purify ourselves now as He is pure; our holiness, our walk now, is referred to that day in 1 Thessalonians. His coming runs through all our relationships here, and then as to holiness it says, “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we do toward you; to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father” —when? In our walk down here, of course, people say. But it is not so put. It is “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” It is quite true the work in us is to purify ourselves as He is; but it is to be “unblameable in holiness” when He appears. Of course, if we are sincere, we purify ourselves now as He is; but God has taken man clean out of this world as to his living associations and his conversation, and “when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.”

What a blessed calling is ours! all connected with a glorified Christ—a Christ that the world has rejected; with a holy nature, born of God, and as an object for this life, He has given you the glorified Christ, the Son of God. God, even in this way, is making you partakers of His holiness. You say, But I must get this holiness formed perfectly in a man to know its true character. You have got it in Christ up there. Now let us turn back to the chapter we read, and you will find it there.

It puts us in Christ's place before God—before the Father, more strictly—and into Christ's place before the world. The first verse begins by bringing in the Father's name, Christ on high after finishing the work, and then the disciples are placed before the Father too, His name being manifested to them. “Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son.” The verse beginning “Now come I to thee,” closes the first part. Then He says, “I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This is our place. In the thoughts and mind of God we do not belong to the world at all. Christ tested it in every way, and never found, except in a poor woman who anointed Him at Bethany, a single comforter or capacity for sympathy in others, not even in His disciples.

How then am I to be set apart in the world? If I have nothing wholly outside it, my leaving particular evils comes to giving up one thing and taking to another; but getting something that is outside of it delivers me wholly from its power.

Let us keep to the word of God. The word of God is the word of God; it “discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Men, when reasoning against the truth, will reject the word of God; they will reject its authority, and say, Do not quote the Bible to me. It is just as if, when I have a fine-tempered sword in my hand, they should tell me not to use it. When you meet with cavilers, the only way is to use the word, and you will find that it does detect. Just use the word, and you will be astonished to see how they come out with all their rationalism and infidelity.

But to turn to it now. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Well, He says, “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” This is just what Christ the blessed Son of God was; He was the truth itself, and the truth perfectly suited to man's heart and conscience. This is what the word of God does, looked at as a means. The Father's word brings the truth into my heart, and searches it, and detects everything that is there; it comes as a light and shows everything there that is not of the new creation. And it does so by revealing what is up there. The law did not do this; it came and claimed from man what man ought to be down here; no murdering, no stealing, and, besides this, condemning lust. It takes man as man, and says, That is what man ought to be. But this is not what we have got in Christ. What we have in the truth in Him is the bringing of what is heavenly down to a quickened soul, the bringing down to it all that is in God's mind about itself. It is set apart to God by the revelation of what is heavenly, what is in Christ above, and judges thus all that is not. They were believers, and now He is looking for them to be sanctified, and that is done by sheaving them what is heavenly, associating them with what is in Him above by the Father's word.

“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” To carry what? The manifestation of Christ revealed by the Father's word. I cannot be sent into the world if I am in it and of it, nor can I go there as sent by Christ, but as I am fully associated with Him in the spirit of my mind. He says, I send them into the world as Thou hast sent Me. What does that tell us of their mission?

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified by the truth.” He is set apart as the Man of God's counsels and heart, as Man in glory. Nay, He says, I set Myself apart; and the Holy Ghost brings the knowledge of it down, and, by the communication of Christ in glory, makes me more like Him every day. He says, You must not have a motive that is not drawn from Me in heaven. All sanctification is referred to being like Him there, kept by the Holy Father to walk as He walked down here before His Father.

Whilst it is, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me,” it is, “Righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.” It is very solemn. He appeals to the Father as against the world. It is lying in wickedness. Meanwhile, Christ “is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” “Imputed” cannot be applied to all these words. If to any, it is not the subject of this text. People talk of “imputed sanctification “; how about imputed redemption? What does that mean? I hope we shall get more than imputed redemption on going into glory! It is the kind and measure and standard of these things, and that is Christ, and He made them of God to us. It is a question of partaking in God's holiness. The world has rejected the Son of God. Up to the cross it was proved that nothing could win man's heart; he must be born again; and now, being born again, I am associated with Christ. I am going to be in the same glory that He is in, and I am going on until I get there, purifying myself as He is pure. Then I shall see Him as He is, and he like Him. The world we are naturally of has rejected the Son of God, and the associations of the believer are with a glorified Christ, waiting till He comes to take him home. God has sanctified us to Him by the blood of Christ.

J. N. D.

(Concluded from page 330)

Practical Remarks on Prayer: 3. The Prayers of Saints

Ill.—The Prayers Of Saints

I. The Prayer-Meeting.—Christian, you perhaps think little of your prayers. God does not. Cornelius was a man devout and prayerful. He “prayed to God alway"; but, while praying on in patience, probably little thought that one day an angel would be sent to tell him, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:2-4). But if you wish God's estimate of His people's prayers, see Revelation 5:8: “The four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” That is what they are. Golden bowls contain them; they are as the fragrance of incense before the throne of God. Think of a prayer-meeting! Could the exercises of the saints be made visible you would see the odors ascending to God's presence. The room and the surroundings may be mean, but if the hearts are full of Christ, St. Peter's at Rome, with all its grandeur, can present nothing so fine. Those humblings of soul in prayer; those addresses of faith to God; the workings of hearts inwrought by the Spirit Himself, though invisible, are momentous: they are fraught with consequences which reach forth into eternity. Such is real prayer. Who that could be present would be absent from such a scene, and lose the privilege of a part in its activities?

It is possible that some, and that even amongst instructed Christians, have not quite a correct sense of the rank of the prayer-meeting, regarding it as rather subordinate. Many who would feel condemned in their conscience at absence from the Lord's Supper look upon attendance at the prayer-meeting as optional. But they have not noticed that the promise to be with two or three gathered to His name is, in scripture, specifically attached to prayer. Often as that promise is quoted, its connection with prayer and the prayer-meeting is almost overlooked. But verse 20 of Matthew 18 is really the validating principle of verses 18 and 19. Thus:-

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (ver. 15).

“Again I say unto you, That if two or you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (ver. 19).

“For where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them” (ver. 20).

On this let us note that (1) The promise about agreeing in prayer is linked by the conjunction “For” with the presence of Christ in the midst of two or three. It therefore does not relate, as often supposed, to an agreement of two isolated Christians to pray about a mutual subject when apart from each other. The common application really diverts the scripture from its specific object, which is to show the special honor and efficacy which are attached to united prayer. It applies to two or three gathered together to Christ's name, and if they, though only two, are in real spiritual agreement in which they approach the Father, their prayer is successful (ver. 19).

The Lord, therefore, is in the midst at the prayer-meeting as well as at the breaking of bread. Important fact! Possibly my reader has not looked at the prayer-meeting in this light. Many esteem it as merely a means of spiritual comfort and communion, one of many ways of gaining profit to our souls; and therefore omit attending it or not, according as they are disposed. But the Lord is there! Were the Prince of Wales announced to be at a meeting in London, what activity would be displayed, what effort to be present! The subject-matter would, by the very fact, acquire a new importance. Persons who would not have troubled about attending, are now found quite zealous, and see a significance in the subject which they never saw before. But what is prince or king to the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is present with the gathering to His Name?

The Lord being present, then, the prayer-meeting ranks as an assembly-meeting of the first order, second only to the Lord's Supper. So it is placed, in the divine record of what characterized the first company of the church. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). At a lecture, a gospel-preaching, etc., the Lord may be with His servant who speaks His word, and all present may share the blessing; but He is not with the company, even if consisting of saints, in exactly the sense in which He is with an assembly of only two or three simply gathered together unto His Name.

This presence of the Lord both in the prayer-meeting as well as other meetings, is a matter about which many are obscure. Some confuse it with the presence of the Holy Ghost—but that is a different thing. The Holy Ghost does dwell in the assembly, as well as in the body of each individual believer. He does so permanently. But what is stated in Matthew 18:20 is not a permanent indwelling. It is a presence under conditions, namely, two or three being there, and they being gathered to His Name. Further, it is the presence of the Lord Himself that is guaranteed. “But,” it will be said, “Jesus is in heaven.” Yes, corporeally He is there—blessed be His Name!—but divinely He is with us here. He is the One who could say even in His days upon earth, “The Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). And if He was divinely in heaven while corporeally on earth; so now He is divinely with the two or three on earth, though corporeally in heaven.

The presence of the Lord in the midst draws out the specific affections of the saints for Himself. For as there are distinct persons in the Godhead, so the new nature in us has feelings and affections appropriate to each. When we think of the Father, we think of the infinite, uncaused, love in which He gave the Son for us. We think of the One who has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father who Himself loveth us because we have loved Jesus, and have believed that He came out from God. And when we think of Christ in our midst, it is of that Person in the Godhead who became incarnate; who so loved us as to give Himself for us, who loved us unto death. The Holy Ghost present with us indeed gives us the spiritual apprehension of all this. He brings before our souls the things of Christ (John 16:13-15), but the Person in our midst is the One who died for us. He, though waiting on the Father's throne, still so yearns over those whom He purchased with His blood, that where, in any quarter or corner of the globe, two or three are gathered to His Name, there is He in the midst. Would the Christian willingly be absent when the Lord is present? In this matter have we not sinned through lack of thought, or non-apprehension of what the prayer-meeting really is?

II. Individual Prayer.—Scarcely less important than united, is individual, prayer. It holds a remarkable place in the divine actings in the world. Abraham prayed for the cities of the plain—a beautiful model of reverential yet earnest pleading with God. “But Abraham stood yet before Jehovah. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:22-25). As a consequence of his intercession he obtains the promise that the city should be spared if only ten righteous were found in it, and though that number was not found, Jehovah accedes to His servant's plea for the righteous who might be there, and so the safety of Lot is provided for before ever judgment is allowed to descend upon the city. Again, to the king of Gerar it is announced, as a divine favor, that Abraham should pray for him (Genesis 20:7). Indeed this intercessory prayer is an important piece in the machinery of God's proceedings.

Daniel was qualified for intercessory prayer by the purity of his own ways. He is one of three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, whom Jehovah Himself selected as eminent in righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14). The testimony of his enemies was, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God” (Daniel 7:4, 5); and, in a foreign land, amidst foes and snares, his practice was to pray. “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God” (ver. 10). How precious are the exercises of such a soul! No cloud in his own relationship with God—he is free to intercede for the state of God's people—a type in this of the great Intercessor. Hence we have the prayer and confession of Daniel 9: “I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayers and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes; and I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made my confession and said,” etc. (vers. 3, 4).

It is interesting to see that Daniel was heard as soon as he set himself to pray, although his prayer was not answered for some time afterward. “Fear not Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words” (chap. 10:12).

So another testifies: “I cried unto Jehovah with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill” (Psalm 3:4). Again, “I sought Jehovah, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4). Fellow-believer, the same is our privilege! Such is “the boldness?” we have towards Him, that “if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). This involves brokenness of our own wills, spirituality; without which our thoughts and feelings do not move in the line of His will. There has been One who could say, without limitation, “Father,... thou hearest me always” (John 11:41, 42).

But Daniel's prayer, in the ninth chapter of his book, and Abraham's prayer, though individual, were in a certain sense public. That is to say, they were not about the private history, or the personal wants, of either Daniel or Abraham. Their subject matter was public. Daniel's prayer had reference to the fallen state of Israel as God's people, and to God's interests as bound up with them. Likewise Abraham's prayer had no relation to Abraham's own wants. He was secure from the judgments about to fall upon the wicked, but he pleads earnestly for the righteous who were intermingled with them and in danger of sharing their judgment. So, too, as to Paul's prayers in Ephesians, chaps 1, 3. They were individual prayers, but their scope and object were God's glory and Christ's interests in the church. This is a high order of prayer: that is, where a servant of the Lord is abstracted from private or personal needs, and is earnestly concerned about Christ's interests in His people. Indeed, Paul's prayers for the saints in Ephesians 1 and 3 were a reproduction in his measure, and so far as regarded the church, of the prayer and desires of the Lord Himself in John 17.

But there is another field and class of prayer equally divine in authorization, but which though not so lofty in scope, is more tender; has to do with smaller and more human, or everyday concerns. For the believer is privileged to have communion with God about the whole of his private and personal affairs. Thus: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:6, 7). “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6). “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Now, many Christians have a feeling that it is scarcely legitimate to expect that God would condescend to the small and petty affairs of our life. As in the case of some great dignitary amongst men, they feel as though they could not presume to trouble Him with their personal concerns. The thought may not be quite definite, and they would shrink from expressing it. But it lingers in the mind sufficiently to create hesitation and doubtfulness in prayer. It is important, therefore, to see that we have in these scriptures ample warrant for regarding the whole interior of the life of a Christian, as under the purview of our God and Father. Is some item too small to be brought to Him in prayer? Is it too purely personal, too exclusively our own, for Him to consider? What stronger expression could the Lord employ to disabuse us of the notion, and to encourage confidence, than that the very hairs of our head are all numbered? Have we the feeling that some things we can take to God, but that some things we cannot? The scripture says, “In everything by prayer and supplication.” Have we a request, as to which we have no strong confidence that it is according to His mind? Well, we can at least make it known to God, and the result for our souls when we leave it with Him will be “peace” —the request being submissively laid before Him, His peace will keep both heart and mind through Christ Jesus, and we can then be content, whether we have our petition or not.

It may be that we are in circumstances which our own wrong-doing has brought us into, and that we justly dread the consequences. Even that we can take to God, if we have sincerely confessed our sin; and all the anxiety of it, all the care, we may cast upon Him— “casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” The case of Jacob and Esau is an illustration of how God can, and will, turn for us dreaded events into blessing, when we in brokenness wait upon Him. Jacob had deeply wronged Esau, and now, after years of separation, he has to face him; the brothers are about to meet (Genesis 32). Jacob's conscience naturally makes him fear the resentment of Esau, who he learns is coming to meet him with four hundred men. But he lays it before God in prayer (ver. 11), with the marvelous result that the man whose vengeance he feared, “ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept"!

Thus God is the refuge of the soul at all times. Blessed is prayer which is the outcome of an upright walk; but even when the fruits of our evil doings are springing up, yet if we are the Lord's, and have truly judged the evil of our ways, we may safely leave, in peace, all consequences to Him.

Individual, secret prayer and communion with God constitute the foundation of all godliness. Neither the prayer-meeting nor the Lord's service is a substitute for them. They are the safeguard of the soul; where they fail, a fall is not far off.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

The So-Called Apostles' Creed: Part 1

Not long ago a writer, while reviewing a certain religious movement, made use of a striking metaphor. The religious movement in question, he remarked, especially when its relation to modern conditions was taken into account, reminded him of a phenomenon of nature occasionally observed—an iceberg in mid-Atlantic. In speaking of the Church of Rome and its present troubles, as the reviewer did, he could recollect no more fitting parallel than this great grand iceberg, floating far south, far from its native arctic home, and melting away in an uncongenial climate. “The majestic frozen mass, detached from some arctic continent, not without a symmetry and beauty of its own, is, after all, but a fragment of a dead world. Ghost-like, a peril to mariners, it towers over the waves that wash its base, its peaks glitter in the sunlight, its cliffs reflect the blue of sea and sky. And all the while the process of undermining goes on; the frozen mass encounters kindlier currents; the temperature rises; a little sooner, a little later it may be, there can be but one end.”

To many, perhaps, it will occur that a like figure of speech might in some measure apply to the matter spoken of in the above title. Just such another iceberg, a portion, perhaps, of the same floe, that ancient document, the Apostles' Creed, may seem to be. It does not belong to our time. Antiquity is claimed for it, and the claim, whatever it is, worth, may be granted so far. It has floated down the centuries to us, a relic of the past, and appears among us to-day in surroundings far from congenial. The kindlier currents, the temperate zone of our present-day theology, might seem as little fitting, as disastrous eventually, to the one as to the other.

The whole question of creeds, articles, and confessions of faith is an interesting one. From a non-theological standpoint even, if in reality one can assume such detachment, it is so to-day. In that theological world where such unsettled conditions prevail at present, ideas are afloat in high quarters, and habits of thought are being engendered lower down which call attention to such documents in an altogether new way. These habits of thought spoken of beget an attitude which, at least to observers not immediately concerned, appears to be one of disloyalty to constitutional standards. The ideas abroad at all events must make it difficult for those who hold them to reconcile their retention with a reputation for orthodoxy. On the other hand, fast and far as these ideas seem in themselves likely to carry the honest and sincere, however mistaken, thinker, in many quarters, undeniably a certain measure of caution is observed in their application. And no doubt this moderation is imposed, if for one reason more than another, by the conserving influence of church standards of doctrine. That such formularies do prove a check is notorious; but they are not an insuperable barrier by any means. The modern speculative spirit, “free reverent inquiry,” as it is called, is not seldom combined with not a little genius for evading unpleasant issues. The Scylla of “timid orthodoxy,” and the Charybdis of pure rationalism can both be avoided by the skilful navigators at the wheel, and their ecclesiastical statesmanship or diplomacy can be depended upon to provide expedients for relieving tender consciences from any qualms as to the course being steered.

Now, when one reads and hears of the desperate shifts made by many to square their new beliefs, or hypotheses rather, with the articles under which their particular ecclesiastical bodies are chartered legally to conduct religious business, professions also to which they themselves, as a matter of personal conviction, may rightly be held, since they have voluntarily subscribed to them, one cannot but find some justice, as well as perhaps cynical humor, in the remark that the chief thing theologians have acquired under our modern conception of the sacred liberty of religious belief appears to be a wonderful capacity for intellectual “wriggling.”

At the same time a more painful sentiment arises when one considers that this rationalistic movement is more than mere retrogression, more or less apologized for, from constitutional standards, more than mere surrender, piecemeal though it is, of the articles of a creed: there is evident and unabashed departure from the scripture revelation. The first, serious enough though it is, might be left to religious leaders, in touch with the modern spirit, themselves to settle, without calling for comment from ordinary Christians, who have learned their little all from Scripture, and would find theology, as one has said, a kind of Saul's armor. It may very truly be the case in fact, that, in intruding upon such a subject at all, plain people seem to presume over much. “Set them to judge who are of no account in the church,” said the apostle in another connection, and it may be we are simply carrying into literal practice in another sphere his ironical injunction. Let it be so. The apparent absence of the “one wise man to decide,” shall not that be our excuse?

What is painful, however, even to those who set little value by formal human confessions of faith, is that they cannot but recognize that, in general, the real ground on which creeds are being relinquished, the objectionable feature found in them is just exactly what truth they do contain. Without a doubt in all creeds there are things which fuller spiritual knowledge shows to be defective, if not erroneous. Blind veneration for antiquity puts false value upon these (for their time) wonderful manifestoes of Christian belief, when it erects them into unchanging standards of faith; but the spirit which can with so little compunction, so little respect, throw them overboard as antiquated and worthless is far from praiseworthy. It is no question with us then of liberal or conservative theology, but of truth as a vital thing, of truth, as we might describe it, as the basis of faith and the sustenance of spiritual life, not to mention its general relation to men at large as the most important ingredient of the moral atmosphere. And theological systems, air-tight compartments as they are, do not provide ideal conditions for either the conservation or the dissemination of the truth. Creeds are altogether suspicious things. Not that in a creed there is anything wrong in itself, if by it we mean merely the sum of that which we have learned from Scripture. Have we not all, in fact, some such creed, not necessarily explicit? And if able to state clearly the main distinctive lines of the truth we possess, not as setting limits thereby, it may be of no small help to ourselves in aiding us to organize our knowledge and rightly divide the word of truth.

Nor need it be doubted that in periods of church history, as remote in character as in time from our own, in the providence of God, a creed may have provided just such a medium of confessing the truth as seems necessary, if not indispensable, to the occasion. All this may be allowed without in any degree endorsing the popular idea of its true function. The truth is neither dependent upon a creed for its definite grasp and statement, nor obliged to be so embodied ere it is fit for the purpose of being a clear test. The former especially may be, in measure, a commendable practice today, the having and holding a clear idea or record of our convictions. But the inevitable evil of forms is apt to follow here also. The very process of giving the truth a form in the faulty expression of which alone we are capable, deducts from its truth and value. As one has said also, “Supposing everything was right that was there, it is like a made tree, instead of a growing tree.” Any “declaration of the things most surely believed among us,” also, however accredited by tradition, must in the last resort give way before the inspired record itself. “The faith once delivered unto the saints” should mark our boundaries, and constitute what alone we shall make ourselves answerable for. It is that also for which we are exhorted to contend.

In most cases to-day, unfortunately, the real subject of contention is something entirely different. There is, in fact, so much confusion about this whole matter-of the relation between a church and its doctrine-that one cannot very clearly see what the controversy is. In one sense no doubt the issue at stake is still a simple one, is still the same. It is the old conflict between truth and error that is being waged. But when the question comes to be what the truth is for which we are to contend; how distinguish it from error; where precisely is the standard to which appeal can be made, we are met with different conceptions of what “the faith” can mean. That the word of God gives it in finality, reveals and states it in a form, in the form, most fitting for such appeal, is apparently not thought of. Is it not the case that, in Christian apologetics, the whole field over to-day—from the Modernist controversy in the church of Rome to the smallest Presbyterian congregation belatedly discussing Higher Criticism—from the conservative side the appeal invariably is, not to the scriptures, but to some one or other of those statements of Christian doctrine which have been drawn out at various times in the past? Add to this the fact that, while from the liberal side again there is the plea for a restatement in terms suited to modern thought, there are those also who (problem though they confess it to be), in the interests of supposed theological consistency which recent developments have shown to be of some importance legally, endeavor amicably to adjust the relation between their church and a confession they believe to be lying far astern of her life and thought. Some idea may then be had of how involved and intricate a matter this of church and creed has become.

In this connection take Scottish Presbyterianism. It is well known that in the Scottish Establishment for at least the last twenty years the movement for creed relaxation and revision has been gathering force. This is not to be wondered at when the progress she has made on modern lines in the matter of doctrine is taken into account. There is certainly no more striking instance of the essentially revolutionary character of modern theological thought than in what has occurred within the last generation here, in its meeting with the strong, high Calvinism which is proverbially characteristic of the Church of Scotland. The Westminster Confession of Faith is, of course, that with which she is officially identified, each clergyman on ordination making profession of adherence to it in the words of a formula compiled for that express purpose. Now, it would seem an easy enough thing to substitute for the antiquated confession “a simple creed representing the best in theological thought as modified by modern contributions.” But, as one has recently complained, under the Establishment they are “deprived of doctrinal autonomy.” This want of the power of doctrinal initiative, much grieved over, has, up till now, been a serious check on the movement. “Advantage was taken of the abnormal political and ecclesiastical situation of 1905 to obtain from the State the right,” not of altering the confession, but “of prescribing the formula of subscription” to it. This somewhat Jesuitical loophole, as some have thought it, is so far scarcely proving successful, and “as no alteration was thereby effected in the Act of 1690, on which the Establishment is based, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the relief supposed to be gained is only of a nominal nature.” What else but nominal could the relief be in the nature of the case? A church has reason to be dissatisfied with that body of doctrine with which nominally it is identified. What then? Transform the nominal into the actual by revising the creed its teachers profess? Verily no; but rather substitute the nominal for the actual in the terms of their subscription to it. Whatever ingenuity the scheme may have to commend it, there is probably too strong a suspicion of careful juggling about it to give satisfactory relief to conscientious people. Apart from actual release from the doctrinal control of the State such as disestablishment would effect, it is difficult to see what can be done unless power to alter the Confession itself is secured. There is, of course, the further counsel of despair— “Would it not be better to still hold by the Confession of Faith, that if we have not uniformity of belief, we may at least have uniformity of make-believe?”

How mercenary and political the whole thing is! Little love of truth for its own sake, or His who gave it, here. Yet surely these are all but plain lessons we may read to-day as to the question of creeds. Truth, after all, so little dwells in them in living power that their profession is no guarantee of adherence to, or affection for, it. As an asset of permanent value in Christianity also are they not seriously discounted by the fact that since at the best their inadequacy to present the truth of God worthily is apparent, and further that, even as they are, modern religious thought finds them so cumbersome as to regard attachment to them as an incubus, they are of but little use as a barrier against encroaching error? “The faith once delivered unto the saints” beyond question gives a surer standing ground and worthier deposit.

[ J. T.]

(To be continued)

Right Reading of Revelation 20:5

Q. Revelation 20:5 (3).—In the late W. Kelly's “Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews” appears the following sentence in a footnote on page 129, “Compare the absurd reading of the excellent Alex. MS. in Revelation 20:5.” Will you please enlighten me as to what the reading is, and why it is absurd? G. P. B.

A. Ver. 5 in the passage referred to is a misprint for ver. 3, where the Alexandrian Codex stands alone (so far as I know) in reading ἐσφἀγισεν ἐμμἐνως αὐτὀν— “and sealed him abidingly” (!). If only (as the verse shows) sealed for a limited period, is it not false as well as absurd to add the word “abidingly"?

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

Who Is David? Part 1

That prophet who had anointed David to be king over Israel was just dead. His long life of perhaps over one hundred years in the service of God and Israel had now closed. He had also anointed Saul, and had had to grieve over his disastrous failures. Thus had Samuel been used to preserve and renew the links between Jehovah and His people. Saul was still wielding the power of the kingdom, and nothing outwardly emphasized the serious fact that the Spirit of Jehovah had departed from him. For although God may tolerate that which He has already judged morally, sometimes indeed continuing for a considerable time to do so, yet He can never sanction by His presence powers contrary in principle to each other. Sometimes in long-suffering mercy, and sometimes as in the history before us, for the more effective moral preparation of His chosen instrument, He exercises and strengthens faith in the hearts of the faithful, and further uses it for the perfecting of patience.

We may trace these and other precious fruits in the heart of David through many of the Psalms, while, on the contrary, the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes manifest the results of experience—often bitter and disappointing—where the soul has not been chastened and tried in the school of adversity. David could say, “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversities” (Psalm 31:7). His character was thus molded upon a divine pattern, not always acceptable or intelligible to those about him (compare 2 Samuel 4:9-12 with 2 Samuel 19:16-23). Saul's great failure had been impulsiveness and disobedience. He could not wait, though on one occasion this seems to have been not altogether without justification, as in his introduction to the kingdom.

God then gave him the opportunity for action, and His Spirit supplied the energy (1 Samuel 11:1-11). Action of this decisive character will always commend itself to men, and it was so in this instance. The people approved of it, and were proud of their king; but on another occasion, where the commandment required him to wait for Samuel, he yielded to mere religious impulse, as he confessed, “I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering” (I Samuel 13:12). And again, contrary to explicit instructions, he yielded to thoughts of nature and spared the man whose destruction had been decreed by divine justice. Human energy is good in itself, but if not exercised in dependence upon God, Satan can and will make use of it in opposition to God's revealed will; but to those who wait upon the Lord divine power comes in, and we are strengthened to obey where human energy proves itself powerless. “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).

This, then, was the lesson David was set down to learn in this chapter of his history, and God had His own way of teaching it. In a time of need David turns to man for help, instead of to God! He proves its unprofitableness, and very nearly exposes himself to the curse of Jeremiah 17:5. Let us look at the circumstances.

“And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David sent out ten young men; and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus shall ye say to him, Long life [to thee]! and peace be to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast! And now I have heard that thou hast shearers; thy shepherds have now been with us, and we hurt them not, neither was there aught missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will tell thee; wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. And Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? So David's young men turned on their way and went back, and came and told him all those sayings” (1 Samuel 25:4-12).

A degenerate descendant of a man remarkable for faith in his day, Caleb, he offers an entirely unprovoked insult to David, who, in his resentment, at once prepares to avenge himself upon the churl. The flesh in David would meet the flesh in Nabal! Had such a conflict been allowed, who can tell how it would have ended? But God dealt graciously with David, softening his heart, and turning him from his purpose by an instrumentality prepared in secret but now fittingly brought forth. So David himself, too, had been beforehand prepared for the conflict with Goliath—not by the unproved accoutrements of Saul, but—by the pledges of God's mercy in his deliverances from the lion and the bear. That this is the divine way of using experience is manifest. The great apostle of the Gentiles thus exercised himself. “For we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we ourselves have had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

[G. S. B.]

(To be continued)

Matthew 24:45 - 25:13

You will observe that in the verses read there is no word about Jerusalem, Jews, or reference to the prophet Daniel, all of which are found in the preceding part, where we find the Lord using the disciples then present as a groundwork in speaking of those of the latter day. They were Jews though believers; and when God called those who were Gentiles, still they were Jews; and that state will be again. Now those who believe are one body, having to do with Christ and in heaven. The essence of Christianity is— “neither Jew nor Gentile.” In the Old Testament, Jews were brought by grace into blessing by faith, and were to be the head of all nations. That remains to be accomplished, for now God has graven “Not my people” upon them. That is to be removed, and they treated not merely as son, but “firstborn.” The first dominion will be Israel's, while all nations shall agree to it. A prefatory work will be in them as vessels of mercy. God is not now dealing with an earthly people at all. We believe in an earth-rejected, heavenly-glorified Christ, and are associated with Him there— “one spirit with the Lord,” where “there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all.”

Now then you will notice the Lord began His great prophecy by dealing with His disciples as they were, and carried it on on that ground—Jewish ground—passing over all of heaven and Christ above in chap. 24, up to the verses read to-night, because he was speaking of Jewish believers. Next we have Christians, because Christ is now glorified; they are His body, while He is the risen Head on high. This state of things is not to last, though the blessing and glory of it does. God's purpose is to have an earthly people and earthly peoples enjoying His favor, and with Christ their righteousness. God's purposes embrace both heavenly and earthly objects. Christ will be King over all the earth, though He is not called so with reference to Christians now. He is never called King of the church, and though we find the expression “King of saints” in Revelation 15:3, yet, every scholar knows it is a mistake, and the Revisers, on the ground of testimony of MSS., gave it up, substituting “King of nations,” a title quoted from Jeremiah 10:7, where Jehovah is called so—a remarkable expression to find in a Jewish prophet, but who was compelled by the Holy Ghost thus to bring out God's purposes. God's purpose is to have a godly Jewish remnant, prepared to welcome the Lord, as there was one gathered around Him when He spoke this prophecy. Between these two groups Christianity and the church come in.

There is nothing said about the church here, though it is mentioned in another part of the Gospel. You find much about it in the Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, in the last of which its close is given making way for Jews and believing Gentiles, for there will be a little remnant of God-fearing Gentiles, and then all nations blessed as you have it in the last part of the prophecy. Between the two cones in the present profession of Christ, not necessarily reality. You will observe a marked difference in this section; it is all parable. Parables are very general; they apply equally to any country; they have no local root, and so are particularly suitable in showing that new thing which God was about to do.

First, then, we have a servant—a faithful and wise servant. All Christians are called to be so, though some specially so. A servant in the house is called to provide good and suited meat for the house. Every Christian shares that in a way, though some are more suited for that work than others. Responsibility is according to privilege.

What constitutes a servant according to the mind of God? Waiting for the Master. That is what exactly suits a servant, and the Lord Himself was the perfect model. Christ was the true Hebrew Servant of Exodus 21. He served His time; the wife was given figuratively, and children also, but He was not content to go out. He loved the place of a servant for God's glory, and the service of poor wretched man. What place so good in this poor world? And then taken to the door-post and made a servant forever. The Lord will never cease to be a servant. He is such now, though exalted. Now He is washing His disciples' feet, so often soiled by the mud of this world. Who is the great effectual Washer? Christ; and the Holy Ghost, too, has His part. Yet Christ is the Servant, and that because of perfect love. But for sin, no such service would he called for. Directly ruin takes place then the Savior comes and takes that lowly part which no one else could take, and washes His disciples' feet. Now we ought to know the meaning of that, for each Christian needs the gracious Cleanser of our feet.

And when He comes and takes us to heaven, He is still the Servant. He comes forth to serve those whom He takes to heaven. Are we affected as we ought to be at the words? He said, “I am among you as he that serveth,” when here; but even when eternity begins, and He delivers up the kingdom, He still keeps the place of subjection, because He never gives up manhood, and the place of man is service. He serves forever. Z bus He is, and is meant to be, the great pattern of the Christian. How is this answered to now? The Lord had to warn even apostles not to affect the grandees of this world— “neither be ye called benefactors,” etc.—the complete contrast of Himself.

A “faithful servant” is one always waiting for Him; and He intimates that His coming would soon be forgotten, though the “evil servant” does not refer to it dogmatically. Denial of it is not supposed, but the evil servant says in his heart and tells by his conduct, “My lord delayeth his coming.” The effect is everything unworthy—evil communications with evil people, assumption and presumption—the exact opposite of all in Christ. This is just the history of Christendom. In the second century there was no notion of the true place of Christ and Christianity, and the hope of waiting for Him was lost. The Lord puts Himself into the parable— “Ye yourselves like men that wait for their lord.” Like servants behind the door waiting for their Master, sure He is coming, but ignorant when. This is the only proper waiting for the Lord Jesus, carefully carried out in the Epistles, where the word is always “we which are alive,” not they— “we,” the servants behind the door waiting for the Lord. It is the unfaithful that say “they.” Yet the apostle never said the Lord was coming in his day. It is all the exact truth, but the moment was concealed that we might be always waiting for Him. It is put very strongly here. There is only one servant; it is collective responsibility, and it is strikingly carried on to the evil servant. The collective testimony lost the hope, and when the hope was turned to Jewish from Christian, the foundation got lowered too; the evil servant was punished as a hypocrite, not merely as a man of the world.

The Lord next goes to another and different view— “ten” virgins are not “one.” “Then shall the kingdom of heaven,” etc. “Then,” when judgment falls on the evil servant. He deals with other objects; it is another way of bringing out the utter failure of Christendom. The opening words of this chapter 25 are unique in the three parables which form the group. We find a general picture of Christendom from first to last. By Christendom I mean that which bears the name of Christ, whether truly or not. The kingdom of heaven is that new thing, not the kingdom on earth. If Christ is rejected in lower glory God brings in a higher one. If Jews reject, Gentiles are called. We have a picture here outside Judaism. All ten make a bright profession. All took torches (for the correct word is “torches,” and quite distinct from the “lamps” in The Revelation). In eastern weddings the going in with the bride is always at night.

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.” This is the Christian hope again. From the start of Christendom the call was, Go forth to meet the Bridegroom from all below. If it was a Jew it was from the temple and its ritual, and that because an infinitely greater is there, and He the Bridegroom. Could God use a figure more striking to the heart than that He who died for our sins should be the Bridegroom. “They went forth"; a heavenly character was stamped on their work.

If a person were a Christian in Otaheite, he “went forth” to meet the Bridegroom as much as if at Jerusalem. The Gentiles “went forth” as much as the Jews. If the hope were of another kind—say the coming of the Judge—you could not use the expression “went forth.” No person could “go forth” to meet his Judge. But if you look at the creeds of Christendom, all forget the Bridegroom, all look for the Judge, the One that will put on the darkest of caps, and will sentence not for time but for eternity. Not a word of that here. Here the hope of the Christian is put in the parabolic form of meeting the Bridegroom. Not fighting unbelievers, but the influence of divine love in the person of Christ. Well, five wise and five foolish—these show their folly by having no oil. The torch would burn brightly for a very little while without oil. All go forth, but the difference exists even from early days. John, James, and all the later Epistles assume persons of dubious character in the professing church. But all at first go forth to meet the Bridegroom.

The “tarrying” in scripture is never used to delay the coming of the Lord. All the parables are so constructed that those, who went forth at first, meet Him. But while He tarried “all slumbered and slept"; the heavenly hope was given up. The early fathers all lost it. Sleep implies no longer going forth. You could not suppose they slept on their legs. They must have turned in somewhere; they departed from the will of the Lord and gave up “going forth.” It is true that Jewish believers will carry the gospel of the kingdom as they flee from the enemy, but this is not the attractive power of the love of Christ.

“At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom.” That cry is going forth now, and has been going forth some seventy years. People at the end of the former century waked up, but the cry was, Behold the Judge, not, Behold the Bridegroom. Here persons knowing His love, or ought to, were in peace, and instead of alarm, they go forth to meet Him. In the year 600 they woke up in a fright, but the Judge did not come, and they went to sleep again. Then in 1100 there was a great scarce that the end of the wor1d had come. They woke up, built cathedrals, did much to propitiate the coming Judge, but the Judge did not come, and they went faster to sleep than ever in the dark ages. All was dark, but what has taken place? Not merely the coming of Christ, but the gospel of God has been brought out more simply and clearly than at the Reformation; even all the reformers (unless it were Zwingle) held baptismal regeneration. There is no such notion in the word of God. This is not referred to to slight them, but to show that the gospel could not be taught in its fullness in connection with the idea that life is communicated by baptism. No, all are lost, and all require to be saved. Besides this, peace with God, redemption, new relationship, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost are brought out and keep the heart from being afraid. Instead of going to meet the Judge, if you know the gospel you know Christ bore the judgment and more. He loves me, yes, better than the angels. When the cry went forth, God wrought that hearts might go forth bounding to meet the Lord Jesus, knowing we are immeasurably dear to Him. This made the difference plain. The foolish virgins found no oil, and set to work in great earnestness to get it, as now in Christendom. People who once were card players and fox-hunters are now great for early Communion and outward forms. It is all an effort to get the oil, as there are frequent requests for those they know to be pious to pray for them, as did Simon Magus, instead of buying for themselves “without money” and “without price.” And the solemn part is—the same spirit is found in all denominations!

W. K.

Fragment: He Is Love Itself

He was the loneliest Man, but the most accessible Man, because He was love itself. He does not set Himself apart in the wilderness, but in heaven, and we are with Him there; every affection and moral feeling of my heart is linked up with Him who is on the throne of God.

J. N. D.

Studies in Mark: Jehovah's Servant Preaching

V.-Jehovah's Servant Preaching

“Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel“ (1:14, 15, R.V.).

At the appointed moment, the anointed Servant of Jehovah commenced His public service by announcing the good news that God's promised kingdom was imminent. And who shall ever know with what ineffable joy the obedient Son whose ears had been “digged” for service (Psalm 40:6, margin) performed in this as in all else the will of Him who sent Him? We are, however, permitted to know some of the intimacies of the Father and the incarnate Son, wherein this mutual satisfaction is expressed. We are, for instance, made privy to the Father's declaration from heaven, “Thou art my dearly-beloved Son, in whom is my delight.” This personal complacency was fully reciprocated by Jehovah's Servant, who, entering into the world, says, “Lo, I am come; in the roll it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart. I have published [preached] righteousness in the great congregation; lo, I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; 1 have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation” (Psalm 40:7-10).

And this delight thus expressed in regard of the service of preaching in the great assemblies of Israel was maintained even when His obedience led Him to lay down His life (John 10:17; Hebrews 10:5-7), thereby fulfilling to the uttermost, as He had previously made known, God's will. We have a notable example of His joy in the path of service on that memorable occasion when the obdurate unbelief of Capernaum, the center of His Galilean ministry, was brought before Him. We read, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced [exulted] in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Luke 10:21). Such a spirit in the moment of apparent failure was the perfection of service, and how contrasted it was with that of the preacher to the Ninevites, seeking first to escape from the path of duty, and then angry that the repentant citizens believing his message were spared. Jesus, who rejoiced in presence of the unbelief of Capernaum, rejoiced also over one sinner who repented. For He was the good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost” (Luke 15:5, 6). Blessed Savior, in any service of ours, feeble and unworthy as it must ever be, may a like joy possess us and bring us in our measure with like equanimity through victory or what seems defeat!

It is proposed to group some fragmentary thoughts relating to this passage under one of the following heads—(1) The signal for the preaching to begin; (2) the scene of the preaching; (3) the subject of the preaching; (4) the declarations of the Preacher.

(1) The signal for the commencement of Christ's preaching. There is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak” —a precept never exemplified so perfectly as by the Lord of all. The time for Jesus to come forth into the way of public service was indicated by the imprisonment of John the Forerunner and Baptist.” Now when he heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum” (Matthew 4:12, 13, R.V.). There had previously been blessed ministry by the Lord to individuals in Judaea and Samaria, as the early chapters of the Gospel of John show (chap. 3:24). But this ministry was the manifestation of His personal grace and glory which is above all the limitations of the times and dispensations which mark the ordered government of the world, and such manifestations form the special subject of the Fourth Gospel. Mark, however, like the other Synoptists, sets before us the beginning of His official service in introducing the promised kingdom, and this initial act synchronized with the removal of John, who was a witness to Jesus as the Christ, from the sphere of public testimony.

John had preached of Jesus as the One who was about to come, and after baptizing Him in Jordan, had testified to Him as being then present in Israel. This work of the prophet of the Most High, the messenger of Jehovah, the herald of the Messiah, was now accomplished. And what distinguished service was his! His was the unique distinction of being the first to own the coming Savior and King (Luke 1:41), and this by divine prompting of altogether a special nature, while his was the first voice to call the sinful sons of men to “behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Lord said of him, “Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). So powerfully did his work and testimony, though unaccompanied by miraculous sign, work in the hearts of men, that many seemed to be prepared to accept John himself as the Messiah (Luke 3:15), in spite of his utter repudiation of any such claim, and his clear testimony to Jesus: “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

While men were thus ready to be misled as to the personality of the Christ, we may be sure that Satan, failing to destroy the royal Seed in the massacre of Bethlehem's babes (Revelation 12:1-5), and foiled in his temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, would welcome such an opportunity to set up a rival to Jesus, Israel's promised King and Savior. He who would use Simon Peter, the honored witness to Jesus as the Son of the living God as a stumbling-block in His way to the cross (Matthew 16:23), would seek to use the Baptist as a counter attraction when Jesus should offer Himself to the people as the sent One of God. If Satan had such a malevolent intention, it was frustrated by the shutting up of John in prison.

The prophets of old had their contemporaries. The voice of Jehovah came to Israel through Micah the Morasthite as well as through the more brilliant son of Amoz of his day; while subsequently God spake simultaneously through Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. But He who had spoken in days past in many measures and in many manners to the fathers by His prophets was about to speak to them by a Son, the only-begotten. No prophet, not even an angel, can for a moment be compared with God's spokesman in His unapproachable dignity as the Son. And John, the last of the prophets, though himself more than a prophet, was withdrawn by God from the scene of public testimony, that the Son might stand alone, an Object supremely worthy and sufficient to engross the hearts of all mankind. How could God have a servant contemporary with His Son? As He has no peer, so this Servant needs no coadjutor. Even Moses and Elias must vanish directly Simon Peter seeks to class them with Jesus; so that he and his astonished companions may see “no one save Jesus only,” teaching them and all men that the Son is incomparable.

John then, having borne faithful witness to the truth, was removed to make way for Him who is the Faithful and True Witness. When the Light of the world shines forth, no place is found for the burning and shining lamp (John 5:35, R.V.), welcome as it was in the dawning. He was not, however, like his prototype Elijah, carried up to heaven by a whirlwind. He was carried to a prison and to death under the power of a dissolute Idumean king. He had preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. But it was not for him to know in his own experience the beneficent sway of the scepter of righteousness. For him the earthly throne was one of iniquity, and its sword was the sword of cruelty and revenge. Truly his eyes saw the King of Israel in the beauty of His grace, but notwithstanding, his headless corpse was soon to lie martyred in the kingdom of “this world.” This was a fitting prelude to the coming tragedy when “the kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed” (Acts 4:25-27).

(2) The scene of the preaching. The Lord began His service of preaching in Galilee, not in Judea. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Messiah, had its favors according to the prophet— “Thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall One come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2, R.V.). But there is no record of any visit by the Lord to Bethlehem during His ministry. Galilee, the despised region in the north of the land, was privileged to have more than any other place His gracious and marvelous service by word and sign. This, too, was in accordance with the prophecy of olden time, as the Evangelist Matthew shows: “He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up” (Matthew 4:13-17, R.V.).

This prophetic promise (Isaiah 9:1, 2) was one of comfort for the faithful remnant in a day when Gentile powers should oppress the land and Messiah should be a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.” It was promised that in such circumstances a bright and glorious light should shine forth in the most obscure and despised part of the land. And so it came about, for into Galilee Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God; and this was a reason with the Pharisees of Jerusalem for despising Him. Ignoring Jonah, who was of the land of Zebulun, they said, “Search and see; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52).

Galilee “seems to have been originally confined to a little ‘circuit ' of country round Kedesh-Naphtali, in which were situated the twenty towns given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tire, as payment for his work in conveying timber from Lebanon to Jerusalem (Joshua 20:7; 1 Kings 9:11). They were then, or subsequently, occupied by strangers, and for this reason Isaiah gives to the district the name ‘Galilee of the Gentiles ' (Isaiah 9:1). It is probable that the strangers increased in number, and became during the captivity the great body of the inhabitants; extending themselves over the surrounding country, they gave to their new territories the old name, until at length Galilee became one of the largest provinces of Palestine.”

“It was outside the regular allotment of Israel, in that part of it which is yet to belong to Israel, which certain of the tribes had taken possession of, though, strictly speaking, it was beyond the proper limits of the promised land. The Lord goes through Galilee of the Gentiles; and in all that He fulfilled the prophecy [of Isaiah]. The Jews ought surely to have known it.”

“It is shown afterward in this prophecy that (while the Gentile affliction upon the nation would he heavier than ever, and the Roman oppression far exceed the Chaldean of old), the Messiah would be there, despised and rejected of men, nay, of the Jews, and that at this very time, when thus set at naught by the people that ought to have known His glory, great light would spring up in the most despised place, in Galilee of the nations, among the poorest of the Jews, where Gentiles were mixed up with them—people who could not even speak their own tongue properly. There should this bright and heavenly light spring up; there the Messiah would be owned and received.”

It was therefore appointed of God that in the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, who had shut up John the Baptist in prison, the Lord Himself should begin to teach and to preach. And this He accordingly did.

[W. J. H.]

Fragment: Having a Place in the Heart of the Lord

Little as I am, I have a place in the heart of the Lord; and His mind is, that I should walk in circumstances here as one who has a place in His heart.

G. V. W.

Forgiveness and Salvation

People do not really believe that they are lost; they believe that they have sins; but that does not touch the question of being lost. Your sins make you guilty, but your state by nature is that you are lost. It is quite another thing to seeing that I have sins, the consciousness that I am lost now. In my natural condition, they go together, but they are distinct; guilt looks forward to judgment; lost is my present state. If I get clear hold of that, then I get Christ dealing with it, and the consciousness that I am saved now. But people neither know that they are lost, nor that they are saved. But, in the Christian, God has brought in a new thing-he is a new creation; and thus my place is either in the first man or in the Second. And, to get hold of what this new creation is, is of immense moment in this day.

All the ordinances and religion that are going on in the world are for man in the flesh. Do you think we shall have such things in heaven? The first man, though the flesh be in us, is done with for faith; God takes me entirely out of my condition by nature—though my poor body is here yet of course—has separated me entirely from the world, though still in it. “Now once in the end of the world,” we read, “hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Do you believe that the world has morally come to an end? God's dealings with the first man were then thoroughly, perfectly closed. Man may get up an imitation of the Jewish ritual, but it is all over. The religiousness that is going on around us all hangs upon this question: Am I alive in this world, looked at in my relationship with God, or not? I am not. Where does the believer get his life from? From heaven. Christ could say, “The Son of man which is in heaven.” We, as united to Him, live of the life which is in Him who is on high. Will you occupy yourself in the improvement of the first Adam? Will you get good out of him? You never will. God has tried, but He could get nothing. The flesh that is in me has had Christ presented to it, and has rejected Him. It does so still. It cannot crucify Him now, but it rejects Him just as much. Lawless, if left to itself, it is not subject to the law of God when under it, neither indeed can be, and, if Christ be presented to it, prefers everything in the world to Him. Whenever God set up anything good, the first thing man did was to spoil it. Take the history in order as it comes. What is the first thing? Man himself—in the garden. And what did he do? Then after the flood; you would say if ever anything could have mended man's manners, surely that would. But no, it is all ruined; the first thing Noah does is to get drunk. Abram is called out of it by grace. But the law is then given. The first thing Israel did was to make the golden calf. The priesthood was set up; but Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire on the very first day. The son of David is established; but Solomon loved many strange women, and the kingdom is ruined. Nebuchadnezzar, set up as the head of gold, sets up an idol. And the church is in ruins. “All,” we read in the apostle's time, “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.” Who says that? The apostle; while he was yet alive that was the state of things. “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” Have you not got that nature? Speaking of us as men, have we not got that nature? which is what? Enmity against God! And are you going to educate it? to cultivate it? Cultivate enmity against God!

This is what I mean when I say that men do not know that they are lost. When Christ came into the world and went about doing good because God was with Him, men did not like Him. Why? Because God was manifested in Him. It is natural that infidels should try to get what good they can out of the old tree; but I am speaking of Christians. It is the first question with the soul, and must be, if I want to get glory—this truth that I am lost already. You will never get hold of what it is to be saved already until you see that.

It was just at this point, when Pharisaic flesh made its most of religion, that Christ came into the world. He came in and found a magnificent temple; and that is what people want now. If I go into a church I take my hat off. I do not mean I, of course, when I say this, because I would not go into one, but that is what people do. And they take it off to what? There was a time when God had such a thing—a temple, priests, everything, to try what man in the flesh could do. And now man will go back to it, and says: Oh, you must have music, temple, vestments, to influence people. Influence what? Their flesh! But I am “not in the flesh.” “Once in the end of the world.” There ended man's history morally. They said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him “; and there was an end of the world as to the judgment of God, not executed indeed, but pronounced. But then there was the beginning of God, and where was that? In the grave of Christ, as come in the flesh-the cross, if you please, but it was death—in the grave. He accomplished the work in perfectness of love to God and perfect obedience in a man—One who was God, of course, but as man dying on the cross, closing all association with man in the flesh, fully tested by grace as well as law, and God set the Man who had done it at His own right hand. The first man's wickedness was proved in the death of Christ, and the Second man was taken out of the world; it is convicted of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, in rejecting Him; of righteousness in that He is gone to the Father, and the world sees Him no more as so come in grace, and the prince of this world proved to be Satan; but there is the Man in heaven; and Christianity is founded upon that. The end is made of the first man in death, and a totally new place is taken in the Second man, in which man innocent had no more place than man guilty; and till I know that I shall not know what salvation is.

Forgiveness applies to what I have done as the first man. I may sin now, surely, as a Christian, but, if I do, that is the first man—the flesh. Salvation is connected with my condition as a child of Adam. When I speak of sins, I do not say I am saved; I say I am forgiven. People think that their guilt, as children of Adam, is cleared away, and so it is; but that is only forgiveness; it does not in itself take me out of the position that I am in. But God has judged man; the prince of this world is cast out; and I am now in Christ at the right hand of God. “If any man be in Christ, it is a new creation.” Of course, as to my body, I have not got into the new scene yet, but am left here to have my senses exercised to discern good and evil, and to walk by faith and not by sight. He is not talking of the sight of things down here, but he means you have not yet got a sight of heavenly things. But I can go through the things down here, they do not affect me. I have to live down here—perfectly true; but that has nothing to do with the moral question of the object that leads us: “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” And then what does he say? Why, I am groaning in this tabernacle meanwhile, desiring to be clothed upon with my house which is from heaven, for He that hath wrought me for the self-same thing is God. God has wrought me. It is not only a prepared place there, but He has wrought me for it—for that place where is the glory of Christ. The world may come and tempt me, but it is the things that are inside the veil that are mine, and I belong to that scene; and that is what is salvation.

A man in the seventh of Romans is a renewed man, but he has not salvation; he is a renewed man under the law. The law was God's rule for a child of Adam. Well, but what are you? I am a child of God. The law deals with a man in the flesh; I am “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” I get salvation when I get into a place where I am not in the flesh at all. “I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” The law is a very useful thing to kill me. The law says: Death and the curse are your portion. I say: Yes, but I died on the cross when the curse was borne. If a guilty man fall into the law's hands and die there, what can it do with him? Give him up to be buried!

So a Christian is not in the flesh before God; my place, my standing, is not there at all. You say, Where is it then? Why it is in Christ. I find that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly “; and what we learn in Romans 7 is, not guilt, but that we have no power to get out of the condition in which we are. Christ has come and taken me out of the condition in which I was, and put me into His own; by the power which God “wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,” He has “quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.” Well, if I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ, am I saved, or am I not?

What salvation has done is not the merely forgiving me my sins; forgiveness, cleansing, justifying, applies to my responsible and guilty condition in the first Adam; but salvation applies to my state in the Second man. It is a new creation. What would you do if you wanted to make something of a crab tree? Not nurture, and prune, and dig about, and dung it. That God has done with His fig tree. If you know anything about it, you will cut it down and graft it. Until you find out that the old man is utterly had, and that there is no mending it, you will not give it up. If you cultivate the old crab tree you will have fair flowers but only bigger crabs.

God has gone through the moral history of man's probation up to the cross, and a little supplementary trial too, if you like, through Christ's intercession on it for Israel, and He has come to the end of it. I get the whole thing. God's grace in seeking man in the condition he was in, giving His Son to die for him, and then Christ rising into a totally new place as man, what man as Adam was not at all, and has brought me there in Him—of course I am not physically there—and then gives me His Spirit that I may walk in the place He has set me in. In the death of Christ the whole thing on man's part has closed, and then God begins with His own work. A Man, the Lord of glory, goes down, takes this dreadful cup, goes on the cross into death for us, into the judgment, into the curse alone with God, settles that question with God, and has so settled it for God's glory that God has set a Man at His own right hand in glory. All the thoughts and the counsels of God came out consequently on that.

One passage we may refer to on this is 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest.” I am not saved according to my responsibility— “our works “; saving and calling do not come to me upon this ground. I am saved by the cross. Well, I say, and what part had you in the cross? If you are saved by the cross the only part you had in it was your sins; your enmity too, if you like, in putting Him there. But I find in the cross a death which on the one hand clears away my sins, and on the other hand brings me salvation. The whole of it is God's work. All alone between Him and God was that work; the darkness was the outward testimony that He was alone with God; His divine power not saving Him from the cup, but enabling Him to drink it. And then He goes to His Father, and the world sees Him, in grace, never any more, till He comes to it in judgment.

It “is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.” And again in the beginning of Titus, “Eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested.” For this purpose of God, to bring us into the Second man, the ground was not laid until the cross.

But when He came it was not only this; He had also in His person the promises for Israel; recollect this. And it is well we should recollect, that there is no promise to the flesh. It was said, in passing sentence on the serpent, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; it was not said to Adam. Was Adam the seed of the woman? He was the only man who was not. The promise was to the seed of the woman—to Christ. God had had purposes of grace before the world existed, but He began His dealings with Adam—the responsible man—and tried him. And, having proved what he was, then I get God's work-God wrought. If I get what man wrought it was sin and condemnation. But God has raised His Son from the dead, and my place with God being in Christ after His death—after the power of Satan being broken-after my sins being put away, judged in Him—I am a new creation, I am in the Second man, I am not in the flesh. You will never know what salvation is until you know that you are in Christ; then “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 sin in the flesh.” Sin in the flesh is condemned, not forgiven, but condemned where Christ was a sacrifice for sin, and, where the condemnation was, death was; so that there is no condemnation for me now, but I am dead to sin.

I will not say any more, but I am anxious this should dwell upon your minds; it is of great moment now. We have come back to the Father, kissed, robed, the ring on our finger, and the fatted calf killed. We have come back. But was it the fruit of what the prodigal did? He was perishing; if he stay where he is he will perish. But he sets out on his way to God. And what is the effect of that? The effect that is on the minds of many: it is, “Make me as one of thy hired servants.” But his reasoning thus only proved he had not yet met Him. And after all what does his experience bring him to? To the Father—in his rags! I may say I am running too slow, perhaps stumble in the way, though seeking to go right; but I am always in my rags till I come to my Father. It is the Father who says, “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.” It is He who had the best robe brought forth. Till then the prodigal son was not fit to enter into the house, though he had been going right, and his father's love shown to him.

Of course then we must bring forth good fruit. If I have got the life of Christ in me, I must bring it out in everything: “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” I say, Are you doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus? If not, you have in that case given Him up for some foolish thing or other. “If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living (alive) in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” I am dead to flesh—to sin: “The body is dead, because of sin; but the spirit is life, because of righteousness.” I am crucified to the world, and dead to the law by the body of Christ. The fact then is this, that I do not belong to the world any more than a dead and buried man does-of course I mean in the moral sense of it. If I take my privileges, I say I am seated in heavenly places. If I take my position in the world, I have nothing to do but to go through it as He did.

The Lord give us clearly to see what salvation is-that it is the taking me out of the first Adam and putting me into the Second man. “He hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

J. N. D.

Practical Remarks on Prayer: 4. The Holy Spirit in Relation to Prayer

IV.-The Holy Spirit In Relation To Prayer

Although Christ is the One to whose Name saints are gathered at the prayer-meeting, it is equally necessary to recognize the function or office of the Holy Spirit in prayer; and that, whether in private or public. Consider the magnitude of the fact that the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, and, abiding with us forever, is here to-day (John 14:16)! He dwells in the church which is builded together for His habitation; He dwells in the individual believer (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; Ephesians 2:22). Such a fact cannot but have immense bearings. Now we find that this indwelling Spirit is our Instructor and Guide in prayer, and all true prayer is in the Spirit. “Praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20). “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to God” (Romans 8:26, 27).

When Christ was with His disciples He taught them to pray; John had similarly taught his disciples. But now all that is changed. It was expedient for the disciples that Christ should go away in order that the Holy Ghost should come; and He, being there, takes the office of forming our minds and hearts in prayer. Truly, we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but—as dwelling in us—the Spirit Himself maketh intercession. The words “for us” in Romans 8:26, are not in the best texts, and, like many well-meant additions to Scripture, only mar its perfectness. Maketh intercession for us inserted in this verse, would rather give the idea of the blessed Spirit and the saints as two distinct parties, and that He, externally to us, makes intercession for us. That this is not the sense, is clear from the next words— “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God” (ver. 27). Thus then, God who looks down into the heart, sees there the inwrought desires and prayers of the Spirit; and the intercession which the Spirit there makes, for and on behalf of the saints, is according to God. The structure of this scripture (Romans 8:26, 27) is remarkable. As regards ourselves, the Spirit is so identified with us, that God, in searching the hearts, finds there the mind of the Spirit; and this is what He graciously takes up, not the workings of the flesh. But as regards God—whatever may be the Spirit's condescension to us—the Spirit stands in all His own power and dignity as a Person of the Godhead, to plead for the saints. What solemnity, what divine value, clothes the prayers of saints, when the form in which they come before God is that of intercession by the Spirit Himself! On our side this may reach down to an inarticulate groan; Godward it rises to the height of the Spirit's own intercession.

The bearing of this upon prayer is most encouraging. Here we find the Holy Spirit as dwelling in us, graciously identifying Himself in tender sympathy with our weakness, with our infirmities. The church which Christ has purchased with His own blood, is so precious that the blessed Spirit must come and dwell there and look after it. Being here He is our Paraclete; that is, Manager of our affairs. He opposes the flesh in us (Galatians 5:17), helps our infirmities, condescends to our ignorance, and enters into our sorrows with groanings which cannot be uttered. We do not think enough of the sympathy of the Spirit of God with us. He is that “other Paraclete” who, the Lord said, was to replace Himself on earth. Jesus took our infirmities; and the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; Jesus groaned at Lazarus' grave, and the Spirit intercedes for the saints with groanings which cannot be uttered. How great must be the interest of the Holy Spirit in us when He can come and dwell in us, not discontinuing His stay, albeit, alas, our ways so often grieve Him (Eph. 4:30)!

When once grasped, this truth of the function which the Holy Ghost graciously assumes in the matter of prayer, easily disposes of some popular errors.

Praying to the Holy Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit is in us, and is Himself the moving power and inditer of our prayers, then obviously to address our prayers to Him is an incongruity; it is “by Him” that we “have access to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). For addressing the Holy Spirit, scripture gives us neither precept nor example. Such hymns, therefore, as that commencing, “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” however pious their intention, are not framed in an intelligent apprehension of Christian doctrine. When we address God indefinitely, of course the three Persons of the Trinity are included, but when we pray to the Persons distinctively, it can only be to the Father, or to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Forms of Prayer.

By parity of reasoning, forms of prayer are quite inconsistent with the office of the Holy Ghost in the church. If He is Himself with us as inditer of our prayers, how unworthy to limit Him to certain forms of words! Suppose the greatest musical genius of the world came to reside with me that I might enjoy his compositions, and I, instead of listening to him, brought out a mean musical box, which could only regale me with its narrow stock of tunes, should I not be insulting my gracious guest? Admitted that we know not what we should pray for as we ought, the remedy is not that wise men should frame forms for us. Our resource is the Holy Spirit who helps our infirmities, condescends to our weaknesses, and intercedes with groans which cannot be uttered. When that Mighty Spirit condescends to undertake this gracious function, what dishonor to Him, what a want of faith, to substitute a dead form for His living guidance!

Using the Lord's Prayer.

But some think, “However I may distrust my own prayers, and even the Prayer Book, which, though framed by good men, is not inspired; yet in 'the Lord's Prayer' which he Himself ordained—surely we are on safe ground in using that?” This spirit of reverence for the Lord Jesus is certainly right, but the view expressed is oblivious of the immense change of affairs, consequent on the coming of the Holy Ghost, who, having descended on Christ at His baptism, descended upon the church at Pentecost, and is still here. In giving the prayer of Matt. 6, the Lord was performing the office of Paraclete which is now performed by the Holy Spirit. That prayer was absolutely perfect for the time and circumstances for which it was prescribed. It is not equally applicable to another time and altered circumstances. One or two points will be sufficient to establish this. (1) The Lord Himself declared that in connection with the coming of the Holy Ghost there would be a change in respect of this very matter of prayer. In John 16, He is speaking of a future day, “When the Spirit of truth is come” (ver. 13), and in verses 23-26, deals with the subject of prayer in “that day.” He says: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.... At that day ye shall ask in my name” (John 16:24, 26). Now here we see that the Lord Himself was leading the disciples beyond “the Lord's Prayer” —for in the latter His name is not mentioned, and He tells them that, in the coming era, prayer was to be in His Name. (2) Another indication of the incongruity of “the Lord's Prayer” to the present time is that its aspiration is for the coming of the kingdom, “Thy kingdom come.” This was a proper Jewish hope, suited to the Jewish disciples for whom the prayer was ordained; but the church has an earlier and a brighter hope, even to see and be with the Lord Himself before the kingdom comes (1 Thess. 4:16-18).

The Lord indeed taught the disciples to pray, and did so perfectly. But the office of Paraclete on earth He has now relinquished to the Holy Spirit, to whose guidance therefore we are committed. Let us seek to be “praying in the Holy Ghost” —knowing that the Spirit enters, with fullest, minutest sympathy, into all our infirmities, all our circumstances; and will give us desires, sentiments, and expressions appropriate to every experience, either happy or sad, through which the soul can pass. ''The Lord's Prayer” belongs to a past period, before the Spirit had been given. We have the Holy Ghost Himself now, to indite our prayers.

The way in which “the Lord's Prayer” is repeated by some Christians upon all occasions, and sometimes several times over—in the Church of England when the Litany and Communion Service are used, five times in one morning—savors really of superstition, as if there were some charm in the mere repetition of the words.

[E. J. T.]

(To be continued)

The So-Called Apostles' Creed: Part 2

Coming now from the general to the particular, What can be said, what is claimed, for the Apostles' Creed as to its worth and usefulness as a statement of Christian doctrine? And first there are those who in all seriousness take its title as being a true one, and accept it as really emanating from the apostles. As might be expected, in Rome, the great stronghold of tradition, this is the characteristic view. Absurd as the claim is, for history gives no countenance to, if not absolute contradiction of, its validity, teachers of the Roman Catholic faith have been very explicit in making it. Some have gone so far as to adopt not only the account of its composition by the apostles given by Ruffinus; but also the later improvement on his improbable story-that which embellishes his fiction with a description in detail of the apostles, when assembled to compose the Creed, uttering each in succession one of its clauses, Peter offering this, John contributing that, James adding that, and so on. The general attitude, while perhaps scarcely going so far as this, has consistently been one of belief in its apostolic origin. Only of the Western Church, however, can this be said, for the Greek Church has been equally consistent in its skepticism of the tradition, and in its profession of ignorance of the early existence of such a creed. Further reference to its history is probably unnecessary, save perhaps to say that, if Calvin's hesitation in rejecting its apostolic origin is strange, Newman's description of it as the formal symbol which the apostles adopted and bequeathed to the church is not at all strange; while his assertion that “it has an evidence of its apostolic origin the same in kind with that for the scriptures,” is equally without the least justification.

There are those again, who, while allowing that its true apostolic origin, in the sense of its being formally drawn up by the apostles, is untenable, regard the Creed as apostolic in the sense of its expressing clearly and succinctly the truth they taught, and of some value therefore as a bulwark of the faith. If so, it is surely unfortunate that such expression is so meager as to be of little use for the purpose sought. Suppose that it were to be conceded for the moment that it is possible that the teaching of apostolic days, the common doctrine of the church, unformulated at first in documentary form, gradually took shape in this confession presumed to embody or give in summary whatever truth the early churches possessed. How far short it comes of primitive Christian doctrine as unfolded in the New Testament! Nay, mere inadequacy is not the only charge which may be brought against it. There is, even within such a limited field as its survey is concerned with, even upon such subjects as it does give a pronouncement, a want of harmony with scripture which is at once apparent. Thus in the case of creation, the Creed ascribes it exclusively to the Father, while the fact is that scripture never does so. Doubtless, the latter not infrequently presents the work as being that of God, i.e. God in the unity of His Being; but, as one has remarked, when the persons are distinguished it is never to the Father, but to the Son and to the Spirit, that creation is ascribed. Again, how little adequate it is as a barrier against error may be seen when one considers that neither of the Lord Jesus nor of the Holy Spirit is divinity categorically asserted. Arians have no hesitation in expressing themselves satisfied with it. Unitarians concur in its teachings. Either could very well accept it, and subscribe to it perhaps with less reluctance, preserving a better reputation for consistency than one who professes the fundamental doctrine of the trinity of persons in the Godhead. This, on account of its indefinite, incomplete presentation of such a fundamental truth as the true deity of Son and Spirit!

Taking no more than these two instances of its faulty, unskillful delineation of scripture doctrine, what confidence can it inspire with regard to less elementary truths? What trust as to its efficacy as a test of orthodoxy can we repose in it to-day, when subtle errors as to the person of Christ and the word of God are so numerous? The fact is that of the three great Creeds which have been (it is claimed) successively evolved in the church's long conflict with error—the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian—this is the most unsatisfactory, the one least entitled to respect, and is of the least use either as an outpost of the faith worthy to be garrisoned, or as a storehouse of the truth dispensing sustenance for the combat.

It is said, however, by some loth to part with this ancient “essence of Christian dogma,” that at the time of its formation, those elements which later Creeds defined were not in question, and its comparative silence on the topics is thus explained. That thus to-day, even, it is of use, if we fill out its apparent lacunae with those things which after all were incipient in it, as they were in the primitive faith to which it was the medium of expression. If, however, the Creed is only to be of value when issued in an edition interleaved with blank pages, we may justly be incredulous of its having any real worth in itself. And when the nature of some of the voluble comments which fill them is considered, many would prefer the blank page section dissociated from the ancient text, as we should then better know where we are. Modernism in doctrine would lose quite half its force if its modernity were frankly confessed. The attempt to associate it with what is ancient and venerable is what deceives many. The Presbyterian adoption of the Apostles' Creed as a convenient summary of the Christian faith, useful as a test or confession, according to the Westminster Confession, is, whether we concur in its estimate or not, one thing; the interpretation of apostolic testimony in the light of modern knowledge may prove quite another. The one is, as stated, an adoption; the other may be an adaptation. Not to prejudice the question from the very first, however, the use here made of the Creed in the way the Westminster divines suggested, may be considered a quite legitimate, and should certainly prove a very interesting, one.

“This Creed is here annexed,” declared the famous Westminster assembly, “not as though it were composed by the apostles, or ought to be esteemed canonical scripture, like the ten commandments or the Lord's Prayer, but because it is a brief sum of the Christian faith, agreeable to the word of God, and anciently received in the churches of Christ.” The important point in this claim for the ancient document for us is what is said as to its agreeableness to the word of God. Its efficiency as a summary of Christian truth, needless to say, depends in the first place solely upon that. Any worth it may have in the way of defining doctrines would be quite counterbalanced by failure to comply with scripture. Equally, in any fresh elaboration of it now, what concerns us primarily is just this question of keeping in line with scripture. Taking it thus, then, as a summarizing of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, subject to the consideration of its being “agreeable to the word of God,” what of the first clause, “I believe in God the Father Almighty”?

This lies at the very threshold of Christianity. It affirms as a matter of faith that without which no movement of spiritual life is possible. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is.” To bring such a primary truth as the existence of God therefore into the realm of matters which may be discussed is to descend to the very elementary. Yet as “all men have not faith,” and the propagation of rationalistic theories is being so actively pursued to-day, due attention upon even this fundamental fact is not bestowed in vain. Excessive laboring of the point need not be desired, as much occupation controversially with the topic would be a mistake on the part of simple believers; vet seasonable witness to its truth from whatever quarter is surely matter for thankfulness. It is satisfactory to begin with too, when one finds this argument for the being or existence of God based upon ethical rather than upon rational ground. That is to say, that our true knowledge of God is, at bottom, not a matter of reason or intellectual conviction, but intuitive and spiritual. And this is so. The existence of God is not a mere deduction proved by certain facts in nature, or by the undeniable traces of His hand throughout the entire universe, moral and material alike. It is a fact in itself, of which, as natural men even, we are convinced in the innermost recesses of our hearts, apart altogether from demonstration to the mental faculties. Nature's wonders may combine to pour into man's ear their testimony to their great Originator. Man's own indelible intuitions, however, and the promptings of his conscience, bear witness of Him in the heart.

Is there not something like all this in that ancient confession of Job's? “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,” that may resemble the first; “but now mine eye seeth thee,” answers in measure to the latter. Supreme beyond all, however, as a more excellent way, is God known (because thereby in grace revealed) through faith in His word. Faith it is that apprehends Him, and to faith alone is He truly revealed. Not at the same time, as it is truly remarked, that ours is an unreasonable or irrational belief. Manifest or demonstrated facts are not opposed to, but confirmatory of, it. Yet in the last resort, he the sum of external evidence what it may, the great fact of the spiritual world—God is—is spiritually apprehended. It is in the soul and to the soul that the sense of God is borne witness of when faith is present; and where this is not so, the mere knowledge of His existence is, to put it at its highest, worthless. There is no need in all this to slight or overlook the value of the evidence so abundantly strewn abroad, not only of His existence, but also of His goodness. God has not left Himself without bright witness to both, in the face of the clouds of unbelief which man's forsaking of Him has superinduced. Of considerations then thought to bear testimony to Him we may note in detail (a) the witness of nature, (b) what is termed the universal religious sense.

Nature's witness to its great Originator is a fact both self-evident and attested by scripture. The strictly modified use of it made in scripture, however, is perhaps less given attention to than the deductions drawn from its phenomena by religious teachers enamored of natural science. Modern natural theology considers its borders greatly enlarged, and its horizon vastly extended, by the undeniably great progress made in recent years in all manner of scientific research. More than ever now the kingdom of nature, its vastness and its minuteness alike, is laid open to the human intelligence, and with so rich a store of wonders untold to draw upon, it might be thought that their appeal to its testimony of the existence of a great First Cause ought to be invincible. Powerful in itself, no doubt, such witness is, whatever in its effect upon man it may prove. Our theologians, however, ought not to be too sure that the increased weight of testimony which modern discoveries give to nature will ensure deeper and more widespread conviction of God in men's hearts. Men in the past have shown a wonderful aptitude for arming themselves against unwelcome truth. And we must remember also that, if the range and power of the projectile have been increased, so also has the strength and resistance of the armor. For, proud of his phenomenal progress in all departments of knowledge, the man of the world to-day tends to divorce science from religion, and to leave and keep God altogether out of account in the realm of nature. No doubt the familiar ground which is gone over when we are reminded of the contemplation of nature's wonders leading us up to nature's God is correct in the abstract, and that, whether the ground taken be the inevitable connection in our mind between cause and effect (an inexorable law of thought, as it is called), or, the more fully developed argument from design of the celebrated Paley. But does it prove true, has it in the past proved true as a matter of fact? Allowing the validity of both the cosmological and the teleological arguments, as they are termed, are they sufficient, are they reinforced by all that modern natural science teaches?

[J. T.]

(Continued from page 352)

(To be continued)

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

Who Is David? Part 2

God was not slow to avenge His tried and suffering servant. He took the matter into His own hand and made it clear that He would not allow any to revile His anointed with impunity. The purpose of God concerning Israel and the kingdom then in course of development did not interest such a man as Nabal in the least. God was not in his thoughts. Inordinate love of self had shut out every other object as unworthy of consideration. Clearly he had no sense of the responsibilities attaching to his position as an Israelite, for had this been so, at such a season he would have gladly responded to the appeal David made to him, and have been overjoyed that he had it in his power to fulfill such an obligation of God's law (Deuteronomy 26:12-15). His own blessing he would have found greatly increased by so doing. His serious fault was assumed ignorance of the divine purposes, and of the personality of David, affected as it evidently was, for his admissions betrayed and convicted him of impiety. His heart was not interested in what God had already wrought for Israel, nor in the blessing yet in store for His people. Selfishness had closed his heart against the stranger. He was “willingly ignorant,” and like those of whom Paul writes (Romans 1:28) he “refused to have God in his knowledge.” In his case it was not simplicity or ignorance, but enmity. Knowledge, however unwelcome, fixes responsibility upon the soul, and exposes to judgment. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.... Wherefore then gavest thou not my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?... For I say unto you, That to every one that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him” (Luke 19:22-26).

Nabal had claimed full and absolute right and control over all that God had given him in His fruitful garden ("Carmel"), speaking of them as “my bread,” “my water,” “my flesh,” etc. God gave him an opportunity (which would not have been unrewarded) of owning, and of ministering to, His anointed, the future king; but he had no faith, was here proved wanting, and failed to seize the occasion, and so lost everything, even his own life. Both folly and wickedness are manifested here. God alone has absolute right over all things. He says, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,” yea, “the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.” Man is but a steward, and must give account of all to God. David asks for but a small part of what would all be at his disposal by and by. Nabal might perhaps have acceded to David's request if the latter had given him guarantee that it would turn out a profitable investment. All hangs on the personality of David. “And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.” All depended upon his estimate of the one who asked the favor. Blinded as to this, Nabal exposed himself to God's righteous judgment; but the Spirit of God reveals the truth to Abigail, and causes her to take immediate action that should avert the threatened judgment on the entire household, excepting its guilty head upon whom destruction so shortly descended.

“And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off her ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. And she fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity; and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Jehovah hath withholder thee from blood guiltiness, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now therefore let thine enemies, and them that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord. Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thine handmaid; for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah: and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days. And though a man be risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Jehovah thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when Jehovah shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee prince over Israel; that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself; and when Jehovah shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid” (vers. 23-31).

It is beautiful to see that not only did Abigail save the lives of herself and her household by this timely and judicious action, but she obtained a good degree in Israel, becoming indeed the chosen companion, in adversity as well as in prosperity, of Jehovah's anointed, while David not only avoided the guilt of shedding innocent blood, but his heart was inexpressibly comforted and strengthened by this evidence of God's guard, care, and working, on his behalf. The danger past and his necessities met, David's heart was now filled with such a sense of the goodness of Jehovah that he could only worship where he had thought to fight. “And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal hath Jehovah returned upon his own head. And David sent and spake concerning Abigail, to take her to him to wife” (ver. 39).

How remarkably does all this illustrate the character of this present age! Materialism, progress and development, science and religion occupy the minds of men, but a stolid indifference prevails with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ and His claims. Questions and learned disquisitions, speculative theories without number, have to a great extent taken the place of the simple and precious gospel which has gladdened the hearts and saved the souls of myriads of poor guilty sinners, who have turned to, and believed on, the Savior. “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But for this reason mercy was shown me, that in me, the first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on him to life eternal” (1 Timothy 1:15. 16, N.Tr.). Man's great responsibility is to believe and obey, not to reason and deny, and so lose the blessing. The exalted Savior is also the Judge of living and dead, to whom all must give account. “Because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead” (Acts 17:31). The wisdom which the fear of God gives to the simple and believing soul delivers from the world's doom and implants the confident expectation that they shall also obtain the complete “salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

G. S. B.

(Continued from page 354)

Studies in Mark: Jehovah's Servant Preaching

V.-Jehovah's Servant Preaching

(3) The subject of the Lord's preaching is here stated to be “the gospel of God.” “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,” for it was the day of the fulfillment of ancient promise and prophecy now announced by Him in whom they were all fulfilled. This, therefore, was the beginning of the gospel, the true “Proto-evangelium,” the source of that river of grace which, deepening and widening in its onward course, should eventually carry its blessing to the uttermost part of the earth (Mark 16:15).

Isaiah's prophecy refers to this day of good tidings in more places than one. After foretelling the preparatory testimonies John the Baptist should render, he continues, “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, [and] shall gently lead those that give suck” (Isaiah 40:9-11, R.V.). This prophecy, it is true, includes the coming of the King of Israel in power for deliverance and blessing and the establishment of the kingdom in glory. But, nevertheless, Jehovah Jesus was there, bringing to Zion in His own person the good tidings of His presence, which He began to announce in Galilee of the Gentiles.

Would Zion receive these good tidings and believe Messiah's report? Alas! the ears of the people were stopped and their hearts hardened, and they would not hear and believe. Not until a yet later day will they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Then will the people with ecstatic joy break out in the language of the same prophet, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! The voice of thy watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see, eye to eye, when the LORD returneth to Zion” (Isaiah 52:7, 8, R.V.).

But whether Israel would hear or whether they would not hear, it was equally the part of the Servant of Jehovah to go forward in the work committed to Him. Jehovah had anointed Him to preach good tidings to the poor (Isaiah 61:1). He accordingly commences this ministry in the most despised town of the most despised region in the land of Israel (Luke 4:18).

The phrase used here, “the gospel of God,” is striking in its comprehensiveness; for “the kingdom of” is an unwarranted addition, foisted into the text from Matthew 4:23 at some period subsequent to the apostolic day by misguided harmonists, zealous to introduce uniformity where the divine Author had ordered variety. “The gospel of God” implies the heavenly origin of the gospel. It was God's gospel, emanating from Him, and, in consequence, possessing a paramount authority. This Servant of Jehovah, Son of God as He was, brought no independent message of His own devising. The gospel He preached was the gospel of God. And we cannot fail to observe the beautiful propriety of this phrase, peculiar as it is to this Gospel, which, before we are permitted to hear a word of the preaching of Jesus, the Servant-Prophet, points us upward to heaven and to God as its source.

And what is here stated by the inspired Evangelist was stated more explicitly and emphatically by the Lord Himself. “My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God, or [whether] I speak from myself.” “I spake not from myself, but the Father which sent me, he hath given me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak.” “The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me” (John 7:16, 17; 12:49; 14:24, R.V.).

It is noticeable that while the phrase—the gospel of God—only occurs once in the Gospels, it is of more frequent occurrence in the Epistles.

The great apostle to the nations, in his Epistle to the Romans, speaks of himself as separated unto the gospel of God, and also of ministering it to the Gentiles (Romans 1:1; 15:16). Twice he speaks of preaching the gospel of God to those at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:2, 8, 9); while the apostle of the circumcision uses it in a solemn warning which he utters to unbelievers— “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God” (1 Peter 4:17)?

Thus Paul and Peter united in the service of spreading the heavenly evangel; but it is a fruitful theme for meditation that God's gospel was first proclaimed by Him who was both its Essence and Fullness. Well might the apostle exclaim, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him” (Hebrews 2:3)?

(4) We now come to the declarations of the Lord as they are summarized in this Gospel. They contained a twofold announcement, and a twofold exhortation. The Servant-Prophet announced (a) that the time was fulfilled, and (b) that the kingdom of God was at hand; while He called upon men (a) to repent, and (b) to believe the gospel.

By the fulfillment of the time (καιρὸς) it may be supposed that the Lord made reference to the fact of His own public appearance in Galilee as the Servant-Prophet at a moment which was predetermined by Jehovah who sent Him. We find a similar expression used by the Lord elsewhere, implying how perfectly His life was regulated from above, and in no sense the outcome of unforeseen circumstances. When the brethren of the Lord urged Him to go up to Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, His reply was, “My time (καιρὸς) is not yet come, but your time is alway ready.... Go ye up unto the feast; I go not up yet unto this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled” (John 7:6, 8). At the last paschal feast, the Lord sent this message to the man in Jerusalem, “The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples” (Matthew 26:18). Speaking also of the second coming of the Son of man, He says to His disciples, “Ye know not when the time (καιρὸς) is” (Mark 13:33), warning them also of those who would raise a false alarm of the approach of that day, saying, “The time (καιρὸς) is at hand” (Luke 21:8). To everything, therefore, in the life of the incarnate Son there was an appointed time. Of this He, as the obedient Man, was conscious; and it was an exemplification of the perfection of His service for God, not only to know this for the joy of His own heart, but to declare it publicly, as in this instance, in the hearing of those who were naturally the sons of disobedience.

The theme of His announcement was that the kingdom of God was nigh. This constituted His glad tidings. Clearly this gospel was not that of the Acts and of the Epistles; only that Jehovah the Savior was there, even then, in His fullness for empty and needy sinners. But until His death and resurrection, neither the utter depravity of man was proved, nor was the incomparable love of God towards guilty sinners manifested. Here, however, it is declared that “the kingdom of God was nigh.” This was a word of hope and gladness, uttered to this saddened and sin-stricken world. And what a disordered spectacle the world then afforded to those that “feared Jehovah and thought upon His name"! The chosen people were divided and scattered, and the returned remnant of the Jews under the heel of the Roman oppressor. The Gentiles were “without God, and without hope in the world"; while the whole creation was groaning and travailing together in pain.

At such a juncture the inspiriting cry is raised: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” This kingdom is not to consist of a fallen man ruling fallen men. When the blind lead the blind the ditch must be their destination. Such, in fact, is the history of man's kingdoms, as the Old Testament fully shows. Now God's kingdom is to appear, originating with God, governed by God, maintained by God. The sphere of influence of this kingdom is not confined to Israel, but to extend to all nations, to the uttermost parts of the earth; and not over man only, the head of creation, but all suffering creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Such beneficent and assured effects the word of God recites elsewhere, though these effects are not realized even yet.

Here the King appears. How near, therefore, must God's kingdom be, when God's King was among them! Only a short while and Jesus would present Himself to the daughter of Zion as her King. He would go up to Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, “Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass.” Alas! that the King should hear Himself denied by the sages of Jerusalem, who sat in Moses' seat— “We have no king but Caesar!” “Away with this Man! Crucify him!” He was indeed crucified, and this of necessity changed the aspect of the kingdom for the time. But while this is so, “the kingdom of God” is yet to be established upon the earth, and all rule and all authority and power shall be eventually abolished according to His infallible word (see 1 Corinthians 15:24).

But were the hearers prepared for the gospel? For the due enjoyment of the blessing of God's kingdom, whether in its moral or material form, an inward change is essential. Hence the Lord calls upon men to repent. He was not here to subjugate men by the exercise of irresistible force. He came to “call sinners to repentance.” In this the Lord reiterated the exhortation of His forerunner; for John the Baptist called upon men to repent. And those who received his testimony were baptized in Jordan, confessing their sins. It was no less necessary that men should repent and accept the gracious witness concerning the coming kingdom, trusting simply to the word of Him who brought the good tidings.

[W. J. H.]

(Continued from page 360)

(To be continued)

Philippians 3:1-11

The central point of the preceding chapter is the life of the Lord on earth, in His obedience of love, humbling Himself—the pattern for us. As sinners we cannot humble ourselves, we are as low as we can be; but when grace has exalted us to be children of God, then we are called to follow Him. We must be above our duty before we can accomplish it. Chap. 3, on the contrary, looks at the Lord in glory as the Object to counteract the influences of flesh in its religious aspect. But we must know the Lord in grace before we can go on in His power. The apostle started with the glory. It was there, and there alone, that he saw the Lord—not with his natural eyes, for he had fallen with his face to the ground, but—by the manifestation of the Spirit. Yet he really saw the Lord, and really heard the words of His mouth. It is thus with every converted soul. The miraculous circumstances may be lacking, but miracles never yet saved any one. There must be the new birth— “born of water and Spirit,” the Spirit's action by the word of God—before there can be entrance into the kingdom of God.

Even with himself, lest he should be exalted above measure, he was only permitted to give his earliest testimony for a very short time, and then he is sent into Arabia to learn the grace of the Lord.

The too frequent plunging into service before learning the Lord's mind, as shown in chap. 2, is what the Spirit warns against here, for it is sure to lead to the activity of the flesh and not of the Spirit. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” This cuts at the root of the whole matter. It is not, Run into service in order to get joy, but, “rejoice in the Lord.” And unless there is joy in Him, service is most dangerous. “To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” He had already at the beginning said much about “rejoicing “; he does so again at the end. But the apostle did not mind repeating his words to impress them the more upon them.

“Beware of dogs.” It is not likely that he would speak of the sheep thus, but the vigilant eye of this undershepherd had detected those creeping in whose worldly-mindedness made it too evident that they were “enemies of the cross of Christ,” although they might be extremely zealous of religion. “Beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” —a play upon the word “circumcision.” We know how the idolatrous priests cut themselves with knives and lances (1 Kings 18:28), and this may refer to that practice. It is astonishing how far the flesh may go in its religious energy, entirely opposed to the mind of God.

“For we are the circumcision” —himself and the Philippians. He purposely brings in these Gentile believers to show how completely this is outside ordinances— “Who worship by God's Spirit.” Nothing hinders the Spirit's action so much as the flesh mixing up the church and the world. “And rejoice in Christ Jesus” —again he brings this in— “and have no confidence in the flesh.” Then he speaks of himself, what the religious flesh of Saul of Tarsus was “but what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Very valuable they had appeared until that sight of the glory of Christ. “And I count all things but loss,” not merely “counted"! Many begin well, who after a time go back. Paul, near the end of his course, still counted “all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” All this is in the singular number. When he speaks of general blessings he links others with himself. Not so in this his personal experience.

“That I may win Christ.” Was he not already a believer? Yes, but he looks on to the time when he should he with Him, and enjoy His presence in glory with Him. “Not having my own righteousness,” etc. A strange expression from one who, “touching the righteousness of the law was blameless.” But this was of his own working out. All he wanted now was Christ. “The power of his resurrection.” The religion of to-day starts with the Incarnation: Paul with His death, with the resurrection glory of the One who has passed out of this scene altogether. “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead.” He looked through the long vista to the time when he should be in his glorified body with Him—that is what he means by “winning” Christ.

W. K.

Conversion and Salvation (duplicate Completed)

There are many people who bear the name of Christians who have not got beyond this state [i.e. who are converted, but do not know salvation]. These are like the prodigal son (Luke 15), when he repents and arises to go to his father. He was on the right way, but he did not know how he would be received by his father. Such people possess perhaps more light, but as to their relation with God, they are in the same state.

Cornelius was already converted, devout, faithful, and full of the fear of God, according to the light he possessed. But he did not know salvation, the work of the Savior, and its efficacy. Led only by the grace of God, he received with faith what Peter told him. Now it was declared to him that, according to the testimony of all the prophets, he who believed in Jesus received the remission of his sins. The Holy Ghost seals by His coming this truth received with simple faith into the hearts of Cornelius and his friends. The Holy Ghost is given then to the Gentiles, without their becoming Jews or being circumcised. Henceforth it was impossible not to receive them into the Christian assembly. God had received them, and had put His seal on them. Peter commands them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

We have here four distinct points: the conversion of the soul by grace (Cornelius was already converted, and his prayers and alms accepted by God); then the testimony for the remission of his sins by faith in Jesus, the victim by whom propitiation was made for us on the cross; then the seal of God in the gift of the Holy Ghost; and, finally, the formal reception among the Christians. This order is not that which is found elsewhere; because God was here sheaving that it was His will that the Gentiles should be received. But it is important to distinguish the four things, and to observe the true force of each of them.

It is important to ponder deeply the difference between conversion and salvation. I have already spoken on this subject, but it is one that is so much neglected, and Christians are so accustomed to be content with a low state of soul, and are so uncertain with regard to salvation, that I shall take the opportunity of adding a few more words. Cornelius was already converted; his prayers and alms were acceptable to God. He was to call for Peter, who would tell him words whereby he might be saved: God had been working in his soul, but he did not yet know the value of the work accomplished by the Savior. It is the same in the case of the woman in Luke 7; she loved the Lord deeply, had felt the height of His grace and the depth of her sins; but knew not that all was pardoned. The Lord tells her so. The prodigal son was converted, confessed his sins, and turned towards his father, but he was not yet clothed with the best garment. His father had not yet fallen on his neck, he knew not his love; he hardly hoped to be admitted as a servant, and was not in a fit state to enter into the house. Every privilege awaited him, but he did not possess them.

I doubt not that He who has begun the good work will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus. As long as a soul reasons about its state, seeks to know whether it is saved or converted, and judges by its own heart of what is in the heart of God, it is under law; salvation for such an one depends on his own state, not on the love of God and the efficacy of the work of Christ. He may perhaps say he is truly converted; he feels the need of salvation, and believes that others have found it; but he does not himself possess it; just as Israel was not out of the land of Egypt till the sea was crossed. Two things, which cannot be separated, are necessary; faith in the work of Christ, and the knowledge that it is finished. I say they cannot be separated, because, when we believe in the work of Christ, and by faith trust in it, we are sealed by the Holy Ghost; we enjoy peace (the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts), we are reconciled to God, and in Christ are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; and we know it by the Holy Ghost given to us. In spirit we are in the Father's house, partaking of the food with which He nourishes His beloved children. Not only has the heart turned towards God, but Christ is our righteousness, who also appears for us continually before the face of God.

J. N. D.

Practical Remarks on Prayer: 5. Spiritual Opposition and Conflict

V.-Spiritual Opposition And Conflict

The record about Daniel sheds light upon the hindrances, not so much to prayer, as to the answering of prayer. How many devout supplicants are perplexed at not receiving what they pray for! Well, we find that though the answer to Daniel's prayer was delayed, the delay was not because he was not heard— “Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Daniel 10:12, 13).

Thus, then, there were spiritual impediments, not to Daniel's prayer, not to its being heard and granted, but to the answer reaching him. Here there is good encouragement. For we are apt to suppose that our breath in prayer is lost if an answer is not received at once. But exercise of heart in prayer is never fruitless, though the result may be long delayed. “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God,” was said to Cornelius; and we know not how long he had been kept waiting before Peter was sent to him with the answer: it may have been years (Acts 10). As in Daniel's case, so in Cornelius', and so in ours, there is a time as well as a mode of answering, which rests in the wisdom and grace of God. But so subtle is the working of unbelief that saints often pray and pray earnestly, but yet the last thing that they seem to expect is that God will grant their requests! Old Zacharias had prayed that he might have a son; so it appears from Luke 1:13. He had faith to pray, but not to believe that God would grant his prayer; for when the angel Gabriel tells him that his prayer is heard and that his wife should bear him a son, instead of rejoicing and worshipping, he asks, “Whereby shall I know this?” But our God is very gracious; for this unbelief He chastens Zacharias with dumbness for a season, yet does not withdraw compliance with his petition. Prayer is a great reality, and we know not what unseen transactions are taking place over supplications which we suppose to have been unnoticed or unheard; but let us be assured that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. The case of Zacharias is an instance of what perhaps often occurs—that saints are in their faith and hope not up to the level of their own prayers.

But in the account of Daniel's praying, what a curtain is uplifted from unseen things! Many suppose that above this world all is good. But scripture lets us know that there are principalities, authorities, and spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies, with whom, indeed, we are in conflict (Ephesians 6:12). Does it seem strange that wicked spirits should he there? The explanation is that there has been sin amongst spiritual creatures as well as in man, and that indeed before man existed. For we find that when only just ushered upon the platform of creation he is confronted by an insidious foe already in existence—that old serpent, the devil. However, man, the material being, though having sinned, has not yet been caste out of the earth, which is the home of his nature; he is still tolerated here, though in rebellion against God, and though he has risen up against, and crucified, the Son of God. Now heaven is the habitat of spiritual beings, as the earth is of material; and the spirits which have sinned are not yet expelled from the heavens, any more than man from the earth. So there are opposed beings in the angelic sphere. One of them obstructed for twenty-one days the heavenly messenger sent to Daniel. The hinderer is designated—the prince of the kingdom of Persia—while Michael, one of the chief princes, is “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people,” that is, Israel (Daniel 12:1). But there will come a time when there will be open war in heaven, resulting in Satan's expulsion thence with his angels, even then not receiving their final doom, which is the lake of fire, but being cast into the earth (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12). It was this event which the Lord looked forward to, and saw in prophetic vision, when He said to His disciples, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The Seventy had returned from their mission with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us through Thy name"; and this casting out of demons from their lodgment in mankind was but an earnest of the grander dispossession which should take place when Satan and his angels should be cast out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-9).

In the meanwhile, Satan and his hosts, not yet in confinement, still ranging the heavenlies (he is the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:2), are incessantly seeking to thwart the purposes of God. Man, rejecting every divine testimony, plays into Satan's hands. The believer, however, is delivered from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13), is no longer under Satan's authority, as once he was; but being, on the contrary, associated with Christ, he becomes the object of Satan's antagonism. The Christian's eyes are opened to the astounding fact that on the platform of this world a war is in progress against God; and that in this he is called to bear a part, to take a side. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 6:12, New Trans.).

In this warfare prayer is a distinct weapon, a part of the panoply of God enumerated in Ephesians 6 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel” (vers. 18, 19). Epaphras illustrates prayer as a mode of spiritual conflict. The Auth. Vers. says, “Epaphras... saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers” (Colossians 4:12). But the true rendering of the word “laboring” is “combating.” It is the same word as, in John 18:36, is translated “fight” — “then would my servants fight.” Prayer, the last-mentioned piece in the panoply, is the active expression of the essential principle of the conflict, namely, dependence. Man has no strength against Satan, and, in nature, is his willing slave; and the Christian's resource is to lay hold upon a strength which is divine, and which alone can cope with the power of Satan. Hence the entire subject of the armor, and the believer's conflict, is introduced by laying down the foundation principle, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength” (Ephesians 6:10, New Trans.). Man must get back to God, and to the creature's condition of dependence, or he remains the slave of Satan. And the saint must be genuinely cast upon the Lord in the sense of his weakness and dependence if he is to be a victor in the battle. [E. J. T.]

The So-Called Apostles' Creed: Part 3

To-day at any rate the proverbial “conflict between science and religion” comes in here. And it is not difficult to make out on which side men are prepared to range themselves. In any apparent issue between them there is certainly shown a tendency always to give science the benefit of the doubt. And all along there are assumptions made for a yet lisping science which are denied to the clear and mature tones of scripture's voice. How interesting to discover, for instance, that while we may have no unchallenged dogmas in religion, science may press an unproven theory upon us with all the authority of dogma, and few but are coerced or cajoled into bowing down to it!

Thus one would imagine now that to entertain the novel theory of evolution would be to consign to oblivion this great argument of design in nature. Yet here we are taught that this great discovery of the nineteenth century need not be thought to invalidate the evidence of design, for the divine purpose in view throughout the long age-lasting upward progress to nature's crowning product, man, is, if anything, the more evidenced thereby. Were it not better frankly to avow, if one could go no further, that if this truly epoch-making hypothesis be indeed confessed as a clearly established axiom of science—which is, however, even on its own ground, by no means the case—then that its account and that of scripture being so utterly at variance, the disparity between the two is evident and must be faced. Certainly, in the matter of man's origin, the difference is marked enough between “nature's crowning product” and Adam created in God's image. As to which affords true evidence, not only of design, but of divine care and interest, where is the comparison? One must suppose it is all a question of the kind of God we are content to prove the existence of. If One to whom every one of us must give account of himself; One with whom we have to do; if a God whose goodness unfallen creation proclaimed, whose love has since been manifested, and whose grace is presently offered to all—a theory which delegates the production of all things, and man above all, to the progress of ages through the agency of natural selection, will be as little satisfying to us as the more ancient, and scarcely less worthy, idea of a fortuitous concourse of atoms. No; if God be the God we adore, the God whose word we believe (and what have we, even if nature's witness were increased tenfold, if we rest not there), our universe owes its being to Him, and man infinitely more so, in a far more direct manner than evolution would teach. “He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.” “God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

But the real worth of such evidence from nature, apart altogether from such modifications of it as have been alluded to as now prevalent, its evidence undiluted, at what estimate shall we take it if what we may see of its weight with, and effect upon, men be the criterion by which we judge? Does nature lead to nature's God inevitably? certain as it is that it points there most truly. What does scripture say of its witness? The first chapter of Romans we may take in its later verses surely as giving an instance of how mankind may be affected by the testimony of creation. It is in no special sphere such as Judaism, remember, that this history of man's attitude towards the knowledge of God is traced; but out in the open, among men at large, the Gentiles. From verse 19 onwards we are shown wherein the “ungodliness” of the Gentiles, previously spoken of, consists. This ungodliness of men against which the wrath of God is revealed, what was it but simply an entire absence of the fear of God, where there was sufficient testimony existing to render such a thing inexcusable? The apostle, in reviewing this testimony, goes back to what is primary. The largest, the most general sphere is chosen first, creation, “that which may be known of God.” Primitive as is its witness, creation is still full of manifestation of God. That which was “knowable” of God, from the testimony of created things, contained a voice for any listening ear, wherever or whenever found. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead [divinity], so that they are without excuse.”

The works of God truly render eloquent testimony regarding their Author; and “that which may be known of Him,” in respect of His Being and power, finds adequate expression there. His eternal power and divinity, invisible like all His attributes, apart from His disclosure of Himself, visible objects of striking character are eminently suited to proclaim. “The heavens,” we read in Psalm 19, “declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” Above man then appeared, and around Him were strewn, wonders great and innumerable to draw and fix his attention upon that supremely wise and powerful One to whom they silently pointed. That these did point somewhere the most darkened heathen has never escaped the conviction of. To say, however, that such have merely missed, through inadvertence, the right direction in which they might have been dimly seen to point, would be to misrepresent the case. Had the indications been obscure, some such excuse might be found possible, but it is not a mistaken reading of the evidence that we must lay to man's account, but the wholesale rejection of it. The language that “day unto day uttereth” is as little ambiguous as its “pouring forth” is meager. The knowledge that “night unto night showeth” is no esoteric doctrine, but breathes its whisper in the ears of all. “There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heard.” Not in articulate fashion; yet “their line is gone out through all the earth, and their sayings to the end of the world.”

Such widespread, continuous, and eloquent testimony would seem to leave little room for either ignorance or mistake. Yet what are the facts of the case? Take man in the state he now is in of ignorance and darkness as to the knowledge of God. Take, on the other hand, the witness of nature to the Creator we have spoken of as of so great power and certainty. How are we to explain the lack of conviction wrought, the apparent unfruitfulness of this line of evidence? Is it not that the hearts of men have been so desirous after some alternative signification that they have willfully disregarded its true indication? God they will not see it points to. Anyone or anything but Him they would willingly invest with the glory of such handiwork. They say unto God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” Yet even in face of this want of desire after God, these silent witnesses remain, to be accusers if nothing more; and the sum of their accusation here is that ungodly men are “without excuse.”

And, taken in the mass, this is all the fruit the witness of nature has produced in man! There is no clearness lacking, no inherent weakness in, its testimony to a divine Creator. Rather might it seem an inference from which there was no escape. Yet the fact remains that, as the rule, man has not drawn that inference. Man being what he is, God is not in all his thoughts, however much creation seems to press Him upon his attention. Faith truly perceives creation to be His work, as Hebrews 11:3 declares-"Through faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” But were we left with the bare fact of nature's witness, not so much after all that “God is” as that “God must be,” as the basis of appeal to men, we possess but little. Besides, at best, as has been said, to prove the existence of God is to descend to the very elementary.

On two occasions, noted in the Acts, the apostle Paul found it necessary to make primary truth such as this the subject of discourse. Acts 14:8-18, and 17:16-34 give the account of them. It is particularly interesting to us to-day to notice who the hearers respectively were of these similar addresses. The philosophic Athenians would no doubt consider themselves far removed from the ignorant Lystrians; but such is the debased and darkened state of the natural mind that each needed the same first lesson to be taught them. Both are, as many to-day need to be, “set to spell the alphabet of creation.”

To refer now to the second of those great evidences to the existence of one God and Father Almighty, the “universal sense of God,” as it is called-something corresponding to that term we must allow does exist. Account for it as we may,

no fact in this world is more prominent or undeniable than the universal prevalence of religion. Religious beliefs and practices of some sort pervade the entire human family. Our lecturer correctly enough insists on this as remarkable. No community yet discovered, as he says, no people, however remote or secluded, but has its religion. The most barbarous and ignorant, and the most civilized and intellectual among the races of mankind, however widely severed in other respects, are alike in this, that there is that in them which prompts veneration of some higher power. It may be they worship they know not what; but still they worship. “To the unknown God” even they may raise their altar, and it may be difficult to say whether it is a “what” or a “whom” they “ignorantly reverence.” The fact remains they do revere.

Patent to all as this is, there are not wanting those who would fain explain it away on rationalistic grounds. Of the frankly materialistic school there are still many with us. And it is these in particular against whom is directed a somewhat elaborate disquisition on the origin and roots of human religion. If we follow here, as we must so far, we shall do so on our own lines. The most convinced materialist, then, cannot deny the fact of man's seemingly essential religiousness, however he may attempt to explain it. They confess to having a task in hand in eradicating that idea so strangely prevalent in man, which postulates supernatural agency for phenomena which in any sense are obscure. It may also be conjectured how much of a problem they find it satisfactorily to account for what seems the universal impulse of men to so attribute such phenomena. The materialist, in fact, is involved in difficulty all round. His quest after the roots of religion in man's nature has hitherto been attended with scant success. The conflicting testimony from investigators in that field is notorious. From Hume to Herbert Spencer there has been nothing but diversity. Each part of man's nature, is intellectual, his emotional, his imaginative faculties, has in turn been singled out as the sphere in which religion takes its rise. An unclassified sentiment is really all that psychological analysis can as yet pronounce the religious instinct to be. We may not be so far off after all from seeing advanced in good earnest that sarcastic paraphrase of F. W. Newman's definition which the late J. N. Darby suggested-” a phrenological bump.”

At present at all events the shallower species of materialists' favorite term, “superstition,” does not approve itself to the more thoughtful; and, while carefully avoiding the term, all such seem unable altogether to escape some slight contamination of the theory of the innate consciousness in man of a power and personality higher than human. Thus Haeckel, while finding the crude beg innings of religion to spring “partly from the hereditary superstition of primate ancestors, partly from ancestor-worship, as well as from habits which have become traditional,” concludes his formidable list with the very indefinite phrase, “and various emotional impulses.” Yes, just somewhere in that latter region will be found the solution of the problem—Why is religion such a universal feature, so inseparable from man wherever found? Exploration, discovery, the progress of your ethnological study have but multiplied the instances of its occurrence, without solving the question of its origin. No solution seems possible but that which explains its unexceptional appearance and ineradicable nature, in the first place, by some inherent impulse in men, by an ingrained consciousness of a higher power.

Conjoined with this also, or a component part of the same instinct, there is the sense of moral accountability indelibly imprinted on the heart of every man. This is so plainly the case that no denial is possible. It is so realized to be part and Parcel of our very nature as men to feel accountable for thoughts entertained and actions performed. We can understand no normal human being without it, and as matter of fact we find none. Man is essentially a moral creature, from the beginning was so. A consciousness of responsibility, dim it may be, or uncertain to whom it refers, pervades the mind of even the most benighted, however distorted his ideas of the unknown Supreme may be.

In every human soul, too, scripture testifies, since the fruit of the forbidden tree in Eden was partaken of, the voice of conscience makes itself heard. “Knowing good and evil” describes the new moral outlook of man in his fallen state, come under the power of evil now, alas! though his “conscience hearing witness” as we read in Romans 2:15-not in regard to Jews, not in that sphere where the light of revealed truth shone, but among “those of the nations,” “the heathen.” Instances of commendable ethics among the Gentiles, rare enough no doubt, were sometimes in evidence. This does not prove, however, “the law” to be “written on their hearts.” It is “the work of the law” of which this is affirmed, conscience bearing corroborative witness therewith. The thoughts of accusation or extenuation that flit across such dark minds, show them capable, inherently so, of moral exercise, and evidence clearly enough the sense of moral accountability, and the witness of conscience to be, both of them, universal features. All this in its own way we must allow is testimony to the existence of God.

[ J. T.]

(Continued from page 368)

Fragment: The Hope of Righteousness

The hope of righteousness is not the hope of getting righteousness, but the hope of glory which belongs to righteousness. God says, You are My children; I have brought you to Myself, and you are going to hear about the glory of Christ, and are joint heirs with Him in it. When I think of the apostles to whom God revealed such things as these, I think how, with such power of God in them, they could go safely. But thus laden with Christ, they could go safely and steadily through the world; they were fully ballasted with Christ.

Have Christ in yourself. Christ everything to us enlarges the Christ in us, and then we can go steadily along. If I have a full Christ in myself, then I can look safely out. If I have Christ as the center of glory in my heart, I can look out and see the glory all around.

J. N. D.

Advertising

NOW READY

Bible Treasury, Vol. VII., cloth boards 4/6

Bible Treasury, Half Vol. (year 1909), paper net 1/6

Gospel Gleanings, Vol. IX. (1909), cloth net 1/-

Message from God, Vol. 1909, cloth 1/6

Glad Tidings for the Young, Vol. V. (1909), cloth 1 / 6

WORKS BY W. KELLY

God's Inspiration of the Scriptures cloth, net In the Beginning and the Adamic Earth cloth, net Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph cloth, each Day of Atonement cloth The Priesthood”

4/6 1/6 1/6 2/- 2/-

The Offerings of Leviticus

1/6

Closing Types of Leviticus

„

1/-

Israel Holy to Jehovah

1/-

Job, Notes on Book of

1/6

Job, Three Lectures on Book of

1/6

Psalms, New Version, with Short Notes

2/6

Isaiah, Exposition of

7/6

Ezekiel, Notes on

2/-

Daniel, Notes on

2/-

Romans, Notes on Corinthians, Notes on First, 12/6; Second, 2 vols.

2/-;

2/6 4/6

Galatians, Notes on

1/6

Ephesians, Notes on

2/-

Philippians and Colossians, Notes on

2/-

Titus and Philemon, Exposition of

2/-

Hebrews, Exposition of

6/-

Peter, Exposition of First, 2/6; Second, 2 vols.

2/-;

4/6

John's Epistles, Exposition of

7/6

Revelation, Expounded

2/-

Revelation, Lectures on The

6/6

Lectures on Church of God

2/-

Lectures on Second Coming and Kingdom

2/6

Lectures on New Testament Doctrine of Holy

Spirit “

2/6

Apostle Paul and Athens

paper

6d.

Stephen, the Christian Proto-Martyr

6d.

The Higher Criticism

6d.

Published

LONDON

T. WESTON, Publisher, 53, Paternoster Row

Bible Treasury: Volume N7

Table of Contents

That Was the True Light, Which Lighteth Every Man That Cometh Into the World

Mark 9:15; 10:32

Time of the End, but the End Not yet — 1. Not Christian but Jewish

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 5

The Constancy of Christ's Love

The Glory of God (Duplicate)

Notes of an Address Titus 2:11-14 and 3:4-7

Lectures on Jude 16-19

The Righteousness of God

Whom … Ye Denied

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 1

Advertisement

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 6

Exodus 17:1-6 and Numbers 20:1-11

The Temple of God and Its Worship: Part 1

An Epistle of Christ: Part 1

An Epistle of Christ: Part 2

Washing of Regeneration and the Holy Ghost Shed

Fear and Trembling

Fear and Love

Lectures on Jude 20-21

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 2

Advertisement

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 7

Lectures on the Book of Job: Introduction

The Temple of God and Its Worship: Part 2

New Testament Scripture

Inspiration

An Epistle of Christ: Part 3

Lectures on Jude 22-23

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 3

Advertisement

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 8

Lectures on Job 1

Day of Visitation - Bethsaida

Till He Come

Death to the Believer

Holiness

Lectures on Jude 24-25

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 4

Advertisement

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 9

Lectures on Job 1-2

Thy Right Hand

Journeys to Jerusalem

Our Portion in Christ: Part 1

Lectures on Jude 24-25

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 5

Advertisement

Published

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 10

Lectures on Job 3-14

Evidence of the Purchase

No Man Knoweth the Son but the Father

Our Portion in Christ: Part 2

Lectures on Jude 25

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: 6

Dead to Sin, Dead to Law, Crucified to the World

Published

The Altar and the Hebrew Servant

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 11

Lectures on Job 15

Work of Christ and Witness of the Holy Ghost Will of God

Advertisement

Published

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 12

Nehemiah 8

Lectures on Job 16-19

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 2. Difficult Texts

Even as He Was

Rome and Modernism: Part 1

Published

The Ministry of Elisha: No. 13

Lectures on Job 19-31

Time of the End, but the End Not Yet: 2. Difficult Texts, Continued

In That Day

Rome and Modernism: Part 2

Confession and Forgiveness