62. “C.” Bridgewater. It is said that Simon “believed” but whether he believed because of seeing the miracles, as many did in the days of our Lord, we are not told (Acts 8:1313Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. (Acts 8:13); John 2:2323Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. (John 2:23)); but from Peter’s saying that his heart was not right with God, and that he was “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity,” it seems likely to have been the case.
63. “R.,” Tetbury. No doubt, between the record given in John 7—“Neither did his brethren believe on him”—and Acts 1, a mighty work had been wrought in their souls by the Holy Ghost; for we there find “his brethren” in the upper room with the other disciples in prayer and supplication. Thanks for your kind note and the lines enclosed.
64. “W.,” Greenwich. It seems both unscriptural and irreverent for anyone to subscribe himself as, “Yours in the Carpenter.” It is in Christ risen we have life; in Christ ascended we are blessed, and united to Him by the Holy Ghost sent forth into our hearts. In the days of His flesh, He was spoken of by those who were offended at Him as the carpenter. They said, a “Is not this the carpenter?” “Is not this the carpenter’s son?.... And they were offended in him.” (Mark 6:33Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (Mark 6:3); Matt. 13:55-5755Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? 57And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. (Matthew 13:55‑57).) May the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, now glorified, be ever thought of by us with adoring reverence and worshipping hearts.
65. “T.,” Seaton. The “green tree,” in Luke 23:3131For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke 23:31), we judge, refers to Christ, who presented Himself to Israel in all His perfectness and grace, and the people hated Him without a cause, and put Him to death. The question, “What shall be done in the dry?” is the solemn inquiry, What will God do to a people, fruitless and dead, who had so dishonored His name? It refers to the divine judgments coming upon an apostate people.
66. “C,” Durham. There is no doubt but Elijah will actually be sent before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. If the Jewish nation had really received Jesus as their Messiah, John would have taken the place of Elijah; but they did not.
With regard to the curse on the ground, we do not read of its being removed, but Cain had a further curse: “It [the earth] shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.” (Gen. 3:17; 4:1217And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (Genesis 3:17)
12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. (Genesis 4:12).) In the garden, Adam had to dress it and to keep it; but when he sinned, the earth brought forth thorns and thistles, and he ate bread by the sweat of his face. After the flood, in virtue of the sacrifices offered, seed-time and harvest being promised seemed to imply an increase of facility in obtaining food out of the earth. The favored people of Israel had to labor, but were blessed in so doing with increase. As a mark of divine favor, they prospered in their basket and store. In the millennium, while the earth will yield abundantly her increase, there will still be plowing, sowing, reaping, &c.
67. “A Cornish Reader.” Few subjects appear to us of more importance at the present time with the Lord’s people than the question of debt. Notwithstanding the precepts of scripture so continually enjoin practical righteousness, and the word of God plainly commands us to “owe no man anything,” yet it is by no means uncommon (we grieve to say) to find Christians, not only habitually going into debt, but justifying themselves in so doing. Some, therefore, are found trading on other persons’ capital instead of their own; others, using things daily which have not been paid for, and, in some instances, without a reasonable hope of their being paid for. In this way too many have usurped the place of masters who, we believe, are called of God to be journeymen, or servants; and many, in various ways, both in business and out of business, are keeping up positions, false and baseless, to the ultimate damage of others, perhaps, far more than themselves. Such things bring great dishonor on the name of the Lord. We do not doubt, however, that Christians, both in lending money and selling goods on credit, are sometimes to be blamed. Can it be true love and kindness to aid a Christian to keep up a false position, and to help him on in a course concerning which there can be no reasonable expectation but its ending in shame and dishonor on the name of the Lord? While we deeply feel, and often earnestly pray, for brethren in Christ who are pinched with poverty, (and perhaps few trials are more distressing), we cannot but deprecate the sad habit of rushing into debt to extricate themselves. If they made God our Father their refuge, pleading the name of His beloved Son, without self-will in the matter, watching His hand, and using diligently the means He has put in their power—we are assured they would not only have the joy of seeing His hand in delivering, but would find their faith enlarged by the trial.
The case you speak of, seems to us only a carnal stratagem to get rich. For those who have food and raiment not to be content, is in direct variance with one of the plainest scriptures. That in your case it has not succeeded is the goodness of God. That it has not turned to the temporal ruin of the person, is because God is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. We must not, however, forget that it is written, that “they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” (1 Tim. 6:9, 109But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:9‑10).)
68. “Bridgewater.” In order to understand the truth concerning “sons of God,” in Gen. 6, to which your question refers, we must go back to chapter 4. There we see the roots and characteristics of two very distinct classes of people: first, Cain, who went out from the presence of Jehovah under His marked displeasure, and his descendants, who sought a name among men, and flourished as inventors, manufacturers, and musicians; and surrounded themselves with everything they imagined would make them happy apart from God. Secondly, in the days of Seth—another seed appointed instead of Abel—to whom was born Enos, a name signifying frail, mortal man, when, we are told, “then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah.” Thus we have a people in felt weakness calling upon the name of Jehovah as entirely distinct from others in the world, who were outside the presence of Jehovah. Chapter 5 gives us the genealogy of these God-fearing people. We have then, in the Antediluvians, those who were of the world, far from God, and without God, and a people belonging to God, and owning Jehovah in a time of departure from Him and forgetfulness of Him. In process of time, however, as chapter 6 shows, those who had been so distinguished as “sons of God” and callers on the name of Jehovah, lost their separate place and character, and were attracted by the fair appearance of “the daughters of men” and in self-will “took them wives of all which they chose.” Not only was this an unequal yoke, but God’s only witnesses then on the earth, which had been so blessed of Him, lost their separate character, and therefore no longer had the place of testimony. Thus the first company of God’s people on earth departed from Him. We know that “mighty men,” and “men of renown,” were the fruits of this unholy alliance, but what is that in God’s account? Now all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth, and the Lord said, “My Spirit [the Spirit of Christ, see 1 Pet. 3:18-2018For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:18‑20)] shall not always [forever] strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.....I will destroy.” The Spirit of Christ in Noah preached to men then living in the earth, (whose spirits are now in prison), for an hundred and twenty years, and in due time the flood came, and destroyed all, save eight souls.
It is quite true that angels are sometimes in scripture called “sons of God” (Job 38:77When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)), and that Adam is also called “son of God;” but in the chapter before us they were evidently God’s people who witnessed for Him in the antediluvian world. Alas! what is man? What need have we to cry continually, “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe!”
69. “V.,” Hants. The point of such importance for the conscience, under all circumstances, is, whether we are in subjection to the will of God. To be “without natural affection” is condemned in scripture; but whether we allow the claims of those in natural relationship to be superior to the claims of the Lord, according to His revealed will in His word, is of all importance. We are the Lord’s. He knows our history and surroundings. The order of family obligations and of family relationships has been laid down by Him, and in those Epistles too, which set forth the highest truths revealed in scripture, and peculiarly instructive to the church of God—Ephesians and Colossians. To hold all the truth, according to the balance of the sanctuary, is the divine way.
70. Altrincharn. As we are taught that the principalities and powers in heavenly places now know by the church the manifold wisdom of God, it is not difficult to see the force of the apostle’s allusion to angels in the passage you refer to—that a woman should “have power on her head because of the angels.” (1 Cor. 11:1010For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. (1 Corinthians 11:10).)
71. Galashiels. Much confusion has arisen from not distinguishing between gift and office. A gift is for “the body;” eldership is a qualification of the Holy Ghost for a local assembly. Saints truly gathered in the Lord’s name, if cast upon Him, will prove Him sufficient for them, and nothing can go right without this. Putting away is an assembly act. The object of it is—1, To clear the Lord’s name of the dishonor associated with it; 2, To purge out the leaven, or the whole assembly would be leavened; 3, That the offender may be set right. (1 Cor. 5:4-134In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (1 Corinthians 5:4‑13).)
72. Peterhead. We believe that one who is walking by faith, and not by sight, will be subject to the word of God. He will receive it as out of the mouth of God, whether he understands it or not. He will hearken to it because God speaks. He will receive it in all simplicity as it stands in the inspired volume, in dependence on the Holy Ghost, the alone Teacher and Guide into all the truth.