IN the course of God's dealing with men, we may observe that He is again and again testing' them; and yet always providing for the failure in which He knew this testing would end.
He began thus with Adam in the Garden. He put him to proof, setting him as under law. But in the mystery of the sleeping man, and the woman taken out of him, He would have us learn, that from the very beginning He knew where this would end, and provided another and a better thing.
So with Israel afterward. He tested them by the law; but He revealed to them " the shadows of good things to come," the pledges of grace and salvation; knowing that man would again destroy himself, and be ruined under the Law of Mount Sinai, as he had already been under the law or command delivered to him in the Garden of Eden.
Then, by the ministry of the prophets, the Lord was leading the people back to obedience, if so be they would. be led that way.. But by the same prophets, He was anticipating the grace in which a self-ruined, helpless, and incorrigible people must finally stand, if blest at all.
John the Baptist then came, according to the prophecies which went before upon him, as the Voice, the Messenger, the Elijah, of Messiah. But he was also, in another aspect of his ministry, the Witness of the Lamb of God, and the harbinger of the Light of the World; characters in which the prophecies had not foreshewn him, but which put him in company with the Messiah, or the Christ, as dispensing grace and salvation to Israel and to man, on the clear assumption that all would fail, under the ministry that was then about to test them.
By the Lord's „own personal ministry in the cities and villages of Israel, the same process is conducted. He is testing His people by a proposal of Himself to them again and again; but He is likewise witnessing sovereign grace and redemption, knowing, as He did, that they would but again destroy themselves under thy trial that was then being made of them. By His commission to the Twelve and to the Seventy, He was doing the same-for such ministries were but a reflection of His.
And it is thus to the end. The Apostleship at Jerusalem under the Holy Ghost upon the ascension of Christ was still testing the Jew; and the Jew failed under it again. But " times of restitution " and of " refreshing " were looked at in the distance. And then, in the last commission instituted by Him, that is, in the Apostleship of St. Paul, the good news of God's salvation was sent to the ends of the earth, to gather the elect that they might act and shine as the Body of Christ; but in that same Apostleship He anticipates what the end of that ministry would be, and makes provision accordingly. This is seen in the second Epistle to Timothy; confirmed as that is by the challenge of the candlesticks in Rev. 1-3; and further, by the judgment of Christendom in Rev. 4-19* These thoughts may naturally introduce me to my subject-" Dispensational Truth."
(* I shall have to look at these Scriptures more particularly by and bye.)
It has been said lately, " that the study of it has a withering effect upon the soul." Let us try this by the light of the wisdom of God, as we get that light (where alone we can get it) in the word of God.
In the Epistle to the Romans, the saints of God are largely instructed in this character of truth. Chapters 9.- 11. is a very full writing on divine dispensations. But I grant that this is after they have been settled and established in personal truth-truth, I mean, that concerns themselves in their relation to God, as chapter 1.- 8. chews us.
Now this would let us know, that there is a condition of soul, in which it would be unhealthy or unseasonable for it to make the ways or dispensations of God its study. And, therefore, if the person who has thus spoken be intellectually inquiring into such matters, Divine and precious as they are, before the question of his own relation to God is settled, I can suppose that he has found this study to be a withering of the soul.
And again, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, I see the Apostle refusing to feed those saints of God with such knowledge as we are now speaking of. In the stores given him of the Spirit, he had " hidden wisdom," or " the wisdom of God in a mystery," and he would bring it out to the " perfect." But the Corinthians were in a bad moral condition; and he would, therefore, attend to them personally, rather than feed. or entertain them with knowledge of God and His ways. And very much in this same way, I may say, the Lord Himself had already dealt with Nicodemus, the Rabbi, as we see in John
So that again, I grant, there is a condition of soul, in which it would be unhealthy for it, nay, unwarranted of the Spirit of God, to make dispensational truth its study. And, therefore, if the person who has thus spoken be walking carelessly, I do not wonder at the soul withering if it be thus occupied.
But further, not only is the condition of the soul to be thus considered, as we make these things our study, there it also a mode of studying them which the word of God suggests, and which is to be considered also. I would.. instance what I mean. The Apostle, in tracing the dispensations of God, as I have already observed he does in Rom. 9-11, interrupts his progress through that great subject, and takes up for a time something that is strongly personal in its character, or in its bearing upon us individually. I mean in chapter 10. of that wonderful Scripture. For there we listen, each one for himself; sinners as we are, to the voice of law and to the voice of. faith, with suited admonitions, and encouragements, and teachings.
Just, I may say, as in 1 Cor. 12-14, where the same Apostle is unfolding ecclesiastical truth, as he is here unfolding dispensational truth; for there in like manner he interrupts himself by something deeply and solemnly personal and practical, as we see in chapter 13. of that Scripture.
So that I fully grant that the condition of the soul, and the mode of pursuing this study, have to be considered, while we are engaged in it. But, with these and kindred admonitions and jealousies, I find the wisdom of God does set us down carefully and continually to the meditations of His counsels and ways in His different dispensations; and that He has been doing so from the beginning.
Have we not proof of this? Surely the very earliest divine records, the patriarchal stories of the book of Genesis, teem with notices of God's counseled ways. In them He is issuing and telling out the end at the beginning. They are all of them true narrations-surely they are-and we are to acquaint ourselves with them as such. But is that all? Is. it 'merely to tell me what happened so many thousand years ago, that they are written for me? Or, do I expect to find in them, disclosures of divine secrets, good for the use of edifying one in the knowledge of God and His ways? I have no doubt how I am to answer this. Sarah and Hagar are not merely a domestic tale, but an allegory. And I am full sure, the same book of Genesis, where I read that allegory, teems with kindred ones-some more, some less, rich and profound in communications of the Divine Mind in eternal counsels.
And then, Mosaic ordinances take up the same wondrous tale.. The Jewish year, as 23. of Leviticus would tell us, measures, as in a miniature and in a, mystery, the way of God from the day of the Exodus out of Egypt, to the day of entering and dwelling in the kingdom, the millennial glory of Christ and the creation.
Afterward, the Prophets were instructed in those ways of God, and ordained to be the witnesses of them to all generations. I admit, there was another purpose of God in calling them out; and that was, to bring back Israel to their allegiance to Jehovah, if so be they would turn and repent. But the grander, and still more characteristic purpose of their ministry was this-to declare the ways of God, according to His counseled wisdom in dealing with this world of ours.
And when we come to the New Testament writings, we find the same. Not only do certain parts of those writings make such truth their subject (such. as Rom. 9-11, as we have already said), but such truth will be seen through parts and passages, which are more immediately dealing with other things. Dispensational truth is there called, by the high titles of " wisdom " and " mystery"; and well it surely may bear such dignities. And the Apostle prays that we may have spiritual understandings, to entertain and reach such themes. He tells us, that he speaks of such among the "perfect;" and lie intimates that it was the shame and loss of the Corinthians, that they were not prepared for truth of that high quality. And in all this, great honor is surely put on such truth itself, and encouragement of a peculiar kind given to the study of it. And if we are in company with that Spirit, who wrote the whole volume,. we cannot but be acquainting ourselves with it, as we go from Genesis to Revelations, throughout scripture from first to last.
But further.
Godliness is the religion of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15, 1615But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Timothy 3:15‑16)). Our character is to. be formed by it, and our service defined and directed by it. The truth is the instrument and the standard. It is that by which. the Spirit works in us and with us; and it is that by which we try everything. It is an instrument in the Spirit's hand, and a standard in ours-and the truth. that is this, is connected with the dispensations of God..
This is seen at once. Morals. and the duties which attach to human relationships get a peculiar character from their connection with such truth-as, among other scriptures, Eph. 4: 5. 6. would, in many particulars, illustrate for us. We are now in this dispensation to learn " Christ," and be. taught " as the truth is in Jesus," What was holiness and service under one dispensation, ceases to be so under another. Actions change their character with the changing time. In order to do right, or to be right, according to God, we must " know the time," as the Apostle speaks. The day was, when it was holy to call down fire from heaven to consume adversaries. But the day came, when the offer to do such a thing had to suffer rebuke-and that too, under the same supreme divine authority which had warranted, nay, inspired it, before. " Everything is beautiful in its season "-and dispensational truth is the great arbiter of seasons, telling us the times and what the Israel of God and the Church of God ought severally to do.
At one time, the Lord put the sword into the hand of His servant; at another, He took it out of such a hand. Joshua and Peter tell me this. "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar and unto God the things that are God's," was a divine decree in the day of the Evangelists-but, in earlier days, every trace of Gentile rule in the land of the fathers was required to be clean blotted out by the zeal and strength of the children. It was not to be " God " and " Cæsar " then, but Jehovah's name was to be written on the land of the Twelve Tribes, and every stick and stone on it be claimed in the name of Jehovah of Israel, without a rival.
Places and ordinances, in like manner, change their character with dispensations.. But this is more easily admitted or apprehended than the other. Mount Sinai where God came down, and which awful, consecrated spot, none Were to touch but Himself, is now simply " Sinai in Arabia "-and institutions, which were once divine, and the dishonoring of which was death, are now but "beggarly elements," " rudiments of the world." Nay, more-they are even put in company with idols. (Gal. 4). Thus, what was sacred at one time, becomes common at another; while, what was unclean once, is afterward given for the communion of the saints. The serpent of brass becomes Nehushtan-a company of those who had been repudiated as " uncircumcised,' becomes " a habitation of God through the Spirit."
Thus it is indeed so, that the character, the value with God, of actions, places, ordinances and the like, will change with changing dispensations. We are to decide on their godliness, their sacredness, their holiness, by " the truth." And not only is it thus with changing dispensations, but with -the changing phases and con' ditions of the same dispensation.
The harps of -Israel, for instance, were struck in the days of Solomon, and songs were sung when Heman Asaph, and Jeduthun were in the land. But in the days of Babylon, the harps were to be hung on the willows, and the songs of Zion to be silent.
So, David, according to the mind of God, when his hunger and wanderings bespoke a ruined condition of kings among the people, would ask for the show bread of the Temple for himself and his followers, though in the day of the integrity of Israel and their dispensation, it was lawful only for the priests to eat of it.
And thus we see, from a few samples out of many, that different stages or eras, or conditions of things, in—one and the same dispensation, have their several and peculiar truth on which to ground their own peculiar claims, just as surely and simply as if they were different dispensations. The children of Israel under Joshua, and under the Judges, the Jews at home, the Jews in Babylon,. the Jews returned, though all of them alike under the same covenant had very differently the claims and service of Jehovah to answer and do. " Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with Ahem," I may call to mind, -in connection with this. When He is taken away, then indeed they may fast (Luke 5), and ought to fast.
Surely, I may say, everything helps to show us, that dispensational truth is the great, I say not the only, rule and manner of holiness according to God. We must "know the time," for nothing is right out of season. " The children of Issachar were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." (1 Chron. 12:3232And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. (1 Chronicles 12:32)). Scripture is full of instruction upon this principle, and leaves us at no liberty to judge the holy and the unholy, independently of " the truth." Our godliness, our piety, in order to have a divine character, depends on our knowledge of the truth; of times and seasons as they are with God, or according to his mind in His perfect and beautiful, though changing dispensations:
Here, however, let me say, lest I should be misunderstood, that I surely know there are rules of right and wrong, which are essentially so, by moral necessity so; and we are not to question their authority. Conscience is ever to be respected, though it must consent to be instructed. Nature itself has a voice at times, which we are to listen to. Surely I grant all this, though I speak of dispensational truth, as I do. For I again say, it is not the only rule, and measure of holiness. And I will say More. I grant that all dispensations have certain common. qualities, certain features which mark each and all of them. Let me dwell on this for a little.
In this world, which has—departed from God through pride, and desire of self-exaltation, where a man would have been as God, if God appear and act at all, surely He will come in a way to stain the pride of all flesh, and bring back His revolted creature to glory only in Him.
And we see, accordingly, that it is thus, or on such a principle as this, that He has always acted in the midst of us, ever choosing the weak thing to confound the strong, that no flesh might glory in His presence, but that he who gloried, might glory only in Him. Let dispensations change as they may, or the scene shift as it may, this is always seen.
The Patriarchs were few, very few, in the land, and strangers there. They had not so much as to set their foot on, going from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people; yet did He suffer no man to do them wrong, reproving even kings for their sakes, and saying, " Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."
When His elect became a nation, they were the fewest of all people, not worthy of a memorial or place in the records of the world; but they multiplied in spite of Egyptian task-Masters, and then flourished into
a kingdom, and became the center of the earth and its nations, in spite of all the enmity that surrounded them.
Their victories were gained by instruments of the most perfect weakness; lamps and pitchers, ox-goads, jaw bones, and slings, doing the work of the army and the war-horse, the sword and the shield; while two would put ten thousand to flight, and trumpets of rams' horns pull down the walls of hostile cities.
And so, when times change altogether, when the nation is broken up because of its sin, and a ministry of grace and salvation goes forth, it is fishermen of Galilee, with their divine Lord, the son of a carpenter, at their head, that bear it abroad to the cities and villages of the land.
And so again, when the Apostle of the Gentiles comes to speak of ministry in his day, he tells us of the weakness and foolishness of God proving stronger and wiser than man, and points to the Church at Corinth as' the witness of this same principle which we have traced from the beginning; that God was humbling the flesh or man, and making Himself our glory and boast (1 Cor. 3) And he then lets us know, that he was acting on this same principle himself, as in company with God—for that he was among the Corinthians in weakness and in fear, as a minister of Christ, not using excellency of speech or Of wisdom; but that, in the midst of this his weakness,. he carried a secret with him, a glorious, wondrous secret, beyond the reach of the eye or the ear,. or the heart of the princes of this world. Gideon and Samson and David knew the victory that was before them in their. day, though they went forth to the battle with lamps, and pitchers, with the jawbone of an ass, or with a sling and a stone; and such an one was Paul with his treasures of light in the Spirit, though he was in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
But this, rather by the way, I will now come again nearer to ourselves and, to my subject.
In the New Testament, we have 'the present. dispensation presented to us in three successive conditions. First—the Churches, as such, are seen under the pastoral care 'of the Spirit in St. Paul as is witnessed by his epistles to them. Secondly - they are challenged as candlesticks, or as churches under responsibility; and they are called to give an 'account of themselves, by the Son of man who appears before them in bright, burning, judicial glory- as we see in Rev. 1-3 Thirdly -they are, as it were, lost in Christendom, no longer nourished and disciplined as churches, or challenged as candlesticks, but meeting as Christendom (the corrupted worldly thing in the earth which calls itself by the name of Christ), the judgment of the Lord—as we see in Rev. 4: 19.
These are three eras in the story or progress of the dispensation, three phases which it bears successively.
I ask-Do not many things connected with Christian place and service and duty change with these changing aspects of our as they did in like changing eras in the story of Israel? From the simplest analogy, yea, from moral necessity, I might answer, surely. But a meditation on the two epistles to Timothy will determine this for us, and give us to know, that this is the divine good-pleasure concerning us.
The first of these two epistles contemplates the churches in the first of the conditions I have noticed above; that is, as under the pastoral care of the Spirit through the Apostle. The second of them contemplates, I believe, the saints in the interval between the second and third of these conditions; that is, between the challenge of the candlesticks and the judgment of Christendom—this assuming that the challenge has ended in conviction and dismissal or removal.
It may, however, be asked, is such an assumption warranted? Yes, I say, fully—because the challenge of His steward by the Lord, in each and every dispensation, at all times, and under all circumstances, has ever so ended; that is, in conviction and dismissal. Man in a responsible relation to God has never had an answer for his Lord. None, entrusted of Him with any deposit, have ever been found faithful, but He of whom it is written, " all the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen." " Give an account of thy stewardship" has always ended in the stewardship being taken away (Luke 16). " God stand in the congregation of the mighty," if " He judge among the gods," the conviction—will surely be pronounced, " they know not, neither will they understand, they walk on in darkness, all the foundations of the earth -are out of course"; and the sentence will be delivered, " ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes " (Psa. 82).
So that the challenge of the Candlesticks in Rev. 1-3 must be assumed to have ended in conviction and dismissal. And to establish this as a fact, I may refer to John himself in those chapters. He is a kind of Representative of the churches or candlesticks, and he is set before the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, as one that was walking among them as a Judge, shining before John in bright, burning judicial glory. Had He. appeared to John as Judge of the world John. would have stood; for he had already learned and taught that "- we have boldness in the day of judgment.' But He was standing among the candlesticks, and before John as representing.- them; and this was overwhelming. As one dead, he. falls at the feet of such a Judge, such a glory. He came short of it—he had no answer for it the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, would do for him as a sinner, but not as a steward he is overwhelmed and falls at his feet as one dead: Just like Isaiah in like conditions; for when the Throne of Jehovah set itself before -him in judicial glory for the challenge of Israel,, the Prophet cries out: "Woe is me, for I am undone!".
All join in telling us what the end of this challenge must be. The steward is. called to give- an account of. his stewardship, and it conies to pass again, as it had ever done. before, that be is no longer steward. The stewardship is taken away-the dispensation is in ruins- and upon this, the long and dreary age of Christendom, of a corrupt and ruined dispensation, begins to take its -course, as it is stilt doing in this our day, and, 'as it will do, in growing corruption of every form, and multiplied confusion in every, place, till it end in the judgment of Christendom as the specially guilty thing. on the earth, under the eye of God.
Now, the second epistle to Timothy anticipates, as I believe, and as I have already said, this. interval the era between the challenge, of the candlesticks (and. their consequent removal) and the judgment of Christendom
And-let me here turn aside for a moment just to say, that we ought to acquaint ourselves with the mysteries of this dispensation, as the Lord Jesus told His disciples in His day, that they ought to know " the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 13:1111He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. (Matthew 13:11).). We ought to know the course, and the changes, and the successive phases through which it was to pass, for otherwise we cannot be duly instructed scribes to bring out of our treasures the old things and the new things of God, according to " His manifold wisdom."
To return, however,: to the two epistles to Timothy, of which I was speaking; and to give them a little closer inspection, we may observe, that the first. of them contemplates a disciplined house, outside of which the unclean were to be put; the second contemplates a repudiated house, outside of -which (in a sense) the saints were to retire.
We know not what time intervened between the writing of these two epistles. It is likely that it was some considerable time; for Paul was at large, abroad in active ministry, when he wrote the first of them, but he was a prisoner at Rome, having already appeared before Caesar, to answer for himself, when he. wrote the second. And Timothy was at Ephesus, left there for the care and ordering of the house of God, when the first. of these was addressed and sent to him; but we cannot say, with any certainty, where he was when he received the second.
But then, when we further look at the two, and compare them still for a little longer, we find in the first of them that the house, under the care of Timothy, is called " the house of God, the church of the living God," and it is dignified, or had in honor, as " the pillar and ground of the truth "—while, in the second of them,_ the house contemplated (though not under the care of Timothy, not provided for by the Holy 'Ghost) is called " the great house," and, in its uncleanness and corruption, it is presented to us as having been formed by a lie, namely this, " that the resurrection is passed already."
These are strong contrasts.
Then again, in the time of the first of them Paul is an authoritative Apostle; in the second, he is a deserted prisoner, in bonds to the Romans, and neglected by the saints; one who has to weep over the failure within, as well as to suffer the persecution from without.
And again—and this is an affecting fact—in the second epistle, Paul talks of personal, family associations, dwelling in the remembrance of them with evident relief and comfort of heart; as in chap. 1: 1-5. But this, in a way full of interest and tenderness, lets us know that church associations were now disappointing him. For it was not after this manner he wrote in his earlier epistles to the churches. He had then his kindred in Christ to remember, and was not put back to his associations and recollections in nature.
And further still, in the progress of this same epistle, lie speaks of Jannes and Jambres, likening the day which that epistle contemplates to the day of those adversaries. For Satan was then, in Christendom, purposing to neutralize the truth, by putting it into strange company or with evil admixtures, as he was doing with those magicians in the day of Moses, and thus blinding the conscience whether of the King of Egypt, or of the world.
'What a premonition of that which has come to pass! What is Christendom but the scene of such admixtures as have neutralized the power of the truth! These and kindred marks spew us, that the dispensation was contemplated as under different conditions, as the Apostle was writing these two epistles. In the first of them the Light in the Candlestick is fed and trimmed—in the second, the Candlestick has been removed.
But is this to be a surprise to us? Are we to think that the steward of God in this age would have proved faithful, since every other steward of His, from the beginning hitherto, as we have already seen, had been judged and set aside? The Church was to have been under her Lord, and in the Spirit, the light of the world, the pillar and ground of the truth. But she has become worse than darkness—a false beacon on the hill that has betrayed the traveler. But Adam, the steward of Eden, at the beginning, then Noah, lord of the world that now is, and then Israel, the husbandman of the vineyard in Judea, had already been found wanting. The King had failed ere this, the Priest, the Prophet—and now the Candlestick. It is a tale told again and again, the unfaithfulness of man as responsible to God, the Steward called to give in his account, and that ending in the stewardship being taken away from him. The house of prayer, so to speak, has always become a den of thieves.
But further, as to the course of dispensations.—In each of them, while each was still subsisting, there has been separation after separation. See this in Israel, -Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, were, each of them, returned captives, a separated remnant who, with their companions left Babylon. But the day came, the day of the prophet Malachi, when " they that feared the Lord" had to separate from the returned captives, and "speak often one to another," as though they had been another Remnant (Mal. 3).
So in Christendom. The Reformation, for instance, was a time of separation. But from the persistive, growing, and accredited corruption which still or again prevailed, further withdrawing or separation has again and again had to take place. The return from Babylon did not secure purity in Israel the Reformation has not recovered it and kept it in Christendom. The -emptied, swept and garnished house has not done for the Lord Jesus.. He has found no habitation for His glory there. The unclean spirit, the spirit of idolatry, may have gone out from Israel, for there were no idols or high places in the land after the return from Babylon; but Israel was not healed; for infidel insolence, the challenges of the proud and scornful, were heard there fearfully. And what else, I ask, if not this again, in the Reformation-times of Christendom? Read the prophet Malachi, and look around at the moral condition of things under the eye, and mark the wondrous analogies that there are in the stories of corruption and confusion in man's world, whether here or there, whether now or then, whether in Israel or in Christendom, whether in our day, or 2000 years ago. Is it not so?
When we come into the book of the Apocalypse, after contemplating the different aspects of the dispensation in the two epistles to Timothy, we find, as I have anticipated already, the Lord challenging and judging, challenging the candlesticks and judging the world-in other words, judging the candlesticks by setting them aside, judging the world by the avenging destructions of His own day.
In the first three chapters, we get the first of these actions. The churches, as candlesticks, or as in their responsible place and character, are summoned to -give an account of themselves. The Son of Man walks among them in judicial glory. They had been previously fed and disciplined by the Spirit in St. Paul, as churches of saints, elect bodies, samples of the Bride of the Lamb; but here they are, as candlesticks, such as were responsible to shine as lights in the world, being set of God for that end, challenged and arraigned-according to which, the Son of Man begins His address to each of them with these words, " I know thy works." And as we have -already seen, that no steward has ever had an answer for God, when Challenged to give an account of his stewardship, this challenge of the candlesticks must be assumed to have ended in conviction and dismissal.
But, at the close of such a meditation as this, what does my soul suggest to my conscience? 0 for that faith that converts statements into facts, and ideas into realities I Not that I question what I have 'Written, but am so sure of its small influence and authority over me. I am conscious that it is one thing to have communion with truth, and another thing to have it with the Lord Himself. And I join in judgment with one who has lately written thus: " The dispensational aspect of truth must be secondary to that which is eternal. The exclusive or disproportionate study of dispensational truth has frequently engendered that knowledge which puffeth up to the weakening of the love which buildeth up. Often may be heard students on this lower form speak slightingly of others much more deeply rooted in Christ than themselves, by reason of their non-acquaintance with theories which were often mere human speculations grafted on the truth of God." And he adds: " there is a possibility of being dazzled in the stead of being illuminated by light." For myself, I desire thankfully to listen to these words, and to take the admonition and warning they convey to myself. They are seasonable and healthful.