Present Testimony: Volume N2, 1869-1870

THERE can, in one sense, be no true understanding of the nature and value of atonement, but as there is a knowledge of the state of man needing it. If the need be fully seen, then the remedy must be according to it; if only partially seen, the remedy needed will be estimated amiss. Hence, the first point for us to examine is the state and condition of man, in the eye of God; for we may rest assured, that it is an imperfect apprehension of man's state which lies at the root of the general indifference to this subject.

Adam was set in the garden of Eden, in innocence, subject to God; and while he remained in the subjection due from the creature to the Creator, he enjoyed the goodness with which he was surrounded. Against insubjection he was warned, and told that an infraction of the divine restriction (for it was not an exaction but a restriction, one which demanded nothing from him -merely described the line which he must not pass over), would be followed by the penalty of death. His life would be forfeited if he acted in self-will. Adam did not remain subject to the will of God. He acted for himself, Satan being the tempter to the transgression; and the penalty fell upon him. Now death is the penalty, it is the wages of sin; but it is not a penalty which is only endured while passing through it, as would be the case with one inflicted by man; but, because it is inflicted by God, its full extent is not known till after it has been realized, as it is written, " after death the judgment." The sense in my soul, that I die because of a penalty laid on me, in itself, places me under a sense of God's judgment and that for eternity; hence, it is not so much death itself which the sinner shrinks from, as the after-consequences; even judgment from which there is no hope or possibility of extrication. The life is forfeited, and when the forfeit is paid man is then conscious of the nature of the penalty. The suffering is not merely the act of dying, but the consciousness of being under judgment, to which dying consigns one.

Adam's life was forfeited in the state and condition in which he was set here, and dying, he must die; not to escape all suffering afterward, but as a penalty introducing him into a state of suffering. He is now without a life, at least without any real possession of one that he can call his own; for he is insecure and uncertain as to the moment when judgment may begin. His life is forfeited. The forfeit has not been paid, but over a thing forfeited, I have really no claim or power; it is the property of the one to whom it is forfeited. Man cannot count upon his life now for anything; according to God's will it is forfeited, and when the forfeit is paid, the soul enters into judgment. Man's state and condition is now that of having a forfeited life awaiting judgment. God's righteousness demands this, it could not exact less. Man set upon the earth in blessing dependent on the Creator, acts contrary to Him, at the suggestion, of another. This moral anomaly exists. A creature of the highest and most perfect order, setting up a will-a line of action, contrary to God's will. Hence the question, whether man is to be suppressed; or whether God will be indifferent to him as a creature, made in His own likeness, acting in spirit and deed in contravention to His will. If God's will is righteous, man is unrighteous, and can God in righteousness, suffer man to continue in that condition in which he can contravene the righteous will of God? The answer is simple, if it could be so, there would be an end to righteousness. Hence, God forewarned him, that if he should do what He had told him not to do, the penalty would be death, and the penalty of death, as we find by Heb. 9:27, reduces him to a state in which he is conscious of the extent of his loss, and his distance, in judgment, from God. Death for the lost, is only the prison door of one eternal night of misery, where the sense of distance from God is ever maintained in weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We shall now better comprehend the nature of the atonement, which could enable the Holy God to set up man on another footing. To meet, the righteousness of God, there must be a victim, not, in himself, chargeable with our offense, in any way, bearing the penalty of death. But not only this, there must be a personal excellency, over and above the life offered up. The life is offered up, in substitution, and the perfection elicited in the time of offering is that basis, which forms the ground for the re-establishment of man, in another condition. It is evident that man could find nothing of this kind in himself-he could not offer up a life, for he had none to offer, it was forfeited; and there was nothing to be found in him, but what would aggravate the judgment under which he had fallen. Once overtaken by the penalty, he could not be released from it; he had fallen under it. If a sinner has no soul, he is neither conscious of being under judgment nor of being delivered from it; but, if he has, and is to be released from it, the release must take place before the judgment overtakes him.

Abel's offering through faith sets forth the main points of the atonement. It is the primitive offering, and we may conclude that it was the one appointed of God. Abel offered of the firstling of his flock, and of the fat thereof. A. victim not chargeable with its offense, giving up its life, and not only this, but it is added, " and the fat thereof" The blood was the life given in substitution for one who had forfeited his life, and the fat, the acceptable thing on which God could deal anew with the lost one. Now, the sense first awakened in the sinner's soul, is, that there must be something offered between him and God. Even Pagans attest this in their propitiatory sacrifices, and the like; and the law is distinctly on this ground, for it does not simply exact obedience to "a code, which in God's mind is only worthy of man, as His creature, but it insists on the need of the intervention of sacrifices, of many and various kinds, to meet the many and various states of the old man. And this was consistent with the law, for the law addressed man as still alive; but while it did so, it could not over look the sense on the conscience of distance from God and of impending judgment; hence sacrifices and rituals were imposed-until the time of reformation, which could not purge the conscience. On it, there was the sense of judgment before God from which there could be no relief until there was an atonement which would perfectly answer for the life under forfeiture, and judgment, and open out a new way for appearing before God. The law dealt with man as still alive, and hence offerings were repeated, as expressing that there was need for intervention, because that which needed it was still in existence, or recognized as so. If the being under judgment had been superseded by an atonement having been offered, then there must be an end of that which required the atonement. Either the being continues waiting for an atonement and consequently remaining in the state that needs it, as was the case under the law, or the atonement has come and the state of the being needing it no longer remains. Both cannot stand together. If the atonement be a perfect one, it supersedes in the eye of God the being needing it. If it has been accepted, the state of the being needing it does not remain before God for any one connected with the substitute. The law could' not propose that man should be superseded; for if he were, there would be no occupation for the law; and hence while it suffered man to remain in his state, it demanded from the worshipper continual sacrifices which never purged the conscience; because, if they had, they would have ceased to be tiered. The moment the sacrifices effected the end desired, they ceased to be required. The error abroad is, that the atonement is not seen, as setting aside the being under judgment, and consequently there is a sense of needing something expiatory still; which, as I have said, involves two things-one, that the sacrifice is not a satisfactory one, and the other that the state of the being needing atonement still continues before God. The sacrifice is properly the substitution for the being needing it and if a true and sufficient one, then that for which it has been a substitute is not dealt with but the substitute. The substitute must have a life like that of the being to be atoned for, only guiltless, and unchangeable in any way with his offense; and must after proving its faithfulness, in every way, give up this unforfeited life, for the forfeited one, which exposed man to eternal judgment; and not only so but the substitute must be one who has life in Himself, in order that he may rise again as perfectly acceptable to God-as it is said, "raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father."

Christ having so perfectly answered every demand of God, and having borne the judgment on man, pours out His life, at the bottom of the altar, and from thence is quickened by the Spirit, to establish man in His own life forever. In His blood, there is for every believer a substitution for the forfeited life;-for death-that door into the eternal prison;-for man in Christ has no longer a forfeited life, but life in Him who has atoned for him and who has risen out of death and judgment; and hence the life atoned for, does not exist as needing atonement.

The great points for us to see are that the state of man, because of the fall was not remediable because the, life which was forfeited was the very life of the condition in which man was set on earth; and this forfeit was the penalty, only really known after it was paid, and not in the mere act of dying; and hence the substitute for this state cannot repair this forfeited life. The first terms of atonement are that a man's life, sinless, unchangeable, and meeting every demand of God under His judgment is to be given up, before He can do aught else in the way of blessing us. If the life were under probation (and probation could never atone for a state of offense) it would be open to man to repair it. This was the course observed under law. Man is there under trial, and the life is prolonged, judgment is staved off while it is kept. It did not propose to atone, but offered a continuance of life, while its demands were observed, and fir the obedient, it through the sacrifices, intimated that the life was not an acceptable one with God; even though, through obedience, its doom might be respited, as will be fully manifested in the Millennium. But atonement must meet the state as it is. Atonement is positive, and no tentative measure could be atonement. Hence in the paschal lamb, which was an offering instituted before the law, the blood is poured out. This is the first and great thing. This satisfies the eye of God; and He says," When I see the blood I will pass over." The state of man as he is, is met by that blood, typical of Christ's blood-" Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." The blood, meeting the eye of the Judge, atones for man's state. Man's life is forfeited, and here is a life poured out for it. It does not remove the forfeiture, but it removes the consequences of it. The forfeiture has been incurred, and there can be no removal of what has been incurred but there is removal of the consequences; and this removal is effected by the substitute taking the man's place, and being to his judgment bearing the whole weight of it, in man's nature; and then, giving up the life, in substitution, for the forfeited life. One with an unforfeited life, bears all the distance and agony due to the forfeited one, and having perfectly done so, gives the life up. He not only endures all that was due to man for his offense-all the suffering which a forfeited life eternally entailed; but having perfectly and righteously met all this, He gave up the life which was not forfeited; and hence, having answered, not only for the forfeited life, but for its consequences, neither the one nor the other remain to the one who is in Christ. A new path, a new position, is opened out. He has cleared off the old, and now risen, is the head and founder of another race. In the passover, the people of God were safe through the blood shed, but more than this, they were inside, feeding on the very lamb whose blood had saved them. The victim's place exposed the substitute to the judgment

resting on man. For man, death itself was but the door to the state of judgment. Christ bears the judgment, is made sin, put in the sinner's place. He who had no sin, is treated as if He had; and freely, and of His own accord, gives up His unforfeited life. Substitutionally He should die, " not for that nation only, but that he should gather together in one the children of God which are scattered abroad." He gives the unforfeited for the forfeited, after he had endured in Himself before God every agony due to the forfeited life; thus perfecting the atonement. Having been put in the sinner's place, treated as the sinner in suffering, He resigns that life by which He was able to connect Himself with man's state of suffering. He shed His blood and then closed forever the history of man for whom He had atoned. The blood righteously sets free the being who is sheltered in a new life, because he trusts in it, and not in the state which required it, but in that of the Substitute now risen from the dead. As the paschal lamb, I feed on Him, roast with fire. My entire engagement is with Him, and He supports me, as before by His blood He saved me from a judgment due to my life and state.

Under the law we get properly four kinds of offerings, which in their various ways set forth what God required of man. In all but the meat offering the blood was shed. In the burnt offering which set forth the devotedness of Christ offering himself to God, we have the blood sprinkled all round about the altar, and then the offering is offered up. The victim is first accepted as an atonement, the hands of man being laid on it, and then the life is given up. This was necessary even in the case of a burnt sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. In like manner in the peace-offering the blood was sprinkled round about the altar; and it too was an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. The excellency of the victim being the special thing offered, as setting forth the ground and basis of all blessing, and hence giving full rest and peace to the soul before God. Christ's own personal excellence is the food of all the offerings, and the sure guarantee for eternal peace.

Now it is evident, that if God required those under law to meet' the demands of righteousness the first thing is the surrender of life. Even in the burnt and peace offerings, where there is no notice taken of actual sin, the blood was given up,-that is the life of the substitute must be surrendered previous to the acceptance and sweetness of savor accorded to the offering; and this atonement and sprinkling of blood was consequent on the laying on of hands of the man needing it. 1 understand the laying on of hands to imply the attributing of man's state to the substitute. The substitute's life was poured out itself without blemish, but having been charged with man's state, previous to death it surrenders its unblemished life for his, and is accepted in perfect sweetness before God, as outside, and apart from, that life, for which it had atoned. Hence it is, as I understand, that when in Ex. 24:5, the blood of burnt offerings and peace offerings was sprinkled, there was an open way for the Elders of Israel into the presence of God. The atonement is in the blood Lev. 17:11; but it is plain that when the hands were laid on the. victim the penalty and the consequences of that which rested on him who laid his hands thereon were made over to the substitute, Thus Christ was placed under all the weight of man's state. before He died. He suffered because of what was placed to His account. He was made sin, and then poured out His life; and 'presented Himself in His offering capacity in every accept- able way a sweet savor in the very highest degree to God. In the sin offering the blood was not only sprinkled but all of it was poured out at the bottom of the altar; and besides the fat being burnt on the altar the carcass was burnt in a clean place without the camp. That is to say, there was to be no longer an admission of the existence of the being substitutionally represented, in the carcass. There was the excellency of the victim and the giving up of the life of the victim; but with Christ there was also, the suffering of being made sin, the just for the unjust. His death ended before God that order of being which had sinned. He was justified in the spirit, and not in the flesh. He was put to death in the flesh-but quickened-made alive (that is the opposite to death) in the spirit. In the fullness of time, God sent His 'Son, in a body prepared for Him. He was made flesh. and dwelt among us. After thirty years of patient growth, passing through every phase of man's life here below, and fully conversant with it, He comes forth into public ministry, satisfying the long restrained desire of His heart to be about His Father's business; and then, as is recorded in the three first gospels, He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil-He set forth that there 'was no state or infirmity of man in this present life, which He could not relieve or remove. He raised the dead, expelled devils, healed the leper, gave sight to the blind, cured every disease; and yet with all this, He was not able, in the days of His flesh, to place man in likeness to Himself as God's man on earth. For this He must die; hence He says: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone." It can never produce one like unto itself, unless it dies; but if' it die, it brings forth much fruit. Sad and sorrowful as was His walk and pilgrimage here for thirty three years, He now (John 12:24-28), foresees the terrible season when as the sin-bearer He would enter into the suffering of a sinner's. distance from God. Hence He adds: " Father save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour." He now a man, in man's life, undertakes to bear in Himself from God-all that was due to man. He has walked in every circumstance here well pleasing to God. He has been the Father's delight, in all the ways of a man; and now, as the burnt offering He offers Himself freely without spot to God; surrendering every privilege and power to' which He was entitled, as the Holy One on earth. Unprotected, and unguarded, He is open to all the attacks of men; and exposed to all the malice of Satan; and not only this, but when He takes the place of the victim-in giving up His life,-His unforfeited life,-for man, then the consequences of this falls upon Him on the cross. He endures, trusting in God, bearing in His soul, for a season, the suffering and agony of one consigned by death unto eternal distance from God. Then He trusts, and then He prays; and then is succored, because He had done no wrong, neither was sin found in His mouth. He, in conscious and restored favor gives up the ghost, pours out His life, sheds His blood at the bottom of the altar, but being holy throughout, yea the most perfect sweet savor to God in it all, He does not see corruption; He is not holden of death; He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; He is quickened in the spirit,-man, alive again, but after a new order; and now the fountain, and source of eternal life, to as many as come unto Him. And in proof of this, He breathes on His disciples, and says, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." He can now impart to us His own life, by and in the power of the Holy Ghost. While He walked here for thirty-three years, however close His contact, however He imparted of His virtues to man, He had never placed man on a level with Himself, as a man here. He still abode alone. The corn of wheat by no amount of contact with men here, had brought any to His own order. The greatest miracle did not effect conversion apart from the word. "Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17). The one who returns to give glory to God, is the converted one, and the one in whom the word of Christ creates rest and assurance. There was no meeting or remedying the state of man, until the man Jesus Christ placed Himself under the hand of God, as one in Himself utterly and entirely irresponsible for man's state, having first proved in every stage and circumstance of life, that He could walk in the flesh, in every way well pleasing to God, to undergo all that was due to man, and in the searching agony of it, to be proved to the utmost, as to whether any thought for Himself, could arise apart from God. Nothing but self renunciation and simple subjection to God marked Him throughout; and His perfect life-He then pours out. It is not that He pours out the life merely; but He does so, after having exposed Himself to the judgment which the deprivation of life entails. He surrendered the life in which He had thus exposed Himself to judgment; and then, though the one holy perfect man, born of a woman in man's estate, who had been in every way well pleasing to God, having been made sin,-treated as the guilty, offers Himself; sheds His blood, surrenders an existence which righteously He had held, and lived in, and on which there was no claim, as substitution -for that which had been forfeited by man. He had a life which had not been forfeited; but which had endured, in the hour of forsaking, more than any man had endured, in suffering and distance from God. He had a life which was perfect in every way; most pleasing to God; but He gave it up, and before giving it up, endured in it all that was on man-because of his evil and sin. " Now is the Son of man glorified." Having so endured, having glorified God as a man, He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. The life in which He, as a man, had glorified God, and in which He had endured man's judgment, He does not retain-He pours it out. The atonement is in the blood. We are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The reconciliation is effected. The sinless one has been made sin, and has given up a life which He might have retained, in substitution for a life which was forfeited. But He has glorified God in it all, and hence, He is raised from the dead; we are saved by His life. " If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins." The resurrection is the proof of acceptance, but it is for our justification. That which represented the resurrection in the typical offerings was, I suppose, the fire feeding on the fat. At any rate the fat was the excellency of the animal, and the fire consuming it indicated its acceptance. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and the resurrection is the proof and evidence that He has indeed offered Himself without spot to God, and that it was impossible that He should be holden of death. But then, having destroyed the power of death and abolished it, He has brought to light life and incorruptibility. In His resurrection, He is the quickening Spirit. He can impart life, His life, to those whose death He has borne. Being reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. He shed His blood for us, and now risen, He is the second man, able to communicate of His life to those, for whom, before He died for them, He could do nothing but relieve. He must die for them where they were, in order to set them in the life in which He is. He must bear their death and its consequences, before He could share with them His life which, is eternal.

The resurrection is the proof that Christ had in everything glorified God, and hence it is for the glory of God that He should rise from the dead. It would have compromised the glory if He had not risen. Having given up His sinless life for man's sinful life, He is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and also declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection is the proof that there was life outside of death. The atonement required a life, not. liable to death, and this, being delivered up, His life, as the Son of God, asserts its place; and it is for the glory of the Father, to raise Him from among the dead; manifesting the mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. The penalty incurred by man is not only borne, but borne by one in no way liable to it, as the substitute for man. He gives the life which in every step and walk here, was so honoring to God, sacrificially, and more than this-He rises not only because He has life in Himself; but the glory of the Father requires that One so perfect here as a man, and so glorifying God, in submitting fully to all His righteousness, with the end and aim of unlocking the heart of God; giving Him full liberty to deal on new and eternal ground with His people once under condemnation;-the glory of the Father requires, I repeat, that such an one, should be in life again, as a man; though not in the life which He had poured out, but should, without seeing corruption, be raised up in the eternity of His own life.

The first man being under sentence, has received sentence in the cross of Christ, and not only this-a

sinless life is offered for the sinful one;. and He the substitute, being raised from the dead is the source and founder of a new race in eternal life, and perfect holiness. We are cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. We are' made nigh by His blood. Nothing remains to interfere, or interpose, seeing that the life in which all the offense has been committed has been judged in Christ, and that He has given up His perfect unforfeited life, for our sinful forfeited one. But He is raised from being the dead man, into a living man by the spirit of God, in the power of an endless life and the man is on the highest ground, and in the highest connection, glorified now, in the Son who has done all the Father's will, and finished His work. The first man is set aside judicially in righteousness; and the Son of God, who as man met the righteousness of God, and bowed to it in judgment, is the one to express in fullness the love of God. He bore the righteous judgment fully. He when here, in a region where sin abounded, answered to God's nature in righteousness; and He expresses in fullness, and perfection, that nature which is love, when sin has been forever put away.

Blessed Mission I Blessed Missionary to our heart of all the grace and goodness of the living God. As we live by Him, may we live to Him, in joy and purpose of heart. Amen! J. B. S.

David's Piety and the Mind of God

"And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in." -1 CHRON. 17. 3, 4.

A VERY profitable lesson for the present day may be gathered from this chapter, and close dealing with ourselves may prove that we are as prone to carry out our thoughts in service for Christ, as David was in following his own mind in relation to the Ark of the Covenant. Nor is this danger confined to David's times, nor to ours, since Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Ghost. The same limitation of Christ to human expectations was manifested on the mount of transfiguration, when Jesus Himself was in the midst of His disciples. as answered Peter, and said, Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

This variance from the counsels of God and the mind of Christ are not confined to the holy mount and the unveiling of the kingdom of glory when Jesus was transfigured before them (excusable then, if ever), but a similar divergence is seen, as regards the sufferings and death of Christ, when Peter began to rebuke his Master, saying, " Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not happen unto thee. But He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." Mary Magdalene and the women at the sepulcher with the spices are further witnesses of how natural it is, at all times, to be behind the thoughts of God in relation to Jesus Christ our Lord. " They entered in and found not His body." The comment which the Holy Ghost makes upon this action is important, as giving the word of God its place, "For as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he must rise again from the dead."

With such examples and warnings let us turn to consider David in this chapter of Chronicles. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was of all importance in those days, as the manifest token and witness which connected Israel, as a nation, with the counsels of Jehovah respecting their final establishment in glory upon the earth. All the interests of David's soul were therefore rightly directed to the Ark, and the preceding chapters give us the record of his actings in relation thereto, and its remarkable journey from the house of Abinadab to the city of Zion. Sharp lessons were taught David and his followers at the threshing-floor of Chidon, where the oxen stumbled and shook the ark, and Uzza put forth his hand to hold it, and the anger of the Lord was kindled, and He smote him, so that Uzza died there before God. He who teaches when necessary with a strong hand, instructed David that if God sanctioned the new cart and two milch kine as a mode of transit from the country of the Philistines, who knew Him not, to its own place and people who did, that His own order must be strictly followed when Israel and Jerusalem were in question. David's displeasure against the Lord and David's fear of God (things which exist together in the soul which is not in communion with the thought of God) must be alike judged. David then learns that none ought to carry the Ark of God but the Levites, for them bath the Lord chosen to carry the Ark of God and to minister to Him forever. The shoulders of the Levites must bear this precious burden and witness of Jehovah's covenant with His people, and all goes well to the last step of their journey.

It is of the greatest moment in our intercourse with God to be assured we are of one mind with Himself in the object which governs us, and the glory of which we pursue. In a day like this in which we are living, a day so prolific in ways and means pressed in upon the service of God and of Christ, many a one as devoted as King David, and as earnest as Uzza, might on that very account profitably pause to distinguish between the new cart and the shoulders-of the Levites, and betwixt the two milch kine and God's appointed order by the Holy Ghost in the Church. Many a breach would have been avoided, and many a pending one averted, were such distinctions observed by the Lord's people in reference to Christ and His saints. " None ought to carry the Ark of God but the Levites" was the ancient order of service and worship; but later on the Lord says, " The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." As to service, Paul asks, " What concord hath Christ with 'Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you."

David and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord are at last together, and the interest of David's life and the affections of his soul go out towards it, and rightly, as ours do to Christ, by the Holy Ghost. Shall we be cast down if other and deeper lessons await him as well as us in closer associations with God, according to the varying revelations He makes of Himself.?

Now, " it came to pass as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in a house of cedars, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord dwelleth under curtains." If David takes thought with his own heart he will do what is in it, and make the same mistake as he had just been delivered from, in reference to the mode of bringing up the ark from the house of Obed-edom. Nor is there security at such a moment even in a Nathan, nor in anyone less than the Lord, and the knowledge of His own mind. " Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee;" but the prophet, as well as the king, have each to learn that the secret of all successful service lies not only in. God being with them; but in their being with God, and in the current of His mind about the work. " And it came to pass the same night that -the word of God came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in." Mere piety, then or now, will suggest a thousand activities in reference to the ark and to Christ, which, if carried out, would only separate us from the intentions of God, who reserves to Himself the establishment of His own glory in connection with His people, and the times and seasons of their fulfillment.

David must not make haste to be a builder, though he may be instructed afterward as to the patterns and splendor of the house reserved for the Solomon days, lest the Lord God of Israel make a breach upon him a second time for that he sought Him not after the due order. " And it shall come to pass when thy days be expired that thou must, go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; he shall build me an house, and I will establish his throne forever."

The persecution of Saul, the cave of Adullam, the rejection of David, and the Ark of the covenant in its migratory character, or under curtains when in Zion, were all in agreement and in perfect keeping with the purposes of God, who orders everything according to the counsel of His own will. What striking and exact types are all these of a greater than David as known to us in these last times. Foreshadows of our Lord's persecution by the prince of the earth, and of the world's rebellion against its rightful King, of the Lord's rejection by Israel, and of His crucifixion by the hands of wicked men. What a type of this present period, when all above and below is under curtains or stained by blood. The Lord hidden in the heavens and our life hid with Christ in God; the cast out One of the earth set down on His Father's throne till the day when God shall make His enemies a footstool for His feet, and He shall rule in their midst. The time of David was judged- unsuitable for building a temple, because he had shed blood. So when Jesus was on the earth He justified Himself for the supposed violation of the Sabbath, and of Israel's day of rest, on the same tooting as David when he entered into the house of God and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful. With whom coUld he keep a Sabbath, or a rest, in a world like this, into which He came in grace as a Savior to redeem His own out of it? Can God build a temple by the side of the cross, where His Son was rejected, and His blood cries for vengeance?

Many a Christian, sitting in his own house like David, may think of a rest in creation, and if so he will make God's providential mercies the guide of his thoughts, and labor for an extension of the same character of blessing and seek to make. God at home on the earth, as it is. All the world would consent to bring God back as a giver, and admit Him as the author of all good to men as they are, provided He will let them enjoy themselves. This was plainly shown in John 6, after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, when the multitude would have come and taken Him by force to make Him a king, but " he departed again into a mountain himself alone." But let a Christian leave his own house and get outside his own circle of pious and philanthropic enjoyments, and go in, as David did, " and sit before the Lord," to learn that God has His own range of operations, and that Christ is the rule of His action as regards His own glory and the everlasting blessing of the redeemed, and at that very moment (so to speak) all his thoughts perish.

It was of immense consequence to David then, as it is to Christians now, to distinguish between the times of a rejected king and the times of a regnant Solomon, between an. outgoing David and his incoming Son, between a period when God was going from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another, and " the dispensation of the fullness of times when He shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.", This is the hour when the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain, but there is a millennial day "when it shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

These dividing points are properly, and in the ways of God, the differences between the first and the second coming of our Lord Jesus; and it is instructive to observe the change- which these-discoveries wrought in the mind of King David. Now these be the last words of David, " He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be:"as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds. Although my house be not so with God, yet He bath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all. my desire, although He make it not to grow." David has at last reached the purposes of God. respecting His own glory in the yet future Son, according to the flesh, of whom he and Solomon were but the types. Moreover David is content that the mercies of Jehovah towards him and the nation should be made sure in the death and resurrection of Christ at a future day, when the Lord shall come a second time to Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and righteousness and peace shall be the stability of the times.

How necessary it is for our communion with God and our service for Christ (if it is to be in the truth of His own mind and in the power of the Holy Ghost) that we should at least have learned these three lessons in the school of God. Displeased and afraid of God those must be who are contented with the new cart and the trine instead of the shoulders of His redeemed and anointed ones. A pious evangelization which sits in its own house and makes itself the rule and measure of its enterprise towards the world around, thinking, as Nathan said to David, that to do " all that is in thine heart for God is with thee" is a sufficient guarantee for success, will find, perhaps too late, how short this comes of sitting before the Lord and getting at what is the purpose of His heart in the establishment of His own glory and the blessing of His people. So again, in a day of great missionary effort and religious organization it is well not to allow our natural feelings to anticipate the yet future Solomon and His reign of outward prosperity and glory, but keeping the patterns of royalty and the coming kingdom in mind (as David did), reject the place of a builder, and own the curtains and the hidden One in the heavens during this day of His rejection, and of the decline and corruption of Saul's dynasty.

Though we are the sons of God it cloth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, "when He shall appear, we shall-appear-with him in glory." David, who spake in other language and a lower key, said, " Although He maketh it not to grow, yet he bath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." We must go out to Him before He can come into His earthly people, and the building and the growing go on together; then, " as the days of a tree, shall be the days of His people, and they shall long enjoy the work of their hands." But we wait for the shout which will bid us rise up to meet the Lord in the air. Our wisdom is to rise up from ourselves, and our little interests which would always make God at home where we are at home, and go in and sit before the Lord to learn the thoughts of His heart about King David's greater Son and greater Lord. The only one who is the rule of God's actings is the Son of His love-He who said,

Now is the Son of roan glorified, and God is glorified in him; if' God be glorified in him God shall glorify him also in himself, and shall straightway glorify. him." So Nathan will not suit us for revelations such as these. He and David have served their day and generation, and have recorded the times that went over them, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries; and died full of days, riches, and honor. The Holy Ghost is now the only competent glorifier of the Father and of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Prophets long ago made known the ways of God to Israel in types and promises. Evangelists have by the Spirit of God traced the great mystery of godliness, the Word made flesh, when presented as the long expected Messiah to His earthly people and to Jerusalem. Jehovah God has been refused in the tent, the tabernacle, and the temple, and last of all as God manifest in the flesh. The first man has proved himself to be no connecting link with God, in His ways of righteousness and peace on earth. The second man has come forth from the Father and been born into the world by incarnation, and born out of it by resurrection from the grave, and sits at the right hand of-the throne of the majesty in the heavens, the head over all things to the Church.

Building times and growing times are out of date below, where all is in ruin, waiting in hope for the manifestation of the sons of God. A new and far different basis of divine operation has been laid than the book of Genesis relates. Redemption is now obtained by the blood of Christ out of a fallen state and from a groaning creation as the eternal basis of God's counsels in grace to us; and it is upon this platform the Holy Ghost, in quickening power, gathers the elect. The spirit of prophecy guided the sweet Psalmist of Israel to such a day when he spake of the stone which the builders refused, and said, " It is become the head stone of the corner; this is the. Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Peter was taught the same lesson after he had abandoned the mount of transfiguration as a building site, and said, under the subsequent anointing of the Holy Ghost, " To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed, indeed, of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

A dispensation such as this, when God is calling out from the Gentiles a people for Himself, cannot possibly be one of universal blessing to those left behind. Now that the Father is gathering His many sons to a portion and place with His rejected Son in the heavens, as heirs and joint heirs, it cannot be the time of blessing for His betrayers and murderers below. If we follow Peter in the lesson of growing and building times, and take our places with him, and sit before the Lord " as a spiritual house, an holy priesthood," we shall be carried beyond ourselves, and the narrow and ofttimes erroneous thoughts which prevail, when Christ is considered more in reference to self than to the eternal counsels of God, for His own glory now and hereafter.,

For instance, in Peter's first epistle and its opening subject of the inheritance, it is declared to be " incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you"; consequently, to think of this earth and this dispensation in relation to it, would be to disconnect it from the heavens. Moreover, we are begotten to this lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; and it is-therefore on the other side of death and judgment, and all the ills of this present life-indeed, where flesh and blood never were nor can be. So as to the second epistle, in relation to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter uses the holy mount in reference to the future majesty, honor, and glory which the Lord received from God the Father by the voice from the excellent glory; and instead of building three tabernacles, Peter speaks of putting off his own, as the Lord had showed him. He preferred to wait a while till the day dawn, when by redemption title he will enter it, with the King in resurrection power.

David in his own house limited the ark of the covenant to himself, and the blessing of Israel in connection with his times and with his seed according to the flesh. Nathan himself had to be taught ere he could rightly direct David to look into the thoughts of God, and learn that when he was gone to be with his fathers Jehovah's purposes would find their footing in the person of his son that should come after him. So Peter refuses to connect any expectations with himself in the earthly house of his tabernacle, but says, " Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance"; and provides the lamp for the hand, and the light for the foot, for those who continue in the dark place " till the day dawn."

May thousands of the Lord's dear people, who are dreaming in their own houses (instead of sitting before the Lord), about His Christ, and speaking one to another of progress and advancement by present means and agencies, wake up to the blessed hope of " the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," as the birthplace of their fondest expectations, and accept, in the meanwhile, the " day-star in their hearts," as the harbinger of the morning that shall usher Him in, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. Will they let God's ways and means slip, as to the establishment of His everlasting. Kingdom in the person of His own Son, and reduce themselves (as they must) to other means within their reach, such as the magistrate, the primate, and the premier? Will these take fallen man in hand, and try to make something of him, till in the corning crisis the whole world breaks loose from their restraint, and agrees to worship the beast, and in defiance of God, and their rulers, say, " Who is like unto the beast?"

As quickened, raised, and seated in the heavenlies, the Holy Ghost, by Paul, teaches us in the Ephesian epistle the Father's counsels concerning His Christ, the first begotten from the dead, the risen and glorified Son of man-" Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Human expectations are on this side of death and the grave, but all divine purposes and operation lie on the other side of sin and judgment at the Cross. This was why Jesus said, in prospect of redemption, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how. am I straitened till it be accomplished "; and again, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The " beginning of the new creation of God" takes His place as the first begotten from the dead, and none else can be there except as redeemed by His blood, and born out of death and judgment. " You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, and who were by nature children of wrath, even as others."

Here lies the difference between truth and error in practice, and it is immense. Men are occupied, and so is Satan, with the world as it is, and with man in the flesh; but God is not, whether as regards progress or improvement. How can there be even probation, after the cross? On the contrary, He is about "to judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom He bath ordained, whereof He bath given assurance to all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." May the Lord teach His saints to have done with their own expectations, and measure the glory of God by nothing lower than His own thoughts, which can only find their answer in the second coming of the Lord.

The language of most Christians to one another is a repetition of Nathan-" Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee "; and this cheering but faulty assurance is too generally accepted; so, " they help every one his neighbor, and every one says to his brother, Be of-good courage. So the carpenter encourageth the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering; and he fastened it with nails, that it should not he moved." What mistakes and blunderings by hand and mouth would have been avoided in the Church of God, had Nathan's first assurance to David been judged in the light of the message from God to him the second time: "Spike 1 a word to any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?" David accepted this timely reproof, and learned that the mind of God touching the Ark of the Covenant was very different to the intentions that were passing in his own. And is it of less importance in Christian service, under the guidance and ministry of the Holy Ghost as it professedly is, that we should have the mind of Christ as to the pace we take, and what we do and say to those around, as regards the Church and the world, and the times of grace and glory through a present Savior, and by the coming Lord and Deliverer?

If we sit before the Lard, and read Paul's exhortations to his son Timothy about the last days, and the perilous times that are now come, we shall no longer dream of progress and improvement, hut "that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Have we judged ourselves, and bowed before such a testimony as this, so contrary to the natural heart and all its thoughts and purposes-so contrary, also, to the unscriptural expectations of the professing people of God?

The testimony by which God is gathering to Himself cannot be the spirit of this age, or run along with it.

Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of

God. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Exercises such as these would soon put us into the current of God's mind, and outside our own imaginations, and lead us to detect-the waste of labor and expenditure of power upon wrong machinery and untimely objects in the present day.

Oh! the mercy to take the shoes off our feet and sit before the Lord and worship Him,like the four-and-twenty elders round the throne in the Apocalypse, according to the revelation of His mind, through the man He has made strong for Himself. His own eternal glory-the coming judgment on the world which has cast Him out -our rapture and translation out of it into the heavens, to meet Him presently-are all recorded by the Spirit of the living God. Subjection to His word, and the acknowledgment of the Holy Ghost as the Divine Teacher, are indispensable when we think of having the mind of God; and self-judgment, when we discover, as we certainly shall, the variance of our own.

" And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever. And the four-and-twenty elders, which sit before God on their seats (the place where we are to-day in spirit), fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and roast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should he judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth." Amen.

J. E. B.

Faith in God and His Word, Not in the Church

N. WELL, James, I hear you have been visited by some Roman Catholics, and are in some perplexity.

James 1 have, and they spoke very fair; and I can't deny that I do not see clear. Christ surely left a church on earth, and some authority to guide us poor people, and instruct us in the right way. It is a great comfort to feel assured that one is of the true Church that Christ founded. And, after I had been reflecting awhile on what they said, I began to feel that I have got no proof that the Bible is the word of God.

N. And did you ever doubt it before, James?

James. No, I can't say I did; I have always believed it to be the word of God; and, though I am afraid I have sadly neglected it many a year, still I, and my wife more than myself, used to find comfort in it; and the children, too, used to read a chapter when they came from school; and I think it used to do us all good, and bring God home to us somehow, and keep our consciences alive; and the children took wonderfully to beautiful histories that are in it, and so, indeed, did we, and it made our home happy. There was only Jem that paid no heed to it; and he was an unruly boy; I have had a deal of trouble with him. But, since I have got more serious and anxious in my mind, I have found the Bible bring trouble into my conscience. I hardly know where I am with God; it condemns me; I see there is goodness and wonderful grace in Jesus; but then, I have no peace in myself, and now I see there is a deal I do not understand, and I should like to know the bottom of it. Bill M. (my neighbor, who has turned Catholic), says he has never been so happy in his life, his soul never got rest till now. He never thought much about religion, it is true, and those ladies that visit were wonderful kind when his lass was sick; but he says he knows some who never got a minute's rest in their souls, that were always seeking it, till they found it in the true Church. It was he that asked me how I knew it was the Bible; and if the true Church had not kept the Bible and given it, who could say it was the word of God? and how did I, an ignorant man, know it was the word of God, as I called it? and that has dashed me uncommonly, becauSe, though I never doubted it a moment before, and saw in infidels that there was no good nor godliness in their ways, yet,. I felt I had no proof to give, and what am I to do? I know it speaks of a church that Christ would build on the rock, and I think if that would give me certainty, it would be a great rest to me. But my Mary says she could not think of such a thing; that she could no more doubt it to be the word of God than that the sun shines, and less, if that were possible; that there is more light and comfort to her soul in the Bible than there is light for her eyes and warmth in the sun. And she is a rare wife to me, and I see she has great sense in the things of God, and is a comfort in the house, and wonderful to the children-very civil to those black ladies that visit, but shy of them and the way they try to get into the family. I do not think that I doubt at bottom, that it is the word of God; my conscience and my heart too, I think, make me feel it is. But since this talk with Bill M. my mind is all in perplexity, and I feel I have no proof it is the word of God; and just because I have begun to be anxious about it, and about my soul, I should like to have something certain to rest upon. You'll forgive, I'm sure, Sir, my saying everything, and telling you all that is in my mind, because I have known you so long and your kindness, and I am in perplexity, and, to say the truth, glad to open my mind to some one I can trust, though I do not rightly know what to trust now. I thought I could entirely trust the word of God, and what am I to do now? You'll excuse me.

N*. I am very much obliged to you, James, for telling me what was passing in your mind, and grateful for the confidence you have shown me, and thankful to God that He disposed your heart to do so, and we could not do better than take up the subject; there cannot be a more important one. The faith, or, to speak more truly, Christ, is everything for us poor sinners, and we do want some sure ground on which to believe. Our faith must be a divine faith, in its nature and source, as well as in the things which it reveals; and for a divine faith we must have divine testimony. But there is, in what you say, one thing which strikes me much, namely that your Roman Catholic friends have only led you to doubt of the authority of the Scriptures, which yet, they believe to be divine, or they are infidels themselves. They have not ventured to say the Scriptures are not divine; that would be infidelity, and, as far as man went, straightforward infidelity; but they have sought to make you doubt of the certainty of their being divine. This may be all very well to bring you under their influence, and to make you believe that they only can give you this certainty; but I confess that I do not see the honesty of making you uncertain as to the authority of the Scriptures, when they own that authority themselves.

James. That is true. If they do believe they are the word of God, I do not see why they should seek to make me doubt as to how I can be sure of it.

N*. Just so; and in respect of such a matter as the word of God, it is something approaching to blasphemy. It is saying, that when God has spoken to men, His word has no certain authority of itself over their consciences. They deprive your soul of certainty in the word of God

on one side, and they deprive the word of God of its authority over your soul on the other. This, I must say, seems to me a wicked course, seeing they do not dare to say it is not the Word of God. Now, an upright heart can very often judge of a thing by the conscience, when it is quite unable to meet argument. These men seek, as to what they believe is the word of God, and which they believe ought to exercise authority over your conscience, to make you doubt whether you have any proof whereby you may know it to be such when you read it. Is not this the course your infidel acquaintance took with you? Only they took it openly.

James. Well, it is just the same.

N*. The word of God, James, carries its own authority in the heart of him in whom it has wrought. And, mark this, if it has not wrought in a man's heart, though all the churches in the world should accredit him, that man is lost. Why, if they believe it to be the word of God, not take it and see what it says? They dare not, it is too plain, it condemns their whole system. For instance, you know that it is said, " Where remission of these (sins and iniquities) is, there is no more offering for sin." (Heb. 10:13). Now, their whole system depends upon there being still offerings for sin. The very way a Roman Catholic is described is-he goes to Mass. Now the Mass is an offering for the sins of the living and the dead. And when the Word says there is no more offering for sin, and the most important distinctive point in their doctrine, and the keystone of the system they belong to, is, that there is still an offering for sin, it is easy to understand why they try to shake your confidence in the Word, or to make you think that you cannot understand it. It is because it is very plain indeed, for the poorest, that they do not like it. You are a poor man, but it does not require much learning to understand that the declaration that "there is no more offering for sin" upsets a system which is built upon offering one continually. They may quote Fathers of all names to prove that there ought to be one, or that there was one; but, if the word of God has authority, they cannot say there is one according to the authority of God. There is a kind of learning,

James, learning such as your wife has, being taught of God-a learning from Him according to the promise of that Word, the only learning that saves-which gives a weight and power to the truth I am referring to, which all the sophistry of Romanists or infidels cannot shake-I mean, the knowledge of the unchangeable value of the one offering of Christ, offered once for all. A man taught of God knows that it is in force forever, that it gives peace to the conscience, that Christ suffered agonies in accomplishing our salvation in that offering; and, as is expressly said, that if it had to be repeated, Christ must suffer repeatedly; that if it be an offering wherein Christ does not suffer-an offering wherein he does not shed his blood-it is an utterly worthless sacrifice-a base pretension to be an offering-a mockery, really, of the solemn truth of the sufferings and agonies of the Son of God for us.

It is said (Heb. 9:25), " Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Mark the words "ONCE," and "bear the sins." Does Christ bear sins in the Roman Catholic mass? If not, it is a new way of getting forgiveness, which sets aside the unspeakably gracious but heart-bowing way in which God has wrought salvation out for us, namely the dreadful but infinitely precious sufferings of His own Son. If Christ does suffer in the mass, He is not glorified at the right hand of God. True Christianity and the doctrine of the mass cannot go together. And the more you examine the 9th and the 10th chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the more you will see how the truth of God is set aside by the mass. For the apostle is showing the value of Christ's offering because it was only once, in contrast with the Jewish offerings which were repeated. Those offerings, he says, were a remembrance of sins, brought them to mind; the sins were still there, or why would the offerings for sin not have ceased to be offered:-but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God. And then, mark, he shows how we know it: " Whereof also the Holy Ghost is a witness to us.... their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." And note, how blessedly this chapter presents it to us. First, the will of God giving His Son instead of all these useless sacrifices which could never take away sins,-thus I see His thoughts and love. Then, again, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all: thus I see (not only Christ willing, in the same love, to come, but) the needed work actually accomplished. And lastly, the Holy Ghost bearing witness about it. I have the divine will and thoughts, the divine work; and, that I may have divine faith about it, and peace in my soul through " it, I have a divine testimony about it And note, James, that this testimony is the written word of God; that is, He quotes a passage of Scripture as the witness which the Holy Ghost has given. Now that is what as a poor sinner I want; and which I get only by this truth,-the efficacy of this one offering testified of by the Holy Ghost Himself. And that is the reason I said that one taught of God knows it with a certainty and blessing which Romanists and infidels cannot shake. And no man that possessed this would, for a moment, think of giving up the divinely-witnessed and known efficacy of the sacrifice by Christ of Himself, once for all, for the vain profitless repetition of it [sacrifice] where Christ does not nor can offer Himself, for He is at the right hand of God, where He does not suffer or bear sin, for that He cannot do now He is in glory. And, note, this repetition of it, if I admit it, denies the lasting, perfect efficacy of the offering He Himself made. For if it be lasting and perfect, why repeat it? My objection to the Roman Catholic system on this head is that it is built on a pretended offering which Christ does not offer, in which no blood is shed, in which Christ does not suffer, in which Christ does not bear sins, which is therefore utterly worthless; but which, by the pretension to offer Christ again, denies the abiding efficacy of Christ's one real offering of Himself. What a fraud of Satan's, to be sure, it is!

James. But then do we not commit sins (not only after Christ has died, but even) after we come to have part in the sacrifice of Christ?

N*. Surely we may; but Scripture does not speak of the repetition of Christ's sacrifice for this; that was once for all. His blood cannot be shed again, arid without shedding of blood there is no remission. It was not our sins up to a certain day which Christ bore, if indeed we have part in that sacrifice. God knows all beforehand the same as at the time, and we had committed none of our sins when Christ died for them: so that it is not the time when they were committed that makes the difference, save that they are worse when we have Christian light and life. Do not think that I count them slight; but we must not confound the efficacious work done about our sins, which was done once for all, and that work of grace and of God's Spirit in the heart which produces in us right thoughts and feelings about our sins and brings us into communion with God. The remedy practically, as to our hearts, if we do sin, is not a new sacrifice, for a new sacrifice to put them away IS IMPOSSIBLE; but, "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins." Christ is our righteousness; and that and the worth of His propitiation remain always before God; and when we fail, in which we never can excuse ourselves, Christ intercedes for us, and the Spirit of God makes us feel the sin, and we are humbled and contrite, and thus Christ restores our souls, and we are again in communion with God. It is beautifully pictured, let me add, by that blessed expression of the Savior's condescension and love in washing the disciples' feet. He that is washed-truly born of God-needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. God may use His written word, or a sermon, or the warning of a friend, as means-but it is the work of Christ's grace in the soul.

James. Well, I feel greatly comforted by what you say, but all is not clear to my mind yet; still this grace

of Jesus Christ does give rest to one's spirit, and makes one think of Him, and of God's goodness, and His love to poor sinners like me; so that one likes to think of Him. Besides, I think it takes hardness and pride out of one's heart and puts away bad thoughts and makes one love other people too, whoever they may be.

N*. It does, James. It gives rest and does what you have spoken of, sheds the love of God abroad in the heart, and purifies the heart by faith. It is a blessed thing to think that God commends His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

James. Yes, that is a comfort, and I like to think of that better than my doubts. Still, Sir, you'll forgive me, but they come back like a chill on my heart; and as I said I am not clear yet, for if I might take a wrong meaning out of the Scriptures, and I. feel I am very ignorant, I mean no offense to you, Sir, but one wants something sure for one's soul.

N*. All right, James; I have not forgotten our subject. You only make me feel more keenly the wickedness of those who seek to cast a doubt into the mind of a poor man, poor or rich either, as to the purity and source of these blessed wells of salvation, so that he is half afraid there may be poison in them, or that at any rate they do not suit him, while they know, or (at any rate) profess all the time to believe, that they are divinely given, and divine well-springs of health. I will treat this point in a direct manner by and bye, but you will let me, I am sure, pursue the subject in my own manner. It is well, you know, when a person is disposed to take a step, say to go into a house or a farm, to know what the house or the farm is. He is warned at any rate. All well that he should inquire afterward what authority there is for what he has heard, and take care there is a title.

James. Ay, that is true. Go on, Sir, as you think best. I shall listen, and I have heard what you have said gladly.

4*. I shall say a few words more about the mass. You are aware that the Church, as they call it, does not permit the laity to partake of the cup.

James. Don't they! why not?

N*. Well, it is for them to say why. they change Christ's ordinance, but it exalts the priest who does take the cup. They allege the danger of a drop of what they declare to be really the blood of Christ falling to the ground; though it would be hard to tell why there is more danger of this with the layman than with the priest. However such is their rule; laymen do not partake of the cup. They allege, to prove that they lose nothing, that the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ are in each species, that is, in each part,—in the bread. by itself, and the wine by itself; they call that the doctrine of concomitancy. Never mind the hard words, the sense is that the bread is a complete Christ, no longer bread at all, and nothing else but Christ, save in appearance. But see how the enemy has mocked them, for if the blood be in the body now, there is no redemption at all. Christ shed His blood to redeem and save us. Hence they were to drink as well as to eat. I will not dwell on this, but what a pretension this is, that the priest on pronouncing the formula;, " This is my body," turns the bit of paste into God, or (as it is constantly expressed by themselves) the priest makes God; for this is the expression familiarly used among them when they have the courage to speak freely. Now I knew a very poor man in Ireland tell his neighbor, a staunch champion for his church, when he was arguing for this doctrine, that he was contending for what he did not believe, for if that was true the priest could do what God could not do; for God could. not make God. And that is true enough. A poor man, James, if taught of God often hits right and wrong, -truth and error,-right on the head better than your learned men that make all kinds of fine distinctions. Nor would their distinctions serve here. They cannot say Christ comes into the bread as God was incarnate, because there the manhood was and remained manhood; but, according to their doctrine, the bread does not remain at all. And therefore it is called transubstantiation; that is, the substance of the bread is changed into the substance of Christ, and the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ are all there. They make a Christ out of the bread-a whole Christ, divinity and all. It must indeed be a new Christ. You cannot change it into the Christ that is already.

James. But, dear me, can all this be true! Why, I knew nothing of all this. They did not speak of all this to me. The true Church! well, it is well to know things. And yet sure enough the mass is the great thing with them. But I did not know what the mass was, I thought it was the sacrament with them.

.N*. Well, so it is. I shall, as I said, come to the question of the Church's authority; but knowing what people teach is one very good way of knowing what authority they can have. They anxiously seek to puzzle you about the Church, that, having fixed you on the ground of authority, you may receive everything they say without conscience, without personal responsibility, and without faith in God:-for faith in a priest or in the Church is not faith in God. You are to believe them, they say; yet if God has spoken by an apostle you cannot believe that, nor understand it without them; I suppose they know better how to speak of divine things than the apostles and inspired writers did. But this is the point we have to speak of by-and-bye. Only remark this well, James, you are to believe them. You cannot understand what God has said, nor even believe He said it, without them. You must depend on them. Can they answer for you in the day of judgment?

James. No, of course they cannot. I should be sorry to trust them.

N*. Of course they cannot. Do not depend on them, then, now. You must answer for yourself without them before God. This is just as true now, though that day be not come, for it is for what you do now that you will have to answer. You are individually responsible. You must assure yourself that the ground you are standing on now will be a sure and solid one in that day. Another cannot do it for you, you are personally responsible; they cannot pretend to relieve you from this. They would have you trust them blindly now, but they must abandon you when the real need comes, when you have to answer for yourself, and they for themselves.

James. That is true though.

N*. Surely it is true; but, mark, if you believe in Christ and rest your soul on Him, He never will abandon you. If He who of God is made unto us righteousness is your righteousness now, He will be your righteousness when sitting on the throne, before which you have to appear.

James. Is that in Scripture-that He is our righteousness?

N*. It is, James, in 1 Cor. 1:30. " Of him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."

James. Well, that relieves my heart, however, more than all I have heard.. Christ our righteousness! why that changes everything and makes a man love Him too; and He bore our sins to be so! I think I do see it. I understand why. Mary is happy now, though I am not like her; and I am afraid 1 may not keep it as she does. Is there more like that? I know the Bible but too little, and then one heeds it after all so little, till one finds one really wants it.

.N*. Well, James, as we are on this subject, and a blessed one it is, before our going on with the question of the true Church, or Romish doctrines, I will refer to some of the passages you inquire about. You will remark in the one I quoted to you that it says, " Of him are ye;" that is, that these blessings belong to one who is a Christian at heart, one who in his soul, as a sinner who has need of Him, believes in Christ, a man whose conscience has been before God, in whom (as Scripture speaks) there is truth in the inward parts, who does not believe merely because he has been brought up in it, however sincerely as far as that goes he may have done so; but who has believed for himself, has come to Christ in his heart, because he wants Him. God will have realities, not notions, be they false or true. When the truth is really received it is received in she heart and conscience; it convicts of sin; chews the heart to itself and makes it know the need of the truths which, perhaps, it had learned before, perhaps had never heard of.

James. Yes, yes. I understand that. I have not, I am sure, felt my sins as I ought, but I know I am not right. I am uneasy, I know I am not right with God. That is what made me listen to what they said about the true Church and the rest a man might get there; but I do not see, what I think ought to be, in those who go there either. I know I am a sinner. Whatever the Bible is, it has made me see that: sometimes angry with myself, sometimes, God forgive me, almost angry with the Bible itself and Him that gave it; and yet I am ashamed of that, because it makes me see I am a sinner. I see I could not but be lost if I am judged as I am; yet I hope too it won't be so.

.N*. A word about this rest, James 1 do not deny that the Roman Catholic system gives rest to some persons. Suppose a child had been at mischief and was uneasy, and some one was to appease its parent, or its master, and it was let off; or its schoolmaster was to pardon repeated faults which skewed a bad disposition and not tell the parent: the child would be at ease and have its conscience quiet, and think no more about it, but it would not have a purified conscience; a little penitence might be added to keep up appearances, but the evil would be unhealed. That is the Church's absolution as contrasted with God's pardon. It quiets the conscience, but it does not purge it. That will not do for God, nor for a soul in which true desires after Himself are awakened. The doctrine of absolution and the sacrament of penance is an unholy doctrine. It is professedly a means of having forgiveness where the heart has not attained to true contrition. This is the express doctrine of the Catechism of the Council of Trent, a work of absolute authority for all Roman Catholics. According to that the sacrament of penance is a less precarious and less difficult means of reconciliation and salvation than contrition, afforded by the Almighty by giving to the Church the keys of—the kingdom of heaven * Thus the conscience gets tranquility without that true contrition which alone restores the soul to true communion with God. It is, in my judgment, a horribly wicked doctrine, to say nothing of its accompaniments connected with confession. The practical result is that thousands and thousands sin all the year, get cleared off by absolution for communion at Easter, and begin to sin again as soon as Easter is over.

James. But it is impossible an awakened soul, one that wanted really to be in communion with God, could be contented with such rest for his conscience as that; nay, he could not get any rest that way, because he knows he has to say to God, and God's presence awakens the sense of sin when he comes to it, and he can't rest in his soul till his conscience is purged.

N*. Impossible, James, as you say: but many a natural conscience is uneasy that has never got into the presence of God, and such a fear may be quieted without God, as it was felt without Him. But what has made you feel that it is impossible for an awakened soul which desires to be at peace with God to content itself with such rest as that?

James. Well, it is the Word of God, I suppose, by His goodness, because it has made me see my sinfulness and want to have peace with God Himself.

.N*. Then the Word of God is true, James, and has power. It has proved itself true to your conscience, told you what you have done and revealed God to you. It is God's Word. It has shown you to yourself in His sight and revealed Him. And none could do that but God. You do not want it proved, you do not want it judged. It has judged you in revealing God to you, by His grace surely, but as His Word.

James. That is true, I see it now. It has, by grace, power in itself.

N*. Just so. "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." But a word more. There is another kind of rest a man may get. When he is not clear as to truth, and is harassed about it, when the truth has not power in his soul as known to himself; he would like to find it out and be satisfied about it. And he cannot get clear, be is uneasy, and (instead of waiting humbly in the exercise of his own soul to be taught of God, so that his own heart and soul and conscience get established in the present truth), he rests through weariness upon authority, does not know the truth himself in his inward parts, but takes whatever he is told as true. It is rest from the fatigue of his mind, but his soul has not the truth for itself at all. He does not believe for himself. Another (whom; out of weariness, he trusts to), has told him it is true, and he believes him.*

N*. You cannot have real rest and peace of soul, James, till you really know Christ as your righteousness before God. The goodness of God makes light and hope shine in, by grace, on the soul; and confidence in Him and His goodness springs up in the heart, which is an immense matter. Still God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look at sin; and hence the conscience once in His presence feels it must be cleansed and, forgiven, and find a righteousness which our sinful lives surely have not given us.

James 1 know it is said the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin; and that if a man's sins were as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. That comforts and encourages me, but I have not rightly peace by it. I am not quite sure it is for me: for I am a poor sinner after all; I find sin in myself still, and I think that troubles me more than my past sins.

N*. It always does when grace has wrought in the soul. You do quite right to judge it and yourself for it. Sin becomes hateful to us if we are really born of God, and we are ashamed of ourselves for it. Nor can we ever excuse ourselves, and especially the true Christian, because the grace of Christ is sufficient for him to make him walk aright. But you will find, James, that power against sin will come when you know what it is to be cleansed from it. Not that it will not always require vigilance and prayer for grace; but, when your soul is in communion with the Lord through the peace He gives, you will find there the strength for victory and for holding your evil nature in subjection. That communion gives happiness and strength. Hitherto you have been more learning your need of cleansing than the efficacy of Christ's blood for it: and that is all right, because, as we were seeing already, God will have realities, and have inward purification and judgment of sin along with peace with Himself, and so shows us the sin we have to be cleansed from. But now remember

what we were referring to in Heb. 9 and x., how the blood of Christ purges the conscience.

James. Yes, yes, I see that more and more, and that it is done once for all on the Cross and cannot be repeated; I see, too, more how it applies; yet I cannot apply it entirely to myself.

N*. Well now, as God has brought you to see and judge your sin,-though I am sure as you know Christ better this feeling will even deepen; but as He has brought you to repentance as I fully trust-let me ask you, Is it from your righteousness or good deeds that you have to be cleansed?

James. Well, no: nor have I any, either.

N*. Well, it is from your sins then?

James. Yes.

N*. From those you have, or those you have not? James. Why, from those I have, of course.

N*. What are those you are feeling, I trust hating too; are they not those you have?

James. To be sure, and I can say I hate them any way,- but they overcome me still, and sometimes I think I am worse than ever.

N*. All right, as I said, James, to judge yourself. God has shown you the evil of sin. It must be so if we are brought into His presence in the light. But do you not see that those are the sins you have, for which Christ gave Himself that you might be cleansed in God's sight from them, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree? God has made you feel the guilt and unholiness of them. Now He skews you the full atonement for them, that in His sight the blood of Christ cleanses perfectly from them: that when God sees the blood, He cannot charge them on you, whom He has taught to trust in that blood, or your faith would be in vain. Thus He said to Israel in that solemn night when God went through Egypt to smite the firstborn, and commanded the blood to be put upon the lintel and the two door posts. You remember that account in Ex. 12

James. Yes, yes, the night of the passover.

N*. Well, God said then, "when I see the blood I will

pass over." Now, if a man had not believed God, he would not of course have had the refuge, and so it is now with us: but so God now sees the blood of our true paschal lamb and passes over. He cannot see the true Christian's sins as on him, because He sees the blood which has put them away. forever.

James 1 see it all now. He gave Himself for my sins and suffered agonies and wrath for them on the cross, that I may be clear from them. Well, it is blessed grace. To think-why one can't think as one ought of it-one is bought with a price, as it is said. I see why Mary is so happy, and no wonder. Why, how blind I was.

N*. And yet God has been gracious to you, James.

James. Ay, gracious to me, that He has. It is I that have to say so; but you will excuse my saying much more about it now, Sir. It is too wonderful, and I hardly know how to get my heart to contain it all rightly; but I see it, and thank you, Sir, too. Oh, it is all plain, and it is now I see that the word of God is true, and what a book that blessed book is. Yet I have all to learn in it. I did not just doubt it till they spoke to me, but it is a different thing when it is light in one's own soul. It convicted me before; but then I could hardly delight in its being true though. It judged me; but now it is light to my soul.

N*. So the Apostle John speaks, James; " He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God has given concerning his Son." This last you did not do, James, though you were in danger of it; but, as a system, Romanism and infidelity does. I say as a system, because I do not impute it to all the poor souls in the system, as if they did it willfully. Now you have, as I fully trust, got the other part, the witness in yourself. You see what forgiveness is, but you have yet to learn more fully what divine righteousness is-what it is to be made the righteousness of God in Christ. You will find that there is a fullness in the deliverance of which God has made you partaker, of which you are hardly yet quite aware.

You see that there is a perfect forgiveness, and that the blood of Christ has blotted out all the wretched sinful fruit of your old nature; that He has borne your sins and died for you as a sinner, and that all that you are as such is done away by His death, in God's sight; for sin in the flesh has been condemned in the sacrifice He has made for sin, as well as sins atoned for. But, besides that, Christ is risen, and has taken a new place as an accepted man, who as such is God the Father's delight, and this is your place before God. You are accepted in Him; as well as the sins of your old man, and all its guilt put away. He has been raised again for our justification.

And this connects itself, you see, with a new life in us, the power of which has been displayed in His resurrection. It was divine power no doubt which was displayed in that, but in the way of the energy of life, and that life is made ours in Christ. We are quickened together with Him, and raised up, together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him. We are made the righteousness of God in Him. This perhaps you cannot fully understand yet, but as we were speaking of what is given to us in being justified through Christ, I have just mentioned it. It is fully opened out in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, in the second chapter of that to the Ephesians, in the third of Colossians-and in the Epistle to the Galatians. You will find there that the fleshly religion, so largely now developed in Romanism, was what opposed St. Paul in his day; only his energy, through the power of the Holy Ghost, kept it down. If you humbly study the word of God, looking to Him to help you, He will lead you on in these things. I now only just point them out to you.

A remarkable image of these truths is found in the history of the children of Israel, which may help you to understand what this deliverance which I speak of is. When God passed through Egypt in judgment, the blood on the door-posts protected them against that judgment, and most blessed that was; but Israel was still in Egypt. But when they arrived at the Red Sea, God said by Moses: " Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." Then Israel, as you remember, passed through the Red Sea dry-shod, and got out of Egypt, and into an entirely new position; as a people accepted of God, having a great deal to learn, but with God; and all their former state behind them. So it is not all, that the precious blood of Christ protects us, as the Lamb slain for us, from the righteous judgment of God; but His death and resurrection bring us into a new place accepted before God in Him, who is risen up from among the dead after having paid the wages of sin for us. But I must leave you, James, thankful that you see that Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross. You can rejoice with your dear wife, it will be a cheer to her, and lead your children on. A poor man is the happiest being on the earth when he has the Lord with him in his peaceful, if humble,. home. It is not that you will not find questions and difficulties arise in your mind, and temptations to overcome, and sin to resist; the Lord has warned us it will be so,-but we have One to go to, whom you, as I trust, now know for yourself; James.

We have what is a less pleasant part of our intercourse (but may be useful as you are circumstanced), your questions with Bill M. to settle about Romanist views, and I will try and see you again.

James. Thank you, Sir, I shall be glad to see you. I am right glad to have seen you to-day, and. I do not mind so much about those questions now, but it is as well to look into them, as I meet some of them often. I do not understand all you said about righteousness, but I see that it is there in the Word, and that Israel was not only spared in the judgment, but got into a new place with God, but my heart has not got in itself into it yet.

N*. Well, good bye. Search the Word, James, now your heart is in it. It strengthens the heart, and it keeps the conscience alive. A dull conscience is apt to be more or less a hardened one, and leaves the soul open to temptations and the assaults of the enemy,-and pray continually to God, your Father in Christ, for grace to help and keep you. The Bible has been a blessing to you, even though you long had no divine light on it, James 1 often think it is like the fire that is laid but not lit. The truths it contains cannot take effect till grace puts the fire to them; but the truth, divine truth, is there to be kindled any way, though it may be increased condemnation if a man give no heed to what God has said. So Paul speaks to Timothy, speaking of the safeguard in the last days, " that from a child thou hast known the Scriptures." God bless you, James; I hope to see you again.

James. Farewell, Sir. No. 12.

Fragment

1. THE notion that the Son of God could be in this world as it is, and He not be a sufferer in it, is, I judge of Satan: for it tacitly supposes Him not to have essentially and inseparable from Himself, the character and ways of God.

And as Son of Man He could not be here without suffering, if, indeed, He was perfect as a man, God manifest in flesh; happy only with what made a perfect man happy, and unhappy when surrounded with that which would have made a perfect man unhappy.

2. Some have said that the blessed Lord inculpated Himself before and with God in His birth, by becoming the seed of the woman and king of Israel. But both of these express what is the sheer ignorance of foolish men. If true, it would make the incarnation itself and His becoming seed of Abraham, an act of disobedience to God, instead of an act in full unselfish subjection on His part; and He would thus be by nature and association necessarily guilty; and it would thus destroy the possibility of His voluntarily taking up, at the hand of God, man's guilt, that He might bear the penalty of it, after His having shown in a life of perfect goodness down here that no guilt attached to Him.

3. To limit His sufferings to the unrighteousness of man against Him, is sheer ignorance. There was His sympathy with man, and His sympathy with God besides.

4. Take, too, His view of marriage, of death and of resurrection of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,-was He a stone not to suffer where God was set aside, where men whom He loved were all utterly at fault.

5. And what the results of such knowledge to Him

whose heart and mind linked the Paradise of man lost, with the paradise of God to be gained.

And if every office, position, glory entrusted to man had failed-and yet are to be brought forth and made to stand in Him-had He not to maintain, and did He not maintain in the humiliation, that not one thing had failed in Him, ere He took up the suffering which would put (not Himself but) those also for whom He suffered, at His side and under Him in the blessings thereof. Surely it was so. Word of God, as He was, He showed that He knew its force and temper in every respect.

The temptation in the wilderness from Satan; Jerusalem as Sodom and Gomorrah; crucified through weakness,-the experiences of His soul-about Martha, Mary, Lazarus;-about Peter, etc., in John 13 all proclaim Him a sufferer, and that apart from the vicarious sufferings on the cross.

Galatians

It may interest your readers to have brought before them the great principles which constitute the bases of the doctrine of the Epistle to the Galatians. It is upon the face of it elementary, the Churches of Galatia being in imminent danger of adding Judaism to Christianity in such a way as to destroy the nature of Christianity itself. Nor was theirs the only age in which liability to do so had existed, and has had to be watched against.

The law is a testing of human nature, to see whether it can produce righteousness for God, and a perfect rule of righteousness for that nature in all it owes to God and to a man's neighbor. So that it claims subjection, and that man should fulfill its requirements, under penalty, moreover, of judgment. The authority of God, the subjection of man to His commandments, and a perfect rule of conduct for man in his present state as a child of Adam are all involved in this system. But man, conscious he ought to fulfill it, his own conscience telling him it is right, and not suspecting his own weakness and the depth of his ruin, and seeing that keeping it would be righteousness for him before God, readily takes it up as the way of having that righteousness, and enjoying divine favor, of being right when judgment comes. When unawakened, observance of its outward claims satisfies the natural conscience; if understood spiritually, it leads to the discovery of that law in our members which hinders all success in the attempt. But God having established the law, it was a very difficult and delicate thing to show that, as a system, it was passed away, not because it was not right in its place, and useful too for its own real purpose, but to make way for a system of grace purposed and promised long before the law was established; and that by the discovery that it was death and condemnation to be under it, that the mind of the flesh (the nature the law dealt with) was not subject to it, and could not be, and that we escape its curse, as under it not by the destruction of its authority, but by dying as so under it, and that by the body of Christ, in whom we then found ourselves in a new life beyond its condemnation. The cross making all things clear. But the credit of the flesh, that is of himself, is dear to the natural man, and till he had discovered that in him, that is in his flesh, there was no good thing, he was loathe to give up a rule he knew to be right, in the humbling confession that he was such a sinner that it could be only his condemnation, the law of sin so strong in his members, himself so disposed to evil, that the law, weak through the flesh, could only condemn him. Judaizing teachers, proud in their own conceits, zealous of the law as the credit of their nation, could not bear to have it set aside as necessary for the way of righteousness and life with God; and the ministry which judged the flesh in Jew and Gentile, and freed the latter from all subjection to the Jewish system was intolerable to them. Man always clings to the law, speciously alleging God's claims and holiness, till he experimentally finds in the

discovery of the true character of the flesh his true state, that as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.

Hence Paul, both as to his own ministry and the place the law held, was in perpetual conflict with these Judaizing teachers. The more intimate we are with his writings, the more we shall find how he was harassed by it, and how his writings continually bear on the point that you cannot mix the two systems, law and grace. This lay at the root of all his doctrine, and in all its highest developments, as well as in its first elements. The counsels of God, in the second man, were formed before the world was, or man was responsible at all, and revealed only after that last man was come, and had He accomplished the work on which the bringing all these counsels into effect was founded. The Apostle's doctrine fully unfolded brought out the ground and scope of these. counsels in their full development in Christ, and, as to us, in

a new and heavenly position of man in and with Him; while the true state of the first man, responsible for his walk, of which the law was the perfect rule, gave occasion for insisting on the first elements of the truth, and the necessity of setting aside the first man, and thus for-the application of the law,, which could reach him only as long as he lived, in order to substitute grace and divine righteousness, not because the law was wrong, but because, being right, it was death and condemnation to man under it. Christ met this responsibility for us on the cross, magnifying the law by bearing its curse, but bringing us, dead to sin and alive in Him, into connection withal with another—Himself raised from the dead. In His death God had condemned sin in the flesh, and brought in what was divine in righteousness and life in place of man, when Christ was for sin a sacrifice for sin on the cross. These elements the Epistle to the Galatians fully instructs us in, without going into the counsels whose accomplishment is based on the cross. These are found elsewhere, most fully in the Ephesians.

The first part of the Epistle to the Galatians is occupied with the independence of Paul's ministry. It was neither of nor by man. From the Apostles he received nothing. The revelations he received, and his Apostolic authority were immediately from the Lord. But on this part it is not my object now to dwell. At the end of the second chapter the Apostle gives, in earnest and burning words, the whole bearing of the law on the Gospel, and how they were related one to another; but of this at the close. I will now show how he sets the law and Gospel over against one another.

Up to the flood, save the testimony of godly men and prophets, God did not interfere after the history of man's perverseness was complete in Adam and Cain. That issued in the judgment of the flood. After that God began anew to deal with man, to unfold His ways to him in the state in which he was. And they were carried on till the full proof of man's irreclaimable state was given in the rejection of Christ. The first of these dealings after scattering men into nations, and tongues, and languages, was His taking Abraham out of them all for Himself, and making him the stock and root of a new family on the earth, God's family fleshly or spiritual. The former Israel; the latter the one seed, Christ. Leaving aside for the moment Israel, the seed, according to the flesh, to whom the promises will surely be accomplished in grace, we find the promise made to Abram in Gen. 12., and confirmed to the seed in Gen. 22. This referred to all nations who were to be blessed in the seed, the one seed typified by Isaac offered up and raised in figure. On this the Apostle insists. The blessing came by promise. This, confirmed as it was to Isaac, could not be disannulled, and (what is more directly to the point) could not be added to. The law could not be annexed to it as a condition. To that there were two parties, but God was only one. The accomplishment of this conditional promise depended on the fidelity of both, and hence had no stability. God's promise depended on Himself alone. His faithfulness was its security, and it could not fail. But the law, coming 430 years after, could not invalidate or be added to the confirmed promise. The law is not against the promises of God, but merely came in by-the-bye till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, bringing in transgression but not righteousness. The law was not of faith; its blessing was by those who were under it themselves doing it. Promise, and faith in the promise and promised one went together. The law brought a curse; Christ the promised seed was made a curse for those under it, and when Christianity or faith came they were no longer under it at all. The law was an intermediate added thing, whose place ceased when the promised seed came. The law and grace are contrasted, as the law and promise, faith and the seed are first for justification. A man under the law was a debtor himself to do the whole of it, and a Christian taking this ground was fallen from grace, Christ had become of none effect to him. A man who looked to the law frustrated the grace of God. If righteousness came by it, Christ was dead in vain.

But the contrast is applied to godly walk. The Spirit is opposed to the flesh. They are contrary one to

the other in their nature. We are to walk after the Spirit, having the things of the Spirit before us, to do

its works, to produce its fruits; but if we are led of the Spirit we are not under law. Life and power and a

heavenly object characterize the Spirit, in contrast with the law which deals with flesh, and in vain, instead of taking us out of it. Thus, as to godly walk as well as to righteousness, the law is contrasted with grace. On one side are grace, promise, faith, Christ, and the Spirit, and I may add, a righteous standing before God; on the other, the law claiming obedience from the flesh, which does not render it, and out of which the law cannot deliver us. It gives no life. If there had been a law which could have given life, then indeed righteousness should have been by the law. It is this full contrast which makes the Galatians so striking.

The result is this. Being led of the Spirit we are not under law. What, then, is our state? We through the Spirit wait for the hope that belongs to it, that is glory. How so? Being righteous in Christ we have received the Spirit, and in the power of that we wait for what it so richly reveals. The contrast of the flesh and Spirit, and the power of the latter leaves the law functionless as to walk, whether in power or character. Law was a rule for flesh, a perfect one, but not for spirit. This reveals heavenly things, Christ in glory, and changes us into His image. This was in no way the law's object.

How, then, is its real use and power stated in the epistle? Peter, when certain came from James, would no longer eat with the Gentiles. Paul withstood him to the face, the weakness of one yielding to the presence of Jews, the energetic faith of the other holding fast the truth of the Gospel. Peter had left the law as the way of obtaining righteousness, and he was going back to it, building again what he had destroyed; he was then a transgressor in destroying it. Now Christ had led him to it. Christ then was the minister of sin. What was the effect of the law? Ah! we have through grace, in the earnestness of a holy conscience, its true work. It wrought death. The law had killed Paul (that is in his conscience before God). He had been alive without it once. But thereby he was dead to it. And this, that in another way, in another life, he might live to God, which the flesh could not do. Had it been simply given effect to in himself, it had been curse and condemnation as well as death, but it was in Christ, who had died under its curse for him, and he was crucified with Christ, being thus dead, dead to law, and to sin at the same time, having done with the old Adam, to which the law applied; he was nevertheless now alive. Yet not he (which would have been the flesh), but Christ lived in him. The law and condemnation and the flesh were gone (so to speak) together as to Paul's position before God, and replaced by Christ and the Spirit, on which last he largely insists in what follows, chap. 3. But there is more, there is the object before the soul. "The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." This is a great point. That Divine person, who has so loved us and given Himself for us, whom we thus know in perfect grace, in love even unto death, is the sanctifying object of the whole life. We live by it. The law gave no object, no more than it gave life and strength. Here we have the most blessed one, where the heart is filled with love, and led out in confidence with an object that conforms it to itself. The principle of dealing, grace, life, power, object, are all contrasted with law, which afforded none of these, and could therefore no more produce godliness than it could righteousness before God. The epistle thus contrasts grace, promise, faith, Christ, the Spirit for righteousness and walk alike with law and flesh. The law was useful as bringing death on us, that is, on the old man. Condemnation being borne by Christ, in whom we have died to it and flesh. A new place, and life, and righteousness, beyond the cross is that into which we have entered, with Christ in heaven before us. I have written at intervals and interrupted, as well as weary, and not given in this paper, I fear, what was suggested to my mind. But I trust the great principles of the epistle on this point will be sufficiently clear to be helpful to some in studying the epistle itself. J.N.D.

Guidance for Today

IT would have been of no avail for Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, or Josiah during their respective reigns, and in the days of Israel's and Judah's revival history, to have aimed at Solomon's glory for themselves, or for the union of Beauty and Bands in the hand of Jehovah, as regards the nation. Any such attempt would have been only a further proof of inability to recognize their proper places before God, and would, in fact, have been an impeachment of His righteous government, which had inflicted these outward judgments upon Israel and the kings, on account of their disobedience.

A very different path and a far happier one was opened to their faith, and this they followed. They counted upon Jehovah to come down in grace to him that was humble and of a contrite spirit, and who trembled at His word.

Jehoshaphat was publicly chastened and taught on the battle field of Ramoth-Gilead that his affinity with Ahab was weakness and wickedness before God, whatever it might appear to be in the eyes of the gathered hosts: so God broke it up.

It is well to note the difference in all respects between Jehoshaphat's disgrace at Ramoth-Gilead, in the midst of the four hundred prophets of Ahab, who cried " Go up" (how like to the multitudinous guides of modern Christendom), and the honor which God put upon him when the hosts of the Ammonites and the Moabites, etc.,. came against him to battle at Hazazon Tamar. He takes in hand other weapons of war and of victory, and proclaims a fast throughout Judah, and sets himself to seek the Lord. He wins by prevailing with God as the secret of strength-" art Thou not our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of the land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham forever?" -Thus, Jehoshaphat girds himself with the power of the Almighty, and, in the perfectness of his own weakness and insufficiency asks, " O our God, wilt not thou judge them, for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children." What an appeal to infinite grace, and so in accordance with the mind and heart of God before Christianity came in, and the chariot and horse, and the bow and the spear were superseded. " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

Faith, when coupled with obedience, whether then or now, puts everything in simple dependance into the hand of Almighty power and grace; and the answer to faith from the excellent glory is, " Be not afraid, nor be dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's; ye shall not need to fight; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you." The nation's glory had long been tarnished by the judgment of God upon its rebellion; but it never shone brighter than in the subdued light of the moral beauty which envelopes this scene at Engedi. " And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah with the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord." Jehovah comes out as in olden time, in the greatness of His majesty, and strength, so that the fear of God was in all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

Jehoshaphat is thus the witness to us that separation from an arm of flesh, and, in truth, from all evil and natural confidence, is the path which leads to shelter under the wings of the Almighty; just as Hezekiah's subsequent history is the further witness to us of a yet deeper principle, and its necessity in a walk with God" Be ye holy, for I am holy." The service of Jehoshaphat was relative in its character, and had to do with Jerusalem in its external relations with the kingdoms of that day: " so the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest round about." The service of Hezekiah was personal and had to do with Jerusalem, but in its internal relations to the Temple, and the worship of God in Israel. Thus, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. His work was not so much to separate himself from evil, and from Ahab,. like Jehoshaphat, but to separate evil from the place where Jehovah had put His name and His glory; and this is immensely important as raising the standard of holiness, and what becomes us in our relation to God as such, whether then or now (see Rev.

Observe that this character of cleansing must begin from within, as in later times between the Lord and the angels of the Seven Churches, or with Hezekiah and the priesthood of Israel; " and the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, into the court of the house of the Lord; and the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron." It is of great moment to see that Hezekiah made no effort to assume the original ground of Israel's national integrity, in keeping the passover unto the Lord God of Israel; but, on the contrary, recognizing the nation's failure, counts upon God in grace to come down upon the lower platform which he had provided to meet such an emergency (see Num. 9:10), by legalizing the feast on the fourteenth day of the second month.

How gracious is the Lord in meeting His people where they are and as they are: " I know thy works; behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name." Or, as we read in the more ancient chronicles of Israel, " they could not keep it at that time (the fourteenth day of the first month) because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently; neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem." Truly encouraging is this grace for a day like this, towards any whose hearts and consciences are alive to the condition of the professing church, and seek to recover real Christian worship: "Then they killed the passover, on the fourteenth day of the second month; and the priests and the Levites were ashamed." They, or we, must own the state in which our corporate failure has brought us, and put off our ornaments, so that God may take that as the opportunity of showing that He is superior to the emergency, and makes His restoring love sweeter to us than even the strong hand of His delivering power. " So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem: then the priests arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto heaven." What a place for Hezekiah. between Jehovah and His people! and is there no such opportunity in the deepening declension and apostasy of Christendom? yea, is there no such thing to one who has the opened ear and the anointed eye?

The service of Josiah, the last revival king, had other characteristics of equal though peculiar interest; for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, and they brake down the altars of Balaam in his presence. Hezekiah cleansed the temple of the Lord, and established the worship of God in Jerusalem, according to the law of Moses the man of God; but Josiah purged the whole land from its idolatry and false worship. He burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem; and when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel he returned to Jerusalem.

Perhaps the most interesting point of difference between these three kings, and which has most to do with a real positive action for God in the present day was when Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, "and Shaphan read it before the king; and it came to pass when the king heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes." It is a solemn thing when our distance and departure from God are estimated by no less a standard than the word of the Lord; and this was Josiah's measuring line. " Great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book." Jehoshaphat was the example of how God deals with a man who has affinity with evil; and what a note of warning, we may say in passing, for the alliances and associations of our clay! Hezekiah witnessed of the manner in which God encourages and works with the man who knows what the Lord's name is rightly connected with on earth, and, therefore, cleanses the house from all filthiness, and intelligently prepares it for the glory of God and the true worship of His people. Josiah, however, like John the beloved disciple, goes back to " the word which ye have heard from the beginning," and there he reads what is true, and accepts nothing else for his practical walk and service. He passes over the fathers, or only knows them as not having kept the word of the Lord; just as the apostle warns us of " the traditions of men," or " a vain conversation received from your fathers." None can tell the deliverance of soul but the man who is bold enough in our God thus to go back to " the word which was from the beginning ' for his guidance, and so passes by councils, creeds, and the fathers, with faith's simple watch-word and warrant, " let God be true, but every man a liar." What other course would suit the closing up days of Israel, before its Babylonish captivity in Josiah's time, any more than in these last days of a more fearful apostasy, and judgment upon " Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the whole earth." Josiah then, like the man of God of to-day, was owned of the Lord, in the positive refusal of things as they were, which neither suited God, nor the word of His truth, nor an awakened conscience; so that Josiah's feast of the passover exceeded on all respects that of Hezekiah; for it was held on the fourteenth day of the first month, nor was there any passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept.

The wretchedness and break down in a former dispensation, was, whenever nationalism was accepted and followed, instead of the law, of Moses, the man of God. And now that Christ is come, and Judaism passed away, the misery of this time is in the acceptance of a national religion by law established, instead of a pure Christianity founded in grace upon the finished and perfect work of Christ for life and salvation to every one that believeth.

Again, this king Josiah not only found guidance into peace and blessing, through the book which Hilkiah discovered in the house of the Lord; but there was wrath declared upon all disobedience as there is now-"in the time of harvest He will separate the wheat from the tares." How encouraging are the words of Huldah the prophetess, to the soul of Josiah-" because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God when thou heardest His words against this place, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord; and behold I will gather thee to thy fathers, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place."

Turn we again to " the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." How few of the Lord's people have formed their expectations according to this book which God gave unto our Lord when in heaven, although it is commended to us, " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written herein, for the time is at hand." When John turned to see the voice which spake to him he fell at His feet as dead; and, oh I did but Christians of the present day consult this last book given by the Lord " to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass," how would their judgments of all around them be changed as in a moment. Instead of encouraging each other by the delusive expectations of the world getting better by what they are doing in it; how would they be humbled, and rend their clothes, and weep like Josiah, or John, to find that the professing church itself is under inspection in the Apocalypse, and rejected by Christ as worthless for any purpose, "because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spire thee out of my mouth." -.Where can Christians turn after this judgment upon the Seven Churches?-these very agencies, these gathered candlesticks, by whose means light and blessing were gradually to be introduced (as they think) and disseminated till the dark places of the world which were full of the habitations of cruelty, should be dark no longer. Were the Lord's dear people to consult this book, as Josiah did the lost or neglected book which was found in his day, they would be delivered, as he was, froth the delusions which are all around. How vast the difference when one discovers a falling away-a man of sin—the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, which exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, whom the Lord shall destroy with the breath of His mouth, and the brightness of His coming. Instead of wide spreading light, there are the lengthening and deepening shades of darkness discovered on every hand; when, instead of good, increasing evil is prevailing, and, finally, all the world worshipping the Beast, and saying in proud defiance " who is like unto the Beast?" Instead of blessing from God on account of the spread of Christianity, the heaviest judgments of the vials, the trumpets, and the thunders are heard because of the wrath and indignation of God!

Yet how gracious is the assurance now, as to Josiah by Huldah, and to the Christian by John-" because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth." Again, Paul to the church of the Thessalonians, " now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled," &c. Our hope is to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and to be taken out of the coming judgments; for peace and a time of blessing there will never be till after Satan is cast into the bottomless pit, and all the enemies of Christ have been made His footstool. " The winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep these things which are written therein, for the time is at hand!" J. E. B.

Hebrew Synonyms

(To end of Pentateuch.)

There are four words used in the original of the Old Testament for the words which have been rendered in the English authorized version " nation," " people," etc., etc.

Arranged alphabetically they stand thus:-

1. אמָּח f. ummah; 2. גּוֹ goh'y; 3. לאם, m. l'ohm;

4.עٕם, c. gahm.

In our English translation these are rendered variously.. Thus we find for 1, ummah, nation, people ' for 2, goh'y, Gentile, heathen, nation, people; for 3, V ohm, nation, people; and, for 4, kahm, folk, men, nation, people.

This, and the fact of the popular use of the second of them, goh-im, when in the plural for the Gentiles (who are commonly called by the Jews the goh-im), and of the fourth of them kahm, for Israel, the people of Jehovah,—make a few remarks desirable.

I may observe, in passing, that Scripture presents-and that, therefore, those who derive their thoughts from Scripture about the things of God's government and kingdom upon this postdiluvian earth, often allude to -divisions of the people of it.

1. The family of Noah was divided into three heads in Gen. 9, and the generations or races flowing from these three heads are given to us in the tenth chapter: these races, with their characteristic names, re-appear in the closing scenes of prophecy, as in Ezek. 38 and 39., etc. The Gentile politicians of to-day, too; calculate upon a war of races as likely to take place ere long.

2. Then we get gammi (my people), the people of Jehovah, the nation which He was-pleased to take up, by the hand of Moses, as the center and chief means of illustrating His government upon earth, the people whose King and God upon earth He was and will hereafter- be. (Compare Deut. 32:7,8,9.)

In contrast with them, as a nation, though, when they failed, in oppressive connection with Israel, were the four great kingdoms of the heathen or goh-im as in Daniel

There are nations extern to these though connected with them.

And 5. There are the nations in the uttermost parts of the earth, to whom, in the latter day, blessing will flow from Israel.

It may be that many subordinate questions may arise through ignorance as to details connected with these things, and from want of understanding in Scripture as to God's dealing with the subdivisions of the families of the Patriarchs; as, for example of Abraham, with his two wives and concubine and their three sons Ishmael, and Isaac, and Midian; and of Isaac and his two sons Esau and Jacob. For the Ishmaelites and Midianites, Edomites and Amalekites have their places in the scenes before us as well as the children of Lot-the Ammonites and Moabites; and many of them come into the scene in the latter day. But there is no question as to the existence of them both in the historic and the prophetic page.

Our subject of study, however, now, is the use in Scripture of the four Hebrew words, ummah, goh'y, l'ohm, kahm, and their plurals. I turn now to them.

1. אמּח ummah, f., though found in the singular in

Chaldee as we shall see, occurs in Hebrew only in the

plural forms, masculine and feminine, ummim, m., and nation, Egypt.. f. ummohth. I shall cite these according to the words by which they are represented in our authorized English Bible. -

Gen. 25:16 (f.). twelve princes according to their nations (ummohth), [said of Ishmael's sons].

Num. 25:15 (f.). He (was) head over peoples (ummohth) [Zur, father of the Midianitish woman, Cozbi, slain by Phinehas].

Psa. 117:1 (in.). Praise, all ye peoples (ummim)

[query, of whom].

In Chaldee, in Dan. 3:29, we do find ummah, the singular form, Ezra 4:10: And the rest of the nations (f. emphatic and pl.) (whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria).

Dan. 3:4. O people, nations (f. emph. and pl.), and languages.

Dan. 3:7. All the people, the nations (f. emph. pl.), and the languages.

Dan. 3:29. That every people, nation, (ummah, f.), and language.

Dan. 4:1, and v. 19, and vi. 25, and vii. 14, all people, nations (f. emph. pl.) and language:.

[The passages in Daniel refer to all whom the word of Nebuchadnezzar could reach.]

From these eleven occurrences we must form our judgment about the application and meaning of the word.

In ten of the passages, it is used:-once of Ishmaelites, once of Midianites, and eight times of the peoples who were within reach of the word of Nebuchadnezzar, head of gold of the monster-image of Daniel. This is a very low use for a word. It is never met with as used of what is high or noble, according to the Divine mind. And it has no words which are cognate to it, or derived from it, in the Hebrew or Chaldee of the Old Testament which could help us to its meaning; nor from its con. nections with what was in a sense antagonistic to Israel, could it suitably be used to describe the people of the lands in the uttermost parts of the earth, to whom, in the latter day, Israel (as the center of God's government on the earth) will send out blessing; nor is it so used.

Leaving the word goh'y till we can examine it in juxtaposition with 'gem, I now turn to l' Ariz, and its plural l'ummim.

Gen. 25:23. And the Lord said to her (Rebekah); Two nations (goh-im, pl.) (are) in thy womb, and two manner [or sort] of peoples (l' urnmim, pl.), shall be separated from thy bowels and (the one) [manner or sort of] people, (l'ohm), shall be stronger than (the other) [manner or sort of] people (l'ohm).

Gem 27. 29 [Isaac blessing Jacob]. Let peoples (gammim, pl.), serve thee and [manners or sorts of] nations (l'ummim, pl.) bow down to thee: be lord [a mighty man] over thy brethren.

Observe, this would not run the source of the division of people back to Shem, Ham and Japhet, so as to make the word to be equivalent to what we call the races of people, in connection with the Noahic earth, who constitute the whole human family. The subdivision here alluded to took place in the family of Isaac, type of the heir of promise, not earlier; and the heads of this subdivision are brought before us in Rom. 9 All God's ways and subdivisions are to be noted.

The word occurs fourteen times in the Psalms: viz., 2. 1, and 7. 7, and 9. 8, and 44. 2, 14, and 47. 3, and 57. 9, and 65. 7, and 67. 4, 4, and cv. 44, and 108. 3, and 148. 2, and 149. 7. I shall render it throughout these places in the Psalter uniformly. But of this, I will speak, lower down. Here I only note that a race of men as distinguished from another race derived from the same source as itself, as were Edom and Israel, is, I judge, the meaning of the word: identity of origin but contrast in character, habit, prospect, and end are supposed. Let the reader bear this in mind in connection with this word, and that its habitual use is of that which is the offset from that which remains the channel of blessing and testimony.

The word occurs also in seventeen other references: I will give them with any remarks that may occur to me.

Prov. 11:26. He that withholdeth corn, the people (l'ohm), shall curse him: but blessing (shall be) upon the head of him that selleth (it) [query: is the curse of the mob here set in contrast with the blessing of Jehovah].

Prov. 14:28. In the multitude of people (gahm) (is) the king's honor: but in the want of people (l'ohm) is the-destruction of the prince.

Prov. 14:34. Righteousness exalteth a nation (goh'y): but sin (is) a reproach to any peoples (l'ummim, pl.)

Prov. 24:24. He that saith to the wicked: Thou (art) righteous; him shall the peoples (gammim, pl.) curse, nations (l'ummim, pl.) shall abhor him.

Isa. 17:12. Woe to the multitude of many peoples (gammim, pl.) and to the rushing of nations (l'ummim, pl.)

Isa. 17:13. The nations (l'ummim, pl.) shall rush like the rushing of many waters.

Isa. 34:1. ('Tis in the day of vengeance, v. 4, 6, 8, on Bozrah and Idumea.) Come near, ye nations (goh-im, pl.) to hear, and hearken, ye peoples (l'ummim, pl.): let the earth [or land] hear, and the fullness thereof..... the world and all its produce.

Isa. 41:1. Let the peoples (l'ummim, pl.) renew their strength: (Cyrus is in prospect)... [the indignation of Jehovah (is) upon all the heathen (goh-im, pl.)]

Isa. 43:3,4. I gave Egypt (for) thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee... I have loved thee (Israel): therefore will I give men (Adam) for thee, and peoples (l'ummim, pl.) for thy life.

Isa. 43:9. Let all the nations (goh-im, pl.) be gathered... let the peoples (l'ummim, pl.) be assembled.

Isa. 49:1. Listen, O isles,... and hearken, ye peoples

(l'ummim), (Cyrus is in prospect).

Isa. 51:4. Hearken to me, my people (gammi),..give ear, my nation (l'ohm); my judgment

... a light of the peoples (gammim, pl )

Isa. 4:4,5. David... a witness to the peoples (l'ummim, pl.)... and commander to the peoples (l'ummim, pl.) Thou shalt call a nation (goh'y) and nation (goh'y, singular), that knew thee not.

Isa. 60:2,3. Darkness shall cover the earth.... gross darkness the peoples (l'ummim, pl.);... the Gentiles (goh-im, pl.) shall come to thy light.

Jer. 51:58. [Note the goh-im in ver. 44, and gammi, my

people in ver. 45],-(in Babylon)-... the peoples (gammim,

pl.) shall labor in vain, and the folk (l'ummim, pl.) in—the fire.

Hab. 2:13. the peoples (gammim, pl.) shall labor... and the peoples (l'ummim, pl.) shall weary themselves.

I come now to goh’y and gahm, the second and the fourth word out of the four, the use and meaning of which we are considering. And first, I will look at them according to the occurrences of them in Scripture.

The Pentateuch gives the outline of Israel's past, present, and future, as that nation which is the chief means of illustrating Jehovah's government and worship upon earth; and as their separation from among the nations, their always abiding distinct from them, and their return into the place of power above them all is traced in these books (from the commencement down to the expected end) we may as well begin with this portion of the word of God.

In the following list of occurrences I mark off, by A, those of goh’y, goh-im; and by B, those of gahm gammim:—A. Goh’y B. Gahm

Gen. 10:5. The sons of Japheth... By these were the isles [or separate spots] of the Gentiles [goh-im, pl.] divided in their lands;... in their nations [id.]

Gen. 10:20. The sons of Ham... after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, in their nations [id.].

Gen. 10:31. The sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations [id.]. (32.) These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations in their nations (id.): and by these. were the nations (id.) divided in the earth after the flood.

Note, here, how from the first this word was used to designate something like a family clan inhabiting a district. The. first division of the family of man upon the Noahic earth was into the three heads: Japheth, Ham and Shem; and secondly, there was a subdivision of each of their families, going out; the sons formed clans.

For instance,—Japheth had Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras-his sons;

Gomer had Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah as his sons.

Javan had Elishah, and- Dodanim as

his sons. These went out into the separate spots of the clans and possessed lands.

So we have, also, the names of the heads under Ham, and under Shem; and their sons and the places occupied by their families where their clans grew up.

B. The first occurrence of kahm comes in here.

Gen. 11:6. The Lord said (at the tower of Babel), Behold the people (is) one, and they have all one language.

Observe, here, the races of men were still one people ("gahm).

Gen, 12. 2, 3. The Lord had said to Abram. I will make of thee a great (goh’y) nation... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Gen. 14:1,9. Tidal king of nations (goh-im).

Gen. 14:16. Abram.... brought again... Lot, and his goods,... and the people (kahm).

Gen. 15:14. And also that nation (goh'y) [Egypt]. Gen. 17:4. Thou (Abram) shalt be a father of a multitude of nations (goh-im), (5) for a father of a great multitude of nations (goh-im) have I made thee. (6.) I will make nations (goh-im) of thee.

Gen. 17:14. That soul shall be cut off from his people (kahm).

A. and B. Gen. 17:16. I will bless her (Sarah), and she shall become nations (goh-im); kings of peoples (gammim) shall be of her.

A. Gen. 17:20. I will make of him (Ishmael) a great nation (goh’y), and compare 21. 13 and 18. 'Gahm-the people, 19. 4, of Sodom;- 23. 7, 11,

12, 13, of Heth;- 32. 7, and 35. 6 of Jacob;- 33. 15, of Esau;- 41. 40, 55, and 42. 6, and 47. 21, 23, of Egypt.

Gen. 18:18. Abraham shall become a... nation (goh'y)... the nations (goh-im) of the earth shall be blessed. Compare 22. 18.

Gen. 20:4. A righteous nation (goh'y) (Abimelech's).

Gathered to his people (gahm), (i.e., buried), 25. 8, Abraham, and, 17, Ishmael, and 35. 29, Isaac, and 49. 29, 33, Jacob.

Gen. 25:23. Two nations (goh-im) in thy womb (Rebekah's), Edomites and Israelites (each of them called a l' ohm,) the two (l'ummim).

Gen. 26:4. In thy seed (Isaac), shall all the nations (goh-im) of the earth be blessed.

Gen. 26:10, one of the people (gahm), might lightly have lien with her (Rebekah), so ver. 11.

Gen. 27:29. (Isaac blesses Jacob). Let people (pl. gammim) serve thee, and nations (l'ummim) bow down to thee: and xxviii. 3, that thou mayest be an assembly of peoples (pl. gammim). Compare

B. Gen. 34:16. (Jacob's sons, to Shechem), we will be one people (gahm), and verse 22.

Gen. 35:11. (God's promise to Jacob), a nation (goh'y), and an assembly of nations (goh-im), shall be of thee. Compare xlvi. 3 A.

* Remark these three references, 27. 29, and 28. 3, and 35. 11:- Peoples (gammim) to serve Jacob; l'ummim (a nation and its offsets) to bow down to him ( 27. 29), who was to become an assembly of peoples (gammim) ( 28. 3);—a nation (goh'y), and an assembly of nations (goh-im), 35. 11.

The peoples of the nation, whether viewed in its lineal stream or in its offset streams, is not the same thing as the nation and nations of the peoples.)

Gen. 48. 19. (Jacob blessing Joseph's sons).

He shall become a people (gahm) but

his seed shall become the fullness of nations (goh-im). Also, B. Gen. 48:4 (gammim).

Gen. 49:10. (Jacob blessing Judah) until Shiloh come; and to him shall

the gathering of the people (pl., gammim) be

Gen. 49:16. Dan shall judge his people (gahm).

Gen. 1. 20. To save much people (kahm) alive.

Writing as an inquirer, and communicating to others for their judgment, the fruits of research (for I am not now teaching the truth of God) I pause, here, feeling that the light gleaned suffices to enable me fairly to present an outline which, by stating it here, may be tested in our further study of the subject.

1. The family of Noah was divided into three families under Japheth, Ham and Shem. These families, however, (broken up as to places of settlement,) seem each to have retained its own individuality. The three races of men, and the history of man, and God's prophecies of the time when He will, toward the end, take up openly the government of the earth in Israel, connect themselves with this.

2. It has been said by a historian lately, that the irruption of the hordes of wild unsubdued humanity has been one instrument in the hands of divine government too much overlooked. The ummah seem to be much such.

3. Twins at a birth may be strongly contrasted in characters, habits, ways, and may be destined to become, the one the channel of testimony for God, and the other of the lawlessness of man when (though outwardly born, and standing • in the channel of testimony), he neither knows God, nor owns him. Such an offset from what was of God ever starts aside, and is in conflict with, and a sore to, that which God keeps for Himself. Such, I think, are the l'ummim.

4. Goh' y. A body of people may be corporate in some sense, without forming what we should call a nation. A family is under government, and has a corporate unity; as that of Noah and that of Abraham. A clan, as were the descendants of each of Noah's sons, must

have become, like other clans, a body corporate, though the rule in a clan is rather that of a family or large colony than that of a nation. So would it be in a combination of nations under one supreme head; it would be a body corporate under one government, or under the government of one.

This was what Napoleon I. aimed at in Europe, and what prophecy shows us is in prospect for the earth. Rev. 13-tyranny over many nations (if the beast and false prophet are in power), or of blessed absolute rule from God (if the Lord Jesus is reigning).

5. But the people is a term presenting rather the subject matter of such-a family, families, clan, nation..

The peoples (in the plural) would be the aggregates or collections of these, subject to such various ruling powers.

As to words, I hold that, without any question, context and occurrences must decide the meanings and the shades of meaning in every language. Passow's labors as followed out by Liddell and Scott, in their Greek-English Lexicon, is an illustration of this principle. But if this is true as to classical Greek, much more must it be true as to Hebrew and Chaldee, and as to Greek as used for and in Scripture. The extent, too, to which context rules in the Hebrew language is peculiar, and (consequent thereon) the value of the occurrences of words as showing the shades of their meaning in the Old Testament. In the New Testament Greek, context and occurrences therein should be considered as of primary importance; and the LXX. or Greek Old Testament, which already existed in the days of Christ and His apostles, may well take precedence of the stores of classical lore.

Having given a specimen above of my mode and manner of getting at the force of a word, I now add a lexicographical extract presenting a different mode and manner.

If I took the established system of lexicography as my guide, I should begin with the respective roots [each of them of three letters, and each a verb] of these four words, ummah, goh'y, l'ohm and kahm:-

1. From אמֵם an unused (or non-existent) word- the primary idea of which, to join together, is supposed to be the meaning-is derived unmet, a people.

2. From גָוָה also unused- of which to flow together is supposed to be the primary idea-is derived goh'y, a people, properly a confluence of men.

3. From לָאַם, also unused-the primary idea of which—is said to be to agree, be congruent,-is derived l'ohm a people, nation.

4. From עָמֵם which does occur [Ezek. 28:3, and 31. 8, but in the sense "to hide;" and Lam. 4:1, hoph., "become dim " perhaps, " caused to be hidden" (as to their excellency)]-the primary idea of which is to gather together, collect-is derived kahm, a people.

So that, according to supposed derivation, the primary ideas of these several four words are:-

1.. ummah, a people as joined together; no word related to it is found in Hebrew.

2. goh'y, a people as flowed together; gah'y, a valley is said to be related to it.

3. l'ohm, a people agreeing by congruency; no word related to it is found.

4. gahm, a people gathered together: gummah conjunction, communion, is said to be related to it, and to be used adverbially as " together," and prepositionally as " with, at, near."

To have to learn 1,800 roots, a large percentage of which does not occur in the Hebrew or Chaldee of Scripture, even if they all do occur, as they are said by some to do in Arabic, Aramaic or Syriac, is a painful task. Then, too, it is unnatural to suppose action and being in a state, etc., to be the root of such words as " father, mother, people." The human mind can express itself better by the names of things than of actions, of being in a state,

etc. So I judge. I cannot, as a humble Bible student, find God and His uses of words, or His meaning of words, in such a process-as I do in my own system of studying His word and His use of words that I may know His meaning of them.

To return now to the occurrences of A., goh'y, and B., gahm, in the rest of the Pentateuch.

In. Exodus goh'y occurs but six times.

B. The greater number of citations show the word used of the people belonging or attached to some one-as, a, Pharaoh's people, people of Egypt:-

Ex. 1:9,22; and 5. 16., and 8. 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 21, 23, 29, 31; and 9. 14, 15; and 11. 3; and 14. 6.

b. Of Israel, Jehovah's " my people."

Ex. 1:9,20; and 3. 7, 10, 12, 21; and 4. 16, 21, 30, 31; and 5. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 10, 12, 22, 23, 23; and 6. 7, and 7. 4, 14, 16; and 8. 1, 8, 20, 21, 22, 23, 29, 32, and 9. 1, 7, 13, 17; and 10. 3, 4; and 11. 2, 3, 8; and 12. 27, 31, 33, 34, 36; and 13. 3, 17, 17, 18, 22; and 14. 5, 5, 13, 31; and 15. 13, 16, 16, 24; and 16. 4, 27, 30; and17. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6; and 18. 1, 10, 13, 13, 14, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26; and 19. 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 25; and 20. 18, 18, 20, 21; and 22. 25, 28; and 23. 11; and 24. 2, 3, 3, 7, 8; and 30. 33, 38; and 31. 14; and 32. 1, 1, 3, 6, 17, (the people), 21, 22, 25, 28, 30, 31, 34, 36; and 36. 5, 6.

Observe, now, these juxtapositions of the two words.

1. A. Ex. 9:24, since Egypt became a nation (goh'y).

B. 27, (Pharaoh says) I and my people (gahm), are wicked.

2. B. 19. 5, treasure unto me above all peoples (pl., gammim).

A. 19. 6, a kingdom of priests and an holy nation(goh’y),

3. B. Israel, Moses's wicked people (gahm), 32. 7, 9, 9; and 33. 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 10, 12 3, and 34. 9.

I will make of thee a great nation (goh'y),32. 10.

Nay, says Moses they are thy people (gahm), 32. 11, 12; and 33. 13, 16, 16.

A. B. Consider that this nation (goh'y), is thy people (gahm).3 3. 13.

B.A. 34. 10, 10, 10. before all thy people (gahm, of Moses)... in all the earth, nor in all the nations (goh-im), all the people (gahm), aiming whom thou art, and 24, all the nations (goh-im).

These can hardly be said to be classified:- B. 15. 14. The peoples (gammim, pl.) shall hear. B. 33. 16. all the people on the face of the earth

(read the verse.)

B.17. 13. Amalek's people; 32. 7, 9, 9; Israel, as Moses's.

21. 8. Any strange people; and 23. 27.

LEVITICUS.

Goh'y.-As a matter of fact, this word occurs in Leviticus in the singular but once, and in the plural but six times.

A. Lev. 18:24. The nations (goh-im) are defiled which I cast out before you.

28. It spued out the nations before you.

20. 23. Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation (goh'y) which I cast out.

44. The heathen that are round about you.

33. Scatter you among the heathen.

38. Perish among the heathen.

45. In the sight of the heathen.

B. gahm.

1. Notice " the people " used as of a class or order, inside of Israel in contrast with priests, Levites, rulers.

Lev. 4.3. If the priest sin according to the sin of the people;

27. If any one of the common people (i.e., people of the land) sin. Compare xx. 2, 1.

9. 7. Make an atonement for thyself, and for the people, and offer the offering of the people, so 15, 15, 18, 22, 23, 23, 24; and 10. 3; and 16. 15, 24, 24, 33.

2. Of Israel.

Lev. 17:4. Cut off from among his people, so 10, and 18. 29; and 19. 8; and 20. 3, 5, 6, 17, 18; and 23. 30.

3. Of people other than Israel.

Lev. 20:24. I the Lord... separated you from (other) peoples (pl. gammim).

26. I.. severed you from (other) peoples (pl.) that ye should be mine.

4. Jehovah's.

Lev. 26:12. I will be your God, and ye shall be for a people to me.

5. Peoples (gammim, pl.) is used of the Israelites as round about one of themselves who is under judgment.

Lev. 7:20,21,25,27. Cut off from his peoples; so 17. 9; and 19. 8; and 21. 1, 4, 15; and 23. 29. Compare as, in contrast.

A. 28. 24, 28. the nations, the nations.

B. 28., 29. their people (see above?)

A. 20. 23. the nation cast out before you.

B. 20. 24, 26 (see above, 3.)

A. 26. 33, 38, 45. heathen.

B. 26. 12. my people (see above, 4)

IN NUMBERS

The word Goh' y occurs but five times; viz.:-

Num. 14:12. will make of thee (Moses) a greater nation.

15. the nations which have

23. 9. (Israel) shall not be reckoned among the nations (goh-im).

24. 8. (it) shall eat up the nations.

20. Amalek (was) the first of the nations. The following are the occurrences of gahm.

1. The people Israel.

Num. 5:21. A curse among thy people (the adulteress); so 27, and ix. 13.

11. 1. (when) the people complained, it displeased the Lord; so 2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 24, 29, 32,

33, 33, 34, 35; and 12. 15, 16; and 13. 30; and 14. 1, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 19, 39; and 15. 26 (and the stranger among thee), so 30; and 16. 47, 47, and 20. 1, 3; and 21. 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 16, 18; and 22. 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 17, 41; and 23. 9, 24; and 24. 14; and

25. 1, 2, 2, 4; and 31. 3; and 33. 15; and 33. 14.

2. "The people " as of Canaan, ere Israel came thither.

Num. 13:18. (Moses sent spies to Canaan to see

what were) the people of it; (Anak), so

28, 31, 32; and 14. 9; of Edom, 20.

20; of Arad, 21. 2; of Sihon, 21. 23;

of Chemosh, 21. 29; of Og, 21. 33,

34, 35; of Balak, 22. 5; 24. 14; of Balaam, 24. 14.

3. Jehovah's people.

Num. 16:41. Ye have killed Jehovah's people.

4. 20. 24. Aaron shall be gathered unto his peoples; so Moses, 24. 13; and 31. 2.

5. 31. 32. The prey which the men of war had caught.

Observe the contrasts:-

B. Num. 14:11. How long will this people (gahm) provoke me. I will smite them (Israel rebellious) and

xiv. 12. make of thee a greater and mightier

nation (goh'y).

13. Then the Egyptians shall hear, for

thou broughtest this people (gahm) from among them.

15. if thou kill this people (gahm) as one man, then

A. 15, the nations (goh-im) will say, because

he was not able to bring this people (gahm)) into the land, he slew them.

Again:-

A. 23. 9; and B. 23. 9, 24; and 24. 8.

The people (gahm) shall dwell alone, and shall not be

reckoned among the nations (goh-im). 24, the people (gahm' shall rise up as a great lion.

Num. 24:8. it shall eat up the nations (goh-im).

IN DEUTERONOMY

The word Goh'y, A., occurs forty-four times. We muss look at these occurrences in the way we did as to those of Genesis.

1st, gahm is used of:-

B. the people, a, of Israel.

Deut. 2:4. Command thou the people; so 16; and 28; and iv. 10, 20; (a people of inheritance); and v. 28; and 10. 11, 15; and 13. 9; and 14. 2, 21, a holy people, a peculiar people... above all the nations (pl. gammim)... on the earth, so 28. 9: and 16. 18; and 17. 13, 16; and 20. 2, 5, 8, 9, 9; and 21. 8, 8; and 27. 1, 9 (of the Lord), 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; and 28. 9; and 31. 12,16; and 32. 44.

Of Canaan, Anak.

Deut. 1:28, people greater and taller than we; and called goh-im, A., 8. 20.

Of the Emims, 2. 10.

Of the Zamzummim, 2. 21.

Of all nations, ii. 25.

4. 19.

Of Sihon, 2. 32, 33.

Of Og, 3. 1, 2, 3.

Any people, 4. 33; and 6. 14; and 7. 16, 19; and 8. 7.

Of a class in Israel, 17. 7; and 18. 3. the priest's due from the people.

k. Of the mass of any people, 20. 1, 11, 16.

1. Of all peoples (pl.) of the earth, 28. 10, 37.

m. Of any people, 28. 32, 33.

Contrasts of the two words.

I. B. Deut. 4:6. In the sight of the nations (gammim).

A. 4. 6. this great nation (goh'y) is a wise

and understanding, B. people (gahm)

A. 7, 8. For what nation (goh'y) is so

great and wise; and 6 (gahm).

B. Deut. 4:27. Scatter you among the nations

(gammim),

A. and few in number among the

heathen (goh-im).

B.- Deut. 4:33. Did (ever) people (gahm) hear the

voice of God.

A. 4. 34. God... take a nation (goh'y)

from the midst of another nation (goh'y).

A. 38. To drive out nations (goh-im) before

thee.

4. A. Deut. 7:1. Bath cast out many nations (goh-im)

.. seven nations (goh-im) greater than thou.

B. 6. Thou (art) an holy people(gahm)... a

special people (gahm) to himself, above all peoples (pl. gammim).

7. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any peoples (pl. gammim)... for ye were the fewest, the fewest of all peoples (pl.)

Thou shalt be blessed above all peoples (pl.)

17. If thou shalt say... these nations

(pl. goh-im) are mightier than I; how can I dispossess them.

19. So shall the Lord... do unto all

the peoples (gammim).

A. 22. Thy God will put out those nations

(pl. goh-im).

v. A. Deut. 9:1. Go in to possess nations (pl. goh-im).

B. 2.. a people great and tall, the children

of the Anakims.

4, 5. for the wickedness of these nations

(goh-im).

6. thou (art) a stiffnecked people.

thy people which thou (Moses) hast brought.

I have seen the people... it (is) a stiffnecked people.

A. Deut. 9.14. I will make of thee a nation (goh'y) mightier... than they.

destroy not thy people.

look not to the stubbornness of this people.

29. they are thy people.

6. A. Goh'y is used of the nations (goh-im)-

of Canaan, 11. 23, 23; and 12. 2, 29, 30; and 15. 6, 6; and 17. 14; and 18. 9, 14; and 19. 1; and 20. 15.

of the earth, 28. 1, 12, 65.

of one which is to be the scourge-nation, 28. 36, 49, 49, 50.

Compare the contrasts of A 20. 15. And 20. 16 B.

vu. A. Deut. 26:5. A. Syrian ready to perish (was) my father, and he went down into Egypt... and became a great nation (goh'y). (19) to make thee high above all nations.

B. 15. bless thy people Israel. (18) his

peculiar people; (19) an holy people.

8. Compare B. 28. 64; and 28. 65 A.

B. Scatter you among all peoples (pl. gammim),

A. and among those nations (goh-im).

9. Compare B 29. 13. a people to himself (gahm)... God... of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

A. 16, 18, 24. through the nations (goh-im);

the gods of the nations; all nations;

10. A. 30. 1. to mind among all the nations

(goh-im).

B. 3. from all the nations (gammim).

11. A. 31. 3. he will destroy these nations (of

Canaan).

B. 7. thou (Joshua) must go with this

people.

12. B. 32. 6. O foolish people (gahm).

8. When the Most High divided to

the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam,

he set the bounds of the peoples (pl. gammim) according to the number of the children of Israel. (9). For the Lord's portion (is) his people (gahm).

B. Deut. 32.21. They have moved me to jealousy with (that which is) not. God, I will move them to jealousy with (those which are) not a people (gahm),

A. with a foolish nation (goh'y).

28. They (Israel) are a nation void of counsel,

36. the Lord shall judge his people,

43. Rejoice, O ye nations (goh-im), with his people (gahm) merciful...to his people.

50, 50. gathered to his people.

13. Throughout 33. gahm alone is used; as ver. 3, he loved the people; (5) the heads of the people. (7). Judah, and bring him to his people.

17. He (Joseph) shall push the people (pl.) together to the ends of the earth... the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh.

19. (Zebulun) they shall call the peoples (pl.) unto the mountain.

21. (Gad) he came with the heads of the people.

29. Israel... people saved of the Lord.

I remark here, First, That to suppose that the word goh'y is a word of low use, and applied only to what is mean, or that it is equivalent to heathen or to Gentile, is a mistake which has no warrant for it in Scripture. See in proof of this:-

Gen. 12:2. I will make of thee (Abram) a great nation.

18. 18. become a great... nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

See also, 20. 4; and 21. 13, 18; and 35. 11; and, 46. 3. Ex. 19:6; and- 32. 10; and 33. 13.

Num. 14:12. Deut. 4:6,7,8,34.

A body, or a people—under a government is, I conceive,

the primary idea of it. That governments in the plural-would stand in contrast with the one body of people whom He Jehovah par excellence governed, is clear, and so the word in the plural is used of all bodies of individuals under government of the nations, in contrast with

Jehovah's nation, Israel.

When the word goh'y is applied to Israel, then,' Israel

is looked at merely as a whole body under government, instead of as a congregation in association with Himself their God and King. That this is a cold, chilly way of their God and King speaking of them, when in disobedience, may be true.

Secondly. That all the words kindred to and of the

same family as gahm present the idea of conjunction with,

nearness to, association around, etc. As, for instance,

1. The word עמֵּה f.goommah, as translated-over against,

Ex. 25:27; and 28. 27; and 37. 14, etc.; answerable to, Ex. 38:18; hard by the backbone, Lev. 3:9; threw stones at him, 2 Sam. 16:13; ward against ward, 1 Chron. 25:8, etc.; in all points as he came, so shall he go, Eccl. 5:16; face strong against... face,.. forehead... against... forehead, Ezek. 3:8; the wheels

were beside them, 10. 19, etc.

2.עם gim, with, near, at, by, etc.

Gen. 18:23. Destroy the righteous with the wicked?

24. 12. show kindness unto my master Abraham.

25. 11. Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi.

31. 24. speak not to Jacob.

Deut. 8:5. Consider in thine heart.

9. 7. rebellious against the Lord.

Josh. 7:2. beside Beth-aven,

22. 7. among their brethren.

Judg. 20:38. the men of Israel and (m. with).

1 Sam. 2:21. Samuel grew before the Lord.

16. 12. ruddy (and) withal of a beautiful.

2 Sam. 6 accompanying (m. with) the ark.-

21. 4. no silver nor gold of Saul.

2 Chron. 21:19. fell out by reason of his sickness.

Neh. 5:18. yet fur all this required not I

Job 9:26. passed away as the swift ships;

Psa. 72:5. as long as the sun and moon endure

(lit. with the sun and before the moon).

73. 5. neither are they plagued like (m. with)

other men.

Ecc. 2. 16. no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool.

3. So again, עָמִיח gah-meeth, mh is rendered ten times.

neighbor, twice another, and once (Zech., 13. 7), " the man that is my fellow."

This last passage out of the thirteen occurrences of the word is greatly to be noted as expressive of fellowship.

If asked for definitions, I should say as to goh'y:-

1st. " A mass of persons, manifestly one under a government of its own;" and 2, as to gahm, " The people. or persons who form such a manifest mass or body."

As to 1. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,—the heads of the nation Israel, are looked at in Scripture very much in their individual characters (perhaps the place assigned to each of them as types led. to this), yet each of them was in-his day the head of a powerful clan; then the family for it was (so far as the channel of testimony was concerned) one, went down into Egypt and waxed great.

As to 2. A_ people, and the character of-each in it, is-formed by its religion as to the Supreme Being, and by its policy with regard to one another, and to those outside, hence in thought and habit, fears and hopes, one.

It is important to learn and to bear in mind the ways of God,-and His ways, not only in His dealings with ourselves as individuals, but His ways with the Church, with Israel, and with the Gentiles: with the Church, as in one aspect, divine and heavenly (that is in Christ), and, in another aspect, pervertedly human and worldly, spoiled by Satan in man's hand. But we may look at the subject a little more abstractedly in connection with what has been the channel of His testimony from the beginning. His actions bring before us:-The mass, selection, and rejection; election and selection; out of the mass a channel chosen afresh and so on.

Adam and Eve; Abel slain for his good works, by. Cain, the murderer, head of the world which enjoys itself out of God's presence; Seth; Seth, a pedigree; Enoch walked with God, and was taken to God; Noah who found grace before the Lord,-Noah walked with God and was passed through the deluge from the earth that was to that which now is.

Adam and Eve had Seth for the channel of God's testimony. Abel had died a martyr,- Cain was the murderer, head of a wicked world deluding itself by self-enjoyment, out of God's presence;-and Adam "begat sons and daughters," Gen. 5:4.

Seth had Enos, and Enos had Cainan, etc., etc., down to Lamech. Each head in the pedigree (save one) had this testimony, " and he died:" "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." Seth and all of them begat sons and daughters.

Noah was son of Lamech. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; walked with God, and was passed with his wife, three sons, and their wives, through the deluge from the earth which was on to that which now is. Shem, Ham, and Japheth were Noah's three sons, whose families became the stock of the earth which was to witness and be a witness of God's patience in providence (in spite of man's sin, viii. 21, 22), Noah failed, ix., and -Ham; but Shem stood as the line chosen for the channel of testimony down to Abram; though the city and Tower of Babel marked the sin of all in his day, and the disbelief in God as revealed in 8. 21, 22.

Abram subject of a call from the Lord-possessor of earthly and heavenly promises-had three sons, Ishmael, Isaac, Midian, each of them, like Shem, Ham, and Japheth, heads of families, and other children too.

Lot was near kinsman of Abram and became the father of Moab and Ammon. But the channel of testimony and blessing ran through Isaac and his younger son by Rebecca, Jacob, (leaving his first-born, Esau, to become the head of Edom and, Gen. 36:12,16, of Amalek).

The principles of Headship, lineal descent (sovereign wisdom and love making its choice of what to do therewith and therein), the channel still continued (though side channels might open out on either side from it half way between the masses (of which the destiny no one knew save God) and the channel of testimony;- these things ought to be marked if we would have the intelligence becoming those taught of God—and be prepared for the scenes of the latter day in which it all results.

APPENDIX I.

1 may present, here, as gleaned in my own looking through the rest of the Old Testament (the Psalms excepted, which will be found elsewhere) the following.

JOSHUA.

I. Compare in 3. 16, B. and the people ('gahm), passed over, and 17 A. until all the people (goh'y) were passed clean over.

That is, B. is the people (‘gahm) of the national body (goh’y)

A. is the national body (goh'y) of the people (gahm). Just as we say,-the sheep of a flock pass over till the whole flock of sheep is passed clean over; the soldiers of a company cross over, till all the company of soldiers is safe over.

iv. 1. A. when all the people (goh'y) were clean passed over.

2. B. take you twelve people (gahm), out of every tribe a man.

v. 4. B. all the people (gahm) that came out of Egypt; (5) all the people... were circumcised: but all the people that were born.

In the above, the thought is distributive, and so gahm is used; in what follows, it is collective, and so goh'y is found.

A. ver. 6. all the people (goh'y) that were men of war.

8. had done circumcising all the people (goh'y).

10. 7. B. he and all the people (gahm) of war, (and see ver. 21 and 33).

13. A. until the people (goh'y) had avenged

themselves upon their enemies.

17. 14. B. I (tribe of Joseph) am a great people, so 15, 17.

23. 3, 4, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, A. the nations expelled before Israel.

Note also, as to B. the difference between "people" (gahm) Israel, and "peoples" (gammim).

24. 16. the people (gahm) (Israel)... said: (17) among all the peoples (gammim), through whom we passed... (18,) Brave out from before us all the peoples.

FROM JUDGES.

2. 12. B. [Israel] followed other gods, of the gods of

the peoples... round about them.

20. A. this people (goh'y) has transgressed (the whole

was inculpated).

2. 21. I will not henceforth drive out any more from before them of the nations which Joshua left (so ver. 23).

B. in. 18. he sent away the people that bare the present.

v. 14. Benjamin among thy people, so ver. 18.

IN RUTH

Goley does not occur. But we read of the Lord's people, and of Naomi's, Orpah's, Ruth's and Boaz's, etc.

IN 2 SAMUEL

Notice 7. 23. What one nation (goh'y) in the earth is like thy people (gahm)... whom God went to redeem for a people (gahm) to himself, and to make him a great name... before thy people (gahm), which thou redeemedst... from the nations (goh-im), and B. (24); for thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel (to be) a people (gahm) to thee forever.

22. 48. bringeth down the peoples (gammim, pl.) under me.

50. I will give thanks to thee among the heathen (goh-im).

IN 1 KINGS

Notice-

B. 3. 9. able to judge this thy so great a people

4. 31. his fame was in all nations.

5. 7. a wise son over this great people.

A. 6. 2. (Solomon loved many strange wives) of the nations.

14. 24. the abominations of the nations.

18. 10. no nation or kingdom; 10.

2 KINGS.

A. 6. 18. Smite this people (goh’y)... with blindness (collective).

B. 16. 15. the burnt offering of all the people of

the land (distributive).

Note, here, as to the goh-im:-

A. 16. 3. the abominations of the heathen (goh-im), whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel (the seven nations, Deut. 7:1.)

but A. 17. 24, 26, 29, 33, 41. the goh-im were not only the seven nations (as referred to, 16. 3), but nations moved by Shalmaneser to the land.

any of the four empires, as such;-yet compare Zech. 1:21. and see as to the use of the word in the prophets as to the separate heads of these four monarchies.

I CHRONICLES.

A. 16. 24. his glory among the heathen (goh-im),

his marvelous works among the nations (gammim, peoples).

A.& B. 17. 21. what one nation' (goh'y) in the earth (is) like thy people (gahm) Israel, whom God went to redeem (to be) his own people (gahm).

by driving out nations (goh-im) from before thy people (gahm).

2 CHRONICLES.

6. 33. that all the people (pl. peoples) of the earth may know thy name.

B. 33. as cloth thy people Israel.

B. 33. 15. no god of any nation... was able to deliver his people.

EZRA.

3. 1. the people [Israel]... gathered together as one man.

B. 3. because of the people (peoples) of those

countries.

B. 9. 1. The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves

from the people (pl. peoples) of the lands.

NEHEMIAH.

10. 28. the rest of the people [Israel]... from

the peoples of the lands.

ESTHER.

3. 8. a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.

PROVERBS.

B. 14. 28. see under l'ohm.

A. 14. 34. ”

B. 24.. 24. “

B. 28.. 15. a roaring lion, and a ranging bear:-a wicked ruler over a poor people.

B. 30. 25. ants (are) a people not strong.

26. conies (are but) a feeble folk.

ISAIAH.

A. 2. 2. all nations shall flow unto it.

B. 3. And many peoples shall go and say.

A. 4. he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many (B.) peoples.

A. 28. 2. Go... to a nation scattered and peeled,

B to a people terrible from their beginning.

A. a nation meted out and trodden down; so

ver. 7.

A. 26. 2. the righteous nation which keepeth the truth.

B. 42. 6. I give thee for a covenant of the people

A. (Israel), for a light of the Gentiles;Comp. 49. 7 and 8, with 6.

43. 21. this people have I formed for myself.

B. 42. 10. prepare ye the way of the people (Israel)

... lift up a standard for the peoples;.. (12) they shall call them (Israel), The Holy people, The redeemed of the Lord.

A. 46. 8. a nation (Israel)... born at once... (12) the glory of the Gentiles (ver. 18) all nations... shall come and see my glory.

JEREMIAH.

B. 13. 11. as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory; but they would not hear.

27. 13. die, thou and thy people (B.).. as the Lord hath spoken against that nation (A.) that will not serve the king of Babylon.

31. 36. if those ordinances (sun, moon, stars, etc.) depart from before me,... then.. Israel also shall cease from being a nation (A.) before me forever.

33.. 24. Considerest thou not what this people (B.) have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he bath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people (B.), that they should be no more a nation (A.) before them.

[Compare with Ezek. 37:21.]

EZEKIEL.

2. 3. Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation (A.) that hath [lit. to rebellious nations (gohim) that have] rebelled against me.

3. 6. not to many peoples (B.) of a strange speech.

37. 21, 22. I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen (goh-im), whither they

be gone, and I will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation (lit. for one goh'y) in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one kin.: shall be king-to them all; and they shall be no more two nations (lit. for two goh-im), neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. [Note this passage well.]

23. so shall they be my people (ammi), and [ will be their God.

Dan. 12:1. at that time shall Michael stand... for thy people (B.).. since there was a nation (A.)... and at that time thy people (B.) shall be delivered.

Hos. 1:9,10. and ii. 1, 23. lo-ammi and ammi.

Note that never occurs in the Chaldee parts of he

Bible.

In conclusion, I believe that if our translators had always rendered,—lst, " Goh'y " by nation, and the plural of it by nations; and 2ndly, " "Gahm" by people, and the plural of it by peoples, they would have made the translation of more value, and more easy to be understood.

These are the 2nd and the 4th of the four words about which our inquiry commenced. The 1st of the four, " Ummah," might be, perhaps, fairly rendered by folk, and the plural by folks.

As to the 3rd, The great difficulty is to find any word in English which could be made to serve in English as its representative. The meaning is clear enough. What had been God's channel of promise and testimony, actually, at certain points, split in twain-forked off into two lines. Each of these was a " l'ohm," a branch, in the forked family. One only of them, however, was acknowledged as the line of promise,-the other put forward pretensions and had a history in connection with the true thing, and has still a being, and will have a future, but the branched family has but one of its branches owned as the real thing. Israel will be alone in its glory. Coalesce,

in wickedness, it and all the branches and the goh-im may as in Psa. 2:1. See also Isa. 8 and ix. -

As it may be of interest to some minds to look at the outline of the occurrences in another form, I add this. abstract.

The book of GENESIS gives us the origin of things down here on earth,-of (pretty nearly) all that we meet with.

It has 50 chapters, and is contained in 37 pages (Bagster's).

Ummah occurs 1, and goh'y 26, and l'ohm 4, and kahm 33 times.

In EXODUS we learn of the redemption of a people out of bondage, and the pitching of the tabernacle of worship and government.

It has 40 chapters, and is contained in 30 pages. Ummah occurs 0, and goh'y 6, and l'ohm 0, and kahm 173 times.

LEVITICUS. The book of sacrificial service, of the Priesthood, Levites and People-in their worship.

It has 27 chapters and 23 pages.

Ummah occurs 0, and goh'y 7, and l'ohm 0, and kahm 41 times.

NUMBERS presents the camp in the wilderness. It has 36 chapters, and occupies 32 pages.

Ummah, occurs 1, and goh'y 5, and l'ohm 0, and k ahnz 87 times.

DEUTERONOMY presents the grounds on which Israel, having lost all in self-righteousness, will, through the second giving of the law, gain all, viz., through the obedience of faith.

It contains 34 chapters in 27 pages.

Ummah occurs 0, and goh'y 44, and l'ohm 0, and gahm 107 times.

*** Any one who has read the foregoing article carefully will see that the translators of our authorized English version practically assumed that there was no difference between goh'y and 'gahm, a mistake which detracts from the value of their work.

APPENDIX II. THE OCCURRENCES IN THE PSALMS.

2. 1. Why do the goh-im rage, and the /'ummim imagine a vain thing?

8. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the goh-im for thine inheritance, and the uttermost

parts of the earth for thy possession.

3. 6. I will not be afraid of ten,thousands of the gahm that have set themselves against b

me round about.

8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy gahm.

7. 7. So shall the congregation of the l'ummim compass thee about: for their sakes, therefore, return thou on high.

8. The Lord shall judge the gammim: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness.

9. 5. Thou hast rebuked the goh-im, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever.

8. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the l’ummim in uprightness.

11. Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the gammim his doings.

15. The goh-im are sunk down in the pit that they made.

17. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and

all the goh-im that forget God.

Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the goh-im be judged in thy sight.

Put them in fear, O Lord: that the goh-im

may know themselves to be but men.

10. 16. The Lord is King forever and ever: the

goh-im are persihed out of his land.

14. 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my gahm as they eat bread.

7. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his gahm.

18. 27. For thou wilt save the afflicted gahm; but wilt bring down high looks.

43. Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the goh-im: and thou hast made me the head of the goh-im,: a gahm whom I have not known shall serve me.

47. It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the gammim under me.

49. Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the goh-im, and sing praises unto thy name.

22. 6. But I am a worm, and no man: a reproach of men, and despised of the gahm.

All the ends of the world shall... turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the goh-im shall worship before thee.

For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is governor among the goh-im.

31. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a gahm, that shall be born, that he path done this.

28. 9. Save thy gahm, and bless thine inheritance.

29. 11. The Lord will give strength unto his gahm; the Lord will bless his gahm with peace.

33. 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the goh-im to naught: he maketh the devices of the gammim of none effect.

12. Blessed is the goh'y whose God is the Lord; and the gahm whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

35. 18. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among a great gahm.

43. 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly goh'y: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

44. 2. How thou didst drive out the goh-im with thine hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the l'ummim, and cast them out.

11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; thou hast scattered us among the goh-im.

12. Thou sellest thy gahm for naught, and lost not increase thy wealth by their price.

14. Thou makest us a byword among the goh-im, a shaking of the head among the l'ummim.

45. 5. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the gammim fall under thee.

10. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own gahm, and thy father's house.

12. And the daughter of Tire shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the gahm shall entreat thy favor.

17. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the gammim praise thee forever.

46. 6. The goh-im raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

10. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the goh-im, I will be exalted in the earth.

97. 1. O clap your hands, all ye gammim; shout unto God with the voice of triumph..

3. He shall subdue the gammim under us, and the l’ummim under our feet.

8. God reigneth over the goh-im: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

9. The princes of the gammim are gathered together, even the gahm of the God of Abraham.

49. 1. Hear this, all ye gammim; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.

100. 4. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his

gahm.

7. Hear, O my gahm, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee:

I am God, even thy God.

53. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my gahm as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

6. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his gahm, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

56. 7. Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the gammim, O God.

57. 9. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the gammim: I will sing unto thee amongst

the l’ummim.

59. 5. O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the goh-im: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors.

8. But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the goh-im in derision.

11. Slay them not, lest my gahm forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.

60. 3. Thou hast showed thy gahm, hard things, and thou hast made us to drink the

wine of astonishment.

62. 8. Trust in him at all times; O gahm, pour out your heart before him: God is a

refuge for us.

65. 7. Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of

the l’ummim.

66. 7. He ruleth by his power forever; his eyes behold the goh-im: let not the rebellious exalt themselves.... 66. 8. O bless our God, ye gammin and make the voice of his praise to be heard.

67. 2. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all goh-im.

3. Let the gammim praise thee, O God; let all the gammim praise thee.

4. 0 let the l’ummim be glad, and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the gammim righteously, and govern the l'ummim upon earth.

5. Let the gammim praise thee, O God; let all the gammim praise thee.

68.. 7. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy gahm, when thou didst march through the wilderness.

22. The Lord said, I will bring again from Bastian; I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.

30. Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the gammim, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the gammim that delight in war.

35. The God of Israel is he that giveth strength

and power unto his gahm.

72. 2. He shall judge thy gahm with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the gahm, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the gahm, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

11. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him:

all goh-im shall serve him.

17. And men shall be blessed in him: all goh-im shall call him blessed.

73. 10. Therefore his gahm return hither; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

74. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest- him to be meat to the gahm inhabiting the wilderness.

18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish gahm have blasphemed thy name.

77. 14. Thou hast declared thy strength among the gammim.

15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy gahm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.

20. Thou leddest thy gahm like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

78. 1. Give ear, O my gahm, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

20. Can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his gahm?

52. But made his own gahm to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

55. He cast out the goh-im also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

62. He gave his gahm over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

71. From following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his gahm, and Israel his inheritance.

79. 1. O God, the goh-im are come into thine in-" heritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

6. Pour out thy wrath upon the goh-im that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

10. Wherefore should the goh-im say, Where is their God? let him be known among the goh-im in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

79. 13. So we thy gahm and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations.

80. 4. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with the prayer of thy gahm?

. 8.. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the goh-im, and planted it.

81. 8. Hear, O my gahm, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.

11. But my gahm would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

13. O that my gahm had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

82. 8. Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all goh-im.

83. 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy kahm, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

4. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a goh'y, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

85.2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy gahm thou hast covered all their sin.

6. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy gahm may rejoice in thee?

8. I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his gahm, and to his saints.

86. 9. All goh-im whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; -and shall glorify thy name.

6. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the gammim, that this man was born there.

89. 15. Blessed is the k gahm that knoweth the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

19. I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the gahm.

50. Remember, O Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty gammim.

94. 5. They break in pieces thy k a km, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.

8. Understand, ye brutish among the gahm: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

10. He that chastiseth the goh-im, shall not he correct.

14. For the Lord will not cast off his k a km, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

95. 7. We are the gahm of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

10. It is a gahm that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

96. 3. Declare his glory among the goh-im, his wonders among all the gammim.

5. For all the gods of the gammim are idols;

but the Lord made the heavens.

7. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the gammim, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

10. Say among the goh-im the Lord reigneth; the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved; he shall judge the gammim righteously.

13. He cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the gammim with his truth.

97. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the gammim see his glory.

98. 2. His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the goh-im.

9. With righteousness shall he judge the world, and the gammim with equity.

99. 1. Let the gammim tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

2. The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the gammim. _

100. 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are his k ohm, and the sheep of his pasture.

102. 15. So the goh-im shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

18. This shall be written for the generation to come: and the gahm which shall be created shall praise the Lord.

22. When the gammim are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

105. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the gammim.

13. When they went from one gohy to another goh'y, from one kingdom to another "gahm.

20. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the gammim, and let him go free.

24. And he increased his gahm greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.

25. He turned their heart to hate his gahm, to deal subtilly with his servants. .

40. The nation asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

43. And he brought forth his gahm, with joy, and his chosen with gladness:

44. And he gave them the lands of the goh-im; and they inherited the labor of the l’ummim.

106. 4. Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy gahm; O visit me with thy salvation;

106. 5. That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the 'gladness of thy gahm, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

27. To overthrow their seed also among the goh-im, and to scatter them in the lands.

34. They did not destroy the k minim, concerning whom the Lord commanded them;

35. But were mingled among the goh-im, and learned their works.

40. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his gahm, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

41. And he gave them into the hand of the goh-im; and they that hated them ruled over them.

47. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the goh-im, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.

48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the gahm say Amen.

32. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the gahm, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

108. 3. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the gammim, and I will sing praises to thee among the gammim.

110. 3. Thy gahm shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the dew of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

6. He shall judge among the goh-im, he shall fill the places with dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

6. He hath skewed his gahm the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the goh-im.

9. He hath sent redemption to his gahm he bath commanded his covenant forever.

113. 4. The Lord is high above all goh-im, and his glory above the heavens.

8. That he may set him with princes, even with princes of his gahm,

114.. 1. When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a gahm of strange language.

115. 2. Wherefore should the goh-im say, Where is now their God?

116. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his gahm.

117. 1. O praise the Lord, all ye goh-im: praise him all ye ummim.

118. 10. All goh-im compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.

2. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his gahm from henceforth even forever.

2. Then said they among the goh-im, The Lord hath done great things for them.

135. 10. Who smote great goh-im and slew mighty kings.

12. And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his gahm.

For the Lord will judge his gahm, and repent himself concerning his servants.

The idols of the goh-im are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

136. 16. To him that led his gahm through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth forever.

144. 2. My shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my gahm under me.

15. Happy is that k akin that is in such a case: yea, happy is that gahm whose God is the Lord.

147. 20. He hath not dealt so with any goh' y: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.

148. 11. Kings of the earth, and all l'ummim; princes and all judges of the earth.

148. 14. He also exalteth the horn of his gahm, the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a gahm near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.

149. 4. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his Gahm: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

7. To execute vengeance upon the goh-im, and punishment upon the l'ummim.

I incline to translate 'gahm, in the singular, always as people; the same word in the plural, gammim, as peoples.

The word goh’y singular, as a nation; and its plural, goh-im, as nations.

The word l'ohm in the singular does not occur in the Psalms, the plural l'ummim does and might for distinction's sake be read "gentiles."

Life, Light, and Love

MOST students of Scripture who have made themselves acquainted with the characteristic differences of the writers, are aware that John is occupied with " that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us."

His gospel has this peculiarity, but in a way different either to his epistles, or the Apocalypse; for it marks the life' in its essential nature and character as in Himself: "In him was life," though the life was the light of men. Still He who was the life was in the world, and it lighted every man coming into it. The light shineth in darkness though the darkness comprehended it not;" but "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." This is very blessed, as showing life communicated and in an existing relationship with the Father: " born not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God."

It is not my purpose to trace further how this life is bestowed in the narratives of the gospel-whether with the master of Israel or the woman of Samaria, or by the quickening power of the Father and the Son at the pool of Bethesda; no, nor in its springing up to its own sources and height in communion and joy, any more than in its flowing out from us, as rivers of living water at the feast of Tabernacles. These references will recall to our minds the fact of this life being possessed by others through grace, though originally dwelling only in Christ Himself. Besides this, He took a place in the midst of His disciples as their Teacher, Example, and Guide. " 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."

Still, as to all that was external to this life in Christ and His own, and all that surrounded them-the world and men in it-had to be tested by this Life, opening itself out in unclouded light and exercised in unwearied love. Life, in the perfectness and grace which had suited itself to the necessities of mankind, and to the moral perceptions of the human heart, shone forth in all its brilliancy on behalf of God, and in its benevolence towards the lost and undone.

This formed a new responsibility for men. Would they be attracted by the love which had come after them, and could they attach themselves to supreme excellency standing in their midst, though in the form of a servant?-His higher glories hidden in the mystery of the incarnation. We know the issue of this trial of man, and how he failed to respond to such love, or even to be attracted to the Person in whom this grace dwelt, and who would not be repelled. The world failed to discern his beauty who was the altogether lovely, and the chiefest among ten thousand-nay, He was to them as a root out of a dry ground, having no form nor comeliness that they should desire Him. Man's heart could not open itself to perfect grace as presented by the Lord, but closed itself up in the wretchedness and enmity which dwelt within. He rejected heaven's one chief treasure, come down too in the fashion of a man, and standing upon the level of the lost and the guilty, " eating and drinking with publicans and sinners."

In the epistles of John, we find, consequent on the rejection of Christ as the " life, the light, and the love," that their withdrawment from a world of death, darkness, and hatred becomes the new theme of the Apostle. Accordingly," that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" passes away into the circle of its own fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Alas! for the world, and for men in it.

Life thus surrounding itself with its own similitudes, becomes on its part exclusive of sin and of darkness" the world, the flesh, and the devil." Jesus Christ as the righteous One takes a new place with the Father, and He is now our Advocate. Moreover, as to the maintenance of this fellowship in the light in which God dwells, " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin:" and further, " if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This is the new ground of our intercourse with God, and of the communion to which we are called in the unclouded sphere suited to us-as born of God where no darkness is. Little children, young men, and fathers have equally their place and are alike at home. " These things write we unto you that your joy may be full," brightens up every heart as it passes on into its new birthrights. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son gives the character and blessedness of our intercourse.

It is wonderful when we first learn to look at everything. with God, and discover how all under the heavens has enveloped itself in darkness since the true light has been cast out. For example, if' we look at the world itself in the light of our epistle, it is to learn that "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." So again, as to our relation to it, " if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Observe, that in this fellowship in the light, the Father and what is consistent with Him, is the new test of the world's value, just as the love of the Father becomes our new principle for not loving it. Note also, that as the world, has emptied itself of Christ, and therefore of the Father, it cannot merely retain the measure, or the form of its

previous iniquity; but adds to these later-ones, and; thank God, its last. Tested by Christ it is Christless; but worse than this, for religious and ecclesiastical corruptions take His place. " Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

Further, this eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, is likewise in us, exclusive of all that is not consistent with the light in which God dwells, and in which our fellowship is maintained. What God is becomes our rule. " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" therefore darkness is excluded, or else we lie, and do not the truth, So again, as to Satan-" the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one;" and as regards the world,. "it passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

Empty of the Father and the Son, what has Satan further to accomplish, but to gather around himself all that is false as to God, to Christ, and to truth, and therefore suited to mankind in their state of moral alienation and enmity.

" But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;" and in the power of this anointing we exclude everything that is not of the truth, but is a lie. " if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Father and the Son;" precious assurance 1 so that when Christ shall appear we may have confidence, " and not be ashamed before him at his coming." Love in this epistle is as exclusive of everything that will not be embraced in the circle of this blessed fellowship with the Father and the Son, as we have seen the life and the, light to have been in their respective chapters.

The love of the Father; which has made us sons of God, makes us on that account a race of persons unknown to the world. And why? Because it knew Him not. Wide as the poles asunder-wide as the distance between heaven and hell, we pass into our respective classes. " He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil -sinneth from the beginning: " on the other hand, ".whosoever is born of God cloth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God." So likewise as to righteousness-the classes are in opposition one to the other; " in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." Further, as the Father and the Son are in these respects denied, so lastly, the Holy Ghost who has come down from heaven, is also set at naught, and false spirits are gone out into the world. " Hereby know ye the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." "Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

Thus we see that in the Gospel of John, life, light, and love were first embodied in Christ personally, though communicated to His disciples who believed on Him; and the world was the place in which it shone out, though as yet in the midst of the darkness and evil where Satan was and wicked men.

But in the epistles we see a fellowship formed under the unction and the anointing of the Holy Ghost, by which those who have this life are called out into separation from all that is antagonistic to God and to Christ. Not only is this separation to be maintained, but communion with the Father and the Son are to be enjoyed, as brought into the light where God dwells in the entire exclusion of whatever is not of the Father, but which maketh a lie and is the work of the devil. Fellowship or communion, in order to be such, must be in the fullest reciprocation of all the capabilities of our new nature as born of God, with the Father, and in perfect enjoyment of His love and whatever distinguishes Him, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our God and Father through the Son of His love.

It yet remains to examine the characteristic difference of the Apocalypse from the Epistles and the Gospel. This may be described as a book revealing the ways and means by which God finally separates the evil from the good. In righteous judgment He drives Satan into the bottomless

pit, and makes all the enemies of Christ lick the dust: " then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." The strange presentation of Christ in the opening chapters of the Revelation, as the Son of Man " with eyes as a flame of fire, and a sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth," may well intimate the character of His mission to the Seven Churches. The responsible witness on earth was thus tested; whether it faithfully maintained the place of separateness to God, to Christ, and to truth in which grace had set it; and, on the other hand, whether these churches were exclusive of all evil? Alas! the first had left her early love, and into the others Satan had introduced all the corruptions, whether religious, ecclesiastical, or social that were contrary to the light in which God dwells, and opposed to the fellowship of the Father and the Son into which men in Christ were called, and in which they were originally set. The Lord Himself says of the last form of the Laodicean evil " because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

Moreover, God in righteous government visits the ripening iniquity of the world under the guidance of Satan, by the seven trumpets, the seven thunders, and the seven vials; "but men blasphemed God the more for the plagues." On the other hand, " the door opened in heaven" shows how God has gathered to Himself, in Peace and blessing, the church which He had purchased with the blood of His own. All that is born of God goes up to the Father in the triumphant hour of Christ's coming, and is presented in His presence, faultless and with exceeding joy. That which is of Satan-yea, the Dragon himself, and the Beast, and the False Prophet, and all the wicked living are driven to their own place in outer darkness where no light is. The world itself is cleared of all its pollutions by the besom of destruction, and riddance made for the establishment of righteousness and holiness.

If we pass on to the close of Rev. 19, it describes the judgment of God on the great Babylon-the concentration of the proud systems of human enterprise and `greatness. "Alas! alas_! that great city, that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour so great riches is come to naught." Thus the sources and active agents of the great apostasy are judged and put aside: the gigantic growth of systematic corruption, "the mother of harlots," is burned with fire, and all the glory of man is withered like the grass of the field, but only to give place to what comes down from God out of heaven with His glory. Good and evil, light and darkness, clean and unclean, once measured in the balances of the sanctuary, or maintained in their relative distances by the perfectness of Christ when on, earth, or since by the Holy Ghost, in the man in Christ and in the church, are now separated forever by the judgment of God. Right things suited to God and Christ, to holiness and truth must now come in and take their proper places upon the foundations of jasper and sapphire. " Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb's wife," and the angel "showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious." "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." God has separated from Himself everything contrary to Himself, and has excluded it from His presence. Life, light, and love are now together, no longer encumbered by their opposites; but free and unfettered in their own enjoyments, where all is according, to God in true holiness. '['he first man of the earth, earthy, and all the consequences of the fall are superseded, either by sovereign grace to the redeemed, or by terrible judgment on the lost: and the second man, the Lord from heaven, is the heir of all things-the beginning of the new creation of God.

Finally, this book closes by the revelation of God and the Lamb, as the light of the heavenly Jerusalem. A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeds out of the throne: the nations of them that are saved walk in the light thereof. In the midst of the street, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, and they shall bring their glory and honor to it.. Blessed scenes! where God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes, when sorrow and sighing shall flee, and all the catalog of the former things connected with the flesh, the world; and Satan passed away, be forgotten and out of mind. Nothing remains but God, the Father of all the redeemed families in the heavens and on the earth: nothing is heard from the sea and upwards. but one universal song of thanksgiving and praise: nothing from the highest heaven downward but rejoicing, and the voice of melody. Life, light, and love are with God, and where God is. Sin, darkness, and death are with Satan, and where Satan is shut up; never to come in sight of each other again, throughout the countless ages of eternity. J. E. B.

New Series

N. In 2 Tim. 3. He says evil men and seducers would wax worse and worse, but Timothy was to continue in what Paul himself had taught, and hold fast to the Scriptures as able to make him wise unto salvation, and make the man of God perfect. Thus the Apostle had no thought of anything else than apostolic teaching, and the Scriptures as the security of the faithful in the perilous times of the last days. And you see too, plainly, that instead of such security and right conduct and good state of the Church continuing through the care of the successors of the Apostles perilous times were to come; and, indeed, at the end; as he tells us in 2 Thess. an apostasy; and that when the state of the professing Church made it perilous for the saint, the Scriptures, and the certain teaching of the Apostle himself would be the means of securing us by faith in Christ Jesus. The Christian would have to be secured in perils arising from the state of the Church. Paul does not refer to the hierarchy as the safeguard but to the Scriptures, and Timothy's knowing who had taught him.

James. That is very clear, M.; because if the state of the Church was so evil as to make it perilous, it could not be a security for him who desired to walk right; and if I read what St. Paul says I do know of whom I have learned it, and that and the other Scriptures will keep us through faith in Christ.

M. But you may, take a false meaning out of them. Every kind of notion and religion is come out of Scripture.

James. That I do not believe, because both you and I believe they are the truth of God, and therefore error cannot come out of them. That people, if they are not humble, and if they read Scripture with their heads' and not depending upon grace, may follow their own thoughts and wrest Scripture to prove them,-that may be;. but they cannot get anything but perfect truth out of Scripture, that you dare not deny. If they are proud, wise in their own conceits, they will reap the consequence of it, but grace will keep the humble soul. Besides, I may take a wrong meaning out of what your books or priest teach me. And, further, I do not despise at all the help of those whom God has sent and fitted to teach and help us, only they are not the rule of faith. They cannot, I see they cannot, have the authority God's Word has; they are not inspired. I must prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. That is what the Apostle tells us to do, 1 Cor. 10:15.

M. Why you are growing quite a little teacher yourself, James. What can a poor man like you know about it?

James. I know well I am not a learned man, M.; but I have faith in what I find in Scripture, and therefore am certain of the truth that is in it. Ought not I to believe what Paul says?

M. Of course; but how can you tell what he meant?

James. By what he says, and do you not believe that the grace of God will help a poor man as well as a learned one in what concerns his soul?

M. Well, I do not gainsay that.

James. And the blessed Lord who cared for the poor said, that the Father hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seems good in thy sight. And St. Paul says, " If any man will be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise." And the Psalm says, " The entering in of' thy word gives light and understanding to the simple."

M. Where do you get all this Scripture, James?

James. Why, by reading it to be sure. You pretend we cannot understand it, M., and you have never tried. Read it, and try and see if it is not light and food for the soul. Of course we need grace for this, as for every blessing. And tell me, M., to whom did the Lord speak when he was teaching, the learned or the poor?

M. Why, they say the poor. The Scribes and Pharisees would not listen to Him.

James. And do you think He spoke so that they could understand Him if their hearts were not hardened? Alas, there are many such, poor and rich.

M. Well, I suppose, of course He did.

James. And why should not I, if I humbly seek His help. I do not know Greek, of course, but thank God it has been put into English, and I can trust Him to get the truth from it. I am not looking for a learned knowledge of it, but for the edification of my soul. Read it in your own translation. There is one they approve of, read it in that, if you won't have ours. I do not believe the blessed Lord meant to make a way for learned men to get to heaven and not for the poor. He says "to the poor the Gospel is preached," and the apostle, "not many wise men, not many rich, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise." Yet he wrote almost all his Epistles to these very people.

M. Well, what you say there, James, is reasonable. I should like to see what Scripture does say; but I do not know whether Father O. will allow me.

James. Father O. But what right can Father O. have to hinder your hearing what God has said to you. Who gave him the right to keep away God's Word from the poor that was once written to the poor. For, as Mr. N. said, the Epistles, save a few, were written to all the Christians in a place, not to the clergy.

M. Well, but you do not know whether he will hinder me.

James. Perhaps not. They would not be apt to do it when all around can read them; but how comes he to

have the right to hinder, or how comes it you are dependent on another man as to whether you may hear what God has said?

M. Well, I doubt that is right, too. But surely we ought to obey those who have the rule over us.

James. I have nothing against that, for the Scriptures say so. But how comes it they only give you these

scraps of them. If one of the family would not let me see my father's will, pretending he was wiser than me, and I was no lawyer, and I should only take a wrong sense out of it, I should not, as a. man, like it. I am not a lawyer, and he might be better able to explain lawyer's words in it; but I should like to know what my father did say. Some of it might be plain and for me, and I should know if he was keeping something back from me that was mine in what was plain. I should like to see it. And when one does see the Scripture one sees that God meant us to see it.

N*. Yes, and that is a very important point; because it is not merely going against our rights, as between man and man, but against God's rights as to His own people. And Dr. Milner lets out that Rome does not wish Christians in general to see the Scriptures. He says she has confirmed her decrees by them. She enjoins her pastors to read and study them. Finally she proves her perpetual right to announce and explain the truths, &c., by several of the strongest and clearest passages, Letter 10, but not a word of the faithful seeing or reading them. And James is quite right in what he supposes, where there are many Protestants the Bible is allowed, and occasionally to those they feel sure of elsewhere with notes; but otherwise it is not thought of, and Dr. Milner could not speak of liberty to read the Scriptures existing, because it is formally denied by the highest authority of the Romish system. The index of prohibited books had been referred to a committee by the Council of Trent. In the last session this was referred to the Pope, and the Pope sanctioned the rules they had laid down. In the fourth rule, if a person shall have presumed to read or to have a copy without the express permission of the parish priest or confessor, he cannot receive absolution till the Bible be given up; and a bookseller who sells or otherwise lets a person have one is to forfeit the value for pious uses and undergo other penalties. Dr. Milner, therefore, says the Catholic Church does not cast any slight on the Scriptures. He could not say Christians were free to read them, and M. must get leave from his priest to do so, and that in writing (Rule iv. at the end of Council of Trent), or he would not get absolution. The Romish system interferes with God's rights-His title to send His own message to His own people; and no one denies that in the primitive churches all were free to read, and encouraged to read, the Scriptures. St. Chrysostom insists on it. Nor does Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) conceal that many things were done by the early Fathers which were changed by the Church in after times, on a critical examination of the matter. God has addressed His word to the people, not, save a very small part (three epistles), to the clergy, and the clergy have taken them away-taken away, as the Lord says, the key of knowledge.

M. And do you not think ignorant people may wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, as it is said?

N. I think anyone may if he does not look for God's grace to help and guide him. But I do not think ignorant people do it a thousandth part as much as learned ones, because they come to it more simply as God's word and respect it. Whereas the learned, thinking they are able to exercise their minds on it and judge about it, do not receive it as little children. Heresies have not come from the ignorant, but from Doctors.

God has given the Scriptures to the people, and the clergy of Rome have taken them from them. And it is to God they will answer. Augustine insists largely in his book on the unity of the Church (chap. x.) against the Donatists, who insisted, just as the Romanists do now, on the obscurity of Scripture.

We may turn to another part of your rule of faith-tradition. Your Dr. Milner says, Paul puts the written and unwritten word upon a level, leaving us to suppose that this last is tradition.

James. And I thought that was tradition-a doctrine handed down from one to another.

N*. It is not, in the New Testament, except where it is condemned, when the Lord says, " Thus have ye made the word of God of none effect by your tradition." Where, remark, that traditions are put expressly in contrast with the Word of God. The Word of God was complete in itself, and their traditions set it aside, and so do Romanist traditions. But the passage Dr. M. quotes proves tradition is not used as he uses it. Where the word is used of written and unwritten the written is called tradition as well as the unwritten. It means any doctrine delivered. Now, if Paul delivered a doctrine to me by word of mouth, I ought of course to observe it as if it was in one of his epistles. There is no difference, only that I might forget or change it if it were not written. Here is Paul's phrase-" Stand fast and hold the tradition ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." Of course what he had taught as truth, they ought to keep. Tradition means what he had taught. But where are the doctrines which Paul taught which are not found in Scripture? They have none to produce_; we shall see this just now. Dr. Milner tells us an old wife's tale about the Apostles agreeing upon a short symbol, a story which everyone knows to have no foundation. The Apostles' creed is the Roman creed with some additions, and the creed of the church of Aquileia in the fifth century, preserved by Ruffinus, the descent into hell being added afterward. But further, a very just and important remark has been made by another as to the way tradition is spoken of by the Fathers on whom Dr. Milner chiefly rests his case. The word is not used as meaning a source of additional doctrines, an unwritten word besides the written, but as a sure proof of the true faith to be received, and way of knowing the right use of Scripture. Tradition for them was a testimony to Scriptural truth of a surer kind, as they alleged, not a communication of additional truths besides the Scripture. They charged heretics with pre. tending to a tradition of this kind. They as often appeal to the Scriptures against everything else as to tradition; but with them tradition is not a source of additional truths, but a surer proof, as they say, of common truths. Now, I admit freely that, supposing the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures, men ought to have followed tradition, that is what the Apostles taught when they had it. The question is, first, would it have secured the preservation of the Apostles' doctrine? The Apostles thought not, and left us the New Testament-that is, really, the Holy Ghost did. But, secondly, now they have left us the Scriptures are we not to use them, and are we not to reject everything contrary to them even if it pretends to be a tradition? We will see now what the Fathers say about it, as Dr. M. quotes them. The early Fathers, those near to the time of the Apostles, appeal to tradition not as an additional source of truth, but a security for truth against heresy, against new doctrines, proving by what everybody held all over the world that such heresy was new. Now, though not an authority, it might be useful as a proof of this when it was universal. But as to its securing the certainty of teaching it cannot, and so God thought, and gave His people a book. History has shown that it does not, for doctrines have changed. Afterward tradition came to be appealed to as an independent source of like authority, because the Scriptures did not contain a multitude of superstitions which came in; and at last the Scriptures taken away, because they condemned well nigh all that was done and taught, as a certain Pet. Sutor (A.D. 1525), a Carthusian monk, innocently confesses, that " the people will be apt to murmur when they see things required, as from the Apostles, which they find not a word of in Scripture." Whence he concludes it was a rash, useless and dangerous thing to translate them. Irenæus, for example, uses tradition as a security for truth, not as revealing other things besides what was in Scripture. The quotation from Tertullian surprises me, because this same Tertullian, after saying the traditions of the different episcopal sees secured the faith, left what called itself the Catholic Church, because its state was so bad. It did not secure his faith. Not only so, but the particular tract Dr. Milner quotes was assuredly written when he had left the Universal Church to become a Montanist, or at any rate, accepted the Montanist rhapsodies as prophecy, for he says in the first chapter, No wonder they would not face martyrdom when they reject the prophecies of the Spirit-that is, of the Paraclete, so called of Montanus. Even here he only insists on rites and ceremonies, and on no doctrine of faith, saying, that if certain ceremonies have been always used they are to be observed, and, it is to be assumed, there was some tradition as their origin,-just showing that it was to justify superstitious practices they began to use tradition because there was no Scripture for them. The other proofs of Dr. Milner are drawn from authors from the end of the fourth to the end of the fifth century after Christ, when every perplexity of doctrine and the grossest relaxation of practice had come into the Church, so that they were glad to get anything to rest their foot upon. Popes had denied the divinity of Christ. The Bishops had killed the poor old Archbishop of Constantinople by blows in one of their councils, and the vices of the clergy were such that they surely did require something not in Scripture to support them. What I have said I will justify when we speak of the marks of the true Church. But it will be well to examine the point of tradition a little closer. We will take Tertullian, because he is the first that speaks largely of it, in the tract Dr. M. refers to. Here are the points for which he refers to tradition as an authority:-

"Therefore let us inquire whether tradition also should be received if it be not a written one. We will deny that it is to be received if no examples of other observances which we defend without any written document on the ground of tradition alone, and then, by the patronage of custom, prejudge the case. Finally, that I may begin with baptism. When we are approaching the water, there, but a little before in the assembly under the hand of the president, we witness that we renounce the devil and his pomps and his angels; then we are immersed three times, answering something more than the Lord determined in the Gospel. Received back [from the water] we taste a mixture of milk and honey, and from that day abstain from our daily washing for a week. The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which was received from the Lord at a time they were eating, and committed to all to celebrate, we take in meetings held before daylight, and not from the hand of others than the president. We make offerings for the dead. We celebrate the anniversaries of martyrs. We count it a wickedness to fast on the Lord's day or to worship on our knees. We enjoy the same immunity from Easter to Pentecost. We are grieved if any even of our own cup or bread drop on the ground. At every progress and advance, at coming up or going out, in clothing, putting on our shoes, washing at tables, when we bring the lights, when we go to bed, when we sit down, whatever we are engaged in, we sign our forehead with the cross. If you ask Scripture for the law of these and other like practices, you will find none. Tradition will be alleged to you to be the source. Custom has confirmed it, and faith observes it."

Now, that none of these observances are found in Scripture I fully admit. But we see what tradition was worth-not kneeling on Sunday, giving a taste of milk and honey to the newly baptized and such like futilities, which, not being in Scripture, they alleged tradition for. Now, it is well to see what the earliest tradition was worth. You have it from Dr. Milner's witness for us; we were to take him as a guide in our inquiry; I have examined what he has alleged. But, then, I have a few remarks to make here. Had these traditions the authority of the Word of God, the alleged unwritten word? The triune immersion in baptism, which some took for a sign of the Trinity, some for the three days of Christ's being in the grave-Jerome of the unity, too-was insisted upon by Tertullian, Basil and Jerome as coming from tradition, Chrysostom refers it to the words of Christ Himself in sending His disciples (Matt. 28) And the so-called Apostolical canons order a Bishop or Presbyter to be deposed who should administer baptism not by three immersions, but only one in the name of Christ. Pope Pelagius condemns it, too, and founds the practice on Christ's words in Matthew. So it appears does Theodoret, who accuses Eunomius of changing baptism in not immersing thrice; so Sozomen. Here, if ever, we have a tradition of the highest character and greatest authority. Alas! it is given up. The Arians used it, and in Spain this alarmed the orthodox, and many gave it up, and others would not, and the whole country was in a practical state of schism. Leander, of the see of Seville, Wrote to Gregory the Great. He answers:-" Concerning the triune immersion in baptism nothing can be answered more truly than what thou hast felt, that in one faith a different custom does no harm to the holy Church; but in being thrice immersed, we mark a sacrament of the three days' burial, as when the infant is taken up the third time out of the water, the resurrection on the third day is expressed. But if anyone thinks that there is an assertion of the exalted Trinity therein, neither as to this is there any hindrance to being plunged only once; since as there is one substance in three Persons it can in no way be reprehensible that an infant should be immersed once or thrice in baptism since in three immersions the trinity of persons, in one, the unity of the divinity is designated; but now as infants are baptized by the heretics with three immersions, I judge that it should not be done among you" (Greg. Lib. 1, Ep. 41, ad Leand.) Still the Pope's advice did not succeed in stopping the schism. The Spanish council of Toledo decided that, though, as Gregory judged, both were perfectly innocent, yet they should only immerse once, and comfort all parties by saying that the plunging is a sign of death; the coming up, of resurrection; the one-immersion, of the unity of the Godhead; the three names, of the Trinity of persons (Con. Toledo iv., can. 5). So this tradition, enforced by deposition from office in the canons, which tradition asserted to be those of the Apostles, as the same tradition did the creed to be theirs, came to an end. And faith observed it no more. How certain an authority it is. You cannot complain of the choice I have made. It is Dr. Milner's own. I suppose Roman Catholics kneel on Sunday, and from Easter to Pentecost too. So that what Tertullian alleges to be tradition observed by faith has no authority at all. I shall refer to what Irenæus says of Scripture just now. I do not quote him as to tradition, because his use of it is to appeal to the universal voice of the Church to confirm his reasonings from the Word against heretics, which is quite another thing from Dr. Milner's use of the word. But a word more as to Tertullian, who was a lawyer and was a great stickler for Church prescription, which is only a principle of Roman civil law, and what Dr. Milner quotes only an advocacy, in the terms of Roman law. One question is, Can the authority of tradition secure us in the faith? The answer is, Tertullian himself who insists on it, received at the time he wrote this, the Montanist rhapsodies, as inspiration and the Comforter, and went amongst them, leaving that which he said alone had authority. The most important of his traditions which was universal was given up, Pope Gregory very wisely saying that, if there was unity of faith, such things were of no consequence. How futile most of his traditions. are, anyone can see. They are notions and practices crept in from a lively imagination, and that is all; but a dangerous thing in the Church of God, because a long observed custom becomes a matter of faith for many.

M. But have we not the Apostles' creed by tradition, and that they composed it before they went away to preach?

N*. The Apostles' creed, as the Church has it now, was composed at different times, and no two Churches hardly had just the same. "The Communion of Saints," for example, was added quite late. "The holy Church" earlier,' the word " Catholic" again later still. The descent into hell was not there at all in the Roman creed called the Apostles'. And it was added very late indeed; it was in the creed of Aquileia, in the fourth century. As to the Apostles making a creed, as Dr. Milner alleges, I am surprised he should quote such a fable, for such it is now, I suppose, universally owned to be. All the creeds are called Apostolic, meaning they contain Apostolic doctrine. What is now called the Apostles' creed was the creed of the Roman Church with one or two articles added. This story of the Apostles composing it does not appear before the fourth century, and then the story went rapidly further, for an author, passing under the name of Augustine, gives us the particular article contributed by each Apostle. But all this is trumpery and contrary to known history, for it is known that many articles were added, as I have said, quite late in the Church's history. Dr. Milner urges, too, that they (the Apostles) profess belief in the Church (Letter 10) not in Scripture. This is an unfortunate observation. The authors of the creed were stating objects of faith, what they did believe, not sources of revelation, or the authority for their believing it. They-do not speak of believing in tradition either, both would have been absurd, because the question was briefly what, they believed, not why, or where they found it. But further, the author quoted by Dr. Milner-he who tells us the Apostles made the creed Ruffinus-charges his readers to remark that they are not called on to believe

the Church (that is, have confidence in it as an authority and source of faith), but only to believe the Church-that is, that there was such a thing. If anyone says that it is just the same with every article that they are all objects of faith whether there be " in" or not, I shall not contest with him. However, Dr. Milner's (Letter 10) authority presses strenuously the remark that we are only to believe the objective fact that there is a Church, but not to believe in it—that is, draws exactly the opposite conclusion to that for which Dr. M. quotes him. He says:-" By this syllable of a preposition (believing the Church, instead of in the Church) the Creator is separated from the creatures, and divine things are separated from human." (Ruffinus in Symb. Apostolorum); and. St. Augustine, and after him the schoolmen, insist on the difference in principle.

But I must return a moment to a remark I made to you. The word tradition is shamefully abused. No one doubts that the disciples ought to receive whatever the Apostles taught by word of mouth. The question is whether we can have it now handed down unwritten outside Scripture. Now the Scripture and the earliest writers used the word simply in the sense of teaching. As in the passage quoted by Dr. Milner " the tradition which ye have received by word or our epistle." That had not been handed down, Paul had taught them by word of mouth; he has taught them by letter; they were to receive both. Of course they were; but they had received both directly from the Apostle; there was no handing down. It means his teaching, and he uses it so elsewhere. Now it is dishonest trifling to use this to prove what is alleged when the word is used in another sense. Tradition means now what is handed down unwritten from one to another, the unwritten word as distinguished from Scripture. Paul says tradition by letter or word. It is not the same thing he speaks of. The duty of receiving what Paul taught by word of mouth has nothing to do with proving that handing down by words of mouth means our having what was not written by them. Ignatius, as quoted by Eusebius, uses tradition as Paul does-that is, as Apostolic teaching.

James. Well, M., that seems quite clear. When Paul speaks of tradition by letter or word he does not use it as you do now, and Dr. Milner ought not to have quoted it. It has nothing to do with the matter.

N*. We say Paul and the rest did teach by word of mouth, but what God meant for the Church in all ages he caused them to commit to writing. Now, first let us see how the Lord speaks and acts in this respect. He

- does speak of tradition, when it was something handed down added to the written word: and thus the Scribes and Pharisees asked Him why His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders. " But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition... Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Adding from Esaias, " In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Now we charge the Romanists with this. They worship God in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. They have taken away one of the Ten Commandments, and made two of the last to make out the ten, and added six commandments of the Church (others make eight, dividing one and adding one, to pay tithes). They are to be as binding as God's commandments, besides a hundred other human ordinances.

James. Is that true, M.?

M. The Church has given commandments besides the ten.

James. And left out the second?

M. Deuteronomy proves that it is only a part of the first, and that the last two are distinct, for they are in a different order from Exodus.

N*. But you have left out the second and divided the tenth, and that second is, " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or the likeness of anything that is in heaven or on earth." And you have made graven images and set them up in all your churches, and in your streets and roads, where you can.

James. Well, I had no thought of what their doctrine was. My wife might well say it was not Christianity as God gave it. Why, a child may see that.

N*. The Lord never appeals to tradition, but openly Condemns it, and appeals to Scripture, saying it cannot be broken.

The Apostles never do, but always quote the Scriptures, and not only so, but foreseeing by the prophetic Spirit what would come on the Church, they tell us our security would be the divinely-inspired Scriptures, and Timothy's knowing the person who had taught the doctrine which thus only could have authority, and so of us. And Peter expressly says he would take care they should have the testimony of God, and writes his epistle, clearly showing that thus, and thus only, and not by oral tradition, the truth would remain and be secured to them. Further, the Romanist cannot tell us one truth with any knowledge of whom it came from-cannot authenticate as apostolic a single tradition. Paul does refer to what he had taught by word of mouth without repeating it in writing. "Now ye know what letteth." Now, here the Romanists cannot supply anything by tradition at all. Where tradition, if of any value, would come in they can say nothing at all. Yet they have the Fathers very clear upon this. They have a Church tradition upon this. The Apostle says that when this hindrance was removed the man of sin would come. Now the Fathers taught it was the Roman empire; and prayed for its continuance, persecuting as it was, that the dreadful time of Antichrist might not come. But there they were all wrong. The Roman empire is gone and the man of sin not come, however much the Pope may have his spirit. See the wisdom of Scripture. Now, as an external hindrance the Roman empire may have been what hindered (though the presence of the Church on earth with the Holy Ghost dwelling in it I believe to have been the cause), but if the Apostle had said, in what God was giving for all ages, it was the Roman empire it would have turned out subsequently to have been inexact. And, therefore, the Spirit of God, in what was written, left it in terms the import of which are to be learned by the spiritual mind from the Word. The Fathers may have been right that the external hindrance then was the Roman empire. I can suppose Paul may have even spoken of this as the then hindrance, but by leaning on tradition they went all wrong. The Holy Ghost for all ages only taught the general truth. The tradition has proved false, and the body that trusts to it now cannot supply one word- to say what it meant. Now, I do not own the smallest authority in the Fathers. I own it in nothing but in the Word of God; but, as they have been-quoted, I shall quote them as to the Scripture, to show they argued exactly in an opposite way to which Dr. Milner quotes them for. I recognize no authority of any kind in the Fathers, for the simple reason that they neither give us, nor pretend to give us, any revelation from God. Whether they have given the doctrine of the Apostles correctly is easily ascertained by comparing them with the Apostles' writings, and as a general fact I affirm that they do not, and that on all the most vital subjects. It is all nonsense to talk of their judgment being surer than ours, because the Scriptures are not easy to understand. I answer, the Scriptures are just as easy to understand as the Fathers. If they are to be the rule of faith they are in Latin and Greek, and instead of one volume full of truth and riches, I have masses of folios, with some good things in them here and there, but a vast quantity of confusion, heresy, and trash. If am to take them as witnesses of I what the Apostles taught, it is much simpler to take the Apostles' own writings. However, I shall refer to them, since they are quoted and made a parade of, to show how little ground there is for trusting what is said of them, or, I must add, what they say. Irenæus, whom Dr. Milner quotes, begins the reasonings of the passage thus, Lib. III, chap. 3:-" We have not known the dispositions of our salvation but by those by whom the Gospel came to us, which indeed, they then preached, but afterward by the will of God have delivered to us in writings, which were to be the foundation and column of our faith. Nor is it right to say they preached before they had a perfect knowledge." He then refers to the Gospels as flowing from their teaching. In the second chapter we come to the key to the whole matter. 'The Valentinian heretics against whom he wrote, who held it was a bad God that made the world and gave the Old Testament, finding they could not prove their doctrines by Scripture, pretended there were other doctrines which the Apostles taught and had not written, appealed, that is, as Romanists do-for it is the old heretical story-to the unwritten word known by tradition. " For when," he says, " they are convicted out of the Scriptures, they turn to accusations against the Scriptures themselves, as if they were not right, nor of authority, and because things are variously said there, and because the truth cannot be found out from them by those who are ignorant of tradition, for that was not delivered in writing, but viva voce." Thus, what Dr. Milner insists on is exactly what these horrible heretics insisted on, and Irenæus's language is. The Fathers had no such tradition, but believed in one supreme God. The heretics appealed to unwritten tradition, because the Scriptures were not clear, nor could be understood without tradition, and that there were things taught by tradition besides the Scriptures. Irenæus, then, takes them on their own ground, and says, " Let them take their own ground. How can we have surer tradition than in the Churches founded by Apostles, and especially Rome, where Peter and Paul both were. None of them teach, nor have taught, that there was a bad God." He does not appeal to them for any doctrine not contained in the Word, but to confirm his reasonings, taken from the Scriptures, against the spurious traditions of these heretics; and adds, then, that missionaries, who taught heathens who are utterly barbarous without written documents, taught no such doctrine, and their testimony was to be received. In this way Irenæus uses the common faith of the Church to refute a pretended tradition, saying that what the Apostles taught was written down, and condemning the appeal to an unwritten word for something not in Scripture. Only he shows that tradition, if heretics would have it, rejected them. Remember, then, that Irenæus is arguing against heretics, because they appealed to tradition as revealing doctrines not in Scripture, and interpreting Scripture itself, and resists this doctrine, adding that if you appeal to the universal consent of the Churches they confirm what he alleges from Scripture. It is the Romanists who take the ground which the godly Irenæus denounces as the conduct of the heretics, who insisted there was tradition besides Scripture, and that Scripture could not be rightly used without it. The case, the same in substance, but yet stronger, is the case of Tertullian, who is blindly quoted as the great authority for tradition. He, too, complains of the heretics for affirming that the Apostles taught doctrines besides what is in Scripture, alleging sometimes that they did not know all things, sometimes that they did not teach all things publicly. And he declares that these heretics quote certain passages of Scripture to show that there were secret doctrines which they did not teach to all, founding the doctrine of an unwritten tradition on them. The very same course is pursued by the Roman doctors to prove there is an unwritten tradition besides Scripture. Tertullian declares there was no such thing; but that the Apostles, taught publicly all they had received to teach, first by word of mouth, and then afterward in their epistles; and denying these heretics to be Christians at all, he says they ought to be, according to the Scriptures, rejected after one rebuke (a mistake of his, by the bye, Paul says a first and second), and not after disputation, and that Christians had better not dispute with them. Now, though declamatory and loose, there is a great deal of truth in this. But I will show you from the passage the exactness of what I have said. He speaks as one weak and vexed, but with a great deal of truth, though on some points we shall see his reasoning defective at any time, and wholly useless for the purpose Romanists quote it for. He speaks of the twelve (strange to say he does not notice Paul here) being sent forth and promulgating the same faith, and founding Churches in each city, from which other Churches afterward borrowed in turn the continuation of the faith and seeds of doctrine, and yet, says he, " borrow, and thus are counted apostolic, as the offspring of apostolic Churches. It is necessary that every kind of thing should be estimated according to its origin. Therefore so many and so great [as the] Churches [may be] that first one [founded by] the Apostles, from which all are [derived], is one; so all are the first and apostolic, while all together approve unity..... Here, therefore, we found our prescription. If the Lord Jesus Christ sent the Apostles to preach, others are not to be received as preachers than those Christ instituted; since none know the Father but the Son, and he to whom He has revealed Him, nor does the Son appear to have-revealed Him to others than to the Apostles, whom He sent to preach surely that which He had revealed to them. But what they have preached, that is what Christ revealed to them, and here 1 use prescription (the Roman form of pleading), that it ought not to be otherwise proved but by these Churches which the Apostles themselves founded by preaching to them, as well viva voce (by word of mouth),.as men say, as afterward by epistles.

.. Let us communicate with the Apostolic Churches, because none have a different doctrine; this is the testimony of truth." He then insists largely that all was revealed to the Apostles, and that there could not be any other doctrine added which they had not. Now note here that he insists on the Epistles as containing these same truths that were taught. But suppose follow now Tertullian's advice, and that I go to the Churches which the Apostles founded. They have pretty nearly disappeared. I go to Jerusalem, and I find. such fighting for the Holy Sepulcher between Armenians, Greeks, and Romanists of different ways of thinking, that the Turks are obliged to have troops and men with whips to keep order. The Churches founded by Apostles have almost disappeared by the judgment of God, they were become so corrupt. Rome was not founded by Apostles. That is certain, for Paul writes a letter to them, and to a Church there, before any Apostle had been there, and when he went there he was a prisoner. In fine, if I go to the places which the Apostles did found, as far as they subsist,. They reject the Romish Church altogether, and Rome is striving to gain proselytes from them. They are Greeks, Armenians, Jacobites. In result these early Fathers did not use tradition as giving additional truths, but as the common consent of the Churches, to show that their statements from Scripture were sound and true, and that none had ever held what the heretics advanced. That the heretics' opinions began since the Apostles, and therefore could not be true, because the Apostles had been guided into all truth. Tertullian says, if the heretics were in the Apostles' time, they are condemned, being only now somewhat more refined in form; or they were not in the Apostles' time, and their later origin condemns them.' Now that is exactly what is the truth as to the doctrines of Romanism. Peter Lombard, in the twelfth century, was the first who taught there were just seven sacraments, and Bellarmine confesses that Christ taught nothing directly as to some, and Cardinal Bessarion admits there were originally only two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And we can give the date or gradual growth of the doctrines in which we differ from them. On the other side, the practical force of Tertullian's argument is wholly gone. There he reasons to prove that no Churches had these new doctrines of the heretics, so that they were proved to be new. " Go through," he says, " the Apostolic Churches, where as yet the sees of the Apostles preside in their places, where their own authentic letters are read, sounding out the voice, and representing the face of each one. Is Achaia nearest to you?" You have Corinth. I go to Corinth now; it condemns Rome. " If you are not far from Macedonia thou hast Philippi, thou hast Thessalonica." I cannot go to Philippi, all the place has disappeared. I go to Thessalonica; they condemn Rome again. " If not, thou canst go into Asia; thou hast Ephesus. But if thou art adjacent to Italy, Rome, whose authority is to be had for us." (He lived in Africa over against Italy.) He declares they would find none of the new doctrines. Now remark here, first, that his appeal to this sure tradition was finding the Scriptures, the authentic letters, still extant, which proved what the doctrine of the Apostles was; and, secondly, if I go to these Churches now, those which remain (except Rome itself) condemn Rome, and the rest can furnish no evidence at all, they are gone. What does remain of Apostolic Churches outside herself universally condemns her.

James. I do not see, M., what I or anyone can gain by what is here said of tradition, nor what your doctors can gain from it but confusion. He appeals for the doctrine which is in Scripture to Corinth and Ephesus and others, as witnesses that they never held such a doctrine as these heretics. But though that may have served as a testimony, as far as it went then, yet the facts prove how unsteady a foundation it was for the truth, for of these places, some of them do not exist at all, and if I were to go to the others they do not agree with Rome. I have nothing hardly left of the means referred to to prove Scripture right, and what is left, if it be worth anything, proves Rome wrong. This is not much help to your cause. The Churches mentioned in Scripture I find are against you where they still exist. Not that I believe any of them as authority, but they upset your argument from tradition entirely. You must find something better than this to build on. If I followed the direction Dr. Milner I see quotes-which I should be sorry to do, because God has left us the Scriptures, but if I did-I must reject him, and Rome with him, because, in following the ordinances of tradition in the Apostolic Churches, I find that they are separated from Rome, and condemn it.

N*. You are perfectly right, James; and there is a plain proof in Dr. Milner himself that he knew this very well, saw it plainly enough, because in quoting Tertullian he has left all this part of the passage out. Tertullian says, " Go through the Apostolic Churches. Ts Achaia next to thee, thou hast Corinth. If thou art not far from Macedonia thou hast Philippi, thou hast the Thessalonians; if not thou canst go into Asia, thou hast Ephesus; but if thou art near Italy, Rome," &c. Now all the former part Dr. Milner carefully leaves out, and begins with " if you live near Italy." He saw plainly enough that all his fine security by tradition would fall to the ground, overthrown by the passage if he had honestly quoted it, because, as I have said, either the witnesses which afforded the security, the Apostolic Churches, were gone, had ceased to exist, or they were opposed to Rome. I regret to say half one's work with the advocates of Romanism is to detect deceit of this kind.

James. Well, but, M., what do you say to this. This is not honest. Had he quoted all the passage it would have upset all he was pleading for.

M. Well, I never read Tertullian, of course. I should take it as Dr. Milner gave it. I supposed it was fair, and never meant to deceive you..

James. I am sure you did not. But you must see we cannot take all as Dr. Milner gives it. It is something to see that we cannot trust his reasonings. That is not the spirit of Christ any way, and that helps one to see clear.

N*. We have gained three points. The heretics first contended for some doctrines delivered by tradition, and not contained in Scripture. The Fathers resisted this. Next, when tradition was first spoken of by the early Fathers, they use it as a testimony of the Churches confirming the doctrines taught from Scripture, not as containing additional doctrines; thirdly, that the basis laid by Tertullian, on whom they so much rely, fails altogether as a secure proof, and what it does testify of condemns Rome. I add, that they used it so far with a good intention that their object was to show what Christ and His Apostles had originally taught, and that they had taught everything openly to all, in order to reject novel doctrines introduced subsequently. Their insisting on having what was at the beginning, what Tertullian, for example, asserts, " That that which was from the beginning is true," is perfectly just. This is 'what we insist on. And we condemn the Romanists because all their peculiar doctrines are novelties, the dates or gradual introduction of them being historically demonstrable. Thus purgatory was hinted at in the fifth century, said to be useful for very small sins in the sixth, and then only gradually grew up. Transubstantiation was never decreed definitively till the thirteenth, and the contrary was taught by the most famous doctors previously. The saints were prayed for, as we have seen, not to, for centuries, so that they had to alter the Roman liturgy to suit the change. So the so-called sacrifice of the mass can be traced from the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving (whence the word Eucharist), the presenting offerings before the consecration (whence the word Offertory)-both of which were called the un-bloody offering or sacrifice-to the applying it to the elements after consecration; and, lastly, but not till very late, to its being the real sacrifice of Christ, efficacious for the sins of quick and dead, and the liturgy was changed accordingly. I am not now examining the truth or falsehood of these doctrines, but their novelty. Romanists are now in the position of the heretics of old, alleging tradition for new doctrines which are not found in Scripture. We, on the contrary, rest solely on the Word of God, the Scriptures, as authority, for that is certainly what was at the beginning, and on the other hand we can appeal to history, and prove the introduction of the particular doctrines they insist on as novelties among Christians.

But Dr. Milner cites other Fathers, and it will be useful in many respects to refer to them. The fact is, they argued as it suited them at the moment. When heretics pressed Scripture, they flew to tradition, not at first as containing distinct truth, but as a witness of the truth of what, they alleged, was Scriptural-a use we have seen to be impossible now, because the Churches they appealed to, the Apostolic Churches, have disappeared, or are hostile to Rome. But, besides, these citations will give us the worth of the Fathers' reasonings, and how they contradict, not each other merely, but themselves. Dr. Milner, passes by, he tells us, Clement of Alexandria; he was right in doing so for his cause. Clement resists the Gnostics, or men of knowledge, who infested the Church, saying that ordinary Christians had elements, but that the secret full doctrine of Christianity was in their blasphemies. Tertullian met this by showing that the Apostles had taught all publicly (Test., De Prmscriptione 22 and following). Clement took another course. He says, that Christ spoke in parables in order not to be understood by ordinary Christians, but that there were Christian Gnostics, who by temperance,* a human thing, and desiring and laborious, and, prudence, a divine thing, arrived at Gnosis, and thus had got higher truths and intelligence to understand what was concealed from vulgar eyes. This was to be received according to the ecclesiastical rule, and the ecclesiastical rule is the consent and harmony both of the law and the prophets with the covenant delivered during the Lord's presence (Clem. Alex., Potter 2. 802, 3; Strom. 6.). His principle is bad, but his appeal is to the Scriptures. Nor is Clement after all very famous for orthodoxy. He was saturated with Alexandrian Platonism, and was thoroughly sound neither on the divinity nor on the humanity of the Lord. I do not make a heretic of him, but to say the least, he uses very awkward language, so that the famous Romanist doctor, Petau, charges him plainly with not speaking in an orthodox way.

Dr. Milner passes over Cyprian, too, quite naturally. He strenuously resisted all the pretensions of Rome to the day he was martyred. But not only so. Stephen of Rome, not being able to prove his point against him on a subject of practice and discipline, appealed to tradition on the usage of the Church. " Let nothing," says Stephen, "be innovated on what has been handed down " (tradition). " Whence," replies Cyprian, "is that tradition. Does it descend from the authority of the Lord and the Gospels, and come from the commandments and Epistles of the Apostles? For God bears witness that those things are to be done which are written, and speaks to Joshua the son of Nun, saying, The book of this law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate in it day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all things that are written therein.' What obstinacy is that [in the Pope]; what presumption to prefer human tradition to a divine disposition, and not to take notice that God is indignant and angry as often as human tradition sets aside and passes by divine precepts, as He cries out and says by Esaias the prophet, this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me' (Ep. 74. 80, Oxford). He tells us that if a canal does not give us the water as purely and freely as it used, we go up to the source; we see if the water has failed, or the canal is leaky, or stopped-so we must return to the original of the law and the Gospel, and the apostolic teaching, and let the principle of our acting spring from that whence its order and origin spring."

James. No wonder he passes by Cyprian. He pleads here just for what we do in insisting on the Scriptures against the Pope.

N. We may turn to Origen. Dr. Milner does not say where the passage he quotes is, but Origen speaks distinctly in the beginning of his Principia of tradition as all these early Fathers do.. That is when the heretics brought in tradition besides Scripture, they condemn it;, and when they pervert Scripture, they say it is to be understood according to the common faith of the Church, and novelties, whose beginning could be shown, were not to be received. However, Origen himself was driven away by his bishop for every wild novelty imaginable. He allows no knowledge out of Scripture. Speaking of the peace offerings, he says, " These two days are the two testaments in which we may search out and discuss everything relating to God, and from thence receive, all knowledge of things. But if anything remains which is not decided by divine Scripture, no other third writing ought to be received as an authority for any knowledge (because this is called the third day), but what remains let us give to the fire, that is, leave to God, for in the present life it has not pleased God that we should know all things." (Hom. 5. on Levit. (213) 2.) Thus, while he referred to the common consent of the Churches against the novelties of heretics (those who taught there were two Gods), he allows no authoritative source of knowledge but the two testaments. This is just what we have seen with Tertullian, from whom I add a sentence here: " But that all things were made from subsisting materials I have not yet read. Let Hermogene's workshop show that it is written. If it is not written, let him fear the woe destined to those who add or take away." (Tert. Adv. Her. 22). Bellarmine does not venture to quote Origen. Dr. Milner quotes Basil. The passage he quotes has no reference to any doctrine, if indeed it be genuine, which others than Protestants have doubted. Some objected to saying in a doxology "the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost," and said Scripture always said `in the Spirit, not with.' He says, " Surely this one expression, used with no premeditation or purpose, may be allowed, so long in use as it has been"-and then refers to practices in the Church which rested solely on tradition, the sense of which most did not understand, just the same as Tertullian refers to praying towards the East (how few, he says, know it refers to Paradise), signing with the cross, praying standing on Sunday, and from Easter to Pentecost, anointing with oil, immersing three times in baptism, and so on. Now, that superstitions were creeping in, and more than that, when Basil wrote, nearly 400 years after Christ, when, indeed, corruption and false doctrine had made havoc of the Church, is quite true. Men used to live in sin, and wait till they were dying to be baptized in order to get off quite clear. I do not mean that all did, but adduce the fact to show the corruption that had come in. It was nearly at the same epoch that the whole of Christendom, save confessing martyrs, had denied the divinity of the Lord. We have seen that Basil was not speaking of doctrine when he referred to traditions, but to mere rites or liturgical forms, "one expression."' But when he speaks of doctrine, here are his words, "Believe the things that are written; the things that are not written do not seek." (Hom. xxix.) (Adversus Calum. Bened. Ed. 2. 611 E.) "It is a manifest falling away from faith, and convicts of arrogance, to annul anything of the things that are written, or to introduce anything of the things that are not written " (2. 224 D.) Poor Basil himself too became suspected of heresy; He never would say the -Holy Ghost was God. The excuse was that if he had he would have been driven from his see, and the heretics would have had all his flock in their power; so he avoided the word, but said what was equivalent. So he defends himself and says, " if a Jew owned Jesus to be the anointed, but would not say Christ, ought he 'not to be received, as it is the same thing." Such is the security Fathers afford; but we will return to this state of things.

" Every word or matter ought to be accredited by the testimony of inspired Scripture (Basil Moralia Reg. 26, p. 254). Nor ought anyone to dare to annul or add anything. For if everything which is not of faith is sin, as the Apostle says, and faith by hearing, and hearing by the word of God: everything outside inspired Scripture not being of faith is sin " (79: 22, 317). Let me add at once that what Dr. Milner quotes from. Augustine, and Vincent of Lerins confirms all I have said. Neither speak of doctrines learned from tradition, but both take the universal faith of the Church to guide in the interpretation of Scripture. Epiphanies applies also the authority of tradition only to practice; namely, that unmarried persons who dedicated themselves to God sinned if they married afterward, quoting what Paul says of the younger widows as analogous; but says, if there is no Scripture, it ought to be accepted as founded on tradition. He is reasoning against those who forbade to marry, and says the Church approved marriage, but admired people not marrying, and then refers to tradition as helpful in understanding Scripture. Chrysostom alone speaks to the point of all Dr. Milner has quoted. He has given the whole sentence. It is all he has on verse 15 of 2 Thess. 2. But it is a very unfortunate case, because the Fathers, as we have seen, had a traditional interpretation of this chapter; namely, that what let (or hindered) was the Roman Empire; and, though persecuted, prayed it might subsist, because when removed Antichrist would come. It was removed, and Antichrist did not come, unless the Pope be Antichrist, and if you ask a Romanist what tradition was given which is not in the passages, or what is the tradition by word of which the Apostle speaks, they cannot tell you a word about it. That is, the passage shows that tradition is wholly incompetent to preserve an unwritten Apostolic teaching. Here is one alluded to: who can tell me what it is? I see the wisdom of God in it, I think clearly, in the Scripture not saying what it was. Because, what was then the hindrance is not the present one; but at any rate your tradition is dumb and can tell us nothing. When religion became a religion of ordinances; not of truth, the traditions which were in vogue for them became the groundwork of all the Christian system, and the Bible disappeared. But little as I trust the Fathers for any doctrine, they speak plainly enough as to Scripture, and Chrysostom urges with all persevering eloquence and zeal everybody's reading them, saying they were written by poor uneducated men on purpose that they might be plain for such. And that laymen occupied in the world had more need to read them than monks or clergy.

I add a few passages as to the exclusive authority of Scripture. Athanasius against the heathen says, " For the holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient for the promulgation of all truth" (Oratio contra Gentes, Ben. 1.). So Ambrose, "How can we adopt these things which we do not find in the Holy Scriptures?" So Gregory of Nyssa, quoted by Euthymius, As that is not supported by Scripture, we reject it as false." So Jerome, " As those things which are written we do not deny, so those which are not written we refuse" (Contr. Helvid. 19, 2. 226, Veron. Ed.). So Augustine, " In those things which are specially laid down in Scripture, all those things are found which contain faith and the morals of life" (De Doctr. Chris. 2. 9). And again, " I owe my consent without any refusal to the canonical Scriptures alone " (De Nat. et Grat.). And similar quotations might be multiplied. So even as to councils, " Neither ought I to object the council of Nice to you, nor you that of Ariminium (an Arian council of some 800 bishops) to me; by the authority of Scripture let us weigh matter with matter, cause with cause, reason with reason " (Contr. Maxim 3. 14). So in contrast with the doctors of the Church (i.e., the Fathers), "For we should not consent to Catholic bishops if they by chance are deceived, and have opinions contrary to the canonical Scriptures of God " (De Unit. Eccl. 11 Ben. 9. 355). And so in his Epistles and other writings he says, over and over again, he has liberty to differ from them, and is bound only by the Scriptures. Now, either I am to receive these passages as right, and then, if the Fathers are consistent, consider this to be their doctrine; or if you can quote passages from them contradictory of these, then you make their authority to be simply and totally void. If you ask me what I think, I think they used, like other men, the best grounds they thought they could find, and when the heretics or the Pope pleaded tradition, said that all must be proved by Scripture. When they were, as Tertullian, perplexed by their subtle quotations of Scripture, instead of doing as the Lord did when Satan quoted it, quoting another passage, which forbad what Satan used it for, they turned to tradition, but not to learn doctrines not in Scripture, but to prove that of the heretics to be new. As a mere argument as to fact, it might prove it so far; but if a doctrine be in Scripture, clearly it is not new but from the beginning, and it is able to make the man of God perfect. What Dr. Milner has said of tradition is at any rate entirely unfounded. What is of more importance than all, the blessed Lord has condemned it as the false foundation of His enemies, and that men worshipped God in vain who followed it.

And what do you make of the Sabbath, and the change from the seventh day to the first? Is not that a proof that you must follow tradition?

N*. Certainly not. If the blessed privilege of the Lord's day depended on tradition, I for one would hold it as of no force whatever. I might bear with one who observed it, because Paul tells us to do that, "one man regardeth one day above another, another man every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." But it does not rest on tradition. The change from the seventh day to the first is connected with the essence of Christianity and the person of the Lord Jesus. The Sabbath was the sign and seal of the Old Covenant, the witness that God's people had a part in the rest of God, which in itself is the very essence of our everlasting blessing. But it was then given, as all was, in connection with an earthly system, and was a sign of the rest of the old creation, as it indeed was originally so instituted in Paradise. But the rejection of the Lord when He came into that is the proof that man cannot have rest in the old creation, that he is -a sinner and needs redemption out of that state. The blessed Lord, become a man, was not for that less the Lord, and came to accomplish this redemption, and as Son of Man was above all these things-was Lord of the Sabbath as of everything else. It had been given for man in grace and goodness, though it took the form of law, as all did among the Jews. But we as redeemed have to do with the new creation. All that system has found its end in the death of Christ. Not the rest of God, but the hope of rest in the old creation. So Christ lay in the grave that Sabbath, but now He is risen, risen the first day of the week, and the first fruits of them that slept. We begin our Christian life as the first fruits of God's creatures. We begin as dead and risen, in Christ. We do not, therefore, celebrate the rest of the old creation-we were utterly lost as belonging to that; but the resurrection of our blessed Lord, as the foundation and beginning of the new, when redemption is accomplished. Hence, after His resurrection He meets His disciples that first day of the week when they were assembled, and the first, or Lord's day following the same thing, and thenceforth it is carefully distinguished in Scripture. We learn the disciples came together the first day of the week to break 'bread. They were to set apart, in grace, for the poor on the first day of the Week. And in the Revelation it is called the Lord's Day, just as the Supper is called the Lord's Supper. Hence, we own with joy the Lord's Day, as Scripture teaches us; the first day of the week, not, the seventh, in which the Lord's body lay in the grave, the witness that the old creation was judged, condemned, and passed away-that there was no rest in it but to die. No rest for the old man; but the restlessness of sin and the misery of its fruits. No rest in it for the new man, not for Christ, because all was polluted and alienated from God. And He teaches us that He came to work in grace and die in it, and begin all anew, of which His resurrection, and the Lord's Day as a sign of it, is witness.

M. I do not understand a word you are saying. I see it says Christ was Lord of the Sabbath, and that the first day was set apart, and that Scripture speaks of the 'Lord's Day. But what you are saying about it is too high for me.

N*. Well, M., take the fact at any rate that you admit that Christ was Lord of the Sabbath, that His authority was above it, and that after His resurrection the first day is the day distinguished in Scripture, not the seventh. That proves our point now, that we do not receive it from tradition but from Scripture.

James. Well, M., I am no wiser than you, yet I do understand it. But I see plainly it is not from any wisdom in me, but that I know that in the flesh and under the law I am lost, and that Christ has died and is risen again, and if any man be in Him he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new, and Christ's resurrection is the beginning of this hope, and that is where our rest is founded, and not in the old creation, so we have that and the first day of the week as the witness of blessing and that God's rest belongs to us, not a sign of the rest of the first creation, when God rested on the seventh day, when He had made all things good, for sin has- spoiled that, and the Apostle says, Heb. 4, that man never entered into that. And I am sure we know he did not. Toil, and sin, and death are not rest. At any rate, as you say, we have it taught in Scripture that the first day of the week, 'not the seventh, is the one marked out " the Lord's Day,".and that suffices. The Jews had the seventh day.

N*. Well, I turn to washing the feet, which is the other point Dr. Milner speaks of. It is a foolish point because the Lord expressly declares that His meaning in it they did not then understand, that is, it had a spiritual signification which they would afterward understand. In a word, that He did not mean the literal act, but that it was merely the sign of what required spiritual understanding. It is absurd to suppose that such a mere outward act gives a part with Christ. And what the sign of water means is told us, " Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." And again to " sanctify and cleanse it [the Church] by the washing of water by the word."

The next proof of tradition Dr. Milner gives is a singularly unhappy one for Romanist doctrines. " The whole sacred history," he says, " was preserved by the Patriarchs in succession, froth Adam down to Moses, during the space of 2,400 years by means of tradition." Now..the Flood came in this period, because men had grown so wicked and cast off God that Noah alone remained to be preserved. And after the Flood all the world was fallen into idolatry, so that God called Abraham out of it to begin afresh and have a nation for Himself in which He should keep the knowledge of the true God alive by a written law, because men so entirely lost the knowledge of Him when they had not one. Here is Paul's account of this time, " Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness.... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind," etc: This is a poor but true history of the time when man was left to tradition. The difference of Romanism now is this-there is a written word and they have taken it away and put reproach upon it, and as the heathen corrupted the doctrine of one God by idolatry and many false gods, so the Romanist, when God had sent His Son to bring men back, have corrupted the doctrine of one Divine Mediator by making many human and false ones.

James. I do not see, M., how Dr. Milner could refer to that time. It upsets all he seeks to prove. Why, it shows that when man had only tradition he was lost in sin and idolatry altogether, so that only one was saved from the Flood with his family, and Abraham had to be called out miraculously because all had gone into idolatry. And it is true you have gone away from the one Mediator to have many false ones that we do not want and which are no use.

N*. Well, we will go on with Dr. Milner. He quotes Pope Stephen as referring to tradition. But this is just the tradition on which St. Cyprian opposed-him, and all the African Churches and Firmilian and those of Asia Minor opposed him, and said his tradition was false. It is just an additional proof of the uncertainty of tradition, and it is the very case which makes Augustine say that if the doctors of the Church go wrong he is not bound by them. Dr. Milner's statement as to the agreement of the Greek, Nestorian, Eutychian, and other bodies in the East agreeing with Romanists (save on the Pope's supremacy, a pretty important point when infallibility is in question) -is simply untrue. They are corrupt- enough, God knows; but they reject a quantity of Romanist doctrine and discipline too. As, to name no others, purgatory is wholly rejected in the Greek Church, and the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son. And as to Eutychians, they hold that Christ had not really two distinct natures, but that the Godhead was as the soul of Christ; the Nestorians, on the other hand, divided the person. Though at first it was merely a very just refusal to call Mary the Mother of God,* Nestorius wished to say the Mother of Him who is God. However, intrigues had the upper hand. As to Dr. Milner's saying that it was easier to change the Scriptures, so that they would be uncertain as a rule, nobody read them, a few monks copied them in the monasteries, but save that, nobody could read, and the clergy taught what they liked. There was no object-in changing Scripture; besides, I doubt not God watched over it. As to saying that religious novelties would have produced violent opposition, and of course tumults, it is too bad and dishonest. Why, half the time of the Emperors was spent in keeping the peace, or trying to do so, for they never succeeded. The majority of bishops in Africa seceded, and some of their partizans got the name of circumcelliones, or vagabonds, for going about using violence. And at last they were put down by the Emperor by force. One Council gathered to settle these doctrinal disputes, killed an old archbishop because he did not agree with them. First, the Orthodox got the Arians banished, and then the Arians got the Orthodox. On the subject of images, Council voted against Council, and then it came in the East to wars, in which a strong party held their ground a hundred years against the Emperors. Why, the whole history of the Church is the history of violence and banishment, and bloodshed, and tumult, on account of doctrinal and Church disputes. The streets of Alexandria and Rome have streamed with blood through them, and the civil authority had to put it down. As to transubstantiation and invocation of saints, we shall come to them in their place. History will show whether Dr. Milner has been rash in trusting to the presumed ignorance of his readers in referring to them. I have now gone through the question of tradition and what Dr. Milner has to say on it. I do not think we have found either certainty or the Church by it yet. I still ask, Since you appeal to the. Church and authority, where is it? The Scripture does act on my conscience and heart, and I bow to it as the Word of God, as that Word which pierces to the dividing asunder the joints and marrow and soul and spirit; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and I bow as finding myself, when I read it, before Him in whose sight all things are naked and open. Not so when you speak to me of the Church and what you hold up to me as such. As an outward authority in unity where is it to be found? Dr. Milner suppresses that part of the passage in Tertullian, it is true, but what he referred to us his great authority sent me to the East. These were confessedly the most ancient Churches, but they are opposed to Rome. If I am in England and Northern Europe or North America, the immense majority of professing Christians owning the Lord, and even active in propagating Christianity, denounce Rome as the corruptest body in existence. Where is this one Church which has authority? You tell me Rome is one. One with what? In itself. So are the Greeks. Yet Rome is not more one, as we have seen, than Protestants; not on Election; not on the Authority of the Pope; and not, till a year or two ago, on the Immaculate Conception; but especially not able to tell me where infallibility really resides.

James. My trust is in Scripture as the Word of God. I know it is in my soul, and you own it is the Word of

God, and it tells me to trust it, and that I ought to have the witness in myself, and I have; but I must say, Bill,

though I know nothing of it, of course, myself, what Dr. Milner has insisted on all comes to nothing, and worse than nothing when it is examined. Nor have you any doctrine which you can refer to tradition when Scripture says nothing. What I know of your doctrines, as purgatory, and the Popes being successors of Peter, and worshipping the saints is only a corruption of what is in Scripture, or quite condemned by it. And then what you appeal to goes against you. Why did Dr. Milner leave out these other Churches from the passage he quoted? They just knock up his argument.

M. Well, it is no good my arguing, or any of us. I had better bring Father O., and he will make it plain for you.

N*. By all means. We are just coming to a point of which Milner says nothing, and naturally would not-the difficulties of his own case. And you could not tell whether I was stating it correctly or not, and I suppose Mr. O. can; at any rate I will give the proofs. Hitherto we have only examined what Dr. Milner says, so that we wanted no one. We will meet, then, again, to see if we can find the Church, where it is, and where the infallibility is which is to guide us. I will now say Good day. Good evening to you both. May the Lord guide us into all truth.

James. Good evening, Sir.

Noah, a Type of Christ

" CHOSEN in Christ before the foundation of the world," tells us of God's thought about the work of His Son, ages before the cross was borne by Simon the Cyrenian, on which the Son of Man was lifted up.

As time went on, and events took place on the earth when peopled by Adam's race, we have clear evidence that the sacrifice of His Son, though future in fact, was ever present to God's eye. For, living as we do after the cross and the descent of the Holy Ghost, who guides into all the truth, distinct shadows of Him that was to come, and the work He was to accomplish, are found to have been cast at different times across the page of man's brief history. Before the flood and after, during the patriarchal era, in the history of Israel in the wilderness and in the land, we have frequent illustrations of this in the lives of several of God's saints. There are what may be called historic parallels as well as types. We may trace a parallel in certain portions of the life of a child of God between him and the Lord Jesus as He appeared on earth; and we may find this same servant of God filling a position which is a figure of that afterward occupied by Him who was to come. But in all typical personages of the Old Testament who shadowed forth the Lord, we have two sides as it were of a picture presented to us which must never be confounded. We see the man as he is a child of Adam needing a Savior, and we see him portraying some character which the Savior was afterward to fill. Thus, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, &c., were types of the Lord as they occupied positions similar to any He has, or will yet be found in. Joseph was a type when rejected by his brethren he became their preserver in the land of Egypt; but he was not a type of Christ when regarded as the prime minister of the Egyptian monarch.a Moses and Aaron were types of the Lord when, as king and priest, they came out of the Sanctuary and blessed the people on the eighth day of Aaron's consecration; but they sustained no typical character when they mutually shared in the efficacy of the blood shed on the great day of atonement. So with others, and with Noah, to whom the reader's attention is now to be directed. Noah was a type of the Lord, as is sought to be pointed out, before he entered the ark, as well as after he came out of it; but he was not a type of Him when looked at as inside it. Before he entered, as after, he filled positions which correspond to. those the Lord has consented to be in: when safe inside. the ark, with the door securely closed by the Lord, we see him as a Unless it were as Head of the Gentiles.-ED. a man indebted to God's salvation for deliverance from God's wrath.

Between the history of Noah and that of the Lord we may likewise trace parallels. With the first mention of Noah in the genealogy of Adam's descendants we have something peculiar-prophecy burst forth afresh at his birth. Enoch had years before prophesied of the Lord coming in judgment with ten thousand of His saints; but no fresh prophecy is recorded till Lamech predicted a new era for man on earth, as he called his son's name Noah (i.e., rest). " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed" (Gen. 5:29). The sterile earth would be fruitful. The very ground would share in the blessings to be expected in connection with this new-born babe. Man and earth were both interested in the son of Lamech. Centuries passed away before another was born in whom both man and earth had a special and common interest. At His birth as at Noah's, prophecy, silent for ages, again was heard. Lamech's prophecy was fulfilled; but the blessings to earth from the Lord's birth have yet to be displayed. Noah was a husbandman, and under him, in the then new world, men enjoyed the fruits of. the trees, which after Adam's sin had been withdrawn from him and his descendants. In Eden he had the herb bearing seed for meat, and every tree in the which was the fruit of a tree yielding seed. After the fall he was to eat the herb of the field, and the ground, then cursed, was to yield thorns and thistles. After the flood there was a lightening of the curse, and the earth does yield in some degree her increase. But its fullness is yet withheld, though not forever. It will surely be one day given to man, as set forth in the glowing descriptions of the future in the prophecy of Isaiah. To Adam it yielded thorns and thistles; to men of another epoch it will yield useful produce. " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree" (Is. 55. 13). Where cultivation has been scanty and vegetable life has not flourished, the face of nature will be changed, and barrenness give way to _luxuriant growth; for "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with' joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon "(Isai. 35. 1, 2). Under Noah there was partial relief; under the Second Man there will be full deliverance. In this creation is directly interested as well as man. It groans and travails in pain, made subject to vanity not willingly; but the incubus will be lifted up, the curse removed, and earth with man rejoice in the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Lamech looked forward to the future under Noah; we, in this respect similarly situated, look forward to the future under the Lord. But judgment came ere Lamech's prophecy was fulfilled, and judgment must come before Isaiah's predictions can be made good.

About 480 years rolled by before anything fresh is told us of the patriarch. All had been going on on the earth as usual, except that the wickedness of man, we may well believe, had increased, and even the sons of God had been seduced into alliances with the daughters of men, taking wives of all that they chose. Left to themselves, unfettered by any law, unrestrained by a power which enforced obedience whether man liked it or not, they acted as they chose. Such is the inspired record of the acts of the sons of God of the antediluvian world. Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and took them all away, is the Lord's description of that age, manifesting its unconcern and unbelief of its impending doom, little thinking in the midst of their giddy round of pleasure that One was weighing them in the balance, and pronouncing them as He did the King of Babylon at a later day, " weighed and found wanting." " God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." How extensive and yet how minute was this scrutiny. It took in the life, character, and thoughts of man. The general habit of man as man, and the particular characteristics of individuals of the race passed under the all-seeing eye of God; the thought concealed, perhaps, from the bosom-friend,

was read accurately by Him, and every imagination (or formation) of the thoughts of man's heart was found to be only evil continually. It was one vast scene of moral ruin, degradation, and lawlessness. Once, when He surveyed man as He had formed him, His eye rested with delight on all that He saw, and He pronounced it very good. Now, surveying man as he had degraded himself, a fallen being getting deeper and deeper into the mire, " He repented that he had made him on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." " The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence" tells a further tale, and attests the polluting power of sin. Man was a corrupt and a corrupting being. " God looked on the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Contact with man was defilement; his very touch was pollution. Is there a germ of goodness in man? It had surely time as well as occasion to show itself. Upwards of 500 years had passed between Enoch's translation, and consequently, since his prophecy of judgment and God's inspection of man on the earth, and yet there was no improvement manifested. The fear of judgment had not wrought a change him; the mysterious disappearance of Enoch had not permanently affected him. What he had been in Enoch's day, that he was in Noah's. And what we read of is not some extraordinary display of Satanic power sweeping everything before it, though surely Satan was actively at work (the great display of his power is reserved for a yet future epoch); but it was man left, as we might say, to himself, showing the natural bent of his corrupt heart. "All flesh had corrupted his way on the earth." Corruption and lawlessness characterized the period.

In the midst of this picture of wide-spread and deeply rooted ungodliness, one man, and one man only, is brought before us with whom God had communion: "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God"; just the opposite to those around in. his walk, and in the desires of his soul. To him God communicates His mind and announces the coming judgment; yet not all His mind, for He did not tell him at first when that judgment would come. Man had corrupted his way on the earth, and the earth was corrupt; so man, every living thing on the earth, and the earth itself must be destroyed. " The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth were the words which told Noah of God's determination to put an end to that for which there was no remedy. Noah thus learned the end would come; but knew not, that we read of, what God had said to Himself ( 6. 3). This is God's manner of acting. There are times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power (Acts 1). The day or the hour of the coming and announced judgment" knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father " (Mark 13, 32). So with Noah. He warned him of the coming destruction, told him what to do to escape it, but did not communicate to him the exact time of its approach till the ark was ready, and the last week of the old world was commencing. " They knew not until the flood came." During that day of long suffering, a period of 120 years, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, with what success the number saved in the ark testifies-seven souls beside himself preserved for the new world. Need we wonder at this small result? Another one could say, " I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation, I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation ' (Psa. 40:9,10). And after all He had to turn and say,, as regards Israel, " I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain" (Isa. 49:4). Little wonder is it then that the first preacher of righteousness should be accompanied into the ark by his own immediate family only. Where were his brethren and sisters? Had he to feel, like One greater than himself, that even his brethren refused to give credence to his message? "Ye would not" was the Lord's charge against Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37), and her present desolation is the consequence. His testimony was rejected. So Noah entered the ark in the midst of a scene of life and gaiety, and passed out, as it were of the sphere of his labors before his predictions were verified, shut in by the Lord, separated from all he had preached to, with his family only around him, a rejected messenger of the Lord Jehovah.

But not only does the history of our patriarch furnish parallels between his own and the Lord's history while on earth; he is also a type of the Lord both before and after the flood: before the flood a type of Him as a Savior, after it of Him as a ruler, thus preserving the historical order.

All flesh had corrupted its way on the earth, so all flesh deserved to die. " I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them " (Gen. 6:7). Thus man as a race was under sentence of death, and justly so. How could the race be preserved alive? All hopes hung, humanly speaking, on one man, Noah. Because of him the race was not exterminated. " Everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." On how slender a thread all then hung. Had lie failed where would man have been? Had he been found like the rest what would his family have done? The human race was preserved through him, and the living creatures of earth and air were saved from utter destruction likewise. Creation found itself interested in this one. Judgment must take it course, for corruption pervaded all flesh and the earth; but God's handiworks in creation could righteously be rescued from complete extermination. To outward eyes, probably, there was little to interest a stranger in this man. His conduct condemned the practices of those around him; his words must have disturbed and broken in on the composure of many a soul desiring only to go on unchecked and unreproved in its wild career of lawlessness, as he preached righteousness to his contemporaries. Many, probably, hated him; some, perhaps, could not make him out; others doubtless thought him a visionary, building a big ship on dry land and talking of a judgment to fall on the world, whilst none but his immediate family followed him into the ark. Such might he have appeared to men; but what was he before God? All turned on this. Man's judgment of him would avail nothing in the matter of the preservation of the human race. Had they raised him to a pinnacle of greatness unequaled by any one before or since-had they proclaimed him a perfect man fit for the presence of God-if God had not accepted him no living creature would have been saved for the new world. " But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." So he appears here as a type, may we not say, of Him-that one corn of wheat, on which all really then, and all manifestly afterward, hung. But Noah was only a type, for he found grace in the eyes of the Lord; whereas He, who likened Himself to the corn of wheat, was full of.grace in Himself; not filled with it, but full of it. And in His case, as in Noah's, all depended on what He was before God. The world's conception of Him had no bearing on the final destiny of man and the earth. Rejecting Him, condemning Him, they rejected their own mercies and sealed their own condemnation, as did the antediluvian world. In Noah was seen the one God had accepted; in Christ the one in whom the Father was well pleased.

Perusing still further Noah's history, we reach the day, when he entered the ark with his family and the different pairs of animals as previously appointed. Now he learns the exact time of the flood, and the period of its duration; for the times, previously hidden, are disclosed. As righteous in God's sight he enters the ark, but his family enter with him. They were not righteous that we read of. No approval of any of them is recorded in the word; yet they entered, and were saved. Noah inside the ark was but a pattern of all who are saved; but in taking in his family with him, we see him a type of another. "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Not a word, not a hint have we of what Shem was-not a syllable of approbation of Japheth. They were saved, preserved from the common destruction because Noah was righteous, and there in that ark they were living exemplifications of what it is to be saved by the righteousness of another. And how complete the salvation was, for all who went in came out. None were lost inside, but all died who were outside. Secure, because God shut Noah in, his family were saved through the flood, and saved with him. But here we must mark a difference between the type and the antitype. They were saved with, but not in Noah; they were preserved because of, but not by Noah. He was in the ark with them enjoying the same salvation; he was there as righteous himself; they, as exemplifying the obedience of faith, were inside because of the righteousness of another -their father Noah. We learn what they learned; the possibility, the certainty, the security of salvation through the righteousness of another-for us the Lord Jesus Christ; and we experience what Noah experienced, preservation as in the ark from the waters of judgment. He was not the ark, he was inside it; and we are in Christ. Thus, we can distinguish in Noah between the man as he was, and the typical character he sustained. All saved by grace will learn like him what it is to be in the ark, brought through death, the judgment deserved because of sin; but he stands forth as the righteous one because of whom others are saved. In this surely he is a type of Him that was to come.

Another feature in this history should be taken notice of-the prominence given to Noah, and the little notice of his sons. When the animals entered the ark, they went in, two and two, unto Noah, the one because of whom they were preserved. When the Lord closed the door on the living freight which the ark carried, we read, " the Lord shut him (i.e. Noah) in." When all around outside were dead, we read, "Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." God's eye rested on him throughout the flood, and God thought of him after it, for we read, " God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark" ( 8. 1). In all this Shem, Ham, and Japheth are, as it were, unseen. They are mentioned as entering the ark; but on Noah God's eye rested, and to him His thoughts were directed. He is-remembered, and the rest came in remembrance only because with him. For forty days the flood increased. At the expiration of five months the ark first touched the ground, a symptom that the waters were diminishing. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be discerned, and a hope of ere long emerging from the ark could arise in the hearts of its inhabitants. To keep seed alive on the face of all the earth was the reason of the living creatures being preserved. Noah knew he would come out of the ark, but now he might learn that the time of exit was approaching, for the tops of the mountains appeared above the hitherto unbroken surface of the waters. For forty days did he wait, and then sent forth a raven through the window, and after the raven a dove. The raven would tell when the waters were dried up from off the earth; the dove would teach him when the face of the ground was dry. The raven went to and fro, but the dove sought for re-admittance into the ark, and found it. The raven returned, it would seem, to it, indicating that the waters were not yet dried up from off the earth, but needed not re-admittance within. It could feed on what it found; the dove could not feed without till vegetation had recommenced. A week after the dove's first return the welcome tidings were received, as she re-entered in the evening with an olive leaf plucked off in her mouth. Vegetation had revived; this little leaf showed it. How welcome that little harbinger of the future must have been! Another week of patient waiting was passed, when the dove went forth for the third time, to return no more. She had found a home in the new world. Her non-return this time was as expressive as her previous returns had been; and Noah, interpreting aright her absence, uncovered the covering of the ark, and beheld, for the first time, the new world he and his children were to people. The face of the ground was dry, but the earth was not ready for his reception. Two months longer nearly had he to wait in the ark till God, who shut him in, gave him leave to come out. The face of the ground was dry on the first day of the first month; but he would not trust to appearances: he waited for permission to come out, as he had entered, at the express command of God. God knew the times and seasons, which Noah did not: He knew when he must enter, and He knew when he should come out. The sight of his eyes could not make Noah forsake the ark, nor the desire of his heart make him cross the threshold of the door, till God commanded him. To God's will he submitted, and to God's guidance he committed himself. Had he left the ark when the dove did, he would have left it too soon: the face of the ground was dry, but he must wait till the earth was dried. In all this he shows himself perfect. He was really, he would be practically, dependent on God, like Him who allowed neither the sight of His eyes, nor the natural desire for food, to draw Him aside from the path of unconditional, constant dependence on the Lord His God.

As in the ark he had manifested perfect confidence in God, so, as soon as ever he leaves it, his first thought is for God, and he takes the first opportunity of ascribing all the glory of their deliverance to Him. With a thankful heart surely it was he built an altar, and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered on it burnt offerings. It was no grudging service. He did not take one animal and one bird, but one of each class of the birds and fowls which were clean. He discriminated between the clean and unclean of the animals and the birds, because he knew that the One to whom he was about to offer them was holy, and could accept nothing that was not clean; and he disowned for himself and family all thought of offering what they chose, like Cain, as he drew near with that which God could accept like Abel. How often has this discrimination shown by Noah been overlooked, as men have thought of approaching God with something of their own, to be accepted without reference to God's estimate of it. Noah, from whom all on earth are lineally descended, acted otherwise. Would that our father Noah's example and principle were more widely accepted and conformed to! But to return. By this act he owned he needed a Savior, that life must be given up for his life. In this lie took the place of a sinner, but a saved sinner, brought through death into resurrection. There is, however, another character in which he here appears; he leads the worship of others after the deliverance from God's judgment is accomplished. Does he not in this seem to typify Him who leads the praises of the redeemed? And, if we cannot call it. a type, we may observe the striking parallel, and mark also- the contrast. " In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee," is the language of the Psalm ( 22. 22), speaking of the Lord after His resurrection, which is especially applied to Him in the Hebrews ( 2. 12), as pointing out the association of the redeemed with Him. So Noah, foreshadowing this, builds the altar in the midst of his family, subjects with himself of God's salvation. In their worship that day Noah took the initiative, as the Lord does and will (Psa. 22:25) in the company of the redeemed; Noah, because sharing with them the deliverance-the Lord, because raised up from death. Others well know full salvation by His blood.

To that sacrifice there is an immediate response. It could not be otherwise. God saw in it what, perhaps, Noah did not, and the fragrance of a richer sacrifice, which it foreshadowed, rose up before Him. He smelled a sweet savor (the first occasion on which this term is used), yet we read not of incense offered up with it. It needed nothing to sweeten it; the sacrifice itself was, and we can say is, a sweet savor before Him, for its pleasantness, its acceptableness, will never fade away. And now we are introduced to what followed from it. God held converse with Himself. The Godhead had counseled about creating man (Gen. 1:26): God had held converse with Himself about destroying all flesh (Gen. 6:3). The Father and the Son, too, we read, held converse about the work the Lord was to undertake (Psa. 40:6,7); and here God speaks to Himself: " The Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. While the earth remained), seed time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." He knew what man was, still unchanged in heart. What he was before the flood, that he was after it; and, when none were alive in the new world but Noah and his family, God thus speaks to Himself about him. Punishment could not change him. Could he earn the favor of God? Impossible. Could he preserve the world from a second flood, and the ground from being again cursed because of his sin? No: but what man could not do God could, because of the sacrifice. Now, all rests on the virtue of the sacrifice. No flood shall again desolate the earth, nor, whilst the earth lasts, shall the order of the seasons be interrupted. Stability on earth, where fallen man is concerned, can only be secured by sacrifice, and God can righteously deal with man in a new way by virtue of it.

And now a fresh subject comes before us. As creation had been visited by a deluge because of man, but was promised immunity from its recurrence because of the sacrifice, man, too, whose sin brought down the judgment, should reap benefits from the sacrifice. " And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." God speaks again to Noah, but He speaks to his sons likewise; to them for the first time. Till they had come through the flood they had, as it were, no place before Him. He communicated his mind to Noah, and to him only. Now they have a standing before God, as it were, and He speaks to them, but with Noah. Apart from Noah they had no place; but when speaking to him now He speaks to them likewise, and in language to which men, since the fall, had been strangers. " God blessed Noah and his sons." At creation He blessed the moving creatures of the waters, and the fowls of the air: on the sixth day He blessed man; and on the seventh, the Sabbath day. The fall took place, after which God blessing anything was language unheard of. Now a change takes place: what induced the change? The burnt offering, which rose up a sweet savor to God. On that ground He could, He has blessed, sinful creatures." To be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth," had been part of God's blessing in Eden; "to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," is His blessing after the flood. His purpose does not change. He created man for this object, and He would have him fulfill it. The flood seemed to have put an end to it; but His counsel shall stand, and here it comes out. Time cannot alter it, nor the malicious machinations of the enemy frustrate it. He sent Noah and His sons abroad on the earth to fulfill His purpose, by replenishing it. Yet there is a difference, and a marked one. To Adam God added: " and to subdue it, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:28). The Son of Man will exercise this sovereignty when He reigns (Psa. 8). To Noah and his sons God promises to put the fear of them on all the animals on land and water. All should feel fallen man's superiority, though he had not the commission to subdue them. To the first Adam was that given; by the last Adam will it be carried out; for such a commission is not entrusted to a fallen creature.

And here, in connection with the sacrifice, God conveys to man a grant of every living creature: Into your hand are they delivered; every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." All the resources of the earth are thus placed at his disposal, both what it produced and what it carried on its surface-a vast change from the language in which God addressed Adam after the fall, and a fuller grant than that which He bestowed on him in Paradise. After the fall, He took from man the fruits which he had so misused, and sent him forth from Eden to eat the herb of the field; now He gives him to eat of everything. By sin man lost; in virtue of the sacrifice, God could be a bounteous giver. But it is not merely recovery; it is more. In Eden they could eat the fruits of the ground; in the new world they could eat of everything-an illustration of the truth conveyed in the lines,

"In Him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost."

Further on, in the history of the world, when Israel stood before God on the ground of their responsibility, to be blessed if obedient, a restriction in the articles of food took place; a distinction was made between the clean and the unclean, and the former only were allowed them. But when the sacrifice had been really offered up and accepted, and God began again to deal with man on the ground of the sweet savor which ascended up, all curtailment of the articles of food is removed, for " whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" (1 Cor. 10:25,26). " Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:4,5)-God's word to Noah, setting it apart for our use, and our prayer to Him. What a difference there is between dealing with man according to what he is or deserves, and acting towards him according to the acceptableness of the sacrifice! Noah and his sons now experience the latter, as Adam, and all before the flood, had proved the former.

Unrestricted as they were in the articles of food, this comprehensive grant had one condition annexed, " Flesh with the blood thereof, which is the life thereof, shall ye not eat." Life belonged to God, and man was to own it; he could not, therefore, feed on it. Man's life, however, was precious in God's sight, and He here gives clear evidence of it: If a beast took man's life, God would require the blood of the life at the hand of that beast; and, if a man took a fellow-creature's life, "at the hand of every man's brother will I," He said, " require the life of man." As Creator, He will require from any living creature the life of man. The animals prey on each other, and man might kill of all kinds for his use; but man's life was precious in God's sight, " for in the image of God made he man." As God's representative on earth, to take. man's life unlawfully is to disturb the order of creation. Who has power over a representative but the one whom he represents? Any infraction, then, of this principle, God would take cognizance of. To enforce this, government on earth in the hands of man, a new thing since the fall, is next introduced. " Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man." The sword of justice is here, for the first time placed in man's hand, to be used in righteousness, without mercy. Cain was especially preserved from death by man; here death is enjoined. Before the flood, what a scene it must have been of lawlessness: now, order is introduced, and a strictly righteous rule is established, with death as the penalty of its infraction. And one day this will be fully carried out, when the Son of Man, of whom Noah is here a type, shall re-establish God's authority on earth, and death be the sinner's portion (Psa. 75:3; Isa. 65:20; Psa. 101:8), after the era of disorder and lawlessness, which Scripture speaks of (2 Thess. 2), shall pass away in the overflowing of divine judgment and public execution of sinners (Rev. 19:20,21).

Throughout this history, side by side with man, we have creation introduced as deeply interested, because especially affected, by man's sin. God makes a covenant with Noah and his sons, and every living creature, that no flood should again destroy the earth. He had said it in His heart, but He would have them to be acquainted with His mind; He here proclaims it, and gives a token of the covenant between Him and the earth. He would look on the bow, and remember the everlasting covenant. How God delighted in Noah's sacrifice! and, delighting in it, would have all to know it. Blessings descended on man, and with him on all that had breath. He makes a covenant, binding on Himself, never again to destroy the earth by a flood. He had said to Noah, before the deluge, " with thee will I establish my covenant:" now He enters into one, not with Noah only, but with all that moves on the earth. The announcement in Eden of the woman's seed depended on the preservation of the human race from destruction. With Noah, therefore, He would establish His covenant. But after the flood God binds Himself to all the living creatures; so all share in the results of Noah's sacrifice, as all will share in the result of that sacrifice already offered up, and ever had in remembrance before God. Great, however, is the difference. All were assured of preservation from catastrophe such as had taken place; but creation know, not merely immunity from a second flood, I the full enjoyment which the Lord's presence will secure, when He reigns in power. It was after the flood creation learned that God would enter thus into covenant. It will be after the long night of weeping that the day will dawn full of brightness and joy (Psa. 96-98)

But Noah here also was only a type, for he made wine, drank of it, and was drunk. He who should have exercised government on earth is found uncovered in his tent. How soon man fails! Aaron, Moses, David Solomon, tell the same tale of unfitness for that place ( which man should, but the Son of man alone will, fill without failing. All, therefore, point to Him; and as each failure is recorded, the mind travels onward to Him that is to come, taking in by the way, from each type some thought of the offices and glory that will be sustained in perfection by none but the woman's seed.

One more remark before closing. To many of God's saints promises about their seed were given; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David received them. To Noah we read of none being given. This is surely fit, for all God does is right. But can we not discern the fitness?

In Noah we have in type the coming One actually on earth in millennial power, as we see man having government committed into his hand, to rule in righteousness. Beyond this, as far as earth is concerned, nothing can go. So to Noah and to Solomon-types of the Lord as Lord and Christ-God gave no promise about their seed. They shadowed forth Him as He will be, when there will be nothing more here to be desired. For what, as we read their histories, we see is wanted is, not one to fill a place different in character to that they respectively filled, but the One, who will sustain in righteousness and in continuance that authority and rule they in measure exercised, under which alone this groaning creation can be set free, and be at rest forever. For that One we, too, wait. C. E. S.

Postscript

Just as the printing was commenced, I was asked by a friend to review a book " On the use of Jehovah and Elohim in the Pentateuch," etc. It is one of the many pitiful expressions of the ignorant stupidity of German neology, now so plentiful. My present article is the best answer I could have given, containing, as it does, the explanation of the real meaning of the two names, Elohim and Jehovah, and their connections with different displays of divine glory; and, at the same time, putting into the hands of these that fear God the means of examining for themselves the use of these two terms in the Book of the Psalms, and so of judging of the folly which hides itself under the display of knowledge about Elohistic and Jehovistic Scriptures.

The effect of restoring the original names and titles sometimes is to make a failure in the translation apparent; e.g., Book III., No. 17, ver. 8, "O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, who is a strong Jah like unto thee?" "A strong Jah," I trow, would never have dropped from a Hebrew's pen.

In conclusion, until the difference of the titles-" Son of God " and " Son of Man "-is learned, and that too of the heavenly glory from the earthly glory of the Lord is seen, the Psalms never will be understood.

The Incarnation, Life, Service, rejection by man, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of the blessed Jesus, all took place in time and on earth. But they were the expressions of counsels long before the earth existed, and not for earth only and a people on it, but for heaven also, and God who is there. And if the land is to be married to Jehovah, so likewise is the Church to be the Bride, the Lamb's wife. Israel and the earthly saints will be subjects to the King in righteousness upon the earth; the Church and the heavenly saints are members of that body of which He is the glorified head; they to have all blessings in time on the earth, under Him, we to have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him.

G.V.W.

Psalm 1

(*First Book (1-41) " The faithful are looked at as not yet driven out from Jerusalem; hence covenant mercies and the name of Jehovah are referred to."

Observe: The first seven chapters in Acts-as containing the Spirit's view, given in Jerusalem by such as Peter, James, and John, of Messiah's having been on earth and now on high-cast much light on this book as historic and also as to its prophetic bearing on the Jews hereafter.)

The Book of Psalms BOOK 1* No. 1. Psa. 1

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous: but

the way of the ungodly shall perish.

1:1-3 The perfect man; 4, 5 the ungodly ones; 6 Jehovah's judgment of both.

Psalm 10

Why standest thou afar off, 0 Jehovah? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom Jehovah abhorreth.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: Elohim is not in all his thoughts.

His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor is may fall by his strong ones.

He hath said in his heart, El hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

Arise, O Jehovah; O El, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn Elohim? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

Jehovah is King forever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

Jehovah, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

10:1 Cry to Jehovah, 2 against the man of the earth; 3-11 his character, ways, doings; 12-18 appeal to Jehovah El Elohim, King, against the wicked man and the heathen, and for the poor.

Psalm 100

A Psalm of Praise.

Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all ye lands. Serve Jehovah with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that Jehovah he is Elohim: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For Jehovah is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

100:1 Shout to Jehovah, all the land! 2 Serve with joy; 3 relationship to him, 4 duties, 5 his character.

Ver. 1, for "all ye lands" Hebrew has "all the land."

Psalm 101

A Psalm of David.

I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Jehovah, will I sing.

I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.

Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of Jehovah.

The principles of rule.

101:1 Mercy and judgment shall be my song; 2 Jehovah, come to me, in my house; I will walk, with a perfect heart, 3-8 evil banished, the faithful upheld in the land and city.

[Read this also, after 91 and then 102 and 108.]

Psalm 102

A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth

out his complaint before Jehovah.

Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and let my cry come unto thee.

Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

I watch, and am as a sparrow- alone upon the house top.

Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,

Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou is halt lifted me up, and cast me down.

My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

But thou, O Jehovah, shalt endure forever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.

For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.

So the heathen shall fear the name of Jehovah, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

When Jehovah shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.

This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise Jah.

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did Jehovah behold the

earth;

To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;

To declare the name of Jehovah in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem

When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve Jehovah.

He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

I said, O my El, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.

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:

But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.

102:1-8 Cry to Jehovah in trouble, weakness, among enemies; 9, 10 under wrath; 11 I pass, but 12 thou, Jehovah, endurest. 13-16 Zion's mercies and hope are in thee, 17-22 this is known to faith on the earth; 23, 24 the weakened one's speech; 25-28 oracular reply thereto.

If Zion's mercies are in Jehovah and known to faith on earth to be there-" what of Him

whose strength was weakened and days shortened, and he taken away in the midst thereof—though Jehovah endures forever?" The answer is "He is of old, the Creator, the unchanging one, etc., and the children of His servants shall continue, and their seed be established forever."

Psalm 103

A Psalm of David.

Bless Jehovah, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemed' thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Jehovah executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.

For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Jehovah hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Bless Jehovah, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

Bless ye Jehovah, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

Bless Jehovah, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless Jehovah, O my soul.

Grace, forgiveness and healing reaches the faithful.

103:1-5 My soul, bless Jehovah—forget not his benefits; 6, 7 his ways, 8-10 character, 11-13 mercy measured to us, 14—22 we in presence of him (17) and his glory.

103. Compare this as uttered by David, under law, and as the song for the Millennial saints on earth; and notice the contrast as to magnitude between ver. 11 and Heb. 10 and Rev. 4; 5 to us now, and between ver. 13 and our sonship Eph. 1 and 2.

103. Redemption, 104. Creation, 105. Patriarchs, 106. The Nation.

Psalm 104

Bless Jehovah, O my soul. O Jehovah my Elohim, thou art very great thou art clothed with honor and majesty.

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

He watered the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

He caused the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

The trees of Jehovah are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he had planted;

Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.

He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.

Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from El.

The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.

O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them. their meat in due season.

That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

The glory of Jehovah shall endure forever: Jehovah shall rejoice in his works.

He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

I will sing unto Jehovah as long as I live: I will sing praise to my Elohim while I have my being.

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in Jehovah.

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou Jehovah, O my soul. Hallelu-Jah.

104:1 The glory of Jehovah, my Elohim, 2-4 in creating and using the heavens, 5-24 the earth, 25-30 the sea, &c; all things made, upheld, sustained, nurtured by him and used; 31, 32 his glorious majesty endures and his pleasure in his works; 33, 34 I will praise him, 35 let sinners be consumed out of the earth and the wicked be no more.

Psalm 105

Give thanks unto Jehovah; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek Jehovah.

Seek Jehovah, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

Remember his marvelous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;

O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.

He is Jehovah our Elohim: his judgments are in all the earth.

He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;

And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant:

Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:

When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.

When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;

He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes;

Saying, Touch not my Messiah, and do my prophets no harm.

Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:

Whose feet they hurt with fetters: lie was laid in iron:

Until the time that his word came: the word of Jehovah tried him.

The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

He made him lord [adon] of his house, and ruler of all his substance:

To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.

He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.

He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.

They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.

He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.

Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings.

He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.

He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.

He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.

He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number,

And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.

He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.

He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.

He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.

The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.

For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.

And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:

And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people;

That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Hallelu-Jah.

The good side. He using individuals.

105:1-4 Call to thank Jehovah and extol him before the peoples, 5-15 remember his works, ye seed of Abraham, to whom unconditional promise and covenant, everlasting for Israel, and oath to Isaac individually, &c. were given; 17 Joseph, 26 Moses and Aaron, 27 and all that he did in Egypt, 37 in the Exodus, 40 in the wilderness, 44 in the land.

Acts 7 throws light on Psa. 105 and 106. 105 gives the line of covenant (ver. 8) and promise (ver. 42) to Abraham running through the individuals chosen of Him as heads—mercy and grace distinguishing; judgment going before and on and with them. 106 gives the works of the mass—judged (in contrast with Acts 7) to get them into blessing.

Psalm 106

Hallelu-Jah. O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah? who can show forth all his praise?

Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O Jehovah, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;

That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies;

but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.

Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.

They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted El in the desert.

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of Jehovah.

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.

And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.

They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

They forgat El their savior, which had done great things in Egypt;

Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.

Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:

But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of Jehovah.

Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:

To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.

They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.

Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.

And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:

Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom Jehovah commanded them:

But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.

And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,

And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

Therefore was the wrath of Jehovah kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.

Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.

Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:

And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.

Save us, O Jehovah our Elohim, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.

Blessed be Jehovah Elohim of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Hallelu-Jah.

The bad side. The mass rebelling against Him.

106:1, 2 Praise and thank Jehovah, for he is good and his mercy forever; his praises unutterable; 3 blessed are the obedient; 4 individual appeal for favor and salvation, and 5 privilege; 6 we have sinned with our fathers, 7-43 historic confession as to the Exodus, the wilderness and in the land, 44-46 his yearning mercy; 47 save us from among the goïm, that we may thank and triumph in thee. 48 Praise.

Psalm 107

*Fifth Book: Psalms 107-150. Working up to the full blessing, but not in it.

O give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

Oh that men would praise Jehovah for his goodness; and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

Because they rebelled against the words of El, and contemned the counsel of Gneliōn:

Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.

Then they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.

Oh that men would praise Jehovah for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.

Fools because of their transgression, and because of iniquities, are afflicted.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.

Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Oh that men would praise Jehovah for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

These see the works of Jehovah, and his wonders in the deep.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.

Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Oh that men would praise Jehovah for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground;

A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.

And there he maketh the hungry to dwell; that they may prepare a city for habitation;

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.

He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.

Again, they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.

He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.

Yet setteth he the poor on high f'rom affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.

The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.

Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of Jehovah.

107:1—3 Thank Jehovah, for he is good and his mercy forever, ye redeemed of him from all lands, from the east, west, north, and south. 4-9* and 10-16** and 17-22*** and 23-32**** four different classes. His acting upon lands, for sin:33, 34; for mercy 35-38; 39-41 his after dealings; 42, 43 the moral of it all—the lovingkindness of Jehovah known to the righteous and the wise in the end (to the silence of iniquity), in changes upon the twelve tribes and their places of abode.

(*Wandering, need, simple fallen humanity;)

(**prisoners, pressure, daring wilfulness;)

(***fools (in plenty), death, folly;)

(****seafarers, at wits' end, human wisdom and energy, seem to be the four characteristic marks.)

Psalm 108

A Song or Psalm of David.

O Elohim, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

I will praise thee, O Jehovah, among, the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.

Be thou exalted, O Elohim, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;

That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.

Elohim hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

Wilt not thou, O Elohim, who hast cast us off? And wilt not thou, O Elohim, go forth with our hosts?

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Through Elohim we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

Faith seeks to triumph in Jehovah among the peoples and the nations. 7-9 the answer.

108:1 Purpose to praise, 2, 3 attendant circumstances; 4 why? Mercy; 5,6 may he exalt himself that his beloved may be delivered; 7-9 answer and triumph; 10, 11 new needs how met; 12, 13 faith in him.

Psalm 109

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

Hold not thy peace, O Elohim of my praise;

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken

against me with a lying tongue.

They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor.

Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with Jehovah; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Let them be before Jehovah continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

But do thou for me, O Elohim Adonay, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

Help me, O Jehovah my Elohim: O save me according to thy mercy:

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Jehovah, hast done it.

Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

I will greatly praise Jehovah with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

The wicked one—Judas—apostate Israel—Antichrist.

109:1 Cry to Elohim of my praise; 2-5 and 16 from the slandering hater; 6-15 and 17-19 and 28, 29 imprecation on him, and 20 on all my enemies. 21-27 Hear me in my weakness and reproach; 30 and 31 I will praise, the poor is cared for.

Psalm 11

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

In Jehovah put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Jehovah is in his holy temple, Jehovah's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

Jehovah trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

For the righteous Jehovah loveth righteousness; his countenance cloth behold the upright.

11:1-3 Trust in spite of the wicked in Jehovah, 4-7 who in heaven, on his throne, deals with man down here.

11-15. Words of faith, suited to those that believe in those days.

Psalm 110

A Psalm of David.

Jehovah said unto my lord [adon], Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.'

Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Adonay at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

110:1-4 Faith's report of Jehovah's thoughts and intentions about my Adon; seated at the right hand on high, he will send him out of Zion over all enemies; his people made willing—himself a priest after the order of Melchizedek.; 5-7 what he Adonay at thy right hand, will do.

Psalm 111

Hallelujah. I will praise Jehovah with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

The works of Jehovah are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth forever.

He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: Jehovah is gracious and full of compassion.

He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.

He hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.

They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant forever: holy and reverend is his name.

The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his cornmandments: his praise endureth forever.

111:1 Hallelu-Jah. I will praise Jehovah, wholly, in the assembly of the upright and congregation, 2 his works, and 3 work, his righteousness, 4-9 gifts, covenant, power over the heathen, also redemption; 10 his fear is the beginning of wisdom, &c.

Psalm 112

Hallelu-Jah. Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth forever.

Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

A good man showeth favor, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.

Surely he shall not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in Jehovah.

His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth forever; his horn shall be exalted with honor.

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

112:1-9 Hallelu-Jah. Blessedness of him that fears Jehovah; 10 grief and melting away of the wicked.

Psalm 113

Hallelu-Jah. Praise, O ye servants of Jehovah, praise the name of Jehovah.

Blessed be the name of Jehovah from this time forth and for evermore.

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same Jehovah's name is to be praised.

Jehovah is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.

Who is like unto Jehovah our Elohim, who dwelleth s on high,

Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;

That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.

He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Hallelu-Jah.

113:1-3 Hallelu-Jah, servants of Jehovah praise his name, from now onward forever: over the whole earth;4 his glory above all the goïm and the heavens; 5-9 who is like him; high, he stoops down and cares for the poor and needy and the barren.

Psalm 114

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;

Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.

The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?

Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the lord [adon], at the presence of the Eloăh of Jacob;

Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

114:7, 8 Earth called to tremble before Adon, the Eloah of Jacob, who turned rock into pool of water and flint to fountain; 1, 2 whose display when Israel came out of Egypt, as owned by him, is given 3-6.

Psalm 115

Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their Elohim?

But our Elohim is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

O Israel, trust thou in Jehovah: he is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in Jehovah: he is their help and their shield.

Ye that fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah: he is their help and their shield.

Jehovah hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.

He will bless them that fear Jehovah, both small and great.

Jehovah shall increase you more and more, you and your children.

Ye are blessed of Jehovah which made heaven and earth.

The heaven, even the heavens, are Jehovah's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

The dead praise not Jah, neither any that go down into silence.

But we will bless Jah from this time forth and for evermore. Hallelu-Jah.

115:1 Not to us, O Jehovah, but to thee glory,—mercy and truth are thine; 2 why should the heathen say, Where now their Elohim? 3 He is in heaven and has done his pleasure; 4-7 the idols! 8 and their makers! 9-11 Israel, house of Aaron, fearers of Jehovah, trust in him, 12, 13 he thinks of us and will bless you, 14, 15 you are the blessed of him the Creator; 16, 17 larger still; 18 we will ever bless Jah.

Psalm 116

I love Jehovah, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Then called I upon the name of Jehovah; O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

Gracious is Jehovah, and righteous; yea, our Elohim is merciful.

Jehovah preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee.

For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

I will walk before Jehovah in the land of the living.

I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

I said in my haste, All men are liars.

What shall I render unto Jehovah for all his benefits toward me?

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of Jehovah.

I will pay my vows unto Jehovah now in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints.

O Jehovah, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of Jehovah.

I will pay my vows unto Jehovah now in the presence of all his people,

In the courts of Jehovah's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Hallelu-Jah.

116:1-5 I love Jehovah, he has heard me; 6-11 he delivered my soul from death; 12-17 I own the debt, 18, 19 before his people and in the midst of the courts of his house in Jerusalem.

Psalm 117

O praise Jehovah, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.

For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of Jehovah endureth forever. Hallelu-Jah.

117:1 All the goïm:, and all nations praise Jehovah. 2 His mercy is great to us and his truth, forever.

Psalm 118

O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever.

Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth forever.

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth forever.

Let them now that fear Jehovah say, that his mercy endureth forever.

I called upon Jah in distress: Jah answered me, and set me in a large place.

Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

Jehovah taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in man.

It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in princes.

All nations compassed me about: but in the name of Jehovah will I destroy them.

They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of Jehovah I will destroy them.

They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of Jehovah I will destroy them.

Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but Jehovah helped me.

Jah is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly.

The right hand of Jehovah is exalted: the right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly.

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Jah.

Jah hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise Jah:

This gate of Jehovah, into which the righteous shall enter.

I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

This is Jehovah's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day which Jehovah hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Save now, I beseech thee, O Jehovah: O Jehovah, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah: we have blessed you out of the house of Jehovah.

El is Jehovah, which hath showed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

Thou art my El, and I will praise thee: thou art my Elohim, I will exalt thee.

O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

118:1-4 Let Israel, the house of Aaron, all that fear Jehovah say now, his mercy is forever. 5 I called in distress; Jah answered me, and 6-9 Jehovah will care for me; 10-12 all the goïm were against me, in his name will I destroy them: 13 Thou hast thrust sore at me, but he helped: 14 Jah is my strength and joy and song, and 15, 16 of the righteous too. 17 Not death but to declare his works is mine; 18 chastened but not given over to death: 19 open to me the gates of righteousness—I will praise Jah. Answer, 20, 22, 24 this is the gate of Jehovah,—the stone; 23 wonderful! 24 it is the day; 25 save and prosper! 26 Messiah owned; the blessing from the house of Jehovah; 27 he owned as the giver of light and self sacrifice; 28 I own him. 29 (as 1) Give thanks to Jehovah for he is good: for his mercy forever.

Psalm 119

(Author’s Notes Psalm 119.- The written Word the only recognized index to divine thoughts—but subjection to Jehovah must be acted upon in order to use it aright.

I give what may seem the distinctive thought dominant in each eight verses. But I fear, though it is not a first, or a second, attempt on my part, that it is not a success.

Each line, in each of the eight verses, begins with a letter of the Alphabet—the letters taken in succession as A, B, C.)

Book V. No. 13. Psa. 119

Aleph. Vs. 1-8

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

à 1-8 Integrity and self-surrender to Jehovah's word the pathway into the obedience of faith.

Beth. Vs. 9-16

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me so not wander from thy commandments.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Blessed art thou, O Jehovah: teach me thy statutes.

With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto is thy ways.

I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

á 9- 16 Cleansing power of the word for a young man's ways.

Gimel. Vs. 17-24

Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

My soul breaketh for the longing that it bath unto thy so judgments at all times.

Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.

Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.

Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.

Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

ð 17-24 Thou wilt surely stand by thy word;

Daleth. Vs. 25-32

My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.

Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.

My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.

Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.

I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Jehovah, put me not to shame.

I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

ã 25- 32 for the soul needs quickening and enlargement,

He. Vs. 33-40

Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.

Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

ä 33- 40 and teaching and whiting and quickening, in order for the word to be established in it;

Vau. Vs. 41-48

Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Jehovah, even thy salvation, according to thy word.

So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.

And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.

So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever.

And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.

I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.

And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.

My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.

å 41- 48 and then mercies—so as to be strong from it.

Zain. Vs. 49-56

Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath so quickened me.

The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.

I remembered thy judgments of old, O Jehovah;, and have comforted myself.

Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage,

I have remembered thy name, O Jehovah, in the night, and have kept thy law.

This I had; because I kept thy precepts.

æ 49- 56 The truster in the word has comfort.

Cheth. Vs. 57-64

Thou art my portion, O Jehovah: I have said that I would keep thy words.

I entreated thy favor with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.

I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.

At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.

I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

The earth, O Jehovah, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.

ç 57-64 As Sting such, Jehovah is my portion.

Teth. Vs. 65-72

Thou hest dealt well with thy servant, O Jehovah, according unto thy word.

Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.

Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

ñ 65-72 Retrospect. Dealt with of Jehovah, according to the word in affliction, I am profited.

Jod. Vs. 73-80

Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.

They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.

I know, O Jehovah, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.

Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.

Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.

Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.

Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.

é 73-80 My Maker! thy word guides me to understand thee.

Caph. Vs. 81- 88

My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.

Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.

How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.

All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.

They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts.

Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.

ë 81- 88 Thy word fails not, though I may; I wait for it, amid depths and trial.

Lamed. Vs. 89- 96

Forever, O Jehovah, thy word is settled in heaven.

Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.

Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.

The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.

I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

ì 89- 96 Forever, Jehovah, thy word is settled in heaven,-thy law keeps the soul down here;

Mem. Vs. 97-104

O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep too thy precepts.

I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth

Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

î 97-104 how blessedly, here, does it humble and exalt me;

Nun. Vs. 105-112

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Jehovah, according unto thy word.

Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Jehovah, and teach me thy judgments.

My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.

The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.

Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.

I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.

ð 105-112 it is light to the energetic life it has given,;

Samech. Vs. 113-120

I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.

Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my Elohim.

Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.

Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.

Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.

My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

í 113-120 and forms the soul in awe of thee, amid the wicked around.

Ain. Vs. 121-128

I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors.

Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.

I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.

It is time for thee, Jehovah, to work: for they have made void thy law.

Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

ò 121-128 It teaches to lean on thee, in the sense of this Nazarite ship and of thy thoughts.

Pe. Vs. 129-136

Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.

Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.

Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.

Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

ô 129-136 Admiration of the word, in result leading still to dependance.

Tzaddi. Vs. 137-144

Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, and upright are thy judgments.

Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.

My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

ö 137-144 The righteous character of Jehovah, and his word.

Koph. Vs. 145-152

I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Jehovah: I will keep thy statutes.

I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.

I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.

Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.

Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O Jehovah, quicken me according to thy judgment.

They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.

Thou art near, O Jehovah; and all thy commandments are truth.

Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever.

÷ 145-152 In the depths,-confidence of faith is in the word known of old to be forever.

Ersh. Vs. 153-160

Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law.

Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.

Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not m thy statutes.

Great are thy tender mercies, O Jehovah: quicken me according to thy judgments.

Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.

Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Jehovah, according to thy lovingkindness.

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.

ø 153-160 In affliction and persecution., it stays me, that thy word is from the beginning and forever.

Schin. Vs. 161-168

Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Jehovah, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.

My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.

I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.

ù 161-168 (2 ù, 3 ù, 1 ù, 2 ù) increasing preciousness of the word from its suitableness to circumstances.

Tau. Vs. 169-176

Let my cry come near before thee, O Jehovah: give me understanding according to thy word.

Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.

My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

I have longed for thy salvation, O Jehovah; and thy law is my delight.

Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

ú 169-176 It suffices as a stay even in the discovery of inward depravity. It is my all.

Their hearts tasting and feeling after Him.

119.- The written Word the only recognized index to divine thoughts—but subjection to Jehovah must be acted upon in order to use it aright.

I give what may seem the distinctive thought dominant in each eight verses. But I fear, though it is not a first, or a second, attempt on my part, that it is not a success.

Each line, in each of the eight verses, begins with a letter of the Alphabet-the letters taken in succession as A, B, C.

à 1-8 Integrity and self-surrender to Jehovah's word the pathway into the obedience of faith.

á 9-16 Cleansing power of the word for a young man's ways.

ð 17-24 Thou wilt surely stand by thy word;

ã 25-32 for the soul needs quickening and enlargement,

ä 33-40 and teaching and whiting and quickening, in order for the word to be established in it;

å 41-48 and then mercies-so as to be strong from it.

æ 49-56 The truster in the word has comfort.

ç 57-64 As Sting such, Jehovah is my portion.

ñ 65-72 Retrospect. Dealt with of Jehovah, according to the word in affliction, I am profited.

é 73-80 My Maker! thy word guides me to understand thee.

ë 81-88 Thy word fails not, though I may; I wait for it, amid depths and trial.

ì 89-96 Forever, Jehovah, thy word is settled in heaven,-thy law keeps the soul down here;

î 97-104 how blessedly, here, does it humble and exalt me;

ð 105-112 it is light to the energetic life it has given,;

í 113-120 and forms the soul in awe of thee, amid the wicked around.

ò 121-128 It teaches to lean on thee, in the sense of this Nazarite ship and of thy thoughts.

ô 129-136 Admiration of the word, in result leading still to dependance.

ö 137-144 The righteous character of Jehovah, and his word.

÷ 145-152 In the depths,-confidence of faith is in the word known of old to be forever.

ø 153-160 In affliction and persecution., it stays me, that thy word is from the beginning and forever.

ù 161-168 (2 ù, 3 ù, 1 ù, 2 ù) increasing preciousness of the word from its suitableness to circumstances.

ú 169-176 It suffices as a stay even in the discovery of inward depravity. It is my all.

The above Psalm seems to be a sort of song illustrative of the properties of the word—in grace—in an evil world—to those that have wandered but are returning to Jehovah.

Psalm 12

To the chief Musician upon Sheminith [or, the eighth], A Psalm of David.

Help, Jehovah; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

Jehovah shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord [adon] over us?

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith Jehovah; I will see him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

The words of Jehovah are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Thou shalt keep them, O Jehovah, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.

The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

12:1 Cry to Jehovah for the pious, 2 as before the double-hearted.; 3-5 faith in him against the boaster; He will undertake; 6 His words are pure, and kept from that race and the wicked around.

Psalm 120

In my distress I cried unto Jehovah, and he heard me.

Deliver my soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

120:1, 2 In distress I cried to Jehovah, Save me from lying lips and a deceitful tongue; 3, 4 its judgment; 5-7 lament.

Psalm 121

A Song of degrees.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from Jehovah, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Jehovah is thy keeper: Jehovah is thy shade upon thy a right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

Jehovah shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

Jehovah shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

121:1, 2 I look up; my help is from Jehovah, maker of heaven and earth. 3-8 (oracular voice) Jehovah is thy keeper—keeper of Israel, &c.

Psalm 122

A Song of degrees of David.

I was glad when they said unto 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 Jah, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah.

For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

Because of the house of Jehovah our Elohim I will seek thy good.

122:1, 2 Heart in Jerusalem; 3-5 its praises; 6 pray for its peace and prosper; 7, 8 I pray for and bless it! 9 for the sake of the house of Jehovah our Elohim.

Psalm 123

A Song of degrees.

Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters [lords, adonim], and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon Jehovah our Elohim, until that he have mercy upon us.

Have mercy upon us, O Jehovah, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

123:1 I look up, 2 as a servant—for mercy; 3, 4 still among the wicked.

Psalm 124

A Song of degrees of David.

If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, now may Israel say;

If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

Blessed be Jehovah, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of Jehovah, who made heaven and earth.

124:1-5 Jehovah has been Israel's savior from man, or all had been lost. 6-8 Blessed be he, maker of heaven and of earth.

Psalm 125

A Song of Degrees.

They that trust in Jehovah shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.

As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so Jehovah is round about his people from henceforth even forever.

For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.

Do good, O Jehovah, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.

As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, Jehovah shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

125:1 They that trust in Jehovah are as mount Zion. 2 He is around his people (amm, Israel) forever, 3 to save them from wickedness; 4, 5 to reward man according to his doings. Peace on Israel.

Psalm 126

A Song of degrees.

When Jehovah turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the

heathen, Jehovah hath done great things for them.

Jehovah hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, O Jehovah, as the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

126:1, 2 Zion's captivity turned—we joyed, the goïm owned it; 3 our owning of it; 4 prayer; 5, 6 sorrow owned as his way to bless.

Psalm 127

A Song of degrees for Solomon.

Except Jehovah build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except Jehovah keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Lo, children are an heritage of Jehovah: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

127:1 house built and city kept in vain without Jehovah; so 2 as to food, 3-5 so as to children,—their praise is from Jehovah.

Psalm 128

A Song of degrees.

Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah; that walketh in his ways.

For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah.

Jehovah shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

128:1 Blessed is he that fears Jehovah and walks in his ways; 2-6 blessed in time and on earth—as to Zion, Jerusalem and Israel.

Psalm 129

A Song of degrees.

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.

The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.

Jehovah is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.

Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:

Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.

Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of Jehovah be upon you: we bless you in the name of Jehovah.

129:1-3 Depths of sorrows from man have been mine; 4 Jehovah is righteous, he has cut asunder the cords of the wicked; 5-8 imprecation on all haters of Zion.

Psalm 13

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

How long wilt thou forget me, O Jehovah? forever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O Jehovah my Elohim: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

I will sing unto Jehovah, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

13:1, 2 Exercise in faith; 3-5 cry to Jehovah my Elohim as of one trusting to mercy; 6 hope.

Psalm 130

A Song of degrees.

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Jehovah.

Adonay, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

If thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Adonay, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for Jehovah, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for Adonay more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in Jehovah: for with Jehovah there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

130:1 Out of the depths I cried to Jehovah, 2 hear; 3,4 sin! but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared; 5.1 wait and hope, 6 intensely; 7 let Israel hope in him and his redemption; 8 he will redeem.

Psalm 131

A Song of degrees of David.

Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Let Israel hope in Jehovah from henceforth and forever.

131:1, 2 I am lowly; 3 let Israel hope in Jehovah henceforth and forever.

Psalm 132

A Song of degrees.

Jehovah, remember David, and all his afflictions:

How he sware unto Jehovah, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;

Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;

I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,

Until I find out a place for Jehovah, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.

We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.

Arise, O Jehovah, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.

Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.

For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thy Messiah.

Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.

If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.

For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.

This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy is her poor with bread.

I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for my Messiah.

His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

132:1 Jehovah, remember David and his afflictions, 2-5 his purpose to find a place for Jehovah, 6 we heard of it in Ephratah and found it; 7-9 we will go into his tabernacles; worship at his footstool. Rise Jehovah to thy rest and the ark of thy strength,,—thy priests, thy saints; 10 David and the Messiah; 11-18 Jehovah's oath to David—and rich promises.

Psalm 133

A Song of degrees of David.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there Jehovah commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

133:1 Brotherly unity, 2 its beauty, 3 its blessedness.

Psalm 134

A Song of degrees.

Behold, bless ye Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, which by night stand in the house of Jehovah.

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless Jehovah.

Jehovah that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

134:1, 2 Bless Jehovah ye who stand by night in his house; 3 be thou blessed out of Zion by him, Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 135

Hallelu-Jah. Praise ye the name of Jehovah; praise him, O ye servants of Jehovah.

Ye that stand in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of the house of our Elohim,

Hallelu-Jah; for Jehovah is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.

For Jah hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

For I know that Jehovah is great, and that our Lord [Adonim] is above all gods [or, elohim].

Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.

He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast.

Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants.

Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings;

Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan:

And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.

Thy name, O Jehovah, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Jehovah, throughout all generations.

For Jehovah will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.

The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.

They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.

Bless Jehovah, O house of Israel: bless Jehovah, O house of Aaron:

Bless Jehovah, O house of Levi: ye that fear Jehovah, bless Jehovah.

Blessed be Jehovah out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Hallelu-Jah.

Jehovah in contrast with Idols.

135:1 Hallelu-Jah. Praise Jehovah's name, ye his servants, 2 in the house, in the courts of the house-3, as good, 4 chooser for himself of Jacob and Israel; as 5 great, 6 doer everywhere of his will, 7 in the air, 8, 9 in judging Egypt, 10-12 and great nations (goïm); 13 enduring in name and memorial, 14 judge of his own people; 15-18 the vanity of idols and their makers; 19, 20 house of Israel, of Aaron, of Levi, ye fearers of Jehovah bless him, 21 out of Zion, dweller in Jerusalem, may he be praised.

Psalm 136

O give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.

O give thanks unto the Elohim of gods [or, elohim]: for his mercy endureth forever.

O give thanks to the Lord of lords [Adonim of adonim] for his mercy endureth forever.

To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth forever:

The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth forever:

The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him that smote Egypt in their first-born: for his mercy endureth forever:

And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth forever:

With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth forever:

And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth forever:

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea for his mercy endureth forever.

To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth forever.

To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth forever:

And slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth forever:

Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth forever:

And Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth forever:

And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth forever:

Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth forever.

Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth forever:

And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth forever.

Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth forever.

O give thanks unto the El of heaven: for his mercy endureth forever.

136:1 Thanks to Jehovah, 2 and to Elohim, for his mercy forever,3 to the Lord of lords, 4 doer of wonders, 5-9 wise and powerful in creation, 10-15 and in redemption out of Egypt, 16 through the wilderness; 17-22 into the land; 23, 24 raiser up of the weak, 25 sustainer, 26 the El of heaven for his mercy forever.

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing Jehovah's song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Remember, O Jehovah, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it,even to the foundation thereof.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

137:1-4 By the rivers of Babylon we wept for Zion, 5, 6 Jerusalem our chief joy; 7 Jehovah, remember Edom's desire to rase it; 8, 9 happy the instrument of Jehovah's judgment on Babylon.

Psalm 138

A Psalm of David.

I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods [or, Elohim] will I sing praise unto thee.

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.

All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, 0 Jehovah, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

Yea, they shall sing in the ways of Jehovah: for great is the glory of Jehovah.

Though Jehovah be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

Jehovah will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Jehovah, endureth forever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

138:1, 2 I will praise thee, before the gods, toward thy temple for kindness and truth and thy word, magnified above all thy name; 3 I was heard; 4, 5 all kings shall praise thee, 6 Jehovah is high, yet he respects the lowly and looks at the proud afar off; 7 he delivers me and will perfect all for me.

Psalm 139

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand lo shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

For thou hast possessed my reins thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made is in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O El! how great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O Eloah: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.

For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.

Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?

I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.

Search me, O El, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Man put into God's presence, unable to stand before or to avoid himp-good and evil known—the soul cast on him.

139:1 Thou hast searched and known me, 2-12 the process in detail, 13-16 how wondrous my frame! 17, 18 precious thy thoughts! 19, 20 thou wilt slay the wicked, 21, 22 I hate them; 23, 24 search one, try me, lead me.

Psalm 14

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no Elohim. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek Elohim.

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon Jehovah.

There were they in great fear: for Elohim is- in the generation of the righteous.

Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because Jehovah is his refuge.

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when Jehovah bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

14:1 The fool and the apostate people; 2-4 Jehovah looked down from heaven-his estimate of them, and, 5, 6 faith; 7 hope.

Psalm 140

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

Deliver me, O Jehovah, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;

Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.

Keep me, O Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man;

who have purposed to overthrow my goings.

The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside;

they have set gins for me. Selah.

I said unto Jehovah, Thou art my El: hear the voice of my supplications, O Jehovah.

O Elohim Adonay, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.

Grant not, O Jehovah, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.

As for the head of those that compass me about; let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast to into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

I know that Jehovah will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.

Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.

140:1 Save me, from the evil man, &c., 2-5 described; 6, 7 thou art my hearer and shelter; 8-11 imprecation; 12, 13 Jehovah is for the poor and the upright.

Psalm 141

A Psalm of David.

Jehovah, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.

Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.

Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.

But mine eyes are unto thee, O Elohim Adonay: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

141:1, 2 Hear, Jehovah, my cry, 3 keep my lips, 4 my heart from the wicked; 5, 6 let the righteous smite me, I pray for them, in their trouble; 7 we are broken to pieces, 8 I trust in thee, 9 keep me from the wicked, 10 judge them whilst I escape.

Psalm 142

Maschil [or, giving instruction] of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.

I cried unto Jehovah with my voice; with my voice unto Jehovah did I make my supplication.

I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.

I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

I cried unto thee, O Jehovah: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

142:1-5 Retrospect; when all failed me I looked to Jehovah, 6, 7 and I count upon him.

Psalm 143

A Psalm of David.

Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

Hear me speedily, O Jehovah: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Deliver me, O Jehovah, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my Elohim: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

Quicken me, O Jehovah, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.

And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

143:1 Hear and answer me, 2 bring me not into judgment, 3-11 amid sorrows, needs, fears, my heart is on thee, who art about my path; 12 imprecation.

Psalm 144

A Psalm of David.

Blessed be Jehovah my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:

My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

Jehovah, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

Bow thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;

Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

I will sing a new song unto thee, O Elohim: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.

It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.

Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:

That our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.

Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, is happy is that people, whose Elohim is Jehovah.

144:1, 2 Blessed be Jehovah my strength and refuge; 3, 4 the littleness of man! 5-8 Come down and save me from the stranger and the wicked. 9, 10 I will sing a new song, he is the deliverer of David from the sword; 11 rid me, &c., that, 12-14 we may have earthly blessings, 15 and blessedness.

Psalm 145

David's Psalm of praise.

I will extol thee, my Elohim, 0 king; and I will bless thy name forever and ever.

Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever.

Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. Jehovah is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

Jehovah is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

All thy works shall praise thee, O Jehovah; and thy to saints shall bless thee.

They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;

To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Jehovah upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

Jehovah is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

Jehovah is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Ile will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

Jehovah preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

My mouth shall speak the praise of Jehovah: and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

" A dialog between Messiah and those blessed for the Millennial earth." (If so, vers. 3, 8 and 9, 14, 17-20, may be announcements through Messiah, and the responses from the mouths of his people in that day).

145:1, 2 I will extol thee, O Elohim, King; I will bless thee forever; 3 the excellency of Jehovah; 4 thy works and acts, One generation to another shall set forth, 5 thy majesty and wonders I, 6, 7, they, &c.; 8, 9, Jehovah's character, 10 his works and saints, 11-13 his kingdom. 14 He is the upholder of the weak, the restorer, 15, 16 provider for all; 17-20 righteous in all his ways, he hears and answers prayer: preserves those that love him, but destroys the wicked. 21 My mouth and all flesh to praise him.

Psalm 146

146-150 are Hallelujah Psalms.

Book V. No. 40. Psa. 146

Hallelu-Jah. Praise, Jehovah, O my soul.

While I live will I praise Jehovah: I will sing praises unto my Elohim while I have any being.

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Happy is he that hath the El of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his Elohim:

Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth forever:

Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. Jehovah looseth the prisoners:

Jehovah openeth the eyes of the blind: Jehovah raiseth them that are bowed down: Jehovah loveth the righteous:

Jehovah preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

Jehovah shall reign forever, even thy Elohim, O Zion, unto all generations. Hallelu-Jah.

Description of the character in which he will deal with Israel.

146: Praise ye Jah. My soul praise Jehovah; 2 Yea, while I have being; 3, 4 caution against trust in man; 5-10 happy he whose help and hope is in the Elohim of Jacob. His excellencies. He will reign forever.

Psalm 147

Hallelu-Jah: for it is good to sing praises unto our Elohim; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord [Adonim], and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

Jehovah lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our Elohim:

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

Jehovah taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Praise Jehovah, O Jerusalem; praise thy Elohim, O Zion.

For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he bath blessed thy children within thee.

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his is word runneth very swiftly.

He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?

He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Hallelujah.

Praise for blessings distinctive of Israel.

147:1 Praise ye Jah our Elohim; it is pleasant; 2 Jehovah builds Jerusalem, gathers the outcasts of Israel, 3 heals the broken hearted and their wounds, 4 counts the stars; 5 great is our Adonim; 6 Jehovah lifts up the meek, casts down the wicked, 7 praise him; 8, 9 his work in providence, 10, 11 taking pleasure (not in brute force but) in those that fear him; 12-14 Jerusalem and Zion, praise him for what he hath done for thee; 15-18 his acts abroad, 19, 20 those distinctive to Jacob and Israel,—to whom alone he has shown his word, statutes and judgments.

Psalm 148

Hallelu-Jah. Praise ye Jehovah from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.

Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of Jehovah: for he commanded, and they were created.

He hath also stablished them forever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

Praise Jehovah from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

Let them praise the name of Jehovah: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven..

He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Hallelu-Jah.

148:1, 2 Praise ye Jah. Praise Jehovah from and in the heavens, all ye various companies of his; 3-6 Praise him, ye sun, &c., 7-10 all things from the earth, 11 powers on earth, 12 all men; 13 the alone excellent, also 14 the exalter of Israel.

Psalm 149

Hallelu-Jah. Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

For Jehovah taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud s upon their beds.

Let the high praises of El be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;

To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;

To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;

To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Hallelu-Jah.

149:1 Praise ye Jah. Praise Jehovah in the congregation of Israel; 2 let Israel rejoice in his maker, Zion in their king, 3 with dance and music, 4 for Jehovah takes pleasure in them; 5, 6 let them joy; 6½-9 invested with retributive power against the heathen. Praise ye Jah.

Psalm 15

A Psalm of David.

Jehovah, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.

In whose eyes a vile person is condemned; but he honoureth them that fear Jehovah. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

15:1. Jehovah, who shall dwell with thee? 2- 5 eleven excellencies, such as do these, shall never be moved.

Psalm 150

Hallelu-Jah. Praise El in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

Let everything that hath breath praise Jah. Hallelu-Jah.

Everything that has breath to praise.

150:1, Praise ye Jah and El in his sanctuary; 2 what for, 3-5 how, 6 who to praise Jehovah. Hallelu-Jah.

END OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

Psalm 16

Michtam [A Golden Psalm] of David.

Preserve me, O El: for in thee do I put my trust.

O my soul, thou hast said unto Jehovah, Thou art Adonay: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I

not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

I have set Jehovah always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are

pleasures for evermore.

16:1 Preserve me, El, for I trust in thee. 2, 3 Thou hast said to Jehovah, " Thou art Adonay: my goodness extends not to thee;" [Thou hast said to saints on earth and to the excellent, "In them is all my delight;" 4, woe to those who seek after another; 5-11 what Jehovah is to me [the speaker].

16.-Messiah first brought in as a man down here,-pleads his trust, ver. 1; the end of it fullness of joy in heaven, ver. 11; and,

17.- He pleads his righteousness, ver. 1; the end, ver. 15, satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

Psalm 17

A Prayer of David.

Hear the right, O Jehovah, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps, slip not.

I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O El: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

Show thy marvelous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Arise, O Jehovah, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

From men which are thy hand, O Jehovah, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

17:1-2 Cry on the ground of "the right;" 3 his integrity was proven; 4 his use of the word; 5—-7 dependence; 8-12 El his refuge from the wicked, &c.; 13 faith an Jehovah; 14 estimate of man; 15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

Psalm 18

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spake unto Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,

I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.

Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my El, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.

In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and cried unto my Elohim: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

Jehovah also thundered in the heavens, and Gnelion gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke O Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but Jehovah was my stay.

He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Jehovah rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my Elohim.

For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.

I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

Therefore hath Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright; With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.

For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.

For thou wilt light my candle: Jehovah my Elohim will enlighten my darkness.

For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my Elohim have I leaped over a wall.

As for El, his way is perfect: the word of Jehovah is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. For who is Eloah save Jehovah? or who is a rock save our Elohim?

It is El that girdeth me with strength, and 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 thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.

I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.

For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.

Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.

They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto Jehovah, but he answered them not.

Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.

As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.

The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.

Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the Elohim of my salvation be exalted.

It is El that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me.

He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou

hast delivered me from the violent man.

Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.

Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and showeth so mercy to his Messiah, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

From Egypt till the display of the Royalty of Messiah-the suffering Messiah alone the counsel and way of God. Compare Gen. 3:15.

18:1-3 Praise and trust; 4-35 depths of suffering; 36-48 his taking the kingdom; 49, 50 praise.

The king: his retrospect of triumph over every difficulty of circumstance; whether as to the kingdom itself in principle and formation, or as to his getting up into the throne. 2 Sam. 22, but before he got to 2 Sam. 23, note how faith can use Elohim for victory over circumstances; but we have to learn that He is above us and uses circumstances for us, that he may use us for Himself.

Psalm 19

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of El; and the firmament showeth his handywork.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.

There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much ]o fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, my strength, and my redeemer.

19.-Creation and law; 1-6 El's works in creation his witness; 7-14 Jehovah's law [query " doctrine," in the larger sense, for the word means that too] his, in saving.

19-21.-Testimonies.

Psalm 2

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his Messiah, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: Adonay shall have them in derision.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

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 shall give thee the heathen for thine

inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye to judges of the earth.

Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

2:1-3 Challenge to the earth in rebellion against Jehovah and his Messiah; 4, 5 he that dwells in heaven laughs, Adonay derides, &c.; 6 he dwelling in heaven announces: I have set my king on Zion; 7-9 one replies in subjection, as to himself; Jehovah has said to me, Thou art my Son, &c.; and 10-12 sets himself as a fear and a shelter for man.

NOTE.-" The Son" (bar), ver. 12, is the same person as is called "Son" (ben), ver. 7.

Psalm 20

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the Elohim of Jacob defend thee;

Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;

Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.

Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel.

We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our Elohim we will set up our banners: Jehovah fulfill all thy petitions.

Now know I that Jehovah saveth his Messiah; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of Jehovah our Elohim. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

Save, Jehovah: let the king hear us when we call.

Messiah seen in His trouble.

20:1-4 Faith's appeal to Jehovah Elohim, of Jacob for One, in, whom (v. 5) is salvation and headship,,and 6-8 power, from Jehovah, over all-the Messiah; 9 Save, Jehovah; let the king hear us.

Psalm 21

To the chief Musician, A Psalm. of David.

The king shall joy in thy strength, O Jehovah; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips; Selah.

For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great in thy salvation: honor and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

For thou hast made him most blessed forever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

For the king trusteth in Jehovah, and through the mercy of Gnelion he shall not be moved.

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: Jehovah shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.

For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.

Be thou exalted, Jehovah, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

21.-The heavenly side, as 45. the side for earth: both about the king.

21.-Answer to 20. (Part 1 addressed to Jehovah.) 1-7 joy of the faithful in what the king is, and (Part 2) 8-12 in what thou, the king, wilt do in judgment on men thy enemies; 13 our joy.

Psalm 22

To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar [or, hind of the morning], A Psalm of David.

My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

O my Elohim, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

He trusted on Jehovah that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my El from my mother's belly.

Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my Jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

But be not thou far from me, O Jehovah: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Ye that fear Jehovah, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise Jehovah that seek him: your heart shall live forever.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto Jehovah: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

For the kingdom is Jehovah's: and he is the governor among the nations.

All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to Adonay as for a generation.

They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

His sufferings as forsaken of El: the result being grace and glory to man.

This is a portion to be much mused and fed upon.

22:1-21 humiliation; 22-31 the fruit of it in resurrection going on into the Millennial Kingdom.

Note.-On his lip, El, El, ver. 1 and 10; on the adversaries, Jehovah, ver. 8 and once on his (ver. 19): that in suffering; it glory Jehovah ver. 23 and 26 and 27 and 28, Adonay, ver. 30.

Some would divide this Psalm in the middle of ver. 21, though the stress was laid upon " thou hast heard me"; and not rather, upon "from the horns of the unicorns."

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of Jehovah forever.

23-Messiah's path as a man on earth; but also faith's in the last day, after atonement is known. ("Restore," ver. 3, means refresh, revive in spirit.)

Psalm 24

A Psalm of David.

The earth is Jehovah's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive the blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the Elohim of his salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

24.-Messiah (he is Jehovah) and a remnant entering glory hereafter.

Psalm 25

A Psalm of David.

Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul.

O my Elohim, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

Show me thy ways, 0 Jehovah; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the

Elohim of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

Remember, O Jehovah, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Jehovah.

Good and upright is Jehovah: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

All the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth unto to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For thy name's sake, O Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

What man is he that feareth Jehovah? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.

Mine eyes are ever toward Jehovah; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

Redeem Israel, O Elohim, out of all his troubles.

25:4-10 Full confession of sin by the faithful; faith's cry to Jehovah in thought of him and his ways and covenant; 1 conscious of integrity and trust in him, it acts in spite of, 2 enemies, 3 of transgressors; 7, 8, 11,18, &c., transgression confessed; 22. Elohim to redeem Israel out of all his troubles.

25 to39. thoughts and feelings of the faithful, relationship known.

Psalm 26

A Psalm of David.

Judge me, O Jehovah; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in Jehovah; therefore I shall not slide.

Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Jehovah:

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Jehovah, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth.

Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.

My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless Jehovah.

26:1 All is open to Jehovah, 6 righteous integrity is the pathway to the altar, 7, 8 to praise; and 9-12 to strength in hope.

Psalm 27

A Psalm of David.

Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of Jehovah, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his a pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto Jehovah.

Hear, O Jehovah, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O Elohim of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then Jehovah will take me up.

Teach me thy way, O Jehovah, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living.

Wait on Jehovah: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on Jehovah.

27:1 Fear excluded from the soul by joy in Jehovah as light, salvation, and strength; 2, 3 a past deliverance the basis of hope. He was desired and sought, and 4 his house as beautiful, 5 himself a refuge and 6 an exalter and joy; 7-9 appeal of faith in communion; 10,11, in hope; 12 before enemies near; 13What if I had not had him! 14 Girding up.

Psalm 28

A Psalm of David.

Unto thee will I cry, O Jehovah my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

Give them according to their deeds; and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.

Because they regard not the works of Jehovah, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.

Blessed be Jehovah, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

Jehovah is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

Jehovah is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his Messiah.

Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up forever.

28:1, 2 Cry-for manifest recognition, and 3-5 for exemption from the judgment on the "wicked; 6-9 joy in Jehovah as hearing and saving his people.

Psalm 29

A Psalm of David.

Give unto Jehovah, O ye mighty, give unto Jehovah glory and strength.

Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name; worship Jehovah in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: the El of glory thundereth: Jehovah is upon many waters. The voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is full of majesty.

The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars; yea, Jehovah breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

The voice of Jehovah divideth the flames of fire.

The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

Jehovah sitteth upon the flood; yea, Jehovah sitteth King forever.

Jehovah will give strength unto his people; Jehovah will bless his people with peace.

29:1, 2 Call to praise Jehovah; 3-9 his voice working in providence, and 9 in his people in his temple, 10 on the flood King; 11 he is theirs.

Psalm 3

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

JEHOVAH, how are they increased that trouble me I many are they that rise up against me.

Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in Elohim: Selah.

But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

I cried unto Jehovah with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for Jehovah sustained me.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.

Arise, O Jehovah; save me, O my Elohim: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

3.-A morning anticipation; 1, 2 many troubles, but 3 Jehovah is for me, 4, 5 he was, so, 6, 7 he will be; 8 deliverance is of him.;

3-8. Faith in individuals (or in a company of such) here below-a standard of walk having been raised before them (Psa. 1), and (Psa. 2) Messiah known as exalted, though earth-rejected-is learning what its own place is amid failure and trials down here but in dependence upon Jehovah.

Psalm 30

A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.

I will extol thee, O Jehovah; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

O Jehovah my Elohim, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

O Jehovah, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing unto Jehovah, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

Jehovah, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.

I cried to thee, O Jehovah; and unto Jehovah I made supplication.

What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

Hear, O Jehovah, and have mercy upon me: Jehovah, be thou my helper.

Thou hast, turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Jehovah my Elohim, I will give thanks unto thee forever.

30:1-3 I praise Jehovah for deliverance; 4, 5 saints to praise; 6-11 a deliverance, to the end that 12 I might praise him.

Psalm 31

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

In thee, O Jehovah, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me.

For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.

Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.

Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Jehovah El of truth.

I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in Jehovah.

I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;

And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a large room.

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.

I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

But I trusted in thee, O Jehovah: I said, Thou art my Elohim.

My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.

Let me not be ashamed, 0 Jehovah; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

Blessed be Jehovah: for he bath skewed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city.

For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

O love Jehovah, all ye his saints for Jehovah preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in Jehovah.

31:1-3 Cry to Jehovah for help; 4 from the net; 5 into thine hand I commit my spirit, &c.; 6-13 conflict; 14-16 trust; 17-22 Jehovah for me and the faithful, against the wicked; 23, 24 comfort for his people.

Psalm 32

A Psalm of David, Maschil [or, giving instruction].

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

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 about with songs of deliverance.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in Jehovah, mercy shall compass him about.

Be glad in Jehovah, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

32 (Part 1) 1, 2 forgiveness; (Part 2) 3, 4 conflict till self is given up; 5 confession, 6 to Jehovah's praise. 7 Thou my joy and blesser. (Part 3) 8, 9 He teaches; 10, 11 faith's words.

Psalm 33

Rejoice in Jehovah, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.

Praise Jehovah with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.

For the word of Jehovah is right; and all his works are done in truth.

He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of Jehovah.

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

Jehovah bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

The counsel of Jehovah standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is Jehovah; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance

Jehovah looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all to their works.

There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waiteth for Jehovah: he is our help and our Sc shield.

For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

Let thy mercy, O Jehovah, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

33:1-3 Be glad in Jehovah, ye upright and righteous; 4-7 his word, works, acts; 8, 9 earth and inhabitants to join; 10 goim (peoples) and ammim (nations) fall before him; 11 his counsels stand; 12 blessed that (goi) people and that (amm) nation which he has chosen for himself; 13-15 from heaven he sees all men, &e.; 16-19 no deliverer but he; 20-22 on him we wait.

Psalm 34

A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.

I will bless Jehovah at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in Jehovah: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

O magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt his name together.

I sought Jehovah, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

O taste and see that Jehovah is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

O fear Jehovah, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.

What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?

Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

The eyes of Jehovah are upon the righteous, and his is ears are open unto their cry.

The face of Jehovah is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and Jehovah heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but Jehovah delivereth him out of them all.

He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

34:1, 2 I joy in Jehovah to the joy of the humble; 3, call to join; (v. 4) 1, (v. 5) they, (v. 6) this one, they called and (v. 7) were helped; 8, calls saints (v. 9) to fear and learn about him, 10-22, as being for the believer and against the wicked.

Psalm 35

A Psalm of David.

Plead my cause, O Jehovah, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.

Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of Jehovah chase them.

Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of Jehovah persecute them.

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.

Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.

And my soul shall be joyful in Jehovah: it shall rejoice in his salvation.

All my bones shall say, Jehovah, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?

False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.

They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:

With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

Adonay, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.

I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.

Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.

Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.

This thou hast seen, 0 Jehovah: keep not silence: 0 Adonay, be not far from me.

Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my Elohim and Adonay.

Judge me, O Jehovah my Elohim, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.

Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me.

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let Jehovah be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

35:1-3 Cry for help against adversaries; 3½-8 for a word of comfort and for confusion on those causelessly against me; 9, 10 so shall I be glad; 11-16 false witnesses and requiting evil for good with hypocritical workers. 17, 18 Cry for help, and 19-26 righteous judgment, 27 and 28 let friends rejoice with me and praise.

Psalm 36

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of Jehovah.

The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of Elohim before his eyes.

For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.

He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil. Thy mercy, O Jehovah, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O Elohim! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.

There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

36:1 -4 Faith's estimate of the transgression of the wicked, 5-9 of that which is in Jehovah; 10 prayer.

Psalm 37

A Psalm of David.

Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

Trust in Jehovah, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in Jehovah; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto Jehovah; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass..

And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon Jehovah, they shall inherit the earth.

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: lo yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.

Adonay shall laugh at him; for he seeth that his day is coming.

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but Jehovah upholdeth the righteous.

Jehovah knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be forever.

They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of Jehovah shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth.

For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

The steps of a good man are ordered by Jehovah: and he delighteth in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for Jehovah upholdeth him with his hand.

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.

Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.

For Jehovah loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.

The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.

The law of his Elohim is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.

The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.

Jehovah will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

Wait on Jehovah, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.

But the salvation of the righteous is of Jehovah: he is their strength in the time of trouble.

And Jehovah shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.

37:1, 2 Heading. Faith knows the way of peace in an evil day, 3-40 Jehovah's knowing his own and his hatred of evil are rest and blessing to those that walk near him. Them will he uphold.

37,38 and 39. Sore chastening under the dealings of Jehovah has to be passed through.

Psalm 38

A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.

O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

Adonay, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

For in thee, 0 Jehovah, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Adonay my Elohim.

For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.

For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

Forsake me not, O Jehovah: O my Elohim, be not far from me.

Make haste to help me, O Adonay my salvation.

38:1-8 Groans under the flood of judgment from Jehovah; 9, 10 his inward parts open to Adonay; 11-22 hear and help or I am lost.

Psalm 39

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

Jehovah, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

Surely every man walketh in a vain skew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

And now, Adonay, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by lo the blow of thine hand.

When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a

moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

39:1-6 Writhes but seeks instruction from Jehovah; 7-13 seeks aid from Adonay and Jehovah.

Psalm 4

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments, see Hab. 3:19], A Psalm of David.

Hear me when I call, O Elohim of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

But know that Jehovah hath set apart him that is godly for himself: Jehovah will hear when I call unto him.

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in Jehovah.

There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Jehovah, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us,.

Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Jehovah, only makest me dwell in safety.

4:1 Evening cry to Elohim, hope sustained by past favor; 2-5 warning; 6, 7 hope and joy in Jehovah; 8 repose for might.

Psalm 40

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

I waited patiently for Jehovah; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our Elohim: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Jehovah.

Blessed is that man that maketh Jehovah his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

Many, O Jehovah my Elohim, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

I delight to do thy will, O my Elohim: yea, thy law is within my heart.

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Jehovah,

thou knowest.

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Jehovah: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me: O Jehovah, make haste to help me.

Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven

backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, Jehovah be magnified.

But I am poor and needy; yet Adonay thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my Elohim.

The foundation: Messiah has undertaken to do the will of God; He goes patiently through it.

40:1 I waited on Jehovah. He gave me to praise, to (v. 3) his honor among men; 4 blessed is he that trusts and keeps himself from evil, 5 wonderful the works and thoughts of Jehovah toward us; 6-10 Messiah's work and mark, 11-13 prayers, 14, 15 imprecation on enemies; 16 Jehovah's people prayed for, 17 poor, yet he is my stay.

Psalm 41

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: Jehovah will deliver him in time of trouble.

Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

Jehovah will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

I said, Jehovah, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.

All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more.

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, bath lifted up his heel

against me.

But thou, O Jehovah, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me..

And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face forever.

Blessed be Jehovah Elohim of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

The blessedness of him who understands the poor and needy (sheep).

41.-The poor man's place; 1-3 He that acts according to the mind and way of Jehovah to the weak, Jehovah will do likewise to him; 4 Cry for mercy for sin; 5-9 the adversary's taunts, etc. 10 Mercy! that I may requite; 11, 12 joy for help from Jehovah. 13 Praise.

Psalm 42

(*Second Book (Ps. 42-72) The faithful are seen as driven out; and, unless viewed as in their future, God, not Jehovah (his covenant name) is referred to. (Comp. Ps. 53 and 14).

Peter's position with a remnant, both outcast for the Lord's sake and having to solace themselves with the future, may help us here. 2 Peter.)

BOOK II.* No. 1. Psa. 42 To the chief Musician, Maschil for, giving instruction], for the sons of Korab.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O Elohim.

My soul thirsteth for Elohim, for the living El: when shall I come and appear before Elohim.

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy Elohim?

When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of Elohim, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in Elohim: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

0 my Elohim, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Yet Jehovah will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the El of my life.

I will say unto El my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy Elohim?

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in Elohim for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my Elohim.

42:1, 2 Yearns for Elohim amid 3 taunters, 4 anguish, 5-7, 8, 11 hope in him; 6 in the land of Jordan and the Hermonites, and amid depths of judgment and taunts 9, 10.

Psalm 43

Judge me, O Elohim, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

For thou art the Elohim of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Then will I go unto the altar of Elohim, unto El my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O Elohim my Elohim.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in Elohim: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my Elohim.

43:1 Cry to Elohim for judgment against a nation not in grace (the Jews), and the wicked man; 2-4 Thou and thy places are my all, 5 I hope in thee.

Psalm 44

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil [or, giving-instruction].

We have heard with our ears, O Elohim, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.

How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but, thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them.

Thou art my King, O Elohim: command deliverances for Jacob.

Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.

In Elohim we boast all the day long, and praise thy name forever.

But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.

Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

Thou sellest thy people for naught, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.

Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.

All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;

Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

If we have forgotten the name of our Elohim, or stretched out our hands to a strange El;

Shall not Elohim search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Adonay? arise, cast us not off forever.

Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.

44:1-3 All our blessing was from thee, 4-8 my King, Elohim, I take thee so to be to me; 9-16 but thou hast cast us off and givest us up; 17-22 yet are we faithful; 23-26 appeal for help.

44-48. Extend from their first appeal to Elohim, to their being again in Zion, and 49 is a meditation thereon.

Psalm 45

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim [or, the lilies], for the sons of Borah, Maschil [or, giving instruction], A Song of loves.

My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore Elohim hath blessed thee forever.

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.

And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.

Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.

Thy throne, 0 Elohim, is forever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore Elohim, thy Elohim, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

Kings' daughters were among thy honorable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;

So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord [Adonim]; and worship thou him.

And the daughter of Tire shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor.

The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.

With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace.

Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.

I will make-thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.

Messiah is in the scene as king for the earth.

45:1 Faith tastes, through the Spirit, and 2-9 estimates the King now present; 10-16 address to the queen; 17 Who is it speaks here?

Psalm 46

To the chief Musician for the sons of Borah, A Song upon Alamoth [or, the Virginals].

ELOHIM is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of Elohim, the holy place of the tabernacles of Gnelion.

Elohim is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: Elohim shall help her, and that right early.

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

Jehovah of hosts is with us; Elohim of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

Be still, and know that I am Elohim: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Jehovah of hosts is with us; the Elohim of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Is the relationship of Jehovah with Israel re-established here?

46:1-3 Elohim our present help; 4, 5 a river gladdens the city of Elohim, the holy place, &c.; 6, 7 enemies destroyed; 8, 9 what Jehovah, has done. 10, 11 Be still! he is for us.

Psalm 47

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto Elohim with the voice of triumph.

For Jehovah Gnelion is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.

He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved.

Elohim is gone up with a shout, Jehovah with the sound of a trumpet

Sing praises to Elohim, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

For Elohim is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

Elohim reigneth over the heathen: Elohim sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the Elohim of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto Elohim: he is greatly exalted.

47:1-4 The land (or earth) called to own (truth of Psa. 45; 46); 5-9 Elohim come in, the shields of the earth are his [the governmental power on earth has been transferred from the Gentiles, with a beast's heart, to Israel].

Psalm 48

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised in the city of our Elohim, in the mountain of his holiness.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Elohim is known in her palaces for a refuge.

For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away.

Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our Elohim: Elohim will establish it forever. Selah.

We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O Elohim, in the midst of thy temple.

According to thy name, O Elohim, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

For this Elohim is our Elohim forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

48:1-3 The faithful are in Zion ( through), 4-8a deliverance just seen; 9-14 joyous exhortation to consistency therewith.

Psalm 49

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to Elohim a ransom for him:

(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever:)

That he should still live forever, and not see corruption.

For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

But Elohim will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like so the beasts that perish.

49:1-4 A musing thereupon; 5-14 the folly of the men. of this world; 15 but Elohim redeems from the grave; 16-20 exhortations based thereon.

NOTE-Ver. 4 "a parable "-" a dark saying."

Psalm 5

To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth [flutes or any pierced instruments], A Psalm of David.

Give ear to my words, O Jehovah, consider my meditation.

Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my Elohim: for unto thee will I pray.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Jehovah; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

For thou art not an El that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: Jehovah will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

Lead me, O Jehovah, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my

face.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part- is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue.

Destroy thou them, O Elohim; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

For thou, Jehovah, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Amid sorrow and weakness and the wicked around.

5:1-3 Cry to Jehovah, my King and my Elohim; 4-6 in way and character, against the evildoer; 7-9 for me a shelter in mercy; 10 imprecation against the wicked; 11 for the faithful; 12 confidence in Jehovah,

Psalm 50

A Psalm of Asaph.

EL, Elohim, Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going

down thereof.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, Elohim hath shined.

Our Elohim shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for Elohim is judge himself. Selah.

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am Elohim, even thy Elohim.

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

Offer unto Elohim thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto Gnelion:

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver is thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

But unto the wicked Elohim saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou so slanderest thine own mother's son.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

Now consider this, ye that forget Eloah, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I skew the salvation of Elohim.

This arraignment of Israel contains the grand principles of Elohim's judgments towards them.

50.-A judgment as to the living, in the land; 1-4 apprehended by faith; 5, 6 announced by the Judge; 7-15 Elohim’s address in court; 16-21 to the wicked; 22 exhortation to such; 23 to his own.

Psalm 51

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O Elohim, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O Elohim; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O Elohim, thou Elohim of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

0 Adonay, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall is show forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O Elohim, thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

"Israel's confession of sin, looking for mercy and cleansing, and owning it in its root in nature and its results in the rejection of Messiah."

51:1-4 The arraigned one's confession when broken down; 5-17 pleading for a cure in his desperate case; 18, 19 Elohim working in Zion will be pleased with his people and their ways.

Psalm 52

To the chief Musician, Maschil [or, giving instruction], A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.

Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, 0 mighty man? the goodness of El endureth continually.

Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness.

Thou lovest all devouring words, 0 thou deceitful tongue.

El shall likewise destroy thee forever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living.

The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:

Lo, this is the man that made not Elohim his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of Elohim: I trust in the mercy of Elohim forever and ever.

I will praise thee forever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

Faith's challenge 1st of the tyrant.

52:1-5 Faith's judgment of him who counts his lips his own, while El's goodness continues; 6, 7 the righteous shall judge him; 8 faith trusts in mercy and has 9 joy and patience in Elohim.

52-67-The faithfuls' exercises of soul, in which Israel becomes the blessing of the nations.

Psalm 53

To the chief Musician upon Mahalath [or, sickness], Maschil [or, giving instruction], A Psalm of David.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no Elohim. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity there is none that doeth good.

Elohim looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek Elohim.

Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon Elohim.

There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for Elohim hath scattered the bones of-him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because Elohim hath despised them.

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Elohim bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

And 2ndly of his faction.

53:1 The fool's desire and doings; 2 Elohim seeks seekers; 3, 4 his thoughts of that generation; 5 faith sees Elohim for thee and against all such; 6 its hope.

Psalm 54

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments], Maschil [or, giving instruction], A Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?

Save me, O Elohim, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.

Hear my prayer, O Elohim; give ear to the words of my mouth.

For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set Elohim before them. Selah.

Behold, Elohim is mine helper: Adonay is with them that uphold my soul.

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.

I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O Jehovah; for it is good.

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

A believer then and there.

54:1, 2 Cry to Elohim, 3 against oppressors who know him not; 4-7 trust in and devotedness to him who has saved.

Psalm 55

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments],

Maschil [or, giving instruction], A Psalm of David.

Give ear to my prayer, O Elohim; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.

I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

Destroy, O Adonay, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.

Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of Elohim in company.

Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

As for me, I will call upon Elohim; and Jehovah shall save me.

Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.

El shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not Elohim.

He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.

The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

But thou, O Elohim, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

By one strong in faith, in that day.

55:1, 2 Cry to Elohim, against 3 the enemy; 4-8 anguish, 9-11 the enemy's voice and goings on in the city, 12-14 treachery of the traitor; 15 imprecation. 16-18 My resource, and 19-21 their judge; 22 cast all on him; 23 he will destroy them. I trust.

Psalm 56

To the chief Musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim [qy., the dove of silence (among) strangers], Michtam [a golden Psalm] of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.

Be merciful unto me, O Elohim: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

In Elohim I will praise his word, in Elohim I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.

Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O Elohim.

Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for Elohim is for me.

In Elohim will I praise his word: in Jehovah will I praise his word.

In Elohim have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

Thy vows are upon me, O Elohim: I will render praises unto thee.

For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before Elohim in the light of the living?

56:1-3 Against the all-destroying enemy-man, faith trusts Elohim, 4 and his word; 5-7 the doings of man; 8-11 grieved I trust Elohim and his word. 12, 13 I will praise; delivered.

Psalm 57

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith [or, destroy not], Michtam [or, a golden Psalm] of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.

Be merciful unto me, O Elohim, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

I will cry unto Elohim Gnelion; unto El that performeth all things for me.

He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. Elohim shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Be thou exalted, O Elohim, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

My heart is fixed, O Elohim, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp myself will awake early.

I will praise thee, O Adonay, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth is unto the clouds.

Be thou exalted, O Elohim, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

57:1, 2 Cry to and trust and hope in Elohim, 3—6 for deliverance from man and his doings. 7-11 praise.

Psalm 58

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith [or, destroy not], Michtam [or, a golden Psalm] of David.

Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

Break their teeth, O Elohim, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah. Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let

them be as cut in pieces.

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is an Elohim that judgeth in the earth.

58:1 Faith's challenge to a congregated mass. 2-5 its wickedness; 6-9 judgment invoked; 10, 11 the righteous shall rejoice.

Psalm 59

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith [or, destroy not], Michtam [or, a golden Psalm] of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.

Deliver me from mine enemies, O my Elohim: defend me from them that rise up against me.

Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Jehovah.

They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.

Thou therefore, O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, the Elohim of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?

But thou, O Jehovah, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for Elohim is my defense.

The Elohim of my mercy shall prevent me: Elohim shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.

Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Adonay our shield.

For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.

Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that Elohim ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.

And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my

defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for Elohim is my defense, and the Elohim of my mercy.

59:1-4 Deliver me from my enemies; 5 wake against the heathen and the wicked; 6, 7 their ways; 8-10 my trust Jehovah, Elohim. 11-15 regulated judgment invoked on them; 16, 17 Praise-Elohim is for me.

Psalm 6

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments] upon Sheminith [or, the eighth], A Psalm of David.

O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; for I am weak: O Jehovah, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Jehovah, how long?

Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for Jehovah hath heard the voice of my weeping.

Jehovah hath heard my supplication; Jehovah will receive my prayer.

Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let is them return and be ashamed suddenly.

6:1-7 Cry for pity to Jehovah; 8 away you wicked! 9 Jehovah has heard me; 10 let my enemies pass.

Psalm 60

To the chief Musician, upon Shushan-eduth [or, the lily of testimony], Michtam [or, a golden Psalm], of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.

O Elohim, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

Thou hast showed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.

That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me.

Elohim bath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

Wilt not thou, O Elohim, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O Elohim, which didst not go out with our armies?

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Through Elohim we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

60:1-3 Bowing under Elohim; 4 he has given them a token; 5 Cry for deliverance; 6-8 joyful anticipation of faith; 9-12 he will help.

Psalm 61

To the chief Musician upon Neginah [or, a stringed instrument] A Psalm of David.

Hear my cry, O Elohim; attend unto my prayer.

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

For thou, O Elohim, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations.

He shall abide before Elohim forever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

So will I sing praise unto thy name forever, that I may daily perform my vows.

61:1-5 Cry to and faith in Elohim; 6,7 Thou wilt bless the king, 8 so shall I praise forever.

Psalm 62

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, a Psalm of David.

Truly my soul waiteth upon Elohim: from him cometh my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.

They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.

My. soul, wait thou only upon Elohim; for my expectation is from him.

He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved.

In Elohim is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in Elohim.

Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: Elohim is a refuge for us. Selah.

Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

Elohim bath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto Elohim.

Also unto thee, O Adonay, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

62:1, 2 Faith and hope in Elohim; 3, 4 warns the wicked; 5-7 as 1,2; 8-10 exhorts, 11 power belongs to Elohim, 12 also mercy is of Adonay. He will render to every man according to his work.

Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O Elohim, thou art my El; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

When I remember thee upon my, bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion is for foxes.

But the king shall rejoice in Elohim; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

63:1-8 Yearns after Elohim El, in a dry and thirsty land, for the sake of what he is; 9, 10 my enemies shall fall; 11 the king shall rejoice, the liar be silenced.

Psalm 64

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

Hear my voice, O Elohim, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:

Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.

They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?

They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.

But Elohim shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.

So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.

And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of Elohim; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.

The righteous shall be glad in Jehovah, and shall is, trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

64:1-6 Appeals to Elohim and counts on him, amid the very wicked; 7, 8 he shall judge them, 9 his judgment be owned; 10 the righteous shall be glad in Jehovah.

Psalm 65

To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David,

Praise waiteth for thee, O Elohim, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.

O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.

Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O Elohim of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:

Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:

Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.

They also that dwell in the uttermost parts ale afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of Elohim, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou is settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

65:1 Praise to thee Elohim is silent in Zion; 2 all flesh shall come to thee; 3 sins prevail against me; 4 blessed whom thou choosest; 5 judgment at the door; 6-13 thy power in creation and providence.

Psalm 66

To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm.

Make a joyful noise unto Elohim, all ye lands:

Sing forth the honor of his name: make his praise glorious.

Say unto Elohim, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.

All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

Come and see the works of Elohim: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.

He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.

He ruleth by his power forever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

O bless our Elohim, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:

Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

For thou, O Elohim, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth -hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

Come and hear, all ye that fear Elohim, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, Adonay will not hear me:

But verily Elohim hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be Elohim, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

66:1-4 All lands to praise Elohim, and own his power to bow down his enemies; 5-7 his power works; 8-12 his dealings with us; 13-15 I will pay my vows in his house; 16-20 my experience, for the fearer of Elohim.

Psalm 67

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments].

A Psalm or Song.

Elohim be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

Let the people praise thee, O Elohim; let all the people praise thee.

O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.

Let the people praise thee, O Elohim; let all the people praise thee.

Then shall the earth yield her increase; and Elohim, even our own Elohim, shall bless us.

Elohim shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

67:1 May Elohim shine out on us that, 2 in the land and among tine Gentiles his way may be known; 3-5 praise from all invoked; 6, 7 that earth may yield her increase, and all the earth fear him.

Psalm 68

To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David.

Let Elohim arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of Elohim.

But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before Elohim: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.

Sing unto Elohim, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is Elohim in his holy habitation.

Elohim setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

O Elohim, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah.

The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of Elohim: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of Elohim, the Elohim of Israel.

Thou, O Elohim, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.

Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O Elohim, to hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.

Adonay, gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.

Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.

Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

When Shadday scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.

The hill of Elohim is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan.

Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which Elohim desireth to dwell in; yea, Jehovah will dwell in it forever.

The chariots of Elohim are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: Adonay is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men—yea, for

the rebellious also, that Jah Elohim might dwell among them.

Blessed be Adonay, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the El of our salvation. Selah.

He that is our El is the El of salvation; and unto Elohim Adonay belong the issues from death.

But Elohim shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.

Adonay said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea:

That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.

They have seen thy goings, O Elohim; even the goings of my El, my King, in the sanctuary.

The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.

Bless ye Elohim in the congregations, even Adonay, from the fountain of Israel.

There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.

Thy Elohim hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O Elohim, that which thou hast wrought for us.

Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee.

Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war.

Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto Elohim.

Sing unto Elohim, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto Adonay; Selah

To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.

Ascribe ye strength unto Elohim: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.

O Elohim, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the El of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be Elohim.

Messiah ascended and exalted, is known to faith as the security of blessing.

68:1, 2 Elohim invoked to slay the wicked; 3-6 the righteous to praise him and his ways; 7-10, 11 and 12 his doings; 13 hope, affliction will turn to glory; 14-16 his hill among the hills; 17 his chariots; 18 salvation's basis; 19-23 the issue salvation and judgment; 24-27 the goings of my king in the sanctuary, 28-30, 31, 32-34 results in blessing; 35 worship.

Psalm 69

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim [or, the lilies], A Psalm of David.

Save me, O Elohim; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my Elohim.

They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

O Elohim, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

Let not them that wait on thee, O Adonay Elohim* of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O Elohim of Israel.

(Ver. 6. In Hebrew written Jehovah but read Elohim, see also 71:5)

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that is was to my reproach.

I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Jehovah, in an acceptable time: O Elohim, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

Hear me, O Jehovah; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before thee.

Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O Elohim, set me up on high.

I will praise the name of Elohim with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

This also shall please Jehovah better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek Elohim.

For Jehovah heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.

For Elohim will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

"The full depth of Messiah's sufferings in connection with the Remnant." "The cross and judgment; as Psa. 22 the cross and mercy."

69:1-5 Appeal to Elohim in sorrows described here (compare ver. 3 with 22:1; 4 is from the wicked outside, and 5 sorrow's cause within the range of my responsibility, comp. Psa. 40); 6-12 sorrows from man; 13-18 appeal to Jehovah Elohim,18-21 under sorrow from enemies; 22-28 retributive justice invoked; 29-31 poor, I count on Elohim; 32, 33 the humble shall be glad; 34-36 all Joy! he will save Zion and those that love him shall dwell there.

Psalm 7

Shiggaion [a wandering ode, or, an ode of. wandering-see Habakkuk 3:1.] of David, which he sang unto Jehovah. concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.

O JEHOVAH my Elohim, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Jehovah my Elohim, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands.;

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)

Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let 3 him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah,

Arise, O Jehovah, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

Jehovah shall judge the people: judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous Elohim trieth the hearts and reins.

My defense is of Elohim, which saveth the upright in heart.

Elohim judgeth the righteous, and El is angry with the wicked every day.

If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he bath bent his bow, and made it ready.

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

He made a pit, and Jigged it, and is fallen into the 15 ditch which he made.

His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

I will praise Jehovah according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of Jehovah Gnelion.

In an extreme of sorrow and evil around, conscious integrity looks up for the judgment appointed, and for Jehovah to vindicate himself before men against the wicked.

7.Jehovah my Elohim, in thee do I trust; save me and him that is righteous from the enemy and the wicked.

Psalm 70

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.

Make haste, 0 Elohim, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Jehovah.

Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.

Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let Elohim be magnified.

But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O Elohim: thou art my help and my deliverer; Jehovah, make no tarrying.

From amid deep sufferings.

70:1 Cry for help; 2, 3 for retributive vengeance on enemies; 4 for favor to those that seek thee; 5 I am poor! help!

Psalm 71

In thee, O Jehovah, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

Deliver me, O my Elohim, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

For thou art my hope, O Adonay Elohim: thou art my trust from my youth.

By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.

Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.

For mine enemies speak against me; and they that is lay wait for my soul take counsel together,

Saying, Elohim hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.

O Elohim, be not far from me: O my Elohim, make haste for my help.

Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.

My mouth shalt show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

I will go in the strength of Adonay Elohim*: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

O Elohim, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O Elohim, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.

Thy righteousness also, O Elohim, is very high, who host done great things: O Elohim, who is like unto thee!

Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Thou shalt increase my greatness; and comfort me on every side.

I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my Elohim: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.

My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.

My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.

Onward until their strength is all but gone.

71:1-5 Faith in Jehovah and hope, amid the wicked; 6 from infancy, through youth (7), in the infirmity of old age (9, 18), be with me, before (10, 11) enemies; 12 appeal; 13 retributive imprecation; 14-24 hope-motive thereunto, that the ways of Jehovah intertwine the lives of his people here below.

Psalm 72

A Psalm for Solomon.

Give the king thy judgments, O Elohim, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.

He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.

There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be Jehovah Elohim, the Elohim of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Messiah recognized as Son of David.

72:1-17 Faith's prayer for the king, and expectations as to the king's son; 18, 19 Praise.

.."NOTE—Vers. 6-8 “sea to sea" is of wider scope than 1-5 “thy people"; 9-11 again, gives the tribute paid by all kings; 12-14 his doings characteristic of his ways; 15-17 what he is made from on high.

Psalm 73

(*Third Book (Psalms 73-89) Messiah as occupied with the faithful in Israel, as lying beyond Judah; and not only, as heretofore, with the 2½ tribes.

The general expectation of Israel referred to by James "To the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting" (James 1:1); and by Paul "Now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving [God] day and night, hope to come," (Acts 26:6, 7),—is not without interest, here, as to the position of those who are looked at in this book.

BOOK III. No. 1. Psa. 73 A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly Elohim is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

And they say, How doth El know? and is there knowledge in Gnelion?

Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

Until I went into the sanctuary of El; then understood I their end.

Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors.

As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Adonay, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hest holden me by my right hand.

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

My flesh and my heart faileth: but Elohim is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.

For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee.

But it is good for me to draw near to Elohim: I have put my trust in Adonay Elohim that I may declare all thy works.

73.-1 Elohim good to Israel, to those of a clean heart; 2-12 effects of my envy at the foolish and their prosperity; 13-15 discouragement therefrom and evil; till 16-20 I went into the sanctuary of El and saw their end; 21-26 then I judged self and trusted; 27, 28, resumé.

Psalm 74

Maschil [or, giving instruction] of Asaph.

O Elohim, why hast thou cast us off forever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of El in the land.

We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

O Elohim, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?

Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.

For Elohim is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.

Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor forever.

Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.

Arise, O Elohim, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.

Faith in presence of the triumph of the wicked.

74:1-3 Appeal to Elohim for his own redeemed ones and sanctuary; for 4-8 an infidel faction is in power, 9-23 to the deep trial of our faith.

NOTE-Vers. 12, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, my king of old, creation, blasphemy, thy poor, covenant, thy cause.

Psalm 75

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith [or, destroy not], A Psalm or Song of Asaph.

Unto thee, O Elohim, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:

Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

But Elohim is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

For in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth

out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

But I will declare forever; I will sing praises to the Elohim of Jacob.

All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

75:1 Our thanks to Elohim for his proved nearness; 2 when I (Messiah) take the congregation I will judge rightly; 3 my power; 4-8 warning to the wicked. 9, 10 Resumé of what I will do.

Psalm 76

To the chief Musician on Neginoth [or, stringed instruments],

A Psalm or Song of Asaph.

In Judah is Elohim known: his name is great in Israel.

In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.

There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.

Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.

The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.

At thy rebuke, O Elohim of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?

Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,

When Elohim arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

Vow, and pay unto Jehovah your Elohim: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.

He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.

76:1-3 Judah and Israel; Salem and Zion now seen to be under Elohim. 4 He the trust and hope, through 5-10 all opposition below; 11 worship the Judge from heaven (8,9), 12 cutter off of princes and kings.

Psalm 77

To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph.

I cried unto Elohim with my voice, even unto Elohim with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

In the day of my trouble I sought Adonay: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

I remembered Elohim, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.

Will Adonay cast off forever? and will he be favorable no more?

Is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

Hath El forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of Gnelion.

I will remember the works of Jah: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

Thy way, O Elohim, is in the sanctuary: who is so great an El as our Elohim?

Thou art the El that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

The waters saw thee, O Elohim, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.

The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

77:1-10 My exercises in retrospect of past appeal to Elohim; weakness, but I cling to 10½—20 the duration of thy power, works, wonders of old, doings, way in the sanctuary, in the redemption of thy people, Jacob and Joseph, &c., by Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 78

Maschil [or, giving instruction] of Asaph.

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

That they might set their hope in Elohim, and not forget the works of El, but keep his commandments:

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with El.

The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of Elohim, and refused to walk in his law;

And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had showed them.

Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

And they sinned yet more against him by provoking Gneliōn in the wilderness.

And they tempted El in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Yea, they spake against Elohim; they said, Can El furnish a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

Therefore Jehovah heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

Because they believed not in Elohim, and trusted not in his salvation:

Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of. the corn of heaven.

Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

The wrath of Elohim came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after EL

And they remembered that Elohim was their rock, and Gneliōn El their redeemer.

Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.

But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert

Yea, they turned back and tempted El, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods that they could not drink.

He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.

He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

Yet they tempted and provoked Gneliōn Elohim, and kept not his testimonies:

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

When Elohim heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

Then Adonay awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever.

He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

An historic enigma. He that can blend 2 Sam. 22 and 23, an absolute promise and covenant secured to man in the Messiah—alone can read it. Israel blessed under the law fails;—its blessing secured by electing love under Messiah.

78:1, 2 Appeal to my people in a similitude in dark sayings of old; 3 we heard it, our fathers told us, 4 we will tell their children of Jehovah, and 5-8 his doings for Israel that they might live to El. Yet they failed him (9) in battle, 12 in Egypt, 13 in the Exodus, 15-30 in the wilderness as to water, manna, flesh; 31 judgment upon them for unbelief; 36, 37 their hypocrisy, 40 they provoked, 42 they forgat Egypt smitten and 52 themselves brought forth; 54 in the land, 55 heathen cast out and they planted, &c. All failed in them and he judged them. But if, 67-73 Joseph and Ephraim were refused—Judah, Zion and David were chosen.

Psalm 79

A Psalm of Asaph.

O Elohim, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

How long, Jehovah? wilt thou be angry forever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

Help us, O Elohim of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their Elohim? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Adonay.

So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations.

79:1-4 Thy inheritance occupied by the goïm (heathen), temple defiled, city in heaps, they servants slain, a scorn to all around. 5-13 How long! judgment invoked on the goïm; favor, for thy name's sake on thy people, and so, Praise.

Psalm 8

To the chief Musician upon Gittith [qy. the wine-vat],

A Psalm of David.

O Jehovah our Lord [Adonim], how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [elohim], and hast crowned him with glory and honor.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O Jehovah our Lord [Adonim], how excellent is thy

name in all the earth!

Messiah rejected here below, owned as Son of Man on high.

8:1 Jehovah our Lord [Adonim], thy name in the earth, thy glory above the heavens thou hast set; thy ways; 3-9 among thy works what is man [Enosh, man in weakness; not Adam nor Ish], or the son of Adam [man].

NOTE.-Ver. 9 gives but half of ver. 1.

Psalm 80

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth [or, lilies of

testimony], A Psalm of Asaph.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.

Turn us again, O Elohim, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors: and our enemies laugh among themselves.

Turn us again, O Elohim of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.

Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

Return, we beseech thee, O Elohim of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;

And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

Turn us again, O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Does piety seek here to replace historic Israel in its former blessing (ver. 1 and 2 compared with Psa. 78:67) and faith then come in, in ver. 17?

80.-The vine, historically, desolate. 1 Titles, 2, 3 Save! 4-7 Nothing but discipline! 8-16 its history; 17-19 the man of thy right hand is alone root of blessing for us.

Psalm 81

To the chief Musician upon Gittith [qy., the wine-vat], A Psalm of Asaph.

Sing aloud unto Elohim our strength: make a joyful noise unto the Elohim of Jacob.

Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbre, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the Elohim of Jacob.

This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard

a language that I understood not.

I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

There shall no strange el be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange el.

I am Jehovah thy Elohim, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

The haters of Jehovah should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever.

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

81:1-5 We invoke to praise Elohim upon the former basis of blessing; 6-10 Jehovah recites his dealings with them; 11-16 they would not hear, and were judged.

Psalm 82

A Psalm of Asaph.

Elohim standeth in the congregation of the mighty [or, of El]; he judgeth among the gods [elohim].

How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the

earth are out of course.

I have said, Ye are gods [or, elohim]; and all of you are children of Gneliōn.

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Arise, O Elohim, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

82:1Elohim judges in the assembly of El and among the elohim (comp. ver. 6 and John 10:34, 35, and supra); his judgment of them and 3, 4 of their duty; 5-7 their state and that of the earth (qy., land); 8 he must judge to possess it and the goim.

Psalm 83

A Song or Psalm of Asaph.

Keep not thou silence, O Elohim: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O El.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them of from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

For they have consulted together with one consent: a they are confederate against thee:

The tabernacles of' Edoui, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tire;

Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.

Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zeba, and as Zalmunna:

Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of Elohim in possession.

O my Elohim, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.

As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;

So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah.

Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art Gneliōn over all the earth.

83.-Faith and the Spirit, amid a general confederacy (ver. 1-8) against Israel (4) and the houses of Elohim (12), counts (9-17) on Elohim, El (1) against his enemies (2), the wicked (3), that (18) Jehovah may be known as alone Gneliōn on the earth.

Psalm 84

To the chief Musician upon Gittith [qy., the wine-vat], A Psalm

for the sons of Korah.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of Hosts!

My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living El.

Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King, and my Elohim.

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before Elohim.

O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O Elohim of Jacob. Selah.

Behold, O Elohim our shield, and look upon the face of thy Messiah.

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Elohim, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For Jehovah Elohim is a sun and shield: Jehovah will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

84:1-3 Faith and the Spirit long after the dwelling places, &c., of Jehovah of hosts, my King and my Elohim [Qy.—Should it not be v. 2 "El, (yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,") even thine altars, &c.; 4—7 the blessings en route to Zion. 8—9 Elokim of Jacob., look on the face of thy Messiah; 10—12 I long after him who is the blessing of those that trust in him.

Psalm 85

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Jehovah, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

Turn us, O Jehovah of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Wilt thou be angry with us forever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Show us thy mercy, O Jehovah, and grant us thy salvation.

I will hear what El Jehovah will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and lo peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Yea, Jehovah shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

85:1-3 Brought to the land and pardoned, 4-7 we want our souls restored; 8-13 according to the fullness of blessing of his salvation.

Psalm 86

A Prayer of David.

Bow down thine ear, O Jehovah, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my Elohim, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.

Be merciful unto me, O Adonay: for I cry unto thee daily.

Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Adonay, do I lift up my soul.

For thou, Adonay, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

Give ear, O Jehovah, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

Among the gods [or, elohim] there is none like unto thee, O Adonay; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Adonay; and shall glorify thy name.

For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art Elohim alone.

Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

I will praise thee, O Adonay my Elohim, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from-the lowest hell.

O Elohim, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

But thou, O Adonay, art an El full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.

Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, Jehovah, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

86:1-7 Weak, and amid trouble, I call on thee; 8-10 all nations must come and worship; 11-13 teach thou me, my deliverer; 14 the proud are against me, 15-17 yet I hope in thyself.

Psalm 87

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.

My foundation is in the holy mountains.

Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of Elohim. Selah.

I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tire, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.

And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and Gneliōn himself shall establish her.

Jehovah shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.

As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

None like Zion.

87:1-3 Jehovah loves Zion, which, he has founded; 4-6 Faith reckons its citizenship an honor, so does Jehovah; 7 praise around, and my heart within concurs.

Psalm 88

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath [or, sickness of] Leannoth [or, wormwood], Maschil [or, giving instruction] of Heman the Ezrahite.

O Jehovah Elohim of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Jehovah, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But unto thee have I cried, O Jehovah; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Jehovah, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

88:1 Cry to Jehovah Elohim of my salvation; 2 sense of exclusion; 3 of inward trouble; 4 and of outward; 5-7 thou against me; 8 thy hand against me, and so 9-18 faintness and affliction and desolateness.

Psalm 89

Maschil [or, giving instruction] of Ethan, the Ezrahite.

I will sing of the mercies of Jehovah forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

For I have said, Mercy shall be -built up forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,

Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Jehovah: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

For who in the heaven can be compared unto Jehovah? who among the sons of the mighty [or, of the elim] can be likened unto Jehovah?

El is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

O Jehovah Elohim of hosts, who is a strong Jah like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?

Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.

Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.

The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them.

The north and south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they is shall walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance.

In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favor our horn shall be exalted.

For Jehovah is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.

Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:

With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.

The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.

And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.

But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand so in the rivers.

He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my El, and the rock of my salvation.

Also I will make him my firstborn, Gneliōn to [or, higher than] the kings of the earth.

My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;

If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.

It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thy Messiah.

Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou host profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

Thou host broken down all his hedges; thou host brought his strongholds to ruin.

All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbors.

Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.

Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and lust not made him to stand in the battle.

Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.

The days of his youth host thou shortened: thou host covered him with shame. Selah.

How long, Jehovah? wilt thou hide thyself forever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

Remember how short my time is: wherefore host thou made all men in vain?

What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

Adonay, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth

Remember, Adonay, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Jehovah; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thy Messiah.

Blessed be Jehovah for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

89:1, Joy in mercies of Jehovah and 2 in mercy; 3 and 4 (Jehovah speaks) "I have made a covenant with mine elect one; my oath is to my servant David: thy seed will I establish,"&c.; 5-14 (faith in the remnant replies) joy in him and his works; 15-18 thine a blessed people; 19-37 the covenant, its unalterableness and certainty in thee; 38-45 but experience and fact seem to say thou hast abhorred Messiah and made void the covenant and all seems lost. 46 How long, Jehovah, have thine enemies reproached the footsteps of thy Messiah,. 52 Praise.

Psalm 9

To the chief Musician upon Muth-labben [or, concerning death for the son], A Psalm of David.

I will praise thee, O Jehovah, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Gnelion.

When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever

and ever.

O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

But Jehovah shall endure forever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. Jehovah also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Jehovah, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

Sing praises to Jehovah, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:

That I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

Jehovah is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget Elohim.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Jehovah; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.

Put them in fear, O Jehovah: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

9:1, 2 I will praise Jehovah and sing the name of Gnelion; 3-20 my enemies fall before him maintaining my right: he is on the throne of judgment, all evil shall perish, O thou enemy; and the poor and needy shall be delivered.

9 and 10. give a view of the last days and of the faithful then, and show how judgments will become the deliverance of those that believe.

Psalm 90

(* Fourth Book (Psalms 90-106). In connection with the bringing of the Only-begotten into the world.)

BOOK IV No. 1. Psa. 90 A Prayer of Moses the man of Elohim.

Adonay, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art El.

Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Return, O Jehovah, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

And let the beauty of Jehovah our Elohim be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

For any among the twelve tribes, near before Psa. 91

90:1, 2 A meditation on Adonay always our dwelling place; from before all worlds, from everlasting to everlasting, El; 3-6 turning off and turning back man, 7-9 thy wrath for our sins, 10 the nothingness of our days! 12-17 Prayer.

Does "them" (ver. 5) refer to " children of men" (ver. 3), or to "years" (ver. 4). Ver. 11, "even according to thy fear, thy wrath" qy., "the fear we have of thee, so thy wrath appears," or, " as terror now so wrath to come."

Psalm 91

HE that dwelleth in the secret place of Gneliōn shall abide under the shadow of Shadday.

I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress: my Elohim in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made Jehovah, which is my refuge, even Gneliōn, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

Messiah owns the Elohim of Israel as His; therefore the promises are made His.

91:1 Oracular enigma," The dweller, in the secret of Gneliōn, shall abide under the shadow of Shadday." 2 Messiah replies, "I will say to Jehovah, My refuge, and my rock; my Elohim; in him will I trust." 3-13 The Spirit through a seer, or a remnant. 14-16 Shadday speaks.

Psa. 101 and 102 and 103 are in continuation of this Psalm.

Ver. 9 (compare with ver. 2) said to Messiah "for that thou [sayest] to Jehovah, 'My refuge,' thou hast set Gneliōn [as] thy defense."

Psalm 92

A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Gneliōn:

To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

For thou, Jehovah, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

O Jehovah, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed forever:

But thou, Jehovah, art most high for evermore.

For, lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those that be planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our Elohim.

They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

To show that Jehovah is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

92:1-3 Praise to Jehovah Gneliōn, 4, 5 through grace and Jehovah's working; 6-15 unknown to the fool, who grows up for destruction, while the righteous grows up for Jehovah.

Psalm 93

Jehovah reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; Jehovah is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.

Jehovah on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Jehovah, forever.

93:1 Jehovah reigns in glory: the world is established, 2 thy throne established of old—thou from everlasting, 3 the foods have risen and been heard, 4 Jehovah is mightier than they, 5 his testimonies are sure: holiness becomes his house.

Psalm 94

Jehovah El, to whom vengeance belongeth; O El, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself.

Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

Jehovah, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah, and afflict thine heritage.

They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

Yet they say, Jah shall not see, neither shall the Elohim of Jacob regard it.

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Jah, and teachest him out of thy law;

That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

For Jehovah will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

Unless Jehovah had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Jehovah, held me up.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

But Jehovah is my defense; and my Elohim is the rock of my refuge.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, Jehovah our Elohim shall cut them off.

Invocation based upon ver. 20, the throne of iniquity cannot have fellowship with thee.

94:1 El of revenge [? requitals], Jehovah El of requitals, show thyself, 2 judge of the land, rewarder of the proud; 3-7 how long endure the wicked against thee and thine; 8-11 appeal to the wicked, 12-15 comfort for the upright, 16-23 Jehovah our Elohim is the deliverer and the judge.

Psalm 95

Come, let us sing unto Jehovah: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

For Jehovah is a great El, and a great King above all gods [or, elohim].

In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before Jehovah our maker.

For he is our Elohim; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice,

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

95:1-3 Praise and worship invoked to Jehovah El, great as a king above all elohim, 4-7 possessor and creator of heaven and earth our Elohim and we the sheep of his hand. 7-11 Appeal to those still not practically thus, to remember those who provoked him in the wilderness.

Psalm 96

O sing unto Jehovah a new song: sing unto Jehovah, all the earth.

Sing unto Jehovah, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.

For Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods [or, elohim].

For all the gods [or, elohim] of the nations are idols: but Jehovah made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Give unto Jehovah, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto Jehovah glory and strength.

Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

O worship Jehovah in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth..

Say among the heathen that Jehovah reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice

Before Jehovah: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

96:1, 2 All called to rejoice and worship Jehovah; 3 and 10 tell his glory among the heathen, 13 he comes to judge the earth.

Psalm 97

Jehovah reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.

The hills melted like wax at the presence of' Jehovah, at the presence of the lord [adon] of the whole earth.

The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods [or, elohim].

Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, El Jehovah.

For thou, Jehovah, art high [or, Gneliōn] above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods [or, elohim].

Ye that love Jehovah, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

97:1-6 Jehovah comes in all the glory of the Adon of the whole earth; 7 idolatry judged. 8 Zion and Judah rejoice; 9 his glory; 10-12 exhortation to Nazariteship.

Psalm 98

O sing unto Jehovah a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

Jehovah hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our Elohim.

Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Sing unto Jehovah with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before Jehovah, the King.

Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Before Jehovah; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

98:1-3 Jehovah's victory and salvation before the heathen and world, for Israel, 4-9 to be owned before all as Jehovah the king and joyed in; he comes as Judge.

Psalm 99

Jehovah reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

Jehovah is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.

Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.

The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.

Exalt ye Jehovah our Elohim, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.

Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon Jehovah, and he answered them.

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.

Thou answeredst them, O Jehovah our Elohim: thou wast an El that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.

Exalt Jehovah our Elohim, and worship at his holy hill; for Jehovah our Elohim is holy.

99:1-4 Jehovah reigns, sitting between the cherubim, in Zion; the king; 5-9 call to exalt him, historic tokens.

Psalms 120-134: Fifteen Songs of Degrees

Fifteen songs of degrees, giving the process and way of their being brought back in peace into the presence of Jehovah.

A Few Leading Thoughts as to the Book of Psalms

Most of the Psalms are expressions afore-prepared by the Supreme Being for His earthly people-expressions of sentiments produced in their hearts, in and by circumstances through which they have to pass.

Among His people I include here the Messiah Himself.

These expressions give us, in truth, the part which the Spirit takes, as working in the hearts of saints for the earth, amid their sorrows and exercises, and even in their human infirmities and failures, of which, of course, the Messiah had none; and He thus gives, beforehand, the thoughts of faith, and the truth suited to all that happens.

Observe here, lst. These expressions belong to the godly remnant in Judah and Israel in the last days. 2ndly. It is the spirit of Messiah-the spirit of prophecy which so speaks.

3rdly. While the sins of the people would morally hinder their having confidence in God amid their distresses, yet He alone can deliver them, and to Him they must look in integrity of heart.

In sum, then, the Psalms are the expression of the spirit of the Anointed One, either in the Jewish remnant, or in saints in Israel, or in His own person as suffering for them, in view of the counsels of Elohim with respect to His elect earthly people.

C. Observe, too, that the positions in which Messiah suffers are three:-

1st. From man for His righteousness and love, and for His testimony in that which is goodiby which He revealed God. Here He calls for vengeance.

2ndly. From God for sin. Here He is all alone; and blessing and grace the result.

3rdly. From Satan's power and darkness, and the anticipation of death, besides what is referred to in Heb. 2:10. God had not yet given up Israel; but their state was judicially dealt with under His government. Devils and leprosy, sickness and famine, etc., filled the land, as well as the sword of, and tribute to, Caesar heavy upon them, and ten and a half tribes gone, no one knew where. Christ went through that which enables Him to be afflicted in all the afflictions of His own people, and will enable Him to sympathize with them hereafter (Heb. 5:7-9), when as the angel of Jehovah's presence, He comes to save them.

At the close of His life-we may say, from after the paschal supper-He bare in principle, in His soul, all the distress and affliction under which Israel will come through the government of God-not condemnation, but still the consequences of their sin.

In John 12 He anticipated it, but, afterward entered into it.

It was apostate Israel's hour and the power of darkness; and He looked to the Father-not yet forsaken.

The Book of the Psalms contains five books

Book 1.,1.-41. gives the state as a whole of the Jewish remnant, or of those of it who are not driven out of Jerusalem, and hence of Messiah Himself, as connected with it. We have thus more of His personal history in it than in all the rest.

Book 2., 42.-72., views the remnant as cast out of Jerusalem.—Messiah's place is with them, and so they—hope. His coming in restores them, in the view. of prophecy, to relationship with Jehovah-a people before Him, xlv., xlvi. Previously, when cast out, they speak of Elohim rather than of Jehovah. In li. they own the nation's guilt in rejecting Him.

Book 3.,73.-89., shows the deliverance and restoration of Israel as a nation: Jerusalem-at the close being the center of His blessing and government.

78. electing grace stands in royalty when all seems lost.

88. the dread- effects of being under law.

89. all mercies centering in Messiah-longed for.

Book 4.,90.-106., Jehovah at all times the dwelling 'place of Israel: they look for Him to deliver. For this the Abrahamic names of El Shaddai and Gnelion are introduced. Messiah comes in and says, " I own them in Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel.". There He is found. Then there will be judgment on the wicked and 'deliverance of the righteous.' The full divine nature of Messiah, once cut off, is made the ground of His having the blessings: He is unchangeable, Jehovah. Then, blessing 'on Israel and creation, and judgment on the solm-but all of that mercy which had so often spared them.

Book 5.,107.-150., a kind of moral on all: 'the close triumphant praise.

Note-It is common in the Psalms for the beginning of a psalm to give its thesis, and the after-verses to give that which the spirit passed through in reaching it. This remark will be found often to help the reader in a psalm.

The same principle is true as to the Psalms in their consecutive order; and, perhaps, as a book.

Some great truth is brought forward (as in i. and ii.), and then a series of Psalms follow (as expressing the sentiments of the remnant; and then the issue (as in Psa. 8).

Let us now turn to the First Book, (1.-41. 41 Psalms), and 1st. as to the general structure. Psa. 1 to 8. give the basis of the whole Five Books.

3.- 7. a series-thoughts produced thereby in the faithful (A), closing with a new fact in the result in the purposes of God.

And 10. state of facts in the latter days.

11.-15. a series: compare 3.-7. (B.)

16.-24. Messiah, and the whole Divine testimony; Messiah crucified-atonement.

25.-39. a series (C); compare (A) and (B).

Messiah's intervention.

His people's blessing.)

Then, 1., the standard of man's walk on earth raised; and

2. Messiah, earth-rejected, but heaven-owned.

(3-4)The thoughts and feelings of the faithful thereupon.)

8. The Son of Man glorified in heaven.

9.,10. The basis of what follows to end of xv., being the historic condition of the remnant in the latter day.

(11.-15. thoughts and feelings to which that condition gives rise.)

16.-24. Messiah entering into the circumstances of the faithful few; the testimonies of Elohim; the sufferings of Messiah, and the final manifestation of His glory when He is owned as Jehovah on His return.

The faithful few are seen in17.,20.,23.; creation and law as testimonies in xix.; Messiah the main subject of the rest.

(25.-39. Thoughts and feelings of the faithful few thereunder.)

40.,41. The true source of Messiah's intervention in the counsels and plans of Elohim; His place in humiliation and the blessing of him who can enter into that, His humiliation, and that of the believing ones associated with Him.

Observe-The point of departure of the feeling and of the whole of what is said-is any godly Jew whatever in the latter days. Into that Messiah has entered in His

own way. But the point of moral departure is always, the remnant and their state.

To take it now more in detail:-

The first- verse or few first verses generally give the thesis of a psalm.

1. The godly and their blessing under divine government; judgment of the ungodly; moral government on earth made good by judgment in Israel.

2. Messiah, and the counsels of Jehovah as to Him.7. the remnant in their moral traits thereon, and position.)

3. the condition in general in contrast with IL; and faith a stay.

4. appeals to righteousness; also, in Him, and in themselves.

5. cry to Him who discerns between good and evil.

6. appeal to mercy for selves, and judgment on the wicked.

7. cry to Him who judges the righteous and will judge the wicked. How long?

8. Son of Man owned as set over all things.

(9. and10. there are 1st, the humble; 2ndly, the golm; 3rdly, the wicked,9. 5, and x. 15 and 16; the 2nd and 3rd perish together.)

9. Jehovah's intervention in judgment for His own.

10. position of the sorrow and trial of the remnant till Jehovah arises.

Note the character of the wicked (Jew) as to idols and Babylon, and as to Messiah: ver. 12, the humble cry. ver. 16, Jehovah, king forever.

(11.-15. founded on ix. and x.; circumstances.)

(11.-15. the remnant in their thoughts and feelings.)

11. What can the righteous do when evil reigns in Jehovah's land? He is in heaven and loves righteousness.

12. He will cut off the proud and deceitful lips.

13. How long, Jehovah! My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

14. He will judge from heaven, for Elohim is in the generation of the righteous.

15. Who shall then abide with Him? The upright in heart.

(16.-24. Messiah's place as to the remnant.)

16. Messiah takes formally His own place in grace among the remnant. In thee I trust.

17. the Spirit of Messiah in the remnant, and in Himself amid the wicked. Hear the right.

18. His humiliation the way to and basis of the deliverance and exaltation of Israel, from Egypt till the millennial reign.

19. Testimonies to God. Creation and the law of Jehovah.

20. the remnant associate themselves with Messiah in His sufferings. See18. And 19.

21. the answer on high to the 20th.

22. Messiah has suffered for sin from God: God glorified about sin will bless man.

23. confidence in the shepherd, Jehovah (compare xvi.). He knows what to give us.

24. the character of those who will have a part with Jacob (comp. xvii.): glory on earth.

(25.-31. the position of the remnant on a new ground and a different footing.)

25. the remnant, 1 and 2, trust; 3, waiting; 4, 5, guidance; 6, mercy; 7-11, pardon of sins; 9, the meek; 12-14, the fearers' hopes; 15-21, the meek one.

26. integrity and trust in Jehovah pleaded; and separation sought from the wicked.

27. 1-6, the confidence of the believer; 7-12, cry of distress. Singleness of eye, and the call " Seek ye my face;" and waiting.

28. cry, not to be confounded with the wicked; 6, Jehovah hears; 7, His Messiah.

29. Let the mighty hear the mightier voice of Jehovah. He has a temple and a people.

30. Trust in Jehovah better than trust in prosperity; 3-9, a living people to be blessed upon earth.

31. trust and righteousness and looking for guidance for His name's sake, and for deliverance from enemies.

32. forgiveness of sins, on confession-and no guile. His eye guides.

33. the full result of deliverance is celebrated. He is the joy of the upright.

34. His government is sure: faith can praise at all times.

35. deliverance sought to the praise of Jehovah in Israel restored.

36. warning to the conscience-less wicked. Jehovah my trust they are fallen.

37. Wait on Him and keep His way, and all is yours.

38. and 39. Governmental rebuking for sins lies on the remnant. Full chastening for sins from the rod of government has reached the sheep of the flock, outwardly and then inwardly.

38. under the stroke of Jehovah, disgrace, shame, and fear, felt and accepted.

under the stroke of Jehovah the emptiness of all flesh felt and owned.

40. waiting on Jehovah, Messiah is delivered. He alone has done His whole will (comp. Phil. 2:6-8).

41. Blessed the man who knows this place of the poor of the flock.

Resume-Thus we have (1.-n 8.) the whole scene in. its principles and result in the purpose of God. 9.,10. the historical circumstances of the Jews in the latter day, whose state forms the groundwork and subject of the whole book. Their state shown, we then have the way of Messiah traced. His life is passed in review; but especially its close.

End of the. First Book.

F(*Verse 13.-" Blessed be Jehovah God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.")

Book 2 (42.-72., 31 Psalms) gives us the godly cast out of Jerusalem-their anguish, and faith, and hope of restoration. Messiah's deliverance and previous humiliation. The glorious and yet lowly One, and then royal rule in David's line established in Israel.

This ends the dealings of the remnant in the land, looked at as apart from the rests

42. Cast out by the heathen, the godly pants after

God; hopes in Him, and (43.) longs for the holy hill, tabernacle, altar.

(44.-48. from their first appeal to God to their re-establishment in Zion.49. a comment thereon.)

44. Faith looks back; that gives faithfulness, and this gives hope in God.

45. Messiah comes in and takes the throne.

46. the God of Jacob is then a refuge. He has His city, etc., on earth. He is with us.

47. He is a great king over all the earth.

48. Mount Zion the center of all the blessing.

49. man and all his glory fades; but God is great as a redeemer.

(50. and 51. the separative judgment in Israel connected with sin against God; the remnant's confession.)

50. (1 and 2, thesis). God's arraignment of His earthly people.

51. The true remnant's confession.

(52.-64. the exercises of the remnant; the trial side to faith; lxv.—lxvii. the bright side to faith and hope.)

52. the wicked man will not abide, for the goodness of God abides.

53. God looks down from heaven upon the infidel scoffers.

54. Save, God! for the sake of Thy name, from strangers outside and oppressors inside. Jehovah my praise!

55. anguish from faith finds rest in God. Jehovah will save.

56. the tears of the godly amid the bitter enmity of

the wicked are put into God's bottle. He will keep our feet from falling.

57. God a refuge. His wings a covert till all evil is overpast.

58. Righteousness was asleep in the congregation. Judgment sought.

59. Lord God of Israel, awake to visit. All the heathen against me; slay them not, lest my people forget.

60. 0 God! Thou hast cast us off; turn Thyself to us again. Through Thee we shall do valiantly.

61. from the ends of the earth I cry to thee; Thou bast heard my desires.

62. My soul waits upon God; from Him my salvation: how long?

63. in a land of drought, Thy loving-kindness better than life; my lips praise; Thou my help; the shadow of Thy wings my joy.

64. the enemy shoots at the perfect: God will shoot at him. His judgment shall be owned of all. (65.-67. see above, above 52.)

65. Praise still is dumb in Zion; yet to Thee shall all come; Thy chosen, we shall dwell with Thee.

66. His intervention in judgment: purging the souls of His own.

67. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him,

(That which follows gives the introduction of Israel into its position.)

68. God at the head of His people; their joy and the shame of the wicked. His character as so doing known of old. The Lord ascended up on high to receive; gives as man, and for rebellious man, Himself-the root of it all. Israel restored.

69. but the pathway into the same blessedness (68.) is moral glory proved in the depths of humiliation. Messiah (as in Psa. 22) was alone, forsaken of God when atonement was made. But having been thus made sin, He can in spirit and heart enter into all the sorrows of the remnant of Israel, into which as under God's government the nation brings itself. It will not be forsaken, then, though judged in time, and He who had been once forsaken can sympathize with the remnant, and pray against the wicked mass.

70. a summing up of the principle on which the spirit speaks in the remnant, and of the association of

Messiah with their sorrows: one poor and needy trusted in God.

71. the sum of all God's ways with Israel from the beginning. He will not leave them at the last in the depths.

the full reign of peace and royal blessing.

End of the Second Book.

Book 3, (78.- 89., 17 Psalms) takes up Israel as well as Judah; but only the remnant in Israel. There is only one " Psalm of David" in it. The history of the nation as such is given, still a true-hearted remnant is distinguished. Christ, Israel, and general principles.

"God is good to Israel, to such as are of a clean heart." The prosperity of the wicked perplexes a good man's mind, till he goes into the sanctuary and sees the end.

74. 0 God, why hast Thou cast us off forever? They have cast fire into Thy sanctuary. Arise! plead Thine own cause.

75. When Messiah receives the congregation He will judge uprightly.

76. In Judah is God known; His name great in Israel; terrible to the kings of the earth.

77. The godly man goes back in trouble to the faithfulness of old of the Most High to Israel: the ways of God with himself.

78. The history of Israel's failure under law, and the security of blessing on the principle of electing love.

79. The heathen lay waste Jerusalem. Wilt Thou let them say, Where is now their God?

80. Israel under the shepherd care of God, as in the wilderness. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand.

81. Israel, supposing itself upon the old historic ground, is judged for unfaithfulness.

82. God judges the judges of the earth, and even of the land.

83. God invoked to judge the confederacy, that men may know that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth.

84. joy in the prospect of appearing in Zion.

85. restored to the land, they look for the full blessing of millennium rest.

86. the meek yet confiding expectation of a godly soul, of blessing from Jehovah.

87. Jehovah loves Zion; reckons the Redeemer and the redeemed to her as children: all my springs are in Thee.

88. looking to a Savior from utter ruin and condemnation in self, under law.

Jehovah's mercies centered in and clustering round Messiah, when men had no claim to any blessing.

End of the Third Book -

Book 4*, (90. -106., 17 Psalms). The coming of Messiah; this connects the nation with Messiah, as well as with Jehovah.

(90. the nation looking to Adonay's return to bless them, that His beauty may be on them. 91. the connection of Messiah as a man on this earth with the nation. 92. gives, in prophetic celebration the great result into which 93.-100. enter in the whole establishment of it. 101. And 102. deeply interesting details as to Messiah. 103. and civ. the general result as illustrating Jehovah's ways as to Israel and the earth. cv. And 106. His dealings from the first, and Israel's ways with Him.)

(*Book 4 is not so separated from the 3rd, as are the 1st, and the 2nd, and the 3rd books from each other. The 1st gives the principles of the position of the Jewish Remnant in connection with the history of the Messiah; the 2nd their casting out; the 3rd the condition of Israel as a nation restored to the land: this, in reality, involves the hope of the coming of Messiah, which is the subject of the 4th.)

90. The believing people's faith in AdOnay ever their-dwelling place; His works.

91. Messiah confesses Jehovah as His God; and the promised blessing is declared His.

92. celebration of the open display of the results of xci.

93. Jehovah reigns; He is mightier than the wicked. His testimonies sure and holy.

94. cry to Jehovah the God of vengeance to show. Himself as against the wicked.

95. Oh, come, let us [Israel] sing unto Jehovah.

96. all the earth is bidden to come, in the spirit of the everlasting gospel.

97. His coming is now celebrated. His judgments in power precede Himself.

98. Jehovah has made known His salvation and mercy to Israel.

99. He is sitting between the cherubim in Zion. e. all the earth, or land, called to come and praise.

100. all the earth, or land, called to come and praise

101. He declares how He will govern His house and land.

102. the contrast between the isolation of the man of sorrows, and the divine glory of the same; and glory.

(103.-104. the results and the covenant in grace, and the responsibility of Israel's history. 103. the voice of Messiah in Israel is praise as to Jehovah's dealings with them. civ. the same in creation. cv. God's ways in grace from Abraham to the giving of the land, now to be possessed in grace. cvi. Israel's ways from first to last; but looking for Jehovah's mercy which endures forever.)

103. forgiveness and salvation for the remnant'; the blessing from Jehovah.

104. Jehovah as creator of the earth: sinners will be consumed out of it.

105. Thanks to Jehovah who gave unconditional promises to Abraham, and acts in grace to Israel.

(N.B.-The previous book does not go back beyond Moses.)

Praise Jehovah; His mercy forever: we have sinned with our fathers; but He is our. Savior. Praise ye Him.

(As the 3rd so the 4th- book speaks of all Israel, not only of mere Jewish circumstances.)

End of the Fourth Book.

Book 5, (107.-150.). The people restored; a survey of God's ways, and a divine comment on it all, ending in praise.

107. The goodness of Jehovah. Israel redeemed from the enemy and brought back from every land: His mercy forever. In temporal things on earth.

108. I praise God, and will praise Him among the nations and all races: He will deliver all our heritage. for us.

109. imprecation on the apostate; but Jehovah stands at the right hand of the poor who trusts Him.

110. Jehovah exalts Messiah at His right hand on high„ until He sets Him in Zion as Melchizedek.

(.111.-113 a hallelujah as to Jehovah's ways in delivering Israel.)

111. Jehovah's works glorious: He has brought redemption to His people; and His fear the beginning of wisdom.

112. Blessed the man that fears Him: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

113. Praise for the same, only " for evermore," and " from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same."

114. The presence of Jehovah with His people, as in the redemption from Egypt.

115. Cry to Jehovah to glorify His name in contrast to idols and to Israel (blessed of Him), and those that fear Him to trust in Him.

116. I love Jehovah; He brought me up from the grave's mouth, and saved me from despair.

117. the nations to praise Jehovah for His mercy to us (Israel).

118.Compassed by nations, thrust sore at by the enemy, chastened sore of Jehovah-yet am I delivered. The gate of Jehovah. The rejected stone now made head-of the corner. The day made by Him. Blessed is He that comes in the name of Jehovah.

119. the law written in their hearts, they confess they had gone astray.

Aleph. Blessed the returner who walks with the Lord. Beth. The word associates with God-cleansing. Gimel. Leaning on Divine mercy, if the law is in the heart.

Daleth. Soul cleaves to the dust: the word quickens.

He. Looking for Divine guidance and teaching.

Vau. For establishment before adversaries through instruction.

Zain. Reckoning upon the word of Jehovah-is strength: for

Cheth. Thus, Jehovah is my portion; those that fear Him my companions.

Teth. I can look upon circumstances with God's eye and mind.

Yod. Thou art my Creator; thou wilt guide me even through afflictions.

Caph. My soul faints for Thy deliverance from evil.

Lamed. But for Thy word I should have perished in affliction.

Mem. Joy in the law, and its effects on the intelligence.

Nun. It guides and comforts me in spite of enemies and snares; and

Samech. Gives the horror of vain thoughts, and terror at the judgments on wickedness.

Ain. Cry to Jehovah to work; they have made void Thy law.

Pe—-Schin. Give the effects of love to Jehovah's law and testimonies; its value; His trials, walk, grief at transgressors. He looks for teaching, quickening, keeping, and holds fast.

Tau. A general summing up of the whole.

*.. Is this the moral state of Israel in the last days, when, in the land, the law is written in their hearts ere full deliverance and final blessing are come?

(120.-134. Songs of degrees. Israel in the land, but the power of Gog not yet destroyed.)

120. I cried to Jehovah, Save me from the lying lips and deceitful tongue; and was heard.

121. Jehovah, appealed to, is security.

123. Jerusalem, the alone center of blessing.123.. Filled with contempt of the wicked, I wait for Him that dwells in the heavens.

124. had not Jehovah been for us, all, all would have been lost.

125. trust in Jehovah; He judges the wicked, but is peace to Israel.

126. they that sow in tears shall, through Jehovah, reap in joy.

127. all temporal blessings on earth will be from Jehovah.

128. such blessings promised to those that fear and own Him.

129. Jehovah is righteous: by past sorrows He loosened from us the cords of the wicked.

130. forgiveness with Thee that thou mayest be feared.

131. humbled, I have so walked: let Israel trust in Jehovah forever.

132. Grace acted by power in bringing the ark to a sure dwelling-place: and David's seed supplants David's self as root of blessing.

133. the beauty of His people dwelling together in unity under Jehovah.

134. all His servants to bless Jehovah the blesser.

(135. And 136. calls to praise Jehovah and His works.)

135. call to praise Jehovah, God of Jacob and Israel; contrasted with idols.

136. answer to the call.

(Here close the Historical Psalms.)

(137.-150. A sort of supplement.)

137.-144. characteristic sorrows and hopes of blessing and deliverance. cxlv.-cl. millennial praises.

137. the captives' love to Zion, and joy at the thought of the judgment on Babylon and Edom.

138. I will _praise-for mercy, and for Thy truth, and for Thy care of the lowly one.

139. searched by and known to Thee, I can trust

Thee for good.

(140.-144. Israel restored, but in conflict: on the road to full blessing.)

140. Deliver me, O Jehovah, from the wicked. Thouwilt maintain the upright.

141. Jehovah, keep my lips and heart amid the wicked that are to be judged.

142. Jehovah my refuge and my portion amid trouble.

143. cry in extremity for Jehovah's merciful interference for me.

144. Jehovah, my strength! What is man? Give judgment, and there will be blessing.

145. Messiah and the remnant, Spirit-led, in dialog, anticipating the millennium with praise of Jehovah. (146.-150. the full final praise.)

146. commences the full final praises. His character towards Israel in the last days.

147. praise for His mercy to Israel, and that He who rules in creation has shown His word to Jacob.

148. all, and all creation to praise Him who has exalted the horn of His people.

149. praise from the congregation of saints, and joy in Israel; He has given them power to destroy the

heathen.

150. summons to universal praise to Jehovah.

End of the Fifth Book.

PRÉCIS.

No. XIV. CO.LLECTANEUM. 1. FEELING versus FAITH.

" I sat a full twenty minutes by his dying bed; and heard, quietly, all that he had to say about_ his feelings, and how pitiably they were in contrast with mine as expressed in the little hymn which I had given to him:-

"How bright, there above, is the mercy of God!" -

"And void of all guilt, and clear of all sin,

Is my conscience and heart, through my Savior's blood."- "

Not a cloud above "; "not a spot within."

Christ died! then I am clean;

"Not a spot within."

God's mercy and love!

"Not a cloud above."

" Tis the Spirit, thro' faith, thus triumphs o'er sin; -

" Not a cloud above"; "not a spot within."

"He was exhausted and I went away. Curiosity led me, as I sat alone, to take up " Cruden's Concordance," and to look out the two words feel and feeling as repeated by my dying friend, some thirty or forty times in the last ten minutes of my visit, and I read:-

Gen. 27:12, my father will f. me; and 5. 21, that I may f. thee; and v. 22, and he felt him.

To feel here is said of the hand as trying whether a face is smooth or rough.

Ecc. 8. 5, shall feel no evil (marg. know).

Acts 17:27, they might f. after. The Greek word here is rendered Luke 24:39, handle me.

And Heb. 12:18, touched.

And 1 John 1:1, hands have handled.

Eph. 4:19, being past f. The Greek word is αραιςεο* " cast off remorse" would be the best rendering.

Heb. 4:15, which cannot be touched with the f. of our infirmities, lit. (not able) to sympathize with our infirmities.

I called a few days after on my patient, and directed his attention to the facts, first, that his own feelings had usurped, in his mind, the place due to the word of God; secondly, that while he mentioned his feelings to me some thirty times in ten minutes, I had found, as a dry matter of fact, that " Cruden " only gave the words feel and feeling as occurring seven times in the whole Bible; and that not one single one of these occurrences presented the same thing as each of his did, namely, a certain in. ward, morbid feeling,, independent of the faith revealed in God's written word.

Aug. 15th, 1869.

A Study of the Psalms

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

It has pleased the Most High to reveal Himself to us (in that which men call the New Testament), under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19). In this we learn redemption eternal and for Heaven.

Of old, in the Creation of the world, He had revealed His eternal power and Godhead (Rom. 1:20). After the deluge, He made a fresh revelation of Himself in another glory, viz., as in the patience of long-suffering goodness in Providence (Gen. 8:21, 22, and 9: 8-17); the rainbow the memorial of it. Then, again, He displayed Himself and new glories in Government upon the Earth, as the alone One to be worshipped, and as the King to be obeyed, of Israel-His own peculiar nation, which He redeemed for Himself out of Egypt. As the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, was not made known in those times, neither was heaven His dwelling-place thrown open to faith; nor was this done until the Holy Ghost came down on the day of Pentecost, a witness of Jesus, the earth -rejected, -that He was Lord and Christ, and upon the throne on high. The peculiarity of the light vouchsafed to us must not be forgotten, nor the power which has been given to us. The church was not revealed in Old Testament times, nor referred to, nor had the Holy Ghost come down to dwell in it.

Creation, providence and government upon earth were three spheres, each giving its own distinctive testimony; but the testimony of none of them was that which the Son brought forth: He was the truth. Life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily; and His alone it was to say, "he that has seen me has seen the Father also." Man now, and from that time to this, stands under the light of eternity and of heaven opened. The revelation now is of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Eternal redemption, as taught us in the epistle to the Hebrews, had been foreshadowed by a temporal redemption of Israel out of Egypt: but the types and emblems of Old Testament times pointed on to that to which they would have to give place when it came,-whether, first, as applied to the church now, or as, secondly, to be applied hereafter, in its second covenant to Israel. In both applications the leading Personage is one and the same, the Lord Jesus Christ: yet, as presented to us now, while in His present position in heaven, it brings out to light the value and import of His higher divine and heavenly associations in a way that it will not, when it is applied to the House of Israel in the land.

The Psalms contain the proof of this when the subjects of any of them are carefully set in the light of the epistles. Compare the subject opened up in any Psalm with the counterpart of it now, and with the counterpart of it when Israel is restored to the land, and what I have said is clear enough. The principles connected with forgiveness of sins, as laid down in Psa. 32, for instance, are the same as those laid down in Romans chap. 4, and in the Scriptures which tell of Israel's forgiveness; but the light of Heb. 10-Christ upon the throne of the Majesty in the Highest (and the throne of God thus made the mercy-seat)-and my conscience brought there through faith and by the Spirit-transcends infinitely the light found for Israel in the last eight chapters, of Ezekiel -when Jehovah and His restored temple will be known to Israel dwelling in the city Jehovah-Shammah. So again, compare Psa. 103.: and Eph. 1:15, to 2:10, and who will not see that our light about mercy and grace altogether surpasses both David's, and that of the Nation Israel in the day of its glory.

Let me now ask my reader, whether he ever noticed the order in which the Psalms stand? It is, so far as I know, the same in all Hebrew bibles. If you examine it, you will find that the Psalms are not placed in the order of the events which they describe, or to which they refer. In the order in which the events occurred, the cross took place before the resurrection, and before the ascension of the Lord to heaven. But Ps. 2, which describes that which was after (compare Acts 4:25, 26) the cross, is placed before Psa. 22, which gives the crucifixion. The crucifixion, I say, occurred before the Holy Ghost charged man with the sin of rebellion against the Lord and His anointed, heaven-honored though earth-rejected: yet in the order of the Psalms 22 is after 2. And if this is true, when things are looked at in principle, it is only still more obviously so when results in detail are considered; compare Psa. 2:9, in principle true in Acts 4:25, 26, but in full result exhibited in Rev. 2:27. Again, Psa. 22 and 40 are atonement Psalms. The latter is largely quoted in Heb. 10; and the former is a divine description of the sufferings endured by Messiah when on the cross; at least from ver. 1 to 21. Yet these Psalms are placed, among the Psalms, after 2 and 8, the one of which gives us the recognition in heaven of Messiah when Israel on earth had rejected Him, and the other presents His title of glory as Son of man. Peter, and James and John show us the import of Psa. 2., in a result of the cross; Paul, in the Hebrews chap. 2, uses the 8th Psalm as describing, what has resulted from the cross. Take again, Psalms 16 and 17, and compare them with those which precede and which follow them, and then examine the New Testament for the historical order of events; and the same result appears. I need not trace out here this, which I have in study done, as to each of the Psalms.

" Lord, why is this? "-is more according to faith than are the efforts to re-arrange the collection, made by some according to the order of the things predicted, and by others according to the times of writing. Faith would take the book as God gave it, though humbly owning man's wretched unfaithfulness as the keeper of it. Faith knows right well that God's order and man's are not the same. In God, counsel and plan went before work and before revelation too. With man in his fallen state God deals according to the moral condition in presenting truth; and the order in which He dealt with the Apostle of the circumcision was different from that in which He dealt to the Apostle of the uncircumcision.

Thankful as we ought to be for the Authorized Version of the Bible, it is not part of its excellency that the very names used and the various characters under which Divine glory is presented in Scripture-those of Elohim, El, Jehovah, Jah, Shadday, Adonay, etc.-at times each found alone, and at times in combinations together -have not been marked: and, perhaps as a natural result of this, headings have been put to chapters which lead to confusion between the Church and Israel, and between the Gospel to us and Mercy to Israel hereafter. See the headings in Isaiah to chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45; and, in the Psalms the word Church forced into the headings in Psa. 20; 44; 45; 46; 48, 50, 51, 68, 76, 80, 83, 87, 89, 97, 114, 122, 124, 126, 129, 147, 149.

It is the persuasion that if any one searched out the force of these-names and read the book of Psalms in the light which these names cast upon it, light would arise to them such as they have not now, which has led to the present paper. And let me say that to read Scripture in the presence of the Divine glory is a very different thing from reading it in the light of our own private feelings and experiences. All light

is about the Lord Jesus, in one or other display of His glory. We cannot degrade ourselves in holy things more than by putting ourselves as the center or end of the testimony of the word. Lower the Lord in reality we cannot; but lower ourselves by false views of Him and of His Father and ours, and of His God and our God we can; and how many do so through a want of intelligence in the Psalms.

None but He Himself had the right to say, " Go, tell my brethren, behold I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God." None but He could give power to any to enter, through Him, into these two relationships: Himself the revealer of the Father, and Himself God manifest in flesh. These things He did according to His own personal glory and work after His resurrection. Jehovah alone can have the right and the power to renew Jehovah covenant with Israel upon earth; He alone can have the power to do so. The same may be said as to the Elohistic position and blessings for a people or peoples upon earth. The same may be said as to the titles Adonay, Shad-day, etc., even as to all the titles and characteristics found in the Roll of the glories of the Messiah. Is the Anointed dear to me? Do I need to know more about Him? I must take Scripture then as I find it, and if I cannot give up out of the New Testament (John 20:17) " Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and to your God "—as the essential and distinctive portion of the believer now—yet must I let Scripture stand in the Old Testament as it was written, and I shall then find through it further testimony to His glories and to His grace.

"The Hebrews divide the Psalms into five Books: of which the first three end in " Amen and Amen," namely, Psa. 41 last verse; Psa. 72 last verse but one; Psa. 89 last verse. The fourth book ends with Hallelujah, Psa. 106. last verse. The fifth in Hallelujah, Psa. 150 last verse."

Bythner's "Lyre."

I have tried to give, markedly, this subdivision, because when each Psalm is studied under the light of Scripture in general and of the New Testament in particular, it seems to me that internal evidence assigns it in its grand fulfillment to one of five positions in which the blessed Savior, who is the great subject of all testimony, will be known to stand as to Israel.

These five positions are:-

lstly. Messiah earth-rejected but heaven-honored; yet the object of faith to some Israelites in the land and in Jerusalem.

2ndly. As occupied with some who in the land have been rejected for His (Messiah's) sake.

3rdly. As occupied with the ten tribes, who never actually dipped their hands in His blood like the two tribes.

4thly. As coming into the world to take the kingdom and bring Israel into blessing in the land and the Gentiles into blessing under them.

5thly. As acting and regulating everything so as to get His own earthly people, in heart and in mind, into readiness for, and fellowship with Himself of, the blessing in the land on the millennial earth.

The translation is strictly that of the Authorized Version; only the original names of Elohim, El, Jehovah, Jah, Adonay, etc., as found in the Hebrew text, are retained. Also occasional explanatory matter (sometimes taken from the original edition of the Authorized Version, namely, King James's Bible, 1611) is inserted in [ ] brackets. Again, I have added at the foot of each Psalm a running analysis of the contents of it.

As to the respective meanings of these different titles and names of the Most High, and of the glories which attach to them, I would now say a few words. I shall endeavor to find light about them in the Scripture use of them.

1. Elohim Is the Name Used by the Spirit in Giving to Us His Description of the Creation, From " in the Beginning God [Elohim] Created the Heaven and the Earth" (Gen. 1:1-2: 3) to " and God [Elohim] Blessed the Seventh Day," Etc. Paul Also Helps Us in Rom. 1:19, 20-" That Which May Be Known of God Is Manifest in Them [Men]; for God Has 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." Here the Origination of the World, Attributed to Elohim, Is Declared to Be a Manifestation and Proof of His Eternal Power and Godhead.

The word Elohim may be derived from El, power: probably enough: but the important thing is that He, Elohim, displayed, in a given scene, creation, the eternal power and Godhead which is the revelation of His title of Elohim. Supreme power, as its meaning, would suit the use of it in Scripture as applied to the Most High Himself. It suits, too, its application in a secondary sense, either to angels of heaven as being powers that excel in strength to do His commandments; Psa. 8:5 and compare Psa. 97:7 and Heb. 1:6; or to judges in government down here, as in Ex. 21:6, and 22: 8, 9, 9, 28 marg., and 1 Sam. 2:25; or to those to whom the word of Elohim comes, compare John 10:34-36 and Psa. 82:6. Our translators retain the same idea, when it occurs, as they judged, adjectively, as in Gen. 23:6, which they render not "a prince of God," but "a mighty prince;" and see also Ex. 9:28 and 1 Sam. 14:15.

2. the Word Jehovah Is First Found in Gen. 2:4-15, but Not Alone; It Stands Here in Combination With the Title Elohim, Which We Have Been Considering. Man's Distinctive Position As the Head and Center of a System in the Presence of, and in Relationship With, Elohim Is What Introduces Jehovah-Elohim; Term by Which He Is Called on to the End of Chap. 3: 24.

Ex. 6:3 helps us, however, here, " but by my name of Jehovah was I not known to them " (the Patriarchs). To them He appeared as God Almighty (El-Shadday). I cannot doubt that the display which reveals the glory of the compound name of Jehovah-Elohim differs from that which reveals the glory of the single title Elohim, and from that which reveals Jehovah glory. Let anyone examine the three scenes-the character of man's relationship with the Most High and blessing under Him in Eden (Gen. 2:4-15), in the land as redeemed out of Egypt (Exodus), and, as hereafter, when in the land under the second covenant -and he will see how well Jehovah-Elohim, Jehovah, and Jehovah-Elohim-Shadday respectively suit the three displays.

The term Jehovah is never applied to any other than the Most High; it may be derived so as to imply essential existence-the existing one.

3. El.-Its First Occurrence Is in Gen. 14:18-20: "Melchizedek... Priest of El-Gnelion" [or of the Most High God].

Might or power is the meaning of it when used as a common noun; mighty when the adjectival use of it occurs. The spring of the Patriarch's strength was not in himself but in another; his ability to use that strength was in his own separation to that other individually and in every way. The name is one (how well known to us all) in that cry, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." He was the power and the wisdom of God, yet was crucified through weakness. His title, too, was Immanuel (the mighty one with us, Israel). And how could He be that and hide His face from human woe, or from that which lay at the root of all man's woe-sin and guilt before God.

4. Eloah. This Is the Singular Number of the Plural Form Elohim. He It Is Who in Genesis, Chap. 1, Is Revealed As the Creator of Heaven and of Earth, the Arranger and Disposer of That Which He Creates.

The singular form occurs but fifty-seven times, the plural 2,700. In many of the occurrences of the singular form, the context presents more a contrast between the thought of one God and many gods, than between the who the one only true God is, and the what the so-called many are. And thus the abstract notion of Deity, which necessarily excludes plurality, is set in sharp contrast with the absurdity of having many "one firsts" and "one lasts"; and the eternal power and Godhead, traces of whose power and beneficence are still seen in the wreck of creation and in providence, are set in contrast with demons and demoniacal characteristics.

The first occurrence of the word will show this. Deut. 32:15-17: " Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook Eloah [God] which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange (gods), with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto Devils, and not to Eloah; to gods [elohim] whom they knew not, to new (gods) that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not."

Again, Neh. 9:16-19, " Our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks... but thou art a God [Eloah] ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God [elohim] that brought thee out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness."

The three words Elohim, Eloah and El are from one root, and seem, each of them, to convey the idea of power in their meaning. Judging from their use, however, I think three shades of meaning can be traced: that He whom alone we adore has (1) creatorial power, (2) victorious power, and (3) thus, in His very being, stands in contrast with all that are called gods.

5. Adon, Adonim, Adonay.

I give these three words together,-though in use they are very distinct, as we shall see.

A. Adon (lord) first occurs in Gen. 18:12, where Sarah speaks of Abram as " her lord "; and 1 Peter 3:6, says " Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.'" This sense-viz., that of acknowledged deference to a party addressed-whether the superiority be in position under a relationship, as of a husband addressed by a wife, or of a landholder to a foreign prince, of a servant to a master, a subject to a king, etc., etc., is the common use.

But it is used with Elohim-as in Ex. 23:17, thy males shall appear before the Lord [the Adon] Jehovah (read by the Jews here as Lord God): just so, likewise, in chap. 34: 23. In Josh. 3:11, 13, we have the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. Psa. 97:5, at the presence of Jehovah, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. See also Psa. 110:1 and 114:7. In Isa. 1:24, thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts; so in chap. 3:1; so in chap. 10:33 and chap. 10:4; but in Isa. 3:16 the Lord, Adonay of hosts. In Mic. 4:13, their gain to Jehovah and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth; so Zech. 4:14; 6:5 and Mal. 3:1 the Lord... even Jehovah of hosts.

I have given what occurrences I have found of its use in the singular in connection with divine titles. From Acts 2:26, " made lord," and Phil. 2:10, 11, " every tongue shall confess to him that he is Lord," and Heb. 1:2 " appointed heir of all things," we know how the man, God manifest in flesh, Christ Jesus, has been owned on high as owner and Lord of all. Made Lord of all He has been as a man. Jehovah, no one could be made;-that He ever was and is and will be according to His essential divine being.

Adonim (Lords) is the plural of Adon (lord). In Gen. 19:2, Lot addresses two angels as " my lords," so also perhaps in ver. 18; but, here, our translators have not attended to the points, for they give " my lord": now it must, according to the points, be either " my Lords " or " Adonay." It is, however, habitually used in the plural for an individual. In the following places it is used in the plural of the Most High:-

Deut. 10:17. For Jehovah, your Elohim, is Elohim of Elohim

and Lord (Adonim) of Lords (Adonim), the

great El,

Neh. 3:5. the work of their Lord (Adonim).

8: 10. holy unto our Lord (Adonim):

10: 29. Jehovah, our Lord (Adonim),

Psa. 8: 1, 9. O Jehovah, our Lord (Adonim).

45:11. He is thy Lord (Adonim);

135:5. Jehovah is great...our Lord (Adonim) is, etc.

106:3. Give thanks to the Lord (Adonim) of Lords (Adonim):

147:5. Great is our Lord (Adonim),

Isa. 51:22. Thus saith thy Lord (Adonim) Jehovah, and thy Elohim,

Hos. 12:14. his Adonim (Lord) shall return unto him.

C. Adonay, with a long a in the last syllable, is what is called a plural of excellence. The Hebrews would consider it as a sacred name-to be used only of the Most High. The translators of the Authorized Version, in about 430 times that it occurs, render it as if it were not always a plural of excellence but sometimes as a noun and a pronoun. In twelve places they give it as a noun and a pronoun, namely:-

Gen. 18:3. My Lord, if now I have found

Ex. 4:10 ... ... said to Jehovah, O my Lord,

13. and he said, 0 my Lord,

34: 9 O Lord, let my Lord

Num. 14:17. let my Lord be great,

Judg. 6:15. Oh my Lord,

13: 8. O my Lord,

Ezra 10:3. according to the counsel of my Lord,

Psa. 16: 2. Thou (art) my Lord:

35: 23. my God and my Lord.

Isa. 21:8. My Lord, I stand continually

49: 14. and my Lord hath forgotten me.

But, noun with a pronominal affix-this, according to the form of the word (the place in which it occurs in the sentences cited not being at the close, so as to put it in pause), it cannot be. Adonay [or Lord] it had better always be rendered; and I doubt not but that careful students of Scripture will trace a fullness and a weight in the word as used by the Spirit in Scripture which will separate it, in their minds, from Adon the lord, master, proprietor, etc., and perhaps from Adonim the possessor.

It never has a pronoun, nor the article-but is, in this respect, just as the word Jehovah-and I believe is only used of the Most High.

If the translators of the Authorized Version had not appropriated " lord, Lord, Loin" to other uses, I should have been satisfied to have used lord for Adon, in the singular; Lord for Adonim, in the plural; and LORD for Adonay. But as they have bespoken these terms, it may be better to mark the three words in question in some.other ways.

6. Jah.-This Word Occurs Forty-Three Times in the Psalms, and Only Six Times Besides, Viz., Ex. 15:2, and 17:16; and Isa. 12:2, and 26:4, and 38:11,11; in All of Which It Is Printed LORD, Just As the Word Jehovah Ordinarily Is, Though Not so in Isa. 12:2, and 26:4, Where It Stands As Jehovah.

Ex. 15:2. Jah is my strength and song,

17: 16. Jah hath sworn that Jehovah will have war [Note this expression.]

Isa. 12:2. For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song;

26: 9. Trust ye in Jehovah forever: for in Jah Jehovah is the rock of ages:

38:11. I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah, in the land of the living:

7. Shadday.-It Is Always Rendered in the Authorized Version by the Term, " the Almighty;" and I Note Also That the Hebrew Word, Shadday, Has No Synonym; so That " Shadday" Is Not Only Always the Almighty, but Also " the Almighty" Never Represents Any Hebrew Word but " Shadday." in the Psalms It Occurs but Twice, Viz., 68:14, and 91:1. of the Forty-Eight Times It Occurs, Thirty-One Are in the Book of Job. It Is Only Used of the Most High, and the Almighty Is a Sufficient Rendering; or, As Some Derive It, "Almighty in Sustaining-Resources" (As the Mother's Breast for a Babe); This I Prefer.

8. Gnelion Occurs Fifty-Three Times, of Which Twenty-Two Are in the Psalms. As an Appellative It Means High -" the High Gate" (2 Chr. 23: 20, 27: 3), " the High Pool," " the House That Is High" (1 Kings 9:8). Though I Have Referred (See Above) to the Desire of Some to Change Its Application in Daniel (in a Note Under El), Myself I See No Reason for Not Being Satisfied With the Good Old English, " the Most High," As Its Rendering for Him Who Is the High One. It May Be Well for Me to Mark Those Places in the Psalms in Which the Hebrew Word Maroom (Exalted) Is Also Anglicized "Most High," As in Ps. 56:2, and 92:8.

The order in which I have examined these names and titles is Elohim, Jehovah, El, Eloah, Adon, Adonim, Adonay, Jah, Shadday, Gnelion. I shall now, for facility of reference, re-arrange them alphabetically according to the English, putting after the word its number, as in my examination above, and its meaning.

Adon (5/1), Lord in power.

Elohim (1), creatorial power.

Gnelion (8), the High One.

Adonim (5/2), Lord as owner.

El (3), victorious power.

Jah (6),

Adonay (5/3), LORD as in blessing.

Eloah (4), used to mark off the individual who is the true One from all pretenders.

Jehovah (2), a name for relationship in blessing between the self-existent I AM and Israel.

Shadday (7), Almighty in sustaining-resources.

As a rule I do not insert the before Elohim, yet I have left it in the English, in such cases as "the Elohim-of his salvation" (24:5)-" of my salvation" (25:5).

"O" before Jehovah and Elohim, etc., I leave just as it stands in the version I have adopted.

The following verses present the word written in Hebrew (as to the letters of it) as Jehovah, but with the vowel points of Elohim:-Psa. 68:21, and 69:7, and 71:5, 16, and 73:28, and 109:21, and 140:8, and 141:8.

In our Authorized Version we find the " Anointed " in the following places in the Psalms: 2:2, and 18:50, and 20:6, and 28:8, and 84:9, and 89:38, 51, and 105:15, and 132:10, 17.

I change the word Anointed to " Messiah," as being more conventionally correct for the Psalms. Messiah and Christ both mean "the Anointed." The former is Hebrew; the latter Greek. The anointing is consecration: in His case, 1st, as Prophet, for He is the bearer of the word of the Most High; 2ndly, as Priest, the conductor of divine worship; and 3rdly, as King, the conductor of government. " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38).

The following remarks on the meanings of the Hebrew words in the book of Psalms, which have not, in the Authorized Version, been translated, is taken from a paper in " The Present Testimony," vol. 1, No.3, page 46:-

"1. AIJELETH- SHAHAR (Psa. 22 Title.)

"Aijeleth occurs only here and in Prov. 5:19, 'the loving hind'; and Jer. 14:5, 'the hind.' But there are many kindred words which confirm this meaning.

" Shahar occurs about twenty-three times; it means morning, e.g. Gen. 19:15, when the morning arose;' and 32:24 (25), the breaking of the day;' and 26 (27), the day breaketh,' etc.

" The marginal reading for Aijeleth- Shahar, given by the translators, is, hind of the morning.'

" Query? Was this the name of an instrument; or of a tune to which the Psalm was to be sung; or was it rather a name given to the Psalm on account of its subject?

" 2. ALAMOTH Occurs in 1 Chron. 15:20, ' With Psalteries on Alamoth '; Psa. 46 Title, ' a Song Upon Alamoth.'

" The same word Alamoth (which is only the plural of the word commonly used for Virgin, as Isa. 7:14, 'a virgin shall conceive,' etc.), is, however, found, Psa. 68:25, the damsels playing,' etc. Cant. 1:3, The virgins love thee;' Cant. 6:8, Virgins without number.'

"` For the Virgins' (i. e. virgin voices) makes good sense, and accords with modern singing: as we say, for boys' voices.'

" It may, however, be the name of an instrument, or of a tune.

3. AL-TASCHITH Occurs in the Titles of Psa. 57; 58; 59, and 75.

" AL means not, and TASCITH, destroy, as the translator's margin reads Destroy not.'

" Observation must decide whether this was connected with the subject of the Psalms, or whether it was the name of a tune.

4. DEGREES. Though Anglicized Songs of Degrees in Psa. 120-134, a Few Words May Not Be Amiss, Inasmuch As Degrees' Is Nearly As Unintelligible to Some, As Would Mangaloth Be.

" The same word is used in Ex. 20:26, for the steps of an altar, as in 1 Kings 10:19, of a throne; 2 Kings 9:13, the stairs, and 20:9, the degrees of a sundial; 1 Chron. 17:17, a man of high degree; Ezra 7:9, for a journey, began to go up; ' Ezek. 11:5, 'the things which come into your mind;' Amos 9:6, 'he that buildeth his stories in the heaven' (marg. ascensions or spheres). The word from which it is derived means simply, to go up-ascend.

"Luther renders it, in the higher choir', higher, either as to position in which placed, or, perhaps, tone of voice.

"Some have supposed these songs were sung on the steps of the temple; so the LXX., and Vulgate.

" To my own mind, there is an internal evidence in them, of their being written, in grace, for some such times of exercise as when, thrice in the year, the males were to go up from their homes and appear before the Lord. A few of them may also have reference to such goings up as Ezra's from captivity.

5. GITTITH. Psa. 8, 81, 84

"The word Gath, winepress, is by most connected with this word, as the inhabitants of Gath were called Gittites.

" Whether the vat; or Gath, the town; or an instrument of the name; or a tune is referred to; Query?

" Someone suggests that they are all joyous songs, suited to be sung on such an occasion as a harvest-home, or a vintage.

6. HIGGAION. Thus Once Rendered in Psa. 9:16. It Occurs in Three Other Places and the Meditation of My Heart,' Psa. 19:14; ' Harp With a Solemn Sound,' Psa. 92:3; ' and Their Device Against Me,' Lam. 3:62.

"The humming sound of a harp struck, is supposed to correspond to the indistinct thoughts of musing; or the device against one who is hated; for the device, in this case, tells, but indistinctly, the hatred within.

" I do not see why meditation, or solemn sound, or device might not have been put for Higgaion, and the verse anglicized with the addition of some words in italics, as (this was their) meditation, or device: or a solemn sound, (this).

"7. JONATH-ELEM-RECHOKIM Is Only Found Psa. 56 Title.

"Jonah means dove, as in Gen. 8:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; or pigeon, as in Lev. 1:14, etc.

"Elem means bound; the verb, is frequently used to mark silence;: as, I was dumb, Psa. 39:3, 10; but it is applicable to any binding: as, Gen. 37:7, binding sheaves.

"The word Elem only occurs here, where it is commonly said to mean silence, and in Psa. 58:1, where it is rendered Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?' (i. e. mass of persons bound together).

"Rechokim, in Hebrew, is a distinct word from Elem; though, in English, sometimes printed as one with it; it is a participle of the verb translated (Psa. 22:11), Be not far from me;' see also 5:19, and 35:22, and 38:21, and 71:12, and 109:17, etc.

"' The dove of silence (among) strangers' is a common literal.

" The dove of-that which is bound-persons afar off-are its three representative terms in English.-Compare the Psalm itself.

"8. LEANNOTH, See Under 9.

" 9. MAHALATH Occurs Alone Psa. 53

" The dictionary says, meaning uncertain.' Why not, as others, sickness, or disease, taking it as the common noun of the verb (Gen. 48:1) thy father is sick;' Psa. 35:13, when they were sick,' etc.

" The 53rd Psalm is striking, concerning the diseased state of the nation, and its importance as a Psalm is seen in its being given a second time in the book, but slightly altered (see xiv).

" The word Mahalath also occurs with LEANNOTH, after it, Psa. 88, which may be the plural of the word rendered Wormwood, Deut. 29:18; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15; 23:15, &c.; and Hemlock, Amos 6:12- unless Leannoth be a proper name, concerning the sickness of Leannoth; concerning the disease of wormwood (i.e. the deadly, bitter disease), which would suit the Psalm.

"The LXX divided Leannoth into le, the preposition to, and òðç sing, respond to; and consider Mahalath either a proper name, or the name of a tune, or instrument, ὑπερ μαελεθ του ἀποκριθῆναι to sing on, or to Mahalath. I prefer the other.

" 10. MASCHIL. Translated in Margin, ' or Giving Instruction.'

" There are thirteen of these Psalms, viz.,:—32, 42, 44, 45, 52, 53, 54, 55, 74, 78, 88, 89, 142.

"As the translators have given a rendering here, I say no more than that their side readings (as found in King James' bible) are as authoritative as their text, and of far more value than modern 'lit.' which are often worse than nonsense. As a whole, their translation is as wonderful as is the mercy which God has shown to this land, in connection with it, as above that of other lands.

"11. the MICHTAM Psalms Are 16, 56, 58, 59, and 60.

"I know no better rendering than the common one, a golden psalm. The word Michtam occurs nowhere else; but the word rendered, in gold of Ophir, Psa. 45:9; and golden wedge (Isa. 13:12) is a kindred word, and occurs nine times, as gold, and in no other sense.

"12. MUTH-LABBEN. Psa. 9 Title..

" Muth (Psa. 48:14), our guide unto death.

" La, for the; ben, son. Concerning death for the Son.'

" The LXX. ὑπὲρ τῶν κρυθίων τοῦ υἱοῦ concerning the secret things of the Son.

"13. NEGINAH, of Which Neginoth Is the Plural. "Job 30:9, 'I Am Their Song; Psa. 69:12; 77:6, Song; so Isa. 38:20; and Lam. 3:14; 5:14, Music; Hab. 3:19, 'On My Stringed Instruments' (Margin, Neginoth) Shows the Meaning Plainly Enough. the Verb Is to Strike the Strings. Neginah Occurs on Psa. 61 Title: Neginoth, Psa. 4; 6; 54; 67; 76 Upon the Stringed Instrument, or Upon the Stringed Instruments.

"14. NEHILOTH. Psa. 5

" The pipes, or flutes, as commonly derived from the verb, to pierce.

"15. SELAH Occurs Seventy Times in the Psalms, and Three Times in Habakkuk.

"All sorts of tortures have been inflicted on this word, to make it speak. Some take its three consonants as the first letters of three words, and render it as equivalent to our da capo, in music: let the musician return, But this is very unlike old Hebrew.

"Gesenius says, it is Silence, supposing it equivalent to the words, at rest, Dan. 4:4; as if Shelah and Selah were the same. Though I desire to read with shoes off my feet (for the place is holy, and I dread conjectures), it might, according to kindred words, mean raising. And so silence, as the result of one's rising from singing; for the idea of weighing is found in ñìà Lam. 4:2, in a good sense, comparable to gold; and also, in a bad sense ñìç Psa. 119:118, trodden down.

"I observe that Selah is put often where a pause is natural, as after some peculiar statement; and thus, practically, I feel that it is pause, or silence, with Gesenius. More I cannot say.

"16. SHEMINITH Occurs 1 Chron. 15:21; Psa. 6 Title, 12 Title.

"The translator's margin gives, on the eighth. It is the common ordinal adjective for eight, and refers to strings of instruments.

" Some render it Octave, as denoting that it is to be played an octave lower than it is written: so, I think, Gesenius. I prefer the margin.

'" Observe that in 1 Chron. 20:21, Alamoth and Sheminith are in contra-position.

"17. SHIGGAION. Psa. 7, and Hab. 3:1, Upon Shigionoth in the Plural.

" The verb is, to err, as in Psa. 119:10, 21, 118; Lev. 4:13, sin through ignorance. A wandering ode-an ode of wandering.

" Variable songs-songs with variations. But I prefer either of the former.

" 18. SHOSHANNIM. the Lilies, As in Cant. 2:16, 4:5, Etc., Occurs Psa. 45; 69, and in Connection With Eduth, Psa. 80

"Shushan-EDUTH (Psa. 40) is the same word nearly, it occurs only 1 Kings 7:19, lily. Eduth is the common word for the testimony, in Exodus, etc. The lily is supposed to refer to an instrument, from its shape: so, I think, Calmet. Others connect it with the name of a song.

"The word for upon, may just as well be rendered concerning, to, etc.

AIJELETB-SHAHAR ... ... ... ... ... ... The hind of the morning.

ALAMOTH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Virginals.

AL-TASCHITII Destroy not.

DEGREE To go up-ascend.

GITTITH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..The wine-vat.

HIGGAION ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Meditation.

JONAH-ELEM-RECHOKIM The dove dumb (among) strangers.

MAHALATH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..Disease.

LEANNOTH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Bitter disease.

MASCHIL ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...To instruct.

MICHTAM ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .Golden (psalm).

GNAL MUTH-LABBEN

NEGINAH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...A stringed instrument.

NEGINOTH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The stringed instruments.

NEHILOTH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The pipes.

SELAH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .Pause.

SHEMINITH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Eight Stringed instrument.

SHIGGAION ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Wandering ode.

SHOSHANNIM ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The lilies.

SHUSHAN ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .The lily.

EDUTH ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..of the testimony.

" Psa. 1; 2; 6; 11; 12; 15; 16; 17; 19; 21; 23; 26; 28; 29; 32; 34; 39; 93; 101; 102; 103, 107, 110, 111, 112, 114, 117, 120, 121, 124, 134, 137, 139, 140, 142, 148, 149, 150 (forty-eight) have not àìçéí GOD.

" In Psa. 43; 44; 45; 49, 51, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 73, 77, 82, 114, 150 (i.e. twenty) éäåç does not occur LORD.

" Much of the force and beauty of the Psalms hangs upon the Divine names, titles, and glories used in them."

" The titles. Each Psalm, as the general rule, has a title. Those which have none, have been called 'orphans,' in number: twenty-three, viz.: 1, 2, 10, 33, 43, 71, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 104, 105, 107, 114, 115, 116, and eleven more, making the number of orphans in all thirty-four, if the word 'Hallelujah' is not looked at as a title; viz.: 106, 111, 112, 113, 117, 135, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150."

" Acrostics are of interest in Scripture, as showing the condescension of God to man's ways, even in the style of composition. I know of none in the New Testament. In the Lamentations, each verse of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th chapters begins with the letters of the alphabet in their successional order. Chap 3 is in triplets; the first three verses have à; the next three have á, and so on.

"In the Psalms, the 119th is in octaves; the first eight verses begin with à; the eight next with á; and so on.

" Psa. 25; 34; 37; 145 also are in measure acrostic, though not perfectly so."

I may add that the same word which is rendered " hosts," e. g., Jehovah Tzebaoth [the Lord of hosts], Psa. 24:10, and 46:7, 11, and 48:8, is so rendered also of the hosts of the heaven in 33:6, and 44:9, our armies; and 68:11, "the company of those that published it." It is used of armies, angels, and created things as sun, moon, stars, etc.

In Num. 16:30, 32, 33, we read of the judgment which fell upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up " (ver. 33). In chap. 26:11 we meet with this exception, which sovereign mercy made, "Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not." This is to be noticed in connection with the Psa. 1 notice this in connection with the eleven Psalms " for the sons of Korah "-the 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 84, 85, 87, 88.

A few general remarks, and I have done.

It is not a bad general notion of the Book of Psalms, which I have met with somewhere (though it be but a human notion, couched, too, in profane and not scriptural language), that the book is made up of " Fragments from the Drama of Redemption." Only, then, as redemption has its heavenly sphere and people, as well as its earthly sphere and people, I should have to add to " Fragments from the Drama of Redemption" the words, " so far as man under government upon earth is concerned."

Observe, the enigma is sometimes introduced; as in Psa. 49:4, "my dark saying," and in 78:2, "dark sayings of old." The Hebrew word is rendered dark speeches, in Num. 12:8; riddle, in Judg. 14:12-19; hard questions, 1 Kings 10:1; dark sentences, Dan. 8:23, etc.

Again, it may help some just to refer to the principles of the dialog, or of parts for different speakers, which at times is found in the Psalms. In 16:1, one prays; ver. 2, he speaks to himself; so in Psa. 32:8 and 9 are from another speaker than ver. 1-7, etc. Such parts run through the Song of Songs: a male and a female converse together, besides addressing other parties; and neither male can be confounded with female, nor can "my sister " be exchanged with " my brother."

4. Again, there is at times an oracular voice, or an oracle that speaks, as in Psa. 91:1 To which a distinct person replies in ver. 2, while ver. 3-13 are written of him who spoke in ver. 2, as indeed are 14 and 15; but here it is evidently the same person who speaks in ver. 1.

Thus it will be seen I do not accept it that a verse or portion of a Psalm quoted in the New Testament, as about the Lord Jesus, would appropriate all the rest of the Psalm to Him. Such is a very mischievous notion. The Spirit of God and of Christ is one; and it is the same Spirit as was upon Him when down here which is in His people now. Yet speech that became the Master did not become the disciple, and speech that becomes the Head of the body does not become the member; so speech that will become Messiah Himself, will not become, could not be put by His Spirit into, the mouth of the remnant; much less could language prepared beforehand by the Spirit for the Jewish remnant in the latter day be put into the mouth of Messiah. He holding one part in a Psalm may speak; His Spirit may in a remnant take up another part. The speeches cannot be interchanged and sense (not to say sound doctrine) be maintained.

The connection, too, that runs on from one Psalm to another-see, for instance, the 48, 49, 50, and 51, etc., etc.-cannot be hid from any humble student of the book; but while I just advert to these points, if haply they may meet any beginner's eye, I may not follow them out, as being outside of the proposed scope and aim of this paper.

I print the Psalms as poetry; they are so in Hebrew.

G. V. W.

Published

The edition from which the above is printed is OXFORD: MDCCCLX. Oxford Double Pica. (The type, The Franklin).

Remarks on "The British Churches in Relation to the British People"

I FIND for my own spirit that the Christian has to watch against being brought under the pressure of what is going on around; if he give heed to it, even as a part of the ways. or judgments of God. We are called to heavenly things; to have our conversation in heaven; to be occupied with Christ, sanctified by the truth, in that He has sanctified Himself, that we may be sanctified by the truth. We have to be simple concerning evil, and wise concerning that which is good; a blessed and most admirable precept, such as Christianity alone can bring about. We are warned that in the last days perilous times shall come. The terrible description of that state of things morally is given; but how simple the remedy when the perception of such a state exists: "from such turn away." Turned away we are free to be occupied with Christ, and those heavenly things which sanctify us practically now, and are our everlasting portion. No state of things can alter the Word. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to purpose. We are purified to Christ to be a peculiar people-a people appropriated to Himself. May we remember it. With this caution, which I find needed for myself as well as others, it is well to be aware, and the Spirit of God has made us aware that there are perilous times, and that in the last days, in which we are.

One of the great questions in these days is that of ministry, or as I. may also call it, the clergy. It may interest your readers to see how this subject is viewed by leading and intelligent dissenters. I refer to and shall quote from a book published some time ago; but which, occupied with my own labors, I had never seen before; the occasion of it was the discussion in the Congregational Union of England and Wales, of the question of the general indifference of the working classes to our religious institutions. With many things in it I cordially agree; but there are in it the fatal and general errors of looking for good in the natural man, and looking for the development of that good by the liberty of the will. The Christian kindness, which in taking a place with the poorest-a hearty, willing, and ready place, as all alike before God and in grace-seeks to win sinners to Christ and to their own blessing, which takes this place as the very spirit of Christ and Christianity, I cordially accept and desire to walk in. We are all alike before God, and, if there be any difference, He thinks most of the poor; and so ought the Christian, and so did Christ. But to confound this with letting loose natural will is a deception denying the sinful state of man. The confusion of these two things is so common now-a-days, and where we do not keep close to Christ there is such a pandering to evil instead of bringing good with the hope to win thereby, that it is well to note the difference. Let Christians be the meekest and humblest on earth as Christ was; it is what they ought to be, and that will bring them into contact with every need as it did Christ; but let them not flatter sinful man to his ruin, and fancy

that that is the same thing. The path of wisdom is one which- the vulture's eye bath not seen; death and destruction have heard the fame of it; the fear of the Lord is the beginning of it, the path of Christ its perfection in this world; a new divine path He is and was, that divine wisdom in His walk here-the wisdom of God and the power of God. I have been led to say thus much in alluding to this book, as a principle needed always and especially in these days; but I turn to the book itself; to bring into notice the statements as to ministry and how Scripture affects other minds too when searched into. I End a confusion (which in earlier times, I myself fell into, so that I could ill reproach anyone else with it) of gifts and ministry with elders, as if this last was the exercise of a gift; and there may be other misapprehensions such as we are all liable to; but in the main, what brethren are so much reproached with, is here admitted to be the true Scriptural path; and what they are reproached with giving up, is treated as one great hindrance to usefulness. The writer attacks pulpits. I would not do so, provided they are not used in what are the assemblies of the saints, properly speaking.

The gifts of ministry exist in the assembly, not properly in an assembly; and we may exercise them individually; and either evangelize or teach in our individual capacity, or as meeting in the assembly of the saints. In this last a pulpit is out of place. In it one is no longer with the saints. But when I teach as an individual (and as a servant of Christ I may do that), I am not with the saints, but teaching them according to the gift given me. The positions are different and yet both Scriptural and right. With this remark I give the quotations. They are from Mr, E. Miall's "The British Churches in Relation to the British People," 2nd edit., p. l72.

" Next, in the natural order of the arrangements now under our review, comes ordination. If there is little in the new Testament to sanction the common notion of a ministerial order, there is less to sustain that of ordination. A few passages in which mention is-made of specific appointment to " eldership " in the Churches-two or three which imply such appointment to have been expressed, as, indeed, appointment to office usually was in the East, by imposition of hands-and an apostolic phrase, here and there, intimating the communication of some super natural gift at the time of this designation to office-constitute, scanty as it is, the entire sum of scriptural materials, out of which ecclesiastical ingenuity has fashioned the doctrine of ordination. I believe, indeed, that to a considerable extent, the estimate now set upon the necessity and virtues of this rite, by, Nonconforming Churches, is moderate in comparison of what it once was. It is not maintained nowadays, at least by them, that ordination actually confers any right upon the subject of it which he did not previously possess, nor that it is absolutely requisite in order to ministerial character and authority. More generally, it is regarded as a solemn observance, seemly and profitable on a public entrance upon office, and well calculated to promote order in the Churches. Whilst, however, the intelligence of our dissenting religious bodies thus interprets the ceremonial, the sentiment of the same bodies, more unconsciously and deeply tinged with traditional prejudice, seldom shows itself abreast with that intelligence. The young " brother" who has been invited to take the " oversight" of a Church, and who has accepted the invitation, does not ordinarily feel that he has ceased to be a layman, or that he may becomingly discharge all the functions of his office, until after his ordination. Many of his brethren around him, and most, perhaps, of the people of his charge,-would be a little scandalized at his presiding at the administration of the Lord's supper, even amongst the Christian disciples whom he teaches from the pulpit, before he has been set apart in the customary manner-and much more would they object to the celebration of that ordinance by a Church bereaved of its elder, conducted under the superintendence of one of its own members: In some cases, the feeling, excited, probably, by the force brought to bear upon it by the doctrine maintained in the Anglican Establishment, is so far indulged as to condemn the exercise of this ministerial prerogative, even by those who have been admitted by ordination to the ministry, but who may have subsequently quitted office and engaged in secular pursuits. On the other hand, there is a still larger number of persons who connect with ordination, an initiation of the subject of it into the sacred order, and who regard him, whether occupying office or not, as retaining until death all the special rights and responsibilities of ministers of Christ. Here, again, it will be felt, there are common notions, sometimes repudiated by the understanding, but insidiously mingling with the feelings, which give additional strength to the professional sentiment. Those imaginary lines which separate the ministerial class from the rest of the Church, and place it, as it were, in exclusive posses-Sion of the prerogatives of spiritual ruling and teaching, are -deepened and rendered almost ineffaceable, partly by the rite itself of ordination, chiefly by the yet lingering superstition with which its effects are generally regarded. In a modified sense, 'and with a few exceptions, the ministerial character is treated as indelible.,

The almost universal practice-to which, however, the different sections of the Methodist body present an exception-of limiting spiritual teaching in each Church, so far at least as it is stated and official, to a single individual, is another of those arrangements in which the professional sentiment finds development and sustenance. In apostolic times, there seems reason to conclude, all the Christian disciples of one city or town were united together in spiritual fellowship, and constituted the one Church in that town. No evidence exists that the Christian community in any one city was divided into as many separate organizations, as there were separate places of assembly for public worship. From the intimations of Scripture we may infer, with a high degree at least of probability, that the officers both of oversight and of teaching were as numerous in each Church, as convenience might prescribe, or as the distribution of aifts amongst the members would allow. In the apostolic epistles, where a single Church is addressed, allusion is commonly made not to the bishop, but the bishops; and when Titus is instructed by Paul to finish in Crete the work which the apostle himself had left uncompleted, he is told to ordain, or appoint, not an elder, but elders, in every city. From the same apostle's letter to the Corinthian Church, we gather, that the gift of teaching was possessed by several of its members, and some important regulations are laid down for its orderly exercise. To some such mode of manifesting and nourishing their spiritual life, the Christian Churches in our land will probably return by slow degrees, as the spirit of their faith becomes purified from the dross of worldly-mindedness. Meanwhile, it is but too apparent, that the needless multiplication of spiritual organizations in one locality, and the appointment of a single minister over each, but ill succeeds in eliciting either the life or the power of religious association. Our very mechanical arrangements, modeled, of course, in conformity with our ecclesiastical ideas, put a needless distance between teacher and taught, and exert a repressive influence upon the sympathies which should connect the one with the other. In each place of worship, there stands the pulpit-a visible symbol of the monopoly of teaching -a fixed memento to the Church that it is to one individual they have to look for all those declarations, illustrations, and enforcements of the word of God, by which their minds are to be informed, their consciences stirred or comforted, or their hearts impressed and improved. From that spot, sacred to ministerial occupation, the devotions of the people are to be led by the same man who preaches the word, every time the Church assembles, year after year. The most seraphic piety, combined with the most splendid talents, can hardly, on this plan, prevent both devotion and instruction from becoming invested with an air of formality deeply injurious to freshness of religious feeling. The service insensibly slides into a performance which the assembly try to witness with becoming emotion, instead of participating in, and adopting as their own. It is as if the voice which addresses them came from an isolated and inaccessible quarter representative of authority, instead of issuing from their very midst, conversant with their own thoughts, and warm with their own emotions. The occupant of that pulpit, who alone has right to interpret God's will, and minister to his saints, and plead with unbelievers, cannot be thoroughly identified as one with ourselves-and not a little of that sympathy with which we should otherwise listen to his statements or exhortations, is chilled and paralyzed by the sensible contact into which it comes with the insulating lines of office. Oh! those pulpits-and all the influences they infer! Would that no such professional conveniences had been invented! Would that some change of feeling or even of fashion, amongst us, could sweep them clean away! How much they themselves, and the notion of which they are the visible expression, have done to repress the manifestations of spiritual life and energy in our Churches it is impossible to calculate. The evils always attendant upon monopoly have not been wanting here-and the pains taken, but unwisely taken, to secure by means of it the best results, have produced the worst. The limitation of public spiritual service to a single functionary has greatly, and, as I think, most unhappily, favored the diffusion of the professional sentiment amongst both Churches and ministers. The attribution of a large class of duties in which the body ought to take a lively interest, and concerning which it ought to feel a weighty responsibility, to a particular order of Christian men, has been fatally encouraged, nay, rendered all but inevitable, by the arrangements to which the foregoing observations refer. The pastor and the flock alike suffer disadvantage-and it is hard to determine which is most to be commiserated. Not a few, we apprehend, in both relationships, would rejoice most heartily to go back to primitive methods. But, for the present, the tyrant custom overrules their wishes-and, perhaps, in this instance, as in others, lurking traditional feeling refuses to keep pace with intelligent conviction.

But we have not yet exhausted the illustrations of the professional sentiment to be met with in our Churches. The canon laws of an ecclesiastical Establishment, itself a re-adaptation of Papal machinery to purer doctrine, exert, in some respects, a more powerful influence over their views of ministerial etiquette than the dictates of common sense, and the lessons of experience, backed though they be by the sanction of apostolical example. Else, how comes it to pass that the stated discharge of the functions of eldership 'should be so generally regarded as incompatible with secular engagements? Doubtless, it is frequently desirable that men found by the Churches " apt to teach," should be placed in a position enabling them to consecrate their whole time to the work; and so long as the " oversight " and religious tuition of each Church are committed exclusively to a single individual, secular pursuits, even when necessary to eke out for him a scanty subsistence, will be found to preclude the profitable performance of his duties. But is it requisite, or does the New Testament give countenance to the idea, that every spiritual teacher should refrain from seeking an honest livelihood by the work of his own hands, or that upon being appointed to office he cannot continue in a worldly calling without infringing the rules of ecclesiastical propriety 7 Just the reverse! The case of the greatest of the apostles need hardly be cited, for no thinking mind can miss it. The preachers among the poor Waldenses,' says Milton, the ancient stock of our Reformation, bred up themselves in trades, and especially in physic and surgery, as well as in the study of Scripture (which is the only true theology), that they might be no burden to the Church, and, by the example of Christ, might cure both soul and body. But our ministers,' he continues, in a strain of severity which the condition of his times fully justified, think scorn to use a trade, and count it the reproach of this age that tradesmen preach the gospel. It were to be wished they were all tradesmen-they would not so many of them, for want of another trade, make a trade of their preaching.' I have introduced this quotation, not until after a painful struggle with my own feelings; to some extent it is applicable in the present day, and the truths, thus pithily and forcibly put, deserve far more serious consideration than they have yet received. For my own part, I do not believe that the ministry, generally, is justly chargeable with a mercenary spirit, or that gain occupies in their view so large a space as godliness-for if so, their choice of occupation has been, certainly, a most unwise one. But I wish to point out, in as vivid language as possible, the disadvantageous light in which our absurd prejudices place the ministration of the gospel of peace."

Again, p. 179-

"To the foregoing illustrations I think it needful to add but one other-that presented, to our notice by distinct clerical titles, official vestments, and all those external peculiarities intended to distinguish from others, the members of the 'sacred profession.' there are varieties of custom amongst different denominations in reference to these distinctive insignia of office-but the sects are very few, and the individuals are far from numerous, who treat all such outward marks as unworthy of notice. Looked at apart, they are confessedly trifles-viewed in connection with our present theme, they are not altogether matters of indifference. They are meant to express what it would be well for the Churches altogether to forget-a difference of order. They indicate the existence of views respecting the sanctity of. the profession, which neither scriptural language, nor the genius of Christianity, support. They render more visible the line of separation between the disciples of Christ in office, and out of it. They originated in times of corruption and they serve no useful purpose which pure religion can desire. They minister to unworthy tastes. They lend a countenance to popular superstition: They are a relic, and a very absurd relic, of the old sacerdotal system, which delegated the whole business of religion to the priesthood, and which placed the efficacy of priestly mediation, chiefly in a minute observance of external forms and bodily exercises."

I might quote a great deal more; but from my pen it might seem like an attack which, is as far as possible from my thoughts. I show merely the effect of Scripture on others when honestly looked at. The author would preserve what exists, and gradually introduce what is scriptural. Others have thought that finding it in Scripture they were bound to act on it. The writer speaks of the course to be pursued thus-(p. 193).

"The tide of infidelity is swelling-the plague of religious indifference is spreading. Can we afford to give indulgence to a sentiment which, whilst it greatly circumscribes the number of laborers in Christ's vineyard, detracts also from the moral power of those engaged in the work 7 The disadvantages entailed upon the Churches by the long prevalence and mighty power of that sentiment cannot be suddenly got rid of-could not, perhaps, under any circumstances, be got rid of within a generation or two. But our faces may, at least, be turned in the right direction. We may aim to destroy the living principle of the evil, by treating the ministry as an office, not an order. We may make gradual efforts to evoke and employ teaching talents, wherever they exist. And, by cautious changes, we may prepare more general and efficient instrumentality for the prosecution of spiritual objects, making the best use possible, meanwhile, of that which already exists."

But he pleads " conscience in giving utterance to these opinions." He has stated conclusions to which inquiry has gradually led his own mind. I can only say that finding it in Scripture, years ago, I have acted on it. It is evident that a sober mind cannot call it a denial of ministry.

As I have spoken of these last days, let me add a word on another subject. I do not desire that Christians

should be occupied with it, but get more fully their own place. I do not think that the dis-establishment of the Protestants in Ireland will much affect the state of the.professing Church in an adverse way. If there be spiritual energy, the contrary may be the case; but the import of it for England is that it has given up Protes-

tantism to Popery. That is the meaning of the act in Ireland-a very grave fact. If the Establishment be maintained in England, it is the maintenance of a traditional system-ecclesiasticism against dissent-not the maintenance of Protestantism. What has been done is the public giving up of that [Protestantism] by England. People must not deceive themselves. If the Establishment be given up in England, it is the country's giving up all religion-any professed recognition of God altogether. What conclusion do I draw from this? That Christians should look to the Lord only. I do not expect any great persecution or trial of this kind. There may be as much as is needed to sift Christians, and force them. (alas I that it should be needed) to act on their own principles, and trust the Lord. At the beginning, Christianity had no outward support, but the contrary. It made its way by Divine truth and power against every adverse influence. We do not exercise the same committed power; but we have grace and truth, and the promise of an open door to a little strength, when the word of Christ is kept. The word of His patience is that in which we have to abide. Patience will have to be exercised by the presence of the power of evil; but the Lord does not let the reins out of His hand, nor is evil ever beyond His power; but to walk right we must be on the true ground of faith. Englishmen are not generally aware how much they have leant on the supports which Providence had placed around them. We seldom are so till we lose them. But God can use even infidelity to check the disposition to persecute. God forbid that any one should lean on, or have to say to it, even as a defense. Our resource is in the Lord; but He has all things at His command. To lean on it would be to deny Him: to lean on Him is to be sure of the loving care of One who nourishes and cherishes His Church as a man would his own flesh. May His servants take the word, the Scriptures, the sure and only stay and guide in the last days to guide them, and live the life of faith in Him. He is faithful. The Lord will own their path, and them too, in the last day. I may be permitted to add the exhortation to show all cordial brotherly love to every true

Christian, and to cultivate the expression of it while holding fast as a duty to Christ, separation from all that is, not of Him, according to 2 Tim. 2 & iii., the great direction for these days. Let me add, in these times of general upheaval and breaking up, there is a need of recollecting that we have a kingdom that cannot be moved. Calmness is the portion of those who know this, and have the truth. " Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." J. N. D.

Scripture and the Place It Has in This Day

TIALLOW me to say a few words to you, in which there will be nothing very new, on a subject on which simplicity and decision are of the utmost importance in these days. The Second Epistle to Timothy presents to us, as long ago observed, the ruin of the Church in its earthly standing, and the heart of the Apostle deeply affected by it, as would be the case, under the working of the Spirit of God, with one who had been God's instrument for founding it. It individualizes the duty of the Christian-a momentous principle in these days when the Church (so-called, really the clergy), renews the pretension to govern the conscience.

This Epistle does not give us the Church according to the purpose of God, and its full character in heavenly places (as in the Ephesians), nor is it the order of the Church on earth (as in 1 Tim.); but we have in it life and salvation, now fully revealed in Christ (i. 1, 9, 10), but a piety which could be found in Jews as such, and in which Paul could speak of his forefathers. The Church, indeed, is not mentioned at all-not that the fellowship of saints is not noticed; it is expressly, but of those in whom purity of heart is known to exist, the testing of which was not known in the first beginning. Then, those who came were received, only the Lord took care of the purity of the assembly, and manifested His own, adding to the Church daily such as should be saved.

Now, He knew them that were His, and the responsibility rested on every one that named the name of Christ to depart from iniquity; and the believer is to follow the path of peace and grace with those that call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.

Two points are brought before the believer here to guide his feet. His individual conduct, including his conduct as to other individuals, and his relationship to the public profession of Christianity in the world.

As to the first, he is, as I have said, to depart from iniquity; such is the nature of Christianity, it cannot associate in walk with evil. He purges himself-for it is individual duty-from vessels to dishonor, which, in a great house, he expects to find. He seeks fellowship with those who join to a profession of Christ a pure heart, from which profession flows. On this, chapter 2. is as clear as possible. It is his individual responsibility; and it is important to take in both parts.

If the first part only is taken up (the departing from iniquity and purging from vessels to dishonor), the conscience may be upright; hut a spirit of judgment and of self-righteousness will be engendered. If the latter only (to seek to walk with those pure in heart), without the former, conscience will be loose, and faithfulness to Christ, and obedience, more or less lost. The heart must be engaged in the love of God's people and fellowship with them, and the conscience be pure and faithful, as having done with evil, when evil is all around and allowed.

As to the second great point, our relationship to the public profession of Christianity in the world, the third chapter gives equally clear direction. The peril of the last days is found in a form of godliness, denying the power of it. The direction is as simple as it is positive: " from such turn away." Where form without power is, we are not to go, but, in a positive way, to turn away from it. But this would not, in itself, in 'the perilous times, be sufficient; for, in the decay of practical piety, and devotedness in the evangelical professing world, many, whose principles are far more false, lead individually a life of great devotedness-often, I allow, on false principles, yea, in themselves, deadly principles-but it is a sad snare when devotedness is found on the side of false doctrine and worldliness, with a greater degree of substantial truth. This is not the case, if the effect be taken as a whole; far from it; but individual cases, and the fire of first impressions, produce enough to make the devotedness of individuals a snare, leading men to receive false doctrine, and to fall into Satan's hands, for so it really is, when the devotedness is founded on a real denial of grace and truth of the gospel, as Paul insists on it. Another point therefore is brought out here; the authority with which our souls are directly in communion, on which our conduct rests, the rule by which it is guided, and the application to the individual soul of that authority and rule. Is this mediate or immediate? Is it by the intervention of the Church, as an authority between me and God? or is it the direct and immediate connection of my soul with God, and immediate subjection to His authority in His Word? It is the latter, not the former. This is no rejection of ministry. If another knows the Word better than myself, has more spiritual power, he can help me; and that is according to the mind and will of God. But he does not come between my soul and the Word, but brings me more fully into acquaintance with what God says to me in it. My soul is only the more in immediate relationship with God by His Word. That only is the rule and measure of my responsibility, the expression of the authority of God over me. Another may be the means of my being more completely so; but he puts me thereby in immediate relationship to God by the Word, more fully and more in detail, but does not take me out of the relationship. It remains immediate, as before, and there can be no other. It is direct with God, and God's title is absolute, and embraces the whole of my being in obedience. He exercises His authority immediately by the Word. This may sanction, and does, duties towards others; but these are acknowledged by the authority of, and in obedience to, the Word-to God in His Word. I am to fulfill every relationship in which God has placed me, but by and according to the Word. My first, immediate, and all-ruling relationship is with God by the Word. It has precedence of all others, rules in all others, and claims absolute and immediate subjection. " We ought to obey," is the Christian's ensign; but " we ought to obey GOD rather than men," is the absolute claim of God, who has revealed Himself fully, and reveals Himself immediately to us by the Word.

The Church may have, has to be judged; the individual has to take notice of it, is called on to do so, so that it cannot have authority over him as the ultimate rule for his soul. He is bound to take the Word of God as the ultimate rule and norma of truth and conduct, having authority immediately from God over his soul, with nothing else between him and God. It is evident we are not here speaking of the discipline of an assembly exercised according to that Word. That Word which ordains it recognizes its validity, but what in religious, and, indeed, in all matters, is the ultimate rule and authority.

There is another question, apparently, but which is not really one, viz.-is the soul immediately cognizant of the Word, and is it responsible to' God for itself according to that authority?-or can anything else come in between with authority, so that a soul is not immediately responsible to God according to that Word? The only question really is-Is God's Word immediately addressed to the conscience of man, so as to hold him responsible when so addressed? No one in his senses would deny that if God revealed anything to a man, he ought to give heed to it. Infidelity may contest the fact that there is a Word of God, a ground which, in controversy, Roman Catholics generally take under the form of the question, " How do I know it is so?" I assume here there is a Word of God. I inquire, is its authority immediate over my soul?-or is anything, now I have it, between it and my soul? Is the authority of the oracles of God absolute, immediate? Do they bring me under an obligation which allows nothing to come between them and my soul, or to limit or modify their authority? I would remark, in passing, that save three epistles, the writings of the New Testament (and, as far as the principle goes; the Old also), _were addressed, not to the clergy (if we are so to. call them), but by the clergy to the people. The claim of the clergy to possess them as such is sheer folly; they were specifically addressed to the Christian people by those commissioned of God to do it. This is undeniable. In one, Paul specially charges it to be read to all the holy brethren, and they very young Christians (1 Thess. 5:27). If professing Christians are so ignorant now that they cannot understand it, that is the effect of centuries of the Church's teaching, but is no longer the case where there is lowliness and where the grace of God is looked to. " The entering in of His Word gives light and understanding to the simple." " I am wiser than all my teachers," says David, " for thy law do I love." " They shall be all taught of God," is the promise given to us.

But my present object is less general than this, important as this truth may be. I speak of the instructions given by the Apostle in epistles, which were addressed to one in whom he had the greatest confidence as a servant and man of God, who had worked with him in the Gospel, as a son with a father, and to whom he could reveal his inmost feelings, and could tell what was needed for the Church when the evil days should come in; when the form of godliness, where the power was denied, forced on the conscience as duty the judgment of the state of the Church-wherein the Apostle has revealed to us Christ's judgment, and called upon us to bow to and act upon it-an Epistle, in a word, which gives, not general truth and precious instruction to the Christian, but special guidance in the dangerous evils of the last days. This, with all Church history before us, when subjection to the Church was so long maintained, and darkness by it, and when the Church as Christ has loved, sanctifies and will present it to Himself without spot and wrinkle, was so diligently and long confounded with the building of wood and hay and stubble, which had grown up, as they themselves admitted, into a large, mixed, worldly body, and that the Church was as bad, or worse than the world-this revelation of the judgment of the Church is of all importance., Diligently was it insisted

on, as by Cyprian, and sundry others, that the Holy,—Ghost was and could be nowhere else, that all outside the external form were lost. And so sternly was this held, that, while the former confesses that the state of the Church was disastrous-just what the world was, bishops and all, so that the worst persecution was only a light-needed chastisement-yet they insist that when any left it, pressed in conscience by its state, they left salvation and eternal life absolutely; there was no grace elsewhere By this insisting on the privileges of an avowedly corrupt church, too, souls who shrank from what was utter dishonor to Christ were left a prey to those who were really heretics or fanatics, when their consciences could no longer stand the moral state of the great outward body that held and claimed the place of the Church of God. It is one of the sad parts of Church history, the seeing how persons who left the public body when immorality and idolatry of the grossest kind were come in, often fell into the hands of; or were mixed up with, those whom Satan raised up to perplex and ruin the testimony of God. The primitive Church never defended itself against the workings of heresy by the truth; they had it not (Irenaeus did so, perhaps, a little) but by their own claims to possess all and their hereditary title to it; so, even Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others. And those who made more allowance were themselves philosophers far from the truth, as Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen. These did make a difference between some heretics and others; but, after that, schism or heresy were alike fatal: and if afterward a difference was made, none was made in denying salvation to them, or in burning them, when that became the fashion of the Church.

Now, with such a history before us, how immensely important is it to see that the individual is bound to judge the state of the professing Church. At all times they were called on to recognize Christ's judgment of the state of the Church, and be guided by the Word as to it. They would have learned not to confound the body of Christ with the professing body. But in 2 Tim. 3 we are further expressly called on to turn away from such as deny the power of godliness, though maintaining the form. But, if I am individually called upon to recognize and act on-whatever that action may be-the judgment of Christ as to the state of the Church, then the Church has ceased to be an authority, and is judged by the Word, to which I am expressly called to give heed in that judgment; its judgment as a public body cannot be an authority governing my spiritual judgment, in which I am bound to follow the Word, where it is itself judged in its mind and state. Christ expressly calls us individually to hear what the Spirit says to the Churches; not what the Church says, but what is said to them. I am not now saying what the consequence may be-on that 2 Tim. 2 and iii. are clear-but that the individual is called on to take -heed to what Christ says as to the state of the Church. It is not a thing to be overlooked that this first takes place in respect of Ephesus, where such blessing and knowledge of privilege was. The vessel of the highest grace, she represents the Church's departure from its first estate, and receives the threat of the removal of the candlestick. But all I say now is, the individual is called upon as such to listen to Christ, and take notice of the judgment He forms of it. The Church is a judged object, not an authority. The individual is bound to receive immediately from Christ or the Spirit by the Word, what He says to him independent of the Church's authority; yea, about the Church itself. Yea, it. is the proof that he has ears to hear; to hear Christ; to hear what the Spirit says. What, then, is the rule, when in professing Christendom there should be the form of godliness without the power, as certainly the Apostle tells us would be the case in the perilous times in the last days, when Christians have to turn away from the form of godliness? We have it in a double form.

The Church, it cannot be; that has brought us into perilous times, and the case occurs in which I have to turn away from the common state of things-men shall be so under the form of godliness without the power. There is no rule, no authority, to retain me there; I am bound to recognize that state, and to turn away. First, the knowledge of the individual from whom I have learned anything; secondly, the Scriptures. The former is a simple, but very important rule. A tradition comes, no one can tell from whom: I am told that " the Church has preserved it" is a sure ground of faith. Paul says, "No; you must know from whom you have learned it." It is said, " according to the fathers;" or, " the consent of the fathers." But this gives me no authentic source. Timothy knew he had received it from Paul, a divinely-inspired and authorized teacher, and the thing was sure. No Church-teaching, no tradition, however universal, can assure me the truth. I cannot say of whom (παρατινος I have learned it. I must have an individual, of certain and inspired authority, to make me receive anything as the truth.. I must know of whom I have received it. This applies to perilous times, when there is a form of godliness, when the Church is in disorder-for a form of godliness without the power is itself disorder-and then a certain source of authority of all importance. But if Paul, or Peter, or John have taught anything, I know of whom I have learned it, as Timothy did, and I am assured of it. If fathers, or no one can say who, have taught a thing, I have no divinely-given security. The second authority referred to, which in part is the same, is the Scriptures; but this has its special character. These are holy writings. God has provided that for His saints, which, with the key of faith in Christ Jesus, is a sure and certain guide-a body of

writings called by the Apostle (that is, by divine authority) the holy Scriptures, of which a child could be

cognizant as such, guided by the piety of a mother-and, to be received as inspired and having divine authority, composed of a number of distinct writings, but forming a whole of which it could be said as a known whole, "the, holy Scriptures," and of each particular part, "every Scripture," recognized in this way (in the most solemn manner by the Lord Himself, as well as by His Apostle) as a whole, and as the inspired work of particular authors, and that as written documents, distinctively as such, and commanding faith as inspired. " Knowing this first," says Peter, " that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." " That it might be fulfilled," is the constant testimony of Matthew; or, more generally, " then was fulfilled." " The Scriptures cannot be broken," says the Lord; " it is written in the prophets, They shall be all taught of God." " If they believe not his writings how will they believe my words?" And in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:56), contrasting their testimony " in the temple," but " that the Scripture must be fulfilled." So, " then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the Scripture," saying, " Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer." And, in that same journey, " Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his rest?" "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." It behooves, ought to be, since it was in the Scripture. So Paul could say, " the Scripture foreseeing.... preached," because the mind of God was in it. So, as often remarked, the. Lord quotes the Old Testament as a recognized whole, as used among the Jews, " Moses and the prophets and the psalms." He used the Scriptures, the written testimony, to silence the adversary, and referred to them, in rebuking the Jews, as one of a series of divine testimonies, which left them without excuse. I do not here quote the numberless texts in which the authority of the Scriptures is recognized by the blessed Lord and His Apostles. If these, He assures, were not believed, one would rise from the dead in vain, that men might be persuaded. No testimony from the actuality of another world would avail, if these writings were not listened to. But we find not only the authority of particular Scriptures affirmed, but, what is important to remark, its being there gave it authority. It was sufficient that it was Scripture to give it divine authority. The Scripture cannot be broken. It is not merely that truths may be found in it-that may be the case in any sermon, or in this tract-or that the Word of God is in it, but that being in the Scriptures was sufficient to give to what was then authority as the Word of God. It is God's ordained method of authority, not merely of truth-any one may be a means of communicating that-but it is authority for the truth, is clothed with divine authority in what it states, and is recognized by Christ Himself as having it, as also by all the Apostles. They were more noble that searched them to see if what an Apostle stated was so. The Scriptures have authority, and are addressed to God's people; not as such to the clergy or ministers of the Word, but, save a very small portion, as we have seen, are addressed by those ministers to the people.

From all alike we can learn. We can learn from these addressed to his trusted fellow-servants by the Apostle Paul, what the Church was, what it ought to be, and what it would be. Let us see the Apostle's account, then, of the value of these books, and the place they hold, in what he says to Timothy, and that especially when the Church has lost its true character, has a form of piety, and denies the power of it. After having spoken of Timothy's having learned the truth from himself, the Apostle says, " and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures." Here is the well-known book so entitled, which, as such, had authority. As a child, he had known it, and learned its contents. And these Scriptures, through faith in Christ Jesus, the great key to all, were able to make him wise to salvation. It is alleged that this is the Old Testament. No doubt what. Timothy had known as a child was the Old Testament: but whatever has a claim to be called the holy Scriptures comes under this title, and enjoys the privileges attached

to that title. Paul claims this authority for what he wrote, 1 Cor. 14:37, and makes the difference between his spiritual experience, however great it was, and what the Lord said, " but the things he wrote were the commandments of the Lord." The end of Romans assures us that the mystery of the Gospel, hidden from the prophetic and all previous ages, was made known in prophetic Scriptures to all nations. And Peter puts Paul's epistles on a level with the other Scriptures., SCRIPTURE is a recognized title; whatever is that has authority, and, by grace, enlightening power: it judges, and is not judged. This, then, is the divine, and divinely-given resource for the Christian when the Church is in an evil state-the Scriptures, and the Scripture as a child has known the book: and they are capable to make the individual wise to salvation through faith in Christ. It is not a slighting of ministry. Timothy did not slight Paul assuredly; but the gifted Apostle referred him to this, as the sure individual guide when the Church was in confusion and evil.

But Scripture can do more: it can furnish the man of God perfectly. And here we get more than the knowledge from a child, or saving wisdom through faith. The passage refers to the man of God; he who is for God in this world, a large and comprehensive expression. In a certain sense, in service, he represents God, so far as he acts under His guidance and by His power-in all things behaving ourselves as the ministers of God. But he stands, at least, as serving God in the world. It is an expression borrowed from the Old Testament. And here we find not the book as a whole, but every part-everything rightly called Scripture, is inspired θεοπνευστος. Evidently, it could not have the authority which the Lord and the Apostles ascribe to it; we should not see the Lord (in the most solemn moments and in the most absolute way) using His divine power to enable His disciples to understand it, if it were not truly inspired. But there is more than this.

It is not all the truth that the Scriptures contain the word of God, but everything that is Scripture is inspired, and profitable for all needed to make the man of Go perfect. Everyone who has to act for God in this world to stand for Him before the world- and (though some h specially called) all have more or less to do so-finds al he wants to complete his state and competency for service in the Scripture. But it is not only this that it contains what is needed; but everything truly called Scripture is inspired-has the, distinct name given by God Himself to that which He willed to be received as coming from Himself. We have, a child has (as to its authority which faith alone can make effectual) writings which claim for themselves the subjection of our souls, as being God's word immediately to ourselves, so that the intervention of any is interfering with His right-Hit immediate right over the soul as belonging to Him. It is not that others cannot help me in apprehending what is there; but that He helps me to what is there, and none can interfere to hinder the direct claim of what is then on my soul, or he interferes with God's title, no matter whether it is an individual or the Church which does so. And the higher the claim to do so, the greater the guilt. I acknowledge the authority of all Scripture as absolute and direct from God. I may surely be helped to know more of what is there to be profited by, to be enjoyed, or obeyed. I am specifically taught to go to the Scriptures, to rely on them; taught to do it individually, not as judging them, but as a direct claim of God over me when the Church has become a form of godliness Always true and enjoyed by all together when the Church was right, in the epistles received from the Apostles, an the gospels which we have given us of God. It became necessary truth-truth to this effect by the Apostle when the Church was gone wrong, and perilous times would come in the last days. Let us not forget, if sense of the present state of things does not press upon that we know from Scripture that those times were set in when John wrote and Paul wrote, and Peter and Jude. John could say, we know it is the last times: John could give the Lord's warning voice to the falling church n the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse. Peter could tell us that the time was come for judgment to begin at the house of God; Jude be forced to write to insist on Ile faith once delivered, because those had got into the Church who will be the objects of Christ's judgment at the last day. Paul that the mystery of iniquity already worked, and would do so till the wicked was at last revealed after a falling away; that already all sought their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. And he (though ale wise architect to lay the foundation), when his departure was at hand had to warn his beloved disciples, as he had the elders of Ephesus of the evils at the door, and that evil men and seducers would wax worse and worse, and the Church be a form of godliness without the power.

Then the individual comes out afresh, for we learn nothing of the Church in 2 Tim. except its failure and ruin, and the man of God has to hold his ground against advancing evil; and then the Scriptures get the place they were meant to hold-a necessity not so felt when all flowed in the stream of divine power, receiving the care and leading of the Apostles themselves, but brought out for the days of evil and seduction with divine authority, divine inspiration, and divine sufficiency to instruct.

It is evident that " knowing from whom thou hast learned them," now resolves itself also into the Scriptures. The Word of God, as the blessed Lord Himself, comes out from God, and is adapted to man. In this, with the; ring Word, it stands alone and is perfect in it.

Let me here engage my reader to realize in his own mind, and, if occasion call for it, insist with others, on the passage which connects itself closely with what we have considered-I mean the passage 1 John 2:24, " Let at therefore abide in you which ye have heard, from the beginning: if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in. the Son and in the Father." Nothing has secure

authority for the believer but that which was from THE BEGINNING. This alone secures our continuing in the Father and the Son. There may be much respectable, much " reverend antiquity;" and the spirit of reverence, where the object is true, is a very important quality in the believer, but an amazing means of seduction when it is not; but, as a ground of faith, the Christian must have " what was from the beginning;" the authority for believing must be "that which existed from the beginning," must have been heard from the beginning. In the Scriptures I have that certainty-I have the thing itself; nowhere else. Many may preach the truth and I profit by it; but by the Word, specially here by the New Testament, I have the certainty of what was from the beginning, and I have it nowhere else. No agreement of Christians can give me this. If Rome and Greece and England were all one, their agreement would not give me what was from the beginning as a fact; the Scriptures certainly do. I may be told that it is very presumptuous for me to set my judgment against such authority. I have no judgment of mine to set; I believe in what Paul and John and Peter and the blessed Lord said: there is no presumption in that. I do as they bid me, " receive and hold fast to what was in the beginning." If, indeed, any say that "it is not easy to understand, ' I ask, "Are they?' That is presumption, to say they can teach the truth better than the Apostles and the Lord, who spoke to the multitudes. At any rate, I must have, not what the primitive Church held, but " what was from the beginning." Hence the same Apostle says, " He that is of God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us; hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. J. N. D.

Soul and Spirit

IT will be of interest, and may be of more practical importance than at first sight might seem, to present the differences between these two things. For metaphysical inquiries, I have no taste or skill; but when the Word of 'God uses words of this character, it can never be out of 'place to inquire how they are used, and what, as differ-mg from one another, they represent. Recent review of he subject has made it clearer than hitherto it has been to myself, and I just note down, in few words, the practical result arrived at.

I have noticed elsewhere, that a "living soul" is, in 'Scripture, ascribed not only to man, but " to everything that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:30, margin), and how it settles the question-if there were one-that the feelings, &c., which the lower animals display are, no more than with man himself, the result of bodily organization. I have also noticed that " spirit " is not in the same way ascribed to beasts, save in one passage, in Ecclesiastes (3. 19-21), where it is the language of a man in the maze of trying to solve for himself the problem of human life. Beyond the fact that " all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again," he sees nothing certain. " Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" And, in view of it, he " praises the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive," and thinks those that have not been are better off still (ch. iv. 2, 3).

In no other place do you find spirit ascribed to the beasts. In Gen. 7:22, a passage in which (see margin) it has been thought to be found, is out of the question, as it is " all in whose nostrils was the breath of life," and this is not, as in the margin, " breath of the spirit of life," but "breathing of the breath of life." You have the expression in 2 Sam. 22:16, and the parallel place in the Psalms, the same נִשְסַחדוחַ translated, " blast of the breath of' his nostrils."

Spirit and soul, in man, are alike undying. I say this to avoid misinterpretation. " The spirit departs to God that gave it," and "they that kill the body cannot kill the soul."

Of the two words before us, which has the precedence in dignity, if I may so say, may be seen at once, from the fact just now adduced, that the beast has a soul, not a spirit, and from this other fact, that this word "spirit" is, as we know, applied to the Spirit of God, which "soul" never is.

" Spirit," too, gives us the character, " poor in spirit," a haughty spirit," "a sorrowful spirit." It also is pointed out as the seat of the understanding and judgment, &c. "What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?" The " mind" and the " spirit" are thus one; whereas the soul is recognized as the seat of the more purely emotional nature, the affections and desires, and, in fallen man, therefore, too often the will.

"Soul" is translated, even in our version, " appetite" (Prov. 23:2), and it is the seat, as in that passage, of the bodily appetites. "If thy soul longeth to eat flesh." " Eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure" (soul). " Asking meat for their lust," or soul. " If he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry." So we read of "chastening the soul with fasting."

But it is not merely bodily appetites that are ascribed to it, but all the affections; and thus very often, indeed, and wherever it speaks merely of men in nature, the will. Thus, "let her go whither she will" is literally" to her soul." "Ah, ah, so would we have it," is, " ah, our soul." "To bind his princes at his pleasure," or soul. "Deliver me not unto the will (soul) of mine enemies."

So, again, of right affections: " The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David." " So panteth my soul after thee, O God." "My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God." " My soul followeth hard after thee."

So " the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul," i. e., turning the affections into a new and blessed channel.

So, again, the emotions incident to grieved or disappointed affections and appetites are ascribed to it.

Hannah is thus spoken of (1 Sam. 1:10), "as in bitterness of soul." So, "the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons," &c. " A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also."

I notice a few more passages out of many in this connection, as illustrating the way in which this word " soul" is used. " If it be your mind that I should bury my dead "-there it is will, intention. " Ye know the heart (soul) of a stranger," i. e. all the emotions and yearnings, of one in a foreign land.

Num. 30:2, "to bind his soul with a bond," i. e. that his affections and desires might not lead him off elsewhere. " My soul shall be satisfied," i. e. the longings of my heart. Then again, " Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned from his mother, yea, my soul is even as a weaned child." Again: " Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well;" here it is the soul knowing, because the affections have been following with admiration the wonder of God's ways. So, again, Prov. 19. 2, " Also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good"-affections without the bridle of the judgment; what does that lead to?" he that hasteth with his feet sinneth."

So again, it is taking Christ's easy yoke and light burden we " find rest to our souls." " In your patience possess ye your souls." " Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul." " Fleshly lusts which war against the soul."

These passages need no comment. I place beside them, for the devout meditation of His people, four texts, in conclusion, used with reference to our Blessed Lord, where I shall equally abstain from comment.

Matt. 26:38: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful; even unto death."

John 12:27: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour."

Isa. 53:10: "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin."

Isa. 53:11: " He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied."

On the other hand, of a right will, we find, Ex. 35:21, " every one whom his spirit made willing." " The spirit indeed is willing."

Anger and jealousy are ascribed to the spirit, but not, so far as I can see, hatred or malice. In Num. 5:14, we read of the "spirit of jealousy;" and in Judg. 8:3, " their anger (spirit) was abated." The reason is, as I think, that both these are emotions proceeding from a right, or perverted judgment, but not either of them " lusts."

Courage, too, is ascribed to the spirit; or rather, perhaps, spirit is used for it, as in Josh. 2:11. Even in ordinary speaking, too, courage is associated with " presence of mind."

Sorrow is connected with the spirit as with the soul, only that "grief of mind" (Gen. 26:35), " anguish of spirit" (Ex. 6:9), are the working of the judgment, even where a wrong one. As for other ways in which the word is used, there is no difficulty in them. Pride may, of course, act in the perversion of judgment, or in presumption, Which is the pride of desire, and so we read of " a haughty spirit," and " a proud heart," or soul.

As instances of the further use of the word, I only quote, without comment: " A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit." "Vanity and vexation of spirit." " They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding." "The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." " Then shall his mind (spirit) change."

And it only remains for me to remark, that the word translated "natural," in the expressions natural man," " natural body," is the adjective of ψνχη, or soul (ψυχικος), and is twice translated (James 3:15, and Jude) " sensual." In man, fallen man, the judgment has been led astray by, and subjected to the control -of, the lusts and appetites. This has debased and perverted it. The judgment is debased, because the heart is astray, and to the "natural man" the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness. This is the condition of all that are not born of God.

Let us pray that " the very God of peace sanctify us wholly, and that our whole body and soul and spirit may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." F. W. G.

The Sufficiency of the Written Word and the Use of It

PE 3GOD never leaves His people without light sufficient for their way. To the patriarchs he appeared from time to time, to direct them in their pilgrim journeys: in visions too and by dreams He communicated to them His will. He appears to Isaac to forbid his contemplated descent into Egypt. He spake in visions of the night unto Jacob, to encourage him to sojourn in it. Under the law, by dreams or visions, by Urim and Thummim, or by prophets, the people of Israel received divine guidance for the circumstances in which they were placed. The law pointed out what they ought to do; but when declension came in, prophets were raised up, to recall the people to their allegiance, to direct them at the time, and to tell them of the future. The written Word of God, as they received it, was liable at any time to be supplemented by fresh revelations communicated to a prophet, who might be of humble origin, as Amos, one of the herdmen of Tekoa; or a member of the family of Aaron, as Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. Such a condition of things, whilst serving to impress them with a sense of the Lord's constant care for their well-being, must have tended to keep them looking around to discover who in their midst might be next used to reveal still further His mind. The written Word was then manifestly an incomplete revelation of God's will, though, as far as it went, the people had to give heed to it, and obey it. It had an authority which- none other could have, for it was God's word; yet they might lawfully look for fresh additions to be made.

With us the case is different. With the departure of the Apostles from earth all additions to the word of God ceased. All that God would have unfolded before the Lord comes for His Church has been for nearly eighteen centuries in the hands of His saints. " He who is the truth has been manifested, and has revealed the Father" (John 14:6). The Spirit of truth, who is the truth, is here to guide us into all the truth (John 16:13; 1 John 5:6); so a complete revelation it is that we possess. The word of God has been fulfilled, and none have authority to add to it; hence the marked difference between the closing injunctions of Moses and Malachi to Israel, and the last directions of the Apostles to us. Moses, in the land of Moab, near Jordan, spoke of secret things then hidden in the bosom of God, and directed the people to await the coming of the prophet like unto himself, to whom they were to hearken in all that he should say unto them. Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, closes with an announcement of the corning of Elijah, the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord, shall come, thus intimating that fresh communications might be made from God to Israel. Paul, on the other hand, at the close of his life, bids Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard of him, advises as the corrective for the errors which were and should be prevalent, the preaching the Word, and provides for the transmission of the truth, already communicated, to those who should come after. Jude exhorts believers to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, in view of the approaching apostasy; reminds them of the words before spoken by the Apostles as to the persons who should be found in the assemblies of the saints; and brings forward a prophecy of Enoch, not before recorded in the Word, with respect to the judgment that would fall on these men. The prophecy delivered before the flood, and the teaching of the Apostles already known, were sufficient to warn the faithful as to these men and their end. John, writing to the babes in Christ, urges them to let that abide in them which they have heard from the beginning: if that abides in them they shall abide in the Son and in the Father. James, whilst adding to our knowledge of Elijah, hints not at any further revelations to be afterward vouchsafed. And Peter says he writes " to 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 commandments of us the Apostles (or, of your Apostles) of the Lord and Savior." They all turn the thoughts of their converts to what has been revealed as sufficient for guidance, and all that is requisite for communion with the Father and the Son in the end, and to the end of the days.

The possession, then, of the full unfolding of God's mind from the first century of the dispensation is a feature peculiar to Christianity. Those by whom God's truth began first to be fully declared were those by whom the revelation was completed. As they passed away revelations ceased to be vouchsafed, though providential guidance, as often as needed, the child of God may reckon on receiving. A reason for this will readily suggest itself. The proper position of the Church on earth is that of expectancy-not of a fresh prophet to arise, but of the Lord Jesus to come at any moment into the air. Though the nearness or remoteness of that hour is known only to God, it is plain such a hope could never be really embraced as imminent, if we might lawfully look for fresh messengers to be sent to reveal still more of His will. Yet the Apostles do speak of the closing days of Christendom. The future was before them, and formed the subject of most earnest and inspired exhortations, not to bid saints wait for one who would be sent to communicate wisdom and Divine guidance in times of declension, but to insist on the sufficiency of the truth then communicated to meet the errors that would be rife. After the present parenthetic period of time has passed away-after the Lord's descent into- the air for His Church-God will again deal directly with the Jews, the Gentiles, and the earth, and fresh revelations will be made by the instruments of His choice (Joel 2:28; Rev. 11:3). Till then the written Word is the perfect directory and repository for His people. From it we learn how to live, to walk, and to fight: in it we find all the truth God is pleased to lead us into whilst on earth.

Is this word sufficient for our wants? Can we rest on it as supplying all the guidance we require? Does it so anticipate the times in which we live as to equip us to cope with the errors of the day? Some who have turned to other sources for help would answer in the negative. If we give heed to. Peter we shall answer in the affirmative, and learn from the use of it, in his second Epistle, what a richly stored armory the Bible is for, as inspired by the Holy Ghost, in anticipation of his decease, cognizant of the errors that would be rife before the Lord's return, he not only commends the Word of God to the saints as their guide, but shows them how to make use of it.

There is a future for God's saints as well as for the ungodly: there will be a melting of the elements by heat. Be keeps these things before them. For the saints the future he speaks of is the kingdom; for the ungodly there remains judgment and perdition; whilst dissolution will be the end of the material creation. All these events are intimately connected with the Lord's return to earth. Now the scoffers of the last days will openly deny the coming of the Lord. Peter, looking forward by the spirit of prophecy, admonishes his readers of that which will surely come to pass, and arms them for the teaching that will be prevalent by directing them to that Word of which these scoffers are willfullya ignorant. " Where is the promise of his coming'?" they will ask. In speaking thus, they turn from God's Word to His works, and draw conclusions from what they observe in opposition to what they read. " Where is the promise of his coming?" Then there is a promise. The Word in which it is preserved is acknowledged as existing, but credence to what God has said is refused. " For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Creatures of a day, they set up their ideas as conclusive evidence of what they wish to be true. The course of nature, since the fathers fell asleep, has remained unchanged, they say; and it must remain unchangeable is the thought of their heart. Now such reasoning may seem to some unanswerable, and the conclusions drawn from the examination of God's works irresistible; but most material points are omitted in their calculation, viz., the origin of creation, and the power of Him who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the fountains of waters. " 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." Created things took their form by the fiat of the Almighty. There was a beginning to the heavens and the earth; there may surely be an end. But further, " The world that then was (the orderly arrangement of things on earth) being overflowed with water, perished." Such is the history of the past recorded in the Word. The order of nature, as men speak, has been interrupted; it may be therefore again.

These scoffers, reasoning from what they see, draw conclusions about what must be. The present stability of created things is for them an indication of what must ever be. We may be sure of what must be from what has been. They speak of the beginning of creation, of the unvarying condition of things from that time to this. Peter here meets them on their own ground, and thus enables us to challenge their conclusions. He, too, can speak of the beginning of creation, and bear witness to the possibility of' an interruption, as they would call it, of the unvarying order of nature. God has before interposed in judgment; He will, He must again, if men refuse to hearken to His Word, and to submit to His Son. Is it strange that He should act. in judgment, though it is His strange work? Before man was on the earth His wrath had been manifested, when " he spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." Nor is it angels only who have felt the power of His anger, for He has dealt judicially with man also. He spared not the angels, " He spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." And again, at a later date, " turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes, he condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." These interpositions or judgment have been, for the Word records them, and no other source of information is open to us from which to learn about them. The value of God's Word, then, is great, and just meets the silly conclusions of misguided men. What took place before God surveyed the works on earth which He had made, and pronounced them to be very good, is first narrated by Peter and Jude. What happened when Noah was alive is circumstantially and truthfully only to be found in the Bible. The catastrophe of the days of Abraham has found no historian to record it but the lawgiver of the former dispensation. These acts of judgment attest the power and unchangeableness of the Almighty; but the example of Sodom and Gomorrha will be lost on these foolish reasoners, scoffers at God's truth. He has punished both angels and men; no creature endowed with intelligence is beyond the reach of His arm; the fallen angels and lost souls alike await their doom. And here we are carried back to an age anterior to man, and read of something which took place with which he was not concerned. God had been obliged to act judicially in government before the serpent deceived Eve, or Adam had given names to the creatures of the earth that the Lord God had made. Sin had manifested itself in heaven before Satan had succeeded in his designs on earth. The beings who fell, the reason of it, their present condition and future prospects, all are related clearly though concisely. What a rebuke to man's self-conceit is this account of the angels that sinned! Man thinks he knows, or can find out everything, and reasons as if he must he right, even at the expense of God's faithfulness and truth. Scripture just speaks of one thing that happened before Adam was in Paradise, and man's presumption is rebuked. An event of great importance is related centuries after it had occurred, and then not as a discovery just made, but as something with which the writer is quite conversant, and which men should be acquainted with, as a sure indication of God's action in the future. Reading this notice of the fall of the angels which took place-(who shall say when?)-one feels as if standing on the shore of an ocean, with one object in the distance only in sight-sufficient to make one sure that very much that might be known is hidden from our 'view. How much must have gone on of which we are still ignorant? Who seduced these angels? Did Satan destroy them before he had the opportunity of deceiving man? We may ask these and a thousand questions, which none on earth can answer; for all that we know of these angels man is wholly indebted to revelation. But this history, when revealed, only shows more clearly how limited is man's knowledge, and how comparatively recent a creation is that of the human race compared with other existing intelligences. Ignorant of all before the six days of creation, except this one event which God has made known, and the creation in the beginning of the heavens and the earth, what madness, what folly it is to sit in judgment on the Word of God, and pronounce that the Lord's promise will fail.

If we think of this judicial intervention of the Almighty, all the. oft-repeated assertions that mercy and love are attributes of the Divine Being at variance with the thought of God as a judge, are at once shown to be worthless; and, if we remember His statements about the flood, and the destruction of the cities of the plain, all the reasoning of ungodly men from the supposed unchangeableness of created things is immediately refuted. We cannot read Peter or Jude, and believe that God is too merciful to act in judgment. We cannot accept God's account of the flood and the cities of the plain, and affirm that the order of nature cannot be subjected to any deviation from its accustomed path.

But we rest not here, nor stand on deductions, however clear and true. We have not only discovered to us what took place at a period when the creation of man was still a thing of the future, but we have revealed, in this same Word, the coming judgment, and the manner and extent of it. " By the word of God were the heavens of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water." Peter never witnessed this, yet he speaks of it as fully competent to declare it, and as perfectly acquainted with the subject in hand. He wrote these words, yet they are not his; he was the scribe, but the Holy Ghost is the author, who sets forth what really was, and what will yet be seen. By the Word of God the heavens and the earth were created; by ".that same Word are they kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." How the littleness of man is at once made apparent, when these subjects are brought forward! He can discover, for that is within the range of his mental powers, that vast changes have passed over this globe; but its origin and destined end are both equally beyond his ken; for his knowledge of both the one and the other, he must consent to be indebted to revelation. There are subjects with which a child may be familiar, which all the learning of man could never find out. Thus Peter takes us to the written Word, the weapon given us to wield under the teaching of the Spirit. We need weapons when in conflict, and we need to learn how to use them. Peter here shows us what the weapon is, and showing us, too, how to wield it, makes plain the value of the sword which is put into our hand. Like the smooth stone of David's choice, a missile of God's providing, instead of the armor of Saul, instruments of man's devising, we have, in the Word of God, a sword which demolishes at one stroke all the finely spun web of the enemy. The heavens and the earth will pass away when the fire of Divine judgment shall be kindled. At the flood the world that then was perished. By and by the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Nothing that has been seen could lead man to look for this. As ever with God, He has resources within Himself, and methods of acting peculiar and unthought of by us.

The ungodly were willingly ignorant of the Word. Peter would not let the saints be ignorant of this

one thing, that years with the Eternal One are as a moment. " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." If the disobedient deny the possible fulfillment of His promise, believers must remember that it is His promise (ver. 9). And here the Apostle reminds us of what is involved in the assertion of these scoffers, as he takes up the language of the prophetic scriptures, and connects His coming, which these will deny, with the day of the Lord, a theme so frequently dwelt on. Are the statements of the Old Testament as to that day to be discarded? Impossible! " The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Such, in substance, have been the predictions of the prophets (Psa. 102:26; Isa. 51:6;66. 22; Zeph. 3.8), which the Apostle affirms will have a most literal accomplishment. He had spoken, in the first chapter of this epistle, of the prophetic scriptures of the Old Testament as a light shining in a dark place. to which they should give heed, till the day dawn and the day star arise in their hearts. If they hearkened to these scoffers, they must abandon all this, and be as a vessel on the ocean, without a rudder or a compass. It might seem but a little thing to give up one point about the future. But surrendering one is really surrendering all, because each prophecy is but a link of one great chain. If the promise of His coming was given up, the hopes of the day of the Lord and all connected with it, must be abandoned likewise. It is well to see this, and learn what really is involved in the question of these unbelievers.

Keeping to the written Word we can meet these men, and resist them; but we can do more. Amid the dissolving of the heavens by fire, and the melting of the elements by fervent heat, we can, by faith, descry new heavens and a new earth, taking shape according to the will of the Creator. " We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth." He has promised to come; He has promised a new creation. God has graciously engaged Himself, in an immutable way, to perform what the Word speaks of. How far from God must souls be when they throw discredit on His promises.

But the Word proceeds further, and gives us the characteristic of that new creation, abiding righteousness. Injustice, fraud, oppression, lawlessness, characterize our day; abiding righteousness will characterize that new creation, " according to His promise." Here is a foundation for the soul to stand on. Created things, however stable they may appear, will be dissolved and burnt up, for He has promised to return to earth, after which these judgments will be executed. New heavens and a new earth shall be created and remain forever, for He has promised this likewise (Isa. 66:22). And here is the true solution of what would otherwise be incomprehensible. Could we' suppose Satan could mar God's fair creation, and thwart His designs forever, that would be to exalt Satan above God. So, if any are stumbled by the present success of the enemy, they have only to turn to the Word, and there learn the end of it all. He who once created the heavens and the earth will create again. He who was seen in the beginning by His works to be God will be seen at the end to be the same. Creating power will again be put forth, and new heavens and a new earth appear, never to be defiled by the hateful presence of the evil one.

As to the past and the future, our only guide is the written Word. But what of the present? Shall these scoffers ensnare souls because the Lord tarries, and use with success the fact of the delay as an argument which shall throw the unwary off their balance? Here, too, the Word comes in, and Peter shows us the value of it. It reveals the reason of the delay. The Apostle states it in ver. 9, and refers to the epistles of Paul in confirmation of it (ver. 15). It is not to tradition, or the voice of the church, or the deductions of men, however holy they might be, that he would direct us; but as he has taught us the value of the written Word he would still direct us to it, as he adduces the writings of Paul in witness of the truth, " that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation." It is not slackness to fulfill His promise that causes the apparent delay; not indifference, but long- suffering-not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is the true key to His long tarrying, to which all would do well to take heed. For whilst of the fallen angels we read of none that were spared, God did preserve Noah and his family through the flood, and delivered Lot and his two daughters, and would have saved all his family, if they had been willing. For fallen man there is a way of escape from the impending doom, and hence the Lord tarries: thus not only the acts of God are the subjects of revelation, but His motives too; for, as we could not divine beforehand how He would act, nor discover with out a revelation what He did before man was created, we should never have discerned the real reason of the continuance of the Lord's absence. Of the past, the present, and the future, we learn from the written Word; and the past affords a clue to the future, because it is the acting of God, not of man, the sport of circumstances, with which we are concerned.

And, as this Word is a guide to God's counsels, so, when speaking of these scoffers, it furnishes us with the explanation of their opposition; they walk after their own lusts-self, not the Lord Jesus, is their object. The Lord shut out of their heart, they would exclude Him from His place on earth, and persuade others that His coming, taught by the Apostles, cannot take place. The secrets of their actions being exposed, the needed corrective is supplied to the saints. Seeing that the dissolution of created things will take place, holy conversation and godliness should be manifested. The scoffers may scoff at the thought of His return; the righteous should look for and hasten His coming, and, forewarned of the errors that would be abroad, they should grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thus using the Word, as Peter teaches us, what a thought it suggests of the wisdom, power, and grace of God. He knew eighteen hundred years ago what Satan would suggest to men in the end of the days, and supplied His people, by the written Word, with the fitting armor. His power as exercised, His power as it will be exercised, are traced out before us, and the reason of His apparent non-intervention in the affairs of earth is made known.

Outside the limits of revelation we need not travel for weapons with which to contend with these enemies to the truth, or for a shield with which to defend ourselves from their assaults: all has been foreseen and provided for. With such a guide, the living and abiding Word of God, whilst we can track God's steps in the past, and learn the reason of the Lord's continued absence, we await with fullest confidence and certainty God's action in the future; and, where all is dark to the man of the world, there is light for the simple believer.

C.E.S.

The Forgiveness of Sins; Purgatory

N*. Good day, James. James. Good day, Sir.

IV*. Well, James, I am come to continue our inquiries into the truth of Roman Catholic doctrines.

James 1 am glad you are, Sir, and much obliged to you. Bill M. has been here since, and angry at my being so sure of the Bible being the word of God, and that I am so happy because I see that God has forgiven me, and that I have found salvation in Christ. He says I am turned fanatic, and that my head is turned, and what not. It tried me a little, but I know I am happy, and my wife helped me. And it was only what he had said to me before. And when I turned to Scripture, it came to me just with light and power; it was like another book to me; so I was not shaken really. If a man sees the sun, it is hard to persuade him he does not see it, though he can't explain to another how he comes to see it, only that God gave him eyes: but I should like to hear something more about the church, for that is what he always comes down upon. I expect he will be here to-night, and perhaps, if it is not too much to ask, you would have some conversation with him about it. My woman would be glad to hear, too, if you have no objection.

N*. Not the least; we will wait to speak of the church and authority till M. comes. I am glad he will be here, we can have our questions fully out. We will take, however, Roman Catholic doctrines from their own authoritative sources, which is still better. However, he can recall any point I might forget, which will be an advantage. As to their arguments, I have Milner's "End of Controversy," which I know is distributed largely in cheap editions so that I suppose we shall have the best arguments which they have to produce. Meanwhile there is a point I can touch on (for which we had not time the other day), I mean purgatory, because it is directly connected with the all-sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice which gave you, through grace, such comfort the last time I saw you. The Romanists teach that there are two kinds of sins, mortal and venial. The first, they say, deprives the soul of sanctifying grace, that is, the grace that makes us friends of God, and deserves hell:-venial sin does not deprive us of this. It does not, spiritually speaking, kill the soul, so their catechisms speak. The Council of Trent declares that the grace of justification is lost by mortal sin. Venial sin, however, according to the same authority, does not exclude from grace, but by mortal sins men are sons of wrath, and enemies of God. They say that if a man dies in mortal sin he goes to hell, but if he dies in venial sin he goes to purgatory; or if his mortal sin has been forgiven, and he is again justified by penance, he may go to purgatory to satisfy for the penalties that may remain after forgiveness.

James. What is purgatory?

N*. They are very shy indeed of saying what it is. Our friend, Dr. Milner says:-"all which is necessary to be believed on that subject is, there is a purgatory and the souls detained there are helped by the prayers of the faithful, and particularly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar." That is the same as the Council of Trent, only they anathematize any one who denies that, after men are freed from the eternal penalty of their sins, they have to satisfy in this world, or in purgatory, the temporal penalty to which they are liable for them. They do not tell us what it is, and forbid curious questions, only there is, they say, a place of temporary punishment. In the catechism of the Council of Trent it is called, however, the fire of purgatory, in which the souls of the just are cleansed by a temporary punishment, * Those who get in must stay there till they have paid the very last farthing, for so they apply that text; yet their friends can help them to get out by prayers, alms, and particularly by the so-called sacrifice of the mass. Now all this you can easily see (however little clear it may be) goes clean against the whole testimony of God as to the forgiveness of sins. They ground it in their reasonings on the impossibility of a soul suffering for a small sin as it would for murder. They put a person under vindictive temporal punishment, which does not purify, but satisfies God. They are always laboring to get people out; indulgences are used to spare people part of this temporal punishment due to sin, as they say, but " no one can ever be sure that he has gained the entire benefit of an indulgence, though he has performed all the conditions appointed for this end."(** How different is Scripture. God does chasten for sin with a view to our holiness, even when we are

perfectly forgiven-He, for our profit (it is said), that we may be partakers of His holiness. That, the heart

\ assured of His goodness can easily believe, and bless Him \ for it. He speaks to us (as it is beautifully said) as unto children: " My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." It is also true that God governs and shows sometimes His displeasure against sin in this world. And He has so ordered the world that he that sows to the flesh of the flesh reaps corruption;-but a vindictive penalty-when a man is not in the flesh at all, as to which God can be satisfied by the man's sufferings in this or another world, or by his friends' offerings with which no purifying is connected, but which serve merely to buy him off from God's hand, who will not let him go till the last farthing is paid, is a horrible blasphemy against the truth and grace of God. The Scriptures do not teach us thus. What should you say, James, to the thought that, after God had forgiven you, and declared that He would remember your sins and iniquities no more, God was going to put you into the fire or some other horrible pain, till you paid Him the last farthing of these temporal penalties?

(* It is singular enough the obscurity and inconsistency of the Catechism of the Council of Trent on this subject. In the article on the descent into hell, besides what I have just quoted, after speaking of purgatory, it is said: "The third kind of abode is that in which were received the souls of the just who died before Christ, and where, without experiencing any kind of pain, supported by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed peaceful repose. These pious souls then, who in the bosom of Abraham were expecting the Savior, Christ the Lord liberated, descending into hell." (Vol. 1, p. 123,3.) Shortly after, in the same article, it is said, speaking of the descent of the just: " They all descended, some to endure the most acute torments; others, though exempt from actual pain, yet deprived of the vision of God, and of the glory for which they sighed, and consigned to the torture of suspense in painful captivity." Is being consigned to the torture of suspense in painful captivity peaceful repose in the bosom of Abraham? Were the holy and the just held in painful captivity in the bosom of Abraham? Is that the picture which Scripture gives of it? The fire of purgatory is the second thing. Limbus patrum is the third kind of abode, where there was no pain, but peaceful repose. Yet some were there to endure the most acute torments. In a further passage it is said: "And the souls of the just., on their departure from this life, were borne to the bosom of Abraham; or, as is still the case with those who require to be freed from the stains of sin, or die indebted to the divine justice, were purified in the fire of purgatory ". (p. 127, II.) Hence the souls of the just who were enjoying peaceful repose in the torture of suspense must have been perfect souls. The others were in the fire of purgatory as people are now. The Jews' belief is that Abraham descended from time to time to deliver souls. Bellarmine insists that it is a material fire,-a strange thing for souls to suffer from. But what is more important, he declares that the element of sin (the fomes peccati) is gone by death, because sensuality is extinguished; habits, not. But they must soon be gone too, nay, at once, though that is not the case in this life, because there will there be no contrary and resisting element as there is here,-nor is purgatory for these habits, as adults who die directly after baptism, and martyrs do not go there. Yet neither baptism nor martyrdom destroys them. After reasoning thus, and saying purgatory was for none of these, he adds:-" There remains, therefore, the penalties of guilt and venial sins-which may properly be called the remains of sins, on account of which purgatory is. But these remains, it is sometimes certain, are purged in death: sometimes it is certain they are not purged, sometimes it is doubtful which happens, and it is most probable they are partly purged and partly not purged." Vol. 2., Bellarm. De Purg. Lib. 2. cap. 9., 7 (p. 370): " Restat ergo reatus pcenw, et peccata venialia, que proprie dici possunt reliquiee peccatorum, ob quas est Purgatorium. Has autem reliquias aliquando certum est in morte purgari: aliquando certum est non purgari aliquando dubium est, quid fiat, et probabilissimum est, partim purgari, partim non purgari;" and preceding and following sections. I cite this because it is thus clear from the highest authority of the Roman Catholic church that it is not inward spiritual purifying, for sensuality is extinguished by death,-not even habits, but the penalty of guilt and venial sin. It is strictly penal and satisfactory; and secondly, it is exactly for that (" the remains of sin," which extreme unction takes away) that men go into, purgatory; which is noticed farther on. The pains of purgatory, says Bellarmine, are most horrible (atrocissimas). It cannot be said how long they last; they may diminish gradually. This he proves by visions. He enlarges upon the proofs of the horrible pains compared with anything here. In result, for the slightest faults (if Pope Gregory the Great is to be believed), and with no view to purify from lust or sensuality (for that is extinguished), justified holy souls in a state of grace are kept in torment as a mere penal satisfaction.

One catechism defines it ".a place of punishment where souls suffer for a time, before they go to heaven;" but the Council of Trent and the creed of Pope Pius give us no help here.)

(** Milner's " End of Con." Letter 42. On Indulgences, " of what it really is," (sec. 4. of second par. of Letter 42.). Bellarm. De Indulg. Lib. 1. cap. 12.)

James 1 never could think that.

N. No one who knows God's truth could, James. It revolts every thought that God has given to us of His grace and of Himself.

James. But, then, what do you say to the murderer not being punished more than one who had committed a small fault?

N*. I say that if they turn to God through Christ, they are both washed clean, as white as snow, even if the sin was as scarlet. The whole argument, James, denies Christian truth. No person renewed in heart will call any fault small which comes from the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. We know that if we are not redeemed and justified and born again, we are all children of wrath; that if we are, though we may be chastened for our profit, God imputes to us no sin at all, as Paul says, Rom. 4, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin," quoting Psa. 32, because Christ has, for those who by grace are in Him, borne

and satisfied perfectly for them all; that (Heb. 10) by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified; that, if they are really Christ's, they have a new nature (Col. 3:10); that Christ Himself is their life (Col. 3, Gal. 2:20); and that when we die we are absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5); that God has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (Col. 1). In a word, we believe in salvation through, the work of Christ, and a new, divinely-given, nature. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin (1 John 1) God forgives and cleanses from all iniquity. It was when Christ had by Himself purged our sins that He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1). What do we want of a purgatory, if we are perfectly purged and cleansed, made (as Scripture speaks) as white as snow! They would persuade us that God has given His Son for our sins, that He has borne them; and yet, that for those who die in grace, who are really in Christ, all whose sins Christ has borne, cleansing them in His precious blood, -interceding for them in virtue of it if they have failed

(1 John 2)-God has still a prison in order to punish them grievously for the very sins which Christ has borne, and that He will exact the last farthing of them!

James. That's not Christianity, I'm sure, nor the God of the Bible.

N*. It is not, James: and what strikes me in all the doctrines of Popery is that they deny the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, His own grace. But a word as regards degrees of guilt. Even in eternal punishment Scripture speaks of a difference, of few stripes and many stripes (Luke 12:46,47); but that is in eternal punishment when Christ comes to judge, as you may see, verse 46; and they are all alike shut out from the presence of the blessed God, and that is what is infinitely dreadful; while if, through grace. they have been brought to repentance and faith in Christ, if they have really been made partakers of the divine nature

(2 Peter 1:3,4); the Lord imputes no sin to them. The Romanist reasoning supposes that the sinner who is in grace has to answer for his own sins, and hence it makes the difference of great and small. Christianity teaches us that if' a man be in Christ, Christ is He who has answered for them, and that hence none is imputed to him at all. But he does look for purifying by the word of God in whatever details he may need it, and by chastening in the flesh when it is called for; but he has a new nature, and, if he dies and leaves this world of discipline, he will not have his body or flesh remaining at all. He departs and is with Christ: falls asleep in Christ, Jesus receiving his spirit. He could not look on the God who has loved him, given His Son for him, justified him, cleansed him in Christ's blood, made him His own child and declared He would never remember his sins, as a God who would after all put him into torment till he paid the last farthing:

James. That's true; I see, plain enough, it denies the very nature of Christianity, all if tells you of God and all the feelings it gives towards God for His love. Why the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; I begin to feel it now and see in the Bible that it belongs to the Christian; and there would be an utter end of that, if it was true that God was going, after saving us by Christ, to put us into prison till we had paid the last farthing. No: I believe Christ has paid the last farthing for me (blessed be His name), and that He ever lives to make intercession for me. I do not know what kind of a religion that is, but it is not real Christianity, that I am sure; though I do not say good people may not be blinded by it.

N*. No: its character is not divine-Penances to satisfy an exacting God, purgatory if you do not do enough, multiplied rites and ceremonies to quiet the conscience without purifying it, no confidence in God as a God of love, no resting in thankful peace on the efficacy of Christ's work, no childlike confidence in a Father's goodness taking away fear; these are not the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, nor their fruits. The system really sets aside grace and puts us under the terror of an eternity which we are not—fit to meet. It pretends that Christ's blood was shed to bring the Old Testament saints to Paradise, but that the Commandments are given for us to merit it by. Then, there are ceremonies to eke out our failures; and, in spite of them all, and of a sacrament that is to wipe out the remains of sine (for so, they say, extreme unction does, which Christ's blood, however believed in, has not done of itself), we are to go to purgatory and finish the payment to a God who will have the last farthing. It is.

neither God come down to us in love (and that is what Christ really was on earth, and as to His love He surely is not changed), nor we reconciled to God by the death of His Son, which Scripture says that we who believe are. Forgive me, James, if I speak earnestly and warmly when I think of the wrong done to God's love and to the efficacy of Christ's precious blood by it.

They can give a thousand cunning explanations about purgatory, which after all are but straw before the Word of God; but the end is that the poor soul under this teaching needs, and feels it needs, purging in order to be with God,-does its best, is not purged; gets the sacraments, is not purged; and then goes to purgatory, and God knows when it will get out. For see what a poor case it is after all. A man is absolved, has the viaticum, the benefit of Christ's sacrifice; and then is anointed, Which is declared to wipe away the remains of sin,* and then after all goes to purgatory. What is that for? Not to

purge him,-for the remains of sin are wiped away (I

use the terms of the Council of Trent*) by extreme unction; what does he go to purgatory for after that? The natural conscience feels it must be to purge the soul, not merely to satisfy a vindictive God,-but, if it be, then the sacraments have not done it. And though they have had masses before which have not kept them out of this prison, and they get masses said to get them out when they are in, yet we never know when they will get out after all. They are helped, but we are not told

(that is carefully avoided) whether the satisfaction is judicially received for the satisfaction of another: the offended judge is not bound to receive. It is probable

it is,-but they are only suffrages, not satisfaction necessarily applied..And remark, here, that it is with no view of benefit to the souls that are in purgatory that they are tormented. God does chasten men in this world (and to this Roman Catholics appeal); but we read, " he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness." God may bring in judgment, like the flood or the perishing of the Israelites in the wilderness; but, in this last case, it is said: "As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory.' It was His public government in this world vindicated. But Bellarmine says, the souls in purgatory are sure of their salvation, that death has wholly taken away the principle of sin in them, nor is the purgatorial fire to correct evil habits that have been acquired. It is purely completing so much punishment imposed on them, satisfying a penalty. And for that they are in horrible. torments, perhaps till the resurrection.

James. Well, how can people be so blinded? For I cannot believe if a soul is -forgiven and purged, God could take pleasure in tormenting it, and if it is not purged, then their absolution and sacrament and unction

are worth. nothing after all. Purgatory and they cannot both be true, that is plain. Ah! when a man is in the

-blessed light, he sees clear even if he be ignorant, because he knows the love of God and the value of the precious blood of Christ.

N..Yes, James, he is taught of God; and what concerns his soul is as clear as daylight, ay, and what God

is too, though he have much to learn. We have considered what purgatory is for the soul when compared with the truth of Scripture; we will see the value of their proofs of it by-and-bye. In the meanwhile see how their doctrine of the intercession of the saints hides the grace of Christ.

The Word of God teaches us that the blessed Son of God came down to earth and got, as. Scripture beautifully speaks, the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to him that is weary (Isa. 1. 4). We are told that He was in all points tempted like as we are without sin; that we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of Our infirmities, but that, having suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted (Heb. 2:17,18;4. 15, 16): so that I can come boldly to a throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need; that if I sin, which I can never excuse, still I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins (1. John n.). Here then God teaches me I have a throne of grace to which I can come boldly, and a high priest who understands all my weakness and sorrows, and feels for me in them, and if I have sinned, One who has made propitiation for the sin. Now that is all I want. It is holy ground to go on, for no sin is allowed at all, but it suits my heart and my wants: On the other hand, what does the intercession of the saints and Mary tell me? It says to me:-No, you cannot come boldly to the throne of grace. Christ is too high, too glorious. He does not and either will. not or cannot feel

The present Pope, in his encyclical letter of '49, says that the Virgin "by the foot of Virtue bruised the serpent's head,' and who, being constituted between Christ and His Church, and, being wholly sweet and full of graces, hath ever delivered the Christian people from calamities of all sorts." "For ye know very well, ven. Brethren, that the whole of our confidence is placed in the most Holy Virgin, since God has placed in Mary the fullness of all good, that accordingly we may know that if there is any hope in us, if any grace, if any salvation, it redounds to us from her, because such is His will Who hath willed that we should have everything through Mary." M. Olier, the founder of the Seminary of S. Sulpice (quoted

for my wants and sorrows as others do. Mary has a more tender heart. The saints can enter better into my wants,-are nearer to me. In vain has the Son of God become a man on purpose to know and to bear my sorrows, to assure me that He feels for me in tender love and compassion: others (if I am to believe the Romanist doctrine) are more suited to me. I must get them to go and. move Him to love me and enter into my sorrows and get what I want from Him for me. And if I have sinned, instead of trusting to His intercession who has made propitiation for me, I must get saints to do it, who never could, nor ever have done it. Did they ever when in the form of God become a poor man for me? Did Mary ever do so, or shed her blood for me?-And see how it denies the grace of God. Is this getting saints to go because I dare not go coming boldly to the throne of God because it is a throne of grace? I had rather have the heart of Him who became a man of sorrows for me, and shed His blood for me, and is the one only high priest than all the Marys and all the saints (blessed as they may be in their place) that ever were.

I speak with you. James, of the substance of these things, and compare the Roman Catholic system with the truth, with what Christianity is as given to us of God; because you have not lost it as given of God, but are rather come to it really in your heart, and thus can understand the difference. Romanism is not the Christianity of the Scriptures at all, not God's Christianity: grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

James.-Thank you, Sir, thank you. It does me good, and clears up many a point for me. It does make a wonderful difference when one knows there is such a thing as grace,-knows God's grace ever so little, as shown us in Christ. When one has learned to have confidence in God's goodness, one sees the whole system is false, that it is not grace; that man has to work and suffer to satisfy God; he may have sacraments to get grace and works to merit glory, but it is no God of grace, that he has to do with.

N. But they will not allow you, James, to have confidence in the love of God or to be assured. They cite the words-" no man can know love or hatred by all that is before him," to prove that no Christian can be assured. - James. W ell, I do not see if a Christian believes that God gave His only begotten Son for him when he was a poor sinner, to say nothing of His love being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, how he can doubt that God loves him. No doubt the grace of God must work in his heart to make him really think of it, or care for it, or believe it; but if it does, he must know God loves him, and he is bound to believe that the blood of Christ cleanses him from all sin.

N*. Surely he is, James, but this is formally denied by the Council of Trent,* and every Roman Catholic.

by Dr. Pusey in his "Eirenicon," vol. 1. p. 104), said:-" We are very unworthy to draw near unto Jesus; and He has a right to repulse [rebuter] us, because of His justice, since, having entered into all the feelings of His Father from the time of His blessed Resurrection, He finds Himself in the same disposition. With the Father towards sinners, i. e., to reject them; so that the difficulty is to induce Him to exchange the office of judge for that of advocate; and of a judge to make Him a suppliant. Now this is what the saints effect, and especially the most Blessed Virgin!"

I will add here, from a prayer book, "St. John's Manual," recommended (1856) by John Archbishop of New York, some of the devotions to the Virgin. "I worship thee, O great Queen; and I thank thee for all the graces which thou hast hitherto granted me: and especially I thank thee for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved I place all my hopes in thee and confide my salvation to thy care."-Saint John's Manual, p. 886, and in p. 887, "By thee we, have been reconciled to our God; Thou art the only advocate of sinners ... We have no hope but in thee, O most pure Virgin.". the Virgin, "saw an infant covered with wounds streaming blood ... ... . he began to weep; but he saw the infant turning away from him He had recourse to the most holy Virgin, saying, Mother of Mercy, thy Son rejects me." The Virgin reproached him with renewing the passion of Jesus. " But because Mary knows not how to send away disconsolate a soul that has recourse to her, she turned to her Son to ask pardon for that miserable sinner. Jesus still appeared unwilling to forgive him; but the holy Virgin, placing the infant in the niche, prostrated herself before him, saying 'Son, I will not depart from thy feet till thou dost pardon this sinner.' Jesus then said: Mother, I can refuse thee nothing; thou dost wish me to pardon him, for thy sake I pardon him: make him come and kiss my wounds.' The sinner came weeping bitterly, and as he kissed the wounds of the infant, they were healed. In the end Jesus embraced him in token of his pardon; the sinner changed his conduct, and afterward led a holy life, enamored of the most Holy Virgin!"

What shall we say to such statements? The images, in the first place, are the living persons; they do not, as falsely alleged, merely recall these. Real idols! Mercy is in Mary, not in Jesus. It is a denial of His own words; "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." It is for Mary's sake that Christ pardons the sinner. And what place has His blood-shedding, which is stopped (!) by the sinner's repentance through Mary's grace. Is it possible to have a more complete subversion of all truth 1 Upon its folly I offer no comment. Their excuse is that "Jesus is the only mediator of justice between men and God,.. but because men recognize and fear in Jesus Christ the divine majesty which resides in him as God, the Lord wished to appoint another advocate, to whom we could have recourse with less fear and with more confidence. This advocate is Mary.... There is need, then, of a medium with the mediator Himself. -S. Bernard. Serm. in Sign. Magn., quoted in Liguori, Vol. i. chap. vi., section yr. Again she is compared to Abigail with David: "She knows so well how to appease the divine justice by her tender and wise prayers, that God Himself blesses her for it and, as it were, thanks her for thus keeping Him from abandoning them to the chastisements which they deserve." Note that She is a mediatrix of justice really in these stupid blasphemies; or what does appeasing the divine justice mean?)

** It is the common doctrine that the Virgin has more power in heaven than God, that the mother can command her Son. I have had it stated to myself, by poor Roman Catholics. Nor is this the ignorance of the poor: Bernardine Senensis teaches, Serm. 61. Artie. 1., cap. 6. "All things are subject to the command of the Virgin, even God himself." (Quoted by Ussher, Answer to a Jesuit's challenge, p. 417, where there is a great deal more to the same purpose.) It is expressly founded on a mother's having pre-eminence and being superior to a SOD. The words in Latin are "sequitur quod ipsa benedicta Virgo sit superior Dee." It follows that the blessed Virgin herself is. Maria]. Part 9., Serm. 2. And so it is said that God has reserved the supremacy of justice but given up to the Virgin the supremacy of grace. And such is the tenor of their practical teaching. Thus in "The Glories of Mary" by Liguori (Vol. 1. chap. 3. sec 2), a Limier after saying

James 1 see it is impossible for a true believer to receive for a moment their doctrine. It denies the grace of God, and the real efficacy of Christ's work, so that His love is never known, and the soul has never true peace, and penances are put in the place of inward purity.

N.* That is the truth. Scripture tells us of divine love, and its sweet and blessed comfort known in the soul; of purity, inward purity, required, but communicated to us by a new life, by one being born of God and enjoying the renewing of the Holy Ghost; of the perfect efficacy of Christ's sacrifice once for all, so that being justified by faith I have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord; and then of walking thus, through His continual grace, in the favor and fear of God, with the assurance that when I am absent from the body, I shall be present with the Lord, and finally, be glorified with. Him. They tell me of meriting heaven by my works; of satisfying God for my sins (even if forgiven), of multiplied sacraments and ceremonies and penances, and when I have done all, to go to hell or to purgatory. And if the blessed Son of God has died, it is only to give efficacy to the sacraments which leave me in this evil case after all. It is a poor kind of religion. They tell me I cannot be saved out of it,-and yet, if I am in it, I cannot after all tell whether I am saved or not.' Well, I do not believe that the God of grace meant to leave a man there. I believe He gave His Son that I might have peace in my soul, and be happy, according to His holy nature. Not that I might remain ignorant, after all, of His love and of my own salvation. I read that the revelation of Christ was " to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins;" and that peace by Jesus Christ was preached because As has made peace. And I see that Romanism deprives us of all the present blessing of the Gospel altogether. But here, I suppose, is your neighbor. James. Sit down, Bill. This is the gentleman I told you of. See Cat. Con. Trid., pars. 4., cap. 14, sect. 16 (vol. 2. p. 389). Bellarm. De Indulg. Lib. I., cap. 3. sect. Ir. This, Sir, is Bill M.

N*. Good day, M. Bill M. Good day, Sir. of the true religion,, M., and whether the Roman Catholic system is the true one. Hitherto we have mainly compared it with the substance of Christianity as it is set out in Scripture for the comfort of us poor sinners. But it is all fair to hear what you have to say for the system which you have adopted, and would persuade James to adopt, and I propose we should take Milner's " End of Controversy " as a kind of text book, as that is largely circulated by zealous Romanists to win Protestants by to Roinanism, and printed cheap by your friends, as giving the best possible account of their doctrine, and overthrowing Protestantism.

Bill M. The Church alone can judge of the truth, Sir, and we must submit to her authority or we shall never arrive at it.

N*. Well, but we are Christians, what you will call Protestants, professing to believe sincerely in Christ, and you must show us the truth somehow. We do not, at any rate, yet own the Roman Catholic system to be the true church. I do not, of course, conceal from you that I am very far from thinking it so. It will not do to say the church teaches so and so, when you have not yet shown us what is the true church; but I shall gladly hear all you have to say. You have sought to bring James here- to turn Roman Catholic, saying you alone have the true church, and I have sought to guard him against it. You, or. Dr. Milner himself, can tell us what that which you call the true church says on the points in controversy; but you cannot use the authority of the church to me before I believe that that to which you belong is so. Indeed, there would be another thing to prove, namely, that the church has authority to teach. I believe it has not, but that the Apostles had, and subordinately, the ministry, those whom God has called to it, though these last not so as to-be any rule of faith. I am quite ready to discuss the question of the church's authority: it is of all importance; but we cannot use it till we have it, and as your famous Dr. Milner has discussed the different points we can see what your best authorities have to say. We will discuss the true church like all the rest.

Bill M. I do not know whether I ought to argue with you, because, till you submit to the authority of the true church, you cannot see the truth.

James. Well, but then you must confess you have nothing to say for your doctrines. You used to praise Miner's book, M., to me, and say nobody could answer it.

Bill M. When once the church has pronounced, I believe.

N*. You must first show what is the church. But besides that, this is not receiving the truth, yourself, in the love of it. And if you think we are in such deadly error and do not seek to convince us, you are answerable for our souls. Besides, it is not enough to show me where the true church is (I believe I am in the true church these many years): I must have the truth of God for its own sake. I believe in the authority of the word of God, and one way of knowing whether that which calls itself a church is the true church is to know what it teaches. And when your doctors write books on these points, they do try to persuade us. They must, or we should not be persuaded; though, strange to say, they never give the holding of the truth of God as a mark of the true church.

Bill M. But you cannot tell what the true sense of the Bible is. There the church alone can guide you.

N*. I do not see, if I humbly depend on God's grace, why I cannot understand what St. Paul says as well as what Dr. Milner says; and if I cannot understand all Scripture, I can see where it directly contradicts your doctrine. Besides, you circulate Dr. Milner's book, and I suppose, therefore, I can understand him, and surely I must examine what his book says. You must think me capable of that; or am I to swallow all he says, too, as gospel without inquiry? If you are going to convince me by Dr. Milner's book, you must let me examine what it says. You have put the things before me, and I must examine them. I am surely not to believe Dr. Milner as infallible. I am willing to take him as correctly representing what the church of Rome wishes to say; though as authority, I must take the Council of Trent and what is called the Catechism of the Council of Trent. I do not wish now to discuss the true sense of the Bible, though I shall freely refer to it, if needed, as you do not deny its authority, and I shall leave it to its own authority in the conscience. Nor can I swallow all manner of evil doctrines which you may have propounded to me by putting them in the gilded pill the church.' If you are going to convert me to your system, I must know what it is. We were speaking of Purgatory, and, if you please, we will finish that subject, and then speak of the Church, or rule of faith, or any other point you please; only you must let me speak plainly without being offended. I would not willingly hurt any man's feeling: it would be a sin to do so; but when we are discussing the truth, we must have the truth.

Bill M. Oh! to be sure. It is better to speak all plainly out. I shall not be offended.

N* You will have no objection, then, to my taking Dr. Milner's "End of Controversy" as my guide in learning what Roman Catholic views are, as it has been given to so many for that purpose. This is the best and readiest way, even while referring to any other authority desirable. Allow me now to ask you what is Purgatory?

Bill 3. It 'is a place of punishment for venial sins and for anything that remains of the temporal punishment of forgiven mortal sins, into which Christians dying in a state of grace go.

1-5*. Well, I suppose that is pretty correct. Dr. Milner says (Letter 43.), "All which is necessary to be believed by Catholics on this subject, is contained in the following brief declaration of the Council of Trent: -' There is a Purgatory, and the souls detained there, are helped by the prayers of the faithful, and particularly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar' " (Sess. 25. De Purg.). This is singularly vague, carefully vague. What is Purgatory? do people suffer there? what do they suffer for? what are they helped out of?-Of all this the statement tells us nothing. Yet on this is founded all the system of masses for the dead, massesmultiplied according to the wealth of the dead man or his family (for the poor stand a poor chance here), and the anxious terror of the living; on this was founded all the dreadful traffic in indulgences. Yet the Catholic is not bound to believe that there is any suffering at all. But Dr. Milner is right: I seek in vain for any authoritative instruction from the Roman rule of faith upon the subject. What is left vague, may be filled with terror, and so, in practice, it is. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, however, gives us a little further insight into it. Speaking of Christ's descent into hell, it says: " Hell, then, here signifies those hidden abodes, in which are detained the souls that have not been admitted to the regions of bliss" (Vol. 1. p. 123). And, then, after speaking of the hell of the damned, it says: Amongst them (the places called hell) " is also the fire of purgatory, in which the souls of the pious, being tormented tor a definite time, are cleansed,* that an entrance may lie open to them into the eternal country, into which nothing defiled entereth." And then it is left to the minister in these words: " The truth of this doctrine, founded as holy councils declare on Scripture and con- firmed by Apostolical tradition, demands diligent and frequent exposition, proportioned to the times in which we live, when men endure not sound doctrine." The Editor adds from Donovan's Latin and English Catechism of Council of Trent the passage in full:- truth is, the Romanists are very shy of saying much on this head, because the statements of the Fathers are as contradictory and as full of confusion as they can possibly be. Here we are told Abraham's bosom is in hell (hades). Tertullia says (when a good Churchman): I think that hell (hades) is one thing, Abraham's bosom another.

(***Ad inferos. Rom. Cat. De Symb. cap. 6.; Quaes. 6, Vol. 1. 124. Quibus de causis Christus ad inferos descendere roluit " Wherefore before he died and rose again the gates of heaven were never open to any one; but the souls of the pious when they departed from this life either were borne into Abraham's bosom, or, which also now happens to them who have something to be cleared away (diluendum) and be paid (persolvendurn), were purged in the fire of purgatory."-So, 2, 3. "The souls of those pious persons who, in the bosom of Abraham, expected the Savior, Christ the Lord, descending into hell, set free.')

" Praeterea est purgatorius ignis, quo piorum anima ad definitum tempus cruciatas expiantur, ut eis in aeternam patriam ingressus patere pos sit."Catech. Rom. cap. 6., sect. 3.

" There is also the fire of Purgatory, in which the souls of just men are purified by a temporary punishment, to qualify them to be admitted into their eternal country, into which nothing defiled entereth."- Donovan's Translation, Vol. 1. p. 123, 2. Art. 5.

Augustine says that Abraham's bosom is to be thought a part of hell (hades); elsewhere he cannot tell,-thinks it may, but says he cannot find it is so called; and doubts if any one could endure its not being taken in a good sense, and, therefore, does not see how it can be hell. Again, he says the bosom of Abraham is the rest of the blessed poor whose is the kingdom of heaven. In the first letter alluded to he refutes Christ having taken all out.

St. Jerome says: " Our Lord Jesus Christ descended into the furnace of hell, in which the souls of sinners and just were kept shut up, that without any burning or hurt to Himself He might free from the chains of death those who were shut up there" (in Dan. 1:3). Still, I suppose we must take this only as applying to those that were His. He says (in Lam. Jer. 2:3): " Therefore, the Redeemer called on the name of the Lord out of the lowest lake when in the power of His divinity He descended into hell, and, the bars of Tartarus being destroyed, tearing away His own whom He found there, ascended conqueror to the upper regions." Thus then all the just, all that belonged to Christ, would be delivered. Again, yet further (in Esaiam vi. 14), " hell is the place of punishment and torment, in which the rich man clothed in purple is seen, to which also the Lord descended that He might loose the bound out of prison." This was hardly Abraham's bosom, as Augustine often says. Indeed, he ventures on rather slippery ground for an orthodox Father, the pillar of Romanism (in Eph. 2 cap. 4). "The Son of God, therefore, descended into the lower parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that He might not only

fulfill the law and the prophets, but also, certain hidden dispensations which He alone knew with the Father. For, indeed, neither can we know how the blood of Christ can profit the angels and those who are in hell, and yet we cannot be ignorant that it did profit them." Whatever this may mean, it is clear that the preceding statements overthrow the idea of His simply delivering those who, in quiet repose, were awaiting the Redeemer's victory. I suppose the bars of Tartarus were hardly round Abraham's bosom. Can there be a greater confusion and ignorance? I do not quote as many different speculations as there are fathers. But saints may thus learn what the Fathers' writings are worth.

I add only these to skew that it is no individual mistake of Jerome's. Ambrose (de Mys. Pasch. 4) says: " Christ being void of sin, when He descended to the bottom of Tartarus, breaking the bars and gates of hell, recalled the souls bound by sin, the dominion of death being destroyed, out of the jaws of the devil into life." So, many others. Now, this was not delivering merely those in repose. Either all the just were in repose and better off than Christians who go (I may say) all to purgatory,- and then those fathers are all condemned; or else they were in purgatory, and this deliverance of peaceful souls in a distinct place from purgatory, as taught by the Catechism of the Council of Trent is all wrong. And what is come of those that were in purgatory, none can tell. St. Augustine will help us out a bit, perhaps (Enchiridion 110. 29) " When, therefore, sacrifices, whether of the altar or of any alms-giving, whatsoever are offered for all baptized persons deceased, for the very good they are givings of thanks; for the not very bad they are propitiations; for the very bad, even if they are no help to the dead, they are certain consolations of the living. But to whom they are profitable, they are profitable either to this, that there should be full remission, or at any rate that damnation itself may be more tolerable."-Albert the Great teaches that that must mean purgatory; but the famous master of sentences, as he was called, Peter Lombard, declares that it is not to be denied that it is

accepted for the punishment of those who are never to be set free. All who are in purgatory are middling good:-the least bad, who are never to be freed, are middling bad, and their pains may be mitigated. They can do better, it seems, than what the Lord taught as to Abraham and Lazarus: but oh! how we see the wild unbridled imagination of these Fathers. They had lost the plain truth of Scripture and wandered in every uncertain and unstable thought of their own imagination.

James. Well, it is strange doctrine. It is a terrible thing after one is justified and in a state of grace to go and suffer in a kind of temporary hell-fire. And there we must go, and that just if we are in a state of grace. What do you say to that, Bill?

Bill M. It is no good arguing on religion. How could you expect me to explain everything? The church says there is a purgatory, and we are warned not to look curiously into it, and be taking notions to ourselves.

N. Yes, my good friend, but we are not looking curiously into it. We are paying attention to what is taught in the Catechism of the Council of Trent; and according to that, though the doctrine be inconsistent and contrary to itself, if I am to take the general statement-it would have been far better to have been a godly Jew than to be a godly Christian.

Bill M. But that Catechism is for the clergy, not for us.

N. Yes, but the clergy are to teach according to it, and according to the consent of the Fathers. But we will pass on. I will quote Bellarmine's account of purgatory as he is of very high, perhaps the highest, authority among Roman Catholics; for as to the consent of the Fathers, it is out of the question. On this point he says, what is so called is "a certain place in which, as in a prison, souls are purged after this life which have not been fully purged in this life; that thus purged, namely, they may be able to enter into heaven where nothing defiled will enter." Yet the same Bellarmine distinctly declares that lust has ceased in death, that evil habits are not corrected in purgatory, that it is purely a penal satisfaction for sin-that is, no purifying or purging at all. See what he says as to satisfaction, lust being gone. 'Well, I deny purgatory as a wholly false, unscriptural idea, and 'as a denial of the efficacy of the work of Christ. I read in Scripture, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." God declares of the sanctified (and they only, it seems go into purgatory), that "He will remember their sins and iniquities no more." I find that. when we are absent from the body, we are' present with the Lord; I am taught to give thanks to the Father who bath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. I find that the poor thief went, the same day he died, straight into Paradise to be with Christ. Hence for the true Christian the fear of death is wholly taken away. He is already one spirit with Christ, and he knows that to depart and be with Him is far better. Christ has borne his sins in His own body on the tree; and he has not himself, therefore, to bear the consequences of them. He has a wholly new life by the quickening power of Christ. Christ is his life; and when out of this sinful -flesh, he is in every sense clear from sin for event.

trusting therefore to these, let us go with full courage to our Redeemer Jesus, with full courage to the Council of Patriarchs, with full courage to our Father Abraham, let us go boldly to the assembly of the saints and gathering of the just."

He had no idea of going to purgatory here, for those [named] are not there; he names going to Jesus Himself, and that with entire courage, on our death.

We might quote Jerome too, but of him I will speak, and Augustine, we have seen, had no settled thoughts. He supposed indeed that the day of judgment itself was a kind of purgatory, Enchiridion, 67, De Civ. Dei,16. 24, Psa. 103:5; Psa. 6 As to Cyp. De Mortalitate-one would have to quote the whole tract. Nothing can be clearer as to the immediate blessedness of all the righteous. The righteous are called to refreshing, the unjust to punishment; it is his part to fear death who is unwilling to go to Christ,-proving and insisting that thus there is for the servants of God peace, their free, their tranquil quiet. It is not going out but going elsewhere, and, time's journey finished, you pass to what is eternal. Who does not haste to better things " We injure Christ," says Tertullian, "when we do not with undisturbed mind accept others being called away; as if they were to be pitied. They have obtained their desire.' Tert. de Pat. 9. Quaest. et Resp. ad Orth. 75. The souls of the just go into Paradise, to meet and see angels and archangels, according to the vision, also of the Savior Christ Himself, and according to what is written, " absent from the body and present with the Lord;" but the souls of the unjust go into the regions of hell (Hades), as Nebuchadnezzar. Greg. Thaum. The good man will go rejoicing into his own eternal house; but the wicked will fill all things with their complaints.

If De Virginitate be not of Athanasius as the style and some doxologies would show, it is later. The writer says: "There is no death for the righteous, but translation, for he is translated out of this world into everlasting rest." There is the same truth in Macar. Hom. 22., but it may be alleged to concern the saints,—the holy servants of God. The devils receive the wicked, he says, and drag them to their own place; choirs of angels the holy servants of God. Of any other place he does not speak. But in Hom. xxvi., he puts the case of conflict, two persons in the soul (as he says), and where is the soul to go, thus drawn two ways? He replies, that the Lord, seeing you strive, and sometimes with all your heart, will separate you from death at once, and receive you into His bosom and light.

Hilary insists on all being settled at death; referring to the rich man and Lazarus, and Abraham's bosom as eternal bliss; but though judgment is to come, still the case is settled in death. There is no putting off or delay, for the day of judgment is the eternal retribution of blessedness or punishment; but the time of death holds each one meanwhile by its own laws, either Abraham, or punishment keeps each one for judgment. He then insists on confidence, which is more than hope, and refers to John 5 he that believeth on me shall not be judged.. End of Tract on Psa. 2 I do not quote more passages at length.

Basil and Gregory Naz. teach in general the same truths, the orthodoxy of the last may be questioned. We see from these the general faith of the church. The Hypognosticon once attributed to Augustine is equally clear.

"As for any third place we utterly know none, neither shall we find in the Holy Scriptures that there is any such." Lib. 5. Nor do the Roman Catholics deny that those who go to purgatory are forgiven and justified, and the principle of sin, (peceati fomes) is gone. It is penal suffering from God after guilt and sin are wholly gone. I do not give the Fathers as any authority, but as showing the common current belief. Alphons. de Castro and John Rochester, I give from. Ussher,-the rest from the original authors. I will speak further on of the real origin and history of purgatory, and of Jerome and Augustine more particularly. Bellarmine is not quite honest on the point, as he quotes the use of passages such as 1 Cor. 3, by old writers which he himself declares cannot be applied to purgatory, because it embraces all, and others as to praying for saints, which proves nothing, because, whatsoever the ground, for they find it hard to say, they prayed for all saints (even the Virgin Mary), that is, for those whom they held to be in heaven already. It may be for glory (Bell. de Purg.; lib. 1. 7), and this some said "for glory given to them among men," for all is darkness and confusion. Indeed Bellarmine's quotations are not to be trusted. He quotes Hilary on Psa. 118 in proof of purgatory (De Purg. lib. 1. 10, section 38), leaving out the words which precede his quotation, and which wholly set aside the idea of purgatory. He says we have to undergo that unwearied fire; but Hilary says, "the day of judgment in which we are to undergo," etc., and goes on to say that thus the sword is to pierce the blessed Virgin Mary's heart too-and how could we desire it then? Either he borrowed his quotation, or he is willfullya dishonest.)

Bellarm. de Purg. lib. 2. 100. 4.

Bill M. Do you think, a murderer, and one who steals an apple will be punished in the same way?

N. Are you then an unbeliever, M?

Bill M. No I am a good Catholic.

N* You are reasoning as an unbeliever would. What you8 say is as if Christ had not died for those go to heaven. I do not say that the murderer and who steals an apple will be punished alike; though we are very bad judges of guilt. It was by stealing an apple that men were driven out of God's presence and the earthly paradise; because they had given up God for an apple, and because lust and sin had come in. The tree is proved by its fruit, and one wild apple proves that the tree which bears it is wild and good for nothing as well as an hundred would. I do not say some men have not broken through more restraints of conscience, have not sinned against light so as to be beaten with many stripes.

But this has nothing to do with the matter we are speaking of, namely, of those that are forgiven, who are going to heaven, who are justified and sanctified; for purgatory is for none others. The question is not, therefore, about the degrees of punishment for the lost, but of the saved (and according to Bellarmine all in purgatory are all even, sure they are saved, and so indeed they might well be since none others go there); and I say as to such, that, whether they had been murderers or apple stealers before, they are cleansed from all sin. They are, as Scripture speaks, as white as snow if their sins had been as scarlet. When I have washed anything, the question is not how much dirt it had before, disgusting as that may be if the dirt be there, but whether I have washed it perfectly. Now the Scripture tells us Christ has washed us perfectly, and I believe it. We are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. If we are saved, we have a new nature, and that is a holy one. We are made, says St. Peter, partakers of the divine nature. And when we die nothing remains but this holy life which is born of God. Guilt is gone, all impurity is gone; and in due time we shall have a glorious body too. Purgatory denies the efficacy of Christ's work and the reality of receiving life from God. It upsets your own doctrines (as I said to James) for, as guilt is wholly removed, extreme unction, which wipes away the remains of sin, must be false, or else one that has been anointed has nothing to go to purgatory for, for men, we are told, go there for the remains of sin.

Bill M. Do you mean that the soul (when it goes out of the body) is fit for heaven or paradise?

IV*. Certainly, or how did the thief get there. I see the whole system of Romanism to be the very contrary to the gospel of peace. In that-in the Christianity of the Scriptures-I see a God perfect in holiness, but one " rich in mercy," who loved the world, and gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish. God, I see, is love. Christ the blessed Savior gives Himself to bear and put away our sins that we might draw near to God without fear: as it is said, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins." It is with a view to our being happy before Him, serving Him without fear. He gives His Spirit to them that believe, as a spirit of adoption and joy, the Holy Spirit; but it is given, says St. Peter, to all them that believe. Thus heaven is opened to them, and Jesus has entered as their forerunner, the joy of heaven is in their souls beforehand, the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, and by that Spirit which is the earnest of their inheritance till the redemption of the purchased possession. Having peace with God, they stand in God's favor, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God: If they are tempted and tried, the blessed Jesus has been tempted in all things like them, sin apart; and having suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. In a word, God is a source of joy because He is a Savior, and a gracious help in every trouble. He finds me in misery, lost, going to hell, and warns me of it, and that if I go on in the broad road I shall surely come there. But when He is turned to, when Christ is really believed in, He takes me out of that position and saves me. In so doing, He puts me in a place of joy and peace before Him, and He makes me know all this by His word and Spirit. Romanism is the very opposite of that. It brings me before a terrible, exacting God when I am a Christian. It brings me by a series of ceremonies (after Christ has done all) into a position where I, even if a true Christian, have still to answer for my sins,-may very likely go to hell for them,-must do penance (unless I compromise it by an indulgence) for present failings; where I am always dreading eternity, and uncertain what is to become of me at last, only sure that God will exact satisfaction of me; that in any case I must go to purgatory into the fire, and make satisfaction for my faults, and that God will not let me out thence till I have paid the last farthing. Forgiving priests I may find, a tender-hearted Mary, kind interceding saints, but a forgiving God who loves me, cleanses me, a tender-hearted Savior,-that I cannot have in Romanism. Even if I am forgiven as to damnation, and if Christ Himself has effectually died for me, and I die in a state of grace, God will have the last farthing of me after all. This, as to the whole spirit of it, is contrary to the God revealed in Christ. God manifest in flesh, God become a man to die for me.

That God I know. But that when He has done all that for me, He is going to exact the last farthing of me,

and throw me into a fire of anguish till it is paid, that I do not believe. Such a God is not the God who has

come to save us by Christ. It is another, and morally speaking, a false one. It makes God one who lays heavy burdens on the human heart when we have to say to Him. Christianity does spew us what an awful burden

we are bringing on ourselves if we have not to say to Him, but shows us joy and peace if we have. It calls

us from every burden of sin and of sorrow to find rest in Christ; and it shows me He was willing to take my burden on Himself, that I might be free. Christ says: " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Is it rest to be put to do penance for my sins, living; and, even if saved, to go to purgatory for them when I am dead? And all this just to sustain the power of those that impose the penance and profess to be able to help people out of-when they could not help their getting into-this terrible fire.

James. How plain and true it is! Oh, if God had not been a God of grace to me, where should I have been.-But, I had no thought the Romans believed all this.-What! penances while they are alive, and then the last farthing exacted when they die, and they forgiven and justified all the while I And, as you were saying, sir, told all the while that by extreme unction the very remains of sin are wiped away!

Mrs. J. I am sure we ought to feel for them and pray for them, too; but it is sad to think any could be so ignorant of what God is.

Bill M. But by your system a man may say he is justified and go on sinning and go clear to heaven.

N*. So man always reasons when he does not know what grace is; but Scripture says,-purifying their hearts by faith. Revealing God's presence to a man is not the way to make a man sin. Besides, if a man has a part in God's righteousness it is by being born again, and thus he loves obedience to God and what is holy. Most true it is that we need grace every moment, but Christ has said: " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." And besides, if, through carelessness, we get away from God's presence and fail, Christ intercedes for us; and God will warn us outwardly and inwardly; and, if we heed not the warning, will chasten us. But tell me humanly speaking, who will be most anxious to keep himself clean: one who is spick and span clean and going to meet the Queen,-or one who is dirty and does not know whether he ever will go out unless it be, to be hanged?

Bill M. Well, I suppose the man that was clean, N*. And he must know he is clean.

Bill M. Of course.

N*. So with the Christian. He knows he is cleansed to meet Jesus, and he seeks to be clean in his walk.

going to meet Him.-We know, says the Apostle John, (mark that word " we know ") " that when He (Christ) shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; and he that bath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as he is pure." So the Apostle Paul: "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, whether present or absent, to be accepted:" or, as in your Rhemish Testament, " to please Him." People forget that a new nature, the new man as it is called, is as necessary and as much a part of Christianity as is the blessed sacrifice of Christ. Your objection is just the one that was made to the Apostle Paul's teaching, because he taught this very doctrine (Rom. 6), and he spews that Christ, who is his life, having died to sin, the true Christian, reckons himself dead-cannot live in the thing which he is dead to. We have a part in the righteousness by having a part in the death, and so reckon ourselves dead, crucified with Christ. Having a part in death is not living on. How, says he, can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein. But, if I deny that I am dead, I deny I am justified and righteous; for it is only by having a part in His death that I am justified. And it is real life and grace, and these will spew themselves in a man's walk.

But we can come to the proofs. I deny that any such thing as purgatory is found in Scripture. When we have examined that, we must see what you all allege from the Fathers. Not that I attribute the smallest authority to them, or believe anything as revealed truth but what is in the Word of God; but as we are reasoning about it, it is fair to meet all you have to say. It would be quite enough to say they reveal nothing, and have no authority at all; nor would I allege them, for the smallest thing; but as you do allege them we may examine what you allege. I own to you I have a very poor opinion of them from what I have read of them, without meaning to say they have no historical value. We have the highest authority for saying we must have what was from the beginning. But that is Christ and the Apostles—none of it elsewhere. And John says: " he 'that is of God heareth us." Hearing what the Apostles say themselves is the test of truth; and he who continues in what was from the beginning (and I repeat, the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists alone are that) shall abide in the Father and in the Son.

James. Where is that, Sir?

N*. In 1 John 2:24 and 4. 8. But we will hear all you have to allege from the Fathers.

Bill M. They do not reveal anything; but they must know the truth better than we, and no sense ought to be received from Scripture but according to their common consent as to the meaning of it.-So says the Council of Trent (Sess. 4.).

N*. Are you sure they do agree?

Bill M. To be sure they do; and the Church teaches the doctrine they agree in.

N*. It would be a poor thing to have to wait for the truth till we had read all the Fathers. But I think you will find, even in our short inquiries, they are far from agreeing on the subject which occupies us, or indeed on any other.

However, to our proofs. The first that Milner notices is drawn from the second book of Maccabees. He tells us that he has a right to consider these books as Scripture, because the Catholic Church so considers them. Now, first, I do not admit the Roman system' to be the Catholic Church: but I leave this till we come to that, question. But no Church ever took them to be canonical Scripture for fifteen hundred years. Augustine declares the Apocryphal books inferior to the other Scripture, and Jerome, who was the translator of the Bible at the request of Pope Damasus, and whose translation, called the -Vulgate, is declared authentic by the Council of Trent, and so held by all Romanists, says, in his preface, that Judith and Tobias and the books of the Maccabees the Church indeed reads, but does not receive them among canonical Scriptures (Preface to the books of Solomon). So Ruffinus (published with St. Cyprian's works). He gives the list of canonical Scriptures, exactly as Protestants receive them, and not merely as his opinion, but declaring that they are the books which, according to the tradition of the ancients, are believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. And having given the list he adds: these are what the Fathers have included in the Canon. But, however (he adds), it is to be known that there are, also, other books, now called Apocrypha; and adds, which all they have willed should be read in the Churches but not anything be produced out of them to confirm as authority anything concerning the faith. So Jerome-thus also these two volumes the Church reads for edification of the people, but not as an authority to confirm ecclesiastical dogmas. So Athanasius, or the author of the Synopsis ascribed to him, says-they were not put in the Canon, but read to the Catechumens; and in his festal letter again gives the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, pronouncing the strongest blame on those who might pretend any other were Scripture (1. (62) 767).

This is the constant testimony of the early Church. Cyril of Jerusalem, gives the same list of the Old Testament, and does not admit the Maccabees. The Council of Laodicea forbids any others to be read in the Churches, and gives the same list. The Apostolic Constitutions (which of course I do not cite as of the Apostles, but which show the early judgment on this point) give us the same list—2. 57, and that for reading in the Churches. The only exception, or apparent one, is that the African Churches, as represented by the Council of Carthage and St. Augustine (though Augustine makes a formal distinction between some books and others, and he says that they are not canonical), call the Apocrypha canonical too: but Augustine admits at the same time that learned men did not doubt that two of them were spurious, that is, not written by the professed authors, but says that though they were so, they were received by the Western Churches. We learn also how little weight he attached to the word. Canonical. He says that people ought to attach most authority to those which were received by all the Churches; and that in those which were not received by all, they should prefer those received by most and the more important Churches. It is clear none of them were even received in the Eastern Churches, nor were they in the Churches of Gaul, as both the Hilarys show. Hilary of Arles tells St. Augustine, writing to him on predestination and free will, on occasion of the Pelagian controversy, that the Churches of France around him rejected one testimony he had produced, because it was cited from an uncanonical book.

Not only so, but a Pope, and a very distinguished one indeed, who earned the name of Great,-Gregory,-says, Moral xix. 13 (34) on Job 29, " Concerning which we do not act out of order if we produce a testimony out of books which, though not canonical, are published for the edification of the church;" and then cites Maccabees.

Thus we have the constant sense of the doctors of early ages; and, referring to the African church, Cardinal Cajetan, one greatly employed by the Pope about Luther, says, The words as well of councils as of doctors are to be reduced to the rule of St. Jerome, and, according to his judgment, those books are not canonical, that is regular, to establish those things which are of the faith They may be called, however, canonical, that is, regular, for the edification of the faithful, as received and authorized for this purpose in the canon of the Bible: with this distinction, thou mayest discern what is said by Augustine, and written in the Provincial Council of Carthage. Thus he reconciles, as others have done, the statements of the African prelates with the universal judgment of Christendom.

Further, we have a list in the middle of the third century from Origen, the most diligent student of scripture, in his Commentary on the 1st Psalm (De la Rue, vol. 2. 29, quoted by Euseb., His. Ec. 6. 25), bearing exactly the same testimony as to what is canonical. We have a list of Melito's, about the close of the second century, given by Eusebius, 4. 26. He says he has given, in extracts written by him, a catalog of the books of the Old Testament received of all, which I have thought necessary to put down here; and then he gives the same list as all do, but not the Apocrypha. Epiphanius, B. T. 7. vol. 1. 122, confirms this same list as being received by the Jews, though not speaking of his own judgment. But Christendom is not all we have to look to, nor, indeed, the principal thing; because the Old Testament was committed originally to God's people Israel, to the Jews.

Bill.M. But you are not going to make infidel Jews an authority?

N*. I am not speaking of infidel Jews, who are now scattered because they rejected Christ; though in this, even, they are more faithful than Rome and her doctors; but of those of whom Paul says that the oracles of God were committed to them. The Old Testament was committed to Israel as God's people; nor have they at any time failed in keeping it. Now, they recognized the books we receive as canonical, and not those which the Council of Trent has wickedly added. This is a matter of undoubted history; indeed, the Apocryphal books are not extant in Hebrew at all. But further, Josephus also states it in a very formal manner, and adds that there were books written since Artaxerxes, but that they were not esteemed worthy of the same faith as the others, for there was no regular succession of prophets He declares, " We have not a multitude of books, discordant and opposed to one another, but only two-and-twenty, embracing the history of all time, which are fully esteemed to be divine;" and thereon enlarges on their divine authority and the empire they obtain, from youth up, over the Jew's mind. He gives then their number and triple division, as held by the Jews. But there is yet more and incontrovertible authority, which quotes them according to this same division, as the law, the prophets, and the Psalms. That is, the Lord Himself quotes them, these same books, as of divine authority, as a known set, to the exclusion of all others; and declares, too, in another place, the absolute authority of the Scriptures-" The scripture cannot be broken."

But I will appeal to yourself, and James here, or any man in his senses that fears God, to say if this book, the second of Maccabees, can be inspired? Here is the writer's own account of it, at the beginning 2 Mace. 2. 23, " All these things, I say, being declared by Jason the Cyrenean in five books, we have tried to abbreviate into one; for, considering the multitude of books, and the difficulty of those who wish to occupy themselves with historical accounts by reason of the multitude of events, we have taken care, for those who wish to read, that there should be pleasure for the mind; for the studious, that they may commit it more easily to memory; for all who read, that profit may be conferred on them. And for ourselves, indeed, who have undertaken this work of abbreviating, we have taken on ourselves no light labor, but, indeed, a business full of vigils and toils.' Then he describes the different style of authors and abbreviators: to the former belongs truth in details; to abbreviators, studiousness of brevity, according to the given form, and adds he will -begin his story, " for it is foolish to be diffuse before the history, and then short in the history itself;" and finally he closes thus (2 Mace. xv. 37-39): " With these things I will make an end of the discourse, and if, indeed, well, and as suited the history, this I myself also would wish; but if less worthily it is to be pardoned me-for as drinking always wine or always water is unwholesome to us, but to use both alternately is delightful, so to those that read, if the discourse be always exact, it will not be pleasant: here, therefore, it will be closed."

Now, I ask you, is it not a blasphemy to say that " if it was well done, it suited the history, but if less worthily, it was to be borne with," was said by the Holy Ghost?

Mrs. J. And surely they do not give that for Scripture, sir?

.N*. It is the very book which Dr. Milner quotes as Scripture, on the authority of the Catholic Church, to prove purgatory.

James. Why, Bill, how can you receive such things? I never could have thought it possible. I am not learned, but sure no one that had a respect for God could ever say that that was inspired, or that the Holy Ghost could excuse Himself, and say that what was badly done was inspired, or that He had done it.

.217*. Well, James, I do not think M. has much to say for himself in this matter; but note this, that the citation of this passage has proved to us another point-that the Romanists have falsified Scripture, and have flown in the face of the constant testimony of the Church for fifteen centuries, whatever value that may have, and of that, too, of the Jews, as divinely-appointed keepers of the Old Testament, who have given a testimony as to what is holy Scripture, sanctioned by the Lord Himself, but rejected by what calls itself the Catholic Church.

But this is not all: the passage (2 Mac. 12. 39), even on their own showing, can have nothing to do with purgatory, but denies all their doctrine. The men who were slain in Maccabees had votive offerings to idols

about them, and therefore had fallen in battle, and hence had defiled themselves with idolatry* but purgatory is for venial sins, not for apostasy to idols. And it is hard to tell what was to free them then. And we must remember there is not one word in the law or the prophets which Christ owned of any such a purgatory, and that He sharply condemned the tradition of the elders who make thereby the Word of God void. Dr. Milner ventures to quote no others from the Old Testament. I will give a list from Bellarmine; you may easily see whether they apply. They prove only one thing, that I can see, namely, that they could find nothing in Scripture for it.

Tob. 4. 18: this is also apocrypha, a history of an angel, accompanying a good young man as a dog, and

helping him to drive a devil away from his nuptial chamber with a broiled fish's liver.

Mrs. J. And do they call that the Word of God?

N*. They do.

Mrs. J. Well, well; but pardon, Sir, you were giving the list.

N*. 1 Sam. 31:13; 2 Sam. 1:12; Psa. 37:1;65. 11; Isa. 4:4;9. 18 Mic. 7:8; Zech. 9:11. This last verse runs thus: " BY the blood of thy covenant

I have brought thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." I may add the proof here, for it is edifying. He says that many apply this to the limbus of the Fathers, as he is said to bring them out; but Luke 16:25 proves there is no water to console them, and there is in Abraham's bosom, for Lazarus was comforted there. Hence he adds, that Augustine held that Christ visited those tormented in hell, that is, in purgatory, and delivered many of them. To return to Dr. Milner's proof's.

I need not notice 1 Cor. 15:29, because the Apostle does not give a hint that he is speaking of Jews; he is speaking of being baptized. And supposing he were, I know not what Jewish superstitions have to do with Christians. We are all baptized unto death, and of that's being the sense (comparing ver. 28) I have no doubt. The only thing such a quotation proves is that they are very hard run for a passage. The proof from the expression " Abraham's bosom" is soon answered: the Catechism of the Council of Trent contrasts it with purgatory How Dr. Milner reconciles it with honesty to quote it for purgatory I cannot tell. The force of the expression, however, is evident. Abraham had, for the Jew, the highest and most blessed place in the other world, and to be in his bosom was to be in the next best place to him, as the beloved disciple in Jesus' bosom, when at the table. Besides, Dr. Milner says Lazarus reposed there. Is it repose to be in purgatory? All this is too bad.

Again, Christ in spirit went and preached to the spirits in prison. This is the prison above-mentioned Abraham's bosom. He says, But Christ went into Paradise. This day, He said to the thief, thou shalt be with me in Paradise. Do they preach in Paradise? or is Abraham's bosom (and, still more, is Paradise) a prison? It is perfectly evident that the Lord uses Abraham's bosom as a place of special favor and blessedness. The poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And again, Now he is comforted and thou art tormented. Did the angels carry him to the fire of purgatory to comfort him, after his sorrowful life on earth?

James. Why, Bill, that can't be. Is it not plain that the Lord meant to show that the poor man that had so sad a portion below had, after all, if we think of the other world, a better part than the man that had his good things in this life? And surely that cannot mean making satisfaction to God in torment? But I don't quite see, sir, why the poor man went there and the rich man to hell.

.N*. I believe the Lord loves the poor, James. Still, alas! of course, all the poor do not go to Heaven because they are poor. But the force of the Lord's history, I believe, is this:-He is, in these chapters of Luke, showing the grace that seeks and receives poor sinners, as the lost sheep and the prodigal, and at the same time opening Heaven to our view, and teaching us that we ought to use this world in view of the next, and not as the place of present rest and comfort. You know the Jews had been promised riches and blessings here, if obedient, because in that people God was showing His government on earth: but after Christ was rejected this was no longer the case, and the veil was to be rent. in His death, and saints were to take up their cross daily, and heavenly th;ngs were to be their portion and reward, as, in very truth,: they always were; but now it was plainly and openly so, even as Christ speaks in this same chapter, calling them their own things: earthly things were only in their hands for a. time, as another's. Hence the Lord draws the veil, as it were, and shows that a poor man, whom a Jew might have thought to be under judgment for his sins, went straight to Abraham's bosom-that is, to a Jew's mind, to the best place in the other world; and riches, instead of being a proof of God's favor, had shut the man up in his own selfishness, for he had slighted the poor man at his door; the dogs had more compassion than he; and when the other world came, he was in torment. He had had his good things.

James 1 see, sir, it is all plain enough: and, indeed, if one sees God's ways in the. Bible, all becomes plain by degrees.

N*. We must wait' upon the Lord to be taught, James, and He will surely instruct us. He has graciously said, " If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of

God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not."

So the Lord opened the understanding of the two that went to Emmaus, and so He does now.

Bill M. But you cannot deny that St. Augustine held a middle place.

N*. You know the Romanists hold two middle places, one where the Old Testament saints were, before Christ came, and another where the yet incompletely purified just go now; and here I cannot exempt Dr. Milner from the charge of dishonesty.* He says, Christ descended into hell... the prison above mentioned, or Abraham's bosom; in short, a middle state. And he says, What place, I ask, must that be which Our Savior calls Abraham's bosom, where the soul of Lazarus reposed among the other just souls, till by His sacred passion He paid their ransom.... not Heaven, but evidently a middle place, as St. Augustine teacheth. Now, if he had answered his own question, Dr. Milner knows very well he must have said " limbus patrum (i.e. the place where they say the saints dying before Christ were), and not purgatory" (which, in the Roman Catholic doctrine, is entirely distinguished from the limbus patrum). This is wholly and wittingly deceiving, for he adds (after speaking of Abraham's bosom), " It is of this prison, according to the holy fathers, that our blessed Master speaks when he says, '1 tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite.' " That is not Abraham's

'bosom. Now this they do apply to a middle state, but not to the limbus patrum. Christ delivered the patriarchs and the others from that, and it is now quite empty. They were at perfect rest, they tell us, suffering no pain. All this is attempted to be passed upon us as a proof of purgatory, with the expression, " in short, a middle state. '

Further, he says, As St. Augustine teacheth. Now Augustine says:-Neither is it to be believed that Abraham's bosom, that is, the habitation of a certain hidden rest, is any part of hell (Letter to Evodius). But Dr. Milner refers to De Civit. Dei, 15. 100. 20 (it should be 20. 15). Augustine does not say a word of purgatory there, but says: " For if it does not seem absurd to be believed that those ancient saints also, who kept the faith of a Christ to come, were in places as far as possible from the torments of the impious, but in Hades (or hell, not the hell of the damned) until the blood of Christ, He, having descended also to those places, should bring them up immediately; thenceforward the faithful good, already redeemed thus at the price of that blood poured out, know nothing more at all of Hades until having received their bodies also they should receive the good things they deserve."

Hence his notion, whatever it is worth (and it is really worth nothing at all-it is a mere notion, and I will produce an opposite one from himself in a moment, but such as it is, it is here), would prove that Abraham was clean out of Hades now, and whatever middle place he is 'in is not purgatory, nor ever was; and moreover, that since the death of Christ the faithful redeemed have nothing to do with Hades.

But Augustine has said more than this, for he speculated, and very wildly, too, on all sorts of subjects. He elaborately argues, reasoning on the text, " He has loosened the pains of Hades" (hell), which was then applied to Christ's descent to hell (though an undoubtedly incorrect passage in the Latin translation) *but insists,** for

that reason, that, as evidently the patriarchs and prophets go even there where Abraham was, Christ could do nothing for them as to loosening the pains of Hades (or hell), a word which he declares was never yet found to be used in Scripture in a good sense, for they were not in it, and the great gulf fixedly separated them at an immense distance. And he wonders if any one could dare, if the Scripture had said Christ, when dead, went into Abraham's bosom, not mentioning Hades or hell, to assert He had descended into hell He says that, if it is nowhere read in the divine authorities, it is not to be believed that that bosom of Abraham-that is, the habition of a certain secret quietness-is any part of hell at all. Now, it is quite true that the Catechism of the Council of Trent says it is. How they manage about the consent of the Fathers, I do not know. I believe, in all this utter confusion, one knew nearly as much about it as the other. How blessed is the simplicity that is in Christ! To depart and to be with Christ is far better, knowing that if we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, and desiring rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. The more I see of the Fathers, the more I see what darkness and confusion they were in; only I was to answer what you should bring forward. A word more, therefore, from St. Augustine. He declares that (Letter to Evodius iii.) he does not see what Christ could have conferred on these just who were in Abraham's bosom, from whence I do not see that, according to the beatific presence of His divinity, He had ever left them. As also He promised the thief, that in the same day on which he died he should be in Paradise with Him, when He was going to descend to loose the pains of hell. So that before even He went into Hades He was in Paradise and Abraham's bosom, and even before, by His beatific wisdom, and in Hades, or hell, by His judicial power (Epistle to Evodius). He says, indeed, that loosing the pains of Hades might apply to Christ Himself, as there follows, " in which it was impossible for him to be holden." This is undoubtedly the sense, only the true word is having loosed the pains of death. If Augustine had only looked to the Greek!

On the whole, he seems to think it best to think that Christ's soul descended to hell (Hades), His body remained in the grave, and His divinity in Abraham's bosom, and to believe that the thief was with Him as God in Paradise. As to preaching to the spirits in prison, he is inclined to think (Epistle to Evodius) it was by His spirit in Noe. Peter speaks only of the souls then disobedient, an interpretation which I have no kind of doubt is the true one. Peter speaks of the spirit of Christ in the prophets; so here in Noe. The Jews, who expected a glorious Messiah in the body, had only His presence in spirit, and were a small minority. So in Noe they were a small minority, and Christ was only there in spirit; but those who despised that, are all in prison, to await the judgment of the great day. We are saved, like Noe, by death and resurrection in. Christ, as he, in a figure, was. In Genesis God says, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, but his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." It would be monstrous to say that these were the only ones to whom more time would be given, and they be preached to when dead; for those only are spoken of.

Augustine refers also, in this letter, to 1 Peter 4:6, as well as to 1 Peter 3:19,20. There it is said the gospel was preached to them that were dead. He prefers the sense of dead in sins; I believe it was simply when they were alive, hence to be judged accordingly (as said verse 5). The truth is, this letter is an answer to one written to Augustine on the former passage, and the writer had used the expression that Christ had emptied, or made void, Hades, or hell, which he questions, speaking uncertainly as to this-as to whether souls could believe after they were there. And a second question raises more nice points, too, into which it is not necessary to go. But he arrives, on the point that now occupies us, at exactly the opposite conclusion to Dr. Milner, namely, that Abraham's bosom had nothing to do with Hades or hell, that it was Christ's spirit in Noe, and that preaching to the dead meant the dead in sin, but allows his friend, Bishop Evodius, to think otherwise if he liked.

As to purgatory, he does speak of it elsewhere, but with the greatest possible uncertainty, so that to say he taught it is alleging what is false. He speaks of the subject in three different places, and in all of them in reference to 1 Cor. 3-he shall be saved, yet so as by fire-and using the same arguments, and, indeed, in a great measure, the same words. The places are, De fide et operibus 15. and following (or 24 and following); Enchiridion de fide, spe et charitate 69 (or end of 18); and De civitate Dei, 21. 26.

In the first, he is resisting persons who viewed the text as meaning that if men believed and were baptized they were on the foundation, and, let them live in whatever sin they might, they would be saved; passing through certain pains of fire, they would be purged so as to obtain salvation by the merit of the foundation. This he resisted by a multitude of texts. Some other sense, he said, must be sought for, and that this text is one of those of which Peter speaks as hard to be understood, and adds, " When I consider it, I had rather hear more intelligent and learned men." He then puts the case of Christians living in a lawful state, but while never denying Christ for pleasure, yet not living in a self-denying way, and consequently having grief and distress when they lost the things. Those who sought

only to please God were building gold, silver, and precious stones; those who please themselves though Christians, wood, hay and stubble. All would be tried by fire and tribulation, and the latter feel the loss, yet be saved, as on the foundation. Then he adds, " Whether in this life only men suffer these things, or whether after this life certain judgments of this kind follow, my understanding of the passage is not abhorrent from the principle of truth." At any rate, he says, however we interpret it, the living wicked will not be saved.

In the Enchiridion, after going over the same ground, and saying it happens in this life that man is so proved, he says, that some such thing takes place after this life is not incredible, and whether it be so may be inquired, and it may be discovered or remain hidden, etc.

In "the City of God" he insists that it cannot be what is said in Matt. 25, as in 1 Cor. 3 all go through this probation; and after speaking of self-willed, unsubdued, though Christian souls, he says, After the death of the body, until they come to that which is to be the last day of remuneration and damnation after the resurrection of bodies, if, in this interval of time, the spirits of the dead are said to suffer a fire of this kind, which they do not feel who have not had such morals and such loves in the life of this body, in order that their wood, hay and stubble should be consumed, but which others feel who have carried that kind of building with them, whether there only, or here and there, or, be it so, here and not there, they find a fire of transitory tribulation, burning worldly things, although not imputable to damnation (or pardonable as regards damnation) I do not oppose, because, perhaps, it is true. As to Psa. 37, there is not the smallest proof that what he says refers to purgatory. He does frighten the people (for it is to the people he speaks here) with a terrible fire, more terrible than anything in this life; but he may refer to his purifying work of the day of judgment, which is quite as likely, or seems so.

Now, no Christian soul who knows what it is to be cleansed from all sin could be shaken by confused notions of possible punishment such as this poor father debits here. It is as poor a foundation to build anything on as could well be thought of. Had he looked soberly at the passage, he would have seen it applies to those laboring in the ministry in the world-builders in the Church; and that the things destroyed are not bad works but bad building, so that the man's labor was lost, though the builder was saved-yet even he as a man that just saves his life out of a fire.

As to the controversy-for as to Divine truth such statements are not worth a thought, and only show what an unstable foundation the doctrine of the fathers is-as to the controversy, it is not purgatory he speaks of for all saints go through it. He insists on that as its distinctive character; whereas into purgatory only those go who need partial purging. He adds, as a possible interpretation of it, persecutions when martyrs are crowned and all stand good; others are consumed in it if the foundation is not there; others saved, but suffer loss. He instances Antichrist also as a possible explanation.

To show how little he can be reckoned on, I may add that he holds that the judgment of the last day itself, the final judgment, will be purgatorial fire for some. He saw nothing of the judgment of the quick in this world, and so misapplied Mal. 3:1-6 to the judgment of the great white throne (De civitate Dei, 20, 25); and when Malachi says the sons of Levi shall offer sacrifices of righteousness, he applies it to their being themselves offered up to God pure when thus cleansed, "for what could such offer more grateful to God than themselves;" and then says that that question of purgatorial pains, to be diligently treated, must be put off to another time.

He thinks that thus they will offer perfectly, the floor being purged, and they that need it purified by fire.

That I may complete, however, the doctrine of the fathers on this subject, and show how sure a foundation they give for us to build upon, Origen tells us (and Dr. Milner quotes him among the holy fathers as an authority, and he was very early in Church history indeed), that we shall want the sacrament to purify us after our resurrection. Having spoken of purifying of women after child-birth, " If because the law is spiritual, and has a shadow of good things to come, we can understand that a truer purifying will happen to us, I think that after the resurrection from the dead we want the sacrament, washing us and purging us; for no one can rise again without filth, nor can any soul be found which is immediately free from all faults." That is comfortable doctrine. -(Origen in Luc. Horn. 14.-De la Rue, 3. 948)

James. Well, how can you, or Dr. Milner, bring such confusion and uncertainty for us to build our faith on? The Bible is a thousand times clearer and more certain than all this. I understand, plain enough, thank God, now, that the blood, of Jesus cleanses from all sin, and that God purifies the heart by faith, and that I am born again, and have a new nature in Christ; but all these doubts and dark doctrines could only blind and puzzle the mind.

Bill M. But I did not quote them.

James. No, but Dr. Milner, in the book you gave me, quotes different places in them; and now I have heard what they say, I doubt if they understood the gospel at all-at least, what redemption really. is.

.AT. It is just what they did not, James. The evil that pressed so sore. upon Paul, even in his time, had

now overrun the Church, as he forewarned it would; and true saints, as surely Augustine was, having lost the full sense of the value of Christ's work, indulged in all kinds of speculation, and were in confusion and darkness as to doctrine. They had lost the truth of the full value of Christ's sacrifice, that by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Hence, each had to get clear somewhere of his own sins, each differing in degree from another, and having to answer for them in proportion, and as there was nothing in Scripture, none knew exactly how.

James. But is that all you have for purgatory?

Bill M. No; there are a number of holy fathers who are quoted, as you may see, in Milner, and passages of Scripture, too.

N. I will refer to one of them, as one on whom the Roman Catholics build a good deal (the rest will be soon disposed of)-I mean Jerome (Adversus Jovinian, lib. 2. 23). Jovinian denied human merits, and said all were equally saved who persevered in the faith of Christ, and opposed celibacy. Jerome, who was a very violent and abusive man, * though called a saint, was furious, and St. Augustine was severe upon him, too. In this work he refers, to the same text of 1 Cor. but does not say a word of purgatory, and contradicts Augustine expressly. Augustine, from the text, refutes those who used the passage (Matt. 25) by showing that every man's work would be tried. Here Jerome says that he whose work remains will be saved without being tried by fire, and there is a certain difference between salvation and salvation. This is an attempt to answer Jovinian, but not a syllable about purgatory.

The truth is, Jerome expresses himself so strangely about the matter that some accused him of denying eternal punishment, and say that Augustine refers to him in rejecting certain views on it. At all events, one thing is certain, that it is not of purgatory, as held by Roman Catholics, that he teaches. In speaking of punishment, as contrasted with perishing, he quotes: " They that have done good unto resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto resurrection of judgment," adding, to explain it (a gross misapplication), " those that have sinned without law shall perish without law" (that is, an impious person, who perishes altogether); he that has sinned under the law shall be judged by the law, and shall not perish. That is pretty interpretation; the sinner with light won't perish, the sinner without it will, contrary to all righteousness and the Lord's express teaching. But, at any rate, in Jerome's statement, the judgment, in which man does not perish, comes consequent upon resurrection; that is, it is not purgatory at all.

The passage on which he is mainly charged with denying eternal punishment'* is in his Commentary on Isa. 66 I do not know that there is more than gross confusion, and, I must say, excessive ignorance of truth.. But I will trace his views more closely just now. It will help us to understand the truth of purgatory. But one has really only to read the so much-vaunted Fathers, to see the utter worthlessness of their doctrine, and their excessive perversion of Scripture. I have paid attention to these two writers, because they are the two great teachers of western or Latin Christendom, and are the real source of the establishment of these doctrines there, though we have seen that one of them affirms quite another doctrine, indeed both, namely, that of the final judgment itself being a probationary fire; and the other saying that, as to the fire after death, he could not tell; he did not oppose it, for it might be true, but repeatedly ex- pressing his doubts about it, and declaring that several of the Scriptures relied upon, in his judgment, meant another thing. But both showed that of the clear and Scriptural doctrine of redemption and the forgiveness of sins and the perfect cleansing of Christ's blood, they were wholly ignorant. It was practically lost in the Church. Superstition and horrible corruption had come in like a flood.

As to the other Fathers, a single remark will suffice for them; they speak of prayers for the dead, not of purgatory. This was the common practice, to pray for all the dead, that they might have a part, or a speedy part, in the resurrection to glory, or in the first resurrection. They were remembered in the sacrifice of the altar. But this had no possible connection with purgatory, for they named patriarchs, apostles, prophets, mar

tyrs, and the Virgin Mary herself. I suppose, M., you do not think all these are in purgatory?

Bill M. Of course, they are not; they are all in Heaven.

James. In Heaven! and what do they pray for them for?

Bill NI. Well, I did not know they did.

(*Bellarmine attempts to say it was only commemoration at the mass; but that is false. Epiphanius speaks distinctly of prayers for them.)

N. I dare say not, but Dr. Milner did very well; and, I must say, if he had been honest he would not have quoted them. If he was only proving that superstition and false doctrine and immorality came in very soon into the professing Church, I should have nothing to say; the true thing to say would be that they characterized it; but that it was yet fallen into modern popish doctrine is not true. Faith is not shaken by the corruption of the early Church; and you shall have proofs of that corruption, because the Scripture foretells it as plainly as possible, saying that on the departure of the Apostles the evil would break out, that the mystery of iniquity was already at work, and that in the last days perilous times would come-men would have a form of piety, denying the power of it; and Scripture warns men to hold fast by the Scriptures.

James. So it does; I remember that, to be sure. How blind one is when one has not them in one's heart! And yet how good God is; He has saved me from all this confusion I did not know of.

N*. We shall get on this point when we touch on the authority of the Church and Scripture. We will try and finish with purgatory. One of the books quoted is a treatise of Tertullian's, which he wrote when he had left the Church, and refers in it to a fanatical teacher, whom he calls the Paraclete, or, as we should say, the Comforter; for Tertullian, the first and one of the most distinguished of the Latin fathers, left what you call the Catholic Church as insupportable.

(life. As to how the change came about, he says nothing; but in looking for glory for the saints, it must be their being honored among men, and refers to St. Augustine's statements, calling it Scripture; thanksgiving for very good, prayer for middling good, and a solace to middling bad, and tells the Archbishop that whether it be so he leaves to him to investigate. The poor Pope made a sad blunder in quoting Augustine as Scripture, for that word about martyrs is St. Augustine's. Thus the liturgy was changed: still, the prayer for rest for those asleep in Christ remains. The force of this has been felt, and, in a modern Roman Catholic Prayer-Book, approved by the Archbishop of New York, it is said to be for souls in purgatory, though it is expressly for all who rest in Christ (omnibus quiescentibus in Christo).

I do not know that I need go farther into the fathers. I admit that they prayed for the dead, and remembered them at the Eucharist. Their ideas were wholly unscriptural, and full of confusion-' but what they held was not the Romish purgatory, but what was entirely inconsistent with it. It was a doctrine which arose from their having entirely lost the sense of the completeness of redemption, and got back to the Judaism. which St. Paul so contended against; so that when a person stated that all true believers persevering in the faith of Christ were alike saved, he was cried out against as a dreadful man. I have already quoted them as to their view of men going one of two ways after their death.

As regards the Scriptures quoted, I have spoken of 1 Peter 3:19, and 1 Cor. 3:13-15. The fire would try the work of every man who was a workman in God's house. This was the day of the Lord to be revealed by fire. But that is not purgatory. The work is the work of the laborers, not the conduct of Christians at all, and the day of the Lord, not purgatory; and it is alike evident and admitted, that it cannot be applied to the Romish doctrine of purgatory, because every one's work is to be tried. As regards not going out till men have paid the last farthing, I have not the least doubt that it was addressed to the Jewish people, with whom God was in the way while Christ was there, and they have been delivered to the officer, and are still under judgment, and will remain so, till they have received the full chastisement under which they are lying, and then will be brought to repentance and blessing. This may not be as clear in Matt. 5:25, but it is as clear as possibly can be in the parallel passage in Luke 12. 54—-59. St. Augustine, Sermo 9., Sermo 109., and Tract. in Joh., 45., refers both the passages to the day of judgment in contrast with this life, and does not hint at purgatory.

As to the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the incontestible meaning of the passage is that as is expressed in the gospel of Mark, it " hath never forgiveness." The Jews believed in an age to come, in which, under Messiah, there would be a far fuller revelation of God's grace and favor than under the law; and, in a general way, they were right. The Lord declares that this sin would be forgiven in neither-that is, never forgiven at all. Besides, this text, if applied as Roman Catholics apply it, would not prove purgatory, but deny eternal punishment, for purgatory is for those who are forgiven and justified; hence this passage cannot apply to purgatory, for this sin is not to be forgiven, and it would mean that the unforgiven, the lost, would be forgiven in the next world. In Gregory the Great we find another view of purgatory. In general he rejects it, but admits it in a very small degree, referring to the last passage I have quoted. He quotes a number of passages to prove that we shall be, in the day of judgment, as we are when we die, and that now is the time to settle all with God-John 12. 35; Isa. 49:8, quoted by Paul;

2 Cor. 6:2; Ps. 117.—concluding from which sentences it is evident that such as any one goes out of this world, such he is presented in judgment. But, however, concerning certain light faults, it is to be believed that there is a purgatorial fire before the judgment, and he refers to 1 Cor. 3 as the proof; but, however, as I said before, for little and the very smallest sins, such as " idle speech*, immoderate laughter, or the sin of carefulness in family matters," &c. And then he gives us an altogether novel explanation of the passage in 1 Cor. Augustine makes gold, etc., to mean works so good that they stood the fire; for Jerome, it was salvation without going through the fire at all; Gregory does not notice them, but speaks of iron, brass, lead-such dreadful sins that men are wholly lost. He says,-However the passage may be understood of the fire of tribulation applied to us in this life, however, if any one take it as speaking of the fire of future purgation, it is to be diligently considered that he says he can be saved through fire, not who shall have built on this foundation iron, ' brass, or lead-that is, greater sins, and therefore harder,

And then already insoluble-but wood, hay, stubble, that is, the very smallest and lightest sins, which fire easily consumes''. (Dial. Lib. 4. 100. 39). How fire consumes sins, every one must judge for himself.

The result is, purgatory has infinitely more influence than the truth: note what it is. A man, according to Pope Gregory, can build on the foundation-that is, on Christ-iron, brass, lead, such dreadful and indissoluble sins, that he goes to hell, and that no man is free to die in peace; for, for the smallest, he must go to purgatory. Christ has fully and effectually cleansed from none. To hell, however, no Catholic who goes to the priest can go. If a man neglects the Church, he goes to hell; at any rate, if he does not confess once a year, he is in mortal sin: but for the most grievous sins he gets absolution on his confessing them-prayers and fasting, perhaps, for penance; but for not finishing these, or for venial sins, he goes to the horrible fire of purgatory, so that is really the only thing to fear. The most dreadful sin can be built on Christ, according to Pope Gregory, and a man not go to hell; but Christ saves none but some rare martyr from purgatory, the true and real place of suffering; all must go there. And that is Catholic Christianity!

Scripture, not history, is the warrant for doctrine; but the historical fact is that half the Church, and the oldest half of it, never held purgatory, nor do to this day (the other half, when expressing their personal faith, spoke in a way entirely contrary to it), but had, when the true knowledge of redemption was lost, and the purifying power of ceremonies and works came in, some mere vague notion of an intermediate state, or its possibility,

or a purgatory fire in the judgment of the last day, which ripened gradually, in the West, to the fact of a purgatory stated, as we have seen it, by Gregory, at the end of the sixth century, but then only, if these were just, for very little sins, such as idle words. Before that, prayers for the dead were offered, but then for all departed in peace, including the Virgin Mary. I give a specimen from Chrysostom: "We offer to Thee this reasonable service for those that are absent in the faith-our forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets and apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, religious persons, and every spirit perfected in the faith, but especially for all-holy, spotless, over-and-above-blessed, God-bearing and ever-Virgin, Mary."

The importance of this is that it shows that all that Dr. Milner says of the connection of prayers for the dead and purgatory is without foundation, and is, I must say, disingenuous. I have quoted quite sufficient of the fathers' denying purgatory; I only fear that it might be supposed that I attach any importance to their opinions. From Epiphanius we may find both doctrines of going to the Lord and prayers for the dead combined. Aerius had objected to prayers for the dead, just before the time of Augustine and Jerome, saying, What good could it do them? Epiphanius answers, What can be more useful, more opportune, more worthy of admiration, than the hearing the names of the dead: first, in order that those present may be persuaded that the dead live, nor are reduced to nothing, but still exist and live with the Lord; then, that that most religious doctrine may be preached by which it is evident that those who pray for their brethren think well of them-that they are gone on a journey. But the prayer which is made profits them, though it may not cut off all the sins: but it is profitable in this, that, for the most part, while in this life we fail, voluntarily or involuntarily, that something more perfect may be signified, for we make mention at the same time of the just and of sinners, of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, bishops, authorities, and all of the whole universal assembly, that Jesus Christ the Lord, receiving a special honor, may be separated from the rest of men, &c. The Lord Jesus was, of course, not prayed for; His mother, Mary, we have seen, was.

The statement of Dr. Milner, that the Greek Church holds it, is an unworthy statement. The deputies did agree to it at Florence. The Emperor was pressed very hard by the Turks, and looked to help from the west, and so came to get the Greek and Roman Sees and systems united. The Greeks strongly resisted purgatory, saying they were afraid it would lead to Origen's doctrine, that there was nothing else for any one-no eternal punishment. However, they did yield; but their concession was rejected with outcries on their return. They themselves said they had been deceived, and the doctrine is denied to this day, and they remain separate from Rome as before.

Alphonsus de C. (Adversus omnes haereses) admits that in the ancient writers " there is almost no mention of purgatory, especially in the Greek writers, and that there fore by the Grecians it is not believed unto this day.' So Fisher, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rochester, " that no orthodox person now doubts whether there is a purgatory, concerning which, however, amongst the ancients, there is either none, or, at any rate, very seldom indeed, mention (rarissima). But among the Greeks, even to this day, it is not believed." I give the quotations from others, but there is no doubt of their correctness.

Neither this reference, then, to the Greek Church, nor that to the fathers proves anything, save that the statements of Dr. Milner are unfounded. The fathers cannot be trusted for doctrine a moment. Justin Martyr declares that it was impossible that the Supreme God could assume a body, and that it was not He who appeared to Abraham. He, I may say, all the early fathers, if we except the good and gracious old Irenmus, held that there was no personality of the Son till the time of the creation. Hardly any of them-none, perhaps, but Irenaeus—before the Council of Nice, were clear as to the divinity of Christ. All this came from the same source as purgatory, a mixture of Judaism and Platonic philosophy; so, indeed, did saintly and angelic mediation. This mixture of philosophy and Judaism at Alexandria in Egypt, was the fertile cause of corruption in the Church. A few words as to the true origin of purgatory.

The Romanists do, as heretics always do, take a hard passage, which people do not understand, and use it for their false doctrine. If one knows the right interpretation, one can answer at once, and say, " No; it means so-and-so:" but if you cannot, you are exposed to be led away by false interpretation, because you do not know at all what the passage means. One may be guarded by other plain truths, but, as to such a question, a person has nothing to answer. But the true source of the doctrine of purgatory is a mixture of Judaism and Platonism. Roman Catholic authors refer to both as being the same doctrine in substance as the Romanist doctrine of purgatory; and so they are. It will help us, if I give you here a sketch of the history of purgatory. No one denies that the modern idea of purgatory is found nowhere so closely stated as in Plato. Dr. Milner admits and insists on it; and Bellarmine, De Purg. L. 1. 100. 2., appeals to Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and the Mahometans, to prove that it is according to natural light. Now what does that mean? That redemption and the complete putting away of sin by the work of Christ for the believer-his heart being purified by faith- having been set aside, natural conscience (having the sense of faults

in it, having nothing else to make amends for these faults according to their gravity, and unable to quiet or purge itself here) looked with hope and fear to some satisfying for them, or being purged from them hereafter; that is, that Romanism, through the loss of the knowledge of redemption, is a return to heathenism, or, at best, to the instincts of natural light.

I will now give the statement of Plato. After a pretty

elaborate description of Hades, or the infernal regions, he continues: " These things being so, when those who are departed come to the place where the demon" carries each, first they are distinguished in judgment, both those who have lived well and piously and righteously, and those who have not; and those who seem to have lived in a middle way having come to the Acheron, having ascended the vehicle for each, they come to the lake, and there they dwell and, being purified and paying the penalty of their unrighteous deeds, they are absolved, if any one has acted unrighteously, and have the rewards of their good deeds, each according to his desert. But those who seem to be incapable of being healed, because of the greatness of their sins,-having committed either many and great sacrileges, or many unrighteous and illegal murders, or whatever else such-like they may be involved in,-these a fitted fate hurries away to Tartarus, whence they never get out; but those who have committed such as may be healed, yet great sins.... are kept a year, and, if need be, more, till they obtain release from those they have injured for the wrongs done; for that is the penalty adjudged them But those who are esteemed to have excelled as regards living piously, these, liberated and removed from their places on the earth as from prisons, going away to the pure dwelling place, dwell over the earth. And of these same, those who have been adequately purified by philosophy, live without pain all time after, and come into a better habitation than these, which it is neither easy to describe, nor is there now time." And again, " If a soul depart in this state (a good one) it departs to what is like itself, and invisible-what is divine, immortal, and wise, and, coming there, begins to be happy, is freed from the contagion of human ills, and is in the society of the gods. But if it shall depart contaminated out of the body, it will be, when separated, impure.° Those who have passed through life justly and piously, when they die,

go to the isles of the blessed, to dwell in all happiness, without any evils. But he who has lived unrighteously, and without God, will go to the prison of vengeance and punishment, which they call Tartarus. But they who have committed the worst unrighteousness, and on account of such unrighteousness cannot be healed any more, of these examples are made. These cannot, indeed, any longer be helped who are incurable, but they help those who see them, when they see them, for their very great sins, suffering most painful and frightful sufferings forever."

(**Demon, with Plato, is an instrument of Divine agency, not bad as such.)

(*** Plat. Phazid. Sect. 118, 119. Eus. Prxp. Ev. (553), Lib. 11. 27 to 38, from (568) Gorgias, near the end. Section 164, 168.)

All this was borrowed from Egypt, as different points show, though made up into Grecian philosophy, as in other parts we find him stating the Egyptian doctrine of the transmigration of souls, accompanied with another doctrine greatly taught there afterward, that the soul existed before, and came down to dwell in the body, two natures making up one person, as will be found in the places I have quoted from. But, though in a heathen form, we have the Roman doctrine of saints who go to heaven, the wicked to hell, and a middle class to purgatory. So Virgil, when Zneas goes down to Hades, he is told by them in purgatory: When life leaves with the last light (of day), not yet is every evil over to the unhappy, nor all corporeal infection wholly gone; and it is altogether necessary that many things should have grown up as part of ourselves in wonderful ways;' therefore, they are exercised with penal torments, amp' pay the penalty of old evils." And then he speaks of different punishments before they go to Elysium. And, further, in the Odyssey, souls complain that sacrifices have not been offered for them, to get them out of this place. So Ovid, Fasti, lib. 2. 33.

Plato teaches the pre-existence of the soul (Phaedo, 223) and transmigration. Only true saints, who had kept alone from every snare of corporate existence went, it is suggested, to God: so did Pythagoras. Philo, the Jew, held the pre-existence of the soul, as Plato, and that the air is full of demons up to the moon; and the lower, or inferior class, were disposed to be earthly, and came into bodies. This came from Indian or Egyptian heathenism. Why do I speak of these things? Because the great early doctors of the Church, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, were educated in Platonism; Origen, too, embraced the whole system-transmigration, and the renewal of the whole series of the soul's history in another earth. Jerome and Rufanus (Latins), and, even in part, Ambrose, followed Origen in a great deal, as did Gregory Nyssene, and many others in the East.

Origen was followed and defended till the fifth general council. Jerome and Augustine, who hesitated, as we have seen, about it all, led in the notions of the Western Church. But Origen held that angels, devils, and men, were all on the same footing of responsibility, though in different states; and withal, that all would be ultimately saved: punishment was only purgatory for any.

Ambrose we may speedily dismiss, the only difficulty being that he directly contradicts himself. But that is nothing with the fathers. His doctrine, in result, is, that all professing Christians will be saved, and heathen unbelievers, that is, Christ's enemies, will not; that Christ chastens those that are His, and consigns those who are strangers to Him to eternal punishment (Enar. of Psa. 118 Octon. 20., Sect. 24). As to the manner of it, he gives two directly conflicting statements. First, that there are three classes, the godly Christians, who will not come into judgment at all; those who have failed, though Christians, who will come into judgment; and the wicked, who will not come into judgment, abiding under wrath, so that it is not needed, Enar. in Ps. 1. 53 and 56. He held two resurrections, and the failing Christian class to be tormented between the two; but it is after their resurrection. To the third class he refers the passage, " they are condemned already." Those who have added good works to faith will rise to blessedness, not judgment. He rests on John 5:28,29, and the Revelation. But there is nothing clear as to when the resurrection to life or judgment takes place. In another place, he declares that all must pass through the fire, even John and Peter; that the flaming sword is in the way of Paradise (confounding the garden of Eden and the Paradise of God); and hence though John, the beloved of Christ, might escape death, he could not escape the fire, only such as John would be soon done with it.-Enar. Psa. 118 Octon. 20., Sect. 12, &c.

Jerome may be fairly said to have also held that all Christians would be saved; but his history demands a little more attention. He admired and quotes Origen, or his views, at least, largely. Ruffinus, a great friend of Jerome, translated Origen. This made him known, and he was widely condemned. Jerome attacked Ruffinus, and Ruffinus answered, it was no worse to translate him (Origen) than to cite him continually on these very points, without the smallest disapprobation. Jerome, though a saint, got badly out of the scrape, as Tillemont and Dupin, honest Roman Catholics, confess. He alleges all sorts of bad excuses, and, at last, says, if he had held the views, he did not hold them now. I will now give some of his statements, and the result. On Ezek. 1 verses 4 and 5, our God, he says, is a consuming fire, and, as the ember comes after the fire, so happier things will be afforded after the torment of fire which is for all believers (nobis omnibusque credentibus). C be delivered: we are to be in the fire, to give better things to the pure and purged; though, indeed, it goes farther than believers here, saying that after judgment and torments, comes the precious brightness to the sufferers, as the providence of God governs all things, and what may be thought penalty is medicine. On Eccl. 9 he records the opinion of some, that reason able creatures can offend and merit in another age, though death ends it in this, and he does not blame this. In the end of his thirty-fifth Homily on Luke, " agree with thine adversary quickly," lie gives getting out of prison, not as he excuses himself, and is pleaded for him, but as his own, the effect of paying the last farthing is that a man gets out; a minute sin soon paid; greater ones, longer; and, if they are very bad, how long will people remain? But it is all after judgment, but no one can say how long; it may be infinite ages. Finally, at the end of his Commentary on Isaiah, after quoting a series of passages, as alleged by others, to show punishment will have an end [citations which show utter ignorance of Scripture and the misleading of human imaginations, spiritualizing, as it is called, what is plain], after quoting, as the assertion of others, that this future mercy is hid for the sake of useful terror [which is Origen's doctrine], he adds, for himself, " which we ought to leave to the knowledge of God alone, who knows how to weigh both mercy and torments, and knows also how and how long he ought to purge," &c.; and then he closes, by saying, " and as we believe the torments of the devil, and of all deniers and impious men who say in their heart there is no God' to be eternal, so of sinners and impious men, yet Christians, whose works are to be proved and purged in fire, we think the sentence of the Judge to be moderate and mixed with clemency."

Worse doctrine one could hardly have, for Christians, who have light, are to be dealt with in clemency, even i f impious; but the impious heathen are to be eternally lost. With purgatory, it has nothing to do; it takes place after judgment, and of forgiveness, which is the groundwork of purgatory, there is no hint.

James. But, with all this confusion and darkness, why do they quote the fathers and make so much of them? This man does not seem to know the truth, nor grace either.

Bill M. How can an ignorant man, like you, judge these holy men?

James 1 do not know what they are, nor why they are called fathers; but I am sure what we have just heard is not according to Scripture nor God's truth, as, the Lord Himself and Paul, and the rest-that is, the Word of God-has taught it, and we are told to call no man father on the earth. But why is it, sir, so much is made of them, when such things are in them?

.N. It would not be so, James, with one who knew the truth and the Scriptures of God. But what is ancient is venerable in men's eyes, and the Word of God is too powerful for any one whose heart does not bow to it to hear, and they put it practically aside. The writings of these men are a matter of learning, the tradition of the elders not of conscience; and, besides that, we must re- member the influence and power of the enemy.

James. But, then, surely, sir, Paul and Peter and John, and all the apostles, and others, are more venerable than they are-the inspired Apostles of the blessed Lord, chosen by Himself; and so the other inspired writers? But these writers are not inspired.

N. Undoubtedly, James, they are more venerable; and we are specially charged to hold fast to that which was from the beginning, as the Apostles clearly were, and those called fathers clearly were not.

Bill M. But you will be taking a wrong meaning out of the Scriptures, and those men that lived hundreds of years ago must know better what the Apostles taught than we can.

James. Well, Bill (begging your pardon, sir, for answering; we are poor men, and understand each other), but surely the best way of knowing what the Apostles taught is to read what the Apostles say? I know we need God's grace for it, and I am ignorant of many things in Scripture; but, at any rate, the right meaning is certainly there to get, and it is not in what we have heard of these fathers at all; and I find it a great deal easier to understand, upon those things we have been speaking of, than what we have heard out of these books. Anybody can understand that if the writers of the Scriptures were inspired, they must have said it right, and perfectly rightly and better than those fathers, who were not inspired at all; and why can they tell me the matter better than those we know God sent to tell it?

Bill M. But it is the priest will tell you what the truth is; you need not be reading those books.

James. How can I tell that he is inspired?

Bill M. No, of course, he is not.

James. Then he is no better to me, as to this matter, than any other; and why can I not read the Scriptures that are for myself?

Bill M. You are too proud entirely. The priest is not inspired, but he teaches what the bishop teaches, and the bishop teaches what the Pope and the Church teaches; and the Scriptures were written in Greek, and languages you do not know.

James. Sure, it is not pride to listen to what God, says. The Lord Jesus commended a poor woman for doing it, and said it should not be taken from her; and I know that the New Testament Scriptures were written to all the Christian people, except a small part. How can I tell the priest teaches, or the bishop either, what the Church teaches? I cannot rest the salvation of my soul on that; it is resting it on man. I know what the Apostles and the Lord taught is right, and my soul can trust it for salvation; but you give me nothing for my faith to rest in, except fallible men, for that you do not deny they are: and, as to Greek and Latin, what are these fathers written in? I have no need to judge anything about them, for I rest my soul on the Word of God, that I know is His; but what I have heard of the fathers is very poor stuff, any way.

N*. Poor stuff, indeed; but it is what these doctors refer to, and the truth is, if you were learned, James, you would know that to refer to what the fathers teach is to put your foot on a quicksand, in order to have firm ground. They contradict each other, and contradict themselves, as, indeed, we have seen already.. But go on with Bill M.

James 1 have not much more to say, sir. You see, Bill, I have a soul to be saved, and I must have some sure foundation from God for it, and I have got that, and through mercy know I have got it, in the Word of God, in what you do not deny to be such. There I find that God hides these things from the wise and prudent, and reveals them unto babes. It was not through learning I found salvation and got peace in my soul, and to know I was saved, but by the grace of God.

Bill M. It is awful to hear you talk so. Know you are saved! Who can know that?

James 1 wonder you can rest a minute till you do know it. I do not mean to offend you, Bill, but what is your Church worth, if a man cannot know he is saved in it, after all? You would be a happier man, if you knew you were.

Bill M. Of course I should; who would not? But it is all presumption.

James. Not if a person comes honestly to Christ. He says, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest:" and through mercy I came to Him, and found rest. If you go to Him you will find it. Sure, He cannot deceive us, nor tell us what is not true; and he that comes to Him He will in no wise cast out.

Bill M. I suppose you are going to turn preacher; and what about all your sins?

James. And what did the blessed Lord give Himself for? was it not our sins? and His blood cleanses from all sin; and I have read, " by him all that believe are justified from all things," and, " their sins and iniquities will.I remember no more." That is the comfort, Bill, having God's own Word for it. And, as to preaching, I am no preacher, but only giving, as I ought to be able to do, a reason for the hope that is in me, I trust, with meekness and fear, as I read we should.

Bill M. And I suppose you may sin now as much as you please?

James. No, indeed; I have to watch and pray, lest I enter into temptation, and find I need it, too. But a Christian is a new creature, is born again, and hates sin; and there are blessed promises of help and grace for time of need, and that God will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able; and, if we do fail (and we have no excuse, I know, if we do), we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins. But there is no work to put away sin but the blessed Lord's one offering of Himself, and that is finished and perfected forever, and He is set down at the right hand of God.

Bill M. But there is the holy, unbloody sacrifice of the mass.

James. Now, I know all your religion is a false one-forgive me, for being plain, Bill-for the Word of God declares that where remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin, and, without shedding of blood, there is no remission. Now, either you have no true remission of sins in your church, or there is no more offering for sin; and an unbloody sacrifice is of no use at all. Ah! Bill, when one has learned the truth from God, and has the Word of God to rest on, one does not want learning to know these things. I am very ignorant of Scripture itself yet; but what one wants for the saving of one's own soul, one gets through mercy fast hold of. My missis, there, knows a great deal more of Scripture than I do; but, through mercy, I know what saves me. I wanted it, and through mercy I have got it; and I know what Scripture is, not by learning, but because I found the Holy God and a Savior in it, or it found me, perhaps I should say. Any way, I know what I have got, and where I got it.

Bill M. But how do you know you are not deceiving yourself all the while?

James. That I might well do; but God cannot lie, and it is on His word I rest-on what you do not deny is His word, what I know to be such. It found me out, revealed my sins and myself to me, told me all I was, and told me what Christ was. The Spirit of God (as it must for that), worked in my heart; I was convinced of sin; it was not I judged about it, it laid hold of me, was God's eye, that brought me naked before Him. No one, Bill, who has been under its power, doubts what it is; and it is always so, and is holy, and will have holiness. Besides, the Holy Spirit is given to those that believe, as it is promised; and he that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself.

Bill M. I told you you would turn preacher; your head is just turned. I do not understand a word you say.

James. Well, Bill, I hope you may, and be as happy as I am, though I am a poor, ignorant, and feeble creature, and know only what I want for my soul's salvation; but I hope to learn more of this blessed book the Lord Himself has given us. But you were telling us about these fathers, sir. I was led on, talking to Bill M.; but it is well to know what they are. They say so much about them, and, of course, I cannot read them myself, and they make a wonderful deal of them.

N*. What you have been saying is far happier, and much more important, James, than all the so-called fathers. You would have poor work to do, to read the hundreds of volumes of them, if you even knew Greek and Latin. It is only because they make much of them, and you cannot tell what they are, and all that is unknown is apt to be wonderful, that it is well to know what they are. We were giving the statements by which they are alleged to support purgatory, and, I am glad to say, we have almost done. Of one more I will quote some passages, because he, as well as Jerome, is made a great deal of, and he will nearly complete our history. He is called Augustine-was a very ungodly, and, undoubtedly, became a truly godly man. As to poor Jerome, saint though he be called, he had an awful, and wholly unsubdued temper, and was abusive and revengeful to the last degree: however, he was a saint for Rome. I hope it was all right with him; but really, one can say no more. And now for Augustine.

What we have cited from Ambrose and Jerome has nothing to do with purgatory, but made judgment a temporary and purifying thing for all Christians, and was chiefly borrowed from Origen, admitted to be a heretic on all these points. But I will give you Augustine's statements, a good man, and partially led by what we have already looked at, but confessedly uncertain in his own mind; only he rejects positively the doctrines of the earlier fathers, Origen, Ambrose, and Jerome. In the twenty-first book of the City of God, chapter xxv., he had insisted that a man might outwardly partake of the Lord's Supper and not really receive Christ, that he who fed on Christ abode in Him, and that they were not members of

Christ if in sin. Then he takes up the case of being burned (1 Cor. 3), and first refers to tribulation. " So' he says, " as far as appears to me, that fire is found;" and goes on to declare it cannot be the eternal fire, as some have said, into which those who are on the left hand are cast, and that only those who are set on the Lord's right hand go into that fire, inasmuch as they are saved, though their work is burnt; whereas those who go into the eternal fire will never be saved, but punished forever- 21. 26, 3. Then, in 4, "if in the interval between death and resurrection, the spirits of the deceased are said to suffer this kind of fire, that their wood, hay, and stubble may be consumed, which those who have not such morals and affections in the life of this body will not feel, but those feel who have carried building of this sort with them, whether there only, or here and there, or therefore here, that it may not be there, they find fire of transitory tribulation, consuming worldly things, but pardonable as concerns eternal damnation, I do not controvert, for perhaps it is true." Death may belong to it. " Persecution, in which martyrs are crowned, or which any Christians suffer, tries both kinds of building as fire, and if they do not find Christ in them, consumes some works and builders, some without the builders, if Christ be &c. He was a good man, and knew what it was to have Christ, and could not confound the substance of the matter with chaff, however dark he might be on a passage, and owns he was. " There will be, too, in the end of the age, tribulation in the time of Antichrist, such as never was." Thus, his own mind rests on tribulation. He utterly rejects Origen's notions, taken up by Ambrose and Jerome; but, as I said, is partially led by their views, so as to admit the possibility of another purifying fire when a true Christian had allowed evil in himself. The application of 1 Cor. 3 to purgatory, Bellarmine assures us, is quite wrong, because there every one's work is tried, and that will not do for purgatory-Bell. de Purg. Lib.1. 100. 5, sect. 37, 38-and he rejects Augustine's own opinion, which is that of Gregory, that it is tribulation here; sect. 22, 26, 36. So little have we to trust in these doctors for unanimity of

judgment. But, in the Tract on Faith, and Works, 25 (15.), this same Augustine utterly rejects the opinion of

Ambrose and Jerome, though not naming them, and shows their views-to be contrary to Scripture where it is plainest, because of this, to him, obscure passage* in 1 Cor. 3, and quotes 1 Cor. 13; James 2:14; 1 Cor. 6:9,10; Gal. 5:19-21. " All this will be false," he says, " if they are saved by fire who persevere in such evil things, if only they believe and are baptized. And thus the baptized in Christ even who do such things will possess the kingdom of God." He adds a great deal more to the same purpose, which I need not quote. He then adds, 29 (16.), " Perhaps it will be asked me here what I think of the sentence of the Apostle Paul itself, and how I think it is to be understood. I confess I had rather hear more intelligent and learned persons, who shall so expound it, as that all those things which I have above recited should remain true and unshaken, and what I have not cited by which Scripture most openly testifies that faith profits nothing save that which the Apostle has defined, which works by love." He says, however, he will explain, as well as he eau, that if there is a faith which works by love, that faith will not suffer him to perish; he will be saved: but if he has with that allowed his heart to be attached to earthly things, " in losing them they suffer loss, and by a certain fire of grief, arrive at salvation." It is all poor and uncertain teaching, but of a godly man. On the same point, in the Enchiridion l8 (69.), referring to the same passage, he says, " It is not incredible there may be some such thing after this life and whether it be so may be inquired, and it may be discovered, or lay hid, that some of the faithful may be saved by a certain purifying fire, by how much they may have more or less loved perishing good things, by so much they may be more quickly or slowly saved." His doctrine as to good works shows how he lay open to these thoughts, and such uncertainty, for here we have a different doctrine from what he says in the tract on Faith and Good Works. In "the City of God" he gives both, but that the fire means tribulation, as his own view. In his book on Dulcitius's Eight Questions O. 14), he earnestly rejects Origen's doctrine of the salvation of the wicked, after a time of punishment; and, while mourning over those he cannot mend nor refuse at the sacrament, still bows to Scripture, that they are lost. But in the thirteenth chapter of the twenty-first book of the Civ. Dei, citing the Platonicians and Virgil, which I have already referred to, he accepts purgatorial pains between death and judgment, though rejecting (what Origen and Jerome and Ambrose taught) that all the baptized would be saved. But in the twenty-fifth chapter of the twentieth book of the Civ. Dei, he teaches from Mal. 3, that the day of judgment itself will be purgatorial for some, and as Malachi (who really refers to Israel) speaks of offering, he says, they will then offer, but it will be themselves when purified, for what offering could be more acceptable to God; they cannot offer for their sins when purged; but he puts off the full discussion of that subject to another time. He then goes on, as the sacrifices would be offered as of old, to state that they were offered in Paradise before the fall, and loses himself in other ideas.

James. But you say, sir, Augustine was a godly man, yet he is confused and uncertain on the plainest things in Scripture.

.N*. That is the very use of referring, as I have done, to the fathers. They are quoted, and Bill M. had referred to them as great authorities to you, and so does Dr. Milner and all Roman Catholic teachers. Nay, their Council of Trent will have no interpretation of. Scripture but what is by their unanimous consent. Hence it was well to know what they are really worth. Augustine was a godly man, and hence his spirit rejected the vagaries of Origen, copied by Jerome and by Ambrose, who must have had great weight with him as his spiritual father, but he rejects it all. But not knowing the fullness of redemption, as not one of the fathers did, nor that the poor thief could go straight into Paradise, to be with Christ because Christ's blood (who was in grace on the cross by him) had cleansed him from all sin, nor able, as Scripture Speaks, to " give thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," they were at a loss what to do with the faults and failings of real Christians. Before Augustine, the purifying was held to be after the day of judgment: this he sometimes teaches-sometimes that it was tribulation here-sometimes between death and judgment; and then he put off its full discussion (but never took it up again), and wished some more learned man to treat of it-would not controvert its being after death, or here and not there, or here and there both.

But the seed of the doctrine was now sown. Gregory the First, of Rome, a great, but very superstitious man, whom sober Roman Catholics acknowledge to have stuffed the very book I quote from with absurd and incredible stories, thus speaks in it, founding his doctrine on the Lord's words, " neither in this world nor in the next "; which refer solely to the age of the law and that of the Messiah, a perfectly well-known Jewish distinction, of which he knew nothing. He says it is to be believed that there is a purifying fire for very light faults, but only for small, and the very least faults, as frequent idle talk, or immoderate laughter, or error of ignorance in immaterial things; and then refers to 1 Cor. 3, which, as we have seen, their great doctor, Bellarmine, says, can not apply to purgatory, and which Gregory says may he understood of tribulation in this life, but with the strangest application, saying, contrary to the rest, "not iron, brass, lead-hard things, and these, indeed, indissoluble; but wood, hay, stubble-that is, the smallest and lightest sins, which the fire easily consumes:" and then he adds, "only if a man has deserved it in this life." Dialogs, Lib.4.

James. But that has no sense, and the Apostle speaks of gold and silver, and precious stones, and what the teacher has built in his service. They don't seem to have understood the Scriptures at all, according to what you have quoted, sir.

N*. Nothing can be more foolish, as an interpretation; but they had all lost the doctrine of a complete redemption and purging of the conscience by the precious blood of Christ, and therefore all was dark to them. They had to make out some other way of clearing themselves, and hence penances and purgatory, and indulgences, and such like means. But this is all poor Romanists have to rest on. How different from the clear and sure testimony of the Word of God, with its holy claim on the conscience, and full and perfect grace for the soul, the constant presence of Christ before God for us, and His intercession unsought, for every need and every failure, in virtue of a blood and righteousness which never can fail, and sanctifying correction by His Word and Spirit in our hearts, with chastening, if needed, for our good, not as an exacting God, for " whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," and for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness! But I have done my history of Purgatory. The doctrine had now come in, and soon after, the dark ages, when wickedness and corruption and superstition were at their height.

What do we see then as the result? Scripture does not say one word of purgatory, but teaches exactly the contrary. We have examined the pretended passages but when I turn to heathen philosophers and Jews, I find a system of doctrine to which the _Romanist doctrine is conformed. Nor is that all. These Jewish doctrines were mixed up with this particular class of heathen ones at Alexandria, as is well-known, and all the works of Philo testify. Now all the early learned fathers who imprinted the character of their doctrines on the Church lived at Alexandria. There was the great Christian Catechetical School, and the principal of these fathers were its masters, as Clement and Origen; and through these this mixture of Platonism and Judaism flowed into the Church. The fact of the accordance of these doctrines is not my statement alone; you see, Dr. Milner admits it, and says it shows how suited it was to human nature, which is quite true, only that the reasonings of philosophy were added; and Bellarmine, the Jesuit, and one of the highest authorities in Romanist doctrine, refers to Plato as holding these views, and Cicero and Virgil, and seeks to prove it thereby as of the common light of nature (Bell. de Purg. Lib. 1.; Prague, 1721, p. 348). So Dr. Milner, "it is conformable to the dictates of natural religion;" that is, punishment suited to the degrees of guilt is. Now, I do not deny this; moreover, Scripture speaks of it (Luke 12:47,48). Before I answer this, let us recall the doctrines to which I refer.

Plato holds that the flesh is an evil part of the nature, which infects the soul, and that if it has wholly given itself up to vice, it would be given up to punishment for the advantage of others, as an example: if not, but that still any had not kept themselves free, they would be punished in Hades for a certain time, proportioned to their unpurged stains; that there were two instruments for the health of the body, exercise (gymnastics) and medicine, and if the first were not sufficient, the other was to be applied; that the spots of the soul were like the colors after a wound when completely well; the soul, at the end of its purification and punishment, would be rendered splendid and spotless. That is simply purgatory-purgatory from the natural need of the soul without Christ. Virgil enlarges a little on it: besides the torments of hell, he states the same process of punishment and purification, but he does not quite finish them off then; he sends them to Elysium, a place of blessedness, and then, after a. length of time, the hardened spots are wholly gone, and the ethereal soul is left quite pure. Other fictions were added; the souls quite pure, according to Plato, went off to the stars, according to their qualities, for they held (so Philo, the Jew) the stars to be living beings. All this was much borrowed from the Egyptians and Pythagoras. Hades was placed by them under the earth, and so by Romanists (as Bellarmine). This doctrine of Purgatory was connected with the famous mysteries of Eleusis. It was signified in the rites (says Plato) that he who was not initiated and the unperfected in them would go to Hades, and lie in mire, but that the purified and perfected person, when he departed, would dwell with the gods. So, they held that there were those who answered to the Romish saints- the heroes, who went to heaven at once, and were eternally happy. Here is Virgil's account of purgatory: " Moreover, when at the last ray life leaves, yet not every sorrow ceases to the unhappy, nor do bodily pains altogether pass, and it is altogether necessary that many things contracted by long usage should grow in a wonderful way into their very constitution. Therefore, they are exercised with penal sufferings and satisfy by punishment for the inveterate evils." This is not Tartarus, the hell of the condemned, but souls that can be purified, who are not yet fit for Elysium. You must not be surprised if we refer Roman Catholic doctrines to heathens; where we find exactly the same doctrine. All the language used by the fathers of the sacraments is borrowed from heathen mysteries, and that even in the language of the liturgies.

But there was another source historically of this doctrine, (I say historically for it was all the same reasoning of human nature that did not know the Gospel of salvation), -the Jewish doctrine. The Jews' notion (and the identity of thought is here also extraordinary) was this:- they say (as Cyprian, Ambrose, and hosts of others) that there is no place of repentance after death. This the Fathers repeat continually; so the Jews. It is true; but where redemption is not known the only resource is to keep people from sin by terrifying the mind always by the dread of an avenging God, falsifying his character. But then they make almost all Jews get out of the place of punishment because God has punished the best for all faults, and after punishing the wicked, must crown what they have done right. Even if one commandment be kept a Jew will be blest, so that between that and Abraham's help and Moses's, every child of Israel will see the world to come. God leans to the side of mercy, and it would not be just (they say), that a man suffered eternally for crimes which have often been light ones. Hence they have a purgatory for prevaricators in Israel, those who are not entirely good nor entirely bad. They pray to get souls out of it, and God releases them, and particularly at great days of expiation. It is even said that they sell indulgences to the people to get out quicker. Their purgatory is a part of hell beneath the earth. They judge that souls who have done both evil and good works will be punished for the evil and then be rewarded for -the good; so exactly says Origen, Horn. xvi.; on Jer. 5:6-If after you are on the foundation of Jesus Christ, you have gold, &c., and wood, &c., what would you have done to you when your soul quits your body? Would you enter into the holy place for the gold, &c., to pollute God's kingdom, or stay out for the wood and receive no reward for the gold, &c.? Yet neither is this just. He then quotes " our God is a consuming fire," " and says, there comes always blessing after threats and sorrow. And quoting falsely, I know not how, Isa. 40, insists on the word first (I will first retribute double their iniquities); first we shall suffer the torment for our iniquities, then be crowned for our righteousness. This is exactly Jewish.

Jerome, reasoning against Pelagius (who said that in the day of judgment, the wicked and sinners are not to be spared but to be burned), answers, You interdict mercy to God. When he says sinners shall cease out of the earth, he does not say they shall be burned in eternal fire -sin and iniquity (not impiety, which is not knowing God) according to the quality of the vices, after the wound of sin and iniquity receives health. It is one thing to lose the glory of the resurrection-another to perish everlastingly. This, too, was the Jewish notion. The resurrection is for Moses, the saints, and the righteous. In all this we see, no doubt, what suits nature, and how thoroughly the fathers have followed the crude imaginations of Jews and heathens; and then Rome has made a new system out of it, whose first definite traces are to be found in Gregory the Great, at the end of the sixth century. Only some went farther, as Origen, who held, as Bellarmine himself tells us, that there was no punishment but purifying punishment: he thought that souls had existed before and were then born into this world, and that they would go on purifying gradually till they purely enjoyed God. It is hard to say what place he gave to Christ in this. Gregory of Nyssa held the same views, and speaks of Judas being purified, of whom

Peter says, "he went to his own place," and the Lord "it had been good for him not to have been born." And throughout his works this doctrine is taught. Some looked shy-at him with- good reason;- but the great Romanist champion Bellarmine eulogizes him as admirable, and he was one of ten whom the Council of Ephesus said they were to decide all by, and one of those sent on a kind of visitation round the churches to see there was no Arian heresy.*

And now see the true character of all this.

Christianity has come finding man lost-justly lost by sin, and departed from God-has brought him salvation when he is in that state-has brought him life, eternal life. Christ is that life-a life holy in its nature, and which loves God and that which is good; he, it tells us,, who receives Christ, receives this life. Such is the positive plain declaration of Scripture; but that is not all. How can such poor, sinful, guilty creatures have confidence to come to God; to walk at peace with Him so as to come to His holy habitation hereafter, even if, quickened by Christ, they desire it? First, the Son of God has become a man, and lived amongst men to prove His love, and that He does not reject the vilest: He is the friend of publicans and sinners. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Hence, we see the very vilest (who could not venture near a decent person) come to Jesus-humbled surely, but received and told to go in peace. Thus God was revealed amongst men, that sinners, such as we are, might trust Him. But to enter into His presence in heaven we must be cleansed-justified. The same blessed One gives Himself for us; has given Himself for the sins, of all who come to God by Him; has borne their sins in His own body on the tree. Thereupon the Holy Ghost declares to us that they which believe are justified from all things; that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses them from all sin, and that God will remember their sins and iniquities no more. Hence we are assured of being with Christ directly when we die-absent from the body and present with the Lord-and we are called upon to give thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers-` of the inheritance of the saints in light. So the poor thief, who talked of being remembered when the kingdom came, was assured that he should be that very day with Christ in paradise. And the Holy Ghost is given to those who believe as the seal of God put upon them, and the earnest of their inheritance. And He is in them-a spirit of adoption -crying Abba, Father. Death they know is a gain to them-resurrection the time of glory. They know that when He comes He will receive all that have believed in Him, and they will appear with Him in glory.

Being justified by faith they have peace with God; holiness is their delight; glory and being like Christ their sure hope. If they fail, Christ is an advocate with the Father for them, and ever liveth to make intercession for them, and hence is able to save utterly and completely. Warnings they need; exhortations too, vigilance, prayer, and every other means, public or private, that God in grace has afforded them. If they carelessly fail, they have every ground to humble themselves in the dust, and confess their fault before God. If they do not own the warnings of the word in grace, God chastens them as a father that they may be partakers of His holiness; but they do not doubt that they have eternal life in Christ, because God says so, nor that the blood of Christ cleanses them from all sin, nor think that God will remember their sins and iniquities any more.

Instead of that, what do I find? Christ brought in as a foundation to begin with, and a man who is built on Christ as a foundation having still to answer for everything as much as if there was no Christ; he has to pay the penalty of his sins now or must do so hereafter, for God will have the last farthing. Sacraments there are to cleanse and justify-justified in baptism not from his actual sins (for as yet he has committed none) but when he has, a sacrament to purify him from guilt without purifying his heart. Nay, on the contrary, a sacrament which makes contrition unnecessary, and gives absolution on sorrow from a lower motive called attrition-a horribly unholy doetrine-forgiveness quieting the conscience without purifying the heart, but the forgiven man having still to satisfy an exacting God for his sins; unless this—temporal penalty, too, be excused by an indulgence. Then, when dying, other sacraments, no less than three, to quiet his conscience again; and then he must go to purgatory to pay and satisfy God still. And all this if a man is in grace forgiven, sanctified, and justified 1 It is not Christianity, whatever else it may be.

James. Well, how little one knows what Romanism is. I could never have thought it; but all these Fathers! I thought they were such holy people, all teaching as nobody else could. Why, they only make everything dark I think: the word of God is clearer and surer too. I see that plainly now, and then one has the words of the Apostles and of the blessed Lord Himself, and we are sure they are right. Oh! what a comfort for one's poor soul that is.

Mrs. J. But I do not know, sir, why one should trouble oneself with all these books and mazes of uncertain teaching when one has the Word of God. They are beyond poor folks like us, and if knowing the truth depended on reading them we should be in a bad way, while with my bible and the words of my blessed Savior all is simple and full of grace just suited to simple people: and then they are His own.

N*. Just so, Mrs. J.; they are His own. Oh I what a thought that is. They come with power, they come

with authority, and that is what no man's words can do;and then they come in grace to the heart-God's grace. Mrs. J. They do, sir.

N*. When God has become a man-when He can say, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given-when the High and Holy One has come so low to be with sinners, the moment I believe it, I can have confidence in Him. I have much to learn; but to learn from one who loves us. If we reject His grace we have a debt we never can pay at all"; but if we have Him we have one who blessed be His name-has paid the last farthing for us. There is not the smallest need of your knowing the fathers. They may be interesting as a matter of history to_show_what went on in-those-days for-those-who—make research, and they are so; and in a very few indeed we see marks of piety and true grace, as in Irenwus of the more voluminous, and others I need not name here; but it is not in the books of those times you get the highest, parts of Christianity. They were almost all corrupted by heathenism and philosophical reasonings. I do not think you would find as much rubbish and false interpretation in any quantity of serious books of the same size nowadays. But men suffered then for Christ, and so did some of these very men. As to their consent in doctrines, it is all a fable. There never was more disputing and confusion about doctrine than in those days. They were holding councils on councils to try and settle it, and often the Emperors managed the matter their own way-by their power, by the banishment of those whose opinions they did not like, etc. In one great council they had, the prelates of one party beat the old Archbishop of Constantinople so that he died of it. And some of the other councils were not a great deal better, though not so violent.

Bill M. But I do not want you to read the fathers, but to hear the Church. I cannot answer as to all these fathers because I have not read their books: the priest would answer all, I am sure.

James. But you used to talk about the holy fathers to me, Bill, and how they all agreed from the beginning in one doctrine, and one Church, and all that.

Bill M. And so they did, I am sure.

_N*. You cannot, M., speak of the fathers, nor do I blame you for that, unless it is speaking of them without examining; but Dr. Milner has read them, and though I own. Scripture alone for an authority, we agreed to take his book as you had given it, and we were bound, as he had. quoted them, to examine what he said. Nor can I acquit Dr. Milner of dishonesty on this subject. As to the Scripture (1 Peter 3:19): there is no preaching in purgatory we well know: Abraham's bosom, Augustine even assures us, cannot mean purgatory. As to 1 Cor. not only Augustine says it is most difficult; but Bellarmine declares it cannot apply to purgatory, for there all

-are to-go-into-the-fire,——But-as-to the -fathers it- is-worse,——-because he knows that prayers for the dead cannot be reconciled with the Romish purgatory, for all were

prayed for, even the Virgin Mary. This he must have known; so that to quote the fathers who speak of it as proving purgatory, is utterly dishonest, and to say " an intermediate state which we call purgatory." He knew very well it was not what they call purgatory. His statement as to the Greek Church is equally false: it holds neither purgatory nor indulgences. They do hold prayers for the dead, as in the earlier centuries; but reject wholly purgatory. Neither was " from the beginning," and we must have that or what is false. We have examined these fathers on the subject of purgatory pretty much at length, and we may leave it. You, I know, would like to take up the question of the Church which you think settles everything.

Bill M. Yes, it is no good arguing; we must get some authority to decide. And the Church, the Lord declares, is that authority, and tells us to hear it. What can you say against the Lord's own words?

N*. Well, M., we will take your own subject up next. It is fair you should have your turn; but for the present I think we have had enough. The Lord willing, we will take that up when we meet again; only remember, as far as we have gone, we have had all your friend, Dr. Milner, has to say for your doctrine. It is not taking a person who cannot be expected to know much of the fathers, and seeking to confound him. I can add, that I have looked into a more famous man still of your party, and that is Bellarmine; but it is the same in substance, and I do not see that he adds anything. material. He says, St. Chrysostom is quite wrong in his view. of 1 Cor. 3, for on this interpretation all would be saved. I do not know how he manages about the consent of the fathers. I suppose he was not thinking of it just then, yet this is their pet text on this subject. Bellarmine prefers Gregory which I have given you. For my own part what I see is this-the real source of purgatory is heathenism and Judaism, which were associated at Alexandria, where the first great doctors of the Church -lived.-At first-it took shape of purifying all completely in eternal fire. Still this was not generally accepted. It then took the form of prayers for all, because they had not fully the sense of Christ's having so atoned for believers' sins, that they were white as snow for God. They apportioned, therefore, to all some punishment-at the least the punishment of loss, not seeing God; or at any rate were uncertain and prayed for all, even for the Virgin Mary, with a view to their speedily seeing the face of God; but the idea of the purging process survived through, and in Augustine's time was a question as to which he doubted-Jerome speaking with such uncertainty that he is accused of denying eternal punishment. This was in the fifth century: in the end. of the sixth Gregory specifies the purifying very light sins; but doubts still. With School-men it was like other things formed into an elaborate system; but all this last part was only in Western Christendom. Greek or Eastern Christendom has never received the doctrine. I conclude: Scripture is positively and clearly against it, as destructive of Christ's work. The fathers are one mass of confusion as to it; its true source being heathenism and Judaism, and the oldest half of Christendom rejects it to this day. Yet it is practically the great doctrine of Romanism in connection with the Mass. It is to get people out of it that masses are constantly said. The, poverty of the system is shown, and the character it gives to God, in that it proceeds on the ground of God's exacting the last farthing (an interpretation denied by Augustine and Jerome), and that after the use of all the means the Roman system has at its disposal-absolution, the viaticum, and extreme unction which wipes off the remains of sin-so utterly unprofitable are they (by their own confession) that the faithful have to go to purgatory to get these remains burned out by the relentless and exacting hand of God.

Oh, what a difference from that holy grace of God that saves, cleanses, and gives life! N*.

Toleration

There is a great cry now-a-days against intolerance and bigotry, and a proportionate laudation of tolerance and liberality; and people are frightened by hard names and deceived by soft ones, and at last, from mere habit, believe what they assert or what others assert to them, and think that toleration must be the right thing. Progress in the search after what the, world calls truth is said to be hindered by dogmatic opinions or teaching. In secular things, however, such as natural science, etc., dogmatism may be admitted. In spiritual things, and in those things which concern the truth of God and the salvation of men's souls, dogma is, they say, inadmissible. We are told that what men on these subjects think to be true to-day, may to-morrow be found susceptible of modification, or be proved altogether erroneous; that doctrines and practices, good and true in one age, are unfitted for a succeeding period of the world's history, and may be pronounced " obsolete." What would do very well in times past as the foundation of a man's hope for eternity, is, quite unsuited to this more advanced age; the doctrine of which to-day will in turn pass away, and be succeeded by others more advanced, and so on. In, the face of such a state of things, we are told that it is presumption for any man to express conviction in a settled opinion upon any religious question or doctrine. Many, indeed, are asking, " What is Truth?" and " Who will show us any good?" but very few wait for an answer.

Toleration, then, is the order of the present day; and men may hold what they please provided they will not interfere with their neighbors' opinions, and limit the suitability of their own opinions to themselves. But it was not always so, neither will it always continue, but it is the cry of the moment, and therefore is worthy of examination.

What, then, is toleration, and why and what are we to tolerate? The very word implies a state of imperfection. If all were of one mind, there would be no toleration needed; if good universally prevailed, there would be nothing to tolerate; if evil was universal it would certainly be intolerable, though for all that it must be endured (as it will be in the " place prepared for the devil and his angels "). Toleration, then, implies the co-existence of good and evil, in which evil is tolerated by (that which assumes to be) good, for toleration must necessarily be by the superior towards the inferior.

That in a sense and in degree toleration is right none of course would deny, for God himself tolerates, exhibits patience and long-suffering. His own Word and every man's experience teaches this. But with God, toleration has a limit; and it must be so, for though in grace for a time He may " endure with much long-suffering," He could not always do so without a denial of His character. A Being who eternally tolerated evil would not be good, holy, or righteous; and a state in which toleration was eternally called for would not be a perfect one. Toleration, even on God's part, must therefore be defined and limited, both in its extent and its duration.

But there is another side to the question. For though in patience and grace a being who is perfectly good may for a time, and for an object, tolerate evil, toleration, if exercised by beings in themselves not good, but evil, assumes another and very different aspect. If a being who is perfectly good tolerates evil, it must be for a good end, or he would not be good; but if an imperfect being exercises toleration, we must suspect both the motive and the end. To speak of evil tolerating evil sounds paradoxical, yet as a matter of fact we meet it constantly in the world, and it is the spirit of that which people call " agreeing to differ."

Toleration, then, on the part of fallible or imperfect beings springs from two or three motives. Firstly, from such self-condemnation as to render the judgment of others in like doubtful circumstances impossible. Secondly, from inability to force their own views and opinions, owing to a balance of power in those opposed to them; or, thirdly, from lack of certainty, and conviction of the truth of what they do hold.

Now, whilst the first is true of man in his natural state (Rom. 1:31; 2:1), and the second undoubtedly underlies all forms of doctrinal error, whether infidel or superstitious, the third, we are assured, is the motive of much that is called religious toleration now-a-days. Men are uncertain in their opinions, have no solid foundation for their belief, no sure prospect for their hopes. In things which concern the soul's salvation (that which the world itself admits to he the most important of all subjects) men hold opinions as wide as the poles asunder, and none dare say in their hearts, much less with their lips, "I have found the truth."

One system of religion alone in Christendom has emphatically claimed infallibility. Whilst that system had the power, it not only asserted infallibility, but, consistently therewith, it exercised intolerance. Its power, however, is gradually waning, and everywhere is being questioned. Its assumptions no longer raise fear in men's hearts, but rather a smile on their lips. Another spirit and a superior power has been slowly developing. Man's reason is asserting its claim, and the charity and toleration of our day is mainly the fruit of the co-existence and conflict of the spirits of superstition and infidelity. The world will yet experience again the intolerance of an over-bearing power of evil. As the influence of superstition still further wanes, and the present necessity of mutual toleration ceases (for toleration will always lessen as the balance of power tends more and more in one direction, and will cease when such power can assert itself), so will the tyranny and selfishness of man uncontrolled by religion, whether false or true, be developed in the Antichrist-the man of sin, the lawless, the wicked one, spoken of in the Scriptures (Dan. 8:23; 11:36; 2 Thess. 2; Rev. 13)

Hitherto we have been speaking of the character and spirit of the toleration now abroad in the world, but we also desire, if the Lord will, to say a few words for the help of those who, desiring to know and do the will of God, are yet in difficulty as to what to allow and what to refuse.

On this subject, as on every other in which the professing people of God are concerned, we can go nowhere for instruction but to God and to His Word. His ways must be our example, His Word our precept. All will admit that if there be any revelation of God, there must also exist in connection with it a standard of right and of truth, if it be but apprehended. But- while this is admitted in a general way, there is the greatest hesitation on the part of men either to grasp this standard for themselves or to admit that others may have attained to it. All Christendom acknowledges Christianity as God's revelation, yet for the most part argues as if the arrival at a Divine certainty of God's truth were impossible-as if, in fact, God, who gave revelation, had not intended, or was unable to bring it home to the hearts and understandings of those to whom it has been made. Hence dogmatism is deprecated, and strong convictions generally demurred to. Even the one system which in its own self-assertion dogmatizes unhesitatingly, ceases to be dogmatic, or even confident, directly it attempts to deal with the real and primary object of a Divine revelation-namely, the bringing together into acquaintance, confidence, and peace, the holy God and

His sinful creatures-and denies that this end can be attained in this life, asserting, in direct opposition to the whole teaching of the New Testament revelation of grace and love, that " no man knoweth whether he be worthy of love or of hate." But for our own part we are confident that God has given an unerring and perfect revelation, wherein He himself may be infallibly known, and His truth infallibly grasped, all the diversity and uncertainty of men's opinions notwithstanding.

Before, then, we can venture to be tolerant or intolerant, the first point to be settled is the confidence and ground of the individual soul. Unless we know and are persuaded that we have the truth, it is certainly impossible for us with any decency or power to exhibit intolerance of the opinions of others.

What, therefore, is needed is individual personal assurance, founded on Divine and therefore a perfect authority, and when this is possessed, what, and what not to tolerate may be soon arrived at. God's truth is the standard of doctrine, His ways, of practice.

That Christian men may not, without terrible risk and responsibility, tolerate that which is contrary to God, His word distinctly teaches. Toleration of sin and of evil doctrine are denounced in many and many places, such as 1 Cor. 5; 1 Tim. 5:22; 3 John; Rev. 2:14-16; 3:15, 16. The warnings of Christ to the churches are solemn words in the present day, when men tolerate every form of evil under the common name of Christianity, and deprecate the judgment of opinions and teaching the most dishonoring to Christ and His work. How do the words of Mal. 2:17 apply to such—"Ye have wearied the Lord with your words; yet ye say Wherein have we wearied Him? When ye say that every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them." When professing Christians are asked to judge and separate from evil doctrine and practice, they reply, "How are we to judge that to be wrong which is conscientiously held;" or more often they retort, "Who are you, thus to judge others?" And why is this, but that men, calling themselves by the name of Christ, hold not in their own souls the power of Christianity as God's own revelation of Himself; and on this everything turns. If I hold doctrines as mere matters of opinion, how can I contend against contrary views held by others on the same ground and by the same right.

But when the heart and mind are persuaded and pervaded by the truth of God, we do not speak of " my opinions ' or " my ideas," and we do not, and ought not to set up our opinions against those of others. It is not that "I think one thing and you another, and we shall never agree," but it is that I believe God, that I have submitted to. His Word, I have accepted and adopted His thoughts, He has answered every question of my heart, and He alone can answer truly any question of any heart. What may be advanced to the contrary is not against the believer's opinions merely, but against the Word of God in whom he has believed; and thus false doctrine or opinions contrary to such an one's faith cannot be tolerated, or admitted as having any weight or claim whatever. In dealing with them, grace and wisdom are, however, needed, and the believer has to judge, and has the ability also to judge (1 Cor. 2:11-15) the spirit in which they may be advanced. He will make a difference between the teacher of evil doctrine and those taught and deceived thereby. Whilst after admonition he will reject the former, and tolerate neither the teacher nor the teaching, he will have compassion on the latter-the one who is ignorant and deceived; and while refusing and correcting the error, will in no wise reject the person. The believer will "have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way;" he will lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for the feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. In meekness also he will endeavor to instruct those that oppose themselves. Here, however, there is danger of failure. Often we lack patience with those whose hearts are truly upright, but who are unskillful in the word of righteousness, or have been deceived by false teaching. Or, again, in tolerating the person who is ignorant we go too far, and tolerate, or appear to tolerate, his opinions and ways, and thus are unfaithful to the person, and to God and His Word. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity;” and if the believer sees one in ignorance, even linked with that which in any degree is contrary to the mind and truth of Christ, he must not touch the evil which he knows to be evil out of any consideration of love for the other. For instance, one dear to us may be linked with a false system of religious doctrine, which we know to be contrary to God. Are we to say that he believes it, and therefore we must acknowledge his right to practice it, and aid him in doing so? Surely not! We must no more acknowledge for another the right to believe and practice error than for ourselves. We may not be able to persuade, or even to interfere on the subject, but we can no more aid and abet in it than we could in facilitating the suicide of a friend who assured us on his word that he was weary of life.

But we are well assured of this, that the more our own souls are imbued and satisfied with the truth of God as it is revealed in Christ, the less tolerant shall we be of all that is contrary to it, and yet the more able are we to exhibit the patience and grace of Christ himself towards the persons who may be involved in error. For while in a sense there is nothing so intolerant as truth, yet the one who has truth knows that both "Grace and Truth came I by Jesus Christ," and he does not therefore separate what God has thus joined together in the revelation of Himself. To be persuaded in our own souls that so far as we have attained (for we only know in part-1 Cor. 13:9; Phil. 3:12,13), we hold the truth of God himself, gives us an immeasurable superiority in dealing with the souls of others, and enables us, while unsparing towards error, to manifest the toleration and long suffering of God towards those who are deceived thereby. Compassed ourselves with infirmity, having nothing but the grace of God to boast in, we have not to assert ourselves, but simply that which is due to Him who has left us here to be witnesses for His truth.

With regard to toleration of the religious opinions of others, which is so strongly advocated now-a-days, we would observe that nothing is more resented by the majority of professing Christians than to have their profession judged. They claim for themselves the liberty which they profess to accord to others. Their position is, however, untenable if judged by God's Word. However great the confusion may have become, there is in. Scripture a distinct recognition of a " without" and a "within." In Christendom no doubt the line is all but obliterated; but, nevertheless, all who take Christ's name and call themselves Christians, unquestionably take the inside place, and are therefore liable to be judged by their fellows. " Do ye not also judge them that are within?" Every professing Christian is, therefore, open to judgment, and all that such can require is that they may be judged by the Word of God, and not by the measure of another's, or even of their own, conscience. If we can bear that test, we can say with the Apostle that with us it is a very, small thing to be judged of man's judgment. We fear, however, that much of the tenderness we find abroad on ' this point arises from inability to bear the test.

Finally, we ask our readers to examine their own position and practice as to toleration, and to ascertain

whether their own hearts are persuaded and satisfied with God's revelation (we do not say with man's interpretation of it, but with the revelation itself)—Christ, the Son of the living God—He who has the words of eternal life, God manifest in flesh, crucified in weakness, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, and now by the right hand of God exalted? Is He so the ground of their peace and confidence? Has the Word which reveals Him so laid hold of their souls that they can say, " Let God be true, though (if need be) every man a liar?" Do they believe God rather than man, and know and recognize the immeasurable claim which He has, not only on our love, but on our obedience and life? Luke warmness is a hateful thing in the sight of One who has spared nothing for the benefit and blessing of those He loves. Where love in one is " stronger than death," how hateful to find Its objects careless and indifferent. To such Christ says, "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." But even this is not His last word to them; for He adds, " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he will with me ... . He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." H. B.

The Women of the Genealogy

AT 1:1-6THE introduction of four women's names, and of four only, into the genealogy of our Lord as given by Matthew, has furnished material for inquiry to many students of the inspired word.. That there was a special purpose in it no one who had any right claim to be such could ever doubt. Moreover, a slight glance only at the names so chosen to a place in connection with the human descent of the Lord of Glory would show something of the significance of their being found there. They are precisely such names as a chronicler left to mere human wisdom in the matter, and especially a Jew, however right thinking, would have kept out of sight; and especially so as there was no apparent necessity for bringing them forward. They were not needed at all as establishing the connection of our Lord with David or with Abraham. No other names of women are thus introduced-neither Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, nor any other; while yet there was perhaps not another who might not seem to have better title to be remembered. These women were of all others, though in different ways, just the blots apparently upon the genealogy. And then, so far from any attempt at concealment of what was discreditable in connection with them, circumstances which needed not (one might have thought) to be referred to are-brought in-, as if to draw our attention to what otherwise might have been less noticed. Thus Zara's twin-birth with Pharez, though himself not in the line of the genealogy, is mentioned as if to recall the Circumstances of that sin which brought them into being; while Bathsheba, instead of being mentioned by name, is associated as it were with all the horror of the crimes which her name alone one would think sufficient bring to mind—"her that had been the wife of Urias."

But there is something very beautiful as well as characteristic in this fearlessness of one who, here as in other places-in a mere record of names, as it might seem, as well as on the most solemn passages of our Lord's Life-spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. If there be a blot upon the life of one of His people, the God of truth will never hesitate to bring it out, though it might seem to be the furnishing an occasion to those who seek occasion against the truth; and if there be a dark spot that presumptuous man would dare to lay a finger on, on but one of the links (each divinely constituted) of the chain of ancestry of the man, Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God puts His finger upon it first, to invite our attention to it as something worthy of being noted, and calculated only in the mind of faith to beget reverential thoughts and lowly admiration of a wisdom that never fails, and that is most itself when it confounds all other.

Now to a faith that (as is characteristic of it) " believes on-him that justifieth the ungodly," the introduction of the names of Tamar and of Bathsheba into the inspired record of the Lord's human ancestry, is pregnant with suggestions fitted to awaken the liveliest emotion. Each of these women of dishonored names and shameful memories had title then in a peculiar way to appropriate those words which recorded Israel's most real boast: " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." The human feeling-for there is that in it whatever there may be more-which has given an "immaculate conception " to the mother of our Lord, would have at least provided for the unblemished character of the line of His natural descent; and that feeling would have said, Let Him have connection with the purest and noblest only that can be found; and thus it is that human thought has been shown folly in the wisdom of One who, from the beginning, took the " seed of the woman"-first as she had been in the transgression-to bruise the serpent's head, and heal those that are oppressed of the devil. Fixed, in Divine wisdom, in that part of our Savior's genealogy, which no Jew-could dispute-for none could dispute that the Christ was to come of David-these names (all perhaps Gentile, and some undoubtedly so) stood there to vindicate the Gentiles' part in the " child born." And just so on the face of pretension to human righteousness they stood to vindicate the claim of sinners to Him, whose " body was prepared Him," that He might die for sinners.

Thus far, then, the meaning of these names in the connection in which we find them is plain enough, and their place in the genealogy not only needs no vindication, but is another note of harmony in that song of praise, which His word, as well as all other of His works, is perpetually singing,-seed to sow music in the hearts of the sorrowful, in the assurance of how the sighing of the prisoners has come up before the Lord,

But what if we are able to go further, and to show that not only is this so, but that each of the four names here given furnishes its own peculiar feature to what taken as a whole is really a full and blessed declaration of the story of grace and of salvation-each in its order adding what the former had left out, till the whole is told? Would it not be worthy of God to speak so,-to make not only types and parables, but the very names of a genealogy repeat a story He is never weary of telling, however slow man may be to hear?

Let us take up, then, the history of these four names so far as it connects them with this inspired genealogy, and try to read the lesson which is given us by their connection with it.

The history of Tamar you will find in Gen. 38 It is one of those dark chapters of human depravity which the word lays open with its accustomed plainness and outspokenness. Infidels would speak of it as a blot upon the book that contains it, and few perhaps care to read it, least of all aloud. And yet it is a story that will one day again find utterance before the most magnificent assembly that the earth or the heavens ever saw or shall see. And how many such-like stories shall come out then-mine, reader, and your's, not perhaps, after all, so far removed from Tamar 's-and the pure eternal day will not withdraw its beams-and the-night not cover it up with its darkness.

What must be told then, may well bear to be told now. The light that shines upon evil deeds is all undefiled by them. If Tamar's history were a mere thing of the past and had no voice for succeeding generations, no doubt it had been vain to bring it up; but now let us rather thank Him for doing it, who has given us a page of human history so dark that we have to shudder, so filthy that we have to blush at it. Reader, I ask again, is there no page of your life, that, if it were written by the faithful hand of God, you would have to blush at in like manner?

Now, in all this history of Tamar's, the thing that strikes me in this connection is, that there is no redeeming feature about it. If I take the record attached to the other names which have place with her's in this genealogy, I may find perhaps in each case something that a little breaks the darkness. But I find nothing similar recorded about Tamar. She comes before me in this picture as a sinner and nothing else. The wife successively of two men, each cut off for his wickedness by divine judgment, she dares yet in her own person, by crime equal to theirs, provoke divine judgment. But the wonder above all this is, that it is this very sin that brings her name into the Lord's genealogy-for this sin it was that made her the mother of Pharez, one of the direct line of Christ's ancestry!

Is there no voice in this? And is it the voice of the God of judgment, or is it the voice of the God of grace, the God and Father, indeed, of our Lord Jesus Christ? True, if' I look alone at the Old Testament record, it may call up before me, as it has called up, the time of account and manifestation; but the moment I turn to the New Testament and find Tamar first of women's names in the genealogy of the Lord-Tamar, brought in by her sin into that connection-I find what fixes my mind upon a scene, of judgment, indeed, and that of the most solemn sort, but where the Holy One of God stands for the unholy, where Barabbas' cross-place of the chief of sinners-bears the burden of One, who alone bare all our burdens, and ' with whose stripes we are healed?'

0 blessed lesson, and worthy of God to give! Tamar's sin her connection with the Lord of life and glory! and O look, beloved, was not our sin our connection? Did not He die for sinners? Was it not when we confessed our sins, and with our mouths stopped took our places before God, ungodly and without strength, that we found out the wondrous fact that for the ungodly and without strength Christ had died! and that because we were sinners, and Christ had died for such, He was " faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Thus Tamar's name, first in this genealogy, is first too in the simple gospel truth that it reveals; and the fact that Tamar is a sinner, of whom I can read nothing but her sin, and whose sin gives her connection in a peculiar way with the Christ who came for sinners, is light and joy and gladness in my soul.

But we must turn to Rahab.

And 'here again we are not in very creditable company. Rahab is a-Canaanite, one of a cursed race, and &limit) is a harlot, sinner among sinners. We seem destined to move in this track. The one thing recorded to her advantage is her faith. That it had fruit too, none can question. She is one whom the apostle James takes up, to ask us, " Was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and sent them out another way?" But even here, you will observe, the thing he appeals to is not what would, in men's eyes, make a saint of her. There was no brilliance of devotedness, no wonderful self-sacrifice, no great goodness as one might say. Even in the very thing in which she shows her faith she tells_ _a. lie, as if to divorce faith and sincerity, and to give us expressly the picture of a faith that so " worketh not" as to leave the soul still without hope but as a sinner, unable to be justified save before a God who "justifieth the ungodly."

And who can doubt that it was Rahab's faith brought her into the genealogy, as sin had brought Tamar? Without faith, she had died with those shut up in

Jericho, a cursed woman of a cursed race. Faith removed that curse from her; faith brought her in among the people of God, if it did not attract to her the heart of Salmon, so as in the most direct way to account for those words being in the genealogy, "Salmon begat Booz of Rachab."

Thus the second of these women's names teaches us a lesson as sweet and as needful as the former. " To him that worketh not but believeth " is what we instinctively think of when we think of Rahab. Faith that, while it has that which demonstrates its reality, leaves one still to be justified as ungodly, nay believes on One who only does so justify. Faith which looks not at itself, therefore, and pleads not its own performances, but brings the soul to accept the place of ungodliness only, because for the ungodly only there is justification.

This is very sweet and very wonderful. It is wonderful to find how in the mere introduction of a name into a catalog, the God of grace can speak out the thoughts of His own heart. And it is very sweet to see how constantly before Him is the thought of our need and of His mercy, and how He would by the very wonder, as it were, surprise men's slow, cold hearts into the belief of it.

And now we have got to Ruth: "Booz begat Obed of Ruth."

But what shall we say of Ruth? Here at first sight our text might seem to fail us, and we might seem to have parted company with sinners. Why, you might say, the Spirit of God Himself takes a book by itself to tell us about Ruth. And true, indeed, though it be that she was a Gentile, as Rahab and as Tamar, you might repeat of her what the Lord Himself says of another Gentile: " I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." With no sword of judgment hanging over her head as over Rahab's, with no tie to connect her with Israel but the memory of a dead husband who had himself abandoned. it, with the memory of famine in that sand which had forced her husband out, and with the company only of an aged woman, with whom bitter providences, as she deems them, have changed the name of Naomi into Mara-Ruth comes into the land and to the God of Israel, in whose fields she is content to be a gleaner. No, do not think, reader, that I would disparage the worth or blot the fair fame of Ruth the Moabitess. That she was a Gentile only adds to it the more honor, in that among the godless grew her godliness, and that she was faithful where Israel's own children had set her the example of unfaithfulness.

But is there nothing in this very fact that in company with the names of sinners among sinners, we find one who shines, as it were, saint among saints? What does it mean, this putting down of Ruth in company with such names as Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba? Is it not a truth of the same kind as when the word tells us of one who "gave much alms" and " prayed to God alway," that he was to send to Joppa for a man who should tell him words whereby he should be saved. Or as when Zaccheus, standing forth and saying to the Lord, " Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor," meets the significant and gentle word-you can scarcely call it reproof: " This day is SALVATION come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was LOST."

So that without the smallest word of detraction from Ruth's goodness, but rather allowing in its very fullest all that can be claimed for it, we may fairly draw a lesson from the company in which we find her name,: which is itself full of instruction and of beauty; and Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, side by side in the genealogy, give us but the announcement of Isaiah's vision, which the Baptist's mission went to fulfill: " Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Yes, God's salvation, as much needed and in the same way, by one as another; as much of grace to one as to another, to Ruth the Moabitess, as to Rahab, or to Tamar.

But we have not yet got at that which gives fullest significance to this name in the genealogy. Against this Ruth, with all her loveliness and with all her goodness, there was lying a ban which did not lie in the same way against the others. She was a Moabitess, and against these there had been leveled an express statute-of the law: " An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even unto their tenth generation they shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever" (Deut. 23:3). Thus Ruth lay under the interdict of the law. It is striking that it was to this devoted, to this lovely woman that the law applied; not to Rahab nor even to Tamar, God having thus proclaimed in an unmistakable way the law's character; not bringing it in to condemn, where men's minds would have gone with it, the sinner and the harlot, but introducing it as that which would have excluded the piety of a Ruth. Emphatically was it thus taught that it was man as man that was shut out from God; not in his sins merely but in his righteousness, and that if we stand on that ground all " our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."

But the law does not keep Ruth out. Moabitess as she is she does enter into the congregation of the Lord. The law is set aside in her behalf, and instead of her descendants being excluded to the tenth generation, her child of the third generation sits upon Israel's throne, and hears the promise which confirms that throne to his heirs for succeeding generations.

Thus another principle comes out in bright relief. If God takes up the sinner and the harlot on the principle of faith, law is set aside by the very fact. "The law is not of faith." " The righteousness of God without the law is manifested," "even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe." This is what Ruth is witness to. The Moabitess comes into the congregation of the. Lord, spite of the law expressly leveled against her to keep her out; and in all this we find but another utterance of this selfsame story of grace which, in so many languages our God so joys to tell.

One name alone remains; one truth has yet to be uttered. God takes up sinners then by faith, and law is set aside. " Faith is reckoned for righteousness." Not as if faith were righteousness, or its equivalent-that would be quite another thing; but God who had been looking (to speak humanly) for righteousness by law, had ceased to do so. The law had returned Him answer, " there is none righteous; no, not one." Thenceforth the principle was changed. "Faith" was " reckoned for righteousness:" faith that did not pretend to righteousness at all, for it was in one who " justified the ungodly."

But if God receives sinners, to what does he receive them? Is it a complete salvation they obtain, or are there conditions still to be met before the final goal is reached and there is complete security? On what in short does the ultimate salvation of the believer rest? This is a question which evidently needs answering before the soul can be completely satisfied and at peace. It is one thing to be now in the favor of God, and it is another thing to know that I can never lose it. And the more I look at myself, if it depend upon myself, the more I must be in dread of losing it.

Moreover, there are those who will allow of a free present salvation, who will not allow of one that gives security absolutely for the future. With them the sinner may be saved without works; but the saint may not. The legalism shut out at one entrance gains admittance at another, and the result in either ease is the same. Self-sufficiency is built up; self-distrust taught to despair; the work of Christ is practically displaced from its office of satisfying the soul, and the grace of God effectually denied.

The Scripture speaks as decisively on this point as on any other. On justification by the blood of Christ it builds the most confident assurance as to the future. It tells us that inasmuch as "when we were yet sinners Christ died for us, MUCH MORE then, being now justified by His blood, we SHALL BE SAVED from wrath through Him. 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" (Rom. 5:8-10).

And when I turn to this last name of the four, and find " her that had been the wife of Urias" taking her place with Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth in the genealogy of the Lord, it seems as if the text just quoted were repeated in my ears. For the moment I think of Bathsheba, a greater name than hers, linked strangely with hers in the crime which it recalls, comes in to efface her almost from my mind. David it is I think of-David, child of God, Israel's sweet psalmist! in whose breathings the souls of saints in every age have poured out their aspirations after " the living God;"-David fallen, and fallen so low that we cannot marvel if his name be side by side with Tamar's. David, man after God's heart! Oh, how many of the Lord's enemies hast thou made to blaspheme! how many of the Lord's people hast thou made to mourn for thee! Was that thy witness to what God's heart approved? Was that thy soul's panting after Him? What! murder a man in the midst of faithful service to thee zealously rendered, that thou mightest hide thine own adultery? Was that the man who, when flying from the face of his enemy, and when Providence had put that enemy within his power, cut off but his skirt, and his heart smote him for it? Ah, sadder than thy heart could be for Saul, we take up thine own lament over thee: " How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished."

And surely, O Lord our God, in Thy presence shall no flesh glory! If David could not, could we? Alas, if I know myself, what can I do but put my mouth in the dust, and be dumb forever before the Lord! "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." And " let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." The voice that comes to me from David's sin is infinitely more than David's condemnation. It is my own. Can I pretend to be better? Can I take my hand from his blood-stained one? Ah, no! I accept with him my own condemnation; and not as a sinner merely, but as a saint. From first to last, from beginning to end, the voice of David's fall brings to me the assurance that the justification of the ungodly must be my justification still. It is like that voice of God, strange, men may call it, and contradictory in its utterance, which, having pronounced man's sentence before the flood, and destroyed every thing living because " every imagination of the thought of man's heart was only evil continually," after the flood declares: " I will not again curse the ground for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again. smite any more everything living as I have done."

Blessed be His name, who will not trust His salvation to my hand. My " life" depends but upon the life of Him who has taken His place in heaven, after He had by Himself purged my sins; as much "for me" there in the glory as " for me" upon the cross. He is the accepted One; I but " in Him." " Because He lives, I shall live also."

If David could have taken his salvation out of God's hand; he surely would have done it in the case before us. That he could not I read in this woman's name, partner in his sin, recorded in the genealogy. Once again, as in Tamar's case before, I find sin connecting with the Savior of sinners., It was not that God did not Mark, and in a special way, His abhorrence of the evil. It was only grace, really, to do that. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and no wonder, therefore, if adultery and murder sprung up again and again in David's path. No marvel that the sword never departs from his house, and that his wives are dishonored in the face of the sun. But in the midst of all this growth of thorn and thistle, sure fruit and consequence of sin, one floweret springs up from this cursed ground, type and witness of the grace that, where sin has abounded, over-abounds. From this David and this Bathsheba, whom sin has united together, a child springs whose.name stands next in the line of the ancestry of the Lord; and who receives, as if to confirm this, a special name " Jedidiah," " beloved of the Lord."

And is it an imagination or is it more, that there is something in the name-the other name of this child born-which harmonizes with all this? I will not say, but if-Solomon, " peaceful," be a strange name in so near connection with so sad a history, it is not an unsuited one to follow in this genealogical list-not an unsuited one to be in company with Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, or Bathsheba. And it is a blessed one to end with the history of four names, which when God utters them can be made to speak of what He must love well to utter, or He would scarcely take such strange occasion to remind us of it.

And if to any there seem after all in this, something that seems too much like a mere wonder to be God's utterance, I would beseech such an one to remember how once a burning bush was made just such a wonder to attract a passer by, and how when he turned aside to see, a voice out of that bush proclaimed that God was really there. Even so may it not be strange that He should attract now by a kind of wonder, to listen to a story which He loves to tell, and for those who turn aside to see, may the same voice, now as then, be heard.

F. W. G.

The Word of God and the Church

Third Conversation.

N*. Well, James, you expect M., as it was arranged.

James. Yes, Sir; he will be here, no doubt, directly. Pray sit down, Sir.

N*. Thank you. How are you getting on?

James. 1 find my spirit happy and at peace. I enjoy the Word now with Mary and the children. I feel I am very weak, but I am conscious that my peace rests on Christ's perfect work, and, as to the certainty of it, on God's own Word; while I enjoy it within in my own soul. It makes me wonderfully happy, for I see it all flowing from God's blessed love. I know He loves me, unworthy as I am, but, then, I have no difficulty in believing it because of Christ. I hope I may be able to glorify Him through His grace.

N*. The Lord be praised, James; and this is but the earnest of a more perfect enjoyment still of what now we know in part and see through a glass darkly. Our present Christian joys have the stamp of eternity on them.

James. Yes, Sir; poor as our feelings are, we know that what makes us happy now will make us still more happy forever. We shall know then better what gives us our joy now. But He who has brought me to peace is the one who loves me, and whom I hope to see in glory.

N*. And did your mind get clear the last time as to purgatory?

James. It could not but be clear when once one knows Christ's precious blood cleanses from all sin. I had no thought that they had such strange notions that so deny Christ's work. It is dreadful. I did not understand all about the Fathers, but what sets the soul clear is the knowledge of Christ and His grace. I was thinking since, Sir (though there is nothing about purgatory in it), how the beautiful parable of the prodigal son sets all thoughts of it aside. How that parable would prevent one who really knew the grace of it from ever thinking of such a thing. However could the Father, when the poor prodigal had all his rags off and the best robe on, that is Christ Himself, put him in purgatory after. It is like putting Christ Himself there. And, then, I see plainly that once I leave this world I have not the flesh at all, so that I do not know what is to be purged away. Here, where I have it, I can be exercised, and sifted, and tried, and for my good, because the flesh is still here in me.

N*. You are quite right, James. It is a complete confusion between penal suffering and purifying. If it be really purifying it is a cruel thing to get it shortened by indulgences. If it be penal it is contrary to all the testimony of the Gospel.

James. What are indulgences?

N*. They are decrees of the Pope, by which, in virtue of the merits of Christ and the saints, he delivers souls in purgatory from a part or all of the punishment they have to go through.

Mrs. J. Dear, who would have thought of such things? Why, it is not Christianity at all, Sir.

N*. Surely it is not. I dare say we shall get upon this subject before we have done. It was the immediate occasion of the Reformation. They sold them in the most shameful, or shameless, way to get money to build St. Peter's, the magnificent cathedral at Rome.

As to the Fathers, James, you have no need to think of them. They are no authority for anything; and, indeed, contradict each other continually like other men, only there was more superstition and ignorance in them than in most cultivated persons now, with real piety in some; as to others, it is very doubtful if they had any. I have referred to them because it was necessary to meet what was alleged. And now that their doubts and contradictions are shown, we may dismiss them without passion and without fear. They have, indeed, been altered, and passages cast out by the Roman Catholics, but not so as much to affect such a mass of writings. But Rome has what is called an index expurgatory, by which some books are prohibited, and others are directed to be printed without such a passage, or changing it, or the like, when any passage militates against the doctrines of the Roman system. And this has been done.

James. Dear, what a crafty system.

N*. It is a system little known. They have published a kind of imitation of the Psalms, 150 of them in number, just like the Psalms, and with a general resemblance, but have put the Virgin Mary instead of the Lord.

Mrs. J. What wickedness. It is all planned so. I am glad, James, you knew what it was before you got drawn in.

James. So am I, I am sure; it is a mercy to be kept from it in any way, but more still when it is by knowing the grace of God, which makes me see not only that there are wrong things, but that the foundation of their whole system is wrong. They do not build on grace and redemption, but on man and works. That I see plainly. But here is M. Good day, Bill, sit down.

N*. Good day, M. We have waited to go on with the subject proposed till you came. We are to speak of the Word of God and of the Church. We can still take Milner, who, in a brief way, will say all that is to be said.

M. Yes, we must seek the right rule of faith, and that is the written and unwritten Word; the Church being the interpreter and judge. We must have a living judge of controversy, or there is no end to disputes.

N*. The thing to be ultimately judged is not doctrines, my good friend, but souls. And the difference is most serious. I am not going to avoid the other question, that is, the means of discovering the truth; but, while you profess to have the true church where alone salvation is, you have people in crowds who are lost, and none who know whether they are saved after all. But when you speak of judging what is the truth, your principle is wholly false. God does not judge of truth. He reveals it. Man is not to judge of truth, but, if God has revealed, he is bound on his peril to receive it. Men will be judged according to the truth they have before them. They that have sinned without law shall perish without law, and they that have sinned under law shall be judged by the law. If they have rejected Christ they are still more guilty. The Holy Ghost was to convict the world of sin, because they had not believed in Him, and if they did not they would die in their sins. If they do from the heart they are saved, at least if God's declaration is to be believed.

M. Saved; you mean hoped to be saved.

N*. I do not, they are not yet out of trial and temptation, but they are reconciled to God, have peace with Him, as Scripture speaks:-He has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace, 2 Tim. 1:9. So Titus 3:5, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Savior. They have eternal life.

M. That is, they hope to have it.

N*. Not at all. Of course, in all its fullness and glory they have not got it yet. But the Scripture says, "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son bath not life." Again, John the Baptist says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." What proves the Roman Catholic system to be so utterly false is that it teaches men as if the grace of God had not brought salvation at all. Men are just where they were if there was no Christ; they have to make their peace with God, whereas Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross. According to Romanism they have to gain eternal life, as the law required, "Do this, and thou shalt live." Christianity says he that hath the Son hath life.

M. And must not a man work to get life.

N*. Surely not. How can he work if he has not got it? He believes on Christ as a poor sinner, and has life in Him; and then works to serve God and glorify Him, and grow on in the life he has got. "He that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life," says Christ. Nothing is more false than supposing that no good works can be done unless we are to gain life by them. I should say none can be done till we have life. Do angels do good works?

M. Yes, of course they do.

N*. Do they do it to gain heaven?

M. Well, no, they are in heaven.

N*. What do they do it for, then?

M. Why, they are blessed beings, they do nothing else.

N*. Well, M., we can hardly say we do nothing else, but as to the motive it shows that there is another way of doing right besides gaining life and heaven by it. Besides, all real duties and right affections flow from the relationships we are already in. I mean this. If you were my servant it would be your duty to act and feel as such. James's children's duties and their right feelings flow from their being his children, and living in the consciousness that they are so. They have not, cannot have, such towards you and me, because they are not our children. So with a wife and every relation of life. Now, we must be really children of God before the duties of children can apply to us, and before we can have the affections suited to that place. We are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and our duties and right affections flow from this, can have no existence till we are in. that relation. We have never to work to get into any true living relationship, for the duties cannot exist till we are in it; indeed, it is not possible in the nature of things. The Christian has duties, and has to cultivate holy affections, but it is because he is a child of God, and knows it. For he can have neither the feeling nor the conscience of his duty as a child till he knows he is such. We have difficulties and temptations to overcome, and God does encourage us by the reward of glory, the crown of life, but he never tells us to gain life by our works. The law, if indeed that can be said,

does. But we are all condemned on that ground, because we have not kept it. The gift of God is eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What are good works, M.?

M. Well, I suppose, works done purely out of love to God and our neighbor.

N*. Then you never can do any according to your system, because you do them to gain eternal life, to merit heaven for yourself.

M. But you would look for something above human nature.

N*. Surely, I should. I look for grace. Grace and life from Jesus Christ working within. He has saved by His death. The Roman Catholic system is not theoretically, perhaps, but practically the deadly heresy of Pelagianism.

James. What is that, Sir?

N*. Believing that there is strength in man to do good and merit life by his works, and though they talk of grace it is practically man's own efforts; there may be sacramental grace referred to, but no personal practical dependance on grace. The Roman Catholic system hides it under hard words, and distinguishes between grace of condignity, that is, what a man sufficiently deserves—merit in which the works deserve a reward for their own worth; and grace of congruity, what fits a man to receive though he be not worthy in the way of merit: but, in point of fact, a man merits eternal life by his own doings and efforts, which in principle and substance and verity is Pelagianism. Christ delivered the Old Testament saints, they say, out of limbo, and set us to keep the new law.

James. Well, I am sure I never had merit, or fitness, or anything, unless as a poor sinner is fit for grace, because he is one and wants it.

N*. But tell me, M. You believe that life is given, and pardon, too, in baptism, do you not?

M. Surely, I do.

N*. Very well, according to Rome we are born of God in it, and have remission of sin, original and all actual sins, if we have committed any. It cleanses from sin, makes us Christians and children of God. We are born of water and of the Spirit, and what a child has contracted by generation is cleansed by regeneration.

N*. And it never can be repeated.

M. Never

N*. Then they have received life?

M. Of course, they are regenerated by water and the Holy Ghost.

N*. Do you think any other sacrament confers life?

M. None.

N*. So again Rome teaches, We may lose grace but not faith, and it is true faith, though it be not living faith (Council of Trent vi. xxviii. 54, cap. xv. 46). The character imprinted by baptism can never be lost.

Note, then, if divine life be lost it never can be had again. And if life be not lost when man dies in mortal sin, a man may go to hell and yet have faith, as born of God, only no grace.

M. But life is lost by mortal sin, but there is the sacrament of penance to restore grace.

N*. I know you hold that. But a man is not born again by the sacrament of penance; so that if he has lost life he is ruined forever, for he cannot be baptized again; or lie must have the life still though he have lost grace—a very strange notion if it be the life of Christ; but quite consistent with going to hell in mortal sin though having faith. But this is what is taught in the Council of Trent.

But the matter really stands thus: The doctrine of catechisms and every Roman authority tell us that mortal sin, as the word indeed implies, is the death of the soul, deprives the soul of life or sanctifying grace which is the life of the soul. I take the words of one of many Catechisms " Why is it called mortal? Because it kills the soul, by depriving it of its true life which is sanctifying grace, and because it brings everlasting death and damnation on the soul." Another, " By destroying the life of the soul, which is the grace of God." Another, "that which killeth the soul in a spiritual manner, because it deprives us of the grace of God, which is the spiritual life of the soul." The two first are American, sanctioned each by a different prelate of New York, the last Irish, drawn up by the most Rev. Dr. Reilly. Now we are taught by the Council of Trent itself, That they are cleansed by regeneration from what they contracted by generation, referring to John 3. They are born again of water and the Spirit. They are frequently called born again (renati). And in the Catechism of the Council of Trent it is insisted that baptism cannot be repeated: "that this accords with the nature of the thing, and with reason is understood from the very idea of baptism which is a certain spiritual regeneration. As then, by virtue of the laws of nature we are generated and born but once, and as St. Augustine observes, `there is no returning to the womb, so, in like manner, there is but one spiritual generation, nor is baptism ever at any time to be repeated. Here though I might quote many authorities to the same effect, we have the highest assuring us that a man cannot be born twice, and hence he cannot be baptized twice. But then if his soul is killed by mortal sin, deprived of life, what is to be done? He cannot be born again. It is all very well to talk of forgiveness by the sacrament of penance only with increased trouble, and purgatory to boot; but where is life to be had? It is lost by mortal sin. No one pretends that it is given by the sacrament of penance. Its being given in baptism, is declared in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, as we have seen, to be the reason why that sacrament cannot be repeated. No man can be born again twice. It is a fatal objection to the whole sacramental system of popery, fatal upon a fundamental point. Falsehood is always inconsistent and breaks down somewhere. Forgiveness may be talked of, justification regained, but the soul is killed, deprived of life, and cannot be born again. It is a curious part of the same system that baptism puts away all sins and all penalties, freely and absolutely, from a child who has none. Penance leaves a large and awful part, though forgiving them, on those who have. People who have no sins are cleared people; those who have are not, though reconciled to God. All this to a soul taught of God shows the folly of human inventions. Ah, M., to a soul that feels its need and looks to Christ, such darkness on vital points will never do. But I return to the point we were upon. God reveals truth, and man is bound to receive it at his peril. He does not judge, nor is there any one to judge what is truth. God has judged what is truth, since He has revealed it Himself. Nobody can judge about it after that. Men will be judged by it. "The word I have spoken to you the same shall judge you in the last day" (John 12:48.).

M. But have I not to ascertain the truth?

N*. You are responsible for receiving God's truth that He has revealed. When anything professes to be a revelation, I must of course first know that it is of God. For that I have a promise: Christ says; He that will do His will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.

M. Well, we must ascertain, or know, whether it is a revelation of God, and for this we must have an infallible judge in order to know as a matter of faith whether it be so.

N*. It is a mere blasphemy to say so. God has given a revelation, and called upon me to believe. Is it necessary after this for some one to authorize me to believe? Then God's calling on me for faith by a revelation has no force: because, according to you, when God has spoken and claimed my faith, another must judge about it.

M. But supposing I do not receive it? How can you help a man's being a Socinian or an infidel?

N*. You cannot help it. Rome cannot help it, cannot give faith in the heart by authority;-but the man will be lost because he has made God a liar. But your notion excuses the Socinian and the infidel, because, according to you, though God has revealed the truth, they are not bound to believe without the church. The whole question lies there. Has a revelation which God has made to us authority over me—a claim upon my belief—without any judgment of man? Your system says it has not. We must have, you say, a tribunal to judge about it, that is to judge whether God's revelation has a claim on my soul. This is an outrage upon God. If you, M., came to me, and I say, " Your word I cannot receive till James authenticates it," it is quite clear I do not believe what you say because you have said it. Now, if I cannot believe God's revelation because He has said what is in it, and for no other reason, I do not believe God at all.

James. That is clear, Bill; God's word must have authority over us by itself or it has none at all.

M. But we must know that it is God's word.

N*. It is a sad thing you should call it in question, when you know it is so, but we will pursue the point. I never knew a Romanist who did not on this point take the ground of the infidel. Indeed, he has no other. For, if the word has direct authority over my conscience, all his argument about the church falls to the ground.

M. We'll take what Dr. Milner says: That the rule of faith or means of discovering Christ's religion must be secure and universal, and it is evident that he has left some rule by which those persons who seek it may with certainty find it. These, as Dr. Milner says, are fundamental maxims. Letter v.

N*. All Dr. Milner's book depends on them, I know and, indeed he admits it; but I stop you at once, here, by saying that, as his book does all depend on this, all is totally false. What do you mean by establishing a religion on earth, and then having a rule of faith or means of discovering it? If Christ has established a religion, there is nothing to discover. And, further; a rule of faith and a means of discovery are totally different things, and the confusion of these two is the source of all the sophistry of the book. How did Christ establish a religion on earth?

M. Why, by His own teaching, and the teaching Of the Apostles.

N*. Quite right. And who judged of their doctrine so that men might discover the true religion? Who was the living judge?

M. Why there could be none, they must believe Christ and the Apostles.

N*. Then all Dr. Milner's and your theory about a living judge is false. There were what we may call ecclesiastical authorities then. The scribes and pharisees sat in Moses' seat, and they were all against God's testimony by Christ. But men were bound to receive what Christ said, and the same of the Apostles, because they said it. Now that is always true.

M. Yes, but they were alive to say it.

N*. They were; but has what they said lost its authority now they are dead? So far from that, that the Bereans searched the Scriptures to know if Paul's preaching was according to them, and they are commended for it, and therefore many of them believed. The Scriptures were an authority to judge of an Apostle's teaching whether it were of God, that is when he first came, to know if what he said were really of God. And when the rich man is described as praying that Lazarus might be sent to his brothers to warn them, the Lord answers—They have Moses and the prophets (that is their writings), let them hear them, for if they believe not their writings how shall they believe my words. We have no need to say what the authority of Christ's words is for all of us, but as an instrument of authority the Lord puts writings before words. But the truth is, the condition of Christians—and it is with those professedly so we have to do—was exactly the same as now. The Apostles sent the writings we have to different Christians to whom they had been particularly blessed, or published them for general use. Were Christians not to receive these writings as having authority?

M. Of course they were.

N*. And so are we. Now supposing at the first the Jews had waited for the Church to sanction the Lord, or the Jews or Gentiles to sanction the Apostles, to discover the true religion what would have happened?

M. Why, there was no Church.

N*. Quite so; where Christ taught and the Apostles preached there was none, and there never would have been. That is faith in the word goes before the church, not faith in the Church before the word. Without faith in the word there never would have been any church at all:-and, in point of fact, the religious authorities when Christ was there did everything they could to hinder people believing in Christ; they believed in spite of them. And so it has really been as to Rome. But further. When the Apostles wrote epistles to the churches or general epistles—were the churches to wait for then to be sanctioned by others, some church authority, in order to receive, believe and obey them?

M. Of course not. If the Apostles wrote, they were bound to believe and obey.

N*. And so are we. Was there any reference to any church authority in order to their receiving them?

M. No; they were bound to receive them; how could there be church authority about the Apostles when the Lord sent them, and they were the highest authority in it.

N*. All right; and so are we bound to receive what they have written for the same reason. But there is another point. Were they addressed to a clergy who were to receive, and interpret them, or to all the faithful? That is a material point for us to settle.

M: It is; and I can't say exactly. I have not the Bible just at my finger's ends.

N*. You could not be where you are if you had, M., I would affectionately urge you to read it and see for yourself what these blessed servants of our Lord and Master, the Son of God, have said, and His own blessed words too. There cannot but be a blessing with it if done humbly trusting in God's grace. I remember a case in Ireland where a Testament had been torn up and the leaves thrown to the winds; a poor man found one of the leaves and picked it up. He could read, and saw, "And Jesus said," "and Jesus answered and said," "And Jesus said," and so on. He said to himself, What! has the blessed Lord said so many things and I did not know them? Struck by these simple but solemn words, "Jesus said," he went off to the neighboring town and bought a Testament, was converted, believed what Jesus said, and was happy in a known Savior. But you may say, How did he know it was true that Jesus said these things? Well, God guides the humble, simple soul. Jesus had said it, and His word had power over his soul by grace. But, as I have related to you one history, I will tell you another. I was in a cabin in Ireland where I was known, and began speaking to the brother-in-law of the man of the house about the Scripture; his niece, a young woman, who was present, said, "But they tell me, Sir, that is a bad book, that the devil wrote it." She was very ignorant, could not read. I said, "That is a shocking blasphemy. [I know they excuse themselves when any intelligent person is there by saying, It is only because of the false translation; however, so it passed.] But I will not reason with you, but read you a bit, and you shall tell me yourself if the devil wrote it." I read to her what are called the Beatitudes: "And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's 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 the children 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." I then said, " Well, what do you think? Did the devil write that?" "No, Sir," she said, "the devil never wrote that; that came from nothing but the mouth of God." The word of God had laid hold of her; she lived and died most happy, dying three years after of a fever in an hospital. That is, the word of God proves its own truth and power to the soul. But to return to our point. I will help you. None are addressed to what can be called in the modern term clergy at all save three: two to Timothy and one to Titus. These three were addressed to those specially engaged in the service of Christ. The rest are addressed to all the Christians either of a locality, or in general, the elders among them in Peter being noticed in their place, among the rest, and the bishops and deacons along with all the rest in Paul's to the Philippians.

Thus that to the Romans, "To all that be in Rome beloved of God, saints called." Here you could not tell from the Epistle if there were such a thing as elder or bishops. 1 Cor. "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in. Christ Jesus, saints called, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." I suppose that all saints, and there were many ignorant ones, ought to have received and obeyed the Apostle's teaching. Here, too, we have not a hint about any elders. The receiving the Apostle's orders was a test of the spirituality of their state: "If any be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord;" and so John, says, "He that is of God heareth us." In 2 Cor. it was to all the saints which were in all Achaia, the province in Greece where Corinth was. The Epistle to the Galatians is addressed to the churches of Galatia. Here the whole body of saints is addressed too. I need not notice every Epistle because it is only to repeat the same thing, they are addressed to all the faithful. I may notice an expression in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, which shows it in a distinct manner. Paul says at the end of it, "I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read by all the holy brethren." Colossians and Laodicea were to exchange epistles, and they were to be read in the churches. Peter's Epistles were addressed to all the dispersed residing in various provinces. In John's, we get if possible a stronger evidence. He distinguishes the Christians, while addressing all in general, into classes of fathers, young men, and little children, and writes more special words to these last, pressing on them their competency in virtue of having the Holy Ghost to understand everything, and says, though warning and teaching them with all affection, they had not need of any one to do so. And in his second Epistle he writes to a lady and desires her to judge those who came teaching and preaching by the doctrine they brought. Thus we have ample evidence that the Scriptures were addressed not to the teaching body (with the exception of three epistles of Paul, which, however, are full of instruction to all, because he tells Timothy and Titus how all ought to act), but by the teaching body to the mass of the faithful. If Rome has reduced the faithful to a state of ignorance which makes them incapable of it, the guilt is on her shoulders. It is a proof that she cannot enlighten them. The only thing to do is for them to go back to the Scriptures which she has practically deprived them of.

M. But they are written in Greek or Hebrew. What can the unlearned do? How can they now use this rule, or means of discovering Christ's religion?

N*. This is another fallacy. The means of discovering Christ's religion (and we are speaking now of places where the profession of Christianity is established), and a rule of faith are not at all the same thing. A minister preaches, a mother teaches her child, a schoolmaster in a school, a friend—in a word, the means of communicating truth or leading a person to discover it are various. The Scriptures may be the direct and blessed means in many cases, but any Christian, and in particular, parents and ministers, may be and are the regular instruments in God's hands of communicating the truth contained in the word to souls, but none of these are the rule of faith. Dr. Milner admits that this is so, as regards the heathen, that is, that his principle does not hold good, but then, as he says, there is a special grace accorded. I admit the special grace,—there is never any good or blessing without it; but I understand very well what Dr. Milner is about too. It is quite evident that in the case of heathens the church has no authority, for they as heathens do not own it; they must in any case become Christians first. Thus we find that in this case the word of God has power and authority without the church. Men discover the true religion without the authority of the church. This is a grand difficulty for Dr. Milner, because after all, when Christianity has really to be discovered, as in the case of a heathen, it is discovered by the power of the word through grace, without the Church at all. That is, in a word, that in the only real case where the true religion is discovered it is discovered without the authority of the Church. Now for communicating the knowledge of Christ's religion where it is professed, there are similar means, as I have said, ministers, parents, and the like. And do you mean to say that special grace is for heathens to receive the word, but that there is none needed, and none given for professing Christians. It is needed for every man. But remark further this way of discovering Christ's religion is not a rule of faith. A minister, a priest, as you call him, is not a rule of faith, a friend or a mother is surely not a rule of faith. Yet they are the means in an ordinary way of the discovering, or more properly of the reception of Christ's religion. Now the confusion of these things is the source of all the fallacy, because the means of discovering need not be infallible—need not be in the sense here stated secure nor universal. In point of fact, unless when Scripture is the means, it never is. On the contrary, it is adapted to the state and capacity of the person evangelized or taught. A rule of faith must be secure, but as it is not the means of communicating Christ's religion (though it may be such a means), it is not as a rule required to be adapted to such universal communication. It subsists in the form in which it was originally given to be referred to. Now these two things we have without the authority of the Church at all,—Apostles, ministers, parents and others communicating Christ's religion according to the language or capacity of hearers and learners;—and we have the Scriptures the fixed and unchanged rule to which all teaching is to be referred. And note this well,—If the truth contained in Scripture be not received, if a man remain an infidel, or become. a confirmed heretic, the authority of the Church is of no use. 'For such do not acknowledge it. She must in result leave them where they are unless she burn them as Rome indeed has done by hundreds and thousands,—or banish and imprison them. But that is only copying the heathen who did the same thing.

I admit then the ministry to communicate the truth, and even a parent or any other. I admit the need of grace, but I say that you will be lost, and condemned if when God has spoken you do not bow to it, if there were no Church at all. In point of fact, there was and could be none when first the word of God was announced, and men were bound to receive it at their peril. "If our gospel be hid," says the Apostle, "it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them:" so the Lord—"he that believeth not is condemned already." Indeed, as I have said, those who stood in the place of authority then opposed the word. All who have to receive the religion of Christ as a new truth necessarily receive it without the authority of the Church. They are Jews, infidels, or heathens, and acknowledge no such authority. If I turn to Christians by profession, they have 'hot to discover the truth of Christianity, for they believe it; what is needed is that they should understand the truth, and that it should have power over their hearts and lives, and grace gives that, not the Church. And, moreover, the epistles and gospels were addressed to the body of Christians in general by those who were gifted of God, as Paul, Peter, and the rest employed by God to write them. And those who received them were bound to receive and believe them, and to understand them and be taught by them. That there is progress in spiritual understanding is readily admitted.

Thus the whole theory of Romanism is a false one.

Their analogy of a. living judge, which they all make so much of, is none at all; a judge decides a cause by the law, not whether the law is authentic or not.

He could not say,—I receive the law on the authority of any one, judges or others. He receives the law because it is the law, because the legislator has so prescribed. So the Christian; he receives the revelation of God, because it is His revelation, and for no other reason. A spiritual Christian may be more enlightened in applying the word of God to any given case (a small part of the use of Scripture) as a judge may; but neither of them give authority, but only application to that whose authority is employed. The Church was providentially charged with taking care of the Scriptures when they were written, just as anyone may take charge of my father's will, but he gives no authority to it. Its being my father's will gives it its authority. The Scriptures were committed to the whole Church of God. The only difference as to the Romanist body is that they have been unfaithful to the trust as regards the Old Testament, and pretended to authenticate as Scripture what confessedly is not Scripture at all. Her own famous doctor, who translated the Old Testament for her, and whose translation she receives as the authentic Scriptures, though but a translation, declares that the Church did not receive the books called apocryphal. Rome is unfaithful in this as in all else. God has not permitted her to be so as to the New Testament, but where she could be unfaithful she has been so. And you will please remember, moreover, that your rule is as much

Greek, Hebrew (in your case I must add Latin) as ours. The written Word is the same for both, only that you have only a translation, and your unwritten one is Latin. What you have in anyone's mother tongue is mere teaching, as ours may be, not a rule of faith, not secure, for we have seen there are different lists of mortal sins, and even as to the written Word you have a confessedly false list of books. You have added what the Fathers even say is not to be taken for a rule of faith.

M. But what are we to receive as a rule, if it is not the written and unwritten Word, and the Church as interpreter?

N*. The written word of God is the only rule. It has divine authority. The other two parts I reject altogether, that is tradition and the Church.

M. But the Church was never to fail, nor the gates of hell prevail against her. What do you make of that?

N*. I make nothing of it, I believe it, and bless God for it with all my heart. In spite of all the waywardness and wickedness of man, Christ maintains what he builds, and will maintain it till He receives it into glory. And it is maintained. Rome Papal, as Rome heathen, has done her best to extinguish and put out this light; but she has failed and must fail. She seemed to succeed, and may apparently, in large measure, succeed again, for it is announced in Scripture that there shall be perilous days in the last time, a form of godliness denying the power; but as God had reserved 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, when even the prophetic eye of Elijah could not see one but himself, so God has in the darkest times, times confessed by your own Popish writers to be times of shame and darkness, preserved a witness to Himself that no strength or subtlety of Satan, with all the power of Rome at his back, could ever suppress or extirpate. I recognize not the Church of Rome, or any other particular professing body, but the whole Church to be the dwelling-place of God, by the Holy Ghost, until Christ comes and takes the saints to Himself, and that what is called Christendom stands in a particular relationship to God by its profession, and it will be judged as His house. But the Scripture has warned us that evil would come in, and perilous times come, with the form of piety (2. Tim. 3); and the apostle Paul charges the man of God to cling to the Scriptures when the professing Church should have gone all wrong. He tells us (Acts 20:29) that grievous wolves would come in; that of the Church itself perverse men would arise; but never hints at Apostles, their successors, or the clergy as a resource, but, on the contrary, commends them to God and the word of His grace as able to build them up, and give them an inheritance among them that are sanctified. That is, he warns us that the outward professing Church would go all wrong, so that the true servant of God would have to fly to the Scriptures. The mystery of iniquity was already working, and note, the Apostle's words exclude all idea of his having a successor. He knows that after HIS departure all will go wrong. How so, if another like himself would succeed him? So Peter sees the hour of his departure near, and takes care that they should have the truths he taught always in remembrance, and so writes his epistle (2 Peter 1:12-15). Thus the Apostles foresaw the danger and difficulty; and Paul prophecies that all would go on badly, and evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, and instead of referring to the Church as securing the truth, he states that it will go all wrong, so that at last there will be an apostasy, or falling away (2 Thess. 2), and both he and Peter refer to the Scriptures as the means of being guarded in the truth. The evil is come, and has ripened; and we do refer, as the Apostles told us, to the Scriptures. You tell me divisions have arisen. I admit it, and admit the evil of it. But divisions have arisen with Scriptures and clergy and all: the clergy have not hindered it more than the Scriptures; they have been its authors. Rome is one of the divisions, a large one no doubt, but the worst of all, so that she hardly merits to be reckoned as a part of the Catholic Church at all since the Council of Trent. But admitting that she be, she is just one part, and the worst part by far. Numbers make nothing when the question of the Church is concerned. Christ speaks of a little flock (Luke 12:32), to whom He gives the kingdom, so that there being millions would rather prove it was not that flock. And when Rome had it all her own way in many countries (for she never had it everywhere, far from it, nor in the greatest part of Christendom), she could not help sects. She slaughtered and killed thousands and thousands to put them down; burned and hanged, and used every atrocity imaginable to put down whatever did not bow to her, but by her conduct proved herself not to be the Church of God but the seat of Satan, and thus made natural conscience revolt on one hand; while on the other the plants of God's planting throve in spite of her, and Europe was overrun by the hunted witnesses of Christ, while Rome disgraced herself; below even natural conscience, by breaking openly and solemnly plighted faith, and teaching men that they ought to do so, and not keep faith with heretics, and acted on it, hypocritically pretending to deliver them to the secular arm, and pursuing with relentless cruelty all who held the truth. She invented tortures, and established the Inquisition, to destroy all that had divine life. I have said she seemed to have reduced all to silence, when, after a secret working of the truth (particularly in the Netherlands, Germany, Bohemia, and Moravia) her security in wickedness led her to such a course of conduct as made all blaze out again more violently than ever; and now, taking all professing Christendom in, she is a minority in population, and maintains her former place only in her persistence and growth in errors.

M. But she is the true Catholic Church.

.N. Who says so?

M. Everyone admits it.

N*. Far from it; the majority of professing Christendom condemn her as a dreadful departure from the true standing of the Church of Christ. Many count her wholly apostate.

James. But, Bill, you used to say that your Church was the universal Church, and the oldest; and that all the millions of Christians, except just England that Henry VIII. turned away to get rid of his wife he did not like, belonged to it.

M. And so they do.

N*. We will speak of Henry VIII. in a minute. But as to the pretended Catholic Church, all their assertions are unfounded. I admit that numbers prove nothing, but they impose on the imagination, and hence only I notice this. The majority of professing Christians do not belong to Rome. There are something under 100 millions of Protestants, and I suppose 60 millions Greeks, besides Armenians and Jacobites in the East, whose numbers are not exactly known, but of which there must be a few millions, so that in rough round numbers there are, giving the largest margin, some 130 millions connected with Rome, and some 170 millions separate from it. Hence there is no pretension of Catholicity. As to antiquity, it is beyond all controversy that Eastern Christendom is more ancient than Rome. Strange to say, the Church was not founded at Rome by an apostle, though Paul was in prison there, not in his free apostolic labor; that he never was. But we know from the Epistle to the Romans that there were a number of Christians there before he arrived. We are a little anticipating what comes under the head of proofs of the true Church. But facts dispel many illusions, so that we may reason more freely when the imagination is undeceived.

James. Well, I am glad to hear all this. I know numbers don't prove truth, of course. We must have, we all admit, a divine foundation for our faith; but it acts on one's feelings to think one is going against all

Christians in the world, and I see it is nothing of the sort, and I know from Scripture that Christianity did not begin at Rome.

N*. If we were to go by numbers, I suppose we should be Buddhists. They constitute, I believe, by far the most numerous religion in the world. The Mahometans count by many millions. I do not know how many, but I dare say some sixty millions. They own God, and Christ to be a prophet and judge of quick and dead, but not as Son of God. They are spreading rapidly in Africa through having the schools in their hands, and the prohibition for any Mahometan to make a slave of another. The Brahminical religion counts some 100

millions of votaries, other heathens, perhaps, over 200 millions. I attach no importance to exactitude in numbers, my object being only to dispel the idea of the Catholic or universal character of Rome—to disabuse the imagination. But that it may not seem a loose boast, in rough round numbers I count them thus: -

Romanists

Protestants

France

33,000,000

Great Britain

26,000,000

Austria

30,000,000

Germany, including Prussia

22,000,000

Italy

21,000,000

Austria

4,000,000

Spain

17,000,000

France

2,000,000

Germany out of

Holland

2,500,000

Austria

8,000,000g

Switzerland

2,000,000

Holland

1,000,000

Sweden

4,000,000

Belgium

3,500,000

Denmark

2,000,000

Poland

4,000,000

Russia

3,000,000

Switzerland

1,000,000

United States

26,000,000

United States

2,500,000

Great Britain

4,000,000

South America

8,000,000

TOTAL

133,000,000

TOTAL

93,500,000

Besides this, there is Canada, the West Indies, and a scattered population, which cannot very much affect the balance either way. The main numbers are pretty nearly exact; were there five millions wrong in either, it would not affect the question we are considering. Then between Turkey, the Austrian Possessions, Russia and, the East, the Greeks must number some sixty millions, besides smaller but ancient bodies. So that Christendom not connected with Rome numbers some 160 or 170 millions; Rome some 130. That is a strange way of being Catholic. Catholic means you know, James, universal.

That the Greek churches in Asia are more ancient than Rome, as James has said, Scripture itself proves. Rome was the last founded of which we have any original history, and Greeks, Nestorians and Jacobites were all separate from Rome, the earliest in the fifth, the latest in the ninth century, and have their succession too. But having got rid of this delusion, let us turn to the rule of faith. We need not consider the first false rule, Private inspiration, for save a few Quakers no one alleges such a rule. Only

we must, on the other hand be very careful to guard against Romanist infidelity as to the action of the Holy Ghost. They practically deny the aid and succor of the Holy Ghost given to every humble believer. They ridicule it (as I know by experience) to throw men helplessly on their clergy. Now this is the worst kind of Pelagianism, the denial of the assistance of grace. The faithful Christian is assisted of God to understand the Scriptures as he is to walk as a Christian.

The help and teaching of the Holy Ghost, and the written word are not two rules of faith. The Scriptures are the one sure rule, and the Holy Ghost He who works in the believer to enable him to use that rule, and not merely as a rule, but as the food and edification of his soul. And in this the contents of Scripture are adapted to the progress the soul makes in divine things and its state in every respect. It is applied by the Holy Ghost to the conscience and heart of the humble Christian who owns his need of the grace of God, and looks for it according to his need. The person who denies this is an heretical denier of the grace and goodness of God. Mark this, because Dr. Milner, who I suppose from his book is an unbeliever as to this, carefully leaves it all out. If men go on presumptuously, without depending on the grace of God, they will err as to Scripture and as to everything else, whether they call themselves Catholic or Protestant. Do you deny, M., the need a Christian has of the grace of God, and the goodness and faithfulness of God in giving it, and the gracious operations of the Spirit of God in the Christian's heart, as it is said, "The meek shall He guide in judgment, and the meek shall He learn His way; " or, as the Lord said, speaking of His people, "They shall be all taught of God."

M. No, of course I do not; no good Catholic does; but that can only be in the true Church.

N*. In one sense I quite agree with that. It is only in the true Church, though we may not yet be agreed what the true Church is. But this same gracious operation must take place to bring a person into the true,

Church when he is outside it, and, to help him when he is in it.

M. Well, I do not deny that.

N*. I am glad of it. Only this is all overlooked by Dr. Milner. He does not dream of any help from God. But not only does he leave out the gracious actings of the Holy Ghost in believers, but he leaves out all ministry. He will talk of tradition, and of the authority of the Church, meaning, however, the clergy; but the ministry of those called of God in the Church to teach and edify, he overlooks altogether, or even of parents who in their place have a ministry, and are called upon to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. People are not called upon to discover a religion. They are not called upon to take up a Bible, printed by the king's printer, as Dr. Milner says (Letter 9). That may happen, and has often, very often been blessed, but it is not the regularly appointed way of learning the truth. If even, as may be the case in the neglected masses of mankind, be they high or low, rich or poor, that is the case, they have not to judge of the book; they may judge right or judge wrong, but if that is all nothing is done. If the word of God is to profit them, it must judge them, and have its place in their hearts and consciences. We are superior to the thing we judge. As long as we are in spirit superior to God's word, it is not God's word at all really to us. We must be subject to it, receive it as it is in truth the word of God; to have life and edification by it. As the truth of God is in the word, or rather as it is the truth, of course the Holy Ghost can use the Scriptures to convince of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and blessed be God, thousands of souls have thus found life and peace; but that is not our subject, but what is the sure rule of faith when we do profess Christ to be our Lord. There is a ministry of the word and parental responsibility in the Church of God. God alone can give efficacy to either by His grace, but men are not left to discover a religion. Christianity is the activity of God to communicate the knowledge of the truth and grace which saves and gives eternal life, the knowledge of Christ. This is carried out by the ministry of the word and parental care, but that is not a rule of faith, but an appointed means of grace. This the Roman. Catholic professes to believe as well as Protestants. None pretends a parent or even a priest is infallible. The question is—supposing men who profess Christianity teach differently, what is the rule by which a sincere person may know with certainty what the truth in that matter is. We say the rule of faith is the written word of God. You say the Bible and tradition taken together, or the word of God written and unwritten, and that besides the rule itself Christ has provided in his holy Church a living, speaking judge to watch over it, and explain it in all matters of controversy. That is, that, in fact, the word written or unwritten is no rule for him at all; he must submit to what is told him by the living judge. If the judge pronounces and decides the matter, that is the rule for him who has to submit to it; he cannot refer from the judge to the law.

I need not take notice of Dr. Milner's objection (Letter 8:1) that if Christ had meant to make the Scriptures the rule, He would have written that book. It is irreverent, pretending to say what Christ ought to have done; but, besides, it contradicts his own theory, because he admits the written word, with unwritten tradition to complete it, to be the rule; and, if this be so, Christ has given for a rule what He did not write. The traditions as to the motives for writing the Gospels are too vague and too late in the history of the Church to require any notice; and, as Dr. Milner adds, no doubt the evangelists were moved by the Holy Ghost, which is what we believe; I have no controversy with him on this head. His only attempt is to show that they are insufficient; what has he to add? This point will come in after, when the same subject is spoken of in treating of the true rule.

I have only to notice the objection of differences of opinion among the reformers who acknowledge Scripture. This is merely to catch people's minds. No rule can hinder differences, so long as the human mind works. The doctrine of the Greeks differs from the doctrines of Rome, of Nestorians from both, of Jacobites from all, of Protestants, from the system they have abandoned. This only proves that the Church has failed in hindering divisions and maintaining unity. We have four great bodies of which the latest formed has been for nearly a thousand years separate from Rome and older than she, besides Anglicanism and the other Protestants. The divisions existed before Protestants were there. Rome is only one of these divided parts, not the oldest, not so numerous as all the rest taken together. With these divisions, the question is what is the rule to judge which is the right one. Not the authority of one giving itself as the rule. That is what Rome does. Who can trust that. The Scriptures were before all these divisions and questions; are given by inspired writers; are God's revelation of what was from the beginning, as God instituted it.

Divisions prove the infirmity of human nature, only that it is much more excusable in Protestants just coming out of the dark obscurity and superstition men were immersed in during the middle ages, than in Greece and Rome whose common starting point was pure Christianity. And men must not suppose differences do not exist among Romanists. The Dominicans resisted with all their force the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (now made by the present Pope a matter of faith); so that there was the most important body of Romanists (till the Jesuits arose,) the inventors and directors of the Inquisition, judges thus of heretical pravity, unsound on what is now declared to be an article of faith. The Augustinians believe in predestination. The Roman Catholic priests deny it. Nay, so far did these disputes go, that the Dominicans in the seventeenth century charged the Jesuits with maintaining the idolatry of the Chinese in their missions in China. For years the inquiry was pursued before the Pope, and the practices sanctioned by the Jesuits at last condemned by Pope Clement XI. in 1704. The decree was mitigated in 1715. Now, the allowance of heathen idolatry in Christians was a much graver difference than the details on which Protestants differ while agreeing in fundamental truth. Again, on the point of authority, which you consider so important, the gravest differences exist. The famous four articles by which the Gallican church defended its liberties were condemned as earnestly as possible by the Papal advocates. In these the synod of French bishops declares that the decrees of the Council of Constance, which maintained the authority of general councils as superior to that of the Pope, are approved and ratified by the Gallican church—and that the decisions of the Pope are not infallible in points of faith unless they be accompanied by the consent of the Church. Now here is an all—important difference on the subject of authority and infallibility. Our question will bring us back to this. I only notice here that differences are not confined to Protestants. It is a noticeable circumstance that it was the same man Bossuet, who wrote a crafty book on the variations of Protestants, who led the way in this important variation among Romanists, and defended it against the attacks of Ultramontanes as they are called—that is, the extreme defenders of the Pope's claims. Ultramontane principles prevail now, but to this day Gallican principles, which deny the Pope's infallibility, hold their ground in France and Germany. Disputes and discussions belong to the infirmity of human nature. Where there is freedom for it, it appears more openly, and so it has amongst Protestants. In Rome, though violent, it is more connected with intrigues, and less exposed to view. Another point insisted on by Dr. Milner, which has nothing to do with the rule of faith, but which I may do well to take up as it is noticed, is this, that sovereign princes have acted more in the Reformation than theologians. The truth is, that sovereign princes, long oppressed in the rights and authority which God confers on the magistrate, profited by the public movement, brought about by the faith of individuals though long prepared by the working of God's Spirit, to throw off the unjust authority of the Pope. This was according to God's will, who gives to the sovereign his authority, and brought about by His providence. With this the rule of faith has surely nothing to do. It was the righteous re-assumption by the civil magistrate of an authority to which the Pope had no title. Whether they abused this is nothing to the purpose. Civil statutes had been passed constantly against the absorption of lands into the hands of monks and others—mortmain as it was called. They evaded them by the introduction of uses, that is, when it was forbidden to a monastery to hold lands, they were given to a layman to hold it to their use, to the peril of their souls if they did not; and then when this was condemned by the statute of uses, they evaded that by what are called trusts. All this was roughly swept away in England at the Reformation—the land partly given to courtiers, partly employed for education. But what all this has to do with the rule of faith it would be hard to tell. Superstition had given the lands to monks, and when fresh light broke up the superstition, they were taken away again, and the monasteries which had become a plague to every country by luxury and wickedness were suppressed. As to Henry the Eighth, he threw off the Pope's authority, and he was right. Why should a prelate at Rome govern England? As to his being a Protestant, he was anything but that. He had six articles drawn up, amongst which was the doctrine of transubstantiation, the keystone of Romanism, and persecuted bitterly those who did not submit, all who held the Protestant faith, as the Pope had done before him.

James. 1 do not see what all this has to do with the authority of the Scriptures.

N. It has none. It is merely advanced by Romanists to excite prejudice against Protestantism.

M. And do you not charge the Popes and others with wickedness?

N*. Well, as yet we have not spoken of it. But this has a just place when we speak of Popes and the mass of prelates, because Romanists pretend to find the Church, and infallibility, and authority over other men's faith and consciences, in these wicked men; whereas, no Protestant dreams of taking Henry VIII. or the Protector Somerset as an authority. They will be judged in the great day like others; and their acts judged like other men's now.

James. That does make all the difference in the world, M. Save as I may mourn over other's evil, what is it to me what Henry VIII. or any such person was? He has nothing to do with my faith. We are talking of Scripture, and that is what you must speak of.

N*. As to fanaticism, I answer again, that it is one of the infirmities of our poor nature, but it has been in all ages, Papal or Protestant. The wicked fanaticism of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, in the palmist days of Popery, was worse than any fanaticism that ever arose out of Protestantism, and lasted longer. But what has this to do with the rule of faith. The Protestant princes put down Munzer by force of arms because he armed himself against them. The Popes nearly suppressed the Brethren of the Free Spirit by punishment and burning them. All this proves nothing but the sadness of man's history. There is another assertion which, by a seeming analogy, is more plausible. That there are judges for the law, and a common or unwritten law in England; and so for the divine law, both of these, too (Letter x.) The first point for which this unwritten law is shown to be needed is that I cannot receive laws till I own the authority of the legislature. This shows the danger of analogies. There is but one lawgiver, and I may add one judge. God Himself is the legislator and judge, too; but now let us speak of legislature. Is not God Himself the lawgiver, the authority?

M. Of course He is.

N*. Well, that question, then, is settled. There is, indeed, another important point which you seem to

forget—natural conscience, the knowledge of good and evil. Now I do not deny that this may be sadly darkened and corrupted. Still, there is a conscience, and Christianity having brought in light, natural conscience is enlightened, and has a means of judging, though it may not even be aware of how it has acquired it. Thus, if money be given practically to allow sin, or for forgiveness of sin, or to commute for humbling penances and a tax on particular crimes as to how much should be paid;—if the clergy was forbidden to marry, and then money was taken by their superiors for allowing them to live with a woman not their wife, the common law of natural conscience overrules the pretended authority of the Church, and tears all sophistry to pieces by its just horror.

James. But surely the Romanists have never done or allowed this.

N*. Indeed they have; it is just as much a matter of history as that Rome exists.

James. Why, M., what do you say to that.

M. It is only relaxing the temporal punishment due to sin.

N*. It is (Lett. 42) an actual remission by God Himself of part of the temporal punishment due; and further, does it not take out of purgatory or shorten the stay there?

M. Yes, that is, the temporal punishment due to sin.

N*. Is it not by virtue of the surplus of merits of Christ and the saints?

M. Yes.

N*. Does Dr. Milner deny that indulgences were sold?

M. No, he does not.

N*. He does not; he says (Lett. 42), "avarice has done everything bad;" but yet a further question. Who sold them, and by what authority were they sold? Was it not the Church's, or, if you please, the Pope's.

M. Well, I suppose it must have been.

N*. To be sure it must, and was, and they were farmed out to the Fuggers, who were famous bankers, to whom the sale was given for so much by the Archbishop of Mentz, who was charged with it, and committed to the Dominican order. So that the Roman Catholics' accusation against Luther is that it was his jealousy, as an Augustine monk, against the Dominican order about this which made him break with the Pope.

James. Well, M., this is dreadful. This never could be the true Church, the Church that the Lord Jesus

established, nor have His authority. I understand what Mr. _____ means by conscience now, for all the reasoning in the world could not persuade me that that comes from God, or that those are from God who do it. And I see you cannot deny that what you call the Church did it.

N*. He could not, because it is a notorious piece of history. It was the immediate cause of the Reformation. Luther protested against it, because it destroyed all morality, and, in point of fact, they did forgive all sins (i.e. the punishment of them, which was what people cared about) past and future, so that in one case a person bought the indulgence and then waylaid the priest and took all the money he had collected.

M. But people must be in a state of grace to profit by it.

N*. *A queer state of grace a man must be expected to be in when those that expect it are selling him remission of chastisement for sin on the part of God; besides the sacraments may have settled all the state of grace for him.

No, no, that is what I say, natural conscience breaks through all this sophistry. At the time. of the Reformation the corruptest thing in the world was the Roman system. Do you deny what is perfectly notorious, that the corruption of clergy, monks, and all, had arisen to such an inconceivable pitch in the fifteenth century that the natural conscience rose up in clamor against it, and helped to bring on the Reformation?

M. Well, I do not know the details of history, but I know the Church is holy, and always was. It is one of the marks of the true Church.

N*. Well, I will give you some details as far as one can venture. We shall touch on this mark. But I agree with you, it is a mark of the true Church, and you shall judge whether the Roman body can be the true Church, though the point we are on now is to show that the common law of natural conscience, even, claims its rights against such horrors. The practice of concubine age among priests with those to whom they were not married was so universal that it was forbidden by the Council of Paris in 1429, which says their example had corrupted. all the laity. But in vain; in the middle of the Same century it was decreed at Breslau that they should pay ten florins if they did, and indeed the people of the parish very often would have it so to prevent more universal corruption. The truth is, it was universal, and so among monks, and even unnatural crimes. The witnesses to these are all of the Roman body, and a layman complains what was a sin for laymen was none for the clergy, and what was a sin for the clergy was none for the laity; for if a clergyman had a wife of his own it was a sin, if a layman had it was not; but if a clergyman had a hundred and sixty or a hundred and seventy, none of which were a wife, it was no sin, but if a layman had it was. And the ablest and most respectable Romanist doctor of his day who sought reformation, Gerson, declares if a monk lives in uncleanness he does not violate his vow provided he do not marry, only he is guilty of sin. One remedy, he says, is to do it as little as possible and do a great many good works, and take care it should be in secret, not on festivals or in holy places, and with unmarried persons. In truth, the shameless lives of the clergy or, as Adolphus, Bishop of Merseburg, expresses it, " the licentious unmarried life of the clergy was before the eyes of all." I have only cited these general testimonies; to go further would be to enter into a sea of enormities horrible to go through. No doubt many a godly man cried out against it, and a reform in head and members was the universal outcry of natural conscience from laymen. And the councils of Constance and Basel tried to do something towards reforming the excessive licentiousness and wickednesses of the monasteries. But as soon as Constance had started a Pope, having deposed three, who were all reigning together; the chief one as guilty of everything that was horrible, there was an end of reformation, and the council at Basel was broken up by the then Pope under pretext of transferring it elsewhere; so that there were two councils at a time, one at Basel without a Pope, and another at Florence with a Pope; and the Council of Easel passed decrees against priests living with women without being married, and added that the bishops were not to hinder the severity of the decrees being enforced. A pretty plain proof of what took place. The result was that the excessive wickedness of the clergy brought about the Reformation, the immediate occasion being the sale of indulgences for sin. God -came in with an ancient truth in His grace, but the occasion of it, and what made men ready to receive it, was the revolt of the common law of conscience against the outrageous wickedness of the so-called Church.

James. Well, M.; what can you say to this; it is very shocking. Can you deny it?

N*. He cannot deny it. It is a matter of public notoriety, known to all acquainted with history, and proved by the outcry of Christendom, and the public acts of Synods to repress it, because it was grown so scandalous. The Reformation has partially moralized the Roman clergy where it has come; but only partially, and where it is not present the fatal obligation of celibacy is a source still of endless corruption. Now, conscience revolts against this, the true common law of man, if you please to talk of common law, which the Church is not, because it is confessedly a positive institution. Our Legislator there is God Himself, and there is a certain common law for man, namely, the knowledge of good and evil.

M. Yes; but you have no judge who is to decide on the matter when there is a difference.

N*. Have I not? In the first place conscience, as far it goes, decides at a man's peril what is right and what is wrong. And note here, though man may get light from God's revelation, yet as to a judge, God is, and will be the final judge, and the conscience must and is bound so to regard Him. Conscience is answerable to. God directly, and no man can come between the conscience and God so as to destroy the right of God. " Who art thou," says the Apostle, " that judgeth another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth." To come in between God and the conscience is not to touch man's rights but God's.

James. That is true, M. If my master bids me to do something in his own matters and you tell me to do

something else, you meddle with his right to command me, as much and more than with me. Conscience makes us subject to God, and not dare to disobey Him. We do want help and light for it, but it always looks to God as the authority that is over it, and it cannot, dare not, look away from Him to another, because that sets aside God. It would no longer be subject to Him.

M. All very true, no doubt; but if God has set any one to judge, as the King does the judges, you must abide by their decision.

N*. That is all well to decide about property or crimes, and to keep peace among men. But that is absolutely impossible as to conscience, because God has a judgment to come in which He will pronounce originally and finally as to guilt; in which He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the secrets of the heart. Therefore the Apostle warns to judge nothing before the time till God does that, God having reserved this to Himself. There can be no judgment which can come between the conscience and God's final judgment. It remains, in spite of men, in all its force and authority, and a man must answer to it, and no other authority can come in between, so as to relieve him from obedience to that judgment. So that in the proper sense of judge I admit no judge but God, who executes it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment applies to the final state of souls, and not to causes between man and man, or offenses against the State. Offenses against the State, the State judges. Our offenses are against God, and God judges..

M. Yes; but the State appoints judges, and God has appointed the Church.

N*. Hence the Queen cannot judge at all; she may show mercy, but that is not the question now. But she is not allowed to judge at all. Is that true as regards God:

M. Of course not.

N*. He judges, then, Himself, and He only; save, as we know, He exercises this judgment by Christ, doe he not?

M. Of course, every one owns that.

N*. The whole- case, then, has to be settled by Him who knows it all, He being the judge, and having the whole cause originally and finally before Him?

N. It has.

N*. Priests and Pope and-all.

Yes, priests and Pope and all.

N*. Then all your comparison about a judge is simply all false. God Himself judges, and that is the only true judgment, and I am bound to look to that, and not to allow any other to come between me and my conscience. For God judges according to a permanent, abiding, direct authority He has over me every moment, so that I dare not look away from Him. If I do I am sinning. For note that, James, it is not only particular cases to be settled, about which God judges, but every instant of our lives, so that we cannot look at anything but Him without neglecting Him and His claims.

James. I see it plain enough; I feel it, too. I know I may fail, and shall, save as kept by His grace, but I know I am bound to take His will every moment. It ought to be my joy to obey Him. It was the blessed Savior's own joy; but at any rate I am bound to do it, and must give, and ought to give, an account of myself to God. And tell me, M., can the priest, or the Pope, if you please, answer for me in that day?

M. No, of course they cannot.

N*. Then I would not give much for their answering for me now.

M. But is it not said, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And, "Do you not judge them that are within?" and " to whomsoever you forgive anything I forgive it."

N*. It is.

M. Then there must be a judge.

N*. But unless you speak of what the Apostle's authority established as binding, which no Christian denies, you are now speaking of discipline, not of a rule of flip. Now, I own fully Scripture speaks of discipline (1 Cor. 5:13, 2 Cor. 2:10). When a person was put out his sins were bound upon him, and when he was forgiven and readmitted his sins were loosed. And this is the distinct, unequivocal force of a passage you are fond of quoting. "If he will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." The subject is a wrong done to a person; he remonstrates; if he recovers his brother, well; if not he takes two or three more, so that if the person remains obdurate these are witnesses of all; and then he tells the whole assembly, and if the wrong-doer will not hear the assembly the injured person may hold him as a person having no claim to be owned as belonging to it; but what has this to do with a rule of faith.? And note, just as it was in the Corinthians, the whole assembly was to be listened to, and that to cleanse themselves (1 Cor. 5)

James. Well, M., you used to quote this passage as if it was a direction for everybody to listen to the Church's teaching, and it has nothing whatever to say to it. It is when some matter of wrong is told to the assembly as the last means of winning a person back from wronging his neighbor, and he won't hearken to the whole assembly, he may then be treated as a heathen that does not belong to it. And I see it is said that wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, He is in the midst of them, so that it applies to Christians assembled together.

M. But is it not said, " Go and teach all nations, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world "?

N*. Let me remark to you that you are quoting Scripture, and you tell me I cannot receive it without the Church, nor understand it either.

M. Yes; but the Church has sanctioned it.

N*. What Church?

M. Why the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

N*. But I do not own it to be the Church, nor do I admit that the Church can sanction God's word; it savors to me of blasphemy. You tell me I must have the Church first, and we have not got that yet, and therefore you cannot quote it to me. You tell me I must leave it to the Church to give authority to the Scripture. And now you are quoting Scripture to prove the Church. That will not do.

James. No, surely, M.; you cannot bring it to prove the Church till you have the Church to prove it, according to your system; so you ought to prove the Church some other way, for according to you the Scripture cannot have authority till you have it from the Church, and we have not got the Church yet, for your faith. Though I do not contest the Bible.

N*. Quite right, James. You have got no ground yet, and we will therefore surely answer as to it seriously. But when we are inquiring into the rule of faith this is important, because the Roman Catholic has no real ground for his faith. If the Scripture is to prove the authority of the Church, the Church cannot prove the authority of Scripture. If the Church is to prove the authority of Scripture, we cannot use Scripture till we have the Church first, as the Scripture has none without it.

James. That is clear, M.. How does your Dr. Milner get out of that?

M. Why, he says he believes the Catholic Church, and everything that she teaches, upon the motives of credibility (namely, her unity, sanctity, etc.), which accompany her. And she brings me the book and tells me it is inspired.

N*. On whose judgment then have you believed the Church?-who has judged of these motives of credibility?

M. Well, on my own, of course. I must judge if it is the Church.

N*. Clearly, but then you avow that your whole faith depends on private judgment, and not on a divine foundation at all. And, remark, Dr. Milner felt the force of this, and refers to the objection made to him, and seeks to clear it up. Now, in doing this, he is forced to rest the Church's authority on motives of credibility-motives for whom? Man. That is, it is mere human probability. The house cannot be stronger than its foundation. If I have only probability for the Church, what the Church teaches can only probably have authority. That is, it is no divine authority or divine faith at all. It would be a blasphemy to say, " Probably God says the truth." The Protestant's faith is founded on God's word as such, and motives of credibility can go no further than private judgment, nay, may vary with each individual in their force. Thus sanctity is alleged to be a proof of the true Church. I read history, and I find that what a Romanist calls the Church and infallible is stamped throughout, after history as contrasted with Scripture begins, with the most horrible depravity and un-holiness of anything on record. Where is the motive of credibility for me? When it rests on motives of credibility, it must rest on private judgment. There is no divine faith at all. Mr. John H. Newman admits there is only a degree of probability, though an immensely strong one. But that is not divine faith. The Romanist has confessedly none. Dr. Milner says, you receive as a king's messenger one clothed like one, and you assure yourself he is one, and then accept the letter from the king which he brings, which tells you to mind all he (the messenger) says. But if he was a clever rogue, he might deceive _ you, and then use the letter to prove you ought to mind him, and get authority over you in everything, and you have only your own judgment to trust to in receiving him. Thus you have nothing but your own judgment to trust to, upon your own showing, for what you believe. But let us see a little further what Dr. Milner's argument is worth. He believes the Church and all that she teaches because of unity, sanctity, etc. Why all that she teaches? There may be unity and sanctity; and yet not present infallibility. This argument will not hold water. Dr. Milner jumps into infallibility before he has even got the Scriptures to tell him the Church is infallible, a point we will speak of. Then, suppose I deny the unity (and, remember, all the oldest Churches reject the Roman Catholic Church as erroneous, and the Pope's authority, and of course do not admit their infallibility, and so, we have seen, do the majority rather of Christians), and the sanctity-both of which, in fact, I do entirely deny-all your supposition falls to the ground. If you have: to prove them, in the -end divine authority rests upon the judgment I form of unity and sanctity, before I have got any revelation at all. How do I know there ought to be but one Church? And as there are many, how am I to know which is the right one?-and must I know all history in order to say which has been holy, or which has the right succession, if any, before I can have any right faith? You have no divine foundation for your faith at all, nor the Church to give it me. And, supposing I am asked to receive all the Church teaches now, why may not I judge of the sanctity and unity at the beginning of her history and believe her to be infallible then, and hear what she says? Ah, you tell me I must not judge by that, but only by what is now. Now, this looks suspicious. Why may not I see what the Apostles and inspired men taught-what the Church, if you please, taught then? Was it not one and holy then?

M. Of course it was.

N*. Was it not more united and holy than now?

M. Well, I suppose it was, for here, at least there is not much to boast in that way.

N*. Why may I not then hear it at that time? Then I should listen to Paul, and John, and Peter, and the rest. But you do not seem to like that, you will only allow me to hear people who are not inspired. And where am I to find any inspired teaching, or even the Church's teaching now?

M. You must listen to her pastors.

N*. Are they inspired?

M. No.

N*. Then I can have no divine faith in what they say.

M. But they will not mislead you, the priest is seen after by the bishop, and he by them above him.

N*. How can I tell? Is that divine faith? At any rate, I do not hear the Church, for aught I can tell, in hearing him. We will return to this, for it is a large subject. But on our main point at present. Dr. Milner on his own showing, though he has been very astute, has no ground to stand upon. And after all I am to listen to this Church now in those who confessedly are not inspired, and am not allowed to listen to it when

Apostles and others were inspired. And what does Dr. Milner therefore do? He puts the Word of God first, unwritten as well as written, as the rule; and the Church as the judge., When pressed, for it is only in a note, he says the Church must come first, and be proved by its unity, sanctity, etc., etc., and then come to the Word, but this, in fact, he did not dare to do.. He had not the unity. He had not the sanctity. He tries to confirm the Church's authority by these marks when he has got the true rule as he says, but according to his own showing he could not get it till he had got the Church. But he could not put the Church forward first because he has to prove it had such authority, which could not be proved at all; and next, that the Roman system was that Church. It could not be proved that the Church had the authority, because, if the Church has to be proved first, how am I to know she is infallible?-how can I tell what marks she is to be known by? She cannot adduce Scripture to prove it in any way, for what propounds and explains it-that is, the Church-we have not got yet. And supposing, I admit the Church to exist, as I do, for there it is before my eyes; why is it infallible? It tells me so; but is it right in telling me so? I see worldliness, ambition, horrible corruption, disputes, difference of doctrine. Take for instance the Dominicans and Franciscans on the Immaculate Conception. The former, the greatest and most important body for many centuries in their Church (and which managed the Inquisition), denied what is now held necessary to be believed as of the faith itself.*

M. But then the Pope and the Bishops have decided now, and they had not then.

4*. But how do I know the Pope and the Bishops have the right to decide? Who has made them infallible? I know some pretend the Pope is so, and some pretend a general council is, and some say there must be both. But this is a new infallible body. And is it not a strange thing that the Church, which you say was to keep people safe in the truth, should have left a vast body, and the most famous doctors, and those who were to decide upon heresy, in error for centuries, and only then settle the truth. How am I to receive all it teaches, or anything with a divine faith? Hence, in fact, Dr. Milner puts the Word of God first to prove the Church before he has proved it to be the Word of God, and declaring we cannot tell whether it is. This rule even then rests on no divine faith in his system, because, according to that, I get to the Church and cannot tell if the Scriptures, by which its authority is alleged to be taught, are divine. He is cleverly resting on my protestant good faith to hide the weakness of his own cause. Mark another thing, he puts the proof of the credibility, of Christianity in a -protestant mouth-in Dr. Carey's. How comes that?. He makes him quote the Scriptures as a warrant for the doctrines and miracles of the Lord Jesus.. Now, he is quite right in doing that, because faith in Christianity cannot be founded on the Church, because he who has to learn to believe in Christianity of course does not yet own the Church. But here, however cunning, he has given all his position up. I can believe without the Church. I have discovered the true religion. And if I have believed in Christianity and the word, I have what I want substantially, and above all recognize the divine authority of the Scriptures. You plead, or make the Protestant plead-for as a Roman Catholic you can have no such faith-the words and works of the blessed Jesus. You do well, but where did you get them in order to prove what Christianity is? Have you any account but the Scriptures of the words and works of Jesus? Not the smallest iota. Anything that ever pretended to be so is too bad for anyone to allege it as of any authority. You must come to the Scriptures to know what Christ said or did. A priest may repeat it from them, or I may, but nothing (with all the boastings of the clergy) has the smallest authority but what is found there. But then the word has divine authority over my soul; the moment I have Jesus' words, and the Apostles' words, I have the certainty of divine truth. You have nothing at all but this to prove what Christianity is, and its credibility; and if I take this and so believe in Christianity, I have already the words of Christ and His Apostles, and neither would nor dare but hear them. Do not tell me I cannot understand or believe them. That is the Christianity I have to understand and believe. Now, I do not wish to offend you, M., God forbid, but if I were to take what you call the Catholic Church, as it is or as it was at the time the Reformation took place or long before, I see, without at all pretending that Protestants are what they ought to be, the greatest scene of wickedness that ever was known on the face of God's earth. And I should say, If that is what I am to believe as Christianity, God keep me from it. It is a wickedness that revolts an honest moral man, and that in priests, Bishops, and Popes more than in others.

That there is no disputing about before the Reformation.

M. Well, all admit there have been wicked popes and clergy, but that is not the Church.

N*. But is it not what you want me to hear? Are they not the people who you say are to secure my having the truth; and as you plead sanctity as a proof of infallible authority, I must at once say, Well, it is certainly not to be had here.

M. Well, but that does not change the faith of the Church.

N*. Aye, but we are talking about the infallibility of the Church, on which my faith is to be divinely founded.

And if sanctity or even unity is to be a proof of it, it was lost altogether, for the Popes were the wickedest of men, and there were two and even three at a time denouncing one another as the falsest and wickedest of men, and at last it was so scandalous that the three who then pretended to be Pope were all deposed. Where was sanctity; and unity then? Where infallibility? And note, to have it, it must never cease.

M. Well, but it was in the known doctrines of the Church.

R. But I thought we must have a speaking tribunal. And if you found yourself on documents, where are they?

M. Well, there is the Council of Trent and the Catechism of Pope Pius IV.

N*. That was a century later, and if I go to these documents, why may not I go to what Paul and Peter

and John wrote? I get it first hand, and I suppose the Apostles were as sure as the Council of Trent.

M. Yes of course; but you may interpret them wrong; and then if you go to that, they are in Greek; you must come to the pastors of the Church.

N*. Well, but I may interpret the decrees of Trent and the Catechism wrong. They are much more obscure than the most of the New Testament. And as to this being in Greek, the decrees and the Catechism are in Latin, and you are not going to tell me that the poor Romanists read them to know their faith; and if I go to the pastor I am with a fallible man, and can have no divine faith. No, with the Word of God I have a divine foundation for my faith, whereas you have none at all.

Hence, M., though you have no right to quote the Scriptures to me, because you say we cannot tell they are the Word of God, and you have not yet proved what and where the true Church is; yet, as I do believe they are the Word of God, I shall make no objection to your quoting them, so that we will return to the point we left, only it was very important to show that you Romanists have no divine ground for your faith at all.

Your principle is that we cannot tell if the Scriptures be the Word of God. Hence, I cannot have a divine faith in the revelation given. I cannot tell if it is a revelation. If it is it has divine authority, and I must listen to it. As to the Church, you have not proved anything about it yet. But I shall listen to all you say from the

Word, because, though you have no right to use it, I do not want to cavil, and I own it to be God's Word. We

were speaking of " Go and teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of the world."

M. Well, is not that a plain proof that the Church is secure from error, and that as the Apostles could not live forever we must obey their successors?

N*. Who are their successors?

M. Why, all the bishops, and especially the Pope, as the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles.

Y. I see nothing about successors. But must I know the succession of bishops of a see before I know what saves my soul? This is a serious question, because there have been three Popes at a time. But let us see now if you think God was always with them. For instance, when Pope Julius was the most ardent warrior of his day, or when his predecessor, Pope Alexander VI., carried on a life of dissoluteness without example, seeking to establish his illegitimate children in dukedoms and principalities, to say nothing worse of him (for worse is said and counted true), and at last was poisoned by what he had prepared to poison a rich cardinal to get his money-was the Lord (may he forgive one for naming such a thing) with these as with the Apostles?

M. Yes, but there are wicked men everywhere.

N*. No doubt. That is not our question; but is the Lord with them as He was with the Apostles? That is the question.

James. Why, M., you cannot say that. It would be awful.

N*. Well, when there were two Popes for thirty years, and then three for some years more, the two holding their ground against the third, named to put them down, and then this third, probably poisoned by the person who was his successor, and after various fighting in open war, the Emperor succeeding in having a general council, and putting down all three (the last as too infamous to be tolerated), was the Lord with all these, or with which of them?

M. No, of course not; but He was with the Church.

N*. That I believe. But then, in that case these were not the Church. And remember, your doctrine is that the promise to the Apostles was with their successors. And this schism is of the more importance because it is alleged, that the Lord may be with an office when not with the person. But here there were two successors condemning each other, and half Europe siding with one and half with the other, and a third condemning both, so that the Lord could not be with them, and neither could secure the truth for us. The truth is, the papacy and all connected with it was such a horrible scene of wickedness that men got tired of it, and put down these Popes-and we may well say God in His mercy, too-and brought about the Reformation. For the Reformation long cried for by all Christendom took place about a century after this in another way than was expected. The Popes, to whom Reformation was left by the Council, taking good care not to reform themselves, though not so scandalous as those I have referred to.

M. Well, but there were good Popes, too.

N*. In the beginning of the history of Christianity there were blessed men in the see of Rome, martyrs among them, only they were not Popes of Christendom. Far from it. Yet, already in the fifth century the city of Rome was filled with blood and massacres through the conflicts between two contending Popes, Symmachus and Laurentius, and at last they had to go to an heretical Arian king to decide the matter. This is the. Roman Catholic account (Baronius, vol. viii., 619). The dispute, too, lasted a long time. But, further, when the so-called bishops went to war, as princes at the head of their troops, as happened constantly in the middle ages, particularly in Germany, was the Lord with them as the successors of the Apostles? And when they allowed sin for ten florins, as we have seen, was the Lord with them?

James. Well, M., what can you say to this? But is this all certain, Sir?

N*. I have stated nothing but what is matter of well known and authentic history, for which authentic proofs remain, and mainly in councils of the Roman Catholic Church. Nor, indeed, is it possible to go into all the wickedness and horrors that went on.

H. Well, I suppose it cannot be denied that they were dark and evil times; even Catholics admit that. But they were the habits of the age, and the clergy were not wholly exempt.

N*. They do admit it. St. Bernard, as you call him, said anti-Christ was at Rome in the eleventh century.

But were the successors of the Apostles with whom you allege the Lord was, to follow the habits of the age. Besides, forbidding to marry and then living in sin was the case of the clergy only, and not otherwise the habits of the age, save as the corruption of the clergy corrupted everything around them.

James. But I thought, M., you called the Church holy, and what is all this? It is dreadful; how could you think I could take such persons for successors of the Apostles?

N*. But again, are all the Greek patriarchs, prelates and clergy who reject the authority of the Pope-are they successors of the Apostles too?

M. But they are in schism.

N*. Well, but then successors of the Apostles are in schism. Is not that a queer thing, and how is the Lord with them so that they can secure my faith? And then there are some sixty millions of professing Christians

in schism with them,_ well nigh half the number of those subject to the Pope. And then, note, they are the successors of the Apostles, most of them in older Churches than that of Rome. How can I be secure in thinking they can guide me according to the promise we are speaking of, " Lo, I am with you always," when they condemn utterly the pretensions of the one you think, I suppose, infallible?

M. But they hold the same doctrines.

N*. So your Dr. Milner states, but it is not true, and begging his pardon, he must have known it was not true. They do not hold the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, nor purgatory-the last exercising more influence in the Papal body than any other doctrine. I might add the priests marry, only that is practice, not doctrine. Again, when Pope Liberius turned Arian to please the Emperor Constantius, and denied the divinity of the Lord Jesus, was the Lord with him as a successor of the Apostles? Athanasius, who stood up for the truth of the blessed Lord's divinity was banished, and died in banishment excommunicated. And even before, in Constantine's time, when all the prelates, fathers, as they are called, of the Council of Tire joined in accepting this denial of the truth, and the Arians were recalled, could they pretend the Lord was with them?-or the 800 bishops who at Ariminium denied the divinity of the Lord? There were but 318 in the Council of Nice, which affirmed it, only the Emperor's authority maintained it. Had I trusted the clergy for the truth in Constantius's days I must have turned Arian. If I lived in Russia or Turkey now I must, if I listen to the clergy, hold the pretensions of Rome to be all wrong. If I live at Rome I must hold the successors of the Apostles in the East to be all wrong. Is that all the security you can give me? When I take the Scriptures I have the certainty of having the truth, because I get what you own to be the Apostles' own teaching. But to our point. Is God with all those of whom we have been speaking in their errors, when the Pope, for example, was an Arian, or when there were two?

M. No, of course He was not with them in that. But you see God has preserved the Church through it all in spite of all this, and you must hear the Church.

N*. We have not got the true Church yet. However, you hold, then, that God has preserved the true Church not by, but in spite of, these successors of the Apostles. That I fully believe, and bless His abundant grace for He has not permitted the gates of hell to prevail against it. But if anything could have frustrated God's promise and have destroyed the Church, the conduct of the hierarchy would have done so.

M. But He was very often with them, too. There were holy, godly men, who sacrificed their lives for the truth.

N*. Undoubtedly there were, at any rate in the earlier part of the history, though we might not always agree in judging of the particular cases. But there were some more enlightened, others less. And I am well assured that God was with them in the measure in which they followed the Apostles and their doctrine, and so he will now with those who do, and that to the end of the age. He was fully with the Apostles, and will be with all those who serve Him like them according to the measure given unto them. But that does not make the Popes and prelates who are not at all like them any security for the truth. I believe, then, fully in the promise given, and that the Lord was with the Apostles and will be with all those who so serve Him. And you are forced to admit that with the mass of your successors of the Apostles the Lord is not. And your Dr. Milner looks at it, when it suits him, in the same way, for he couples with the passage we are speaking of, another from St. Mark, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." I add, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." Now, in this work I do not doubt that the Lord is with those who serve Him; but then your successors of the Apostles are not that in their office. They rule over the flock where people are all professing Christians. Christ is speaking in Matthew of making disciples of the heathen. In Mark, too, he is speaking of the conversion to Christianity of those who were strangers to it. He is not speaking of the care of the Church, nor of successors in that at all. And mark here the importance of a distinction I was making with James before you came. Dr. Milner says the unwritten word was the means of propagating the doctrines. Now I admit that fully, and it may be, and is still; but that does not make the preacher a rule of faith. A means of propagating is not a rule of faith. This fallacy runs all through the book.

M. But Christ promised the Comforter should abide forever, and that he would teach the Apostles all things, and bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said to them.

N*. Both these statements I believe with all my heart, as Christ's own words, but allow me to say-If He taught the Apostles all things and brought all things to their remembrance', two things are clear:-First, that all was taught them then, and all brought to remembrance then, and that of Christ's teaching nothing more is to be learned than what they thus received. On this point, Tertullian largely insists. And better still, the Apostle John. He tells us that if we abide in what was from the beginning we shall abide in the Father and in the Son. Next, that it was to them only He then spoke, for He says "to bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you." This can apply only to the Apostles, and we have to inquire, How do we get what was thus taught them, whether directly by the Holy Ghost or by His bringing to remembrance Christ's words?

M. That is true; but the Comforter was to abide forever.

N*. So I am fully persuaded He does, but not to teach new truths, for all were taught to the Apostles. He may, morally speaking, lead us to think of what Christ says, but cannot properly do what he did to the Apostles. And the passage is an unfortunate one, for Judas (not Iscariot) asks the Lord how He would manifest Himself to them and not to the world, and the Lord tells him, "If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will make our abode with him." So that the way the Comforter abides with the Apostles and their successors, if you please, is with those who love Him and keep His word. Thus it is the Lord Himself carries on the succession, not by offices. Now, I admit, in the fullest way, that there are gifts, " pastors and teachers," by which the Lord edifies His people individually and collectively. But these, all admit, are not rules of faith. They are a means of blessing, not a rule of faith. So that if we examine the passage we find that all was taught to the Apostles, and that the true presence of the Spirit is with those who love Christ and keep His word. There is no promise, whatever to official successors. There is one to the Apostles, the end of the age being unrevealed; but there is not one word of official successors as objects of the promise. To allege it is only a supposition that it must be; a pretension often loudest in the wickedest now, to be the successors of the Apostles. And when Judas asks how the Lord could be present, it is explained in another way by the Lord. Christ, who had been their Comforter or Paraclete, was going away from the disciples. This was a deep sorrow, an affecting loss. He promises another, who should not thus leave them, but ever abide with them. And surely as long as the Church remains the Holy Ghost will remain. Who has Him dwelling in him is another question. The Lord says He is with those who love Him and keep His word. Now, as all truth was taught to the Apostles, one question is, How can we have this securely and surely as they had it? But that there were any successors to the Apostles in the true sense of the word I entirely deny. First, in a mass of places, Churches were founded in which they never were, so that there was no proper successor to an Apostle for there was no Apostle to succeed to. There may have been godly administrative care and teaching by those called and sent of God, and a great blessing too, but no proper successors of the Apostles where there were no Apostles to succeed. But I go farther into the root and heart of the thing than this. There was no successor to an Apostle at all as to what he was as an Apostle. No one was chosen, sent directly by the Lord Himself, and that is what an Apostle means. It is a name given by Christ. No pretended successor could say as Paul (and the rest too) "not of man, nor by man." The pretension to be a successor denies the person being in an Apostle's place; for it denies that immediate relationship to Christ, which alone constitutes apostleship. The Timothy's and Silvanuses and the rest, precious as they were to the Church, were by man, or simply gifts without any local office, as the prophets. An Apostle, in the nature of things, cannot have a successor in any official place in the Church. For such successor is as such not the founder of the Church as an eye-witness, and sent directly by Christ as such. Nobody pretends that those called successors of the Apostles are inspired to make revelations. Individually they have no pretension to be considered in any respect as successor of an Apostle. Nor was it (unless, possibly, at Jerusalem, and that is quite uncertain) the office of an apostle to govern any particular see, nor did any, unless the case I have just alluded to, and then that was not the apostolic office. But I go further. There is distinct proof that the Apostles themselves recognized no successors. Paul insists on the diligent care of the elders, because he had no successor. This is very distinct. He knew (Acts 20) that after his decease grievous wolves would enter in, and perverse men would arise. Why, after his decease, if he was to have a successor? Evil would spring up because there was not an Apostle to check or control it by his spiritual energy and consequent authority. He urges the elders, those whom the Holy Ghost had made overseers, to watch-a thing wholly out of place if another was to succeed him and take his place. Some say Timothy was afterward Bishop of Ephesus. There is no evidence of it, but the contrary; but if he were it upsets the theory altogether, for the same authorities tell us John was at Ephesus, so that we have an Apostle there governing and guiding- and yet a successor at the same time to do it as if the Apostle were gone. So Peter says, seeing his departure was near, that he would take care they should have these things always in remembrance, and writes his epistle; but if he had a successor who was to secure the truth, and it be not the, Scriptures which are to do it through grace, he made a great mistake in the whole matter. Paul therefore, and Peter and John practically, too, all deny entirely the whole theory on which the Romish system is founded. They know no successor, deny by their words that there will be such, and give other means of security as regards the truth; for Paul is still clearer than Peter as to the Scriptures. Not only does he commend the elders of Ephesus to God and the word of His grace, but he tells us positively that in the last days

I perilous times should come. That the professing Church would be in a horrible state, having a form of godliness but denying the power of it; and that we should turn away from such, and that the security of the faithful Christian would be the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation. Not a word of tradition, but the contrary; for Timothy is made to rely on knowing of whom he had learned the things he knew. That was Paul himself.

James. Where is that, Sir?

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Present Testimony: Volume N2, 1869-1870

Table of Contents

The Atonement

David's Piety and the Mind of God

Faith in God and His Word, Not in the Church

Fragment

Galatians

Guidance for Today

Hebrew Synonyms

Life, Light, and Love

New Series

Noah, a Type of Christ

Postscript

Psalm 1

Psalm 10

Psalm 100

Psalm 101

Psalm 102

Psalm 103

Psalm 104

Psalm 105

Psalm 106

Psalm 107

Psalm 108

Psalm 109

Psalm 11

Psalm 110

Psalm 111

Psalm 112

Psalm 113

Psalm 114

Psalm 115

Psalm 116

Psalm 117

Psalm 118

Psalm 119

Psalm 12

Psalm 120

Psalm 121

Psalm 122

Psalm 123

Psalm 124

Psalm 125

Psalm 126

Psalm 127

Psalm 128

Psalm 129

Psalm 13

Psalm 130

Psalm 131

Psalm 132

Psalm 133

Psalm 134

Psalm 135

Psalm 136

Psalm 137

Psalm 138

Psalm 139

Psalm 14

Psalm 140

Psalm 141

Psalm 142

Psalm 143

Psalm 144

Psalm 145

Psalm 146

Psalm 147

Psalm 148

Psalm 149

Psalm 15

Psalm 150

Psalm 16

Psalm 17

Psalm 18

Psalm 19

Psalm 2

Psalm 20

Psalm 21

Psalm 22

Psalm 23