The Believer's Monthly Magazine: Volume 1

“Who can forgive sins but God only? “said the contemptuous scribes in their hearts (Mark 2:7). And in this they were right, though they were totally wrong in not owning the lowly One before them as the Immanuel (God with us) of the prophets (Isa. 7:14). Solemnly true it was that God alone against Whom sin is committed can remit that sin; but it was also true that Jesus of Nazareth was “God, manifest in flesh,” the Blessed Son of Man having “power on earth to forgive sins.” There was forgiveness with Him, but with none else; as He Himself said, “If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

Observe the woman “who was a sinner” approaching the Saviour in the Pharisee’s house (Luke 7). Her sins were many, still she came. Vile she knew herself to be, but she also knew none but He could save her from her sins. At the feet of the Holy One, the grief of her penitent soul showered itself from her weeping eyes. Scornful Simon, the sympathizing disciples, all else were forgotten; the Saviour alone was before her.

Blessed attitude! Blessed place was this for the unforgiven sinner. Never have any been there in vain. Speedily the Lord’s voice came to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” He had spoken of her and of the forgiveness of her sins to Simon; but she needed a word personally addressed to her. That word she received. Her faith had saved her. She could then depart in peace.

Here then we have the first great truth relating to our subject: the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins rests alone upon the authority of the word of the Lord. Let the reader challenge his own heart as to what foundation he is resting upon. Comfortable and pious feelings will not do, the absolution of a so-called priest will not do. The One Who had power on earth has authority in heaven to forgive sins, ‘and God has not nor will not depute that authority to another. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30. So Peter declared before the Jewish council; and so Paul witnessed in the synagogue at Antioch— “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38).

Since therefore it is the word of Christ alone that can pardon your sins, it behooves you to hear and believe that imperishable word, enshrined as it is in the Scriptures. The apostle Peter, speaking to Gentiles at Caesarea, testifies: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission [forgiveness] of sins” (Acts 10:43).

But some may say, “Yes, I am hoping by-and-by to receive the forgiveness of my sins, but I could not be so bold as to say my sins have been forgiven.” Now Scripture gives no uncertain sound in this matter. The, apostle in writing to the Ephesians says of Christ, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7). This is not the language of doubt; neither is Ephesians 4:32, “And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” It was a positive accomplished fact, as also in the case of the Colossians, — “having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13). It is the portion of every child of God, The words of the apostle John are very precise. He writes to the whole family of God, and says, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:12).

In these passages we have ample and sufficient ground for faith to rest upon, and on that authority alone am I entitled to say, “God has for Christ’s sake forgiven me.”

But another point remains to be noticed. If the word of Christ is the ground of the knowledge of the forgiveness of your sins, the blood of Christ is the ground of forgiveness itself. The principle of God from the beginning was “without shedding of blood is no remission [forgiveness]” (Heb. 9:22).

But listen to the Lord’s own words on the eve of His crucifixion. “For this is my blood of the new testament [covenant] which is shed for many for the remission [forgiveness] of sins” (Matt. 26:28). There we see that forgiveness is based upon the work of Christ. We have forgiveness of sins “in him” truly, but “through his blood” (Eph. 1:7). “For it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). And because atonement or expiation has been made, “whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Compare Lev. 4:20, 26, 31; 5:10, etc.

It will be seen therefore that God has given us “two immutable things” as the foundation of forgiveness, viz., the word and the work of Christ. The blood of Christ has answered to God for the sins; the word of Christ still says assuringly to the seeking penitent, “Thy sins be forgiven.”

Forgiveness in 1 John 1:7 is not the subject of this paper, being that of the children of God and not of sinners. “If we [those already forgiven as sinners, 1 John 2:12] confess our sins, he [God the Father] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”

Early Church History.

1.―The Coming of the Comforter.

Acts 2.

THE scriptural narrative of the founding of the church of God is full of interest and profit to our souls. It is full of interest, for it shows us how marvelously the Spirit of God wrought in the minds and ways of saints in those early times. It is full of profit, for it affords us guidance as to our relationship to the Head of the body, the church, on high, and to the various members of that mystic body on earth. What is taught in the epistles concerning the assembly by means of precept is illustrated by example in the Acts.

Perhaps before going further it may be well to note the unsuitability of the uninspired title of this inspired narrative, viz., “The Acts of the Apostles.” This heading was not given by “Luke, the beloved physician,” at all, but by some meddlesome and really ignorant man who came after him. Consider now how many of the apostles are actually referred to in this book. The first twelve chapters are mainly occupied with Peter’s work, and the raining sixteen with Paul’s, Of the other apostles only two (omitting 1:13, which says nothing of their “acts”) are even mentioned. James, the son of Zebedee, occurs once at the notice of his execution (12:2), and James, the son of Alphæus, just casually three times (12:17; 15:13; 21:18). Seeing therefore we get a history, and that by no means a complete one, of only two out of the apostolic band, the usual title is apt to mislead as to the real object of the inspired account.

No; the subject of this historical treatise is the formation and growth of the assembly of God at the beginning. And if the twenty-eight chapters are read through carefully, this will be seen to be the case.

The first chapter of the Acts is a kind of preface or introduction. In the Gospel, “the former treatise,” we see the disciples when the Lord was with them (Luke 5—24:51), but in the Acts we see them when the Holy Ghost was with them (2:28). Between these two great divisions, chap. 1. gives us the transition. The Lord renews the promise of the Spirit (1:4, 8), and charges the apostles to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (1:8). The Lord ascends, and they return to Jerusalem to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, while they exercise their souls in prayer and supplication (1:14). Their mode of choosing the successor of Judas by lot (1:26) shows that they were still Jewish (Prov. 16:33; Lev. 16:8; Esther 9:24) and not yet Christian saints. Compare 1:24-26; 4:24-31; 8:29; 10:19; 13:2, etc.

But in the second chapter we come to the first event in church history. For the existence of the assembly is dependent upon both the Lord’s ascent and the Spirit’s descent. But of this we may speak more fully later on, if the Lord will.

Here, however, we have the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise before His departure. The Master’s farewell (John 14—16) abounds in comforting assurances that when He left them Another should come Who would be everything to them. The Father would give them another Comforter, or Paraclete (John 14:16), that is, One Who would identify Himself with their interests as the Lord had done, and see them safely through the wilderness. Again, the Father would send the Holy Ghost in His name to teach and remind them of all things (John 14:26). He also said that the Spirit of truth “Who proceedeth from the Father” should testify of Him (John 15:26). Neither could this blessed Spirit some if the Lord did not go away; but when He departed He would send Him unto them (John 16:7). Moreover, when He, the Spirit of truth came, He would guide them into all truth (John 16:13).

Hence, these intimations of the Lord, which have just briefly been named, are sufficient to stamp this event as one of the very utmost importance. Without the presence of the Lord or the Holy Ghost these poor saints at Jerusalem were in a pitiable plight indeed. The powers of the world were arrayed against them, and they were weak and witless. They could only wait. They could only earnestly pray for the promise of the Father, which they had from the lips of the Lord (Acts 1:4), and which was duly fulfilled.

But the opening chapter of the Acts gives us the history of the interval that elapsed between the Lord’s resurrection from the dead and this shedding abroad of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

It was on the “morrow of the sabbath” (that is, the first of the week) that the Lord issued from the tomb (Mark 16:1, 2). This sabbath was the first after Passover, and the “morrow” was the day appointed under the law for waving the sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest before Jehovah (Lev. 23:10, 11). This feast, pointing onward as it did to the resurrection of the Lord, now received its fulfillment. As in His death He was the Corn of Wheat falling into the ground (John 12:24), so in His resurrection He was the True Wave-Sheaf, acceptable to God for us.

Further: under the law they were to count fifty days from the day on which the wave-sheaf was offered. This would be the morrow after the seventh sabbath; and on that day they were to wave two loaves before the Lord (Lev. 23:15-17). Now the day on which this wave-offering was made was the day of Pentecost, and coincides exactly with the day on which the Holy Ghost descended and the church was formed.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

Here then we have the initial fact of Christianity: the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. The Lord had promised He should come, and moreover that His stay should not be transitory, as was His own, but that the Comforter should abide forever. We also see in the feast of weeks that the precise period—fifty days—is named, which elapsed between the Lord’s being raised in power and the Spirit coming to the earth. Only in the shadow we do not see the very image of the things, for while the church is shown under the figure of the two loaves, nothing is seen in the type to set forth the Holy Ghost. Neither ought we to expect to see facts relating to the mystery of the church portrayed in the Old Testament, since those facts are only revealed in the New (Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:1-10).

Let us however be fully established as to this one great truth, that on the day of Pentecost the Spirit came to abide with the church continuously throughout the whole of its pilgrimage through the wilderness. Even as Eliezer conducted Rebekah through the Syrian desert to the tent of Isaac her bridegroom, so is it with the Divine Paraclete.

Papers on the Lord's Coming.

1.―The Hope of the Church.

IT is an important part of the present gracious work of the Divine Spirit to show us “things to come.” These things comprise the coming of the Lord Jesus to take to Himself His heavenly bride; the growth and spread of evil in the world, and in the professing church; and the counsels of God concerning Christ, Whom He will bring into the world again in manifested glory, to put down all iniquity and power, and reign, filling the whole earth with the knowledge and glory of Jehovah.

It is of the utmost importance to distinguish between the hope of the church and the hope of Israel and creation. Both are set on Christ, of course, but the aspect is entirely different. The O.T. closes with the promise, “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,” etc. (Mal. 4:2). This is spoken to Israel, and represents the proper hope of the nation, The N.T. closes with quite a different word, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Rev. 22:16). This is to the church of God. As David’s root and offspring, the latter Scripture connects the Lord with O.T. prophecy, as the One in and by Whom all will be accomplished; then is added what is so sweet to the divinely-taught soul, “I am the bright and morning star.” Israel and the world at large will yet see the Lord Jesus come from the heavens in power and great glory, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives; but the church looks to be caught up before that day to meet Him in the air, to be taken into the Father’s house. Our hope has nothing to do with the scheme of prophecy, it is entirely outside of it. Prophecy is connected with the earth and the earthly people, the church’s hope is altogether heavenly.

In John 14:1-3, we get the first direct mention of that which immediately concerns our hearts. The Lord was about to leave His disciples, He was going to the Father, and they must henceforward believe in Him unseen. But He assured them that in the Father’s house are many mansions—a place for the “many sons” as well as for the Only Begotten—and promised to prepare a place for them.

This is a higher and better thing than the promises to the fathers of old. To them Jehovah spoke of Canaan; their seed should have it for an everlasting possession. But Christ spoke of the Father’s house, of heavenly glory, adding, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also.” No more was vouchsafed at that moment, the promise was left to their hearts in all its simplicity; for details they must wait until the coming of the Holy Ghost.

How strange that any should have thought the Lord to mean death! Yet this has been the current notion among the pious in Christendom for centuries. John 21:22—23 should be sufficient to establish the difference between the Lord’s coming and death; at the least the verses show how the disciples understood the Lord, however painfully His words may have been misinterpreted since. When the believer falls asleep, he departs to be with Christ, which is far better than toiling and suffering here. He is at once absent from the body and at home with the Lord. The Lord Jesus receives his spirit (Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8; Acts 7:59). But all this refers to the spirit only, the body being in the grave. When the Lord comes, both are reunited, and we shall know the redemption of the body.

Details are furnished in 1 Thessalonians 4. The saints at Thessalonica were perplexed about some of their number who had fallen asleep, not as to their salvation, but as to their portion at the Lord’s return. Great simplicity characterized these believers from the first. Through the preaching of Paul, they had turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. To them it was no mere doctrine, but a very real thing; their hearts were full of it; they looked for the Saviour, and longed to meet Him, and see His face. It purified their lives, it detached them from the world, and filled them with holy zeal for His glory. But being only partially instructed, we can understand their difficulty when some of the waiting company fell asleep. The apostle says, “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” Our God would not have His people stoical, but would have us feel the circumstances of the scene through which we are passing. He Who groaned and wept at the graveside at Bethany, knows how to enter into the sorrows of His saints still, though on high. But He would have the hope brought into our sorrows. Jesus is coming, the very same Jesus who suffered for our sins and rose again; and all His saints will soon be at rest in His presence, all sorrow and suffering past forever. How this stimulates the heart, and dispels the clouds!

Wonderful to say, we are to have the same portion as Jesus: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep through Jesus will God bring with him.” God has raised up Jesus, and put Him in glory; He will do the same for all who belong to Jesus (2 Cor. 4:14; Rom. 8:11).

Notice the manner of the Lord’s coming for us. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” This the apostle states by divine revelation— “a word of the Lord.”

Observe the order of the blessing. “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” This was the word the Thessalonians needed; the enemy had insinuated otherwise to them. Before a single living believer is removed, the dead in Christ will be raised. This is “the resurrection from among the dead,” “the resurrection of the just,” as the Lord speaks in Luke 14; “the resurrection of life,” as in John 5; “the first resurrection,” according to Rev. 20. All other dead persons will be left in their graves until the judgment of the great day.

It will readily be seen how serious is the notion of a general resurrection. It completely obliterates the difference that grace has made between the saint and the sinner, and merges our proper hope into the judgment of the ungodly. The saints will be raised in glory when the Lord comes; they will hear His welcome life-giving voice, and come forth in incorruption. The living will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;” the poor body of humiliation will be fashioned like unto His own body of glory. Together then will all be “caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

This is the blessed hope which His grace has given to us; not to some of His own, but to all. They lose much who suppose that translation to heaven at the Lord’s return is only a reward for vigilance and zeal. This is to subvert grace entirely and place us on legal ground, besides setting the soul to look within at self, which generally tends either to self complacency or gloomy despair. The Spirit the rather would engage us with Christ, the only true Object and Hope of our renewed hearts.

Not that it is a matter of indifference whether we are vigilant or careless, holy or worldly. It is ours who look for the blessed hope to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present age. “He that hath this hope on him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” How can I cherish the thought that I shall soon be like Christ without desiring to be like Him morally now?

The hope, when rightly understood, enters into every detail of life. The Thessalonians lived and suffered in the light of it. Paul labored, sustained by the thought of the glory at the end. The Hebrews were encouraged to endure reproaches and afflictions by the nearness of it. And others were exhorted by the Spirit, through James, to patiently accept oppression and wrong, because the coming of the Lord draweth nigh (1 Thess. 2:19; Heb. 10:37, &c.; James 5:8).

“I come quickly” is the last and thrice repeated message of the Lord to the church. No prophetic event intervenes. The many signs spoken of in Scripture refer entirely to His public manifestation, save the moral signs of 2 Timothy 3, which were already beginning to display themselves when the apostle wrote. If I look for political events, or for the appearing of Antichrist first, it is clear I am not looking for Christ. He wants our affections. His heart is set on us, are our hearts set on Him?

Service He values, and will reward in its day; waiting He values yet more. The midnight cry has already gone forth. The slumbering church has in some measure been aroused; but let us look to our individual condition that we may welcome Him with joy when we hear His call.

W.W. F.

Love Not the World.

THIS most solemn exhortation (1 John 2:15) is addressed to young men in Christ. The apostle divides the children of God into three classes: babes, young men, and fathers (1 John 2:13). These distinctions of course have no reference to the ages of persons as born into this world. The reference is rather to the new birth and to the subsequent spiritual growth of the believer. So that an old man physically may be a babe in Christ spiritually.

The apostle by the Spirit addresses a word to each class. And from the character of the warning we may gather the special danger to which they were subject. And since the young men in Christ are entreated not to love the world or its things, we may be sure that is the very snare into which they are likely to fall.

Three marks are given to denote those who have advanced from spiritual infancy to spiritual youth. They are said—

(1) To be strong,

(2) To have the Word of God abiding in them,

(3) And to have overcome the wicked one.

This is remarkable. Their vigor and energy are unquestioned. Their ability to wield the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is manifest in that they are victorious by this means over the prince of this world. Nevertheless they are exposed to danger of the most serious nature, which their very conquests make them more susceptible to.

Those who are strong and have put to flight the evil one are apt for that reason to relax their vigilance, to despise their foes, and therefore to fall victims to the blandishments and allurements of the world.

“The world! What harm is there in the world, unless one makes harm for oneself? I know where to stop.” Such are the thoughts of many who have resisted the devil and caused him to flee from them. They are beguiled into the terrible delusion that they are able to go anywhere or do anything. They recognize the devil when he comes as a roaring lion, but when he appears as an angel of light they are deceived.

It was the sight of the well-watered plains of Jordan that induced Lot to pitch his tent toward Sodom. The green pastures for his flocks were a sufficient cloak to the frightful iniquity of Sodom. Lot believed he could be as faithful in the plains of Jordan as Abram was in the plain of Mamre. We know that it wrecked his life of faith.

No: there is no safe place for the believer except in rigid and uncompromising separation from the world and its things. There is no via media; “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “The friendship of the world is enmity against God.”

And notice that if a thing is not “of the Father” it is “of the world,” and consequently to be shunned as such. Let us therefore beware of being ensnared by the attractions of the world, and drawn under its soul-deadening power.

GOD’S love shows what He is. God’s light shows what we are.

Brief Outline of the Epistle to the Romans.

THE epistle to the Romans is of great and grave importance in bringing the believer into a true knowledge of the ground on which he stands as a responsible creature before God. It sets forth the gospel of God in its depth and fullness, painting man’s guilt in the darkest colors, but also reveling, in the marvelous way in which that guilt is wholly effaced and the believer established in a joyous and blessed relationship with God Himself.

In the main, the epistle takes an argumentative form, that is to say, it passes from one conclusion to another. It commences by proving the whole Jewish and Gentile world guilty before God, and advances step by step, unfolding the provisions of grace, until it reaches a grand climax in the triumphant boast that nothing shall separate the justified soul from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

The epistle divides itself very easily and naturally into three parts which are readily distinguished. These three sections may be broadly characterized as follows:

1. Doctrinal Truths, chapter 1—8.

2. Dispensational Truths, chapter 9—11.

3. Practical Truths, chapter 12—16.

Section 1. deals with and supplies the answer to the question propounded so many centuries before by Job as insoluble— “How should man be just before God?” Job 9:2 (margin). But what is impossible with men is possible with God. When unrighteous man’ was found unable to provide himself a righteous standing before a righteous God, the righteousness of God was manifested. And on account of the propitiation of Christ He is seen to be just and at the same time the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

To the end of chapter 5:11 The subject is the justification of a sinner by faith, but onwards to the close of chapter 8 the state of the believer is treated of. In the former part he is seen to be delivered from his sins entirely, and accepted as a justified man by God. But in the latter part of this section, sin, the evil principle, is taken up; so that we find it very practical indeed. For what can be more practical than our relation to the root of sin we carry about with us.

Chapter 5 from the 12TH verse brings forward the TWO HEADS—Adam and Christ. Adam by his one act of disobedience involved the whole race in sin and condemnation. Christ by His perfect obedience secured righteousness for all who are His.

In chapter 6 the question whether a believer shall continue in sin is discussed. His very baptism is a witness that he is DEAD TO SIN, and that he cannot serve TWO MASTERS. He was a slave to sin as to a tyrant once; he is now alive from the dead to serve God.

The law is the subject in chapter 7. Under the figure of TWO HUSBANDS the apostle enforces the truth that we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. The latter part describes the state of a renewed soul in bondage under the law.

In chapter 8. we have the liberty and joy of true christian life. The Christian is one who is alive in Christ and indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Section 2. considers the questions that would present themselves to the mind of a Jew who had been told of the Gentiles having been made partakers of such marvelous blessing, such as was previously stated. The Old Testament Scriptures far from denying these fresh revelations of God, are shown to have anticipated them.

Section 3 contains exhortations to consistent and godly walk, together with instructions on points of practical difficulty, concluding with personal salutations from the apostle.

Worship: A Contrast.

THE Israelites were not permitted to offer their sacrifices and vows except in the one special ordained place where their worship was acceptable to God. See Deuteronomy 12:5, 11, 13, 14, 18; 14:23, 25; 16:2, 6, 16; 1 Kings 8:29-45; 9:3; 2 Chronicles 20:9.

The Christian believer may pray in every place and offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ at any time and place. See John 4:20-24; Acts 7:48, 49; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; Matthew 18:20; Tim. 2:8; Hebrews 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5.

Letter on Reading the Scriptures.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, — It is not sufficient for you to read about the Scriptures, you must read the Scriptures for yourself. A Christian ignorant of his Bible is practically defenseless against the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is a spiritual dwarf, for he cannot grow without the sincere milk of the Word (1 Peter 2:2). He is overcome by the wicked one, for he is unable to wield the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). He stumbles into snares and pitfalls and wanders into byways, for he is without that lamp for the feet and that light for the way which the Word of God supplies to all who consult it (Ps. 119:105).

You will find it of immense help to you to form the regular habit of reading the Word of God every day. We see that the Bereans were specially commended in that they searched the Scriptures “daily” (Acts 17:11). You will have to overcome many difficulties in order to strictly observe this rule. But nothing that is really worth doing at all is done properly without taking pains and exercising self-denial. And most probably, if you do not mean to lose your daily portion, you will have to rise earlier, or to deny yourself some form of recreation. But whatever you may give up in this way, you will certainly be no loser.

You will observe that the Bereans searched the Scriptures. This implies an eager, earnest endeavor to understand what is read. It is the willing heart that is taught of God. The listless reader will gain neither pleasure nor profit.

Do not forget that Christ is the key of the Scriptures. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was an enigma to the Ethiopian eunuch, for he knew not Christ. But directly Philip “preached unto him Jesus,” his soul was filled with divine light. It is the Lord’s own word of the Scriptures that “testify of me” (John 5:39). The Jews believed not Christ, and therefore understood neither the law, the prophets, nor the psalms.

Read your Bibles with implicit faith. Receive every word as from God Himself. Do not create difficulties by setting one passage against another; but believe both to be true. For it is “through faith we understand” (Heb. 11:3). In the writings of men it is well to seek to understand before believing. But the Bible comes to us with the authority of God, and the first thing required of us is to accept it with all the unquestioning faith of little children.

But do lay to heart the necessity of being regular in reading your Bibles. It will assist you to have a definite plan to follow as far as possible. Some find one method suitable, some another.

We should be glad if some of our readers would write and tell us what plan they find best, how much they read daily, and what portions of the Word they read. If their plans were made known through the medium of this magazine, they might be of service to others.

We trust that this invitation will be responded to because we believe that a good many may be thereby helped in what constitutes a very practical difficulty to them. We refer to the difficulty some find in reading regularly at a particular time.

Some have to leave their homes at a very early hour. Some have little or no spare time throughout the day. Others return to their homes late at night and excessively wearied in body. Some again seem to be unable to find a quiet time to read the Bible in private.

These circumstances are magnified at the suggestion of the Evil One into insuperable obstacles, and are made into excuses for serious neglect of the Scriptures.

We hope therefore some of our correspondents may be able to give useful hints that may assist others in overcoming these small hindrances and in forming the habit of reading the Word of God daily.

But whatever plan is adopted, helpful as it may prove, the main point will be missed unless the Scriptures are read in the proper frame of mind and attitude of soul. Handle the Sacred Volume with reverence. Turn its pages with pious fear. Receive its words with lowliness and readiness of mind. Treasure its teachings in the heart. Come to it with eagerness and leave it with regret. Carefully ponder over every verse. Meditate long, but pray without ceasing.

Remember above all things that the Word of God is designed to form the affections of the heart as well as to develop spiritual intelligence. It is not sufficient for you to know the various ways in which the love of God has been manifested, that knowledge must move the very inmost depths of your being. It must quicken the energies of your soul into ardent love to God as well as to those that are His, indeed to all men. It is well to have clear views of scriptural truth. This should be our hearty desire. But oh! how necessary to sit in quiet meditation at the Master’s feet and allow His blessed words to distil into the soul and animate and inflame the affections towards Himself. Beware therefore lest the head grows at the expense of the heart.

This may be prevented by being careful to put into practice whatever He skews us is His will. It is the heart desirous to do His will that is taught of Him (John 7:17). This again brings us back to the necessity of reading the Bible daily. For God shows us His Word “here a little, and there a little” as we require it. And so to speak God will set us our daily tasks if we only humbly, reverently approach His Word and attentively listen to what He has to say.

Yours faithfully in Christ,

“YOD”

Justification by Faith.

THE doctrine of justification by faith is expounded with great fullness by the apostle Paul. We find it brought out in his first recorded sermon at Antioch in Pisidia, (Acts 13). In the synagogue there on the sabbath day he preached Christ, as was his wont. He showed that the word of promise given of old to the fathers, and the voices of the prophets read in their hearing week by week had now been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Then as an ambassador of Christ he made the gracious declaration that, on account of this fulfillment of promise and prophecy, through this Man they might obtain the forgiveness of sins. Yet blessed as this was, it did not embrace the full extent of the blessing. He proceeded to announce that by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which,” he added, “ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

From this scripture, it is apparent that justification is an advance upon forgiveness of sins. It is a blessing in addition to the remission of sins bestowed upon such as believe. The definite teaching of the gospel of grace is that while God (1) forgives sins, He also (2) justifies the sinner.

By forgiveness the guilty soul is released from the consequences of its sins, that is, from their due punishment throughout eternity. But by justification the ungodly, unrighteous person believing in Jesus is reckoned righteous in the sight of God. So that justification gives the soul a standing before God, entitling it to the enjoyment of His favor here in this world.

Now in the matter of justification by faith we have one of those points in which grace so blessedly transcends law. It is in fact utterly impossible for the law to justify man; for its office is to condemn the guilty, and such, alas I every child of Adam has been proved. Under the law God emphatically said, “I WILL NOT JUSTIFY THE WICKED” (Ex. 23:7). We can readily see that this must be so. For if man takes the ground before God of being awarded according to his deserts, how can he expect to escape? Even among men we reckon that the judge who allows the guilty to go unpunished disgraces the judicial bench. What folly and presumption to expect less from the “Judge of all the earth.”

The only case in which law can justify is when the person is innocent of the crime charged. If legal inquiry proves that the prisoner in the dock is perfectly guiltless of the charge made against him, the law is bound to clear him. Such a person leaves the court “without a stain on his character.” And in this instance the person may be said to be justified. In a similar sense the Lord may be said to have been justified when Pilate declared from the judgment seat, “I find no fault in this man.”

Now it is clear this kind of justification is of no use to sinful men. The law can only justify them if they have done nothing to bring them under its condemnation. But “all have sinned;” and consequently none can escape. Hence it is the triumphant boast of the gospel that it can justify the unjust, which could never be accomplished by the strict administration of the law. Here we have the solution of the ancient problem—How man should be just before God. With man it was impossible, but not so with God. For “now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.... which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe.” Thus God has brought in a righteousness of His own providing. Christ has been set forth a propitiation (mercy seat). God’s righteousness has been declared. And in direct contrast to the law, the gospel unfolds not only that God is just, but that He is the JUSTIFIER OF HIM WHO BELIEVES IN JESUS.

This constitutes one of the grand foundations of the peace of the soul. I know that the God against Whom I have sinned has undertaken and has accomplished in Christ Jesus my justification. How it rids my soul of every fear! “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33, 34). I might well tremble to face the God to Whom I must answer for my sins. But if He becomes my Justifier, of whom shall I be afraid? If God be for me, who can be against me?

But the gospel reveals a further fact. “By him all that believe are justified from all things.” While on the one hand I find that the One to Whom I am accountable has declared Himself my Justifier, on the other hand, when I review the dark catalog of my sins, I am assured that freely by His grace I am “justified from all things.” However heinous they may be, however many they may be, by the death and resurrection of Christ I stand before God a justified person—not forgiven only but just.

The difference between justification and forgiveness may be illustrated in the following manner. A servant embezzles his master’s money to a large extent. The master finds him out, summons the culprit to his presence, and thus addresses him: “I have discovered your theft, and you are liable to a long imprisonment. But on account of your wife and family I will forgive you and not take legal proceedings against you. But you must leave my service, for you have been following a long course of dishonesty. I cannot allow you to remain in your position of trust, for you are plainly a thief.” The man thus escapes the gaol which he deserved, but his character is gone. He is forgiven but not justified; for if he met his old employer in the street he could not look him in the face.

Now God not only forgives the sins, but He justifies the sinner. The sinner who believes is no longer a sinner, but reckoned just, or righteous. Hence the results of justification described in Romans 5. “Therefore being justified by faith, (1) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; (2) by whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand, and (3) rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We are no longer enemies in our minds by wicked works, but have peace with God. We no longer, as sinners, flee to hide ourselves from His presence, but stand as justified souls in the light and favor of His countenance. We no longer dread the wrath which is to come, but we anticipate the glory of God which fills the future. So that while forgiveness secures us from hell-fire, justification entitles us to expect to share the glory which is to be revealed.

Justification by faith is not set forth in Scripture as a future thing. On the contrary we read, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:9). So that it is here and now, in this world, we become justified. God means it to be the source of our present confidence and enjoyment. How could we boast in tribulation if we were not justified?

But Scripture is emphatic. “Being now justified by his blood!’ It is the whole point of the apostle’s argument that since we are already regarded as righteous men, we need not fear the coming wrath. Wrath is revealed against unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18), so that we are clearly secure. God has wrought for us. He is the Justifier; it is our part to accept by faith, and to rest in assurance upon His word and work, which can never fail.

The Rushing Wind and Fiery Tongues.

THE disciples waited ten days in Jerusalem after the ascension of the Lord from Mount Olivet before the promise of the Father was fulfilled. And we may gather that this interval was spent in earnest prayer and supplication. But no sign of any reply was granted until the day of Pentecost arrived.

On that day the disciples were gathered together in the upper room. They were unanimous in hearty desire to be endued with power from on high, even as the Lord had foreshewn them should come to pass. When “suddenly”— even to those who were waiting and watching then, as they had been during the past ten days, it was “suddenly”— “there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

This sound, so graciously vouchsafed, was an outward token to the ears of all present of the coming of the Spirit according to the promise of the Lord. It was no sudden tempestuous blast, no violent hurricane sweeping over Jerusalem. The sound truly resembled that of a rushing mighty wind, but it did not come from either of the points of the compass. It is carefully stated that it came “from heaven.” So that the sound did not proceed from atmospheric disturbance. It was the symbolical indication of the shedding forth of the Holy Ghost.

There was, moreover, an accompanying sign which afforded evidence to the eye as the sound did to the ear. “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” Again it is to be noted that only a resemblance is referred to. The tongues were “like as of fire;” and they were there as symbolical witnesses to the eyesight of the presence of Him for Whom the disciples were waiting. “Cloven tongues” is generally accepted to mean that the tongues parted asunder and distributed themselves among the saints present.

These then were the outward or objective evidences of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. The sound as of a blast, the tongues as of fire only confirmed the fact that “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Each of them received the gift of the Spirit. The blessing was not confined to the “twelve;” the hundred and twenty shared. Accordingly we find that they immediately began “to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The sound from heaven and the tongues sitting on each of them were manifestations to the disciples alone; but the foreign languages were for signs to the unbelievers in Jerusalem of the advent and presence of the Spirit of God, given to convince “the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

It is instructive to note the significant character of the symbols employed with reference to the coming of the Comforter. At the commencement of the Lord’s public ministry He was anointed with the Spirit. John the Baptist bare record, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him” (John 1:32).

The dove fitly set forth the gentle and gracious form the testimony of Christ assumed when He came to save and not to judge the world. The King came to Zion, “meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass,” not then upon a white horse, clad in “a vesture dipped in blood” (Rev. 19:11-21). For Jehovah put His Spirit upon Him as His elect Servant of Whom the prophet had written, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench” (Isa. 42:1-3). This was truly a clove-like character.

But when the Spirit came to the waiting disciples, one of the figures used is that of “a mighty blast rushing.” Wind had previously been used as a symbol of the Holy Ghost. To Nicodemus the Lord said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou Nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

This illustrated His invisible, incomprehensible and sovereign operation whereby men are born anew for the kingdom of God.

In Acts 2 it is doubtless emblematical of the same characteristics, but with the additional element of power: it was a “rushing mighty wind.” And it was this function of the Spirit that the Lord made specially prominent in His last admonitions. “‘Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). And the Holy Ghost is emphatically said to be the “Spirit of power.”

This relationship to the church generally the Holy Ghost entered upon at the beginning. And it is of the most vital importance to remember that in spite of the lapse of more than eighteen centuries since Pentecost, and in spite of the departure of the church from apostolical principles, that blessed One has never abandoned this or any other relationship. He is still here, though unseen as ever. He is still here, sovereign in action, operating in and through the church as He wills. He is still here, the Omnipotent One, to endow with invincible power those faithful witnesses of the Lord who depend upon Him for support.

Alas! that His presence should be so generally ignored. Christendom as truly denies the mission of the Comforter as Judaism denied “the Holy One and the Just,” the Messiah, “of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” Nor will the final issues be less momentous in overwhelming judgment upon such guilty blindness.

But if the sound filling all the house where they were sitting sets forth the Spirit in His offices toward the saints in their corporate capacity, the tongue, as of fire, resting upon each of them appears to refer to the indwelling of individual saints by the same Divine Person. For not only do believers collectively constitute the temple of God wherein the Spirit of God dwells (1 Cor. 3:16), but the body of every individual saint is also the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6:19). So that while He works in the body of Christ, distributing to the members as He wills, He likewise enables each member to duly discharge the function assigned to it.

It was so at Pentecost. “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Every disciple became a vessel of the Spirit of God. A tongue as of fire was bestowed upon each of them; for they were to be the Lord’s witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” And they were not to speak smooth things or pleasant things, but from them should go out the word of the Lord which is “like as a fire.” (Jer. 23:29). Their testimony would search, and penetrate, and consume. The scathing words of these Galilean fisherfolk were to overcome the bitter prejudices of the fanatical Jew, the philosophical scorn of the cultured Greek, and the intolerant pride of the imperious Roman.

The fire that the Lord came to send on the earth and which His own hand had kindled (Luke 12:49), now leaped into a blaze and spread itself on the four winds of heaven. That very day there were Jews from every nationality under heaven, and to their utter astonishment every man heard in his own language the wonderful works of God. It was really incontestable proof that God had taken up these unlettered Galileans and was equipping them by miraculous power to be the heralds of His salvation to the ends of the earth. This He did by filling them with His Spirit.

Herein lies the true secret of effective Christian testimony and service. The saints of God need not the wine of fleshly excitement but to be filled with the Spirit—to be under the irresistible sway of the One Who dwells within them. On this condition alone will the name of the Lord be truly magnified in the face of a hostile world.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew.

IN this book the Holy Spirit sets Jesus before us as the Christ or Messiah, Emmanuel, and Jehovah, yet rejected of His people, bringing in the mysteries of the kingdom as well as the church meanwhile, till He return as Son of Man in power and glory.

Hence chapter 1 presents His genealogy as Son of David, Son of Abraham (the roots of royalty and of promise), in three series of fourteen generations. It is therefore Joseph’s line from Solomon, which was essential, though all care is shown in marking His birth of the virgin as of the Holy Ghost according to the prophecy of Isaiah (7).

Chapter 2 points out magi from the East come to pay homage to the born King of the Jews, but at Bethlehem, as Micah (5) had testified seven centuries before. But an Idumean under Roman authority ruled Jerusalem; and king and people were troubled at the tidings; so that the angel of the Lord again apprises Joseph that the holy family might find shelter in Egypt from the ruthless Herod, and thus accomplish Hosea 11:1 and Jeremiah 31:15. On his return, dwelling at Nazareth, despised as it was, fell in with the prophecies that such would be Messiah’s lot.

In chapter 3 we have the immediate herald of the Messiah according to Isaiah 40, with his baptism of repentance and witness of Him that was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire a work of grace and judgment; and Jesus stooping to be baptized is owned as Son by the Father and the Spirit.

Chapter 4 gives the temptation of Jesus by the devil; and, after John was delivered up, the Galilean ministry of the Lord follows as in Isaiah 9, the call of the earlier disciples, and, along with teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, His miraculous healing of disease, and power over demons displayed abundantly.

Next, in chapters 5-7, the principles of the kingdom are laid down, with the manifestation of the Father’s name and the walk suited to it.

Chapter 8 illustrates fully the character of Jehovah’s presence in Christ here below: the Jewish leper, the Gentile centurion, Peter’s mother-in-law, the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4, the scribes and the disciples, the tempest rebuked, and the demoniac delivered; as chapter 9 develops the growth of unbelieving hatred and blasphemy brought out by the paralytic forgiven, Matthew the tax gatherer’s call, the question of fasting, the ruler’s child raised, and on the way the flux of blood healed, the two blind given to see, and the dumb demoniac speaking. Whereon, deeply pitying the distressed and scattered sheep of Israel, He bids His disciples pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. In chapter 10 He sends forth the twelve apostles with authority like His own, but as yet only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (not to Gentiles nor Samaritans), preaching the kingdom of the heavens to be at hand, as He and John had preached. He prepares them for enmity, and tells them that their task will not be finished till the Son of Man be come.

In chapter 11 Christ testifies to John instead of receiving what His forerunner ought to have rendered, lays bare the caprice of “this generation,” reproaches the impenitence of the cities which were unmoved by His numerous works of might, and bows with gracious confession to the Father, Who hid these things from wise and understanding men and revealed them to babes. He sees a higher glory and a deeper grace opening out than if Israel had received Him after the flesh.

Chapter 12 opens with the lesson of the sabbaths misapplied to deny His glory Who is Lord of the sabbath as of all, and the resolve of the Pharisees to destroy Him. The Lord withdraws, heals still but charges them not to make Him known. In another and deeper way would the divine counsel be made good, as Isaiah 42 declared. So, when a blind and dumb demoniac was healed and the Pharisees attribute His power to Beelzebub, He warns of the blasphemy against the Spirit that shall not be forgiven, pronounces the last state of “this evil generation” to become worse than the first, and owns His true relationship henceforth to be, not His mother and brethren after the flesh, but whosoever shall do the will of His Father Who is in heaven.

Accordingly in chapter 13 the Lord expounds in seven parables (beginning with His new work as a sower of the word, and in six of them similitudes) the mysteries of the kingdom consequent on His rejection and going on high. Whatever His works, the Jews stumbled at His person.

In chapter 14 we see the state no better but worse. If the Lord retires, His compassion to Israel is unchanged; and He heals their diseases, satisfies the poor with bread, as the true Son of David, dismissed the multitude, and went up the mountain apart to pray, the picture of His present work on high. But when the disciples are tempest-tossed with the winds contrary, He rejoins them, and the wind ceases, and they in the ship pay Him homage as Son of God.

Chapter 15 is the Lord’s judgment of religious tradition, and of the true condition of man however veiled. Yet if a Canaanite under curse cried for mercy, would Jesus say it was vain? He vindicates it fully, while He continues to feed the sheep of Israel.

In chapter 16 the Lord none the less denounces the hypocrisy of a generation seeking a sign, while blind to all that had been before their eyes. None should be given but that of the prophet Jonah—death and resurrection, opening the door for preaching to Gentiles. But if men said this or that, Peter confesses Him the Christ, the Son of the living God, as the Father revealed. And He also gives him a new name, and declares that upon this rock He will build His church, whilst He confers on him the keys of the kingdom: two distinct systems of blessing to replace Israel.

Thereon He announces His suffering, death, and resurrection, and calls on him that owns Him to deny self, take up his cross, and follow Him.

Chapter 17 is a miniature display of the kingdom, but Christ meanwhile proclaimed Son, who is to be heard, not law and prophets. But the disciples fail through unbelief; whereas Christ, proving Himself Lord of all, takes no glory here, but identifies His own with Himself in grace.

In chapter 18. He lays down humiliation in love as befitting His own in the kingdom, and so also in the church, grace to win the wrongdoer, with the sanction of heaven on their acts rightly done. The parable from verse 23. teaches that they who had forgiveness offered but outraged it have all their guilt renewed to their ruin.

Chapter 19. shows that, while God’s constitution of man is confirmed, grace reveals better things for those that share Christ’s rejection. Yet chapter 20. begins with a parable maintaining God’s sovereignty. But the path of the Son of Man is through shame and death; and if we look on to glory, there is no other way, but the disposal is His Father’s. The danger is from the fleshly mind, no better than a Gentile’s: the Son of Man came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.

The Lord has now entered upon His final journey to Jerusalem; and the healing of two blind men near Jericho begins His last presentation of Himself-Who knew the end before He began. In chapter 21. He accomplishes Zechariah 9:9, purges the temple, and defends the children’s Hosannas with Psalms 8. The curse on the fig tree was the sentence on the people, full of show but without fruit; and when the religious chiefs ask for His authority, He puts a question to their conscience. When they shirk the answer, He sets out one parable that shows them to be worse than the tax gatherers and the harlots; and in another He describes God’s dealings with the rebellious people, even to His own rejection in death; so that they themselves own (vs. 41) their just destruction; on which He cites Psalms 118:22, and connects with it, not only the removal of the kingdom of God from them but the effect of both His advents, now their stumbling on Him, to be crushed, by-and-by His falling on them to be scattered as dust. They knew what He meant, but as yet feared to do their will.

So in chapter 22. the Lord adds in a parable what grace has done and is doing, with the effect for the unbelieving, not only providential judgment which fell on Jerusalem, but that for each at the end and forever. Then come the Pharisees with the Herodians about the tribute, and the Sadducees about the resurrection, and the lawyer about the commandments, all answered to their confusion; after which the Lord puts the question of questions for a Jew (as indeed for any). Faith alone answers; and they had none; and there they are to this day.

In chapter 23 the Lord while owning the law’s authority, spite of the falseness of those who administered it, calls His disciples to the lowly position He had taken as their pattern; and He Who began with “Blessed, blessed,” now ends with “Woe, woe.” How their evil did not cease with His cross but went on against His servants, we know too well. But even here in declaring the inevitable retribution, He cannot close without a door of hope in the last verse (39).

Chapter 24. and 25. are His great prophecy on the mount, beginning with the Jews, and ending with the Gentiles in 25:31 to the end. Between the two (from 24:45 to 25:30) is the part that deals with the Christian profession.

In chapter 26, 27. we have the unutterably solemn and touching scenes of the Lord’s earthly close. The Lord announces it; the chief priests and their associates plot; the last anointing is done for His burial; the traitor covenants; the Lord directs the paschal feast and eats it with the disciples; He institutes His supper; He goes out to Olivet and He enters on His agony in Gethsemane; and then becomes the willing Captive, as later the Victim. The mock trial before Caiaphas follows; and Peter denies, and Judas in remorse casts down his silver in the sanctuary and commits suicide. Pilate condemns the Holy One and releases Barabbas. Jesus is crucified, “the King of the Jews” there alone is Pilate firm. All mock, even the robbers. He dismissed His spirit; and the veil of the temple was rent, and the earth quaked, and the rocks rent, as there had been supernatural darkness around the cross. But He was with the rich in His death, as the prophet said so emphatically.

Chapter 28. tells of Him risen. What availed the keepers or the seal? And the angel, before whom the guard trembled, bade the women not fear, but tell the disciples He was risen and would meet them in Galilee, the familiar ground of His ministry. And so it was amid fear and joy and doubt. He Himself appeared and confirmed it, whatever lying Jews and bribed Gentiles pretended. And there He gave them His commission. “All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, disciple all the nations, baptizing them unto the name of the Father and Of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age.” Here may be seen what supersedes Israel till the end of the age. When the new age comes they will be owned and blessed as the head of the nations. The first dominion will be Zion’s. Even during that period (for such it is, not a mere epoch) there will be a suited state of transition. Till then discipling proceeds. Disciples are to be baptized to the name, not of Jehovah, but of God fully revealed as now, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Observance of Christ’s injunction follows, with the assurance of His constant presence.

W. K.

THE “eating” of Christ as the Bread of Life, the True Manna, in John 6, is an individual act. In 1 Cor. 10:16, 17, the eating” is collective, and expressive of the unity of the church.

IN Ecclesiastes the heart is too great for its object. In Canticles the object is too great for the heart.

The First Resurrection.

IN dealing with the “Hope of the Church” in my last paper, the first resurrection—that of the saints—necessarily came somewhat before us; but the subject being far too important to be dismissed with a few words, I turn to it again.

Our thoughts as to it must be drawn entirely from Scripture, or we shall be sadly astray. The commonly received notion is that all dead persons will rise together at the last day, to stand before one common throne, there and then to have the eternal future of each finally settled.

The judgment of the nations by the Son of Man from the throne of His glory (Matt. 25) is often adduced in support of this theory; such interpreters apparently failing to see that (1) the chapter speaks only of the nations (Gentiles), not of men as such, (2) that no mention is made of the resurrection of any, (3) that the question raised there is not of all the deeds done in the body, but of a particular matter, and (4) that there are three classes named, the brethren, the sheep, and the goats; not two as required by the doctrine of a last general judgment.

The truth is that the resurrection of the saints is of an altogether different character, and takes place at a different time from that of the ungodly. 1 Cor. 15. furnishes important instruction as to it. Among the Corinthians were some who questioned the resurrection of the dead. The apostle shows that such an error (though perhaps not intended by them) touched the truth of the resurrection of Christ; for if the dead rise not, then hath not Christ been raised; and if Christ be not risen, preaching is vain, faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. “But now is Christ risen from among the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20).

Here we get the special character of Christ’s resurrection— “from among the dead.” God has not left His soul in Hades, nor suffered His Holy One to see corruption; but, on the contrary, has shown Him the path of life, and set Him at His own right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore (Psa. 16). The power of God brought Him out “from among the dead,” leaving all other dead persons behind in their graves. Thus did God declare Him to be His Son with power, and express His delight in His person, and put His seal upon His accomplished work.

But Christ is the firstfruits, the sample sheaf, so to speak, of the coming harvest; for all His saints are to have the same blessed portion (Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:14). This is most clear in the chapter before us. Look carefully at verses 23, 24. “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, Afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” What force can such words have if all rise together? We are to have Christ’s portion. Ours is to be a resurrection from among the dead, as His was, in incorruption, in glory, in power, to bear the image of the heavenly, to inherit the kingdom of God. God will thus put a further seal on Christ’s work; for us a sovereign act of divine power and favor. We are to be conformed to the image of His Son; our bodies of humiliation are to be fashioned like unto the Son’s body of glory. This concerns those “that are Christ’s,” not all the dead, and will take place “at His coming.” What can be clearer as to the distinctness of our portion?

“Then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.” “Then” does not mean in point of time, but of order; and speaks of the close of the Lord’s millennial reign, when all judgment is passed, and God is all in all. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” It is at the end therefore, when the kingdom is about to be given up, that the ungodly are raised to appear before the great white throne. With this, Revelation 20 fully agrees.

There are thus three stages named in 1 Corinthians 15 the resurrection of Christ; they that are Christ’s at His coming; and the end. And as there has been a long interval between the resurrection of Christ and of His saints, so will there be between the latter and the opening of the graves of the lost. The one is at the commencement of the millennium, the other at the close.

The consideration of this subject as brought out in other scriptures will be pursued next month (D.V). W. W. F.

Study to Be Quiet.

YOUR calling is to forsake in reality the world and its spirit, to continually reckon yourself dead to your corrupt nature and to a selfish life, to converse with God night and day in the exercise of true prayer. Pray much and speak little. Let me particularly recommend to you that sacred silence which God and His saints love so much. The spirit of loquacity is the bane of religious society and the extinction of devotion. It causes confusion of mind, and is an abuse of time and a denial of the divine presence. Love, obedience, courtesy, or necessity, must influence the tongue to Speak, else it should continue silent. Edify one another more by a holy walk than by a multitude of words.

Correspondence.

G.B.— Luke 22:36, 38. In these verses and the context the Lord was preparing the disciples for His departure and its consequences to themselves. While He was with them He was their Good Shepherd, and they had not wanted. Even when sent out without purse or scrip or shoes (Luke 10:4) they lacked nothing. But when the Shepherd was smitten, the sheep would be scattered, and they would be left to care for themselves. There would be no miraculous interposition to preserve them from the malicious persecution of the world. Hitherto the Lord had sheltered them, as He said, “If ye seek me, let these go their way.” But in view of His absence on high, the Lord counsels them to provide themselves with money and other necessaries. They were not to expect to be again fed in the wilderness by a miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes. Besides their enemies would be so bitter and violent and numerous, that a sword would even be more necessary than a garment. “He that hath no sword let him sell his garment, and buy one.” That the Lord is not to be understood literally, we may gather from His own words to one who fell into this error, — “Put up again thy sword into its place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt. 26:52). And here to those who produced a couple of weapons, He said, “It is enough.” He did not chide or upbraid for lack of wisdom in comprehending His words. “It is enough,” He said, dismissing the subject. What they knew not then, they should know when the Spirit of Truth came.

C.D.A.— How to reconcile 1 Sam. 15:11, 35, and 29? When Jehovah said He repented of having made Saul king, it referred to the change of His dealings in consequence of Saul’s rebellious disobedience. It was because the son of Kish failed that the kingdom was taken from the house of Saul and given to the house of David. Now God had not promised the throne to Saul and his seed forever, as He did to David subsequently. Hence Saul’s line is set aside. But it is of the word of the Lord that Samuel speaks when he says, “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent.” Jehovah had actually said He had rent the kingdom from Saul. Saul must not expect Him to recall that word. The Lord had said and would not repent. Verses 11 and 35 therefore refer to the change of outward plan that Jehovah was about to make in giving Saul’s crown to David. This in no way conflicts with verse 29, which solemnly warns of God’s unchanging word and purpose.

Pentecostal Testimony.

THE discourse of Peter recorded in Acts 2 is of the utmost interest since it consists of the first testimony rendered by the Holy Ghost to the absent Jesus. For it was not the fisherman who spoke, but the Spirit of the Father Who spoke in him. Truly Peter was a witness to the Lord, but in his bold Words we have the testimony of the Spirit Who gave them power, point and effect.

This testimony is distinguished by two marks, which will indeed ever characterize true and faithful witness for the risen Lord. We can scarcely omit to notice in the verses referred to (Acts 2:14-36)— (1) the prominence given to the person of Christ, and (2) the repeated reference to the authority of the written word of God. So the Lord Himself said of the coming Spirit, “He shall testify of me,” but that witness was ever necessarily in agreement with the ancient scriptures, of which the Lord also said, “They are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

The immediate occasion of Peter’s sermon was the general amazement and scornful contempt prevailing in Jerusalem upon the declarations of the wonderful works of God in many and varied languages by the disciples, who were now filled with the Spirit. Peter stood forth as the spokesman of the apostolic band and repudiated the false charge of drunkenness brought by the scoffers. It was but the hour of morning prayer, and no pious Jew would scarcely have broken his fast, much less be found in the streets inebriated.

No: they had better consult the prophet Joel for an explanation; he would be a safer guide than their own hasty prejudices. That prophet foretold similar things as being harbingers of the great and manifest day of the Lord. For Joel had spoken of the outpouring of the Spirit not only upon all classes of the sons of Israel, but upon all flesh. Wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath should usher in the day of Jehovah.

The apostle however avoids saying that Joel’s prophecy was altogether fulfilled that day in the gift of the Spirit. Nevertheless Pentecost was of that character, — “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” The Holy Ghost was shed forth then, as He will be again. He Who came as the “former rain” will come again as the “latter rain.” Peter however quotes the prophet because the general principle of the Spirit’s presence was applicable and fully explained the marvelous display otherwise unaccountable. It was also true for the speaker’s audience that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” which he cites from the same prophecy.

But who is the Lord upon Whose name they are to call? The apostle proceeds to show the men of Israel (vers. 22-36) that Jesus of Nazareth was made Lord as well as Christ, a fact attested by the very thing causing such astonishment in Jerusalem—the advent of the Holy Ghost.

In the course of Peter’s demonstration of this weighty truth concerning the crucified Nazarene, he brings before them: — (1) His life on earth, verse 22; (2) His death, verse 23; (3) His resurrection, verses 24-32; (4) His exaltation, verses 33-36.

The historical facts of the Lord’s life as of His shameful crucifixion and death were notorious and undeniable. But the apostle pressed that His authority displayed on earth was of God. Would they own that those miracles, wonders and signs, which they knew well, were really those “which God did by him”? Peter does not cover their guilt in crucifying and slaying the Lord of glory by the hands of lawless Gentiles, though he points out that it was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

He next deals with the question of the resurrection of Christ which was foretold by the Psalmist. For Psalms 16. expresses perfect confidence in God throughout life (Acts 2:25), even in death (vss. 26, 27) and also in resurrection (vs. 28). But of whom is this spirit of absolute trust true? Of David, or of Jesus of Nazareth?

The patriarch David was both dead and buried and his sepulcher still with them, so he had not been raised from the dead. But being a prophet, in accordance with God’s oath that of the fruit of his body He would set on his throne (Psa. 132:11) he prophesied beforehand of the resurrection of the Messiah, that His soul was not left in hades neither did His flesh see corruption.

Then having brought forward the scriptural prophecy of the resurrection he enunciates with emphasis the fact to which they all were witnesses. “This Jesus”— the very Man Whom they crucified and slew— “This Jesus hath God raised up wherf we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.”

Further, the Psalms spoke not only of the resurrection but of the ascension of Christ. For David himself had not ascended into the heavens, but he was speaking of some other Man when he said, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool” (Psa. 110:1). He had in view Him Who was his Root and Offspring, his Son and his Lord, Who was in fact none other than the One they had so ignominiously cast out and slain.

This the apostle states in a crushing climax, charging home their guilt unsparingly. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

It was plain that what God had done was the complete reverse of what the house of Israel had done. He Whom God anointed on earth as the Messiah, though now cut off, was nevertheless still the Christ. Ascended on high, Jesus of Nazareth was “anointed with fresh oil” (Psa. 92:10); having, as the Risen Man, received the promise of the Father He shed forth the Holy Ghost, proving, as Peter concludes, that He was “made Christ.”

But not only did His ascension prove Him to have been “made Christ,” He was Lord also. For as the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, He was now seated at Jehovah’s right hand. In that place of dignity and majesty, invested with glory and honor, He was duly addressed as Lord even by David the prophet-king in his day (Psa. 110:1). What the psalmist foretold was now fulfilled, and the Lordship of Christ was an established fact.

How this proved God’s thoughts of Christ! If He was now exalted to the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, it could not be concealed that Israel had thrust Him into the lowest depths of degradation. This Peter declares, affirming that it was the same Jesus whom they had crucified that God had glorified. Nothing could be more conclusive that the thoughts of God and man are diametrically opposed.

But however, levelling this testimony was to the pride and pretensions of man, it was the truth. Indeed, naught else could emanate from the Spirit of truth. And because it was the truth, its effects were so mighty. Truth reveals things as they are, the grace of God as well as the guilt of man.

The Women of Rom. 16.

WE often hear of “honorable mention” in the affairs of this life, and men are pleased and proud when their names are printed and published as those that have distinguished themselves in the schools of learning, in the arts or sciences, or as having performed some heroic action; but this last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans holds a place quite unique, and the names recorded there are read in every land, and in every tongue in which the Bible is printed.

True, they are the names of the saints to whom the apostle Paul sent loving messages, but the Holy Ghost indited every word that he wrote, and intended that through all time those names should be made known to other fellow-believers.

Of some a remark is made, on others an epithet of praise is bestowed, and again others are merely mentioned as those to whom greetings are sent. The fourteenth verse specially embodies those of this class. We may wonder what sort of persons were Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, and Hermes. But we know nothing of them beyond their names, except that we may feel sure they were children of God—believers in the Lord Jesus Christ—and as such, clear to the heart of Paul. Centuries have elapsed since these people lived and died on the earth, generations have come and gone, but their names still dwell in the “Book of books,” and we recognize them as belonging to the family of God.

In this sixteenth chapter, seven women are mentioned by name. The first is by way of commendation to others, six are in the list of salutations, and two whose names are not given.

Phebe, doubtless, intended journeying from Cenchrea to Rome, and the apostle, as he writes, introduces her to the saints there, and speaks of her as a “servant [deaconess] of the church “in that place where she resided. This is a brief but lovely description. He asks the assembly at Rome to receive her in the Lord (a plain duty of theirs), and to assist her in any business that she might have to transact, so that if she required help they might cheerfully afford it. Then he gives a reason why they should do this, “For,” said he, “she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.” She had received others, she had, succored many, and had even received into her house, or succored, the honored apostle himself. The Roman saints should now receive and succor her in any way that might open wherein they might show her hospitality or kindness.

Is not Phebe’s example worthy of imitation? Then let us ask ourselves what is needed to fit us to become “succorers of many,” as she was.’ Is it wealth? Is it talent? Is it attainment? Nay, surely it is a heart for the Lord, a burning desire to “spend and be spent” for Him, an intense love of souls, a wish to help any and all, and “especially those who are of the household of faith.” One who has these qualifications will find ways and means of becoming a “succorer of many.”

Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, was one of the apostle’s helpers in Christ Jesus, and to that devoted pair not only Paul but also “all the churches of the Gentiles gave thanks.” For a time, they and the apostle Paul abode together, for they were of the same craft or trade, viz., tentmakers. A little later we read that when the eloquent and fervent Apollos spoke boldly in public, teaching diligently the things of the Lord, yet knowing only the baptism of John, the same earnest couple, after hearing him speak, took him, and expounded the way of God more perfectly (Acts 18). Thus the Lord used them as a means of blessing and instruction.

Mary bestowed much labor on the apostle, and doubtless on others also.

Tryphena and Tryphosa were two godly women of whom Paul says that they labor in the Lord.

Persis—the beloved Persis—is noted as having labored much in the Lord, for grace marked the greater devotion of this good sister.

We are not permitted to know definitely in what way these four women labored—Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa and Persis, but the record is given and we thus have a glimpse, as it were, of their work of faith and labor of love, of their activities which were pleasing to the Lord.

It is interesting to observe also that the wife of Simon the Cyrenian, who bore the cross after the Lord (Mark 15:21) is here mentioned by the apostle as the mother of Rufus and “mine.” The grace and blessing of the Lord evidently rested upon Simon’s household. The apostle undoubtedly had special reason to remember the mother of Rufus. In the midst of his self-denying labors and privations he knew how to value the loving attentions of a motherly heart. This he had known from the mother of Rufus, and here records.

Julia is named in the salutations without any further mention; and the sister of Nereus is not forgotten, although her name is omitted.

H. L. R.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Mark.

THE second Gospel has for its design the setting forth of the service “of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” He who at first failed and at length was pronounced “profitable for ministry” was just as suitable in the power of the Holy Spirit to set it forth, as Matthew called from the receipt of customs to be an apostle was for the first Gospel. Christ serves in the Gospel, and does mighty works accompanying it, as Mark describes.

So chapter 1 presents neither genealogy nor early history as we have in Matthew and Luke. The forerunner is briefly introduced preaching and baptizing; and Jesus is baptized, and tempted of Satan. When John is imprisoned, Christ begins His public service, saying, “The time is fulfilled.” Calling certain disciples to follow Him, He promises to make them fishers of men. His words and works attest the truth. The unclean spirit is cast out publicly. Simon’s mother-in-law is healed of fever, and forthwith ministers to them. Sick and demoniacs are alike set free in numbers. He prays without seeking fame; and a leper is cleansed with His benignant touch as well as word in divine love and power.

In chapter 2 are given minute details of the paralytic, not healed only but forgiven (for sin is the root of evil), and made to walk that they might know the Son of Man’s title on earth to remit sins: a title which causes the scribes to blaspheme. He goes on in grace to call a despised tax-gatherer to follow Him, eats with those whom the Pharisees branded as sinners beyond others, and vindicates it as His mission: “I came not to call righteous but sinners.” What a Saviour for guilty man! Those who believed were to rejoice in His presence there: let John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees fast in unbelief of Him; full soon should His own have reason to fast. Besides, the new truth and power of the kingdom cannot without loss mix with old things. The sabbath itself was made for man, and the Son of Man is its Lord, not slave as Pharisees wished.

Hence in chapter 3 He on the sabbath heals a man with a withered hand; He was here to do good and save, as the orthodox counselled with their time-serving adversaries how to destroy Him. If He withdraws, it is to heal and deliver more abundantly; and after being alone on the mountain He calls and appoints twelve, whom He would, to carry on the work of grace in power like His own. For He did all in the Spirit; and such His unflagging zeal that His relations called Him danged, and such His power, that the scribes from Jerusalem imputed it in their malice to Satan. Thereon He pronounces sentence, and announces His relationship, not after the flesh, but with him whoever he be that does the will of God

Accordingly in chapter 4 seated on board ship, He teaches the new departure, contingent upon the people’s apostacy, and takes the place of the Sower, in a world such that three parts of the seed come to nothing, and only a fourth by grace takes effect where conscience works before God. Light is to shine in service; the veil no longer sways; and he that has gets more, as lie that has not loses all. A parable follows peculiar to Mark, and emblematic of the Lord’s ways in service, Who works throughout and produces all, yet hiddenly now till the harvest is come and He reaps. The parable of mustard seed illustrates the outward rise from little to a great show on the earth. The evening closes with the storm on the lake, Jesus asleep in the boat now filling, and the alarmed disciples awaking Him Who in two words made a great calm.

In chapter 5 we see Him met by the fiercest of demoniacs, Legion; for many spirits were there. Jesus, expelling them from the possessed, let them enter a great herd of swine which bore witness to their evil power in rushing at once to destruction; while the man sat clothed and in his right mind, beseeching to be with Jesus. The time however is not yet come for this, but to testify to his friends what great things the Lord, even Jesus, had done for him; while those who heard alas! besought, not Legion, but the Lord, to depart from their borders. And Jesus departs. On the other side Jairus beseeches Him to come and lay His hands on his dying daughter. And as He went, a woman touches Him secretly and is healed of her issue of blood; but the Lord will have her in the light and without fear. The damsel now dead is restored to life, as the Lord will do for Israel by-and-by.

But chapter 6 lays bare the unbelief that could not deny His word or work, yet stumbled at His humiliation in the grace which escaped them, and the Lord before His departure began to send forth the twelve with power over unclean spirits, but without resource of their own; He could control men’s hearts as He pleased. Meanwhile Herod is shown as troubled in conscience because of John as well as Herodias, dreading the report of Jesus as a resurrection of John. And the Lord gives the disciples, full of their great work, their needed quiet with Himself, while He waits on man’s wants and satisfies the poor with bread. Then sending away the multitude and the disciples by ship to Bethsaida, while He went on high to pray, He appears to them toiling in vain against contrary wind and walked the water as if He would pass them, but immediately rejoins them on their crying out in fear, and the wind ceased. When they reached land, those who once wished Him to depart bring their sick, earnest that they may be healed.

Chapter 7 manifests the superficial worthlessness of the religious chiefs and their tradition. Man’s heart was a spring of evil; but grace reveals God’s heart, even to the Syro-Phœnician and her demoniac daughter, whilst the deaf and dumb one, like the Jewish remnant, is led apart and healed, that he may hear and speak to the praise of God.

In chapter 8 a fresh pledge, in the seven loaves multiplied, is given of divine compassion of the poor of His people, as also of His power to make the blind, led outside, see clearly. The leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod was bad; yet the disciples, though ill-affected by it, had no uncertainty as to the Messiah, but like Peter, confessed Him. This however must yield to the deeper glory of the Son of Man in His rejection and death; which was too much for Peter, who deprecates it and is rebuked of the Lord, Who insists on a similar path for His followers at all cost.

In chapter 9 His glory as Son of Man and Son of God is presented to chosen witnesses above, while below even His own failed in faith to use His name against Satan. Jesus acts by His word in power, but goes on to be slain and rise the third day, whilst they understood not but dispute who should be greatest, and have a little child set before them as their due example. Even John is jealous for “us” rather than for Christ; but the Lord in grace owns all He can. Woe to the despiser of the little ones that believe! Woe too when hand, foot, eye cause to stumble! It is not earthly judgments, but unquenchable fire that awaits the unbelieving, as believers are to have salt (the preservative power of the truth) in themselves and peace with one another.

Chapter 10 shows our Lord vindicating the relationships as God ordained from the beginning; He sustains the purity of marriage, and blesses babes. Yet while appreciating the blameless young man, who sought everlasting life (not to be saved), He denies goodness in man, and lays bare love of means and position, which is ruin, and left Him to go away in sorrow. The Saviour thereon dwells on the danger, not blessing, of wealth to the astonishment of His own; and when Peter boasts their self-denial, the Lord declares the sure remembrance of every loss for His sake (and the gospel’s, peculiar to Mark), not only spiritual power now but beyond by life everlasting, with the caution that many first shall be last, and the last first. Then His death and delivery to the Gentiles are announced, and the ambition of Zebedee’s sons corrected, as well as the displeasure of the ten, by the cross as the pattern. The final testimony begins with blind Bartimæus appealing to David’s Son and receiving his sight, as Israel will in due time.

In chapter 11 He is presented as the anointed King, and owned with hosannas, pronounces on the barren fig tree which is seen withered next morning, cleanses the sanctuary, and exposes the incompetence as well as insincerity of the officials who demand His authority.

Chapter 12 sets forth in a parable Israel’s rebellion and Messiah’s rejection but exaltation; and in few words the hypocrisy of the question of Caesar, to whom they were no more subject than to God. Then the Sadducees (who talked of resurrection to undermine it and Him) hear the truth which refutes their error, and the intelligent scribe has the moral sum of the law laid down for his encouragement. Jesus puts the question how David’s Son is David’s Lord, which is life to him that answers it according to God. But alas! religious show and pretensions with selfishness end in more severe judgment; while the widow and her mite have everlasting record.

In the brief form of the prophecy of chapter 13 the special aim of the Spirit is evident in the fullness given to service past or future, not only in the center but near the end. Hence in that character “the Son” does not know; yet He gave His bondmen their authority, and to each his work.

The end approaches in chapter 14. The chief priests plot, but God’s will is done. Love anoints the Lord’s body for His burial; the traitor makes his sad bargain with the rejoicing chief priests; the last Passover is eaten, and the Lord’s supper instituted. Peter is warned, and all three sleep while the Lord goes through the agony in Gethsemane. Judas then leads the band that take Jesus, and the high priest condemns Him, not for the false witness of others but for His own confession of the truth, while Peter denies Him thrice and with oaths.

Chapter 15 gives us Jesus delivered to Pilate, the Gentile judge, who owns Him guiltless and knows the chief priests’ envy, but gives Him up to be crucified. The scene ensues beyond all before or, to come. The Messiah, the righteous Servant, forsaken by all, even by God (for so it must be for our sins), expires on the cross; the centurion in charge confesses Him Son of God; and Joseph, an honorable councilor, lays the body in his rock-hewn sepulcher.

In chapter 16 we have His resurrection briefly told by an angel to the women that saw the sepulcher open and empty. They were too fearful and amazed to say anything. In the second part of the chapter of which some unreasonably and unbelievingly doubt, we have the Lord appearing to Mary of Magdala who is disbelieved; then manifested to the two going to Emmaus, as afterward to the eleven at table, with reproof of their unbelief. Yet did He give their great commission of the gospel to all the creation, with signs following those that believed. And if He risen and ascended is styled Lord, none the less, true to the design, is He said to be “working with them” and confirming their words, as His servants go forth preaching everywhere.

W. K.

Holding Fast.

IT is a sad feature of our day that so many children of God are suffering from extreme spiritual depression. They are melancholy and not ashamed to own it. They confess they have an “all-gone” sensation. They look back upon joys that they believe are vanished forever. What they once loved and looked up to and lived for appears to be hopelessly wrecked by the devastating influences of the past few years. And they weep and mourn that what appeared so fair and beautiful and true should now be so ravaged and laid waste by the enemy.

We would remind such that this state of things has been fully anticipated in the word of God. An outline of the “down-grade movement” was sketched in apostolic times. For Revelation 2 and 3 describe the history of spiritual declension from loveless Ephesus to lukewarm and loathsome Laodicea.

But what is the counsel and command of the Lord of the churches in describing these various phases of decay? Ever and anon through those epistles comes the cry from Him Who walks amid the golden candlesticks, ringing like a clarion blast to cheer the hearts of the faithful, “HOLD FAST.” When others are abandoning divine principles, hold fast that which you have. When your nearest and dearest slip away from the truth, hold fast. When you are absolutely forsaken because you will not deny His name, let His voice sound again in your ears: “Hold fast till I come.”

Away with this faintheartedness. The Lord is unchanged; the Spirit abides; the word of God endures forever. However great the ruin, your responsibility to be true remains. Let the truth hold you fast, that you may hold fast the truth. For in order to hold the word of life forth you must hold it fast.

It is an evil day which waxes worse. But whoever gives up and whatever is given up, “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. 3:14).

GOD’S eyes on us (1 Peter 3:12; Psa. 32:8). Our eyes on God (2 Chron. 20:12; Psa. 123:2).

The First Resurrection.

FOLLOWING up what was said last month on this subject we will now look at Philippians 3:11. “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead.” “Of the dead,” as in the A. V., is an unquestionable error; most ancient authorities and good modern translations agreeing therewith. The whole force of the apostle’s word is lost unless this is seen. In what sense could he be ardently longing for a mere general resurrection? But once grasp that he had before him the peculiar and heavenly blessedness of the saints at the Lord’s coming, and all is understood. The whole context is very blessed. The apostle tells us that he had let all go for Christ. His fleshly advantages, his human righteousness, were now counted but loss and dung for Christ. He was running a race, his eye was on the goal; and so blessed was the end to him that he cared not what difficulties and sufferings lay in the path. “If by any means,” he says, “I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead.” Not that he had the slightest doubt as to the result, but he means that he cared not how rugged and trying was the way, so attractive was the issue of it all. Glory with Christ was before him; he longed for it, and panted for the moment when all should be his own in unhindered and full enjoyment above.

But there are other passages of Scripture which present difficulties to many upon this subject.

John 5:28, 29 is a very common objection to the truth of a special and separate resurrection for believers. “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [judgment].” The question in some minds is as to the expression, “the hour.” If good and evil rise in “the hour that is coming,” must they not of necessity all rise together? Not so: the Lord uses the term in an extended sense. Verse 25 of the same chapter is sufficient proof. There we read, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” Here he is speaking of the spiritually dead—men “dead in trespasses and in sins;” and of Himself as the Quickener. Now of that “hour” we can still say (blessed be God) “and now is;” for His work of grace is still proceeding, though He is on high. And if “the hour” in verse 25 has lasted already more than 1800 years, why may not the same expression in verse 29 cover 1000 years? And we may go further. The Lord expressly speaks of two resurrections. If He had been speaking of one moment, when all shall come out of their graves together, would He have spoken of “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of judgment?” Nay. Thus He makes the distinction which some quote it to question.

Another puzzling passage to some is Daniel 12:2. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” This is commonly taken to refer to the resurrection of dead men at the end; but this is very questionable. The context speaks of Daniel’s people (the Jews), and of their time of unparalleled trouble at the end of the age. At that time Michael shall stand up for them; and all that are written in the book (the elect remnant) shall be delivered. Then follows the verse quoted, plainly referring to the Jewish people only, and speaks only of “many.” These present two serious difficulties, if the resurrection of men’s bodies is in question. It is, in fact, the national resurrection of Israel; Ezekiel 37, Isaiah 26:19, Romans 11:15 furnishing instances of death and resurrection used in a national sense.

All Scripture thus hangs together. The saints are to have a resurrection of the same character as their Lord, and quite distinct from the ungodly, when the Lord comes. And how soon may all be ours! “Quickly” is the word; has it entered our hearts? Soon may we hear His shout, and the archangel’s voice, calling His sleeping ones from their tombs, and changing in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, those who are alive and rain. What a moment! What a company! All the redeemed caught up to meet the Lord in the air to live together with Him. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14).

W. W. F.

Reading the Scriptures.

IN response to the invitation in the January number, we have received a letter on the above subject from A. E., from which we make the following extract: ―

In the first place, let me admonish you to read attentively and prayerfully the word of God—at stated periods if possible, but do not on any account miss your daily meal.

The next thing is searching, which takes more time, but

A little each day will add to your store,

And thus day by day, you will know more and more.

There is a necessity of knowing what saith the Scriptures, because of the error which abounds.

Having read and searched you now have something to meditate upon. The Psalmist said, “My meditation of him shall be sweet” (Psa. 104:34). May He command our thoughts and our affections wherever we may be, whether in the din of labor, or as we walk along the way, or even as the Psalmist says, in the night watches. “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” (Psa. 63:5, 6).

I have found it very useful to have a systematic way of reading. I commence with Genesis, and read right through, not to finish in any given time, say, in a year; this I have found becomes more a duty than a pleasure, because one is apt to set the mind on getting through the allotted portion and thus is deprived of blessing. I have found it helpful to take certain subjects and trace them out; for example, the “I wills” of our Lord, or the “Fear pots” of the Old and New Testaments.

I have derived great benefit from committing portions to memory, and in this exercise the Lord will surely refresh your soul by the Holy Spirit.

It was the lot of a certain young friend to have little spare time during the day, yet it was evident that in spite of these adverse circumstances he was getting more and more acquainted with the word of God, and consequently growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so much so that the curiosity of some was aroused to inquire about him. It was, however, explained very simply by his landlady, who said, “Oh, he just sits down to his meals with his Bible before him, and reads while he is having his food.” Thus the diligent soul was made fat.

Correspondence.

M. H.— What explanation to give a mistress for not repeating the Lord’s prayer as she wishes? The prayer that the Lord taught his disciples (Matt. 6, Luke 11) contained desires perfectly suited to the time and circumstances then present, before His own departure and the Spirit’s advent. That it was not intended as a permanent form to be used by Christians appears from several considerations. (1) The Lord promised that when He was on high whatsoever they asked the Father in His name He would give. He adds that they had not up to that time asked anything in His name (John 16:23, 24), although they had been using the “Lord’s prayer” for years. So the believer is now privileged to ask in the name of Christ, which the disciples did not do when the Lord was with them, in spite of the fact that they used the temporary form which the Lord Himself taught them. (2) The Holy Spirit is now here to lead the Christian to pray as he ought, which was not the case in the days of the disciples. See Romans 8:26, 27; Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20. (3) There is no trace of the use of this prayer after Pentecost, and the prayers given in the Acts and the Epistles are totally different in the character of the petitions offered. (4) Thanksgiving, which is to accompany Christian prayer and supplication (Phil. 4:6), is absent from the prayer referred to. (5) As the wording of the prayer in Matthew is different from that of Luke (especially in the R. V.), the question arises which form is to be used, the longer or the shorter? If it were to be repeated daily would not the form be identical in both Gospels?

At the same time we should avoid thinking there is any imperfection in this prayer. This could not be. It was perfectly and beautifully adapted to the time when the Lord gave it. But we have His own word that they were to pray differently when He was gone. We now look for the Lord to come to receive into a prepared place on high rather than the reign of peace on earth when the will of God shall be done here as in heaven. The Lord taught how to pray then, but it is the Spirit Who teaches now, as the scriptures referred to above prove conclusively. No doubt if your mistress saw you had conscientious reason based upon Scripture for not repeating this prayer she would cease to press you.

D. T.— What connection is there between the “twelve years” in Luke 8:42, 43? We shall be glad of light on this point.

H.W.P.— May sisters ask questions at a Bible Reading? The scripture bearing most directly is 1 Cor. 14:34, 35, which settles the matter for public meetings.

Pentecostal Conviction and Conversion.

THE striking effects of Peter’s testimony on the day of Pentecost leaves no doubt that he was the vessel of the newly-descended Holy Ghost. “Thou shalt catch men,” said the Lord to him when leaving his nets; it was but now however that the promise was realized. Still what a realization! About three thousand stiff-necked and obdurate Jews accept in toto the words of the apostle, which fasten upon them the unqualified charge of rebellion against God and His Christ.

Such a result is the more remarkable when we consider that Peter in his address did not study to avoid coming in contact with the national prejudices of the Jews. He did not seek by arts of flattery or tricks of rhetoric or flights of oratory to cajole them into an acceptance of the gospel. He knew from personal experience the scorn with which a Galilean was regarded in the metropolis, yet he did not hesitate to refer to his Master as Jesus of Nazareth. He would not gloss over their shameful coalition with the Gentiles against the Messiah; nor did he omit to point out that nothing but His crucifixion would satisfy them. In short he testified the plain unvarnished truth.

Nevertheless, the “tongue of fire” did its own work. The violent prejudices of religious tradition against an unlettered man, who was insisting that the crucified Nazarene was none other than the Messiah of the prophets and that they were guilty of conspiring against the Anointed of God and crucifying the Lord of glory, were consumed by its unsparing power. The indictment was true; and now they felt and owned its truth. The arrow of conviction quivered in their consciences. The alarming consequences of their guilt flashed upon them and filled them with the most harrowing apprehensions.

They now believed that Jesus was made both Lord and Christ. They now acknowledged the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.” But if the Lord Jesus was seated on high, who were those foes that would be made the footstool of His feet? Who indeed but themselves? Had they not gathered themselves together against the Lord and His Christ? Did they not stand up with Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles against Jesus, the holy Servant of God? Did not their voices swell those passionate clamours against “the Holy and the Just,” “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Alas! the truth, however unpalatable, was that their hearts were at enmity with God. Nor could they deny it. Moreover, they could not but remember that the same one who foresaw the day of the Lord’s exaltation spake of the day of His wrath (Psa. 110:5). He who spake beforehand of the unholy alliance against the Lord’s anointed, warned of Jehovah’s “sore displeasure” that would surely follow (Psa. 2:5). No wonder they “were pricked to the heart.” The question in their mouths now was not “What meaneth this?” Idle curiosity was exchanged for intense earnestness. “What shall we do?” was the inquiry addressed to Peter and the rest of the apostles; they rightly feared the “judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”

The answer came swift and assuring; for the truth ever has a balm for its own wounds. “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” was the reply of Peter. There must be no palliation, no extenuation. They could not feel too deeply the guilt of their position. Hence the apostles are not too hasty to put an end to their anxiety. It would be the better for their souls to be thoroughly humbled in the dust of repentance.

Nor was repentance all. Let them own their faith in the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the glorification of Jesus of Nazareth by being baptized in His name. Remission of sins should follow; for the exalted One was made a Prince and a Saviour, for “to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

But further, the grace of God would not only remit the sins of the penitent ones, but they should receive “the gift of the Holy Ghost,” even as the apostles and the other disciples had done that day. For the promise was to them and to their children and to those afar off, as many as the Lord God should call.

With such gracious words did the apostles set before the inquiring multitude the provisions of the God of grace for guilty Israel; at the same time, with earnest entreaties, beseeching them to abandon that “untoward generation,” which was doomed to the fierce judgment of God.

The response to this promulgation of the conditions of peace by these ambassadors of Christ was a signal proof of the mighty power of the Holy Ghost which was behind their testimony. Three thousand Jews received the word and made public confession of their faith in the Messiah Who had passed through the heavens. They forsook the ranks of His foes and allied themselves with His followers.

What a glorious instalment of the blessing that should attend the preaching of men filled with the Holy Ghost! “Greater works than these,” said the Lord, alluding to His own works, “shall ye [the believer possessing the promised Spirit of God] do because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12). Having accomplished eternal redemption and being glorified along with the Father on high, the Lord was pleased to crown the initial effort of His witnesses with a success unknown in the days of His own ministry here below.

The goodly company of Christian converts on the day of Pentecost abides as a standing witness to what may result from one man’s preaching under the energy of the Holy Ghost. It has been somewhat cynically remarked that now-a-days, instead of three thousand souls being converted by one sermon, the average is certainly less than one soul for three thousand sermons. And the general truth of the statement can hardly be denied. Still, in the present disordered condition of the church, the wisdom of God refrains from so largely honoring the words of any one man, Were it so, we can well imagine the temptation to such a man to arrogate to himself a power not his own, at the expense too of his brethren not so highly blessed in their ministry. While at the same time marvel-loving saints would crowd around him and unduly exalt him at the expense of the name of the Lord and His truth. We see this exemplified even now when blessing is spread over a wide area and is given through the mouths of many witnesses; how much more if given as in the measure of the day of Pentecost!

Instead therefore of vainly regretting the non-recurrence of the measure of Pentecostal blessing we shall profit more by remembering that one true conversion is as much beyond the unaided power of man as three thousand, and for that reason, taking due precaution not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit, by Whose power alone such work can be accomplished in any degree whatever.

Christ the Measure of Blessing.

THE simple thought on my heart is that Christ is not only the test for everything, but the measure of everything. Suppose, for instance, we want to know our blessing. We might go over the details as given in the word, or we might take a shorter way and fix the eye and heart on Christ. Think of what Christ is to God, of God’s thoughts of Christ, of what Christ is to the heart of God; and just think, too, of what God saw in His beloved Son on this earth. God read every thought in that heart; God heard every word that fell from those lips and read the motives of that wonderful life. Twelve years of age, when in Jerusalem He said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

How perfect was His every thought, every wish, every desire. There was not a single thing in the heart and mind of Christ that was not in perfect harmony with the mind, as well as perfectly meeting the heart of God. All He did on this earth, even to delivering Himself up on the cross, all was added together, nothing was lost, and all ascended to God as a sweet-smelling savor (Lev. 1). And if not a single sinner had been saved, it would still have been a sweet-smelling savor.

But it was God’s will that He should come down to save. For God wanted to have us, and Christ laid down His life for us. Therefore that Blessed One made a claim upon the heart of God He never made before. As He says, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.” What is there that the Father will not do for His Son? “What shall be done for the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” Is He not worthy of all the Father can put upon Him?

Well, now, if I want to know my blessings, I must look at Christ; I may go over the details as given in the New Testament and count those blessings and count, count, count! but I may learn it in a simpler way in Christ (the burnt offering of Lev. 1), doing God’s will right on to death. All the value of that life on earth and of that death has gone up to God as a sweet-smelling savor.

And it has gone up for us, because Leviticus 1:4 says, “And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering.” This was to show the offerer his perfect identification with the offering. “And it shall be accepted for him.” So God has accepted all that the blessed Lord did in life and death.

Man did not know what went on in that wonderful life. Man stood and looked at the Man on the cross of Calvary, little dreaming what was going on. But God knew all, valued and accepted it. And “He hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

If people or angels want to see by-and-by the most illustrious example of God’s grace, they will have to look at us; for we are to be to the glory of His grace. In the church will be the bright display of grace. There will be the glory of it, the brightest, most brilliant and striking manifestation of grace.

We know His favor now, and it is a place of favor in His Beloved. Has Christ a standing in the favor of God? So have we. “As he is, so are we in this world.”

If I want therefore to learn how God regards me, I have to learn how He regards His beloved Son. Christ is my measure of blessing and my standing as to God’s favor. Christ’s glory is bound up with us and we bound up with it.

Almost the last words of the Son on earth are (in effect), “Oh, my Father, remember how my glory is bound up with those poor things I am leaving behind in the world. They are bound up in me and I am bound up in them. Take care of them, because I am glorified in them.”

When God takes us to glory, will it be merely for our happiness? No; but for the honor of His beloved Son. The Son having glorified God, it is now God’s turn, so to speak, to do something for His Son. And how is He going to do it? By means of poor sinners, such as we. We are to be “to the praise of his glory.” We, once dead in sins, children of wrath, under Satan’s power are to be in the place of close association with God’s beloved Son, the exhibitors of His grace.

What is grace? Is it merely unmerited favor? It is more. It is God acting as God towards me as a poor guilty hell-deserving sinner and blessing me according to what He is as love and according to God’s appreciation of what Christ has done and according to the delight He has in His Son.

Thus, if I want to know what my blessedness will be, it will be “with Him.” If I want to know my present blessings and my standing and my acceptance, I can look at Christ and say, that is it—nothing less than Christ. For Christ is the standard, the measure as well as the ground and channel of all our blessing.

J. B.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Luke.

The First Half.

THE third Gospel is distinguished by its display of God’s grace in man, which could be only and perfectly in “the Holy Thing” to be born and called Son of God. Here therefore, as the moral ways of God shine, so is manifested man’s heart in saint and sinner. Hence the preface and dedication to Theophilus, and the evangelist’s motives for writing; hence also the beautiful picture of Jewish piety in presence of divine intervention for both forerunner and Son of the Highest to accomplish promise and prophecy, as announced by angels (ch. 1). The last of the Gentile empires was in power when the Saviour was born in David’s city, and Jehovah’s glory shone around shepherds at their lowly watch that night when His angel proclaimed the joyful event and its significant token, with the heavenly host praising as they said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, in men complacency (or good pleasure). God’s Son, born of woman, was also born under law, the seal of which He duly received; and the godly remnant seen in Simeon and Anna, that looked for Jerusalem’s redemption, testified to Him in the spirit of prophecy; while He walked in the holy subjection of grace, with wisdom beyond all teachers, yet bearing witness to His consciousness of divine Sonship even from His youth (ch. 2).

In due time, marked still more explicitly by the dates of Gentile dominion and of Jewish disorder, both civil and religious, John comes preaching, not here the kingdom of the heavens, nor yet the kingdom of God, but a baptism of repentance for remission of sins. Here alone and most appropriately is quoted from Isaiah’s oracle, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God”; here only have we John’s answers to the inquiring people, tax gatherers and soldiers; and here too is stated anticipatively his imprisonment, but also the baptism of our Lord; and here only is given His praying, when the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and the Father’s voice, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee am I well pleased.” And the genealogy is through Mary (as she throughout is prominent, not Joseph as in Matthew) up to Adam, as becomes the Second Man and Last Adam (ch. 3).

Then follows His temptation viewed morally, not dispensationally as in the first Gospel; the natural, the worldly and the spiritual. This order necessarily involved the omission in chapter 4:8, as the critics have rightly followed the best witnesses, though none of them appears to notice the evidence it renders to plenary inspiration. Thereon He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and at Nazareth in the synagogue He reads Isaiah 61:1,2 (omitting the last clause strikingly), and declares this scripture fulfilled today in their ears. But when His gracious words were met by unbelieving words on their part, He points out the grace of old that passed by Israel and blessed Gentiles. This kindled His hearers to murderous wrath even then, while He passing through the midst of them, went His way, and at Capernaum astonished them publicly with His teaching and cast out an unclean spirit in the synagogue, as He brought Peter’s mother-in-law immediately to strength from “a great fever,” and subsequently healed the varied sick and demoniacs that were brought, while He refused such testimony to Him, And when men would detain Him, He said, “I must announce the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for therefore was I sent” (chs. 4). It is a question of the soul yet more than of the body.

In connection accordingly with preaching the word of God, we have the Lord, by a miracle that revealed Him, calling Simon Peter, who judged himself as never before, with his partners, to forsake all and follow Him: an incident of earlier date, but reserved for this point in Luke. The cleansing of a man full of leprosy follows, and after the healing of multitudes He retired and prays; but as He Afterward was teaching in presence of Pharisees and law-doctors, He declares to a paralytic the forgiveness of his sins, and, to prove it, bids him arise, take up his couch, and go to his house, as the man did forthwith. Then we have the call of Levi, the tax-gatherer, and a great feast with many such in his house; but Jesus answers all murmurs with the open assertion of His coming to call sinners to repentance, as He defends the actual eating and drinking of His disciples by their joy in His presence with them: when taken away, they should fast. In parable He intimates that the old was doomed, and that the new character and power demand a new way; though nobody relishes the new naturally, but likes the old (chap. 5).

Chapter 6 shows first the Son of Man Lord also of the Sabbath; and secondly the title to do good on that day, which filled them with madness against Him. Next, going to the mountain to pray all night to God, He chose twelve and named them apostles, with whom He came down to a plateau, healing all that came under diseases and demons. Then He addresses them in that form of His discourse which falls in perfectly with our Gospel. The great moral principles are there, not contrast with law as in Matthew, but the personal blessedness of His own, and the woes of such as were there who enjoy the world.

Thence in chapter 7 He entered Capernaum, and the healing of the centurion’s slave follows. Luke distinguishes the embassy of Jewish elders, then of friends when He was near the house; but the dispensational issue was left to Matthew. The raising of the widow’s only son at Nain yet more deeply proves the divine power He wields with a perfect human heart. It was high time for John’s disciples to find all doubts solved by Jesus, Who testifies to the Baptist’s place instead of being witnessed to by him. Yet was wisdom justified of all her children, as the penitent woman finds from the Lord’s lips in the Pharisee’s house. Everywhere it was divine grace in man; and she tasted it in the faith that saved her.

In chapter 8 we see Him on His errand of mercy, followed not by the twelve only but by certain women healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, who ministered to Him of their substance. And the Lord addresses the crowd in parables, but not of the Kingdom, as in Matthew; after that He designates His true relations to be those that hear and do the word of God. The storm on the lake follows, and the healing of Legion in the details of grace, as well as of the woman who had a flux of blood, while He was on the way to raise the daughter of Jairus.

Chapter 9 gives the mission of the, twelve empowered by and like Himself, and sent to proclaim the Kingdom of God, with its effect on Herod’s bad conscience. The apostles on their return He leads apart, but, being followed by a hungry crowd, He feeds about 5,000 men with five loaves and two fishes multiplied under His hand, while the fragments left filled twelve hand-baskets. After praying alone, He elicits from His disciples men’s varying thoughts of Him, and Peter’s confession of His Messiahship (Matthew recording much more). For this He substitutes His suffering and His glory as Son of Man: they were no more to speak of Him as Messiah. Deeper need had to be met in the face of Jewish unbelief. The Transfiguration follows with moral traits usual in Luke, and the center of that glory is owned Son of God. When the Lord and His chosen witnesses come clown, the power of Satan that baffled the disciples yields to the majesty of God in Jesus, Who thereon reminds them of His delivery into men’s hands, and lays bare to the end of the chapter the various forms that self may assume in His people or in pretenders to that place.

Then we have in chapter 10 the seventy sent out two and two before His face, a larger and more urgent mission peculiar to Luke. On their return, exultant that even the demons were subject to them in His name, the Lord looks on to Satan’s overthrow, but calls them to rejoice that their names were written in the heavens. To this our Gospel leads more and more henceforth. His own joy follows, not as in Matthew dispensationally connected, but bound up with the blessedness of the disciples. Then the tempting lawyer is taught that, while those who trust themselves are as blind as they are powerless, grace sees one’s neighbor in every one that needs love. The parable of the Samaritan is in Luke only. The close of the chapter teaches that the one thing needful, the good part, is to hear the word of Jesus.

But prayer follows (as He was praying), not only because of our need, but to enjoy the God of grace Whose children we become through faith; and He urges importunity in His illustration. His casting out a dumb demon gave to some occasion to blaspheme, whereon He declares that he that is not with Him is against Him, and he that gathers not with Him scatters: a solemn word for every soul. Nature has nothing to do with it, but the grace that hears and keeps the word of God. So did the Ninevites repent, and the Queen of Sheba come to hear; and more than Solomon and Jonah was there. But if light is not seen, it is the fault of the eye; if it is wicked, the body also is dark. Then to the end the dead externalism of man’s religion is exposed, and the woe of such as have taken away the key of knowledge, and their malice when exposed (chap. 11).

Chapter 12 warns the disciples against hypocrisy, and urges the sure revelation of all things in the light, with the call to fear God and to confess the Son of Man, trusting not in themselves but in the Holy Spirit. It is no question now of Jewish blessing; and He would be no judge of earthly inheritance. They should beware of being like the rich fool whose soul is required when busy with gain. The ravens and the lilies teach a better lesson. The little flock need not fear, but rid themselves rather of what men covet, and seek a treasure unfailing: if it is in the heavens, there will the heart be. And thence is the Lord coming Whom they were habitually and diligently to wait for. Blessed they whom the Lord finds watching! Blessed he whom the Lord finds working! To put off His coming in heart is evil, and will be so judged. But the judgment will be righteous, and worst of all that of corrupt and faithless and apostate Christendom. Whatever His love, the opposition of man brings hate, and fire, and division, not peace meanwhile. His grace aroused enmity judgment came and will; as on the other hand He was baptized in death that the pent up floods of grace might flow as they do in the gospel.

W. K.

The Judgment Seat of Christ.

THESE papers on the Lord’s coming would be certainly incomplete without a few remarks concerning the judgment seat of Christ; so solemn and yet so blessed for every soul that loves our Lord Jesus. It is to be feared that considerable uncertainty prevails as to the judgment seat in the minds of many of the Lord’s own. Some seem to think that the godly and the ungodly will all stand together before Christ, and such defer, in consequence, all certainty of forgiveness and salvation until that day; while others, who are quite clear as to this, have nevertheless vague thoughts as to what will come out on that solemn occasion. How important is it therefore to have our thoughts molded by the word of God! In the varying opinions of men there is no possible resting place for faith; but when we come to the Scriptures with minds subject to the teaching of the Spirit of God, all is blessedly plain.

The first passage at which we will look Isaiah 2 Corinthians 5:10, 11. There we read, “We must all appear [or, be manifested] before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

In this chapter the apostle is speaking of the Christian in view of death and judgment. The first is by no means a certainty, for we look for the coming of the Lord. Hence he says in verse 1, “If our earthly house be dissolved.” But if it happens, we know that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When the Lord Jesus comes, His sleeping ones will be raised in glory, and the living will be changed into His image, mortality being swallowed up of life. For this God has wrought us, and has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident. How can we fear death, knowing that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord; knowing also that soon He will have all the objects of His love around Him in glorified bodies like His own? The thought of it rather draws out our affections, and causes us to serve Him loyally in this scene. So the apostle states as to himself, “Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to Him.”

But this brings in the thought of the judgment seat, “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ” Who are “we all”? All the saints most assuredly, but the expression goes farther, including every responsible person. It is plain that the ungodly are contemplated somewhat in the entire context. In verse 3 we read, “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” The apostle implies that some will be “clothed” (that is, resume their bodies) who will nevertheless be “naked” (that is, destitute of divine righteousness). In verse 11 we find, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men”; in other words, knowing what a terrible thing it will be for some men to stand before the Lord, the apostle earnestly persuaded them to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore the “we all” includes everyone—saints and sinners.

But will all stand before the Lord together, as is commonly supposed? Certainly not; verse 10 no more teaches such a thing than John 5:29 that all will rise together. The judgment seat of Christ for the ungodly will be a great white throne; the issue, the second death, the lake of fire. But is this for believers, however failing? Blessed be God, no.

The scriptures are most plain that judgment and condemnation are passed for those who belong to Christ. Hear the words of our Lord Jesus Himself, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into judgment [same word as in verse 27], but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Hear also the words of the Holy Spirit, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), and this statement is absolute, without the interpolated qualifying sentence which follows in our ordinary version. Therefore faith can boldly say, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33).

The great white throne will be set up at the end of time, at the close of the Lord’s thousand years’ reign, when all the saints will reign in glory with Him; and very long after His coming to receive His own. How can such then be judged? Did not He, in wondrous grace, bear our judgment Himself? Did not the wrath of a holy God fall upon Him for our sakes when He stood for us at Calvary? And can God charge the feeblest believer again with his sins? Blessed be His name, He cannot and will not. We are eternally justified. He has justified us; and we can sing aloud of His righteousness. We have boldness in the day of judgment, because as Christ is, so are we in this world. His perfect love has cast out all fear (1 John 4). Therefore it is a serious error that all will stand together before the throne, affecting both His grace and our holy affections toward God.

But Christians are nevertheless responsible persons, and it is important never to forget it. Grace by no means removes responsibility, though men prone to lasciviousness are apt to think so. All will come out into the light when we are manifested before our Lord. All that we have done, said, and thought, will pass in review on that day. How we shall then adore the grace that has forgiven and justified, the grace and love, too, which have borne with us all through the pilgrim pathway, and which will then have presented us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy! Then there will be no reserve. Things which pass now will be seen in their true light; we shall see them as the holy eyes of the Lord see them. Surely it will deepen our worship, and draw out our praise!

Some seem to feel that this touches such scriptures as Hebrews 10:17. By no means. Was not David’s sin put away? Yet has not the Spirit of God given it a permanent place on the page of Scripture for our warning and profit? And stronger still, was not Peter’s sin freely forgiven and blotted out? Yet the Holy Spirit inspired all the evangelists to record it in their Gospels. Did the record ever disturb Peter’s conscience?

But let us look more closely at 2 Corinthians 5:10. “We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ.” This includes all, and because it does, the apostle abstains from saying, “We shall all be judged,” as in Rev. 20:12, 13. Then the verse branches out, and we get two distinct classes, and as a matter of fact, two quite different occasions. (1) We shall receive for our good deeds; (2) the ungodly for their bad.

(1) Our evil was all laid to the account of the Lord Jesus, and He suffered, in infinite grace, for our sins at Calvary. Our sins will never therefore be charged to us. But how wonderful that we shall be rewarded for our good. Every excellent thing that we have wrought, all the fruit we have borne, has been through the action of the indwelling Spirit; yet we shall be rewarded and commended. “Then shall everyone have praise of God.”

(2) When the ungodly come before Him, His all-searching eye can discern no good (Rom. 3:12); but the evil will stand out in all its hideous colors, and receive from His holy and righteous hand eternal judgment.

What infinite mercy that this terrible portion will never be ours! With the Psalmist we can say, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psa. 143:2). Yet is it wholesome and salutary to keep before us that we are to be manifested before Him. How carefully will this make us walk and serve! When our service is reviewed, all wood, hay, and stubble will be consumed as unfit for His presence, and for eternal remembrance (though the salvation of the failing vessel is not endangered); whilst all that is of the character of gold, silver, and precious stones will receive its reward (1 Cor. 3). This will amply repay all loss and self-denial for Him down here—His smile of approval, His own word of approbation will fully satisfy the soul’s desire.

But it is good to walk and serve in the light of that day now. Paul could say, “We are made manifest unto God” (2 Cor. 5:11). He did not wish to wait for the judgment seat to have all out before the Lord, but sought to walk transparently all the way. Have we any hidden chambers that we do not desire Him to look into? Have we any reserve? Is there any treasured idol? If there is aught in us, or connected with us unbefitting His presence, let us have grace to put it away, and so to walk before Him that we may be able guilelessly to say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts” (Psa. 139:23). The whole Psalm from which these words are quoted may well be Carefully pondered in the light of the Lord’s presence in connection with our subject.

W. W. F.

God in Christ.

IT is of the deepest possible interest to see the testimony of God brought to us in the person of the Son Himself. God Himself is speaking there; for He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; “for God giveth not the Spirit [to Him] in measure.” Everything was the expression of God Himself. It was not “Thus saith the Lord” for some precious sentences—and then a man’s relapsing into his ordinary though perhaps sanctified existence. All that came forth breathed God. God in human kindness, philanthropy; as the apostle speaks, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” And if He took up a child, if He spoke to a sinner, if He sat at the well weary, with a yet more weary and desolate heart beside Him, if He touched a leper with a gracious and sovereign “I will,”— all told that God was there amongst men.

We have perfect gracious man walking before God for our eyes to rest on and learn, and God walking before men in all the near grace they needed, come to them just as they were, that they might learn what He was, and by it be drawn out of what they were. It was presented to them in all their distance from God, and in all their misery where grace could be best felt, that they might be drawn out of that misery, and know with joy the God Who had done so.

J. N. D.

Correspondence.

A. M. H.— Shall we know each other in heaven? Undoubtedly we shall. The whole tenor of Scripture supports the hope. The disciples knew the Lord after His resurrection, and our bodies will be like His body of glory (Phil. 3:21); we shall be suited to a glorified state, but retain our personal identity. The apostles knew Moses and Elias on the mount of Transfiguration. And Saul recognized Samuel when brought up, though the witch was far from expecting to see the prophet (1 Sam. 28). The rich man in Hades knew Abraham, as well as Lazarus (Luke 16:23).

Beside every servant is taught to look for his own personal reward on high, which could not be if all personality is to be swamped. Paul evidently expected to know the Thessalonians when he wrote, “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” 1 Thessalonians 2:19; compare 1 John 2:28,

W. G. B.— The dead saints who appeared in the holy city. Matthew 27:52, 53. This was a special witness to the overthrow of the power of death by the Lord Jesus granted to some in Jerusalem after His own resurrection. It was an earnest of the first resurrection when all that are Christ’s shall come forth from their graves.

The appearance was plainly not of public concern; for it was to “many”, and not to all. We must respect therefore the reticence of Scripture with regard to them.

The Teaching of the Apostles.

As the words of the apostles were made instrumental through the action of the Holy Ghost to the conversion of so many on the day of Pentecost, so we find the converts “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.” For while the sovereign Spirit had now come to teach the saints “all things,” it was through the anointed tongues of the apostles that He unfolded those truths which were specially to characterize the saints during the time of His presence in the church here below.

Possibly there were many among the three thousand who, like Nicodemus, were teachers in Israel, skilled in the law, the prophets, and the psalms. These however, in spite of their attainments in the Jewish religion, were but babes in Christianity. Because, though the Old Testament confirmed the words of the apostles, as we may gather from Acts 17:11. it is nevertheless true that the things being taught were only then for the first time made known by those who preached the gospel “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). Hence they attended to the teaching of the apostles with earnestness and persevering diligence in order to be instructed.

Here then we have the first word written of these disciples who had just been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And who can help being painfully reminded of the wide departure of the professing church of today from this primitive practice? It is useless to deny what is patent to all who examine (be it ever so cursorily) for themselves. Nor is this declension peculiar to any one section of Christendom, nor to any one quarter of the globe. Wherever we look we see the teaching of the apostles either denied or ignored. And, what is of more practical consequence, every believer suffers in some degree from the effects of this abandonment of the fundamental grounds of faith laid down at the beginning by New Testament apostles and prophets.

It is the prevalent fashion now-a-days to cry down the apostles and their teaching. “Who is Paul, and who is Cephas?” they say, with a contemptuous sneer. “Mere enthusiasts in the spread of the cause they professed—men without the breadth of thought suited to the developments of today.” What was adapted to the first is, so they think, altogether inapplicable to the nineteenth century.

Now we hereby unblushingly profess the old-fashioned faith that God set the apostles first in the church. We believe that the apostles occupied a position altogether unique in the founding of the church on earth. They had a place of authority and eminence quite peculiar to them, as they will also have “in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory” (Matt. 19:28).

If therefore we wish to know the truths relating to the church, we must revert to the apostles’ teaching. It is, of course, hardly necessary to say that we do not refer in any sense to what is known as the “Apostles’ Creed.” Indeed it is generally accepted that this formulated confession of faith has no adequate claim to the title under which it is known. The teaching of the apostles is contained in the Acts and the Epistles, and there abides for the instruction and guidance of those who wish to conform thereto, even as those early disciples did, of whom it is said that they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.”

Even in the apostolic age, there were many ominous signs of the general desertion of first principles which was stealing upon the church. Paul writing to Timothy in view of this spirit of letting slip the truth, affectionately warns him, “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee” (1 Tim. 4:16). And again, he writes, “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. 3:14).

We gather therefore that even then there were “strange doctrines” abroad (Heb. 13:9), doctrines of men (Col. 2:22), as there should be of demons (1 Tim. 4:1). It is certain that such teachings did not emanate from God our Saviour (Titus 2 So), nor were they in conformity with the scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16). Hence they were to be avoided as being contrary to “sound doctrine,” as received from the apostles.

If true of old, how much more now when these noxious weeds have multiplied as all evil things do! How careful we need be! How many go out to gather herbs, and in ignorance gather poisonous gourds. Well is it if they find out there is “death in the pot” before it is too late. The “meal” of God will avert the calamity (2 Kings 4:39-41); for His mercy often intervenes to save men from the consequences of their folly.

Still it is unnecessary for believers to go far towards poisoning themselves with the imaginative theories of men in order to prove that spiritual food does not grow wild in the fields of nature. It is safest to run no risks. It has been well said and extensively quoted that “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” We should like to add that a very great many books are to be smelt only, and that at a prudent distance. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” And bad doctrine is highly infectious. It taints the very air around; so that unsuspecting readers or hearers are contaminated before they are aware of it. The only efficient disinfectant is the teaching of the apostles. This is a preservative as well, not only destroying the germs of error but strengthening and sustaining the soul in a state of spiritual health.

Let us hold therefore to the doctrine given of old by the apostles, and contained for us in the scriptures, remembering that in these matters what is new to-day is not true, and what is true is not new.

Luke 13:31-35. How striking in this picture of unequaled majesty and pathos is the mingled sternness and tenderness of our Lord. Good men have not been wanting in whom one or other of these traits was characteristic—a Savonarola on the one hand, a Francis of Assisi on the other.

But whence comes this unique and exquisitely balanced union of the two? Whence but because He, Who was, is, and ever must be God, became flesh?

R. B. JR.

Christ the Standard of Walk.

IT is vastly important that the believer should lay hold of the principle that Christ is the standard by which everything is to be tried.

Look now at what the apostle John writes. When he views us as going through this world, what does he say as to our walk? Are we exhorted to walk as gentlemen, or as respectable people, or even as Christians? No. Christ is said to be the measure of our walk. Just turn to it for a moment. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked” (1 John 2:6).

This is beautiful to see, and will I. think help our souls. “As he walked” is our pattern. In seeking to walk so, we shall gain power. We may have to crawl first in order to walk Afterward. But it is a great thing to learn how to walk.

I think the first thing necessary to learn in order to know how to walk is to see that we are taken into favor “in the beloved,” that “as he is, so are we in this world.” The question of sin and sins has been forever settled.

Now you may just as well try to turn Christ’s love for the church, or try to touch Christ’s position in any way, as to interfere with the believer’s position. It is unalterably secure; though the saints do not always enter as they should into the sense of this security. In fact, we often allow ourselves to be cheated out of the enjoyment of blessing, even though we cannot lose the blessing itself.

If I wish to find how I ought to walk through this world, I may read through the Gospels and through the Epistles and reckon up all the precepts contained there which refer to my walk.

I shall by this means learn what I ought to do as a man, as a husband, as a father in this world, and how to act in all the different relationships, responsibilities, and associations of life. But it will be a lengthy task to peruse all these and count them all up.

The apostle John however has a shorter way. He sums up all the precepts in one word, so to speak. “He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” We are to consider how Christ walked, and to imitate that walk.

Whatever we take in hand, let us bring Christ in. The question we ought to ask ourselves is whether this or that is worthy of Christ. If Christ were here, would He do this? If so, we ought to do it. Would He shun that? If so, we ought to shun it too.

Who can walk as Christ walked except ourselves? We have eternal life. If we look at Christ in heaven, He is our life. “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,” and the Holy Ghost gives us power and energy, so that, like Paul, we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us. He has not sent us a warfare at our own charges, or like the Egyptians to make bricks without straw. We have both the pattern and the power.

It is our joyous hope to be fully like Him. We often sing,

When Thine own face we see,

Then shall we like Thee be,

Then evermore with Thee,

Jesus our Lord.

We sing this to the One we are about to meet, beloved. Do we feel, as we should, how near the coming of the Lord is? Does the fervent desire of the heart make that coming to us, very near? Or have we the same thought in our hearts as that dreadful servant, who said, “My lord delayeth his coming.” He was a wicked man who thought this. Not that he preached it publicly; he was no doubt ashamed to do that. Nevertheless he said it in his heart. The wish was father to the thought.

Let us have His speedy return more before us. The thought that we shall be like Him cleanses our ways, and forms us like Himself even now. “He that bath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).

J. B.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Luke.

Second Half.

WITH the Jews on the way to the judge, and about to suffer from God’s just government at the end of chapter 12, the Holy Spirit connects in chapter 13 the question of what had befallen the Galileans, and the Lord pronounces the exposure of all to perdition, except they repented. The parable of the fig tree tells the same tale; respite hung on Himself. In vain was the ruler of the synagogue indignant for the Sabbath against Jehovah present to heal; it was but hypocrisy and preference of Satan. The kingdom about to follow His rejection was not to come in by manifested power and glory, but, as under man’s responsibility, from a little seed to wax a great tree, and to leaven the assigned measure, wholly in contrast with Daniel 2-7. Instead of gratifying curiosity as to “those to be saved” (the remnant), the Lord urges the necessity of entering by the strait gate (conversion to God), seeking their own way they would utterly fail. So He would tell them He knew them not whence they were, in the day when they should see the Jews even thrust out, and Gentiles sitting with the fathers, last first, and first last, in the kingdom of God. Crafty as Herod was, it was Jerusalem He lamented, the guiltiest rejector alike of God’s government and of His grace, yet not beyond His grace at the end.

Hence chapter 14 points out unanswerably the title of grace in the face of force, and its way of self-renunciation, which will be owned in the resurrection of the just, not by the religious world which is deaf to God’s call to the great supper. But if the bidden remain without, grace fills it not only with the poor of the city, but with the despised Gentiles. Only those that believe God’s grace are called to break with the world. Coming to Christ costs all else: if one lose the salt of truth, none more useless and offensive.

In chapter 15 the Lord exerts the sovereign power of grace in His own seeking the lost one, in the painstaking of the Spirit by the word, and in the Father’s reception and joy when he is found; as self-righteousness betrays its alienation from the Father and contempt for the reconciled soul.

Then chapter 16 describes parabolically the Jew losing his place; so that the only wisdom was, not in hoarding for self but in giving up his master’s goods, to make friends and an everlasting and heavenly habitation. Practical Christianity is the sacrifice of the present (which is God’s) to secure the future (which will be our own, the true riches). Pharisees, being covetous, derided this; but death lifts the veil that then hid the true issue in the selfish rich tormented, and the once suffering beggar in Abraham’s bosom. If God’s word fail, not even resurrection would assure. Unbelief is invincible.

As grace thus delivers from the world, so it is to govern the believer’s walk, who must take heed to himself, rebuke a sinning brother, and if he repent, forgive him even seven times in the day. Faith is followed by answering power. But the yoke of Judaism, though still existing, was gone for faith, as the Lord shows in the Samaritan leper, who broke through letter of the law, rightly confessed the power of God in Christ, and went his way in liberty. The kingdom in His person was in the midst of men for faith. By-and-by it will be displayed visibly and judicially; for such will be the Son of Man (now about to suffer and be rejected) in His day, as in those of Noah and Lot, far beyond the sack of Jerusalem by Titus (ch. 17).

Chapter 18 shows prayer to be the great resource, as always, so especially when oppression prevails in the latter day, and God is about to avenge His elect, and the question is raised if the coming Son of Man shall find faith on the earth. After this the Lord lets us see the spirit and ways suited to the kingdom in the penitent tax gatherer contrasted with the Pharisee, and the babes He received, not in the ruler, who, not following Jesus, because he clave to his riches, lost treasure in heaven. Yet he that leaves all for His sake receives manifold more now and in the coming age life everlasting. And the Lord again announces His ignominious death but His resurrection.

Then (vs. 35) begins His last progress to Jerusalem and presentation as David’s Son; and the blind beggar, invoking Him so, receives his sight, and follows Him, glorifying God.

Zacchæus in chapter 19, chief tax gatherer and rich, is the witness of yet more—the saving grace of God. But the Lord is not going to restore the kingdom immediately, as they thought, He is going to a far country to receive it and to return; and when He does, He will examine the ways of His servants meanwhile entrusted with His goods, and He will execute judgment on His guilty citizens who would not that He should reign over them. And then He rides to the city from the Mount of Olivet on a colt, given up at once by the owners; and the whole multitude of the disciples praise God aloud for all the powers they had seen, saying, Blessed the coming King in Jehovah’s name: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. It is a striking difference from the angels’ praise at His birth; but both in season. Pharisees in vain object, and hear that the stones would cry out if the disciples did not. Yet did He weep over the city that knew not even then the things for its peace, doomed to destruction because it knew not the time of its visitation. The purging of the temple follows, and there He was teaching daily, yet could not the chief priests and the chiefs of the people destroy Him, though seeking it earnestly.

Then in chapter 20 come the various parties to judge Him, really to be judged themselves. The chief priests and the scribes with the elders demand His authority; which He meets with the question, Was John’s baptism of heaven or of men? Their dishonest plea of ignorance drew out His refusal to tell such people the source of His authority. But He utters the parable of the vineyard let to husbandmen, who not only grew worse and worse to their lord’s servants but killed at last his son and heir, to their own ruin according to Psalms 118:22, 23, adding His own solemn and twofold sentence. Next, we have His reply to the spies who would have entangled Him with the civil power, but as He asks for a denarius, and they own Caesar’s image on it, He bids them render to Cesar Cæsar’s things, and to God the things that are God’s; and they were put to silence. The heterodox Sadducees followed with their difficulty as to the resurrection, when He shows that there was nothing in it but their ignorance of its glorious nature, of which present experience gives no hint. Resurrection belongs to the new age, to which marriage does not apply. Even now all live to God, if men cannot see. The Lord closes with His question on Psalms 110, how He Whom David calls his Lord is also his Son. It is just Israel’s stumbling stone, ere long to be Israel’s sure foundation. Then the chapter concludes with His warning to beware of those that affect worldly show in religion, and prey on the weak and bereaved, about to receive, spite of long prayers, judgment all the more severe.

Chapter 21 begins with the poor widow and her two mites of more account than the richest in the offertory. Then, in correction of those who thought much of the temple adorned with goodly stones and offerings, the Lord predicts its approaching demolition, though the end was not to be immediately. But He cheers and counsels His own meanwhile. From verse 20 to 24 is the siege under Titus, and its consequences to this day. Verse 25 and following look on to the future. The Gentiles are prominent; whence we have, “Behold the fig tree and all the trees” in verse 29. Observe also that “this generation,” &c., in 32 is in the future part, not in what is fulfilled. Lastly, verses 34-36 give moral appeal. Here again we find Him teaching in the temple by day, and every night lodging at Olivet.

The last Passover approaches (chap. 22) and found the chief priests and the scribes plotting, when Judas Iscariot gave them the desired means. On the day of sacrifice He sent Peter and John to prepare, and the Lord instructs them divinely when and how: for as He said, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,” and its cup He bade them take and divide it among themselves. Then He institutes His supper. Even yet He had given no sign to mark the traitor, though He had long alluded to the person. Alas! they were even then contending which of them should be accounted greatest; whilst He explains that such is the way of the Gentiles and their kings, but they were to follow, His example— “I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.” Yet He owns their continuance with Him in His temptations, and appoints to them a kingdom. He tells Simon of Satan’s sifting, but of His supplication that his faith should not fail, and bids him, when turned again, or restored, stablish his brethren. After further warning Peter, He clears up the change from a Messianic mission to the ordinary ways of providence in verse 35-38, and then goes out to the mount and passes through His agony with His Father (39-46) while the disciples sleep. Then a crowd comes, and Judas drew near to kiss, and the Lord laid all open. He heals the high priest’s bondman, whose right ear was cut off; but remonstrates, yet allows Himself to be taken, Who could have overwhelmed them with a word. Peter denies Him thrice. The men revile the Lord with mockery and blows; and as soon as it was day, He is led to the Sanhedrin, and when asked if He were the Christ, He tells them of the place the Son of Man will take, and owns Himself Son of God.

Before Pilate in chapter 23 the effort was to prove Him a rival of Caesar; but though confessing Himself the King of the Jews, Pilate found no fault in Him. The connection with Galilee gave the opportunity for a compliment to Herod, who got not a word from the Lord; but, after insulting Him with his soldiers, he sent Him back, when Pilate again sought to release Him, as neither he nor yet Herod found evidence against Him. But the Jews only the more fiercely demanded a seditious murderer to be released, and Jesus to be crucified. Still Pilate made a last effort. But their voices prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that what they asked for should be done. Such is man; and such is religious man, even more wicked: “Jesus he delivered up to their will.” Simon of Cyrene had to prove the violence of that hour; and Jerusalem’s daughters lamented with wailing. But the Lord bade them weep for themselves and for their children, and proceeds to Calvary where He was crucified, and the two robbers on either side. There He prayed His Father to forgive them, as rulers scoffed and soldiers mocked. Even one of those crucified railed on Him; but the other became a monument of grace, confessing the Saviour and King, when others forsook and fled. The centurion too bore testimony to Him; and if they made His grave with the wicked, the rich was there in His death, and with Pilate’s leave laid His body in a tomb hewn in stone where never man had yet lain. It was Friday, growing dark, and sabbath twilight was coming on. And the Galilean women who saw Him there laid returned and prepared spices and unguents. Little did they know what God was about to do; yet they loved Him in Whom they believed.

On the first day of the week at early dawn the women came, but found the stone rolled away from the tomb and the body gone, and two in dazzling raiment stood by them to their alarm, and asked, “Why seek ye the Living One among the dead? He is not here, but is risen;” and they recalled to their minds His words in Galilee now fulfilled in His death and resurrection. Even the apostles disbelieved. And Peter went, and saw evidences and wondered. Then we have the walk to Emmaus with all its grace and deep instruction from the scriptures, not for disheartened men only, but for all time and all believers; and the Lord makes Himself known in the breaking of bread (the sign of death), and at once vanishes. For we walk by faith, not by sight. On returning to Jerusalem they hear how He had appeared to Simon; and as they spoke, the Lord stood in their midst, bids them handle Him and see, as they were troubled, and even eats to reassure them of His resurrection. He speaks further and opens their minds to understand the scriptures; a distinct thing from the power of the Spirit they were to receive in due time. No going to Galilee is introduced here; it was exactly suited to Matthew’s design. Here Jerusalem is prominent. It was avowedly most guilty. So repentance and remission of sins “were to be preached in his name, unto all the nations, beginning with Jerusalem.” There too they were to tarry till clothed with power from on high. And thence when the day arrived, He led them out over against Bethany, and blessed them with uplifted hands, and, while blessing them, He parted from them and was borne up into heaven.

W. K.

ADVICE TO BIBLE STUDENTS. — Read much; meditate more; pray most.

Christian Dreamers.

WE are not about to refer to John Bunyan; for he dreamed when he was awake, for the benefit, too, of his fellows. But we have now on our minds those who dream when they are asleep, or nearly so, and who ought to be awake.

No one ever has such good intentions as these dreamers. They plan numberless acts of self-denial and service; but they accomplish―hardly one. They visit the sick, call on absentees, relieve the poor; but presently, they awake, and behold, it was a dream! Others are actively engaged in the heat of Christian conflict, but these good folk, like Reuben of old, have great “searching’s of heart,” make grand resolves, yet nevertheless sit quietly at home building castles in the air.

The dreamers are, neither downright asleep nor sensibly awake. They are sufficiently aroused to recognize that there is much to be done, a great call in every direction for earnest zeal for the Lord. But if they do not sleep they slumber. They turn in their beds like doors on their hinges, and doze. Though the name of the Lord is being dishonored, and souls are perishing, and the enemy is within the gates, they fold their arms and dream of all they are going to do.

And now when we think of it, are we not all to some extent guilty of this charge? How many can altogether escape? Was it not only yesterday that we made sundry excellent little plans which we have today utterly abandoned and even forgotten? How many times, like the son in the parable, we have said, “I go, sir,” and we have not been yet—except in our dreams.

Oh! to be more like Him, Who faithfully carried out every purpose in His heart, Who was all He said He was, and Who did all He meant to do.

Enoch Walking With God.

IN the wondrous divine picture gallery in Hebrews 11, containing that bright array of the witnesses of faith in the Old Testament, one of them stands out prominently as an exception from all the rest, in that he did not see death, even Enoch. At the Lord’s coming for His saints many will be taken into heavenly glory who have not passed through death (1 Cor. 15:51, 52; Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17). But at present there are only two men in heaven who have not seen nor tasted death—Enoch and Elijah; the former the beautiful type of the rapture of the church on earth at the coming of Christ, and the latter of the deliverance of the faithful Jewish remnant to be saved through fire at the time of the beast and the false prophet.

But we confine our attention now to Enoch, who, with God’s help, is to be the bright subject of our meditations.

In that solemn and instructive chapter (Gen. 5), where the very names of that list of patriarchs seems to contain a prophetic expression of the vast plan of God’s ways with His earthly people (Enoch’s name excepted, which seems to indicate rather the proper character of the church, whilst on earth), whilst the sickle of death is mowing clown generation after generation, “laying them like sheep in the grave,” only one of those patriarchs is exempt from that list of deaths, even Enoch. His biography, both in Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11 is the shortest and most concise ever known. Yet it contains everything. In Genesis 5 it consists of only three sentences each containing four words (not counting the less essential word “and” in verse 24). (1) Enoch walked with God; (2) and he was not, (3) for God took him. A few words on each of them.

He did not step before, nor did he lag behind Him, but kept in His sweet company, in the only safe place of dependence upon Him. We are apt to be propelled by the impetuosity of self-will in hasty impatience to run before Him, forgetting that “he that believeth shall not make haste,” instead of waiting to “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12). Or, when we have ascertained it, we are inclined to lag behind Him, because it runs counter to our natural inclinations and therefore does not appear “acceptable.” And what reward did Enoch reap in his own soul from walking with God? His conscience bore him witness “that he pleased God:” How much did the great apostle of the church resemble Enoch, its type in this as in other respects (2 Cor. 1:12; 4:2).

Some might say that in the present evil age it is far more difficult to lead Enoch’s life of faith than it was for him in his day. Let us then just consider the times and circumstances in which Enoch lived.

In his day the earth had begun already to assume, its character of violence and corruption. Consequently, we find in the next chapter (Gen. 6) God announcing to Noah, the third from Enoch, and the tenth from Adam, His intention of judgment upon the earth, man and beast, for “the earth was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” We may easily imagine what Enoch’s circumstances must have been as to his relations to his ungodly neighbors. His solemn testimony, preserved for us, in the epistle of Jude, prophetic as it is, affords us a hint as to their character, corrupt, violent, and enemies of the godly witness amongst them, who boldly announced to their faces the judgment of the Lord at His appearing “upon all; and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14,15). Compare “and he was not,” with Psalms 37:36.

In those days there was no organized state of society amongst men, no divinely appointed powers that be, nor authorities to restrain, under God’s over-ruling providence, the wicked devices of Satan, and the violent hatred and opposition of men against God’s own, as in our day (thanks to His wise and gracious providence); no regular trade and commerce, protected by fixed laws, with their multifarious channels of communication and international intercourse; no courts of law to sit in judgment upon evildoers, nor gaolers and warders to carry out their sentences, nor police for the regulation of traffic and protection of society; nor benevolent societies for the prevention of crime, by support of the poor, and protection of the weak and helpless, and even of the groaning beasts of burden, or for restoring and aiding dismissed criminals; nor temperance societies and other well meaning human efforts to improve poor fallen humanity’s social condition.

And amidst those disorderly and worse than chaotic scenes of violence and corruption, we behold the solitary figure of the venerable patriarch, the fearless man of God, walking with God and siding with God against the increasing wickedness, none of these things moving him. His household, which from our chapter we may presume to have been numerous and requiring both his spiritual and temporal care, must in early life have claimed all his time and energies; and there can be no doubt but that they were bitterly opposed by their ungodly neighbors, who as far as possible, would have endeavored to close every door and channel against their earning an honest livelihood. For the practice of boycotting, which will be brought to perfection in the days of Antichrist and the beast under the direct superintendence of the dragon, is after all no modern invention, but of very ancient date, as in the case of a Jew cast out of the synagogue and still farther back. (Compare Genesis 26:15, &c.).

And what spiritual means were at Enoch’s disposal to successfully withstand the dangers and temptations’ from without and within that daily beset him? He had no Bible (for there was none) to fortify him against the daily assaults of Satan and men and to delight his soul with God’s comfort in the multitude of his thoughts, a divine clue in the human labyrinth to instruct him in the right way, “a lamp for his feet and a light for his path.” True, on the other hand, he could not be tempted by reading the daily newspapers (for there were none), nor novels, nor trashy, and worse, ungodly religious and infidel pamphlets and books, produced in the poisonous shade and atmosphere of the modern religious Upas-tree, to prevent him reading his Bible, if he had had any. No doubt the prophetic “Spirit of Christ,” who animated and moved Enoch, as He did Noah, and other holy men of old, kept him in communion with God, and God revealed Himself and spoke to him, as He did to Noah and other patriarchs, supplying the lack of the not yet written word of God.

But this in no way detracts from Enoch’s credit as to his power of faith, nor from the value of his faithfulness. To behold amidst such scenes and circumstances that holy patriarch steadfastly walking with God, in nothing moved nor influenced by the ungodly and hostile world surrounding him, what an encouraging sight to faith, so often sorely tried, but what a rebuke to our unbelief and unfaithfulness, who possess infinitely greater blessings and privileges of grace than Enoch did, and can behold that manner of love, which the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God, and soon be like Christ, for we shall see Him as He is!

“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

J. A. V. P.

Correspondence.

E.H.B.— Had Demas forsaken God, as well as Paul (2 Tim. 4:10)? It would be going beyond what is written to suppose so. Nevertheless his was a grievous failure. In former epistles (Col. 4:14; Philem. 24) he was described as the apostle’s fellow laborer. Now he had forsaken the apostle, having loved this present age. Here was the secret. Desire for some worldly advantage led him to abandon the aged and honored servant of Christ. Testimony for the Lord is always costly, and there is the constant temptation to leave the tent and the altar, like Lot, and seek more comfortable quarters in Sodom. The Demases, to their own dishonor, always yield to this temptation.

C.N. on Luke 8:42, 43 (see former query, page 60). There is no doubt, as you say, that the case of the woman with an issue of blood has a reference to the present blessing of every soul who believes in Christ, while the raising of Jairus’ daughter represents the restoration of dead Israel in a future day (Isa. 26:19; Ezek. 37; Dan. 12 But D.T. inquired what significance there is in the fact that the length of the woman’s illness and the age of the damsel were both twelve years. This, therefore still remains unanswered.

U.J.— Please explain what we shall be, if not angels. “We shall he like him [Christ]” (1 John 3:2).

The Touchstone of Truths

EVEN in apostolic times we learn there was great need for spiritual wariness. Grievous wolves had entered even then, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29). False teachers had arisen privily bringing, in damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1). The mystery of iniquity was already working (2 Thess. 2:7). Hymenæus and Philetus were only two out of many who were poisoning the minds of the saints with evil doctrine (2 Tim. 2:17, 18).

Now what do we find the saints were counselled to do in, the face of these inroads of evil? To be indifferent and unconcerned and to take things as they came? Nay; rather were they to try the spirits whether they were of God or no, to prove all things, and to hold fast that which was good.

By what means were they thus to prove the teaching laid before them? Not by appeals to natural conscience, or to councils, or convocations, or synods; but by reference to the word of God.

This we gather from the epistles of Paul written to Timothy in the dark days of declension which had already set in even in the apostle’s time. See especially 2 Timothy 3:13; 3:13-16. Everything contrary to the holy Scriptures was to be rejected. False teachers were to be tested by the “words of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and by the “doctrine which is according to godliness” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). See also 2 Thessalonians 2:15.

The apostle John also warns the elect lady against receiving into her house any not bringing the “doctrine of Christ” (2 John 10), which doctrine is contained nowhere else but in the Scripture.

If the saints of God needed to act with such caution in those early days, how much more now? We are eighteen centuries nearer the consummation of evil; the mustard tree has indeed become great; the leaven has permeated the meal. Truly the flock of God have more need than ever to beware.

But, blessed be His Name, His word abides pure and unblemished, containing the revelation of His mind and will, unaffected by the lapse of time, or by the progress of error.

It alone is the standard of truth; and everything, though venerable by antiquity, or entwined with the tenderest affections of the heart, if condemned by its all-revealing light, must be abandoned once and for all.

May God enable His people to stand by the simple unadulterated truth of Scripture, whatever the cost may be.

The Lord's Supper.

THE Lord Jesus, on the night of His betrayal, took bread and brake it and gave to His disciples, saying, “This do in remembrance of, me.” It was with the cross before Him, looming up with its untold horrors, that He thus expressed His will and desire. And surely the knowledge of this fact should enhance the importance of His wish in the eyes of each believer, and make its observance more binding upon the conscience; for if He could, under such circumstances, institute the feast and give directions to His own respecting it, the extreme value He Himself put upon it is manifest.

And after He had completed the work of redemption and ascended in a resurrection body into glory, being exalted to a seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, He did not think less of this simple act of breaking bread in remembrance of His death. Hence the apostle Paul received a special message relating thereto direct from the glory. This confirmed what He had given before His death, adding the further truth: “Ye do show the Lord’s death, till he come.” Thus there was no room left for Jewish Christians to boast that they only had received the command, nor for the Gentiles to plead the omission in excuse, for neglect. From this revelation we gather the time over which this observance extends its claim. Wherever one’s lot may be cast, as to time, between the Lord’s ascension and His return, His command has the same force, and is equally binding upon every believer. Yet in the presence of all this, many Christians are satisfied with remembering the Lord once a month; others once in three months; and one known to the writer only ate the Lord’s supper once in twelve years.

The plea of such is that, “the Lord gave no command as to how often.” This is true; for the Lord would have us count it a privilege rather than a duty—the outcome of hearts overflowing with gratitude, instead of the dry routine of formalism. Hence He left it to our love for Him. The early Christians, in the warmth of a first love, thought the first of every week not too often. Hence Luke mentions the disciples at Troas, as meeting together on that day. Further evidence as to this may be adduced from 1 Cor. 16:2. On the first of the week, they were to lay by as the Lord had prospered them. No doubt they did this when they came together for breaking bread.

It is evident from the practice of apostolic Christians, that they reckoned it a privilege to remember their Lord, in obedience to His word, and should the believer think less of this blessed institution now? Has the Lord’s death less value in our eyes? Does not the contemplation of His vicarious work produce the same warmth of love and depth of devotion in our souls? If so, is every week too often to show our gratitude to Him in the manner He enjoins?

Besides, at the cross, sin is seen in its enormity as it can be viewed nowhere else. A sacrifice of less value than God’s Son could not satisfy His righteous claims against it. And that Son must, as the sin-bearer, be left alone, forsaken of God, in His time of greatest need! Surely the thought of this should cause a greater hatred against sin, and an ever increasing abhorrence of it. May this be the practical result of our remembrance of Him!

W.T. R.

Rev. 5:5, 6. — We are not told whether St. John experienced any surprise, when, after being directed to look upon the “Lion of the tribe of Judah,” he beheld a “Lamb as it had been slain.” Perhaps through our very familiarity with this majestic chapter, some of us may have failed to note the striking transfiguration. But is it not in exquisite harmony with all we read of our Lord Jesus—this marvelous blending of seeming opposites, so that, as one has said, we have “the meekness of the Lion of Judah and the wrath of the slain Lamb”? — R. B., jr.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of John.

First Half.

THE fourth Gospel presents the Lord preeminently in His divine aspect. He is the Word Who in the beginning was with God and was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was made or became flesh; but none the less was the Only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, as we hear in the wonderful opening (chap. 1:1-18) of the three introductory chapter. Indeed most of chapter 4 is before His public ministry commences in Galilee after John was put in prison. Chapter 1 is striking in its enumeration of His various titles, and in setting forth the work which on earth (vs. 29) or from heaven (vs. 33) none but a Divine Person could do. Chapter 2 prefigures the bridal joy He will usher in at His coming, and the judgment which is to cleanse the temple in Jerusalem; but it is as risen from the dead, as He announces. Man, however, was quite unmeet. And chapter 3 insists on his being born anew as indispensable even for the earthly things of the kingdom. But the Son of Man lifted up on the cross opens the way for heavenly things and life eternal, being in truth also the Son of God given in love to the world that the believer might be fully blessed. And the chapter closes with John’s witness to His glory as above all, Whom the Father loves and has given all things to be in His hand.

To the woman of Samaria (ch. 4) the Lord opens the free giving of God in the Son stooping to the uttermost, yet giving not life only but living water, the Spirit, as a fountain within; as He goes on to the hour when the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth. Not only does she own Him as the Christ, but many of the Samaritans believed because of her word, and many more because of His, confessing Him the Saviour of the world. When at Cana, the dying son of the courtier is healed by His word, though the father’s faith at first was short.

In Jerusalem (for this Gospel shows Him often working there), at the pool of Bethesda, He brings out His quickening and raising power, with a resurrection of judgment for unbelievers, in a discourse which grew out of a man long infirm being immediately made well. The latter part of chapter 5 points out man’s responsibility because of the ample testimonies afforded.

Chapter 6 opens with the five loaves in His hand feeding five thousand men, and the Lord owned as the Prophet, refusing at present to be King, going as Priest on high, but returning to His own, tempest-tossed as they were, so that the ship at once reached the land. The discourse follows, or rather discourses (see vs. 59), in which He shows Himself coming clown from heaven as the bread of God; next, giving His flesh to be eaten and His blood drunk; lastly, the Son of Man ascending where He was before: the Incarnation, the Redemption, and the Ascension.

Chapter 7 completes this portion by the disclosure that, though the time was not yet come to show Himself to the world as He surely will when He comes in His kingdom, He would give the Spirit when glorified, like rivers flowing out. It is the Spirit for bearing witness, as in chapter 4. for worship. Judaism is in all these chapters set aside for Christ, Who is really and in power what it was in figure, not to say much more.

In chapter 8 we have Christ, the Son, yea God, manifested by His word, but rejected; in chapter 9 manifested by His work, and equally rejected by those unbelievers who pretended to see, while the blind from birth believed and saw, worshipping Him. Chapter 10 closes this section by the Good Shepherd-service of the Son, one with the Father, Whose word and work are the resting-place of His sheep, not Jews only but Gentiles, one flock, one Shepherd.

The next portion gives the testimonies borne to the Lord Jesus; and first in chapter 11 as Son of God in power of resurrection shown on Lazarus, already not dead only but buried, “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” The Jews, dead to all but self and present interests, are only afraid of the Romans; and Caiaphas, more wicked than Balaam, prophesies the expediency of one man, albeit Son of God! dying for the people. Yes, grace in God sent Him, grace in Himself came, to die; but what blind and blasphemous iniquity in that expediency whereby the whole nation morally speaking did perish, and their priesthood notably! In chapter 12 Mary’s anointing Jesus’ feet with the costly unguent is told, censured by the heartless covetousness of Judas about to betray Him; and the testimony is next given to Him as King of Israel, Son of David, when entering Jerusalem. Then the Greeks desire to see Jesus, Who answers, “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified,” and announces in His solemn formula the necessity of His death to bear much fruit. Thus could Gentiles he fellow-heirs as well as Jews in God’s rich grace. But if man was insensible the Lord realized the sacrifice; and the Father answered the trouble of His soul with the assurance of glorifying His name again, as He had already, to wit in resurrection. The Lord, no longer in figure but in open speech, explains the judgment of the world and of its prince, because of His rejection on the cross whereby He becomes the center for all, whether Jew or Gentile, the One by Whom alone the believer comes to God. From verse 37 the evangelist ponders on the situation of Jewish unbelief, as owned in Isaiah 6 and 53, in contrast with the prophet, and the more awful because many even of the rulers did believe but feared to confess through loving the glory of men rather than of God. From verse 44 it is Jesus in His last charge publicly laying bare the root of things. It was not Himself only come as light and to save: the word He had spoken should judge in the last day. The Father Who had sent Him, and Whose commandment is life eternal, was behind and above all.

W. K.

The Marriage of the Lamb.

We have seen that the proper hope of the church is the Lord’s descent into the air before the great day of public glory, when He will come to establish His kingdom. Ere the latter event the marriage of the Lamb will take place in heaven, as we may see in Revelation 19.

It is important to see the place this has in the Revelation. In chapter 17 and 18 we have the judgment of the great whore, Babylon, by means of the beast and his ten kings. She who has ridden the beast, who has committed fornication with the kings of the earth, making all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication, is overthrown. “Strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Her judgment evokes a note of triumph in heaven, where all are in fellowship with the thoughts of God, and the chorus resounds, “Alleluia.”

This leads up to the marriage of the Lamb. The heavenly bride is brought forward and the nuptials are celebrated, ere He comes forth to assert His rights and reign in Zion over His enemies.

The true wife is not seen as such (though those who compose her are shown under other figures) until the false woman, the harlot, has been removed from the scene of action. She who has claimed to be the spouse of Christ on earth must be disowned and divinely judged, ere the true can be shown in her proper place of glory with Christ.

“And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19:6, 7).

We must distinguish between this scene and that given in Psalms 45. In Revelation 19 we are occupied with heavenly glory, in the Psalm with earthly. The latter scene is laid in Judea. The queen who will stand at the King’s right hand in gold of Ophir, is Jerusalem, not the church, as we get in the prophet, “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isa. 62:5). When we think of earthly administration and blessing, Israel is the central object (Deut. 32:8).

But earth is not the subject in Revelation 19. It is the day of the gladness of His heart: “He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” Long ago He loved the church and gave Himself for it. Could love go further? During her pathway through the world He sanctifies and cleanses her with the washing of water by the word, keeping her thus apart in affection and ways for Himself, nourishing and cherishing her. When the bridal day comes, as in Revelation 19, He will present her to Himself, the church glorious, holy, and without blemish. No more will the spots and wrinkles be seen, which are so sadly plain now; but she will answer in every respect to His holy and gracious mind (Eph. 5).

Whose joy will be deepest? His, surely; His own work being the foundation of it all. But our joy will be deep, for then we shall know even as we are known, and enjoy with Him eternally fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. The church is the true Eve of the last Adam, formed as a result of His deep sleep of death, to be the sharer of His joy, and of His dominion (Gen. 2). She is the antitypical Rebekah, won for Him in the far country by the divine Eliezer, conducted by Him in safety through the desert to be presented to her Lord (Gen. 24). She is as Rachel for whom Jacob suffered and toiled, the toil seeming but little for the love he had to her (Gen. 29); and as Asenath, the sharer of Joseph’s glory while a stranger to his brethren according to the flesh (Gen. 41). All meets in Christ and the church: from the first all has been before the mind of the Spirit.

“To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” How He loves to remember all the service rendered to His name, and all the fruit borne by His own. In the bridal day all is before Him; men may forget, slight, and undervalue; He never.

There are guests: “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” The guests and the bride are distinct, and cannot be confounded without real loss. These are the saints of Old Testament times, called in Hebrews 12:23, “the spirits of just men made perfect.”

It will be remembered that John the Baptist spoke of himself as distinct from both bridegroom and bride. He was the bridegroom’s friend (John 3:29). The heart of eternal love has ordered our varied places and portions: it is ours to bless and adore.

Is it a wonder that the New Testament prophet needed assuring, as it were? The angel declared, “These are the true sayings of God.” The vision was marvelous, the thought stupendous; but they are true. His heart has planned, and His hand will make it good.

In view of such a place and relationship it pertains to the church to walk as a chaste virgin until that day (2 Cor. 11:2). It is unfaithfulness to be linked with the world He wants our undivided hearts; shall we not render them to Him? He will be our only portion in heaven: is He not now enough the mind and heart to fill? What else can we desire? In the closing chapter of inspiration, He presents Himself as the Root and Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star. This draws forth the heart. “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come” (Rev. 22:16, 17). “Even so. Come Lord Jesus.”

W.W.F.

John 1:17. ― “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Mark the order. It is not said, truth and grace, nor simply truth, though some sermons we have heard might lead us to suppose it; still less is it written, grace apart from truth, as is fatally taught in these days. But it is “grace and truth.” How perfect and how matchless is Scripture! ―

R. B., jr.

Cruel as the Grave.

“WRATH is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” (Prov. 24:4). Genesis 37 affords a remarkable example of this. Joseph’s brethren were first stirred to hate him; and their wrathful passions, once roused and unchecked, developed into a jealousy of the worst type. The spirit of envy would not rest until its object was removed.

Joseph had communicated to them the visions of future greatness which God granted him. On this account his brethren first hated and then envied him. Anger after its first furious outburst usually abates; but envy is cool, calculating, unrelenting. It is truly “the rage of a man” (Pray. 6:34); but also as “cruel as the grave” (Song of Sol. 8:6). Here the spirit of envy insidiously worked, until the patriarchs “sold Joseph into Egypt” (Acts 7:9).

In a similar way did men’s passions work against Christ. On the first occasion of His public ministry, His auditors at Nazareth were filled with wrath. They sought His life then, and many times after.

But the spirit of animosity grew into the more pertinacious spirit of envy. The Jews, we are told, sought the more to kill Him because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said that God was His Father (John 5:18). When He said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” they took up stones to cast at Him (John 8:58, 59). The Sanhedrin said, “This man doeth many miracles, if we let him alone, all men will believe on him.” And from that day they took counsel to put Him to death.

Is it not evident these men were imbued with a spirit of envy? Destitute of spiritual power themselves, they were jealous of its display in Jesus. Indeed this fact was so patent that Pilate knew it was for envy they delivered Jesus to him.

Taking Christ's Yoke.

“TAKE my yoke.” These significant words, with their connection and promise, were spoken by the Son of God at a time when He Himself blessedly knew by holy experience what that yoke was of which He spake, and when He had perfectly worn it. Though acting in power and grace, giving every proof by signs and wonders of Who He was, with a ready desire to be owned and welcomed by His earthly people as their Messiah, yet they scorned, despised and misrepresented Him in His person, and rejected all testimony, whether by Himself, by John, or by His disciples. Everything therefore around Him was morally broken up, and Israel’s King was considered only a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Then it is, that the beauty and blessedness of what Jesus terms, “My Yoke,” shine forth, above and beyond the higher and unknowable glory of His person in the words, “I thank thee, O Father,” and “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight”

Perfect subjection and obedience amidst the most adverse circumstances of trial, opposition, and testing were here, at the same time making them the occasion of expressing the Father’s will in the hour of sorrow and rejection.

Not this only, but the enjoyed communion in the love of His Father was untouched by anything around, giving sweetness and heavenly rest, such as made the yoke easy, and the burden light.

Now this is the yoke He enjoins those to wear who know Him, following the significant truth concerning the soul-rest He gives, with which it must never be confounded. In the new position Christ took as the rejected King, He blessedly speaks of one rest freely given, and another to be found as the fruit of obedience; supposing the former to be known and enjoyed, before the latter is entered upon.

He Who tasted the sorrows and bitterness of sinful hatred to Himself, did in matchless grace feel for souls around. Wherever sin was felt, and the burden of guilt, in this scene of ruin and unrest, to such the free invitation was welcome: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Distinct the offer and positive the result, to all who in contrast to Jewish professors were feeling their state, and availed themselves of this invitation given by the Son of God. If such was blessedly true then, as it fell fresh from His precious lips, infinitely more so now, since He has died and atoned for sin. But rest is founded upon what the Son of God is, and what He has done; His unfailing word being the soul’s warrant of true abiding rest. And only when the soul is thus established can it freely listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus, and lovingly obey His word, “Take my yoke.”

If all christian duties flow from existing relationships (and are not as many suppose consequent upon faithful conduct), the wearing of Christ’s yoke with no less necessity follows sovereign grace known, and received, in rest of heart, and peace of conscience respecting its state before God. This the Lord Himself ensures, in the circumference of His own words, “I will give you rest.” Moreover, Christ being the believer’s life, He assuredly is the pattern of it, and His holy and perfect obedience is set forth to be imitated. His yoke therefore must surely imply acting in the same spirit and manner as did the blessed meek and lowly One. Hence His words which follow, “Learn of me”; for thus only, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

It must be evident to all true Christians, whether old or young, that it is a moment of much unrest both in the professing church and the world. Pleasure and religious excitement abound, so that believers are not a little affected by it; often costing them the loss of true soul-rest, — especially that answering to the mind and example of Christ. To learn of Him Whose communion and obedience were perfect must be unspeakably blessed. Oh, to live, and walk, and act as Christ ever did, in the evenness of the sanctuary, drawing His joy and motives from above, His ear always open to Him Whose will was His daily delight!

Being in the right place as well as saying and doing the right thing ever marked Him Who in the presence of rebellious man could say, “I do always those things that are pleasing to my Father.” To be pupils of such a One as the obedient Son should surely be envied and aimed at by those who have received life and salvation in and by Him; yet how little manifest exercise there seems to be to know and do God’s will after the worthy fashion of His own most perfect obedience. If it was said by a departing saint, “Nothing counts but Christ,” it may also be added that there is no true obedience apart from His enjoined yoke, which in every given measure reproduces the meekness, gentleness, and obedience of Christ.

Surely this calls for serious reflection; and if it causes much humiliation by the felt distance between Christ the pattern and the should-be imitators, yet His heart is untouched and unchanged, and assuredly is speaking afresh to His own, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

May He by the abiding indwelling Spirit awaken both writer and reader to a fuller sense of this privileged obedience, made conscious as each must be that the nineteenth century is no better God-ward than when Christ uttered the words, “Take my yoke.” Moreover it is only here in the world where He is still rejected that such applies; for obedience in holy delight will be the blessed character of heaven for those called in grace to share God’s eternal rest.

G. G.

Reverent and Habitual Prayer.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, — A little while ago I wrote to you on the necessity of systematically reading the word of God; I now desire to make a few practical remarks on the subject of prayer.

And, in the first place, I feel impelled to say it is extremely necessary for you to remember that in prayer you address God. The Psalmist said, “Unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psa. 5:2, 3). Prayer is the exercise of heart Godward in earnest petitions for needed blessing.

Though persuaded you know this elementary truth as well as I do, yet I believe I am not mistaken in supposing you are in great danger of forgetting the high and holy character of the One to Whom you pray. I am not now overlooking the fact that God is our Father, and that our relationship to Him is very near and dear. But, at the same time, He is God as well as Father; and therefore a spirit of reverence becomes us, and is indeed inseparable from every true prayer. We ought not to forget that the privileges of grace never remove or obliterate the responsibilities of the creature. On this account seek to feel in Whose sacred presence you are. Bow down your heart before Him. Have it impressed on your very soul that He is omniscient as well as omnipotent — that He reads your inmost thoughts more easily than we can a book.

You will admit, I am sure, the tendency of your heart, even on the solemn occasion of addressing the Lord, whether silently or audibly, to wander to other and improper themes. In the language of scripture your lips draw near, but your heart is far off. This arises from a lack of apprehension, or from the fault of forgetting the real nature of this sacred occupation and the inexpressibly holy presence into which you come.

You find, I dare say, that you fall into this snare more commonly during your habitual prayers, in the mornings and evenings, for example. You suddenly become aware that you are quite mechanically presenting the ordinary round of petitions, and at the same time your thoughts are traveling in all directions. This fault, if unchecked, will cause your prayers to become vain repetitions,” hateful to God, and injurious, instead of beneficial, to yourself.

The only safeguard against this error is to take care before ever you commence to pray to have it well on your mind that you are about to address GOD, with Whom you dare not trifle. The soul of the believer will then instinctively assume the proper attitude of “reverence and godly fear.”

But I referred just now to the practice of habitual prayer. This is an important point and demands a word or two. I hope it is true of every one of you for prayer is, undoubtedly, the secret source of spiritual power. And just as the natural body requires regular supplies of air and food, so does the soul ever need regular supplies of heavenly grace to meet the constant vicissitudes of daily life. You should therefore make it a very rigid rule to spend an allotted time in earnest prayer at least twice a day.

You must arrange these seasons according to your own particular circumstances; but morning and evening are certainly the best times. In saying “twice a day,” however, I only mention the minimum allowance. You will doubtless recollect there is scripture for praying always as well as everywhere. So whatever opportunities you may have in this respect, you are at liberty to take the fullest advantage of them.

Some are afraid of making a “rule”; but I think they have more reason to be afraid of breaking it when it is made. I hope none of you would seek to excuse yourselves for passing a whole day without prayer by the plea of not wishing to be in bondage to a rule. For myself, I must risk the charge of being somewhat commonplace by saying that I think good habits are very good things to possess, and bad habits are very bad things to get hold of and worse things to get rid of; while the best way to avoid bad habits altogether is to acquire good ones.

Be persuaded, therefore, to put yourself, if necessary, to a great deal of pains to become an orderly Christian. And remember there can be no spiritual order in the soul, unless it be in the right frame Godward. Open your Bible and let God speak to you; fall on your knees and breathe out your requests to God.

The Christian is like a diver at the bottom of the sea, whose very life depends upon the maintenance of a connection with the surface. There is nothing around him to sustain life, but the reverse. A slender tube supplies him with air to breathe, and in his hand he holds the means of summoning help from above in the moment of danger. But this connection must be maintained constantly. Even so must the believer be in continuous, not spasmodic, communication with the power on high. This must be done by regular habits of prayer.

If you start the day with prayer you are not so likely to forget to pray before you give a passionate reply to the person who insults you to your face.

“Pray without ceasing.”

Hoping, if the Lord permit, to return to this subject,

I am,

Yours faithfully in Christ,

“YOD.”

Correspondence.

F.B. and K.C. —What constitutes an “assembly meeting”? An assembly meeting in the strict sense of the term seems to be on such occasion as the “whole church” comes “together in one place” (1 Cor. 14:23. Compare Acts 15:22), with liberty allowed for the action of the Spirit as set forth in 1 Corinthians 14. It is evident that all the saints may assemble to receive ministry of the word, or at the preaching of the gospel, or by special invitation as in Acts 14:27. But in these cases the meeting would have the character of general fellowship in the spiritual things ministered by the Lord’s servants, rather than that of the corporate action of the assembly as above. See also 1 Cor. verses 3-5 for the case of discipline.

K. M. J. —Is breaking of bread at the Lord’s Table (1 Cor. 11) the same as feasting on the fatted calf at the Father’s Table (Luke 15)? Not so; Luke 15 portrays the unspeakable joy the believer finds in Christ, the slain Lamb, as made known in the gospel, and at all times; while 1 Corinthians 11 is limited to those seasons when he eats bread and drinks wine in remembrance of the Lord in His death.

A.E. —Kindly explain the last part of Matthew 5:22. The law dealt with man’s acts of open wickedness, but the Lord here judges the thoughts and motives of the heart. He classes together murder and hatred of one’s brother (so 1 John 3:15). And whosoever by the scornful Word, “Fool” (in its worst sense), indicated the utter degree of contempt and abhorrence he had for his brother, was guilty of such feelings as would, if unforgiven, be judged by God and punished in the Gehenna of fire.

E. C. R. — (1) Does Luke 12:36 apply to the appearing or to the coming of the Lord? The coming of the Lord is applied to His return for His saints (1 Thess. 4:15) and also to His public return with His saints (1 Thess. 3:13). But the “appearing” refers only to the latter stage of His coming when we shall appear with Him (Col. 3:4). In Luke 12:36 we have a general exhortation which suits His coming for the heavenly saints, and possibly for the Jewish remnant after. Girded loins and burning lamps become both. “From the wedding” is general and does not refer to Revelation 19. The Lord uses the figure in allusion to the custom of watching through the night on such occasions; as John the Baptist did in another way in John 3:29. (2) Is Matthew 13:40-43 final judgment? “The furnace of fire” and “wailing and gnashing of teeth” in verse 42, as compared with Matthew 8:12 and 22:13, would indicate that it is. Compare Matthew 25:46. It is before Revelation 20:15. (3) Is it executed before the millennium? Yes; the Son of Man’s kingdom is introduced by these judgments at the end of this age. (4) In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 distinct from Revelation 19:19-21? Which takes place first? Are both prior to Matthew 25:31-46? 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 is general and speaks of the vengeance the Lord is to execute when revealed from heaven in flaming tire; Revelation 19:19-21 of two distinct dealings, one on the apostate chiefs, civil and religious, who are consigned to the lake of fire, the other on their armies or followers, who are slain. Both scenes are before the judicial process in the close of Matthew 25.

M. S. —What does the “water” refer to in 1 John 5:6? The water and the blood have a doctrinal reference to the historical fact recorded in John 19:34. They point to a double aspect of the results of Christ’s coming. The water alludes to purification from sins, and the blood to expiation for sins. Compare 1 Corinthians 6:11. Both cleansing and propitiation were necessary parts of Christ’s work.

The Patch of Lentils.

It was only a patch of lentils (2 Sam. 23:11, 12) and barley (1 Chron. 11:13, 14). But the Philistines, out on a foraging expedition, set their minds on stripping it before the faces of the people of Israel. The latter turned their backs and fled, except three men, viz., David, the outcast king, Eleazar, the son of Dodo, and Shammah, the son of Agee. These men of might stood in the midst of the piece of ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines; and Jehovah wrought a great victory.

We will not concern ourselves with the cowards, but the valiant men who faced the hosts of the Philistines in the name of the Lord are noble examples of simple-hearted fidelity and trust in divine power. They did not consider themselves engaged in a personal quarrel. But their enemies were to them the enemies of Jehovah of hosts. These uncircumcised Philistines had defied the God of the armies of Israel (compare 1 Sam. 17:45). In His name therefore they fought. In His name they conquered.

Heart to heart, shoulder to shoulder, the trio stood firm among the lentils and barley, assured of the impotence of their foes when matched against the omnipotence of the God of battles. Nor did their boast in God prove empty and vain.

But what was this little plot of ground after all? Was it worth such a struggle? It was not a vineyard, nor an olive-yard, nor even a wheat-field, only a patch of lentils and barley. But these true-hearted men saw it to be part of the land flowing with milk and honey. It produced food for God’s people, if only lentils. God had given it to Israel. Hence they undauntedly held fast their heritage against the robbers; and the victory was theirs.

We believe this incident affords a practical illustration of a principle of faith and courage which is called for in our times.

In Satan we have a tireless foe, who makes ceaseless raids upon the saints of God. One of his most rapacious attacks in the present day is being made upon the word of God. His object is to deprive believers of their spiritual food. To this end he seeks to destroy their faith in the verbal inspiration of scripture.

Let us not be ignorant of the devices of the evil one. Three centuries and a half ago he was making bonfires of Bibles in all parts of this country. Today, since he cannot get rid of the whole book, he is equally busy in tearing out the leaves. We wish, with God’s help, to speak plain words for plain people; and we do not hesitate to reiterate the warning that the men who mutilate the Bible are doing the work of the adversary.

Beware of being deluded into the admission that some parts of scripture are uninspired and unprofitable. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.” They invite you to give up the six days of the first of Genesis; the story of the ark and the flood; of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22); of the way opened through the Red Sea; of Joshua and the sun and moon; of Jonah and the whale; of healing in the pool of Bethesda; and other parts, as it suits the sinister purpose of these adversaries. They say that there is no spiritual profit in those parts, that you will really lose nothing by giving them up, and that the great moral and doctrinal principles are really better when cleared of all such “legendary lore,” “mythic fables,” “poetic fictions,” etc. In other words, they ask you to believe that the Bible contains a good many patches of lentils which are not worth the risk of a skirmish with these modern Philistines, these enemies within the land known as the “higher critics.”

But king David fought for his plot of lentils, though only a couple of his followers stood with him. He knew he had his feet upon a portion of God’s land, and he refused to yield so much as a handbreadth to the foe. In such a spirit of stoutheartedness, Christians are called to stand for the lentil-patches of the Bible. There is not one unnecessary chapter, or verse, or even word, in scripture. To give up so much as one iota is to spoil the symmetry of the whole. What God gives must be perfect as well as necessary. If we fail to apprehend or appreciate the purpose and beauty of any part of the word, let us have the modesty to suppose the defect is in ourselves and not in the holy scriptures.

We do not think Christians view the Bible with sufficient clearness as a sacred deposit held in trust by them from God. It is not because of the delight we may find in the early chapters of Chronicles, for instance, that we are to stand for their inspiration. But God gave them in the first place, and has since preserved them for us many ages, and now, when the enemy seeks to take them from us, shall we be such recreants as to flee? Nay, by the love that gave God’s Son to save you, be valiant, quit yourselves like men, and firmly resist the inroads of Satan upon the truth and sanctity of God’s own word. The victory is bound to be ours.

The Widow's Mites.

HOW far above the writings of mere men are those indited by the Spirit of God! What depth and fullness are revealed in the word of inspiration! God is the One Who brings to light the thoughts and intents of the heart, and however clever man may be, he cannot do this. God alone sees the motive, the spring of every action; God alone knows the subtle workings of each mind.

The Lord Jesus when on earth, often gave proof of His divinity to those who were able to perceive it, by chewing that He knew the very thoughts of those around Him. Instead of replying to their questions or their statements, He answered their thoughts, and put His finger, as it were, on the reasoning that they considered hidden from view. And while He could read the sordid desire, or the hope of worldly advantage, He equally knew the timid, shrinking touch of faith, or the wish in the hearts of those mothers who longed to bring their little ones to Him.

How plainly we see that the Lord observes everything, and that nothing escapes His eye! It was so when He trod this earth, and it is well to remember that He is always “the same, yesterday, and today, and forever.”

A beautiful picture is unfolded to us in Mark 12:41, 44; can we not enter into the scene as we ponder the simple narrative, and notice the vivid touches which bring into prominence the obscure widow, who probably never knew Who had watched her unpretentious deed?

“Many that were rich cast in much.” It was well that they did so, and the Lord saw what they did. But when they went to their homes, had they to debar themselves in any way? Had they to give up any luxury or expensive pleasure because they had been so lavish in their gifts? Surely the question was and is not so much as to the sum given, as it is to that which remains. This appears to have been the Lord’s way of estimating the value of the gifts.

Oh! what a privilege it was for the disciples to hear His own comments, when He treated them not as “servants” but as “friends,” and graciously explained to them the true meaning of what was passing around. This poor woman, who probably bore the marks of her poverty in her person and attire, cast in more than all that was bestowed by the wealthy and the grand. They had cast in of their abundance, but she of her want.

How little could she have imagined that the account of her deed would be read and spoken of for centuries. But so it is, even as the anointing of the Lord’s head by the woman who brought the alabaster box of ointment was to be remembered and told for a “memorial of her” wherever the gospel was to be preached in the whole world. In like manner the Holy Spirit placed on record, not only in Mark 12, but also in Luke 21, the incident of the widow and her two mites, that it might be had in remembrance for our instruction.

The apostle Paul writing to the Philippians, reveals a delicate reason why he rejoiced in their liberality. The saints had sent once and again unto his necessity, and he speaks of them as being at one time the only church which communicated with him as to giving and receiving; but he adds, with unselfish candor, “Not that I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.”

Paul had learned the hard lesson of contentment; he could abound or he could suffer need, and yet be satisfied. But he praises the Philippians, and tells them that they have well done to help him in his affliction, because he is glad that they are bearing fruit which will abound to their account. He knew that the Lord would not forget it or any such, for our blessed, gracious Lord sees the heart of each believer now, and reads it as thoroughly as He read the pious intent of the humble widow.

In 2 Corinthians 8 most interesting instruction is given as to the ministry of loving benevolence, and the example of our Lord Himself is cited, Who “though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

We do well also to note 2 Corinthians 9:7, 8, and challenge our hearts as to whether we reach the standard set before us there.

H.L.R.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of John.

Second Half.

THEN in chapters 13-17 we have the communications that open out Christian association with Christ in heaven, which was a wholly new thing after the breach with the Jew, chapter 17 completing it by giving us to hear His communion with His Father thereon. The first of these shows us Christ in the significant act of washing the disciples’ feet, with not blood but water. It is His advocacy for us now in heaven with the Father, interceding for us, as we on earth are called to do for one another. Advocacy is not to form relations, but to restore communion when interrupted by sins: as generally misunderstood now as by Peter then, to the shame of those who have the Holy Spirit given them. Judas is excepted, whose betraying Him He most touchingly discloses after supper; “and he went out immediately; and it was night.” Thereon, in terms of infinite depth, the Lord says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.” There is the ground and the display of the righteousness of God in its highest character. The blessing proclaimed in the Gospel is its result to us in His grace. Here we have all fully in Christ, where none as yet could follow. Yet all are exhorted to love one another as His disciples. If Peter trusted himself, he should learn what he was by denying Him thrice.

Chapter 14 follows, comforting the disciples on His departure by the blessed hope of His coming to receive them for the Father’s house, whither He was going to prepare a place for them: a wonderful statement indeed of that wonderful hope. Next, He points out what the Father is Whom He had been sheaving while here, words and works alike the Father’s; as they should do even greater works because of His going to the Father. Obedience was to be the witness of their loving Him; on His part, the Father at the Son’s instance would give them another Advocate, the Spirit of truth, to be with them forever, yea to be in them. Hence in that day they should know that Christ is in the Father, and they in Him, and He in them.

But obedience should only be deepened, not of His commandments only, but of His word. Here comes in the Christian’s responsibility, and more enjoyment follows fidelity in the Father’s government of our souls. Indifference to the Saviour’s words proves that one loves Him not. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father would send in His name, should teach them all things, as well as recall all that Christ had said. He leaves them peace, and gives them His peace. Why then be troubled or fear? Love to Him would rejoice that He was going to the Father. Nov that He is rejected, the enemy acquires the title of Prince or Ruler of this world: but his coming finds nothing in Christ, Who loves the Father and obeys unto death, as Adam disobeyed.

Chapter 15 treats of Christ as superseding Israel (fully proved an empty vine, and worse), and the disciples as branches, responsible to bear fruit, but only doing so by abiding in Him. Not life, still less unity of the members with the head, is in question, but practical cleaving to Him in order to fruit. Those who do not are cut off, as hollow professors. Keeping His commandments is to abide in His love; for here it is ours to Him in daily practice, not His to us as in the gospel. Even here His love to us is the spring and pattern of ours one to another; but it is as friends, who once were enemies; and He chose us to bear fruit abidingly, telling us all He heard from His Father, and assuring us that what we ask of the Father in His name, He will give us. He urged mutual love in the face of the world’s hatred, as of Him, so of those who must expect persecution for His sake, and were avowedly not of the world. Christ’s words and works had only brought out hatred of Him and His Father — sin outdoing all other sins. But the Advocate when come would testify of Him, as those also did who were with Him from the beginning.

In chapter 16 we have distinctly the presence of the Holy Spirit Whom Jesus sends; and He, when come, demonstrates to the world sin, righteousness, and judgment; as He guides the disciples into all the truth, and announces the things to come, thus glorifying Christ. It was but a “little while” in contrast with Jewish expectation. Meanwhile how wondrous to have the Father plainly revealed, and to be loved of Him ourselves, and to have peace in Christ with tribulation in the world!

Chapter 17 crowns all with the Son’s spreading before the Father His person and His work, as His double plea for glorification, but in order to glorify the Father, in the objects of their common love beyond all thought of man. He requests that they should be associated with Him before the Father as well as before the world; and at length be with Him and behold His glory, and meanwhile, yet more, know the Father’s name with its blessed consequences.

Chapter 18 commences the final scenes: the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the blasphemous unbelief of Annas and Caiaphas, the guilty yielding of Pilate against his conscience, and the guiltier clamor of the Jews who prefer Barabbas. In chapter 19 Pilate scourges Jesus, but vainly strives against spite till the chief priests disavow the Christ of God in the apostate answer, We have no king but Cæsar. The only One that shines with divine dignity and grace is Jesus, as this is the design of the Gospel: not His agony in the garden, but the prostration of the band at His name; not the forsaking on the cross, but, “It is finished,” and the dismissal of His spirit; for He, and He only, had authority to lay clown His life (soul) and to take it again. Here, too, is noticed the piercing of His side after death, and the blood and water that came out, as John testifies in the Gospel and applies in his First Epistle. Also Nicodemus reappears, and Joseph (whatever man designed) — “with the rich in his death.” In chapter 20, early as Mary of Magdala came on the first day of the week, she found the stone taken away from the tomb. Peter and John run at her call, and see the evidences of His resurrection. They had not as yet known the scripture that He must rise. Such faith is powerless. Mary knew no more, but remained weeping; when first angels, then the Lord, ask her why she wept. All was known when He said, “Mary.” He forbids her touching Him (not so was the Christian to know Him, but as glorified) and sends His message of full grace to His brethren, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. At evening within the shut doors they are assembled, when Jesus stood in the midst, announces peace to them, and gives them their mission of peace, with administrative remission and retention of sins. Thomas was both absent and unbelieving; but eight days after he was with them, and Jesus comes, though the doors were shut, and again salutes them, with full acceptance of Thomas’ challenge to shame him into faith, so that he cries, My Lord and my God. The words that follow confirm the conviction that he typifies the Jew brought to see and believe, after the church is called to its better part — believing without seeing.

Chapter 21 appends typically the millennial haul of many great fishes from the sea of the nations, in contrast with the haul now (as in Luke) where the nets break and the boats are sinking. Peter is then probed, but reinstated before his brethren and entrusted with Christ’s lambs and sheep; besides, he is assured of that portion by grace which could not be in his self-confidence. And John has his place defined enigmatically; not as the earliest tradition said that he should not die, “but if I will that he abide until I come, what [is it] to thee?” All is left in suspense. John rained, when all the rest were gone, to show the passing away of the churches, “the things that are,” and to predict the judgments on the world which precede the Lord’s return in visible glory, when He will take His great power and reign.

W. K.

All Doubts Removed.

IT was my privilege to be at the bedside of two aged Christians who were very near passing away. They were upwards of eighty years of age, and had seen the jubilee of a wedded life. For many years they had been children of God, but like thousands more they did not enjoy their relationship to God the Father.

When the question was put to them as to the knowledge of this joy, they both looked up with not particularly bright countenances. The husband replied, “I hope so”; and the wife broke in with, “Ah, yes; we shall know all about it when we get up there.”

“But the Lord would have you enjoy the reality of that eternal relationship now, just where you are.”

“You don’t mean to tell us we can enjoy that great blessing while in these poor bodies.”

As the best answer, I read to them, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

“Do you believe this?” I said.

“Oh, yes! I believe all the Lord said.”

“Well, those that believe have everlasting life. Mark the three words, ‘and is passed.’ It is a present accomplished fact, true as you lie there.”

“There, now,” said the husband to the wife, “I never saw it in that way before.”

“Nor have I,” said the wife. “How beautiful it is.”

A few days after I was with them again, but was sorry to find they had fallen back into their former state. They were hoping to know it by-and-by.

It seemed very strange to me that these two Christians should have changed so. I happened to inquire whether there had been other visitors, and heard of two who had called. And these “miserable comforters” had told the simpleminded couple they ought to wait with patience till they got to heaven.

I read to them, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:2), and pointed out how the present and future are so beautifully brought out in that verse. It had the effect of true comfort upon them. The joy that now filled their hearts was real beyond a doubt. Gladness beamed in each countenance. Every hindrance was removed, and the Lord in His great love kept them from further doubts and fears.

Later on, I was called in, as the husband was evidently close to the end. Finding he could hear, we sang very softly in his ear the hymn, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, In a believer’s ear!” As we sung the last lines, “And triumph in that glorious name, Which quells the power of death,” he raised his hands and distinctly though feebly said, “Praise, praise the Lord.”

Just at the last the question was put to him, “Is the Lord precious to you now?” All distinctly heard the feeble answer, “Yes, yes.”

“You know now you are going to be forever with the Lord.”

Clearly came his last words on earth, “Yes, praise, praise”; and with a sweet smile he fell asleep in Jesus.

One month after, his partner followed him. During the interval I frequently visited her and found her in full enjoyment of Christ and of the hope of the glory of God. She often remarked that she was now enjoying what she might have done fifty years before.

Her last moments are not easily to be forgotten. When I called, I was told she had no knowledge of any one, not even of her own sister.

I took her hand and sang softly to her as to her husband, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.” Her head turned in a listening attitude. I said, “You find that name precious to you now, don’t you?” “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” she said. And shortly after her happy spirit went to be forever with the Lord.

E. A.

The Apostasy and the Man of Sin.

HAVING seen what grace has in store for the saints when the Lord Jesus comes, we will look at the solemn future of the vast mass of Christless profession. The fullest information is furnished in 2 Thessalonians 2. This epistle, as the preceding, was written to meet difficulties which the enemy had raised in the minds of the Thessalonian believers. At first their perplexity was as to their sleeping brethren, what part they would have at the Lord’s return. This was cleared up by Paul’s first inspired letter, where it is shown that before one single living saint is removed, the sleepers will be raised, that all may ascend together to meet the Lord. But now their hearts were differently troubled; persecution had broken out (2 Thess. 1:4), and they were suffering severely for Christ’s sake. The watchful enemy took advantage of it to insinuate the thought into their minds that the day of the Lord with all its attendant calamity and darkness was upon them; and even went so far as to send them a letter, purporting to be from the apostle, confirming them in the idea. Their hope thus became clouded, which will account for the Spirit’s silence as to their hope, when commending their faith and love (compare 2 Thessalonians 1:3 with 1 Thessalonians 1:3).

A little thoughtful consideration would have helped them. The day of the Lord will bring trouble to the Lord’s enemies, not to His friends. Then the saints will be at rest, and the ungodly in sorrow, a complete reversal of the present condition of things.

But observe the apostle’s simple manner of dealing with the error. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind ... as that the day of the Lord is come.” The Authorized Version is unquestionably wrong in reading, “as that the day of Christ is at hand.” This would place 2 Thessalians 2:2 in direct opposition to Romans 13:12, which cannot be. It is admitted on all sides now that the common rendering is entirely mistaken.

Examine closely the argument. The apostle beseeches them, “by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him,” not to be persuaded that the day of the Lord had come; thus putting the two things in express contrast. The Lord will come and take up His own prior to the day of His public appearing, and inasmuch as He had not thus come, and the Thessalonians were still on earth, how could they suppose that the day of the Lord had set in?

Another consideration is then presented. The apostasy has yet to come, the man of sin must be revealed, ere “the Day” will appear. Dark times are in store for Christendom, whatever some may say. The latter times of 1 Timothy 4. have long been here, the last days of 2 Timothy 3 are now upon us; but worse is at hand. The true saints are the salt of the earth; what will become of the mass when they are removed? Scripture is plain, apostasy. There will be a public and general renunciation of Christianity in all the lands where now it is professed. Are not things already tending that way? Was infidelity ever so daring within the pale of the church as now? Outside, sceptics have always existed; now, alas! from end to end of Christendom men are found in abundance bearing the Christian name, whose aim seems to be to do away with the word of God, the precious work of Christ, and all that God has revealed. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure.

Connected with the apostasy is the revelation of the man of sin, the son of perdition, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, sheaving himself that he is God.” This is not a system, or a succession of men (as the Popes), but an individual not yet manifested. We identify him with the willful king of Daniel 11:36-45; the antichrist of 1 John 2:18-22; the beast of Revelation 13:11-17; the false prophet of Revelation 19:20; and the idol shepherd of Zechariah 11:15-17.

Man must have an object of adoration, and having finally cast off God, all Christendom will presently bow at the feet of the false Christ; the Jews also, in whose temple will be his seat. Signs will not be wanting to help the delusion, the most solemn perhaps being fire from heaven, Elijah’s great proof that Jehovah is the true God (Rev. 13:13). God’s hand will be there also, He will judicially harden. He will give men up to strong delusion. They have the truth now, but neither love it nor believe it; it will then be far from them.

The mystery of lawlessness was working even in apostolic days, but it cannot reach its height until the restrainer is gone. This is the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in the church of God and in every individual believer. He is here to guard the interests of Christ, and to bear testimony to Him; when He and the church leave the scene the change will come.

This solemn period will run its course until the Lord Jesus appears in glory. He will take the lawless one in hand personally, stopping abruptly his career of blasphemy and sin, casting him, with his companion in wickedness, the beast, alive into the lake of fire. His fearful doom gives solemn significance to his title, the son of perdition.

W.W.F.

DELIVERANCE (1) from wrath to come, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, (2) from fear of death, Hebrews 2:15, (3) from the power of darkness, Colossians 1:13, (4) from the law, Romans 7:6, (5) from this present evil age, Galatians 1:4, (6) from the law of sin and death, Romans 8:2.

Hindrances to Prayer.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, —I have thought that a few plain and simple words on some of the hindrances to prayer may, with the Lord’s blessing, be of some help to you. The invitations and exhortations to prayer in the word of God are so frequent that it is quite unnecessary for me to commence by chewing that there is no hindrance on God’s side. If therefore you fail to pray, as a young believer, you ought to allow that the fault lies entirely with yourself. You have permitted something to rob you of this privilege.

Now one of the commonest states of soul of those who go on day after day without prayer, or without anything more than a hurried word or two, is that of want of desire. They do not pray because they do not feel particular to pray for. This is a serious condition to be found in. It is so much like the degraded church in Laodicea, which said, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” And to have need of nothing is to have nothing, in a spiritual sense. For prayerlessness means powerlessness, and that ends in Christlessness.

If anyone on this earth might be thought to have had need of nothing it would be the blessed Lord. But what an example of prayer He gives us! He rose up a great while before day and departed into a solitary place where He prayed (Mark 1:35). Not on that occasion only did He go apart to pray. Often “The midnight and the mountain air Witnessed the fervor of His prayer.” And if He so prayed, how much more need have we!

When, therefore, you feel you have no need to pray, you must take it you have most need to pray; for Satan is then seeking to blind you as to your sense of dependence upon God. Confess your folly therefore and pray continually. Look at Christ; see how you come short of perfection, and cry to God to supply what is lacking.

Some are hindered from praying by a want of simplicity of mind. They think it too childlike to come to God about every trivial matter. They fancy they can manage some, at least, of their affairs. The power of God may be needed to destroy Jericho, but surely, so they imagine, they need not trouble God about the few huts at Ai. However, there is glorious victory at Jericho, while there is utter discomfiture at Ai, as well as everywhere else where pride and self-confidence work.

Beware, young believer, of proud thoughts. They are an abomination to God. “Be clothed with humility.” You want God’s help in the smallest matters, and He will not withhold it from the prayer of faith. At the bench or in the counting-house, at school or in household duties, seek aid from on high in all your difficulties, and you will find what resources there are in God for the prayerful soul. This will not encourage you in idleness; for you must not suppose God will do for you what you are too lazy to attempt. While you ought to pray as if everything depended on Omnipotence, you must also work as if all depend on yourself.

I come now to a more serious hindrance to prayer, namely, indulgence in sinful thoughts and feelings and ways. Supposing you have allowed yourself to become very angry or peevish or sulky, do you pray in such a frame of mind? You know that, on the contrary, you often retire to rest without so much as falling on your knees. Satan whispers to you, “How can you pray in such a state as you are? You cannot expect God to hear you.” And instead of straightway confessing your sins and receiving faithful and just forgiveness and being restored to happy communion, you are led further astray by listening to the subtle suggestions of the enemy.

You may be assured that your adversary will ever aim to keep you from the throne of grace. But his reasons for your staying away should be yours for hastening there. That alone is the place of power for you against yourself, the world, and the devil. “Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.”

Shame is sometimes a hindrance to prayer. I will illustrate this by a circumstance, for the accuracy of which I can vouch. A young Christian accustomed to sleep alone had on one occasion to share his room with an unconverted friend. At night came the test. Should he go on his knees, and thus let his friend know he was a Christian? He hesitated, and was caught in the snare. That night and two or three other nights he went to bed prayerless. He was so ashamed of himself, however, that he then tried to compromise matters by quietly kneeling down after he had put out the light, hoping his friend would not discover his little artifice. He was deceived, however, for this Nicodemus was told the next day that his unconverted bedfellow knew what he had been doing, and despised him for his cowardice and want of faithfulness to his Master.

I will add nothing to this now, save a reminder of God’s word to Eli, “Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30).

Yours faithfully in Christ,

“YOD.”

Correspondence.

R. H. —What is the meaning of John 14:21? Is the manifestation present or future? We have in the context what the Lord promises in view of His absence. By-and-by He would come again that they might go to be with Him (vs. 3); but meanwhile He would come to them (vs. 18), and the Spirit Who was to be given would make that presence known and enjoyed (vs. 20). But He also shows (vs. 21) that an obedient walk is necessary to that manifestation. Keeping the commandments of Jesus is a proof of the saint’s love, and the reward is a special sense of the Lord’s presence. The manifestation is therefore present and spiritual (contingent, however, on obedience), in contrast with the future public manifestation to the world (Col. 3:4).

E. H. B. —Will you explain James 5:19, 20? James looks here at the working of divine love in the heart of the saints in seeking one astray from the truth with a view to the forgiveness of his sins. Love ever desires not the exposure, or perpetuation, but the blotting out of sins. The reward of such who thus become the means of converting a sinner is the salvation of a soul from death and the covering of a multitude of sins (Prov. 10:12; 1 Peter 4:8). The principle seems general, as usual in this epistle, and therefore applies to the restoration of backsliders as well as to the salvation of the lost.

B. S. — (1) Who are “the sheep, the goats, and the brethren” in Matthew 25? At the Lord’s public appearing, the Gentile nations, then alive on the earth, are gathered before Him to be judged. They are divided into two classes (the sheep and the goats), according as they have either received or rejected the testimony of God by the Jewish preachers of the gospel of the kingdom (whom the Lord calls His brethren). (2) Please explain more fully “clothed” and “naked” (2 Cor. 5:3). The apostle is speaking of his own earnest desire and that of other saints to be clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, that is, to assume the spiritual bodies which they will possess throughout eternity. But he adds a solemn warning. “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” For every unforgiven sinner, though clothed in a resurrection body, will be “naked” before God, that is, not covered by Christ. Every saint will not only be in a spiritual body, but in Christ also Who is his acceptance before God.

The Fellowship of the Apostles.

THE oneness of heart and mind and action displayed by Pentecostal saints is a striking feature of those early days, and not only striking but strange, because of its contrast with the present disunion of Christendom. The practical unity of the church manifested at that time was a direct answer to the Lord’s intercessory, prayer recorded in John 17.

On that occasion the Lord’s desires on behalf of those who had believed on His name, and who had up to that time been guarded by His own presence, were particularly for their consolidation and unity. The wolf would seek to scatter these sheep, as indeed he did to some extent when the Shepherd was smitten. But the Lord had prayed not only for Simon but for all. “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:1). He would have His own whom He was leaving behind in the world, bound together in the closest and most intimate association.

Accordingly, on the day of Pentecost, the Father, in the name of the Son, sent the Holy Spirit to baptize these disciples into one body. A oneness was wrought in these men, such as neither did nor could exist before. Moreover, this oneness was of the very highest character. “I and the Father are one,” said the Lord on a certain occasion; and after such a pattern the unity of the disciples was to be. “That they may be one as we are,” were the terms of the Lord’s prayer.

But the Lord prayed not for those alone who were the fruit of His own ministry here below; in like manner He went on in contemplation and desire for those who should believe on Him through their word of testimony (John 17:20). He sought “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”

Now we find the first fulfillment of this request after the preaching at Pentecost. “And they [the converts] continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” (Acts 2:42). Here were men, Jews and proselytes, from all parts of the world, who had believed on the Lord Jesus through the word of the apostles; and, in spite of all differences and prejudices, they were brought in to share that unity formed in the apostolic band by the baptismal action of the newly-descended Spirit. They practically expressed the presence and unity of the Spirit by fellowship. For it is the gracious office of the Holy Ghost to produce and sustain this community of thought and desire and action in the members of Christ’s body.

And if the Spirit is thus the power of fellowship, the basis of unity and consequent communion is that it is in the Father and the Son — “in us,” as the Lord prayed. If we have fellowship with the Father and the Son we have also fellowship one with another (1 John 1:3, 7). This is the activity of the divine life which goes out Godward on the one hand, and towards all who are begotten of Him on the other. So that the secret of Christian fellowship lies in the fact that we are all partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), as well as in the fact that we have been all made to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).

The degree of the intimacy of our fellowship is indicated by our membership of one body. It is not a tribal fellowship, as of Israel; but our interests have been made identical, Christ, to Whom all are linked, having become the object of every heart. In this association, of which the human body is the chosen figure of inspiration, our interdependence is unavoidable, if the normal spiritual state is preserved.

But another consideration claims our attention. It will be observed that fellowship is here connected with doctrine, as both are with the apostles. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” (Acts 2:42). This is significant. For while the possession of the Spirit and divine life with membership of the one body are all essential to communion, so also in an equal degree is the maintenance of the apostles’ teaching as preserved in the Scriptures. If the teaching of the apostles is denied, true Christian fellowship is at an end. Hence the apostle John writes to the elect lady and her children, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine [of Christ], receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed” (2 John 10). In like manner Paul warned Timothy, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness ... from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). Abiding in the teaching of the apostles is therefore necessary to continuance in the apostles’ fellowship.

Worship and Worshippers.

THERE is a great difference between worship now and worship as it used to be. In the patriarchal period, the father of the family offered sacrifice, as Job, Abraham, and others, for family worship.

Later on, God called out a people for Himself. Israel became a screened people, a sheltered people by the blood of the lamb. Then God brought them out of Egypt by His power that they might worship Him.

The people of Israel never worshipped in Egypt. There was no altar there. There was not even one holy spot in all Egypt where they might offer worship to God. But when they were delivered and brought through the Red Sea, God gave them the glorious ritual we read of in Exodus and Leviticus. This provided for the outward approach of the people, but only through priests with sacrifices and ceremonies.

But when Christ came we see by His words to the woman of Samaria that worship must be of a spiritual nature. No sooner had this woman got light than she raised the question of worship. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.” The place of worship was a contested point between the Jews and the Samaritans; but the Jews were right and the Samaritans wrong. For God had declared that the place where He put His name was the proper place for worship. But the Lord settled the question for the woman of Samaria and for us when He said, “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” (John 4:23).

Some people have the notion that everybody or anybody can worship. This is wrong; for none but children of God, saints of God, and new-born people can worship God. It is an equally false notion that everything is worship. Hearing a sermon, for instance, is not worship. But when we gather to remember Christ in the breaking of bread, if only for a moment our hearts are touched and melted and we cry out, “O God, we praise Thee,” we then unite in worship.

It must be remembered that only those who are holy and clean persons, who can lift up holy hands, whose hearts are purified by faith are true worshippers. God is holy, and those that draw near Him must be holy too. It is as impossible for an unforgiven sinner to worship God, as it is for him to enter heaven. Indeed, worship is the occupation of heaven. And now God puts us into His nursery to learn worship; and when we go on high, the worship we have begun below will go on throughout eternity.

Now, in John 4, we find the Lord settled the question of the place of worship. There is now no particular spot marked out on earth for that purpose. But wherever Christians are found worshipping in spirit and in truth, we have what is essential. For we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us” (Heb. 10:19, 20).

There is therefore a consecrated way into the holy of holies thrown open to us. Who then may pass along that consecrated way? Why, consecrated people of course; every sanctified believer, all Christians. Such may come into the immediate presence of God by this holy way. For there is no veil now before the holiest of all, as of old. Now, instead of being kept afar off, each believer has holy liberty through the work of Christ to come into the immediate presence of God.

Each worshipper is fitted for this place. As the sons of Aaron had their priestly robes, so the Christian has his robe of divine righteousness. For the Lord Jesus is the believer’s righteousness. He is no longer in filthy rags, but clad in the best robe. Christ is on him, and He is God’s delight.

Many things may hinder worship. Being unduly absorbed in business, reading trashy novels, associating with the unconverted, all tend to cloud the spirit. And it is only in the spirit we can perform this or any other spiritual function.

There are many who think little of worship; but God does not. As the Shepherd seeks the sheep, so the Father seeks worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

In coming to worship we come to give, not so much to receive. The Jew never approached God with empty hands; even so we must bring our spiritual sacrifices, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

L B.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Chapters 1-6

IN the first chapter of this book, the sequel of the third Gospel, the risen Christ is seen ascending to heaven after forty days since His suffering, and giving injunctions to the apostles through the Holy Spirit, Who was soon to baptize them. But instead of restoring at this time the kingdom to Israel as they expected, they were to be His witnesses everywhere when they received power, whilst waiting for His return from heaven. Meanwhile they gave themselves to persevering prayer, and Peter takes the lead in filling up the vacant place of Judas Iscariot among the witnesses of His resurrection, according to Psalms 109.

On the day of Pentecost, as they were all together, the Father’s promise was fulfilled with twofold outward signs: a blowing sound out of heaven that filled all the house, and parted tongues as of fire, that sat on each, so that all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as He gave them utterance: the answer of grace to the judgment of Babel. While all were amazed and some mocked, Peter vindicated the wonderful work of God by citing the close of Joel 2, though he does not say it was yet its fulfillment in the great and gloriously appearing day of Jehovah. He then lays on the men of Israel the awful sin of crucifying, through lawless men’s hand, Jesus, Whom God raised up (Psa. 16), the Christ yet to sit on David’s throne (Psa. 132), meanwhile ascended to sit at Jehovah’s right hand (Psa. 110). Pricked in their heart when they heard this, they were called to repent and be baptized in His name; when they too should receive the Holy Spirit. For theirs was the promise. In that day about 3,000 souls were added, and such fellowship in holy unselfish love and truth and joyous worship as earth had never seen; and the Lord kept adding day by day together those to be saved. It was the church’s birthday (ch. 2), though there remained then, and for long, attachment to the institutions of the law.

Accordingly, while going up to the temple, Peter and John were asked alms by a notorious cripple, which was met by Peter’s bidding him, in the name of Jesus, arise and walk; as he did immediately before all. And Peter proclaimed that it was the God of their fathers glorifying His Servant Jesus, Whom they delivered up and denied, when even Pilate had decided to release Him. They denied the Holy and Just One, preferring a murderer to Him Whom God raised up as the apostles testified. It was the virtue of His name which in faith wrought that deed. He called them then (for grace would treat His rejection as ignorance) to repent and be converted for the blotting out of their sins, so that seasons of refreshing might come from the Lord’s presence, and He would send Jesus, Whom heaven must receive till times of restoring all things according to the prophets. This will be the kingdom in power, as the church knows the kingdom in patience till then. But Jesus was the Prophet of Whom Moses spoke in Deuteronomy 18, as all others foretold of these days, for He was also the true Seed of promise for blessing (ch. 3).

But Sadducean unbelief has opposed the risen Christ (ch. 4), as Pharisaic self-righteousness hated Him when here below. And the two apostles were put in ward unto the morrow, when the high priest and his party inquired and learned distinctly from Peter that it was in the name of Him Whom they crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, that the infirm man stood before them whole, citing Psalms 118:22 on the most irrefragable evidence, and declaring Him the only Saviour. Unable to reply they, after consultation, charged them not to utter a word nor teach in the name of Jesus, but received the bold appeal whether they should be hearkened to rather than God, for they could not but speak what they saw and heard. Let go, they came unto “their own” (for so the Christians are now distinctly called), and reported all; when arose with one accord their cry to God, applying Psalms 2:1, 2, but with no thought at all that the following verses could be accomplished till Christ comes again. And the Holy Spirit wrought in answer, and gave great power to their testimony of His resurrection and in all ways of grace, Barnabas then first shining conspicuously.

Chapter 5 opens with the sin and judgment of Ananias and Sapphira, deliberately guilty against the gracious working that characterized all at that time; but God turned it to great fear within and without, yet adding more than ever to the Lord, and working in mighty power on men’s bodies. Hence the high priest was incensed beyond measure and put all the twelve in prison, who were brought out by an angel and sent to speak in the temple all the words of this life. Led thence by the captain of the temple with the officers, they openly answered that God must be obeyed rather than men, and asserted that the Holy Spirit was witness, as well as they of what they set forth. Cut to the heart, they took counsel to slay them; but Gamaliel gave such sound advice, with a certain fear of God, that they satisfied themselves with beating them, and reiterated injunction not to speak in the Name. They however retired with joy that they were counted worthy of dishonor for the Name, which every day in the temple and at home, they ceased not to teach and preach.

Another cloud gathered; again failure against the very grace that was so marked. Jealousy and mistrust came in, the Hellenists against the Hebrews, as if their widows were not duly cared for. The twelve meet the danger with wisdom and grace, calling on the mass of the believers to choose seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, to relieve the apostles of this outward task and be set by them over the business. For what the church gave, the church was entitled to choose. It is the Lord only who gave spiritual gifts, which are therefore above man’s choice. So when the seven were chosen (apparently all Hellenists), the apostles prayed and laid their hands on them. And great blessing followed, even a crowd of the priests obeying the faith. But as Stephen surpassed all in grace and power, so he became soon an object for deadly persecution, and false witnesses were set up, when he was brought before the council.

W. K.

The Two Beasts of Revelation 13.

IN the book of Daniel four men are brought into special prominence, each of whom will take a very active part in the great drama about, perhaps, to be enacted upon this earthly stage, immediately preceding and at the coming of the Lord in judgment. They are the “little horn” (7:8), the king of “fierce countenance” (8:23), the king who shall do according to his own will” (11:36), and “the king of the south” (11:40). The first and third — the “little horn” and the willful king, are the two beasts mentioned in Revelation 13. They seem to have very much in common, and are therefore hopelessly confounded by many.

I purpose taking up these two, and hope to skew from the word that, striking as the similarity is, there are yet points of difference so clearly defined that the specialty of both is unmistakable.

In the interpretation, by the holy One, of Daniel’s vision (7:16-27), the fourth beast is said to be the fourth kingdom upon earth. When the political power was taken from the Jewish nation, it was given over to the Gentiles in the person of Nebuchadnezzar (2:37, 38). His kingdom was therefore the first, the Medo-Persian second, the Grecian third, and the Roman fourth. But the prophet sees the Roman power in its final aspect. It has ten horns, which are ten kings in its former condition it was a consolidated empire; but when the Goths and Vandals burst upon it in the fourth century, its power was broken, and it ceased to be an empire. When it rises again, moreover, it will be energized by Satan and will receive power direct from him. The Lord Jesus refused the kingdoms of the world from his hands; but this ruler of Rome has no such scruples (cf. Matthew 4:1-10, Revelation 13:1-7, and Daniel 7:19-26). From the midst of the ten horns rises a little horn. At first it is insignificant politically, but intelligent and arrogant. By conquest three of the ten kings become subject to him, and through policy, probably, the other seven give in their allegiance. He thus secures the mastery of the ten, and becomes a powerful potentate in the West.

In Daniel 11:36 a person is introduced in a very abrupt manner. He is designated “the king,” and seems to have uncontrolled sway in his own sphere of rule. His object is to exalt himself at all costs. He regards not the God of his fathers nor the desire of women — that is, the Messiah, sheaving that he is a Jew and an infidel. The empire of this king is located in Palestine; for such is the sense the terms “glorious land” and “glorious mountain” convey.

In Isaiah 30:33 this person is also spoken of as the king: Here, “yea, for the king it is prepared” should read, “for the king also,” &c., thus making the king and the Assyrian two persons instead of one. Compare also 57:9. In Revelation 13 a second beast rises out of the earth, that is; a more orderly state of things politically than the sea, out of which the first beast of this chapter emerges. “Beast” in prophetic language means a power, but there is a man who wields that power; in this case, “the king.”

The political history of these two heads of power is very closely connected, although their respective seats of empire are widely apart. After the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, have returned to Palestine, and “the king” is reigning over them, a power, called in Daniel 11:40, the king of the north (mentioned also in Dan. 8:23), and in other prophets, “the Assyrian,” will threaten Palestine with invasion. To counteract this “the king” will enter into league with the then great western power, the Roman emperor. This compact is mentioned in Isaiah 28:15, 18, and is there said to be a covenant with “hell and death.” In Daniel 9:27 details as to time, etc., are given. “And he [the coming Roman prince, verse 26] shall confirm a [not the] covenant with the many [of the Jews] for one week [seven years].” The Roman armies are sent to Palestine to oppose the invader; but the invader marches upon Jerusalem and partially takes it, inflicting frightful cruelties upon the inhabitants. Afterward he goes clown and overruns Egypt, and the adjacent lands probably. During this time the Roman emperor with the ten kings and “the king” make war against the Lamb with the awful result that they are both, the Roman and the Jew, the beast and false prophet, cast alive into the lake of fire. The remainder are slain with the sword of His mouth (Rev. 19).

While these two persons are also similar in religious matters, yet there is a difference. The Roman not only hates and persecutes the saints, but blasphemes God, and aims at equality with Him. (Comp. Daniel 7:20, 21, 25; Revelation 13:6,7; Isaiah 14:13,14). Having covenanted with the Jews (Dan. 9:27) to give them religious liberty for seven years (one week), at the end of three and a half years he causes “sacrifice and oblation to cease” and forces idolatry upon them. Those who will not worship the idols set up are persecuted to death, some flying to the wilderness according to the Lord’s word (Matt. 24:15-19; Rev. 12:14).

The king, or “second beast,” is the active agent in bringing about the purposes of the first. And, hence, he has been very aptly called “the first beast’s lieutenant.” He appears as a lamb, but speaks as a dragon, He exercises the power of the first beast, and causes divine honors to be paid to him (Rev. 13:11-18). There is, in fact, a trinity of evil — (1) the dragon who gives his power to the (2) first beast and (3) the second beast who receives power from the first; and homage paid to one is the worship of all three.

This latter personage, the second beast, is called “the antichrist” (1 John 2:22), “the false prophet” (Rev. 19:20), “the idol shepherd” (Zech. 11:17), “the lawless one” (2 Thess. 2:8). In the latter scripture he is seen in God’s temple, sheaving that he himself is God. The Roman emperor claimed to be equal with God, but the antichrist usurps His place and authority. In a word, the former defies God, and the latter denies Him altogether. It seems clear, therefore, that the two heads of power (Rev. 13) are not one and the same, but two distinct persons, in their rise, political aspect, and religious characters.

W.T. H.

THERE are many indications of a poor state of soul, and one of them is a bad threepenny piece in the collection box.

Barrack Room Prayer.

THE following incident is inserted in connection with the letter on “Hindrances to Prayer” in last month’s issue.

One evening, about seven years ago, I met two young Christian soldiers in Dublin. Entering into conversation with them, I invited them to my house, to look into God’s word. Knowing something of barrack-room life, and the trials and difficulties to which Christian soldiers are subjected, I was desirous of knowing how they fared at the hands of their comrades. So on the way thither I inquired whether they ever found boots or other missiles whizzing past their ears when kneeling at their cot side. Strange to say, my young brothers in Christ were silent. We went on to the house, however, and had our reading.

Some three months subsequent to this, my young friends were again at my house, and young H —reminded me of my question, and added, “If you could have seen my face on that night — I believe it went as red as my coat. Neither of us had been in the habit of kneeling down, but thought it sufficient to get into bed, and then commit ourselves to God; but your question went home, and from that night we determined to live for Christ. We got on our knees that night, and the following morning, instead of lying in bed, we turned out at reveille, went down on our knees again, and the Lord gave us strength to do so, though we were somewhat persecuted.”

A young drummer of the regiment was led to Christ, it is believed, through their testimony, and is still a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

G. T.

Humility of Mind.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, ―If you have made any honest effort to cultivate Christian humility, I am sure you must have discovered very quickly what a difficult task is before you. And yet this grace is one which must certainly characterize everyone in whom the life of Jesus is manifested in any degree. It behooves you, therefore, to watch very diligently and pray very earnestly that you may be blessed with a humble spirit and a lowly demeanor.

The first thing necessary is that you should learn what is true humility. This you can only do in one way. You must learn of Christ. It is useless to think you will be able to understand true humility either by the light of your own reason, or by the study of the maxims and examples of men around you. The world is guided by a different principle altogether. Every man seeks to make it very clear that he stands at the head of his class. His tea, or his mustard, or his boots, as the case may be, are the best in the world. This he flaunts in his shop windows, on the hoardings, and in the newspapers. This is not a spirit conducive to humility, but the contrary.

Now, you remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,” Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” And in Philippians 2 we are taught a good deal concerning the unparalleled character of the humility displayed by that Blessed One. There never was such humility as His, for the simple reason there never was such a Person as He. None stooped so low, for none was so high. He Who was God submitted to the death of the cross. Consider, therefore, the exhortation, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

To this end study the life of the Lard Jesus as found in the Gospels. I do not mean glance over the chapter, but read, search, ponder, meditate, compare. There was a question given recently in this magazine as to the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And one was struck with the fewness of the examples given in reply. I have thought perhaps some found them so numerous that it was difficult to select. Just as when you endeavor some clear night to count the stars, even while you are counting you observe a great number you had not noticed before, until at last you give up your task as impossible. So is it in reckoning the beauties of Christ; they are infinite.

Let me advise you to take a penny Testament (which is not expensive, even if spoiled), and go slowly through the Gospels several times, marking with a pencil every passage which in any way illustrates the humility of Christ. I am sure you will then feel what need you have to pray that the lowly mind of Christ you everywhere see shining forth in His words and works, may be reproduced in you.

Another thing you must carefully note is that scripture lays great stress upon humility or lowliness of mind. The phrase occurs in Acts 20:19; Ephesians 4:2; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 5:5; from whence you will gather its importance in that it is so repeatedly insisted on.

But there can be but one competent judge of a humble mind, and that one is God. Other people may judge of your humble words, humble looks, and humble ways. God, however, views the heart. So that you must begin there in this, as in all matters. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord” (James 4:10). In your private devotion, allow the light of God’s word to stream into your soul and show you your true place in His presence. This is the only cure for proud thoughts and self-satisfied feelings, and the only way to become lowly in mind.

It will be found that those who are humble before God will, as a matter of course, be humble before men. At any rate I would beseech you not to strive to appear humble to others. Be unconstrained. Do not pretend to be in manners what you are not in mind; for that is hypocrisy. True, Christ-like humility, that thinks nothing of self, is perhaps the most beautiful of all virtues; but the spurious kind, that is secretly proud of itself, is detestable to both God and man.

It is a wise rule for you to avoid saying anything of yourself, either good, bad, or indifferent; anything good savors of vanity; anything bad, of affectation; anything indifferent, of silliness. The entire forgetfulness of self is the perfection of humility.

Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought. Do not adopt airs of self-importance, as if you feared people would otherwise overlook who and what you are. In a field of corn the full ears droop, but the empty ones stand erect and stiff, as if to claim attention by their jaunty appearance. The latter, however, never succeed in impressing the farmer with their importance. We hope the lofty carriage and imposing bearing assumed by some young people is not so indicative of the emptiness of their heads and the vanity of their minds as their demeanor would lead us to suppose.

Never set up to be a wiseacre or a know-all. Recollect and be warned by the history of that personage who gave out that he himself was “some great one.” The humble-minded is not ashamed to say, “I don’t know,” except when he feels he ought to have known a good while ago. But he never pretends to know what he does not.

On the other hand, don’t be always dinning into people’s ears that you are a mere nobody. They will suspect, and probably rightly, that you are fishing for a compliment. While you appear very assiduous in slighting yourself, you are secretly hoping that your croakings will provoke your hearers into saying that you are really a person of considerable worth. This is deceit and dissimulation on your part, and a long way removed from humility.

I mention these dangers because they are pitfalls which lie on the right hand and on the left of the narrow path of humility; and I do so with the earnest hope that you may heed the warning and escape the snares. My last word is that true humility thinks nothing of self and everything of Christ.

Faithfully yours in Him, “YOD.”

Correspondence.

One For Many. —Kindly explain the falling away in Heb. 6:1-6. In the consideration of Scripture it is vastly important to view it in the connection given it by the Holy Ghost. Nov this epistle is addressed to those among the Hebrews or Jews who had professed faith in Christ. In Heb. 5:11-14, the apostle reproaches them for lack of growth in the truth; they were no more than babes when they should have been teachers. Let them advance beyond “the word of the beginning of Christ” (R.V. margin), which refers to His presentation in the days of His flesh (compare Mark 1:1; 1 John 1:1, for this use of “beginning”; also 2 Cor. 5:16). In verses 1 and 2, he reminds the Jewish disciples of certain truths known and taught before the cross, which were but the foundation of their knowledge. He next deals (vers.3-6) not with an infantile condition as before, but with open apostasy. The first class had not grown up into the teachings of Christianity from Judaism; but there were others among them who had openly abandoned Christianity and gone back to Judaism (it is not “if they fall away,” but “have fallen away”; not a possibility but a fact). This was sin against the light of a most serious nature, and it was impossible to renew such to repentance, since they had crucified Christ for themselves, and put Him to open shame. Having given up Christ, there was none else for them. These apostates had participated in many privileges which the apostle enumerates, causing some to wonder whether they had been children of God. But this could not be; nor is there a single word to imply that they were born again, which is essential to living relationship with God. “Enlightened” is to have the testimony of Christ, for not all upon whom the light shines become the sons of light. Tasting the heavenly gift” is hearing of Christ in His heavenly associations in contrast with His earthly or Messianic glories. “Partakers of the Holy Ghost” seems strong, and so it is; only the sharing is in an outward way, as being among those with whom the Spirit wrought. They themselves had not become the subjects of His regenerating and sealing power. To taste the goodness of God’s word is to receive it with joy, which however is not always a sign of the Spirit’s work (Matt. 13:20, 21). “The powers of the coming age” were the miracles of healing, &c., which were frequent in the early church, and which mere professors like Simon Magus (Acts 8) might witness to their condemnation not salvation. They are called so from being samples of that power which will exempt from sickness and suffering in that age (the millennium).

W.E. — (1) Is there any typical reason why the high priest wore linen garments in Leviticus 6:10, as on the great day of atonement? Linen was the ordinary official dress of both Aaron and his sons, and seems to typify righteousness in a manward aspect, as gold is the figure of divine righteousness. Linen set forth the righteousness needed by the priest to represent man to God, and gold that needed to represent God to man. There is nothing however in Leviticus 6:10 to indicate, as the querist supposes, the high priest; it was more probably one of his subordinates. (2) What is typified by the sin offering being eaten in the holy place (Lev. 6:26)? Eating is identification; so the priest identified himself with the victim that was offered and judged for sin, Christ was the sin offering, as He is now the Priest. God “made him sin” for us; and He also enters into it in compassionate love. Aaron’s sons might eat of it too; so that all saints may take up the cause of others in this sense, by entering into what Christ has done for their sin. The sin offering was eaten in the holy place, being exclusively for the priests, in contrast with the peace offering eaten by the people. (3) Leviticus 23:12-16. Can you give me the typical import of the burnt and meat offerings at this feast; of the change from a handful (Lev. 2) to two tenth deals of fine flour; of the drink offering; and the new meat offering? The sheaf of firstfruits is Christ in resurrection; hence the burnt and meal offerings (of sweet savor) spew that the value and perfection of His devoted life and death to God are inseparable from Him as risen. The meal offering on this occasion was for the whole congregation, while in Leviticus 2 for an individual. The handful was the portion burnt for a memorial, and was probably taken out by the priest, not by the worshipper (Lev. 2:9). The drink offering of wine was a figure of joy, and not at all singular in this instance, as it accompanied the daily sacrifices (Ex. 29:40). The new meal offering seems to be so called because the wave loaves contained leaven in direct contrast with Leviticus 2:11, typifying the assembly first formed at Pentecost, wherein there is evil, though none in Christ. (4) Is there any typical application of the elders witnessing the smiting of the rock (Ex. 17:5)? We cannot say. As Moses represented God, so the elders were chosen to represent the people. We know the smitten rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4); and a reference to the elders round the cross is suggested (Luke 23:35). (5) What preparation does the Lord speak of in John 14:2, 3? We do not know any more than we know what became of Noah’s ark, or what books Paul left at Troas — and for the same reason.

M. M. M. —Kindly explain in what sense it is said, No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12), since it is written of the elders that they “saw God and did eat and drink” (Ex. 24:9-11), and “the scripture cannot be broken.” John speaks of God as a Spirit, Whose infinite Being is beyond the sight as also beyond the comprehension of man, especially in a Moral way. For man was utterly ignorant of God, nor could he have known Him had not the only-begotten Son, God manifest in the flesh, declared Him (John 1:18). And; now Christ is on high, God dwells in us and we in Him. God is seen in us (1 John 4:12). In Exodus God is not revealing His love but solemnly assuring Israel of His presence. Hence such indications of that presence as could be seen by the creature were granted to them to certify the part God took in the covenant. Compare Manoah’s words (Judg. 13:22). There is of course no contradiction. If the bearing of each phrase on its context be sought, the true force may be seen.

Peace or No Peace.

MULTITUDES of souls are longing to know peace with God, and by a variety of expedients, endeavoring to obtain it. They fail, however; and no doubt the reason in a majority of instances is that they look within themselves to find grounds for supposing they possess it. They imagine that when they can collect sufficient evidence from the piety and devotion of their lives they will be entitled to believe they are at peace with God.

Since however there is no defined degree of holy attainment laid down as essential to the assurance of salvation, these souls are never sure whether they have reached such a stage of Christian development as proves beyond question that they are accepted with God. Viewing the matter as they do, they believe it would be highly presumptuous to say positively that their good works are of sufficient quality and quantity to render them approved before God. He alone has the right to pronounce such a sentence, and they consequently conclude we ought not to expect certainty on such a momentous question until the ordeal of the judgment day has been passed.

Now scripture makes it clear that peace with God is not based upon the performance of good works, but upon the expiation of evil ones. In other words, it rests not upon what a soul can do for itself before or after conversion, but upon what Christ has already done as the Sin-bearer. The question therefore becomes not whether I have sufficient warrant in my godly ways to claim peace with God, but whether the work of Christ is of sufficient efficacy to bring my soul into the possession of it. This question admits of but one answer.

Peace however only follows repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and is never gained by glossing over evil in the heart or ways. Jehu, sinner as he was himself, spoke truth when, in answer to Joram’s question, “Is it peace, Jehu?” he replied, “What peace, so long as the sins of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?” (2 Kings 9:22). And God has solemnly declared not once only, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 48:22; 57:21); and again, “The way of peace have they not known” (Isa. 59; Rom. 3:17). It follows therefore that the state of each soul is one either of “peace,” or of “no peace.” On the one hand it is certain a sinner cannot have peace with God; while on the other hand we shall find the believer is stated to have peace with God as the inevitable consequence of Christ being delivered for his offenses.

This truth is recorded in the following words, “Who [Jesus our Lord] was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25; vs. 1). Two facts are brought before us: (1) that our offenses were the cause of our Lord’s being delivered up, and (2) that the accomplishment of our justification was the cause of His resurrection.

So that in the risen Christ we have an abiding testimonial that we who were laden with offenses have now been justified by faith. Justification is consequent upon the expiation of sins and attested by the resurrection of Christ. From these facts it is shown that peace with God follows as the inevitable result.

So the apostle argues, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What has a justified soul to fear from God? “It is God that justifieth.” Where sins are not removed there may well be dread of coming wrath. But the gospel declares that Christ “was delivered for our offenses,” and further, that He Who bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24) is now raised up, having so perfectly atoned for them that, as a necessary consequence we who believe are imputed righteous. Peace with God follows, no other condition being laid down.

It is clear then that this blessing is based upon a work entirely apart from ourselves. We are “justified by his blood,” not by works of righteousness which we have done, or can do. And if we are justified, the scripture declares “we have peace with God.”

Faith receives this truth and rejoices in it and in God Who guarantees it. To look within for grounds of peace is a source of instant disquiet. To look at the revelation of Christ and His work is to be established on the immutable basis of the word of God.

1 Corinthians 13:13. —It is to be noted that the apostle, who of all others is the inspired exponent of faith, is the one who affirms, equally by the Holy Ghost, that love is greater. —R. B., jr.

The Waiting Heart.

“REST in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee thine heart’s desire” (Psa. 37:7, 4). This scripture was not spoken with any-reference to our waiting for the Lord’s coming, but it so beautifully portrays our attitude towards. His coming that it may well be used concerning it; certainly it is true in spirit as to ourselves.

Could we have a more lovely picture than that brought before us? Who does not seek for rest? Here we find it: “Rest in the Lord;” then quietly, patiently, waiting. When a man is resting he can afford to wait, and to wait patiently. Then whilst thus resting and waiting we have a most worthy object with which to occupy ourselves: “Delight thyself also in the Lord.” Further, we have the blessed and certain assurance that the heart’s deepest longings will be more than satisfied: “He shall give thee thine heart’s desire.” Could anything be more perfect. Surely, with reverence be it spoken, God Himself could not have done more for us than He has done.

Now we are told to wait patiently for Him. This by no means implies indifference; it rather suggests an earnest desire, a deep and ardent longing for His coming; so much so that we are apt to become impatient at the delay. And how often we mix up our trials and sorrows with our waiting for Him, and look to His coming rather as the means by which we shall be at once and forever delivered from them, rather than as the blissful moment when we shall behold His face. This is not to wait patiently; it is the natural impatience of our selfish hearts growing weary of the way, and ignoring altogether, or careless of, the need of others. For we must never forget that the long-suffering of God is salvation. Supposing, for sake of illustration, that in answer to the earnest desire of His saints, our Lord had come many years ago, many of us would not have had the sweet and joyous anticipations which are now our portion; the Father’s house would never have been our dwelling place; nor would His precious love have sweetened every bitter cup as now it does. And when we think of the teeming millions which throng this populous globe, surely there are many souls yet to be turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, many to be converted from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

Viewed from this standpoint we ought to rejoice, not that our Lord delays His coming; this in itself could never be a cause of rejoicing to the heart that loves Him, but to rejoice that the day of grace is still lengthened out, that the gospel is still proclaimed, that the Father’s heart still welcomes, and the Father’s arms are still open to receive returning and repentant man, that the door is not, yet shut, that there is still room in the many mansions for all who will come.

We read in another scripture of the patience of Christ, Who is also waiting. We know that having been rejected by man He has gone up on high, and taken His seat, not yet on His own throne, but on His Father’s, where He is to sit until His enemies are made His footstool; and for this He waits. But there is another and a sweeter sense in which He waits. He waits for the bright moment when He shall present to Himself the bride whom He loves so well, all glorious within, all beauteous without; without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; till He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be abundantly satisfied. For this He waits, and needless to say, He waits patiently. Surely with every question settled in our favor, with the blessed knowledge that God is for us, and the sweet persuasion that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, we can well afford to wait patiently for Him.

But in order to do this, one thing is necessary; we must be resting. We cannot wait patiently for Him unless we are resting in Him; not in the sense of ceasing from labor, not in the sense of seeking our rest down here. Who, unless his heart were of adamant, could rest in a scene like this, where sin and sorrow, wretchedness and misery, go hand in hand? Thank God, there is a blessed rest that remaineth, God’s own rest, a rest where the trail of the serpent shall no more defile God’s beauteous handiwork; a rest where creation shall no longer groan but sing; where God Himself shall rest in His love. Needless to say that rest is not yet. But there is still a very blessed sense in which we who believe do enter into rest. There is rest of conscience since we know that the great question of sin has been fully dealt with, that the full, complete, and perfect will of God has been done, that the blessed Lamb of God has been here and so perfectly glorified God as to sin that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. How could there be when He Who spoke and it was done, Who commanded and it stood fast, has suffered once, and forever sat down in view of such a perfect sacrifice, well may we have rest of conscience.

Then there is also rest of heart, in that we have found Him of Whom Moses in the law and prophets did write, and having drunk of the soul-refreshing, life-giving water which He alone giveth, we thirst no more, neither come hither or thither to draw; our hearts are satisfied with Himself.

Further; if we are thus resting in Him and waiting patiently for Him, we shall most assuredly delight ourselves in Him. His presence will be a constant source of joy; we shall find Him as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a shelter from the stormy blast, a covert from the wind and tempest, a blessed refuge in every time of trial and distress.

Thus resting, waiting, and delighting ourselves in Him, He will most certainly give us our heart’s desire. For what is our desire? I do not ask what are our whims and fancies, or the thousand and one things we think we should like if we could get them; these are not our heart’s desire These are the toys and gew-gaws which Satan dangles before our eyes to draw off our hearts and minds from the things which are unseen and eternal. Let us go deep down into the innermost recesses of our souls, into the secret chambers of our hearts, and in the cairn and quiet of God’s presence Jet us ask, “What is my heart’s desire?” When the mists and vapours of this scene of turmoil fade from my vision, and I see with divinely anointed eyes, what is it that my heart desires with an ever increasing desire? I am persuaded that every child of God has but one answer. The sweet singer of Israel though he had not the light of the glorious gospel as we have it, yet expressed this desire when he said: “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” He, Himself, is our heart’s desire; to see Him, to be with Him, to be like Him. And the day is hastening when it shall be granted. For this Christ Himself waits, and patiently. The Lord grant that we may be resting, patiently waiting, and delighting; for soon, very soon, we shall assuredly be abundantly satisfied.

W.C.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Chapters 7-12

AS Stephen, one of the seven, rose above the rest in faith and power, so he drew out the enmity of the Jews and gave before the council the striking testimony in chapter 7, which convicted them, like their fathers, of always resisting the Holy Spirit. Beginning with the call of Abraham, tardy in obeying wholly, he shows him to have been but a pilgrim in the land of promise; as his descendants were bondmen in Egypt, the sons of Jacob selling their brother Joseph to the Gentiles before that. But God, with wonders and signs, delivered them by Moses, whom they had rejected. Even so they went after idols, as the prophets long after testified, and were carried for it beyond Babylon. Law and prophets, Christ and the Spirit, made no difference: they opposed and forsook all. So now, exasperated by the truth, they stoned God’s witness invoking the Lord to receive his spirit, and to lay not this sin to his murderers’ charge.

A great persecution followed, the greatest persecutor of the saints a young man named Saul (ch. 8). But grace used those scattered by it, not the twelve, to preach the gospel far and wide. Philip, clothed with power, proclaimed the Christ to the Samaritans to their great joy; so that even Simon the sorcerer, believing the miracles, pressed faith and was baptized. The apostles sent Peter and John, who crowned the work with the gift of the Spirit in answer to their prayers and by imposition of hands. But Peter detected Simon’s unreality; and while he and John returned, Philip is used to the salvation of the Ethiopian noble traveling home from Jerusalem, but was so caught away by divine power for other work as to confirm the convert, who went on his way rejoicing.

The ninth chapter shows us the new step of sovereign grace in the conversion of Saul to be the witness of an ascended Christ, Who owns the saints as part of Himself, and calls the persecutor to be His chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, the deepest in truth, the largest in heart, the most abundant in labor of all the apostles. No wonder the gospel of Christ’s glory marked him, who first saw and heard the Lord thus; yet a simple disciple baptized him who forthwith, in the synagogues, preached Jesus as the Son of God. Even the disciples in Jerusalem were afraid; but Barnabas, having a deeper sense of grace, banished their fears by showing what the Lord had wrought. When here too menaced with Jewish violence, he is sent to Tarsus. The rest of the chapter recounts Peter’s activity and power in the Spirit; the paralytic Æneas healed, the dead Tabitha raised, and all around in the Sharon converted, with many in Joppa.

Chapter 10 presents Peter used to open the kingdom to the Gentile Cornelius and his friends, in spite of his own Jewish prejudice. Already converted and devout, Cornelius was yet without; and the law kept such there. The gospel brings within as well as converts those who are enemies, telling words whereby believers “shall be saved.” In a vision seen by Peter, as well as by an angel sent to Cornelius, we see the way God took to bring in the uncircumcision. Peter preached the gospel, and while he was yet speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on all those hearing the word, who were accordingly baptized at Peter’s direction by the brethren who accompanied him from Joppa.

As this unprecedented act of accrediting Gentile confessors, no less than Jewish, roused strong objection in Jerusalem (ch. 11), Peter set out the matter as originating in God’s word and culminating in the fullest token of God’s favor — the equal gift of the Spirit to these Gentiles as to themselves, they could only be still, and even glorify God for His grace. Concurrently with this we hear how God blessed the free action of the Spirit in the scattered preachers to many, not Hellenists, but Greeks, as the right reading tells us. And Barnabas is sent to Antioch where the work had been; as Peter and John were before to Samaria. He seeks Saul; and there both taught for a whole year, where the disciples were first called Christians. As a prophet predicted universal famine, love wrought to maintain sense of unity by sending relief to the brethren in Judea through Barnabas and Saul.

In Jerusalem the Spirit testifies (ch. 12) to the murderous hatred that animated the people and their king, who killed James the brother of John, and apprehended Peter with a like intent. But God answered the prayer of the saints, even to their own surprise, in delivering him the very night before the purposed execution. And ere long Jehovah’s angel that brought the apostle out of prison smote the self-exalting king. The word of God grew. Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, as Peter left on his deliverance; but we hear no more of his active work, though he spoke to good purpose in Jerusalem (ch. 15) at the council.

W. K.

KEYWORDS TO THE WRITINGS OF:—

JOHN—Light, Life, Love.

PAUL — Ruin, Righteousness, Redemption; Grace, Growth, Glory.

The Pavilion of His Presence.

HOW restful and refreshing it is to be in some secluded retreat, securely hidden from the din and clamour of the unholy and incessant strife of tongues that pursues us from the world to the church, and from the church even to the family circle! Do we not often sigh to be away from the vociferations of passion, the grudgings of envy, the growlings of discontent, and the brawlings of quarrelsome men? Let us not forget that what we so earnestly desire is within the reach of faith. The Psalmist says of those that trust in God, “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” (Psa. 31:20).

What a place of peace is the sanctuary of His presence! There may be Korahs and Dathans and Abirams stirring the congregation into an uproar of revolt; but within the sacred enclosure, within the tabernacle of God, all is unbroken peace. The dark plottings of the enemy, the evil machinations of man, whatever they work in the camp, are powerless to disturb the calm of the holy of holies, where abides the Shechinah of His presence.

In that pavilion, beloved of God, is, by faith, the present home of our souls. The lofty serenity of the Master’s spirit amid all the trials that came upon Him from a hostile world and from faithless followers, is the pattern of what ours should be, who follow His steps. It is His legacy to us: “My peace I give unto you.”

Oh, that while our feet are still on the earth, our heads and our hearts may be in heaven, where the evil of man can never come.

The Times of the Gentiles.

THE writings of Daniel differ in character from those of contemporary prophets. Jeremiah labored among the remnant left in the land under Zedekiah, telling them of their sins, and speaking of mercy at the epoch of the downfall of Babylon, thence looking forward to the blessings of the new covenant at the corning of Christ. Ezekiel testified among the captives in Chaldea, and speaks largely of glories to come under the true David, giving details of the millennial temple, and the redistribution of the land in that day.

But Daniel’s circumstances and theme were different. He lived in the court of Babylon, and speaks of, the “times of the Gentiles.” His first chapter speaks of the overthrow of the throne at Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people because of their sins; then in a series of visions we get the various Gentile powers to whom dominion is committed while Israel is “Lo-Ammi.” This book brings us to the verge of the millennial kingdom, and then abruptly closes. Other prophets give its features and characteristics; Daniel is occupied rather with the intervening period.

Let us examine chapter 7. Here we have three visions vouchsafed to the prophet, with the angel’s interpretation. Four wild beasts are seen coming up from the sea, diverse one from another. Substantially the same truth is contained here as in chapter 2, yet there are important differences. In the earlier chapter the dream was the king’s. In the form of a vast image composed of four metals, God skewed him Gentile dominion as a whole, its beginning being with Nebuchadnezzar, its end the revived Roman power of the last days, which will be destroyed by Christ at His appearing, and be superseded by His kingdom. In chapter 7, we have the same powers viewed morally in their separate historical character, with the behaviour of the last towards the saints of the Most High. Morally, these powers are beasts; ruling, not with a conscience of responsibility towards God, but for their own aggrandizement and lust.

How sorrowful is the history of man at ‘all points! After the fall, with a conscience (an intrinsic knowledge of good and evil) he filled the earth with corruption and violence; after the flood, the whole mass plunged into idolatry; under law, man was a law-breaker; when Christ came, he rose up against Him, and slew Him; and here we learn that when. God removed His throne from Jerusalem because of the sins of the house of David, and gave the dominion into the hands of Gentiles, it was only abused and exercised in defiance of Himself.

The first of these Gentile powers is Babylon, shown in our chapter as a lion with eagle’s wings. Compare Jeremiah 4. for the figure of a lion, Ezekiel 17:3 for that of the eagle, and Jeremiah 49:19-22 for both figures together. No power was permitted of God to hold an imperial place until Nebuchadnezzar, though Assyria and Egypt in their day both aspired to it, and contended together for it. To Nebuchadnezzar God gave authority wheresoever the children of men dwell; the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven being included in the grant. The power was abused, as chapter 3-5, spew, hence Babylon’s humiliation. Its wings were plucked and that which took its place was the Medo-Persian power, shown here as a bear. Belshazzar was slain when his capital was taken, and Darius the Median took the kingdom (Dan. 5:30-31). This empire was two-branched, Persia taking the lead, though the younger. This is set forth by the bear raising up itself on one side. Compare chapter 8:3, where the same monarchy is set forth by a ram with two horns — “one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.” This second empire was inferior to the first (ch. 2:39), not in extent of territory (ch. 8:4), but in character of rule. Nebuchadnezzar was absolute —” whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down.” (ch. 5:19). Darius was limited, and could not even deliver an innocent man through fear of his princes (ch. 6). “After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl.” Chapter 8:20-21 informs us that the Grecian power succeeded the Persian. The figure of a leopard with wings is very striking, expressing extraordinary rapidity after the prey. Thus does the Spirit describe the remarkable movements of Alexander the Great, who in about twelve short years conquered nearly the whole of the known world. His dominion was divided after his death between his principal generals, hence the “four heads,” or as the next chapter puts it — “when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.” The character of Greek rule was military, and thus a further decline as compared with the Medo-Persian which was, as we have seen, aristocratic. It is set forth in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by the belly and thighs of brass.

W. W. F.

PAUL in his epistle to the Romans dwells upon the roots of faith; James in his epistle upon its fruits.

Confidence in God.

Psalms 37, that precious portion studded at its very opening with rich gems of practical truths for the godly of every age, the saints in. Israel are warned against “fretting” themselves because of evildoers, neither to be envious against the workers of iniquity, “For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.”

But God not only warns His people against the baneful habit of fretting, envying and murmuring (compare Psa. 73), but He also provides them with the only efficacious preventive against that ungodly habit of unbelief which, once contracted, spreads like the weed creeping up the stem of the strong oak tree, and at last killing it in its deadly embrace.

That preventive, so important in these days of ever-increasing competition, jealousy, and envy in the selfish world of commerce, is contained in the following verse, Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”

We know that our lines are fallen in heavenly places, and that the Christian pilgrim is not like the godly Jewish saint to look for long life in the land as a reward for godly walk; but even in the New Testament the Spirit of God (not only in Peter but also in Paul, the apostle of the church’s glory) brings in Old Testament promises as an encouragement for a godly walk (compare Eph. 6:2, 3 and 1 Peter 3:10-12)

In Peter’s epistle this promise is no doubt used in a governmental sense (compare 2 Chron. 16:9); and we ought not to forget that for the Christian saint there is such a thing as the truth of God’s government in righteousness and peace.

These principles have been sadly neglected, and the saints have fallen under the stern but fully deserved discipline of God. May the Father’s hand work within us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, according to His gracious intention that we, as clearly-loved and dearly-bought ones, may follow righteousness, peace, charity, faith, in accordance with His Spirit’s injunction by the apostle of grace and glory. We must not lose sight of the kingdom-principles as we have them in the first three Gospels. For it has come to pass that our practice has lamentably fallen short of the truth that, during the absence of our Lord, we should so walk as if He were already reigning with us in righteousness and peace.

“Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (vs. 4). Faith trusts in the Lord, but the heart that knows His love delights itself in Him Who is altogether lovely, as He is the chief among the ten thousands. It is the same order in Psalms 27. After faith in verses 1-3 comes the heart in verse 4: “One thing have I desired of the Lord.... to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His holy temple.” First His beauty attracts the eye and fills the heart, and then the inquiry follows.

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” The same order of thought we observe in Paul’s epistle to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord alway,” then “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” If our hearts are at home in chapter 3, they may be fully at home in chapter 4.

J. A. V. P.

Eyeservice as Men pleasers.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, —In this series of letters I am taking it for granted that you are each zealously striving to please God above all things.

Such, of course, is always the true Christian spirit. Nevertheless there is a continual danger lest this pure and lofty desire should beclouded or lowered through the deceitfulness of the heart or the devices of the adversary. Hence the importance of being animated by proper motives.

Now, one of the most powerful motives for piety and godliness is to have the fear of God before your eyes in every action, however insignificant it may appear. This is the principle applied by the apostle Paul as a corrective against eyeservice.

Addressing the bondservants in Colosse who believed, he says, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God” (Col. 3:22).

Some idea of the cruelties which Roman slaves had to endure from their lords may be gathered from the following extract: — “The bondsman was viewed less as a human being, subject to arbitrary dominion, than as an inferior animal, dependent wholly on the will of his owner. The master possessed the uncontrolled power of life and death over his slave. He might, and frequently did, kill, mutilate, and torture his slaves, for any or for no offense, so that slaves were sometimes crucified from mere caprice.” You can easily understand that the profession of Christianity by any of the slaves would be made a reason by their inhuman owners for yet greater barbarities, if possible.

But mark the counsels of grace under these exceptionally bitter circumstances. They are not to plan and plot to cast off their shackles and assert their rights. They are not to give way to sour, sullen, and vindictive feelings, but on the contrary to become patterns of faithful and diligent service. They are to be the more scrupulous to obey their lords in every particular. They are to throw their whole hearts into their work, doing it as unto the Lord and not unto man. They are to avoid being punctilious merely in what meets the master’s eye and slovenly in everything else. Such inconsistent conduct may befit men pleasers, but it is a disgrace to Christians who are God pleasers. Even in the extreme case of slavery, unrighteousness in the master would not excuse unrighteousness in the servant.

What do we find then is given as a safeguard against this men pleasing eyeservice? The elevating and ennobling thought that we serve the Lord Christ. Our work is for the eye of the. Lord in heaven, not alone for the eye of the master on earth. Suppose it to be the common drudgery of the most menial of slaves, it should, nevertheless, be done for the Lord of all.

How it brightens and beautifies the daily round of duty to be looking for the approval of Christ! What a difference it makes in posting a ledger, or in planning a cross-grained plank, or in mastering the conjugation of a difficult verb, to realize that our loving and patient Lord stands at the elbow to mark our efforts and to reward our diligence.

It preserves, too, against the not uncommon fault which the apostle calls “eyeservice.” The Christian who is earnestly endeavoring to please the Lord will display as much activity and fidelity behind his employer’s back as before his face. He will not idle his time because his master is away, or the foreman is in the next room. Neither will he put an extra polish on the boots he makes, because the soles consist largely of brown paper.

You may say these are trivial matters; but allow me to remind you that there is hardly one of the inspired epistles that does not enforce Christian consistency in such practical details of life; for it is by these ordinary matters that the world judges the believer, and where loyalty to Christ is seen to thoroughly permeate the whole conduct of a Christian it becomes a weightier testimony than the logical argument or the impassioned discourse.

Moreover you cannot all be deep thinkers of powerful speakers, but you can all be faithful and consistent livers. And this responsibility you cannot escape; for Christ “died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15).

Let us then not seek to please men, or to please ourselves, but to please Christ. May it be true of Lis that―

“Not to ourselves again,

Not to the flesh we live;

Not to the world henceforth shall we

Our strength, our being give.

No longer is our life

A thing unused or vain;

To us, even here, to live is Christ,

To us to die is gain.

Not to ourselves we live,

Not to ourselves we die;

Unto the Lord we die or live;

With Whom we sit on high.”

I am,

Yours faithfully in Christ,

“YOD”

Correspondence.

E.S. —Please explain Matt. 16:26; especially “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” The general thought conveyed is that eternal realities totally eclipse temporal advantages in point of importance, however great their degree. Suppose a man possessed of the whole world, of what advantage is it to him if his soul is lost? And is he able, even with all his wealth, to ransom his soul from going down to the pit?

E.H.B. —Is it correct for a Christian when praying to repeat the Lord’s prayer? Refer to Believer’s Monthly Magazine for March, page 60.

Swansea. —Was the sin offering consumed on the altar? No: the fat only was burnt on the altar (Lev. 4:8 — 10, 19:26, 31, 35). The bodies were burnt without the camp in the case of offerings for the priest or for the whole congregation (Lev. 4:12, 21), but eaten by the sons of Aaron (Lev. 6:25-29) in the case of offerings for individuals, when the blood was not taken into the sanctuary (Lev. 6:30; Heb. 13:11). Why was the fat burnt on the altar? The fat was the best part of the sacrifice and from the very beginning was offered to Jehovah as His portion. (Gen. 4:4). Explain 1 Thessalonians 5:1 in connection with Acts 1:7. The apostle had no need to instruct the Thessalonian saints as to the times and seasons, since that theme is the burden of Old Testament prophecy. The rapture of the church however was unrevealed until apostolic times. In Acts 1:7 the Lord turns the thoughts of the disciples away from the times and the seasons which are connected with the setting up of the kingdom on earth, and which they expected immediately to take place.

F. W. R — Is there any connection between Leviticus 5:1 and Matthew 26:63-65? In Leviticus 5:1 we have the case of one who, in spite of being adjured, refused to give evidence of what he has seen or known. In the R.V. the verse reads, “But if any one sin, in that he heareth the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he hath seen or known, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.” This was a sin for which an appointed sacrifice was to be offered. The Lord, Who always magnified the law and honored its institutions, on being adjured by the high priest, uttered the testimony to His own person and office, which was immediately used to. His unrighteous condemnation.

That Good Man, Barnabas.

IN contrasting God’s love with that of man, the apostle Paul distinguishes between a good man and a just man. A righteous person is one who does not expect more than his due; but his own he will have at all costs. “What is thine is thine, but what is mine is mine” is his language. We respect such a one, hut can hardly bring ourselves to love him with any great degree of warmth. “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die” (Rom. 5:7). Where, however, a person shows himself so concerned for the sorrows and sufferings of his fellows that he devotes himself and his possessions to their relief, he, in occasional instances, wins a response of love. “Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die” (Rom. 5:7). The good man is he who says, “What is thine is thine, and what is mine is thine.”

Barnabas was a good man in this sense. He always had a quick eye for observing opportunities of assisting the needy. He first comes before us in a day when fervent love for others was remarkably prevalent in the church. In the virtue of self-denial he attained to an eminent degree. He alone is mentioned by name among those who sold what they had and handed the proceeds to the apostles for the relief of the poor (Acts 4:36, 37).

The subsequent notices of Barnabas in the Acts show that this act of surrender was not a mere spasm of generosity. It did not spring from the enthusiasm of a moment, but from the settled purpose of his life. The same generous man that impoverished himself to relieve the distressed, was the first in Jerusalem to welcome the converted persecutor of the church. When Saul sought to join the ranks of the disciples they all shunned him, for they suspected some evil design. And it was the good man, Barnabas, who took compassion on the friendless convert, and soon convinced himself of the genuineness of his case (Acts 9:27).

We have another instance of this predominating feature in the character of Barnabas. Tidings had reached Jerusalem that some of those who had been driven thence after Stephen’s martyrdom had been preaching at Antioch to the Gentiles, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Cornelius, the first Gentile, had just been received by Peter, but what was to be done with this multitude of converts in a foreign city? Who should go and see whether this work was of God or not? Barnabas was chosen.

And we see the wisdom of the assembly in Jerusalem in this choice. They sent one in whom those who had been preaching would be most likely to have confidence. Barnabas was not a stranger to them; both he and they were of Cyprus (Acts 4:36; 11:20). Moreover, we see their grace; for Barnabas would discern the fruit of the Spirit in these Gentile disciples if anyone could. From this, it is plain that the saints in Jerusalem were not in search of a heresy or they would never have dispatched Barnabas, who was the worst man among them for such a pursuit.

Barnabas, when he arrived at Antioch, and “had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith” (Acts 11:23, 24).

It was just such a scene as would delight a man like Barnabas. For he whose compassion and sympathy causes him to weep with those who weep, most thoroughly rejoices with those who rejoice. And what joy was theirs who had but newly emerged from the darkness and death of heathenism into the light and life of the gospel! Barnabas entered into it as few else would.

It should be remembered that the good man’s work is not only among the destitute and the dying. We want him at the wedding as well as the funeral. His smiles help us as well as his tears. It is a relief to us to find how he interests himself in our tale of distress; but it is also a fresh pleasure to us when we see his evident delight in our little successes.

Christian reader, are you an imitator of that good man, Barnabas? He was but a follower, and a failing follower, of Him Who “went about doing good.” But in his forgetfulness of self and thoughtfulness for others we may well copy him. “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification” (Rom. 15:1, 2). Nearly every day we have some opportunity of gladdening some heart or wiping away some one’s tears. How often we fail to notice these opportunities until they are passed and beyond recall. We must be good in order to do good. The desire must be in our hearts habitually not spasmodically. “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good” (Luke 6:45).

Christians ought to beware of importing any ideas of goodness from the world. Unselfish goodness the world cannot understand; it could not understand Christ. In fact, it despises any who are not governed, even in acts of charity, by motives of self-advancement like themselves. It is a good thing to subscribe to a charitable institution; you are often able to oblige a business friend with a few votes. So it becomes a means of investing a little of a man’s spare capital, and a dividend comes in nearly every half-year. This is the spirit of the world, but not of the good man of the scriptures.

The world says, “Give us a man who can discover the North Pole, invent an effective horseless carriage, or diminish the National Debt; but a good man — send him to Whitechapel or the Seven Dials, to China or the Congo. He is of no use on the Stock Exchange. Let him do something for the ‘submerged tenth,’ and we’ll club him a philanthropist, or a social reformer, and send him some cheques; for the poor fool must live somehow. And we are ready to pay him well if he can improve the lower classes for us. ‘Are not these the sentiments of the worshippers of Mammon?

Why do we refer to such sentiments? Because it is to be feared that they are not unknown even among those who bear the name of Christ. Let us beware of doing good that we may be recompensed again. Such is the spirit of the world but not of Christ (Luke 14:12).

GROW (1) in faith, 2 Thessalonians 1:3; (2) in love, 1 Thessalonians 3:12; (3) in grace, 2 Peter 3:18; (4) in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3:18; (5) in knowledge of God, Colossians 1:10; (6) up into Christ, Ephesians 4:15; (7) by the word of God, 1 Peter 2:2.

Like Little Children.

THERE is perhaps no grace more characteristic of Christianity than humility. No doubt there are exquisite instances of it in Old Testament story, in an Abraham, a David, or a Daniel. But outside the sphere of the direct dealings of God with men by divine revelation, there is hardly a trace of it in historical records. The Romans indeed had the word, but with them it signified either lowness of station or servility of spirit, and not at all that most delicate of virtues, which, as one has aptly said, “is gone if it but look upon itself.” For other virtues may, so to speak, be conscious of themselves without material diminution. Humility alone may not be introspective, lest it become its exact opposite — pride, than which I suppose, nothing is more displeasing to God. “By that sin fell the angels.”

Now of all our fallen race none have so little pride and self-assertion as little children. Perhaps that is why the ancients in their biographies of their great men have so little to say about the childhood of those whose grandeur has impressed them, and whom they elect to honor. Children in their eyes were hardly worth talking about. But they were just the ones the gracious Saviour loved to speak about and delighted to have near Him. We know how this astonished and displeased His disciples on one well-known occasion. They were not free from the prepossessions of their own times any more than we are wholly so from those of ours. And now they were occupied with greatness their minds doubtless dwelling on the wondrous vision on the Holy Mount, which three of them had so lately been privileged to behold, but which they by no means apprehended altogether after a spiritual sort. And so said our Lord, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise [it is a strong negative] enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

This must have been a hard saying to the disciples, and though the doctrine is familiar and by no means startling to modems, the practical reality may be but faintly grasped. Grasped it must be, no doubt, if we are true Christians at all, but deep must that humility be that entitles one to be called “greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Observe, it is an active process, “Whosoever shall humble himself,” not merely sit with folded hands in supine serenity. Nay, it will call forth ten thousand “acts of kindness and of love,” so that the one so graced will be, in his measure, “as one that serveth” among his fellows. But this is easier to praise than to practice.

It need hardly be said that in the Lord Jesus this divine grace shone with transcendent and unapproachable beauty. “He would,” to quote some memorable words, “bid us take the lowest place, but that He is in it Himself.” He went indeed where we could not follow Him (see John 13:36), to the death of the cross. Such was He, ‘Who united in His own mysterious Person all that is most comely in the three types of man, woman and child — strength, tenderness, humility. Hence our Lord’s character (if one may use the word of One in Whom all was so marvelously balanced) is the puzzle of all such as can admire His moral perfections, but refuse to admit His divine glory. Acknowledge Him to be “the Word made flesh,” and all is plain, just as the Bible is plain and seen to be consistent with itself the moment I bow to it as God’s word.

Of course there is another side to the truth. We are not to be children in everything. “In malice be ye children, but in understanding be men” (in the Greek, perfect, 1 Cor. 14:20), which has been called a winning admonition. But if in human science he who knows most generally proves it by his modesty, how much more in divine things is it abundantly clear that the understanding that goes on to perfection may and should go hand in hand with the humility of a little child.

R. B., JUN.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Chapters 13-20

THE solemn and momentous mission of Barnabas and Saul for work among the Gentiles is recorded in chapter 13. It was from the Syrian Antioch (Antakiet), and by the Spirit through a prophet, their fellow-laborers fasting and laying hands on them as thus commended to God’s grace. Going to Seleucia they sail to Cyprus and preached in the synagogues at Salamis. But at Paphos Jewish hatred to the gospel’s reaching the Gentiles is judged by the infliction of blindness for a season, whilst the pro-consul believed. But from Perga in Pamphylia, John Mark, not then profitable for service, returned to Jerusalem; and the apostles come to Antioch (Yalobatch) in Pisidia, where Paul, as he was now called, preached Jesus and the resurrection in the synagogue, dwelling on Psalms 2:16, and Isaiah 55,with the warning of Habakkuk 1:5. On the next sabbath almost all the city flocked to hear, which filled the Jews with a jealousy, that drew out the striking use of Isaiah 49 to the joy of the Gentiles, though the apostles were expelled.

At Iconium (Koniyeh), the capital of Lycaonia, the apostles had like experience (ch. 14) in the face of signs and wonders; and when worse was purposed, they fled to Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding regions, and preached. At Lystra a miracle of healing would have led to offering them sacrifice, had they not utterly refused it, exhorting them to turn to the one living and gracious God. Yet at the instigation of Jews that came and opposed, they stoned Paul, who revived and darted next day to Derbe, where they preached and taught, but revisited the scenes of their labors on their return through Attalia (Adalia) in Pamphylia, from whence they sailed to their point of departure. On this journey they chose elders for the disciples in every church. At Antioch they related to the assembly what God had wrought.

Chapter 15 records how the Judaising snare which would have put Gentiles under law was put down authoritatively in Jerusalem itself by the apostles and elders, with the whole assembly concurring. Peter testifies, as well as Barnabas and Paul; James sums up in the establishment of liberty for the Gentiles, but of course recognizing those principles which prevailed from Noah’s time before the law. Thence Paul and Barnabas return, Judas Barsabas and Silas being chosen to go with them, and read the letter at Antioch whence Judas returns, Silas remaining. But after a while the question of taking John Mark on their next missionary journey led Paul to sever himself from Barnabas and take Silas with him, recommended afresh to the Lord’s grace, which is not said of Barnabas: ordination it clearly was not.

From chapter 16 to 20 we see the free power of the Spirit in the apostle’s ministry, its character, and its effects. Compare his circumcising Timothy, and his refusal of it in the case of Titus; his use of the apostolic decree in the cities passed through, and his solving the question independently of that letter in writing to the Corinthians. The Holy Spirit (for the book treats of His action rather than of the apostles’) specifically calls him to fresh scenes. After visiting Phrygia, and working in Galatia and in Philippi of Macedonia it is still “To the Jew first and to the Greek.” Satan wrought by applauding the servants through a Pythoness; but Paul exorcised the spirit. A tumult ensued, set on by those whose gain was stopped, and the colonial Duumvirs (for it was a Roman province) yielded for peace’ sake and committed them to prison; where God (not the prisoners only) heard their praises and answered by such an earthquake as never was before or since: doors opened, bonds loosed, yet none escaped. The alarmed jailor received the gospel on the spot, and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. But the magistrates, wishing to hush up things, are compelled by Paul to own their wrong; and Paul and Silas depart at their request.

In chapter 17, at Thessalonica, we see the more usual religious opposition to the gospel; and some converts are brought before the Politarchs, who take security and no more. The brethren send away Paul and Silas to Berœa, where the Jews prove more noble than those in Thessalonica, being such as received the word of God readily, and searched the scriptures too. But when Jewish enmity pressed here also, Paul went off, Silas and Timothy abiding. At Athens the ‘apostle reasoned in the synagogue and in the market place, and, when attacked by Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, made a speech at the Areopagus, which refuted alike chance and fate by a Creator Who is misrepresented by idols, the work of men’s hands, and Who will judge the habitable earth, having given proof to all in raising from the dead Jesus Christ the righteous.

From that inquisitive seat of art and letters, where the fruit was small, the apostle goes to dissolute Corinth (ch. 18), where after Jewish opposition the Lord assured him of His protection, as He had much people there; and there he stayed a year and a half teaching the word of God, even Gallio’s indifference to Jewish plots shielding him. After a visit to Ephesus where the Jews were willing to hear, he goes to Jerusalem to pay a vow as well as salute the assembly, and revisits Galatia and Phrygia. From verse 24 we have the interesting account of the Spirit’s ways with Apollos at Ephesus. Then while he was at Corinth (ch. 19), Paul comes again, and finding a dozen disciples, who like Apollos at first only knew the word of the beginning of Christ, he sets the truth of the gospel before them, and they are baptized unto the name of the Lord Jesus. We may profitably compare Ephesians 1. He preached for three months in the synagogue; when conflict came, he separated the disciples, discoursing daily in the school of Tyrannus; and this for two years, so that all in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. And the wiles of the enemy in profane Jews bowed before the power of the Lord Jesus, even where great gain through sorcery was in question. Here again Satan raised an uproar against His servants, of which the Jews sought to profit. But in fact it was the mingled pride of local idolatry and their interests that agitated men; and some of the Asiarchs who were friendly dissuaded the apostle from taking part in the scene. But after much outcry the town-clerk pointed out the futility and disorder of the proceedings and dismissed the meeting.

The next chapter (20) opens with Paul’s departure for Macedonia, where he exhorted much, and then came to Greece for three months, but when Jewish plots threatened, he resolved to make his way to Jerusalem through Macedonia. At Troas we have the instructive account of a Lord’s-day; and Eutychus suffers for his drowsiness but is restored through the apostle to the comfort of all. From Miletus the apostle sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church, and gave them that really edifying charge which fills the greater part of the chapter. He feels as if his work was closed, dwelling on its character for their profit. He only knows that bonds and afflictions await him; and as he was clean from the blood of all, he calls on them to take heed to themselves and to all the flock wherein the Holy Spirit set them overseers, to feed God’s assembly. He knows of a sad change after his departure, not only grievous wolves coming in, but from among themselves men rising up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples. Not a hint of succession as a safeguard, but a sure declension. Yet he commits them to God and to the word of His grace. This is the resource in perilous times. And in the spirit of His grace had Paul labored, as they ought, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus.

No wonder that they wept, especially at the word that they were to see his face no more.

W. K.

ADVICE TO PREACHERS. ―If you aim at men’s hearts, do not shoot over their heads.

IF you look for God’s blessing, do not fail to look up.

IF your words are with power, they will be to the point.

Farewell to the Missionaries.

WHAT words were those which spake the Holy Ghost,

To saints devoutly waiting on the Lord:

Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius and Manaen,

And Saul; part of the church at Antioch.

How solemn and how blessed the voice they heard;

“Separate me Barnabas and Saul unto

The work whereto I have appointed them.”

And when sent forth, with fasting and with prayer,

How blessed the witness they united bore,

In Cyprus and Perga, in Pamphylia,

Of Him, in Whom no cause of death was found,

Yet nailed was to Calvary’s shameful cross,

And buried. But, most glorious victory!

(Proclaim it loud) “God raised Him from the dead.”

The news, clear Hutton, which they then did preach,

Thou goest forth to China to proclaim;

Far as thy steps shall move, thy voice’ shall reach.

Make known to China’s sons His blessed Name.

“TSEW YAY-SOO LAI.”^{^{To JESUS bid them come,}}

Who wandering are from God, astray and blind,

In Him they shall obtain a rest, a home;

And, as they learn of Him, they rest shall find.

So, as in Ephesus of old, they cried,

“Great is Diana,” yet were brought to own,

Through faith in Him on Calvary Who died,

Jesus the Saviour is, and He alone.

They turned to God, and cast their silver shrines

To moles and bats; so shall thy hearers do,

Who “TA TSAI KUNG-TSZ”^{^{say, or trust in signs,}}

By Taouist priests displayed, or pay to Fuh

The homage that to God alone is due.

Go, beloved brother, where Morrison before,

In faith and patience, labored well and long;

Like Burns and Wylie, go to China’s shore,

Hold forth the word of life her sons among;

While those who with you sail, our heart’s desire

And prayer to God with you shall equal share;

Before the Mercy-seat, we shall be nigher

To each of you, as each we name in prayer.

So shall a three-fold, ten-fold blessing rest,

On those who preach, and those who hear the word

In Sinim’s land; and they be not unblessed

Who serve by prayer your Master, Jesus, Lord.

His Name proclaim, Whose blood your ransom paid,

His arm your strength shall be, His word your guide;

His love your cheer; then never be afraid,

Whatever foes assail or ills betide.

His grace sufficient ever has and shall

Be found by those who look to Him alone;

Go, seek some souls to win from Satan’s thrall,

Some Orient gems to cast before His throne.

T.J.

The Times of the Gentiles.

CONCERNING the fourth beast, the Spirit speaks far more fully: indeed it is plain that he is the central figure of Daniel 7. He is not named — a nondescript; “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.” This is unquestionably the Roman power — that which held the reins when our Lord was born into the world (Luke 2:1).

The ten horns are explained to be “ten kings that shall arise” (Dan. 7:24). This is sufficient to mark out for the Roman empire a new existence in the future. When in the past had the Roman power a ten-kingdomed form? Never as yet; the expression relates wholly to a day yet to come. Between the last two clauses of verse? has occurred a long interval, during which the fourth empire is in a state of dissolution. Compare Revelation 17:8, where the same power is brought before us. Three phases are spoken of. The beast “was” i.e., it has had a past existence; “is not” (i.e., it has no present existence); “and shall be present” (shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, revived by the power of Satan). It is evidently a confederacy of ten kingdoms under a powerful imperial head. Rev. 17:13 shows that these ten kings are of one mind to give their power and authority to their chief.

As the prophet considered the horns, he beheld another little horn coming up — the imperial head of which I have spoken. We must not confound the little horn here with that of Dan. 8 In our chapter the scene is laid in the West, in chapter 8 in the East. The first is the Western Emperor; the latter is a power arising out of one of the divisions of Alexander’s empire, —in other words, the king of the North, the Assyrian of other scriptures.

Three things are predicated of the little horn of ch. 7: blasphemy, persecution of the saints, and interference with Jewish times and laws. (1) He has a mouth speaking great things against the Most High — he blasphemes His name, His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (Rev. 13:6). (2) He wears out the saints of the Most High — he makes war with them and overcomes them. (3) He thinks to change times and laws, interferes with the Jewish ritual and suppresses it, in conjunction with his coadjutor, the false Christ in Jerusalem. The Spirit says, “they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” This verse must be read with particular care to avoid misapprehension; “they” refers to times and laws, not the saints. Our God never gives up His own to the enemy, though He may permit him to afflict them in measure for their profit and blessing.

The saints who thus suffer are the remnant of the Jews, and in no way the church. Ere these solemn scenes can be enacted, the church will be removed to her own proper habitation above. Prophecy does not affect the heavenly election (though it is ours to ponder it, and thus understand what is coming), but the earthly. The prophetic word is in abeyance as to fulfillment while the present purpose of God is being carried out: when this is completed, and the church removed, all that was written of old will recommence to run its course.

Gentile dominion will be brought to its end by the appearing of the Son of man. Daniel saw in vision the thrones set up, and the Ancient of Days invest Him with glory and dominion, that all peoples and nations and languages should serve Him. Here is One whom God can trust with universal dominion, and Who will not abuse it. The house of David has failed, the Gentiles have failed, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian and Roman; but God has One in store, hidden for the moment in Himself, Who shall yet have all according to Psalms 8, and Who will use His power for His glory and universal blessing. We see not yet all things put under Him; but faith sees Jesus at. God’s right hand, clothed with glory and honor, and waits in patience for the consummation of all (Heb. 2). He will put down all rule, and all authority, and power (1 Cor. 15), one of the first foes to be dealt with being the beast. His part is to be consigned to the lake of fire with the man of sin (Rev. 19:20, Dan. 7:11).

But the Son of man will not reign alone. “The saints of the high places [not “most High,” as in vs. 25] shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom, even forever and ever.” These are the occupants of the heavenlies, comprising the Old Testament saints, the church of the present period, and the sufferers during the great tribulation (Rev. 20:4). Judgment also is given to them, which is a vastly different thing from being judged. This was a well-known truth in Paul’s day (hover seriously it has slipped since), for the apostle alludes to it as a rebuke to the Corinthian saints, who were so far forgetting their high destiny as to go to law with each other before unbelievers (1 Cor. 6:1, 2).

“The people of the saints of the high places” (Dan. 7:27) are, I suppose, the Jewish people in general, who will enjoy the kingdom of Christ in its earthly sphere according to their condition.

W.W. F.

Putting the Hand to the Plough.

AS we passed, there was a man at work in the field. His ill-assorted team, a cow and a donkey, were standing by, waiting to be fastened to the plough. This was a rude instrument, coarsely put together, made entirely of wood; and although simple in its construction, it was, as it appeared, difficult to manage. The team being harnessed, the laborer began his work.

Firmly grasping the single handle of the plough with his left hand, he leant upon it with all his might in order to make it penetrate the soil; while he found it no easy work to goad his fractious team, and at the same time to guide the plough by raising it over the large stones which here and there appeared on the surface of the ground.

The man was intent upon his work, for at the least inattention on his part, the plough would strike against a stone and fall from his hand. I called to him, and he replied, but without turning his eyes from the furrow.

Then I understood the lesson of singleness of purpose and of earnestness in the heavenward way our Lord meant to give His disciples, when He said, “No man, having put his hand [not hands, as in our country] to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

(Extracted.)

Ejaculatory Prayer.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, —I hope you have experienced the joy of receiving an immediate reply to a prayer which was, as it were, forced from you by stress of the circumstances in which you found yourself. I mean such a prayer as was, put up by Peter from the raging waves of the Galilean sea. He was walking on the water at the bidding of the Lord, but seeing the wind boisterous he became afraid. Beginning to sink, he cried out in accents of despair, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him (Matt. 14:28-31).

This prayer, the shortest recorded in the scriptures, is an example of the kind I wish to refer to. I have already drawn your attention on a former-occasion to the importance of making an habitual practice of seeking aid from on high; but it is also of importance to remember that we have access at all times to the throne of grace, and that we can never make application at an improper or unfavourable time (1 Tim. 2:8.; Heb. 4:16).

Simon Peter found himself sinking beneath the waves. We can hardly suppose that a fisherman of his experience was unable to swim; besides we hear of him casting himself in the sea in his impetuous haste to be the first to reach the Lord (John 21:7). But here he was, no doubt, through the novelty of his circumstances, stricken powerless with terror; hence his brief but energetic appeal, which, though it was animated with but little faith, was in no sense disregarded.

Are there not times through the day when you are unexpectedly called to undertake some new duty, or to perform some difficult task, or to decide on some important step? There is neither time nor opportunity to retire to some private place, and there bend your knees in secrecy before your God and Father. Perhaps you are so pressed as to be unable even to frame your need in suitable words.

What is to be done? Are you obliged to forego the benefits of prayer, and act on your own unaided judgment and resources without reference to God? Not so; even in such a case you are at liberty to lift your heart upward in earnest, though brief and silent, desire for succor and support. Words may fail; but “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed.” Let there be but the upturned eye and the deep yearnings of the spirit, and answers will come.

We have another example in the history of Nehemiah. He was cup-bearer to Artaxerxes the king in Shushan; but his heart’s affections were in Jerusalem, the city of the great King, now laid waste and defenseless. He earnestly desired that his captive people might be restored to their own land, and that his beloved Zion might be rebuilt. Day by day he besought that the heart of the king might be moved to the accomplishment of these things. “Prosper, I pray thee,” were his words, “Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

At length there came a day when Nehemiah had opportunity to bring the subject before the king. And Artaxerxes was not unfavorable, saying to Nehemiah, “For what dost thou make request?” Here was the critical moment. Everything appeared to hang upon the sort of reply Nehemiah should make.

It was then that Nehemiah, distrusting his own wisdom, “prayed to the God of heaven” (Neh. 2:4). His request was next made to Artaxerxes who graciously acceded.

Here we have a prayer offered in the interval between the king’s question and Nehemiah’s reply. The interval must necessarily have been brief, for Eastern monarchs were not in the habit of waiting long for their cup-bearers to answer them. But there was time enough for the prayer to ascend and for help to come. The case was urgent and the relief was instantaneous.

In like manner, my dear young friends, accustom yourselves to solicit fresh supplies of grace when you find yourselves in difficulties, whatever the hour of the day, or wherever you are. It is in this way you will have abundant instances of what a real thing it is to trust in God.

I am, ever yours to serve,

“YOD.”

Correspondence.

W. C. —Seeing God (Ex. 33:11, John 1:18). Have you read the answer to M.M.M. in the Believer’s Monthly Magazine for August (page 160)? Notice that in Exodus it was the pillar of cloud that Moses and the people saw. Compare also John 6:46, and 14:6-11.

E. C. R. —Is not the kingdom of God in Mark 4:30 a wider sphere than in John 3:3, 5 because of the fowls of the air in the former? In John 3 the kingdom of God is viewed spiritually. No one, the Lord says, can enter it unless born of water (the word, 1 Peter 1:23) and the Spirit. This is plainly the divine side. In Mark 4:30, we have the earthly side, or the manward aspect. It consists of all that profess subjection to God, even though not born of Him. Is the kingdom of God (Mark 4:30), synonymous with the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:31, 32)? The kingdom of the heavens is a phrase peculiar to Matthew’s Gospel, originating in the Old Testament (Psa. 103:19; Dan. 4:26). In consequence of the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, the introduction of Messiah’s kingdom of righteousness and peace on the earth was deferred; and the kingdom took the form variously delineated in the parables of Matthew 13. One of the similitudes employed is the mustard tree, and it sets forth the mass of outward profession now in the earth. In Matthew the term used (the kingdom of heaven) preserves the connection of the present form of testimony in the earth with what the prophets predicted, but not yet come. This accords with the design of the first Gospel, written for Jews. But in Mark the more general term (kingdom of God) is employed, as also in Luke. Each phrase is suitable in its place, but they cannot be said to be interchangeable, though both refer to Christendom. Are the fowls of the air in Matthew 13:4, 32; Mark 4:32; and Acts 10:12, the same? “Fowls of the air” refer to the unclean birds of prey (Gen, 15:11; Job 28:7; Rev. 19:17, 18). Such appear to be intended in the passage named by querist, excepting Matthew 13:4, where we have “fowls” (not, “of the air”), meaning the grain-eating birds that frequent the fields. Are the tares and the birds of the air (Matt. 13:25, 32) synonymous? The tares are the stumbling-blocks (Matt. 18:6, 7, R.V.) and workers of iniquity which the Son of Man will gather out of His kingdom at the end of the age (vs. 41). They are the professors of religion who only resemble the wheat (vs. 29). The birds of the air represent the evil and rapacious powers of the world which, as the church extended itself in the earth, took advantage of its wealth and influence for their own selfish ends (compare Rev. 18). In Acts 10:12, the birds, etc., in the sheet, figured what was made unclean by the law. The vision taught that the ancient distinction between Jew and Gentile was then being done away, God cleansing the unclean (compare 1 Cor. 6:9-11). See also as to the “fowls of the air,” among other scriptures, Jeremiah 15:3; Ezekiel 17:23, 31:6; Daniel 4:12.

Breaking of Bread and Prayers.

AMONG the subjects to which the apostolic company of saints gave their unremitting attention were the breaking of bread and prayers. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

The breaking of bread is the term here employed for the memorial feast instituted by the Lord on the night of His betrayal (Matt. 26:26-29; Luke 22:19), and afterwards called the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20). This phrase, which also occurs in Acts 20:7, is beautifully significant of the extreme simplicity of the ordinance in contrast with the imposing ceremonies of the Jewish temple, and in equal contrast with the gorgeous ritual which often encumbers it in our own day. Man loves ornament and ceremony, and under the name of the “Church” has introduced them in connection with this simple act of remembrance.

But in divine things what man meddles with he invariably mars. And there is no term like the “breaking of bread” that recalls the scene in the upper room, when the Lord Jesus took bread and gave thanks and gave to His own, saying, This do for a remembrance of Me.

The simple expression brings the believer face to face, so to speak, with the Lord, not only as the Founder of the feast, but as the One Who gave the loaf its own emblematic character by His words, This is My body. And this feature of communion with Christ is in strict accord with the nature of Christianity which brings us to God.

What a contrast between Sinai and the chamber in Jerusalem! At Sinai, the thunderings, the lightnings, the noise of the trumpet, the smoking mount, and the thick cloud on the mount were all expressive accompaniments of the inauguration of the law and its manifold ceremonies. They all told the same tale — man and God were sundered. But at the Last Supper, what a change! The impassable barriers that hedged about the Shechinah of old were gone, and the eleven were sitting down in the presence of Him in Whose face they beheld the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.” God in the person of His Son had come forth and was bringing man into the sacred precincts of His own dwelling-place. The voice that now speaks is not that terrible one that caused even Moses to fear and quake exceedingly (Heb. 12:18-21). It was in tones of entreaty and love that the Lord addressed those whom He had led into the intimacies of His bosom. Of old, it was the stern and inflexible word, “This do and thou shalt live.” Now we have the gracious and tender desire, “This do in remembrance of me.” In, the one case, “this” is the law with its crushing and cursing obligations; in the other, “this” consists of the commonest act of daily life, shorn of every embellishment, and hallowed only by the spiritual significance attached to the bread and the wine by the Lord Himself.

It may be said, “Are we not likely to undervalue this remembrance by making it so simple, and foregoing every outward form which would serve to remind us of its holy character? “It is true that we are liable to misuse everything that is divine; but it is also true that all these abuses have been anticipated, and safeguards provided in the word of God. Levity in this particular was found in the assembly at Corinth, for which it was rebuked by the apostle. They had so far lapsed as to be making the “breaking of bread” their own supper (1 Cor. 11:20). They made the remembrance of the Lord an occasion for satisfying hunger. It is plain they did not need to be reminded of the simple, but of the holy character of the feast. Hence the apostle does not use the expression we are considering, but the “Lord’s Supper.”

He does not however refer to, or introduce any ceremonies that would distinguish the breaking of bread from a common meal, as man thinks necessary now-a-days. He recalls them to its sacred meaning by bringing before them that it was the Lord’s Supper. Is not that sufficient still? Will not the name of the Lord command the reverence of the Christian? Must he have altars and priests, incense and candles, saints and angels, crucifixes and pictured windows to awaken holy feelings at the “breaking of bread?” Did Peter and James and John need them when they took the loaf from His own hand? Did the two to whom He made Himself known in the “breaking of bread” (Luke 24:35)? Did the disciples in Troas need such things when they came together for that purpose (Acts 20:7)?

Indeed, ceremony seems utterly incongruous with “breaking bread,” and the term would appear to have been chosen for the purpose of marking this distinction. It is to be deplored that it is so often supplanted by such names as the Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Communion, &c. The better, as well as always the safer plan is to use the scriptural word.

But there are not wanting those who contend that “breaking of bread” in Acts 2:42 refers to ordinary partaking of food and not to the feast of remembrance at all. It cannot be denied that the phrase is sometimes so used in scripture. The Lord brake the bread when He fed the multitudes, (Luke 9:16). So in Acts 27:35, Paul induced his fellow-voyagers to end their long fast of fourteen days. He himself broke bread and began to eat. “Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.” The context decides that they were satisfying their hunger.

At Troas, the gathering together on the first of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7) was a religious observance, Paul discoursing to the assembly until far into the night. But after the affair of Eutychus, Paul (not “we” as in above ver., R. V.) breaks bread, eats, and converses till his departure at daybreak. Thus the narrative shows that in the latter passage (Acts 20:11) we have a meal, preparatory to the apostle’s journey.

Turning now to Acts 2:42, the position of the term in the verse at once fixes its meaning. How can we suppose it to be a common meal and not the Lord’s Supper? “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in their daily meals (!), and in prayers.” It cannot but be the holy feast. We cannot think that the fact that they exhibited a noteworthy perseverance in partaking of their daily food is what is here preserved for our emulation. That would hardly be placed between the “apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” and “prayers.” Besides, breaking bread is expressly distinguished in a subsequent verse from eating food (Acts 2:46). Just as the bread and the wine, though ordinarily used to satisfy bodily needs, had a special symbolical meaning given to them in the act of remembrance, so the term “breaking of bread,” though ordinarily used for a meal, was chosen by the Spirit of inspiration to designate the Lord’s Supper, thus acquiring a special significance. Luke we find uses it in this way in his Gospel (Luke 22:19; 24:30, 35), and so in the same sense in the Acts (2:42, 46).

It would be well to weigh the important fact of finding that this feast occupied such a prominent place in those early days, before man had sought out the many inventions of Christendom.

A word only can now be said in reference to the prayers, which are also placed in the forefront among the objects of special concern to the saints. No doubt public prayers are meant, though those in private would not be neglected.

It is worthy of remark that this day when they owned their own insufficiency and unitedly threw themselves in dependence upon God was the day of Pentecostal power in the church. Are those who are continually sighing for Pentecostal blessing prepared to take their place in more than Pentecostal weakness? From the first we read that the church began to pray, but it is not said of the church as of David the son of Jesse that her prayers are ended (Psa. 72:20).

ROMANS 5:12-21 two Heads; chapter 6, two Masters; chapter 7, two Husbands.

IN Luke 15 the shepherd bears all the burden, the woman takes all the pains, and the father provides all the welcome.

Resting Awhile.

How beautifully the words in Mark 6:31 portray our Lord’s love for and deep interest in His own. “Come ye yourselves apart, into a desert place and rest awhile.” Observe that His invitation is “come,” not “go.” The latter would have been to separate His own from Himself which our Lord never does, whatever the circumstances may be. We see this in the contrast between our Lord’s remark to Satan in the temptation, “Get thee hence,” and His word to Peter, “Get thee behind me.” To Satan, our Lord says in effect, “You have nothing in Me, and I have nothing to do with you” — “Get thee hence “To His erring but clearly-beloved follower. He says,” Get thee behind me.” “Don’t go away, I shall still care for and watch over you.

There is a wide difference. A loving mother may put a naughty child into the corner, but she will not turn him out of the house! And while he is in the corner her love is not changed towards him. She “earnestly remembers him still” —he is “still a pleasant child.” She longs to have his head upon her bosom and fold him in her arms.

Here our Lord says “come.” This word was much on our Lord’s lips during His life clown here, and it was on His lips because it was in His heart. He was the great Inviter of the human race, — “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And is He not the same now? Is He not now inviting every sin-burdened soul to come and find forgiveness and deliverance in Himself, and every tried and sorrowing saint to cast all his care upon Him for that most wondrous reason — He careth for him?

Then look at the intense individuality of this invitation, — “Ye, yourselves.” Our Lord’s love is an individual love, and His dealings are individual in their character. He has His own way of dealing with each, for He cares for all in a special manner.

Then there is the nature of the invitation, — “apart.” Think of this, apart with the Lord! A real private interview, with the Lord and Saviour.

Notice also they are invited to “a desert place.” Where all the resources of nature fail us. Where man is compelled to realize his entire dependence upon the Lord. In the case before us our Lord wrought a miracle in order that the people might have bread to eat.

Have we ever been brought into such a place, finding ourselves at the end of our resources, unable to find help from man of any kind? What was our Lord’s object in thus bringing us “into a desert place”? Was it to alarm, to terrify, to distress, to cause pain of mind, or sorrow of heart, or anguish of spirit? How little we realize His love if we thus think! He tells us here His object.

Look at the verse again. Every word is instinct with divine affection, — “Come”! It is the voice of welcome. “Ye yourselves.” I want to talk to you. I desire your company. “Apart.” —bring no one else. Let it be you and I together. “Into a desert place” —where none can interrupt and you have none but Myself to look to. And now what is His object in this invitation? That they may “rest awhile.”

How little we realize what a real thing our Lord’s love is! “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Nothing changes His love; and every trial we have to endure, every disappointment we meet with, is only meant to render our communion with Himself more intimate, and to lead ‘us to recline upon His bosom, there to feel the warm shelter and enjoy the safe protection of those everlasting arms. Thus may we, amid all the worry and bustle of this turbulent scene, be able to “rest awhile.”

W. C.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Chapters 21-28.

AS far as the inspired history speaks, the active service of the apostle was closed. His latest Epistles give evidence that he wrought freely between his first and second imprisonments in Rome. But his visit to Jerusalem (ch. 21), against which he was cautioned, issued in his arrest, and the book terminates with Paul a prisoner. It was thus the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, rejected by the Jews whom he loved, and the Gentiles urged by them not only to imprison but to kill him.

On his way he enjoys christian communion at Tyre; then from Cæsarea he goes on in the face of warning, and in Jerusalem yields to Jewish feeling, which brought on the opposition it was meant to allay: all Jerusalem in uproar, and the multitude demanding his death.

In chapter 22 he addresses his defense in Hebrew to the excited Jews, who hear the wondrous tale of his conversion, but are convulsed afresh. Mission to the Gentiles they would not endure; as he should have learned from the Lord’s words to him in a previous trance. As the Jews raged murderously, so the Roman chiliarch or tribune violated law in his haste; and in Jerusalem the apostle did not display the power which marked him in his own proper field outside.

Nor in chapter 23 do we see the same superiority, as usual, to circumstances before the council, when he set the Pharisees in his favor against the Sadducees. But the grace of the Lord was as perfect as ever to cheer him, when he needed it sorely: he was to bear witness in Rome, as in Jerusalem. Then we find the Jewish plot discovered, and Paul conveyed to Cæsarea under a characteristic letter from the tribune to the governor or procurator, Felix.

Five days after, the high priest and the elders, with an orator they had retained, accused the apostle of that which he refuted with simple truth and dignity, pointing out the resurrection as the occasion of offense. Felix, conversant with Jewish prejudice, gives latitude to Paul till Lysias came down and all was known. But after an interval he and his wife Drusilla, a Jewess, sent for Paul, who, instead of discussing the faith, dealt with the conscience, so that Felix trembled and closed the interview. The convenient season” to hear more never came. Disappointed of a bribe from Paul, and willing to gratify the Jews, Felix left him bound when Porcius Festus succeeded (ch. 24).

The new procurator (ch. 25) was equally unscrupulous. For at Caesarea he proposed to send Paul to Jerusalem, which he had before refused to the Jews, and Paul appealed unto Cæsar, which compelled Festus to act on it. But the arrival of king Agrippa with Bernice furnished a new occasion for testimony before the dignities of this age; and Festus was glad, not only to give these members of the Herod family a hearing of interest, but to gather matter for a report to the emperor.

In chapter 26 Paul before all again lays stress on the resurrection as the basis of the promised hope, and tells how he, as determined a foe of Jesus as any, had seen His glory from heaven and heard His voice constituting him a witness, and taking him out of the people and the nations, to which last he was now sent. And this was to turn them from darkness to light and the power of Satan to God, that they might receive remission of sins and inheritance among those that are sanctified by faith in Christ the Lord. Not disobedient to the heavenly vision he was standing to this day to the call of God everywhere, which drew on him the hatred of the Jews; yet was it in full accord with what Moses and the prophets said should be. Festus broke out as an incredulous Roman; but Paul calmly appealed to the king as one cognizant of the prophets, whose answer proved that he was not unmoved, though seeking to hide it. This drew out from the captive apostle the expression of a heart filled with a happiness he desired for them all, except his bonds. They admitted his innocence: only his appeal sent him to Caesar.

Then in chapter 27 we have his voyage as far as Malta where the shipwreck occurred. We hear not of evangelizing, but the clear proof that faith saw clearly in circumstances so novel where no other eye did. It was reserved for a naval man, a Christian in our day, to clear up terms and facts misunderstood by all previous translators ignorant of things marine. Yet the great feature was unmistakable: the reality of God’s mind and care enjoyed here by the believer.

The last chapter is also full of interest. Paul practically proves the truth of Mark 16:18 (first clause and last); and many honors and kindnesses followed for the Christians from the heathen islanders. In another Alexandrian ship the rest of the voyage was completed; and they slowly made their way from Puteoli to Rome, met on the road by the brethren at Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae. This cheered even the apostle. Arrived at the great city Paul was suffered to abide by himself with the soldier that guarded him, and after three days called together the chief of the Jews and explained the strange fact, that for the hope of Israel he was a prisoner through Jewish accusation. On a subsequent day he testifies the kingdom of God, and sets forth Jesus from the law and the prophets, some being persuaded while others disbelieved. So that Paul could but skew them now the sentence finally of the Holy Spirit, as of the Son on earth (John 12) and of Jehovah of old (Isa. 6). But if Israel cut themselves off, save a remnant (the pledge of future restoration), the salvation of God is sent to Gentiles who hear.

Such is the bearing of this book first and last. Only it is well to add that the apostle’s charge in chapter 20 is no less clear that after his departure evil would prevail in the church, as of old in Israel. And we know from Romans 11 That the Gentile, if not continuing in God’s goodness (as he surely has not), must also be cut off, and thus make way for the recall of Israel to the universal joy and blessing of the world.

W. K.

Seeking Earthly Glory.

UNQUESTIONABLY many a Christian is called to pass through this world, earning bread for himself and his family. And it is well that it should be so. Few of us can bear not to be occupied thus. Nor is there any reason why our blessed Lord should not be served thus with all the heart, why there should not be a true and energetic and affectionate service rendered to His name, while the hands thus provide (whether for the family or for individual need) what little is required here below. But then the believer does it simply as a bread-trade — nothing more. The moment you give it the dignity of a profession, and regard it as something of honor in the world, you are lost to the testimony of Christ on high. I do not deny that the grace of God may call persons actively engaged in that which is highly esteemed among men. Of course you have known of men thus called of God, while they were entering on or engaged in that which the natural heart values. And you may have seen some under such circumstances exhibit very great simplicity there. I have not now said that it is wrong to have what men call a profession; I am using the heavenly glory of Christ to judge the spirit in which all that is in the world is ordered; and I do warn you against the vain-glory of men in these things — the desire and hankering after earthly distinction, the valuing of things for self and family — carried away in our thoughts and feelings by that which the world thinks of them.

If we are Christ’s, we have nothing to do with anything, even the pettiest shred, of this world’s glory. Be assured, it is only a patch of dishonor for the child of God now. It matters little what the world’s prize may be. Why should we want it? Are not all things ours? Shall we not judge the world — aye, angels? One does not dwell on the fact, that these present objects so often bear the very stamp of their own insignificance and worthlessness upon them, that their sages confess that the good is in the chase, not in the game. Who does not know that even a “ribbon” is enough reward for some men’s life-long exertions! What would not the richest and noblest do or endure for a “garter”?

Suffer me, then, to press the importance to the Christian of watching against the world, and of looking to Christ on high, in taking up whatever he does, whether for himself or for his children. I do not mean anything so preposterous as that Christianity calls the saints to seek one dead level of occupation, or that there is any faith in one’s abandoning the circumstances in which one is called, if one can abide therein with God, or in seeking an occupation that is entirely unsuitable. This I do not call faith, but folly. But giving full weight to all this, let me press that if anything, no matter what it may be, is to be done day by day, whether it be making a shoe or making a deed, there is but one worthy motive for the Christian — doing all to the Lord. If we are assured we are doing His will, we can do either the one or the other with a good conscience and a happy heart.

W.K.

The Restoration of Israel.

THE apostle Paul long ago raised the question, “Hath God cast away his people?” and replied by the Spirit, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew” (Rom. 11), Whatever some Gentile professors may think, our God still has purposes of grace concerning the seed of Abraham His friend. Those who have doubts will do well to ponder Jeremiah 31:37, “Thus saith Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith Jehovah.”

It is true that Israel has sinned grievously against Him. She has been an unfaithful wife, a deceitful bow. His law has been broken by them, His prophets slain, His Son disowned and crucified and His Spirit’s testimony despised. But He has not changed towards His people, and will bless them yet, for His gifts and calling are without repentance.

There are three reasons why God will restore them; His Word, His Name, and the death of Christ. (1). His Word. He promised Abraham to give to him and to his seed, “all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8). This promise, entirely unconditional, has never been fulfilled. In the past they only inherited a part of the good land, and that but for a season. “Ah! but they sinned,” some may say. True; but God’s word remains. They placed themselves under law and broke it, but this has nothing to do with the promise of God. Examine the argument of the apostle in Galatians 3 The law which came in 430 years after the promise cannot disannul it. “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” God’s word therefore stands blessedly sure, and will be fulfilled in its day. (2). His Name. When He delivered them from Egypt He made Himself known to them as Jehovah (Ex. 6). In this name their blessing is bound up, for it expresses the unchangeableness of God. They have changed sadly, as He laments in Jeremiah 2, but He abides immutably the same, as Malachi 3:6 shows. (3). The death of Christ. He died for that nation (John 11:50). The cross will yet be the efficacious cause of restoring grace to the tribes of Israel, and with one accord they will take up the language of Isa. 53 (which is primarily theirs), “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”

Now turn to Ezek. 37 where their restoration is set forth in a very striking manner. The prophet was shown a valley full of dry bones, and was told that they represented the whole house of Israel. As a nation, they are dead and dry. The prophet was bidden to prophesy to them, and the bones came together, and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. How this reminds of Paul’s words in Rom. 11:15, “What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? “It is not a question of the resurrection of dead bodies, nor a spiritual passing from death unto life, but resurrection nationally, to stand once more as a people before God.

All attempts to restore them before God’s time must prove futile. Isa. 18. speaks of such efforts. The issue will be that the fowls shall summer upon them, and the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. This will be the unhappy experience of the two tribes, who will reach their land apart from divine intervention, and will only fall a prey to the powers of evil in the last days. When God restores, all the twelve tribes will be remembered; and a present shall be brought to Him of a people once scattered and peeled. Where the ten tribes are at the present time, no one really knows but God, though speculations as to their whereabouts have been many.

They will be gathered when Christ appears in glory. The great trumpet shall be blown, and the elect of God shall be gathered together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24, Isa. 11). Their unification was shown to Ezekiel under the figure of two sticks made one in his hand. On the one he was to write “for Judah” &c.; on the other, for Joseph” &c.; and was to join them together. The nation has been divided ever since the days of Rehoboam, as a result of the grievous sins of Solomon, but shall be united in the coming day under the true David, our Lord Jesus. Numerous will be their blessings in that day. Our chapter specifies many of them, and others may be found elsewhere. God will place them in their own land (vs. 14), will cleanse them (ver. 23), and put His spirit in them (vs. 14). They shall no more defile themselves with idols, nor other detestable things (vs. 23), but will walk in His judgments (vs. 24). They shall have one shepherd — Christ (vs. 24), and the sanctuary of God once more in their midst (vs. 26).

Thus will end Israel’s long dark night of sorrow. They will be grafted again into their own olive tree, after having been cut off for centuries because of unbelief (Rom. 11). They will take their place once more at the head of the nations, and by their means blessing will flow all around. Not till then will all the world be brought to the feet, of the Lord Jesus; but when He is established as King over His willing people in Zion, all the nations of the earth will go up to His footstool, and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

W.W.F.

Given up by the World.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, ―It is sometimes easier to give up the world than to be given up by the world. But the disciple of Christ should be prepared for both. You are certainly expected to renounce the world, but you are also sure to incur the world’s scorn and contempt. The young ruler who sought to know the way of life from the Lord was invited (1) to sell all that he had, (2) to take up his cross and follow Christ. To dispose of all his possessions was practically to give up the world; while to take up the cross and to become a follower of the hated and despised Nazarene was certainly sufficient cause for the world to give him up.

We find both these characteristics of the Christian exemplified in the life of the apostle Paul. To the Philippians he could write of giving up all things for Christ. “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Phil. 3:7). And what he had renounced long before he still regarded as but “dung” that he might win Christ. Thus was the world crucified to him (Gal. 6:14). But, on the other hand, it was equally true that he was crucified to the world. For he tells the Corinthian saints the opinions that were held with regard to him and his fellow-apostles (1 Cor. 4:9-13). “We are fools for Christ’s sake.” “We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.”

I think, therefore, you will see that the two things which have just been referred to are distinguished in scripture, and of the two perhaps giving up the world is the easier. At any rate that is something we can do; while to be given up by the world is something we have to suffer. And most young Christians are readier to do than suffer. However, there are times when you should be passive as well as others when you should be active.

I am sure if you reflect a little upon this subject you will see that it is one of a very practical nature, and one which has a constant bearing upon the daily life. You have no right to expect to be counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ to the same degree as the apostles of old. But in your measure you will be sure to have to encounter trials from the world which call for the exercise of Christian fortitude and resignation as well as meekness and love.

For instance, it is one thing to give up worldly companions for Christ’s sake; but it is quite another thing to find they have given you up because of your profession. For those whose company you have enjoyed for years to “cut you dead” because you serve Christ, has been a sore trial to many of you I am persuaded. It is so hard to feel that you are being slighted and classed with those that are despised. Peter allowed such feelings to work on his spirit in the high priest’s palace. When he was suddenly accused of being a disciple of Him Who was undergoing examination by the high priest, shame and fear overcame him, and he denied his Master with oaths and curses. Truly, he had left all and followed the Lord, as he said himself, but when those with whom he was sharing the comforts of the fireside charge him with being a follower of Jesus he fails. He could not endure the thought that these servants of the high priest would turn upon him as they had done upon his Master. And the truth of the Lord’s words was ‘seen that he was not then ready to go with Him to prison and to death, though he followed Him afterward (John 13:36-38; 21:18, 19).

But while this position of being excluded by the world is a difficult one, it is also one of honor and privilege and blessing. When the Lord warned His disciples that such a lot would be theirs, He assured them it would also be attended with particular blessing. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets” (Luke 6:22, 23).

And this kind of suffering is so blessed, because we thereby share the rejection of Christ, and prove that we belong to Him. The Lord said, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). If men cast us off as refuse, He will take us up as His jewels and His treasure. And “if we were not strangers here, the clogs of the world would not bark at us.”

Do not therefore count it a hardship, if you are passed by in silent contempt, because you are Christ’s disciples. It is only drinking of the cup your Master drank of. The world will treat you as it treated Christ if you are faithful. But how sweet to suffer for His sake! Such are Christian honors, and you ought to covet “the glorious Clint a martyr’s shield should wear.”

I am, Yours faithfully,

“YOD”

John 1:3. — “Without him was nothing made that was made,” i.e., nothing was, as a matter of fact, created “apart from Him” of all that has been called into existence. The language, forcible enough in the English, is precision itself in the original Greek, that potent and subtle instrument of human thought. This precision transcends that of the schools, although the writer was but a fisherman; for in the New Testament, as in the Old, “holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21).

R. B., JUN.

Correspondence.

A. H. M. —Please explain “baptized for the dead” (1 Cor. 15:29-31). Note that verse 20 to 28 form a parenthesis, dealing with the effects of Christ’s death, right up to eternity. In the 19th verse the apostle alludes to the miserable outlook of Christians who have renounced the world, if there is no resurrection. He then resumes the subject in verse 29. What would those do who were baptized for the dead, if no dead rise at all? Those who by baptism entered the ranks of Christian profession are looked upon as filling up the gaps made by death. But of what advantage was that, if there is no resurrection, which ushers the believer into the sphere where all his hopes are consummated? In verses 30,31, Paul makes reference to the danger to which he was daily exposed, even persecution unto death.

E. Y. —The ashes of an heifer. Kindly explain Hebrews 9:13 and Numbers 19:9. In Hebrews 9:13, 14 we have a general contrast between the Levitical sacrifices and the blood-shedding of Christ Who offered Himself without spot to God. The blood of bulls and of goats probably has special reference to the offerings on the day of atonement (Lev. 16), while the ashes of an heifer points plainly enough to Numbers 19. These ancient sacrifices effected only an outward cleanness in the flesh, but the blood of Christ purified the conscience. In Leviticus 16 we have the removal of sin; in Numbers 19 of outward defilement. As you did not state any particular point of difficulty, we hope the above may help in a general way.

E. B. D. —What is usury? What is the application to Christians? Usury is the loan of money that it may be returned at an exorbitant increase. The Mosaic laws (Ex. 22:25; Lev. 25:35-37; Deut. 23:19, 20) protected the poor of Israel from such extortion. Usury being an easy means by which the rich can increase their wealth at the expense of the poor, it acquired the sense of unlawful oppression (Psa. 15:5; Prov. 28:8; Ezek. 18:8,13, 17; 22:12). The practice of taking advantage of a person’s poverty and distress to rob him of what is left — in other words, “to devour widows’ houses” —is as abhorrent to New Testament teaching as to the Old. A reasonable rate of interest charged on money borrowed for convenience in business is not at all what is meant in the passages referred to.

The Comfort of Love.

TRUE comfort enables us to endure sorrow or trial. When bowed to the very earth by the weight of some unexpected disaster, the word of comfort comes like the arm of a strong man and lifts us again until the trouble can be faced with firm and patient resignation.

But there is no real comfort apart from love; and the “comfort of love” (Phil. 2:1) found perfect expression only in the person of Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah of Israel would display this character. He would come “to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa. 61:2, 3).

And we find from the Gospels that when here on earth, there was no voice like the voice of Jesus to dry up the tearful eyes, and chase the clouds from gloomy faces. There was also infinite power in that voice. Its authoritative accents were heard amid the howling tempest on the Galilean lake. The furious hurricane and the leaping billows mocked the power of man; but at the word of Jesus they checked their rage and sunk at His feet as “still as a stone.” But along with that power was the wondrous gentleness that neither broke the bruised reed nor quenched the smoking flax.

How is it that we have this strange commingling of illimitable might and exquisite tenderness in the same Person? Because “God is love”; and that Person was God, “manifest in flesh.”

Infinite Love was then among men. Thus there was a place in the loving heart of Jesus for all the sorrows of mankind. In His comprehensive love, the Lord entered fully into the nature of the trials of those around Him.

Hence His words, full as they were of the tenderest sympathy and compassion, came with such marvelous comfort to the hearts of those that heard Him.

When the Lord met that mournful procession from Nain, He said to the poor widow whose heart was breaking at the loss of her only son but two words, “Weep not.” But what words were they! A gleam of heaven’s sunshine athwart the gloom of her soul!

How differently they sounded as they fell from His lips than if they had been spoken by ardent Peter or even the affectionate John. The Lord did not say anything at first to cause her to think of her son being raised to life. It was hers to learn, as it is ours, that the Lord can comfort even without removing the cause of grief.

Oh! how great the love that was able with two-words only to comfort the mourner at the grave.

If we endeavor to comfort others, let us not seek to say a great deal; but what we do say let it be said because the love of Christ constraineth us.

In a simple and humble way, let us strive to be like speaking-tubes through which the voice of the Lord shall come to the sad and troubled hearts of His own. With the comfort wherewith we are comforted, let us comfort one another.

Brief Introduction to the Epistles.

Preliminary Notice.

It is not without interest, and sometimes of importance, to take into account the, order in which the epistles were written, as far as it can be ascertained: where it cannot, we are entitled to gather that it is of no practical moment.

From Corinth the apostle Paul wrote his earliest inspired letters, hath the Epistles to the Thessalonians. The subscription at the end of most manuscripts and copied by our translators is given up as unauthorized and untrue. They were written, not from Athens, but from Corinth. Probably the, error arose from a misconstruction of 1 Thessalonians 3:1, which rather disproves the hasty deduction. Timotheus with Silas carried the report of the Thessalonian state to the apostle at Corinth (Acts 18:5), where he abode some eighteen months; and thence no doubt he wrote both. The First carries its own evidence in its joy over their freshness; the Second indicates a decline in their enjoyment of the blessed hope, and the consequent inroad of the enemy. If a date may be safely suggested, the First was about the close of A.D. 52, the Second in A.D. 53.

It was from Ephesus where the apostle spent at least two years, that the First Epistle to the Corinthians was written, and, it would seem, before Pentecost in A. D. 57. Here again the vulgar subscription is a mistake of some ignorant transcriber who misunderstood chapter 16:5, which verse 8 ought to have made impossible. This later verse shows he was then in Ephesus and meant to leave after the time already pointed out. The Second was written from Philippi, as his subsequent course lay through Macedonia according to the statement in the First.

There is more difference among grave students, when he wrote to the Galatians; but the weight of evidence seems to incline to his stay in Corinth (Acts 20:2, 3; in A.D. 37-8), and before he wrote the kindred Epistle to the Romans. The writing of the Epistle to the Galatians many ascribe to the earlier date of A.D. 54 or later at Ephesus. It is a delicate point; but happily little turns on it.

During his imprisonment in Rome the apostle wrote to Philemon, as well as to the Colossians, the Ephesians and the Philippians.

On his liberation, and from Macedonia after leaving Ephesus, it would appear that the First Epistle to Timothy was written, and a little after, the Epistle to Titus; as they are also manifestly akin. The second to Timothy was written without doubt from Rome, during his second imprisonment as we may suppose, and in full view of his speedy martyrdom (A.D. 67); as the other was some time before.

The Epistle to the Hebrews is none other than the one which Peter in his Second Epistle declares that Paul wrote to the believers of the circumcision, to whom only he was writing himself: compare 1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 3:1,15. It also was written late, perhaps from Italy, but when is less clear.

As the book of the Acts sets forth the church formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Epistles of our apostle give the doctrinal training, heavenly blessedness, and earnest correction of the church and the Christian, closing with God’s last word to those of the circumcision before the fall of the city and the temple, that they might regard as a promise even the far more awful and universal shaking of the heaven as well as the earth at the Lord’s return.

The so-called Catholic Epistles add important dealing, first with Israelitish saints in those of James and Peter, and still more with all saints in those of Jude and John.

The Revelation fitly concludes the Canon of the New Testament by the Son of man judging seven assemblies in proconsular Asia, as representing the entire church in varied and successive phases; after which we see the glorified above, and providential strokes applied to the guilty parties on earth, though with spared or suffering remnants of Jews and Gentiles, till the Lord appears from heaven in personal judgment, warring and then peacefully reigning for a thousand years while Satan is shut up. Then when he is let loose to test mankind after that glorious kingdom of righteousness, the last rebellion brings fire on men and dissolution on the universe as it is. The eternal judgment follows the resurrection of the unrighteous, and the eternal state. Only there follows a retrogression to show the relation of the holy and heavenly city to the earth during the millennial age; as the description and moral history of the great and corrupt city Babylon had been given after the seven vials.

W. K.

A Word on Service.

TRUE and acceptable service for the Lord must be the outcome of faithful and obedient discipleship. His path from the manger to the tomb was that of obedience. He became obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). When God was not satisfied with sacrifice and offering, which never tested man as to obedience, then said He, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7-9). He would take the place in which man had so miserably failed, and glorify God in it.

Non-subjection to God has characterized man from the beginning. Satan sowed in his heart doubt and distrust of God; and this soon produced deliberate disobedience. Man’s own will came into play, and now the spirit of trusting self rather than God is common to all (Eph. 2:2, 3).

Hence the need of seeking earnestly the mind which was in. Christ Jesus — the mind of entire surrender to God and subjection to His will in everything. The minor details of life we are apt to think we can manage ourselves, but “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that,” settles once for all such thoughts of independence (James 4:15).

The apostle prayed that the Thessalonian saints might he wholly set apart to God, i.e., in thought, word, and action — the whole man given up to Him (1 Thess. 5:23). Such was the case with the priests under the law. They were touched with blood on the ear, the hand, and the foot. The ear was to listen to God’s word, and the feet to walk in His ways, and the hands to be used in service for Him. Thus the whole man was claimed by God for Himself (Lev. 8:23, 24). The Romans too were besought to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1). Even so Christ is presented as our example in Ephesians 5:2. If our love goes out in active service to others, God’s glory must be the sovereign motive actuating our souls in all things — else all our service will be but empty show.

W.T.H.

OBSERVE the contrasts in Luke 18:9-19. 10; the Pharisee and the publican, the infants and the ruler, the blind beggar and Zacchæus.

The Millennium and the End.

GOD long ago declared His intention to place everything under the dominion of the Son of man. “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet” (Psa. 8). Not to angels will God put in subjection “the world to come,” the apostle tells us in Hebrews 2, but to man — the second Man, the Lord Jesus. Adam was given a place of authority at the beginning, being constituted head and center of all the lower creation. But this, as all else, has failed in man’s hand. Man cannot rule himself, but has become, through sin, the helpless slave of Satan.

All will be seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus. He will yet take up the grant to Adam (and more besides), and administer all for the glory of God, and the blessing of the creature. Then will be “the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). For this, creation groans (though the saints alone have divine intelligence in the matter), but shall then be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).

It is important to inquire by what means this universal blessing will be brought about. Many think by the preaching of the gospel of God’s grace. It has long been the thought in Christendom that through the earnest labors of God’s servants the whole world will be converted, and brought to the feet of the Lord Jesus, and that thus all will pass quietly into millennial blessedness. Now, that the gospel is efficacious for all the world no instructed Christian will deny; but scripture nowhere states that by these means the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. On the contrary, the kingdom will be introduced by judgment. “When thy judgments (not the glad tidings) are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9), The Lord Jesus will stay in the heavens until the appointed moment comes, and will then assert His rights to the universal throne. Then He will be manifested in power and glory, and every eye shall see Him. His saints will accompany Him (having been, previously gathered up), to take part with Him in judgment and rule, and all the holy angels will attend in His train (Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3; 2 Thess. 1:7, 10).

Psa. 45 furnishes a striking picture of that day. Its theme is “the King,” and He is seen coming forth to take His kingdom. But how? By the peaceable means of the gospel? Nay; but with girded sword and with arrows, in glory and majesty, His right hand teaching Him terrible things, the people falling under Him. He conies to rule in Zion in the midst of His enemies, as Psa. 110 speaks.

When He thus appears, the Western powers headed by the beast and the false prophet oppose Him, to their own overthrow and ruin (Rev. 19). He will come to Olivet (not merely into the air), the immediate issue being the deliverance and blessing of the afflicted Jewish remnant, to form the nucleus of the new nation in the land of their fathers. These will be channels of blessing, throughout the Millennium, to all the earth. When He is merciful to them and blesses them, and causes His face to shine upon them, His way will be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations. All nations will share in their gladness, though in a subordinate way. The nations will be glad and sing for joy, and will rejoice with His people (Psa. 67; Rom. 15:10). Jerusalem will be the city of the great King, the metropolis of the earth, an eternal excellency from thence will the law go forth, and to Jerusalem all will go up to worship, and keep the feast of tabernacles (Isa. 60:15; 2:2, 3; Zech. 14:16).

The brute creation will enjoy the blessings of that day. They groan now as a result of man’s fall; but then will peacefully enjoy the good things of God (Isa. 65:25). The heavenly saints will reign with Christ, but they will not actually be on the earth during that period. Matthew 13 speaks of the kingdom of the Father, and the kingdom of the Son — the heavenly and earthly departments. Our place is in the kingdom of the Father, our relation to the earth being morally what the sun is physically. Our individual positions in the kingdom will be determined by our faithfulness now, though this by no means affects our salvation, which is all of grace.

Thus will a thousand years of peace and blessing flow on their course. It is however a reign of righteousness, and any individual act of sin will be promptly dealt with, not borne with in long-suffering grace as now (Isa. 32:1; 65:20). The judgment of the quick, which will be mainly executed at His appearing, will go on, more or less, throughout the reign; the judgment of the dead coming at the end, when time has reached its close, and eternity is about to begin.

It is well-nigh inconceivable that such a dispensation should close in darkness, but such will be the case. Revelation 20 shows that at the close, Satan will be loosed from the bottomless pit for a little season, and will succeed in gathering together hosts from the four quarters of the earth, to make war upon the saints and the beloved city. What is man!

As far as Christ is concerned, the Millennium ends, as it begins, in perfection; for, having put down all rule, and all authority and power, He will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24); but man’s part, as ever before, is shame and failure. Even a thousand years of unparalleled blessedness will not change flesh, so corrupt and irremediable is it. A truly humbling reflection for our souls. Nothing avails but a new creation. Perfection is to be seen in Christ, nowhere else.

W.W.F.

Paul's Earnest Expectation.

THE Epistle to the earnest, gospel-loving Philippians is laden with instruction of the most precious and personal kind, The believers addressed were established in Christ. The gospel they had received had set them free from every effort to get good out of self. So long as we doubt Christ’s work for us, and endeavor to make ourselves worthy of God’s favor, there can be no divine progress in our souls. But, being assured of salvation, our great concern should be, how we personally may best glorify our Lord and Saviour.

This paper supposes that the reader is, by grace, assured of his standing in a risen and glorified Christ; and such being the case, the consideration of the practical state of the soul is of the deepest importance. If we are established in the truth of our standing in Christ, we may rightly dwell upon our state.

A believer dwelling upon his state only, will become self-occupied; on the other hand, if he only thinks of his standing, he will become loose in his walk and ways.

The apostle desired to know the state of these Philippians, and his beloved Timothy cared naturally for their state (chap. 2:19, 20).

God works not only for us, He also works in us. He wrought in the Philippians a good work (chap. 1:6). He worked in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure (ch. 2:13). God has His great purpose for us in the day yet to come. He also has His great purpose for each of us in this life.

We are not only saved from wrath, and saved for glory, we are also left on this earth that in our bodies Christ may be magnified.

Listen to these fervent words: “according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death” (ch. 1:20). Let us ponder over them as we inquire of our own hearts, “what is my earnest expectation and my hope? “Beloved young believer, take this solemn question into the presence of your God, pray it out upon your knees, nay, weep it out there.

In nothing would Paul be ashamed. Neither in his toil as a tent maker, nor in his service as an apostle, neither in his heart’s secrets when alone in the dungeon, nor in his Christian ministry, when in the presence of his audience.

The Lord in heaven was ever looking into his heart, even as He looks into our hearts, and Paul would so live that at all times he should never have to blush for what the Lord saw in him. Oh for this spirit! Having it, how we should pray that we might “do all things without murmurings and disputings” how we should long that we might each be “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke.” And if there were this state of soul in us, bright would be our testimony for God, we should “shine as lights in the world.” We might not be very great lights, but how happy to be a little lamp in a corner for the sake of the Lord in heaven, and holding forth the word of life to those around us.

A Christian in a good state cannot do otherwise than help other people. If Christ be in us in power, then we shall of necessity be walking as Christ walked. We shall be going about doing good.

Paul could say of his earnest expectation and hope “always”; we are too fitful in our desires after holiness. Seek eagerly for the steady, earnest expectation and hope. Seek that Christ may be magnified in your body; let this be the foremost desire of your soul.

These beloved Philippians were earnest gospel workers, and with such a spirit in the apostle’s heart, who had labored amongst them, what else could they be? His example had mightily affected their lives.

Beloved man! When simply to grieve him men preached the gospel, seeking thereby to add affliction to his bonds, he rejoiced because Christ was preached. What glory to Christ accrued from His servant’s state then! And when the martyr’s end lay before him, and, consequently he seemed very near to being forever with the Lord, still such was his care for the souls of the Philippians, that by communion with the Lord, he knew he should for a while remain in the body to minister Christ to them! Christ’s interests filled his heart’s activities. Sweet to his soul as it was to die, yet the need of the Philippians decided him that Christ would have him stay longer on earth to help them!

Let us pray for this spirit. If there be a voice to our hearts in this day, more urgent than any other, it is “live Christ.” Let those who will, occupy themselves with points and crotchets, “live Christ.” Let those who will, murmur and grumble over the state of things, “live Christ”; and so you shall shine as lights in the world. “‘Ho! see a Christian here,” will the world then say. For in the dark night the way to prove the existence of a light is to exhibit it.

Evidence your Christianity by your light. Seek to burn steadily on to the last hour for Christ. Candles are made to last different lengths of time, and are formed of different light-giving power. So it is with us, but whether our time be long or short, whether our light be great or small, let it be our concern to burn steadily on through the dark night till the morning breaks. Too many of God’s candles now-a-days seem to be blown out, or, it may be that they are put under bushels, where they do not give light to those who are in the house.

A. T. S.

The Eye of Faith.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, ―I am sure you would find it both a pleasant and profitable exercise to consider of what great value to you is your natural eyesight. It is the means by which you enjoy the sights around you, while you are able to usefully employ the knowledge you thus obtain. By simply closing your eyelids how many of the sights of the world you can shut out. Thank God that you are able to open them again, and what you lost for a moment, you have not lost forever.

But there is a spiritual eye as well as a natural eye; and it is of the vision of the soul that 1 wish to say a word. But I must first speak of another kind of sight, which I will call mental vision. I mean that in a natural way we are able by means of the imagination to see objects without the aid of our eyes. For instance, I now see the inkstand before me. I close my eyes, but I still see the inkstand, and could describe it to you if I wished. It is therefore possible because of the marvelous powers of the mind to see natural objects that are not immediately before us.

Now in a similar way, though in a far higher sense, the Christian sees what the world reeks nothing Of. By faith he is able to behold what is otherwise invisible. When the Lord Jesus was on Mount Olivet (Acts 1), surrounded by His disciples, He was visible to them in the same way as other objects around them. But when He was taken up from them, and a cloud received Him out of their sight, it was in vain that they looked steadfastly up into heaven. He was hidden from natural eyes. Yet the apostle Paul who had not known Christ after the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16) declared for himself and for all believers, “ We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9).

Here then we have the soul triumphing over the body. It is not a natural sight that now bolds the Saviour, but faith; as it is said in the same epistle that faith is “the evidence [or conviction] of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1) The very heavens themselves are not proof against the “transpiercing eve” of faith; for it looks even to the right hand of the Majesty on high and there discerns its loved One.

How wonderful it is that we should have the ability of thus seeing the Lord Jesus. Faith makes the person of Christ very real. It enables us to have to do with Him day by day as our Friend. We see His activity on our behalf as our Advocate with the Father, as our Great High Priest in the presence of God.

But it is well for you to remember that it largely depends upon yourself to what extent you make use of the power of faith. You are exhorted to be “looking unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). So you must be careful lest you relax in the intentness of your gaze. Even naturally you know that some people make far better use of their eyes than others. It was said to them of old time, “A wise man’s eyes are in his head” (Eccl. 2:14), and, again, “The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth” (Prov. 17:24). By which, I suppose, it is taught that wisdom lies in making good use of one’s own eyes, and folly in allowing one’s attention to wander in butterfly fashion the wide world over. There is a vast difference between the glance of intelligence and the stare of stupidity. There are some people who look at everything, but yet see nothing; for they give neither interest nor attention to what is before them.

Now in spiritual matters there is even far greater call for undivided interest and attention. The eye of faith must be single (Matt. 6:22). Strive. to have the Lord Jesus before you continually. Seek to serve Him and Him only. It is the tireless effort of the enemy to interpose some object between your soul and Him.

But the word of God is the great medium by which the person of Christ is kept in view. The scriptures testify of Him. Therein He speaks to you. There He lives before you. Keep up therefore a constant communion with Him by means of the word. The moment you cease to be watchful and careful, something else will intervene; and the eye of faith will be dimmed.

It is certain the effect of gazing on Christ is that we become like Him. This is the true Christian position; for it says, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18, J.N.D.)

In the chapter from which this verse is quoted, the apostle contrasts the privileges of believers at the present time with those possessed under the old covenant. The children of Israel were unable to behold the glory of Moses’ countenance when he had been before the Lord. For this reason the mediator had to, cover his face with a veil when he was before the congregation (Ex. 34:29-35).

On the contrary, every Christian is entitled to behold the glory of the Lord without the medium of a veil. See the verse (2 Cor. 3:18) as correctly rendered above. The result of this action of faith is that we become transformed after His image from glory to glory. Carefully compare the case of Stephen as given in Acts 6:15; 7:55. Let it be your prayer and mine:—

“Oh, fix our earnest gaze

So wholly, Lord, on Thee,

That with Thy beauty occupied,

We may transformed be!”

I am,

Yours faithfully “YOD.”

2 Corinthians 3:2. —The old covenant was glorious, i.e., it was accompanied by glory, a transitory burst. For God cannot act at all without some display of “glory and beauty,” whether in things spiritual or natural. But the new covenant has a glory incomparably greater; it is not a transient glimpse (see Ex. 33:22, 23), as of that which was being done away, but it is abiding and established in glory.

R. B. JR.

The Believer's Monthly Magazine: Volume 1

Table of Contents

Forgiveness of Sins.

Early Church History.

Papers on the Lord's Coming.

Love Not the World.

Brief Outline of the Epistle to the Romans.

Worship: A Contrast.

Letter on Reading the Scriptures.

Justification by Faith.

The Rushing Wind and Fiery Tongues.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew.

The First Resurrection.

Study to Be Quiet.

Correspondence.

Pentecostal Testimony.

The Women of Rom. 16.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Mark.

Holding Fast.

The First Resurrection.

Reading the Scriptures.

Correspondence.

Pentecostal Conviction and Conversion.

Christ the Measure of Blessing.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Luke.

The Judgment Seat of Christ.

God in Christ.

Correspondence.

The Teaching of the Apostles.

Christ the Standard of Walk.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of Luke.

Christian Dreamers.

Enoch Walking With God.

Correspondence.

The Touchstone of Truths

The Lord's Supper.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of John.

The Marriage of the Lamb.

Cruel as the Grave.

Taking Christ's Yoke.

Reverent and Habitual Prayer.

Correspondence.

The Patch of Lentils.

The Widow's Mites.

Brief Introduction to the Gospel of John.

All Doubts Removed.

The Apostasy and the Man of Sin.

Hindrances to Prayer.

Correspondence.

The Fellowship of the Apostles.

Worship and Worshippers.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

The Two Beasts of Revelation 13.

Barrack Room Prayer.

Humility of Mind.

Correspondence.

Peace or No Peace.

The Waiting Heart.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

The Pavilion of His Presence.

The Times of the Gentiles.

Confidence in God.

Eyeservice as Men pleasers.

Correspondence.

That Good Man, Barnabas.

Like Little Children.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Farewell to the Missionaries.

The Times of the Gentiles.

Putting the Hand to the Plough.

Ejaculatory Prayer.

Correspondence.

Breaking of Bread and Prayers.

Resting Awhile.

Brief Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles.

Seeking Earthly Glory.

The Restoration of Israel.

Given up by the World.

Correspondence.

The Comfort of Love.