The Just Shall Live by Faith

The Just Shall Live by Faith: Part 1

THIS chapter has a character peculiarly its own, and very different to that of any of those which precede and follow it. Its keynote, so to speak, is the statement made at the close of the previous chapter, "The just shall live by faith;" on which, as it were, it is a practical commentary.

In a general way, we may say that the Epistle to the Hebrews is the introduction of the believer into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and we would remark, in passing, that there is nothing so difficult to hold fast to, as that, as believers, we may go into the Holiest boldly at all times, and in all circumstances. Often believers stand at the door, so to speak, thinking they are not fit to go in, but this only gives time and opportunity for Satan and the world to act. You have failed? Well, flee to the Holiest. You feel you are not fit? Well, faith goes right in with the blood of Jesus. Are you in trouble-your own evil heart, and the world too much for you? Flee right into the Holiest, there alone is safety and rest. When we are at home there, we are not at home in the world. The world cannot do much with us If we have Christ. Faith in the Son of God gives entire victory over the world, as John tells us, and we find in the previous chapter, that early believers took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had " in heaven, a better and an enduring substance." Just think, let the world take everything you have-your goods, your life, everything-could you say, " Thank you!" In the reckoning of faith, it is the best thing the world can do for the believer, or if you will, the worst.

Another important feature of this epistle is the way the Spirit of God, while unfolding in detail the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, gives special prominence to His Person as the Son of God. It is " Jesus the Son of God" that is " the great High Priest, passed into the heavens.,' This is specially the apostle Paul's way of presenting Christ. Immediately after his conversion " he preaches Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God " (Acts 9:20); and in his Epistle to the Galatians, says, " The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Would not " the Lord Jesus" have done just as well? No, it would not. That would have told'us only of Jesus as man exalted to the right hand of God, the same blessed Person surely, but there is immense power in the fact that it is " the Son of God" who is our life and object.

But to return to our chapter. The first verse is a statement of faith in its practical power and effect. It is that by which we lay hold of " things hoped " for as substantial realities, and that which gives present demonstrations to our souls of " things not seen."

The second verse teaches us that faith was the inward energy by which saints in past ages lived before God and obtained " a good report," of which the rest of this chapter gives us a series of characteristic instances, arranged in a special order.

In the third verse faith gives us what the ancients, with all their wisdom, had not; and what the philosophers of the present day, with all their boasted and scientific acquirements, do not understand. We know how the worlds were made. God's word tells us all we want to know about a world out of which we are waiting to go. The world was made by the simple fiat of God; it was deluged by God; and now it is sustained by the word of God to be burnt up. Oh dear friends, surely if we believe it is all going to be burnt up, we shall not care for anything in it; our one aim will be to get out of it. Philosophers will speculate clay and night, as to how the world was made and as to its end, but bring in the name of God, and tell them you know how it was made-God spake, and it was clone, and that now it only waits God's word to be burnt up; there is silence at once, they do not like it.

In the fourth verse we have faith as what constitutes a true worshipper, in contrast with one who was not one.

Cain, brought an offering of the fruits of the earth, thinking that because it pleased himself it must please God; but God rejected him. And what, let us ask, are all the elaborate forms and ceremonies in the so-called places of worship now but just the same thing? These things please the senses of men, and, therefore, it is argued that God must be pleased with them too. It spews God's wisdom in a marked way, I think, that when He is speaking of worship, He tells us in one short verse what it is. Abel, a poor good-for-nothing sinner, brought a dead lamb, its blood poured out; as a sinner under death and judgment, he put the death blood of a victim between himself and God. He brought (typically of course) the death of Christ. Thus coming, Abel had the testimony from God that " he was righteous." God only gives this testimony to those who come into His presence with the blood of His Son. Whatever else you may do, or bring, you will not have the testimony that you are righteous. (Compare Rom. 3:24,26.)

In verse 5 faith,, as in Enoch, gives us the most perfect example of godly walk in the Bible (the Lord Jesus of course excepted). A great deal is said about David, Solomon, Josiah, and many other saints, but all we hear about Enoch is, that " he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him;" and before his translation he had this testimony, "that he pleased God." Doubtless he had his failures, as we all have, but the characteristic feature of his life was, " he walked with God." And it is this that the Holy Ghost records. Beloved friends, is this what we are doing? What appears to me so very beautiful in this narrative is, that Enoch is not a man soaring far above our heads in circumstances we know nothing about, but one who walked with.God in all the realities of every-day life-in his business and his family. Very likely he led about his flocks as a simple shepherd; certainly, for God's word tells us so, " he begat sons and daughters," and it was in these relationships " he walked with God."

There is a vast difference between my being in the world with the knowledge that God is for me, and my being down here simply for God! To show what I mean: just look at Abraham and Enoch together, for a moment. Abraham knew God was for him in all his interests down here; and the consequence was, instead of being occupied with the " God of glory," he was almost always in some trouble or other. God tells him to leave his country and his kindred; but he does not fully get away until Terah his father is dead. Then when he is in the land there is a famine, and Abraham fears for his life because of the beautiful wife whom God bath given him, so he makes up a lie in the land, and goes and tells it down in Egypt. Then God gives him great promises, but he cannot wait, and goes and gets into a mess about Ishmael. Enoch, on the other hand, appears to have been down in this world simply for God. Doubtless God had told him, He was going to translate him. And with this before him, we can believe that the burden of his prayer was not, " Lord God, give me this or that, or the other," but, " Lord God, help me to please Thee! As Thou art going to translate me, help me while I am here to please Thee." And, beloved, this is very simple; if God pleases us, if He fills our hearts, do you not think it is natural enough that we shall want to please Him? Surely this ought to be our only object! And mark, Enoch follows close upon Abel. He starts, as it were, from Abel's lamb, to enter the glory above that connected itself with it-the cross of Christ here, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne there-in the interim walking with God and pleasing Him.

Oh! beloved, had we more before our souls, the cross of Christ as our starting-point, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to fetch us to Himself, we should really care for nothing but to please Him. This is more than conversion and being happy in the Lord. There are some here who have but recently found joy in Christ, and I would warn them, as I would myself and all, of resting in their joy. What I would say to such is, cling to Christ, cleave to Jesus, but do not get occupied with your joy. Suppose you lose this experience of joy, what will you do then? Hold fast to Christ, you cannot lose Him; He cannot break down. Hold fast to Him; walk with Him; and if this is not joy, nothing is. If you look at Jesus, your heart will be so filled with joy, that words shall fail to express it. This is beautifully put before us in 1 Peter 1:8, " Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

What a thing it is to be in the world without an anxiety, a care, or a wish, and with only one thing to do, and that to walk in faith, and thus to " please God," and " without [or apart from] faith it is impossible to please him"! It is not to be faith and something else; no, it is faith, and faith alone, that pleases God. What are all the decorations in the churches and chapels for? " Oh!" you say, " God's house must be beautiful, and surely God would have it so, for look at the temple. It must please Him to see His house beautiful now, as then." You had better by far say at once, " We like it, and therefore God does too." But you say again, " Look at the temple t" Well, where is that temple now? Not one stone left upon another. What is God going to do with this whole world presently? Scripture tells us, He will burn it up. And not only the wood, hay, and stubble, but all the fine structures and edifices men are building, and all the pleasant pictures men are making. Does that look as if these things pleased God, and do you think if people believed all was going to be burnt up, they would do all they are doing? If we had anything that particularly pleased us, do you think we should burn it? We should be thought mad, if we did. It would really be the last thing we should do with what pleased us.

And what about the pealing organs, and grand music, that are so much used to render the worship of God more acceptable? Does God like music, and science, and art? " Surely He does," you say. Well, who instituted them? Did God? On the contrary, we read that Jubal " was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ," and Tubal-cain was " the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." Both descendants of Cain, who was a fugitive and a vagabond driven from the presence of God, and he made himself as comfortable and happy as he could away from God. Just what the world is doing now! You ask again, " Does not God like flowers? He made them, and surely He must like to have them offered to Him." Well, but you have forgotten He has cursed the earth on account of man's sin. You may look at them, and admire them, and God's wisdom in making them, but we must ever remember that they are under a curse, and we cannot bring them to present to the Lord. God will accept nothing but the slain lamb of Abel, as the ground of our acceptance before Him.

But we must not only have faith in God Himself to please Him, but we must know He is the rewarder of them that " diligently seek him," and this does not mean taking only huge troubles and trials, or great joys to Him, and leaving small things out as if they were no matter. No! God will be sought to about the smallest everyday occurrences of our lives. It is "In everything," as we read in Phil. 4:6. We must take everything to Him, and then we shall indeed find that " God is a rewarder " of them that do this. If God has given us eternal life, do not you think He will not give us a pin, or a cup of cold water, if we ask Him? To be sure He will, and that, too, as dignifiedly as if He were giving us a throne. Beloved, do we believe it? Do we diligently seek Him? Do we take everything to Him?

Why do people get into debt? Why do people steal? Just because they do not believe God. If we believed He would give us whatever we wanted, do you believe we should take it from our neighbors? Of course we should not. Take for example a man or a woman acting from an impulse of love, not in willful sin. A father has seven little children, and nothing in the house, there is no work to be had, and the poor little children are starving. Well, he goes out, sees a loaf of bread, the baker's back is turned, he snatches it up, and takes it to his children. If he believed God, and that he had only

to ask Him for bread, do you think he would do that? Why, if he asked God for one loaf, God would give him a dozen if needed, for He can as easily send a hundred as one. See how God speaks to Israel in Malach 4: 10. " Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to conceive it."

Some years ago, up in the north of Scotland, there was a dear old woman, who when asked, " Was God good to her," said, " Guid, aye so guid, I could a' most think He had na another child i’ the world, He taks such care o' me." That was simple faith, and she pleased God. She had nothing but a poor cottage, and an empty cupboard, but her faith knew it had the living God and all His resources at its command. She did not want great riches here; thieves might break through and steal, or rust might spoil. Was not it far better God should keep them, and give her out, day by day, what she needed? Why do men put their money into banks? So that it shall not be stolen. Well, God is our bank, and if we have faith in Him, He will give us everything we need, and when one has faith for one's self one can count on Him for others; and so Paul says, " My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus!"

Oh! to know more of what it is diligently to seek Him in believing prayer. c. w.

( To be continued, the Lord willing.)

A FRAGMENT.

THE presence of Christ is distinct from the presence of the Spirit. All believers have the Holy Spirit, but all have not the presence of Christ. If you have not the presence of Christ, you are an orphan Christian. The Holy Spirit is in our midst, and the Lord Jesus also-in spirit, of course, not His bodily presence, but personally-apart from, and distinct from, the presence of the Holy Spirit. W. B.

The Just Shall Live by Faith: Part 2

(Continued from page 35.)

EB11IN verse 7, faith, as the energy by which we enter in salvation, is simply and forcibly set before us. And here it is important to note, that faith is no part of man's inheritance as a child of Adam or mere creature; it is the distinct effect of revelation, and only possessed by those who bow to this revelation. "All men have not faith," Paul states; and tells us, in Romans, " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Noah is a striking example of one who bowed his whole soul to the revelation God gave him, and this wrought in him that saving faith which is called in scripture, " the obedience of faith." He was " saved through faith " as the divinely-given energy by which he did what God told him. God had revealed to him that He was going to drown the whole world, and the fear of judgment to come thus produced wrought, doubtless, in him, as in the case of the Philippian jailor, the inquiry, " What must I do to be saved?" and then, when God says, " Build an ark," he vinquestioningly does it-he believes, fears, and obeys. Now it was quite different with Enoch; God tells him He will translate him. Enoch, believing, is moved by hope, and lived in all the details of life, with the fact before him, that God was going to translate him. You and I would put fear first; not so God, He speaks of hope first, not fear. It is ever His way.

We must not overlook here, in connection with salvation, the gracious thoughts of God for all those dear to our hearts naturally. God told Noah to build an ark for himself and his house, and his faith took them all in-" Noah did according to all the Lord commanded him." The world might laugh, and think him mad. Very likely they said, " Why, Noah, what are you doing? What a fool you are to be building that immense ship; it will never be wanted. Where will all the water come from to float it; and so far, too, above the level of the sea?" In spite of their unbelieving jeers, he quietly goes on with his work, for an hundred and twenty years by word and act preaching righteousness to them. Every nail Noah put into the ark condemned them; every act of his life, every utterance of his lips, told them he was looking out for judgment for the world and salvation for himself.

Beloved friends, is this what we are doing? It is no use reading the word of God, if we do not take it home to ourselves, it only puffs us up, as head knowledge ever does, in self-conceit. We must come right into the light of God's holiness, and there let His word be sharper than any two-edged sword. What have we been doing to-day? It is vain to be going to the world, and saying, I am saved. We must let them know it by our every word and action. And, we remark again, Noah was not told to build the ark only for himself, it was to be for his,house as well.

I do not believe much in the man who says, I am saved, and then sits down, with folded arms, and says, " If my children are to be saved, they will be." It must be a hard, horrible heart that can leave his children to be saved, or not saved, as a matter in which he has no care or responsibility. What should we think, if Noah had left his sons, while himself building the ark, to make themselves comfortable and prosperous in the world, as if what he was himself doing had no concern for them, and would not affect them? We should think he did not believe the world was going to be drowned. No; we can quite suppose Noah had his sons with him, doing what he was doing-building the ark. Is this what we are doing? Or are we, being saved ourselves, content to see our children, and those dear to us, going on unsaved? Beloved friends, I have my interests in this matter, and you have yours. This is why I speak of it.

In verses 8, 9, faith, as the energy by which the believer follows God in the path of blessing, is depicted.

It is the path of faith, and Abraham its bright exemplar. In Gen. 12 we get the historical fact of Abraham's call. The way Stephen presents it, in Acts 7, throws additional light on the subject. Abram, who comes after the flood when Satan had usurped God's place in the minds of His creatures, was a dark idolater, worshipping stocks and stones. Abel, Noah, and Enoch did know God, but here was a man who did not know a word about God, till He personally revealed Himself and told him to go to the land He would show him. He did not even tell him what land at first; God would have Abram follow without knowing where. This needed confidence in the One who was to lead. Just think, beloved friends, suppose an utter stranger were to ask you to follow him, without telling you where, would it not need great confidence in this person to enable you to do it? Abram's faith was weak and faltering at first, certainly-he stayed till Terah was dead, but, after all, he went simply out with God, he did not know where.

Very likely his neighbors thought him very foolish, and said to him, "Abram, where are you going?" Abram could only tell them he was following God; and then, when they told him they could not see God, Abram's answer must still have been-" I do not know where I am going, but I am following God;" and we may be quite sure the world did not understand him. If the world understands us, depend upon it, it is because we are so much like it. A reviewer of a periodical writes: " Christians! I do not see any difference in them from the rest of the world. They do just the same things, only, perhaps, they are a little more earnest in them."

Oh! beloved friends, we ought to bring faith into our daily life in all its details, and the world then would not have to say such sad things of us. I ask you, as I ask my own soul, Are you an Abel, bringing an acceptable sacrifice to God? Are you an Enoch, walking with God? Are you a Noah, condemning the world? Are you, like Abram, a testimony for God; or like the Thessalonians who (as he did) " turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven"? (Compare Josh. 24:2-14; 1 Thess. 1:9,10.)

I do not think we at all sufficiently bear in our hearts what it is to be a Christian. We like to know ourselves saved from hell, and to know of blessing in heaven at the last. But what about our heavenly calling? We have one, as much as Abram had, and God will have reality in us. If we say, " our citizenship is in heaven," He will not let us have one down here. He will have us pilgrims and strangers. We like to make our plans, and have everything very comfortable; God turns everything upside down. When we pray, " Conform us to thyself, 0 God," do we mean, " Strip us of everything, 0 God, that hinders this"? He will have us real in what we pray for. Abram went out, not knowing whither he went—he went with God alone. This is what we have to do, and we need simple faith for it.

In verse 9 Abraham's faith shines out very touchingly, and in a way that often rebukes ourselves, for we are very apt to leave our children out of the blessing. Heb. 11 gives us two very good examples of their being brought into the same place as their parents. Noah builds for himself and his house; Abram dwells in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs 'with him; and note, it speaks here, not only of the son, but of the grandson also. What we want is, to take God at His word. Then what should we not have? Blessings, dear friends, for ourselves and others without number.

It was the consciousness of God's presence and leading that enabled Abraham to go out to a land he knew not, and to take all his family with him. Are we more conscious of God's presence than of anything else? Are we more conscious of His being with us than of the ground on which we stand, or of the sun that throws his rays around us? Alas! we know it is often not so; at least, I can speak for myself. Let me ask you: Has there been one hour, half-an-hour-say five minutes-this day that you have been lost to all consciousness but that of the presence of God? Surely, what we all want, more and more, beloved, is to cultivate the sense of God's presence always, and in all things.

We shall find increasingly, as we go through this chapter, how faith takes everything from the hand of God, even the simplest and most natural things. Neither man nor Satan ever originated anything. It is well to bear this in mind in reading verse 10. But you may say, Did God originate such-and-such a thing, that is now so contrary to Him? Yes, He did. The thing becomes bad in its use; it is abused and made contrary to Him by man. Now God was the Originator of cities. It was a 'divine idea that planned cities, and not a human one, and so Abram could look for a city, but it was one " which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." When men began to build a city, they did it, so to speak, in defiance of God. It was against His express command to do the contrary. It was to make themselves a name, and not be scattered over the earth to replenish it, as God had told them they were to. God's time to build a city had not then come, and He confounded their Ianguacre, and they were not able to finish.

God had no city then, so Abram would have none, and he dwelt in tents; he would wait for God's city. It would have been very wrong for Abram to have taken part in the concerns of a city. This I feel to be very practical. Are we willing to be city] ess and citizenshipless; or do we want to have a name down here? The world always records in its chronicles men who have made themselves great in its eyes; but God has a chronicle too, and He records in it all we do, good or bad. He has given us, in the four Gospels, a sample of what His chronicles are composed of. We have there the record of the Lord Jesus, as far as God has been pleased to give it to us for our blessing and present joy. The rest we shall know by-and-by in heaven-nothing has been lost or overlooked; God knows, and has treasured up, all His beloved Son ever did or said; how full is that treasury we may imagine from John 21:25. And God, beloved

friends, keeps, too, a record of all our acts, and words, and thoughts, and according to what is found in His book will be our place of dignity in heaven.

Do not misunderstand me, it is not here a matter of salvation, but of reward. To illustrate what I mean: Mr. Gladstone is not prime minister because he is an Englishman, but because he has earned the place by service. All who are saved will be in heaven, but all will not have the same place there. I believe Abram will have a very distinguished one. The Lord Jesus, of course, will have the highest of all, and that, not only as Son of God, but because He ever took the lowest place here, and served God perfectly. It is not the greatest here that will be highest there; and some that have been poorest here, will be richest there. I do not mean we are, as it were, to buy a place in heaven by our works here, but it is certain " we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body;" and as " one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." Those who, for Christ's sake, have had least here, will have most there. The Spanish martyr, Matamoros, when cast into prison, and bereft of wife, child, everything, could take it all joyfully, and say, " They cannot take away Christ? I am happier than ever," and his reward will be great.

In verse 11 we have faith as the true spring of domestic life. Sarah is found in God's record, for what we should call the most natural thing, her faith takes only from God, and God lets it be seen that it is from Him, for He waits to act, till all hope from natural power is gone. He had promised them a seed-promised Abram that he should become a great nation-and as yet they had no son. How could it be? Faith takes the answer from God, and, in a sense, Sarah becomes the mother of Christ, for from Isaac springs Judah, and out of Judah arises Christ. And it is beautiful to notice how God, in His record, passes by the many blots and failures we know were to be found with Abram and Sarah; passes by even Sarah's laugh, and records only her faith.

Then (ver. 13) " these all died in faith." Natural death

even was the act of faith. It is not, in the faith, or according to faith, but in faith. Their faith laid hold of things distant and unseen, and in the certainty of possessing these things they died. Their death was not "the debt of nature" paid, but an energy of divine life that acted in death.

It is one thing to see afar off; it is another to be per'suaded about anything; and quite another to embrace it. A kiss speaks of peace, but embracing is much more; it is throwing one's arms round a person, even as the father did to the prodigal. It was Abram's embracing the promises that made him a pilgrim, and it is not till we can truly say, as that beautiful hymn has it, "'Tis the treasure I've found in His love

Which has made me a pilgrim below."

that we can be such. It is not that it is wrong to have a house, and dwell in a city; it may be all right for us in one way, but it is the hold these things have on our hearts that is the trouble. I do not mean we are to be " transcendental," or " unnatural," but are we confessing, in all our ways down here, that we are strangers? Are we declaring plainly that we seek a country? One can tell directly one enters a house, where the heart of the one to whom it belongs is. In fact, it is shown in the dress, in the bonnet or cloak, and in ten thousand little ways. Ofcourse, we must have earthly things, but are our hearts occupied with them? Yet very little things have power to upset us, and draw the soul out of communion with the Lord, for the placing of a spoon on the table, the way chairs are put, ever such little things, have power to make us angry, and speak hastily. When Lot wanted to go the way Abram might have preferred, Abram could give it up. He simply says, " Well! you go one way, and I will go the other, only do not let us have strife." The thing had no lold upon his heart, and he could say, he would rather anything than contention.

We ought to be declaring plainly, in every little detail Hof life, that we seek a country. Dear friends, are we 'doing so? Does the world see a difference in us to themselves in everything? It ought to be so. c.w.

The Just Shall Live by Faith: Part 3

EB 11BEFORE passing on let us look again at verse 13, because it has often struck me what a different thing death is to believers now to what it was to the Old Testament saints. " These all died in faith, not having received the promises." A blessed thing surely, but we have what is far better than promises and better than dying in the faith of those promises, blessed_ as that was; we have Christ Himself, and " all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen." (1 Cor. 1:20) Then, too, how differently death came to one of them to what it comes to one of us! It was the thing of all others they could but dread and avoid, if possible. And why? Because sin had not then been put away, and there was therefore a sting in death-" The sting of death is sin."

Now, how different! Death to a believer, if he be truly living by faith, is the blessedest thing that can possibly happen to him, save of course the coming of the Lord to make good all His word. Yet one often finds believers terribly upset at the thought of death. It is very sad that those who have, not only promises, but God's beloved Son, that they should be so upset and terrified at death. It proves two things: 1St, that the effects of redemption are not fully known; and 2nd, how little is known of Christ Himself and how little He only is loved. If I love my Savior much, I shall not care by what means I get to Him; and if I know fully what redemption is, and has done for me, I shall not fear death; for how can I? Sin is put away-the cross has put away, not only my sins, but sin.. There is then now no sting; and more, death is ours! (1 Cor. 3:22.) We once belonged to death, now death belongs to us; it is part of our possessions—a gift to us as much as eternal life.

Beloved friends, suppose God gave us power to use this possession of ours, and He does so far as our hearts are concerned, how would we use it? I believe most of us, if we were honest, would say, " I would not use it at all;" but this is very sad, for it shows how little Christ is the object of the heart, If I want very much to be with Him, I shall not care how I get to Him. Some say, " Oh, I would like to be with Jesus, but I should not like to die to get to Him." They do not like the way. God has given us death-it is ours as part of what belongs to us in Christ, not that we may use it as we will, but by it test our hearts, I believe, how far they are right as to Christ.

Suppose I had put a hundred pounds in the bank for my child, it would belong to her, but she might not have the power to use it as she liked, as she might do something foolish with it, and hurt or injure herself; but, as I want to know what she would do if she could use it, I say to her, " My child, that money is yours, what will you like to do with it?" I get a secret at once out of my child's heart. If she is occupied with herself, she will say, " I should like so-and-so "-something that will gratify herself; but if she is occupied with me, she will say, " I should like to get so-and-so, for you "-selecting according to her intelligence, that which would best please me. That is the child that satisfies a father's heart.

Well, if you had your choice to live, or die, which would it be? Paul could say, " Willing rather to be absent from the body;" but while longing to go, he says also, " To me to live is Christ "-in the kingdom by serving longer here, he would have a greater reward, and so to live was gain to him, still he adds, " to die is gain." If we are longing to be with Christ, we shall not think so much of what we shall get there. I know there will be a kingdom, and all sorts of blessed things, but it is Himself I long to be with. Do I want to rejoice the heart of God?-precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints-then I shall want to die; though, of course, DEATH is not what I look for-I look for the Lord Jesus!

Beloved, how has it been with us to-day? Have we

been looking out eagerly, watching earnestly for Him all day, so that we can, as it were, say, We wonder He has not come; we have been so looking for and expecting Him, that we are astonished He has not yet come? Have we been declaring plainly that we expect the Lord Jesus? Ah, you say, it makes one so unsettled to be always expecting. Not so. I believe no one will be so thorough in doing things in all the relationships of daily life as the one who looks out really for the Lord. If I believe He is coming, I shall want every single thing I do to meet His approbation. I shall want to have everything in order, and be then just waiting.

Verse 15 of our chapter brings before us the solemn thought that there is such a thing as " going back;" and I believe that for each fresh measure of light and blessing God gives, He gives also the opportunity to go back if we will. Do not misunderstand me, I do not mean He ever gives a believer the opportunity to be lost, but that, as He leads on the believer, He gives the opportunity for the heart to shew itself as to the world, that He has in grace brought us out of. He saves once, and forever, but then, as it were, He leaves us free to follow our inclinations. He does not bind us to follow Him. We can do so or not. It was so with blind Bartimeus; the Lord Jesus opens his eyes, and then says, " Go thy way;" but what do we find? " He followed Jesus in the way." He might have gone on with the multitude, but no! Jesus had given him his sight, and he would follow Him. So with the Old Testament saints, they did not go back, but went on seeking a country. And yet, as to heart and ways, Christians now, who have got Christ, often go back; actually back into the world, as belonging to it, they never can, any more than the Israelites could to Egypt, for the same thing which delivers from hell delivers also from the world-the cross, I mean. What is it that is directly behind me? The cross of Christ. Then I must, so to speak, tread over the cross to go back. It is a very solemn thought.

If the Old Testament saints held on so truly to the promises, how much more should we, who have a living Lord, who ever intercedes for us! They desired a better country, wherefore God was " not ashamed to be called their God." How blessed! Abram trusted God for 2, city, and God was not ashamed to be called his God, for He had prepared for him a city.

Were it not for His sovereign grace, I think God might very often be ashamed of His people now, ashamed to be called on by them, not but that He owns them as His children, He must do that for His Son's sake, but may He not often be much ashamed of our ways? You know what it is to be ashamed of some brother, or sister, who has behaved very badly, and how, if you are with one, for whose good opinion you care much, and meet that brother, or sister, you will pass them as though you had no connection with them, and if asked who it is, you will let out as little as possible what you know about them.

Was not God so ashamed of Lot, as not to go to him Himself? He sent His angels, and even they were ashamed, and would not go in at first, and when they did, it was only to get Lot out as fast as they could. " Come out, come out," they said, and then they left him as soon as possible. They were ashamed of him. How different the case of Abram! " Abram is my friend," said God, " and shall I hide from him the thing which I do?" How few of us there are whom God can thus own! We are so taken up with ourselves and our own affairs that we do not leave room, so to speak, for God to walk with us and make us His friends.

With such thoughts passing through our minds, how blessed to remember, that though God has often to be ashamed of His people, He 'never takes back what He has once given them. When He saves He saves to the uttermost. Look for a moment at Peter; he failed, and failed terribly. Does the Lord take the keys of the kingdom from him? No; He restores his soul and then gives him in addition, even what was more precious than His kingdom, the care of His lambs and His sheep.

In verses 17, 18, 19, faith, as the power of true devotedness to God, is strikingly exhibited, and thus these three verses are entirely different to any of those we have been looking at up till now. The others have been skewing what God gave to Abram; these three shew us Abram giving back to God a little of what God had in love given him. Abram had a son, and one, too, quite different to his other sons, this one had come to him not at all in the usual course of nature, but had been given simply and solely in answer to faith; and God told him that in, Isaac his seed should be called; so to speak, with Isaac everything rose and fell. God tells him He will give him a son, Abram believes it, and gets one, and that, too, when he was well stricken in years, and Sarah past age -he gets Isaac altogether outside nature; God. tells him also that, " in Isaac," He would make of him " a great nation;" and then we find Him tempting Abram-trying his faith and putting it to the test.

Let us here notice, it is not when God first calls Abram that He tries his faith. No; He first calls him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and leads him on step by step, until He has strengthened him; then He gives him a gift, and afterward comes and asks for it back again. God found Abram ready and willing to give up Isaac, notwithstanding that in him was centered and contained every blessing. How little we know of this! We give up, so to speak, our sins, glad enough to be rid of them, because we know they would damn us, but how little we know of giving up our blessings!

God had been filling Abram to the full-He could give him no more. Abram had been walking with God, in the familiar intercourse of a friend, and now God is willing, as it were, to take a little return of what He had given. He calls " Abraham," and he at once answers, " Behold here am I." There is no questioning as to whether God meant him, or called him, but he replies at once, as one who is in friendly intercourse with another would. How simply he speaks-" Here am I." We often hear people speak to one another in one tone, then turn and speak to God in quite another. Why is it? There is want of

simplicity. Ought we not all to be able to say, " There is no one to whom I can speak so freely as to God"? I find, for myself, there is no one so simple and real as God.

You see people go into places of worship, so called, with bowed heads and bated breath. What does it spew? They have not been consciously and habitually walking in God's presence in their daily life. God looks not at a bowed head; He looks at a bowed heart. We must be humble. He is " the High and Holy One," who dwells with " the humble," as we read in Isa. 57:15. We may be sure Abram was humble, and that his heart was contrite, still he was simple; and the more, beloved, we have to do with God, the simpler we shall be. Did God answer the Pharisee who stood making long prayers, amid all the outward symbols of religion in the temple? But just see how God really speaks to His creatures, all sinners as they are, if only simple and real. See the lowly Jesus of Nazareth talking with Peter the fisherman, or with James or John. See Him, too, at Bethany, sitting with all kinds of people at the feast; Martha serving; Mary sitting at His feet. Look again at Abram, he asks God to dine with him. Well, He does it. All this is God holding simple intercourse with His children. Jesus talking to Peter the fisherman is God in intercourse with working men, for Jesus was God.

If man had had Abram's story to tell, he would have put in a deal of needless details and coloring to exalt Abraham. How simple is God's narrative! It is just " Abraham," and Abram's answer, " Here am I." God goes on to say, " Take now thy son," (He did not regard. Ishmael as his son at all), " Take now thy son, thine only son"-how it must have proved Abram's heart! that "only son whom thou lovest "-and offer him up. Abraham, however, says not a word; he asks not how God is going to fulfill His promises; he does not even say, "Why?" but just simply and unquestionably gives him up. He does not do it in a hurry, he knows he must get to the place God had told him of, and so he goes a three days'

journey. He gets up early; then he saddles an ass; takes two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and a knife, and wood, and sets off quietly and calmly. Faith could do all this, but nature had no place there.

The three days' journey is more, I believe, than Abraham leading along Isaac his son in faith to the place of offering; I believe it is a type of God Himself leading His own well-beloved Son to give Him up " for us all." But here we see a difference, " He who spared not his own Son," spared Abraham's to him. What must God's heart have felt during those three years that He was leading His Son along on this earth to the cross!

On the third day Abram lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off, and he speaks to the young men, and bids them tarry there, while he goes yonder to worship; and Isaac and he go on alone. Here, I think, we get the secret of the whole thing. It is all worship; and the truest worship, let me say, is that which no eye sees, no ear hears but God's. There is nothing so abominable to God as worship done for man to hear and to see.

Abraham and Isaac going together to Mount Moriah seem to me rather like Gethsemane, and I have no doubt that Abram passed through, in measure, during those three days what Christ did in Gethsemane. He takes the wood and lays Isaac upon it; he takes the knife to slay his son-he does God's will, and then it is all over; God has got what He wanted out of Abram, and He gives him back his son. (Gen. 22:2.)

Beloved, how is it with ourselves? Are we treading in Abraham's footsteps? We have some precious possession that God has given us. He gave it to us in His love, and now He asks us for it back again. Do we willingly, joyfully give it up? It may be the dearest, sweetest, most loved object of our heart? If by grace we surrender it, what a testimony to the power of faith! It is what we shall not have in heaven; it is here on this earth only that we have faith, and God tests and tries it for His own glory and our blessing. He tries the faith of His people to prove whether they can trust Him, and when He sees they can He ever gives back much more than He has taken.

The treasury of God is being enriched by the faith of His people, and He passes His people through manifold trials, as Peter tells us, " That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

The Lord give us all to know more of the power of that faith which, with open heart, takes every blessing God can give us, and with open hand gives back to Him, in the spirit of worship, whatever He may ask from us.

c. W. (Continued front page 63.)

"CONSIDER HIM."

WHEN the storm is raging high,

When the tempest rends the sky,

When my eyes with tears are dim,