Young Christian: Volume 19, 1929

O, the perseverance of grace! “Until he find it.” Never till that moment does the good Shepherd relax His efforts. And how far had He to go after “that which is lost”? To where it was—stripped, and wounded, and half dead.

And was this all? Had He not to go into death itself to get the sheep out?

“The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” And has He not suffered this for you, my reader? “Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time”?

O, the persevering diligence of grace! “What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?” (ver. 8). Reader, has the stupendous fact ever possessed your mind, that there is a divine person in Christendom—the Holy Ghost—here for the very object of bringing the piercing rays of convicting light to bear upon the hearts and consciences of dead sinners?

The Son must seek the lost. All is founded on His work, therefore it is put in the first place. It maintained God’s righteousness, and permits Him to justify him that believeth in Jesus. The Son must seek the lost, the Spirit must quicken the dead, before the Father can receive the repentant sinner.

And when He hath found it, where does He, the good Shepherd, put the sheep? Back with the ninety and nine? Never. “When He cometh home,” not till then, does He put the sheep down.

But is there no “wilderness” for the believer?

Certainly, but he passes through it on the Shepherd’s shoulders—the place of strength and of security. There are many who think they would not like to make a profession, lest they should not be able to keep it. If believers, they forget that Christ will keep them.

There are those who fear lest they should not “hold on.” Do you think the good Shepherd will let go? He says, “None shall pluck them out of My hand.” Will He save sinners and lose saints? Never.

“He is able also to save them to the uttermost” —that is all the way through— “that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” —that is, by His living to intercede for us now:

“I have found a Friend; O, such a Friend!

So kind, and true, and tender;

So wise a counselor and guide,

So mighty a defender!

From Him who loves me now so well,

What power my soul shall sever?

Shall life or death, shall earth or hell?

No! I am His forever.”

Loss

I think many fail to see just what the apostle means, when he says in Philippians 3, that he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. “Counting” is faith; and faith is the God-opened eye, which simply realizes things as they are. It does not color them. A good eye imparts nothing to the object it takes in, but only realizes it as it is, adding nothing, subtracting nothing.

The Apostle was not magnanimously giving up what had real value in it. It was not even a generous self-abandonment, which does not count the cost of what it does. He had counted; and his quiet, calm, deliberate estimate is here recorded. Pursuing what he saw alone to have value, he says,

“Yea, doubtless, and I do count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ (or ‘have Christ for my gain’), and be found in Him.”

This is not “sacrifice,” as people speak; for to make that, there must be worth (at least, in our eyes) in the thing we sacrifice. The Apostle’s deliberate conviction was that in his pursuit—entire, absorbing pursuit as it was—of Christ there was none. And this is the estimate which eternity will confirm, as the Apostle’s abundant experience had already confirmed, for he was no mere theorist. To occupy himself with it would be loss indeed.

Ah, Yes; and How Well He Has Done It!

A Christian lady was once visiting a friend and not being quite certain as to what she was resting upon in view of death and eternity, said,

“Is it not nice to know that Jesus has done the work for us?” The answer was very precious,

“Ah, yes; and how well He has done it!” Blessed reply! Expressive as it was, of her simple and full trust in her Saviour.

This dear friend had learned four things which were as follows:

1st. That she in herself was a poor, vile sinner. On this point she believed the Word of God. It told her, “There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and she believed it. She had come to see as God saw. Through grace and the teaching of the Spirit of God, she had been brought to exclaim, “Behold, I am vile!” How necessary to take this place before God—one of true repentance. To pass sentence upon herself as undone, and as one of wisdom’s children, justify God. As the dying thief who said, “We indeed justly, but this Man hath done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:41).

2nd. She learned that she could not save or help to save herself. She was lost in herself, undone and guilty. She had no strength. As Jonah in the fish’s belly could not save himself from the monster of the deep, neither could she from the power of her own sin, nor from what those sins deserved. Jonah, from the depth of the sea, cried, “Salvation is of the Lord;” so with this dear soul, from the depths of her own ruin and misery she received the blessed fact from the word of God, that there was salvation for such as she.

This, truly, is the hardest thing for man to learn, that he is without strength to save himself. He will own he is a sinner, but it is the farthest from his thoughts to confess that in the matter of his own salvation, he has no strength. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).

3rd. But if she, in herself, had no strength, she had got firmly hold of another fact which had relieved her soul. She saw that another, even Jesus the Son of God, had been here, and had died for her and finished a work for the salvation of her soul; that He, before He expired, had said, “It is finished” (John 19:30); and that God, in consequence of the work, that perfect settlement of the question of sin, had raised Him from among the dead and given Him glory.

4th. She also saw from the word of God that by simply believing in Him—simply receiving Him as the Saviour of her soul—she was saved.

Yes, she to her joy had learned the blessed fact, that the gospel of God brings to the sinner nothing short of a full, present and eternal salvation. She had learned that Jesus by dying, had put into God’s hand the righteous title to justify the ungodly, and in righteousness save the guilty sinner who believes in Jesus. “He 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. 5:1). It was all Christ with her, and what He had done for her. Nothing in herself or of herself, but Christ and His precious finished work.

Reader, are you saved through resting in the finished work of Christ, or are you in your sins? If in your sins, and you die thus, you will be lost—lost in hell—forever! Flee from the wrath to come!

All Things Work … for Good

Have you ever watched a knitter? See the pins are having a pitched battle. First one gets all the wool and then the other takes it back again. The struggle seems interminable. No certain advantage is being gained by one side, or the other. What is going on? I do not know. But the knitter knows. There is a design behind all her doing. She has a purpose and a plan, and thus she puts on stitch after stitch, making every one work together for the fulfillment of the end in view.

And so it is in the ways of God with us. He is at work for our good and blessing. He orders for us in the details of our lives, and guides by ways we know not. The great events and the little are alike employed by Him on our behalf. All are controlled by His hand on behalf of His own.

When the sock or the mitten is complete, anyone can tell what the knitter’s object had been. However ignorant of the art of knitting the watcher may have been, the result is apparent now.

And by and by we shall know what we know not now. We only see through a glass darkly at present. Then we shall see clearly face to face.

The knitter may mar her handiwork. She may drop a stitch. She may have to pull out several rows and do that part of the work over again. But thus it never is with God. His work is perfect. He never drops a stitch. He never makes a mistake. He never has to do His work a second time. Well may we leave ourselves, our lives, our circumstances in His all-skillful hands, and know that His loving heart, will perfect what concerns us.

“All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28).

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11).

Scripture Study: Philippians 4

Verse 1. “Therefore, my beloved brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.”

Such loving words most surely breathe the atmosphere of heaven, the outcome of the life of Christ in the apostle. He is very solicitous that they stand fast in the Lord.

Verse 2. He beseeches Euodias, and Syntyche that they be of one mind in the Lord. They seemed to be nice, earnest sisters, and helpers in the gospel, but they did not pull together in everything, and this spoiled Paul’s enjoyment of their full fellowship. We see in 1:27 and 2:2-4 that it kept his joy in the Philippians from being full. How careful we should all be lest self pleasing should bring in jealousy or vainglory into our service, thus hindering the work of the Lord, both in ourselves and others.

Verse 3. “And I intreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with my fellow-laborers, whose names are in the book of life.” It probably was Epaphroditus writing at Paul’s dictation, who was asked to help those mentioned, that had labored with the apostle. The grace that he had seen in them, assured him that their names were in the Lamb’s book of life. The women are here encouraged in their fellowship and work in the gospel, without stepping out of the womanly position (1 Cor. 14:34, and 1 Tim. 2:11, 12).

We do not get women preachers and teachers and evangelists in Scripture, but apart from that place that men are called to fill, we can think of a multitude of ways in which sisters in the Lord can serve Him in the gospel. What helpers also in prayer they are when their hearts are in the work, and the word “help” means here—to assist them in what they are seeking to do for the Lord. We all need help in this way as in this verse.

Verse 4. “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, ‘Rejoice.’” We saw the Apostle weeping (3:18). Here we find his joy always in the Lord, and this is blessed that amid whatever sorrow the Lord may allow to overtake us, our joy is ever in the Lord; his years in prison still find him rejoicing in the Lord, even if chained to a soldier.

“Our Lord, our life, our rest, our shield,

Our rock, our food, our light;

Each thought of Thee doth constant yield

Unchanging fresh delight.”

Verse 5. “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” This is really gentle yieldingness of spirit. They were to trust Him, not acting in the spirit of the world, but to be lowly and meek. The Lord is our refuge, we can ever commit ourselves to Him in whatever tries us. A little while, and all our difficulties will be over, what men strive for now will be nothing then.

Verses 6, 7. “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Here we get God’s provision for our cares and anxieties. He loves His saints, and desires to hear from themselves. He wants us to know that He cares for us, so that we may unburden all to Him, whatever it is, great or small; if it is our interest, it is His also. It is not a mere formal statement that we are to make in our prayer; but in everything by prayer and supplication, more earnest prayer (compare Luke 22:44 with Heb. 5:7) which gives us to realize that we are heard, even though we may not get what we ask, and it brings in thanksgiving, and the peace of God into our souls. Peace which passes all understanding, shall then keep (or garrison) our hearts by Christ Jesus.

This is grace indeed, that even our cares and anxieties are a means of our souls being more and more led into communion with Him.

“Peace with God” we received by faith in Christ’s finished work about our sins.

“The peace of God” we have to keep our hearts and minds through faithful prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. What a comfort this is. May we learn to maintain this true living intercourse with God.

Verse 8. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

The Lord is now directing us how to use our minds. What we give our minds up to, forms our ways. We can direct our minds into good or evil. The things mentioned in that verse, point to everything that is praiseworthy. We must have some object to be occupied with. If we let our thoughts be governed by the flesh in us, we shall surely get out of communion with the Lord, and be in danger of falling into other evils.

Verse 9. “Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” This goes still further. The obedient heart that walks in this path, walks with God, and “the God of peace shall be with you.” Not only the peace of God shall keep your hearts, but also, “The God of peace shall be with you.”

Verse 10. He now refers to their gift of loving fellowship. He rejoiced that their care over him had again appeared, but they lacked opportunity. It was a comfort to him to see their love to him. It seems that he had been in need, but it had just led him to trust the Lord all the more. And he had learned in whatsoever state he was, therewith to be content. He had passed through times of need, and times of abundance. It taught him both to be full, and to be hungry; both to abound, and to suffer need. The result in his soul was that he could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”

He would have them know that the Lord did not fail him in his need. Still it was well that they did communicate with his affliction; they were the Lord’s instrument in ministering to him. They had been used of the Lord before, indeed they were the only assembly at the first that had done so, and in Thessalonica they had sent once and again to meet his necessity.

What pleased him was to see grace working in them. He desired fruit to their account before God, and he had all and abounded through what Epaphroditus had brought from them. It was an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

His heart found its rest in all circumstances in God, and he thus expresses it to the Philippians. “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” He does not say God may do so, but he has such confidence in God’s care over himself that he says, “my God.” The one who cared for him in all the varied circumstances He had passed him through, had never failed to meet him, and would do the same for them, “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

His path so full of trials, sorrows, and joys, had taught him to say, “my God.” He concluded with the benediction, “Now unto God our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

He is our God and Father, and he proves it to all who trust Him. Then he sends his salutations, and also those who were with him were included, and those of Caesar’s household join in it. This is his salutation; “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” In Philippians the new divine life of Christ in the power of the Spirit in the saints is seen in its four great characteristics: in its affection; in its lowly obedience; in its spiritual energy, and in its perfect dependence.

Chapter 1 presents Christ as our motive for living or dying (ver. 21).

Chapter 2 presents Christ as our great example of our lowly obedience (ver. 5).

Chapter 3 presents Christ as our goal in glory (ver. 14).

Chapter 4 presents Christ as our all-sufficient resource (vers, 13-19)

Correspondence: Election vs. Predestination; Eph. 2:21-22; Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 9:22

Question: What is the difference between Election and Predestination? C. W.

Answer: Election is choosing the persons (Eph. 1:4).

Predestination (Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:5, 11) is the position and relationship that we are to fill. We are marked out beforehand to be the companions of Christ (Rom. 8:29).

God might have saved us, and kept us at a distance from Himself, but He marked us out beforehand to be His children by Jesus Christ to Himself. It was His good pleasure to do so. It is what the chosen ones are predestinated to.

Question: Ephesians 2:21, 22?

Answer: Ephesians 2:21 compares the church to the temple: it is not yet finished. It is divine workmanship fitly framed together and it grows. It grows without sound of hammer or tool of iron. It is heavenly.

Ephesians 2:22 is compared to the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place on earth. He journeys with His people. In all their affliction He is afflicted. No builder is mentioned, and it is always God’s habitation through the Spirit. “He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” (John 14:17).

Question: How could Saul wash away his sins? (Acts 22:16). T. N. W.

Answer: Saul of Tarsus was a Jew so zealous for his religion, that he was persecuting the Christians even unto death.

In Acts 2:37 to 40, Peter preached to the opposing Jews to “repent and be baptized every one in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”... “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” We see in this how that baptism changes the person’s position. The name of the Lord is put upon him (Gal. 3:27).

It was Saul taking his place in this symbol of the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3) that brought him into new associations, and thus cleared away all that he had been going on with. He knew that Christ, whom the Jews put to death, was risen and glorified, and already had owned Him as His Lord, when he replied:

“Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”

It is important to understand that the use of baptism transfers its subject from being a Jew or a Gentile into the professing church on earth. It is believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth that brings peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9, 10).

The sins that baptism could wash away, are the person’s old associations as Jews or Gentiles.

The first Gentiles brought into the church of God on earth were Cornelius and his household. God gave them His Holy Spirit when they believed the gospel. And Peter, who had the keys (not of heaven) but of the Kingdom of God, was compelled to bring them in saying, “Who can forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we.” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus: that is by His authority. He could not leave them still on Gentile ground (See Acts 10). It is external only.

Question: What do we learn from “I am made all things to all men?” (1 Cor. 9:22). V. R.

Answer: In this chapter we see Paul the Apostle in ministry of the gospel. It was committed to him, and he was devoted to the Lord and to Him to please Him in His service. He made himself the servant of all, that he might gain the more.

When he spoke to Jews, he put himself into their place to make it plain to them that they were under the curse of law, and guilty of the death of Christ. He had been the same once but was now delivered.

To the Gentiles, he showed them their guilt as away from God, without hope. He suited himself to those he spoke to, and this our blessed Lord also did perfectly. His all-seeing eye knew what was in their hearts.

The woman at the well in John 4.

The Pharisee and the woman in Luke 7.

The woman and her accusers in John 8.

The Pharisees and lawyers in Luke 11,—all felt that God was speaking to them.

On the other hand, making ourselves all things to all men does not mean that we should go with them into the worldly parties, frivolities, and games. We need to walk in wisdom toward all, so to gain them for Christ.

Paul told his conversion in Acts 22 to the Jews to meet their condition, and then in Acts 26 to bring the gospel before the Gentile king and judge. He wanted that they also should share the blessing that he had received.

With hearts lifted up to the Lord for guidance, may we in our little measure walk in the same path.

His Great Love

Lord Jesus Christ, ‘tis love,

So rich and free,

That with adoring hearts

In Thee we see.

Love in Thy blessed life

We gladly trace;

In which Thou wert with joy

Showing God’s grace.

Love that in view of death,

So true, so deep,

Would Thy most precious life

Give for the sheep.

Love that endured the cross,

It’s shame and woe.

It’s blessed power doth make

Our hearts to glow.

Love that, in glory fair,

No change doth know,

That from the Father’s throne

Doth ceaseless flow;

And will forever flow

To all, to each

That in God’s day of grace

Thy love did reach.

Keep us, O living Lord,

In that great love,

Till Thy blest face we see

With joy above.

The Cords of Love

It is a wonderful thing when an anxious soul discovers that God loves it. The love of a most advanced Christian towards God is but a drop in the ocean compared to God’s love to man, and the more we learn of the evil of our own hearts and the weakness of our desires after Christ, the less shall we want to speak of our love to Him.

“We love Him, because He first loved us,” (1 John 4:19).

His love to us is everlasting, and it is this very love of His which seeks and saves the lost, and draws a poor wandering sinner’s heart to know and taste that love in a closer way. Would the prodigal son ever have returned to his father’s house if the father had not been longing after him and been on the watch for him? The Bible says,

“When he was yet a great way off his father saw him” (Luke 15:20).

An elderly lady, whom we will call Mrs. E—, who had spent most of her life in seeking after souls in need of God’s salvation, was attending a series of evangelistic meetings held in the hall of one of our towns. She always sat in a particular seat at one side of the hall, with a happy party of Christian relations and friends around her.

But one evening the thought came to her, that in the midst of her pleasure in sitting among her friends, she might be losing an opportunity of coming in contact with any who as yet could not say that Christ was their Saviour. With this object in view she moved across to a seat on the other side. Her friends remonstrated with her, telling her she would feel a draft, and would not hear so well, but she remained firm in the certainty that she must sit in that particular seat.

Soon two ladies, sisters, seated themselves beside her, and during the service she could see that one of them was deeply moved. At the closing prayer she could not restrain her tears, and laid her head upon the shoulder of her sister, so great was her agony.

When the meeting was ended Mrs. E—spoke to her, and found she was one who had lived only for the world in the fullest sense, who had utterly refused to receive Christ, or even to think of the future, and although brought up in a Christian way, had turned her back upon everything. And now she felt it was too late to wish for what she had always spurned, and thought that she had committed the “unpardonable sin,” for which there is no forgiveness.

Nothing seemed to reach her in her state of despair, and the child of God returned to her home sad at heart, and spent part of the night in crying to God to give her a message from Him, that would show this aching heart that God was still beseeching her to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 5:20). She felt so sure that the way He had acted in bringing her poor acquaintance to the service, and in thus distinctly throwing her across her path, must end in blessing, and she longed to give His message aright.

As she awoke in the morning she suddenly felt brought to her mind:

“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee,” (Jer. 31:3), and she resolved to go and take that verse to the anxious soul.

But ere she had finished breakfast, the sister of the one in whom she was interested, appeared, to tell her that her sister had been ill and in terrible anguish all night, and had made her promise to go the first thing in the morning to seek out the lady who had spoken to her. She had therefore left her asleep, and had come before breakfast. Mrs. E—wrote down the verse above mentioned on a piece of paper, and went at once to the address given.

On entering the room she went straight to the bedside and said, “God has given me a message for you, and this is it: ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.’”

“How wonderful,” was the reply; “for those very words sounded in my ears as I awoke a few minutes ago, and I was waiting for you to tell me if they were to be found in the Bible, and where.”

Yes, God’s “everlasting love” had drawn her into the haven of repose at last, and in the knowledge of that love she has lived ever since, doing her utmost to serve the Master she now loves to follow.

Have Faith in God

The following episode was told me by a patient a short time ago. May it serve to strengthen the faith of any who are in difficult, trying circumstances.

A lady occupied in Christian work accompanied an inmate of one of the homes where she labored to Station. Having bought her her ticket and seen her safely off to her destination, she took a bus to her own part of the city.

When the time came to pay the fare she discovered that her pocket had probably been picked, for her purse was gone. As she had no money she was obliged to leave the bus. Not being at all strong she could not walk the long distance, and she knew no one in the neighborhood. She had left the vehicle, and walked slowly up towards the park, praying to her God and Father, and telling Him of her difficulty which was a very real one indeed.

Arrived at the park, she sat down on one of the seats, wondering how God would come to her help. She knew He would not fail her, so she was kept in peace. In a seemingly idle way she wrote on the gravel with her umbrella the words “God is love,” and as she got to the last letter of the word “love,” she turned up a coin that was black with lying there in the gravel.

Thanking God for sending her just what she needed, and had asked for, she continued her journey. The next conductor remarked on the state of the coin, and she said that it was indeed a very discolored one, but that it had been sent her in answer to prayer by her God and Father. She was not ashamed to tell him before the other passengers how she had come by the money.

Reader, you may think this finding of a coin pure coincidence? But why? The same God who said: “I have commanded the ravens to feed thee,” can direct His child’s steps to the seat, and her hand to the lost piece of money. No. Rather underline in your heart the last word of the text that heads these few lines: “HAVE FAITH IN GOD”

Christ My Refuge

A little over twenty years laden with unforgiven sins, I tried hard to close eternity outside, keep it ever in the far distant future, living as one who had nothing to do with it.

For the last seven years of this period, I drank in deeper the pleasures of sin, seeking to satisfy the cravings of my immortal spirit—not without many a sting of conscience, as thoughts of death and judgment would, again and again, steal across my soul.

How often I tried to calm the troubled sea within, to hush the voice which sometimes loudly spake, by promising to God, if He would forgive me the black past, and spare me yet a few more years, I would turn over a new leaf, give up sinning, and try to love Him; but my refuge failed me. It was false; the more I sought to hide in this vessel (in which thousands are sailing), the more fully did I sink in sin, powerless to escape.

Without strength, “without Christ,” “without hope,” and “without God in the world,” described my true condition. What then? Was I sinking? Nay, truly I was sunk! ripe enough for hell, and just bad enough for Christ—the reverse of my dark thoughts about Him—for He came not “to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

And when I heard that God’s love was worldwide, encircling every sinner, and the measure of that love for such the gift of His only begotten Son—I saw that for Jesus, God’s salvation, I had nothing to pay, the gift was free—so I stopped reasoning, and took God at His Word, thanking Him for His unspeakable gift. My faith became stronger as I searched His Word—assurance becoming unclouded, because God had written it:

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13).

Dear reader, whither are you bound? Will you not stop to look eternity in the face? Are you counting the cost, as you sail under false colors, not knowing such a refuge will fail you?

In contrast with the false, God’s refuge “from wrath to come” stands open for you now; by faith enter in, as you hear the voice of the blessed Son of God through His precious Word—

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6).

The Advantages of Tract Distribution

1. It affords work for young converts.

“There is no simpler method with which young converts may begin to engage in Christian work.”

Before ever, the young Christian finds himself able for any other method of public testimony, he will, find here an outlet for his energies.

2. The aged and infirm may engage in it. It need never be departed from, no matter how old or infirm one may become...

“It is a work in which an old convert may end his service for his Lord.”

3. It may be used to open the way for personal dealing. Many Christians would like to do personal work if they knew how to begin. Here, then, is a method. After one has given a tract, it becomes comparatively easy to enter into conversation.

To summarize advantages of tract work we quote the following: “Tracts can go everywhere. Tracts know no fear. Tracts never tire. Tracts can be multiplied without end by the press. Tracts can travel at little expense. They run up and down like the angels of God, blessing all, giving to all, asking no gift in return. They can talk to one as well as to a multitude, and to a multitude as well as to one. They require no public room to tell their story in. They can tell it in the kitchen or the shop, the parlor or the closet, in the railway coach or in the omnibus, or the broad highway or in the footpath through the fields. They take no note of scoffs, or jeers, or taunts. No one can betray them into hasty or random expressions. Though they will not always answer questions, they will tell their stories twice or thrice or four times if you wish them. And they can be made to speak on every subject, and on every subject they may be made to speak wisely and well. They can, in short, be made the vehicles of truth, the teachers of all classes, the benefactors of all saints.”

“Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days” (Eccl. 11:1).

It Reached Him

Years ago an English soldier lay sleeping, just previous to his departure on that perilous Egyptian campaign. Mr. Blaun, a converted Jew, one of the Christian workers in the ‘Sailor’s Welcome Home,’ laid a tract on his pillow.

The next Sunday, the soldier entered the ‘Welcome Home,’ and little knowing that he was addressing the very man whom the Lord had used to awaken his slumbering soul, asked Mr. Blaun to remember him in prayer, as a tract left on his pillow had described his case as though it had been written for him, and since reading it he had no rest for his soul. He was soon led to the Saviour, and with a joy that is not of this earth he departed never to return to the homeland.

It was a very simple and easy thing to drop that tract on a soldier’s pillow, and yet it saved a soul for the eternal glory. Who that has the will to do it would not do as much? It seems such a little thing to drop a tract here and there, and yet what wonderful results may flow from it.

A tract thrown from a steamboat was picked up and read by a couple of men, who, through it were both converted, and who became the instruments of the conversion of many others.

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” (Eccl. 11:6).

The Reproach of Egypt Rolled Away

Joshua 5:9

“Now all these things happened unto them (Israel) for types: and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” (1 Cor. 10:11).

The book of Exodus begins with Israel in bondage under Pharaoh King of Egypt. God’s purpose is unfolded in chapter 6:6-8.

“I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you in unto the land.”

Their slavery pictures the slavery of men who are trying with great anxiety to deliver themselves from the power of sin (Rom. 7:7-25).

Being quickened, they desire the good, but the evil in them is stronger. They have not yet seen that the Lord Jesus on the cross finished the work, and satisfied God about the question of sin and sins.

The lamb in Exodus 12 typifies Christ the Lamb of God, who in the end of the age of law, was offered up as a sacrifice for sin. He offered Himself, through the eternal Spirit to God (Heb. 9:14). He was the Lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:9), foreordained before the foundation of the world.

How simple the type! The man took a little bunch of hyssop and sprinkled the blood on the side posts, and on the lintel of the door, and God said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” They fed on the lamb roast with fire inside the house. The blood marked them out as Jehovah’s people.

The little bunch of hyssop was the man saying, “I am nothing. It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.” (Lev. 17:11).

The houses of all who sprinkled the blood were protected from the judgment of the slaying of the first-born.

That was not all; they started their journey out of Egypt that night. There was no singing; they left in haste, and Jehovah came down in a pillar of cloud, between them and the Egyptians who followed them, so that they could not come near them; and the Israelites could not go back even if they wished to.

At Pi-hahiroth (the opening of liberty) there was another miracle. The Lord divided the Red Sea. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.” Thus the Lord saved Israel. They saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore, and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Then they sang,

“The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation.” Afterward they took upon themselves to keep His law. But it was mixed with mercy in the Tabernacle God ordered them to build, His habitation in their midst.

In Leviticus the Lord speaks out of the Tabernacle, and ordered everything suitable to His presence among them.

In Numbers we have their journeying and camping, and there we have their failures, and the Lord’s faithful provision despite all their murmurings. The glory cloud and the trumpets guided them (chaps. 9 and 10). The living priest maintained them by sacrifice (ch. 17). The red heifer burnt to ashes, which was kept to cleanse their defilements (ch. 19). The wicked prophet Balaam was compelled to tell

God’s purposes of blessing which could not be altered.

Deuteronomy rehearses the Lord’s dealings with them, and gives instructions to them for when they were to be in the Land. Moses could not bring them in, the law could not do it. But Joshua (the Saviour) is charged to bring them in, and that is what the book of Joshua gives us.

It begins with the Lord charging Joshua to bring them in to their inheritance. It is not a place for rest and peace, for the enemies of God possess it. These must be met and overcome in the strength of the Lord, and this lesson must be taught them before they are in a condition to fight His battles. The whole land is given them, but they must claim it (1:3). There is every encouragement to Joshua to obedience and victory in chapter 1. The two spies bring encouraging news to Joshua (2:24), and Rahab receives the promise of deliverance for all her relatives by faith.

In chapters 3 and 4 is another type of the death of Christ, and our death with Him. The Ark borne by the priests, goes down into the bed of the river. The water is cut off; on the one side it rose up on a heap, on the other, the bed of the river went dry, and the people passed over two thousand cubits away from the Ark.

Twelve men, one of each tribe, took a stone out of the bed of the river, and they put the twelve stones in Gilgal (4:20). Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan where the feet of the priests, which carried the Ark, stood; and when the priests brought the Ark unto the dry land, the waters flowed down as before. It was full up to the top of its banks at that time of year (3:15).

Here we see the death of Christ to sin, and so our death with Him. Our old man is gone under the waters of the Jordan, and the twelve stones at Gilgal are the memorial of Christ’s death.

Exodus 12. We are sheltered from judgment by the atoning blood (14, 15); we are saved and brought to God, and all our sins are forever gone. Here we are now seen as dead with Christ, buried with Christ, and risen with Christ (Col. 2:11, 12). We must believe it.

Then comes in circumcision, and that is applying death, the death of Christ, to ourselves. We have put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; we are now to mortify our members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:8).

In the Red Sea we had Christ’s death for us. That took us out of Egypt, and from under the power of the enemy. In the Jordan, we are dead, with Christ, so we are entering into the land, but before we begin the conflict with the enemy, we must realize that the flesh profiteth nothing. Naturally speaking, this circumcision unfitted them for fighting for a time. Nature’s strength is not to be used in fighting God’s battles.

Gilgal is the place of self-judgment; it rolls away the reproach of Egypt. They are now to go in the strength of the Lord. We go on with our wilderness journey, and for that we have armor (also 1 Thess. 5:8), with faith, love and hope, more or less active in us as we seek faithfulness; but this is a spiritual warfare for the enjoyment of the promises, and of heavenly privileges, as men already dead and risen, refusing Satan’s power, as those not of the world, though in it still.

We need to put on the armor of Ephesians 6:10-18 to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Circumcision is therefore the putting into the practical effect, which the stones put in the river, taught us—that we are dead with Christ; and those on the banks at Gilgal, that we have a new life as risen with Him. We are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” We are to camp there, and from there to fight God’s battles.

They fed on the Passover there also. The remembrance of the Lord in His death, is ever precious; and the manna, and the old corn of the land all have their place. The manna is our wilderness food still. Here it ceases the next day; for in our heavenly life, we feed upon the glorified Christ. As another writes,

“We feed on heavenly things, on Christ humbled and dying, indeed as a sweet remembrance, but as Christ living as the present power of life and grace. We feed on the remembrance of Christ on the cross; this is the passover. But we keep the feast with a Christ who is the center of heavenly things, and feed upon them all (Col. 3:1, 2). It is the old corn of the land into which we have entered, for He belongs to heaven.
In this heavenly warfare, we, as they, need to learn that our blessed Lord is our Captain and Guide. In the taking of Jericho, nothing was left to themselves; the orders were given for march and for action, and the Lord gave them the victory.

“The almighty power of God is with the church with its warfare. But His infinite holiness is there also, and He will not make good His power in their conflicts, if His holiness is compromised by the defilement, the negligence, the heedless levity, of His people; or by their failure in those feelings and affections, which become the presence of God, for it is God Himself who is there.”

Fragment: Today, not Tomorrow

“Let each day upon its wing,

Its allotted burden bring;

Load it not, beside, with sorrow

That belongeth to tomorrow.

Strength is promised, strength is given,

When the heart by God is riven;

But foredate the day of woe,

And alone thou bear’st the blow.”

Savior, Keep Me

Gracious Lord, my heart is fixed,

Sing I will, and sing of Thee,

Since the cup that justice mixed,

Thou hast drunk, and drunk for me.

Great Deliverer!

Thou hast set the prisoner free.

Many were the chains that bound me,

But Thou, Lord, hast loosed them all.

Arms of mercy now surround me

Favors these nor few, nor small:

Saviour, keep me!

Keep Thy servant, lest he fall.

Fair the scene that lies before me,

Life eternal Jesus gives.

While He waves His banner o’er me,

Peace and joy my soul receives:

Sure His promise!

I shall live because He lives.

When the world would bid me leave Thee,

Telling me of shame and loss,

Saviour, guard me, lest I grieve Thee,

Lest I cease to love Thy cross:

Thou my treasure.

All the rest I count but dross.

Scripture Study: 2 Thessalonians 2

2 Thessalonians 2

Verse 1. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.”

He had already unfolded to them how this would take place, and that it was the first scriptural event that was to happen, and they were to keep this before their hearts and minds. He is using it here as an argument that nothing of prophecy could be fulfilled till all the heavenly saints were raised and changed and caught up to that wonderful gathering to meet the Lord in the air.

Verse 2. If they kept this before them, they could not be soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as if it came from the Apostle himself, as if the day of the Lord was already come (see N. T.).

Some false teaching had gone in among them as if it came from the Apostle. We find some timorous souls now, not well established, and even teachers that once seemed to know better, that have lost their hold on the truth. Perhaps the better way would be to say, that this truth had not laid hold of them.

Verses 3, 4. “Let no man deceive you by any means.” The day of the Lord cannot come, till the apostasy have first come. (“Falling away” here means “Apostasy”). “And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.”

What poor, silly, rebellious creatures men are. Yet this was the very thing the devil said to the woman to get her to eat the forbidden fruit. “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

After the saints are caught up, we find two men—one at Rome, and one at Jerusalem, setting themselves up as God.

Satan has a trinity in imitation of God—the beast, the false prophet, and the dragon (Rev. 13:4, 11-17; Rev. 16:13).

We cannot go into this subject here, but we may say, this one we have in our chapter, the man of sin, the self-willed man, is the apostate king of the Jews whom the Roman Emperor puts on the throne in Palestine to carry out his own evil purposes. His end is the lake of fire (Isa. 30:33; Rev. 19:20; 20:10, along with the beast and the dragon, when God’s purposes with him are fulfilled).

Verses 5-8. It is evident that Paul had told them these things already, and he also had told them that which hindered the evil, even then, from coming to a head that he might be revealed in his time.

“For a mystery of iniquity (lawlessness) doth already work: only He who now letteth will let (read it, hindereth will hinder), until He be taken out of the way.”

The Holy Spirit is now dwelling in the church on earth, and by means of the powers that be (Rom. 13:1) which are in God’s hand, the mystery of lawlessness is kept in check. When the Lord takes His church home, the Holy Spirit will not dwell on earth, though He will ever work as in the Old Testament times, in both Jews and Gentiles that are yet to be saved, but having an earthly calling. Then that wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Verses 9-12. We see this wicked man’s coming is full of Satanic delusions, “with all power and signs and lying wonders” —imitation of Christ—(Acts 2:22), “and with all deceivable of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

The Lord Jesus came in His Father’s name, and they would not receive Him. “Another shall come in his own name, and him they will receive” (John 5:43).

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: and that all might be judged that believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

This man of sin is a religious fraud, an imitation of Christ. The graces of Christ, and even His works of power, are all imitated by this king of the Jews, and he fills the temple at Jerusalem with his lying wonders (verse 4). The God of Israel will take vengeance on him. All this will happen after we are caught up, and before the Lord comes with us to set up His Kingdom, and to judge the living nations. It is then that the day of the Lord will begin, when He comes with us.

This lawless man, the antichrist, the false prophet, the king of the Jews, promises the Jews their freedom to worship in the temple. Later he sets up his idol abomination, the image of the beast, compelling them to bow to it (Isa. 28:15, 18; Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15; Rev. 13:12, 13-17). He makes fire to come down from heaven. We also find that he denies Christianity—the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:22). How complete the deception is!

The unfolding of all this to the Thessalonians would quite free them from their fears, assuring them that these troubles could not come on them, but only on those who did not receive the gospel, and these neglectors and rejectors left behind when the saints are caught up, would be speedily carried away by the lies of the enemy. This judicial blindness has happened to men of the nations (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28); and to the Jews (Isa. 6:9, 10), and so it will come to the professing church left behind, and to the Jews who receive the mark of the beast.

The Apostle turns now with thanksgiving to God for them,

Verses 13, 14. “Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

How different that is from what troubled them. Their portion is glory with Christ above, chosen from the beginning to salvation, set apart through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, and called to be with Christ in His heavenly glory.

Verse 15. “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the instructions which ye have been taught, whether by word or by epistle.”

Verses 16, 17. “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.”

Correspondence: 1 Jo 1:10, 2:4,3:6, 5:18; Rom 10:14-15; 1 Co 9:27; Mat 25; 1 Pe 5

Question: Please explain 1 John 1:10; 2:4; 3:6; 5:18. J. H. K.

Answer: In 1 John 1:10 God says “All have sinned.” To say we have not sinned, proves that we make God a liar, and that His own Word is not in us.

1 John 2:4 tests a man’s character. If there is no obedience, as in verse 3, then he is a liar and the truth is not in him.

1 John 3:6 is again telling us the difference, the old nature does nothing but sin; the new divine life doth not practice sin.

1 John 5:18 tells us how the one begotten of God is not a slave of sin, though sin, the nature, be in him. He has a life that hates sin.

Question: Please explain Romans 10:14, 15. J. H. K.

Answer: Romans 10:14, 15 tells us that God not only provided a Savior for men, but He also sent His preachers to tell them the Glad News, which if a person believes, by it he is saved (verses 8, 9). “Shall be saved.”

Question: What does 1 Corinthians 9:27 mean? A. S.

Answer: We see in this chapter, Paul, Barnabas, Cephas and others mentioned as preachers of the gospel. We find in other portions, (as Acts 20:29; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4; Rev. 2:2, 20), and in the gospels, wicked servants. And in the days in which we live, many more who (unless brought to God in grace) will be castaways, lost forever, though they bear the name of Christian.

The Lord will say to them, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:22, 23). Such men could not keep their body under, for they are not born of God, and have not the Spirit of God dwelling in them. Paul refers to such, and as illustrating in himself the truth, says.

“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

In Romans 6:6, he taught believers that their old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin was thus destroyed, that henceforth they should not serve sin.

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Verse 11).

That is how the Christian can keep his body under. It is applying the death of Christ to ourselves; we cannot bear fruit unto God otherwise.

The unconverted priest or preacher is the castaway. The true Christian can never be a castaway. He is saved, and is in Christ Jesus where condemnation can never come.

God will not blot out any name He has written in His book, but He will blot out the names of those who have put themselves in as false professors. It is not any ones’ service that is cast away here, it is the person himself.

Question: What do the ten virgins represent in Matthew 25? N. S. C.

Answer: The Kingdom of heaven, now since Christ was rejected and crucified, is not the Kingdom in power with the King present reigning over it, but it is the Kingdom in its mysterious form, the King being absent, sitting not on His own throne, but on the Father’s throne. It answers therefore to the present time, and in it we see the profession of the name of Christ, both in reality, and in name only.

It is a mistake to think that in Matthew 13:44 the treasure is Israel, and the net (verses 47, 48) is the nations in the Millennium as some have taught, and that the virgins are Jewish. The Kingdom of heaven in all these parables represent the present period in different ways from Pentecost till the Lord comes. It is presented as committed to men, “Men slept,” and the enemy sowed the tares. So we see the terrible mixture that has come. Matthew 13:24-28 is its collective responsibility. And the virgins show us the division between the false and the true, between the wise and the foolish, the wise going in when the bridegroom came, and the foolish left out as not going in when the bridegroom came, and as not known to the bridegroom. The oil is in their vessels, not in their lamps, but in their vessels with their lamps would illustrate for us the Holy Spirit that dwells, in the ones who are brought to know that their sins are cleansed away by the blood of Christ.

What we know as the whole profession of the church on earth is seen here, as it will be separated when the Lord comes. The saved ones will be with the Lord; the others shall go away into judgment as in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 2:9-12.

Question: Who are the “brethren who are in the world” in 1 Peter 5, the saved or the unsaved?

Answer: Read 1 Peter 5:9 as follows, “Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are (accomplished) in the world.” The brethren are Christians; the world is the unsaved, but both suffer in the same way.

“DEBTS ALL PAID—I AM COMING”

Some time ago I heard of an incident which struck me as an apt illustration of two wonderful facts in which every human being in this world is deeply interested: the first, that the Son of God has been here, and has paid that great debt which no sinner could pay; the second, that He is coming back, how soon, we know not.

The incident was this—A young man was engaged to be married. Just before his marriage was to take place his father died, owing large sums of money, and such was the son’s sense of honor that he postponed his marriage, resolving first to remove this stain from his father’s memory. So he left his native land and went abroad, where he worked hard to accumulate sufficient money to discharge his father’s liabilities.

In the course of time to the great delight of his home circle, and of her who had patiently waited for him, one day a telegram was received containing the words with which this paper is headed:

“Debts all paid—I am coming.”

You can imagine the joy of those who loved him as they read this short message, telling them everything was completely settled, and that the one who had accomplished all this at such cost, was coming back, and would soon be in their midst.

But to the writer these words bore a deeper meaning, for they reminded him of the mighty debt which he had once owed—a debt which he could not pay—and unless one could have been found to stand in his place, the awful penalty due to his sins would fall on him, and he must bear eternal loss.

Thank God such a one has been found—none less than the spotless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, for speaking of Him we read, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” 1 Peter 2:24, and “For He (God) hath made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21).

This truth is further brought out in the parable of the two debtors:

“And when they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both.” (Luke 7:42).

Then, dear reader, take this place of being a bankrupt sinner, look to Him who died on the cross for sinners, and you will be eternally saved.

But, this is not all: the One who has done this wonderful work for God’s eternal glory and for your eternal blessing, has been away from this world, and seated at God’s right hand for more than eighteen hundred years; but He is coming back, we know not when, it may be tonight—for almost the last words of His which are recorded in the last book of the Bible are, “Surely I come quickly.”

It gives great joy to the Christian to know that soon, very soon, he may see that One whom not having seen he loves, and responding to his Lord’s words can add, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Pray Ye the Lord of the Harvest That He May Send Forth Laborers Into His Harvest

We must pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest. It is more devotedness that is lacking.

There are—I know it to be the case—brothers who would be more useful in the work, if only they were more devoted.

They are absorbed by something else, and this not only distracts them from the work, but when they do set themselves to it, there is not that maturity, that furnished condition of soul, that knowledge of hearts, and of the way in which the Word suits itself to their needs, which gives value to ministry. (See 1 Tim. 4:15).

It is not that one might not, if one were to keep quietly in one’s place, be busy about some occupation, manual, or otherwise; Paul was so indeed; but let the heart be in the work, not in a worldly object.

If I Loved Him More

“If I loved Him more I should paint Him better.” So said a great artist to a visitor in his studio.

She was looking upon one of his pictures in which he had sought to portray the face of our Savior. Earnestly he looked at his visitor’s face to see what effect the figure produced upon her. She admired it; and then it was that the artist expressed himself:

“If I loved him more I should paint Him better.”

Now, no human artist can rightly picture Christ’s fair face and form. “Thou art fairer than the children of men” (Psa. 45:2). “Yea! He is altogether lovely” (Sol. 5:16).

No, not upon canvas, by pencil and brush, can Christ be depicted. But upon the hearts and in the lives of His people, the Spirit of God is presenting something of the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus.

And may we not each say that “If I loved Him more, I should express Him better?” Would it not be so that if we were more constantly in His presence, more devoted in heart to Him, more faithful to His interests here, we should paint His features more truly in our lives?

The Sympathy and Grace of Jesus: Part 2

Matthew 14:1-21; Mark 6:30-44.

We may now contemplate another condition of heart, as furnished by the twelve apostles, on their return from a successful mission. “And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.” (Mark 6:30). Here, we have not a case of sorrow and bereavement, but one of rejoicing and encouragement. The twelve make their way to Jesus to tell Him of their success, just as the disciples of the Baptist made their way to Him in the moment of their loss. Jesus was equal to both. He could meet the heart that was crushed with sorrow, and He could meet the heart that was flushed with success. He knew how to control, to moderate, and to direct both the one and the other. BLESSINGS FOREVER BE UPON HIS HONORED NAME!

“And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” Here, then, we are conducted to a point at which the moral glories of Christ shine out with uncommon luster, and correct the selfishness of our poor narrow hearts. Here we are taught, with unmistakable clearness, that to make Jesus the depository of our thoughts and feelings will never produce in us a spirit of a haughty self-sufficiency and independence, or a feeling of contempt for others. Quite the reverse. The more we have to do with Jesus, the more will our hearts be opened to meet the varied forms of human need which may present themselves to our view from day to day. It is when we come to Jesus, and empty our whole hearts to Him, tell Him of our sorrows and our joys, and cast our whole burden at His feet, that we really learn how to feel for others.

There is great beauty and power in the words, “Come ye yourselves apart.” He does not say, “Go ye.” This would never do. There is no use in going apart into a desert place, if Jesus be not there to go to. To go into solitude without Jesus is but to make our cold, narrow hearts, colder and narrower still. I may retire from the scene around me in chagrin and disappointment only to wrap myself up in an impenetrable selfishness. I may fancy that my fellows have not made enough of me, and I may retire in order to make much of myself. I may make myself the center of my whole being, and thus become a cold-hearted, contracted, miserable creature. But when Jesus says, “Come,” the case is totally different. Our finest moral lessons are learned alone with Jesus. We cannot breathe the atmosphere of His presence without having our hearts expanded. If the apostles had gone into the desert without Jesus, they would, no doubt, have eaten the loaves and fishes themselves; but having gone with Jesus they learned differently. He knew how to meet the need of a hungry multitude, as well as that of a company of sorrowing or rejoicing disciples. The sympathy and grace of Jesus are perfect. He can meet all. If one is sorrowful, he can go to Jesus; if he is happy, he can go to Jesus; if he is hungry, he can go to Jesus. We can bring everything to Jesus, for in Him all fullness dwells, and, blessed be His name, He never sends anyone away empty.

Not so, alas! with His poor disciples. How forbidding is their selfishness when viewed in the light of His magnificent grace! “And Jesus, when He came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” He had gone to a desert place to give His disciples rest; but no sooner does human need present itself, than the deep flowing tide of compassion rolls forth from His tender heart.

“And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came unto Him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: send them away.” What words to drop from the lips of men who had just returned from preaching the gospel! “Send them away.”

Ah! It is one thing to preach grace, and another thing to act it. No doubt, it is well to preach; but it is also well to act. Indeed, the preaching will be little worth if not combined with acting. It is well to instruct the ignorant; but it is also well to feed the hungry. The latter may involve more self-denial than the former. It may cost us nothing to preach; but it may cost us something to feed; and we do not like to have our private store intruded upon. The heart is ready to put forth its ten thousand objections;

“What shall I do for myself? What will become of my family? We must act judiciously. We cannot do impossibilities.” These, and suchlike arguments the selfish heart can urge, when a needy object presents itself.

“Send them away.” What made the disciples say this? What was the real source of this selfish request? Simply unbelief. Had they only remembered that they had in their midst the one who of old had fed “six hundred thousand footmen,” for forty years in the wilderness, they would have known that He would not send a hungry multitude away. Surely the same hand that had nourished such a host for so long a time, could easily furnish a single meal for five thousand. Thus faith would reason; but alas! unbelief darkens the understanding and contracts the heart. There is nothing so absurd as unbelief, and nothing which so shuts up the bowels of compassion.

Faith and charity always go together, and in proportion to the growth of the one, is the growth of the other. Faith opens the floodgates of the heart and lets the tide of charity flow forth. Thus the Apostle could say to the Thessalonians, “Your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.” This is the divine rule. A heart that is full of faith can afford to be charitable; an unbelieving heart can afford nothing.

Faith places the heart in immediate contact with God’s exhaustless treasury, and fills it with the most benevolent affections. Unbelief throws the heart in upon itself, and fills it with all manner of selfish fears. Faith conducts us into the soul-expanding atmosphere of heaven. Unbelief leaves us enwrapped in the withering atmosphere of this heartless world. Faith enables us to hearken to Christ’s gracious accents, “Give ye them to eat.” Unbelief makes us utter our own heartless words, “Send the multitude away.” In a word, there is nothing enlarges the heart like simple faith; and nothing so contracting as unbelief.

O! That our faith may grow exceedingly, so that our charity may abound more and more! May we reap much permanent profit from the contemplation of the sympathy and grace of Jesus!

What a striking contrast between “Send the multitude away,” and, “Give ye them to eat.” Thus it is ever. God’s ways are not as our ways; and it is by looking at His ways, that we learn to judge our ways—by looking at Him—that we learn to judge ourselves. Jesus, in this lovely scene, corrects the selfishness of the disciples, first, by making them the channels through which His grace may flow to the multitude, and secondly, by making them gather up “twelve baskets full of the fragments” for themselves.

Nor is this all. Not merely is selfishness, rebuked, but the heart is most blessedly instructed. Nature might say, “What need is there of the five loaves and two fishes at all? Surely, the one who can feed such a multitude with, can as easily feed them without, such an instrumentality.” Nature might argue thus; but Jesus teaches us that we are not to despise God’s creatures. We are to use what we have with God’s blessing. This is a fine moral lesson for the heart.

“What hast thou in the house?” is the question. It is just that and nothing else that God will use. It is easy to be liberal with what we have not; but the thing is to bring out what we have, and, with God’s blessing, apply it to the present need.

So also in the gathering up of the fragments. The foolish heart might say, “What need of gathering up those scattered crumbs? Surely the one who has wrought such a miracle, can have no need of fragments.” Yes; but we are not to waste God’s creatures. If in the using of the loaves and fishes we are taught not to despise any creature of God, in the gathering up of the fragments, we are taught not to waste it. Let human need be liberally met, but let not a single crumb be wasted. How divinely perfect! How unlike us! Sometimes we are penurious; at other times prodigal. Jesus was never either one or the other.

“Give ye them to eat.” But, “Let nothing be lost.” Perfect grace! Perfect wisdom! May we adore it, and learn from it! May we rejoice in the assurance that the blessed one who manifested all this wisdom and grace is our life. Christ is our life, and it is the manifestation of this life that constitutes practical Christianity. It is not living by rules and regulations, but simply having Christ dwelling in the heart by faith—Christ the source of perfect sympathy and perfect grace.

Do You Believe That?

While traveling in a train I was led to offer my fellow travelers some tracts. Three refused them, while four accepted them. After a little, one of them said, pointing to a paragraph in the tract I had given him,

“Do you believe that?”

“Yes, thank God,” I replied. The paragraph was as follows,

“Now if I fail, if I sin, my standing before God is not altered in the slightest. It is in Christ, and hence it never changes.”

Of course this was written about a child of God, a believer; and the tract went on to show, that if a believer sins, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1), and through His advocacy the erring child is brought to confess and judge his sin, and communion is restored.

If this were not so, every time the believer sins, he would need to be washed over again in the blood, and that would necessitate Christ dying again, as “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22).

The truth is, the Lord Jesus bore all the believer’s sins when He was on the cross, and that one blood-shedding has put them away forever from before God as Judge, and He has now become the believer’s Justifier, the one who will not impute sin to him who believeth. (Compare Rom. 3:24-26; 4:5-8, and 8:33).

But God is Father, as well as Justifier. And as Father, He notices and corrects all wrong that His children do. Hence, even an evil thought will interrupt communion with the Father; but nothing, blessed be God, can ever alter our standing before the Justifier. He has justified the believer, and that forever.

Now, notice 1 John 2:1, “These things write I unto you, that YE SIN NOT.” Grace does not set us free from God’s judgment to live in sin, as unconverted people think, but grace sets us free from sin, to live to God. “Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom. 6:22).

After a little I pointed to “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Dear Reader, do you know the blessedness of the man whose sins are not only forgiven, but to whom God will not impute sin? (Rom. 4:6-8).

True Riches

“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Having Jesus, all is mine—

Gift unspeakable, divine!

Rich am I beyond all care,

Richer than a millionaire.

Poor is he whose wealth’s his all—

Poor when ‘neath the funeral pall:

Not a great can he take o’er—

O, how stript when here no more!

Dark and dismal must it be

Thus to face eternity:

Naught to calm the dread-struck heart,

Naught to “cool” a little part.

Take “true riches” while you may,

Come to Jesus, don’t delay;

He is rich beyond degree,

Take salvation, full and free.

Then confess that holy one;

Ever tell what He has done;

Live to “Him who died and rose,”

Till thy pilgrim days shall close.

Soon the blissful day will come—

He will call His ransomed home:

Thou wilt be, when welcomed there,

Richer than a billionaire.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” (Rev. 21:7).

Scripture Study: Colossians 1

We will see the object for which this epistle was written as we look into it.

Verses 1, 2. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace unto you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is important to notice that all God’s redeemed ones are called saints, or holy and faithful brethren, because they are truly believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace they can enjoy from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, for they are children of God. Our behavior in our lives, flows from our conscious knowledge that we are His.

Verses 3-6. The Apostle gives thanks for them. He heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and of their love to all the saints, and of the hope laid up for them in heaven, which they had heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel. This characterizes believers; faith, love, and hope are qualities of the life they have in Christ (see 1 Thess. 1:3), and bring forth fruit in those who have received and known the grace of God in truth.

Verses 7, 8. Epaphras, a dear fellow-servant, and a faithful minister, or servant of Christ for them, had been used for their blessing, and he told the Apostle of their love in the Spirit, and how they prayed together (chapter 4:12) about their state, which led the Apostle under God to write this letter, which the Lord foresaw would be needed down through all the ages, till Christ comes to take home all His people.

Verses 9-14. He desired for them that they might be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so as to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing by the true knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to His power in glory; unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

In this epistle we see the Lord risen and glorified, sitting at the right hand of God. So that the life we have in Him is resurrection life, and we are one with Him. We are to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, and we can only do this by being strengthened with all might according to His power in glory. We draw our strength from Him. He is the fountain of a life on high which flows in us now on earth; we are to keep our eyes on Him. We find too that we are in the path that He walked in, a path of trial and difficulty where we need to exercise patience and longsuffering, yet with joyfulness.

When the Lord Jesus walked through this world as a dependent man, He was sustained by communion with the Father (John 6:57); so with us now, we need to be sustained by Him strengthened with all might according to His power in glory, for the path of trial and faithfulness for God on earth. It is strength to endure suffering. It is the character of the life of Christ in this world. We lay aside our own will in the world, to bear with others, and yet enjoy happy fellowship with God.

We give thanks to the Father who has already made us fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light. Our relationship is established with the Father. We are not yet with Him there, but in spirit taste the bliss that belongs to it.

“In spirit there already;

Soon we ourselves shall be

In soul and body perfect,

All glorified with Thee.”

Thus we see, the state of the soul; the character of the walk; and the strength to carry it out, and fitness for our place with the saints in light. We are delivered from the power of darkness, and are translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. In no other place is it thus written. (The Kingdom of the Son of Man is His manifestation when He comes in glory and in government).

It is what expresses to us our position in grace now, as loved with the love wherewith the Father loves the Son. And wondrous grace it is that has given us a place in the kingdom of the Son of His love now. How perfect and precious is this favor of God! It is what is needed to keep our souls now away from the bondage of fleshly religion, and reasonings of the mind of the flesh. There is to be occupation with Him in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. It is the knowledge of Him that keeps our hearts.

Verses 15-17. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Adam was the figure of this, and was set in dominion as the center, but the Lord is the Firstborn. This does not mean the first one that was born, it means the highest, it means that the Lord, when He took part in what He created, must necessarily be the Highest of it all. He was God, and became man, and was, and is the image of the invisible God, and set over all creation—the Highest. He is the Head. He created it. It is the Son who creates.

“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”

He declared all that God is (John 1:18; 1 John 1:2). This is His personal glory, all else radiates, from it. Being God Himself, He fills all things perfectly and declares all that God is. The Son, the Word, is the creator God, and by Him all things consist, upholding all things by the Word of His power, the effulgence of His glory, and the expression of His substance (Heb. 1:3 N. T.). Yet He took manhood, perfect sinless manhood, and in it tasted death by the grace of God. Death had no claim upon Him, yet that was before Him in coming into this world.

It was part of God’s counsels seen in type in Genesis 1 that He should have dominion, His bride with Him, and for this He had to make atonement, passed through death, into glory, as a victorious man over sin and death and Satan’s power. He is the Redeemer as well as the Creator, and now in resurrection we have more of His glory unfolded.

Verses 18-20. “And He is the Head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.” He, the risen glorified Man, is Head of His body the assembly, the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14). Atonement is completed, God is glorified, every claim of the throne is settled. He is the victorious Man now crowned with glory and honor. And He will have His companions with Him in that same glory, before He claims the kingdom as His own. The work is complete, He is seated on the Father’s throne, the highest place is His. He is waiting now in patience, and we are waiting with Him (2 Thess. 3:5 N.T.).

His headship over creation was His divine right.

His headship of the assembly was gained by His work and victory over the enemy’s power as a man.

His place now in glory proclaims God glorified, and the enemy vanquished, and we are now, as believers, one with Him as the glorified Man our Head in Heaven.

The Man Christ Jesus, God manifest in flesh, is our Saviour, Lord and Head. We know the Father revealed in Him, and the Holy Spirit in all His fullness was and is in Him. As the one who finished the work of atonement, He also received the Holy Spirit for us (Acts 2:33). God Himself in all His fullness was revealed in the person of Christ. All the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him (Verse 19 and chapter 2:9).

He has fully declared that God is light and love, and this has given us title to be with Him; for creation, and those who were to compose the assembly were alike far from God. We were alienated in our minds by wicked works. Our wills were antagonistic to God, and we thus needed reconciliation. This was done by the Lord’s death, He made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven. And these things will be yet reconciled perfectly in the new heavens and the new earth. The groundwork is laid in His finished work (John 1:29).

Verses 21, 22. But Christians, “You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet how hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight:”

We are to see how His blessed work has glorified God, and given us the consciousness that nothing now stands against us in the sight of God, and God has there shown His love, and thus our hearts are captured in chains of love by the death of God’s Son. What wondrous ways of love! What grace to make us holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.

Verse 23 alludes to the tendency seen in some to get occupied with keeping days and ordinances, or of allowing vain superstitions or philosophies to get into their minds. He therefore dwells much on our union with Christ, the living Head in glory. The grace proclaimed in the gospel has now gone beyond the Jews, to every creature, taking in mankind wherever found.

Verse 24. The Apostle was its minister, he was also minister of the assembly according to God’s dispensation. And for this he had to suffer in the path of rejection with Christ, and in His body go through what was necessary of the afflictions of Christ in His flesh, to make the truth plain to them. Paul in this way suffered with the gospel (2 Tim. 1:8). Christ alone suffered in atonement. Paul suffered in his path as a servant in his ministry, and will share the glory with Him, and those he preached to (2 Tim. 2:10).

Verses 25-29 are to tell us that the subjects of Scripture were completed by his ministry. The truth of the church or assembly of God is the last; others wrote after him, but no new subject was told out. This that was committed to him, was the mystery that the assembly and Christ are one. This was never known before it was given to Paul: it was hid in God from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to the believers of the present time, to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you the hope of glory. Wondrous truth! Christ dwelling in the hearts of men who once had no hope, and were without God in the world, and are now made one with Him on high. And Paul preached Christ, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom: that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. All his labor in subjection to the Lord, and by the power of the Lord working in him mightily, was to this end.

God Cares! Do We?

Forget not that your first and principal business as a disciple of Christ is to give the gospel to those who have it not.

He who is not a missionary Christian, will be a missing Christian, when the great day comes of bestowing the rewards of service. Therefore ask yourselves daily what the Lord would have you do in connection with the work of carrying the news of salvation to the perishing millions.

Search carefully whether He would have you go yourself to the heathen, if you have the youth and fitness required for the work. Or, if you cannot go in person, inquire diligently, How much you owe to the heathen, because of what you owe to Christ for redeeming you with His precious blood.

I warn you that it will go hard with you when your Lord comes to reckon with you, if He finds your wealth hoarded up in needless accumulations, instead of being sacredly devoted to giving the gospel to the lost.

The Lord Is at Hand

The Lord Himself shall come again,

His promise stands forever sure;

For us He has prepared the place,

The Father’s house, our home secure.

For where He is, His own must be,

To share with Him His joys on high;

For them He will Himself return:

Rejoice! Rejoice! for He is nigh.

The Lord Himself shall come again,

Into the air He will descend;

His welcome voice we soon shall hear,

Our pilgrim pathway soon shall end.

The dead in Christ in glory rise,

The living saints are made most fair;

Together all caught up to meet

Their Lord and Saviour in the air.

The Lord Himself shall come again,

With all His saints to take His throne;

He’ll reign supreme o’er all the earth,

He’ll hush the wide creation’s groan.

The wilderness shall then be glad,

The desert blossom by His Word;

And none shall hurt and none destroy,

For all shall know the glorious Lord.

The Lord Himself shall come again,

Though scoffers may deride His words;

They stand unchanged and cannot fail,

He’s King of kings and Lord of lords.

He will not tarry, but appear,

And all His foes shall vanquished be;

We see the day approaching fast:

Lord Jesus, come! We long for Thee!

Work On

“I am thankful for success, but I feel in my heart a deeper gratitude to God for permission to work for Him. It seems to me to be one of the highest gifts of His grace, to be permitted to take any share in... the salvation of the sons of men.” So wrote an earnest servant of God and his words may well cheer every worker.

It is told of another preacher who had become downhearted about his work, and was tempted to give up his labors, that he was encouraged through a remarkable dream.

He thought that he stood on the top of a rock, and that his duty was to break it into pieces. He labored at it for hours, and yet the heavy strokes of his pickaxe had produced hardly any impression. Becoming discouraged he said,

“It is useless, I will pick no more.”

Then someone inquired of him,

“Are you to do no more work?”

“No!”

“But were you not set to do this task?”

“Yes!”

“Why then abandon it?”

“My work is in vain: I make no impression on the rock.”

“What is that to you? Your duty is to pick, whether the rock yields or not. Your work is in your own hands—the result is not; work on.”

He recommenced, and the first blow seemed to be with greater force than his own, and the rock was broken into many pieces.

It was but a dream. But through its lesson he was encouraged to continue, and in due season the reaping time came.

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” (Isa. 35:3). Are you doing this?

“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9).

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 1

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” (Rev. 22:21).

I have a few thoughts before me as to the name we have just read: Lord-Jesus-Christ.

What is the value of this name? Why the three terms found in it? We do not always greet one another in such fashion. We call each other by one name. Here are three, and we are aware of the fact that frequently, in the epistles, we find these three joined together: “Lord Jesus Christ.”

I suppose the thought is common to us all that in the things of God, there is always a deeper value than at first appears on the surface. That is the character of all that is divine, isn’t it? Whatever is of God will bear close inspection, no matter how simple it may be; no matter if it is only a blade of grass. If we magnify it fifty diameters, there is a perfection and skill we do not at first find to be there. Extend the process; use a microscope with a capacity of five hundred diameters, what then? New wonders appear. This is the character of all that is divine. It is not characteristic of what is human. Most skillful things have been done by the ingenuity of men. I have read about the Lord’s prayer being inscribed upon a pin head. If that has been done, it is a marvelous thing. Take a microscope and investigate it; magnify it fifty times. “O,” you say, “that isn’t anything like I thought it was. Look here! I can see a lot of blemishes in it now!” If you extend the process five hundred diameters, you find you are looking at a thing quite crude. What man does, will not bear close investigation.

With that thought before us, I would like to inquire into these three names, beginning with the name “Jesus.”

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21).

Here is His first name—what we sometimes call His personal name. What does it mean? The context suggests its meaning: it is Saviour—but not that alone, for I believe in Greek another word could be so rendered. It is “Jehovah our Saviour.” That is, there is a breathing in this name of that which is divine. Jesus! Blessed name! Holy name!—name dear, I trust, to all our hearts here this afternoon.

Some thoughts as to this name: It is employed I believe six hundred and eighty-three times in the New Testament, and though so frequently employed, is never used with an adjective. Jesus sets before us one who is perfect; one who stands alone, and the name the Spirit of God deigns to bring before us, stands unadorned in all the matchlessness of its divine simplicity—Jesus. This is exceedingly blessed. Our hearts subscribe to it, I doubt not. There is none like Jesus. How shall we add to the beauty of that name? Such expressions as “Dear Jesus” and “Sweet Jesus” we do not care for. They do not sound seemly to the spiritual ear.

They are based upon a low conception of who that blessed one is. They are what Scripture calls “honey.” The Spirit of God presents His name in all the simplicity of our language unadorned. No adornment is needed to set forth the excellences of the person of Jesus.

What line of things does “Jesus” set before us? It is the name connected with earth; the name which sets before us the Son of God in His humiliation and rejection down here. That name sets before us the Man who trod earth’s highways and byways; the Man despised and rejected; whose path led Him but to one end—the cross. In fact, that very name was inscribed upon the cross,

“And set up over His head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS.” (Matt. 27:37).

There we have it. This gives character to the name. Jesus is the name of His lowliness, of His rejection and of His shame. When we get that word in Scripture, it is that line of things directly or indirectly, the Spirit of God would present to our hearts.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus (not Christ) the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:1, 2).

There we have that line of things before us, do we not? It is the Lord down here in a pathway of shame, lowliness and humiliation.

Some other thoughts as to this: Scripture never speaks of us as being “in Jesus.” That isn’t Scriptural. Our position is not connected with the Lord Jesus in His pathway of shame and humiliation. Our position is of another character as we may presently see. We are not declared in Scripture to be in Jesus. I know of course, there is one scripture where that expression is used in the King James’ version:

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” (1 Thess. 4:14).

The correct rendering is, “those who have fallen asleep through Jesus” or “by means of Jesus.” It isn’t those who sleep “in Him.” “Yours in Jesus” is not Scriptural. If we say, “Yours in Christ,” that is another thing. Jesus is the name attached to a path of shame, humiliation and death, and trodden by the Lord alone. We were not associated with Him in that.

“And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth.” (Phil. 2:8, 9, 10).

What a blessed recompense for the one who trod that lowly path. At the name expressive of that lowliness and shame, it is decreed that every knee shall bow. What infinite mercy that our knees have already bowed to it!

(To be continued)

Extract: God's Care and Provision

What a comfort it is to know God thinks of us and arranges all for us, though we fail to think of Him! There is not a day, not a moment, but God is thinking of us; and He is above all the plottings of Satan. He will take care of His people

Do they want food? He sends them manna.

Guidance? There is the pillar going before them.

Do they come to Jordan? There is the ark there.

Have they enemies in the land? There is Joshua to overcome for them.

He deals with them in the way of discipline when they need it, as He did with Jacob. He humbled him, but gave him the blessing in the end.

To Him That Hath Shall More Be Given

If Christ has taken a strong hold, the path is simple, and the young may be saved many a pang. If Christ’s, they will surely learn the world is nothing, and its friendship enmity with God; but it is better and happier to learn it in the blessed company of Christ, than in regrets on a dying bed, or a heart repentant at loss and unfaithfulness.

I do not expect young Christians to have learned everything, but the Lord expects them to be faithful to the light they have received.

“And now, children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1 John 2:28).

Correspondence: Needy, Anxious Sinner; 2 Pet. 1:10; Gathered; Col. 3:8-12

Question: Have you a message for a needy, anxious sinner? A. S.

Answer: Yes, dear fellow sinner. Think how the blessed Savior has proved His love to sinners, His love to you.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15). He says,

“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:9; 18:11).

“Christ died for our sins.” (1 Cor. 15:3). And He said, as He died, “It is finished.” (John 19:30).

Atonement has been made. He passed through death and the grave and is now alive forevermore. God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 4:24, 25), and crowned Him with glory and honor. Now He sits on high a Prince and a Saviour, “to give repentance and forgiveness of sins,” Acts 5:31. Now the Holy Spirit, sent down, brings the gospel to us, beseeching us to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20, 21).

You do not even need to pray to God for salvation. He is offering it to you as a gift. Just take it and thank Him for it.

“The Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23).

Thank the Lord that He died for you. Come to Him, just as you are in all your sins, your doubts, your unbelief; do not try to make yourself better. He has promised to receive you, you have nothing to fear. You are welcome. Say:

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come.”

“Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28).

“Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

To every sinner that comes to Him, He says, “Thy sins are forgiven.” “Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.” (Luke 7:48, 50).

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:9, 10).

Dark though thy guilt appear,

And deep its crimson dye,

There’s boundless mercy here—

Do not from mercy fly:

O, do not doubt His Word,

There’s pardon full and free,

For Justice smote the Lord,

And sheaths her sword for thee—

Come, come, come.

Look not within for peace,

Within there’s naught to cheer,

Look up and find release,

From sin, and self, and fear.

If gloom thy soul enshroud,

If tears faith’s eye bedim,

If doubts around thee crowd,

Come tell them all to Him—

Come, Come, COME.

Question: How can we make our calling and election sure? (2 Peter 1:10). I. F.

Answer: That verse says “Give diligence” (verse 3, 4). God has provided for us in His Word all that is needed for life and godliness, but it needs diligence in prayer and reading the Word to become partakers of the divine nature. You may be born again (see 1 Peter 1:23), but unless you have spiritual food, spiritual exercise, and live in a spiritual atmosphere, you will be stunted in your growth (See ver. 9).

Our calling and election is sure with God, but here it is to make it sure in your own soul. How much are you enjoying your heavenly possessions? The whole land was given to Israel in Joshua 1:2-4, but they had to go in, and claim it. They had to put their foot on it, and thus make it their own.

Are you laying hold of God’s exceeding great and precious promises, so that you may become partaker of the divine nature? Then you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are slothful and careless verse 9 will be the result. Therefore give diligence to make your calling and election sure, and “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Remember, that is for your present enjoyment.

Question: Is it scriptural to say that we are gathered round the person of Christ when we meet to remember the Lord in the loaf and the cup? T. I.

Answer: The person of Christ, the Lord, is in heaven seated at the Father’s right hand (Heb. 8:1). It is rightly expressed in Matthew 18; 20. “For where two or three are gathered together in (or unto) My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” The Holy Spirit dwelling in us enables us to realize the Lord’s presence with us according to His Word.

Question: How are we to understand in Colossians 3:8, 9, 10, 12, what “put off” and “put on” mean? N. F.

Answer: Notice in verses 9, 10 that we have as believers put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, that now we see ourselves dead with Christ and risen with Christ in new creation life. All that belongs to the old is condemned in His death. So now verse 8 teaches us to disallow, put off, all that is of the flesh, and to mortify or put to death our members which are upon the earth (ver. 5).

Verse 11 teaches us that Christ is all and in all. Therefore in our practice we are to put on all these graces that spring out of the new life by the power of the Spirit. It is Christ in us shining out in each verse 12 to 17. There is no good in the flesh.

“The flesh profiteth nothing.”

“In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.”

But keeping our eye on Christ as our heart’s object, the fruits of the Spirit are seen growing upon us (Gal. 5:22, 23).

The Worker's Prayer

O, Son of God, who loved me,

And gav’st Thyself to set me free,

Inflame my heart with grateful love,

And let my life’s devotion prove

That Thou art All in All to me—

That I remember Calvary.

The value of one soul, O Lord,

Teach me to see; and as Thy Word

Assures me of the awful fate

Which doth the Christless soul await,

O, may I wrestle and prevail

With God and man like Israel!

Give me Thy tenderness and tact,

Guide every thought and word and act,

And cause me so to do my part

To reach the hard or longing heart,

That men to Thee, O Christ, may turn—

More of Thy tenderness to learn.

Let those I seek to win for Thee

Know that the Lord who died for me

Has shown through me His strong desire

To save them from eternal fire;

O, God, until life’s work is done,

Use me to save them—one by one.

The Lord's Day

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.”

One feels very distinctly and solemnly the desecration of the Lord’s Day—the day that you and I know in particular as the first day of the week. That day has a wonderful place in the thoughts of God.

O, what a day it was, for God, for the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit too! We find in connection with it, that God “brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” And when the Shepherd Himself arose triumphant over all the powers of death, and Satan, a mighty day it was! That day has a special place in the Word of God.

The way in which God has sanctified the first day of the week to His people is thus: It was on that day He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. And that was a wonderful day in the history of God, if one may speak in that way, and in the history of Christ! And in man’s history too! And in the history of the world!

When the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, on what day did He come? He came on the first day of the week.

When the disciples gathered together to break bread, as recorded in Scripture, they did it on the first day of the week.

And in Revelation 1:10, on that same day the apostle is in the Spirit. It is a state of soul. And in that state of soul, he receives a communication.

I would give a word of exhortation to each and all, as to the sacredness of that day in the sight of God. We forget that. O, what a day that was with Him when redemption was an accomplished fact, and the Redeemer alive from the dead! We have little conception, perhaps, of what that event was to God, and to His Son, when He arose from the dead. It was the beginning of a new creation.

Now, the sacredness of that day has been largely lost. It may be so with His people, but not so with God. That day is still sacred in the thoughts of God; and it ought to be so in the thoughts of His people. Is it sacred with us?

Is it the day when the Lord and His claims are specially before our hearts? Do we arrange our affairs with a view to this? Do our friends and neighbors know it?

Are we constant in our attendance at meetings on the Lord’s day; or does a shower or a shift in the weather, or worldly company at the house keep us away?

We would not so easily be turned aside if in our soul we had any adequate sense of the sacredness and the privilege of that day—nor indeed of the LORDSHIP of Christ, of which its very name speaks.

It is the one day in the week when we are called upon in a special way to own His authority—His claims over us. It is HIS. May our souls know more of the meaning of this.

Suitable for Service

It was only an everyday occurrence—an all the day occurrence—which I observed, and yet it had a voice to me, and may be a message for you too.

I was waiting for an incoming train at a railway station, and happened to stand by the large hydrant from which the engines received supplies of water. An engine steamed up and stopped opposite to the hydrant. The cap of the engine’s reservoir was lifted—water was needed.

How should it be supplied? What would convey it from that upright hydrant to the needy engine? From the hydrant hung, flat and limp, the riveted leathern pipe provided for the very purpose. In a few moments the mouth of the pipe was inserted in the engine’s reservoir, the valve was opened, and the water flowed in until the supply was sufficient.

“Ah! there is the Christian,” I said to a friend standing by. The great gospel has abundance of refreshment for needy souls—needy souls are found on all sides to whom the gospel would bring fullness of peace and joy and satisfaction. Who shall convey it? Who shall be the connecting piece? Who shall carry the needed refreshment to the needy soul?

The Christian is the privileged channel of blessing. He is left here with that wonderful object in view, and that he may make known to others the grace he himself enjoys, that he may bear the good news to weary and longing hearts on every hand.

In himself, the Christian has nothing—he is as dry as the leathern hose which hung from the hydrant. But through the Christian linked with Christ, there may flow rivers of living water for the satisfaction of the thirsty all around. Yes! The blessing is not in us, but will flow through us if we are but suitable for service.

Just as the leathern pipe was taken up and put into the reservoir, so the Lord will take us up and put us into touch with anxious ones.

Ananias was but a certain disciple, a devout man; but he was used to carry a message of blessing to Saul, who became the great Apostle of the Gentiles.

He was near enough to his Master to hear His voice bidding him go, and answering to Him he went to the needy sinner with the tidings of salvation.

If we abide in Christ we shall be used of our Lord, be joyful in ourselves, and be a blessing to others.

Do not ask yourself, “What can I do for Christ?” Ask, rather, “What can Christ do through me?”

“Make me a channel of blessing today,

Make me a channel of blessing I pray;

My life possessing, my service blessing,

Make me a channel of blessing today.”

Complete in Christ

Christ has perfectly glorified God as a Man on this earth. He has accomplished the work of salvation, and now sits upon the throne of God in glory. The believer is accepted in Christ, he is complete in Him. Christ Himself, as Man in heaven, having finished the work of salvation, is the measure of the believer’s acceptance by God.

Correspondence: Matt 12:16; 1 Tim 3:9; 1 Cor 3:14; Paul; Phil 1:15-16; Matt 18:20

Question: Why was it that the Lord Jesus asked those He healed not to make Him known? (Matt. 12:16).

Answer: Because that He as Messiah was rejected, and Israel was no longer to be accounted His people. The next chapter shows us the new aspect of the kingdom of heaven, not to be set up in power at present, but in its mysterious form, by the preaching of the Word, while the King is absent in glory, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling in His people on earth.

Question: What is meant by “Mystery of the faith” and “Mystery of Godliness” 1 Timothy 3:9, 16? B.

Answer: We are to hold the “Mystery of the faith” in a pure conscience (chap. 1:19). The faith is what is given us to know and hold as Christianity.

“The Mystery of Godliness” is the truth about the person of Christ. Christ was God manifest in flesh; He was justified in the Spirit as God’s beloved Son. “Him hath God the Father sealed.” The angels saw their Maker in the babe in Bethlehem’s manger; He was preached unto the Gentiles as their Saviour; we have believed on Him in this world; He is now received up into glory.

Question: What is a reward? (1 Cor. 3:14). K.

Answer: It is something to show the Lord’s appreciation of the servant’s behavior.

Question: Was Paul a Jew or Gentile? L.

Answer: He was a Jew by birth, who had obtained Roman citizenship, and when brought to know the Lord Jesus, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, He became a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:21), a member of the body of Christ, and so became neither Jew nor Gentile but a Christian (1 Cor. 12:12; Gal. 3:27, 28).

Question: How can one preach Christ of envy and strife? (Phil. 1:15, 16). Y.

Answer: These were jealous of Paul, and their hearts being away from the Lord, they thought to do him harm. We need to cleave in close communion to Christ our Lord to serve Him rightly.

Question: Please explain Matthew 18:20.

Answer: Read verses 18-20. The whole church (meaning assembly in Scripture) at the beginning was gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s name is the only name in Scripture to which the Holy Ghost would gather the members of the body of Christ. It is the same today; it is the only Name, the only center God has for His saints to gather to, and there we have the promise, “There am I in the midst of them.”

The name of the Lord is “holy and true” (Rev. 3:7). To be gathered to His Name is to be gathered in separation from evil associations, evil doctrines, evil behavior, as 2 Tim. 2:22; and that includes the unity of the Spirit. All truly gathered, are in one fellowship. Acts 20:30 foretells how divisions came, and Romans 16:17, 18.

In 1 Corinthians 10:16,17 we find that children of God are gathered together as redeemed by the blood, and made members of the body of Christ. We gather together because we are one, and if the number is only two or three, yet He is in the midst of them.

The Old, Old Story

(From the Original)

“Tell me the old, old story,

Of unseen things above;

Of Jesus and His glory,

Of Jesus and His love.”

You asked me for “the story

Of unseen things above;

Of Jesus and His glory,

Of Jesus and His love”?

Once, in a pleasant garden,

God placed a happy pair;

And all within was peaceful,

And all around was fair.

But O! they disobeyed Him!

The one thing He denied

They longed for, took, and tasted;

They ate it, and—they died!

Yet, in His love and pity,

At once the Lord declared

How man, though lost and ruined,

Might after all be spared!

Hundreds of years were over;

Adam and Eve had died—

The following generation,

And many more beside.

At last, some shepherds watching

Beside their flocks, at night,

Were startled in the darkness

By strange and heavenly light.

One of the holy angels

Had come from heaven above,

To tell the true, true story

Of Jesus and His love.

He came to bring “glad tidings:”

“You need not, must not, fear;

For Christ, your newborn Saviour,

Lies in the village near.”

And many other angels

Took up the story then—

“To God on High be Glory,

Good will and peace to men.”

And was it true—that story?

They went at once to see,

And found Him in a manger,

And knew that it was He.

He whom the Father promised,

So many ages past,

Had come to save poor sinners;

Yes, He had come at last!

He lived a life most holy:

His every thought was love,

And every action showed it,

To man, and God above.

He did kind things so kindly:

It seemed His heart’s delight

To make poor people happy,

From morning until night.

This gentle, holy Jesus,

Without a spot or stain,

By wicked hands was taken

And crucified and slain!

For our sins He suffered;

For our sins He died;

And “not for ours only,”

But “all the world” beside.

And now the work is “finished,”

The sinner’s debt is paid,

Because on “Christ the Righteous”

The sin of all was laid.

O wonderful redemption!

God’s remedy for sin:

The door of heaven is open,

And you may enter in.

For God released our “Surety,”

To show the work was done;

And Jesus’ resurrection

Declared the victory won!

And now He has ascended,

And sits upon the throne,

“To be a Prince and Saviour,”

And claim us for His own.

But when He left His people,

He promised them to send

“The Comforter,” to teach them,

And guide them to the end.

And that same Holy Spirit

Is with us to this day,

And ready now to teach us

The “new and living way.”

This is “the old, old story:”

Say, do you take it in—

This wonderful redemption,

God’s, remedy for sin?

Then take this “great salvation;”

For Jesus loves to give!

Believe! and you receive it!

Believe! and you shall live!

And if this simple message

Has now brought peace to you,

Make known “the old, old story,”

For others need it too.

We Seek the Truth

Such was the motto written up on a notice-board at a Secular Hall, recently opened for the spread of infidel opinions. Could any sentence have been more fitly chosen to have expressed their own condemnation? They profess to teach, instruct the people; what about? What do they teach? Confessedly not the truth, for they declare they have it not. We do not seek for that which we possess; we may wish and strive to understand, and better enter into, that we have.

If I have a book in my hand, I do not tell my child to hunt all over the house to find it. But infidelity professes to seek the truth, all the time rejecting it; and would fain take the truth away from those who possess it.

Infidelity can attempt to take away, but cannot give you the truth. A schoolmaster can teach no scholar that of which he is himself ignorant.

But can it be said that any one has “The Truth”? Yes; emphatically yes!

“Presumption, utter presumption!” the infidel answers. “Why, there is Professor A—, Professor B—, and a number of the ablest intellects of the day, all over the world, seeking after truth, and you say you have it!”

Now listen, “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

Here, then, I get the fact that truth is come, has been manifested; not in a code of laws, but in a living person—one, who could say, “I am The Truth.”

Infidelity is nothing new. When He who was The Truth was here, and said to Pilate who gave Him up into the hands of His enemies,

“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,” the skeptic cry was then as now, “What is truth?” But it is true now, as then,

“Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.”

Have you heard the voice of Christ? Do you know Him? Do you with your heart believe in Him? If so, you have The Truth. Many things you may want to know about Him, the glories of His person, the wonders of His work; but if you know Him as The Christ, The Son of God, you have The Truth.

Man, by searching, is trying to find out God, and will never succeed. If God had not revealed Himself, we never could have found Him; but, blessed be His name, He sent His Son to declare Him, to unfold all His heart; and to bring back to Himself poor guilty man. In Christ I get The Truth; there I find myself detected in my guilt. And, O blessed truth, I find in Him the one who can meet the deepest need of my poor sinful heart. Grace and truth came by Him; grace is what I want, not grace at the expense of truth; but He came, the expression of the loving grace of a giving God—came to unveil His Father’s heart, and to suffer in death, that by that death he might make a righteous channel for the outflow of God’s heart towards poor sinful man.

O! do you really want to know what truth is? Are you a seeker after the truth? Go not to the learned of this world; ask not science for an answer. The world by wisdom knows not God.

Truth was here, in the person of Christ, but man turned Him out, and “The Truth” is now in heaven.

“There are three that bear witness in earth (to the truth), the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. . . . This is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son” (1 John 5:8, 9).

Dost thou believe on the Son of God? May you, from your heart, say, “Lord, I believe.” And then you shall have the truth, and “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Prayer

The first true sign of spiritual life, prayer, is also the means of maintaining it. Man can as well live physically without breathing as spiritually without praying.

There is a class of animals, the cetaceous, neither fish nor sea-fowl, that inhabit the deep. It is their home; they never leave it for the shore; yet, though swimming beneath its waves and sounding its darkest depths, they have ever and anon to rise to the surface that they may breathe the air. Without that, these monarchs of the deep could not exist in the dense element in which they live, and move, and have their being.

And something like what is imposed on them by a physical necessity the Christian has to do by a spiritual one. It is by ever and anon ascending up to God, by rising through prayer into a loftier, purer region for supplies of divine grace, that he maintains his spiritual life.

Prevent these animals from rising to the surface, and they die for want of breath; prevent the Christian from rising to God, and he dies for want of prayer.

Scripture Study: Colossians 2

Verses 1-7. “For I would have you know what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.”

The Apostle’s great desire was that they might realize their union with Christ. He had not seen them, but had heard of them, and understood the dangers that beset them through false teachers, and he sought to put Christ before them as the object of their hearts, so that each believer by the truth presented them, should be a reflection of Christ, and grow up in His likeness. He desired that their hearts might be encouraged and united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

He knew that union with Christ, realized in their hearts, would keep them from the wiles of the enemy of their souls. He labored in prayer, for this, that they might realize their union with their glorified Head on high, and thus see that He was all they needed, and that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were found in this wondrous truth—that they with Christ were one.

They did not need to look beyond Christ. He was enough without anything that man might try to add by science falsely so-called, using enticing words to beguile them.

Though the Apostle was absent from them, yet in spirit he was with them, joying and beholding their order, and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ, and taking advantage of this, before such evils could enter, he exhorts them,

“As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him; rooted and built up in Him and established, or (confirmed) in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

That is, they were to go on learning more of what they had in Him. It is by cleaving to Christ and His truth alone, that genuine progress is made.

Verse 8. They were to beware of men’s theories of advancement, philosophies and vain deceit; these would lead them away from Christ; they can only bring in the religion of the flesh, which is ever against God and Christ.

Verses 9-12. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Here we have one who is a real man, and yet God, in all His fullness, dwells in Him. And in Him is our completeness. We need nothing more. He is the head of all principality and power. In Him we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. In these verses they were to see themselves dead with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ.

Verse 13. They had been dead in their sins as Gentiles, and in the circumcision of their flesh, but were now quickened together with Him, and all their sins were forgiven.

Verse 14 settles everything for the Jew by the same death of Christ.

Verse 15. Christ has vanquished all principalities and powers on the, cross, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. All that was against the believer, He has put aside to introduce us, entirely set free into our new position.

Verses 16, 17. The believer is therefore set free from all religious ordinances of the law, which are shadows of things to come. We have now the reality of it all in Christ.

Verse 18. All pretentions and imaginations connected with the unseen world, as worshiping angels or saints, is therefore set aside; such belongs only to the pride of man’s heart, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head. Man’s fleshly thoughts lead away from Christ. It denies the work of the cross; denies the believer’s position as dead and risen with Christ; denies the Godhead glory of Christ the Son of God.

Verse 19. “And not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.”

How important it is therefore that each individual should hold the head, should endeavor to realize and walk in the strength of communion with Christ our head in glory, though we are still here on earth.

Verses 20-23. “Wherefore, if ye be (it has been proved that we are) dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living (alive) in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” A dead man is freed from such. “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” Such injunctions are only men’s rules. They may appear good in their eyes, but death with Christ, and being risen with Christ has put the believer out of their application to him.

Religious ordinances are imposed to satisfy the flesh; they have an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship, and humility, but it is all at the best, the filthy rags of man’s efforts at righteousness.

The Secret of Success

It is just as we carry the secret of the preciousness of Christ by faith through the wilderness, that our hearts will have an object superior to all the circumstances of sorrow and evil we are in.

This makes all the difference, which we find between Israel on the one hand, and Caleb and Joshua on the other.

They all went through the same trials, and were in the same sphere of evil; but the grapes of Eschol brought out the murmurings of the people, who thought of the children of Anak, and were in their own sight as grasshoppers, and lacked faith to connect the power of God with themselves.

It was to them only a question of what their enemies were, and what they themselves were in their own sight; whereas Caleb and Joshua, bringing in, by faith, God’s power and love, found the report good.

The grapes of Eschol strengthened their faith, and thinking of God’s promise to them they said,

“Let us go up at once, and possess the land, for we are well able to overcome it.”

What were the walls of Jericho to faith, though they were builded up to heaven? Since God was with Israel, the walls could not stand against the blast of the rams’ horns.

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 2

Let us now turn to the 2nd of Acts, the 36th verse, and endeavor to advance a stage in our consideration of this subject—

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

There we get two other names in a new setting. Here is Peter speaking after the rejection of Christ, after His ascension into glory, declaring that God has made Him both Lord and Christ.

You say, “Was He not that before?”

Yes; I suppose He was. The woman at Sychar’s well thought He was at least; she thought He was Christ because she said so; and no other was Lord by right and title, for He was Jehovah; He was Jehovah our Saviour.

But this is something new. It marks a new step in the consideration of our subject and in God’s dealings with His beloved Son. What does it mean, “that God hath made Him,” the rejected one, “Lord and Christ”?

Does it not mean, That to this Man, the lowly Jesus, rejected by earth and cast out as though not fit to be here, heaven opens wide its portals and straightway puts upon Him every mark of divine approval?

Does it not mean that as Man, the title refused Him on earth, is bestowed upon Him there? If earth would not own what He was, would not have Him as Lord, nor own Him as Christ, heaven will so own Him, and God bestows upon Him as Man these dignities afresh.

What a moment! and what a scene is presented to our hearts as we gaze there!

Did earth not give Him the place that was His due? No; then God will. Earth cast Him out as not fit to be here, but heaven receives Him, and as Man—as the rejected Man once, but as the glorified Man now—He receives the stamp, as it were, of divine approval, and as Man is made both Lord and Christ. This is exceedingly blessed.

What does Christ mean? It means the “Anointed One.” Christ is the Greek equivalent for Messiah. Messiah is Hebrew and likewise means “Anointed One.”

When the Lord Jesus came into this world, He was prepared to offer Himself to Israel as their Messiah—as the one anointed for blessing to them. Therefore, we frequently read in the gospels about Him as “the Christ.”

For instance, take the one we have referred to—the woman at the well: She goes into the city, and says to the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

I am under the impression that the term “the Christ” is usually official, and in a Jewish setting. It is the Lord presenting Himself to Israel as the Christ, and that term is used largely in the gospels, and occasionally thereafter too.

We notice, however, that after the event spoken of in the 2nd of Acts, after the Lord ascended, after He is made both Lord and Christ, in the epistles quite frequently the prefix is dropped, and Christ becomes more a personal name. The thought is I believe, that God is not now pressing the Jewish claims of His beloved Son. For the moment, they are in the background. His beloved Son is anointed now for a wider sphere of blessing than a Jewish one, and He has entered upon dignities and relationships now, such as were not His before His resurrection and ascension into that glory.

Beloved saints of God, our blessings, and our position before God, are connected with Christ, the Anointed One—anointed and appointed for blessing not now particularly to Israel, not now so limited, but as embracing the whole sphere of the redeemed. He takes the place now as head of the new creation. Men now are either in Christ or in Adam. It becomes a question of the two headships.

We might turn on and observe how Scripture puts us in connection with Christ as to our position before God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3).

There we get it, do we not? We shall find as we survey the subject further, that all our privileges and blessings as a redeemed company, are connected with “Christ,” —Christ the exalted and glorified Man! It is with that exalted and glorified Man we are connected. What a blessed and immutable connection is this! Observe in the 2nd chapter of Ephesians, 4, 5, 6, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

One remarks again that our position is connected with Christ. In these scriptures we get the correct usage of the phrase spoken of earlier. We are not positionally in Jesus, but “in Christ.”

Look at 1 Corinthians 15:20, 21 and 22:

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

You are either in Adam or in Christ; under one headship or the other. Which is it with you this afternoon, dear friends? Are you Christ’s? If you are, there is no difficulty as to the headship you are under. If not, you are included under the malign headship of Adam. Thank God for the transcendent grace that has linked us with Christ.

Look at Galatians 2:20:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Never in Scripture are we associated with that blessed one short of His death, resurrection and ascension.

There are many scriptures we could look at in connection with this line of things.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1).

Our position is that of being in Christ. Our blessings and privileges flow from our connection with Christ as the risen exalted one. While our privileges and blessings are connected with our being in Christ, our responsibilities are connected with Him under the third title—as Lord. So these three things are attached to the blessed one we are considering.

Jesus tells us of His pathway of shame and woe down here.

Christ tells us of His present exaltation and glory at the right hand of God.

Lord tells us of His authority. All power is His.

(Continued from page 48)

To be continued

The Lord's Coming

The Lord’s coming has a large place in the pages of the New Testament. By the four evangelists it is presented in four different ways:

Matthew speaks of it as it affects our feet. (Matt. 25:6).

Mark our eyes. (Mark 13:35-37).

Luke our hands. (Luke 19:13).

John our hearts. (John 14:1, 2, 3).

MATTHEW

The Lord is coming! And with eager feet

We must “go forth,” the Lord Himself to meet,

Forth from the world, from sloth and evil ways,

Walking while here for His eternal praise.

MARK

The Lord is coming! And with eager eyes

We “watch” to see the morning star arise,

Beyond the world’s dark night of woe and sin,

We look for Him who brings the glory in.

LUKE

The Lord is coming! And with eager hands

Instant we’d be in doing His commands.

Lord give us grace to “occupy” for Thee,

Till we Thy face in yonder glory see.

JOHN

The Lord is coming! Let our hearts rejoice,

We soon shall hear the accents of His voice.

In His eternal home He’ll bid us rest,

Gazing upon His face, supremely blest.

To Young Christians: Part 1

You have lately believed in Jesus, beloved friends, and have “passed from death unto life.” A new peace fills your heart, and new motives control your actions. Old sins have lost their power, and old pleasures their charm. You find delight in reading the Word and prayer, and in assembling with the people of God. “And now,” say you, “the work is all done; I believe in Jesus, and I have ‘everlasting life.’”

You have believed on Jesus, but that is only the beginning of a new and endless life. Although the work of the Son of God on the cross for you is infinitely perfect and complete, the work of the Holy Spirit in you is only just begun.

Has He implanted in your soul the “incorruptible seed,” only that it may lie hidden there? Nay, it must push aside “every weight,” and rise above the surface a young green shoot; then the tender “blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.”

Having passed through the “strait gate,” and entered on the narrow way “that leadeth unto life,” the world is behind you, and your Father’s house is before you; and, although the road leads uphill and downhill, sometimes over rough and thorny places, and there are foes on either hand, yet there is a palace, a crown, and the King Himself at the far end of it. But you must ever run the race, and fight the good fight of faith, if you would wear the victor’s crown.

Listen, then, to a few words from one whom God has led by a dark and stormy way. “For when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” (Acts 27:20). But “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” (Psa. 107:29).

As in the natural, so in the spiritual world, it is in the “great waters” that we see the works of the Lord, and “His wonders in the deep.” He has given life from the dead, and speaks to you now in these feeble lines. Read them prayerfully, ponder them well. May God the Spirit write them on each heart and conscience in indelible lines!

“The heart is deceitfully above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” “Desperately wicked!” Do we all believe this? Many who read these pages are moral, upright, and amiable, and have been shielded, perhaps, by parental love from every sight and sound of evil. They have received the Saviour, and this, as a top stone of excellence, seems to perfect the already blameless character.

Well, God says to you (for “there is no respect of persons with Him”) that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Man seeks to discover some redeeming quality in the blackest character, for indirectly he shrinks from the terrible truth. But every now and then a rent in the veil discovers the corruption within.

God says of every heart “desperately wicked,” and “deceitful above all things” trying to deceive God, deceiving its fellows, but most of all itself.

“I the Lord search the heart, and try the reins, of the children of men.”

It is best, dear friends, to accept God’s sentence about ourselves. We must learn the lesson. Some learn it in deep exercise of soul at the time of conversion, and others by bitter experience afterward; but it is better to receive this solemn truth about ourselves, as we receive the Lord Jesus, namely, in the way of faith. Through God’s grace, you have received Jesus; but, if you have not learned this truth about yourself, you do not yet know all that He is for you, nor can you rightly value all that He has done.

For if we are vile, guilty, and helpless in ourselves, what can we do but cast ourselves at the feet of Him who “receiveth sinners,” trusting only in His precious blood, which cleanseth from all sin. O! that precious name, Jesus, mighty to save.

“Without one thought that’s good, to plead,” Jesus must be—will be—all in all to us. “Lord, glorify Thyself in me,” will rise from the depths of our whole being, and we shall say with Paul, “not I, but Christ.... Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20). He lived down here for us. He “died for our sins, and rose again for our justification,” and now at God’s right hand He pleads for us.

“He who washed us in His blood

Safe will bring us home to God.”

But now we are passing onwards along the path Jesus once trod, and He has given us His name, His Spirit, His presence to be with us all the way through, for He is a loving, gracious Friend, as well as a glorious Saviour. Can we think on these things, and our hearts not “burn” with grateful love to Him?

“The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Love and obedience go together. Our Lord Himself has said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” and “He that keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me.”

(To be continued)

Fear Not

Let not difficulties daunt you, nor fears depress you, nor failures discourage you. Do not try to be your own captain—Christ is your Captain, and He arranges all the steps of your campaign. He has undertaken all. It is yours and mine to follow at His command, and to stand in His strength alone. Can we think of defeat when we know the power that is for us? (Rom. 8:31).

Be of Good Courage

The word of exhortation to God’s people to be of good courage runs all through the Bible. He who undertakes to fight for God must do so with a brave spirit, or he will certainly be defeated.

The secret of courage lies in the sense that God is with us, and this sense flows out from obeying God’s Word.

A work is given to every Christian to do for Christ. It must be undertaken and pursued with courage. Faint hearts win no fights. Successful workers for God are men and women who believe God has sent them to accomplish an end for Him on the earth.

Has God given us a work to do? Then go forward and do it in His strength!

“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” (Eph. 6:10).

On your knees you may plead, and pour out your fears, but before the foe, fear should have no place.

Correspondence: S.O.S. 4:12; Mat. 8:19, 22; 1 Pet. 3:19; 1 John 2:20-27

Question: What does Song of Solomon 4:12 mean? Is the “garden enclosed,” the church of God? J. E.

Answer: The spouse in the song of Solomon is the believing remnant of the Jews. John Baptist speaks of them in John 3:29. The church of God, the body and bride of Christ, is not seen in the Old Testament, except in types and figures. It was hid in God in His purposes, and revealed to Paul and to others through him (Eph. 3:3-9).

It is quite right for us to use the language of this book as far as it would fit into our heavenly position. The bridegroom’s delight in the bride, beautifully expresses the love of Christ to His redeemed ones, but we find in her, and in ourselves, coldness and carelessness that need to be dealt with, so the trials come because there is the “needs be” (1 Peter 1:6).

In this fourth verse she is compared to a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. There was the sad necessity for the north wind of adversity, and also the south wind to blow upon His garden, to get the sweetness and perfume of the spices He had endowed her with to flow out.

Then she says, “Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits.” It is easy to see in this His dealings of love with us to bring us into and to keep us, in communion with Himself.

Question: What is the meaning of Matthew 8:19.22? N. W.

Answer: This is a lesson on discipleship—that is, on following Christ. Salvation is ours through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; only these could be true disciples; others who would turn away from the Lord deliberately, and walked no more with Him, were those who were not born again (See John 2:23-25; 6:66-71).

One that is born again has eternal life, and eternally saved through the finished work of the Lord Jesus.

(John 5:24; 10:28, 29; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 10:14). Now real believers fail in their conduct, while their standing in Christ is ever the same (Rom. 8:1).

This lesson in Matthew 8:19-22 shows us the self interest of our hearts. Was the scribe prepared to follow One who had nowhere to lay His head? And the other did not want to follow the Lord till his father was dead and buried; but the Lord said, “Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead.”

We may be sure, if one really follows Christ, he will not neglect his home duties, nor any responsibility he has. Christ must be first. “To me to live is Christ.” (Phil. 1:21).

In Luke 9:57 to 62 we have another lesson added to the two given in Matthew. “Another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee; but let me first go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.”

This man also put others before Christ; he must pay attention to his friends first with a show of zeal.

The selfishness of our hearts makes us think, if we follow Christ, and put His honor first, that we shall lose our comfort, our character, and our connections; while in reality we lose nothing, for the Lord looks after our comforts with countless mercies day by day, and our sharing His rejection, brings, with the reproach, a joy in communion with Him that gladdens and strengthens our hearts.

So with our character, God looks after that. We just need to do what He bids us, and those dependent upon us will not suffer either, nor will we fail in our affection to our relatives. Obedience to the Lord takes all these in.

Well we may lose some of our friends and connections for Christ’s sake, but our true friends, will be those who seek to follow the same blessed Savior.

Question: Please explain 1 Peter 3:19. J. H. K

Answer: It refers to Noah preaching by the Spirit of Christ to the antediluvians, who are now in prison because they did not believe Him. Christ Himself did not do the preaching; there was no preaching in the prison (chapter 4:6); the gospel was preached while they were living to them that are dead.

Question: Please explain 1 John 2:20, 27. P. T

Answer: The Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer gives power and discernment to try the spirits, and thus judge what would dishonor the person of Christ as come in flesh. The Holy Spirit is the anointing, the seal, and the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor. 1:21, 22).

In Memory:

It is with much sorrow we announce that our much-loved Brother E. B. Hartt, of Toronto, left us on February 28th, to go to be with the Lord.

He was a faithful servant of the Lord from the time he was young, and untiring in the work of the gospel, and among the children. For many years he sent in the Bible Questions for the little paper, “Messages of the Love of God.”

Many precious souls will be in the glory through his faithful presentation of Christ and of His finished work on the cross.

We mourn the loss also of our dear Brother Crossley, of Napanec, who was a faithful pastor, and much used for blessing among the children of God—both of these brothers will be greatly missed.

In a very little while we shall hear the shout that will call all of the redeemed to meet our Lord in the air, and we shall be forever with Him.

“Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” (Heb. 10:37).

The Conversion of William C

William C— was the son of a respectable farmer in the south of Scotland. To better his circumstances, he crossed the Atlantic and obtained employment in the city of Chicago. By the providence of God he was led to board in a temperance hotel kept by a Christian couple.

Away from parental and home influences, like many young men who move west, he “left his religion” on the other side of the Atlantic. His “religion” had never caused him much trouble; and it was easily kept at the bottom of his trunk along with his Sunday clothes, and taken off and put on with them. On Lord’s Day evenings he usually went to hear one of the Chicago preachers, but this was the extent of his religious observance.

Having ample opportunities of coming in contact with religious professors, he “measured” some, and became disgusted with their lives. He saw that they were professors and not possessors, their religion being “from the teeth outwards.”

Like multitudes, he reasoned in this way: “So many profess to be Christians who are not, therefore the whole thing is a sham.” Alas! That multitudes should reason so illogically?

Mac—, an earnest Christian from the Highlands of Scotland, went to stay at the hotel where C— “boarded.” Now and again he availed himself of opportunities afforded him of speaking to William about his soul.

The way in which God met with C— was somewhat peculiar. He had gone to rest, and from his room he heard Mac— speaking to a fellow-boarder of God’s way of salvation. The young man had taken shelter in William’s refuge— “many hypocrites” —and Mac— was unearthing him.

“Suppose,” said he, “that I took from my pocket a handful of dollars and there was a counterfeit one among them, should I throw them all away, on that account?”

Then he applied the illustration, and showed the unreasonableness and absurdity of rejecting Christ because of some who profess to be His who are mere counterfeits. The Holy Spirit carried the words through the partition, which divided the sleeping apartment from the hotel parlor into William’s heart and conscience.

“That is just what I have been doing,” said he. “I have been occupied with the inconsistencies of others; and here am I a poor guilty sinner hurrying to eternal ruin.”

As he lay in bed, the Holy Spirit was convincing him of the sinfulness, of his condition in God’s sight. Scenes and incidents of by gone days were recalled. His past life, with its sermon-hearing, psalm-singing, prayer-saying, alms-giving, sacrament-taking, and high-handed sinning against the eternal God caused him to tremble.

For several hours he pleaded for pardon, until the thought took possession of him that he was beyond the reach of hope, and was doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

Has the reader of these lines been excusing himself for rejecting or neglecting the salvation of God because of the inconsistencies of religious professors? Do not allow Satan to rob you of your soul. All hypocrites will be consigned to eternal destruction, and if you continue your present course of conduct, you will make your abode in hell with them.

Despairing of salvation, and giving himself up as one beyond the pale of God’s love, he ceased praying. He had, to use a familiar expression, “come to an end of himself,” and had reached the borders of the region of despair. When there did not seem to be a single ray of hope for his poor troubled spirit, the Holy Spirit of God brought to his mind the wondrous love-message contained in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

All at once the soul-saving truth, unfolded in these wondrous words, was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit. He saw that on account of what the Lord Jesus had done for him on the cross—through simple faith in His finished work—he was saved, and had everlasting life.

The newborn soul instinctively thinks about, and longs for the conversion of those who are near and dear to him. William was no exception to this rule. His heart went out toward his father and mother, sister and brother, in far-off Scotland.

It was true that his father had been fifty years a member of a church, and had maintained family worship. Was he converted? Was his dear mother converted? Though they were upright, “religious” people, he feared that they had never really been “born again.”

From a heart overflowing with love, he wrote to his father, telling him of the great change which had taken place, and put the gospel before him as plainly as he could. Mr. C— was not by any means pleased with his son’s letters. The old gentleman had been brought up to believe that a man might be a “good Christian,” and not have the “assurance of salvation,” and he felt annoyed and irritated at his son’s presumption in “going the length” of saying that he was saved and knew it. Post after post brought letters brimful of love and sympathy, giving his reasons for believing that his sins were pardoned, and urging his father and mother to get the “great question” settled.

Mr. C— was so vexed with his son’s communications, that he declined to acknowledge their receipt or reply to them. Becoming greatly concerned about the conversion of the “old folks at home,” and fearing that they might die and be eternally lost he resolved on re-crossing the Atlantic, to deal personally with them about their souls. He took the train to New York, and from thence sailed for the British shores. To the astonishment of his relations, William turned up at the old homestead.

On the night of his arrival he told his loved ones the story of his conviction, conversion, and consecration to God. His father strongly objected to his saying that he knew that he was saved, and saved through “simply believing on Christ.” He resolutely maintained that no one could be sure that he was saved as long as he was on earth; that all we could do was to hope that it would be all right “at the last.”

This doctrine, that “no one could be certain” of being saved “down here;” is a very popular doctrine with the unconverted. If the reader has never been born again, it would be very wrong for him to say that he knows that his sins are forgiven; but if he were really converted to and by God, he would know from God’s holy Word that those who believe on the Lord Jesus have everlasting life. I shall quote a few of many scriptures,

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).

“By grace are ye saved.” (Eph. 2:8, 9).

“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” (Rom. 5:1).

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13).

If, then, the early Christians knew that they were saved—had peace with God, sins forgiven, eternal life—much more should we who have the whole Word of God and live in the full blaze of gospel light.

Day after day William spoke to God about his dear ones, and spoke to them about God and His great salvation. His mother became deeply troubled, and she besought William to pray for her. A week after his arrival, he had the joy of seeing his beloved mother rejoicing in the knowledge of sins forgiven. Then his brother and sister, and last of all his dear father, were brought to accept of Christ as their Saviour.

His father fought hard ere he yielded to the truth of God, though professing to believe that men were justified by faith apart from works, deep down in his soul he clung to the popular doctrine, that “simply believing in Christ” was not enough. While believing that Christ’s death was necessary in order to satisfy the claims of offended justice, he had not learned that it was enough. Besides, it was a very humbling thing for him to admit, that he who had been for over fifty years a member “in good standing” in the church, was all that time a lost sinner.

After three weeks of personal dealing with his father, William’s heart was gladdened by seeing him rejoicing in the Lord. They had been speaking together regarding some passages of Scripture in Romans. The old gentleman retired to rest still unconverted. In the morning the scales, by which Satan had been blinding his eyes, were removed, and he saw himself to be a condemned sinner on the verge of hell.

Then the scriptures he had read the previous evening came before him:

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Rom. 10:9, 10).

God’s “simple, easy, artless, unencumbered, plan” of salvation was perceived by him, and he rested on Jesus, who had been “wounded for his transgressions, and bruised for his iniquities.” (Isa. 53:5).

Unsaved reader, do not delay any longer. Accept God’s great salvation by believing on Him who died that you might live.

He Began to Be in Want

“Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” (Luke 15:12).

“Give me.” We have here an example of what is called in James (chapter 4:3), asking amiss. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

The secret of the younger son’s desire comes out in these two words, “Give me,” and the sequel soon proved it was that he might consume it upon his lusts. For not many days after, “he gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living” (ver. 13). His desire was to make himself happy away from his father.

The natural desire in each of our hearts, using all the benefits God gives, is to this end, like Cain, who “went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod” (that is, a wandering). (Gen. 4:16-24). So whether it is Cain, or this younger son, or ourselves, we prove ourselves “the enemies of God.”

It is well that we should challenge our hearts, whatever we are, saved or unsaved, as to the motives of our prayers. For though often we ask, through mercy we receive not, because we ask amiss, for our own selfish ends. Yet sometimes, as in Israel’s case, when they “lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,” God “gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul” (Psa. 106:14, 15). And so it was in our parable.

Though God knows beforehand the use men will make of His gifts, how lavish He is with them. “He divided unto them his living” (Ver. 12). Does not God make “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust?” (Matt. 5:45). And if His gifts are thus a witness to the very heathen (Acts 14:17), what effect have they had on you, my reader?

“And he began to be in want” (Ver. 14). As we trace the downward course of this young man, we find that he receives the first check in his course “when he had spent all.” It was a sad history, but a very common one in this world of ours. He had accepted all that he could get; spent it in self-gratification; used it to place distance between himself and his father, and never turned one thought of love or gratitude towards that father who had dealt so indulgently with him.

And O, my unconverted reader, is it not thus that you have treated God? Do you not receive from Him life, and breath, and all things? And to what purpose have you used them?

It was just at this point, “when he had spent all,” that “there arose a mighty famine in that land.” “How unfortunate! What an unlucky fellow I am,” perhaps he said, “I could have borne this when I had plenty of money, but just to happen when I have spent my last penny!”

But how truly can we, who know Him, say, “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living” (Job 33:29, 30).

Prosperity has but been used to sever us farther from Him. He will try adversity. “And he began to be in want.” Have us, He will, cost what it may, to Him, or to us. God has set His heart on rebel, wandering sinners.

But instead of turning to his father, the prodigal turns to the world for relief, the world over which he had spent his all. And so he is allowed to learn what the world is:

“And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.”

What an occupation for a well-born Jew. The most loathsome and degrading. How low he had sunk, for “he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him.” He discovers the hollowness of the world’s friendship now.

And this is but a too faithful picture of the world, to which so many cling.

My reader, are you “in want?” In soul-want?

Scripture Study: Colossians 3

We have seen that we all as believers are looked upon in the sight of God as dead, buried, and risen with Christ. We are viewed as on earth, not seated in heavenly places as in Ephesians, where we are looking at the purposes of God. Our faith is to see our new position as one with Christ, possessing Him as our new life—this is where our chapter begins.

Verses 1-4. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.”

This leads our hearts up to Him who is our life, and inclines us to “set our affections on things above,” thus turning our minds to heavenly and spiritual things, “not on things on the earth,” because of our new position. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

He is our life. When He appears, then shall all His saints appear with Him in glory. He cannot appear without them, for they are one with Him.

Verses 5-7 tell us that sin in the flesh is in us still. This verse uncovers to us how vile it is. We are not to allow it to live, we are to keep it in the place God has given it—in the death of Christ. We can turn our eyes to Him and sing,

“O fix our earnest gaze

So wholly, Lord, on Thee,

That, with Thy beauty occupied,

We elsewhere none may see.”

In this occupation with Him, we find strength for victory over sin and Satan’s power. Our Lord Jesus bore the penalty of our sins, and gives us the victory over the power of sin in our members.

The disobedient sinner who will not come to the Savior, must bear the wrath of God, because of living in sin. “In the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them.” What an escape we had! Well may we thank God for His great mercy toward us, in opening our eyes to see our lost condition, and then to see His love in giving His Son to die for our sins.

Verses 8-11. That which would come out of those members is to be put off, not allowed. We are to put off “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication” out of our mouths. We are not to lie to one another, seeing that we have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that has created him.

Truth is what Christ is, and the new life in the believer has His character of life, and will not be satisfied to walk in any other path but His. It is Christ in us, and is to come out in our ways, as we shall see in what follows. All human distinctions disappear in this new life. It is the same life of Christ, and acts the same in every person.

Believers have put off the old man, and have put on the new in the death and resurrection of Christ; and in their practice now, are to put off (verse 8) what would come from the members of the old man, and now in practice, are to put on the dress of the new. The inner man, Christ in us, desires to clothe us with what suits Him. “Christ is all, and in all.”

Verses 12-14. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved.” God calls us His elect, chosen ones, holy and beloved, and as such, the things that were seen in the Lord on earth in all perfection, are now to be grown as fruit for Him in us who have Christ as our life.

Bowels of compassion gives us the thought of the deep well spring of His heart, that has flowed into ours, to flow out again in kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a complaint against any: even as Christ forgave us, so we are to forgive one another.

What a deep stream of blessing it was that flowed out from Him to His disciples, and all that came to Him. Alas! how small has been the measure of blessing that has flowed from us to others! Blessed Master, help us to be more like Thee!

Then to all these we are to add love, the bond of perfectness, that which gives godliness the first place in our actions and ministry to others. Not amiability of nature, but holiness to the Lord. It is the flowing out of the grace that has come to us from Himself.

Verse 15. Also the peace of Christ is to preside over every other thought that might arise. The peace in which God dwells (Phil. 4:7) is the peace in which Christ walked through this world where there were so many things to try Him, as He walked with His God and Father. Philippians 4:6 is how we can obtain it, and dwell in it. And also in this verse 15, it is with one another as members of the one body walking in unity.

And then comes these important words, “And be ye thankful.” This is bowing to God’s will, yea, expresses satisfaction with God’s ordering for us. A thankful heart is always a happy heart. It finds no room for murmuring, though it may sorrow and mourn over sin, as when the Lord wept over guilty Jerusalem.

Verse 16. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another; in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

In Ephesians we find all these things connected with the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer. In this epistle it is, we repeat, Christ our life, and all these are the outcome of Christ our life and our object.

The word of Christ dwelling in us gives wisdom, and in rich measure, teaching us how to apply it to ourselves and others. And our happy hearts unite in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. A little foretaste of heaven’s joy.

Verse 17. “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” How completely our life is seen here in conscious relationship with Christ, in the life which we have in Him. We can apply it in everything we do. He is the object that controls us, and everything is done to suit Him; and through Him, dwelling in the consciousness of divine love, we give thanks to our God and Father. The Christian life is characterized by having Christ Himself as its aim and object in all we do in every respect.

Verses 18 to chapter 4:1. Apply this life to the circle of our relationships as given and established by God, with wise advice and warnings in view of our wills bringing in difficulties.

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.”

“Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter against them.”

The wives and husbands are thus to exercise grace toward each other in the exercises necessary to live together in the grace of eternal life. To love his wife is especially enjoined on the husband, and not to allow bitterness in his heart toward her, and that alludes to the failure, or tendency to it in the wife in her subjection, and in the husband in his love.

Children are to be obedient to their parents in all things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

Fathers are to be careful not to provoke their children—not to discourage them. God our Father is careful not to discourage His children, though needing to discipline them every day. The precious home (if Christ is acknowledged) of kind affections practiced in the home, is a safeguard to the children, needed increasingly as the state of this world grows darker.

“Servants (that is, slaves), obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”

The slave is Christ’s freeman, and the freeman is Christ’s slave (1 Cor. 7:22). This exhortation to the slave is excellent for all Christians as to the spirit in which we all should serve the Lord Christ. It is the life of Christ, and how He served the Father, is the example for us all.

May the Lord help us to serve Him in singleness of heart, that He may be able to say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 3

“Lord Jesus Christ”

Now a few thoughts as to the last name. We have in the following, conclusive evidence as to its significance:

“And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

If we call Him Lord, we must do what He says. That is, it’s a question of obedience. Authority is connected with Him as Lord.

Just to corroborate the thought before us, look at 1 Corinthians 4:4, 5.

“For I know nothing by myself: yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord.” Not ‘Jesus’; not ‘Christ’ here, but the Lord. “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

It is a question of authority—a question of power—of His being the exalted one unto whom all judgment has been committed. Power and authority have to do with His Lordship.

Dear Christian friend, do you know anything about what it is to own Him as Lord. A great many own Him as Saviour. They speak of Him as Jesus, but they do not know much about what it is to own Him as Lord—to bow to His authority.

Let us look at a few practical applications of this term:

“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” (Col. 3:17).

Then see how the Lordship of Christ comes in into the most intimate details of our life.

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.”

“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.”

“Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”

Dear Christian friends, do you know anything of the Lordship of Christ? It is in Scripture. Does it have a place in your heart and ways? Again we read in this same chapter:

“Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”

That is, you serve the one who now has every right and authority over you—the exalted and blessed One.

The Lordship of Christ has to say to us in some other connection too: Suppose we turn to 1 Cor. 11:20:

“When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.”

Not the supper of Jesus—not Christ’s—but “the Lord’s;” the one whose authority is supreme.

“For I have received of the Lord.” The bestowing of the ordinance is connected with the name of authority and power—the one supreme now—the one who is made Lord and Christ—that one, “the same night in which He was betrayed took (bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take eat. This is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Who says this? The Lord—the Lord Jesus. Does that name have weight with you, dear Christian friend? Do you so remember Him? If you do not, you will have to give account to Him some day. This is authoritative; it is not to be disregarded, and ours should be the place of rendering glad obedience to the Lord. How blessed to know Him thus as the glorified Man in whom power and authority have been vested by God!

In the same chapter we read of the Lord’s death.

“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.”

This is a solemn line of things. It presses upon us the authority of this blessed one we profess to know and serve—the Lordship of Christ. We cannot leave that out.

Look at 1 Corinthians 12:3, and observe the negative side of things there,

“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

That is, no man can give to Him the place of Lordship except it be by the Holy Ghost. Only a Christian can do this, for only a Christian is indwelt by the Holy Ghost. It is well for us in this day, very much akin to the days of the Judges, when every man is disposed to do that which is right in his own eyes, to be reminded again of the Lordship of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ!

To sum up what we are considering, may I suggest the thought is this: The “Lord Jesus Christ” sets before us the one exalted now, to whom all power is committed, the one whose authority we own. It reminds us that He was once down here, the Man who trod earth’s pathway of shame and woe, even unto death—the death of the cross!—but who now, in glory, is the source of all blessing to us, and the one to whom we are united.

What a wide scope of things is brought thus before our hearts! The future is anticipated—redeemed creation will own His Lordship. The past is included. Our present blessings are brought before us, and our standing before God. These thoughts are connected with the name Lord Jesus Christ.

(Continued from Page 75).

To be continued.

To Young Christians: Part 2

The Master has gone into a “far country to receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return:” but He has left “to every man his work.” Our Lord has placed us in different homes, with varied duties to perform, and varied relationships to fill, (and the new life strengthens these ties), but all is to be done for Him. He is Lord of our time, our influence, our life: we can give our all to Him, and receive it back again, to hold and use for Him. Christ ennobles all work and duty—sanctifies every earthly relationship by consecrating all to Himself. His own perfect example is given as our pattern in daily life (Eph. 4:2, 3). And it will not please our Master for us to neglect this service, for what appears to be more emphatically His work.

All we do is valued by Him, not by any human standard, but according to the motive from which it springs. “For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord God looketh on the heart.” Love to Jesus is the only motive that will bear God’s searching eye, but where this is found, it is so comprehensive that it will dignify the meanest service. “The cup of cold water,” given in His name, shall not lose its reward.

It is a solemn thought, that when we appear to be earnestly engaged in the Lord’s work, God may look into our hearts and find many motives there which have outgrown the only one that could make our service acceptable to Him, namely, love to His Son (1 Cor. 13:1, 2, 3). “The day shall declare it” (1 Cor. 3:13).

Many a busy, active professor, when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, shall be found wanting (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

But on that day when the Master’s smile will be everything to us, Christ will say to the humble, loving servant, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21).

“But ye, when ye have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants, we have only done that which was our duty to do.” Our warmest love is cold, our most fervent efforts feeble, and the nearer we are to the Lord, the less we shall think of ourselves; the more we shall feel how unable we are to make any return for all He has done for us, or even to praise Him as we ought; all we can do is to give ourselves to Him, to be His forever.

There are heights in Christ’s love that we have never reached, and depths we have never fathomed; there are victories to be gained over sin which we have not yet achieved; there are treasures in God’s Word which we have never reached, but which the Holy Spirit waits to unfold, to enrich our souls.

We may do much more for Jesus here. He has many sheep and lambs, whom we have not sought to feed; some have strayed, and wandered far from the peaceful fold. We have not gone after them unwearyingly till they were found, There are many souls to be saved, over whom we have not wept. Soon our opportunities of service will be over, “for the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4).

May the Holy Spirit lead us upward and onward, “looking unto Jesus.” May we know Him as our Saviour, not only from the punishment of sin, but also from its power; and more than this, as a loving, gracious Friend, who is ever with us, and in whose peaceful presence we may, even now, “rejoice with joy unspeakable.”

Soon God’s purposes respecting us will be accomplished, and life and service here being ended, Christ will fulfill the mysteries of glory and of love contained in His own promise, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Then the Father’s name, so faintly traced here, shall shine in living luster on each brow. We shall serve Him perfectly, and praise Him forever and ever.

(Continued from page 81).

Joy

The thing that hinders our rejoicing is not trouble, but being half and half. If in the world the Christian’s conscience reproaches him, if he meets spiritual Christians he is unhappy there; in fact, he is happy nowhere.

Ours ought not to be a religion of regrets, but a rejoicing of heart continually.

“Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). There is closer connection between these three, than our souls are wont to acknowledge. Joy will ever rise in proportion to prayer and thanksgiving.

Correspondence: Heb. 8:2; State of the Departed; John 9:6-7; 2 Cor. 12:16

Question: What is the true tabernacle mentioned in Hebrews 8:2? Is it Christ, or is it the church? J. E.

Answer: The true tabernacle for us now is the holiest of all, the place where we meet God. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Our worship is spiritual and heavenly. It is the contrast between Judaism and Christianity. Our hearts worship and adore God by the Holy Spirit in His very presence, without ordinances or ceremonies.

Question: Is there any scripture that tells the state of the departed saints before they get their bodies? M. E. J.

Answer: All we know about the saints who have died, is in the following verses: “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (garden of delights). (Luke 23:43).

“Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8).

“To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” (Phil. 1:21, 23).

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” (Rev. 14:13).

We must be content with what Scripture says. God leads our hearts on to the resurrection, when clothed upon with our bodies glorified. We shall be perfected in His glory.

“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied,” (Isa. 53:11); and, “We shall be satisfied, when we awake with His likeness.” (Psa. 17:15).

Question: What does the clay and the spittle, and the Pool of Siloam in John 9:6, 7 mean? P. T.

Answer: In John’s Gospel we have the mystery of the person of Christ as the Son of God from all eternity. He is the Word that was in the beginning with God. He Himself had no beginning. This is a mystery, for we cannot know God’s being, but we can believe it.

John 1:14 is His history begun on earth. There we get the incarnation—Man and God in one person.

In Luke 1:35, that holy thing born of the woman is His holy humanity. He is a man, yet God, manifest in flesh, sent of the father into this world (1 Tim. 3:16; John 10:36).

This is what the spittle made into clay presents, and the Pool of Siloam, which means, “sent,” presents the thought of faith in Jesus the Son of God, the Sent One of the Father. This opened the eyes of the man born blind.

Question: Did Paul use guile to catch people? (2 Cor. 12:16). O.

Answer: Paul in that verse is casting it back on them that he did not use guile, as verses 17, 18 show. 2 Corinthians 4:2 emphatically says he did not use any such means.

Sow Beside All Waters

The Countess of Huntingdown was walking in her garden one day, near to where a workman was repairing part of the garden wall. She stopped and spoke to the man about his soul, pressing home the necessity of being saved, and ready to meet God; but the Word seemed to have but little effect. Years after, while speaking to another workman, she said,

“Thomas, I fear you have not yet looked to Christ for salvation.”

“Your ladyship is mistaken,” replied the workman, “I have looked and I am saved.”

“How did it happen?” inquired the Countess.

“It was while you were speaking to James, my fellow worker, when we were repairing the garden wall.”

“How did you hear?”

“I was on the other side, and heard your words through a hole in the wall.”

A word spoken in due season, how good it is, and how often has God made such a word the message of life to souls. Be encouraged to speak for Christ everywhere and at all times. God will look after His own Word.

“Sow beside all waters.” We do not know where the seed may find a lodging-place; it is ours to sow.

A servant-maid in unpacking some goods sent from a grocer’s store, found among the packing a piece of paper on which the beautiful hymn, beginning— “Just as I am without one plea” was printed. She had never seen nor heard these words before, and by the blessing of God, they were the means of leading her to the Saviour.

How that tract came to be there, I cannot tell. Possibly someone had thrown it away, but the Lord looked after it, and the fruit was sure. The great thing is to sow in communion with God. Then our sowing cannot fail to have His blessing, even if it may seem to be rejected.

A young man was offered a tract on the street one evening. He took it, tore it up, and threw it back in the giver’s face. That seemed a hopeless case. The worker was discouraged: the devil whispered,

“Stop giving tracts, they do no good.”

Several weeks later, a young man called at the house of the tract distributor, and asked if he could see him. He was in great anxiety of soul, and he said the first real sight he got of himself was that night after he tore up the tract on the street. God used his own wickedness to arrest him, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” (Eccl. 11:6).

“Therefore, by beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Grace

There is nothing sweeter than grace—the rich, unbounded grace of God! What child of His but recalls with delight his first discovery of it!

When, an unconverted youth, full of worldly hopes and none beyond, I first heard, with a faint glimmering of intelligence, the accents of this grace, my soul was filled with a kind of surprise! The effect was to present God in a totally different light from that in which I had naturally viewed Him.

Hitherto I had understood that He made such large demands which none could possibly render—that He required satisfaction for sins utterly beyond the power of the sinner to give—whose case became, therefore, doubly desperate. That God should be holy, and that He should judge sin in conformity with that holiness, I could only admit to be right; yet my difficulty lay in the conscious impossibility of appeasing Him.

Could this be effected by any reasonable surrender, on my part—of the loss of wealth or limb, or the performance of any amount of what may be called penance, it would gladly have been done; but, under the feeling that nothing of the kind could suffice, my soul yielded to the growing conviction that, as I could do nothing, it were better to resign myself to fate, and take my chance with others.

I daresay that a similar state is commonly to be found in the young. And what is the root of it? It is ignorance of God, which arises from the darkness of the natural mind. The true knowledge of God has been lost, and despair is proportionate to the thirst of soul after Him.

Well, the first faint glimmer of light that ever dawned upon my heart, and that surprised me by a sense of grace, came from the words of a well-known hymn:

“Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.”

Ah! there is grace in this verse. Notice, Jesus sought, and interposed His blood on behalf of a stranger—who was wandering to certain danger—with the object of effecting the rescue of such. I could see nothing like demand, nor requirement—nothing “austere,” no reaping nor gathering where nothing had been sown or strawed—no cold inflexible law, hurling its dreadful curse on him who offended but in one point; nothing of that sort, but just the opposite—love; a love that sought, that rescued, that died; a love that could not possibly do more to prove its reality to one who deserved nothing. This is grace! How charming!

O! how the soul is filled with thanksgiving, when its living tidings are known in power! Like the breeze of the morning that lifts and scatters the night clouds, so does the sense of God’s saving grace chase away the darkness of the soul.

What is grace? It is divine love acting for the good of the guilty—its favors are, indeed, unmerited. It is the very opposite of law, although equally holy in nature and effects; but it gives to those who have nothing, it clothes the naked, it fills the hungry, it carries salvation to the lost, it makes God known to the soul.

Does there never lurk in your heart, dear reader, the secret wish that you might be right with God? You dread the moment when you must meet Him, yet you cannot tell what should be done to fit you. You have “done your best,” —turned over new leaves and soiled them; made good resolutions and broken them; sought counsel of many but without satisfaction—until your soul is one vast sea of difficulty, on which the clouds of black darkness are settling. Your cry is, “O, that I might find Him!” Be it so! Better to be tossed on every billow, than to incur Ephraim’s verdict, “Let him alone.”

My friend, “God is Love.” That note of exquisite gospel music may well thrill your soul. Do you hear it? and believe it? Ah! you say, “But God is Light, and must punish sin—and punish me because I have sinned.” True. Yet this, instead of being “the day of judgment,” is the “day of salvation.” And, O! what a difference!

Today there is not a poor, guilty sinner who, repenting of his sins, trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, but gets a welcome to His bosom, and a home in His presence.

Yes, friend, let Him who seeks, find you, and rescue you by His blood. Let grace win your confidence. Cast aside every doubt and fear.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;” and know, for certain, that you are saved through his death for you, and His resurrection; so that—

Rescued thus from sin and danger,

By your Savior’s precious blood,

You may walk on earth a stranger,

As a son and heir of God.

Scripture Study: Colossians 4

Verse 1. “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.”

Here the master is exhorted to do justice to his slave, for he also has a master to whom he will need to give account. The, slave may be sadly tried in serving an ungodly master, especially if asked to do things against his conscience or against Christ Himself, but he is to prove himself a faithful servant for his master’s interests (1 Tim. 6:1, 2).

Christianity does not interfere with the laws of a country, but brings in grace in God’s people (Titus 2:9, 10).

Philemon is the story of Onesimus whom grace set free. Philemon was the godly master who set him free to serve the Lord in the gospel with Paul who was the means of his conversion.

Verse 2. The Apostle desires the saints to continue in prayer, in communion with God, and with thanksgiving; watching that the reality of dependence on God, and consciousness of His nearness be observed. The soul must know and enjoy its own communion with God while praying for Christ’s interests in others, and in those who are specially His servants. There is conflict with evil as we go on our way. We must therefore watch in prayer, not merely occasionally, or as a cry of need, but maintaining our dependence on Him continually. Paul desired prayer for Himself, and that he might be able to make the truth manifest to souls.

Verse 5. “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time,” that is: buying up opportunities to serve the Lord.

Verse 6. “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how to answer every man.” Notice, in these verses that we are to think of those without, and to use our opportunities to gain them. The speech might be gracious or amiable enough, but it is grace, the grace of God that brings in something of the fear of God.

He can use us as His voice when we are walking with Him. Our speech ought always to be the expression of separation from evil—this is the salt; it brings in the thought of God into the soul.

Verses 7-9. Tychicus was to tell them all about the apostle’s state as a prisoner. He was a faithful minister, and fellow servant, and Paul sent him to know how they were, and to comfort their hearts, with Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother. They together could tell them all they wanted to know about him in Rome.

Verses 10-16. Aristarchus, another prisoner of the Lord, sent his love to them, and Marcus, Barnabas’ nephew, is seen here as one of the Lord’s servants now restored to Paul’s company (see also 2 Tim. 4:11). Jesus called Justus another of the circumcision. It seems that not many of the circumcision labored with Paul, for he says, “These only are my fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.” The others would be of the Gentiles. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. He is called a fellow laborer (Philem. 1:24). His story is told in 2 Timothy 4:10. It is a sad one, he forsook Paul having loved the world.

Epaphras, a faithful servant of Christ, sent his love “always laboring fervently for them in his prayers, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” This service was used of God to give us this epistle, and he might be used for other places too. Nymphas seems to have the assembly in his house in Laodicea. Other letters might have been written, but not needed to fill up the inspired Word of God, and therefore did not need to be preserved so those that were inspired could be copied and circulated.

Verses 17, 18, have a word for us, and many brethren may profit by it, “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.” Remember Paul’s bonds. Christ is glorified, but is still rejected on earth. Let us take our share (2 Tim. 1:8, 2:1, 3) in suffering with Him.

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 4

Perhaps we could turn to a few scriptures, and endeavor, as simply as we are able, to notice the significance of the names employed.

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:1, 2).

Observe here the names of that blessed One are given to us in three forms—three combinations of names here. Paul and Timotheus speak of themselves as servants of Jesus Christ. They address all the saints in Christ Jesus—they reverse the words—and in the second verse they speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why these variations? Is that just done to give a flourish to the pen? People do that sometimes. Is that the reason for it here? No; Paul and Timotheus present themselves as servants of the one who was Himself a servant below, but who is now exalted. They address all the saints in the now exalted one, who once was the lowly one down here. What do they desire for these? That grace and peace be issued to them from the Lord; that is, that Jesus Christ as Lord, would issue to them the grace and peace needed. His authority is now in view.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 2:5).

Here it is a question of the Lord’s being set before us on a descending scale. The one who in Himself was the high and lofty one—that one came down and became Jesus, and trod a pathway of shame and woe. In verses 6-8, there is a wonderful summary of that life.

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Verse 9).

His Lordship will be recognized and exercised over all His wide dominion soon. Thank God for the measure in which our hearts own His Lordship now.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep through Jesus will God bring with Him.” (1 Thess. 4:13, 14).

I submit that this is very tender. Divine wisdom abounds here. God sets Jesus before us now. Who are those addressed? Bereaved ones on earth. What is the character in which that blessed one is presented? Is His supreme authority and glory emphasized? No; the Spirit of God sets Him before us in the character of the one who Himself went through death; the one who was down here in the very scene you and I are going through, and who has gone through trials, sorrows and difficulties such as we have never known. Thus Jesus is brought before us here. Jesus died, and those who die, sleep through Jesus.

“For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord.” (Verse 15).

Not by the “word of Jesus,” or by the “word of Christ.” This is authority. God would have us know it. This comes by supreme authority.

It is a question now of power—of resurrection—a power that will awaken the dead. A question of divine power.

“For the Lord Himself” —not Jesus—not Christ “shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

Not “the dead in Jesus.” The dead are in Christ here. That is, their privileges and the blessedness of their standing as being in Him who is the exalted and glorified one, is that which is in question here.

“The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” —with the One whose power, whose authority, we shall forever own, and the one whose power and authority earth shall likewise own!

Thank God for the grace that has linked us with Him now, and has given us to know something of the fellowship of His sufferings, and if in any way we can say it, has “made us conformable unto His death.” Presently we shall be gathered where He is, to be with and like Him forever. May the Lord give us to live and walk in the power and sense of this truth.

“Soon Thou wilt come again,

Jesus, our Lord!

We shall be happy then,

Jesus, our Lord!

Then we Thy face shall see,

Then we shall like Thee be,

Then evermore with Thee,

Jesus, our Lord!”

(Continued from page 107)

Concluded.

The Morning Star

(Lines suggested by a morning ride to I. H R’y. Station, Canada.)

Narrative

‘Twas early morn, the snow shone white,

Glittering beneath the moon’s pale light,

For high in heaven she held her way,

And hours must elapse ere break of day;

But travel, we must, if we hope to gain

The rail in time for the morning train,

So we started, and heard as the sleigh sped fleet

No sound, but the tread of the horses’ feet;

The world was sleeping, and all was still,

For silence rested on vale and hill.

‘Twas well we were muffled in furs, I ween,

For the frosty air bit sharp and keen;

And little was said as we slipped along,

For frozen alike seemed tale and song.

Our hearts were “discouraged because of the way,”

And sorely we longed for the dawning of day;

Yet pleasant the thoughts, and still they abide,

Which came to me during that dark, cold ride,

For the harbinger bright of coming day

Did ever before us its lights display,

The silvery rays of the Morning Star

Above the horizon shone afar,

And as I sat gazing, sweet thoughts arose

In my mind, which in measure resembled those:

Jesus, the Bright and Morning Star

I thought of Him, who died for sin,

That He eternal life might win

For those who did, in heart, abhor Him

Who, though the Father’s sole delight,

Willingly left the glory bright,

With death and suffering before Him.

Of Him who rendered up His breath,

Bowing beneath the stroke of death,

Triumphing over death by dying;

And who, though dead, yet strong to save,

Arose victorious o’er the grave,

Its dread and lonesome power defying.

I thought of Him in courts above,

The object of the Father’s love,

By radiant angel hosts attended;

Dwelling in glory’s brightest blaze,

The theme of heaven’s exhaustless praise,

His sufferings forever ended.

But though on high, He’s still the same,

And when upon the cross of shame

He prayed in love for them that slew Him;

Though dwelling in the courts above,

He still retains His name of love,

And welcomes all that still come to Him.

How great the love He bears His own!

Its height or depth can ne’er be known;

In His warm heart ‘tis ever glowing,

And soon He’ll come to claim His Bride,

That she may e’er with Him abide,

Glory divine on her bestowing.

Hearken! He speaks from heaven afar,

I am: The bright and Morning Star.

Midnight is past, ‘tis early morning,

Rise from among the dead—awake—

Be watchful, slumber from thee shake,

For soon I come the heavens’ adorning.

Narrative

But now, as slowly waned the night,

The frost seemed sharper still to bite;

Stung by the cold, we thought the sleigh,

As it slipped along, made little way;

But though this might our comfort mar,

It made no change on the morning star.

In beauty and brightness still it shone

Like a silver plate in the sky alone.

To our impatience, it seemed to say,

“Wait for a little, ‘twill soon be day;

Be patient, this trial will soon be past,

And your journey’s end you’ll reach at last.”

And again the sweet thoughts in the mind would rise,

As I gazed on the star that illumed the skies.

The Rising of the Bright and Morning Star

When the traveler weary,

Bending neath a load,

Through the darkness dreary,

Toils along the road,

In his worn-out sandal,

Hoping rest to win;

Sweet the shining candle

Of the welcome inn.

When the storm is pouring,

O’er the midnight sea,

And the surge is roaring

‘Neath the vessel’s lee;

To the awe-struck seaman,

Rapturous is the sight,

When through darkness gleaming

Shines the beacon light.

When the church, contending,

Weary, sad, forlorn,

Yet on God depending,

Watcheth for the morn;

Then what joy and gladness,

When from heaven afar,

Ending all her sadness,

Shines the Morning Star.

Jesus! Lord of glory,

Lord of life and peace,

Theme of angel’s story—

Bid our wanderings cease.

See our bark is riven

By the tempest’s jar,

Shine, O, shine, from heaven,

Bright and Morning Star.

Narrative

But now at last, to end my story,

Rose the bright sun in a blaze of glory,

Bidding the slumbering world arise,

Soaring triumphant through the skies.

The darkness fled before its beams,

‘Neath his bright rays, the landscape gleams;

Had it been summer, songs of love,

Had warbled forth from every grove;

Clothed in bright green, the stately trees

Had waved their branches in the breeze.

While verdant grass, and floweret gay

Had basked beneath the living ray;

But now, although the dazzling glow

Shone over fields of cold, white snow,

The scene was pleasant to the sight,

And fair to view in the morning light;

So when—our journey nearly done—

In glory and splendor rose the sun,

I thought of the time when our banners unfurled,

The Lord will re-visit this suffering world,

(After, as Morning Star, He has come,

And taken His bride to His own bright home).

And when, as the Sun of Righteousness,

He rises in glory bright to bless

His earthly people, forsaken long,

Filling their hearts with joy and song.

Israel! on whose devoted head

Has rested for centuries, curses dread;

And as I thought of these coming days,

My heart burst forth in songs of praise.

Christ, the Sun of Righteousness

When we speak of Israel’s wanderings,

Mournful is the dirge and low;

Naught of joy relieves our ponderings,

Only thoughts of grief and woe.

But still deeper grows the sadness,

And still louder Israel’s moan;

Unrelieved by aught of gladness,

When the church to heaven is gone.

Hated for their name and nation,

Round them storms and tempests lower;

Crushed ‘neath dreadful tribulation,

Wielded by resistless power.

But when trembling for the morrow,

Groaning in their deep distress,

Then, while in their deepest sorrow,

Soars the Sun of Righteousness.

Rising in a cloud of glory,

Light and healing on His wings,

Ends glad Israel’s mournful story,

And their hearts with rapture sing—

Hallelujah

Hail! All hail that cloudless morning,

Hail that bright millennial day

When, the heavens and earth adorning,

Christ will all His power display.

Then shall Israel’s praise ascending

To the great anointed one,

With the church’s anthems blending,

Reach Jehovah’s glorious throne.

Then, while shouts through heaven are ringing,

Ransomed earth with loud acclaim

Shall with rapturous joy and singing

Praise Messiah’s glorious name.

God Leading Us On

I am persuaded that when you look back over that part of life which you have passed, you see how God does, according to His promise, somehow or other bring us on. How He will do so, we can never tell beforehand; but, when He is leading, He does lead on somehow or other: and as He has done for you and yours, through the years that are past, so He will do for the future also: He changes not.

The Regions Beyond

“To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.” (2 Cor. 10:16).

These words, while they set forth the large-heartedness of the self-denying and devoted apostle, do also furnish a fine model for the evangelist in every age.

The gospel is a traveler; and the preacher of the gospel must be a traveler likewise. The divinely-qualified and divinely-sent evangelist will fix his eye upon “the world.” He will embrace in his benevolent design, the human family. From house to house; from street to street; from city to city; from province to province; from kingdom to kingdom; from continent to continent; from pole to pole. Such is the range of “the good news,” and the publisher thereof.

“The regions beyond” must ever be the grand gospel motto. No sooner has the gospel lamp cast its cheering beams over a district, than the bearer of that lamp must think of the regions beyond. Thus the work goes on. Thus the mighty tide of grace rolls, in enlightening and saving power, over a dark world which lies in “the region of the shadow of death.”

Christian reader, are you thinking of “the regions beyond you”? This expression may, in your case, mean the next house, the next street, the next village, the next city, the next kingdom, or the next continent. The application is for your own heart to ponder; but say, are you thinking of “the regions beyond you”?

I do not want you to abandon your present post at all; or, at least, not until you are fully persuaded that your work, at that post, is done. But remember, the gospel plow should never stand still. “Onward” is the motto of every true evangelist.

Let the shepherds abide by the flocks; but let the evangelists betake themselves hither and thither, to gather the sheep. Let them sound the gospel trump, far and wide, over the dark mountains of this world, to gather together the elect of God. This is the design of the gospel. This should be the object of the evangelist, as he sighs after “the regions beyond.”

When Caesar beheld, from the coast of Gaul, the white cliffs of Britain, he earnestly longed to carry his arms thither. The evangelist, on the other hand, whose heart beats in unison with the heart of Jesus, as he casts his eye over the map of the world, longs to carry the gospel of peace into regions which have heretofore been wrapped in midnight gloom, covered with the dark mantle of superstition, or blasted beneath the withering influences of “a form of godliness without the power.”

It would, I believe, be a profitable question for many of us to put to ourselves, how far we are discharging our holy responsibilities to “the regions beyond.” I believe the Christian who is not cultivating and manifesting an evangelistic spirit, is in a deplorable condition. |iI| believe, too, that the assembly which is not cultivating and manifesting an evangelistic spirit is in a dead state.

One of the truest marks of spiritual growth and prosperity, whether in an individual, or in an assembly, is earnest anxiety after the conversion of souls. This anxiety will swell the bosom with most generous emotions; yea, it will break forth, in copious streams of benevolent exertion, ever flowing toward “the regions beyond.”

It is hard to believe that “the word of Christ” is “dwelling richly” in any one who is not making some effort to impart that word to his fellow sinners. It matters not what may be the amount of the effort; it may be to drop a few words in the ear of a friend, to give a tract, to pen a note, to breathe a prayer. But one thing is certain, namely, that a healthy vigorous Christian will be an evangelistic Christian—a teller of good news—one whose sympathies, desires, and energies, are ever going forth toward “the regions beyond.” “I must preach the gospel to other cities also, for therefore am I sent.” Such was the language of the divine Evangelist.

If the reader should be one whom God has called and fitted to be an evangelist, let him remember the world is his sphere— “the regions beyond;” his motto—to gather out God’s elect; his object—the leading of the Spirit, his line of direction—which all must adopt, if they would prove fruitful in the gospel field.

Finally, whether the reader be an evangelist or not, I would earnestly entreat him to examine how far he is seeking to further the gospel of Christ. We really must not stand idle. Time is short! Eternity is rapidly posting on! The Master is most worthy! Souls are most precious! The season for work will soon close! Let us, then, in the name of the Lord, be up and doing. And when we have done what we can, in the regions around, let us carry the precious gospel into “THE REGIONS BEYOND.”

Go, labor on, while it is day,

The world’s dark night is hastening on;

Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away;

It is not thus that souls are won.

Men die in darkness at thy side,

Without a hope to cheer the tomb;

Take up the torch, and wave it wide,

The torch that lights time’s thickest gloom.

Go on, faint not, keep watch, and pray;

Be wise the erring soul to win;

Go forth into the world’s highway,

Compel the wanderer to come in.

God's Gift

Jesus is God’s gift to me,

And it is my joy to be

Joined with Him in heavenly life,

Who soon will come with glory rife.

But while I wait, it is His grace

That keeps me till I see His face;

Then, changed into His image bright,

I’ll dwell with Him in perfect light.

Thus, too the saints of every clime

Shall join to sing that song sublime,

Which only those redeemed by blood

Can sing before the Eternal God.

While dwelling there in mansions fair,

‘Twill be our pleasure to declare

The glories of that blessed one

Whom God has set o’er all—His Son.

Thus, reigning over all as King,

His saints shall see the nations bring

Honor and glory to His name

Whose glorious power has spread His fame.

The future state of righteousness

Shall fully prove His blessedness.

Extract: The Testing Point

Anyone can rejoice in the Lord when the Lord gives him what he likes. “Bless the Lord at all times:” that is the testing point. “In everything give thanks.”

Correspondence: Death - Present or Asleep?; John 2:17 - Zeal of Thine House

Question: I was taught by my parents that when we die, we go to be with the Lord. Now I am told by others, that all go to sleep in death till the resurrection. If you can, please enlighten us about this? What does Ecclesiastes 9:5 mean, “The dead know not anything?”

Answer: The death of the Christian is often spoken of as asleep. (See Matt. 27:52; Acts 7:60; John 11:11; 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thess. 4:13, 14, 15; 5:10), but asleep refers to the bodies, so that they know not anything under the sun—they are away from all that is going on here on earth. Ecclesiastes is wisdom under the sun. We need to get what the Lord Jesus and His apostles tell us, to know the full truth.

We find clear evidence from them that neither saved nor unsaved are unconscious as to the spirit. Death in Scripture is NEVER, ceasing to exist. There is no death to the soul or spirit.

Man, the highest of the animal kingdom, is a responsible being, and his existence is for eternity; the body goes to decay at death, but the soul or spirit has gone either to be with Christ in paradise; or to the prison, under chains of darkness, awaiting the day when the body will be given again, to stand at the Great White Throne to receive the sentence—the wages of the sins the person was guilty of.

The saved are seen in Luke 16:23; 20:38; 23:43, 46; Acts 7:59; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21, 23; Revelation 14:13, and another picture of the martyrs in Revelation 6:9-11.

The unsaved are seen in Luke 16:23; and in Luke 12:5. They are warned to “Fear Him who after He has killed has power to cast the person into hell.” Notice it is after He has killed. We see the unsaved, who would not listen to Noah’s preaching, are now in prison (1 Peter 3:19); and we see them chained up (2 Peter 2:4, 9).

When the Lord Jesus comes for His own, the dead in Christ will rise first; then the living ones changed (Phil. 3:20, 21), will be caught up together to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-18). These will also stand at the judgment seat of Christ, now glorified in their resurrection bodies, to receive their reward, and be appointed to the place each one is to fill for Him.

Question: Please explain explicitly, “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up” (John 2:17). S. E. W.

Answer: It means that the Lord Jesus, seen here as the Messiah in His burning zeal for God’s glory in His house, rises above every other thought. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Psa. 40; Heb. 10). If anyone spoke against God, the burden of it fell on Him. “The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen on Me.” (Psa. 69:9). Here we have the Lord’s sufferings from the hand of man (He took it all from the Father). It is not atonement here. This is seen in Psalms 22. It is some of His inward sufferings, in which other Godly men might share. It is like Psalms 102:1-11.

He knew, to carry out the will of God would lead through death (John 12:27). This earnest desire to fulfill all the will of God, brought suffering and reproach upon Him.

There are three prophetic days: John Baptists’ day (chap. 1:1-36). Jesus’ day, with the godly remnant of the Jews (37-51). The marriage day, pointing to Israel’s restoration (chap. 2:1-22).

Jesus comes to the house of God, but it must be cleansed (14, 15). There the disciples remember (Psa. 69:9). Then we see in the same shadowy way, that He is to go through death, into resurrection life and glory, before all these things can be fulfilled (verse 19-22). This was the sign He gave them.

This scene foreshadows the purging of the kingdom in the latter days before the Lord as King can take possession of it.

May it be our earnest desire while we wait for Him, to have a little of that zeal, that we also may learn, and do His will (Rom. 12:1, 2).

Bradshaw Settled It

Two young men were traveling by train in a region with which they were not familiar. In the course of conversation one of them mentioned the name of what he thought was the next station. His friend disagreed with him, and stated what he considered it would be. As each felt positive he was right, the discussion became somewhat heated.

A fellow-passenger, overhearing the contention, told them that the question could be easily settled as he had Bradshaw’s Guide with him, whereupon he produced it and found that they were both wrong.

How good it is to have a sure guide or authority to settle questions upon which one may be in doubt. This is true even in earthly affairs, and how much more do we need an unfailing authority in matters that pertain to the soul’s salvation. This we have in the Bible, which is the Word of God.

Probably there is no subject upon which there is such a range of thought or opinion as that of the salvation of the soul. But thoughts and opinions of men are not a safe guide in so vital a matter, inasmuch as the soul’s eternal destiny is at stake,

In all man-made schemes that relate to this subject, much of human effort and human merit are set forth as a means of salvation. This has to be guarded against as it is directly contrary to the Scripture which says— “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:5).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8, 9).

God’s salvation is something entirely of Himself, planned and executed by Him, and which, in His love and goodness, He offers (a finished product) to all who will receive it.

This is sweetly expressed in John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Doubtless the season is now with us, foretold in the Scriptures hundreds of years ago, that the time would come when sound doctrine would not be endured; that the truth would be refused, and ‘fables’ substituted for the God-given Guide.

But though the multitudes are turning away from the Word, we know by its own testimony that its truth remains, and will forever. Not only will it endure, but it will in the day of judgment, rise up as a condemning witness against those who have not obeyed its voice.

“He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same will judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48).

Those who in all ages have been pleasing to God, are the ones who have believed God. And as this belief or faith was reckoned as righteousness to Abraham of old, so it will be to the reader, if he will simply lay hold of what God says.

God has revealed His mind in the Holy Scriptures, and happy is he who hears and obeys. This is the only means of safety in these perilous times, when the clamor of deceptive voices is heard on every hand.

May the reader be preserved from this destructive influence, and satisfied with nothing less than, “Thus Saith The Lord.”

With this unfailing guide, one may be lead in safe and quiet paths through the turmoil of this life, which will terminate in the better home above.

Light obeyed, increaseth light;

Light rejected, bringeth night,

Who shall give me power to choose,

If the love of light I lose?

Two Lives - A Word for God's People

Nothing can be more instructive than to trace the history, and note the outcome of the lives of others. No two lives of God’s people, running side by side, afford us more searching lessons than those of Abram and Lot.

After years of apparently happy fellowship in a pilgrim path with God, quarrels and dissensions arose between the servants of the two men, and so Abram and Lot parted company: Abram, to continue the pilgrim and stranger’s path, the walk of faith with God; Lot, to tread the path of worldly wisdom and self-seeking.

As to Lot, it would seem that ever since the journey to Egypt for succor in a time of testing and failure, the world and its glitter had awakened in him new thoughts of earth’s riches and advantages. THE OBJECT THE HEART IS SET UPON, IS THE OBJECT THE FEET WILL PURSUE. So it was with Lot. Reader, WHAT is the object of YOUR heart?

As the FIRST step in open departure, Lot is seen pitching his tent toward Sodom. He does not at once go right into the prosperous, but wicked city. Conscience is not yet fully asleep, though Satan is steadily luring him on after the gilded bait. Soul declension having set in, it is only a matter of time till we find Lot and his family dwelling in that city.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us that the city of Sodom was noted for several things, among them being fullness of bread; that is, it was a rich city with an abundance of the good things of this life, so that self and its great demands could gratify every lust. It was also a city given over to idleness, where people took life easy, and went in for what they considered a good time. Once in Sodom, Lot is no longer known as the companion of the odd and peculiar man Abram; but is recognized as Justice Lot, one of the Judges of the city.

Shortly after he came into Sodom, God in his providence, allowed Lot’s self-chosen ease to be disturbed, and he became engulfed in Sodom’s wars, was taken captive by the enemy, and recovered only by the noble efforts of Abram. But the hold that his heart’s objects had secured on him, blinded his eyes to God’s rebuke, and so he returned to the city to DWELL there permanently—alas! alas! till the day of its overthrow.

From a human standpoint, one would say that Lot had made a GRAND success of his venture in Sodom; worldly honor, fame, respect, and, we can believe, some of this world’s wealth had come to him. As to his children, whatever the advantages open to them in the doomed city, Lot’s sin is seen in remaining within such a stronghold of wickedness.

BUT THE REAPING TIME CAME AT LAST very unexpectedly, and this was the moment when the sad results of Lot’s departure from God were to be seen.

“Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num. 32:23).

WHAT A REAPING TIME was Lot’s for his folly, unbelief, disobedience and covetousness! His testimony is powerless to deliver sons-in-law, or anyone, from the doomed city; for all turn a deaf ear to his pleadings, and the story of the coming judgment appears to them as a mere jest. He must depart and leave them to perish with Sodom.

Christian reader, mark well the effect upon one’s family, relatives, and acquaintances of a worldly course; the soul that fails to walk with God—a living testimony against the many forms of evils about him—will be utterly unable to deliver others.

O, let us take to heart what we see here! God’s judgment is soon to fall upon this poor, ungodly world. What, O what! will be the state of our sons, our daughters, our relatives, then? Will they be delivered from the rod of God’s wrath? Or will they, through our worldliness, our unfaithfulness, our indifference, go on unwarned, unblest, unsaved, to perish in their sins? God forbid!

The wealth of years of toil for which Lot had sacrificed untold spiritual blessings and eternal rewards, must be abandoned to become food for the devouring flames. So too, my reader, will it be with you, if you have gone in for making money, and adding to your earthly store.

What power, what testimony, what fruit, can come of the life, that to the unsaved, appears to consist in the abundance of the things it possesses? O remember! “Thou fool!” was the brand of the Savior, the great Searcher of Hearts, upon the man to whom the sum of life was to “take his ease, eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19).

Then, too, the wife of his bosom, constrained by divine grace to be led out of the doomed city, looks back at the object of her affections, is turned into a pillar of salt, and perishes with Sodom. Only he himself and two daughters, of that entire circle escape, and that with their bare lives.

Dear reader, see the fruit of a lifetime’s toil go up in smoke—property, sons, sons-in-law, wife—ALL, ALL, swept away by the consuming judgment of God, into a lost eternity where “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:46). What has the unhappy man left to him? Where is now his worldly distinction? Where are now his earthly joys? Who can measure the loss to Lot’s soul, when the time comes to count up eternal riches?

Is my reader going on in conformity to the world? What idols are you cherishing? Is it gold, pleasure, power, earthly prosperity that make you smell of Sodom? If so, are you not just like the covetous, pleasure-seeking, unconverted all about you? Are YOU in spirit living in Sodom, where ease-loving, money-making, old habits, former lusts, temper, style, deportment do not indicate your true conversion to God? If so, this is really terrible!

You are a sad hindrance to the progress of the gospel and the salvation of souls. Your testimony falls powerless upon those to whom you speak or hand tracts, because there is little about you to make them think you believe what you are talking about.

O, I pray you, face before God these plain and simple truths, and, like the Psalmist, may the blessed Holy Spirit of God lead YOU to think on YOUR ways, and “turn your feet unto His testimonies” (Psa. 119:59); yea, I pray you, make haste to keep His Word (John 14:23).

“Likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” (Luke 17:28-31).

Once more, fellow-Christian, let me ask you, WHICH OF THESE TWO MEN’S COURSES ARE YOU FOLLOWING? Are you like Abram, living day by day in separation from the world and its ways, trusting and obeying God, and guided by His Word? Or, are you, like Lot, LOOKING AT PRESENT, EARTHLY GAIN, bent on money-making, pleasure-seeking, occupied with creature confidences, human hopes, and earthly expectations? WHAT effect does YOUR life produce on those nearest and dearest to you? The Lord Jesus is coming soon to inflict judgment upon all who are strangers to His grace. A question for you now is:

“Hast thou here any” (unsaved ones) in this doomed world? (Gen. 19:12).

“In My Father’s house are many mansions.” (John 14:21).

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psa. 23:6).

When at home in those mansions above,

And the saved all around me appear.

I want to hear somebody tell me:

“It was YOU that invited me here.”

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 1

In Acts 17 we see that Paul and Silas were three Sabbath days reasoning with the Jews at Thessalonica, and some were converted, and consorted with them; also many of the Greeks, and not a few of the chief women. Then persecution drove the apostles away.

Verses 1-4. They left behind them a new company who are spoken of and written to, called the Assembly at Thessalonica, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way they are spoken of as the children of God the Father, belonging by redemption to the Lord Jesus Christ, a redeemed company.

The solution is, “Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What comfort to their souls such a message from heaven should be. Then it continues,

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father; knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election.”

What a change this indicates in them, from what they had been before. Now they were begotten of God, their enmity was gone, and they were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Their work of faith that acted on the Word of God, their labor of love that pursued its path through difficulties and trials, their patience of hope that waited for the Lord to come, were abundant evidence that they now were the Lord’s, and children of the Father, of His chosen ones (John 15:6).

Verses 5-7. “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.”

They had observed the behavior of the apostles, and became followers of them and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.

It cost them suffering and shame, but it proved the reality of their conversion, and brought to them corresponding joy of the Holy Ghost that they were suffering for Christ, and thus they were ensamples to all that were already believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

Verses 8-10. It is remarkable that their devoted, godly walk is here spoken of as “sounding out the Word of the Lord” in these places, and not only there, but in every place their faith toward God was spread abroad, so that the apostles did not need to tell it of them.

What lovely consistency with the truth they had believed, is seen in them, and had been spoken of, how readily they received God’s messengers, and turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

This indeed is the true and only way, for we have no strength to turn from idols before we turn to God. Turning in reality to Him makes our deliverance sure from the power of sin. He is our strength and our salvation.

We, also, like them, wait for the Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who also will deliver us from the coming wrath which will fall upon the world yet, but it will be after His assembly is taken home to be with Himself (Rev. 3:10).

The wrath is future, “We shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Rom. 5:9).

Extract: When We Fail

Mere attacks, are never to be answered. If we have failed—acknowledge it; if not—leave it to the Lord.

A Few Thoughts on Prayer

In Matthew 18:19, 20 it is assembly prayer, and two agree to ask of the Father in Christ’s name, and the Father gives, because they not only ask in Christ’s name, but they are also gathered together unto His name, and He is in the midst. The point is, that it is because Christ has taken His place in the midst of those thus gathered, that the Father answers such prayer.

Individuals praying in Christ’s name have their prayers answered according to John; but here it is gathered ones. The word “For” at the beginning of verse 20 connects it with verse 19.

To illustrate, look at Matthew chapter 3 where the Lord takes his place with the repentant ones, and sanctions their act by His presence amongst them, and by being baptized too. Immediately the Father shows His approval of Christ’s act, by saying He was His Son, and that He was well pleased with Him, at the same time showing that Christ was personally apart from them, and had no sin to confess.

So it is in this chapter, the Father answers the prayers of the gathered ones, because Christ is in the midst. It is really an answer to Christ, as having identified Himself with us, so that every time the Father answers our requests in this way, He glorifies Christ, bearing witness to the place Christ has taken in the midst.

How much we lose when we neglect this privilege, and also how much He loses when we do not give him the opportunity to take that place, and receive testimony from the Father to His condescension and grace in being there.

“His delights were with the sons of men” (Prov. 8:31; Psa. 16:3). It is on earth (Matt. 18:19, and Prov. 8:31).

Where the Saved Dead Are, Till the Resurrection

Since Christ died and is risen again, and the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in believers on earth, with the completed Word of God, we are able to speak with assurance, and to enjoy in a fuller way, our portion in Christ.

We might take 1 Corinthians 2:9, and Isaiah 64:4, for Old Testament saints.

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” And verse 10 for the present.

“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

We Christians, having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, are now able to know and to speak with assurance, and in a different manner than in Old Testament times.

“Sheol” in Hebrew, and “Hades” in Greek, are often translated “Hell,” but they mean “the unseen state,” the state of the soul separate from the body.

“Gehenna” is the word used for the place of punishment of the unsaved; it is also often translated “Hell.”

Another word is used in 2 Peter 2:4 for the prison into which the unsaved are, until the resurrection, called the “chains of darkness.” The Lord Jesus was never there. When He died, His soul was separate from His body; that was “Hades,” translated “Hell” in Psalms 16:10, and Acts 2:27, 31.

There are two distinct resurrections. In John 5:29, one is called “the resurrection of life;” and the other “the resurrection of damnation,” or judgment. In Acts 24:15, “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.” And in Revelation, the one is called “the first resurrection”; the other is “the dead” (Rev. 20:4-6). Revelation 20:5 lets us know that there is a thousand years between the two.

The unseen is now opened up to us in definite, unmistakable language. To the thief on the cross, the Lord said, “Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”

What assurance and joy these words would convey to the heart of the thief who had only asked a share in His kingdom, and now finds himself a chosen companion of his Redeemer for the blessedness of paradise, which means “a garden of pleasures,” which is neither a prison, nor is it an unconscious state.

The Lord was, when He died, in the unseen state—that is, absent from the body, but present with the Father, into whose hands He commended His Spirit (Luke 23:46); and the thief was also absent from the body, and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).

This was also what Paul wrote by inspiration about himself, and again in Philippians 1:21, 23, “To die is gain;” and, “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better,”

We see in these verses, enjoyment of the Lord’s presence follows the death of one who dies in the Lord (Rev. 14:13).

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 we see that the body is the tent or tabernacle that the person lives in. He may be unclothed, that is, the person without his body; or he may be clothed with his body (compare verses 6, 8).

Our bodies are mortal bodies at present, but when Christ comes for His saints, then our bodies will be immortal (1 Cor. 15:53); these words are not applied to the soul. There is proof in Scripture that the soul is still living after the body is dissolved.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 distinguishes between the person, and his body or tent, also Luke 12:4, 5.

“Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.” Still the person is living, though his body is killed.

The Lord lifts the curtain in Luke 16, showing us one saved, and one lost; one in torment, and one in bliss; both unclothed.

This is indeed a solemn picture: what must the reality be! Each, like Judas Iscariot, has gone to “his own place” (Acts 1:25).

Abraham’s bosom to the Jew is the place of bliss, and there Lazarus was carried. His name means “God is my help.”

The rich man had everything but God. He had left God out.

The poor man had nothing, but he had God, and so bliss was his portion: and all who neglect Moses and the Prophets, that is, the Word of God, will be lost.

It is indeed a prison (2 Peter 2:4-9) in which the unsaved are, until the resurrection, when they will be sentenced. Yet they are already “in torments;” not a drop of water to cool their tongues; already “tormented in this flame.” We do not argue about whether it is literal fire or not. If this is a picture, what must the reality be!

Here also we see “a great gulf fixed” between them. There is no mercy, no changing then, no escape from the righteous judgment of a Holy One who will deal with the guilty. There is no salvation after death. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

During this time the blessed Saviour who died for sinners, by His Word and Spirit still says,

“Come unto Me, and all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28).

And, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

And, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” (Heb. 2:3).

Soon the time will come when He shall say, “Depart from Me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41).

In 1 Peter 3, Noah, a preacher of righteousness, warned the ungodly world, but they would not hear. Then the flood swept them all off the face of the earth, into the prison where they now are, awaiting their judgment; there is no gospel there. Noah, by the Spirit of Christ, did the preaching while they were still on the earth. There is no hope for them now. Remember also Sodom and Gomorrha (Jude 7), “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

There is no purgatory in the Word of God. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7). If we are believers, we are already purged from our sins (Heb. 1:3); already perfected by Christ’s one sacrifice (Heb. 10:14).

Purgatory denies the all-cleansing efficacy of the all-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

All believers are children of God. It is not religion, it is trusting Christ, that saves the soul. Make sure, dear reader, that you are one of those who have trusted in the Saviour and His finished work.

When the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross, He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). On that cross He went through all the sorrows of death, and bore the judgment, was forsaken of God as the victim bearing sin. He finished the work, went down into death to annul him that had the power of death. And this He did; death could not hold Him.

He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that He might be saved out of death, so He went down thus into the grave—the lower parts of the earth. His body saw no corruption. He was in no prison, except that His body was in the grave. His Spirit was with the Father. Satan was defeated, and we are delivered from his power (Heb. 2:14, 15; Eph. 4:8; John 17:4, 5). We, as believers, now by the Holy Spirit are united to that glorified one, the Savior of sinners, the believer’s Advocate and Great High Priest, the church’s Head.

The death of believers is called sleep as to this world (John 11:11-14, also 1 Thess. 4:13-15). “They know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5), but that is “under the sun.” Ecclesiastes is wisdom under the sun; it does not reach up to heavenly things. “Sleep” refers only to the body, and not to the soul. The soul does not sleep.

We have already noticed that this does not mean unconsciousness to the bright scene of happiness with the Lord where they wait with Him for the time when soul and body will be reunited and glorified.

(To be continued)

O Lamb of God

O Lamb of God, most precious;

From radiant courts on high

Thou cam’st in love so tender,

On Calvary’s cross to die.

Our sins were laid upon Thee,

Our judgment Thou did’st bear,

That we, Thy ransomed people

Might all Thy glory share.

Thou hast our guilt sustained!

Upon the cruel tree,

That we might share Thy glory

For all eternity.

Thy precious side was wounded,

From whence the life blood flowed,

The debt we had augmented

Was canceled by Thy blood.

‘Twas on the cross, Lord Jesus,

Thou did’st for sin atone,

That all Thy blood bought people

Might share Thy glorious throne.

And soon Thy wide creation

Will Thy redemption see,

Fruit of Thy love and passion

Upon Mount Calvary.

Let Us Go Again: Part 1

“Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do.” (Acts 15:36).

In the preceding paper we presented to the notice of our readers, a motto for the evangelist, in the expression, “To preach the gospel in the regions beyond.” This is the grand object of the evangelist, let his gift or sphere of action be what it may.

But, the pastor has his work as well as the evangelist; and we are desirous to furnish a motto for him likewise. Such a motto we have in the words, “Let us go again.” We are not merely to regard this expression as the narrative of what was done, but a model of what ought to be done.

If the evangelist is responsible to preach the gospel in the regions beyond, so long as there are regions to be evangelized; the pastor is responsible to “go again and visit his brethren,” so long as there are brethren to be visited. The evangelist forms the interesting connection; the pastor maintains and strengthens that connection. The one is the instrument of creating that beautiful link; the other of perpetuating it.

It is quite possible that the two gifts may exist in the same person, as in Paul’s case; but whether this be so or not, each gift has its own specific sphere and object. The business of the evangelist to call out the brethren; the business of the pastor is to look after them. The evangelist goes, first, and preaches the Word of the Lord; the pastor goes again and visits those upon whom that word has taken effect. The former calls out the sheep; the latter feeds and takes care of them.

The order of these things is divinely beautiful. The Lord would not gather out His sheep, and leave them to wander uncared for and unfed.

This would be wholly unlike His gracious, tender, thoughtful way. Hence, He not only imparts the gift whereby His sheep are to be called into existence, but also that whereby they are to be fed and maintained. He has His own interest in them, and in every stage of their history. He watches over them, with intense solicitude, from the moment in which they hear the first quickening accents, until they are safely folded in the mansions above. His desire to gather the sheep tells itself forth in the large- heartedness of the expression, “the regions beyond;” and His desire for their well-being breathes in the words, “Let us go again.” The two things are intimately connected.

Wherever the word of the Lord has been preached and received, there you have the formation of mysterious, but real and most precious links between heaven and earth. The eye of faith can discern the most beauteous link of divine sympathy between the heart of Christ in heaven, and “every city” where “the Word of the Lord” has been preached and received. This is as true now, as it was eighteen hundred years ago.

There may be many things to hinder our spiritual perception of this link; but it is there for all that. God sees it, and faith sees it likewise. Christ has His eye—an eye beaming with intense interest, and radiant with tender love—upon every city, every town, every village, every street, every house in which His Word has been received.

The assurance of this is most comforting to everyone who feels that he has, in very deed, received the Word of the Lord. Were we called upon to prove, from Scripture, the truth of our assertion, we should do so by the following quotation:

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for behold he prayeth.” (Acts 9:10, 11).

Can aught be more touching than to hear the Lord of glory giving, with such minuteness, the address of His newly-found sheep? He gives the street, the number, so to speak, and the very occupation at the moment. His gracious eye takes in everything connected with each one of those for whom He gave His precious life. There is not a circumstance, however trivial, in the path of the very feeblest of His members, in which the blessed Lord Jesus is not interested. His name be praised for such a comforting assurance! May we be enabled to enter, more fully, into the reality and power of such a truth!

Now, our gracious Shepherd would fill the heart of each one acting under Him with His own tender care for the sheep; and He it was who animated the heart of Paul to express and carry out the design embodied in the words, “Let us go again.” It was the grace of Christ flowing down into the heart of Paul, and giving character and direction to the zealous service of that most devoted and laborious Apostle. “I have taught you publicly, and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20).

What an example! Think of the Apostle with all his gigantic labors, finding time to visit from house to house; and that for three years in one town!

(To be continued)

Extract: Judgement and Atonement

All through the Old Testament we see the stayed sword (judgment suspended!) but not till we get to Calvary where our blessed Lord atoned for our sins, do we get the sheathed sword. What a difference between the two! So in Genesis 22 where Christ is typified, it is implied, but the Lord said to Peter,

“Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11).

How the Lord lived and thought, in anticipation of the cross being passed! How He must have longed for this! Blessed be His Name! How sweet it will be to praise Him as we would.

Correspondence: Elisha a Type of the Holy Ghost; Treasures in the Field

Question: Is Elisha in 2 Kings 4:38 a type of the Holy Ghost? P. A.

Answer: Elijah and Elisha were prophets of Jehovah, and were used by Him. Miracles done by them, were done by the Holy Ghost, thus witnessing that they were sent of God. Elijah sought to restore Israel to the law, like John the Baptist. Elisha’s miracles were like Jesus’ miracles of grace, with one exception—Jesus cursed the fig tree, symbolic of Israel in unbelief rejecting the Christ. Elisha cursed the wicked little boys who mocked God’s testimony.

A well-known writer says, “When our prophet took up the mantle of his master, God was all he had; but he found Him enough for all he needed. His need, however, like that of Jesus, was not his own. It was for others he occupied his resources and strength in God. He was rich, but not for himself. Thus—he meets the inconveniences of nature—without a purse he relieves the poor—without a commissariat he feeds armies—the deadly thing he makes harmless—without bread he gives food to a multitude and gathers fragments—without medicine he heals disease—without arms he supplies a nation—though dead he communicates life.

All this tells us of Jesus. For Jesus had nothing, yet made He many rich. He had the worlds of nature and of grace for the needy children of men, and His ways shine in the reflection of His servant Elisha.”

Not all of Jesus, it is true, is seen in Him. Where could we find that? As a suffering witness against the world, Elijah, as I have before said, the rather reflects Him. But in His ways of power and grace, we see Him in Elisha.

Question: What does “the treasure hid in the field” mean in Matthew 13:38, 44? (Referring to “Young Christian” Jan. number page 28). P. C.

Answer: The term “Kingdom of heaven” is found in Matthew’s Gospel only; the other three speak of the

Kingdom of God. It is the rule of heaven on the earth. The Lord Jesus came, but was rejected by both Jews and Gentiles, leaving room for God’s great purpose concerning the church to be fulfilled.

In Matthew 12:46, 50 the Lord announces a new ground of relationship, that sets aside Israel for a time. Then He went out of the house to the seaside, and begins to teach truth that unfolds this new dispensation.

There are seven parables in this chapter 13. The first is the sower, this is preparatory; this kingdom is formed by preaching. The other six are called similitudes of the Kingdom of heaven. It is a Kingdom of mystery, the King is absent, a Kingdom without the King. The next three are external views of it as man can see it.

1st. The tares and the wheat—the mixture of good and bad.

2nd. The mustard seed becoming a tree—a great political influence.

3rd. The leaven—giving its corruptive work.

Then the Lord dismisses the multitude, and goes with His disciples into the house, where He explains the parable of the field, with its judgment at the end, and gives three more parables giving us the view of God’s purposes.

First, it is the treasure hid in the field, found and hid, leading to the one who for the joy of possessing the treasure, sells all that He has, and buys the field. The purposes of God for Israel were from the foundation of the world, and were never hidden. God’s purposes for the church were before the foundation of the world, and were hidden in the counsels of God till the time came to carry out those hidden counsels. Here we get the truth that Christ has bought the field for the treasure that was in it. He bought the whole world, even the infidel that denies Him (2 Peter 2:1).

Twice Israel is called a peculiar treasure (Ex. 19:5, and Psa. 135:4), and God has many other treasures (see concordance).

But this treasure is what is precious to Christ in the world at this present time. All His saints are precious treasure to Him, but it needs another parable to describe the beauty of it, and this is found in the pearl of great price. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, before its existence had begun. He found it in the counsels of God, loved it, and gave Himself for it (Eph. 5:25).

Then we have yet another parable of fishermen casting a net, pulling it ashore, gathering the good into vessels, and casting away the bad, as good fishermen do (Verse 48); they are engaged with the good. Angels gather the bad (Verse 49), and that ends the Kingdom of heaven in its present form.

There are a few more parables of the Kingdom of heaven; all are about this present time, and its end (chaps. 20:1; 22:144; 25:1).

Why Not Trust Me?

We went to hear an earnest servant of the Lord, where many were being saved. Hearing of the work that was going on, and understanding little of the nature of it, curiosity partly prompted us to attend the meetings. It was all new to me. Night after night souls cried for mercy. Often meetings were protracted till after midnight, as those who were anxious would not leave until they found rest in Christ. Suddenly they would rise from their knees, full of joy and peace, and go on their way.

Blind as to spiritual things, I did not know that the Lord had spoken peace to the hearts of such; and asked myself, from time to time, why I had not the joy of those who said they had found the Lord, and lovingly entreated others to come to Him. There was now a great attraction to me in the meetings, and I began to ponder deeply the state of my soul.

My father was a Christian. I had been brought up to read my Bible, and was strict as to the outward observances of religion. Duty to those I loved was a real source of pleasure to me; all was fair in the eyes of indulgent relatives and friends, but I never thought myself converted, and only hoped I should become a child of God at some future time. Thus I had delayed for years, but now, as I listened to faithful words of warning from the lips of the Lord’s servants, I trembled, and thought I must decide.

One night the story was told of a lady who dreamed she was hanging over a precipice, and to prevent herself from falling, had taken hold of a twig growing from the side of the cliff. One below said, “Let go the twig.” She was induced to do so, and, falling into the outstretched arms of her deliverer, was saved. Mr. T. said;

“There may be some here holding on to a twig, some fancied righteousness of their own, too proud to be saved entirely by the work of another. Ah, let it all go. Bring nothing in your hand. You cannot be saved in that way. The work was finished on the cross; you have but to look and live.”

T. described my case. I looked on natural affections, and a wish to please, as likely to win the favor of God, forgetting that in all my ways there was no thought of Him. The Lord in mercy did not leave me thus. I returned home thinking of what I had heard.

As I lay down to rest that night, the last words that came to my mind were, “Let go the twig;” again, as if spoken in a louder voice, “Let go the twig.” I slept; and awoke in an hour or two, and again the same words seemed to ring in my ears, “Let go the twig.”

Then the words darted into my mind, “Don’t be a fool; you are all right.” Perplexed and greatly distressed, I started up, and a gentle voice whispered,

“Why not trust Me?”

“I cannot do anything, Lord; I cannot even trust Thee,” I said. It was all very real. I had never before thought of the Lord as speaking to me. Now I knew He was near.

The next day, I did not mention to any one the exercises of the past night, and was quite silent as I went with others to the place of meeting. I heard as for life or death, all seemed so solemn. The hymn and prayer over, Mr. T. read the words,

“His name shall be called Wonderful.”

Well knowing how many anxious souls looked for words of comfort, he told simply of the one who came to die, of the wonders of His love, and how it is His joy to save. As he thus spoke of the glory and beauty of that wondrous one, all else faded from my sight, I looked to Him, I trusted Him, and I was saved, and saved, forever. There was no effort, no thought of giving up anything. He had taken captive the poor foolish heart, that would fain have clung to a twig of its own righteousness, rather than trust Him.

Dear, anxious reader, will you not allow this tender, loving Saviour to have the joy of saving you?

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8, 9).

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” (Titus 3:5).

Neither

“Well, I cannot understand why a man who has tried to lead a good, moral life, should not stand a better chance of heaven than a wicked one,” said a lady, a few days ago, in a conversation with others about the matter of salvation. “Simply for this cause,” answered one: “Suppose you and I wanted to go into a place of interest where the admission-fee was one dollar. You have fifty cents, and I have nothing. Which would stand the better chance of admission?”

“Neither,” was the solemn reply.

“Just so; and therefore the moral man stands no better chance than the out breaking sinner. But suppose a kind and rich person who saw our perplexity, presented a ticket of admission to each of us at his own expense! What then?”

“Well, then we could both go in alike; that is clear.”

“Thus, when the Saviour saw our perplexity, He came, He died, and thus obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12), and now He offers you and me a free ticket. Only take good care that your fifty cents do not make you proud enough to refuse the free ticket, and so be refused admittance at last.”

Reader, there is a solemn moment coming! Have you the ticket of admission?

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23).

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Why Will Ye Die

Shall the follies of life, which last but a day?

Shall the pleasures of sin still draw you away?

The Saviour is near, and His mercy is nigh,

Look, look unto Jesus; O! why will ye die?

The Spirit to Jesus invites you to come,

And the numberless ransomed beckon you home;

And Jesus will quickly descend from the sky:

Must the door be shut on you; O! why will ye die?

The fountain all cleansing, flows freely for you.

You now may be pardoned, the gospel is true;

Weep, weep o’er your hardness; with tears in the eye,

Look, look unto Jesus; O! why will ye die?

He willingly suffered, and died in our stead,

For us He was wounded, for us once was dead.

This love so amazing, O! can you pass by?

What! turn from the Saviour? O! why will ye die?

The angels beholding the face of the Lord,

See joy thereon beaming (‘tis writ in His word)

When a sinner repenting to Him lifts the eye,

Then look unto Jesus; O! why will ye die?

O! why will you die, and perish in woe?

Why, down into darkness, and misery go?

We long for your blessing, poor sinners, say why

You are foes to your mercy! O! why will ye die?

Fragment: Judgement and Glory

The wrong things will be in their magnificence just when their judgment comes. (Rev. 13 and 18).

The true thing will be in its weakness till its glory comes. (Rev. 2; 3; 4).

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 2

1 Thessalonians 2

What clear and decided conversions we see in those Thessalonians, like the apostles who told them of God’s good news. It was in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And immediately they followed the apostles, in following the Lord, through afflictions, and shared the joy of the Holy Ghost. They turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven.

Verse 1. So the apostles could write, “For ye know yourselves, brethren, that our entrance unto you was not in vain.” All the countryside about them talked about the way they now behaved themselves.

Verse 2. These servants of the Lord had been shamefully treated in the prison, and by the people in Philippi. Then they came in the strength of the Lord, and spoke to the Thessalonians the gospel of God with boldness and much contention from the Jews (see Acts 17).

Verses 3-8. It was a message from God, “Our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile.” It was the unfoldings of the heart of God according to His purposes of grace and love to unworthy sinners, and faithful to their charge, even so they spoke, not as pleasing men, but God that proves what is in every man’s heart. On no occasion or time did they use flattering words, nor seek anything from them. God, the one who delights to give, was their witness.

They did not seek glory of men—neither of them nor of others—when they might have been a charge to them as the apostles of Christ. They had been gentle among them, even as a nurse cares for her own children. And thus yearning over them, they were willing to have imparted unto them, not the gospel of God only, but would have given their lives also for them, they had become so dear to them.

Verses 9-12. “For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: as ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory.”

What an example for all who seek to serve the Lord in ministering to others. What devoted unselfishness! What love and tenderness, like a mother nursing her children; like a father guiding, advising, comforting, exhorting his children, to get them to walk worthy of God who had called them to His kingdom and glory. Blessed hope!

Verse 13. They gave therefore increasing thanks to God, because, when they received the Word of God, which they heard of the apostles, they received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which wrought effectually in those that believe. Their consciences and hearts had been well plowed up, it made good ground and brought forth fruit (Luke 8:15).

Verses 14-16. “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches (assemblies) of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved; to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”

The Jewish religion, though given through Moses from God, had, through the rejection of Christ, and according to the purpose of God, now been set aside, and Christianity had come in. This made the Jews exceedingly mad against the gospel, so they persecuted the Christians (Gal. 4:29). Zealous for their religion, they became the enemies of God.

What grave charges are made against them (verses 15, 16), and now wrath had come upon them, driving them out of the land which was to be their possession.

Israel will have the land yet, but not till the assembly is in the glory with Christ, and when the Lord comes with His saints to give it to them.

Their loss has given us now a heavenly calling to a heavenly portion, and inheritance with Christ in heavenly glory.

The Jews who became Christians were greatly despised and persecuted by the Jews; and the Gentile believers were also persecuted by their own countrymen. Their separate walk from the world around them brought the hatred of the natural heart against them (John 15:18; 16:2, 33; 17:14-18).

The religion of the Jews had become pure jealousy; their pretension to be Jehovah’s people was denied by their state, and God in His sovereign grace was blessing others who had no right claim to any blessing. Christians now are put into the enjoyment of better privileges than the Jews ever had. It is now to those who receive the Word. Hereditary privileges are not now.

Sovereign grace is working now, for God is sovereign and God is love. Christians are brought into relationship in grace, and by faith in God’s Word. It is the source of their confidence, the revelation of God who is light, and who is love, who gave His Son to save sinners.

Verse 17. “But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.”

The opposition and persecution that drove the apostles away, serves to strengthen and to make manifest the love of Christ in them. It joined them together in heart, and made them look on to the coming of the Lord. Unable for the moment to satisfy the desires of his heart, he looks on to the moment they also were waiting for, when evil shall no longer be present to hinder the happiness of the new man in his enjoyment of that which is good; in his fellowship with those whom he called the beloved of God (Chapter 1:4, margin); and specially in enjoying together the presence of their glorified Lord and Saviour.

Verse 18. “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.”

Verses 19, 20. Here we see that the apostle will enjoy, when with the Lord, the fruits of his labors in his beloved Thessalonians, “For 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? For ye are our glory and joy.”

The great joy of all the saints in glory will be to be with the Lord Jesus, to see Him and to be like Him; but there are particular fruits in connection with the Holy Spirit’s work in us, and by us in others, that have formed links which are of the same order as we see in the Apostle in those verses. (See also Phil. 2:16, 17; 1 John 2:28; 2 John verse 8), and as the apostles could look forward to seeing those who had been helped and blessed through them, so will it be with other laborers in the Word. Paul’s heart will be satisfied by seeing those who were the fruit of his labors, with the Lord in glory. “For ye are our glory and joy.”

Let Us Go Again: Part 2

And observe the force of the words “go again.” It does not matter how often you have been there before. It may be once, or twice, or thrice. This is not the question. “Let us go again,” is the motto for the pastoral heart, for there is always a demand for the pastoral gift. Matters are ever and anon springing up, in the various places in which “the Word of the Lord” has been preached and received, demanding the labors of the divinely-qualified pastor.

No human language could adequately set forth the value and importance of real pastoral work. Would there were more of it amongst us! It often nips in the bud, evils which might grow to terrible proportions. This is, in an especial manner, true, in this day of spiritual poverty. There is immense demand—a demand on the evangelist, to think of “the regions beyond”—a demand on the pastor to “go again and visit his brethren, in every city” where “the Word of the Lord” has been preached, “and see how they do.”

Reader, do you possess aught of pastoral gift? If so, think, I pray you, of those comprehensive words, “Let me go again.” Have you been acting on them? Have you been thinking of your “brethren” —of those “who have obtained like precious faith” —those who, by receiving “the Word of the Lord,” have become spiritual brethren? Are your interests and sympathies engaged on behalf of “every city” in which a spiritual link has been formed with the Head above?

O, how the heart longs for a greater exhibition of holy zeal and energy, of individual and independent devotedness—independent, I mean, not of the sacred fellowship of the truly spiritual, but of every influence which would tend to clog and hinder that elevated service to which each one is distinctly called, in responsibility to the Master alone.

Let us beware of the trammels of cumbrous machinery, of religious routine, of false order. Let us beware, too, of indolence, of love of personal ease, of a false economy, which would lead us to attach an undue importance to the matter of expense. The silver and the gold are the Lord’s, and His sheep are far more precious to Him than silver and gold. His words are,

“Lovest thou Me? feed My sheep.”

If only there is the heart to do this, the means will never be wanting. How often may we detect ourselves spending sums of money, unnecessarily, on the table, the wardrobe, and the library, which would be amply sufficient to carry us to “the regions beyond,” to preach the gospel, or to “every city,” in order to “visit our brethren”!

May the Lord grant unto us an earnest self-denying spirit, a devoted heart to Him and to His most holy service, a true desire for the spread of His gospel, and the prosperity of His people.

May the time passed of our lives suffice us to have lived and labored for self and its interests, and may the time to come be given to Christ and His interests. Let us not allow our treacherous hearts to deceive us by plausible reasonings about domestic, commercial, or other claims. All such should be strictly attended to, no doubt. A well-regulated mind will never offer to God a sacrifice arising out of the neglect of any just claim. If I am at the head of a family, the claims of that family must be duly responded to. If I am at the head of a business, the claims of that business must be duly met. If I am a hired servant, I must attend to my work. To fail in any of these, would be to dishonor the Lord, instead of serving Him.

But, allowing the widest possible margin for all righteous claims, let us ask, are we doing all we can for “the regions beyond,” and for “our brethren, in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord”? Has there not been a culpable abandonment both of evangelistic and pastoral work? Have we not allowed domestic and commercial ties to act unduly upon us? And what has been the result? What have we gained? Have our children turned out well, and our commercial interests prospered? Has it not often happened that, where the Lord’s work has been neglected, the children have grown up in carelessness and worldliness? And as to business, have we not often toiled all the night, and gazed on an empty net in the morning?

On the other hand, where the family and the circumstances have been left, with artless confidence, in the hand of Jehovah-Jireh, have they not been far better cared for? Let these things be deeply pondered, with an honest heart and a single eye, and we shall be sure to arrive at just conclusions.

I cannot lay down the pen without calling the reader’s attention to the fullness of the expression, “see how they do.” How very much is involved in these words! “How they do,” publicly, socially, privately. “How they do,” in doctrine, in association, in walk. “How they do,” spiritually, morally, relatively. In a word, “how they do,” in every way.

Be it well remembered, that this seeing how our brethren do, must never resolve itself into a curious, prying, gossiping, busybody spirit—a spirit that wounds and heals not, that meddles and mends not. To all who would visit us in such a spirit as this, we should, assuredly, say, “Be far from hence.”

But, to all who would carry out Acts 15:36, we desire to say, “Our hands, our hearts, our houses, are wide open; come in, ye blessed of the Lord. ‘If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide.’”

O Lord, be pleased to raise up evangelists to visit “the regions beyond;” and pastors to visit, again and again, “the brethren in every city.”

“Lovest thou Me?.... Feed My lambs.”

“Lovest thou Me?.... Shepherd My sheep.”

John 21:15, 16.

“And when the chief Shepherd
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away.”
1 Peter 5:4.

(Continued from page 165)

Surely I Come Quickly, Even So, Come, Lord Jesus

Revelation 22:20

Earthly vapors quickly passing,

Soon the Day Star will appear!

Watch, ye saints! the Lord is coming!

Blessed hope our souls to cheer.

Mists and shadows gone forever,

Midnight gloom returning never.

Sun of Righteousness transcendent!

Upward now we fix our gaze,

Yearning with increasing longing,

For the bursting of Thy rays,

O, what resurrection splendor!

Earth and grave their saints surrender.

“Come, Lord Jesus”! blessed Saviour,

“I am coming,” is Thy Word;

“Even so, we wait Thy coming,”

Echoes back the tuneful chord,

Then no longer separation,

Only love’s great consummation.

Where the Saints Will Be, At, and After, the First Resurrection

We have seen in John 5:29 two distinct resurrections; one of the saved, and the other of the unsaved, with a thousand years between.

The first event that Scripture teaches us to look for, is the coming of Christ to take to Himself His heavenly saints (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Thess. 2:1). This is the sure hope given to the believer.

“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The saints living when Christ comes, do not die: their bodies are changed, and made like Christ’s glorious body (1 Cor. 15:51-54; Phil. 3:20, 21). It is after that, that all are manifested at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 4:5), where the Lord will express His approval of what He can of our actions, and also what He must disapprove of. All are in Christ, accepted in the Beloved while on earth, and are now there in bodies of glory. Their acceptance in Christ is unquestioned.

Between the time of His coming for us, and His glorious appearing with us (Titus 2:13), when He comes to reign over the earth, there is a period of about seven years, called the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7; Dan. 12:1). During that time the Jews are brought in again through great tribulation (Matt. 24:21); and there are two companies of martyrs; Revelation 20:4 tells of their resurrection. “They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

This is the last part of the first resurrection. All the blessed and holy are now raised from the dead, and get a heavenly place, but like the Old Testament, saints; they are not a part of the church, the body of Christ (Col. 3:4; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8; Jude 14, 15 Rev. 1:7). All the heavenly saints share the reign of Christ.

(Continued from page 160)

(To be continued)

An Address to the Young People on Success: Part 1

Philippians 3:1-15

The Apostle opens this third chapter with the reminder that he was writing the same things to them; for him it was not grievous; for them it was safe. That is, he: was having to repeat himself, and he didn’t consider it out of the way, because it was safe for them.

I sometimes have wondered in connection with the little talks we have had with the young people, that after all they amount to a good deal the same line of things, and if one didn’t have scriptural sanction for repetition, perhaps he would not be encouraged to consider the same line of things. Young people in all ages meet with the same problems in life; have the same difficulties, and the same decisions to make. God’s Word is the only solution of the difficulties for the young Christian.

In addressing the young people on the subject of success, I am not supposed to be addressing those in their sins and outside of Christ, but those who have confessed the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and to them the subject of success is a very vital one. The word “success” is a very rare word in the Bible. I haven’t been able to find it but once (Josh. 1:6-8).

It is a word found very frequently in the vocabulary of the present day. There never was a day when that line of things was more pressed upon the young than now. In order that their lives might be lived in a way to contribute to their own encouragement, and the good of society, they must make what the world terms a success.

If we are to be guided by worldly standards and ideals we will live a different life from that mapped out for young Christians in the Word of God, and it is to contrast these two standards—the ideals of the Word of God, and the ideals of the world about us—I wish to speak now.

You hear someone referred to in the world; one of the questions generally asked about him is as to his standing or accomplishments, and one of the requisites to a satisfactory answer is to be able to say, “He has made quite a success.” If that question is answered satisfactorily, there is a sigh of relief. That is thought to be essential. In the world, we know success consists in having accumulated a certain amount of property or monies. A man who can write his name at the bottom of a check, and perhaps that check tells its story in six or seven figures, that one is in the eyes of the world, a success.

Here is another man kept busy going about looking after his interests—various properties. The world points at him, and says of him, “He is a successful citizen.”

Another one has not accumulated so much, but is a great political leader. The world pays tribute to him.

In each case these men have lived in such a way as to place themselves in an enviable position in this world, and others look at them, and say, “That is fine; I wouldn’t mind being he myself!” That is what the world terms success. If you get a group of old school graduates together, who have been separated many years, they begin asking about this one and that one. The prime factor before all is to go over the list, and find out how each one has gotten along in the world. I have heard that so many times.

“What do you hear about Charlie?”

“He went out West, and went into the lumber business, and has a thriving big concern in Seattle. He has done fine.”

Everyone feels satisfied, and Charlie’s success reflects favorably on themselves. You find that all around. It is natural for us to be affected by these things—to come up to the standard acknowledged all around us.

When we face that line of things with the Word of God as the measuring stick—taking the Word of God into account—how different everything is going to appear. This Criterion—this Standard—never fails to tell the truth. God’s Word is the only standard by which you and I can judge these matters. If you get hold of a faulty one, how can your conclusions help being faulty?

I will just refer to a little recent experience to illustrate that. It is only a humble thing, but I believe it illustrates the point: I wanted a new pipe for my furnace. I took a measurement of the old pipe, and it came out exactly a 10” pipe. I ordered the pipe, and when it appeared, it didn’t fit at all, and I had a rather pointed argument with the one from whom I purchased it, and we couldn’t agree. I was baffled; I was so positive I was right. I found someone had cut an inch off the yard stick I used to take the measurement. I had the wrong standard. My conclusions were wrong, though I was absolutely sure I was right. So it is in measuring what is called, worldly success; what is the standard you are using?

In the third chapter of Philippians we have a man who started out with a worldly standard in view, and then he received a sudden spiritual shock that caused him to change right about face, adopted a new standard from that time to the day of his death, that revolutionized his whole life.

I believe it will do the same in its measure for any of us who are willing to make the exchange Saul of Tarsus made, when he started on that journey to Damascus with the papers in his pocket to bring to Jerusalem to be punished any who called upon the Lord’s name. What kind of a man was he in the eyes of the world? I suppose he had almost everything a man in the world values and covets. We get a list of things here at the beginning 4th verse. What a splendid lineage that is! Something to be proud of.

Splendid breeding.

“An Hebrew of the Hebrews” —that is true blue blood.

“As touching the law, a Pharisee;” that is his standing in the community; the Pharisees stood at the top notch.

“Concerning zeal” —there is energy— “persecuting the church.”

“Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless:” there is reputation.

In his case there was not only reputation, but character too. What is he going to do with a start like that? How few get a start like that—a backing like that! What is he going to do with it? Cast it overboard, just have a wholesale house-cleaning, and start all over again! Just listen to what he says:

“What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” What a change that was! It takes the mighty power of faith to enable that man to do that. He had seen the Lord in glory. He had experienced that light above the brightness of the sun at noon day, and that was a vision that never faded; it was ever present before him, and in view of that, he could cast all away, and say, “I count them but loss.”

(To be continued)

Extract: Days and Hearts

We cannot number our days, so should make good use of them. We do not know which will be the last.

If we realize our place in the body of Christ, we will have a lot to suffer about and a lot to pray about too. “Enough to break our hearts,” J. N. D. says, “if we had hearts to break.”

What the Christian Is to Be and to Do

He is not to be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2), of whom Satan is the god (2 Cor. 4:4) and Prince (John 12:31), but to keep himself unspotted from it (James 1:27), because its friendship is enmity with God, so that if he will be “A friend of the world,” he “Is an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

He is, therefore, not to love it, nor any of the things that are in it (1 John 2:15), all of which are comprised in “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” and which are emphatically “not of the Father” (1 John 2:16).

He is to beware, therefore, of following the example of Demas, who forsook the right way, having loved this present world (2 Tim. 4:10), but is as a stranger and pilgrim (1 Peter 2:11) to expect tribulation in it, but to be of good cheer, for Christ has overcome it (John 16:33).

Such is the Christian course, as laid down in the Chart of God’s Word.

Shall we not seek to be more true to Him “until He comes”?

Correspondence

Question: What does Joshua 4:1-9 teach us? T. H.

Answer: Read chapters 3 and 4. Jordan river is another type of the death of Christ.

At the Red Sea we saw all our enemies dead on the seashore. Our sins all gone.

At Jordan we see Christ’s and our death with Him.

In the stones taken out we have a memorial, a constant reminder that we came up out of that death.

In the stones put in by Joshua, is a picture that our old, man was crucified with Christ, and is now to be seen no longer.

God sees us now “in Christ,” risen with Christ, and Christ in us in the life He has given us (Col. 3:1-4). We are therefore to mortify (keep in the place of death) the members, of the old man (Col. 3:5).

Question: What is, the difference between the Jew in Romans 2:18, “approving the things that are more excellent,” and the Christians in Philippians 1:10 doing the same thing? J. T. G.

Answer: The Apostle is convicting the Jew, having the knowledge of the law, of breaking the law, and was therefore under its curse (Rom. 3:9, 19, 20; Gal. 3:10; Matt. 5:20).

In Philippians 1:10 the Apostle is praying for the spiritual progress of the saints in Christ Jesus, that is, all believers in Christ Jesus, that their love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment: that they might approve things that are excellent, or, try things that differ (margin); that they might be sincere before God, and without offense before men, till the day of Christ, and thus be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

The first is convincing the Jews of their transgression, and thus showing their need of the Saviour.

The second is encouraging the Christians to abound in love yet more and more, as the only way, to gain true knowledge, and to glorify God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Question: What was King David’s sin in numbering the people who were under him? He said, “These poor sheep what have they done?” Why did the Lord then judge the people? (1 Chron. 21:1-17). J. E.

Answer: God is holy, and judges sin, and will ever do so sooner or later in all parts of His universe. On the ground of the work of Christ, redemption comes in for all who are broken and contrite of heart before Him.

2 Samuel 24:1 tells us that the people were also guilty, and that David’s sin was also their sin. We may not understand what God is doing now. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Question: Please explain Malachi 4:3. A. V.

Answer: Malachi is prophesying of the restoration of Israel, and of the judgment of their enemies. It is judgment of nations on earth.

Question: “The dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5). Is this so? F. V.

Answer: Ecclesiastes tells us what is “under the sun.” Eternal issues are seen in the New Testament, as in Luke 16:19-31. What fools men are, trying to persuade their minds that there is no judgment. But the Word of God is plain, and enduring, and everyone must give an account to God, and everyone will need to bear the judgment of his own sins, unless he comes to “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Reader, do not quibble or reason! Come to the Saviour. Come as you are. Come today. Harden not your hearts.

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

Question: Can an assembly deliver a person unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus? (1 Cor. 5:5). E. M.

Answer: No. It needed apostolic authority to do that. The gathering’s simple duty when evil comes in, is to put away from among themselves that wicked person. That is obedience to the Word (1 Cor. 5:13).

Question: Does 1 Corinthians 5:5 apply to saints? P. A.

Answer: Yes. 1 Corinthians 5:5 refers to God’s discipline on His sinful child who was living in fornication. We see that he was restored, after he repented and judged his sin (2 Cor. 2:7.11, and 7:10, 11).

In 1 Timothy 1:20 we find two that made shipwreck of their faith, and lost their good conscience and became blasphemers. The Apostle delivered them unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. This was in both instances the act of God by the Apostle. When the assembly puts away a wicked person, it is their simple duty (1 Cor. 5:13), but they do not deliver the person to Satan.

How Long?

At a party, a doctor, to amuse the guests, began to go round and tell them how long they had to live. A farmer was present, and the medical man said:

“O! old K— can’t live more than fifteen years.”

It was said lightly enough, and was counted amusing by all present, save one, and that was the farmer himself. He thought fifteen years was a short time for him to live, and further thought how it might not be fifteen years—or even fifteen months—or even fifteen weeks—or even fifteen days.

The doctor’s word was a warning to him. He looked ahead—beyond his health and home and farm and friends—he looked into eternity. That look awakened him to a sense of his sin and need, and before long he fled for refuge to the Saviour of sinners.

How long have I to live? It is an interesting question for all of us. We may look at insurance tables, and study averages of life in, different professions and trades. We may consult medical men in times of disease, and seek to learn from them the probabilities of our stay on earth. But after all uncertainty remains. The sickly often survive, the strong succumb. The diseased linger, the healthy are suddenly cut off. The insecurity of our term here may well cause us to ask:

“Am I ready if I should die?” This question may rightly give us to pause and ask ourselves:

“How long have I to live?” We have passed another milestone on our road of life on earth. We have completed another period of time. We have finished writing another chapter of our history. How soon will the “END OF VOLUME ONE” be written, and our life on earth be over, and VOLUME TWO to which “END” will never be written, be begun?

Would it not be wise of you to look into the matter without delay? Ask yourself seriously,

“Am I saved, or am I lost? Am I bound for heaven or hell? Am I nearing eternal glory? In which of the two classes am I found?” Do not hastily reply,

“O! No one can know.”

This is simply dust thrown in the eyes of his dupes by the arch deceiver of souls—the devil. The Word of God most plainly shows that we may know.

You may know how you stand, so honestly face the facts. Listen no longer to the voice of the enemy of your soul and of God. He would like to keep you in uncertainty so that you may still stay in his service. Come to Christ now. He will give you light as to everything. Moreover, He will save you, and keep you through life’s journey whether it be short or long, and if you die tonight you will go to heaven.

Look at the following passages:

“I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” (1 John 2:12).

“By Him (by Christ) all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:39).

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18).

“In whom (in Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Eph. 1:7).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1).

“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 condemnation; but is past from death unto life.” (John 5:24).

Could words be plainer? What do they bring before us then? That believers

1. ARE FORGIVEN,

2. ARE JUSTIFIED,

3. ARE SAVED,

4. HAVE REDEMPTION,

5. HAVE PEACE WITH GOD,

6. HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE,

7. SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION.

Only One

There is only one way by which sinners are saved,

And that’s by the way of the cross;

No works of our own, be they ever so great;

With God they are nothing but dross.

There’s only one Saviour who’s able to save,

That Saviour is Jesus the Lord,

The one who is human, and also divine,

Whose title we read is “The Word.”

There is only one path, it is narrow and strait,

That will lead to the glory of God,

Its pleasures are lasting, they fade not away,

‘Tis the path that the Nazarene trod.

There is only one book that can guide you aright,

The Bible, God’s treasure so true

Its precepts are binding, its teachings are pure,

This book God has given to you.

Then take this sure way by which sinners are saved,

This Saviour so loving and true,

And walk in the path that will lead you to God,

And remember this book is for you.

Joy in Heaven: Luke 15:7

Joy in heaven, what produces it? The repentance of ONE sinner. Marvelous that heaven should be so stirred by what produces so little commotion on earth. That there should be joy in heaven over what produces little else but contempt in the world.

An heir is born to some powerful sovereign, or such an one is married, or ascends the throne, and there is great rejoicing and merry-making on earth. Some mighty conqueror returns at the head of his victorious armies, there is great rejoicing on earth; but such matters receive little notice in heaven. Some poor, broken-down miserable wreck of a man or woman on a heap of filthy rags or straw, in some tumble-down garret or hovel, turns their face towards heaven, and says, “Father, I have sinned,” or “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” and all heaven rings again with joy. And where is the source and spring of this joy? In the heart of the blessed (that is, happy) God. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Who is in their presence, and in whose presence are they? In that of God. That is where the joy is from which all heaven catches the tone.

And only to think, that it is not the faultless self-righteous Pharisee that produces this joy; it is the repentance of a sinner that does so—of a sinner? Yes, there is joy in heaven over ONE sinner that repenteth. Will you, my unconverted reader, yield heaven this joy? Your repentance would do so.

Do you ask, “What is repentance?” It is that change of mind which godly sorrow works. Not the sorrow of the world that works death, as in the case of Judas. A change of mind as to God, that whereas you thought Him hard and exacting, you own Him to be just, and merciful, and gracious. That whereas you thought yourself righteous, and it may be even religious, you own yourself to be a sinner, to be utterly without claim upon Him on the ground of anything you are or have done, and cast yourself unreservedly upon His mercy.

May the Lord lead you to do so, dear unrepentant reader, for His name’s sake.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the devil’s most potent soul drug. Its effects are most certain and lethal. Know therefore, O halting sinner, that it has been well called “the thief of time,” — “the thief of souls,” — “the recruiting officer of hell.” Avoid it as you would the lake of fire!

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 3

Verses 1-5. Paul had ardently desired to see these dear young Christians again, in whom he had found such a warm response to the truth he preached, but as the way was not opened up by the Lord for him to see them, he concluded to stay in Athens alone. He sent Timotheus, a brother in the truth, and one who labored with him in the work, as a minister of God’s glad tidings of Christ, to confirm them in the truth and to comfort and to encourage them concerning their faith.

He thought of the persecutions they might still be passing through, and had already explained to them that such trials must come on all those who would live godly in Christ Jesus, and they knew already of the things he had suffered.

Philippians 1:29 tells that it is given to all believers to suffer for Christ in this world that hated Him. Yet he was afraid that some wile of the enemy might come to tempt and lead them away from the Lord, and in his deep exercise and prayer he sent Timotheus to see them lest his labor as a servant should be in vain. The answer is:

Verses 6-10. “But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity (love), and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith: for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?”

What a true, faithful, loving servant of God the Apostle proved himself to be. He was no hireling that would flee from the enemy of the sheep. He was a much tried servant, and was still ready to lay down his life for the sheep, after the pattern of his Master (Col. 1:24).

How it cheers his heart to hear of their faith and love still abounding as when he was present with them, and then of their good remembrance of him always, and of their great desire to see him again, just as he desired to see them. So that his cup of, affliction and distress was alleviated, and his heart comforted to hear of their progress and of their firm faith. And he writes,

“For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord! For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?” His loving heart yearned over them for their good as the dear flock of Christ.

But Paul, though an Apostle, was not the Master. He was only a servant, and had to wait on the Lord for his orders where and when to go, and all such servants are honored (Prov. 27:18; John 12:26). It seems a number of years passed before he was allowed to be with them again. The Lord had other servants who could carry on the work who also companied Paul (Acts 20:4).

Verse 11. “Now God our father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.” He thus submits himself to the will of God, and casts them on the tender affection of the Father’s heart for His children, who orders ever what is best for them according to His perfect wisdom which takes them all into account for their good in both spiritual and temporal things.

“And our Lord Jesus Christ.” This leads us to think of them as an assembly of which He is Head, and Son over God’s house. The Apostle cared for them in their need for their progress and development in spiritual things.

In Ephesians 4:11-16 we see that this provision of Christ the Head of His assembly, will not cease till we are all perfected in glory with Him.

Verse 12. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another; and toward all, even as we do toward you: to the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”

The Apostle’s desire for them is that the Lord may make them increase and abound in love, and puts in, “as we do toward you.” This power of love maintains the heart in the presence of God, and to find its joy there in light and desires it for all saints, that they may be kept sensibly in communion in their hearts. This is the development of the divine nature in us. Love is the bond of perfectness (Col. 3:14), the true means of holiness.

The heart is kept from the thoughts and ways of the flesh, as long as the soul is enjoying the pure light of the presence of God. And the Apostle prays that the Lord may make them to increase and abound in love, in order to establish their hearts unblameable in holiness before God our Father, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all His saints.

This is our actual and present hope. We are awaiting for that appearing or manifestation, where all His saints will come with Him, unblameable in holiness. We taste the love, and enjoy the sense of His holiness in us now, but then we will be in all His perfection. It will be the accomplishment of Philippians 1:6.

We shall see Him in glory; we shall see all the saints in whom He will be admired, and see them then as we would like to see them now. He will be glorified in His saints, who will have been then taken up already to be forever with Him. They were given to Him of the Father, and they are the precious fruit of His work upon the cross. He will present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and manifest His glory to be admired in them when He comes with them.

Take off the Brake

A train was going through a solitary part of the country when one of the cylinders of the engine broke.

The driver got down, and, with the materials he had at hand, began to mend it. To do this he had to get under the engine; so, to ensure that it should not move while he was there, he put on the brake.

His task completed, he took his place on the engine, turned on the steam, and expected it would move as before. It remained motionless.

He got down, overhauled his work, and tried again putting on more steam. Still no progress.

“Have you taken off the brake?” asked a gentleman standing near.

Ah! there was the hindrance, the brake was still on. The driver removed it, and the engine steamed forward directly.

Thus it often is with young Christians. They have life; they are saved; they have the Holy Spirit within them, as power, but there is no progress, because the brake is on. Something here hinders them; something to which their hearts are clinging, and which they will not give up.

Young Christians, take away the brake, give up what hinders. Then, and not till then, will you truly advance in your Christian course, and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.” (Heb. 12:1, 2).

Where the Unsaved Dead Are, At, and After, Their Resurrection

When the Lord comes as Judge, He judges the living at His appearing, and in His Kingdom, which is called Millennial, as it means a thousand years. It is the time when righteousness reigns, and judgment goes on every day (Isa. 32:1).

Some are cast into the lake of fire without dying, with bodies that fire cannot consume (Rev. 19:20, and 20:10). But the wicked dead, that is, those who have sinned and have died without Christ, are still in the prison, till the heavens and the earth flee away, preparatory to the new heavens and the new earth taking their place (Rev. 20:11, and chapter 21:1).

Here in Revelation 20:11-15, we find the resurrection of judgment. No blessed and holy are here. The latter were all raised before (verses 5, 6). All who have done or practiced evil are here, they were not born again. The flesh profiteth nothing. It cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:17).

Here then we see the dead, though now raised, body and soul reunited, yet they are the spiritually dead. There is a Great White Throne, a symbol of the holiness of God’s judgment, and there before this Great White Throne of divine righteousness, they stand upheld in space, in a light that hides nothing, that shows the sinner every sin that he has committed from his birth to his death, for “God requireth that which is past.” (Eccl. 3:15).

He will not fail in His justice; the time of mercy is past. The Son of Man is the judge (John 5:22, 27; Acts 17:31). The wages of sin is death, and here it is the second death, the lake of fire. What eternal regrets, as they think of mercy despised, grace rejected, opportunities of salvation slighted, till the last.

The books give a true account of their works. That other book, the book of life, is there, to witness that their names are not in it, therefore they must be judged according to their works.

Mark it, there is no annihilation here, nor restoration to the favor of God. That cannot be now; there is nothing now but eternal judgment in the lake of fire.

What a wretched company are seen there in Revelation 21:8, and none can escape. The sea is emptied; death and hades hold them no longer. They must stand before the judgment throne of God (Rom. 14:10-12).

What about you, dear reader, have you come to Christ yet? If not, it will be “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

In eternity there are three places,

The new heavens are filled with God’s redeemed heavenly saints.

The new earth is filled with its redeemed earthly saints (2 Peter 3:13).

The lake of fire contains all the lost who die without Christ, or lived in their sins till judgment fell upon them.

Where will you be for eternity? Come to Jesus now. Now is the day of salvation. Tomorrow may be too late for you.

(Continued from page 187)

(Concluded)

An Address to the Young People on Success: Part 2

Philippians 3:1-15

It takes faith for people to cast away things that are gain to them. There are some things we can easily cast away, and are better off for it. I have seen young men quit evil habits—smoking. That is a good thing to get rid of, but you couldn’t say that was casting away something that was gain to you. Paul said,

“Those things that were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”

Are we able, by the grace of God, to take those very things, that minister to our temporal, advantage in this world, and count them as Paul did, but refuse, that we might win Christ? That is true faith. That is the energy of divine faith at work in the soul. That is what is going to make a successful man.

I believe if there ever was a case within the lids of the Bible that could be termed a success from God’s view point, it was the Apostle Paul. When he got to the end of his career, in place of having a great harvest of regrets and remorse, he is just satisfied to look back with humble satisfaction, conscious in his soul that he had fought a good fight, kept the faith and finished his course, and that there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, would give him.

Dear young people, that crown is not for Paul alone, but He will give it to all who love His appearing; and surely, don’t you love His appearing? If you are a child of God at all, you cannot help rejoicing as you look forward to the time when the Lord Jesus is going to appear in glory, and come into possession of all that is His by right and title.

He is rejected now; He is not getting His rights; He is the maligned and outcast one. We feel that; we suffer with Christ; we feel He is not getting what belongs to Him, but we look forward to the time when He is going to have what belongs to Him. His joy in that day will be ours. Paul was able to finish his course with that satisfaction in his soul that he had kept the faith, and had fought the good fight.

We sometimes get young people who feel in some way or other that they have been endowed in a superior way. I met a young man not long ago who as much as told me that he was a little different from others because he had come into a superior mental endowment, and he couldn’t afford to take up a path of reproach in this world; that that might be all right for one of more mediocre attainment. For him, it seemed a loss—a shame—to step aside, and disown all this remarkable attainment, and live a humble life for Christ. I don’t say he put it in these words, but I couldn’t help feeling that was the burden that was going on in his own mind. I don’t dispute his claims for endowment. I think he was a clever young man. Supposing that should be the attitude of some here. I was thinking of what we have in 1 Corinthians 4:7 in that connection,

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”

Young Christian, here this afternoon, are you among these fortunate ones who have received something superior in the way of mental equipment or capacity? Where did you get it? How many times have you congratulated yourself on having it? But where did you get it? “If thou didst receive it, why dost thou boast? Who maketh thee to differ?” It was God who gave it to you, and it is to Him you must give account for having it.

In Matthew’s Gospel where the Lord gives the talents to His servants, He gives to every man according to his several ability. He didn’t give the same to each man. When He came to reckon with them, He reckoned with them on that ground too. So He is going to reckon with you on that ground. You are a steward of that which God has endowed you with. What are you going to do with it?

You can use all this splendid equipment you say you have, to advance self, with each success as a stepping stone to another one, pushing on and getting to the front and to the top. You can use all this endowment for that purpose; that is self.

But what about this: “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” How will it be in that day when you will have to give account, and the question is asked how you have used it? One came to the Lord and told Him he had kept what was committed to him laid up in a napkin, He got the Lord’s rebuke. God has given you these things to use for Him, and in that coming day, is going to require it of you again.

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Phil. 3:8). You say,

“That is rather discouraging to ambition. I must have an object in life—something for which to live.”

Granted; that is true; one must have an object, but the Apostle Paul had one object torn out of his grasp on the way to Damascus, but he had another put into his hands. He laid down one to take up another. God never asks any of His own to go through life without an object. Our lives are formed largely by the character of the object we have before us, and that is never more true than in the lives of Christians. We must have an object; God knows that, and what an object He has given us! such as this poor world knows nothing of.

There are some in the world we believe who are living what is called an altravistic life. They have grand moral purposes to serve humanity. They are unconscious how much self is mixed up in it perhaps, but they feel they have dedicated themselves to a life of sacrifice and service. But for you, God has placed an object, the form of a person, and that Person the Son of God.

The apostle could say, “The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

In his race in life there mingled not only the, motive of desire and ambition, but of love and affection, all bound up for the object before him. It was not a sense of duty; not that he resolved it so, but his heart’s affections were drawn out to that object— “the Son of God who loved him.”

(To be continued)

(Continued from page 192)

Extract: Weakness in Defending the Scripture

I think the real weakness of the defenders of Scripture is that they do not really believe in its perfection. They yield something to their adversaries.

If it be divine, I cannot yield what is divine. If it be not divine, I have lost all Scripture. If I believe it divine, I seek the divine meaning, and I shall be helped to discover it, and wait till I do.

The moment you compromise, you are off the ground on which the Bible is of any value, or that contending for it, is of any consequence.

The Path in a Day of Difficulty

A Letter

“Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” (Heb. 13:13).

Study this carefully, and compare it with 2 Timothy 2:19-22. Is not our path distinctly marked out individually, to go out to Christ Himself, purging ourselves from a corrupt Christendom; and yet not to be isolated, “but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Read also chapter 3, which describes the very days in which we live. Yes, this is God’s view of boasting Christendom.

Just as the last four addresses in Revelation 2, 3 describe the last states of Christendom, you will learn there what the Lord approves. The church has failed; but He has not failed, and He never will fail. Yes, the church has utterly failed as a testimony to Christ, as Israel, and indeed everything before failed; and there is not the slightest intimation that the church will be restored on earth. We must not let our thoughts run on where Scripture is silent.

Now, for instance, you speak of the church beginning when Jesus called Peter, Andrew, and the others. There is no such thought in the Scriptures. Jesus, some time after this, spoke only of the church as a future thing:

“On this rock I will build My assembly,” or, as it is translated, “church.”

In the word of God that assembly is never spoken of as existing on earth until formed by the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost; indeed, how could it exist before as a heavenly body joined to the Head, Christ, as Man in heaven? Believers could not be baptized into one body by the Spirit, before the Spirit came (see 1 Cor. 12:12, 13). It would be so much better to give up your theology, and cleave only to Scripture. Have you ever really searched the Scriptures to know what the church is? This is a subject of deep importance.

You say, “Peter being president in the church is an undoubted fact.”

I search in vain in Scripture for such a thought. The truth of the church, the body of Christ, does not seem to have been given to him to minister. Does Peter ever name the church? Did he ever speak of Christ as Head of the church? The keys of the kingdom were committed to him; never the keys, so to speak, of the church.

Look carefully over his preaching in the Acts, and you will find he, as the Apostle of the circumcision, preached the coming kingdom on earth. If the nation of Israel would repent, God would send Christ, their Messiah, from heaven to earth again.

There is not one word about the church or its ascension to heaven; all as to the church was committed to Paul. So far from Peter being the president of the church, if we had only his epistles, we should not know one word about the church. Peter baptized by water; but the baptism into Christ, forming the one body, is by the Holy Ghost, as we have seen in 1 Corinthians 12.

You will find it of great help to your soul to search the Scriptures, as to the contrast between the kingdom and the church—it is very little understood—it would give you light on many subjects. If you turn to the words of Jesus, you hear Him say:

“Suffer little children and forbid them not, to come unto Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). He did not say, of such, is the church. And why not?

Read in Matthew 13 the seven parables. The church is the building of Christ, and stands impregnable; but in the kingdom of heaven there is the distinct work of the devil—tares and leaven and birds of the air. There is the outward kingdom—as we say, baptized Christendom—and there is the true church of God.

And one word further: even when the millennial kingdom is set up on this earth, it will have earthly “glory”; but not the glory and privileges of the church. We never read that they will be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, which is our portion (Eph. 1). The veil is now rent, and we have holy liberty in the holiest (Heb. 10).

If you turn to the millennial temple with its worshipers, you will find that even the prince of Israel in the days of the millennial kingdom, will not enter the holiest; but shall stand by the post of the gate— “and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate.” Likewise the people of the land “shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord,” (Ezek. 46:2, 3). What a contrast is this to the present privilege of the saints of God (see Heb. 10).

Christendom has lost the knowledge of the church, and all its present privileges, and future heavenly glory, as the bride of Christ. Hence they put Peter in the place of Christ, as head or president of the church.

The church is heavenly, and its ministry was direct from heaven to Paul (Acts 26). He had no human authority or ordination (see Gal. 1), but was separated to a special mission by the Holy Ghost (see Acts 13:2).

Who ordained the laborers at Thessalonica? Who told you that Linus was bishop of Rome? or Timothy, bishop of Ephesus? or Titus, of Crete? This is all mere human history, and utterly contrary to Scripture. Paul sent not for the bishop of Ephesus, but for the elders. Search the Epistle to the Romans; Paul never names the bishop. There is no such a person named in Scripture, unless it be Diotrephes (3 John).

There was apostolic authority, but even then it was subordinate to the Holy Ghost, each seeking the guidance of the Spirit (Acts 13:1-4; 18:27). You will find nothing in Scripture that agrees with Eusebius. Long before the days in which he wrote, the Holy Ghost had alas, been set aside, and man put in His place. There is positively nothing in God’s Word about “one bishop in a Catholic or Christian church.”

You will find no such church as you are seeking: all is in ruin and confusion. As to our bodies, we are in Christendom, but we have distinct instructions for our path in these last days: “from such turn away.” And until He comes there will be a few calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. Nay, if it even comes to this, that you find Christ knocking at the door, outside all that professes to be His, even there He will sup with you (Rev. 3). And if He knocks at the door, let us open to Him, and seek to bring all we can to Him.

I only desire to be helped, and to help all that are His: until we see His blessed face.

Correspondence: 24 Elders; Phil. 3:18-19; Matt.3:16; Spirit Like a Dove

Question: Who do the four and twenty elders represent? (Rev. 4).

Answer: All the glorified saints from the beginning down to the coming of the Lord for His saints (1 Cor. 15:23).

As the saints are seen on earth in the second and third chapters, the rapture of the saints must needs be between the third and fourth chapters for them to be seen in the fourth chapter in heaven.

Question: Are the people described in Philippians 3:18, 19 real Christians, or only nominal professors? C. W.

Answer: The description would lead us to conclude that their Christianity was not real. Their end is destruction. We have the Word of the Lord that no true believer can ever be lost. John 5:24 and 10:27-29 assure us that they are eternally secure. Then, all true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13; 4:30; John 14:16, 17).

But we must regard the warning. The Philippians were not to follow the example of these mere professors. They were to follow the Apostle’s example, as a man led by the Holy Spirit. Verses 17 and 20, 21 show that he was a heavenly man in his calling and character. He wrote, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1:21).

There might be no outward evil seen in those in verses 18, 19, but their character was opposed to the cross of Christ, and they were living for themselves, and their end was destruction—they are earthly minded.

We may be sure, since such a warning is given to the saints at Philippi, that there was danger in following such, even if they were outwardly in communion at the Lord’s Table.

“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. 10:12).

We must keep a good conscience before God, and confess our sins, and judge our ways, to walk in communion with the Lord; and this is our safety for this life (1 Tim. 1:5,19, 20).

In 2 Peter 1:9, we have a slothful Christian who has even forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

In 2 Timothy 4:10, Demas, a companion of Paul’s, went back into the world.

In 2 Timothy 2:25, 26, some are mentioned who may be restored, or may not. “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” (2 Tim. 2:19). We are to have fellowship with those who depart from iniquity.

“Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 7:1).

“He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23).

Question: What took place when the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon Jesus? Matthew 3:16. Was He from that time indwelt by the Spirit of God, sealed by the Spirit, and anointed by the Spirit for public service for God?

Answer: Yes, He was sealed (John 6:27), and anointed (Acts 10:38) at the same time. All His ministry was in the power of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 4:1; 12:28; Luke 4:1, 14, 18).

Besides He was God manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). He was the Son of God with the Father “from the days of eternity” (Mic. 5:2).

But we are now speaking of Him as the Son of God in flesh, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God.” Luke 1:3,5. A man on earth come down from heaven to do the Father’s will. He needed no redemption, He was Himself the Redeemer. He was sealed with the Holy Spirit, and declared to be the Father’s beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. And in Acts 2:33, He receives the Spirit, the promise of the Father (John 14:16), and thus shed forth what was seen and heard at Pentecost when the disciples were all baptized into one body. “The same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” (John 1:33). Matthew 3:13 adds, “and with fire,” that is, when He will act as judge.

Adam, the first man, was tested in the garden of Eden with everything about him that was good; then he fell, and was driven out of the garden. He became head of a fallen race.

Jesus, the second Man, the obedient one, was tested in the wilderness, with hunger and the wild beasts, but He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan (Matt. 4:1). He was led in the wilderness by the Spirit (Luke 4:1, see N. T.), and He returned in the power of the Spirit (Verse 14).

In this perfect obedience, He gave Himself up to be a sacrifice for sin, to die on the cross, was buried and rose again, and is now seated on high. He became Head of the redeemed race of heavenly ones, for every true believer now is a member of His body.

Now that we have believed the gospel of our salvation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance. And He has given us the conscience knowledge of our place and portion as children (Rom. 8:15), and as sons (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit is the power of our new life (Rom. 8:2, 9, 10). He is in us, the anointed (2 Cor. 1:21, 22), our power to discern the truth and for service (1 John 2:20, 27). He abides always with us (John 14:16). Till the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). He will again dwell in us quickening our mortal bodies on account of His Spirit that dwells in us (Rom. 8:11). And He will dwell in us when risen, for we are fashioned after Christ. Acts 1:2 tells us that Jesus had the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him when He was risen from the dead.

“Jesus the risen man acts and speaks by the Holy Ghost after His resurrection as before it. Precious token of our position, as reminding us that we shall have the Holy Ghost after our resurrection, and that being no longer engaged in restraining and mortifying the flesh, His divine energy in us will be entirely consecrated to eternal joy and worship, and to the service committed to us by God.” (Synopsis on Acts 1:2. J. N. D.).

A Warning

“He that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.” (Ezek. 33:5).

Thirteen young men sat down to supper one evening, and their feasting and merriment went to such lengths that even death became a subject of joke.

“One of us will die tonight, we are thirteen:” and pointing to the youngest in their midst, a youth of eighteen, they said,

“It will be you.”

The party broke up, and three of them, including the youth, who were waiters in a hotel, turned their steps towards the lake, and got into a boat which was intended to carry only one person. It was near midnight, and no one was at hand to warn them of the risk they were running.

Did they remember their joke? We cannot tell. When morning dawned they were missing from their posts; and the boat, bottom upwards, told its own tale, with one body which was washed ashore. Those of the two others were recovered later in the day—but where were their souls?

“There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust;” and that is what makes death such a solemn thing, and not one to be spoken of carelessly. Would it not have solemnized you, had you been staying in that hotel, to awake in the morning and find that three of its inmates had passed into eternity?

Perhaps you say, “We are tired of being told of sudden deaths”: but remember that your time may come to be called into the presence of “God the Judge of all.” The Apostle Paul says,

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11); and can you wonder that we who live nineteen hundred years later, seek to use every means we can to persuade you!

A young man who was an unbeliever, once said to me,

“If I believed what you believe, I would speak to every one I came in contact with, and even walk up and down the streets with a placard on my back to warn people of their danger.”

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31).

But, dear reader, it is a blessed thing to be sheltered, come what may, in the arms of Christ—those arms that were outstretched on the cross for us, when He died, “the just for the unjust.”

“In the refuge God provided—

Though the world’s destruction lowers—

We are safe—to Christ confided,

Everlasting life is ours.”

Jesus at the Well

John 4

Christ was “weary” —yes, was weary!

Perfect God, yet perfect man;

E’en the rays which He created,

Made them weary, worn, and wan!

There He sat—the tired stranger—

There He sat to be refreshed,

For His sole, alone refreshment

Was in making others blest.

There, as man, He sat, so wearied:

There, as God, alarmed the soul—

Made the hardened conscience wounded.

Made, as God, the wounded whole.

There, as man, He said, “Believe Me,”

There, as God, with power supreme,

He proclaimed that God’s salvation

Was, by faith, receiving Him.

This was meat and drink to Jesus.

As through this poor world He passed,

Saving men; and ever telling,

Of His Father’s love so vast.

Perfect man; so sinless, holy,

Perfect God; the great “I AM,”

Who, to be a righteous Saviour,

Was the spotless, dying lamb.

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 4

Verses 1, 2. “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.”

Though these were happy, earnest Christians at this time, yet the apostle felt the need, because of the loose morals of the idolaters, which they had been, and among whom they were living as neighbors day by day, to warn them of the need of holy living and purity of walk. He had been very careful in his own behavior among them (chapter 2:10).

Verses 3-6. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which knew not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in the matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we have forewarned you and testified.”

Verses 7, 8. “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit.”

We might not think such warnings are needed as were given to newly converted Gentiles, but do we not see in our day how loosely the marriage tie is held by many. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we have the life of Christ in us, therefore we have no excuse to yield for an instant, in thought, in word, or deed, but to keep our body for the honor of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. It is important also to let the Holy Spirit turn our thoughts to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true object for our hearts.

Verses 9, 10. “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren in Macedonia: but we beseech you brethren, that ye increase more and more.” That is part of the divine nature given by the Lord to all His own.

“This is My commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12).

We might well take it to ourselves to seek to increase in this practical brotherly love more and more.

Verses 11, 12. “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, that ye may have need of no one.” We see in the Apostle an example of this (chap 2:9), and indeed he supported others as well (Acts 20:34) By this also they would honor the Lord before the Gentiles.

Verses 13-18. “But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

They needed instruction, for they seemed to think that at the coming of the Lord with His

saints, the dead ones would not be there. They knew of the coming of the Lord with His saints, but they needed this revelation specially given to Paul about the coming of the Lord for His saints first.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

The question is: How will He do it? and verses 15 to 18 is a parenthesis telling us how it will take place. It is a special revelation given to Paul.

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (or anticipate) them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

The comfort is that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and are therefore ready to go with the living ones to meet the Lord in the air. So the Thessalonian saints were still further encouraged to wait for the Lord’s coming. He had to come for them all first, so that they could all return with Him when He appeared to judge the world. The sleeping saints will be raised; those that are alive will be transformed, and all will be like Him, and see Him as He is.

There is no mention here of where the dead are now. That was not the trouble then; it may not be out of place to mention it, because of questions raised now. We see in 2 Corinthians 5:8, that they are now present with the Lord, though absent from the body, and in Philippians 1:23 Paul says,

“Having a desire to depart and be with Christ; which is far better.”

Luke 23:43, tells us that it is “paradise,” the garden of delights, where the Lord is. It is like two waiting places, the departed spirits wait there with the Lord for that moment. While those that are alive and remain, wait here for Him.

Then 1 Corinthians 15:49, 53, 54, tells us of the likeness to the Lord the saints will have when He comes. Also our bodies will be fashioned like unto His body of glory. (Phil. 3:20, 21).

What a joy to the Lord’s heart to have all His heavenly saints together with Himself. His will be the exceeding joy when He shall set them with exultation blameless before the presence of His glory (Jude 24).

“They that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23). This verse takes them all in, both those who are alive and remain, and those who died in faith from the beginning (Heb. 11:13, 40).

We have a threefold call here; first the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. How precious is His love! He will not send for us, His voice well known to His saints now will be heard. It is a shout of relationship, like a captain to His company.

Next, the Archangel’s voice of authority is heard. Then the trump of God’s irresistible power, raises the dead, changes the living, and all find themselves, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in new creation glory, like the Lord, and with Him in glory.

What triumph and joy for Him! And what gladness will be ours!

“To dwell with Him, to see His face,

And sing the glories of His grace.”

“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

A Moment With the Bible

A moment in the morning,

Ere the cares of day begin,

Ere the heart’s wide door is open

For the world to enter in:

Ah, then, alone with Jesus,

In the silence of the morn,

In heavenly, sweet communion,

Let your duty day be born:

In the quietude that blesses

With a prelude of repose,

Let your soul be soothed and softened,

As the dew revives the rose.

An Address to the Young People on Success: Part 3

Philippians 3:1-15

Notice in the 8th verse, it doesn’t say, “Christ Jesus the Lord” —but “my Lord.” The Apostle Paul had the sense in his soul that the Lord Jesus Christ was his Lord. What is that? The one who had absolute authority over his life.

Dear young people, it is a blessed thing to have a Saviour; but do you realize that you have a Lord? and that one who is our Lord, has the right to demand all of us; not on terms of legal obedience, but because of what He has done for us. “The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Doesn’t He have the right to the very best we have? Shall we hold anything back from Him? Shall we not sum up all we have—the best we have—ambitions and desires, and take them all, and lay them at His feet, and say, “My Lord”? Thomas made the confession: “My Lord and my God.”

If we bring all to Him, and put all into His hand, and say, “Now, Lord Jesus, I have turned all over to Thee; Thou shalt be the one purpose of my life.” Do you think a life lived with that sense in the soul, can be a failure? Dear young Christian, it cannot be possible; it is bound to be a success.

I have often told about a young woman, crippled and blind. Is she a success? Go with us some day into her room in the hospital, and as we speak about the Lord Jesus, witness the smile of joy that comes over her face, and hear her speak in terms of affection about Him. Her whole soul is alive to the name of the Lord Jesus. Is that girl a success? Is her life a success, or is it a failure? At one time she was enjoying health and training to be a nurse; there she lies now a hopeless cripple, a helpless invalid at the mercy of others; but has God made things in His Word so hard that it is necessary to have health and strength to be a success? That would be cruel. No; He has made it so, that even an invalid, who cannot lift a hand or open an eye, can be a brilliant success. We hear that expression in the world: “He was a brilliant success.” I believe, as the Lord Jesus looks down on that poor girl, confined for the rest of her days, (she has been there now ten years), He can truly say, “A brilliant success.” I am only sighting this to show how God views things here.

If we believe the Word of God, we must believe all things here are coursing on to one thing—Judgment is ahead. This world has been judged at the cross of Christ, and what a poor place to display one’s self in—a scene where the blessed Son of God was cast out and rejected, and where His name is blasphemed to this day. What place has He in the world’s affairs—its counsels and schemes?

Young people, you know Christ has no place in it at all. If you are ambitious to have your name heralded here, what a hollow ambition it is. Is this the place to cherish and nourish—even to permit—such an ambition in your breast? Can we not say with real energy of soul, “I am content to count all that loss for Christ—count it refuse—that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.... count it refuse, of God by faith.”

Paul speaks here in the tenth verse: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.” How the world worships power these days. Here is the mighty power of God that raised Christ from the dead. That is the power you are to share. Christ is no longer in the grave; He is no longer in humiliation, but is risen by the mighty power of God from the grave, and all things are become new—a new beginning. God began things all over again when He raised Christ from the dead. That is where you and I are to start—with the resurrection of Christ from the dead. What does that mean for the old desires and ambitions? Put them in the place of death. “Being made conformable unto His death.”

“O, worldly pomp and glory,

Your charms are spread in vain.”

Have we said “farewell” to all those worldly desires and ambitions? Have we put them to death? We have a life in association with Christ in resurrection, and are partakers now of His sufferings. In that coming day, we are going to be partakers of His glory.

If only we could get this thing lined up, and see the advantages that would be ours from casting in our lot with Him! Moses did. He looked forward, and “chose to suffer affliction because he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” He was looking forward to pay day at the end of the course. He wasn’t a loser. There he was on the mount sharing the glory of Christ.

One longs to put this in such a way that it might arrest the hearts of our young people. Some of them are slipping away; some of them are drifting with the tide, feeling what they might be in this world, and saying: “Can I afford to live a hidden life? Can I afford to settle down, and be nobody in this world?” Sad to say, some have made the wrong decision; have turned their back upon Christ as their object, and refuse conformity to Christ in death. It is sad; it is actually happening.

I wonder if there are some here who have things in the balances? Dear young souls, if you have Christ as your object, you will never, never be disappointed. There never has been such a thing as disappointment at the end of a life that has had Christ as its object, but if you have something less than Christ, you are going to get disappointment, surely, sooner or later.

Just one more reading of Joshua 1:8 in closing:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

If you want a recipe for success, here it is. That “book of the law” for you is the Word of God, and that promise stands as good today as when made to Josh. 1 can say, far better than when made to Joshua, because we have the thing made far more sure. We have the revelation of God in Christ, and have every assurance that if we make Christ first, we shall have a prosperous way, and we shall have good success. So, don’t for a moment imagine, that a life for Christ means failure. It can’t mean failure. A life for this world must mean failure in the end, in view of that day.

I would press it upon you, young people, by the grace of God, to lay hold on Christ as your object; make this book, the Word of God, that by which you live and have your being, and you shall have good success.

(Continued from page 215)

(Concluded)

Encouragement and Warning

The children of God, so far as their acceptance is concerned, are as fit for heaven on the day they are saved as ever they will be; and why God does not take them there at once, when they believe, is doubtless because He requires them here for a time, associated with His purposes concerning the glory of His Son in this period of His Son’s rejection.

God fits His own as vessels to the accomplishing of these purposes, and would have us day by day individually walking, in communion with Himself, and using every circumstance arising in our pathway as means whereby to glorify Him; for if we are wrong in our individual path, how can we be right corporately? If we go on with the Lord in the first, we shall be found proportionately in unison with Him in the second.

Furthermore, the Lord would have us make room for Him, so to speak, in our hearts, for we know there was no room for Him in this world, as is shown by the “manger,” the “cross,” and the “not where to lay His head,” and the world today is unchanged.

It is of vast importance, too, to know God’s mind which He has so clearly revealed in His Word to true hearts and simple minds.

Not less important is it to know how we are to be kept suited vessels for Him, and in concert with His mind, in this day of increasing evil in which our lot is cast. God said to His earthly people Israel, in former dispensation, in connection with what He was then doing, “take heed to thyself.” And surely it is a word equally needful now for His heavenly people. Two things are essentially necessary, namely, obedience and dependence.

Mere knowledge of God’s Word, human intelligence in the truth, long years of much-honored service, experience, and the like, good as they may be in themselves, are utterly powerless to sustain and preserve God’s people for Himself in a day like this. Nothing short of obedience to God’s Word and dependence upon Himself will suffice.

Our blessed Lord was the only perfect exemplification of this, and it is very remarkable to see how successfully He met every temptation of Satan with quotations from the book of Deuteronomy, which, as we know, contains special instructions for the saint’s walk; and He left us an example that we should walk in His steps.

Moreover we have many examples in God’s Word written for our learning, showing how blessed it is to be characterized by obedience and dependence, and how solemnly disastrous it is to be found in an opposite path.

One should tread very softly indeed, when referring to the failures of such an honored servant of God, for instance, as Barnabas, who labored so intimately with the apostle Paul. Of course we could not say Paul was perfect, but we must admit that while he went on with God, Barnabas broke down under testing.

Satan is ever on the alert to hinder souls and mar God’s work, and whenever God is having a special testimony carried on, the enemy is on the extra watch to subvert it. When such a servant as Barnabas could be drawn aside in such a simple way, how it behooves us to take heed of ourselves.

The foe knows our tendencies and is well acquainted with our weakest points, directing his attacks accordingly. What would answer his purpose with one saint would probably have no power with another.

We read of Barnabas, in the Acts of the Apostles, that:

1. He introduced Paul to the other apostles at Jerusalem (Chapter 9:27).

2. He was sent by the church to Antioch to exhort the saints to cleave unto the Lord (Chapter 11:22, 23).

3. He was a man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith (Chapter 11:24).

4. He went to seek Paul who had fled to Tarsus, and brought him to Antioch where he and Paul stayed a year together, with the church, when the disciples were first called Christians (Chapter 11:25, 26).

5. He and Paul were sent by the elders with relief to the brethren in Judea (Chapter 11:30).

6. He and Paul were separated of the Holy Ghost to go to Cyprus, where God’s power in the Apostle Paul proved stronger than Satan’s power in Elymas the sorcerer (Chapter 13:2-11).

7. He went with Paul, after Paul had been stoned and supposed to be dead, to Derbe (Chapter 14:19, 20).

8. He and Paul together went up to Jerusalem respecting Judaism being taught, and were received of the church, the apostles and elders; and all the multitude gave audience to them (Chapter 15:2, 4, 12).

9. He and Paul, who had hazarded their lives, were then chosen with one accord by the apostles and elders with the whole church, to return to Antioch about the same matter, with others (Chapter 15:22, 25, 26).

10. And when Paul simply proposed to Barnabas that they should visit their brethren in the cities where they had preached the Word of the Lord, Barnabas wanted to take with them Mark, his relative; but because Paul thought it not good to do so on account of Mark having left the work in Pamphylia, Barnabas separated, and sailed with Mark to Cyprus their native place; while it is said of Paul that he chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God, and that they went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches (chap. 15:36, 41).

It is solemn thus to note that there is but little mention made again of Barnabas. Mark did afterward become profitable for the ministry, and Paul sent for him. In substance Paul remained in the current of God’s mind, and Barnabas left it.

Barnabas and Mark might have said of what had happened, that it was merely a personal quarrel between two servants of God, and so forth; but clearly it was that Barnabas at an unguarded moment sacrificed God’s work for natural relationship, preferring to honor his nephew, rather than uphold, the honor of the one whose name he bore, and whose interests and testimony were in measure entrusted to him.

We do not learn from Scripture that he was ever restored to anything approaching the same position of service and privilege, but we do know that another took his place.

God, so to speak, must have our obedience, but He can get others to do our work. Barnabas thereby deprived himself of the privilege of witnessing soon afterward with Paul in the prison at Philippi, and of being in the blessing at Thessalonica and other places. In these two cases, can we not hear a voice from God to us, of encouragement on the one hand, and of warning on the other?

May God in His grace grant that we may! and may all our hearts be directed into closer occupation with that blessed one who always did those things that pleased His Father in the perfection of dependence and obedience, and so be kept in communion with Himself, and in the current of His mind, and suited vessels to maintain that which is so dear to Himself, during the little while of His absence for His name’s sake.

Sowing the Seed

“Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters!” (Isa. 32:20).

Go forth to sow, O sowers,

‘Tis precious seed ye bear!

Where lie the plow’s deep furrows,

Scatter it in with care.

So broadcast by the wayside—

Some among thorns may fall,

Some in God’s fenced gardens—

He keepeth watch o’er all.

Blessed if “by all waters,”

Ye have the heart to sow;

See! oxen “strong to labor,”

Forth to this service go:

Though patient toil is needed,

None can too slowly be—

Too much despised, O Master,

To do Thy work for Thee.

O sowers, be not weary,

The Lord hath need of you;

Keep ever ‘mid your labor

The harvest day in view;

The Lord will guide your footsteps,

He’ll teach you where to go,

Ye shall return with singing,

Who erst in tears did sow.

Whence the wind comes up ye know not

Nor whither it may blow,

Watch not the clouds above you,

Your part is but to sow.

God freely gives His sunshine,

He sends His rain in showers;

Sow the small seed, have patience,

And He will bring the flowers.

Morn is the time of sowing,

Toward night is not too late;

No laborer, willing-hearted,

Need linger at the gate.

Go forth, go forth, O sowers!

‘Tis precious Seed ye bear;

Go at your Master’s bidding,

The “field” is everywhere.

“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious Seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psa. 126:6).

The Son of God

AN EXTRACT

The Son of God was dependent, obedient, believing, hopeful, sorrowful, suffering, despised, crucified, buried; everything which the great eternal plan made necessary to Him. He emptied Himself in view of all this, but all that He did was infinitely worthy of His person.

The word at the beginning, “Let there be light: and there was light,” was not more worthy of Him, than were the prayers and supplications “with strong crying and tears,” in the days of His flesh. He could never have been allied with anything unworthy of Godhead, though found, abundantly and at all personal cost, in conditions and circumstances into which our guilt and His grace in putting it away, brought Him.

The person in the manger was the same as on the cross. It was “God manifest in the flesh.” And in the full sense of that glory, we can but speak of His humbling of Himself from the earliest to the latest moment of that wondrous journey.

Self-emptying obedience, subjection of a kind quite its own, is, therefore, to be seen in every stage and action of such a one. And what was that course of service in the esteem of Him to whom it was rendered? As the born one, the circumcised one, the baptized and anointed one, the serving, sorrowing, and crucified one, and then as the risen one, He has passed here on earth under the eye of God.

In the lowliness of the manger, in the solitudes of Nazareth, in the activities and services of all the cities and villages of Israel, in the deep, self-sacrifice of the cross, and then in the new bloom of resurrection, has “this wondrous Man” been seen and delighted in of God—perfect, untainted, recalling the divine delight in man, more than when of old He was made in God’s image, and more than annulling all the divine repentings of old, that man had been made on earth.

His person lent a glory to all His course of service and obedience, which rendered it of unutterable value.

It was His person which gave all its virtues to His death or sacrifice; and it was His person which gave its peculiar glory to all He did, in His course of self-humbling obedience. And the complacency of God in the one was as perfect as His judicial acceptance of the other. Some symbol (like that of a rent veil) is seen by faith uttering that complacency and full delight of God over every passing act in the life of Jesus. Would that we had eyes to see, and ears to hear that, as we pass on through the ways of Jesus from the manger to the tree! But so it was, whether seen or not by us. Complacency of God beyond all thought to conceive, rested on all He did and all He was, throughout His life of obedience.

These are strengthening thoughts about the ways of Jesus. These ways of service and subjection to God are to get their own peculiar character, and in our sight. Obedience has been glorified in His person, and shown in all its ineffable beauty and desirableness; so that we are not merely to say, that the complacency of God in Him was ever maintained in its fullness, but that it passes beyond all created thought.

‘The form of a servant’ was a reality, just as much as “the form of God” in Him; as truly an assumed reality, as the other was an essential, intrinsic reality. And being such, His ways were those of a servant; just as, being the Son, His glories and prerogatives were those of God. He prayed; He continued whole nights in prayer. He lived by faith, the perfect pattern of a believer, as we read of Him: “The Leader and Completer of Faith.” In sorrow He made God His refuge. In the presence of enemies, He committed Himself to Him who judged righteously. He did not His own will, perfect as that will was, but the will of Him who sent Him. In these and in all kindred ways, was “the form of a servant” found and proved and read and known to perfection. It is seen to have been a great and living reality. The life of this Servant was the life of faith from beginning to end.

Fragment: Why Doubt or Fear?

How good to be in the counsels of God’s ways, and know that all things work together for good to them that love Him, and are called according to His purpose!

God for us, Christ with us, the Holy Spirit in us. What a power, and each interested and concerned in us! When we think of this, why should we ever doubt or fear?

Correspondence: Widows Indeed; Antichrist; Unpardonable Sin; Worthy of Me

Question: Kindly explain (1 Tim. 5:9-11). A. D.

Answer: “Widows indeed” (Verse 5) who had no one to care for them, and needed support, could be put on the list for regular help without taking them off the path of faith. Verses 9 and 10 describe their character,

Younger widows and all who needed help, could be helped, but not on a regular sum; it would destroy their faith in God alone.

Question: Does Acts 13:48 mean that God has planned all who are to be saved, and that He will bring it to pass? G. C.

Answer: It is a blessed thing to know that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, and also marked out before hand, that all who believed in Him were to have the place and portion of being God’s children (Eph. 1:4, 5). This is what Scripture teaches us after we are saved.

In Romans 9:22, we find that all the lost are vessels of wrath who have fitted themselves to destruction, so have to blame themselves. And in verse 23, all who are saved, are vessels prepared afore unto glory, and they can praise and thank God for their salvation.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Whosoever will may come. This if the invitation to the unsaved; the other is the teaching: that follow.

Remember, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

Question: Is the Man of Sin in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, ant the Antichrist in 1 John 2:18 the same person? W. W. H.

Answer: There are two beasts spoken of in Revelation 13. The first rises out of the sea (of the nations). The second comes out of the earth (that which is already established). The first is the Man of Sin; the second is thy King of the Jews whom he sets on the throne.

At the beginning, the woman in Revelation 17, rides upon the beast (the Roman Kingdom); then the beast destroys her, eats her flesh and burns her with fire—that is he takes all the riches of the Vatican to himself, and destroys all the religion that once bore Christ’s name.

The King of the Jews makes an image of the beast, sets it up in the temple at Jerusalem, and orders everyone to worship the beast, so that no religion is allowed but his own—all must worship him on pain of death. (Rev. 13:15).

By means of miracles: power and signs, and lying wonders, he deludes men on to their doom (2 Thess. 2:9-12).

Satan has managed to dethrone God in the sight of man. He put this before our first parents— “Ye shall be as gods.” It is allowed but for a moment.

This is the Satanic trinity: The Roman Beast, the King of the Jews, and the dragon (Rev. 16:13, 14) Satan’s Masterpiece. He imitates God to the end, but his destruction is sure.

The Word, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, with his armies, appear to the utter destruction of these enemies. The beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire. The dragon is bound, but not yet put there till Christ’s reign is completed, and then he too is cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet still are (See Rev. 19:20, and 20:10). There is no annihilation there. “Shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

In Revelation 13:4, “They worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

This is like all that is of this world, it was short lived, empty boasting.

The judgment will fall on all rebellious boasters.

Question: What is the Meaning of Matthew 10:37, “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me”? M. S. L.

Answer: Read from verses 34-39. We find proof in these verses that to confess Christ as our Saviour and Lord, often brings bitter persecution from our nearest and dearest relatives. This was seen specially among the Jews. If one confessed Christ, that one was counted outside the family he or she belonged to.

In Matthew 10:37.39, they were warned not to turn their back on the Saviour, for, “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” The love of Christ in the believer is stronger and above all other loves, dearer than all earthly ties, dearer than life itself. To put self or any other object first, is to fall and lose one’s life spiritually.

Question: Please explain to me the meaning of the unpardonable sin. (Matt. 12:31, 32). M. S. L.

Answer: Read from verse 24. The Pharisees said that the Lord was doing His miracles by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. The Lord replies, that Satan would not cast out Satan. He sees their wicked hearts at enmity to Him. They were thus blaspheming the Holy Ghost, because they said that Christ had an unclean spirit (Mark 3:29, 30). This is what some call the unpardonable sin, to be forgiven neither in this world, neither in the world to come. “This world” means the time of the law, before Christ died. “The world to come” means the millennial age or time. The present time is the day of grace, when the gospel is preached to every creature—To Whosoever Will,

To Me to Live Is — -

The ball was over, the last carriage full of guests had driven away, and now Arthur S— stood in his room, considering a piece of paper that he held in his hand, which he had taken out of his pocket, on which was written the words which form the title of this true story.

Today he had come of age. A large dinner and ball had been given in honor of the event.

It had all passed off successfully, and he had enjoyed himself thoroughly, and now, as he was going to bed in the early hours of the morning, he remembered suddenly a request made to him during the day just passed.

Among the guests had been an old uncle of his, “My religious old uncle,” as Arthur laughingly styled him, indeed, he was rather afraid of him, as on the few occasions on which they had met, this uncle had always spoken to him about eternal things, which was the last subject Arthur cared to hear about. However, this uncle was very wealthy, and so his nephew felt he must needs keep in with him, and, of course, on this occasion of his twenty-first birthday, this religious old uncle had to be asked to the celebrations, and when he came down and presented Arthur with a very handsome check, he felt more kindly disposed towards him than usual. His uncle was not staying to the dinner and following ball, as he said those things were not in his line, so when he asked his nephew to walk round the grounds with him before he went away, Arthur could not but accede, though he was in a great fright for fear he should speak to him about his soul.

His uncle guessed what was passing in his mind, for as they went along the carriage drive, he suddenly said, “I daresay you are fearing that I am going to speak to you about religious things.” Arthur admitted that he had feared he might do so.

“No,” his uncle said, “I am not going to say a word to you of that kind today, but I want you to make me a promise instead, that you will take this piece of paper that I have in my hand and when you go to your bed tonight you will read what is written on it, and fill in the word that is wanted to complete the sentence,” and he handed the young fellow a folded piece of paper. Arthur took it and readily made the promise, only too pleased to get off so easily as he thought.

And now, the day is over, and he stands in his room, and before getting into bed pauses to fulfill his promise.

Let us look over his shoulder and read what is written.

“To me to live is —.”

“What in the world does it mean?” Arthur murmurs to himself. “Ah, what is that written in the corner, perhaps it will explain? Philippians 1:20. O, that is a text; evidently I have got to fill in the missing word, probably that will tell me what to put. What funny notions my religious old uncle has!”

So saying, he goes to a cupboard and rummages on a top shelf, and at last unearths a dusty, unused-looking Bible, and hunts up with some difficulty Philippians 1:20.

“‘To me to live is Christ.’ Hmm, I cannot put that, at least I will be honest; I must write something though, as I promised the old fellow that I would. Whatever shall I put? What would the truth be anyway? ‘To me to live is —” and he paused, “to enjoy myself; that is about it, and why should I not put it, it is nothing to be ashamed of that I can see—why should I not enjoy myself, I wonder? I will write that— To me to live is—to enjoy myself,’” and Arthur signed his name to it, and with a sigh of relief at having accomplished the task imposed upon him, put the paper away in a drawer and got into bed, and thought no more of it.

Years passed away—Arthur S— had married and had one little girl, ere we hear of him again. But things had not continued to go prosperously with him; life had not yielded him so much enjoyment and satisfaction as he had expected, and at last the day came when his money and possessions all went from him at one blow, and he had to sell his beautiful house and all that it contained. Today, another summer day, such as that on which his birthday had fallen so many years ago, an auction had taken place in his old home, and now he stands watching the men as they pack and take away the furniture. “My life has been a failure,” he gloomily mutters to himself, with a bitter, hard expression on the face that had once been so carelessly happy and boyish-looking.

His little girl, too young to realize the tragedy of it all, is running about the dismantled room, examining with childish curiosity the remaining pieces of furniture scattered about. All at once she comes running up to her father holding up to him a piece of paper carefully folded, that she has found in an old drawer of the cabinet. “See, Daddy, what I have found; look, what is written on it?” she asks him excitedly.

Her father absently takes the paper, unfolds it and reads, “To me to live is—to enjoy myself,” and, his own signature at the end. In an instant it all comes back to him, that night long ago, when he so thoughtlessly penned those words— “To enjoy myself.” Ah, what a miserable failure it had indeed all been!

He turned away, unable to bear the questioning gaze of his little daughter, and left the room. His life came up in review before him.

“He had lived for himself,

He had thought for himself,

For himself and none beside,

Just as if Jesus had never lived.

As if He had never died.”

And what had been the end of it all? God spoke to him then and there, through that message from the past.

He fell on his knees owning his sin and folly and the huge mistake he had made, how he had left God out of all his thoughts and his life.

“Henceforth,” he said, “to me to live shall be Christ,” and then and there Arthur S— gave himself to the Savior who had loved him, and had died to save him.

“The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20).

“Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 4:19, 20).

What and Where Are You?

There is an immense difference between the position, portion, and prospect of a sinner and that of a saint.

A saint is one who is separated to God by the Spirit of God and the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A saint is a person who has the present and eternal forgiveness of every sin; has everlasting life in the Son of God; is saved forever; is indwelt by the Holy Spirit; is “accepted in the Beloved”; is “complete in Christ”; is a member of Christ’s body; and is made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.

In short, a saint is one who has judgment behind him; hell shut under his feet; heaven open over his head; everlasting glory full in front of him. There is only a spider’s web between him and the heavenly glory; by faith he can see Jesus there; and he only waits for Jesus to rise up, put his feet upon the spider’s web, and then he will be with and like his Lord forever.

“He and I in that bright glory

One deep joy shall share;

Mine, that I am ever with Him,

His, that I am there.”

But a sinner is one who loves his sins and his pleasures in preference to the Saviour and pardon; he is unforgiven, unpardoned, and unsaved; he is a refuser of the love of God, a rejecter of the Christ of God, a resister of the Spirit of God, and a deliberate destroyer of his own precious and immortal soul.

In short, a sinner is one who has glory behind his back; “eternal judgment” staring him in the face; heaven is closed over his head, and hell is open in front of him; he is a child of wrath on his road to the lake of fire, and ready for it.

What are you, a saint or a sinner?

My reader, where are you at this moment? Are you still living and walking according to the course of this world? Do its pleasures, honors, fashions, and its so-called progress, or its falsely called science, absorb your heart and mind? We cannot serve two masters. It must be either God or mammon, Christ or the world. Which is it with you?

Sure I am, that believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for sinners, will give you peace, and bring you nigh to God. It is vain to look elsewhere; for the God of truth declares that there is salvation in no other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).

The Warning

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” (1 Thess. 5:3).

Speak not of “The good time coming”;

Say not, “Happy times draw nigh.”

Lo! The clouds with terror looming,

Darken o’er the future sky!

Undeceive thyself, O mortal!

To the winds such dreamings give.

Think upon the fearful purging

That the earth must first receive.

Rather tell of wrath and vengeance,

Pending o’er this guilty race;

In its shame still glorying, boasting;

Deaf to all the calls of grace;

God forgetting, God dishonoring,

Guilty world, thy doom is nigh.

Fear unknown will seize upon thee,

When He shakes the earth and sky.

Sodom’s fall but faintly pictures,

What thy awful lot will be;

It had not so many warnings,

As the Lord hath sent to thee.

Grace refused makes judgment sorer:

O, what grace hast thou refused!

Guilty world, thy judgments hover,

All escape for thee is closed.

Yet, as in the case of Sodom,

Lot departed ere it fell;

So, the Lord will come from heaven,

Take His church with Him to dwell,

Ere destruction’s work commences,

On this Sodom’s guilty ones:

They, the salt, alone preserve it;

They removed, the judgment comes.

To the Ark and from destruction

All who’d be preserved, then, haste!

Christ’s alone the Ark of safety;

Come, and full salvation taste:

Tarry not for reformation;

Sinners—Jesus died to save.

Art thou lost. He came to find thee;

Thou, believing, life shalt have.

Then amid the coming glory,

Which the church with Christ shall share;

Thou shalt have the happy portion,

Bride of His, His image bear.

Then, His earthly people gathered—

Earth made clean, and Satan bound;

Thou shalt, with thy Saviour, reigning

O’er a happy world be found!

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 5

1 Thessalonians 5

Verses 1-3. The beginning of this chapter connects with chapter 4:14, “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

This is the coming of the Lord with His saints, at or near the end of the great tribulation period, and surely it will be terrible for godless, Christ rejecting souls (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 12:40; 17:24, 21:26, 27, 36).

In Revelation 3:3 we see that they who are godless professors in the church, left behind when the Lord comes for His saints, will share in that judgment when He comes as a thief in the night. Some will be dwelling in fancied security; some will fear and tremble for what is coming on the earth (Luke 21:10, 11).

Verses 4-7. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”

How blessed this is! We have everything out; nothing to hide, and a life given us that hates darkness and distance from God. We now can delight in His presence. Yet we need the exhortation because the flesh, sin, is in us still, we will not get rid of that till our bodies are changed, but we are not its servants now.

“Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.” Spiritual sloth, and indulging in pleasures, are fleshly lusts which war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).

Verses 8-11. “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

This is the armor for the wilderness for our journey through Satan’s world. Faith and love and hope—three qualities of our new life as children of God.

Faith connects us with God and His Word, that reveals the Lord Jesus to our souls, so that we can have communion with the Father and the Son.

Love is also what has laid hold of us, and is in us toward God and our Lord Jesus and to the saints, and toward the world for their good.

Hope of Salvation is our helmet that covers our head. Hope has laid hold of the promise of His coming, and of our being with Him. There is no uncertainty about this our blessed hope (See Titus 2:13). And in the loving confidence we thus have, we can say,

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

Salvation here is our full deliverance. We belong to the Lord. “He died for us, so that whether we ‘wake,’ that is, are alive when He comes, or whether we ‘sleep,’ it is the same result, we shall live together with Him.” This we saw in chapter 4:16, 17.

“Wherefore encourage one another, and build up each one the other, even as also ye do.”

Verses 12, 13. “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you: and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.”

There is no mention of office here: it is more shepherding and caring for them to guide them aright, that they might grow in grace (See chapter 2:7, 11). “Be at peace among yourselves” is a word we often need.

Verses 14, 15. “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all (men).”

How we need to be in the presence of God, and our hearts in love bearing each other up. Communion with God is the power, and His Word the guide in so doing.

They were never to render evil for evil unto any man or person, but ever to follow that which is good, both among themselves and to all. And then what precious words follow,

Verse 16. “Rejoice evermore” (Phil. 4:4). We have so much to be glad over, that even amid sorrow we can rejoice in the Lord.

Verse 17. “Pray without ceasing.” In communion with the Lord, is where the soul finds relief, speaking to God, unburdening our souls to Him. Our times are in His hand.

Verse 18. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

O help us Lord, to observe these little verses with diligent endeavor to carry them out!

Verse 19. “Quench not the Spirit.” They were not to hinder the action of the Spirit in their midst, nor despise what He said.

Verses 20-21. “Despise not prophesying” (Compare 1 Cor. 14:3). We may quench the Spirit by not speaking when God gives us the Word; or we might refuse to hear the Word spoken to us by God. In either case we would quench the Spirit. We are to prove all things; and hold fast that which is good—good advice and easily understood.

Verse 22. “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” It really means every form of evil.

Verse 23. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and (I pray God) your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the only passage where man is thus expressed.

In the soul, our affections and desires are expressed.

In our spirit, it is our mind and intelligence. The body is the tent the soul dwells in.

“The Holy Spirit then wills that man, reconciled with God, should be consecrated, in every part of his being, to the God who has brought him into relationship with Himself by the revelation of His love, and by the work of His grace, and that nothing in the man should admit an object beneath the divine nature of which he is partaker; so that he should thus be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ.”

This consecration is to be carried out in our every relationship of life (as in Eph. 5:21 to 6:9). And for this we can count on God for grace and wisdom and strength in dependence on Him. This is our practical day by day sanctification in our behavior.

Hebrews 10:14 is absolute, it is done once for all, that is: our person and position as now belonging to Christ.

Verse 24. “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.” Let us then gladly submit to Him in all our ways, that He may work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

Verse 25. “Brethren, pray for us.” How much we all need this!

Verse 26. His loving salutation as in Eastern countries.

Verse 27. All the brethren are to read this epistle.

Verse 28. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

The Bridegroom Cometh!

A WORD IN SEASON

Beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, the day of the apostasy is hastening on with rapid strides, and also the day in which the Lord shall come to catch His own away.

The present moment is of so solemn a character that I feel constrained to address you this word of exhortation.

Godly men everywhere, who watch the signs of the times, see the moment approaching which

shall terminate the present actings of grace. The time has evidently arrived when one must speak plainly and decisively, and ask you where you are, and what you are about. You have by grace, which has shone brighter and brighter as it has approached its termination, been gathered out of the seething mass of idolatry and wickedness which now threatens Christendom and the world with an overthrow more awful than that of Sodom and Gomorrah of old; and the question is whether you are adequately impressed with the responsibility, as well as the blessedness, of the ground you are on, and walking like men and women whose eyes have been opened.

Believe me, there has never been in the world’s history such a time as the present, and Satan is occupied with none as he is with you; and his occupation with you is the more to be feared because of the subtlety of his operations.

His object is to withdraw your attention from Christ, while you suppose you are on safe ground and have nothing to fear. He would destroy you with the very truth itself. For mark the subtlety: you are on safe ground, but only while Christ is your all in all. Here is where Satan is drawing some away. Interpose anything between your soul and Christ, and your Philadelphia becomes Laodicea; your safe ground is as unsafe as the rest of Christendom; your strength is gone from you, and you are become weak, like any ordinary mortal.

Some of you are young, recently converted, or brought to the right ways of the Lord, and you do not know the depths of Satan. But you are hereby solemnly warned of your peril; and if mischief overtake you, you cannot plead ignorance.

Again I say, Satan has his eye especially upon you, for the purpose of interposing the world in some form between your soul and Christ. He cares not how little, or in what form. If you knew but how little will answer his purpose, you would be alarmed.

It is not by that which is gross or shameful; such is the development, not the beginning of evil.

It is not by anything glaring that he seeks to ruin you, but in small and seemingly harmless trifles—trifles that would not shock nor offend anyone as things go, and yet these constitute the deadly and insidious poison, destined to ruin your testimony and withdraw you from Christ.

Do you ask what are these alarming symptoms, and where are they seen? The question does not show what is the character of the opiate at work.

Brethren and sisters, you are being infected with the spirit of the world. Your dress, your manner, your talk, your lack of spirituality, betray it in every gathering. There is a dead weight, a restraint, a want of power, that reveals itself in the meetings, as plainly as if your heart were visibly displayed and its thoughts publicly read.

A form of godliness without power is beginning to be seen among you, as plainly as in Christendom generally. As surely as you tamper with the world, so surely will you drift away to its level. This is the nature of things. It must be so. If you tamper with the world, the privileged place you occupy, instead of shielding you, will only expose you to greater condemnation.

It must be Christ or the world. It cannot be—ought not to be—Christ and the world. God’s grace in drawing you out of the world in your ignorance is one thing; but God will never permit you to prostitute His grace, and play fast and loose, when you have been separated from the world.

Remember, you take the place, and claim the privilege, of one whose eyes have been opened; and if on the one hand this is unspeakably blessed (and it is), on the other hand it is the most dreadful position in which a human being can be found. It is to be at the wedding feast without the wedding garment. It is to say, “Lord, Lord,” while you do not the things that He bids. It is to say, “I go, sir,” as he said who went not.

Beloved, I am persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak; and I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will bless Him for these few faithful words. Nothing can be more glorious than the position you are called to occupy in these closing days. Saints have stood in the breach, have watched through weary days and nights these nineteen hundred years, and you only wait for the trumpet of victory to go in and take possession of the glorious inheritance.

Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors; and yet, forsooth, you are lowering your dignity to the level of the poor potsherds of the earth, who only wait for the rod of the Victor (and yours too) to be dashed into pieces.

O, awake, then, from your lethargy; slumber no longer; put away your idols and false gods; wash your garments, and get you to Bethel, where you will find God to be better than ever you knew Him, even in your best days. Lay aside your last bit of worldly dress; guard your speech, that if it be of Christ and His affairs, and not, as you know it now often is, of anything but Him.

Let your prayers mingle with those of other saints at the prayer meetings; they never were more needed. Neglect no opportunity of gathering up instructions from that Word which alone can keep us from the paths of the destroyer, and let your life be the evidence of the treasures you gather up at the lecture, or the reading-meeting, or in secret with the Lord.

If you want occupation, with a glorious reward from a beloved Master, ask that Master to set you to work for Him; you will never regret it, either in this world or in that which is to come.

Beloved, bear with me: I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. You belong to Christ, and Christ to you. Break not this holy union. Let not the betrothed one be unfaithful to her bridegroom! Why should you be robbed and spoiled? And for what? Empty husks and bitter fruits, while you waste this little span of blessing!

All the distinctions acquired here in the energy of the Spirit, will but serve to enhance your beauty, and render you more lovely in the eyes of Him who has espoused you to Himself. Can you refuse Him His delights in you? Can you refuse Him the fruit of the travail of His soul, who once hung, a dying man, between two thieves on Calvary, a spectacle to men and angels, and for you—you who have forgotten (for you cannot have despised) this devotedness for you.

He could have taken the world without the cross, and left you out, but He would not; and now will you, having been enriched agonies and that blood, take the world into your tolerance and leave Him out? Impossible! Your pure mind needs but to be stirred up by way of remembrance.

Let us therefore take courage from this very moment. We have lately been offering up prayers, confessing the lack of piety and devotedness. May we not take this word as the answer of our ever gracious faithful Lord, to arouse us—to reawaken our drooping energies? And then the more quickly He comes the better. We shall not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

What Are You Doing for Your Master?

Christ had passed through the awful hour of agony and death. He had come back from the grave a victorious conqueror, and proclaimed to His sorrowing disciples, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” but immediately added, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Thus to work for God is not optional, but imperative. Not a mere matter of choice, but has all the authority of the command of Christ.

To preach is a necessity laid upon some, as Paul said, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel,” but to work for Christ is the privilege of every saved soul. There is a sphere for all, and a work for each. There is none to whom something has not been entrusted. He gave to every man his work. None can look up to the Master and say, “I have not the privilege of doing anything for Thee.”

You may not have five talents, you may not have two, but what about the one? And for the employment of that one you are responsible. God has beautifully arranged and adapted spheres of labor, so as to meet all the diversity of capacity and talent among His people.

Remember, there is not a single inch of ground in God’s vineyard for an idler; not a niche in the great moral hive for a drone. To each He has given power and opportunity to do something. It may be only the silent, unobtrusive labor connected with the family circle, or in speaking of Christ to a few children gathered in your home or your class, visiting the abodes of poverty, the bedside of the sick and dying, in scattering a few leaflets or tracts, or the unseen labor of an Epaphras pleading for the salvation of some precious soul.

“Son, go work today in My vineyard.” If you are a son of God, by faith in Christ Jesus, then “Go work today,” is Christ’s word to you. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”

What are you doing then for Christ? What are you doing for the salvation of souls? for the help of the feeble among the lambs and sheep of Christ’s flock? Are your hands, your feet, your brain, busy for the interests of Christ?

Do you know what it is to pray? to walk until weary? to preach until your energies are spent? to give what cost you something? Where do you serve? What is your employment? Are you laborers in God’s vineyard, not merely onlookers? Workers, not simply critical scrutinizers of other men’s work, not fault-finders with other men’s methods, and ways, and doings? We must not be narrow in our notions, nor cramped in our sympathies in relation to other workers and work, but each one doing all the good he can, to every person he can, in every way he can.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might”; and do not cease to work because you cannot fill the highest posts. If you cannot be a master builder, do not refuse to be a laborer.

“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2).

Remember the words to the servants at the marriage feast of Galilee, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do.” This will necessitate the study of His Word for guidance in your service, and prayer and dependence, such as that expressed in Paul’s words, “What wilt Thou have me to do?”

Alas! How many, in the energy of love to Christ, commence with words of devotedness to His Person, and gracious care for those in need, but the freshness of their affection wanes, and a spiritual apathy sets in, and the worker becomes a spiritual invalid.

The danger of this was evident before the Apostle’s mind, when he wrote to Titus, “These things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works.” (Titus 3:8). Titus was not only to affirm, but constantly affirm, the deep necessity of being careful to maintain, not merely to commence, or plan, but “maintain” good works.

To any who are forgetting these words of the Apostle, we would give the prescription which an eminent physician gave to a lady patient who detailed to him a long list of imaginary ills. He asked as to her symptoms and manner of life, and discovered she had both wealth and leisure, so after patiently listening to the story of her complaints, he asked for a sheet of paper, wrote down a prescription, and in the gravest manner handed it to the patient and left. Imagine her surprise when she read,

“Do something for somebody.”

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27).

Extract: Our Place Before God

O! Happy Christian, you may well give up the tinseled vanities of time for the glories of eternity! But even now you know your place in the glory. Christ, in His Person, and in His present position in the presence of God, is the expression of your place there.

Every believer has his place before God in Christ, and in the righteousness of God, which He accomplished in Christ, having glorified Himself in that obedient, blessed one. And now, God would have all who are brought into this relationship with Himself, to have no object before their minds but Christ in the glory, so that we may do His will, and be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“O! who upon earth can conceive

What in heav’n He’s called us to share!

Or who this dark world would not leave,

And earnestly long to be there!

There Christ is the light and the sun,

His glories unhinderedly shine;

Already our joy is begun,

Our rest is the glory divine.

“Tis good, at His Word, to be here,

Yet better by far to be gone,

And there in His presence appear,

And rest where He sits on the throne;

Yet, O! it will triumph afford

When Him we shall see in the air:

When we enter the joy of the Lord,

Forever abide with Him there.”

Correspondence: 1 Tim. 5:19; 3 Appearings in John 20-21; Consecration and Us

Question: On 1 Timothy 5:19. C. W.

Answer: We must notice that Timothy was not only gifted (chap. 4:14), he also had authority from the Apostle to appoint elders and deacons and to put things right in the assembly. No one has this authority now from God. The only authority given in the Word of God is vested in two or three gathered to the name of the Lord (Matt. 18:18-20; 1 Cor. 5:4, 13).

What you call gossip and evil speaking is condemned in Scripture, therefore we need to watch our hearts to keep from it. (See Eph. 4:29, 31; Titus 3:2; James 3:2 to 14; 4:11; 1 Peter 2:1).

On the other hand when we know that we have been the subject of evil speaking, true or false, it matters not. Our pride and anger is stirred, and a feeling of resentment comes in. If we give place to it, we too are allowing the flesh, and the danger is that we will go farther wrong in standing up for ourselves. This would not be like the Lord “who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” (1 Peter 2:23).

Read Matthew 5:43 to 48, specially verse 44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Luke 17:3, 4; Matt. 18:21 to 35; Rom. 12:14, 18, 21; Eph. 4:2). It is hard to be evil spoken about, but we must think how the Lord was evil spoken about, and how He forgave His enemies, and told us to do the same. We sinned against Him ten thousand talents, and we will hardly forgive one hundred pence. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” We might make them happy, and our souls would be blest in doing so. This is the way the blessed Lord would have us do. We heartily sympathize with you, and pray that you will show your forgiving love to any who have hurt you, and if there is anything to confess, do it freely, then the Lord is with you at once.

“He that covereth His sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” (Prov. 28:13).

Question: What do the three appearings in John 20 and 21st chapters signify? G. C.

Answer: The Lord appearing to Mary Magdalene, and the message she carried to the brethren down to verse 23, refer to the present time, the church period.

The Lord appearing with Thomas present, refers to Israel who will not believe till they see Him coming in glory. (See such passages as Zech. 12:10, and Psa. 73:24 read “after the glory receive me”). “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” primarily refers to those who are saved in the tribulation period, that is, before Christ comes in glory.

The Lord appearing to the disciples when they take the great haul of fishes in the 21st chapter points to the millennial gathering, when the nets are not broken.

Question: How does the consecration of the priests in Israel apply to us? T. N.

Answer: Read Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8.

First, they were all washed with water—that answers to having a new life or being born again.

Aaron, when seen alone, clothed with the garments of glory and beauty is the type of Christ our great High Priest (verses 7,9). The oil poured upon his head without shedding of blood (Lev. 8:12), points to Jesus sealed with the Holy Spirit as the only one who did not need redemption, Himself the Redeemer.

When seen with his sons, they are the redeemed company of worshipers—the whole church of God. All were sprinkled with oil (verse 30). All our worship is by the Holy Spirit (Phil. 3:3), and it is all on the ground laid by the finished work of Christ (Heb. 9:21, 22).

The blood put on the tip of their right ear, on their right thumb, and on the great toe of their right foot, tells us that our whole person is consecrated to this holy service of Christ—our minds, our works, our walk, are for Him and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 10-22, alludes to our priestly consecration as born of God, and sprinkled or cleansed by the blood. Each of us, as Christians, is a consecrated priest, our hands filled with Christ to present to God. But notice, there is no hindrance on God’s part to our worshiping in the holiest of all, but there may be on ours—a cold, worldly or careless walk, will shut us out. It also says,

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Heb. 10:22).

“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” (Prov. 4:23).

Does This Concern You?

In a public park I chanced to be seated beside a man to whom I presented a gospel tract. He looked it over, and then we had a conversation as near the substance of what follows as I can remember. He said:

“I have read the Bible for myself; I have heard lots of preachers of all kinds, and have attended revival meetings, I do not believe in any of these things; I do not believe in God.”

“Well,” I replied, “you will have to believe in Him yet; there are no infidels in hell. When death comes, then you will find out that there is a God. It is about such as you that it is written,

‘How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors.’” (Psa. 73:19).

“O!” said he, “it is all a delusion.”

“Well, you are a poor man. I can see you have no happiness now, and you never will have any. You have no true object to live for. If what the Christian believes is true, you are a doomed man for all eternity; if even it were a delusion, he is better off than you are, for the Christian is happy now in the knowledge that his sins are forgiven, and that God is his Father.” But I said, “Hearken, I saw my mother die. She died, as she had lived for years before, trusting the Lord, and willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Was that a delusion? It would be a good thing for you to have such a delusion.

“Let me tell you a little about myself. Up till I was twenty years of age I lived carelessly. At that age I was converted to God, I owned I was a sinner, and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. What was the result? Christ gave me power over my ways, and henceforth He became my object.
I did not want the devil’s music and dancing and card playing and entertainments. I had music and dancing that belonged to heaven (Luke 15:24, 25). I believed that my sins were washed away by the precious blood of Christ (Rev. 1:5); that I was a child of God (1 John 3:1). And now I am trying to tell you how you can have the same blessings.

“Do you call that a delusion? I tell you again it is what you need. You need the grace of God in your soul, then you will know what a happy reality conversion is.”

The man arose and walked away from me without another word; while I inwardly prayed that the delusion that was holding him spellbound under the power of Satan, might be broken, and given place to ears to hear the Word of God, and eyes to see the beauty of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, the only Saviour.

“What think ye of Christ? is the test

To try both your state and your scheme;

You cannot be right in the rest

Unless you think rightly of Him.”

“The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7).

Extract: Man

Man is in love with creation, but he neither loves God nor believes His love. The creation is ruined, spoiled—not willingly, as man is, but still it is fallen.

Man’s will is gone away from God. His intellect may be all very well in its way; his disposition may be amiable, but you never find one who naturally seeks after God. Nay, you generally find the most amiable person the last to turn to God.

Man must be born entirely anew; he must come into heaven with a nature altogether distinct from that which he has.

Man will use his good qualities as well as his bad, just as an animal but with more intelligence. The eye must be opened.

It is a new ground and way of perception, by which we can even see the Kingdom of God.

An Old Man

A story is told of a Christian who taught an old man, a neighbor of his, to read. He proved a good scholar. After he had learned to read pretty well, the Christian, not having called for some time, went to see him and found only his wife at home.

“How is John?” he asked.

“He is well, sir,” she said.

“How does he get on with his reading now?”

“Nicely, sir.”

“I suppose he can read his Bible quite comfortably now?”

“Bible, sir! Bless you, he was out of the Bible and into the newspaper some time ago.”

There are many other persons who, like the old man, have long been out of the Bible into the newspaper. They have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewn out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, and gone after muddy pools and stagnant morasses.

What spiritual dwarfs many Christians are—many, be it said to their shame, have never read the Bible through once. They do not feed, nor “grow on the sincere milk of the Word”, nor do they “give attendance to reading”, as the Scriptures instruct them to do.

There never was a day when the Christian needed to be so on his guard as to the reading question as at present. Libraries, reading rooms, reading circles, magazine clubs, and circulating libraries all vie in bidding for his leisure hour. Then the endless multiplication of papers, periodicals, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, publications all present, ever present temptations to neglect the Word of God for the transient and oftentimes worthless reading of the day.

Do not be surprised, dear Christian, if you find the Bible a dry book, when, you devote an hour to secular reading for every five minutes you give to the Word of God.

It is the view of the writer that in nine cases out of ten, the daily newspaper, if allowed in the home, is a source of real spiritual weakness to every member of the household. If we could only realize that “keeping up with the times” is a poor thing compared to “keeping ourselves unspotted from the world,” we would not be so ready to make a bad bargain. No! When the Word says, “Give attention to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13), it does not have before it the newspapers or the magazines.

“If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8).

The Heart's Desire

O, to be only for Jesus!

O, to be true to His name!

O, to be here for His pleasure—

Here where they put Him to shame!

O, to keep spotless our raiment,

Safe from the soil of this world!

O, with the faithful to follow

Under His banner unfurled!

This is my infinite longing,

Ever more faithful to be

Thou who hast died to redeem me,

Help me to glorify Thee.

Thine am I, mighty Redeemer!

Thine am I, bought by Thy blood;

Brought from the pit of corruption

Back to the bosom of God.

Sins done away with forever;

Satan, who held me in chains,

Crushed in his stronghold and broken,

Past are death’s terrors and pains.

Now with Thy blood-washed I find me,

Those who confess Thee as Lord,

Those who to Thee all the honor,

Greatness and glory accord.

Join we exultant together,

Sing we Thy praises again,

Here where despised and derided

Thou wast insulted and slain.

Boldly, great Captain, to battle

Strong in Thy strength I would go.

Say to my soul, “I am with Thee,

Fear not the face of the foe.”

Timid am I and faint-hearted,

Wishful the danger, to fly—

Make me, O Saviour, true-hearted,

Ready to conquer or die.

Scripture Study: 2 Thessalonians 1

The first epistle was written to explain the coming of the Lord for His saints, that both the living ones on the earth, and those who were fallen asleep—all His own from the beginning of man’s history, till that time, would be caught up together to be with the Lord, “They that are Christ’s at His coming.” (1 Cor. 15:23).

The second epistle is to let them understand about what is to happen before the day of the Lord comes. Some had been troubled, having been misled, to think that the day of the Lord was present.

Verses 1, 2 are about the same as in the first epistle, and it is precious to think that whatever changes might be in them, their position and relationship continued the same, and also grace and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, flowed out to them in full and plentiful supply as ever. And we may well comfort our hearts that it is the same toward us in our day.

Verses 3-6 show a difference from the first epistle, for the patience of hope is not mentioned here. The Apostle writes,

“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.”

The apostle explains to them that suffering thus for Christ was a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, who counted them worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which they were suffering; and then it would also be righteous in God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble them.

Instead of it being the sufferings of the remnant in the day of the Lord, as these false teachers had led them for a little to think, it was genuine sufferings for Christ, as we also find in Philippians 1:28, 29, “In nothing terrified by your adversaries; which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”

Their blessing was not earthly, but heavenly; not like the Jews, but now as belonging to God the Father whom, the Jews did not know; and to the Lord Jesus Christ whom they had crucified.

Verses 7-10. “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When that takes place, the saints raised and changed will rest with Christ, and with the apostles, as he writes, “rest with us.”

The day of the Lord will indeed be a day (or period) of trouble to all who stand in opposition to Christ. (Compare Isa. 2:12; 13:6, 9; Joel 2:1, 2; Amos 5:18).

The day of the Lord will be distress to the wicked, but now these were privileged to suffer for Christ’s sake. When we see how these Thessalonians had been led astray to think that the day of the Lord had already come, the meaning of this chapter is clear.

He encourages them to see this, and that God thought them worthy of the Kingdom, and it marked them out as His, while their persecutors were marked out as children of perdition.

Then the blessed assurance is also theirs, that when the Lord is manifested in glory, they would be at rest and happiness with Him.

Those that are judged, it is because they did not know God, and they did not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The judgment would fall on godless men, and on men who rejected the testimony of the grace of God, to sinful men, “who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all that have believed in Him,” and the Thessalonians might then say, “That surely includes us.”

This would deliver them from the false thoughts that these teachers had advanced. They had believed the testimony when he told them at first, and the truth does not change. They could then rest in it again.

Verses 11, 12. “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our Lord would count you worthy of this calling; and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness,” and that the Lord would be glorified in them by the power of faith, which would now shine all the brighter through their persecutions by the grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus these dear saints would have their hearts set at rest, and be prepared to learn next what was bound to take place before the Lord could begin to claim His Kingdom.

Last Words of a Beloved Servant of the Lord

Clasping his hands together, while tears flowed down his face, he said:

“My precious Lord Jesus, Thou knowest how fully I can say with Paul, ‘To depart and to be with Christ is far better.’ O! How far better! I do long for it! They come and talk to me of a crown of glory, I bid them cease; of the glories of heaven, I bid them stop. I am not wanting crowns. I have Himself—Himself! I am going to be with Himself! Ah! With the man of Sychar; with Him who stayed to call Zacchaeus; with the man of John 8; with the man who hung upon the cross; with the Man who died! O! to be with Him before the glories—the crowns—or the kingdoms appear! It is wonderful!— wonderful! With the man of Sychar alone; the man of the gate of the city of Nain; and I am going to be with Him; forever! Exchange this sad, sad scene, which cast Him out, for His presence! O! the man of Sychar!”

The Sympathy and Grace of Jesus: Part 1

Matthew 14:1-21; Mark 6:30-44.

In these two parallel scriptures we are presented with two distinct conditions of heart which both find their answer in the sympathy and grace of Jesus. Let us look closely at them; and may the Holy Spirit enable us to gather up and bear away their precious teaching!

It was, no doubt, a moment of deep sorrow to John’s disciples when their master had fallen by the sword of Herod; when the one on whom they had been accustomed to lean, and from whose lips they had been wont to drink instruction, was taken from them after such a fashion. This, we may well believe, was indeed a moment of gloom and desolation to the followers of the Baptist.

But there was one to whom they could come, in their sorrow, and into whose ear they could pour their tale of grief—one of whom their master had spoken, to whom he had pointed, and of whom he had said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” To Him the bereaved disciples betook themselves, as we read, “They came and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.” (Matt. 14:12).

This was the very best thing they could have done. There was not another heart on earth in which they could have found such a response as in the heart—the tender, loving heart of Jesus. His sympathy was perfect. He knew all about their sorrow. He knew their loss, and how they would be feeling it. Wherefore, they acted wisely when “they went and told Jesus.” His ear was ever open, and His heart ever at leisure to soothe and sympathize. He perfectly exemplified the precept afterward embodied in the words of the Holy Spirit, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” (Rom. 12:15).

And O! Who can tell the worth of genuine sympathy? Who can declare the value of having one who can really make your joys and sorrows His own? Thank God! We have such an one in the blessed Lord Jesus Christ; and although we cannot see Him with the bodily eye, yet can faith use Him in all the preciousness and power of His perfect sympathy.

We can, if only our faith is simple and childlike, go from the tomb where we have just deposited the remains of some fondly cherished object, to the feet of Jesus, and there pour out the anguish of a bereaved and desolate heart. We shall there meet no rude repulse, no heartless reproof for our folly and weakness, in feeling so deeply. No; nor yet any clumsy effort to say something suitable, an awkward effort to put on. Some expression of condolence. Ah! no;

Jesus knows how to sympathize with a heart that is crushed and bowed down beneath the heavy weight of sorrow. He is a perfect human heart. What a thought! What a privilege to have access, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, to a perfect human heart! We may look in vain for this down here. Yes; look in vain, not merely in the world, but even in the church. There may, in many cases, be a real desire to sympathize, but a total lack of capacity. I may find myself, in moments of sorrow, in company with one who knows nothing about my sorrow or the source thereof. How could he sympathize? And even though I should tell him, his heart might be so occupied with other things as to have no room and no leisure for me.

Not so with the perfect man, Christ Jesus. He has both room and leisure for each and for all. No matter when, how, or with what you come, the heart of Jesus is always open. He will never repulse, never fail, never disappoint. If, therefore, we are in sorrow, what should we do? We should just do as the disciples of John the Baptist did, “go and tell Jesus.” This, assuredly, is the right thing to do. Let us go straight from the tomb to the feet of Jesus. He will dry up our tears, soothe our sorrows, heal our wounds, and fill up our blanks.

To be continued.

The Glory of That Light

I was journeying in the noontide,

When His light shone o’er my road—

And I saw Him in that glory—

Saw Him—Jesus, Son of God.

All around, in noonday splendor,

Earthly scenes lay fair and bright—

But my eyes no longer see them

For the glory of that light.

Others, in the summer sunshine,

Wearily may journey on—

I have seen a light from heaven,

Past the brightness of the sun;

Light that knows no cloud, no waning,

Light wherein I see His face—

All His love’s uncounted treasures,

All the riches of His grace.

All the wonders of His glory,

Deeper wonders of His love;

How for me He won, He keepeth,

That high place in heaven above.

Not a glimpse—the veil uplifted—

But within the veil to dwell,

Gazing on His face forever,

Hearing words unspeakable.

I have seen the face of Jesus—

Tell me not of aught beside;

I have heard the voice of Jesus—

All my soul is satisfied.

In the radiance of the glory,

First I saw His blessed face,

And forever shall that glory

Be my home, my dwelling-place.

Sinners, it was not to angels

All this wondrous love was given,

But to one who scorned, despised Him,

Scorned and hated Christ in heaven.

From the lowest depths of evil,

To the throne in heaven above.

Thus in me He told the measure

Of His free, unbounded love.

Notes of an Address

2 Samuel 19:9-16

King David was not deceived by the speech of the men of all the tribes of Israel. They represent the fickle multitude. At this time they were saying,

“Why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?” A little later we have them saying,

“We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye;” and a day or so after,

“We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.”

But it is different with Judah. The king said to Judah, that which ought to come home to our hearts: “Ye are my brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh.”

We read of the Lord Jesus, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” It is said of us, “We are members of His body; of His flesh and of His bones.”

I think there is touching grace here on the part of King David. He was away from the throne by reason of rejection just as the Lord has been rejected and cast out of this world. The throne belonged to David. He could have marched in, and taken the throne by right, but he didn’t want to take it that way. Instead of marching in, and taking it as he had the right, he seeks to exercise the hearts of the men of Judah so that they send this word after the king: “Return thou, and all thy servants.”

The Lord Jesus can come, and take the throne of the world. It belongs to Him. God has said of all other schemes,

“I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.” “Behold a king shall reign in righteousness.”

The Lord Jesus will come, and take that throne, but in the meantime He wants to exercise our hearts, so we will send that word up into heaven where He is,

“Return Thou, and all Thy servants.”

It is blessed to see how successful David was in his effort to exercise the hearts of his people. We read in the 14th verse,

“So they sent this word unto the king, Return thou and all thy servants.” It was what he was waiting for; and so the king returned and came to Jordan. “And Judah, came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan.”

How that corresponds to what we have before our hearts too, when the Lord Jesus comes to take the kingdom, the throne and reign in righteousness. We are going to meet Him first in that blessed place represented by Gilgal and Jordan here, and to return with Him when He comes.

One believes, beloved saints, the Lord has been seeking to exercise our hearts in bringing His coming before us again, that our desire might be towards Him; that our hearts’ affections might be centered upon Him; that we might be waiting, watching and longing for Him to come, so that when He says, “Behold, I come quickly,” the answer might be given to Him, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Speak My Word Faithfully

This was the Word of the Lord to His servant the prophet Jeremiah (23:28).

False prophets prophesied on every hand, saying, “I have dreamed,” and sought to cause the people of Jehovah to forget His name. They were stealing His words from His people, and using their tongues while saying, “He saith.”

And thus it is today. All around us are those who are spinning their theories, telling their dreams, and uttering the deceits of their own hearts. The Word of the living God is set aside, and the thoughts and imaginations of man’s mind are substituted.

Surely then the word to Jeremiah is applicable:

“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let Him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not My Word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

All man’s wisdom is but folly before God. His conflicting opinions are but as the chaff which the blast of judgment will sweep aside. The Word of the Lord alone will abide. This is the wheat—the true food for every soul.

His Word is as a fire, and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. Wielded in the power of the Spirit of God man’s high thoughts and systems of error are brought to nothingness before it, for the conscience is laid bare, and the refuge of lies torn away.

Speak the word faithfully, believer. Whether it is your privilege to proclaim it to individuals or to companies, speak the word faithfully. If you have the Word, make it known. Suffer not carnal ease or natural cowardice to restrain you, but in love to Christ, and in love to souls who are being duped, deceived, and destroyed, declare the truth, obeying the voice of the Lord, who hath said,

“He that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully.”

Saved From Wrath, and Saved for Glory

“When my heart is inclined to grow cold I think of what I am saved from, and the wondrous love of God in delivering me from hell,” exclaimed a young Christian. “And I love to think of what I am saved for—to be near Christ, like Christ.”

“When I get down in my soul I seek to dwell upon what I am brought to in the grace of God,” said another.

Let us suppose a kind and rich man walking through the streets of a city one dark and cheerless night. It is bitterly cold, and, as he hurries to the brightness and warmth of his gladsome home, he wraps his ample cloak about him. Presently his eye lights upon a kind of bundle in a dark corner of the street—what can it be? It is a poor, ragged, little child, starving and freezing in the pitiless night. Touched with compassion, he brings the little wanderer into his house, and saves him from the death that was so near; but more, in the love of his soul, he adopts the child into his own family, and bids the boy call him father.

Now what will occupy the boy’s heart most? The street, the rags, the misery from which he was saved? or, the house, the wealth, the treasures, the glories into which, being saved, he has been brought?

There is more said in God’s Word about what we are saved for, than what we are saved from. And while we should ever be blessing God for rescuing us from misery, we should never fail to bless Him for the glory for which we are saved. “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”

The once ragged boy, made at home in the love of him who adopted him as his child, by heart and mind occupation with the father and the new home, loses all trace of the manners of the street from whence he came, and becomes like his father.

Let us fix our hearts upon God and rejoice in what he has done for us, and we shall find such wealth and gladness in doing so, that the world will be to us only what the cold, dark street became to the child.

“Giving thanks unto the Father.... Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:12-14).

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Most likely this text has not been proofread. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.

Young Christian: Volume 19, 1929

Table of Contents

The Father Himself Loveth You

The Morning Star

Until He Find It

Loss

Ah, Yes; and How Well He Has Done It!

All Things Work … for Good

Scripture Study: Philippians 4

Correspondence: Election vs. Predestination; Eph. 2:21-22; Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 9:22

His Great Love

The Cords of Love

Have Faith in God

Christ My Refuge

The Advantages of Tract Distribution

It Reached Him

The Reproach of Egypt Rolled Away

Fragment: Today, not Tomorrow

Savior, Keep Me

Scripture Study: 2 Thessalonians 2

Correspondence: 1 Jo 1:10, 2:4,3:6, 5:18; Rom 10:14-15; 1 Co 9:27; Mat 25; 1 Pe 5

Pray Ye the Lord of the Harvest That He May Send Forth Laborers Into His Harvest

If I Loved Him More

The Sympathy and Grace of Jesus: Part 2

Do You Believe That?

True Riches

Scripture Study: Colossians 1

God Cares! Do We?

The Lord Is at Hand

Work On

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 1

Extract: God's Care and Provision

To Him That Hath Shall More Be Given

Correspondence: Needy, Anxious Sinner; 2 Pet. 1:10; Gathered; Col. 3:8-12

The Worker's Prayer

The Lord's Day

Suitable for Service

Complete in Christ

Correspondence: Matt 12:16; 1 Tim 3:9; 1 Cor 3:14; Paul; Phil 1:15-16; Matt 18:20

The Old, Old Story

We Seek the Truth

Prayer

Scripture Study: Colossians 2

The Secret of Success

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 2

The Lord's Coming

To Young Christians: Part 1

Fear Not

Be of Good Courage

Correspondence: S.O.S. 4:12; Mat. 8:19, 22; 1 Pet. 3:19; 1 John 2:20-27

In Memory:

The Conversion of William C

He Began to Be in Want

Scripture Study: Colossians 3

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 3

To Young Christians: Part 2

Joy

Correspondence: Heb. 8:2; State of the Departed; John 9:6-7; 2 Cor. 12:16

Sow Beside All Waters

Grace

Scripture Study: Colossians 4

An Address to the Young People: "Lord Jesus Christ," Part 4

The Morning Star

God Leading Us On

The Regions Beyond

God's Gift

Extract: The Testing Point

Correspondence: Death - Present or Asleep?; John 2:17 - Zeal of Thine House

Bradshaw Settled It

Two Lives - A Word for God's People

Scripture Study: 1 Thessalonians 1

Extract: When We Fail

A Few Thoughts on Prayer

Where the Saved Dead Are, Till the Resurrection

O Lamb of God

Let Us Go Again: Part 1

Extract: Judgement and Atonement

Correspondence: Elisha a Type of the Holy Ghost; Treasures in the Field

Why Not Trust Me?

Neither