Young Christian: Volume 30, 1940

The gospel had been preached for several successive evenings in a village. After the last meeting, the old servant of God who had brought before his hearers the good news of salvation by grace, spoke a few words to a young girl as she was going out. She had attended the meetings regularly but, to all appearance, without having received any impression from them.

“Annie,” said he, looking seriously at her, “the blood of Jesus Christ only, can make you pure before God.”

Annie felt somewhat hurt by this personal notice, and more still by the strange words which had been spoken to her. They continued to ring in her ears as she returned home. She said to herself,

“I lead, anyway, an honest and prudent life, and although I do not doubt that I have my faults, most people are much worse than I am, why then can I only be purified by the blood of Jesus Christ?”

But the Spirit of God who had directed Annie’s attention to these words, did not allow her to rest. What she had heard the last evening came back vividly to her mind and began to trouble her.

“All have sinned,” the preacher had said, “and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Was it not true?

“Yes,” she was obliged to answer; “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). There then came before her that other passage of scripture which says: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). “Ah!” said the poor girl, “all these passages of the Word of God condemn me!”

Thus, the Holy Spirit recalled to her mind, one after the other, the passages which convinced her of her true state before God. The light had shone into her soul, and she saw a vile and condemned sinner who deserved death and eternal separation from God. In passing from darkness to light, this light as yet but revealed her misery. However, God did not leave the work unfinished; He had begun with Annie, and He would show her the remedy, the only remedy for her state. She saw, in the light of God, the meaning of the words which had been addressed to her:

“The blood of Jesus Christ only, cleanses us from all sin.”

She understood that Jesus had given His life for us, that He had suffered the judgment of God in our stead, and in consequence of that, God had been able to forgive all our sins.

“Yes,” she said to herself, “the blood of Jesus Christ only, can purify me from all sin.” She laid hold of this precious truth in her heart, and God spread abroad peace in her soul.

As she came home, the happy girl felt impressed to go to the bedside of her sick and aged father.

“Father,” she said, “the blood of Jesus Christ only, can purify you before God.”

The father was a pious professor, who, in the presence of eternity, had long been occupied with serious thoughts, but who was still far from a settlement of the question as to how he, a sinner, would be able to meet a holy and righteous God, and to dwell in His presence. He opened wide his eyes on hearing his daughter speak thus, and asked her for an explanation of her words. Annie recounted simply what she had heard, and what had occurred to her. She told her father that God has declared in His Word that all are sinners, and as such are unable by themselves to enter the glory of God in heaven, but that God, in His love for us, has given us His Son for a Saviour, who has borne on the cross the punishment due us for our sins.

“Then,” she added, “the Word of God says that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses from all sin those who put their trust in Him.”

As for the young girl, so also for the soul of the aged father, these truths so grand, and at the same time so simple, were sweet and precious. He also found by faith the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, the pardon of his sins, and peace with God. He was able thenceforth to celebrate with a happy heart, the riches of the grace of God, who has prepared so great salvation for lost man.

The following day his son Charles came to pay him a visit. The sick man reached his hand to him and, by way of salutation, said:

“Charles, the blood of Jesus Christ only, can make you pure before God.”

Charles was astonished and touched. He listened to the words of his aged father, whom he loved tenderly, and who now announced to him the marvelous fact of the love of God, and bore witness to the peace which he had found in believing in the value of the blood of Christ.

That was a decisive day in the life of Charles. A great change began to take place in him. He was troubled in his soul at the thought of his sins, and turned to Jesus, the Son of God, who invites all sinners to come to Him. He proved the truth of the words of the Saviour, who said:

“Come unto Me, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

He believed in the efficacy of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin before God. Thus, in a short time, the daughter, the father, and the son found pardon, peace, and life, in believing in Jesus, and the perfect work of salvation accomplished by Him on the cross; a new proof that “the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” The father and his two children became witnesses of life by faith.

In the blood of Jesus there is a full and sufficient response to the agonies of a troubled conscience; there only, can rest for the soul be found.

Whoever you may be, reader, may you thus put your trust in Christ, in the efficacy of His sacrifice for your salvation. However exemplary your character may be, there is not for you any other ground upon which you can be received by God, and enter into His glory, than by the blood of Christ.

Fragment: Labor and Rest

This is the time of labor, not of rest; no rest to be looked for here and now, but laboring to enter into that rest. O how blessed the day of its appearing after toil! It is indeed long patience, but patience is the word; and while we are patient, the Lord makes it short.

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 14

What an end to every display, and to every allowance of the old bad nature we are seeing in these chapters full of precious instruction for the children of God! The first three verses of the twelfth chapter gave us the necessary introduction to these things, and we shall never profit as we should by what we are taught, verse by verse, in the more than three chapters beginning with the twelfth, unless those three verses are made thoroughly ours, in a practical way. O, what dishonor to Christ and what sorrow Christians have brought upon themselves individually and upon others, by neglect of these chapters of the Epistle to the Romans!

At the end of the 12th chapter we had a short verse of very wide application,

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Only ten words easy to remember, and you meet the need for them every day in your Christian life.

Again, at the end of the 13th chapter we have another arresting verse. Christ is the believer’s life, dwells in him by the Spirit, as set forth in Romans 8:9-11; as He is thus within, will not you, dear young Christian, wear Him outwardly, owning Him as your Lord?

“Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Galatians 3:27, as will be seen from the context, refers, not to something I may do, but to my new position before God in contradistinction from what I was before my conversion. There it is “Christ” -identification with Him through His atoning death appropriated by faith; here in Romans it is owning His authority, “the Lord Jesus Christ,” that I am to exhibit Him in my life.

Chapter 14 takes up the subject of the weak brother. God was saving both Jews and Gentiles, and the Gentile believer gave up altogether his idolatrous system, but the Jew who believed, had difficulty in seeing that old distinctions with regard to meat, and to days of religious observance were at an end. He was weak in the faith, but should be received, yet not to doubtful disputations, or “disputes in reasoning” (or “the determination of questions of reasoning,” as the end of the verse may be read). This is exactly the spirit of what we have been reading in the last two chapters, is it not? Christianity, according to the Word of God, and disregarding what men have endeavored to attach to it, that is not contained in that precious volume concerning it, has nothing to do with the observance of days (excepting the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, and that is a privilege, not a command), nor of meats to be eaten or not eaten (Gal. 4:10; 1 Tim. 4:3).

Nor are we who are Christ’s to despise the brother whose faith is weak, thinking ourselves to be somewhat, who after all are equally objects of God’s grace. On the other hand, the brother who in conscientious weakness refrains from doing what his better taught fellow-believer does with the full sanction of Scripture, is not to judge him; for God has received him. How admirable are the ways which God would have His children exhibit in their lives here on earth! As another has said, we are taught to bear with conscientious weakness, and to be conscientious ourselves.

Each, in these cases, is to be fully persuaded in his own mind. It is a question of what is due to the Lord; we are to acknowledge Him in all our ways, for none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. We belong to Him, whether living or dying, and this is connected in the ninth verse with His having died and lived again, the fundamental truth of Christianity. This leads to the solemn consideration of the tenth verse.

“We shall all stand (or be placed) before the judgment seat of God.” (“God” is the correct reading, here, not “Christ”). Then the twelfth verse,

“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

The quotation in the intervening verse is from Isaiah 45:23, which includes all, everyone; in our chapter only believers are referred to.

Now in John 5:24 it is plainly stated that the believer “shall not come into condemnation”, and this word “condemnation” is in many other passages translated “judgment”, which indeed is the true meaning. The believer shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life; his sins will never be brought up to bar his access to God’s presence, and 1 Peter 2:24 expressly states of Christ that He

“His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.”

They are gone then, no more to appear to shut me up to a lost eternity.

The Word of God cannot contradict itself, nor is there even the appearance of contradiction here; our chapter simply declaring that we shall all stand before the judgment seat, and every one of us shall give an account concerning himself to God. We have a somewhat parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. These scriptures show that the lives of believers will pass in review after we reach our heavenly home in the new body according to the Lord’s promise in John 14:3, according, too, to Romans 8:38-39, and to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, and other passages.

We shall see, each of us, our past as God has seen it, and we shall each give an account of our stewardship. Should this not speak very solemnly to each of us who know Christ as Saviour and Lord? All that I have done, said, thought, is coming out there; not to decide whether I am to spend eternity in heaven or hell, but that I may see what my life has been: what in it was for self, and what had Christ as its object.

We are therefore enjoined in verse 13 to no more judge one another in these matters concerning which the chapter is written, and we are to be careful lest there be something in our lives that is or may be a stumbling block or fall-trap for our brother. The Apostle could say,

“I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself”; he was altogether clear that the truth of the gospel frees the soul from every ceremonial requirement under the law; yet “to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”

If on account of meat my brother is grieved, I walk no longer according to love. God will not allow my brother to be destroyed by my unloving and unlovely course, but it is in that direction that my conduct tends, as far as he is concerned, who is my brother for whom Christ died.

Very preciously these considerations are summed up in what follows (verses 16-23). May we take what is contained in them very much to heart, for our own blessing and the good of God’s children generally! In the last verse, read “judged,” or “condemned” instead of “damned,” which is a translator’s error.

“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” refers to the believer’s life; yours and mine, dear young Christian; an important word, and a word of warning, is it not?

To be continued (D. V.)

The Low Place

We live at a moment in which man is pushing himself upward and onward. “Excelsior” is a very popular motto just now. Let us look well to our mode of interpreting and applying it. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased.” If we are to be governed by the rule of God’s kingdom, we shall find that the only way to get up is to go down. The One who now occupies the very highest place in heaven is the One who voluntarily took the very lowest place on earth. See Philippians 2:5-11.

Here is our example as Christians, and here too the divine antidote against the pride and restless ambition of the men of the world. Nothing is more sad than to witness a pushing, bustling, forward, self-confident spirit and style in those who profess to be followers of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. It is utterly impossible for anyone to indulge in this spirit if ever he has really measured himself in the presence of God. To be much alone with God is the sovereign remedy for pride and self-complacency. May we know the reality of this in the secret of our own souls. May the Lord keep us truly humble in all our ways, simply leaning on Himself, and very, very, little in our own eyes.

To Him That Overcometh

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Rev. 2:17).

The “white stone” seems to mark the individual approbation of Christ; the “new name,” special fellowship between Christ and the individual, different from that which all shall share alike, different from the public joy. There is a public joy. All saints will together enjoy the comforts of Christ’s love, will enter into the “joy of their Lord,” and with one heart and one voice will sound His praise. There will also be joy in seeing the fruit of our labors, as it is said, “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” (1 Thess. 2:19).

And again there will be another joy in seeing the company of the redeemed, all according to Christ’s heart in holiness and glory. But besides this public joy, there will be Christ’s peculiar private individual recognition and approval—the “white stone,” and the “new name which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.”

Christ speaks elsewhere of His own new name as Head of the new creation. There are old names belonging to the Lord Jesus, but His new name is connected with that into which His Father brings Him, when all things which have failed in the hands of man, will be established and developed in Him; and having thus Himself a new name, He gives us also a promise of a new name. We are not only to know Jesus, and be known of Him according to present circumstances, but to have a special knowledge of Him in glory, according to the glory.

Our souls, must value this personal approval of Christ, as well as think of the public approval. The latter will be great blessedness; but there is no peculiar affection in it, nothing that stamps peculiar love on the individual. Glory will be common to all, but glory is not affection.

This “new name” is a different thing; it is the proof of Christ’s value for a person who had been faithful in difficult and trying circumstances, for one who has acted on the knowledge of His mind, and overcome through communion with Him. This will be met by special individual approbation. There is the public joy and approval in various ways, and the manifestation of our being loved by the Father as Jesus is loved. But this is not all that is given for our encouragement in individual conduct through trial, failure, and difficulty; there is also this special private joy of love.

When the common course of the church is not straight, not in the full energy of the Holy Spirit, though there may be a great deal of faithfulness, yet there is danger of disorder. We find that the Lord then applies Himself more to the walk of individual saints, and suits His promises to the peculiar state in which they are. There is a peculiar value in this. It takes out of all fancied walking (the especial danger which belongs to such a state of things)—each according to his own will, chalking out a path for himself, because of the unfaithfulness and disobedient walk of the professing body. What faith has to do in such circumstances, is to lay hold intelligently, soberly, and solemnly on the Lord’s mind, and to walk according to it, strengthened by the promises which He has attached to such a path as He can own.

This at once refers the heart and conscience to Jesus, while full encouragement to the feeblest saint. And it is very precious to have thus the guidance of the Lord, and the promise of His own special approbation! so special, that it is known only to him who receives it, when the course of the church is such that one is thrown greatly on individual responsibility of conduct. But then, while it gives us strength for walk, it puts the soul in direct responsibility to the Lord, and breaks down human will.

When the professing church has become mingled with the world, “eating and drinking with the drunken,” those who seek to be faithful must often have to walk alone, incurring the charge of folly and self-will (and that, too, even from their brethren), because they refuse to follow the beaten path. And indeed it is quite a real danger, a natural consequence that, when the common course is broken up, individual will should work. The natural tendency would ever be towards self-will.

Our only safety is in having the soul brought under the sense of direct responsibility to the Lord by such warnings and promises as these, which both guide and supply strength to stand free from all around, while the consciousness that Christ marks and owns our ways, will sanctify as well as encourage our hearts. For it must be joy to anyone who loves the Lord Jesus, to think of having His individual special approbation and love, to find that He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval.

But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little. Are we not too desirous of man’s commendation of our conduct? or, at least, that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it? Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know anything about us—even in the church to be thought nothing of?—that Christ alone should give us the “white stone” of His approval, and the “new name which no man knoweth save only he that receiveth it?” Are we content, I say, to seek nothing else? O, think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be that is not satisfied with Christ’s special favor, but seeks honor (as we do) one of another instead!

I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer—the Lord’s public owning of you as a good and faithful servant; or the private individual love of Christ resting upon you, the secret knowledge of His love and approval? He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond—the latter. Both will be ours, if faithful, but we shall value this most, and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it.

Waiting Pilgrims

We may have the hope of the Lord’s coming, being glad to get to the end of this desert, because it is a desert; or we may long to get out, because Canaan is at the end. If it is not the latter, we shall be in danger of being tired with running, which is always wrong. We should be in the spirit of waiting pilgrims, not weary ones. We ought not to be weary; I do not say we are not, but we ought to be ever desiring His coming, because He is precious.

In Revelation 22:17, the bride says “Come,” in answer to what He is, when He says,

“I am the bright and morning star.”

God does not reject the cry which comes to Him as “out of the depths”; but there is a difference between the cry of distress, and the cry of desire.

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 1 Difference Between When Women Take Part

No. 1

Question: 1. What is the difference between the regular meetings held in the Hall, where women are not permitted to speak, and other meetings, such as the Sunday School and young people’s meetings, where the sisters do take part?

Answer: The meetings held in the Hall, with the exception of the gospel, and the Sunday School, are assembly meetings. These include the regular scheduled weekly meetings, such as the Breaking of Bread, Bible Reading, and Prayer Meeting, or special meetings called by the assembly, whether for open ministry, humiliation, or discipline. In all of these meetings, the assembly meets as such, gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus, with Himself in the midst, according to Matthew 18:20. “If therefore the whole church (or assembly) be come together in one place” (1 Cor. 14:23). In these meetings, properly called assembly meetings, it is, not permitted to women to speak...“for it is a shame for women to speak in the assembly” (1 Cor. 14:34-35).

The gospel meetings and the Sunday School may be considered as activities connected with the assembly, but not properly assembly meetings. The assembly is certainly responsible for all that is carried on in the meeting room; but the ones who preach the gospel, either in the room or elsewhere, are directly responsible to the Lord, as His servants. They can surely count on the Lord’s being with them, as in Matthew 28:20, but He is not in the midst, in a gospel meeting, as in Matthew 18:20. This applies also to special meetings, when servants of the Lord may give addresses or lectures to Christians. The Sunday School bears the character, primarily, of a children’s gospel meeting. The one who is responsible for it may ask others to help—sisters to instruct the young children and older girls, and brothers for older boys. It would be unscriptural, according to 1 Timothy 2:11-12, for a woman to preach the gospel publicly, or to engage in public ministry, or prayer, should a brother be present. Her place is one of silence and subjection, and the reasons are given in the scripture just referred to (1 Tim. 2:13-14). But instructing children, or other women, is surely within the legitimate sphere of her service for the Lord. The spiritual instinct of a subject, godly woman would soon manifest what was within her proper sphere, better than any cut-and-dried rules.

Our young peoples’ meetings are informal gatherings held in various homes. Neither the privileges nor restrictions of regular assembly meetings are applicable to such gatherings. We could not claim Matthew 18:20, for instance. We could not execute discipline tonight, nor make an assembly decision, even if all the brothers, or even all the sisters, were present, for it would not be an assembly meeting. We could not receive to nor put away from the Lord’s Table. In Acts 18:26, Aquila and Priscilla invited a brother named Apollos to their home, and together they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. The mention of Aquila’s name first, in this passage alone, would indicate the subject place taken by his wife, though perhaps the more spiritual and well-taught of the two. So tonight, we might say that we have been invited to spend the evening in this home, to speak together about the Lord Jesus, and His things, and to seek to help and encourage one another along the path. As gathered in this informal way, the sisters should feel free to ask questions, offer suggestions, or take part in any other way that would not be inconsistent with the subject place.

“When a little company has come together, not in an assembly meeting, but, say, to meet in a home, it is not correct to apply Matthew 18:20 to such a meeting. You can count on the Lord to be with you, and to minister by His Spirit, but you can do nothing in the way of discipline. A good illustration is that of the House of Parliament. When they are convened in the proper place, and have the proper chairman in their midst, they can make laws; but if hundreds of them convene without their chairman, they could talk about laws, but could make none.”

(To Be Continued)

The Christian’s Hope

The Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1:1.

1. To be with Him. John 14; 1 Thessalonians 4

2. To be like Him. 1 John 3:2.

3. To see Him. Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2.

4. To serve Him. Revelation 22:3-4.

5. To reign with Him. 2 Timothy 2:12.

6. To live with Him. 2 Timothy 2:11.

7. To appear with Him. Colossians 3:4.

One Step at a Time

“As thou goest, step by step, I will open up the way before thee” (Prov. 4:12). (Another Translation)

“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way” (Ex. 23:20).

“This God is our God forever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death” (Psa. 48:14).

The New Year begins a new journey,

One step at a time we may see;

But looking to Jesus for guidance,

The way will be opened for thee.

One step at a time, simply trusting

The One who is holding thy hand,

The One who with infinite wisdom,

Each step of thy pathway has planned.

The Shepherd has marked out thy pathway,

The end from beginning He knows;

But light He will give “As thou goest” -

One step at a time Jesus shows.

One step, but one step is sufficient, -

Faith trusts in the Father above,

Who worketh all things for our blessing,

Whose dealings are ever in love.

Faith rests in the One who is guiding,

And trusts Him who goeth before;

Whose love cheers and brightens the journey,

Whose presence gives joy evermore.

Fragment: True Peace

You will never get peace by dwelling upon your conversion—whether it was good or bad—deep or shallow. Neither can you get peace by looking at your state or your progress.

It is very important to judge your state and your walk; but you will never get peace by so doing; nor will you ever make progress by being occupied with yourself—gauging and analyzing your feelings and frames.

The true basis of peace is a full Christ for the heart. The true secret of progress is a whole heart for Christ.

Correspondence: Heb. 4:3, 9; Second Chance for Drowned?; John 13:1; Dan. 12:4

Question: What works were finished from the foundation of the world? (Heb. 4:3). What is the rest which remains to the people of God? (Heb. 4:9).

Answer: God had wrought in creation and then rested from His works when He had finished them, but man did not enter into it. Neither did Joshua nor David give God’s people rest; so that the rest of God is still future, and believers will enter into it. We are to take care not to appear like coming short of it. It is laboring now as Christians; it will be resting when God’s rest comes.

All taint of sin shall be removed,

All evil done away;

And we shall dwell with God’s Beloved,

Through God’s eternal day.

Question: Did the wicked who were drowned at the flood, go into everlasting punishment in Sheol, or did they have another chance when Christ preached to the spirits in prison? (1 Peter 3:19).

Answer: All the wicked that died before, at, or after the flood, will be raised to stand before the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). This is the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:29).

When an unsaved man dies, his soul is in prison, awaiting the judgment (2 Peter 2:4,9); he is also in torment. See Luke 16:23, where the rich man’s soul is “in torment,” while men give his body a funeral. It is everlasting punishment; justice cannot be defeated when Christ is the judge. The wrath of God abideth on the sinner (John 3:36).

There is no preaching or offer of salvation to a man after death. There was no preaching in the prison. The Spirit of Christ preached through Noah to the people who lived at his time, then they were drowned, and their souls are in prison for their disobedience to the preaching.

When Christ died, His spirit went to the Father.

“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

His body was put in the grave. Then He arose, and after forty days He ascended up on high. He is now the Man at God’s right hand. It is a man—spirit, soul and body—that ascended. He had been in death, but could not be holden of it. That was “the lower parts of the earth.” When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive. Satan is vanquished, and we are set free, sharing His triumphs now over sin, death and Satan’s power. This is our blessing now, as brought to Himself to share His place before and with His God and Father.

Question: What does, “He loved them unto the end” mean? (John 13:1).

Answer: Christ’s love is eternal, it cannot cease, nor change. It is proved by what He did on the cross (Eph. 5:25).

In the present by what He is doing (Eph. 5:26). In the future by what He will do (Eph. 5:27).

In the glory we will still feast and delight our souls in His love. So here on the journey until it end, we can count on Him to care for and provide all we need, spiritually and temporally. There is no end to His love. “The end” here, must therefore mean, all the way through (see also Heb. 7:25).

Of Him and His love will we sing,

His presence our tongues will employ,

Till heavenly anthems we bring

In yonder bright regions of joy.

Question: Who are the many that “run to and fro”? What knowledge is increased? (Dan. 12:4).

Answer: It is the last days of Israel’s history under the times of the Gentiles. Another translation puts for “run to and fro,” “shall diligently investigate.” The Psalms, Prophets, Gospels and Revelation will be well investigated, and guidance given to both converted Jews and Gentiles then, where the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached. It is not yet. Daniel’s book is still sealed.

The Way the Lord Hath Led Me

From a child I had been anxious about my soul, and would often go to my mother and tell her how troubled I was. Not being converted herself and depending on her own good works she would advise me to pray more, and to be more careful about keeping the commandments. If I did these, she knew the Lord would take me to heaven when I died.

Although I tried to be good and obedient, I failed as all do, who depend on their own good works. I grew more dissatisfied with myself, for though I went to church and Sunday School regularly, I was wholly ignorant of the plan of salvation.

One day a school friend called and invited me to go with her to hear an evangelist preach. He took for his text Isaiah 6, and as he described the state of a lost soul, I trembled with fear, for it was my case exactly, and holding down my head I wept bitterly. He then told of the love of God in sending Jesus, His Son, to die for us. But I had not faith to believe that Christ became my substitute, and took my sins upon Himself, and put them all away, so that in God’s sight it is the same as though I had been crucified.

A friend seeing my distress, begged me to take God at His word, and to trust in Jesus, but I could not; I thought I had to improve before Jesus would forgive me, I went home feeling much worse than when I went to the meeting. Going to my room I prayed earnestly for God to save me. That night I had a strange dream, I dreamed that I had to cross an abyss, and as I stood on the edge planning how to cross, the ground upon which I was standing gave away and I went down a short distance until my feet stood upon a small ledge of rock. As I stood in that perilous position, with my eyes closed to keep me from looking down, I heard a gentle voice saying

“Trust yourself to Me, and I will save you.”

Opening my eyes, I saw on the opposite side, the Saviour with His hand out for me to take; but I was afraid to give Him my hand; for I thought, putting out my hand might cause me to lose my balance, then I would be lost forever; but I had not long to think, for the shelf of rock upon which I was standing commenced to crumble, and in a few seconds I would go with it; so in agony I held out my hand, which was quickly grasped by the firm hand of my Saviour, and as I stood by His side He looked kindly down at me and said,

“Now you are saved, never doubt any more.”

“Come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa. 55:3).

Though Satan is always ready to worry and make us doubt, the Lord is always near to support us through it all. It is such a precious thought that God looks at the believer through and in Christ, and sees no sin upon him, but covered with the righteousness of God, we are complete in Christ, our risen Head.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

Knowledge of Salvation

“Can it be right for me to go

On in this dark, uncertain way?

Say ‘I believe’ and yet not know

Whether my sins are put away?

“Not know my trespasses forgiven

Until I meet Him in the air!

Not know that I shall get to heaven

Until I wake and find me there!

“Not know my state till on my brow

Beams the celestial diadem!

Why, surely all the world will know

That I’m a pardoned sinner then.

“Must clouds and darkness veil my brow

Until I dwell with saints in light?

And must I walk in darkness now

Because I cannot walk by sight?

“And shall I just begin to say,

‘Father, Thine every word is true,’

And cast my doubts and fears away

When all the world will own it too?

“Is this the way to treat the God

Who bids me trust and love Him now?

Is this the way to use the Word

Given to guide me here below?

“How can I forth to sinners go,

And tell of grace so rich and free,

If all the while I do not know

Whether that grace has smiled on me?

“How can it be my joy to dwell

On the rich power of Jesus’ blood,

If all the while I cannot tell

That it has sealed my peace with God?

“How can I be like Christ below,

How like my Lord in witness shine,

Unless with conscious joy I know

His Father and His God as mine?

“O, crush this cruel unbelief!

These needless, shameful doubts remove,

And suffer me no more to grieve

The God whom I do really love.”

“He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

“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).

Instruments of Song

“I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1).

His saints are now His instrument of song, answering to the touch of His hand, and vibrating with those resurrection joys which in “the midst of the church” He leads forth to His God and Father.

True, indeed, His temple is not yet built, nor has His kingdom in its glory yet dawned, but He has sent forth the Spirit to dwell in His church, that we may speak one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

O, that our hearts may be to Him what the stringed instrument was to David’s hand of old.

He Oft Refreshed Me

Have you ever noticed the service of a brother named Onesiphorus? I believe it has a word for us in these days, when many are isolated, and often are unable to meet with the Lord’s people for fellowship.

The Apostle said of him in 2 Timothy 1:16-18 “He oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain...he sought me out very diligently, and found me...in many things he ministered unto me.”

What a lovely list of things are mentioned here, and how suggestive surely to any whose heart is filled with the love of Christ!

“He oft refreshed me”—like a morning breeze, full of freshness and vitality, this dear man had often refreshed the heart of the great Apostle. Although Paul may at times have been cast down, here was one who had ministered to him, who had encouraged his heart, who had cheered his spirit and sympathized with the Lord’s prisoner in his bonds.

Are there not some whom we could refresh, some drooping spirits whom we could water, some whom we might be able to cheer and encourage? And then having done it once, do it often!

Of Onesiphorus it is also said, “He sought me out very diligently and found me.”

And there are some lonely ones who will only be found in this way. They will need seeking out and finding, and such service is noticed by Him who could seek out the poor outcast woman of Sychar’s well. They are known to the Lord and never forgotten by Him, yet He would have us search them out, and by so doing remind them of that link which binds us together and to Christ in glory.

Both in Rome and Ephesus Onesiphorus ministered to the Apostle, in what way we do not know, but it was known to the Lord and was precious to Him, because done to one of His own, as He says,

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”

O that we too may be ready thus to serve Him as we serve those that are His own!

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 15:1-13

Chapter 15

Verses 1-13

The first seven verses sum up in a few and weighty words the instruction we have had in the fourteenth chapter regarding the “strong” and the “weak.” May we ponder them deeply!

“But we ought, we that are strong, to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1 JND). How apt the Word of God is! The “strong,” more intelligent in the truth of God, are not because of that to look down upon the “weak;” indeed they ought to bear (carry) their infirmities, and not to please themselves. This would be to enter into the feelings of the weak, the very opposite of despising, or making little of them. In Galatians 6:2, there is a somewhat parallel passage:

“Bear ye one another’s burdens (weights), and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

There it is not a question of “strong” and “weak” brothers, but of Christians walking together in brotherly love. How deep must be the interest of our God in His people, since He has given us to know full well what will please Him in our ways. And remember, dear young Christian, that you have not only His written Word for your guidance, but a new and divine nature is yours; and the Holy Spirit indwelling you is the power whereby God may be glorified in your life.

“Let every one of us please his neighbor with a view to what is good, to edification” (Rom. 15:2 JND).

There is no room for selfishness here, is there? But perhaps you are saying,

“And, who is my neighbor?”

The answer is very simple; it is found in the meaning of the Greek word here, and in the New Testament generally translated “neighbor.” The word means “one that is near” and as the Apostle is in these scriptures writing about believers, it is clear that the “neighbor” here, is any Christian with whom one may come in contact.

The third verse brings us to the Pattern and Example, our blessed Lord. It is most interesting to trace in the epistles the references to Himself where Christian conduct is the theme; for examples, turn to Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 2:5; Colossians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:21. Is there anything that could operate with equal power on your heart in view of the first two verses of our chapter, as that Christ did not please Himself as He passed through the world? Never did He seek His own comfort; always the good of others.

The quotation in the third verse is from the 69th Psalm, written by David for his Lord when He should be crucified, to express that which He felt in view of His entire rejection by His earthly people, the Jews.

The fourth verse, like 1 Corinthians 10:11; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Luke 24:25-27, and other passages, bids us to not neglect the Old Testament, from which, in the light of the New, we can learn much.

“Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning” (instruction), it is plain, means, that the whole of the Old Testament is intended of God for the prayerful study of His children, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“That we, through patience (really, endurance) and comfort (or more exactly, encouragement) of the scriptures might have hope.”

Here we pass beyond the limits of the Old Testament to take in the New Testament also, for “the scriptures” includes both.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable...that the man of God may be perfect...”

So reads 2 Timothy 3:16-17, but in our chapter in Romans, it is that we shall endure and be encouraged through the reading of and meditation upon the Scriptures to the end that the Christian hope may be a known reality in our souls.

O, how important it is that young Christians shall know the Word of God! Do not neglect its daily reading, with earnest prayer for the blessing of it to your soul.

In the 5th verse God Himself is made known as the source of endurance and encouragement: He knows the needs of His children, and is ever ready to supply them. With His help the “weak” and “strong” will be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; thus with one accord, with one mouth, to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Wherefore,” in verse 7 is it said, “receive ye one another, according as the Christ has received you to the glory of God.”

He has received the strong as well as the weak, to share in the glory of God, and I should receive my weak brother as I myself have been received.

It will be seen that the whole subject we have been examining in chapters 14 and 15, relates to those who are sound in the faith. All cannot be received either to the Lord’s Table or into believers’ homes, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be linked with what is contrary to Him, the Holy and the True (1 Cor. 5); nor should His saints tamper with evil (2 John 6-11). Other scriptures throw further light on the subject of receiving persons to the Lord’s Table.

Romans 15:8-12 sums up what we have been looking at in chapters 9, 10, 11, and more widely, with regard to God’s dealings with the Jew and the Gentile, His Son having come into the world.

“For I say that Jesus Christ became a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers; and that the nations should glorify God for mercy...” (Romans 15:8-9 JND). To the Jews, or to their forefathers, God had made promises; they will be accomplished to the full. To the Gentiles He had made none; mercy was for them. The quotations of Romans 15:9-12 are taken from Psalms 18:49; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalms 117:1; Isaiah 11:10.

In Romans 15:13 the closing clause of the 12th verse, “in Him shall the Gentiles trust” (or hope) is applied to the believers at Rome -

God being seen as the source of their hope, as in the fifth verse, He is revealed as the source of the believer’s endurance and comfort or encouragement.

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

Joy and peace in believing, and abounding in hope; these are among the Christian’s gifts from God; have you proved their reality? Joy, peace, hope; these are what the world seeks, but how often the joy runs out, and the peace is broken, and hope dies, because founded upon something here below!

It has been truly said that if the Christian had only his life down here, his situation would still be far better than that of the unbelieving, Christ-refusing man or woman, because he has an inward spring of joy and peace, and hope, founded on the solid rock of the Word of God. But the Christian looks on with desire, with longing, into the unmeasurable ages, of an eternity to be spent with his Saviour and Lord, in the assurance, given him in that Word of God, that fullness of joy and peace will only be his—blest though his present portion is—when in heavenly body, and in heavenly scenes, he will be in the company of the Man who died for him. The Holy Spirit gives the believer power to enter into and abide in these present and eternal blessings.

(To be continued, D. V.)

Tell Them of Jesus

“I confess to my shame, that I remember no one sin that my conscience does so much accuse and judge me for, as doing so little for the salvation of men’s souls, and dealing no more honestly and fervently with them for their conversion.

I confess when I am alone, and think of the case of poor, ignorant, worldly, unconverted sinners that do not live to God, nor set their hearts on the life to come, my conscience tells me that I should go to as many of them as I can, and tell them plainly of their need of the Saviour and of the eternal blessings if they do so, and what will become of them if they do not turn to the Lord.

Though I have many excuses, yet none of them satisfies my own conscience when I consider what heaven and hell are, which tells me that I should follow them night and day with all earnestness, and take no denial till they turn to the Lord, and receive Him as their own Saviour.”

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 2 Distinguishing Between Meetings

No. 2

Question: 2. Would it not be helpful to distinguish between the various types of meetings, such as the Breaking of Bread and Prayer Meeting?

Answer: This is an interesting and profitable subject for us to consider. If the distinctive characters of the various meetings were more clearly kept in view, all that is said and done would be more consistent with the mind of the Lord.

The meeting for the Breaking of Bread is undoubtedly of prime importance. The Lord Jesus, both while on earth (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20), and from the glory (1 Cor. 11:23-26), made known His desire that His redeemed ones should do this in remembrance of Him. Acts 20:7 is scriptural proof that the early disciples came together regularly for this purpose on the first day of the week. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread.” It is true that the Apostle Paul took advantage of this occasion to minister to the saints, but it was not for this purpose that they came together. It was to break bread—not even to worship, though that was a natural accompaniment and consequence—but to break bread! There is nothing like this act, recalling so vividly to the heart the boundless love of the Lord Jesus, as expressed in His sufferings and death, to move the soul in worship and praise. Paul himself evidently waited on purpose for a whole week at Troas, so that he could be with the brethren there for the breaking of bread on the Lord’s Day (v. 6).

The disorderliness of the Corinthians at the Lord’s Table called forth a severe rebuke from the Apostle (1 Cor. 11:20-22). But this very rebuke shows clearly that it was the regular custom of the church to come together in one place “to eat the Lord’s Supper.” These scriptures should exercise our hearts as to our motive for coming to the meeting on Lord’s Day morning. If the character of the meeting is remembered, everything that is done—praise, hymns, Scripture-reading—will, under the Spirit’s guidance, be in harmony with the object of the meeting, and all will lead up to, or conform to the remembrance of the Lord in death. Another truth connected with the breaking of bread,—when, as members of the body of Christ, we gather at the Lord’s Table, we give public expression to the truth that “there is one body” (Eph. 4:4), of which the one loaf on the table is the type (1 Cor. 10:16-17). Only at the Lord’s Table, and only in the breaking of bread, can public expression be given to this truth.

The Prayer Meeting is the place “where prayer is wont to be made” (Acts 16:13). We come together to pray, whether as a group of individuals (Acts 1:13-14—a prayer meeting that lasted ten days), or as an assembly (Acts 4:23-31; 12:5-12; 13:1-3). In Matthew 18:15-20, the Lord’s Presence in the midst is vouchsafed as the power both for discipline (v. 18), and prayer (v. 19), even if only two or three should be gathered together on the ground of the assembly (v. 20). Faith might give two or more believers to count on the promise of verse 19, but such could not claim verse 20, unless gathered as the assembly. Verse 20 should not be separated from all that goes before—the whole passage is definitely connected—the assembly, discipline, prayer and the Lord’s Presence in the midst, which is the central point and climax of all. Hence the significance of the introductory word “for” (v. 20) referring to all that goes before. Prayer and thanksgiving are closely connected in Scripture (Phil. 4:6), and both have their place in the prayer meeting. In the prayer meeting we come to make known the desires of our hearts, to receive from the Lord (Heb. 4:16). On Lord’s Day morning we come, not with an empty basket to be filled, but with a full basket, to empty out before Him (Deut. 26:2,10; Heb. 13:15). But He is there on both occasions.

A meeting for Humiliation is an occasion when some of the saints, or the assembly as such, come together to humble themselves before the Lord, either in a general way, or because of some difficulty or sorrow, or perhaps a low state.

Such a meeting cannot be forced—it must be the result of real exercise in order to be genuine and effective. It would partake largely of the nature of confession. Surely there was never a day when such meetings would be more in order, but, unhappily, they are of rare occurrence among us. Should not this in itself be a cause for deep exercise and humiliation? (James 4:9-10; 1 Peter 5:5-6).

Your Daily Habit

I earnestly urge you to make Bible-reading your daily habit. Let it be a fixed principle with you that you need the words of His mouth for your soul’s nourishment and health.

You have found forgiveness through faith in the atoning blood of Christ; and you are supremely happy. But forgiveness is not food. And if you have no food you will have no strength. You will hunger; and the hungry will eat anything.

If you do not go on, applying yourself to the daily reading of your Bible, your famished soul will readily eat of the world’s dainties. But if you are nourished by the hidden manna, you will have no heart for the world’s allurements.

Young Christian, if you would stand before the enemy, if you would walk humbly and happily with your God, if you would be useful in the Lord’s vineyard, search the Scriptures daily and diligently.

Waiting and Watching

To wait and watch for the Lord is what we are called to. The two words do not carry quite the same thought, and I cannot better explain the difference than by giving an illustration which suggested itself to me when speaking to a company of fishermen.

The fleet had all gone to the fishing grounds, when a furious and long-continued westerly hurricane burst upon them. Rapidly pulling in their nets, they have to fly before the strong wind. Each day it lasts, takes them farther and farther from home, where now great anxiety prevails as to their safety. At length the gale spends itself, and the wind veering to the southeast, the boats make for home.

On their way, they manage to get a telegram flung ashore and transmitted,

“All safe. Coming home,” and the good news spreads like wildfire through the village, bringing joy to many a troubled heart. They came at a good pace, having a fair wind and a flowing tide. The old skipper of the leading craft had a telescope, and as he comes within sight of the pier-head, he uses it. After a good, long look, he said to the crew,

“The whole village is out on the pier watching for us.”

As the smack draws near, the telescope is again used, and this time the skipper is heard to say, half under his breath,

“God bless her, the dear old soul,” while a tear rolls down his weather-beaten cheek.

“Who do you see?” says Jim, the mate,

“I see my wife standing at the very pier-end, watching for me,” and another tear or two fell on the deck.

“Do you see my wife?”

“No, Jim, I cannot see her; maybe she’s there, but she’s not visible.”

By this time the staunch sail boat had neared the harbor, and loving salutations passed between the old couple.

No special greeting has awaited Jim, who, rather dejected, trudges up to the back of the village where is his home. Peeping in at the window, he sees his wife sitting at the fire, deep in a book. Jim opens the door. She hears the latch, and looking up, says,

“O, Jim, my dear, I’m glad to see you back; I was waiting for you.”

“Very likely, but the skipper’s wife was watching for him at the pierhead.”

May God give you and me to be true watchers for the return of His Son, our blessed Lord.

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

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13).

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching” (Luke 12:37).

What is service? It is having part in Christ’s ministry of love.

What Is the World?

The prophets could testify, on the one hand of the rejection of Messiah, and, on the other, of His universal and everlasting dominion. Between the one past and the other future, we know other and higher glories in Him now, and Himself, in whom these blessings are treasured up. We know that He is the true God and eternal life, and ourselves blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him. We are called out from this world to follow Him, soon to be the sharers of His heavenly glory.

It is but “a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” And if this be so, how ought we to stand apart from this present evil world! How ought we to keep clear of its attempts to put on the appearance of reverence for the name of Jesus!

Alas! how often people get perplexed and ask,

Where and what is the world?

The truth is, that to ask this, is a lamentable proof that they are so mixed up with the world that they do not know it. The Lord grant that we may have no difficulty in knowing what the world is, and where we are.

The Jew was obliged to enter it with the sword in his hand, executing judgment. But this is not the place of the Christian, who began with the world’s sword against Christ, and Himself bowing to it.

We began and should go on with the cross, looking for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. All our blessedness is founded on the cross, and all our hopes center in His glory, and His coming again for us.

The Lord’s Priestly Service

In Hebrews 4:15, we have His perfect sympathy in our trials.

In Hebrews 7:25, we have His all prevailing intercession to carry us through.

In Hebrews 13:15, His presentation of our sacrifices of praise continually, acceptable to God.

We have thus One at the right hand of the Majesty on high, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; who enters into all our sorrows: who feels for us, and is with us in the varied exercises regarding our trials, difficulties and need of His guidance—the glorified Man, with perfect human heart and feelings, One on whom we may count and depend without fear; who can sustain us in our conflict.

Who can express adequately the blessedness of such a service as His?—a Man in the glory of God, whose heart is with us in all that we pass through in our wilderness journey.

What a precious provision! He who has all power committed to Him in heaven and on earth, now lives for us in heaven. All praise to His worthy name!

Usefulness

A question often arises about usefulness. Satan often beguiles by it. He may have suggested to John that he would be more useful if he were to compromise a little, and keep out of trouble for the sake of being free for his service to saints. Useful to whom? To God or to men? God may be able to show out more of His glory by laying men aside.

The eyes of God rested on Paul a prisoner, seemingly useless (not even always allowed to write), as the field for the display of some of the greatest privileges of truth. The very point when your weakness seems to make you useless is often the very way in which God shows forth His glory.

People think it strange that old Christians, useless ones, and others, should be left, and young active ones taken. Do not be trying to settle God’s house for Him; do not say,

“What a pity for John to get to Patmos.” The Lord wanted him there to communicate something that might serve His people to the end of time.

A person may be in difficult circumstances, and you may have it in your power to get him out of them in the power of human nature. And you may do it, and find out that God would have had him in them, because then he could have borne testimony; and you ought not to have measured things by your love for him and your comfort, but by the light of God. We often act on a set of thoughts of which the cord is bound to our own humanity instead of God’s glory.

Correspondence: Grieve Our Lord?; Say Nothing; Lead Us Not into Temptation?

Question: Is it possible to grieve our Lord?

Answer: The Lord was grieved on earth, and He is the same Jesus “yesterday, today and forever.” He still has a heart of love, and will love His own unto the end, and cannot but be grieved (even as Jehovah of old often was, though in heaven) at our willfulness and hardness. Surely, if we grieve the Spirit, we grieve our Lord too. (See Gen. 6:6).

Question: Why did the Lord tell the leper in Mark 1 to say nothing to any man? and how should the disregard of this injunction be viewed?

Answer: Because, here in Mark, He is Jehovah’s servant, whose voice was not heard in the streets, but “He could not be hid,” and the new-found joy of the leper would not allow the Lord to occupy the place of retirement and obscurity He here sought. The man did not obey Christ, doubtless, and the result so far was to prevent Christ working on in the City. The man meant well, but after all, Christ’s way is best.

Question: What does “lead us not into temptation” mean?

Answer: God does not tempt any one with evil. Satan tempted Christ, though He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The meaning of the prayer is to be kept from all temptation of the Evil One, not to be sifted as were Job and Peter by God’s permission, as very rightly we ever mistrust our own power. If, however, we should be brought into it, we can overcome by closely adhering to the Word, after the pattern of our Master.

What a Pity You Are Not a Christian

“Mr. F., what a pity you are not a Christian!”

Unwilling to be drawn into a discussion on religion, he put off Mr. H. by saying,

“We Scotch people are well up in the Bible.”

“What a pity you are not a Christian!” was repeated by Mr. H.

The Scotchman hemmed and hawed for a moment, and then said that he did not understand Mr. H.

“If you think you are a Christian,” said the earnest soul-winner, “sit down on that chair and talk to me about Christ.”

“I cannot do that,” replied Mr. F.

“No, I knew you could not,” said the Christian merchant. “Now, Mr. F., I would be very pleased if you would be kind enough to read a small book that I have.” Mr. F. remarked that he read a good deal, and would gladly look over the book that he purposed giving him.

The book he received was an able vindication of the Christian faith. He took it home and read it carefully. On perusing it, he said to himself,

“This book is wrong, but I cannot tell where.”

He became greatly interested in the position taken by the writer, and began rereading it. As he studied it carefully, he was arrested by the words of Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

While reading these words, the light of the glorious gospel of God’s wondrous grace burst into his soul’s vision, and he said to himself, “That explains how the whole Bible streams with blood.”

He perceived how the blood made atonement: because the life is in the blood, and to pour out the blood signifies death. “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12).

And by believing that Christ died and made a full and perfect atonement for all his sins, he found rest to his sin-sick soul. He saw he was saved not because of what he did for Christ, but because of what Christ did for him.

He hastened to tell Mr. H. that through reading the book he gave him, he was saved.

“Thank God for that,” was the Christian merchant’s response.

“I cannot go on with that business matter now,” said the young convert.

“And what are you going to do?” inquired Mr. H.

“I must preach the gospel,” was the characteristic reply.

He felt he had a call from God to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he commenced to preach Christ and Him crucified with remarkable fervency and power. Multitudes of sinners were saved, and many Christians were helped through his faithful ministry. For more than half a century he was privileged to be an ambassador of the cross, until called to his eternal reward.

The writer can never forget the words spoken by Mr. F. one Sunday evening. I don’t remember if he had any text, but I know he repeated again and again the following words,

“It’s the blood that saves! It’s the blood that saves! It’s the blood that saves!”

He explained that Christ’s blood-shedding had made a perfect atonement to the injured honor of the divine character and government, and all who believed on Him had eternal life. Dealing with the widespread difficulty of waiting for feelings, instead of taking God at His word, he repeated again and again the words,

“Believing is the root; feeling is the fruit! Believing is the root; feeling is the fruit!”

I thank God that His servant was led to speak as he did. I had been waiting to feel saved. I ceased looking within, and looked to Christ dying for my crimson sins, and found life in a look at the crucified One.

Where is the reader looking—to Christ or self? to faith or feelings? Christ’s atonement is enough to meet your deepest need. Is God not fully satisfied with what Christ did and suffered for you?

“It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has made an atonement for sin.

Don’t try to atone for the offenses of the past. It is too late in the day to attempt that. Christ has done everything that was necessary. The blood in its “solitary dignity” has eternally satisfied the demands of law and justice. Don’t wait to feel that what God says is true. Believe the “glad tidings” regarding Christ and His finished work, and the feelings will follow. May you be enabled truthfully to lay hold of the meaning of the familiar lines,

“Just as I am, and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come.”

Go On!

Who can tell where and when the fruit of a Sunday School teacher’s work may turn up? It may be at the present time, or it may be years after the workman has gone to his eternal rest. But, let it be when or where it may, fruit will assuredly be found when the seed has been sown in faith and watered by prayer.

Some precious portion of Scripture, some sweet hymn, some teaching, or loving appeal remains buried in the depths of memory (beneath a mass of folly it may be), and comes up again to mind in some quiet moment, or it may be on a dying bed, and is used of the Holy Spirit for the quickening and saving of the soul. Who can tell the importance of getting hold of the mind while it is young, fresh, and receptive, to impress it with heavenly things?

Then again, it gives precious opportunity of presenting the gospel to the unconverted, or of expounding the Holy Scriptures to the children of God. Indeed the Sunday school is a profoundly interesting branch of evangelistic and Christian labor, whether among the young or the older ones.

Let nothing, dear friend, discourage you in the work which you have undertaken. It is a good work; go on with it, under the eye of the Lord, and “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9).

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 15:14-33

Verses 14-33

At the fourteenth verse the Apostle, in the course of his long letter, turns to speak of these dear Christians at Rome, many of whom he had never seen. He will have much more to say of them in the last chapter; here he speaks of them in a general way: they were full of goodness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their hearts; filled with all knowledge, knowledge that is after godliness; able also to admonish one another, to put one another in mind of neglected or forgotten words or ways pleasing to God.

The Apostle Paul had a special position given to no other in the ordering of God, and of this he tells in the next two verses:

“But I have written to you the more boldly, brethren, in part as putting you in mind, because of the grace given to me by God, for me to be minister” (the word here signifies an administrator officially appointed) “of Christ Jesus to the nations, carrying on as a sacrificial service the message of glad tidings of God, in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (N.T.).

He was, like a priest, offering up the Gentiles acceptable to God, because of the Spirit’s sanctification; as Aaron in Numbers 8 was to offer the Levites before the Lord, sanctified by their birth and by ceremonies for His service. The Apostle had therefore to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God, as he says in the 17th verse.

In the following verses Paul tells with becoming modesty, in language provided by the Holy Spirit, of his labors to that time among the Gentiles, an account of which is given in seven chapters (13 to 19) of the Acts. He would mention only that Christ had wrought by him, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem in a circuit round to Illyricum—through what we now know as Syria, Turkey and Greece, and to at least the border of Albania on the Adriatic Sea opposite Italy—he had fully preached the gospel.

He had gone where the name of Christ was unknown, announcing the salvation of God among the idolatrous Gentiles of the Roman world. Hearts had been opened to receive the gospel in Antioch of Pisidia, in Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Troas, Ephesus, Colosse and Laodicea in Asia; in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth and Cenchrea in Europe; and no doubt in many more places not named in the Acts.

That account of his travels in the service of his Master is plainly not intended to be a complete one, the Holy Spirit having caused to be recorded therein only what suited Him to tell as evidences of the grace of God in penetrating the strongholds of Satan.

In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 we have a bare outline of much that is not mentioned in the Acts, and in our chapter the devoted Apostle is telling that he has fully preached the gospel through that great region. We shall learn the full story in the glory above.

It had been for many years Paul’s wish to go to Rome, to visit the dear saints of God there, and now having no longer place in the scene of his past labor, he was looking forward to a journey to Spain, by way of the Roman capital, after the journey to Jerusalem upon which he was about to set out.

We know that the beloved Apostle reached Rome as a prisoner, and the pages of inspiration do not record his death, though the Second Epistle to Timothy was evidently written not long before it. It is not certain that he got to Spain, but as Paul was given his liberty for a time, it may be that that desire of his was fulfilled.

It will be asked, How did the gospel get to Rome? God has not told us. That it was not through Paul is clear from this epistle, and there is no indication in the Scriptures, that it was carried there by Peter; indeed Peter’s name is never linked with Rome in the Word of God, and we do not know that he ever reached the city. Tradition of course cannot be relied upon; the Word of God is our only safe resource. Some have thought that the gospel was carried to Rome by men from that city who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10).

The Apostle speaks (verses 25-28) of a contribution made by the believers of Macedonia and Achaia -northern and southern Greece—for the poor saints at Jerusalem. We read of this in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, and 2 Corinthians 8-9 also. The contribution is referred to as a debt of love; the Gentiles, having been made partakers of the spiritual privileges of the Jewish believers, ought to supply their needs in fleshly things. All were one in Christ, we know; in Him, racial distinctions are gone, but the gospel was offered first to the Jews, and by believers among them carried to the Gentiles.

Paul was confident that when he should come to them at Rome, it would be in the fullness of the blessing of Christ; would the fact that he got there in chains alter that? Surely not. When at length he neared the city, the Apostle was met by the brethren at the Appii Forum, 43 miles outside of the capital, and seeing them, he “thanked God and took courage” (Acts 28:15). A joyful meeting it must have been, both for the way-worn prisoner, and the Roman Christians. How vivid a contrast does not this present to the pageantry and pomp attached to the name of Christ in that city today!

Paul well knew the hearts of his unbelieving fellow-countrymen, and that his intended visit to Jerusalem might have serious results for himself (Acts 20:22-23). Here (verses 30,32) he asks for the prayers of the believers at Rome in connection with that journey.

“But I beseech, you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in prayers for me to God” (N.T.).

The Apostle knew the value of the prayers of the godly, and counted on them for himself, first, that he might be delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Judea; second, that the ministry he was taking to the saints at Jerusalem in their poverty might be acceptable to them; and third, that he might come to the saints at Rome in joy by the will of God, and might be refreshed with them.

We have already found in this chapter the God of patience (or endurance) and consolation (encouragement), (verse 5); the God of hope, (verse 13), and now at the close, He is seen as the God of peace,

“Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”

We may know Him in all these characters here on earth: in the difficulties of the way, as the God of endurance and encouragement; if the way seems long, He gives us joy and peace in thinking of our heavenly hope; and amid the contentions of men who are strangers to His grace, He as the God of peace will be with us.

May He be better known, both to you, dear young Christian, and to the writer, in all three ways!

(To be continued, D. V.)

Thoughts for Meditation

Throughout eternity the glories and beauties of Christ will be always unfolding, but never unfolded.

A child of God had rather, ten thousand times, suffer for Christ than that Christ should suffer by him.

Faith tested is faith strengthened.

Nothing wounds love so much as indifference.

If one walks quietly, submissively and obediently with a will not seeking itself...one will find happiness even here.

Nothing is more healthful to one’s soul than the carefully bearing forth of the gospel publicly or privately.

God hears the heart without words, but never hears words without the heart.

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 3 The Reading Meeting

The Question Box No. 3

It was decided to continue with the subject of the various types of meetings.

The Reading Meeting. A brother was once asked, Is there any scripture for reading meetings? He referred to Acts 2:42,

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” This verse would perhaps embrace all of the regular meetings of the assembly—the breaking of bread, prayer meeting, and reading meeting, where the apostles’ doctrine is especially before us.

In Acts 17:11, the Bereans were commended “in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They had the apostles’ doctrine before them.

The Lord Jesus said, “Search the Scriptures... they are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). This was a rebuke to the Jews, but an important exhortation for us. It was just what the Bereans did, and is it not what should characterize the reading meeting?

“Till I come, give attendance to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13), was the Apostle Paul’s admonition to an individual—surely we may take this as a word from the Lord to the assembly also, as His coming is awaited. In this connection, Hebrews 10:25 is very striking, and important.

A brother once remarked: “In a reading meeting, we come together, not to teach, but to read the Word of God.” This is good to remember. It is not a place for the display of gift, but for the simple reading and searching of the Scriptures. It is a place where even a teacher may receive instruction or correction from one who may have, by the Spirit, “the word of wisdom,” or “the word of knowledge” (1 Cor. 12:8). The Word of God and the Spirit of God have prominence in the reading meeting. We may count and wait upon the Lord, the Divine Teacher (John 14:26; 16:13-15), as He, by the Spirit through one and another, may be pleased to bring before our hearts the needed help and instruction.

The reading meeting has a special value in times of weakness. It has been the resort of many a company of saints who have felt their weakness. Suppose there is no gift in an assembly—none who are able to teach, or give public addresses or lectures to the saints. Well, then they may come together just as they are in all their weakness, and read the Word of God, in dependence upon the Lord who will surely minister to their every need. Thus, did those at the very end of another dispensation, when there was much feebleness and declension,

“Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another” (Mal. 3:16). So may we, in our day, and in our weakness. The Lord’s approval may be counted upon now, as it was then. “And the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.” It is surely pleasing to Him to have His own gathered together, in all simplicity, to read His Word.

From the various scriptures already referred to, we would gather that the order of the reading meeting would be simplicity. Simply to read the Word, and then in quietness to wait upon the Lord for that which He might be pleased to minister to our souls, through one or another. Who may take part? There is liberty for all, but license for none. If there is the liberty of the Spirit, there will be no difficulty as to which one or ones should take part, and as to who should listen. All will be equally happy, in such a case. 1 Corinthians 14:29 would hardly apply in a reading meeting, but 1 Corinthians 14:40 surely does.

We have been noticing some of the advantages of the reading meeting. There are dangers, too, and consequent warnings. A reading meeting is a place where the flesh may easily manifest itself, especially in pride as to knowledge of the Word. False, or speculative notions may be introduced, to the detriment and confusion of the saints (See Titus 1:10-11). A good word of warning is found in 2 Timothy 2:16,

“Shun profane and vain babblings,” and in verse 23: “But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.”

We need to guard against anything that would tread down the pastures, or foul the waters, by unspiritual and unprofitable discussions, thus depriving the sheep of the flock of the rich and healthful nourishment provided (See Ezek. 34:18-19).

Quietness of Spirit

One great evidence of my abiding in Christ is quietness of spirit. I have my portion above, and I go on.

No matter what it may be, we bring quietness of spirit into all circumstances while dwelling with God.

The soul is not only happy in God for itself, but it will bring the tone of that place out with it.

The Shout

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout” (1 Thess. 4:16).

I want to tell you something very interesting about that word “shout.” This is the only place in the New Testament where the Greek word here translated “shout” occurs, and it does not mean a shout of terror, a startling shout; it is a word of encouragement. It is the word that was used in olden times to encourage the rowers...It is the shout of encouragement for the people of God, the word that calls them, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

The One that loves us, who has done so much for us, will be there on the threshold of the glory, and will take us in... What a scene that will be!

Fragment: Burdens and Prayer

There is no burden of the spirit but is lightened by kneeling under it. Little by little the bitterest feelings are sweetened by the mention of them in prayer. And agony itself stops swelling if it can only cry sincerely, “My God! my God!”

The Wiles of the Devil

The devil is an enemy; he tries to deceive us, he lays snares, he seeks to act upon us by the means of our lusts. He may also indeed raise persecution to arrest us in the path of faith, but in ordinary life he deceives us by the things that suit the flesh.

If we are persecuted, it is our glory. “To you,” says the Apostle, “it is given not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His name’s sake.” But this danger from the wiles of Satan is constant; they are continually around us. The important thing is that, living after the new man, and in communion with God, we should be able to discern the deceit of Satan, which is never obedience to the will of God. Very possible the evil may not be apparent.

When Satan suggested to the Lord that He should make bread of the stones and eat, it was not apparent evil. To eat when hungry does not seem a wicked thing; but it would not have been obedience. Satan could do nothing. To eat simply because one is hungry is an animal action, which does not refer to God. We ought to do everything, even eating, in the name of Christ, giving thanks to God. Everything is sanctified to us, if we realize the presence of God.

Satan then cannot hide himself, if in obedience we resist; he flees, conscious that he has met the One who overcame him—Christ in us. The Word of God suffices to make us walk in a path, in which Satan has no power, where he is compelled to leave us, in which also we detect his deceit, and discern that he is the enemy. The Saviour walked thus; He quoted the Word of God, and the devil was silent, and sought to deceive Him by other means; he did not openly show himself, but the perfect obedience of Jesus made his snares powerless. When Satan showed himself to be such, offering Him the glory of the world, Jesus commands him to depart, and he goes.

The Lord’s path is ours. His strength is ours, and if we walk with His obedience, His wisdom will be ours: only He has already overcome the tempter. The difficulty is, so to walk in communion with Him, as to discern the deception. We must also have the whole armor of God.

In short, if the presence of God is realized in the heart, if the Spirit of God rules there, and the sense of dependence is active in the soul, we shall feel that what the enemy presents to us, is not of God, and the will of the new man will not desire it. Satan once detected, the new man resists him, and he has no strength. Jesus has overcome him for us. We learn in James 4:7 that, if we resist him, he will flee; he finds that he has met the Spirit of Christ in us, and he flees. The evil is, that we do not always resist him; we accept his enticements, because the will of God is not everything to us: in many things we still like to please ourselves. If grace is known, obedience and dependence guard us from the wiles of the devil. He has no power against the resistance of faith; he is manifested as Satan, the adversary, as he was when Jesus suffered Himself to be tempted for us, and Satan fled before His resistance. He knows it is the same One whom he meets in us.

A few words as to the armor of God (Eph. 6:10-18) may be useful. With the exception of the sword, all refers to the state of soul. The effect of the truth to keep the soul in order, its affections regulated, and conscience having its due power according to the will of God; the breast plate of practical righteousness, so that the conscience is good: in the path, the feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace—that is, the behavior bearing the stamp of that peace which we enjoy in Christ; then, confidence in God, which these things produce, and which prevents the suggestions of the wicked one from reaching us.

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

We shall not be wounded by the fiery darts of the enemy; doubts and evil thoughts about God will find no entrance into the heart; then the certainty of salvation, which enables us to lift up the head in battle with the enemy. Then we can take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and use it in the conflict; shielded by the armor of God from the enemy’s assaults, we can be active in employing the Word in the service of the Lord, though ever dependent upon His help. This dependence expresses itself in prayers and supplications

(Verse 18).

Let us then resist the devil, and he will flee from us (James 4:7).

The Cross

O Cross! the glorious center Thou

Of time and of eternity!

To Him, who hung thereon we bow,

Own Him of praise all-worthy now,

And when His face we see.

It telleth us of love divine

To Adam’s fallen, sinful, race;

How bright the light therefrom doth shine

Of mercy that is only Thine,

Thou God of truth and grace!

Blest Saviour! Thou to death would’st go -

Endure the cross, despise the shame:

Let praise unceasing to Thee flow

From all who Calvary’s virtue know,

And glory in Thy name!

To Thee, O Christ, the song shall swell

In realms of light and life above.

With joy Thy praise, O Lord, we’ll tell

When in Thy presence we shall dwell,

And love’s blest fullness prove.

Judge Righteous Judgment

Jesus judged righteous judgment. He was not to be flattered. He did not try either persons or circumstances, in reference to Himself. This is where we so commonly fail in all our judgments. We see objects, whether persons or things, so much in our own light. How have these circumstances affected ourselves? How have these people treated us? These are the inquiries of the heart: and in the answer they get, the judgment is too commonly formed. We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones. Jesus was not such a One. The Pharisee’s compliment, and good fare (Luke 14:1) did not affect His judgment on the whole scene in his house. The friendliness of a social hour could not relax the rightness of His sense of things: as Peter’s recent confession, on another occasion, did not hinder the rebuke that Peter’s worldliness deserved. Jesus was not to be flattered. Like the God of Israel in old times, His ark may be boasted in, and brought into the battle with a shout; but He is not to be flattered by this. Israel shall fall for their unrighteousness (1 Sam. 4).

What a lesson for us! What reasons have we to guard against the judgments of self-love! Against the trying and weighing of things or persons, in relation to ourselves! This firm, unswerving mind of Jesus, may be our encouragement, as well as our pattern, in this; and we may pray, that neither “this world’s flattery, nor spite” move us from having our thoughts as before the Lord all the day!

A Friend of the World

“Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

Many Christians are tempted much in this world because they tamper much with the world; they have not fled to Jesus as their city of separation. They have not become exiles with Him and for His sake. Although He says, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate...and I will receive you,” yet they flee not, and the tempter often overtakes them.

Separation from the world unto God is about the last refuge that is sought after. Jesus must be our All in all if we would be perfectly sheltered from the curse—the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Out and Out

Ke-San-Lone, a converted Chinese, when on a visit in America, was much affected by the little difference he saw between Christians and worldlings, and referring to the matter, said, “When the disciples in my country come out of the world, they come clear out.”

Extract: Two Things to Learn

I am left here for two things to learn a great deal about myself, which is always humbling; and to learn of God in Christ, the unmistakable patience and love and goodness of God.

Correspondence: Captivity Captive; Meaning of Symbols in Rev. 1:13-16

Question: What does “captivity captive” mean? (Eph. 4:8).

Answer: It means the Lord, by His Mighty work of atonement, has met every claim of God’s throne, and was victorious over every enemy (Col. 1:13), annulling him (Satan) that held us captive, and delivering us from our captivity to sin and death and Satan’s power in which we were held as children of men.

Question: What do the symbols mean used in Revelation 1:13-16?

Answer: The seven candlesticks made of gold, represent the seven churches mentioned in verse 11.

The Son of Man is the Lord as Judge—to Him all judgment is committed (John 5:22,27; Acts 17:31).

“Clothed with a garment down to the foot,” is priestly discrimination (Lev. 13:2; also Luke 17:14).

“Girt about the breast with a golden girdle”—His affections can only flow out in divine righteousness: the breast, the place of affection; the gold, divine righteousness.

“His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,” this is the Ancient of Days, “the Great I Am” (Dan. 7:13,22).

“His eyes were as a flame of fire,” from which nothing can be hid, searching out and uncovering all sin and iniquity.

“His feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace”—His ability to judge everything according to divine righteousness.

“His voice as the sound of many waters”—irresistible power and majesty.

“He had in His right hand seven stars”—the authority belongs to Him. The stars are subordinate authority.

“Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword”—He judges by the Word of God.

“His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength,” supreme power and authority.

The Countess and Her Grand-Niece

Imagine to yourself a fine, old-time garden with the flowers blooming in their beauty all around. An ancient baronial castle, under whose walls many a chieftain had drawn his sword, but now a scene of unbroken peace. An aged lady of noble bearing, who, in her younger years, had been an intimate friend of Royalty, and a frequent visitor in its palaces, seated in that evening hour, engaged in quiet conversation with a young girl of seventeen, her grand-niece, who had come to bid her aged relative good-bye, before leaving her home to enter on her studies at a school in Switzerland.

The aged Countess—for such was her rank—was a decided Christian, and had lost “caste” in the aristocratic world, because of her allegiance to Christ, and her clear-ring testimony for His Name, whose love had won her heart, and the power of whose Cross had severed the links that once bound her to the pleasure mad world, enabling her to joyfully count all as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, whom she had learned to own and confess—like one of earlier times—as ‘Christ Jesus, my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8) and to spread the savor of His saving name by the testimony of her lips, and the attractiveness of a life lived in His love and the enjoyment of His smile.

That evening hour she regarded as a heaven-sent opportunity to speak from the heart, of the One whose praises she delighted to tell, and Whom, she knew, alone could save the soul and satisfy the heart of her young niece, about to enter on the path of life, without, so far as she knew, a personal knowledge of Christ as her Saviour. She had prayed for heavenly wisdom to speak the right word—for, while the gospel is the same for all, there is a message peculiarly fitted to the need of each individual soul, which becomes as the voice of God and the life-conveying Word, to the one to whom it is given, as all true soul-winners know.

That word in season was given by the aged Countess, in a simple, sweet manner, relating the story of her conversion some fifty years before, amid the very scenes in which they sat, under the preaching of a servant of Christ, much used in that time to bear the gospel in its fullness, among the aristocracy of the British Isles.

“I was saved through a simple personal acceptance of Christ as my Saviour, as He is presented in the words of Isaiah 53:5, which I made mine by reading them, ‘He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was upon Him and with His stripes I am healed.’ This is saving faith, and this is what wins the heart to Christ, and makes His service that heart’s delight.”

For a full hour, the aged Countess, her eyes gleaming with a joy that filled and thrilled her heart, told her life story as a Christian, and how joyful, even when forsaken by her early life friends, her life had been, in following Christ. Her grand-niece listened with a strange surprise, and the effect of that testimony on her, shall be told in her own words.

“That story was the first real-life testimony to a living Christianity I had heard, and all so different from the half-worldly half-churchy religion I had been accustomed to see and hear of. That hour in the garden, under the tall elms, listening to the story of my grand-aunt, the aged Countess, was the turning-point in my life, although I do not say I was saved by a personal faith in the Lord Jesus, just then. It took other means to bring me to the point of decision, and to a definite acceptance of Him, as my grand-aunt had done, by putting in my own claim to a saving interest in His finished Work on Calvary, as my own Sacrifice and Substitute, my own Ransom and Redeemer.

I had to get pride broken down, to take the place and the name of a guilty sinner before God, ere I could claim the lost sinner’s Saviour, and shelter my sinful soul on the merits of His shed blood, which atones for sin. But it was that testimony to the suitability of Christ, to meet the wants of the soul and satisfy the desires of the heart, that bright, glowing testimony that flowed from the lips of one whose heart was fixed on Christ, and who was living in the warm sunshine of His love, that convinced me of the reality of being a true Christian, and made me dissatisfied with all that the world had to give. And now, like my aged kinswoman, I can say,

“Now, none but Christ can satisfy,

None other Name for me;

There’s love, and life, and lasting joy,

Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”

Has the reader this assurance?

Thirty Pieces of Silver

Thirty pieces of silver,

Only the price of a slave;

But it was the priestly value

Of the Holy Son of God.

They weighed it out in the temple,

The price of the Saviour’s blood.

Thirty pieces of silver

Laid in Iscariot’s hand,

Thirty pieces of silver

And the aid of an armed band,

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

Brought the humbled Son of God,

At midnight from the garden

Where His sweat had been as blood.

Thirty pieces of silver

Burn in the traitor’s brain,

Thirty pieces of silver,

O! it was hellish gain.

“I have sinned, and betrayed the guiltless.”

He cried, with a fevered breath,

And he cast them down in the temple

And rushed to a madman’s death.

Thirty pieces of silver,

Lay in the House of God,

Thirty pieces of silver,

But, O!’twas the price of blood.

And so, for a place to bury

The stranger in they gave

The price of their own Messiah,

Who laid in a borrowed grave.

It may not be for silver,

It may not be for gold,

But, still, by tens of thousands

Is this precious Saviour sold,

Sold for a godless friendship,

Sold for a selfish aim,

Sold for a petty trifle,

Sold for an empty name.

Sold, in the mart of science,

Sold in the seat of power,

Sold at the shrine of fortune,

Sold in pleasure’s bower.

Sold, where the awful bargain

None but the eye of God can see,

Ponder, my soul, this question -

Shall He be sold by thee?

Sold! O, God! what a moment -

Stifled is conscience’s voice.

Sold! a weeping angel

Records the fatal choice.

Sold, but the price of the Saviour

To a living coal shall turn

With the pangs of remorse forever

Deep, in the soul to burn.

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 16

A letter of commendation (2 Cor. 3:1) for a Christian woman of Cenchrea, the seaport of Corinth where the Apostle wrote the Epistle to the Romans, greets us at the beginning of the chapter. Phoebe was a servant of the church or assembly in Cenchrea; there is nothing to indicate that she was appointed to the position; the contrary would seem to be the case, from what is said about her. Men were appointed for service in connection with the assemblies, as in Acts 6:1-6, and in 1 Timothy 3:8-13 where they are called “deacons”, an English word made out of the Greek word diakonos elsewhere expressed in its meaning as “servant” (as here) or “minister”.

Phoebe’s place, self-chosen as we believe, was to help the saints, to minister to their needs; and the Apostle says of her.

“She hath been a succorer” (or helper) “of many, and of myself also.”

In the wisdom of God we are not told how she served, or helped; was it money she supplied? or clothing? or food and shelter? or some other form or forms of service? Eternity will reveal. Little did this lady think as she went about her work for His saints, that her name and service would be included in the Word of God; but no service for God will be forgotten in the day of reckoning now near at hand.

Phoebe is commended to the saints at Rome “that ye may receive her in the Lord worthily of saints, and that ye may assist” (literally, stand by and help) “her in whatever matter she has need of you” (N.T.). Their Christian character should be seen in their treatment of this visitor.

And should not all our ways and words, dear young Christian, be worthy of saints? The old nature within, and the enemy of our souls from without, would hinder us in every way possible, but we know to whom we belong.

In this closing chapter, the Apostle, writing by inspiration, has on his heart in a special way the few believers whom he knows at Rome. Nothing like this is seen in other epistles, because most of those to whom he wrote elsewhere were known to him; those local churches, or more correctly, assemblies, were fruits of his own work. This was not the case at Rome, for he had never been there.

Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned first. With them Paul abode during his long stay at Corinth (Acts 18:1-3) and when he left there they went with him to Ephesus (versus 18-19). They were still at that place when he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 16:19); and after their being in Rome again, we learn of them last with Timothy (2 Tim. 4:19). Priscilla and Aquila—the wife perhaps mentioned before the husband here, as more actively devoted to the Lord’s service—are called “my helpers,” or more exactly “my fellow-workmen” in Christ Jesus; they had for Paul’s life risked their own necks under circumstances not given to us in the Scriptures.

To this Christian couple the Apostle is thankful, and not only he, but as he says, all the assemblies of the nations. This is true commendation, without flattery which ill-suits a Christian.

Next comes Epaenetus, “my beloved,” called “first fruits of” (not Achaia but) “Asia unto Christ.” Mary, or Maria, follows; she “labored much,” and the true reading is believed to be “for you,” not “for us.” Andronicus and Junia (Junias) kinsmen and fellow-prisoners or fellow-captives, because, like Paul, they had suffered imprisonment for Christ, “are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.” Thus the Apostle writes of two not mentioned elsewhere in the Word of God. Many far inferior to Paul would have left unsaid anything which might seem to diminish their own importance; but he had not thus learned Christ (Eph. 4:20).

The greetings or salutations that follow are brief but expressive. Amplias is “my beloved in the Lord;” Urbane (Arbanus) is “our helper,” or fellow-workman “in Christ,” and Stachys is “my beloved.” Apelles is “approved in Christ.” Two men are named without a word of greeting: Aristobulus and Narcissus; it is those who belong to them—in one case limited by “which are in the Lord”—to whom greeting is sent. Were they slaves or employees of unbelieving masters?

Tryphena and Tryphosa were women who “labor in the Lord,” and another is “Persis the beloved, who has labored much in the Lord” (N.T.). Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle unerringly wrote concerning each person, commending faithfulness, love to Christ, service for Him, where he could, and in due measure. The mother of Rufus (Rom. 16:13) turns our thoughts to Mark 15:21; she had been a mother to Paul.

Evidently there was nothing to be said in commendation of those named in the 14th and 15th verses, for the Apostle is silent as to them. Compare this passage with Colossians 4:7-14, noting the brief “and Demas” of the 14th verse, which suggests a reference to 2 Timothy 4:10. However, we would not go beyond what the Scriptures reveal, in concluding that the saints named in verses 14 and 15 of our chapter were cold of heart; perhaps they only lacked opportunity for showing devotedness to Christ.

Verse 16. There are eleven references to kissing in the New Testament; three of them, Matthew 26:49; Mark 14:45, and Luke 22:48, speak of the betrayer Judas’ kisses in the garden of Gethsemane; one is of the woman that had been a sinner, kissing the feet of Jesus in the Pharisee’s house (Luke 7:38) another is the father’s action in receiving back his repentant son (Luke 15:20); the sixth is in Acts 20:36-38, where the apostle bids farewell to the elders of the Ephesian assembly; the remaining five give direction for believers, as in verse 16 of our chapter. Together with the verse before us, 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12, and 1 Thessalonians 5:26 speak of a holy kiss, using the same word, holy, as is used for God the Father in John 17:11; for the Lord, as becoming man in Luke 1:35; for the Holy Spirit in almost every reference to Him; for the angels in Mark 8:38; for the scriptures in Romans 1:2; for the Christian’s calling in 2 Timothy 1:9; for the practical daily life of believers in 1 Peter 1:15; and for our eternal place and character in Ephesians 1:4. The eleventh reference is 1 Peter 5:14, where a kiss of love is spoken of. In 16 of the Epistles, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, those to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, the three of John, and Jude, and in the Revelation, the token of family affection is not once named. In the light of these scriptures and others which join them in directing the believer’s path in a dark and difficult day, verse 16 is, we believe, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, rightly viewed in a spiritual rather than a literal sense, between the sexes.

Verse 17: Already there was need for God’s saints at Rome to be on their guard against those who would “create divisions and occasions of falling” (stumbling blocks), contrary to the doctrine which they had learned. Alas, what proof we have had of the proneness of the human heart to do this very thing!

In Acts 20:30 the Apostle warned the people of God through the Ephesian elders that

“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse” (perverted) “things to draw away the disciples after them.”

These men are to be considered, their true object learned, and themselves to be avoided. Obedience to the Scriptures, with wisdom from God as to that which is good, simplicity as to evil, is the way of safety (Rom. 16:19).

Thus we may become acquainted with and built up on the Word of God, and Satan with his wiles is defeated. The time for conflict to cease has not yet come, but “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20). Meanwhile the Apostle’s prayer has its place: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

Romans 16:21-24. Timothy and others, with Tertius, who did the writing at the Apostle’s dictation; Gaius, whose hospitality is spoken of; Erastus, the chamberlain or steward of the city; and the brother Quartus, add their salutations, and the Apostle again speaks of his fervent desire for the saints at Rome.

Romans 16:25-27 form a post-script as inspired as the body of the epistle. They refer, in giving praise to God, to the revelation of the truth of the one body, the assembly or church, and the gathering together in one of all things under Christ. This was reserved in the main for the epistle to the Ephesians. It was outside of the scope of our epistle, in which the foundations are laid of the relations of man with God; always in Romans the Christian is looked at as in this world; justified, and having life in Christ, but not as risen in Him.

Romans 16:26, for “by the scriptures of the prophets” read, “by prophetic scriptures,” the reference being to the other epistles written by Paul to the Gentile believers.

From the Top of the Rocks

“From the top of the rocks I see Him, and from the hills I behold Him” (Num. 23:9).

It is very important for us to see sometimes the church from above, in the wilderness, but in the beauty of the thoughts of God, a pearl without price. In the midst of the camp below, in the desert, what murmurings, complainings; how much indifference, what carnal motives, would have been witnessed and heard! From above, for him who has the vision of God, who has his eyes open, everything is beautiful.

“I stand in doubt of you”, says the Apostle; and immediately after, “I have confidence in you, through the Lord” (Gal. 4:20; 5:10).

We must get up to Him, and we shall have His thoughts of grace, who sees the beauty of His people, of His assembly, through everything else, for it is beautiful. But for this, one would be either entirely discouraged or satisfied with evil. The vision of God removes these two thoughts at once.

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No.4 The Gospel Meeting and Open Meeting

The Question Box

No. 4

The gospel meeting, and meeting for open ministry remain for consideration.

The gospel meeting is exactly what its name implies, that is, a meeting for the preaching or proclaiming of the gospel. “Gospel” means “good news,” or “glad tidings” (Luke 2:10; Rom. 10:15). It is the announcement of God’s love towards a world of lost sinners, in the gift of His Son (John 3:16), and that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). The facts of the gospel are recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4,

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel...how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” These facts should always have their place in a gospel meeting.

Where should the gospel be preached? In Scripture, it was preached on many different occasions, and in many different places.

On the day of Pentecost, “Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice,” and addressed the multitude that came together, resulting in the conversion of about 3000 souls (Acts 2).

After the persecution following the martyrdom of Stephen, the scattered disciples “went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4).

“Philip went down into the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them” (Acts 8:5).

In Caesarea, Peter preached first to the Gentiles, to Cornelius, and a group of his kinsmen and near friends whom he had gathered together (Acts 10).

We find Paul preaching in all sorts of places. Hill-tops, river-sides, market-places, prisons, palaces, and synagogues, and his own hired house, all heard his voice.

At Antioch he preached in the synagogue to a mixed company of Jews and Greek proselytes (Acts 13:14-41), “and the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God” (Acts 13:44).

Another notable gospel address given by the same Apostle to the Athenians, on Mar’s Hill, is recorded in Acts 17:22-31, with its results (Acts 17:32-34).

The Lord’s commission to His disciples was “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). The world is the field; the unsaved, the subjects for the preaching of the gospel. In the meeting-room or hired hall, the home, in Institutions, in the open air, on land or sea, gospel meetings may be held.

Gospel meetings are not assembly meetings, but the preacher of the gospel should always seek the prayers and fellowship of the saints. The preacher is individually responsible to the Lord, as His servant, but, if instructed, he always works from the assembly, and leads souls into it. An evangelist, if he is faithful, is like a pair of compasses—one leg is fixed, firmly planted in the assembly; and the other leg, circling the world, stretching out, with burning zeal and whole-hearted energy, to seek souls, wherever he may find them. There is plenty of room, outside the systems of men, which are contrary to the truth, for the work of the gospel to be carried on with a good conscience. There is danger for one who knows the truth to associate himself, even in service, with those who are walking contrary to it (Heb. 13:13; Jer. 15:19).

The meeting for open ministry, or meeting for edification, is recorded and described in 1 Corinthians 14:23-40. Such meetings were apparently common in the early days of the church, especially where there was much gift, as in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:7). Two important principles were enunciated in connection with such meetings,

1. “Let all things be done unto edifying” (1 Cor. 14:26).

2. “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40). Two or three were to speak, “by course” and “one by one”, and the others were to judge (1 Cor. 14:27,29,31). Order and peace were to prevail,

“For God is, not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints” (1 Cor. 14:33). The object of all the ministry was “that all may learn, and all may be comforted” (1 Cor. 14:31).

In a day of weakness, as at present, especially in small assemblies, open meetings, as they are sometimes called, are infrequent, but wherever and whenever they are carried on or undertaken, there should be subjection to the scriptural order. The warnings and restrictions given by the Apostle in this chapter show the special dangers connected with this type of meeting.

Before They Call

A missionary, his young wife and little baby were in their ox-cart in India, bumping along the road home from the mission headquarters. Things were not going as well as they might. The missionary’s wife was sick; their expenses had been more than usual; and now they were going back home without any money.

Faith? The missionary’s mind was questioning his heart as he rode along beside his sleeping wife. Faith, according to the Word of God was the evidence of things not seen. The money that was to supply the needs of their household for the coming month was surely among those “things not seen.” Being occupied with these things, the enemy came in and threatened to rob him of all his joy and confidence in God.

“So this is how God deals with His children!” the enemy whispered, “You are taking your wife back into the jungles to let her die. She’s a sick woman, and you know that there is not a doctor in miles. And you haven’t any money to provide any comfort or help. She’s going to die and leave you alone. Is this what God has called you to?”

“O, Father, unless Thou dost help, I falter, I fail!” The prayer was but an anguished breath, but God heard. The promises of God began to fill the mind of the missionary. He began to recall and give thanks for the many times God had delivered and helped in times past. Doubts and fears fled, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, filled his heart, as he laid hold of that verse in Philippians 4:6: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

With calm assurance he entered upon his duties. The following day a letter came from his Uncle John. He placed it in his pocket to wait and read with his wife. As he walked home from the village, he thought of his Uncle John. His letters were always so encouraging, and many times the missionary had felt the influence of his prayers. But today there was a feeling akin to disappointment in the young man’s heart. He had hoped against hope that some money would come today. And Uncle John had never been able to send money.

“God has heard, and He will answer,” he told himself, and with firmly set lips he bade the enemy go.

At home they opened the letter together. It started off as usual, and before they finished the first page, they were weeping for joy. No thought remained of their great need. Upon lifting the first sheet, a bank draft fell from the missionary’s hand. His heart leaped in praise and gratitude as he read:

“Gordon, I am sending this sum because God impressed me to do it. It is a part of the price of a piece of land I sold some time ago. I know you will use it to the glory of God.”

The draft was enough to supply all their needs for the month.

With tear-dimmed eyes, and hearts full of thanksgiving, the two stood arm in arm in the doorway of the cottage, and looked down the winding pathway. Slowly and reverently the missionary repeated the words, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).

Him

“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 Him” (1 Thess. 4:17).

“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

How the Holy Spirit loves to dwell upon the personal pronouns that relate to Christ.

The following four “Hims” are very precious in their relation:

“Meet Him,” “See Him,” “Like Him,” “With Him.”

To meet Him is good,

to see Him is better,

to be like Him is best,

and better than the best is to be with Him,

for that insures the rest.

O, it will make our heaven heaven to meet Him and see Him, and look into that face which was once marred more than any man’s; to see that face lit up with the glory of God, and not only to see Him, but to be with Him; not only to be alongside of Him, but be like Him.

The Present Dealings of God

There was a time, we know, in the world’s history, when God took a directly governing interest in what was going on among men. Even their battles were said to be Jehovah’s battles; and their defeats and famines were sent as a known infliction from Him for some evil that He was dealing with.

Now, while it remains perfectly true that there is no war or sorrow of any kind that happens without God, and all is decidedly under His sovereign control, it is not in the way of the same direct government. So that a person cannot now say, This war is at the word of God; or This famine is a chastening for such and such an evil. Such language would be both ignorance and presumption. No doubt, there are persons quite ready enough to pronounce as to these matters. Their mistake arises from not appreciating the great change that has taken place in God’s government of the world.

As long as Israel was the nation in which God was displaying His character for the earth, victories and defeats, joy and woe, came immediately from Him. But from the time God gave up His people Israel, it has been merely an indirect or providential control of a general kind that He exercises over human affairs.

Another thing has come in. When the true Christ was rejected by Israel, and Israel thereby lost their opportunity of being restored to their place of supremacy, God, we may say, took advantage of this to bring in another thing—the calling of the church. It was no longer God governing a nation like Israel under His law; nor was it simply an indirect government of the Gentiles; but the revelation of Himself as a Father to His children in Christ, and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, not only to act upon their hearts, but to dwell in their midst, and to baptize them, Jew or Gentile, into one body, the body of Christ and Head in heaven. This goes on now. And therefore God has no particular relations with the Jews now. He does not deal with them any more than with others, save that they have a sentence of judicial blindness upon them. They were blind before, God did not make them to refuse Christ. He never makes any person blind in that sense: only sin thus blinds. But when men refuse the light of God, and obstinately reject His every testimony, He may and does give up sometimes to a total darkness, in the sense of its being a judicial one, added to what is natural to the human heart.

Extract: Losing the Sense of God's Presence

When we lose the sense of God’s presence, the sense of it, I say (because we are always in His presence in truth), we are at the point to sin. My natural character, or flesh, will show itself if I am out of His presence.

Correspondence: Sabbath Day Points to?; Acts 2:17; 1 Cor. 7:14; Musical Instrum.

Question: Does the Sabbath day in Genesis 2:1-3 point on to the eternal state, or to the Millennial reign of Christ? (Isa. 66:23; Col. 2:16-17).

Answer: In Genesis 1:26-28, we see in figure Christ and the church, reigning over the earth, that is the time spoken of in Isaiah 66, when the Sabbaths will again be observed, and in Colossians 2:16-17 still shadow things to come.

We, as the church on earth now, have Christ, the body, or substance of all the shadows. He is our rest now (Matt. 11:28), yet in Hebrews 4, we look on expecting the time when God’s rest comes, that is, the eternal state, to have our part in it, when

“All taint of sin shall be removed,

All evil done away;

And we shall dwell with God’s Beloved

Through God’s eternal day.”

Question: When does Acts 2:17 apply?

Answer: Joel 2:28-32 will be fulfilled in the Millennial reign of Christ. In Acts 2 it is quoted to show that these men were not drunk, as was supposed, but that the Holy Spirit was causing them to speak with tongues, that all the nations present might understand the gospel. It was of the same kind of power of the Spirit, but it was not the fulfillment of these Scriptures.

Question: What does 1 Corinthians 7:14 mean?

Answer: God respects the children of believers, even where only one of the parents is converted and expects that parent to own His name, and to claim God’s promise for the children’s training and salvation (Acts 16:31).

The unbelieving parent is sanctified by the believing one. This is in contrast with the marriages in Ezra 10, and Nehemiah 13. In these, God did not own the marriages, or the children. In 1 Corinthians 7:14, God owns the marriage, and the desires that the children may be trained for Him. Sanctification means the act of setting apart. Here it does not mean salvation. God does not approve of believers and unbelievers yoking themselves. It is quite wrong for a believer to engage himself, or herself to an unbeliever (Amos 3:3, 2 Cor. 6:14-18).

Question: Does the Word of God forbid us to possess musical instruments?

Answer: No. Christians are left free to be led by the grace of God which has saved them, and to be constrained by the love of Christ to live, not to themselves, but to Him who died for them, and rose again (Rom. 12:1-2). We may use our music for the Lord, though it is first seen in Cain’s world (Gen. 4:21), and Satan uses it to blind many (Job 21:6-14).

In Christian worship as found in Scripture, instrumental music has no place. “They that worship God must worship Him in spirit, and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:24; Phil. 3:3).

In Israel’s worship to Jehovah as an earthly people, we find choirs and instruments, wind and stringed instruments, with timbrels and cymbals (Psa. 150), also in idolatry (See Dan. 3).

We find all kinds of instruments employed, but not in Christian worship.

“Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

A Sudden Call

Annabelle Clare was one of a large family. She had the inestimable blessing of godly parents, and her elder sisters too, were true Christians—all a happy, united family. Surely the lines had fallen to her in pleasant places.

Annabelle was about seventeen years of age when I first knew her, and still much engrossed with her education—a sweet, graceful girl, loved and admired by all her young companions; and had her kind impartial mother really admitted the truth, she, the cleverest and handsomest of her children, was her special darling.

It was the early summer time; all nature springing up in fresh beauty, and a joyous promise in those soft bright days, made everyone cheerful, even in spite of themselves in some cases.

The Clare young people were having a game of croquet with their friends; all seemed as happy as young people could possibly be, the sunshine, and the songs of the birds, all seemed in keeping with those young hearts, full of life and thoughtless hope. Annabelle stopped suddenly to pick up her brooch, which had loosened, and was lying just where some player must put a foot on it; and as she raised herself, she felt, as she afterward expressed it, “something gave way;” but she said nothing, and the game finished in due time, rather to her relief, as the pain began to increase. By night she was suffering so much that a local doctor was sent for, and all that love and skill could suggest was done for her, but in vain; she grew rapidly worse, and the doctor wished a celebrated specialist sent for.

It was a Saturday afternoon when the great man came, and the suffering girl went through a long examination. Her father drove him back to the train, but the mother watched eagerly for the doctor in the hall. As he came down, she laid her hand almost impatiently on his arm,

“Doctor, I must speak to you—tell me—tell me the worst. I can bear it, God will help me, but tell me quickly.” He looked at her gently, and tried to break it to her; but she interrupted him, “Tell me quickly -I must know all.”

“Well,” he said, “her strength may last a day or two, or it may not. She may awake out of this sleep we have put her off into, and tell you she has no pain; but you will know, if that is the case, the end is near—perhaps ten or twelve hours, perhaps only two or three.”

Mrs. Clare silently loosed her hold of the doctor’s arm, and stole softly up the stairs, while he noiselessly left the house. Her daughter’s was a low room, and one of the windows was open, and at it the nurse, in her white cap, sat sewing. The balmy air, sweet with the perfume of the hawthorn, fanned the cheek of the dying girl, as she lay on the bed; a low moan escaped the parted lips now and then, and the fair soft hand was tossed restlessly. O, how the mother’s heart ached, as she thought to herself

“So young—so fair—and yet I could part with her without a sigh, if I only knew she was the Lord’s. Why did I never ask her? She seemed so good—so to love her Bible—so like the others that I know are saved—and I never doubted it till now—and now, a few hours perhaps -” and she threw herself on her knees and pleaded for her child; ay, pleaded she might know that it was well with her. Mr. Clare slipped in, and knelt down beside his wife, for an instant; as he did so, their eyes met, and each knew what the other knew, what the other felt. When they rose, it was very calmly, for they felt the answer would be given.

Hours passed on, and the mother watched as well as the night nurse. She had told the nurse she must be left alone with her child when she awoke—and now she waited. How long those hours seemed, and yet how short, as she thought how soon the parting must come from her darling child.

Just as the birds burst forth, each with a note of his own, yet all making one glorious melody, and the first dawn of the morning broke, shedding a weird light into the sick-room, Annabelle moved, and her mother saw that she was watching her. The nurse brought some refreshment to the weary girl, and then left the room. The mother could hardly speak for the beating of her heart, but Annabelle broke the silence: -

“Mother, I feel so much better; the pain is all gone. I’m only very tired now, but I shall soon get well of that,” she added with a smile.

“Well, darling, but if it should please God to take you, you are ready to go, are you not?” she said gently—oh, how gently.

There was a silence.

“No, mother,—no, I can’t die. I’m not going to die surely—no, no, not that—” (and the poor girl trembled with agitation); “no, I don’t want to die; I never thought about it; and God would never take me so young—so very young. Why should I not be allowed to have time to think—time to—”

She stopped, for her father had come in. He had heard enough, and he must be with his dying child in her hour of terrible need, entering the valley of the shadow of death alone—no rod, no staff to comfort her, poor child. They repeated many passages of Scripture to her (passages she was familiar with, but had never made her own), many verses of hymns too they reminded her of—but her only answer was,

“I can’t die; I can’t meet the Lord.”

But by degrees this terrible response came less often, and less decidedly said, till at last her mother repeated, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

“Rest,” Amabelle repeated, and then the eyes closed, and the long lashes were wet with tears, and her lips moved, though they heard no sound, as the parents silently lifted up their hearts to God for her.

The morning had come (the Lord’s Day morning). Brightly and beautifully the sun shone into the room—wonderful picture of the light that had, at last shone into that weary heart. Life, light, and gladness, all hers now; and rest—though not the complete rest so soon to be hers—too. She took her mother’s hand, and turned those lovely deep eyes on her father, as she said,

“I know that rest now. O, how good the Lord is!”

A few loving parting words were said, child and parents bound together now forever. The parting seemed nothing, in the certainty of the meeting to part never again.

There was a moment’s quiet, for her breathing had become difficult; then she suddenly seemed to fix her eyes on something opposite; she sat up, a look of glad surprise shining in her face, as she said,

“O, mother! it is the Lord Himself!”

Reader, whoever you may be, time, your time, is fast fleeting by. If death were to come as suddenly to you as it did to this young girl, would it find you “unprepared”?

Well was it for her that she had had the blessing of a Christian home, with all its early influences and instructions; and how graciously did God bring them home to her as she lay and realized her nearness to the eternal world! Remember that mere education in the truths of the gospel will never save your soul; by faith you must make them your own.

“We speak of the mercy of God,

So boundless, so rich, and so free!

But what will it profit thy soul,

Unless’tis relied on by thee?

We speak of the Saviour’s dear name,

By which God can sinners receive;

Yet still art thou lost and undone,

Unless in that name thou’lt believe.

We speak of the blood of the Lamb,

Which frees from pollution and sin;

But its virtues by thee must be proved,

Or thou wilt be ever unclean.

We speak of the glory to come,

Of the heaven so bright and so fair;

But unless you in Jesus believe,

Thou shalt not, thou can’st not be there.”

Extract: Pray Much, Speak Little

Pray much and speak little. O, let me particularly recommend to you that sacred, gentle and peaceful silence which God and all His saints love so much! The spirit of loquacity is the bane of all religious society, the extinction of devotions, occasions confusion of mind, is an abuse of time and a denial of the divine presence.

Love, obedience, courtesy or necessity must influence the tongue to speak; else it should continue silent.

Edify one another more by a holy walk, than by a multitude of words. God dwells only in the peaceful souls, and the tongue must be at peace also.

Behold the fruit of sacred silence! It gives time, strength, collectedness, prayer, liberty, wisdom, the society of God, and a blessed state of mind.

With the Lord

Paul closes 1 Thessalonians 4 with these words, “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” And is that all? Yes that is all; for to the heart that has learned to love Him, He can say no more.

Then he adds, “Of the times and seasons ye have no need that I write unto you,” you are the children of the day, you wait for that.

No explanation of this as a doctrine can ever reach the heart. You cannot make a person understand a relationship; to understand it he must himself be in it. An unquickened soul may understand in a manner what prophecy means, but nothing short of the sense and taste of being connected with Christ Himself can give the desire for His own personal coming. And why? Because for this the relationship must be known. In Revelation 22:16 the relationship is known, affection is awakened and there is immediate response.

Take a case: A woman is expecting her husband; he knocks at the door; not a word is uttered out of his mouth, but his wife knows already who it is at the door; for it is he whom she loves that is there, and thus the natural feelings proper for a wife are awakened when the chord is touched by that which acts on them. But then the link must be there to produce the response, the chord which vibrates with this blessed truth must be there to be awakened by it. There is such a consciousness of union with Jesus through the power of God’s Spirit that the very moment He is spoken of in this character, the chord is touched, and the instinctive cry is, Come!

Now mark the practical effect of this looking for Jesus. It takes us clean out of the world up to heaven. If my heart is right in its affections for Him, I am looking too straight up on high to take notice of the things around me. Plenty of things there are around in the world, plenty of bustle and turmoil, but it does not disturb the blessed calm of my soul, because nothing can alter the indissoluble relationship with a coming Jesus, as nothing should divide us in hope.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:1-8

1 Corinthians 1:1-8

This epistle was written during the Apostle Paul’s long stay at Ephesus, of which we read in Acts 19; this was about twenty-five years after the crucifixion of the Lord. The Apostle had now been away from Corinth two or three years, and many things in the young assembly there, were not what they should be, the more important of these are discussed in the epistle. This gives First Corinthians a character very distinct from that of the Epistle to the Romans.

It is well for us who are living in the last days of God’s present dealings with man, that all of the evils existing in the church—and the world too—have been delineated in the Scriptures, together with clear directions for the guidance of His saints in regard to them. This was part of the divine design in giving us the Word of God, as we may gather from such widely separated passages as Josh. 1:8; Psa. 119:105; 2 Tim. 3:13-17. May it please Him to bless to us our study of this epistle.

1 Corinthians 1:1. Paul’s calling as an Apostle of Jesus Christ was through (or by) the will of God. He had, and needed, no certificate from men, with such a calling as this. Writing to the Christians in Galatia (Gal. 1), the Apostle said, “But when it pleased God....to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me....”

And in the twelfth chapter of this Epistle we are taught that “God hath set some in the church, first, apostles, secondarily prophets,” and so as to other gifts. Neither the church nor any man or men has divinely conferred authority to appoint the Lord’s servants.

What was an apostle? We may turn to Luke 6:13, where out of His disciples the Lord chose twelve, “whom also He named apostles.” Again, in Acts 1:2, we read of His having, through the Holy Ghost, before His ascension, given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Paul was not, however, one of the twelve; his appointment was made by the glorified Christ (Acts 26:16-18), and the field of his service was among the Gentiles, while the twelve, including Peter, were sent to the Jews. “Apostle” is from the Greek, and means one sent forth. From 1 Corinthians 9:1, it is evident that an apostle must have seen the Lord, and in 2 Corinthians 12:12, Paul writing of himself said, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Timothy and Titus were given special appointments by Paul (1 Tim. 1:3-4; Titus 1:5), but in Acts 20:17-35 not the slightest ground is afforded those who would claim apostolic succession. The apostles had no successors; if our reliance is on the Word of God.

Sosthenes, the brother named in the first verse: who was he? It has been thought that he may have been the man spoken of in Acts 18:17, as the chief ruler of the Corinth synagogue, the successor of Crispus (Acts 18:8); in that case we must suppose that Sosthenes, like Crispus, became a believer and gave up his position in the synagogue, and also that he accompanied or followed Paul to Ephesus. It is at least plain that the Sosthenes of 1 Corinthians 1:1 must have been known in Corinth. In all of Paul’s Epistles addressed to assemblies (churches), except that to the Ephesians, he links one or more with himself at the beginning, but this does not mean that these shared with him the authorship of the letter.

1 Corinthians 1:2. As the contents of the epistle are studied, the form of the address in this verse is better understood. It is not, as in the preceding letter, “To all that be in Rome” (or in Corinth) “called to be saints,” or saints by calling; but, first, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth,” that is, to God’s assembly there. In Ephesians 2:22 it is said of believers, “In whom” (Jesus Christ) “ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit;” and in 1 Timothy 3:15, “....the church of the living God, the pillar and ground” (base) “of the truth.”

When the unbelief of the Jews was fully displayed after that the Lord had given them full proof of His Messiahship in both works and word, He foretold the building of His church, (Matt. 16:18); and in Acts 2, after His cross and His being received up into glory, the Holy Spirit came down and formed all believers into one body, the church. “Church” is a word of several meanings in the world nowadays; it may be a building, or the congregation meeting in it; or again, it may be a “denomination.” In the Scriptures, with but one exception—Acts 19:37—where heathen temples are referred to, the word translated “church” is a Greek one which means, “that which is called out,” or simply an assembly, the assembly, formed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

“Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” or saints by calling, is the second part of the address or superscription of the epistle. The word “sanctified” (set apart) here refers to the character before God of those addressed; they were separated to God in Christ Jesus.

And so are you, dear young Christian; set apart for God in Christ; detached from the world which once was your all. It stirs the heart; it speaks moreover to one’s conscience; this position, this character, which God has given to every believer in His Son. It is well for us when progressive sanctification is going on within the breast. Turn the leaves of your Bible to the Lord’s prayer in John 17, and reading John 17:15-17, let them sink down into your heart; engrave them upon the tablets of your mind. Young Christians and old ones are progressively sanctified—made holy in their daily living—through feeding upon the Word of God. Do not neglect the Scriptures.

The third part of the superscription of this epistle is wide in its extent, taking in all everywhere, who profess to be Christ’s, whether true or false:

“With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”

The Scriptures, it is well known, are for all believers (2 Tim. 3:16-17), but it is clear that the latter part of verse 2 in our chapter was designed by God, in view of the disregard by many Christians of no small part of the doctrine of this epistle, expressly to show that the whole of it is binding upon all.

1 Corinthians 1:3 brings in the message found in most of the Epistles, addressed in tender love to the children of God who are in the world, in all sorts of circumstances and trials: “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What a word of comfort and cheer from our Father and our Lord! It is not a promise to take away our distresses and troubles, but the assurance of divine favor and peace to carry us through them all until we leave this world. And what manner of persons ought we to be who are so favored!

1 Corinthians 1:4-8. With much to speak of in condemnation, the Holy Spirit, by the Apostle testifies first in these verses of what was good. Paul could thank God—“my God”, as he says, writing from much knowledge of Him—always on behalf of His saints at Corinth, for the grace of God bestowed on them by, or in, Christ.

What this grace of God was that had been given the Corinthian saints is unfolded in 1 Corinthians 1:5-7. Many, we are told in Acts 18:8, of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized, but here we learn that the Holy Spirit had followed that initial work of faith in them with further evidence of His power. They had been given the truth of God, and ability to make it known. As another has said, they were rich in every sort of expression of the truth and all knowledge, in what was preached or taught, as well as in apprehension, so that they came behind in no gift. And, it is added, they were waiting for, not exactly the coming, but the revelation (see marginal note in your Bible) of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You will have noticed that the Apostle is silent as to some things which mark happy Christians, children of God going on in communion with the Lord. Not a word about love, or grace, or faithfulness, or the proper Christian hope—the coming of the Lord for His heavenly saints, found in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. True, they had not been told how He would come, but every Christian heart is taught of God to look and long for the Lord to come, to wait for His coming when we shall be with and like Him in His own heavenly home, the Father’s house above. The “revelation” the Corinthian believers waited for, took in no more, it would seem, than that the Lord is hidden now, but will be revealed to sight; which of course is true; every eye shall see Him (Rev. 1:7).

1 Corinthians 1:8 adds that the Lord “shall confirm you unto the end, blameless (if not now, then) in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Precious, comforting word!

(To be continued, D.V.)

Fragment: The Intentions of God's Grace

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” (Col. 1:9-11).

This introduction presents to us a fine summary of all that one can ask of God for Christians. If we had sufficient confidence in the interest which God takes in His children, we should have greater boldness in asking God, according to the intentions of His grace. We do not live enough by this, grace, and that is why our prayers are so constantly stamped with the sense of want. We are often the Abraham of Genesis 15, who asks for himself, saying to God, “What wilt Thou give me?”

But Paul shows himself here the Abraham of Genesis 18, sitting before God, worshipping Him, and making requests for others.

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 5 Musical Instruments

No. 5

Question: 4. Why are musical instruments not used in the meetings of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Answer: True Christian worship is “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). It is “with the Spirit” and “by the Spirit,” (1 Cor. 14:15-16; Phil. 3:3, N.T.) and needs no fleshly aids. The Holy Spirit, indwelling the believer individually, and the assembly collectively (John 14:17), is the power of Christian worship. Anything else ministers only to the flesh, and, distracting the heart from the true Object of worship, is only a hindrance. It is a safe thing to say that anything that mere man in the flesh can enjoy is not suitable in the things of God. We may pray and sing and bless God in the Spirit, but has an organ a spirit? Musical instruments would no doubt aid the accuracy and the time of our singing, but would hinder the spiritual character of worship, and this alone is what is acceptable to God.

“No heart but of the Spirit taught, Makes melody to Thee.”

When we note the origin of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21), we learn that, like other things not wrong in themselves, they were first used by the family of Cain to help them forget God. This is still the use to which they are put by the world. In Daniel 3:5,7,10,15, instruments of music were used in connection with idolatrous worship. Appealing to the religious sense of the flesh, they produce a false sense of worship.

Musical instruments had their place in the Old Testament, and will again be used in the Millenium (2 Chron. 5:11-13; Psa. 150). They, like priestly garments, and sacrifices, are connected with an earthly sanctuary. But Christian worship is of faith, not by sight; heavenly, not earthly.

Again, Matthew 9:15 contains an important principle, relating to this subject. The Lord Jesus, despised and rejected by this world, is absent, and this should in large measure characterize our worship. The church feels the absence of the Bridegroom! The flare of trumpets is surely not consistent with our relation to the Lord, as the Absent One! How can we worship Him, Whom the world has put to death, with the very same instruments which they employ to put Him out of their thoughts? Is not our position, in this respect, that of Israel in Babylon? (Psa. 137:1-4). Their harps hung on the willows. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Subduedness should characterize our worship, while we think of our Lord as the Rejected One, and mourn His absence.

How about musical instruments in connection with the gospel? Here, again, the appeal would be to what the flesh enjoys, and would have no power over the conscience. The large place given to elaborate musical services in the camp is, no doubt, an attraction to many, and that God, in His sovereignty, could use the playing of a hymn, even by an unsaved musician, to the saving of a soul, we do not question. But could we who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, outside the camp (Heb. 13:13) consistently with our heavenly calling, use in our service in the gospel what God has left out as unsuited to Him in worship in His presence, and think it suited to Him in His service in the gospel, either to children or adults? Rather, may we ever seek through grace, what is suited to His presence and pleasing to Him.

Does the Word of God forbid us to possess musical instruments, and to use them in our homes? No. Christians are left free to be led by the grace of God which has saved them, and to be constrained by the love of Christ, to live, not to themselves, but to Him who died for them, and rose again (Rom. 12:1-2).

In conclusion, while singing has a recognized place in Christian service (Acts 16:25; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19), musical instruments are never once mentioned in connection with it.

Extract: Waiting for the Coming

What the Lord looks for here is not the holding, however clearly, the Lord’s coming at the end of the age, but that the Christian should be waiting for Him, in a full profession of Christ, and his heart in spiritual order.

More Precious Than Rubies

Holy Scripture is priceless because it, and it alone, contains Christ, and therefore the faith that saves. A diamond merchant, packing some gems which he was sending to a trader in India, wrapped each one separately with great care. Coming to the last and costliest of all, he used as its coverings the first three chapters of the Gospel of John, tearing them, as he had done other gospel portions, from a waste volume in his office, because the soft paper made an ideal wrapping. A Hindu, to whom this precious stone was sent, received with it what was infinitely more precious to him than the diamond which it covered—a leaf from the Book of Life, whereon he found the words:

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

He was astounded; he spoke to many about his “find,” and constantly inquired:

“Why did I not know this before?” The Word grew in his heart, by the power of God’s Spirit. “Surely,” said he, “this means me—this salvation is for me.”

By faith he accepted it; he told others of it; until when a missionary went to that place, expecting to find only heathen, he found a large gathering of Indian Christians.

He Tasted Death for Me

“Jesus—by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9).

“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

The Son of God a ransom came

Down from His throne on high,

Into this world of sin and shame

For us to bleed and die.

We read the Father sent the Son

To die on Calv’rys’ tree;

“He tasted death for every man,”

He tasted death for me.

The wrath that was my portion, Lord,

Was suffered all by Thee,

When tasting death for every man,

When tasting death for me.

“ ‘Tis finished,” all on Calv’ry’s Cross,

Redemption’s work is done,

“No condemnation” evermore

Through God’s beloved Son.

O wondrous love and matchless grace

That sets the sinner free,

“The Son of God who loved me so,

He gave Himself for me.”

May love like this unto Thine own

Our hearts and voices raise

Unto the Father and the Son

Our everlasting praise.

Correspondence: Mat. 24:22; Luke 14:26; Two Little Whiles; Mat. 13:30; 1 Jo. 2:7-8

Question: “But for the elect’s sake those days are shortened” (Matt. 24:22). Who are the elect spoken of here?

Answer: The Jewish remnant, who will suffer terribly in the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week.

Question: Please explain Luke 14:26.

Answer: We can only understand this to mean that Christ being rejected, those who truly follow Him must be prepared to do so at all costs, even to the breaking of every earthly tie; not that natural relationships as such are to be repudiated, but Christ must be first, and His claims set before all else, even one’s own life.

Question: Are there two “little whiles” in John 16?

Answer: Yes, He was still to be with them a little while, and He was to be separated from them a little while.

Question: Could the scripture be applied now where it told the angels at harvest time to go and first gather the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into My barn? Does the wheat apply to Israel? (Matt. 13:30).

Answer: The kingdom, in its present form, extends from Pentecost till the Lord comes for His saints.

There are many associations, both secular and religious, that might be spoken of as “bundles” of tares, but the wheat is mixed in with them. The wheat here is not Israel, but all who are the Lord’s now; those who are cleansed from their sins and sealed by the Holy Spirit. When the Lord comes, He will gather them all into His granary. After that, the angels will be called to do their work (Matt. 13:39,41,49).

The fishermen in Matthew 13:48 are the servants in the present time, who understand what God is doing, not saving the world, but gathering out of it those who compose the body of Christ. They know that the gospel of the grace of God, that is preached now, gathers these only, and these are the good who believe the gospel to the salvation of their souls. The bad, though in the net, were only nominal Christians, that is, without being born again.

Question: Please tell us about 1 John 2:7-8.

Answer: In one sense, it was not a new commandment, but that which was from the beginning. In another sense, it was a new commandment, inasmuch as Christ is revealed in a new way, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, consequent upon Christ’s glorification at God’s right hand. Eternal life was always in Him; but now it is true in Him and in His people, because they are united to Him by the Holy Ghost. It could not have been said, “in Him and in you” until redemption was accomplished, and the Holy Ghost had come down to baptize believers into one body, and unite them to the head; but this latter is unfolded in the writings of Paul. John gives us the subject of eternal life. Paul develops the doctrine of the church.

Faith Cometh by Hearing

A young Christian frequently visited the wards of a hospital, being deeply interested in those who are afflicted. On one occasion she was trying to comfort a poor woman, who declared that there was no hope whatever for her, she knew she was utterly lost and forgotten of God. The lady replied immediately,

“You are the very one Christ Jesus came to save; for has He not Himself affirmed, `The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost?’ ” But alas, the precious words seemed to make no impression on the poor despairing mind.

Several months after this incident, the lady was astonished at receiving a letter from a person who stated that she had been an inmate of the same hospital mentioned above, and was only just discharged there from; but as she felt she had much cause to thank God for having been present at the time of the incident recorded, she thought it only right to tell the lady what the Lord had done for her soul, by means of the words spoken to the poor woman in her hearing, though not meant for her; and that her mind was in such a rebellious frame at that time, that she would most probably have struck anyone who had dared to speak to her about her soul, but that ever since, her heart seemed melted to think of the love of Jesus in thus coming to seek out and save her lost soul.

The above facts are recorded as testimony to the truth of God’s own gracious promise, given in His Word, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow, from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11).

May many Christians be encouraged thereby to be always ready to speak a word in season, and to leave results with God.

Away From the Lord

Israel said, “Who shall give us flesh to eat, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all beside this manna, before our eyes” (Num. 11).

Do we count ourselves free to ask such questions? Do we always find our heavenly manna sufficient for us? What means the frequent inquiry raised by professing Christians as to the right or wrong of such and such worldly pursuits and pleasures? Have we not even heard from the lips of persons making the very highest profession such words as these, “How are we to fill up the day? We cannot always be thinking about Christ and heavenly things. We must have some little recreation.”

We should like to ask all who speak thus, “How will you fill up eternity?” Shall not Christ be sufficient to fill up its countless ages? Shall you want recreation then? Will you sigh for light literature, vain songs and frivolous pursuits there? It will perhaps be said, “We shall be different then.” In what respect? We have the divine nature, we have the Holy Ghost, we have Christ for our portion, we belong to Heaven, we are brought to God. But we have an evil nature in us. Well, are we to cater to that? Must we try to help our wretched flesh, our corrupt nature, to fill up the day? Nay, we are called to deny it, to reckon it dead.

We specially call the attention of young Christians to these things. We are deeply impressed with a sense of their danger of falling into the very sin of Israel in the verses with which we began. No doubt we are all in danger but the young among us are particularly so. The young will have a dash of the world. They long to taste it for themselves.

Well, then is not the blessed Lord Jesus in the deep mystery of His person, in the moral glory of His ways, in the brightness and blessedness of His character—is not He enough for our hearts? Do we want anything besides? Must we get some light magazine to fill up the vacuum in our souls? Must we turn from Christ to a flower show or a concert?

Alas that we should have to write thus.

It is most sad but it is most needful; and we here put this question most pointedly, “Do you really find Christ insufficient to satisfy your heart?”

Have you cravings which He does not fully meet? If so, you are in a very alarming condition of soul, and it behooves you to look at once, and to look closely into this solemn matter. Get down on your face in honest self-judgment. Pour out your heart to Him. Tell Him all. Own to Him how you have fallen and wandered—as surely you must have done, when God’s Christ is not enough for your heart. Have it all out in secret with God, and take no rest until you are blessedly restored to communion with Himself, to heart fellowship with Him about the Son of His love.

Extract: Farewell to Earth

O, this vain, foolish, dirty world! I wonder how reasonable creatures can so dote upon it. What is in it worth looking after? I care not to be in it longer than while my Master has either doing or suffering work for me. Were that done, farewell to earth.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:8-17

1 Corinthians 1:8-17

The day of our Lord Jesus Christ, spoken of in 1 Corinthians 1:8, brings before the Christian’s mind God’s answer to His Son’s rejection by Israel and the world at large. The present is “man’s day” and that term is actually used in 1 Corinthians 4:3 (New Translation); but the Scriptures abound in assurance that the day of man’s rule is to be presently superseded by another day, another order of things, in which God will carry out what He has long purposed. Fifty-one times in the New Testament the term “day” is used with reference to what is to come, as “that day,” “the day of redemption,” “the day,” and others.

It is evident from these passages that this promised “day” has three distinct characters; first, in point of time will be the day “of our Lord Jesus Christ” as in the eighth verse of our chapter. It is called “the day of the Lord Jesus” in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and in 2 Corinthians 1:14; “the day of Jesus Christ” in Philippians 1:6; “the day of Christ” in the tenth verse of that chapter, and in the 16th verse of the second chapter. This “day” will be heavenly in its sphere, beginning with the resurrection morning when we shall go to be with the Lord.

“The day of the Lord”, so much the theme of Old Testament prophecies, and named in 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2 (N.T.) and 2 Peter 3:10, will begin when He descends to the world to overthrow the wicked and begin His millennial reign.

“The day of God” (2 Peter 3:12) is at the end of the scenes of judgment, after the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Then there will be new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell, the old creation, everything on which the unbelieving have rested, being dissolved and passing away. Here begins the eternal state, in which the kingdom, hitherto under the Lord’s dominion, will be given up to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24).

1 Corinthians 1:8 in our chapter suggests a reference to Jude 24; Ephesians 5:7 and Revelation 19:5-9, which will have their fulfillment before the Lord descends from heaven to earth to begin His promised reign (2 Thess. 1:7-10; Rev. 19:11-21 and 6).

Every believer will be blameless in the day of Christ, because of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The Christians at Corinth were very blameworthy when the Apostle wrote, as he proceeds to show them from this first chapter and all through the epistle; but he can speak to them of God’s faithfulness: God is faithful, though they were not; and by Him they had been called unto the fellowship, or communion, of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

You and I, too, dear young Christian, just as truly as the Corinthian believers of Paul’s day, have been spoken to by God concerning the fellowship of His Son. “Called,” in verses 1, 2 and 24, “calling” in verse 26, speak of the Christian’s vocation, but “called” in the 9th verse is used in quite a different sense, referring to an invitation, or we might say, a designation, from God for each of His children, to share in all the precious and holy fellowship of His beloved Son. Fellowship began as soon as the church was formed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, as we see from Acts 2:41-42. It is linked with the death of Christ, and in the Lord’s supper it finds expression, as it is said in the tenth chapter of this epistle: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (or fellowship) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread (or loaf) and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.”

Fellowship is, as, another has said, having a part together with Christ, and in the blessings that are with Him.

These verses, 4 to 9, have brought before us very briefly the most singular favor of our God to His children. The subject is dwelt upon in far greater measure in the epistle to the Ephesians, but the state of the believers at Corinth was such that the Holy Spirit, instead of bringing before them the glories of Christ and their own highly privileged place in God’s sight, had to address them strongly about their bad ways.

Verses 10 to 13 set out the first of the offenses, at Corinth. As yet it was only a party forming within the Assembly, but it was, as we know from what has taken place in Christendom, the beginning of a very great evil. God, who knew all from the beginning, all that would form the history of His church here on earth, foreseeing the legion of sects and divisions that have developed, wrote by the Apostle the words which are before us in these verses. It is impossible to avoid their direct application; no words could be more plain, no instruction more precise.

In 1 Corinthians 14:37, we have this arresting statement: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

These verses come to us therefore with all the authority of the Lord Jesus—to us, and not only to the saints at Corinth in Paul’s days, because, as we have already seen, the second verse of the epistle takes in every Christian everywhere.

If 1 Corinthians 1:10 were regarded as the Word of God for today, by the many thousands of believers who are united with sectarian bodies and other divisional groups and parties, should they not make diligent search in order to learn the true path for faith, which is assuredly to be found from the Scriptures? There is one body and one Holy Spirit, and Christians are to endeavor (or use diligence) to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3-4). Where He has liberty in every heart and conscience, verse 10 of our chapter is fulfilled.

It was through members of a woman’s household that the Apostle learned of the contentions within the church of God at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:11). The entire company of the saints had entered into a party spirit; some were boasting of being “of Paul”; others “of Apollos”; yet others “of Cephas” (Peter), and lastly, and probably the most boastful of all, there were those who professed to be “of Christ,” as of a superior grade of sanctity. How pointed is the comment in the thirteenth verse: “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” Thus was the folly of their party-forming exposed.

Whenever a difference of opinion develops among the saints of God, it is plain that one or the other must have erred; perhaps, indeed, both are wrong. The infallible, unerring Word of God is in the hands of each of us as the only guide book of the children of God, and the Holy Spirit is present to apply that Word (John 16:13). Instead of resorting to argument and contention, the saints will, if they are subject to God and His Word (Acts 20:32; 2 Tim. 2:15, 3:15-17) resort to earnest and continued prayer, and in His time they will learn what is of Him. Then division, if it occurs, will be for Christ’s glory in the separation of the saints who are guided by the Word of God from those who are set upon a course of their own choosing.

The Apostle thanked God that he baptized none of the Corinth believers but Crispus and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas; he did not know if he had baptized any others. The twelve were commissioned to baptize (Matt. 28:19); not so was the Apostle to the Gentiles, although he baptized on occasion, and we are expressly told that the believers at Corinth were baptized (Acts 18:8).

Indeed, no other of the apostles was given to make known what is involved in baptism so fully as was Paul (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12).

His work was the preaching of the good news of God’s grace, and this not in wisdom of words, that the cross of Christ might not be made vain (1 Cor. 1:17).

(To be Continued)

Learning and Wisdom

There is a significant statement in the first chapter of Daniel: “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (Dan. 1:17).

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant” (Psa. 25:14). This principle ever abides; and it is seen in all dispensations. It is first laid down by God Himself in the familiar words,

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?...For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of Him” (Gen. 18:17-19). It appears also in the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Colossians, “That ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will and in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9).

It is abundantly plain, in other words, that God gave these four “children” knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom because of their separation in heart and life from the defiling evils around.

It is indeed always true, that the nearer we are practically to the Lord, the more fully He communicates to us His mind; and remark, that it is not only what is generally understood as “His mind”, but it is in all learning and wisdom. The students of modern days, even Christian students, are too often betrayed into the thought, that for the acquisition of human “learning and wisdom,” they are dependent upon their own industry and power. The consequence is, that the years of their student-life are often marked by spiritual declension, if not open backsliding. The example of the four “children” might well teach a lesson.

An Address to Young Christians Acts 20:6-13: Part 1

Part 1

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”

“The first day of the week”—that is a characteristic day. In Judaism it was the Sabbath—Saturday—but not so with us. How unsuited it would be to us to select Saturday—the Sabbath—as the day of our rejoicing, triumph, worship. During the whole of Saturday—during the whole of those twenty-four hours—the Lord Jesus lay in the power of death—in the grave. What mockery it would be to use that as the day that is characteristic of our blessed position as Christians—those who belong to new creation. No; with us all starts from that memorable morning when the blessed Lord broke the bands of death and came out on the first day of the week—came forth victorious and gave that blessed message, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God and your God” (John 20:17).

It is a new position, a new relationship, the blessed Lord Himself in a new position as Head of the new creation. How fitting that we find in Scripture the first day of the week is the one sanctified by the Spirit of God, the day on which believers assembled and worshipped, thinking upon the sufferings of their blessed Lord.

So, it is the first day of the week. Here, the disciples came together for a specific purpose—to break bread. It so happened that they came together in the evening. I judge that is merely owing to the fact that that was the most convenient time of the day for them. We are accustomed to thinking of Christendom where we have Sunday given by the government, but we must not think that that is all it indicates. It isn’t so in heathen countries today. Many were in the position of servants, and would be occupied with various duties, and the evening gave the suitable time of freedom when they could come together.

They came together to break bread. If we can always think in the simplicity of Scripture, we will be saved from many an error. Dear young folks, I am supposed to be addressing those young in years and perhaps young in the faith, too; if we can keep before us the simplicity of Scripture, God will bless us accordingly, but if we become wise and turn aside to human inventions and our own thoughts of things, we can expect to become a prey of our own fancies, and none can tell how far we are going to go. Those that have risked departing from the simplicity of Scripture, have been led step by step, farther and farther away from the truth, until much of that which professes the name of Christ today, has become an abomination to Him.

How simple this is, “On the first day of the week...the disciples came together to break bread.” How many of us here are in the good of that? You are a child of God, aren’t you? Does this scripture have an attraction to your heart: “Upon the first day of the week...the disciples came together to break bread”?

As I go about among the different little gatherings, I find a certain class of professing Christians, and often among those who are younger, are those who say,

“Yes; I belong to the Lord; I am a Christian—I am saved.” And yet, I see them “sitting back” on Lord’s Day morning, week in and week out, month in and month out, and year in and year out, and yet they say they are Christians! Dear young Christian, how can you do that? Didn’t the Lord Jesus say, “This do in remembrance of Me?” Wasn’t it almost the last thing He said as it were to His own—at the very end of His life? It isn’t your brethren that ask you, but the blessed Lord Himself.

Dear young people, remember, all the service in the world that you can do for Christ, will not make up for that simple obedience of love, doing what He asks: “This do in remembrance of Me.” It would seem that we had accepted it among us, more or less as a matter of course, that there are two classes of Christians in Scripture—one class that is found breaking bread at the Lord’s Table, and those who are not breaking bread.

Dear young folks, we have been hearing this morning about testing everything by the Word of God. Have you ever tested that by the Word of God? Can you find anywhere in your New Testament, a class of believers, of those that confess the precious name of the Lord Jesus, that are not at the Lord’s Table—that are not breaking bread? I confess I know of no such class. If we are going to test things by Scripture, and we test that by the Word of God, and find out that it has no place in Scripture. Isn’t it a bold thing to do—for you to take the place of denying the Word, and saying you are a child of God, but when the first day of the week comes, and others can come together to break bread, and not you! Think of it! Look well to it! This is the precious Word of God.

We have been having brought before us the nearness of the Lord’s coming. Events around us in a special way remind us of the Lord’s coming. Our hearts should be made to tremble. He has asked us to remember Him; you are allowing time to slip by, and are not doing this. The Spirit of God would exercise us about these things.

They came together to break bread, and Paul discoursed to them. “Preaching” in Scripture is in connection with announcing the gospel, but here Paul is instructing believers. That is so needful. That is the reason we have come together in these meetings. I trust none have reached that point where they think they do not need instruction. Every one of us can learn from the rest of us. No one is ever going to reach the point where he knows it all, and all the rest can learn from him! Even the great Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church at Rome, looked forward to the time when he would come there, and they could enjoy mutual profit together.

So he discourses to them, ready to depart on the morrow. I never read this that I don’t think of it as being characteristic of his ministry. It just leads us right on the verge of departing. If we are in the good of it, it keeps us always on tip-toe, expecting the coming of the Lord.

(To be continued)

How the Lord Will Come for Us

Every Christian believes that, at some time or other, Christ will come again, but there are many opinions as to where, how, and when He will come. One express scripture statement upon the matter ought to suffice to set the Christian’s mind entirely at rest, and such a statement, so far as it relates to the “where” and “how” of His coming for believers, we have in these words: “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” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Where He comes is thus distinctly told us—to “the air.”

True, He will come in due season also to the earth, for it is written, “His feet shall stand...upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east” (Zech. 14:4).

If we are among those spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15:23, “They that are Christ’s at His coming,” and are at that time alive on the earth, then we “shall be caught up...to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17).

If, by grace, we indeed believe in our hearts on Jesus the Saviour, then we are made ready by Him this moment to meet Him when He comes from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God in the air.

How will He come to the air? He will descend from heaven, but not as He did 1900 years ago—to enter this world in weakness, to become the Man of Sorrows, and to die a sacrifice for our sins upon the tree—but as the risen Man, glorious, triumphant, to call to the Father’s house on high the blessed company of all the redeemed.

“The Lord Himself,” saith the Scriptures, and these words win the heart. Himself, who washed us from our sins in His own blood—Himself, who is now our daily Strength and Hope—Himself, the Jesus whom we love, will come.

How will He descend?

“With a shout.” Such a shout as a commander gives to his troops, and which his men understand. This assembly-call, this rallying cry, this voice of the Lord, each one of His people, whether asleep or awake, shall hear, and to it in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, all shall respond.

“With the voice of the archangel.” Mortal man is weak; the angels “excel in strength;” at that day the mightiest of them shall pass on the Lord’s word, and angels shall see those who sleep in Christ, leave earth’s dust, and rise victoriously to the clouds, as did Jesus Himself.

“With the trump of God.” “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” That great assembly-call of the Lord shall bid the saints enter into the full blessedness of His resurrection; the “redemption of our body” shall have come, and with the sound of those silver tones shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

But when shall these things be? We ask not when shall the times and seasons be fulfilled, and Jesus come to this earth. We inquire, when will He come to the air? His own words supply the answer: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20).

“Surely;” there is no mistake, it may seem to be a long time, but He says, “I come quickly.” For a wise purpose, the hour of His coming is hidden. Did we know the secret, it may be we should forsake the daily expectant attitude, and watch and wait no longer for Him.

May our hearts respond with our “Amen: even so, come Lord Jesus,” to His sure word, “I come quickly.”

Correspondence: 1 Tim. 5:22; Barren Believers?; Jews After the Rapture?

Question: What does “lay hands suddenly on no man,” (1 Tim. 5:22) mean?

Answer: We see that carefulness was urged upon Timothy about those he might receive. If he laid hands on (that is, identify himself with) people too quickly, he might find himself associated with evil-workers. In verses 24 and 25 he again speaks of carefulness in receiving. Some men’s sins go beforehand, can easily be seen; others are not so easily seen, they follow after. And the same applies to the good works of some that are manifest; others who do not tell what kindnesses they do, but they cannot be hid. How wise the Scriptures are!

Question: Is it possible for one to be a believer in Christ, and not bear fruit?

Answer: “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” We are glad to see fruit, but fruit is for the Father, and He can see what we cannot see. Fruit makes no noise; it is the life of Christ seen in our behavior (Gal. 6:22-23). Even Lot is called a righteous man (2 Peter 2:7-8), but he was not a happy saint.

Question: What will become of the Jews after the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air?

Answer: Both Jews and Gentiles may hear the gospel of the kingdom, and become true subjects of the King of Kings, and live to people the earth during the reign of Christ.

But the Jews or Gentiles and the professing church which will be left behind—all these who neglected, refused or despised the gospel when they heard it—will fall victims to the strong delusion, and will be eternally lost.

The Farewell

Many people passing through the little town of M. would linger as they reached Rose Cottage to admire its sweet beauty. Scarcely anywhere could such roses be found as those covering the walls of the cottage and filling its garden, and many remarked that surely perfect peace and happiness reigned there!

It was so, until on one lovely June day the blinds of the windows were drawn, and the happy laughing children of that home were left fatherless, and their gentle, sweet-faced mother a widow. More than ever the children clung to her and to each other, while Gordon, the elder son, strove manfully to take father’s place as far as he possibly could.

Two years passed, and on a day in June again there were sad faces, as Gordon stood, with suitcase ready, while his mother, sisters and brother drew around him to say “good-bye.” Gordon was leaving the dear old home for the great city some two hundred miles distant, to start life’s battle himself, and gain a position which would enable him to lift much of the burden of the family from his mother’s, to his own stronger shoulders.

The last “good-bye” and kiss was for his mother, and the last wave of the hand for Annie, the dear invalid sister whom he specially loved. She was a real Christian, and on the previous night, after everyone had retired, Gordon had made his way to her room. That hour together would never be forgotten by him. For weeks Annie had worked hard, so that every possible comfort in the way of clothing might be ready for her brother, and he slipped into her room to thank her again.

“I am so glad you have come in, dear Gordon,” she said. “I knew you would, and now I want you to make me a promise—will you?”

“Yes, my sister, I will. What is it?” Pressing into his hand a little pocket Bible, she said,

“That is my special parting gift, and I want you to promise to read a portion of it every day, no matter what may be the rush of your new life; for O! Gordon, if you read even a small portion each day, you will find your Lord in it, and so you will never forget Him. And remember, brother, as I lie here each day I shall be praying for you, that you may be kept from the power of evil, and that this book may indeed be “a Lamp unto your feet, and a Light unto your path” (Psa. 119:105).

Gordon knelt by her couch, and with her hands upon his head she commended him to the Lord’s keeping. Never was there a sweeter and holier petition than the utterance of this sister’s heart in its simple earnestness and boundless faith.

Time passed away, and Gordon now fully launched in the medical profession, found the days all too full. How often was he tempted to let slip the first half hour of the day he had promised should be given up to prayer and the reading of his little Bible, and then the memory of the sweet pale face of his sister would rise before him, and again he would hear her words; “You will find your Lord in it!”

That was enough. The moment of temptation passed, and victory was won. The temptations of city life were not unknown to him, but had no power over him. His friends attributed this to strong will-power, but Gordon knew how truly God’s Word was “a Lamp to his feet, a Light to his path.” Through its message he had indeed found his Lord.

Three years after he had left home, again on a June day, he lifted the latch of the garden gate. He had developed in those years, his step was firmer, and about him was the quiet, confident air that bespoke a strong man. What a welcome he got from the dear home circle!

The last hours of that night were spent in Annie’s room. How her heart thrilled with joy and thankfulness to God as she listened to the story of his temptations and struggles, and how truly he had found amid all that Christ was enough, a sure Refuge, a never-failing Friend.

“I am so glad, dear Gordon,” Annie had said; “you see I am so helpless and can only lie here and pray.”

“Ah! my sister, but think how many, through your influence and prayers, are finding ‘the Lamp to their feet, the Light to their path,’ and you will never again feel that your helplessness means uselessness.”

Bidding her a tender “good-night,” Gordon left her, her face radiant with the happiness she felt. Was her loved brother not one of His own blood-bought children. Had God not honored her faith?

Do any who read this deplore that they cannot do much for the Lord? Like Annie, you can pray for someone around you, and sow the good seed even as she did.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

The Knowledge of God

God alone is the teacher of the knowledge of Himself, and he who would know God must needs go to God’s school to be taught. Natural science is acquired by toil and search, but the knowledge of God is gained by faith in His Word. God’s ways are not man’s. The first lesson learned in God’s school is faith, and all must enter this school at the infant class, for except a man be converted and become as a little child, he shall fail to know God.

He Died for Me

“The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

When first my precious Saviour in His love

Lifted these sightless eyes to Him above,

I saw those wounds, and thought - His love to prove

He died for me!

But can it be, when I His love had spurned,

That He, to win my love had ceaseless yearned?

‘Tis true! And now my soul this truth has learned,

He died for me!

It thrilled my soul, it filled my tongue to know

That my once-stubborn heart, now white as snow

With rapture filled, can sing while here below,

He died for me!

The years roll by, there come to claim my heart

Earth’s varied pleasures. Shall I take a part

And grieve my Lord, or from His side depart,

Who died for me?

I must decide. What shall my answer be?

The world allures and beckons harmlessly,

The Saviour stoops and whispers lovingly,

I died for thee!

The choice is made. My heart must not divide,

Part for the world, and part for Him who died.

Henceforth may I be found close to His side

Who died for me!

His heart of love I know will never fall,

Though friends may come and go, though fears prevail,

These four sweet words can blessed peace avail,

He died for me!

I hasten on, casting on Him each care.

His love delights my joys and pains to share,

And soon at Home, this note shall fill the air,

He died for me!

The Work of the Gospel

We would earnestly appeal to our Christian readers to bestir themselves afresh in the work of the gospel. We must be aggressive. Merely to defend what we have, is, in the end, to suffer loss. The enemy moves forward with restless zeal and with untiring energy; evil teachings and infidelity pursue their course. Captives are being continually made, who become soldiers for their cause. The true Christian should not be outrun by the foes of “the faith once delivered to the saints,” nor allow his zeal to pale before their intensity.

Our day is essentially one of opportunity for spreading the gospel. This century is notable for open doors, both in heathen lands and Christendom. Let us avail ourselves of our privilege, ever remembering that the Lord, who walks in the midst of the candlesticks, while He opens and no man shuts, also shuts and no man opens, and that when He gives the word, the doors of opportunity, now wide open, will be closed.

What can we do? In former years, before the art of printing was known, during seasons of earnestness, the gospel was distributed by word of mouth. In rhymes, in sermons, by repetition of texts or passages of Scripture, the truth was spread over the land. In our day, advantages are multiplied a thousand fold. The printing press and the post are at our service. Each of us, who is a servant of Christ, can do something with these means. What a great result might be affected by the sending of a tract once a week.

Let us suppose five thousand of our readers so engaged, each one with a list of names of acquaintances or friends to whom the message is to be sent. Let the list be made out, shall we say, from the names of people met with last year, those of whom a little is known in different parts of the country; persons at whose houses a visit was made, or who were sick, or bereaved—persons whom we desire to introduce to the sinner’s Friend. O, how we should like to be of use to them in eternal things! Have we our list complete? Are there fifty names on it? If five thousand volunteers would send a little gospel book once a week to one person, one quarter of a million souls would be addressed by this means during the year.

The time, the prayer, the care, the cost of this little service you will not grudge, dear Christian reader; it means but a very little of your time, and but a small amount of your money a week. Who will respond and join in this undertaking?

Our readers may know certain districts, in town and country, notorious for evil living. One of these messengers entering such a locality might win a soul for Christ, who might, in his turn, become a warrior for Him. Let us be up and doing; let good Christian papers that exalt Christ, be addressed to Christians who know little of their wonderful blessings in Christ.

Be aggressive, dear fellow-Christian. We appeal for helpers; we would impress our friends with the consideration that many hands, by doing a little each, can do much together. Let us proclaim Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We need to lift up the standard of divine truth; to speak out boldly of the immortality of man’s soul; of judgment being final, and the state of man, after the judgment, everlasting; of God’s righteousness, and the atoning blood of His Son; of Christ’s coming, and of heaven, and of hell. The door of opportunity is open; let us, with purpose of heart, enter afresh upon the glorious work of the gospel.

“I gave My life for thee,

My precious blood I shed,

That thou might’st ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead.

I gave My life for thee;

What hast thou given for Me?”

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:17-31

1 Corinthians 1:17-31

Paul’s commission from the ascended Lord is given in Acts 26:12-18, and his sending forth in His service is recorded in Acts 13:1-4. Galatians 1:1,11-24 should be referred to, also, as showing more fully the character of his commission.

He was not to preach with “wisdom of words;” so, as the Apostle wrote in the opening verse of the second chapter, “I, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God;” and in the fourth verse, “and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In the 20th verse of the first chapter, the inquiry is made, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” These are sobering considerations, particularly for the unsaved, but also for believers. God has not made the gospel of His grace palatable to men; the issues are the solemnest, involving the soul’s eternal destiny.

If the preaching were calculated to please the unsaved hearer, it might well be with wisdom of word—human wisdom; but the cross of Christ would be made vain. And what, dear young Christian, is involved in the cross of Christ? You will answer, I am sure, first of all, O, it was there that He died for my sins! This is the language of faith. We take our place solidly on such scriptures as Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” and 1 Corinthians 15:3 “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

And as we prayerfully ponder, with open Bible, upon the cross of Christ, we see that the issues dealt with there are many, indeed. Let us begin with reverence, from God’s side, as we view by faith what came out of the death of the Holy Sufferer. We see there the great love of God for the sinner; it is immeasurable. John 3:16 comes to mind with those familiar words,

“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.”

We see, too, in the cross of Christ, God’s holiness, and His hatred of sin; for sin was judged there. Isaiah had written prophetically of Christ on the cross (chapter 53:6), that Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all; and we are allowed by the Holy Spirit in Luke 22:41-44 to see the Holy One in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal, anticipating in His soul that time—the three hours of the next day when he was the Sin Offering, bearing the judgment of those who trust in Him.

Matthew (27:45-46), and Mark (15:33-34) record the occurrence of that solemn scene, for which David was inspired to write Psalm 22. God “spared not His own Son” (Rom. 8:32); the judgment of our sins, their full penalty, must be and was borne by Him. There Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 13:7).

And where did the grace of Christ shine out so much as when He was crucified? (Phil. 2:5-8; 2 Cor. 8:9). What believer could be unmoved by the Saviour’s humiliation and grace as he reads the accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew or Mark, Luke or John?

We have to consider, too, how that God was infinitely and eternally glorified in Christ on the cross. (John 17:4; Heb. 10:5-9; Rev. 1:4-5; Heb. 1:2-4; Col. 1:12-20; 2 Cor. 4:6). These passages are indicative; the body of Scripture is one united whole in setting forth the truth that in the death of Christ, God has been glorified as in no other way could He have been so fully.

And as to Satan, that old serpent, the devil—the cross of Christ marked the culmination of his supreme effort against the blessed One. Matthew 2:1-18 tells of Satan’s first attempt against Him, using Herod, the Idumaean ruler of the Jews for the purpose; and Matthew 3:1-11 with Luke 4:1-13, his second. Satan, we are told in Luke 22:3, entered into Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, before he went to the Jewish leaders to bargain for the betrayal of his Master; though unseen, he was present at the passover meal, actuating Judas to deliver up Christ that very night (John 13:27), instead of after the religious services of the period were over (Matt. 26:5); and we may be sure that Satan was in the garden of Gethsemane, in a last effort to turn Jesus away from the death which now lay immediately before Him. In Luke 22:53 the Lord, speaking to those who had come out there to take Him said, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness”—the hour for the Jewish leaders, and for Satan, united against the Son of God. Thus it was that Satan bruised His heel, but it will ere long be revealed that Satan’s head (a vital spot) as the result of the cross, is crushed (Gen. 3:15).

Satan is a vanquished enemy, since the cross; and believers are delivered from his power (Col. 1:13; Heb. 2:14-15). The day is near when he will be cast out of the heavens (Rev. 12:7-12); after which he will be shut up for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3), and finally will be cast into the lake of fire—hell (Rev. 20:10), the place prepared for him and his angels (Matt. 25:41), where also—solemn thought -all the rejecters of Christ will spend eternity.

Let us next consider man in relation to the cross of Christ. Our first parents lost the place of innocent happiness in a sinless sphere when Satan appeared with his guile (Gen. 3). About 1650 years afterward, God, seeing that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” cleansed the earth by a flood. Then, without profiting from the lessons of the past, men plunged more deeply into sin (Rom. 1:21-32). As to Israel’s chosen race, Acts 7:2-53 gives God’s account of their history, dark and growing darker as it went on.

John 1:10-11 speaks of the presence of His Son in the world, and His rejection. The inspired pens of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John bring out much of the effect of His presence among men, and describe the awful wickedness of those who united in putting Him out of the world. “They hated Me without a cause.” This came out in its fullness at the cross, Jew and Gentile uniting in His humiliation and crucifixion.

But all that is of man was judged at the cross. It was not to one recognizable in the world as a wicked person, but to a choice specimen of the race (as far as the Scriptures afford us light on him), that the Son of God said (John 3:3), “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50) is to the same end: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (or incorruptibility, N.T.). So also in Romans 3:9-18 is it said, “We have before proved (or “charged”, N.T.) both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one...and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So all the pretension of the natural man to a secure position before God is judged in the light of the cross. From the finest in one’s own esteem, or in the estimation of one’s fellows, to the lowest reprobates of town or country, all are condemned in the Saviour’s death. You will see this in figure, in illustration, in Numbers 19:6, where “cedar wood and hyssop”—the loftiest, finest tree of the forest, and the commonest weed of the Holy Land—were to be burned together with the sacrificed red heifer.

The subject of what is involved in the cross of Christ which has thus been before us has been only touched upon; may its prayerful study be blessed to the Christian reader.

Verse 18: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Have you not seen the proof of this? There is no doctrine more offensive to the natural mind and heart than this. But mark the two classes into which the human race is here divided: “them that perish,” and “us who are saved.”

Is there something then for me, a believer, to take pride in as being of a superior class by nature to my unbelieving neighbor? O, no! verse 29 distinctly says, “that no flesh should glory in God’s presence;” and the last verse of our chapter, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

(To be continued, D. V.)

To Know His Love

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us” (1 John 4:10).

What a comfort to know that He is for us, out of the spring and principle of His own love! We can never really know God till we know His love. God so loved the world that He sent His Son. The world did not ask God to send Him; men did not ask Christ to come, but God loved them, and He sent Him.

What a comfort then it is to know that God is for us, and what are the enemies in His presence—the flesh, the world, and Satan! Faith overcomes all by looking at what God is.

An Address to Young Christians: Part 2

Acts 20:7-12

Part 2

“And continued his speech until midnight.” The church of God has passed through the midnight. Those of us who have read a little church history, know there was a period of about a thousand years in which the church of God was with rare exception in great darkness—great darkness came over it.

Whenever we let slip any of the truth of Scripture, the least bit of it, if we surrender, if we disregard it, give up, who knows where it is going to lead us. How bright the church was at the start; how blessedly simple and precious were those meetings; what edification, what blessing of soul resulted! But when it began to let slip, when it settled down where Satan’s seat was, how far, far, far it drifted. One can scarcely imagine greater darkness than that in which the professing church was during the dark or middle ages.

I recently read a little book on the catacombs of Rome, and of the time when the church of God was forced by persecution to meet down underneath the city of Rome in those caverns, that is, the Church that was at Rome, and there for three hundred years believers met in those subterranean caverns. It gave a list of inscriptions found there, most of them in connection with the burial of their dead. It is refreshing to the soul to see the thoughts that filled their hearts; to see the simplicity of their faith; indeed it is. There was much that sprang up afterward that was a denial of the truth, but down there beneath the surface, hidden away from the world, the church kept the faith, and in blessed simplicity.

The Catacombs underneath Rome included nine hundred miles. You can search all those mottoes, those epitaphs, those monuments, there were thousands of them down there, and you will never find a mention of purgatory, the crucifix, the priesthood, or the Virgin Mary—not once. They were blessedly simple; why? Because they were accepting their place of rejection in this world. They were following a rejected Saviour.

When they came out from the bowels of the earth, and took their place in the sunlight of this world’s favor, what a different story! Great temples were turned over to them for places of assembling, and instead of being despised and rejected of the world, became supported by the world. The professing church became a political ruler of the world, and the greater it became in power in this world, the greater was the decay spiritually. But here, all is simplicity—they came together to break bread.

“And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.” It was an “upper chamber”—the “third loft.” Way up in the third loft; that took place where the church belongs. The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven—the presence of God—to paradise. The church belongs up there. The rallying place of the true church is up there, not on earth. The vast majority are up there.

Here we find them meeting in the third loft. There were many lights where they were gathered together. Young folks, remember, God has established on this earth a sphere and place of blessing; a place where the truth is to be learned and learned in God’s way, and if you neglect or despise that place, and that provision, you do it at the peril of your soul; I don’t mean eternal peril, but I mean you are going to suffer for it—suffer in your soul—if you despise the rich provision God has made in grace in connection with His care of His own down here. There were many lights in that chamber.

I call your attention in passing, to the fact that the expression in that 8th verse “gathered together” is exactly the same in the original as Matthew 18:20 with this one exception, that in Matthew 18:20 it is the present tense and here it is in the past, but the compound verb used is exactly the same.

Here they were, gathered together on the ground of the church of God, and there were many lights where they were gathered together—a blessed place to be! There is where the light is found—where you are going to get light for your soul, and thus are you going to be able to walk in the pathway of the truth as laid down in the Word of God.

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:8-10).

The only way we are going to prove what is acceptable to God, is as we walk in the light, and the ministration of the truth is connected in the Word of God, with those gifts that the ascended Lord has been pleased to give the church, and He has placed those gifts in connection with the Assembly, and thus it is as in the assembly, as gathered together, we find a place of safety where we are guarded and cared for; how we ought to value it!

In the parable in Luke about the man who fell among thieves, the Lord says, “A certain Samaritan” picked him up and brought him to an inn, and gave the inn-keeper two pence, and said, “Take care of him.” To me, that inn represents the assembly, and the Lord has made provision that you should be cared for in your spiritual life in connection with the assembly. The Lord said to that inn-keeper, I will give you these two pence, and when I come again I will repay you anything else you may spend.

The Lord has gone back to glory, but dear young Christians, He has provided down here for our blessing, and it will never be a path of independency. You cannot live your Christian life alone in this world; there is no such path marked out in the Word of God. If you are going to walk in the truth of the Scripture, you are going to walk in companionship and fellowship with other believers. You have a corporate place to fill, and you can never escape that responsibility; we know it is true that many real Christians fail to see that.

We find believers becoming rebellious and saying, I will walk alone before God, and I care not what anyone else may think! I will go my way alone, and let my brethren go alone. It may sound pious, but it isn’t the truth of God. No; we must go on together, and the Lord is faithful and He is going to provide a clean path for our feet until He comes again. He says that in the parable “When I come again”.

Dear young saint, there is going to be a place for you here to walk in the truth corporately until our Lord returns.

(To be continued)

A Clean Cut

“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).

A clean cut from all old connections, companionships, social, political and religious, and a clear and Scriptural start on the road to heaven, in “the paths of righteousness,” along which the Lord Himself leads (Psa. 23:3), is the only way of real progress on the heavenly road.

And then to go straight forward, turning neither to the right nor the left but “going by the Book” all the day, and all the way, “following fully,” like Caleb of old, who would not and did not turn aside, not even when the majority were against him and threatened to stone him if he went on with God.

Be Careful for Nothing

“Be careful for nothing.” That is easily said. But what! not be careful about the state of the church, or about the pressure of a family? “Be careful for nothing.” Whatever produces a care in us, produces God’s care for us; therefore, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” So, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus:” not your hearts keep the peace of God; but the peace that God Himself is in, His peace, the unmoved stability of all God’s thoughts, keep your hearts (Phil. 4:6-7).

Extract: Linked to Heaven

God’s design is to link us with heaven. You must have heaven without the world, or the world without heaven. He who prepares the city, cannot wish for us anything between the two. Our giving up the world, and the world giving up us, are two very different things. It is the world giving us up that tries all the elements of self-importance, which lie much deeper than we are aware of.

Correspondence: A Sabbath for us to Keep?; Meaning of Col. 2:16

Question: Does Hebrews 4:8-10 mean a Sabbath for us to keep? What does Colossians 2:16 mean?

Answer: The first mention of the seventh day, as a day of rest, is Genesis 2:2-3, but there is no indication that it was given to man at that time to keep.

The first time it is given to man is Exodus 16:5,23-26 and it is the nation of Israel and those who dwell among them, redeemed out of Egypt, to whom it is given.

Next, the Sabbath is given in connection with the law (Ex. 20:8-11). The law, which includes the Sabbath, was given to Israel alone, and includes the strangers dwelling among them (Ex. 12:13).

God did not put the whole world under the law. Only one nation; that is Israel.

The law is not dead. The Jew is under it still, and can only be freed from it by believing on the Lord Jesus. Paul by the Spirit writes (Gal. 2:19-20), “I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ.” “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 10:4), and believers are not under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14). The law is not dead, but believers are dead with Christ. (See Rom. 7:6, marginal reading.) The unbelieving Jew is still under the law, and will be judged by the law (Rom. 2:12). People who put themselves under the law now, are delivered from it by seeing themselves dead with Christ.

The Sabbath was the sign of the covenant between Jehovah and the children of Israel (Ex. 31:13-17). They broke the law and did not keep the Sabbath and are thus cursed (Gal. 3:10; Ezek. 20:12-13, 16, 20-21).

The Lord Jesus did miracles on the Sabbath day to show that man’s sin had broken God’s Sabbath, and neither He nor His Father could rest where sin is (John 5:16-18).

There is not a word in Scripture to tell us that the Sabbath is changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. The Sabbath is the seventh day and is entirely Jewish. The first day, the resurrection day, the Lord’s day, is Christian. In the reign of Christ over the earth, Israel will then keep their Sabbaths (Ezek. 45:17).

Colossians 2:13 addresses “you,” the uncircumcised Gentile. Colossians 2:14 is to “us,” the circumcised Jew. Verses 16-17, set aside these Jewish feast days and Sabbaths, and give us Christ, the substance. These are only shadows, the body is of Christ

Colossians 2:20 sets all believers free from laws and ordinances, because of being dead with Christ and risen with Christ. Hebrews 4:8-10, points the Hebrew believers on to God’s eternal Sabbath day. His rest. Into which all true believers in heavenly glory shall enter. The rest in Genesis 2 alluded to in Hebrews 4:4 is a type of this.

It does not say in the New Testament, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” The gospel has set that aside for all true believers. Christ rose from the dead the first day of the week. The Holy Spirit was given the first day of the week. The gospel was first preached that day; and Acts 20:7 tells us, that was the day when the disciples came together to remember the Lord as having died for them.

Revelation 1:10 calls it the Lord’s day (there is no Christian Sabbath), and while Christians are not under law, Christ’s love reigning in their hearts, would lead them to give the day specially to Him as free from all secular employment, as far as it is possible.

Since it is the Lord’s Day, may we devote it to His service. Let our heart’s delight to own His claim upon us in this matter in sweet communion with our risen Head.

In Black and White

While visiting one of the large hospitals, the following conversation took place between a servant of the Lord and one of the patients,

“Well, my friend, I believe you have been quite a sick man. I suppose you hope soon to be able to go back to your home?”

“Yes, thank you. I don’t think I shall be here much longer. I have suffered a lot, but am better, and hope soon to be able to go back home.”

“May I ask you,” said the servant of Christ, “where you expect to go after you leave this world? It matters little where we came from, but where are we going is the important thing to be clear about.”

“You have asked the right man that question this time, and I will give you a plain answer. I am going to heaven.”

“Have you always been a good man?”

“O no, sir, I am a sinner.”

“Well, I am glad to hear that, and you seem to be quite sure that you are going to heaven, but may I ask what authority you have for what you say?”

“Well, sir, it was hardly two years ago that I had a vision. I was caught up into paradise and saw Jesus, and He spoke so kindly to me, and His face was so bright and happy. He told me I was not to stay there just yet, but that my sins were all forgiven, and that I was a child of God and would soon be called to be with Him, to be there forever.”

“I am glad to hear all you say, my friend,” said the servant of the Lord, “but that would not be enough to satisfy me.”

“Not enough to satisfy you? What more would you want than to hear the Lord Himself say your sins were forgiven, and own you as a child of God?”

“I would want to have it down in black and white, and nothing less than that would satisfy me. It would not be enough to have a verbal agreement with a person about the purchase of a piece of land. I would want to have it in writing, no matter how truthful the person might be, and then it would settle all dispute for all time. Just suppose what you think was a vision was only a dream. Then what would you have to assure you that your sins are forgiven, and that you are a child of God?”

“O sir, it was no dream, and you can’t shake my confidence like that.”

“My friend, I don’t want to shake your confidence by any means, nor lessen your faith in what God has said, but only to give you a surer foundation upon which to build your hope.”

“Have you anything better than that, sir?”

“Yes, I surely have. I have the Lord’s own words in black and white, and without this I would never be certain.”

“Then let me see them.”

The servant of the Lord then took from his pocket the precious Word of God, and read to him these words; “I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you, for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12) and “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God....Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:1-2).

“You surely have the best of it, sir. I can see now that only as we have the Word of God for everything that we believe, can we be fully persuaded that we are right.”

Dear reader, may I ask you the question asked the sick man?

“Where are you going?”

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

“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 passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

“Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:28-29).

Who Has Charge of Your Money-Box?

“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24).

I fancy I hear the reader exclaim, “What a funny title! Whatever can it mean?”

Just listen to me while I relate an incident that happened some years ago. A Christian father had in his keeping the money boxes of his two little children. They were kept locked, and the children didn’t know how much was in them. One of them came to his father one day, and said that he would like to get a present for his mother on her birthday, which was drawing near. His father explained to him that it would not be a present from him, unless he paid for it out of his own money. The child was quite willing to do so. Soon after, the father took the boy into a store to buy the present. They looked around, and at last the little fellow selected an article. On hearing the price, the father told him that he had not enough money to pay for it, and that he must choose something else. In a short time he did so. When the price was known, the father told the child that he would be able to pay for that, but that it would take the most of his money. The dear little fellow didn’t mind that in the least, but said he would like to get that for his mother. It was bought, paid for out of the boy’s money, and given to the mother on her birthday.

The father was so much pleased with the unselfishness shown in the matter, and at the affection manifested by the boy for his mother, that he determined that the child should not be a loser. From time to time the father slipped into his money-box a penny, sometimes a larger coin, and so on, till, without the child’s knowing it, the amount was more than replaced.

Dear fellow-believer, is there no lesson in the foregoing for you and for me?

If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (through grace) our God and our Father (John 20:17) sees us spending on ourselves and our own interests, the most of what He has entrusted us with as His Stewards (1 Cor. 4:2), will He not very likely do what He did as recorded in Haggai 1:3-11; 2:15-17? Now Haggai 1:12-14; 2:18-19 shows us the result of the Word of the Lord having taken effect in the hearts and consciences of the people.

If our God and Father sees you and me diligent in caring for the interests of His beloved Son—Jesus—our Lord, will it not delight His heart more than that of the father in the incident referred to? And do you think we shall be losers by it? Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-8; but also 2 Corinthians 8:9,12, and weigh the matter over before the Lord; but be careful that you do not do something to get something. Let it be,

“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 which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

O what a debt I owe

To Him who shed His blood,

And cleansed my soul and gave me power

To stand before His God.

Saviour and Lord, I own

The riches of Thy grace;

For I can call Thy God, my God -

Can bow before His face.

Thy Father, too, above,

I worship as my own;

Who gave with Thee the Spirit’s cry,

To me a son foreknown.

Again, just ponder over this magnificent verse: “My God shall abundantly supply all your need according to His riches, in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 JND). What an inexhaustible amount, in such safe keeping and in such a money-box!

A Letter

Dear Young Friends,

I rejoice with every one of you who have trusted Christ and know Him as Saviour and Lord in the sunny days of youth. Some of us are getting old, and we will not be able to run the Lord’s errands, and tell others of His love very long. You will be filling our places, and going forth with the glad tidings to near and distant lands.

Keep close to Christ now; read and meditate on His Word; speak often to Him in prayer; and keep well away and far off from ungodly companions and worldly associations, by which so many bright young believers are spoiled and reduced to miserable backsliders. The out-and-out follower of Christ is the only truly happy person on earth. May you each always be found among that royal few who follow Jesus fully.

Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

“To them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, the power of God.”

How vivid is the contrast in the 18th verse! The subject is what God has done to effect salvation for men and women, for boys and girls; the one and only way whereby He could deliver anyone from the penalty of sin. And this blessed story of the cross is treated by many, when they hear of it, as foolishness! It is this to “them that perish”—those who are lost!

But God be praised that you and I, dear young Christian, have had our eyes opened to see that the word of the cross is the very power of God on our behalf, for salvation free and eternal!

The nineteenth verse calls to our attention the prophetic statement in Isaiah 29:14, where it is said “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”

These words are written with direct application to unbelieving Israel, but they are, as quoted in our chapter, of wide application. The Spirit of God is, undertaking here to show that the wisdom of man is incapable of dealing with the things of God. It has been said that not a single thought of God ever enters into man’s mind by intellect; it is always by conscience.

Isaiah 33:18 is reflected in the twentieth verse in the inquiry after the wise and other leaders of the world who leave God out of their thoughts, the Spirit here adding, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor. 1:20). He has, indeed, and the next verses proceed with the evidence of it. Let us ponder them well.

Since, in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, He was pleased, through the foolishness (as the world reckons it) of the preaching to save those who believe. Such is the plain declaration of 1 Corinthians 1:21. It takes us back in thought to the time when sin came into the world (Gen. 3); and as we examine the inspired history of mankind down through the ages, whether in Genesis 3-6 or thereafter, we see that after sin entered, God left man to pursue his way alone, though not without communications from Himself from time to time.

Cain, the murderer of his brother, with his descendants, established a little world of their own (Gen. 4:16-22), and though that came to an end at the flood, the same order of things took fresh root in the renewed earth. It has continued unchanged in character to the present hour, morally at a distance from God. John 3:16-17 gives us that precious statement that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” It is the preaching of the cross that God uses for the salvation of all who believe.

The Jews wanted signs (Matt. 12:38-39; 16:1-4) but were blind to the many signs which the Lord gave that He was Israel’s Messiah, come according to the terms of the Scriptures. And the Greeks sought after wisdom; this is well known as one of the boasts of ancient Greece, and the writings of their philosophers are still studied in modern schools of learning.

But, setting aside altogether the opinions and the reasonings of men, God caused Christ crucified to be preached—to the Jews a stumbling block, for they looked for a Messiah to come in power and glory; and to Gentiles foolishness, completely contrary to all their intelligence and wisdom. However, to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is revealed as the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The foolishness of God—see 1 Corinthians 1:18—is thus wiser than men; and the weakness of God—and did not the crucifixion and death of Christ have the appearance of weakness on God’s part, that He should permit His creatures to so treat His Son?—is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25). Eternally we shall admire the whole plan and design of our salvation; how worthy of God it is, and what a display of love and grace and mercy and wisdom and power is involved in it!

That the lesson of the entire worthlessness of human wisdom before God might be brought home to the believers at Corinth, they are next invited (1 Cor. 1:26) to look at their calling. Were there many in the assembly there, or in other places known to them, that were wise according to flesh; many powerful; many highborn? No; such were few among their number. Was this then, which skeptics of that day no doubt (as in this day also) pointed to as a reproach upon Christianity, a token of weakness in the scheme of the gospel? No; it was part of the very purpose of God. This is declared in the three following verses.

God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might put to shame the wise, and the weak things that He might put to shame the strong things; and the low-born things of the world, and those despised,

He chose; and the things that are not, that He might bring to naught the things that are; so that no flesh should boast before Him. We can but own the wisdom of God in this, rejoicing when we learn of any of the world’s great ones as confessing Christ as their Saviour; thankful that He has said “not many,” rather than “not any” in 1 Corinthians 1:26.

And now the closing verses of the chapter engage us, presenting for the believers consideration another part of God’s dealings. “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.” What a stupendous fact to engage our souls is this! Another has aptly said, concerning the verses before us,

“I am of God, and I have my wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption of God, all in Christ. I am of God in Christ, and have all there of God in Christ. It comes from Him; it is not my thinking about Him. And so man is totally set aside; flesh is put down.

“The world by wisdom was not to know God, but I am in Christ as a new being, a new creature, created again; and I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption all in Christ.

“These verses are a remarkably full statement of what a Christian is, with full redemption itself at the end—body and all.”

(continued)

Sowing and Reaping

“Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8).

“Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters” (Isa. 32:20).

Hast thou labored in the shadows

Though thy work seemed all in vain?

Hast thou sowed the Seed so precious

Toiling in the Saviour’s name?

Dost thou weary of the sowing?

Art thou longing now to rest?

Do thy steps begin to falter

Tiring of thy high behest?

Listen to the words of promise,

Spoken once for such as thee;

“Blest is he who by all waters,

Sows the Seed untiringly.

“I have seen thy patient efforts,

I have counted all thy tears,

While for Me thou still halt labored

Through the long and barren years.

“Yes, and now I’m coming, quickly,

And with Me is My reward;

’Tis for faithful service granted,

Service done to Me, the Lord.

“Precious to My heart, thy labor -

All that’s done in Jesus’ name -

Done because thou lov’st the Saviour,

Him Who bore Thy sin and shame.

“Nothing done for Me forgotten,

Though it seemed thy work was vain;

Soon thou’lt find thy sheaves in glory

When with Me thou e’er shalt reign.”

Precious Saviour, Thou art worthy

Till Thou com’st, O! may I be

Faithful, earnest in the labor

Chosen by Thyself for me.

Not for bright reward I labor,

No! Thou gav’st Thyself for me;

Thou hast bought me for Thy treasure,

All I am I owe to Thee.

And when soon Thy saints are gathered

Round Thyself, most gracious Lord,

Then we’ll cast our crowns before Thee, -

Thou our prize and bright reward!

An Address to Young Christians Acts 20:7-12: Part 3

Part 3

There is a young man in this picture—Eutychus. Eutychus means fortunate. It is a strange thing for a young man to have the experience this one did; we would think he had better be called “unfortunate.” Sometimes things that seem like dire misfortune come to us in our lives, which may be the greatest contribution to our welfare.

Here was this young man, in the right place, but he went to sleep there. Just being in the right place isn’t going to keep you. Be sure it is the right place; don’t esteem it lightly, but never depend upon the right place to keep you. It takes watchfulness; you must give heed to these things. If you become indifferent and neglectful, you needn’t be surprised if you get a fall.

Here was Eutychus, “fortunate,” and he was a fortunate young man to be there; that was the most blessed place on the face of the earth, to be there gathered around the Lord Jesus, listening to such marvelous ministry, for it was in connection with the

Assembly that God was pleased to give this ministry, but dear Eutychus became heavy with sleep; he became indifferent to the ministry. What a fall he had!

Dear young folks, take heed! Take heed to this truth that you receive; receive it believingly in a good heart and exercised conscience, for we don’t come to these meetings just to hear something; we come here that our hearts might be fed upon the truth of God, and that we might be aroused, and that we might have fresh purpose of heart to walk in the truth that is ministered to us.

This poor young man went to sleep, and down he fell, clear down from the third loft right down to the ground floor—to the street level! O, it is sad. It is sad when believers, young or old, fall from their high calling, fall from that place where the truth puts them, fall down, as it were to the street level of this wretched world. Young folks, watch—watch and pray. See to it that your heart be not overcharged with the cares of this life. Heed the warning, dear young people; keep close to Christ; value the fellowship of the saints of God; value the opportunity to listen to the truth, and listen with your hearts, and not with your heads.

Well, this young man, down he went. Paul was long preaching, and he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up (for) dead.

Sometimes Christians, young and old, get into such a backslidden condition, that there is no evidence of life at all.

Look how far he has fallen—the depths to which he has gone! It took divine perception to see that there was life, but the Apostle Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him, said, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” There was life there. A child of God may, through neglect and carelessness fall away, but thank God! his life is in him—life is still there.

Perhaps the Apostle here, coming and falling on him, and bringing about that animation to his body, is figurative of the power of the Word of God to restore one who has gotten away from the Lord, and then the next thing is, he is back upstairs, back where he was before. I guarantee you, that that young man didn’t go to sleep again that night! It was a humiliating experience, but he came back upstairs, and the next thing we hear about, is, the breaking of bread.

I have thought many times in reading this that there is a mystical allusion to how the church fell down to the street level of this world, and how in the goodness and grace of God, the truth came along in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, that line of things given in Ephesians and Colossians, that precious, heavenly ministry that takes us up to the third heaven, and sets us in Christ—that Pauline ministry—that although seemingly dead—no life at all, under that gracious ministry, O, what a blessed reviving there was! We find the church re-instated, back in the third heaven as it were. So the very next thing we hear about, when the Apostle goes back and this young man with him, is the breaking of bread.

They may have been a little negligent or careless, perhaps so taken up with the Apostle’s ministry, that they postponed the breaking of bread; be that as it may, in the 11th verse we read, “When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”

When is the “break of day” coming for us? How soon is it coming? Some of us feel it is near—the break of day. What is around us today? Darkness on every hand. Young folks, remember, this darkness around is going to increase. I know there is talk about a world-wide revival. I would be thankful to see one; indeed I would, but when I read the Word of God, and see the picture that that Word gives before the end of this world, I see nowhere anything of a world-wide revival, but of a world-wide apostasy. That is where we are drifting. It behooves every one of us to be warned; to be on our guard. Paul’s ministry continued until the “break of day.” That precious, heavenly ministry, the truth of Christ, and the church is going to remain until the “break of day.” Is it precious to us? or are we tempted to give it up—let it slip? Dear young Christian, it is worth holding on to.

One of these days we are going to hear that summons to see and be with the Lord who died for us, and I verily believe it is going to be a precious thing in His sight if you and I have by His grace, been enabled to “Hold that fast which we have.” It is worth suffering for; it is worth being misunderstood, that we might maintain that truth. God has a place of blessing for us; may we have the grace to value it, and hold fast that which He has given. It is in the atmosphere to let the thing slide—to let go—but it doesn’t come from above, from that blessed One in the glory. He says, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11).

(Concluded)

Faith

It is characteristic of faith to reckon on God, not simply spite of difficulty, but spite of impossibility.

Faith concerns not itself about means; it counts upon the promise of God. To the natural man the believer may seem to lack prudence; nevertheless, from the moment it becomes a question of means which render the thing easy to man, it is no longer God acting; it is no longer His work where means are looked to. When with man there is impossibility, God must come in; and it is so much the more evidenced to be the right way, since God only does that which He wills.

Faith has reference to His will, and to that only; thus it consults not either about means or circumstances; in other words, it consults not with flesh and blood. Where faith is weak, external means are beforehand reckoned on in the work of God. Let us remember that when things are feasible to man, there is no longer need of the energy of the Spirit. Christians do much, and effect little—why? “But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6).

In Hebrews, faith is looked upon as an active principle of endurance and conduct; reliance on God’s Word through grace for practice.

In Romans, it is the principle on which we are justified, in virtue of Christ’s work, the ground of peace. In the former it is the active-working faith of the saint, in the latter the no-working faith of the sinner.

The Hand and the Heart of God

I trust I may never forget one lesson I learned of God some years ago; and, as He who takes to Himself (and O, how rightly!) the title of “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort,” comforts those that are in tribulation, not only that they may be comforted themselves, but that they may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith they themselves have been comforted of God, I will just jot it down, hoping that it may be used to help and comfort others.

Many years ago, and not long before being called to pass through a very heavy trial and sorrow, I went to L. While there, I went one evening to where I knew a Bible reading was to be. During the meeting the old brother in whose house the meeting was held, made the following remark (I forget now what the connection was), “We often speak of tracing things up to God’s hand, but do we give His Heart credit for moving His hand.”

I was much struck by the remark at the time (little knowing what was before me), and my mind reverted to it occasionally, and I saw that the hand was but the servant of the heart, even in ordinary things. For instance, if a thief steals anything, the heart has first coveted it, and the hand is, merely the agent that appropriates what the heart longs for.

Well, I returned to my home, and about six weeks later, one very dear to me was taken rather suddenly. In my sorrow (and deep it was), the above mentioned remark came before me. Others spoke about so and so having been the means of bringing the infection. But to me (and I thank God for the grace given) there were no second causes to be looked at. No, to God Himself I must trace it, and not to His hand only, but to His heart. What, His heart? Yes, the same heart that gave Jesus. O, the exquisite sweetness and infinite preciousness of the thought were inexpressible! And I knew what it was to have God Himself wiping away the tears from my eyes.

Another incident comes before me which I will mention as being in every way in keeping with what has gone before. A young sister in the Lord had just lost her babe, her first-born, and was, as might be supposed in deep grief. An old brother who knew her well wrote to her. In the letter was the following (as nearly as I can call to mind), “May you know the joy of having Jesus wipe away the tears from your eyes, and know that it is more blessed to have Him wipe away your tears, than to have no tears to wipe away.”

In conclusion I would add that I have found in my own experience the truth of what I once heard another say, namely, “There is no bitterness, even in the deepest sorrow, unless the will is at work. It is the working of the will that brings the bitterness.”

Extract: True Devotedness

In all true devotedness, Christ is the first and governing object; next, “His own which are in the world;” and then our fellowmen—first their souls, then their bodies, and every want they are in. The sense that we are not our own, deepens the claim in our hearts, yet takes away all merit in the devotedness.

Correspondence: Different Kingdoms in Scripture?; Reign in 1000 yrs; Mat. 25:21,23

Question: I would like some help as to the different Kingdoms mentioned in Scripture. Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 26:29); The Kingdom of God (Matt. 21:43): The Kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:5); The Kingdom of His Dear Son (Col. 1:13); Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:11).

Answer: The “kingdom of heaven: and the “kingdom of God” are “in many respects identical, but the ‘kingdom of heaven’ occurs in the gospel by Matthew only, and stands in contrast to Messiah on earth. It refers to the rule of that which God has set in heaven, and commenced when Christ went to heaven. The ‘kingdom of God’ is more connected with the moral state established in man.”

“My Father’s kingdom” refers to the upper or heavenly part of the Millennial kingdom.

“The kingdom of God and of Christ” expresses the moral realm in which is found the will and presence of God and of Christ.

The “kingdom of His dear Son,” or “The Son of His Love,” refers to that moral sphere presided over by Christ as the Son of the Father in counsel and love.

“Everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” refers to that eternity of blessing which shall be enjoyed in the presence of the glorified and victorious Christ.

Question: Will the Lord, with His saints, reign on the earth during the thousand years? (Rev. 20:4).

Answer: All the Old Testament saints, with all believers of this present age, and all those who suffer martyrdom during the tribulation period, will reign with Christ, not on, but over the earth. Revelation 5:10 should read, “And they shall reign over the earth.”

In Zechariah 14:4, we are told that in one act of judgment His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives.

Question: Will the Lord be able to say to any of His own, “Well done, good and faithful servants?” (Matt. 25:21,23).

Answer: The Lord did say to His disciples amid all their failures, “Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations” (Luke 22:28), where they could not impute faithfulness to themselves, He, knowing their hearts’ earnest desire to please Him, though hindered by weakness and all that belongs to the flesh, could say it of them.

We are His servants and His friends also. It is ours to serve in the intimacy of friends. And in glory “His servants shall serve Him” (Rev. 22:3). No mixture of self in it then. But notice how Matthew 25:21,23, reads, “His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

It does not say that anyone was faithful in everything. What encouragement this is to seek to please Him in all that we can (1 Cor. 4:5).

The Only Text

A business man who had been for some time preaching the gospel, at length gave up his business in order to devote himself entirely to the proclamation of the glad tidings.

When he thus retired from commercial life, money was owing to him in excess of the amount for which he himself was indebted, and he thought that he was quite secure and could readily meet all his liabilities.

There came an occasion however when he was in a sore dilemma.

A sum of $100 was demanded from him and he promised to pay it on a certain Monday. He had attempted to provide for payment before, but failed to obtain the amount. Now he went round among all those who owed him money, but could not obtain payment. Then he sought the help of friends, desiring them to lend him enough to pay the bill. This also was in vain. They expressed sympathy but that was all. There seemed no one who could help him.

On the Saturday before the dreaded day, he was in his study in the greatest distress of mind. He had arranged to preach three times on the Lord’s Day, and seemed powerless to think. The $100 seemed ever before his eyes. But he shall tell his story,

“For a long time I sat with my face buried in my hands, and then I fell on my knees and I believe I said, ‘Lord help me,’ a hundred times, for I could say nothing but ‘Lord help me; Lord help me.’ While praying I felt an impression that these words might serve me for one text...no other text could I think of but ‘Lord help me.’

“While preaching on the Sunday morning I had so many thoughts and illustrations arising out of the subject, that I felt great liberty in speaking. One of my illustrations was about a man I well knew who was an executor for two orphan children. He was tempted to make use of the money, and much of it was lost. This so preyed upon his mind, that he began to drink. He lost his character, lost his peace of mind, and died with the reputation of a rogue.

`Now,’ I said, ‘had this man, the executor, when he first thought of taking the children’s money, resisted the temptation by calling on God to help him, help him to be honest, help him to do nothing but what a professing Christian ought to do, instead of losing the money, his good name, his peace of mind and perhaps his life, God would have heard his prayer and saved him.

“Noon came; but my sermon was not half done. I preached from it again in the afternoon, and again in the evening, and I felt I could have preached from it for a week. So you see the Lord helped me through my work on the Sunday and I believed He would some way help me through the Monday.

After finishing the night’s service, a young man stood wishing to see me in private...For several minutes we were both silent, but at length he said:

“You knew my mother.” I looked him in the face, saying, “Surely I did, but I did not know you at first sight.”

“Well sir, when she died she left me some money, in fact all she had, except two small sums. She wished me to give one sum of $25 to a poor woman of her acquaintance; and speaking of you she said, “Our minister needs help and I wish you to give him $100. I paid the $25 to the old woman; but thinking no one knew, I resolved never to give you your amount. But while you were talking about the roguish executor this morning, I felt thunderstruck; and I have now brought you the $100. Here it is, do take it and forgive me.’

It was now my turn to be thunderstruck. I was amazed; and while the young man was putting the money into my hand, I trembled all over. God had heard my prayer! He had helped me through the Sunday and sent me the $100 for the Monday! It was mine and I took it. I shook the young man by the hand, and without putting the money into my pocket, I went quickly home and spread it out on the table before my wife, saying,

“Here it is, Here it is. He has heard my prayer and helped me and I will trust Him and praise Him as long as I live.”

O! my friends, when that little prayer, “Lord help me” comes from the heart of one of God’s children in distress, neither men, devils, nor angels can tell its power.

It has brought me thousands of blessings.

O! how little we confide in His grace and goodness.

“Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us” (Psa. 62:8).

Extract: We Have and We Wait

The Son of God came down from heaven in grace; He is gone up in righteousness; He is coming in glory.

The Father sent the Son, the Son gave Himself for us, and it was by the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself. Now God is for us, Christ in us, and the Spirit’s seal on us. We are children of God, members of the body of Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost.

We have righteousness, and we wait for its hope. We have the earnest, and wait for the possession of the inheritance. We have redemption as to our souls, and wait for the redemption of our bodies. We have the salvation of our souls, and look to the Saviour to change our vile bodies. We have received the Holy Ghost, and wait for the Bridegroom. What amazing grace that could thus set us in such blessing!

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 2

1 Corinthians 2

The Apostle is continuing the subject begun in the latter part of the first chapter—human wisdom, and what man glories in. When he had come to Corinth a few years before with the gospel, his preaching was not with excellent words or the wisdom that appeals to the natural mind; philosophy had no place in it. He had determined to know nothing among those who heard him, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. This was the theme of the Apostle as he spoke from day to day to the people of Corinth: not the glorified, but the humble, the despised, Christ, and Him nailed to a cross to die. Just before this he had been in the near-by city of Athens, the great center of learning of that day; and only a few there had believed.

What a change had taken place in Paul since his conversion! He “was before a blasphemer and persecutor and an insolent, overbearing man,” as he said in his First Epistle to Timothy, (1 Tim. 1:13 JND), but in Corinth he was with his hearers “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). This was the way of God’s power.

We may gather from Acts 18 that Paul was for some time in Corinth without finding many to receive the Word of God which he brought to them. It was then that he got a cheering message from his Master, as we read in the 9th and 10th verses:

“Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city.”

The Apostle’s message from God made nothing of man; man, indeed, was set aside altogether in his preaching, “and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom but in God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4-5 JND). Of the Holy Spirit the Lord had said, when soon to depart from the world, “And when He is come, He will reprove (or bring demonstration to) the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment” (John 16:8).

Such was His work in power in human souls at Corinth, causing the Word of God as ministered by the Apostle Paul to reach the heart and the conscience of many. God be praised that this work of the Holy Spirit is still going on, and is finding lodgment in human breasts today!

1 Corinthians 2:6, in its first clause is somewhat of a reflection on the believers at Corinth, as may be seen by referring to the opening verses of the next chapter, where the Apostle speaks more plainly. “Them that are perfect” as used here, means those that are of full age, as in Hebrews 5:14, where the same Greek word is employed. The Corinthian saints were not full grown, but babes in Christ, because they had not entered into the doctrine of the cross whereby man in the flesh is judged; the cross of Christ marks the end of man judicially before, God. All that flesh could glory in, is there brought to naught.

“Them that are perfect,” these are those who are in a Christian state, who are established in the doctrine of salvation in Christ. Among such the Apostle could bring out far more than he had unfolded to the Corinthians. This was, wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who come to naught, but the wisdom of God. It was “in a mystery,” because not made known before; kept secret through the preceding ages of time; for God had predetermined it before the ages, for our glory (1 Cor. 2:7 JND).

The Epistle to the Ephesians brings out this truth (Eph. 1:9; Eph. 3:3-5), and presents in its fullness that wisdom of God of which the Apostle speaks in his letter to the Corinthians. It is given to the church, to God’s heavenly saints, brought by the Holy Spirit out of the world for Christ in the period between the cross and the meeting in the air now close at hand. Alas! that there are so few Ephesian Christians, the many remaining like the Corinthian Christians, as we see them in these chapters.

1 Corinthians 2:8: None of the rulers of this age knew this hidden wisdom; if they had seen the glory of God in Christ, they would not have crucified Him who is the “Lord of Glory.” That is His present place; what a contrast the title presents with the ignominy and shame of His cross!

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 the Apostle turns to Isaiah 64:4 to quote it as showing what is not the Christian state, for he immediately adds “But God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit.” Sometimes children of God mistakenly quote the ninth verse without what is attached to it in the tenth. We may be very slow to apprehend what God has done for His children, but the fault is our own; we ought to be in the knowledge and enjoyment of all of His truth.

The 10th and following verses tell of the operations of the Spirit of God, who is present on earth, indwelling believers, guiding and energizing them, as is brought out in the 8th of Romans. By the Spirit, God has revealed unto us the things which He has prepared for them that love Him, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man. What marvels of God’s grace flow out to the believer because of the cross of Christ!

We have been told that God has revealed these hidden things to us by His Spirit; then it is added, “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” He alone is competent to do this, for He is God. In the case of man, used as an example in the 11th verse, it is plain that only the spirit of the man knows his unrevealed thoughts; just so the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God, and searches them out, even the deep things of God. Turning to 1 Peter 1:10-12, we find a most interesting statement about the Old Testament prophets. As a result of writing by inspiration of a time of unexampled blessing to be brought to pass, connected with a suffering Messiah, they inquired and searched diligently...searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow; unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you. . .” It is the Spirit of God, present in the saints, Who searches, reveals, and communicates all the counsels of God.

Now, says the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 2:12, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. This is broadly true of all believers, but the subject here is what Paul and others to whom the truth of God was committed by revelation, had received.

“Which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means” (1 Cor. 2:13 JND). So the Epistles give us the Holy Spirit’s words, God’s words, not man’s. The Spirit of God is the source and the communicator, the teacher. The natural man (1 Cor. 2:14) does not apprehend these communications of God’s counsels; they are folly to him. But the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:15) “discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one” (JND.).

The chapter closes with a reference to Isaiah 40:13, “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord (Jehovah), or being His counselor hath taught Him?” The answer to this challenge of the prophet follows: “but we have the mind of Christ.” We have not, as another has said, the divine mind abstractedly, but we, believers, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and through Him the revelation of the mystery (1 Cor. 2:7).

Honor the Lord

“Them that honor Me, I will honor” (1 Sam. 2:30).

“Sing forth the honor of His name” (Psa. 66:2).

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor Him, not finding thine own pleasure, nor doing thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Isa. 58:13-14).

“Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (Prov. 3:9-10).

God promises to honor all

Who seek to honor Him;

His precepts are infallible, -

Naught can His promise dim.

To honor Him in everything,

His Word, His name, His day,

With blessings showered abundantly

He surely will repay.

By “Holding forth the Word of Life”

That ever shall endure,

Which tells of His redeeming love,

Unchangeable and pure.

“Sing forth the honor of His name”

Who left His throne on high,

And to this world a ransom came,

For us to bleed and die.

To honor with thy substance too

By giving to the Lord,

Will meet with richest blessing, and

Will bring a sure reward.

The Lord delights to honor them

That will His name confess,

And all who choose to put Him first,

The Lord will surely bless.

Extract: Dependence or Fall

There is an easy way of going on in worldliness, and there is nothing more sad than the quiet comfortable Christian going on day by day apart from dependence on the Lord. We must be in dependence, or fall.

Address to Young People: Part 1

Psalms 87:6; Colossians 4:7-18

Part 1

We are all going to be written up. That process is going on now. In the close of the Epistle to the Colossians we get a little foreshadowing of that kind of thing. The Spirit of God has been pleased in the verses which we read in Colossians to give us a few remarks about some of the brethren. These remarks are the estimate that the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, put upon them. You will notice that no two of these men are characterized alike. Each one has that that is, distinctly his. No two of us are expected to be duplicates. The Spirit of God has been pleased to put these records here that we might pick up a bit of profit from them.

This address is supposed to be to those who are young. If the Lord tarries and you live, some day you will be older than you are now. If you are kept in the path, some day you will be among the older brethren. What kind of a record will God be able to write of you at that time? If the Apostle Paul were going to close one of his epistles and wanted to mention you, what kind of a record would he be able to give?

Tychicus has a nice recommendation. Here is a “beloved brother.” There was something about that man that made him very dear to the heart of Paul. He was a beloved brother. There are some of our brethren whom we can scarcely speak of without using that word. We always think of them as beloved brothers. Perhaps there are others, about whom we would not be so ready to speak in that way. Of course, we are all beloved of the Father, but that is not the side of things that is before us here. It is not what we are in Christ, but what is manifested in our practical everyday life, “A beloved brother, a faithful minister.”

Wouldn’t we all like to be that? I believe our hearts ought to long for that kind of thing. You would like to be that someday, wouldn’t you, dear young Christian? That kind of thing is made up of a lot of very small threads. It is like one of the great hawsers that they use on the ships. They are as big as your arm; but if you were to examine that great rope you would find that it is made up of lesser ropes and these are made up of still lesser ropes, and finally you get down to the fibers.

Our Christian character is like that. Why do you think that Tychicus was a beloved brother and faithful minister, and fellow-servant in the Lord? How could the Spirit of God call him that? His life had been made up of daily faithfulness. Day by day he had been weaving that cord, that rope of testimony and service. Now he is rather mature in his Christian experience, and the Apostle can call him “beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.” He did not suddenly become that. That was the result of a life of pruning. How nice that he could be spoken of in that way.

Young folks, are you faithful? Are you faithful in the little things God gives you to do for Him? Faithfulness is a great thing. It is a great thing to be faithful to the meetings. Have you a seat at the reading meeting, and are folks disappointed if you are not there? Would they miss you if you were not at the prayer meeting, or would they be surprised if you were there? Faithfulness is made of small obedience. It is woven of individual acts of faithfulness—faithfulness for Christ in the least bit of responsibility that falls across your path.

Perhaps there are some here this afternoon who had some little bit of service you were discharging for Him, and you were happy in it, but you have let it slip. Would the Lord have liked you to give it up, or was it spiritual sloth? Did you become, cold in your soul? O, if there is anyone here like that, go to the Lord about it and ask Him to freshen up your affections. When you go back home, take up that little service for Him. If He has given it to you, it is your individual responsibility—it has your name attached to it. Someone else might step in and do the work but that will not be discharging your responsibility.

Onesimus is another faithful man, another beloved brother. It doesn’t say anything about his being a fellow-servant, but he is a faithful and beloved brother. We read quite a bit about him in the Epistle to Philemon. He had not always been a faithful and beloved brother, he had been a very unfaithful man. He had run away from home, and perhaps helped himself to his master’s funds. He probably thought he had worked hard and got no pay, and was entitled to a little cash. Anyway, he ran away from his master, and arrived in Rome, and got converted there. That man was transformed by the grace of God into a beloved and faithful brother. So it doesn’t make any difference what our past has been, if the grace of God comes into our lives, all the privileges that belong to any children of God lie before us. We can appropriate them. Don’t be discouraged by thinking how bad you have been. Onesimus certainly had a bad name. Probably they said some very harsh things about him, where he came from, but here the Spirit of God is pleased to record,

“Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother.”

His name means “profitable.” He certainly had not lived up to his name in the early part of his life. He had been unprofitable. He had been a liability to his master. Now he goes back—no longer unprofitable, but profitable.

I wonder how the Lord would write you up—as profitable or unprofitable? In one sense we are all unprofitable servants, but we want to distinguish between things that differ. That doesn’t mean that we are to slump down, fold our hands and say, “I am an unprofitable servant,” and stay still. That scripture does not mean that we should not have an earnest desire that we might be enabled to do something to please the Lord, something that He can own as for Himself.

(To Be Continued)

David Bringing Home the Ark: 1 Chronicles 13

Many long years the ark of God remained in Kirjath-jearim and during the forty year reign of King Saul, Israel inquired not of it (1 Chron. 13:3). The time came when David had ascended the throne of Israel and was established in the kingdom. Very soon he desired to bring the ark of God home to him, and in the chapter before us we find him acting on this desire. This was truly a right desire, and one that was lacking in King Saul, but David begins to act without seeking God’s mind. David had a zeal, and we can say, a zeal in a good thing, but in the first verse we read, “David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds and with every leader.”

No mention is made of asking God about it, or seeking to discern from His Word how this should be done until after he consults with “every leader.” Then he says, “If it seems good unto you, and that it be of the Lord our God.”

The Lord is now mentioned, and His blessing desired on their plans and undertaking.

There is always danger ahead when we “look this way, and that way.” By examining these first verses, we are almost prepared to expect mistakes and failures to follow. Whenever there is much consulting with man, and seeking to gain man’s approval, we are very apt to miss the Lord’s mind, and embark upon a path of our own planning.

In the next verse David brings forward a very great and good reason for bringing home the ark, reminding the Israelites of their past failure in not seeking it in the days of Saul. The desire was good, and the failure of the past should be brought home to their consciences, but neither a right desire nor reviewing our past failure will guarantee us against other failures.

The approval of the captains, every leader, and all the people was now secured. Everything was ready, “so David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath.” What a great assemblage! Everything outwardly pointed to a great revival in Israel. There was nothing like it in all the days of Saul, and it would seem to indicate God’s guidance and blessing.

But alas, “they carried the ark of God in a new cart!” God had decreed that “none but the Levites” should carry the ark, so whence came the cart? It was something new, something modern, and in keeping with the times. Had not the Philistines used a cart to send the ark of God home? Would it not be well to follow their example? It had proved very successful to the Philistines. Had not times changed since God had said that only the Levites should carry the ark? Still, all goes on well, and “David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.”

What an impressive sight! Surely God would be pleased with that, and especially so as they “played before God.” There was not one voice raised against it. What more could anyone ask? They had unanimity of purpose, word, and deed. Had anyone dared to object, the sounds of the music would have drowned his objection, and he would have been considered narrow or extreme.

No doubt times had changed, but God had not changed. His holiness and truth remain forever the same. David had forgotten the glory of God, and the majesty proper to Him. He had also overlooked the sin of the people which had caused the loss of the ark and God’s departure from among them. Accordingly God brings in judgment by smiting Uzza, who dared to put forth his hand to support the ark. There would have been no occasion for this action by Uzza, if God’s order had been followed.

Next we see the flesh, which had been acting, even in a good thing, showing itself in King David. “David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza.” What then—are we better than this servant of God? No, in no wise, for how often when we least suspect it, the flesh has been working in us, even in the service of God. We are each susceptible to being guided by our own desires, our longings, our wills, the thoughts of others, the remembrance of the past, and other things.

How many new carts there are in Christendom today! It is filled with them, and many may appear to be very successful in the service of God. Various expediencies are adopted in an effort to increase numbers. Schemes current in the world are used to attract people so that more may hear the gospel. They may even bring a lot of scattered or divided Christians together. More than that, God in His sovereign grace may use the gospel thus preached to the saving of many souls, but that is no sign of His sanction of our use of new carts. The world and most Christians may give hearty approval, and there may be great rejoicing “before God,” but may we shun all that is not according to His mind. We know that God’s purpose is that all His redeemed shall be one, and that He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, but our business is to walk in His path, according to truth and holiness, leaving the results with Him.

Satan is ever active and seeks by one means and then another to have us forsake the old paths (Jer. 6:16). For the saints of God, his power is broken, but we need to beware of his wiles, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Let us seek on our knees, in a sense of great weakness and failure, divine guidance for each step of the pathway, and pray earnestly that we may be kept “holding fast” that which He has committed unto us.

Use Opportunities

Even the slightest opportunities for conveying the Gospel message should not be neglected. A word fitly spoken, even under apparently the most unpropitious circumstances, may, with the Divine blessing upon it, result in incalculable good.

A number of years ago, a preacher related an interesting instance of his having successfully preached the gospel to an Indian woman, who came fifteen miles one day to hear him preach, but arrived just as the sermon closed. Seeing her disappointment and knowing her purpose, he did not hesitate to approach her as she sat at the root of a tree, and with the required aid of two interpreters, gave her the true gospel message, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” It resulted in her conversion, and through her in the conversion of many of her tribe.

A similar instance is recorded of another well-known preacher, who also on one occasion did not hesitate to preach the gospel to an audience consisting of a single individual, who had ventured out through the storm to hear him preach. The sermon was as faithfully delivered as though the house had been full. It led to the conversion of the hearer, and he in turn became a preacher, and was instrumental in the conversion of numerous others.

This improvement of apparently unfavorable opportunities of doing good, has the complete sanction of the Saviour’s most holy example, as seen in His prolonged conversation with the woman of Samaria, resulting in her own conversion, and the carrying of the gospel to her people.

These instances show that at home, by the wayside, anywhere and everywhere Christ may be preached and good accomplished.

Correspondence: Mat. 25:14-30; 1 Ki. 22:14-16; 1 Th. 5:2; Rev. 3:10; Rev. 1:19

Question: What are the Talents of Matthew 25:14-30, and to whom are they given? Are the Talents man’s ability, or money? How are the Talents gained?

Answer: The Talents of Matthew 25:14-30 are the gifts or abilities bestowed by the Lord upon each of His own, to be used for His glory.

Question: Why did King Ahab rebuke Micaiah when he told him the same as the four hundred wicked prophets? (1 Kings 22:15-16). Micaiah had said (1 Kings 22:14), “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.” And in verse 14 he told what the Lord had given him to say.

Answer: When Micaiah came into the presence of King Ahab, he was intimidated, and gave a false prophecy to escape the King’s wrath. But when his hypocrisy was detected by the King, he uttered the truth as the Lord had given it to him to speak.

Question: Is 1 Thessalonians 5:2 Christ’s coming for us, or with us?

Answer: It is the day of the Lord, when He comes to assert His authority, and take the Kingdom. We appear with Him. It is when He comes as a thief in the night, an unwelcome and unlooked for visitor to the wicked. (Isa. 2:10-12; Joel 2:1-2, 28-32).

Question: What is the “hour of temptation” in Revelation 3:10?

Answer: The “hour of temptation” is future. The saints will be kept from it by the Lord coming to take them to Himself. It will be during the time of “the great tribulation” after the church is gone to be with Him. “Those that dwell on the earth” are a special class who claim the earth—earthly minded (Phil. 3:19).

Question: Please explain Revelation 1:19.

Answer: “The things which thou hast seen” includes Revelation 1:12-18.

“The things that are” is the period of the church’s history on earth.

“The things that shall be hereafter,” or “after these things” is the future, commencing with the 4th chapter. The church is still on earth, and no prophecy is to be fulfilled till we are with the Lord in heaven. The wars, pestilence, famines, earthquakes, etc., that take place now, are not foretold in Scripture. We are simply told to wait for the Son from heaven. The church is being gathered now. The Bright and Morning Star may soon be ours. Till then no prophecy can be fulfilled, not even the “beginning of sorrows” (Matt. 24:8), do we look for.

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled. . .” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2. This is the first thing to happen, and how soon we may see Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us!

"He's Altogether Lovely"

Have you heard the angels’ story

Of a Saviour come to earth?

How the shepherds saw the glory

Of the infant Jesus’ birth,

When the bright light shone around them,

They obeyed the heavenly call,

And in swaddling clothes they found Him,

’Midst the cattle in the stall?

Have you heard the Master weeping

O’er the sinful hearts of men,

With a love that knows no sleeping,

Calling loudly unto them?

As the hen beneath her feathers

Soothes the little ones’ alarms,

So Jesus runs and gathers

All who want Him, to His arms.

Did you never hear how Jesus

Gave to wearied hearts sweet rest?

How He cured from all diseases

Those who came to Him opprest?

The poor dying thief He pardoned,

And the woman at the well,

For no matter how sin-hardened -

O! His love can break the spell!

Have you been to sad Gethsemane,

And viewed that prostrate form

Of Jesus with the enemy

Bowed down beneath the storm?

Have you seen those blood-drops falling?

Heard that agonizing groan,

As He prayed, His Father calling,

“Not My will, but Thine be done”?

Have you felt in Calvary’s fountain,

The deep drawing of His love,

When He died on yonder mountain,

Your Redeemer from above?

There’s forgiveness in His precious, blood,

Forgiveness in His prayer;

There’s forgiveness through our pardoning

God -

Forgiveness free as air!

I Will Come Again

“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” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

The Lord Jesus has left the sure Word of promise to all His people.

“I will come again and receive you unto Myself” (John 14:3).

The “Shout” of the returning Lord, when He descends from the Father’s throne upon which He now sits (Rev. 3:21), to raise “the dead in Christ” from their graves, to change those of His people who are “alive and remain unto His coming” (1 Thess. 4:15), to gather both around Himself “in the air,” and thence lead them glorified, in His own likeness to the Father’s House (John 14:3), to be welcomed there as the children of God without distinction, on the ground of sovereign grace alone.

Honor the Son

“All men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).

“Nothing counts but Christ.” All else is without value. All else will perish. The knowledge of God revealed in His person, and communion with Him by the Holy Ghost, satisfy the soul here, and they never pass away.

True service to His name, humble and obedient following of Him, devotion of heart to His interests here below, will “count” in courts above.

“If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.”

How feebly have we learned the thoughts of our God as to Christ, His blessed Son! For Him, Christ is exclusively the center, the purpose, the object and end of all.”

A Servant Forever

Observe that the Lord was a servant down here. According to John 13, He becomes a servant on ascending to heaven, an Advocate, to wash our feet. In this place He makes Himself a servant for our blessing in heaven. In Exodus 21, if the servant who had fulfilled his service did not wish to go out free, he was brought to the judges, and was fastened to the door by an awl, which bored his ear in token of perpetual bondage.

Jesus had perfectly accomplished His service to His Father at the end of His life on earth. In Psalm 40, His “ears were digged” (that is, a body prepared, which is the position of obedience; compare Phil. 2). This is the incarnation. Now His service was finished in His life on earth as man, but He loved us too much—He loved His Father too much in the character of servant—to give it up; and at His death His ear, according to Exodus 21, was bored, and He became a servant forever—a man forever—now to wash our feet; hereafter in heaven (Luke 12:37), when He shall take us to Himself. What a glorious, picture of the love of Christ.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 3

Three classes of mankind are here set before us: the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14), that is, man animated merely by his created soul, without the teaching and power of the Holy Spirit; the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:15), that is, the believer who walks in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), and feels and judges in Him; and the carnal or fleshly (1 Cor. 3:1). The Corinthian believers were of the last class, as the Apostle here proceeds to make plain to them.

He could not unfold at Corinth the deeper truths which have so large a place in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

“And I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk to drink, not meat, for hitherto ye have not been able, nor indeed are ye yet able, for ye are yet carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1-2 JND).

We may well conclude that the Apostle’s plain words were humbling indeed to the self-satisfied saints at Corinth; they were far from thinking of themselves as “fleshly,” as “babes in Christ,” given only “milk” to drink.

Let us apply what we have read to ourselves, young Christians: Is our state before God such that the Holy Spirit is hindered in seeking to communicate to us the precious truths concerning Christ in which other believers delight? The believers at Corinth were attracted by things of flesh: man’s wisdom, eloquence, ability; not realizing that these have no place before God. Another has truly said,

“Flesh delights in what is of man, as the Spirit gives to enjoy what is of God.”

May God give grace to the Christian reader to seek conformity to Christ, and to refuse whatever makes something of man as such.

If in the opening verses of our chapter an unpleasant truth is plainly stated in language chosen by the Holy Spirit, in the third and fourth verses a particularly evident proof of that charge is given: “For whereas there are among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are ye not men?” (1 Cor. 3:3-4 JND)

Their eyes were off Christ, and on man; emulation and strife, which are works of the flesh (Gal. 5:20) followed.

“Who then is Apollos, and who Paul. Ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each” (1 Cor. 3:5. JND).

Thus a second time, early in the epistle, the Holy Spirit takes occasion to rebuke the party spirit which issued finally in sectarianism.

Making a center out of any servant of Christ, however devoted he may have been, is contrary to the Word of God which points to Christ alone as the gathering center for His people, as in the well known passage, Matthew 18:20. We can truly thank God for raising up servants to faithfully proclaim His truth (would that there were many more of them!), but we must never exalt the servant. May all such remember that what they possess that God can use, was given them, as this fifth verse itself tells—“as the Lord has given to each.”

1 Corinthians 3:6: At Corinth, Paul had “planted;” the first work there was instrumentally in his hands, laboring where none had gone before, as he wrote to the saints at Rome (Rom. 15:20). Apollos, of whom we first learn in Acts 18:24, followed Paul in ministering Christ at Corinth, and “helped them much which had believed through grace,” as we are told in Acts 18:27. But, whether we look at the “planter” or the “waterer,” it is God that gives the increase.

Of what use would all the farming be that is carried on in the world—all the plowing and sowing, the planting, the fertilizing and irrigating and cultivating, if God did not cause what is planted to grow?

Just so is it in the preaching of the gospel, and the printing and distributing of tracts; in seeking the spiritual growth of God’s saints, too.

“So that neither the planter is anything, nor the waterer, but God the giver of the increase.”

The planter and the waterer are one; both are engaged in doing servant work; and they are, or should be, exercising the gift the Lord has given to each for His service. He alone is capable of forming the right estimate of the work of each, and each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

“For we,” says the Apostle, speaking of himself and Apollos, and all others who labor in His service, “are God’s fellow-workmen; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building.”

The Apostle has to this point used the figure of planting and watering—of husbandry. Now the subject becomes one of building; and there is a marked increase of solemnity, evidencing the Spirit’s knowledge of what, through the failure of man in responsibility, would be introduced during the history of the professing church.

As a wise “master-builder” (architect), according to the grace of God given to him, Paul had laid the foundation, but the building thereon is done by others. Let each see how he builds upon it! For other foundation can no man lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

“Now if anyone build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones”—things of value, and that will endure – “wood, grass, straw”—perishable things, readily consumed in flames—“the work of each shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire shall try the work of each, what it is. If the work of anyone which he has built upon the foundation shall abide, he shall receive a reward. If the work of anyone shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be saved; but so as through the fire” (1 Cor. 3:12-15 JND).

This is very solemn indeed, in view of the many professed servants of Christ there have been all the way down from the beginning of the church, and those that are so today; also it is plain, when their work is compared with the teachings of Scripture, that many have been diligent in building what will not survive the trial of God’s judgment in the coming “day.” Only believers are in view in these verses, but the 15th verse suggests the possibility that much, if not all, of the work of some, professedly done in the name of Christ, will be seen to be worthless in that day. Is it necessary to say that Christians in general are not in view in these verses, but only those who are building, as serving Christ—teaching, preaching, and it is their work that will be tested; the salvation of their souls is not questioned.

1 Corinthians 3:16. The presence of the Holy Spirit according to the promise of John 14:16-17 is what constitutes believers the temple of God; they are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit according to Ephesians 2:22. This truth, it is feared, is slighted by many, to their own loss. Badly prone we Christians are, to be content with the barest outline of what God’s Word reveals, instead of searching the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Not a single truth of God is ignored by, or lost to the sight of, believers without corresponding loss in the soul.

1 Corinthians 3:17. What God values, and Christians are apt to be careless about, Satan, our great enemy, seeks to corrupt or destroy. Here the instruments employed are men or women who bear the Lord’s name, but are false professors; such will be dealt with according to the enormity of their deeds.

“If any man defile (or corrupt) the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which ye are, (or, and such are ye).”

The word for what is translated here both “corrupt” and “destroy” is one and the same in the original Greek. He who teaches evil doctrine, corrupts or destroys; such shall God destroy. Solemn, but who shall say not merited, judgment? Did some think it so? Let no man deceive himself. It is better to give up worldly wisdom, to become foolish in the eyes of the world, that one may be wise.

1 Corinthians 3:19-20. This world’s wisdom is foolishness with God. Is it not remarkable how the Holy Spirit takes Old Testament passages as here from Job 5:13, in the lengthy speech of Eliphaz the Temanite to the poor suffering saint, and in Psalm 94:11 which refers to the coming kingdom, and applies them to the subject before Him?

The last three verses sum up the matter: Let no one boast in men, for all things, are ours through God’s grace, since we are His children. All are ours—the God-given ministers of His Word, and all circumstances, as the Apostle briefly recounts, both present and future; and we are Christ’s, as He is God’s—so to be eternally.

How little place these considerations sometimes have in the lives of God’s children! Let us seek with purpose of heart to give His Word far more place in our lives; so shall we find true happiness, and God will be glorified.

Address to Young People Psalm 87:6; Colossians 4:7-18: Part 2

“Aristarchus—my fellow prisoner.” He had endured hardship for Christ. He knew what it was to suffer for Christ. He had identified himself with a man of God. At the close of his own life Paul said,

“I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Those wounds and scars that Paul had in his body showed that he had suffered for Christ. Aristarchus had the honor of sharing some of those sufferings for his Lord and Master.

O, young folks, that is a privilege. If we suffer, we are going to reign. Have you ever had the privilege of suffering for Christ? I wonder if we try to avoid it? O, remember, “It is given unto us not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”

Shame on us if we seek to avoid that path. Shame on us if we keep our mouths closed when we should speak. Shame on us if we would rather not be associated with those who are godly, if we are ashamed to be characterized as a Christian.

Marcus, or Mark. There is something very encouraging here. Have you ever made some kind of a blunder in that little meeting where you come from? Have you ever made a mess of things? Have you ever been humiliated in the midst of your brethren? Take courage. Here is a man that has done the same thing. His name was Mark. He started out to serve the Lord, and he became weak-kneed. He got homesick and turned back. That was a sad thing. He certainly missed the mind of the Lord in that. At the time, the Apostle Paul was very much disappointed in him, and did not have much confidence in him. He had turned his back on the work of Christ. Isn’t it nice to find the Apostle Paul here, near the close of his life, telling the Colossians that Mark was coming, and if he came, to receive him. In a later epistle he says,

“He is profitable to me for the ministry.”

Mark recovered himself, or perhaps I should say, the Lord recovered Mark. Because he had made a colossal failure, that was no sign that the Lord was through with him. I remember saying to a brother a good many years ago,

“How is it that we never hear your voice in any address to the young folks, or any ministry?”

“O,” he said, “I tried it once and made such a miserable failure, I made up my mind I would never try again.”

I sought to encourage him, and tell him that because he failed once was no reason why he should always fail. That brother became one of our most valuable and esteemed brothers—one of our most able brothers. We do not need to think that God is through with us because we have failed. Paul did not hold against Mark his past failures.

Jesus, or Justus. Paul gave him his full title—Justus, the just one. That man’s outstanding characteristic was that he was a just man. Well, that is not to be despised. We should all seek to be just. If there is anything, that should characterize a Christian it is moral integrity—downright honesty—by the grace of God to speak the truth, and be men of our word—to be those that can be trusted—those upon whom our neighbors can look as honest men—men that pay our debts—men that have no unfulfilled obligations.

Epaphras—“a servant of Christ.” We are all servants of Christ in a sense. If you are a Christian, you are a servant of Christ. O, what a privilege! There is no such thing as an unnecessary member of the body of Christ, as a useless member. In biology they try to tell us that we have certain things in our bodies that once were functional, but they have ceased to be so—they do not mean anything anymore. I am not saying that I agree with the biologists. There are no needless remnants hanging to our bodies. So in the body of Christ, every member has a functional responsibility. We are all servants of Christ—not servants of men, but servants of Christ, and our orders come from up there. You cannot go to a brother and ask him what you should do. You have to get your directions from Christ. Epaphras was a servant of Christ. What did he do? He was a mighty man of prayer. He was a laboring brother in a very special sense, and you can be a laboring brother or a laboring sister in this sense. This is an avenue of service open to every Christian, and it is a most valuable one. There is a brother present who said something to me a number of years ago, and I have never forgotten it. He was speaking about prayer and how to pray, and he said,

“Well, the best way to learn to pray is to pray.”

You will never learn to pray by reading a book on it. You will learn to pray by praying. Here is a man who prayed, and it says he labored earnestly. It takes real purpose of heart to pray, and the fact that we do so little of it proves that.

O, how Satan likes to keep us from our knees. What will our service amount to if it is not sanctified by prayer? A prayer-less life is a barren life. You may be so active in Christian service that you have no time to pray, but it will be a barren life regardless of all activity. Epaphras was not satisfied to see every believer brought to the Lord’s Table. The burden of his heart was that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Don’t we all need praying for, when we look at it from that angle?

(To Be Continued)

Hindrances to Tract Distribution

The tract distributor may look for opposition in the work.

1. Ridicule. Sometimes he will be ridiculed. There is the shake of the head or the scornful look; sometimes even personal abuse, but these things, which are often the expression of deep conviction, will do the tract distributor no harm, but sometimes a world of good.

2. Direct antagonism. An earnest preacher used to tell that forty years ago he narrowly escaped a martyr’s crown in a railway journey.

“I was quietly handing out some gospel tracts in a train when, with a great rage, a man rose and held a revolver to my head, threatening to shoot me there and then unless I desisted. The passengers all seemed greatly alarmed, and a scene occurred, amid which, coward as I too often am, I felt quite undisturbed, but soldiers of the King must sometimes be under fire.”

3. Resentment. The tract distributor has known many a time what it is for persons to resent his approach with the offer of a tract. Murray McCheyne, of Dundee, made tract distribution part of his ministerial life. One day he gave a tract to a fashionable lady, who said to him, “Surely you do not know who I am.”

McCheyne replied: “He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world, and unless you are trusting Him, you will stand no chance on that day, no matter who you are.”

We should pray for such as we meet them in our work.

4. Legal restrictions. In certain cities tract distribution is forbidden, and care should be exercised by Christian workers to find out the attitude of local authorities before undertaking the work.

Note: Last fall the Supreme Court held unconstitutional the ordinances of three cities which restricted the distribution of pamphlets “on sidewalks and other public places.” The Court said, referring to contentions that the ordinances were necessary to prevent littering the streets:

“Although a municipality may enact regulations in the interest of the public safety, health, welfare or convenience, these may not abridge the individual liberties secured by the Constitution to those who wish to speak, write, print, or circulate information or opinion....The purpose to keep the streets clean and of good appearance is insufficient to justify an ordinance which prohibits a person rightfully on a public street from handing literature to one willing to receive it.”

“In the same opinion,” states a city newspaper, “the Court also invalidated a fourth ordinance requiring house-to-house canvassers to obtain permits from the police chief.”

Waiting for Christ

That which should characterize the saints is, not merely holding the doctrine of the Lord’s coming as that which they believe, but their souls should be in daily attitude of waiting, expecting and desiring His coming. But why? That they may see Himself, and be with Him and like Him forever!

The whole walk and character of a saint depends upon this-on his waiting for the Lord. Everyone should be able to read us by this, as having nothing to do in this world, but to get through it, and not as having any portion in it. “Turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:9-10).

What I desire to press upon you all, and myself too, is the individual waiting for the Lord; not as a doctrine merely, but as a daily waiting for Himself. Whatever the Lord’s will may be, I should like Him to find me doing it when He comes. But that is not the question; Am I waiting for Himself day by day? In 1 Thessalonians 2, the hope is connected with ministry: “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?” Then Paul would get the reward of his service to the saints. Then in the third chapter the hope is connected with our walk, as a motive for holiness: “Unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” Then in the fourth chapter the doctrine of the hope is unfolded, the manner of it comes out: “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.”

Thus we see what a present expectation the coming of the Lord was; therefore Paul says, “We which are alive and remain.” Why does he say “We”? Because he expected it then. This was Paul’s character then, that of waiting for the Lord. And does he lose that character because he died before He came? No, not at all.

Though Peter had a revelation that he should put off the tabernacle of his body, yet he daily waited for the Lord’s coming then. And this will be Peter’s character when the Lord does come; he will lose nothing by his death. “Be ye like unto men that wait for their Lord” (Luke 12:36).

The character of their waiting was to be like servants at the hall door, that, when the Master knocked, they were ready to open to Him immediately. It is a figure, of course, here; but it is the present power of the expectation that is alluded to. And the ruin of the church has come in by practically saying: “My Lord delayeth His coming.”

“Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching.”

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning”-“your loins girt about with truth” for service. You must not let your garments flow loose; that is, you must not let your thoughts and affections spread abroad, but be ready with your garments well girt up, and your lights burning. This is not rest, for it is an exceedingly tiring thing to have to sit up and watch through a long dark night. But in the spirit of service, the heart, affections, thoughts, feelings and desires must be all girt up. And this requires real painstaking not to let the flesh go its own way; for it is a great comfort sometimes to do this, if but for a moment; but if we do we shall surely fall asleep like the virgins. For as the virgins went to sleep with their oil in their lamps, so we may go asleep with the Holy Ghost indwelling us. But blessed are those servants who are found watching.

The Lord says this is the time for you to be girded, to take your turn in love to serve and watch; but when I come again, and have things My own way, then will I take My turn in love; ungird you and gird Myself, and come forth and serve you. You must be well girt up and watchful in the midst of evil; but when evil is done with, then you may take your rest. When in the Father’s house you may lie down and be at ease; and then your robes may flow down without any fear of their being soiled. In that blessed place of holiness and purity, you may let your affections, thoughts and desires flow out without the fear of their being defiled.

When Thou shalt come, for whom we wait,

We then shall see and know how great

The gain that faith hath stored.

With joyful hearts our songs we raise,

Our God and Father now to praise,

While waiting for Thee, Lord.

All May Come

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

This is perfect grace; no restriction; no setting the Jew in the foremost seat of honor. But “Come unto Me all ye that labor...and I will give you rest.”

It is without condition or qualification, if the needy but go to Hm. “Come unto Me.” “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Once and Now

We once were lost, but now are found,

Like sheep we went astray;

We were by sin and Satan bound,

And trod the downward way.

But Thou, O Lord, didst seek and find,

With joy didst bring us home,

And by Thy love, our spirits bind,

That we no more might roam.

We once were blind, but now we see,

We dwelt in nature’s night;

No beauty, Lord, could find in Thee,

Till we were blest with sight.

But God, in wondrous love and grace,

Did on our darkness shine;

His glory showed us in Thy face,

And gave us light divine.

We once were dead, but now we live,

Our life, O Lord, art Thou,

Who for our sins Thyself didst give -

Beneath our judgment bow.

Eternal life is ours in Thee,

Thou risen from the dead;

And we, from sin and judgment free,

Are one with Thee, the Head.

How much, O Lord, to Thee we owe,

In whom we thus are blest!

Whose precious blood for us did flow,

And love divine expressed.

O Saviour, Shepherd, Life and Light,

To Thee we praises bring;

And soon shall, in Thy glory bright,

More worthy anthems sing.

Rest

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Heb. 4:9).

Heaven will be one scene of God’s rest or sabbath: and the saints, in their measure tasting the same refreshing, will dwell in that rest, in bodies fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body. They shall shine “as the sun” in the kingdom of their Father.

In mind, body, and estate, they will be conformed to the Beloved. And there will be the seeing or understanding of all the precious revelation of God, not as through a glass, darkly, but as face to face, knowing even as we are known.

Correspondence: Bearing Israel's Iniquities

Question: What is meant by the righteous judgment of God? (2 Thess. 1:5)

Answer: The coming judgment of God at Christ’s return to the earth. The Thessalonians thought the “day of the Lord” had come. The Apostle here shows them that the sufferings they endured were not tribulation from Him, but were a token of His coming righteous judgment, which would deliver them, and punish their enemies. If saints suffer now, it is a token that God’s righteous judgments are being earned by others.

Question: In what way will the Lord bear Israel’s iniquities? (Isa. 53:11).

Answer: He has borne their iniquities, only according to Leviticus 16, they do not know it till the priest (Christ) comes out (Lev. 16:17-18) from God’s presence where He has sprinkled the blood. This will be when Christ comes forth before the Millennium, to Israel, and then they will know for the first time the value of Christ’s work on Calvary. We know it by faith now, for Christ has sent the Spirit down into our hearts for this purpose (Heb. 10); but a veil is still on their hearts as a nation.

The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son Cleanseth Us From All Sin

“My dear Miss F., what would I not give if you could see that text as I do!”

“It is no use, Miss S.; I never can, and I never shall.”

The text alluded to was beautifully printed on white satin, and suspended near the dining-room door, so that any one leaving the room could scarcely avoid reading it.

Miss F. was a governess., and had recently obtained an engagement in the school kept by Miss S. By an unusual oversight she had not been asked one single question as to her religious opinions, and so found herself, although a Unitarian, and denying the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the house of a Christian, whose life and conversation were a bright testimony to all around, and above all, to each pupil in her school.

Poor Miss F. soon felt very much like a thief that had gone into the house unawares. Still, there was something sweet and bright about the place, and she did not wish to leave; and as the days passed on she became attached to the different members of the household, and though her conscience became more uneasy, her desire to remain increased.

At last an opportunity occurred to disclose the fact of her Unitarianism. A celebrated minister of that sect had recently lost his wife, and as she was a gifted writer, her death was the subject of an article in one of the papers, and this led to the following conversation—

“Did you know her, Miss F.? she resided in your neighborhood,” asked Miss S.

“Yes, we went to their chapel, and my brother’s children were christened by her husband,” replied Miss F., with a heart beating rapidly, for now, thought she, I shall have to go tomorrow for certain!

“My dear, was your brother a Unitarian?”

“Yes, Miss S.”

“But you, my dear, were never influenced by his opinions, I hope?”

“Yes, Miss S., we are all Unitarians.”

If the roof had fallen in, Miss S. would not have been more startled. She literally could not speak in her amazement, and took an early opportunity of dismissing the only other occupant of the room; and when they were left alone, she said;

“My dear Miss F., did I not ask you about your religious opinions before I engaged you as governess?”

“No, Miss S., you did not, or I should have told you; and as I had no objection to going to church, I thought you were not more particular than myself.”

“That was a great mistake, my dear; but I must wait until morning before I decide anything.”

That night was a trying one for poor Miss F., already much attached both to the principal and the pupils. She knew that in all probability she would be obliged to leave the next day. And not only that, but she felt, on retiring to her own room, that in the room just under her feet Miss S. was pouring out her heart to the Lord in prayer and supplication for her. The very boards seemed to open and let the prayers through, so powerfully did she feel the prayers. No one had ever prayed for her before; it was a new experience.

Morning came at last, and after breakfast Miss S. requested her governess to remain with her a few moments, and then told her that after laying the case before the Lord, she thought that as she had come into the house as governess without questions being asked (a circumstance that had never happened before), it might be that the Lord had sent her for blessing, and it would not be right to send her away-not at present, at all events..

“But,” said Miss S., “I shall require your promise not to influence my pupils in any way.”

Miss F. was glad to give the required promise, as she already felt that there was something happier about the teaching of Miss S. than her own Unitarian opinions; and although she thought that the teaching of Miss S. was all founded on a mistake, she made up her mind not to trouble about it.

Already a month had passed, and all went on happily, when one evening as they were going out of the dining-room

Miss F. glanced at the text above alluded to, and this being observed by Miss. S., it brought out the remark at the commencement of this narrative,

“I never can, and I never shall!”

Was not this like setting man’s will against God’s power? The only response of Miss S. at the time was a profound sigh.

Time went on, Miss S. regularly teaching the children God’s way of salvation, without personally speaking much to Miss F., who listened, thought it sounded very sweet, but took no more notice, until just nine months after her first arrival, when, passing out of the dining-room as usual, she once more glanced at the text;

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Something seemed different, and she stood still while once more Miss S. used exactly the same words, “My dear Miss F., what would I not give if you could see that text as I do!”

“Miss S., I do!” was the glad cry that almost burst from her governess, as she continued to gaze at the words.

How different they looked, thought she! So they did. A light had shone from it into the heart of the looker on, and there was “joy in the presence of the angels of God” that night. So full of the newly found joy and blessing was Miss F. that she wondered everyone did not notice her happiness.

Letters were written to each dear relative, begging them to turn from their dead doctrine to the life-giving Saviour, so ready to receive all who come to Him. Whosoever will may come! Reader, will you?

That text first shone with saving power before the eyes of that governess, filling her with joy and peace unspeakable; the word of the Lord abides.

And thus His Word still avails for every one yet in darkness as to the value of that blood, which indeed cleanseth from all sin.

It was shed for the remission of sins; and we have all sinned, and our conscience tells us so. But through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed on our behalf-for He died the just for the unjust-we have our consciences cleansed from our sins, and we no longer have an “evil conscience” about them; for we know and believe that His blood has atoned for them all, and put them away from before God-we purify our souls in obeying the truth, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. Christ, who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.

“It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,

But the blood that atones for the soul;

On Him then believe, and a pardon receive,

Not in part, but indeed, of the whole.

O! take with rejoicing from Jesus at once

The life everlasting He gives;

And know with assurance thou never canst die,

Since Jesus thy righteousness lives.”

Enoch Walked With God

There is a striking difference between the inspired records of the people of God, and all human biographies. The former may truly be said to be, “much in little;” while many of the latter may, as truly, be said to be, “little in much.”

The history of one of the Old Testament saints-a history stretching over a period of 365 years, is summed up in two short clauses.

“Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24).

How brief! But yet how full! how comprehensive! How many volumes would man have filled with the records of such a life! And yet, what more could have been said? To walk with God, comprehends all that could possibly be said of any one.

A man may travel round the globe; he may preach the gospel in every clime; he may suffer in the cause of Christ; he may feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick; he may read, write, print, and publish; in short, he may do all that ever man could or did do; and yet it may be all summed up in that brief clause, “He walked with God.” And right well it will be for him, if it can be so summed up.

One may do nearly all that has been enumerated, and yet never walk with God one hour, yea, one may not even know the meaning of a walk with God. The thought of this is deeply solemnizing and practical. It should lead to the earnest cultivation of the hidden life, without which the most showy services will prove to be but mere flash and smoke.

Sweet, Blessed Hope!

When langor’ and disease invade

This trembling house of clay,

’Tis sweet to look beyond our cage,

And long to fly away;

Sweet to look inward, and attend

The whispers of His love;

Sweet to look upward to the place

Where Jesus lives above;

Sweet to look back, and see my name

In Life’s fair book set down;

Sweet to look forward, and behold

Eternal joys my own;

Sweet to reflect how grace divine

My sins on Jesus laid;

Sweet to remember that His blood

My debt of sins has paid.

Sweet on His faithfulness to rest,

Whose love can never end;

Sweet on His covenant of grace

For all things to depend;

Sweet in the confidence of faith

To trust His firm decrees;

Sweet to lie passive in His hands,

And know no will but His;

Sweet, blessed hope! and I at last

Shall see Him and adore;

Be with His likeness, satisfied,

And grieve and sin no more.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 4

In the fifth verse of the third chapter, the Apostle had asked, “Who then is Apollos, and who Paul?” and answered, “ministering servants, through whom ye have believed, and as the Lord has given to each” (N. T.).

This they were, truly, and not to be exalted as though they were the sources rather than the channels, through whom salvation, and the blessings of the believer had come to once darkened souls in Corinth.

But the solemn considerations that have been before us in the later verses of the third chapter are fitly followed by the opening verses of the fourth,

“Let a man so account of us as (official or appointed) servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1 JND).

They were to be looked upon as Christ’s servants, commissioned by Himself, not by men; and as stewards of the mysteries of God-of the things which in other ages were not made known to the sons of men. In Deuteronomy 29:29 we read, “The secret (or hidden) things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed, belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this, law.” What God then kept to Himself, He revealed after the cross of Christ, as is abundantly shown in Ephesians 1:9; Colossians 1:26-27, and kindred passages. The ways and purposes of God are unknown to the world, but have been revealed to His saints.

It will profit the young Christian much to turn to Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Ephesians 5:29-32; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3; 1 Timothy 3:8,16, and Revelation 10:7, and prayerfully examine these references to the things now made known to believers, which were held secret in the counsels of God from eternity until revealed to the Apostle Paul for the church.

The responsibility of any servant or steward is to his master; he must be faithful to the trust reposed in him. If this is true in regard to a man’s responsibility to his employer, is God’s standard lower? By no means.

The third chapter has shown us the solemn issue before the servants of Christ in regard to their work (1 Cor. 3:13-15). They are His servants, not men’s; not the servants of the Church, but responsible to their divine Master alone in the exercise of their service. This is true of all who serve Him, though many do not believe it, and in a large part of the Christian profession, the rule is that the Church regulates the ministry-an open disregard of the Word of God. As saints, the servants of Christ are, of course, subject to discipline for bad conduct, and bad doctrine, just as any other saint, but in their service, apart from such evil, they are responsible to Christ alone.

Accordingly, the Apostle goes, on to say (1 Cor. 4:3-4), “But for me it is the very smallest matter that I be examined of you, or of man’s day. Nor do I even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I am not justified by this; but He that examines me is the Lord” (JND). The reference here is really not to judgment; but to a preliminary inquiry or examination. The believer will never come into judgment (John 5:24 JND), but will give account of himself to God (Rom. 14:12); will appear (or be manifested) before the judgment seat of Christ, and receive according to the things done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). How important it is that we, young Christians and old Christians alike, should maintain always a good conscience before God! (1 John 1:7; 2:1; Titus 2:11-14; Col. 2:6-7).

The Apostle says that he was conscious of nothing in himself, yet that he was not justified by that; the conscience may be dulled by self-will and other things, if we are not careful to test everything we allow in our lives by the Word of God. “He that examines me is the Lord”, and His discernment is as perfect as Himself. If I am in a right state of soul, I shall quickly learn His mind in regard to the things I am going on with; but in any case I shall learn it fully in eternity.

The believer, then, is to judge nothing before the time, or prematurely, until the Lord shall come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall the praise be to each from God. We are not to impute motives (the counsels of the heart), or to speak or act upon what we do not know, on supposition. This is safe, and needed, to prevent discord easily occurring between saints of God without due cause. The Lord will at His coming, when trials and difficulties are forever behind His people, expose in the light all that was done in the dark so as not to be seen, and will make evident the counsels of the hearts that are not known now. Then, if there be found that which is praiseworthy, each will have his praise from God.

1 Corinthians 4:6-7: The Apostle, in discussing himself and Apollos, had in mind the leaders who had set up themselves at Corinth to the damage of the saints there. He has shown what God’s servants ought to be, and as to himself and Apollos at least, what they actually were. How wrong it was to be puffed up, one against another!

“For who maketh thee to differ (or, who distinguisheth you?) And what hast thou that thou didst not receive.” But if what you have, you received, why boast as not having received? Thus does the Holy Spirit proceed to expose the folly of these saints at Corinth.

But there is more: “Already ye are filled; already ye have been enriched; ye have reigned without us; and I would that ye reigned, that we also might reign with you” (1 Cor. 4:8 JND). Through bad teaching at Corinth the true place of the Christian in the world had been lost, the present is not the time for reigning, but for following Christ in His path of rejection here. When He reigns, we shall reign with Him; it is of that time that the Apostle wrote, “I would that ye reigned, that we might reign with you.”

Shame surely must have mantled the faces of the Corinthians when they read what immediately follows, telling them of the place the apostles, and most of all Paul, had-the very opposite of their own attitude in the world.

“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last” as appointed to death-a spectacle in the amphitheater of the world, unto angels and unto men. Christ crucified was the first and supreme spectacle: God’s Son rejected and cast out when come in grace, He who knew no sin being there made sin offering for us that we who believe might be made righteousness of God in Him. In his path of suffering the apostles trod, fools for Christ’s sake; weak; in dishonor; knowing hunger and thirst, nakedness, buffeting; become homeless wanderers, laboring, working with their own hands; railed at, persecuted, insulted, become as the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all. Nor had the passage of time, nor the gradual spreading of the gospel brought a change for the better to the Lord’s servants, for the circumstances to which the Apostle alludes continued, as he says, “even unto this present hour” (1 Cor. 4:11), and “unto this day” (1 Cor. 4:13).

And has the world changed, think you, since the Apostle’s days? Should the servants of Christ now court its favor, or seek a high place in it? Are they worthy of their Master when they do?

Paul has been called the pattern-servant of Christ, because he trod so closely in the path of his Master; because of his untiring devotedness, and the deep affection he bore to all the children of God. How tenderly he writes to the Corinthian saints, as in this chapter, concerning their faults! O, for more like Paul today, to seek out and restore the wandering sheep, to minister Christ to hearts growing cold toward Him!

Not to shame or chide them, did the Apostle write contrastively of the widely different positions in the world occupied by the Corinthian believers and himself; but as his beloved children he admonished them. For if they should have ten thousand instructors (child-guides, as it is in the Greek, which is here the origin of our English word pedagogues) yet not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the gospel, Therefore Paul beseeches his beloved children to be followers, or more exactly, imitators of himself.

For this reason he was sending Timothy, his beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who would put them in mind of Paul’s ways as they were in Christ, according as he taught everywhere in every church (assembly). Of Timothy we first read in Acts 16:1-3, and to him was the Apostle’s last inspired letter written (2 Timothy) when his martyrdom drew near. Both this young man and the Corinthian Christians were called Paul’s “beloved children”, but in addition of: “faithful” was made in Timothy’s case, not in theirs; the reason for the omission in speaking of the Corinthians is not hard to seek.

May you, dear young Christian, be to God both a “beloved” and a “faithful” child, keeping His Word in heart and ways.

Some at Corinth had been puffed up, concluding that the Apostle shrank from coming there again; but he tells them that he will surely come, and quickly, if the Lord will; and he will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power, for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What did they desire? that he come to them with a rod, or in love, and in a spirit of meekness? In the second epistle, Paul tells the Corinthians that to spare them he had not yet come there (1 Cor. 1:23).

Address to Young People: Part 3

Psalms 87:6; Colossians 4:7-18

Part 3

Luke, the beloved physician. Isn’t that a lovely title? I suppose Luke’s business was that of a physician, but he discharged this business responsibility in such a way that he could be spoken of as Luke, the beloved physician. His secular occupation was not out of keeping with his Christian profession.

One meshed right into the other. There was no inconsistency; He carried Christ with him into the sick room. He was Luke, the beloved physician.

Perhaps you are a carpenter, and you might be the beloved carpenter, because you carry Christ with you; or you might be a stenographer, but you could be the beloved stenographer, because you take Christ with you to the office. You do not divorce your secular employment from your Christian profession. They both go together. They run parallel, like the two rails that carry the train across the continent. If one left the other, you would have catastrophe. So there will be catastrophe in your Christian life, if the rail of your profession leaves the rail of your practical godliness.

Demas. Ah, there is pathos there. When it comes to Demas, all we get is “and Demas.” Thereby hangs a tale. It was not so long afterward that Paul had to write,

“Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10).

No doubt Paul was apprehensive at this moment. He knew there was something wrong. Perhaps he did not know what it was, but all he could say was “and Demas.”

O, dear young Christian, that is very sad. Nothing could be said. There was just the mere mention of his name.

As we go about the country, we come to a meeting where we have not been for a year or so, and we say, “Where is So-and-So?”

“O, didn’t you hear that he left the meeting?”

And Demas! What can you find that will attract you more than Christ? What do you think will ever be presented to your soul, as long as you are in this scene that will compete with Christ in your affections? Do you think anything can ever be offered to you that is comparable to that precious Name?

What causes young folks to drop out of the meeting? Christ has lost His charm to the soul. Perhaps they have not given Him up, but they want “Christ and-.” We could mention a hundred different things. Perhaps it is Christ and service. I hear of some who have left the place where Christ is in the midst of two or three gathered to His name, because they wanted to be in places where they could serve Him better. What a sad thing to let service rob you of your loyalty to Christ! Remember, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Others drop out because they find the world attractive. I suppose if I were to canvass this meeting, I would be told of some who dropped out since I was last here, and you might say, “He wanted this” or “She wanted that.” It might be service, it might be marriage, it might be popularity, but it was something else than Christ. Demas loved this present world.

Archippus. “Take heed to fulfill the ministry which thou hast received.” O, dear young Christian, how is it back in your little gathering? Are you fulfilling the place where the Lord has put you? Are you walking before His eye? Are you taking heed to fulfill what has been committed to you? It is possible for us to have received a distinct commission from the Lord for a certain work we are to do for Him. It is possible to receive that and not do it. Archippus was in danger of becoming careless and giving up. Perhaps he was thinking, “This little work I am doing is not very important after all.”

He was slipping, and the Apostle by the Spirit says, “Archippus, take heed.”

Now, suppose you put your name in there. Let us every one put our names in there this afternoon. Everyone has his bit to do in the path of witness and testimony for Christ; just as when this building was erected, each one came and did his bit. Perhaps one man worked here for months, and another for ten minutes. Each one was necessary in order that this great structure might be here today.

So it is in the work of our blessed Lord. Now is the time to do it. He is coming, and what we leave undone, we will never be able to do. Remember, the only place to testify for your blessed Lord is here. You can’t do it in glory. Now is the time to seek to witness for Him and to live for Him.

“The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people” (Psa. 87:6). We are all being written up. Let us hear the word to Archippus.

(Concluded)

Service

True service begins with Christ, who is the Head; and when Christ is forgotten, then the service is defective. It has lost connection with the Spring and Fountain of all service, because it is from the Head, that all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered increaseth.

The body is of Christ, and He loves it as He loves Himself, and everyone who would serve it, will best learn to do so by knowing His heart and purposes toward it. In a word, It is Christ who serves; though it may be through us.

The Pitcher Under the Spout

A little boy five years of age said to his teacher, as they went to walk one day,

“Tell me a story. Please do tell me a story.” As this was his daily request, the teacher said to him, “How can you expect me to have so many stories to tell you? You know, no matter how full a pitcher may be, if you are always drinking from it, it will be empty at last.” The little boy understood her meaning very well, and quickly replied, “O, but you should put the pitcher under a spout.”

May not we all take a lesson from the little boy, and remember that no human vessel can ever be a fountain in itself; the best filled vessel will become exhausted unless it is constantly refreshed from the Word of God. If we cannot, in the first instance, teach the love of God in Christ, without having tasted ourselves, and seen that Christ is precious; no more can we be the means of instructing and refreshing others without daily drinking at the fountain of eternal love, and constant study of the Word of God.

“He that watereth, shall be watered also himself.” Prov. 11:25.

“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

The Love of Christ

“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).

Think of His love, of His infinite love. If in the infinitude of His wisdom and skill, He can give so much thought to the flower of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more shall He care for, watch over, and bless His loved and precious saints? Ah yes, He loves each one with a fond, an individual love. His eye, His ear, His heart, dear child of God, continually attend to you, to minister to you, to bless and succor you. Believe in this love, enjoy it in its intensity and fondness, and your heart will be satisfied indeed, and truly you will bless His name.

The Witness of the Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost is a witness of Him who came down from heaven to do the will of God-to finish the work. Has He finished it? Has He partly done the work, and left me to do the rest? Has He put some, or all of my sins away? No, no. Jesus hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He was once offered to bear the sins of many.

The Holy Ghost has come down from heaven after redemption was accomplished, and Jesus glorified at the right hand of God, to make it all known to us; to make it known in the heart and conscience. Jesus did the work and now the Holy Ghost tells us, it is done.

Extract: The Action of the Holy Ghost

What is the mark of the action of the Holy Ghost on the soul? The Lord Jesus gets a place which He had not before, and if you are full of the Holy Ghost, you will have no object but Christ, no thought but Christ, no end but Christ, no will but Christ.

Christ Saves

Christ does not save men by His life,

Though that was holy, sinless, pure;

Nor even by His tender love,

Though that forever shall endure.

He does not save them by His words,

Though they shall never pass away;

Nor by His vast creative power,

That holds, the elements in sway.

He does not save them by His works,

Though He was ever doing good;

The awful need was greater still,

It took His death, His cross, His blood.

Correspondence: Hos. 2:15; Eph. 2:20-22 vs. 1 Pe. 2:4-7; Greater Miracles than Christ

Question: What is meant by the “Valley of Achor” in Hosea 2:15?

Answer: Our answers to this may be best given in the words of another-

“The circumstances by which God expresses Israel’s return to grace is of touching interest. The valley of Achor should be her door of hope. There when the judgment of God began to fall on the unfaithful people, after their entrance into the land (Josh. 7:26)—where God acted according to the responsibility of the people there would He now show, that grace abounded over all their sin. The joy of their first deliverance and redemption should be restored to them.”

The chief interest to us of this beautiful passage foretelling the future restoration of Israel to divine favor, lies in the use the apostle Peter makes of verse 23 (1 Peter 2:10), showing that these blessings, though still future to Israel as a nation, were the present portion spiritually of any among them who accepted the rejected Messiah.

Question: Will you kindly explain the difference between “God’s building,” where Christ is the foundation, and what men build; and that in Ephesians 2:20-22, and 1 Peter 2:4-7, where there is no builder, and Christ is the corner-stone; the foundation consisting of the apostles and prophets?

Answer: In 1 Corinthians 3 the house is indeed God’s; but inasmuch as men build, that which is not a true stone may be built in; whereas in Ephesians, God being the builder, nothing but living stones form part of the house (as in 1 Peter 2).

Question: How could the disciples do greater miracles than Christ? (John 14:12).

Answer: The Holy Ghost who would be sent down in power, “because Jesus went to His Father” was not confined by a body to one place, but could so energize believers everywhere, that the gospel could spread far more rapidly and widely than even when individually proclaimed by the Lord, and supported by the mighty works that He did. The power was not in the disciples, but in the promised Comforter. The first fulfillment of this we see in Acts 2 in the mighty power that accompanied Peter’s preaching. It applies to those who labor in the energy of the Holy Ghost.

The Solemn Choice

C. was a more than usually attractive girl, and had much in her to make her loved by those who knew her. She was often spoken to about being ready should the Lord come, but C. saw no beauty in that Peerless Person and put off the solemn question,

“What must I do to be saved?”

Satan had blinded her eyes, and deceived her heart; she would not give up the world and its passing pleasures, which were just opening up bright and attractive before her. She turned away, and claimed the world for her own. Solemn choice!

For a few months I heard nothing of my young friend; but one morning the postman brought me a deep black-bordered letter. C. was dead! Only nineteen! but not too young to die. The letter gave no particulars as to her end, but I afterward found that her friends had supplied her with works of fiction to amuse her in her dying moments. And as far as I could learn, there was no one to speak to her of Christ and His precious blood in her dying hours.

“Who could be fit to die if she were not?” said poor C.’s friends; “she went to church, and never did anyone any harm.”

Would these serve as a robe in which to stand before the holy God? He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin. Did not He hide His face from His holy Son when His Son was made sin for us?

Dear reader, if death should come to you, as it did to poor C., would you be ready?

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

Extract: The Lord's Day

The Jewish Sabbath commenced on Friday evening, and I have often thought if we could begin the “Day of Days” on Saturday evenings we should be gainers. If we did, we should be far oftener in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.

A Warning

Dear young Christian: If you love Christ, let me entreat you to be very careful what sort of companion you choose. From the very outset do not keep company with an unsaved person; pray to God to guide and keep you. Very many young Christians have started out well, but after a while have accepted the attentions of some unsaved person, and finally married against the direct Word of God.

Many Christian young men have been led away to marry unsaved girls, and made themselves unhappy for life, besides displeasing the Lord and spoiling their testimony for Christ in this world. Young women have also taken this sad step, and many of them have thought that they might afterward win their husbands to Christ; but this is very rarely done. In the first place, how can they count on God to answer their prayers for the salvation of their husbands, when they have directly disobeyed God in marrying them? What can be plainer than: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel (unbeliever, JND)?” (2 Cor. 6:14-15). Many have reaped the sad consequences of such marriages, and I want to tell you of one.

I went to see a young woman one day, and had you been with me, you would have wept as I did. There she lay on a bed (if I may call it a bed), a young woman only twenty four years of age, with a little baby on her dying arm, and a little boy, three years old, crying in the desolate room. As I entered she was saying, “O, my poor babes! what will you do now that I am dying? No mother to love you, no friend to help you-Lord, take my children to heaven.” I broke in upon her prayer by saying, “Thy will be done.”

She looked up and said, “O sir, let me tell you my sad story.”

She told me she had been brought up in the fear of God, and when she was eighteen, had accepted Christ as her Saviour. Shortly after this, a young man began to pay attention to her. Many a time her father and mother entreated her to give him up, being persuaded that he was not saved; but she thought she could persuade him after she was his wife. Against her parents’ wishes and the Word of God, she married him, and for a few months all went well.

Then he refused to go with her to any religious service, and would invent various reasons to keep her from going. To preserve peace at home, as she thought, she stayed away as he wished until she lost all inclination to go. After a time he began to spend his nights away from home, return drunk, curse, and abuse her, not even giving her enough money to buy food. When the first child was born, she and the babe would have died from want, if her father and mother had not cared for them.

“One night, with a starving baby on my breast, I followed him,” she said, “and what were my feelings to find him where I did? When I spoke to him, he jumped at me, struck me, and ordered me to leave. I left him there with a sorrowful and wounded heart, and he did not come home for four days. I had to beg a little food for myself and child, from my neighbors. O, I cannot tell you all I have suffered through marrying an unconverted man! Two nights after this baby was born, in the depth of winter, he turned me out in my night dress. Yes, my husband is my murderer. Look at me, sir, twenty-four-years old, and dying, all through being unequally yoked.”

I kneeled down and prayed with her; and while praying, her mother came in. No one could have witnessed that scene and not have wept. I could not stand to see them crying together and left. Her mother called to me, requesting that I come back and see her daughter again.

When I called again, the young mother lay dying; but she spoke to her mother in my hearing: “This, is all through being unequally married. O, mother, that I had hearkened to you. But mother, will you take my children, and teach them about the Lord Jesus?”

“Yes, my child, I will.”

“You will be a mother to them, won’t you?”

“Yes, my child.”

The dying mother kissed her babes and said, “Lord bless them,” and died.

This is recorded here as a warning to any who may be tempted to start off in a path leading to certain sorrow. In old time, God commanded for our learning, “Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed” (Lev. 19:19); and, “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together” (Deut. 22:10).

Should these lines fall into the hands of one who has already entered a path which might lead to marriage with an unsaved person, do be warned, and stop at once before it is too late. Obedience to the Word of God, faithfulness to Christ, and your own future happiness require that you retrace your steps now.

Extract: A Real Workman

O! for laborers who after God’s heart, present Christ to souls. A real workman, “a man of God,” is a great, and greatest treasure in the world.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 5

The fifth chapter is the beginning of the second section of the epistle, in which divine light is shed upon personal conduct in a variety of circumstances. The subject of this chapter is sin, and sin of such character that the guilty must be put away from among the gathered saints. We have already had some preparation for this in the third chapter, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; and in our consideration of the second chapter reference was made to Ephesians 2:22: “In Whom (Christ) ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

From these and other passages it is plain that God views His children, not only in their individual responsibilities, but also in a collective or corporate responsibility; the church or assembly of God as seen in the Scriptures is not a voluntary banding together of professed followers of Christ, and its rules are not left to the wisdom of man; they are set forth in the Word of God. There is much ignorance, but the whole order and discipline of the church are to be found plainly written in God’s book, and to it alone should believers go for direction.

The Christians at Corinth had not long been delivered from the gross darkness of idolatry and its attendant evils, but the instruction they had received from the Apostle during his long stay there, with the priceless boon of the new nature conferred by God on all believers, should have kept them from the spiritual condition here revealed, if there had been an exercised conscience present. We learn from the second epistle, chapters 2 and 7, that through this First Epistle the consciences of the many were reached, and deep exercise followed, with resultant blessing.

“It is universally reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the nations, so that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and ye have not rather mourned, in order that he that has done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you” (1 Cor. 5:1-2 JND). The charge was indeed a grave one, and its gravity was increased by the attitude of the saints toward the wickedness in their midst.

Instead of being puffed up with pride, which seems to have been the general state in the Corinthian assembly (for this is the fourth time that the term has been applied in the epistle) there should have been the deepest mourning. It is evident that they lacked instructions for dealing with sin in the assembly, but regard for God and their own sense of what is wrong, should have led to earnest prayer that the guilty person might be taken away from among them. He would have answered their prayers either by removing the man, or giving the directions here laid before the saints by the Apostle. If a believer does not know what he should do when a problem arises, and the Word of God does not appear to afford an answer, let him pray; earnest prayer for guidance is certain to be answered.

Paul, absent in body, but present in spirit, had already judged as present, to deliver in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Corinthian saints and his spirit being gathered together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ) the guilty man to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:3-4). How solemn the decision! Here is an example of apostolic power added to the authority given to the church (assembly) of God by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:18-20:

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven....For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”

It is the duty of the local assembly to clear itself by putting away evil, but the power to deliver to Satan is not committed to it, though the Apostle and the Assembly are joined together in the action called for in the 4th and 5th verses.

In 1 Timothy 1:20 the Apostle writes of Hymenaeus and Alexander whom he had delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. What is meant by deliverance to Satan? We can form some idea of it from the first two chapters of the book of Job, where all that that saint had, was put in the adversary’s hand (Job 1:12), and afterward he himself was given into Satan’s power, except for his life (Job 2:6). It was for Job’s blessing, in removing from him pride and self-righteousness, that God acted as He did in the scenes spread out for us in the book.

The man of 1 Corinthians 5 was to be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that he might learn in the breaking down of his health, even to death, what sin is in God’s sight. And does God now deliver wayward children of His to Satan for their good? We may judge that He does, and pray that we may never be wayward. “That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”, at the close of the fifth verse shows that the putting of the sinning saint in Satan’s hands was for his ultimate blessing; God will never forego His purpose to bless His children, though He may have to chasten them sorely.

The Corinthian boasting was not good. Did they not know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? The same expression is used in Galatians 5:9 in connection with bad teaching, as here in connection with conduct. Leaven is an unvarying symbol of evil in the Scriptures. We find it first mentioned in the 12th and 13th chapters of Exodus, and it is referred to in seven passages in the New Testament. These seven passages are, Matt. 13 and 16; Mark 8; Luke 12 and 13; 1 Cor. 5, and Gal. 5; a profitable hour can be spent in examining them for the truth they unfold as to the secret working of evil in what God ordained. Sin is in the nature of man; and though believers have a new nature in which there is no sin, they retain the old nature while here on earth; but it is to be kept in the place of death; its operations never to be allowed.

Direction to the Corinthian Church or Assembly to “purge out the old leaven” follows, that they may be a “new lump”, according “as ye are unleavened.” No compromise could be made with sin, the “old leaven” of the old nature, which had found expression in the man here to be dealt with. The assembly was in its position before God as an unleavened lump; for He sees it in the new nature in Christ. It ought to be an unleavened lump practically, and by the power of the Holy Spirit; and it will be, so long as evil is refused, purged out when it is found to have entered. The result of persisting in the allowance of sin, after it has become known, and after all efforts to reach the consciences, of the saints have proved unavailing, must be that the local gathering is no longer recognized as an assembly of God.

The last sentence of the 7th verse is more exactly rendered, “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.” There is in this and the following verse a reference to the passover appointed in Exodus 12 to be kept by the children of Israel. We do not look back as they to a sacrificial offering made in Egypt, whereby God passed over the Israelites when He executed judgment upon what represented the world of that day; instead, we look to Calvary, beholding there the Lamb of God dying for our sins. Israel could not unite the celebration of the passover in Egypt with leavened bread, because it typified sin. Nor can we “keep the feast”-unite in partaking of the bread and wine of the Lord’s supper-acceptably to Himself, if there be unjudged sin; it is to be accompanied with the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This “keeping the feast,” it is plain, must necessarily include the constant practice in life and associations, of those who partake of the emblems, just as in the directions given to Israel in Exodus 12:15 for the passover period, “even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses,” and this was to continue for “seven days”—the whole week, signifying to faith that it must be continually before one’s soul that sin in all its branches and connections is judged.

1 Corinthians 5:9. Not a previous epistle or letter is meant, but the present one. An exact translation would be, “I have written unto you in the epistle,” as in the eleventh verse it is said, “But now I have written unto you. . .” It is a Greek form of expression, referring to what the writer is now presenting for the guidance of those to whom he is writing.

The saints of God should not keep company with fornicators; not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners or idolaters, since to do that they must go out of the world. It would not be possible to avoid mingling with persons in the world whose character is such. But for Christian associations, the line is drawn sharply in the 11th verse: “But now I have written to you, if anyone called brother be fornicator, or avaricious, or idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or rapacious, not to mix with him; with such a one not even to eat” (1 Cor. 5:11 JND).

This is very plain, and it is binding upon “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2); so that a company of professed Christians which does not enforce the rule here laid down, cannot be considered an assembly of God. They thereby connect the name of the Lord with allowed sin. The list of sins, given in the 11th verse is plainly not complete, but must be viewed as indicative; otherwise, for example, a murderer or a thief might be in the company of the gathered saints.

The last two verses of the chapter leave those outside to God. The Christian’s path is apart from the world, which he leaves as he finds it. God will judge and condemn the world bye and bye. But as to those within the assembly, the Word is explicit: “Do not ye judge them that are within?” The saints may not be able to deliver wicked persons to Satan, but they are bound by the Word of God to put out from among themselves those who are found to be such in the light of His Word.

His Treasure

The church

Matt. 13:44-46

Lord! Thy holy eye beheld

(Hidden in this world of sin)

Such a treasure as would cost

Shedding of Thy blood to win.

Likened to the rarest pearl,

Bought to be forever Thine;

Prized as Thy Chief diadem,

As a gem to brightly shine;

For the wondrous ‘joy thereof’,

All Thou had’st Thou would’st resign,

And in love lay down Thy life,

Just to call this treasure Thine.

Not a single thing on earth,

Save this treasure, gladdens Thee;

Such delight to Thee it brings,

Thou dost say ‘Rejoice with Me.’

And we do indeed rejoice—

(By redemption joined to Thee,)

Sharing Thine own heart’s delight,

Now, and through eternity.

Mary at the Sepulcher: John 20

In John 20 we have a scriptural illustration of affection for Christ; Mary Magdalene came early when it was yet dark to the sepulcher; she did not wait for sunrise, but while nature was still shrouded in darkness, her affection hastens here to the only spot on earth that had any interest for her-the grave of her Lord. O! what a character this stamps upon the earth, it was the grave of Jesus! Beloved reader, has it this character to you?

Now observe, the Person of the blessed Lord was engaging the affections of the heart of Mary, and hence, how could she domicile where He was not?

Not so Peter and John; having satisfied themselves that the sepulcher was empty; having carefully examined the empty grave, and seen the garments of death left behind by the mighty Conqueror who had risen out of them, they return to their own home.

But look at Mary, she has no home; and in more senses than one did this devoted woman stand “without;” for not finding her Lord, she was truly without home, or cheer, or solace in her sorrow, a broken-hearted woman whom none can comfort; and yet it is a lovely sight, to see her in all genuine personal love for Christ, standing, weeping, stooping down, and looking into His grave!

Ah! is this not rare-the spirit of it I mean-in these days? If I were asked what is the characteristic feature of the present time, what should I say? If I spoke the truth, I should say, Heartlessness as touching Christ. Is it nothing to you, beloved reader, that Christ is rejected and cast out by man? O! is it not very little thought of, and lightly esteemed?

The absence of affection accounts for the little loyalty there is to the Lord Jesus. How few hearts are really true to Him! It is not possible to drill them into it; and mere knowledge cannot secure it. There is no lack of information as to Christ and His interests, yet it is a dry, cold thing, because it is not Christ. The question for the moment is, “What think ye of Christ?”

Another truth of exceeding beauty may be seen here, namely, how genuine affection gauges everything-measures everything. To Him who she thought was the gardener, she says, “Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Observe, she does not say who it is, but “Him;” gauging everyone’s thoughts by her own; and as she was full of Him in her thoughts, supposed everyone else was like herself! Alas! how little of this we find in ourselves or around us!

But observe too how her affection was the gauge of her ability.

“I will take Him away.”

If she had reasoned or calculated, she might well have hesitated, ere she proposed such a task; but affection never calculates; its power or ability is itself.

And now the moment has arrived for Jesus to make Himself known. What a moment for Him-for her! He fulfills John 10, and “calleth His own sheep by name,” and she answers to John 10, “His sheep hear His voice.” He gives her to hear her name from His own very lips-“Mary!”

What a scene it is! The history of the first garden, its blight and sin, all reversed. The history of the first garden, with a fallen man and woman driven out by the hand of God, is closed at the cross of Jesus, and here in this second garden we find a risen Man and a redeemed woman, whose affection for His Person, the blessed Lord appreciates at such worth, that He commissions her to be the bearer, to His disciples, of the most wonderful tidings that human lips ever announced, “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God and your God” (John 20:17).

May the Lord awaken in the hearts of His people, in these days so sadly fruitful in debates, strifes, whisperings and confusion-but days of barrenness surely as to loyalty of affection for Christ-such true self judgment as will lead to more wholehearted devotedness, at all cost, to His person, honor, and interests!

Extract: True Ministry

True ministry is God touched, God enabled, and God made.

His Feet Anointed

Matthew looks at Jesus as the Messiah, and as such He is King of the Jews, and in the light of His kingship Mary therefore anoints His head (Matt. 26:7).

John, presents Jesus as the Son of God, and shows Mary anointing His feet. She sees Him traveling through this sandy desert, and is careful that His feet do not lack ointment. In point of fact, it was done to both His head and His feet, but each evangelist records what suits his gospel (John 12:3).

Mary could never forget that He had walked with her in her sorrow. Crushed by the power of death, when Lazarus fell asleep, she had known the sympathy of Jesus in the moment of her deepest sorrow, and she had also seen Him take her brother from the grave. She had learned what His grace could do, and what was His power also. He had walked with her in the moment of her sorrow, and now, in the hour of His sorrow, she is, so to say, walking with Him. The Lord greatly valued her affection, and said wherever the gospel goes, the story of that woman must also go. He will never allow it to be forgotten, that when the world did not want Him, one heart wanted Him above all things else. Happy indeed are you, if you have put Christ before everything.

A Call to Devotedness

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, 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 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 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, which were never more needed than now.

Neglect no opportunity to receive instruction from that precious Word which alone can keep you from the paths of the destroyer, and let your life be the evidence of the treasures you have gathered up at the prayer, 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 a 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 to 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 by those agonies and that blood, take the world into your tolerance and leave Him out? Impossible! Your pure mind did but need to be stirred up by the 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 re-awaken our drooping energies? And then the more quickly He comes the better. We shall “not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

Zeal

One day, walking along the road at what I thought was a good pace, I heard someone overtaking me, and in a moment or two a man much smaller in stature than myself caught up with, and easily passed me. Seeing one so small making better progress than I, I was immediately stirred to put forth more energy, and of course, being the taller of the two, I quickly overtook the little man, and as quickly left him behind. He had not slackened his pace, but I had practically doubled mine.

“Your zeal hath provoked very many” (2 Cor. 9:2).

Is there not a lesson for us in this, dear fellow-believer? Of prominent gift we may have but little. We may be small in stature; but if what we may have is made the most of, we are bound to be, not only a blessing ourselves, but an encouragement to others who have perhaps far more ability, but who are faltering through discouragement.

We never know how far-reaching our influence is.

“Your zeal hath provoked very many.”

Many eyes are upon us, dear friends. Let us be zealous, therefore, in everything, and our regard will be great. Our opportunities will soon be gone. Today is all we have. May we be stirred up then to increased energy in the interests of our Lord, of His saints, and of poor perishing sinners.

“Walk in wisdom, toward them that are without, redeeming the time” (Col. 4:5).

Peace and Rest

“Far as is east from west, are sundered wide

Thou and thy sins: no whirling tide

Of righteous condemnation e’er shall roll

O’er thee, believing sinner-Christ has died

To save thy soul.

Has died and lives, to show the work complete:

Kneel, kneel, adoring, at the feet

Of Him, Jehovah-Jesus, Christ, the Word

That was-is-shall be. With hosannas greet

Our coming Lord.

Coming to judge the earth and all therein

With us-the Bride He died to win;

Caught up, in mid-air, to His loving breast;

No more vain longings-ah, and no more sin;

’Tis peace and rest.”

Correspondence: Thief in the Night; 1 Cor. 3:21-23

Question: Will you kindly explain Revelation 3:3? Will the Lord come to those that are His and watching for Him, as a thief in the night?

Answer: 1 Thessalonians 5:2 tells us that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” The day of the Lord is His coming in judgment with His saints-His appearing. When He comes thus, we shall appear with Him. He comes for His heavenly saints long before this. To them He is the bright and morning Star. “But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4). Revelation 3:3 shows us how the Church has sunken down and become like the world, with a name to live, but dead, as a church. All that are His own, will be taken out of it (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:15-17). Those who are left behind, are left for judgment (Matt. 25:10-12; 2 Thess. 1:7-9). They are not Christians except in name.

Question: What is meant by 1 Corinthians 3:21-23? How are all things ours?

Answer: The Christians in Corinth were carnal; they followed men (1 Cor. 1:12-13; 3:1-6). The Apostle tells them all these teachers were for their benefit. They are to take all as the Lord’s ordering for their good. And so of the world; they had it from God, the Lord. Life was from Him; death, it was His servant for them; things present were His ordering for them; things to come were just what He would send. All was settled and sure, for they are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

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.

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 6 Hair as a Covering

No. 6

Question: Why is it that a woman should cover her head if her hair is given to her for a covering?

Answer: 1 Cor. 11:3-16 is the passage of scripture dealing with this question.

“But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered (that is, without a hat or veil, or some such covering) dishonoureth her head (that is, the man, see 1 Cor. 11:3)”, even as a man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head (that is, Christ) (1 Cor. 11:4-5).

The Apostle insists that if a woman be not covered (that is, wearing a hat), she should be shorn; then he remarks indignantly, “But if it be shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven (which it certainly is), let her be covered” (1 Cor. 11:6).

A woman wearing a hat or other covering is a sign of subjection, and this lesson is read by the angels.

“For this cause ought the woman to have power (or, a covering) on her head because of the angels” (1 Cor. 11:10). They are learning from the church, and mark her ways, and if the woman in the assembly were to appear uncovered or shorn, they would be taught the lesson incorrectly (See Eph. 3:10). The Apostle closes this part of the subject with the simple appeal,

“Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?” (1 Cor. 11:13).

The case of Rebekah was referred to, as the example of a godly woman of old, who so beautifully manifested her subjection by her conduct and attitude. Though she had long hair, without a doubt, yet, in the presence of Isaac, “she took a vail, and covered herself” (Gen. 24:65). Do we not have the Holy Spirit’s commendation of such action in 1 Peter 3:3-6.

Another question is now brought up, Why should a woman have long hair?

“Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering” (1 Cor. 11:14-15). Both nature and revelation agree in teaching the propriety of a woman having long hair.

Never was there a day like the present for the Christian woman to manifest her obedience and submissiveness to the Word, in this matter. When the custom of cutting or “bobbing” the hair has swept well nigh the whole “civilized” world, there is indeed a grave danger of even Christian women being carried along with it, as is witnessed, alas, to our shame, by some even in our own gatherings who have adapted themselves to it, apparently unexercised about it, regardless of warnings, and with the consciousness of the unhappiness and grief brought to others through it. Is it for the sake of conformity to the world that they are willing to yield what God has given them, and called their “glory”?

Why should those who have been redeemed at the infinite cost of the precious blood of Christ, and placed under His Lordship, enslave themselves to the fickle tastes of this poor restless world? A woman with long hair today is a marked person—so well nigh universal is the opposite custom. More than once has a woman’s long hair identified her as a believer. Happy when this is so!

The women of the world care nothing for God’s order. Like the women of Judah in Isaiah’s day (Isa. 3:16-26), they are hastening the doom of the nations, by their lawlessness. Those who have experienced the grace of God, and who have come under the Lordship of Christ, should shun the ways of those around them, and seek to please their God. He beholds disorder in the world; let His holy eye behold decency and order in the assembly of His saints. It is important to realize that declension of soul is at the bottom of all in subjection to the Word of God.

“But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the assemblies of God” (1 Cor. 11:16).

To the indignant Apostle, this was the conclusion of the matter. May it be so likewise with each one of us!

Young Christian: Volume 30, 1940

Table of Contents

The Blood of Jesus Christ Only

Fragment: Labor and Rest

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 14

The Low Place

To Him That Overcometh

Waiting Pilgrims

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 1 Difference Between When Women Take Part

The Christian’s Hope

One Step at a Time

Fragment: True Peace

Correspondence: Heb. 4:3, 9; Second Chance for Drowned?; John 13:1; Dan. 12:4

The Way the Lord Hath Led Me

Knowledge of Salvation

Instruments of Song

He Oft Refreshed Me

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 15:1-13

Tell Them of Jesus

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 2 Distinguishing Between Meetings

Your Daily Habit

Waiting and Watching

What Is the World?

The Lord’s Priestly Service

Usefulness

Correspondence: Grieve Our Lord?; Say Nothing; Lead Us Not into Temptation?

What a Pity You Are Not a Christian

Go On!

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 15:14-33

Thoughts for Meditation

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 3 The Reading Meeting

Quietness of Spirit

The Shout

Fragment: Burdens and Prayer

The Wiles of the Devil

The Cross

Judge Righteous Judgment

A Friend of the World

Out and Out

Extract: Two Things to Learn

Correspondence: Captivity Captive; Meaning of Symbols in Rev. 1:13-16

The Countess and Her Grand-Niece

Thirty Pieces of Silver

The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 16

From the Top of the Rocks

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No.4 The Gospel Meeting and Open Meeting

Before They Call

Him

The Present Dealings of God

Extract: Losing the Sense of God's Presence

Correspondence: Sabbath Day Points to?; Acts 2:17; 1 Cor. 7:14; Musical Instrum.

A Sudden Call

Extract: Pray Much, Speak Little

With the Lord

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:1-8

Fragment: The Intentions of God's Grace

A Young People's Meeting: The Question Box: No. 5 Musical Instruments

Extract: Waiting for the Coming

More Precious Than Rubies

He Tasted Death for Me

Correspondence: Mat. 24:22; Luke 14:26; Two Little Whiles; Mat. 13:30; 1 Jo. 2:7-8

Faith Cometh by Hearing

Away From the Lord

Extract: Farewell to Earth

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:8-17

Learning and Wisdom

An Address to Young Christians Acts 20:6-13: Part 1

How the Lord Will Come for Us

Correspondence: 1 Tim. 5:22; Barren Believers?; Jews After the Rapture?

The Farewell

The Knowledge of God

He Died for Me

The Work of the Gospel

The First Epistle to the Corinthians: 1:17-31

To Know His Love

An Address to Young Christians: Part 2

A Clean Cut

Be Careful for Nothing

Extract: Linked to Heaven

Correspondence: A Sabbath for us to Keep?; Meaning of Col. 2:16